Thursday 8 November
Julie (38) - demented planner
Brian (40) - planning, whats that?
Michael (11) - quiet, clone of his Dad, hormones just starting to kick in, auditioning for Snow Whites 8th dwarf, Grouchy
Andrew (5½) - not quiet, mummys boy, very fussy eater, favourite saying of the holiday Excuse me, is this ride scary?
Day 12 - Now I know what a sardine feels like - Blizzard Beach and Cirque du Soleil
As the days were now running out and the troops had finally realised that two full days left and we still hadnt been to a water park I gave in today (well the truth is I was outnumbered but I gave in gracefully) and agreed that we would give Blizzard Beach a try instead of going where I wanted to go, I didnt want to go back to MGM anyway (would have to ride Tower of Terror if I did, eh Mike!!!!!) This decision was helped by the fact that the weather forecast for today was low 80s, hot and sunny and even at 8.30 was shaping up nicely with the bluest, clearest sky I think I have ever seen.
Arrived at Blizzard Beach at about 10.30 and not surprisingly because of the weather it was absolutely packed. We had trouble finding anywhere to sit but eventually found 4 loungers right in front of the smoking section and managed to move them to a more appealing spot under the shade of a few trees, albeit without even a millimetre between us and the next sunbeds !!!!!
Right then, cozzies on everyone and where should we start. Decided to make the first stop a circuit of Cross Country Creek. Joined the scrum to get our rings, and it certainly was a scrum, which took us about 15 minutes and a very kind lady helped us all into them with some degree of modesty. I really dont know how we would have managed if she hadnt helped us!!!! Once we started bobbing along this was great, very relaxing even though there were hundreds of people bobbing along with us.
We had two circuits of the Cross Country Creek before deciding we had had enough and then decided to see what the queue was like for Teamboat Springs. Surprisingly the queue wasnt too bad and we only waited about 5 minutes to get into our raft, causing utter confusion trying to get two children and two adults in opposite corners. In the end we didnt manage it - thought we were intelligent people!! - but it didnt seem to cause us any problems and it was too late to change places once we were halfway down the first slope!!! This was brilliant, really exciting, and the unanimous vote was to go straight back round for another go.
After Teamboat Springs we split up for a while, Brian went with Michael to the Ski Patrol play area and I took Andrew to Tikes Peak. Didnt see any of Ski Patrol but Michael reports that it was great and he had a really good time. Andrew absolutely loved Tikes Peak, particularly the mini raft ride, and as there was no queue at all he just kept going round and round. He must have had at least 30 goes on this. He also loved the mini slides and I think we must have spent about 2 hours here before Brian came to drag us away.
We were getting a little bit peckish by now so headed over to Lottawatta Lodge for some munchies. We all decided to have chicken strips and fries but this place was chaos and very very expensive. We must have queued up about 25-30 minutes for the food which was OK when it came but definitely the worst value for money of any of the parks so far.
After a bit of a relax back on the sun loungers while we ate our food we all decided to have a paddle in Melt Away Bay then Brian and Michael decided to have another go on Cross Country Creek, but Andrew surprise, surprise wanted to go back to Tikes Peak where he spent another happy hour on the kiddies slides and raft ride, by which time it was 4.30 and time to think about leaving as the park was shutting at 5.00 pm and we had tickets for the 6.00 pm Cirque du Soleil performance.
The boys and Brian had absolutely loved BB, I wasnt too sure. It had been a nice relaxing day, the weather was gorgeous and I had enjoyed what we had been on, but you really did feel like you were a sardine. They couldnt have packed any more sun loungers in if they had tried and it all felt just a little bit too claustrophobic to me.
Left the park just as it was closing at 5.00 pm and boy was I glad we werent waiting for a bus back to a resort. There were no buses in sight and the queues at all the stops were horrendous. Didnt have time to get changed before heading off to Downtown Disney for Cirque du Soleil and we did wonder if we would feel somewhat underdressed in our trainers, shorts and T-shirts but we neednt have worried because I would say that probably 75% of the audience were dressed the same. Maybe because it was the early show people had done the same as us and had just come straight from whichever park they had been in that day, but we certainly didnt feel out of place at all and only a handful of people were dressed up to the nines.
I wasnt sure what the rest of the crew would make of Cirque du Soleil (nobody else had done any planning remember) and I hadnt said too much about it but we all really enjoyed this. Even Andrew didnt move for the whole performance which is a minor miracle so I would say if you are worried about taking youngish children dont be. The acts are absolutely superb - I was holding my breath at several points during the show - and there was only one point where one of the trapeze artists mis-timed his jump (or whatever you call it) and fell from the trapeze during a very complicated manoeuvre. He did repeat that part of his act a couple of minutes later absolutely perfectly, and to a huge round of applause.
A well-deserved standing ovation rounded off the evening and we all agreed it had definitely been value for money.
Really hungry by now so we headed off to Crossroads and decided on another quick and easy meal at Perkins. This time, however, we got the waitress from hell. She definitely wasnt all there and had a really unnerving way of looking at you and really staring which made us all feel very uncomfortable. She managed to get the order wrong - wrong drinks, fries instead of salad for me, but we were all too scared of her to say anything and what we did get was perfectly acceptable anyway so it wasnt worth the hassle. Couldnt wait to get out of here and sad to say it would have put us off going back which was a shame as we had enjoyed it so much a couple of evenings earlier.
Back to the hotel about 9.30 and a couple of bars of chocolate and coffees later we were tucked up in bed and fast asleep again.
Tomorrow - our last full day - Magic Kingdom
Julie (38) - demented planner
Brian (40) - planning, whats that?
Michael (11) - quiet, clone of his Dad, hormones just starting to kick in, auditioning for Snow Whites 8th dwarf, Grouchy
Andrew (5½) - not quiet, mummys boy, very fussy eater, favourite saying of the holiday Excuse me, is this ride scary?
Day 12 - Now I know what a sardine feels like - Blizzard Beach and Cirque du Soleil
As the days were now running out and the troops had finally realised that two full days left and we still hadnt been to a water park I gave in today (well the truth is I was outnumbered but I gave in gracefully) and agreed that we would give Blizzard Beach a try instead of going where I wanted to go, I didnt want to go back to MGM anyway (would have to ride Tower of Terror if I did, eh Mike!!!!!) This decision was helped by the fact that the weather forecast for today was low 80s, hot and sunny and even at 8.30 was shaping up nicely with the bluest, clearest sky I think I have ever seen.
Arrived at Blizzard Beach at about 10.30 and not surprisingly because of the weather it was absolutely packed. We had trouble finding anywhere to sit but eventually found 4 loungers right in front of the smoking section and managed to move them to a more appealing spot under the shade of a few trees, albeit without even a millimetre between us and the next sunbeds !!!!!
Right then, cozzies on everyone and where should we start. Decided to make the first stop a circuit of Cross Country Creek. Joined the scrum to get our rings, and it certainly was a scrum, which took us about 15 minutes and a very kind lady helped us all into them with some degree of modesty. I really dont know how we would have managed if she hadnt helped us!!!! Once we started bobbing along this was great, very relaxing even though there were hundreds of people bobbing along with us.
We had two circuits of the Cross Country Creek before deciding we had had enough and then decided to see what the queue was like for Teamboat Springs. Surprisingly the queue wasnt too bad and we only waited about 5 minutes to get into our raft, causing utter confusion trying to get two children and two adults in opposite corners. In the end we didnt manage it - thought we were intelligent people!! - but it didnt seem to cause us any problems and it was too late to change places once we were halfway down the first slope!!! This was brilliant, really exciting, and the unanimous vote was to go straight back round for another go.
After Teamboat Springs we split up for a while, Brian went with Michael to the Ski Patrol play area and I took Andrew to Tikes Peak. Didnt see any of Ski Patrol but Michael reports that it was great and he had a really good time. Andrew absolutely loved Tikes Peak, particularly the mini raft ride, and as there was no queue at all he just kept going round and round. He must have had at least 30 goes on this. He also loved the mini slides and I think we must have spent about 2 hours here before Brian came to drag us away.
We were getting a little bit peckish by now so headed over to Lottawatta Lodge for some munchies. We all decided to have chicken strips and fries but this place was chaos and very very expensive. We must have queued up about 25-30 minutes for the food which was OK when it came but definitely the worst value for money of any of the parks so far.
After a bit of a relax back on the sun loungers while we ate our food we all decided to have a paddle in Melt Away Bay then Brian and Michael decided to have another go on Cross Country Creek, but Andrew surprise, surprise wanted to go back to Tikes Peak where he spent another happy hour on the kiddies slides and raft ride, by which time it was 4.30 and time to think about leaving as the park was shutting at 5.00 pm and we had tickets for the 6.00 pm Cirque du Soleil performance.
The boys and Brian had absolutely loved BB, I wasnt too sure. It had been a nice relaxing day, the weather was gorgeous and I had enjoyed what we had been on, but you really did feel like you were a sardine. They couldnt have packed any more sun loungers in if they had tried and it all felt just a little bit too claustrophobic to me.
Left the park just as it was closing at 5.00 pm and boy was I glad we werent waiting for a bus back to a resort. There were no buses in sight and the queues at all the stops were horrendous. Didnt have time to get changed before heading off to Downtown Disney for Cirque du Soleil and we did wonder if we would feel somewhat underdressed in our trainers, shorts and T-shirts but we neednt have worried because I would say that probably 75% of the audience were dressed the same. Maybe because it was the early show people had done the same as us and had just come straight from whichever park they had been in that day, but we certainly didnt feel out of place at all and only a handful of people were dressed up to the nines.
I wasnt sure what the rest of the crew would make of Cirque du Soleil (nobody else had done any planning remember) and I hadnt said too much about it but we all really enjoyed this. Even Andrew didnt move for the whole performance which is a minor miracle so I would say if you are worried about taking youngish children dont be. The acts are absolutely superb - I was holding my breath at several points during the show - and there was only one point where one of the trapeze artists mis-timed his jump (or whatever you call it) and fell from the trapeze during a very complicated manoeuvre. He did repeat that part of his act a couple of minutes later absolutely perfectly, and to a huge round of applause.
A well-deserved standing ovation rounded off the evening and we all agreed it had definitely been value for money.
Really hungry by now so we headed off to Crossroads and decided on another quick and easy meal at Perkins. This time, however, we got the waitress from hell. She definitely wasnt all there and had a really unnerving way of looking at you and really staring which made us all feel very uncomfortable. She managed to get the order wrong - wrong drinks, fries instead of salad for me, but we were all too scared of her to say anything and what we did get was perfectly acceptable anyway so it wasnt worth the hassle. Couldnt wait to get out of here and sad to say it would have put us off going back which was a shame as we had enjoyed it so much a couple of evenings earlier.
Back to the hotel about 9.30 and a couple of bars of chocolate and coffees later we were tucked up in bed and fast asleep again.
Tomorrow - our last full day - Magic Kingdom
