Me (trip planner and WDW-lover)
DH (would rather be golfing)
Brittany (11 years old and loves thrill rides and coasters - the faster and wilder, the better!)
Cassidy (5 years old - this trip will be her first time on the 'big rides')
Ashleigh (just turned 2 but loves Mickey Mouse and Pooh Bear already!)
Dina (my sister and much loved aunt to my DDs)
Our 3rd day (Friday, 6/30) was spent at AK. Much to DHs dismay, it was another EE day! This time, though, it was more than a short monorail trip away, so we wound up waking a little earlier and getting to the park a little later. We stopped by the front desk to get tickets for E-night for me, my sister, and Brittany. (DH decided to take Ashleigh to the pool instead since she couldnt ride most of the rides anyway, and Cassidy decided shed wanted to swim as well). Then off to AK. I thought since it was EE, we would pretty much be able to walk right in, but unfortunately, that wasnt the case. I think we encountered the longest entry line here at AK. We mustve stood in line for about 20 minutes, and then it was another long hike to the safari ride, only to wait in another rather long line (considering it was EE) to get on the ride. I think that by the time we finally boarded the jeep, it was already after 9:00.
The Safari ride was incredible. The funny thing is when we did the safari on our last trip 3 years ago, the jeep had to stop because there was a giraffe in the middle of the road. The giraffe then slowly moved and walked right by the right side of our jeep. I was right on the end and got a great close up of that giraffe. I thought that was so cool and that we were so lucky to be able to see that. Well, I couldnt believe it but the same thing happened again this time! I cant remember if it was in the same place or not but it was so strange! Almost as if the entire thing were choreographed (which I know its not, but what a strange thing to have happen twice!) Im wondering if this is a common occurrence?
Ashleigh sat with me on this ride and I just knew shed love it because she is crazy about animals. And she did love it when the animals came right up to the jeep, but lost interest when they were further away unless it was a rather large animal like an elephant. My middle DD was like this when she was younger, too. I think maybe when they are that young the animals that are further away dont seem as real .similar to when they are on TV, maybe? Im not sure, but she loved the giraffe, the ostrich that came right up to the jeep, and, of course, the elephants. Cassidy was up front with DH, so I didnt get to see her reaction, but Brittany sat on the end and loved it she took pictures, pictures, and more pictures!
After the safari we went on the nature trail (my idea) and they were not as thrilled with this activity. To be honest, it wasnt my favorite activity of the day, either. I think it would be a fun, relaxing thing to do in off-season, but that day it was way too crowded to be enjoyable. And it was still relatively early. I cant imagine what it was like later on the day and wouldnt want to find out. I dont handle crowds well and it was very stressful trying to keep up with 3 kids in that situation, even with 3 adults. Plus I got the impression they were ready for some rides, so when we finished the trail, we stopped for a break and got some fruit, pretzels and drinks and took then headed over to Dinosaur.
By this time, I was feeling pretty confident of Cassidys ability to handle thrill rides. I explained a little bit about Dinosaur and she assured me shed be fine .she knew it was all pretend, Dinosaurs arent real anymore, she wouldnt be scared at all. DH stayed behind with Ashleigh while the 4 of us rode. I had enough confidence in Cassidys ability to handle the ride that I let her ride beside me so I could share in her enjoyment. Well, about 10 seconds into the ride I look over at Cassie to check on her the ride is dark and loud and its very hard to tell if they are laughing or crying. Well, she was definitely not laughing .screaming and crying in terror is more like it. It was horrible. There was absolutely nothing I could do except hug her and try to calm her and tell her to close her eyes. And then the ride kept getting scarier and scarier and I could feel her little heart beating so hard and she just kept screaming more and more. I dreaded every minute and couldnt wait for it to be over. What a nightmare! Ive read posts about parents intentionally taking their children on rides that their kids are scared of with their kids already screaming in the line before the ride starts. I couldnt imagine intentionally putting myself or my child through that.
When we got off the ride (what a relief!) I asked her what scared her and she said the noise and the dinosaurs popping out at her. I asked her why she didnt just close her eyes and she told me it didnt help because with all the noise, she could tell what was going on and knew that they were still there. She recovered quickly, but for the rest of the day whenever someone mentioned the word dinosaur in any context, she went into the whole drama-queen act of oh, pleeease dont mention that word in front of me AAACCCK!. This actually became quite funny and was an ongoing theme for the rest of the trip. At least we could laugh about it later, but at the time it was awful! After Cassidy calmed down, DH wanted a chance to ride so, since I didnt get to enjoy the ride, Dina stayed with Ashleigh while we went on it again. It was much better the 2nd time - I really do love that ride when I dont have a hysterical child to contend with.
After that experience, I felt we needed something a bit low-key so I took the girls on Triceratops spin. As soon as we walked into that Dino-Land area Ashleigh spied that ride and immediately know that was a ride made for her! She pointed to it and said I wanna ride that!. So off we went. It was basically the same as Dumbo or Alladins carpets, but she loved it.
Of course, by then Brittany had seen Primeval Whirl and couldnt wait to try it. Cassidy was not tall enough and since DH cant handle spinning rides, he took Cassidy and Ashleigh off to play games while we rode. I was surprised by how much I liked this ride! I guess because its just so different sort of a cross between a roller coaster and the mad tea party Ive never ridden anything like it before. It wasnt really high on the thrill factor, it was more of a fun ride that just makes you laugh and laugh (or puke and puke, depending on your tolerance for that kind of thing). Afterwards, we found DH and the other 2 DDs loaded down with stuffed animals - apparently they had done quite well at the games! Both girls were beaming and proudly showed me their stuffed turtles and leopard. One of the turtles I swear was bigger than Ashleigh. DH convinced the girls to part with them temporarily so he could have them sent back to the hotel so we wouldnt have to cart them around for the rest of the day. Brittany decided she wanted to ride Primeval Whirl again, so we got fastpasses for later.
Next, we decided to see if we could make the next showing of Festival of the Lion King. This is one of my favorite shows at Disney and I have wonderful memories of how much Cassidy loved it when she saw it on our earlier trip. While we were walking to our seats, I witnessed my first (and only) rude people incident. It wasnt as shocking as some of the things people see, but there were 2 girls who refused to move down the row. When the CM asked them to move one of the girls snapped well, I cant because I need an end seat because Im sick and I might throw up! The CM told her that if she was going to throw up she would have to throw up further down the row. The girls got up in a huff and the one girl shouted something about not knowing why all the CM were so rude, that it wasnt very Disney and she was going to report her (the CM that asked them to move). It was bizarre I never could figure out what she was doing in the show if she was so sick? Thankfully they didnt sit next to us so I didnt have to worry about getting vomited on!
The show was wonderful and I think everyone enjoyed it. Brittany is a gymnast and Cassidy is a gymnast-in-training, so they especially appreciated this show. Ashleigh, like Cassidy the time before, was mesmerized by the floats. I loved it all, especially the music, and the costumes, the dancing .one of Disneys best shows.
After the show, we realized our fastpasses were about to expire so in a rush we made plans to meet DH by the tree in 30 minutes. On the way to the ride we saw Lilo and Stitch. I was so upset Cassidy was not with us! Lilo and Stitch are her favorite Disney characters she has a Stitch stuffed animal that she takes everywhere. Anyway, we did Primeval Whirl again and on the way back we realized what a stupid idea it was to meet by the tree. That could mean anything! We mustve searched for about half an hour before we finally found Greg and the girls (with Ashleigh asleep in the stroller). It was about that time we realized we had never had lunch wed snacked throughout the day, but never fed the girls a real lunch and by that time it was too late since we had a PS at Ohana for 5:00. Between our messed-up plans to meet back together and forgetting to feed the girls lunch (at least theyd had healthy snacks throughout the day, so it wasnt too bad!), I wasnt feeling too bright, but, unfortunately, neither of these incidents were the stupidest act of the day .that comes later.
We decided that wed better get back to the resort even though we hadnt really had a chance to do everything (is there ever enough time in a day?) It always seems that days at Disney just fly by! Oh, and BTW, DH mentioned that Cassidy saw Lilo and Stitch and he was able to get a picture! Im sorry I missed her seeing her favorite characters, but thats one of the inevitable consequences of splitting up, I guess. Im just thrilled she was able to see them!
We returned to GF where we got quick showers since it would be a rather late night, then went over to Ohana for dinner. Despite the great things Ive heard about Ohana, this was one of my least favorite meals of the trip. To be fair, though, Im not much of a meat eater. I prefer fish, chicken, salads, or pasta dishes. Meat always seems too heavy to me. The flavor was ok the turkey was a little fatty and the pork and beef did not seem as tender as they should be. But like I said, Im not much of a meat eater. DH loved it, as did my sister, so Im probably not the best judge on this type of meal. After dinner, the kids wanted one of those HUGE snowcones that come in a bucket. At this point all I could think about was that we were quickly running out of time if we wanted to maximize our amount of time at E-night. Brittany loves the big rides and was so excited about getting to ride them with no lines. Well finally they finished that giant snowcone and the three of us left DH and the 2 little ones and we were off with little time to spare.
On the monorail, my sister decided to be funny and said in a horrified voice oh, my gosh, I dont have the e-night tickets! Brittany and I both briefly panicked but then I realized she was only kidding. She was kind of smiling and I knew she had to have them, I saw her put them in her purse. Shed never trust me with them because Im so disorganized and Id probably lose them. Thats why DH always keeps the park tickets for me and ------ OMG!!!! My sisters smile quickly faded when I explained that I didnt have the park tickets for me and Brittany!! There we were on the monorail on the way to Enight, DH was back at the Poly or en route to the GF, (or who knows where) and we didnt have the park tickets! At this point the monorail had pulled up at the MK and, thinking wed call him on the cell phone and have him bring them to us, we got off. For some reason, he didnt have his phone with him. He ALWAYS carries that darn thing, but of course not when we need to get in touch with him. So we had to catch the monorail back to the GF which seemed to take forever. And poor Brittany she was chomping at the bit to get to E-NIGHT (it was only for 3 hours, we were already running a bit late) and now this delay. We finally got back to the resort and we decided it would be quicker if Brittany went back to the room while I checked the pool. Well, in a rush, Brittany went into the wrong building and didnt realize it until she had gotten off the elevator. She did eventually catch up with DH at the room and got the tickets, but by the time she returned to us, she was so stressed she was in tears! I calmed her down, told her whats done is done and we were NOT going to let it ruin the rest of the evening. We went back to the MK and still had a good 2 hours left. Enough time to do BTMRR (finally! since I didnt get to do it the day before), Splash Mountain twice, the Haunted Mansion, Buzz Lightyear, and Space Mountain several times. The MK really is wonderful at night with the castle changing colors. Another incredible Disney Day!
Next day: Character Breakfast, MK, MGM and Fantasmic! (and DH was thrilled that it was NOT an EE day)
Kim
DH (would rather be golfing)
Brittany (11 years old and loves thrill rides and coasters - the faster and wilder, the better!)
Cassidy (5 years old - this trip will be her first time on the 'big rides')
Ashleigh (just turned 2 but loves Mickey Mouse and Pooh Bear already!)
Dina (my sister and much loved aunt to my DDs)
Our 3rd day (Friday, 6/30) was spent at AK. Much to DHs dismay, it was another EE day! This time, though, it was more than a short monorail trip away, so we wound up waking a little earlier and getting to the park a little later. We stopped by the front desk to get tickets for E-night for me, my sister, and Brittany. (DH decided to take Ashleigh to the pool instead since she couldnt ride most of the rides anyway, and Cassidy decided shed wanted to swim as well). Then off to AK. I thought since it was EE, we would pretty much be able to walk right in, but unfortunately, that wasnt the case. I think we encountered the longest entry line here at AK. We mustve stood in line for about 20 minutes, and then it was another long hike to the safari ride, only to wait in another rather long line (considering it was EE) to get on the ride. I think that by the time we finally boarded the jeep, it was already after 9:00.
The Safari ride was incredible. The funny thing is when we did the safari on our last trip 3 years ago, the jeep had to stop because there was a giraffe in the middle of the road. The giraffe then slowly moved and walked right by the right side of our jeep. I was right on the end and got a great close up of that giraffe. I thought that was so cool and that we were so lucky to be able to see that. Well, I couldnt believe it but the same thing happened again this time! I cant remember if it was in the same place or not but it was so strange! Almost as if the entire thing were choreographed (which I know its not, but what a strange thing to have happen twice!) Im wondering if this is a common occurrence?
Ashleigh sat with me on this ride and I just knew shed love it because she is crazy about animals. And she did love it when the animals came right up to the jeep, but lost interest when they were further away unless it was a rather large animal like an elephant. My middle DD was like this when she was younger, too. I think maybe when they are that young the animals that are further away dont seem as real .similar to when they are on TV, maybe? Im not sure, but she loved the giraffe, the ostrich that came right up to the jeep, and, of course, the elephants. Cassidy was up front with DH, so I didnt get to see her reaction, but Brittany sat on the end and loved it she took pictures, pictures, and more pictures!
After the safari we went on the nature trail (my idea) and they were not as thrilled with this activity. To be honest, it wasnt my favorite activity of the day, either. I think it would be a fun, relaxing thing to do in off-season, but that day it was way too crowded to be enjoyable. And it was still relatively early. I cant imagine what it was like later on the day and wouldnt want to find out. I dont handle crowds well and it was very stressful trying to keep up with 3 kids in that situation, even with 3 adults. Plus I got the impression they were ready for some rides, so when we finished the trail, we stopped for a break and got some fruit, pretzels and drinks and took then headed over to Dinosaur.
By this time, I was feeling pretty confident of Cassidys ability to handle thrill rides. I explained a little bit about Dinosaur and she assured me shed be fine .she knew it was all pretend, Dinosaurs arent real anymore, she wouldnt be scared at all. DH stayed behind with Ashleigh while the 4 of us rode. I had enough confidence in Cassidys ability to handle the ride that I let her ride beside me so I could share in her enjoyment. Well, about 10 seconds into the ride I look over at Cassie to check on her the ride is dark and loud and its very hard to tell if they are laughing or crying. Well, she was definitely not laughing .screaming and crying in terror is more like it. It was horrible. There was absolutely nothing I could do except hug her and try to calm her and tell her to close her eyes. And then the ride kept getting scarier and scarier and I could feel her little heart beating so hard and she just kept screaming more and more. I dreaded every minute and couldnt wait for it to be over. What a nightmare! Ive read posts about parents intentionally taking their children on rides that their kids are scared of with their kids already screaming in the line before the ride starts. I couldnt imagine intentionally putting myself or my child through that.
When we got off the ride (what a relief!) I asked her what scared her and she said the noise and the dinosaurs popping out at her. I asked her why she didnt just close her eyes and she told me it didnt help because with all the noise, she could tell what was going on and knew that they were still there. She recovered quickly, but for the rest of the day whenever someone mentioned the word dinosaur in any context, she went into the whole drama-queen act of oh, pleeease dont mention that word in front of me AAACCCK!. This actually became quite funny and was an ongoing theme for the rest of the trip. At least we could laugh about it later, but at the time it was awful! After Cassidy calmed down, DH wanted a chance to ride so, since I didnt get to enjoy the ride, Dina stayed with Ashleigh while we went on it again. It was much better the 2nd time - I really do love that ride when I dont have a hysterical child to contend with.
After that experience, I felt we needed something a bit low-key so I took the girls on Triceratops spin. As soon as we walked into that Dino-Land area Ashleigh spied that ride and immediately know that was a ride made for her! She pointed to it and said I wanna ride that!. So off we went. It was basically the same as Dumbo or Alladins carpets, but she loved it.
Of course, by then Brittany had seen Primeval Whirl and couldnt wait to try it. Cassidy was not tall enough and since DH cant handle spinning rides, he took Cassidy and Ashleigh off to play games while we rode. I was surprised by how much I liked this ride! I guess because its just so different sort of a cross between a roller coaster and the mad tea party Ive never ridden anything like it before. It wasnt really high on the thrill factor, it was more of a fun ride that just makes you laugh and laugh (or puke and puke, depending on your tolerance for that kind of thing). Afterwards, we found DH and the other 2 DDs loaded down with stuffed animals - apparently they had done quite well at the games! Both girls were beaming and proudly showed me their stuffed turtles and leopard. One of the turtles I swear was bigger than Ashleigh. DH convinced the girls to part with them temporarily so he could have them sent back to the hotel so we wouldnt have to cart them around for the rest of the day. Brittany decided she wanted to ride Primeval Whirl again, so we got fastpasses for later.
Next, we decided to see if we could make the next showing of Festival of the Lion King. This is one of my favorite shows at Disney and I have wonderful memories of how much Cassidy loved it when she saw it on our earlier trip. While we were walking to our seats, I witnessed my first (and only) rude people incident. It wasnt as shocking as some of the things people see, but there were 2 girls who refused to move down the row. When the CM asked them to move one of the girls snapped well, I cant because I need an end seat because Im sick and I might throw up! The CM told her that if she was going to throw up she would have to throw up further down the row. The girls got up in a huff and the one girl shouted something about not knowing why all the CM were so rude, that it wasnt very Disney and she was going to report her (the CM that asked them to move). It was bizarre I never could figure out what she was doing in the show if she was so sick? Thankfully they didnt sit next to us so I didnt have to worry about getting vomited on!
The show was wonderful and I think everyone enjoyed it. Brittany is a gymnast and Cassidy is a gymnast-in-training, so they especially appreciated this show. Ashleigh, like Cassidy the time before, was mesmerized by the floats. I loved it all, especially the music, and the costumes, the dancing .one of Disneys best shows.
After the show, we realized our fastpasses were about to expire so in a rush we made plans to meet DH by the tree in 30 minutes. On the way to the ride we saw Lilo and Stitch. I was so upset Cassidy was not with us! Lilo and Stitch are her favorite Disney characters she has a Stitch stuffed animal that she takes everywhere. Anyway, we did Primeval Whirl again and on the way back we realized what a stupid idea it was to meet by the tree. That could mean anything! We mustve searched for about half an hour before we finally found Greg and the girls (with Ashleigh asleep in the stroller). It was about that time we realized we had never had lunch wed snacked throughout the day, but never fed the girls a real lunch and by that time it was too late since we had a PS at Ohana for 5:00. Between our messed-up plans to meet back together and forgetting to feed the girls lunch (at least theyd had healthy snacks throughout the day, so it wasnt too bad!), I wasnt feeling too bright, but, unfortunately, neither of these incidents were the stupidest act of the day .that comes later.
We decided that wed better get back to the resort even though we hadnt really had a chance to do everything (is there ever enough time in a day?) It always seems that days at Disney just fly by! Oh, and BTW, DH mentioned that Cassidy saw Lilo and Stitch and he was able to get a picture! Im sorry I missed her seeing her favorite characters, but thats one of the inevitable consequences of splitting up, I guess. Im just thrilled she was able to see them!
We returned to GF where we got quick showers since it would be a rather late night, then went over to Ohana for dinner. Despite the great things Ive heard about Ohana, this was one of my least favorite meals of the trip. To be fair, though, Im not much of a meat eater. I prefer fish, chicken, salads, or pasta dishes. Meat always seems too heavy to me. The flavor was ok the turkey was a little fatty and the pork and beef did not seem as tender as they should be. But like I said, Im not much of a meat eater. DH loved it, as did my sister, so Im probably not the best judge on this type of meal. After dinner, the kids wanted one of those HUGE snowcones that come in a bucket. At this point all I could think about was that we were quickly running out of time if we wanted to maximize our amount of time at E-night. Brittany loves the big rides and was so excited about getting to ride them with no lines. Well finally they finished that giant snowcone and the three of us left DH and the 2 little ones and we were off with little time to spare.
On the monorail, my sister decided to be funny and said in a horrified voice oh, my gosh, I dont have the e-night tickets! Brittany and I both briefly panicked but then I realized she was only kidding. She was kind of smiling and I knew she had to have them, I saw her put them in her purse. Shed never trust me with them because Im so disorganized and Id probably lose them. Thats why DH always keeps the park tickets for me and ------ OMG!!!! My sisters smile quickly faded when I explained that I didnt have the park tickets for me and Brittany!! There we were on the monorail on the way to Enight, DH was back at the Poly or en route to the GF, (or who knows where) and we didnt have the park tickets! At this point the monorail had pulled up at the MK and, thinking wed call him on the cell phone and have him bring them to us, we got off. For some reason, he didnt have his phone with him. He ALWAYS carries that darn thing, but of course not when we need to get in touch with him. So we had to catch the monorail back to the GF which seemed to take forever. And poor Brittany she was chomping at the bit to get to E-NIGHT (it was only for 3 hours, we were already running a bit late) and now this delay. We finally got back to the resort and we decided it would be quicker if Brittany went back to the room while I checked the pool. Well, in a rush, Brittany went into the wrong building and didnt realize it until she had gotten off the elevator. She did eventually catch up with DH at the room and got the tickets, but by the time she returned to us, she was so stressed she was in tears! I calmed her down, told her whats done is done and we were NOT going to let it ruin the rest of the evening. We went back to the MK and still had a good 2 hours left. Enough time to do BTMRR (finally! since I didnt get to do it the day before), Splash Mountain twice, the Haunted Mansion, Buzz Lightyear, and Space Mountain several times. The MK really is wonderful at night with the castle changing colors. Another incredible Disney Day!
Next day: Character Breakfast, MK, MGM and Fantasmic! (and DH was thrilled that it was NOT an EE day)
Kim
Shoot, Dinosaur scared *me* when I first went on it, but I'm glad she was able to laugh about it later. 
What a trooper. 
