Memories Earned & Lessons Learned - COMPLETED

[bee86]

Really Really enjoying your TR

And Oh my GOODNESS.......not flying home.......a Disney cruise

Just WOW Cant wait for the next instalment

 

[queendisney]

wow..lovely surprise

what cheeky people taking your reservation...must remember that one

 

[Linda67]

Oh wow what a wonderful surprise - I think I would have fainted

 

[April2012]

Really Really enjoying your TR

And Oh my GOODNESS.......not flying home.......a Disney cruise

Just WOW Cant wait for the next instalment

Ta very much!! I know, I couldn't believe it

wow..lovely surprise

what cheeky people taking your reservation...must remember that one

I know, the cheeky 'bleeps' We actually saw them in there eating at our table. I couldn't help but give them the evil eye

Oh wow what a wonderful surprise - I think I would have fainted

I'm just wondering how he's ever going to top this one

 

[April2012]

Day 12 – Walmart & Back To Magic Kingdom – Thursday 26th April 2012

Got up about 7.30am this morning and decided to use the washing machine to try and wash most of the clothes we had worn so they would all be clean for the cruise.
As we had seemed to acquire quite a lot of soft toys on this trip (kade had wanted one of each character!!) we were starting to wonder how on earth we were going to everything home, so decided we would take another spin out to Walmart to see if we could buy another cheap suitcase to take all our goodies home in.

All the little fella's we'd acquired.

The store seemed quite quiet again but I guess it’s so darn big that it would take a lot of people for it to feel busy!
Anyhow, we wandered round and found ourselves a suitcase for $29.00 that would do the job nicely.
We were missing a Donald toy so we got one from here even though the quality of them are not a patch on the ones in Disney. Still you get what you pay for I guess.
I spotted a cute Tinkerbell t-shirt that I bought and Kade a Disney t-shirt.
Once we were done we headed back before making our way up to the Artist’s Pallate for some lunch.
I had a Toga Wrap with crisps. Marcus had a Cheese, Ham & Chicken Panini and Kade had Mac’n’Cheese. For afters I had chocolate cake then dare I say it? Marcus had Cheesecake! I swear at the end of this report I’m going to go back and count just how many he ate

Tummies full we went out to catch a bus back to the Magic Kingdom as we had an ADR at the ’Liberty Tree Tavern’ later on.

It was super hot when we arrived so we kept trying to keep in the shade and duck in and out of the shops as often as possible. The air con in the shops are a total life saver aren’t they?

Think this pic was taken on a different day as the grounds wet but it definitely wasn't today!!

It was very busy today and the queues for everything seemed heavier than we’d been used to so far.
We were close by to the Buzz Lightyear ride again so we picked up some fast passes before getting on the People mover again that Kade seemed to like.
Now as you might remember I mentioned on a previous day that Kade’s favorite ride/show was the Carousel Of Progress and he was still going on about it so much.

So once off the PM we got in the queue for this and spent the next 20mins watching the animatronics show. By now he already knew the song so proceeded to sing it at the top of his lungs every time they sang

Now his second fave ride was Splash Mountain so we headed on down there for a look at the wait time but it was 55mins so we got some FP’s again and came back up to use our Buzz Lightyear FP’s.
Of course I took the victory again and had to listen to Marc protesting that his gun was faulty! Yeah, yeah whatever!!

Next we found Peter Pan, which we hadn’t yet been on so we got in the queue which was about 10/15mins and really quite enjoyed it.

Opposite was ‘It’s a small world’ so we got in the queue for this and waited a good 20mins then didn’t realize it was quite a long(ish) ride so by the time we were done we’d missed our time slot for the Splash Mountain FP’s.

We wandered slowly down to SM to collect some more FP’s as the queue was still huge, then took a slow walk to our restaurant before taking a quick go on POC again!

Once we got to the ‘Liberty Tree Tavern’ we waited to be seated and were introduced to our waitress who didn’t seem to offer the usual happy smiley service we were getting so used to. Still, it was sometimes easy to forget that they do this every day and would be impossible not to have off days every now and again I’m sure.
So for anyone who hasn’t eaten here before, the restaurant is quite small inside and we were a little more than taken aback when we were handed a menu with no choices on at all. It was literally a set meal of 3-courses.

I asked the waitress if there were any other choices but she said no and gave us the option to go elsewhere which we considered briefly before deciding to stay and in the end we were sure glad we did as the dessert was the BEST dessert we had eaten all holiday. Johnny Appleseeds Cake. Simply Divine!!

Stopped to watch these dancing on the way. God knows how they do it in those costumes in that heat!!!!

After this we went back down to Splash Mountain and with the boys best efforts to convince me to go on with them, I declined and waited for them near the bridge.

Once done here we started to head out to the exit but spotted a queue for Tangled who Kady really wanted meet but we were too late so we thought we would try again next time which would be our last time!!

It was still very busy and warm as we headed home and the evening was just beautiful.

 

[strawberry blonde]

I've just read your report in one go and I feel shattered just reading it You certainly fit everything in

Had to laugh at the amount of cheesecake your DH managed to put away. No doubt there's more to come

Really enjoying your report as I'm sat here cold in 'sunny' Bournemouth. This is meant to be Summer!!

Can't wait for the cruise

 

[April2012]

I've just read your report in one go and I feel shattered just reading it You certainly fit everything in

Had to laugh at the amount of cheesecake your DH managed to put away. No doubt there's more to come

Really enjoying your report as I'm sat here cold in 'sunny' Bournemouth. This is meant to be Summer!!

Can't wait for the cruise

Ha! Yeah I know, and we actually thought we missed loads out too

Summer, pah! I keep trying to convince hubby we need to move to warmer climes but not succeeding just yet. Guess we'll have to settle for more hols then

 

[April2012]

Day 13 – Animal Kingdom – Friday 27th April 2012

Another super hot day today!!
Once we got up we set off to catch the bus for Animal Kingdom again arriving there at around 8.50am.
It was very busy this morning.

We decided to start off by making our way to Asia to the Kali Rapids as we’d not done that one yet.

On the way to rapids

Luckily as the park had just opened the ride was pretty empty so we managed to walk straight on it and get a boat thingy to ourselves.
I wanted to take pic’s whilst we were on the ride but Marc said the camera would get too wet so I didn’t L What I didn’t realise was even if I had a waterproof one I couldn’t have taken any pic’s as I was far too busy screeching and covering my head most of the way round

I ended up coming off the best out of the three of us I think. Just a bit of a wet bottom really but Kade and Marc were quite wet.

On the way off we paused by the bridge to watch some others go by and spotted a button that you can press to send a massive spray of water so Kade couldn't resist. Mwaahaahaa!!

Unsuspecting!!

Shoot!!!

Next we had a walk through the Maharajah jungle trek to look at the animals.
It was fairly quiet in here too and there were cm’s dotted around at various points telling you about the animals along the way so we got to chat to most of them on the way round.

A tiger paw print.

Once we were done here we stopped by the Harambe Safari to pick up some fast passes then went on down to Camp Mickey so Kade could get his daily fix of Character meets!

Luckily the queues weren’t too long apart from Mickey & Minnie’s. We got shots with all of them in the end. Goofy, Donald, Mickey, Minnie, Mr Rabbit & Moko the Raccoon with Pocahontas.

By now our fast passes for the safari were ready so we went there and got in the queue.

We enjoyed it again just as much as the first time although we thought our driver was slightly better the first time.

Once we finished this we were all feeling a bit peckish so decided to get some lunch. It turned into one of those timeswhere you don’t know where to pick and we kept passing places until I spotted a van/shack and said right lets just get some chicken wings from here. This meal probably went down as the worst one yet! I thought they would be proper chicken wings but they were more like luke warm nuggets in a sauce served with nothing else. Not the best choice but one unsatisfactory out of all the meals we had weren’t bad!

Waiting for lunch!

What made it worse was we passed one of the ‘Turkey Leg’ stalls later that we had been saying we wanted to try all holiday but never got round to it!! Those things smelled amazing!!

Continued....

 

[April2012]

.....Cont

Next up we came to Dinosaur land and briefly checked out the dinosaur ride but decided against it.

Kade really wanted to go on the ‘Primeval Whirl’ but thankfully he was too small (didn’t fancy seeing the chicken nuggets again!) so he settled for the Triceratops spin ride with daddy.

As we were wandering round, Kade spotted a stall where you had to roll a ball to sit in any colored hole to win a prize, so we stopped by and watched some people for a bit.
A lady had a go and won a small bat then came up to Kade and gave it to him, which I thought was very sweet.

Kade then decided he wanted to try so we let him and he ended up winning a medium prize so came away with a blue dinosaur type thingy too.

The sun was really hot still at this time so we thought we’d start to make our way back home.

Once back we didn’t really do much apart from sit outside on the patio….oh and iron all our stuff ready for the cruise.

4pm came and we got ourselves ready to go out to catch the boat to DTD as our ADR was to be at Planet Hollywood.

On arrival we made our way up the steps and right at the top was a guy with a big paparazzi camera taking posed pictures of the guests as they arrived.
When it was our turn he gave Kade a pretend Oscar to hold and snapped away

When we got in our waitress showed us to our table but it was slap bang in the middle of a busy walkway.
I took Kade to the loo and when I returned Marcus said he’d asked them if we could be moved to a slightly quieter spot, which they very kindly obliged with no worries.
They moved us further back to a much better table and we were pleased.

We ordered Bruschetta and some cheesy things for starter then I had Garlic shrimp with noodles. This was really yummy!

Marcus had a Celebrity burger & fries and Kade had Spaghetti & meatballs.

During our meal they tried to sell us the pictures they had taken outside but we politely declined.
Desserts were Key lime pie for me, a smoothie for Kade and yep, there it is again, a cheesecake for Marc!

After the meal I needed to pop to the toilet and when I went in there was a lady sat there by the sinks. I smiled to her as I went in the loo then when I came out she picked up the soap dispenser and offered me soap which I thought ‘Oh, ok, that’s nice of her’, then she put the tap on for me and was waiting to hand me paper towels.
It was only then I noticed her pot with cash in, obviously waiting for a tip!
It was then I felt a bit flustered, as I had absolutely nothing on me.
I’m not sure she spoke any English as she didn’t speak at all, just kept smiling at me.
I made a kind of awkward gesture about not having any money and slipped out hurriedly making my way back to our table.
I wouldn’t have minded giving a bit of change had I had some but even so it made me feel a bit cross as your hardly going to say ‘no thanks I’ll do it’
Anyway, apart from that the PH experience was all good and the food lovely.

The rest of the evening was spent at home enjoying a glass or two of wine before retiring to bed.

 

[Linda67]

Another great day

Looks like you all got away lightly on Kali River Rapids, we usually come off it looking like we just dived right off the side of the raft

 

[chocolateMinnie]

lovely family, fantastic trip report and amazing surprise. Thanks for posting :

 

[April2012]

Another great day

Looks like you all got away lightly on Kali River Rapids, we usually come off it looking like we just dived right off the side of the raft

Yeah I had a feeling we had come off lightly lol. I think it might have been as there were only us three in the thing maybe?

x

lovely family, fantastic trip report and amazing surprise. Thanks for posting :

What a lovely thing to say, thank you! :good vibes

 

[April2012]

Day 14 – Our Last Day At Disney! – Saturday 28th April 2012

Had a lazy morning this morning. Marcus did the usual of bringing back breakfast then went to return the car we’d hired.
In hindsight we probably could have done without the car as we’d used it less than half a dozen times and the transport system was far better then we were ever expecting.
I had a custard pastry and strawberry yogurt then started to sort a few things out to pack.
Once Marcus got back he took Kade out to the pool for the last time before returning about 11am.

Our final ADR was to be at the Royal Table but as it wasn’t until 2.15pm we decided to go and get a small bite to eat from AP.
Kade got a small Mac’n’Cheese with carrots while Marc had a Buffalo Chicken Flatbread. I decided to pass on this, as I wanted to be hungry enough for the Royal Table.
We wasted a bit of time until it was time to catch our last bus the the Magic Kingdom.
It was very hot again today although there was quite a bit of cloud.
When we arrived at MK, Marcus went on ahead to get some fast passes for Splash Mountain again as Kade was determined to drag me on it before we left!
Kade & I wandered around the shops. We’d hoped to get in the queue for Tangled but the queue was a bit too long again.

It felt really hot so we made our way towards the Castle and waited for Marc under some shelter.
When he arrived we headed up to the entrance. It was extremely busy at check in with people everywhere!
We checked in the stood to the side and waited amidst the bedlam! I overheard people coming to the desk asking if they had any free tables then looking very surprised when they said it had been booked for weeks!

Once we got in we joined a short queue for a picture with Cinderella herself

We then waited for our names to be called. Each family was referred to as “Royal family (surname)”

Surprisingly we didn’t have to long to wait before we were called and shown to the top of the Castle via a winding staircase.
It was cool to be right at the top of THE castle.
We were seated at our table and there was a wishing star on the table in Kade’s place.

We ordered our drinks (Apple juice, coffee and pink lemonade) and then the waiter returned with a toy sword for Kade, which he was pleased with.

We actually decided to skip a starter and just went straight onto main. I had Tuna Nicoise, Marcus, pulled pork on spoon bread and Kade, roast chicken with broccoli and rice.

Just after our meals were served the first princess came out. It was Snow White and she made her way round the hall for the meets & greets.
It turned out she was Kade’s favorite and he actually blushed when he met her and went all doey eyed

Next out was Sleeping Beauty, then Arial, the last but not least Belle.

They were all really lovely and I think Kade was a little smitten with them all.
For desert Marc & I had Almond Cake and Kade an Ice cream Sundae, which were all very nice.

It even looks like Cheesecake even though it wasn't!!

Lastly the princesses did a make a wish ceremony for everyone to make wishes.

Look at the poor girl I captured in the background! I often wonder how many embarrassing poses I'm in lurking in other people's pictures!!

We wasn’t too sure what to expect here as had read a couple of unfavorable reviews before we came but it was all really nice and even though they are so busy, all went smoothly.

Once we’d done we left and made our way down to Kady’s favorite attraction, the Carousel Of Progress again for his last go before stopping along the way at a shop and buying yet another Disney picture frame.

After COP, it was time for my go on Splash Mountain using the Fast passes. The normal queue was huge, about a 95min wait but we were in and on the ride within 5-10mins.
We were first in the queue for the next boat and the cm directed us to the back but as I am a total chicken, I asked if we could go somewhere in the middle
I was a tad nervous on the way round as I was just thinking about the drop all the time but once we plunged down, I loved it although I bet my face was a picture! We didn’t really get too wet either.
All was great I thought until just at the end of the ride as we were coming to dock back in, it broke down!!!
All I could think was thank god we aren’t stuck inside or near the drop
We all had to sit and wait but by 20mins later people were starting to get restless and 1 family in the boat behind us decided to squeeze out of their seats and leave ignoring the cm’s pleas to stay seated.
We were starting to get a bit annoyed by this time too as we were parallel with the gates and all they needed to do was release the bars but health & safety issues and all that I guess?
I did feel a bit sorry for the cm’s though as they all looked very flustered and in the end admitted defeat and had to close the ride so everyone who had been queuing for the last 95mins who were meant to be up next, all had to leave. Gutted I’ll bet!!!
They finally released the bars manually and we were free again! A lot of disgruntled passengers made their way out and collected some fast passes that they were handing out by the way of a small gesture of compensation.
The fast passes entitled you to go on any ride at any time and was valid for the next 3 days but as the whole thing had taken so long, time was ticking on and we thought we’d better leave so as not to be late for our last meal at the Turf bar & Grill.

We made our way out to catch the bus and the first family of three I saw, I approached them and gave them our fast passes. Better someone make use of them than not at all!

Once back we did a little more packing then went out up to the Turf Bar & Grill for our last evening meal in Disney.
I ordered the minted lamb chops again as they are just gorgeous and a chocolate torte to go.
Marcus had lamb chops followed by fruit crumble and ice cream. Kade had a hotdog with an ice cream sundae for afters.

We said our goodbyes, and went home retiring to bed excited for our cruise day tomorrow.

 

[Linda67]

Aww well done you for giving another family your fast passes - a great bit of pixie dust

 

[April2012]

Aww well done you for giving another family your fast passes - a great bit of pixie dust

Thank you Linda :good vibes

I have just seen how many TR's you've done then I did a stupid thing and started to read one......well you had to drag me away as Kade wanted putting to bed, the cat wanted feeding and Marcus wanted a brew

As soon as I've done writing mine and get a bit of spare time back, I'm going to read the whole of them. Yay

 

[April2012]

Day 15 – Cruise Day & Leaving Disney – Sunday 29th April 2012


There wasn’t much to do this morning apart from pack up the rest of our belongings and make sure we were leaving everything clean & tidy.
We still had a refrigerator full of juices, some beer etc so when we left a tip for mouse keeping, I put a little note with it in the hope they might be able to take it home. It seemed such a waste to throw it away!!

The bellboy came a little too early to collect our luggage as I wasn’t ready yet but he was happy to give us an extra 30mins till he returned.
Once we were all packed up and done we finally left our room for the last time at 9.20am. Goodbye….sniff, sniff!

We decided we would take a walk to Downtown Disney and pick up some sandwiches from Earl Of Sandwich as we hadn’t been there yet. We stopped on the way to browse in the shops and Kade had a go on a Train-go-round type ride.

EOS was fairly busy when we arrived. We got two Swiss’n’ham sandwiches and a Brownie & Cookie the headed back to catch the boat.
Once we arrived back we stopped by at Artist’s Pallate and bought Kade some Mac’n’Cheese and a couple of sandwiches in an effort to use up some of the leftover meal vouchers.
I think we ended up getting it down to 5 left over in the end.
We finished up using our remaining snack credits by buying some candies then went to wait in the lobby for our cruise coach!
There were four other families/couples waiting to board the coach too and we were all gathered together before going to queue outside.

The coach finally arrived about 12.35pm and we all got on ready to set off for port.

We passed the time by watching the video’s they played on the small screens. The journey took about an hour and 10minsbefore we caught the first glimpse of the Disney Dream!! It looked HUGE!!!!!
It was soooo exciting to see it and I could hardly wait to get off the coach and onto the ship.

Check in was fairly straightforward with the usual security process but thankfully didn’t take too long before we were boarding.
As we approached the entrance of the boat we were so surprised with the greeting you got as they announced each family’s name before applauding to welcome you aboard! :good vibes

The ship was just AMAZING! I just couldn’t believe it was a ship really.

We thought we’d go up to our room first before having an explore around.
Our luggage was already outside our door when we got there.
The room was fantastic and although it was small we were very pleasantly surprised at how much storage space you got!

We got settled into the room and I unpacked and put our things away as it was announced an emergency drill practice would take place at 4pm so we thought we’d hang around here before going down for that.
At 4pm on the dot, the alarms went to signal the drill so we made our way down with hundreds of others to our assembly point.
This done we headed off for a look around before making our way to the top deck.
A few drinks were in order to celebrate so Marcus ordered a gin & tonic for me, a beer for him and an apple juice for Kade.
We kicked back and relaxed for a bit taking it all in and watching the crowds start to build ready for the show on the deck below.

After getting another drink we made our way down to join the party. All the characters came out on stage and danced with a big celebration countdown when we were ready to set sail.

Once we’d set off we went for a look around before popping to guest services to see if there was any chance of changing our dinner reservation time as we were down for the later times of 8.15pm and with Kade, we felt it was a bit too late for him. They said we would need to speak to our head server this evening to see if they could change it for us.

After this we went down to the theatre to watch ‘The Golden Mickey’s’ show as that was about to start.

Once we were seated and waiting for the show, two cm’s approached us and asked if Kade would like to participate in tonight’s show as 1 of the seven dwarves!!! Of course he agreed straight away and when the show began, one of the cm’s came up and motioned for Kade to go and join them and six other little ones that had been chosen.
I was so proud when when Snow White came out holding Kade’s hand with the others in tow and they all paraded round the stage wearing false beards
When they were done he came running back up the aisle to join us and got some high fives from the people sat close to us
Now I am kicking myself as we only got a video of this and no pic's and as I don't know how to put a video up I can't show you.....sorry!

After the show we headed to get a pic with the mouse and his mrs then made our way slowly to Dinner which was being held in Animators Palate.

We were introduced to our servers and shown to a table for 6. It was then we realised we were to be seated with another family (again) which included mum, dad and a little girl a similar age to Kade from Atlanta. Luckily I was feeling a lot better than the last time this happened and we were all happy to chat away.
I skipped starter and had Black Cod on a Corn Mash with Almond cake to go.
Marcus ordered Ravioli to start followed by 3 way veal for main and a Sweet Goodness for dessert. Kade had Cod & fries with peas but didn’t eat too much.
During the meal, our head server came over and said he would try his very best to rearrange our time to the earlier slots for the rest of our stay.

The meal and service was faultless although it was a little overshadowed as Kade got very tired and a bit grumpy because it was way past his bedtime at 9.45pm and had been a long day for him.

After our meal we made our way back up to the room at about 10.30pm. Kade had his bunk bed all made up for him which he was excited about and I think he’d actually got himself a little overtired by this point as then he couldn’t sleep and was bouncing around like an idiot!

We eventually all settled down and tried to get to sleep although by this point I couldn’t help noticing how much I could feel the ship moving!
Outside the wind was really gathering pace!!!

 

[Spindler2007]

This is a brilliant review. It looks like you and your family had an awesome time. Can't wait to see what you and your family did on the cruise home.

 

[tigger17]

Really enjoying this that bunk bed is so cool!!!

 

[Linda67]

Thank you Linda :good vibes

I have just seen how many TR's you've done then I did a stupid thing and started to read one......well you had to drag me away as Kade wanted putting to bed, the cat wanted feeding and Marcus wanted a brew

As soon as I've done writing mine and get a bit of spare time back, I'm going to read the whole of them. Yay

Oh my word, I am sorry to be the cause of a tired child, a hungry feline and a thirsty hubby

 

[April2012]

This is a brilliant review. It looks like you and your family had an awesome time. Can't wait to see what you and your family did on the cruise home.

Thanks very much, really appreciate you reading

Really enjoying this that bunk bed is so cool!!!

Thank you tigger Yeah, the bunk bed was cool....I wanted to sleep in it

Oh my word, I am sorry to be the cause of a tired child, a hungry feline and a thirsty hubby

It's me neglecting my chores me finks.
Seriously though does anybody else find reading TR's slightly addictive??