wendinator

Looks like I'll wrap this up within the same year! Yay! Friday morning was check out day and the beginning of our long journey home. My sister packed up the room, dropped the guys off at Blizzard Beach and then went to Target. Remember those zebra domes I bought the night before? They were my breakfast on Friday. If having zebra domes for breakfast is wrong, I don't ever want to be right. First order of business after checking out was returning my rental car. My sister met me there to pick me up since I was now without wheels. We talked about lunch options and settled on th

Thursday morning was another check out day. All these different hotels were great for the kids who got to try lots of different pools, but they were no fun for all the packing and unpacking. The kids wanted to spend more time in the Beach Club pool - and you can use the facilities for the whole day you check out. So the kids went to the pool. This was also another Beaches & Cream day (remember I said there were 3 reservations?). I got the kids grilled chicken... with maybe 12 fries? The kids meal comes with the cute little mouse ice cream. I got strawberry.

Wednesday was the last park day for my BIL and the two kids. At lunch I went over to the Boardwalk area and decided on the Big River Grille & Brewing Works. They had a patio out front but it was just too hot for that. I was hoping for a nice wheat beer. They brought me a little sample of a beer I thought I might like. Not so much. A glass of sangria would have to do. It's a tough life, eh? All that fruit on the glass reminded me of a time I ordered a Blue Moon at home and said, "hold the fruit". Well the server guy heard "all the fruit" so my beer showed up with

Oy - it's almost 2018 and I'm still chipping away at this trip report. We left off at the end of Monday August 28 - which was my birthday. Tuesday morning was a check out day - we had to leave the Poly and check into the Beach Club. My sister and her family packed up their stuff and left fairly early since the kids were eager to hit the Beach Club pool. I don't have a lot of pictures of the room but I grabbed these ones that my sister took. That table folds down and the chairs move out of the way and that's where my pull down bed was. Little kitchenette.

The only thing that's problematic is the fried chicken. They offered to bring grilled chicken instead, but my sister was content to just chow down on the ribs. For dessert instead of strawberry shortcake they bring an "OMG" brownie with strawberry sauce. You also have the option to get cookies or fruit. Since they share a kitchen with Trail's End you have lots of options, including gluten free mac & cheese.

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The nice thing about the Pago Pago building is it's a relatively short/easy walk to the TTC to catch the ferry over to MK, so that's what I did at lunch. I went to the Starbucks on Main Street and the guy could not have been more disinterested in my birthday... despite wearing my birthday button (which I only wore on my actual birthday, not the rest of the trip) and asking about using my birthday reward. No little happy face on the cup or anything. No Starbucks magic for me. But I did get to be on Main St for my birthday so that's plenty good. I had some fun with a PhotoP

Sunday morning we finished packing and loaded up my sister's minivan. We told the kids that I had to return the rental car, so they'd follow me. But of course we weren't going home! I drove to the Poly and my sister told the kids, "She probably wants a Dole Whip for breakfast." When I got to the security booth at the Poly I told the guy, "We're checking in, but the kids don't know that, so please tell them I'm getting a Dole Whip for breakfast." He said no problem and my sister got through no problem. We both parked and went inside. My sister had already done online check-in,

Let's see if I can't get this wrapped up - the second week should be pretty quick since it was way less interesting, unfortunately. We left off on a Friday night having been to MNSSHP. Despite being up late Friday night, we still managed rope drop on Saturday morning at Epcot. In the parking lot I spotted an Alaska license plate. That's a heck of a drive! Here was this morning's parking reminder. While the boys went off to do Test Track, I decided to swing by Starbucks for a sugar drink. When I opened up my app to pay it wished me a happy birthday. When I g

Just realized I left out a key detail that will become relevant later on. When we were at the Poly for the Ohana breakfast, Stitch kid was looking longingly at the Poly pool and saw that there was a gate that could only be opened with a Magic Band. He zapped his MB, the light turned red, and the gate wouldn't open. We weren't surprised by this, but you can't knock the kid for trying.

I think MNSSHP is worth it for me - I love the parade and fireworks. Plus Halloween is my favorite. The atmosphere is fantastic. But if I had to pay for a family of 4 or more I might have a different answer! I've never done the other hard ticket events like MVMCP.

Don't you hate it when life gets in the way of a writing trip report? Sorry for the lengthy intermission. We're now on Friday, August 25. My sister booked an 'Ohana breakfast for her and the Stitch-loving kid. My BIL and the other kid went to Typhoon Lagoon in their minivan, so I volunteered to take my sister and the kid over to the Poly for their ADR. While they had their breakfast I just wandered around, sat outside, and got myself a little breakfast at Capt Cook's. Breakfast burrito review was posted here. After breakfast we went to Target to grab a few things. This was the b

I did it at Cosmic Ray's and the Satu'li Canteen and thought it was great! Unfortunately in this case the food was for my sister and she requires a gluten free bun, and you can't mobile order something gluten free.

Thursday was a bit of a rest day. My sister dropped the menfolk off at Typhoon Lagoon first thing in the morning and then she went to the Disney outlet store on International Drive. She got a good deal on an Avengers Dooney so she was pretty happy about that. We agreed we'd meet up at Disney Springs when she was done. I checked MDE and managed to score myself a FP for FEA in the afternoon so that gave me a plan of Disney Springs in the morning and Epcot in the afternoon. I also had a 5:45 dinner ADR for Jiko - I would have gone alone but the rest of the crew said they'd join me so I booke

The Pirate's Adventure doesn't cost money, apart from park admission.

You're exactly right! When I asked a CM there she said it's because the barber shop is supposed to be turn of the century, when he was president.

Wednesday was a Magic Kingdom day and we were there for rope drop. This morning's parking reminder. After we cleared security we had a little debate about ferry vs monorail. The kids wanted to take the monorail (no surprise there!) so that's what we did. The kids decided that they wanted to do Space Mountain at park opening so we waited by Tomorrowland Terrace. Apparently this isn't a very popular place to wait, but I thought it was great. There was a place to sit, and a bit of air conditioning from the restaurant. I think there might even have been shade. I marked our wait

Yes, you have to use your MagicBand to get to the club level (after you zap your MagicBand in the elevator it auto-selects the right floor) and there is a concierge desk after you exit the elevator.

I drove us all back to AKL. Even though my sister and family had to check out that day, they still had use of the facilities until the end of the day and that included the club lounge. I went up with the boys and saw someone there with a drink I knew I had to have. That is a jungle juice mimosa! One of the many perks of club level is free beer, wine... and jungle juice mimosas. It was tasty but WOW did it ever go straight to my head after being out in August heat. The kids went swimming and I sat poolside and watched for a while. I also took this picture because I was trying in

I haven't really done the math here but I know that credit cards don't exactly use favorable exchange rates (well... favorable to THEM but not so much to me) so my logic is that one transaction of $100 is going to be better than 10 transactions of $10 when buying things like Dole Whip, cream cheese pretzel, quick serve lunch, etc. I think we're the same age! I see them now - thanks! And yes, a totally different viewing experience.

Our plan for Tuesday was Animal Kingdom. None of us had been since Pandora opened. My sister and family had to check out of AKL that morning so that was my sister's task for the morning since she wasn't coming to the parks with us. I picked up the 3 boys (BIL & 2 nephews) at AKL and we drove to AK. Here's this morning's parking reminder - taken just a bit before 8 am. Park was scheduled for 9 am opening. We cleared bag check without any problem and I got in the tapstile line off to the left. Apparently the boys had some kind of ticket that required activation before the

I'm happy to have them included, but I can't actually see them! Photobucket. :-( Yes, there's a warm, sweet, cream cheese filling inside the pretzel. I like them a lot.

I don't have the photos to prove it but my digital bread crumb trail tells me that I did the Laugh Floor after this (henceforth abbreviated as MILF - you've been warned). I probably did MILF 3 or more times on this trip and not once did I get the bit they used to do where they pick people from the audience to be Mike/Sulley/Randall/Boo. Do you remember that? Here's a picture I took in Aug 2015 because the guy in the row ahead of me was picked to be Mike (with one I) - you can see my arm and phone in the picture. That one was a lot of fun. Now they only do the bit where they can tell

Thanks again to everyone for commenting and following along. After the PeopleMover I headed over to the Carousel of Progress. I almost always sit in the same spot for this - all the way over to the right. I know that in COP they don't ask you to move all the way down to the end of the row to make space for everyone... but I usually do it anyway. Today I threw caution to the wind! So I got a better view of these folks instead. I noticed either in the Lines app or on the park map that there was something called iCan that had an appearance in Tomorrowland coming up soon so I decide

Thanks for following along! My sister and family were aiming to maximize their resort time (and were especially fond of club level) which meant I had the day to do with as I pleased. And I was pleased to do rope drop at MK. I was at the TTC and in my parking spot just after 8 am. I took a picture of my parking row because I know otherwise I'll never remember. This was my first time back at WDW since the security procedures changed, so that meant this was also the first time I went through security at the TTC. I think this distributed model works better than the centralized