ShannonAlbert.com - June 2009

Everybody up again today and to the bus stop by 8 am for a day at AK. Much better moods today as everyone got more sleep. Got to AK by 8:30 or so and was so glad to see that we could get our park guides and use the restroom before the park officially opened (unlike MK from yesterday). Once again, bubbles came in handy and all of the kids did that and had nearby children chasing them while we waited. DH said to me that he thought he saw GrammaBarb but I thought it might not be here as her hair wasn't as red as I thought it looked in pictures. Then I see that she's wearing the TGM button so I know it must be here. SIL didn't know DH and I had been having this conversation and points to GB's shirt and says something like "look, her shirts says 4 parks in 4 days..." or whatever GB's shirt happened to say. Park opens and we get our stroller with our handy dandy vouchers. SIL and I are off to get Safari FPs while the husbands and kids are off to Dinoland. Walk by GB on the walk and introduce myself. SIL had kept walking quickly so had to leave and go catch up with her. Took us just 12 minutes to go grab FPs and then we took the pretty walk through Asia back over to Dinoland. SIL loved the walk and thanked me again for doing all of the planning.


The rush of people at opening time

Get to Dinoland and the older kids had already ridden Primeval Whirl and the little ones Triceratop Spin. SIL and I want to do Primeval Whirl so we do that again with Isaac and DH takes little ones on Triceratop Spin again. It's 9:20 and our group has already been on 4 rides. This section is so much fun! Off to Dinosaur where BIL and SIL rode with the two older kids while DH and I waited in gift shop with little ones. They come out and older kids don't want to ride again (they had their heads down the whole ride) so I tell BIL and SIL about The Boneyard where they can wait while DH and I ride Dinosaur. They take all 4 kids in that direction and run into Lucky the Dinosaur who stops to do his show.

Lucky the Dinosaur

They apparently did this most of the time we rode and just loved it. Then they took the kids to The Boneyard and we showed up at that time and let the kids play some more while DH and I tried to spot Lucky for ourselves. Get the group flowing to Asia where we go on Kali River Rapids. SIL doesn't want to ride as she didn't want to be wet all day so she stays with little ones. We walk right on. Older kids loved it so DH rode again with them. Then we did the Maharajah Jungle Trek which I thought was boring but would have been a nice walk while waiting with the little ones. After that, it was off to Africa for Safari.

Playing drums on the way to the safari

Get on Safari easily with our FPs and did enjoy the ride. I thought the "dialog" between the driver and the African recorded voice was totally cheesy and I couldn't understand what either was even saying much of the time. The part with the bridge scared my daughter to death and even at 10 she didn't realize that it was just part of the ride.

Everybody is hungry and we decide to skip Pangani Forest Exploration Trail and go to lunch. Went to Pizzafari which was great and found a quiet area that wasn't busy yet where we could all sit and cool off for a bit (TGM tip that worked well here: don't go to main dining room where everybody else is sitting. Find a less busy area to sit in.). It was already 12:45 by now and I had hoped to get to the 1:00 Lion King show but didn't want to rush everyone through lunch. We walk to the show and are among the last seated and near the back. It ended up working out fine and everyone - especially Blake - enjoyed this show. Out of the park at 1:30 and back to the hotel.



Posing with characters at Animal Kingdom

It had been a good day for everyone but Blake decided to throw a fit on the bus on the way back. I took him away from the rest of the group on the bus (luckily the bus wasn't crowded) and promised him he'd be in trouble when we got back to the hotel. I followed through on that and then he and I stayed in the room for naptime while everyone else went swimming. The older kids had been disappointed at not swimming the day before so we told them they could do that today before laying down to rest. They swam for about an hour and then everyone came back for a nap.

Pool at The Boardwalk

Babysitter from Kindercare was due to arrive at 6:30 so we all got food for the kids to eat beforehand. Holly arrived right on time and we went over basic information with her including the fact that Isaac just had to see an NBA game that was on that night. She knew just what to do and said she couldn't promise he'd watch the whole game but she knew he could watch it for awhile at The ESPN Club while the little ones played in the arcade. We gave her cash to use to entertain the kids on the Boardwalk and the adults were off on a bus to DTD for the evening.

Arrived right on time for our 7:30 PS at Wolfgang Puck's Cafe and sat in the lounge area while we waited for our table. Ordered drinks that never arrived and then our name was called about 15 minutes or so later. We told them we still needed our drinks and it probably took another 10 minutes for that. SIL and I ordered a spinach/cheese dip as an appetizer. First one came out and was delivered by someone who wasn't our waiter. Waiter came by and saw it and said it was too burnt and he took it away and promised another one quickly. Got another one and it was very tasty. Also had our Starburst drinks by this time which I really enjoyed. I ordered the Chef's Sushi Sampler which ended up being a whole lot more food that I could handle but it was very good. Can't remember what everyone else ordered but I believe everyone was happy with their meals. We all had ordered a few drinks and had good kid-free conversation. The entire meal took us 2 hours which was much longer than we had hoped but we were off to The Comedy Warehouse. Got there and was told the next show would be a little later so we'd come back from that. I really wanted to go to The Adventurer's Club right across from it but everyone else seemed to want to stroll and I told them that I really needed them to just try it so after they didn't see anything else that they wanted to do, we went into The Adventurer's Club and sat in the main room. It was very funny and this place is like no other we'd seen. We really loved it but only got to stay for about 15 minutes because it was time to go to The Comedy Warehouse for the next show.


Us at The Adventurer's Club

Got in line for a while and were finally let in after maybe 15 minutes of standing in line. Show was really funny and they had fun with some of the Microsoft convention goers who were there at the time. By this time, it was already time to head back and we couldn't believe we'd already been gone for so long. Caught the bus back and got to our room just before our 12:30 "curfew." Holly still had the older ones up and they had been playing while the little ones slept. She said she had taken them to the ESPN Club for a little while but the little ones were getting too antsy so they left and went out on the Boardwalk and played some of the games there, they played at the BWV playground, etc. and then back to the hotel where she got the little ones sleeping. She told us to call her directly next time we're in town so we could avoid the "outrageous" Kindercare rates (PM me if you'd like a sitter at WDW and would like her number). Older kids had good things to say about her after she left and said they had lots of fun.