YCFAN
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- Joined
- Oct 21, 2003
- Messages
- 2,545
Today was our last park day of our vacation and I told Evan it was time to spend a little time with his brother. This was going to be murder for him because "Barney" was on the agenda. Andrew has seen this show around four previous times but he loves it. This would be Evan's first time. We had a leisurely breakfast in the lounge and then stayed around the hotel for a little while. I did a little shopping in the Hard Rock store downstairs and walked around and renewed my familiarity with some of the displays of memorabilia. Later we loaded up the stroller and were off for our quick five minute walk to US. This is one of the best parts about staying at HRH. The walk to the parks is so convenient. We had decided to walk around Citywalk for a while first and then catch a quick lunch at Hard Rock Cafe. The teens had eaten dinner there the night before but had enjoyed it and didn't mind going back. This was a fun place and the atmosphere is always so upbeat. After lunch we headed for US and walked straight to Shrek 4-D. The regular line was awful but with FOTL it was only about an 8 minute wait. I don't know how people manage those regular lines, especially with small children. Andrew would have been screaming after a 60 minute wait. We went in and took our seats. Andrew had his own seat this year. He loves Shrek and has been dancing to the end credits of the movie since he was 1. Everybody enjoyed it and it was nice to do something together again. Then we were off to Barney. This is really a cute show and the little ones love it. I saw a few rolling eyes a couple of times from Evan but in the end he enjoyed seeing his brother watch Barney. The characters are so close to the audience and everyone participates. After the show you exit through Barney's park and this is where Andrew really becomes excited. He runs and plays and slides and inquires and has the best time all day. We eventually have to drag him out of here (it's like this every visit) thrown over Evan's shoulder with him reaching backward yelling "no, I don't want to go." After we get outside we see Scooby-Doo, Shaggy, and Crash Bandikoot. He quickly forgets about Barney and turns his attention to them. Evan suggests we walk around the park to the other side and he will watch Andrew so I can have the opportunity to ride The Mummy. (good kid) On the way we stop and all of us play hit the mole on the head game to try and win a Puss-n-Boots stuffed plushy from the new Shrek movie. We're told this is the only place in the park where you can get one. Evan wins the game and Andrew has a new character to add to his ever-growing collection. We get to the Mummy ride and Evan stays with Andrew and lets me and Kate go on the ride together. Again FOTL makes the wait only about 10 minutes. This ride is incredible. The special effects are just about the best I've seen. Disney needs to get on the ball to keep up with some of Universal's latest rides. After I ride the Mummy I take pity on Evan and tell him he and Kate can have the rest of the afternoon to do their rides again. Immediately they're off to Men in Black. Andrew and I decide we'll spend the afternoon by the pool. As we're walking out I decided I wanted to buy a Shrek beach towel I had seen earlier so I cut down the alley that I remember seeing it in. Lo and behold......there's the big oger himself. People are having their picture taken with Shrek and the line is nothing. I wheel Andrew up in the stroller and he is in awe. It's SHREK!!! and in person!! I was really surprised with this character because most people just stood beside him and they took his picture but when it was Andrew's turn Shrek bent down and was actually playing with him. Andrew was holding a Spiderman doll and Shrek took him from him and then pretended that his hand was sticking to the wall because of the spiderwebs. It was really cute and Andrew laughed a lot. Shrek was very kind to him and tickled his stomach. Then got him to slap his hand. Then Andrew and I got our picture made with him. It was a lot of fun. We headed back to the hotel and just as we were entering the cabana a storm came up and they closed the pool. The wind was so bad that it actually took part of one of the cabanas off of it's frame. The rest of the afternoon it was raining. There was a wedding going on down by the Kitchen and the bride was trying to stay out of the rain. That evening we had a reservation for dinner at Mama Della's and I was concerned about getting there without getting wet. I thought about getting the car out of valet but when I inquired about it the guy at the valet station (Mike, I think) said he'd be glad to take us over in the hotel car. Mike took us over and dropped us off right at front entrance. The Portofino Bay is a beautiful hotel and I enjoyed just walking around there for a few minutes. We headed to Mama Della's and were seated right away. This restaurant is beautiful and very relaxing. They brought bread to the table and Andrew reached for it and there went his full size water glass. "Mama" actually came over to clean it up and told him not to worry that it happens all the time. Almost without a beat being skipped everything was back to normal and we enjoyed one of the best meals of our vacation. These people know how to cook Italian food believe me!! We all had desserts and then back to the HRH. Mike came and picked us up again . We went upstairs to see what was going on in the lounge and this was movie night in the lounge. They had fresh popcorn popping and rice krispy treats with chocolate and vanilla pudding. I went to the room and inside our room they had left a box of popcorn, water, soda, and a free in-room movie coupon. The kids decided to watch Dickie Roberts on the TV and we settled down for the night. Just about that time we heard the fireworks going off and could see them perfectly from the far left window in our suite. A few minutes later Kate and I were still looking out the window and she pointed straight out from our window and asked what those fireworks were. We could see WISHES from our window!! We knew they were Wishes because of the red hearts and blue stars that were going off. I couldn't believe it. It must have been at least five miles maybe more and we could see Wishes. This was a pleasant way to finish up vacations at both WDW and US.
