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Cast of Characters: Joanie-DW (41), Bob-DH (51) & Marie-DD (19) staying in a studio unit at Beach Club Villas - 6/5-13/2003
Trip Report - Day 4 - Sunday - June 8, 2003
This morning we were up early since we had a priority seating at Chef Mickey's at 9:00 a.m. for breakfast. We took the bus from our resort to the Magic Kingdom and then walked over to the Contemporary. The Melnick's had a little transportation problem and arrived a little late. They were staying at the All Star Music and there was a huge line at the bus. They were told it could take them 1 to 1 1/2 hours to get on. Since there was a bus there for EPCOT, they figured they would go there, take the monorail to the TTC and transfer to the resort monorail to the Contemporary. Great plan however mother nature intervened. Once they arrived at EPCOT, along with about 10 other people from All Stars with the same idea, they were told the monorail had been struck by lightning the night before and wasn't running. Finally, a supervisor there got a special bus to bring these people to the TTC.
Now it was time to surprise the men. A few weeks before the trip, Kristin and I had been shopping at the Disney Store and
purchased crowns & sceptors to wear for this breakfast - I had tinkerbell, Kristin had Cinderella and we had bought the
princesses for DD. Since these were really made for children, we must have been a sight, but the picture of all of us
that they take was quite cute and we purchased it. Jimmy absolutely loved this restaurant and was the first time he
truly just sat on his own. Usually we would be seated and then he would start "Kris - hold him". He talks in 3 rd person because he is used to hearing his parents and others talking about him so that's what he did. It took us another day or two to figure out that until Chef Mickey's, all of the restaurants we had been to were large rooms and must have been overwhelming for a 2 year old. At Chef Mickey's we were in the back room so there were only 7 or 8 tables and was probably less intimidating. He also loved the celebration, and continued to do it at every restaurant from here on in. That napkin was swinging at every meal.
After a successful breakfast, we all headed over to Fantasyland in the MK stopping at Toontown on the way in
and got our picture taken with Mickey. We got Fast Passes for Peter Pan and Jimmy and his Dad rode Dumbo.
I was trying to video the ride and of course it started to rain, so DD had to come over and hold an umbrella
up so the camera didn't get wet. We used our Fast Passes for Peter Pan and DH, DD & I headed to the castle for our lunch ressie. The Melnick's decided not to join us and instead headed back to the All Stars for a nap. What luck - there was Cinderella in the lobby and DD & I still had our crowns & sceptors. We got our picture taken with them - didn't care if we were acting like little kids - after all that's what disney is all about. After lunch, DD headed back to the room for a nap and DH and I headed over to Splash Mountain to get a fast pass. Who did we run into on the bridge but the daughter of the family in our hometown we were meeting on Monday. She was waiting for her parents and little brother to get off the ride. We waited with her, we all went to ride Pirates together and then went for my 1st ever Dole Whip.
Although I'm not a big pineapple fan, this was just as wonderful as everyone on this list has said. I think my new diet will be rice cream and dole whip. After our dole whips (this stuff is like alcohol or tobacco - hard to stop at one) we did the Adventureland Cruise and then separated and DH & I used our fast passes on Splash Mountain. We must be a jinx this trip, because now this ride broke down twice while we were on it. Once by the waterfall, but at least they turn this off now when the ride is stopped and once, just around the corner from the exit. We sat there for over 20 minutes until we moved but never did find out what the problem was. We stopped in the photo place at the front of the MK and decided to purchase the photo from toontown. We had 2 taken, one of DD, Kristin, Jimmy & Mickey - and one of me, DH, Keith, Jimmy & Mickey. Mine didn't come out.
We took a bus back to the Beach Club and caught a quick shower and took the bus back to the MK and walked over to the Contemporary for dinner. Gee - it's like deja vu - didn't we do this already today! We were having dinner at the California Grill to celebrate Kristin's 30th birthday. On our birthday's, instead of buying each other gifts, we take the other out to dinner. This was my birthday dinner to her. Our server was Kevin - and I can't say enought wonderful things about him. As bad as our service was the night before at Citrico's, that's how good it was tonight and the view is always wonderful. Even now that we're home, we all agree this was the best dinner we had.
After dinner, we took the bus to DTD (the MK was closed) and transferred to the Beach Club bus. We were too tired to do any shopping. We did meet the couple from Chicago that we had met a few days ago. They asked how our dinner at Citrico's was and I told him - excellent food, poor service. I also told him that we thought it was because we didn't order alcohol, but he said he ordered 2 bottles of wine when he was there but the service was still bad. He said it was the only time in his entire life that he didn't tip a server. Maybe it wasn't just us - who knows - but glad it was the exception and not the norm. Their daughter was clutching a very fluffy Pluto which we found out was a pillow buddy. His wife had an eeyore in the bag. Needless to say, since it is DD's favorite character, we knew we'd be coming home with an eeyore pillow buddy too.
Miles today - 8.29
Cast of Characters: Joanie-DW (41), Bob-DH (51) & Marie-DD (19) staying in a studio unit at Beach Club Villas - 6/5-13/2003
Meeting Ed & Johanna Kolonsky & Maria (13) and EJ (4)
Trip Report - Day 5 - Monday - June 9, 2003
OK, the plan was to meet at Animal Kingdom at 7:45 a.m. for early opening. The Kolonsky's are ride people and have never done any of the sit down restaurants - only counter service. Ed and DH compromised - they would do breakfast and we had to do the mini golf at Winter Summerland with them. (We will be doing this on Wednesday when we spend the day together again at Blizzard Beach) This was a huge win win situation for me - I get breakfast and I love to mini golf which DH will rarely do - so this is a first for me at this course. We arrived at our bus stop at 7:10 a.m. and were at Animal Kingdom. As we exited the bus and was walking through the station - a woman jumps off the bus and starts yelling to me "I think I know you" - she spied my hair before I could spot her purse - it was Pam from Cincinnatti. We had an all too brief hello and headed over to the AK entrance. The Kolonsky's weren't there so DH and I split to wait. They arrive at 8:15 am and we headed into the park.
Ed immediately collected all of our passes and went to get Fast Passes for Kali while the rest of us
got in line for Kilamanjaro Safari's. He met us and we rode the safari - not a whole lot of animals -
(no giraffes which are my favorite) because once again the heat was sweltering. After the safari we headed over to Donald's for breakfast. After breakfast we were to meet DD at Dinosaur but we were running about 1/2 hour behind and she was waiting outside of Restaurantasaurus for us. Can I say PLEASANT - not!!!!! We headed over to Kali - (Marie didn't want to ride - she waited for us) - DH & I changed into our water shoes (I can't stand to slosh in wet socks and sneakers, I can deal with everything else wet) and got on the ride. We were wet - but not drenched. As we walked off the ride to head to Dinosaur, the deluge started. And I do mean deluge - I had forgotten the ponchos and we only had 2 umbrellas between the 3 of us, so I bot 2 ponchos. When the rain slowed down to a steady downpour, we headed over to It's Tough to Be A bug and back to Restaurantasaurus for lunch.
This was a first for us. I usually try to avoid McDonald's at Disney, since DH eats there a lot when
he's on the road, but we needed to get out of the rain and not everyone was hungry. Johanna took EJ
to the restroom and said a woman had slipped on the wet wooden floor right inside the door and they
wouldn't let her get up and were waiting for the paramedics. We were all a little more careful here
because the floor was really slippy. After lunch we went to ride dinosaur. Finally bought my first souvenier - a "touristasaurus" shirt for 1/2 price. We took the train out to conservation station and quickly came back to catch Tarzan Rocks. Love this show. After this, DH & DD did primeval whirl with Ed & Maria - I counted the number of seconds it spins - 20. You guessed it - 20 seconds too long. As my daughter put it to DH - it is a combination of his 3 "favorites" - the whip, tilt-a-whirl and tea cups all in one. He survived it fairly well - actually better than I did standing in the sweltering sun which decided to come back out again.
We parted ways and headed back to the Beach Club to shower & change for our dinner ressie with the Melnicks and Bianca at 'Ohanas in the Polynesian. Again, my deepest apologies to Bianca - I forgot to confirm with her before we left and we checked in early. Thank goodness I spotted her because the restaurant was completely full. We all had a wonderful dinner and Jimmy really enjoyed the coconut races for the kids. The salad and shrimp wontons were really good. After dinner, DH, DD, Kristin, Keith & Jimmy left to catch spectro magic in the MK, but I stayed behind to chat with Bianca. I suggest anyone who has the chance to meet this wonderful woman to jump at it. She is really a delight and we hope to do this again on our May 2004 trip. Bianca and I walked down to the boat doc and watched the Electric Water Pageant. At about 9:30 p.m. I took the boat over to the MK to meet the rest for the fireworks. They were all ready to leave because they were tired and Jimmy saw the parade and that was all they had intended on doing. We went down to the bus stop and had a wonderful driver named Floyd. He was blowing bubbles as everyone got on the bus. Throughout the whole ride he was telling jokes and disney trivia. DD truly enjoyed this. At 19 yrs old I was shocked. The joke she enjoyed the most was "Why didn't Pluto have a girlfriend?...................Because she'd probably be a dog" LOL
Miles today - 9.07
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4
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