2016 August Trip Report - 30 Anniversary day 4

[jans2kids]

Day 4 Segway (Let's try this again)
Today we are headed back to FW to try the Back Trail Adventure Segway Tour again after being rained out on day 2. We ate in the AoA food court and then spent some time at the Big Blue Pool before heading over to FW. This time we did bus to MK, boat to FW and bus to the Outpost Depot. We were there by 11am, the weather was perfect, we were the only ones signed up for the tour & then at 11:20 FW has a power outage. Really!!!, was it going to be cancelled again?
Well thank goodness it wasn't and the only thing they couldn't do with no power was have us watch the safety movie. After our instructors Ron and Forrest gave us the speech we headed outside to practice for 30 minutes before heading out through FW. The only bad part was that we had on earpieces so we could hear Ron, but he dropped and broke his radio so for the whole time only one of us could hear what he was saying while on the trail. We spent about 60 of the 90 minutes on the Segway making a few stops along the way. One by down by the lake and they took our pictures with the lake and MK in the background. The next stop was back at the stables where we had walked the other day to see the horses and the last stop was on the trail across from the Wilderness Lodge.
Once back at the Bike Barn we parted ways with our 2 guides but not before they gave us each a nice pin depicting the Segway Tour. We then headed over to get a drink by the pool & for Janice to change her shoes to sandals. Her sandal was on the ground and as she put her foot down a bee was on the sandal & she got stung on the bottom of her foot. I got some ice from the drink machine for her to put on it & headed over to the pool to ask the lifeguard if they had something for bee stings. He radioed for someone and about 10 minutes later she showed up with her medical kit. She gave us an extra ice pack & some Medicaine swabs. She then ask where we were headed. We told her Disney Springs so she offered to give us a golf cart ride back to the main bus stop so we didn't have to wait for the internal bus. Again a cast member giving a little extra to make things easier for us.
Since we liked it so much the first time we were here we ate at Blaze Fast-Fire'd Pizza again. This time the service was not as good as the person in front of us was trying to use up all their dining credits and must have ordered 7 pizzas and 7 salads. The cast members all seem to know her so they all were taking care of her & kind of ignored us. this time we got a pizza and a salad & the food was as good as the first time.
The Swan & Dolphin were having what they called Sandtastic Weekends for 2 weekends in Aug & Sept. The flyer the had looked very impressive with professional sand sculpting, demonstrations, contests, music & food. We expected there to be much more going on but we kind of disappointed. There were 3 sculptor's being worked on when we got there and maybe 5 people walking around looking at them. Nothing else seemed to be going on so we walked around the pool area and lounged for a little bit before walking back over for one of the contests but by then it had gotten windy & started raining.
So since that was a bust we took the boat back to HS & the bus back to AoA. For our last night we planned on going to PO to see Yee Ha Bob, but first we decided to take one more chance to see if we could get on the Pirates & Pals Fireworks cruise. After dinner at the AoA food court we got the bus to MK & walked over to the Contemporary. We were there before the cast members were even out to check people in. Once they did we asked again to be put on the list in case of cancellations. About 10 minutes later a girl came over and asked if were still interested as they had someone cancel. We told her of yes as we had been trying for 50 days to do this.
We were given bandanas to wear to signify we belonged there & our seat number on the boat. About 8:45 a Pirate named Patch came out and introduced himself, and he would be our host for the remainder of the evening. He invited us into a Pirate themed banquet room. There was food & drinks, and Captain Hook and Mr. Smee were on hand for pictures. Most of the food was sweets, cake, cookies, candy coins, cotton candy, chips, a freezer full of Disney Ice Cream novelties, but there was also fruit. We spent about 30 minutes and that gave everyone enough time to fill up on sugar and do their pictures before they told us we were heading down to the dock to board the boat. The encouraged everyone to take as much food and drink with them as they left.
I thought they would just sail us out to sit in front of MK and wait for the fireworks but we headed towards FW and once behind Discovery Island we stopped to watch the Electric Water Pageant as it sailed by us. We then sailed from Bay Lake over to the 7 Seas Lagoon almost to the GF. The whole way Patch is singing, telling jokes and learning where everyone is from . Finally we stop halfway between the MK and the TTC and wait for Wishes to begin. They piped in the music and luckily we were sitting on the side of the boat with the better view. I was a nice view, one we had never had before. Once Wishes was over we figured we would sail over to the Contemporary & that would be the end, but we spent another 1/2 hour sailing around with Patch doing a trivia contest for kids and giving out small prizes. Once back at the Contemporary there was one more surprise as Peter Pan was waiting on the dock for one last photo op.
Although this cruise is geared more towards families, we still enjoyed it very much. Every time we called and were told there was no space, they tried to push us to the Ferrytale Cruise which costs twice as much, has very limited seating and beer & wine which we were not interested in.
We finished the evening off with a nice relaxing stroll back over to the MK and then back to AoA to finish up packing for morning checkout.

[ibelieveindisneymagic]

Wonderful! I'm glad you finally got to do both the Segway Tour AND the cruise! What a great day.

(and, aren't Forrest and Ron awesome - we've had them as archery leaders for a few year, and they are just super!)

[faline]

Another terrific day!! It's always nice to hear about activities other than the usual park rides!!

[JanetMegan]

Sounds like a fun day, had you done Segways before? We try them in almost every city we visit just to get the lay of the land and we love them!!

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

That sounds like fun