Trip Report: July 26_August 5

ok, so I’m home now and obviously couldn’t keep up with typing a trip report on my phone! (One thing I miss about the old Lines Chat…I think the 255 character limit helped in some situations and I only looked at Chat about twice on the trip.)

So picking up where I left off at DHS for Frozen Premium PKG. After swimming we headed back to DHS for Little Mermaid FPP, face paint for Babycakes, RNRC and checking in for the Dessert Party.
There was chance of rain so we had the Dessert Party inside Disney Jr Live. Did you know that building is connected to the Brown Derby?!? Thats where the bathrooms were. We couldn’t get into Disnery Jr Live until 8:30pm which was a little confusing b/c the CM at the outside checkin location told us 8pm, but anyway there were plenty of standing height tables and lower tables to stand around and eat. Everything was delicious. I sampled almost everything including an alcoholic drink and the kids drinks. We stayed in the building probably for about an hour then we walked over to the outside location and stayed to the left near the fence to try to get the best view of the fireworks knowing that they go off somewhat behind the hat.
It was a complete success. Great view, no crowd around us! :slight_smile:

Saturday, Aug 2nd we went to Typhoon Lagoon for the first time. We saw lots of construction on the way there. I thought the WP was beautiful and very lush compared to BB. We went on Crushin’ Gusher (I think that’s the name) It was too short & not thrilling enough. Then Tim & I went to Shark Reef. I had to leave my very expensive glasses on a rock so I was going into the water “blind”, then I panicked about having my nose covered with the mask so I did what you are told NOT to do and turned around to swim the wrong way in a one way pool. This was on my must do list…bummer… I swear the life guards take bets on who won’t make it across. LOL Anyway a CM told me I could wear my own goggles and try again. I appreciated the information, but w/o contacts it just really wasn’t going to be worth it. Tim said he mostly saw sting rays, not sharks and the water was murky.
After that I got mini donuts with chocolate sauce. YUM!!!
We went on a slide with individual tubes that was bumpy all the way down. I didn’t really get the point of the bumps, but maybe others liked it?!?
I stayed with Tory Baby while the rest of the family when on the Family Slide. Apparantly there is a lot of falling water, my poor mom got nailed. I don’t think she liked it.
Tim & I went on the 3 Storm Slides (body slides, no tubes) The one on the left is much more tame than the middle or right. Then I went on Humunga Cowabunga. I was nervous since I got scared on 2 slides at BB, but I’m glad I did it b/c I didn’t get any air (my body stayed in contact with the slide all the way down) and it was fun.
By this time it was about noon so we all changed clothes and Babycakes met Stitch and the Lilo on the way out.
We took the bus to Contemporary and then walked to MK. Got food on Main St, tea cups and the used FPP for FoF Parade. Parade was great, I know I must have missed so many details b/c there was so much to see! The blaring sun was awful, but I’m glad to have seen it.
After that my parents took Babycakes back to CBR to swim. Tim, Tory Baby & I hung out at MK for a short while, watched Flag Retreat and then took monorail to TTC to EPCOT. Took a break at the Baby Center and then got a walk-in at Via Napoli. We shared a large pizza and I got white sangria. Delicious. Then we took Friendship boat to Boardwalk and walked the rest of the way to DHS to catch the CBR bus home.
Sunday, August 3rd we spent at AK. We used a FPP for Nemo show. We’ve seen the show at least three times, but never in good seats so it was awesome to be so close to the stage. We were about 3rd row on the right.
We went to the Baby Center about 3 times this day b/c it was so hot. It’s a great place to cool off and regroup.
We went to Rafikki’s Planet Watch around 2pm. I really wanted to see “It all started w/ a mouse” but apparently they only show it at 11:45am?!? I had been getting mixed information from blogs and CMs about it so that was disappointing.
On the safari we actually saw the lions! For once they weren’t hiding on Pride Rock!
We ended on KRR twice in a row. I got SOAKED the second time! Luckily we had a change of clothes! Then we exited for 5:45pm dinner at Rainforest Cafe.
I enjoyed the Chinese Chicken Salad. Tim got buffalo chicken and it came with fries. We normally are a French Fry Free Family, but about once a year we indulge and OMG, those fries were good (especially dipped in the blue cheese dressing that came with the buffalo chicken!)
Monday, August 4 was our last day! :frowning: We went to MK in the morning until about 3pm. Went on 7DMT, met Ariel, Buzz, Monster’s INC, Stitch (just to see how bad it really was), Babycakes got pixie dust in her hair, Peter Pan.
I wanted to end the trip with a bang so I looked up HDDR availability and Categories 1 & 3 had availability and we booked Category 3 to save about $50 for our family.
Then swim break in the feature pool at CBR, showers and bus to MK, then Wilderness Lodge then Fort Wilderness. It was POURING during our bus rides.
We got our tickets then waited then checked in and got the family picture done. Apparently they don’t print them for you anymore but it still turned out nice on our Memory Maker Account.
We had great seats, I loved how the tables were set up to eat and then swivel the chair to see the show. My parent’s got to say their names’ in the show for celebrating their 38th wedding anniversary. Our waitress Lisa was very sweet and seemed to like my son.
The cornbread was very moist. I ate so much of it! The fried chicken was good and easy to debone. I enjoyed the baked beans too. The mashed potatoes and corn were normal. I didn’t like the ribs, but I’m very picky about red meat anyway.
The strawberry short cake was yummy with plenty of whipped cream! :smiley:
We were at the 8:30pm show so we took the special resort buses home which took until 11:30pm! We stopped at Beach Club, POP, AoA and then CBR last. Honestly if I had known it would have taken an hour to get home I would have gone to MK for EMH until midnight! Oh well!
Tuesday, August 5th we slept in (8:30am) then packed. Tim took Babycakes to the playground on the Island. We called a bell hop to bring our 5 suitcases to the Custom House, then got breakfast and chilled in the room for about 30 mins before walking back to the Custom House with our carry ons to catch DME at 11:25am. DME and everything at the airport went smoothly.

Bounce Back Offer:
We were checked in over the dates the new BB was released so I didn’t get the updated packet about it, but I heard about it on DisBoards so I called 8844 from the room phone to book.
I booked free table service dining at POFQ for next August. I only booked 5 nights (now that I’ve seen pics of the flyer it seems to say 6 nights are required but my confirmation looks correct for free dining with 5 nights. She quoted me the same price for standard rooms at POFQ, POR and CBR. I would like to spend more than 5 nights but I’ll have to see what the school calendar looks like and will probably add on a few nights at the beginning (hopefully with a RO discount).

This was our 6th trip in 3yrs…don’t get me wrong, I love WDW, but I felt like we know it so well that I really want to try DLR. (I’ve been there twice) but only for a total of about 4 days. Tim agreed that we could do DLR in 2015 instead of WDW, but after crunching some rough numbers I think DLR will be too expensive for us right now so we’ll probably end up at WDW again.