The Celebration Vacation~Day 5

[tinksmom02]

Cast:

Me, Christi
DH, Mark
my mom aka MiMa
my dady aka BeBop or Dan
Our friends Jenn and Ant
their 2 boys, Ant, 7, and the Moose, 2

Day 5
Animal Kingdom/Fun at the Poly/MORE Laundry

I didn’t set the alarm again, because I knew Jenna needed to sleep. I, however, apparently don’t need an alarm clock on vacation—so I wandered around with my parents until about 9am when I literally dragged Jenna out of bed. We hit the lounge for breakfast (I’m not proud, but I will admit that I ate three croissants AND a cinnamon bun!) and coffee and then we headed to the bus stop.

Again, very short wait for a bus. Longer wait for Mom to get the ECV on the bus (she thought the first bus driver was kidding when he told her to parallel park it LOL), but she got there. I think that’s the part she hated most about having to rent an ECV—she always felt like she had to rush to park the thing because there were people waiting on the bus and people waiting to GET on the bus. Really, though, by this point in the week she was getting really good at parking it; it was the bus driver having to strap the thing down that was taking longer, so it really had nothing to do with Mom, anyway. And I do want to say that she did not get one nasty look or comment from a guest all week long. We apologized for any delays, and for running over feet (although not so much if the people weren’t bright enough to move their feet when they saw her coming!), and we struck up many conversations with other families on the bus. So her fear (while I can certainly understand it and would probably feel the same way, if I were in her shoes) was completely unwarranted.

Anyway, sorry about that tangent, but it was a recurring part of our vacation! We stopped at one of the water parks before AK (I can’t remember the order; we stopped at the other one on our way to DTD the day before), and arrived at AK before too much time had passed. Now, AK had evening EMH that night, so I had thought that the park wouldn’t really get crowded until about 2pm or so. Was I wrong! (are you keeping track of my tour guide mistakes? I've lost count!) The entrance and Discovery Island seemed really congested, and it took us a while to break through the crowds. I had two goals for this day: ride Expedition: Everest and see the Finding Nemo musical. If we were hungry and still in the park, I wouldn’t mind trying Flame Tree BBQ for lunch.

We headed right over to Asia (I couldn’t find the Central FastPass thing, but then again, it was really crowded and I didn’t feel like hunting for it). Once we got through Discovery Island the crowds really seemed to thin out, so perhaps it's just that this park doesn't handly large groups of people as well as the other parks?

The plan was to get FastPasses for Expedition: Everest and then head over to the safari, but the standby for E:E was only about 15 minutes so we hopped on line instead. I had told Jenna that because Space Mountain was closed for rehab on our trip that she HAD to try E:E, and she wasn’t really excited about it. She loves roller coasters, mind you, but she was scared of the Yeti. I tried explaining that, when it worked, it was really only a character like the pirates from POTC, but I’ve never seen it because it was down last year. We had fun walking through the queue and Jenna enjoyed seeing all the mountain climbing stuff. I have to agree with others who say that this queue is one of Disney’s best.

It was our turn before too long. Jenna and I sat together and Mark and BeBop sat behind us (MiMa doesn’t do roller coasters…or heights…or spinning rides…but I digress), locked ourselves in, and we were off! Jenna was OK for the first half of the ride, and the real Yeti wasn’t working again (I don’t think; I’ve never seen it so I don’t know where it should be or what to expect), so she wasn’t scared at all by the shadow. She really, really didn’t like the ride once it started going backwards, though, and as soon as it was over she burst into tears in the gift shop. She did better than someone who’d gotten off before us, though, because CMs were in the process of cleaning up a “protein spill” in the shop! I explained that I’d just wanted her to try it, and she never has to ride it again if she doesn’t want to, and then we picked out a little Yeti stuffy for her as a reminder.

(**another aside: since we've come home she's decided that she kind of liked the ride, but that the backwards part gave her a headache and a stomachache.)

She calmed down before too long, and we went to meet MiMa. Jenn called at this point; they were in DinoLand and the Finding Nemo show was going to start in about 15 minutes. We made our way over there and got right into to theater. MiMa was able to wheel the scooter right over and we had some decent seats. BeBop settled in for a nap.

But he didn’t sleep! This is just a testament to how fabulous this show was—my dad sleeps through EVERYTHING…I’m not exaggerating. For this show to keep him up is quite a feat. I thought it was just an awesome show…Broadway caliber, even. We all absolutely loved it, and I found myself teary-eyed at times. It was a good time all around, and this show will be on our must-do list from now on!

Jenn and the crew didn’t make it to the theater in time for the show, and she wasn’t answering her cell, so we decided to head over to Flame Tree (yay! All 3 goals will be met!) to get some lunch, and then skedaddle. (It turned out that Jenn took the Moose back to WL for a nap and Big Ant had the cell phone. We spent the afternoon playing phone tag.) OK, it was lunchtime, but these lines were ridiculous! BeBop and I got into separate lines, and I picked the wrong one, because he got his food, brought it to MiMa, and was ¾ done before we even placed our order! I think there may have been a large family in front of us; all the CMs were working as fast as they could.

I got the salad, Jenna got a hot dog, and I can’t remember what Mark had. We ordered a side of onion rings, as well. MiMa and BeBop each had the pulled pork sandwiches, and the desserts were key lime pie and this chocolate fudge cake thing. The food was OK, not that great. I suspect we would have been more impressed had we gotten the ribs and chicken stuff, but it was just too hot for all that food! My salad was pretty decent, and definitely refreshing. The desserts weren’t anything to write home about.

After lunch we headed into Africa to see how long the safari line was…MiMa wanted to ride it but only if the line was 15 minutes or less…Stand by was at 30 minutes, so no go. We browsed in the shop for a little bit (I got my baby niece a baby giraffe stuffy, so I can cross her off my shopping list!) and then made our way out. I think it was around 2pm at this time (we’d gotten to the park around 11 or so).

Continued below...

[tinksmom02]

Continued

Very short bus wait, and then we were off. We made it home with plenty of time to enjoy the pool…now, I’m going to reveal just how out of shape I am LOL I’d noticed over the past couple days that my stomach muscles were sore…kind of like how you feel after being violently ill, or from doing sit ups. Well, this was the day I discovered what was going on: most of the time I went down the slide I was attempting to stay in a somewhat sitting-up position, and was basically trying to hold my stomach in a crunch position for the duration of the slide LOL Mystery solved, but how sad that I’m that out of shape?

So we swam and enjoyed some poolside beverages. After a while we headed to the room to shower and get ready for dinner. I was determined not to be late, as Jenn and crew were meeting us at ‘Ohana and I didn’t want them to wait for us again. So I got ready and left Mark and Jenna to finish up, and headed over to the GCH to meet them. They were already there. Apparently they were the only people on the WL bus to MK, so the bus driver just took them to the Poly. Don’t get me wrong, that was awesome of the bus driver, but I was trying so hard not to be late!!

It worked out, though, because we had 5:05 ADRs and Big Ant was in line to check up in when I got there at 5 (see, I was early!). Something is not right with this restaurant…it’s the ONLY place that we’ve been to with such consistently long lines just to check in! Every time I walked passed it for the rest of the trip there was a line…7am, 7pm, 10am, 10pm, it didn’t matter. There HAS to be a better way to check people in. I think it has to do with the fact that they don’t start checking people in until exactly 5pm. So the people who have 5pm reservations are already late (but it’s not their fault). Who knows…

So we checked in. I had purposely scheduled us for an early dinner so we wouldn’t have to wait for a table. By the time we checked in I would say it was about 5:15, and we were seated about 10 minutes after that, which isn’t that bad, but it wasn’t great, either, considering the restaurant was empty.

We were seated and our waiter came over and took our drink order (“Yes, I’d like a Lapu Lapu, please!” ) and the food came shortly after that. Now, we had been to ‘Ohana before, and Jenn and the crew came with us last year, but MiMa and BeBop had never been, and I think they were quite impressed with the spread! I asked the waiter if he could bring out a plate of sticky wings without sesame seeds for BeBop, and he complied quickly. How I love those sticky wings! We all enjoyed the salad, broccoli, pork dumplings, and noodles, and then the meat started arriving! We stuffed ourselves silly (particularly BeBop, who asked for more dumplings, and felt obligated to eat the whole bowl when the waiter brought TWO more bowls over, instead of just one!). We barely had room for dessert, but we managed. I managed another Lapu Lapu , too. The bill for the 3 of us for dinner came to about $140; we were responsible for $60 of that (those Lapu Lapus are expensive!!). Everyone enjoyed the meal; my parents, especially, thought it was good, and a different sort of meal.

After dinner, Jenna asked if Ant could stay and play for a while, so Jenn and Ant took Moose back to put him to bed, as he wasn’t feeling quite well. We wandered around for a while waiting for Jenn to get back. The kids enjoyed the beach and watched the fireworks. We hung out on the beach for a while, but Jenn was worried about getting back to WL and Jenna was in the process of a temper tantrum (she was exhausted beyond recognition), so I walked Jenn and Ant to the monorail station, and then I went to get the laundry out of the dryer (at some point today Mark decided we should do another load, and then “voluntold” me for the task. They were both sleeping by the time I made it back to the room, and pretty soon I was, too!

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

Sounds like a good day, and yes, the ribs are what make Flame Tree sooo good....

[princessgirls]

Awesome day! Thanks for the report!

[mouseketeer mom]

I'm with Jenna. I don't like the backwards part of Everest, and once was enough for me. I totally agree about Nemo. Broadway quality, makes me cry every time. And the ribs and chicken are what MAKE the flame tree!!! We cancelled Tusker house lunch last trip because my family insisted on Flame Tree again.
Ohana's is always wonderful for sure..a great day!!
And PS- I find it is always stressful to work a load of laundry in on vacation..it absolutely never flows for me. It sounds easy.."throw in a load of wash"..but it always takes way more time than you think..too much precious vacation time.

[faline]

Very nice, very busy day!

[tinksmom02]

Originally Posted by mouseketeer mom

And PS- I find it is always stressful to work a load of laundry in on vacation..it absolutely never flows for me. It sounds easy.."throw in a load of wash"..but it always takes way more time than you think..too much precious vacation time.

And this is why I've made DH do the laundry on our previous trips LOL Although I think it was easier at POFQ and POR; I think the laundry facilities were closer to the pool, and our room.

[KylesMom]

Ugh - your first paragraph with more laundry had me thinking the worst! But a dinner at Ohana (and that ) would make any day okay in my book!

perhaps it's just that this park doesn't handle large groups of people as well as the other parks?

Yep, not even close. It's a total bottleneck whenever we enter and leave the park, no matter what the time in the summer! You had a great day with hitting most of the major attractions at AK. I'm sorry to say that I can never convince DH and DS to wait in the mile-long line for Nemo - hopefully this will come to pass on the next trip!

Great reading another of your reports - thanks again for sharing with us!

[DizNee143]

im loving reading your reports..sounds like another nice day!!!! dinner sounded wonderful..

[tinksmom02]

Originally Posted by KylesMom

Yep, not even close. It's a total bottleneck whenever we enter and leave the park, no matter what the time in the summer! You had a great day with hitting most of the major attractions at AK. I'm sorry to say that I can never convince DH and DS to wait in the mile-long line for Nemo - hopefully this will come to pass on the next trip!

Great reading another of your reports - thanks again for sharing with us!

Thanks for reading! I don't think we would have waited in the line, but when we got there the line was moving, so it was simply a matter and walking to the end of the line and then following everyone in!

Originally Posted by DizNee143

im loving reading your reports..sounds like another nice day!!!! dinner sounded wonderful..

Glad you're enjoying my reports! I know they tend to be long, but I like reviewing everything we've done for the day.

I love dinner at 'Ohana...it just might be my favorite restaurant in WDW! If only they could get the checkin process to move more smoothly and quickly!

[pdrlkr]

Thanks for the Report!