The codeword is banana! ~ 2010 trip ~ Day 2

[BONZO]

Day 2 – Hollywood Studios - 15th August 2010
CAST INFORMATION:

Me (Shaun): 49, easy going, I just want everyone else to be happy, I love a good rollercoaster, I generally provide the cash for the trip, will use the code word every day at least once, my 9th trip to Florida.

Alison(aka AlisonB, fellow mod): 44, commando type park tourer, gets frustrated with everyone else’s lack of energy, will use the code word if other people don’t get going quickly enough, 10th trip.

DD#1: Alex, 17, loves mini golf and big roller coasters, does teenage attitude VERY well, frequent ‘blonde’ comments, and is expected to use the banana code word often, 7th trip.

DD#2: Laura, 15, easy going, out going, loves a lie-in, determined to try new rides this year and will probably use the code word on occasions, 7th trip.

Now, some explanation for the trip report title. Apparently I am frequently grumpy on holiday (Alison here: there’s no apparently about it – he is usually grumpy on holiday – I don’t think he likes being with us at all!) so we decided that it would be a good idea that if anyone was feeling a bit grumpy they should let everyone else know so we could avoid annoying the grumpy person any more. Well, that evolved into discussing a code word to be used and as we’re all Family Guy fans the code word we decided on was ‘banana’. (From an episode in the second series called ‘Let’s go to the hop’ when Lois and Peter are involved in some activity where they need to have a nominated safety word; anyway….I digress). So, our codeword is banana, with an optional upgrade to apricot if things are really bad!

Alison and I were up this morning at a respectable 5:45 or so after having a sound night’s sleep and had a pot of coffee and sat on the balcony. I have to say that we knew that the ground floor rooms here could be a bit dark because of the greenery outside – but I wasn’t expecting quite the level of greenery on the top floor (2nd floor if you’re English, or 3rd floor if you’re American!)


These really are photos from our balcony!



I put the TV to see what’s going on in the world or at least what’s going on in the local area and check on the weather. As expected it’s going to be a lovely day with high temps and high humidity. I say lovely but some of the troops will begin to wilt in this weather. I suspect this is going to be banana weather!

The girls weren’t awake so we did the responsible parent thing and left them a note and a mobile phone so that Alison and I could mosey down to the main area to grab a coffee in the refillable mugs and take a look around the main pool area. It’s a bit of hike from where we were staying and could maybe have driven down – boy we are sure behaving like the locals now! Meant to take some snaps of the deserted pool but the camera hadn’t had time to acclimatise from being in the air-conditioned room to be being outside but we can catch up on happy snapping some other time before we leave.

Breakfast in the room consisted of orange juice, coffee and toast along with Marmite and jam that we’d bought from home. Certainly saves time and money doing this as opposed to going for a breakfast buffet although we do enjoy those as well!

The plan for today is to get to Hollywood Studios for rope drop so that we can fit all the “must do” rides in early. We would usually do Magic Kingdom on our first day but it’s the last day for Toy Story Mania and One Man’s Dream before they close for refurbishment. So, the plan (we’re roughly following the plans in the Unofficial Guide this holiday) is to go over to Toy Story Mania, grab fastpasses then ride Toy Story Mania on standby. Next, ride Tower of Terror then do single rider on Rock n Roller Coaster and double back to Toy Story Mania during the FP window.

We parked up really quite near the front and decided that it really wasn’t worth getting the tram to the entrance. We got in line for the bag check only to be served by the most conscientious bag checker of all time. Shouldn’t complain really but boy he was being a real “jobs worth”. Getting into the park should be a doddle now but oh no, some people just in front of us were having ticket issues which ended up with them not being able to resolve the issue with the CM and having to go to Guest Services. :angry:

Much gnashing of teeth later (definite banana moment for commando Alison) and we are into the park at long last and head over to TSM where the queues for the FP machine were well organised thank goodness. Doing the honourable thing I sat in the shade and wrote up my notes with Alexandra while Alison and Laura got into line – it’s a tough job but someone has to do it! – LOL! (Alison here - the queue took 20 minutes just to get the fastpasses, and by the time we’d got them the standby time was 50 mins! So we decided against doing that and moved on to the next stage in the plan).

Alexandra and I wandered round the shops while we waited and she bought some sunglasses as she’d left hers in England. We met up with Alison and Laura before heading off to TOT (only a 10 minute posted wait time) and is just by far the best themed Disney ride or even the best themed ride in Orlando IMHO. The attention to the tiniest of details is just spectacular and I just hope that WWOHP comes somewhere close when we visit later in the holiday. Alexandra wimped out of doing ToT and just pottered round the shops while she waited for us.
We met her over at RnRC and we all piled down the single rider line. Going down this route gives you a sense of smugness as you pass the other poor souls in the standby queue. We ended up waiting about 20 minutes in total and the standby line was posted at about 30 minutes. As luck would have it Alexandra and I were placed together as were Laura and Alison. We “lucked out” and had “Dude looks like a lady” where Alexandra complained that I sang all the way round I complained that she screamed like a girl. You can’t win ‘em all!

Alex rode RNR again while the rest of us rode The Great Movie ride for old time’s sake – they need extra clips in the room before you get on the ride, I think – we saw the whole lot twice through!
Time for a short break / snack and Alison and I shared a pretzel and cheese and the girls had a churro each just to keep us going for a bit longer. (Cost $11):pop:

And so now it’s time for American Idol, not really my cup of tea but I like to do these things so that I can pass comment and like WWTBAM is surely won’t have that long a run before being replaced. (Alison here – well, he can only hope! Me and the girls thought it was fantastic – really well themed and very enjoyable!) We are “treated” to a young girl who sings well, a large kid who looks a dead ringer for meatloaf and an uninspiring kid who looks like the love child of Norman Bates! The show goes on and the supposed Mr Grumpy/Simon Cowell type judge on the panel does his best to rubbish the acts but I could outdo him any day! – LOL (Alison here – the girls and I really enjoyed it and thought it was very well done. Laura was considering auditioning later in the holiday just for the experience although she knew she probably wouldn’t get anywhere).



So, there we have it, 30 mins out of my life I’m never going to get back but at least I can say “I was there”. Oh, and the fat bloke won this round. And I had a bit of a banana!

It’s now midday so it’s time for TSM which doesn’t fail to impress although it’s such a slow loader I’m surprised that they’ve done this for a headline attraction. I manage to come in a miserable 4th overall in our group (warning – banana!) but who’s counting, I’ll get my revenge later this trip don’t you worry.





As it was now lunchtime, we decided to stop for lunch at Studio Catering where, big surprise, I opt for the Greek salad as I’m not feeling overly hungry and all of the other options have chips with everything. I think I had the best deal here out of everyone as it was very refreshing and you wouldn’t have thought I’d say that in a million years. Alison has a turkey club (she said it was delicious – but huge!) and the girls had kids’ chicken nugget meals. We had one large diet coke between Alison and I (the girls had drinks with their meals) and the total cost was $29.



I always think it odd that there’s a separate bar area here with Disney being notoriously “dry” in each park unless you are having a meal. Yes, I was tempted but lunchtime drinking makes me want to nod off in the afternoon) Alison here – unlike normal – insert wry smile!) so I respectfully declined, or at least Alison wouldn’t be having any of it.

The girls headed off to do RnRC again while we did One Man’s Dream (we love this – so poignant and moving) and pottered around the shops heading towards the exit. We bought the girls a couple of pins (cost $20) and stopped in the art shop at the front of the park. We loved one of the prints and decided to buy it – not too expensive at $20.

The girls caught us up at the exit and we headed out of the park. The touring plan worked well for us this morning – although we kind of customised it for our purposes!

Just the thought of that cold beer made me drowsy so we went back to OKW (via the refillable drinks machines!) where I had a shower and took some time out (Alison here – for that read the poor old boy was suffering with a bit of banana and had to take an afternoon nap to get rid of it!) while the others took the bus to Typhoon Lagoon for part of the afternoon. I think we may well take this option again later in the holiday as it worked for me!

I’ll pass over to Alison for the part of the afternoon where I had my siesta!
Alison now – the girls and I headed off to the bus stop where we had a grand total of 5 minutes to wait for a Downtown Disney/Typhoon Lagoon bus – very impressive! Took a long time to get there, although the driver asked where we were going and was really chatty (and I think she missed out one of the DTD bus stops to get us there a bit quicker!)

It was fairly quiet at Typhoon Lagoon, certainly there were lots of people coming out as you would expect mid/late afternoon. The girls and I hit the wave pool which we love, then wandered round to enjoy Crush n Gusher, screamed down Humunga Kowabunga, swished down the bodyslides then finally did Mayday and Keelhaul falls. After another half an hour in the main pool (don’t you just love that ‘whump’ when the big wave launches?), we got the bus back to OKW (only waiting 5 minutes) and got back to the villa at 7pm. Luckily Shaun was awake and was quite happy!

Back to me now - We showered, changed and went out for dinner – the decision tonight was for Cracker Barrel. We love this place! We didn’t have to wait for a table at all, so we all sat down and chose food, before the girls grabbed their purses and headed off into the shop.

Food tonight:

Me: country ham, pinto beans, hash browns and corn muffins
Alison: fried shrimp, jacket potato, sweetcorn
Alexandra: chicken strips, fries, carrots, coleslaw
Laura: fried chicken, mashed potato, carrots
Together with 4 sodas, this came to $54 including tip.
Good value and a tasty meal.

Unfortunately we forgot to take photos before we ate – so here’s one or two from afterwards!




We stopped at Supertarget on the way home for more essentials – bread, some vest tops for me, bottles of water, Powerade, crisps, Starbucks bottled frappucino and a couple of toys for the dog back home! Total $48

Once we got home we were all tired so after a quick check on the next day’s weather forecast on TV (weather on the 8’s!) we crashed.


The weather today: hot and sunny, bit too humid for me

Total spends for the day: $183 (Ooops! - over the $150 budget!)

Banana meter: not too bad, few for me - losing at TSM and suffering a bit with the heat and tiredness, and one for Alison as we couldn’t all get going quickly enough for her, together with pedantic bag check man on the gate! They didn’t last too long though!

Link to 2010 trip reports: here

[Cinnabon]

Great report and photos
So funny that you took photos of the empty plates at Cracker Barrel.

[KarenG]

Originally Posted by Bonzo

It’s a bit of hike from where we were staying and could maybe have driven down

See more...

Well, seeing as you only drove 100 yards to the pool last night, I can't imagine why you didn't

Great day all round

Which Cracker Barrell do you tend to head to from the OKW area? We usually go to one of the 192 ones but I often wonder if there's one nearer we just miss...

[*cath*]

Great report. Loving the banana xx

[ThumperThistle]

The meals at Cracker Barrel must have been good! Why is there always a numpty at the park entrance when your in a hurry?

[BarryandCaron]

A great day. It's not that far from your building to HH but in the soaring heat I guess it would be. Some of the foliage at OKW definitely needs cutting down.

Caron

[thewatsons]

fantastic report cn not wait for the next instalment

[Reetser]

where I had a shower and took some time out (Alison here – for that read the poor old boy was suffering with a bit of banana and had to take an afternoon nap to get rid of it!

See more...

Thought I'd stumbled into one of Mkingdon's reports then for a moment!

Seriously though I'm loving this code word business. I can just see it now. Hand held aloft in the halt position and...

Back
Away
Now
And
Never
Advance!

Can't way for the next instalment

[stewart&lynn]

Brilliant...sounds like you are having a lovely time!

[summersun]

great report