"We Have You in the Swan Foot Suite": A Fall 2021 Trip Report. COMPLETED 3/2

[footballmouse]

Ugh, I had to take schoolwork with me the last time we went. Good thing is when we go next November I will be done with school!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

I have never seen this happen before, but some really sainted CM’s had put plastic bags over all the strollers and scooters that were lined up against the building. I still can’t get over how sweet that was! I feel so sad when people say the service at Disney has gone downhill and that they’ll be taking their business to Universal. I bet the employees at Universal wouldn’t do something like this!

That is so nice! I think people complain because it doesn't happen EVERY DAY to them. That's not the point. It has to happen organically.

Can you imagine how frustrating that would be? Not that I blame the first CM, but it taught me that if I’m staying at a Skyliner resort again, I should probably continue to the station anyway. Even if it had remained down, I could just take an Uber from the Boardwalk instead of doing all that additional walking and wa

It being down is annoying but being turned around when it is up would be where I would lose it.

We did her bedtime routine as close to how we do it at home as I possibly could. For those of you who are new parents, I cannot stress enough the value of a bedtime routine when your baby is ready for a regular sleep schedule (aka once they get past that newborn phase of “sleep wherever, whenever”). The specifics of the routine matter less than just picking a routine that works for you and sticking with it. I try not to give unsolicited parental advice in general, but this is one thing I think is worth sharing: bedtime routines work. I was surprised how quickly

I second this. A bed time routine is Super important. Sometimes it's hard to stick to it but it really helps!

 

[MyGoofy26]

Had to laugh at Muffin Heeler. That’s totally code in our house, especially on missed nap days. When our oldest (almost 3) starts getting crazy we just start calling her Muffin. And one day at the in laws our niece missed a nap and was extra crazy and cranky. My husband didn’t know she’d missed a nap so was thrown off by a sudden tantrum and I just looked at him “She’s Muffin” and he instantly understood and went about what he was doing.

Id be so irritated paying a premium for a Skyliner resort and having it go down at all, and then to find out it’s actually running after I hauled a half a mile in the other direction for a bus? OMG. Good tip about ignoring CMs and just heading off to see for yourself and Ubering if they’re right.

 

[Verstehen]

Ugh, I had to take schoolwork with me the last time we went. Good thing is when we go next November I will be done with school!

I love being a student, don't love doing schoolwork on vacation. Then again, being able to do my projects on the balcony was quite nice!

That is so nice! I think people complain because it doesn't happen EVERY DAY to them. That's not the point. It has to happen organically.


It being down is annoying but being turned around when it is up would be where I would lose it.


I second this. A bed time routine is Super important. Sometimes it's hard to stick to it but it really helps!

Yes, yes, and YES!

Had to laugh at Muffin Heeler. That’s totally code in our house, especially on missed nap days. When our oldest (almost 3) starts getting crazy we just start calling her Muffin. And one day at the in laws our niece missed a nap and was extra crazy and cranky. My husband didn’t know she’d missed a nap so was thrown off by a sudden tantrum and I just looked at him “She’s Muffin” and he instantly understood and went about what he was doing.

Id be so irritated paying a premium for a Skyliner resort and having it go down at all, and then to find out it’s actually running after I hauled a half a mile in the other direction for a bus? OMG. Good tip about ignoring CMs and just heading off to see for yourself and Ubering if they’re right.

When April is tired I call her Muffin Heeler lol. Also recently we were at the farmer's market and I got a coconut to drink out of, and I said to her, "April, coconuts have WATER in them!" just like Muffin. But she didn't get it, lol.

 

[Verstehen]

Day 2 (Thursday, September 23), Part 1:

I woke up around 9 and put April back in the pack n’ play. My hope was that she would sleep for as long as possible so that I could take my time getting ready. We weren’t in a hurry as our first plans of the day were for lunch!

I put together a quick breakfast for myself. I don’t normally drink coffee at home, and usually get my caffeine fix from a diet cherry Coke with my lunch. But since Disney doesn’t usually have that, I do tend to drink coffee at Disney. I’d been inspired by a recent visit to my SIL who keeps cold brew coffee at her house, so I ordered a gallon of Califia cold brew coffee with our Publix order. Since regular sugar doesn’t really dissolve in cold drinks, I also brought my own homemade simple syrup, which you can see in the bottle on the left of the picture. It’s dark because I use turbinado sugar instead of white refined sugar (and it doesn’t need refrigeration because it’s a 2:1 ratio of sugar to water!). I actually make it for cocktails at home, but if I hadn’t had any handy I probably would have just ordered a bottle of simple syrup with the Publix order. Nothing ruins a cold coffee drink for me more than sucking up hard sugar crystals at the bottom of the cup!

I also got myself a hard boiled egg (which I didn’t have to make at home for once, since we had a stove at the villa!) and gussied it up with some mayo and rice cracker bits to add some nice saltiness and crunch. I ate it on the balcony and it was pure bliss.

I got ready and eventually woke up April. We all left the room around 11 am and headed down to the bus stop. Even though our dining reservation wasn’t until 12:30, I wanted to give us plenty of time since we’d actually have to take two busses today.

I will say that we had enormous luck with busses on this trip, never had to wait very long for one. I’d been very nervous because of some posts I’d seen on social media. Since DS had a scooter, going to the parks in my car was pretty much not an option, so we were reliant on them for any park that wasn’t Epcot or HS. So needless to say, I’m very glad it worked out!

Our first stop of the day was Animal Kingdom, then we went straight to the bus stop for Animal Kingdom Lodge. Can you guess where we were going? There’s only like, two options, lol.

Our final destination was Kidani Village, for a lunch reservation at the often woefully underrated Sanaa! I hadn’t been to this restaurant in a very long time and was so excited to be back.

I don’t think I mentioned this earlier, but this trip was originally going to overlap with the trip of one of my dearest friends, who I hadn’t seen since before I was pregnant (actually, I think I was pregnant the last time we saw each other, but I didn’t know yet). She and her husband were going to be visiting from Canada, but sadly, they decided to cancel their trip because community transmission in Florida was quite high prior to the trip. It was probably the right call, though cases have dropped significantly since then, so they have rescheduled their trip for November, so I’m very excited!

Anyway, cancelling their trip meant they had a few ADR’s leftover. Most of them were cancelled, but the Sanaa one she kept so that my family could still use it. It meant I had to check in under her name and hand-wave the fact that we were four people checking in for an ADR made for six, which all felt a bit strange, but it wasn’t a big deal in the end.

We checked in and were seated a few minutes later, at a great table right by a window.

The waiter brought out a kids menu and crayons for April, so she wanted to sit in her high chair straight away. I was a bit nervous about this, as when April sits in a high chair, an invisible, unpredictable countdown starts, and once it hits zero, if she hasn’t received sufficient food to eat and play with, she will want out, and good luck getting her back in it, even if there’s food. Ah, dining with a toddler. Endlessly surprising and fun!

I won’t leave you in suspense. She wanted out fairly quickly, and it made the rest of the meal challenging. Particularly for me, though Dad tried his best to keep her amused so I could eat without a child on my lap. At some point, she wanted to sit, but not in the high chair, so we swapped it out for a normal chair, and for awhile she kept busy with the kids menu and crayons.

My Dad, as usual, asked what their darkest beer was, and as usual was told it was a Lager or Ale or something. He was disappointed but decided to order the Tusker Lager, since it was from Africa, and so he could at least get an authentic international experience. I also decided to order the Tusker Lager.

We of course also ordered the bread service. We got the potje select-your-own entree and the tabouleh salad to split between us.

The beers came out first, in bottles which the waiter poured into glasses for us. Dad was a bit shocked at the pure volume of beer we had, even though I’m pretty sure the bottles weren’t larger than a normal beer bottle. “We could have split one bottle,” he said to me immediately.

“Oh well,” I shrugged.

If you’ve been to Sanaa, you know how amazing that bread service is. If you haven’t been, you’re probably sick of people telling you how good it is, but trust me when I tell you, it’s not overrated. I say this as an Indian bread connoisseur, literally since birth. This is it. This is the best bread service on property. There isn’t a single dip on that board that isn’t good; your challenge will be to find the one you love more than you love the others.

But here’s a tip I haven’t seen a lot of other people talk about. If you’ve ever been to an Indian restaurant, you know that the breads and chutneys aren’t appetizers. They’re side dishes. So, we treated them as such. We ate a little bit of bread and dips for the appetizer, but when our entrees came, we used the breads to sop up the sauces in the potje dish and drizzled some of the sauces over our meals. So yummy!

Meanwhile, April was becoming enamored with the birds that were lingering outside the window. It was a good way to keep her distracted while we enjoyed our meals and our beverages.

Speaking of our beverages, how did we like the Tusker Lagers? More to the point, how did Dad like his Tusker Lager?

Well, he drank it! And kept remarking, with some surprise, as if he’s not a man who’s been drinking beer his entire adult life, “It’s very light and refreshing!”

“Yeah,” I would respond. “Because it’s a lager.”

He drank all of his bottle. “I guess it was good we got two after all,” he said.

“Turns out,” I replied, “when your beer doesn’t need to be carved like a loaf of bread, you can drink more of it.”

Eventually, April got tired of the birds and came to see what I was up to. She saw the Tusker bottle and instantly fell in love with it. She loves animals and particular any animal featured in the classic children’s book, The Grouchy Ladybug. She even “knows” how to make an elephant sound, by which I mean she makes a little “mehhh” sound while waving one arm near her face and everyone thinks it’s very cute. So this is all to explain why there are pictures of my daughter sitting on my lap, enthusiastically playing with a beer bottle, which I am about to show you.

Believe me when I say we couldn’t get her to put it down. She would throw a full-on tantrum. So there we are. Judge me if you must. After getting the bottle, April looked at birds some more.

Eventually, we finished our food and drinks, and the bill came. April loved the leather booklet the bill came in. So much so that she didn’t want to give it up when the waiter came for it. He very kindly let her keep it, at least until we had to leave the restaurant.

We stopped for a bathroom before heading back to the bus. An older couple who had been at a nearby table stopped to mention how cute April was. This was a relief to me, because I’d seen them looking at us and talking during the meal and was worried they were talking about how badly behaved she was and why can’t we get her to sit still. I know she wasn’t that bad, but I also know there are people who expect children at a restaurant to be perfectly behaved at all times or their parents should just keep them home. Even at Disney. So that was a nice cap to our meal.

Up next, our treacherous journey to Animal Kingdom!

 

[KPeterso]

April really is the cutest. And those birds - so close (of course with glass between you). We had a savannah view for our recent Kidani visit and there was a special food box (or something) right below our balcony for those birds. So literally would look down and see them 2 floors right below us. And they actually can make a lot of noise too. I think we decided there were 8 or 9 of them total.

 

[Woth2982]

Your DD sounds like mine with food. She wants it and she wants it NOW! The second she sits in the high chair. We always have a plethora of puffs on hand for this reason lol. It is so funny what kids like to play with. The other night she kept pointing to things on the table, her cup.....no. Teething ring.....no. Big bottle of ketchup......yup. She happily played with that for 20 minutes while DH and I ate dinner. I have never been to Sanna but it is always on my "one of these days" lists.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Sanaa is always a great meal!

 

[Verstehen]

April really is the cutest. And those birds - so close (of course with glass between you). We had a savannah view for our recent Kidani visit and there was a special food box (or something) right below our balcony for those birds. So literally would look down and see them 2 floors right below us. And they actually can make a lot of noise too. I think we decided there were 8 or 9 of them total.

I stayed at AKL a long time ago, but I would love to stay again when April is a little older. I think she would love it!

Your DD sounds like mine with food. She wants it and she wants it NOW! The second she sits in the high chair. We always have a plethora of puffs on hand for this reason lol. It is so funny what kids like to play with. The other night she kept pointing to things on the table, her cup.....no. Teething ring.....no. Big bottle of ketchup......yup. She happily played with that for 20 minutes while DH and I ate dinner. I have never been to Sanna but it is always on my "one of these days" lists.

I can't remember if we tried busting out the puffs this time. It can be hit or miss anyway. Mostly she just hates being contained XD

Sanaa is always a great meal!

Never been disappointed!

 

[Verstehen]

Day 2, Part 2

We made our way back to the bus stop and waited a few minutes for a bus back to Animal Kingdom. Side note: I LOVE the monitors at the resort bus stops that tell you how long until the next bus will come for your destination. I really wish they had these at the theme park bus stops, but I guess there’s logistics reasons why that wouldn’t work.

We got on the bus when it arrived and it made a quick stop first at Jambo House, where a few more passengers loaded. Among them was an older man, who sat down across from me and said to no one in particular, “Been waiting over forty minutes for a bus. This is some crappy service!”

For a moment, I wondered if he was joking. It was hard to grasp the full range of his facial expression since much of it was covered by a mask. But as the ride continued, he tried to engage his fellow passengers in his complaint-fest, and I realized he wasn’t joking. Not only was he not joking, but he wanted other people to agree with him that he was the victim of bad “service.” Now, I don’t disagree that forty minutes is a long time to wait for a bus, or that he wasn’t right to be annoyed about it. But if you think about something like this for more than two seconds, you realize that the bus driver is not responsible for how long you waited. The bus driver goes where they are told to go, and they get there as quickly and safely as possible. Therefore, there is no one on the bus who can improve the wait time for you, and therefore it’s not a good use of your energy to complain about it.

I recognize the irony in complaining about complainers, but it’s a big pet peeve of mine, especially when people complain about service employees who are clearly doing the best they can with the resources they’ve been provided, and are probably not getting paid that great for it. I’ve been in a situation where I had a long wait ahead of me for a Disney bus, and at that particular moment, the long wait just wasn’t acceptable. So you know what I did? I ordered an Uber. I didn’t take it out on someone who was providing me with a complimentary service and try to get my fellow passengers to commiserate when they just wanted to enjoy the vacation with their families. It wasn’t lost on me that this gentleman was alone, either. We saw him wandering around the park later that day, and he was alone then as well.

Anyway, in the spirit of glass houses, you don’t have to agree with me. But it was a significant moment at this point of the day.

We made it to Animal Kingdom, and went straight to Africa to check out the situation with Kilimanjaro Safaris, since that was our biggest must-do headliner for the day. We intended to get a DAS return time if the wait was longer than thirty minutes or so, but I think it was posted at about 10 minutes, so we went right in line.

This was when I discovered something I hadn’t fully realized before: You can bring strollers through the Kilimanjaro Safari queue! I’m sure I’d seen strollers go through the queue before, but it had completely slipped my mind until we arrived that day. There is a place to deposit them just before you board, maybe ¾ of the way through the line. But it’s a really great advantage! I honestly don’t know of any other queue that lets you do that.

We rode the safari. I always love seeing the animals, but I’m always struck by how bumpy the ride is! It was making all of us a little queasy so early in the morning.

After the safari, we went straight to the gorilla trail. April is super into gorillas and can do a killer impression of one. So I was excited to show her the gorillas in real life. I’d been hyping them up to her, but she didn’t seem to grasp that she would be seeing a real gorilla very soon.

We passed some fish first. She was really into those.

Then we made it to the gorilla window, but alas, there were no gorillas! I had been looking forward to April being able to get up close and personal with them, but it was just an empty area. The cast member explained that they were resting, and I was reminded of a famous comedy bit by John Mulaney.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1217114877841506312

We eventually did see some of the bachelor gorillas in the next part of the trail, but those are of course much further away. I swear my dad snapped some pics of me pointing them out to April, but I can’t find them in my camera roll! Ugh.

Our next stop wasn’t another attraction. It was the sun chime stand near the bathrooms in Africa. Normally, such a thing wouldn’t be worthy of inclusion in a trip report, especially since we didn’t buy anything. But April was just so fascinated by them, so we spent some time twirling them for her. I think that’s one of the things I love most about parenting. Discovering all the surprising little things that your kid attaches themselves to.

We made our way back towards the entrance, and spotted some characters on the water.

At this point, it was about time for April to take a nap, and this was when I committed my first big sleep sin of the trip. I tried to make her nap in her stroller. Not that a stroller nap itself is inherently a bad thing. Lots of kids take naps in strollers. April herself had taken many. But that was a different time, and she was basically a different person the last time she’d taken a stroller nap. But, I thought, it was well past her nap time, so surely she was tired, and surely she would take one if given the right conditions.

The “right conditions,” I decided, was the baby care center, which was right next to Starbucks. Dad and DS decided to stop there for some refreshments, while I took April into the baby care center.

It was my first time in this particular center, and it was very nice! We were greeted by a very friendly cast member, who truth be told, was a little too chatty for my taste at that particular time. When April is getting ready to sleep, I try to reduce stimulation as much as possible, and this lady just wanted to chat away with her. This isn’t a dig at the CM at all, she was great. But there’s really no polite way to say, “Hey, can you not interact with my kid right now? In fact, could you just ignore her like she doesn’t exist? I’m trying to do something.”

In the end, it probably didn’t matter. My fears were probably just my own anxiety about trying to get her to sleep, manifesting themselves as some nebulous blame against this cheerful CM. That’s why I kept them to myself.

I changed April as we normally do before nap time, and then we went into one of the nursing rooms. Each baby care center does their nursing spaces a bit differently. Epcot and MK have group nursing areas, with several chairs each. AK and HS have individual nursing rooms, where you get a small space all to yourself. At HS, I remember them being pretty small, but here at Animal Kingdom they were pretty large, like the size of a companion bathroom, so I was able to wheel the stroller inside.

I tried to do our usual naptime routine, which is just rocking her while singing her a song or two. You could turn the light off in this room and it got pretty dark, which was theoretically great, but it made it really hard to see if April was actually asleep, or just sleepy. We rocked for awhile, and then I put her in the stroller with the recline all the way down. I rocked the stroller back and forth for a bit and figured, that’s probably enough.

As soon as I wheeled her out into the harsh light of the rest of the baby care center, I realized this. She was suddenly affronted to be stuck in her stroller, and immediately sat up. I don’t know if the reclining mechanism is no longer working properly, or if it just wasn’t designed to keep down a 24 pound toddler, but she would not lie down. Any attempt to make her do so would only make her madder. It became clear to me that rocking her to sleep was just not an option unless I wanted to spend literally the rest of the day in that dark room, away from my family. We would have to try a different tactic.

I rounded the corner outside of the baby care center and found Dad and DS conveniently sitting at one of the tables alongside the Starbucks. I greeted them and tried to discourage them from talking to April. “She needs to sleep,” I tried to explain. They understood, but were disappointed.

We took stock of the remainder of the things we wanted to accomplish in Animal Kingdom. DS really wanted to go on Flight of Passage, and I did too, since I hadn’t been on it since before I was pregnant and really missed the experience. If I were a smarter mom, I would have said, “No, we’ve had enough fun for now. Let’s go back to the room and get April down for the nap that she needs.” Or I could have volunteered to just go back by myself.

But I am not a smart mom. I asked Dad and DS how they were feeling, and they said they wanted to chill a little bit more at their Starbucks table. So I said I would go get a return time for FoP, and try to get April to take a stroller nap.

How successful was I? You’ll have to read on to find out!

 

[suse66]

I put together a quick breakfast for myself. I don’t normally drink coffee at home, and usually get my caffeine fix from a diet cherry Coke with my lunch. But since Disney doesn’t usually have that, I do tend to drink coffee at Disney. I’d been inspired by a recent visit to my SIL who keeps cold brew coffee at her house, so I ordered a gallon of Califia cold brew coffee with our Publix order. Since regular sugar doesn’t really dissolve in cold drinks, I also brought my own homemade simple syrup, which you can see in the bottle on the left of the picture. It’s dark because I use turbinado sugar instead of white refined sugar (and it doesn’t need refrigeration because it’s a 2:1 ratio of sugar to water!). I actually make it for cocktails at home, but if I hadn’t had any handy I probably would have just ordered a bottle of simple syrup with the Publix order. Nothing ruins a cold coffee drink for me more than sucking up hard sugar crystals at the bottom of the cup!

Good idea with simple syrup to make your own cold brew!

I don’t think I mentioned this earlier, but this trip was originally going to overlap with the trip of one of my dearest friends, who I hadn’t seen since before I was pregnant (actually, I think I was pregnant the last time we saw each other, but I didn’t know yet). She and her husband were going to be visiting from Canada, but sadly, they decided to cancel their trip because community transmission in Florida was quite high prior to the trip. It was probably the right call, though cases have dropped significantly since then, so they have rescheduled their trip for November, so I’m very excited!

Community transmission was brutal in August/September. I'm Canadian too and actually travelled in August and it was quite stressful.

The waiter brought out a kids menu and crayons for April, so she wanted to sit in her high chair straight away. I was a bit nervous about this, as when April sits in a high chair, an invisible, unpredictable countdown starts, and once it hits zero, if she hasn’t received sufficient food to eat and play with, she will want out, and good luck getting her back in it, even if there’s food. Ah, dining with a toddler. Endlessly surprising and fun!

Never a dull moment with littles!

We of course also ordered the bread service. We got the potje select-your-own entree and the tabouleh salad to split between us.

I love the bread service so much. Yum!

But here’s a tip I haven’t seen a lot of other people talk about. If you’ve ever been to an Indian restaurant, you know that the breads and chutneys aren’t appetizers. They’re side dishes. So, we treated them as such. We ate a little bit of bread and dips for the appetizer, but when our entrees came, we used the breads to sop up the sauces in the potje dish and drizzled some of the sauces over our meals. So yummy!

Great idea!

Eventually, April got tired of the birds and came to see what I was up to. She saw the Tusker bottle and instantly fell in love with it. She loves animals and particular any animal featured in the classic children’s book, The Grouchy Ladybug. She even “knows” how to make an elephant sound, by which I mean she makes a little “mehhh” sound while waving one arm near her face and everyone thinks it’s very cute. So this is all to explain why there are pictures of my daughter sitting on my lap, enthusiastically playing with a beer bottle, which I am about to show you.

Haha....whatever works!

We stopped for a bathroom before heading back to the bus. An older couple who had been at a nearby table stopped to mention how cute April was. This was a relief to me, because I’d seen them looking at us and talking during the meal and was worried they were talking about how badly behaved she was and why can’t we get her to sit still. I know she wasn’t that bad, but I also know there are people who expect children at a restaurant to be perfectly behaved at all times or their parents should just keep them home. Even at Disney. So that was a nice cap to our meal.

I think people get that toddlers or babies are going to be busy and active. As long as parents are interacting with their children and not ignoring their needs, I'm good.

I recognize the irony in complaining about complainers, but it’s a big pet peeve of mine, especially when people complain about service employees who are clearly doing the best they can with the resources they’ve been provided, and are probably not getting paid that great for it. I’ve been in a situation where I had a long wait ahead of me for a Disney bus, and at that particular moment, the long wait just wasn’t acceptable. So you know what I did? I ordered an Uber. I didn’t take it out on someone who was providing me with a complimentary service and try to get my fellow passengers to commiserate when they just wanted to enjoy the vacation with their families. It wasn’t lost on me that this gentleman was alone, either. We saw him wandering around the park later that day, and he was alone then as well.

I am with you on that!

Our next stop wasn’t another attraction. It was the sun chime stand near the bathrooms in Africa. Normally, such a thing wouldn’t be worthy of inclusion in a trip report, especially since we didn’t buy anything. But April was just so fascinated by them, so we spent some time twirling them for her. I think that’s one of the things I love most about parenting. Discovering all the surprising little things that your kid attaches themselves to.

The sense of wonder is the best!

We took stock of the remainder of the things we wanted to accomplish in Animal Kingdom. DS really wanted to go on Flight of Passage, and I did too, since I hadn’t been on it since before I was pregnant and really missed the experience. If I were a smarter mom, I would have said, “No, we’ve had enough fun for now. Let’s go back to the room and get April down for the nap that she needs.” Or I could have volunteered to just go back by myself.

But I am not a smart mom. I asked Dad and DS how they were feeling, and they said they wanted to chill a little bit more at their Starbucks table. So I said I would go get a return time for FoP, and try to get April to take a stroller nap.

How successful was I? You’ll have to read on to find out!

Maybe you were an optimistic Mom???

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Side note: I LOVE the monitors at the resort bus stops that tell you how long until the next bus will come for your destination. I really wish they had these at the theme park bus stops, but I guess there’s logistics reasons why that wouldn’t work.

That would be great. Although they aren't that accurate at the hotels. So, I feel like the ones at the parks would be so not correct. but I would still love it.

en we made it to the gorilla window, but alas, there were no gorillas! I had been looking forward to April being able to get up close and personal with them, but it was just an empty area. The cast member explained that they were resting, and I was reminded of a famous comedy bit by John Mulaney.

Sad

How successful was I? You’ll have to read on to find out!

Fingers crossed!

But I am not a smart mom

We are all not smart moms in Disney. We just want to do so much. It's hard to leave.

 

[Verstehen]

Good idea with simple syrup to make your own cold brew!
Community transmission was brutal in August/September. I'm Canadian too and actually travelled in August and it was quite stressful.
Never a dull moment with littles!
I love the bread service so much. Yum!
Great idea!
Haha....whatever works!
I think people get that toddlers or babies are going to be busy and active. As long as parents are interacting with their children and not ignoring their needs, I'm good.
I am with you on that!
The sense of wonder is the best!
Maybe you were an optimistic Mom???

I'm glad you were able to travel, but sorry it was so stressful! Hopefully as time passes it will get safer and safer.

That would be great. Although they aren't that accurate at the hotels. So, I feel like the ones at the parks would be so not correct. but I would still love it.


Sad


Fingers crossed!


We are all not smart moms in Disney. We just want to do so much. It's hard to leave.

I know, you have all of these plans on how things are going to go. I like to think I'm smart, but in reality, I never learn.

 

[Verstehen]

Day 2, Part 3

There were a few factors working against me. First, as I’d already mentioned, she wouldn’t let me lie her down. I quickly gave up on the idea that she had to be lying down to sleep, but she also didn’t want me to put the canopy over her. She basically didn’t want anything separating her from me, which meant I had basically no way to limit stimulations. There’s so much to see when you’re being stollered around a Disney park, and of course people want to wave to little babies in strollers. Like I said, I’m not going to be the jerk to go, “She needs to fall asleep. Please don’t talk to her.”

I had to tell myself, the only person I can control in this situation is myself. So I wheeled her into Pandora, ignoring her all the while, letting her stare off into space, and resisting the urge to point things out to her (which has become a weird Mom instinct that actually takes work to tamp down). I got the return time and dared a peek at April’s face, which in itself was a risky move. If she sees me looking at her, it’s like it resets her sleep clock. She was obviously tired, but her eyes were open. I wasn’t sure what to do. I didn’t want to go back to the Starbucks table, because if April saw her grandfather and aunt she would want to talk to them. But I didn’t want to just sit around by myself somewhere else, because I knew that would make April restless. My best chance of getting her to sleep was to just keep the stroller moving.

So that’s what I did. I realized that Animal Kingdom is just one big giant loop, and that it would take me about 20-30 minutes to walk around the whole thing. By that point, there was a decent chance April would be asleep, and if not, I would walk it again. By now, she was sleepy enough that she let me put the awning up, but I still had to be careful not to check on her too much. There’s a little mesh window I can look down on her through the top of the awning, but if I leave the flap over it off, she will look at me through it and try to get through. So I had to keep it covered, and when I periodically checked on her, I did it slyly through the side of the stroller.

I started in Pandora, went into Discovery Island past the Tree of Life, through Dinoland USA, past the amphitheater that was getting ready to show Kite Tails. I thought the decorations looked really cute so I stopped to take a picture.

(Side note: I haven’t seen Kite Tails in person yet, but I have seen footage and...I think it looks awful. Maybe if I’m in the park and in that area while it’s playing I’ll watch it for a couple of minutes, but I’m definitely not rushing to get there. I think the fact that it’s a day show just compounds everything; day shows have a tendency to show off flaws of showpieces more so than you can get away with during a nighttime show.)

I went across the bridge into Asia, and saw that the single rider line was operating, which got me excited since no one else in my travel party wanted to (or could) ride it.

I went from Asia to Africa and at some point around this time, April finally, FINALLY, fell asleep. Hooray!

I arrived back at the Starbucks table where at this point, my family was basically paying rent, but we finally vacated and made our way back to Pandora for our Flight of Passage return time.

Dad doesn’t do Flight of Passage anymore, as it makes him queasy, so he elected to watch April. I advised him to keep the stroller moving to encourage her to stay asleep, and asked him to text me if she woke up so I could log it in my app that I use to track her sleep.

We waited a bit for our banshee, but soon enough we were flying through Pandora! I was really excited. Unfortunately, about halfway through, I looked over and noticed that DS looked very concerned. I asked her what was up. She said she felt nauseous and I advised her to close her eyes. I’m not sure if it helped. Poor girl!

After the ride stopped, I helped her into the next room and into her scooter. Thank goodness we took it through the queue instead of parking it outside! She rested for a few moments and drank some water. She wasn’t entirely sure why she wasn’t feeling well. I suspected it was due to the fact that her last real meal at Sanaa had been ages ago, and right before this ride she’d sucked down a super sugary drink from Starbucks and paired it with a cupcake. No, she said, that probably wasn’t it. Well, okay. What do I know?

We met back up with Dad, who let us know that April had woken up at this point. DS was feeling a little better after drinking some water so we decided we’d head towards Asia. I wanted to do single rider for Everest and take April on the Maharajah Jungle Trek.

On our way out of Pandora towards Asia by way of Africa, we saw some more characters!

And tried to make April play some drums, but she wasn’t feeling it.

We got partway to our destinations, but as we arrived at the Dug and Russell statues near the bird show theater (whatever they’re calling it now), DS started to feel sick again and needed another rest. I took some pictures of April playing with the statues. She was utterly fascinated by them.

We weren’t really sure what to do, but DS was confident that she would feel better soon. I suggested she eat some real food but again, she insisted that wasn’t the reason for her not feeling well. Again, what do I know? I’m not being sarcastic; I know she knows her illness much better than I do. But I knew that if it were me, eating some substantial food would do wonders for me.

We decided the best thing to do at the moment was to let DS chill, so I went over to Everest while Dad watched DS and April. There were just a couple of people ahead of me, and I was quickly on the ride. I love Everest!

One interesting thing to note: I was asked to wear my mask in the queue and on the ride. That surprised me because the ride and queue are almost completely outdoors, but of course I did so.

I joined back up with my family, and by now DS was feeling better, so we went over to Maharajah Jungle Trek.

I had been most looking forward to showing April the giant bats because she loves pointing out bats when we see them at home. We also love the Bats book series by Brian Lies, which are beautifully illustrated and very fun to read. Alas, I think we came too late in the day! It was hard for me to see any of the bats and when I did find one all the way in the back of the habitat, I knew it would be too far away for April to see. So that was a bit of a disappointment, but overall, I like this trail a lot. I’ll just have to remember to try to go on it earlier next time.

It was time for some dinner, so we went back to Pandora and put in our mobile order for Satuli Canteen. DS claimed she wasn’t hungry, despite Dad and I encouraging her to eat, so we just put in orders for the two of us. We found a table outside and waited for our food to be ready.

I didn’t take pictures of our meals, but I ordered a beef bowl with noodles and creamy herb dressing. I think Dad got tofu, but I can’t remember what base or sauce he got. All I remember is that the food was delicious! April got in on some of the noodle action as well.

Dad finally coaxed DS into eating some of his food, and by some revelation, she did start to feel better. That was a relief. It’s not fun to see your sister sick, and I’d imagine it’s even less fun to be the sick one.

As we wrapped up our meal, I had to join a call for one of the classes I’m taking. Most of the work for this class is group work, and my team had a call scheduled to finalize a project that was about to be due. We had pretty much all the pieces in place, just had to make sure we were all happy and decide who was going to submit the project. It was a quick call. There were a couple of things we wanted to change, and so the group member who planned to make the change volunteered to submit it. My family and I decided to go ahead and head back to the Boardwalk since we were getting tired, so around the time we made it to the bus stop, the call wrapped up. It was our first major assignment for that class, so I was glad we were finished with it (we got a 100%, by the way. Woohoo!).

I was really excited to see our bus was a character wrapped one with The Incredibles, so I made sure to get some pictures.

We had a nice evening back at the Boardwalk, which wasn’t super picture heavy. When we got back to the villa, DS had a rest while Dad and I took April over to the pool. I didn’t actually realize until that evening that the Boardwalk didn’t have a splash pad, just a regular kiddie pool. I guess I had assumed they’d added one during the recent slide refurbishment, but I guess I was wrong. They really need one! It was kind of a bummer.

We hung out in the feature pool for a bit, but April was a little unsure about the water. We ended up over in the hot tub, where we took turns holding April out of the water and enjoying the jets. At one point, a very sweet young teenager took a liking to April and played a little ball game with her, where she would give April a ball, and April would throw it onto the water, much to everyone’s delight.

After awhile, we headed back to the room and I put April to bed. I had one important goal for that night, which I wouldn’t be able to do again for a couple of nights. I put April down for bed around 10:30, and I had just enough time to run down to the Boardwalk.

I arrived at Abracadabar with literally one minute to spare before they stopped serving alcohol. I scanned the menu code quickly and made a decision: Pepper’s Ghost!

It’s pineapple vodka with habanero lime. The bartender actually offered to make me two, but I knew my hard alcohol tolerance is really low these days so I just got the one. I was right to do so; it packed a punch and I was pretty tipsy by the time I finished the drink. I downed it and paid with cash so that I wouldn’t keep any of the staff waiting. All in all, I was in there for probably less than 10 minutes, but it felt SO nice to have some time to myself in a bar, which I hadn’t gotten in a really long time.

I wasn’t quite ready to go back up to the room, so I found a bench overlooking the water and sat for awhile. It was a beautiful, clear night. There weren’t many people out, but the few that were there were pretty much all drunk. I watched a couple walk down the Friendship boat dock and it seriously looked like they were going to fall into the water. But luckily (or unfortunately, depending on your perspective) they didn’t.

I also realized during this time that if you have a room overlooking the Boardwalk, anything you say can be heard super clearly! I had been sitting for awhile and heard a couple having a conversation, and realized after a bit that they weren’t anywhere I could see, so I knew they must be sitting on one of the nearby balconies. So be warned. You may have a great view, but if you like to hang out on your balcony later in the evening, your conversation will not be private.

I went back up to the room and had some more hummus and chips before finally going to bed.

I’d been hoping this night would be easier than the night before, but it was complicated by the fact that in some wee hour, the power went out. There had been signs in the lobby warning us that the power would be going out tonight for a few hours for some maintenance work, but of course I’d forgotten about it, and I also hadn’t realized just how hot and unbearable the room would get. I was sweating like crazy! And I felt bad for April who was obviously uncomfortable and having a hard time sleeping as well. But we got through it.

Next up, a hectic Epcot day!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Glad you got the baby to sleep at least a little. It's hard in Disney.

Sorry your sister didn't feel well after riding Flight of Passage.That is always hard to kick naseau!

 

[Verstehen]

Glad you got the baby to sleep at least a little. It's hard in Disney.

Sorry your sister didn't feel well after riding Flight of Passage.That is always hard to kick naseau!

Sleeping in Disney is such a unique challenge, but it's always so satisfying when I get her down for a bit.

 

[Verstehen]

Day 3 (Friday, September 24), Part 1

There wasn’t much to note about this morning before we left the room. I have in my notes that I woke up around 8:30 and April woke up around 10:30. I know I had a lovely breakfast on the balcony, judging from this picture.

I got ready while she slept some more and then we all left for Epcot. We started down the elevator, and then Dad realized he’d left his phone (or maybe his wallet? Can’t completely remember anymore) in the room, so he had to go back up and get it, but encouraged us to keep going without him and he would catch up.

When we got to the bridge by Seabreeze Point, however, we noticed that DS’s scooter had slowed down considerably, and while we were on the incline, it stopped completely. Dad arrived shortly after and tried to get it to work. He was sure they had been charging it all night so of course we were all frustrated. He decided the only thing to do would be to return the scooter back to the hallway and charge it, and just try to get DS through at least the first part of the day without it.

April, DS, and I went on ahead to Epcot while Dad wheeled the scooter back to the room. We tapped into the park and went over to the UK to chill out while we waited. We found a bench in the back of the pavilion to hang out on. I’d been hoping for some live music or a character to come out while we waited, but it seemed like some live show had just wrapped up, but that was okay. It was still a lovely day.

Dad arrived, and we took some pictures in the garden.

Then Alice came out for a meet and greet. This was perfect, since April was wearing her Alice dress.

I do like that character meet and greets aren’t on schedules like they were before, so there’s less pressure to stand in a long line and wait around for a few seconds of time with a character. It feels a lot more organic now. The only thing that sucks is no hugs, but hopefully those will be back soon!

We had a sweet conversation about April being in her tea party dress, and got a few photos as well. Then we decided to check out the shop.

I’d had my eye on the Mary Blair Alice in Wonderland collection, especially one of the shirts they were selling. There’s the blue shirt with the singing flowers, and the tea party shirt. Seeing the flower shirt up close, I wasn’t hugely interested in it, but I really loved the tea party shirt. They didn’t have it in a medium, which is my usual size, but it looked pretty oversized so I tried the small on over my regular shirt. They didn’t have any mirrors, so I was relying on Dad to tell me how it looked.

He wasn’t a fan, which he told me in pretty much no uncertain terms. All he could tell me was that it “wasn’t flattering.” I still really loved it but decided to wait until later to make a decision.

We bought some tea that we knew we’d want to have later in the trip, and headed out. We had no particular plan, but I wanted to get the tuna poke from the Hawaii booth, so we went in that direction.

Along the way, Dad realized he didn’t have his magic band, which he’d definitely used to get into the park, so he went back to the UK to look for it. Meanwhile, April, DS and I found a bench by one of the shops at the entrance to World Showcase. DS called Scooter Bug to figure out what could be done about her scooter, and April ate some of my rice crackers as a late breakfast.

Dad came back a bit later. He hadn’t found his band at the shop, but he took another look in his backpack and the stroller and I know it was in one of the two. I believe it fell out of his bag and into the stroller. So we had it the whole time. Sigh.

I think things were getting challenging with the Scooter Bug people, who claimed that the scooter should work, but Dad and DS just wanted them to send another one. While they dealt with that, I went over to the noodle booth. April decided to come with me, and I made the mistake of not bringing her carrier or her stroller, and of course she wanted me to carry her after about two seconds of walking.

At the booth, I ordered the pork noodles and the green tea beer, which the CMs said was very popular. When I went to the pickup window, the CM checking receipts took one look at me and asked if I needed any help carrying my order to where I was sitting.

“That would be amazing,” I said, “but I’m not that close. I’m all the way near the water.”

She said she didn’t mind at all, so as soon as my food came out she accompanied me back to the bench. I couldn’t express how grateful I was, but she just said she was happy to do it, and she could see I had my hands full, which I definitely did! I wish I could have done something to show gratitude. I of course completely forgot to record her name to give kudos since I was so frazzled. But if I ever encounter service like that again, I will be sure to write down their name!

April and I shared the noodles and I drank the beer. It was delicious! I may have to try to get some for home.

I believe the outcome of the call with Scooter Bug was that they agreed to send another scooter over later that day, but they were pretty sure the issue was that Dad had charged the backup battery and not the main battery.

I really loved this spot we’d found. We were right by the entrance to the shop so there was lots of good people watching. April tried to be the shop greeter for awhile, positioning herself right in front of the doors and waving as people came in and out.

We chilled there for awhile and then decided to head over to Future World West. I went into the Land and got a return time for Soarin, and then we went over to the Seas so April could look at the fishies.

We had a lovely time here. By the time we got out, though, it was getting to be April’s naptime, so I asked if we could skip Soarin and just head back to the resort. Family agreed.

We did do a couple of things on the way back. First, we saw Pooh out and about.

Then, Dad decided to get a Beyond Slider at the Earth Eats booth. He said he liked it! I also decided to go into the UK shop again and get the Mary Blair shirt. I figured if I really hated it after taking it back to the room, I could always return it the next day.

And that was our afternoon at Epcot! Up next, resort time, and a not-so-scary trip to the Magic Kingdom!

 

[Verstehen]

Day 3, Part 2

We got back to the room, and I put April down for her nap at about 4 pm. I had a few things I wanted to do while she slept.

First, I wanted to try to adjust our dining reservation for dinner. We currently had a table for 4 at Liberty Tree for 6:15 pm. That would mean we’d have to leave the hotel pretty soon, like within the next hour. I wasn’t thrilled with that idea, and neither was my Dad or sister, so I worked hard to try to change it to something a little later.

Obviously, at the last minute like this, it wasn’t easy. We weren’t determined to eat at any particular place, but of course pickings in the park were slim all around. But after a lot of refreshing, I was able to get Diamond Horseshoe for 7:40, which was later enough that we wouldn’t need to rush out the door, but not so late that we would be worried about missing out on the festivities. If you don’t know, Diamond Horseshoe is the same exact menu as Liberty Tree (they share a kitchen), just in the room next to Liberty Tree. They used to just use Diamond Horseshoe as overflow seating for Liberty Tree, but I guess some people complained because they wanted to sit in the restaurant they reserved (this happened to us once but we didn’t mind at all), so they separated them out so people would know what they were getting. We didn’t care at all about sitting in one room vs another, as long as we had a place to sit and eat, so I grabbed that reservation.

Now, the way MDE works, I wasn’t able to just switch my LTT reservation to DH. I would only have been able to switch it to another LTT time without penalties. So I rebooked my LTT reservation for another date a few weeks out, booked the DH time, then immediately cancelled the LTT reservation so that I wouldn’t be charged now or in the future. A bit of extra work, but worth it to get the time we wanted! I felt much better about the trajectory of our afternoon.

I also tried on the shirt in front of a mirror. I could see where my dad thought it wasn’t super flattering, but I liked it. I posted this picture in a Facebook group I’m in, and someone suggested tucking the shirt in, which helped a lot!

I worked on some schoolwork so that I wouldn’t have to worry about it for the remainder of the evening. While I did all that, Dad did some swimming and DS rested.

Around 6:30, April woke up, and it was time to head over to the Magic Kingdom for Boo Bash! We went down to the bus stop and were on our way shortly.

We got to the park at about 7 pm, which was when they were letting people in for Boo Bash, so we faced a decently long line to get in, but thanks to the ADR adjustment we weren’t in a hurry and the line moved fairly quickly.

But here’s where I made a silly mistake. When I purchased the tickets, I had to tell the CM on the phone who each ticket should be assigned to, which made me assume that they’d already been linked to our MDE accounts, and I never bothered to double check that. So we get to the tapstiles and of course our bands don’t work. I pulled up the email with the confirmation number, and they were able to get a CM over who could scan that and issue us our wristbands. It took a few minutes but of course with all the people behind me it felt like an eternity. I asked a couple of times if we could move to the side so that the people waiting behind us could scan in, but they said no, probably because of space issues. Luckily the folks right behind us were very understanding, though I was mortified. Lesson learned: always make sure your special event tickets are linked to your MDE BEFORE you scan your band!

A lot of people in the park were either leaving or lining up for the fireworks, so we had a bit of traffic as we made our way to Liberty Square. I didn’t realize that at some restaurants you can now check in via the app, so when I approached the CM outside of the Diamond Horseshoe, she asked me to check in that way. I did so and we found a spot to the side of the entrance to wait for our table to be called.

While we waited, April got some energy out by walking around and my dad had my sister practice making tight turns with the scooter and backing up with better accuracy. She’d been struggling with both of those things and he was worried because she has that trip coming up with her friends in the spring where she’ll have to navigate the scooter without help from him. She got a little frustrated (it doesn’t help that he’s not the most patient teacher, which I remember from my driving lessons as a teenager), but by the end of the time I think she was much improved.

We were a little past our ADR time, so I asked the CM in front of the restaurant if she knew about how much longer we might have to wait for a table. Of course as soon as I asked, we got the text that our table was ready. Go figure!

We were shown to our table, just inside the front entrance. Our meal was super delicious and came out pretty quickly, starting of course with the salads and bread. I got a sangria and Dad got a Sam Adams, which I’m sure wasn’t nearly dark enough for his tastes, but he made do.

Liberty Tree/Diamond Horseshoe, as you may know, is family-style and pretty much Thanksgiving food. They bring out turkey, pork, and pot roast, but we asked for no pork since Dad won’t eat that and DS and I don’t care too much about the pork anyway. Dad also asked to try the Beyond meatloaf.

When they brought the food out though, it had the pork on it and there was no Beyond meatloaf to be found. We alerted our waiter, who volunteered to take the whole platter back, but I didn’t see the point in that since it was just Dad who couldn’t eat it and it was a dietary preference to not eat pork products, so I said I’d just eat the pork. Our waiter also advised Dad not to eat the stuffing or gravy in that case, and he said he would bring out alternates that were pork free.

He ended up bringing out the gluten free stuffing and mushroom gravy along with the Beyond meatloaf. Dad had me try it all and to be honest, there’s a reason I’m not gluten free or vegetarian, lol. I didn’t care for it. Not sure if DS was a fan either. I was happy to eat my non-kosher meal and to share it with my non-kosher daughter, much to my dad’s chagrin.

We got a nice picture during our meal, where you can kind of make out some of our costumes. I’m sure many of you can figure out what it is but I’ll have better pictures in the next post. We’d already gotten a lot of compliments!

Of course no one heeded my warning to save room for dessert, so I ended up eating much of the glorious sticky toffee pudding on my own. Oh well!

Our bellies full, we were ready to take on the Boo Bash that was just starting. That’s up next!

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Day 2, Part 3

There were a few factors working against me. First, as I’d already mentioned, she wouldn’t let me lie her down. I quickly gave up on the idea that she had to be lying down to sleep, but she also didn’t want me to put the canopy over her. She basically didn’t want anything separating her from me, which meant I had basically no way to limit stimulations. There’s so much to see when you’re being stollered around a Disney park, and of course people want to wave to little babies in strollers. Like I said, I’m not going to be the jerk to go, “She needs to fall asleep. Please don’t talk to her.”

I had to tell myself, the only person I can control in this situation is myself. So I wheeled her into Pandora, ignoring her all the while, letting her stare off into space, and resisting the urge to point things out to her (which has become a weird Mom instinct that actually takes work to tamp down). I got the return time and dared a peek at April’s face, which in itself was a risky move. If she sees me looking at her, it’s like it resets her sleep clock. She was obviously tired, but her eyes were open. I wasn’t sure what to do. I didn’t want to go back to the Starbucks table, because if April saw her grandfather and aunt she would want to talk to them. But I didn’t want to just sit around by myself somewhere else, because I knew that would make April restless. My best chance of getting her to sleep was to just keep the stroller moving.

So that’s what I did. I realized that Animal Kingdom is just one big giant loop, and that it would take me about 20-30 minutes to walk around the whole thing. By that point, there was a decent chance April would be asleep, and if not, I would walk it again. By now, she was sleepy enough that she let me put the awning up, but I still had to be careful not to check on her too much. There’s a little mesh window I can look down on her through the top of the awning, but if I leave the flap over it off, she will look at me through it and try to get through. So I had to keep it covered, and when I periodically checked on her, I did it slyly through the side of the stroller.

I started in Pandora, went into Discovery Island past the Tree of Life, through Dinoland USA, past the amphitheater that was getting ready to show Kite Tails. I thought the decorations looked really cute so I stopped to take a picture.

(Side note: I haven’t seen Kite Tails in person yet, but I have seen footage and...I think it looks awful. Maybe if I’m in the park and in that area while it’s playing I’ll watch it for a couple of minutes, but I’m definitely not rushing to get there. I think the fact that it’s a day show just compounds everything; day shows have a tendency to show off flaws of showpieces more so than you can get away with during a nighttime show.)

I went across the bridge into Asia, and saw that the single rider line was operating, which got me excited since no one else in my travel party wanted to (or could) ride it.

I went from Asia to Africa and at some point around this time, April finally, FINALLY, fell asleep. Hooray!

I arrived back at the Starbucks table where at this point, my family was basically paying rent, but we finally vacated and made our way back to Pandora for our Flight of Passage return time.

Dad doesn’t do Flight of Passage anymore, as it makes him queasy, so he elected to watch April. I advised him to keep the stroller moving to encourage her to stay asleep, and asked him to text me if she woke up so I could log it in my app that I use to track her sleep.

We waited a bit for our banshee, but soon enough we were flying through Pandora! I was really excited. Unfortunately, about halfway through, I looked over and noticed that DS looked very concerned. I asked her what was up. She said she felt nauseous and I advised her to close her eyes. I’m not sure if it helped. Poor girl!

After the ride stopped, I helped her into the next room and into her scooter. Thank goodness we took it through the queue instead of parking it outside! She rested for a few moments and drank some water. She wasn’t entirely sure why she wasn’t feeling well. I suspected it was due to the fact that her last real meal at Sanaa had been ages ago, and right before this ride she’d sucked down a super sugary drink from Starbucks and paired it with a cupcake. No, she said, that probably wasn’t it. Well, okay. What do I know?

We met back up with Dad, who let us know that April had woken up at this point. DS was feeling a little better after drinking some water so we decided we’d head towards Asia. I wanted to do single rider for Everest and take April on the Maharajah Jungle Trek.

On our way out of Pandora towards Asia by way of Africa, we saw some more characters!

And tried to make April play some drums, but she wasn’t feeling it.

We got partway to our destinations, but as we arrived at the Dug and Russell statues near the bird show theater (whatever they’re calling it now), DS started to feel sick again and needed another rest. I took some pictures of April playing with the statues. She was utterly fascinated by them.

We weren’t really sure what to do, but DS was confident that she would feel better soon. I suggested she eat some real food but again, she insisted that wasn’t the reason for her not feeling well. Again, what do I know? I’m not being sarcastic; I know she knows her illness much better than I do. But I knew that if it were me, eating some substantial food would do wonders for me.

We decided the best thing to do at the moment was to let DS chill, so I went over to Everest while Dad watched DS and April. There were just a couple of people ahead of me, and I was quickly on the ride. I love Everest!

One interesting thing to note: I was asked to wear my mask in the queue and on the ride. That surprised me because the ride and queue are almost completely outdoors, but of course I did so.

I joined back up with my family, and by now DS was feeling better, so we went over to Maharajah Jungle Trek.

I had been most looking forward to showing April the giant bats because she loves pointing out bats when we see them at home. We also love the Bats book series by Brian Lies, which are beautifully illustrated and very fun to read. Alas, I think we came too late in the day! It was hard for me to see any of the bats and when I did find one all the way in the back of the habitat, I knew it would be too far away for April to see. So that was a bit of a disappointment, but overall, I like this trail a lot. I’ll just have to remember to try to go on it earlier next time.

It was time for some dinner, so we went back to Pandora and put in our mobile order for Satuli Canteen. DS claimed she wasn’t hungry, despite Dad and I encouraging her to eat, so we just put in orders for the two of us. We found a table outside and waited for our food to be ready.

I didn’t take pictures of our meals, but I ordered a beef bowl with noodles and creamy herb dressing. I think Dad got tofu, but I can’t remember what base or sauce he got. All I remember is that the food was delicious! April got in on some of the noodle action as well.

Dad finally coaxed DS into eating some of his food, and by some revelation, she did start to feel better. That was a relief. It’s not fun to see your sister sick, and I’d imagine it’s even less fun to be the sick one.

As we wrapped up our meal, I had to join a call for one of the classes I’m taking. Most of the work for this class is group work, and my team had a call scheduled to finalize a project that was about to be due. We had pretty much all the pieces in place, just had to make sure we were all happy and decide who was going to submit the project. It was a quick call. There were a couple of things we wanted to change, and so the group member who planned to make the change volunteered to submit it. My family and I decided to go ahead and head back to the Boardwalk since we were getting tired, so around the time we made it to the bus stop, the call wrapped up. It was our first major assignment for that class, so I was glad we were finished with it (we got a 100%, by the way. Woohoo!).

I was really excited to see our bus was a character wrapped one with The Incredibles, so I made sure to get some pictures.

We had a nice evening back at the Boardwalk, which wasn’t super picture heavy. When we got back to the villa, DS had a rest while Dad and I took April over to the pool. I didn’t actually realize until that evening that the Boardwalk didn’t have a splash pad, just a regular kiddie pool. I guess I had assumed they’d added one during the recent slide refurbishment, but I guess I was wrong. They really need one! It was kind of a bummer.

We hung out in the feature pool for a bit, but April was a little unsure about the water. We ended up over in the hot tub, where we took turns holding April out of the water and enjoying the jets. At one point, a very sweet young teenager took a liking to April and played a little ball game with her, where she would give April a ball, and April would throw it onto the water, much to everyone’s delight.

After awhile, we headed back to the room and I put April to bed. I had one important goal for that night, which I wouldn’t be able to do again for a couple of nights. I put April down for bed around 10:30, and I had just enough time to run down to the Boardwalk.

I arrived at Abracadabar with literally one minute to spare before they stopped serving alcohol. I scanned the menu code quickly and made a decision: Pepper’s Ghost!

It’s pineapple vodka with habanero lime. The bartender actually offered to make me two, but I knew my hard alcohol tolerance is really low these days so I just got the one. I was right to do so; it packed a punch and I was pretty tipsy by the time I finished the drink. I downed it and paid with cash so that I wouldn’t keep any of the staff waiting. All in all, I was in there for probably less than 10 minutes, but it felt SO nice to have some time to myself in a bar, which I hadn’t gotten in a really long time.

I wasn’t quite ready to go back up to the room, so I found a bench overlooking the water and sat for awhile. It was a beautiful, clear night. There weren’t many people out, but the few that were there were pretty much all drunk. I watched a couple walk down the Friendship boat dock and it seriously looked like they were going to fall into the water. But luckily (or unfortunately, depending on your perspective) they didn’t.

I also realized during this time that if you have a room overlooking the Boardwalk, anything you say can be heard super clearly! I had been sitting for awhile and heard a couple having a conversation, and realized after a bit that they weren’t anywhere I could see, so I knew they must be sitting on one of the nearby balconies. So be warned. You may have a great view, but if you like to hang out on your balcony later in the evening, your conversation will not be private.

I went back up to the room and had some more hummus and chips before finally going to bed.

I’d been hoping this night would be easier than the night before, but it was complicated by the fact that in some wee hour, the power went out. There had been signs in the lobby warning us that the power would be going out tonight for a few hours for some maintenance work, but of course I’d forgotten about it, and I also hadn’t realized just how hot and unbearable the room would get. I was sweating like crazy! And I felt bad for April who was obviously uncomfortable and having a hard time sleeping as well. But we got through it.

Next up, a hectic Epcot day!

We were also there the night of the rolling blackout! We woke up to the sound of the power returning. And then promptly fell back asleep lol. I’m so sorry April didn’t do so well. We didn’t even think about the heat because we were so worn out.

 

[kmsimone]

Great report and pics. Thanks.