Celebrating 10 Years of Magic TR About This Page:

[lfredsbo]

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

Looks like a great meal at Coral Reef and a great time at DQ! Love the pictures from TL! What a great time!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by KMB733

Sounds like a great time at Typhoon Lagoon!!

to Scott with his surgery!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by DMA

Typhoon lagoon looks like a blast! Nice that you got so many pictures of the day! I love your swimsuit, by the way! Very cute!

Thanks! the swim suit pattern reminded kind of a giraffe thought it was appropriate for AKL!

[lfredsbo]

Saturday, July 6, 2013 Continued………………


After our fun day at the water park and getting back to relax and showers and such – it was time to head to Hollywood Studios. We arrived there around 3ish, and stopped for photos in front of the Monsters Inc. topiaries in front of the park.










We were on a mission for characters!!!

So we headed back for Mike & Sully! They were adorable in their college gear! LOVED Mike’s retainer!!!












Then we headed to Pixar Place where Scott found a Green Army Man hanging out!




And then next was Buzz & Woody……….a little magic happened here……..remember how Emily was having all the characters sign her phone cases……….and I had something I was doing as well ~ Well, if you have ever met with Buzz you probably know that he does not actually sign – he uses a stamp………..well NOT today, for US!!! He told Emily to shhh! And he actually signed our items!!! VERY COOL moment!!!!














After a fantastic meet and greet with Buzz and Woody – we were able to get onto Toy Story Mania! LOVE this ride/game! One of these days, I will beat Scott!!!






Next we headed over to Animation Courtyard to see who we could find over there ~
Emily was so excited (as was Bree!) to see that Ralph and Vanelope were available!!! So we all got in line for that!














Then Handy Mandy was out, so the girls met with him!




Now, it was time for us to head towards Streets of America.



I had been hearing of this Character Palooza thing for quite some time and needed to see it for myself! Now, I have to say, not many cast members are helpful when it comes to this – many of them either honestly don’t know or they pretend to not know if/when/where it will actually happen. We had been told a few different scenarios. But we hung out around Streets of America for a little bit, as many had told me that where it happens, around 6ish if Fantasmic is showing that night – which it was. It was not that crowded in that area – so we just found a curb to sit and relax, and then they started coming out, one by one, and soon Streets of America was full of characters and guests!!!

We saw Captain Hook come out first……..




Then we actually met with Green Army Man:








Mulan:






Gepetto:




Chip:




Evil Queen:




And Pocahontas & Meeko:






It was fantastic!!! When/if you try to visit this – you have to keep in mind to go to the character you want to meet most first – they do not stay out long, and there were probably about a dozen or so of them, and of course, some guests just like to jump in and not really follow a line. But we were happy with who we were able to meet! Bree had never seen this, and it had been awhile since she had had so much character interaction – she was loving it!

It was now nearing our ADR for Sci-Fi dine in Theater, so we got checked in and seated in our car! Emily was our driver!








The girls ordered an appetizer of Fried Dill Pickles:




Scott enjoyed his Key West beer, while I enjoyed a margarita! The girls had milkshakes!






For our entrees, Scott had the Rueben:




I had the Build your own Burger:




And the girls each had the Shrimp Pasta.




After dinner, we had time for one more ride with Bree, so they chose Rock ‘n Roller Coaster!






After that, it was time to say good night to Bree – it was close to 9pm, and I believe her mom had to work that night – so Emily and I walked her out to the parking area where her mom was waiting.

While we were walking Bree out – Scott apparently found a photopass photographer ~ he does this on every trip, where he stops at one and gets photos of himself so that Emily and I find them when we view our photos…………




Well, this time, Emily snuck up behind him and photobombed him!!! It was really funny –at first the photopass photographer didn’t understand that she actually knew him and was doing it on purpose, and with my made up sign language he got it!




Then we had some family photos done!








We wanted to hang around to see Fantasmic, but still had some time before the 10:30 show, so we rode the Great Movie Ride – this is one of Emily’s favorite rides here!






















By the time we exited that, it was time to go find seats for Fantasmic!

Of course, somehow Emily was getting hungry again……….so she grabbed a Mickey pretzel, while Scott and I grabbed a beer…………and I just noticed in the photo that Emily apparently also got a frozen lemonade!!! So I believe we all shared the Mickey pretzel – somehow those always taste better when they are shaped like Mickey!




Fantasmic was great once again!




























Now we were ready to head back to AKL, and I actually remembered to get some photos of the hall area and our room number (I always take one to remember exactly where we stay). We were soon in our room, in our jammies, sitting on our balcony for our last night here (we were switching resorts the next morning) visiting our animal friends.

and a few more photos of an empty lobby area:










This little guy was just waiting to say good night to me!







Up next: Moving Resorts

[xwewhisper]

Love all the characters at DHS! What a great night


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Cam22]

Great finish to another day! Great pictures of Fantasmic! I'm a little sad that your moving resorts as I was really enjoying all the pictures from your balcony.

[cubfancolleen]

Character palooza sounds great!
Sad to see you leaving AKL!

[mojjo]

Character Palooza sounds amazing. And such great characters to choose from.

That's cute that Scott plays photo hide and seek.

[chezp]

Wow - you certainly packed a lot in at the Studios. Great photos with all the various characters.

[lfredsbo]

Originally Posted by xwewhisper

Love all the characters at DHS! What a great night


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

thanks! It was a lot of fun!!

Originally Posted by Cam22

Great finish to another day! Great pictures of Fantasmic! I'm a little sad that your moving resorts as I was really enjoying all the pictures from your balcony.

Thanks! I am sad too.......currently counting down the days till my next stay there!

Originally Posted by cubfancolleen

Character palooza sounds great!
Sad to see you leaving AKL!

Thanks! Character Palooza was soooo much fun!! I was sad too

[lfredsbo]

Originally Posted by mojjo

Character Palooza sounds amazing. And such great characters to choose from.

That's cute that Scott plays photo hide and seek.

It was absolutely amazing!! spoiler alert: we do it again!!!
And Scott is always such a kid!!!

Originally Posted by chezp

Wow - you certainly packed a lot in at the Studios. Great photos with all the various characters.

Thanks! They were a lot of fun!

[DMA]

What great photos with the characters. I'm glad Characterpalooza worked out so well for you. When we were there the characters were bombarded by the crowds and it was a little crazy! Your Sci-Fi meal looked yummy! That is such a fun place to eat!

[MayraLR]

Does Character Palooza go on all year or is it on specific dates?
How cool that Buzz signed his autograph instead of using the stamp. I hope he does the same for my white Vinylmation.
Great dinner at SFDI! Looking foward to eating there in June.

[lfredsbo]

Originally Posted by DMA

What great photos with the characters. I'm glad Characterpalooza worked out so well for you. When we were there the characters were bombarded by the crowds and it was a little crazy! Your Sci-Fi meal looked yummy! That is such a fun place to eat!

Thanks! It was crazy - but we made our way through.

Originally Posted by MayraLR

Does Character Palooza go on all year or is it on specific dates?
How cool that Buzz signed his autograph instead of using the stamp. I hope he does the same for my white Vinylmation.
Great dinner at SFDI! Looking foward to eating there in June.

Thanks! I believe it happens all year, good luck with Buzz!!!

[KMB733]

Lots of great character meet and greets at DHS!! Looks like a really fun night!!

[lfredsbo]

Need to start by saying that from here on out I will have difficulty with some of the memories, as my notes had started disappearing from my I-phone. It seemed to work really well and then all of a sudden they would just be gone – POOF! I was able to somehow retrieve most of them from the first week.

I would also like to add that although I omitted it from all my notes and TR at the time, we were calling home regularly to check on the status of things there, and all seemed to be the same as when we had left – FIL had been awake on and off, not eating much, but pretty much the same as when we had left the week before.


So on with the report……………


Sunday, July 7, 2013:

We slept in this morning, and when we finally woke, we had to pack everything up (my least favorite part about split stays). It was hard to leave AKL, but we were also anxious to move into our new resort for the remainder of our trip – Bay Lake Tower. And we were moving into a 1 bedroom villa, which meant lots more room!

Sadly, we said good bye to AKL and our gorgeous view……….








So we were finally arriving at BLT around noon – hoping that our room would be available, but of course it wasn’t (we didn’t really expect it to be), so we wandered around the resort area a bit trying to figure out where everything was ~ we had visited many times, but never really seen much more than the 4th floor of the Contemporary.




We decided to get some lunch while we were waiting for our room (they said it shouldn’t be too long), so we hopped on the monorail over to the Polynesian to try out Kona Café (this was new to us!).

We grabbed a few photos along the way!










When we checked in at Kona, we were able to get a table right away.




I had one mission here – to get a Lapu Lapu that I had been hearing so much about – so I went to order one – and wouldn’t you know it – they were out of Pineapples!!! Seriously??? How can a place like this run out of pineapples???? Our server said they could still make one, but it wouldn’t be served in a pineapple, and seriously – I wanted the REAL thing, so I settled on a Malibu Macaw instead! It was pretty tasty!




Scott had a Kona Longboard lager:




And I believe Emily’s drink was called a Lilikoi Juice (non-alcoholic, obviously):




We started off with some Pot Stickers:




Then we were all in the mood for sushi, so we ordered a few different rolls:

A California Luau Roll, a Cucumber Roll, and a Lava Roll (AMAZING!!! ), and Scott and Emily shared some sashimi.



close of up lava roll:




We saved room for dessert (not quite sure how) but anyway – Emily had the kids ice cream sundae, and Scott and I shared a pineapple upside down cake.




By the time we were finishing up with lunch, we got a text that our room was ready, so we hopped back on the monorail (I am going to like this feature the remainder of our trip! ) and arrived back at BLT.

We found our room ~ which was on the 2nd floor………we weren’t too happy with that – as we had requested a higher floor (we had booked a standard view, so we knew that the highest was the 5th or 6th, but we like to be higher in a hotel like that for more privacy on the balcony – Scott and I like to sit and enjoy drinks in the evening – and I like to sit out on them in the morning while everyone else is sleeping). So we arrive at room #7235, and open the door to find a beautiful room! These 1 bedrooms are quite spacious – with 2 full bathrooms!!! And the chair in the living room folds out to a bed as well as the couch! Not to mention that the living room is just very roomy!!





the 2nd bathroom;


















Well, the good stopped there when we went out on the balcony (which was through the master bedroom) – it was covered by trees overgrown to the balcony – could live with that – BUT there were 2 HUGE bee hives , one on the balcony and one in the tree!!! Bees were everywhere!!! We quickly got back inside, closing the door – and Scott called the front desk and explained this was NOT going to work for us at all. They sent a maintenance person down to the room so that they could spray the bee hives – but seriously – nope I am NOT comfortable with this at all!

We were so disappointed with this location so far, it was not a good start to our second half of vacation. Scott spent quite a bit of time down at the desk trying to find us another room – and bottom line was that they were not going to be able to move us until tomorrow. So, live out of the suitcases tonight – we will manage.

After all the craziness, we got changed to head to the park. We basically spent all day moving and such (with a lunch break in between)………..I can honestly say I am NOT a fan of split stays.



Up Next: An Evening at Magic Kingdom!

[lfredsbo]

Originally Posted by KMB733

Lots of great character meet and greets at DHS!! Looks like a really fun night!!

Thanks! It was!!!