Is It Time Already?! OKW and POR, November 2013 About This Page:

[chezp]

I'm so glad Evan loved Rock'n'Roller Coaster - he's braver than me!

[Dlandmom2]

Originally Posted by Cam22

Sounds like your FP+ rides were wisely chosen. TSMM is just so much fun.

I think it was our October 2012 trip when Luke was chosen as the rebel spy on Star Tours. We got so excited.

How did I miss that? I'll have to go back and re-read your 2012 report then! I'll bet Luke was thrilled!

Originally Posted by lauriep

Those are very sweet photos of the kids!

Thanks! I love these "cameo" shots of them when they're acting naturally (and usually affectionately!) toward each other.

Originally Posted by Principessa_di_Fata

I need to fall behind more often - just so I can spend 45 minutes catching up on lots and lots of updates all at once! That was so awesome to do!!! I felt like I was there with you guys! If only that were true! I guess because I've been to DL with you, I could really easily "see" Evan and Sophia and yourself being there!!

That's crazy about the golf carts whizzing around at all hours!! Poor thing!

You were really behind! I wish you had been there with us! It would've been amazing! Someday...!

The noise was really hard on me...I'm sure some of the ones that felt like the middle of the night were probably around 6 or 6:30am (which still felt like the middle of the night for me!)...then again, there shouldn't be that much noise at 6 or 6:30am!

Originally Posted by chezp

I'm so glad Evan loved Rock'n'Roller Coaster - he's braver than me!

Both my kids are thrill ride junkies! I was one, too, until my body decided it didn't like roller coaster anymore about 15 years ago. Now, I can only tolerate them a little at a time.

[Dlandmom2]

Now that it was nice and dark outside, we headed over to see the Osborne Lights.

Side story here...for the first few days we were in the parks, we always forgot to pick up a park map. It just never occurs to us to do it when we're at DLR because we know it so well, and we never thought about it in Orlando. We subconsciously thought we knew where we were doing. Needless to say, we got lost quite a bit but thankfully I'm good with directions, so we were able to generally go in the right direction until we could find a map!

Back to the story! We discovered the lights, but I think we were entering from the end instead of the beginning. It was really beautiful! We had a lot of fun looking at everything. It wasn't terribly crowded, but then it wasn't empty either. I told the kids about the black cat, and we looked for it for a few minutes but then gave up. We continued meandering through the streets.





After the lights, we were ready to head back to the room. On the way out, we took a picture of the DHS tree. Notice the section of lights that are out?



I made sure to get it from a different angle without the dark section (but you can still see it on the left)!



Here's what we saw when we left the South Point bus stop (our room is at the end of the far building):



And here's what it looks like further on right before we turned left to go into our building...the quiet pool is just to the left of this picture, and our room is just to the left of that.

[chezp]

I think you entered from the right end - at least that's where a Cast Member told us to enter from, although I must admit we weren't sure if it was right or not. Interesting about the lights out on the tree - not what I expect from Disney.

[lauriep]

I think DHS is a park it's easy to get "lost" in. Glad you got to see the Osborne Lights. Did you stay long enough to see the snow and "dancing" lights? As wonderful and festive as they are, my favorite Christmastime display at WDW is the ice castle. That's the sight I think is jaw-dropping!

[Dlandmom2]

Originally Posted by chezp

I think you entered from the right end - at least that's where a Cast Member told us to enter from, although I must admit we weren't sure if it was right or not. Interesting about the lights out on the tree - not what I expect from Disney.

We exited past The Writer's Stop, if that helps explain which way we went. We entered I think near the open area where Lights, Motors, Action is.

The dark spot on that tree wasn't the only one we saw this trip! Surprising, isn't it?

Originally Posted by lauriep

I think DHS is a park it's easy to get "lost" in. Glad you got to see the Osborne Lights. Did you stay long enough to see the snow and "dancing" lights? As wonderful and festive as they are, my favorite Christmastime display at WDW is the ice castle. That's the sight I think is jaw-dropping!

I looked at the maps over and over before the trip. The hub and spoke design of MK and DL are what makes the most sense. Even MK seems very disorienting to me because Liberty Square's walkways really throw me off because it's different from DL!

Yes, we did see the dancing lights and the snow! Evan was loving the snow, but I had to explain they were soap bubbles. Logical brain that he has, it didn't decrease his enjoyment but rather got him even more interested in the "snow" falling!

I agree the ice castle is gorgeous! I love seeing DL's castle all done up, but MK's is so much larger and really creates such a bigger effect! Beautiful!!

[JKnott17]

I fell way behind, and after all that reading I've forgotten all of the comments I wanted to make! So, I'll just say that it sounds like you've been having a really great time

[Dlandmom2]

Originally Posted by JKnott17

I fell way behind, and after all that reading I've forgotten all of the comments I wanted to make! So, I'll just say that it sounds like you've been having a really great time

Hi Jenn! Welcome back!

I've been trying to punch out mini updates as quickly as I can! Yes, we had a wonderful time on this trip! We've been back several weeks now, and we still turn to each other at least daily to say we wish we were still there!

[Dlandmom2]

This was the night I knew I had to get some laundry done. I had planned to do laundry only once during the trip, but something leaked in my suitcase and left a stain on two of the 4 shirts I had packed for the trip (I figured I would buy at least one or two "souvenir" shirts and then do laundry halfway through the trip). Well, with half my wardrobe out, I really needed some clean shirts!

It was super convenient to do laundry since we were right next to the quiet pool area where the laundry was. I had forgotten it was a DVC resort, so I brought along a pocketful of quarters along with the laundry detergent I had brought with me. I was really hoping it wouldn't be too busy since the Thanksgiving crowds hadn't arrived yet. I had nothing to worry about since the place was empty and quiet. Not a unit was being used!

I started the laundry and then headed back to the room. Evan was watching Stacy (surprised?), and Sophia was texting with her friends back home and sending them pictures of our vacation so far. If anyone's curious, I think the laundry ran almost exactly 30 minutes, and the dryer ran about 50 minutes (but don't quote me on that). I didn't have a huge load, so everything was done quickly.

I think lights were out around 11:30, but as usual I didn't fall asleep right away. Around midnight we got neighbors in the 1 bedroom unit connected to ours. I'm pretty sure there were two kids, at least one of which was a runner. I could hear steps running all over the unit, which I get because I'm sure they're excited to be at WDW, but it went on for quite some time. I guess I'm becoming a grumpy old woman, because there's really no reason the parents should have allowed it to go on for so long when it was MIDNIGHT! Yes, maybe people stay up later than usual at WDW, but making a ton of noise when you're on the second floor of a building? AT MIDNIGHT?! Ok, rant off.

Anyhow, I think I finally fell asleep after 1 (seriously, the running noise and the rolling their suitcases through the unit noise, and the muffled but loud talking noise lasted for at least 45 minutes). I really hoped the people below them were either sound asleep or not in their room yet...or hopefully it was vacant!

Sorry, no pics for this update...I just realized I didn't even take a picture of the laundry area to share with you!

[SuperDave]

Sounds like a couple of great days at Epcot and Studios. Seems like nice dinners at Boma and Prime Time. Good to see you taking full advantage of Fastpass+ at Studios! What kind of time frame did you have between the three attractions you used this for?

Glad it wasn't as noisy at your resort during the night with the carts!

[JKnott17]

Glad you were able to get the laundry done quickly and easily, too bad about the loud neighbors though! It's always frustrating when people are loud and noisy, especially so late at night. We took a quick weekend trip back in November to the Great Wolf Lodge and after the kids had gone to bed (probably around 10:30 or so) the kids in the room above us were jumping off of their beds on to the floor. It was so loud that the ceiling and walls in our room were literally shaking! Chris went up to say something to them and the woman who answered the door seemed annoyed that he did and just said that she would "try" to have them keep it down, they were boys after all Are you kidding me??? There was a call to the front desk from us after that!

[Dlandmom2]

Originally Posted by SuperDave

Sounds like a couple of great days at Epcot and Studios. Seems like nice dinners at Boma and Prime Time. Good to see you taking full advantage of Fastpass+ at Studios! What kind of time frame did you have between the three attractions you used this for?

Glad it wasn't as noisy at your resort during the night with the carts!

The FP+ times were fairly close together. There was probably maybe 30-60 minutes between each window. If I tried to change the times, I was usually given the option to choose back to back times, as in one starting as soon as the prior one ended. However, as it got closer to Thanksgiving, I would sometimes have to switch to something much later in the day, as in maybe 5 or 6 hours later than the time I was switching out of.

Yes, the cart noises weren't as bad on the 3rd and 4th nights, but our new neighbors made up for it!

[Dlandmom2]

Originally Posted by JKnott17

Glad you were able to get the laundry done quickly and easily, too bad about the loud neighbors though! It's always frustrating when people are loud and noisy, especially so late at night. We took a quick weekend trip back in November to the Great Wolf Lodge and after the kids had gone to bed (probably around 10:30 or so) the kids in the room above us were jumping off of their beds on to the floor. It was so loud that the ceiling and walls in our room were literally shaking! Chris went up to say something to them and the woman who answered the door seemed annoyed that he did and just said that she would "try" to have them keep it down, they were boys after all Are you kidding me??? There was a call to the front desk from us after that!

Wow, that would've annoyed me so much! I understand that kids will be kids, and when things like that happen during daytime hours, I never complain. In fact, I usually don't complain...I just get annoyed and complain to myself, lol!

I just don't get why parents especially would ever think it is acceptable for their children to make so much noise during night time hours! Heck, I get mad at my kids if they make that much noise during daylight hours!

[Dlandmom2]

Well, after I finally fell asleep, I slept fairly well. There was the usual cart noise zipping back and forth and the early beeping from the bus stop. And then I heard the neighbors. Did they ever sleep? I heard them moving around, and then their front door opened and shut a few times. And then I heard kids playing in the play area near the quiet pool. I can't say for sure it was the neighbors, but the timing of it was right...and the voice of the little girl I heard was right. Sigh. I looked at my phone, and it was 7:30. I closed my eyes and tried to go back to sleep, but then I heard the sound of banging on the play structure (you know, the sound of something hitting a hollow metal pipe...does that make sense?). Double sigh...this room just wasn't meant to be for me. It went on for some time, along with the kids squealing in fun. I tried not to get upset, because it certainly sounded like the kids were having a great time. Triple sigh.... I got up around 8.

Anyhow, this day was going to be our AK day! I really like Animal Kingdom, and I was looking forward to seeing the vet window! We never made it to Conservation Station on our first trip, so I really wanted to take care of that today. Unfortunately, Sophia had other ideas. She was still having a really difficult time waking up. I don't think we got going until after 10. I wasn't sure if we were going to make it to the vet window to see anything.

We got on our bus and headed out. We passed by Coronado Springs:



And then we made the obligatory stop at Blizzard Beach:



It was a nice day...some clouds but plenty of sun!



By the time we got to Animal Kingdom, it was lunch time (if you think about it, we still hadn't adjusted to East Coast time yet, so this was really our breakfast) so we decided to find something to eat. I wanted to try Flame Tree BBQ, so that's where we headed.



Sophia had to have her turkey leg!



Now that we discovered Evan is willing to eat chicken legs, that's what I got him!



For myself, I went big and chose the chicken and rib combo!



Everything was yummy and filled our tummies! There was beautiful visitor near our table...



...who then went for a higher view!



There was unfortunately no time to head for Conservation Station now because we had FP+ for Festival of the Lion King at 12:30pm. I loved this show in 2009, and I was really looking forward to seeing it again!

FP+/Magic Bands was easy again. We got into line for a short wait and then were led to the Elephant section. I'm pretty sure last time we were in the Warthog section, so this was new to us and a lot of fun. We absolutely LOVED the show!

I guess I didn't take any pictures with my phone, but we did see it again later on in the trip when I did take pictures with my phone!

We walked through Dinoland and continued on to Expedition Everest where we used our next FP+.









Expedition Everest is a lot of fun, but that backward spiral in the dark really does a number on me! Those G forces are brutal!

After EE, Sophia wanted to see the Finding Nemo show, so we headed back that way. This was when I took my favorite picture of the entire trip...and it was with my phone no less!



Next: Time to find Nemo!

[SuperDave]

Sounds like a good time at the Ak so far. EE is one of my faves! Always go for the single line as there is usually virtually no wait! Can ride it many times!

Looked like a good lunch at FTB. It's easily my favorite counter service in the parks!

Sorry to hear again about the carts and that inconsiderate family with all their noice from them and their misbehaved kids!