MontyMon’s August Adventure Redux

Our third time in August because Morgan is in grades where missing a week is no longer viable… You’d think we’d be used to the heat!

Day 1

August 22nd I was up at 4AM, showered, finished the last bit of packing, got everything to the door ready to load before waking his nibs… When much to my surprise, who should wander down, dressed and ready to travel? Morgan! So we loaded up the car and despite the overstuffed suitcase almost not fitting in my trunk, we managed and headed for the airport. We arrived at 5:30, I had planned for 6, but him getting up and dressed independently had thrown off all my timings.

Turns out everybody else was as early and had almost all checked in. We bought some candy to suck on on the planes and patiently waited. We departed Ottawa a slight bit late, but managed to make up time and arrived in Toronto a tiny bit early. Cleared U.S. Customs in record time and then waited some more… Our Orlando flight was late leaving and late arriving, we landed at 1245PM and we at the gate at 1:05. We were off the plane, to DME and on our bus in 15 minutes! We were on the road to WDW 10 minutes later! We were actually checking in within an hour of the plane arriving at the gate!

Check-in took a little time because we had two reservations, one for the first night on an AP discount and one for the following seven nights on a 40% PIN. The check-in lady was great, changed the two bookings to a “continuing” booking and they just slid new keys under the door in the morning [they sadly slid them under the door after we had already departed for the day, but the thought was there]. I asked for a birthday button because I’d decided that my 50th [in October] is worth celebrating.

After we found our room [a little bit of confusion on my part had us miss a turn], we found it to be a very nice ground floor room with a walk-out patio facing the Tidal Pool swimming pool. I figure from our room it’s closer to walk to EPCOT than to the boat to EPCOT! Some room pics:

The Beach Club Resort:

Once we settled what little stuff we had in our carry-on, we headed to DTD. I bought a few golf shirts [or polos as they’re sometimes called] and Morgan got some Lego, we ended up with way too much time allocated to DTD. With Virgin and Starabilia gone, we ran out of places to go long before dinner. We stopped at Ghirardelli’s for my favourite Decadent Drinking Chocolate mid-afternoon and then for shakes an hour and a half before dinner. Oops… Too much snacking meant neither of us even ate half our main course. But Raglan Road was still great! We shared a Scallop Forest [no pic, sorry... it looked so delicious we forgot] and then Morgan had Fish & Chips and I had their Shepherd’s Pie. Both were delicious and we were very tempted to keep eating beyond being stuffed, but decided to live to fight another day.

The Food:

It appears I caught Morgan blinking, it looks as though he has eyes painted on his lids…

On the way back, I bought the Mickey-head I-4 Highway sign and a Beach Club golf shirt. We unpacked our now present luggage and prepared for a long day at MK…

 

[Monty]

23 August

Day Two

We started with Tonga Toast at Kona Café, was given a birthday dessert in recognition of my birthday button [dessert with breakfast is a new experience]. After breakfast, we stopped at the gift shop and bought a Poly golf shirt and headed for MK.

Tonga Toast:

I stopped in to get a locker for my Poly shirt and a little something I’d brought from Canada for Kate. I was given a free locker because it was my birthday… and it had a Magical Moment Certificate proclaiming me “Honorary Locker Guest” and two little packets of “Pixie Dust” [No, I didn’t snort it!]. Then we headed to City Hall to upgrade Morgan’s ticket to a 7-day Hopper [we had an old 1-day base ticket from two years ago when free dining and APs conflicted]. I texted Steve to find where they were and headed to Dumbo to meet him and his lovely family.

We rode Pirates, then Splash twice, BMTRR twice and headed to Aloha Isle for Dole Floats, all the while texting to try to coordinate with Victoria. We rode Pirates again and then split up with Steve’s family so Morgan and I could try to meet up with Victoria. At this point, Kate let me know she had just parked and was on her way to MK, so we deviated to meet her at the entrance to give her her present. Our timing was near perfect, as I was texting that when she arrived we’d be at the lockers, she sent that she’d just arrived. We stopped at the locker and gave her her tin of Tim Horton’s coffee grounds that I’d promised her months ago. We texted Victoria that we were headed for HM, but she couldn’t deviate from her sister and their plan… So the three of us rode and caught up on our various lives. We tried Hall of Presidents but it was “experiencing technical difficulties, so Kate went to track down Victoria [she succeeded]. Morgan and I went back to buy HM merch [a couple of T-shirts] and headed back to Beach Club for a swim and to re-check in because we didn’t know they’d already dropped off our new keys.

We used the new HM Ts as covers to go to Stormalong Bay. Nice Pool!!!! We stayed about an hour and a half then went back to our room to change, but we kinda crashed for a bit… Not a nap, just a bit of decompression. Around 4 we headed back to MK. We saw HoP and rode HM and then it was time to head to the meeting spot before dinner. I figured I should be there early so people would find us when they arrived, but Steve and his family were already there and Robert was right behind me leaving the park. Marcia and Marcus texted they’d meet us at the restaurant, Victoria arrived and advised that Heidi and Kevin were in Monorail limbo… Monorails were moving through the Contemporary, but weren’t boarding passengers. We waited a while and then met them at the bottom of the ramp as they finally arrived and boarded the boat to Fort Wilderness for Dinner at Trail’s End.

Our table for 14 tuned out to be two tables for eight and we ended up with eight at one and four at the other. We had lost two expected attendees, Nick had a quite reasonable excuse though, he’d had his gall bladder removed, we forgave him.

Dinner was quite the adventure. Our server was not conversant in English, orders were repeated on request, getting his attention sometimes difficult and sorting out the bills at the end of it all as a truly painful experience. The food was satisfactory, but the only line for the buffet was ridiculously long and got longer. Heidi’s vehement denials will not be challenged by me, but there were ample projectiles flying over my head at what came to be known as the “Kiddies’ Table”… Hilarity, combined with stunned humour at the inept antics of our server ensued…

Once the bills had finally been sorted out, we adjourned outside for a group photo:

Morgan and I broke from the group in order for me to go in pursuit of a Fort Wilderness golf shirt. The store in the immediate vicinity of the restaurant didn’t have any, but the salesgirl [a lovely young Brazilian girl] called and found out they had them at the main store. I asked how to get there and she asked if I had a golf cart, no, car, no… She gave me walking directions… Oops, long walk on a hot sticky August night. We found it, bought the shirt and asked directions out of FW. The saleslady [a not young, not Brazilian, woman who was nonetheless very pleasant] suggested we could go one way to the boats or the other way to the buses and the impression was it didn’t matter which. We took the bus to the buses, only to find out there wasn’t bus service to MK because the have boat service [at the other end of FW]. We returned to the boats and headed to MK after over an hour lost in FW.

We rode Jungle Cruise and Pirates and I was too tired to go on. I left Morgan to his own devices and returned to Beach Club.

Morgan got FPs for Big Thunder, then saw the Tiki Room. He explored Tomorrowland, but everything he likes was closed. Then he used his BTMRR FPs and wet to Splash, but they were showing a two and a half hour wait, so he skipped it. So he got back to the resort around ten to 1.

 

[Monty]

24 August

Day Three

We slept in. Between travelling and new bed trouble sleeping, I was exhausted. We finally made it to AK at 1030. Heidi and Kevin had been at the park at 9, expecting me to be a keener, but… We had lunch with them at Flame Tree, then they went shopping and returned to BLT for a swim. We rode Safari, Everest, Dinosaur, Primeval Whirl, Tough to be a Bug, then got caught in a store for a while while it rained a bit. From there we rode Everest two more times and left the park to head to Boma. Delicious as always and the waiter was amazed at the amount of milk we consumed… 7.5 large glasses between us during the meal.

Us at Expedition Everest:

We had some confusion over the best resort-to-resort route to get back to Beach Club. I was thinking AKL-DHS-BC by bus then boat, but didn’t know for sure how far it as from bus to boat at DHS. Morgan resolved the dilemma when we arrived at Blizzard Beach en route to DHS by suggesting we take a bus from there instead. Since it as raining intermittently, his plan was best.

So, short day, but tomorrow is EPCOT.

 

[Monty]

25 August

Day Four

Today started with Tonga Toast.

We were up bright and early, made our way to the bus stop in plenty of time, and waited over 40 minutes for an MK bus! Ended up about 20 minutes late for our Kona Café ADR, but it was all good. Morgan and I shared a Tonga Toast with sausage, he had juice and I had the Press Pot Coffee.

Then we were off to EPCOT. I had forgotten that it was morning EMH, so there were a few more people there than expected, but crowds were not unreasonably large. We headed to Soarin’, got FPs and got into line. The line was longer than we were willing to wait in, so we got back out. From there we went to the Living Seas and rode Nemo. We went through the observation deck and decided to skip Crush. We went to JII, HISTA and then headed to Test Track. On the way, we saw the Jamitors just starting their set-up, so we watched their show – great fun and Morgan was made a “Junior Jamitor” for the day [as was every other young-ish looking person there]. FP’d TT then rode M:S Orange. When we came out of M:S, TT was 101, doors closed. As a result, there was a ridiculous long line for Ellen… We signed up for Kim Possible. We headed for SSE. Another crazy long line, so we headed back to The Land, had lunch then rode Soarin’.

The Jamitors:

We headed for WS and started in Mexico. Rode Fiesta. Then it was time for KP at Norway… Our first mission? Mexico! KP was a lot of fun in Mexico, it was all inside. The next mission was Norway and not only was it outside, it kept taking us back and forth from where the Viking ship play area used to be to the courtyard over and over. Still fun, if a lot of extra walking. Third mission Morgan had three choices, Germany, Morocco or France, he chose France [the farthest away]! After a long, hot walk to France, the mission was quite fun as well. I highly recommend KP, it kept Morgan genuinely interested for over two hours and he would have continued had it offered more missions, but seems three is the max. While in France, I bought a fridge magnet “I wine a lot, it makes me feel better.”

We went from France to America. There was about half an hour before AA, so we grabbed a frozen Wild Cherry. We went to AA, listened to the Voices of Liberty and then watched the show. I’ll give credit where it’s due: Americans do patriotic well.

From AA we headed to use our TT FPs. On the way, I realized I had put the fridge magnet in the same pocket as my AP… Oops. We rode TT, then went to GR to determine if my AP was salvageable or not. Not! The woman was very gracious despite my bone-headedness and re-issued the AP. Unfortunately, the bypass of the biometric scan on my old AP did not readily transfer to the new one. After much back and forth with the on-duty Manager, who insisted they don’t do that anymore, then insisted it couldn’t be done anymore and finally admitted she’s never seen or heard of it being done… She phoned someone else who initially said it couldn’t be done and then said it could be done but only by a Computer Systems Supervisor on their ATS [Automated Ticketing System]. Those supervisors only work 7-4:30, therefore it will have to be done tomorrow. She assured me she would send an email to the appropriate person and ask that it be done ASAP so it’s in place when I get to the parks tomorrow [True to her word, it was working fine later in the trip]. For my troubles, I got a free FP for any one ride for the two of us.

From there, we headed to SSE, which now was walk-on. Still great! Then we used our freebie FP on Soarin’. After Soarin’, the skies were threatening, but not raining and we went to JII again. After JII it was spotting with rain and got progressively heavier to a drizzle by the time we reached Le Cellier for dinner about 15 minutes early. We were seated about 10 minutes before our ADR and had a server from Kanata! He was astounded that his first Canadian customer was from his home town. Morgan will be going to the same High School he’d attended. We both had Choup, Filet and Maple Crème Brulée.

After dinner it was still raining, so we scooted around to O Canada and enjoyed it as always. But the rain rain rain came down down down and we gave up and returned to Beach Club.

Tomorrow, DHS

 

[Monty]

26 August

Day Five

WDW Hump Day!

DHS today.

Got FPs for TSMM, then rode GMR we were in the gangster scene, but the cars in front had the cowboy scene.

Rode ToT and grabbed burgers for lunch. Meeting WI Disney Fan at noon... Chatted a bit with his family and then he was off to feed his crew. From there we tried GMR again hoping for the western scene, but no such luck. They were back to only doing gangster. Then Star Tours, Backlot, ToT, RnRC, ToT (checked RnRC and TSMM but both 60) saw Indy. We wrapped up with another ride on ToT.

Herbie:

With a half hour until park close, we decided to return to our resort and change for dinner. Signature Dining at The Flying Fish.

The Flying fish was rather disappointing, the restaurant has no sound dampening in its design, so was very loud, the service was less attentive than I would expect and our waits for food were unusually long. The food itself was stellar, but I wouldn’t eat there again. At $130 for two with no alcohol and TiW’s 20% already applied, I expect a better experience than we had.

Tomorrow, Tonga Toast and MK!

 

[Monty]

27 August

Day Six

Today started with Kona Café for Tonga Toast [again]. Then we took the Monorail to Grand Floridian to check out their supply of resort Golf Shirts. The Mercantile store didn’t carry them, but advised that the Men’s shop did. But it opened at 9… Morgan is very tolerant.

After I got a very nice GF shirt we proceeded to MK. We decided to start off in Tomorrowland and saw MILF and CoP. Carousel went 101 at the end of the 50’s and we had the pleasure of seeing it repeated. From there we went to Philharmagic and IASW. We rode Haunted Mansion and then we both had very generous servings of shrimp at Columbia House.

The HM Hearse:

After lunch we grabbed FPs for Splash Mountain [both Splash and BTMRR had 60 minute waits posted]. We rode Pirates and lined up for Jungle Cruise. While in the queue, I got a text from SillySpook13 [Marcia] that she’d be laving home in half an hour coming to MK, so after Jungle Cruise we headed to Aloha Isles for Dole Floats while we waited. When she arrived we headed to Splash to get her an FP as well. Then we rode PotC, HM, saw CoP and MILF. We had more Dole Floats [this time with Marcia – technically this one was for Jer].

The empty Dole Float:

There was some depression:

After Dole-iciousness… We roe Splash using our FPs and then BTMRR to dry off a bit. Then we walked Marcia out to Town Square, where we said our goodbyes. She headed home and we to Tony’s for dinner. We shared a Calamari and both had the Shrimp Scampi. Our server was excellent, after Flying Fish an excellent change. The Calamari was divine and the shrimp was absolute perfection. Our server had fresh glasses of milk at our table within moments of the previous glass emptying, unbidden. He was very nice, but not pushy. He earned himself a very nice add-on to the compulsory 18% tip.

After dinner we wandered the stores up the east side of Main St. Then we finished off with one more viewing of CoP and rides on HM and PotC. We returned to Beach Club and called it a night. We had another early start Friday for more Tonga Toast and EPCOT.

 

[Monty]

28 August

Day Seven

Our day started with yet another trip to Kona Café for Tonga Toast!

Then we were off to EPCOT for the day. We started by getting FPs for Soarin’, then headed to MouseGear because I had forgotten to pack a red shirt for Morgan to wear. We wear red on Fridays as a show of support for our deployed troops, it’s become a Canadian tradition. Once he’d changed shirts, we got a locker for the old one, I popped a button on my shorts [one Tonga Toast too many?] and headed to SSE. After SSE, I decided that a change of shorts was in order, trusting the zipper to stay up without the button was too risky. So I headed back to Beach Club for a quick change. Morgan wandered Future World, mostly Innoventions [and signed up for Kim Possible] until I texted that I was headed for Soarin’ for our FP ride. We met on the way and rode Soarin’. I was sad that Living with the Land was down for refurb, but what can you do? Got more Soarin’ FPs

We checked out Mission: Space and Test Track, but waits were 60 for both. So we headed to World Showcase and did three KP missions, this time we saved China, Germany and Japan. After that we wandered through Morocco and then headed toward the UK, getting a final KP assignment on the way. We did some browsing in UK and Canada then I headed over to Test Track for FPs while Morgan got lunch at the Electric Umbrella [I nibbled on his fries, but wasn’t hungry enough to order anything]. From there we went to Fountainview for an ice cream for Morgan and a frozen Cappuccino for me.

We then found Stormstruck [I’ve looked for it before but rather than ask, I just didn’t find it] and decided to try it. It was interesting, but not really applicable to us. We don’t live in an area that sees anything worse than a very small tornado [enough to knock over an already weakened fence, but never actual damage to buildings]. Then we rode Soarin’ again. This time beside a family of kids whose mother wouldn’t ride. It was the kids’ first time and their expressions and enjoyment made the ride better than ever! I made a comment to the mom as I walked past her at the exit that they’d really behaved well and obviously had a great time.

From Soarin, we went over to Journey into Imagination, Morgan thinks the song here is as bad for getting stuck in your head as Small World. Then we saw O, Canada and American Adventure. Just as we were entering AA I got word from NewfieFan [Sarah] that they were leaving DHS on their way to EPCOT. We arranged to meet at the exit from AA. We met with Sarah and her BFF and chatted for a few minutes. From there, we headed to Norway to get our final KP mission, all the way over at UK! The UK mission was actually our favourite! Though Morgan got upset that he couldn’t keep the golf ball. From UK, we headed to Test Track for a final ride before dinner.

We grabbed the stuff from the locker and headed back to the room to freshen up a bit before dinner at Cape May Café. Dinner was fabulous! I wish I could eat more, but what I had was delicious. After dinner we headed over to Rose & Crown to meet with Shannon and Otto [Otto and I have been trying to meet and have some Scotch for a while now]. Morgan said his hellos and then took off into EPCOT. Two wonderful glasses of Blue Label and much chatting later [along with a nice cat-fight for distraction – not involving Shannon], I got a note from Morgan that he was stuck on TT – it went 101 while he was on the hill climb. I texted back that I was on my way over. Shan and Otto walked with me to wait for him at TT. He wasn’t responding to my more and more numerous texts… We waited near the TT exit for nearly an hour with no sign of him. I finally gave up, knowing he’d eventually get tired or get kicked out when the park closed and make his way to the room.

When he finally made it to the room, the last text on his phone between us was him saying he was stuck on TT! I was too tired to worry about it at the time, so we went to bed.

Tomorrow: Last day in the parks, AK.

 

[Monty]

29 August

Day Eight

Having been up a lot later than planned the night before, we slept in. When we got up, my first business was to resolve the texting problems with Morgan’s phone. I called Rogers tech support, they forwarded me to iPhone support three times, each time it timed out and returned me to tech support. When they said they were forwarding me again, I refused because it just kept cycling back to them and my battery might not last long enough to continue… The woman was a bit flustered and finally asked around… There was a Manager nearby who had previously worked iPhone support. He was first a bit irritated that I was refusing to be forwarded to iPhone support until I explained, then he said “Yeah, we’re having problems with our phones”! He walked me through the resets required to re-establish texting on his phone, then said that anyone with an iPhone should do this every month or two… Nobody tells you this until you have a problem though! We finally were operational again, so off we went to AK.

Our mission today was to maximize our FP usage by getting as many as we could at the new FP distribution. So, first stop was the central FP Distribution, we got FPs for Dinosaur, Everest and Safari. We rode Everest stand-by. Then we had some frozen teas at the Royal Anandapur Tea Company. After that, we stopped again at the central FP Distribution for more FPs [you can get them every hour here]. We rode Dinosaur, Everest [did a quick run for more FPs] and Safari on the first set of FPs, returned and rode Dinosaur twice . Then we got yet more FPs and rode Everest twice. Got another set of FPs and headed to Safari. We had enough FPs for four back-to-back Safaris and we did four, but one was during the parade and they were routing everyone through the FP line so we didn’t use all our FPs. Although we could have done one more, we decided five safaris in one day was our max. I tried to give our last set of FPs [which were valid right away] to four different couples, three of whom looked as though I was trying to scam them and literally ran away, one couple had already been and didn’t want them. Finally I found a nice older couple who had just arrived in the park to find there were no FPs available. They were very happy to get FPs that were “good to go”.

On our last safari, this little guy was playing in the water, giving himself a shower:

From there we went to Dinosaur and rode twice. Then we rode Primeval Whirl. It was now EMH at AK, but Asia and Africa were both still open for anyone who had ADRs in the park [and anyone who was already in the park]. We rode Everest twice more on our FPs and then went to ITTBAB. We rode Dinosaur twice more and then headed for dinner.

We stopped at Kidani Village on our way to AKL to check out their merch. I bought a Kidani Village ball cap and a DVC member golf shirt [no I’m not a DVC member… I just collect shirts]. Then we were off to Jambo House to check in at Jiko. Much to my chagrin, they had no reservation for me! Good thing we were checking in about a half hour early. I had my confirmation number and the girl couldn’t get into the system where she could check it. After some back-and-forth, she finally checked me in as a walk-in [which they weren’t technically accepting, but if she’d found my ADR that’s what she’d have done anyway]. I was not hopeful, but we were actually seated ten minutes before our ADR was for!

We had a really wonderful final dinner at WDW. Jiko was a real treat. Then, sadly we had to return to the resort to pack up for early departure in the morning.

We had an ADR for Kona Café in the morning, but DME decided to book our bus twenty minutes after our ADR time. We sadly gave up on one last Tonga Toast and had a rather boring breakfast at MCO instead. Then we were off and back to Canada.

 

[Monty]

Random shot of me and a whole bunch from our many safaris:

OK, this is from Flight of Wonder, but it's a nice pic:

The benefit to taking multiple safaris the same day, the only shot we got of a cheetah not sleeping:

Well, that’s it for another Trip Report, hope you enjoyed it!

 

[blackthidot]

Great report! Sweet pics of the animals as well!

How bout some pics of those HM shirts you got!

 

[luvlifeinfl]

great trip report.

 

[DMC-12]

Great TR! :king: Thanks for having a dole float for me. :sohappy:

Oh... and need more details about the cat fight please! :lol: :lol::lookaroun

 

[Monty]

Great report! Sweet pics of the animals as well!

How bout some pics of those HM shirts you got!

 

[blackthidot]

I have that one, and the wallpaper one!

 

[Monty]

Great TR! :king: Thanks for having a dole float for me. :sohappy:

Oh... and need more details about the cat fight please! :lol: :lol::lookaroun

:ROFLOL:

There were a few very drunk, very loud and obnoxious groups at R&C, one group there were two girls having a row, one slapped the other... The boyfriends stepped in and separated them, but it seemed obvious the one who was slapped was not happy. She and her male companion left shortly after. :shrug:

Shan saw more than I did...

 

[blackthidot]

:ROFLOL:

There were a few very drunk, very loud and obnoxious groups at R&C, one group there were two girls having a row, one slapped the other... The boyfriends stepped in and separated them, but it seemed obvious the one who was slapped was not happy. She and her male companion left shortly after. :shrug:

Shan saw more than I did...

lol who gets beat up in Disney?

 

[Goofycanuck]

We sadly gave up on one last Tonga Toast and had a rather boring breakfast at MCO instead.

I think you should call the Tonga Toast Hotline and get some help for your addiction. :lol:

 

[Monty]

I think you should call the Tonga Toast Hotline and get some help for your addiction. :lol:

If we were really addicted we would have missed the damn bus! :shrug:

:lol:

 

[popsicletrees]

Another great TR, Monty! Morgan is getting so tall! I really like the HM shirt with the building on it.

 

[Monty]

Another great TR, Monty! Morgan is getting so tall! I really like the HM shirt with the building on it.

He's long since passed his Mom and is rapidly catching up to me!

I suspect he'll end up a touch taller than I am. Though his doctor swears he'll only reach 5' 9"! Gotta love growth graphs that don't account for family history... I grew more than 8" between 15 and 19 I expect he'll do the same.