Our Poly Dream Vacation - April, 2012 TR *Update 08/26 pg8*

[solana131]

No worries Charity! We will be here ready and waiting when you feel like it Let me grab a snack...

 

[ZehnJahren]

I followed your PTR and now I just today saw you have a TR going already - how did I miss that? Since I haven't been around, here are all my comments so far:

1st, the Belle with Beast at the beginning of your TR while you were in Epcot for the first time is great! Looks very authentic to me. Also, how cool that she got to ask Crush a question!

You have some very nice pictures of the water parade - I've never stayed at the Poly and probably never will (had a bad experience, totally my fault, in January) but you make me consider going there just to eyeball the view!

You're probably the first person in the first TR I've seen that didn't head straight to TSMM after rope drop. Heck, it's the first place I go when I walk into HS, even if it ISN'T rope drop! Did I miss the reason you decided not to ride it? I know it's not for everyone.

Ok, those are my comments. Make sure to come back and tell us more sometime, since first-timer trips are the best and you haven't even made it to MK yet! I want to hear what your girl thought of the castle and the rides at THE park!

 

[the_green_machine]

Hey everyone. Just wanted to say I am ALIVE! I hope I haven't lost too many readers by now....things have been very busy for us lately, and to be honest, I think I just finally realized why I have REALLY been staying away, and I think it's because it's just so darn depressing to realize I am not going back anytime soon.

I hear you...I've found it really heard to keep up with updates at times.... I think your doing a great job. Looking forward to the rest of your story!

(http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2871044 ...shameless plug for my Trip Report)

 

[the_green_machine]

HELLOOOOOOO!!!!

Time for an update!!!!!

 

[204charity]

HELLOOOOOOO!!!!

Time for an update!!!!!

You are RIGHT!! Funny, I was just chatting with Dave-in-falls-church on facebook and he made me feel nostalgic about Disney World. I have had a VERY busy month. Finishing up school with exams etc, then I had a cousin pass away suddenly out of province, so I was in BC for a weekend, then my daughter got very sick with pneumonia, then I graduated and now I finally have a second to breathe (while dd is still sick of coarse)

So, I guess I just want you to know I am getting ready to update you all, sooner than later - I SWEAR!!!

 

[solana131]

Oh my goodness...you have been busy! Sorry to hear about your cousin And I hope your DD is feeling better. Congrats on graduating!!

 

[the_green_machine]

You are RIGHT!! Funny, I was just chatting with Dave-in-falls-church on facebook and he made me feel nostalgic about Disney World. I have had a VERY busy month. Finishing up school with exams etc, then I had a cousin pass away suddenly out of province, so I was in BC for a weekend, then my daughter got very sick with pneumonia, then I graduated and now I finally have a second to breathe (while dd is still sick of coarse)

So, I guess I just want you to know I am getting ready to update you all, sooner than later - I SWEAR!!!

I hear you. I still have to finish the final part of my TR. I had a death in the family as well which took my mind off of posting for a while, so I get where your coming from. I'm hoping to get through this weekend (Canada day weekend is a very busy time of the year for me) and finish up early next week. Looking forward to both of us getting back on track.

 

[auprincess]

I was thinking about our trip earlier as well (FINALLY got around to actually ordering some pics from photopass to complete the autograph/scrapbook). I'm sorry to hear you have had a rough time lately. Update when you can! Any word on when your next trip will be?

 

[Dreamsdocometrue9112]

I just caught up on your TR...so great so far!! It's so awesome to sense your excitement! The pictures of the Poly are just beautiful. I can't wait to stay there one day It's the resort my parents would really like to stay at when we take them, so crossing my fingers!

Also, that picture of you and your daughter on the Nemo ride is absolutely wonderful. Your expressions really say it all!

Can't wait to keep reading!

 

[LisaKeys]

HI!
I just found this TR and read it in it's entirety from page 1 thru 8. I know it's been awhile since you've posted, but I thought I'd try and give you a cheer and see if that might help get you back to typing.

I've loved following everything posted so far. Life happens to all of us, so don't feel bad about time away. Hope you had a great summer!

Hope to read you soon.

 

[204charity]

Oh my goodness...you have been busy! Sorry to hear about your cousin And I hope your DD is feeling better. Congrats on graduating!!

Everyone is doing great and I am ITCHING for the kids to get back to school so I can have some much-deserved time to myself!

I hear you. I still have to finish the final part of my TR. I had a death in the family as well which took my mind off of posting for a while, so I get where your coming from. I'm hoping to get through this weekend (Canada day weekend is a very busy time of the year for me) and finish up early next week. Looking forward to both of us getting back on track.

Sorry to hear about the loss in your family as well. I was going to ask you, where are you from in Manitoba? I live in the town of Selkirk and have often wondered if you guys were close to us.

I was thinking about our trip earlier as well (FINALLY got around to actually ordering some pics from photopass to complete the autograph/scrapbook). I'm sorry to hear you have had a rough time lately. Update when you can! Any word on when your next trip will be?

I am updating now! I may not have photos, since DH moved all of them to an external hardrive.....I'll try and find them though, cause a TR just ain't a TR without photos! DH and I are going to Mexico with friends of ours at the end of Novemeber this year, and we have talked to the kids about maybe skipping our semi-annual road trips to Canad Inns Grand Forks to save the $3000 it costs us per year, and put that towards a California Disneyland vacation for November, 2013. I have to say I am not all that jazzed about it though. The trip will still end up costing us alot, even though we would be staying with my aunt & uncle. And I don't know if it would really feel "Disney" enough for me?! I know that probably sounds wacky - I mean, Disney is Disney right? So, I don't know. DH doesn't know, but I am secretly researching DW at that time too.

I just caught up on your TR...so great so far!! It's so awesome to sense your excitement! The pictures of the Poly are just beautiful. I can't wait to stay there one day It's the resort my parents would really like to stay at when we take them, so crossing my fingers!

Also, that picture of you and your daughter on the Nemo ride is absolutely wonderful. Your expressions really say it all!

Can't wait to keep reading!

Thanks for joining in so late in the game! I hope I haven't lost your interest yet!!

HI!
I just found this TR and read it in it's entirety from page 1 thru 8. I know it's been awhile since you've posted, but I thought I'd try and give you a cheer and see if that might help get you back to typing.

I've loved following everything posted so far. Life happens to all of us, so don't feel bad about time away. Hope you had a great summer!

Hope to read you soon.

Wow! Thanks for joining in!!! Your interest has inspired me to add an update - so HERE WE GO!!!

 

[204charity]

Hey my committed readers you! I have missed all of you terribly and am back to post an update! (Shocking, I know!) I hope everyone has had a wonderful summer, aside from Dave, I haven’t stayed in touch with any of you, so how are things going with all of you? I am going to try and jog my memory and continue with my TR, but please be patient with my lack of photos for now. My DH and I were having some issues with our PC, so we had to back up all our photos onto an external hard drive and my DH thought he’d be crafty and remove them from my PC altogether. (Thanks honey - NOT) So, I will try and get what I can from my Photo Pass CD and Facebook account to fill it up. (Ok, got some pictures - but geez, I don't remember how to save the resized ones onto photobucket, so it's uploading the full-size - SHEESH)

Also, I had mentioned it in my pseudo-update in the post above, but for those of you who haven’t read it yet - DH and I drive from here to Grand Forks at least twice a year with the kids to stay at a water-park hotel, for a couple of nights, and it never fails, every time, we spend around $1500. We decided that this year, we are going to skip BOTH Grand Forks trips and save the $ to take the kids on a holiday. (A real holiday, on a plane!) On the short list - a trip to stay with my aunt & uncle in California. We would take the kids to Disney Land while there, looking at a 3-day park hopper pass. But I don’t know, I am not feeling the excitement about it, and I am secretly looking into Disney World too. Obviously we would have to stay at a value resort, and we would be going the second week of November, so hopefully that is not peak season and we would therefore get a better price…..I don’t know…everything’s up in the air, but any suggestions you have, please give!

Okay, so let’s get on with the update!!!

Day 3 - Water Park Day!!!

So, this day, believe it our not was one of our most anticipated days. All 4 of us absolutely love to swim, and love waterslides. When I went to DW as a child, only TL was open, so we were all really excited to see BB this time around.

The night before we had decided that since we skipped a sit-down breakfast the day prior, we would go to the GF for breakfast today. The walk to catch the monorail was beautiful - calm, relaxing and very, VERY quiet.

The water parks didn’t open until 10:00 or 10:30 I think, so we had lots of time. We hopped onto the monorail and zoomed up to the entrance of the GF. All I can say is GORGEOUS! All 4 of us immediately fell in love with the ambiance of it, not to mention the smell! Wow! Whatever the scent is that they have pumped into that place, it is delicious! So fresh and clean - you feel like you are in another world.

We walked around the lobby for a minute, and then headed over to the QS Restaurant. This was our first experience with this type of dining, so it was pretty confusing for us all. We didn’t know what we were allowed to drink, bottles, fountains, coffee - WHAT?! But after a few minutes, and some other helpful guests of DW, we got it all sorted and headed outside to eat in the sunshine. Sitting outside on the patio, overlooking the marina/lagoon, it was quite lovely. The only nuisance was the ducks! They were quite aggressive with their begging here, more so than at the Poly, in my opinion. My mom broke the cardinal rule and through some biscuit on the ground for them, and that just made it worse! LOL (thanks Mom, thanks a lot)

I think we all agreed that the portions were HUGE. We all had more than enough food to satisfy our appetites, it was warm and filling, the coffee wasn’t bad either. While eating, we all decided that we would definitely be coming back to the GF for some browsing of the shops later in the week, maybe even for supper one night. Then we looked at the time and figured we had better head back to the hotel to get organized for the water parks. We went and caught the monorail back - but had to zoom past the MK enroute (ouch, that hurt - we wanted to stay there so bad!! But nope - the water was calling us Must. Go. Swimming.)

We quickly went to our room, threw on our stuff, grabbed our towels & water and went to catch the bus. Oh, but wait - we hadn’t decided which water park to go to first. Uh Oh. No worries, we just handed the choice over to the Disney Gods, and said whichever bus came first, we would catch. And it was the BB one. My mom was thrilled! She, more than any of us, was REALLY excited to see this park. The theme looked amazing in the Disney videos and photos. The bus pulled up, we walked through the gates and VOILA! We were in the melted ice-world of Blizzard Beach. It really was quite neat, but very large and EXTREMELY confusing. We had a very hard time deciding on where to sit, as almost all the chairs near the wave pool/beach area were being used already. We managed to find one lone chair and threw all of our towels on the one chair and caught the chair lift to get a better view of the park around us.

We thought it would help us get our bearings better, and we were right, it did. My poor mom is terribly afraid of heights, so this was not her favourite experience, but she was a trooper and she did it anyways, and we were all very proud of her for facing her fears head on. After the chair lift ride, we all went down Team Boat Springs. This was a BLAST! We laughed the whole way down . Such a great, joyful memory.

After we made it to the bottom, we grabbed our things and meandered down to the lazy river side and found some loungers in the shade to occupy. Myself, DD and my Dad went to try out the Downhill Double Dipper - LOL - yeah, that was quite the experience. DD and I raced each other first and that last bump on the slide, WOWZA, I almost flipped off! I knew my Dad wouldn’t love that, as it kind of surprises you while you are on your way down, but there was no way for me to warn him while he was up there and I was at the bottom. Sure enough, dad comes racing down the slide and flips right off his tube at the bottom! Needless to say, this was his last slide of the day. LOL Poor dad.

We walked Dad back to our little sitting area, where he lay down with his book and some water and DD and I did some exploring of the park. (Poor dad, he was such a good sport about it all, but I could tell he was pretty shook up) We went over to the Blizzard Beach Ski Patrol Training Camp and let DD do some goofing around there for a bit.

I have to say, after the thrill of the last two slides, this area wasn’t quite cutting it for her. Although, I am sure if she had a friend there with her, she would have enjoyed it a lot more. There is only so much fun you can have alone in a water-obstacle course. She tried the zip-line thing and she ended up jarring her shoulder and started to cry. That was it for this area after that, so we just walked over to the wave pool and spent some time splashing in the waves and talking about how much fun we were having. After we had cooled off and she had calmed down from her injury we decided to head up to the back of the water park and see what was back there. I will say this, that even though we took the chair lift up, and there was signage everywhere; the park is still extremely hard to navigate. I would be terrified to be there with more than one kid in tow. It would be very easy to lose one-another in this park.

Runoff Rapids is the name of the trio of slides you go down on inner tubes. We tried all three of them, and loved them all - but man did our legs hurt from all the stairs and the hiking uphill! After these were done - we were done. We had only been there for a couple of hours, and we were already exhausted and we still waned to get to Typhoon Lagoon. We gathered up our things and headed towards the exit, but not before bumping into none other than Goofy! After a quick photo op, we went and got changed and headed towards the bus stop.

We knew from doing some research that we had to catch the bus that would take us to a nearby resort and then catch one there to Typhoon Lagoon. The closest resort for us was Coronado Springs Resort, so we caught that bus (which pulled up just a few minutes after getting to the bus stop - YAY for us!) and waited at CSR for our TL bus to come. And waited. And waited some more. We waited for nearly an HOUR!! It was ridiculous! We were very disappointed in the inconvenient transportation between the two water parks. But, on the plus side, this really was our only really bad experience on the bus system overall.

After we finally got to Typhoon Lagoon, it was after 3:00, and Typhoon Lagoon closed at 5:00. We knew we didn’t have much time to see everything we wanted to see, so after a quick photo op with Lilo:

we had to start with something awesome - it was going to either be snorkelling with the sharks or the Crush n Gusher water rollercoaster’s - DD picked the Crush n Gushers (which I was happy about, cause I hate sharks! LOL) We did all 3 Roller coasters and we loved them all equally. After the Crush n Gushers, we went to the wave pool and got knocked around in their for a bit before the skies started to get quite overcast and the wind picked up. We were cold, and starting to get hungry, so we gathered up our stuff and caught our bus back to the Poly. (But not before getting a picture of Mom eating her first Mickey Ice Cream Bar in a LOOOONG time)

After catching our bus back to our beloved Poly, we headed to our room to shower and change. It had been a long day, and the consensus was, while we didn’t regret anything - we all wished we had skipped Blizzard Beach altogether and just done Typhoon Lagoon. I think I have also decided that I would be hard-pressed to visit either park when the hotel waterslides and pools are so amazing already. Unless you have teenagers that you can just set loose at the park for the day, it can be very exhausting chasing after everyone there all day.

We sat down for a QS Dinner at Captain Cooks this night, my Mom & Dad had the noodles and Jo and I had burgers I think? It was all ok, not spectacular - but it filled us up after our long day outside, so it did what it was supposed to do. LOL We walked around the lobby, as we did every evening, and bought some trinkets and treats at the gift shop before dropping them off at our room.

After dinner, my Mom and Dad decided that they were really tired and wanted some down time in the room, but Jo and I were just not ready to say goodnight to the Disney magic quite yet, so she and I enjoyed a beautiful sunset walk back to the Poly Beach:

to see what tonight’s Movie Under the Stars was - it was “Lilo & Stich”! How perfect! So, we roasted some marshmallows and set up our loungers to watch the movie. We ended up chatting with a lovely family from New York, their sweet daughter was our DD’s age, and they quickly made friends under the stars.

We made it about half way through the movie, and when they paused the movie for the EWP, we decided to pack it in for the night. Tomorrow was another busy day, and we didn’t want to be too tired to enjoy it!

So, that’s it everyone - Day 3, UPDATED! Can you believe it?! Shocking I know…..

Up next; our day at Animal Kingdom - Will I brave Expedition Everest or chicken out and cry like a baby? Or perhaps, I do both?! I don’t know, you’ll have to tune in to find out……

 

[solana131]

November, 2013. but I am secretly researching DW at that time too.

Hey, sounds like a plan to me....I am "secretly planning" a Nov 2013 mother/son trip too!

I think I have also decided that I would be hard-pressed to visit either park when the hotel waterslides and pools are so amazing already.

I agree! I hate to use my park time on a waterpark when the resort pools are so great. We have water parks at home, but we don't have a Magic Kingdom

Glad to see you back! Can't wait for your AK day! PS....I started a new TR from my impromptu July trip....Just in case you want to check it out

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

Welcome back!! DIS just wasn't the same without ya!

Can't wait to relive April through your TR!

 

[the_green_machine]

Great to have you back! Great update. I'm sitting down tonight and finishing my TR up.....promise!

 

[204charity]

Hey, sounds like a plan to me....I am "secretly planning" a Nov 2013 mother/son trip too!

I agree! I hate to use my park time on a waterpark when the resort pools are so great. We have water parks at home, but we don't have a Magic Kingdom

Glad to see you back! Can't wait for your AK day! PS....I started a new TR from my impromptu July trip....Just in case you want to check it out

I have started your TR, just forgot to say hello on the actual TR. Looks like you girls were BUSY! I love that, and I can only imagine how awesome a DW trip could be with no kids. Although, I'm not sure it will happen until we both have grey hair and the kids are adults.

Welcome back!! DIS just wasn't the same without ya!

Can't wait to relive April through your TR!

Thanks Dave! I'm so happy to be back!!

Great to have you back! Great update. I'm sitting down tonight and finishing my TR up.....promise!

And you Mr.Green Machine - you've been just about as bad as me with your TR I see. Just kidding! It's great to be back and talking with my favorite Dis-er's! And hey - where abouts in Manitoba are you from? I live in Selkirk. It'd be funny if we were near each other - we could have a DisMeet right here in Manitoba!

 

[the_green_machine]

I have started your TR, just forgot to say hello on the actual TR. Looks like you girls were BUSY! I love that, and I can only imagine how awesome a DW trip could be with no kids. Although, I'm not sure it will happen until we both have grey hair and the kids are adults.

Thanks Dave! I'm so happy to be back!!

And you Mr.Green Machine - you've been just about as bad as me with your TR I see. Just kidding! It's great to be back and talking with my favorite Dis-er's! And hey - where abouts in Manitoba are you from? I live in Selkirk. It'd be funny if we were near each other - we could have a DisMeet right here in Manitoba!

Come on! You don't live in Selkirk! I live in Whitemouth, but work throughout the Lac du Bonnet, Pinawa and WM area. If I had only known sooner we could have defiantly met and swapped Disney war stories. I'm with the RCMP and I'm being transferred to Newfoundland in a little over 2 weeks. Oh well....so much for the DisMeet! It would have been fun!

 

[204charity]

Come on! You don't live in Selkirk! I live in Whitemouth, but work throughout the Lac du Bonnet, Pinawa and WM area. If I had only known sooner we could have defiantly met and swapped Disney war stories. I'm with the RCMP and I'm being transferred to Newfoundland in a little over 2 weeks. Oh well....so much for the DisMeet! It would have been fun!

Oh my goodness, so funny! Small world. And a transfer to Newfoundland hey? Wow - what a beautiful place to be transferred to!

 

[solana131]

I can only imagine how awesome a DW trip could be with no kids.

Actually, I missed him every single second I was there. And I don't think I will ever go without him again.....it's just not the same. It is way more fun and magical with the little ones.

 

[Fratthouse]

Enjoying your TR! We are headed to the Poly next week, so I'm glad to hear you liked this resort so much. Looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip!