October 27th-November 4th, 2012/ Our 4th trip and our best trip/ASMu About This Page:

[chezp]

Sounds like another great day.

[Wolfy6688]

Ok all caught up!!

Sorry about the Cheetah ride but I'm sure your son knows it wasn't intentional. I liked your review of Busch gardens. I've never been there but I might have to go now!

The few times I've put a DND sign on our door they've hung a bag on our door filled with towels and soap/shampoo. It's very thoughtful.

Can't wait to read your MK day

[Cam22]

Great update!

[MsPeggySue911]

DAY 4: Tuesday October 30th, 2012

It’s still kind of cold. Florida seems to have had a cold front come through. The temps were forecast in the high 70’s low 80’s then about a week before we got here the forecast changed and the temps dropped to 60’s and low 70’s.

We had breakfast at the food court then headed out to Magic Kingdom. We drive to MK. I know some ppl say it is easier to ride the bus because it drops you off right at the front of the park but I don’t mind riding the monorail to get to the park so that we can be in our own car and not be at the mercy of buses. We also have a AAA Diamond parking pass that lets us park right up in the front of the parking lot.

Last year when we came to MK we had it rain on us for about 3 straight hours. We wore our rain ponchos but after about 3 hours our legs and shoes were drenched and we decided to leave. But we didn’t get to ride about half of the rides. We hit the highlights then left. And of course after we left it stopped raining.

On this trip, this day was suppose to be our Sea World day but when I rechecked the Touring Plans crowd calendar for our planned MK day (Thursday) the crowd predictions had gone way up from when I originally made our park plans. I think it might have had to do with the fact that Thursday was going to be the only day that week that didn’t have a MNSSHP and they had the MSEP and Wishes scheduled.

Originally we were going to spend Thursday, Nov 1st at MK and we had a dinner reservation at Crystal Palace and we were going to stay for Wishes, but the predicted crowds scared me off. I would rather skip Wishes and go on a different day rather than deal with 7 or 8 level crowds. So we changed it to go on a MNSSHP day which usually makes for lighter day crowds.

We stayed in the park from 9 am to 3 pm. We usually don’t stay in any park more than 6 hours. The kids got to ride most of the rides they never got a chance to ride last year, like Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan, the People Mover, Buzz Lightyear. They got to see Philharmagic and Stitch’s Great Escape.

Just an observation about Stitch’s little show. What is the purpose of having a shoulder harness come down on you for that show? It is pointless. And I don’t know if it was just me or if it did this to everybody, but that shoulder thing came down VERY HARD onto my shoulders. It hurt. Then it started going up and down and coming back down on my shoulders. It was painful and distracting me from the show. If I never have to sit through that again it wouldn’t hurt my feelings.

It seems like there is just more to see and do in Tomorrow Land. Or at least we spent more time there than any other area of the park. But we skipped some rides like Pirates and IASW. I have ridden them and don’t need to ride them again. Like Jungle Cruise. That, to me, is a waste of time unless you have little kids who would be fascinated by plastic animals.

We ate lunch at Cosmic Rays. ($82) And I have to say… I have not seen Carrot Cake offered at counter service places until we ate there and it was SO GOOD. I hadn’t had Carrot Cake in years but I don’t remember it being so good. I had wished I skipped the meal and just had 2 helpings of Carrot Cake. All I ever see for dessert choices in CS places are usually Cheesecake, which I don’t like, or Chocolate cake, which I also don’t like.

After lunch we rode Space Mountain a few times. Last time I rode it I said I was never going to ride it again because it is just too rough and jerky and makes my neck and head hurt. But I decided to go ahead and ride it with the kids this year knowing how rough it was going to be. We got several ride photos from it.

I always wear a lanyard with a pouch on it to hold my KTTW cards, debit card and cash. I have used it every trip. But for some reason this time, while on Space Mountain, my lanyard decided to break (the metal clasp) and I just happened to reach down to feel my pouch (habit) and got to the end of the lanyard and my pouch was GONE!! The lanyard was just dangling with no pouch on the end of it. I panicked.

Fortunately when I pulled the lap bar down at the beginning of the ride it had come down directly on the pouch and it held the pouch up against me when the lanyard broke. I was so relieved when I felt the pouch in my lap. I can’t tell you what kind of panic I had there for a split second. My pouch had my debit card and about $100 cash in it.

We finished riding everything we wanted to ride then back over to Adventureland to have some Dole Whip floats. In the morning when we pass by Aloha Isle it is always closed so we had to backtrack to go back over there. Me and my DD are the only 2 who had the Pineapple Dole Whip float. The 2 boys didn’t even want the float part, just Vanilla Ice Cream. DH gets the float but gets Vanilla with it. I always get Pineapple soft serve and the juice. We love the floats. DH have gotten one every time we have been there. And we always go sit in the little table area and have gotten the exact same table every time. That little table area has never been full when we have gone in there to get a seat. I would think it would stay full of people but it doesn’t.

We left the park and went back to the room and the kids went for an afternoon swim before we had to leave for our dinner reservation at Whispering Canyon.

After the kids swim and DH’s nap we got ready and drove over to Wilderness Lodge to eat. I love, love, love that place. I love the look and feel of it but would never see myself paying deluxe prices to stay there.

Our dinner reservation was for 6:30 and we showed up right at 6:30 and was given a pager. We found a place to sit in the lobby and within 5 minutes our pager went off and we were seated.

I have seen a lot of ppl on the boards talk about now that WC has gone to SKILLET ONLY at dinner that they were all canceling their dinner reservations there. But we had never been there before so we didn’t know if we liked the skillet or not.

You pick 3 out of the 5 meat choices to begin with and we picked Chicken, Beef and Ribs. After your initial food is brought out you can then order the Fish or Sausage. Also the milk shakes are included and they are refillable. I got the Caramel shake and it was very good. Nobody at our table asked for a refill though. The shakes are very filling.

The food was pretty good overall but I think if the kids had to pick their least favorite place we ate it probably would have been here. They just weren’t impressed with any of the food. They didn’t eat much.

We saw some antics with some of the servers and the whole Ketchup thing was a little bit much for us. We intentionally did not ask for Ketchup because DH did not want to participate in that. He usually eats Ketchup with any kind of meat he has but since they brought out some BBQ sauce he bypassed the Ketchup for the night.

Someone at the table next to us had messed up and called one of the servers a waitress and OMG she went off (jokingly) on them. She kept on and on the whole time they were there about “NO I can’t get you anything let me find you a waitress to help you” She even made him a paper hat out of a paper bag that had something written on it and she made him wear it through out the dinner.

A table very near us had a gallon size jar with a 2 foot straw sticking out of it full of soda. I had heard that if you ask for a soda refill sometimes that will happen.

If it is just DH and myself we may go back there to eat on our next trip. We’ll see. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great either. I think it is fun to try once.

After dinner we drove back to the resort and the kids put back on their wet swimsuits and went down to the pool to play ping pong, swim and watch the night time movie.

Up tomorrow our Island of Adventure/Universal/Hoop Dee Doo day on Halloween.

[chezp]

I am so with you about the shoulder harnesses on Stitch's Great Escape - they really do hurt! So glad you didn't lose your pouch, that would've been terrible.

[Cam22]

I always put my hands up and stop the shoulder harness on Stitch before it gets to my shoulder because it does hurt if it is slapped right down on them. Glad you all got to do some things at MK that you missed last trip.

[Colexis Mom]

Great updates! So glad you found your pouch!

[Roxie2006]

I have really enjoyed your TR. Waiting to read more!!!

[Giselle]

The harnesses are an artifact from the attraction's pre-Stitch days. They made sense in that storyline. And apparently the Imagineers simply re-used them. Also, they get used in some of the "tickle" effects and vibration effects for the show.

[MsPeggySue911]

DAY 5: Wednesday October 31st, 2012 Happy Halloween!!

We started off this day the same as every other day with breakfast at the resort food court.

We headed over to Island of Adventure/Universal and got there around 9. I made a goof up and for some reason when I got out of the car instead of putting my purse in the trunk I kept it on my arm and headed into the park. Now if you have ever been there you know getting to the park is not easy and it is not close. We had only gotten to the beginning of the moving walkways when DH noticed I had my purse and asked me “Why do you have your purse?” And it was one of those slap yourself on the forehead moments. So to save us all from having to go all the way back to the car DH took my purse and took it back to the car while we waited. I felt like an idiot for just bringing it with me…But in my daily life when I get out of the car the purse always goes with me so I just lost track of where I was I guess.

There were slightly higher crowds in the parks than what we have been use to in the past trips. Even on these exact same dates last year it was less crowded. We still didn’t have bad wait times. I think the longest we waited in line was 15 minutes.

When we finally got to the parks we went into IOA first and as usual we headed straight back to WWOHP area. We took the short cut where you take a left right as you cross the bridge into Seuss land instead of going all the way around Seuss land. I know not a lot of ppl know the short cut because when we cut through there everybody else just keeps on going and goes all the way around the long way. But eventually they will figure it out like we did.

We went straight to Forbidden Journey (the main Harry Potter ride) It is an amazing ride. It is a robotic arm that twists you and turns you and lays you back on your back and takes you through this simulator journey flying through the air with Harry and the gang.

I get motion sick very easy and if you do too this ride will really get your stomach churning and your head dizzy. But I take Antivert (Meclizine) before I come into the park to keep it from affecting me so bad. If I take (2) Antivert I can even make it through the whole ride without closing my eyes.

After we got off Forbidden Journey DH, DSS and DD went to ride the dueling dragons coaster while DS11 and I waited around for them. We went into the little shop right there that has the hoodies and wizard robes for sale. I found a hoodie I really liked but the biggest size they had was still too small on me. I think the hoodies were in junior sizes because they were just so small built. I ended up getting a different hoodie that I finally found that is a Grey and Yellow HufflePuff zip up hoodie. DH bought it for me. He actually offered. I had asked him if when we got into Universal he would buy me a hoodie and he said he would but then he offered to buy this jacket for me also. I was shocked that he is willing to buy me 2 jackets in one day but I wasn’t going to question it or complain!!

We all had Butter Beer and we have all come to agree that the frozen butter beer is way better than the liquid Butter Beer. The liquid just tastes like Cream Soda. The Frozen has more of the Butterscotch flavor. I don’t remember Butter Beer being $4 each but they sure are.

After we had Butter beer DD and DSS rode the dueling dragons again and when they exited the ride DSS went a different way than he was suppose to which rerouted my daughter out oa different way so she never came past us in the normal exit area where we were waiting for her and she got a little lost. I walked around looking for her for 10 minutes. She found a team member to try and call me but when DH had taken my purse back to the car that morning I had forgotten to get my phone out of it before he walked off with my phone in it. And she didn’t know my DH’s number so when I didn’t answer my phone she continues to wander around looking for me. I had gotten a little panicked and decided to just stand in one place and hope that eventually she would find me, and she did. She was a little upset by the time she found me.

We rode Hippogriff, the little bitty roller coaster and then decided to go to the Poseidon’s Fury show. When we got there and got in line it was a 20 minute wait for the next show so we stood in line and waited it out. It’s an awesome show if you have never seen it. It involves fire and water and special effects where a wall just disappears then reappears. It really plays tricks on the mind.

After that we had lunch over in the Jurassic Park area. ($50) DD and I jad Pizza, DH had a Chicken sandwich and the boys had Chicken Strips.

We spent the first half of the day at IOA but after lunch we park hopped over to Universal. The first thing we did was go straight back to the theater where they put on the Beeteljuice Rock n Roll show because I really like to see it every time we are there. And the first show of the day was about to start.

We rode all the rides the kids wanted to ride and DD even talked me into getting on RIP, RIDE, ROCKIT with her. That’s the one that at the beginning the ride takes you straight up into the air laying flat on your back. It wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. I just closed my eyes for the going up part and then the rest of the roller coaster was good. It only flips you upside down one time if I remember correctly and the rest of it is just coaster.

While we were here at US we rode the new Despicable Me ride. It’s not really a ride, it’s a show where the chairs you sit in move. But it was cute. And afterwards DH bought me a Yellow Minion hoodie!! SCORE! He was going to buy me a Thing 1 hoodie but when he saw the Minion hoodie he said “Wouldn’t you like this one better?” And I did. So I got that one.

We let the kids go get back on RrR right at time for us to need to leave but we had about 30 minutes left before we needed to go and the single rider line said 20 minutes so I told them they could go through one time. While we waited the ride time jumped up to 45 minutes so I already knew we weren’t going to get out of there on time.

It was 5:20 by the time we got out of there and we still had to get to our car and get straight over to Fort Wilderness for the 6:15 show of Hoop Dee Doo.

We finally made it to Fort Wilderness. Our GPS tried to take us to Wilderness Lodge but we got headed in the right direction. Then when we got to the guard booth at FtW the guard couldn’t find my name on the list for reservations. She said “Oh you must have just made the reservation this week” And I told her NO actually I made the reservation 4 months ago and I have the reservation number if you need it. She let us on through. We drove around in circles in every parking lot they have right up there by where you need to be to get on the bus. There were hundreds of golf cart trailers taking up parking spaces and there was no place to park. We ended up parking in a spot marked for 30 minute check in parking. We knew we might get a ticket or worse, get towed, but we had no other option. The only other option was to park in the grass and I am quite sure that would have caught more attention than us parking in the 30 minute parking places.

We parked and had to catch the internal bus back to the back of the resort where the restaurant that houses Hoop Dee Doo is located. We got there right at the last minute just before they started letting ppl in so we didn’t bother getting the family photo taken that they take of you right outside the place. We could have gotten it free since we had photopass+ but since we were kind of late getting there we decided against it. We checked in at the window outside and she told me my tickets would be inside at the podium.

Turns out they don’t even open the doors and let ppl into the building until 5 minutes prior to showtime so we weren’t really late at all. If I had gotten there a half hour earlier all I would have accomplished is we could have gotten the photo taken. But by this day DH was already tired of me having him stand for pictures and so were the kids. They were all photopass’d out.

The show was cute. Everyone loved the show and the food was very good too. DH and DD ate 2 buckets full of the Fried Chicken. I liked the sweet Cornbread and the Potatoes and Corn. I never even tried the bucket of salad that was already sitting on our table when we got there.

If you have never been to HDDR before it is an old Western type saloon show with ppl who put on little skits, sing and dance and have the audience participate sometimes. You can see it on You Tube if you are curious about it. I had previously watched it on You Tube just to make sure it isn’t something the family would hate. But fortunately everybody liked it. We had category 2 seats. We were off to the left of the stage a little ways back. There were maybe 3 tables in front of us between us and the stage. Nobody was seated up in category 3 seats. And some of the floor tables were empty. I hope the rumor that they are going to close it down isn’t true because I would like to see it again some day.

After HDDR we caught the bus back to the front of the resort, drove back to our resort and the kids went for an evening swim/movie.

My kids were a little disappointed that they didn’t get to do anything for Halloween two years in a row. We have been at WDW on 10/31 in 2011 and 2012. And next year they are probably going to be too big to go trick or treating.

Up next tomorrow Sea World.

[Colexis Mom]

Sounds like a great day at US/IoA and ending with HDDR!

[chezp]

Sounds like a great day. Glad you made it to Hoop Dee Doo Ok.

[Cam22]

What a great time at US/IoA!

[bsblady01]

more please

[MsPeggySue911]

DAY 6: November 1st, 2012

Today was suppose to originally be our Magic Kingdom day but we swapped days around earlier in the week and this ended up being our Sea World day.

Today was very uneventful. We got to SW around 9:00 am and the first thing we did was start watching shows.

The first show was Blue Horizons. The kids decided to sit separate from us so they missed out when the vendor walked by selling Caramel popcorn because I got some!
I did end up buying them some at the next show which was Clyde and Seymore Sea Lion show. It was a really cute funny show. The actual pre-show mime who walks around the bottom of the stadium is hilarious. He follows people and mimics people and made us laugh for 20 minutes before the show started.

We let the kids ride the rides (Kraken, Manta, Atlantis) a few times then we went to the Whale show One Ocean. The kids sat down really close to the front of the arena in an area that was suppose to be a splash zone but they lucked out and didn’t get splashed even once. Every time the whale went by and splashed it went just near them but never made it to them. They wanted to get splashed!

We had lunch. ($57) The 3 kids had burgers. I had a small salad and DH had a Chicken sandwich.

We were going to stay for the 3:30 showing of A’Lure (a show similar to Cirque Du Soleil) but we got through with everything by 2:45 and didn’t want to try and kill 45 minutes so we decided to skip that show and just leave.

We went back to the resort for an afternoon rest before dinner and the kids went for a swim.

This evening we went to Old Key West resort and ate at Olivia’s. I love the look and theming of OKW and would love to stay there someday.

The 3 guys had Steak, DD had a burger and I had a Shrimp PoBoy. ($200)

We headed back to the resort and the kids went back down to the pool to play Ping Pong and watch the movie.

Up tomorrow Island of Adventure/Universal again.