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Monday, October 25th - Day 5
Mickey wake up call at 5:55 am! Early Entry into AK today - we don't have much time to spend here - we have to be back at 12:10 for QuickSilver to pick us up and take us to the airport. I had scheduled our bag pick up from Bell Services for 7:00 and they were right on time. We had a 10 minutes wait for the bus and were at AK by 7:40 and saw the Awakening. We headed straight for ITTBAB because everyone else was heading for the Safari. THEN we went to the Safari and maybe a 10 minute wait and saw all the usual animals - up close & personal. We got to see the baby elephant - he was so cute! All this was done by 9:00.
Here our plans got mixed up a bit. We have PS seating at Donald's Restaurantosaurus at 10:20. DH & DD11 head to Dinosaur while I plan to get FP for Kali River Rapids. When I get to the Rapids the return time is during our breakfast - so I don't get them. DD5 and I head to Dinoland where we are to meet up with the other two later. We play a game and she wins a stuffed snake then we ride Tricera Top Spin and then wait & wait & wait (I mean we take a potty break, get & eat MM ice cream and walk around) FINALLY, the other to join up with us. They had decided to ride Primeval Whirl before riding Dinosaur - so time got away from them and somehow we missed them though we were all in the same area. Anyway, they both insisted I ride Primeval Whirl with DD11 - so we did - I really liked this ride.
We were 5 minutes late for our PS and were seated about 10:35. The breakfast buffet was fair to good - we were all hungry so it was good - but nothing stood out as truly great. We saw & got autographs from Donald, Goofy, Pluto & Mickey. There was actually plenty of character interaction here - a fun breakfast. But we had to rush out at 11:35 and made it to the bus stop at 11:45 but waited 15 minutes for the bus!! Made it back to POR at 12:15 and our driver was very kind about us being a bit late. We grabbed our bags from Bell Services and loaded up. BTW, I tried to get stamps at AK - they were out. I made a quick run to the gift shop - still no stamps - I'll have to mail those postcards from the airport.
Trip to airport uneventful, in the airport we're hurrying to get to the other side to get in line at Southwest. Once we reach there, I go to find stamps and water bottles for everyone. UGH! Stamps are on the OTHER side of the airport. I'm so sorry but these are not getting mailed from Orlando. Trip back to KC uneventful, hotel shuttle picks us up and we're on our way home.
9:00 pm - I'm unpacking and I realize that I left a small bag on the plane. The flight attendant had taken it from me and put it in the Portfolio compartment behind the last row of seats. It was just a bag of some small things we had bought at AK, our autographs from breakfast, the stuffed snake won at AK and those dang postcards. I call SWA and then their baggage office at the airport - no, it's not there. I spoke with a very nice woman who took all my information. Realize here that there is no i.d. what-so-ever in that bag. 45 minutes later she calls back - she has traced the plane and it just landed in Phoenix, AZ and they found the bag and would send it back to KC tomorrow. Wow! I can hardly even believe that.
High Point: Found our bag!
Low Point: I can't believe I didn't get the postcards mailed! But I worked it all out with the person in charge of the program - they will get mailed by someone else. THANKS!
General Comments:
I can't believe I forgot to mention our wonderful MouseKeepers! Every night we came back to our room to find our window jazzed up or stuffed animals watching cartoons - and they kept the room very clean. I forgot to leave our tip envelope on our 2nd day in the parks - and I worried about that - but we came back to the room to the exact same service we'd had the 1st day.
We took Brita water bottles with us. They worked out very well and saved us a lot of money on water because we drink lots of water. We also bought a water bottle strap in each park and Miranda & I have already used those for our Girl Scout camping trip since we've been back.
Kudos to Deb at The Magic for Less. She kept up with my changing plans and sent me lots of helpful information. I highly recommend them - even for those that are big planners themselves and a bit heavy on the control factor (that would be me).
Fabric for autographs: First I'm not a seamstress by any means of the word. I bought some Disney quarters at Walmart and bought some cheap white fabric off the discount rack. I cut them into about 8" squares and used a clip board when I had the characters sign it. I bought a black fabric marker for this - it was about $2 at Joanne's. When the characters signed I found that I had to help hold the fabric still & tight - but it worked well. We got the Fab Five autographs and plan on making a wall quilt using those with the other Disney material I purchased.
Meal Vouchers: We purchased the lunch/dinner meal vouchers from Hotwire while planning this trip. We've never used these before so I did lots of research on them. There are two types of vouchers. One is called Quick and Casual Lunch or Dinner and used at casual places specified and cost $11.50 for adults. I don't know how much the kid's vouchers are because I didn't purchase any. The other one, is called a Vacation Kingdom Lunch and cost $31.00 - they can be used at some of the places needing Priority Seating. Here's a quick run down on how we saved on one meal alone:
POR food court, lunch: 1 meal - chicken parmesan, cheese fries, orange juice, double scoop of ice cream = $17.00 voucher $11.50/ 2nd meal - prime rib sandwich, chili fries, bottle of water, double scoop of ice cream = $17.00 voucher $11.50
Total meal would have come to $34.00 we handed them our 2 vouchers and paid nothing savings of $11.00 and this feed our family of four. I won't do every meal here - but will comment on these when I do Restaurant Reviews later this week.
At 50's Prime Time Diner when we used the Vacation Kingdom voucher - it was good for an appetizer, entrée, drink, dessert. Well, you only need 1 appetizer & 1 dessert for a family of four here. So DH ordered the trout dip, salmon, chocolate shake (for his drink!) and a banana split - this would have come to about $32 - before tax & tip which is included on the voucher. We also ordered a chicken dinner and a kid's macaroni & tomato sauce. With everyone sharing - this was enough to feed our whole family.
Pin trading: We obviously continued to pin trade - though not to the degree that we have done in the past. Still loads of fun for the girls.
QuickSilver was efficient and oh-so-easy at the airport. I'd recommend them highly for convenience.
Port Orleans Riverside is a beautiful resort - could be very romantic - but also fun for the family. As I commented earlier - the food court here was never over-crowded no matter what time of the day we were going through there. The food courts at the All Stars and at POP are always crowded. At POR, I never felt like "I just have to get out of here!" We were fortunate to get a room close to the main buildings & the pool area - I'm not sure I would have enjoyed it as much if I'd had a longer walk - it's not the walk that bothers me but the time it takes.
Day 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
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