Liz
Make a miracle!
- Joined
- Aug 18, 1999
- Messages
- 4,909
Our Family:
Me - 46, born & raised in Florida but have been gone since 1981. Love WDW, obsessive planner. Really want this trip to be nice because we're bringing a family of 1st timers! Writes trip reports with way too much detail but I just can't do it any other way!
Paul - DH 52 - Loves Disney but not as much as I do. He'd probably be happy to vacation some place else occasionally but as soon as we get home I'm planning our next trip before he has time to process what I'm doing!
Jeff - DS 17 - Raised on WDW and Disneyland and loves it all. Super friendly guy!
Laura - DD 16 - Loves WDW but doesn't handle the heat well. Gets tired easy but she has a good excuse. She had a heart transplant when she was 6 weeks old and had West Nile Virus in 2002. Doing really well though. Our sweetheart.
Our Friends:
MM - 40ish - Going to WDW for the wife & kids. Isn't really a theme park kind of guy. Really nice though.
JM - 40ish - My good friend! Been trying to get her DH to go to WDW for a couple of years now!
Mike - DS 16 - Jeff's best friend since probably Kindergarten.
Heidi - DD 13 - Laura's friend. Despite the age difference they get along great!
Today we slept in a little later. First on our agenda was renting boats (Sea Racers) at the Contemporary marina, which opened at 10:00. Following the boats we were going to Gatorland so, instead of taking Disney transportation to the marina, we drove so we could leave directly from there for our next destination.
After attempting to reach the Contemporary by car, it became painfully obvious why we thoroughly enjoy using Disney buses and monorails! We were in two separate cars with us (the "experts" - ha ha) leading the way. Our critical mistake was being too far over to the left when we entered the Magic Kingdom parking area, making it impossible to take the far right road that leads towards the Magic Kingdom resorts.
We ended up in the parking lot for the Transportation & Ticket Center and I quickly realized perhaps we could park there and walk to the Polynesian. But we were being directed to park quite far away from the Poly.
Seeing the Poly was so close, we changed plans and tried to drive there, ending up at a service entrance and having to turn both cars around again. Eventually we did make it to the Polynesian parking lot with many apologizes to those in the other car who were attempting to follow us.
I was fortunate enough to have stayed at the Polynesian years ago when it was less than $100 a night and it still remains a sentimental favorite of mine. It would take a miracle to be able to afford it ever again, but I love just being on the grounds. So beautiful!
Jennifer, at the marina, was a wonderful help. We arranged to rent six Sea Racers for the eight of us (the girls didn't have drivers licenses so they'd need someone to ride with them). After figuring out the cost, Jennifer suggested the Unlimited Family Plan. It would cost a little more than what we would be paying but we could come back again and use the boats for an unlimited amount of time, with a slight problem being we could only take out five boats instead of six. We couldn't make up our mind and with the weather being so rainy we didn't know if we'd ever be able to come back to boat again. Jennifer was so nice. She wrote on the back of our receipt that if we came back to rent again before we left for home, the CM should refund the money we'd be paying today and start over, processing it on the family plan. Awesome!
We took out six Sea Racers and had a blast! But I ended up totally soaked on my bottom half! Boy, if you hit a wave just right (or I should say wrong) you get drenched!!! This was our third time to rent boats on our WDW trips and it is always one of the highlights! I thought I'd surely have to go back to Pop to change, but it was hot and I was drying fairly quickly.
We followed each other from the Poly to Gatorland. The leaning over, run down fence on the outside of Gatorland should have been our first clue that we weren't at the Mouse's House anymore. We had prepaid discount tickets from Ticketmania ($15.50 each) so backing out wasn't really an option. Our family had been to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm before and that is a quality experience. I had expected something similar here.
Its hard to describe what it was like, but it felt dirty and cheap. We saw one show (alligator wrestling). The guy who wrestled the gator (Johnny) was cute and seemed genuinely nice and entertaining. He should work for Disney!! A couple of the gators in the swamp were bloody (suppose that is a natural result from them fighting with each other) but I found it to be just gross.
I suppose there was some value in going to Gatorland since our Utah friends had never seen anything like that before, but I wouldn't go there again and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. We washed and washed after going there!!!
We paid $1.50 in tolls to leave WDW and get to Gatorland. They should charge $10 to get back in. I would have paid it!
We drove directly to Downtown Disney Marketplace and ate lunch at Earl of Sandwich. I'd heard the sandwiches were just $5 each but wouldn't have been surprised to see the prices had gone up. But they hadn't and they were delicious!!! We got sides of potato salad and cole slaw for $1 each. The portions of those were kinda small but the sandwiches were plentiful. The diet Coke tasted funny and I couldn't drink it but we would definitely eat here again.
We went in the Disney Christmas store and the World of Disney. We'd saved most (or all) of our shopping for the World of Disney since we got a small discount with the Annual Pass (10%). We spent a good amount of time in here buying gifts for ourselves and people back home.
Afterwards we looked at the Lego displays (so cool!) and went to the parking lot to return to Pop. We were in our car and noticed the others talking to someone. We drove around to where they were to see who it was and see if they were ready to head out. We were pleasantly surprised to see they were talking to "Super Ramp Guy" who had entertained us so much Thursday night when we were waiting for Spectro to start!!! And the really cool thing we discovered is he's from Utah too!!!! He was at Downtown Disney to DJ a dance! We found out his name is Rob so we'll have to watch for him next time we cruise the Jungle in the Magic Kingdom! He's such a cool guy!!! If you see Rob on the Jungle Cruise tell him his friends from Utah say hi!!
Our original plan was to go to a park tonight - which ever one we felt like going to. But most everyone was tired so we decided to just stay around Pop and enjoy some time there. We hung out and ate dinner at the food court. MM & JM went to Goodings to get some more groceries. Later the boys, Paul and JM went swimming. The boys think some scary guy is after them because his girlfriend was flirting with them. Never did find out if this is fact or all in their teenage heads!
I gave each of the kids some light up glasses to wear for fun! They were so cute! They walked around Pop for a little bit, enjoying the attention! Bringing a few fun things from home like that didn't cost much but added to the fun, I think.
It was a different kind of day, but still good. Even going to Gatorland was good in its own, awful, way! If I ever doubted the value of the money I spend at Disney, it was reinforced to me in a strong way that at least I get value, cleanliness and magical memories in return.
Part 9 - MGM & Epcot - some new things and repeating some favorites!
Me - 46, born & raised in Florida but have been gone since 1981. Love WDW, obsessive planner. Really want this trip to be nice because we're bringing a family of 1st timers! Writes trip reports with way too much detail but I just can't do it any other way!
Paul - DH 52 - Loves Disney but not as much as I do. He'd probably be happy to vacation some place else occasionally but as soon as we get home I'm planning our next trip before he has time to process what I'm doing!
Jeff - DS 17 - Raised on WDW and Disneyland and loves it all. Super friendly guy!
Laura - DD 16 - Loves WDW but doesn't handle the heat well. Gets tired easy but she has a good excuse. She had a heart transplant when she was 6 weeks old and had West Nile Virus in 2002. Doing really well though. Our sweetheart.
Our Friends:
MM - 40ish - Going to WDW for the wife & kids. Isn't really a theme park kind of guy. Really nice though.
JM - 40ish - My good friend! Been trying to get her DH to go to WDW for a couple of years now!
Mike - DS 16 - Jeff's best friend since probably Kindergarten.
Heidi - DD 13 - Laura's friend. Despite the age difference they get along great!
Today we slept in a little later. First on our agenda was renting boats (Sea Racers) at the Contemporary marina, which opened at 10:00. Following the boats we were going to Gatorland so, instead of taking Disney transportation to the marina, we drove so we could leave directly from there for our next destination.
After attempting to reach the Contemporary by car, it became painfully obvious why we thoroughly enjoy using Disney buses and monorails! We were in two separate cars with us (the "experts" - ha ha) leading the way. Our critical mistake was being too far over to the left when we entered the Magic Kingdom parking area, making it impossible to take the far right road that leads towards the Magic Kingdom resorts.
We ended up in the parking lot for the Transportation & Ticket Center and I quickly realized perhaps we could park there and walk to the Polynesian. But we were being directed to park quite far away from the Poly.
Seeing the Poly was so close, we changed plans and tried to drive there, ending up at a service entrance and having to turn both cars around again. Eventually we did make it to the Polynesian parking lot with many apologizes to those in the other car who were attempting to follow us.
I was fortunate enough to have stayed at the Polynesian years ago when it was less than $100 a night and it still remains a sentimental favorite of mine. It would take a miracle to be able to afford it ever again, but I love just being on the grounds. So beautiful!
Jennifer, at the marina, was a wonderful help. We arranged to rent six Sea Racers for the eight of us (the girls didn't have drivers licenses so they'd need someone to ride with them). After figuring out the cost, Jennifer suggested the Unlimited Family Plan. It would cost a little more than what we would be paying but we could come back again and use the boats for an unlimited amount of time, with a slight problem being we could only take out five boats instead of six. We couldn't make up our mind and with the weather being so rainy we didn't know if we'd ever be able to come back to boat again. Jennifer was so nice. She wrote on the back of our receipt that if we came back to rent again before we left for home, the CM should refund the money we'd be paying today and start over, processing it on the family plan. Awesome!
We took out six Sea Racers and had a blast! But I ended up totally soaked on my bottom half! Boy, if you hit a wave just right (or I should say wrong) you get drenched!!! This was our third time to rent boats on our WDW trips and it is always one of the highlights! I thought I'd surely have to go back to Pop to change, but it was hot and I was drying fairly quickly.
We followed each other from the Poly to Gatorland. The leaning over, run down fence on the outside of Gatorland should have been our first clue that we weren't at the Mouse's House anymore. We had prepaid discount tickets from Ticketmania ($15.50 each) so backing out wasn't really an option. Our family had been to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm before and that is a quality experience. I had expected something similar here.
Its hard to describe what it was like, but it felt dirty and cheap. We saw one show (alligator wrestling). The guy who wrestled the gator (Johnny) was cute and seemed genuinely nice and entertaining. He should work for Disney!! A couple of the gators in the swamp were bloody (suppose that is a natural result from them fighting with each other) but I found it to be just gross.
I suppose there was some value in going to Gatorland since our Utah friends had never seen anything like that before, but I wouldn't go there again and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. We washed and washed after going there!!!
We paid $1.50 in tolls to leave WDW and get to Gatorland. They should charge $10 to get back in. I would have paid it!
We drove directly to Downtown Disney Marketplace and ate lunch at Earl of Sandwich. I'd heard the sandwiches were just $5 each but wouldn't have been surprised to see the prices had gone up. But they hadn't and they were delicious!!! We got sides of potato salad and cole slaw for $1 each. The portions of those were kinda small but the sandwiches were plentiful. The diet Coke tasted funny and I couldn't drink it but we would definitely eat here again.
We went in the Disney Christmas store and the World of Disney. We'd saved most (or all) of our shopping for the World of Disney since we got a small discount with the Annual Pass (10%). We spent a good amount of time in here buying gifts for ourselves and people back home.
Afterwards we looked at the Lego displays (so cool!) and went to the parking lot to return to Pop. We were in our car and noticed the others talking to someone. We drove around to where they were to see who it was and see if they were ready to head out. We were pleasantly surprised to see they were talking to "Super Ramp Guy" who had entertained us so much Thursday night when we were waiting for Spectro to start!!! And the really cool thing we discovered is he's from Utah too!!!! He was at Downtown Disney to DJ a dance! We found out his name is Rob so we'll have to watch for him next time we cruise the Jungle in the Magic Kingdom! He's such a cool guy!!! If you see Rob on the Jungle Cruise tell him his friends from Utah say hi!!
Our original plan was to go to a park tonight - which ever one we felt like going to. But most everyone was tired so we decided to just stay around Pop and enjoy some time there. We hung out and ate dinner at the food court. MM & JM went to Goodings to get some more groceries. Later the boys, Paul and JM went swimming. The boys think some scary guy is after them because his girlfriend was flirting with them. Never did find out if this is fact or all in their teenage heads!
I gave each of the kids some light up glasses to wear for fun! They were so cute! They walked around Pop for a little bit, enjoying the attention! Bringing a few fun things from home like that didn't cost much but added to the fun, I think.
It was a different kind of day, but still good. Even going to Gatorland was good in its own, awful, way! If I ever doubted the value of the money I spend at Disney, it was reinforced to me in a strong way that at least I get value, cleanliness and magical memories in return.
Part 9 - MGM & Epcot - some new things and repeating some favorites!
