Wilderness Lodge Concierge
Cast:
ME: 32, planner, borderline Disney obsessed
DH-Fred: 38, likes Disney, but now calls me the Disney drill instructor!
DS- Jared: 4 ½, Buzzs biggest fan (or so we thought)
Day 4 Mon. Sept. 15
Today we do EE at Animal Kingdom. I roused the troops pretty early this morning, which they were less than enthused about. I told them with tour plan in hand that we had to get there early and head straight to Kilimanjaro Safari! Well you know the saying about the best-laid plans? This is the day the touring plan died. We get our pic taken and head in only to come across several CM holding various creepy crawlies that DS just HAD to see. So this started us behind right out of the gate. We checked out several Tarantulas (my least favorite thing in the world) and a very cool Millipede. As I was panicking over my tour plan I reminded myself that all that was really important was that
Jared was having fun and that I needed to get myself in check. So we continued in and we see Baloo so we stop with him for a bit and also DH checks out the cool drums that you could play. (I cant remember exactly where this was at) I really felt overwhelmed at this park and feel like we didnt do a lot of what we wanted and the only reason that I can think for the reason is because we had never been there before where as I have been everywhere else many times. Also I was so struck by looking around that I didnt want to be bothered looking at what we were supposed to be doing next, I just wanted to enjoy it.
Anyway we make our way to the safari where it is supposedly a 5-minute wait . it was really more like 15. We really enjoyed this and got some great views of both white and black rhinos, giraffes, and many others. The real good luck came when we got excellent views of the Lion pacing back and forth.
The only real disappointment was that all the hippos were below water and we couldnt really see them.
By this time not only do I know that the touring plan is dead but I decide that I dont care and we are just going to do what feels right. This leads us to the Pagani forest Trail which all of us loved and glad that we didnt miss it. We were headed to Dino Land when a CM derailed us with a beautiful owl doing a little demo outside of the Flights of Wonder. We really got an up-close view of this beautiful bird and learned a lot about it. Jared decided he wanted to see the show so we went in and found great seats and
waited just a few minutes before it started. We all really enjoyed this show as well and I am really glad that we didnt skip it, as was the touring plans original intention.
We then headed off to Dino Land and let me just say that I HATED this entire area. I do not believe this is what Walt had in mind. I think this whole area needs to be put under cover. It is sweltering in this area and since it is geared to smaller kids I think Disney really needs to rethink this. We rode triceratops spin and then Jared saw the Bone yard area and wanted to check it out . this ended up being a big mistake. Not only did we find it to be uncomfortable, and hot but Jared didnt want to leave and we have way better play areas at home. This was a total waste of time in my opinion and if we ever go back I will avoid this whole area. Ok sorry for the rant!
We decided to stop and eat at this point so we headed to Flame Tree and had a wonderful lunch. Fred and I had ribs and onion rings and DS had a yummy crust less PB and J. Its getting pretty late by this time and we have some characters we want to see so we head to the character trail and get to spend some time with Pooh, Eyore, and Tigger. We just missed Piglet. We did get to see him but no pic. DS was a little sad but I assured him we would see him at our second day at MK. Jared really wanted to see Lilo and Stitch so I asked a CM where they could be found and they said only Lilo would be around at 1:30. We decided it was too long to wait and headed to Camp Minnie/Mickey to see who was there. The only character here that DS hadnt already saw was Pluto, we head to Pluto waited about 1 minute and we were the first to have some great interaction with him and Jared really loved it. We reluctantly decided to leave because it was really getting hot and we had planned some time at Epcot for later that evening. On our way out we caught up with Meeko (who we thought was just great, dancing and playing with the kids), Terk, Timon and Rafiki. Even though we had already met Timon and Rafiki Jared really wanted to see Timon again and show him his shirt he was wearing (which had Timon and Pumba on it). So we waited and they had some great interaction together. It was magical.
Jared fell asleep in the car on the way back. We had a swim. There had been an ongoing debate for a couple days about whether or not Jared wanted a lanyard and any pins. I was concerned that it was too much of a financial investment for a child so young. I wasnt even sure he really understood the concept. Finally I told him that we would get him one later that night. As were coming back from the pool of course he had to stop at the pin station and the wonderful CM there named Ignez told him to pick any pin he wanted from her lanyard. Jared chose Flounder. His first pin!! He was really excited and proud. I thought it was really nice of her to just give it to him and I promised to buy him a lanyard after we got cleaned up for Epcot. We then debated going to Epcot.
DH and I were really starting to feel the effects of the heat and not enough rest. We eventually decided to go. On the way out I bought Jared a lanyard and let him pick some pins. $39.00 later we were on our way. As we were leaving we ran into a wonderful CM named Amber that noticed that Jared was enthralled with his pins and offered to let him pick a trade. I was a little nervous because I wasnt sure Jared really understood what was going to happen. Jared said he wanted her Pooh pin and when I told him that he would get Pooh but he had to give one up he agreed. Luckily the CM understood that this was his first trade and she let him pick which pin he wanted to give up. He chose Peter Pan. He seemed ok with this and she was very sweet. I will always remember her patience and kindness to Jared. I was really feeling the magic and got a little teary.
DH and I wanted to ride Test Track, as it was new to Epcot since we had last been there. So while he headed over to ride it I let DS play in the fountains just down the way from TT. He really loved this and I was thinking to myself Disney spends millions to build these theme parks and really just add water and the kids are thrilled I had heard that in the afternoon that it could be along line but DH was back in no time and I headed to ride it. I enjoyed it but it wasnt as good as I expected. We had a PS at Le Cellier for 6:00 so we got Jared dried and changed and headed over for dinner. Honestly we were really dragging along by this time and had a really hard time enjoying our dinner. We each had cheese soup and the filet. The cheese soup was good but we didnt like the pretzel sticks that everyone usually raves about. I hated the potatoes but we both enjoyed the filet. We had a few other things we originally wanted to check out be we decided to bail as we were pretty much worn out. On our way out Jared saw some ducks and wanted to spend some time with them. We sat for a while and there was a very nice but fairly inebriated man that shared his cheerios with Jared to feed the ducks. He really loved doing this and we enjoyed watching him. We headed back and bumped into Majestic and his family on the way out. They even commented that we looked pretty wore out.
When we got back to our room I decided that with all the sweating and changing of clothes that I was going to have to do a load of laundry before the week was out. I decided to go do it while the guys had a snack and watched the fireworks from the balcony. Let me just say that the laundry facilities really need some work at the WL. This was probably my biggest complaint. It was very busy and there werent enough machines. I put one load in a washing machine
it said it would take 39 minutes. I left and came back after 37 minutes and it still had 12 minutes to go. I waited and waited. It took another 22 minutes to finish. ??? After waiting for a dryer to open up I had to run 3 cycles to get them mostly dry. This was not a huge load. It ended up taking me 2 hours to do one load of laundry. For a resort of this level I find this to be unacceptable. I headed off to bed pretty irritated but still feeling the Disney magic.
Coming up .MGM and why did I bring those ponchos?
Cast:
ME: 32, planner, borderline Disney obsessed
DH-Fred: 38, likes Disney, but now calls me the Disney drill instructor!
DS- Jared: 4 ½, Buzzs biggest fan (or so we thought)
Day 4 Mon. Sept. 15
Today we do EE at Animal Kingdom. I roused the troops pretty early this morning, which they were less than enthused about. I told them with tour plan in hand that we had to get there early and head straight to Kilimanjaro Safari! Well you know the saying about the best-laid plans? This is the day the touring plan died. We get our pic taken and head in only to come across several CM holding various creepy crawlies that DS just HAD to see. So this started us behind right out of the gate. We checked out several Tarantulas (my least favorite thing in the world) and a very cool Millipede. As I was panicking over my tour plan I reminded myself that all that was really important was that
Jared was having fun and that I needed to get myself in check. So we continued in and we see Baloo so we stop with him for a bit and also DH checks out the cool drums that you could play. (I cant remember exactly where this was at) I really felt overwhelmed at this park and feel like we didnt do a lot of what we wanted and the only reason that I can think for the reason is because we had never been there before where as I have been everywhere else many times. Also I was so struck by looking around that I didnt want to be bothered looking at what we were supposed to be doing next, I just wanted to enjoy it.
Anyway we make our way to the safari where it is supposedly a 5-minute wait . it was really more like 15. We really enjoyed this and got some great views of both white and black rhinos, giraffes, and many others. The real good luck came when we got excellent views of the Lion pacing back and forth.
The only real disappointment was that all the hippos were below water and we couldnt really see them. By this time not only do I know that the touring plan is dead but I decide that I dont care and we are just going to do what feels right. This leads us to the Pagani forest Trail which all of us loved and glad that we didnt miss it. We were headed to Dino Land when a CM derailed us with a beautiful owl doing a little demo outside of the Flights of Wonder. We really got an up-close view of this beautiful bird and learned a lot about it. Jared decided he wanted to see the show so we went in and found great seats and waited just a few minutes before it started. We all really enjoyed this show as well and I am really glad that we didnt skip it, as was the touring plans original intention.
We then headed off to Dino Land and let me just say that I HATED this entire area. I do not believe this is what Walt had in mind. I think this whole area needs to be put under cover. It is sweltering in this area and since it is geared to smaller kids I think Disney really needs to rethink this. We rode triceratops spin and then Jared saw the Bone yard area and wanted to check it out . this ended up being a big mistake. Not only did we find it to be uncomfortable, and hot but Jared didnt want to leave and we have way better play areas at home. This was a total waste of time in my opinion and if we ever go back I will avoid this whole area. Ok sorry for the rant!
We decided to stop and eat at this point so we headed to Flame Tree and had a wonderful lunch. Fred and I had ribs and onion rings and DS had a yummy crust less PB and J. Its getting pretty late by this time and we have some characters we want to see so we head to the character trail and get to spend some time with Pooh, Eyore, and Tigger. We just missed Piglet. We did get to see him but no pic. DS was a little sad but I assured him we would see him at our second day at MK. Jared really wanted to see Lilo and Stitch so I asked a CM where they could be found and they said only Lilo would be around at 1:30. We decided it was too long to wait and headed to Camp Minnie/Mickey to see who was there. The only character here that DS hadnt already saw was Pluto, we head to Pluto waited about 1 minute and we were the first to have some great interaction with him and Jared really loved it. We reluctantly decided to leave because it was really getting hot and we had planned some time at Epcot for later that evening. On our way out we caught up with Meeko (who we thought was just great, dancing and playing with the kids), Terk, Timon and Rafiki. Even though we had already met Timon and Rafiki Jared really wanted to see Timon again and show him his shirt he was wearing (which had Timon and Pumba on it). So we waited and they had some great interaction together. It was magical.
Jared fell asleep in the car on the way back. We had a swim. There had been an ongoing debate for a couple days about whether or not Jared wanted a lanyard and any pins. I was concerned that it was too much of a financial investment for a child so young. I wasnt even sure he really understood the concept. Finally I told him that we would get him one later that night. As were coming back from the pool of course he had to stop at the pin station and the wonderful CM there named Ignez told him to pick any pin he wanted from her lanyard. Jared chose Flounder. His first pin!! He was really excited and proud. I thought it was really nice of her to just give it to him and I promised to buy him a lanyard after we got cleaned up for Epcot. We then debated going to Epcot.
DH and I were really starting to feel the effects of the heat and not enough rest. We eventually decided to go. On the way out I bought Jared a lanyard and let him pick some pins. $39.00 later we were on our way. As we were leaving we ran into a wonderful CM named Amber that noticed that Jared was enthralled with his pins and offered to let him pick a trade. I was a little nervous because I wasnt sure Jared really understood what was going to happen. Jared said he wanted her Pooh pin and when I told him that he would get Pooh but he had to give one up he agreed. Luckily the CM understood that this was his first trade and she let him pick which pin he wanted to give up. He chose Peter Pan. He seemed ok with this and she was very sweet. I will always remember her patience and kindness to Jared. I was really feeling the magic and got a little teary.
DH and I wanted to ride Test Track, as it was new to Epcot since we had last been there. So while he headed over to ride it I let DS play in the fountains just down the way from TT. He really loved this and I was thinking to myself Disney spends millions to build these theme parks and really just add water and the kids are thrilled I had heard that in the afternoon that it could be along line but DH was back in no time and I headed to ride it. I enjoyed it but it wasnt as good as I expected. We had a PS at Le Cellier for 6:00 so we got Jared dried and changed and headed over for dinner. Honestly we were really dragging along by this time and had a really hard time enjoying our dinner. We each had cheese soup and the filet. The cheese soup was good but we didnt like the pretzel sticks that everyone usually raves about. I hated the potatoes but we both enjoyed the filet. We had a few other things we originally wanted to check out be we decided to bail as we were pretty much worn out. On our way out Jared saw some ducks and wanted to spend some time with them. We sat for a while and there was a very nice but fairly inebriated man that shared his cheerios with Jared to feed the ducks. He really loved doing this and we enjoyed watching him. We headed back and bumped into Majestic and his family on the way out. They even commented that we looked pretty wore out.
When we got back to our room I decided that with all the sweating and changing of clothes that I was going to have to do a load of laundry before the week was out. I decided to go do it while the guys had a snack and watched the fireworks from the balcony. Let me just say that the laundry facilities really need some work at the WL. This was probably my biggest complaint.
It was very busy and there werent enough machines. I put one load in a washing machine
it said it would take 39 minutes. I left and came back after 37 minutes and it still had 12 minutes to go. I waited and waited. It took another 22 minutes to finish. ??? After waiting for a dryer to open up I had to run 3 cycles to get them mostly dry. This was not a huge load. It ended up taking me 2 hours to do one load of laundry. For a resort of this level I find this to be unacceptable. I headed off to bed pretty irritated but still feeling the Disney magic. Coming up .MGM and why did I bring those ponchos?
