Toetoe, we're not in Anaheim anymore! A fully completed TR - links on pg.1

[Va-bear]

This is one of the very few pics with all of us in it (and with DH’s front and not behind).

REALLY REALLY nice hat Cyn!!!!
(and I miss Dh's bee-hind!!! )

(LOVE all the pics!!! WOW!!!! )

Keep it up!!!!

 

[Anc96]

Great Update Cyn!! You tell it all and so well!

I'm really getting worried about finishing mine. I still have 14.5 days more to do (i have half of the 3rd day not posted yet)... and only a week to finish it before school starts.

I can't wait for your AK meeting. I'm dying to tell about our meeting with ILuvChefMic!

 

[DISUNC]

Now you might think at this point I’d but DH had been paying attention the last few days to where the busses were going and how they actually got there. That, and BW is right across from MGM and as we were leaving that afternoon, he was able to make some sense of what needed to be done to make it back there later. So, really, this was one of the first times he drove at WDW that didn’t turn out to be a big drama.!

WHEW!

Well, at this point, DH was doing stuff to get on our nerves, sometimes purposely and sometimes just because that’s his nature. We, in turn, were doing things to get on his nerves, and so DS and I sort of naturally closed ranks against him. This happens frequently in our family, but who is taking whose side really depends on the situation. DH and DD, or DH and DS team up against me sometimes. DD and I, or DS and I team up against DH sometimes. Less often do DD and DS join forces…they don’t have many common goals that would cause them to do that, and of course it’s never exciting when DH and I show a display of solidarity against the kids because that is, after all, our job. Not that we weren’t still having a good time and a fun vacation, but we’d had five days now with no escape from each other and were just really kind of sick of putting up with each others’…uh…stuff.

tear coming down reading this!

but continued to mutter it under our breath to each other the rest of the evening..

Sad to report....I still Mutter with my Mudda about my Fadder!

The first thing that struck all of us as we dashed out of the rain and into BWV/BWI was just how gorgeous this resort is. ..

A former collegue of mines, wife has a job where each year they get 5 nights in the Presidential Suite!!!! OMG! Of course I have been there at the same time!!!!! It is one of my favs....like it BETTER than GF!

Eh, the food was just ok, but I ordered another melon mojito and felt better about the whole situation. I guess the food really was unmemorable since the only picture I took of the entire event was of the drinks. .

Pretty much how I feel about any Boardwalk eaterie!
How did the guys like ESPN?

I had hoped to see the Boardwalk when it was completely dark.

Yeah its nice!!!! Next time. However the one thing that bothers me there is NO smell of salt water. I know this is hard to do...but its a BIG MISS for me!

DD and I had wanted to get ice cream from Beaches and Cream, .

This is something we STILL never have done....and I swear I am always gonna do it!

another great edition!

 

[DISUNC]

I'm really getting worried about finishing mine. I still have 14.5 days more to do (i have half of the 3rd day not posted yet)... and only a week to finish it before school starts.

I can't wait for your AK meeting. I'm dying to tell about our meeting with ILuvChefMic!

What a load!!!!!! Tell us about ILuvChefMic! I didnt meet ANYONE

 

[Anc96]

What a load!!!!!! Tell us about ILuvChefMic! I didnt meet ANYONE

You'll have to read MY TR like EVERYONE ELSE.. except you!

 

[Disneyland_Mama]

Waiting for the next installment. I love your nickname for DH "Chuby".
Your poor "toetoe"! I'm feeling your pain, but lovin' your TR!

 

[dwheatl]

I almost missed your next update for some reason. Good thing DisUnc is quote-happy. I'm glad I went back to read up.
My mother just made me promise that when she dies, I will go to Beaches and Cream and have a Kitchen Sink in her memory (she saw it on the Travel Channel). Sorry you didn't make it in there, but again, fuel for the back-to-WDW fire.

 

[cynderella]

My mother just made me promise that when she dies, I will go to Beaches and Cream and have a Kitchen Sink in her memory (she saw it on the Travel Channel). Sorry you didn't make it in there, but again, fuel for the back-to-WDW fire.

Ah ha! But the trip report is not yet over, so we shall have to see whether I made it there or not!

 

[cynderella]

I'm really getting worried about finishing mine. I still have 14.5 days more to do (i have half of the 3rd day not posted yet)... and only a week to finish it before school starts.

OMG, and I was worried about finishing my last 2.5 days!!

 

[cynderella]

How did the guys like ESPN?

They enjoyed it! Actually, I didn't get a whole lot of analysis out of them, but I think it was probably the same only different from the ESPN Club that is in DLR's Downtown Disney. My DS had been there before, but I don't think DH has. DH really enjoyed his steak, though. He'd been craving one!

 

[uhtimex]

The pictures of the boardwalk were great, how great that you and DD got to have a dinner alone

 

[Luvchefmic]

I've edited this TR to add links to all following installments so that anyone who wants to skip the commentary by other readers may easily do so. I've also added a link at the end of each chapter that leads to the next installment. I'm really flattered that people are interested in reading my meanderings, whether they comment or lurk. But one of the things I do enjoy most about writing this TR is being in conversation with all of you, so please feel FREE to reply and comment, if you like...whether I know you well or not. I enjoy making new friends and am thrilled to hear from anyone who finds my Disney bumblings worth hearing about. So, welcome. Glad to have you on board.

![/URL]

First let me say BIG thank you for make my life easier...when I saw all the great TRs to read I thought I will never catch up....then you posted the links to the TRs and now this brilliant idea with the day to day links in yours..MUCH appreciated, now I can really catch up...but between you and DISUNC and B (ANC96) and Melissa (HookedontheMagic) and the others I haven't even started reading I don't think I will ever write one. ...shoes...or Crocs...BIG footsteps to follow..you have all set the bar Sooo High Loving them though

Ruthie

 

[stinkerbelle's mom]

Great writing Cyn! Love how your family likes to divide & conquer-LOL. Sorry Toetoe was giving you so much trouble, but really sounds like you did really well!

 

[Luvchefmic]

See I told you Cyn what U did with the links is a GREAT idea...I am all caught up and now can leisurely go back and read the other Dissers comments which is fun too!

Gotta say, you and your family are beautiful and it was nice to see your DH 's face finally as others have said

Re- alarm clock traumas...I suggest you get one that I have, Disney Tunes to wake up to no heart attack inducing, pulse racing shocks to the system

So "EPCOT" hurry up with the next installment (p l e a s e )

 

[TOT_Princess_412]

Great TR Cyn!!! U R SOOOO LUCKY YOU GOT TO MEET A DISER !!! I loooked everywhere when we went but not one sign!!! Oh yeah sorry or toetoe was hurting so much!!!! Can't wait for more!!!!!!

 

[cynderella]

By Sunday, I’d fallen into a pretty comfortable morning routine: wake up to the alarm at 7:00, make coffee, take shower WITH coffee, wake up DH so he can take his shower, have another cup of coffee, wake up the kids, everybody gets ready, (fit another cup of coffee in here, if possible), station someone by the window to watch for the appropriate bus, and get OUTTA there ASAP.

On Sunday, though we got up by 7:00 a.m. aiming to get to AK by opening, we, once again, arrived about 20 minutes after that. Still, the crowds weren’t bad at all yet and we wandered the park with a lot of elbowroom. We had an agenda and everybody had to get outta our way! We knew from experience that AK was extra hot. It was extra hot that first evening we arrived, people from the DIS had stated on the boards that AK is the hottest of the parks, and even our bus driver that morning, who overheard me talking about it (this guy had no problem eavesdropping…he responded to about five things I said to my family!) said that, yes, AK always seemed hotter than the other parks. We debated the reasons for this for a bit and the consensus was that it is probably because of all the extra trees and plant life breathing.

Well, once in the gates, the first thing we did was head to Dinoland; at least DD and I did that while the guys went to go fetch FPs for EE. DD was excited to see some kiddie rides and wanted to go on Triceratops Spin . . . twice in a row. Yay. They should have named this ride “Dumbo: The Early Years” or something. It wasn’t the most exciting way to start MY morning, but DD liked it and so I sacrificed. We’re waitin’:

DH and DS quickly came back with the FPs and DD talked us all into going on Primeval Whirl together. It looked OK, but man…it was like a really old, harsh carnie ride and while we lived through it (and emerged relatively unscathed), we decided once was enough and moved on to bigger and better things.

Now, for whatever reason, three of our park hoppers hadn’t worked in the machine when DH and DS went to get the FPs for EE, so the attendant gave them three FP key cards that would work for the rest of the day. But, doh! the park hoppers worked at all the other FP machines in the park! We now had seven passes for FPs for the rest of the day! Now, this was a bummer for a couple of reasons: 1) there were four of us and we only had three extra FP key cards – someone’s not gonna get to ride – and though we’d all have been fine leaving DD sitting on her butt, getting arrested for child abandonment is really gonna put a damper on our remaining vacation, and 2) the park’s not all that busy and so we end up not even needing the extra FPs for anything! It’s like getting free tickets to a concert you’ve already seen 20 times! Sigh.

So, with some time left until we could ride EE, we trek on over to Dinosaur. DD had seen this ride on … well, I forget which Travel channel show, but she’d seen it. And the Barnstormer look? x 100!! But she sucked it up and went anyway. This ride was pretty good, and we enjoyed the ‘artifacts’ in the queue, but DD didn’t really dig the t-rex jumping out at her, and so we decided we didn’t need FPs for another go. We did get a picture of this set o’ bones:

So, we were done with Dinosaur and by this time our FPs for EE were valid and we loved it again. Though our wait wasn’t extraordinarily long, we did wait longer with the FPs than we did that first night when the ride was down. Nevertheless, it was worth the wait and we enjoyed the ride again and wished we had another certificate for a free picture…until, that is, we saw the actual picture. DH had his head turned, DS had his face all scrunched up, I was making this weird lip curling face, and DD was completely invisible behind DH’s head. We were REALLY glad we decided to get the pic from the first night, since it had turned out so much better.

Looking at the park map, we decided the Kilimanjaro Safari should be next on the itinerary, so we started that way since we were already in Asia. Now, it was about 11:30 by this time and we were getting hungry. As we were on our way to the FP machine for the KS, we saw

Tusker House! “This will be good!” I said, and I’d like to think they followed my lead because I am wise and knowledgeable (thanks to the DIS), but actually I think they just agreed because they were starving. Anyway, the guys got the FPs and then we went in and got some food. I have to say, the food here was certainly better than what we had at the Boardwalk and a lot less expensive. I got the salmon, which was pretty darn good, DH got the ½ chicken, DS got the fried chicken sandwich, and DD got the chicken leg (mostly because it had mashed potatoes and she LOVES mashed potatoes). We sat in the back seating area by a door and window through which we could see and hear an African musical group. Kinda cool – lunch and entertainment on the cheap.

Once we finished the meal, we had about 10 minutes left before the KS FPs were ready to go, so DH and DS wandered off to find some Frappuccino-ish coffee drinks and grab FPs for Kali River Rapids while DD and I went souvenir shopping. She and I found a cute postcard for Va-bear’s oldest DS and also a tank top with Pooh looking through a magnifying glass at a tiger saying “Tigger, is that you?” Marked down!!!! This amazes me! A SALE at WDW!!! So, we bought it…hey, it was $7. Can you get a better deal? We also bought a couple of those “Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund” pins wave: Anc96!), but we were pretty happy with our purchases in the end. Ok, so now our FP’s were up and we waited briefly in line for the KS. Amazingly, there were very few apprehensive looks from DD – she asked once if it was a slow ride and I explained to her what was going to happen, and she remained calm until boarding the jeep. DH and DS were desperately trying to finish their coffee drinks in the line, as they had discovered that they couldn’t bring them on the truck with them. Now here’s something I haven’t mentioned – but a tooth I’d had a root canal on months ago started giving me excruciating pain at the CRT breakfast (yay! Approx. $70 to NOT be able to eat delicious food) and so throughout the week I suffered every time I tried to eat something that needed to be chewed or swallowed on the left side of my mouth. “Help us finish these coffee drinks!!!” Would LOVE to, guys, but ice + tooth = agony. So, the guys were on their own trying to suck down choco-caffeine in a hurry. They finished them (almost) right about the time we passed the last trashcan there at the deck before boarding the jeep.

Our jeep pulled up and it was time to go. DH and DS both commented immediately on the fact that our driver was a woman. Hello! Have I not tried to raise this boy to understand that women and men have equal abilities and that any judgments on the deficiencies of the opposite sex are ignorant and misinformed? (I know, I know…DH needs reformation, too, but YOU try to do it, ‘kay?) I gave the obligatory scolding, and they ceased making jokes for the moment. The jungle trek turned out to be really great – DD stated that this had been one of her favorite rides. DH did a lot of video taping that turned out to be kinda bad, but funny (bumpy because of the jeep and also because he’s, uh, not the best cameraman on earth) and I took a lot of pictures that turned out blurry (it was the bumpy ride and reflects not at ALL on my abilities as a photographer!!)

So, I’d tried to let the “woman driver” comment pass without much comment, but doggone it, truth be told, this driver SUCKED! She scraped the side of one bridge (I KNOW they’re not supposed to do that on purpose) and hit a few bumps that could have been avoided, but when we got to the unloading area, she totally overshot her landing and had to back up and readjust like 8 times before we could disembark! DS and DH were LAUGHING hard…no one said “woman driver” again, but I knew what they were thinking! It turned out to be kind of funny in the end, so I let the sexist

slide, just this one time.

After the safari, we got onto the train and headed up to Rafiki’s Planet Watch to visit the “Affection Section” (petting zoo). The train ride was fun but quick and we gratefully made our way to the air conditioned Conservation Station. It was here, while we were checking out the veterinary facilities and various controlled breeding grounds, that we found our first AK character greeting: Stanley. So, camera in hand, I directed DD over to Stanley, even though she could probably care less about him, and we prepared to get a picture.

As we were waiting in line, I heard a lovely British voice behind me say: “Excuse me. Are you from the DISboards?” I turned around and introduced myself and the very nice lady and I traded screen names. It turns out that this was Scojos, whom I had not previously known from the boards, but she was charming, we spoke for a few minutes, and then went on about our respective days. I was gratified to know that my LGMHPC had attracted at least one DISer, and it was a nice experience.

We went on out to the “Affection Section”, which is not really much more elaborate than your standard county fair petting zoo, the kids petted for a moment,

then washed their hands, and we went back to the train. At this point, it began to rain lightly, but it was so light that we didn’t really care or notice. We made the trip back around to the station in Africa and then decided that though we were pretty much done with this park for the day, we wanted to end up our visit to AK by cooling off with Kali River Rapids before heading back to the resort.

Watching the people coming off of KRR, I was thinking we, too, would be utterly soaked by the time we got off the ride, but amazingly, the raft turned just the right way down that big drop to soak all the people on the other side of the raft and just kind of douse us lightly. Cool – we were still cooled off, but could walk to the park exit with our modesty still intact. We liked this ride and have vowed to finally try Grizzly River Run at DCA next time we go.

As we were heading out of the park, the kids found some bongos to beat on

DH was still in annoying picture taking mode. We posed for him, but, clearly, DD had just about had it:

and as we headed towards the front of the park, DD finally got assertive and let her true feelings about being photographed be known:

This is one of my favorite photos from the trip. It is so symbolic! I must have 50+ pictures of ME on various outings with that exact same look/attitude about DH’s picture taking proclivities.

So, now we were tired and after the walk to the bus stop, were ready for an afternoon rest. We caught the bus to OKW after about 10 minutes and, once there, dropped into relaxation for the rest of the evening. By this time in the vacation, we were pretty tired. Really. This evening, we decided to just lay low and relax. I read my book for a couple of heavenly hours and then DH decided to foray out to look for food. He ended up back at Publix (he was driving by himself, so you can see the benefits, but then again, he’d figured out the roads by now, so the driving drama had mostly subsided by now). He brought back some pre-cooked pork roast, bbq beef and buns for sandwiches, salad, and that Uncle Ben's microwave rice-in-a-pouch. We had a very satisfying meal in our villa "dining room" and afterwards decided to venture over to the pool for an even more relaxed swim to end up the evening. While the kids swam, I read some more and we didn’t make our way back to the villa until about 10:20…time to get ready for bed and prepare for our last full day at WDW.

Next up: Divide and Conquer, Part II

 

[cynderella]

Great writing Cyn! Love how your family likes to divide & conquer-LOL. Sorry Toetoe was giving you so much trouble, but really sounds like you did really well!

Thanks for the help with the title for my next-to-last installment: Divide and Conquer, Part II

 

[cynderella]

So "EPCOT" hurry up with the next installment (p l e a s e )

Your wish is my command, Ruthie!

 

[dwheatl]

Oh yes, you have to try Grizzly River Rapids. It's much better than Kali.

Love the "photograph this!" picture of DD.

 

[rer1972]

Great!!! I get back home tonight just at the right time to read your TR. Perfect timing. Here we go ...

DD didn’t really dig the t-rex jumping out at her, and so we decided we didn’t need FPs for another go.

I love this ride and have ridden on it at least a dozen times, but I still jump at the dino at the end.

Now here’s something I haven’t mentioned – but a tooth I’d had a root canal on months ago started giving me excruciating pain at the CRT breakfast (yay! Approx. $70 to NOT be able to eat delicious food) and so throughout the week I suffered every time I tried to eat something that needed to be chewed or swallowed on the left side of my mouth

That's some pain; and with your toe too. LG medal for you. Definitely.

I was gratified to know that my LGMHPC had attracted at least one DISer, and it was a nice experience.

How cool!

This is one of my favorite photos from the trip. It is so symbolic! I must have 50+ pictures of ME on various outings with that exact same look/attitude about DH’s picture taking proclivities.

Looks like DD is already a pro with the paparazzi .

Sounds like a perfect day (except for the tooth pain). Strart out with some excitement, and finish up at the pool relaxing. Sounds good.
Can't wait to read Divide & Conquer.