Vader, F&G, Mother's Day, A B-DAY, 4 Parks & Only One Weekend!! Can we do it all!?

[MeeskaMomma]

Oh my gosh! I have said the exact same thing! And come very close to actually doing it!

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

So heading inside for a mug...

They sadly only have the yellow cap mugs, no purple ones, but I go ahead and grab one and check out. Then quickly fill it up with a cold soda. The soda is a little weird now that it is all electronic. But I get the hang of it. And ohh does the cold soda hit the spot.

I head out and take some more pics of the lobby area since I have not done that yet, with soda in hand

The arcade area actually is huge and looks like alot of fun .

At one point I would love to do this.

I also ended up pin trading with the very friendly CM over at the DVC desk. He had a Star Wars Luke vinylmation pin that I have not seen before. It was Luke after he lost his hand, so he was wearing all black and a black glove on his hand. Very cool!

After I got my new pin, I headed back to our room, to meet up with my husband and go to the pool. I am thoroughly hot and sticky everywhere now and seriously questioning how we will survive a day in the park. Us Colorado people are made for dry heat not this hot humidity, that makes you feel icky, sticky and nasty 5 secs after you get out of the shower.

My husband is just how I left him, laying on the bed

He gets up though and we change into our bathing suites and head out to the main pool.

Now that my husband is with me, I get him to take a pic of my next to my fav Goofy

He even wanted to get a pic of himself under the Pop sign!

I have some fun too

So Mark wants a place with shade, he is blond hair and blues eyes with the complexion and aversion of sun like a vampire

There is not a lot of shady spots, so we pick a table with an umbrella and I pull up a lounge chair and get out my special disney towel.

Mark chills for a bit and I jump into the pool for a quick cool off then lay out and work on my tan

Once Mark gets hot enough, we go have fun in the pool. It has been ages since we played in the pool and we feel at least 10 years younger.

After having fun in the pool, the bar opened up, I have been waiting and I quickly grab some yummy goodness. (Fyi it does open till noon, I think it should open up at 11am)

I went with the Pop specialty lava lamp, very refreshing

After a little more relaxing, our stomachs start grumbling and it is time for us to get some food.

Next up, lunch!

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Oh my gosh! I have said the exact same thing! And come very close to actually doing it!

Haha

 

[scrpbookr]

The poolside fun looks just perfect for a hot day! fun!

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

For Lunch we decided to check out Art of Animation Resort.

We pack up and went across the bridge. I did not realize until that point how close they are to each other.

Man do I love the themeing here!

This kids splash area is soo cute!

We head over to the AoA food court.
The choices look really yummy.

So after talking to a CM, I ended up making special combo.
So I really wanted to try both of these:
Tandoori Portuguese sausage - with Naan bread and choice of two sides - $9.99
Tandoori Shell on shrimp - with Naan bread and choice of two sides - $10.99
So the CMs ended up doing have sausage and half shrimp for me.

Since the shrimp is cooked to order, I walk around and take a few more pics while I wait.

I love all the yummy dessert options, if we have any room after lunch we may get one.

So here is what I had for lunch:

Tandoori Shell on shrimp and Portuguese sausage with rice, sweet potatoes and grilled squash. This was a Delicious lunch. The shrimp had this sauce on it that made me want to lick it off my fingers. The sausage had a wonderful juicy, unique flavor. Even the rice had a great flavor. The vegetables even were better then normal.

Mark choose this for his lunch:

But wait this is not a normal sandwich...

It is a shrimp and crab sandwich!
Surf and turf burger - Crab cake topped with fried popcorn shrimp, tomato, lettuce,and cajun remoulade on a brioche bun served with coleslaw or House seasoned fries -$10.99

Mark says he loved his sandwich.

While we were eating we kept talking about how we could not believe this food came from a Disney food court. Normally you get the typical blah food like burgers, pizza and hot dogs... But here you got great, yummy, unique food choices.

Also it is good to know that our mug works here too.

We did not get any dessert because we were very full after lunch.

Also there was plenty of seating here, we had no trouble finding a seat. What was weird was, they had part of it closed for constructions, this is a new resort, so really there should be no need for construction just yet.

Next up we explore AoA!

 

[amberg93]

Great pictures of Pop.

I've got family out in the Denver area and being originally from Michigan, the humid heat is what I'm used to. So, when they come to visit Michigan they're always like, eww humid heat, and when I've been out there the dry heat really messes with me

Pool time is the way to do things. We didn't have enough of it.

Ooh AoA is very cute. I need to get over there sometime.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Great pictures of Pop.

I've got family out in the Denver area and being originally from Michigan, the humid heat is what I'm used to. So, when they come to visit Michigan they're always like, eww humid heat, and when I've been out there the dry heat really messes with me

Pool time is the way to do things. We didn't have enough of it.

Ooh AoA is very cute. I need to get over there sometime.

Hehe, just curious how can dry heat mess with you? You do not get as hot and sweaty?

 

[scrpbookr]

Tandoori Shell on shrimp and Portuguese sausage with rice, sweet potatoes and grilled squash. This was a Delicious lunch. The shrimp had this sauce on it that I made licked it off my fingers. The sausage and wonderful juicy unique flavor. Even the rice had a great flavor. The vegetables even were better then normal.

It is a shrimp and crab sandwich!
Surf and turf burger - Crab cake topped with fried popcorn shrimp, tomato, lettuce,and cajun remoulade on a brioche bun served with coleslaw or House seasoned fries

[/QUOTE]

Your lunch sounds so delicious!

 

[MeeskaMomma]

Great pictures. You have given me some ideas of things to try next year. Usually we hit Landscapes is Flavor and are so overwhelmed by the chaos we opt for a pizza to get in and out as quick as possible!

It doesn't help that our 3 year old tends to have a mealy down if we are there more than 5 minutes. He hates crowds too.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

So after we filled our bellies we explore AoA!

I really wish they had a smaller version of this chandelier, I would soo buy it.

The pool!
So fyi, I was a little bit of a bad girl, I went for a swim in The Big Blue

I know, I know, I should not have done it but I could not help myself, I really just wanted to hear the music under the water, which is really really cool. So after a quick dip, where I cooled off and listened to the music under water, I left so I would not get in trouble. My husband watched my stuff and stayed out of the pool and was a good little accountant following the rules (hence why he is a good accountant and I am not ).

My husband Monkey around!

I wish we could go climb on this

My husband likes the evil areas

And we are both now hot and sweaty so we decide to skip the rest of AoA and head back to our hotel room.

One last pic before we leave AoA

So now we shower and get cleaned off and then next we head off to Downtown Disney!

 

[scrpbookr]

I had no idea you could hear music underwater in that pool. How cool is that!? Finding out little tidbits like that is what I love best about the DIS and reading trip reports!

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Your lunch sounds so delicious![/QUOTE]

Thanks

Great pictures. You have given me some ideas of things to try next year. Usually we hit Landscapes is Flavor and are so overwhelmed by the chaos we opt for a pizza to get in and out as quick as possible!

It doesn't help that our 3 year old tends to have a mealy down if we are there more than 5 minutes. He hates crowds too.

Haha, luckily we have no kids yet, so it is okay for us to wait a little. If you get the sausage meal there was not wait time unlike the shrimp. My husbands sandwich was quicker than my shrimp, but you still had to wait a little.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

So we clean up and head off to the bus stop for Downtown Disney.

We waited at the bus stop for about 5 to 10 mins, not to long. We shuffle on to the bus and we were able to get a seat

On the bus mom calls and says she is done with work and on the road, yeah! She is coming from Tampa.

But now that we know she is on her way, we will need to put a priority on getting Mom's mother's day present before she gets here.

We head out of the bus and we go to the Xmas store.
Sorry no pics, for a little bit, I was focusing on trying to get mom's present before she gets here.
The Xmas store has some good possibilities for mom's Xmas tree. She needs more xmas decor because a couple years ago we had the year of the Charlie brown X-Mas tree, where we cut our own tree, but the tree kept falling over and broke about 1/2 over her xmas decor.

Next we head to the World of Disney! Wow so many possibilities.... At this point I am a bit overwhelmed, I am not sure if I should go for a t-shirt, hat or maybe jewelry or even maybe so cute garden items. There is just too many options and I am not sure what mom will like the most. Hmm.... so we basically we spend an hour here, I think. I know soo sad. I keep getting distracted by things I would like too and that does not help... Vera Bradly kept calling me for example and the jewelry section. It was interesting going over to the Frozen section, last time I was here in Nov it was huge since the movie was not out yet.

Okay after some prodding from my husband I finally make the decision, I am getting mom this cute disney hat, since I know she does not have a disney hat and she already has some cute disney shirts.

Here is a pic of her hat:

So it is white, to make sure she does not get to hot and it is a sparkly mickey, what more can you want?!

Next mom called saying she is almost to disney. She is going to Pop first to change out of her work clothes and will take the bus so she does not have to worry about the horrible parking at Disney Downtown.

We decide to go find a shady spot to drink and relax till mom gets here.
Man with all the construction, the cute outdoor places to drink have all been closed up and I was just here in Nov, that sucks...

So we end up going to Raglan Road where we are going to have dinner because at least there I know they have a huge bar, enough room for us to sit and they have good entertainment while we wait.

Ahh the air conditioning, it feels soo good.

It is not crowded at all here, we find a good spot at the bar to watch the dancers

We order our drinks. The very nice bartender took a pic of us

We went with some refreshing drinks:

My drink:

My husband's drink:

While sitting there we able to see two shows

Mom calls and says she is now on the bus, yeah!! She says she is starving so she is hopping they can seat us early for our ADR here at Raglan Road and if not we will just eat at the bar

Next up Mom arrives and dinner!

 

[amberg93]

I tell you, DTD is full of so many things. I can see how it would be overwhelming to try and pick just a single Christmas present.

I've never been to Raglan, mostly because it seems very active and I like to eat in more of a quiet environment. I bet it's something though to see all the dancers.

Yay for your mom arriving!

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

So mom came, we hugged and we checked out to see if they can fit us in early and they could yeah! They took us to able of to the side.

And they came out quickly with their yummy bread and sauce. This sauce is delicious and addictive!

Dalkey Duo - Dalkey battered cocktail sausages, with a Dalkey mustard dipping sauce. For 2 people - $11.00

These are soo delicious too, the sausages were soo juicy and the dip was perfect for it!

We have to be careful we might get too full from just the apps!

Mom and me are shearing a meal thank god, it is the only we are going to eat everything.
So we pick this:

Burger 'r' Way - Char grilled sirloin beef burger with bacon, tomato chutney & Dubliner vintage cheddar. - $15.00
We got the carrots on the side

Now you are wondering why we got a burger at a Irish restaurant, they make it Dubliner vintage cheddar, which is the best cheese ever!! The carrots were surprisingly even really good to bad we could only take a few bites to save room for desserts.

My husband got this, I asked if he remembered what it was, he does not but he does remember liking it a lot.

The Irish dancers come around and do a small little dancer for us, it soo much fun! We all clapped and they brought
Now to the best thing about the restaurant the BREAD PUDDING!!

This bread pudding is amazing, it is the best in all Disney!

We are now super, super, super stuffed. I think they may have to roll us out.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Wow, I have fallen behind in my trip report.

So to continue with our day:

We have to roll out, we are soo full, but mom wants to shop so we head on out.

I love dinosaurs!

We wander through the lego store, my husbands drools over the star wars area.

We head over to the mega super disney store and we go searching for something for dad.

We find this great shirt:

I love all the cool decor in here:

We wonder around a bit more, but we are all getting tired the last store we all wanted to hit was the Disney art store, they had some animators drawing frozen so of course we had to watch.

I ended up buying one of their drawings of Oalf, I mean how can you not?!
We do one last picture and we head out to our bus.

The bus was already there so we were able to get on really quick. Sadly it takes forever for the bus to get through all the traffic and construction.

But luckliy we got to our hotel in time to watch Frozen at the pool!!! So we dropped off our stuff and grabbed chairs in the back and relaxed.

Mom grabbed some drinks for us at the pool bar and we just sat back and sang along to my new fav disney movie!

I love how you can have soo much fun without even having to go to a Disney Park

Tomorrow 3 Parks in 1 Day

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

So we wake up early, get showered and changed. Mom grabs the mug and heads off to get her morning caffeine fix while I take mine from a cold soda We have packed breakfast bars to save money so we grab those to eat as well. Today we are going to drive since we are doing 3 parks in one day so we are not wasting as much time waiting for the buses. My husband looks like the an extra from the night of the living dead but at least he is moving

We get into are car and head to Animal Kingdom. I am excited because I have never been to this park before. We get there about a 1/2 an hour before the park opens up, not bad and we wait.

I have my new fav disney shirt on too, it is Elsa and Game of Thrones mash up. The bottom of the Shirt Says "Winter is Coming"

My husband looks like he is having sooo much fun

So while we wait we talk about our game plan. We are heading strait for Safari first. Mom will check in with her band first since she is the slowest while I will be last since I am the fastest. And we are all going to speed walk. I let them know we are not stopping for any reason and follow me

Well that all sounds good in theory.... when we started mom waited for us to check in, instead of just walking ahead and us catching up. I started my speed walking, soo what I did not realize until they caught up with me, mom fell while walking... The walkways look cool but they have lots of bumps in them and my mom is notorious for tripping. So I make it up to the Safari and looked for them and did not see them. it took a little bit for them to catch up, my husband was a good guy and helped my mom up while I on the other hand was a bad daughter not even noticing she fell, ooops, (sorry mom, I love you ).

Mom is a real trooper though and she kept going, she was not going to let a silly fall get in the way of her disney fun!! After that she looked at the ground more often in this park since she did not trust the bumpy walkways.

We were still able to get on the first safari out though yeah

So the safari ride is a lot of fun, it really feels like your in Africa, I know this heat makes it feel very realistic

So here are the pics:

I so need to do this at some point:

More pics in the next post

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Continuing Safari pics

Yep he is peeing

Look how close they are!! I could have reached out and touch them!

Next we head out and make the hike across the park to Everest. Mom keeps her head down this time and watches where she steps really closely.

The line was fast moving, yeah

I love all the pray flags!

That is a big foot!

Sooo much fun, I loove this ride, I wish we had time to ride it again and again.

 

[HarkiQuinn]

Love your photos (especially the food ones!)

 

[scrpbookr]

Your poor Mom! That is so sad that she fell. I joked about going through Disney Boot Camp with my family.... 13 miles a day on 5 hours of sleep would be the regimen! We did remain injury free though.