Do I Dare? A Non-Fort Report by a Lurker!

[lklasing 16]

So glad to have everyone along for the ride! Andrew, Kim and other Fiends from way back, glad to have you here! And yes, GOBA Lynn, the more the merrier is always my motto! Ray doesn't necessarily always agree, but he did this time and it definitely worked out for the best. Anyway, thanks to everyone reading along. Friday part two coming up!

[lklasing 16]

After getting in the room and unpacking at least part of the way, we headed off to the MK. Despite the fact that we could have walked there in less than 10 minutes, all the girls wanted to take the monorail. Four monorail stops later, and we were finally in a park! The crowds were far lighter than I think they normally would be, as storms were threatening and I think many people bailed, trying to beat the storms back to their resorts. So, we had fun in Frontierland and Adventureland, riding the Jungle Cruise, Splash, Thunder and HM.

Monorail ride:

Magic Kingdom:

We loved the new queue at the HM. We could have walked on by skipping the line but I was glad we chose to go through the new area. The interaction was very fun.

Around that time, we noticed that the sky was looking very ominous. The castle was quite shocking with the backdrop of the skies that we had, but unfortunately I didn't slow down enough as we booked it to the gate to take a picture. But, I grabbed these pics on the way to the monorail:

We barely made it to the monorail station on time before the Biblical storm hit. We definitely got wet when going over the crosswalk between the CR and BLT in hurricane type rain and wind. Happily, it didn't last too long and it was beautiful again (and much cooler!) before time for the EWP.

Just so I won't forget, here's our room number:

When we finally made it into the room, Ray and I ate some of the fried chicken we had gotten earlier from the Publix, while the girls munched on complete junk - Uncrustables, cookies and ice cream. On the first night of most trips these days, I make my usual Disney "sausage things" that are so perfect for breakfast and snacks on these trips, so that's what I did for what was left of the evening. While I was cooking, the kids headed first to the game room and then to the Community Hall room and played games with the CMs for a while (and had a great time, BTW). Afterward, we all loved getting to watch the EWP from our balcony. Finally, we hit the hay, priming ourselves for a great, early morning at AK for EMH, and then waiting for our friends Dave, Katherine, Michele and Dave Jr. to arrive. :yay:

[jrandall1972 aka Jan 0]

I absolutely love your girls expressions with Tink in their hands. Puts a smile on my face.

[DaveInTN 3,247]

Alright! I have always loved your TR's Leslie. And I'm really looking forward to hearing more about your stay at BLT...including pics! So glad you are posting this!! :dance:

[BouncingTiggers 98]

Great TR!!! The photo of your girls surprised to see tink is perfect.

[kampfirekim 260]

So glad to have everyone along for the ride! Andrew, Kim and other Fiends from way back, glad to have you here!

:banana: I'm a fiend from way back? I like that. :heart:

This is really a great TR. I've never seen one from BLT. Looking forward to more....

Magic Kingdom:

I absolutely :heart: this photo! What a beautiful shot of ya'll!

[lklasing 16]

Sat, May 28

We usually don't do EMH on our trips trying to avoid the crowds, but I had decided to give it a try again for the first time in a while. So on Saturday morning, we got up early so we could make it to the AK for the 8:00 EMH opening.

I took these pictures of our beautiful early morning view:

After an easy breakfast in the room, we caught the bus:

and arrived at the AK right at 7:55. Perfect, right? Well, there was a line at bag check unlike any I had ever seen before. It was to the point that people were really getting disgruntled about it. Turns out that on one side, they only had one guy to check each person coming in, and he was inspecting every nook and cranny of each bag. Once I finally switched sides to the other bag check area, we made it in pretty quickly, but we did lose about 15 minutes in just that process.

But, we made it in, and of course had to stop for some Photopass pics:

What cracked me up when I got the Photopass CD is that they included a lot of pics I didn’t know anything about, but they’re cute anyway:

Love this one:

We got some pics made in front of these fun little monkeys:

After the photo session, we headed to Safari. We always love this ride, and we enjoyed it again. It was especially fun being with Lynn this day, as she had never done any of the rides there at all. After having been to WDW and ridden many of the same rides so many times, it was really neat getting to see it through someone's eyes for whom it was all new. Anyway, she loved Safari and we all had a great time, as usual.

Danielle was particularly enthralled with the rhinos.

Incredible off topic alert here, but I have to explain one issue you may have noticed (or at least will see if you hang in there for the duration) in this trip report. My girls have a real character flaw when they get pictures made sometimes, and that's making this horrible face:

Turns out that one time forever ago, a friend took a picture of Danielle jumping through the air and declared that she looked like a baby rhino. See the resemblance?

This weirdness has resulted in a situation that whenever my girls (including Lynn, whom they immediately warped into the rhino thing on this trip), they always try to do the "rhino face". Sadly, you’ll see lots of the rhino face in this report. Anyway, that's a long explanation for an issue y'all didn't even realize was an issue for me, but it at least explains why we have so many pictures of rhinos from Safari this day.

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

More great pictures, I love that the girls are having so much fun together. :banana: Rhino faces, now that's just funny :rofl2:

[lklasing 16]

After Safari, we grabbed FPs for EE and hit Dinosaur. I really love that one. It's terribly jerky and loud, but it scares the bejesus out of me every time and you just don't get to get the pants scared off you in a safe environment in real life very often, so it's a lot of fun when you do.

Next we hit Kali. The sun was out and the temperature was rising, so it was definitely time for a soaking.

On our way:

This year I had my fun waterproof camera, so I got these:

Jodi and Lynn:

Ray and Danielle:

And the fun begins.

Love this one:

Danielle even did an unintentional rhino face in this one:

Finally, my favorite ride: EE.

Don’t be too scared, Ray!

Again, Lynn had never done this one and she absolutely loved it. If they crowds hadn't been serious by then and if our friends (the Smiths) weren't arriving around lunch that day, we would have ridden over and over. But, we were anxious to get back to find our friends, so we hit the exit.

Meanwhile, while we had been having all that fun at the AK (and even while we had still been sleeping that morning), the Smiths were up early and heading our way. :dance:

Michele:

Katherine and Dave Jr.:

When we were almost back to the CR, I got a text from Dave saying they were checked in and in their room. They got a tower room overlooking the pool, which means that they somehow got upgraded as they booked a wing room. Of course they loved it. Our girls hooked up with their kids at the pool, and when they found each other, you would have thought they hadn't seen each other for months, not just the 48 hours since they were all together taking final exams. They all pool hopped (don’t tell!) between the CR and BLT pools for a good long time. Finally, though, since the Smith kids hadn't been to a park yet and they had been in the World for all of 2 or so hours, they couldn't wait any longer. This was where we did something that Ray and I (and Dave too) had never done on a trip - let the kids go off to a park by themselves. We had talked it through at length with Dave and with Lynn's parents before the trip and developed all sorts of ground rules, but we felt very comfortable in letting them do this. My girls have been to WDW many, many times and really know their way around the parks like the back of their respective hands. And, they are all very responsible kids. Finally, all of the kids other than Lynn had at least one sibling on this trip, who would definitely tell if their brother or sister stepped out of line, so we figured that would help keep everyone on track too. So, after a final lecture, off they went to the MK on their own.

And guess what - they loved it. (No surprise there.) I'm not sure what all they got to ride given that they only had a couple of hours before their deadline to be back, but I know they managed at least BTMRR and HM. When they returned, we didn't even get any reports of fighting or snarkiness, so I'm calling the experiment a success.

Here is the joy when they escaped all their parental units:

Dang rhinos:

Here’s what happens when you let a bunch of hooligans on a monorail with no other passengers:

[anolefan 8]

I think that is hilarious!

It is one of those memories you will always look back on and laugh at. I think it is great.

You are doing an awesome job with this report!

:popcorn:

[lklasing 16]

The real fun began when they arrived at the MK:

And, they even stopped for some photopass pics:

While all the kids were gone, Ray and I just hung by the BLT pool and relaxed with a couple of beers. I jumped in to cool off a time or two, but we mainly just sat in the shade, people watched and had fun chatting about everything and nothing. It was very nice. You don’t realize how little of that down time you get with your spouse till you actually get some. Meanwhile, Dave was catching several much-needed naps in his room, so this mid-afternoon split from the kids was a definite winner for everyone.

The kids made it back just in time to not miss their designated return time. Dave and his kids did dinner at the Wave that night and really liked it. He said that Dave Jr. even helped him eat his scallops, which apparently is completely out of character for him. I had reservations for all five of our gang at Kouzzina at the Boardwalk, but Danielle, Jodi and Lynn were looking pretty beat. Plus, they had plans to swim with the Smiths when they finished at the Wave and the girls didn't want to risk not being back from dinner by the time the others got done, so we left them behind and Ray and I went to dinner by ourselves. The girls had dinner from their new fast food establishment - the Contempo Cafe - and then relaxed on the beach while they waited on the Smith kids to join them.

The Smiths appeared to enjoy their stay at the CR:

I love these with my favorite Mickey statue, even though we forgot to take any of our family there:

Meanwhile, Ray and I grabbed a taxi to the Boardwalk, where I had to check out the scene some as I’ve never stayed there and have thought about it before. It was very quiet before dinner, but it picked up a good bit afterward. It was a very neat atmosphere. I think I'd love to stay either there or at the YC/BC sometime. It just had a great ambiance.

Anyway, our dinner at Kouzzina was really good. We were actually in Greece last summer and loved the food there. I can't say that Kouzzina was entirely authentic, but it was very good nevertheless. Ray got the Kouzzina trio for his entree and it was especially good, especially the lamb burger. Yummmmmm.

After supper, we grabbed another cab back to the CR and caught up with the girls on a hammock on the beach, still waiting on their friends to finish dinner so they could all swim again. (I didn’t rub it in that they could have come for nice dinner with us without missing any of the fun after all – I’m nice like that. But, they looked pretty happy with their choice of staying behind anyway.)

So, Ray and I headed somewhere we had never been to before - the Top of the World Lounge at the top of BLT. (So, we may not have been totally legal in being up there, but our key said “Owner” or something to that effect, and they took us right on up there. Very fun.) It was really pretty and a very nice respite from the crowds. When we arrived, there was only one other group there, so it was very nice and quiet. Dave joined us when he got done with his dinner, and we all just sat and relaxed until it was time to rustle the kids to bed.

While we were there, the kids hit the MK one more time, and got exactly one picture to prove it:

So, after another round of snacking in the room (it's amazing how much teens and tweens can eat when they're always on the move), everyone settled down very quickly and hit the sack. (By the way, for anyone interested, the sausage things were completely gone by now. This was by far the fastest disappearance of a batch of those things ever on one of these trips. :) )

Next up – Epcot with matching shirts – what could be better??

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

Going to the parks with out the parents is a right of passage. I'm glad that they passed the test. I hope the parental units were able to enjoy some adult conversation and relax :banana:

[stefa70 205]

Great job on the report so far!

Be very careful letting the kids go off and have fun by themselves. Once they figure out how "cool" Mom is, you will never get to WDW without them! My son is 21, and he wouldn't dare let us go alone. ;D

LOVE the rhino faces! :heart:

LOVE the fact that you love smilies! :heart: :laugh: :cheers: :banana:

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

Great TR!! The faces (smiling and rhino) are priceless. :)

Keep it coming...

[DaveInTN 3,247]

Rhino faces! :rofl2: Too funny!

Loving all the great pics Leslie. Your kids are a hoot! But you've talked about some great food, including these sausage things and your Kouzzina, and no pics! What gives?? :popo:

Just kidding... :parrot:

[momof3kids-Yvonne 596]

This is an awesome report. The smiles on the faces of everyone and the twinkle in the eyes shows how much fun you all are having and absolute pure joy.

[kampfirekim 260]

I am completely in love with this TR!!! :heart:

[lklasing 16]

Thanks, guys! Y'all are very sweet and make me happy that I'm here! Glad you can appreciate the beauty (??) of the rhino face. Seriously, it drives me crazy sometimes, but it's become such a normal thing that it's hard to get a group picture without someone going rhino on me.

I know, Dave, I'm terrible about food - I eat too much of it but don't take any pictures! If I make any sausage things this week, I'll make sure to post a pic. :fork: :dance:

Thanks for reading!!!!

Leslie

[PureTcrazy...rita 380]

I love the Rhino faces! Enjoying your report and looking forward to more!

[H in SC 85]

I am completely in love with this TR!!! :heart:

I agree Ole Kampfire, This is one great TR!!!!

Lovin' the "Having the time of my life" facial expressions.

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Great TR. Looking forward to more!

[ImDownWithDisney 342]

This is a great TR! Looks like fun, fun, fun!

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

Lovin' the "Having the time of my life" facial expressions.

H has hit the nail on the head. That's truly what makes the photos so great! :fairydust:

[GOBA Mom Lynn 18]

I'll join the bandwagon and say I love the rhino faces, too.

It reminds me of our trip in 2003 when our DS was 12 1/2 and it was not cool going on vacation with just his parents and sister. He made it a point to deadpan in every photo he was in for the entire week. He was good, we tried all we could to make him crack a smile, but he never did. My mother was not too pleased with the pictures, since he doesn't look happy, but we knew he was having a good time--the rest of the world was just not going to know it.

[lklasing 16]

Y'all are so awesome for all your comments! And, I love the "time of my life" description of the pictures! That is what is so great about WDW. Somehow, every trip turns out to be a "time of my life" type trip, which must have something to do with us continuing to go back and back and back. We all just immediately relax, don't worry about all the usual stresses of home, and just settle into a great time. :parrot: (I've always wanted to use the bird smilie!)

Anyway, thanks again for reading! Next installment up shortly.