Live-ish TR!

[Saskiwi]

Okay, its Day 2 and we are all a bit jet-lagged and were awake at 1 am, so this morning instead of being our usual park commandos who arrive half an hour before rope drop, we are "taking it easy".
Sooooo while I wait for Dh and the boys to get themselves together, I thought I'd start my TR ( stops me pacing and twitching and watching the clock.....lol)
disclaimer: I cant promise this TR will continue to be "live", but I'll do my best....

[Saskiwi]

So our trip over was pretty good for a 33 hour marathon. Christchurch to Sydney on Jetstar, 5 hours at the Qantas Lounge( great food, yummy salads, and gelato) then Qantas to Dallas Ft Worth which is a loooong flight. got a couple of hours sleep, which is good for me! 2 hours at DFW (BBQ pulled pork sandwiches and iced tea for dinner -Hello America!) and the American Airlines to MCO.
Picked up our Hertz Rental and navigated our way to Windsor Hills, arriving at 10pm.
Our 3 bdr, 3 bath townhouse with plunge pool is great- so much room, which has been invaluable while we all sort out our body clocks.
I planned Day 1 in the parks with jet-lag in mind. We all woke super early, around 4 am, so were ready to roll by 6 no problem
We had breakfast at Bob Evans which is a chain of kind of " down home" style diners which we had gotten to know many years ago when DH and I drove around the Us for three months. Pork breakfast products are their speciality, sausage, bacon etc, so you know you will get a good breakfast at Bob's! We were at AK about 30 mins before rope drop and exchanged our card tickets from UT for the new RFID readable plastic ones.
The heat at 8am was already freaking me out a little-we have already had our first winter frosts back home, so going from 5 degrees on Friday morning to 30 on Saturday was a bit of a shock..and then theres the humidity....
Being at AK so early meant we knocked off Everest and Kali River Rapids pronto and then headed over to do the safari. It was a little underwhelming- nice enough but we have a great safari park at home, where you can feed the giraffes and get right up close to the rhinos, so... But this was why I chose AK as our first day park, and I knew we could do what we wanted to by early afternoon so we could bail when everyone got tired and cranky!
We had BBQ for lunch at Flame Tree which is a lovely setting and I cooled off with a frozen chai from Anandapur Teas, which was a great recommendation from the Disney Food Blog.
after checking out theLion King and Nemo shows and doing the animal trails and Dinosaur, we were ready to head out at about 2pm. We drove to Publix and bought our usual crazy American breakfast cereals for the boys ( a US holiday tradition) plus some waffle mix for the Mickey waffle maker the boys had already spotted in the kitchen of the house!
Then it was home for a nap and swim before heading to our 7pm ADR at Ohana. As you can imagine, 7pm on Saturday night, it was a zoo, but we were seated pretty promptly and enjoyed the meal, especially the prawns and chicken wings...mmmmmm....
I dont know if it was kosher or not, but we doggy bagged one of our loaves of coconut pineapple bread and had it for breakfast this morning- it is good toasted!
Today we are off to HS and plan on doing a full park day as we have a dinner ADR at the Prime Time diner- hopefully letting everyone sleep in means we will last the distance!
,

[CJ2001]

We did the same at Mimi's in Anaheim, they served us our bread which was carrot cake and blueberry bread so I wrapped it up and had for breakfast. Don't know how they can eat that as bread with dinner!

Sounds extremely hot over there, we have rain & wind here! You got quite a lot done for first day.

Looking forward to reading along

[Caroline NZ]

Sounds like a great start to your trip Saskiwi . I didn't realise you were staying at Windsor Hills, we have booked a 6 bedroom there (just cause you can, there are only 4 of us!) in 2014. Looking forward to more updates

[wiigirl]

Joining in.

[Travel Mum]

Subbing in too - its extra fun to be following a fellow Kiwi's TR!

[PrincessInOz]

[WAMUMOF4]

sounds like a great start to your trip

[aussietravellers]

Oh a live (ish) report

Hope the jetlag isn't too bad today. Sounds like a perfect first day.

Looking forward to hearing more

[aussie shaz]

I have real problems reading about WDW because I may never get there, but have to sub in. Sounds exciting!

[Marlea98]

Live-ish reports are good

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

[Saskiwi]

Originally Posted by aussie shaz

I have real problems reading about WDW because I may never get there, but have to sub in. Sounds exciting!

Dont worry - we are die hard Disneylanders and Im just as happy there as here. DL is small but perfectly formed, in my opinion, and has virtually as many rides in a much more manageable space. As DH said, "we would be back in bed at Hojos in the time it takes just to get the car park at MK"

Any hoo, not wanting to start a West Coast vs East Coast thing here...
Day 2: we arrived at HS at about 930 after our lazy start and TSMM FP return time was already 1.30pm! crazy... so we grabbed those and then rode the Rock n Roller Coaster ( mercifully short for me, who gets a bit queasy on twisty coasters) then Star Tours and the Indiana Jones Show, which was fun.
A quick hot dog lunch and a lemon meringue cupcake to share ( they are monsters!) then Tower of Terror for the boys (pass for wussy me) and then because it was Mothers Day, they agreed to go to the Beauty and the Beast show with "Mom". I loved it - such great songs, Gaston was really well cast and the girl who played Belle too.
Next it was time to use our TSMM passes., We always have such fun on this ride and it drives me nuts that I suck so badly at it!
After another ride on the Aerosmith roller coaster and checking in on our old Muppet friends,we felt we had pretty much done all we wanted to do, and it was only 5pm. Our ADR wasn't until 7, but the nice lady at Prime Time diner fitted us in straight away.
DH and I last went here 20 years ago on our big US road trip, but it has stuck in our minds as we had such a blast and loved the theming. I'm happy to report it was just as good today- great cranky"aunty" waitress, kitschy decor and good homestyle food- and Dad's Ultimate Long Island Iced Tea wasn't too bad either..The kids got areal kick out of it too and DS10 was a little scared of the waitress and even ate all his greens as she told him too. the dessert menu is on a Viewmaster - too cute- we were pretty full so shared a serving of Smores...mmm
So revived by this great meal we decided to head on over to MK and catch the Electrical Parade which we hadn't seen since DL in the 1990s!!!

[Franrose]

Woo hoo! Reading along!

Yes... 5 to 30 degrees would be a bit of a shock!!

[Miss Red]

Sounds like a great start to your trip

[Saskiwi]

Originally Posted by CJ2001

We did the same at Mimi's in Anaheim, they served us our bread which was carrot cake and blueberry bread so I wrapped it up and had for breakfast. Don't know how they can eat that as bread with dinner!

Sounds extremely hot over there, we have rain & wind here! You got quite a lot done for first day.

Looking forward to reading along

I know, the "cake pretending to be bread"thing is one of the odder aspects of American food- Remember our first meal at Mimi's I had lasagna and was completely bamboozled by the honey-syrup drenched muffin on the plate with it! It was good, but odd.

So i didnt complete the end of yesterday's report, as the need for sleep took precedence over the Disboards!- i know, crazy, right? get your priorities sorted, girl...

So, we hopped over to MK, and I remember now this was triggered by a quick stop at HS at the new Legend of Captain jack Sparrow attraction. This is a little "experience" attraction and not really worth it unless you have kids who are into pirates, but just hearing the POC music made us REALLY want to ride Pirates as it had been 4 years. Last time we were at Dl it was down for a refurb

We got to MK at about 7pm. It was EMH (or whatever the acronym is for evening extra hours for resort guests) so it was quite busy with lots of late arrivals like us, but we managed to ride Pirates, Haunted mansion- DS 10s favourite ride, Splash Mountain and Country Bear Jamboree before the Electrical Parade.
it had been 20 years since we last saw CBJ too ( boy I am beginning to sound like grandma here, with all this Ye Olde Disney reminiscing!) I had forgotten how great it is - a perfect little piece of Americana. So politically incorrect, it is a hoot. when you listen to the song lyrics: "Mama, don't whup little Beaufort" and the immortal "All the guys who turn me on, turn me down" ... I will happily sign any online petition if they ever try to close it like they did at DL!!

It was fantastic to see MSEP again after so long too, such a massive hit of eye-candy! and that music.....

Next we grabbed a Dole Whip - is it just my imagination or is the serve much bigger here than at DL?? Couldn't finish mine, which is a first! stood and watched Wishes at the end of the Adventureland bridge and then wandered up to check out the new FL and get our bearings for our "proper" FL day which will be on Wednesday. he new Fl theming looks fantastic- very detailed and well executed, esp. Gaston's and The Little Mermaid entrance.
Home to Windsor Hills by 1130, via a little unplanned detour to Celebration, thanks to me thinking I didn't need to use the GPS lol.
Today, Epcot part 1... Eek! - So big, so many food options....
thanks for reading,