The Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Us WDW Trip Report - May. 17-22, 2008 (Pop Century) About This Page:

[Jajajuna]

Day Two:

This is the day we had been looking forward to the most for almost three months! Not only was it our first day at MK (our family’s favorite park) but we would FINALLY get to find out if we were going to use our boy name or our girl name!!! Everyone was visibly excited. We had ADRs at the Crystal Palace for breakfast and we planned to go straight to Cinderella’s palace after breakfast to open that beaming enveloped. We wanted to open it right in the entrance to the breezeway!
Breakfast was fantastic!!!! We ate so much I don’t think we even had lunch that day. They even had smoked salmon—a favorite in my family. Jager loved the fish, watermelons and most of all, the Mickey waffles (he’s a fun eater)! Finally each Pooh character came by our table one by one and Jager’s little face was so eager! My heart pounded each time a character started to approach him and he would just reach for them for a hug like they were his bestest friends in the world. He posed with them in pictures and tried to tell them things. He could have stayed there all day. That is one of the highlights of the whole trip and one of the sweetest memories I will have of his toddler days.




But now, it’s time to find out if he is going to get a brother or a sister…

We practically ran to the palace only to discover that a show had just started!!!!!! OMG! What irony! My mom had to stop me from going into a full on tanty about it (who has a fit about a Disney show, anyway?) I sucked it up and we decided to do Fantasyland first then. Waiting for good news is kind of an ongoing theme in my life anyway. We ran to Ariel’s Grotto, but she wasn’t there, so we did PhilHarMagic which everyone loved (but the anticipation was pretty thick since we thought we’d know something by then). We waited for 30 minutes for Dumbo in the heat of the day following a rain (humidity from hell and being pregnant didn’t help either). Jager LOVED Dumbo and wanted to do it again and again, but we couldn’t wait in line again in that heat. I’m learning now… if I could do it over, we would have done Fantasyland rides as soon as the gates opened.

After Dumbo we noticed that the show had cleared out and we decided to open that (now somewhat banged up looking) envelope before doing anything else! It felt like it took us an hour to go from one end of that palace breezeway to the other (a 20 second walk at best). We wanted to be on the end overlooking Main Street. We parked the scooter and Jager climbed up into my dad’s lap as we handed him that envelope. I was shaking but trying to hide it. J Would we be painting the guest room pink or blue?! I helped him tear the end open and he had no problem doing the rest. He quickly pulled out his familiar flashcard and said very quietly, “Girl.” I was jumping up and down before he even realized what he had said. Jason looked elated, my mom was singing, “I knew it, I knew it” and my dad started crying. We must have looked very odd having those reactions in the middle of the happiest place on Earth! J I repeated the name we had chosen for our baby girl to my dad as a reminder, “Melanie-June.” Melanie after my sister who had died 20 months earlier. It was a perfect moment for my family—a joy we needed to share.








So with that anxiety lifted we set out for some celebratin’! We went back to Fantasyland and did It’s a Small World (my favorite when I was a kid) and went to do Peter Pan. When we go there the line was really long, but the person running the line told us we could get in the handicapped line because of my dad. I NEVER KNEW THAT!!! We had been parking that thing and making him stand in those long lines! What a smart idea! We got on Peter Pan’s Flight in about 5 minutes! We took advantage of that the rest of the time.

We ran through Tomorrowland and didn’t do much. This is where being pregnant at Disney World really catches up with you. My feet were starting to swell and the heat was killing me and my dad. We decided to scoot on back to the resort for an afternoon cool down and nap.

We returned to MK for ADRs at Tony’s Towne Square. Jager loved their fountain and dad and I had fun watching people in the lobby. Spectromagic was starting just as we were leaving the restaurant. We were in the perfect spot to view the parade! Jager hopped on his dad’s shoulders and had a great time pointing to the floats and talking his head off about it.

After Spectromagic we wanted to ride the WDW Railroad but we had just missed the last train. Bummer! We never did get to ride it. Next time! My parents wanted to go back to Pop and they took Jager with them so we could get an earlier start the next day. Jason and I stayed for the Wishes fireworks and EMH. During the EMH, Jason got to ride all the rides he’d been missing all day. I waited with him in the lines at all the rides even though I couldn’t ride most of them. I bet I had this sour look on my face like a kid whose older siblings get to have all the fun. Boo. I did get to ride the gentler stuff like PotC and the Haunted Mansion. The Jungle Cruise was closed for refurb. so we had to miss that one too—we were bummed. We also climbed the Swiss Family Robinson Tree house. Everyone kept looking at me all concerned like, “should you be doing this, lady?” LOL! It was just 10th my prenatal work out for the day.

We got some cokes at Pecos Bills and walked around just enjoying the quieter version of Magic Kingdom that Extra Magic Hours affords. Next time we will take advantage of the morning hours more though, ‘cause the next day, I was tarred (Oklahoman for “too tired to actually say the word “tired”).
--------------------------

Up Next Day #3... Downtown Disney, Cape May Cafe...

[Colexis Mom]

Wow, what a special moment when you opened the envelope!! Great update!

[KMB733]

What a magical moment for everyone in your family finding out that you were going to have a girl!! Another great update!!

[Wolfy6688]

Wow! Congratulations!!!!!

[mcc0313]

What a magical moment...and the perfect spot

[vfair]

What a magical moment for you and your family! Congratulations!

[Jajajuna]

Day Three:
We had planned to rent a pontoon boat at the Downtown Disney Marina this day, but like I said, being pregnant sucked out most of my energy. We ended up sleeping in and going to DTD for a shopping and more day. Most of us had never even been to DTD before so it was fun to have so much time to enjoy it. We had lunch at Earl of Sandwich and it was pretty good too. I had the Muffelletta, but they just aren’t the same outside of New Orleans.
We went to the toy store at DTD and Jager had a complete spasm of joy when we walked up to it. He took 10 minutes just to walk into the store because Buzz and Potato Head were statues outside the store. Inside, the store had a deal where you could fill a Potato Head box full of heads and accessories as full as you could get it for $20! We had tons of fun reconfiguring the orientation of be-gloved Potato Head arms and eye patched potato pirate eyes and such into that box. A store clerk even came to our rescue at one point and showed us a few tricks to get even more in… at one point she was just picking up anything she could reach and shoving it in that box! We got so much!!! Jager still plays with that Potato Head to--$20 very well spent.
We went to the Lego Store and finally found the patio area where they let the kids play with all the Legos. They even have a smallish playground there which he had to finally pry him away from. He had a blast.
We did lots more shopping at that giant Disney Store with the salon in it. We got MJ (our newly revealed baby girl enjoying some in utero Disney time) some princess infant dresses and my mom and I had fun making her the perfect Disney trip memory, charm bracelet (for her to wear when she’s older of course). The boys went back to Pop to swim or something and we stayed to shop and have ice-cream at the Ghirardelli ice-cream shop. We enjoyed the view of the marina while we had our ice-cream and it was just a nice down time with my mom.
That night we had ADRs at the Cape May Café in the Beach Club resort. It took us forever to get there (as usual) but once again, we got in anyway (although they made us wait for about 45 minutes even though the restaurant was maybe 30% full.
They do a clambake kind of thing there at night and it was gooooooooooooooood—very worth the wait. We all went back for seconds, thirds and in my husband’s case, fourths. If you like seafood/clams and such make sure you go here. My mouth is watering right now!
Because we waited for so long, we missed the last boat going back to HS (where we planned to catch a bus back to Pop). The boat took off a few minutes early causing a large group of people to miss it. We were all a bit perplexed as to how to get back to our respective resorts. It wasn’t fun (especially since the exact same thing happened to us the year before)! Like I said, transportation was my only real complaint about this trip.
As luck would have it though, we got a DTD bus from the Beach Club bus depot in about 5 minutes. Then the same bus was going to Pop, so we couldn’t have gotten home any sooner, even on the boat!
We got home and crashed and Jager fell asleep on the way.

[Jajajuna]

Day Four:
This was Epcot day! My favorite park in all of Disney!! We got there a bit later than we had hoped because I could literally not wake up, but we still got there earlier than before. Days when I couldn’t get up, Jason would just go for a swim and I think he had fun getting to swim every morning by himself. I didn’t feel too bad. We split from my parents when we arrived so my dad could go do the stuff he likes (he loves Epcot’s Future World). I need to get him on a backstage tour next time.
Epcot was crowded! We went to Mission Space and Jager and I went to the arcade/play area while Jason rode the ride (which he loved). It started raining so Jager and I had fun with that. TMI alert: there are not a lot of bathrooms at Epcot. I had a major, pregnancy induced need to use one about every 15 minutes and it was a pain! We met up with up with my parent’s at the Land. We got FPs for Soarin’ and hopped on with my dad in the handicapped line. We rode it again later. We rode the Living with the Land ride too (I love this ride, it makes me hungry). Jager was really into it this time too—he also wanted to bite everything. “Mommy, bite?” It was funny.
We had lunch ADRs at Le Cellier (lunch was all I could get us after three months of calling Disney Dining!) I really wanted to try it because it seems to be such a fan favorite. The atmosphere was such a sharp contrast to the Epcot we had been enjoying all morning. Le Cellier is well… very cellar like—dark, cozy and inviting. We loved the big pretzel sticks and cheddar soup. MMMMMMMM, the soup! I had steak with mushrooms and it wasn’t half bad. It wasn’t as great as I was expecting, but it was very good and I’m glad we’ve finally been there now. Personally, I’d rather go a bit more exotic in the World Showcase since those are not options that are usually available to us.
After lunch, we doubled back to Future World. First we went to the Living Seas and spent the rest of the morning there before lunch. This is quite possibly my favorite part of Future World. Jager got to see a dolphin show and loved seeing them so close. I love seeing that look of wonder on his face—it’s the best part about going to Disney! We did Turtle Talk with Crush and OMG Jager kept jumping up to talk to Crush during the show! I kept expecting Crush to turn to him and say “Take a chill pill, my little red-headed buddy” but he never did.

My parent’s and Jager left for a mid-day break after that.
Jason and I actually held on to the scooter since my dad’s knee was feeling good after being off of it for two days (something he never even gets to do at home). My feet, on the other hand, looked hideous!! While in line at Soarin’, I actually grossed out a teenage girl while pushing my fingers into the skin of my foot to make a smiley face. Whatever, it made Jason laugh. I just looked at her and said something like, “oh it’s just prenatal edema.” She’ll think twice before having a baby, I can tell you that much. LOL
That scooter was fun! Jason drove and I would sit on his lap while we zoomed around the entire park. I think we might have irritated a few people. If it hadn’t been for that scooter I couldn’t have done anything. All that walking was just starting to take its toll on big, pregnant me. We got on Spaceship Earth in about 5 minutes and Jason got on Test Track quickly in the single rider line. We also got to do Mexico at the World Showcase. I’d never been to WS Mexico, I didn’t even know about the Tres Cabelleros ride in there. I wish Jager had been with us to ride it!
After that, we zipped on down to France for our ADRs at Les Chefs de France—my family’s favorite dining experience at Disney so far. We met my parent’s and Jager at the water launch drop at the WS just as Illuminations was beginning. Jager sat on my shoulders (another, “lady, are you crazy?” moment) and we watched it in silent awe together. I love those pictures of us.
We ate late, but had a great time. Jager loved his green apples, brie and crunchy breadsticks and I got to indulge in my pregnancy induced cheese cravings (even though I don’t think I was supposed to eat goat cheese). Mmm, it was so good, it was almost worth all the guilt. MJ was born without any cheese related injuries, so I decided to let it go.
After dinner we got EMH wristbands and walked an almost empty WS… this isn’t the best use of your EMHs by the way, but like I said, I’m learning. It was fun to walk around anyway, since a few things were still open. Walking through an empty China pavilion was really cool though. I rode the scooter up and down that street a few times really fast—I’m kind of lame.
We headed back to Pop after that for some much needed rest.

[Jajajuna]

Day Four:
This was Epcot day! My favorite park in all of Disney!! We got there a bit later than we had hoped because I could literally not wake up, but we still got there earlier than before. Days when I couldn’t get up, Jason would just go for a swim and I think he had fun getting to swim every morning by himself. I didn’t feel too bad. We split from my parents when we arrived so my dad could go do the stuff he likes (he loves Epcot’s Future World). I need to get him on a backstage tour next time.
Epcot was crowded! We went to Mission Space and Jager and I went to the arcade/play area while Jason rode the ride (which he loved). It started raining so Jager and I had fun with that. TMI alert: there are not a lot of bathrooms at Epcot. I had a major, pregnancy induced need to use one about every 15 minutes and it was a pain! We met up with up with my parent’s at the Land. We got FPs for Soarin’ and hopped on with my dad in the handicapped line. We rode it again later. We rode the Living with the Land ride too (I love this ride, it makes me hungry). Jager was really into it this time too—he also wanted to bite everything. “Mommy, bite?” It was funny.
We had lunch ADRs at Le Cellier (lunch was all I could get us after three months of calling Disney Dining!) I really wanted to try it because it seems to be such a fan favorite. The atmosphere was such a sharp contrast to the Epcot we had been enjoying all morning. Le Cellier is well… very cellar like—dark, cozy and inviting. We loved the big pretzel sticks and cheddar soup. MMMMMMMM, the soup! I had steak with mushrooms and it wasn’t half bad. It wasn’t as great as I was expecting, but it was very good and I’m glad we’ve finally been there now. Personally, I’d rather go a bit more exotic in the World Showcase since those are not options that are usually available to us.
After lunch, we doubled back to Future World. First we went to the Living Seas and spent the rest of the morning there before lunch. This is quite possibly my favorite part of Future World. Jager got to see a dolphin show and loved seeing them so close. I love seeing that look of wonder on his face—it’s the best part about going to Disney! We did Turtle Talk with Crush and OMG Jager kept jumping up to talk to Crush during the show! I kept expecting Crush to turn to him and say “Take a chill pill, my little red-headed buddy” but he never did.

My parent’s and Jager left for a mid-day break after that.
Jason and I actually held on to the scooter since my dad’s knee was feeling good after being off of it for two days (something he never even gets to do at home). My feet, on the other hand, looked hideous!! While in line at Soarin’, I actually grossed out a teenage girl while pushing my fingers into the skin of my foot to make a smiley face. Whatever, it made Jason laugh. I just looked at her and said something like, “oh it’s just prenatal edema.” She’ll think twice before having a baby, I can tell you that much. LOL
That scooter was fun! Jason drove and I would sit on his lap while we zoomed around the entire park. I think we might have irritated a few people. If it hadn’t been for that scooter I couldn’t have done anything. All that walking was just starting to take its toll on big, pregnant me. We got on Spaceship Earth in about 5 minutes and Jason got on Test Track quickly in the single rider line. We also got to do Mexico at the World Showcase. I’d never been to WS Mexico, I didn’t even know about the Tres Cabelleros ride in there. I wish Jager had been with us to ride it!
After that, we zipped on down to France for our ADRs at Les Chefs de France—my family’s favorite dining experience at Disney so far. We met my parent’s and Jager at the water launch drop at the WS just as Illuminations was beginning. Jager sat on my shoulders (another, “lady, are you crazy?” moment) and we watched it in silent awe together. I love those pictures of us.
We ate late, but had a great time. Jager loved his green apples, brie and crunchy breadsticks and I got to indulge in my pregnancy induced cheese cravings (even though I don’t think I was supposed to eat goat cheese). Mmm, it was so good, it was almost worth all the guilt. MJ was born without any cheese related injuries, so I decided to let it go.
After dinner we got EMH wristbands and walked an almost empty WS… this isn’t the best use of your EMHs by the way, but like I said, I’m learning. It was fun to walk around anyway, since a few things were still open. Walking through an empty China pavilion was really cool though. I rode the scooter up and down that street a few times really fast—I’m kind of lame.
We headed back to Pop after that for some much needed rest.

[Jajajuna]

Day Five:
Today was Animal Kingdom day. For some reason we always do AK last. We are from South Africa so we need to plan for more rested time at this park… my parents get very excited to see all the “Africanized” buildings and stuff for sale in the shops.
It’s true what the Passporter says, AK does indeed seem like the hottest park. It feels very African in that way—so way to go on authenticity there Disney Imagineers! LOL We arrived late again, so we really got there as the major heat started. We meandered through the Oasis, where it’s shaded and pleasant, but everything from that point felt really rushed. We headed first to Asia and Jason got some fastpasses for Everest and he rode Dinosaur on the way. We had a lunch ADR at Yak and Yeti. Now, by this point Jason was getting really tired of eating sit down meals all the time when there were awesome rides calling his name. I felt bad because normally I would ride them with him, but since I couldn’t, food sounded AWESOME! J
Yak and Yeti is very good. I don’t remember what everyone got exactly, but we ended up taking quite a bit of it back with us. Everyone was pleasantly surprised. After lunch, Jason rode Everest while we perused Asia and saw a few animals. We headed to the Lion King (Jager’s favorite) and Jason rode Kali River Rapids, Dinosaur and a few other things I can’t remember. He had fun, but he was mostly by himself, poor guy. He met up with us as we got in line for Nemo. We got pretty terrible seats and my dad couldn’t even find a place to sit in his ECV because non-wheeled people had taken the handicapped seats. The show attendents didn’t do anything about it either. It kind of made me mad, but my dad was cool about it and just tried to get comfy in a bleacher seat. Jason left halfway through for a fastpass time. Nemo was good, but a bit boring from so far in the back. Try for closer seats by arriving much earlier—I’m sure it’s awesome like that.
We met up in Dinoland and decided we were all too hot and wanted to swim anyway. So away to Pop we went.
We all rested and swam. It was great. Pop’s pool is huge and colorful, but there isn’t much else to do… but that’s what water parks are for anyway, right?! J
This night, Jason and I had California Grill reservations for about 9pm. Jager and my parents ordered pizza and had a fun night “in.” It was really fun to be able to get all dressed up and go out to a really nice dinner alone. We got seated at the restaurant about 15 minutes before the MK Fireworks started. We ordered our appetizers and drinks then headed to the big balcony area outside to watch the show. It was so beautiful! After the show, we slowly enjoyed our amazing meal of sushi, fish and steak so tender you didn’t even need a knife! For dessert we had their version of bread pudding and a bananas foster kind of thing. Everything was incredible! Cali Grill is one the best restaurants we’ve ever been to!
We went home slowly after that and just enjoyed our romantic evening together.

[Jajajuna]

Day Five:
Today was Animal Kingdom day. For some reason we always do AK last. We are from South Africa so we need to plan for more rested time at this park… my parents get very excited to see all the “Africanized” buildings and stuff for sale in the shops.
It’s true what the Passporter says, AK does indeed seem like the hottest park. It feels very African in that way—so way to go on authenticity there Disney Imagineers! LOL We arrived late again, so we really got there as the major heat started. We meandered through the Oasis, where it’s shaded and pleasant, but everything from that point felt really rushed. We headed first to Asia and Jason got some fastpasses for Everest and he rode Dinosaur on the way. We had a lunch ADR at Yak and Yeti. Now, by this point Jason was getting really tired of eating sit down meals all the time when there were awesome rides calling his name. I felt bad because normally I would ride them with him, but since I couldn’t, food sounded AWESOME! J
Yak and Yeti is very good. I don’t remember what everyone got exactly, but we ended up taking quite a bit of it back with us. Everyone was pleasantly surprised. After lunch, Jason rode Everest while we perused Asia and saw a few animals. We headed to the Lion King (Jager’s favorite) and Jason rode Kali River Rapids, Dinosaur and a few other things I can’t remember. He had fun, but he was mostly by himself, poor guy. He met up with us as we got in line for Nemo. We got pretty terrible seats and my dad couldn’t even find a place to sit in his ECV because non-wheeled people had taken the handicapped seats. The show attendents didn’t do anything about it either. It kind of made me mad, but my dad was cool about it and just tried to get comfy in a bleacher seat. Jason left halfway through for a fastpass time. Nemo was good, but a bit boring from so far in the back. Try for closer seats by arriving much earlier—I’m sure it’s awesome like that.
We met up in Dinoland and decided we were all too hot and wanted to swim anyway. So away to Pop we went.
We all rested and swam. It was great. Pop’s pool is huge and colorful, but there isn’t much else to do… but that’s what water parks are for anyway, right?! J
This night, Jason and I had California Grill reservations for about 9pm. Jager and my parents ordered pizza and had a fun night “in.” It was really fun to be able to get all dressed up and go out to a really nice dinner alone. We got seated at the restaurant about 15 minutes before the MK Fireworks started. We ordered our appetizers and drinks then headed to the big balcony area outside to watch the show. It was so beautiful! After the show, we slowly enjoyed our amazing meal of sushi, fish and steak so tender you didn’t even need a knife! For dessert we had their version of bread pudding and a bananas foster kind of thing. Everything was incredible! Cali Grill is one the best restaurants we’ve ever been to!
We went home slowly after that and just enjoyed our romantic evening together.

[Jajajuna]

By the way, sorry I'm the slowest TR poster ever! I forgot that I hadn't posted all of these! I have another one that I'm working on and I hadn't finished the one for '08!
I appreciate your patience.

[lazanya]

Just catching up! Sounds like you all are having a great time!

[Colexis Mom]

More great updates!

[Jessie092408]

You sure remember a lot of detail, for a trip that long ago! I LOVE your whole "find out the gender in Disney" thing. I thought it was so great...I actually teared up a little bit reading that, I was so happy for you, even knowing that it was from '08 and your baby is already born and all.