Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Thursday, January 06, 2011
There's more :-)
21st August 2009
Return to Epcot for some Seat Jounce and Squirm, Turtle Talk, Segway and Shopping.
First on the agenda today....a lie in. Doesn't matter what my vacation planner said, we needed a lie in, I don't think a hurricane would have woken us!
We eventually got to Epcot, some time late morning. I think we hit Soarin' first (at least, that's what I would have done given the choice) but not having kept my journal up and relying only on photos (of which there are none of Soarin') it's difficult to say.
We definitely rode Test Track again, a firm family favourite.
Today we decided to make use of the Single Rider lines. Katie was a bit worried that we might all get separated into different cars, she didnt mind riding in front of behind in the same car, but didn't want to be in a car without any of us, but she knew it was worth a try given the length of the normal line. It turned out to be Sam that got separated from Lee but he didn't mind.
Freshening up on the way out, yep, hot again today!
Next up...
...for a ride in a shell. Jump in kids, quick, I want a photo before I get told to put my camera away!
The other highlight of the day was.....drum roll....Turtle Talk with Crush.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about have a watch of this clip from Youtube:
Oh I do so love Crush and his bikini top! I wanted to bring him home with me! What a totally awesome dude :-) The show was so cute, it was fab to see the reactions of the little ones down the front by Crush's tank. Despite being 12 and 16 Katie and Sam weren't too cool for this. Katie spent some time referring to her 'parental unit' after seeing the show and we had some great fun for days mimicking Crush's words.
We spent quite some time afterwards looking out for the dolphins but my photographs were pretty poor as you can see
Time for some lunch. Sunshine Seasons looked good. We all had different things I think. Can't remember what the family had, but here's my dish, and very tasty it was too, apart from the beef. I think it was around this holiday that I started to like meat less and less, (remember what I thought of Animal Kingdom's chicken salad! Blurgh!) and to this day I'd rather have a big pile of veggies and some kind of potato).
Refuelled, we spent some time in and out of Innoventions East and West, Club Cool and did a few attractions that we'd not done at the beginning of our holiday: Journey into Imagination and Honey I Shrunk the Audience.
Hub and Sam had a go on a Segway. Hub found it really difficult to balance, Sam was ok on it, but they enjoyed trying.
So glad I didn't do what I'd thought about doing back at home...booking a Segway tour around Celebration town for hub's 41st birthday - hub didn't think he would have managed it without falling off!
We had one more turn on Spaceship Earth, and we hung around afterwards to see our photos come up and try, for the second time, to email them home (we never did get them!)
A quick nip into the shops, and although we didn't spend much here's what I would have liked to have taken home:
So that was it, our last visit to Epcot for this holiday. We'd kinda decided that we wouldn't do Illuminations because we were always so pooped by early evenings, but we will see it this year, I am determined!
Goodbye Epcot, let's have a few last photos to remember our visit by:
We left not a moment too soon, for the heavens were about to open for the afternoon again!
We spent the rest of the day at the villa, lounging around. I can't remember where we ate, or if we even ate a meal!
Day 11 already!
Writing up today's journal required a bit of detective work! In my Passporter I had written that we visited Islands of Adventure and Blizzard Beach, but on close inspection of my photos it appears we also revisited Universal Studios (I have photos of us in the same clothes at both parks, aaa-ha!). I'm guessing we did US first because we all got soaked at IofA and hub left the park with a rather sexy ruffled hair look which isn't there in the Universal Studios photos . Double aaa-ha! Perhaps we did both together, to free up a day later on.
So....it seems we went to US first. There aren't alot of photos to show from our time in US, I guess it was a 'mop up' visit, cathcing any rides we didn't catch last time. Most of the photos are kooky photos, so we must all have been very happy and relaxed :-)
Took a piccie of the kids next to the Delorean from Back to the Future (hub and I went to the movies when we were dating in the 80s, sometimes twice a week, and I remember seeing BTTF really well, wow, makes me feel old now!)
I remember rushing off to sing along with the Blues Brothers shortly after taking the photo of the Delorean and the train. Hub had already run off, following their police car, to see where they were going to perform! We'd both been quite taken by the Blues Brothers at US on our honeymoon in 1992 and had one of their CDs in our collection.
So... Islands of Adventure, Loads of photos for this park, it's so colourful!!
I think we whizzed around this park quite quickly. It was another very hot day, and not being keen on more queuing or big looping coasters we spent more time walking than on rides.
I remember, very clearly, moving swiftly on past the Hulk coaster, listening to the whoooosh noises it made, and Katie being very disgruntled that a) the line time was about 50minutes and b) no-one felt as brave as her and wanted to ride with her!
Took some photos instead!
After 11 days of touring all the parks, this sign kinda says it all!
We moved swiftly through Marvel Superhero Island into Toon Lagoon to ride Bluto's Bilge Barge Rats. Oh, how we all thought this one was hilarious and put all other water rides to shame! The queue was really long, but we didn't mind waiting for this one because we were so very hot!
We all got off the ride feeling very giggly, with lots to say about how wonderful it was. Who cares that we were absolutely soaked through from tip to toe! I've never seen hub laugh so much. He wrung his vest top out and just look at it, it stretched!!
Katie's socks got dyed the same colour as her shoes!
Big smiles!
Definitely one of those moments I won't be forgetting :-)
Dudley Do-right's Ripshaw Falls had an even bigger queue that the Bilge Barge Rats ride and none of us felt like waiting (guess you can tell we're getting theme-parked out by now!).
On into Jurassic Park with something yummy from a nearby refreshements cart. We queued for the River park Adventure...what a lovely gentle ride with lovely music..... so why hadn't I heard about the sudden appearance of T-Rex right in front of me, and the even more sudden and unexpected drop?! No time for a deep breath in preparation for the drop because I was laughing, gob wide open, at T-Rex as we made the plunge! Oh but it was fun! I'm getting quite brave at these drops now!
Another Youtube clip for you:
After all the excitement I forgot that I wanted to visit the Visitor's Centre and we took off over the bridge near the Flying Unicorn (I could handle that one, so was disappointed it was closed). A bit of anticipation about the Harry Potter Land followed (Katie is the only HP fan in our house and was quite disappointed that it wasn't open, and, of course, is really looking forward to going back this year!), of which there was, at that time, no sign other than some buidling work noise and some high wooden fences. A photo opportunity across the lake:
oh yes, look, there's Doctor Dooms Fear Fall ride...how strange that we've only just noticed it...too late to go back and ride now (phew!!)
We skipped all rides in the Lost Continent, we must have been exhausted. We did get another snack though...we tried a Churro...we all found it overated...chewy and dry! Despite the sugar it had about as much taste as the paper napkin it was stuck to
Here's one tired girlie and hub trying to get his teeth into the Churro!
That appear to be it for this park...no further photos.
Goodbye IofA, we must definitely come back because we missed some fine rides and didn't even step foot into a shop!
On the way back we stopped off to laze about at Blizzard Beach. This time, after catching our breath in the lazy river, we did actually hit some of the slides. Gosh that walk up to the top was a killer and to think we did it three or four times! I did take my camera but only took shots of us eating (again!), the ski lift and a gheko, nothing worth uploading.
Talking of ski lift....that terrified me more than some of the big rides at the other parks! It felt so unsafe dangling in mid air, I rode with Sam and a stranger who wound me up terribly by trying to swing the seat! If I could have dismounted onto Mount Gushmore as soon as we climbed the steep part I really would have! I was absolutely desperate to get off and onto terra firma! Me and ski lifts just aren't good together. I'd never go on a skiing holiday!
Our best memory is of riding the family ride, Teamboat Springs, it was a laugh-a minute as our botties got bumped around and we hung on tight! Unfortunately I've misplaced the Photopass wristband that was thrust into my hand at the end of the ride. I would have liked to have seen our happy faces in the photo.
We also tried the Runoff Rapids. That was exhilarating! I rode with Katie and managed to finish in the most unlady-like upside-down position when the rubber thingy up-ended at the bottom of the ride, whilst Katie landed neatly on her feet! And I'd braved it and worn a bikini this time! I think I managed to put everything back in its correct place before I resurfaced. Buy an all-in-one swimsuit next time, definitely!!
We were all exhausted again so spent some time bobbing around with some inner tubes in Melt-Away Bay before getting another snack and something to drink before heading back to the villa.
Later that night we popped out to Golden Corral for something more substantial than all the rubbish snacks we'd been eating throughout the day!
Day Twelve sees us head for Busch Gardens and we certainly picked a good day for it! To follow....
Return to Epcot for some Seat Jounce and Squirm, Turtle Talk, Segway and Shopping.
First on the agenda today....a lie in. Doesn't matter what my vacation planner said, we needed a lie in, I don't think a hurricane would have woken us!
We eventually got to Epcot, some time late morning. I think we hit Soarin' first (at least, that's what I would have done given the choice) but not having kept my journal up and relying only on photos (of which there are none of Soarin') it's difficult to say.
We definitely rode Test Track again, a firm family favourite.
Today we decided to make use of the Single Rider lines. Katie was a bit worried that we might all get separated into different cars, she didnt mind riding in front of behind in the same car, but didn't want to be in a car without any of us, but she knew it was worth a try given the length of the normal line. It turned out to be Sam that got separated from Lee but he didn't mind.
Freshening up on the way out, yep, hot again today!
Next up...
...for a ride in a shell. Jump in kids, quick, I want a photo before I get told to put my camera away!
The other highlight of the day was.....drum roll....Turtle Talk with Crush.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about have a watch of this clip from Youtube:
Oh I do so love Crush and his bikini top! I wanted to bring him home with me! What a totally awesome dude :-) The show was so cute, it was fab to see the reactions of the little ones down the front by Crush's tank. Despite being 12 and 16 Katie and Sam weren't too cool for this. Katie spent some time referring to her 'parental unit' after seeing the show and we had some great fun for days mimicking Crush's words.
We spent quite some time afterwards looking out for the dolphins but my photographs were pretty poor as you can see
Time for some lunch. Sunshine Seasons looked good. We all had different things I think. Can't remember what the family had, but here's my dish, and very tasty it was too, apart from the beef. I think it was around this holiday that I started to like meat less and less, (remember what I thought of Animal Kingdom's chicken salad! Blurgh!) and to this day I'd rather have a big pile of veggies and some kind of potato).
Refuelled, we spent some time in and out of Innoventions East and West, Club Cool and did a few attractions that we'd not done at the beginning of our holiday: Journey into Imagination and Honey I Shrunk the Audience.
Hub and Sam had a go on a Segway. Hub found it really difficult to balance, Sam was ok on it, but they enjoyed trying.
So glad I didn't do what I'd thought about doing back at home...booking a Segway tour around Celebration town for hub's 41st birthday - hub didn't think he would have managed it without falling off!
We had one more turn on Spaceship Earth, and we hung around afterwards to see our photos come up and try, for the second time, to email them home (we never did get them!)
A quick nip into the shops, and although we didn't spend much here's what I would have liked to have taken home:
So that was it, our last visit to Epcot for this holiday. We'd kinda decided that we wouldn't do Illuminations because we were always so pooped by early evenings, but we will see it this year, I am determined!
Goodbye Epcot, let's have a few last photos to remember our visit by:
We left not a moment too soon, for the heavens were about to open for the afternoon again!
We spent the rest of the day at the villa, lounging around. I can't remember where we ate, or if we even ate a meal!
Day 11 already!
Writing up today's journal required a bit of detective work! In my Passporter I had written that we visited Islands of Adventure and Blizzard Beach, but on close inspection of my photos it appears we also revisited Universal Studios (I have photos of us in the same clothes at both parks, aaa-ha!). I'm guessing we did US first because we all got soaked at IofA and hub left the park with a rather sexy ruffled hair look which isn't there in the Universal Studios photos . Double aaa-ha! Perhaps we did both together, to free up a day later on.
So....it seems we went to US first. There aren't alot of photos to show from our time in US, I guess it was a 'mop up' visit, cathcing any rides we didn't catch last time. Most of the photos are kooky photos, so we must all have been very happy and relaxed :-)
Took a piccie of the kids next to the Delorean from Back to the Future (hub and I went to the movies when we were dating in the 80s, sometimes twice a week, and I remember seeing BTTF really well, wow, makes me feel old now!)
I remember rushing off to sing along with the Blues Brothers shortly after taking the photo of the Delorean and the train. Hub had already run off, following their police car, to see where they were going to perform! We'd both been quite taken by the Blues Brothers at US on our honeymoon in 1992 and had one of their CDs in our collection.
So... Islands of Adventure, Loads of photos for this park, it's so colourful!!
I think we whizzed around this park quite quickly. It was another very hot day, and not being keen on more queuing or big looping coasters we spent more time walking than on rides.
I remember, very clearly, moving swiftly on past the Hulk coaster, listening to the whoooosh noises it made, and Katie being very disgruntled that a) the line time was about 50minutes and b) no-one felt as brave as her and wanted to ride with her!
Took some photos instead!
After 11 days of touring all the parks, this sign kinda says it all!
We moved swiftly through Marvel Superhero Island into Toon Lagoon to ride Bluto's Bilge Barge Rats. Oh, how we all thought this one was hilarious and put all other water rides to shame! The queue was really long, but we didn't mind waiting for this one because we were so very hot!
We all got off the ride feeling very giggly, with lots to say about how wonderful it was. Who cares that we were absolutely soaked through from tip to toe! I've never seen hub laugh so much. He wrung his vest top out and just look at it, it stretched!!
Katie's socks got dyed the same colour as her shoes!
Big smiles!
Definitely one of those moments I won't be forgetting :-)
Dudley Do-right's Ripshaw Falls had an even bigger queue that the Bilge Barge Rats ride and none of us felt like waiting (guess you can tell we're getting theme-parked out by now!).
On into Jurassic Park with something yummy from a nearby refreshements cart. We queued for the River park Adventure...what a lovely gentle ride with lovely music..... so why hadn't I heard about the sudden appearance of T-Rex right in front of me, and the even more sudden and unexpected drop?! No time for a deep breath in preparation for the drop because I was laughing, gob wide open, at T-Rex as we made the plunge! Oh but it was fun! I'm getting quite brave at these drops now!
Another Youtube clip for you:
After all the excitement I forgot that I wanted to visit the Visitor's Centre and we took off over the bridge near the Flying Unicorn (I could handle that one, so was disappointed it was closed). A bit of anticipation about the Harry Potter Land followed (Katie is the only HP fan in our house and was quite disappointed that it wasn't open, and, of course, is really looking forward to going back this year!), of which there was, at that time, no sign other than some buidling work noise and some high wooden fences. A photo opportunity across the lake:
oh yes, look, there's Doctor Dooms Fear Fall ride...how strange that we've only just noticed it...too late to go back and ride now (phew!!)
We skipped all rides in the Lost Continent, we must have been exhausted. We did get another snack though...we tried a Churro...we all found it overated...chewy and dry! Despite the sugar it had about as much taste as the paper napkin it was stuck to
Here's one tired girlie and hub trying to get his teeth into the Churro!
That appear to be it for this park...no further photos.
Goodbye IofA, we must definitely come back because we missed some fine rides and didn't even step foot into a shop!
On the way back we stopped off to laze about at Blizzard Beach. This time, after catching our breath in the lazy river, we did actually hit some of the slides. Gosh that walk up to the top was a killer and to think we did it three or four times! I did take my camera but only took shots of us eating (again!), the ski lift and a gheko, nothing worth uploading.
Talking of ski lift....that terrified me more than some of the big rides at the other parks! It felt so unsafe dangling in mid air, I rode with Sam and a stranger who wound me up terribly by trying to swing the seat! If I could have dismounted onto Mount Gushmore as soon as we climbed the steep part I really would have! I was absolutely desperate to get off and onto terra firma! Me and ski lifts just aren't good together. I'd never go on a skiing holiday!
Our best memory is of riding the family ride, Teamboat Springs, it was a laugh-a minute as our botties got bumped around and we hung on tight! Unfortunately I've misplaced the Photopass wristband that was thrust into my hand at the end of the ride. I would have liked to have seen our happy faces in the photo.
We also tried the Runoff Rapids. That was exhilarating! I rode with Katie and managed to finish in the most unlady-like upside-down position when the rubber thingy up-ended at the bottom of the ride, whilst Katie landed neatly on her feet! And I'd braved it and worn a bikini this time! I think I managed to put everything back in its correct place before I resurfaced. Buy an all-in-one swimsuit next time, definitely!!
We were all exhausted again so spent some time bobbing around with some inner tubes in Melt-Away Bay before getting another snack and something to drink before heading back to the villa.
Later that night we popped out to Golden Corral for something more substantial than all the rubbish snacks we'd been eating throughout the day!
Day Twelve sees us head for Busch Gardens and we certainly picked a good day for it! To follow....
More 2009 Trip Report
20th August 2009
Shopping and Floating :-)
Don't quite know why we picked one of the hottest days to do some morning shopping, it wasn't a particularly good idea :-)
After some brekkie at Perkins on the US 192, served by a very friendly old lady and a very wistful look from me at the bakery section (too full to take any away, and the cakes would have got too hot in the car while we shopped anyway), we took a doodle down the 192 in search of some retail therapy with Mapman's map. Found the Lake Buena Vista Outlet, and happy not to drive too far we stopped here. Spotted a family on Segways and found Celebration too, noting where it was in case we had time to visit another time.
As we got out of the car the heat hit us! Boy, did we dart for the nearest shop! We visited:
one big shop that sold clothes and bags (nothing posh, but can't remember its name),
the Book Warehouse (woop, woop, I just luurve new books!), Converse (where we parted with quite a bit of dosh...Lee and Katie both got some shoes, Katie got some T-shirts and a zipper sweat-top, all in purple, and I only found one T shirt in my size, and, being a size 16 and never having a problem finding my size at home I was quite upset by this!)
Character Outlet (for souvenirs, and some lovely scrapbooking stuff including some punches that I knew cost way more at home...that made up for the lack of T shirts ),
Nike shop (this is where we parted with lots of dosh again, but to this day I say it was money very well spent because what we bought has washed and ironed repeatedly over the year without fading, shrinking, or twisting to make ironing a nightmare. The T-shirts were much thicker than the flimsy ones over here. I got a man's (well, it fit!) black T-shirt with white Orlando lettering on the front, DH and DS bought about 5 Nike T-shirts each. Katie and I were tempted by trainers, but we don't really wear them that often so we reined ourselves in.
By this time the darting in and out of the air-conditioned shops had worn us out! We vowed never to do daytime shopping in Orlando again! Not surprising, the car said it was 105 degrees outside!
We went back to the villa and got our swimwear on ready to hit Typhoon Lagoon, our first visit to a waterpark! Boy did we love it! I wasn't keen on the big waves in the Lagoon, the force of them surprised me and I was glad my kiddies weren't little anymore, I don't think I could have held them in my arms and stayed upright! Tiring of the waves very quickly we all grabbed a big floating donut and hit Castaway Creek. Now that's more like it! Bum in, feet up, lie back with sunnies on and just drift (or bounce off other donuts it was so busy!). Occasionally we'd drift into a quiet spot, occasionally we'd get wedged in by others and one of us would have to up-end, tip out and more to a less crowded spot, but oh how hub and I liked just not doing alot! We lost Katie and Sam early on and thought we'd catch them up, but no, they were on a mission to complete the circuit and overtake us. They did too, twice! In the end, about an hour or so later (we had no idea how much time had passed, it didn't seem this long, if I'd have known I would have worried about the kids!) we managed to find each other at one of the entrances. The kids and hub wanted to hit the waves again, but I had sunbathing on my mind. They dumped me on a sunbed somewhere southwest of Typhoon Tilly, a good way back from the lagoon, grabbed a swig of water and a couple of crisps and went off on their merry way. Some time later, while looking out to see if they were coming back I spotted a little Asian lifeguard sprint up the beach like a rocket, hurdle over a fence into a hut to get one of those boards used to help injured folk, and dash back down the beach. Everyone was looking toward the lagoon, and you know that moment when you think, "where's my three? I can't see them. Are they ok?" that's what went through my mind, I stood up for a better look and could see guests exiting the pool, but no sign of my three.
They eventually came back to me and told me what they'd seen. Apparently hub saw a lifeguard jump in the deeper part of the lagoon and slowly make her way across it, while another dived in and got to the casualty much quicker and helped the injured woman who was being held up in the water by a man. They kept her afloat in the deep water while the bodyboard was taken out to her. While this was happening everyone had to exit the lagoon. Very shortly afterwards and ambulance came along. We decided at this point that we'd have enough sun and water and we left the park. We don't know what happened to her, we think she hurt her back, but I hope she was ok. These water parks aren't always 100% safe. Those waves are dangerous!
Once back at the villa, I realised when I looked at my Passporter plan of TL that we'd only touched the surface and hadn't been on any of the slides, but we were all happy just to have lazed around.
I didn't take my camera so there's no piccies for today.
That evening, after a nice shower and freshen up we went to Bob Evans for dinner and on to Walmart for a mammoth browse around. I love that shop! So much to look at. Katie and I had a good rummage on a length of shelving that had a ton of reduced stationary and scrapbooking items in big boxes. Heaven, we like a bargain :-)
Next up, Epcot again,
Shopping and Floating :-)
Don't quite know why we picked one of the hottest days to do some morning shopping, it wasn't a particularly good idea :-)
After some brekkie at Perkins on the US 192, served by a very friendly old lady and a very wistful look from me at the bakery section (too full to take any away, and the cakes would have got too hot in the car while we shopped anyway), we took a doodle down the 192 in search of some retail therapy with Mapman's map. Found the Lake Buena Vista Outlet, and happy not to drive too far we stopped here. Spotted a family on Segways and found Celebration too, noting where it was in case we had time to visit another time.
As we got out of the car the heat hit us! Boy, did we dart for the nearest shop! We visited:
one big shop that sold clothes and bags (nothing posh, but can't remember its name),
the Book Warehouse (woop, woop, I just luurve new books!), Converse (where we parted with quite a bit of dosh...Lee and Katie both got some shoes, Katie got some T-shirts and a zipper sweat-top, all in purple, and I only found one T shirt in my size, and, being a size 16 and never having a problem finding my size at home I was quite upset by this!)
Character Outlet (for souvenirs, and some lovely scrapbooking stuff including some punches that I knew cost way more at home...that made up for the lack of T shirts ),
Nike shop (this is where we parted with lots of dosh again, but to this day I say it was money very well spent because what we bought has washed and ironed repeatedly over the year without fading, shrinking, or twisting to make ironing a nightmare. The T-shirts were much thicker than the flimsy ones over here. I got a man's (well, it fit!) black T-shirt with white Orlando lettering on the front, DH and DS bought about 5 Nike T-shirts each. Katie and I were tempted by trainers, but we don't really wear them that often so we reined ourselves in.
By this time the darting in and out of the air-conditioned shops had worn us out! We vowed never to do daytime shopping in Orlando again! Not surprising, the car said it was 105 degrees outside!
We went back to the villa and got our swimwear on ready to hit Typhoon Lagoon, our first visit to a waterpark! Boy did we love it! I wasn't keen on the big waves in the Lagoon, the force of them surprised me and I was glad my kiddies weren't little anymore, I don't think I could have held them in my arms and stayed upright! Tiring of the waves very quickly we all grabbed a big floating donut and hit Castaway Creek. Now that's more like it! Bum in, feet up, lie back with sunnies on and just drift (or bounce off other donuts it was so busy!). Occasionally we'd drift into a quiet spot, occasionally we'd get wedged in by others and one of us would have to up-end, tip out and more to a less crowded spot, but oh how hub and I liked just not doing alot! We lost Katie and Sam early on and thought we'd catch them up, but no, they were on a mission to complete the circuit and overtake us. They did too, twice! In the end, about an hour or so later (we had no idea how much time had passed, it didn't seem this long, if I'd have known I would have worried about the kids!) we managed to find each other at one of the entrances. The kids and hub wanted to hit the waves again, but I had sunbathing on my mind. They dumped me on a sunbed somewhere southwest of Typhoon Tilly, a good way back from the lagoon, grabbed a swig of water and a couple of crisps and went off on their merry way. Some time later, while looking out to see if they were coming back I spotted a little Asian lifeguard sprint up the beach like a rocket, hurdle over a fence into a hut to get one of those boards used to help injured folk, and dash back down the beach. Everyone was looking toward the lagoon, and you know that moment when you think, "where's my three? I can't see them. Are they ok?" that's what went through my mind, I stood up for a better look and could see guests exiting the pool, but no sign of my three.
They eventually came back to me and told me what they'd seen. Apparently hub saw a lifeguard jump in the deeper part of the lagoon and slowly make her way across it, while another dived in and got to the casualty much quicker and helped the injured woman who was being held up in the water by a man. They kept her afloat in the deep water while the bodyboard was taken out to her. While this was happening everyone had to exit the lagoon. Very shortly afterwards and ambulance came along. We decided at this point that we'd have enough sun and water and we left the park. We don't know what happened to her, we think she hurt her back, but I hope she was ok. These water parks aren't always 100% safe. Those waves are dangerous!
Once back at the villa, I realised when I looked at my Passporter plan of TL that we'd only touched the surface and hadn't been on any of the slides, but we were all happy just to have lazed around.
I didn't take my camera so there's no piccies for today.
That evening, after a nice shower and freshen up we went to Bob Evans for dinner and on to Walmart for a mammoth browse around. I love that shop! So much to look at. Katie and I had a good rummage on a length of shelving that had a ton of reduced stationary and scrapbooking items in big boxes. Heaven, we like a bargain :-)
Next up, Epcot again,
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
More 2009 Trip Report....
19th August 2009
We started the day with some breakfast at the villa. We were all a little tired this morning. But, hey, it was hub's 41st birthday and we had a few little present to hand out. We also were looking forward to the birthday fastpasses today.
On arrival at our destination for the day, Magic Kingdom, we hopped onto the ferryboat, much nicer than sitting on a monrail we all agreed. it was beautiful morning, clear blue skies and we were all looking forward to MK.
Birthday boy in a good mood:
What a shame this was down for a refurb, I really wanted to ride it again, the last time I did I was 12!
Splash Mountain was our first port of call.
Gulp. Big Drop. I hate big drops, but I do get used to them somewhat... it's just the waiting in line that does me! See, I do actually smile in the end :-)
We stopped to grab more fastpasses for this ride as we'd joined the standby queue at this time of the morning (yes, you could have fastpasses and birthday fastpasses at the same time! So we had two more rides on Splash to look forward to).
Next stop, my fave ride, yeeha!
Feeling a little daring, I had my camera firmly gripped in one hand to get some ride shots...not to be advised...although I didn't drop it on any of the bumps I did get a whack in the mouth from the screen cap, which I wasn't holding onto :-)
I was impressed with my camera again, for the way it handled the bumps and produced nice, clear piccies!
Next we waited for the train to take us round to Tomorrowland. It was nice to get out of the sun, this was another exceedingly hot day!
Waiting for the train (and looking for it in the wrong direction!)
And here she comes (trains are female right?)
Choo-choo...fasten your seat belts, we're off! Oh wait, this is no thrill ride, sit back, no need to grip anything, just relax and enjoy the view....and whoa! We saw a deer, no, not these deer...
but a real deer! Only I wasn't quick enough to get any photographic evidence!
We glimpsed Pluto on our way through Toontown and gave him a quick wave then disembarked at Tomorrowland feeling somewhat peckish. "I know a place called Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe that's supposed to be okay," the knowledgable one says (that's me, the bookworm, owner of more WDW books than is really necessary!)
The kids decide what to have, and it seems it's burgers or nuggets all round. As hub was paying one of the servers must have spotted his birthday badge and with a one-two-three all the servers broke out into a loud and fast birthday tune (so fast you couldn't catch the words!!). It was a great moment, totally unexpected, and I managed to catch some of it as a movie on my camera which was, luckily, round my neck and ready for action!
We gobbled down our grub (nothing special, but it filled the gap)
and while DH popped off to the toilet I got talking to one of the staff. He was a friendly chap and seemed to want to make conversation. He told me all about his job and why he works at WDW 2 days a week (Disney Cruise benefits for his family apparently). I didn't think to get a photo of him, but boy did he look old! I bravely, and politely, asked how old he was....83!!! He did look old admittedly, but he was clearly young at heart, and we carried on the conversation as hub came back from the bathroom. Another lovely moment.
After wishing him well we wandered over to Stitch's Great Escape. Suffice to say, we just didn't get it! The best we could work out was that it was supposed to be Stitch jumping on our chairs. Katie was even unlucky enough to get 'spat' on, apparently!
To think that we'd almost 'wasted' one of our birthday fastpasses on this attraction! Luckily we didn't, due to one special cast member who advised us not to, and waved us through without using the FPs! Now that's Disney magic, what a nice bloke!
Now this was more like it! Monster Inc Laugh Floor. I loved this! Almost as good as Turtle Talk with Crush, but not quite. Laugh we did! We were fortunate not to get 'picked on'!
Now for my surprise treat for Dear Hub's birthday. I'd made an ADR (advanced dining reservation) at the Plaza for some pudding! We headed off towards the castle and took a few shots....in exactly the same place DH and I stood on our honeymoon in '92 for some shots together.
And my babies..
We only had a short wait before our buzzer went off and we were seated inside the Plaza, the relief from the heat was wonderful!
There was a rather entertaining and delightful 'suffragette' inside who started up a Happy Birthday song to those celebrating
and then came around to chat and pose for a photo with my birthday boy, to his embarrassment! Say 'cheese', you know you're loving this *chuckle*
To this day hub couldn't decide if the suffragette was a woman or a man :-)
Here are the yummies...which were more than we could manage:
Sam had to 'dump' all the cream from his sundae onto a saucer! There's strangely no photo of my rootbeer float...presumably because I gobbled it too quickly to get a photo of it, so yummy it was!
Back into Tomorrowland for Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, woop woop! I love this kind of ride..no nervous tummy, just good old plain fun!
Whiled away the line taking some photos...
why does Buzz look so eerie in my photos! His face was clearly visible while we were in the line. Scary!!
Makes me want to grab a pen and add some features!
Must be the lighting in there, I look pretty ghostly too:
Hub?..competitive?...never! Ha!
We went for a stroll afterwards, passing the beautiful castle and into Frontierland and Adventureland.
Never noticed the figures in the background until I looked at this photo much later, it's a lovely photo of Katie too, will have to have a play in Photoshop and see if I can magic them away.
Took a couple of snaps of the castle from closer, this one's not bad..
Having sneaked a peek at this one on Youtube we decided to try this:
Me likey! Hard to describe, you've got to see it in 3D but you get the idea here:
Off to Jungle Cruise next for a ride on Ganges Gertie. The lovely thing about some rides is that the kids just didn't know what to expect, whether they would meet dangerous beasts, and the anticipation on their faces was cute:
Swiss Family Robinsn's Treehouse, from where did I took this shot
Time for a little more light refreshment, we'd been in the park quite some time now...
a welcome sign (I knew from spending too much time online that this place had something pineapple-y and yummy worth trying!)
Hub and I went for the pineapple float, not the well-known dole whip (although I'll try a dole whip next year). Dear daughter, not a big fan of icecream, went for a chunk of pineapple, Sam opted for some ice cream. We grabbed a bench just opposite Aloha Isle to rest our tired feet and enjoy our yummies. The more observant of you will note that hub put his wallet on his lap. This has major significance later in the day's report....
We decided to finish off our day with a last ride on Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, our fave MK rides. We'd grabbed a FP for SM earlier and still had the birthday fastpasses for these rides so we had 2 SM rides to look forward to and one BTMR yippee!
Katie and I popped off to the ladies leaving the boys on the bench. The boys then found us outside the ladies and we took off, back to our last three rides.
I loved these guys....would have happily yee-haawed with them but I didn't have my bonnet, petticoats and boots with me , took a bit of movie film of them..two attempts, tourists walked into my movie on both occasions, I'll show you the better of the two:
We did BTMR first, then SM by which time we were well and truely pooped and ready to head home. It didn't take a second to pay back some of the magic that we'd been the recipients of on our first day here (Epcot), and I found a lady with two kiddies and gave them our fast passes for SM.
Of course, being a woman, I do like a lickle look in the shops so we stopped in one shop on Main Street and bought some souvenirs and katie bought herself a cuddly. Up at the till hub reached into his pocket....yep, you guessed it....NO wallet!!! First things first, I pay using my card while DH stood grumbling words best not repeated and obviously trying to figure out where it could be.
The kind lady at the till suggested we try at City Hall for Lost and Found so off hub marched, muttering away, with us marching behind silently hoping for a good outcome!
We had an agonising but short wait at City Hall before being called forward to the desk. Hub explained to the guy and he asked us what the wallet looked like, where we think we might have lost it (we clearly couldn't think straight because we couldn't answer that one!) and what cards and how much money was in it. Armed with this info he gave me a wink and said he'd go look out the back. The wink confused me - first thought was: was he just trying to console me? I verbalized the second thought to hub, "I blo**dy hope he isn't winding me up and putting hope into me... and there really isn't anything back there.... but he has to go look anyway!". Ramble, ramble, breathe.
He wasn't gone long, and came back with a little plastic bag....in which was......hub's wallet!!! Hub checked inside and everything seemed to be there (we knew roughly how many dollar bills there were anyway, and were happy to see there were still lots there!) The guy said that he had picked it up himself from the ground by a bench near Aloha Isle...whether it was true or not we don't know, but being trusting folk we believed him at that moment and hub tried to offer him $30, so relieved were we not to have to go through the palava of trying to get in touch with multiple visa card companies, having no cash and checking our travel insurance policy...we were tired, we just wanted to go back and collapse on the sofas! To his credit, the guy refused to accept anything saying that he wasn't allowed, even when hub offered to meet him outside and hand over the notes. There...Disney Magic again. How lucky were we?!
On the ferry back to the transportation Centre hub reflected on the lost wallet. He initially thought he'd given it to me to put in my bag (as he usually would) when he sat down to eat his yummy, but he got distracted and forgot. He remembers that he and Sam also went off to the men's room while Katie and I went to the ladies, and then met us afterwards. He decided that he must have forgotten that his wallet was on his lap when he got up!
With great sighs of relief we caught sight of the tail end of a parade coming down Main Street towards City Hall and stopped to watch it for a couple of minutes and take some family shots with Main Street and the Castle behind us...
Onto the ferry with shopping and homeward bound
couple more piccies while we reflected on hub's birthday:
Katie with her new cuddly, which still sits in her bed to this day unlike many other cuddlies! One can never be too old to fall in love with a new cuddly (I'm buying one next year!)
What a day, what a park. Some fab memories worth every penny.
After showering and resting up for a while at the villa we got dressed up to hit a restaurant for hub's brithday meal.
This is the restaurant that had been recommended to us by friends back home:
Boy, was it busy and somewhat unorganised, but the food was fine. The birthday boy chose a nice lump of steak and it was yummy, except that it seemed to be sitting on a huge bed of crunchy salt! The kids went for ribs and I had some rice and shrimp concoction which was very scrummy.
tasted more yummy than it looks.
I don't remember what we did after eating but I bet my bottom dollar that we went back to the villa and were in bed pretty promptly!
Next up is Day 9 - Shopping and Typhoon Lagoon.
We started the day with some breakfast at the villa. We were all a little tired this morning. But, hey, it was hub's 41st birthday and we had a few little present to hand out. We also were looking forward to the birthday fastpasses today.
On arrival at our destination for the day, Magic Kingdom, we hopped onto the ferryboat, much nicer than sitting on a monrail we all agreed. it was beautiful morning, clear blue skies and we were all looking forward to MK.
Birthday boy in a good mood:
What a shame this was down for a refurb, I really wanted to ride it again, the last time I did I was 12!
Splash Mountain was our first port of call.
Gulp. Big Drop. I hate big drops, but I do get used to them somewhat... it's just the waiting in line that does me! See, I do actually smile in the end :-)
We stopped to grab more fastpasses for this ride as we'd joined the standby queue at this time of the morning (yes, you could have fastpasses and birthday fastpasses at the same time! So we had two more rides on Splash to look forward to).
Next stop, my fave ride, yeeha!
Feeling a little daring, I had my camera firmly gripped in one hand to get some ride shots...not to be advised...although I didn't drop it on any of the bumps I did get a whack in the mouth from the screen cap, which I wasn't holding onto :-)
I was impressed with my camera again, for the way it handled the bumps and produced nice, clear piccies!
Next we waited for the train to take us round to Tomorrowland. It was nice to get out of the sun, this was another exceedingly hot day!
Waiting for the train (and looking for it in the wrong direction!)
And here she comes (trains are female right?)
Choo-choo...fasten your seat belts, we're off! Oh wait, this is no thrill ride, sit back, no need to grip anything, just relax and enjoy the view....and whoa! We saw a deer, no, not these deer...
but a real deer! Only I wasn't quick enough to get any photographic evidence!
We glimpsed Pluto on our way through Toontown and gave him a quick wave then disembarked at Tomorrowland feeling somewhat peckish. "I know a place called Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe that's supposed to be okay," the knowledgable one says (that's me, the bookworm, owner of more WDW books than is really necessary!)
The kids decide what to have, and it seems it's burgers or nuggets all round. As hub was paying one of the servers must have spotted his birthday badge and with a one-two-three all the servers broke out into a loud and fast birthday tune (so fast you couldn't catch the words!!). It was a great moment, totally unexpected, and I managed to catch some of it as a movie on my camera which was, luckily, round my neck and ready for action!
We gobbled down our grub (nothing special, but it filled the gap)
and while DH popped off to the toilet I got talking to one of the staff. He was a friendly chap and seemed to want to make conversation. He told me all about his job and why he works at WDW 2 days a week (Disney Cruise benefits for his family apparently). I didn't think to get a photo of him, but boy did he look old! I bravely, and politely, asked how old he was....83!!! He did look old admittedly, but he was clearly young at heart, and we carried on the conversation as hub came back from the bathroom. Another lovely moment.
After wishing him well we wandered over to Stitch's Great Escape. Suffice to say, we just didn't get it! The best we could work out was that it was supposed to be Stitch jumping on our chairs. Katie was even unlucky enough to get 'spat' on, apparently!
To think that we'd almost 'wasted' one of our birthday fastpasses on this attraction! Luckily we didn't, due to one special cast member who advised us not to, and waved us through without using the FPs! Now that's Disney magic, what a nice bloke!
Now this was more like it! Monster Inc Laugh Floor. I loved this! Almost as good as Turtle Talk with Crush, but not quite. Laugh we did! We were fortunate not to get 'picked on'!
Now for my surprise treat for Dear Hub's birthday. I'd made an ADR (advanced dining reservation) at the Plaza for some pudding! We headed off towards the castle and took a few shots....in exactly the same place DH and I stood on our honeymoon in '92 for some shots together.
And my babies..
We only had a short wait before our buzzer went off and we were seated inside the Plaza, the relief from the heat was wonderful!
There was a rather entertaining and delightful 'suffragette' inside who started up a Happy Birthday song to those celebrating
and then came around to chat and pose for a photo with my birthday boy, to his embarrassment! Say 'cheese', you know you're loving this *chuckle*
To this day hub couldn't decide if the suffragette was a woman or a man :-)
Here are the yummies...which were more than we could manage:
Sam had to 'dump' all the cream from his sundae onto a saucer! There's strangely no photo of my rootbeer float...presumably because I gobbled it too quickly to get a photo of it, so yummy it was!
Back into Tomorrowland for Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, woop woop! I love this kind of ride..no nervous tummy, just good old plain fun!
Whiled away the line taking some photos...
why does Buzz look so eerie in my photos! His face was clearly visible while we were in the line. Scary!!
Makes me want to grab a pen and add some features!
Must be the lighting in there, I look pretty ghostly too:
Hub?..competitive?...never! Ha!
We went for a stroll afterwards, passing the beautiful castle and into Frontierland and Adventureland.
Never noticed the figures in the background until I looked at this photo much later, it's a lovely photo of Katie too, will have to have a play in Photoshop and see if I can magic them away.
Took a couple of snaps of the castle from closer, this one's not bad..
Having sneaked a peek at this one on Youtube we decided to try this:
Me likey! Hard to describe, you've got to see it in 3D but you get the idea here:
Off to Jungle Cruise next for a ride on Ganges Gertie. The lovely thing about some rides is that the kids just didn't know what to expect, whether they would meet dangerous beasts, and the anticipation on their faces was cute:
Swiss Family Robinsn's Treehouse, from where did I took this shot
Time for a little more light refreshment, we'd been in the park quite some time now...
a welcome sign (I knew from spending too much time online that this place had something pineapple-y and yummy worth trying!)
Hub and I went for the pineapple float, not the well-known dole whip (although I'll try a dole whip next year). Dear daughter, not a big fan of icecream, went for a chunk of pineapple, Sam opted for some ice cream. We grabbed a bench just opposite Aloha Isle to rest our tired feet and enjoy our yummies. The more observant of you will note that hub put his wallet on his lap. This has major significance later in the day's report....
We decided to finish off our day with a last ride on Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, our fave MK rides. We'd grabbed a FP for SM earlier and still had the birthday fastpasses for these rides so we had 2 SM rides to look forward to and one BTMR yippee!
Katie and I popped off to the ladies leaving the boys on the bench. The boys then found us outside the ladies and we took off, back to our last three rides.
I loved these guys....would have happily yee-haawed with them but I didn't have my bonnet, petticoats and boots with me , took a bit of movie film of them..two attempts, tourists walked into my movie on both occasions, I'll show you the better of the two:
We did BTMR first, then SM by which time we were well and truely pooped and ready to head home. It didn't take a second to pay back some of the magic that we'd been the recipients of on our first day here (Epcot), and I found a lady with two kiddies and gave them our fast passes for SM.
Of course, being a woman, I do like a lickle look in the shops so we stopped in one shop on Main Street and bought some souvenirs and katie bought herself a cuddly. Up at the till hub reached into his pocket....yep, you guessed it....NO wallet!!! First things first, I pay using my card while DH stood grumbling words best not repeated and obviously trying to figure out where it could be.
The kind lady at the till suggested we try at City Hall for Lost and Found so off hub marched, muttering away, with us marching behind silently hoping for a good outcome!
We had an agonising but short wait at City Hall before being called forward to the desk. Hub explained to the guy and he asked us what the wallet looked like, where we think we might have lost it (we clearly couldn't think straight because we couldn't answer that one!) and what cards and how much money was in it. Armed with this info he gave me a wink and said he'd go look out the back. The wink confused me - first thought was: was he just trying to console me? I verbalized the second thought to hub, "I blo**dy hope he isn't winding me up and putting hope into me... and there really isn't anything back there.... but he has to go look anyway!". Ramble, ramble, breathe.
He wasn't gone long, and came back with a little plastic bag....in which was......hub's wallet!!! Hub checked inside and everything seemed to be there (we knew roughly how many dollar bills there were anyway, and were happy to see there were still lots there!) The guy said that he had picked it up himself from the ground by a bench near Aloha Isle...whether it was true or not we don't know, but being trusting folk we believed him at that moment and hub tried to offer him $30, so relieved were we not to have to go through the palava of trying to get in touch with multiple visa card companies, having no cash and checking our travel insurance policy...we were tired, we just wanted to go back and collapse on the sofas! To his credit, the guy refused to accept anything saying that he wasn't allowed, even when hub offered to meet him outside and hand over the notes. There...Disney Magic again. How lucky were we?!
On the ferry back to the transportation Centre hub reflected on the lost wallet. He initially thought he'd given it to me to put in my bag (as he usually would) when he sat down to eat his yummy, but he got distracted and forgot. He remembers that he and Sam also went off to the men's room while Katie and I went to the ladies, and then met us afterwards. He decided that he must have forgotten that his wallet was on his lap when he got up!
With great sighs of relief we caught sight of the tail end of a parade coming down Main Street towards City Hall and stopped to watch it for a couple of minutes and take some family shots with Main Street and the Castle behind us...
Onto the ferry with shopping and homeward bound
couple more piccies while we reflected on hub's birthday:
Katie with her new cuddly, which still sits in her bed to this day unlike many other cuddlies! One can never be too old to fall in love with a new cuddly (I'm buying one next year!)
What a day, what a park. Some fab memories worth every penny.
After showering and resting up for a while at the villa we got dressed up to hit a restaurant for hub's brithday meal.
This is the restaurant that had been recommended to us by friends back home:
Boy, was it busy and somewhat unorganised, but the food was fine. The birthday boy chose a nice lump of steak and it was yummy, except that it seemed to be sitting on a huge bed of crunchy salt! The kids went for ribs and I had some rice and shrimp concoction which was very scrummy.
tasted more yummy than it looks.
I don't remember what we did after eating but I bet my bottom dollar that we went back to the villa and were in bed pretty promptly!
Next up is Day 9 - Shopping and Typhoon Lagoon.
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