DisneyPhD family does AKV May 2nd to 10th 08

Disney PhD family AKV May 2nd to the 10th 2008
Cast:
Me, (Mrs.PhD.)
DH, Paul (the Real Disney PhD)
Anna, just turned 7 years old, her 13th time to WDW
Lily 3 years old, her 6th trip to WDW

Later in the trip, our friends (same age) with 2 sons, the same age as our DD’s.


WDW 2008 AKL May 2, to the 10th.

May 2nd, Leave DTW at 10:50 on SWA. We jumped our 1st big hurtle at the airport. Lily used an auto flush potty with the help of a Mickey shaped post it note. The note wasn’t as sticky as I would have hoped, but it did the trick. No problems flight on time and the girls behaved very well. Anna played on the laptop and Lily watched a DVD. Magical Express went well and we were at AKL by 3:00. Our room was ready when we got there, but turns out I didn’t pack the girls bathing suits in the carry on, so we could not swim and I wanted to stick around because our grocery delivery should be here soon. We went down and got some food at Mara the counter service place. I was able to pull off the order info for Garden Grocer on the laptop and give the place a call at 4:00. They called shortly to let me know it was at bell services. Before they brought that the DME brought the luggage so the girls got dressed to swim and I stayed to unpack. Garden Grocer got a few things not right, but it all works out. I wasn’t able to give them a tip, so I don’t feel as bad about that. All in all I would recommend them to others.

Our room (studio DVC 5508 on the 5th floor facing the Uzima Savanna (the south one, not the main Arusha Savanna.) Still we have a number of animals out there and 2 baby giraffe. One is 6 months old, the smallest one was born on Leap Day 2008. The pull out couch is big and roomy, there is a flat panel T.V. and DVD player and cables for the internet. We can see the tip of blizzard beach summit plummet from the room too. Yes there were mugs and glasses in our studio. Good thing or I would have been calling about it.

I get unpacked and find a few things I thought about packing, but turns out I didn’t. Such is life, at least we didn’t forget anything major. I think that is part of the 1st day, making peace with what you left behind.

Met the kids and Paul down at the pool. Anna has gone down the slide twice already. It is warm, with big puffy clouds. After a bit of swimming back up to the room for a rinse off and change to head out to Epcot. The line at guest services was long and not moving too fast. There were issues with people from the media trying to get in and not being able to. I thought it was about the marathon, but we find out later it was about Disney channel stars. We need to buy new AP and a Disney Dinning Experience card. There was a long line at guest services, but we got our passes and also found out the old park hopper I brought with us has 2 park days on it and 3 water parks or DQ or PI passes on it. The sting of the 4 AP weren’t so bad with the DVC discount and close to $400 of Disney Visa points.

Once we got in Epcot it was really busy and we were hungry and tired so like crazy people we walk through WS to exit and head over to beaches and cream for dinner. It was crazy busy just past Canada. I asked a guard and I guess “the stars of the Disney channel shows were going to walk by.” It was so busy we just kept walking. I guess they have been here all week. We keep walking and leave the park for Y&BC. Beaches and cream isn’t too bad, but there is a 20 min wait. We get a beeper and I take the girls to use the bathroom. I load a card for the arcade with just a dollar on it, but before we can play a game, our beeper goes off.

Lily fell getting into the restaurant. It was clear this little girl was tired. She wanted her food now. We ordered 2 kid meals (hamburger and cheeseburger) and a burger for Paul and I. Paul brought Anna back to the arcade to play her game while I cuddled Lily. Our food came shortly after that. It was after 8:30 by the time we were done. There was a party going on at the main Y&BC beach and we walked past it to head back to Epcot just in time to get back in to see Illuminations. The girls danced with daddy to the music as we left the resort area. Both girls were very impressed by the fireworks, in the past they were more scared. We watched it near the international gateway and then walked over in front of Canada to finish off. We ended up with fire works aftermath in our face, but the show was good. It was Extra Magic Hours, so we fought the crowd over to Future world, Journey Into Imagination was not working so off to the Living Seas we went. It was a walk on to Nemo. Lily did not want to ride, but daddy offered to carry her and she was fine. She loved it. After we saw turtle talk. The girls loved it. It was so late we were actually a bit slap happy. The bus ride home was typical end of the park but we managed. :snore:



More to come (and pictures too!)

 

[Mrs.PhD]

spinning in the tea cups with minnie

Minnie Lily in Minnie Mouses house.

 

[DISMOM]

I just about FLIPPED OUT. We visited Blizzard Beach the same day you did and I thought that was my daughter in the background on the Lazy Rivah. But it wasn't. Great trip report. Thanks

 

[Mrs.PhD]

I just about FLIPPED OUT. We visited Blizzard Beach the same day you did and I thought that was my daughter in the background on the Lazy Rivah. But it wasn't. Great trip report. Thanks

LOL I have more with lots more pictures with a bunch of back ground people. Should I post them too????

I hope you had as great of trip as we did! It is always fun to read trip report from people who where there the same time as you.

 

[Mrs.PhD]

Um I know it has been a while sorry. :brick:


May 9th, our last full day! AK and Pirate and Princess party at MK!

Off to AK. My friend was supposed to have a friend of hers who lives in Orlando meet us at AK, but that did not work out so it was just us. Once at AK we went to the back of the park of FP for the safari ride and then took the train over to Conservation Station until they were ready (an hour). CS was empty, no one was in there (not even some characters you normally see like Pocohantas, Rafiki and Stantley). We did take some fun pictures and look around. Look kids, educational stuff! It is ok we took you out of school. My friends DH found it funny to take pictures that look like he is putting his finger up the big animals noses. The kids loved that. My friend’s son just loved the goats (we knew he would.) So we spent a bit of time there petting them. It was getting hot already. We headed back by train and got in line with our FP for Kilimanjaro. The line moved fast, but when we got to the front it was a dead stop. The kids were restless. It was hot and cramped, wall to wall people. Turns out all the trucks were stopped for an animal on the road. It was only a 10 min extra wait and all, but it seemed very long. My kids of course were the ones climbing the walls. No getting away from them.

The kids enjoyed the ride, we were all hungry so we headed over to Yak and Yeti counter service. DH went ahead to get 4 fast passes for the Kali River Rapids, I ordered the food. I got what sounded good, but didn’t think about eating cool food. It was HOT. The kids were tired and there was a significant lack of AC in this area of the park. My friends DH ran to get 4 FP for EE so we could ride that after. They got tables outside and everyone was hot and whiney. The food was good, but it was hot and so were we. The kids were actually fighting over who got the jello, something that never happens. We even had my friends DH bring her youngest son in the bathroom just to get some AC. It was so hot he didn’t want to eat. They hung out in there for 5 min (fun I know) but he perked up enough to eat.

The bigs and dads went ahead and we hung out in the lobby of Yak and Yeti sit down for a few min to cool off before heading over the exit of the water ride to take pictures. It wasn’t a long wait, and I was so excited to get the camera ready when my friend spotted them I must of kicked the wooden fence we were standing next to. It wasn’t until they passed that I realized my toe really hurt and I looked down to find a large chunk of wood sticking out from under my big toe nail. I was able to pull it out, but a big splinter stayed under the nail, too deep to get out. Anna was soaked and loving it. The Dads managed to stay somewhat dry.

I lost the group after using the bathroom (I was hobbling) thank goodness again for cell phones. It was time for Dh and I to ride EE while my friends got the kids ice cream. They finished it right when we came out and instead of Paul getting to ride it twice (once with me, once with his friend) my friends oldest son (the 7 year old) decided he had enough nerve to ride it. Anna was not ready. So DH and I along with my friend took the rest of the kids over to dino dig and they rode it. My friend was very concerned that her son would freak out, but I thought he would love it. The kids had fun in Dino play area. It was empty.

Once again my friend was amazed at the big slides her younger son would do when he had friends who coax him along. We did have some issues with him getting ready to go and then holding up the line. It is all about control right? Anna had to go back and get him a few times.

After they met us at Dino dig area (oh and her son loved EE) we decided to head back to the resort. There were a few things (like the Nemo show) that we didn’t do at AK, but we wanted to rest, swim and shower before P&P party tonight and we had early ADR at Crystal palace.

The wait for the bus was long. In fact we there we saw number of buses for for POR come and go. One was sitting there for 10 min and left right as a group was coming up to it. Really, closed the door right on them and drove off. Talk about rude!!!!!! None of us waiting could believe it. I would have been really ticked if it was us. It was a while until another one came. Luckily the bus ride isn’t long back to the resort. It was a good day for swimming.

Anna was so excited she took a header and tumbled running to the pool. She had a bunch of scrapes on her arm, but it could have been a lot worse. I went back up to the room for band aids a got her cleaned up. She got over it pretty fast. We must be nearing the end of the trip. We all were getting hurt fast.

After fun swimming, we headed back to the room for a rushed clean up and get dressed for the party. By this time we had given up at meeting our ADR time and figured we would just eat at CHH if they didn’t let us in. No more rushing to make ADR’s, too much stress.

While waiting for the bus to MK Lily made friends with a woman who was clearly going for the P&P party. She was dressed for the part (as a pirate) and Lily even insisted on sitting next to her on the bus (and talking her ear off.) The woman seemed to really enjoy Lily (if she didn’t she sure was a good actress.) She even gave Lily a Cinderella pin as a treat. We saw the same lady later in the night. I hope they had a great time too.

It was HOT. Too hot. Both girls brought their Snow white dresses, but didn’t put them on. The boys had pirate clothes on. My friend had a skirt and tank top with a scarf for a pirate mom, I went in a sun dress for a princess look. Dh had a Pirates of the Caribbean T-shirt he bought last year (at the outlet no less! Some of the CM asked him where he’d gotten it)

So we headed out and got in (using the P&P tickets.) That whole thing was a pain in the butt by the way. I had thought I could get the tickets in person down there before the trip, but I had gotten the run around the whole time down there. I finally called the AP number 2 days before, their computer was down so she couldn’t help me (and was kind of snotty about it.) So I called DVC member services and was able to buy all 8 tickets (but I had to buy 4, and DH had to get on the phone and buy 4 more.) Like always with DVC they need so much info to be able to do anything, but the CM was friendly and helpful and at least knew to transfer all my info to DH so it did not take twice as long. We were able to pick them up at MK the night before the party (when my friends went to DTD.) The line wasn’t long then so it worked out ok in the end. Next time I will buy them early, but I figured since I was buying AP and DDE I would just do it at the same time. Oh well.

Anyway we got in the park about 4:45, it was pretty empty. We headed right over to CP, but this time we were close to an hour late, and when I checked in she could not find my name until I mentioned that. She was able to find our ADR’s just fine and we were seated in just a few min! Once inside we all cooled off and started to feel better. The girls even got their Snow White costumes on. Man that made for cute pictures. As always CP was a great meal. We do it once a trip. Lily warmed up to the characters, but still shied away from Tigger. We did end up waiting around for piglet and the kids had a good time with the parade around the restaurant. Dessert was yummy.

We all left full and happy. We headed back to main street to see what we missing coming in, in such a hurry. Not much. The guy playing the piano near Casey’s played snow white music just for Lily. We took some great pictures of the kids in front of the castle. It wasn’t yet 7:00 so we headed back to toon town. I bought the girls the Minnie Mouse ears the girls wanted (Anna’s was the bride one, Lily’s was the colorful one.) We rode barnstormer again. As we were leaving the line for the princess at the tent started to form. We collected our 1st treasure, beads behind Minnie’s house. Line for the princess was long and I figured there would be more princess so we headed out to the tea cups. The bigs road by themselves. Then we all road again. We got more treasure in Pooh’s playful spot and then rode the Winnie the Pooh ride. My friend’s youngest son started freaking out saying he didn’t want to ride. Once on he loved it. FL had mostly beads for the treasure, and my friends DH and my DH has a good time joking about how to get the beads.

We parked the strollers and got in a very short line for Peter Pan. It was then my friend discovered that her 3 year old was not with us. You know the, “who has the little one, I thought he was with you”. Panic set in all our hearts as we stopped dead and started looking around. It was only a few seconds (ok a min, but a long min) , and we did find him standing near the stroller ready to head back on small word. I think we all got a few gray hairs over that one.

It was getting close to parade time. After getting off PP we spotted Cinderella’s’ carriage over where they normally park the small world strollers. Oh, well we had to take a picture with that. There was only about 20 groups in front of us. So we got in line, my friends went to do Peter Pan again (the line was longer by this time for it, but they enjoyed it the 1st time) Well by the time they got out (15 min later ) we had barely moved. What was the problem????? The photo pass guy. He was doing 5 min or more photo sessions with everyone family. None of this normal Disney, get in, get the picture, 30 to 60 seconds or less and you are done. Nope he just kept posing families and taking pictures. UGH!!!! We had to bail, but I really wanted the picture. Oh well. It seemed like most special picture opportunities were like that this night. Too bad they couldn’t just let people take them and move on fast. Not enough hours in the night to be waiting in long lines.

We rounded the castle and watched the end of the show. We had a pretty good view from the bridge and my friend’s DH finally got his Pirate costume on for a full 5 min (I got good pictures.) He had his son’s light saber out and a cast member (female) came along and started jousting with him. She was good, she knew just how to pose for the camera. It was cute. They stopped the show abruptly before the end, and said it was over. We all thought that was strange. Maybe it was because of the parade coming up, but you think they might have planned it better.

We wandered back in Adventure land to get seats for the parade. It was crazy busy, this seemed to be where everyone in the park was. We did get a place to view it right where it started, but people crowded in before us and it was a packed. Dad’s held some kids on shoulders and my friend’s DH was able to get his stroller to the front of the line before we were pushed in to view it. All in all it was a fun parade. After it was done the mom’s and littles tried to cross the road to adventure land while the dad’s and bigs headed back to BTM one last time.

I had promised Anna popcorn for the past few nights, but every time it was out. So when we found the stand in front of the magic carpets open we jumped in and got some and a few drinks. The line for Carpets was filing up fast so we left the popcorn in the strollers (covered) and got in line ride them. By the time we got out the bigs were at the stroller munching on popcorn.

We headed back to Tomorrow land I can’t remember what we did around here, but I know we did something, buzz, TTA? Not sure we did both so many times. After we grabbed a seat on the rocks near the bridge to the hub (great view by the way) and waited a few min for the fireworks. The view was great. At one point the show had the castle shrouded in smoke. Fireworks were going off around the entire park. The kids loved Tinkerbelle zooming by.

After we headed back to Tomorrow land for the bigs to ride Space Mountain (another 1st for both of them.) The mom’s and little hung out at the dance party. They both got ring pops as prize for a game, but were too pooped to dance. The bigs (and Dads) wanted to ride SM again so we headed over to Dumbo for the littles. The line was about average for Dumbo (not short) and about halfway into it Lily looks at me with the big blue eyes and urgently says those words every parent hates to hear while in line. “I have to use the potty, NOW!” So we bailed and my friend stayed in line. When I got back the line wasn’t as long and we got on right as she was getting off the ride. By that time the bigs had caught up to us and we all were ready to call it a night.

Once again a long bus ride. We were the tail end of a group and they offered to let us squeeze in (standing room,) but we declined (along with 20 other people waiting behind us) in hopes of getting a seat on the next bus. That turned out to be a much better plan. 10 extra min to wait, but it was much better. All four kids were of course sound asleep.

We said our goodbyes to our friends. The next morning they head out to a friends house who lives in Orlando to spend a day with them before heading home. We have a half day in the parks and then fly out early evening.

Once we got back to the room, I turned on the lap top to get our flight info to check in (SWA) and low and behold, the computer was hooked up to the internet!!!!!!! We were both shocked. Paul went down to the front desk, but they were not able to help him until the morning and we did not want to check in on my computer since we could not print up the boarding passes. I guess it will be boarding group B for us.

 

[disneygirl1]

An absolutely great report... You were able to remember stuff in such great detail. Glad to see that everyone had such a marvelous time.

 

[pinkrose]

Great trip report and adorable pictures!!!! We were there at the AKL suring the last part of your stay (May 7 - 10). We probably walked right past each other and didn't even know it. :lol:

Once we got back to the room, I turned on the lap top to get our flight info to check in (SWA) and low and behold, the computer was hooked up to the internet!!!!!!! We were both shocked. Paul went down to the front desk, but they were not able to help him until the morning and we did not want to check in on my computer since we could not print up the boarding passes. I guess it will be boarding group B for us.

Had someone been using his laptop?

 

[DisneyPhD]

Great trip report and adorable pictures!!!! We were there at the AKL suring the last part of your stay (May 7 - 10). We probably walked right past each other and didn't even know it. :lol:

Had someone been using his laptop?

Nope, what she meant to say was that when she powered up the computer it managed to connect to the server. We had been trying all week to connect and had no luck. I assume it was a vista thing.

Was that you in the Disney World Shirt or the Mickey Mouse shirt?:lol:

 

[pinkrose]

Nope, what she meant to say was that when she powered up the computer it managed to connect to the server. We had been trying all week to connect and had no luck. I assume it was a vista thing.

Was that you in the Disney World Shirt or the Mickey Mouse shirt?:lol:

Yes :lol: