She's Sleeping on the Top Bunk: An August 2017 WL TR with a Party of 10 (Updated 10/18)

[TNGirlwCamera]

I just love this picture!

 

[TNGirlwCamera]

Love all the pictures of WL! Now on my bucket list. It seems like the transportation back in forth, especially during the day, worked really well and wasn't long. Good thing to remember.

The pictures of the kids with the characters make me smile. So sweet.

 

[Jackiemarie21]

Finally made it over to your current TR. Looks like another fantastic WL stay. And I love all your LuLa! There really isn't anything better than a Carly! Looking forward to reading more!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

I just love this picture!

So do we! It is one of our favorites from the trip.

Love all the pictures of WL! Now on my bucket list. It seems like the transportation back in forth, especially during the day, worked really well and wasn't long. Good thing to remember.

The pictures of the kids with the characters make me smile. So sweet.

We really do love WL. Taking pictures there is so much fun because it is so beautiful.
We enjoy the easy transportation options at WL, and we did really well this trip.
The kids loved the characters and it really showed this time.

Finally made it over to your current TR. Looks like another fantastic WL stay. And I love all your LuLa! There really isn't anything better than a Carly! Looking forward to reading more!

Thanks for joining in again. It was a great place to stay, and with the construction done we fell in love with it even more.
Melissa loves her Carlys and says they are her favorite park outfits.
We've got lots more that we can't wait to share.

 

[Stasieki]

Caught up now after returning from our Labor Day week trip... and escaping Irma. Sounds like a great first and second day!!! Love your dresses... are those Lularoe?

 

[Wood Nymph]

I would have loved to have toured the new DVC units at CCV, especially the cabins. But I would be afraid that I'd want to buy into it. I can't wait to see how your experience was.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Caught up now after returning from our Labor Day week trip... and escaping Irma. Sounds like a great first and second day!!! Love your dresses... are those Lularoe?

I'm glad you didn't get stuck in the Irma mess! We had friends at the lodge during the storm and we watched it like a hawk. I'm glad we ended up going in August this year if just to avoid the hurricane. That week is when we normally go.

They are Lularoe! I love them and am on the hunt for more for next trip, I would be happy wearing them every day on vacation.

I would have loved to have toured the new DVC units at CCV, especially the cabins. But I would be afraid that I'd want to buy into it. I can't wait to see how your experience was.

I know! We are working on writing up the tour now, but I can pretty much guarantee that you would want to buy into it. Sorry for the delay, but we've gotta finish the report on the rest of the day before the tour. We'll get that posted now...

I only let Paul go on the tour with the understanding that we were in no way actually buying into DVC. I even made him practice saying "Not today, I need to talk to my wife."

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Not wanting to waste any more vacation time, we left the rooms at 2:00, got to the bus stop at 2:03, and were on a bus to Epcot at 2:05. It stopped to pick up people at Fort Wilderness at 2:15, and arrived at Epcot at 2:29.

On the way in we got to see Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker, they are probably my favorite two muppets. We'd never seen their muppet labs show and it was a lot of fun to see.


I enjoyed the show, and especially got a kick out of watching the heavily modified Segway balance itself. Disney Imagineers sure do get to have some fun. Then we headed over to the Pixar short film show. We wound up with Fastpasses for it because we needed a third thing, and hadn't seen it before. It turned out to be a nice cool place to hang out, and despite not wanting to do it at first Allie really loved it.

Marshall even got into it after being super fussy in the beginning.

Then Allie went outside and had a ball playing in the jumping water fountains. I remember these from when I was six years old, and while they aren't a top destination thing now she still had a ball, and managed to get soaked.




Then our Figment fastpasses were ready, so we rode it, which we hadn't in a few years. Allie liked it too, and Marshall had a ball in the play area afterwards.




It was like a toddler playground and he just ran around that carpet thing for forever. I think we spent 30 minutes watching him run up and down the carpet then climb through the railing and back around again.

About 4:30 we decided to head out from there and right then the sky opened up. I went in search of the stroller with Allie while Melissa took Marshall into a restroom. I got pretty wet on the way to the stroller, then stood under the monorail beam to stay somewhat dry. Allie was super proud to have her umbrella.

It was a crazy quick thunderstorm and it cleared out as quickly as it came.

Then we walked to Test Track, which had just reopened after the rain.


The Fastpass line took a while, but Brandy, Jon, and I rode it while Melissa hung out with the kids.

Marshall finally fell asleep and Allie and I checked out the new cars. She also got pictures at the picture spots and made her own car.



Because the boys were taking so long on the ride I was teasing Paul about buying a new Suburban and having it delivered. I don't think he took me seriously.


We met back up in the aftermarket dump shop and spent some time checking it out. (Instead of finalizing the delivery of a new Suburban) That is my favorite store at Disney, and I love checking it out. We didn't hang out for too long though because we had some walking to do to get to Italy.

We headed through World Showcase and stopped in Germany to watch trains for a bit.


Then we got to Italy a little early (since we weren't sure how far around it was) and ran over to America for a potty break.

I never remember the order of the countries, although I know that Mexico is on one end, Canada is on the other and America is in the middle.

And France is across the bridge from International Gateway. With that figured out, we arrived at Tutto Italia a few minutes early for our dinner reservation. This was a first time restaurant for us, and Jon and I were really looking forward to it.

I was too, I love anything pasta. We waited in the lobby for a little while while the front desk tried to accommodate a walk up party of 14 that all wanted to sit at one table. Unfortunately for them, and the poor CM running the desk they just don't have a table that size so they had to figure out how to split up the group into two smaller tables.


This led to some entertainment while we waited, I think people watching is one of my favorite things to do at Disney.

Ahh yes, it is a lot of fun, and I sure was glad to not be trying to manage a group that size without ADRs. How do they make it past the potty stops, let alone make it to a restaurant and wait to eat?

Once we were seated we were again able to leave Marshall asleep in the stroller, making it the second new to us meal that he slept through.


We asked the waiter what he recommended, and he said the Lasagna was just like his Mama made (in his thick Italian accent). After his reassurance that she was a good cook, Jon, Melissa, and I all went with the recommendation, while Brandy got a steak.



The lasagna was amazing. I think it was some of the best I've ever had. Allie was working on being a pain for this dinner and she ordered spaghetti and meatballs with the sauce and the meatballs on the side. I'm not sure if there was anything we could do to make her happy at that point and she was kinda cranky through dinner.

Yeah, Allie was a little tired after a long day. She managed well though, and we avoided the meltdowns that we frequently have had at Akershus. As I recall though, dessert turned her mood around very quickly. Melissa and Jon had tiramisu, Brandy had Canoli, and thanks to our great waiter both Allie and I were able to get the cheesecake from the adult dessert menu.
I honestly think it was the best cheesecake I have ever had.

I really enjoyed the lasagna too, but not quite as much as Old Spaghetti Factory, which leads to continued debates between me and Melissa.

Allie was struggling the entire trip finding things that appealed to her on the kids menu. Her tastes can be more sophisticated then most kids.

She loved the cheesecake though. After dinner, we continued shopping around World Showcase, picking up things for Allie's school lunches in Japan and then checking out Morocco.


Then Melissa had a work call to deal with and spent time in front of Morocco and France dealing with business liability insurance.


I greatly dislike working on vacation, however due to the nature of our business and what I do I don't think I can ever completely get away from work. I do enjoy the days I don't have to think about work though.

Paul took Allie window shopping in France and she found a dress she really wanted.


We scoped out a spot to watch Illuminations and parked for a bit before the show.


Marshall woke up at some point and was cruising around and ate all the snacks out of the backpack.

Just before the fireworks we went on a potty run over to England and grabbed drinks on the way back from the Fish and Chips place. We watched Illuminations from the France side of the bridge down near the water, which was a new location for us. We watched the people on the pontoon boat fireworks cruises and decided to look into that for a future trip.


Brandy in particular was excited about the cruise potential, it seems like a really fun way to watch Illuminations.


The show was good, although shorter than we had seen before as the globe didn't open up. Afterwards we waited for the crowds to die down some and considered staying for Extra Magic Hours, but we were tired and Marshall was still hungry.

Since he had slept through dinner he was ready for some real food. Brandy and Jon were tired too and while they made their way back to the resort we stopped at our tried and true place for feeding a hungry kid late at Epcot.

Ahh yes, The Electric Umbrella. We did this last year with Allie, and this year we stopped in here with Marshall and enjoyed the air conditioning while he had a bowl of his favorite food: Macaroni and Cheese.


He said it was delicious and ate pretty much the whole thing.


Then we walked through Mouse Gear on our way out, leaving the park at 10:35. We got to the bus stop at 10:42 as a full bus was leaving. Another bus arrived at 10:56 which we made it on. It was full but not terrible. We left at 10:57 and got back to WL at 11:06, which was very good for a trip home from Epcot.


It had been a super long day but a ton of fun as usual.

Looking back this was one of my favorite days of the trip because of the variety of things we got to do. Stopping at the resort between parks worked great, and we'd repeat that later in the trip. We fell asleep quickly once we were upstairs, and we were all looking forward to a relaxing morning.
Check back in the next update to see how we add excitement to a quiet resort morning.

 

[Jenny Sanders]

Hi Melissa! I've done the MK fireworks cruise twice, and let me tell you...It's worth every penny!!!!! If you want any info, feel free to give me a shout out...

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Hi Melissa! I've done the MK fireworks cruise twice, and let me tell you...It's worth every penny!!!!! If you want any info, feel free to give me a shout out...

Hello! We would love to do a MK fireworks cruise. We have seen that they do them from the Wilderness Lodge. We rented a pontoon boat later in the trip and loved that. The fireworks cruise may be on the list for next trip, but we were questioning the cost. Thanks for the encouragement.

 

[Wood Nymph]

On the way in we got to see Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker, they are probably my favorite two muppets. We'd never seen their muppet labs show and it was a lot of fun to see.

I had no idea that they had these guys at Epcot. It looks cute and now I need to figure out if these times are listed somewhere so we can catch it.

Then we headed over to the Pixar short film show. We wound up with Fastpasses for it because we needed a third thing, and hadn't seen it before. It turned out to be a nice cool place to hang out, and despite not wanting to do it at first Allie really loved it.

We really enjoyed the new films clips. The old ones were good, too but we had seen them a few times before. This is one of those shows we did to kill time and never expected to actually like it enough to return, but we did.

It was like a toddler playground and he just ran around that carpet thing for forever. I think we spent 30 minutes watching him run up and down the carpet then climb through the railing and back around again.

I see so many parents who won't allow their kids to spend time doing things like this, and it is such a shame. These are the fun times for kids. It is nice that you enjoy watching them as much as they enjoy running around.

After dinner, we continued shopping around World Showcase, picking up things for Allie's school lunches in Japan and then checking out Morocco.

That's a great idea. I bet the kids at school wish they had some of those snacks, too.

We scoped out a spot to watch Illuminations and parked for a bit before the show.

I'm surprised that this viewing area wasn't crowded. It looks like a great spot to sit.

We watched the people on the pontoon boat fireworks cruises and decided to look into that for a future trip.

I've heard that the Illuminations cruises are rather expensive, like more than $300, but I could be wrong.

He said it was delicious and ate pretty much the whole thing.

That is a sweet picture of Marshall.

We left at 10:57 and got back to WL at 11:06, which was very good for a trip home from Epcot.

That is nice nice, short trip. The ride from Hollywood Studios isn't too bad, either.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

I had no idea that they had these guys at Epcot. It looks cute and now I need to figure out if these times are listed somewhere so we can catch it.

Melissa had seen people talk about them before and how cool they were, but we didn't have any idea about schedule information for them. We got lucky and they were just rolling up as we walked by.

We really enjoyed the new films clips. The old ones were good, too but we had seen them a few times before. This is one of those shows we did to kill time and never expected to actually like it enough to return, but we did.

Exactly. It is great when you don't expect much and wind up with something you'll likely want to repeat. I expect Allie to ask to do it again next year, since she really enjoyed it. The water outside was a big hit too, and we did return to repeat that later in the trip.

I see so many parents who won't allow their kids to spend time doing things like this, and it is such a shame. These are the fun times for kids. It is nice that you enjoy watching them as much as they enjoy running around.

That's one thing we are super happy with. It is the kids vacation too, and often they are much happier just running around than they would be trying to make it to a list of specific places at specific times. They love just getting to play.

That's a great idea. I bet the kids at school wish they had some of those snacks, too.

We picked up some things here last year and they were a big hit. We got these little toothpick things that Allie calls "Ka-Bobbles" that we use to put little bits of meat and cheese on in her lunch. They have different animals on them and are super cute. Most of them survived the year, but it was neat to get some more. We also got a sandwich cutter to make different shapes out of the sandwich to play with. This year we found one where the pieces fit together to make an airplane.

I'm surprised that this viewing area wasn't crowded. It looks like a great spot to sit.

It was actually more crowded than the picture shows during the show, but we were glad to be able to find space there. The view was pretty good, but we did have a long way to go after the show, but it was nice stopping for a break on the way out. It would be a really great spot if we were heading out the IG entrance towards Yacht Club or Beach Club.

I've heard that the Illuminations cruises are rather expensive, like more than $300, but I could be wrong.

Yeah, we saw that too. It looks like $350 on a 24 foot boat, but it accommodates up to 10 people. If we had enough people to make it work well the price per person wouldn't be that bad. We will have to consider it for next trip, and will have to decide between Illuminations or the MK Fireworks. I think it would be nice and relaxing to do it from our resort.

That is a sweet picture of Marshall.

Thanks. That is pure Marshall, enjoying his Mac and Cheese.

That is nice nice, short trip. The ride from Hollywood Studios isn't too bad, either.

Yeah, we REALLY love that WL is the first stop on those buses. It is nice to get back to the resort a little quicker at the end of a long day.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

I got up at 6:30 AM, then showered and took a load of laundry down.


We figured out last trip that throwing a load in in the morning worked well, and cut down on what we had to pack. While the clothes were being washed, I got to walk around the resort. I watched the sunrise from Geyser Point, which is beautiful.



I'm pretty sure he set his alarm to get up for the sunrise this morning. I though he was crazy and I DID NOT get up at 6:30

I actually missed the earliest part of the sunrise, which another guest who was down there mentioned to me. I told him I'd be back earlier the next day, and I was...
I went and got some specific pictures for the WL FAQ thread, including ones of the Boulder Ridge Cove Pool and the resort specific merchandise in the Mercantile.




Then I decided to go exploring out toward Fort Wilderness where I had seen the deer earlier in the trip. I walked past cabin 26 to the old trail along Bay lake. I was surprised to see that despite all the fencing separating the water from the guests, there was an opening in the fencing that led into the woods.


Once through the opening, you are in the woods and there is nothing between you and whatever is in the water.



I followed the trail all the way to the back side of River Country, and then to the paved access road for Fort Wilderness. I was amazed that we can still get out in the woods there, and was careful to make sure there weren't any large predators looking for breakfast.


Then after switching the laundry to the dryer I checked out the cabins on the North side of the resort. The path leads from the boat dock along the shoreline beyond the old "otter pond". The location is pretty, but more secluded than the ones on the South side which are very near the Boulder Ridge Cove pool. I was impressed with the bridge they added to give access to the first floor of the North wing, right behind Roaring Fork and, conveniently for me, the laundry room.



By the time I woke up Paul had already brought up the clean laundry, it was so nice to not have to pack so many clothes for this trip. We hung my dresses to dry on the top bunk bed and the kids had a great time using the bottom bunk as a fort while they noshed on donuts for breakfast.


Also I promise our kids have pajamas, they were so tired from Epcot the night before they just went to bed in what they were wearing.

That meant they were all ready to go! Just kidding. They did enjoy not having a deadline, but they were both up shortly after 9 AM. I went and picked up some food from Roaring Fork and we ate it in the room as we got ready.

We had our DVC tour scheduled for 10:30 and we all went downstairs to the lobby. I met Brandy and Jon at the DVC desk while Melissa headed off with the kids to the Magic Kingdom. We figured it made sense not to put them through the tour since we didn't have to.

I was surprised they were both so chipper this morning. I thought it would be fun to get out of the room and go do something. I figured the Magic Kingdom was close and Marshall is fine being contained in the stroller as long as we're moving so the three of us set off for the Magic Kingdom by ourselves. I took the single stroller for easier maneuvering and I knew we weren't going to be there too late because we planned on meeting back up for lunch at Geyser point before renting a pontoon boat.

We went down to the boat dock and walked right onto a big boat, it was helpful so I didn't have to move Marshall out of the stroller and we made it to Magic Kingdom in an undetermined amount of time. I really don't pay as much attention to these things as Paul does.



On the way in I got a PhotoPass picture for evidence that I took the kids by myself.


Our first stop was Laugh Floor, Allie was super excited about this. The wait was about 20 minutes. It is such a cute attraction and I ended up getting picked to talk because Marshall was on my lap and I was a "two headed monster". Unfortunately I don't have pictures because I am not actually a monster and only have two hands. Allie thought it was great though. Our next stop was the People Mover. Allie really wanted to go over to Hall of Presidents but I talked her out of it because of the time it would take to go over there. I had forgotten it was still closed anyway so I'm glad we didn't trek across the park.

The people mover never disappoints however and Marshall loved it.



After the People Mover I figured the guys would be about done with the tour so we did some shopping at the emporium on our way toward the boat dock. Allie really wanted this Beauty and the Beast tumbler with a rose in it and all week I had been saying no. Well because she was so good for me and helped out with her brother I went ahead and got it for her. I think it made her day.


Meanwhile, back at WL the tour was really interesting. It started with a nice lady escorting us from the desk in the lobby to a room on the second floor in the South wing. She let us know that she would personally be in charge of making sure we got our gift cards, and then introduced us to our DVC guide, Adarsh. It was just the three of us and the sales guy (or "guide") and we expected that this was when the "hard sell" would begin. In actuality we just sat and talked about what we like to do on our vacations and he explained more about how DVC works.

I was pretty familiar with it having read about it for years, but he did explain some of the details like banking and borrowing points so that you really only "have to" use points every three years. He also brought up the benefits of buying direct from Disney, which recently changed so that you only get the member benefits such as discounts if you purchase direct from Disney. This helped rule out the resale market for us, which is probably exactly why Disney made the change.

Once we had the details, we got what we came for, which was to get to go out and see the rooms. We went right across the hallway into a studio lockoff. It was the size of a regular WL room, and was decorated just like we had seen. It was nice, and seemed like it would definitely work for either of us.


Then we walked through the connecting door into the adjacent 1 bedroom. It was very nice, being the size of two WL rooms, and had a great bathroom layout with a bath tub in a separate room from the rest of the bathroom and shower.


The master had a King bed, and there was a washer and dryer in the unit, which would be nice.

Then we got the real highlight of the tour and took a trip down the hallway to see the cabins. We went out the end of the hall and down to the first cabin by Geyser Point. Walking into it we were super impressed. The high ceilings and nice decor made it the most impressive hotel room I've ever been in. On one side of the hallway is one bedroom with a big bed and a fold out bed similar to like at Port Orleans.



The other side of the hall has the master bathroom, which had the coolest thing, a TV embedded in the mirror.

Jon talked about that TV in the mirror for the rest of the trip.

From the master bedroom we went out on the screened in L shaped patio which overlooks the lake and ends in a hot tub.


It was all beautiful. Then we went in the living room, which also overlooks the lake and has a large table, a couch, and a big TV on the wall above the fireplace.



We all pictured ourselves being very happy there someday. Everything in there was nicer than our house, and the cabin itself is actually larger than our house.


We felt that we could totally share one of those, with the only problem being that we might not want to leave the cabin to go anywhere else.

We asked about having privacy with the one wall being all glass, and he demonstrated the two stage power shades that cover the windows that face the lake. We were impressed with those as well.



Then we finished up our tour by walking past the 2nd floor grand villa (which we couldn't tour) and back to the room that we started in. Adarsh gave us paperwork with the point values and explained the current promotion, which basically gave a discount on purchases of 150 points or more and included having the maintenance fees paid on the current year's points. We thanked him for his time, got his card, and picked up our gift cards before heading back to the rooms to drop stuff off and get our mugs for lunch. The tour and presentation were far better than we expected, with no pressure and lots of information, even if the information did exagerate the benefits of membership compared to the AP discounts we already get. It gave us plenty of material for number crunching in the days to come.

Just after we checked out Paul texted me to let me know they were done with the tour and ready for lunch. We went down to the boat dock and Marshall started crying. I didn't really want to let him out of the stroller and chase him all over the dang place. There was a family with two boys ahead of us in line for the boat and one of them turned around and started talking to Marshall and gave him a sticker. I was very impressed with that kid. Marshall quieted right down and began eating said sticker but at least he was happy.


We left the rooms and headed down to Geyser Point to wait for Melissa. It was pretty crowded at lunch, but we were able to get a nice table in the shade just as Melissa got there.

Read about our memorable lunch in our next update.

 

[dnllmz]

I'm loving all the WL resort pictures.

There was a family with two boys ahead of us in line for the boat and one of them turned around and started talking to Marshall and gave him a sticker. I was very impressed with that kid.

My son is turning into a kid like this and it really makes me proud when he does things like this.

 

[xlsm]

Nothing beats a Wilderness Lodge sunrise!

We did a DVC tour in December...they shuttled us to Saratoga Springs from Boardwalk for the presentation and to visit a Polynesian demo room (it had the mirror tv, too!). They were doing construction on the Copper Creek room, which is what I was really interested in!! It was off limits though.

DVC is so intriguing, but doesn't really offer us much right now. It's never off the table though. I loved seeing your pictures inside the cabin!! I'd like to just move right in!! CC is definitely where I'd want to buy in, but I hate that the studios and one bedrooms only sleep four.

Looks like a nice morning over at the MK while the tour was going on!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

I'm loving all the WL resort pictures.

Thanks. I really enjoy taking them, and Melissa gives me a hard time for taking so many...

My son is turning into a kid like this and it really makes me proud when he does things like this.

Aww, that's neat. We love it when one of our kids chooses to be caring and helpful. It's one of those neat parenting moments.

Nothing beats a Wilderness Lodge sunrise!

I love it. It is worth getting up for, and sitting there with a mug refill is really my happy place. We can't wait to go back.

We did a DVC tour in December...they shuttled us to Saratoga Springs from Boardwalk for the presentation and to visit a Polynesian demo room (it had the mirror tv, too!). They were doing construction on the Copper Creek room, which is what I was really interested in!! It was off limits though.

DVC is so intriguing, but doesn't really offer us much right now. It's never off the table though. I loved seeing your pictures inside the cabin!! I'd like to just move right in!! CC is definitely where I'd want to buy in, but I hate that the studios and one bedrooms only sleep four.

That's neat that you got to go see a standalone demo room. They sure are willing to bring you wherever they need to to show it off. For us it was just so convenient to walk downstairs and go check it out. We all enjoyed it, and our only potential regret was not bringing Melissa and the kids, but we'll get to that. It is a real limitation that both studios and 1 bedrooms only sleep 4 at CC, but it works for us. We LOVE that CC Villas are in the main building.

DVC is an interesting proposition, and sure doesn't fit everybody. There seems to be a lot to figure out, but if you can plan ahead and do frequent trips to Disney the savings can be significant, and now with CC the accommodations are quite exciting. There's lots to consider.

Looks like a nice morning over at the MK while the tour was going on!

Everybody survived, and had a good time. It wound up being a neat part of the trip.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

The boys were very eager to tell me about their tour and were all really excited about what they had seen. We ordered lunch, I got the Bison burger and we ordered both kids the snack sampler thing so they wouldn't have to share.


I got the bison cheeseburger as well, and I enjoyed it. It had good flavor, and while it might have been a little dry it wasn't gamey at all. While we ate we talked about DVC and shared what we has seen.



We also tried to keep Marshall contained on a chair between us.

We were doing lots of talking about DVC and points, how they worked and I was trying to pay attention and caught most of what they were saying. They were all really impressed with the cabins and Jon had mentioned that they were big enough it wouldn't be a problem to share one.

We were looking at calculating different points totals for different trips in different room types and coming up with LOTS of different numbers. Appearently Marshall was bored with the whole thing, so he launched himself head first off of his chair.

It was like slow motion and we all watched it happen and couldn't move quick enough to stop him. He landed right on his forehead and I think my heart fell to my stomach as always happens when he launches himself off things. It's not a new phenomenon for Marsh.
Anyway he got a bump and bruise immediately so I went over to the quick serve window to get some ice. The lady there was super nice and asked if I wanted her to call to have someone look at it and I said no he's fine, it's just a bump. We got our ice and went back to the chair.
In the time it took me to get from the soda machine back to the chair to sit down with him it had gotten quite a bit darker and was growing in size. Our waiter came over and expressed concern and asked again if I wanted someone to come check him out.
Because it was getting dark so fast I reluctantly agreed to have someone come and see it, just to make sure nothing underneath was cracked or that he didn't have some other sign of trauma I was missing. At this point he had stopped crying and was content just cuddling and chewing on the ice which was in a food service glove.

The rest of us were just sitting there watching, glad that he was calming down but knowing that it really had to hurt, and his head was definitely turning purple.

The lead for Geyser Point came over to call (which happened to be the lady I talked to at the quickserve window) and was super nice. She took information and relayed it to the person on the other end. Then her lead came by and took more information. Then her lead came...

It turns out she's the Senior Duty Manager for Wilderness Lodge. She was incredibly nice and warned me that they were going to just start sending people over and to not be alarmed or anything, it's just what they do.
Then a Disney security guy came by and a couple of the lifeguards from the pool...

I distinctly remember her comment about not being concerned, but they are going to send a lot of people. At this point I was feeling like he was probably fine and I didn't want to cause any problem, but she reassured us that it was no problem at all and it would be worth having him looked at.

Marshall probably had a wicked headache at this point but was otherwise un-phased at all the random people showing up and saying hi to him.

The leads did a great job about not asking us for the same information twice, despite all the different people collecting information. Marshall told everyone who came and asked him what happened "I crash".

It didn't take very long before the paramedics showed up. I'm not sure what I was thinking but I wasn't prepared for paramedics. They again were very nice and checked out his head and took his pulse.


I had overheard what was probably the 911 call, and had figured out that they were sending the fire department. My embarrassment was overpowered by my concern for Marshall though, and the Disney people were great. So were the paramedics, and fortunately there were only two of them, and they walked down from the bus area.

Anyway, after looking at Marshall and determining nothing seemed broken and everything else looked ok the paramedic guy and I determined he probably didn't need to go to the hospital but we could just keep an eye on him. He gave me a list of things to watch for and then had me sign a refusal to transport.

He was so great. He saw our concern, and understood the situation and told us that as a parent, what he would do is just keep an eye on him. They offered to gladly take him in if we wanted, but his opinion meant so much to us. He also said to not hesitate to call them back out if we had any signs of problems. I still tear up when thinking about it, he was exactly who we needed at that time, and another example of exceptional service at Disney, and he wasn't even a cast member.

It's so hard when your kid gets hurt like that and you blame yourself, you know but he's a toddler and there's only so much we can prevent. It was really nice that no one seemed to think twice about blaming us for our crazy toddler and his tumbling antics. Before they left the paramedics gave Marsh a stuffed dalmatian with a RCFD t-shirt on. We call him crash.


I was so relieved and again impressed with Disney. The duty manager said she'd check with us the next day to make sure he was doing ok, and she did call and leave a message. When we got home we wrote a nice e-mail detailing how well we were treated, which she shared with her team.

After everyone cleared out it was time for dessert!

We had some nice dessert that I don't remember much of, but it was great that things were calming down.

We got the chocolate ganache thing. Marshall ate most of it though.

That's ok, he earned it. Meanwhile, our plans for after lunch were to meet up with Dave, Megan, and the kids and to rent a pontoon boat. During our ordeal the weather had gotten worse, and we found that the rentals were closed due to there being lightning within 10 miles. The waves were pretty big too.


We decided to try again for the rental later in the trip, and the nice lady recommended coming as soon as they open to get the best weather.
We decided since it was about to rain, we would head to MK and get in some rides before dinner.


We stopped by the rooms, then got to the bus stop at 3:51. The MK bus headed to Fort Wilderness first, leaving there at 3:59 before arriving at MK at 4:07. This was our first experience with this detour, but it makes sense in the evenings when they are running buses to FW for Hoop De Doo.

The parade was starting just as we were getting into the park so we decided to hop on the train.


It was a long trip, but we got around to fantasyland and over to 7 Dwarves Mine Train at 4:45, with 15 min left in our fastpass window, but Allie had to go potty.


We ran to the restrooms, waited in line, and made it back before our fastpasses expired.

Marshall was fussy waiting while everyone else rode so we got icecream.


Allie loved the ride this year, despite being scared of it last year.


She even rode it again with Melissa and Jon using the baby swap pass. Brandy and I hung out and fed Marshall the rest of the ice cream.

I'm glad she had so much fun and she still says it was her favorite ride of the trip.


After that we went to do Enchanted tales with Belle. Brandy and Jon enjoy doing this just for the magic mirror that we get to walk through. They got video of the magic and are still impressed. Allie got to be a character, and while Marshall didn't participate in the play he still had his picture taken with Belle.



It is a great interactive attraction and just so different from everything else.

Then we had a little time to kill before dinner at Be Our Guest, so we stayed close and hung out in the village. We checked out the book shop and Gaston's Tavern, but didn't get anything to eat because we knew we had a great dinner coming. We sat around the Gaston fountain and then went and checked in for dinner. Dave and Megan arrived at the same time. They had a slightly earlier reservation, but were running late, so we basically checked in together.

The kids enjoyed playing in front of the restaurant until our names were called and we were pretty much called in at the same time.



We had talked about scheduling some ADRs at about the same time, but since we each scheduled our ADRs separately we weren't together. They were seated first and wound up in the rose room. We were next to be seated, and got an awesome table in the West Wing, right in front of the rose. Allie was super excited by this.


We admired our rose napkins and Jon practiced refolding his.


Dinner was great, I got the steak and it was good. Allie got the kids chicken and didn't really care for it. It was pretty bland.

I got the steak too and loved it. The fries were great too. I did try Allie's chicken and agreed that it was pretty bad, but it was the only part of the meal that wasn't exceptional.



As we finished eating we got a text from Dave and Megan asking if we had gotten food. Appearently their service was super slow, and they were at least 30 minutes behind us. We felt bad telling them that we were ordering dessert.


It's tough to sit through a long meal with little ones and I was feeling their pain. Our waiter was on point though and brought around the dessert cart. He was so impressed with Marshall's manners he gave him his own cupcake.

It goes to show how two groups at the same restaurant at the same time can have completely opposite experiences. Our waiter was great, and we really appreciated him giving Marshall a cupcake.


After we ate we got some more pictures with the rose and sat around enjoying our table location.


Then we headed across the restaurant to see Dave and Megan.


They had finished their food and were ready to go.

As to not torture their kids any longer they had their deserts boxed to go.

We showed them the rose, then got in line for the Beast. Since we were all together, we decided to get a big group shot here and it worked out great.


The kids loved seeing the beast and I was a little surprised at the length of the line to meet him. The last couple times we were here there was only one or two groups ahead of us. I think this was another indication of the higher crowds in August.

We made our way out of the restaurant and headed towards Peter Pan, but we had missed our Fastpass window so we instead decided to ride Small World. Marshall had fallen asleep in the stroller, so Melissa and Megan waited with him while Allie and us boys went on Small World.



After Small World it was almost time for fireworks, so instead of fighting the crowd we decided to watch them from where we were at, near the Rapunzel restrooms. It was actually a pretty neat location, since there were fireworks on two sides of us.




Jon and Brandy left as the fireworks started to try to beat the crowds out of the park. We took the opposite approach and hung out and waited for a while after the show. Then we shopped on Main street with the kids as we slowly made our way out.


The kids had a ball watching the fireworks together. It was great together time for them and it was nice not dealing with the crowds on Main street and trying to keep an eye on the three little ones in the dark.

We didn't end up finding something that we couldn't live without. Once we got out to the dock we got to watch the very end of the EWP.


The boat ride back was nice, and not very crowded thanks to having waited a bit. Watching EWP from the boat was nice, and then we got a nice view of one of the cabins from the water. It was a relaxing wind down to the day.



When we got to the resort we made our way back to our rooms, the kids said goodbye to each other, and we got ready for bed.


It was such a long crazy day but definitely a memorable one for us.

Check back in our next update as we start another two park day...

 

[rdkeim]

Sounds like a fun day other than the EMT's arriving! My youngest son had a few diving incidents and your son's bump/bruise looks all too familiar. I remember being told to watch for signs of concussion. Glad you were able to go on with your day!

 

[dnllmz]

Poor Marsh's little head. That was scary but sounded like he bounced back quickly. I love the EWP picture. So pretty!

 

[Stasieki]

Poor Marshall. So happy to hear Disney handled the way they did. Can I just say I love your relaxed approach to touring the parks. It seems you all balance the rides, and just enjoying the atmosphere very well. I did better this past trip, but I still feel I should slow down more. It's not like we aren't going back.