Family of LSU Tiger Fan's stay at CSR 3/7-3/12.....*Day 6 finally completed!* About This Page:

[LSUtigerfan]

Day 4 continued: Boma! Boma! and Let the drooling begin!

Our PSR for Boma was at 6:20 pm, and we were exiting the park at ~5:20...luckily there were a few characters outside the park signing autographs. We had all of them except for Wendell, so we stood in line for him. I sure am glad we already had Baloo's autograph because the lines to see him are always really long. I guess his popularity is back again! Well this only took up about 10 minutes of our time, so I decide that we should go to Boma & see if they can seat us early...and if not, we could snoop around the resort [img]graemlins/ukid.gif[/img] .

It was fun getting on a different bus, I imagined that I was staying at AKL...only for a minute. We arrived there very quickly and I must say, this resort is prettier than WL, with the exception of the tepee's hanging from the ceiling at WL. The seating area in the lobby was set up with a more intimate feeling, and it didn't seem as busy or crowded as the WL. We take a right turn...what cool elevators! Down to Boma, and I waltz right up to the check in podium. I give them my name and they thanked me for our early arrival and seated us within 2 minutes.

Ok, this is where the first drool session begins [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] . The aromas in the air are unbelievable. This is what I've been waiting 9 whole months for. I know they must have heard I was coming, because the first pod that I passed on my way to our table was the desserts! How did they know? Our waiter gave us the lowdown on the entire Boma chronicles, you could tell he wouldn't dare set foot in any other restaurant. He was great though. I went straight for the plantain and corn chowder. This soup was to die for. My dh liked the Mulligatawny (sp?), and I just had to pretend I was the soup Nazi and tell him, "No soup for you!" when he tried to sample mine, which I eventually gave to him. Next, I tried everything but the prime rib...I know I must be crazy, but I'm not a prime rib or steak person. I put so any things on my plate I can't remember what I ate, what I liked, or what I disliked (which wasn't much). I do distinctly remember that the salmon was unbelievable. Yum Yum. The veggies were really good too. The biggest surprise was how much my dh liked the food, he thought he did not like curry from a meal long ago. He loved most everything he tried. My MIL was so happy to eat here, as African food is the only cuisine she hasn't tried, and she liked it all too. FIL doesn't like this type of food so he passed & went back to CSR.

The kiddie selection was: chicken nuggets, PB&J sandwiches, mac & cheese, etc. Princess Face ate the kiddie fare very well; Grumpette ate PB&J's and lots of fruit of course. The fruit was very juicy & sweet, I had a little myself. They both had cookies for dessert.

Now, on to a more serious matter... Ahhh...the dessert selection. I couldn't wait to get my little paws on those Zebra Domes. I was very disappointed by the size of them, until I tasted one. Then I decided that they were indeed the perfect size because you can pop the whole thing [img]graemlins/blush.gif[/img] in your mouth at once. I did my little swish it around my mouth manuever, then my nostrils began to flare, and my dh said "You must be enjoying that!" And was I ever. I forgot to mention that my plate was entirely filled with desserts. I actually had to get 2. I told the chefs to turn their heads because it was about to get ugly. My goodness, I was certainly surprised by the pineapple upside-down cheesecake (my dh's fave), but the best thing in the entire restaurant, and probably all of WDW was the coconut tiramisu [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] . It had a party on my palate [img]graemlins/yuma.gif[/img] ! And if you're looking for the perfect companion to the Kenyan pressed coffee, this is the ultimate. The coffee was the smoothest I've ever had. We all loved it, don't dare pass it up. Dh, MIL & I confess that this is the best food at WDW, and it's a completely different experience. We rated it a 9 out of 10.

Sadly, our dining experience had to end, and I had to say goodbye to one of the best desserts I've ever had. We left Boma & browsed through the giftshop. What an awesome gift shop. The artistic items in here were really pretty. We made our way over to the bus stop area, and I decided we were not going to go DtD for a transfer. That ride was ridiculous. We decided to let fate send us a bus, we'd get on either MGM or Epcot, whichever came first. That was a fun thing to do, I'd like to do that one morning when I wasn't sure which park I'd like to visit. Anyhoo, (drumroll please) Epcot was the winner. As fate would have it, this worked out great. Our bus stop location was supremo once again, and it came very quickly.

This is where drooling session #2 came in. Both of the girls fell asleep, Grumpette in the Baby Bjorn and Princess Face on my right side. Princess Face fell asleep so hard that I had to hold her head up with my right arm. Now, her head is probably as heavy as an 8 lb. bowling ball, so I rested it in the bend of my arm. Suddenly, I felt something warm & wet on my forearm, and it wasn't leftovers. Everytime our bus (with the wonderful shock system) hit a bump I could feel it slowly move down toward my elbow. My left arm was busy holding Grumpette's head, no drool there. It was very funny at the time, especially because my dd announced as she walked up the steps of the bus that she was not going to fall asleep.

We make it over to our home, CSR. Very quickly, I might add (~20 mins. total). We were laughing all the way to our room, so sure that the 2 young childless couples sitting by us on the bus were scarred for life after that scene (one of them was pregnant!). Then dh & I decide this is the night we will go over to the pool & jacuzzi area. I go to change & take my contacts out so I can swim and lo and behold, I got something i my eye [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] ! I flushed it with saline repeatedly, but I couldn't seem to get it out. Dh tried, but it just continued to hurt. He said he could not see anything in it, so I determined that I must have scratched my cornea. Being a nurse, I knew the best thing is medicine and a patch, neither of which I had. So I decided to lubricate it with some drops and go straight to bed. If it didn't feel better in the morning, I'd go see a doctor. Can't tell you what happened in the room after that because I crashed! I did wake up twice during the night, once to put drops in my eye, then again to check Grumpette's temperature. 100.9, a dosage of Motrin, with one eye open, and back to bed.

Sorry to say but this story is To Be Continued. I'm sure y'all need a break from this marathon trip report anyway. If y'all weren't giving me feedback, I'd swear noone was reading it! Thanks for all of your kind words. And Lanie, I'm sorry we missed you too! How's your precious puppy?

Goodnight & don't forget to pray for our troops. Hey, that reminded me of something my Dad told me last night...He said he read a sign in front of a church that said, "Everyone in hell believes in Jesus!" I loved that, just thought y'all might enjoy [img]graemlins/usa.gif[/img] .

Next: Day 5, MK or MD's office? Eye will let y'all know tomorrow! [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[LSUtigerfan]

Day 4 at Animal Kingdom and dinner at Boma!

6:27 am...ring...ring...Reach over for the speakerphone button, Yeah! It's the Mouse calling again! Ok, so it was only about 30 seconds of excitement, then I realized it was time to get up. Dh & I rolled out of bed and I could see the an orange glow peeking through the crack of our drapes. I opened them to reveal a beautiful sunrise. The beauty of this resort is really amazing. The view across Lago Dorado (the lake) never gets old. And I really like how there are 3 different styles of buildings to choose from, I think it also adds to the uniqueness of the resorts grounds. The azaleas were blooming and so were these beautiful trees, I can't remember the name of them, but they had the most vibrant yellow flowers that covered their branches, and the ground beneath. By the way things were looking, this was going to be a great day for the animals and our family!

I called MIL & FIL next door to wake them ( I should've pretended I was Mickey! ). Shortly thereafter, I heard a knock on our connecting door, they were going to be sleeping in today. She could hardly hold her eyes open. Dh & I decided that was fine, we would have a partial day to ourselves. We got dressed then woke the girls. This was a morning when we had to bathe them, because they fell asleep on the LONG busride "home" last night. We are usually morning bathers anyway, but at WDW it really helps to complete this chore at night, not to mention to wash the germ [img]graemlins/achoo.gif[/img] , sweat & sunscreen layers off of their bodies! We ate pop tarts & honey buns in the room again this morning. Boy, am I glad I sent myself that box full of goodies! Eating a light snack in the room really helped us to get to the parks faster, and enabled us to eat an early lunch and beat the 12:00 crowds ! Of course dh did go down to Pepper Market for a fresh fruit cup & milk for Grumpette!

We walked to our bus stop and were on our way within 5 minutes [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] ...loving these buses!
This morning the bus was about 1/3 full when we got on. We are at stop #4, but it stops at stop #1 last for pickups. After we stopped at bus stop #1, our bus was at least half full (the most crowded I've ever seen it). So if you ever stay at CSR during a really crowded time, don't get on at bus stop #1 if you don't have to, if you want to be seated for the ride. (So, Maggie, I would say that 8B is the best choice for buildings (MAYBE a 5 min. walk to El Centro).

We arrive at AK within 5 minutes, CSR is really a lot closer to AK than I thought. On our ride over to AK, our driver ranted & raved over Boma. He said it was the best food at WDW! Yeah, we'll be there tonight! [img]graemlins/yuma.gif[/img] He also said his 2nd choice for dining was Le Cellier; then he said "whatever you do, don't eat the food in China, it's terrible." Oh well, my family made me eat there, I'll have Moroccan next time.

Dh & I were really excited to see a park we've never been to before. We walked to the entrance and it was so lush with greenery. We arrived at EE time and a lot of other people were pouring out of buses. We quickly made our way back to Kilimanjaro Safari, walking so fast we barely had a chance to soak in our environment. We did stop, in awe I must say, in front of the Tree of Life...it is breathtakingly beautiful. Dh turns to me and says "I'm going to love this park." Our dd's are just looking around at everything. Princess Face was walking and Grumpette was in her comfy stroller. Princess Face liked to walk and would have no problem telling us when she wanted to rent a stroller...although, I could usually tell before the announcement came [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] .

There were no waits for Kili. Safari, and no FP's available so we went right on the ride. *Tip: Stay in the right hand line for easier stroller drop off. The CM suggested we sit in the back row for better photo ops, which proved to be true. This also made the family behind us happy, as they wanted the front row! This was a very bumpy ride... hold on to your babies!!! I caught lots of air time on this ride, but it was lots of fun. Princess Face had her disposable camera snapping like crazy on this ride. Dh was taking plenty himself. We got our pics back yesterday & half of them were blurry from movement (only used 400 speed film). *Tip: Don't worry about taking pictures, haven't we all seen animals before? Sit back and really enjoy the ride, it's beautiful and relaxing. Both dd's liked this ride, but Grumpette didn't care for the air time very much. My favorite thing was seeing the cutest baby hippo splashing his mouth in the water! (Can everybody say, "Awww!").

We headed back to the front of the park at a more leisurely pace, stopping at all of the booths/shops, and soaking in the building architecture. Love this park. I purchased myself a pin lanyard, since I was robbed at Millionaire yesterday! Then Grumpette wanted an elephant beanie that makes a trumpeting sound when you squeeze it (really cute). We try several hats on her...the sun was beaming today & the temp was rapidly climbing. She wanted nothing to do with them [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img] . Princess Face spots a large Nala that she just had to have , we gave in only because she agreed to package delivery to our resort, then we proceeded to add 2 shirts, a hat (and something else I can't recall) to the delivery and , of course $110 bill. Oh, well we are on vacation, and we did give up a 5th b-day party for our dd to come to WDW! Now we decide to mosey around the park. ITTBAB 3-D show has a 5 min. wait (no FP's available yet) so in we go!

Stading in line for this show isn't bad at all. The view of the Tree of Life is stunning. We spotted all sorts of intricate carvings everywhere we looked. I began to prepare Princess Face for this show, she informed me that she was not scared and know it was "all pretend." (She says pretend like, pree-tend, it's so cute [img]graemlins/blush.gif[/img] ). Grumpette fell asleep in her Baby Bjorn carrier, so I didn't have to worry about her. I swear, she will sleep anywhere, mouth open, drooling and all. More about drool later tonight...more times than one!!! The show was hilarious, we all loved it. Before the show, Princess Face was complaining about the glasses being too big, but that ended as soon as the show began. There were many, many children who left this show crying, some were older than Princess Face. I guess it just depends on the child. If anyone has any questions about it feel free to ask me. This show got a huge thumbs up from our family. We exit to find that we are extremely happy (once again!) that I tied that pink scarf to the stroller handle.

We were walking toward Camp Minnie-Mickey when we saw Lilo & Stitch!!! We love them! So we stand in line ~10 mins. because thaey took a 4 min. break. Once they came back from their break we were only 2nd in line, so they were well rested for us! We approached the characters, pen & book in hand, and thay were really "making over" Princess Face's long blonde ringlets, when I said, "Stitch is being so well behaved today!" Well he proceeded to stick his finger in his nose then into his mouth [img]images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] ! We said Yuck, Stitch! So, of course he did it again. Lilo just shook he head & did that "He's crazy" motion with her hand. We laughed and laughed, and got great pictures and video footage of this. Thanks again to my dh!

Now, we went to DinoLand, it was VERY hot and crowded. My first impression of this section was that it seems to be out of place in this park. I did enjoy this area, but something just wasn't right. I said absolutely not to the play area & we rode Triceratop Spin. Grumpette was clapping & yelling "yeah!" when she saw it. Pricess Face & I liked Aladdin better. I then grabbed a FP for Primeval Whirl (45 min for stand-by). We were all hungry so Pizzafari, here we come.

It was 11:30 now, Pizzafari wasn't crowded at all. Princess Face fell asleep in the comfy stroller since Grumpette was in her Baby Bjorn. We let her sleep, she can eat later. Grumpette & I grab a table in the room all the way in the back, it had awesome murals of African animals all over it. It also had the highest ceilings (I think) which would make it the coolest! Grumpette "neighed" at the zebras and "growled" at all the others on the vibrant walls. Dh brought some really yummy pizza & bread sticks to our table. 3 big thumbs up from us...Shh...remember, one of us was asleep. The marinara sauce was sweet, so I think I ate more of the breadsticks than pizza. *Note: there are no lids or straws for drinks in this park, so bring a sippie cup, unless you want to fork out ~$7 for a souveneir sports bottle type cup thingy (they are cute).

Next, I rode Primeval Whirl (FP) alone, dh doesn't like these kind of rides anyway. Princess Face was still asleep, thank goodness bcause she was too short for this one, & she really wanted to ride it. The ride was alright, I would not wait in line for 45 mins. for this one. I found it wasn't as smooth as it appeared to be...and didn't spin/whirl as much as I would have liked. I rated it a 6.

Off to the Lion King show (no wait). It was superb. The CM's are extremely talented, how do they walk on those stilts? **Note: Watch for these familiar faces in the afternoon parade! Princess Face & lots of other kids got to go down in the middle for the pre-show to sing, dance & do the hand jive. Be sure you listen to that Eric Clapton CD before you go so you can sing along! We all loved this show & Grumpette was applauding & cheering through the whole performance. We were really, really thankful for the pink polka dot scarf once again!!!

I'll be back for the rest of Day 4. Next: More of AK, dinner at Boma! Let the drooling begin! Gotta go get Princess Face.

[LSUtigerfan]

[img]graemlins/blush.gif[/img] Sorry for the double post...so I erased it and am going to instead include a **Complaint about the gentleman in front of me at The FOLK show. His cell phone kept ringing on & off throughout the first half of the show. Uggh! [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img] This really aggravated me, as I was trying to enjoy the music and narration of the show, & the incessant ringing of his phone was distracting me. Either turn it off or put it on vibrate, like we do! This always seems to happen in church too. The doctors on call should be wise enough to know how to put their phone/pagers on vibrate too. [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img] Okay, now that I have vented enough...I'm going to prepare the rest of day 4!

I sure hope y'all enjoy my complaint sessions as much as I do [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] !

[ 03-19-2003, 01:50 PM: Message edited by: lsutigerfan ]

[PS - I LUV WDW]

Thanks for the yummy [img]graemlins/yuma.gif[/img] descriptions of Boma! I am totally remembering our meal there!

Can't wait to read more! I just hope that day isn't ruined by a trip to the MD for the eye [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

[4disneyorbust]

hi! [img]graemlins/wavin.gif[/img]
i am really enjoying your trip report, thank you for writing it! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
Laura

[rebecca c.]

Super trip report! Thank you for all the details.

[LSUtigerfan]

Day 5, MK or MD's office?

I woke up this morning feeling much better. My eye was still a little irritated, so I decided to wear my glasses today. We came to the conclusion that all of the dust, etc. at the AK may have been the culprit. It was the only day that my eyes felt really dry and had to use my rewetting drops several times. Next time I will wear my glasses to AK to avoid that problem. Grumpette wakes up in a great mood, and everyone else must have gone to bed shortly after I did, because everyone was bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning!

Breakfast in the room as usual...We passed on our Princess Storybook b'fast in Norway, which I am glad about. Character meals are WONDERFUL , but they just take away from our park time. We still had a lot of things to do at MK, plus we had already seen most of the princesses. I honestly didn't think anything could top our extra special CRT experience! Our goal was to make it to MK at 9 am.

We decided to all wear coordinating colors today. I wore a bright multi-colored top with white (am I crazy?!?) capri pants, dh wore a red Coca~Cola t-shirt/white shorts, Princess Face a cute red & pink gingham check peasant top & matcing capri's, and Grumpette looked precious in her red Coca~Cola dress w/white polar bear on it. This really made our pictures turn out very nicely. It was much easier to remember what everyone was wearing when it came time to look for one another. That being said, we left our room and Princess Face raced ahead to beat everyone to the bus stop. I had Grumpette in her Baby Bjorn carrier, she was really checking out my pin lanyard this morning, so I pushed the button on my Zip a Dee Do Dah musical pin and skipped all the way to the bus stop. She got the biggest kick out of that, she giggled & giggled for more. This scene was repeated throughout our MK day. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

The MK bus was the 3rd one this morning. Had we let fate decide we would have ended up at MGM. Glad we didn't get on that bus today. We made it to MK by 9:10. Ugh! I Wanted to get there at park opening. The lines for the security checkpoint were extremely LONG this morning, so we get in the shortest line and wait...and wait...and wait! Droves of people were arriving via the monorail and ferryboat and they weren't letting anyone in. The computers were down!!! Everyone is really complaining, cigarette smoke is flying, and I just want someone to let me in so I can get a FP for Winnie the Pooh! Finally, after about 10 minutes, some of the turnstiles were working (ours being one of the!). So we proceed through security, without an under the stroller basket check...they're 5 for 5 on this one. Then IT happens. I knew it, I knew it , I knew it! Dh's pass doesn't work. The CM says it doesn't have any days left on it so now we have to go to Guest Relations.

I calm down & compose myself, I knew I'd need to be cordial and not crabby. The CM was in a great mood, so I explained to him what happened on day 1 when the CM said that his pass didn't lose a day from it, and how we had purchased after 2pm tickets at CSR. He asked if I had those with me and I did not. So, I think he checked the computer to see that we infact purchased those tickets, etc. All I know is his gave us another ticket (a 1 day parkhopper, which I didn't know existed, but I guess they are only for circumstances such as these). Finally, we were in, but of course we had to go through the security line once again.

We had a family pic made in front of the castle (the 4 of us) then made a bee line to Fantasyland, I snagged FP's for Pooh (45 min standby already), and dh stood in line for Ariel's Grotto (posted 15 min wait). It was already starting to get hot and the crowds were growing too. The wait for Ariel was really ~30 mins, so I played with Grumpette as she ran around the play area (water fountain things weren't on). **Complaint: The queue area for this is awful if you have little ones...to make you stand between 2 rock walls is ridiculous not to mention sweltering! Eventually it was almost our turn and I bring Grumpette under the chain so that we can join our family. Everyone in line with us know who we belonged to so they were very understanding. Ariel was wonderful, Princess Face's favorite character, and her face lit up like the 4th of July! She was beaming, and Ariel really paid her a lot of attention. She gave her a big kiss which left a lipstick impression on her cheek! We had a great time meeting the ever so beautiful Ariel (I did notice her blue contact lens!). It would have been worth an hour wait to see how happy it made Princess Face.

It's 10 mins to FP time with Pooh, so we take a pics around the Grotto area...I do miss 20,000 Leagues though. The King Triton statue was neat. We get a Dasani for the dd's to drink then head for Pooh. We park amongst the sea of strollers (still loving that bow!) and go into the FP line. As we were walking through the queue...**Complaint here: There was a couple who was changing their dd (~9 months old) in the line, holding her in mid-air. They had thrown the completely saturated diaper down on the ground near their feet. You know how diapers swell when they are wet (they have little silicone gel type things that expand from the "fluid") well, her's was so wet that it busted on the ground and those little gel things were all over the ground! [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img] I couldn't believe it. There are places to change a baby everywhere at the parks, that probably only saved them a whole 10 minutes!?! So, being the germaphobe nurse that I am, I promptly told the lady CM who didn't seem to give a rat's you-know-what. At least I tried. But, the Pooh ride was great! We all loved it and gave it many praises. We also had a great shopping excursion in Pooh's Thotful Shop. What precious things. Grumpette got the cutest white hat with Pooh's pic. and WDW embroidered on it. We still had lots of things to see so we left Fantasyland.

Princess Face really wanted to ride Haunted Mansion so we tried to explain about the friendly ghosts to her & decided to give it a shot. Well she didn't care for this one. She closed her eyes through the entire ride, except for the giant spider and the big dining room area. I think the voice in the Doombuggy is what scared her the most. Grumpette wasn't really phased by it, she just laid her head on dh's shoulder & sucked her makeshift pacifier (her 2 middle fingers). We exited the ride and I realized I didn't get a chance to look for the wedding ring or check out Madame Leota's tombstone (we walked right in). Oh, well, maybe next time. I did see the Hidden Mickey on the table though.

Next we saw the Country Bear Jamboree (10 min wait). During the wait, we saw Jessie walking outside through the window...her's was the only autograph we didn't get that we really wanted. She's Princess Face's 2nd fave character. Next, I learned a BIG lesson. Never, ever kill a mosquito in a public place with your hand! I did. I mashed it with my hand, and yes, it was filled with blood. Needless to say I was not very happy and had to go sanitize my hand. Lesson Learned. Our dd's loved the show. Grumpette was especially fascinated with the buffalo mount on the wall. She danced as the crowd clapped to the music. More thumbs up & I'm really glad we did this one.

It was now our early 11:20 lunchtime. The crowds were now unbelievable. I wanted to get FP's for either Splash Mtn. or Big Thunder Mtn. RR but we were ready to eat and the area was almost as congested as the summertime! So we decided we may come back later tonight (we didn't). We went into Pecos Bill Cafe and apparently everyone else decided to eat early too. The lines were long and moving at a snail's pace. We all had burgers. The dd's had hot dogs and snacks from the backpack. Those little cookies they get with the kid's meal were yucky, neither of my dd's would eat them, nor would I. Glad I had those back pack snacks! To Frontierland we go. "We're following the leader, the leader, the leader...wherever she may go!"

Outside PoC, we see Peter Pan & Wendy, Capt. Hook & Mr. Smee, so they all stand in line as Grumpette & I get FP's for Jungle Cruise (30min wait). Along the way I noticed the following wait times: PoC = 5 min, Aladdin = 10 min, Tiki Birds = 5 min.
We all had fun with these characters, Capt. Hook was "picking fleas" out of Princess Face's hair. Now that she was clean & well groomed we went on PoC. It was a nice and cool ride. I searched for the Hidden Mickey I thought I remembered reading about (in a window), but I never saw one. Grumpette loved the puppies on this ride and barked at every one of them. She also neighed at the donkey (she can't tell they're not horses yet!). Princess Face wanted to wear her ear plugs for this ride so we let her & it worked out fine.

Next we went in the Tiki Room without any wait, I really wanted Grumpette to see this one, but she fell asleep just as we were seated. I told y'all she could sleep through anything! It was a cute show, and was enjoyed by all. Not sure if I like the new show better than the old one. Now that Grumpette was asleep in her stroller, Princess Face was tired of walking and requested a rental. So dh went to get one as Princess Face & I get in line to meet Jasmine & Aladdin! Neither one of these characters were of middle Eastern descent, which I wondered about. Surely they could've found some CM's who would have looked the part. They were great, but their American faces just didn't match the costumes (which were awesome). We got to them just as they were about to go on break so they were very short, but sweet to my dd [img]graemlins/pout.gif[/img] . Next she & I rode Aladdin's Magic Carpets which we both LOVED! We liked it better than Dumbo due to the shorter lines and squirting camel! We even kept our carpet lower than everyone elses so we could get squirted. We really had a lot of fun on this ride, and I loved having that mother-daughter time with her all by myself. She was also oohing and ahhing at the real jewels that were embedded in the concrete walkway of the queue and the exit. She had to touch each one and ask if the diamonds were real. Of course, I told her I thought so. **Tip: If you are riding in your carpet by yourself, be sure to sit in the front so that you can control the front and back joysticks to manuever your carpet (the sam holds true for Triceratop Spin at AK).

As soon as we got off of the ride, dh walked up with the stroller and our pictures from this morning. Boy, were they great! The one in front of the castle was really good and the one with Ariel at the Grotto is priceless. We really want to find a 5x7 Ariel frame for it.

Now I smelled Aloha Isle in the distance (saw it on my map!)and dh didn't want to ride Jungle Cruise, and Grumpette was still asleep anyway ( she's the one who we were riding it for ), so we stopped for ice cream & cokes. I got a Dole Whip (pineapple & vanilla swirl), dd got chocolate ice cream, the rest had water & diet Coke. Yummy! This was my first Dole Whip, and the dessert afficionado gave it 2 very enthusiastic thumbs up! If I didn't have my tennis shoes on, I would've given it toes up too! Hee Hee! I was giddy as a 5 yr. old child! I really wanted to try the Pineapple float too, but I contained myself. We saw a duck wandering around behind the benches where we sat while eating our tasties. This area was also great for pictures. The flowers in the planters were so vibrant. Made a great backdrop for Princess Face's photo. She now wanted to ride Buzz, and I wanted to try to get a last minute PSR for Crystal Palace, so I surprised a couple who was unloading their little ones from their strollers in front of the Jungle Cruise with our FP's. They were very happy! Then, we trekked over to CP.

Yes! They had a time open for 5:20...glad we ate an early lunch, and we'll out in time for the fireworks! We stopped outside Casey's Corner to listen to the gentleman playing the piano. Princess Face started to dance around and MIL told her to go dance by the piano, and she looked up at her & said, "but I don't want to make him nervous!" She wasn't nervous...she's a ballerina at heart. So we assured her she wouldn't make him nervous, and his inviting smile told her the same. So she bounced over there beside him and danced and spun around. She is the biggest ham. The man was grinning from ear to ear, and she had an entire audience watching her from their umbrella covered tables. Of all days, this was the only day we didn't bring the camcorder [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img] ! I think these people saw the best show of the day at MK! And Grumpette slept through it all.

We walked over to Tomorrowland for Buzz FP's, but first I had to check out Moley's secret viewing spot for the fireworks. I marked an invisible X on the spot and commit it to memory... Thanks, Moley!!!!! FP's are in 50 mins (standby line was 25 mins) and while I am retrieving them, the rest of my party is in line to meet Buzz Lightyear! It was a long wait, but well worth it. He gave dd a thumbs up because she showed him her Buzz light-up spin toy ( she still plays with that thing!) Princess Face wanted to ride the Tea Cups again so we strolled over to get in line. But we end up in line for more characters...this time it was Alice & the Mad Hatter. He played his character to a T. And his nose was HUGE! Princess Face changed her mind & now wanted to go to Toontown to see who else was signing autographs. Grumpette then woke up just in time for her biggest source of frustration: A Huge Gift Shop! She wants to get down and ransack the entire store. But this store is awesome . I could stay in there for hours. MIL & I did some pocketbook damage in there! I wanted to get the $60 Cinderella's castle toy soooo bad, but I didn't. Maybe I can order it through the catalog for Christmas. We already had everyone's autograph in this area & it was time for our FP. We only had 20 mins to get to Buzz, ride it and make it to CP for our PSR...so it was obviously 5:00.

We get to Buzz, wait in the FP line for maybe 3 mins & we're on. The dd's rode with me, so this was a chore to hold Grumpette, steer the ride, shoot the targets and help Princess Face all at the same time. But, it was fun and we laughed and yelled at Zurg the whole way through. We then hauled it over to CP and made it right on time, 5:20...not 5 mins early like the CM asked, but it was better than my usual time: LATE! The family went in to our table while I went to freshen up Grumpette in the Baby Center between CP and Casey's Corner. My goodness, why didn't I try these earlier? It was very nice in here. Very calm & soothingly quiet atmosphere. And Mom's and Dads are welcome inside. It's set up almost like a house. It has a foyer type entry, the 1st door to the right was a nursing mom's only room, then there was a full kitchen, dining/tv room with highchairs, then a room with really large changing tables & a sink area in it. They even had really thick sanitary liner papers to put on top of the cushioned table...I only needed to use 1 vs. the 20 I use in the bathrooms. It was very nice and I give it a thumbs up. Disney & Carnation really make it easy to bring little ones to the parks. I think they even had rocking chairs.

Crystal Palace was grrrreat! This was by far, Grumpette's favorite meal of the trip. Fresh fruit, PB&J, with Pooh & Piglet...what more could she ask for? She was so excited, and yelled "Pooh!" everytime she saw him. She hugged and kissed Piglet who paid her lots of special attention. Of all days to leave the camcorder behind. Princess Face really enjoyed this too. Pooh was really wonderful...there was a table of about 10-12 adults across from us that would snag the characters as they would come to our table (our waitress even warned us about them, and to let us know if we were skipped as a result; her previous guests were) Well, when Pooh saw how Grumpette was to see him he was coming to our table with open arms when one of the women at that table grabbed his arm & proceede to pull him to their table saying "Take a picture with us Pooh!" Well Pooh pulled his willy nilly silly old arm away from her and gave her a "STOP" hand motion. I was so proud of him and happy for my dd. She was elated to see him and the pictures from this dinner were superb (as was the pasta & key lime pie!). MIL deemed the boiled shrimp, very delicious and seasoned just right for the New Orleans Lady. Dh liked them too. I liked everything, and happened to eat a lot of the yummy garlic mashed potatoes. Dd's the usual kiddie fare (cool colors on the swirled bread...looks tie-dyed). Everything was good and we enjoyed our dinner here. However, Tigger did miss our table so the manager came over & brought us over to him for a special private time with just us for special photo ops with our camera. The manager was a great photographer! You caould tell the restaurant was recently refurbished by going into the restrooms. Overall rating: 8 out of 10. Fun, fun, fun!

Next we found our place to view the fireworks. I was so excited about Tink's flight. We took lots of pics of the castle's glow changing colors...the purple was my favorite, and the red was wicked! Moley was right, this spot was never very crowded at all! Unfortunatly, Tink never flew! I asked a CM what happened to her, and she replied, "All out of Pixie Dust!" We were heartbroken, so was everyone else around us [img]graemlins/cry2.gif[/img] . And this was our last night. If I had known that she wasn't going to fly, then we would've gone to Frontierland to SM and BTMRR! We might have been able to spend time in Fantasyland again! Instead, we exit the park.

On the way out, a little boy ~4 or 5 yrs. old whacked me on the back of my leg, just above my Achilles tendon, with one of those wooden guns from PoC. Ouch! Boy, did that hurt. I still have a bruise from it.

We went back to CSR because I couldn't convince dh to hop on a monorail to Epcot to ride Test Track. We were going to go to the pool, which Princess Face was really looking forward to. Well guess what? The entire pool area was closed tonight for reasons unknown to the front desk! They said it would reopen in the morning. So, all in all, we never got to enjoy the pool. It was awesome too. The slide looked like lots of fun, and the pyramid waterfall was beautiful, especially when it was lit up at night. So we packed a little and went to bed. The girls did get a chance to have an extended bath and play with their Little Mermaid figurines in the tub.

Magical Moments for today: Oh, so many! Meeting Ariel. Mother-daughter time with Princess Face. My first Dole Whip! Grumpte's reaction to the characters at Crystal Palace [img]graemlins/love.gif[/img] .

Next: Day 6: Downtown Disney and Homeward Bound (sorry, not the movie).

[tikibird]

Great installments - I particularly loved the description of your interaction with Grumpette and pin lanyard - it's the little details like that that make your report particularly special! [img]graemlins/love.gif[/img]

Dole Whip, Tiki Room and Crystal Palace all in the same day - ahh, that's my kind of day!

Enjoyed hearing about your day at MK - and now the big question - Dole Whip or Mickey Bar? [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Shell_of_the_South]

I enjoyed reading your trip report!! Sounds like you guys had a blast, and did some fine eating too!!

[LSUtigerfan]

Originally posted by tikibird:

Enjoyed hearing about your day at MK - and now the big question - Dole Whip or Mickey Bar? [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

<font size="2" face="Comic Sans MS, Arial">Hey, tikibird! Glad you and so many others are enjoying my trip report, it makes all of the time I have spent worth it!

And to answer your most important question...Dole Whip or Mickey Bar? The answer is definetly, Dole Whip!!! I am officially on the Dole Whip bandwagon! And I do believe, (correct me if I'm wrong here [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img] ) that the last time I was at WDW in 1996, the Mickey bars were not completly covered with chocolate. I remember his cute little vanilla face with chocolate ice cream eyes and ever so elegantly chocolate covered ears. Why did they cover Mickey's cute little face? This really disappointed my entire Mickey bar experience...the Simba paw print is the closest thing to the old Mickey bar. I sur hope Fortissimo doesn't read this [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] !!! Just kidding, I still ate my fair share, just miss the old style [img]graemlins/pout.gif[/img] .

Sorry I have taken so long to finish day 6. Grumpette got sick with an ear infection [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img] , so I have been holding her alot lately, and haven't been able to get online. Day 6 will be up tomorrow!

Thanks to everyone who is reading! [img]graemlins/wavin.gif[/img]

[LSUtigerfan]

Day 6: Downtown Disney and Homeward Bound (sorry, not the movie [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img] ).

Against my better judgement, we woke up this morning and did not go to our PS for breakfast at Cape May Cafe [img]graemlins/pout.gif[/img] . What a bummer, we eat in the room. This obviously was NOT my choice. Oh well, I better not talk about that anymore, it's a sore spot! Today was sunny and hot outside. We completed our packing...that was a huge chore & not much fun. Our plan for today was to go to DtD and come back to CSR for TTC to pick us up at 4:15pm...our flight was at 6:45pm.
We had bell services hold our luggage for us, it was really nice to have them pick all of it up from our room.

Next, we hopped on a bus to DtD. This was our first time going to DtD, and we really enjoyed it. First, we decided to eat at Rainforest Cafe. MIL was really excited about this because she really thought the girls would enjoy it, based on her lunch on Day 4. She was right! We were seated immediately (it was ~11:45 am) in the Elephant Room. Dh, the girls & I have never eaten at RC before. I loved the atmosphere and Grumpette loved the gorillas, elephants and especially the HUGE butterfly on the wall above our table. We started with some chicken quesadillas for an appetizer, they were really good. MIL & FIL split a Cobb type salad, dh had the special which was a steak with shrimp, Princess Face had chicken nuggets, and Grumpette & I split a pepperoni pizza. I really wanted to order the crab cake sandwich, but I thought Grumpette would enjoy the pizza... what a bad decision! Thank goodness I had another can of her favorite green beans,because she didn't eat very much pizza. The pizza was ok. I've had better. Dh said his was very good, Princess Face ate all of hers, and I tasted MIL & FIL's salad and it was good too. All in all, the meal was a good one, I'm sure I would've enjoyed it more if I had eaten the crab cake sandwich (anyone ever had it???). Also, we didn't order a Volcano for dessert (Princess Face really wanted one). We decided we would go to Ghirardelli's for a "sweet stop" later. We browsed the gift shop and watched the parrots out front before our shopping excursion.

We went to the Pooh's Corner store (I Loved It!), the World of Disney, Lego Imagination Center, Team Mickey (cute stuff!), and Disney at Home. The bulk of our time and money [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] was well spent at World of Disney. I found some really cute items here, but I still can't believe I never found a 5x7 Ariel frame for Princess Face's picture from the Grotto. We bought plenty of souveniers for everyone on our list today. I'm glad we waited until our last day, because we knew how much room our suitcases would allow. I could have sent a small fortune in each of the stores! We never made it into the Soda Fountain side of Ghirardelli's, the line was extremely ong & appeared to be moving very slowly. We did venture into the Chocolate Shop side and taste some yummy caramel filled chocolate squares [img]graemlins/yuma.gif[/img] ! Sure wish I could have eated some ice cream...Grumpy (dh) and his watch prevailed...time was ticking away. We made our way back to the bus stop for our ride back to CSR. A bus was there waiting for us.

Back at our resort, I took a few pictures outside, as it was a beautiful day and I wanted lots of pics of the beautiful grounds. Everyone in our family seemed to be moping around in a "not so chipper" mood. I guess we just didn't want to leave. We all did a little more shopping in the gift shop...spend it, spend it, spend it! MIL & FIL surprised us with a WDW Memories scrapbook to thank us (me!) for planning the trip & making the ressies. I can't wait to start on it! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Soon enough, TTC arrived at 4:10 pm to bring us to the airport. The ride to MCO was very quiet, so I tried to ask everyone about their favorites at the World and Princess Face was the only one who really "got into it," I guess the others were sad to leave. Isn't it funny how the ride home (or to the airport) is always shorter?!?

We arrive at MCO, baggage drop off & curb side check in goes very smoothly. We enter the airport & head toward our gate. But first, we must go through security!!! Oh my gosh, was that the LONGEST line I've ever seen. It was out in the middle of the airport hotel lobby. I decided to take the girls to see the water fountain (also in the middle of the lobby) for a few minutes. When I went back to join dh, MIL & FIL in line they had hardly moved. It was ridiculous. Then luckily, a security employee saw me join my family in line, she said, "Hey, you with the stroller! This is the stroller line." So, we very quickly left the LLLOOONNNGGG line that rivaled the Great Wall of China and she let our entire party go through this checkpoint. We felt guiltier than we did at the Winnie the Pooh ride with a fast pass! But hey, I wasn't complaining. Once we passed through the checkpoint, we were able to see just how long the lines truly were. I honestly don't know if we would have made it to our gate on time. Now I was convinced that bringing our own stroller was the BEST decision made on this trip.

We decided to grab a bite to eat from the McDonald's (the only place that served Coke!) and let the dd's run around in the airport. Grumpette needed to wear herself out, hopefully she would sleep on the plane. MIL went into a shop where everything was $10...more shopping again??? After about 20 minutes, she came out with a rhinestone studded horse pin. She was very proud of her purchase, then my dh told her it looked like Mr. Ed. The horse had a BIG grin on it's face and was showing it's teeth! She didn't realize it before, and we all laughed til we were in tears. It was so funny. It was great to see everyone laugh & smile again.

Soon it was time to head to our gate. Wow, this was going to be a full flight. MIL noticed the food stand by our gate had fresh fruit bowls so dh bought one for Grumpette. Well it was intened for the flight, but she caught a glimpse of it & of course, I had to let her have some alng with a quick dose of Benadryl. Princess Face pretended to be afraid to fly tonight, then she told me the truth was she didn't want to leave because, "I really just want to stay and live at Disney World, Mom." [img]graemlins/love.gif[/img] I shared her sentiment. Finally, we boarded on to our completely booked flight.

The flight was rather bumpy. We were going through a thunderstorm, which had LOTS & LOTS of lightning and strong winds. The pilot even had the flight attendants return to their seats for most of the flight, asking the passengers not to call them unless it was an emergency. The turbulence was quite bumpy. Princess Face asked dh, "should I be asleep right now?" Other than that she was fine, never seemed to be araid and colored the entire flight. Grumpette colored, ate fruit, then fell asleep. MIL prayed, FIL read the USA Today, and I spilled ice cold water on dh's lap! Oh, he wasn't happy about that one!!! I guess everyone thought he just got really scared on the flight [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] . His shorts were dry by the time we exited the plane, thank goodness!

Here we were, back in New Orleans. The airport was smelly, the baggage didn't come out for 20 minutes, and I wasn't looking forward to driving home and unpacking. We made it home after an uneventful drive, ate eggs & biscuits for supper (quick & easy clean up!), caught up on the local news...seems the Baton Rouge serial killer has struck again & it's been raining the whole time we've been gone. Boy, did we miss a great time or what? Everyone crashed and got a good nights sleep. Although, it took about 5 days to catch up on our rest.

Writing this trip report was loads of fun for me. I got to relive my entire trip and I really enjoyed it. I hope y'all did too. Hope it wasn't too terribly long or boring. Thanks for reading. [img]graemlins/wavin.gif[/img]

Next: Final Thoughts & Observations

[ 03-24-2003, 01:32 PM: Message edited by: lsutigerfan ]

[AKLRULZ]

Well, Lea - I just caught up on your report and I loved it - especially your Boma report. Love that place and now I need a snack. Ya'll sound like a fun family - thanks for sharing your time at the World with all of us here! [img]graemlins/wavin.gif[/img]

[POOH]

Loved your report! I was at the CSR last September and loved it. I can't decide now if I should stay there again when I go in October or try somewhere else. Your detail was amazing. You must've taken notes while on your trip to remember everything so well. Thank you for taking the time to share your trip with us. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[PS - I LUV WDW]

Thanks again for the report. Sorry to see it come to an end

[rebecca c.]

Thank you for sharing your wonderful adventure.