Suzy and Perla Skip the Lines Again: From roughing it to the lap of luxury

[Torrance]

Yay for an update!!!

 

[Dugette]

Just caught up!

Nice to hear about your date night at Jellyrolls. We were going to go there some evening during our trip last November (staying at Beach Club Villas), but we were so tired every night that we couldn't manage to walk ourselves over there! But, according to your assessment, we might be borderline on the minimum age thing there, anyway.

I had no idea that the International Gateway had it's own opening show. I don't believe we saw an opening show at Epcot at all during our Year of Disney.

Love the Flower and Garden stuff. None of our trips took place during that, so it's nice to see the pics.

So funny that Donald had to get his pics with the fairies!

Yum...your meatball meal looks so good! I might have to make that sometime!

Hope you're having a wonderful trip!

 

[cam&phoebsmom]

Your TR has been a pleasure to read-can't wait for the next one!

And if you want to have lingonberry sauce try the IKEA-they have it there for sale (if you have one near you). It is yum-shka!

 

[EllaBean]

I have been reading your TR for about 4 days now and I just have to say that I LOVE it.

My DH, DD (4), and I are off for our FIRST ever WDW vacation on Thursday the 30th. We are staying at the WIlderness Lodge for 6 nights...doesn't seem long enough to me, but I'm sure we will go back.

I'm surely going to use several of your tips and tricks.

I do have a question...is the height restriction not the same on all rides...for example, Boo rode FT, but did not ride EE. Is it because she didn't want to?

Can't wait for another installment.

 

[houseful of boys]

We're home now from our last trip but catching up on reality of course. We had a fabulous time and can't wait to tell you all about it.

EllaBean, I had to respond to your question about height requirements before you leave for your trip (so excited for you!). Most rides that have height restrictions at wdw are 40" but not all. The exceptions are Space Mountain, Mission Space, Expedition Everest are all 44". And Rock N Roller Coaster and Primeval Whirl are both 48". That's it. Have fun!

 

[DisDreamz]

We're home now from our last trip but catching up on reality of course. We had a fabulous time and can't wait to tell you all about it.

So happy that you're back. Can't wait to hear all about the fun you all had.

 

[Mommy2BnB]

Glad you're safely home. Sorry that it's back to reality.

 

[EllaBean]

We're home now from our last trip but catching up on reality of course. We had a fabulous time and can't wait to tell you all about it.

EllaBean, I had to respond to your question about height requirements before you leave for your trip (so excited for you!). Most rides that have height restrictions at wdw are 40" but not all. The exceptions are Space Mountain, Mission Space, Expedition Everest are all 44". And Rock N Roller Coaster and Primeval Whirl are both 48". That's it. Have fun!

Thanks for responding. I measured DD this morning and she is 40" without shoes.

We also watched a Disney Parks video on NetFlix and DD decided that she didn't want to ride a few of the rides we saw. She is toooo cute. She did tell me that her daddy and I could take turns riding EE...really sweet since I did not even mention that to her.

Well, only 2 more days

I know it's going to be hot and rainy, but I'm from Texas, hot doesn't bother me, I can't say that I know what rain feels like anymore

 

[WalkingintheFog]

Ella Bean:
Funnily enough, I don't know what hot is, but I sure know what rain is!

We've been having mostly 40's, some low 50's...and lots of RDF! Rain Drizzle and Fog!
(I'm looking a skin lotion, not with SPF, but with RPF... rust protection factor!)

 

[estherhead]

After reading your earlier post and drooling over your dinner I googled the recipe and picked up the ingredients since I was headed to the store anyway. I am so excited to try this, of course dh asked me what it was and I had no idea how to pronounce it! I'm going to compare your recipe and mine and see which sounds the best, thanks!

I honestly can say I never had the desire to eat Norwegian food but now I might have to add Akerhaus to our December trip. My ADR date is in 9 days and I am just so torn on where I want to eat this trip, we usually try to only do 2 TS meals as we hate have to work around a set time.

How did they turn out?

Yay for an update!!!

Just caught up!

Nice to hear about your date night at Jellyrolls. We were going to go there some evening during our trip last November (staying at Beach Club Villas), but we were so tired every night that we couldn't manage to walk ourselves over there! But, according to your assessment, we might be borderline on the minimum age thing there, anyway.

I had no idea that the International Gateway had it's own opening show. I don't believe we saw an opening show at Epcot at all during our Year of Disney.

Love the Flower and Garden stuff. None of our trips took place during that, so it's nice to see the pics.

So funny that Donald had to get his pics with the fairies!

Yum...your meatball meal looks so good! I might have to make that sometime!

Hope you're having a wonderful trip!

Actually, you don't get your own show at International Gateway. They carefully walk you to the front so you share the main show. But because there are less people on that side of the show, it's much more personal. It's like you are in the middle of the action.

Your TR has been a pleasure to read-can't wait for the next one!

And if you want to have lingonberry sauce try the IKEA-they have it there for sale (if you have one near you). It is yum-shka!

Thanks.

I had no idea! Sadly, the closest IKEA to me is a 4 hour drive. LOVE IKEA!

I have been reading your TR for about 4 days now and I just have to say that I LOVE it.

My DH, DD (4), and I are off for our FIRST ever WDW vacation on Thursday the 30th. We are staying at the WIlderness Lodge for 6 nights...doesn't seem long enough to me, but I'm sure we will go back.

I'm surely going to use several of your tips and tricks.

I do have a question...is the height restriction not the same on all rides...for example, Boo rode FT, but did not ride EE. Is it because she didn't want to?

Can't wait for another installment.

Glad others answered! I didn't get to you until you were gone. HAVE A GREAT TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We're home now from our last trip but catching up on reality of course. We had a fabulous time and can't wait to tell you all about it.

Wasn't it amazing? Hard to believe we've only been back one week today!

So happy that you're back. Can't wait to hear all about the fun you all had.

I cannot wait to get my last report done and get started on this trip. It was awesome.

Glad you're safely home. Sorry that it's back to reality.

Yeah, reality isn't all it's cracked up to be. But I'm in a seriously better place now that I've had a break.

Thanks for responding. I measured DD this morning and she is 40" without shoes.

We also watched a Disney Parks video on NetFlix and DD decided that she didn't want to ride a few of the rides we saw. She is toooo cute. She did tell me that her daddy and I could take turns riding EE...really sweet since I did not even mention that to her.

Well, only 2 more days

I know it's going to be hot and rainy, but I'm from Texas, hot doesn't bother me, I can't say that I know what rain feels like anymore

I know I already said this above: but have FUN! And report back!

Ella Bean:
Funnily enough, I don't know what hot is, but I sure know what rain is!

We've been having mostly 40's, some low 50's...and lots of RDF! Rain Drizzle and Fog!
(I'm looking a skin lotion, not with SPF, but with RPF... rust protection factor!)

It's been gorgeous here. Absolutely gorgeous.

 

[taymaesmom]

How did they turn out?

yuck

I hate allspice, I hate it so much I actually threw it away so i will never make the mistake of using it again! I think I will use the meatball recipe and just leave out the allspice. I really liked the combo of hamburger and ground pork, that was really yummy!

 

[estherhead]

I'm back from our latest WDW trip, I'm caught up on life, and I'm ready to start in on this again. But I keep starting this chapter and stopping as I forget what we did after Akershus. So instead of it just permanently stopping me from ever writing this again, I'm gonna skip it. Well, I'll sum up and tell you only the stuff I remember. And that will be sketchy!

We finished up our delightful lunch and headed out. I believe I bought a School Bread as we were exiting to eat the next day at breakfast. It wasn't very good, sadly. Both Donald and I were disappointed and it's one of our faves so that tells you. But don't let that stop you from trying this as if you like custard, pastry, and coconut, school bread is certainly worth the $2.00 or so to give it a try.

And then we did something or another and headed up to meet our kids.

Donald had been itching to visit the butterfly house. We LOVE butterfly houses and have had some really great experiences.

Standing outside, perhaps to lure people in as it wasn't a very happening spot, was a CM with seed packets. They were cute, though instead of bringing them home and planting them, we have since lost them.

Boo and I then enjoyed the topiary with the butterfly on Bambi's tail:

As we entered, I paused to see the very cool butterflies "in progress":

Then I tried to take some pictures of the butterflies with my very crappy camera. I wasn't very successful and really, it wasn't as beautiful as I wanted it to be to begin with.

The big girls had wanted to go through Bambi's Butterfly house as well. But after Donald and Boo and I said it was lame, they never pushed to go back. There were butterflies in the house. But in a cool butterfly house there are so many butterflies they land on you. The flowers are beautiful and covered in butterflies. That wasn't the case here. It was just a little screen house with the amount of flowers and butterflies you can find in any well cared for backyard in our area.

After our one photo of butterflies, it was time to make sure all the big kids were still alive. Yup. They were.

They had had a grand time. They'd eaten lunch at Sunshine Season and enjoyed themselves some Innovations. Perfect. Everyone was in a great mood and ready to go hang out with Nemo and Crush.

We walked through all those cursed unmovable walkway things into Nemo and then went to see Crush. We prepped all our kids on questions to ask and how to get called on. Jack-Jack and McQueen both got called on and Boo didn't. This was NOT ok with her and on exiting she was super duper disappointed. Her conclusion was, "Crush doesn't like me." But when the tears were ready to pour out, she, always being the tough tomboy said, "I not cry."

But for sure the happy, life is great atmosphere of pre-Crush had been crushed post-Crush. So, say it with me y'all, "Ice Cream makes every thing better."

Yup. There is a Mickey bar stand right outside the Living Seas and we know it well. Crush has not been kindly to our kids over the years.

The ice cream certainly helped, but in reality we were ready for a change of scenery. Not to mention the itinerary told us we were supposed to swim and eat at Beaches and Cream. Suzy and I have ALWAYS wanted to eat at Beaches and Cream and with our 7 kids we felt we were the perfect candidates for a Kitchen Sink. What better time than when you are staying at the Dolphin?

We headed up to our room and the guys all quickly threw themselves and children into bathing suits and headed down. For some reason I was delayed and took a little while. Who knows why? Maybe I just pretended something was wrong with me so I could escape from them all for a bit.

But sooner than later I was headed down to try and find the pool. Before settling in I did some wandering to check it all out. The main pool was lovely and other than a cranky, cranky crowd who were ticked that children existed in the world (see previous comments for my rant on this), the family had a lovely time.

After wandering a bit I tried to find the place to get towels. This was confusing as there was dressed up people talking at this little stand and so I walked right by it, grabbing this duck off a life preserver stand and threw it in to Boo who immediately loved it.

On my second loop around the pool looking for towels I realized the stand had been the place and you have to show your room card and check towels out. I'm sure this is a good policy but I didn't like it. I like to be able to get towels at will as neither Donald nor Milo ever get towels until the children are done & dripping & crying. So when I go get towels I have to get 11. Which towel people don't like it very much when you say "11 towels please." And I don't like to be judged. Plus, sometimes it takes two trips.

Because of all this, I only got 6 towels. And I handed them out as children got out. The rest of the group was left to their own towel devices.

After dropping off my towels onto our spot, I continued on taking photos.

The baby pool was rather lame. It was nice that it was shady, but little ones really like a fountain or something. This was away from all action, had tons of leaves in it, was freezing cold, and very shallow. Lame. None of our kids gave it a second glance. Perhaps not even a first glance.

The beach was nice. But it was really hot this day and the sand was hot. Plus, with the squared off corners of the water around the Dolphin it just looks so fake. I realize that ALL of WDW is fake. It's just a swamp that someone makes look pretty. But I like it much better when I can pretend I'm on natural beaches.

I sat in the shade. Milo sat in the bright sunshine burning himself to a crisp on purpose. Any future skin cancer is his own fault. But in the moment, he was super happy:

The itinerary CLEARLY stated that we needed to be at the Beaches and Cream by 4 o'clock. This is because B&C doesn't take reservations and it's tiny inside so you need to get there before the dinner crowd. Especially if there are a ton of you. Like us. But we use our itinerary more as a guideline and Suzy had falled asleep in the room and I had fallen asleep in the shade and the kids were having fun in the pool. So it was after 4 before I even dragged the kids out of the pool. It had been pretty quiet everywhere we were this day so we had high hopes of our late start not being an issue.

We headed up to the room, me first with the kids who participated in my towel grab. The men with the remaining children and whatever towel situation they gathered.

Back into our Epcot shirts we went and we headed over for dinner.

We did our walk around the rectangle and enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere.

Awesome. There was no one waiting outside.

I went up to see about a wait and was told 45-60 minutes!!! Guess the peaceful outside was a trick. In looking inside, which is really cute, we pretty much would have filled the entire restaurant. This seems to be a mid-afternoon place, or a place for families of four.

After a quick conversation we decided to ditch it and head over to the ESPN Club. I've always wanted to eat there and Charming and Donald were also psyched.

It's gigantic so we figured getting in would be no problem.

There is a roped off section and Charming and I got in the line of about 8-10 people. But the line didn't move AT ALL and the now hungry children were getting restless. After two restaurants had been disappointing our crowd of now hungry and cranky people were in total disagreement. Suzy had to think about Jack-Jack who HAD to see Fantasmic. Charming was standing in LINE at a sports bar and had no desire to get out of line. And Milo wanted to do what he always wants to do, hang out at Epcot.

After much discussion, confusion, and general chaos of opinions we decided to split up. Milo to Epcot. Suzy to DHS. Me to ESPN Club and the Boardwalk. We told the kids they could pick whichever adult they wanted to and we would form our teams that way. Here is how the crowd split:

Perla: Charming, Boo, McQueen
Milo: Donald, Buzz, Ariel
Suzy: Jack-Jack, Mulan

And you will have to wait to hear aaaaallllll about our amazing evenings.

 

[Mommy2BnB]

I love your pictures of the topiaries at Epcot. Beautiful! The butterfly house sounds very disappointing. I would have expected more from Disney, too. Oh well.

Hooray for relaxing by the pool. Did Milo come to regret his decision to bake himself in the sun? The towel situation does not sound ideal. Were they afraid you were going to steal some of their precious towels, or gasp, take more than you needed?

Sorry you couldn't get into B&C, but I am amazed at how flexible you all were about splitting up to accommodate everyone.

 

[DisDreamz]

Too bad about Beaches and Cream (and Crush! for some reason my kids never get picked either even though the youngest REALLY wants to).

Also it appears you're having the problem I do--can't remember what happened to write the trip report I ended up quickly writing my last trip as soon as I got home so I wouldn't forget as much stuff (now I just have to get around to putting all that information with the pictures and posting them on here ).

 

[estherhead]

I love your pictures of the topiaries at Epcot. Beautiful! The butterfly house sounds very disappointing. I would have expected more from Disney, too. Oh well.

Hooray for relaxing by the pool. Did Milo come to regret his decision to bake himself in the sun? The towel situation does not sound ideal. Were they afraid you were going to steal some of their precious towels, or gasp, take more than you needed?

Sorry you couldn't get into B&C, but I am amazed at how flexible you all were about splitting up to accommodate everyone.

Milo never did really regret this decision. Though he did get his sunblock on blotchy and had some weird lines. He did this on our last trip too with similar results.

We were worried about this evening, being the planners that we are. But sometimes spontenaity is just what's needed.

Too bad about Beaches and Cream (and Crush! for some reason my kids never get picked either even though the youngest REALLY wants to).

Also it appears you're having the problem I do--can't remember what happened to write the trip report I ended up quickly writing my last trip as soon as I got home so I wouldn't forget as much stuff (now I just have to get around to putting all that information with the pictures and posting them on here ).

I knew I would run into these troubles if I didn't get this TR done before the next trip. It's like one trip erases the details of the previous trip. The human memory is a very confusing thing.

 

[DH_of_EH]

But sooner than later I was headed down to try and find the pool. Before settling in I did some wandering to check it all out. The main pool was lovely and other than a cranky, cranky crowd who were ticked that children existed in the world (see previous comments for my rant on this), the family had a lovely time.

Just a side story that I found amusing about the cranky crowd. Charming and I were tossing a little nerf football back and forth in the HUGE pool. One of the unnamed cranky tourists kept swimming laps directly between Charming and myself. As fate would have it, Charming flubbed the pass and tagged miss crankypants. He didn't really hit her, just skipped the ball next to her and gave her a good splash. Oh my GOODNESS did she let him have it. You'd have think he cut in front of her at the buffet line and taken the last of the roast beef! He apologized profusely (and could see her for who she was). After a few moments of a "no throwing zone" we moved away and continued our tossing.

Aside from miss crankypants, I quite enjoyed the pool. The lifeguards at the Dolphin pool were quite lax. They let Boo go down the slide by herself and let Mulan catch her at the bottom in the roped off area. Boo probably would have done this activity all day if Mulan and I hadn't tired so quickly of the slide.

After much discussion, confusion, and general chaos of opinions we decided to split up. Milo to Epcot. Suzy to DHS. Me to ESPN Club and the Boardwalk. We told the kids they could pick whichever adult they wanted to and we would form our teams that way. Here is how the crowd split:

Milo, Buzz, Ariel and I had quite the lovely time wandering around World Showcase. Milo and I took turns buying adult beverages and treats at all the different countries. All in all a lovely relaxing evening, quite unlike the rest of our breakneck speed trip!

 

[houseful of boys]

Sorry you couldn't get into B&C, but I am amazed at how flexible you all were about splitting up to accommodate everyone.

This would not have been possible in years past. But 2 things allowed us to be able to accomplish this this trip. 1. All of us know WDW inside and out. We have been multiple times in the last several years. This is especially important for Milo. He likes to know what's going on and be comfortable in his surroundings. He is now so comfortable at WDW (and LOVES EPCOT) that he doesn't get stressed out if left to his own devices for a while. and 2. The location of our resort. There was no discussion on how to get where and how to get back or when we needed to meet. It was SO convenient to stay at a Boardwalk Resort. it.

And as soon as Beaches and Cream didn't work out, I knew I had to be on my way with Jack Jack to Fantasmic. This was our last chance to see it this trip and it is our favorite. Only Mulan wanted to join us (because she also LOVES it). We had a grand time, as did the others. Perla, I'm sure, will post pictures of each of our evenings. So stayed tuned...........

Also, just a plug for our next trip report..........Just wait until you hear our adventures trying to see Fantasmic in June!!!!!!

 

[Torrance]

Sorry you guys missed out on the kitchen sink at Beaches & Cream, but it's neat that you were able to go your own separate ways and do things each group wanted to do. Looking forward to hearing more about this trip and your most recent adventure!

 

[LovesBelle]

I've been checking in periodically on the trip report board for the June trip so I can get my trip report fix--so I was very happy to realize today that it's just that this earlier trip report wasn't done yet! I've started my first trip report and now I see how much time it takes (and how many brain cells), so thank you for spending so much time on these.

 

[Mommy2BnB]

It is good to see Suzy and Donald chiming in! Can't wait to read more about your adventures at DW.