Trip Report -- Wilderness Lodge 11-21-02 to 11-30-02 (The End!) About This Page:

[tikibird]

Enjoyed hearing about Donald's and AK. Sounds like you had a great mousekeeper, too! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

I can't see your pictures, either. It may be that the page you are linking from does not allow linking?

[jakenjess]

Hi Lori!

I'm really enjoying your trip report. We just missed you at the lodge. We checked out on the 20th. What a great place! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] I'm also not getting your pictures. [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img] Hope we get to see them, and am looking forward to the rest of your report.

Thanks for sharing! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[2Princesses]

Lori -

Loved hearing about your day at the Animal Kingdom. We missed this park on our trip last month because my DD came down with an ear infection. [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img] How lucky were you all to see the Osborne Lights and watch your DB scuba in the Living Seas. Very cool. [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img] Hope you can get those pix up.

- Tracy

[Lori in PA]

Thanks everyone for your nice comments. I moved the photos to a different site. Hopefully you can see them now!

Day 5: Tuesday, November 26 (Magic Kingdom)

Our original plan for this day was EE in MGM in the morning, with lunch at 50’s Primetime, then an afternoon evening at MK to see both the Share a Dream Come True parade and the Spectromagic parade. However, the EE crowds had scared us off, plus we had done the big rides at MGM yet very little at MK, so we decided to make this an all Magic Kingdom day. Since we had a rest day planned for tomorrow, we decided to try to go straight through without a break.

So I canceled our 50’s Prime Time PS, we got to sleep a bit a later this morning, and we were at the Magic Kingdom shortly after 9. We headed straight to Fantasyland, determined to finish it today, and got FP’s for Pooh. While we waited for our Pooh FP time, we rode the teacups (no wait) and the Indy cars again. We were deceived by the Indy car line. The line was the same length the other day when the wait was only 15 minutes, but they only had 2 tracks running this morning, so we ended up waiting over a half hour. That’s a very noisy line too. I’ll be glad when the kids outgrow this ride.

After our lap around the track it was time for Pooh. None of us had ever been on this before. Now I can finally say that I like an updated ride better than the old version. This was a much better ride than Mr Toad. Next we went over to get FP’s for Peter Pan. While waiting for Peter Pan, we were able to ride Small World (5 min wait), Haunted Mansion (5 min wait), and have lunch at the Columbia Harbor House. Lunch here was excellent, though the cookies they give with kids meal are awful tasting (even the kids thought so). First one done with lunch got the honor of running over the Splash Mountain for FP’s since our Peter Pan window was now open. We went back to Peter Pan and walked right on past a lot of grumbling people that were now waiting in a 60-min line. Why don’t people just use Fastpass? The Fastpass return time was also 60 min. out. Of course, I’m not about to explain it to people that are complaining, since that will just make the return times longer. Let them figure it out by themselves…or not.

Back to our story…we moved into Liberty Square next and were just in time for the Hall of Presidents show. DD was impressed that they weren’t real. DS thought this was a good place for a nap. Next it was Splash Mountain time. DD decided she would actually try this one. DH stayed with the still sleeping DS, while the rest of us rode. DD loved it! Yeah! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] This is my favorite ride, so I was very happy. In fact, she liked it so much she rode again with DH using DS’s fastpass (I knew he wouldn’t mind). And we finally got a ride photo where you can see DD’s face!

After Splash, we planted ourselves in front of Pecos Bill’s to wait for the parade with a couple of Mickey bars. While we held down a piece of street, the rest of the gang, who didn’t care to see the parade, went off to do the few things they had missed earlier, like the Pirates and the Tiki Room. This parade would be one of the highlights of the trip, so it was too bad they missed it. At the end of the parade where the characters pull the kids out of the crowd to dance, both kids ended up in the parade. DS danced with Goofy. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] Actually danced isn’t the right word…he was so excited he basically jumped all the way around. DD danced with Brer Bear. Unfortunately Brer Bear is a very slow dancer and they never made it around to where I could get a picture. Oh well.



We sent my DB to get Jungle Cruise FP’s next. DS wanted to take another ride on the railroad, so we rode the train all the way around the park while the rest of the group did BTMRR. By the time we all met up again, it was time for our Jungle Cruise. We had a good skipper, who had everyone groaning at all the corny jokes. We went to the Country Bears show next. They had the Christmas show running, which I had never seen before. I kind of missed Big Al’s Blood on the Saddle song, but the Christmas show was very good. We split up again at this point so we could take the kids to Toontown. I think the rest of the gang did Alien. We walked through Mickey and Minnie’s houses, and DD and I rode Barnstormer. They could really make that ride a bit longer. Twenty minutes is a long time to wait for a 30 second ride.

We went to find a spot for the Spectromagic parade next. Found a nice bench very close to the tape line right across from the Liberty Tree Tavern. DH ran for burgers at Pecos Bills. We spent the next hour enjoying our burgers and guarding our bench. The kids sat on the ground in front of the bench. The rest of the gang met us in time for the parade. The parade was beautiful as always. Definitely one of my favorites.

After the parade we walked down to the Main Street hub to wait for the fireworks. I seem to recall the fireworks shows being a bit more spectacular in the past. In fact, my brother joked that the only reason the announcer came on to announce the finale, was that otherwise we wouldn’t have known it was the finale. We joined the masses exiting Main Street and took the ferry back to the lodge. The wait was only a few minutes. We definitely found the ferry transportation to be more regular than the buses (except for the inter-resort ferry, but that story comes later).

When we got back to the room we found a note on the bed, next to a towel elephant, from our beanies that said they were playing hide and seek. Our exhausted children somehow perked up long enough to run around the room and find them all. Sally the mousekeeper comes through for us again with a great ending to our day.

Next up…Time for a day off and Hoop De Doo Revue

[Lori in PA]

Day 6: Wednesday, November 27 (Rest day and Hoop De Doo Revue)

After 5 days of park hopping, it was time to kick back and rest for a bit. We slept in this morning, then went to Whispering Canyon for breakfast. There wasn’t too much activity in the restaurant this morning, unless you count our grumpy DS. After 5 days of overstimulation, DS chose this morning for a meltdown. Although we would find out later that apparently he is allergic to something we had been using, as his face kept breaking out in what looked like hives, on and off for the next 2 days. A little children’s Benadryl would clear it up. By the time we left, we had it narrowed down to the Mickey shampoo or the sunscreen. So we managed to eat breakfast despite DS’s tantrum over the fact that mom cut his pancakes and he didn’t want them cut (though when he settled down, he promptly asked me to cut them). Let’s just say it was a good thing we had a table in the corner.

After our interesting breakfast, we went down to the marina to rent mouseboats. DS went with me, and DD went with her dad. We were out for about an hour and enjoyed zipping around the lakes in front of the MK and the MK resorts. DH and DD ended up going back after about 10 minutes and switching to a new boat as their first boat was not exactly zipping.

Next was swimming time. DD got her hair wrapped pool side before she got wet. It was nice to be able to take our time and really enjoy the pool for a while today, though it did get kind of chilly. We even got to spend a bit of time in the hot tubs. We only let the kids sit with their feet in, even though many people seem to let their kids swim around in them. They should really make the hotter of the two tubs adults only, as there were a lot of kids spending a really unhealthy amount of time in there. My kids didn’t understand why they weren’t allowed in when the other kids were, so I had to break out they “I’m not their mother” line… mean parent that I am. The hotter of the two hot tubs is REALLY hot (I now know what soup feels like), and I just don’t think it’s healthy for little kids. Off the soapbox now, and back to our story…

When we went back to our room, we discovered that our beanies had also spent the day swimming in a swimming pool made out of blue paper and towels. There was a towel waterslide going down the pillows and a few beanies posted outside of the pool as “lifeguards”.



We also had a message from the front desk telling us our new cards were ready for pickup. You guessed it, these were the cards that my DF and DB were supposed just be able to pick up 3 days ago. Guess they found them. [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img]

Tonight was our Hoop De Doo night so we got showered and ready and down to the boat docks. We waited about 20 minutes for the boat to arrive, but we were early and the next stop is Fort Wilderness, so it wasn’t a problem. We got our group together, checked in, and went to get our picture taken. Disney is missing a money making opportunity here. The pictures are done outdoors with no lighting other than the camera flash, which made the pictures really bad. Our family photo was really dark, and the close up shot he took of the two kids was completely blown out by the flash. I think these were the only staged photos we had taken that we didn’t buy. I don’t know how they expect to take professional pictures outdoors in the dark with no lighting.

I had made our HDD ressies almost a year in advance, so I expected to get good seats. Sure enough, we are right by the stage right in front of the steps. None of us had seen this show before, so we all enjoyed it. The food wasn’t spectacular, but it was good. The consensus was that the chicken was better than the ribs. And the strawberry shortcake was pretty darn good. Being up front, my DH got singled out by Dolly during the show as he was making a very loud whoo-whoo noise during the battle between Dolly’s half of the room and the Six-bits half of the room. Dolly came down and sat on his lap and pulled him into the spotlight so he could demonstrate his whoo-whoo noise for the crowd. [img]graemlins/blush.gif[/img] She then pronounced him part of her side. During the next round, he got stared down by Six-bits who was making sure he wasn’t changing sides. It was very funny.





After the HDD we decided to catch the Downtown Disney bus from Fort Wilderness and do a bit of shopping. We took the bus to the outpost, and then another bus from there. When the first bus got to the outpost, there was a Downtown Disney bus already there, so the driver let us off in front of the DTD bus so we could run in front of it to catch it, since another one wouldn’t be along for 20-25 minutes. There’s nothing like 15 people running in front of a bus to make it stop and wait, so we were able to hop on.

We gave our Visa cards some exercise at DTD. We were able to hit the Christmas store, the new toy store, and the World of Disney. We bought almost all the theme park versions of the games in the Toy Store. We just couldn’t pass those up. DD did one of the stuff your own Lincoln Log boxes. We had our stuff at the Toy Store shipped home so we wouldn’t have to carry it all. The shipping price was pretty reasonable. By the time we got to World of Disney they were about to close, so we didn’t get to spend as much time in there as we would have liked. A second trip later in the week would take care of that!

Next up…Thanksgiving day at Epcot, MGM, and Chef Mickey’s

[MelissaL]

The photos are showing up now, and they were worth the wait! I especially like the two-fisted cracker-eating sleeping son. I can see my DS doing something like that. Thanks for the report!

[tikibird]

Excellent installments!

I, too, can now see the pics, and I particularly like the one of the beanie pool - very cool [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img] Mousekeeper you had!

More please... [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[chezp]

Those photos are definitely worth the wait. The WL Christmas tree is amazing! And I love that photo of the beanies in their "swimming pool" - how magical! [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img] Can't wait for the next installment.

[4disneyorbust]

hi!
what a beautiful family. thank you for adding pictures & for the trip report. i am really enjoying it. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
Laura

[Lori in PA]

Day 7: Thursday, November 28 (Epcot, MGM, Thanksgiving at Chef Mickey’s)

We anticipated the holiday crowds really picking up today, so today’s plan was to avoid Magic Kingdom at all costs, even though it was EE day there. We headed over to Epcot shortly after opening and got FP’s for Test Track since everyone wanted to ride this again, except the kids. While we waited we grabbed some breakfast at the Electric Umbrella. Breakfast there was pretty good – we had breakfast burritos, french toast sticks, and fruit. We went to the Wonders of Life pavilion next to wait out the rest of our FP. We saw the Cranium Command show and played around with some of the gadgets. By now it was FP time, so the adults headed over to ride.

I didn’t really feel the need to ride this again, so I took the kids into Innoventions. They had enjoyed playing in there the other day. The kids discovered a virtual hide-and-seek game that four kids can play at a time and had a couple of rounds on that. Even my 4YO DS was able to play and compete with the big kids on this game. The kids played on the other computer games for a bit until our Test Track riders came back.

The only pavilion we had yet to visit was the Imagination pavilion, so we crossed Future World and headed there next. We got FP’s for the Honey I Shrunk the Audience show and got in line for the Figment ride. It’s been so long since I rode this that I think I missed the Figment-less version and don’t remember the original. Everyone liked this ride. Around the corner for HISTA next. This was the only time we found the FP to be a waste of time, as everyone in the standby line was also walking right into the show, even though the wait time was posted at 30 minutes. For some reason I had trouble seeing this show correctly. I kept seeing double. Maybe my eyes are just getting old, but I spent half the show with one eye closed to get rid of the annoying double vision. DD took her glasses off for the snake part, but otherwise no one was traumatized by this show.

This would be my DF and DB’s last day in the Disney parks, and they wanted to see a few more things in MGM, so we hopped over there next. We went out the International Gateway and got on the boat. If we had known this was such a long journey, we would have taken the bus. This has got to be the slowest boat ride on Disney property. I think the Small World boats move faster. After a lonnngggg journey by way of the Boardwalk, Yacht/Beach Club, Swan/Dolphin boat docks, we finally made it to MGM. I believe it took nearly 40 minutes to get there, and that was without having to wait for a boat at Epcot.

At MGM we headed as a group for our second 3D show of the day, the Muppets. This is my favorite of the three, as I’m a big Muppets fan. No double vision in this show, thank goodness. After Muppets we all had different opinions on what we wanted to see. DH and I had seen the backstage tour on the last trip and didn’t really want to invest that much time into seeing it again, so we took the kids and left the rest of the adults to visit Catastrophe Canyon. I really wanted to take a stab at Millionaire, so we got in line there.

On future trips, this will definitely be a FP attraction for us, as we waited a very long time in a very uninteresting queue. They were only guaranteeing 100 standby guests per showing, and we were well inside that mark in line, so we stuck it out. We got seats in the last couple of rows. There was a returning contestant, a nine year old girl. She didn’t last very long. The first time they showed the leader board neither one of us was on it, even though we were sure we had had all the questions right so far. They brought down the next contestant, who did rather well until getting stuck on a science question at, I believe, the 32K point level. The question was (paraphrasing) the name of the principle that says that as the velocity of a fluid increases, its pressure decreases. I don’t remember all the choices, but two of them were de Broglies principle and Bernoulli’s principle. He opts to phone a complete stranger, and is incredibly lucky enough to get an engineer on the other end who gives him the answer before the guy even gives him the choices. Unfortunately, the guy misunderstood what his stranger said, since those two answers sound alike, and despite all the uproar in the audience as he gives what everyone else knows is the wrong answer, the guy is done. The right answer is Bernoulli’s principle.

They rang the finish bell right after his wrong answer, and brought up the leader board again, and finally, there was my seat number in second place. Obviously the science question had taken out a lot of people (but guess who was a science major in college?). I would have liked to play this again, but never got the chance. That might be good, as I could see where it could get addicting and the kids would never get on another ride until mom made it to the hot seat.

The kids were dragging at this point, so we decided we’d better head back so that there would be time for a rest before our dinner at Chef Mickey’s. We stopped one last time at the big hat and asked someone to take our picture.



We didn’t swim today, but just had some lounging around time in the room, and DS took a nap. Today our beanies were having canoe races in towel canoes. We passed Sally the mousekeeper in the hallway and she wished us a good trip home, since she would be off duty during our last two days. We thanked her for adding some magic to our trip.

We headed down to the boat docks about 40 minutes before our Chef Mickey’s PS, just in time to see the inter-resort boat heading out. They must have borrowed the Epcot-MGM boat for the evening, because that boat took forever to get back. Two Magic Kingdom boats came and went in that time, which we considered getting on and then taking the monorail. The boat finally arrived, and after a long journey by way of Fort Wilderness, we made it to the Contemporary, 20 minutes late for our PS. So it took us a total of 1 hour to get to the hotel next door. We could have swum there that fast. Vowing to take the car to our Ohana’s PS the following night, we scrambled up to Chef Mickey’s and checked in. No problem with being late, we got our picture taken and were seated almost immediately. This would be a really good picture, so we all ended up ordering copies.

The group rated the Chef Mickey’s buffet as just “okay”. I had expected the turkey to be on the carving board, but it was presliced and in a very heavy gravy. Not good at all. The prime rib on the carving board was very tough. The best items were the peel and eat shrimp (those are some big shrimp!), the parmesan mashed potatoes, and a tortellini dish in a sun-dried tomato sauce. Not exactly standard Thanksgiving food, but much better tasting than the turkey. The kids liked having a buffet at their height with the standard kid food on it.

While this may not have been our favorite meal food-wise, of the three character meals we did, this was by far the one with the best character interaction. Donald was hanging out by the dessert bar “helping” the kids make cupcakes. The other characters (Mickey, Minnie, Chip, Dale, Goofy) came around several times, and really spent some time with each group. Chip and Dale both came over and sat next to DD and tried to steal her over-decorated cupcake. She was in hysterics. She never actually ate the cupcake – she just had fun sticking candies all over it. Chef Mickey’s also wins the award for best cookies of the week. We’d been looking for a decent chocolate chip cookie all week, and here they were. We had a good waitress here, who even brought my DB a couple of to-go soup containers to smuggle out some cookies.



From here my DSIL, DF, and I headed to DTD to do a bit more shopping. We left the kids with the rest of the guys (3 men and 2 kids, almost fair). Apparently they spent some time in the Contemporary arcade before heading back to the lodge. My DSIL and I got a fair bit of Christmas shopping done in the World of Disney store. We also checked out the Lego store, but didn’t see anything that couldn’t be purchased more cheaply on line. We made one last visit to the Christmas store so that I could look around a bit more without having to worry about what my DS might be breaking while my back is turned. We headed back just as the stores were closing for the night.

Next up…Sea World and Ohana’s

[Lori in PA]

Day 8: Friday, November 29 (Sea World and Ohana’s)

Today we would make our one and only foray off of Disney property to spend the day at Sea World. We had visited Sea World on our last trip when my DD was 3, and found it to be a good park for young kids and those kids that aren’t into the big thrill rides yet. That said, we did find that they had added two thrill rides to the park since our last visit.

We picked up our van and DF’s car and drove to Sea World in time to arrive shortly after opening. The line in the parking lot didn’t seem to be too bad, since we were hoping that Sea World would be less crowded than any of the Disney parks on this day after Thanksgiving. We entered the park and headed left. We stopped to pet the sting rays and feed the dolphins. One of the photographers at the dolphin feeding pool got a good photo of my DH and DB trying to help DD feed a dolphin. She did eventually get to touch one. DS was happy just to watch and not touch.

We caught the first dolphin show of the day. DSIL and DBIL went off to ride Journey to Atlantis next. I thought it was a bit too chilly to risk getting wet, especially since we were not close to the hotel today. So we took the kids to get seats for the Clyde & Seamore show. They’ve redone the set for this show since we saw it last, but the show is as funny as ever. There was a mime doing a pre-show here that was doing a good job making everyone laugh as he picked on people as they walked in. Sea World does an excellent job providing pre-show entertainment for most of their big shows.

The kids wanted to play in Shamu’s playground, so we took them over there while the rest of the adults rode Kraken. They give it 4 thumbs up. We took the bridge to the play land. There’s a lot of construction going on around the observation tower and water skiing stadium. The kids really enjoyed blowing off some steam in the playland, especially in the huge climbing nets. It was too cool to let them run through any of the water stuff, though.



Once our group was back together, it was nearly time for a Shamu show, so we headed right into the stadium. We tried to get in the refreshment line to pick up some snacks as we were very late for lunch and starving, but the line was very long and slow. We did manage to get some popcorn from a vendor. The Shamu show was excellent as always.

Now it was time to find some lunch. We had hoped that by eating this late (it was after 2), the lunch places would be less crowded. Ha. Sea World has never had enough counter service places. This would be the longest we would wait all week to get food. We ate at a café place along the water. The burgers were average and the California turkey sandwich was pretty bad (and would haunt me later). [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

Back over the bridge next to see the polar bears in Wild Arctic. DS fell asleep in the stroller during that short walk. My DF volunteered to stay with the sleeping boy. We did the walking side of Wild Arctic as the thought of a simulator just after lunch didn’t sound like a good idea. The polar bears were asleep, but the walruses were swimming around in loops and brushing right up against the glass. Those are some big walruses.

We rolled our still sleeping DS back over the bridge to the Terrors of the Deep exhibit. Here DS would wake up on the wrong side of the stroller. He didn’t want to go see the sharks, and mom was the only one that was allowed to stay out with him. The rest got in line. Of course, as soon as they disappeared inside the building DS decided that he did, in fact, want to see the sharks. [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img] He was not happy that I made him wait until the rest of the gang came out before I would take him in. Fortunately the wait wasn’t long and the rest of the group was able to hang out and watch the baby sharks while we took this second trip through the shark tunnel.

Next up was the sea lion tank, where the kids again got to touch yucky fish and throw them to the very noisy seals. DSIL and I were tired at this point, and that turkey sandwich was not agreeing with me, so we were ready to head out. Since we had 2 cars, DD decided to stay with my DF and DB and see a few more things like the penguins and baby dolphins. We made a quick stop at the gift shop where DS picked out a set of Sea World bathtub toys and headed back to the lodge for a break. DS took another nap on the way back.

Tonight we had a PS to dine at Ohana’s. After the long journey to the Contemporary the previous evening, we decided to drive tonight. We got there in about 5 minutes and parked. DBIL and DSIL opted not to join us, but there was no problem changing our party of 8 to a party of 6. We were seated in about 10 minutes. We didn’t get a table near the windows, but I didn’t want to wait longer for a better table so I didn’t even ask.

This would end up being the best meal of our trip. The servers were absolutely wonderful. My DH informed the server that he was allergic to shrimp and asked him to please not let the shrimp skewers touch the other meats when the brought food around. There was no problem with this. The appetizers were chicken wings, shrimp and vegetable wontons, rice, and mixed veggies. The server brought my DH an extra plate of chicken wings since he couldn’t eat the wontons. The main course consisted of skewers of pork, turkey, steak, and shrimp, which the servers brought around on huge skewers and served whatever you wanted onto your plate. The meats were wonderful on their own, but were even better dipped in the sauces. There was a BBQ sauce, a peanut sauce, and a mango/fruit sauce. The kids weren’t as impressed with the food as the grown-ups, so the server was kind enough to get them a bowl of mac’n’cheese from the Kona Café. The server also took a liking to my DS and brought him a coffee cup full of grapes to take with him.

The kids participated in the coconut races, where they chased a coconut around the restaurant with a broom and were rewarded with gummy worms, and the hula hoop dance to the accompaniment of a ukelele player. This allowed them to get up from their seats and burn off some energy which gave us enough time to enjoy our food. As we finished eating, it was time for fireworks at the MK. We stood over on the walkway on the window side to watch as the restaurant turned down the lights and piped in the music. After fireworks, our pineapple with caramel dipping sauce had arrived, which was absolutely delicious. We also ordered a couple of coconut snowballs as we couldn’t resist trying them out. These were awesome too. We loved this restaurant so much that I am certain this will be a tradition on future trips. But next time, no late lunch so we can be hungrier!





When we rolled out of Ohana’s DS wanted to take one more ride on the monorail, so we headed out to the station, where we would finally score the front car! Yeah! My DS absolutely loved this. He still tells people the monorail was his favorite ride in Disneyworld. Our driver wasn’t very chatty, but we enjoyed our lap around the resorts at night with DS peering excitedly out the front window. We went all the way around and then retrieved our car from the Polynesian. It was time to go back the lodge and pack up for tomorrow’s check out.



Next up…Almost getting beat up in Animal Kingdom and our trip home

[kde175]

Another wonderful installment!! Thanks so much for taking the time to write it.

[tikibird]

You are doing such a great job with this report! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] Great writing, and pictures, too!

Loved hearing about O'Hana [img]graemlins/yuma.gif[/img]

Keep 'em coming! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[4disneyorbust]

great trip report! can't wait to read more [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[DVC_Don]

Almost makes one want to consider joining DVC in order to stay in a room with bedrooms.

<font size="2" face="Comic Sans MS, Arial">Did I hear someone mention "DVC" ? [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Great trip report. Now to get back and read day 2.