Category: Travel – WDW 06

Our lodge at Port Orleans.

UPDATE: Parterre Place is part of the Magnolia Bend area of Port Orleans Riverside. We stayed at Magnoilia Terrace (another massive neo-Plantation Manor House sort of building) the first year we went to WDW, though the past two times we were in Aligator Bayou, which has nearly identical rooms inside, but clustered in smaller units amidst more trees.

Pretty, regardless. This shot was taken from the boat that shuttles over to Downtown Disney.

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Bits and pieces of the day:

1. Very crowded, it being Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. Though it was less humid than the last couple of days, it was hotter.
2. Animal Kingdom day. I had one goal for the day: to ride on the new Expedition Everest roller coaster.

   I was not to succeed.

3. The front of the park remains one of the hottest and most sere. It’s not just things not having grown up yet — there are some large patches of bare pavement that don’t have anything planted on them, so it will always be a bit daunting in hot weather.

   Even more daunting when there’s a huuuuuuge throng of humanity ahead. Part of the problem is that there are now three chokepoints in front of any of the WDW parks. Last is the actual ticket turnstiles, where things get slowed down because everything now has a connect-the-park-pass-to-the-fingerprints system that, despite clear signage, half the visitors don’t seem to be able to operate. Middle is the actual ticket purchase kiosks, which we were able to bypass. But first in line, and newest, is the package check.

   I’m not sure what they’re looking for at these. They first appeared post-9/11, so supposedly it’s for security, but short of spotting, I dunno, someone carrying in a pistol or something, what’s the point? Nobody’s being patted down, and if I were actually trying to sneak something in, it would be trivial.

   Most of the line guards are pleasantly professional; the one in charge of the section we went through at AK was — well, not, really. He was not-quite-haranging folks to make sure that they had their package zippers open, etc. He sounded like a harried parent trying to get his kids to do somethign the right way, which is probably not the “good show” Disney is looking for.

4. Got inside and grabbed a stroller. On our way toward the Tree of Life, we did one of our very few PhotoPass picture sessions. All the official in-park Disney photographers store their pics digitally, and transmit them back to the mothership. People can either check them out on their way out of the park, or go online for up to 30 days to view them there. We did a lot less of that this year than we have before.

5. Did Africa first. FastPassed the safari ride, then took the train up to Rafiki’s Eco-World — which, though a bit hokey and heavy-handed, also has some nice educational materials for kids, which Katherine had a lot more appreciation for this year. Plus, they have a petting zoo.

   Rode on the Safari after that, which was, as always, fun (and the FP was definitely worth it, bypassing a huge hunk of line).

6. From there, we went over to Asia — FPed the Kali River Rapids ride, then Margie went off to see if she could do FPs on Expedition Everest (no). She caught up to us at the Maharja’s Palace, which, like so much else in this particular park, is intensely “environmental,” showing attention to detail in the buildings and landscaping that’s truly remarkable. While many pooh-pooh AK as the poor cousin at WDW, it is, in many ways, the “best done” park.

   Everyone cooled off at a big public fountain, then we wandered over for lunch (which, after the hell of getting it, was a tasty, shady, relaxing interlude). Hopped over to the Bug’s Life show (again, cool and shady), then headed over to our FP time on Kali River Rapids.

   The FP got us through a lot of line, and was well worth it. The ride remains about half too short and insufficiently wet after climactic rapids drop, but it was still nice and cooling.

   Expedition Everest was out of FPs for the day, and was going to be a two hour wait, so we bagged that, and decided to come back another day for Dino Land USA. We headed back for the lodge.

7. We got about twenty minutes of swimming before lightning closed the pool. We went back to our rooms and got ready for shopping and dinner — after cocktails.

   The shopping part was heading down to Downtown Disney Marketplace, where Katherine finally got some face painting in. Did a bit of poking around in the shops, then headed over to the Marketplace bus depot at 8:20, which was more than enough time for our 9:00 p.m. reservations for Boma, right?

   Well, barely not. Big Lesson to Remember: Downtown Disney is an awful transportation center; busses seem to take forever to get there, and being in one corner of WDW and interacting with “real world” traffic, it takes a long time to get anywhere. Easy to get there, tough to get away.

   As it was we got to AK Lodge at 9, and I trotted inside to let them know we were there.

8. Boma was, as we remembered it, great. A wonderful buffet potpourri of food, both “western” and African themed. Everyone found many somethings to eat, and we had some good South African wine to go with it.

   Kitten crashed late in the meal, having been a real trooper all day. I carried her back to the bus depot.

   A note about the Disney bus system, in case it wasn’t obvious through the notes here. Every resort has busses that go to all parks and entertanment centers (e.g., Downtown Disney), and, thus, every park/center has busses that go to all the resorts.

   But the corollary to that is that, in most cases, if you want to go from one resort to another (e.g., Port Orleans to Animal Kingdom Lodge), you have to do it in two legs — PO to a park/center to AKL.

   There are a couple of exceptions — some of the locations are connected by water (e.g., Disney-MGM to Swan & Dolphn to Yacht Club to Boardwalk to Epcot), and there’s also the Transportation Center (busses to/from everywhere, plus a tie to the monorail system), but it remains more difficult to get between resorts than one woiuld immediately think.

   Which is why, when we caught the bus from AK Lodge to Downtown Disney, planning on going from there to Port Orleans, and we were the only seven people on the bus, the bus driver, a very nice gent named Bruce, called to get cleared to take us straight back to PO.

   Which was a nice way to end the evening.

Actually posted 6 June, but backdated to the day in question.

A more-or-less chronological set of events …

1. We all bundled into the car for the airport, well-packed and ready to rock, right about on time. Packing had gone faster than expected (which is what one should expect from Margie, while I fussed about the house prepping it to go).

   Knowing we were off to sweltering climes, I opted for cargo shorts and Hawaiian shirts (cotton) for the week. I did bring a pair of slacks, if needed (they weren’t). I didn’t have any good walking shoes, alas — I was in sandals the entire week, both some older (and better) rubber ones, and a new pair that Margie bought for me that were not nearly as comfy as they looked like they’d be.

2. Got to DIA. We’d printed our boarding passes at home, so could go straight to the “Baggage check for Internet boarding passes” counter, which had for kiosks, travellers at each of them (once we arrived) and one guy whose attention was split with the regular counter next to us. Since he had to recover the baggage tags and load them on the conveyor, it was annoying (and emblematic of the done side of UAL’s cost cutting and automation efforts — lowballing the support staff needed for the remaining manual processes).

   We went through security with no problems, glad for my Premier card (the only advantage that travelling so much has). We were off on Concourse A, flying Ted, so we found our gate and settled down there. Margie made some last minute phone calls regarding meal and service reservations, while I kept Kitten busy, and we ate some cinnamon rolls from the nearby restaurant.

   We ought to have eaten more, as this was a “buy-a-box” flight … a Ted “cost savings” efficiency that just irks the hell out of me. “You can have your 0.125 oz. of mini-pretzels, or you can spend $5 for a box of snack bags and packages.” Feh. I went hungry. We’d packed gorp for the trip, but didn’t have it with us. We managed to survive, somehow — Margie read and watched the movie, I read, and Katherine watched her DVD player (her Leapster having vanished).

3. When we got to MCO, we were met by the Disney’s Magical Express people, about which more elsewhere.

   Upon arrival (huzzah!) at Port Orleans Riverside, we checked in and hiked off to our room. It was a dauntingly long hike — though, mercifully, it was because we took the long way around. We were over in Parterre Place on Magnolia Bend, the big plantation-style buildings at PO-R.We were actually quite close to the bridge across to the lodge, which worked out nicely.

   We headed over for a swim at the Ol’ Man Island pool. That’s the central pool with all the fun waterfalls and water slide and poolside bar and all; eleventy million screaming kids, but, then, Katherine was one of them. There are “quiet” pools closer to the room, but they’re for, like, swimming, not for fun.

   Mild irony here: last time we stayed here and swam, Katherine (much smaller) enjoyed the water slide. This time — no dice. She even got in line with me a few times, then balked at the last moment. Not sure what was going on there. But we had fun nonetheless, and she was able to do lots of good swimming regardless.

   We got out of the pool just in time for it to start to rain. We grabbed some quick drinks from the bar and walked back in a light drizzle to our room — which turned into a full-fledged heavens-opening-up downpour in short order. Right about the time the ‘rents were supposed to be landing at MCO. Ruh-roh …

   Back in the room, our bags had arrived, so we unpacked, and were ready for action.

4. The entertainment for the evening was designed to be twofold. We were going to go see Yehaa Bob at the lounge, whose show started at 7:30. That woud be just about time for the ‘rents to get from the airport at 6:30, which would be the big surprise, because Katherine didn’t know they were joining us! It was designed to be a most memorable evening.

   First, a quick meal at the food court, then we were in position … well, way ahead of time, because I’d though Bob started at 7, and I wanted to be sure and grab a table that would seat the seven of us. Alas, the best table for that was waaaaay at the front, and so I sat there very self-conscious of how three of us were taking up a table of seven … plus, since we were early, I felt we needed to order drinks, and …

   At any rate, the ‘rents didn’t actually show up until 8:30, at which time the show was in full swing and I was on my second Kungaloosh. That said, it was a great appearance, and Kitten was really jazzed and the show went on until 10 so we all had a lot of fun.

   Indeed, we all felt like we lost weight just watching Bob do his thing. How he does it pretty much nightly is beyond me. No wonder he’s so skinny.

5. The ‘rents bags took a bit longer to get there,

And that was pretty much it for the day. To bed and to sleep.

Actually posted 6 June, backdated to the day it covers.

Getting cooled off at a water-squirting giant Coke bottle at Disney-MGM.

UPDATE: This photo got swallowed by airblogging. Reposted 6/3. Ginger, Gloria, Katherine, and Margie are all in the picture.

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At the Disney Magical Express area at MCO (Orlando International).

UPDATE: A large queueing area for folks to line up, one line for each resort, so that the busses can be sensibly filled and dispatched. Lots of empty space — but I suspect things got hopping later on, given the weekend.

Margie’s standing next to the small pink suitcase. Katherine is hiding behind Big Sid, the large teddy bear that fit inside of the small pink suitcase.

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