Cast of Characters:
Me, Lori, 36. Disney nut and compulsive planner. Starts planning the next trip before the last one is over.
DH, Craig, 37. Not as crazy about Disney as the rest of us, but has recently stated his intention to become a bass fishing excursion guide at Ft Wilderness when he retires. Im sure I can be talked into retiring to Orlando
DD, Jessica, 9. Also a Disney nut, needs to be talked into going on the big rides, but would discover that Rock n Rollercoaster was actually a FUN ride this trip. DD is part fish and will give the pool slides a workout.
DS, Ryan, 5. Loves Disney, but would happily spend his entire vacation in the pool. Also not the bravest child on the planet when it comes to rides, but loved Mission Space (go figure).
DSIL and DBIL, 30-somethings (technically DBIL just turned 40, but close enough). Big Disney fans, recently purchased DVC points at Saratoga Springs, so this will be their last non-villa Disney stay.
Day 8, Friday May 14th
The fish that we call our children voted for spending our last full day at Disney at a water park, so we were off at around 10am to try Blizzard Beach. We were not too excited to see the line of school buses in the parking lot. There were a lot of teenagers running around the park today, but they werent too bad and the lines were still very manageable no more than 10 minutes or so.
We found some chairs in the Ski Patrol Training Camp area. The kids tried out the iceberg walk and the slides. One of us had to be in the water to spot DS, as the water around the icebergs was 3.5 feet, which would have been just over his head had he fallen off. DS doesnt want to wear a lifevest as he can ALMOST swim, so we just stick close. He swims underwater pretty well, but Im not confident of his ability to get back to the surface if he fell in unexpectedly.
DH took DS to the Tikes Peak little kid area, where DS was in water slide heaven. He must have gone down the curvy slide and the innertube slide 20 or 30 times each by the end of the day. The lifeguards eventually knew him by name, but that is because DS was chatting their ears off. This kid area is really perfect for preschoolers. It lacks the slip and slide that DS liked at Typhoon Lagoon, but overall Id say its a bit better the TL kiddie area.
Meanwhile, I took DD to the slides. DD tried the snow stormers a curved slide that you come down head first on a mat that looks like a toboggan. We checked out the Toboggan Racers as well, which looks like one of those big slides they have at town carnivals, only with water, and you slide down headfirst on the toboggan mat. This slide didnt end in a deep pool and didnt have a height restriction, so we decided to come back with DH and DS for that one so they could race. We took the Cross Country Creek lazy river ride back to the kiddie area.
We all went back to the slide area together, with a brief stop at the small wave pool. This pool is much rougher and not as much fun as the giant wave pool at Typhoon Lagoon, although they do allow you to have innertubes in this pool, which is nice. We hooked back up with DBIL and DSIL here, who had gone off to see a tour of Saratoga Springs. DH, DD, and DS took a couple of runs down the toboggan racers. Since DS is so small and wasnt able to hold himself at the top without going down, the CM would send him off first. So DS thought he won every race.
We got some hot dogs and a chicken wrap by the wave pool for lunch. DS somehow managed to polish off one of those giant hot dogs. Im not sure where he puts it the kid only weighs 38 pounds. We did a few more rounds at Tikes Peak and at the Ski Patrol Camp. We saw a young girl being taken away from the iceberg walk thing on a backboard, which now made me nervous about those. The lifeguards needed to be doing a better job of keeping the kids further apart. There is only supposed to be one kid on a berg at a time, but sometimes the bigger kids would try to overtake the smaller kids, resulting in the smaller kids hanging onto the net for dear life while the iceberg was sent skating away from them.
We actually lasted in this park until around 3:30, which was a record long day for us! We got dressed and headed for Downtown Disney. We had time for a stop at Once Upon a Toy before dinner, where the kids blew the rest of their souvenir money in about 20 minutes. Dinner at the Portobello Yacht Club was as good as we remembered. The fresh bread with roasted garlic is awesome, and its hard not to fill up on it. I had the Farfelle Primavera with chicken (which comes with asparagus and snow peas as well), and it was as good as I remembered from many years ago. I got the recipe for this on a previous trip I never made it, but it looks nice in the scrapbook. The other members of our group had steak and chicken dishes, which they said were very good as well. The menu here is more regional Italian not your standard Olive Garden type fare so dont be expected to see spaghetti and meatballs or chicken parm on the menu. But it is well worth a visit to eat here.
After dinner, DSIL and I went off to do a bit more shopping, with the intention of leaving the guys and kids (and all the bags from the toy store) to pay the bill and then catch a bus back to the hotel. We would have the car so that we could meet them back at the hotel pool for the fireworks on our last night. We did some speed shopping through the Memories store, candy store, and World of Disney and then headed back. When we got to the pool, there was no sign of them. We finally found them walking from the bus stop just after the fireworks started. Apparently by the time they got the check, walked all the way to the bus stop, and got a bus (which took about 20 minutes to come), we had beaten them back. Now I remember why we rent a car.
The Poly beach was very crowded this night, but we caught most of the fireworks and then watched the Electrical Water Parade. The kids changed into suits for one last swim and then it was time to get packing. We had one last surprise for the kids tomorrow, and then it was off to the airport.
Me, Lori, 36. Disney nut and compulsive planner. Starts planning the next trip before the last one is over.
DH, Craig, 37. Not as crazy about Disney as the rest of us, but has recently stated his intention to become a bass fishing excursion guide at Ft Wilderness when he retires. Im sure I can be talked into retiring to Orlando
DD, Jessica, 9. Also a Disney nut, needs to be talked into going on the big rides, but would discover that Rock n Rollercoaster was actually a FUN ride this trip. DD is part fish and will give the pool slides a workout.
DS, Ryan, 5. Loves Disney, but would happily spend his entire vacation in the pool. Also not the bravest child on the planet when it comes to rides, but loved Mission Space (go figure).
DSIL and DBIL, 30-somethings (technically DBIL just turned 40, but close enough). Big Disney fans, recently purchased DVC points at Saratoga Springs, so this will be their last non-villa Disney stay.
Day 8, Friday May 14th
The fish that we call our children voted for spending our last full day at Disney at a water park, so we were off at around 10am to try Blizzard Beach. We were not too excited to see the line of school buses in the parking lot. There were a lot of teenagers running around the park today, but they werent too bad and the lines were still very manageable no more than 10 minutes or so.
We found some chairs in the Ski Patrol Training Camp area. The kids tried out the iceberg walk and the slides. One of us had to be in the water to spot DS, as the water around the icebergs was 3.5 feet, which would have been just over his head had he fallen off. DS doesnt want to wear a lifevest as he can ALMOST swim, so we just stick close. He swims underwater pretty well, but Im not confident of his ability to get back to the surface if he fell in unexpectedly.
DH took DS to the Tikes Peak little kid area, where DS was in water slide heaven. He must have gone down the curvy slide and the innertube slide 20 or 30 times each by the end of the day. The lifeguards eventually knew him by name, but that is because DS was chatting their ears off. This kid area is really perfect for preschoolers. It lacks the slip and slide that DS liked at Typhoon Lagoon, but overall Id say its a bit better the TL kiddie area.
Meanwhile, I took DD to the slides. DD tried the snow stormers a curved slide that you come down head first on a mat that looks like a toboggan. We checked out the Toboggan Racers as well, which looks like one of those big slides they have at town carnivals, only with water, and you slide down headfirst on the toboggan mat. This slide didnt end in a deep pool and didnt have a height restriction, so we decided to come back with DH and DS for that one so they could race. We took the Cross Country Creek lazy river ride back to the kiddie area.
We all went back to the slide area together, with a brief stop at the small wave pool. This pool is much rougher and not as much fun as the giant wave pool at Typhoon Lagoon, although they do allow you to have innertubes in this pool, which is nice. We hooked back up with DBIL and DSIL here, who had gone off to see a tour of Saratoga Springs. DH, DD, and DS took a couple of runs down the toboggan racers. Since DS is so small and wasnt able to hold himself at the top without going down, the CM would send him off first. So DS thought he won every race.
We got some hot dogs and a chicken wrap by the wave pool for lunch. DS somehow managed to polish off one of those giant hot dogs. Im not sure where he puts it the kid only weighs 38 pounds. We did a few more rounds at Tikes Peak and at the Ski Patrol Camp. We saw a young girl being taken away from the iceberg walk thing on a backboard, which now made me nervous about those. The lifeguards needed to be doing a better job of keeping the kids further apart. There is only supposed to be one kid on a berg at a time, but sometimes the bigger kids would try to overtake the smaller kids, resulting in the smaller kids hanging onto the net for dear life while the iceberg was sent skating away from them.
We actually lasted in this park until around 3:30, which was a record long day for us! We got dressed and headed for Downtown Disney. We had time for a stop at Once Upon a Toy before dinner, where the kids blew the rest of their souvenir money in about 20 minutes. Dinner at the Portobello Yacht Club was as good as we remembered. The fresh bread with roasted garlic is awesome, and its hard not to fill up on it. I had the Farfelle Primavera with chicken (which comes with asparagus and snow peas as well), and it was as good as I remembered from many years ago. I got the recipe for this on a previous trip I never made it, but it looks nice in the scrapbook. The other members of our group had steak and chicken dishes, which they said were very good as well. The menu here is more regional Italian not your standard Olive Garden type fare so dont be expected to see spaghetti and meatballs or chicken parm on the menu. But it is well worth a visit to eat here.
After dinner, DSIL and I went off to do a bit more shopping, with the intention of leaving the guys and kids (and all the bags from the toy store) to pay the bill and then catch a bus back to the hotel. We would have the car so that we could meet them back at the hotel pool for the fireworks on our last night. We did some speed shopping through the Memories store, candy store, and World of Disney and then headed back. When we got to the pool, there was no sign of them. We finally found them walking from the bus stop just after the fireworks started. Apparently by the time they got the check, walked all the way to the bus stop, and got a bus (which took about 20 minutes to come), we had beaten them back. Now I remember why we rent a car.
The Poly beach was very crowded this night, but we caught most of the fireworks and then watched the Electrical Water Parade. The kids changed into suits for one last swim and then it was time to get packing. We had one last surprise for the kids tomorrow, and then it was off to the airport.
