Bagsmom Trip Report Day Two
Wow, I can't believe that in only a week, I've started to forget some of our details.... is it old age? Or mental exhaustion from doing too much laundry?
After our late night of fireworks and Tinkerbell, we were very tired, so we just slept in on Saturday morning. My children with their wonderfully young minds just informed me that we ate breakfast in our room that day. I had made, frozen, and packed some chocolate zucchini bran muffins. (They are like little rocks, but they are very tasty and totally filling.) After that lovely fiber-filled (and FREE) breakfast, we took the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom.
The Touring Plans crowd calendar had the MK listed as a 5 that day, and it showed. The crowds weren't bad at all. (I think it was the last Saturday of Star Wars Weekends, maybe? So perhaps a lot of people went to Hollywood Studios.)
We headed back to Frontierland and got Fastpasses for Big Thunder, then took the ferryboat over to Tom Sawyear Island. Boy, that place never gets cool, does it? I remember it being totally hot as a kid, and it was just as hot last week! Funny moments there -- we stopped for a water break at a picnic table and were stalked by a very aggressive little squirrel! He did everything but climb up our legs! My oldest son loves squirrels, so he was especially tickled! After our break, we explored some more and walked through the caves. I was first in line and was really surprised at how dark and dangerous the caves were. I could barely see my hands in front of my face! Why would Disney make it so dark that someone could get hurt? That didn't seem sensible. I turned around to say as much to my family and they all started laughing at me. I had my sunglasses on!!!!! Needless to say, I could navigate the cave much faster when I took them off.
We did the Haunted Mansion after that -- I LOVE that ride! It might be my favorite. I really like what they did with the interactive queue line -- love the Captain in the tomb that blows bubbles!
We scooted back over to Big Thunder then. It was the first time for both me and younger son. VERY FUN! We were in the last car and it was a wild ride. At one point, my son yelled "I hate it but I love it!" (My thoughts exactly!) (The second time, it was less scary!)
We got our fastpasses for Splash Mountain and went back to The Hall of Presidents, where my husband had a nice long nap. After the presentation, when I was all full of patriotic pride, ready to discuss how cool it was with my 3 men, who had never seen it before, I noticed that my husband had sort of a confused look. Then it hit me. He just woke up!!!!!!!! I said "Did you sleep through the whole thing?????" "Uhhhhh..... I think I saw Obama for a minute." Oh brother. However, in retrospect, knowing how cranky my spouse is when he is tired or hungry, the nap was a good thing!
Next, we hopped on Pirates of the Caribbean -- another classic!!!!!! My husband gave me the arched eyebrow when we went past Johnny Depp, but I told him not to worry. He's not my imaginary boyfriend anymore. (Robert Downey Jr. is!
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We had lunch at the Tortuga Tavern. We shared some beef nachos, which I stretched with lettuce from the fixin's bar. That was actually a REALLY tasty lunch!
Lunch was followed by Splash Mountain, another first time ride for me and younger son! VERY cute! Love the drop at the end!
We were running well ahead of schedule at this point, so we decided to squeak in the Tiki Room. That turned out to be a mistake. I danced and sang along with all the songs of course -- but at the end, when there is the thunderstorm outside the windows -- guess what? That's what was happening outside too! We made it as far as Main Street when the bottom fell out! We had to shelter inside the Emporium store for about an hour. It was frustrating, since we were totally soggy and eager to check in at the lodge, but we managed to make it fun. We played alphabet I-Spy for looooong time, then decided to borrow a plastic bag from the store and put our sneakers in it. We went barefoot down Main Street to the monorail, which was something of an adventure in itself.
By the time we drove under that welcoming arch at the lodge, we were so ready to settle in to our temporary home!
We weren't mentally prepared for the fact that there was no way to unload our stuff on our own. The young guy in charge of things under the big roof of the drop off area was very nice and fun. He had a cart and was expertly unloading our ridiculous number of bags, bins, and boxes. I was mortified!!!! We had a huge cooler and -- oh -- just SO much stuff. A stupid amount of stuff. I wanted to help, so I was putting some bags on my shoulders. Immediately the guy would take it OFF my shoulder and onto the cart, saying "no way! You are on vacation! Let us do this!" I'm sure the bellhop got a hernia pushing that cart to our room!
So, we checked into the villas at the main lodge -- so exciting to see the grandeur of that lobby again!!!!! It is so warm and cozy -- I'd really love to experience it in the wintertime! I think we were all pretty excited to get our keys and start the walk over to the villas. That wooden boardwalk with all the greenery and the nice lighting is really a great transition. You go from the boisterous atmosphere of the main lodge and walk over into tranquility. We just loved it! The music -- the entryway -- all the pinecones in the carpet and in the wall sconces.... It is just a such a peaceful place!
We were in room 4543. We had a view of the lake through the trees and we later learned that we could see MK fireworks from our balcony if we looked off to the left. It was a very nice room. WAS a nice room. Then our baggage arrived and we turned the place into some sort of cabin themed warehouse for tee shirts and snack foods. We tried to move in nicely, but as I said, we had way too much stuff!
After all the rain settled down, we explored the area a bit, then got dinner. The kids had some high-fiber pasta and cheese from home (can you tell one of us has issues?) and husband and I shared the beef and blue cheese sandwich from Roaring Forks. We ate in the room and just chilled out. After our hot morning and crazy arrival in a thunderstorm, we were ready for bed! The next day we would head out for a full day at Epcot!
), and she has instilled a sense of awe in me for the classics.
I'm in Cleveland (not sure where she is studying), but distance really won't matter if she's the right one 
