SO... I unintentionally stopped posting. Sorry! Apparently I got overwhelmed by other things. It's been so long that I'm afraid my memory isn't great and I won't remember enough details to make this TR interesting. But here's the thing: the hubs and I leave for our 10th anniversary Universal/Disney extravaganza in 12 DAYS(!!!!!!
!!!!!) and I might want to write a report for that trip. And I can't do that if I don't finish this one. First world problems, y'all. So, whether anyone is still reading this or not, I'm going to try to power through and finish. Here we go!
Dinoland and a Useless Poncho
(I have exactly two pictures of the rest of the day. Sorry that I suck.)
After our somewhat perplexing meal, Bethany was absolutely BEGGING to go on another ride. My little thrill seeker was a bit underwhelmed by the lack of moving attractions at AK. Our next destination was Dinoland, so we told her that she could go on Dinosaur. Now, I had done LOTS of research on all of the different rides to know what to expect, and to know what my kids would be okay with. As much as Bethany loves all things fast and high and exhilarating, she's not really one for dark...or loud...or scary.
Obviously Dinosaur wouldn't be the best choice for her. But I also knew that she was desperate to ride just about anything. So I explained to her exactly what the ride would be like. Dark, bumpy, loud, dinosaurs. I said that if she wanted to just come with us to experience the ride vehicle, she could close her eyes and I would plug her ears, so it would just be a bumpy ride. She liked that option.
We got a rider swap pass and left the littles with the grandparents. They were tired and grumpy at this point, and Becca was mad that she couldn't come along. Ben, Bethany and I headed in and got stuck in the longest "20 minute" line ever. The longer we waited, the more nervous Bethany got, but she never asked to bail out. We eventually got on the ride. It was exactly what I expected. Loud, dark, bumpy. Bethany ended up opening her eyes. When we finished, she said "That wasn't so bad!" But when I asked if she wanted to ride again with her grandparents, she quickly declined.
So we went out to relieve them from the cranky kiddos. I told Ben to ride with his parents since three people could get on with the pass, and I would take one for the team and sit with the kids. Becca at this point was in meltdown mode. I don't remember what her problem was, but she was a screaming mess. She gets like that sometimes, and when it happens, it's really hard for her to stop. I'm pretty sure I doled out fruit snacks for everyone and did my best to take deep breaths and remind myself that I was at Disney and should be happy.
Oh, I also noticed the skywriter and took a picture. Hey look, a picture!
Once the family was reunited, we headed off to catch the Finding Nemo musical! We were almost late for the show, but somehow managed to get really good seats. This cheered everyone up. Gigs was fascinated by all of the colorful puppets, and all of the kids loved the bubbles. I thought it was visually gorgeous, but found the music to be a bit annoying. I still randomly find myself singing "In the big blue woooooorld"
Next up, we had to appease poor Becca, who hadn't gotten to ride anything other than the safari all day. So we hit up Triceratop Spin. Yay, something everyone can ride! I don't remember much about this other than it made me sick. Something about the spinning around, up and down, and tilting all at the same tip just majorly throws me off. The kids loved it, though! It was late afternoon by this point, and Dinoland was crowded. So we made our way out and onto our next FP choice.
We were headed back to...Expedition Everest! I enjoyed the ride this time even more than in the morning, since I knew what to expect and wasn't as nervous. So much fun!
Everyone was tired at this point, but we had one more fastpass: Kali River Rapids. Bethany was excited about this one too. We decided to poncho up because no one really felt like being soaked. Well, too bad! Bethany got the worst of it. She looked like a drowned rat! That ride is SO short. It would be fun if it actually did something. My FIL didn't want to ride, so we didn't get the rider swap. We met back up with him and the littles and headed out of the park.
On the bus back to POR, we discussed what to do for dinner. We decided to split up. The grandparents were going to take the boat to DTD for dinner while we gave the kids a bath, got them some dinner from Riverside Mill, and put them to bed. Then when they came back, Ben and I would go out.
We planned to go to Epcot that night, but they had some mishap and didn't get back until it was too late. So we decided to follow suit and hop on the boat and head to DTD also.
Hey look, a (blurry) picture!
We ate at WPE. Being an avid reader of dining reports, I knew exactly what I wanted (Four cheese pesto pizza and crème brulee) and what Ben should get (bacon wrapped meatloaf and cheesecake). Um, yeah. Heaven on a plate.
Then we wandered around. It was kind of late so we didn't have a lot of time to shop, but we did stop into the Christmas store and got an ornament for the people who were taking care of our dog next door. We ended up taking a bus back. I don't remember why, but I think the boats were unavailable. That was not a fun experience. I think it took over an hour to get back. We were super tired when we got back. Unfortunately, I got almost no sleep that night because the two younger kids ended up having a croupy cough that night. They were fine by morning, but it meant no sleep for mom.
Okay, that finally concludes day 3. SO sorry there were no pictures. But tomorrow is Hollywood Studios!