The "I've never been to Disney for 10 days before" Trip Report Thread 2 Updated 8/26 - COMPLETE About This Page:

[tammyd_rn]

Wow..what a great day at MGM that you and your family shared. Mary Devall looks right in form with the Power Rangers.

[mattnkatsmum]

Love the poses of Mary Devall with the Power Rangers.

The meal at 50s Prime Time sounds yummo. I'm definitely going to try it out at Christmas.

[chezp]

I love the photos of Mary Devall with the Power Rangers - she really was looking forward to seeing them!

[Princess_Wantabe]

Another great day!
I love the Power Ranger poses, very cute!
Looking forward to more

[Colexis Mom]

Glad you got to see the Power Rangers! I love Mary Devall's poses You got quite a lot done at MGM, and finished it off with a great meal

More please

[wendybell]

great pictures, looks like you had a very magical stay...

[ArielsMomto2]

Mary Devall looked so cute with the power rangers. I was the hero on our trip by racing across the park with the stroller and my 9yo DS to get to the power rangers. We got pictures and autographs with all 5!!! He was so proud and I was deemed best mom in the world, at least for a few hours.

[ariel14]

Great update!!! Your girls are so sweet and adorable!!!!

[KirstenR]

More please!

[DyanKJ130]

All caught up!! Great updates and photos, Jill!! More please

[LizardCop]

Great Report Jill, looks like everyone is having a blast....

More Please????

[dsnytina]

Yummo! Your meals sounded wonderful!

Can't wait to hear more about your adventures!

Tina

[ilovedisney0_0]

I am just as excited as Mary Devall about seeing the EWP!

Her Power Rangers pose made me laugh...I noticed that it is basically the same in every picture. I will forever more think of that pose as the Mary Devall Power Ranger pose!

[fairieTink]

Those pictures of Mary Devall are fantastic. Too cute! Can't wait to see more
Thanks for sharing

[Jillybean]

Tuesday, June 5 Day Five

Our morning pretty much mirrored yesterday morning – a mad rush to get everyone up and out of the room in time to make our 9:30 ADR at Donald’s Breakastosaurus. As usual, I checked in at the podium about 5 minutes late. We waited probably about another 5 minutes to be seated which wasn’t bad at all (although this place is especially hard to make out our name when it’s called due to everyone scrapping those metal chairs on the ground ). For the first time, we were seated in the first room off of the right hand side porch. The good news was that we were closest to the door when it came time to be seated and to leave, but the bad news was that we were in the furthest room from the food.

Normally we will put up with so-so food for great character interaction, but Donald’s is the opposite case for us. I always find the character interaction very rushed and a tad apathetic here, but Thom and I love the food - - the breakfast pizza, the chocolate chip pancakes, the crumb cake! It’s all so good. I hope that the food stays comparable when it moves to the Tusker House, but I wouldn’t mind if the characters got a little get up and go. I know I’m not alone in this feeling - - remember Eileen and Karen’s depressed duck at this very breakfast?

Even if the characters were rushed, we still had a great time - - Mary Devall got her autographs, Maddie got a little touchy/feely and Thom and I got our breakfast pizza!





We paid OOP for this meal since it wasn’t the best use of the DDP and used our DDE card instead for our discount. Now that our lust for food and characters had been (temporarily ) satisfied, we loaded the girls in the stroller and took the walk over to Expedition Everest. Thom is a big fan of the single rider line, so he always checks it first before he bothers with a fast pass. Sure enough, it was extremely short so he handed off the backpack to me and went for his date with the Yeti. I found a nice comfortable rock to sit on across from the gift shop so that we could see him when he came out. I parked the stroller right beside me and the girls managed to entertain themselves while we waited. Less than twenty minutes later, he was coming out of the gift shop with a look of glee plastered all over his face.

What I haven’t mentioned was that all morning I had been silently toying with the idea of finally riding EE. Ever since I chickened out riding it during the preview weekend back in January 2006, it’s been like an albatross around my neck. I knew I could do it and knew I would probably enjoy it, but that big drop wigged me out. I had told Thom that I would ride it with him one day, but we knew that it wouldn’t be possible until the girls were much older. So I either had to wait about ten years to ride it or I had to suck it up and go by myself. When Thom came out so quickly from his ride, the decision was made.

“I’m going to ride it.” I announced.

“You are?”

“Yes.” I answered. I quickly suggested to Thom that he take the girls to the Kidcot station in Asia to get Mary Devall started on her book of stamps and then I took off for the single rider line before I lost my nerve.

Thankfully, the line was still very short. I was immediately joined by a lady (I think she may have been an sent by God) who was in my very same situation – mom with two young children (boys for her) whose husband had ridden EE several times and kept telling her that she needed to. We had both eaten at Donald’s that morning (and both wondering if that was going to come back to haunt us during the ride ) and had both made the decision to ride just now. I had such fun chatting with her that I didn’t even have time to be nervous. When I made it to the front of the line, I was assigned to a row with a gentleman whose wife and son were sitting in front of us. This is where I chickened out last time, so I mentally put on my big girl panties and got in the car.

I asked the lady if she minded if I grabbed her husband and she told me to go right ahead. They were the sweetest English family and really helped to make my inaugural ride fun. The son even started to tell me some things about the ride before his mom shushed him and told him not to spoil it for me.

I was amazed how the ride immediately took you into turns before you head up the steep incline - - there was no turning back now! The man beside me talked to me the entire time up the incline and pointed at the different sites to me - - that view was so very !

Now at this point, I was actually very grateful for the chatty man in the hot tub a few nights before. He had told me in depth what to expect on every turn of the ride, so it helped me to know that there would be no big surprises (I normally like surprises, but riding a roller coaster by myself for the first time is not one of those times ).

I have to say that the backwards part was one of the weirdest sensations that I’ve ever experienced. As soon as we headed backwards, I remembered words of wisdom from Eileen (keep your head against the head rest and keep facing forward). I did this and felt no ill effects, but it was still strange! And when I realized that the big drop was coming, I just shut my eyes tightly and grabbed hold of the lap bar (and refrained from grabbing the man beside me ). I am sure that my picture was an absolute charmer! As Thom had told me, the drop was over in just a flash. I told him later that just when I thought my stomach was going to leave my body I was whipped back into the tunnel. I actually found the turns after the big drop to be the fiercest of them all.

And the Yeti at the end! Wow! By this time I was on a big “I did it!” high, so I just silently told the big guy that he didn’t scare me! When we came back into the station, all I could do was laugh. I thanked the family for getting me through it and assured them that I had enjoyed it. I was too excited to get back to my family, so I didn’t stop to search for my picture (as if I was going to buy a picture of me with fear plastered all over my face!).

I rejoined my crew and yapped, yapped, yapped all the way through Asia about my experience. About ten minutes later, Thom finally asked “Was that the first time that you had ridden it?”

I couldn’t believe him! Here I had agonized for over a year about not riding EE and he didn’t even remember that! When I looked at him like he had grown a second head, he finally said “Oh yeah! You didn’t ride it that first time, did you?”

Memory is not my husband’s strong suit, but at least he finally realized why I was super excited.

Now that I had conquered EE, it was time to do something that Mary Devall had been looking forward to. We had not been on Kali River Rapids since Mary Devall was three. She had gotten soaked on that ride (so much so that she got a new outfit out of the deal ) and had really not been interested in it again. Fast forward to a couple of weeks before when my parents had taken her to Dollywood. She had seen a similar ride on the brochure and had begged to ride it - - and ended up riding it twice and having a blast. When I reminded her that there was a ride like it at AK, she immediately put it on her “must do” list.

The stand-by wait was about 50 minutes, so we grabbed a couple of fast passes before we made away to Africa. On the way, we stopped to see Baloo.



Continued in next post . . .