The Darling Family's Endless Summer Vacation: August 2013 New 1/24

[dismagiclover]

Your Boardwalk pics look great. I need to stay here one day. Micheal is looks really determined to use those chop sticks.

You do need to stay at the Boardwalk! It is probably my favorite place to stay at Disney!

Glad you got a good view! (I actually really don't like pool views, myself, but I understand why lots of people do.) We stayed in the BWV in May and I really, really liked them, much better than the BCV (except for Stormalong Bay, of course). We were at the end of one of those super-long hallways, but we had a nice quiet view (of the parking lot kind of, but really more of the landscaping).

I've never tried Tokyo Dining...it's always on my list but never quite happens!

What I liked even more than the view was the location of this room. It was right off the lobby which also meant it was just a hop, skip, and a jump down to the Boardwalk and its bakery! We never had to walk the long hallways. I've never stayed at BCV just at the Beach Club hotel rooms. Stormalong Bay is awesome, but I do like the vibe at BWV better. Plus it is much easier to keep track of where the kids are at the pool. You should try Tokyo Dining. It was quite good. Plus I bet you could get an ADR on short notice.

I just saw the title and was like "I remember that family!!" Actually my 18 month old is being Peter Pan for Halloween and I was just thinking about your mnsshp report. lol
Excited to read all about your trip!

Welcome! It's nice to know we haven't been forgotten even though we haven't been around for a while. That Halloween trip was one of our best. We will never beat those costumes either. Great times!

Great view from your room and I was laughing at your description of your bellhops

Your meal sounded delicious and so convenient too

My guess is you went to DTD and up in the Characters in Flight!

Oh my bellhops I don't think I adequately described how difficult and pathetic that situation was. All just because I didn't visit an ATM. Good guess on the Characters in Flight. I'm not revealing yet, but you'll know next update!

What a great Mickey meet - love the pics!

And the BWV!!!!! One of my favorite places on earth. I'm so excited to read about your stay there.

The BWV is one of my favorite places on earth too! I would love to be there right now! I can't wait to tell you all about our stay.

 

[chattadisser]

Awesome on the room upgrade! I would have done the same thing with the bellhops...in your mind it's like it's fine we can do it. Then the reality of how much stuff your brought and the heat sets in. We are always a calamity walking with all our stuff.

Good attempt at the chopsticks...I gave up on those long ago. We've never been to Toyko dining. Is it similar to Teppan Eddo?

Christine

 

[Queenofallthings]

Ohhh....I love The Boardwalk and one day I really hope to stay there. I just want to be able to walk to Epcot I just very well may be there all the time Great pics!

 

[dismagiclover]

Awesome on the room upgrade! I would have done the same thing with the bellhops...in your mind it's like it's fine we can do it. Then the reality of how much stuff your brought and the heat sets in. We are always a calamity walking with all our stuff.

Good attempt at the chopsticks...I gave up on those long ago. We've never been to Toyko dining. Is it similar to Teppan Eddo?

Christine

A calamity is a good word to use to describe us that day! I was missing DH! Tokyo dining is quite different from Teppan Edo. Teppan Edo is the tepanyaki grill so they mostly have stir fry cooked right in front of you. Toyko dining has things like sushi and tempura. Things I think of as more traditional Japanese food. We love Teppan Edo too, but since we were sharing those last dining credits I didn't think that would be as good of a choice. I didn't know how they would feel about sharing meals there.

Ohhh....I love The Boardwalk and one day I really hope to stay there. I just want to be able to walk to Epcot I just very well may be there all the time Great pics!

You should definitely stay in the Boardwalk one day! It is so awesome to be able to walk right over to the World Showcase. Whenever we stay there we spend pretty much every night hanging around the World Showcase. I love it!

 

[dismagiclover]

This morning I woke up before everyone else to once again go for a run. I ran the path over to Hollywood Studios, then back and around Crescent Lake. This is a great place to go running! Where else do you get views like this when you run?











Yes it was pretty hot and muggy, but it still made for a great way to start the day. After my run I headed back to the room and tried to get the kids moving. We were all a bit poky this morning, but we eventually made it out the door and headed towards our destination. This morning we were going to a Disney Water Park for the first time. This morning we headed for Typhoon Lagoon. We were planning to get there right at open, but I think it was closer to 10:00 by the time we finally rolled in. I really hadn’t done too much research about the water parks so I didn’t know what to expect. The kids kept peppering me with questions and I didn’t have any answers for them. We walked in and one of the first things we saw was the wave pool. Of course that is where the kids wanted to go. My Disney instinct did tell me that the wave pool should maybe be saved until after we were done with the slides. This was because I figured slide lines would get longer and longer. I ignored the instinct and said, “OK. Let’s go in the pool.” So that is what we did. What did we think? We loved the wave pool. This is no wave pool for wusses. That is one giant wave. There is literally no way you can remain standing when it hits you. I apologize to all of the small children I ran over. We stayed in for wave after wave. The kids went out pretty deep, but I retreated closer to the shore because I got tired of running over small children. My favorite part of the wave pool is the collective gasp of anticipation when the wave is coming and then just watching the masses fall under it. Here is a youtube video to give you an idea.

Typhoon Lagoon Wave

The big wave stopped for a bit and there was a photopass guy there who took a few shots of us.





During the period the big wave quit coming, there were of course new arrivals to the pool. I was chatting with one family that had a couple of pretty small kids (like 3 or 4 year olds) I tried to impress on them that the wave was realllly big and they might have trouble holding on to their kids. They smiled nicely and ignored me. Then the horn went off and the big wave came. Of course we were all knocked off our feet. When I resurfaced it was to quite the scene. There were crying children everywhere. Poor kids. I’m sure they had no concept that water could have that much power. There were also adults everywhere frantically searching for sunglasses. It was all rather amusing, and I bet the lifeguards get a kick out of it. Moral of the story: Do not think you can hold your small children once the wave hits. You cannot. And don’t wear your sunglasses into the wave pool. Needless to say, by the time the next wave arrived the small children had all moved wayyy back close to the shoreline.

We spent well over an hour in the wave pool. The kids never seemed to tire of it. Eventually I hauled them out and suggested we check out the rest of the park. So we looked at the map. On the map we noticed there was a lift that seemed to go up to the big slides. (Note I should have been suspicious at this point about a ski lift at Typhoon Lagoon.) So we walked in the direction of where the lift should be. We couldn’t find the lift or anything else on the map. I finally just asked a cast member where the slides were and he pointed me in the right direction. It all seemed very strange to us that nothing seemed to line up with our map. You’ve probably already figured this out, but we later realized that we’d been looking at a water park map with two sides. Typhoon Lagoon was on one side and Blizzard Beach was on the back of the map. Guess which one we’d been so diligently studying?



Yep. Blizzard Beach. No wonder our map didn’t work. FYI. Here is the map of Typhoon Lagoon.



As you can see there is no chair lift. Eventually we found some slides. The lines were too long for our tastes, so we wandered around until we found some shorter lines. We hopped on those slides. (I can’t tell you where or what they were because of the previously mentioned map problem.) They were OK, but honestly not too much better than the clown slide at our beloved Boardwalk. Not being too impressed with the short line slides and not wanting to wait in the long line for the bigger slides we decided to go with the lazy river. The lazy river was quite crowded and Michael kept getting out of his tube and getting squashed by all of the tubes. Plus we kept getting separated. So I was the crazy lady yelling at her kids to stay with me and get back in their tubes. Sorry if anyone was looking for relaxation. Finally I figured out we could all grab onto each other tubes. Then we just made a string of four tubes floating down the river. This too created problems, but over all I found it much easier to relax because I wasn’t worried about my children drowning. Overall though the lazy river isn’t all that relaxing. It is just really crowded. At one point there was a larger man in front of me laying on his stomach on a tube. He had a bit of a plumber’s crack. And we were so close that it was very difficult at times for me not to kick the plumber’s crack. You’d think I’d just maneuver out of the way, but remember I was trying to keep all four of our tubes together so maneuvering was difficult in the crowd of tubes. Plus I was trying to be very subtle as I instructed my kids to try and pull me out of this man’s way. Wendy was just dying of laughter and I was trying really hard to give her the stink eye without this man noticing. Good times in the lazy river.

So after doing a full loop around the lazy river, we exited and decided to head back to the resort. There were some rumbling tummies though so we stopped for a snack and let me tell you, this was a delicious snack. Here it is.





They were freshly fried and oh so yummy. I’m pretty sure this will become a water park tradition for us. After the yummy donuts we headed back to the car. We had no plans for the rest of the day. Whatever did we do?

 

[DisneyJo]

He had a bit of a plumber’s crack.

This had me laughing, over here we call it a builders bum

 

[wiigirl]

Great update!

 

[RGirl]

So would you go back to Typhoon Lagoon? We haven't done a water park yet (kind of waiting until DD is a little taller) - I think she would love them though. I, on the other hand, probably not so much....

 

[heathsf]

Yay for the pool view room!!

The video of that wave was CRAZY!! Ahhhh!!!! Considering I am scared to swim in the ocean if there are waves, this probably isn't the place for me...

 

[norybell]

I've never been to a WDW water park, either...I'm not really crazy about water parks, but they're probably in my future, considering DH loves them. Can't say your description makes me any more anxious to get there, but I'm glad you guys had so much fun in the wave pool!

And those doughnuts look delicious. I'm totally drooling for a doughnut now...

 

[dismagiclover]

This had me laughing, over here we call it a builders bum

Now I know the proper term in the Queen's English (Just thinking about the Queen talking about such things makes me laugh.)

Great update!

Thanks!

So would you go back to Typhoon Lagoon? We haven't done a water park yet (kind of waiting until DD is a little taller) - I think she would love them though. I, on the other hand, probably not so much....

We do actually go back later in the trip. They are fun, but the lines get long. It seemed like there were lots of locals there so the lines would probably be better when school was back in session. (Of course that applies to all of Disney.) There are some really fun areas for kids. I'll talk about them when we go again.

Yay for the pool view room!!

The video of that wave was CRAZY!! Ahhhh!!!! Considering I am scared to swim in the ocean if there are waves, this probably isn't the place for me...

If you are scared of waves, Typhoon Lagoon's wave pool is definitely something you should stay away from.

I've never been to a WDW water park, either...I'm not really crazy about water parks, but they're probably in my future, considering DH loves them. Can't say your description makes me any more anxious to get there, but I'm glad you guys had so much fun in the wave pool!

And those doughnuts look delicious. I'm totally drooling for a doughnut now...

As I said above the water parks are probably lots more fun when there are less people around. We were also rookies so we did them pretty ineffeciently. The thing is though they should be visited first thing in the morning and who wants to spend rope drop time at a water park? This trip was really long so we didn't mind. And those doughnuts were yummy!

 

[dismom9761]

Great update
Those donuts look yummy!

 

[chattadisser]

Too funny about the plumber's crack/builder's bum (can't you just hear builder's bum with a British accent? Sounds so much better than plumber's crack). Although you would have thought that he would have felt the...ahem..breeze, shall we say, and pull things up. Never ceases to amaze me.

I have found that most lazy rivers aren't relaxing with kids. Too much worrying about where everyone is and if they are still in their tube to relax.

Good to know about the wave though, I think most people would think it's like the beach, where you can stand up for the most part.

 

[dismagiclover]

Great update
Those donuts look yummy!

They were very yummy!

Too funny about the plumber's crack/builder's bum (can't you just hear builder's bum with a British accent? Sounds so much better than plumber's crack). Although you would have thought that he would have felt the...ahem..breeze, shall we say, and pull things up. Never ceases to amaze me.

I have found that most lazy rivers aren't relaxing with kids. Too much worrying about where everyone is and if they are still in their tube to relax.

Good to know about the wave though, I think most people would think it's like the beach, where you can stand up for the most part.

I just wondered why he didn't lay on the tube on his back instead of his stomach. Oh well! Definitely beware of the Typhoon Lagoon wave. It is fun, but it isn't for really little ones.

 

[dismagiclover]

When we got back to the room what did the kids want to do? They wanted to go to the pool.





That cracked me up a bit since we’d just been at a water park for 4 hours or so, but I was game. We were having a grand old time at the pool. The kids were splashing around and enjoying a water slide with a short line. I was reading my book. Then out of nowhere it just started pouring rain. I’m talking sheets of rain with not a single warning drop. It was crazy. Everyone started screaming and running for cover. I had the wherewithal to stuff my book in the swim bag. The kids came over and asked if we could just stay in the pool. (There was no lightening.) So we went swimming in the pouring rain.
After a few hours in the pool, we returned to our room and freshened up. Then we had a decision to make. How should we spend our evening? Literally the whole of Disney World was available to us. However, for the Darling family there really wasn’t even any debate. We were at the Boardwalk and evening was approaching. We were headed to our private entrance into Epcot. Once we arrived Michael had a specific destination in mind. There was an old friend that he really wanted to visit. For those of you that have read my previous trip reports you may remember my boys’ obsession with Duffy. In the two years since the last trip, John has gotten over the obsession. Not so much for Michael. Top Epcot priority was a visit with Duffy the Disney Bear. So we headed over there and Michael greeted his old friend.



Then the other kids joined in.



If my memory serves me correctly we then headed to ride a little Figment. I always like singing along here. Then we may have ridden Living with the Land. Then I know we rode Nemo. The reason I know this is because afterwards I made them pose for a Bruce picture.



Here is another flashback of the same shot from June 2009.



They were such babies. We were heading over to Spaceship Earth when I noticed there was no wait for the Character Connections. So we had to stop. I must say though, I really miss the days when you could catch all of the Fab Five here. We missed meeting Donald and Goofy in their original outfits on this trip. I told each of the kids they could take solo shots with one of the characters. Minnie is Wendy’s BFF and Michael’s favorite has always been Pluto. John’s favorite has always been Donald so he was especially sad he wasn’t there. Anyway, first up was Mickey who was happy to see us even though we’d just visited him yesterday. John took the solo shot with Mickey.





Then all of the kids together.





Wendy is almost as tall as Mickey. I know I’m being wayyy nostalgic with all these flashback shots, but here is the first picture I have of all three of my kids with Mickey. (This is November 2006).



Mickey is actually kneeling down and Michael still only comes up to his chin.

I then hopped into the picture.





Next up was Michael’s favorite dog. . .

 

[mickeystoontown]

How'd I miss that you started a report? I'll be back later with comments.

 

[RGirl]

I love that y'all kept swimming in the rain! Why not?!

What a fun Epcot time - love character meets! The flashback pics are precious

 

[chattadisser]

How fun to just keep swimming in the rain. I remember doing it a few times as a kid and it just felt like you were getting to break so many rules!

Did they really change the character spot other than moving Donald and Goofy? It doesn't really seem like it and I like getting the Fab Five in their original outfits. I LOVE the flashback pictures! Time goes too fast.

I think we, as parents, should tell them when they are allowed to move on a year. Like, OK, you've been 5 for long enough now...time to move to 6. Of course, then there are days when you'd just move them along to get past the current age.

 

[DisneyJo]

Swimming in the rain sounded like tons of fun and I love the character photos

 

[mickeystoontown]

I spent most of my lunch hour catching up. Wow! 3 whole weeks at WDW. What I wouldn't give for that. The kids sure have grown up since your earlier trips to Disney.

Oh and thanks so much for posting the Alaska cruise pictures. I would so love to take the Alaskan cruise but the airfare for us cost the same as the cruise.