Chellymouse
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 30, 2007
Monday: AK, Ohana and MK
As previously mentioned, DH and I don't do many RD anymore and so far, we had 3 in a row. It's EMH at AK this am with an opening of 8am. In the best interest of everyone, and given that it's summer, we drag everyone, including ourselves, out of bed at 6:45am to make EMH. DH and I were out the door at 7:10am for breakfast and the rest of the family.....well....suffice it to say the adults were grumbling something that I wouldn't post on here!
We had just missed the bus however we were able to get on the bus that came at 7:40am (again...scary how good the bus service has been!) and what do we find? No family on the bus! Turns out they missed it! Good thing we had most of the gear! They made the next bus and arrived at AK about 15 minutes after us. We made a beeline for the safari and were not disappointed. The animals were very active and 40 minutes after we boarded our vehicle, we came back to Harambi village!
some of the animals!
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After our massive safari, we made our way over to EE where we grabbed FP then got in line as the wait was only 10 minutes. The 7 of us rode and well....we had 7 FP to use with only 3 of us that wanted to ride again! Grumpy, Dopey, FMG and Stitch said once was more than enough! We walked around and grabbed a few pics!
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After some discussion....it was decided that Minnie and I would put the FP to good use while DH took everyone else to the Boneyard. Grumpy was quite worried that Minnie was going to lose her breakfast and made us pinky swear that we would not "overdo it" Minnie at first said maybe we'll just do once and find a family to give the rest of them to. So during our first ride, about halfway through Minnie says "we have to do this again!" This was a recurring theme and we wound up riding 3 times in a row with the odd FP left for her scrapbook! Call from DH that they are still in Dinoland so we leave to catch up and find only a short wait for Primeval Whirl and decide to take a spin on that! The family had moved on to the Tree so Minnie and I ran to catch up with them. I called DH for a snack so he had popcorn waiting for me! We took a few more pics:
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And Stitch and Minnie wanted to meet Dug and Russell
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Grumpy took the kids to see Bug's Life while Dopey, FGM, DH and I went back to Harambi to buy Dopey a safari hat....not quite sure what he planned to do with it, but ok. We met back up with Grumpy and the kids with an hour before our lunch ressie at Rainforest Cafe. DH and I made our way back to Dinoland to ride Dinosaur while everyone else went to Camp Minnie/Mickey to see some characters. We met back up at noon then went to lunch at Rainforest at AK. It was adequate and by adequate I mean it was food. (thank goodness we were eating at Ohana tonight!) The kids were fairly well behaved so they were allowed to buy monkeys!
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We all needed a break and since AK is usually a half day park for us anyway, we hopped a bus back to SSR. The family took naps and DH and I decided to check out the new Paddock pool. It was very nice and we enjoyed the area. Sorry no pics...didn't want to chance the camera at the pool. We were impressed although it was a bit of a hike so it's not likely we will frequent the new pool. We went back to CP to shower and start getting ready for the evening. The family was also up from their naps by the time we arrived.
Next up....Ohana means and family.....and family means no one gets left behind....and late night at MK! How late do we make it???
As previously mentioned, DH and I don't do many RD anymore and so far, we had 3 in a row. It's EMH at AK this am with an opening of 8am. In the best interest of everyone, and given that it's summer, we drag everyone, including ourselves, out of bed at 6:45am to make EMH. DH and I were out the door at 7:10am for breakfast and the rest of the family.....well....suffice it to say the adults were grumbling something that I wouldn't post on here!
We had just missed the bus however we were able to get on the bus that came at 7:40am (again...scary how good the bus service has been!) and what do we find? No family on the bus! Turns out they missed it! Good thing we had most of the gear! They made the next bus and arrived at AK about 15 minutes after us. We made a beeline for the safari and were not disappointed. The animals were very active and 40 minutes after we boarded our vehicle, we came back to Harambi village! some of the animals!
After our massive safari, we made our way over to EE where we grabbed FP then got in line as the wait was only 10 minutes. The 7 of us rode and well....we had 7 FP to use with only 3 of us that wanted to ride again! Grumpy, Dopey, FMG and Stitch said once was more than enough! We walked around and grabbed a few pics!
After some discussion....it was decided that Minnie and I would put the FP to good use while DH took everyone else to the Boneyard. Grumpy was quite worried that Minnie was going to lose her breakfast and made us pinky swear that we would not "overdo it" Minnie at first said maybe we'll just do once and find a family to give the rest of them to. So during our first ride, about halfway through Minnie says "we have to do this again!" This was a recurring theme and we wound up riding 3 times in a row with the odd FP left for her scrapbook! Call from DH that they are still in Dinoland so we leave to catch up and find only a short wait for Primeval Whirl and decide to take a spin on that! The family had moved on to the Tree so Minnie and I ran to catch up with them. I called DH for a snack so he had popcorn waiting for me! We took a few more pics:
And Stitch and Minnie wanted to meet Dug and Russell
Grumpy took the kids to see Bug's Life while Dopey, FGM, DH and I went back to Harambi to buy Dopey a safari hat....not quite sure what he planned to do with it, but ok. We met back up with Grumpy and the kids with an hour before our lunch ressie at Rainforest Cafe. DH and I made our way back to Dinoland to ride Dinosaur while everyone else went to Camp Minnie/Mickey to see some characters. We met back up at noon then went to lunch at Rainforest at AK. It was adequate and by adequate I mean it was food. (thank goodness we were eating at Ohana tonight!) The kids were fairly well behaved so they were allowed to buy monkeys!
We all needed a break and since AK is usually a half day park for us anyway, we hopped a bus back to SSR. The family took naps and DH and I decided to check out the new Paddock pool. It was very nice and we enjoyed the area. Sorry no pics...didn't want to chance the camera at the pool. We were impressed although it was a bit of a hike so it's not likely we will frequent the new pool. We went back to CP to shower and start getting ready for the evening. The family was also up from their naps by the time we arrived.
Next up....Ohana means and family.....and family means no one gets left behind....and late night at MK! How late do we make it???
Really? So DH and I planned a way to get one...I wasn't having FGM forking out the $$ for one of those until she asked as we were walking toward the restaurant..."what are those pineapple things?" I explained them and the she decided she would buy 1 round only for us girls! 
Can't complain! Now I can complain...it seems that someone made an error and seated a family at a table that had been assigned to our family. Finally after nearly 20 minutes, we were shown to a table. Needless to say I was NOT happy! I did ask to speak with a manager and basically was blown off. I certainly metioned that in our survey post trip but enough grousing! Dinner was exceptional and overfilling as always! Minnie and Stitch had a ball doing the children's activities and parade! On our way out, we sort of "lost" Stitch! Turns out he was lagging behind but we found him quickly! We hopped the monorail and made our way over to MK. 
which was very kind of him! We staked out a spot in Frontierland and as always MSEP didn't disappoint! 
Grumpy and I...well..notsomuch! We made our way through the crowds and down Main St and just heading out of the park as Wishes was starting. We waited about 10 minutes for a bus and made it back to SSR by 10:30pm. The family crashed shortly thereafter! 
We finally boarded a bus and after a scenic tour though DTD we finally made it to TL around 10am. We grabbed a locker then went over to Crush N Gusher! 
DH and I were cracking up then started calling Epcot, Ep-kit. (the family upon hearing this story also started!) We made it the convention center, found a place to park then figured out where I had to go. Met up with a colleague from another practice (they were at AK the day before also...can't believe we didn't run into each other!) and finally they opened the booths so we could register. I got registered, said good bye to my colleague and headed back to SSR. We got home, picked up the family and walked up to Turf Club for dinner. We wound up waiting until 5pm so we could get a better menu. DH and I and Dopey and Grumpy were given a complimentary champagne (we were all wearing our anniversary buttons) and of course, it's groundhog day, I mean Stitch's b'day (again) and he received an extra dessert. DH and I had planned to check out the evening offerings at AK, however, dinner took too long and it wasn't worth it to drive over there for less than an hour. We all went to the boat and took the boat over to DTD. We checked out the West Side, which is seriously lacking. The kids and I were going to do the Characters in Flight balloon, only to find it was closed...again. I don't know why that thing is there. In all the trips we've been on, we have yet to get on it because it's almost always closed. Ok...rant over! We walked through PI (may the former PI RIP and PLEASE come back) another rant over....We were watching some of the street performers when Minnie decided she had a bellyache. One thing the family complimented DH and I on was our knowledge of where virtually every restroom in WDW is.....
and that's all I will say on that subject. Took her out only to find that now Stitch was in the same boat. Back in with Stitch (who did the same thing as Minnie) Grumpy and Dopey decided to take them back to the villa so FGM, DH and I stayed out. DH had to exchange a shirt he'd bought and of course, the pit needed a snack. FGM and I went to Ghiradelli where for once, the line wasn't out the door and we split an absolutely wonderful sundae! We went in to exchange DH's shirt only to find they didn't have the size we needed. The CM was awesome and called over the BW store who had what we needed and would hold it for us until 11pm. We made the decision to drop FGM off at the villa and make our way over there. Epcot had EMH so DH and I hopped a bus to Epcot and walked to BW to pick up his shirt! 
I will not report on what I had to say about that! Dopey, Grumpy, DH and I had plans to go out for the evening with FGM keeping Stitch and Minnie occupied! We had a 6:30pm ressie at Raglan Rd (Dopey's pic) and needless to say, with my not arriving at SSR until 6:15pm we were late! Thankfully, only 10 minutes and the CM at Raglan couldn't have been more gracious! (We needed the umbrellas because we walked to DTD) We had a fantastic meal and quite a few 
and stayed awhile for the entertainment. Finally around 8:30pm we left Raglan and wound up wandering and shopping (and stopping occ for adult beverages) around DTD. Earlier in the week we had stopped at Team Mickey with the intention of getting Stitch a bat, however, Stitch had a bit of a meltdown so no bat. We went back and DH bought Stitch the bat for Christmas! Grumpy and Dopey also bought Minnie a Minnie and Stitch a Stitch! We stopped at Goofy's for some snacks! Cheese popcorn for Grumpy and Mouse Krispie treats, gingerbread cookies and chocolate carmel corn for the pit!! (I did not eat all of that in 1 sitting!) We then stopped in the art store and pic I had wanted previously was available and what was even cooler was the artist was actually sitting right there. We chatted with David Doss for a few minutes and he signed the work we were about to purchase! We headed back to the villa around 11pm (thankfully the rain had finally stopped!). Minnie and Stitch were still up so we all said good night and went to bed! up next...BB, DHS and a surprise dinner for the family!
Thank you for reading!!
Really???? We of course waited and DH and I haven't done this for quite a while so we really found it to be very watered down from previous rides. FGM on the other hand really enjoyed it and that's all that matters! With our ride done, popcorn for me and a strawberry bar for DH and we headed out the bus. We passed Grumpy, Dopey and the kids as they were heading in to see the stunt show. DH was crabbing he wanted to change his shorts so we wound up going back to SSR. DH changed his shorts and is now happy again and we dropped FGM off and went back out to MK. Of course we had just missed a MK bus! There was no way we were going to make it back to use our FP for Space as it was already 4:40pm Surprisingly, another MK bus pulled and we did make it back to MK by 5pm but the CM wouldn't let us the FP. We did grab another one for 8pm so we went around and did our "wannas". We managed to ride Splash, HM, POTC, BTMRR and saw Philharmagic before it was time to ride. We also had dinner at Pecos Bills (1st time there and surprsingly wasn't too bad!) and did some last minute shopping. I also managed to eat 2 Dole Whips and another box of popcorn! As you can tell from the pics, the clouds were a result of TS Debby moving onshore and we knew we'd been very fortunate all day to have had only a quick sprinkle, but it was starting to get even more humid than it had been earlier in the day. I REALLY wanted to stay until park closing, but I was tired and DH knew it so he started herding me out. Needless to say I was dawdling and stopped for more pics..! 
