WDWFRK
04-06-2014, 02:27 PM
Day 2 Wednesday 3/12—
AK had EMH this morning and was opening at 7a. Because of the time change, it was still dark outside at this time which was weird. We had saved our Fastpass+ selections for Epcot today, so we wanted to get in as much as possible as early as possible at AK this morning.
We ended up arriving at AK around 7:30a and found out KS would not be up and running until 8:30a, so we made a beeline for EE and were able to ride it three times in a row in about 20 minutes! Dinosaur was next, also with no wait, and then we grabbed some pastries and coffee from the Kusafiri Coffee Shop & Bakery while we waited for KS to open. We walked right onto that and had a great ride with lots of animal sightings.
Because we were flying through everything, we decided to go see ITTBAB. Now this is not one of my favorites (I got a bit claustrophobic/panicky during the smoke/spider scene last time I saw it), and but it was there and the show was about to start, so what the heck! I made it through the show unscathed; however, the little girl sitting beside me did not fare so well and had to be taken out not even a couple of minutes into the show. I’m telling you, people. This is one of the scariest attractions at Disney!
I love Flights of Wonder, so that was next on our list. We had great seats and lots of birds flying over(barely!) our heads. That was it for AK, so we decided to head over to EC around 11a to meet up with my parents. Getting up so early was worth it as we noted the waves of people making their way into AK as we were leaving. There is a bus directly to EC from AK, and we didn’t have to wait long for it to arrive.
Our reservation at Le Cellier wasn’t until 1:30, so we decided to check out TT’s single rider line. It was a short wait, but it had started to rain while we were in line. And then it started to pour. And then just as DH and I were loaded into our car (again, the same one!), we were told we were going to get very wet on the ride. I had my poncho on, so I didn’t care. However, as we pulled up to the seatbelt check, the ride was shut down and we were taken off. We were given special Fastpasses to come back anytime later in the day (and for our choice of any number of rides, not just TT). This worked out great—until I realized that my parents, who were next in line, hadn’t gotten onto a car, so they didn’t get the Fastpasses. No biggie—they spend so much time at WDW that it isn’t it a big deal if they can’t get on something.
We still had a few minutes before our lunch, so we stopped at JIYI, knowing there would be no wait (what the heck does THIS need a FP+ for???) The funniest thing about this, sorry, lame ride was when the end scene blew my mom’s sunglasses right off her head! I hope that once Disney gets this billion-dollar Magic Band program fully up and running, they will turn to some desperately needed updates, redesigns, and fresh creativity.
Time for Le Cellier—the gardens are so pretty in Canada! Even if you don’t eat here, you should take some time to check it out. We were seated almost right away and the restaurant was hopping. It’s been a long time since I have eaten here—certainly since it has become the “it” restaurant. I don’t want to sound ungrateful as my parents paid for the meal, but those prices?? For lunch??? You’ve got to be kidding me! The food was good, but the least expensive lunch entrée was $23—that’s just not right. And this isn’t lunchtime fare—this is a full-on dinner menu, so not what I was expecting. I really just wanted the beer cheese soup and pretzel bread, and I should’ve just stuck with that, but I also ordered their version of a “Caesar” salad. It was basically two Romaine lettuce leaves—for $10 or $12 dollars. I couldn’t even taste the dressing on it and had to ask for more. Our waiter was good, and everyone else enjoyed their food but I will not be eating here again anytime soon. I’m guessing I can thank the Dining Plan for the changes here? Grrrrrr….
After lunch, we used our Fastpass+ for Living with the Land, Soarin’, and Spaceship Earth which all worked out well. Just an FYI—SE had some of the longest lines I’ve seen in years; I’m guessing that has something to do with FP+. I’m glad to see the ride becoming popular again, but I miss just walking onto it whenever I wanted.
My parents were ready to go back to the room, but DH and I still had our FPs to use at TT so we parted ways here. Last year when I first rode the “new and improved” TT, I was not impressed. At all. It was a little better this time as we got to build our test car which was fun and the outside thrill is always great.
I was ready to go back to the room at this point, but DH decided to go back over to DHS one more time and then meet up with all of us later. I stopped at Beaches and Cream for an ice cream cone, and relaxed in the lobby while I ate it before heading to the room. I got in a much-needed nap, and then my parents and I caught a bus to MK.
We met up with DH and rode Pirates, HM, HoP and Enchanted Tales with Belle again. Now, my dad was kind of grumbling about going to Belle, but DH really wanted to do it again and get a part in the show (he’s a giant cheeseball!) We convinced my dad to just go with us instead of sitting outside on a bench all by himself. Well, when it came time to choose parts for the show, as expected DH’s hand immediately shot up in the air when the CM asked for volunteers to be the knights. It must have been slim pickings; after she chose DH, she just looked at my dad standing next to DH and gave him the part of the other knight. My mom and I were dying laughing!!!:rotfl: He was a good sport about the whole thing, and we all had a good chuckle about it. At least he got a nice picture taken with Belle that he can cherish forever. ;)
They were running test cars of the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, so we were able to get a sneak peek of the ride. I can’t wait to try it (and to finally have all of those walls around it come down and really open up Fantasyland!) I think it will make a great addition to Fantasyland’s ride pool.
We were all getting hungry since it was pretty late at this point and happened upon The Friar’s Nook in Fantasyland. It was nice to have something besides the regular fast food fare, and I thoroughly enjoyed my plain mac and cheese. DH and DM each tried one of the fancier mac and cheeses which were good but maybe a little overloaded with toppings. The bacon cheeseburger version had some pretty spicy meat in it!
Since Space Mt. was down the other night, DH and I decided to give it one more try. My parents were tired, so we again parted ways. It’s really nice to be together, but it’s also nice that we can all go at the pace we want and no one gets upset. Anyway, we waited about 25 minutes for Space, the longest wait of our trip which was fine, and then as we were heading out of the park and walking through the Main St. hub, I noticed something going on at the Castle so we stopped. The other night, I heard random music and a couple of fireworks go off around 10:30, obviously not a parade or Wishes, but had no idea what was going on. I pride myself on keeping up with goings on at WDW as best I can; however, I had never even heard of Celebrate the Magic!:blush: We stopped to watch it and I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised. We were too far away from the Castle to see the Glow with the Show Ears, but it was still worth watching.
At this point, we were both exhausted. After all, DH had been to all four parks in one day! I had at least gotten a small break, but he out-Disneyed me today. At the bus depot, we noticed what appeared to be a charter bus picking POFQ hotel guests up, which struck me as odd.:confused: There was a little Disney sign in the front of the bus window, but it was just weird. Anyhoo, my parents were still up when we got back to the room which was nice so we didn’t have to tiptoe around, trying to get ready for bed.
Up next Day 3 and final thoughts…
AK had EMH this morning and was opening at 7a. Because of the time change, it was still dark outside at this time which was weird. We had saved our Fastpass+ selections for Epcot today, so we wanted to get in as much as possible as early as possible at AK this morning.
We ended up arriving at AK around 7:30a and found out KS would not be up and running until 8:30a, so we made a beeline for EE and were able to ride it three times in a row in about 20 minutes! Dinosaur was next, also with no wait, and then we grabbed some pastries and coffee from the Kusafiri Coffee Shop & Bakery while we waited for KS to open. We walked right onto that and had a great ride with lots of animal sightings.
Because we were flying through everything, we decided to go see ITTBAB. Now this is not one of my favorites (I got a bit claustrophobic/panicky during the smoke/spider scene last time I saw it), and but it was there and the show was about to start, so what the heck! I made it through the show unscathed; however, the little girl sitting beside me did not fare so well and had to be taken out not even a couple of minutes into the show. I’m telling you, people. This is one of the scariest attractions at Disney!
I love Flights of Wonder, so that was next on our list. We had great seats and lots of birds flying over(barely!) our heads. That was it for AK, so we decided to head over to EC around 11a to meet up with my parents. Getting up so early was worth it as we noted the waves of people making their way into AK as we were leaving. There is a bus directly to EC from AK, and we didn’t have to wait long for it to arrive.
Our reservation at Le Cellier wasn’t until 1:30, so we decided to check out TT’s single rider line. It was a short wait, but it had started to rain while we were in line. And then it started to pour. And then just as DH and I were loaded into our car (again, the same one!), we were told we were going to get very wet on the ride. I had my poncho on, so I didn’t care. However, as we pulled up to the seatbelt check, the ride was shut down and we were taken off. We were given special Fastpasses to come back anytime later in the day (and for our choice of any number of rides, not just TT). This worked out great—until I realized that my parents, who were next in line, hadn’t gotten onto a car, so they didn’t get the Fastpasses. No biggie—they spend so much time at WDW that it isn’t it a big deal if they can’t get on something.
We still had a few minutes before our lunch, so we stopped at JIYI, knowing there would be no wait (what the heck does THIS need a FP+ for???) The funniest thing about this, sorry, lame ride was when the end scene blew my mom’s sunglasses right off her head! I hope that once Disney gets this billion-dollar Magic Band program fully up and running, they will turn to some desperately needed updates, redesigns, and fresh creativity.
Time for Le Cellier—the gardens are so pretty in Canada! Even if you don’t eat here, you should take some time to check it out. We were seated almost right away and the restaurant was hopping. It’s been a long time since I have eaten here—certainly since it has become the “it” restaurant. I don’t want to sound ungrateful as my parents paid for the meal, but those prices?? For lunch??? You’ve got to be kidding me! The food was good, but the least expensive lunch entrée was $23—that’s just not right. And this isn’t lunchtime fare—this is a full-on dinner menu, so not what I was expecting. I really just wanted the beer cheese soup and pretzel bread, and I should’ve just stuck with that, but I also ordered their version of a “Caesar” salad. It was basically two Romaine lettuce leaves—for $10 or $12 dollars. I couldn’t even taste the dressing on it and had to ask for more. Our waiter was good, and everyone else enjoyed their food but I will not be eating here again anytime soon. I’m guessing I can thank the Dining Plan for the changes here? Grrrrrr….
After lunch, we used our Fastpass+ for Living with the Land, Soarin’, and Spaceship Earth which all worked out well. Just an FYI—SE had some of the longest lines I’ve seen in years; I’m guessing that has something to do with FP+. I’m glad to see the ride becoming popular again, but I miss just walking onto it whenever I wanted.
My parents were ready to go back to the room, but DH and I still had our FPs to use at TT so we parted ways here. Last year when I first rode the “new and improved” TT, I was not impressed. At all. It was a little better this time as we got to build our test car which was fun and the outside thrill is always great.
I was ready to go back to the room at this point, but DH decided to go back over to DHS one more time and then meet up with all of us later. I stopped at Beaches and Cream for an ice cream cone, and relaxed in the lobby while I ate it before heading to the room. I got in a much-needed nap, and then my parents and I caught a bus to MK.
We met up with DH and rode Pirates, HM, HoP and Enchanted Tales with Belle again. Now, my dad was kind of grumbling about going to Belle, but DH really wanted to do it again and get a part in the show (he’s a giant cheeseball!) We convinced my dad to just go with us instead of sitting outside on a bench all by himself. Well, when it came time to choose parts for the show, as expected DH’s hand immediately shot up in the air when the CM asked for volunteers to be the knights. It must have been slim pickings; after she chose DH, she just looked at my dad standing next to DH and gave him the part of the other knight. My mom and I were dying laughing!!!:rotfl: He was a good sport about the whole thing, and we all had a good chuckle about it. At least he got a nice picture taken with Belle that he can cherish forever. ;)
They were running test cars of the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, so we were able to get a sneak peek of the ride. I can’t wait to try it (and to finally have all of those walls around it come down and really open up Fantasyland!) I think it will make a great addition to Fantasyland’s ride pool.
We were all getting hungry since it was pretty late at this point and happened upon The Friar’s Nook in Fantasyland. It was nice to have something besides the regular fast food fare, and I thoroughly enjoyed my plain mac and cheese. DH and DM each tried one of the fancier mac and cheeses which were good but maybe a little overloaded with toppings. The bacon cheeseburger version had some pretty spicy meat in it!
Since Space Mt. was down the other night, DH and I decided to give it one more try. My parents were tired, so we again parted ways. It’s really nice to be together, but it’s also nice that we can all go at the pace we want and no one gets upset. Anyway, we waited about 25 minutes for Space, the longest wait of our trip which was fine, and then as we were heading out of the park and walking through the Main St. hub, I noticed something going on at the Castle so we stopped. The other night, I heard random music and a couple of fireworks go off around 10:30, obviously not a parade or Wishes, but had no idea what was going on. I pride myself on keeping up with goings on at WDW as best I can; however, I had never even heard of Celebrate the Magic!:blush: We stopped to watch it and I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised. We were too far away from the Castle to see the Glow with the Show Ears, but it was still worth watching.
At this point, we were both exhausted. After all, DH had been to all four parks in one day! I had at least gotten a small break, but he out-Disneyed me today. At the bus depot, we noticed what appeared to be a charter bus picking POFQ hotel guests up, which struck me as odd.:confused: There was a little Disney sign in the front of the bus window, but it was just weird. Anyhoo, my parents were still up when we got back to the room which was nice so we didn’t have to tiptoe around, trying to get ready for bed.
Up next Day 3 and final thoughts…