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 was meant to be more of a restful day before hitting the Magic Kingdom tomorrow. The MK day always seems the most strenuous, especially when its hot, because the attractions are shorter so there's never a lot of time to rest.
MM, JM and Heidi spent the day at Sea World. We chose to skip this and use some leftover water park passes we had and go to Disney Quest. When I set up this itinerary I planned for the possibility that Laura might need more rest and would want to skip Typhoon Lagoon. That's exactly what we ended up doing.
Paul, Jeff & Mike left for Typhoon Lagoon just before 9:00. They drove instead of taking Disney transportation to make sure they knew the way because on the following Monday the boys were scheduled to do surfing lessons and we'd need to drive ourselves to TL that day.
Laura and I were originally going to go but decided to hang around the hotel and let her rest. She was happy to do that. I borrowed some antibiotic cream (Bactroban) from our friends and put that on Laura's foot. Had no idea if it would help and hoped it wouldn't hurt. I also retrofitted her flip flops by cushioning the straps with moleskin.
While everyone was away from the resort except Laura and I we sat by the pool while I did more laundry. We also explored the gift shop and looked at the 70's section of the resort. We were trying to stay clear of the room so Mousekeeping could do their cleaning. We must have interrupted them when I went back in the room real quick to put our clean laundry in there. I think they were cleaning the adjoining room at the time. When we came back later the Mousekeepers cart was farther down the hall, the adjoining room was cleaned, but ours was not. So we quietly hung out next door (Laura watching the Disney channel) hoping she'd come back to our room soon.
The guys returned from Typhoon Lagoon about noon with quite a tale to tell! Jeff lost his swimsuit on Crush N Gusher! It literally came all the way off and Mike retrieved it for him! I don't know how in the world that happened but luckily it was a tube ride so he had something to hide behind for the few seconds it took Mike to grab his swimsuit and hand it back to him! He'd also had it come down once on one of our beach days! The darn thing was cinched as tight as it would go! He's had this swimsuit for a couple of years and its been fine. He must have lost weight or something!!
They weren't able to swim with the sharks at TL because the line was too long. Just as well, I realized I forgot to send the underwater camera with them. Maybe next time.
I was thinking going to Typhoon Lagoon today would get the boys excited about their surfing lessons five days from now. Instead I think it made them apprehensive after seeing how strong the waves in the pool were. Now they were considering canceling. We proposed the option that if they decided to cancel, we could use that money towards boating twice instead of once. They were considering it.
The guys quickly changed and we ate lunch at the Pop food court (DDE discount again!) After lunch we drove to Downtown Disney and Disney Quest, arriving about 1:20. We'd been here once a few years ago. This place is just a killer, or maybe I'm getting old. We immediately went downstairs to Pirates of the Caribbean and that was a lot of fun! Liked it a lot! That was followed by Jungle Cruise and then we did Pirates again.
Then we went to Aladdin - big mistake! That line moves at a snails pace, no wait, a snail moves faster. Out of about 12 stations, by the time we got up to the point of riding only five stations were operating. I was ready to go when we were done here. Today was supposed to be more restful and relaxing and Disney Quest was anything but. Our 2 ½ days in the parks we hadn't waited in any lines as long as the ones here.
After the awful Aladdin everyone else did the Cyber-Space Mountain and then went in the booth where you create your own song. We thought you got to sing your own song but you just get to choose from a variety of funny lyrics to make your own song. That was pretty funny. The boys went on the ride that's like bumper cars only you shoot balls at other cars.
While waiting for the boys, an older couple asked me if I knew the way out. I had seen them a little earlier and wondered if they were as miserable in this loud place as I was. We talked for a few minutes and they said they were there with their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. This was their first time to Disney World and they weren't liking this at all. I told them about other great things to see and do in the parks and to please not base their opinion of Disney World solely on this place. They had been to the Magic Kingdom and liked it a lot. I felt bad that they had to spend even a portion of their trip in Disney Quest!
We ended up staying at DQ three hours and I know it'll be my last three hours there. The only way to enjoy this place honestly, is if it is NOT crowded at all. Due to the nature of the things to do there the lines all move slow. I know I was more tired here after 3 hours than I was after a full day at any park.
Back at Pop I did another load of laundry. I so loved the convenience of that laundry room! I'd brought enough soap from home to do a total of six loads. By the time we went home I had done five. That came to $20 spent on laundry, but it was worth it to not bring all those dirty clothes home.
We spent the rest of the evening relaxing. The boys were girl watching at the pools and swimming. Just before 6:00 we went down to the lobby to see the cast members do the hustle. Usually our boys love attention but they wouldn't join in this dance! Oh well! Afterwards a cast member told us how fun it is to work there and dance every day!
We all walked around the resort and saw a turtle in Hourglass Lake and a bunny in the bushes. Paul and the boys went swimming again. I watched them while Laura laid in bed and watched more Disney channel. We'd recently downgraded our cable at home, losing Disney, so Laura was very happy to catch up on some of her favorite old shows! I went and sat down by Classic Hall for awhile and people watched. Everyone else came down a little later and we ate dinner.
Our friends came home from Sea World about 9:30. They were exhausted and hot. I guess it hadn't been a very restful day for them due to the heat and not very many attractions being air conditioned.
Part 7 - Magic Kingdom
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 was meant to be more of a restful day before hitting the Magic Kingdom tomorrow. The MK day always seems the most strenuous, especially when its hot, because the attractions are shorter so there's never a lot of time to rest.
MM, JM and Heidi spent the day at Sea World. We chose to skip this and use some leftover water park passes we had and go to Disney Quest. When I set up this itinerary I planned for the possibility that Laura might need more rest and would want to skip Typhoon Lagoon. That's exactly what we ended up doing.
Paul, Jeff & Mike left for Typhoon Lagoon just before 9:00. They drove instead of taking Disney transportation to make sure they knew the way because on the following Monday the boys were scheduled to do surfing lessons and we'd need to drive ourselves to TL that day.
Laura and I were originally going to go but decided to hang around the hotel and let her rest. She was happy to do that. I borrowed some antibiotic cream (Bactroban) from our friends and put that on Laura's foot. Had no idea if it would help and hoped it wouldn't hurt. I also retrofitted her flip flops by cushioning the straps with moleskin.
While everyone was away from the resort except Laura and I we sat by the pool while I did more laundry. We also explored the gift shop and looked at the 70's section of the resort. We were trying to stay clear of the room so Mousekeeping could do their cleaning. We must have interrupted them when I went back in the room real quick to put our clean laundry in there. I think they were cleaning the adjoining room at the time. When we came back later the Mousekeepers cart was farther down the hall, the adjoining room was cleaned, but ours was not. So we quietly hung out next door (Laura watching the Disney channel) hoping she'd come back to our room soon.
The guys returned from Typhoon Lagoon about noon with quite a tale to tell! Jeff lost his swimsuit on Crush N Gusher! It literally came all the way off and Mike retrieved it for him! I don't know how in the world that happened but luckily it was a tube ride so he had something to hide behind for the few seconds it took Mike to grab his swimsuit and hand it back to him! He'd also had it come down once on one of our beach days! The darn thing was cinched as tight as it would go! He's had this swimsuit for a couple of years and its been fine. He must have lost weight or something!!
They weren't able to swim with the sharks at TL because the line was too long. Just as well, I realized I forgot to send the underwater camera with them. Maybe next time.
I was thinking going to Typhoon Lagoon today would get the boys excited about their surfing lessons five days from now. Instead I think it made them apprehensive after seeing how strong the waves in the pool were. Now they were considering canceling. We proposed the option that if they decided to cancel, we could use that money towards boating twice instead of once. They were considering it.
The guys quickly changed and we ate lunch at the Pop food court (DDE discount again!) After lunch we drove to Downtown Disney and Disney Quest, arriving about 1:20. We'd been here once a few years ago. This place is just a killer, or maybe I'm getting old. We immediately went downstairs to Pirates of the Caribbean and that was a lot of fun! Liked it a lot! That was followed by Jungle Cruise and then we did Pirates again.
Then we went to Aladdin - big mistake! That line moves at a snails pace, no wait, a snail moves faster. Out of about 12 stations, by the time we got up to the point of riding only five stations were operating. I was ready to go when we were done here. Today was supposed to be more restful and relaxing and Disney Quest was anything but. Our 2 ½ days in the parks we hadn't waited in any lines as long as the ones here.
After the awful Aladdin everyone else did the Cyber-Space Mountain and then went in the booth where you create your own song. We thought you got to sing your own song but you just get to choose from a variety of funny lyrics to make your own song. That was pretty funny. The boys went on the ride that's like bumper cars only you shoot balls at other cars.
While waiting for the boys, an older couple asked me if I knew the way out. I had seen them a little earlier and wondered if they were as miserable in this loud place as I was. We talked for a few minutes and they said they were there with their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. This was their first time to Disney World and they weren't liking this at all. I told them about other great things to see and do in the parks and to please not base their opinion of Disney World solely on this place. They had been to the Magic Kingdom and liked it a lot. I felt bad that they had to spend even a portion of their trip in Disney Quest!
We ended up staying at DQ three hours and I know it'll be my last three hours there. The only way to enjoy this place honestly, is if it is NOT crowded at all. Due to the nature of the things to do there the lines all move slow. I know I was more tired here after 3 hours than I was after a full day at any park.
Back at Pop I did another load of laundry. I so loved the convenience of that laundry room! I'd brought enough soap from home to do a total of six loads. By the time we went home I had done five. That came to $20 spent on laundry, but it was worth it to not bring all those dirty clothes home.
We spent the rest of the evening relaxing. The boys were girl watching at the pools and swimming. Just before 6:00 we went down to the lobby to see the cast members do the hustle. Usually our boys love attention but they wouldn't join in this dance! Oh well! Afterwards a cast member told us how fun it is to work there and dance every day!
We all walked around the resort and saw a turtle in Hourglass Lake and a bunny in the bushes. Paul and the boys went swimming again. I watched them while Laura laid in bed and watched more Disney channel. We'd recently downgraded our cable at home, losing Disney, so Laura was very happy to catch up on some of her favorite old shows! I went and sat down by Classic Hall for awhile and people watched. Everyone else came down a little later and we ate dinner.
Our friends came home from Sea World about 9:30. They were exhausted and hot. I guess it hadn't been a very restful day for them due to the heat and not very many attractions being air conditioned.
Part 7 - Magic Kingdom
