TikiGoddess
08-29-2009, 09:45 PM
Sorry I didn't get an installment out last night --I ended up falling asleep at 7pm and not getting up until 7am... :)
Friday, August 14th:
Yup, you guessed it – we were up early again, despite the late night beforehand. It was hard to wake up the girls, but they were soon ready to get going. We had breakfast at the lounge and then met everyone in the lobby. BIL and family were off to Tampa, so we said our goodbyes. Tim’s other brother and mom stayed with us and we took the bus to the Studios.
We arrived at the Studios 8:15ish and immediately went to get FP for TSM (return time 11am). Unfortunately we were planning on leaving the park around 10:30, but we used the FPs another day, so it all worked out. We went to Muppets (which made me think that I need to find some of the old Muppet shows on DVDs… my kids are not familiar with this classic series!). We walked past the AI audition area and Tim was playing with the idea of auditioning. I checked to see if my friend Jason was working that day – unfortunately he was but he was busy.
We then waited about 20 min to ride GMR. The kids were scared by the bank robbery scene (I made sure they closed their eyes for the Alien scene) but liked the ending with the Munchkin Village. They are HUGE Wizard of Oz fans, so that was a read treat. “Look mom, there’s Dorthony!”
Then we had to see Little Mermaid as Katie loves Ariel. I love this show -- it’s so well done with the puppets, especially the “Under the Sea” song. Katie immediately wanted to see it again and we promised to try another day.
Now here’s where it gets funky.
We left the park at 10:30am with the intention of getting a bus to DTD. You veterans are thinking – Duh, there is no bus to DTD from the theme parks! Okay, I realized this as soon as we got to the bus area. No problem, we’ll take a taxi. So we walked all the way to the taxi stand, only to see a taxi pull away. Hey, why don’t we go to the bus information booth and see if they can order us a taxi? So that’s what we did. The booth called a taxi and said it would be there in 3-5 min. So we trekked BACK out to the taxi stand (couldn’t figure out which was the actual taxi stand – there was a drop off and another spot). As soon as we got out there, we saw another group of people standing there… and a taxi pulled up… and took them away. They stole our taxi.
Please remember this is all being done under the beating hot Florida sun.
So. By now it was about 11:15am. A nice bus driver noticed our distress and had her get on her bus to the Yacht Club, which I knew was the right option. So we went to the Yacht Club, got off the bus, and proceeded to wait for a bus to DTD for 25 minutes. We finally arrived at DTD around 12pm, but thankfully T Rex didn’t mind that we were 30 min late. We were seated immediately in a round booth by the sea section. Julie was in her element! The food was good too… we shared a bunch of dishes amongst the adults and everyone agreed it was all tasty. The kids menu was almost identical to the RFC menu, but the kids were happy. I’ve heard lots of comments from people about how loud this restaurant is --- and they’re right. It’s like a nightclub. Music, roaring dinosaurs, meteor showers every 20 minutes… everything should be turned down a notch and it would be more pleasant. The animatronics were fantastic but I’m glad we didn’t sit in the ice cave portion of the restaurant – the lighting came from the changing colors of the cave. How do you see what you’re eating?
We made a stop at the gift shop for Build-A-Dinos for the girls. Julie was planning on this ever since she found out that there was one. Katie chose to get one too. I was hoping to get back to the shop by myself as I could have done a bunch of Xmas shopping but time never worked out.
So we left the restaurant around 2pm, walked over and waited for another bus. It took us 40 minutes to get back to the Wilderness Lodge. Tim took the kids to the pool (where Julie came in 4th in a game of musical paws) while I did some laundry. When we were getting ready for dinner, Julie said her tummy was hurting but thankfully it was a false alarm. My mommy nerves kicked in, but weren’t necessary, hallelujah. Plus I had a good diversion --- California Grill.
We haven’t been to California Grill since I was pregnant with Julie in 2002. I forgot what a stunning view it has! The food was fantastic – I had the salmon, we shared the sushi and desserts. The only thing I missed was being able to share the dinner with my hubby who was all the way across the table while I was sitting between the two girls, keeping them occupied. Thankfully I had remembered to bring some new coloring for them.
We went out on the balcony after dinner and the girls were pointing out all of their favorite landmarks. Katie even pointed out that you could see the logs going down Splash Mountain. The BLT is beautiful. Has anyone noticed the huge amount of crows that congregate around the CR? Rather Hitchcock-ian.
After that we went back to the WL for more laundry and a treat – internet! I was dying to check my email (5 days without email… too long…). Then it was to bed early, as we had another early morning ahead of us.
Friday, August 14th:
Yup, you guessed it – we were up early again, despite the late night beforehand. It was hard to wake up the girls, but they were soon ready to get going. We had breakfast at the lounge and then met everyone in the lobby. BIL and family were off to Tampa, so we said our goodbyes. Tim’s other brother and mom stayed with us and we took the bus to the Studios.
We arrived at the Studios 8:15ish and immediately went to get FP for TSM (return time 11am). Unfortunately we were planning on leaving the park around 10:30, but we used the FPs another day, so it all worked out. We went to Muppets (which made me think that I need to find some of the old Muppet shows on DVDs… my kids are not familiar with this classic series!). We walked past the AI audition area and Tim was playing with the idea of auditioning. I checked to see if my friend Jason was working that day – unfortunately he was but he was busy.
We then waited about 20 min to ride GMR. The kids were scared by the bank robbery scene (I made sure they closed their eyes for the Alien scene) but liked the ending with the Munchkin Village. They are HUGE Wizard of Oz fans, so that was a read treat. “Look mom, there’s Dorthony!”
Then we had to see Little Mermaid as Katie loves Ariel. I love this show -- it’s so well done with the puppets, especially the “Under the Sea” song. Katie immediately wanted to see it again and we promised to try another day.
Now here’s where it gets funky.
We left the park at 10:30am with the intention of getting a bus to DTD. You veterans are thinking – Duh, there is no bus to DTD from the theme parks! Okay, I realized this as soon as we got to the bus area. No problem, we’ll take a taxi. So we walked all the way to the taxi stand, only to see a taxi pull away. Hey, why don’t we go to the bus information booth and see if they can order us a taxi? So that’s what we did. The booth called a taxi and said it would be there in 3-5 min. So we trekked BACK out to the taxi stand (couldn’t figure out which was the actual taxi stand – there was a drop off and another spot). As soon as we got out there, we saw another group of people standing there… and a taxi pulled up… and took them away. They stole our taxi.
Please remember this is all being done under the beating hot Florida sun.
So. By now it was about 11:15am. A nice bus driver noticed our distress and had her get on her bus to the Yacht Club, which I knew was the right option. So we went to the Yacht Club, got off the bus, and proceeded to wait for a bus to DTD for 25 minutes. We finally arrived at DTD around 12pm, but thankfully T Rex didn’t mind that we were 30 min late. We were seated immediately in a round booth by the sea section. Julie was in her element! The food was good too… we shared a bunch of dishes amongst the adults and everyone agreed it was all tasty. The kids menu was almost identical to the RFC menu, but the kids were happy. I’ve heard lots of comments from people about how loud this restaurant is --- and they’re right. It’s like a nightclub. Music, roaring dinosaurs, meteor showers every 20 minutes… everything should be turned down a notch and it would be more pleasant. The animatronics were fantastic but I’m glad we didn’t sit in the ice cave portion of the restaurant – the lighting came from the changing colors of the cave. How do you see what you’re eating?
We made a stop at the gift shop for Build-A-Dinos for the girls. Julie was planning on this ever since she found out that there was one. Katie chose to get one too. I was hoping to get back to the shop by myself as I could have done a bunch of Xmas shopping but time never worked out.
So we left the restaurant around 2pm, walked over and waited for another bus. It took us 40 minutes to get back to the Wilderness Lodge. Tim took the kids to the pool (where Julie came in 4th in a game of musical paws) while I did some laundry. When we were getting ready for dinner, Julie said her tummy was hurting but thankfully it was a false alarm. My mommy nerves kicked in, but weren’t necessary, hallelujah. Plus I had a good diversion --- California Grill.
We haven’t been to California Grill since I was pregnant with Julie in 2002. I forgot what a stunning view it has! The food was fantastic – I had the salmon, we shared the sushi and desserts. The only thing I missed was being able to share the dinner with my hubby who was all the way across the table while I was sitting between the two girls, keeping them occupied. Thankfully I had remembered to bring some new coloring for them.
We went out on the balcony after dinner and the girls were pointing out all of their favorite landmarks. Katie even pointed out that you could see the logs going down Splash Mountain. The BLT is beautiful. Has anyone noticed the huge amount of crows that congregate around the CR? Rather Hitchcock-ian.
After that we went back to the WL for more laundry and a treat – internet! I was dying to check my email (5 days without email… too long…). Then it was to bed early, as we had another early morning ahead of us.