So Many Celebrations! A June 2013 trip report - Updated 11/6 -MK Day 2 - Page 6 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Whew! Your updates are FANTASTIC! I'm loving every moment of your trip! You've accomplished quite a bit during the first half of your vacation...I'm impressed!
What a great day! I am with you though, looking at that photo of the remnants of the Kitchen Sink - towards the end, it doesn't exactly look appealing.
Days "off" can be the best days sometimes. Glad you enjoyed AoA so much - it's indeed a very fun looking resort! And your son fell asleep at dinner. Again.
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Sounds like a great relaxing day! I agree that the kitchen sink looks yummy in your "before" pic and yucky in your "after" pic.... Love the AOA pictures....
It was nice not to have a schedule, but to take it easy.
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Originally Posted by dutchdisneyfamily
Love your relaxing day! The kitchen sink looks good overall. My family would love to try it. I'd ask for it with the cherries on the side. I don't like those kind. AOA looks really nice. We didn't make it over there last trip. We've talked about possibly staying there at some point as well. We shall see...
If we were ever to order it again, I'd ask to leave the cherries out, too. My girls love them, but I don't!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great day at the pool and at AoA! Great pictures!
The girls really want to stay at AoA someday!
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Originally Posted by lauriep
So nice to have a long enough trip to allow for a "day off" right in the middle!
It WAS really nice! And it was good that we actually did it, instead of blowing it off and going to the parks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by KHarrod
Whew! Your updates are FANTASTIC! I'm loving every moment of your trip! You've accomplished quite a bit during the first half of your vacation...I'm impressed!
Thanks! I did lots and lots of planning...and the LINES app helped a lot. If you don't have it, I'd definitely recommend getting it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
What a great day! I am with you though, looking at that photo of the remnants of the Kitchen Sink - towards the end, it doesn't exactly look appealing.
The other drawback was that I never got my No Way Jose!
Quote:
Originally Posted by disney_duke
Days "off" can be the best days sometimes. Glad you enjoyed AoA so much - it's indeed a very fun looking resort! And your son fell asleep at dinner. Again.
Of course he did! And not for the last time, either...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
I've really grown to appreciate the down days at Disney! Yours sounds wonderful with great food, pool time, and explore AoA.
I think we will definitely plan for another day off on our next long trip.
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Yay! I'm all caught up now. I've been looking forward to your TR. Love it so far. Sounds like you had a wonderful trip.
I understand what you mean about claustrophobia and The Sum of All Thrills. My family made fun of me when I finally decided to try it last summer. I went with DS11 who was going to do all this upside down loops and stuff, but that didn't scare me. The CM showed us the red button to stop the ride in case either of us got scared. Well, as soon as I sat down, way before the ride started, there I am pressing the red button. I just couldn't do it. I felt like Hannibal Lecter or something. DS was laughing and went on without me, lol. I'm trying to work up the courage to go for it next year. We'll see.
Yay! I'm all caught up now. I've been looking forward to your TR. Love it so far. Sounds like you had a wonderful trip.
I understand what you mean about claustrophobia and The Sum of All Thrills. My family made fun of me when I finally decided to try it last summer. I went with DS11 who was going to do all this upside down loops and stuff, but that didn't scare me. The CM showed us the red button to stop the ride in case either of us got scared. Well, as soon as I sat down, way before the ride started, there I am pressing the red button. I just couldn't do it. I felt like Hannibal Lecter or something. DS was laughing and went on without me, lol. I'm trying to work up the courage to go for it next year. We'll see.
Can't wait to read more about your trip.
Have you done Mission:Space? I wouldn't recommend it!
Hey I was just wondering what do your CM appreciation cards look like ? Do you use like a design or a website ? I think I am going to take some I read a article that really got me thinking how CM's must run into their own share of rude miserable people despite being in the happiest place on earth that being said I want to have some just in case I run into some exceptional CMs
Day 6 – June 19 – Our 20th anniversary
Today was moving day, so I was up early to make sure the luggage was ready for transfer. We ended up with 17 bags for Bell Services! (I was determined to pare that number down the next time we had to pack up!) We said good-bye to the Beach Club and headed out the door at 8:50. The plan was to spend the morning at the Studios and then go to the Boardwalk for Welcome Wednesday in the afternoon, before making our way to our new home at Old Key West.
We took the boat, and arrived at 9:26. (I took these photos the night before, but you get the idea...)
The younger girls had decided that they wanted to participate in the Jedi Training Academy, so DH took the girls to sign them up while DS and I went to get a couple of FPs for Tower of Terror and a few for Rock n Roller Coaster. DH called me when he found out that the only spots available by the time he got over there were the last two shows of the day. We had an ADR at 5:45 at Raglan Road, so I told him to sign them up for the last class at 8:00 p.m. After that, we took turns taking the girls on Star Tours. The second time, DD13 was the Rebel Spy, so I bought her the t-shirt!
We didn’t have many things on our to-do list, so we were not sure what to do next. We went by the Great Movie Ride, and even got in line, but decided the wait was too long and there were other things we’d rather do. We ended up in the Animation Courtyard area and were getting FPs for Voyage of the Little Mermaid when a very helpful CM came up and told us that if we had the GAC pass, we could go right on in and didn’t need to get a FP! It was another really hot day, so we were glad for the air conditioning, and enjoyed the show, as always. The RnRC FPs were almost ready to expire, so I sent the big girls with DH to ride it. (DD7 decided she didn’t need to ride it again.) I think we hung out in the gift shop while we waited, because, again, it was hot out!
We browsed the shop and found two shirts that I thought DH would like. He was waiting in line for the ride photo, so I sent one of the girls over to him in line, asking him to choose between the two. He sent back one shirt and kept the other, and had the CM ring it up with the ride photo, missing out on the AP discount he could have gotten if he’d let me buy it for him.
He is a collector of guitars, and this is the one that he chose.
I posted a picture of it on FB, asking whether anyone knew the connection between Lord of the Rings and Rock n Roller Coaster. Unfortunately, I was disappointed in my FB friends, because nobody got the right answer. Do YOU know?
It was already 11:30, and we were hoping to leave in about an hour, so we headed for our last must-do of the day: Animation Academy. On our way in, a CM that we had seen on our previous DHS day saw us and said “Welcome back!”
We were surprised to see that the instructor was the same lovely CM from the other day. There was a lively discussion about what character we should draw; I find that groups either go one way or the other. Either people have no opinion – or are too shy to say so – or everybody has an option and the room is full of people shouting out their preferences! The CM tried to dissuade us from our choices – Merida or Woody – because they are both on the more difficult scale. We took a vote and Woody was the winner. I was afraid that DD7, especially, would be frustrated by the difficulty of this drawing, but she did pretty well. I wasn’t terribly happy with how mine turned out, but I always enjoy the experience.
The CM recognized us, and afterwards, we chatted with her a little bit. We’d told her that we really wanted to draw Merida, so she did a quick sketch and gave it to us.
We needed to eat, but weren’t terribly hungry, so we ended up at Min & Bill’s Dockside Diner. I’d heard about the frankfurter in a pretzel roll from WDW Today, and wanted to try it. DH and I got ours with Dijon mustard, the girls went without, and they all came with chips. I felt the need for some caffeine, so I got an iced coffee and it was disgusting! I added lots of sugar and tons of cream, but had to throw it out because it just was not drinkable! DH was smart and got a large lemonade. The girls got shakes, which was really just soft-serve ice cream. Another expensive lunch -- $59.64 – made me miss the dining plan! We hid out the best we could under an umbrella table, but the sun was beating down and it was very humid, so as soon as we scarfed our lunch, we made our way to the boat dock. Good-bye, Hollywood Studios!
We were all pretty wiped out, so it was nice to get off our feet and take a lovely boat ride to the Boardwalk. We arrived before 2:00 and made our way down to the Atlantic Dance Hall for the DVC member mixer called Welcome Home Wednesday. I’d only been to this once before, and the family had never been. I knew it would be a good place for us to get out of the sun in an air-conditioned spot, get some snacks and beverages, and hopefully, free DVC member hats! We were walking down the Boardwalk behind another group of people on their way to the mixer (I could tell because they were talking about free hats!)
I expected to see a large group of people waiting outside the dance hall, and got a little suspicious when the only person outside appeared to be a CM. As the group in front of us approached him, we could hear him apologize, saying that the mixer had been cancelled! We were so disappointed, because we were hot, we were tired, and we were homeless for another couple of hours. He gave us consolation pins, but that did not make up for the fact that we’d left the Studios to come to this, and if we’d known, we could have hung around the park for a little while longer and gone to an indoor show.
Sadly, we headed into the hotel to decide what to do. We hung around in the gift shop for a bit, and DD7 decided that she’d waited long enough to buy the Duffy purse!
DH suggested that I try to find out if our room at OKW was ready before we trekked all the way over there. I called OKW directly, explained my situation, and was passed along to another CM. She told me we actually had to be at OKW for us to find out if our room was ready, so we decided to take our chances and head out. We debated whether to take the boat back to the Studios and then a bus to OKW, or to take a bus to DTD and then transfer. Since we were already at the Boardwalk, we decided to take the bus, and it took a REALLY long time to get to OKW. We were on the bus by 2:40, arrived at DTD at 3:00, and had to sit through a shift change. Of course, we passed right by OKW on the way to DTD, and I wished that we could just ask the bus driver to drop us off!
Once we were on the bus to our final destination, we first had to go to Typhoon Lagoon, where nobody got either on or off.
We finally arrived at OKW at 3:38, almost an hour after leaving the Boardwalk. In hindsight, we should have taken the boat back to the Studios, as that had worked out really well when we went to Art of Animation the day before. Oh, well, live and learn.
We checked in with no wait at all, and the kids all got balloon animals from the CMs. We arranged for bell services to take our bags to the room, and gave him a $20 tip for transferring all 17 of our bags for us! We were in Building 23 in the Hospitality House area, which is just over the bridge to the left of the HH if you are standing on the boat dock, facing the building.
Here's a photo from the bridge, looking torward HH.
We finally made it to our room by 4:00, and basically collapsed for an hour, after I took a ton of photos of the big, beautiful 2-bedroom villa.
One of the first things we did was check out the patios. We were on the ground floor, but it seemed more like a balcony than a patio, because of all the foliage. We had a view of the water and a lovely, restful fountain. I spent quite a lot of time reading out on that patio.
We always had to do a lizard check before opening up the front door!
These little guys are quick!
This is the view to the right of our door
We wished that we could have just taken the evening off, but we were really looking forward to dining at Raglan Road, so after an hour, it was time to go find the boat dock. It took a bit of searching to find the handicapped-accessible ramp to the boat dock, but a boat was waiting for us when we got there, so we were on our way to DTD soon after arriving. We enjoyed the boat ride and were dropped off at the Marketplace. We weren’t quite sure where Raglan Road was, and had a little trouble finding it. It was still very hot, so we were anxious to be seated as soon as we arrived. We were told that it would be a little bit of a wait, and handed a buzzer, but a manager named Alan came to our rescue and told us that they could seat us right away! We were led to two tables right in front of the stage. I was loving this place already!
Up next: Dinner at Raglan Road
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Last edited by mom to 3 princesses and 1 prince; 07-25-2013 at 11:45 AM..
I can tell that the heat was rough this day. Your 2-bedroom villa at OKW looks beautiful! From that picture, I can tell that you all got front row tables at Raglan Road. Hope you all enjoy it!
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You've accomplished quite a bit during the first half of your vacation...I'm impressed!
Kristin
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I am with you though, looking at that photo of the remnants of the Kitchen Sink - towards the end, it doesn't exactly look appealing. 
Great pictures! 
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