Our Grand Gathering--13 at ASMu for 8 days with DDP

[happysmyly]

I started with laundry – others in the group had decided to ‘sleep in’ and have a later starting morning—which was perfect for me to start it by washing some clothes.
Mom and I got ready and headed to AK. As we got there we met part of our group (BIL’s bro). The kids were waiting for their parents who had gone into Tough to be a Bug—so we told them we were heading over to get seats at the Nemo show. We sent text msg to the rest letting them know once we got our seats and miraculously everyone arrived before the section where we were sitting was filled—so we all got to sit together. I am so glad that they enclosed this theater—the air conditioning was great. Once we were all seated one of our group went over across the bridge to get FP for EE to use later. I really enjoyed this show—loved the songs that they wrote for it and loved the puppetry used as well as all the wire work—a great show that I think we all enjoyed. I was quite pleased to find the soundtrack at the Island Mercantile (?).

We then went as a group to Dinoland—some went on the Tricera Top Spin while the rest of us searched for shade and something cool. At the Dino Trailer – we got frozen slurpee type drinks that were tasty and cold… We then went and got FP for Dinosaur since the regular line was listed at 30 minutes—and headed to the Boneland for kids to play while we waited. Mom and I sat outside in the shade and found one of the coldest drinking fountains of the week… It is by the bathrooms that are close to primeval whirl (which was closed when we were there)—the cold water was nice. Then we went into the line for FP—which still took us about 30 minutes to get through—so depending on the line outside – this may be a FP that’s not worth it.

We were hungry and thought the main lunch rush had passed—so we decided to do lunch at Restaurantosaurus – oh my goodness – what a non-pleasant time!!! What a mess – the lines were incredibly long and NOT easy to get a wheelchair through. The ‘line control’ person told us which line to go in and didn’t take into account that we had a wheelchair with us. Also 2 of the families in our group had their receipts go missing—so it took a VERY long time to get their orders… they kept asking about it and no one would check on it for them—just kept saying that it’s done in order or it was because of what they had ordered, blah blah blah—not until 9 orders had passed by them did someone finally check into it and found that some had gone missing…
We will NOT be going to this place again—though we did enjoy the fixins bar once we did get the food. But this quick service took us close to 90 minutes to get done with.

We then went over to finally use our FP for EE—and it was the first for all of us on this ride—it opened after my last trip here. I LOVED this ride. My mom, 65, went on it and – well – it made her really sick and so for the next 30 or so minutes while others rode (thanks to baby swaps and FPs) we tried to make her not feel so sick, cool her down, etc.—it didn’t work and so a bit later I took her back to the hotel and made sure she was OK.

(for some reason I just didn't take a lot of pics that day--but lots are coming from tomorrow--another day at AK and our Grand Safari!!)

The rest of the group came later and I’m pretty sure that we went swimming—at the Calypso pool with the 3 caballeros. We had a good time—I love swimming and I got to ‘play’ with the baby—which I enjoyed and he tolerated without too many tears. With it being an earlier evening I decided to go shopping—I had looked up the various Disney outlets since I enjoyed shopping at them in LA and in Vegas – so I wanted to check out on in Orlando too—and since it’s open til 9 decided to try. Well my niece and the ‘other’ aunt came with me and we got to the ‘Character Outlet’ right before it closed. They had a good selection of different Tshirts—though that isn’t what I was searching for—and even though I had left my coupon in the car she gave me the discount without it (probably cause she wanted to go home). It had a good variety of non-disney characters as well—plenty of Dora and Spongebob stuff. Not sure if I can post links to other places here--so let me know if you want their website for their coupon. Then we headed to the WalMart down the street and got a few more things – some cute Tshirts ($6.94) as well as some supplies and other stuff.

We still hadn’t eaten so we stopped by the Intermission Food Court before returning to the room. I had the chicken penne alfredo – and the chicken breast was actually quite tasty (I was surprised)—my niece talked about how good that chicken was for the rest of the trip – so she liked it too. We also got milk, a cool Mickey head straw and cheesecake—tasty. Then we headed to bed and slept well.

 

[happysmyly]

Do we really have only 2 days left? We had missed a couple of things before at AK so we headed there first and got there right after rope drop and headed right for FOTLK—since it was the first show of the day we didn’t have to wait for 30-45 minutes for a good seat. We were in the Lion section in the 2nd row and my sister’s family arrived in time to sit with and right behind us. Because we were down front the kids got to be chosen to do the walk around with the rattles—it was so cute. A very enjoyable show.

We had scheduled the Grand Safari Celebration for that afternoon—but wanted to do the safari in the morning as well—so we headed toward Africa. I love the safari and could ride it all day. As we were walking there was a 3 man band and one of the men gave a drum to my nephew and then another to my niece and then to my other nephew and soon there were 6 ‘musicians’ creating some fun sounds…

We got FP for the safari and then took the train to Conservation Station while we were waiting. I enjoy all of the exhibits there—the animal hospital part fascinates me. They also had some animals for the kids to touch (that day they had a snake)—and there is also a basic petting area outside with goats and sheep (we didn't find them til the end--but there are brushes near the washing station if you want to brush instead of just pet). Rafiki was also there with almost no wait to see him. It’s a great way to spend some time and most of it is air conditioned. As we were getting off – we noticed a CP from Brigham Young University Idaho—and since 3 of us graduated from BYU Provo we stopped to chat with her. She told the kids about the college program and for the rest of the day the kids were talking about wanting to do the CP when they were old enough.

Then it was time for our safari FPs. We got some good views – including a white rhino that was right next to our vehicle—I’ve never been that close to one before. We also caught a glimpse of an elephant—which is good cause my nephew had promised a photo of one to a friend and it turned out that they were all hiding for our Grand Safari.

I just have to share one of the most tender 'non-disney' related moments. It had happened the day were were at DHS too. As you know my mom was in a wheelchair during this trip--and there were times she would transfer and then have to get back into her chair. My sweet nephew 3yo got down in front of her, helped put down the foot holder parts and then gently placed her foot onto its place. Luckily I had my camera out to get this pic--to forever remind me of the compassion of this sweet boy.

By then we were hungry and definitely didn’t want a repeat of Restaurantosaurus so we decided to try lunch at Yak & Yeti Café—good food and lots of it – the adult entrees are served in the ‘to-go’ Chinese style boxes – so a bit hard to get to the rice and veggies at the bottom—so if that will bug you just ask for a plate. I had the honey chicken which was delicious – others enjoyed the sweet n sour and the kids had either burgers or the egg roll plate. The hard part was that it was only outdoor seating—so finding shade was not easy… and our desserts started to melt in the sun. FYI - The straws are not at the cart where you get other utensils—you have to ask for them with your order.

On our way to the resturant we did find Devine! I had hoped to catch a glimpse of her and was excited when we did.

We had a little over 3 hours before our Grand Safari and mom really wanted to ride the monorails, which we hadn’t done yet… so we left the group. Turns out they went to ride EE again—when we rejoined them I asked nephew 10, who had discovered the joy of the single rider line, how many times he had ridden it and he said, “Oh about 8 times.” Mom and I did some quick shopping on our way out and then got to the TTC and got onto one of the monorail lines—I think we did the Magic Kingdom line and then transferred to the Epcot line and then returned back in time to get a place to watch the parade before the Grand Safari. While we were waiting for the parade everyone joined us and we checked in for the evening’s activity and then got a great spot for the parade.

While we were waiting for the parade—another nice CM moment—one of the CMs that is in charge of setting up the parade started talking to the boys and ended up being there for almost 10 minutes telling them all about hidden mickeys and also about how fun it was to work there (which was on their minds because of meeting the CP earlier) and answering any question they could come up with. For the last 5 minutes another CM joined him and added her favorite hidden mickeys as well. A new one to me (even though I’ve ridden Soarin tons of times) was the Mickey head on the golf ball. It was great that they would take that time to spend with the kids. It seems our kids got lots of interaction with the characters in the parade too... so if that's something you want--the shaded spot in front of the Flights of Wonder theater is a good spot for that.

Then it was time for our Grand Safari Celebration—at check-in we were given an animal group and when we entered the Flights of Wonder theater we went and sat with that group. Our guide for the evening found out about any celebrations for the trip and verified where we would need to go after the adventure. Mama Deisha came out and gave us the intro and overall plan. She was great—told us that our 3 week safari will be so wonderful it will seem like 30 minutes. She then had our guides give us a pin, which I thought was a nice touch. She gave instructions afterward which she had to repeat—she said that none of us were listening because of the shock of getting something for ‘free’.

We then went by group to the loading docks for our safaris. There were 2 grand gathering groups in our vehicle—so there was plenty of room to spread out. Since this was taking place after the park had officially closed they could take their time. They didn’t do the standard storyline—our guide talked the whole time—some of the stuff was word for word the same but he also included lots of fable type stories about the different animals and the vehicle was able to slow down to get better views—which was great.

Mother giraffe hiding and munching on the trees

The mickey head shaped island that the kids wanted me to get a pic of since being told about it before the parade

We had to stop as this little herd passed right in front of our vehicle

This lion came out as if on cue... I've only ever seen them laying down on the temp controlled rocks... but because of the delay for the herd, we got to see him 'strut' his stuff.

After the safari we all went over to the Tusker House—each table was set for the different groups—so we found our table which was at the back—and our waiter was there to describe what was already on the table. There was a great selection of different breads as well as a few tasty salads—enough variety that most of the kids found something that they liked. Our waiter was great—really tried to connect with the kids and had them laughing throughout the evening. There were musicians playing while we ate and they soon announced that dinner was ready—so we got into line and chose from a fairly extensive buffet line. The line was long and moved kind of slowly. A note – the kids area is kind of separate—and so kids could just go straight there instead of waiting in line for all the other choices. My nephew and his cousin (both 10) very much enjoyed the build you own PBJ sandwich bar—and they both made a concoction of PBJ and chocolate pudding. The waiter kidded them about it and they decided that it was not the tastiest thing, “the jelly really messes it all up”. I bet you’re glad for that little warning.

The infamous PBJ & Chocolate pudding sandwich

Gma being a gma

After dinner they had announcements of the different celebrations—retirements, anniversaries, birthdays, etc. and then Mama Deisha had all the kids come up and do a little dance—at the end of which 2 characters appeared—Rafiki and Timon. They then had 2 different ‘stations’ set up—one to meet the characters and another that was outside where they could meet a couple of animals. We went first to the characters—waited and did the picture as a group.

(catching the illusive teenage smile... during the dancing)

Then they went outside and saw the tarantula which was enclosed in a clear acrylic box. At the other end of the courtyard was a snake—can’t remember what kind—but the kids were allowed to touch it and then there was stuff for their hands afterward.

When we got back to the table dessert was waiting for us—a platter full of a variety of pastries and a chocolate cake cut into enough slices for our group. They were good and gave the kids a chance to try different flavors. And then it was time to leave. As the park had closed more than an hour before, the only ones in the park were people from our Grand Safari—which allowed us to get some great photos before leaving. It’s so rare to be in a park that is that empty—the perfect ending to a perfect group experience. If you are thinking of a grand gathering—this is one experience that I highly recommend… it was fun for all ages and was cultural as well as fun. Do this if you can! Very worth it—especially with DDP—it was 2 credits.

** Added after posting ***
I forgot to add this--I thought it was odd that there were no photopass photographers at the Grand Safari--I just figured with it being specifically for larger groups that there would be at least 1 there... to take a group photo before, during or after--but there wasn't any there. I did ask the CM by the characters why there wasn't one and he said there used to be but that there hadn't been for awhile (so I guess not enough people bought the photos??). So - if you are planning on a Grand Safari--just know that at least for now there aren't any photopass peoples there.

 

[kimara]

"Aunt Liz"
my kids REALLY enjoy looking at the pics you have posted! DS (3) keeps having me scroll up and down so he can view them.
Thanks

 

[happysmyly]

"Aunt Liz"
my kids REALLY enjoy looking at the pics you have posted! DS (3) keeps having me scroll up and down so he can view them.
Thanks

You're most welcome! Makes me wonder if I should, in my 'spare' time put together a power point that the kidlets from the trip can play themselves--especially those that can't read... hmmm...

I think that your DS will really identify with the last pic that I am planning on ending this report with... which will hopefully be done son - probably not today, but who knows--I've really enjoyed putting the details together before I forget them... since it all seems like a dream now--but I wore my souvenir earrings this morning to church--so I know it actually happened

 

[happysmyly]

There were a few things that we wanted to do at MK (most of which we don’t have at Dland) so we started our last day there. We saw a bit of the opening ‘ceremony’ that they perform above by the train—but were too far away to hear it. Mom and I got there and within a few minutes my sister’s family joined us. We started in Tomorrowland and did Space Mtn which both my sister and I had missed earlier in the week. It felt more jerky to me than the one in Dland—and I’m wondering how the shut down and re-do will affect this—but it is a fun ride—even if at the end I thought it had an odd ending (go through the tunnel of lights and then come back out…) Next we headed over to the People Mover (OK – TTA) which I loved—I always love it—great views of tomorrowland and of the castle as well as being a ‘classic’—we saw the older kids and their dad about to start their ride when we went through Space Mtn which was cool.

I was very glad that others wanted to go on Carousel of Progress too. I love that ride as well—truly a classic and it was fun to have my niece next to me as she began to pick up on the words and joined in singing. My 3 yr old nephew later described it as ‘the big beautiful tomorrow song in the spinning building movie’… We hadn’t yet been to Monsters Laugh Floor and went there next – the wait was less than 10 minutes and I enjoyed the pre-show which had the kids laughing a few times. The show itself was really cute and I’m glad we went. Next time we will be prepared with some jokes to submit.

We were getting hungry so we headed for an early lunch at Cosmic Rays – since we had been warned here that each ‘bay’ has different foods we were prepared and the different people in our group ordered from the different bays. I had the chicken and rib combo and it was quite tasty and was a lot of food, I thought. Others enjoyed what they got too—sandwiches, wraps, etc. My nephew (3) was very excited that there were some empty ‘tall seats’—so I sat there with him and his sister while the others ate at a table. The kids nugget meal has 4 nuggets that I thought were small and so my niece (7) had a bit of my chicken as well. I used a Table Service on this one (a ‘special’ service they allowed with all the DDP folks)—as I still had one left and got the coupon good for a ‘sling mesh bag’ (could have gotten 2 snacks but didn’t need any more snacks)… here is a pic of the bag… (it’s about 11” wide x 17” high).

We then went to see Philharmagic one more time—I can’t believe that I have missed that on my past trips… never again will I ‘skip’ this one… I love it and am sure that I will see it on all future trips to WDW (oh – I wish that I, like some of you lucky eastern US folks, already had a return trip in the works…). Next we headed to Hall of the Presidents. We had about 15 minutes in the waiting room—and it was fun as Gma talked to the grandkids about the different presidents that she has known about in her life and her parents’ lives. Once the show started I’m not sure how much the kids liked it—nephew 10 is studying US history this year so hopefully he got something out of it. I just like the reminders of how far our country has come—and I also still get tingles when President Lincoln stands from his chair—that part was in Great Moments with Mr Lincoln on main street at Dland for the longest time of my growing up. And though there are now Disney places throughout the world I still think that only here, in the US, could it have started and succeeded the way it did.

Mom and I had more we wanted to do (again) in Epcot and at that point the group was planning on heading to Epcot after the Luau that night but we knew we’d want different things this afternoon—so we left and headed over there—we went on the monorail and left the car parked at MK (not thinking ahead on that one—oops). I hadn’t ridden Spaceship earth yet but had told my niece and nephew (3) that I would ride it with them—so we walked past that and headed to the Land—mom wanted to ride Soarin again. We got fast passes for that and then we got on the boat ride again through the land and the greenhouses. It was at this point that we decided that since Epcot was open late that night that we could see the other stuff there tonight and so we would use the monorails and see a couple of places mom still wanted to explore (GF and Poly). Since the car was still parked at TTC we figured that I should move the car to Epcot while mom rode on the monorail—I hurried to the car and moved it to Epcot and missed mom on her first round trip by about 5 minutes (I saw her pass over the parking lot as I parked the car). From there we were set for the evening and once we met up again she had memorized the scenery from Epcot to TTC and back—so we switched to the Resort monorail and headed to Grand Floridian. We walked all around the lobby and surrounding area… there is a fun soap shop there. We also enjoyed the orchestra playing music as we toured around inside. We ended up at the store that sells the Disney stuff… and it was so nice and peaceful – not very crowded – and the CMs were incredibly helpful as well. It was the most pleasant Disney shopping that I have ever had. We finished there and got ready to catch the monorail over to the Poly and got the call that everyone else was there already and waiting for us… and I had the ticket for dinner… so we hurried as fast as the monorail would take us.

Our last night was spent at the Luau. They wanted us there at 4:45 for the 5:15 start. As soon as we were all there they gave us our bright yellow leis and then they had us pose for a photo—I think they took 3 or 4.

The path then leads to a place to park the strollers and there we stood, and stood, and stood some more—not sure why—but we stood there for awhile and then were led down a path that led to the seating area—we got our tables. We were pleasantly surprised—they had put all 4 tables together in one long row and I think we all could see the stage area well, more or less. After taking the drink orders the salad, pineapple and ‘famous’ bread was there… nummy. I enjoyed the salad dressing (it was just a basic green salad) and the pineapple was tasty too—and I really enjoyed the bread. I think that I remember reading somewhere a recipe for it—but can’t remember where I read it—I’m gonna have to search for it, I think, cause it was tasty.

Then as salads were winding down the show got going—I thought the ‘story’ was lame and would rather have had them just perform that native dances… but anyway. Then came out the main course—the platters had chicken, ribs, rice and veggies. I don’t normally like ribs but enjoyed these—and thought the rest of the dinner was good as well—even the veggies weren’t overcooked and still had some good crunch to them (but not too crunchy, if you know what I mean). Then more show…they had all the birthday people come up and they did a birthday dance. They also had any couples ‘in love’ come up… and at first there were only 2 that came up and danced from our entire audience—then a couple more joined them—and they played a nice love song for them. And then the dancers were performing more native island type dances in more native island type costumes.

(The Slap Dance)

(The Poi Ball Dance)

Then the waiters came out with smoking volcanoes and brought us our dessert—a pyramid of chocolate mousse and cake with a pineapple topping. Now – when I read about this earlier—pineapple and chocolate doesn’t sound that appealing to me—but it was pretty good—small, but good. You can catch one in one of the dancing photos. Then came the dancer that the boys had waited for all night… the fire dancer. He was really good—starting at first with 1 stick and then adding another. It was great to watch. We all enjoyed that part (except the baby who was sleeping at this point).

And then it was over—around 7:30. During the meal at some point they brought around the different prints of the photo that they had taken—they had made the best one into an 8 x 10 and then had 4 4x6 of all the poses—it was $30 for the photos. If you got them, which we did since it’s the only real ‘official’ posed group shot that we got all week, they also give you the photos with a photopass number so you will have it on your disk to do with what you want as well.

As we walked from the Luau cove mom and I were looking forward to Epcot for the evening but everyone else decided that it was getting too late and they needed to get the kids back for sleep—so it was just me and mom for Epcot. We monorailed over and got there about 8:30ish. We went to Soarin and we ended up missing the ride by a few seats—which meant, with a bit of a wait, we got THE best seats of this ride—center seats of the center section of row 1. I usually get a little queasy on this ride—but in that perfect seat it was no queasy at all (well – except on the speeding freeway scene—which always gets me). It was the best ride I’ve had on Soarin ever—perfect for the last ride of our trip. We then got a frozen slushee type thing and walked over to the countries—we loved the sidewalks that light up on our way—so cool. The atmosphere was so fun—the lights were all on and everyone was just strolling along. We had a nice chat with a CM who is from Orem, UT (he’s in charge of all retail for that part of Epcot)—and after about 10 minutes we brought up the pennies – and he said that all Guest Relations places have a list of every machine on property—if anyone is interested. I had plans to get those all week—but just never seemed to remember that whenever I was near a machine… that’s why there’s always next time. Right?!?

Mom decided she wanted to get everyone the sweet pretzels as a last treat… so we headed over to Norway’s bakery. The line inside was long and took awhile. After getting those we decided to try to get nephew 10 as many pressed pennies as we could (the machine by Soarin was a quarter machine and it was broken) so we went by as many as we could find and ended up getting him on for Test Track, Space, and a general one with flags of the different countries on it

At about 10ish we headed back to the hotel and started to pack. I couldn’t believe that it was already over… We all woke up in the morning and got packed. I was the first to leave—since I had to return the car and my flight was with Southwest—so I got the stuff to the car and headed to the lobby to do one last quick trip through the store for postcards (which I had intended to fill out while at the airport—and that didn’t happen yet either…oops – they’ll be more of a surprise when they arrive—hee hee). I hadn’t received anything on my door about check out so I had to do so in the lobby—and the line was LONG!!! Luckily after I had waited for about 15 minutes and it was almost my turn a CM asked if I was checking in or out—I told him out and he used his laptop to pull up my account and found that they had forgotten to check ‘quick check-out’ when I checked in—so he quickly printed out my ‘bill’ and said I was good to go. With that – I was gone – back to the airport, back to the ‘real world’ and now that this trip report is done—I’m really back… I have really enjoyed putting this together and even though I was hooked to the boards because of trip planning – I have the feeling it will be a continual thing for me to check out… as it gives me a bit of a daily dose of Disney now that I have really enjoyed… I thank all of you for sharing all that you do! Have a great trip—whenever that may next be!

This last pic I think says it all... seems to soon to be experiencing it - the sadness of the trip being over...