Victoria on Vacation

Day 3 - Sick at Disney

2010-02-04T18:23:00.000-08:00

The next morning, we woke up early to go to EMH at MK.

I got up... and it was unbearable to swallow, my throat hurt so bad. My head was stuffed up, as well. This was the worst I had felt, yet.

I continued to get ready. Then my parents asked me if I really thought I should go. That's when.... I broke down and cried. I couldn't talk because my throat hurt so bad, which was a sign that going to MK this morning was a bad idea. So I got back in bed.

Mom said she would stay with me. I told her that I would be okay by myself and that she should go on and have fun. But I don't think a mother could have fun knowing that her daughter was sick back at the hotel. Mom told me that she was worried that if I stayed by myself that I would get sad, so she decided to stay with me.

I slept for awhile, then I woke up, and Mom and I watched a show about how cruise ships make their money. It was especially interesting, considering that we had just come from a cruise.

Meanwhile, Dad and Rachel had fun at MK.

Day 2 - Battling the New Year's Eve Crowds

2010-02-04T18:19:00.000-08:00

We took the boat to Epcot and went in through the back.

We were shocked by the crowds. Epcot was PACKED.... with DRUNKS!!!

There were some people in cocktail dresses stumbling around... they must've come from bluezoo.

Idk how long it took us to navigate our way through the crowds and get to the American Pavilion. Lines there for food weren't that bad, but the table situation was terrible. There were tons of empty tables.... with no chairs!!! Finally, we spotted a family getting up and managed to grab that table. Ugg, the crowds were insane.

Okay, so after we ate our hotdogs in America, we decided to navigate our way back through the crowd and out of Epcot. It was much easier to leave than it was to get in.

We took the resort boat to DHS. We still had RnRC and ToT FPs to use.

So, our RnRC FPs were good to use, so we headed over there. They were no longer testing queueless waiting, and they had actually extended the queue area to accommodate bigger holiday crowds.

Dad enjoys the thrill of trying to sneak a photo of the ride photos before they disappear. Nice work, Dad.

So, it was 10:00. Our ToT FPs weren't good until 10:30. We were tired and didn't know what to do to kill half an hour (I realized later that we should've gone to Osborne Lights, but at the time, I was about to pass out. So we decided to leave DHS, head back to the Dolphin, then go back to our resort.

Dad paid the valet fee. And the valet guy ran away before my dad could tip him, so that saved us some money. I didn't feel quite so terrible... even though the whole parking situation was a bit of an inconvenience, as well as an extra expense. Eventually, I might get over this embarassment. Not now, though.

We got back to the resort, and my Dad wanted to know where we could watch the fireworks over the lagoon from. So, he asked a young CM working the Concierge desk what options there were. Now, this guy was probably in CP... probably new on this job... he had obviously never gotten this question before. ("Fireworks? Disney has fireworks???") He suggested that we stand out in the parking lot. Actually, we probably could've seen the fireworks from there, but that wasn't the answer we were expecting.

So we get back to the room, and Dad is wondering if we should head over to the GF or Poly to watch the New Year's fireworks. I was tired and really just needed to go to bed. Rachel told Dad that she didn't really care to see any fireworks if he'd let her ring in the New Year in an adult way. And he went for it. So Dad went to buy Rachel a New Year's Eve gift, and I took a shower and went to bed.

Happy New Year!

Day 2 - The Bluezoo Disaster

2010-02-04T18:16:00.000-08:00

Now... the part of my vacation which I have been DREADING writing about....

It is completely embarassing. I am an ADR failure. I feel like a Disney failure. But I will confess to you guys. Let you read about my terribleness. It's not even going to teach a lesson because I'm sure none of you would ever make this mistake. Time for my Disney walk of shame......

I made our New Year's Eve dinner reservations at.... Todd English's bluezoo.

So, we drove to the Dolphin. Dad took advantage of "free valet with meal."

I had walked by it before. It looked cool. I read a great review by Mike Scopa in a recent AllEarsNet newsletter. I was excited about this ADR. I knew it was a signature restaurant, which has a "dress code." However, I had eaten at a couple of signature restaurants before (Artist Point, Yachtsman Steakhouse) and they weren't very dressy. Nice jeans and a cardigan were totally acceptable. I figured that alot of people would be headed to the parks afterwards and wouldn't be that dressed up.

Boy, was I wrong.....

PEOPLE WERE IN COCKTAIL ATTIRE!!!

And we were in jeans and sweaters. And Sperry topsiders!!! Boy, did we feel out of place. Did we look... poor... or just stupid?

The menu was an even greater shock. Here it goes... my big blunder... I FORGOT TO LOOK AT THE MENU BEFOREHAND!!!

I believe the cheapest entree was $30. Now, this wouldn't have been quite as bad if we hadn't just gotten off a 9-day cruise where we could get all the seafood we wanted. And this restaurant (I can't even stand to type the name!) was charging $65 for lobster. Yeah, we weren't really feeling it.

So, our waitress came over and gave us this 15-minute expo on all of the seafood. She wouldn't shut up. To make matters worse, I had a really bad cough, and I was trying to muffle it in my napkin. Oh, this was terrible.

She took our drink orders...... we all went with water.

After she finally left, Dad asked us what we were getting. Nothing on the menu even looked appealing to me. We kept asking eachother if we should walk. I felt so bad. I didn't want my dad to have to pay $200 for dinner!!! Finally, we decided to make a run for it. I tried to pretend like I was invisible. It was so embarassing, but I was so glad to get out of that stuffy place. The lighting was pretty, but on the floor it just felt stuffy. The table behind us had all ordered the lobster. IMO, this is the place that you go when you want to show off in front of other people. That's what it felt like that night. I do think that people might have been more dressed up for New Year's Eve. Even if we had dressed up for the signature restaurant, we would not have been in cocktail attire. I might've been in a knit dress or a high-waisted skirt. Cocktail dress didn't even cross my mind.

Now... we still had the car to worry about. I remembered that there was a sushi restaurant at the Swan, and we went over to check that out. The prices were actually very reasonable. It was less expensive than the sushi we had at Yakatori House the previous day. However, it was crowded and we didn't get any attention, so we decided to just go on.

Rachel suggested that we go into Epcot and eat hotdogs in America. Perfect plan for poor people like us!

Dad wanted to move the car to Epcot, but I told him that he might as well get good use out of his $13 valet. I reminded him that it is cheaper than a day's parking at WDW ($14 a day is outrageous!!! I remember when it used to be $6... free parking is another great perk of being a resort guest!).

Day 2 - Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage

2010-02-04T18:12:00.000-08:00

Next, we went to Beauty and the Beast. We arrived an hour early, before they started letting people into the theater, and we still didn't get that great of seats. This place was PACKED!!!

After Beauty and the Beast, we raced over to Indiana Jones, trying to make the 5:00 show because I had remembered that I'm 18 years old - old enough to be an extra!!! Unfortunately, there was standing room only, and I was sick and not very energetic, anyways, so I figured we might as well not even bother.

I was tired, so I suggested that we go back to the resort and rest until dinner.

Day 2 - Braving the Crowds at DHS

2010-02-04T18:09:00.000-08:00

Okay... New Year's Eve.

So, since we stayed up late for EMH at MK the night before, we decided to sleep in. I actually woke up early and thought about going and hitting early EMH at MK, but I didn't want to wake anyone else up getting ready, so I just went back to sleep.

We blew off our 8:30 breakfast reservations at 'Ohana. I was upset about this because I have yet to eat at 'Ohana, as reservations are somewhat difficult to come by, especially during peak season, which is when we tend to be at WDW. However, I do have ADRs for 'Ohana in April, which is the only reason I allowed us to miss them.

So, we eventually got up and decided to go over to DHS. We got there around 10:00, probably. Of course, it was already crowded. This big group of people with strollers had just gotten into the park and they were stopped... blocking the way with their strollers. There were about eight strollers just lined up while the "drivers" were discussing what to do.

After we navigated our way around the crowd, Dad insisted on a "shop shortcut" which ran us around a corner onto Sunset Boulevard, making us miss the time board. Dad asked me what he should go FP, and I told him that since he took us past the times board, that he could just go on and FP RNRC because now we didn't know if all TSM FPs had been distributed (which I assumed they had), so we probably just wouldn't get to ride that. Dad thought that was funny. I suppose it was the way I said it... probably had to be there.

So, Dad went to FP RNRC (I then remembered the trial for a "queueless" wait, for which they moved the RNRC FPs over by ToTs and hoped that they weren't still testing that) and Mom, Rachel, and I bought fruit for breakfast. I got a massive apple, and they got some pineapple.

While sitting along Sunset Boulevard eating fruit, I figured we might as well go on to wait for the next showing of American Idol. We had yet to see this new attraction, and with lines so long, this was a good thing to go do.

We got to AI and they came out and did some recording of the audience cheering for this contestant named Matt from England. They wanted to make it look like we had a huge crowd, so they made us all bunch up together and be really loud and crazy.

The problem is, after we were done filming, the host said, "I'll see you guys inside," and many people thought that was their cue to head to the doors... which were shut and not opening anytime soon. So while people shoved their ways to the closed doors, we got squooshed together and had a difficult time keeping our family of four together. Then they opened the doors and everyone was pushing forward. And most parties were doing that thing when they hold onto the person in front of them and make a huge chain, pushing through the crowd. Well, I got squashed and cut-off, and Dad was way ahead of me, and Rachel fallen way behind. No idea where Mom was. I was frustrated (and I was sick... if these people knew how sick I was, they wouldn't have been shoving so close to me... I wonder how many of them caught my illness... ). So when we got inside, the CMs were angry at the people, telling them to move all the way down the rows and keep moving. The problem was that people had gotten separated trying to get inside, and now everyone was trying to get their groups back together.

I caught up with Dad, and we had to stand squished against a wall, being yelled at by CMs, until Rachel and Mom finally appeared in the crowd.

I was very upset by the lack of organization. The waiting area needs bars dividing rows to the doors. This would better control how many people go through each door and would keep parties from getting separated.

Okay, so their were three contestants for our show. The first contestant's brother had won the previous show. And she was very good. She sang Colors of the Wind. I was kind of expecting bad karaoke from the attraction, but she changed my mind. The second contestant was seventeen years old and she was here with her high school... the crowd consisted mainly of her high school. She was cute and young and bubbly, but I honestly didn't think she was that great of a singer. She was rather pitchy at some points, and I didn't think her voice was mature enough for the song that she decided to sing. I think contestant number three was Disney's attempt at humor. Shame on them. He was a British guy in his twenties who sang that Ricky Martin song... the crowd liked it because it was a song you could dance to, verses the first two contestants who chose slow, serious songs, but it was a British guy singing a Spanish song... what do you expect?

I did not care for the judges. And they tried to build up their background, but they didn't really say anything about where these people came from or why they were qualified to judge. To me, they were actors. And the actor who portrayed Randy Jackson must've been confused about Randy's sexual orientation. The lady that had Paula's role made Paula seem intelligent and sober. And the guy that played Simon was just a jerk. At least Simon knows what he's talking about and he backs up his negative statements with reasoning. This guy was just like, "You suck."

Anyway, the judges were clearly partial to contestant number two. Probably because she was young and cute. And the audience, consisting of contestant number two's high school, was clearly partial, as well. Contestants one and three didn't even have a chance. I voted for contestant number one, Mom and Rach voted for three, and Dad didn't vote. However, after comparing notes, we all thought contestant one was the best. But of course contestant two won... the crowd was her high school!!!

Yeah, overall, I wasn't very impressed with the American Idol Experience. Maybe it will get better over time, but they definitely need better crowd control. And judges that have their own opinions and personalities... not Simon/Paula/Randy copycats.

After Idol, we headed over to Muppet Vision 3D. Even the Muppets were crowded!!!

Then, we were hungry. Dad went to go get ToT FPs, and Mom, Rachel, and I went to Pizza Planet. We hadn't eaten there in a long time, and we were feeling pizza. Rachel and I got kids' pizzas, and Mom and Dad got pizzas. The kids' pizzas were kind of tiny, but between that and our parents' pizzas, Rachel and I were alright.

After that, we headed to the Great Movie Ride. We always ride this on New Year's Eve when it's crowded.

I hadn't taken a picture yet, and I felt the need.

Rachel said he looked constipated.

Day 1 - New Year's Eve Eve at MK

2010-02-04T18:01:00.000-08:00

We arrived at MK at 11:30. The New Year's Eve fireworks were going to start at 11:49 PM. We went on top of the train station to get a good view.

The fireworks were also going off behind us, over the lagoon.

I was very glad that they ran their New Year's fireworks a night in advance, as well, because I knew I wouldn't get to see them when we were actually ringing in the New Year (these fireworks were celebrating New Year's Eve). It was such an amazing show. I loved it.

After taking all of those fireworks pictures, my camera died, and I had forgotten to charge my spare battery. So, I had no camera for the rest of the night, and my dad had forgotten to bring his. I was upset.

After the fireworks, it was time for EMH. We headed over to Space Mountain and got FPs.

MK was a giant party. There was a DJ in front of the castle, and they blasted his dance mixes throughout the park. Great music selection. If I wasn't sick and Rachel was there, I would have been dancing.

Tomorrowland was packed, so we went on to Fantasyland where the wait times were short. We went on the teacups, and I had to convince my dad to help me spin them. Mom would have no part in it.

Dumbo only had a 20 minute wait, so we hopped in line. My parents hadn't ridden Dumbo since Rachel and I were little kids (Rachel and I have ridden it together since). Gosh, it had been at least ten years. Over by Dumbo, there was a separate dance party going on. It looked like alot of fun. Then Goofy came out for his meet and greet and started dancing. Too cute! I wished my camera wasn't dead. Dad got his own elephant and Mom and I rode together. Once again, I wished my camera wasn't dead!!!

After Dumbo, we went on Winnie the Pooh. We passed up Peter Pan because it had a 30 minute wait, and it's Rachel's favorite, so I figured we'd do it later. We also skipped out on the carousel and it's a small world because they typically have short waits and we could ride them later, as well.

We went on to Liberty Square for The Haunted Mansion. Mom, Dad, and I squeezed in a Doom Buggie together.

After that, we headed to Frontierland to ride Big Thunder Mountain. It had a thirty minute wait, but we never stood still. I don't think it was thirty minutes. It might've taken us twenty minutes to navigate through the queue, though. It was really fun because they were playing great music and everyone was dancing and singing. MK was so upbeat. All of the CMs working tonight were dancing and having a blast. Most were young (the College Program kids and interns, I found out later! ) in their twenties.

After BTMRR, I was starting to feel tired, so we headed on over to Space Mountain and used our FPs.

I didn't really care for the new queue. I missed trying not to stumble in the pitch black. None of the games were working when I walked by, and they're only close to the boarding area, which means the unlucky ones in the way back of the line are still bored. I missed the soundtrack. The silence was so weird. I did like the new bars in the queue area. I noticed that they rearranged the queue so it wraps differently. Waiting, I couldn't hear any cars on the tracks, but I could hear the chain lift. There was absolutely no soundtrack playing, which I found really weird. Has it been like that since the refurb or was it just like that for the night? The bars separating the rows when waiting to board were an addition that I found somewhat unnecessary.

The new plush seats were cool, and I actually appreciated how the bar pulled down the same way. I've always found it awkward, but at this point, I was missing the retro-ness of the old attraction.

I liked the revamped laser tunnel at the beginning. The ride was much darker, but I was still very aware of how close the beams were. It was so much quieter and felt faster which actually made me even more scared of the beams. I could still see the track right in front of me and the beams around me, but I could not see track way ahead or the other side's track, which is an improvement. It was QUIET. I didn't like this quiet. There was absolutely no music playing. I think they should take the music they used at DL's hightech version and play it, even if it's not synchronized to the ride. Just having some music in the background would make the ride more exciting.

Now, the exit.... they took out Lab Retriever!!! And once again, no music. I WANT THE ORIGINAL bah-dah... bah-duh MUSIC PLAYING!!!! And where the TVs used to be... missed that... but there were fabric wall covers up like it's not complete yet. I don't think the exit is area is complete yet at all. I have a feeling that we will continue to see additions.

The smoother track was cool, but all in all, I didn't really appreciate this refurbishment. They took away from the classic retro vibe, but didn't really add any modern futuristicness. It's so... plain. I'm not liking it. I hope that they continue to make improvements.

Now, after Space Mountain, we headed out. I was exhausted. As we left, it was snowing on Main Street. So pretty. I wished my camera wasn't dead.

Day 1 - Back to WLR

2010-01-30T18:38:00.000-08:00

We got back to the room, and once again, Rachel collapsed on the bed. My parents told her to get up because we were going to MK for EMH, but she just layed their. So, we got ready and ended up leaving her.

It was just me and my parents. I felt like an only child!

We just missed the boat. It was still sitting at the dock, and Dad asked the driver if we could get on, and she said no because she would have to tie one end back up. Dad was not happy about that. He proceeded to complain about how it wasn't that difficult to wrap a rope so we could hop on yada yada yada for five minutes until the next boat showed up.

Day 1 - Dinner at Boma

2010-01-30T18:33:00.000-08:00

I woke up at 6:30 and realized we'd need to leave then if we wanted to make it to our 7:00 ADR at Boma. But everyone else was still sleeping, and I wasn't going to be the one to wake them up, so I went back to sleep.

Then I woke up when my parents were awake, and they asked me about our dinner ADR. Which we missed. But luckily, I had actually made two ADRs at Boma for that night - one for a party of four at 7:00, and one for a party of seven at 8:30. See, back when I made the party of seven ADR, we thought that my boyfriend's family might be joining us. Unfortunately, he had wrestling and his mother had to work, and that didn't happen. I never got around to canceling that ADR. But, we decided to try and use the ADR and just tell them that three people weren't going to show.

So, we headed to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We had never been there before, so we just followed the signs. We didn't really know where we were going, and my dad just parked in the first spot he saw, which happened to be over by Kidani Village, so we had to walk all the way to Jambo House. Then once we got there, we saw Boma, but had no idea how to get down to it. It took us forever to figure it out. Our sleep deprivation was clearly affecting our mental acuteness.

We were able to use the ADR for seven, and we were seated quickly. I went to the buffet and got almost everything. Foods which names I couldn't pronounce. I had no idea what I was eating, but it was pretty good. I did think the salmon was a little dry. Maybe it was just my piece. My dad and sister liked the variety of meats. You usually don't get that at a buffet. The desserts were awesome. I liked how they were bite-size so you could try many different kinds. Rachel liked the one with the alcohol content warning. I think she just liked it because she knew it contained alcohol. Funny girl.

Now, my dad always complains about the format of the checks at WDW. He doesn't like how the waitor or waitress can see what you tip him or her when you pay. But then sometime later he realized that you don't have to write the amount you want to tip down immediately. He also didn't like how the recommended tip was 18%. My mom argues that a waitor at a buffet shouldn't get tipped as much as a waitor in a full-service restaurant because all they do is bring you your drinks and tell you where to get your food. Our waitor didn't even bring us refills without us having to request them. I don't believe my dad tipped him 18%.

Also, it was my mom's birthday (well, the week after, but she had a button on), and she didn't get a cake or anything.

It's difficult to take pictures in the dark without flash... mine usually turn out blurry, but if I use a flash, then the lights to don't appear fully illuminated, so I just have to try and be very still. It didn't work out so well.

Day 1 - Standard Room at Wilderness Lodge Resort

2010-01-20T15:27:00.000-08:00

Our room was ready! It was on that level, and we had to walk down a series of long hallways to get there.

View

Rachel immediately passed out in bed, and within a minute, she was snoring very loudly.

We all decided to rest up for late EMH at MK.

Day 1 - Wilderness Lodge

2010-01-20T15:06:00.000-08:00

We headed to check in at the Wilderness Lodge.

While dad parked the car, Mom checked us in, and Rachel immediately collapsed in a chair in the lobby. I took this as an opportunity to take pictures.

The tree was amazing.

Day 1 - Disney Divas Don't Like Crowds

2010-01-19T18:20:00.000-08:00

Rachel was CRANKY. She needed food. So, we headed over to Yakatori House to get sushi. This place was covered in Asian tourists. I thought it was funny that the Asians could eat this food back home, but they were eating it at WDW.

Rachel was still cranky. She was sleep-deprived. Still heartbroken after having to part from her British lad. We took her to the United Kingdom to cheer her up...

Yeah, that didn't help so much.

Our Test Track FPs weren't good til 3:30, and it was 3:00 and we were ready to leave. Dad handed our FPs to this lady with three boys as we were walking out. We try to look for deserving people, and she looked quite lost. She was very appreciative.

Day 1 - Back to the World

2010-01-19T18:06:00.000-08:00

After getting back to Tampa after our 9-day Eastern Caribbean Cruise aboard RCI's Grandeur (Grandma) of the Seas (wanna see pics? Victoria Shingleton's Photos - Christmas in the Caribbean | Facebook Victoria Shingleton's Photos - Christmas Cruising Part II | Facebook), we headed to Walt Disney World to celebrate New Year's.

The problem is, while on the cruise, I started getting sick, and by the last day, I had completely lost my voice. So, I was headed to my favorite place on Earth... feeling quite terrible, actually.

Now, Rachel and I also stayed up late partying the night before. I suggested we go to bed, but Rachel refused (she found herself a British lad and had grown quite attached). Being the older sister, I felt like I needed to keep an eye on her, so I stayed out with her. We got maybe three hours of sleep.

But, we wouldn't let illness and lack of sleep get in the way of our magical vacation. So we stopped by Walgreens and picked up some medications (which I took double dosage of) and continued to the world.

It was around 11:30, and we decided to head to Epcot since we knew it would be crowded, and Epcot is very large and tends to handle crowds well.

It was very crowded. Dad ran to get FPs for Soarin. He was almost to the front of the line when.... all fastpasses distributed. Drat.

So, he went to Test Track to get FPs. I suggested that we try the Kim Possible World Showcase attraction. Turns out we needed our tickets to sign up, so Mom, Rachel, and I chilled in Innovations until Dad met us.

We were to report to the Kimmunicator station in Italy at 12:25. We started to take a boat, but we realized that we were in the wrong boat line, and the boat we needed was leaving. Drat.

So, we walked. And we beat the boat. How about that?

It took us awhile to find the tent. We didn't know exactly what we were looking for. Finally we asked someone.

We got our Kimmunicators. Our mission sent us to Germany. We teased my dad about this because he does alot of business in Germany, and whenever we meet any foreigner (mainly European, but anyone from another country, really), he tells them about how he's been to Germany.

The first location was the little train village. With the Kimmunicator, I was able to make the church ding and light up. There were quite a few guests watching the village, and when they saw the church light up, they all pointed. "The bells are ringing." I did it again. And again. And again. They couldn't figure out why the church bell kept ringing. This was fun. I don't think they ever figured it out. It looked like I was texting. This is awesome.

The rest of our mission included making a cuckoo clock chime... er... yodel, making a train in the toy store drive by, and making t
corny. I could do without all of the dialogue and just go around making things go off. Oh, well... it's Disney, I guess it needs a plot.

I'm Baaaaccckkkk!!!

2010-01-19T17:45:00.000-08:00

Did you miss me?

Probably not, considering I only have one follower, and she doesn't check blogger that frequently.

Well, I've actually been back for a week, but after three weeks of being out of town, I needed a little break before I could blog about my vacations.

I have already started and almost completed my TR for my favorite Disney forum, MouseBuzz, and I'll begin my vacation updates by copying that over to my blog. I said that I was going to write my blog as I did my blog so that I could easily link the photos, but I lied.

As for the cruise, I'm not going to write a detailed what-we-did report, since there are so many options on a cruise ship, but I will highlight some of the activities offered, as well as the ports of call. Any dining report will be general.

San Antonio.... I didn't really see San Antonio at all, I was just there for a week to learn and perform a marching show. I saw the Alamo Stadium, Alamodome, Convention Center, and Grand Hyatt. And then I went down the Riverwalk to the mall on the last night. So, I don't have alot of pictures, but I'll post a few just to prove how nice our accommodations were.

This winter break was definitely a blast. I had so much fun (despite illness that you will read about later). We are really lucking out on great, carefree vacations, this year. Ahh, 2009... the year of great vacations (Vegas, Destin, Walt Disney World, Eastern Caribbean Cruise). What a wonderful year!

Christmas in the Caribbean

2009-12-20T12:16:00.000-08:00

We leave today for our Christmas Caribbean cruise! Well, actually, the ship departs, tomorrow, but we're leaving our house, today and will probably spend the night in Valdosta.

So, I figured I'd leave you with some Caribbean Christmas cheer!

Happy Holidays!!!

Transform a Room

2009-12-18T19:06:00.000-08:00

I can't really tell you how this was done because all credit goes to my dear mother.

I love it.

Excited for New Year's at Disney

2009-11-30T17:06:00.000-08:00

Christmas break is going to be great fun. The cruise will of course be wonderful, but I am especially excited for Disney.

New news is that I could possibly be joined by dear boyfriend. His dad has mentioned going to Florida and visiting Walt Disney World for Christmas break, and if things go as we'd like, then we'll be there at the same time. However, that's not really in my control. Still, I decided it would be best to plan ahead and made more ADRs to include them. I suppose that is a bit greedy, but I completely intend to cancel any ADRs that I cannot make. I already have five ADRs up for grabs - Jan 1 7:25 PM party of 8 at Citricos, Jan 1 7:00 PM party of 8 at The Wave, Jan 2 8:05 AM party of 4 at Crystal Palace, Jan 2 8:00 AM party of 4 at Whispering Canyon Cafe, Jan 3 8:25 AM party of 4 at Chef Mickey's.

Here are the ADRs that I have for keepsies: Boma, Ohana's, Todd English's bluezoo, Yachtsman Steakhouse, Whispering Canyon Cafe, Artist Point, 1900 Park Fare.

It's the oddest thing... I booked Todd English's bluezoo for four people with no problem. Then when I tried to book it again for eight, it said that I needed credit card confirmation. I wasn't going to mess with that since I'm not even sure that I'm going to use the ADR, so I booked dinner for seven that night at Yachtsman Steakhouse.

Now... the Wilderness Lodge! I'm very excited to be staying at the Wilderness Lodge. Rachel is a bit disappointed because she wanted the Polynesian, but I had been pulling for WL the entire time. See, I first fell in love with WL when I watched Samantha Brown's review of her stay there on the Travel Channel. Of course, Samantha Brown makes everything seem luxurious, but WL really appealed to me. It's so... rustic. Something you wouldn't expect to find in Central Florida. I've been there once for dinner at Artist Point, and it completely feels like you're outside in the wilderness. The seven-story lobby is magnificent, and one of Disney's finest (competes with the Grand Floridian and Animal Kingdom Lodge Jambo House). Unique features include an 82-foot tall lobby fireplace, a stream that flows through the lobby, over a waterfall, and into the main swimming pool, and Fire Rock Geyser that erupts every hour, shooting water 120 feet into the air. The details of this resort are amazing, and I cannot wait to take it all in.

Christmas in the Caribbean - Theming the Tree

2009-11-24T17:52:00.000-08:00

I think it's important that the Christmas tree blend in with its surroundings. A traditionally decorated room should have a traditional tree with colors reflecting those that already exist in the space. However, with fun spaces, such as entertainment rooms, family rooms, play rooms, bedrooms, etc., trees can be creative and fun.

The basement tree is all my own. I picked out the 7.5' tree from Target, as well as the ornaments, and I have decorated it all by myself.

Our basement has a beach house feel to it. It's very light and airy, which is rare for a basement. White cabinetry and light-colored furniture with blue accents helped achieve this (my personal favorite aspect of the basement is the entertainment center with bamboo countertop and cabinet doors). So, since we had put so much thought into keeping the basement soft and bright, the tree and Christmas decor needed to reflect that.

The 7.5' tree I picked out looked pretty in the store. And it looked pretty when we set it up in the house. However, it was massive. It's a really thick tree, and very wide at the base. There's alot of branches to it, which contributes to its fluffy appearance, but also makes it somewhat overwhelming to work with. Some of the branches are coated in a shiny, sparkly material, and others are just plain white. I found that the shiny branches are not as bendable and do not support as much weight as the plain branches. This is a nuisance, considering that this tree has alot of heavy glass ornaments.

I use two different color garlands with the tree. This is mainly because the tree is so big, and the majority of it is blue. A single garland looks lonely on the thick tree. After I put up the second garland, I am still not satisfied. However, once the branches are filled with ornaments, the garland no longer looks pathetic and crooked.

The garland itself is quite a challenge to hang. I take four stools and put them around the tree. I then stand on the stools and rotate around the tree while hanging the garland. It's definitely not safe, as I have to hop from one barstool to another, but it works. I start from the top and wrap one color garland clockwise and the other color counter-clockwise. I try to vary the lengths that the garland drops from the branches. Although I'm never happy with the garland alone, once the tree is complete, I actually like the crooked-hanging garland.

This tree has alot of ornaments. I use varying shades of blue, lime green, and silver balls. Then, I have a few unique ornaments, such as the chandelier-like disks, scuba Santa, swimtrunks, and other tropically-themed ornaments.

The tree took me about 6-7 hours from start to finish. My dad set this up, so this does not include assembly time. However, I did have to fluff the tree. Unpacking the ornaments took almost an hour. The garland alone took about two hours.

I also think that when decorating, it's important to have a sense of humor.

The beach-dressed Beanie Kids are tanning underneath the tree. The tree skirt is white felt covered with a lime green fishing net from Oriental Trading Catalog.

The gifts under the tree are actually empty bags coordinating with the tree.

How's that for Christmas in the Caribbean?

Elf Yourself!!!

2009-11-23T20:45:00.001-08:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

We booked a resort!

2009-11-21T20:50:00.000-08:00

Last night, I found a PIN code in my inbox for 30% off deluxe resorts between December 24 and January 2. Now, PIN codes themselves are a rarity, and a discount during the holiday season is unheard of. This PIN was too good to be true!

I immediately ran downstairs and told my dad. He called and booked the Wilderness Lodge this morning. I'm really excited because Wilderness Lodge was my first choice. Rachel is a bit disappointed because she wanted the Polynesian, however, I don't see much point in staying at the Poly for three nights. Besides, the Wilderness Lodge is always really decked out for Christmas, and has probably the biggest and most elaborate tree (it's a close call with the GF).

Pretty in Pink

2009-11-19T17:56:00.000-08:00

Our "Bonus Room" (actually, no longer a bonus room... since we've added a closet, it's technically a bedroom, but the name remains the same) is the girl hang-out area. It's at the end of the hallway upstairs (the entire upstairs is a total girl zone). When we first moved into the house, it was originally our play room, painted a hideous lavendar color, complete with a giant chalkboard. We have since removed the chalkboard, painted the walls white (thank goodness!), and decorated in pink and orange. This is our slumber party room.

The bonus room tree is my favorite, and this year, I decorated it first.

It's a six-foot white artificial tree that we purchased from Michael's (I believe) a few years ago.

The ornaments are whimsical shapes and figurines in pink, lime green, purple, and orange that we've collected over the years, the majority coming from Hobby Lobby.

I believe I prefer this tree because it is probably the easiest to decorate. The size is perfect. I can reach the top of the tree without needing a ladder. Therefore, the garland is easy to fix. The branches are nice and sturdy, and not covered in an excessive amount of fluff. They are easy to bend and arrange. This tree is definitely the least overwhelming. It took around 3-4 hours to decorate, assembly to finish.

The tree skirt is actually a pink furry rug that I bundle up and wrap around the base.

The doll is my sister's beloved "Cuddle." Her favorite childhood toy must remain present during the holiday season.

Other Christmas additions include stockings...

As well as decorative figurines.

I apologize for the large size of these photos. I just got a new photobucket, and I forgot to reduce the size of the photo.

The Holidays are Here!

2009-11-19T17:50:00.000-08:00

So, I'm really into holiday decor. Especially Christmas. Christmas is my favorite time of year because of the decorations and the music. So, expect to see my blog all dressed up for the holidays.

I want to write about decorating for the holidays, and I didn't want to start a new blog just to write about decorations (considering no one even reads this blog). Therefore, I will be interrupting my travel journal with decoration entries.

Happy holidays!

Oh, the Places to Go....

2009-11-15T07:46:00.000-08:00

It's about time I finally finished uploading my Walt Disney World Trip Report. It took especially long because I had to copy/paste the embedded codes for the pictures individually. It's not an easy task. Next time I do a dual TR/blog, I'll be sure and do them at the same time, so I can get the IMG and embedded codes at the same time. That should be a lot easier and faster.

Since it's been awhile since I've actually written anything new, I figured it was time for an update.

Marching band season just ended... The Pride of Pendleton is the AA State Champion!!!

My next trip is happening in just a week. Every year, we drive to Mississippi (nine hours) to spend Thanksgiving with my grandparents. It's not really a vacation, so I probably won't blog about it. I might write a Black Friday review, though... that is pretty much the highlight of my Thanksgiving break. Oh, and my birthday is on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. I will be spending all day in the car on the way back home from Mississippi. Fun....

Speaking of my birthday, I do not know what I want to do to celebrate it, yet. I feel like I need some sort of celebration with friends... I am turning 18. When I turned sixteen, we went to American Girl Boutique and Bistro in Atlanta. That was fun. I'd like to do it again, but I also want my boyfriend to come, and I don't think he'd be very comfortable there. Yeah, that would be kind of weird. Bummer. Any ideas on how I can celebrate my birthday? I'm very near Atlanta, Columbia, Asheville, and Charlotte (though completely boring, my hometown is actually in a great central location)... maybe we can go to Biltmore. Rachel has been saying she wanted to go to Biltmore everytime the commercials come on, so that might just work.

Now while we're on the subject of Christmas commercials, we're also going to see the Radio City Rockettes when they come on tour to the BiLo Center in Greenville for my mother's birthday.

Which reminds me that I never posted a review on the 2009 Jonas Brothers World Tour Concert. We had really great floor seats (right by the runway) and took really great pictures. I might just have to post some pictures.

I'm really excited about our upcoming Christmas vacation. For the first time, we are not going to be home for Christmas. We've booked a 9-night Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Royal Caribbean International's Grandeur of the Seas, so we'll be spending Christmas in the Caribbean! It departs on December 21 from Tampa, Florida; and ports of call include San Juan, Puerto Rico; Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas; Philipsburg, St. Maarten; Tortola, British Virgin Islands. We've already been to St. Thomas and St. Maarten (actually, we didn't really enjoy either of these ports... at least we know now not to do snuba in St. Thomas), but it's been several years. I've glanced at excursions, and I'm personally liking the zip-line in San Juan. There was also an ATV adventure that would be fun. The problem is that I'm now 18 and can drive most of these vehicles, but Rachel is only 16, so I don't know if they'd let her ride along with me, or if she'd have to ride with mom or dad. That wouldn't be as fun. And now that I'm going to be eighteen, I won't be allowed into the kids clubs... which is a bummer (not like we've really hung out in there in the past). I might sneak in, though. Carnival is really strict on carding, but Royal Caribbean only cards Fuse at night... you can walk right in the Living Room, which is where we prefer, anyway.

Unfortunately, we will not be on the cruise for New Year's. However, Tampa happens to be very near.... Walt Disney World! Two years ago, when we got back from our cruise to Cozumel, we went to Hollywood Studios for New Year's (Dad thought he was going to get away with Busch Gardens... pfff!). This year, we arrive back in Tampa on January 30, so we'll drive to WDW and spend two or three nights. I'm not sure where we're staying, yet (Rachel requested the Polynesian, and I suggested the Wilderness Lodge), but I've already booked our ADRs.

December 30, 2009 at 7:05PM Boma - Flavors of Africa
December 31, 2009 at 8:30AM Ohana's Best Friend Breakfast
December 31, 2009 at 7:00PM Todd English's Bluezoo
January 1, 2010 at 6:10PM Whispering Canyon Cafe

I'm not sure if we'll be there late enough for the January 1st ADR, so I might change that to lunch.

Now, more exciting news... I made the US Army All-American Marching Band and will be playing at the US Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio, Texas. For those of you who aren't familiar with the All-American Bowl, the best high school senior football players are chosen from across the nation and compete against eachother, east vs. west. The bowl game has been around for awhile, but the marching band is relatively new, being added just three years ago. But, I'll be leaving January 5, 2010 for San Antonio (I have an early flight from Greenville-Spartanburg to Atlanta, and then I'll switch planes in Atlanta and fly to San Antonio). We spend the week in San Antonio learning drill to perform during half-time at the bowl game on January 9, 2010. The bowl game will be broadcasted live on television, but they likely will not show the entire halftime show. However, it can be viewed online. I'll have to get the website if you're interested.

Hopefully, we'll be able to fit in a short ski trip somewhere. It won't be anything big... unless maybe we go skiing for spring break. That would be fun. But, we would like to take some friends up to North Carolina and do some skiing one weekend. It won't be anything big or nice... NC skiing pretty much sucks. It's a good place to learn, but once you've been out west, it is a disappointment.

I will be going to Walt Disney World yet again with the marching band. It was really fun, last time (2008), and I'm super excited. Of course, I've already booked our ADRs...

February 11 at 5:50pm The Garden Grill
February 12 at 6:55pm Liberty Tree Tavern
February 13 at 1:00pm Sci-Fi Dine-In

Last year, some of my ADRs conflicted with other events, so this year, I was sure to book dinner at Epcot well before IllumiNations. I wanted Crystal Palace for Magic Kingdom, but it will be closed for rehab. However, I was excited to learn that Liberty Tree Tavern will be reopened with characters while Crystal Palace is closed.

And, more Disney... we also want to attend GradNite in April. We don't know who all is going, but I did make my first ADR for 10:00am breakfast at Ohana's, today.

Ahhh.... that's alot of vacations, and you know I'll try to squeeze some more in there! Keep reading for more updates!

My Thoughts on Bay Lake Towers

2009-11-15T07:34:00.000-08:00

I had never stayed at a DVC resort before, and although I enjoyed the "exclusiveness" of it (some of it we were excluded from... such as the Top of the World lounge), I didn't find it very homey. It was very posh and felt upscale, but not really like home. I'd compare it to a country club, kind of. A contemporary country club.

Exterior Appearance

I think they did a good job of blending the new BLT with the thirty-year-old Contemporary Resort. It almost looks like they were constructed at the same time, which I suppose says more for the timeless structure of Disney's Contemporary Resort (who'd have thought?). It does bother me that the windows of BLT have a rather green tint, while those at the Contemporary are black. They also did not match the railing on the balconies.

I didn't really think the building had much curb appeal, though. Rachel and I both thought that it was much prettier looking up at it from the back side by the pool. It felt much more inviting... looking up at from the pool, you were in the circle. The building was surrounding you. From the outside, it was closed off... you were out of the loop. This could be metaphorical to the exclusiveness of it as a DVC resort.

Convenience

We didn't mind checking in at the Contemporary, however it did make baggage transfer difficult. They took our luggage for us and had to cart it from the Contemporary over to BLT. We didn't valet and parked our car over at BLT, so we could've just as easily taken our own bags to the room (especially since we had so little luggage). Instead, we had to wait on our luggage to be delivered to the room. That was $12 wasted.

The Skyway bridge was nice and surprisingly not congested at the time of fireworks. I noticed that sometimes you had to put your card in to cross, and other times you didn't. If you weren't a BLT guest and really wanted to get over there, you could just wait for a BLT guest to put the card in and sneak in behind.

The automatic doors to the Skyway bridge opened at you when going from BLT to the Contemporary, which was weird. I actually had to back up a few times to keep the automatic door from hitting me.

BLT was convenient to the bus stop. Unfortunately for us, our bus took forever to come. The other buses (not to DHS) showed up in good time, though. It's all luck. You can never predict it.

Pool

The pool was pretty neat. The zero-depth entry was nice. It wasn't that big, though. I never got to go down the slide because we went swimming after the lifeguards had left, but it looked like fun. I wasn't crazy about the design... I didn't dig the tiles. They reminded me of an 80's bathroom. I don't know... it was just a bit too opaque for me. Rachel thought it was cool, though.

There was only one hot tub, and though it was in a great location (right by the lake), it wasn't very big. Luckily for us, it was never crowded when we were down there. However, it would probably be much more crowded during peak season. I felt like the resort wasn't very full that weekend. I mean, we had gotten a reservation just two days before.

Room - Studio

The layout of the studio was a little weird. You walk in and you have a bathroom on the left and then on the right, there's a door, which I am assuming could be connected to a one-bedroom to make a two-bedroom unit. The next opening on the left is the bathroom vanity. Then right behind the bathroom vanity on the other wall is the kitchenette. I found it odd that the kitchen sink was right behind the bathroom sink.

The unit wasn't very big, but it didn't really matter for us because it was just a two-night stay and we didn't have much luggage. I don't know how comfortable we would've been on a week-long trip, though.

The pull-out couch was new and stiff. There was no bounce to it at all. At first, I thought I'd be just as good off sleeping on the floor, but by the morning, I had adjusted. I would compare it to a not-yet-fluffy futon.

The bed, however, was very comfortable. Very bouncy. Very soft. Very nice.

My biggest complaint was mirrors. There were only two mirrors in the unit - one in the living area and one in the bathroom/kitchen. They were both small and high. In order to get a full-body view, I had to stand on a chair. I really could've used a full-length mirror. I believe they sacrificed function for style with the bathroom mirror. I wish they had made it wider and lower, spanning more of the counter top.

Now, the vanity in the bathroom was very high. It was probably four feet off the ground. It really came up to me right below my chest (keep in mind I'm only five feet tall). I don't know how small children could use it.

I really wish there had been a double vanity... his and her sinks. That would've been nice.

The shower had great water pressure, but the water wasn't always hot. I took a shower really late at night (like 1 am or something) and had no problem with hot water, but Rachel took a shower in the morning - probably when everyone else was taking a shower - and said that she couldn't get the water hot enough (then again, she does like her water scorching hot, so the average person probably would've been okay).

The toilet had poop on the handle when we got there. That was pretty sick-nasty. And yes, it was poop, because it came off. We had to clean it off ourselves because after Rachel left a note for mousekeeping "Please... clean poop off toilet flusher (not ours... sick!)," it was still there (they did do everything else on her note, though). Perhaps they didn't know what a "flusher" is.

What I LOVED about BLT

BLT had some FANTASTIC views of Magic Kingdom. There were a lot of big windows and you could look out and see Cinderella's Castle and Space Mountain. We lucked out got an upgrade to a Lake View room with a theme park view and could pick out different attractions, such as the Astro Orbitor, Big Thunder Mountain, and TTA from our balcony. Being able to watch the fireworks with music from our room was also amazing.

Would I stay here again?

Absolutely. But it's not my first pick. My favorite resort is still the Grand Floridian. I just love the old-timey elegance of it.... BLT's "poshness" was pretty cool, but not my first-choice atmosphere. Rachel has already told us that the next time we come to WDW, she wants to stay at the Polynesian, so I suppose we'll be heading there next.

Day 3 - End with Epcot

2009-11-15T07:28:00.000-08:00

After we checked out of BLT, we drove to Epcot.

We accidentally took the long way. Drove by Fort Wilderness and Port Orleans. It was cool, though, because I'd actually never been by either resort.

Dad went to go FP Soarin' and Mom, Rachel, and I hung out in Innoventions. I learned how velcro was made and how it got its name. It's a blend (AP lit word right there) of the words 'velour' and 'crochet.' The man who invented velcro got the idea when his dog came inside from the woods over thanksgiving and had those little prickly things (cockleburrs?) stuck in his fur.

After Dad came back, Rachel wanted to...

any guesses?

Drink Coke.

So we went to Club Cool and she drank Cokes. I really don't understand her obsession over this attraction. I guess she likes free stuff.

After that, we headed over to Test Track and stood in line for thirty minutes. We were behind a fun family who had been on Test Track multiple times that week because their son was just tall enough to ride and loved it. The mom asked our opinion on which Mission:Space they should take him on. We suggested they go on green first because it provided the same thrill without the difficulty breathing... send the dad on orange first and see how he thought their son would do.

The showroom after Test Track was a disappointment. The best vehicle they had was the 2010 Camaro (love this car!) that they kept locked with a not-so-friendly CM there to tell people about it. Only she wouldn't answer any of our questions. Then these guys came up and she talked away to them. Hmph.

No Hummers. No convertibles. Just a bunch of hybrid vehicles. None very attractive. Nothing I'd drive. I suppose this is the showroom after the "economy crisis."

After Test Track, it was time for our Soarin' FPs. Great timing. Soarin' was amazing, as always. This attraction makes me happy. I like the smell of oranges. Rachel says it's her favorite WDW scent.

After Soarin, it was about time to be on our way, but we decided to check out the new version of Spaceship Earth (we had yet to be on it). It was pretty cool. I was a little disappointed with the last room, though. I thought they would go a little bit further. The create your future part was cool, though. Mainly because Rachel looked especially silly in her picture, so it was funny for her head to keep popping up. I don't think she knew her picture was being taken.

When we got out, Mom and Dad's pictures were on the big world map. Rachel wanted to find our pictures around the room, but Mom and Dad went on. We'll have to check this area out some more later.

Rachel had been wanting a frozen banana all weekend (she also wanted a pineapple dole whip, but that didn't happen), so Dad and I went to get us ice cream while Rachel went to get some celebration buttons. She wanted a few birthday buttons for friends. She must've sweet-talked the CM over there because she came back with a bag full of buttons... just married, anniversary, magical gatherings... he gave her every button!

After that, we had to go home.

It was a very fun trip. We all had a blast. It was cool having no real plan except to do what we wanted to do.... and EAT! Ah, this was a good food trip. We'll have to do this again, sometime!

Day 3 - Checking out of BLT

2009-11-15T07:22:00.000-08:00

We walked back to BLT and got our bags together. We didn't have much stuff with us, so it was easy to pack.

Here's me reading my Unofficial Guide. xD

See how high the mirror is?

Day 3 - Fantasyland

2009-11-15T07:17:00.001-08:00

We still hadn't done much of Fantasyland, so we headed there after breakfast.

We headed to Peter Pan's Flight, first. I found a Hidden Mickey.

I never look for Hidden Mickeys, so I was quite surprised when I found one.

Next, we headed to Snow White's Scary Adventures. We sat behind a little girl around two years old. She didn't like the ride, and kept saying, "Mom, I'm scared," and her mom would tell her not to be scared because it was just silly stuff.

After that, we went on The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

Next, we went on the tea cups and tried not to throw up our breakfast.

Our last ride at Magic Kingdom was Cinderella's Golden Carousel.

Day 3 - Crystal Palace

2009-11-15T07:11:00.000-08:00

Breakfast at Crystal Palace was aight. We'd eaten lunch here several times before, but never breakfast. I'm actually beginning to like these breakfast buffets. Sure, they take away from park time, but the food is standard and probably edible, plus it's the least expensive of the buffets.

The food wasn't as good as 1900 Park Fare, but it was pretty good. Better than my typical breakfast food.

We celebrated our birthday, again. here, we got a card with signatures from Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, and Eeyore.

Day 3 - Magic Kingdom Early ADR Entry

2009-11-14T23:23:00.000-08:00

Okay, so the next morning, we got up bright and early for our 8:30 ADRs at Crystal Palace. I hadn't realized when booking that this was actually before park opening, so this was an unexpected surprise.

We had never been in the park before opening, before. It was pretty cool. Great photo op. We used a photopass photographer. I haven't seen the photopass pictures, but these were taken on our camera.

The photopass lady made us do this.

Day 2 - Off to Disney's Hollywood Studios

2009-11-14T23:01:00.000-08:00

We walked back to the resort and were greeted by...

We went to the room and stored our cakes and freshened up, then finally left to go to DHS at around 7:00. The park closed at 10:00... this gave us about three hours.

So, we went to the bus area. There was an Epcot bus there, but nobody wanted to go to Epcot, apparently. So, we waited. And waited. And more buses came and went, but none for DHS. FINALLY (about 20 minutes later), a very crowded bus came for DHS. We barely got on (even though we were the first people at the bus stop). This bus had to stop and let people off at the Polynesian and Grand Floridian, so it took a while. We got to DHS around 7:40, maybe.

We had three attractions we wanted to get done... the big three - Rockin' Rollercoaster, Tower of Terror, and Toy Story Mania.

We checked the wait times, and none looked too good. Fastpasses were all distributed. Dad suggested we do single riders for RnRC.

We got over there, and the line was only 30 minutes, and the single riders line for this doesn't seem to move very fast, so we decided to wait it out. It took about thirty minutes. Unfortunately, at the end of the ride, our picture did not show up on the monitor.

After RnRC, we headed over to ToT.

The wait for ToT was only about ten minutes.

Next, we headed over to TSM to check the wait time.... 50 minutes (which Rachel pointed out was actually half the time it had said when we first got into the park). Dad saw signs for the American Idol Attraction and wanted to go do that. He didn't realize that it was a show and that the last showtime was at 7:00. Then, he led us back to TSM the long way. We did a lot of worthless walking, and the line appeared longer once we got back, but we figured we had nothing better to do but wait in line, so we might as well.

The wait was truly about 50 minutes. We thought they'd cut the line off eventually, but they kept letting people get in line, so I suppose they would run the ride another hour until everyone got through.

Rachel beat me. She beat me the first round, and I never caught up. That game really tired out my hand. And I kept laughing and yelling, "THIS HURTS!" so I was having difficulty aiming and pumping that little ball at the same time (does anyone else think this game looks somewhat like the Wii skit from last season's SNL?). Yeah, Rachel killed me. I wished we could've had a rematch.

We went on out of the park. We didn't realize there was a 10:00 showing of Fantasmic (not like we really like Fantasmic or anything... it's our least favorite nighttime show). We could see it from the bus stop, though.

We got on the bus and grabbed four seats - two facing forwards, two back. On the other side of the aisle, there was this family that kept staring at us. Possibly because we were taking goofy pictures like this...

"At Disney, you sleep with a smile."

Well, the staring family got invaded by this other family. They stuck their little girl on the floor in between the rows facing eachother. It was weird. Then, the man gave up his seat to this woman carrying a baby (that was nice). The woman with the baby then let the baby lay on the teenage boy sitting in the other seat. It was quite awkward. Then, she started talking about pool hopping, and I had to hold my breath and not tell her that it was a Disney Sin. She was saying how if they have breakfast at a restaurant at a hotel, they'll bring their swimsuits and stay and swim. She then started bashing Akershus, saying that it had really weird food. I was like... lady... it's a freakin' Norwegian restaurant. Why are you hating on the Norwegian food? Her son was standing up beside me and she kept yelling at him to stay seated. She'd yell at her daughter to stay seated, too. Yeah... they were quite amusing.

We got back to the resort, and Rachel wanted to go swimming.

We decided to go "pool hopping." (Don't freak - it was "legal" for us to go to these pools.) We started with the pool at the Contemporary. There were a bunch of kids there, all playing around this little island in the center. They were fighting eachother to be on the island. One kid would get up and the others would knock him off and it was a battle of the fittest, I suppose. Rachel and I swam for a few minutes (more like waded in the no-kid part), then got in the hot tub. After fifteen minutes in that hot tub, we dried off and went back to BLT. We swam in the pool for a while. It was quite refreshing. Then, we sat in the hot tub. By now, it was after midnight (the pool was open from 7 am to 12 am), but nobody came to kick us out. Rachel realized that BLT had a beach, and we decided to go walk on it. It was a little beach, but we sat in the chairs and it was quite relaxing to just be in the quiet. We talked about stuff. We talked about Disney and how we didn't want to go home.

When we got back to the room at 12:30, Mom asks us if we'd seen Dad. We hadn't taken our cell phones with us (mine was charging) and they didn't know where we were or why we didn't come back at midnight. Mom was afraid that we'd been kidnapped and taken advantage of in a stairwell somewhere (she's such a worry-wart... the thought never would've crossed my mind at WDW, but I suppose it happens). Dad was at the Contemporary looking for us. Apparently, he did the exact opposite of our path.

But, all was well. We didn't get in trouble (phew...).

Day 2 - Cinderella's Royal Table

2009-11-14T22:39:00.001-08:00

After HoP, it was time to go to the castle....

For Cinderella's Royal Table!!!!!!!

Okay, so I left this part out to surprise you guys (then I went and posted a semi-review on someone else's thread, so I might've ruined it for you)....

When we got to MK that morning, as soon as we got into the park, Dad turned around and asked us, "If you eat at 11:00 will you be hungry at 4:30?" We just kind of stared at him blankly. Then he said, "I think I can get us reservations for the castle. If I do, will you still want to do the 11:00 breakfast?"

Rachel: "Dad, I don't think you're going to be able to get reservations for the castle."

Me: "I mean, you can try, but that's pretty hard to get."

Dad: "What if I already have reservations?"

We scream. And jump up and down and hug our daddy and tell him he's the best daddy in the world.

And we decided to eat at 1900 Park Fare because we were really hungry right then.

If any of you read my "Cross Your Fingers" thread on MB chit-chat, you might remember that I showed my dad a breakfast opening for CRT at 9:30 on Monday. I immediately went downstairs and asked dad if I could book it. He said no. I was a little bummed, but I realized it was expensive and he was doing a lot to take us to WDW for the weekend, anyway.

But at work the next day, Dad went searching for the opening. And he couldn't find the breakfast opening, so he searched every time slot and came up with dinner at 4:20 and booked it. Now, Dad also didn't know that dinner wasn't character dining (we decided not to tell him this until he asked) but that was cool... we were eating in the castle to eat in the castle, not to eat with the princesses.

Ahhh, we have a really good Daddy.

We checked in and then got in line to have our picture taken with Cinderella.

They did not pose us for this picture... we just kind of arranged ourselves around her. We felt that since they knew they'd already sold us the picture that they didn't try very hard to make it look good.

We were then sent up the spiral staircase.

The castle really wasn't girly. It was kind of Medieval Times-feeling. I think a little boy would be very comfortable eating in here... maybe not so much at breakfast when the princesses are circulating the room.

We were seated by the window looking over Fantasyland. I was very excited.

The menu didn't have a lot of choices, but I found something I liked for each course.

I chose the spring roll (pretty good but difficult to eat... I ate all of it, though), pasta (shouldn't have filled up on that spring roll), and chocolate buckle cake (delish!). Rachel got the prime rib. Dad got the salmon. I forget what mom got.

Dad's salmon

My pasta

Rachel cutting her prime rib

Rachel and I both got wands. The little boys got swords.

The pasta was actually pretty good, but I wasn't very hungry and didn't want to stuff myself, so I just ate half. I felt really bad about not cleaning my plate after Dad had spent so much money, but I just couldn't.

Fairy Godmother came out and spoke to us. The mice danced around the room. It was very cute. Then, they rotated around the room and took quick photos - no autographs.

It was really cute because at the table for two beside us, there was a dad with his young daughter... probably around four or five years old. Throughout the meal, he kept trying to convince her that this was really special, but she didn't seem to get it. Poor guy... I know what he went through, booking and paying for this overpriced madness, and his little DD didn't understand how appreciative she should be. There is benefit to waiting until your daughters are fifteen and seventeen to dine in the castle. We weren't only excited to be in the castle, but we were aware of how difficult it is to book CRT and how freakin' expensive it is.

The Fairy Godmother had a birthday celebration while she was out, and they brought birthday cakes to all of us celebrating.

Then, we got our chocolate buckle cakes.

I ate my chocolate buckle cake, and Rachel ate her birthday cake. Our waitor boxed up the cakes we didn't eat.

After dinner, we walked back to BLT. Along the way, Rachel used her magic wand to open automatic and elevator doors.

Day 2 - Fun in Frontierland

2009-11-14T21:58:00.000-08:00

We got of the railroad at the Frontierland station and headed to Big Thunder Mountain to use our FPs from that morning.

After Big Thunder Mountain, Dad just had to ride Pirates of the Caribbean. It was a 20 minute wait, which is actually a bit long for this ride, but we went on in. It turned out to be more like a five to ten minute wait. Most of the wait is actually the time it takes to walk the long queue.

After POTC, Dad had the urge to FP, again, so we sent him to FP either Splash or Big Thunder while we went to the Enchanted Tiki Room.

I actually still quite enjoy this. It's kind of an inside joke, because you don't understand this version unless you're familiar with the original (my friend, Emily, didn't understand it back in 2008). I enjoy the little jokes about performing the same show since 1963. Idk, I like corny stuff. Aw, man... come to mention corny, I just realized we forgot to do the Jungle Cruise! Bummer. Guess I'll have to go back....

Dad met back up with us after the Tiki Room. It was 2:45, and I suggested we line up for the 3:00 parade. Frontierland was very hot, and all of the shady spots were claimed. We hung out in a shady spot, then about five minutes before 3:00, we moved to an empty spot in the sun.

But the parade didn't come at 3:00. And it was hot, hot, HOT. Rachel and I took turns ducking into the nearby air-conditioned store.

Now, I could've sworn the parade started at Frontierland. When I marched the parade back in 2008, it started at Frontierland and ended at Main Street. But this parade came from Main Street. Perhaps they switched the beginning point when they turned it into the Celebrate A Dream Come True parade?

Now, did you notice how sweaty everyone was? Especially the dancers? It was FLIPPIN HOT!!!! We were sweating buckets by the time it was over... we all ran into that pin trading gift shop to cool off. I'd heard that Disney had been trying to save some money on air-conditioning over the summer, but luckily, today they were blasting it.

We were in the gift shop, cooling off, and we had some time to kill, so I suggested we head over to Liberty Square and see our new Pres at Hall of Presidents.

We pretty much ran there. Thank goodness they were blasting the AC, as well.

The show was just about to start. I can't remember if it was an announcement or a recording, but before the show, they said, "In order to maintain the dignity of this performance, no flash photography, please." Cool.

Well, as soon as Abe Lincoln came on stage to make his speech, someone flashed a camera in the front.

Then when Obama was accepting Oath of Office or whatever, the person beside us decided to take a flash picture.

After the show was over, the CM said, "Thank you to those who DID NOT take flash pictures during the performance." Call out....

Other than that, I found this version of HoP much more tolerable than the previous. The narration was much better, and I thought they chose good events to highlight (But, of course, we skipped over the US's not-so-great moments, glorifying American history... but that's what we do. I personally would've found it more interesting if they'd chosen to highlight the events that took place during Nixon [my gov teacher would be very disappointed that they did not cover "The Honorable Richard M. Nixon's" term] and Reagan's presidencies, but I suppose they are a bit too recent [not for me] to be historical.). It was a nice break from the heat, though.

Day 2 - Back to Magic Kingdom!

2009-11-14T13:34:00.000-08:00

So, we leave our room and head back to MK. On the elevator, Dad has a conversation with himself on whether we should walk or ride the monorail to MK. Here's a small portion of it.

Dad: "Do you guys want to walk or ride the monorail?"
Us: "We don't care."
Dad: "We should probably walk to burn off calories from breakfast."
Me: "Okay, let's walk."
Dad: "Okay, we can ride the monorail."
Dad: "But it's not that far of a walk."
Dad: "But it's hot outside."
Dad: "But it's probably faster to walk."
Rachel: "Dad... Victoria just said we should walk. What the heck? Why are you arguing with yourself? We're walking."

A lobby picture I snapped as we began our walk.

We got into MK and noticed the train was pulling up to the Main Street Station. It had been an awfully long time since we'd ridden the train, so we decided to hop on.

Day 2 - Disgusting Find at BLT

2009-11-14T13:26:00.000-08:00

We got back to the room and housekeeping hadn't come, yet. I recalled reading somewhere that DVC units only get housekeeping three times a week or something like that, but I wasn't sure and decided not to tell Dad because that might not make him the happiest person on earth.

While in the room, Rachel showed us something that she had noticed last night....

Yeah... it wasn't ours.

So, Rachel left the Mousekeeping staff a helpful little note...

Day 2 - A Little Bit of Shopping

2009-11-14T13:24:00.001-08:00

After breakfast, we stopped by the Sundries shop. This is where my parents bought my WDW luggage, and we wanted to add another piece to the collection. I chose the large rolling suitcase (for long trips ). Rachel bought a toothbrush (she forgot hers). She was quite disappointed to find that their toothbrushes were just regular old toothbrushes without Mickey Mouse designs. She told me she really wanted a Mickey Mouse toothbrush and asked if I thought she'd be able to find one somewhere else. I told her to get the toothbrush and brush her teeth.

Mother asked if they did resort to resort delivery, but we were told that it takes a while. Park to resort delivery is quite fast, but they typically don't deliver items from one resort to another and that it has to go somewhere else first and can take three or four days. So, we decided just to take the suitcase with us since we were going back to the resort to drop off our cakes and posters (and let Rachel brush her teeth), anyway.

Day 2 - Brunch at 1900 Park Fare

2009-11-14T13:07:00.000-08:00

Okay, so when we left MK, I suggested that we take the water launch to the Grand Floridian instead of the monorail so we wouldn't have to do the full loop. There happened to be a boat for the GF at the dock when we approached it, so we had no wait. It was a quick two minute boat ride... nice breeze (very very hot outside).

We got to the GF and headed to the main building. It was so familiar. We couldn't quite remember where 1900 Park Fare was, so dad asked the hostess at the Princess Tea Party, and she pointed us in the right direction.

We checked-in. I had made this reservation at the same time as the one for San Angel Inn, so we were prepared for our ressie to not show up, but it was there. Rachel went to the restroom, but I saw the outrageous line and decided against it. Our buzzer went off while she was in the restroom, and we had to wait a good five minutes or so for her to come out.

They posed us in front of a wall with a mural of Cinderella's Castle. It was a pretty backdrop. After that, we were seated.

As soon as we sat down, Alice came over to greet us. She was quite chatty and wished Rachel and I both a happy birthday (we are frequently asked if Rachel and I are twins, so when we both had the birthday buttons on, it was assumed... we agreed in advance that we'd be turning seventeen).

Now, the food here was REALLY GOOD. Most people come to the breakfast buffets for the characters (I know we do), but this one actually had a great selection of food. My favorite was the breakfast pizza, which was actually at child's level. There were really good grits and eggs (southern girl needs her grits), as well as sausage and Rachel's favorite, Mickey Mouse waffles. To quote Rachel, "These are the most amazing waffles. I want to know how they get them so crispy on the outside, yet so soft on the inside." This buffet did not disappoint.

We also experimented with different ways to eat Mickey Mouse waffles... Mom put soft serve ice cream on top.

Once again, we celebrated our birthdays. I really liked 1900 Park Fare's birthday celebration. They gave us laminated posters with character signatures on them that said, "I Celebrated My Special Day at 1900 Park Fare."
They also brought us individual birthday cakes.

Since we'd already eaten alot, our waitress offered to box up our cakes so we could take them with us.

Day 2 - Magic Kingdom

2009-11-14T13:01:00.001-08:00

We got into MK around 9:30, a half hour after park opening. It wasn't very crowded, yet. We headed to Big Thunder Mountain. Unfortunately, it was closed due to technical difficulty, so we just grabbed FPs.

Splash Mountain didn't have a long wait, but Rachel and I didn't feel like getting wet (although it was already super hot out).

So, we headed to the Haunted Mansion, which had no wait.

After the Haunted Mansion, we went to Fantasyland and set sail on the happiest cruise around the world.

Now, I remember they added the Disney character dolls to the it's a small world in Disneyland when they refurbished it, and I could've sworn I'd read that they added them to the MK version as well, but if so, I had little luck in spotting them. There was a bowing Chinese girl that looked like Mulan at the exit of the Asia room, but that's all I could locate.

After it's a small world, we went to Mickey's Philharmagic. It was cute, as always.

Then, it was time for us to head to the Grand Floridian for our 11:00 ADR at 1900 Park Fare.

Day 2 - Lovely Views at BLT

2009-11-14T12:53:00.000-08:00

I woke up to someone else waking up around 7:30. I didn't feel like getting up from the not-so-comfy sofa bed. I was freezing because Rachel had stolen all of the covers and the air conditioner was set to 60 degrees.

I finally got up... to switch beds. Then I decided I'd get ready. I had to fight Mom and Rachel for mirror time.

But, I got ready before them, so I decided I'd go out on the balcony and admire the view.

Day 1 - Wishes Nighttime Spectacular from BLT

2009-11-14T12:22:00.000-08:00

After IllumiNations, we fought with the crowd to get out of the park (it really wasn't that bad) and took the monorail back to the resort. We noticed people lined up on balconies (there's a public balcony on every floor), as well as the Skyway bridge, and we saw the people out on the patios of the Top of the World Lounge and California Grill. We raced to our room, and I recalled reading somewhere (I'm thinking AllEarsNet) that the music for the fireworks was on channel 20, so I blasted it so we could hear it on the balcony (I believe it was at Volume 72 ). It was pretty cool, having the sound and being able to view the fireworks privately, not having to fight the crowd or worry about people obstructing the view. My photos are even worse here: I got frustrated with the photos and decided to take video of the conclusion.

The fireworks are shot from behind the castle quite a ways, so we actually could see them from inside our room, but in order to see the castle, we had to be out on the balcony.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After the fireworks, Rachel and I went down to the pool to sit in the hot tub. We had the pool to ourselves, and it was quite peaceful. We decided that we liked the view of BLT better from the back than from the front. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera to take a picture. But it was really nice being able to look out at the lake while sitting in the hot tub.

Day 1 - IllumiNations: Reflection of Earth

2009-11-14T12:15:00.000-08:00

After dinner at San Angel, we realized we were just in time to watch IllumiNations. We headed towards the Future World side of the lagoon so that it would be easier to get out and stood behind some people. The people in front of us had their legs spread out, trying to reserve seats for more people. They were on the phone, and either they gave up in trying to save spots or their party had better ones (or wasn't staying for fireworks) because they finally gave up and left. So, we took their spots.

My camera doesn't take very good fireworks pictures, but I tried... then I just took video on my cell phone to send to people.

Day 1 - Dinner at San Angel Inn

2009-11-14T12:11:00.000-08:00

I had made the ADRs online, but they were not showing up. I had read several warnings of this, which is why I printed out multiple copies of my ADR confirmations. However, Mumsy did not bring the San Angel ADR confirmation sheet like I had Rachel tell her to on the phone. She swears she didn't know. It was back at BLT and it would be at least 45 minutes to go there, get it, and come back. So, we're getting agitated, and I think the poor Mexican hostess was scared there was about to be a fight because she decided to take our word for it and give us a table (she turned several people in front of us without reservations away).

I was a bit surprised at the menu. The prices were very high, and there wasn't much selection. Rachel and Dad ordered entrees, and Mom and I got appetizers. My appetizer turned out to be three chips with lettuce and guacamole and crab meat piled on top. Not very filling. Luckily, Rachel and Dad had enough food to share. It was aight.

Our waitress noticed our birthday buttons, and they brought us both desserts and sang to us in Spanish. It was pretty cool.

Day 1 - Escape the rain at Epcot

2009-11-14T11:56:00.000-08:00

Now, we had planned to go back to the room before heading to Epcot, but in all of our running and hiding, we ran to the express monorail instead of the resort monorail and certainly did not feel like running out around security to the resort loop (it is quite inconvenient how you have to exit the park to get to the resort loop). So, we rode the monorail to TTC and transferred to the Epcot monorail.

Rachel called Mom and let her know what we were doing. Apparently she was quite in a daze. She didn't even know that we were at Magic Kingdom. She figured we had gone to the pool or something. Rachel told her that she had an umbrella in her bag if she wanted to bring it. Mom asked, "Do I need it?" "Look out the window, Mom... it's pouring!" I had Rachel tell mom to bring the ADR confirmation sheet that I had laid on the table on top of my Unofficial Guide.

Lucky for us, it stopped raining just as we got off the monorail.

Rachel and I checked the queue times at that central board. We wanted to ride Soarin, and they still had FPs, but we weren't sure when Mom and Dad would get to Epcot and whether or not we'd want to FP anything with them. The queue time was only 45 minutes, which is actually pretty good for Soarin, but we didn't have that much time - our dinner reservations were in an hour.

So, we went to the Living Seas with Nemo and Friends.

Yeah, after this picture, I decided it wasn't worth wasting my battery life and memory trying to photograph this ride.

Rachel didn't want to spend much time in the aquarium. She doesn't do well in aquariums or museums. She doesn't have the attention span for that sort of stuff.

Rachel wanted to drink Cokes. (This is all she ever wants to do in Epcot ) So, we headed to Club Cool and tried out the different Cokes. I decided that the only ones I liked were the Mexican soft drink and the Ginger Ale from Mozambique. Everything else was too sweet or too bland. I am a Diet Coke drinker... I don't like a lot of sugary-taste.

After I coaxed Rachel out of Club Cool (I swear she could live in there), we went to Journey Into Imagination with Figment. Normally, we sing along on this ride, but we were sitting behind an elderly couple, and I didn't want to ruin their experience with my not-quite lovely singing voice.

We had about 20 minutes until our ADR at San Angel Inn, and Rachel and I decided to cut it close by doing Mission:Space (though it only had a five minute wait). However, I forgot to factor in the 10 minutes of instructional junk, so it was 7:30 when we actually boarded the shuttle.

I think I freaked out the other people in our spaceship. As soon as we got started, I grabbed the barf bag and started muttering, "Oh no, oh no." Ahh... and then we were pushing all of the buttons, and I didn't follow the directions. I always push my buttons too late, and autopilot takes over.

We got off Mission:Space and raced over to the Mexico Pavillion. Mom and Dad were already at the check-in booth.

Day 1 - Off to the Magic Kingdom!

2009-11-14T11:36:00.000-08:00

Mom and Dad wanted to rest, since they had gone so long without sleeping, and apparently they couldn't do it with us in the room goofing around. So, Mom told us to go exploring.

Rachel and I decided that exploring would best be done at the Magic Kingdom, so we grabbed our keys and our tickets and walked across the Skyway bridge to get to the Contemporary.

View of the Contemporary Marina from the Skyway Bridge

Grand Canyon Concourse

Ah, the Grand!!! My heart really sings when I see it.

We were excited to see Magic Kingdom all dressed up for Halloween. It's been quite a while since we've been there in the fall. Ten years, to be exact.

Now, neither of us knew what we wanted to do. We were just happy to be in the Magic Kingdom. The attraction didn't matter. I finally suggested that we go to the Haunted Mansion, since we were veering in that direction.

Unfortunately, the Haunted Mansion was closed due to technical difficulties, so we headed over to Frontierland in hopes of a short line for Big Thunder Mountain. It was 40 minutes, but we didn't feel like waiting that long, so we went on to Pirates of the Caribbean where we walked right on.

After PoTC, we decided to walk through Fantasyland to see if maybe we could ride it's a small world or the teacups. it's a small world had a 20 minute wait, which is quite outrageous for this attraction. Fantasyland was pretty packed. We realized that most of the families here right now had young children.

So, we headed to Tomorrowland. Rachel was more upset about TTA being closed than Space Mountain (this was actually the first attraction she wanted to do upon entering the park). About now it began raining. We were going to get in line for Buzz, but the line was out the door, and we decided we should just head on to Epcot. So, we made it to Main Street. We would run a distance, then stand under the cover, then run some more. We did this about three or four times before we finally made it out of the park and to the monorail.

Day 1 - BLT Studio

2009-11-14T11:12:00.001-08:00

The room numbers were a wee bit confusing at first... we were on the twelfth floor, yet our room number started with an 8. I found out that this is because the BLT rooms range from 7100-8599 because it is an addition to the Contemporary.

We thought it was odd that the vanity and the kitchenette were in the same "room."

Table already covered in our junk.

Now, for the view...

If you looked straight out the glass door, you saw...

But stand on the balcony and look just a little to your left, and....

A theme park view!!!

Tennis court below

Using zoom.

Using super zoom.

For us, the studio didn't work out that great. There was only one vanity with one small mirror (this room was also designed for tall people, and with the exception of my father, none of us are taller than 5'2"... I had to stand on my toes when using the vanity) and another small mirror in the living room. I didn't like how the vanity was enclosed by the kitchen... it made it very difficult to get by one another as we were preparing for the day.

Rachel and I slept on the pullout together. It was still pretty stiff. I suppose it will get a little softer as it is more used, but when I first laid down, I thought I'd be just as well off sleeping on the floor. However, when I woke up in the morning, I had gotten used to the stiff mattress (I actually prefer stiff mattresses, but this one had no bounce). I think because it was so stiff, we rolled around less in our sleep.

There was plenty of storage, though. We just lived out of our suitcases since it was only a two-night stay, but there were lots of drawers that we could unpack our belongings into if needed.

Now, I could totally see this layout working for us alright when Rachel and I were younger, but since we're old enough to be fixing our hair and make-up every morning, we had to fight over the vanity/mirror space. I think the designers focused a little too much on the appearance of the room, in turn sacrificing function. I really wish they had larger mirrors (no matter how "contemporary" the one looks), and a full-length mirror would be great. I also wish there had been two bathroom sinks in front of this larger mirror, and I would move the counter top down a good 4-6 inches. I'm only five feet tall, but the counter was only a few inches below my chest, which makes me wonder how families with small children would function.

Here's a diagram of the studio layout, courtesy of DVCNews.com

As you can see, the kitchenette and bathroom vanitiy are back-to-back, which was a little awkward.

The one-bedroom villa appears to have a better layout, though:

The two-bedroom is actually an adjoined studio/one-bedroom.

And, just for kicks, the lovely three-bedroom Grand Villa:

Ah, a stay in a Grand Villa with a Magic Kingdom view would be just magical.

Day 1 - Disney's Bay Lake Tower

2009-11-14T11:03:00.000-08:00

Upon check-in, Dad was told that we could watch the fireworks from our balcony. This was exciting, and I wondered if we had by chance lucked out and ended up with a Magic Kingdom view.

Our room was in the north wing on the twelfth floor.

View from the window by the north wing elevators.

View from the hallway looking down onto the pool

Day 1 - Checking into Disney's Bay Lake Tower at the Contemporary

2009-10-09T13:23:00.001-07:00

Okay, so after riding Expedition Everest, we headed out of the park and drove to the Contemporary.

Bay Lake Tower is the newest Disney Vacation Club addition. It had actually opened just two weeks before our arrival. It is the first DVC resort with monorail access and has been highly anticipated.

We ended up here by luck. Our dad thought he was booking the Contemporary Tower, but realized that he had actually booked at the Contemporary's Bay Lake Tower. However, we were just as (if not more) excited by this.

Bay Lake Tower does not have its own "front desk." All BLT guests check-in at the Contemporary. Check-in was a bit confusing due to construction on the Contemporary's entrance. We had to go through the convention center to get to the front desk.

Kids can watch movies while their parents check-in

Day 1 - Expedition Everest (again!)

2009-10-09T13:18:00.001-07:00

After Dinosaur, we headed back to Expedition Everest to use our FastPasses.

You can kind of see the Yeti... I haven't exactly learned how to time my camera just right for this photo, yet. Lack of flash and weird lighting makes it difficult.

Day 1 - Dinoland USA

2009-10-09T13:09:00.001-07:00

After Festival of the Lion King, we headed over to Dinoland USA to ride Primeval Whirl. The stand-by wait was only 20 minutes, I believe. However, the queue was very hot, and our lack of sleep was beginning to catch up with us.

I amused myself in line by taking photos of myself in the mirror.

Primeval Whirl is your basic Cat-and-Mouse rollercoaster, except the cars spin. This part of Dinoland - Chester and Hester's DinoRAMA, was actually designed to look tacky. A lot of Disney-lovers do not appreciate the tacky design and believe that it conflicts with the rest of Animal Kingdom. I kind of like it, actually.

When loading, the CM stepped on Rachel's foot, and she let out an angry, "OWWWW!"

After Primeval Whirl, we had to escape the heat, so we went over to DINOSAUR with the nice, air-conditioned queue. Unfortunately, the queue was out the door, but at least we got to wait in the shade under fans for the most part. Still, I was sweating. It was miserably hot. However, once we got inside, the air-conditioning felt really good.

Day 1 - Festival of the Lion King

2009-09-26T06:51:00.000-07:00

After breakfast, we decided to head over and line up for the 12:00 showing of Festival of the Lion King, though it was only 11:30. The last time we were at WDW, we didn't get to see this due to technical difficulties (we found this out after we had waited 30 minutes ).

We decided to sit in the elephant section because we'd never sat there before (we're usually lions). We sat on the first row behind the wheelchair seating.

Okay, now as soon as the elephant guy came out, Rachel says, "It's Chandler!"

Chandler is the biggest guy on the football team... I suppose to understand this, you'd have to see him...

Here's some more pictures from the show. (Flash photography is allowed.) The quality isn't very good. My camera didn't care for the lighting.

Festival of the Lion King is one of my favorite shows at Walt Disney World. It's been the same for as long as I can remember, but it's great. It combines singing, dancing, acrobatics, and even fire twirling to create a very colorful production. I don't know of any other theme park with productions as elaborate as this.

Day 1 - Donald's Breakfast Safari at Tusker House

2009-09-26T06:33:00.000-07:00

After the safari, we checked into Tusker House for our 10:20 Safari Breakfast. We were given a buzzer and sat at a shaded picnic table. We were all really hungry (it's a good thing I made this ADR... it was actually an afterthought, and I wasn't sure if we were really going to use it). After about 5-10 minutes, our buzzer buzzed.

We took a family picture and then were seated in a corner of the restaurant. Our safari guide (I don't know if that's what she actually was supposed to be, but I like that term), Veronica, gave us all Jungle Juice. Rachel chugged hers while Veronica was still telling us about the buffet. We both ordered Diet Cokes in addition to our Jungle Juice because we needed caffeine!

Donald and the gang wasn't near us, so we went on to the buffet. And, man, I filled my plate. I got like everything. But when I actually ate it, I was a bit disappointed in some of it... not all of it was hot, and the two meaty entrees had a weird flavoring to them. I really wanted some cheese grits.

I came back to the table and was greeted by Mickey. But Rachel was still at the buffet.

I managed to stall him long enough for Rachel to show...

Now, ten or so minutes later, Goofy showed up, and guess who was missing...

Once again, Rachel showed up with a big plate of food... Goofy really wanted her to share.

Luckily, she didn't miss Donald.

Or Daisy.

I can't remember what all I ate. I tried most everything. I ate a lot of fruit. The pineapple was good. So was the cheese.

Day 1 - Kilimanjaro Safaris

2009-09-26T06:07:00.000-07:00

Now, after our second run, we decided to get FPs (FastPasses) and head on to Kilimanjaro Safaris before a crowd built over there. It wasn't crowded at all, right now.

Kilimanjaro Safaris opened with Disney's Animal Kingdom in 1998. It is quite a unique attraction, with elaborate theming and clever planning. See, Walt Disney wanted to use real animals for The Jungle Cruise at Disneyland. However, he was advised not to do so because most of the animals he wanted to use were nocturnal or would spend most of the day sleeping or hiding from guests. So, they used animatronic animals for The Jungle Cruise. However, at Disney, no idea is ever completely shut-down. With Kilimanjaro Safaris, Imagineers found ways to persuade animals to stay visible throughout the day. Barriers are also seemingly invisible. As the animals adapt to their environment, Imagineers have to continue to make changes to the attraction. Though ever-changing, the storyline of the attraction has been rather consistant over the past eleven years. It is said that the best animal interaction occurs in the morning. We've also personally had good luck after rain. For the shortest wait, go here within the first hour of park opening or grab a FastPass to use later.

We actually walked at a leisurely pace. It wasn't hot, yet, and the trees provided a lot of shading.

Not bad...

Day 1 - Animal Kingdom Rope Drop

2009-09-25T22:42:00.000-07:00

They let us into the park about fifteen minutes early, but held us at Discovery Island.

This was the first time Mom and Dad had ever been to WDW for rope drop. Rachel and I caught several rope drops on our last trip to the World, but they were always lagging behind.

This rope drop was super cute, with the checklist and Mickey inviting us along on an adventure.

We decideded to follow the rope through Asia to Expedition Everest. I had read in either Unofficial Guide or the AllEarsNet weekly newsletter that you can cut through Dinoland to get to Expedition Everest faster, but I figured what's thirty people ahead of us?

We were probably the second train on EE, but whatever... we still didn't really have to wait.

After our first ride, the wait was still low, so we got back in line. We waited maybe five minutes.

Back for round two!

Yeah, we're scared.

Day 1 - Waking up at Disney

2009-09-25T22:37:00.000-07:00

So, after getting freshened up, we were pumped for the day. We were almost at WDW!!!

Rachel and I straightened our hair in the car (we have a power source for our entertainment center.... I think you're supposed to plug gaming systems into it, but we prefer to use it to charge cell phones and heat flat irons).

We got to Animal Kingdom at 8:30. We got our tickets and the CM asked my dad if we were celebrating anything, and he told her that we were celebrating our birthdays (mine and Rachel's) early (this isn't a lie, either.... this took the place of my birthday trip), so she gave us each birthday buttons. And, so, we put them on.

Upon entering the park, we were both wished happy birthday. We got a lot of birthday wishes throughout the week. It was really cool, and I loved it.

Pulling an All-Nighter for Disney

2009-09-25T22:20:00.000-07:00

Okay, so the week leading up to Labor Day weekend had been rough for all of us. By Tuesday, we knew we wanted to leave town. We had already been considering going to Walt Disney World for the weekend, but didn't think it was a possibility since there were no flights leaving from GSP to Orlando-Sentinel Saturday morning. However, desperate times call for desperate measures, and we sure were desperate for some Disney Magic. Dad offered to drive all Friday night after the football game so we could be in Orlando by Saturday morning. On Thursday, he booked us a room at the brand new Bay Lake Tower at the Contemporary Resort (had just opened two weeks before). I booked us really nice ADRs (Advance Dining Reservations), including Donald's Breakfast Safari, San Angel Inn, 1900 Park Fare Supercalifragilistic Breakfast, The Wave, and Crystal Palace.

Disney Magic Your Way park tickets aren't a good deal unless you purchase at least seven days, considering the more you play, the less you pay (price per day decreases per day on your pass). So, we decided to go all out and purchase the 10-day no-expiration park hopper MYW tickets. Of course, with no expiration, the more days, the more expensive the no expiration perk. However, this is still a much less expensive route than purchasing the 3-day MYW, considering we will be back to WDW multiple times.

Now, I'll admit that I'm not being 100% original on the Disney blog entries, considering I am for the most part copy/pasting my Trip Report on www.mousebuzz.com. However, I realize that MouseBuzzers know most everything about Disney, and vacation blog readers might not, so I'll try to explain the Disney-speak.

Here we go...

So.... Friday night, we all went to the football game. Rachel is a cheerleader and I'm in the marching band (lol, like that song... guess I'm the nerdy one, here). The bulldogs won 17 to 14. It wasn't exactly a pretty victory, but hey, we won.

had to stay to march the show after the game, so I got home a bit later. We all showered and loaded our bags into the Yukon (I had a small duffle, a tote with my clothes for the next day, and a tote with my entertainment items). I sat up front with Dad. Mumsy got the middle seat, and Rachel got the way back.

As soon as we left, I probably could've fallen asleep because I was so exhausted from the game, but text messages from a very cute football player kept me up... til 3:00 AM.

Then, I had difficulty sleeping. I kept thinking, "I'm going to Walt Disney World... I should get some sleep." But it wasn't easy. Dad bout fell asleep... that's when Mom decided she would drive. I kept hearing Mom and Dad converse and I was just in this daze... I was like asleep, yet fully aware of my surroundings. I believe I slept from 4:00 to 6:20.

We stopped at that parkway rest area to change for the day. I was a bit hesitant of changing in a rest area (imagining the worst), but it was actually quite clean. I was also relieved to find other ladies doing the same thing. There must've been 10 or so of us lined up on the counter fixing our make-up and hair.

Day 1 - The Breakers

2009-07-21T13:18:00.000-07:00

We left around noon and drove five hours straight. We just stopped to get gas and go through the drive-thru at McDonald's. We took no bathroom breaks! This, for us, is quite an accomplishment. I cannot believe we made it five hours without stopping at a rest area.

Paradise Tower behind the parking garage

We arrived to the Breakers and temporarily parked outside of our building, Paradise Tower. It's rather confusing to make reservations at the Breakers because they have three towers - North (oldest), Palmetto (the short tower), and Paradise (the nicest-looking from the exterior and where we've stayed with the Beta Club in years past). So, we had to walk over two buildings to check-in. The front of Paradise Tower smelled like a dumpster.

Now, having driven five hours without stopping to use the restroom, we all needed one desperately. However, there was no public restroom facility to be found.

Upon checking in, we were informed by the rather rude employee that we had "an oceanview on the side." "On the side? We wanted oceanfront." "Well, you booked oceanview. It means you have a view of the ocean." Normally, this is when one would offer to upgrade us. "So if I stick my head out of the window and look to the side, I can see the ocean?" She didn't find this funny.

We walked back over to where we had temporarily parked our car and got a luggage cart. It took us a while to get out the bags we needed (we had my pageant dresses and stuff in the trunk, too). Mom took the car to park it in the parking garage across the street, and Rachel and I headed on up with the luggage.

This luggage cart was epic fail. It had a major pull to the side and would randomly spin around. We made it into the elevator, and someone immediately took notice of our baggage. "You must be hear for the dance competition." Maybe it was the garment bags that caught her eye.

Our room was on the fifteenth floor at the end of the hallway. It was an "oceanview studio" according to Ms. Smarty-Pants at the front desk. It appeared that our room and the room next to it (which I would assume to be an "oceanfront studio") could be rented at the same time and connected.

Now, I had stayed in Paradise Tower twice before (Rachel once before), and with the exception of the matching bedspreads, our three-bedroom villa looked nothing like this studio.

Two queen beds

The bedroom had a flat-screen television. There's a closet on the left and then a water heater on the right.

Living area

Sleeper sofa (I suppose this room could sleep up to six)

The living area had a flat-screen television, as well.

The cabinets had water damage.

The refrigerator was old and bent out of shape.

More water damage

There was a flourescent light over the sink. With a pull cord.

Our "side balcony"

"oceanview" (look left)

What you saw if you looked right

Straight view

Look down. There was loud music coming from here at most times during the day and night.

Small parking garage (this should really be for compact cars only)

Star Systems Dance Nationals at Myrtle Beach

2009-07-21T12:41:00.000-07:00

We've never been big Myrtle Beach fans. In fact, every trip to Myrtle Beach that I remember has been with a group. I went two years in December with Beta Club, once in February with dance, and three summers for dance. So, the majority of my time at Myrtle Beach has been spent at the lovely convention center.

Anywho, I was there July 10-12 for Star Systems Dance Nationals. Mom and Rachel stayed until the fifteenth, but I had to leave for South Carolina's Junior Miss.

Read on!

Day 8 - Destin Commons and Johnny Rocket's

2009-07-09T22:04:00.000-07:00

We needed to swing by Bass Pro Shop to see if they had any lifevests (mine is beginning to show some wear). They did... there just weren't any cute enough for me.

They were having a Fourth of July sale. Rachel got a $5 tee-shirt with the American flag and a bass in front of it. It's so redneck.

We went into Build-A-Bear to get a Destin bear tee-shirt for Rachel. I don't know why she wanted it. I suppose to dress a bear (that would make sense, wouldn't it?).

We wanted to eat lunch at Johnny Rocket's - it's tradition. Johnny Rocket's didn't open until 11:00, so we had about 40 minutes. I had been asking about a Disney store, and there's a Disney Character Outlet at Silver Sands, so we decided to drive to Silver Sands, then come back for lunch at Johnny Rockets, then hit the road.

The traffic was fine until we wanted to get into Silver Sand's. Dad was in the left turn lane, and the light was very short (not to mention the cars were taking their sweet time turning). Only four cars made it through each light. We sat there about twenty minutes until we got into Silver Sands. We headed directly to the Disney Character Outlet and... in it's place was a Levi's. What the heck? I don't want Levi's! I want Disney! We circled Silver Sand's just to make sure it hadn't moved to a different location. Nope.. wasn't there.

So, we went back to Destin Commons, and stood right in front of the door to Johnny Rocket's until they let us in.

We were the first seated, and we all knew exactly what we wanted to order (for me this was the Original - no mayo). Our food was brought promptly, and we ate in good time.

We then loaded up and headed back...

As you can see, everyone fell asleep but me.

We made good time (with few stops) and got home in time to go out on the lake and watch fireworks.

Day 8 - Checking Out

2009-07-09T21:59:00.001-07:00

The garbage truck woke us all up at 7:00. So, we just got up, got ready, and started packing.

We were loaded at about ten after nine.

Of course, before we could leave, we had to take our annual airbrush tee-shirt pictures.

We're such rebels...

Day 7 - The Track

2009-07-09T21:25:00.001-07:00

We brought our balls back to The Track to finish our round of putt-putt from the previous night. We decided that we'd play the first five holes, and you could count the better of your two scores. I think I only improved on one hole. Putt-putt was still pretty backed up, but we didn't think it was as bad as the night before. However, we did have a lot of goof-off time in-between holes...

Helen shot her first hole-in-one EVER!

After putt-putt, we headed over to race go-carts. It's a multi-level wooden track that goes around in circles. It's fun, but the line is always very hot and completely outrageous. Dad thought we didn't have enough tickets, so he bought six more. It turns out we had just enough before. It's three tickets per person to ride (and the minimum age to drive is 14).

We waited about thirty minutes until we finally got to go. We were at the back, and no one passed me the entire time. I passed two people, I think. I know I passed one guy because I got right in front of him, then slammed on my brakes. I was also swerving from side to side so he couldn't pass me. I'm pretty sure I ticked him off.

Helen spun out. bahahaha... she was right behind me, then I wasn't paying much attention. Apparently the guy I passed and made angry rammed right into her right before they were going back into the loading area.

Dad had his camera out and was trying to take pictures, but the lighting is terrible. He did take video, though.

Here's our one picture after, in front of the track.

Day 7 - Beach

2009-07-09T21:13:00.000-07:00

It was our last full day in Destin. By now, we have this down to a routine - wake up, eat breakfast, BEACH.

There were a lot more umbrellas on the beach, today. We figured that people had come in for the Fourth.

We were stuck beside the drunks, again. They taught us a drinking game - shotgun. Apparently, it is quicker to cut a hole in the bottom instead of trying to drink it out of the top. This one girl could puncture a beer can with her teeth. It was hardcore.

We decided to eat in, tonight, so we'd have more time for putt-putt and go-carts at The Track. We finally left the beach at 5:00. I don't think any of us wanted to go, though Meredith was the most resistant (Rachel was a close second).

Day 6 - High-Steppers at HarborWalk Village

2009-07-08T11:43:00.000-07:00

After the air show, we ventured in the other direction to find the High-Steppers, a dance company composed of mainly senior citizens who performed "exhilarating" patriotic tap routines.

We were told that the fireworks show didn't start until nine, and we didn't want to hang around for another hour, so we decided to head back towards our condo. Rachel requested that we stop by the $5 Souvenir store on our way back. As soon as we get out of the car, we see fireworks going off in the distance. So much for starting at 9:00.

It turns out that everything in the store isn't $5. However, we did pick up three $5 tee-shirts for friends.

While we were in the store, it started storming, again. We think maybe they set off the fireworks early because of the weather.

Day 6 - HarborWalk Air Show

2009-07-08T11:29:00.000-07:00

We hadn't walked too when we noticed the air show start above us.

Day 6 - Harry T's

2009-07-08T11:09:00.001-07:00

We had a little bit of difficulty finding Harry T's. We knew it was in HarborWalk Village, but we weren't sure where. We finally decided to park in the parking garage (free parking) and walk around to find it.

Meredith spotted it, first.

We knew to request outside seating. The Wrights had requested inside seating after they had problems with Emily overheating at The Back Porch, but it turned out that their inside wasn't air-conditioned.

We were seated immediately at two picnic tables that they shoved together in the back. It was a great location - we were right beside the harbor and could watch boats come in and out.

It was very breezy, so heat wasn't a problem at all. The only thing I found slightly annoying about our table was that it was on the dock, so a lot of people walked by. We were also right by the fish food dispenser, and we had some kids buy fish food and stop by our table to feed the fish.

The menu was huge, and I was confused on what to order. I finally settled on a buffalo chicken sandwich.

It didn't take long for our food to arrive. There was a bit of inconsistancy among our entrees. Helen and I ordered the same thing, and only Helen's came with a pickle. Mom didn't get a pickle, either.

The buffalo chicken sandwich was good. It was kinda spicy and very messy, though, so I didn't eat much of it. There was too much meat for the bun, and I ended up just eating the chicken. Rachel had the same problem with her tuna sandwich. It fell apart on her.

It was still light out when we were finished. It was nowhere near the time the fireworks would go off. So, we decided to wander around Harbour Walk for a while.

Day 6 - Beach

2009-07-08T09:58:00.000-07:00

Ahh... same as always. Woke up early, ate breakfast, and went to the beach.

Today, our chair had been moved down. We were also fortunate enough to be sitting by a large group of drunk adults that enjoyed invading our space. One lady spilled beer on my dad while trying to make friendly (drunk) conversation.

We went up for lunch, heated up lean pockets and goofed off, then went back to the beach until...

Helen and I decided to go ahead and take two chairs and our bags to the condo so that we wouldn't have as much to carry when the rain actually came.

We got back to the beach and it hadn't rained, yet. We thought maybe the clouds would pass over without any rain.

Maybe, not...

We decided it was time to pack it up.

And, boy, we made it just in time...

This thing FLEW!

The aftermath

In the meantime, we didn't let the storm affect our dinner plans. Tonight was sundress night at Harry T's (the Wrights had recommended we do this on Friday because they have fireworks).

Day 5 - Putt-Putt at The Track

2009-07-08T09:50:00.000-07:00

We went to The Track to play another round of putt-putt. Both courses had a wait. Today, we opted for the Mountain Course. That was a mistake.

The course had a very long wait. We had a party of 10 ahead of us, trying to play altogether (the maximum for groups is six). They also weren't limiting the kids' strokes (after four strokes, you take five and walk). We made it to the fifth hole and left, keeping our balls so we could come back and play, again.

Day 5 - Mellow Mushroom

2009-07-08T09:42:00.000-07:00

We decided to go out, tonight, to look for tee-shirts and play putt-putt. I suggested Mellow Mushroom. We have one at home in Clemson. They have good pizza.

The one in Destin is in the same building as Sunsations, very near Shoreline Towers. We didn't have any wait to be seated. Rachel was starving and needed food. We wanted to get pretzels as an appetizer, but it said on the menu that it took 20 minutes for pretzels, which was too long for us. So, we opted for cheesey bread. It was good.

After arguing over what pizza to order, we finally decided to get the 16" House Special to split among the four girls, that way if you didn't like something, you could just pick it off. Mom and Dad split some sandwich.

Food didn't take that long. It was very good. I think we each got two slices of pizza. Maybe three... I don't recall.

Day 5 - Big Kahuna's

2009-07-08T09:02:00.000-07:00

Dad took us to Big Kahuna's Water Park at 2:00 to get 'twilight' tickets. However, just like two years before, we had arrived an hour early - twilight didn't start until 3:00.

When that happened two years before, we went to get ice cream. So, since history was already repeating itself, we might as well follow through.

We drove to Cold Stone Creamery only to find that it had gone out of business. So, we headed back in the other direction looking for ice cream while we headed to The Track to get tickets for that day (we had forgotten to collect, yesterday). On the way, I spotted "Shakes" off the road. We decided to check it out.

We wanted indoor seating, except Shakes was like a Bruster's - you can drive through or order and sit outside. It was really hot, but we found a picnic table with shade and decided to sit there.

I ordered the fudge brownie concrete. Rachel got a strawberry concrete. Helen got a Reese's concrete, and Meredith got an ice cream sundae. Shake's does custard, and oh my gosh, it's amazing. The texture was just... wow. It was delicious and totally worth sitting outside for.

Still having time to kill, we went to Sunsations to look for airbrush designs. We had gotten our airbrush shirts from Alvin's Island the past three years, but we realized that was enough time to collect all of their designs, so we were looking for something new.

We got to Big Kahuna's exactly at 3:00. We debated on how much money we needed to purchase a locker. Dad was gonna give us a five, then he accidentally gave us two fives, then Meredith said, "Well, what if we need ones?" So, we ended up with twelve dollars.

I went to get us a locker and it cost... $12! Of course, we got five dollars back when we returned our key. But, still... that's an expensive locker. And we couldn't even take our key with us because you aren't allowed to have metal on waterslides, so we just left the key in the locker and didn't lock it. We decided that next time, we'll just set our stuff in a chair somewhere since we aren't even locking our locker (though I do think that someone is less likely to tamper with stuff in lockers than in chairs).

Now, speaking of the no metal rule, if you're going to Big Kahuna's - or any water park, for that matter - you need to wear a bathing suit with no metal clasps or zippers. Two years ago, a lifeguard asked to feel Helen's swimsuit to make sure that the plastic buckle wasn't metal (we're thinking that was his excuse to feel her up).

So, free of all belongings, we decided to head to the back of the park, which is usually less crowded. We went to the attraction with the pink tubes (Raging Rhino River). You can ride the pink tubes down the slide that dumps off into the lazy river. In order to ride, you need a tube from the lazy river. Getting tubes for all of us was difficult. All of these big dads were at the stairs, fighting over tubes. We decided we'd have better luck going through the river and trying to collect a tube along the way. Helen found a tube our first lap, but that was it. We tried again and had no luck. Most of the big dads were gone, so we decided to try the stairs, again. I stepped out and grabbed a tube from someone and went up to stand by Helen. This left Meredith and Rachel, who were having no luck. I left my tube with Helen and went back down and got a tube and threw it to Meredith. Rachel got her own. Finally, after about half an hour, we had tubes.

We decided that once down the slide was not enough for our efforts, so we floated around the river and went up to do it, again. We then gave up our tubes... to no one. There was now no wait for tubes.

We decided to do Jamanji. It was about a ten minute wait, and the slide didn't seem near as scary as it had in the past. I always get a mega-wedgie coming off this ride.

We got into Thunder River and got off on the other side to do the Maui Pipeline Slides. It was a long wait, but I found this kid in line who looked exactly like a little version of my friend, Michael, so I was having fun people-watching. These big, possibly drunk, guys ahead of us decided to run and jump to go down the slides. I was surprised the lifeguard didn't blow her whistle (the lifeguards here are whistle-happy). One of the guys was pretty big, and his splash hit a car driving by (these slides are right in front of the road)! Meredith and I went down at the same time. There's one enclosed red slide, and two white slides. The little kid in front of me took the red slide, so Mere and I had the white slides. I don't care for these because you actually get air while going down, and it hurts your back where they're joined together. You land in 8 1/2 water, so you have to be able to swim to go down this slide. Once again, I got a mega wedgie. We decided not to do this ride, again.

Next was our favorite - Tiki River Run. You collect tubes at the base (single or double) and carry them all the way up to go down. It's better to do a double tube, because then you have more weight and can go faster. We did this slide three times in a row before taking taking a slide into the lazy river.

We went over through the "Temple of Doom" into Bombs Away Bay. We then decided to try Jamanji, again. I got a mega wedgie, again. Then, we went back over to Tiki River Run and did that with little wait (it was after 5:00, now) several times in a row.

When we were at the top of Tiki River Run, I spotted what I thought looked like a wave simulator. So, we decided to go check it out and found the brand new "Honolulu Half Pipe." Now, I'm no good at this, and neither was anyone else. They wanted me to do it, but I didn't feel like waiting in the line to get knocked out in twenty seconds. So, we headed back over to the Raging Rhino River and did the only kiddie slide that was open around it. Then, we got into the river and just floated around tubeless a few times.

We got out, returned to our locker to collect our belongings, and left the park to find Dad. I also got the $5 deposit back on the key.

Now, Big Kahuna's isn't that impressive. It's not that big, and there aren't any really awesome slides. The only slide I really enjoy is Tiki River Run. The lifeguards are also some of the rudest I've ever met. They blow their whistles at anything and everything. And then, most of them don't speak English (or if they do, they don't bother to), so they'll flick their finger at you and you're like, "What? What did I do? Really?" The few lifeguards that do speak English will hit on you. Obviously, they're very bored with their jobs. It costs $84 for the four of us - and one of us had free admission. I don't think you need to spend more than three hours here. Twilight is the only way I'd go.

Day 5 - Beach

2009-07-08T08:54:00.000-07:00

This morning, Rachel and I got up and went running. Meredith decided to stay behind, this time.

We decided to just run on the sidewalks. We jogged all the way to the Aegean, then turned around and headed back.

I forgot to mention last time, that there is a garbage truck that comes by between seven and eight every morning and it smells like... well... garbage. It is a sickly smell that makes me gag. And, we happen to be coming back from our run while the garbage truck is leaving. Ew, ew, ew.

Anywho, when we got back to the condo, Helen and Meredith were playing cards, and Mom and Dad had made cinnamon rolls. Yum.

We ate breakfast, then headed to the beach.

We went up for lunch around 12. We were supposed to make enchiladas, but the cook time was an hour and half - too long for us. So, we played a game of Taboo Junior while we made flatbread pizza.

Day 4 - Cookout, Eat In

2009-07-08T08:48:00.000-07:00

We decided that it was time for a meal in. So, we didn't leave the beach until after five. Dad went to make steak at the grills over by the pool, and we watched TV and played games.

After dinner, we spent an hour or so conducted a practice interview for Junior Miss. It was funny and maybe somewhat beneficial, but most of the questions were silly and we definitely lost focus towards the end.

When we finally finished the interview, we headed to the pool to swim. The hours on the information sheet said that the pool closed at 10, but the sign at the pool said it closed at 11. Two years ago, I remember staying much later than that. However, we weren't the only ones at the pool. There were a bunch of little kids. I thought it was super late for little kids to be swimming, but I suppose on vacation there is no bedtime. We swam for a little over half an hour, then had enough and went up to the condo to get ready for bed.

Day 4 - Beach

2009-07-07T20:57:00.000-07:00

We woke up around 7:00, again. This morning, we had donuts from Krispy Kreme. Yum!

Rachel, Meredith, and Helen headed down to the beach around 9:00. I had to stay up at the condo to work on Junior Miss stuff that was due for about an hour.

I joined them and we took the tubes out to float.

Went up to lunch around 1:00, maybe. We made sandwiches/wraps and made more teddy graham ice cream treats.

Meredith found a dollar while making her sand pig.

Day 3 - Putt-Putt at The Track

2009-07-07T20:42:00.001-07:00

After dinner, we went to The Track to play putt-putt. The track has two courses - the mountain course and the island course. There's usually a wait for the mountain course because it has multi-tier holes and moves a bit slower. We opted for the island course, tonight.

Rachel's hole-in-one victory dance

Dad's hole-in-one victory dance

She's posing like the giraffe

I actually won this round. I was shocked.

We spent a little bit over an hour playing putt-putt. We didn't have to wait on other groups much.

Day 3 - Fudpucker's

2009-07-07T19:34:00.000-07:00

Fudpucker's is probably one of the more well-known tourist locations of Destin. The restaurant comes with a lot of quirky traditions. The original Fudpucker's is at Fort Walton Beach. The restaurant existed before the gators. But then the gators became a hit, and when the Fudpucker's was built in Destin, they made a gator "beach" (more like water where little alligators live). You can buy food to feed the gators (my cousin was kicked out back in 2003 for teasing the gators with the fishing pole...) and can pay to have your picture taken holding a live gator.

Possibly more prominant than the gators is the grafitti on the wall. People bring sharpies and sign the walls... and the floor... the ceiling, the doors... everything has signatures on it. It's fun to come back and try to find your signatures from years past.

This is Meredith and Rachel's signature from 2006 - the oldest we found.

Also quite popular are their tee-shirts with funny sayings. There's the classic Fudpucker's Tounge Twister - "How much fudd would a fudpucker puck if a fudpucker could puck fudd?" Say that five times fast. Then there's the "Mother Fudpucker." They had new neon shirts in for the summer. I got a yellow one that said, "You ain't been pucked til you've been fudpucked!" Don't worry - the children's shirts are pretty clean.

As always, there was an incredible wait. However, with so much to do (I forgot to mention that there's a bar with a live band most nights, as well), the wait isn't that bad.

Helen and I had wandered off by ourselves (apparently into a "dead zone"), and while we were gone, we were called to be seated. When we got down to the table, Meredith warned us of our scary waitress, Lesli. She started yelling at Meredith to speak up because she couldn't hear, and Meredith, the jokester, replied, "Well, probably because I haven't said anything, yet," and made our waitress angry. She continued to be rude to Meredith throughout the night.

Our order was easy - we all got Mother Fudburgers. However, it took forever for our food to come.

In the meantime, we were seated beside an obnoxious table - it was two families with four little kids, and they let their kids scream and run around the restaurant. Dad noted that the little blonde girl was quite full of herself, standing up on a chair and dancing like she was the stuff. The baby was a screamer. And their parents ignored them... and occasionally laughed at them when they did something "cute" (such as throwing stuff onto the floor).

When people who were seated after us got their food before us, Rachel shared her disgust rather loudly. The floor manager walked by (while carrying food) and said not to worry - our food would be out next.

Another ten minutes, and our food came. Rachel needed ketchup. The ketchup at our table was out, so she walked over to the bar to get some, and as she shook it, she didn't realize the lid was off. The ketchup spilled onto the floor, right in front of one of the children who happened to be running at her.

The busboy looked over and said, "I'm not cleaning that." Rachel exclaimed rather loudly, "Do I need to clean this myself?" Our worthless waitress then told us that no - he would clean it. The busboy came over grudgingly to clean up the mess.

Now, it's tradition to get dinosaurs with your meal. So, I asked the waitress if we could have some dinosaurs. She said rather sarcastically, "Well, I guess I could get you some." Then, I think she realized that this would be a good time to suck up to us and brought us a handful of plastic dinos.

The burgers... were garbage. Mine was burnt (I asked for medium well... it was very well) and dry. I put all of their sauce on it, and it still tasted gross. But I ate it because I was hungry and I had waited this long (I would've sent it back, except then I'd be there another hour... besides, it's not like our waitress cared that I wasn't happy with my food).

In fact, the only time our waitress actually walked to the other side of the table was when she gave Dad the check.

Dad left no tip and wrote on the check "Service SUCKS!" (He said if he had more space, he would've written more.)

Day 3 - Beach

2009-07-07T19:05:00.001-07:00

We ate a real breakfast - grits, eggs, bacon, and wheat biscuits. It was yummy.

We then headed out to the beach. It was probably 9:30. Our umbrella was in the same spot.

Game of frisbee.

We headed up around noon to eat lunch, again. Today, we ate bagel bites. We then made more teddy graham ice cream creations.

Airplane!

After goofing off at the condo, we headed back to the beach.

But not for long.

The big, dark clouds scared us away.

Since we were up at the condo, we decided to go ahead and get ready to go out for dinner.

Day 3 - Running

2009-07-07T18:21:00.000-07:00

Rachel, Meredith, and I got up and went running at 7:00. We probably should've gone earlier (I suggested 5:30 xD), but it was still not very crowded on the beach.

After about 100 yards, I was hurting. Running on the beach works so many muscles. It's insane. I felt so out of shape. We tried to run on the packed sand, so we ended up single file. It got difficult when the beach sort of dropped off in a mini "cliff."

We made it to Jetty East (walking/jogging), and chilled in their pavillion. There were some workers down there cleaning up the grill, but other than that, we were alone.

I suggested that we run on the sidewalk on Holiday Isle. We crossed back between Jetty East and Inlet Reef and started jogging on the sidewalk. The traffic was minimal, and there were quite a few other people out jogging (more so than on the beach). I felt safe.

Compared to the beach, it was easy. I jogged for an awful long time until I realized how far ahead of Rachel and Meredith I was. I then speed-walked, then jogged some more. I stopped at an office to wait on Rachel and Meredith before heading back into Shorleine Towers. Rachel caught up with me within five minutes. Then we waited and waited on Meredith. We got a little worried and started walking back, then caught up with her. She didn't have her knee brace, and was really hurting.

By now, it was flippin' hot. We were sweating all over. It was gross.

The sand had gotten between my heels and the shoe and had rubbed blisters that bled. I probably needed higher socks.

Day 2 - The Back Porch

2009-07-07T17:47:00.000-07:00

We left the beach around 4:00 to clean up and get ready for dinner. We got to The Back Porch around 6:00. There was a long line to put names in. Our wait time was 50 minutes to an hour - quite long, but we were willing to wait.

We headed out to the beach to take pictures to kill some time.

We then sat down at a table for thirty minutes. Thinking we were about to be called, we washed our feet and stood on the stairs. For another twenty minutes. FINALLY, we were called.

We had a pretty decent table upstairs. It was nice and breezy (which was good - Emily got overheated when they went).

I don't remember our waiter's name, but our busboy's name was Joel. He enjoyed taking plates from our table.

We ordered the seafood nachos for an appetizer. They were very good. I ordered the crab cake sandwich. It was delicious. Meredith and Rachel both got shrimp off the appetizer menu - Rachel got fried, and Meredith got regular (I guess that's what you'd call it) with fries. It was a lot of shrimp (for much less than entrees). Rachel said that Meredith's shrimp was better.

After the Back Porch, we swung by Publix to pick up more groceries. We did the self check-out, which turned out to be a major mistake. When we rung up "Mike's Light Hard Lemonade," an alarm went off telling us that was a restricted item, and we needed to show ID to the nearest cashier. The same thing happened to the guys beside us ringing up a 24-pack. It took about 10 minutes to get the stuff paid for.

When we got back, we walked on the beach, did a little bit of "crabbing" with some guys we ran into, then headed to bed.

Day 2 - Beach

2009-07-07T17:22:00.000-07:00

We all woke up relatively early the next morning (I'm thinking 7:00, which is actually 8:00 our time). We ate cereal for breakfast, then headed down to the beach around 9:00.

Dad rented an umbrella and chairs for us for the week. We had the spot on the end, in front of our unit. In the past, we haven't rented an umbrella - we just put our personal umbrellas up behind the STAR umbrellas. However, I quite enjoyed having a reserved umbrella. You didn't have to fight for your spot in the morning, and it saved us the trouble of lugging an extra umbrella down (plus once we added our two chairs, the unit's two chairs, and the STAR chairs, we had enough for all six of us). There didn't seem to be a lot of people who didn't rent an umbrella.

Dad was taking pictures of us from the balcony.

A little bit after noon, we headed up for lunch. We fixed sandwiches and ate on our nice, open balcony. While eating Teddy Grahams, Rachel noticed a recipe for ice cream Teddy Graham sandwiches and thought it sounded good. So, we went inside to make some with the only ice cream we had - cookie dough. We put the teddy grahams in the freezer for later, then headed back down to the beach.

Pirate tour passing by

Day 1 - Joe's Crab Shack

2009-07-07T17:06:00.000-07:00

Joe's Crab Shack had a 45 minute wait. We chilled outside on the railing (luckily, we sent others ahead, so we didn't actually have to wait the full 45 minutes).

Rachel and Meredith

All of the girls on the railing

We were seated at a giant picnic table with two long benches. They tried to squeeze all twelve of us onto the benches, but we requested two additional chairs to seat at the ends of the table, which made it much more comfortable.

Our waiter's name was Shane. He was super fun.

It turns out that they dance every quarter hour after 7:00. Shane and the other waiters were very into the dancing. They jumped up and down and were very big with their moves. It was super cute and fun to watch.

While we were waiting on our meal, a photographer came by and took a group photo. He told me our photo would be on the website up to 48 hours later. I checked that website everyday, and it looks like they aren't going to post our picture. I am very disappointed, considering this is the only big group photo we got taken (I considered asking him to take the picture with my camera, too, but at that time, our waiter came with our food.

About an hour after we ordered, we got our food. It took an awful long time. However, we were a big order.

I got the seafood enchiladas, and oh my gosh, they were AMAZING. Now, I say over and over again that I'm no food connoisseur, but I LOVED the seafood enchiladas. They were so good. I ate it all. Cleaned my plate. That's how good it was.

Joe's Crab Shack took a while (lots of waiting), but it was a lot of fun. I'll definitely go back (mainly for the seafood enchiladas).