Katy Belle
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2004
- Messages
- 4,013
We Feb.25-March 2
Me-Katy 35-never been to WDW. Always, always, always have wanted to visit the mouse
DH-Scott 38- one trip to WDW, many, many moons ago.
DS-Jacob - 8 Cautious- brainy kid -looking forward to Epcot
DS-Nathan -6 Dare Devil - thinks he can fly (think concussion)- hopes to lose his first tooth at WDW and leave it under his pillow for Tinkerbell, hoping she will leave pixie dust!
DS-Matthew-4 Scaredy Cat - after viewing the Disney Trip planning video he called the Dumbo Ride "The Scary Roundy Round elephants"
have a PS at Donald's breakfast for 8:30 this morning. We decided to drive the rental van. My husband does not mind driving. He is a great map reader and stays way calm and gets us to where we are going, so we opted to drive this morning. The busses have been taking a bunch of time and we weren't sure if we would get to AK on time. So we drive and it worked out great. Get to the front about 15 min. early, they take our photo and gather us with the other breakfast goers and we begin the HIKE to the restaurant! I had no idea it was so far. It all happened so fast, they were directing us here and there, that we forgot to rent a stroller. So we are attempting to herd our children to the restaurant. We were the last family to arrive, but oh well. I have read good and bad reviews about this breakfast and I must say, I was NOT impressed. Our waiter was very busy, it was a trick just to get a refill on drinks, which he poured into the coffee mugs on the table, we had juice and milk, other tables had glasses for juice and milk. I'm not complaining, just observing. I had read that the waiters were joksters. Not today. The food was fine. But with the tip it came to $70 for the 5 of us. OUCH. The characters hadn't come by the time we finished, but they showed up within 5 minutes. They came one after another and they were great! The kids really enjoyed them, which makes it worth it. The real bonus was, we were IN the park at 9!!! We rode Primeavel Whirl twice! They didn't even make us go through that long line again, just put us to the side and let us on after 2 groups got on. Awesome. I was so sad that Matthew couldn't ride, not tall enough. Scott happily sat this one out, motion sickness, and played the DinoRama games with Matthew, who is now the proud owner of 2 dino stuffed animals! Then Scott and Nathan, the daredevil, head for Dinosaur and the rest of us explore the Boneyard. Jacob and Matthew had a great time in the boneyard discovering lots of hidden noises, etc. Nathan LOVED Dinosaur, wanted to take me, but time kept me off. They had found the Mr. Potato Head stuff in a gift shop and knew I would love it, so we went and got Disney pieces for our potato at home! I thought it was so sweet that Nathan thought of me!
We went to Tarzan Rocks next. Good seat and short wait. The show was great! At first I thought, "Oh no. This won't hold the attention of these boys." But I was wrong. Disney magic once again. Very enjoyable show. Such STRONG people! By this time it was warm and we had shed our jackets and the boys had unzipped the legs off their pants leaving them with shorts. Plus we had our box of potato parts and 2 dino stuffed animals, and no stroller. I was getting tired of being the pack mule and the boys were getting tired of walking. We had already decided to rent 2 strollers today. Nathan was starting to slow down on us. Matthew is a 60 lb 4yr old, so there is no carrying him when his 6yr old brother needs the stroller. Anyhow, Scott hiked to the front to rent a locker for the excess stuff and to rent those strollers! When he returned we parked the strollers and went into ITTBAB. They took us immediately into a cave/holding area. I heard a CM mention "cleaning the theatre." UGH. They kept telling us to move forward and they packed more and more people in. We were in there over 20 minutes. It was horrible. It was hot, packed, dark, and I'm clausterphobic. I came very, very close to bolting for the exit. But, I survived. It was definitely my most clausterphobic moment the whole trip. Now, onto the show! I LOVE the glasses! We took a photo of Jacob in his, very cute. I held Matthew once again. We shouted BOO at the scary parts and he did great! We all loved it! I knew most of the secrets due to my extensive research, but hadn't told Scott anything. I LOVED hearing him laughing so hard right along with the boys! Very well done Disney! I am a ride person and wasn't sure I'd want to "waste" my time with the shows, but I am so glad we tried them!
Now it is time for lunch. We ate at Flame Tree BBQ. I shared a beef sandwich with Nathan, our meet eater. He loved it, but was very disappointed when he saw Jacob's pb&j. It came on rainbow colored bread! Very cute and it must have tasted good too, it disappeared. Matthew had the hot dog and Scott had a beef sandwich too. We ventured down to the tables by the water. It was nice, but windy. Jacob had about 4 chips left in his bag and it blew away. A sweet CM nearby said she would bring him another bag. We told her that he was fine, he was. She brought THREE bags! She didn't want to disappoint the other little boys. Disney Magic! Wasn't that sweet? We had those as a snack later in the day. We also did the "meal deal" coupon thing here. That is a great deal! We enjoyed ice cream and drinks later!
Getting warm so off to Kali River Rapids. The line was not long but the actual LINE is physically long. There was a group in a hurry behind us and we ended up basically running up the line. That irritated me greatly. They would not pass us, but practically pushed us up the hill. Then, of course, we were all seated together for the ride! They calmed down and so did I and we had a fabulous time. Their teenagers ended up being very sweet to my young boys. We got very WET! Success. It was really great. We boarded the Train and went to Rafiki's Planet Watch. We are zoo people. We liked it a lot. We spent much time petting the goats. We have a great photo of a white goat who showed us his teeth for the photo, more Disney magic. Now, this is where my boys found their most favorite thing of the whole trip. A talking/moving trash can. Boy, was it funny! Or so they thought. They would have stayed with that trash can for hours! But finally the poor guy must have gotten tired and parked himself against a wall and went to sleep. Jacob and Nathan really, really, really, enjoyed this silly thing! I thought everything was very nice.
Now our FastPass time for the Safari was up. We boarded quickly and away we go! It was so great! It was late in the afternoon, but we saw lots and lots of animals. The kids payed no attention to the "adventure" going on over the loud speaker. They just enjoyed the sites. Also, a HUGE rhino parked himself directly in front of our truck right at the time we were supposed to chase the poachers. Maybe he was a poacher in a Rhino costume?? But that took some of the excitement out of the "adventure." I did not mind. I enjoyed seeing that huge guy blocking the road! When we departed people were lined up to watch the parade, so we joined in. I thought it was a cute parade. The only parade we managed to see the whole trip! It was funny that when it ended EVERYONE followed it, in attempt to leave the park, or to get close to the front. We followed too. A CM had strongly advised me that we should NOT MISS the Festival of the Lion King. So we went to the last showing. Fabulous. Very well done, Disney! Then we headed out, after checking out a few things that Our Pal Mickey advised us about.
We drove our rented van to MGM with no trouble. Parked and headed in to see Fantasmic. We were seated at about 6:15 for the 7:00 show. Scott and Brian hiked up to the counter restaurant and brought back dinner. Those chicken wrap sandwhiches are HUGE. Plan to share! We had plenty of food. We were fairly close to the front and got slightly damp during the show, but I am not complaining! It was OUT OF THIS WORLD. I know, I know, you hear it all the time. But it truly is. Matthew was a bit scared, but for weeks talked about how Mickey WON in his dream and it was happy! We really, loved it. On our way out of MGM we bought some t-shirts, as the plan was to get one for each of us and tomorrow is our last day. Time to start shopping. With treasures in hand we find our van and go to the Happy Motel, POR, for cartoons and sleeping. Yes, Yes, Yes, another magical Day
Me-Katy 35-never been to WDW. Always, always, always have wanted to visit the mouse
DH-Scott 38- one trip to WDW, many, many moons ago.
DS-Jacob - 8 Cautious- brainy kid -looking forward to Epcot
DS-Nathan -6 Dare Devil - thinks he can fly (think concussion)- hopes to lose his first tooth at WDW and leave it under his pillow for Tinkerbell, hoping she will leave pixie dust!
DS-Matthew-4 Scaredy Cat - after viewing the Disney Trip planning video he called the Dumbo Ride "The Scary Roundy Round elephants"
have a PS at Donald's breakfast for 8:30 this morning. We decided to drive the rental van. My husband does not mind driving. He is a great map reader and stays way calm and gets us to where we are going, so we opted to drive this morning. The busses have been taking a bunch of time and we weren't sure if we would get to AK on time. So we drive and it worked out great. Get to the front about 15 min. early, they take our photo and gather us with the other breakfast goers and we begin the HIKE to the restaurant! I had no idea it was so far. It all happened so fast, they were directing us here and there, that we forgot to rent a stroller. So we are attempting to herd our children to the restaurant. We were the last family to arrive, but oh well. I have read good and bad reviews about this breakfast and I must say, I was NOT impressed. Our waiter was very busy, it was a trick just to get a refill on drinks, which he poured into the coffee mugs on the table, we had juice and milk, other tables had glasses for juice and milk. I'm not complaining, just observing. I had read that the waiters were joksters. Not today. The food was fine. But with the tip it came to $70 for the 5 of us. OUCH. The characters hadn't come by the time we finished, but they showed up within 5 minutes. They came one after another and they were great! The kids really enjoyed them, which makes it worth it. The real bonus was, we were IN the park at 9!!! We rode Primeavel Whirl twice! They didn't even make us go through that long line again, just put us to the side and let us on after 2 groups got on. Awesome. I was so sad that Matthew couldn't ride, not tall enough. Scott happily sat this one out, motion sickness, and played the DinoRama games with Matthew, who is now the proud owner of 2 dino stuffed animals! Then Scott and Nathan, the daredevil, head for Dinosaur and the rest of us explore the Boneyard. Jacob and Matthew had a great time in the boneyard discovering lots of hidden noises, etc. Nathan LOVED Dinosaur, wanted to take me, but time kept me off. They had found the Mr. Potato Head stuff in a gift shop and knew I would love it, so we went and got Disney pieces for our potato at home! I thought it was so sweet that Nathan thought of me!
We went to Tarzan Rocks next. Good seat and short wait. The show was great! At first I thought, "Oh no. This won't hold the attention of these boys." But I was wrong. Disney magic once again. Very enjoyable show. Such STRONG people! By this time it was warm and we had shed our jackets and the boys had unzipped the legs off their pants leaving them with shorts. Plus we had our box of potato parts and 2 dino stuffed animals, and no stroller. I was getting tired of being the pack mule and the boys were getting tired of walking. We had already decided to rent 2 strollers today. Nathan was starting to slow down on us. Matthew is a 60 lb 4yr old, so there is no carrying him when his 6yr old brother needs the stroller. Anyhow, Scott hiked to the front to rent a locker for the excess stuff and to rent those strollers! When he returned we parked the strollers and went into ITTBAB. They took us immediately into a cave/holding area. I heard a CM mention "cleaning the theatre." UGH. They kept telling us to move forward and they packed more and more people in. We were in there over 20 minutes. It was horrible. It was hot, packed, dark, and I'm clausterphobic. I came very, very close to bolting for the exit. But, I survived. It was definitely my most clausterphobic moment the whole trip. Now, onto the show! I LOVE the glasses! We took a photo of Jacob in his, very cute. I held Matthew once again. We shouted BOO at the scary parts and he did great! We all loved it! I knew most of the secrets due to my extensive research, but hadn't told Scott anything. I LOVED hearing him laughing so hard right along with the boys! Very well done Disney! I am a ride person and wasn't sure I'd want to "waste" my time with the shows, but I am so glad we tried them!
Now it is time for lunch. We ate at Flame Tree BBQ. I shared a beef sandwich with Nathan, our meet eater. He loved it, but was very disappointed when he saw Jacob's pb&j. It came on rainbow colored bread! Very cute and it must have tasted good too, it disappeared. Matthew had the hot dog and Scott had a beef sandwich too. We ventured down to the tables by the water. It was nice, but windy. Jacob had about 4 chips left in his bag and it blew away. A sweet CM nearby said she would bring him another bag. We told her that he was fine, he was. She brought THREE bags! She didn't want to disappoint the other little boys. Disney Magic! Wasn't that sweet? We had those as a snack later in the day. We also did the "meal deal" coupon thing here. That is a great deal! We enjoyed ice cream and drinks later!
Getting warm so off to Kali River Rapids. The line was not long but the actual LINE is physically long. There was a group in a hurry behind us and we ended up basically running up the line. That irritated me greatly. They would not pass us, but practically pushed us up the hill. Then, of course, we were all seated together for the ride! They calmed down and so did I and we had a fabulous time. Their teenagers ended up being very sweet to my young boys. We got very WET! Success. It was really great. We boarded the Train and went to Rafiki's Planet Watch. We are zoo people. We liked it a lot. We spent much time petting the goats. We have a great photo of a white goat who showed us his teeth for the photo, more Disney magic. Now, this is where my boys found their most favorite thing of the whole trip. A talking/moving trash can. Boy, was it funny! Or so they thought. They would have stayed with that trash can for hours! But finally the poor guy must have gotten tired and parked himself against a wall and went to sleep. Jacob and Nathan really, really, really, enjoyed this silly thing! I thought everything was very nice.
Now our FastPass time for the Safari was up. We boarded quickly and away we go! It was so great! It was late in the afternoon, but we saw lots and lots of animals. The kids payed no attention to the "adventure" going on over the loud speaker. They just enjoyed the sites. Also, a HUGE rhino parked himself directly in front of our truck right at the time we were supposed to chase the poachers. Maybe he was a poacher in a Rhino costume?? But that took some of the excitement out of the "adventure." I did not mind. I enjoyed seeing that huge guy blocking the road! When we departed people were lined up to watch the parade, so we joined in. I thought it was a cute parade. The only parade we managed to see the whole trip! It was funny that when it ended EVERYONE followed it, in attempt to leave the park, or to get close to the front. We followed too. A CM had strongly advised me that we should NOT MISS the Festival of the Lion King. So we went to the last showing. Fabulous. Very well done, Disney! Then we headed out, after checking out a few things that Our Pal Mickey advised us about.
We drove our rented van to MGM with no trouble. Parked and headed in to see Fantasmic. We were seated at about 6:15 for the 7:00 show. Scott and Brian hiked up to the counter restaurant and brought back dinner. Those chicken wrap sandwhiches are HUGE. Plan to share! We had plenty of food. We were fairly close to the front and got slightly damp during the show, but I am not complaining! It was OUT OF THIS WORLD. I know, I know, you hear it all the time. But it truly is. Matthew was a bit scared, but for weeks talked about how Mickey WON in his dream and it was happy! We really, loved it. On our way out of MGM we bought some t-shirts, as the plan was to get one for each of us and tomorrow is our last day. Time to start shopping. With treasures in hand we find our van and go to the Happy Motel, POR, for cartoons and sleeping. Yes, Yes, Yes, another magical Day
