Cast:
Lori, (lawalz23)
Susan, my sister, (Pooh667)
Carl, dh to Susan
Cassandra, dd of Susan and Carl, twin to Zachary, 3 ½ years old
Zachary, ds of Susan and Carl, twin to Cassandra, 3 ½ years old
Mom, to Lori and Susan, grandmother of Cassandra and Zachary
Dad, to Lori and Susan, grandfather of Cassandra and Zachary
Other BIL, Anthony, (our older sister passed away unexpectedly in Jan 2000)
his boys, Michael, 24 and Chris, 21 (Loris and Susans nephews, and so on, the big guys)
Chriss girlfriend Jessica, 20
Anthonys parents, Mr. & Mrs. S
Anthonys Uncle Frank
On this day, Mom and Dad from the original group left (driving back to N.Y.) And we added:
BIL Anthonys sister, Liz
her daughter, Dana, also 3 ½ yrs old and good friend of Zachary and Cassandra
Saturday: After Mom and Dad left early, Lori got up to finish up AK. I really wanted to go on Dinosaur and Kali Rapids. Again I waited 20 minutes for bus transportation, but since Mom and Dad took the car home I would have had to get Susan or Carl up for a ride so I opted for the bus. Actually on the way back even though I waited for 15 minutes to return it was only me and a guy from the GF, so the bus driver went straight to the Poly. Now about AK, I was there at 8 a.m. when the gates opened and the dinosaur ride was pretty good but I opted not to go again as I thought I could ride Kali Rapids and be out of there by 9 a.m. WRONG! Asia, the land where Kali is does not open until 9 a.m. so I had a ½ to kill. I walked back to Tusker House and pressed some more pennies for Cassandra and Zachary. Did I mention that I filled the books for them (36 pennies and 6 quarters). Thats what Aunts are for. Anyway back to Kali Rapids, first the good part since I was on one of the first boats of the day and the lines were fairly short the CM let us stay on for a second trip and since I was soaking wet anyway, why not and there is a small area in the middle of the boat for shoes, fannypacks, amera cases but not large enough for a backpack. The bad part is the ride is fairly short as compared to ones in other amusement parks and it only has one drop. If you go down backwards beware you will get soaked. I was soaking wet so I looked for a place to sit a while to dry off and spotted a pretzel stand. The pretzels are huge and the cheese sauce to go with it was delicious. After doing some more souvenir shopping, for myself this time, it was time to return to the Poly.
Upon my return to the Poly, I had a message waiting to say the rest of my crew, Susan, Carl, Zachary and Cassandra had left for MGM after the elusive Jesse (we never did catch up to her to the disappointment of Cassandra, thank goodness for the real Ariel at MK) and to meet the other 9 people in our party. So off I was again on WDW buses to MGM, to be fair I only waited about 10 minutes, we only made one stop and the bus was not overcrowded. I caught up with part of the group at Bear in the Big Blue House (yes, they went to see it for the 3rd time). It is a cute show but once is enough for me. The kids were all dancing and having a grand old time.
Next we met and took picture with Pooh and Tigger, yet again (I think this was the 4th time we had seen Tigger and 3rd for the others) and met the rest of the party who had gone on RockinRollercoaster and they enjoyed. Some of us got fastpass for Who Wants to be a Millionaire and we headed for the backlot tour. Again telling a CM 14 people, you get a strange look but we got 3 rows to ourselves and I warned them about getting wet on the leftside so we were able to position ourselves and bags accordingly. Ice cream for lunch again and those with fastpasses for Who...Millionaire and Tower of Terror took off and those of us left hung out and got the lids pictures taken in the shop where the backlot tour ends. The girls with the Princesses and Zachary with Heroes (they take the kids picture then superimpose on a background on the computer and generate a picture, they turned out beautiful). Zachary called himself a Hero in Training the rest of the trip and now wants to be one when he grows up.
While waiting for the TOT group the rest of us went on the walking tour of the backlot. It was nice and you could bring strollers but it is difficult to manoeuver them and other people walk right in front of them and our party got separated. The kids wanted to know where the others are and it is not possible to just pass people so that stunk.
A few words about strollers, on Saturday and Sunday we borrowed strollers from Poly concierge as Mom and Dad took the other ones home with them (less to carry on the plane being we had carseats anyway). These were the jogger type strollers and took a little getting used to but served their purpose well. Actually we got them two day earlier as we mentioned to concierge that we would need them and they told us to take them on Thursday as there were a lot of people checking in Friday and Saturday and they could not guarantee the availability of the strollers. Yet another plus for concierge in our book.
We then met the rest of the group by the Star Wars area, that was really cool and their was some neat stuff going on. Again we split and decided to meet at the Prime Time where we had PS. One group went to see a movie about the making of Star Wars, the rest of us headed to the Hunchback Show. It was good but dragged on a little and Zachary and Lori took short naps during the show.
Again the funny look when we said we had a party of 14, (we did see a lot of families together but maybe 14 is a bit large) at Prime Time. We waited about 15 minutes in the Living Room area and were seated at two table right next to each other (we could communicate, unlike Friday night at the Garden Grill). The adults had either the Fried Chicken or the Pot Roast and everyone raved about their dinner saying it was delicious. Cassandra and Dana had macaroni, no sauce and Zachary had PB&J, no complaints from them either. We had the scrumptious Smores and large sundaes for dessert and left the place stuffed. It was Uncle Franks birthday, so he was given a cupcake with a candle and a card signed by all the CMs after we all sang.
After a little more shopping everyone returned to their respective hotels after a long day and promised to meet in the a.m. at MK.
Lori decided to brave the crowds and go see Spectromagic at MK. It was only me so I was able to get a decent spot standing on the RR platform about 15 minutes before the parade began. It was very nice but I am still trying to decide if I would buck the crowd to see it again. I do think everyone should see it once though. Since I was near the exit, I was able to get out and be back on the Poly beach with a snack in hand in time to see the fireworks. That is heaven.
Lori, (lawalz23)
Susan, my sister, (Pooh667)
Carl, dh to Susan
Cassandra, dd of Susan and Carl, twin to Zachary, 3 ½ years old
Zachary, ds of Susan and Carl, twin to Cassandra, 3 ½ years old
Mom, to Lori and Susan, grandmother of Cassandra and Zachary
Dad, to Lori and Susan, grandfather of Cassandra and Zachary
Other BIL, Anthony, (our older sister passed away unexpectedly in Jan 2000)
his boys, Michael, 24 and Chris, 21 (Loris and Susans nephews, and so on, the big guys)
Chriss girlfriend Jessica, 20
Anthonys parents, Mr. & Mrs. S
Anthonys Uncle Frank
On this day, Mom and Dad from the original group left (driving back to N.Y.) And we added:
BIL Anthonys sister, Liz
her daughter, Dana, also 3 ½ yrs old and good friend of Zachary and Cassandra
Saturday: After Mom and Dad left early, Lori got up to finish up AK. I really wanted to go on Dinosaur and Kali Rapids. Again I waited 20 minutes for bus transportation, but since Mom and Dad took the car home I would have had to get Susan or Carl up for a ride so I opted for the bus. Actually on the way back even though I waited for 15 minutes to return it was only me and a guy from the GF, so the bus driver went straight to the Poly. Now about AK, I was there at 8 a.m. when the gates opened and the dinosaur ride was pretty good but I opted not to go again as I thought I could ride Kali Rapids and be out of there by 9 a.m. WRONG! Asia, the land where Kali is does not open until 9 a.m. so I had a ½ to kill. I walked back to Tusker House and pressed some more pennies for Cassandra and Zachary. Did I mention that I filled the books for them (36 pennies and 6 quarters). Thats what Aunts are for. Anyway back to Kali Rapids, first the good part since I was on one of the first boats of the day and the lines were fairly short the CM let us stay on for a second trip and since I was soaking wet anyway, why not and there is a small area in the middle of the boat for shoes, fannypacks, amera cases but not large enough for a backpack. The bad part is the ride is fairly short as compared to ones in other amusement parks and it only has one drop. If you go down backwards beware you will get soaked. I was soaking wet so I looked for a place to sit a while to dry off and spotted a pretzel stand. The pretzels are huge and the cheese sauce to go with it was delicious. After doing some more souvenir shopping, for myself this time, it was time to return to the Poly.
Upon my return to the Poly, I had a message waiting to say the rest of my crew, Susan, Carl, Zachary and Cassandra had left for MGM after the elusive Jesse (we never did catch up to her to the disappointment of Cassandra, thank goodness for the real Ariel at MK) and to meet the other 9 people in our party. So off I was again on WDW buses to MGM, to be fair I only waited about 10 minutes, we only made one stop and the bus was not overcrowded. I caught up with part of the group at Bear in the Big Blue House (yes, they went to see it for the 3rd time). It is a cute show but once is enough for me. The kids were all dancing and having a grand old time.
Next we met and took picture with Pooh and Tigger, yet again (I think this was the 4th time we had seen Tigger and 3rd for the others) and met the rest of the party who had gone on RockinRollercoaster and they enjoyed. Some of us got fastpass for Who Wants to be a Millionaire and we headed for the backlot tour. Again telling a CM 14 people, you get a strange look but we got 3 rows to ourselves and I warned them about getting wet on the leftside so we were able to position ourselves and bags accordingly. Ice cream for lunch again and those with fastpasses for Who...Millionaire and Tower of Terror took off and those of us left hung out and got the lids pictures taken in the shop where the backlot tour ends. The girls with the Princesses and Zachary with Heroes (they take the kids picture then superimpose on a background on the computer and generate a picture, they turned out beautiful). Zachary called himself a Hero in Training the rest of the trip and now wants to be one when he grows up.
While waiting for the TOT group the rest of us went on the walking tour of the backlot. It was nice and you could bring strollers but it is difficult to manoeuver them and other people walk right in front of them and our party got separated. The kids wanted to know where the others are and it is not possible to just pass people so that stunk.
A few words about strollers, on Saturday and Sunday we borrowed strollers from Poly concierge as Mom and Dad took the other ones home with them (less to carry on the plane being we had carseats anyway). These were the jogger type strollers and took a little getting used to but served their purpose well. Actually we got them two day earlier as we mentioned to concierge that we would need them and they told us to take them on Thursday as there were a lot of people checking in Friday and Saturday and they could not guarantee the availability of the strollers. Yet another plus for concierge in our book.
We then met the rest of the group by the Star Wars area, that was really cool and their was some neat stuff going on. Again we split and decided to meet at the Prime Time where we had PS. One group went to see a movie about the making of Star Wars, the rest of us headed to the Hunchback Show. It was good but dragged on a little and Zachary and Lori took short naps during the show.
Again the funny look when we said we had a party of 14, (we did see a lot of families together but maybe 14 is a bit large) at Prime Time. We waited about 15 minutes in the Living Room area and were seated at two table right next to each other (we could communicate, unlike Friday night at the Garden Grill). The adults had either the Fried Chicken or the Pot Roast and everyone raved about their dinner saying it was delicious. Cassandra and Dana had macaroni, no sauce and Zachary had PB&J, no complaints from them either. We had the scrumptious Smores and large sundaes for dessert and left the place stuffed. It was Uncle Franks birthday, so he was given a cupcake with a candle and a card signed by all the CMs after we all sang.
After a little more shopping everyone returned to their respective hotels after a long day and promised to meet in the a.m. at MK.
Lori decided to brave the crowds and go see Spectromagic at MK. It was only me so I was able to get a decent spot standing on the RR platform about 15 minutes before the parade began. It was very nice but I am still trying to decide if I would buck the crowd to see it again. I do think everyone should see it once though. Since I was near the exit, I was able to get out and be back on the Poly beach with a snack in hand in time to see the fireworks. That is heaven.
