Blood in the Refrigerator...A Confusing But Fun Kidani Trip New 2/17

[Enchantress01]

What a view from your balcony. I can see why E loved it so much!

What a great day in Epcot. I'm glad you had a fun time on Soarin'; we love it too!

Some day I hope to have the courage to ride the orange side on Mission Space. 'Til then, I'll stick to walking out of the park rather than leaving in an ambulance.

It's great that your whole family really loved the trip.It's a great feeling.

 

[appleorchard]

Awesome update!

Thanks! Our days alone with the kids were really awesome--and actually, our day with their parents were quite good too!

Glad you had a moderate May. Last time we went it was HOT HOT HOT -- however, we weren't doing the Disney parks, and I couldn't want the resort grounds much anyhow because I got a blister a few days in at SeaWorld, so it worked out okay.

We like Downtown Disney, but we usually go earlier in the day when it isn't so crowded, which I think makes a big difference.

I almost fell over from the lack of heat. We were so geared up for drop dead humidity and it was shocking to NOT have it be that way--very pleasant, but shocking!

What a view from your balcony. I can see why E loved it so much!

What a great day in Epcot. I'm glad you had a fun time on Soarin'; we love it too!

Some day I hope to have the courage to ride the orange side on Mission Space. 'Til then, I'll stick to walking out of the park rather than leaving in an ambulance.

It's great that your whole family really loved the trip.It's a great feeling.

We (DH and I) did the orange side in October--that was my first time riding with the big boys. It's really a LOT more fun -- but I did worry about the kid's stomach-- daredevil E can throw up at the drop of a hat in everyday life and gets car sick-- go figure--so I didn't want to chance it.

 

[appleorchard]

So this day really had absolutely no drama. Really. It was perfect. You might want to stop reading now.

We did all the rides we wanted to do in Future World.

M thought Spaceship Earth was awesome. He really likes history--he's the only kid I know who reads maps of WW2 battles for fun.

Actually, he reads any kind of map for fun.

We had a very hard time tearing the kids away from the race cars in the dump area after Spaceship Earth. These things are insanely popular-- there are always kids hovering over your shoulder, hoping to get into the seat as soon as you vacate it.

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M at the controls.

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E ( and Simba, of course) finally managed to get a turn-- she's not as aggressive as M is about jumping into empty seats.



We tried our hand at an Agent P adventure for the first time, since the kids are big fans.

Well, I wasn't impressed. It was hard to hear what they were saying. It was getting hot out. In general, it just wasn't the wow I was expecting.

The kids dutifully finished our round in China, but it didn't make either of their "most fun" lists for the day.

I though maybe we could find the elusive Donald cup for K in Mexico, since that's Donald's hangout, so we scoped it out after chasing Donald through Mexico on a boat.

We found-- something!

No, it was nothing like the original coffee mug. But it was a travel cup, with Donald on it, with a lid, and since K is always transporting the kids somewhere in the car-- they're homeschooled -- M decided to get it for her.

One mission accomplished!

M was very excited. For the next day, he kept revising his plan for giving his mom the cup. M is very detail oriented. The next day, when we were meeting his parents in AK, he worked himself into a frenzy about beating his mother in the door so she wouldn't find the cup in his luggage before he could give it to her.

We had a snack in Mexico to calm him down. Being half Hispanic, and being Connecticut Texans -- sort of -- both kids love Mexican food.

We meandered over to Germany and the trains on our way to the American Adventure. I knew the history buff would love this one too, and he did. But first, we watched the trains.

These things are so mesmerizing. My DH owns an LGB train set, which we put up every Christmas. There's a train station, benches and little people, which M,E and J endlessly rearrange at Christmas. And they all love to run the train-- usually, way too fast.

When M was around 5, he drove the train right off the tracks into the Rosenbach station and knocked its sign off. When we asked him what happened, his explanation was,

"I was driving past and the station sign just... flew off." Despite the train wreck evidence to the contrary. You gotta love little kid's lies.

Older kids, not so much.

Dinner was at the Coral Reef, and, despite reports that the food isn't great, we had a good dinner. E had a steak, I had some sort of fish. I have no idea what anyone else ate. We all enjoyed it though.

We had to do Turtle Talk, because DH loves it. And the Nemo ride. Then DH left, bowled over and worn out by the excitement.

The kids and I stayed and closed Epcot. Because we didn't get a place for the fireworks early, we kind of moved restlessly from spot to spot looking for something good at the last minute.

I hate it when people do that.

But our view was good enough, and everyone liked the fireworks, unlike a few years ago when M couldn't tolerate the noise. Mr. Sensitive Ears.

And then he wanted a Star Wars vinylmation for his one and only souvenir. Why? I don't know.

So with great anticipation, after fingering every single star wars vinylmation box in the store, he opened the box, saying, "I hope it's not Greedo, because the box says the odds of getting Greedo are really high."

It was Greedo.

He was okay with it. I videotaped his opening the box so I can't show you, but he didn't cry.

Unlike when the first three packages he opened a few years ago on Christmas contained clothes. Then, he cried.

We still terrorize him about it.

So it was a perfect day, with no drama, and exactly the kind of day we dreamed about when planning the trip.

Except for Greedo. He never really made it into my dreams at all.

 

[wiigirl]

Great update!

 

[Backstage_Gal]

Great update, glad you had a good day!

 

[Enchantress01]

O.K., you're brave. You've inspired me to try the orange side on Mission Space. But before I enter, I'm giving them your name as my emergency contact. ('Course, I don't know how far Appleorchard will get me)

We skipped Agent P on the last trip. We tried it back when it was Kim Possible. The idea is cute, but as families start backing up and they reveal the clues in front of you eliminating the surprise factor. Maybe we'll try again and start early.

Glad you had a great day and things went as planned.

 

[appleorchard]

Great update!

Thanks--it's not as easy to write about non-dramatic days lol

Great update, glad you had a good day!

We really did-- every day-- but there's drama coming!

O.K., you're brave. You've inspired me to try the orange side on Mission Space. But before I enter, I'm giving them your name as my emergency contact. ('Course, I don't know how far Appleorchard will get me)

We skipped Agent P on the last trip. We tried it back when it was Kim Possible. The idea is cute, but as families start backing up and they reveal the clues in front of you eliminating the surprise factor. Maybe we'll try again and start early.

Glad you had a great day and things went as planned.

Well, I AM a nurse lol...but not yet a famous one under my nom de plume...

Agent P really disappointed me, I expected way more. We really could barely understand what they were saying and I'm not sure the kids really got the point--- even though they're 11 and 8 and not stupid, in my opinion lol. Maybe we just had a bad mission or a bad communicator.

 

[appleorchard]

E was up bright and early today, to watch her beloved cattle and get ready for her favorite park....Animal Kingdom!

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Here's our goal for the day. You'll notice that E has acquired Nala to go with baby Simba. It's not a baby Nala, which caused her some angst. They don't exactly match, but because they're about the same size, she decided it was okay.

We had some very specific goals to accomplish today, which went back to previous trips.

1. See Dug and Russell. Russell is very much the afterthought here. What animal-crazed E really wants to see is Dug. This is why. On their last trip (when they went with my DIL's mom) things were hectic at times. First of all, my son, whose manic planning can make me (a manic planner but life has taught me a few lessons he hasn't learned yet) look catatonic. Secondly, in my son's defense, my DIL's mom had health issues that complicated the trip.

On their first day, they were keeping to my son's minute-by-minute schedule, which included way too much stuff. They flew by Dug and Russell on their way to somewhere else and my son said they'd catch them later.

You know what happened. There was no time in the schedule and E went home depressed over not seeing Dug (and Russell, but not really)

So if we accomplished NOTHING else today, we had to see Dug(and Russell.).

2. I had to walk by the entrance to the Boneyard and see if they'd changed the security measures there.(See my last trip report for details)

3. We had to meet the children's parents for dinner at 5. They were arriving around 9, but going to Epcot and meeting us later.

4. I had to go check out of this room and into the 2 bedroom. M and K would go to the hotel and pick up their park tickets from the front desk, where I was going to leave them. They would also end up picking up the keys. This seemed easy at the time; I had no idea what a mess this was eventually going to be.

I also had to pack up all the kid's stuff, my stuff, the fridge and food. I also had to call Bell services to get it and get out tip money because my DH was busy bandaging his toes. He does this because he gets horrible blisters at Disney, every time. Of course I also had to make their breakfast and feed the kids. I ended up stuffing half of M's clothes back into my suitcase in a rush, because his mother's Donald cup took up about half his suitcase.

This caused problems later.

We got there pretty fast, seeing as it's right next door. And I do have to say one great thing about Kidani's bus service-- you get picked up first, before AKL, for everywhere but DTD. That meant we always had a seat when leaving for a park. This was a big hit with everybody.

We had a few minutes of tension, when M my son texted me and said they were on ME and would be arriving shortly. I wanted to get out of there so our paths wouldn't cross, because I figured K wouldn't be able to leave the kids if we ran into each other. Fortunately, they arrived a few minutes after we left.

We high-tailed it back to the Safari first thing. The line said 20 minutes, but our eyes told us that was a lie. So we got FPs for 30 minutes later and took the train out to Rafiki's, which we (non animal lovers that we are) have never done before.

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E admiring the animals in the petting area.

Well, what a time sucker this was! We figured we'd be out and back in no time, but we forgot about E the animal lover. There were animals to look at, inside and out. The train ride took time. E would have spent all day in the petting area.

We had to hustle to make it back in time for our FPs.

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E meeting Rafiki

This caused some tension between DH and I. I was getting stressed, he was getting tired of listening to me. The usual marital issues of long-time married couples. We left Rafiki's ticked off at each other, but it went away.

Then we went on the safari.

And it came back.

Because of DH's scooter.

OK, he can't walk very far very well, partially of his own doing for not exercising more at home. So he rides the scooter in to the queue, where, even with FPs, we came to an abrupt halt.

Because the handicapped boarding area line was insane.

And of course, this was all his fault, him and his dumb scooter.

In my eyes.

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Yes, that's DH and his scooter in the background.

Now, I'm not unopposed to scooters; I used one myself last year when I tore a tendon on the bottom of my foot. I hate it, but I used it. Usually, his scooter makes life at Disney much more bearable. But since we had FPs, I thought he could have just walked in and left the darn thing outside.

Seriously, I've never seen the line so long. We waited about half an hour to get to the front of it.

The safari was fun. E loved it, of course. M is more like us:

"Animals. Huh."

Animal Kingdom is his least favorite park, he confided. But maybe it was because he was obsessing over how he was going to get to his mom's present before she started going through his luggage.

"Grandma," he said, with that worried look he gets sometimes. "We need to get into the room before my mom does."

"Why?" I ask, hoping that the room wasn't ready when they arrived and she hasn't already been there.

"She'll look in my suitcase," he said.

"That's ok, your suitcase won't be there yet," I say, hoping that it's true.

"When it comes, she'll look in it right away, so you have to distract her so I can get the cup out," he said, revealing a side of K I hadn't known existed. She searches luggage? To see if I'd lost anything? To see if I'd put dangerous contraband in there? Hmm.

Fortunately, the thought of lunch distracted him from worrying about the cup and me from worrying about K and her luggage issue.

But first... we HAD to find Dug(and Russell.)

And fulfill E's dream meeting. With a dog.(And a boy)

 

[Backstage_Gal]

I just love your updates, you have such a great way of telling stories. Thanks!

 

[ProudMommyof2]

Signing on. Loved your last report and love your sense of humor! There is nothing like seeing Disney through the eyes of young kids. My kids have decided to get older and steal my fun so I will have to wait for grandkids to experience it again, which better take a long time

 

[Enchantress01]

Yay for "do-over" trips! I hope E gets to meet Doug and M gets to surprise mom with her cup.

Yes! I'm curious to see if things have changed at the boneyard entrance, let's hope so.

Oh! And with TRs like these...your nom de plume will go from best kept secret to superstardom in no time!

 

[shalom]

Rafiki's is a crazy timesucker. Even if you just get out, check the place out to see what's there, and then head back, those two train rides (along with waiting for the next train to come along at both ends) take a lot of time. If you have someone along who wants to read the signs, pet the pettable animals, check out the snakes and whatnot, and get there early enough the veterinarians are doing something you can watch, it can take half the day!

 

[appleorchard]

I just love your updates, you have such a great way of telling stories. Thanks!

Well, I've got some good ones coming up lol.

Signing on. Loved your last report and love your sense of humor! There is nothing like seeing Disney through the eyes of young kids. My kids have decided to get older and steal my fun so I will have to wait for grandkids to experience it again, which better take a long time

Hang in there--sometimes teens get a second wind when it comes to Disney!

Rafiki's is a crazy timesucker. Even if you just get out, check the place out to see what's there, and then head back, those two train rides (along with waiting for the next train to come along at both ends) take a lot of time. If you have someone along who wants to read the signs, pet the pettable animals, check out the snakes and whatnot, and get there early enough the veterinarians are doing something you can watch, it can take half the day!

By, I wish I'd known! We made our FPs by the skin of our teeth, and I thought there wouldn't be much out there to do. (And, I guess, for us, there really wasn't lol) I wanted to SEE a surgery, but it seems like you can't really watch them operate. Bummer.

 

[appleorchard]

Yay for "do-over" trips! I hope E gets to meet Doug and M gets to surprise mom with her cup.

Yes! I'm curious to see if things have changed at the boneyard entrance, let's hope so.

Oh! And with TRs like these...your nom de plume will go from best kept secret to superstardom in no time!

Ahh, I hear fame has its drawbacks lol.

 

[appleorchard]

Not all characters behave the same.

I can't be the only person to have noticed this.

We were once eating what we thought would be a reasonably dignified dinner in the Liberty Tree Tavern with my mother.

Chip and Dale had no concept of "dignified." It's no exaggeration to say that they were chasing each other through the rooms and throwing rolls at each each.

It's also no exaggeration to say my mother was appalled and went from being charmed by the quaint decor to ready to leave before the dinner arrived.

Russell and Dug were a little bit like that too.

Of course, there were no rolls.

But they were carrying kidding around with the group in front of us a bit too far.

Maybe they knew each other. Who knows. They don't speak.

But we were a little nervous after watching them carry horseplay a step too far.

Fortunately, outside of the dancing, they were reasonably under control with E.

E loved them.

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So we checked that off our Disney bucket list.

Unfortunately, I'm down the Jersey shore with J and M. And J is fascinated with the emoticons and won't let me finish this. So I'll get back to this on Saturday, once I get home. We might actually finish up our AK day by then!

 

[appleorchard]

Once we had Dug and Russell checked off the bucket list, we could move on. Somewhere before this time, we managed to see the Lion King show, one of the things I really love at the Animal Kingdom.

I have very specific things that I love.

1. The music, especially the scar song, "Be Prepared." I have a favorite CM who sings this-- and I'm always a little sad when he isn't there.

2. The Tumble monkeys. I love them. I alos have a favorite tumble monkey. My family doesn't believe I can actually tell them apart, but I can. Once he shook my hand. Very exciting stuff.

3. The flying bird girl. During "Can you feel the love tonight" song.

The fire guy is cool, but I can take him or leave him. Timon annoys me.

If you remember, J usually manages to be one of the kids that walks around at the end and twice, she's been the one to meet Timon.

E is quieter than J and doesn't like a lot of attention, so I didn't know if she'd go up when they picked her, which of course they did, because we were sitting down on the bottom because of DH's wonderful scooter.(sigh)

And she did! To my surprise, she went up and walked around and even looked like she might be enjoying herself a little.

So we moved on to the Bird show, which DH and I both really like.

We have a favorite guy here too.

Maybe we go to Disney too much.

Anyway, the kids really enjoyed it and E went up to see the birds and the tour guide at the end.

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They really enjoyed it more than it looks in this picture

So, since we hadn't made any tactical errors for awhile-- well, we didn't feed the kids any lunch, but they ate enough junk food to make up for it, and we were having an early dinner -- we decided it was about time.

So we headed for It's Tough to Be a Bug.

Disclaimer: E said she wanted to see this. And she loves animals. And she's the brave one.

What could go wrong?

Well.

E started getting nervous when we walked into the dark, cave-like area and the buzzing started. Both E and M have a serious fear of things like bees. So poor E was looking over her shoulder and twitching and jumping over all the bzzing. M didn't seemed fazed.

We sat in the back (the scooter again) and near the exit.

That was fortuitous.

DH and I were mostly nervously watching M, he who has a history of freaking out at dark, loud noises, anything out of his comfort area and buzzing.

We should have been watching E.

When about 100 babies and small children started shrieking when the big grasshopper comes out--I forget his name-- E started shrieking too.

The general gist was that she had to get out of there right now, she didn't want to be there, she had to leave, leave leave.

M was laughing his head off at the show.

I took E behind some velvet curtain that said exit where I assumed there might actually be a door.

It was dark back there.

I couldn't find the door. This freaked E out even more.

It freaked me out a little too.

Finally some CM who heard me clawing at the wall looking for the door and E shrieking rescued us.

Whew.

So after that trauma, we needed a calming activity before meeting the parents.

We passed the playground. No, I don't think so. A CM by the exit. Well, thank you very much, Disney, for taking my suggestion. Or maybe she just stopped there to tie her shoe or something. I didn't care, I felt vindicated. (See my first trip report if you have no idea what I'm talking about)

We went to Dinoland so E could ride the wild mouse ride that jerks you around incredibly.

DH and M both passed.

E enjoyed it and put her trauma behind her. My neck wasn't too happy, though.

So we trudged back to Asia, criss-crossing the park for the 10th or so time, which seems to be the only way to tour this park.

We were meeting the parents at Yak and Yeti.

It was a joyous reunion. The children were happy to see their parents after missing them for.. what was it?... about two days.

Dinner was really good. There was much hilarity.



Things wouldn't be quite so funny when we checked into our new room.

 

[Dreamer & Wisher]

Oh dear...

What is wrong with your new room?

 

[Enchantress01]

Whew! Glad Russell and Doug didn't go the Chip and Dale route and E was able to enjoy the M&G.

The Lion King show is simply amazing. I love the "Be Prepared" song too and it's true, fire guy is o.k., but let's face it, the Hawaiians have that down!

You are waaay too funny! Your Tough to be a Bug curtain caper is just hilarious! My favorite part of the show is the babies and toddlers screaming, especially when the spiders drop down. Anyway, glad you made it out o.k. Of course, I won't be so tickled by it when I take my grandkids.

Yay for making the playground safer! I'm sorry you had to be driven to experience such frustration, but kudos for being "taken to the back room"!

Speaking of rooms, oh no!.....

 

[appleorchard]

Oh dear...

What is wrong with your new room?

Let me put it this way... here comes the blood!

Whew! Glad Russell and Doug didn't go the Chip and Dale route and E was able to enjoy the M&G.

The Lion King show is simply amazing. I love the "Be Prepared" song too and it's true, fire guy is o.k., but let's face it, the Hawaiians have that down!

You are waaay too funny! Your Tough to be a Bug curtain caper is just hilarious! My favorite part of the show is the babies and toddlers screaming, especially when the spiders drop down. Anyway, glad you made it out o.k. Of course, I won't be so tickled by it when I take my grandkids.

Yay for making the playground safer! I'm sorry you had to be driven to experience such frustration, but kudos for being "taken to the back room"!

Speaking of rooms, oh no!.....

Yes, things are about to get very dicey at the hotel, for several reasons!

 

[appleorchard]

So we headed out of the Animal Kingdom toward Kidani; M and K had picked up our keys so we just had to find out where it actually was.

That seems weird. I'm not sure why they had the room keys when the room wasn't ready yet. But they did. Of course, they hadn't put charging privileges on DH and my keys. Which we like to have. But I figured I'd put them on later.

And what a mistake that turned out to be.

But first--back to M the grandson and his big reveal for his mom for Mother's day. We called for the luggage and it came about lickety split, including all the groceries. I left it all cooling on the counter while I hustled M's suitcase into our bedroom and removed the cup, so he could present it to her.

He was all nutsy about giving it to her immediately, so I left the grocery-putting away for a few minutes and went to film the event.

K was appropriately touched, but poor M was crestfallen when he said, "I knew dad wasn't going to get you anything for Mother's day" and K showed him the bracelet(very sparkly) that my son had given her.

She assured him the cup was much more meaningful.

The lies we tell our children.



K looking appropriately surprised and happy while M bites his nails.

And then, to interrupt this happy interlude, I had DH calling me to come look at the refrigerator.

In a first-time ever event, he'd undertaken to put the groceries away.

But the blood all over the second shelf of the refrigerator took him aback.

"What is this?" he asked me.

I know I'm a nurse and all, so all medical questions in the family come to me, but in this case it seemed fairly obvious that the answer was that it was blood.

Beats me where it came from--I just got here too.

A quick look in the freezer gave us the answer-- there was a very large, partially thawed and bloody steak in there.

Fancy the maids leaving behind a leftover steak in the fridge.

And all the blood.

I could understand overlooking the steak, but the blood was really hard to miss. We're not talking a few spots here--we're talking an entire large defrosted steak's worth of blood.

There was some in the freezer too, of course.

Well, I wasn't about to plop my Greek yogurt and Fresca into a bloody refrigerator, so we called housekeeping. To tell them about the blood in the refrigerator. And some splatters on the wall. And the glass of water full of ashes on the balcony. I didn't want to have anyone else's smoking on the balcony damages charged to my account.

You already know I'm a rabid non-smoker.

And I thought they were continually watching the balconies at Kidani and AKl. To see if you're feeding the animals.

I did a quick look around to make sure the beds had been changed -- and that there were no bedbugs or anything else for housekeeping to attend to when they came up.

That was a comedy of errors.

We got one of the maids who didn't speak a word of English.

Trying to tell her what we wanted done with the balcony was pretty hard.

Obviously, she could see what was wrong with the fridge.

My DH and son seriously contemplated keeping the steak for future consumption, but I made sure it got packed up and removed.

That housekeeper cleaned the fridge within an inch of its life. It took her at least half an hour. When she was done, you could have eaten out of it.

Without fear.



I'm not sure how housekeeping could take time to make towel animals and yet miss the blood in the refrigerator