April vacation at the Wilderness Lodge - Update 5/13 COMPLETED! About This Page:

[tammyd_rn]

I forget sometimes of all the things you can do in the Land. Glad the rain didn't stop you.

[Annabel]

Great day at Epcot! Looking forward to reading more

[musicteachermom]

April at the Wilderness Lodge, April 16th, Monday, Day 3

Today was Animal Kingdom Early Entry day. So, after breakfast in our room, we were at the bus stop at 7:55. We waited and waited, and finally I picked up the phone on the wall and called Disney transportation at 8:25. I explained that we’d been waiting (with many others), for 30 min. and the woman said, “Well, its EMH day at the A.K. today.” DUH! (I thought to myself, that’s why we got to the bus stop early!) She said the bus would be there soon. Well it finally came at 8:30. So, we got to the A.K. at around 8:45, and called our neighbors (Sarah’s friend Amelia and her family), because we were supposed to me them at A.K. today. No answer, so we did Bug’s Life. We usually would have done the Safari but it was really cold out (even bundled up in my sweatshirt). We decided to do indoor rides in the morning. So, Bug’s Life was a walk-on. I love this attraction, but Sarah really didn’t like it. I thought that she would surely like it this time, because after all she was older! But she kept saying that she hates bugs, and near the end she jumped up onto daddy’s lap! Of course I think this show is really cute and funny, and I happen to laugh a lot during this show.

Still, feeling very cold, we walked over to Dinosaur because this is indoors as well. Last time we were here, Michael and Eric did this ride, and I remember that Sarah and I gave our fast passes away to 2 people because she was too young, only 6, and felt that it was too scary to do.
So, Sarah and I did Dinosaur for the first time, and Michael for the second time. Sarah and Michael enjoyed this ride, but I wasn’t impressed. I know what people mean about this ride jerking you around a lot. I think I’m just getting old! I really think that I could take it or leave it.

We then headed over to the Safari. It was only about a 15 minute wait. The safari is always fun, but being a little later, I felt that we didn’t see quite so many animals. My advice would be to take this ride the first thing in the morning. But we did see the elephant baby; I don’t remember the age, maybe 9 months or a year old??

We ended up finally getting in touch with Amelia’s family. Due to family circumstances they couldn’t do AK today. Sarah was a little disappointed, but she still had Wednesday to look forward to. We’ll definitely meet up with them there at MGM.

After the safari, we decided to pop into Tusker House for hot tea and hot cocoa. Like I said, it was still very cold. I love the atmosphere in this place, but man, were the lines long and the service very slow! We wanted to have lunch here, but it’s so crowded we’d have to think about this.

We then walked the Maharaj Jungle Trek. Our favorite part was watching the tigers. One was sleeping, but 2 were pacing around, very cool to watch!

After this, we headed over to Expedition Everest. Okay-here goes-will I ride-yes or no???? I’m very prone to motion sickness and I don’t like very many roller coasters. But, many people on the boards were comparing this to BigThunderMountain Railroad at the MK. Well, I’m thinking I can do that, no problem! I can also do SpaceMountain. So, I decided to give it a try. We only waited in line for 5 minutes to get into the door entrance when suddenly a CM closes the door and says, “Everyone has to clear out. The ride is experiencing technical difficulties”. Everyone was surprised, but are we ever glad we weren’t in the long line past the door! We watched, and everyone who had probably been waiting for at least 40 minutes had to turn around and empty out. So, we got Fastpasses for later. We heard later on that all those people waiting in line got nothing. They didn’t even give them fastpasses!

Okay, what to do now? We decided to walk on over to Nemo the Musical. This was an incredibly long line with a long wait. But the show was great, really cute, and very well done. I wish that they had also kept Tarzan though and built another theater to house this new show.

As we left this show we decided to walk back to Tusker House for lunch. On our way, we met our neighbors from our street, Roger, Nan and Kaili. It’s so much fun to bump into friends when you’re at WDW! We knew they were coming and I even helped them plan a little, but it’s always surprising to bump into someone on vacation.

We said our goodbyes after awhile, and had lunch at the Tusker House. I staked out a table while Sarah and Michael got lunch. Lunch was good, but the lines were so slow. I wonder if it’s always like this at this place! When we came out of Tusker House we had to stop and watch the coolest group of 4 drummers and 1 woman dancing. I’ve always wanted to see them and there they were! Now, in my music room at school I have a conga drum, 3 tubanos, bongo drums, and a gathering drum, and the kids LOVE when I do drumming lessons. So, I was really enjoying these drummers, watching their techniques!

Then, it was time for our fastpasses for Expedition Everest. Okay, here goes, I’m nervous that I’ll be motion sick, but a CM said it’s 3 minutes long. I should be able to do that-no problem! WRONG!!!! Beware people, when this roller coaster goes backwards, it’s for a very long time, not just a few seconds. That’s what killed me I think. Well, no more roller coasters for me. I should have known better! I was basically nauseous for 2 hours. I just wanted to lie down and go to bed! So, I sat for awhile and then followed Michael and Sarah, like a sick puppy to Flights of Wonder. We waited awhile to go into this show. (Yay, I could just sit on the ground and vegetate). Luckily I had some mylantas and Excedrin and that helped the healing process!

Well, we loved the Flights of Wonder bird show. (I know my sister is cringing, reading this right now. Birds are not her thing!) It was special because they asked for a volunteer from the audience, whoever had a dollar bill. And Michael got picked! He stood up, held out the dollar, and I think it was a hawk that came down and swooped it out of his hand. Whatever kind of bird it was, it was very cool. At the end of the show the CM who had hosted the show, said that this was his first solo show. Everyone applauded for him, because he did such a great job! Well done!

Oh, one other thing. When we were walking along, sometime during the day at AK we were lucky enough to spy Divine! For those of you who don’t know, she is a woman up on stilts, and she is covered with vines and walks around, like a walking tree. You can hardly find her face, which is painted. I know that she is hard to find, and everyone around was just amazed at the way she moved. Pretty cool. We also saw Baloo that day, and we’ve never seen him before either.
Time to leave, we really did everything here we wanted to. No Lion King Show, because we’ve seen it twice and we didn’t really feel like it this time, although I think it is amazing.

So, we had a very full day, and decided it was time to go back to the WL. Originally we had reservations for Marrakesh, but when we walked around Epcot on Sunday we checked out the menu and it wasn’t tempting us. We decided to skip this restaurant because we were also very tired and not very hungry. That night, we ate a light dinner at Roarin” Forks (they have this great salad, with some yummy candied walnuts), and then we hung around the lobby. There are many groupings of comfortable chairs, so I got a glass of wine, and Michael and Sarah used the Hidden Mickey list and hunted around the lobby for many of these. Some other kids were trying to find the Hidden Mickeys as well, and it was fun for Sarah. It was a nice laid back evening.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention, when we got back to our room after the AK, mousekeeping had left 3 little surprises on the bathroom vanity. Between the 2 sinks was a towel folded up like a shirt. Then the glass was decorated with facecloths and stickers to make a face, she also put our toothbrushes in it, and yet another facecloth was folded to look like an octopus. She had put stickers on all these items to show buttons, eyes, etc. Sarah and I were so thrilled. We had never had any towel animals left for us before.

[KandJluvdisney]

sounds like you are having a great time Laurie
we are practically neighbors!
hurry back with more please

[Lemap760]

Sounds like you're getting a lot done. You are a great sport for trying Everest. I have to try and sneak a ride on while my son is napping and won't miss me.

[Colexis Mom]

Sorry to hear you didn't do well on Everest It sounds like you had a full day at AK otherwise And a nice relaxing evening! I hope it warms up for you

[NanaTink]

I'm sorry EE wasn't a fun thing for you! How cool to see Devine! We haven't yet! Sounds like the evening was very relaxing and fun!
Can't wait to read more!

[SouthernBelle]

Laurie,

Now you have me thinking twice befire I ride EE We have also planned to eat lunch at Tusker House, so thanks for the info. How to find that little bit of mousekeeping magic when you got back to your room......

Sounds like you had a great trip, even if 1 member of the family was missing, Can't wait to read the next installment......

[bsblady01]

more please

[musicteachermom]

April at the Wilderness Lodge, April 17, Day 4


This was supposed to be a BlizzardBeach day, but it didn’t feel warm enough to us, so we changed our plans. After having breakfast in our room we decided to pop over to Epcot for 2 rides, (the beauty of park hopper passes). Michael wanted to do Test Track and Sarah and I were dying to do Soarin” again. It was EMH day at Epcot and we arrived around 8:30. On our way in we bumped into two of Sarah’s friends from school, Jaycie and Liza, and Kathy (Jaycie’s mom). So, Michael went over to Test Track himself while the rest of us went to Soarin. Our wait was long so Michael had to do some waiting for us when he was done, but no biggie. Then we said goodbye to our friends and decided to visit Downtown Disney.

This is our 4th Disney trip and we have never been to Downtown Disney, so we decided to check it out. Well, it was really a nice place! We did make some purchases and we ended up starting at the Market Place and then going over to Planet Hollywood for lunch. The atmosphere here we really enjoyed. It was fun to look at all the stuff inside on the walls and hanging from the ceiling. But the music was SO loud! I asked our waitress if it bothered her and she said she got headaches all the time. She did ask them to turn it down and I think they did a little. The meal was just OK, not great. I did end up with another Excedrin headache.

We then walked through PleasureIsland. We figured our son Eric and his friends would love to hang around here when they’re 21. It looked like a lot of fun for the 21 and older crowd.

We shopped a little more, made a delicious stop at Ghirardelli’s (yum, yum,) and then took the bus back to the WL. It was warmer now so we wanted to go swimming in the pool.

We got back to our room, changed and Sarah and I went down to the very crowded pool. We finally managed to find 2 lounge chairs after walking around for awhile. Everyone thought that the water was pretty cool today. There were some rumors floating around that with the recent pool renovations some new solar heating was installed but it didn’t work too well if it was windy. I can’t quite figure that one out.

Michael ended up eventually joining us. He had been walking around the resort with the video camera. It’s always so wonderful when he does this. When we get home, it’s like watching the travel channel!

We decided to try and find the quiet pool. OOH, how wonderful! We really liked it over here. The water was much warmer; it was so beautiful with the surrounding trees. Also, there’s a hot tub over here, and of course it’s much quieter. Not many people were at this pool. If we ever stay here again, no question, we’d ask for a room overlooking the quiet pool. This must be the woods view, much nicer and no annoying air conditioner sound. Well, time to go get ready for dinner.


Time to go over to Epcot, where we had reservations for Le Cellier. I was really looking forward to this because it gets so many rave reviews. Well, we had a little bit of time so we did the Mexican boat ride. Sarah liked this, but I’m not too sure I like the “movie” feeling with the 3 Caballeros. It seems a little commercial and cheesy to me or something. But it’s a short ride, so what the heck!

We then headed over to Canada. First, let me say how beautiful the grounds are here in the Canadian pavilion outside of Le Cellier. I want my backyard to look like this!

Now, we were here for the flower and garden festival. The biggest difference from any other time of year that I noticed are the topiaries. There seem to be a lot more! The flowers are always here and are always beautiful, so that part didn’t seem too much different to me. But, I’m an avid gardener and I really appreciate the grounds all over WDW. One thing we didn’t get to do was go into the butterfly tent. That would have been beautiful, but there just wasn’t enough time.

Well, we got a very private corner back booth. We had a very “cool” waitress. She was not overly friendly. I absolutely had to order the cheddar cheese soup because of all the positive reviews. It was a tad spicy for me, but I have very bland taste buds. However, we loved the idea of dipping the 3 different kinds of breadsticks in the soup. I liked it better this way. Then, Sarah and I ordered the prime rib and Michael had a filet mignon. Sarah and I thought our meal was just OK, but Michael thought his steak was very good. The sauce on the prime rib was way too salty. (Later on that week we met a couple back at the WL who said the exact same thing, that the sauce made the prime rib very salty), so I know that it wasn’t just us. I also ordered a glass of pinot grigio. Now I do have a wine pet peeve. When you order a glass of wine and the server barely gives you a half glass! Come on, $9.50 for a half glass of wine! So, now I have a new saying, when I get a half glass of wine at a restaurant it’s going to be a Le Cellier glass of wine! I can’t help it, it just drives me crazy.

We then walked around the countries for awhile, trying to find a place to watch Illuminations. When we reached Morocco, we stumbled upon “Mo Rockin’”. They were entertaining, and lots of fun to watch. Sarah was eyeballing the belly dancer’s “sparkly” outfit, and later we got a cute picture of them posing together.

We found a spot near Germany. Sarah was completely enthralled by this show. She said that she didn’t even remember Illuminations from when we came four years ago. She absolutely loved it. You know, so many things on this trip were wonderful to be watching through her eyes for the first time. It made it so magical for us as a family.

We then caught the bus back to the WL. The bus was extremely crowded, and the bus driver announced that the first stop would be the WL followed by FortWilderness. But, while we were driving along there was this really obnoxious guy up by the bus driver. We then realized that we were turning into FortWilderness. We exchanged confused glances with others on the bus, and after everyone got off many of us came to the conclusion that the bus driver wanted to drop off the obnoxious intoxicated guy who was staying at FortWilderness. No one blamed the bus driver at all! I would have done the same thing! From then on our bus ride was very serene. Off to bed, it’s been a great but long day.

[Colexis Mom]

Another great day Laurie How cool to run into your friends Sorry you weren't too impressed with your meal at LeCellier Can't wait for more

[Jillybean]

Just catching up with your entire tr thus far! How fantastic! You are making me so ready for WL!

I, for one, do not enjoy half glasses of wine (especially at $9.50)! Glad that you guys had an enjoyable night at Epcot though (my absolute favorite park)!

Jill

[KandJluvdisney]

glad to hear that you had a good day at Epcot
and that you loked the quiet pool at WL better than the other pool
can't wait to read more

[musicteachermom]

April vacation at the Wilderness Lodge, Wednesday, April 18th

This was our MGM day. We hadn’t been to this park, this year yet, before today. We stopped off at Roarin’ Forks for breakfast and then caught a bus to MGM.

Our plan today was to meet up with Sarah’s friend (and our neighbors), Amelia and her family, meeting at the entrance at 8:30. Well, they called and said that they were running late, so when we got in we made our way over to the Tower of Terror ourselves. When we finished the ride, we bumped into Amelia’s grandparents. Amelia’s family was inside on the ride and we had to wait about 30 minutes for them to finish. So, we figured we’d pick up fastpasses while we waited to use later on. Finally they came out and we were together from then on. We walked on over and then did the Great Movie Ride. The last time we were here it was being renovated. Wow, they made lots of improvements, this attraction is wonderful now. One thing I missed though was Dorothy’s ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz. What ever became of them? However, the fur coats from Narnia were very impressive to look at.

Then we caught about 20 minutes of High School Musical in from of The Hat. We thought this was very well done. Sarah and Amelia wouldn’t go out and dance though, but Amelia’s little sister Julianna did and she looked really cute!

Before our lunch at Sci Fi Dine In we figured we could squeeze in the new Narnia attraction. Amelia’s mother Laura and I both thought that it was a walk-through. But it was actually a little more than that. There’s a short movie to watch and then the rest is a walk through. It seemed very magical standing in the forest next to the lamp post. This is a nice little addition at MGM.

When we came out of Narnia we realized that we wouldn’t be able to use our fastpasses for the Tower of Terror because we would be eating lunch. So, Michael found a dad with 2 teenage daughters, and gave our fastpasses to them. He said they were so thankful and happy to receive them.

So, we had an 11:00 ADR at Sci Fi Dine In for lunch, and we joined Amelia’s family. They had one car with 3 rows; Sarah joined them, sharing a seat with Amelia, next Matthew and Julianna, then Laura and Tony in the back. Michael and I sat in another car. I think this place is a lot of fun. The shakes are very thick and delicious and the food was good too. Sarah had a chicken cesaer salad, Michael had a reuben and I had a cheeseburger. Of course Sarah and Amelia ordered a Pirate’s Punch drink which came with a cute clip-on Tinkerbell that you can switch on or off to glow in the dark! Then they got to keep the Tinkerbell as a souvenir.

After lunch we did Muppet 3-D and then Sarah and the rest of the crew did Star Tours. Michael and I (and the grandparents) opted out. Too much motion for our stomachs.

Next on to the Backlot Tour. CatastropheCanyon is still the best part, but they added the action, water part at the beginning and that was pretty fun to watch.

We then rushed over to see the Sunt Car show. Of course the crowd is HUGE here so we couldn’t find Amelia and her father. They had gone over to do R&R while we were on Catastrophe Canyon, oh well hope to meet up with them sometime after the show. This show was very impressive and we liked how they explained how they did the stunts.

Before exiting the park we hung around Hollywood Blvd. for awhile and we did manage to bump into Amelia again. That made Sarah really happy. Then, we said our goodbyes and went back to our room.

That night we had an ADR for 7:30 at 1900 Park Fare over at the Grand Floridian. We rode the boat to the Contemporary and then switched to the monorail and rode over from there. Here’s where I miss being at either the Poly or the BC. The WL was a little bit more inconvenient for transportation. But, we knew that when we booked, so we kind of counted on it taking longer to get places, which it did.

Now, I feel as though this was the best meal we’ve ever had at Disney. We got a great table kind of in the middle near the buffet and a great server. The food was wonderful, a good variety and things not usually found at any other WDW buffet. The service was excellent as well. It was cute to look around and see all the little girls in their princess costumes. When they saw Cinderella, they would get so excited. Cinderella, Prince Charming, Perly and Suzie (the mice), came around to all the tables. The fairy godmother was out in the lobby, but we happened to miss her. The interaction was just perfect for us. Sarah would get up, pose for a picture and give them a hug, and then they would be on their way. Our family likes this short interaction, it is what we are comfortable with, but I’m sure they would stay a little longer with someone if they wanted to. So… check out the menu on allears.net and see how wonderful this buffet is.

When we were done we walked around this beautiful resort for awhile, and checked out the lobby, the gift shop and the grounds. Sarah and I thought this resort was so beautiful, but Michael said that he was more of a WL type of guy. They were renovating one of their pools, I think the main pool. Does this pool usually have a slide? How about a waterfall? I seem to remember hearing about a waterfall.

We then got back on the monorail and rode over to the Polynesian for 2 reasons. Sarah wanted to check it out, and I wanted to buy a Polynesian resort pin. We stayed here 8 years ago, but Sarah was only 2. Well, she thought that the GF was wonderful but she really flipped out over the Poly. She said she liked it better than the GF and next time we come to Disney could we PLEASE stay here at the Polynesian! Yup, she’s my daughter alright, planning for the next Disney trip already! We checked out their way cool volcano pool (8 yrs. Ago, no volcano pool, just a regular pool), and we also checked out the grounds. It really is like being transported to someplace like Tahiti!

Oh yeah, I checked out the Poly. Pins but didn’t buy one, because I really wanted to find one without Stitch. Maybe, I’ll find one tomorrow.

We then rode the monorail to the Contemporary and then took the boat back from the CR to the WL. This was another long and wonderful day.

[Colexis Mom]

What a great day Laurie! Glad you were able to do so much with Amelia and her family! And it sounds like you had a great evening by yourselves as well

More please