we're home :( live updates started page 2, summary on page 7

[Pegasus928]

Well done on getting Gary over his coaster fear. Now all you have to do is get him over to Universal and onto Hulk, Duelling Dragons, HRRR

Good luck with that one

 

[karentan]

hi everyone!
le cellier last night was awesome, gary had the chef special 3-course thingy, he had the spicy chicken and chipotle sausage (spicy was an understatement, it definately had a kick to it!!), the spice rubbed prime rib, then the maple creme brulee. i had the new york strip steak followed by the chocolate moose.
seriously i've never seen a bigger steak served in a restaurant in my entire life. they were HUGE!!! the breadsticks were yummy too! we stayed in epcot after dinner for a couple of hours at EMH, went to the living seas, went on nemo and saw turtle talk, then went to spaceship earth on the way back to the bus stop.

today we got up at 7.30 because its morning EMH at HS and i wanted to try get on toy story, the queues were huge yesterday and our fastpass return time was 6.55 which didnt work for us because of le cellier.
so we got to HS at about 8.15, again no probs with the buses, went on RnRC, which broke down just before we were due to get on it, this freaked gary out so we left to come back later, and were given re-entry passes which was a nice touch on disneys part. i went on ToT after that. we got a bagel from the stand near ToT, which was a huge mistake as we felt ill for the rest of the morning (we're going to the MK dessert party for "dinner" tonight so would have ended up with counter service credits left over, so decided to have the bagel for brekkie and to use up 2 credits). headed over to toy story to get the fast passes, got a few photos with some of the characters, went to little mermaid, one mans dream, and the back of the animation building for the characters, then went back to toy story. we then headed to RnRC to use our re-entry passes, and had a 1.05pm reservation at 50s prime time cafe.
this restaurant was as fun as it was last year, got a great server who made gary set the table as he asked for cherry coke and that "takes longer to make" a couple of girls were apparently being sarcastic to their waiter so he made them stand against the wall, then later made them clear their own plates and walk them to the kitchen!!
gary got the meatloaf and i got the pot roast like last year, i had a strawberry sundae for dessert, and gary got the cheesecake to go.

we headed back to the resort, garys having a sleep, i've done some laundry and had a walk around taking more photos while the washing machines were going.
off out to MK later for the dessert party, got to pack everything up tonight because this is our last night here, tomorrow we move to animal kingdom villas!!

 

[wayneg]

Glad you enjoyed Le Cellier, as I have posted a few times I was really impressed with Le Cellier, just couldn't understand why its only 1 credit but Cali Grill is 2, we by far preffered Le cellier.

I had the NY strip, doesn't look too big in pic but it filled me. Enjoy the Dessert buffet.

 

[karentan]

well we went to the MK last night, went on a couple of rides, and gary found out what i meant when i said BTMRR would be tame after going on RnRC!
went to check in for the dessert party, the staggered times didnt work at all, there was a huge queue when we got there, but it moved pretty quick. there were a lot more people in there than i thought there would be, but we didnt get an assigned table with our name on it. the queue for the buffet at first was crazy busy, but it did die down afterwards. they were very good at replenishing the buffet, they were constantly bringing more stuff out. the choc strawberries were excellent but we did feel sick afterwards!
we went up to the railing to get a view for the fireworks, it was great seeing wishes and not having the whole park banging into you all the time. although the person behind me throwing up did put a bit of a downer on it, ewww.
we decided to leave after wishes, and even with the park rapidly emptying out, the bus came within 2 mins but it filled up so we had to wait for the next one. that one came within 10 mins so still good. we sat right at the back, but still gave our seats away when a couple of small kids came on and all the other adults just looked the other way and avoided eye contact

this morning we packed up our luggage and took the (not normally long, but very long when you're dragging 4 heavy cases) long walk to the carriage house. dropped off the cases with bell services to transport them to the AKV, then went and sat in artists palate for 5 mins to try and catch our breath back, it has seemed way hotter today than the past week.
we decided to pop to HS as gary wanted to go on RnRC again, but the bus took ages to come (the only problem we've had with the buses all week) so decided to go to AK instead, i wanted to try and get gary to go on everest. eventually convinced him that the going backwards part isnt as bad as he thought, and he ended up enjoying it so much that we went back on it.
we left AK after that as we had a 1.45 crystal palace reservation, so got the bus to the TTC, then got the ferry to the MK. went to our reservation, had a nice lunch, watched the parade, then got the bus to AKL. bus took 2 mins to come and went to AKL via kidani village. there didnt seem to be any air con on the bus at the back so we were a mushy mess by the time we got to the hotel.
checked in with no prob, we're in room 5545 at the end of zebra trail. we overlook one of the people pens but so far we've seen 2 giraffes, an eland and 2 ankole cattle.
went for a swim, and we're off back out to the Mk later for EMH.

 

[karentan]

last time we were at the AKL we had a perfect view of the middle of arusha savannah. when we checked in today we were given a room right at the end of zebra trail, to my left i can see the corner of the stick-y out bit of the building and i overlook one of the people pens, was a bit disappointed at first but not any more......

i can see the hollywood studios lights,
i can hear the CMs practising the jamming jungle parade at AK,
and I CAN SEE WISHES FROM MY BALCONY!!!!!! its over the trees but it looks like its a perfect head on view of the fireworks!!
this is sooooo cool!

had pizza from mara for dinner, and about to head out to MK for extra magic hours!!

 

[Pegasus928]

Pleased to see that you are happy with your room.
And getting Gary on EE, considering that a week ago he was not too keen on coasters is a huge achievmnet on his part.

 

[torsie24]

Wow! Your room sounds awesome Karen!!

Hope you continue having a great holiday! xxx

 

[wayneg]

Gary sounds just like me 16 years ago, took some persuading to get on the rides. Now there isn't a ride in the world I won't do.

 

[karentan]

he keeps pestering me saying he wants to go back on RnRC!!! the last couple of times i lost count of how many times we went on test track because that was one of the few things he'd go on, but now at least i get to be dragged on the interesting rides!!
went to MK last night and met up with one of the couples from our cruise meet thread!
off to biergarten at epcot for lunch, then ohanas for dinner with the rest of the cruise meet people!

 

[Netty]

he keeps pestering me saying he wants to go back on RnRC!!! the last couple of times i lost count of how many times we went on test track because that was one of the few things he'd go on, but now at least i get to be dragged on the interesting rides!!
went to MK last night and met up with one of the couples from our cruise meet thread!
off to biergarten at epcot for lunch, then ohanas for dinner with the rest of the cruise meet people!

we were at magic kingdom yesterday to!!! wow it was so hot!

 

[wayneg]

we were at magic kingdom yesterday to!!! wow it was so hot!

Hope you and Ian are enjoying yourselves.

Its quiet here without you

 

[Netty]

Hope you and Ian are enjoying yourselves.

Its quiet here without you

I was going to start my own live reports thread, but i'm not on the laptop every day! been to Mannys -thanks wayne-it was great-fantastic food!took some photos of the food...
had my very first dolewhip at mk yesterday as well!
sorry to jump on your thread karen- have a great holiday!!!

 

[karentan]

nah go ahead netty! if you're in epcot tomorrow me and gary will be doing the 5.30pm divequest

we went to epcot this morning as we had a biergarten lunch booked, we got fastpasses for soarin then went for a walk round world showcase, had lunch (biergarten was dead when we got there at 12.20pm, food was ok, i booked this for gary as i know he'd like it but i didnt eat too much, as i'm not into all the spicy sausages etc, but the desserts were good).
went on soarin afterwards, then went to turtle talk. it started clouding over and raining so we decided to come back to the hotel. we're off out for dinner at ohanas later, and are just chilling in the hotel at the mo.

 

[joolz1910]

I'm really enjoying your updates, Karen. Btw, I think it's really nice that you give your seat up on the bus. I have 3 kids, so I really appreciate kind people like you. I hope you enjoy the rest of your holiday.

 

[Laurafoster]

Sounds like your having a fab time!
My mums card turned up this morning right on time as her bday is tomorrow!! Thank you so much for posting that for me!

 

[Pegasus928]

Gary sounds just like me 16 years ago, took some persuading to get on the rides. Now there isn't a ride in the world I won't do.

Does that include the ones on the top of the Stratosphere at Las Vegas. I would love to do those, and a week in Vegas to be honest, while I am still young (ish)

Keep up the reports Karen

Lovin them so far.

 

[wayneg]

Does that include the ones on the top of the Stratosphere at Las Vegas. I would love to do those, and a week in Vegas to be honest, while I am still young (ish)

Keep up the reports Karen

Lovin them so far.

We were all set to do them when we were in Vegas but ran out of time, 4 nights was not enough, needed another 2 at least. Missed everything North of Venetian, wanted to do rides ontop of Stratoshere and the Freemont experience. Next time

 

[fairytale]

Does that include the ones on the top of the Stratosphere at Las Vegas. I would love to do those, and a week in Vegas to be honest, while I am still young (ish)

Keep up the reports Karen

Lovin them so far.

Never, ever, ever again will I even look at that ride never mind ride it.

In all seriousness we past a guy on the stairs who had "lost it" completely after riding and had to be helped down by paramedics, he just could not stand up Sorry for laughing but after the event it was rather funny, it was clear at the time there was nothing seriously wrong with him, he had just simply lost the will to walk again

Still loving your reports Karen, thank you

 

[karentan]

laura, really glad the card turned up ok, i guessed at the postage a bit so i was hoping it got there ok!!

we've got sanaa for lunch and divequest today, still got the tail end of a cold but hoping its ok to dive.

we went out to MK last night to get the monorail to the poly for dinner. we had the funniest bus driver ever, halfway through i saw him put a bandana on, then he hooked a furry parrot off the rear view mirror, then we heard an announcement (an official disney one - cant believe they actually have these prerecorded) warning that theres pirates on the bus, and the driver is waving a plastic sword at us!! he did a name the parrot game - we decided on mcnugget - and a quiz, he was great. really good fun.
had a quick look in the MK shops, then got the monorail, got off at GF and bought a cute photoframe for one of our cruise meet couples who got married on saturday.
we walked to the poly via the wedding pavilion, then met up with our cruise meet tablemates for dinner.
ohanas was a lot nicer than last year, last year the meat was quite dry, and werent that impressed with it. we werent going to go back but no one could get a table for 2 so we all decided to get a table for 8 and treat it as kind of a mini pre cuise meet. were not disappointed, everything was great, we had a great table up the corner next to the windows so we got to watch wishes while the water pageant was going past!!

divequest today!!

 

[Cyrano]

Sounds like you are having a great time Karen

Would love to know what you think of Sanaa. We had to miss out on an ADR here on our last day as the timing no longer worked because of a change in the flight time