Disney Nomads ... 3 Resorts in 8 Nights (March '12) - ALL NEW UPDATED 9/2 - Page 6 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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All caught up n looking forward to more : your comments on the Tinkerbell shot during Wishes made me laugh out loud, scaring one of our doggies. At least hubby didn't wake up but hey, on a late Sat night I could sing loudly like your bus driver and he'd carry on snoring. Sounds like your driver had taken his happy pills that morning
great photos of the castle! Sounds like an eventful trip so far.
Thanks! We did a lot considering we checked in at 7pm!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Annabel
All caught up n looking forward to more : your comments on the Tinkerbell shot during Wishes made me laugh out loud, scaring one of our doggies. At least hubby didn't wake up but hey, on a late Sat night I could sing loudly like your bus driver and he'd carry on snoring. Sounds like your driver had taken his happy pills that morning
Yes! Maybe that's why he was so happy!
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Laura
March '06 Offsite | March '07 CSR | March '08 POR | March '09 WL | March '10 CSR | March '11 POFQ | March '12 BLT, BWV, AKV
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The bus driver starts singing. I mean really belting it out like a lounge singer. Mr. Squid and I look at each other. What do you do in this situation? I guess the polite thing would be to compliment him on his lovely voice, so I do. And he starts singing louder. And he is really going to town, like he’s auditioning for American Idol! Now, he has a pleasant voice but it’s just so strange. I don’t know where to look. Do we clap?
....
We pull away from the curb and the bus driver…acts normal. No singing, just “how you doing folks?” It’s like that frog who only sings for one guy and then when he tries to get him to sing for anyone else he acts like a frog. This guy is now acting like a bus driver. I decide to say nothing to the other family about it.
This is pretty funny. It's very "Candid Camera" or to be not-so-70's with my pop culture reference "Punk'd."
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Just catching up. Your TR had me giggling several times. Your coffee struggles make me glad I don't drink the stuff! And I'm wondering why you didn't walk to the MK and get a bus to SSR from there? But I confess, I'm glad you didn't. That bus driver story cracked me up!
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
Just catching up. Your TR had me giggling several times. Your coffee struggles make me glad I don't drink the stuff! And I'm wondering why you didn't walk to the MK and get a bus to SSR from there? But I confess, I'm glad you didn't. That bus driver story cracked me up!
Sharon, I am seriously laughing out loud. Where is that "doh!" smiley? I read others' trip reports and often wonder why they took the route they did and here I go and make a rookie mistake. But hey, for the good of this trip report I'll take a few detours.
Thanks for reading! New update coming soon.
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Laura
March '06 Offsite | March '07 CSR | March '08 POR | March '09 WL | March '10 CSR | March '11 POFQ | March '12 BLT, BWV, AKV
We get off our Broadway-themed bus and I think again what a beautiful day it is! I hope it’s cold and rainy in New Jersey. Wow! That’s a selfish thought, isn’t it? But isn’t lording it over the freezing folks back home one of the guilty pleasures of a warm weather vacation?
Monkston has a stack of gift cards burning a hole in her sparkly silver wallet but we decide to christen our new Tables in Wonderland card at T-Rex first. It could be hours before she makes a purchase decision and we’ve only had a couple of mini donuts since our dinner with The Marsupial.
Again, I act like I know where I’m going. Come on! This way, I say. Everything looks familiar yet I’m not entirely sure of the order of things. I know I’ve walked by T-Rex several times in the past but where is it in relation to World of Disney? I take a shot and follow a group in front of us.
Downtown Disney is so much more pleasant during the day. I guess because that’s most sane people would rather use their expensive park tickets or lounge the by pool at their expensive resorts than meander around a souped up shopping mall. But we have a $500 to recover, and recover it we must.
We arrive at T-Rex and I ask for a table for 3. The man at the podium tells us to have a seat and that it should be a short wait. We settle in for what I think will surely be a not-short wait and literally seconds later we’re approached to be seated. That’s strange. It reminds me of that unnecessary ticket procedure at Dumbo.
My first impression of T-Rex is that’s a lot like Rainforest Café. I think the animals are in the same positions but now they’re dinosaurs. I’m sure they’ll produce a similar cacophony every 20 minutes too.
I’ve been to Rainforest Café twice. The first time we took Monkston for her 4th birthday and I lost my debit card, an inconvenience exacerbated by the fact that Christmas was 5 days away and I hadn’t finished shopping.
Last year over Christmas break, Monkston and I met my aunt at Rainforest for lunch. She had never been there before and I forgot to mention to her that the place blows up at different intervals. Well, we were in the middle of a pleasant conversation and all of a sudden the storm started and the animals started screeching and the look on her face was just priceless.
Quick T-Rex review: Monkston had the kid’s cheese pizza and it was pizza. Mr. Squid had the Guac-asaurus Burger that he really enjoyed but it looked like a big mess to me. And how annoying are the cutesy names? I’m reminded of that Rooty Tooty Fresh and Fruity breakfast at Ihop. Even if I wanted to eat it, I wouldn’t order it on principle.
I had the Omnivore’s Salad consisting of romaine and baby greens with goat cheese, strawberries and pecans with balsamic. It was ok but much too large. I felt defeated before I’d begun.
The atmosphere here is fun but I sort of wish we had just gotten sandwiches at Earl of Sandwich. We’ve yet to try it because we always end up at Wolfgang Puck’s.
Here are a few photos from T-Rex.
Here are Mr. Squid and Monkston.
I don’t have one of me at T-Rex but here I am at Epcot.
Lunch over, we tell Monkston it’s shopping time! I check my phone and see that it’s about 1:00. My window for pool time is closing quickly and Monkston doesn’t make purchase decisions idly. Well at least not when it’s her money. When it’s mommy’s money we don’t have much buyer’s remorse.
I decide to just go with the flow and wherever we end up, we end up. Now, this is what I decide, whether or not I stick to it is anybody’s guess.
Monkston says she wants to look in the Lego store. After looking around at the mostly masculine building sets, she decides she wants to get a bucket of Legos. Mr. Squid and I look lovingly at our little girl picking out her Legos one little piece at a time. We say, “How cute is she? Look how she’s deliberating over the little blue Lego or the little yellow Lego! Isn’t that sweet!”
And it was sweet…
For the first 10 minutes.
Now, Mr. Squid and I are pretty indulgent parents. I waited a long time for Monkston. I was 38 when she was born so that makes me…well it’s a simple math problem and I can’t say it. Anyway, my point is that we do let the world revolve around Monkston but this is getting painful.
Our endearing parental gazing has turned to eye rolling.
“Monkston, you must have this color. Lots of this color! It’s so cool!” I dump a handful of purple Legos in the tub.
“Monkston, you really need to have lots of this one!” More dumping.
Mr. Squid pitches in with his suggestions and in short order we have stuffed the tub with as many Legos as we could possibly jam in there.
Whew! $15 down, $85 to go.
We stop in World of Disney and we tell Monkston that this is the last store today. After all, we have all week and many more stores to look at. As we are browsing, I think back to last year and the surprising purchase she made.
At least it’s come in handy at times…
After about 15 minutes of browsing she decides to buy a Stitch pin and we head out on our way to find the boat to Saratoga Springs.
We head over to the boat dock and see that the boats only go to Port Orleans and I have no idea where another boat dock is. We ask several people where it is and they keep pointing us back to the same place. We decide that we’d just be better off walking so we leave the souped-up shopping center and head off to the souped-up condo complex. Walking along a busy roadway in the blazing sun is not how I envisioned our first full day at the happiest place on earth.
Finally we arrive at the resort and only having been to the DVC office, I had no idea how vast this place is. We flag down a passing cast member driving a cart and ask for directions to the office. He explains how to get there and then proceeds to drive along beside us giving us directions. I wonder how long he is going to do this. Wouldn’t it be easier to ask us to hop on and drive us? He continues in this way until the office is in our site, he points at it and then drives away.
And there goes the second strangest driver of the day.
We reach the office and after explaining to the front desk our situation and who we’re waiting for we’re told to sit in the reception area. And you know what that means…Free cookies!
Coming up: Do we get our $500 gift card, can we weasel a ride back to the resort out of them and can we get in some pool time?
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Laura
March '06 Offsite | March '07 CSR | March '08 POR | March '09 WL | March '10 CSR | March '11 POFQ | March '12 BLT, BWV, AKV
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