Grandpa Mohawk Birthday Celebration - Cruisin' Thru 80

[broganmc]

Good evening readers! Time for the Monday Evening Report from sunny Lake Buena Vista. Today we saw clear skies and warmer spring temps. Started out on the chilly side. Yesterday was so cold I was lulled into believing it would be frigid today as well. Went out wearing my heavy winter fleece (hat, sweater and scarf).

My idea was to start the day at Rainforest Cafe with some Tonga Toast, but time got away from me. Didn't wake up till 8am and by the time the guys and I were ready to roll it was already after 9:45. Brohawk, GpaM and I drove while Cuz was stuck waiting on a bus that never showed up. Rainforest stopped serving breakfast at 10am. The crowd all arrived at the gates with us too creating one heck of a traffic jam.

We were hungry so started out our day with a snack at Pizzasafari. Again we were too late for breakfast but got a hot Italian and turkey sandwiches. The sun warmed everything up and we started shedding all our heavy fleece.

Cuz finally showed up closer to noon. The bus wait was exceptionally long for him. The Bus Greeter staffing Springs had to call up a floater bus to come get him. Then 2 more Animal Kingdom buses showed up. I guess this was one time the bus system failed at SSR.

Despite the late start, we still ended up having a very pleasant day. There was no rush to go anywhere or do anything. We've all seen and done so much that most of it is repeats now. So there was far more laid back meandering and reminiscing about times past. (Like Brohawk's 4 Park in a Day marathon with his 4 kids last October.)

Brohawk and I walked over to Expedition Everest for FastPasses while Cuz ate with GpaM. They were handing them out for 2-3pm at noon.

Then we headed over to Africa to meet up for the safari. Stopped to watch the African band play. Loved seeing the crowd recruits for the dancing. They had a big crowd for that: 5 girls and 3 brave guys all wiggling and jiggling to the beat of African drums. (I'll post video when I get home to upload.)



GpaM and Cuz were waiting for us at the Safari. Had a big crowd there, but everything was moving fast. We boarded in about 20 minutes. I never get good pics so handed my camera to Brohawk since he was on the end. He captured tons of really good close-ups of elephants, rhinos, gazelles, etc. The animals were all out enjoying the sun and cooler air today. Best time to see the animals is when it is cool out.








After the safari we meandered through the shops. They have a new logo design for Animal Kingdom. Very colorful. I picked up a tshirt. GpaM got some new beads to wear. He loves beads.



I didn't think we'd make it with all the shopping, but we were able to catch the 2pm showing of Flights of Wonder. Had a hawk flying right over my head. Show host warned us if we duck, he just flies even lower.

From there Brohawk and Cuz rode Expedition Everest with their FastPasses and I went on a bathroom break. We met up again for the 3:15pm showing of Nemo. Cuz has never seen it before. I find I'm liking it more each time I see it. Best wheelchair sitting is still down in "the box" on the mezzanine level, but you need to show up a little earlier to get it. We were dead center in the back row. Enough to see everything, but you get lots of people's heads in the way. Made it tough at times.

After the show I decided it was time to start paying off a debt I incurred last Spring. That was when Brohawk stayed with us at BLT and I traded our "free 3 ice creams voucher" for a popcorn. Brohawk has teased me about that incessantly for the last year and insists I owe him 3 ice creams. So I marched everyone over to DinoBites in DinoLand and got the guys hot fudge sundaes. That covered 2 of the 3 ice creams.

It was around 4pm and still sunny and warm out when I had ideas of heading to the pool at SSR. But then we stopped to do a little shopping and didn't get into the van until after 6pm. As soon as the sun goes down it gets chilly again. Far too cold for the pool.

Instead we plan to head over to Raglan Road for some drinks and pub food later. We need to be in bed by 10pm though. Tomorrow is our early day. We have a 7am tour of the steam trains at Magic Kingdom (with BWVDreamin') then park time with Bro2's family before hopping over to EPCOT for one more visit to HP's Red Planet Lounge. I also want to show Brohawk around the Countries so he can absorb some of the Flower & Garden stuff before he flies home Wednesday.

I'm hoping to get more time at the pool this week. Yesterday was a wash for that because the weather was just too cold. And I need to walk around DTD and go shopping. I saw several things with my Sis I wanted to take home Sunday.

I kinda wish we were just staying here until Sunday instead of moving over to BLT Thursday. I'm not used to ending the trip anywhere but SSR. It'll be a new experience.

[scottinbx]

Great updates.

Glad the weather is getting nicer for you.

12 people in a studio.

[beansprout]

It's always fun being on vacation with you! More please...

[broganmc]

Today has been a buddy day. Started out at 7am on the Behind the Steam Train tour. Worth every second fire disney and train buffs like me. BWVDreamin (aka Hope) and her hubbie were on it too. We ended up spending most of the day together having lunch and touring magic kingdom too. I'll tell you ask more details when I'm back at SSR on a computer instead of cell phone. Got lots of pictures too of the trains, roundhouse and learned some eerie connections between Walt, Mickey and steam trains. It all started with a mouse on a train.

Cuz petered out on us by 3pm. Did find both my brothers but we lost bro 1 again. His d group hopped to epcot with us then took off for rides instead of the secret red planet lounge. Oh well.

Now e are planning a trip on soarin before fireworks tonight. Just me, my silly brohawk and GpaM.

[BWV Dreamin]

Jen I can't believe you are still at the parks! After 12 hours of Magic Kingdom we are totally exhausted! You go girl!

[tomandrobin]

Originally Posted by BWV Dreamin

Jen I can't believe you are still at the parks! After 12 hours of Magic Kingdom we are totally exhausted! You go girl!

I could vouch for that....She is a Disney World Beast!

[broganmc]

Yeah we finally wandered home after Illuminations tonight. I'm down to all red lights (about 1 mile charge left on the wheelchair).

Never did catch up with Bro1. After exchanging texts while eating in Seasons (the Land counter service), Bro1 told us they got tired and left at 6:30pm. Brohawk, GpaM and I hung on till closing by pacing ourselves.

We hung out at the Red Planet Lounge and met the new employees there. Then we lingered over bowls of soup and hot chocolate at Seasons before finally going on Soarin'.

Our wheelie power was low so we just hung out in FutureWorld. Did a little shopping in Mousegears then watched fireworks from the butterfly garden near Innoventions.

Now Brohawk was the true power walker today. While we were in Mousegears he walked around the entire world seeing the early flower & garden show stuff and looking for presents for his sons. He found us in the middle of the 1st block of fireworks.

I am exhausted now. Fun day though. I'm so glad we got a chance to hang out Hope. Meeting you and Marc, and having you meet my family was a real treat. (Again I apologize for my idiot brother's lame jokes. He's a laugh a minute. Always cracked me up with a combination of oddball trivia, big brother teasing and corny jokes. I'm sad to see him go home tomorrow. He's the type of person who comes to Disney and plays.) Don't forget our date next weekend!

Did you guys ever get back to doing that Sorcerer Mickey card game? I'm hoping we get a turn later this week.
Bed now. Falling asleep while typing.

[AnnaS]

Great updates and pictures Jen. I love how you meet up with DVC/MO friends too for each trip.

I had to back track some - not sure how I missed it - loved your comparison of the two ships (DCL and RCL). Happy to read you did enjoy it and will be back.

We have always debated if we should book the night before our cruises and always ended up booking at the Radisson (Best Western I think before our West Coast cruise). We were afraid to take a chance with any delays and wanted to make sure we were at the port early too. Even though i have not encountered any crazy delays with Amtrak or Autotrain, I have read where people have had some huge delays, so I would not even give it a second thought with the train.

It's a lot of moving around - which can be a pita too

[beansprout]

Does WDW provide chairs like yours a place to recharge while you are in the parks? Just curious...

[broganmc]

Originally Posted by beansprout

Does WDW provide chairs like yours a place to recharge while you are in the parks? Just curious...

You can go to the scooter rental place for emergency repairs like pumping air in flat tires, borrowing screwdrivers for loose bolts or plugging in for a recharge. But all power wheelchairs and scooters these days come with off-board chargers. I leave mine plugged in at the room and recharge at night. GpaM carries his around in his basket. They are compatible which means we could use his charger for both devices.

Last night GpaM's scooter was loosing all its power going up the hill to The Land pavilion. It's been doing funky things like that this trip. Instead of a gradual power loss it's exponential. Cuz thinks his charger is damaging the batteries. So we opted to plug in his scooter.

As far as where to plug in, if you have your charger you can just find the nearest outlet. So we picked a spot in Seasons near a charger and had a long 1 hour supper while it charged. Then GpaM walked onto Soarin' letting it charge later. His scooter was fine for going around the countries while mine was limping out of the park.

Only downer yesterday was the weather. It started out cool, got warm mid-day then downright chilly at night. The wind that whipped through about 5:30pm was nasty.

(On a side note, yesterday around noon they temporarily closed Main Street because of the wind. They're doing refacing at the Bakery and have that scaffolding cover-up over the sidewalk. GpaM, Brohawk and Cuz reported as they went to join Hope, Marc and I in Liberty Square the CMs were suddenly racing to divert the crowd into backstage areas until they could rescure the scaffolding. High winds apparently loosened the decorative covering. It was billowing out like a sail creating a hazard. When we walked through later the covering was gone and the burlap was in its place. I imagine if they hadn't done that when the winds really whipped up in the evening we'd be reading about a panicked crowd getting trapped.

The guys think the decorative covering is back today but re-secured. Still Main Street is looking a bit crowded and crappy with the construction.)

It did get a bit more temperate around 8pm, but still forced GpaM to don a hood to cover his mohawk.

We're up again this morning getting ready for the day. Brohawk needs to do his airline check-in. Then we're off to breakfast at Ohana's with Bro2.

Supposed to be warmer today. Forecast is 83 degrees the rest of the week.