We have now gotten into the habit of taking our time getting going in the morning and it really seems to work for us. I would have liked to make it to rope drop at least once but in the end with the kids we let them sleep until they were ready to wake up. Today we were heading to Downtown Disney anyway so there was no rush.
We took the bus and decided to start with Disney Quest. I had basically read everywhere that it was more for older kids but I know DD5 loves car driving games and any other video game she can get her hands on ( Thank Goodness that so far I have pretty much kept her to rare time with a V-Smile!) so we though we would give it a try. We got off the bus at the West Side and made our way to Disney Quest only to find it still closed. Rather than wait an hour for it to open we walked all the way to the Marketplace and ended up in the Lego Centre. Now yes I have girls, but they love Disney and Pixar’s Cars figurines more than anything currently and they love train sets and lego. They do have some girly tastes like Pet Shop toys and DD3 is all about dresses, but for the most part they are their father’s daughters
. We spent a whole lot of time looking at all of the lego products. DD5 wanted to find pink lego. As it turns out there is a great little display of pink lego but none to be found in the store unless you bought some princess castle kits. So I ordered a box of pink lego which was delivered to my home about a week ago and made a great birthday gift for DD3 (now 4)!
Then we hit the giant Disney Store and picked up some souvenirs. At this point DH slips off to find himself a 2008 baseball for his collection and God knows what else. I on the other hand and left with two girls and no means to pay for the things I picked up. Having found all I wanted to find and now tired of chasing said little girls around the store and convincing them to put things back on the shelves I start the search for DH. Now for those of you who haven’t been here before, this store is akin to a maze filled with different categories of Disney paraphernalia. There are rooms going off of other rooms merging into yet more rooms. I searched for 45 minutes before finding DH and I have to tell you by then I was so NOT amused. I grabbed my card and paid for what I had and we left to go for lunch with very few words between us.
On the way we stopped at Goofy’s Candy Factory and loaded up on some chocolate and treats. Nothing brightens my moods like chocolate and DH knows this as he often used a box of chocolaty delights to get himself out of the dog house. By the time we walked into the Rainforest Café I was in a much better mood.
We had thought this would be a lot of fun for the girls which is about the only reason we would consider paying OOP for this! Well we were so far off it wasn’t even funny. We were seated right next to a bunch of animatronic gorillas and right away they started hoo hoo hooing away. Well both of my girls slapped their hand over their ears and looked like they were going to cry. They hardly ate anything the whole meal because they kept their hand over their ears in anticipation of the stormy mayhem to come.
Finishing off our meal in record time we left the restaurant and headed back to POR via the boat ride which DD3 really enjoys. DH then took the girls swimming while I rested up and then got ready for date night. We had called in a babysitter from Fairy Godmothers on our previous trip and it really didn’t work out. The woman they sent must have been about 75 which wouldn’t have mattered except that she brought absolutely nothing with her in terms of activities or crafts for the kids to do which I had kind of promised she would. This woman also Made DD3 cry because she wouldn’t let her climb at the play park for fear that she would fall. So that ended up being a disaster. So this time I called in Kids Nite Out thinking that they actually advertised bringing things to do with the children. They asked me if I had any preferences and I actually requested a college aged female. In order to deal with my DD5’s anxiety I asked to know her name and what type of activity she would be bringing. So when we checked in, I was told her name was Joyce and they didn’t know what she would be bringing. We booked her for two nights thinking we would be able to spend some time together. Well when it was time for Joyce to arrive my DD5 was sitting on the window sill watching for her. All of a sudden DD5 says “Oh oh” and starts to shrink away from the window. I answer the door and this woman had to be at least 65. She asks a bunch of questions about the girls and their preferences and then makes me sign something stating that they weren’t responsible if my children destroy the furniture in the room. I tried to explain to her that DD5 was a little nervous about us leaving her and at this point DD5 was desperately trying not to cry. Joyce informed me that she hoped this she wasn’t going to be one of those kids who made a big crying scene when we left. I asked her what she planned to do with the girls that night and I found out all she brought with her were a few sheets and some crayons, the same type of stuff they have been doing at every restaurant since we got here not to mention on the plane.
I have no idea how I managed to leave the room and in retrospect I wish I hadn’t. DD5 had pulled it together and was putting on a brave face so DH and I left for our date. I feel like crying thinking about it. Nothing bad actually happened and the girls were safe and enjoyed their evening to some extent but suffice it to say the second date night was promptly canceled. DD5 was not willing to give it a second chance.
DH and I took the bus to Downtown Disney’s West Side and did a little shopping at Virgin Record Store. Then we decided to try out Disney Quest if for nothing else than to scope it out for the kids. Well we had a great time! There are 5 floors of things to do including an entire section just for the 2-9 set. We were both terrible at the virtual reality games, me more than DH but we had some much fun playing air hockey and there is this game called Astroblaster which is like bumper cars but with canons. The point is to hit the other cars on specific targets before they hit you and when a car is hit you spin for 10 seconds unable to do anything. It was so much fun! We could hardly tear ourselves away for our 8:00 adr at Raglan Road, nut we did.
We had been to raglan Road on our first trip and loved it so much we wanted to return without children on our second trip and maybe catch more of the music. The atmosphere was wonderful here and the music fantastic, but the dance comes out for a 2 minute jig and then heads back to wherever she came from. I don’t get that. How tired could she be? We only saw her once the whole time we were there. The food this time was still good but not up to the standards we remembered. We will probably try something else on our next trip for date night if we actually have a date night, but this is a great place to do for a pint and some good pub food if you want to hang out and visit.
Sorry for the dark picture.
With dinner finished we debated going back to Disney Quest or maybe checking out Pleasure Island but we both decided that we wanted to get back to the hotel and check on the kids. We just didn’t have enough confidence in Joyce to not worry. When we got back the girls were both asleep and Joyce was watching TV. All was right with the world, but as I said, we canceled the next night and told the girls how proud we were of them having fun while we were gone. I don’t think we will hire out a sitter again.
When we got home:
Up Next: Kidcot around the World and The Rookie Chef
We took the bus and decided to start with Disney Quest. I had basically read everywhere that it was more for older kids but I know DD5 loves car driving games and any other video game she can get her hands on ( Thank Goodness that so far I have pretty much kept her to rare time with a V-Smile!) so we though we would give it a try. We got off the bus at the West Side and made our way to Disney Quest only to find it still closed. Rather than wait an hour for it to open we walked all the way to the Marketplace and ended up in the Lego Centre. Now yes I have girls, but they love Disney and Pixar’s Cars figurines more than anything currently and they love train sets and lego. They do have some girly tastes like Pet Shop toys and DD3 is all about dresses, but for the most part they are their father’s daughters
. We spent a whole lot of time looking at all of the lego products. DD5 wanted to find pink lego. As it turns out there is a great little display of pink lego but none to be found in the store unless you bought some princess castle kits. So I ordered a box of pink lego which was delivered to my home about a week ago and made a great birthday gift for DD3 (now 4)!Then we hit the giant Disney Store and picked up some souvenirs. At this point DH slips off to find himself a 2008 baseball for his collection and God knows what else. I on the other hand and left with two girls and no means to pay for the things I picked up. Having found all I wanted to find and now tired of chasing said little girls around the store and convincing them to put things back on the shelves I start the search for DH. Now for those of you who haven’t been here before, this store is akin to a maze filled with different categories of Disney paraphernalia. There are rooms going off of other rooms merging into yet more rooms. I searched for 45 minutes before finding DH and I have to tell you by then I was so NOT amused. I grabbed my card and paid for what I had and we left to go for lunch with very few words between us.
On the way we stopped at Goofy’s Candy Factory and loaded up on some chocolate and treats. Nothing brightens my moods like chocolate and DH knows this as he often used a box of chocolaty delights to get himself out of the dog house. By the time we walked into the Rainforest Café I was in a much better mood.
We had thought this would be a lot of fun for the girls which is about the only reason we would consider paying OOP for this! Well we were so far off it wasn’t even funny. We were seated right next to a bunch of animatronic gorillas and right away they started hoo hoo hooing away. Well both of my girls slapped their hand over their ears and looked like they were going to cry. They hardly ate anything the whole meal because they kept their hand over their ears in anticipation of the stormy mayhem to come.
Finishing off our meal in record time we left the restaurant and headed back to POR via the boat ride which DD3 really enjoys. DH then took the girls swimming while I rested up and then got ready for date night. We had called in a babysitter from Fairy Godmothers on our previous trip and it really didn’t work out. The woman they sent must have been about 75 which wouldn’t have mattered except that she brought absolutely nothing with her in terms of activities or crafts for the kids to do which I had kind of promised she would. This woman also Made DD3 cry because she wouldn’t let her climb at the play park for fear that she would fall. So that ended up being a disaster. So this time I called in Kids Nite Out thinking that they actually advertised bringing things to do with the children. They asked me if I had any preferences and I actually requested a college aged female. In order to deal with my DD5’s anxiety I asked to know her name and what type of activity she would be bringing. So when we checked in, I was told her name was Joyce and they didn’t know what she would be bringing. We booked her for two nights thinking we would be able to spend some time together. Well when it was time for Joyce to arrive my DD5 was sitting on the window sill watching for her. All of a sudden DD5 says “Oh oh” and starts to shrink away from the window. I answer the door and this woman had to be at least 65. She asks a bunch of questions about the girls and their preferences and then makes me sign something stating that they weren’t responsible if my children destroy the furniture in the room. I tried to explain to her that DD5 was a little nervous about us leaving her and at this point DD5 was desperately trying not to cry. Joyce informed me that she hoped this she wasn’t going to be one of those kids who made a big crying scene when we left.
I asked her what she planned to do with the girls that night and I found out all she brought with her were a few sheets and some crayons, the same type of stuff they have been doing at every restaurant since we got here not to mention on the plane. I have no idea how I managed to leave the room and in retrospect I wish I hadn’t. DD5 had pulled it together and was putting on a brave face so DH and I left for our date. I feel like crying thinking about it. Nothing bad actually happened and the girls were safe and enjoyed their evening to some extent but suffice it to say the second date night was promptly canceled. DD5 was not willing to give it a second chance.
DH and I took the bus to Downtown Disney’s West Side and did a little shopping at Virgin Record Store. Then we decided to try out Disney Quest if for nothing else than to scope it out for the kids. Well we had a great time! There are 5 floors of things to do including an entire section just for the 2-9 set. We were both terrible at the virtual reality games, me more than DH but we had some much fun playing air hockey and there is this game called Astroblaster which is like bumper cars but with canons. The point is to hit the other cars on specific targets before they hit you and when a car is hit you spin for 10 seconds unable to do anything. It was so much fun! We could hardly tear ourselves away for our 8:00 adr at Raglan Road, nut we did.
We had been to raglan Road on our first trip and loved it so much we wanted to return without children on our second trip and maybe catch more of the music. The atmosphere was wonderful here and the music fantastic, but the dance comes out for a 2 minute jig and then heads back to wherever she came from. I don’t get that. How tired could she be? We only saw her once the whole time we were there. The food this time was still good but not up to the standards we remembered. We will probably try something else on our next trip for date night if we actually have a date night, but this is a great place to do for a pint and some good pub food if you want to hang out and visit.
Sorry for the dark picture.
With dinner finished we debated going back to Disney Quest or maybe checking out Pleasure Island but we both decided that we wanted to get back to the hotel and check on the kids. We just didn’t have enough confidence in Joyce to not worry. When we got back the girls were both asleep and Joyce was watching TV. All was right with the world, but as I said, we canceled the next night and told the girls how proud we were of them having fun while we were gone. I don’t think we will hire out a sitter again.
When we got home:
Up Next: Kidcot around the World and The Rookie Chef
Today was a day for Epcot. We had planned on only spending part of the day at Epcot and then relaxing at the resort but we got caught up in the fun that is the World Showcase and didn’t make it back to the resort until after 4:00!
