dolphinmickey9170
05-27-2008, 04:34 PM
THE CAST
ME - Kristen - 37 - Huge Disney fan - I eat sleep and dream about all things Disney. So fanatical that I drive Ben nuts with my constant talk of disney this and disney that.
DH - Ben - 43 - Fell in love with Disney on his very first trip (for our wedding at the Poly in 2006). He loved it so much, he bought me DVC for our wedding. Infatuated with pins, buying mostly, but will trade on occasion.
DD - Katy - 17 - Loves Disney almost as much as I do. She takes care of our DGD everyday while her mommy (Jenn) works.
DGD - Keara - 19 months - Loves Lella (Cinderella), Mickey, Tinkerbell and Pooh.
DisneyWhirled - Karen
DWHubby - John
Colby - 9
Kaylee - 5
Monday, May 19th - Today, if you read my pre-trip report, is the dreaded Final Exam day. My A&P professor had decided to change the date of my final exam to be after I went on vacation. He said he would email it to me today at 5pm. I have to call him at 3pm, so I must be mindful of the time. I set a reminder on mu cell phone, but I can't trust it as it didn't wake us up the other day. The problem with taking my exam at 5pm is we have dinner ressies at 1900PF at 5pm. This means everyone else goes in to eat while I sit in GF lobby and take my exam. Oh well, it's gotta be done.
Today we walked around AK meeting up with John and Karen upon entering. I have brought my laptop today, so I need to rent a locker to hold it. This way I can take it to the restaurant tonight to take my exam. I love the idea how you can rent a locker in one park and can use the receipt at another park and not have to pay any more. You just give them your receipt and the deposit, and upon return of the key, you get your deposit back again. We do Primevil Whirl, but Kaylee doesn't like it. We do Tricera Tops spin, but Keara is asleep. John and Ben and Keara went to line up at the Nemo show while Kaylee, Karen, Colby and myself played a dino race game. Colby wins!! WOOHOO!! We head around the corner to line up with the rest of the family and we enter right into the Nemo show. We get the front row of the upper section as you enter (on the right). This was our first time seeing the show. It was fabulous. Ben was hesitant about seeing it, but he is glad he did because he liked it. It was starting to rain as we exit.
We had our second day of a 30 minute rain shower. We stood under a tree and even with the umbrella, the pollen dripped on our shirts and stained them. Now my DVC tank top has yellow dots on it. We shared some fries while John and Karen shared some items from Yak and Yeti. We decided to head out of the park, but Katy wanted to stop at the shops and look around. She found a Father's Day Mickey Mouse in his robe and slippers. She and Keara got stuffed Monkeys (http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2754526780042804337DgYXDn). As soon as she got this guy in her hands, she wouldn't let go of him. His name says Charlie on the tag. That makes Katy happy as her "friend" is named Charlie. As we wandered in the store, we met a couple, also from Maryland, celebrating their 40th anniversary. A very nice couple with some funny stories. The CMs were cracking up. Ben picks up a new camera bag for me, the monkeys for the girls and a few pins. This gets us the Mickey watch for $15. It's really a nice watch, and they have larger men's and smaller women's watch. We got the large one for Ben. It's now 3pm and I have to call my professor. Well, he doesn't answer, so I leave him a message to call me as soon as possible. As we are heading out of the park, my phone rings. My professor thinks I am on the other side of the world, not realizing I am in WDW. I tell him where I am (I told him this before I left the last day of classes) and he explains he had sent me an email yesterday telling me he was moving my exam again to Tuesday at the same time. Okay, this works out for tonight, but instant panic sets in as I cannot remember where we are tomorrow. I pull my itinerary out of my pocket to find we have LeCellier ressies at 7pm. This should work out okay. We'll figure something out.
We call John and Karen to let them know we are now heading to catch a Grand Floridian bus as we have dinner at 1900 Park Fare. We get to GF early enough that we decide to take the resort loop monorail ride. We enter the pink monorail and it just sits there. For about 15 minutes, we are now down to under 30 minutes, so we decide to bail out before it takes off. We just wander around the shops until it's time to check in.
We meet John and Karen at checkin and we take the kids to the restroom, then we are seated. I explain to them about my exam and try to think about how will do this tomorrow. We are at Epcot tomorrow, so I figure I can walk to Y&BC and sit in their lobby and take the exam at 5pm. No problem. Then Karen suggests my using their room at BWV. Just as close and more private. Good ideas. We'll figure it out tomorrow.
We get seated and Cinderella (http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2599259570042804337huzaKI) appears. She is Keara's favorite princess. Yelling, "LELLA" and Cinderella scoots (http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2970619850042804337unaObi) for pictures. Then Cindy posses with John, Colby and Kaylee (http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2773846760042804337bidzSv). I think John has a secret crush on Cinderella, shhhhh...... just don't tell Karen.;)
I snapped this photo (http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2486612500042804337yZKCwy) from the wall in the dining room. I didn't notice it last time, but we were sitting in a different area and never saw it.
We finish up and head back to AK for EMH. We walk out to the bus stop and only wait about 5 minutes for a bus. We are back to AK rather quickly. We head in to get our EMH bracelets and see some people being shoed out as they do not have bracelets. We head right to Everest. I love that ride in the dark. It is so much more fun, but it isn't dark yet. Then to Dinoland. We do Primevil Whirl and then take Keara on Triceratops. She didn't really like the ups and downs as she would bury her head into my ribs every time we went up or down. Just flying in a circle she was okay with. We head for Dinosaur and Ben doesn't want to ride so he stays with Keara. We head for Everest to ride it in the dark. It was awesome!! You can see the Yeti so much better in the dark. The view from the climb is great too!!
After this we head for Kali. I haven't ridden Kali since July 06 and decide I'll get wet. Ben and Keara and Kaylee are all napping at a table spot while we trek throught the mile long winding way in. There was no one around. It seemed like we walked forever. We finally make it onto a raft with a father and son who just rode 3 times in a row. As soon as we turn to climb that first hill, Katy and I are lined up to get soaked. And soaked we got. Colby loved it so much he asked if we could stay on, so we did. This time John and Colby got wet and Katy and I got wetter. By this time, we are drenched. Colby says one more time and everyone agrees. So we stay right on our raft and this time Karen gets wet. It was an equal sharing of the water. We meet up with Ben who has been bitten by something on his finger and it has swollen up and he can't bend it. He has no idea what bit him. But we decide it's time to head home as we have an early morning breakfast at Cindy's house tomorrow.
We get on the bus and a dad and his son are sitting and the dad offers me his seat. I warned the young man sitting there that I was wet from Kali. He said he was too, so we sat together sharing some Kali liquids. It was too funny.
Next up - My Final Exam? and FUN FUN FUN!!
ME - Kristen - 37 - Huge Disney fan - I eat sleep and dream about all things Disney. So fanatical that I drive Ben nuts with my constant talk of disney this and disney that.
DH - Ben - 43 - Fell in love with Disney on his very first trip (for our wedding at the Poly in 2006). He loved it so much, he bought me DVC for our wedding. Infatuated with pins, buying mostly, but will trade on occasion.
DD - Katy - 17 - Loves Disney almost as much as I do. She takes care of our DGD everyday while her mommy (Jenn) works.
DGD - Keara - 19 months - Loves Lella (Cinderella), Mickey, Tinkerbell and Pooh.
DisneyWhirled - Karen
DWHubby - John
Colby - 9
Kaylee - 5
Monday, May 19th - Today, if you read my pre-trip report, is the dreaded Final Exam day. My A&P professor had decided to change the date of my final exam to be after I went on vacation. He said he would email it to me today at 5pm. I have to call him at 3pm, so I must be mindful of the time. I set a reminder on mu cell phone, but I can't trust it as it didn't wake us up the other day. The problem with taking my exam at 5pm is we have dinner ressies at 1900PF at 5pm. This means everyone else goes in to eat while I sit in GF lobby and take my exam. Oh well, it's gotta be done.
Today we walked around AK meeting up with John and Karen upon entering. I have brought my laptop today, so I need to rent a locker to hold it. This way I can take it to the restaurant tonight to take my exam. I love the idea how you can rent a locker in one park and can use the receipt at another park and not have to pay any more. You just give them your receipt and the deposit, and upon return of the key, you get your deposit back again. We do Primevil Whirl, but Kaylee doesn't like it. We do Tricera Tops spin, but Keara is asleep. John and Ben and Keara went to line up at the Nemo show while Kaylee, Karen, Colby and myself played a dino race game. Colby wins!! WOOHOO!! We head around the corner to line up with the rest of the family and we enter right into the Nemo show. We get the front row of the upper section as you enter (on the right). This was our first time seeing the show. It was fabulous. Ben was hesitant about seeing it, but he is glad he did because he liked it. It was starting to rain as we exit.
We had our second day of a 30 minute rain shower. We stood under a tree and even with the umbrella, the pollen dripped on our shirts and stained them. Now my DVC tank top has yellow dots on it. We shared some fries while John and Karen shared some items from Yak and Yeti. We decided to head out of the park, but Katy wanted to stop at the shops and look around. She found a Father's Day Mickey Mouse in his robe and slippers. She and Keara got stuffed Monkeys (http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2754526780042804337DgYXDn). As soon as she got this guy in her hands, she wouldn't let go of him. His name says Charlie on the tag. That makes Katy happy as her "friend" is named Charlie. As we wandered in the store, we met a couple, also from Maryland, celebrating their 40th anniversary. A very nice couple with some funny stories. The CMs were cracking up. Ben picks up a new camera bag for me, the monkeys for the girls and a few pins. This gets us the Mickey watch for $15. It's really a nice watch, and they have larger men's and smaller women's watch. We got the large one for Ben. It's now 3pm and I have to call my professor. Well, he doesn't answer, so I leave him a message to call me as soon as possible. As we are heading out of the park, my phone rings. My professor thinks I am on the other side of the world, not realizing I am in WDW. I tell him where I am (I told him this before I left the last day of classes) and he explains he had sent me an email yesterday telling me he was moving my exam again to Tuesday at the same time. Okay, this works out for tonight, but instant panic sets in as I cannot remember where we are tomorrow. I pull my itinerary out of my pocket to find we have LeCellier ressies at 7pm. This should work out okay. We'll figure something out.
We call John and Karen to let them know we are now heading to catch a Grand Floridian bus as we have dinner at 1900 Park Fare. We get to GF early enough that we decide to take the resort loop monorail ride. We enter the pink monorail and it just sits there. For about 15 minutes, we are now down to under 30 minutes, so we decide to bail out before it takes off. We just wander around the shops until it's time to check in.
We meet John and Karen at checkin and we take the kids to the restroom, then we are seated. I explain to them about my exam and try to think about how will do this tomorrow. We are at Epcot tomorrow, so I figure I can walk to Y&BC and sit in their lobby and take the exam at 5pm. No problem. Then Karen suggests my using their room at BWV. Just as close and more private. Good ideas. We'll figure it out tomorrow.
We get seated and Cinderella (http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2599259570042804337huzaKI) appears. She is Keara's favorite princess. Yelling, "LELLA" and Cinderella scoots (http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2970619850042804337unaObi) for pictures. Then Cindy posses with John, Colby and Kaylee (http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2773846760042804337bidzSv). I think John has a secret crush on Cinderella, shhhhh...... just don't tell Karen.;)
I snapped this photo (http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2486612500042804337yZKCwy) from the wall in the dining room. I didn't notice it last time, but we were sitting in a different area and never saw it.
We finish up and head back to AK for EMH. We walk out to the bus stop and only wait about 5 minutes for a bus. We are back to AK rather quickly. We head in to get our EMH bracelets and see some people being shoed out as they do not have bracelets. We head right to Everest. I love that ride in the dark. It is so much more fun, but it isn't dark yet. Then to Dinoland. We do Primevil Whirl and then take Keara on Triceratops. She didn't really like the ups and downs as she would bury her head into my ribs every time we went up or down. Just flying in a circle she was okay with. We head for Dinosaur and Ben doesn't want to ride so he stays with Keara. We head for Everest to ride it in the dark. It was awesome!! You can see the Yeti so much better in the dark. The view from the climb is great too!!
After this we head for Kali. I haven't ridden Kali since July 06 and decide I'll get wet. Ben and Keara and Kaylee are all napping at a table spot while we trek throught the mile long winding way in. There was no one around. It seemed like we walked forever. We finally make it onto a raft with a father and son who just rode 3 times in a row. As soon as we turn to climb that first hill, Katy and I are lined up to get soaked. And soaked we got. Colby loved it so much he asked if we could stay on, so we did. This time John and Colby got wet and Katy and I got wetter. By this time, we are drenched. Colby says one more time and everyone agrees. So we stay right on our raft and this time Karen gets wet. It was an equal sharing of the water. We meet up with Ben who has been bitten by something on his finger and it has swollen up and he can't bend it. He has no idea what bit him. But we decide it's time to head home as we have an early morning breakfast at Cindy's house tomorrow.
We get on the bus and a dad and his son are sitting and the dad offers me his seat. I warned the young man sitting there that I was wet from Kali. He said he was too, so we sat together sharing some Kali liquids. It was too funny.
Next up - My Final Exam? and FUN FUN FUN!!