Poohbr1965
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2001
- Messages
- 15
In case you missed the planning report...
Me (36) and mom (72), travelling with my friend from work and his 3 (now 2 ) friends. Three night Wonder cruise, then 6 nights at WDW. First Disney cruise for all...
Monday, May 7
Awoke at 7:00 with the usual call from Mickey. Had a good nights sleep, I guess because we weren't moving around for a change. The beds at AKL are big and comfy, and in great shape since they are so new!
We headed down to our first breakfast at Boma. Wow...what a buffet! Every kind of breakfast food imaginable, plus lots of new and different items. There were 5 or 6 different sections...pastries, carving station, made to order omelets, cereals, awesome fruit (why does fruit taste so much better on vacation?). The best thing though had to be their complimentary Frunch drink. It's a combination of lemonade, and papaya, pineapple, orange, and guava juice. Absolutely delicious! Being a diabetic, I had to limit myself to just 2 glasses, but would have loved to have more. The CMs were so friendly here too. An excellent breakfast...we'd be back later in the week...
Got the rental car and headed to the return desk at the Hilton. Stopped for gas ($10). The boys were about 2 minutes behind me, returning their car. We walked the short distance to the Marketplace. Went into the Gourmet Pantry (only store open this early), then caught the bus to the TTC. The boys headed to the Magic Kingdom ferry, and I got the EPCOT monorail. Well, it took quite awhile to come actually. In hindsight, I should have just taken a taxi from the Hilton to EPCOT. Couldn't have been more than a few bucks. I didn't get to the fountain at EPCOT where mom was waiting (since 9:15) until 10:15. I really like to get to the parks right at opening. Oh well...
It didn't matter all that much anyway, as the main thing I wanted to do here today...Test Track...was down. So we headed over to the Land, but the boat ride line said 30 minutes! I thought this was slow season. We said no way (and we didn't feel like waiting for the fastpass time) and walked right on to the Imagination ride. I'd only been on it on one other trip, so I decided to give it another try. It still sucks. Saw "Honey I Shrunk..." since it's been a few trips since we'd seen it. Still very good...
I'd never been to Disney at this time of year, so I really enjoyed the flower festival. Awesome topiaries. I took tons of pictures, and they came out very nice. Some of the gardening booths had cute stuff too. Decided to get the boat over to Germany, and then see Italy (the outside facade of which is being rehabbed...it looked sort of odd), Germany and China. Figured we'd do this half today, the rest on Friday. We had 1:00 PS for lunch in Norway, arrived a few minutes early. I love this restaurant! We usually don't do sit down lunches, but this place was the exception. The creamed spinach soup was delicious! We walked out completely stuffed, and I rode the boat ride (skipped the movie...I know, me bad...I think it's funny that they tell you you can walk right through now...like no one ever did it before they told you you could). Skipped Mexico, as I heard the Test Track cars whizzing by. I headed to the single riders line while mom walked toward the entrance.
Moms legs were already starting to swell up, which seems to happen on all our trips lately. She also gets a nasty red rash on her legs, due to heat I believe (we saw this on other people too). Last trip she did fine (but it was in December and very cold), but on the trip before we did a wheelchair everyday. We decided to play it by ear this time, and not run around as much.
I love the single riders line, cause I usually am by myself (mom rode once last trip). However, the single riders line has been discovered by many others, and now it's the "families who don't want to wait in line" line. Oh well, it was still better than the standby line, and fastpass return time was 8:00pm. I still love this ride...my third favorite (after Tower and Rock'n'Roller). Very crowded at EPCOT today...luckily this would be the only day of the trip we ran into this problem...
Got back to the Lodge a little after 3:00. It's about a 10 minute bus ride...not far at all. I headed down to the pool for about an hour. Showered and changed.
Went to the lobby to meet the boys. They showed up around 5:30. Showed them all around ther Lodge and the room, and all the savannahs. They said they really liked it too. Saw the zebras out in the back savannah (they are only on 1), and of course the giraffe were out near our balcony to say hi. Stopped in the store so the boys could get some AKL souveniers, and I got an AKL pin and key chain.
Headed to Jiko for dinner. This restaurant sort of reminds me of the California Grill. It was okay, but a little too pricey and hoity toity for my tastes. I don't think I'd do it again, but we had a nice time (we were there 2 hours). Our waiter was very nice, and suggested we try 2 of the appetizers for the whole table. When they came, I was a bit shocked...one was 2 small spring roll type things, and the other was 3 rolls. Now, none of us are what you would call really big eaters, but when the waiter suggested we split these (and they were like $8.00 each) I kind of thought there would be more. Kind of hard to give 5 people a taste! I had a nice glass of African blush wine, and the sea bass cooked in banana leaves. Not nearly as good as the sea bass at Triton's...I was dissapointed. The bread with different dipping sauces was good though, and since all my meal came with was the fish, I filled up on that. Three of us got dessert, and were all dissapointed. I had the creme brulee, and to me it tasted like regular pudding. The 2 boys desserts were so bad, they didn't even eat them. The assiatant manager came by, and we told him that while the food was good (everyone else seemed to enjoy what they had...chicken, tenderlion, salmon and monkfish), the desserts were lacking something and they needed to work on them. He seemed so surprised that we didn't think everything was "excellent", but if you ask, we'll tell you the truth! To his credit, he took all 3 desserts off the bill (and I had eaten mine...hey, I like pudding), which was still pretty substantial. Glad we had the food discount card...
The boys went to get a cab, and mom and I went to do laundry. Nice laundry rooms at the lodge. I wrote trip report notes while we washed. Stopped at Mara for our drinks and a cookie for the room. Bed by midnight.
Tomorrow...Magic Kingdom and MGM.
Lynne
Me (36) and mom (72), travelling with my friend from work and his 3 (now 2 ) friends. Three night Wonder cruise, then 6 nights at WDW. First Disney cruise for all...
Monday, May 7
Awoke at 7:00 with the usual call from Mickey. Had a good nights sleep, I guess because we weren't moving around for a change. The beds at AKL are big and comfy, and in great shape since they are so new!
We headed down to our first breakfast at Boma. Wow...what a buffet! Every kind of breakfast food imaginable, plus lots of new and different items. There were 5 or 6 different sections...pastries, carving station, made to order omelets, cereals, awesome fruit (why does fruit taste so much better on vacation?). The best thing though had to be their complimentary Frunch drink. It's a combination of lemonade, and papaya, pineapple, orange, and guava juice. Absolutely delicious! Being a diabetic, I had to limit myself to just 2 glasses, but would have loved to have more. The CMs were so friendly here too. An excellent breakfast...we'd be back later in the week...
Got the rental car and headed to the return desk at the Hilton. Stopped for gas ($10). The boys were about 2 minutes behind me, returning their car. We walked the short distance to the Marketplace. Went into the Gourmet Pantry (only store open this early), then caught the bus to the TTC. The boys headed to the Magic Kingdom ferry, and I got the EPCOT monorail. Well, it took quite awhile to come actually. In hindsight, I should have just taken a taxi from the Hilton to EPCOT. Couldn't have been more than a few bucks. I didn't get to the fountain at EPCOT where mom was waiting (since 9:15) until 10:15. I really like to get to the parks right at opening. Oh well...
It didn't matter all that much anyway, as the main thing I wanted to do here today...Test Track...was down. So we headed over to the Land, but the boat ride line said 30 minutes! I thought this was slow season. We said no way (and we didn't feel like waiting for the fastpass time) and walked right on to the Imagination ride. I'd only been on it on one other trip, so I decided to give it another try. It still sucks. Saw "Honey I Shrunk..." since it's been a few trips since we'd seen it. Still very good...
I'd never been to Disney at this time of year, so I really enjoyed the flower festival. Awesome topiaries. I took tons of pictures, and they came out very nice. Some of the gardening booths had cute stuff too. Decided to get the boat over to Germany, and then see Italy (the outside facade of which is being rehabbed...it looked sort of odd), Germany and China. Figured we'd do this half today, the rest on Friday. We had 1:00 PS for lunch in Norway, arrived a few minutes early. I love this restaurant! We usually don't do sit down lunches, but this place was the exception. The creamed spinach soup was delicious! We walked out completely stuffed, and I rode the boat ride (skipped the movie...I know, me bad...I think it's funny that they tell you you can walk right through now...like no one ever did it before they told you you could). Skipped Mexico, as I heard the Test Track cars whizzing by. I headed to the single riders line while mom walked toward the entrance.
Moms legs were already starting to swell up, which seems to happen on all our trips lately. She also gets a nasty red rash on her legs, due to heat I believe (we saw this on other people too). Last trip she did fine (but it was in December and very cold), but on the trip before we did a wheelchair everyday. We decided to play it by ear this time, and not run around as much.
I love the single riders line, cause I usually am by myself (mom rode once last trip). However, the single riders line has been discovered by many others, and now it's the "families who don't want to wait in line" line. Oh well, it was still better than the standby line, and fastpass return time was 8:00pm. I still love this ride...my third favorite (after Tower and Rock'n'Roller). Very crowded at EPCOT today...luckily this would be the only day of the trip we ran into this problem...
Got back to the Lodge a little after 3:00. It's about a 10 minute bus ride...not far at all. I headed down to the pool for about an hour. Showered and changed.
Went to the lobby to meet the boys. They showed up around 5:30. Showed them all around ther Lodge and the room, and all the savannahs. They said they really liked it too. Saw the zebras out in the back savannah (they are only on 1), and of course the giraffe were out near our balcony to say hi. Stopped in the store so the boys could get some AKL souveniers, and I got an AKL pin and key chain.
Headed to Jiko for dinner. This restaurant sort of reminds me of the California Grill. It was okay, but a little too pricey and hoity toity for my tastes. I don't think I'd do it again, but we had a nice time (we were there 2 hours). Our waiter was very nice, and suggested we try 2 of the appetizers for the whole table. When they came, I was a bit shocked...one was 2 small spring roll type things, and the other was 3 rolls. Now, none of us are what you would call really big eaters, but when the waiter suggested we split these (and they were like $8.00 each) I kind of thought there would be more. Kind of hard to give 5 people a taste! I had a nice glass of African blush wine, and the sea bass cooked in banana leaves. Not nearly as good as the sea bass at Triton's...I was dissapointed. The bread with different dipping sauces was good though, and since all my meal came with was the fish, I filled up on that. Three of us got dessert, and were all dissapointed. I had the creme brulee, and to me it tasted like regular pudding. The 2 boys desserts were so bad, they didn't even eat them. The assiatant manager came by, and we told him that while the food was good (everyone else seemed to enjoy what they had...chicken, tenderlion, salmon and monkfish), the desserts were lacking something and they needed to work on them. He seemed so surprised that we didn't think everything was "excellent", but if you ask, we'll tell you the truth! To his credit, he took all 3 desserts off the bill (and I had eaten mine...hey, I like pudding), which was still pretty substantial. Glad we had the food discount card...
The boys went to get a cab, and mom and I went to do laundry. Nice laundry rooms at the lodge. I wrote trip report notes while we washed. Stopped at Mara for our drinks and a cookie for the room. Bed by midnight.
Tomorrow...Magic Kingdom and MGM.
Lynne
