Three Ladies at WDW-Day 2

[BrerGnat]

**I forgot to mention in my Day 1 post...when we returned to the room, we were right on time to see the fireworks from the Pirates and Princess party. What a long show! It was close to 15 minutes in length, and it was AWESOME! There were some very clever "themed" fireworks, which I will not discuss in detail out of respect for those planning on attending this party, but they were very cool. In addition to the cute themed fireworks, there were some that looked like, from the vantage of Main Street, 360 degree fireworks. Everything happened well above the treeline, so we got to see it all...it was a very cool way to end the day.

Anyway, on to Day 2:

This morning began with Cynthia waking up at the ungodly hour of 6:30am (on VACATION???) to go workout at the gym. I woke up somewhere around 8am and debated about going to workout as well. I am pretty dedicated to working out at home and I didn't want to "fall off the horse" as they say. I decided to just go, so I got changed and headed down to the gym at the WL villas. It was practically empty, and I really thought it was a nice gym. It was very clean and each machine had a fresh towel draped over it. Very nice touch. Surprisingly, there was a sign in sheet, but the CM at the desk never asked me for resort i.d.

After my workout, I headed back up to the room to find the girls were STILL not ready (they are that type that takes a couple hours to get going in the morning...the complete opposite of me). I showered, dressed, and had a quick bowl of cereal in the room while they were STILL getting pretty.

We FINALLY left our room somewhere around 10:30 (I know, right?) We headed down and caught a bus to AK (first stopping at the Polynesian to pick up more guests). We arrived at AK and headed straight for Expedition Everest. Along the way, we snapped quite a few pictures of the mountain. It really blends in nicely with the scenery over there. We arrived to find a 50 min standby wait...not too bad, but there were FP available for a return time of 2:30, so we got some FP and then headed into the Standby line. In 10 minutes, we were at the loading area, and then the ride broke down. We waited it out, though, and about 10 minutes later, it was fixed! We waited for the front seat. I had seen all the specials on t.v. about this ride, so I knew exactly what to expect, but the girls were clueless, so I wanted them to be surprised by the backwards part. We boarded the train and I was SO excited to finally be ON the ride, after seeing and hearing so much about it. Well, the ride did NOT disappoint! We all gave it two thumbs WAY up! Cynthia and Andrea were TOTALLY freaking out when the train stopped. They had no idea what was happening and it was priceless. I have to say, though, the Yeti seemed rather smaller than I thought it would be. Maybe it's just really far away from the track, but in the t.v. specials, it looked bigger.

We agreed to try the back seat next time around, but for now we headed away from Everest towards Dinoland USA. First up, Primeval Whirl. We all just love this ride...it gives us a serious case of the giggles, plus it was a walk on, so that was cool.

At that point, we were pretty ready for lunch, so we headed off to the Flame Tree BBQ (my favorite CS place in WDW) for some good eats. As we got our food, it began to rain. Luckily, we found a table under cover and enjoyed sharing our lunch with the ducks. They were cute, but they were annoying after awhile.

After that, we headed over to Dinosaur to escape the rain. We enjoyed our trip back in time and exited to a DOWNPOUR of epic proportions. We took a few minutes to get our umbrellas out and RAN over to the Finding Nemo musical. Everyone else in the park had the same idea. We asked the CM at the back of the line if we would make it in...he said "I'm not sure". BUT, we found out that the theatre can hold 1,700 people! We did make it and got a seat in the back bleacher area, which turned out to be just fine. This show was pretty cute...I especially liked the jellyfish part and the Bruce puppet. The show was cute, but a bit long for my taste. I can't imagine my own kids sitting through that whole thing...their attention spans wane after about 10 minutes, and so did that of most of the children who were in the theater. It's not an easy one to exit mid show either, so be forewarned.

We exited the theater to find sunny skies. Yay! So, we headed back toward Everest with our FP in hand. We sat in the back this time, and it was a much faster ride, but we enjoyed the vantage point of the front better. We shopped in what we from that point on referred to as the "Yeti shop" and Andrea contemplated buying the Yeti Poofball plush(it's hard to explain, but if you see it, you'll know it). She decided she'd wait on it and if she really wanted it at the end of the week, we'd return for it.

We agreed that we were ready to leave AK and thought about where to go next. It was around 3:30 at this point, and we had an ADR at Whispering Canyon Cafe at 8:10. We really wanted to watch Wishes and it would be at 8pm tonight. After a quick discussion of our future dinner plans, we realized this would be our only night to watch Spectromagic and Wishes, and that we would just be a bit late to our dinner ADR. If it got too late and they could not seat us, we'd just do CS dinner at the Roaring Fork. So, off to MK we went. But, there was no bus directly to MK, so we took a TTC bus and then took the monorail to MK.

I am a little fuzzy on the order that we did stuff, but I know we definitely went on Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin first. Then, I think we went to get a dole whip, followed by a ride on Pirates of the Caribbean. After that, we did some shopping, then realized it was very close to parade time. We took a quick ride on Splash Mountain first (no wait) and exited to find a place in Frontierland to watch the parade. I don't know if it's me, but I really was bothered by the music for the parade this time around. I seem to remember a LOT more lyrics to the music than what we heard. It was basically a repeated loop of the same minute or so of music. How long has it been that way? I have the soundtrack at home and listen to it in the car often (my sons love it), but this parade was nothing like that soundtrack. I guess it's just been awhile since I've seen this parade, but it seemed very boring the way it was presented. Plus, and again, maybe this is just my perception, but the parade moved REALLY slowly. So slowly, in fact, that we started walking towards Main St. about halfway through, since we were just getting tired of standing there waiting for the floats.

Once on Main Street, we killed some time before the fireworks by shopping in the Emporium. We didn't have too much time, though, and about 10 minutes later, we went outside to watch Wishes with the 50 or so other people on Main Street. Seriously, though, I have never seen Main Street so deserted during a fireworks show. It was unreal. Perhaps the rain earlier in the day had sent people packing, cause it was deserted! We enjoyed the show, as usual, and made as quick an exit as we could. After all, we were already 10 min late for our dinner ADR.

We arrived at WCC at 8:50. I checked us in and said that if we were too late, it was okay, we'd find somewhere else to eat, but they said it was no problem. We were seated immediately and ordered. Cynthia had the nachos to start, and the chicken pasta dish. Andrea and I ordered the all you can eat skillet. We all shared the nachos and really enjoyed our dinners! But, everything else was really good and we got seconds of the ribs and chicken! For dessert, I got the banana dustbowl, and Andrea got the apple pie while Cynthia chose the chocolate cake. Right before our dessert was served, our waitress (who was great, by the way), made Cynthia stand up and ride the pony around the restaurant while everyone sang Happy Birthday to her. It was hilarious, because she was REALLY embarrassed. I don't know how that happened, though, since her b'day is not until Friday, the 16th and it was only Tuesday. I did not mention it before dinner, and our waitress only said "It's magic..I know these things". We told her, "but her birthday isn't even today...it's Friday!", but she admitted that our reservation was flagged as Cynthia's birthday. So, I don't know what happened there. I made all the ADR's and told the CM while I made the reservations that Cynthia's birthday would be on Friday, but we would be celebrating it on THURSDAY at California Grill. How that turned into Tuesday at the WCC, I'll never know. It was funny, though. We sat and chatted with our server for awhile. She was really nice and it was geting near 10pm, so most of the tables were emptying out.

After we ate, Cynthia and Andrea stopped off in the Mercantile to buy some gallon jugs of water (they could not stand the FL water, although it doesn't bother me that much). I went back up to the room to call DH and then shower.

We went to bed after discussing our plans for the next day. We agreed upon going to MGM first, and then going from there. It had been a long and tiring day.

Next up: Day 3

[SBETigg]

Great day. How neat that the server knew about the birthday and made some fuss over your friend. Hilarious!

[disneydrmr]

What a great 2nd day! So much fun for your friend at dinner! That is magical how they knew! Looking forward to your next report!

[KylesMom]

Another great day. Glad the weather cleared up for you! Isn't it amazing the difference between the front & back cars of E:E?!

We've found that in some places at MK, you don't get the "full" effect of the Spectro soundtrack - I'm sorry that happened to you! What a hoot about WC & the pony ride - too funny! Thanks for taking the time to share yet another day with us!

[scottgr]

Sounds like you all had a great time. I never tried the Whispering Canyon Cafe. I think I am going to have to try it next time...

[Darbylew]

Sounds like you three ladies are having a great
time. Enjoy the rest of your stay and have a
safe trip home.

[faline]

Great day! You packed a lot in! An added bonus was having an almost-private showing of the fireworks!

[Bethis26fan]

Sounds like a busy but good day.

[pdrlkr]

Thanks for the report!

[ChipnDaleGal]

Sounds like you ladies had a really terrific day together. Thanks for sharing it with us!

[TKDisneylover]

Wow, that definitely was a long day for you guys! The best part is you got to enjoy so much in 1 day! Looking forward to day 3!

[Momof2boys]

We love our Yeti poofball ! I hope she goes back to get it.

Sounds like the trip is going well . . . I think it's great that you gals had a chance to catch up on this trip !

[DizNee143]

sounds like another great day...im glad you guys enjoyed EE...seemed like a very productive day!! thanx for sharing!!

[ElenitaB]

Wait, isn't our East Coast 6:30 am, your 3:30 West Coast am? Yikes! I'm impressed that you had the stamina to get up at all, much less head to the gym!

Sounds like you all had a great day together, birthday festivities and all! (You never can celebrate a birthday enough! )

[Bethanymouse]

What a day! I know what you mean about girls taking awhile to get ready. That happened to me this past summer too when I went on a girls trip! You had a great day! Thanks for sharing!

[sleepingbooty]

Boy, I would just love to do WDW with my girlfriends! Sounds like you had a great day!