Free Dining at the Wilderness Lodge
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vfair · 08-26-2009, 11:39 AM

Sounds like your ds got some good shopping done for his birthday.

bfth · 08-26-2009, 02:29 PM

Nice day!

mom2twingirlies · 08-26-2009, 02:37 PM

Sounds good so far.

tkd lisa · 08-28-2009, 06:14 AM

Sit back, and relax because if you like details and pictures, this is probably the TR for you. I'm definitely a detail person and I ended up completely filling up my 2 MByte memory card and had to borrow my mom's for the last day of the trip.

As you might remember from the last page, our trip started on Monday morning the 17th of August. I've been travelling a tremendous amount (I've only been home for one week since the first of May), so at the 10 day mark I was in a hotel in Atlanta. I had printed out a room request letter before I left and had the hotel fax it to the WL. I had asked for two things. 1) Bunk beds, since I have a teen aged boy and a teen aged girl. and 2) A room at the end of a hallway to minimize noise.

We were out the door about 7:15 and at checkin by 8:20. As we were grabbing our things from the van, I realized that I had left DS's and my cell phone sitting home on the chargers. DM and DD had theirs, and I had my work cell phone, so we made do with only 3 phones until I went home on Thursday.

I actually had checked in online, but I didn't see the online check in window, so I just went to the regular line. We had gotten our parking pass at the vehicle gate, so at check in they just handed me the welcome packet and our room keys/tickets. They asked for a cell number so that they could text us the room info when it was ready. That was new. I gave them DM's number and as I was ready to head out when I thought to double check "Oh, you did get my room request didn't you? I asked for bunk beds at the end of the hallway." The CM checked the computer and said "Hmmm, looks like we have you in a two queen bed room." He explained that sometimes the requests get lost when they actually go to room assignment and headed in the back to fix things. This resulted in the need to reprint our keys, but we were finally finished up about 8:40.

DS decided to stay at the resort and read his book. This surprised me because I expect him to want to head to American Idol and audition. I left him with DM's cell phone (the one that was going to get the room info), and headed to MK with DM and DD.

We got to the park just after opening, and since we had already missed the celebration we decided to get our APs taken care of right then. We went to the guest services window, and I asked the handler to send us to someone really good because ours was going to be complicated. He actually listened and let someone else go in front of us so that we could see Ray. I handed over my about to expire AP and my room key which had the one-day ticket loaded onto it as well as my Florida drivers license. Quick as can be, Ray had my info re-loaded even noting that since I had booked the package before prices went up he could give me the "old" rate for my new seasonal AP. AND give us the 3 month extension so that the new expiration date is 11/18/10!

As he was working on the other two tickets, I asked if he could pull up my DS's information and print out his ticket even though he wasn't there. DS had lost his old AP anyway so someone was going to have to look it up in the system. Ray said "no problem!", and printed out an AP for DS. As I looked at it, I saw that it was printed with Minnie Mouse. I said "Is there anyway you can print another one? Otherwise I promise you he will manage to "lose" this one within the first day, since no 16 year old boy will keep a Minnie Mouse in his wallet." Thus began the great Casey ticket debacle. The next pass printed wasn't Minnie, but it had an expiration date of 8/17/09. Ray then went on to print out my Mom's pass, and it had her last name the same as mine (which it isn't). We fixed that, then I noticed the wrong expiration on my DS's ticket. He reprinted that, and believe it or not, it was Minnie again :P We ended up spending about 20 minutes at the ticket window, but we finally came away with four FL seasonal APs, none with Minnie Mouse, and all expiring 11/18/10. Whew!

With that accomplished we headed into the park. Mom loves the Main Street vehicles, so we got in line for the firetruck. We waited, and waited. The horse drawn carriage came and went, but still no other vehicle. Finally the horse drawn carriage came back again and I convince Mom we should just ride that one.

DD took this picture of the horse who pulled us along.

Once we started to go, the CM said "Oh I need to stop for some hitchhikers", and we picked up these four guys.

We also saw this lady on the side of the road during our journey to the castle.

As we were riding, my phone rang. It was DS and he wanted to go to the studios to audition for American Idol. Now why he couldn't have decided that BEFORE I headed to MK is beyond me, but I told him I'd meet him at the gate. Mom and DD stayed in MK and enjoyed Pirates and the Hall of Presidents. Here are some pictures from their morning.

For some reason, DD who normally loves posing, didn't want her picture taken.

In the refurbished HOP which I never did get to see.

An "artsy" photo by DD in the HOP

While they were off enjoying MK I picked up the monorail and headed over to the Contemporary to catch a bus to DHS. The monorail was experiencing some difficulties, so this took a little while. By the time we got to the Contemporary, the line waiting to get on the monorail was stretched way back past the down escalator. I waited about 10 minutes for a studios bus, with DS calling me several times to check on my status. I finally met up with him about 11:15 and we headed back to the "American Idol Experience Audition Facility" (Can you hear the big announcer voice saying those words?) About this time DS got a text saying our room was ready (5097).

We got a very good CM, who liked both of our first songs. He had us pick something off the song list, and handed us the lyrics sheet then pulled out a pitch pipe to give us our first note. I had picked "Part of your world" and he made sure to explain that their track was from Disney Mania, not the stageplay. He encouraged DS to pick a Nickleback song "If everyone cared", and I had to tell him about the time we saw someone win the competition with that song. He was encouraging, but he didn't pass us through (no big surprise). We decided to head back to the Wilderness Lodge and move our stuff into the room.

DD and DM were still in MK, and I told them to pick up some lunch over there. When we arrived at MK that morning, we noticed that Pirate Y Perico (the Mexican place in AdventureLand) was actually open, so they headed there. DD called and said "Mom, they don't take the dining plan!" I was surprised, but told her that they should try Pecos Bills or Columbia Harbor House. I told her maybe it was because they weren't usually open. She called back and said CHH didn't take it either which didn't make sense to me, but I just told them to catch the boat to the Lodge and we'd eat there.

Meanwhile, DS and I grabbed all of our bags (which was a pretty big accomplishment with just the two of us) and headed up to the 5th floor. I started to head for the back of the hallway, and DS said "No Mom, it says 5095-5100 is this way". Our room was right off the atrium across the lobby from WCC. So much for a quiet, end of the hallway room. But at least it had bunk beds! Here a few pictures I snapped when we got in.

I picked up the DDP brochure to check the CS places since I didn't understand why DD said that no place took the plan. Listed specifically were PYP and CHH, so the mystery deepened. About that time, the ladies arrived and Mom & I went down to Roaring Forks to get our lunch. As we walked, Mom said that DD wouldn't ask anyone if they took the plan, she just looked at the menu and told Mom "they only offer snacks here". Ah Ha! The lightbulb went off. She was looking at the little DDP symbol which indicates what can be bought with a snack credit! I explained to her that any combo meal, drink, and dessert counts as a DDP CS meal but they don't put a symbol on the menu for that. She never got confused after that. But it was a good thing, because as we were carrying the food back to the room, the skies opened up and it started pouring! So they would have been caught in that if they ate at MK.

We got two chicken breast nugget meals, one tuna sandwich, two brownies, a cookie, a vitamin water and two nesquicks. I've lost the receipt but I think that was around $34, and took 3 CS credits. We ended up with almost a whole nugget meal and two brownies leftover, which went into our fridge.

After eating, DS stayed in the room while the ladies headed out to WalMart. I had always planned to pick up some milk once we got there, and DD wanted to get a couple more pair of jeans for school, so off we went. They've built a new Super WalMart just off the end of the property by Downtown Disney, so we were out and back in less than an hour.

I'll post the evening in the next post.

tkd lisa · 08-28-2009, 07:24 AM

By this time, the rain had quit, so Mom and I put on our bathing suits and headed down to the pool. Mom said "Now let's look at the slide, because last trip I said I might try the slide this time." As a little background, my mom doesn't swim. She's really pretty afraid in the water, although she does enjoy some hot tub time. She'll go to the pool, but doesn't like to go above her waist. Once we got down to the pool and she saw the slide, she said "I'm not coming out of that little hole!" The WL slide has a VERY small tunnel going under the rocks, and that was the end of the slide possibility for her. We tried out the hot tub, then watched as the kids did their hula hoop contest. They had to go to the double hula hoop to finally decide the 10 and up age bracket so it was fun to watch. Those little girls made it look effortless.

Once we were refreshed, we got changed and Mom & I headed out to AK for late EMH. The kids stayed in the room, with plans to meet us later for dinner (9:45 at O'Hana) Inside the park, I asked where we picked up our wrist bands and found out that they aren't doing that anymore. The CM said "We've gone green", and said that they will just ask for your roomkey.

On the way in. These parrots were definitely "Feeling the love tonight". We saw them a few more times on our trip so it must be the season.

Mom & I headed to DinoLand and rode Triceratops Spin with about a 15 minute wait. Here's a shot I took from our Dino.

After this, we were feeling in the mood for ice cream, which led to the next big search. We walked out of dino land, and the stand just past the Dig Site was closing up. She sent us to the stand in front of Flame Tree BBQ. We waited a while in line there, and heard someone say it was cash only. The CM said "Yes, you can go back to the stand on the other side of the bridge for credit or DDP". I told him that one was closed, and they sent us to him but he couldn't do anything about it.

We headed across the bridge to Asia looking for an open stand. As we walked across the bridge, there were 3 or 4 people dressed in native Asian costumes taking pictures with EE in the background. I offered to take the picture with all of them, and we found out they are CMs who were off-duty but were in the park celebrating Indonesia's Independence Day. They tried to offer us front of the line priviliges for EE or Kali, but we weren't planning on riding either one. So it was just a good deed.

We finally found an open stand over by EE (along with all the crowds). I felt so sorry for that CM. He was red faced, and sweating really heavily. It looked like he was going to have a stroke any minute! With our first snack credit spent, we headed over for the 6:00 Lion King Show, flashing our room keys as we entered Camp Minnie Mickey.

Once again, it was a great show! My personal favorite on the property (although Nemo comes close). I hadn't seen it since Christmas so I was glad to watch.

About this time, DS called to say that he was in EPCOT in the African Outpost. He picked up a frozen strawberry drink, using a 2nd snack. DD had headed over to MK to meet us for a little more MK time before heading to the Poly. Mom and I took the bus to the TTC, then the ferry over to MK. We waited about 15 minutes for the bus, and had just gotten everyone loaded when the bus driver came back and made people get up from the wheelchair spots. A woman with a child in a stroller that had a tag that said it was a wheelchair had come up and had to be loaded. She also had about an 8 year old son who was pretty wild. Mom & I were sitting just above the wheelchair area, and the boy was swinging on the straps as they were loading everything. I asked the mom if she wanted the boy to take my seat and she said "No, he's fully able, he's just being silly". Well, okay then. I didn't think he was handicapped, I just thought she didn't need to worry about him hurting himself during the ride. Once we got to the TTC, they got on the ferry with us. As soon as they got on the boat, the little girl in the "stroller/wheelchair" jumped out and ran up the stairs to the top deck. The mom then pulled out a strap and tied the stroller/wheelchair to the trash can that is right where you exit the ferry and went upstairs with the kids. Mom & I watched that stroller rolling all around the area as we travelled, then as people were lining up to get off the boat, it was right in the middle of the crowd. Once we docked, the Mom pushed through the crowd saying rudely "Got to get to my daughters wheelchair". Now I understand that not all disabilities are visible, but this family definitely seemed to be pretty inconsiderate. Thankfully that was the last time we saw them.

We met DD outside the train station, then headed through to AdventureLand. As we walked down Main street they were getting ready for Spectro Magic. A CM was guiding people across the street by Casey's, and I said to her "Hey, don't you post on Passporter?" It was Jyl (Hi, Jyl!) We had a little chat, but didn't want to block traffic so we headed on.

DD picked up a Dole Whip along the way, which we all shared. We walked on to Pirates and had a good ride as always. After this we went through FantasyLand over to Tomorrow Land to ride Buzz. The line was really short, and for some reason they had it going in on the right side of the attraction (where the FPs are distributed). I hit something big but I couldn't tell you what. Mom rode alone and used both guns! After this, we went in for a Monsters Inc show, and while in there DS called and said he was waiting for us at the Poly.

It turned out that he had actually checked us in, even though we weren't there. As we took the boat across (waiting for the Electric Water Parade), he kept calling. I told him to explain to them that we were on our way and to push us down the list, but apparently he didn't do that. As we docked our buzzer went off, so we were able to walk right in.

O'Hana is our favorite meal on the property! We had Cousin Donna who was great! Below are some pictures. DS ate almost the whole bowl of wings by himself, and once again Mom actually had seconds on dessert. This is the only place I have ever seen my "eats like a bird" mother eat seconds of anything. Total was $123.50 (4 TS credits), and I was able to charge the tip to my Visa Rewards card.

Salad, dumplings, and one wing (one of the few that DS didn't eat)

Lo Mein, veggies (brocolli now instead of that mash of julienned things they had before), and shrimp (also a big hit with DS).

Steak, which was very tender and perfectly cooked.

You might also notice that the lo mein and brocolli never did get finished. Too much other good stuff! We never did get any turkey but DS and I both had a few extra shrimp.

The best banana fosters bread pudding EVER! Although there was a close contender coming up later in the report.

As we were eating, we heard music start up, and Wishes started over the castle. Our seat was by a window, but there was a tree blocking part of the show. I didn't take any pictures, but it was still nice to see it with the soundtrack. The last time we ate here, I don't think they played the soundtrack.

We finally rolled out of there at almost 11:00. I was a little anxious about transportation. MK closed at 10:00 that night, and the boat was supposed to stop running at 10:45 with bus service continuing to 11:15. We ended up taking the monorail over to MK and the bus back to the resort, but I decided to drive for our late ADRs after that. I didn't want to be stuck, or rushing because of transportation.

Lights were out by midnight (after a little squabbling from the kids about top/bottom bunk privileges), and a good nights sleep was had by all.

Credits used today:
3 Snack
3 CS
4 TS

Up next, "Just how wet can one boy get?"

truenancy · 08-28-2009, 08:06 AM

looove it!

MGW · 08-28-2009, 11:04 AM

Wow! You did a lot in one day! Thanks so much for sharing, looking forward to more!

**chezp** · 08-28-2009, 11:56 AM

Great updates!

How cool to hear about the process of auditioning for American Idol.

bfth · 08-28-2009, 12:06 PM

Yummy report (can you tell it's lunch time??? You've got me salivating!)

tkd lisa · 08-28-2009, 12:33 PM

Tuesday, 18 August

My plans for the this day were to start out at EPCOT grabbing lunch either in the land foodcourt or in World showcase. After lunch, we'd take advantage of the water mice, probably hopping over to the Grand Floridian so that we could use the pool while DS drove the boat.

Our dining reservation was at Sci Fi at 9:25. This was one of only two nights when Fantasmic was going to be showing, and I still wasn't sure that DD would hold out until that late for dinner, so I planned to show up at the restaurant around 5 and see if we could get in even if we had to sit at a table rather than a car. If so, we'd catch the Fantasmic before ending the evening.

So what happened? This day has two tag lines actually. I'm going to write up the first half, which comes with "Just how wet can one kid get?" then break the last half into another segment.

I was up early, as was typical for me. Thankfully there are a number of nice little alcoves spread around even the hotel side of the Wilderness Lodge. I had found some nice ones in the DVC side a few years back, so it was nice to have them this trip too. I took my coffee and Bible over to an area by a fireplace and had a nice quiet time. I also read the USA Today that they provide in the deluxe resorts, and finished off the puzzles before it was time to wake up the family.

I got them moving then headed down to Roaring Forks to get breakfast for the crew. I got two Bounty Platters, which included pancakes, eggs, hashbrowns, bacon, and a biscuit. I also got 2 drinks each so the tray was awfully full for the trip up to the room. (Total $27.63 or 2 CS credits). I divided up the food and laid out the plans for the day. DS decided he did want to audition again, and since we hadn't gone to the studios the day before, the other ladies wanted to ride Toy Story.

Since I had gotten so nervous about our late dining and transportation the previous night, I decided to drive over to the Studios and leave the van there for the day. DS took the bus (heaven forbid that he be seen with three generations of female relatives :P ) and met us there. We made it there just as they were opening, and it was pretty funny that DS was right beside us in line.

Once inside, we headed to Toy Story bypassing the FP line. The standby was was back almost to "One Man's Dream" but I thought it was probably going to be moving quickly. Well it really wasn't. It took us about 35 minutes to make it through the line, but we still had lots of fun. I left the passes with Mom for her to pull FPs for later (2:30-3:30) while I met up with DS at the AIE. We had a different CM this time, and she didn't do the lyrics or the pitch pipe. But she wrote down a couple of web sites for DS to visit to help build his skills. Again I heard "You just don't have a pop sound. You must make your choir director very happy though." As we exited the audition, the camera man was filming some of the spots that they show inside and he got a few of DS. DS decided to catch the 11:00 show, since they had introduced him to one of the performers (a young lady just about his age).

I stopped by Sci Fi to see if we could re-book for earlier that evening. They said it was first come,first serve but to stop by and see what they could do about a table. Then I went over to wait on the ladies who were riding the Backlot Tour (another thing I never got on this trip). I did take a few shots in the villians area while I was waiting.

Some concept drawings

Once they came out we decided to head to EPCOT and get some lunch there. This time we took the boat, which was having problems with the A/C. We got off at Yacht Club and walked the rest of the way. A nice breeze had kicked up, which meant .... rain was on the way.

Once inside we went to the French Bakery which didn't have a really long line for once. We weren't starving, so decided to split a ham and cheese croissant, a creme brulee, and a drink. ($9.53, 1 CS credit, not a good deal on the plan). I did find out that they are taking snack credits there now, so that's good to know for the future. I had sent Mom into the seating area to find a table because the skies had opened up.

While we were finishing up lunch, DD was taking artsy pictures in the kidcot area. I noticed a couple of people looking for a seat, so we offered them the extra space at our table. I moved DD's bag out of the way, and the young lady said "Oh, are you a full metal alchemist fan?" I laughed hysterically and explained it was DD's and that she loved anything anime. Turned out that this couple had just finished art school in Savannah and liked a lot of the things my DD does.

By this time it had let up a little bit, so we moved over to catch the movie. We had just missed one, so sat down to wait for the next one when my phone rang. It was DS, who had walked down from the Studios and wanted to meet me in Japan. Yes, he had WALKED through that downpour. He was literally DRIPPING wet! He was wearing a brand new pair of jeans, and a pair of red converse high tops (also new for school). Between the blue and the red, his socks were technicolor when I finally got them into the wash.

As I was leaving France I noticed a little commotion in the French restaurant. As I looked and saw what was going on, I had to call DD to come out and see the following:

This was an animatronic Ratatouille and he was moving around on the cheese platter. DD has a pet rat, and Ratatouille is her favorite character at the moment!

Once I made it to Japan, DS showed me a kimono that he liked in Japan and said he was going to spend his birthday money on it. I told him that would have to wait until his birthday (I think he wanted me to front him the money, but I've seen how that works before). Then he headed into Yakitori House to get lunch. He decided on the Shogun platter, a cookie and an iced green tea ($13.30, one CS credit), which he then took back to the room.

The ladies were finished with the movie, so we headed around to Canada. The rain had stopped, but it was still VERY empty in WS. Below are pictures that I took in the UK. I even took a picture of my watch because it's unheard of to see it that empty at 1:00 in the afternoon!

We headed over to Canada, to catch "another movie". The gardens were lovely in the wet.

Once the movie was over, DD wanted to ride test track. Mom went by the Land to pick up FPs for Soarin then go back to the room. Test track was down (probably because of the rain), so we jogged back to ride Figment. Now I knew where everyone was who wasn't in the UK. Figment had a line that was 30 minutes long! They were literally outside the door. Even at Christmas, I've never seen that before! Needless to say, we skipped that one.

We walked through Innoventions on our way to the front, and DD was thrilled to see the musical robots working again.

We thought about Spaceship Earth, but that line was long too, so we just went back to the room. Once there, we found this little surprise from Mousekeeping.

Coming up: Hey, that guy looks like David Cook doesn't he?

tkd lisa · 08-28-2009, 01:12 PM

Once back in the room, I wrung out the worst of DS's wet stuff and hung it over the chairs on our balcony.

Oh, I haven't mentioned our "balcony" yet, have I? We had booked a standard room, so I was a little surprised we had a balcony. Well, it wasn't really much. I overlooked the roof on the arcade/store area, and was barely big enough for the chairs they had out there. In fact, when I went out to do this, I had to climb over the one chair to reach the other one. The good news was that no one was going to be offended by DS's jeans spoiling their view! I was grateful for the space though, because DM sat out there and read during a couple of our mid-day breaks. We're spoiled by our DVC accomodations.

Anyway, we decided this would be a good time to get in some watermice time. We left DD in the room relaxing, while DM and I put on our bathing suits and cover ups. DS wouldn't put on a suit, but I did get him into shorts. We hopped a bus (I think it was the Studio bus) which DS said was going to stop by the GF on the way. Remember I had left my van at the studios that morning. On our bus ride over, my Mom was chatting with the people sitting next to her, who mentioned they were going to the GF. Mom must have missed that because she said "Oh, we're just going to use the boats. That resort is VERY EXPENSIVE, you know." When we got off, Mom told me about the conversation and I just laughed!

Once inside, my normal way to the pool area was blocked by construction so we wandered the lobby a bit looking for a way out to the back. DS was very uncomfortable since he didn't feel like we were dressed right to be there. He said "Mom, don't ever make me stay at this place!" It's funny because the lobby intimidates me, but I really like the people who I've talked to who work there.

Anyway, we finally found our way out, and I went to get Mom set up at the pool by showing the lifeguard my DVC card and asking if we could pool hop. She said Fine, so then I met DS at the marina. At the moment, the lake was closed, but they were expecting it to open up at any time. It was just after 4 o'clock, and she said that they close down for the night at 6. The coupon we had was for 30 minutes free when you buy 60 minutes, so that meant we needed to be out there by 4:30. I went ahead and filled out the paperwork, and by the time we were done, they had re-opened the lake. I told DS to come back in half an hour, after buzzing by the beach to let us know and Mom or I would join him for a ride.

DS, receiving his instructions

The skies as I walked back to the pool area

The GF pool area. Notice they also have a water slide, that has one of those "little holes" (i.e. tunnels). I found DM sitting in a chair because the wind was a little brisk. We waded in a little bit, but when we realized there was no hot tub at that pool, we gathered our stuff and headed to another pool that was close to the marina, and did have a hot tub.

After about 15 minutes there, I got up to meet DS at the docks, and saw this!

I had to run back for Mom's camera, and finally got over to the dock. Once I was there, the lady said "Oh, your son just went over looking for you." We crossed paths a couple of times, then finally met up. I told him I wanted him to take Grandma out first, so here's the shot of them together.

Remember, my mom isn't comfortable in water. DS was very good, and was taking her out very slowly. About the time I finished chatting with the dock CM, the lady in the rental shop said "Don't go far. They just closed the lake again, so they'll be right back in." When it was all finished, he'd used the boat for about 30 minutes, so I said "I'll just pay for the 30 minutes, then maybe we;ll come back tomorrow". They told me there was no charge, which was really nice of them!

All finished, we took the boat back via MK to the WL. DS stayed in the room while the ladies went back to the Studios hoping to catch the finale of AI. DS wanted us to vote for his "friend" who had won the 11:00 show. We took the bus, which ended up making a stop by Fort Wilderness. It took almost 35 minutes to get to the Studios and by that time, the show was full up. It was still threatening to rain, so we headed back to use our TSM FPs.

After we finished up, we thought about Great Movie Ride, but the line said 35 minutes and people were wound outside the attraction. What was it with the "no-wait" attractions this trip? So instead we headed over to the Muppets!

Yes it's cheesy, but I spent many weekend evenings while baby-sitting watching this show.

When we finished that up, it was about an hour until our ADR time. Our timing hadn't worked to try to get in early, so we were just going to stick with the original ADR. I called DS and got him moving our way, and we sat down by the Christmas store to kill some time. Mom called her brother and chatted with him because he'd been having some health problems. While she was talking, DD said "Boy that guy sure looks like David Cook, doesn't he?" I said "Oh, I'm sure that's not him. He doesn't have any kids." The man was carrying about a 3 year old boy on his hip. I wandered around and took this picture of a hidden Mickey that DD found in the store window.

Then I went in search of a bathroom. I went back by Mama Melrose because the sign said there was one there. I walked past people waiting for tables. No bathroom. I walked back the other way. Still no bathroom. I heard someone say "Do you mind if I take a picture?" and I looked up because I thought they wanted someone to take a photo of their entire family. Instead, it was the guy who "looked" like David Cook. But it really WAS David Cook. He and his family were waiting for dinner at MM. David said very politely to the lady "I'd really rather you didn't. I'm just on vacation with my family."

So with my mouth wide open I came around and told DD "Yes, that really was David Cook!" She wanted to go take a picture but I put her off, explaining that he had asked for privacy.

After all this, we headed over to finally ride GMR. I called a co-worker who's a big AI fan and left her a message while DD was taking artsy pictures. I think they came out awfully good for not having a tripod.

We still ended up waiting about 30 minutes for this ride, although the line was inside the theater. We had a large extended family behind us who had no concept of personal space. I ended up switching spots with Mom after they bumped her into me a couple of times. The kids were climbing all over the props that are in the waiting area, and I actually got groped by the 3 year old a couple of times. I was really glad when we were finally seated!

While we were on the ride, DS had gotten to Sci-Fi but I made sure he told them not to check us in yet! We made it there about 10 minutes before our ADR time and were seated quickly.

We had Tony as our server, and he had been there since Sci Fi had opened. We had a Tony from NY at that restaurant one other time, and this Tony said that they are the only two people left from the opening crew. DS got the ribs, and DD got the steak. I had planned to order an appetizer OOP here since we didn't need a 3rd meal, but I wasn't sure we'd have enough without it. DM picked the BLT soup, which was a little strange. I don't like lettuce in my soup. The three of them got shakes to drink. The food came pretty quickly, and the restaurant was thinning out fast. DM and DD split the steak in the back seat, while DS gave me one of his ribs plus his side dish. Mom & I both had a little of the soup, then it was time for dessert. DS headed out before dessert. DD ordered the fruit salad, and I ordered the apple crisp (Tony had told us that the peanut butter chocolate was already gone). Next thing I knew, Tony was back apologizing that the apple crisp was gone too. I told him that was fine, and asked if he could just run the 3rd shake as the dessert? He said that he was throwing that in free and he'd just bring us a piece of cheesecake to take back with us. Now we really didn't need another dessert. I forgot to mention that they brought DS a birthday cupcake at O'Hana which we had put in the fridge, and his cookie and the two brownies were still there. But I said okay. Total here was $73.31 for 2 TS credits on the plan. I paid the tip and the soup OOP which was $25.45

Once back in the room I opened the dessert to see some kind of chocolate brownie thing. Apparently they were out of cheesecake too. We were one of the last few people in the restaurant, and it was quiet walking out of the park. I was glad to not have to fight for the bus, and we were in bed by 11:30.

Dining Plan:
Snacks Used: 2 (jawbreaker DD got in Mousegears, and a pretzel when we arrived at the studios)
CS Used: 4
TS Used: 2

Coming up next: The best value for a CS, and the scenary isn't bad either.