LeafsFanNL smacked in the face with a hot mop trip report

LeafsFanNL · Sep 13, 2011

Friday 26th August

I was up about 6 am as I usually do early in a holiday. First on my agenda was to get a coffee and arrange to get our car. I went out to the front of the lobby and called Alamo. I was happy to find they already had a van there picking up another family. It was a short ride to the car care centre and I picked up the car which was a Hyundai Accent. I went to the Hess station and picked up 48 bottles of water for about $12, not bad I thought. I had been told at the front desk that the best place to park for the 60's was in the 90's parking lot. I found that I was always able to park less than 100 feet from where the Disney Transportation buses stop. I managed to get back to the room by about 7:30.

This was to be our first of two full days at Pop, and we had planned all along to go to Sea World. So everyone prepared with sunscreen and packing our backpack with water etc, and off we went. DW wanted to avoid the I-4 at all costs. Before the trip, I had worked out a route to avoid the freeway. The route I ended up taking was Buena Vista Drive, SR 535, Vineland Road and I-drive to avoid the Interstate.

When we arrived at Sea World, we all commented on how hot and humid it was. Thankfully it was quite windy, which was an effect of Irene. I think the wind kept us from melting. I had been to Sea World in 1979, but the rest of my family had never been. After we entered we went to the dolphin and whale show, (which was the best, IMO).
I tried to get a few pictures of the action but I find that my point and shoot camera always seems to take a second or so to take the image.

Here are some of pictures of the dolphin show

We went on the Atlantis water ride, which was a pale imitation of Splash. I should note that DW hurt her back bracing for the drop on this ride. I half expected her to refrain from riding most of the more strenuous rides and I would be proven right. It was fine, I don't mind taking the boys on the rides, and I didn't want her to hurt herself.

We then looked at the Penguin and shark displays before heading over for the killer whale show. It was a pretty good show. After it was over we went to the sea lion show. This theatre was very sheltered from the wind, and we all found it very hot. We had arrived at opening, and it was now 2 pm, and the boys were starting to call for the pool. We grabbed a bite and drove back to Pop. We spent a few hours in the pool up to dinner time. DW and I got a nice fruity drink from the Petal Bar, which we found to be a great place to get a drink. We enjoyed the longer hours than you usually find at a Disney pool bar. DW suggested that we grab the Downtown Disney bus so we could grab a bite to eat and do a little shopping.

When we arrived at DD we noticed that it was blocked!! We have always visited in the morning when the shops first open, and have never seen crowds like that there. It was Friday evening after all, maybe that had an effect. Anyway we watched a yo-yo demonstration, ate at Pollo Campero, which I loved (I had the broiled chicken and the rice and black beans). The rest of my crowd was less enthusiastic. We did a little shopping in the World of Disney, DS1 bought himself a Perry the Platypus plush toy, I bought myself a new Mickey Mouse 1928 IPhone 3 case. The boys spent some time in the Lego store.

From left, Me, DS1, DS2

After only an hour or so we headed back over to Pop and off to the pool we went. One thing I noticed by the Hippy Dippy pool is the size of the crowds that come back through that area after the parks close. One really gets a sense of how many people stay at the values when they all seem to come back over the hour or so after the parks close. Right around pool closing we went to bed.

fractal · Sep 13, 2011

My wife would like to go to Sea World on our next trip. Looks like fun!

Good to see Disney working to making things "right". Looking forward to more!

LeafsFanNL · Sep 14, 2011

Saturday 27th August

The plan for this day was to get over to the Orlando Premium Outlets on Vineland Road, where DW and I had shopped on our trip last December. We got everyone up and ready and we drove over there in time for opening. We started off in the Sketchers store for an hour or so, where I did my only shopping. We ate at the food court, and I spent a couple of hours entertaining the boys while DW shopped. It was another really hot day, made more bearable by the good breeze that Irene was still causing. It was weird, we would move from heavily air conitioned stores to the outside walkways where it was AK hot. By early afternoon about 2 pm the sky clouded over and it was really threatening to rain. DW was finished shopping so we headed back to POP before the expected deluge.

We brought our parcels back to the room and headed over to the food court to get a snack when about an hour long downpour started. We had some snacks, shopped at Everything Pop, and played a game of Skat with cards that were the size of IPads. The rain stopped, we went back to our room, and had a good swim. The evening was mainly spent in the Arcade with the boys, and shopping at Everything Pop.

I am a real softy when it comes to Disney merchandise. It is something else that my wife has to put up with. By the time we ended off this day, I had purchased the IPhone case, a Navy blue hat with a white shirt combination. (they had a Disney '71 theme ). I had a real nice Walt Disney World 1971 key chain, and two Minnie Mouse key chain. She has one I bought for her on our Easter '09 trip at the POR store. The legs are off poor Minnie, it looks like Dexter has spent time with her. I also bought a pair of Perry the Platypus t-shirts for the boys. Anyway the two chains I bought her should keep her in Minnies for a while.

We ate a meal at the food court, I had a cheeze steak IIRC, which was salty but good. We ended off our time at Pop with a nice walk around the grounds looking at the other buildings. We had a good look at the Animation resort, which looks cool, before we called it a night. I should have taken pictures, but I did not.

LeafsFanNL · Sep 14, 2011

fractal said:
My wife would like to go to Sea World on our next
trip!

SW is definitely worth a one day trip over to see it. Having said that, it would't be a must do for us every trip, maybe once every three or four trips.:shrug:

fractal said:
Good to see Disney working to making things "right". Looking forward to more!

IMO the service as much as anything else is what keeps us coming back. More is to come, with some theme park content as soon as my next post.

LeafsFanNL · Sep 15, 2011

Sunday 30th August

This is as good a spot as any to make some observations about POP. The facilities are nice enough, all of us enjoyed the pool a lot. The lack of a water slide did not matter to me or the boys. We never found noise from the pool to be a problem for us, but we are heavy sleepers. The food court can be very hectic, but is adequate for the resort. The pool bar is better than the average with its longer hours. I enjoyed the theming of the whole resort, and the energy of the place.

On the other hand, the size of the beds were not up to what we need. The boys found them too small to comfortably share. The store at Everything Pop is a little lacking for a resort with that many rooms. I keep coming back to my thought that POR has the nicest store of all the places I have seen. The lack of a fridge was off putting to me. We were drinking a lot of water and juice boxes. I was filling a bucket of ice at least three times a day to keep our drinks cool. DW missed the coffee percolator. I understand that you should expect less amenities at a value than a moderate, but to me, a fridge and a coffee maker seem to be rather small potatoes for Disney. This left DW and I with a sense that Disney was nickel and diming us. I thought that not covering the bus corrals was also pretty poor. We only used them once when we went to DD on Friday night, but we would have suffered if we had to have waited for a bus during the daytime. Disney should cover that whole walkway.

If you are planning a stay at POP, I'd disagree with Mike Scopa and suggest that a preferred room is worth it. Being on the ground floor of the 60's building was very convenient for us. Being so close to the pool, the food court, and all the amenities of the main building was very, very nice.

This was to be the day where we switched over to POR, got our park passes, and started our free dining portion of the trip. In planning for this trip I had vague notions that we might do all we had to do this morning and still make rope drop. I got everyone up, we had a quick bite, got everything packed and was through the door not long after 7 am.

We went to the lobby and noted that there was a long line at the check in desk. Rather vague memories of previous trips suggested that we did not have to check out, so we decided to chance it. We dropped our checked bags at bell services and headed over to our car.

A short drive later we arrived at POR. DW had reserved a standard room. Just before the trip we had decided we were going to try to get a room overlooking the quiet pool closest to the food court in the AB section, even if it cost extra. After a short time we were offered room 1642 which was pool view room at no extra charge. Yippee!!. I parked the car next to the room, and we went up the stairs into the room to drop off our smaller bags and water, etc. We also wanted to get ready for the parks. For us this really means pack a pile of water into the backpack and put on the sunscreen and hats.

There was one thing that became really apparent to us immediately when we first went into the room. This was just how much more roomy the moderates are than the values. When you move from one to another within a period of an hour the difference really jumps out at you. I have to say that we find the room layout at both POFQ and POR to be very efficient. We love the sink area with the curtain.

As an aside we find the room layout at WL and BC much less efficient. In those rooms you open the room door and you are faced with a short corridor off of which the sink area and bath/toilet rooms are located. Only when you pass the bathroom do you get to the living area. IMO this results in a room that seems smaller than it is. This effect was really pronounced at WL. The space seems almost as large at the moderates. I wonder why doesn't Disney put a curtain similar to POR in the WL and BC sink areas?

In summarizing our two 2010 trips where we stayed at WL and BC, I questioned whether the money spent on a deluxe over a moderate was worth it to us. I suppose the jury is still out on that question, but we lean towards answering that with a qualified no. There is no doubt in my mind that spending the extra money to stay at a moderate over a value is a no brainer for us. I am sure that in the future I won't stay in a value resort if the four of us are going. I am a firm believer in that you should give something a try before writing it off, and I am glad that we finally stayed at Pop.

I had hoped to make a park for rope drop, but this was unrealistic considering we switched resorts. So we were finally ready to head to the parks about 9:30 am. We got to EPCOT around 10 am. The Park had a predicted crowd level of 0.8 so it was an easy choice for us. (I love EPCOT the most, so starting there and ending there would be my choice every time. The high was predicted to be 95 (35 for me) and we had spoken to the kids on the way over in the bus about being safe in the heat. I had six 1/2 litre bottles of water with me and three or four juice boxes. We all had sun hats, loose fitting clothes. We were planning to take whatever advantage we could get with attraction air conditioning. Most importantly we were planning to bail fairly early to go to the pool. I had 1pm in mind.

When we got off the bus DS2 provided us with the quote of the week for us. He said the heat felt like someone had smacked him the face with a hot mop. We thought that was hilarious, and the quote was used a lot. The breeze we had enjoyed the last couple of days was much diminished as well. So we knew it would a tough one.

Upon entry I noticed for the first time all the wonderful entry loop music. So much of it is used in the BOGP podcast and Betamouse. I was expecting to hear Henry Work or Mike Rahlmann in the speakers as we walked up to the bag check!! I headed over to get FastPasses for Soarin' while everyone else was to wait at Test Track. DW admonished me not to overdo trying to get to the Land and then across the park as fast as possible as I usually do. I went about my business, and I have to tell you I started to get all choked up emotionally. Future World at EPCOT does that to me. I suppose that I finally was able to say I was back in the parks, doing what I love to do, and I was overcome with it all. I ended up with fastpasses for about 11:30 pm IIRC. I showed up at TT to find that there was a 20 minute wait. The three of us boys rode it and met up with DW after. We had time before the Fast Passes were useable, so we rode Ellen's energy adventure for the first time in years. We liked it. The kids thought the stupid Judy stuff was hilarious. We headed over to the land to ride Soarin'. When we came out, DW suggested that we get more Fast Passes for Soarin', which were now available for around 2:30 IIRC.

I was more than ready to get something at Sunshine Seasons, especially because it was nice and cool in there. DW wanted fish and chips at the Yorkshire stand in the UK. I was rather concerned that fish and chips, the heat and eating outside would not go together, but I went along with the plan Before leaving the Land, we rode Living with the Land, and then went over to ride one of my favourites, Journey into Imagination. I have never seen any of the previous Iterations of the attraction, but I know that I always have to do it every trip since I discovered it in the spring of 2010.

As I am writing this, I have been looking at the pictures I took on this trip. They are few and far between. I think that after a number of trips where you have taken lots of photos, the incentive to take more diminishes. I also felt so hot much of the time I just didn't feel like exerting the energy it takes to get it out. Sorry for the lack of photos.

We stopped for ice cream. I picked my favourite the Mickey bar. DS2 picked the frozen banana. It took about 30 seconds for him to end up with my Mickey bar, while he gave me this frozen banana. I could have driven a nail with it. I ended up eating the chocolate and nuts off it, before giving it the toss.

By the time we got over to the UK it was past noon and getting hot. I lined up to get four fish and chips and two waters and two orange juices. DW took the boys to see if she could get a table in the Pub. She came back out and said she had a table but couldn't get me a beer as the taps were down. What a wonderful wife to think of getting me a beer while I was waiting for the food. But hey a pub with no beer?? It brings the old tune by the Dubliners to mind.

"It's lonesome away from your Kindered and all,
By the campfire at night where the wild Dingos call,
But there's nothin' so lonesome, so dull or so drear,
Than to stand in the bar of a pub with no beer."

I ended up getting a pint of Harp at the stand. We went inside and had a nice meal. The beer was good as well. I figured that by now all hands would want to head out as it was about 1:30-2:00 pm, but no, they wanted to get to Norway for Maelstrom and the Mexico ride. So over we went. It was now hot enough that we all needed to use the, "fill the bucket hat with cold water trick." I was concerned that we were overdoing it. Anyway we rode Maelstrom twice with about a 5 minute wait. DW the purchased one of those Valkrye hats with the horns and pigtails. She claimed that she didn't have heat exhaustion, I was not so sure. We then rode the Mexico ride, and then headed back to the land. We rode Soarin' again. I was shocked to notice that at 3:00 or 3:30 there were still FP's for about 7 pm. There is one of the big benefits of touring on a low crowd day.

It was now time to head for the exit. As we waited for the bus, I was overcome with the heat. I started to get a little bit of a headache, and felt woozy. I drank more water and poured a fair bit on my head and sat down. After the bus ride to POR, I decided to get a cold shower, and lied down for a while. DW prepared the boys for a brief swim. I felt better after a while, and joined them.

We didn't have all that much time to swim as we to get ready for the ADR's at the California Grill at 7:45 pm for our anniversary dinner. We took bus to MK and jumped on the resort monorail to the Contemporary. It was a hard slug as we were pretty worn out. We arrived a little early, and managed to find the desk to check in (it is not so easy to find). We went up the elevator and waited at the bar, and thankfully our wait was pretty brief.

Being on the DDP I would be entitled to a main course and a dessert. The waiter helpfully noted that some people would order a dessert cheese plate and have it come out first. Those of you who know my trip reports, can guess that I was all over that. DW had a very nice flatbread. Not long before the fireworks the waiter brought our table two flutes of champagne and a nice message in dark chocolate.

It was time for Wishes. We went to the balcony and we were treated to seeing Wishes in one direction and Illuminations in the other simultaneously, (both shows were starting at 9pm). With the piped music the show was wonderful. It was so good from this perspective that DW and I both felt that seeing Wishes this way is as good as seeing it in the park, and we had checked Wishes off the list for this trip, though were planning to still see the parade and Wishes from inside the park on the following day.

When we came back in my filet arrived. It was done in a Teriyaki style and very nice indeed. The waiter then brought a special anniversary dessert. We were not able to linger as DS2 and DW were beat. DS1 was almost asleep, and had hardly eaten anything. I chalked it up to fatigue and the heat. We were bone tired and foot weary, so we were not really up to taking monorail/bus. We headed out and grabbed a cab back to POR, and we quickly were back in our room. DW and I both thought a slower paced Monday made a lot of sense, and so we wrote off our morning plans for Kona and the MK. A pool morning was now planned before heading over to the MK for the Liberty Tree Tavern .

We had clearly overdone it on our first park day, but we had done a lot. So far as I was concerned we had done Future World, made a pretty good job of World Showcase, and we had seen Wishes. Not a bad start.

LeafsFanNL · Sep 15, 2011

Prayers are needed.

Looks like we are getting a direct hit from Hurricane Maria in the morning. First Igor last year, now this

HouCuseChickie · Sep 16, 2011

First off- prayers your way that you are spared from a hit by Hurricane Maria. It's hard to fathom that you could get years with back to back storms.

Secondly, I'm sorry it was so hot for you guys during your trip. I'm sure it's miserable compared to the mild summers you typically experience. It's the summer equivalent of people in our area not handling teens and 20s well during the winter months.

What's funny- that hat your wife purchased is something I've seriously considered on previous trips. :lookaroun:lol: It would definitely come in handy if I ever get back into singing classical music.

It's nice to see an opinion on perks and room size between the different resort types. I tend to get a bit claustrophobic and couldn't handle the rooms at WL with a full sized stroller, but reading your TR has me convinced that we'd do well at a moderate once we've moved beyond strollers.

Can't wait to read more and again, wishing the storm away from you guys! Be safe! :wave:

LeafsFanNL · Sep 17, 2011

HouCuseChickie said:
First off- prayers your way that you are spared from a hit by Hurricane Maria. It's hard to fathom that you could get years with back to back storms.

Like most of the hurricanes that make it up here, Maria sped right up and it passed really fast, lowering the rainfall by quite a lot. It came ashore as a cat 1 and did no damage. Igor was a slower storm and was much worse. Thanks for the prayers

HouCuseChickie said:
Secondly, I'm sorry it was so hot for you guys during your trip. I'm sure it's miserable compared to the mild summers you typically experience. It's the summer equivalent of people in our area not handling teens and 20s well during the winter months.

The funny thing is that as the week went on, we adapted, the first few days were the worst.

HouCuseChickie said:
What's funny- that hat your wife purchased is something I've seriously considered on previous trips. :lookaroun:lol: It would definitely come in handy if I ever get back into singing classical music.

Packing the thing was a bear though

HouCuseChickie said:
It's nice to see an opinion on perks and room size between the different resort types. I tend to get a bit claustrophobic and couldn't handle the rooms at WL with a full sized stroller, but reading your TR has me convinced that we'd do well at a moderate once we've moved beyond strollers.

Oh, yeah. We do fine with the four of us in a moderate. Don't get me wrong, the deluxes are nice, but I really don't notice the extra room

HouCuseChickie said:
Can't wait to read more and again, wishing the storm away from you guys! Be safe! :wave:

More coming later this evening!!

LeafsFanNL · Sep 17, 2011

Monday 29th August

As mentioned in the last entry, we all went to bed very tired, understanding that we were probably going to take the morning off. I actually woke up in the middle of the night with a pretty bad headache, which was taken care of with a couple of Tylenol.

I had to get the car back this morning so I went and got a coffee and drove over to the car care centre. I was an hour late bringing the car back, but they waived the $20 fee. I went outside to catch a ride back to POR. There was a nice British couple heading to the Contemporary, and a lady from Boston, who made it clear she wasn't interested in small talk. She was heading to the Poly. Two vans showed up and the lady in charge decided that one van should take care of the monorail hotels and the second van should take care of me. When the Poly lady heard this, she hopped into one of the vans and like a bat out of hell, the van speeded off. Nice. This left the other van for the Brits and I. I told the driver to look after them first, which we did. the driver then dropped me off.

When I got back all hands were up and pretty tired but DS1 was also obviously suffering from what looked like a cold. We let him rest and I looked after getting breakfast for everyone. After we ate a leisurely breakfast DS2 said he wanted to go for a swim, which we did for quite a while DW and DS1 slept. We spent most of the day in and out of the pool. We ate counter service for lunch, I remember having some pasta, I really love the POR pasta station.

As the afternoon went on we came to understand that the evening plans were toast. It was also becoming apparent that it might be necessary for us to look into getting DS1 some medical care, he was running a fever and was very listless. He is the kind of kid that does not let being sick slow him down, yet on this day he was horizontal. We had booked the trip with our Visa. We were aware of the medical coverage that came with trips booked on the card, and I was pretty sure that we would be covered. DW wanted to start the ball rolling.

DS2 was getting a little restless so I took him to the store and we shopped for a while. I remember getting my newest Disney World year shirt. The 2011 shirt is a nice grey shirt. I also picked a Port Orleans pin to go with the Pop pin I had bought a couple of days earlier. I brought a Canada 2010 Olympic lanyard to Florida on our Easter 2010 trip to the WL. On that trip I bought three pins. A figment pin , a Mickey Canada pin, and a WL pin. On our sneaky December 2010 trip, I bought a Xmas Beach Club pin. I guess I collect where I stay and very special attractions to me. When we came back to the room DW asked me to take DS2 to the parks so we would be out of her hair, and also so that DS2 could have some park time, he was getting shack wacky.

Needing no prompting, DS and I decided to head over to MK. The Crowd Calendar was a 4.9 but l figured it would be alright. We left the room about 5pm or so. We grabbed a bus and off we went. When we arrive we noticed that the crowds were very light.

Pretty low crowds at MK

We decided that we would try just a few rides for maybe two hours.

On our way to Splash

As we entered Liberty square, we passed LTT where we were supposed to have dinner. I stopped in and cancelled our ADR. We grabbed FP's for Splash, which is my favourite ride in the MK. We then headed over to Adventureland where I was dying to see the Tiki Room in its original splendour. I had never seen the original except on YouTube, and the under New Management was not my thing. Seeing the show was one of the highlights of the 10 days for me. I even taped the first song on my camera, I should have got the whole thing. We then rode HM with a minimal wait. It was then time for Splash. The line moved quick but during the ride it stopped about a half dozen times, probably adding about five minutes to the experience. I also noted that the water cannon was not functioning. It seemed to be shooting air as the logs went over the drop. It would be down for the whole week. We then grabbed Dole Whips.

DS2 hopscotch with a dole whip before the parade

I wanted to get out of there before the parade, but we had a little time so we went over to the PeopleMover. I was able to enter a bunch of Tomorrowland wait times on my IPhone. I am a lines subscriber, and wanted to increase my posts from the 17 I had entered in December. I also wanted more of those badges!!. Anyway we rode the People Mover, and did a little bit of shopping before we exited not long before 9pm. One thing I was looking for while shopping at the MK was enchanted Tiki Room merchandise. I reaaly wanted a shirt and a pin but I could find nothing in Adventureland, or the Emporium. I would be on the lookout all week, but found nothing.

On the way out

When we returned, I had a long discussion with DW and we decided that unless DS1 recovered by the morning we would call a medical service that would visit our room. DW had called our insurer, and they had approved our calling this service.

fbp · Sep 17, 2011

Go Sens Go! :king:

PolynesianPrincess · Sep 19, 2011

Such a bummer that he didn't feel well

We've been lucky and no one has ever been ill on our trips *knock on wood* Hopefully he feels better!!!

I noticed you're a Leafs fan... I'm going to the Bruins/Leafs game in Boston in December. GO B's!!!

LeafsFanNL · Sep 19, 2011

Looking back, I think it turned out better then we would have expected that Monday Night.

As for the B's vs the Leafs, I think our boys are going to have a better team this year. (I hope)

LeafsFanNL · Sep 21, 2011

I forgot to add that when we left MK on Monday evening, we got on the POFQ bus by mistake. When we got to POFQ, everyone gets off and DS2 and I are sitting there. I was thinking, hmmmm something is wrong here. Anyhoo he dropped us off at POR

LeafsFanNL · Sep 22, 2011

Tuesday 30th August 2011

DW and I had woken about 6 am, and we had decided to call the doctor service. The doctor arrived about 7 am and had about an hour visit with DS1. He diagnosed a very bad cold and started our boy on the appropriate medicines. When he finished, I took out my credit card, and he took out his card reader and the deed was done. Thankfully we had medical insurance. He also arranged for a supply of medicines to be delivered to POR. The fee for the medicine would be charged to our room. This way of getting medical care was more expensive than say visiting a clinic but it was nice to not have to haul him out of bed where he needed to be.

DW wanted to wait for the medicine to arrive, and she wanted to stay with DS1. She also indicated that she was happy enough to have DS2 and I continue our touring. After looking at the Crowd Calendar and talking
to DS2 this was going to be an AK morning. Now I like AK but it is a very quick park for me as I don't care for EE. We have done the nature trails and Rafiki's before, so we usually skip them. I like the shows but would only go with DW. However the boys just love the Dinoland area, so it is a must do for both of them.

We managed to get there maybe an hour after rope drop, but the crowds were very light. We had Kali and Dinoland as our goals for the next couple of hours. I made an executive decision and chose Kali first, so we headed right over to Kali. I know it is a short ride, but it is one of my favourites. The line had a 10 minute posted wait, but it was probably less than that. Both of us missed getting soaked. When we got off we decided to ride again. The wait was 15 minutes, both posted and actual. One interesting fact was that many people in the line were Canadian. In our raft the second time around. Only two were not Canadian, and they were Brazilian.

I haven't mentioned this yet as it was only becoming apparent to me around this time, but there were an awful lot of Canadians everywhere I was going. There were also a large number of British people. The parks were also seeing a lot of Brazilian tour groups. I was beginning to think that foreigners might actually be in the majority. I had even seen a lady from Newfoundland by the Hippy Dippy pool when we were at Pop. I hadn't seen a fellow Newfoundlander on any of our previous five trips.

We had our two Kali rides, and were damp enough for now. I was expecting AK to be "Animal Kingdom hot," but it wasn't that bad. Looking back on it I think we were acclimatizing to the heat. DS2 and I grabbed frozen drinks, (he had a lemonade, I had a Coke), on our way to Dinoland, about 11:30 or so. I had told DS2 that Primeval Whirl was down, I don't think he really believed me, but it was. We then walked on to Triceratop Spin. After riding Dumbo 3.0, he wanted to spend some time in the fair. I was a little hesitant, as I was beginning to be concerned about fitting all our stuff in our luggage, but we spent about 30 minutes here, and I knew he would end up with some plush toys, which he did. I should note that the place was deserted. DS2 had a job finding any kids to play against. He ended up waiting about 10 minutes for a family with a couple of kids to show so he could compete in the carnival games. I have never seen this area so deserted.

I went into one of the shops in the area and bought the boys a Phineas and Ferb shirt each. I had it in my mind that it might cheer up DS1 back at POR. We then decided to head for the exit, and go and check out DS1, and have a swim. DS2 was complaining of a blister, so we stopped in the shop outside thhe park to get him a band aid. We were lucky enough to find a bus at our stop so there was no wait.

I suppose we got back to the room about 1 pm. The first thing I noticed was the meds had brought down DS1's fever, and he seemed a lot better. After having some lunch I took DS2 to the pool.

People from Newfoundland speak with a distinct accent. Most Come From Aways say it is something like an Irish accent, which is close enough for our purposes. Anyway I overheard three men in the pool, and I figured they were from home. It turned out they were all living in St. John's (Population 100,000 or so). We had a nice chat.

When we came back to the room, DW told me that we were going to try to go back to our park schedule, or at least to where we had planned to have dinner that evening. We had an ADR at 50's PTC for 7:10. We had wanted to try this before but had not scheduled it on our previous trips. We made sure it was prioritized for this trip. DS1 was visibly doing much better. He told me in a weepy manner that his holiday was ruined. I assured him that he would feel better, and would be able to hit the parks the following day, inwardly I was not so sure.

As we prepared to head over to DHS, a very intense thunderstorm began to drop a lot of rain and the occasional thunder and lightning. It slacked off long enough for us to head over to the bus stop where the sky really opened up. We manage to get into the bus without getting very wet at all. By the time we arrived at DHS it was just misting a little which was nice.

We entered the park about 6:30 pm. Large numbers of people were leaving due to the rain, and very few were entering. We headed over to 50's PTC for our ADR. I managed to snap a few pictures. I used to see lots of this kind of stuff when I used to visit my grandparents when I was a little kid. We had to wait a while to be seated, I'd say about 20 minutes is accurate. We were then lead into the dining area.

The unexpected sickness of DS1 had resulted in us having more TS credits and less QS credits than we had expected. This was to be the first of several meals where we used TS credits for the kids instead of paying OOP as we had planned.

DW and I had shakes, onion rings and we both had the sampler. We enjoyed the shakes and the rings, but we both really did not like the sampler. I found the chicken very bland and greasy, and the pot roast was very different from how we prepare it. It was different in a negative way. The meatloaf was plain, and I did not care for the sides. DW liked it less. One hates to be the contrarian when reporting on a favourite of the Disney community, but I feel I have to provide our opinion. To DW and I 50's PTC is the worst TS meal we have had, and the only one that I can say was bad.

While we eating it was obvious that DS 1 was very tired, so we made the choice to exit when we were finished. The trip back to the resort was uneventful, and we hit the hay fairly early.

After six days of holidays, with three days of admissions used, we had done a lot, considering how sick DS1 had been. I was hopeful that better was to come.

kstella · Sep 22, 2011

I also read all the rave reviews about 50's PTC and wonder if I ate in the same place as the people raving. Maybe some day I will give it another chance, but with all the other options it will probably be a long time.

Too bad about your son...no fun getting sick on vacation!

erstwo · Sep 23, 2011

I have been looking forward to this since you posted your "will we melt" trip report! I assume you must have survived since you are writing this report! :lol:

I am so sorry your bigger little guy got sick! Nothing worse.

I have a theory about the 'hallways' at the beginning of most deluxe resort rooms. I think that the rooms are designed that way on purpose as an 'amenity' actually. The bathroom (which creates the hallway) creates a buffer for any noise that might be in the hallways. Thus creating a feeling of more privacy. Whereas in a Value room - one bed is practically touching the door. Does that make sense? That's just my theory though, so take it with a grain of salt!

LeafsFanNL · Sep 24, 2011

Wednesday 31st August

When we got up this morning DS1 seemed to be good enough for a little bit of touring. As I mentioned in the Tuesday report, when he started feeling better, he mentioned that his holiday was ruined. I was determined to ensure that this would not be true, and we would do as much as we could, without overdoing it, especially considering how fragile I knew he was. We told him it was his choice to pick the park for the day. He chose MK whick was good with me as the Crowd Calendar had Mk as a 2.7.

We just missed the opening celebration, and we were through the turnstiles not long after park opening. The boys had been talking about doing Space Mountain since we booked the trip, so we headed over to Tomorrowland. The stand by wait was about 10 minutes maximum. Somewhat surprisingly, DW decided to ride with the three of us. I was in the first seat, then the kids, and then DW. It took about 10 seconds to realize that I was not doing so good. My defence mechanism is to shut my eyes. Anyway the ride ended, the kids loved it, DW and I had to sit for five minutes to recover.

After SM, the kids wanted to ride Astro Orbiter. The three of us rode it while DW waited. We then rode People Mover. My kids are ten, and pretty much disinterested in FantasyLand. So we headed over to FrontierLand. We grabbed FP's for Splash, and rode Big Thunder followed by Splash. It was now pretty close to 11:30, and we decided to grab a bite at Pecos Bill's. We then rode Pirates, the Jungle cruise and Haunted Mansion. We were planning to go to the Tiki Room, but the kids were spent, so we went back to the room.

When all hands got ready for the pool, we had a little delay as thunder was in the area. When it seemed to pass, we headed to the pool for some time in the quiet pool. After a while the boys decided that they wanted to head over to the themed pool on Old Man Island. We weren't there very long when the sky darkened again. The lifeguards announced that the pool was closing due to the threat of thunder. So the boys got out and we headed back to building 16. When we passed the quiet pool we noticed that there were still people in the water. From what I can gather, Disney does not close the quiet pools if there are storms in the area. This made up more circumspect about using them the rest of the trip. It is something that might persuade some resort guests to stick to the main pool. We spent some time waiting for the weather to clear before heading back to the quiet pool.

We had a dinner ADR at Tutto Italia for 7:35 pm, which was to be a new experience for us. We showed up at EPCOT at about 7:10 or so.

Low crowds

Where we are heading

We knew time was tight so we passed through FW. When we hit WS we decided to go through the Mexico side. Now the Boys had seen other kids with the EPCOT passports, and they wanted to get them. I was ok with this as I like them to spend their money on items that are easy to pack. We didn't have a whole lot of time but we managed to get their passports stamped in Mexico and Norway. We hustled past China, as it was getting close. We managed to get Italian stamps for their passports. We checked in just on time and were seated almost immediately.

Something really weird happened here. The waiter told us that since the kids were ten, they could only order off the adult menu. There really wasn't anything for DS2 on the adult menu, but we ordered him a chicken meal. When he saw the cheese on the chicken, there was no way he was eating it. He ate a little mashed potato. DS1 had spaghetti with meatballs which he enjoyed but ate little. DW had a veal dish, which she enjoyed. I had the Casarecci, which is a pasta dissh with sausage and cheese. It was very good. We all had some gelato. One thing I should note is that the meal was served very fast. It was getting close to Illuminations, so maybe he figured we were in a hurry to get out and see the show.

In planning our trip we assumed that having a 7:35 pm ADR, we would not get to see Illuminations. We were very surprised to be out of Tutto Italia about 8:55 pm. We headed over to Germany to watch the show. There was almost no one in the area, we were able to watch the show from a bench. I just love Illuminations and it was very good indeed. After the show we exited. When we got to the bus area we were faced with the biggest line we had seen in our six visits. To our surprise, they were very efficient brining in buses, sometimes two at a time. We didn't wait more than 15 minutes. I was impressed.

We had everyone settled in the room at about 10:20. I had mentioned going over to see Yeeha Bob to DW several times. DW told me that I should head over. I did, getting there about 10:30. I got to the last hour of the show. I had a couple of Abita beers on tap. It's a very nice brewery. Bob puts on a pretty good show and I enjoyed the show. Bob is a real entertainer with a lot of energy. Newfoundland is famous for being blessed with lots of good musicians and comedians. Maybe that caused my immediate reaction to the show, which was, "this is good but why all the fuss?" There is a lot of buzz in the Disney Internet Community about this show, I don't get it. Anyway, I headed back and went to bed.

All in all it was a good day, way better than I could have expected a day or two earlier.

LeafsFanNL · Sep 28, 2011

More of this TR is to come,

One thing I should of mentioned was that between my visit to MK on Aug 29th and the visit on the 31st was that during that time the halloween decorations were put up!!

LeafsFanNL · Oct 5, 2011

Thursday 1st September

This was another day where we were letting DS1 make the call. We had done Epcot one morning, and MK another. DS1 was considering DHS or AK. He decided on AK for this day because of the crowd calendar. This was another day that we just missed park opening, but arrived early enough to experience good crowds. Our plan was to hit as many of the highlights as we could until around noon when we were going to bail. We wanted to head out around noon so we could get pool time before our earlier than usual dinner. Most of our dinner ADR's were for 7:30 or so , on this evening we had an ADR at Hollywood Brown Derby for 5:30pm. This evening had been planned as our Fantasmic night. We had not seen this show since Easter of 2008, DW and the boys really wanted to see it, me too I suppose.

Upon arrival we made did some impromptu trip planning. The boys were keen on Expedition Everest, but there was no way I was doing that again, and they can't go without me. I told them when we come back in a year or so they can ride themselves. Omitting EE made planning the day easy. We made the decision to hit Kali early, as this was a warmer day that two days before when I was here with DS2. I was sad to find that the ride was down. We chose to give the Safari a shot. The wait was minimal, probably no more than five minutes. Two things stand out in my mind. First, was the total inability to take any pictures due to the shutter lag on my Canon A590. I am going to have to get a faster point and shoot before I return. Second, we saw way more animals than we have ever seen, especially the giraffes which were up by the vehicle.

We went back to Kali and it was now opened, I got fully soaked. I would have gone on Kali again, but the rest of the group was done. I entered the wait time as we left Asia, and received one of my favourite badges. For entering 5 Kali wait times I received the" Master of the Poncho" badge. I thought it was hilarious, as I would be the last person around wearing a poncho on this ride. We were going to grab something to eat, and head over to Dinoland. We were passing It's Tough to be a Bug, which we hadn't experienced since our first family trip in 2007. I had forgotten how intense this attraction is. To me it is clearly not for little ones. It troubles me how many parents will force their kids to do things they clearly do not want to do. I could tell you a story about snorkelling with sharks off of the Bahamas that shocks me when I think about it.

We grabbed some counter service by Tough to be a Bug, and then headed over to Dinoland. The boys love the midway, but we told them that getting any plush toys were out of the question as we just did not have space to spare. We headed over to Dinosaur instead. Now, I am with Hochberg , and am not a huge lover of this one, but everyone wanted to go, so we all went on. I was on the right hand side, and avoided cardiac arrest.

Time was passing and we decided to head home. Our bus wait was longer than usual, probably 15 minutes. We arrived back at POR at 1:30.

It might be getting repetitive, but we found another family from St. John's, and several families from Ontario where the moms were teachers. We had a great chat. From what I was told about leave policy in Ontario, I am glad I teach in Newfoundland. I am convinced that if you added the number of Canadians to people from Brazil and the UK, we might have been a majority.

We could not spend a lot of time in the pool as we had to get ready to head over to DHS for dinner. DW made a suggestion that maybe we should get an ADR for Yachtsman instead, maybe for 7 pm, which would allow us to get a rest. We reconsidered when we realized that to get to DHS from YC would eat up a fair bit of time, and might not make Fantasmic. We decided to stick to our plan.

As we were preparing to head out we noticed that the clouds were getting ready to open up. So for the only time on the trip, out came the rain gear. As we left the room the downpour started. It kept up until we arrived at DHS right about 5 pm. As we entered the park, it was very apparent that hordes of people were bailing out. Bail I say Bail. Walking up Hollywood Boulevard it was nearly empty. We spent some time in the shops on the left hand side.

I was still looking for a Perry hat and Tiki room merchandise. As our time was now getting short, I started finding that I was looking more closely at stuff when I saw it. DW picked up a few chachkies for my mother and other relatives. I should also mention that the kids had picked up one of those books that hold squat pennies a day or so earlier, so everywhere they went, they looked for more machines. They found two or three here, much squishing ensued. I don't mind them spending money on squishing pennies, pins, t-shirts and EPCOT passports as they are a lot easier to pack than plush toys.

I saw some really nice Nike golf shirt with Mickey golfing on them I was going to get a blue one, but it was time to head over to the Brown Derby. As we got ready to cross the street, the sky really opened up and we had to put on the ponchos to go 100 feet!.

The lobby of the Brown Derby was a zoo when we arrived right at our allotted time of 5:30 pm. People in the check in area told us that it was taking about 20 minutes to be seated. It took us 35 minutes. Once seated the service was very good. DW and I had filets, I had the vanilla creme brulee that everyone ate on me. GRRR!!! The restaurant was good, but to me it fits in the second tier of signature experiences along with Narcoosees, California Grille, Jiko and Artists Point and behind my Big Three, Le Cellier, Flying Fish, and especially Yachtsman.

I was beat after our dinner and could have easily gone back to the POR, DW, however had Monday and Tuesday to rest and had a nap that afternoon. She was all eager to keep charging on. She was determined to go to Fantasmic, so we were going. We figured we had a little time to kill, so we did the GMR before the show. I just love GMR. I keep wanting to shout to Ripley, "Just leave that %#@%&% cat and get out of there!!!"

On to Fantasmic. We have only seen this once, on the last night of our off property Easter 2008 trip, and we were getting excited to see it again. We arrived about 40 minutes before the show, the theatre was mostly full, we got seats neat the top, and not far from the enterance. We were hoping to get a head start on heading out, probably just as it ended or a few seconds earlier.

Just about everyone else seemed to have the same idea, and we quickly decided we had better leave. We had just reached the exit when the "Some Imagination, huh " line was delivered. We were well on our way to being ahead of the pack . However, three of the members of our party had to go to the washroom, so we lost our head start. The wait at the bus corral was still reasonable and we were on our way within about 15 minutes.

So now we had seen Fantasmic, Illuminations, and Wishes from California Grille. I was very happy. We had a vague idea that we might try to make it over to MK on our last night for the parade and fireworks, but it wasn't essential. All in all, this was another good day considering how sick DS1 had been as little as two days before.

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