Trip Report Completed - Relaxation, Stress, and everything in between - an August 2014 trip report

gwhb75

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
day 7 continued

It was getting really hot, so we decided to try and head indoors. We wanted to see the new Lion King show, so we headed back to Africa. We hadn’t seen the show since our first trip, and we really wanted to see the new theatre too.
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We got in line about 20 minutes before the show started and got great seats. The theatre is really nice, and the show was great. A definite must-do at AK.
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Once the show was over we headed back to Asia as we had FPs for Kali. We rented one of the lockers for our electronics and headed over to “the wash cycle” (another Stacy reference). We got to the line, but noticed something….people walking back up the line and leaving….turns out the ride has just shut down due to technical difficulties. Oh well…we weren’t going to wait as we were planning on leaving right after this ride. We went back to the locker to retrieve our stuff, and then headed out.

We got a few more pictures on the way out
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We got back to BLT, and the kids went back to Community Hall. They stayed there a little while and then headed up to the room. We got changed and headed back to EPCOT as we had reservations for Beaches and Cream tonight. We didn’t really spend a lot of time in EPCOT, just passed through. We got to Beach Club and were seated almost right away (and Steph was getting lots of looks and compliments on her Super Girl outfit).
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We were really here for just one thing…the Kitchen Sink (at least that was the plan at first. Tammy decided she may want something salty so we got some fries and onion rings too).
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The Kitchen Sink came and we gorged ourselves on this udder-emptying dish.
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We did our best, but couldn’t quite get through the whole thing. Good effort though.

After eating we decided to walk around the EPCOT resorts, so we wandered around Beach Club, Yacht Club and Boardwalk. It was a good walk and gave us a chance to see some other resorts we may want to stay at in the future.
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We grabbed a boat from Boardwalk to HS, and then a bus from HS to BLT.

We stopped by the Contemporary and picked up the stuff we had sent from DTD the day before and did a bit more shopping. We went down to the pool for a few minutes (the kids swam and Tammy and I sat in the hot tub and sat by the firepit). We also watched the Electrical Water Pageant which was neat to see. We got back to the room around 10:30 and went to bed. The plan is to go back to Blizzard Beach tomorrow.

Day 8 to come
 

Nubs70

Well-Known Member
Grand Rapids, MI area.

We have a few in the area. The only one that is on my way to work is located inside a casino.
 

PineapplePrincess

Well-Known Member
Random question....What are the seats like in the new Lion King theater? Do they have backs on them? BTW, I'm loving your TR and I'm a huge fan of Tim Horton's! We have two in our bustling city of Canton, Michigan and they are always busy!!
 

gwhb75

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Random question....What are the seats like in the new Lion King theater? Do they have backs on them? BTW, I'm loving your TR and I'm a huge fan of Tim Horton's! We have two in our bustling city of Canton, Michigan and they are always busy!!
Glad you're enjoying the report.

The seats in the Lion King theater are bench seats (no backs). I really liked the new theater and it was neat to see it all complete now.
 

myhappyplace

Crazy Cat Lady
Loving your trip report! I really liked your pics from Boardwalk, they have me excited for our stay there...in a year. Love your daughter's Super Girl outfit! And glad to hear the Lion King show is still as good as ever, can't wait to see it in its new location :)
 

gwhb75

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Loving your trip report! I really liked your pics from Boardwalk, they have me excited for our stay there...in a year. Love your daughter's Super Girl outfit! And glad to hear the Lion King show is still as good as ever, can't wait to see it in its new location :)

I'm glad you're enjoying the report.

The Super Girl outfit was quite the hit with many of the CMs we ran into.

Lion King was amazing and I'm glad we went and saw it again. I really liked the new theater.

Boardwalk looked really nice and I'm sure you will love it there. Our daughter is begging us to stay there next time we go.
 

gwhb75

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Great reporting. Loved the video of your son dancing. Sorry about the extra drama.

Glad you're enjoying the report.

Liam dancing was hilarious. The part I didn't tape was him walking up to a CM on the way out, standing right in front of him, and breaking out some more dance moves (the CM was hilarious...just dead pan stared at Liam).

As for the drama...it was what it was.
 

gwhb75

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 8 –Stress and serenity

So day 8 is here….last day eve (normally when a day has the word “eve” in it you get excited…not this one). Today’s plan was a return to Blizzard Beach so we were all able to sleep in a bit. As usual, I was the first one up. I put the coffee on and then made a big mistake…I decided to check my work email quickly…there it was…a message from our CEO….”I’m pleased to announce that we have entered into an agreement to merge with Burger King”…Oh man. What does this mean? Do I still have a job when I get home? Now normally I’m pretty laid back, but I think the combination of being tired as well as the fact that we had planned this trip for almost a year and now something like this comes up, I was pretty stressed. I honestly didn’t think I could be stressed while at Disney, but I was wrong. I climbed back into bed and told Tammy. We agreed that there wasn’t anything we could do about it right now and that we should do our best to enjoy our last two days. Great advice…

So we all got ready, headed down to the bus stop, and were soon at Blizzard Beach. We got through the gates just after 10 (it was interesting to note that the water park hours changed this week, so now they open at 10 instead of 9).
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Unfortunately, since we didn’t make rope drop, the place was already packed. The line for Summit Plummet was already down the stairs, and there were no chairs near the wave pool. The kids couldn’t wait to get going, so they took off to do some slides while Tammy and I went to find a spot to sit and leave our stuff (we found some seats in the kids area).

The BK thing was still on my mind, so while I was physically there my mind wasn’t. Tammy and I talked about it some more (we didn’t want to discuss it much in front of the kids). I’m still trying to work all of this news through my mind…I’ll get there eventually, but right now I’m still in shock. Anyways…we climbed up Mount Gushmore and went on Teamboat Springs with the kids. After that we did the Toboggan Racers which was a lot of fun too. After some slides we went to the wavepool. We managed to find four tubes, so we all floated together. One kind of cool thing was that there was a photographer in the pool taking pictures, so we got a few done.

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Kind of neat how there are so many more photographers around. Unfortunately, I’m still really distracted (it’s kind of like being on a rollercoaster…one minute I’m having lots of fun and then next I’m totally distracted and stressed). We decided to head over to the lazy river after the pool. Again, there were photographers in there too.
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We did about a half lap when the kids decided they were hungry, so we got out and got them lunch (Liam got a burger and Steph got a funnel cake). I can’t eat when I’m stressed, so I didn’t have anything. After lunch we decided to head back to BLT since Tammy wanted to at least start the awful job of packing. We stopped at the Contempo Café and picked up a pulled pork flatbread pizza with house-made chips that Tammy and I split. It was really good. The kids decided to head back to Community Hall while Tammy and I went back to the room to start packing.

Something happened on the way back to the room….I decided I was done thinking about work. We only get so many days at Disney, and I’m not going to spend another minute worrying about something that I can’t do anything about. So, from that moment on, I was back…

Tammy and I got most of the packing done (we were happy about that, but at the same time kind of sad since it means we’re almost done with our trip). We then went down to Community Hall, picked the kids up, and then decided that we’d go back to Hollywood Studios (we love this place this year. If you look at last year’s trip report, I had said that HS was our least favourite park. This year it is making a case for being our favourite (although I don’t think MK will ever be replaced)).

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ToT was up first, and we did the normal thing of Liam, Steph and I riding, and then Steph using Tammy’s FP.

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Liam and I did the single rider line on RNR again while Steph did her 2nd ToT.
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After ToT we headed back over to Wandering Oakens.

We had told the kids that they could try the ice skating thing, so that’s what we did. On the way over we were witness to a complete meltdown/screamfest between two Moms. We were just in front of “One Man’s Dream” when we heard this loud shrill scream. To be honest we all thought a show was starting. Across from “One Man’s Dream” they have a Frozen photopass spot set up. Well apparently one family had approached the photographer from one side while the other family approached from the other side. I guess both families thought they were there first. The one family sent their kids up to get their pictures when we hear “MY KIDS WERE HERE FIRST” in the loudest scream I think I’ve ever heard. The argument continued for a few more seconds, before the photographer, maybe a bit tongue in cheek, said “OK, smile kids”. I get that heat and expectations make people act insane some time, but this was a bit over the top for something that would have resulted in maybe waiting 20 seconds longer. Of course the two Dad’s in the families just kind of avoided making eye contact…

To be continued
 

gwhb75

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 8 continued

So we get to Wandering Oakens, get the kids their skate and helmets, and they hit the ice.
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I fear they may revoke our Canadian citizenship after seeing our kids skate. We don’t really do ice sports much (I used to play hockey when I was a teenager, but two foot surgeries later I pretty much hung up the skates. As a result, no one really wants to do ice sports). The kids said that had fun, but Steph also admitted that she had never been so scared. There was a photopass photographer walking around taking pictures of everyone skating.
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At the end he gave everyone a photopass card where they could go and download the pictures (I made the mistake of selecting “download all”, and ended up with around 300 pictures of random people skating on the Photopass Plus site).

After the kids got off the ice we headed over to the GMR. It was fun. We actually saw the Western scene for the first time (instead of the gangster scene). I actually like the Western scene so much more. After GMR we went to American Idol to see it one last time. Yeah, this attraction is definitely on its last legs. They only had two contestants this time. I had heard rumors that the Frozen Singalong thing will be moving in here in 2015 (just a rumor). Anyways, it was OK. Can’t say I’ll really miss it.

After AI we headed over to 50’s for our ADR. On the way we passed by the “don’t pull the rope” thing at the exit to the Indian Jones show…so we pulled the rope.

We got to 50’s and were seated almost immediately. Our server was Carmelo and he was excellent. For dinner we all got the sampler, which was really good.

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Of course the kids wanted to play around a bit, so they didn’t eat their green beans. Carmelo came over and tried to feed them both a little bite. Liam wouldn’t eat them so he told him he’d have to have a super bite. He loaded the fork with A LOT of green beans and stuffed them in Liam’s mouth. Liam was almost choking on them while killing himself laughing at the same time.
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After dinner we decided to get some desserts. Tammy got the apple crisp,
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I got the sundae,
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and Liam got the Boston cream parfait. Steph said she didn’t want anything until Liam’s Boston cream parfait showed up, and then she wanted one. While we were having dessert Liam decided to put his elbows on the table to see what would happen. Carmelo saw him and made him stand against the wall.
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Steph, who wasn’t really paying attention, also had her elbows on the table (really, she didn’t mean to), and Carmelo made her go stand in the corner too.
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This was one of the best experiences we had at 50’s and we will definitely be back.

to be continued
 

gwhb75

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 8 continued

After dinner we made our way out of the park. We stopped and watched the Ice Men of the North (aka Mulch, Sweat and Sheers) for a few minutes. They were great. I didn’t realize Enter Sandman was a Disney approved song…

We made the sad long walk out of HS for the last time. We stopped at the gate and looked down towards the hat. We had a great time at HS this year and we’re going to miss it.
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We headed back to BLT and Tammy and I pretty much finished packing. We then headed down to the pool and swam for a few minutes, and I got some night pictures of the pool area.
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So that was it for a very interesting Day 8. Hard to believe that our last day is tomorrow (we’ve started doing the “at this point last week we were”). Tomorrow we’re closing it out at the MK.

to be continued
 
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