Return to the Madness: Part 3 Day 2 2/26: Lions, Waiters, and Wishes! Oh My!

Buzz's_girl

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Return to the Madness: Part 3 Day 2 2/26: Lions, Waiters, and Wishes! Oh My!

Cast:
Me: Obsessive Disney Planner, Disney Commando in 12 step program learning how to do Disney with kids!!!
DH 30- Loves Disney as much as me, but content to sit at the pool and watch the kids…
DD6- knows everything, or thinks she does
DD5- loves everything, especially if it is pink
DS4- loves Buzz. We call him Stitch, he is messy and destructive, but very cute.

For our last trip (August of 2004) we had planned a lot of our time out. That was the kids first trip and we wanted to do as much as possible. I learned on that trip that with kids everything changes. So this time around we planned less. (a little).

Day 2 for us was to be Animal Kingdom day. When we were there in August it was SOOooo hot and humid we only made it through the safari and a few other quick rides (like triceratops spin) before heading off to swim. This time we were determined to do more.

It was EMH morning at Animal Kingdom, and the commando in me wanted to be there for opening. I tried to get everyone up and going with a smile…but for kids they sure do move slow! Finally, only a few minutes behind schedule we made it to the bus stop. I wasn’t too sure what to expect, since I have read about so many problems and unhappy experiences with the WL transportation. A bunch of buses pulled up after less than 5 minutes, one of them was for Animal Kingdom. Not too shabby. I think the bus was shared with the GF, but it didn’t bother us. Plenty of room for everyone and we were at AK in no time. Of course we missed opening, but I am getting used to it.

My voice tried to make a comeback today, but did so very weakly. It sounded much worse since half the words were hard to hear, and the other half would come out all garbly. Oh well…talking wastes time. J

WE followed the crowd to the safari entrance…no standby time posted. We were loaded into a jeep in less than 5 minutes. It was a little cool this morning, and I was hoping to see lots of animals. I was not disappointed, we even got to see the Lions awake!!! Our driver was just okay…not too into his story about Big Red and Little Red. DD6 always becomes very concerned about the poachers, and even her lack of enthusiasm with the story line wasn’t enough to dissuade DD6’s compassion. She may know it all, but she is a good kid!

After the safari it was off to the Festival of the Lion King. We had never seen this show before, and I was excited. I had read a lot of great reviews. DS and I waited in line while DH and the girls went for a little walk. The show was at 9:40am and we were in line at 9. DH can’t stand listening to the kids whine, so it works out well…he keeps them busy and I get to be one of the first in line. (we were second this time). The line built up quickly. Dh and the girls came back just in time to be let into the building. Since we had never been there before, I wasn’t exactly sure where the best place to sit was. A lady and her son behind us in line had followed us in. We put our kids in the front row, figuring they would be able to see. We sat a few rows behind them. (directly behind them the seats were reserved for those in wheelchairs etc….they were all empty) The lady behind us in line saw that there was enough room on the bench next to my kids for 2 more. She pushed her son out of the way and snatched the seats up. I thought maybe she was just saving the seats so her kids would be ensured a great view, but she sat there thru the whole show. I hope she enjoyed it!

The Festival of the Lion King was great! We sat in the Lion section. I loves how the show was all around us. The kids really enjoyed watching the monkeys swing around. The kids were asked to help out…but since DH and I were not sitting with them they were a little too shy. Not to worry though, pushy lady made sure her son got to be a helper. The cast of the show included as many kids as the could. Even Timon came over and gave my shy little kids a hug…it was great! (and we didn’t have to be pushy!)

After the Lion King we headed over to see Tarzan Rocks since it was starting shortly after. This was another show that had the kids attention. They would have liked a little more Tarzan in it, but thought it was really cool. DS wants to learn to swing like Tarzan. I enjoyed this show, but not as much as I did with the Lion King…it was hard to sing along since my voice wouldn’t cooperate, but that only bothered me since no one could hear me anyway…(it is probably a good thing my voice was gone, since I can’t sing).

After we saw Tarzan looked around Dinoland for a little while. At this point, the kids wanted to swim. (This will become a recurring theme). The weather was pretty good so we figured we would do it while we had the chance. The park seemed to be pretty crowded anyway, and we had another day scheduled for AK, so we figured we could do everything else we wanted to do another day.

We caught the bus back to WL, with a quick stop at Blizzard Beach first. I noticed that BB seemed like a ghost town. Although it was fairly warm (low 70s and sunny, most of the CM’s had on long sleeves and coats.) I guess it wasn’t as warm as it had been. (It was warm enough for us though).

After about 600 runs on the pools water slide, I told the kids it was time to come change so we could grab a bite to eat and then head to the Magic Kingdom to see Spectromagic and Wishes. The kids did NOT want to leave the pool. “Come on Mom, one more time on the slide?” This was a tough situation…it is hard to yell at your kids to get out of the pool when you have no voice…finally DH told them to get out of the pool or there would be no more swimming for the rest of our trip.

I had make a PS at Whispering Canyon when we arrived back at the hotel from AK. It probably wasn’t necessary, but I wasn’t sure how busy it would be and didn’t want to have to wait too long. We were seated very quickly. I noticed that the canyon was louder than the last time we ate here. “This should be fun” I thought. Our waiter was Sean. He was a hoot. The kids were still not too happy with me for making them come out of the pool, and they had on their “You can’t make me happy even if we are in Disney World” faces. Sean sat down in the empty chair at our table, and mimicked their faces. This made the kids giggle. Especially DS. DS thought Sean was a riot. DS laughed so hard he fell off his chair. Mind you, Sean hadn’t done anything yet…all he did was sit down. After we ordered our drinks, DS asked Sean for a straw. Sean proceeded to throw about 50 straws in DS’s general direction. Most of them hit the floor. DS thought that was great! Then Sean realized he hadn’t given us our little drink napkins, so he tossed those into the air above our table. Once again, DS began to laugh. Another one of the waiters came by and asked DS why he had made such a big mess. DS was laughing so hard he was unintelligible when he said that Sean had made the mess.

Our food came to our table and it was really good. I had the pulled pork sandwich. I have no idea what anyone else had, because in between bites of my own meal, I was laughing too hard at everyone else to notice! Sean accidentally spilled a drink on the floor. It was for the neighboring table. When DS saw him mop it up with a napkin, and squeeze the excess back into the glass and give it to the person at the table, he almost made his milk come out his nose. Before our pleasant meal in the Canyon was done, The kids had a pony ride. Sean made them take an oath to never go to Universal. He stood on the chair and made everyone laugh. We thanked him for helping get the kids to smile again and then we were off to the dock to head to MK. (I wish I could describe this meal better, since Sean was one of the best waiters we had on this trip, and by far the funniest. The kids had a hilarious conversation with him…but it is one of those you had to be there stories that I won‘t get into now…I am wordy enough as it is)


Next up: Back to MK for Spectromagic and Wishes! and We wanna go swimming!
 
Great report so far! I'm glad to see you had such a good time at Whispering Canyon as I just made PS arrangements for June this morning (up at 5:45am my time, mind you). We go to WDW almost every year and wanted to try something different this time. The CM at Guest Relations highly recommended it as we'll have 4 kids under the age of 11 with us.
Anyway, keep up the good work. I enjoy reading your posts!
 
Bum Bump Bump ;)
I've enjoyed your reports so far-keep em coming! :)
 
I may look into staying at WL our next trip! It sounds like a fun place. :)

I'm sorry you didn't see the Pocohantus show. That is one of our favorites!! I think we're the only family who likes it. No one ever mentions seeing it on their trip reports.

Can't wait to read the rest.

Mary
 

now I was going to avoid WC as it seemed a bit over the top, but since we decided we do not have enough time (or $$) for HDD this seems like it could be a bit of a substitute - kind of corny, slapstick humor kids enjoy. We have 4 children 2,5,6,9 - will it be too much for them do you think? My oldest ds id autistic, and my youngest ds is quite sensitive - if the attention is too much - will they leave you alone?
I really enjoy your reports BTW!
 
I think Whispering Canyon is great. If you are not sure, I would sit in the lobby during lunch (it is loudest then I think) and see what the kids reactions are to it. I think the servers are pretty good about judging how far they can take it. If you ever felt uncomforatble, you could always pull them aside and let them know the situation. I am positive they would be sensitive to any issues there were. If it weren't for Sean, our day would have been miserable. He got the kids to remember to have fun. That being said, my kids enjoy loud stuff...they are adrenaline junkies etc. My house is a loud house....that is just how it is...they are full on energy, and like similar atmospheres. There were other waiters/waitresses who were not as into the whole deal as others so that is always an option too.

Also, in one of our many trips to the pool (I think we went swimming almost every day) we met a nice family with an autistic son, he was five. His father told us that this vacation was the first time in five years they had been able to relax....I thought that was so nice. Make sure to tell anyone and everyone (tell them when you make your hotel reservation etc.). He didn't really get into details about specifics, but that comment stuck with me. I hope you enjoy your trip!

Thanks for reading my reports!
 















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