The Cheesecake Tour - Complete

[wee-haggis]

Great report.
We loved Tarzan too, never missed it, saw the show every visit and we miss it now that it is gone.

 

[oybolshoi]

I just wanted to say thanks for the comments. I know a lot of people just read and don't post on TRs...I usually only read them. But when you are writing, it makes it much easier and more fun when you get great feedback. Thanks for reading! I will try to get a new installment posted tonight!

Amen to that, sister! It's always nice to be appreciated.

Looking forward to more.

 

[sunny04]

March 20
We started today with DH having to do some work on his laptop, so we were a little late getting going. I felt MUCH better finally. Plus, we were headed back to the Beach Club!! Ahh….the beauty of the Beach Club. When we walked in, the CM that was at the entrance greeted us with a happy “Welcome Aboard!” and great big smile. Man, I love things like that.

We had ADRs for Cape May Café for breakfast, and I was quite pleased to be back at the BC. So pleased I actually posed for a picture of me sitting in the BC waiting for our breakfast. I’m not usually begging to have my picture made, but I’m also not usually quite so over the top crazy about being somewhere either. Our little buzzer went off after about 5 min.

I’m going to actually put some things in here about this meal, because there were several special things that happened. I’ll just leave the food talk for the dining section. First of all, this is one of those places where you have the paper on your table and the person who seats you writes your server name on the table. I really love that. Who knows why, but I do. I also like that I can immediately pick up the crayons and color all over my table. So I did. While we waited for our waitress, Sami, as we did most of the breakfast. Since we were at the BC, I drew a little beach with waves and a lounge chair, etc. All in purple, because I could. Then while we ate, I got out a black and made a little Mickey head, and then made a Minnie with a red bow.

Our first Minnie character was pretty boring…she posed and walked off. But then they all took a break…and when Minnie came back out, she was miraculously attentive! She sat with me and was so impressed with my little Mickey and Minnie drawings. She whispered with me about how cute DH was, and made him kiss her on the cheek. Really fun stuff.

During our meal, we noticed that the little boy at the table by us was terrified of the characters…He was probably about 6 and he hid under the table every time they came around. His poor mom was trying so hard to get a picture of him and a character together, even if the kid was under the table. Then Dale came around. He took so much time with that family. He even snuck around behind the little boy so the mom could secretly get a picture. She was so grateful. Then, the little boy turned around and saw Dale was there…he started to hide, but didn’t completely. Dale spent some more time there and the boy finally didn’t seem so scared. I love moments like that. Even though it wasn’t my family, it made me so happy to see the character take the time to make their day. The mom did not stop smiling the rest of the breakfast. It was awesome.

Let’s see….the only other good character stuff was that Goofy and Dale signed our table. I’ve never done the autograph thing, so I thought it was fun. I took a picture, but Dale signed on top of my beach picture.

There were two adorable kids that came in and were looking at me. The character handler came up to me (DH was at the buffet) and said, “They were looking at you like you were a princess! I’ve never seen that before!” It made me feel good. And the kids walked by a few times and still smiled at me. The CM came by again and told DH the same thing. Before we left, she walked by again and commented on me being “Snow White and her Prince Charming.” I have dark hair and really pale skin, and would love to think I looked like Snow White, so that made my day. I wish all CMs were so great.

Oh yeah…one other fun thing at Cape May that cracked us up all day! We were talking about our terrible waitress and how to get her attention. I said maybe we should wave our napkins in the air and say “HEY, WE WANT THE CHECK!” I sort of swirled my napkin over my head a little. One of the other waiters calls out, “We’ve got a dancer!!” It cracked us up.

So after our adventure filled breakfast, we went to the shop because I wanted something from the BC. I bought a shirt with Beach Club Resort on it, and I had to say a sad farewell to my beloved Beach Club. I was looking forward to finding out what the cute little man at the entrance would say when we left, but a family stopped to ask him a question as we left. Alas, I will never know.

 

[sunny04]

After leaving the BC, we headed back to the room. It was an early rest, but it was how our day was planned. We were going to MGM and it would be our only day there. So we figured we would rest some, DH needed to work a bit more, then we would head to MGM for the night. Mousekeeping was in our room cleaning when we arrived, which felt weird because we scared her to death. We went out on our balcony until she left, then rested for awhile.

Around 1:30ish we headed to MGM. We didn’t have too much here on our Must-Do list on this trip. We enjoy MGM, but we’ve been to the parks so much now that we’re more choosy about what we do each time. This time, DH said we HAD to do Indiana Jones because we didn’t last time. I knew that Lights, Motors, Action would be another must-do for him, and I was right. That was about it. In addition, we wanted to do GMR, and Muppets. So we started by heading to Indy and lucked out that they were seating right them for a show in about 10 min. I think. Whatever it was, the wait was not long at all once we got seated. It was kind of fun because next to me was a lady and her daughter that had never seen the show. They were nearly jumping out of their skin at the explosions. Kind of funny. It’s fun too see someone enjoy something fresh when you’re so used to it. One strange thing during the show was that they took out the bad guy getting cut up by the helicopter in our show. It’s the first time we’ve seen it where it was different. We wondered what made them take that part out this time.

The plan now was to see if they still had FP for Lights, Motors, Action. We got all the way to the back of the park, and they were not giving out FP at all today. I was quite hungry and we were going to eat once we had our FP, but here’s where the plans changed. It started to sprinkle. Then got harder, I ran under the FP awning. DH decided we should go ahead and watch LMA now, even though it meant walking through the rain for quite awhile before we could be seated. So off we go…and the rain gets harder. And it’s raining on us. We finally manage to get seated right before it opens up and POURS. So, the show was delayed a little, but not much. The rain didn’t last long, but they had to do some extra tests and safety checks since everything was now soaking wet.

I have to say, we’ve seen this show several times, but it was very very impressive in the rain. I thought they were going to fall over when they lean on 2 wheels! You could tell they started a little slower, but for the most part, everything is the same. They still do their stunts as they slide around on the water perfectly. One car did hit the wall a little, but not enough to stop anything. The show took quite a bit longer this way, because there was extra time between each segment for them to do extra safety checks and stuff. By the time it was done, we were starving. Time to get some lunch.

 

[sunny04]

We headed over to our favorite CS at MGM, the Terrace Grill as it is now called. I still call it Flatbread Grill, after finally remembering it wasn’t Studio Catering Co. anymore. Who can keep up with that many names?? We love this place. A few little tidbits from lunch – this is where the title of The Cheesecake Tour came from. We had our 5th piece of cheesecake in 3 and a half days. It was at that moment that I claimed my TR would be called The Cheesecake Tour. It was also, ironically, the last time we had cheesecake on our trip! There was also one major distracting thing during lunch that bothered me. There was a man sitting near us wearing a shirt that said “Bang your *blank*ing head” on the back(fill in blank with your own imagination). His back happened to be to me, so there was his shirt yelling at me all through lunch. I couldn’t stop staring at it. It really bugged me that he would choose to wear that shirt to WDW in the first place. I am fully aware of free speech and all that, but why do you choose to be that free with your speech in a place like WDW??

After we ate, we headed over to Muppets. It only had a 5 min. wait. We walked into the auditorium and were “distinctly unpatriotic” according to Sam Eagle because the people in our row weren’t moving down. I managed to use that phrase several times over the rest of our trip…I don’t think it amused DH as much as it did me.

Then we headed towards GMR. As we walked through the Streets of America, we heard Metallica….not the real Metallica, but Sweat, Mulch and Shears singing Metallica. We decided we needed to stop because we really love SM&S. We sat on the stairs with the red carpet to watch them for awhile. They are so fun! They sang one song, and substituted the word “mulch” for a cuss word…(“every now and then, I kick the living mulch outta me”). It was great. Then they announced that they were on the cutting edge of music, and to them the cutting edge was the mid-1980s. Everyone screamed and cheered for this, including me. All of you 80s babies know what we’re talking about. We watched the rest of their show before heading off to the GMR….of course I had to see if the revolving door behind us revolved first. It didn’t.

GMR had a 30 min. wait time, and apparently we were ride snobs again today, because we didn’t want to wait. We went over to the Voyage of the Little Mermaid instead which had a 10 min. wait. I really like the Little Mermaid show. The drama girl in me just itches to work backstage on it. After LM, we went back to GMR, and it said 15 min. now. That’s more like it! So we walked in, and noticed that the left side of the line is REALLY backed up….but the right side seems to be nearly empty. It’s amazing how many people just follow the other people and get in line without paying attention to their options. We went to the right side. They were only running one car, so it was a bit of a wait, but GMR usually is. Our gangster wasn’t too great this time, but not too bad either. There were a couple ladies behind us that had never ridden this ride before and they cracked me up through the whole thing. I hardly paid attention to the ride itself, but to their comments about it. They loved it…kept naming every movie, and were VERY excited about John Wayne. It was cute.

Then we decided to do a little shopping since we were done with all the rides we wanted to do for today.

 

[lamagique]

I really like this trip report! I like the way you write! And about this:

If you have several people in your family, you should not make one long string of people and take up the entire walking space. Especially if you are walking extremely slow.

I agree completely!!! One of my biggest pet peeves as a guest!

 

[KatGarcia]

Hey! I made it over to read your report... and I'm having a great time doing it! I agree with you about the bc totally! we were only there for a few to check out the xmas decorations but i loved the atmosphere! ANyways looking fwd to more!

 

[sunny04]

Thanks again for all the encouragement! I'm glad you are enjoying the report!

Final 20th -
We looked around the shops near the entrance. They have the cutest Wheezy from Toy Story now…he even squeaks! Soooo cute. We looked around the Villains store, but it’s pretty blah now. It’s mostly Nightmare Before Christmas and POTC. I love pirates, but I don’t feel like they belong in the villain store. There was only one tiny section that actually had a villain on it IMO. Kind of odd.

After looking around, we didn’t know what else to do. We sat on a bench across from the Villain store and just chilled. Then DH decided he was hungry. I decided I wanted a frozen banana. We went to one of the CS across from the Fantasmic entrance and DH ate, while I waited. Then a nice family next to us had an extra apple pie from the DDP that they gave us, which was so nice. We took it with us into F!

We made our way into the theatre and found seats among the constant gnats. We ate the apple pie very carefully to avoid eating them. Then the obligatory wave began…although it started really early! It was only 8! I always amuse myself by counting how many people hold/toss their baby into the air during the wave. But even that was boring this time – only 2. We (I) fussed about the ugly curtain pieces they added to the sides. I mean, technically, it has a nice little picture on it, but it doesn’t go with the show at all. I much preferred the plain green. We also noticed a kid playing with the coolest thing…it was a container filled with little green men from Toy Story. I love them…DH and I got very excited. We nearly went over and asked the family where they bought them from. But we decided we would look at MK and find them. The clouds that had been threatening for a little while had moved out and it was perfectly clear blue skies as the sun set. Perfect weather for F! The show was wonderful as usual, the boat is back finally. After the show, I was appalled at how much trash was left behind. It is really upsetting to look at HOW MUCH people really do leave behind. It blows my mind.

So, we took some pictures of the hat and around the hat and headed out. I was starving at this point, because I basically never got dinner, other than nibbling on DH’s, but I also didn’t want to stay up any later to eat…I was soooo tired. So we just went to the hotel and I ate some pretzels before going to bed.

 

[sunny04]

March 21
I’ve been dreading writing about this day since I started. It wasn’t a bad day, but we had another tour, and it wasn’t the best. We started our day with the Hidden Treasures of the World Showcase Tour. We barely made it to check in before we were off. Yikes! Almost late! The tour is supposed to be a 3 hour tour boat but they tell you first thing that it will be more like 3 and a half and that’s pushing it. Well, thanks for telling us…several people were barely going to make their ADRs that they had scheduled specifically around the time.

When we first walked up, we noticed James, who was our tour guide, or “facilitator” as they say, on the Yuletide Fantasy Tour a couple years ago. He is AWESOME, and we were so looking forward to hearing his information. However, he was simply there to assist the other tour guide, Monica. She had only been a tour guide for 2 and a half months, so I guess we were part of her training. While we waited on a few other people from the group to get their motorized wheelchairs, I made a joke about running over to Soarin’ to get a fastpass before we started. We happened to have another CM in our group that was there for some reason, and introduced as a CM to us. She volunteered to take our tickets and go get fastpasses! Yes! So several of us gave her our tickets, she got the FP and met up with us at the entrance to the WS.

This is where we realized why there are people on these discussion boards that get information from CMs that is wrong, or different from what others heard from a CM. Because we think she was making up half of her answers….we noticed in Morocco that when she tried to answer one question about how the Morocco pavilion was showing the modern side of the country(which she had stated previously) James was covering his mouth to keep from laughing. He was in the back, so most weren’t paying attention to him, but we noticed. Her answer was that the archway was bigger like the modern Morocco style, otherwise it would be smaller. This is how misinformation starts at WDW. She was a fine tour guide, but if you don’t know, say so, don’t make stuff up that makes no sense. Now, I don’t know, maybe he was smiling because she was doing such a good job and was right, but it didn’t look like it.

This tour was okay, but if you have the "Imagineer's Eye Tour" book on Epcot, it gives you most of the information and more. There were only a few things DH and I learned on this tour that we didn’t already know. If you don’t have that book, and don’t know much about the WS, it would be a great tour! We saw backstage by France and Canada…stood beside the building that the Eiffel Tower is ON TOP of. But that’s about it. The coolest bit of info. was something James interjected. There was a soundtrack of a squawking bird in Norway that Monica was having to talk over. He said it’s the sound of “wounded seagull”. It keeps seagulls and some other birds away and often you’ll hear it around outdoor food places. We found that interesting. Monica also tried to rush us due to the ADRs at 12:30, so we finished at 12:10, but wondered if we missed something cool that she skipped or rushed through. We got cool limited edition pins when it was over though. I always like getting those.

After the tour, we rushed over to Soarin’ with our FP, and planned to eat at Sunshine Seasons when we were done – we were starving!

Here’s my next gripe….and it’s a major one. They have done something weird to Soarin’ and it’s lines. The normal FP line, is now a regular line, and the exit has a piece of tape down the middle on the floor. One side is the exit, one is the FP line. And the FP line was LOOOONG. They were putting a whole room filled up just from FP, but we were entering from the exit! So we walked in the room from the back, and you MISS THE PRESHOW! We love the preshow, he’s hilarious! And it took longer to get us all boarded and checked than normal. It was the most ridiculous thing. Then we exit the door we came in. Totally bizarre and not cool at all. If that is someone’s first time to see that ride, can you imagine what they thought? I mean, you can’t deny the ride itself is awesome, but the rest is so unorganized and messy, and NO PRESHOW! They miss out on half of the ride and theming! It’s just crazy.

Now that my rant is over, I’ll get back to the TR. As I mentioned before, we were starving. So after Soarin’ we walked over to Sunshine Seasons. We strangely enough, saw nothing that looked appealing. So we decided to head over to the Electric Umbrella. By this time, my feet were hurting and I was tired, so walking all the way over there to be reminded it’s closed for refurbishment was not cool.

We walked over by TT to get a FP, and talked about the crazy wait times. We couldn’t figure it out. The park seemed pretty empty on this day…not too many people walking around, but the wait times were INSANE. We decided everyone in the park, must be in line. TT had a wait of 120 minutes! And there were hardly any crowds in the park anywhere!

We noticed some carts by TT, and decided to get pizza. I had noticed some people sitting on the patio of the Electric Umbrella, so we walked back over there to eat. We got there, and realized the patio was blocked off, the other people were just cheating. Dh said, “Just because they are breaking the rules, doesn’t mean we have to.” And I know that’s true, but I really wanted to sit in the nice quiet patio with a table. Instead we sat down to eat on a little curb. It was already 1:15, and we realized that our ADR for dinner was at 4:30. So we hatched a brilliant plan......

 

[sunny04]

March 21, cont.
So we hatched a brilliant plan…we would not eat all of our pizza, but go back to the hotel now and take our leftovers to the fridge. That way we wouldn’t be so full, and we could rest NOW instead of after eating and shop after eating instead of now. Have you got all of that? Well, that was the plan.

The only problem is, I am a little Italian girl, who is addicted to pizza, and has a tiny capacity for food in her tummy. So after eating half of my pizza, I should have stopped eating. I knew I should stop eating….but the pizza was so warm and yummy and it was calling my name….eat me…eat me…..yum. So I took another bite, just for good measure. But DH was still eating, so we talked a bit, and sat a bit. And I had to have another bite. By the time we got to the car, I had about 2 bites left on my 3rd piece. We sat in the car, and I pulled out the rest of that piece and ate it. I mean, why prolong it? I knew it would happen. DH shook his head at me. And I spent the ride to the hotel talking about how much I love warm pizza….I just can’t stand the thought of putting it in that fridge to get all cold (although cold pizza is tasty too) when it’s so warm and gooey right now. He thinks I’m crazy, but he also apparently already knew this about me. How ‘bout that…I just figured it out about myself. So we make it to the room with one piece left of his, and one left of mine to put in the fridge….and I lamented the cold as I put it in the fridge, but I did it anyway.

We watched tv and rested, then I changed into jeans and tennis shoes. (Remember my feet were hurting earlier, so I wanted to switch shoes.) By 4:00 we were back at Epcot. I told DH I wanted to stop in Canada on the way to our ADR, because we wouldn’t want to backtrack after eating. And I knew I wanted some Maple Cookies. Last March, I went on a candy buying spree…trying to find a candy from each country. And I spent a long time in Canada trying to decide between a candy bar and the maple cookies. I chose the candy bar, which was fine, but I’ve been waiting for those cookies now. So we stopped in Canada and I bought the cookies and was quite happy about it.

We checked into Rose and Crown at around 4:11ish (that’s what I wrote down on my notes..isn’t that funny? Why would I write something so specific and then add “ish” on the end?? I must have been tired!) We then sat on the curb in front of the restaurant to wait. We actually waited the longest for this ADR than any other. Most of the time, we were called in about 5 min. But I believe they were reopening for dinner at 4:30, so we waited for about 20 minutes (Or maybe it was 19-ish minutes). At this point, I really realized how funny my TRs would be if I had a better memory at all. I actually said that specific thing to DH while we sat laughing hysterically on the curb. This was one of my favorite moments of the trip…we were having so much fun. But I couldn’t tell you a single thing we said, except “If I could remember half of my silliness, my trip reports would be so much better!” That’s it. Can’t remember any of the said silliness. But we laughed a lot, and I felt very happy and warm….and full of yummy pizza.

 

[sunny04]

We were finally seated, and were even on the little coveted patio. Of course, it was 4:30, not time for Illuminations, and the windiest time of the trip. I mean, the wind literally picked up my menu and blew it away. We laughed a lot and managed to catch it around the corner. It cracked me up…I mean that baby was gone!

If you remember my experience with (I mean addiction to) pizza, you may have guessed, I was not actually very hungry yet. Shame on me. We had been so excited about this restaurant, and now I didn’t want anything! It also made me a bit picky…and I felt very bad because I worried for some reason that the waiter would think I was too picky and annoying. Yes, that’s right. I was worried that a waiter in Florida, from the UK, that I may never see again, might think I was too picky because I wanted things like dressing on the side, and to know what things tasted like, and ice. Although, wait for the ice story….it’s our favorite. Between the menu, the wind and the ice, we laughed a lot at this restaurant. Anyway, I’ll skip most of the food talk, but overall it was good. We had the cheese and fruit plate, which I really enjoyed…even the green cheese. Yes, green cheese, and yes, it was supposed to be green. And we had a good laugh and some kind of bread thing that came with DH’s steak. I asked DH if it was a tuber (like a root) and he was like, “It’s not a tumor!” And then I had to speak clearly and explain what I meant, but it looked like a great big dirty root. It was some kind of bread thing, because he tried it, but we had a good laugh at his tumor/tuber too. And the best dessert of the trip, was NOT cheesecake IMO, but the Chocolate Guinness Torte. It was delicious!! But for the ice story…Sitting outside, your ice melts pretty fast, you know. So my drink was getting pretty warm by the end of the meal. Our waiter asked if I needed more water, and I said no, maybe just some more ice. Well, I know that in Europe, they don’t really use ice much, so I’m assuming he just didn’t understand what I was asking for. I wanted more ice to put in the water I had to make it cold. He brought me a full glass of ice………and then took my water! It was hysterical to us. He must have thought I was insane! So I ate some of the ice, since I had no water to drink. Then we headed out to do some shopping.


We headed into the UK first. I decided we should get smart and think of people we needed to get presents for in the near future. So we found a birthday present for DH’s brother, and mother, and a Mother’s Day gift. And we bought me a Shakespeare book, and a Little Miss Sunshine book. Then headed over to TT to use our fastpass from earlier in the day. The times seemed to be way off on the single rider and regular lines. So we were thankful we didn’t have to worry about it. Another one of our favorite moments happened in TT. We were in the preshow, and there were several high school age boys behind us. Everyone’s watching and waiting….and then we get to the “choose one” part. And the lady pushes a button, and the crash appears on the screen. It was quiet, except one of the boys says, “Oh, snap!” Dh and I laughed about that for days. We continued on into the ride, where I was whipped with my own hair and thought I might lose a contact. What a fun ride.

Then we bought me a Firebird t-shirt, because DH loves his Firebird as much as me….but if I have a Firebird ON me, then I have both, so I win, right? Plus, it was a black shirt…and as a theatre girl, I’m a sucker for black. Then we headed to Mexico to start up our shopping again.

 

[sunny04]

When I left off, we were starting our shopping. We started in Mexico. I really wanted to find the peanut butter candy I bought last spring. I work at a school with a large Hispanic population, so I was also getting gifts for one of the office ladies who is from Mexico, and for one of the families that I have soft spot for. The peanut butter candy wasn’t there, which I was not happy about. The other candy looked iffy, so I gave up on the candy idea. I found some cute little figurines for the office lady, and the little girl from the family I was buying for, and some toys for the boys. And a puppet for my classroom.

Then we walked from Mexico to Norway. What a long walk! DH likes some of their shirts, but they didn’t have any that impressed us this time. So we looked, and then moved on.

We stopped in China next, as I was determined to find a candy/snack that actually tasted good. I’ve gotten something different here several times, and still haven’t found a tasty one. This time I got a pineapple cake thing, which is okay, but is really strong flavored. Then we walked out of the shop to head to the one in the back of China. Last time they had some awesome Chinese Opera Masks for $4.50! I was amazed and bought a couple to use in my class. So I wanted to see if they had more. As we walked out, the acrobats were out, and man are they awesome! If you haven’t seen them, you should try to catch them, if even for a few minutes. We have never stopped to watch their whole act, but the things we have seen them do are quite awesome. We went into the back shop, and they had the opera masks! And had small porcelain ones for only $1!!! They look like they would be so expensive. I love it! I bought my masks, and we headed to Germany.

In Germany, we have to get the Haribo Cola Gummies. We got them last spring…and in the fall….and DH insisted I get 2 bags on this trip. He is completely addicted to them. He had eaten the first bag within 2 days of getting home. Next trip he’ll probably ask for 3 bags. So I went in to get his gummies while he went to look at the glass cart for a shot glass. Last year he got a Mickey one that looked like a little beer mug, and had it sent to the hotel. We checked to make sure it wasn’t broken, but didn’t really take it out until we got home, and saw it was Minnie. So he was looking for a Mickey to match it. They didn’t have them anymore.

We decided to get a spot for Illuminations at this point. We also decided to try watching from a new spot, like we tried earlier in the week. He checked his blackberry, and the wind was blowing towards UK, so we decided to try Italy.

 

[sunny04]

We found a spot against a railing, and I sat down. It was getting quite chilly, and my throat was acting up a little again. I sent DH to get me some popcorn and water. He’s usually the popcorn person, but for some reason, I’d wanted it all day. I sat and shivered in the wind while I waited for him to return. When he got back, I took his phone and called my mom to alleviate the boredom. DH took more pictures, including one of me on the phone. About the same time Illuminations started, we could see Wishes going on in the distance too. I watched part of it during the globe parts.

After Illuminations, we walked the opposite direction through the World Showcase. DH had heard or seen pictures of the fountains in France after dark and wanted to get some pictures of it without people. We had never walked that way after the fireworks before. As we walked, Dh commented that he liked walking this way because it was different from what we usually do. Then we got to France and we stopped in our tracks…the fountains were turned off!! I laughed and told Dh to remember what he had just said about being glad we walked that way. “Hold on to that feeling. Hold on to it with 2 hands and don’t let go!” I said in my most melodramatic voice.

We took some pictures as we left of the ball, and the ground by Innoventions. We decided to walk out a different exit too. After you’ve been so many times, it’s fun to see how many things you can do differently. We got near our car, and I wanted to make my car honk at the strangers walking in front of it to scare them. Why? I don’t know, it just seemed quite amusing at the time. But alas, my keychain wouldn’t work from the distance we were, and they were all passed by the time we were close enough. In the car, we pulled out the maple cookies. I had been dying to try them….ooohhh yummy. It’s like eating pancakes, in a cookie! Yum. So we ate a couple cookies on our way to the hotel, then went to bed.

 

[oybolshoi]

Just curious - what type of Shakespeare book did you buy? I love Shakespeare and don't recall seeing anything when we were there in October. I probably missed it altogether but if you wouldn't mind letting me know where to look I can remind myself next month when we go back.

Thanks!

 

[sunny04]

Just curious - what type of Shakespeare book did you buy? I love Shakespeare and don't recall seeing anything when we were there in October. I probably missed it altogether but if you wouldn't mind letting me know where to look I can remind myself next month when we go back.

Thanks!

What a perfect day to ask, as I literally had time to look in it for the first time today! And man does it look awesome! It's an Eyewitness Book, so it's just called Shakespeare. If you aren't familiar with the Eyewitness books, they are pretty cool. They have lots of pictures and descriptions of things...it's a really cool one with good info. in it. Not that it's any new info. mind you , but still good.

 

[sunny04]

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve added on here. I’m in a job search at the moment, so I have filled most of my extra time with that…much less fun than Disney and TRs. I’ll try to get more done soon….only a day and a half left anyway!

March 22
We started today with a 9:15 ADR at Boma. We had never made it over to AKL to look around, and were glad for the opportunity. The plan was to try to make it to AK again in time for the first Nemo show before heading to DTD for some time there. I had been dying to make it to Goofy’s Candy Co. and make my own treat! We made it to AKL pretty easy, although noticed several things on the way that guests should not have seen.

We were not wowed by AKL. I know most people seem to be, but I guess it’s just not our style. We had a little trouble finding Boma, but made it. My throat was a little raw again, so I got their signature drink, which was quite tasty and helped a lot. There wasn’t much African food at breakfast, which was why I picked it. DH can be very picky, and I knew this may be the only way to get him to Boma. I tried the few things they had, like pap, just to have tried them. After breakfast, we took some time to go out to the savannah and try to get some good pictures. Wow…those animals look a lot like people, and trucks….oh wait. They are. There were no animals. Just lots of trucks and people working on the savannah. Ahhh…the sound of the African Savannah….sounds like construction apparently. Nice.

So we stopped at the bathrooms, walked through the gift shop, and then headed over to AK. We got to AK in a rush, we were barely going to make it to the line 30 min. before. And it was Launchpad McQuack!! We didn’t have time to stop, so DH snapped a picture of him and some other people. Then, it hit me. I had to use the little girl’s room AGAIN. Didn’t I JUST GO??? Darn that stupid tasty juice. DH told me he was going to stop to take pictures of the tree, and I should go on towards DinoLand and use the bathroom on the way. “Oh no! Not the STINKY BATHROOM!” I yelled. “Yes, the stinky bathroom.” Dh answered with an evil grin. You guys know the one I mean….For some reason, that one bathroom, always reeks….BAD! I was terrified…what would I find? And just think…I would have to be there long enough that I wouldn’t be able to hold my breath like when you walk past it as fast as possible. What had I done to DH for him to punish me this way??? Must have been the first AK day argument….this was payback. So I braced myself….and amazingly, the closer you get, the less it smells. Weird.

I survived the scary, stinky bathroom and we made it to the line at 20 min. before show time. The line went back into DinoLand. At the back of the line, was a nice, quiet CM in sunglasses. We asked if he thought we would actually make it into the theatre, and he nodded in his silent, secret-agent way. We were lucky and relieved. And he was right…we made it in!

 

[sunny04]

As we entered the theater for Nemo, we were being led all the way up to the top corner, to some bleachers. There were still plenty of empty seats closer to the front. Why didn’t they fill up the close seats first? Doesn’t that make sense, that those nearer the front of the line would get the closer seats? We were not going to sit in the back corner…we and another family crossed across the back and down to the new section they were starting to seat people in. Yes, we cheated a little, but we ended up with an aisle seat so didn’t feel too bad. And I was kicked in the back repeatedly by the kid behind me, so I got my payback.

We weren’t really paying attention to the announcement as we should, and couldn’t figure out if they said no photography or no flash photography. So when it started, I was trying to take pictures. And a CM stopped me…then I felt really, really guilty, since I always follow those type of rules. The show was pretty good…it was no Tarzan, which we loved. But it was well done and cute.

After Nemo, we took a little bit of time to look around the paths surrounding the Tree of Life. We’ve only walked through these paths once, and it was 4 years ago, so it was a nice time taking pictures. This was the first time we’ve been at AK that the weather was perfect. It’s almost always hot and rainy. This time, it was beautifully sunny. When we left, DH decided we should exit through the Rainforest Café since we never had before. So we did…nothing too special, but it was different.

Now the plan was to go straight to DTD, try to eat by about 2:30 and head to the hotel by 3 to rest before going back to MK by about 5. We actually didn’t do too bad at following this plan. As we drove over, it started to rain, but had mostly stopped once we reached DTD and finally found a parking space. We shopped around, bought some ornaments, pins, and the found the Little Green Men tub we had wanted! Dh for some strange reason, decided he wanted to go to Raglan Road. We weren’t sure if it was open for lunch, so I stopped at a shop to ask a guy if they knew where it was and if it was open. The man proceeded to make me angrier than most people make me, being rude and acting like I was a moron for asking him a question. Told me to go to guest services. My goodness, I just thought people who worked there might have an idea of when the restaurants were open…if I worked there, I would know that, because I would eat there! He said he hadn’t even heard of it. What a jerk. So we headed down towards Pleasure Island to find out on our own.

Along the way, we stopped to take pictures of some of the Lego stuff, and of our room at SS across the water. We made it down to PI, and there was a lot of construction going on, so sections were blocked off. We finally found RR, but couldn’t quite get to it. We couldn’t figure out if it was open from where we were, and finally gave up and headed back to Earl of Sandwich instead. Which I was pleased with because it’s what I wanted to try anyway.

 

[TKDisneylover]

I just caught up with your trip report and am really enjoying it! Will you be posting some of those great pics you were taking? Thanks for sharing!

 

[IluvXU]

I am enjoying your report! It is a quick read.. just the right amount of details

 

[sunny04]

I just caught up with your trip report and am really enjoying it! Will you be posting some of those great pics you were taking? Thanks for sharing!

I'm not sure. That was supposed to be DH's job. To get the pictures on my computer, and figure out how to post them on here. However, he tends to not get things like that done in a timely fashion. So we may or may not ever get pictures on here!