Ooh, the monorail DOES smell funny... (almost finished!) [11/30-12/17, 2010]

[kaoden39]

Maybe I have something wrong with me but I am more excited for "when" I go the WDW to go to Epcot and AK, but not so much MK. I am not sure why though.

 

[bumbershoot]

December 9, Day 10, continued​

So you go in, sign in with the first CM, they send you back and around the building (at least ours did). Then you sign in again, get a pager, and hang out. It was pleasant out there, and I wish I'd gotten some photos, but it was crowded. I don't mind people in my photos (unlike a friend who photoshops out EVERYONE in pictures of her daughter), but this would have been people with the occasional building or scenery.

Finally we were called in!

I really really really wish that I'd gotten photos of the food areas along with the signs to what we got. These were my "please let me be brave enough to go take those pictures" pictures.

Did not work.

That place was soooooooooooooo good.

The ONLY regret we had, the adults at least, was that we had alcohol with our food. Why? Because, well, Robert barely drinks, and it does weird things to him (gets really moody and is too much sugar for him). For me, it just made me slow. But most importantly, it filled us up with slushie-type drink, which gave us less room for delicious food!!!!!!!!!!


Among many other things we tasted....

A tofu thing (helpful, eh?) [maybe "Spiced Tandoori Tofu"]
Jasmine rice with almonds
cornbread "mealie"
samosas (omg so good)
Hummus
pita
caesar salad (I went back for some, tasty)
mac and cheese
cornbread (normal)
roasted potatoes (e did not like, but we did)
pearl couscous (different look and texture from smaller couscous but tasted the same...was a hit with the kidlet)


Can you believe there was MORE food there that we could eat and was tasty? I just didn't write it all down.


And after that...

Stuffffffffed. So good. TIW saved us 15.94 on that meal. Even with the discount, when including their tip, it was over $80. For three people. [remember the alcohol, though, at 9.75 and 7.50, oh, and we got E a buzz lightup clip-thing cup (with just water in it, no soda, but at the same cost!) for 6.49]


When you book Tusker House for lunch at certain times, you get access to preferred seating for a specific show of Nemo the musical. Sounds great. Except that we went too slow, then we were sloggy from the food and the booze (I'd gotten an Agave Nectar Margarita, and tried to help Robert out with his very good daquiri, by the way), and we weren't doing the timing math right... But you had to be in line for the preferred seating at x minutes before the show (very much like the preferred seating vouchers for Aladdin at DCA), which really diminishes the value in my eyes. Same as for Aladdin. I don't want to be in the building or line FIRST...I want to roam up there at the last minute and still get my seat. That's what I *prefer*.


Other reasons we were slow...

That area, once you are past the tree of life, is a bit circular, and we had the option of taking a bridge and coming at it from one side, or going straight ahead through the Expedition Everest area and coming at the theater from the other side. Wasted valuable moments with a CM...

"Hi, we need to get to the Nemo theater, what is the FASTEST way?"

"Oh, are you getting there for Nemo? You're cutting it short."

"Yes, we have preferred seating, and need to get there NOW, and what's the fastest way?"

"You probably won't make it, even for normal seating, you know."

"OK, but let's try anyway, what way?"

"Oh, either way, it's basically a circle, just pick a way. But you're too late, you know..."


That's me, trying to be Zen, and offering the CM's spirit a flower, because I wasn't offering her anything nice in my mind THEN!


We went past EE and around, and just stopped at the first ramp and asked...they said that preferred was around "that way" (should have come around the other bridge), but that they still had a lot of good seats, and why not just come in the regular seating area? Well OK then! I was fine with that.


We watched where the preferred people were sat...yeah, our seats were better. Just like at Aladdin, the action goes on everywhere in the theater, and when you're put in or towards the "orchestra" section, you're missing lots of the show. IMO.


Before the show, there's some subtle entertainment. I didn't get a picture of it, but look at the bubbles here, and just know...to LOOK at them when you're there, in person. (hint, digital nemo swims around in some of them every minute or so)

With flash, well before the show, no worries!

That seating area there was HA seating, obviously. The preferred seating was *down* from them.


The show was fun, for those who like musicals. I'm not really one of them. The only theater-type EVER who doesn't much like musicals! I have lots of distinctions like that. The most Irish person who isn't Catholic is another...that was bestowed upon me in elementary school, as I was surrounded by Irish and Mexican (and one Irish-Mexican!) Catholics, but wasn't part of it at all. Anyway, musicals can grate on my nerves. Love Guys and Dolls, of course, how can you not? Was never a big fan of *the actress from Guys and Dolls who plays the Salvation Army woman* Jean Simmons (RIP), but that's just a mouth thing with me (similar with Julie Andrews and Denzel Washington...too much lip-poking-out or something like that)


It was cute, acrobatic, singy...touching...I've seen it. Yay. And we're....oh wait, we haven't yet been to Universal, I can't use that phrase.

The show was over, we left.



We needed to see the Yeti. The unmoving, lit with strobes, not really scary, Yeti, but the Yeti all the same.

We did not have Fast Passes. We stood in stand by. I would have been better with FPs (why didn't we pick some up while rushing past, one asks? no clue! I blame the margarita). The line made Eamon sooooo nervous! But he really wanted to ride...

Nope, nothing scary about this...

Quintessential shot:

That ride was rough! People say that they think there's a backwards loop...that's because it FEELS like there's a backwards loop! It's a rough tough ride, made worse because just AFTER the last moment, E tried to bow out of riding but it was too late. So I got to deal with my own fear and reactions to the ride, trying to figure out if it was going to be scary or not, while trying to help him and deal with his scared little face! Poor kiddo.

At the end, he was basically glad he'd gone, he wanted something to commemorate it, but he had no wish to ride again.


So he got a slider pin, I got one of those big plush Yetis...

...and we all met another Eamon. Robert was in the giftshop on his own (they were supposed to give an AP discount but didn't, and he was workin' it out with them), heard a mom saying the name, turned around, dragged them out to meet our Eamon...mom and I both said we didn't think we would ever meet another without having to travel to Ireland!

He braved it, oh yeah, uh huh, uh huh uh huh uh huh....as he would say.

 

[bumbershoot]

Maybe I have something wrong with me but I am more excited for "when" I go the WDW to go to Epcot and AK, but not so much MK. I am not sure why though.

It's exactly how I felt.

And since I was the planner, I gave some serious short shrift (if that means what I hope it means) to MK, and I ended up regretting it. So put MK solidly in the plans, just in case you end up like me. You can always leave if you're hatin' it...but you can't go BACK to it when you're ON the airplane!

Oh, and I'm not putting you down for feeling like that, either. I totally get it! Even now.

 

[kaoden39]

Look at how proud E is holding himself in that last picture. I love it!!

 

[kaoden39]

I know. I at least want to see Liberty Square, I want to see the Hall of Presidents. I am a history geek. I also want to see Cinderella's Castle. But, that is about all I really care about right now. But, it will be a few years before we go. We are going to wait until everyone is through with high school. Loren is a freshman now so it is a few years.

I knew you weren't putting me down. You are just trying to help me.

 

[bumbershoot]

He was VERY happy to be OFF that ride, LOL.

December 9, Day 10, part mas!​

Oh, I should mention that the hardest part in the ride line was actually once we were in the building. They really get the theme going, and it shows all the teams that had gone to find the Yeti, and what was left of those groups, etc. I thought E would be interested, but he finally had to tell me to stop, because even though he knew Disney had made it up, it was scaring him.


We were done with the giftshop portion of the day at just coming up on 5pm. So we figured we had about one good ride left in us. Can ya guess?

Oh yeah, Kali, baby! (to paraphrase Stacey from the videos) We were doing it backwards, doing the wash cycle before the spin, but oh well!


The line SAID 5 minutes. That 5 minutes was the time it took to get through the line AND dawdle and take pictures and marvel at how no one wants to go on a raft ride when it's not very sunny out. Ok there was a group of teenage men who came off the ride sopping from head to foot, all had taken their shirts off, and the CM let us know they'd gone something like 5 or 7 times in a row...but other than that group, not many of us on the ride!

The queue is really cool, and I took many MANY shots like this. SherryE would probably love to see all those pictures, but most would not, so I'll cull like crazy.

(with flash, without flash, further away, zoomed in, vertical, etc etc etc)


Well, I'm here to tell you...that...Grizzly wins.

Kali has SUCH potential, it's painful! But the theme falls apart ENTIRELY. It's got an environmental theme, yay, but it falls flat. You're in a raft, you smell fire, you come across logging trucks stuck, then...nothing. Just nothing.

And I believe it's shorter than Grizzly.

We did go on two or three times in a row. That's for sure, we gave it the old college try! And we'd DEFINITELY ride it again. But I'd rather be on Grizzly at DCA.


Oh wait, Kali does have squirty elephants, so on warmer/busier days, people can spray the riders, who think they are all DONE with the ride, with more water...bwa ha ha.

By the time we got ponchos off, put away, wet rear-ends camoflauged, etc, it was definitely dark!

A cool walkway light with flash ON:

And flash OFF:

On our slow way out, snacks were wanted. E wanted a pretzel, so we went to a stand, and as they passed us the pretzel, the CM said "it's on Mickey!" How NICE! They tried to give us a cone of cinnamon almonds, too, but I'd seen how the cousin had responded to them earlier in the trip (poorly), and knew that there was *something* sticking the cinnamon to the almonds, and felt it was easier to say "oh, thank you, but no" than to start quizzing them about something FREE they were trying to give us...



And it turns out that I did get a picture of those big white birds just floating in the trees....

After we left the park, before making our way to the Nitro, Robert and I grabbed lattes from the Joffrey stand *outside* AK. Tasty! Once again, dinner was in the room, probably on the lighter side, and might have involved another family bath.


Goodnight, Day 9! Tomorrow we will be checking out and heading to....the DARK SIDE, bwa ha ha ha haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

 

[Swalphin]

Molly,
2 updates in one day, cool! First off here is a link to the Alligator King. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg71djeZfos
Nice visit to AK, I have never eaten at Tusker House, sounds like you were really impressed. I will have to try it out next trip. I also did not know those Dino's made noises, will have too make a note of that too.
Great pictures.

 

[bumbershoot]

You're like my backup brain. I love it!

What a fun video, I had vague memories of it, but nothing definite! And it was cute at the end, awwww.

 

[Disney_Dreaming1]

Finding Nemo the musical looks like fun! thats now on the list of things to see!

 

[bumbershoot]

They had some neat little effects in there, I do recommend seeing it at least once, even if you're not a huge fan of musicals.



Poor Robert, he's stuck on the runway in Detroit. And I don't know how the airline laws kick in...the status says that the departure was 3:36 Det time, which means they pushed back then, but of course it's 4:20 their time now, and they are still out there. I hope he has snacks...

 

[kaoden39]

They had some neat little effects in there, I do recommend seeing it at least once, even if you're not a huge fan of musicals.



Poor Robert, he's stuck on the runway in Detroit. And I don't know how the airline laws kick in...the status says that the departure was 3:36 Det time, which means they pushed back then, but of course it's 4:20 their time now, and they are still out there. I hope he has snacks...

This nasty weather across the country sucks. Poor Robert being stuck on the runway is awful.

 

[bumbershoot]

Finally took off after ALMOST 2 hours on the tarmac. Poor dude.

 

[kaoden39]

Finally took off after ALMOST 2 hours on the tarmac. Poor dude.

I am glad to hear that he finally got to take off. Poor guy, he has got to be uncomfortable after sitting in that seat for so long.

 

[bumbershoot]

I'm sure he is.

Stupid Delta and flightstats and flighttracker are all standing firm that he will be on time, NAY, 4 minutes early, to Seattle.... Liars!

 

[kaoden39]

I'm sure he is.

Stupid Delta and flightstats and flighttracker are all standing firm that he will be on time, NAY, 4 minutes early, to Seattle.... Liars!

Wow, flying super sonic are they? The left doesn't know what the right hand does.

 

[bumbershoot]

Oh great now I have "it's super sonic" in my head...

Well, there's nothing much to do, while the laundry is running and while waiting for that to stop so I can run the dishwasher (it's nice to have the breath to do these things again, and I should enjoy the last of the prednisone motivation), so I'll keep on writing. I never thought it would take me this long! On the other hand, it's nice to re-live it.

December 10, Day 11!​

I'd gone in to get our charges for OKW, to make sure all was fine. Oh, for that 1 bedroom stay at OKW, we did allow charging to the room. Makes for a really nice breakdown of everything, without having to write EVERYTHING into your register (or in my case, notebook) for your bank account. I wasn't really a fan of charging to the room before, but now that I'm keeping track of the BUDGET so much better, it is more attractive to me.

On the way out, I looked up...

Oh good gravy, I forgot that the computer is being doofy...gotta log out shut down start again, to get my copy/paste abilities back. When can I fix my Mac again? When? I'll be back.

I'm back!

We liked the Nitro...

Because we are paranoid and didn't want to rush, we put our bags with Bell Services at OKW, before going to breakfast. Didn't want to leave them in the room, because then we might have to rush. Didn't want to leave them in the car, because it was too open and visible. We had a friendly debate about using the free valet parking that goes along with the TIW card, but that requires MORE tipping, and I figured that it wasn't a patrolled lot, that it would just be a sectioned off part of the normal lot, and theft could still happen. I was correct, that it's just a part of the big lot, by the way.

We had a reservation for Kona Cafe, and, again, we were excited about it! It was just exciting to have food budgeted for, even though we did eat a lot from the grocery store at our resort...we ate the way we *wanted to*, and it was GREAT.


Parkin' at the Poly....

This is *inside* the resort. From the downstairs, it's all so fancy!

Even from the upstairs, looking down, it's so fancy!

But being upstairs and looking at the upstairs, it's a hot mess, to use an ancient phrase. (wasn't it developed by the Phoenicians?) If you picture a BIG square, with a cutout in the middle to look down upon the lower floor, Ohana is in a corner, and their checkin line extends down along the wall that they share with Kona. I also saw it make an L, so if you're coming up the stairs and going the normal way you turn at the top, you are fighting with the line for Ohana. Kona is on the opposite wall that you come up from, and their line extends off to the left, which goes toward the coffee kiosk and the monorail doors. The opposite side, if I recall correctly, is a giftshop.

So when you come up, turn RIGHT if you're heading for Kona, the coffee kiosk, or the monorail. Don't go left.

It just really diminished the "ooh, swooning from the fanciness" aspect for me, to have such untended lines. Oh and the strollers just strewn all over the place, bleahhhhhhh.


We got in line to check in, finally got checked in, then we were seated! They too seemed to have a note to send out the chef, and he came out to check on the things we needed to check on, and they have REAL maple syrup to bring out for those who want/need it! Yay for them!

We got just normal cups of coffee, which we were TOLD was the same Kona as in the press pot, but just yesterday I found out that either our server was lying or the Dis-member server is lying. Harumph. It was good anyway, it's a blend at minimum, but that's not what our server told us. E got the kid's pancakes, Robert got "Eggs Your Way", and I got the TONGA TOASTTTTTTTTTTTT. All with extra fruit instead of meat.

My Tonga Toast was so much better than I thought it would be! I ate most of it despite the server saying "enjoy your half a loaf of sourdough!" as she set it down. Bwa ha ha... Robert was very jealous.

E was very happy with his food. Especially the real maple syrup.

I was happy with the light fixture.

It was a happy meal, good all around. We very quickly decided we *had to* come back during this trip.


*************************

Bathroom break, taken in turns for some reason. I thought the wall outside the bathrooms (right near Ohana) was pretty mind-boggling...

E snagged my camera while I was in the bathroom, and caught this blurry pic of Ohana.

Downstairs from upstairs again...

Posing...

On our way down the stairs we met a nice DVC kiosk lady that gave E a TON of stickers. He liked that.



We left, went to OKW, and I ran into the shop while Robert retrieved our stuff (I also had to get tip money, as I'd run out!). During this trip, I discovered that I LOVE their Mickey chocolate bars. It's not really quality chocolate, but it's delicious, and so I snagged a couple that I kept allll to myself. I actually still have one square left, sitting in my purse, waiting until such time as I finish it.


We got the bags, packed up the car again, and hit the road! The Dark Side awaited!

 

[bumbershoot]

Now that the original (4 minutes early AND the original original time) time has passed, they've updated it. 6:29 is the current estimate. So glad they finally figured themselves out.

 

[kaoden39]

Now that the original (4 minutes early AND the original original time) time has passed, they've updated it. 6:29 is the current estimate. So glad they finally figured themselves out.

Wow that is nuts. Are you guys having warm spring weather too?

 

[bumbershoot]

Yep, it's definitely not *cold* here! Though it's not like my lungs like it yet... This illness has really been opposite most of mine! Most of my illnesses are made *better* by being out in the chilly air (drives my MIL bonkers), but not this one.

Can't wait to activate my new phone; we just upgraded with free phones, and decided to both get smart phones (Robert had an iphone but changed it ot something else, and I got a Palm Pre), so if I had THAT, I could have checked the airline info from that...but not with my simple phone I'm still using. So I'm using the old..."the tracker says he's over Missoula, time to hit the road" method.

OK that's not that *old*. It's not like we did that in the 80s. Or even 90s. But it's old for NOW. Right?

 

[kaoden39]

I recently updated to a Droid phone with apps and such. We don't have an iphone available with our carrier. But, I really like my droid. It does such fun things, like I have two different apps to tell me ride waits at Disneyland.

Hello,

My name is Michele and I am a Disney Geek.

Now back to the subject at hand, yes the phone will make it much easier for you. I wonder what I did before I had mine and I have only had mine about a month.