7 1/2 days of Disney for a family of 6: Day 6 About This Page:

[CareerMom]

DATES: Nov 26-Dec 3
WHO: Karen (36), trip planner
Brian (35), earned the money for the trip
Emily (8), waiting for first ride on ToT and RnRC
Noah (4), waiting for Peter Pan's Flight and Buzz Lightyear
Halle (2), not sure what she wants to do
Joel (2.5 mo), along for the ride
HOTEL: Courtyard at LBV and Shades of Green

Thursday, Nov. 30: Today we have 8:10 PS at Ohana for breakfast. We were a bit disappointed in the meal, since it was a plated breakfast. Brian is really the only scrambled egg eater in the family, so plated breakfasts with scrambled eggs leave the rest of us wanting more. There also was no bacon, just some ham that for some reason was cold. There was also sausage links, but I am the only one in the family who eats them, I and I didn't really care for these. The characters were great, though. Several kept coming back to see Joel.

Drove to AK... arrived around 10:30. I dunno, we just weren't thrilled with this place. Wasn't "Disney" to us. I didn't like the layout of the place... just too much walking to get to anything worth doing; too spread out! We ended up doing the safari first. It was enjoyable; nice getting to see some animals up close. Then Brian and the 3 oldest did Pangani trails while I sat in the shade and nursed the baby. I met an older couple from a town just 15--20 miles away from us while I was doing that. It truly is a small world!

Next we stopped for some frosted lemonade and pretzels and just people-watched for a few minutes. Then we started making our way back to the front of the park. We were going to try to see "It's Tough to Be a Bug," but somehow walked past it on the way back out and didn't feel like trying to turn around and find it again. We did run into Terk near one of the temporary tatto places and the kids got autographs and pictures. Emily and Noah each got a tattoo, too.

Best part of this park was running into characters on the way out. Saw Rafiki, Donald, Pluto, and Mickey. Mickey was great about making people wait their turn. We had several kids AND adults try to worm their way up to him while he was signing our books and getting ready for pictures. He practically had to push some out of the way so we wouldn't have them in the picture; they were getting right up next to him!

I don't know if I will even bother with AK again. If they would get some transportation around the park so you could get from one place to another without having to backtrack and walk all over the place maybe I'd like it better.

We had 4:15 PS at Crystal Palace (tried for later but couldn't get it), so went to Grand Floridian and valet parked, then monorailed to MK. The food was OK, best part for kids was the peanut butter sandwich fixings . The characters were good. Halle was warming up to them, but still not totally comfortable with them.

Headed back to our room to rest (hah) and change clothes before MVMCP. We parked at the Poly and caught the monorail from there. Manomanoman... it was PACKED. The express monorail was closed, so all the people from TTC were on it.. Finally got to Main Street around 8pm and got a seat for the 9pm parade in front of City Hall. Halle loved the parade... she laughed her head off at it! It has to be one of the best parades Disney does.

After the parade, we headed up towards the castle for the 10pm fireworks. Halle fell asleep in the stroller along the way. We ended up by the information board. The fireworks were great... loved how they surrounded us near the end. Saw the space shuttle, too.

Our camera battery died just before the fireworks, so we couldn't take pictures. It was 10:30 and Noah was really tired. Emily could have lasted a lot longer, but since we didn't have a way to transport Noah if he fell asleep, we decided to go on back to the room. Guess we really didn't get our money's worth from this.... We'll probably not do another MVMCP until our kids are a lot older.

Tomorrow: Chef Mickey's!!

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Karen

Aug. 1988: offsite
June 1994: CBR
January 1997: Poly
next Nov 2000: SOG

[This message has been edited by CareerMom (edited 12-06-2000).]

[HiddenMickey]

I'm loving your report and really admiring you for taking all your young kids to WDW and handling it so well. I'm sorry you didn't like AK. It sounds like you didn't do much there and there are several things that would have fit your family. IF you ever go again, I would suggest that you guys do the Festival of the Lion King show...you and the kids would have LOVED it. Also the Pocahantos show and the character greeting area in that section would have been right up your kids alley. Then you could have gone across to the Dinosaur digging area and the kids could have played in the slide and cargo net area or 'dug' for bones, gotten some energy out. And then a meal at Restrauntasaurus with McDonald's kids meals would have hit the spot. -HiddenMickey

[CareerMom]

To be honest, from the descriptions of the Lion King show, it didn't sound like something we would just die for... we like the more straightforward musical theater, like the Hunchback show at MGM. And as for the dinosaur stuff, I have a bit of an objection to the whole evolutionary way it is handled. We don't buy into the "millions and billions of years ago" thing.

McDonald's at Disney World?? Naaah... we eat it too much at home; I'm not about to do it on vacation too!!!

AK just didn't feel Disney enough for us and the layout is too tiresome; too much backtracking to get around. However, we won't write it off entirely yet. But we will probably save it to do after we have done everything else we wanted to at the other parks.

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Karen

Aug. 1988: offsite
June 1994: CBR
January 1997: Poly
next Nov 2000: SOG

[HiddenMickey]

Oh well, I guess we can't all like the same things. My kids thought AK was great (they are 5 and 7 now). I only mentioned McDonalds since the little one seemed to be picky during the trip and a happy meal will often satisfy the pickiest eater (not for my kids though, they'd rather eat a seafood dinner ). -HiddenMickey

[CareerMom]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Comic Sans MS, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by HiddenMickey:
Oh well, I guess we can't all like the same things. My kids thought AK was great (they are 5 and 7 now). I only mentioned McDonalds since the little one seemed to be picky during the trip and a happy meal will often satisfy the pickiest eater (not for my kids though, they'd rather eat a seafood dinner ). -HiddenMickey<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

My kids were quite pleased with what we did at AK... the disappointment lie with my husband and I.

Noah isn't really picky, just not one who wants to eat much at breakfast time. He tends to wait till later in the day to eat.




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Karen

Aug. 1988: offsite
June 1994: CBR
January 1997: Poly
next Nov 2000: SOG

[HiddenMickey]

Karen--I can relate to the not wanting much at breakfast. My kids (and often we adults) are not ready for breakfast first thing in the morning. These days my kids get Carnation Instant Breakfast before school, so there is something in their tummies until lunch (which is before noon for both of them) and we rarely had a real breakfast when we were at WDW either. -HiddenMickey

[This message has been edited by HiddenMickey (edited 12-12-2000).]

[Don'tJumpWendy]

I agree about AK lacking some of the Disney magic. However, I've figured out a few ways to keep my 2 and 3 year olds from noticing. If your kids don't like the Lion King show or the Tarzan show I would be amazed. Last time we were there my arm fell asleep holding the video camera in both because my daughter just HAD to watch it every night back at the hotel. The best way I've found is to hit the Donald's breakfast early then go straight to either the LK and then Tarzan and then maybe Pocohantas and the characters and call it a day. If you can get there early enough (my 2 take a while to motivate out of the room) I understand the KS is really nice first thing in the morning. This time we're going to try the Rainforest Cafe around 3:30 if we can stick it out after having Donald's at 8:30. AK is a shock at first, but I kind of like a break from all the Disney hooplah for a day. As much as I love the MK, you can only ride some of those rides so many times before you start to lose your mind. I hope you have a better experience next time.
Lea

[CareerMom]

Thanks for the suggestions. We just made reservations for Sept at the GF (concierge!!), so perhaps we'll give it another shot. Nice thing is that we will be able to grab a snack in the lounge and get to AK when they open. Last time we got there rather late because of our late breakfast PS somewhere else.

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Karen

Aug 1988: offsite
Jun 1994: CBR
Jan 1997: Poly
Nov 2000: SOG
Sep 2001: GF????