The Sunshine,Moonlight,Good Times & Boogie(board) Tour Day 2

[mkingdon]

Previously on this tour...

Introduction
Day One

Day Two Tuesday August 21st 2007

After a fitful night’s sleep filled with images of blocked toilets and Stephen Fry with a cut lip outside a closed Sub Shop, I start to gain consciousness at around 4.30am.

This is not a bad result really, but I still object to starting a day with a 4 in the hour (Sorry Mike & Amanda, I know that is your daily routine)

I force my body to remain in bed until about 5.45, and then I release it into the wilds to prepare an extravagant breakfast of smoked salmon, oysters, fresh fruit and champagne.

As we hadn’t bought any of that stuff I made some toast and Froot Loops (yes, it IS spelt like that) instead. I proved my undoubted technical man skills by working out the coffee machine within about ten minutes. That is Krypton Factor standard in anyone’s books. What do you mean you don’t remember the Krypton Factor…Gordon Burns would turn in his grave, (or North West Tonight as it is better known).

We unpacked a bit, but not totally as we were doing a couple of moves this trip, so we left some stuff cased up. With the boring stuff out of the way, we all shower (yes, two in two days….we’re pulling out all the stops), and with three females in the group we of course leave the room at about 3.15 in the afternoon.

Once we are all almost ready I drag anyone with clothes on out of the room for the “official start of the holiday” pictures.

Rebecca, packing heat (or a water mister if you prefer)

Me & Rebecca….I’m just hot…full stop!!

Me & Emily

Louise of course is still getting ready so fails to appear on any photos at this stage.

Ryan is ready to go, and is feeling quite light these days. With the girls a little older, they seem to need less “stuff” carried around. Just fourteen different sun cream lotions (Louise knows why), their lanyards, as it saves them wearing them, the camera, and that is about it.

Once Louise joins us, we get in the car, and I use my natural sense of direction to get us to the Magic Kingdom. I know we are close, but I don’t want to use the road past Downtown Disney as the lights drive me mad, so I do a couple of lefts out of Saratoga and believe that I’ll soon see signs for the parks.

About twenty minutes later, I turn the car around and head back the way we came, miss the turning we joined that road from, and eventually end up at Lake Buena Vista, near the Pineapple hotel thing. Ah, I recognise this place, I just turn left at these lights…and drive all the way down past Downtown Disney, where the traffic lights drive me mad.

Ho Hum.

So it is 9.00am by the time we roll into the MK car park. We catch the waiting tram, sitting no more than five to a row, all children towards the inside…etc etc

and we’re off to the TTC

We have a voucher to exchange for tickets, and again the CM thinks she is being helpful by telling me about the different parks and other things I know like the back of my hand, when Louise cuts in, tells here we’ve been a billion times, and just give us the bloody tickets will you….

Or something like that.

We monorail, and finally, finally…..we are home. It is good to be back.

We pause long enough to take an official in front of the castle piccy…

I notice several admiring glances towards my “fanny pack”. Not for the first time I must admit. Isn’t it a beauty??

The voting for first ride of the holiday is Space Mountain…couldn’t get the bleeders on that ride two trips ago…now they choose it over the traditional Splash Mountain.

On the way I do some more snapping….

Continued...

 

[mkingdon]

As we pass Buzz Lightyear (the ride, not the bloke) I get four fastpasses, and then we see a twenty minute wait posted for Space Mountain. I don’t believe it, and I’m right as we walk straight on.

Rebecca wants to do it again, and as Louise needs a restroom (surprise), I take her on again whilst the other two take care of business.

We choose the left hand side ride this time. A bit smoother than the right I would say.

We meet up again, and Emily wants to do the TTA blue thingy. I point out that the whole idea of getting here early is to do the big ticket rides before it gets busy.

So as we’re sat on the TTA, with me wondering when I lost control of my kids, we take in a park that is quiet but getting busier by the minute. I can almost sense the posted wait times on all major attractions taunting me as they creep up beyond thirty minutes.

Louise does not come on with us. She chooses to sit in the sun and wait for us. She doesn’t know what she’s missing!! Oh yes…she does actually.

Having coped with the thrills and spills of the TTA, we have some time to kill before our Buzz FP, so I allow entry into a retail establishment. No damage was done at this point I must point out.

Still the FP time is not in range so we try the new Monsters Inc thing next door. This is pretty good and quite an original idea (apart from the Turtle talk thing, which although I haven’t seen I guess works the same way).

We enjoy this and see it as a welcome addition to the park. It in some small way makes up for the appalling Stitch attraction across the road from it.

Time for Buzz.

and there he is…..

I always win on this, so I let Emily win for a change. Moving on quickly….

By this time, we are hungry. Well it is 10.20 in the morning….so we quickly decide to go as ever to Cosmic Rays. I have my doubts that anything will open at this early hour, but Disney do not let us down.

All the healthy salad and chicken counters are closed, but the burger one is open and ready to deliver some good old fashioned artery clogging fare.

Burgers, chips and diet cokes (every little helps) all round, apart from Rebecca who has orange juice, and we sit watching the strange looking guy play his organ…but soon security eject him from the park and we are left to enjoy the alien on his keyboard instead.

We now feel the need to wander to the opposite side of the park, so we cross in front of the castle, seeing some nice bushes on the way. Ah, so the Brazillians did turn up after all!!

There was also this lovely crocodile cut into a hedge

We wander up to Pirates and just catch the start of the show.

Apparently this Johnny is not so good….

Louise tells me his nose is too big. You have to understand her standards as far as men go have been set at a very high level!

We enter the ride, and as ever we see one entrance being used almost exclusively..so we choose the other and benefit from a much shorter queue.

Now we approach the two mountains of Thunder and Splash….that reminds me of my visit to the loo last night.

We secure a FP for Splash for 1.20 as the queue is too big to stand in and it is now very hot indeed. Instead we go and stand in the BTMR queue, which is a full degree cooler I’m sure.

We end up waiting thirty minutes, which is right on my threshold of queue tolerance. Both sides of the ride are open, and the park is starting to look very busy indeed. We enjoy the ride as ever, and see that we still have an hour before our Splash FP.

The long day yesterday, the early start today and the heat were all making us feel like we’d had enough for one day, so we decide to head back to the hotel, as we had plenty of time to come back to the parks later in the holiday.

We drive back to Saratoga, and get changed into our swim stuff in the room. Louise is gutted to find that the knickers she placed on the balcony last night to dry (after washing them of course) have vanished. Either it has been windy this morning, or one of the gardeners has a fetish. They happened to be her favourite knickers too. Strange creatures women!

We are next to a quiet pool, and that’ll do for now to be honest as it is too hot to start finding and walking to the main pool.

The girls are straight in as usual.

Us grown ups (yes I qualify) lie in the sun for a bit.

All too soon it is far too hot for me and I enter the water.

Louise however can lie in the blazing sun for hours on end at a time, but eventually she cracks and comes in to the pool too.

We are there until about 4.30ish, when the need for food drives us back to the room.

More showers follow. This allows me time to lie on the bed and watch that episode of The Suite Life on the Disney Channel that I have only seen 736 times, again, whilst the ladies do whatever they do. When they are dressed and ready I jump in the shower, get out, get dressed and still beat them to the door.

The unanimous choice for our meal tonight was Romanos Macaroni Grill at LBV. This is probably our favourite restaurant in Orlando, and one we always visit at least once.

We are seated immediately and brought the fantastic freshly baked bread with an olive oil dip, which is demolished within seconds.

We have

2 x Caesar Salad to start (shared)
Rebecca – Pizza
Emily – Fettuccini Alfredo
Lousie – Penne Rustica (and 2 beers)
Craig – Shrimp Portofino (and many diet cokes)

Now I am glad to say that some meals on this trip we have photos of. Usually by the time I’ve powered up the camera, two thirds have already been eaten, but I did try this trip honest.

See…

That is some of the Caesar Salad. I’ll do better from here on in I promise.

Continued....

 

[mkingdon]

Here is Emily’s fringe…she is in there somewhere

and Lousie with more of that very interesting salad.

We finish with two coffees and the bill is $57 plus tip. Incredible.

We are all quite proud of ourselves for resisting the desserts, and therefore restricting our calorie intake for the day to less than 6000 each. :thumbs-up

As we leave, we again feel the urge to go to Goodings Supermarket at Crossroads. We get some bread and some goggles…tasted bloody awful that sandwich!!

We are back to Saratoga by 7.45, and all asleep by 8pm. I hope the body clock recovers soon!!

Night Night.

Day Three is Here

 

[irongirlof12]

excellent, you should have added mayo in your goggle sandwich!

 

[KayleeUK]

Excellent report Craig

 

[arieljasmine]

Great day. Your meal sounded lovely and very cheap.

Laur's

 

[mandymouse]

I notice several admiring glances towards my “fanny pack”. Not for the first time I must admit. Isn’t it a beauty??

Yes I must confess, it is a corker !!

Another fab day

Mandy

 

[Tammy Stringer]

Another rip roaring day Craig

Can't wait for the next instalment

Tammy

 

[florida sun]

Great day Craig, cant wait for the next, lovely photos as well

 

[jockey]

Great day!

 

[Bambi Sunshine]

Cant wait to read the rest of your trip reports - I stayed up till 8am the other day reading your whole 2004 report and loved it all! - sad I couldnt read the subsiquent years too.

Ryan ROCKS!!! lol

 

[Minniespal]

Another fantastic report Craig

 

[mark&sue]

Great first day especially like your Saratoga photos

susan

 

[UKDEB]

Apparently this Johnny is not so good….

Louise tells me his nose is too big. You have to understand her standards as far as men go have been set at a very high level!

I'm with Louise on this one. Johnny was far more authentic and attractive last October.

 

[SusanEllen]

I'm with Louise on this one. Johnny was far more authentic and attractive last October.

Yes, he was, Debbie. Yes, he was!