The Best Part Was the Werewolf - A May 2018 Multi-Generational Trip

[Jess_S]

Hello and welcome to what may or may not wind up being a detailed report of our April 28-May 6 trip to the "most funnest vacation place in the world," according to my five year old. The plan is to start with an overview and then come back to add in daily trip reports and photos.

Let's start with the basics.

Who: Me (35), DH (40), DS (5) and my parents (somewhat older than 35).

Why: Because Grandma wanted to go to Disney World.

Where: Kidani Village 2 bedroom with a short pre-stay at ASM for DH, DS and I.

How: Through the generosity of Grandma, with some help from the DVC Rental Store. A big thanks to everyone on these boards who suggested point rental as an option. We saved about 30% off Disney's posted rates and the DVC Rental Store made the process stress-free.

About us:

DH, DS and I live just outside of Boston. I am an attorney, DH is a stay-at-home parent and DS is a preschooler and self-described "genius boy." My parents live in NJ where my dad is a teacher and my mom is an office manager.


(Here are DS, DH and I making grandma happy by posing for a PhotoPass photo last week).

DH and I have been Disney fans since I did the college program (giving DH the chance to take a discounted trip to visit). After getting married, we moved to California where we made annual trips to Disneyland. DS's first Disney trip was to Disneyland for his first birthday. He wasn't too sure about the rides or characters, but he sure did love the birthday cupcakes.



(And here is DS on his first birthday at Disneyland enjoying a straw more than he enjoyed meeting Mickey).

Since moving back to the East Coast, DH, DS and I have taken a DCL cruise to Alaska and a prior trip to WDW. After that trip, we vowed not to return to the World for a while. But then my parents made us an offer we couldn't refuse. They wanted a Disney trip with their grandson and were willing to pay for his entourage to tag along.

Since my interests include obsessively checking the disboards and making spreadsheets, I was assigned the task of actually booking and planning the trip. With limited input from anyone except DS (who really wanted to meet Pluto), I put together our schedule, booked our ADRs and secured some great FPs.

Trip Highlights:

Best Meal: Garden Grill breakfast
Favorite Ride: Flight of Passage for everyone except DS, who was too short to ride. Splash for DS.

General Thoughts:

Overall, we had a great trip. Even though I resented the level of planning required before the trip, having our rides and meals pre-booked allowed us to experience a lot despite fairly heavy crowds. We were also lucky to have relatively dry weather and low humidity. As DH said, "Disney is always a good time."

Before our trip, I read many threads questioning whether WDW service is declining (and attributing that decline to the college program). After this trip, I can say that we found all of the front line cast members to be exceptional. We did experience two issues. First, our room at AKL was not cleaned properly before we checked in. The floors were sticky, the tubs had hair, old soap and even used dental floss in them and the entire room had an odor like old meat grease. We encountered a similar issue at AKL during our last trip (vomit that hadn't been cleaned up properly), so I am inclined to think that there are serious issues with AKL's housekeeping. Second, the waits for buses back to AKL were generally awful. We waited over an hour for a bus back from MK one afternoon and then another hour for a bus back from HS later that same evening. These issues were escalated to guest services and I was not particularly impressed with their response. I'll provide more detail on both issues in the full report. The take-away for DH and I is that we are not willing to stay at AKL again. But we'll certainly be back to WDW.

Having covered the areas in which Disney fell short, I will now move on to my own mistakes. Chief among them was the decision not to pack DS's stroller. He hasn't used it for years, so it seemed odd to dig it out of the basement and drag it along. This decision came back to bite us within the first 30 minutes of park time. After carrying 40 pounds of dead weight around all day on day 1, we opted to rent a stroller on day 2. At $15 per day, the stroller rental was reasonable -- but I would just as soon have put that money towards better (tastier) uses.

Chapters
{to be added}

 

[xoSonya]

Subbing. I enjoy your writing style. Looking forward to reading about your vacation.

 

[Stasieki]

Looking forward to reading along.

 

[Jess_S]

April 28 - Travel Day

"This Hotel Is Different Than I Thought"

In the month since I wrote the introduction to this trip report, you have undoubtedly been wondering, "How did Jess get to Disney?" Did she drive? Did she take a plane? And, more importantly, what snacks did she eat along the way? Well, my friends, these questions -- and more -- are about to be answered. But first, some unnecessary backstory about why we were travelling on April 28 (as opposed to the following day).

When my parents put me in charge of planning this trip, I unilaterally decided that we would be visiting WDW from Sunday through Sunday. Why? Because my best friend and her husband were planning to meet DH and me for a Saturday evening bar hop to celebrate DH's 40th birthday. Because I have now reached a point in my life where even looking at alcohol can result in a hang-over, I decided that the aforementioned bar hop should occur at the end of our trip. If I am going to experience dehydration and a mild headache, it might as well be during the bus ride back to the airport -- which is never fun under any circumstance.

A few months after I booked our non-refundable room, I went online to search for airfare. At that point, I learned that flying to Orlando from Boston on a Sunday morning costs more than flying from Boston to large portions of Europe, Asia and South America. No bueno. Indeed, the Sunday morning airfares were so outrageous that one could fly into Orlando on a Saturday night, pay for a hotel room and dinner at a WDW value resort and still come out way ahead financially. So that is what we did. I booked us on a Saturday afternoon flight and a room at All Star Movies. My parents, who booked their flight using credit card miles, were able to find a suitable Sunday flight from their home in NJ.

Fast forward to April 28. Thanks to our afternoon flight, we had the luxury of sleeping in. Unfortunately, I was too excited for trivial things like adequate rest and woke up at 6 a.m. raring to go. I used the 2 hours before my family woke up to paint my nails and watch several episodes of Forensic Files with my dog. She and I are big fans of true crime shows, but rarely get to watch them because they are not appropriate for DS. Once the rest of the family was up and dressed, we dropped the dog off at the pet sitter, grabbed some coffees from Starbucks, stopped at Walgreens to grab a few last minute items and still had 2 hours until the car I had booked with Boston Airport Express was set to arrive. The whole day was just so much less stressful than our usual up-at-4 a.m.-to-catch-our-morning-flight travel routine.

Our driver arrived just as we were cleaning up from an early lunch and we were soon on our way to the airport. My son really appreciated that the van had a TV screen that the driver had set to play cartoons for the whole ride. Within 30 minutes, we were at Logan airport. The check-in process was painless, security slightly less-so, and soon we were at our gate waiting for our plane. My concern with afternoon flights is always that the plane will get delayed during an earlier flight, thus delaying us. Happily, by the time we got to our gate, our plane was already there and waiting (and we still had 30 minutes until boarding time). We made good use of our time at the gate by buying and consuming a very expensive bag of butter-flavored popcorn. I don't know if it was the excitement of travelling, or if he is a genuine popcorn lover, but my son was absolutely enamored with the popcorn. He ate most of the bag and couldn't stop talking about how much he loved it. And so it was that we had a very happy, crumb-covered little boy by the time the plane was ready to board.

We had an uneventful flight with a very pleasant and professional flight crew (I love you, JetBlue) and arrived in Orlando early. We then made our way over to the Magical Express area and boarded our bus, which immediately left for WDW. It wasn't long before we were on WDW property and I was getting a lesson in the power of positive thinking. As we drove past construction project after construction project I thought to myself, "Boy, if this were my first time at WDW, seeing all of this construction would be such a letdown." At that precise moment, my son turned to me and said, "Mommy, do you see all the palm trees. They are so pretty." And sure enough, if you looked past the big piles of dirt and the heavy equipment, you could see palm trees blowing gently in the wind against the backdrop of a perfect blue cloudless sky.

We arrived at ASM around 7 pm and -- thanks to the magic of online check-in -- we were able to go directly to our room in the Mighty Ducks section. For those who have never been to ASM, it is divided into a number of sections themed after different Disney movies. Getting to the Mighty Ducks section requires walking through the 101 Dalmatians section. As we were walking, my son kept up a steady chatter of, "Are we at Disney World? I can't believe we're at Disney World? Wait is this Disney World? I can't believe we're at Dis -- Oh my goodness, puppies!" He came to a dead stop in front of the giant Pongo statue in the Dalmatians section, put down his backpack, opened it up, pulled out his camera and started taking photos. After photo 20 or so, DH herded us to the room to drop off our bags so that we could get dinner. Of course, dinner required passing back through the Dalmatians section where my son stopped to take 20 photos of the giant Rolly. Now in my son's defense, it really is a cute setup. There's a TV that you can pose in so that it looks like Rolly is watching you. I was inside the TV hosting the evening news while my son snapped photos when DH's patience finally ran out and he ordered us to proceed to the food court.





I was very pleasantly surprised with the quality of the food at the ASM food court. I had a very nice cup of tomato soup, DH had a veggie burger and DS had a kids grilled cheese followed by a 3 scoop ice cream sundae. Surprisingly, he ate every bite. The meal was less than $20 for all of us thanks to the cashier ringing up the soup as part of DH's burger combo (because he had declined the side of cole slaw), so I came away feeling that we had gotten a very good deal. We then proceeded back through the puppy gauntlet so that we could change into our swim suits and hit the pool. Our room was actually right near the Mighty Ducks pool, but we decided to swim in the main pool because we thought my son would enjoy the Sorcerer Mickey squirting water -- and he did. Unfortunately, by the time we were ready to swim, it was a pleasant 70 degrees with no humidity, which is wonderful for walking around, but a bit cold for swimming. After about 30 minutes, we had to drag our blue, shivering child out of the water for bedtime. We made our way back through the puppies for a mercifully photo-free 4th time and got ready for bed.



I always give credit where credit is due and my husband deserves an acknowledgment for what happened next. As we reentered the room, he surveyed the 2 double beds, turned to my son and said, "I bet you would enjoy sleeping with Mommy tonight, wouldn't you." My son's eyes lit up and he nodded his sweet little head and agreed that was a wonderful idea. So my husband claimed the bed closest to the door and settled in for a restful sleep in his own bed, while I -- having been cleverly outmaneuvered -- resigned myself to a night of dodging kicks and punches delivered with a force that is surprising when you consider that the source is a sleeping 5 year old.

Guest services at ASM also deserves a shout-out. Once we were ready for bed, I called them to inquire about the status of our checked bag. They told me that it can take several hours for checked bags to be delivered and that we might not have ours for a while. But when I told them that we had a small child who was ready for bed, our bag magically appeared within 10 minutes. With our bag delivered, we could snuggle into bed without fear of being woken up, so we did. And as my son was drifting off to sleep, he leaned over and whispered to me, "Mommy, this hotel is different than I thought."

"Why is that, honey?"

"I didn't know there would be puppies."

 

[HeyyCali]

Good to know regarding the strollers. I was on the fence but I think I am leaning toward bringing it.

 

[FosterLovesMickey]

following!

 

[Ppoole]

Following!

 

[Jess_S]

Thanks to everyone who is following. I hope to get back to updating this trip report soon. The hiatus is because we were on vacation (our first Adventures by Disney trip). But I am now back at the office and ready to relive my summer vacations by reporting on them here.

 

[jcc0621]

Delete

 

[ariel_fan76]

That’s so sweet he loved taking pics of the puppies

 

[sheri18]

Following..we also live outside of Boston.

 

[Jess_S]

April 29 - AKL/Disney Springs

Our only plans for day 2 of our trip were to check-in to Animal Kingdom Lodge and eat an early dinner at T-Rex. That meant we could all sleep in and start our trip well-rested. Unfortunately, my body did not cooperate and I was up before 6 a.m. Eventually, I accepted my fate and hopped in the shower. By the time I was dressed, DS was up and we decided to head to the food court for breakfast. As we passed the Mighty Ducks pool, we were amused to see that it's only occupants were actual ducks. Apparently they take advantage of the quiet hours when the pool is closed to get their morning exercise. Then it was back through the puppy gauntlet. Did we take more puppy photos? Of course we did.

At the food court, we selected some simple breakfast food. A danish and coffee for me, a muffin and juice for the boy, and a small yogurt smoothie to share. We brought our spoils back to the room and enjoyed them while DH got ready for the day. Then DS and I watched some cartoons while DH went to the food court for an egg and cheese. We all pronounced our breakfast just okay. Nothing was bad, but nothing lived up to the quality of the previous night's dinner.

Once everyone had eaten, we decided to pack our things and hail an Uber to AKL. (DS and I had talked about exploring All Star Movies a bit more, but we lacked the motivation to actually execute on that plan). Uber was a quick and convenient way to transfer hotels. Our driver arrived within 5 minutes of being summoned and the trip was less than 20 minutes door-to-door. We stayed at AKL's Jambo House during our last WDW trip. This time, we were at Kidani. Although nicely themed, it lacks the wow factor of the original hotel's lobby.



Since we hadn't gotten a room ready text from AKL, I waited in line at the front desk to ask where we could store our bags. The helpful CM instead took it upon himself to find us an available room. Within a few minutes, we had a map of the resort and were on our way to our 2 bedroom villa.

I do not exaggerate when I say that the 2 bed villas at AKL are almost as big as my house. Our room had a big living area with a kitchen and full bath, a master bedroom with a master bath with jacuzzi and a second bedroom with 2 queen beds and yet another full bath. A huge balcony runs the full-length of the room. Unfortunately, the first thing that struck us about the room was the smell. It smelled like old, burnt meat. I figured if we just aired the place out, the smell would improve. (That turned out to be a bad decision. We should have immediately requested a room change). We opened up all of the doors and windows and then DH set about unpacking. He is pathologically unable to enjoy a vacation until his socks and undies are out of his suitcase and into a drawer.

While DH was unpacking, DS worked on the important task of jumping on all of the furniture. Meanwhile, I called to see if our Garden Grocer order had arrived. After several minutes of searching, it was located and sent up for delivery. (Fortunately, we had gotten some change from the front desk, so I did not have to deal with the embarrassment of being unable to tip this time). After unpacking, we explored the resort a bit. DH and DS made a short and ill-fated visit to the arcade where DS got angry because a game malfunctioned. I then took DS to the community room, where he eventually cheered up and played a few rounds of bean bag toss. By that time, we were getting hungry. Since we had early dinner reservations, we decided to eat in the room. I cooked up a bag of meatless chicken nuggets, which we ate with a side of fruit and carrot sticks. After lunch, DS and I played a few rounds of cards to pass the time until Grandma and Grandpa's arrival.

Finally, we got a text from GM letting us know they were on the Magical Express. DS and I headed down to the lobby to wait for them. At that point, I made the unwise decision to browse in the gift shop. A tub of cotton candy caught DS's eye and I gave in to his request for sugar. We spent the next 30 minutes or so pacing about the lobby touching everything with our sticky fingers. Eventually, we decided to go outside to visit our animal friends.


And, of course, at that exact moment, we got another text from GM saying that their bus was right out front. We booked it up the stairs and ran out the front door, but there was no Magical Express to be seen. Apparently, GM and GP were at Jambo House when they texted. Fortunately, they stayed on the bus and -- within minutes -- arrived to find us waiting out front.

GM made a beeline for DS, leaving it to GP to claim their luggage. Rather than make GP carry 3 bags by himself, I pitched in. We headed back to the room where the grandparents unpacked and then announced, much to DS's chagrin, that they would also like some lunch. Since Kidani does not have a quick service dining option, we decided to hoof it over to Jambo house. It's safe to say that you do not really appreciate how large AKL is until you walk its entire length. It took much longer than expected to make the journey to Jambo, order food and then carry it back to the room. DS, who had chosen to wait in the room with DH, complained loudly about how long we were gone. Having to wait while his grandparents ate was almost more than he could take.

After lunch, we had about an hour before we needed to head to Disney Springs. DS, DH and I decided to go for a swim while GM and GP visited the animals. The pool at Kidani is smaller than the one at Jambo, but has a huge water play area and 2 slides. DS was delighted with the tiny slide (basically a kiddie playground slide that dumps you into the water) and spent most of his time going down that one. With about 15 minutes left to swim, GM and GP arrived at the pool. To my surprise -- GM actually waded out to swim with DS. I am fairly certain it was the first time I had ever seen my mother swim. (In fairness, she did once agree to go snorkeling when I was 5, but I hyperventilated before any of us got in the water, thereby depriving the entire family of the opportunity to see GM submerged in water).

Before too long, we had to break the news to DS that swim time was over. To add insult to injury, the reason was an early dinner reservation. Other than bedtime, there is nothing DS disdains more than mealtime. Even the promise of animatronic dinosaurs could not completely make up for the indignity of being dragged from a perfectly good pool to eat food. We hustled back to the room, hastily dressed and headed back outside to catch a bus to Disney Springs. Because of traffic, the journey took longer than expected and we arrived with very little time to spare before our ADR. No matter. Google Maps said we were just minutes away from T-Rex. We followed the turn by turn walking directions and easily found ourselves . . . at a dead end. We rerouted, retraced our steps and still couldn't figure out where the restaurant was, so we needed to resort to asking an actual human how to get there. All that extra walking meant that we were extra hot and cranky when we arrived at the restaurant.


Poor DS was nearly despondent when he was told that it would be a few minutes before our table was ready. He perked back up when GM offered to walk around with him to admire the dinos.



We were seated in the meteor shower room precisely 1 minute after our ADR time. It turned out to be a perfect location because DS was enamored with the meteor showers. The downside of writing this trip report 5 months after our trip is that I do not remember what we had for dinner. I do know that this meal was a surprise hit. My parents ordered one of the dinner specials and were very happy with the quality of the food. (Based upon prior reviews, I was expecting the food to be lackluster, so it really was a pleasant surprise).



After dinner, we had planned to walk around. During our last trip to WDW, we had enjoyed a pleasant evening strolling around Disney Springs taking in the sights and listening to music while DS snoozed in his stroller. This trip, we endured an unpleasant 20 minutes of DS whining about the heat before we gave up and headed back to our room for the night.

Back in the room, DS decided he wanted to jacuzz so I went to run him a bath. When I turned the water on, I noticed something floating in the tub that looked like hair. When I bent down to wipe the tub, I realized it was actually a piece of dental floss. A closer inspection revealed that the tub was dirty as can be. It looked like it hadn't been cleaned at all after the previous guest. I cancelled DS's jacuzzi time and called the front desk to complain about the tub and the meat smell in the room (which had not improved). They offered to move us to a new room, but the idea of packing everything and moving seemed like an awful lot of effort, so we requested that they clean and deodorize the room instead. The dirty tub was easily rectified. The odor also seemed to improve a bit, so we decided to stay-put for the night.

 

[Jess_S]

April 30 - Epcot

I used Touring Plans to schedule our park days, and the first rule of Touring Plans is never go to Magic Kingdom on a Monday. Instead, we scheduled Epcot as our first park. With several rope drops planned later in the week, I decided not to rush anyone out the door. Instead, when I once again found myself up at 6 a.m., I made some coffee and read my book for a while. Pro tip: purchase gallons of filtered water to make in-room coffee. Even putting extra scoops of coffee in the pot could not mask the swamp taste of Florida tap water. I had just about choked down half a mug of coffee when my parents woke up. They too poured themselves steaming mugs of swamp water and read for a bit until DS woke up. At that point, we decided to get ready for our park day. We got dressed, ate some breakfast in the room and packed our day bags.

We were lucky with buses and wound up arriving at Epcot shortly after rope drop. DS, DH and GP had no bags to carry, so they breezed through security. Meanwhile, GM and I stood in what looked like a nice, short line. Picking the slowest line is one of my special talents and I once again succeeded at doing so. Although there were only 2 families in front of us, the security person at our station was taking literally every item from their bags and examining it. The first family had an assortment of single-serve salty snacks and each label needed to be carefully examined. Mercifully, our security guy was relieved from duty after he finished reading the nutrition label on one of the bags of chips. His replacement did a cursory peek into our bags and we were able to enter the park. With no particular destination in mind, we meandered in the direction of the Seas, the location of our first FP for the day. With Flower & Garden underway, there were plenty of places to stop for photo ops along the way.



We arrived at the Seas about 10 minutes before our FP window and were waived through due to low crowds. After winding our way through the queue, we were seated in a clam shell and began our journey. My son absolutely loved the ride, especially "swimming" with the turtles at the end. He asked to ride again. Since the standby line was short, we rode twice more before spending some time looking in the various aquarium displays.



We talked DS out of a fourth ride with Nemo and made our way to Mission Space for our next FP. My parents were a bit wary of this ride because I had dragged them on it when it first opened during my college program. At that time, there wasn't a less intense option and everyone in our family wound up getting pretty ill from the ride. I assured everyone that we were doing the no G force option and crossed my fingers that no one would get motion sickness. It turned out that there was no need to worry. The less intense Mission Space is perfectly pleasant; I deal with pretty severe vertigo and did not experience any negative effects from the ride. DS, however, said it was "a little scary."

After Mission Space, we headed to Test Track to use our final FP of the day. Things started out nicely enough with DS enjoying the car design process. Once we boarded the ride, though, things took a turn. TT was bumpier than I remembered and the fast, jerky movements terrified DS. During our last WDW trip, he loved the one roller coaster he was big enough to ride. On this trip, he had his choice of thrill rides and found them all frightening.

After Test Track, we decided to head to the World Showcase for lunch. DS was less than delighted with the amount of walking involved and, once again, made it known. DH carried him for a bit, which posed quite a challenge in the heat. We stopped at the first Flower & Garden booth we came to and bought a few snacks. I got a salad. DS had a piece of cake. Meanwhile, GM and GP got a picture with Pluto.



Then we all had lunch at the counter service location in Mexico. The kids meal options there were incredibly strange. They were all served with a side of spaghetti, something I have never seen at a Mexican restaurant. DS won't eat pasta, so I had his. It wasn't terrible, but I am glad I filled up on salad before lunch. After lunch, we took a boat ride with the 3 Caballeros and then DS, DH and I headed back to AKL to rest. On the way out of the park, we stopped for a photo pass photo knowing that it would show up on GM's photo pass. (My mom loves to scrapbook, so I knew that would make her day -- and she was, indeed, very pleased with us).



DS stopped napping at age 2. No amount of begging, pleading or explaining can get him to sleep during the day now. Since I knew he would be a terror if he did not rest, I had to settle for the next best thing to a nap. Each afternoon, I enforced 30 minutes of quiet time where DS needed to lie in bed with his eyes closed. After resting, we went out to the pool for a swim. Around dinner time, we headed back to the room where we found GM and GP waiting. Because of the limited food options at AKL, we decided to take advantage of our Park Hoppers and head to AK for our meal. I bribed DS into cooperating with this plan by promising him the chance to see one of his favorite creatures.

It didn't take long at all to travel to AK and clear security. We then proceeded towards the back of the park in search of DS's animal friends. On the way, we stopped off to look in some of the enclosures, but they all seemed to be empty. Apparently, many of the animals are taken off display at night. I worried that we were headed towards another empty enclosure and a DS meltdown, but fortunately, we arrived at our destination to find:


Yes. DS is obsessed with naked mole rates. Fortunately, AK has a whole colony of these hideous rodents.

After admiring their wrinkly, hairless forms, we headed to Pandora and our chosen dinner location, Satu'li Canteen. DH and I had tofu bowls, GM and GP had chicken and DS had a kids quesadilla. Everything was tasty. My only complaint is that the bowls are light on veggies.



After dinner, we were all exhausted. We trudged out of the park and headed back to our hotel for the night. When we opened our door, we were once again hit by a wall of stink. I called housekeeping again and they sent someone up to shampoo the carpets. Meanwhile, DS had his jacuzzi bath and then hit the hay. (That meant that our room couldn't be shampooed, unfortunately).

 

[thumper*]

Following along.

Awe so cute

"Mommy, this hotel is different than I thought."

"Why is that, honey?"

"I didn't know there would be puppies."

LOL Out of the mouths of babes.

 

[Jess_S]

May 1 - Magic Kingdom



During our last WDW trip, our plans to rope drop MK were ruined when we waited more than 40 minutes for a bus to the park. On top of that, I decided not to eat breakfast because we had a 10:30 Crystal Palace ADR. By 10:20, I was one of those parents snapping at my family. I vowed not to repeat these mistakes, so this trip we got up bright and early for our MK day, ate breakfast and made it to the bus more than an hour before the park opened. Once inside the park, we headed directly to the stroller rental. DS briefly protested that he was "not a baby," but quickly realized that the alternative to the stroller would be walking all day.



As a bonus, the stroller provided the perfect place to bunk out while we waited for the welcome show to begin. When the show started, DH picked DS up so that he could see/wiggle along to the music. When the show ended, I experienced a moment of confusion because I knew that we wanted to proceed straight through the castle to Fantasy Land. Unfortunately, that's not possible until the performers from the welcome show have cleared the area, so we wound up doubling back and heading through Tomorrow Land. In spite of my terrible map reading skills, we were still some of the first people in Fantasy Land. We headed directly towards DH's favorite ride, the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. DS thoroughly enjoyed the ride and asked to do it again, but we opted not to wait in the 15 minute line that had formed while we were riding. Instead, we hit some of the predictably less crowded rides like the tea cups and carousel and grabbed a LaFou's Brew at Gaston's Tavern.



We zipped over to Tomorrow Land to shoot aliens with Buzz Lightyear and then headed back to Fantasyland where we rode the Barnstormer. The ride had been one of DS's favorites on his first visit. This time, he hated it -- so much so that he gave me a long lecture about how I should have known better than to let him ride something so scary.

Before too long, it was time for our first fastpass of the day -- The 7 Dwarfs Mine Train. After the Barnstormer, DS was pretty reluctant to get on another roller coaster. I explained that the adults could ride in shifts so that he did not have to ride. DS's fear of missing out was greater than his fear of roller coasters, and he opted to ride. Fortunately, he found mine train less scary than Barnstormer because it offers a smoother ride.



We made it all the way to the dwarf's cottage at the end of the ride without any tears and then . . . the ride stopped. "Don't worry," I assured DS. "I am sure we will start moving soon." 5 minutes stretched into 10 and then 15. The ride soundtrack, which had once seemed charming, began to grate on our nerves, the hot Florida sun beat down mercilessly upon us, our hopes for rescue began to fade and then, at last, we began to move. Our car pulled back into the station and we were free at last. Our timing had been impeccable. We were among the last to ride the mine train that morning. And what with the extended ride time, it was now time for our next FP: Peter Pan. Fortunately our experience on Peter Pan went a bit better than the mine train. We experienced no delays or breakdowns, and DS absolutely loved flying in our little boat.

After Peter Pan, we opted for an early lunch. My plan was to head to Cosmic Rays to watch my favorite intergalactic crooner, but we passed Columbia Harbor House on the way and decided to eat there instead. I was very bummed to see that the Light House sandwich is no longer on the menu, but I consoled myself with a cup of vegetarian chill and a big serving of mac and cheese. DS had an uncrustables and everyone else had seafood. Although it was clear that DS needed a break back at our resort, I had a few friends I wanted to visit before we left.



Fortunately, they were scheduled to appear shortly, so we found a spot in the shade to wait for the show. We were the only family staring at the side of a building for quite some time and then the show started. Another family took that as their cue to station themselves directly in front of us (as in backsides nearly touching our faces). I am pleased to say that I did the mature thing and politely asked if they could take a few steps to the right. That proved just as effective as the Ms. Piggy karate chop I had initially considered.

For reasons I do not understand, my son is not a Muppet fan. That borders on sacrilege in my family, but we love DS anyway. It turns out, though, that even DS cannot resist the allure of a gaggle of squawking chickens engaged in historical shenanigans. Before too long, he was reduced to fits of giggles. After a truly excellent, patriotic experience (thanks Sam Eagle), we made our way out of the park. Since we would be missing our afternoon meet and greet with talking Mickey, I switched our FP. We were able to score an evening spot for the Haunted Mansion. Then, it was back to the resort for our afternoon rest.

Up next: The Werewolf's Lair

 

[thumper*]

The ride had been one of DS's favorites on his first visit. This time, he hated it -- so much so that he gave me a long lecture about how I should have known better than to let him ride something so scary.

Columbia Harbor House

Oh yum

We were able to score an evening spot for the Haunted Mansion.

Looking forward to hear how ds likes this ride.

 

[Cara A]

Following along!

 

[Jess_S]

May 1 - Magic Kingdom

When we last left off many moons ago, we were heading back to AKL to rest up for our evening plans. Since DS does not nap, I forced him to lay quietly in bed for 30 minutes. After that, we re-hydrated, watched some cartoons (I love the new Duck Tales) and played a few hands of Disney Eye Found It. Then we regrouped and headed back to Magic Kingdom with the goal of using our Haunted Mansion FP and then heading to our dinner ADR. As we walked into the park, a parade was going on. I was the wet blanket that hustled the family along so that we wouldn't miss our FP window. We squeezed through the crowds and made it to our destination with time to spare. Before too long, we were seated in our Doom Buggies for what I anticipated would be a not too scary journey through one of my favorite attractions. Things did not go as planned.

When we entered the bride's room, our buggy came to a shuddering halt. There we stayed for what seemed like an eternity listening to the bride say "in sickness, and in wealth," or "'til death do us part," over and over as she periodically displayed her hatchet. With each repetition, I noticed new details in the room; the bride started to seem more and more menacing. By the end of our captivity in the bride's quarters, I had started to ponder what would happen if we joined the happy haunts for all eternity. Meanwhile, DS was asking -- with good cause -- if Disney was going to send someone to rescue us. After 20 minutes (that felt much longer), our ghost host announced that our buggies would be moving shortly. And they did. We completed our ride and returned to the land of the living with a bit more time to spare before dinner.

DS asked if we could go on a ride that wasn't broken. That seemed like a fair request, so I pulled out my phone to check wait times. The Little Mermaid ride had next to no wait, so we decided to give it a try. DS was not impressed and I saw for myself why the ride consistently gets low marks. For someone like DS who had never seen the movie, the ride was more or less incomprehensible. When we were finished with Ariel, it was time to admit defeat on the ride front and head to our ADR at Be Our Guest. BOG was the one restaurant that DH wanted to dine at and I was only able to find a 7:20 ADR. I had some concerns about whether taking DS out to dinner that late was a good idea, but we decided to gamble.

We approached the drawbridge to the castle at our appointed time and were instructed to wait on the bridge until called. I was a little disappointed that we didn't get one of the fancy buzzing roses, but I resigned myself to the less glamorous text alert system. Eventually, we were allowed to cross the bridge into the castle courtyard where we waited some more. It was worth the wait because when we were finally escorted to our table, it was in the West Wing with a good view of both the enchanted rose and the Beast's portrait. The lighting conditions aren't ideal for photos, but we did our best.



As you can see, DS was captivated by the surroundings. Having never seen Beauty and the Beast, he got quite a shock when the Beast's portrait changed from man to beast. "Mommy," he said, excitedly, "I think that man is a werewolf." For the rest of the meal, he kept one eye on the portrait at all times so that he wouldn't miss seeing the werewolf face. You can also see in the photo that DH treated DS to one of the souvenir drink cups. To my surprise, it has been one of DS's favorite souvenirs from our trip. Throughout the summer, DS used it whenever we barbequed and he continues to use it whenever I cook a more elaborate meal at home.

The menus at BOG changed shortly after our trip, so I won't go into too much detail on the food. Everything we had was good, but not great. However, the atmosphere made this a meal that was worth doing.

After dessert, we decided to go meet the master of the castle -- the werewolf himself. (DH was in the little beast's room when we reached the front of the line and missed out on the meet and greet). We admired the details of the library and then decided to try and find a spot for the fireworks. We had less than 10 minutes until they started, which meant we had to rush.



Unfortunately, it had been a good 15 years since I last saw MK fireworks and I was no longer familiar with the crowd control procedures. I hustled us at top speed right into a dead end. The sudden stop took DH, who was behind me pushing DS in our rental stroller, by surprise. He did not stop in time and ran over my leg with the heavy plastic stroller. There was no time to stop, so we reversed course and continued our run towards the front of the park. As I ran, I could feel blood trickling down my leg. "This never would have happened with our cheap umbrella stroller," I grumbled.

We made it to Main Street with just minutes to spare. By that time, all the best firework viewing spots were taken, but I was pleasantly surprised with how good our view was even all the way near the park entrance. For perspective, the first photo shows you how far back we were. But you can see in the second photo that we still had a really decent sight line to the castle.



The fireworks were a wonderful end to a great day of werewolves, murderous brides and excessive dwarf yodeling. DS had been a trooper, somehow managing to remain pleasant until well-past his bedtime. It was only when we returned his stroller and made him walk to the bus that he became a bit grumpy. He passed out cold on the way back to AKL and we chose to just tuck him into bed in his day clothing. Then I bandaged my war wound and went to bed myself.

Next up, Animal Kingdom with my little oompa loompa.

 

[Jess_S]

Just a note to say thanks to everyone who has read and commented on my report. Since I am so far behind on getting this posted, I won't respond to everyone's comments. But I did enjoy reading the comments and it's nice to know that folks are reading along.

I also solemnly promise to eventually add photos to day 1 of my trip report. I have not actually gone through my own photos yet (shameful, I know) and have been using my mom's photos to illustrate the report. Fortunately, she uploads and organizes her photos on a daily basis.

 

[goofygurly]

Great trip report