POLY Oct 2010 8 day Trip report with preview and wrap up!

Packing the night the night before helped a bunch as we had the last night to relax a bit and make sure everything was really ready to go.

Woke up, got ready, hopped in the already packed car and went to the airport @ 5:20am. Traffic was great, and we made it to the airport in good time. Check in was done with online check in, so all we had to do was scan our passes, show ID and tag our bags with routing tags. The Disney tags were already on them. Security went great and wasn’t that big a hassle even with the two young children. We had about an hour to wait be boarding for our flight began, so we took a walk to find the Cinnabon.

The kids loved the plane and got to watch another boarding through the window before we got on ours. Seats were nice, good leg room, pre assigned. We had a completely full flight so our original plan of taking an entire row of 6 seats for the 4 of us didn’t work out. We took off on time and had a very smooth trip over to Denver. The in flight TV was very nice and kept the kids entertained the whole time – while waiting to push back from the gate, on the taxi out,… during takeoff and landing…, and the taxi in and wait to open the doors. We had a good 1.5 hours in Denver before our next flight so we took another walk around the terminal. Two potty trips. I got my sandwich so I had something good and known for the lunch meal on the plane. Cost the same as the inflight meal, but was much bigger and better tasting than the boxed sandwich they had on board – had the complimentary drink and cookie though and things worked out very well. Rest of the family had packed lunches from home and added the inflight drink and cookie as well.

We landed in MCO on time at 4pm. Got to the gate at 4:10. Got off the plane in good time and took another potty break as soon as we got out into the terminal. We headed to the monorail and took it to the main station. Down two flights of excalators following the “B” side markers and you couldn’t miss all the Magical Transportation signs. We had our passes out and skipped right through the line and with about a 3 minute wait were escorted right out onto our shuttle. Best experience I have ever had with airport transportation anywhere. We had about a 40 minute ride that went straight to the Poly. Nice little video was playing that gave the kids some additional infotainment while we went over the rules with them again. Check in took literally 2 minutes – did the online check in and the packet was waiting at the desk for us – gave the name and ID and they handed over the packet all ready to go. We got extremely close on the room request so we were really happy about that. Our room ended up being a nice garden view of the quiet pool and incredibly close to the GCH, bus stop, and the monorail at either the GCH or the TTC. We were literally in our room 1 hour after stepping off the plane.
We unwound a bit in the room for a bit then decided to go walk around and see the shops, pick up our stroller which we forgot about on our way in, and then catch the torch lighting ceremony at 6 pm. We dropped the stroller off in the room and the then hopped on over to the TTC to get on the monorail to take a ride around the track before dinner. The one we got in line for was the express to the MK, since we only saw signs for it and for the Epcot line. We missed the one that would have stopped around all the resorts so we ended up in a crowd of people all headed to the MNSSHP as it was very close to 7pm by this time. We decided instead of waiting in line for another rail that would have been packed with all the people exiting the MK park, we would walk over to the Contemp for our dinner at Chef Mickey’s.

Dinner was really good – glad we have the dining plan as a meal for the 4 of us cost about 110$ not including any tip, wine, or the picture of our family standing around a statue of mickey that was out of focus – no thank you. Should have been smart and asked the photo guy to take a picture with our own camera. Food was excellent… got the carved prime rib/turkey, salmon – went back for the cheese ravioli and the minestrone soup – everything was wonderful and fresh. I was expecially surprised by the ravioli. It looked like a really nice kid friendly dish, but was surprisingly tasty. For dessert, marisha fell in love with the carrot cake and had 3 extra pieces on a second trip – carrot cake coma followed.

All the characters were great and the kids loved waving the napkins around when they did their dance number – Wesley loved it a bit too much and took to wapping every person he walked by as they paraded the kids around the room with the characters. We missed Pluto since he stopped for the dance at the table before us and started again at the table after us… we tried to get them to turn him back around, but it didn’t work out – got all the other characters though.

Night done, we went back to the room and found our bags had been delivered to the foot of our beds. Awesome service!! Love the Magical Express!! Night night came as the kids tried to wind down – we finally shut off all the lights and drew the curtains and they fell asleep pretty quickly.
 
Next morning was an early one with the time zone difference and our before the park opened breakfast res at tusker house. We had asked about the bus service and how early it started plus the fact we need to be there early. They said at the front desk it started at 8am so we decided to shoot for that and just be early in case. We were at the bus stop ready to go at 7:45 – bus pulled up for Animal Kingdom at 7:50am. Great timing – took us right to the park. We went right through the gate marked for tusker house breakfast – they checked our names in the system and we went right in with our park ticket KTTW cards. All the CMs on the walk through the park to the breakfast said welcome “Jambo” and “enjoy your breakfast”… very nice that they have that level of service and carry it throughout the entire cast. It wasn’t just one person at the gate that acknowledged us that way – it was literally every CM we passed. Very cool way to start the day. It almost looked like we were some of the only ones in line at tusker when were got checked in at the podium, but when we turned the corner we found the line of people waiting to get the obligatory picture with Donald before being seated. The line went pretty fast once they started getting it going. We got them to take our photo with our camera this time however and it turned out even better than the pro one they once again tried to sell us later – no thank you once again. Not sure why they print out all the copies beforehand – makes it look like they are wasting a ton of photo paper… maybe guilt you into buying it so it doesn’t go to waste… I just want to see the trash pile at the end of a meal service.

Anyway – characters were great once again. Picked up Daisy Duck signature in addition to the regular cast from dinner the night before. Very nice breakfast spread… cheese blintzes with apple or cherry topping and carved ham – so delicious. Bacon was kind of crap, but the rest of the food was pretty decent. The jungle juice was great for the kids… they even liked it more than the choc milk I got later with a real glass of OJ – both wonderful – I liked the jungle juice, it just wasn’t as good as the FL OJ.

Breakfast done we stepped outside and right around the corner from our first ride – Kilamanjaro safaris. Very cool ride that could be done multiple times since the animals are a bit different each time. Our driver was very lively and she made a good effort to point out the animals and where they were plus gave us a short time to take pics as we went. It wasn’t a whole lot of time – so you had to be ready with a fast camera and zoom. The ride itself was pretty entertaining and both my wife and I were impressed at the detail that went into the enclosures so they didn’t just look like cages and fences everywhere. Natural landscape was nicely mixed with textured man made items to create a very appealing environment that made it feel like you were on a semi real safari.

Next we took a trip on over to the Kali river rapids ride as the kids really want to “go on a ride”. The sign saying that you will get wet YOU MAY GET SOAKED should have been about 10 feet taller with a big blinking Neon border. Marisha found our very quickly as the very first water feature – a fountain spout in the middle of the water path came down right on top of her and Arianne. They both got completely soaked from head to toe. A couple more water encounters and the rest of the boat all got hit with a little bit of a shower, but the two of them got hit with pretty much everything full force. By the time we got off the ride, they both looked like they had just climbed out of the pool completely clothed.

We took another picture with them soaking under the sign I mentioned above and we took another bathroom trip – the 4th or so of the morning already before heading off toward Everest. We knew we needed to make the next showing of Nemo or we would have trouble seeing it later, se we grabbed some fast passes for Everest and went over to the dino playland park to let the kids run around for a few while we waited for the line on the next Nemo show to form. It didn’t take long, but by the time we got back, the line was around almost to the toilet – good thing for us, and the kids took yet another potty break while I stood in line. The line got repositioned to the proper roped area and I got moved around a bit, but suddenly in the moving there was Wesley under my arm… he had just run back from the bathroom when we was done – Marisha mad no idea where he had gone and I figured she was right behind him… The line started to move, and still no sign of the wife as she was back around by the bathrooms still looking for him. I was able to flag her down just as the line really got moving at our position and we made it in with plenty of time to spare – decent seats, close to the front on the aisle. THE SHOW WAS AMAZING! Wish I would have recorded some of it, but I had the boy in my lap for most of it as he was just enthralled with the entire production. I had to keep turning his head to point out all the cool stuff going on all around us. I think his favorite part was the bubbles raining down on us at the end. Disney really went all out to put on a great show – the actors, set, puppets, and the new songs all themed after the original show made it really come together as a performance I would probably pay to see all by itself.

As soon as the show let out, it was back to Everest to use our fast passes. Wesley made the height cut nicely… propped him up on the stand and bonked his head on the bar. We hopped right through the line and onto the ride. This was going to be the first real roller coaster ride for the kids and they had been asking to go on it all morning. I held the boy’s hand the whole time and laughed to make it all seem like it was completely fun to go hurling down a mountain in the dark with a growling yeti roaring at you. Did I mention it was backwards for a portion of the ride… yeah, there was screaming and hysterics from Arianne right behind us as she screamed the whole way down… She ended up liking the “scary” ride. Wesley didn’t cry or scream at all – at least I didn’t hear him during the ride… and he was pretty straightfaced about it after… but when you asked him if he liked the ride he just said plainly “no”.

After the scary ride was done, we headed over to Flame tree for lunch. Turkey sandwich, pork sandwich, and two hotdogs later we were sitting in the covered dining area being heckled by the ducks all trying to get whatever scrap of food they could. One of them was lame and I saw him limping around favoring a leg that looked a little twisted. They were just your regular everyday common ducks, so I didn’t feel so bad about it as I would have had it been one of the park animals that are there to be protected and cared for.
Lunch done, we had a bit of time to wander through the Asia animal walking trek… lots of animals, most of them hiding in the corners or shady parts of the pens. We had to rush through it though so we could hoof it on over to the Lion King theatre for the afternoon show. Lots of traffic on our way as the previous show had recently let out. We made our way through the crowd and found a nice spot under one of the misters to wait for the doors to open and get into the 2:30 show. Another awesome experience and Disney really did a great job with this show as well. Engaging the crowd and really showing that they can put on a live show that WOW’s. All the dancers and singers did a great job – the animatronics were very cool too – huge and really worked with the show well.

After Lion King, the next stop was to find a cool snack and camp out a spot for the Jungle Parade. We got the snack just fine – white chocolate elephant cupcake from kusaffari bakery, but the camping out was a bit late for any of the nice shady spots… we ended up traveling around the entire parade route ice cream in hand looking for a place to sit that wasn’t in direct sun. The kids made a nice mess of themselves and looked a little drunk as they staggered along icecream in hand trying to eat and follow along. We finally found a spot, finished the treats and waited for the parade… which didn’t take too long to get around to us. Parade was very colorful and fun to watch. Had some nice character interaction as well – couple high fives, and a few animal close ups as they swung around.

We followed along as the tail end of things passed by and went right back out the entrance of the park as we trekked back to the hotel – trying to get a quick nap in before getting all set up for the Halloween party tonight – that’s where I am at now as everyone else is sleeping a bit. Time to go and get ready now… will pick it back up later.
 
OK – so it’s later. We were late to the party by a bit seeing as I was under the impression that the wife’s internal clock would wake her up whenever she needed to and I was happing typing away in the dark on an unlit keyboard. My clock said 4:45…but it’s on UT time, so it was really 6:45pm and everyone but me was in bed asleep. Wife woke up and made a dash to get everyone going and in costume so we could make the party at MK without too much lost trick or treating time. Well, we made it over, grabbed a map and decided since we were right on Main street and people were already lining up for the 8:30 parade, that we would just do that… 8:10pm, no candy in the bags yet and only a 100 feet into the park we sat down on the curb and waited. The pre parade entertainment… so called by me… was pretty weak, but they tried to get the crowd going as best they could. Pretty soon though, the headless horseman made his ride down main and the parade was officially started… at least for the people way back at the start of the route. We on the other hand down at the front of main street had about another 15 min to wait until we got floats in our faces. Wasn’t too bad though and we liked a lot of the acts as they paraded past – the gravediggers were probably my favorite. The kids liked the candy they handed out at the very end… only one small piece… in most every bag… missed a couple and wasn’t thrilled to see such a small start to the evening haul.

End of the parade down main and we hightailed it on up to the Villians bash at the castle stage. First potty break was called for as soon as we got there and the show was starting. Got a decent part of it on the camera for the wife to watch later… gotta love the kids. When they gotta go, they gotta go. Villians done, we got a little meet and greet with them. Posed with the Evil Queen – told everyone in the picture to smile… then I did a double take… and told the queen to not smile. She didn’t appreciate my comment much – true to character. Anyway, with that done the villains all escaped and we knew that the hallowishes show was about to start soon. So we plopped down right there in the front of the castle and waited another 10 min for that… still treat-less, but having seen most of the night’s action already.
The fireworks were great! I thought that being up so close we might miss a lot, or be blasted out by the speakers. Thank goodness we were off to the very side of the path and still saw most everything overhead – speakers didn’t cause much trouble at all… all good so far.

Now, on to the candy stops. They were a bit hard to find at this point since there wasn’t much of a line for any of them. We had to hunt a couple down since we knew from the map where they generally were… but not exactly where each line started. Pretty soon we were hauling it in trying to keep the kids from eating it faster than we were filling the bags. Got a lot of great character shots in. I noticed that there were a ton of photopass people on hand for the party – I had been wondering where they were all hiding earlier since I hadn’t seen many out and about in Animal Kingdom. Was about to be pretty disappointed in the service since we pre-paid for the photo CD and book package. Anyway, we found all the candy there was, met with most every character we saw and were dragging ourselves out of the park about 11:30pm when we sort of realized we hadn’t had anything to eat since lunch at noon. Just water and candy and lots of bathroom breaks for everyone the past 12 hours.

On our way back to the Poly, we tried to stop wherever we could to see if anyone was still serving a hot meal of some sort… gave up finally, and just went back to the room and crashed after taking in an apple and granola bar from our own stash. Day 1 DONE! All in all, a pretty cool day with a lot accomplished so far. Tomorrow is our “free” day… relax, sleep in, do some shopping… kids want more rides… you get the idea.
 

So we woke up when we woke up… and put it all together to get out the door about 10am. Pretty good for me if I don’t say so myself. Got on the bus and went right over to DTD… The wife wanted to hit up Epcot, but I didn’t think with the 5K, food and wine, and such a short time we would really have to be there it was worth it today. Off to shopping!

Christmas store, potty break, t-shirt/art store, potty break, earl of sandwich, potty break… you get the idea. The breakfast/lunch (we did sandwiches) was awesome. Dining plan made it simple to do, and everyone got food, drink and a desert. Took our time eating and then made our way over to the pin shop. Marisha wanted a pin with a nurse theme… one quick question and the CM at the register walked us right over to the huge wall of pins and pulled it right down… love the service. Then it was over to the once-upon-a-toy store… lots to browse, not a whole lot we needed to buy. Love the Ariel dress however, and it will probably make it into Arianne’s collection before the trip is done.

Disney store was great – once again, not a whole lot we needed but it was cool to just wonder through room after room of cool Disney stuff. Had to make a stop at the chocolate shop and pick up a couple of treats. Not on the dining plan – but so worth the trip. After our chocolate coma ended, we picked ourselves up and hopped on over to the lego store. All Wesley wanted to do was sit in the chair and build whatever he could with the bin of legos in front of him. Had to tear him away from it to get him to pose with the giant Woody lego statue. Then it was off to TREX. We met a worker from the place on our bus ride over from the POLY. He had been stuck going the normal way because of the race that morning. He said even if we didn’t eat there, we could always come on over and wander around the restaurant. We thought that was a great idea… then we found the build-a-dino workshop… All we heard from then on was various forms of “we want to build to a dino….PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!” So… we built two dinos and got them into some sporty clothes that closely resembled as best we could the two children now holding their new dino friends “Dino” (die-no) and “Pinkie” (the pink one) each in a death grip of a hug.

That fun and excitement over and my legs begging me to cut them off, at this point we hauled our two new dino carriers and two very excited children off to the bus to head back to the POLY for an afternoon of swimming – but not before yet another potty break. We got back to the room and changed it up to head over to the pool. We grabbed a chair and before we could even dump all our stuff in it, the kids were off. The pool was a blast. The water slide made for some really cool extra fun. The first time up, Arianne went down the slide while mom waited at the bottom… no real problem. Then it was Wesley’s turn. He was frightened… slide was dark, sister did her little girl scream… he didn’t want to go. So what did Dad do? What every good father does… grabbed the kid, told him it would be fine and mommy was waiting for him at the bottom… then threw him into the chute – feet first of course. He came out fine and was up and out of the pool in a flash ready to run back up the mountain for another go at it. I got a wonderful massage from the waterfall – wouldn’t recommend it to everyone as it really pelts you hard. But it felt so good – wished I could get the same kind of thing on my feet which were loving the water, but still not getting fully relaxed.

Out of the pool and back to the room to change again… had another 2 hours to kill before dinner. We headed over to the GF to do a little shopping. Saw a bunch of nice stuff…. Just not a whole lot that fit our tastes enough to shell out for it. Great place – not sure how many families with small kids dare to stay there, but figured it would be an awesome place for a very nice adult getaway. Back on the monorail and over to the MK… had about another hour to kill so not enough time to really get into the park, we had already been through the Contemp, so what do we do now? Catch the boat back to the POLY for dinner – but not before another potty break…  We had a fun ride back over, but since we got a little split up due to the boy needing the potty again, we had a little issue in line. Another group sort of cut inbetween my wife and I, even with the kids running in circles around both of us. We got all the way to the boat and the conductor was slowing it down to fill up the last couple seats without overfilling the boat. He asked my wife how many in the party and we both said 4 holding up our hands. He waved us in and I stepped around the party that had wedged in front of me and onto the boat. The conductor checked again after we were seated, but by this time the party in the wedge had gotten fed up or something and had stormed off. So he waved the next group of 4 onto the boat before setting the rope and launching off. Just goes to show that patience is a good thing. Had that group stayed put they would have been on the boat no problem… hope it doesn’t ruin their entire vacation too…

Anyway, we dragged our group up the stairs to O’Hana and checked in at the podium at least 40 min prior to our scheduled time. They gave us a buzzer and we plopped down in the lounge chairs overlooking the GCH main hall. In no more than 10 minutes, the buzzer was flashing and we were being given the tour on our way over to our seats. Fantastic! Then came the food… bread – ok, a little dry. Salad – kind of a citrus vinegrette, the wife liked it/I didn’t care much for it. Then the sides and the parade of meat. All the sides were great. Dumplings, very good. Noodles – didn’t think they would be good, but they were great! Broccoli and peas… didn’t get to them myself but the wife liked very much… and the chicken drumsticks – very good sweat and spicy sauce. Meat was great, the steak was a little on the normal side since I’m used to the Brazilian way of seasoning that kind of meat with 20 different varieties of salt only… so those sodium conscious out there should be very pleased. The chicken and pork was nice and juicy with a great sweet sauce they served on the side. The absolute best part however was the shrimp. I kind of joked with our server when I said to just slide the whole skewer off on to the plate, and the wife corrected me when the server started to oblige me. We left about 4 shrimp on the stake and had a lovely plate overflowing with the best fire grilled monster shimp I think I have ever had… at least in recent memory. I couldn’t get enough of the things. Even though I didn’t say no to anything else they were bringing around, every time they passed by with more shrimp I got a couple more to add to my pile. By the end, I had pretty much filled the empty salad bowl with the peelings, and then I had a couple more. Seriously… not really exaggerating that part.

We were pretty much good to go at that point. All we had left was the dessert and the check… and it was almost 9pm. I remembered that Wishes was supposed to be going on tonight and asked the waitress what time it was supposed to start… since it was right about 9 and the show wasn’t going she said she figured about 9:30… then as soon as she turned to the next table the music started and the fireworks began. She had just placed a birthday cupcake in front of my son and lit the candle right before that as well – couldn’t have timed it better… So Wishes starts, my son makes his birthday wish and blows out the candle, and the dessert is served… just amazing. The bowl with the bread pudding, icecream, and bannans foster sauce gets set up, and as my wife is getting into serving out that and my son is liking off the icing of his cupcake, the waitress sets down another bowl with another 3 huge scoops of icecream and sprinkles right in front of my daughter. My wife turns around and notices the extra bowl and jaws start to drop. Arianne has this huge grin on her face as she has the big serving spoon in hand and is trying to scoop off all the little sprinkles to gobble up. Well, to say the least it was a lot more than we ever expected and we probably won’t ever have another meal that comes close to being as cool. Wishes finished up, we finished up what we could eat of the wonderful dessert and headed for the door and bed… Time to get ready for another day and another early before-the-park-opens breakfast at HS tomorrow.
 
So it’s all Hollywood today. We started off with another early morning breakfast and this one went much better than the last, though I was less impressed with the food. Hollywood and Vine – not so sure I would do it again. The character interaction was better since they did more break out numbers, but the two kids didn’t really feel the whole go up and dance vibe. We got our pictures with the characters, but the kids once again seemed more interested in eating than posing for more pics. We couldn’t figure out why since these are the cartoons they love more than most. Handy Manny, Oso – on his first day no less, and the einsteins.

Anyway, we checked out a bit fast to make sure we were in position to participate in the “walkasfastasyoucangomarathontoToyStoryMania” - but stay behind the line of CMs. Worked out very well since the breakfast crowd gets a side position on the main group so we got wedged into the front of the pack when the two groups merged at the end of main street. We ran at the front of the herd past the sorcerer’s hat, took a left around the bend and activated the green soldier men as we breeched the perimeter of Pixar land en route to toy story mania. Most of the pack hit the fast pass stand, so as I saw there wasn’t much anyone in front of us now for the actual ride line, we just waltzed right into the ride itself. Fastest line you will ever get for that ride – period. We free walked all the way through the maze and up and over the stairs – right up to the last gate almost before being what I would estimate was about the 10th loaded car of the day to ride. As soon as we got done with our first round of fun (more to come) we grabbed some fast passes – return time already was between 12:45 and 1:15 and it was only 9:20am. Perfect timing for us on the FPs though…

Next we hit up the voyage of the little mermaid – 1st showing of the day. Next we shoved on over to tower of terror and shook up the kids a bit. Neither one of them liked the ride at all, but they managed it just fine. No tears, just strong hugs afterwards. It’s not my favorite ride either, but it’s an experience if you have never gone before. Beauty and the Beast was coming soon, so we decided to waste a little time and browse the shops down the blvd. About 25 min prior to the first morning show at 10:30, we headed on over to the ampitheatre to grab our seats. I had been a little ahead of Marisha and Arianne since we had a bit of traffic down the street. Wesley was with me and we headed up the walkway to the show. I stopped a bit after rounding the corner to see if my wife was still behind me – and she wasn’t… I figured she was caught behind some group that had stopped to park a stroller or maybe needed to run to the bathroom real fast so I started to head back down the ramp and see what was up. I came back around the corner and there they were with one of the show ushers. I got back down to them and found out that Arianne had been selected to be a princess in the show. AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!!!!! We got escorted in and right down to the front. They showed Arianne what she would need to do really fast – just walk up to the front of the stage and pick up a rose. They we sat back and enjoyed the show with a wonderful close-up view. Arianne played her part wonderfully and picked up a great felt rose and a voucher for the new blue-ray copy of Beauty and the Beast. Even better since I had decided not to pre order it before our trip. So that was a totally great experience to have – really once in a lifetime kind of thing and I am so glad it happened to her there at that show. I know she will remember that experience every time she looks at that rose… plus I got It on video.

Can’t really top that, but we had lunch afterwards before heading off to use our fast passes en route to the afternoon stunt shows on the other end of the park. LMA was pretty cool even though the kids weren’t as into it as Dad was. Mom wanted to skip Indy, but I wasn’t going to come all the way out here and miss one of my favorites… even though we did get in a few minutes late and missed the boulder roll.

Next up we were back over to Main Street for a little cold drink snack and lining up for the Block Party Bash. Loved the show, characters were very engaging and energetic. Nice to have the kids be able to participate in things as well. Anything to get them off their butts and dancing and jumping around. After the parade was done, we needed to hit up the Playhouse Disney show. This time the kids were more into the action that the up close stuff at breakfast. They had a lot of fun there – me, not so much since there are no seats… just a hard, not so sloping, rough carpeted room where you get to sit uncomfortably on the floor for 20 minutes. I really had to try and refrain from just flopping over and laying out on the floor and getting back up took a bit of maneuvering. Cramped legs, foot asleep, and back close to a muscle spasm… but we made it out. It was getting close to needing to figure out dinner and Fantasmic, but the kids had been begging to go on Toy Story “balloon ride” for a while now and we made sure that’s what they really wanted. As we got to the line it showed a 60 min wait… but the bathroom was calling once again. After we took care of business again and got back to the line, 85 min wait now. Not so awesome… but what can you do, we already used our fast passes right after lunch. So we waited in line starting at 5pm… and it took the real 85 min to get to the ride cars. Better make it count… and in we went. Love the ride and can certainly see why it is so popular. They need to build like 4 more of them.

Got out of our 3rd run of the day and decided we needed to pick up some dinner. We grabbed a bag from the local vendor station and packed all our togo boxed dinner sandwiches from the commissary area and went as fast as we could over to Fantasmic. I figured there would be a huge line and we could just try and eat while we stood there waiting for the theatre to open up. Nope… we just walked in and all the way up to the stands – stopped for a final potty break on the way at the top – and went right in down to our seats. Not half bad ones either – a little off to the left side but not too far and about 15 rows up. Dinner unpacked we had about 50 min to eat before the show. Worked out quite well. The theatre was pretty filled up about 35 min prior to show start and they stopped letting more people in. We ran into a couple later on the bus that had decided not to do it when they got there about 30 min prior and were told it was standing room only. The kids were getting a little antsy with about 20 min to show time, so I pulled out the phone and started up Toy Story 2 with an earphone in each of their ears and me holding the phone in my lap, two little children slung out from both sides. That did the trick and they stayed glued to the screen right up to show time.
I’m not sure why Fantasmic is so popular… must be the iconic Mickey event that everyone still hopes from Fantasia flashbacks. It’s ok and it’s not a horrible show, I’ve just seen better Disney productions. They could at least focus on some more popular films and not Pocahontas.

Show done, we got back out to the buses after fighting through the crowds. The poly bus stop looked like it was full to overflowing and the bus that was just heading out looked like it had people sticking out the windows it was so full. The TTC bus stop was right next to it and there was only a line and a half queued up so far… figured that was a much better option than trying to wait through 2-3 more bus runs and be packed on like sardines in any case. The TTC bus was great, arrived before even the next Poly shuttle arrived, and we got right on. Hopped right on the resort monorail when we got dropped off and headed right into the GCH gift shop to pick up a package from our shopping at DTD yesterday on the way back to our room.
Another day down. Tomorrow starts a back to back MK package with dinner at the Castle tomorrow night. We’ll check in later to give all the details of how it went down.
 
We are getting so very good at this rope drop thing. Made it to MK about 15 min before opening and scooted all the way over to the left. We got to see the opening show just from the corner, but we also made the front of pack heading into the park. This time it wasn’t nearly as fun as the Hollywood stampede, but we beat a path down into liberty square and over into frontierland. Splash mountain was a no wait line, fast pass at the finish. The kids loved it so we made sure we went again. Timing on the FPs couldn’t have been better. Big thunder mountain next door was a little too intimidating for Arianne and she decided to sit it out with mom while brother and dad took a spin. As we were loading in Wesley asked if it was a small roller coaster or a big roller coaster – I told him it was a medium one. When we got off, he said he didn’t like it and it wasn’t that fun. As soon as he walked up to his sister though the story changed completely to “I liked it a lot”. 
We decided to hit up pirates next which both of the kids enjoyed – nothing scary here, just a bunch of slow moving pirates and a funny dog. Jungle cruise followed – jokes didn’t resonate at all with the kids, but the tour guide was animated enough that they kept up their attention on all the animatronic fun. We did however get a live addition to the ride in the form of a duck that decided to take up a spot in front as our replacement guide near the end. Aladin’s magic carpet ride was a bit cooler than plain old Dumbo – plus it has a camel that spits… almost got us, came close. Tiki room was better than I remember it and was over pretty fast, which was nice. It was a good place to take a little rest and get off the aching feet. FP time to go back to splash mountain. This time we gave in to the gift shop and picked up a shirt for the boy and a pin to go with it since he actually liked this ride more than most.
Arianne finally gave in and said she would take a shot at the medium roller coaster so we headed back up the path a bit. The ride line was showing 30 min, but the FPs were saying come back in 40 – so we grabbed some and headed to lunch at Pecos Bill’s. Loved the nice condiment bar here – really made the burgers extra tasty compared to the meaty blob I had for lunch at Hollywood studios yesterday. I got the deluxe burger which had onion rings and bbq sauce. The rings became an extra side dish, added mushrooms, pickles and lettuce off the bar with a little shredded cheese for the fries. It’s great to have some options.

Back to the railroad roller coaster and the whole gang enjoyed the ride this time around. So pretty good for a medium roller coaster, better action than the kids coaster and not as scary as the big one… this one was just right. Just one more ride to go and we would be done with our agenda for day one of MK… Haunted Mansion.

This one was going to be a problem as it is one of the rides my wife really likes, but the kids are a little tired of getting freaked out by the scary rides. After the very first room where all the lights go out, Arianne had had it – tears and fears. Mom had to do a quick calming job to get her settled down before we got to the carriages. We managed to make it though with minimal issues and by the end the ghosts actually seemed like a fun thing. So I guessed we pulled off a scary ride and made it something they may actually go for again if we wanted to.

Our ride list was complete so we took in a little browsing around the castle before heading back to the room. We decided it was still early enough so we could get in a little swimming before a nap and then the major prep work to get all set for the Cinderella dinner. The kids really enjoy the volcano pool and all the fun stuff it has. It was a little cooler today and the wind had a slight breeze, so we didn’t do the slide as much as we did on Saturday. It was still fun and we got in a nice swim. Back to the room and everyone got in a little nap to rest up for the long night ahead.

Mom got Arianne’s hair all done up in a wonderful arrangement that topped even the BBB. Our little princess looked so good people were commenting on how good it looked all night. It was all Marisha’s doing – no professional help needed. We got to the castle a little early and got some nice pictures in by the water fountain as well as the photo shoot parlor. They were nice enough to take a nice set of pictures of the princess and then various others with the family mixed in. All photopassed – no extra cost. Even got a shot on our own camera too. Time to be off to dinner…

At the castle, we didn’t have to wait long before we were called into the reception area. We were about 10 min early for our rez time, which we are discovering is a really good thing. We had no line behind us and took a lot of extra time taking some nice shots with Cinderella and all around the castle room there. Not long after, the room was pretty packed as the rest of the guests started pouring in. We made our way upstairs after a lovely chimed announcement calling us to our dinner. We got a very nice seat right by the outer center window. The princesses were announced with a short story introducing them to the room and they came directly over to our area to begin their circuit. We were the 3rd table or so in. Arianne loved the princesses attention and got many compliments on how lovely she was in her princess dress. I got my second “beauty and the beast” shot with myself and Belle… this time it was the provincial look instead of the ball gown one I had at Disneyland two years ago. But it worked out nicely. Diner was great – no complaints about anything. I think the waiter even mistakenly only took off one dining credit per person – have to check on that later. Even if he did mess that up, there really isn’t any way we would be able to use it now this late in the trip.

Dinner done, we had to take a ride on the carousel that we had been staring at out the window at dinner the whole meal. Such a simple ride, but one the kids both loved. It was getting close to parade time, so we decided we had better head out front and try and find a place to sit that wasn’t 10 rows of people back. As we headed up towards the castle, they had just placed the rope across as we approached. I asked the CM if there was anyway they would let us past since we really wanted to get pictures of our princessed up daughter in front of the Cinderella murals. I had seen them earlier on our way by before we left the park for our afternoon naps and figured we could get them around dinner. They nicely allowed us past the ropes so we were able to get some very nice shots of them without any people in the way or off to the sides. Perfect timing with a little help there saved the day. It would have been really cool had they allowed us to stay right up on the apex of the front castle ramps where we came out in order to watch the main street electrical parade… but no such luck. After a few minutes, they came up and cleared everyone off that had been up there with us between the rope barricades that had gone up on both ends of the castle pathway.

Bathroom time again just before the parade left us with few options after it was all done to be able to see anything from the place we finally ended up… right in the middle of the center rotunda area where the parade avoids as it almost circles the center of the path at the end of main street. We met some nice folks who were willing to share their little slice of gutter space and we plopped down and waited. Show came and went, and what little we saw of it from where we were, we gave our kids a little better view of from up on shoulder seats. My wife, bless her, hoisted Arianne up dress and all for most of the entire run. Going to be an advil night for both of us following that.
At least in our position, we had a really nice spot for Wishes which followed soon after. We saw the show from a distance on Saturday from our comfy seat in Ohana’s. While the new gutter seats were definitely less comfortable, we had a nice close up view to see the show… even the tinkerbell flight from the tower – another part my wife really wanted to see. Wishes was pretty good even for a second time around – we might even make it a third time if we find ourselves in a good spot tomorrow night. After the show, we headed back up the path against the natural flow and found a deserted wishing well which made for a great photo opportunity for our little princess to shine with the castle as a backdrop once again.

After the photos, we had pretty much had it and called it a day. We headed back to the monorail and crashed in bed – another day down and a lot of fun had by all. See you tomorrow for MK day 2.
 
This morning we were a little late for the actual MK rope drop due to having to pick up tickets for the Luau from the front desk. I wasn’t aware that they actually issued a physical ticket instead of just checking in at the event itself. We got a message on our phone on Monday telling us to come down and get them that could have been easily missed. We made up for our tardiness by grabbing a cinnamon roll at the main street bakery and then heading over to the toon town rope drop. Now you would think that in a kids area there would be a little more care taken to not trample the little ones. Not so in our case. The CMs did what they could to control the crowd and direct traffic but the mob o’ moms sprung into action with everyone having to be the first to make it to the fairy encounter. One guy cut us off with his stroller taking out a lady in front of us completely taking off her shoe. She stumbled down and we got herded over her knocking down my son – good thing I had a tight hold on him so he only lightly bumped his knee and I was able to pull him out of the way as we continued onward. We ended up about 4th in line to see the fairy encounter room. Loved the layout here. We were greated at the entry by Rosetta and she had the kids “fly” on over to her little setup area. They made a couple jokes and commented on each of the kids shirts while keeping a good conversation going. Then it was on to Tinkerbell. Tink actually got my son to laugh and did a wonderful “to infinity and beyond” pose to imitate the Buzz shirt he was wearing. The 3rd fairy was Vidia – they had a wonderful CM playing the part, very well costumed. All-in-all we made a good run through and came out in yet another end-of-ride gift shop area.Since we were getting close to the end of our trip we got our kid shopping for Christmas mostly out of the way here and had it shipped back to the resort so we didn’t have to lug it around for the rest of the day.

Next we headed toward tomorrow land and couldn’t pass up the speedway. The kids both loved the chance to drive even though the boy couldn’t reach the pedal, he did a pretty good job spinning the steering wheel. I just let him go for it and he loved it even with all the bumping and bouncing down the track. Arianne faired a bit better and was actually able to drive without help – pretty cool for a 6 year old to drive a little go cart. Buzz was up next – no idea why there wasn’t more of a line for this ride. It’s basically a little lower tech version of the toy story mania ride that has a line around the block and then some. We pretty much just walked right on – got FPs afterward to use a little later just in case the line picked up and headed to the laugh floor. This experience is pretty cool seeing as they have the audience interaction that drives the show. I would say if you didn’t like it, you probably had a bad audience group and take another shot at it later.

We avoided stitch and headed back for another lap of the speedway. This time I just put my foot on the gas and let the little guy take the wheel the whole time. “again, again, again” was all I heard afterward. Back to buzz for another spin and then off to lunch. We decided that we would try out Pinocchio’s based on the fact they have pizza options instead of the traditional burger and fries that most places serve. The wife got the pepperoni pizza, I got the meatball sub and the boy got a kids cheese pizza. My daughter… bless her… got the pb&j once again. I wasn’t going to fight her for anything on this trip so we went with it and let her have what she wanted. It’s all good… free dining plan and all. We picked up Peter Pan FPs before lunch and following we had time to get on over at Snow White’s and then take a spin on Dumbo before we made our FP time slot to get back to neverland. Snow white and peter pan are some really old rides, but they are still really cool to do. It’s amazing that such old school stuff still holds the interest of park goers like it does.

So, it’s about 1:30pm and we’re done with our must ride list once again. From this point on we told the kids it was up to them what they wanted to redo. Of course it was off to Splash Mountain again. This time daddy got a little wet since I was trying for a better video run of going off the falls. Got the camera pretty wet, but managed to get it dried off pretty quick – no harm done. Big thunder mountain was next – not much coaxing needed this time and both kids enjoyed the ride more now that they knew better what to expect.

I still needed to get my taste of a Dole Whip, so off we went towards adventureland. Passing by pirates, first we had to take another potty break, then we had to double back and actually go on the ride again. Next we made it to the dole whip mecca and settled into a pair of dole whip floats. Very nice drink/treat… very glad the snack credit covers it too. At 4.15 a pop, I wouldn’t want to be paying out of pocket for many of those. We almost got sucked back in the corny joke ride aka “the jungle cruise”, but it was time for the parade so we hustled back towards the center park. It was nowhere near as packed as yesterday and we actually got up close near the rope just at the turn before the route headed into liberty town area. We got a great view of everything as it passed and really didn’t miss any part of the parade. Cool little show that had a bunch of the great characters that we don’t always get to see out and about in the parks.

One last ride before we had to head back for the Luau – anybody guess??? Of course it was buzz lightyear! (Arianne had had enough getting wet for one week even though Wesley still wanted to go again on Splash Mountain – still have the FPs in my pouch that we didn’t get to use thinking we may want to have one last go at the hill.) Buzz was fun once again – I wasn’t able to beat my score from last time seeing as the ride didn’t stop for us in the large open area like it did on our second run… got a really nice score in the 600K range with a little help from the pause ride button.

Walked back out taking a nice stroll though the stores enjoying the air conditioning as we went. Still looking for anything we might have missed and still wanted to get… then we came to the glass shop. Saw a lot of very nice stuff that if we weren’t so pressed for time I may have just got enough of an itch to buy… too bad. Made it back to the hotel and did a quick clean out and repack of the bags before heading over to the luau cove for the 5:15 showing. Dinner was nice – wasn’t anything incredible. The show was ok as well – not something we’d do again anytime soon, but enjoyable for our first time. Liked the chicken and the rib sauce… we’re not much of a rib family, although I figured for a luau they probably should have done a pulled pork instead of doing a bbq rib course. The chicken was great and the rest of the meal was pretty tasty. The show started out ok, but seemed to disappear for a long time while we ate. Would have liked to have had more music from the band while we dined at least. The dessert was pretty meh… chocolate mouse cake, and not a really wonderful one at that. It was alright, but they sure made a big deal out of it when it really wasn’t anything to write home about.
Loved the dance review of the islands at the end… very well put together and made it feel more like a real luau instead of a contrived Disney sideshow. The fire dancer really hammed it up and got the audience to make some noise. It’s nice to see a performer put all that work into making a really nice show for his audience. He did a great job and really brought the show to a great climax. Wesley actually fell asleep after the fire dancer was done and got to snuggle with dad as they closed it all out.

After the dinner, mom and dad were feeling it. The kids had had it too… so we decided to call it a night and head on back to bed. Got to listen to the firework noise from our third rendition of Wishes while getting into bed and giving today’s write up. See you tomorrow for Epcot and the final full day in the parks.
 
So now last of all we have Epcot. The morning started off ok – another early breakfast. The monorail should have been running, but for some reason was not so when we got to the TTC they herded us over to the bus. Today we decided that we should probably bring the stroller that had been sitting in our room all week keeping our luggage company. We really didn’t find we needed it all that much and the kids were holding up just fine. All our purchases were being shipped back to the resort and all the stuff we needed to carry around fit the in the backpack that we shared carrying. I had my hip pack with the camera and tickets which made for easy access that didn’t get in the way.
We got to the park around 8:20 – right when our reservation was for and made our way over to Norway. The entire way over I was pushing the stroller with the two kids inside and it was going alright, just had problems turning. It didn’t really feel like it was pulling to one side or the other, but going around a corner you had to make an effort to keep it straight. After we ate and got back out, I checked the brakes and found that one of the front wheel brakes was slightly set and that was the cause of all the problems. With that taken off – no more pushing stroller problems.

Breakfast was good but expensive. The princesses were great as usual, and we were glad that the cost of the picture was included in the meal. The waitress used our dining plan credit to pay even though we had requested to have it be a room charge. It turned out in our favor since the meal we had planned on using it for tonight wasn’t that bad cost wise. The food itself was pretty good and up on the level of tusker house. I loved the smoked salmon. The herring I wanted to try and got a couple small pieces – boy was that a shock to the system. I didn’t really was to spit it out, but I’m never going to eat another piece of that stuff. It was the fish in the red sauce – not sure exactly what kind it was, but it looked like a tomato sauce with vinegar and such. The rest of the meal was great. So on our list of great breakfasts this week – last place goes to Hollywood and Vine where the food just didn’t measure up as well, Tusker House and Akershus were both great with a good selection of food items and great character experiences, and I’ll get to our favorite one with tomorrow’s review.

After the meal and the adjustment of the stroller brake, we zoomed off down to the Land pavilion to go Soarin’. Kids loved the ride, after we went over all the pre ride “am I going to be afraid of this one” questions. “Is it dark, does it go backwards, is it scary, does it go really fast, does it drop???” This ride is just cool. Definitely want the front row though so you get to fly as high as possible. Nemo and friends was a nice little ride – not much to it, but worth a quick run. Turtle talk was really fun. It’s nice that they put the kids right up front so they could interact better with the onscreen fun. It was kind of funny for the adults too – a pretty fun event for all.

After those rides and a return to Soarin’ we hit up the showcase starting to make our way around the countries to start the Kim Possible adventure. The kids thought it was pretty fun but we only wanted to go for one adventure with it since we had a lot to do and it was slowing us down a bunch to try and do that as well. The food and wine booths were all over the place and we browsed through the countries picking and choosing our snack credits to use and getting our lunch taken care of in the process. We went in with 18 credits and ended the day with 8. Everyone got plenty to eat and we loved the fact that the snack credits worked for the food and wines samples – some of which were pretty expensive considering what you got. With the credit it didn’t matter so I almost on purpose tried to pick out the more expensive items. I don’t think we disliked anything we got – wonderful experience even though we don’t drink alcohol at all.

After a bit we decided that we should get back to some more rides and hit up the shopping a bit. We got an epcot passport to help the kids have some fun in the country section when we came back later on. Test track had a significant line and the fast pass by the time we got there would have conflicted with dinner – so we had to skip it. Probably the only ride that we had planned on going to that we didn’t find time for. We headed over to mission: space instead. The kids loved this one and the chants of “again, again” reminded me of the seagulls on finding nemo – “mine, mine, mine”. We headed back to China to get Mulan’s signature and watch the acrobats getting the passport taken care of in each country as we went. It’s almost an adventure in itself to try and find some of those “kidcot” locations. The Canada one was ridiculous – they hid it down in a cave at the end of the path past Le Cellier. The kids loved the acrobats and we were able to find where Mulan was going to be before she showed up and before a line had formed. We joked that once we found the location and stood there that we formed a line all by ourselves. People started packing in behind us as they realized when/where/what was coming. (by the way – the place is just to the left of the main pagoda entrance pretty much in the crook of the building on top of the exit doors in the corner of the main rotunda.)

The rest of the night was spent getting the passport around to the rest of the countries and waiting in line to see Belle and Beast. Was very nice to finally get the Beast in a picture up close – cool to have them both together. Dinner was fast approaching so we did a did a little window shopping in Italy before heading over to Tutto Italia for our 11 and a half year anniversary dinner plus two children. I got in a couple conversations with the hostess and waiter since I speak fluent Italian – went over some of the stuff I did when I lived there for a couple years. Dinner was excellent. Marisha got the penne pasta dish and I, surprisingly enough, went for the lasagna. I’m normally more of a big meat person, but tonight I went for classic and boy was it good. I also had the 30$ appetizer sampler which the wife balked at since there are only like 2 things she likes on it, but I just had to have it. Even the kids meal was very tasty. Wonderful spread with all my favorites. The olives and the prosciutto were my favorites. We indulged in dessert as well and got a chocolate gelato and a raspberry sorbet. We couldn’t decide which one we liked better since they were both fantastic. Very good meal and well worth the cost – at least I thought so. Turned out the dining plan here would have been a worse deal than having used it on breakfast so our waitresses mistake ended up saving us around 40$.

After dinner we toured around and ended up on the outlook area just below the UK to France bridge for Illuminations. Very nice spot with a great view of everything. We got there a bit early – about 55 min or so. Following the fireworks is was off to the monorail – now in operation again – and back to the room to crash. Very long day – kids wouldn’t have made it without the stroller and the parents barely did. Epcot is huge, lots of walking.
 
So to top off our semi late night at Epcot, we got a very early morning breakfast. At least this time it was at O’hanas so we didn’t have far to travel in order to get there. Let me just say that O’hana for whatever meal has got to be the best deal on Disney property. The food is amazing and the service is great. An all-around top pick for me and the family as the best place to eat anywhere at Disney. Very nice to have Lilo and Stitch – even better that they throw in Mickey and Pluto too. The juice here was better than the stuff at Tusker House – even though I liked Tusker, I went with an OJ to finish there, but at O’hana all I had was the standard juice and loved it. Best part for breakfast for me was the sausage links – huge suckers. I didn’t get to have any tonga toast, however, and I was kind of bummed about that, but I was having such a good meal and a good time with the family that I totally forgot about it while we were sitting there eating. If/when we come again soon, we are going to O’hana for at least 2 dinners and maybe more than one breakfast if we can manage.

After breakfast we went back to the room and finished packing up all our stuff to head out. We brought it all to the check-in/valet area and had them store it so we could go back to the MK for a little while. Monorail over to the park and off we went. The kids had their short list of rides that they wanted to hit again and we worked our way through it… Buzz lightyear spin, the rocket ride (since we didn’t do it before), tomorrowland speedway and then off to frontierland.

We ate at Pecos Bill’s again since the hamburgers there with the condiment bar were by far the best in the park. Wesley wanted to go on Splash Mountain again, but Arianne did not. So we grabbed some FPs for BTM and I took the boy over for one last splash. Unfortunately, we were seated right in the front of the log and on the big splash I lost my hat as well as took a nice soaking – probably my best splash of the trip. In any case, I was kind of bummed about the hat. One last family ride on the “medium” roller coaster and we set off for the park entrance trying to do a little speed shopping for a new hat to hide my lovely hat hair on the way. I didn’t really find any hats I liked in the parks, however.

Once we got back to the POLY, we emptied off the last of our snack credits (8) with some rice krispy treats, drinks, and a pair of Dole Whips. I grabbed the best looking hat I could find in the gift shop there before grabbing our bags and jumping on the Magical Express back to the airport.
 
To sum up the entire trip, it was a magical experience. The kids were the perfect age to enjoy most everything we did and we got to take part in some once in a lifetime opportunities. We loved staying at the POLY and would do so again in a heartbeat. Even with the cost, it made the rest of the experience that much more special and fun. Transportation around the park and the resort was a breeze. We stayed in Tokelau room 2941 – second floor near the south end overlooking the quiet pool. The room was wonderful, couldn’t hear any neighbors except for once there was a screaming kid down the hall a bit you could barely make out. Bathroom, shower, TV, desk, tables, chairs were all great – lots of room to move around in. The fold down extra bed made a wonderful bed for Arianne. Wesley just bunked up with dad. Mom got to relax in a bed all to herself – she did an amazing job helping to pull off this trip so she definitely deserved it.

As for my preview tips and how things worked out – see my preview post that I updated with a little feeback.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=37990110#post37990110

Thank you so much to everyone on the boards and a huge Thank You to the podcast crew for such a wonderful show with all your great suggestions and reviews.
 
Thank you for the great report. Glad you had a funfilled full trip...
 
you are welcome. Hopefully some little bit of it can help someone else have a magical trip like ours.
 












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