The Skeptical First-Timers made it back home, here's the TR! Completed!

[FosterA]

Even though you didn't get everything in on your AK day, it still sounds like a good visit! I was hoping Yak & Yeti would be as good as PF Chang's too, so thankfully you saved me from making an ADR.
I'm nervous to hear about the rest of the week with you not feeling well. Hope you still got to do most of what you wanted.

Thanks Yep, not even close to PF Changs unfortunately. But remember..my senses were sort of messed up so nothing seemed to have flavor and was bland the last couple days. Of course nobody else in the party loved the food and they weren't sick.

Can't wait to read what happened at Epcot! (my favorite park)

Coming up soon! I'm off Sundays and Mondays so most of my updates happen then so keep your eye out. EP is my favorite park too I think. Either that or AK!

Great update !! Touring AK is something my kids and I really enjoy and we spend hours doing the "treks". Sometimes I just sit and take it all in .. I just LOVE this place. We always do 2 full days here.

I don't do TS meals at WDW unless it's at DTD and we do T-Rex and Planet Hollywood. But when I'm in the parks .. I can't stand to take more than 1/2 hour spending time eating. I also don't like to be tied down with ADR's.
There is lot's of great CS food. I surprised my friend last trip because she figured we would be eating burgers all week but I changed that train of thought when we ate at Seasons and we got pork chops. We ended up going back there a second time for another round.

I can't wait to hear what got David excited !!

We sound alot alike! Just like sleep, I can eat at home! Also glad someone else loves AK since so many people don't

Yippee...loved the whole Animal Kingdom day and just kept laughing at your impatience with everybody else. Too funny but completely understandable. I get that way too, even though I try to make time for us all to relax and enjoy while in the parks. It's hard, you just want to DO STUFF and I have kids that would just do the BIG RIDES over and over again...even though when I get them into the shows (usually after some threatening/yelling/etc....so Disney..NOT) they always enjoy them! Of course!

I must say we have not done any of the walking trails in a long time, but you've convinced me that next time we should try them. The kids LOVE animals and I think they would enjoy this too. I'll have to add it to my Nov 2012 must-do list!

We only did one of the trails and I soooooo wish we had done both. Maybe next time, if there is one!
Thanks for following along!

I still can't believe we were at the same park at the same time all day and didn't get to meet...so bummed. How did I miss that in the schedule? We must've crossed near eachother at Maharajah Jungle Trek...that rack of ribs laying by the Tiger's was there when we went through, though the Tiger wasn't there. I think we went through around 11:30...

I have to tell you with Kali. Typically on each raft 4 people stay completely dry, 4 people get moderately wet, and 2 people get soaked to the bone. A 1 in 5 chance of a drenching. You (and David) were better off skipping it!

Oh...since you like my stupid facts...the Maharajah's palace was original for the Raj of Anandapur, who was a big time hunter - which is why the murals of the palace depict this. Later, the people of Anandapur decided to turn it into a sancuary for the native animals. The grounds of the palace extend through Yak and Yeti all the way over to the Flights of Wonder show.

SP

so weird I know!! How did we BOTH not notice that our AK day intersected?? I mean, originally I had planned on doing AK on Thur, not Friday and switched about a month out so maybe we just didn't re-look at our schedules?

I LOVE your TR!!!!
your pictures are amazing!!!
I cannot wait to hear what he really likes?!? has to be in Epcot.. Soarin?!?! Test track? Finding Nemo? the three caballeros? or just world showcase in itself? ugh it's killing me..
will you be able to get them all on board for a return trip?!?!

Well, I'll tell you what DIDN'T get Dave excited.....Captain EO!. OMG, he almost died he said it was so horrendous.

This is great! Can't wait to find out if your husband sees the magic. I am taking my boyfriend for the first time and I'm praying he sees the magic too!

I know.....mine was a little stubborn at first and not very excited but I may, just may, be able to get him there again! Good luck with your BF!!

Way to leave us hanging....I so want to know what brought David to feel a little magic...but I am excited right now that you got a smile out of him at the Tree of Life.

Your pictures are getting me so ready to go...especially after today's weather! Sending some downstate I am sure!

I know I know....big mystery about what David LOVED. Like I said earlier...it's NOT Captain Eo!! ugh! at least we narrowed it down some!

Correct.

We did stay at Port Orleans Riverside and loved it. We've liked it enough to have stayed there 3 times now. For the price I’d say it’s hard to beat. The grounds are immaculate and well themed. The rooms are smaller than at the Poly (quite a bit smaller) but on the good side when the refurbishment is finished in 2012 all of the rooms will have 2 queen sized beds instead of the current double beds.

I’ll continue to post pictures/comments about POR in my TR.

If we stay at Port Orleans one day I really want to stay in Alligator Bayou. Do you normally get that section if you request it?

Even though you didn't get to to do everything you wanted at AK, it still seems like everyone had a great day and enjoyed themselves. Sometimes lounging around eating ice cream is the right thing to do! I think I have the same kind of head cold now that you had back in November and I can't imagine trekking around Disney World with it. Yuck. I hope you were still able to enjoy yourself on Day 5!

That's exactly right. The goal of the trip is to have fun and enjoy ourselves so if eating ice cream made everybody happy than that was ok
Get better soon!

 

[BridgetR3]

I have a guess as to what Dave loved...is it Turtle Talk with Crush? I would think maybe the hidden element of being able to interact with people live would get him hooked. Otherwise, no clue....

 

[glennbo123]

My guess is that it might be Soarin!?

 

[skier_pete]

so weird I know!! How did we BOTH not notice that our AK day intersected?? I mean, originally I had planned on doing AK on Thur, not Friday and switched about a month out so maybe we just didn't re-look at our schedules?

I guess I just missed it. I would've been great to meet you guys. I didn't get to meet ANY DIS'ers this trip. It's always fun to meet someone you've been talking with on the boards. It's like your both strangers and friends at the same time.

Well, I'll tell you what DIDN'T get Dave excited.....Captain EO!. OMG, he almost died he said it was so horrendous

I gotta agree with this. There are not many things at Disney that I will never ever do again - but Captain EO was one of them. I hadn't seen it back in the eighties - but it was such a big bag of eighties cheese! I could only picture enjoying it again being very drunk and totally making fun of it.

 

[JAMIESMITH]

I just read your trip report so far from the beginning. I'm so sorry you got sick after working so hard to plan the perfect trip! We're stayin at the Poly next fall. I'm really enjoyin all your photos!

 

[joy13]

All caught up! Friday was a good AK because it was cool, AK can be so hot. We were at MK that day and did the party - it was perfect for all that too AK is hard to get a lot done in because it's so spread out!

 

[GrammyJudy]

Raelly enjoying your report. The poly looks gorgeous. We want to stay there sometime. If Hubby doesn't like it as much as you...leave him home the next time!!!

 

[FosterA]

I have a guess as to what Dave loved...is it Turtle Talk with Crush? I would think maybe the hidden element of being able to interact with people live would get him hooked. Otherwise, no clue....

Nope that isn't it. Good try though

My guess is that it might be Soarin!?

Nope! not it.

I guess I just missed it. I would've been great to meet you guys. I didn't get to meet ANY DIS'ers this trip. It's always fun to meet someone you've been talking with on the boards. It's like your both strangers and friends at the same time.



I gotta agree with this. There are not many things at Disney that I will never ever do again - but Captain EO was one of them. I hadn't seen it back in the eighties - but it was such a big bag of eighties cheese! I could only picture enjoying it again being very drunk and totally making fun of it.

I think watching this when drunk at a party would be awesome! Great idea.

I just read your trip report so far from the beginning. I'm so sorry you got sick after working so hard to plan the perfect trip! We're stayin at the Poly next fall. I'm really enjoyin all your photos!

Thanks for joining in I wish I was at the Poly right now instead of boring ol' home!

All caught up! Friday was a good AK because it was cool, AK can be so hot. We were at MK that day and did the party - it was perfect for all that too AK is hard to get a lot done in because it's so spread out!

I remember thinking how perfect the weather was that Friday for park touring. Just perfect. Chilly at night when sun went down but even then, just a sweatshirt would be fine.

Raelly enjoying your report. The poly looks gorgeous. We want to stay there sometime. If Hubby doesn't like it as much as you...leave him home the next time!!!

Right...I'll have him hand me a wad of money to spend and he can stay home

 

[FosterA]

DAY 5-part 1 (Saturday Nov 19)

so sorry for the lack of photos in this update and my constant rambling. I swear, this should be the most boring update of the whole trip, it'll get better I promise!

So if you’ve been following along you’ll know that I was progressively feeling worse every day with some sort of cold virus. Well, our previous day at AK things got quite a bit worse around the end of the day. I woke up Saturday morning….well I never really “woke up” since I hardly slept! I could not breathe and was miserable all night. No I didn’t go to a doctor because I figured it was just a virus that needed to run it’s course?? Maybe I should have gone though….oh well too late now and I’m all better now obviously so I didn’t die! So….when I opened my eyes I felt horrid and just knew that I couldn’t survive Epcot this day. I was sooooooo sad. I had one rest/downtown day planned but I wanted to do that on our last day because the Thanksgiving crowds would be arriving then and I wanted all the park/ride lines days done earliest in the trip and save World showcase for our second to last day and DTD and hanging at resort for our last day. Know what I mean? I just had visions of the Thanksgiving crowds flooding in and really wanted our Epcot Future World day under our belt before that happened.

Oh well….I had to accept that my perfectly organized plan was not going to work. I literally could not fathom waking around a huge park like Epcot feeling like this.

Once it got light enough, I woke David up and told him to please, for the love of God, go find me some meds! I knew they had a good supply of stuff up in the Poly store so I sent him there. He was gone forever! Turns out he “didn’t see them” (very similar to how he can’t “see” things at home either). He got on the monorail and looked at Grand Floridian and found some stuff there. Of course sometime over the next couple days I did see the exact same meds at the Poly store. I told him that and he said they must have just got them in stock because they weren’t there when he looked. Sure

After I took some head cold stuff and got my splitting headache under control I broke the news that we would be having a sick day this day. Allison wasn’t thrilled but Ian was great with the idea because he was getting a little burnt out and loved the idea of playing in the pool all day!!

I then slept for a couple more hours but woke up feeling a little better around noon or 1:00. Everybody was starving and wanted to go eat and maybe run to downtown because the kids had souvenir money burning a hole in their pockets. I really just wanted David to take them and leave me wallowing in my misery in the room but then again, I also felt sort of left out staying in the room and I wanted to be there when they picked out their little souvenirs. Ian saved up all his money to make a Ridemakers car and was almost more excited about that than riding EE!! I felt horrid but did not want to miss his moment. Since I felt slightly better (once the headache went away it was a lot better), I decided to come along. First thing I had to do though was cancel some ADRs since this day and the next day for sure would be screwed up. We had originally planned for lunch at San Angel Inn this day and I had to cancel that. Boo hoo. I also canceled the next day’s breakfast ADR at Grand Floridian because if I was feeling better, we had lots of Epcot to make up for and I didn’t want to fiddle with a long breakfast. I didn’t care so much about this one anyway since we already went to the GF once and got to see the gingerbread house and décor. I did want to try the eggs benedict though. Bummer.

I did not do any makeup at all and put my hair in a messy bun and we were off! I told them it would be a quick trip just to eat and grab what they wanted and then we needed to come back. No endless window shopping and such. I was VERY VERY conscious and worried that I could infect somebody else and I’d hate for someone else on vacation to get what I had. Especially a kid! Yikes. I know, maybe I should have stayed quarantined in my room so please don’t hate me because I still got up and out I think I did a pretty good job of covering my mouth and trying not to breathe or touch anything. Considering nobody in my family nor in our friend’s family got sick, I like to think I did ok.

So we loaded on the bus and headed to DTD from the Poly. When we arrived it was crazy because it was way busier than any of the parks we had been to. A lot of people down there! I’m really weird for a girl because I really don’t like to shop so DTD doesn’t really interest me a lot. Ian hates nothing more than shopping. Allison can shop all day and David actually really likes to browse around. As a matter of fact, he said he wanted to buy a nice souvenir for the house to remember the trip by!!! I would have never guessed he’s suggest that. I was all over the idea though! I’ll tell you more about what we got in a minute.

I wasn’t the least bit hungry but once we got off the bus, David wanted to eat right away. I’ve learned not to mess with him when he’s hungry. So…we trekked over to T-Rex which Dave saw on the map and just randomly picked that out. I was a little nervous because people were swarming all around the entrance and I didn’t think we’d ever get in without a reservation. But…I went up and told her to put our name down and we got right in. Didn’t wait one minute! Yay.

The place is pretty cool and the kids really loved it of course. They’d been to Rainforest before but it had been a couple years. Allison walked around and took photos of course.

Allison and I shared a piece of lasagna and a side salad. Ian got the kids pizza. David ordered the biggest chicken fried steak I’d ever seen and we live in in TX!!

All in all, a good experience there although the prices were pretty high I thought.


After eating it was time to get the shopping ON. Like I said, the kids had saved up money and had already decided what they wanted. Allison wanted a hair wrap and it turned out the Poly is quite a bit more expensive than DTD so she was excited to do that. Ian wanted to build his own car at Ridemakers. He was so cute because he only had a specific amount of money to spend and was worried he’d go over by a dime. We told him not to worry and we’d cover for him if we went over. Since we dumped our ADR for GF, I figured we had some extra already-budgeted -in money to blow so we were feeling pretty generous. Lucky for the kids

Ok, I need to wrap this up for now. I’ll finish in a bit with the hairwrap and Ridemakers deets and then also tell you what David picked out as our family-trip souvenir!

 

[FosterA]

DAY 5-part 2

So after we all ate we were on a very focused mission to let each kiddo get their souvenir that they already had decided on. I wanted to streamline the time and split up so everything would get done faster and we could get back to our room. Sort of sad since I would have normally really enjoyed taking our time downtown. I just wanted to get back to bed I think.

Well Ian knew about Ridemakerz since I was dumb enough to mention it before the trip. That means he pestered about when we were going there almost as much as he pestered on AK day to get on EE. I gotta say though that our kids are super duper good about not begging for stuff and I really enjoy buying them more now simply because they don’t ask. They both knew ahead of time what they wanted so the previous days they never asked for one little thing and patiently waited until they could get what they wanted.

Ridemakerz surprised me though because I thought it was it’s own store. It’s not! It’s actually inside a sporting goods store I think. Anyway…we went in and Ian got started picking out his car. I really wanted to stay for the whole event but since I was in such a hurry to get out of DTD, I sort of left the boys there and then took Allison over to get started on her hair wrap which was right close. I sort of bopped between the two places. Here’s a couple pics:

The Ridemaker guy that worked with Ian was super sweet. They all were very helpful. I don’t have a photo of the finished car unfortunately. Ian went middle-of-the-road and got something nice but not too pimped out.

The hair wrap lady was another story. Rude! I have no idea what her problem was. Allison wanted it in a certain place and she was a bit snippy talking about how she needed to pick another area since that area of the hair would make it just push forward and not look right. Yada yada. I didn’t understand her reasoning so I questioned her and she got defensive with me. It was really weird. Anyway…I don’t do conflict so I just let it go. I told her to put the thing wherever she wanted and we didn’t care, just do what her “experience” says is the best spot.

The finished hair wrap product was fine. I think Allison paid 24 dollars or so for it. I was glad to be done with that woman.

Next stop was Goofy’s Candy Co. just because it looked so darn cute. We went in there for a little bit and bought a couple cookies but I felt super squished and it was really crowded. Ugh. Ian is a huge Mike and Ike lover so he thought it was awesome to have a place to fill your own bag of them! I was really looking forward to buying all sorts of sweet junk here for my sweet tooth but since my taste buds were wacked out and I couldn’t taste anything anyway, I figured I’d save the calories (and money).

Our final stop at DTD was a nice gift shop, maybe Art of Disney? I really can’t remember. David really wanted to buy something to remember our trip by. He saw some nice artwork he liked which really shocked me since he didn’t “appear” to be in love with DisneyWorld and all the art work he liked was very Disney-ish. I would have been ok with something like that but we really didn’t know where we’d hang it in our house so we moved on from that idea. Not to mention, everything was pretty darn expensive!

David then saw a cute figurine thing and really wanted it. He knew Haunted Mansion is maybe my most favorite ride (for sure my favorite at MK) so he bought me this

He also found this smaller piece of art that we need to frame. I liked it because it’s a mix of Disney and the Poly!

And since I’m showing souvenirs…..here’s the head/skull collection of David’s that he picked up on the trip. The Furby is a whole ‘nother story.

Ok, so after T-Rex, the hair wrap station, Ridemakerz, Goofy’s, and art store…I was already whipped. I was bummed because I did really want to look around a little more and maybe check out the Christmas store but I just couldn’t take the crowds with feeling like I was. Any other time, I probably would have been fine. We also didn’t go into that giant gift shop which is sort of a bummer. Ian also really liked tinker toys and things so I thought it would be cool to see the giant icons of tinker toys and game pieces and would you believe, we didn’t even stay long enough to look at those. Waaaaah. I tell ya! I need another trip.

One funny thing though was at the bus stop on the way back to the Poly we saw a couple covered in Disney tattoos. It was wild! You’ve gotta be a hard-core Disney fan to do that. They were nice looking tattoos though as far as tattoos go. I saw the Castle and Mickey and all sorts of things on their legs!

Ok, I’ll pick up soon with the final segment of Day 5 which is about watching a movie on the beach at the Poly.

 

[swwake]

I hate that you weren't feeling well that day, but glad you got out to enjoyed DTD. I bet you are glad you got out that day. I love the souvenirs you and David picked out. Not sure how I feel about the skulls and stuff.

I bet I know what the one surprising thing that David loved was!

I can't believe that hair wrap lady was so rude!

 

[skier_pete]

So bummed to hear how lousy you felt. That really sucks. I was so paranoid about getting sick. We took airborne for a week before our trip, and I still got a little sick just before we left. With continued use of airborne and cold mix it wasn't too bad, and by the third day it was pretty much gone.

That was Saturday you were at DTD, right? I think in general weekends are slightly busier everywhere. MK was a total madhouse...just about the worst I've ever seen...though we don't come for holidays. Made me sure I Never, ever, ever want to come for Thanksgiving week. We know some people that do (my cousin goes every year to FL for Thanksgiving week, though not strictly to Disney) and claim it's "not that bad" but I am not sure if they know how slow times are. You definitely did the right thing trying to take a down day though...the body sometimes needs time to recover.

And David must have been enjoying things more than he let on, since he DID want a souvenir to remember the trip...
SkierPete

 

[okw19]

You have to make another trip soon just to explore DTD! Tell David I insist.
That stinks that you had to change plans because you didn't feel well. At least you guys had some fun!

 

[Chicago Mo]

I am SO SORRY to hear you weren't feeling well!!! that is the worst!!!!
I like the skulls and stuff!!! Very indiana jones-ish!!!
next time we go i will have to find it..
My DS Zack also did the car thing!!! liek you it was the ONLY thing he obsessed about the whole trip and didn't ask for anything becuase he wanted that!!!
i will get it that in my TR.. at some point whenever i get some free time!!!!! UGh.. Until then i am all ears ha ha ha get it?
yeah i lost it..

 

[heathsf]

Great updates, of course! I'm so sorry to hear that you were too sick to really enjoy yourself. Walking around and dealing with crowds is just so difficult when you're not feeling 100%. I'm glad you decided to change your plans around though that way you could enjoy Epcot. I'm looking forward to hearing about the Epcot days.

Also it's very cool that David wanted to buy something to remember the trip. He was probably enjoying it a lot more than he seemed to be.

 

[FosterA]

I hate that you weren't feeling well that day, but glad you got out to enjoyed DTD. I bet you are glad you got out that day. I love the souvenirs you and David picked out. Not sure how I feel about the skulls and stuff.

I bet I know what the one surprising thing that David loved was!

I can't believe that hair wrap lady was so rude!

You know what? I actually think you may know what David loved. I just have a gut feeling that you figured it out.

So bummed to hear how lousy you felt. That really sucks. I was so paranoid about getting sick. We took airborne for a week before our trip, and I still got a little sick just before we left. With continued use of airborne and cold mix it wasn't too bad, and by the third day it was pretty much gone.

That was Saturday you were at DTD, right? I think in general weekends are slightly busier everywhere. MK was a total madhouse...just about the worst I've ever seen...though we don't come for holidays. Made me sure I Never, ever, ever want to come for Thanksgiving week. We know some people that do (my cousin goes every year to FL for Thanksgiving week, though not strictly to Disney) and claim it's "not that bad" but I am not sure if they know how slow times are. You definitely did the right thing trying to take a down day though...the body sometimes needs time to recover.

And David must have been enjoying things more than he let on, since he DID want a souvenir to remember the trip...
SkierPete

I had never taken Airborne before and almost bought some before we left and then was like "oh, I never get sick, why bother". Dang it, should have listened to my gut feeling.
yes, it was a Saturday in DTD. Anybody else might not have thought it was crowded at all but after being so spoiled at the parks, we felt really crowded downtown.
You are right.... I think DAvid enjoyed the trip but he probably didn't want to get too into it because he's afraid I'd want to go back and he says he wants to do other vacation places more. waaaah. But....I get my way alot so we might just go back in November again though maybe have to skip and just do every other year.

You have to make another trip soon just to explore DTD! Tell David I insist.
That stinks that you had to change plans because you didn't feel well. At least you guys had some fun!

I know!! we need a re-do. It was still a great trip. I'd give it an 8/10 so that's not bad for a bunch of newbies.

I am SO SORRY to hear you weren't feeling well!!! that is the worst!!!!
I like the skulls and stuff!!! Very indiana jones-ish!!!
next time we go i will have to find it..
My DS Zack also did the car thing!!! liek you it was the ONLY thing he obsessed about the whole trip and didn't ask for anything becuase he wanted that!!!
i will get it that in my TR.. at some point whenever i get some free time!!!!! UGh.. Until then i am all ears ha ha ha get it?
yeah i lost it..

Sounds good. I love having you reading along! I imagine it's pretty hard to do a TR with triplets under foot!

Great updates, of course! I'm so sorry to hear that you were too sick to really enjoy yourself. Walking around and dealing with crowds is just so difficult when you're not feeling 100%. I'm glad you decided to change your plans around though that way you could enjoy Epcot. I'm looking forward to hearing about the Epcot days.

Also it's very cool that David wanted to buy something to remember the trip. He was probably enjoying it a lot more than he seemed to be.

I'll be excited to get done with the "day 5" of my report which was my worst, most boring, yucky day on the whole trip. And then I can get on with the Epcot deets!

 

[Moodyzblu]

What a bummer about getting sick !! Geesh.

LOVE the Haunted Mansion figure !! Totally something I would pick out.

Ride Makers looks really cool .. bet my guys would enjoy this (although I thought I read it was going away ??)

Looking forward to the next update !

 

[Cin]

Animal Kingdom is so beautiful. I am loving all the pics you put up. I hope I can do as well with my trip report when I get back. Great job!

 

[momabaarjo]

YAY...I think David really liked the trip...especially if he wanted Disney artwork in the house! How sweet of him to get you the HM statue!

I am so sorry that you got sick, must have a do over! I think you were wise to take a down day and stray from your plans. I hate to shop too, but DTD is so much fun (when your not sick). It was nice to see pictures of T-Rex, we will be there the 29th and Ridemakerz is on our list for the boys!

 

[B&WMickey]

Sorry to hear you got sick. What a drag. I’ve been laid up at WDW as well on a previous trip. Unfortunately the illness fairy paid on of us a visit on this trip as well.