Colexi's Spring Break Adventure (or is it Nightmare) THREAD 1 of 3 - Updated 5/12
About This Page:

**chezp** · 05-03-2005, 03:07 PM

Another great update - and I loved all your photos, both the ones of Colin and Alexa and then those shots of the animals - superb!

luvnwdwgal · 05-03-2005, 08:44 PM

Great pics Marnie! More please!

disneyfan4994 · 05-03-2005, 08:57 PM

Great update. Looks like you had an awesome room at AK.

Happymommy · 05-04-2005, 01:04 AM

I always love your trip reports Marnie!!!! I can't wait to read more!!!!

mestitch · 05-04-2005, 08:44 AM

Marnie I

your photos of the lodge! I can't wait to see it for myself in Nov. I love reading your TR. Can't wait to hear about the Coral Reef (one of our favs)

mousestruck · 05-04-2005, 09:38 AM

Loved those pictures! Your kids are adorable... and that Mickey Bar definitely made my homesick. Looking forward to hearing more!

**Colexis Mom** · 05-04-2005, 01:48 PM

Sorry for the delay everyone, still dealing with a sick Colin

Day 1 Part 3

It was finally time to wake up everyone, so we could head to Epcot for our dinner at Coral Reef (another first)! We headed to the bus stop at 5 (after making sure everyone had their sweatshirts and long pants on)! We encounted our longest wait of our trip for the bus, close to 15 minutes. I remembered also from December that around this time of day, we always had a long wait for the busses, not sure why! The same held true here. As we were waiting, there was a huge plume of smoke from the Lodge

Would we have a room to come back to

I guess we could buy anything we needed

No one was running from the building, so everything must have been okay!

We were soon at Epcot, and thru the bag check/turnstiles. I don’t know why they have the two so close together. There’s always a line, and it’s so inefficient. Our first thing to do was to find our Leave a Legacy tiles that we did in December! And what a great location we were greeted with. We’re looking right up at Spaceship Earth, and located as close to it as you can get, right in front of the fountain on the west side. Here we are

No one wanted to ride SE (and we never got back to it)!

We’re in the middle row

In front of the fountain

We headed for Mousegears in search of a sweatshirt or jacket for me. Again, we came up empty. They had one that I liked, but of course, there wasn’t a small

Alexa wanted to go to Ice Station Cool, so that was the next stop. I just can’t drink any of the sods in here, they just seem sicky sweet to me. She and Colin had a great time filling up on the watermelon one, I think

And we saw someone come in and fill up 3 mugs from the machines

We walked out with sticky feet (you’d think they’d have a foot cleaner as you exit – isn’t everyone’s feet sticky after this attraction??)! It was 6:15, so we just decided to head over to Coral Reef and we’d check in early. There was quite a line just to check in

We were told that we’d be seated close to our PS time. They looked really busy. One thing that confused me was they never called names, they just walked up to you and said your name, and then led you to your table

How’d they do that?? They must write down clues as to what you look like on the sheet when you sign in! A little freaky, I might say

We were probably seated around 6:45, and ended up in the middle tier, but on the edge closer to the tank. The restaurant was beautiful, but LOUD! DH had the tilapia special, I had the filet mignon, Alexa had pizza, and Colin had pasta marinara. And we got a shrimp cocktail for Alexa. It was only 7 by now, and they had already run out of the glow cubes for the kids drinks

It was fun to watch the tank and the divers. There was someone who must have just proposed, or sent some “love” message before we were seated. It was also someone’s birthday and they had a sign

The food was very good, but the service was slow (or slower than you’d want with two kids). We were going to order dessert, but she dropped off the menu, and didn’t return for 15 minutes, so by that time it was check please. And that took forever as well. Matt took the kids outside, because they were at their limit for sitting still! We saved $15.20 with the DDE card

I think having the DDE card was half the problem for the delays. As we’d find out later, most of the CMs cannot do this by themselves, and have to have a manager either key something in or unlock something on the register for it to accept! We were finally out of there just after 8

Our view at Coral Reef

We headed over to Soarin’, as it was the Annual Passholders Preview weekend, but it was already closed up

So we headed over to the World Showcase. Davy Jones was playing at the Flower Power concert, and I had wanted to see him. As it was, there’s no way we’d make it in time for the start

We had to stop and get a Kaki Gori for dessert

and then walked over to the theater. We got there around 8:25, so I know I missed a few songs! But he was still great

And Daydream Believer was the last song, and everyone in the audience was singing along! A great show, I’m glad I at least got to see some of it!

It was then time to find a spot for IllumiNations, and we chose a spot near France. There was only about 10 minutes until the start, and there were still lots of good seats to be had! We were next to another couple from Tennessee, and talked to them a bit. They were at the end of their trip and we were just at the beginning. They seemed to have lost the “magic” as they’d only been there 5 days, and had had enough. They were in the Contempory, in a tower room overlooking Magic Kingdom, and that wasn’t shedding magic either

The dad said the kids weren’t too enthralled, as they knew there were just people in those costumes, so why bother to wait and see them

After experiencing IllumiNations next to them, boy, those kids were tough! Constantly talking, fighting, yikes

Either way, it didn’t ruin the show for us, we love IllumiNations

We made our way out of the park with the throngs of others, cold and tired. Thankfully, there was a bus waiting for us at the stop when we got there

and we were back in no time at all! We unpacked, repacked for the morning, and then headed off to bed, with lots of thoughts for adventures the next week

Matt had gone down to refill the mugs, and came back with an AKL sweathshirt for me

I must have missed this one when I was down there, it is an olive green with cream letters of AKL, a giraffe, and zebra

He does have his good moments

Memories of our First Day
The weather today was…….cool and windy, 71 degrees, partly cloudy and COLD at night
The best thing today was…..checking into AKL
The worst thing today was……all the tweens running around the Boneyard unsupervised
The funniest thing today was……..being right next to a live rhino on the Safari
Today we tried …….Coral Reef
and the result was…….good food, but LOUD, and slow service
The most magical moment today was……getting all our room requests at AKL

Coming up next: Aloha, and a day at the Kingdom

RobDVC · 05-04-2005, 02:01 PM

Love those IllumiNations pictures!

lauren-roxy · 05-04-2005, 02:08 PM

I hope the kids are feeling better Marnie! Great update and the pictures are awesome!!!I don't like slow restaurants either because my kids are only good for so long too! Can't wait to read more!!!

Jillybean · 05-04-2005, 02:24 PM

Hmmm . . . what a fun couple you stood beside at Illuminations.

Glad that you didn't let them take any magic away from you!

What a sweet hubbie to buy you a sweatshirt!

Jill

DawnDenise · 05-04-2005, 02:32 PM

Great pics of Illumination!!! We had the same thing happen @ Coral Reef where they just came up to you. It freaked me out too!

**DopeyGirl** · 05-04-2005, 03:24 PM

"Cheer up, Sleepy Jean . . . oh, what can it mean . . . to a Daydream Believer and a homecoming queen . . . "

I'd have been singing along too . . . and now that songs stuck in my head . . .

How sweet of Matt to get you that sweatshirt!!! My DH says "He's good! I wouldn't know the first thing to buy for you!" Matt has given my Mike something to work towards!!!

Sounds like you had a great day, save for the "magic-less" family beside you at IllumiNations and the bit of cold!!! Looking forward to more!!!

debsta922 · 05-04-2005, 03:27 PM

Just getting caught up Marnie...I had to laugh when reading your trip report because I spent my first day (one week later) scrambling around to find a sweatshirt too!

jude411 · 05-04-2005, 03:30 PM

What a sweet husband you have. Sounds like you had a great day. That family next to you at Illuminations are just party poopers. We all know movies aren't real either, but we still enjoy them. Sounds like the weather is perfect for all that walking your doing. Great pictures at AKL.

TinkerBelz · 05-04-2005, 03:51 PM

Marnie,

I always enjoy your trip reports and look forward to them. My 13 yo daughter and I read them together and we laugh and giggle and enjoy the pictures so much! Shoot, I've even told my friend about them (she's in the process of planning her 1st trip ever - good thing she has a friend that is a Disney NUT and told her she HAD to have a Passporter AND go to the web board!) LOL

It still ceases to amaze me when I hear of families who are not having a magical time at Disney. I mean, am I some sort of freak. Geez, sometimes I read the trip reports and tear up and I always cry when I first get there, when I see the castle, when I see a parade, when I first see Mickey Mouse, when I see fireworks.....Ok, the list could go on.

Don't parents realize that they are the ones who make and break the trip for their kids. The reason their kids think "well there's only people inside of them" is because their parents tell me all the time "it's just people inside of them".

My 13 yo daughter is a pretty typical girl at this age, except that she actually talks to me about her problems AND as someone said to me at McDonalds the other day when I was reporting about how she felt bad all day one day at school for talking mean to me the night before and apologized to me when she got home. The young woman (I'd say early 20's and very pierced..LOL) said "you're lucky to have a teenager with a conscience". I do feel REALLY lucky, but I also know it has to do with how we raise our kids!! I've raised her to care about other people, and respect authority. It's just how we live.

And although she's a typical teenage girl and can be sort of grouchy at times...LOL...she is so excited about going to see Mickey Mouse and hug him. Sure she knows there's someone inside of him, but she also knows that she can make it as fun for herself or as boring for herself as she chooses.

OK, written a small novel now, but I think it's more that our kids (yours and others on the board) are LUCKY because we are raising them the way we do. Teaching them to allow themselves to have a brief reprieve from regular live and relax and have fun!

Yvonne