The Prius & The Poly Trip Report **Updated 10/31 What I Learned...**

[stacikristine]

Congrats on being DVC owners!!!! That is sooo exciting. And I'm glad you were able to get such a perfect room at the Poly. T-Rex looks like it is so much fun! What a fun day!!!

 

[Disneychix]

Just finding this great TR now. I really wanna know how you fit all that luggage (and kids) into a prius??!!

Congrat's on the DVC membership!

 

[Bridora]

just read through your repoert---WOW!!! So much happened that first day in Disney for you guys!!!BLT owners, a great room at Poly and a cool dinner place

Ahhh, it was such a nice vacation. We are truly blessed!

Great report so far, can't wait to hear more. Congrats on DVC!

Thank you & Thank you!

I want to try T-Rex so bad!! But will probably be waiting until my son is older. Do you have pictures of their finished products of the Build-A-Dino. I didn't realize it was like Build-A-Bear type of thing! How fun!! I may have to stop in there just to do that!! (I love dinosaurs....lol)

Oh and that picture you got of the electrical water pagent and the fireworks is really superb!! thats a great shot!!! I always hear people talk about how hard it is to get good fireworks shots but yours is awesome!

I'm sure he will like it better when he gets older! I will have to take a picture of the dinos tonight and post it here for you...
Awww, thanks! It was trial and error on those fireworks shots, plus some good timing!

Congrats on being DVC owners!!!! That is sooo exciting. And I'm glad you were able to get such a perfect room at the Poly. T-Rex looks like it is so much fun! What a fun day!!!

Thanks! It really was a fun day!

 

[Bridora]

Just finding this great TR now. I really wanna know how you fit all that luggage (and kids) into a prius??!!

Congrat's on the DVC membership!

Tee Hee! I should have taken a picture of us all loaded up! We are about to embark on a family reunion weekend + trip...if we're anywhere near as loaded as we were then, I'll get a shot for you! I will say my DH is great at puzzles...

 

[Bridora]

Here are the results from tonight's dinosaur photo shoot:

Minnie

Rex

 

[Bridora]

JHust found your tr, and am along for the ride! Thought I'd say HI from another Arkansas girl!

Goodness!--I don't know how I missed your comments! Maybe I was typing up one of my own... I surely didn't mean to ignore you! Welcome aboard....it's nice to have another Arkansas gal here!

 

[shannon47142]

the dinos turned out great!!!

 

[princess_momma]

LOVE the dinosaurs!! Will DEFINITELY be stopping there for at least that. They are so cute. I love how the boxes say "where best friendosaurs are made". Love them!

 

[Bridora]

the dinos turned out great!!!

Thanks! I thought so too...

LOVE the dinosaurs!! Will DEFINITELY be stopping there for at least that. They are so cute. I love how the boxes say "where best friendosaurs are made". Love them!

You should go! Landon will love it!

 

[Bridora]

June 1, 2009: our first Park Day!

Good morning! There’s my coffee mug! And you can just make out Allison’s leg sticking out from under the covers. I forgot to mention that the couch in the room folded down into a bed. Allison & Luke were happy to have their ‘own beds’! They traded out nights on the fold-out. It was quite an adventure, I think.

Today’s plan:
Animal Kingdom & Hollywood Studios

After we all woke up and had breakfast (Pop-Tarts for the kids & Special K bars for the adults) we headed out to the bus stop. **A quick explanation: We don’t do rope-drop. We much prefer the late nights at the park. We usually keep breakfast light and eat lunch in the parks a couple hours later.**

All seemed well when we arrived at Animal Kingdom. Kilimanjaro Safari was where we headed. We ran smack into a sea of people that we did not expect. The park had not been open for more than an hour. We are not used to these crowds! Imagine that I took a picture of this for you. Imagine crowds more typical of a July morning. Not ones to be brought down by this, we quickly changed course and got Fast Passes for later in the day. We decided a trip to Rafiki’s Planet Watch was in order. We hopped aboard the Wilderness Train which was also crowded. We grabbed a seat on the top row and were off! There were several characters out that morning. We met Jiminy Cricket, Pocahontas, and Rafiki.

We stopped at one of the little sound booths to listen to the “Rainforest”. I think that is one of my favorite things to do there! Skipping Affection Section, which the Times Guide said was closed but was actually open, we hopped a train back to the mainland.

Just about then we decided to get lunch. I do miss the old Tusker House. I admit that I have not been back since they refurbished it, however.

Strolling through Asia.

We went to the Yak & Yeti’s counter service establishment. Can you guess? That’s right, no pictures. Allison & Luke each had a hamburger. Max & I both had the Honey Chicken. Let me set this next part up for you: It’s noon, give or take 15 minutes. It’s HOT and the sun is shining brightly. It’s way crowded. I’m talking middle of the summer, table sharking going on like you can’t believe crowded. The only table in sight has, of course, no umbrella. But we are in Disney World and it is our first day, after all. Still smiling through the sweat, we sit down to enjoy our lunch. Have you even eaten just prepared, hot food on a hot summer’s day while sweating in the direct sunlight? I don’t recommend it. This day is going downhill too quickly. Allison & Luke have taken maybe 2 bites and declared themselves full. Max is scouting the area for an empty table with an umbrella. My food is steaming hot and does not mix with this heat all around me. I had to put a stop to this. This is not us. We are not here to not enjoy ourselves. We will not be those people! Acting quickly, I begin to gather our food back onto the tray. I had spotted some tables on our walk over off to the side, in the shade of trees. We set off in search of those tables, never to find them again. They must have gone the way of Atlantis. We did find a nice little area down some stairs that overlooks the river. I think it was a smoking area, but we had a little relief there. Max & I were able to finish our meals. The kids nibbled a bit more on their lunches, but did not even near eating half. I hated to throw that food away. We decided then, that they could share a lunch for the rest of the trip.

On the bright side, our Fast Pass time we here! Back to Africa!!

No animal pictures. I was manning the video camera at this point and Max was in charge of the still shots. Finally! This time ‘no pictures’ is all on him! I had wanted to go in the morning in hopes of seeing more animals, but we actually saw a lot anyway.

After the Safari we were going to ride Kali River Rapids, but the wait was too long and the Fast Passes were all distributed, darn it! On to Dinoland, USA!

We could not talk the kids into Everest. I have only ridden this ONE time…once…ah, well, maybe next time!

We took a ride on Primeval Whirl. Luke was just shy of the height requirement last year, so he was excited for his 1st ride! I like this one, only those spins are a bit jarring! And the wait wasn’t so bad, 20 minutes. We walked over to Dinosaur after that. I think it was more like a 40 minute wait. The line was outside the building. Really, I have never seen it outside--snaked through those rails like that, really.

I love Dinosaur!

Luke wanted to stop by the Dig Site, but we opted to head to the front of the park instead. I think we were done with Animal Kingdom, although I would not admit it. We wandered around, looking at things here and there. We snaked around the Tree of Life. Looked at some animals. Found our way back through the caves, across that swinging bridge, and back to the entrance.

A parting shot, and perhaps a reminder:

We all got some frozen drinks from a little cart on our way back to the bus stop. We were going to hop a bus straight to Hollywood Studios. While finishing our drinks, a bus came & went, but we didn’t mind. It was rather relaxing, sitting on the pavement, sipping those cold, cold drinks. The next bus wasn’t far behind. We finished up our drinks and hopped aboard, hoping some freak occurrence had made just Animal Kingdom wildly popular that day.

 

[princess_momma]

Did you end up using your Kali River Rapids FPs to finally cool off??!! It sounds like it was dreadfully hot!! Good thing you didn't let it get you down!

 

[stacikristine]

So sorry it wasn't the greatest start to your first park day! I hope things are better at DHS!

 

[Bridora]

Did you end up using your Kali River Rapids FPs to finally cool off??!! It sounds like it was dreadfully hot!! Good thing you didn't let it get you down!

We never did ride!

So sorry it wasn't the greatest start to your first park day! I hope things are better at DHS!

Thanks! I'm just about to post about it!

 

[Bridora]

I am craning my neck, scoping out the crowds as we arrive:

Ok, so I took that picture as we were leaving, but I wanted it to go here.

Through the turnstiles, and so far, so good! No unruly crowds in sight!

Being the big Star Wars fans that we are, we head straight to Star Tours. On the way, though I want to find that rope near the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular that I have heard so much about over here on the DIS.

We are waiting. We pulled the rope. What is supposed to happen next? We never found out. We waited, nothing happened.

Oh well, off to Star Tours!

Just look at that gloriously un-crowded street! Now that is more like it!!!

One of my favorite sights!

This was posted as a 5 minute wait. Luke catch-phrase of the week? “5 minute wait means NO wait!” We loves it! Max even had to slow the kids down so he could snap a few pictures:

We walked right up to the gates and only waited about 2 minutes for our Starspeeder to come in. Great ride! We browsed through the shop for a bit. There are always lots of things we want in this store! They have awesome T-shirts and bumper stickers. We spent a lot of time in here late one night a few years back turning the kids into Star Wars characters in photos. I think we ended up buying 2 or 3!

We cut through Pixar Place and spotted several Green Army Men! I don’t think we’ve even seen these guys out for meet & greets before.

He made Allison do jumping jacks and Luke run in place! It was soooo cute! And his signature? - Green Army Man.

Where did we go next?

Are you guessing yet?

Was that overload? I just looooove the whole area…it’s beautiful there!

Luke attempted Tower of Terror last year. We ended up taking the “chicken elevator” down. I got a real kick out of that. Imagine being too scared for Tower of Terror and having to take an elevator to safety! Luke loved it this year--we were glad! I enjoy Tower of Terror sooooo much! I love how, even though I’ve ridden it countless times, it still makes me nervous. It gives me the sweaty palms and everything, just as soon as I buckle that seatbelt! And the drops!!!! It that too many !!!’s? How else can I tell you how much I that ride?

We tried to fake the kids out by going under this:

But they knew it went upside down. And we had promised we wouldn’t make them ride anything that went upside down. We did go in their store, though.

Then we trekked back to Pixar Place for Toy Story Mid-Way Mania.

…Continued Next Post…

 

[Bridora]

I’m on the left, Allison is on the right!

Oh, I love that ride, too!

It was right about park closing time, but we wanted to try to make to The Great Movie Ride if we could. We made it! Just in time, too. No one was in line in front of us. No one came in after us. We had the entire car to ourselves. Max tried to tell them we didn’t have to ride, there was no use running it just for us, but they assured us we could stay! I’ve never sat up front with the drive before!

By the time we got finished there, the park was closed and emptying.

We took a couple of pictures next to the Star Wars Weekends big sign out front. I said we’d better do it now, while it was Monday and deserted. We’d be coming back on Friday for Star Wars Weekends, and you it’ll be covered with Star Wars people then. (Please know that Max has a whole room in our house devoted to Star Wars. Our kids have dressed Jedi and Darth Vader costumes and light sabers. We attended Star Wars Celebrations II and III. We are those people!)

The Polynesian was still beautiful upon our return.

We ended up here, for dinner:

We bought 2 reusable mugs and reused the heck out of them! Luke really enjoyed ordering from the touch screens here. I had the Polynesian Tossed Salad. Max had the Aloha Pork Sandwich. I can’t remember what the kids had, but we all enjoyed our choices. Can you guess that I took no pictures of this food, either? Something I thought was different at Captain Cook’s was their assortment of Twining’s teas. There were about 6 or 7 different flavors in a wooden crate, all lined up and ready to be chosen. A picture would have been nice, huh? The Peppermint Green Tea is my favorite. I don’t normally do mint mixed with other things, but this was such a tiny taste of mint and it was wonderful!

We went swimming again that night. Well, the kids went swimming again. I went swimming for the 1st time! It was very nice. They didn’t have Wishes at the same time as the Electrical Water Pageant that night. Who knew the Water Pageant had it’s own sound track? I was nice to watch the show with it’s own music.

Up next: Tuesday at the Magic Kingdom & Epcot, with dinner at Coral Reef. And finally (!), some food pics.

 

[princess_momma]

You take awesome pictures!! DHS looks like it went a lot better than AK!! I can't believe how short wait times were!! How short was it for TSM? You just got me all extra excited!! I can't wait for some food pics finally!! Geez!!

 

[princess_momma]

Hope everything's going okay!!! I miss your updates!!

 

[TinkLovinMomma]

Hi! I just came across your trip report!! Congrats on the DVC ownership! I just became an owner in July but over at the AKV! Have you started planning a trip home yet? We are going for 4 days in January and I cant wait. I loved all your pictures of the Electrical Water Pageant! I saw it just by happenstance when we were on the ferry in July. It was my first time in WDW and I had no idea what it was lol in fact I thought it was just something special they did for the 4th of July.. Shows how little I know! I am looking forward to reading more about your trip!

 

[penguingirlie]

I am loving your trip report! How far of a drive is it from Ocala to Orlando? We are looking for somewhere to stay for a night on the way down.

 

[Bridora]

You take awesome pictures!! DHS looks like it went a lot better than AK!! I can't believe how short wait times were!! How short was it for TSM? You just got me all extra excited!! I can't wait for some food pics finally!! Geez!!

Thanks! I'm thinking TSM was around 40 minutes. There are so many things to look at, though, it goes by fairly quickly!

Hope everything's going okay!!! I miss your updates!!

Girl, we returned from a family reunion recently and it's been 'catch-up' on everything around here! I am working on an update now....

Hi! I just came across your trip report!! Congrats on the DVC ownership! I just became an owner in July but over at the AKV! Have you started planning a trip home yet? We are going for 4 days in January and I cant wait. I loved all your pictures of the Electrical Water Pageant! I saw it just by happenstance when we were on the ferry in July. It was my first time in WDW and I had no idea what it was lol in fact I thought it was just something special they did for the 4th of July.. Shows how little I know! I am looking forward to reading more about your trip!

Congrats to you, too! It was a hard decision between AKV & BLT, actually. We plan to go back next May, but don't have any specifics yet. I think once our kids are out of school we'll do a January trip. (Looooong time from now, though!)

I am loving your trip report! How far of a drive is it from Ocala to Orlando? We are looking for somewhere to stay for a night on the way down.

Ocala to Orlando is close to an hour drive. It's not far, which may seem silly to stop so close by, but that's the way we do it! It's around a 14 hour drive from our house, so we are ready to stop by then. Plus, we can wake up not too early, have a quick drive down, & be in WDW before lunch!