Fast Passes, We Don't Need No Fast Passes!

[jenseib]

I remember when epcot used to carry McDonalds fries and seagulls would dive onto people all the time. it was kind of scary looking. I saw many people just throw the whole order of fries to get them away. I swear that is one reason they got rid of them. Evidently the seagulls are McDonald junkies.

 

[Wicket's Mom]

I remember when epcot used to carry McDonalds fries and seagulls would dive onto people all the time. it was kind of scary looking. I saw many people just throw the whole order of fries to get them away. I swear that is one reason they got rid of them. Evidently the seagulls are McDonald junkies.

Seagulls are awful pests, can't enjoy food on the beach without them trying to grab it!

 

[englishrose47]

I'm trying to keep it rolling, but in two weeks we leave for Florida. We will be gone for 6 weeks! I will be able to post when gone, but I will be pretty busy lying on the beach or at the pool!

Oh please to busy laying on the beach

 

[englishrose47]

I am scared to try some of those mexican dihes and you have proven me right !!!!I also only once ate in Morrocco and did not enjoy that either !! I guess I am not adventurous in the food department !!Added that before some smart alec had a comment I will be careful what and if I order any mexican food at WDW!!!

 

[Wicket's Mom]

Rosie I will very hard at work on my tan and you know how hard it can be lying on a beach!

I do like Mexican food as long as it is not too spicy, but I didn't really care for those tacos at the Cantina. I am not very adventurous with food either, must be the English blood in me.

 

[MEK]

Wow - Just wow! It's been a couple years since I visited in September and those crowds just seem extraordinary low! You are making me rethink the whole September visit thing! No wonder Bob likes it so much.

I have to tell you - I ate at the QS in Mexico once and I really didn't care for it - at all! I know a lot of people enjoy it and I love Mexican, but I didn't love this is and with so many other great places to eat, why bother. Expect the view is nice!

Your trip is really off to a great start with a great morning in Epcot!

Inebriated purchase? I'm intrigued!

 

[Wicket's Mom]

We arrived back at AKL after our stop at Epcot. It was around 1:00 & since we didn’t need to be anywhere it was decided to hang out at the pool. AKL has such a lovely pool area. It feels like you are alone with all of the vegetation hiding everything. These pool shots were taken later, but this is a good spot for them.

This was beyond the spa to the left of the pool, the Savanna.

This spa was the smaller one on the left of the pool hidden by greenery.

Another view of the pool. I forget where this was taken, Bob snapped it during one of his walk arounds.

Another view of the pool from the small spa.

We spent most of our spa time in the smaller spa. The large one was emptied one day so it was out of commission for the day. The small one was also emptied another day, so we used the large one. I can’t seem to find any pictures of the large spa. I thought we took some. Oh well.

This was one of the view from a hallway window.

It was time for us to get ready to head over to the Poly for our dinner at Ohana. We had never eaten there & since Bob is a voracious meat eater, Ohana sounded like his kind of place.

We took a bus to the Magic Kingdom which wasn’t too long of a ride. Once there we hoofed it over to TTC to catch a ride to the Poly. The monorail wasn’t there so we decided to ride the boat over to Poly. This was a nice paced ride. The Poly is such a pretty resort.

We disembarked from our boat and headed up the walkway to the entrance. On the way I got to see and hear a proposal of marriage. The couple was in one of those swings, well she was, he was on his knee! We saw a proposal last trip, now one for this trip, sweet!

Since we were early we did some window shopping. I loved the items in the Wyland Gallery, it was so nice. After looking and thinking about some item, we had to go as it was getting close to our 5:15 ADR.

It was crazy crowded at the check in stand! Where did all of these people come from? So far we hadn’t seen that many in the parks! We had to wait in a pretty long line just to check in and tons of people were waiting in a seating area. We made it up ot the hostess stand gave our name and were to wait with the others. I thought we would be waiting a long while, but within 10 minutes were seated!

Our bread and salad were served as soon as the drink order was taken. I got this puppy, which was something I had wanted since I had started coming to WDW years ago!

A Lapu-Lapu, worth every penny I spent. Very tasty and relaxing!

The cooking area:

Hubby’s shrimp, he was peeling so fast picture blurred!

Chicken wings and pot stickers:

The infamous bread pudding:

Hard to see her but the lady singer with her ukulele was doing her thing in the left side of photo.

Some of the coconut racing kids helping her sing.

She announced for the people who were married & those not, were in love to come up to dance. I made Bob get up and dance of course he griped about it, but he was ok. We each got leied which was fun.

Ohana was ok, but wouldn’t return. Too much food, meat was ok, shrimp was really good. The bread needed butter, bread was just meh. Noodles didn’t have enough veggies. Bread pudding is not my thing, but this was ok just too much after all of the other stuff. We tried it and were glad we did, but once is enough.

On the way out I decided to stop into the Gallery again as I couldn’t get an item that I saw out of my mind. Bob told the salesgirl she was lucky I had the LapuLapu as it made me careless with my money! Of course I denied it and we had a good laugh!

This is what I bought as my Disney souvenir…..

I don’t care if it was unnecessary but I loved it and I still do.

Caught the boat again, made back to TTC, thought about the MK, but Party was getting near to starting time. It was getting crowded around there. We went to get a bus back to AKL. As we waited one of the other bus drivers had an accident. Somehow she had gotten stuck on the curb. No buses could get around her it was crazy for awhile until they could get her going again. Busses were delayed and backed up a long way. It took about 30 minutes before all was put right.

Got back to AKL, walked around outside a bit, did the night goggle thing. Had a nice conversation with a CM from Nairobi, she was a park ranger in her country. She was very interesting to talk with.

Headed back to our room chilled out with adult beverages, watched tv, went to sleep!

If we seem boring with no fireworks late nights it is because we really needed this vacation. Our last two months of summer were bad for us.
At the end of June I had an emergency that landed me an ambulance ride to the hospital with a 6 day stay. After surgery I was back on the road to recovery. While I was in the hospital a storm hit which tore some of our roof off and knocked down some of our trees. The day I went home we had no electricity and it was over 90 degrees. Since the electric was out that meant we had no water as we are on a well. At least the power was restored the next afternoon. It had been out for several days.

Trying to get the roof repaired has been a nightmare. We used Loew’s and it is now almost February and the roof is still not finished. They need to come back to fix the damage their contractor caused. We just get the run around. Anyway Bob was so tense with all of these things he needed vacation more than I.

AKL was the best gift we could have given ourselves, Disney magic at work again!

Next update, our visit to MK and backside of Splash Mountain…

 

[jedijill]

Love the necklace!

I've heard that if you contact Lowe's corporate office, you might be able to light a fire on your roof repair. Hope it gets done soon. I hope you are fully recovered from your surgery.

Jill in CO

 

[MomToPrincePhillip]

Yes I love the necklace too! Beautiful, what great taste you have. What is that drink all about?? Looks yummy. We have an ADR there for our May trip and hope to catch the fireworks on the the beach after, we've never been to the Poly so I'm looking forward to it.

 

[Wicket's Mom]

Love the necklace!

I've heard that if you contact Lowe's corporate office, you might be able to light a fire on your roof repair. Hope it gets done soon. I hope you are fully recovered from your surgery.

Jill in CO

Jill we will contact them again in the spring, Bob doesn't want them out here until the yard is dry.

I do so love that necklace, would love some of the matching pieces.

 

[Wicket's Mom]

Yes I love the necklace too! Beautiful, what great taste you have. What is that drink all about?? Looks yummy. We have an ADR there for our May trip and hope to catch the fireworks on the the beach after, we've never been to the Poly so I'm looking forward to it.

Thanks for the compliment!

The drink is made of rum and some juices, it's $14 which sounds like a lot, but since the pineapple is pretty full it is like having a little more than two drinks. It was pretty good.

 

[jenseib]

We felt the same way about Ohana. It was ok, but not really something we need to do again.

I love your necklace. That is gorgeous. I can see how you wanted to splurge!

 

[tinkmom2]

We loved the Ohana breakfast and thought it was one of the better ones around the properties. I might have to rethink having dinner there. The Luau has really good dinner though!

 

[KatMark]

I'm cathing up after being sick last week.

I love an empty Epcot. It just dawned on me that you were there right before us...we actually arrived on the 15th.

I LOVE the AKL and hope to stay there in 2014 when we bring our son and his new bride. The pool area is beautiful (although the year we were there, the love bugs were so bad that I could not enjoy the pool).

We've never done Ohana...I hear pros and cons on it; I'm leaning to not giving it a try after reading your review.

I absolutely adore your necklace.

 

[hobbs6799]

I am really enjoying your pictures. We go in October. I hope the crowds are that low then! Your necklace is beautiful and I can't wait to try a Lapu Lapu.

 

[Wicket's Mom]

I'm cathing up after being sick last week.

I love an empty Epcot. It just dawned on me that you were there right before us...we actually arrived on the 15th.

I LOVE the AKL and hope to stay there in 2014 when we bring our son and his new bride. The pool area is beautiful (although the year we were there, the love bugs were so bad that I could not enjoy the pool).

We've never done Ohana...I hear pros and cons on it; I'm leaning to not giving it a try after reading your review.

I absolutely adore your necklace.

We left on the 15th around 4:00, funny we just missed you! We didn't have any problems with bugs, in fact that week was just about perfect! Weather wasn't humid, nor was it sunny. The worst rain was when we were waiting for ME to take us to the airport, it came down in buckets about a half hour.

I love it, never have I bought something like that at an amusement park!

 

[Wicket's Mom]

I am really enjoying your pictures. We go in October. I hope the crowds are that low then! Your necklace is beautiful and I can't wait to try a Lapu Lapu.

I have never been in October, but it is hard to beat the crowd level at the time we go. It is my payback for all those times we went during Spring break & June when school let out for the summer!

 

[FancyNancy]

I am loving your trip report and subbing in! I would love to go in Sept sometime but my daughter is in elementary school and I don't dare take her out in the very beginning of the school year! I usually pull her out in April for the F&G festival. Someday though!

 

[Wicket's Mom]

Wednesday we woke up at 6:00 am as usual, can’t seem to sleep in anymore, Bob made his coffee while I lazed for a few moments. He asked why don’t we go to the hot tub this morning as we do at home. I thought about a second and sure why not? Off we went to the smaller spa, no one was there. It was wonderful, no children yelling and using it for their playground! Just the two of us.

As you can see it was still dark.

It was starting to get light out by now.

Our spot for the next three mornings! Can’t be beat!

Bob with his coffee.


We decided to have breakfast at Mara again. Bob had the African Inspired Breakfast Plate; scrambled eggs, Marguez sausage, pap, chakalaka and grilled tomatoes. I ate some of his eggs. I’m not a big breakfast eater and this was the first day of us splitting the CS meals. We had decided those were too much food.

I also had a croissant, which I could eat a ton of these!

A wider view of the our eating area, there are several areas like this around the pool.

It was time to head up to our room to get ready for our park of the day, the Magic Kingdom! We headed out to grab a bus ride which soon picked us up and whisked up to the park.

It took very little time to get through the gates. We did a slow walk down Main Street, peered into some of the stores. First on our list is Tomorrowland! Our first ride was Buzz Lightyear!

Of course the Standby time was 3 minutes which doesn’t show on this kind of sign!

We rode this 4 times in succession, twice together and twice in our own car! As we entered the dump shop the CM would ask if our score was higher than the last time! For some reason our score kept getting lower! We could have ridden a few more times as there still was no wait! Love these September wait times!

Next up was Fantasyland and Cinderella’s Golden Carousel. I always have to ride this. Bob watched as I rode, it’s to scary for him, gets motion sickness going in circles!

Next up for me was a solo trip on the Teacups. Sign with the Standby time:

I had fun all by myself, spinning the cup as fast as I could go!

We made our way to Frontierland and BTR:

Of course a very short Standby again.

Next up was Splash Mountain

Here’s where it gets tricky to say the least! We get our log pretty quickly and are enjoying the ride.

Suddenly our log stops short before the big drop at the end of the ride. As we are sitting there wondering when it will start again we get the announcement to please stay seated ride will resume momentarily. We get this warning several times. After 10 minutes or so the announcement changes to we will have to come and get you out of there. Please stay seated in the log.

This is the best picture I could get of Bob in the darkness. Notice the side of the waterway behind Bob. It turns out to be where we have to climb out onto!

In the background a door opens and several CMs appear. We are told please take no pictures. I was glad Bob & I sat in the last seat of the log as the rest of the passengers had to climb over the seatbacks to the back seat to get to shore. We had to step on a little niche in the side of the rocky bank, then step over that to the sidewalk. After the log was emptied, we went a short way on the sidewalk to a door. The door led out to a short stairway and a backlot. We walked around the building into another then out into the front of SM. As we exited all of us were handed an all purpose Fast Pass! This had to be used in the MK, but it wasn’t needed! Still fun to get! Now we have a great story to tell when asked about our Disney trips!

Next up was Pirates of the Caribbean, one of our favorites:

We used our FP on this ride as we didn’t know what else to ride using the FP.

It was time to break for lunch so it was decided to try Harbour House. We picked up a shrimp meal with French fries, cole slaw & the apple dumpling. We split this and a bottle of water. It was plenty for the both of us. Bob didn’t care for the shrimp, but I thought is was good. The dessert was very tasty and the fries were just fries.

Next up was the Jungle Cruise. We noticed there was a wait of 20 minutes, but hey we didn’t have any waits the whole morning so it was ok. However as we started to enter the line a couple walked up to us and asked if we wanted their FPs for the cruise! Heck yeah, how special was that!!? So again we were in luck with the wait!

After this we thought it’s time to head back as there wasn’t anything else we wanted to do. Then ack, I almost forgot, the Haunted Mansion! Off we went to ride, thought oh no we will probably need a FP to ride this. Well, no wait there either, but I forgot to take pictures.

I did take a picture of the new castle when we were walking around Fantasyland, forgot to put it into the right place.

On the way out we decided to ride the train around the Kingdom. I hadn’t ridden it in quite some time. The train is a nice way to get around the park.

Thought we would be back to the MK later, but somehow we didn’t make it back.

Next up dinner at Fulton’s Crab House….

 

[KatMark]

Great update!

What a marvelous idea of going to the hot tub BEFORE going to the park. We are going to have to try that in August.

You really did great on all of your wait times and fastpasses for two of them.

I can't wait to hear about your meal at Fulton's. We have always loved this place, but the last time it wasn't so hot and I've been afraid to go back. Since it's not talked about much on the DIS, I'll be anxious to hear your thoughts.