John & Family - August 2007

Participants: Me - 40, DW (Karen) - younger than me , DS#1 (Thomas) - 7, DS#2 (Andrew) - 2, DFiL (Rich) - Older than me, DMiL (Janet) - Younger than her husband
Location - Typhoon Lagoon
Pictures - Day 3 was just the water park. Also there are no pictures for Day 3 although we have quite a few taken by Disney Photographers I don't have my hands on them yet.

DAY 3: August 5, 2007

I’m not going to go in too much detail on Typhoon Lagoon but rather make a few observations.

The park has many paths that may not be easily figured out as to their destination. Your feet, in my opinion, get really beat up here. You are not wearing your good sneakers, rather you are in water shoes or worse bare feet.

The slides are all fun and great but you have to ride them early. The lazy river is very nice but in August I think it was too crowded and had some rowdy teen/20 somethings. This in itself didn’t bother me but I was floating with our Andrew and I was concerned for him.

The photopass photographers here have the best job, as they get to stay in the water J We got a great set of shots of a wave coming at us and hitting us J.

The food is good ( love that chicken wrap) and the CM’s there let you get the ice cream later.

Do NOT miss out on shark reef. This was the highlight for me although it caused a little bit of discomfort due to, ahem, chafing, in some members of our party.

In the evening my DW and I head over to MGM for our dinner alone and to see Fantasmic. Prior to arriving at dinner we grab a fast pass for Tower of Terror. We really wanted Rock and Roller Coaster but the return time was while we would be at Fantasmic.

We had a Fantasmic reservation at 5:30 at Mama Melrose. We have never eaten there before. I was pleasantly surprised at both the food and the service. Dessert was truly delish! I will return to this restaurant and recommend it to both couples and families. Our entertainment was provided by a completely out of control child whose parents absolutely ignored her as she terrorized all those around them.

After dinner we used our Tower of Terror fast pass, got a picture or two of just the two of us with the Tower as the back drop, and then headed to Hollywood Boulevard to wait for the time to enter.

While we waited my DW did some shopping and I enjoyed a street show from these three guys trying to decide who was going to be Union Rep for the year. They were ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT!!! I really enjoyed this show, wish I could have seen the whole thing. I’ll be posting the video of this and you must go watch it when I do.

At 7:30 we went to the gate next to the gas station and proceeded along a long path to the Fantasmic Arena. We sat about ¾ of the way up the seating and got comfortable for our long wait for the show. It was worth the wait, as we were sitting for the show (first time sitting for us) and had a great view. Fantasmic is simply fantastic. Some have said it is too scary for kids but I don’t think so.

Back to the hotel now and get ready for Epcot tomorrow!! WOOT!

Day 4 - August 6, 2007
Location – Epcot
Pictures - Disney Day 4

It’s back to the parks now.. We woke up around 6:45 so that we could be at breakfast by 7:20. We wanted make sure we were at the Rope Drop before 8:30. Sigh…. Let me introduce the delays caused by Disney Bus system again!!! We arrived at the bus stop at EPCOT at 8:30. We had no less than 3 buses for each other park go by before one for EPCOT. Ah well, we are on vacation….

I do dislike the gates at EPCOT. We were all funneled in to about 2 gate sections (with 2 turnstiles each) so it took forever to get in, even after it started! However J I could clearly see that 80 percent of the crowd was heading to Soaring….so, armed with my groups passes I headed there and sent my family off to Mission: Space to wait for me. When I got to the building that Soaring is in they were forcing everyone to use only one of the stairs so we had again another bottleneck. I finally go to the Fast Pass Distro machines and there was no one there. EVERYONE was rushing here to ride! I can’t imagine how long they all waited.

Armed with my fast passes I walked back across Future world very much going against the tide. I stopped briefly to look at the characters in the meeting place with no one on line with them. I waved to Pluto and got a friendly ear wag back.

I started back on my way to Mission: Space. I arrived to find everyone ANXIOUSLY waiting for me. There was a 2 minute wait for a ride so in we went! We, of course, chose the Orange version as we entered the line and walked right up inside. I absolutely love the setup. The inclusion of Gary Sinise was brilliant. He is the perfect face/voice for the ride prep. On to the ride. As my youngest son (DS#2) and my DMiL did not ride this we were four in number, perfect! We had a great time and it was a fun ride. I was expecting a much more intense experience with all the ‘talk’ there had been, and I would have liked it to be (all of us would have liked this).

We exited the ride, said hi to our other two party members and headed off to Test Track (the same two would not ride this). We did the singles line to further speed our progress this morning. We were very concerned that we would get everything we wanted done before lunch at Coral Reef. We headed in an waited our turn here. In five minutes we were all ready to be assigned to our cars. My DS#1 and I got in the same car in different rows, and my DW and DFiL were in the cars in front and in back of us. Again, as in 1999, my wife and I were disappointed with this ride. I really think it is lame, with the exception of the fast part in the end. My DS#1 loved it, and my DFiL was disappointed as well. They need to do something, but I don’t know what, to make this more thrilling.

We exited the ride and found DS#2 and DMiL. They had a story to tell us. My DS#2 is quite adventurous and has a greatly overinflated view of his own abilities. While we were in TT he decided that Mars was in the wrong place (in front of Mission: Space there is a Large Red Planet ball) and it was up to Super Andrew to move it. He did his very best, grunting and pushing, to move it much to the delight of the CM at the line entrance. He came over and gave Andrew a sticker and my DMiL 5 fast passes to our choice of 5 rides! J WOOT These will come in handy later.

Well we have finished the east side of Future World and now we are off to the West side. We stop short of the fountain for a drink and continue on to The Living Seas with Nemo. In front of this ride there are some great representations of Nemo and the gang. We found a Disney Photographer and got some shots taken, hope they come out!!! Then we headed in to the ride.

We wait about 15 minutes for this ride, which is longer than I would like but I really see no option. We get in two clam shells and really enjoy the ride. What great effects to see the characters swimming in the tank. Truly Amazing. DS#2 especially got very excited shouting to us “Mommy Daddy, NEMO!!!”.

We got down to where we were supposed to go for Turtle Talk and then took a look around. It is a neat place but very hard to look around IF you are waiting to see Turtle Talk. You don’t want to loose your place.. After about 10 minutes the doors open up and we head in. We thought DS#1 would sit up front and DS#2 would sit with us. Ha… J DS#2 has to do everything DS#1 does, so they both sat in the front. I think that of all the new things since our last visit in 2002 this is the most incredible. You just can’t believe the level of sophistication there is in this. We thoroughly enjoyed this show and the boys loved it. Of course we were ‘Dude’d to death for the rest of the day! That was how our morning went!

It was lunch time and thanks to the great planning by me we are right next to our restaurant when we exit the Living Seas. None of us have ever eaten at the Coral Reef, my family is not in to seafood at all but my inlaws are. I have set up some special things here for my DS#1 to celebrate his birthday. We check in and sit down to wait for our table. We didn’t have long to wait and we were taken down to Tier 1 and booth on the far end of the row.

Our waiter is very solicitous and hands out everyone’s menu but Thomas’. He presents to Thomas and says that he heard it was Thomas’ birthday recently. Unfortunately the pictures I sent to the Coral Reef didn’t make it to his menu but his name and Happy Birthday is. We check out all the offerings and make our selections when the waiter returns. After our salads arrive the second half of my surprise for Thomas arrives.

We are all enjoying the tank, and the view we have is just wonderful. There are many beautiful fish in there and my sons are most excited by the sharks we see and the sting rays. In back of a grouping of coral we start seeing some bubbles. Thomas sees them first, eagle eyes that he has, and asks if there are divers in there. We had seen divers while at the Living Seas. I say there must be, knowing what is coming next. Thomas keeps watching and says they are coming closer. Sure enough, two divers swim in to view and come right to our window! Everyone thinks this is pretty cool, but only I know what is going on. The divers knock on the window and wave to us. One has a white sign in his hand and unfolds it. On the sign it says “Happy 7th Birthday Thomas” and everyone in my group is astounded. Thomas is sitting there with his mouth hanging open. It is as good as I hoped J. The divers start pointing at everyone and moving his hand back and forth like a music conductor. Everyone around us gets the hint and a rousing chorus of Happy Birthday starts.

After this wonderful start we continue our delicious meal. For my part I had the Land and Sea for my appetizer. I don’t like seafood so our waiter made it Land and Land J. It was delicious! My entrée was the NY Strip Steak with regular mash potatoes and broccoli. The steak was exceptional! My desert was the crowning event of the culinary part of my lunch. It was the Chocolate Wave…. WOW! :)

After lunch, which was the longest meal we had during our trip at 2hours 5 minutes, it was break time but we still had two fast passes to use J. First we went and road the Land tour since everyone could ride that. I always enjoy this tour, especially the pumpkins being trained to have ears J. After this ride was done the four of us who were going to ride Soarin went over to that ride. I have to say I was slightly disappointed by Soarin. It is beautiful yes, but I see it as only an updated version of one of the 180 degree vision movies. The other members of our group enjoyed it more than I did.

NOW it was break time and we headed back to our room at Riverside. On deck for the evening was a visit to Downtown Disney. Our trip back to the hotel was uneventful and we had a nice 2 hour break. Now my in-laws could have been less interested in Downtown Disney but not much . My DW and I like to shop in the stores but that was not be on this trip. We did get some time in the World of Disney store shopping for our new niece and then we went to the Lego store for my DS#1. I did go off on a short expedition of my own. One of my favourite things at our last trip (11/02) was a photo shoot with Mickey in DTD. I was very disappointed to find this location had been changed to an information center/photo shoot for the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique.

Everyone but myself decided to eat at the Gourmet Pantry, but I wanted some spaghetti with chicken from Wolfgang Puck Express. After dinner, mine was delish as usual, we took the boat back to our resort for sleep! The End of day four!

Tomorrow - Animal Kingdom!

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