Weekend Fun! 9/30 - 10/1

We just got back from a quick getaway to WDW to celebrate our 23rd wedding anniversary. Although it started out rocky, the weekend was a real blast.
First the bad start: Our 8:20pm flight from Providence Friday night was delayed by about 2 hours, which meant for some rather cranky kids in the airport (and a few cranky adults too).SW airlines however came to the rescue for loads of snacks and soft drinks for everyone, and kept us posted about what was going on, so the wait was bearable. Although we were traveling with Magic Express, we chose to pick up our own luggage since we were arriving late,so by the time we gathered our luggage, checked in with ME and rode to our resort (POR), it was well after 2am. We waited to check in and were told that we had been assigned a room in Alligator Bayou, even though I had requested Magnolia Bend. To make a long story short, after talking to the CM and eventually his supervisor, who incidentally tried to tell us that every room in every Disney resort was full that night, we agreed to take the room and went to sign the papers. It was then that we noticed that this was not even our reservation, which we pointed out to the 2 of them. They both disappeared for a minute and came back and told us another "crock" that they had managed to make a switch for us, and lo and behold, they could now give us the room in Magnolia Bend like we had requested. Clearly, they had just picked up the wrong paperwork originally, but they offered no apology, and admitted no error on their part. I was furious that they chose to insult our intelligence like that, but we did laugh all the way to our room, thinking of how she had said that every room on Disney property was 100% full that night. I mean really!!!! :rolleyes:
 

Nemo14

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 1 - The fun begins!

We had planned to eat breakfast and hit AK early, but given the fact that we had arrived so late the night before, we slept in for a bit, and headed to Boatwrights for breakfast around 9. I have to say, I love POR, and Boatwrights is one of the many reasons why. DH feasted on the Sweet Potato pancakes
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and I had the Banana Stuffed French Toast with Strawberry sauce.:slurp:
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and we split an order of fresh strawberries and cream:

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which looked a little like a hidden Mickey!
 

ZapperZ

Well-Known Member
Wow! I think I gained weight just looking at your breakfast!

:)

Don't forget to let me know if you find anymore of those Donald rubber duckies!

Zz.

P.S. I have had very poor service at the Check-In desk at POR also. I will never go back there.
 

Nemo14

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
After breakfast, we headed to Animal Kingdom, where we were greeted by the love bugs - a bit of a pest, but at least they don't bite! The park was busier than we thought it would be, but definitely not bad. We took our time meandering over to Everest, and found the wait time to be 20 minutes, which was actually better than getting a FP for it. The line moved quickly, and soon we were on our way!
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We decided we wanted to try the front seats, so we rode again and loved it!

After our 2 rides on Everest, we walked around, taking in the whole atmosphere at AK. Every time we go there, we discover something new; it has really grown on us since our first visits!
We made a brief stop for Primeval Whirl, which nearly became Primeval Hurl for us! Not at all what we expected. We did see these 2 characters though, and I couldn't decide if they were Connor and Danny or Corrus and Lee!

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Nemo14

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Wow! I think I gained weight just looking at your breakfast!

:)

Don't forget to let me know if you find anymore of those Donald rubber duckies!

Zz.

P.S. I have had very poor service at the Check-In desk at POR also. I will never go back there.
I looked for the rubber duckies, but didn't see any others. In fact I couldn't find the pirate one at all!
 

tigsmom

Well-Known Member
That breakfast would put me right to sleep! :lol:

I would love to do a getaway for "adults only", but... well I can dream right?
 

Nemo14

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We said goodbye to AK but promised to stay longer the next time. It was time for a quick stop at MK before heading out to Epcot for F&W.

Our first official welcome:
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Our second:
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followed by...
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which was a part of...
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ZapperZ

Well-Known Member
I looked for the rubber duckies, but didn't see any others. In fact I couldn't find the pirate one at all!

Last time we found it, there were only 4 left. I hope that wasn't all they had.

I'm guessing you looked for it at the Emporium right at their Pirates stuff. It will be too bad if they ran out. But then again, everything "pirates" seems to be doing brisk business nowadays.

Zz.
 

Nemo14

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Of course, the castle still gets me every time, and it's nice to see it back to its undecorated glory!
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The MK plan was to get our "Pirate fix" , maybe a "cruise", a Dole Whip, and then heading out to F&W and returning too MK later:
Pirates was amazing - very well done without ruining the integrity of the original ride. DH thinks I'm crazy because I insist on Jungle Cruise, but to me it's vintage Disney - one of my earliest childhood memories of Disney TV. besides, it's just plain corny and fun! Where else can you get to see the back side of water?
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Then on to our final destination here (for a few hours anyway....)

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I toasted all my Magic friends here who share my love of Dole Whips!

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Nemo14

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We hopped the monorails over to Epcot, walked on to SSE, then grabbed FP's for Soarin' (the wait time for Soarin' was 80 minutes at that time - by far the longest wait we saw all weekend). Off to Club Kool for a little MezzoMix, and then off to F&W. I soon discovered that I am not coordinated enough to eat, drink, and take pictures at the same time, so I put the camera away for a while. F&W was crowded, but really a lot of fun. We had samples from Canada, New Zealand, Greece, France, Germany, Poland, and one other that I can't remember now..... I did take the camera out for the customary Giant Lizard devouring German Village photo:
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We visited the new exhibit in China:

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and called home while riding the Mexico ride so the kids could sing along with us -(Blame it on the wine!)
We had to stay at Epcot to watch Illuminations:RoE. It's always fun to stand next to people who have never seen it before and have no idea what to expect!
We left Epcot, and caught the monorail over to MK again since they were open 'til 11.
 

Nemo14

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
MK at night is truly magical! We arrived just in time to climb up to the top of the RR station and watch Wishes. It was amazingly uncrowded up there, and the view is just awesome! We waited up there for a while after Wishes and watched the sea of people leaving while 4 CM's waved from the top of the station with Mickey hands. When the crowds started to thin out, we made our way through the shops to the path to Adventureland, then on to Splash Mountain, a walk-on now! From there, we did Big Thunder, one of my favorites at night. By the time we left there, the rides were all closing, so we just started to head out, then realized that the second performance of Spectro was about to begin, so we sat and watched it, then just took out time exiting the park, just taking it all in. It had been such a magical day! :sohappy:

Tomorrow - Sunday in the parks!
 

Nemo14

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Sunday - 10/1

Woke up with mixed feelings about the day - excited to be in WDW, but already dreading leaving tonight (8:15 flight home). We checked for our ME paperwork which we were told would be left at our door, but it wasn't there, so a quick call to the desk confirmed that we were scheduled for the 5:30 bus. So after a quick breakfast, we asked to have our boarding passes printed out, dropped off our bags, and headed off to MGM Studios.

The Streetmosphere characters were all over the place there, so we took a few minutes to enjoy their shenanigans, then grabbed FP's for RnRC. Off to ToT (sign said a 20 minute wait, but it was basically a walk-on)! I never grow tired of this ride, and the CM's are terrific there! We had to wait a bit for our FP time, and RnRC was apparently having some technical difficulties, so the lines were getting long, even with a FP. I can't believe how much abuse the CM's have to take from people when things go wrong. Anyway, we waited and soon the line was moving again, and we were soon riding our "superstretch" limo! :sohappy:

Time to head out to MK before we have to go home....

We waited at the bus stop for quite a while and watched buses come and go for everywhere but MK, so we decided to just hop the bus to the Contemporary, then take the monorail in to MK. The staff at the Contemporary had cake and punch set up to celebrate the new renovations, so we were invited to join them, which we eagerly obliged. It was a welcome break from the heat, and a little sugar fix to get us going again! Off to the monorail, one last bag check, and into the MK!

Once again we arrived just in time for the Family Fun Day parade - nice to be welcomed like that! We're normally not parade people (except for Spectro), so it was kind of funny that we kept walking either in or out during parades! The park was crowded, as we had expected, but the wait for Buzz Lightyear was only 30 minutes, so we got in line. The family behind us had absolutely no patience, and DH and I vowed to shoot them with our laser guns once we got on the ride. As we appoached the door to get in, the mom decided to sit on the curbing, and suddenly realized that she had sat on a piece of gum. The father raised such a commotion about it, how Disney should replace the shorts for them - after all, they had been standing in this line for sooooo long,etc. etc. The poor CM made a phone call, and when she came into the building to find them again, they had left because they couldn't possibly wait that long inside. Their little boy was crying, the father was sputtering, and the mother was pulling gum off her behind. Clearly this was all Disney's fault! :rolleyes:

After getting trounced once again by DH, we left Buzz and headed to TTA. It's always our tradition to relax here and people watch, then grab a stuffed pretzel before we go. Unfortunately, they were out of pretzels, so we went back to TTA for one last ride before we had to leave. I shot a few pictures from there:

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Nemo14

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Time to go:

Reluctantly, we left Tomorrowland and decided to go back to POR and soak our weary feet in the pool before it was time to catch our ME bus. A quick look at the castle, and,yes, it's true, another parade, this one obviously meant to say goodbye to us!

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Goodbye MK! Thanks for a magical weekend!
 

Nemo14

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Random thoughts:

Even though a weekend is definitely not enough time to see everything, it is still definitely worth the escape. Nobody does it better than Disney, and with few exceptions, the Disney CM's are fantastic!

I wore my new WDWMagic button both days we were there, but no one seemed to notice (or you're all ignoring me :cry: )...:lookaroun

I know that it's been mentioned before, but there did seem to be a more "bad parenting" issues this time, but we didn't let it spoil our fun.

For those who are celebrating birthdays or anniversaries, there are new buttons to wear. I'm not sure about the birthday buttons, but the anniversary pins are cute - Mickey and Minnie holding hands, with "Where Dreams Come True" and "Happy Anniversary' written across it.

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DisneyBunny

Active Member
Love the food pics!! I've got a recipe for sweet potato waffles if you want it! :lookaroun

And new pins?? Yay!!!

Thanks for the Dole Whip :slurp:
 

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