PART 7: Day 3 - Animal Kingdom, Blizzard Beach and some meltdowns, oh oh! (contd...)
(Still) Thursday, 26th October, 2006
So we've arrived at Blizzard Beach with less than 2 hours before closing time. It's hot. We're tired. Most irritating of all, we have way too much baggage. We decide to get a locker so after getting a key, Grumpy takes the boys to the men's changing room and I take Alice to our one. Afterwards, Grumpy grabs a couple of back packs to put in the locker but I stop him and point out that each bag has stuff we do need and stuff we don't need so we stand in the middle of that area and empty, re-distribute and re-arrange everything. I can't help but notice that the hundreds of people around us are carefree, smiling and not laden down with
stuff so I have no doubt, we are once again, er, unique in our approach to things.
DH and the boys carry the pile of annoying crap to the locker. They're gone a long time so I take Alice to see them. Basically the lockers are way too small (not sure why we thought they'd be bigger but we did). DH squeezes in as much as he can and we put the rest on the already over-burdened stroller. It is beyond hot with, again, those searing sun rays (in retrospect this has got to be the hottest day we had and it wasn't far off the summer days of June/July 05).
So we decide that DH will bring the boys to do various wet and scary things while I take Alice to the toddler area. So off we go.
Before we reach the toddler place I double back to buy a drink at one of those carts. I see the refillable mugs for sale and wish I'd brought back our Typhoon Lagoon mug from last year and then just pay the 6 dollars it costs for a new barcode. In any case, knowing that we'd be going to Typhoon Lagoon again next week, I decide to go ahead and buy another one but they don't refill drinks at this cart, they just sell the mugs. So now we need to go to the nearest food place to refill them. Why is everything so complicated today?
I'm going to digress here to say there's a weird kinda phenomenon with me and Disney water parks. I can hardly remember the names of any ride, shop, restaurant or any specific area of either BB or Typhoon Lagoon. Words like 'leaping' and 'libations' and 'summit' and 'gusher' and 'little tikes' are coming in and out of my head but very vaguely. Also, it's not just the names that confuse me, the general layout of both parks just did my head in. It should be easy to find anywhere. There's a lazy river running around the outside so wouldn't it be hard to go wrong? No, it's very easy. I don't think I went the right way to get to anything ever!
So having filled the mug, drank it back, gave Alice some (having added some hot H2O), we load up the crap again and find our way to the kiddies area and eventually get there. Hurrah!! So we get a couple of sun loungers and drop our stuff (why are the chairs and sun loungers all crammed in tight together with no room to spread them out?).
At first Alice is quite hesitant. That's actually a good thing for me as a parent because I know she's not going to just run or leap into the water without thinking. She stands back, assesses her surroundings, watches other kids her age and gauges how they're doing to figure out if it seems like fun! She smiles all the time while she's doing this analysis! It's the cutest thing to watch her zoning in and scanning her environment. After a little while I ask her to come in the water with me and she said "no thanks Mom" with the little hand up to 'halt' me! No problem. After another few minutes she said "Mo--o--om?", "Yes Alice", "can we go in the water now?", "sure hon". So she takes my hand and slowly steps in the few inches of water, giggling all the while. She's really a joy to watch as she's very demonstrative with lots of hand gestures and body movements. When she giggles her whole face lights up and she doubles over, slaps her knees with her hands and really makes a drama out of it!
She slowly builds up the courage to explore at a faster pace until eventually she's having a ball, running around and getting wet head to toe.
It's very sweet seeing all the little babies and toddlers having such fun in this area. It's such a clean, safe place although, honestly, she was just as happy in the ASMusic pool. The boys and DH return temporarily to see how we're doing and to make an arrangement for later. There's just about 40 minutes left before closing time now so off they go to do something else.
At 4.30 the announcements start that the park will be closing soon. By 4.45 I'm getting anxious as I'm painfully aware of all the stuff that needs to be put back into bags and all the items needed for us all to get dressed. Do I go and dress myself and Alice now and then return to the boys or do I wait for the boys to return first? Hmmmm. I wait. Until around 4.55, at which point I'm getting more anxious - people are leaving in droves and the announcements are coming fast that the park is closing.
So I decide to at least walk to the entrance to this area so we're not far from the lockers then. Except when it came time to leave, Alice had a meltdown. She's a sweet girl but she's also 2! No amount of cajoling, bribing or contriving would get her out of this place. So eventually I unload the stroller and put a loudly-protesting, red-faced, squirmy little madam into it and move on. Even waiting at the entrance of that area wasn't working because she knew the "splish splash" was "just there" and was yearning to get back to it. So I decided to go a bit further, get another drink and then come back. Can you guess what happened here? Yeah we missed DH and the boys. The thing is there was a long line at the nearest refill place but I stuck it out anyway. If I had been anyway focussed, I'd have realised that I was gonna miss them. But the hot searing sun, exhaustion and anxiety etc etc..........
The way the refill place is situated, you refill the drinks in front of you and you wash the mugs out in a sink a couple of feet to the right. Now there was a guy in front of me with a large family. He was using the one mug to refill (no exaggeration here) about 10 paper cups and another 4 or 5 various style plastic cups.
Not just that but he'd shout over his shoulder "hey what do you want Jo, coke, sprite, water?, "how about you Bessie, coke, sprite, lemonade?" to
each kid. This went on and on and on. I've already said in an earlier chapter that I don't care about people re-using refillable mugs and I don't but honestly this was hilarious and did, somewhat, take the biscuit.
Time was dragging on. I was still waiting for my turn. I decided to wash the mug and at least get that part out of the way to save time. I manouvred Alice in her stroller to the right, washed out my mug while he was still pouring, refilling, pouring, refilling, pouring, refilling etc. He then went away and I went to get my refill and heard a loud snarky voice behind me say "oh there must have been a second line we didn't see". His tone was unmistakably sarcastic. His friend roared laughing and said "I guess waiting in line isn't for everyone". Then it dawned on me that they were looking at and talking about me and obviously thought I had just jumped in front of the line from the right. THIS, after me queueing for 20 something minutes???!! AAAArrrrgh! Actually, I wasn't angry. I was hurt. By his sarcasm and smart-alec comments. So I said to him "excuse me, are you referring to me?" and he said "well I guess if the accusation fits" (or something very like that) so I said "well I'd like you to know that my daughter and I have been in line for 20 minutes" and he said "yeah, SURE you have" and just rolled his eyes. You know what really disappointed me? He mightn't have noticed me in line in front of him but I know for a fact that a woman behind him did because we chatted briefly and laughed about something and when I made eye contact with her she just shrugged. If that were me, I would definitely have defended the accused!
But really, such a small encounter wouldn't ordinarily have bothered me if it weren't for my mood, the hot searing sun...... well you know the rest! It was the last straw. So off I left to go back to the kiddie area and wait for DH and the boys. We found a place to stand and, still angry at having been taken out of the water, when I gave Alice a sip of drink she caught it and flung it on the ground, spilling its contents and smashing the lid. This made me cry. I know, slight over-reaction! But again, the last straw! We waited and waited, the crowd is disappearing, no sign of DH and the boys.
Eventually we spot them. They had been back of course and missed us. So we scatter our belongings, re-distribute, re-arrange and re-organise yet again. We go to get dressed and we meet back outside. We are now amongst the last 10 people in the park. The CMs are being incredibly patient and I keep giving them apologetic looks and they just smile back, bless 'em. Then I notice DH has no footwear on. He has lost his sandals. Oh for the love of God. He runs around looking everywhere and eventually he sees them in the empty locker. So at 5.20 we're out of here.
Lesson: don't try a water park with a family of 5 when it's blistering hot and you're exhausted. But if you must do it, don't bring 50 kilos of luggage with you. Be organised and keep everything to a minimum. If anyone hassles you, ignore it and laugh. If your toddler accidentally spills a drink (even if it did require a half hour of your time and a run-in with a moron) don't get upset, laugh it off. And take lots of deep breaths.
The good thing is we at least got to see Blizzard Beach. I asked the boys was it worth it and they said no, it was too rushed and too manic. Story of our lives.
So we, fortunately, make the last bus back to ASMusic. Here's a photo of a bus. lol!! I just think, it might be the angle, I'm not sure, but whatever it is, Garth did a fine job of taking this photo.....
To digress again, do the bus drivers get enough recognition? To me, they are a huge part of the Disney magic. Through 16 days and many trips to and from Disney parks, we never once had a grumpy driver. They just couldn't be nicer! Major kudos to them!!
By the time we get there we're all fine again. The stress has disappeared. Here's DH and the kids tired but contented
So we make the trek to our room which, by now, we're actually enjoying! It's a nice walk and, again, may I add that this resort is beautiful, not just adequate but, in my opinion, beautiful. There's a DIS poster who has some great threads about the All Star resorts. Her name is Linda (minnie61650) and I owe her a debt of gratitude. First, for her very accurate portrayal of ASMusic resort and, second, for pointing out in one of her posts some time ago that there's some really lovely landscaping and details at ASMusic, if you take the time to notice it. And we did. The fountains, the sidewalks, the foliage and the sheer cleanliness here is just wonderful. We will definitely come to stay here again.
Here are some photos we took on our walk back.....
We even had a bunny waiting for us outside our building, much to Alice's delight!
So we get back to the room and get organised (insofar as
we are ever organised) and decide to explore our neighbouring All Star Movies resort. We were originally booked to stay there for the first 4 nights but, upon hearing of the pool closure, I switched to ASMusic as I knew that swimming was important to the boys. But, as we needed to move again the following weekend (3rd & 4th Nov), I chose ASMovies for just those 2 nights, knowing that we'd be out all day both days and wouldn't need a pool.
So we walk out the front of ASMusic and, before we know it, we're in the dalmations section of ASMovies. That was fast! I loved the look of this section. The warm orange glow of the buildings in the dark and, of course, the huge dalmation icons.
Our two boys having fun - I swear Wayne is not as aggressive as he looks in this pic.
We find the food court and are somewhat taken aback by the crowds (we later find out that it's always packed like this, but ASMusic food court never is and is much better!). We order some vegetarian pasta which was plain but adequate and, once more, refill our mugs. I love that you can use those things at all 3 AS food courts. It's another cold evening so the boys put on their sweaters for the walk back to our room. I'm not good at gauging distances but I do know that the walk from ASMusic entrance to Dalmations building is about half the distance of the walk from ASMusic entrance to our room in Country Fare.
It's been a long day. Terrific morning at AK (and oh how I wish we'd left it at that) and a horrid afternoon at BB (let's not beat around the bush here, it really was horrid). One advantage of water parks is that the kids are worn out after them so we had an early night and we're all asleep by 10 - me yet again clutching my Unofficial Guide and TGM notes - looking forward to our early start and our breakfast at Crystal Palace in MK! Yay!!
Up next: "Part 8: Magic Kingdom at last(!!), to do or not to do Fantasmic and bonding time at the resort" - It's on Page 7, Post no. 101.
for him. It's awful when they're sick and I think it's scary for them when they vomit. You probably read above that my little girl was sick today too - dreadful cough and even vomited once from the force of it. We think it's most likely asthma as she has the same symptoms as my eldest DS and this 'barking' cough has happened a few times now. She's sleeping soundly now thank heavens. Good idea about hooking them up. lol!! They already have Disney in common!!! That's an excellent start
What to do now? I looked around at other faces and most people seemed quite blasé about this. I'm guessing many of them were running to Safari and others knew their stuff well enough to adjust their plan mentally there and then (or maybe they're just not as crazily obsessed as me??). I just drew a blank really.
But you're right, it's hard to find any time with 3 kids, a job and a ton of stuff going on! Still, writing this TR is like a much-needed rest from the other stuff going on so I'm enjoying it. Sorry your 'quota' was up so soon. 
Also what kind of car does he drive and does he have a pension plan? 
. Reading your report I see we need to be more flexible though I also subscribe to the famine philosophy. Keep up the great work, you are my heroine!!! 
