She's a Princess, a Superhero, and a Rock Star -a Sept 2013 TR (Completed 2/24)

[GrandCalifornian]

I'm glad that you had a good meal at Hollywood and Vine. I know who Manny and Jake are, but I don't think Allie cared for them too much. The picture with Sofia is just darling. Allie has the sweetest smile on her face. I was really disappointed that Disney Jr was closed for refurbishment when we were with our grandchildren in Feb. I know they would have enjoyed that show.

We did have a great meal, and I especially was impressed with the quality of the food. It is a very nice buffet. Going there was a great call.

Allie knows Manny and especially Jake, but she just wasn't in the mood that day. We are thinking they might add Sofia to Hollywood and Vine, which would make it a must do next year.

Too bad Disney Jr was closed for your grandkids. We often miss it when we go to CA adventure because the last show is so early in the afternoon, but Allie loves it every time.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

We had seen pretty much everything we wanted to at Hollywood Studios, so we decided to do some shopping as we headed out of the park. On the way by, Allie posed in the snow in front of the Christmas shop:


The rain let up a little bit, but the stores were pretty packed. We bought Allie an autograph book to draw in, and a couple of Cokes for us. Just as we reached the end of the main street we say Jarrod and Kris again, and we stopped and chatted with them for a bit.

We had planned on walking to Epcot along the river but because of the rain decided the best plan would be to take the boat.

I really like park hopping between HS and Epcot since they are so close, and still can't believe we didn't discover this durng our honeymoon trip. This time we decided to make a new addition and stop by and check out the Yacht Club and Beach Club hotels.


We checked out the gift shop at the Beach Club then decided to take a break on their verandah.


Allie and I called my dad on facetime where she informed him that she wanted a pony for Christmas, who knew?


We also enjoyed our Carrot Cake Cookie and Sugar Cookie we had aquired at Writers Stop.

I didn't think the Carrot Cake cookie lived up to my expectations. It was tasty but I don't think it's a repeatable snack for me.

It was a very enjoyable break. It felt like relaxing back at our own hotel for a bit. We didn't have our RFID mugs with us, but we bought a cup and used the three refills during our quiet break. Next we continued on into Epcot through the International Gateway.

The rain had completely cleared by this time so it was a dry walk.

Our target destination was the Mexico Pavilion and the Three Caballeros ride (or Mousekemeers, as Allie had been calling it after remembering the ride from last year).


We stopped so Allie could play with the drums and check out the rolled paper map necklaces. For the most part we were just following her because despite the nap she was still cranky.



We made it over to the Mexico pavilion for the first time of the trip, and Allie was super excited to be there (or something like that, I'm not sure what emotion this shows.)



We made our way inside when she decided she had to go potty so we headed back outside to the restroom. After that was taken care of we made it on the boat with no line. Allie enjoyed the ride but she really enjoyed checking out the tiaras after in the crystal shop.



I can't remember exactly what happened but I have pictures of us in the crystal shop smiling then the next one is her outside crying with me giving her a stern talking to.


I don't remember what started the tantrum, but Allie wasn't behaving great in the store and Mommy ended up taking her outside. The point was made, and we continued on.

After Mexico, we were headed towards Future World when we saw Matt and Dani (GrimGrinningStitch and danimaroo) from the DisBoards. We finally got to meet them in person, and chatted for a bit. We decided that a fun dinner idea would be to snack our way around World Showcase. Our first stop was for Fish and Chips, which was one of our first meals from our honeymoon.


From there we wandered through the rest of World Showcase. In Italy we found Ferrari shirts, we figured this was as close as Paul would get to actually owning a Ferrari but even a t-shirt was pretty expensive so we skipped it.


Even the Vespa shirt proved to be above my price range...


Our second culinary stop was for Sushi in Japan:


I was the only one who partook in the sushi but it was yummy and I don't get it much at home so it was a treat

We wrapped up our dinner tour with those excellent soft pretzels from Germany. I loved these last trip and couldn't wait to get another one.


Then we decided to head out of the park, so we would make our escape before Wishes started. Allie enjoyed playing on the sparkly pavement and remembered it from a few nights earlier when we stopped by after Akershus.


We hopped on the monorail and decided that we were headed to the Poly so that we could say hi to Shelly.


We got off of the monorail at the TTC and walked through the Poly grounds. We do enjoy the Poly and enjoyed walking through, but we continue to feel that it is quite spread out compared to WL.

It was a slow night at the gift shop so Allie and Shelly had fun playing with the antenna toppers. It really got silly when Allie figured out that there was glitter in the bottom of the bin that held them.



Shelly even braided Allies hair and I didn't have an extra hair tie so I bought her a Minnie Mouse one so it would stay.


It really was amazing that Allie got to spend over half an hour "playing" with Shelly. She truly seemed to be having fun, and Allie absolutely adores her. We ended up buying a couple of antenna toppers as a souvenir, and before leaving Shelly we had to promise that we'd be back.

We hopped on the monorail and rode it to the Magic Kingdom, where we got off and went to wait for a boat to WL.


We arrived back at WL at 11:08 PM after a long but very fun day. I always feel like we miss out on being at WL when we spend all day away, but it worked out well this day and we had a great time. We stopped by the front desk and picked up a memory card that we had ordered from Amazon because we had been taking so many pictures that it was clear we were going to run out of room.


We headed up to the room and crash landed into bed. As always we were excited to see what the next day would hold and hoping for a melt down free day.

That sums it up for this year. We are super busy getting ready for Christmas and our New Years trip to the Glamis sand dunes but we'll be back in January to continue our report with our next three days of fun at WDW.

 

[WDWKOOK]

These last two updates are great and really got me in the mood for our trip. I've been in packing/panic mode recently so I have once again fallen a tad behind in posting to your wonderful TR. But, even when I don't post, I do lurk

A pretzel bigger than Allie's head! Love it! I've loved seeing all the interaction between Allie and the CMs. What great diversions (I'm jealous).

I want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and happy and healthy 2014. Have a fun time at the Dunes! I'll look for your next updates in the New Year. See you on the WL thread

 

[ProudMommyof2]

Signing on! I am only on page 3 but loving it so far. Your family is beautiful!

We love WL- that is where we stayed on our 1st trip with the kids- great memories!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

These last two updates are great and really got me in the mood for our trip. I've been in packing/panic mode recently so I have once again fallen a tad behind in posting to your wonderful TR. But, even when I don't post, I do lurk

A pretzel bigger than Allie's head! Love it! I've loved seeing all the interaction between Allie and the CMs. What great diversions (I'm jealous).

I want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and happy and healthy 2014. Have a fun time at the Dunes! I'll look for your next updates in the New Year. See you on the WL thread

Thanks for stopping by, and you have a wonderful WL Christmas. It should be a great trip.

Signing on! I am only on page 3 but loving it so far. Your family is beautiful!

We love WL- that is where we stayed on our 1st trip with the kids- great memories!

We're glad to have you following along! Hopefully we get some more updates posted before you're all caught up.
We just feel so at home at WL that we can't wait to go back. Thanks for posting, and have a wonderful Christmas.

 

[Wood Nymph]

Merry Christmas Paul, Melissa and Allie. I hope it was lovely.

We have our little four year old granddaughter visiting for the holidays, so we are lucky, too.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Merry Christmas Paul, Melissa and Allie. I hope it was lovely. We have our little four year old granddaughter visiting for the holidays, so we are lucky, too.

Merry Christmas to you too. We had a wonderful day and dinner at home with both sets of grandparents.
So glad you got to spend Christmas with your granddaughter. I bet memories of your WL trip came up at some point too.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Today I woke up at 6:30 and went out on the balcony to take some pictures.


Since nobody else was moving, I decided to go back to bed, where I stayed until about 8:30. We were in no hurry this morning, as our plan was to meander over to check out Typhoon Lagoon. We had our usual Mickey Waffle breakfast in the room, which we supplemented with a sticky cheese danish that looked yummy and was.

I honestly didnt even know Paul was out of bed that early. Getting ready was fairly un eventful, I do believe I had to convince Allie to wear a rashguard instead of the bikini top that matched her bathing suit bottoms but she was easily convinced. We decided to take the stairs down to the lobby this morning too.


It was something fun and different and we got to see areas we hadn't yet this trip.

That is a really cool part of WL, you can take all sorts of different stairways to different levels past open sitting areas that are off the beaten path.


We headed down to the bus stop, and waited for the Typhoon Lagoon bus. The wait wasn't bad, and soon we were on our way via the Grand Floridian. On the way the bus had to stop for a horse and carriage which was headed to a wedding at the GF.


It added a couple of minutes to our travel time but it was neat seeing the wedding carriage and it was a beautiful day for a wedding.

We soon arrived at Typhoon Lagoon and foundit to be far calmer than Blizzard beach had been.


We went straight to the lazy river and rode it to Katchakiddie creek so Allie could play.


We didn't even have to wait in line to rent a locker. Allie really liked the lazy river here, I have to say that I did too. Paul and I took turns going on Keelhaul Falls while the other watched Allie play.


Keelhaul Falls was fun. I'm not into water slides at all, but it was neat because you rode an inner tube on a banked slide into a gentile ending in a pool at the bottom. It was like an individual version of Teamboat springs that I enjoyed at Blizzard Beach, and you got a similar good view of the entire waterpark from the top.


I am a little more adventurous when it comes to waterslides but I really enjoyed Keelhaul Falls and generally like tube slides more than body slides. We decided to check out the wave pool, holy cow! From someone who frequented our westcoast beaches growing up that is one heck of a wave.

The big wave pool is the main center attraction at Typhoon Lagoon. It generates some big impressive waves, but Allie wasn't too amused with them so we didn't spend long in that pool.


We hopped back in the lazy river because Allie wanted to do some swimming with the life vest on, and it was clamer than the big wave pool.


I decided that we should go check out the Shark Reef and that I might want to do it.


When we got over there I chickened out. I really wish I would have done it now and it's on my list for next time.

I didn't have any desire to swim in cold saltwater, but I was gettign hungry so we decided to look for lunch. We wound up at the main QS restaurant there where we used meal creditis from our dining plan to get burgers and chicken nuggets.


The food was good and we were all hungry from having spent the morning in the water. After lunch we decided that it was time to head out. While waiting for the bus I set our backpack down on the ground at my feet right on top of a cigarette butt. It was so gross and smelly.


I got out baby wipes and clorox wipes and cleaned as much of it off as I could. I'm glad our backpack has a rubber water resistant coating so nothing inside got smelly and the wipes worked pretty well at getting the smell out.

The ride back to WL was really quick, and we headed up to the oom to shower and get ready for the afternoon and evening. After we were cleaned up, we went downstairs to the mercantile for some WL themed shopping. Allie insisted on taking pictures out front.


Allie and Melissa sat in the lobby for a bit while I ran our purchases up to the room.



Then we headed down to catch a boat over to the Contemporary. On the way Allie decided to show off her dress of the day, which Mommy had made special for our later ADR at Be Our Guest.


We decided that we'd take the boat to the Contemporary then walk over to the Magic Kingdom because it was on our list of things we haven't done.


On the way over Paul was pushing the stroller and Allie was fussing about something or other and daddy stopped rather abrupbtly...

Which caused the fussy almost four year old to fall forward out of the stroller...


I had stopped quickly to see what she was fussing about, and she didn't anticipate the quick stop. I felt really bad, but she just had a skinned knee so a band aid from Mommy made it better.


Her ego was hurt more than anything and I'm pretty sure I gave Daddy a stern what did you do that for?

Yeah, and I deserved it. Then we were back on our way to MK for the evening. It was the night of a Halloween Party that we weren't going to, but we wanted to play a little bit before our ADR.


Next we head for a ride on Melissa's can't miss list. Can anyone guess what it is?

Check back in the next update for some MK rides, a well anticipated ADR, and our version of a drinking game...

 

[Wood Nymph]

Your time at Typhoon Lagoon sounds like it was fun. We were only there one time and had a great time in the wave pool. I remember that tube ride being lots of fun.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Your time at Typhoon Lagoon sounds like it was fun. We were only there one time and had a great time in the wave pool. I remember that tube ride being lots of fun.

Yes, we enjoyed Typhoon Lagoon, and it probably was our preferred water park because it was way less crowded and crazy than Blizzard Beach, but that could just be our luck on the days we happened to be there. We likely would do both water parks again sometime, but it does take up quite a bit of time out of the trip where we could be in the other parks, especially when you include the transportation time getting to and from the water park. It is one of those rare cases where we might enjoy having a car there.

We're definitely glad we got to see both water parks, but were excited to head for MK...

 

[ProudMommyof2]

We loved both water parks but Typhoon Lagoon probably eeks out. Next time you have to get an order of the mini doughnuts that you can only get at the water parks. They are served warm with dipping sauce and are to die for!

 

[WDWKOOK]

Happy New Year!

It's great seeing your (mostly) happy photos. Even the ones that involve band-aids or a stern look are short-lived and followed-up with many smiles.

I like how the construction worker at the GF is peaking out from behind the fence to take a look at the carriage that's being followed by "security."

I thought TL was a lot more sedate and pleasant than BB. I felt like BB was more crowded, too. The shark reef is pretty neat, but it is VERY cold, in the 60's. Once you get in and can start swimming around, it's fine, it is a shock to the system at first, but worth doing. I remember having some trouble keeping the water out of DD's mask at first which made it seem colder because we couldn't move until it was sealed properly. I think she was maybe 10?

It's great you had your camera at TL. The water parks must be the least photographed of all the Disney parks. We don't have any photos, but I'd like to take a waterproof camera there sometime. Where did you put your camera while on the rides and what did you use?

The BoG dress and Allie's pigtails are so cute! I think all kids fall out of their strollers at some point so it's good it was just a scrape and Mom was at the ready with the band-aid. I wonder if Beast will notice the fresh injury?

 

[GrandCalifornian]

We loved both water parks but Typhoon Lagoon probably eeks out. Next time you have to get an order of the mini doughnuts that you can only get at the water parks. They are served warm with dipping sauce and are to die for!

Yes, we saw the donuts but didn't end up getting them. We will definitely have to do that next time.

Happy New Year!

It's great seeing your (mostly) happy photos. Even the ones that involve band-aids or a stern look are short-lived and followed-up with many smiles.

I like how the construction worker at the GF is peaking out from behind the fence to take a look at the carriage that's being followed by "security."

I thought TL was a lot more sedate and pleasant than BB. I felt like BB was more crowded, too. The shark reef is pretty neat, but it is VERY cold, in the 60's. Once you get in and can start swimming around, it's fine, it is a shock to the system at first, but worth doing. I remember having some trouble keeping the water out of DD's mask at first which made it seem colder because we couldn't move until it was sealed properly. I think she was maybe 10?

It's great you had your camera at TL. The water parks must be the least photographed of all the Disney parks. We don't have any photos, but I'd like to take a waterproof camera there sometime. Where did you put your camera while on the rides and what did you use?

The BoG dress and Allie's pigtails are so cute! I think all kids fall out of their strollers at some point so it's good it was just a scrape and Mom was at the ready with the band-aid. I wonder if Beast will notice the fresh injury?

Happy New Year to you too, and welcome back from what sounds like a great Christmas trip to WL.

Allie was very happy most of the time at WDW, just like the pictures show. When she wasn't happy the pictures showed it all too. The stroller thing was crazy, she was yelling to stop because of something or other, but didn't expect me to stop right away... All was fine though, and she was ready to go on with her day once she had a band aid.

It is fun to find little details like that in the pictures. There are so many that we took and haven't used for anything that we see cool little details like that when we go back through them. I hadn't noticed the construction worker, but at the time it seemed like everybody stopped to watch the carriage.

I really like having water park pictures too. The camera we used for them was our Olympus Tough TG-820, which we really enjoy. It is shock and waterproof, and still has a nice 5x zoom and fits in a pocket. We have had lots of waterproof cameras over the years since we use them at the sand dunes, and we really like the Olympus ones. At the water park I just carried it in my hand or in the pocket of my swim trunks. I dropped it once in the lazy river, but picked it up off the bottom and kept going. It is fun to not worry about it getting wet, and allowed for some nice pictures. I wish I had remembered to take it to the pool at WL though... Oh well.

So, next we are on our way to meet the Beast but first there were rides to do. Thanks for following along and we'll get another update up soon.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

So, when we left off we had just completed the walk from CR to MK. This turned out to be a bit longer than we had expected, since it is one of the features people really like about the CR. It is definitely within walking distance, but it is a fair distance and you have to cross a street. You also have to not stop too fast and eject your kid from the stroller... Anyway, we arrived at MK and went in search of some rides.

I missed the People Mover last year because I was stuck in the room sick so this was on my must do list for MK.

So that's where we headed first. Melissa got this pic of Allie right after we got on.


No she wasn't terrified at the alarming pace of the ride, she wanted to sit by Mommy instead. SHe got her way and then was much happier.

I think she was still mad at Daddy for tossing her out of the stroller ;-)

Probably. She might be scarred for life... We had a good peoplemover ride and then headed for a ride that we had never (surprisingly) done at MK before, the Tomorrowland Speedway.


Allie wanted to ride with me and drive so after we got in the cars I told her that she had to hold onto the steering wheel, this is the look she gave me.


I'm not sure what she thought driving meant if she didnt want to steer, lol.

We had a fun ride around the track, and found it to be very similar to Disneyland's Autopia, as we expected, but it is still a fun ride.


Then we headed right next door into New Fantasyland and went on Dumbo one more time. Allie agreed that Mommy didn't have to ride it this time, so she went on it with Daddy. They had some sort of malfunction and had to restart the ride ahead of ours, so we had a little extra time in line but Allie did great.


She's a pro at waiting in line. It was a nice break for me for a minute to people watch and of course watch Paul and Allie cruise around on the flying elephant.

After Dumbo it was almost time for our ADR, so we walked over to Beast's castle to check in.


Allie was glad to take care of the pager while Mommy took some pictures from outside of the castle.


We were just a little early but they checked us in right away and we had just enough time on the bridge to take some pictures.


Our name was called very soon, and then we were inside the main ballroom. It was very beautifully decorated, and it appeared to be snowing outside the "windows".



Allie recognized the scene right away and really enjoyed the ambiance.

We were seated on the side of the main ballroom near the West wing.


We had a great view of the Beast when he walked to the west Wing every 15-20 minutes.


The waitress brought out rolls and they were pretty yummy. We also contemplated taking one of the napkins that was rolled like a rose but I think we had a minor incident and needed all 4 that were at the table so that nixed that idea.
Allie made friends with the little girl that was sitting at the table next to us and they had a silent milk chugging competition. It was slightly hilarious and they both finished all of their milk with no prodding from parents.


The food really was quite good. I really enjoyed my steak, and the desserts were delicious. Our server also brought Allie some celebratory "grey stuff" for her birthday.


This was nice because we all got to try it, but still ordered different dessert options.

The "grey stuff" was ok but we really enjoyed our cupcakes and Allie thouroughly enjoyed her chocolate cream puff.

After dinner we met with the Beast. Allie was shy but not scared so we got a nice picture then headed out.


Once we were outside the restaurant, we were met by a cast member who would be escorting us out, since the park had closed now for the regular day and we did not have Halloween Party tickets.
On the way out we noticed that the walls had been taken down for a soft opening of the Princess Fairytale Hall. It was neat because we had been standing in front of that wall a couple of days earlier.


Because of the Halloween party going on and us not having tickets we had to be escorted to just beyond the Castle.
The sky was beautiful on the way out and we couldnt help but stop and take some pictures on the way out of the park.


Once we got out of the park we decided to go see our favorite CM Shelly!

We decided to try a new mode of transportation for us, the boats from MK to the Poly. Since the park had recently closed for the day the lines for the boats and monorail were pretty long, but we made it on the second boat that arriveed and really only had to wait about 10 minutes.

We got to the Poly just as they were starting their movie on the beach. We let Allie play in the sand for a little bit while Wreck it Ralph played then we watched the water parade

It was a nice quiet break for her from the very busy day.

After getting sandy we went up to spend some time with Shelly.

We filled our RFID mugs at Captain Cook's on our way upstairs, since we had brought them with us. The system worked great, and we were ready for a bit of refreshment.

We also met a new CM named Brianna who played tiki tac toe with Allie while Shelly was helping a guest.


After playing for a little while, Allie was tired so we said bye to her friends and heade for the monorail. Allie said bye to Shelly, and we promised that we would stop by one more time the next day.


We hopped on the monorail and decided we'd do our version of a drinking tour of the Monorail resorts. So we hopped off at the GF.


Allie had fallen asleep which was super nice, so we strolled around the grounds which we'd never done before. It is a beautiful resort.


We had only spent a few minutes at the GF during our honeymoon. It was nice to get to walk around it, and we were impressed. We checked out their QS restaurant, and decided that one of their cheeseburgers is on our must do list for next trip.

We filled our mugs with Diet Coke and headed back to the monorail. Once again the RFID worked flawlessly.

We made our way back around to the monorail station, and headed for the Contemporary. Back at MK, a lot of people got on since they were leaving affter the Halloween party.

We hopped off the monorail at the Contemporary and headed down to the Contempo Cafe for refills. Allie was still zonked in her stroller.

This made a nice stop since we could swing by on our way from the monorail to the boat.


We then headed down to the boat dock, where a boat was waiting to take us on our quick five minute trip across to WL.

We headed up to our room and went to sleep fairly quickly, despite having had a significant amount of caffeine.


The next day we had a lot planned for our last full day of the trip, starting with a breakfast ressie with Melissa's favorite character.

Check back for more in the next update...

 

[WDWKOOK]

Great update. I love PeopleMover and even my iPhone case is a PeopleMover poster scene. Do you think she wanted to sit with mom because she didn't want to ride backwards? I dislike riding backwards.

Did being on the beach at Poly watching the movie make you want to stay there? How about the GF?

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Great update. I love PeopleMover and even my iPhone case is a PeopleMover poster scene. Do you think she wanted to sit with mom because she didn't want to ride backwards? I dislike riding backwards. Did being on the beach at Poly watching the movie make you want to stay there? How about the GF?

Thanks! I don't think going backwards was too big of a deal for her, but it was a short lived tantrum. Either way, we shifted around and she was happy.

As for the Poly, despite our many trips there this trip (and there' still one more coming) we really don't have a desire to stay there. Having the buildings so spread out doesn't seem worth paying a premium for. As for the sand, since we go camp in the sand dunes many times each year, there is nothing that Melissa would loathe more than dealing with sand in the hotel room too. This is a problem with CSR for us too. We liked visiting the beach, but if we stayed there it would probably lead to too much time in the sand. It is a great resort to visit.

We were impressed with the Grand Floridian. We didn't get the "stuffy vibe" that others complain about. It seemed very nice. There still multiple buildings to deal with, and we probably wouldn't pay the price, but we would probably stay at the GF before the Poly. If we were to go to another Deluxe besides WL though, AKL is at the top of our list. Someday a "lodge split stay" would be wonderful.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[Wood Nymph]

So, when we left off we had just completed the walk from CR to MK. This turned out to be a bit longer than we had expected, since it is one of the features people really like about the CR. It is definitely within walking distance, but it is a fair distance and you have to cross a street. You also have to not stop too fast and eject your kid from the stroller... Anyway, we arrived at MK and went in search of some rides.

We walked from the CR to MK one time on our last trip and I was surprised at how long the walk was. We are used to the really short walk from the Beach Club to Epcot, and this must have been four times longer. It was a nice view of the bus stops, though.

I missed the People Mover last year because I was stuck in the room sick so this was on my must do list for MK.

This is my husband's favorite ride. We have to ride it multiple times every trip.

Allie wanted to ride with me and drive so after we got in the cars I told her that she had to hold onto the steering wheel, this is the look she gave me.


I'm not sure what she thought driving meant if she didnt want to steer, lol.

I love that look that she gave you.
Our son loved Tomorrowland Speedway and we had to ride it for years. I always thought it would be much better if they only let one car at a time on each track so that you could speed around without having to wait for the slowpokes ahead of you.

After Dumbo it was almost time for our ADR, so we walked over to Beast's castle to check in.

Did anyone at the castle notice the Beast applique on Allie's dress? She looked so cute and comfortable in it.

We hopped on the monorail and decided we'd do our version of a drinking tour of the Monorail resorts. So we hopped off at the GF.

Allie had fallen asleep which was super nice, so we strolled around the grounds which we'd never done before. It is a beautiful resort.

We took the boat to GF, refilled our mugs at Gasparilla's, and walked around the grounds. I agree that the GF is beautiful. We would stay here rather than the Poly, too. The dark woods and outdated features at the Poly just don't say "Hawaii" to me at all. Then we walked over to the Poly to refill our mugs again and have the pork nachos for lunch. Back on the monorail for a stop at CR and back to WL. It is a nice way to tour the resorts. It was nice of Allie to sleep through this for you.

The next day we had a lot planned for our last full day of the trip, starting with a breakfast ressie with Melissa's favorite character.

Check back for more in the next update...

I can't believe your trip is almost over. It has been fun following along.

 

[ProudMommyof2]

Great update! BOG looks great and I can't wait to go in April!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

We walked from the CR to MK one time on our last trip and I was surprised at how long the walk was. We are used to the really short walk from the Beach Club to Epcot, and this must have been four times longer. It was a nice view of the bus stops, though.

Yeah, I think we are spoiled by the resorts at Disneyland that are all just about as close as YC/BC and maybe Boardwalk are to Epcot. I suppose it is nice to have the option to walk to CR, but it probably won't be something we do very much staying at WL.

This is my husband's favorite ride. We have to ride it multiple times every trip.

Yeah, we like it too. We miss it at Disneyland. It got replaced with a faster version on many of the same tracks, but it only lasted a couple of years. Now most of it sits empty.

I love that look that she gave you.
Our son loved Tomorrowland Speedway and we had to ride it for years. I always thought it would be much better if they only let one car at a time on each track so that you could speed around without having to wait for the slowpokes ahead of you.

Yeah, we had a pretty good run, without too much traffic ahead of us. I had a hard time catching up to Allie and Melissa after starting behind them.

Did anyone at the castle notice the Beast applique on Allie's dress? She looked so cute and comfortable in it.

We don't remember anybody saying anything about it at the restaurant, but Allie made some friends on the boat to the CR who commented on it. It was comfortable and pretty subtle. This week she just wore it to see the Beauty and the Beast stage show at a theater near home, so she got some extra use out of it.

We took the boat to GF, refilled our mugs at Gasparilla's, and walked around the grounds. I agree that the GF is beautiful. We would stay here rather than the Poly, too. The dark woods and outdated features at the Poly just don't say "Hawaii" to me at all. Then we walked over to the Poly to refill our mugs again and have the pork nachos for lunch. Back on the monorail for a stop at CR and back to WL. It is a nice way to tour the resorts. It was nice of Allie to sleep through this for you.

Sounds like you did a nice tour too. I thought we were the only ones who felt that way about staying at the Poly. Allie's falling asleep worked perfectly, she played with Shelly and then she was done for the night.

I can't believe your trip is almost over. It has been fun following along.

Thanks. We have had fun reliving it, and are hoping to firm up our plans for a September return trip, so that we can start a PTR for that one.

Great update! BOG looks great and I can't wait to go in April!

Thanks, we love reliving the trip. Awesome that you are going to BOG. It really was a nice meal, and a comparatively good value. We plan to go back during our next trip.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

I again woke up at 6:30, and not wanting to waste any time on our last full day I headed out to take some sunrise pictures. On the way out I saw this reminder that the trip was almost over, but I chose to ignore it for the time being.


I love exploring the quiet out of the way places at WL.




I also particularly enjoyed the complete lack of crowds. There was almost nobody in the lobby:


On my way down to the pool I came across this guy:


We had seen one during our honeymoon and couldn't believe it. He was just cruising around, and wasn't too concerned about my presence. I then headed back up to the room, and sat on the balcony for half an hour before waking Melissa up at 8:00.

Allie and I took a bit to get moving when we finally woke up, but the promise of a yummy breakfast got me going.

We headed to the dock to catch a boat for the CR so we could take the monorail to breakfast at Ohana.


Our first stop when we got to the Poly wasn't to check in for breakfast it was to see Shelly.


After a quick hello we got all checked in and got our picture taken. Allie wasn't excited about another picture and in hindsight we probably didn't need to put her through that because it didnt come out all that great anyway.


There was a pretty good sized crowd waiting for breakfast, but we were called up very soon after taking the picture. We were led to our table on the other side of the restaurant from where we had dinner a few nights earlier.

We didnt have to wait too long to be seated and the characters started coming right away.


This was probably a little too soon for Allie, who prefers to get used to a situation and watch the characters a bit before they come talk to her, but she did ok.

Pluto was probably the most understanding, he gave her space but still had a sweet interaction.


The character timing made this an odd meal. Before we had all of our food I think we had seen most of the characters, and since our server wasn't the fastest it felt like we were waiting for a long time after the characters left.
Allie did get another birthday card and treat, which she enjoyed.


Once we were all done eating and on our way out the door a kids parade started, and Allie decided she wanted to play too. She grabbed a marraca and joined in.


After a parade around the restaurant it was time to go say Aloha to Shelly.


This was the hardest part of the trip for me and I had tears in my eyes after we left.


She really did make the trip special for all of us, especially Allie. We were sad to know we wouldn't be back to see her, but we had parks to head to so we went downstairs to catch a bus for AK.


We then remembered that the stroller was upstairs by Ohana, so I ran back in to get it.


It was pretty funny to get almost to the bus stop and realize that we forgot the stroller.

We got on the bus at 10:57, which to our surprise then stopped back at Wilderness Lodge, then the Grand Floridian, then Blizzard Beach, and finally Animal Kingdom at 11:40.

Once we arrived at Animal Kingdom, we followed Allie through the tunnels and caves by the entrance to the park. We then saw Matt and Dani, who were headed out after a morning in the park since they were about to start the second part of their split stay by moving from WL to Beach Club.

We took a picture with them and then were off to explore Dino Land.


We had never done the Dig Site so we thought that might be a fun activity. It was really hot this day though and the shade in the sand pit wasn't quite cool enough to be comfortable so we didnt stay too long.


Allie and I rode Triceratops spin, and she said it was ok if Mommy stayed back and took pictures.


I don't know why but the asphalt in Dino Land feels 15 degrees hotter than anywhere else in that park. After their spin on a dino we decided it was time to cool off. Luckily the Finding Nemo show was going to start in a few minutes so we walked right into the theater.


Seeing the Nemo show was on our wish list, but the timing just had never worked out before. This time it was perfect, and we all really enjoyed the show and the air conditioning.


After the Nemo show we were ready to check a snack off of our list so we headed back to Kusifiri bakery for a Brownie Paw.


It was super delicious and I think snack for snack I preferred it to the White Elephant cupcake.

On the way over there we had grabbed some Dibbs ice cream and a Coke, because the weather was perfect for it.

After the snack we were ready to head out of the park, but not before Allie spent some time playing at the DVC photo board thing. We learned how much she loves these type of thing this trip, and for a girl who gets tired of having her picture taken she really enjoys them.


It was pretty funny with the globe, Paul made some comment about teaching Allie geography with a DVC globe.


We headed out of the park for the last time. It's always hard at the end of the trip when you know that you won't be back to a park before you head home but we had more things to do before we called it a day.

There were still a couple more parks and a resorts we wanted to visit, and the next stop was a return visit to the other Lodge...


Continued in the next update.