What is Pooh like? Read this trip report if you want to find out :) Updated 9/18!

[JohnEric]

It's taken a while to catch up from my long weekend, so I've just read your post here. Wow! You have such an excellent memory, I'm really glad you're getting all of this down... so thanks for this. I may have thanked you for having such a great memory already, but I forgot.

For the record, the time at Jiko was just terrific, including the stories! I don't recall who came up with the "Pooh covered in honey", so I'd say let's attribute it to your daughter. I'm a little surprised you included the incident with the air hockey... hopefully she won't read these posts for a long, long time! You'll know that she read the post if you find her staring at the computer screen like this:

I also wanted to say that for all the years and as many times as I've been to WDW, you were the first person to really get me to appreciate the phenomenal dining experiences there. I had known that there was some good food to be found there, but Jiko and CA Grill are in a much higher class. Also, your DD displayed a tremendous amount of maturity when it came to the higher-end dining experiences (tea and Jiko), and it's a great testimony to your great relationship (and planning skillz) that it was such an enjoyable experience for everyone.

I have to admit, I've never spent much time at AK, and after reading your report of the day there, I'm not much more inclined to want to spend more time there. It seems like AK is a bit like Busch Gardens Tampa, insofar as the focus appears to be on animals (duh!) and thrill rides. Maybe I'll give it another try this winter, when it's a little less hot! But I'm not very inclined to try the rides... not really my thing.

Keep up the great work! This is really tremendous and I'm having as good a time reading about the week as I did experiencing it!

 

[sand2270]

It's taken a while to catch up from my long weekend, so I've just read your post here. Wow! You have such an excellent memory, I'm really glad you're getting all of this down... so thanks for this. I may have thanked you for having such a great memory already, but I forgot.

For the record, the time at Jiko was just terrific, including the stories! I don't recall who came up with the "Pooh covered in honey", so I'd say let's attribute it to your daughter. I'm a little surprised you included the incident with the air hockey... hopefully she won't read these posts for a long, long time! You'll know that she read the post if you find her staring at the computer screen like this:

I also wanted to say that for all the years and as many times as I've been to WDW, you were the first person to really get me to appreciate the phenomenal dining experiences there. I had known that there was some good food to be found there, but Jiko and CA Grill are in a much higher class. Also, your DD displayed a tremendous amount of maturity when it came to the higher-end dining experiences (tea and Jiko), and it's a great testimony to your great relationship (and planning skillz) that it was such an enjoyable experience for everyone.

I have to admit, I've never spent much time at AK, and after reading your report of the day there, I'm not much more inclined to want to spend more time there. It seems like AK is a bit like Busch Gardens Tampa, insofar as the focus appears to be on animals (duh!) and thrill rides. Maybe I'll give it another try this winter, when it's a little less hot! But I'm not very inclined to try the rides... not really my thing.

Keep up the great work! This is really tremendous and I'm having as good a time reading about the week as I did experiencing it!

I am glad you are enjoying the recap, you were a big part of our trip and we were happy you were able to join us so often.

I have thru day 6 written...so I need to finish writing the rest before I forget all the little details . I will start posting again hopefully tonight...between work, my car trouble this week and trying to buy a house I have been too busy to do any work on this.

I didn't know if I should include the piece about the "accident" but I thought it was funny and couldn't resist. Hopefully she will never see this

Well my DD did have her restless moments when we were dining, but overall I agreed she was pretty well behaved. Your iPhone games definitely contributed to her behaving

Glad you are enjoying and please feel free to fill in details of your own that I may have forgotten!

 

[sand2270]

This update will be a little light on pictures. We were changing hotels and I accidentally packed my camera in my laptop bag which was picked up by bell services. I did get some pictures with the waterproof disposable camera we had and my cell phone.

Waking up early was so difficult, but I managed to get up and got all the bags ready for bell services while my DD slept. After bell services picked up the bags I told my DD I was going to run to the food court and get milk for her cereal. She was still barely awake so I put on Stacey again since it seemed to wake her up (she kept quoting the part where she bounces the ball "sorry mickey sorry mickey sorry mickey" everytime we walked past the cart in Epcot) and made sure her phone was on the nightstand. I grabbed her a milk and a caribou coffee for myself. When I got back to the room she was finally starting to wake up.

This was our first water park day and since they open later we weren't rushing to get out of the room. We ate some breakfast in the room and I decided to show her the back of the resort where you can see The Classics Years across the lake. It was a beautiful morning and we had a nice leisurely walk around the back of the resort.

Fuzzy pictures

We headed back to the room, got the rest of our stuff, said our final goodbyes to POP and headed to the bus area.

We were planning on going to Blizzard Beach and when we got the bus area there was a very long line. I believe it was a shared bus with AK and AK was an EMH morning. I am assuming that is why it was so crowded…even though it was around 9am and EMH was at 8am. So who knows but when I saw there was almost no line for the Typhoon Lagoon bus I decided to change plans and go there instead.

We made it for rope drop. The first thing we did was get a locker. Our plan was to focus on the rides so we could leave around 2 or 3 to check in at Beach Club. We did not have a need for any chairs. I also bought a waterproof card case I could wear around my neck so I could carry my credit card, etc. without having to go back to the locker.

The first thing we did was jump in the lazy river for a little bit, we probably went about a quarter of the way around. We went on almost all the slides. I enjoyed the water park…but it's a lot of work. Lots of stairs and climbing and you are usually carrying some type of huge flotation device. Because of my back and leg trouble we really only did stuff we were had to climb stairs once.

My DD kept wavering on the shark reef. We walked over once, grabbed gear then she immediately changed her mind and said maybe later. We came back after lunch, grabbed gear, there was a line this time so we were in line and were the next group to be admitted and she changed her mind again. She was worried I really wanted to do it and she said she would wait while I did it. But I told her I really didn't care and if she didn't want to do it then we didn't have to. She loved Crush and Gusher…going up on a water slide is pretty cool so we did that twice.

For lunch we ate at Typhoon Tilly's. I had the BBQ pork sandwich, carrot cake and a coke which was all very good. I really liked those little carrot cake pots, I had those a few times on the trip I thought they were yummy. My DD ordered the grilled cheese pretzel which took forever! I think they had just opened and they didn't have any ready yet. After about 10 minutes at the counter they told me they were still cooking and asked if we wanted something else. My DD was stuck on the grilled cheese pretzel so I said I would wait. It probably took about 15-20 minutes for us to get our order. We finally sit down to eat and guess what…DD doesn't like the grilled cheese pretzel…AHHHH! I gave her half my BBQ pork sandwich which she liked and I ate the grilled cheese pretzel which I thought was kind of good…I would have eaten that as a kid. Overall lunch was very satisfying.

We went in the surf pool a few times. The surf pool was pretty rough, I would hang onto my DD when the wave would come and we got knocked down pretty good each time. You really have no control when that wave hits you so people knock into you or you knock into them unintentionally. She started feeling more confident and asked me to let her go on her own. She insisted so I thought ok I will just stay close by. She did ok until she got knocked down by someone and scrapped her back and leg across the bottom of the pool.

We made our way over to first aid where she got her wounds cleaned and bandaged. We decided no more surf pool and that maybe it was time to go. She insisted on Crush and Gusher one more time so we did that. Since I didn't know if our room would be ready when we got to Beach Club we showered and dressed at the water park.

In case anyone is curious the showers were pretty nice. There is a privacy curtain and the shower is split into two areas…an area with a bench where you could keep your things dry and than a half wall dividing the area with the shower. There was plenty of room for both me and my DD in there to shower and to get dressed. I also noticed on the way out that there were hairdryers in the locker room.

We got on a bus for Beach Club which made me very happy. I had stayed at the Beach Club during a conference in Feb 08 and that stay was what prompted me to plan this trip. I immediately looked for Art the Greeter but he was not there that day. The wonderful Beach Club smell hit me. When we checked in the cast member noticed our file said First Visit, she spoke to my DD and gave her a first visit pin.

We started the long walk to our room…this was when I started to get nervous. I had requested a water view with a full balcony. I probably bugged my Small World Travel agent about 5 times…making sure that my requests were on the reservation. I had paid for a water view so knew I would get that but knew the full balcony was not guaranteed. When we got our room number it was on the 3rd floor and I remember the 3rd floor rooms did not have many full balconies. I wanted to be able to enjoy mornings and evenings on the balcony so as we walked to room I tried to prepare myself for disappointment.

We walked into the room and I was elated. Not only did we have an amazing view but we had a full balcony. We were right above the quiet pool, which meant we were close to the laundry and the International Gateway to Epcot. We also had a great view of the water. The room was perfect, I could not have been happier with it. We also had a towel Mickey waiting for us on the bed. The rooms have been remodeled since last year and I liked the new bedding and of course the flat screen TV. This again was an example of all the planning and worrying coming together in this wonderful trip.

Our wonderful view!

I had received a text message when we were on the bus from Typhoon Lagoon that someone at work needed one of my files. Unfortunately my bags had not been delivered yet, including my laptop bag. I promised I would get the file to him once I had my bags. We wanted to go to Downtown Disney but I wanted to dry my hair a little more first. We couldn't get the hair dryer to work so I called housekeeping. Someone came up immediately…and told me it wasn't plugged in (umm oops) and got it working…for now.

My DD knew about the Design a Tee store so that was our first stop. She designed a shirt with Eeyore that says "I am not grouchy, I am just lazy. ZZZZZZZZ"…she came up with that all on her own and thought it was very funny. We were told to come back in about half and hour to pick it up. Next was Goofy's Candy Company where she got a Mickey head rice krispie treat covered in milk chocolate, mini m and m's and white chocolate drizzle. It's in my fridge, she is still working on it. It's great that those are 1 snack credit.

We had dinner at Earl of Sandwich which I really wanted to try. That place was hopping, it was BUSY! It was so busy that the lady taking my order would not answer my questions about what counted in a counter service credit…the cashier helped me out after I ordered our sandwiches. I had a Caprese, soda and strawberry jello, my DD had a turkey and swiss, water and chocolate pudding. Mmm…I love mozzarella and tomato sandwiches and this did not disappoint. The bread was really good and the sandwich had oil, vinegar and I believe basil on it. I ate the entire thing.

I wanted to take advantage of my 10% Disney Visa discount so we went to World of Disney. We bought almost all of our gifts for people plus a bunch of things for ourselves. We picked up my DD's shirt from Design a Tee and she loved it. It came with a nice drawstring bag. She was really thrilled with the shirt and the bag.

After that it was time to head back to the hotel so I could get some laundry and work done. We walked over to the Boardwalk first so we could use up our last snack credit from our POP reservation. We got a chocolate croissant from the bakery to share for breakfast in the morning. When we got back to our room our bags were still not there. I called bell services and they had our bags and brought them up. We got all the laundry together and my DD put her suit on so she could swim while the laundry was going.

This was when I started to feel tired, thirsty and stressed out. All I really wanted to do was go to bed, but after waiting for the laundry I had to do a little work. It didn't help that I couldn’t get the internet working. I called the front desk and they needed to add charging privileges to my card…ugh seriously? I mean there is a credit card on file for the room. I just wanted to get my work done and go to bed! So we made the trek to the front desk and they added charging privileges to my card. I finally got my work done and we went to bed.

 

[sand2270]

Day 5 was supposed to be our Hollywood Studios day. The plan was to go over for the 9am opening, lunch at Sci-Fi Diner at 11am, back to hotel for swimming, and then back to Hollywood Studios and dinner at 50's Prime Time at 7pm.

However, my DD and I were wiped out! I woke her up and asked her if she wanted to go the park or sleep in, swim and go to the park later. She chose the latter. I called Disney Dining to see if I could move the Sci-Fi ADR and I was able to get it moved to our last day. I went back to sleep for a little while. We both needed the extra sleep and slept for a couple more hours. After we woke we decided to eat our croissant and were sitting on the beds with the tv on and I said "what are we doing, let's go sit on the balcony" so we sat outside, ate our breakfast and enjoyed the morning.

Let's look at that wonderful view again...

Eventually we got our suits on and headed down to Stormalong Bay. We went over the shallow sandy bottom area first. My DD's lunch at Typhoon Lagoon had come in a bucket with a shovel and she wanted to play with it. She went over to the sandy area to play while I sat in the shallow, sandy bottom area. I loved this area of the pool, it was so nice to sit on the sandy bottom and play with the sand.

My DD came over a short while later and said she couldn't really build anything with the sand since it wouldn't really clump together. We were investigating the sand a little closer since I was wondering why a sandy bottom pool didn't seem dirtier…like the ocean when the sand gets stirred up.

The "sand" is more like little, teeny, tiny clear gravel. As my daughter put it "it has more mass than normal sand"…that charter school I am sending her to seems to be working . I also did a crab imitation in the pool that made her laugh. We made our way over to the slide area and my DD went down that slide over and over again, she loves water slides and can do that all day.

We finally decided it was time for lunch. Since I had cancelled Sci-Fi I wanted to try Beaches and Cream. There was no wait and we opted to sit at the counter. I was nervous about walking in in our swimsuits and coverups but we were not the only people that came directly from the pool.

We both ordered a hamburger and chocolate shake. We probably could have gotten away with splitting my hamburger and one shake, the servings were very generous. The hamburgers and fries were very good. The shakes were a full shake glass plus the mixing cup so we ended up getting to go cups for the rest.

Ketchup Mickey my DD made...

After lunch it was up to the room to shower. We took a Friendship boat over to Hollywood Studios. Another hot day. My back and leg pain also started acting up so I decided to take half a vicoden that my doctor has prescribed to me for the trip. My DD had seen the Munchkin land pictures from my trip two weeks earlier and wanted to see that so we went to the Great Movie Ride. While waiting in line I took the other half of my vicoden because half just wasn't helping me.

We don't see many squirrels in Tucson so we took pictures whenever we saw them running around

After that we headed over to the Magic of Animation. My DD enjoys drawing so I thought she would enjoy this. After we saw the pre-show we looked at some of the Up exhibits they had. One in particular fascinated me…the sculpture of Russell. I swear my brother looked just like that when he was a kid…I couldn't stop staring at it!

We got in line to meet Doug and the older man from Up and I had a moment of irritation. We started walking through the roped off line and this kid went under the ropes and cut in front of us. The two women that were with him saw what he did so I assumed when they caught up with him they would tell him to get behind us. Oh no…they cut right in front of us . They also pretended to not understand english when I said "hey that's not ok"…well they did speak english I heard them speaking it later. The fact that I was a little high on a vicoden didn't help and my blood started boiling I couldn't believe how rude that was! If my DD did that and I witnessed it you can bet I would pull her to the back of the line.

Right when I was getting ready to say something the women behind us started asking us about my DD's pin lanyard. Her granddaughter was with her and was about my DD's age. She was so nice and friendly…we ended up chatting the whole time we were waiting in line. Thank you nice lady for keeping me from blowing my top in line with my pain drug induced fury .

My DD has recently become a fan of Pocahontas and she spotted her after we met the Up characters. We got in line and the handler said she was going away but would be right back. Stitch came out shortly to take her place and we got in line to meet him. Stitch was so funny…my DD's pen has a dangling Eeyore and he kept playing with it, then he tried to stick the pen up my DD's nose.

After we were done the handler said to us that Pocahontas was coming back out and since we tried to meet her before we did not have to get back in line she was going to let us go first. Stitch went away and Pocahontas came back out. The handler explained that we had been waiting for Pocahontas and let us go first. It was very nice of her to not only remember we wanted to meet her but to not make us get in the back of line again. I met the Incredibles, my DD was not interested in meeting them.

Ok going to finish this day up a little later...I got two DISers showing up here for the weekend!

 

[sand2270]

Sorry about the abrupt ending in my last post...I had weekend guests showing up last night, two girls from the DIS, and they were almost here. I will finish up Day 5 now.

After this we went into the Animation Studio. I have no interest in drawing, so I sat behind my DD while she learned how to draw Goofy. The studio is set up with drawing stations, but there is also a row of benches on each row so you can watch if you don't want to participate. I thought this was one of the coolest things we did on the trip. I loved the picture of Goofy my DD drew. I managed to get it home and it is all wrinkled but I am still planning on framing it.

After this we went on the Backlot Tour. I couldn’t figure out why all my pictures were fuzzy, until I remembered the meds I was on. So guess you can't totally count on auto focus .

John sent me a text while we were in the Backlot Tour that he had just arrived at the park. I asked him to check at 50's Prime Time to see if he could get added to my ADR since I forgot to do it on our way in. He sent me a text back very quickly that said as I remember correctly something about them not being able to resist his charms and they added him .

We headed over to 50's Prime Time to meet up with John. I was excited about this meal…it seemed like such a cool concept to me. I was also on the lookout for a big wooden spoon and fork similar to what my grandmother had hanging in her kitchen always. My vicoden had kicked in 100% at this point and I was a little loopy at dinner. I know I was incredibly chatty and may not have been making much sense.

I know someone who had dogs like these...

Our server was pleasant and efficient but he didn't really play with us too much. Maybe because we were so engrossed in conversation he didn't want to bother us too much…or maybe I was acting a little strange…not really sure . I had the pot roast, cherry coke and angel food cake, my DD had chicken noodle soup, chicken nuggets, fruit salad and a pirate punch with light up Tink and John had the top sirloin, iced tea and brownie sundae. John shared his brownie sundae with my DD which was very nice.

As we were walking out what did I see...

Wooden spoon and fork YAY!!

After dinner we headed over to Toy Story Mania. We stopped in the gift store outside of the ride because I had a fan that I bought in Disneyland a few years ago that is exactly like the others one they sell in the parks. The battery area would not stay closed, it kept popping open and the batteries would fall out. I showed it to them and they let me exchange it. I also considered buying a bucket of Little Green Men…but kept thinking what am I going to do with a bucket of Little Green Men .

We went on Toy Story Mania…I thought it was a very cool concept. After that we went to Star Tours. At this point that area of the park was empty…probably because it was a Fantasmic night. I mean it was deserted, it was kind of eerie. After Star Tours we decided to head back to the hotel…John drove us again…I need to remember to give him some gas money .

I am not going to bore you with anymore weird, out of focus pictures except this one from Toy Story. Next time I pop a vicoden I will remember to hand the camera off to my daughter .

 

[JDUCKY]

Loving the trip report. And just think, this time you didn't have two annoying people who would stop walking in front of you constantly! lol

 

[sand2270]

Loving the trip report. And just think, this time you didn't have two annoying people who would stop walking in front of you constantly! lol

don't be so sure...wait till the return day trip report

and thanks!

 

[sand2270]

Wednesday we had an 8am ADR for Crystal Palace. I woke up around 6:30 to get ready. My DD got her wake up call again and again I had a hard time waking her up. Again I started panicking that it would take too long for us to get there by bus so we grabbed a taxi. This was dumb of me…the taxis drop you at TTA not the park. So we still had to get the monorail. We found the character breakfast entrance and I took a picture of my DD on the almost empty main street.

Crystal Palace already had a lot of people waiting outside when we got there. We had an 8:05am ADR and got called in around 8:10. Our table had Mickey shaped confetti and ribbons on it for my DD's first visit.

Our server was great…he was incredibly attentive. We got food and the characters started stopping by. My DD and I are both Pooh fans and she in particular likes Eeyore. We have also never met Piglet. This was a great breakfast, again all the food was good, hot and fresh. My DD met all the characters, Piglet twice. Unfortunately I was at the buffet when Tigger came by so we did not get a picture but I grabbed one during the parade.

Later in the meal our server brought out a card signed by all the characters and a cupcake, again for my DD's first visit.

We did have an Amy moment during breakfast when I dumped over the small bowl I had put maple syrup in . I did my best to clean it up but our server saw what I had done and came over immediately. I said "sorry I had an accident", he laughed it off. He brought over more napkins and a towel. Then he returned with thick paper napkins that had been soaked in warm water folded up on a small plate for me to wipe my hands off. He was a great server and I left him much more than a 20% tip.

Our goal this morning was to make ToonTown rope drop to meet the fairies. We had some time before the 10am rope drop and my DD spotted the tea cups. We went on…bad idea after a big breakfast. I have never had problems on the tea cups before but I couldn't wait for the ride to stop. Ok no more tea cups after breakfast .

We made our way over to Toon Town to wait for rope drop. A few minutes before 10am the cast members came out and made it very clear to everyone that when they dropped the ropes everyone would walk not run and would stay behind the cast members. Everyone behaved and everyone headed towards the Princess and Pixie Hollow meet and greets. We got in line and there were only a few groups ahead of us.

We were finally let into the room to meet the fairies. You go down a hallway that makes it appear like you are being shrunken to fairy size. You and your group, in my case me and my daughter, were the only ones in the room with them. Tinkerbell and Rosetta were there. Score! Rosetta is my daughter's favorite!

Tinkerbell was very sassy. She wanted to know why my daughter did not have a Tinkerbell pin on her lanyard and chatted away. Rosetta was very sweet to her. We were not rushed at all. I think the whole experience from standing in line to when we left took less than 30 minutes. As we were walking out my DD said "Tinkerbell was hyper" LOL.

We spent some time shopping in the gift shop you exit into and then spent some time in ToonTown. We went through Minnie's house…

And rode on Goofy's Barnstormer…

It was very hot again so we got my DD a frozen lemonade. We decided to head back to the hotel to swim but I really wanted a Dole whip float. We decided to ride the train over to that side of the park, I could get a Dole whip float and we could leave to go swimming.

I got my dole whip…YUM and we headed out and boarded this…

Yes that is right that is an empty bus! The only empty bus we were on all week.

As we walked into the lobby Art the Greeter was there. I asked if he would take a picture with my daughter to which he happily obliged…he is such a nice man.

We changed into our suits and hit Stormalong Bay. I did try the slide once…but kept having suit issues on the way down so figured once was enough LOL.

We both got hungry and decided to try Hurricane Hanna's. That place was incredibly busy and not very fast so it took quite a while for us to order and then get our food. I ordered a chicken flatbread, coke and cookie (to give to my DD) and she got a child's hamburger. We managed to find an empty table and ate outside, in the shade by Stormalong Bay. Everything tasted good, I liked the flatbread and thought it was a nice change from a hamburger.

We finally decided it was time to head back to the room and get ready for dinner.

Continued in the next post...

 

[sand2270]

We had a 5:40pm ADR for Cinderella's Table. It also started raining when we got to Magic Kingdom. My DD was wearing her crocs with the fuzzy inserts and it was pouring. I decided I needed to get her some flip flops which would be better for getting wet. She also did not have a poncho yet.

The gift shops were crazy with everyone trying to get out of the rain. We finally found some Minnie Mouse flipflops and there were ponchos at the counter. We went into Arribas Brothers since I had a glass Donald Duck I bought years ago at Disneyland that had broken. I wanted to see if they could fix it for me. Turns out I had to go to the Downtown Disney location and talk to them there.

We looked around the store and I really really really wanted to buy these…

I settled and bought a small jeweled one. I also bought a glass monkey for my DD. Soon after this we walked outside and the rain was stopping…so we got a lot of use out of that new poncho .

We went to The Monsters Inc Laugh Floor which was a new experience (not sure what to call it not really a ride…I guess it's a show)…WE LOVED IT! That is now one of my favorites!

It was time to head over to CRT. I have to say I really was not that excited about this but my DD really wanted to do this. She wanted to see the Fairy Godmother and the mice. The menu did nothing for me and it was pricey…but I booked it anyway.

We were led into the lobby where the pictures with Cinderella were taken. My DD did her picture with Cinderella. I was kind of annoyed with how the picture came out. My DD's eyes are kind of closed. I would have thought for the price of this they would take a few pictures and pick the better one. Needless to say I really don't care for the pictures we received.

Finally we were called and led upstairs to our table. We had a nice table with a good view of the restaurant and FantasyLand.

I ordered a coke, spring roll appetizer, pasta dish, and the mocha crème brulee for dessert. I don't remember what my DD ordered, I think she ordered the pasta dish. I really enjoyed the spring roll…I thought it was very tasty and ate the whole thing.

Our server was very busy and while he wasn't rude he wasn't very friendly either. I waited tables in college and try to be understanding but he almost made me feel like we were inconveniencing him lol. I had pre-ordered a chocolate slipper dessert for my daughter…and completely forgot about it. The server reminded me and then brought it out…before we got our entrees. I thought that was kind of weird. ..I even started thinking maybe he forgot we still had entrees coming LOL.

Well he came over and said he would hold it until after our dinner and took it away. Our entrees came and well…neither of us cared for them or ate much. I really DID NOT like the pasta dish…it did not taste good at all.

The show with the Fairy Godmother and the mice was very cute. They come out and sing and dance then the mice go to each table for a photo op. They do not sign autographs…which was fine, just letting people know in case they are expecting that.

Our server brought our slipper dessert back. It was good but it was a lot of dessert since we also had our CRT desserts coming. The mocha crème brulee was not good and my DD hardly touched her ice cream since were full from the slipper. We talked about it afterwards and agreed that while it was nice to eat in the castle neither of us liked the dinner at all. I was surprised we both disliked it so much since we had been having such good luck with Disney dining.

After dinner we did rides…of course we did my DD's favorites, Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain, we also did Pirates again and some Fantasyland rides. Again the Unofficial Guide did it's job…the crowds were not too bad and did not wait long to get onto rides.

We got on the Magic Carpets…no line and we walked on as it was loading. We were going around and around and Wishes started! What a great view of Wishes from the Magic Carpets! The ride ended and we found a spot in Adventure Land to sit and had a great view of the rest of Wishes. Again…this side of the park was not crowded at all. I could not have timed it better.

My favorite part of the day? I don't remember now exactly where or when she said this but my DD told me she loved me out of the blue.

 

[sand2270]

The morning of Day 7 I woke up early and couldn't fall back asleep, so I decided to get up and enjoy the morning from the balcony. I loved sitting on the balcony enjoying the mornings. I would usually drink one of my starbucks frappucinos, snack on some donut holes and fill out my passporter.

Today we were going to Epcot to spend time in World Showcase. I was excited about this. I had only been to Epcot twice, the first time my companion (i.e. ex-boyfriend ) kind of rushed me through World Showcase and the second time was two weeks earlier and we did not spend a lot of time there. I allowed plenty of time in our schedule for us to have time to linger and check out everything at World Showcase.

I bought my DD a World Showcase passport our first day at Epcot when we were in Future World so we planned on doing the Kidcot stations. We got ready and headed out. This was our first time walking to the Epcot International Gateway. We were on the far end of the Beach Club so it was maybe a 5-minute walk. I loved this…one more reason to return to the Beach Club.

We arrived a little early so we walked around the Canada and United Kingdom pavilions while we waited for the rest of World Showcase to open. We had fun walking around the back of the United Kingdom pavilion…no one was back there and we walked through the maze.

Then we wandered over to the Canada pavilion. My DD wanted to put the stickers in her passport and we sat down so she could work

World Showcase opened and we started in France. I wanted to get something to eat at the bakery. We got an almond croissant and a plain croissant and went to the gift shop next door where there is seating available inside. MMM the croissants were yummy. We were sitting right behind the Kidcot station, my DD walked over and got her passport stamped. She wandered around the gift shop while I watched her.

She came back with a DVD of the Aristocats. She had played Toulouse in her drama clubs play of the Aristocats. We couldn't find any Toulouse merchandise, only Marie. We have many, many Disney movies but we do not have the Aristocats. I asked her if she wanted it and she said yes so I purchased it. I probably overpaid for it but oh well we were on vacation.

We spent a lot of time in the Japan pavilion. I traveled to Tokyo twice in 2007 and my daughter was very interested in seeing the Japan pavilion after seeing all my Japan pictures. We spent a lot of time in the stores here. I did a sake tasting, I developed a love of it during my trips. My DD bought some Japanese candy and a rubics cube with the Hello Kitty frog on it.

I also bought a couple of the bottled iced green teas from the little store outside since I can't find anything like them in the U.S. They are just plain iced green tea, but I got one or two a day from the vending machines in Japan and missed them. I was very excited when I found them there on my trip two weeks earlier.

We checked out the tin toys and found the Japan Kidcot station. We also picked up a mask at this station for my daughter. As one of the girls was filling out my daughter's passport the other noticed my tea. She asked me if I liked them and I explained to her that I drank them all the time in Japan and couldn't find them here. She was surprised because they are not sweetened and she said she didn't think people from the U.S. really liked them but that she liked them too. They were very friendly and I enjoyed chatting

I think I am going to run out of room so will continue in the next post...

 

[sand2270]

Day 7 continued...

We stopped and watched the band play in American Adventure.

We wandered over to Germany where I wanted a pretzel and we also got a bottled water. In all the pavilions we spent a lot of time checking out the gift shops. I bought a smurf at a computer . For two reasons, one I used to collect them when I was younger (I still have them) and two, I work at a computer all day long .

I have already promised to take my DD to Japan in the next few years. I think it was here that we also decided we wanted to go to Germany…part of it was I wanted a cuckoo clock and a beer stein…however I want to buy them in Germany .

We headed over to the Mexico pavilion which I did not get to see last time. I loved the Oaxacan wood carvings but did not purchase any. The advantage of living in Tucson, I can buy them locally for much less. It was funny seeing all the items for sale inside that I can go purchase all over the place at home. We rode the Gran Fiesta Tour which reminded me of the beginning of Pirates of the Caribbean in Disneyland…because you go past the Blue Bayou restaurant in Disneyland.

After this we decided to do Spaceship Earth again and this time I managed to get some pictures of our future…



We also stopped at the kiosk and sent the video to my email…I didn't know you could do that the first time we went on it. It started to look like rain and we decided to head back to the hotel.

After we got back to the room it started pouring.

We had decided earlier that week to see Up and John was going to join us. It was a perfect night to do that since the rain did not let up the entire night. It was really coming down and we went to the solarium to wait out the rain a little bit.

We used the solarium quite a bit when we were there. There is a large flat screen tv usually playing the Disney channel. There are also crayons and coloring pages. This was a really nice way to wait out the weather.

The rain started slowing down a bit so we made our way to the buses. John was going to meet us shortly before the movie started. My DD and I were going to get dinner and do some shopping.

We had dinner at Wolfgang Pucks Express. I wanted to try this but didn't expect to like it as much as I did. I ordered the macaroni and cheese, which came with a nice green salad, a brownie and a coke. My DD ordered the child's spaghetti and a chocolate chip cookie. The rain slowed down and we found a table outside.

Our server was really nice…he asked about my hat, I got it at the Hard Rock in Tokyo and he wanted to know if I had really been there. We thought the food was SOOO good! The macaroni and cheese and the green salad were both very yummy…I ate everything. My DD loved the spaghetti. We saved our desserts for later since we were going to get snacks at the movie. We both wanted to make a return trip to Wolfgang Pucks but never made it back while we were there.

After dinner we started to walk towards the movie theater . John had arrived and walked in our direction and we met in the middle. This was the opening day of Up I believe. We loved it…we all loved it…I felt silly stopping to see a movie on vacation…but it was raining anyway and I was so glad we did.

After the movie John drove us back to our hotel. I think I got my DD to bed and we hung out on the balcony chatting…I got a lot of use out of that balcony. Eventually I kicked John out and went to bed. It was another great day.

 

[jenjolt]

Awwww...loved your pictures of the World Showcase!!! I loved the Smurfs...how fun you found one on vacation LOL!!!!!!

Seeing Up on opening day at a rainy WDW sounds like a perfect way to end a day at Disney...good choice!!!!

 

[sand2270]

Awwww...loved your pictures of the World Showcase!!! I loved the Smurfs...how fun you found one on vacation LOL!!!!!!

Seeing Up on opening day at a rainy WDW sounds like a perfect way to end a day at Disney...good choice!!!!

Thanks!

One of the stores in the Germany pavilion had quite a bit of Smurf merchandise. I came really close to buying a little house but talked myself out if LOL.

What better place to see a Disney movie then in DisneyWorld? I was glad we saw it while we were there.

 

[JohnEric]

Thanks!

One of the stores in the Germany pavilion had quite a bit of Smurf merchandise. I came really close to buying a little house but talked myself out if LOL.

What better place to see a Disney movie then in DisneyWorld? I was glad we saw it while we were there.

I agree! It was a great movie, and the weather made for a perfect movie evening. (and it was in 3-D!!!) I got the best parking spot I've ever had at Downtown Disney, and I don't think I seriously injured anyone with my umbrella (including myself!).

I seem to remember that you had done well with your shopping that evening, too... and WP is my favorite place to eat there (love their pizzas!).

As always, great trip reporting, thanks for bringing back so many great memories!!!

 

[sand2270]

Today was our Blizzard Beach day. Again I woke up early and sat on the balcony doing my morning ritual of coffee, donut holes, filling out my passporter and enjoying the view. As was my DD's morning ritual the wake up call came and woke her up. Well…not really…usually the phone would ring with the wake up call and I would have to wake up my daughter to answer her wake up call…so a lot of good those wake up calls did her . But every night she made a point of setting up the wake up call for herself.

When we got to Blizzard Beach it was before rope drop and there was a pretty big crowd.

These pictures were taken with the waterproof disposable camera and did not come out that well...

Once it opened we used the same strategy as Typhoon Lagoon and got a locker first thing.

We did most of the slides, but we did skip Summit Plummet. We enjoyed the wave pool here…it was much less intense then the one in Typhoon Lagoon and we had a good time bobbing up and down in there.

We decided to go on the Toboggan Racers…on this one there are 8 lanes and it is considered a "race" to get to the bottom. The lifeguard got us all lined up and said "Go!"…and I couldn't go . You have to kind of lift up a little and kick yourself off and I couldn't do it…so everyone took off and I was still at the top trying to move . I finally got myself going and because I weigh more than my DD I still ended up beating her to the bottom. I whipped right by her because she is so light she stopped about 3/4 of the way down! She finally got herself all the way down and she was laughing that I raced by her.

For lunch we ate at Lottawatta Lodge. I got a pepperoni pizza, carrot cake and a coke, my DD got a cheese pizza, fries and a water. My DD wanted pepperoni and they did not have a child's pepperoni. Since the adult size pizza is about twice the size of a child's pizza, she ate half of mine and I ate half of mine and her cheese pizza.

We had seen the temporary tattoo stand and had talked about doing that, so we went over and had them done. I got the Little Green Man (big surprise) and my DD got Eeyore. These lasted a long time…I think mine lasted more then a week after I got home (I remember because people at work kept asking me if I got a tattoo LOL).

After we got our tats we rode the chairlift up to the Teamboat Springs Family Raft

We went down the slide with another family. Fun ride! My DD then wanted to go to the Ski Patrol Training area for pre-teens. She really liked doing the iceberg rope where you use a rope ladder above you to move from floating iceberg to floating iceberg.

She did this a couple times and said she wanted to do the T-Bar. We stood there and watched kids doing this…it was funny watching the kids when the T-bar hit the end and the kids fell in the water. After watching she decided she didn't want to do it, so she did one of the smaller slides.

She wanted to do the iceberg walk again and we went back to that area. I got in the water so I could watch her and take pictures. I was also watching the lifeguard…not sure why…but I noticed he walked away. Around the same time it was my daughter's turn to go…well she lost her footing, fell and hit her head on the foam iceberg thing. I was close enough that I got over there fast and grabbed her. Once she popped up out of the water she was crying…hard! Thank goodness I was there since the lifeguard had walked off. I looked over at him, once he saw I had her he didn't come over…which was kind of weird I mean wouldn't you check to make sure she was ok? I don't know I guess they see kids fall all the time.

I got her calmed down and she told me what happened. The boy behind her was rushing her… the lifeguards usually tell the kids when to go but when he walked off there was no one there telling them when to go. She got nervous when the boy was rushing her and that was when she lost her footing. She was pretty upset and said her head hurt. I told her we would go to first aid and get her checked out. As we were walking over I tried to make her laugh by saying "Two water parks…two visits to first aid!".

We found the first aid station and the nurse on duty was great. She checked my daughter for a concussion, gave her an icepack and gave me instructions on what to watch for since she had hit her head. My DD seemed fine, she was just upset so after the nurse gave her the ok we left.

She didn’t want to leave but she wasn't ready to get back in the water yet so we stopped and got some mini donuts with chocolate sauce. This seemed to cheer her up a little bit. After that she said she wanted to go back in the wave pool. We headed back in and after awhile I noticed that it was getting very cloudy. I told my DD that I thought it was going to start raining soon and I thought the smart thing to do is to leave now before they close the park and people are rushing to get out.

We got to the locker and were getting our things out when they started blowing whistles telling people to get out of the water. Then it started raining…not raining…pouring….and we did not have our ponchos with us. I mean I guess we were in our bathing suits and had been in the water all day…so what was the big deal right? We ran out and headed to the bus stand for Beach Club…which turned out to be the last one. By the time we got there we were soaked! Our towels, my hoodie, my bag…everything. Buses were showing up for everything but our stand…by the time one finally showed up the rain had slowed down.

We were all a sight getting on that bus, I believe it was shared with Animal Kingdom. Not sure how all those people felt about all of us rained soaked waterpark people crowding in next to them . When we got to the lobby of the hotel the cast members were handing out towels which we happily took from them.

I will finish the day in the next post...

 

[sand2270]

After we got back to the hotel we got ourselves showered and cleaned up. The rain stopped and we headed over to Epcot.

Checking for alligators...

We had a dinner ADR for Biergarten and John was going to meet us for dinner.

My DD wanted to do Kim Possible…we went to the station between the United Kingdom and France and got our mission return time. To pass the time until our mission we watched the performers in France…

And I got a Grey goose lemon slushie…mmm…loved these…I finally got to try some drinks in Epcot this day...

We walked over to Morocco and I got my DD some baklava. Her teacher is Turkish and brought homemade baklava to the class frequently. My daughter loved it and I wanted to make sure she got some in Epcot. I had a bite…it was really good!

We went back to the Kim Possible station, checked in and got our Kimmunicator. Our mission took place in France. This was a lot of fun! You get clues on the Kimmunicator that lead you around the country your mission is in. You can keep the Kimmunicator and return for another mission or drop it in the drop box the Kimmunicator leads you to. We decided to do only one mission today.

My DD had a few more countries to fill in on her passport and her Kidcot mask. We went back to the Mitsukoshi store in Japan to get more Japanese candy and I got another bottled green tea.

Next stop was Italy…

Germany…

China where we bought a few things in the shop…

Kim Possible mission we saw someone else doing...

It was getting close to our ADR time so we headed back towards Biergarten to meet up with John.

I loved Biergarten!! Absolutely loved it. The first reason was when we walked in the first thing I said was "oh my gosh this smells like my grandmothers kitchen!!". It did…smelled just like her kitchen when she made pot roast.

We sat with a nice family…mom, dad, their two kids and one of their mother's. We all chatted through dinner and hooked arms during one of the songs. I thought the food was great…the sauerbraten…just like my grandmother's pot roast…reason number 2 why I liked the place. My DD wasn't feeling the love and she ate almost close to nothing. I enjoyed the pretzel bread, warm potato salad, and I really enjoyed the rote gruetze with vanilla sauce (I got this from the online menus)…it was a dessert with berries and the vanilla sauce…so yummy.

Reason number 3…well the beer of course! John and I each ordered a beer flight…gotta have beer in Germany!

Reason number 4…I really enjoyed the band…they were very good and a lot of fun to sing along with. They asked people to come down and dance at one point and my daughter and I decided to go. We…well we attempted to do the polka LOL. John joined us for the chicken dance which my DD had never done before. The 3 of us had a great time dancing!

Reason number 5…the atmosphere…so overall I really enjoyed this restaurant and it is on my list of places to do again.

The band mentioned you could buy the CD and I decided I wanted it. It took a little bit of searching…I think John finally went and asked someone where to find it. Thank you John…I was being impatient and was going to let it go but he went and asked for me.

This was going to be the night we saw Illuminations so we started scoping out a spot. My DD was being a little difficult about seating and she and I had a little spat…which John had to witness. I don't know if he wanted to just get away from us or not but he told us to wait and he would go find someplace to sit and call me…don't you love cell phones!!

John called and said he found a place between France and United Kingdom so we headed over. Once we got there I knew I wanted another slushie. John wanted one also and he watched my daughter while I went and got our drinks. This time I tried the Grand Marnier slushie, John got a Grey Goose one. I liked both, but think I prefer the lemon one and I have been trying to recreate them at home .

After Illuminations we walked back to the hotel and ended another great day!

 

[JDUCKY]

Awesome update!

 

[sand2270]

Awesome update!

Thanks!

 

[sand2270]

Day 9 was supposed to be a mellow day. The plan was to spend time at the hotel swimming, checking out the Boardwalk and going on the sea raycers. The weather however did not get my memo about us wanting to swim . Next time I will try to be more flexible and take advantage of the sunny days at the pool.

This morning we were going to have breakfast at Cape May Café at 8:40am. I mean why wouldn't we do the character breakfast in the hotel we were staying in? Well my daughter had a different idea…she did not want to get up. She wanted to sleep and said we already met these characters at Chef Mickey's. Eventually I coaxed her out of bed…I may have bribed her with a promise of buying her something in the gift shop…

Don't judge me!! I really wanted breakfast!!

I think I bribed her one other time on the trip…btw this is not normal for us…but we were on vacation and it was easier in those two situations for me to just get my way DARNIT by promising her a little trinket…I think I told her I would buy her a new pin for her lanyard. But it is not a normal practice and she knew once we were home that was not going to happen LOL.

So I got her up, we got ready and she pouted all the way to the lobby.

Children's seating area in Beach Club lobby...

Beach Club lobby

We get seated and I ordered a mimosa…it was that kind of morning. And who comes over to visit but Donald in his beach gear…and what 9-year-old pouty kid suddenly perks up? You guessed it! Donald walked off and my DD said to me, "You didn’t tell me they were in beach clothes!"…wow…well I really didn't realize that would be the selling point so lesson learned for mommy.

Mickey bagel...one of the few things she ate...

This was a great character meal. It seemed a bit more relaxed than some of the others we had done. Again all the food was good. Minnie and Goofy also came over for pictures.

Minnie was great with my daughter...

Goofy disappeared right before he got to our table and the character handler came over to tell me he would be right out. He and I got into a discussion about something…for the life of me I cannot remember what it was about…but he crouched down and was talking to me very intently. While he was doing this Donald came back, sat down next to my DD, crossed his legs, put his beak on his…wing…and listened very intently to what the cast member was saying to me.

The cast member did not notice it and both my DD and I were cracking up . Finally he looked over and saw why we were laughing. It was a great character moment!

My DD's temp tattoo...

All of the cast members were great here…very friendly! I definitely recommend this breakfast. We headed to the gift shop after breakfast so my DD could collect on my bribe. I forgot to mention that we had been looking for a Pocahontas pin all week and could not find one. We looked in every gift shop we were in, World of Disney and the pin store in Downtown Disney…no luck. We had also looked in the Beach Club gift shop…so not sure if they restocked but they had a Pocahontas pin. We were excited to find it and my DD picked out that and a Mickey Kooky pen to match the Little Green Man she bought me earlier in the week (I'll tell that story later since I forgot about it). Of course after that we saw the Pocahontas pin everywhere.

The plan after breakfast was to do the sea raycers. We walked over and found out they did not open until 11am so we went for a walk on the Boardwalk. I was keeping an eye on the weather. It looked like clouds were rolling in and I knew if it got worse they would not let us out on the water.

We had a really nice walk on the Boardwalk. A mom and her two kids approached us on a surrey bike and asked if I would take their picture. I asked her if the bikes were hard to peddle because my daughter kept asking about them. She said they were and because of my back and leg trouble I told my DD that was one activity we were going to have to skip (knowing full well I would have to do most of the work ).

We decided to check out the Boardwalk lobby and I wanted to see if we could check out the pool. I had no idea how to get to it so we started walking down hallways…and managed to get lost a few times before I gave up…oh well.

We walked back to the sea raycers and I gave her the coupon that came with my package, 30 free minutes with paid 60 minutes. We got our life jackets and instructions and headed out. We went in the direction of Hollywood Studios and we passed the Swan and Dolphin…

Friendship boat...

Backside of Boardwalk pool…at least we got to see some of it …

I hit my picture limit so I will continue in the next post...

 

[jenjolt]

What a great morning it looks like you guys had!!! Cape May's breakfast and the characters looks like a lot of fun!!!! Got to love it when the characters are dressed up differently LOL!!! Love the picture of your DD with Minnie too cute!!!!

Can't wait to hear more about your day at the resort!