Friday at WDW

I didnt have as many photos of this day as I thought. This was our 'free day'. Each family chose to go back to wherever they wanted to go to. Hubby and I chose to go back to Epcot - the one place we did NOT go back to was Mission to Mars!

 

 

 Wandered thru some of the countries we missed before. Ate in China - not too bad - especially topped off with some Tsing Tao beer! Stood thru the 360 degree movie in China again - and also watched Martin Short in the the movie about Canada.

 This is where we ate that night - even if they no longer have my favorite dish - a seafood dish in a luscious lobster sauce. Dinner was lovely as was the sparkling wine (not champagne). Hubby was silly - as the hostess showed us to our table he responded Bonjour to her - and she proceeded to speak to him in French! Too funny since bonjour was about the only word he knew....

Mid afternoon we went back to the hotel and went swimming for awhle. Then went back to Epcot and when we came out of the Canadian movie we knew the storm was going to hit soon - wind and clouds and all....Sat thru dinner and kept expecting the storm to hit...

Finished dinner and started backtracking to a couple of countries we missed - and oh yes, the Werther candy shop again! And the storm finally hit! And me in my sandals again....so we decided to forego Japan and a couple of repeats and just head back to the room...

Look at all those orbs! HA! More like raindrops and splashes on my lens!
Our last night at WDW....

Thursday at WDW

Thursday we spent at the waterpark, Typhoon Lagoon. Even our son was able to spend time with us there before his flight left later that afternoon.

 

 I do not remember the name of this waterslide - but in our family it is known as The Enema. I dont really know, because I do not go down this - but apparently the water goes....well, where you would think, and totally dislodges your swimsuit (see son? see daughter trying to hide?)

 The Lazy River is my favorite. Just tootle around and around...totally relaxed...doesnt matter if it is raining or not (no, it didnt rain this time - the last time hubby & I were there it did) cause you are already wet!

 I think this was the favorite for this little guy - he would get off, run around and get back on again. There were other things there he was able to do, and he did, but I think this was his all time favorite!

 And this was the favorite of this guy and his older brother - they totally loved it!

After we left, and got changed back in the room - son left for home - the rest of us went our merry ways. Hubby and I went to downtown Disney and we ate at this most fantastic place:

 Beautiful place - great music - great food.

 This was a fantastic dipping sauce for the best Irish Soda bread I have ever had in my life. Instead of oil and balsamic - this was oil, with a mixture of honey and Guiness. I barely refrained from licking the plate!

See hubby's face? The last time we were here Pleasure Island was a totally different - amazing - fun place for adults. It was a one price entree fee and then you could wander from bar to bar to bar. A comedy club.....a beach bar (which we didnt go into) and what we loved the best: Kungaloosh - The Adventurers Club! It was so much fun we spent most of the night there.....Unfortunately, this is no more. It is just simply more shops and restaurants. Rather boring and disappointing after you had experienced the real Pleasure Island!

Wednesday - Kaia's Birthday and Lunch at the Castle

 This was after her birthday makeover....while we were dealing with the ever and always late and slow buses, the guys (most of them anyway) were playing miniature golf

 1/2 the family went to Space Mountain - the other 1/2 of us were wandering down Main Street until this happened....I was under a kinda leaky awning with a sleeping Luke in the stroller. So I jsut thru one of our ponchos over him and stayed there.
The fun came when the rain stopped and we needed to get to the Castle for what we thought was our lunch reservation. Becuase of events, they had the easiest route to the castle shut off.....so we had to slog our way all around...and I stupidly was wearing my Birkies which, when they get wet get very slippery INSIDE the sandals....so I couldnt run....But we all made it there from various points in time for what we thought was our lunch reservation.

  So when it is the time that you made your reservation, you get to go inside and have photos made with this lovely Princess....well, the taller of the two! LOL. We got a lovely packet of photos with the entire family with her - jsut the grandkids with her - and our lovely princess with her. This was the only one I could get with my camera.
And then we were herded out of the way to wait....and to wait....and to wait....while many other groups were being seated. Finally we sicced the newest Bulldog (as our friend calls her) on the issue....well, because of the rain, people did not leave their tables immediatly so they were backed up ....because we were a large group....really? All those families of 2 and 4, put those tables together and there would have been a big enough table! They kept promising to send the manager out to talk, but that never happened (maybe we were in Never Never Land and not a Castle?). They finally decided to make it 'right' by giving us a table by the window....

 Yeah, 4 of the group got the table by the window. And really, all you could see was the partioned off area that is becoming the new Fantasyland. And because so many of us had the light behind us, it messed up photo taking. So Kaia got to see a lot of Princesses, but Memaw only got a few useable photos when she was able to hand the camera off to someone else to use...

 Here is the rest of us....lets see, people all around were getting their orders taken...except for us....people all around were getting their food....except for us....people all around were getting refills on their drinks....except for us.

 So we jsut kept trying to remind ourselves that thie VERY EXPENSIVE and VERY MUCH LESS THAN A DSINEY EXPERIENCE meal was not for us, but for this little Snow White who was haviing the time of her life!

 Even the boys didnt mind meeting some of the Princesses - especially since they got manly (or should I say Princely) swords to take home.

And see this concotion? I was so excited to hear that dessert could be pumpkin cheesecake....I really think I should have called Public Health about this since obviously they were not maintaining the proper storage temperature. I think this about sums up the whole experience - a near miss!

And Tuesday was Epcot

Just starting to walk thru to Epcot and we run into photo ops...

 Didnt realize until later that I actually got some family in this photo...

Bruce was hungry this day...

 ...and got to eat a lot of appetizers!

 Yup, it rained.....while it was raining it then started to thunder and lightening which meant the so-called smarter ones of us ran to find some place to go into....2 of the grands, my SIL, hubby and I ducked into Mission To Mars......HUGE MISTAKE.....hubby was in such a hhurry to get inside that we went into the worst ride ever....All I can say is that I survived...BARELY... and will never ever go on that ride again!!!!

 These two were so disappointed in how this ride changed. This was one of their very favorite rides as kids....we were surviving the rain - but it was hard for them to survive this disappointment (which they are STILL talking about!)

 This was a mural on the wall as we were waiting to go on the ride in Norway. The little guy in the blue cap - dead on ringer for my grandson!!!!!

 This was the BEST EVER! In fact the first time we went in, I was so overwhelmed I had no idea what to get....but the second time we went in I knew exactly what I wanted and got it - ate it on the plane ride home!!!!

It may have been raining - but today was their anniversary - and they got to spend a minute or so on a bridge in Italy (we didnt realize they were waiting for us to hurry up and take photos so they could block off the bridge before the fireworks that night!)

If Its Monday, It Must Be Disney Studios

 It was nice to see snow....cause this was probably the most wickedly humid day of the whole stay....and of course the day I did not have my hat or my fan with me!

 Not too shabby.....the one thing about the restaurants in the Disney Parks is they have improved so much over the years - of course, WDW always had better places to eat than Disneyland (did I ever tell you about the pastrami sandwich I had that I swear was really the liner from someone's shoe????)

 I thought this was an appropriately stormy look for the Tower of Terror....and no, I did not go on it. Been there, done that, and did not enjoy it enough to do ever again!

The spaghetti & meatball cupcake....the spaghetti part really doesnt show up much here.

Right after we finished with the Studio "Tour" and we were walking out, the downpour started....finally! A break in the humidity! Enough time for us to eat the sandwiches we packed for dinner!

Catching up on WDW - Sunday

 This was Luke's birthday, so today was Animal Kingdom....all for him (well, and everyone else too). Started off with the Animal Safari which was fun - saw lots of different animals.

 Lunch was a buffet (a character lunch of course) at the Tusker House. It was actually pretty good food (the desserts were great!) and the kids got to have their photos taken with the characters...

 The Dinosaur Ride....Luke LOVED it but look at the grip he has on his dad and me - he never let go the entire ride!

 Yeah, all those crazy people decided it was a good day to get wet...the sane ones in the group who chose to stay with the one who was too small to ride - we just stayed wet from humidity...

Now I am really confused....we flew how many miles and how many hours across country? I thought we were in Florida at Disney WORLD?????