The 3 Girls Do Disney President's Week! A TR with Tons of Pics! *UPDATE* DONE!!!

[ShannonMB]

I have to work again tonight, so I better be gettin' to bed. I hope you'll stay tuned for the rest of our day at HS. We had such a blast!!!! Will we brave Fantasmic? Will it work out? You'll have to wait to find out!!!

 

[mouserus]

Ok now I think I have gained 10 pounds looking at all your food pics. By the way it's the 10 lbs. I have lost getting ready for my Dis trip.
Your mom looks great for not having any sleep or her luggage! Can't wait to keep reading. It's getting me in the mood to go! Only 60 more days!!!!!!!!!!
How were the crowds????

 

[Cory's Gal]

What a fun TR!! I love reading reports like this, how cool to have it mom, daughter, and granddaughter! That stinks that it took your mom's luggage so long to show up! I can't wait to try TSM, it looks like so much fun! Can't wait to read more!

 

[GeminiAngel]

I've seen hit or miss reports on this place before.
But the sweets always seem to be a hit!

Great update, can't wait for more.

 

[ShannonMB]

Ok now I think I have gained 10 pounds looking at all your food pics. By the way it's the 10 lbs. I have lost getting ready for my Dis trip.
Your mom looks great for not having any sleep or her luggage! Can't wait to keep reading. It's getting me in the mood to go! Only 60 more days!!!!!!!!!!
How were the crowds????

I love food pics! I like to look at the dining reports on the board, that's why I started taking my own. Didn't follow through enough for a true dining report, though, I didn't think. So this is an "all in one" trippie. Yeah, Mom pulled it together with nothing, but she was gettin' a little cranky about the whole thing by this time...Woohoo! 60 days!! This was said to be a busy week (this day was a 7 on UG, and it was a park to avoid because of Fantasmic! of course. The rest of the week was 8s, a 9, and a 7. But we did great! Fast passes and getting there early-ish, and we did most everything we wanted with no problems. I LOVE the DISboards! Thanks for sticking with me, BTW!!! and I hope you'll post a TR when you return!

What a fun TR!! I love reading reports like this, how cool to have it mom, daughter, and granddaughter! That stinks that it took your mom's luggage so long to show up! I can't wait to try TSM, it looks like so much fun! Can't wait to read more!

Thanks so much for coming by. It's really fun to relive our trip. The luggage thing stunk, but my mom was being Eeyore about it, and I told her it was happening because she wasn't believing in the magic! TSM was a wonderful new ride. A must-do for us, for sure!!!

I've seen hit or miss reports on this place before.
But the sweets always seem to be a hit!

Great update, can't wait for more.

Totally! Wonder if we could just go for shakes/dessert next time? Thanks for staying tuned!

 

[ShannonMB]

Day 2, cont...

Okay, so after lunch at Sci-Fi, Mom was getting really tired and cranky and was ready to throw in the towel for the day. I couldn't really blame her, but I was a tad disappointed because we were planning on Fantasmic that evening, and she had never seen it. Oh well, Lily and me were still going!!

So Mom headed out back to the resort to deal with her luggage situation again. It was about 3:30pm by this time. I had planned on going to the 2nd Fantasmic showing this night, because I figured it'd be a little easier crowd-wise. And there was a 5:45 Beauty and the Beast show which I really wanted to see since I haven't seen it yet. But seeing that we had already done EVERYTHING else on our list, I thought, hmmmm, if we just skip B&theB, we could just go wait for the first F! show and be "home" a little earlier.

For some reason, Lily doesn't have the slightest interest in the B&theB show, or Voyage of the Little Mermaid, so she was easy to convince about the first F! show. Since we did still have SOME time to kill (no need to line up at 4!! for a 7:00 show), I talked her into...

Here's Lily waiting in line...

I thought this show was pretty neat, especially the "puppets" for Under the Sea. We got in line around 4pm for the 4:35 show, which worked out fine. But one thing, I found that holding room they cram you into a little claustrophobic. I couldn't WAIT to get out of there!!

After the ride, we took a few more pics.

Then we made our way to Sunset Blvd to find the Fantasmic line. We were just in such a good mood that the thought of waiting 90+ minutes wasn't even fasing (sp) us. When we got over there, it was about 5:20 or so, and they had just opened the gate for Hollywood Hills. There was a small crowd in front of us already waiting, then people started to fill in behind us once we got in line. The path was roped off at a certain point, then in about 30 min they dropped that rope and let us go a little farther in. At least we felt like we were making a little progress!

While we were in line, we were talking to this nice guy who had been to Disney dozens of times but had never seen Fantasmic. He made a joke, "I don't know why I decided to wait till they cut the scheduled number of shows, now I have to wait this long!" He asked Lily and me if it was worth the wait, and we both agreed it was. After all, people think nothing of waiting that long to see the fairies at Pixie Hollow, and F! is just way more up our alley. (On a side note, Lily wasn't interested in meeting the fairies. She said they aren't really her faves, so why wait that long. hehehe gotta love that, although I wouldn't mind seeing Pixie Hollow myself one of these days...). Lily thought this guy was really nice and wanted us to sit by their family. heeheh So when they finally let us in to the amphitheater (maybe around 6pm), their family came to the same spot we grabbed. Check out the spot!!!

During our wait, Lily and I amused ourselves by buying some big Mickey hands

then a "string thing" and some popcorn. Of course as the amphitheater filled up, everyone started doing the wave, which Lily is a huge fan of! hehehe

Ahh, it started getting dark, and they lit up the mountain... so cool!

I wish I would have at least ATTEMPTED some Fantasmic pics, but last time they were a failure and I decided to just immerse myself in the show rather than try and fail at pics again. Sorry, how anti-climactic! We did thoroughly LOVE the show, though, and the guy's family we had been talking to agreed it was worth the wait!

After the show, we found a bench at Echo lake and relaxed while the mobs headed out.

We headed over to the busses about 20 minutes later, and we scored the first bus that came as we waited. Woohooo!!!! No waiting!!!! So lucky!!!!

We got back to our room, maybe around 9pm or so, and Mom's luggage was just arriving, brought by a super-nice CM named Tom, who, as I said before, brought us each a stuffed animal, balloons, a gift card, upgraded us to park hoppers. So finally Mom could relax.

Lily wanted to swim really badly, and even though it was a little chilly (I'd say mid-60s), we headed out to the pool for about a half hour. I did not swim!! But there were plenty of other snow-birds in the pool! LOL

We went to bed shortly thereafter, and I slept GREAT!!! It was a really perfect Hollywood Studios day for us!

 

[__disneygirl]

Hi Shannon! I love your report. Your daughter Lily is so adorable! I'm subscribing.

What a nightmare with the luggage. That's always a fear of mine. Though I loved that they gave you a bunch of gifts! Picturing the guy coming at you with balloons and everything cracked me up.

I'm sorry your experience at Sci Fi wasn't perfect. It is a must-do for us and you are right about those onion rings! If you get a second chance to go, definitely get them! They are the same ones as at Beaches & Cream at the Beach Club Resort and they are the best i've ever had.

Excited for more!

 

[KELLY]

Thanks so much. \ love your report. Thanks for the info the the hair wrap. DD is 3 but has very long hair. I'll try to avoid the hair wrap for now. Plus we are doing the bibbidi bobbidi boutique in April.

 

[ShannonMB]

Hi Shannon! I love your report. Your daughter Lily is so adorable! I'm subscribing.

What a nightmare with the luggage. That's always a fear of mine. Though I loved that they gave you a bunch of gifts! Picturing the guy coming at you with balloons and everything cracked me up.

I'm sorry your experience at Sci Fi wasn't perfect. It is a must-do for us and you are right about those onion rings! If you get a second chance to go, definitely get them! They are the same ones as at Beaches & Cream at the Beach Club Resort and they are the best i've ever had.

Excited for more!

Thanks for joining me, I'm so glad you're here!! Yeah, the luggage thing was pretty annoying. I saw a lot of people actually bringing their own luggage on the ME, which I thought was weird at the time. Something to think about for next time, although I do love having it "magically" delivered! Besides, it WAS nice to get the free stuff!

We are still in the mode of trying different places to eat each time, so it will probably be a while before we go back to Sci-Fi. Beaches and Cream, now THAT might be one for next time. "I'd like onion rings and a Kitchen Sink with 2 spoons, please!" hehehehe

Thanks so much. \ love your report. Thanks for the info the the hair wrap. DD is 3 but has very long hair. I'll try to avoid the hair wrap for now. Plus we are doing the bibbidi bobbidi boutique in April.

Hi Kelly! I'm glad you're enjoying our adventures! Yeah, I'd skip the hair wrap till she's old enough to beg for it. hehe BBB will be great for that age!! ooh, your trip is next month! Hope you'll post a report!

 

[ShannonMB]

Day 3 -- Animal Kingdom

So, we've had the best day ever at DTD/MK, then the best day ever at HS!! I was starting to wonder at this point if our luck would hold out and we could possibly have the best day ever at AK!!! Well, we DID!! I can't wait to tell you all about it...

This was Monday, 2/16, the dreaded President's Day! The UG had posted the crowd levels at a "9", and AK was a "worst park", so I was a little worried. We had all our ADRs planned based on which park we'd be in, though, so I decided before the trip to just do our best and go with the plan.

It was an early extra magic hours day at AK, so we decided to get there as early as possible. We made it by about 8:30am, so not TOO bad.

Our strategy was to head straight to the safari, so as soon as we got there we made a bee-line to Africa.

Here's Mom and Lily getting ready to take off on the safari. The posted wait was 20 min, but it was basically walk-on.

I tried to get some pics on the safari, but I didn't even get one good one. Last time we were there, I got some amazing pics of the animals, but this time, I think the guy was driving too fast or something, so no luck. I put the camera away after a few minutes and decided to just enjoy the ride. It was really cool. I so enjoy seeing the animals, with a little Disney theming thrown in!!!!

After the safari, we decided to head over to Asia, but on the way, we saw these guys!!!

Last time we saw Baloo, but it was cool to see him this time with King Louie. I love Baloo!

There's so much cool stuff to look at at AK...

Here's a crowd pic. I'm almost positive it was about 9ish heading out of Africa.

Pretty busy for early am!

We headed over to Asia, and first-thing we grabbed fast passes for Kali River Rapids. The ride didn't open till 10am, and it was almost that time, but we wanted to wait to ride till it was a little warmer (it was still a little chilly!). I was dying to get on Expedition Everest, which of course Lily and mom wouldn't ride, so we decided they would go over to the 10:30 Flights of Wonder show, and I'd head to Everest and see if I could find that single rider I heard about from the DISboards.

WOW, did I ever find that single rider line!!!! The stand-by wait was posted at 60 minutes, and I rode 3 times in just under an hour! After the 2nd time, I was actually done and feeling a little woozy, but I thought, I still have some time, I can't pass up one more ride! What a wonderful experience that was for me. The first time I rode with a big man who was yelling and screaming. So funny! Then the second time was a little Asian girl who didn't speak ANY English. She and her friends had a blast. Then the 3rd ride was with a guy who was like, "Okay, you can ride with me as long as you promise not to scream like a girl" (kidding) I told him it was my 3rd ride in a row and I think I could hold it in. VERY fun!

When I was done there, I went over to meet the other girls at the bird show. It was just letting out, so perfect timing.

Another of my crowd strategies was to eat lunch right at 11am to beat the crowds. We had just had a snack at ASMovies before we left there, so we were hungry, and what do you know, it was exactly 11am! I had a few options in mind for counter service, depending on where we were in the park at 11am, and we were right near Yak and Yeti, so that was the choice.

I didn't know where the counter service was, so I actually stopped in to the sit-down part of Yak and Yeti to ask. It was empty, so Mom suggested we try to get a table and eat table service. Well, that wasn't going to work with our dining plan credits, but what the heck. So we asked, and they did have a table for us. Apparently, this is a Landry restaurant (which I had no idea), and the hostess said they hold a lot of tables back for walk-in.

We were seated right away, and had a very nice server. He brought us our drinks (mango iced tea for me, hot tea for Mom, and sprite for Lily).

Then we had our lunch...I had babyback ribs with Hoisin BBQ sauce, Mom had the skirt steak with tempura shrimp, and Lily had fried rice, lo mein, and fries.

I can't find my pic of Mom's, but it was fantastic. But the desserts -- YUM!!! I got the cream cheese wontons with pineapple and vanilla sauce, and Mom and Lily split the brownie sundae.

This was BY FAR one of my favorite meals of this trip. The ribs were fall-off-the-bone tender, so meaty, and no fat. The sauce was to die for. And the wonton dessert? Honestly one of the most delicious desserts I ever had. I love that combo of fried and sweet. I can't believe I have to wait till our next Disney trip to have that again! Mom LOVED this place also, and Lily thought it was "okay". So glad we decided to have an impromptu table service lunch!

As we were leaving, the restaurant was PACKED with people waiting to be seated. It was empty when we got there, so the early lunch was a good idea!

Next we headed over to Kali River Rapids, and it was the exact return time for our fast passes (12:20pm). How lucky! So, we pulled out our $1 Target ponchos and hopped on.

Lily really likes this ride, because it's a thrill ride for her, but tame enough that she's not too scared. When we were getting on the ride, they decided to put us in a raft that was about to depart, so the CM kept saying, you have about 45 seconds, 20 seconds to get your seatbelts on! We managed to get buckled in with our ponchos around us, and off we went. At one point a HUGE wave came over the side right on my mom. Thank GOODNESS she had the poncho on, and it really kept her dry!! The ponchos were a BRILLIANT idea on my part (from the DIS)!!! heheehhhee

After the ride, Lily and I gave our ponchos to two ladies who were being forced to ride by their kids. They were SO thankful and wanted to pay us for them, but I told them they were only $1, and enjoy! That felt nice to do! Mom kept hers on because she was freezing, and somehow the plastic bag was keeping her warm.

 

[GeminiAngel]

Loving your report and pictures!
Can't wait for more.

 

[ShannonMB]

Day 3, cont...

After Kali, it was time to head over to Dinoland!!!

I will take this opportunity to say that we didn't take the train to Rafiki's Planet watch. We haven't been over in that area, mostly because we don't do petting zoos. I'm a nurse at a children's hospital, and I've heard of more than one child coming in deathly ill after visiting a petting zoo. I'm sure with proper hygiene/handwashing they can be safe, but we steer clear. So we just don't head over to that area. I'm sure there's other cool stuff over there, so maybe one day we'll go check it out.

ANYWAY, on to Dinoland!!

Our first stop over there was to get me a FP for Dinosaur, which the other 2 wouldn't ride. I actually agree with Lily on this one that it is waay to scary for her!!! But I love it! My return time was 2:10pm, so we had some time to kill. Somehow we talked Lily in to riding Primevil Whirl, which none of us had been on. We reasoned that it looked like the teacups (which Lily loves, with just a couple little hills.

She was very nervous the whole time in the line (posted wait 40 min, seemed like about 30). Mom bribed her that she could play some of the carnival games afterwards if she braved it. So she did. WEEELLL!! It scared the crap out of her, and she was not too happy!!! It actually was a much scarier ride than I would have thought, and I felt a little bad about talking her in to it. But it was okay, she got over it, and then she got to play some games!

We got a strawberry smoothie from a snack stand in dinoland with a snack credit. Yummy!

Lily won a frog on one of the games, which thrilled her!

Mom and I were thinking that they should do separate games for the adults and kids maybe. Of course it's always a grown man who wins the games where everyone competes. Oh well, it was fun, and it was so exciting that Lily won something!

Here's a funny pic of Lily looking in the carnival mirror!

At this point, it was time for me to go over to Dinosaur, so the girls got in line for Triceratops Spin...

and I headed over...

This ride was scary as ever!!! On my way in, I saw a little one, maybe 4, getting off crying, and his mom was saying, "Don't worry, I promise we never have to ride that again!" heheeh poor little fella. I screamed in absolute TERROR twice on this ride. I'm not sure if people really know what they're getting into when they go on this!!! Scary, for sure!

The other girls were done with their ride right when I finished, perfect timing. A few more pics...

Wow, what a good time in Dinoland!!!

At this point, it was close to 3pm, and the parade was at 4. Since it was so crowded and we were doing a great job on our itinerary, we decided to grab a strawberry ice bar, a pair of "I Love Troy" crocs for Lily, and find a perfect parade spot and just chill out and wait for it.

We headed to Discovery Island, and found a great spot. It seemed like we were the first ones to scope out a spot, then others started joining us.

I didn't take any pics of the parade, because I had so many good ones from last trip. I decided to just enjoy the parade. I have mixed feelings about that decision, because I REALLY did enjoy the parade, but I'm sad because you wouldn't BELIEVE all the interaction we had!! EVERY single character came by to shake with Lily, including some of those guys on stilts!! When the big chameleon went by, I was looking the other way and he had his face right next to me for a long time, till I looked back over and screamed! It was too funny! Lily REALLY enjoyed all the attention, we all did. At the end, Mickey went by on a float and I blew him a kiss, and he blew one back!!! I know this sounds really silly/foolish, but I was so in the moment with that great parade music and thinking this was the best parade experience EVER, that I actually got tears in my eyes when Mickey blew me a kiss! Maybe some of you will understand, and the rest will think I'm a dork! hehehe The whole parade was downright MAGICAL, that's the only word for it. I'm sooo glad we staked out that great spot!!!

When the parade crowd cleared out, we headed over to It's Tough To Be a Bug. This show sorta creeps Lily out, but it's SUCH a great 3-D!! It's also a wonderful queue area, with such detail of the tree. And it was a walk-on! When we got there, the next show was in 5 min!!!

We all LOVED the show! For some reason, I couldn't smell the Stink bug, which was fine with me! But I love all the effects. So COOL!

 

[ShannonMB]

Day 3, cont...

By this time, it was about 5pm, so we decided to head over to Camp Minnie-Mickey and see who was over there. On the way, I took a couple pics of the tree...

We had Chef Mickey's later in the week, so we decided not to wait for the fab 5, but we did see Kenai from Brother Bear, who we had never seen before. I love Brother Bear, and Lily really loved the good hugs Kenai gave!

We found these photo ops at a DVC booth. Cute!!

Then we ran into Lilo and Stitch.

By this time we were getting tired, and we had Boma at 7:05, so we decided to head out and see if we could get seated a little early. We didn't see Festival of the Lion King or the Nemo show this trip, for some reason Lily wasn't interested. We all agreed, though, that we did an awesome job seeing some great stuff on our AK day. REALLY a perfect day!

 

[ShannonMB]

Day 3, cont...

BOMA! We got there a little early. Here's Lily waiting.

We had been to BOMA on our last trip, and it was on my must-do list (it was our only repeat this trip). Even Lily loved it last time, mostly because of the pepper pot soup. I had found out before we went that they rotate the menu, so they wouldn't have that soup on our day. Lily was bummed, but still wanted to see what they had this time.

Me and Mom tried EVERYTHING they had, literally. It was really an eating adventure, and I liked a lot of it. Of course some of it was weird, but we really like trying new things. Here are all the soups..The top one was Mullagatawny, the bottom one is potato/bacon (really good), one was a gumbo/seafood chowder, and I forget the other one

Here are the salads. Ghana tomato salad (great), some leafy thing, pasta salad (curry? good), pearl couscous w/ shrimp (I liked the pearl couscous), and watermelon rind salad (eew).

3 kinds of hummus (black olive, sun-dried tomato, chili tasting)

Fufu (squash, too sweet), salmon w/ coconut curry (okay), something that reminded me of polenta (pretty good), mushroom rice (yum), falafel balls (yum!), and couscous (good).

Potatoes w/ Afritude (pretty good), bobotie (a little too sweet), sausage and peppers (yum!!), prime rib with different sauces (great!), and a little corn muffin (good).

Lily not being too adventurous this time! The chicken nuggets were REALLY good here, though.

AND, the DESSERTS!!! REALLY good!

The highlights for me on the dessert plate were the zebra domes and the banana bread pudding with vanilla sauce (Mom loved it with the chocolate sauce). FANTASTIC!!!!

After dinner, we took a cab back from AK Lodge to ASMovies. Easier than bussing back to AK, then the resort. The cab cost maybe $9. Well worth it.

We got back to the room and crashed. SUCH a fun, fun day!!!!

Oh, on a side note, I heard a lady telling someone at the resort that they were only able to ride 4 rides in 7 hours at Magic Kingdom this day, so we did pretty well!!!!

 

[ProudMommyof2]

I am very impressed with how you manages the parks!!!!

 

[ShannonMB]

I am very impressed with how you manages the parks!!!!

Thank you very much. I take that as a compliment from a DVCer!! This was our first trip with a little more of a plan, and it worked out really well. It was so much fun reliving that AK day this morning while I wrote the update. Thanks for sticking with us!

 

[ShannonMB]

Loving your report and pictures!
Can't wait for more.

Thanks so much for staying with me!!

 

[GeminiAngel]

Is there just plain food at Boma too? I would LOVE to try it. My family are a bunch of plain Jane's!

What a fun update. You made the parade sound so good, I might catch it next time I go.

 

[ShannonMB]

Is there just plain food at Boma too? I would LOVE to try it. My family are a bunch of plain Jane's!

What a fun update. You made the parade sound so good, I might catch it next time I go.

Hi, GeminiAngel! I'm glad you liked the update. I really enjoyed writing/re-living it. I really like Animal Kingdom, and I would suggest the parade, if you're a parade type of gal. It's got such a cool jungle vibe to it, and we were dancing the whole time. Honestly, it was our fave parade this trip!

As for BOMA, everything on our plates is pretty much what they had that day. Not a whole lot of normal food, other than the chicken nuggets, fries, and they probably had some of that standard Stouffer's mac and cheese at the kids' area, too. Last time we went they had ribs in addition to the salmon and prime rib (as I remember, they were good). There was also some chicken, but it was also seasoned in some "African" way. I don't know how the plain Janes would do here! But if you're ever on a solo trip, maybe? hehehehe I really like it, but I would hesitate to recommend it to less adventurous types...

 

[DWFan4Life]

Great trip report coming here, I just finished reading it and enjoying the pictures, it's really awesome. Glad that you had a great time. Looking forward in hearing more from you.

Have a nice day everyone.