Posted By Melanie @ 8:49 AM |
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Trip Report Part 2
SATURDAY JULY 23, 2005:
We started the morning at Animal Kingdom since I scheduled a character breakfast at Donald's Breakfastasaurus restaurant. We were seated within minutes of our priority seating reservation and started filling our plates at the buffet. We warned the staff ahead of time of Bam-Bam's condition and his reaction to characters that directly confront him. We positioned our seats so that Bam-Bam was seated at the wall and I was on the "aisle" and Lil' Michaelangelo was in the high chair at the head of the table with The Professor at the other "aisle" seat across the table from me and Papa Bear at the other wall seat that way the characters would approach the table between The Professor and Lil' Mikey and our special needs cast member would warn them not to come directly to Bam-Bam but wave instead. This worked wonderfully and Bam-Bam was thrilled to see them at his comfortable distance. The Professor and Lil' Mikey loved them. Lil' Mikey sat in his high chair with his arms extended waiting for each of the characters to come hug him. We got to see Donald, Pluto, Goofy and Mickey. It was lots of fun! After breakfast, we walked around Animal Kingdom a bit and made our first stop at the BoneYard where all three boys ran around playing on the playground - running up and down, sliding, through the tunnels and got all wet in the little waterfall. We got to see Lucky the Dinosaur and The Professor hit some rides at DinoLand USA. It was sinfully hot there so we packed up after a few hours and headed back to the resort for a nap, lunch and pool time. While Papa Bear and Bam-Bam took a nap - The Professor, Lil' Mikey and I hit the pool. Then Lil' Mikey and I walked all around the resort checking things out. We did a room service dinner that night (Don't reccomend this at all!!! MUCHO $$$$ - we got a burger, 5 drinks, 2 PB&J's with chips, a grilled cheese with chips, caesar saladand it was $90 with the fees and added 18% gratuity!!!!! HOLY RIP OFF BATMAN!!!!) and then some more pool time and hung around the resort. The Professor got to check out the arcade with his Dad. Another early bedtime for the kids - so far all three had gone to bed with no problems including Bam-Bam and had been sleeping all night.
SUNDAY JULY 24, 2005:
On Sunday we had plans to meet my friend Allison and her husband and daughter at Planet Hollywood in Downtown Disney for lunch. So we slept in a bit and hung out in our room before heading out to our resort restaurant Whispering Canyon for breakfast. WOW....if you are a quiet person who doesn't like attention brought to you avoid this place at all costs. It is a real "friendly" atmosphere as they YELL Howdy! and other greetings at the top of their lungs while you eat. Please don't ask for ketchup! The entire restaurant is made to bring their bottles to your table. The servers point out if you have had seconds or thirds to the entire place by yelling it out while pointing at you. They do have a cute pony race with wooden stick ponies around the place for the kids. That was fun to watch. The kids seem to really like all the commotion but there were certainly sour pusses in the room as well. It was an experience! We took the bus to Downtown Disney early to make sure we were there on time to meet the Loo Family for lunch. We checked out the Virgin Megastore for awhile as well as other stores before meeting up with The Loos at Planet Hollywood. We had a really nice lunch (despite Lil' Mikey deciding he was going to beat up The Professor in the booth and turn into a crazy wild child). After a nice long lunch we walked around the Marketplace a bit hitting the Leggo store which was VERY crowded and hot. Bam-Bam didn't fare so well and reached an overloaded state and had to be removed to calm his minor outburst. His first meltdown of the vacation. Not a real bad one either, but he calmed and we decided he had enough so we split ways with the Loos and took our kiddos back to the resort for naps before heading to the Magic Kingdom that night. After naps at the resort we took the Wilderness Lodge's ferry boat over to Magic Kingdom. After arriving we split so that I could take Bam-Bam to pick up his special needs Guest Assistance Card (GAC) and Papa Bear took The Professor and Lil' Mikey to pick up a double stroller (tip- prepay for your length of stay if you rent a stroller - you get a discount and don't wait in line to pick up strollers). Our first item to hit on The Professor's list for this park was the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. We all walked up and down that and then decided to try the little ones out on a ride complete with darkness and loud music. The year before this was something Bam-Bam could not handle and we wanted to see how he would do as well as howLil' Mikey would make out on a ride. So we opted to try out It’s a Small World as our guinea pig. The wait was under 20 minutes so we did not use our GAC. Bam-Bam and Lil' Mikey both did great so in order to keep up the momentum we also hit Peter Pan, Buzz Lightyear, Winnie the Pooh and the Tomorrowland Transit Authority rides. Then we visited Mickey's Toontown Fair and walked around before heading back to the resort. We got to see some of the parade before leaving and the fireworks when we reached the boat dock at our resort. To sleep for some much needed Zzzzz's.
MONDAY JULY 25, 2005:
We started out the day early to make it over for the opening of Blizzard Beach at 9am. So it was pastries, donuts and fruit for a quick morning meal before getting on the bus to go to Blizzard Beach water park. We got inside the park and went to rent a locker for stuff we did not want to leave by a beach chair. We brought our own towels to avoid renting them at a few bucks each. Then we headed over to the kiddie area so Bam-Bam and Lil' Michaelangelo could play on the little kid stuff - slides, squirting fountains, etc. Then we went to find a neutral close area to leave our stuff while we tried out the Lazy River. Bam-Bam and Lil' Mikey didn't like the tubes so we just floated along in the river without any tubes (except The Professor would take one every now and then to use). After two laps around the park and after a cute group photo we decided to check out the Ski Patrol area next to all the slides for the bigger kids with an Iceberg walk that The Professor tried to maneuver. We then went into Blizzard Beach's wave pool which the kids liked out in the deeper water so the waves wouldn't run them over. We picked up our picture and traded off our locker key to someone waiting before heading back at noon (the lockers were sold out by the time we were trying to leave and the line was crazy waiting for lockers so keep it in mind if you ever venture out there). We got lunch and got the boys to nap before heading back to Magic Kingdom. We had our Castle Dinner Reservations tonight and couldn't wait to go! We got to Magic Kingdom and went into Mickey's Philharmagic 3D show. This show is excellent but very loud and scared Bam-Bam bad. He yelled a few times but refused to leave the show because he wanted to see it. So he made it through but wouldn't keep the glasses on and Papa Bear had to hold his ears to relax him. Lil' Mikey and The Professor both loved the show though. After, we walked around Toontown Fair again until our dinner reservation at Cinderella's Royal Table. We have never dined in the castle since reservations are hard to get. Breakfast and Lunch are character meals with the princesses but having three little princes, we opted for dinner. Cinderella is on her throne once you enter the waiting area before you are called to go up the winding staircase to the restaurant. We were seated and called Queen, King, and the three princes. After ordering from the small and pricey menu we found the food to be worth the wait as everything was delicious. Papa Bear had the prime rib while I had the Filet of Beef. The kids had Pretzel Hot Dogs and Chicken Fingers. They were most thrilled with the cool Mickey straws that came with their drinks as well as being called "prince" and "young sirs". After dinner we headed back to the resort since the night before didn't prove that Bam-Bam would handle the parade very well again or the fireworks so we made haste to get out of the park before the crowds boxed us in. We did some night swimming, watched a movie and headed off to bed.
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