Garth and Louise's Graduation Celebration June 2017 - Day 15 - Typhoon Lagoon and Riverside

[LostPrincess]

Welcome to my trip report! The index is here, and day 14 is here.

Tuesday 27th June – Day 15

Today we entered into the last week of our trip, and knew that this time next week we’d be at home again Three weeks had been such a treat though and it was still exciting we had another week ahead of us. I woke up naturally at 7.50am which felt like an amazing lie in comparison to our rope-dropping mornings we’d been doing the past few days. Garth woke up a few minutes later. We sat in bed for a bit as the bag was all packed already and there was no need to rush around this morning. We were planning a more relaxing day at Typhoon Lagoon with no set plans for the evening. We eventually got up, washed and suncreamed. We didn't want to take our resort mugs out with us so we made room coffees and we left the room at 8.35am.

As we were leaving Garth had a bit of a mare. He was wearing flipflops for Typhoon and he doesn’t do very well in flipflops. The door was closing behind him but he somehow trapped his shoe underneath it with his foot still in the flipflop, causing his front half to fall forwards leaving his foot in the door and spilling his coffee everywhere. He’s such a clutz and my memory of his standard “omg what’s going on face” is making me laugh writing this He’s so funny. Anyway he somehow got his foot out the shoe, unwedged the flipflop from under the door and we could finally leave

We’d left my phone, the camera and money in the safe today so we didn’t need to worry about locking things up at the water park so I was using Garth’s phone for pics and notes. His camera quality is as good as our digital camera anyway. Down at the food court it was really busy so Garth got a table while I wrestled through the crowds of people loitering and deciding what they wanted and joined the usual queue for beignets. I got chocolate dipping sauce again and Mia served me as per usual. I was soon joining Garth at the table.

We enjoyed them of course. At around 8.50 we were done and ready to go to the bus stops. Typhoon didn’t open until 10 but we have no problem at all getting places early and waiting around. We’d only be waiting around at the resort anyway! The busses had different plans for us this morning. We knew we’d have to get a Disney Springs bus and change for a Typhoon bus which was fine. When we arrived at the bus stop it was showing 9.10am for the DS bus. Then it changed to 9.25am. We were dithering about whether or not to just get an uber because we didn’t really want to be sat at the bus stop for 35 minutes in total and we didn’t want our nice early start to go to waste, considering we’d then have to wait for another bus at the Springs. Garth wasn’t sure so we stayed put a bit longer. Then it changed to 9.30am and we thought stuff it let’s uber it. Pablo was with us at 9.18am and was dropping us at Typhoon at 9.27am, 3 minutes before the Disney Springs bus was due to arrive at French Quarter! Times like this made we wish we had a car but the underage driver fees were extortionate and the uber only cost us $6.16. Saved us a lot of faffing, and I can’t deny I get a bit of rope drop anxiety when I realise I might not get to a park before it opens

We joined the queue to get in and we were let through at 9.45am. We grabbed some free towels and went to wait by the Crush and Gusher slides. They weren’t letting people all the way in just yet. We only waited 10 mins and went ahead and got some sunbeds under some trees for shade. We quickly stripped down to our swimmies and walked straight onto the new Misadventure Falls. Garth loved the theming of this, and we love waterslides we can do together. It was so much fun and really swished us up the sides of the slide. It had parts of the ride story all the way down, and although I can’t remember the story exactly (something about an adventurer, I remember Everest style theming) I do remember it feeling different from other family raft rides. Afterwards we went straight to the Crush and Gusher slides, our favourite water slides EVER. We did all three. My favourite was the coconut, I really feel like these slides are better than Krakatau in Volcano Bay. They’re similar in the way they work but these feel so much funner. We got a couple of photo passes at the bottom.

We stopped off at the beds to have a drink and apply some suncream and then we hopped on the lazy river. We shared a double tube (love it when we can grab one of those!). We stayed on for ages just relaxing. Garth was geared up to do some bigger slides now. We did the storm slides first. I was pretty scared, I'm not a fan of slides without tubes. There was a 5 minute wait but it went quickly and I was fine I just hurt my back a bit on the way down. Next Garth did a “humungous one”- Humunga Kowabunga- but I wasn’t going on that. I tried to take a pic of him queuing but I can’t make him out.

I took a selfie too clearly!

He came off buzzing after only waiting 2 minutes. He loved it so it was looking good for him to do the big ones at Blizzard. I managed to film it, after accidentally filming a few randomers coming down. Sorry randomers, but I have a video of you coming off a highspeed water slide

We were ready for a bite to eat now. We topped up on suncream first and then went on a food hunt. We had seen on twitter that the famed jalepeno pretzel had been reintroduced here only yesterday so after a quick Google Garth said we should head for Lowtie Lou’s.

I am Lowtide Lou. Garth’s google had done us well and we soon had a pretzel each. They would have cost $5 each but we used 2 snack credits.

It was so worth finding these, they were cheesey and delicious and not as hot as I expected which was perfect for me. I can almost taste it now! We really enjoyed them. We walked back to the sunbed through the “lizard cave”. It’s the part that goes alongside the lazy river. In 2014 we were walking through here and I could have sworn something wet, slippy and small fell on my shoulder and I thought it was a lizard. Who knows what it was but I was terrified walking through the cave again! I made it through alive and we got to the sunbed and topped up on suncream and water. I was determined not to burn today. We walked back on ourselves to Gangplank Falls next.

We waited 15 minutes as promised. This one dripped cold water on me a bit too much for my liking! I know once you’re wet, you’re wet but I hate water in my face so I felt very out of control with it dripping all over me! It was fun though. My sunglasses fell off my head on the way down, I was nearly “that person”, but luckily I grabbed them! We weren’t going to repeat the lost sunglasses situation today… not yet anyway…

It was around 12.45pm and Garth had been waiting very patiently to go in the wave pool. He went in while I sat up at the top.

Garth’s waterproof phonecase had been doing us well but occasionally it did affect the pics like this.

I was sat on the floor but the waves caught me one too many times against the horrible surface so I grabbed a little chair to sit at the top. I soon got told off by a lifeguard as the chairs weren’t allowed into the water so I went to sit on the rocks at the side instead. Garth came back to me with his sunnies and asked me to hold onto them for him. He had dropped them in the pool and a little girl picked them up and shouted “look I found these cool glasses!” Garth kindly asked for them back and bought them to me to look after. We weren’t going to repeat the sunglasses situation today… not yet anyway… He told me he’d be back in two more waves and I told him not to worry and to go have fun. About 50 waves later he came back I didn’t mind though, the sun was shining, Jimmy Buffet was playing (which was reminding me of Margaritaville nachos) and I was so content. Once he was done we had another water/suncream top up and then got on the lazy river back to the slides. Keelhaul Falls was showing 60 minutes so we went on Mayday Falls instead.

I hate the cold water sprays in the queue. It’s supposed to be mist but there’s always a dodgy bit spraying cold hard water at you. Even at 1.30pm on a day late in June it’s not appreciated! The ride was fun but it was a bit bumpy and in a solo tube. When we got off Keelhaul Falls was now showing 10 minutes so we snapped that right up and headed up Mount Mayday again. I don’t know what the 60 minute queue that had previously been listed was about!

We got in the queue and picked up out tubes and Garth suddenly said to me “Lou, I’m not wearing my sunglasses.” Seriously Garth?! AGAIN?! (Quick recap- Garth lost his sunglasses on MuppetVision the other day and then took a random pair from guest services claiming them as his own). They must have fallen off on Mayday. Why can’t the boy hold onto them!?! Oh well, we rode the slide then went back to Mayday to ask if any had been handed in. The guy hadn’t seen any so we decided to have some lunch then check guest services. It was around 2.15pm when we got to Leaning Palms. We both ordered island burgers, burgers with pineapple, pulled pork and served with coleslaw. I had coke and G had a blueberry frozen lemonade. It would have cost $33.46+tax but we used 2 QS credits.

The food was ok but nothing special, it filled a hole. There was a guy next to us with a big old sandwich, chicken nuggets and fries. He went to get some napkins and the birds started having a go! They probably thought it was a bit too much for him! His family soon fought them off. When he came back they said the birds had had a go he said “those little b******s ain’t stealing my food” in his southern American accent, it made us chuckle We had some ice water to keep us hydrated while we were there. Once we’d finished we headed to guest services at the front of the park. Garth explained how he had lost some plain black sunglasses (again) and told them the rough time he lost them. The person bought some sunglasses up. “Yep that’s them!” he said (lied, he’s getting too good at this). I rolled my eyes and away we walked. He put them on and realised… they were prescription glasses. We could just about shrug off claiming cheap sunnies for our own but these could have been expensive. And somebody might have really needed them. Ashamed and embarrassed he popped them on a bin hoping someone else would hand them back in What a disaster Now he was too embarrassed to go back and ask for his glasses because he’d told a total fib. His (not his) glasses were officially lost. We nipped in the shop to look at the cost of ones on Disney property and they seemed to be around $25. He found some he liked but we were scared he’d just lose them again. We said we’d think it over and take some time to decide if we could trust him with $25 sunglasses!

Anyway, with squinty eyes (him, not me, I hold on to my sunnies… apart from this morning when I nearly lost them but I was sensible enough to catch mine ) we went back to the bed for suncream and water. We hopped on the lazy river while our dinner went down. While we were on the river we used the uber app on Garth’s phone to see how much it’d cost to get to the nearest supermarket to look for bargain sunnies. We checked Walmart, Target and Publix and each would cost $18-$20 for a return trip so we decided we’d be best off just buying the sunglasses from here on our way out today. It’s funny, we spent a ridiculous amount on the holiday itself but when it comes to parting with day-to-day money on things we need we feel bad! The sky was darkening so we decided to hop out the lazy river so we’d get another go on our faves before the inevitable rain. The plan was Crush and Gusher and Misadventure Falls. First we went to the bed to pop everything underneath so it’d be safe if the rain started. A bed under an umbrella was free now so we moved everything over and put the backpack in a carrier bag just in case. That sorted we went to do my fave Coconut Crush and Gusher.

The sky wasn't looking good.

There was a photopass lady at the bottom this time but she didn’t get a picture of us which is a shame we had such a good photo last time. In fact I’ll include it here as I didn’t do a 2014 trip report and we can pretend it was from this time

We look exactly the same. Does that mean we'll always look 18 years old? There was no queue for tubes so we went straight back into the queue for the Banana Blaster as that’s where she seemed to be photographing. Alas, halfway up the stairs there was the dreaded inclement weather announcement. We were expecting it to be honest and we’d done well to get to 4 in the afternoon in June. We plodded back to the sunbed and did a quick change. The castmembers seemed so happy that the slides were closing! We saw some with a big box of jenga and board games. I wonder if they get to have big breaks when it rains? Some were singing and dancing! The thunder and lightning was crazy loud now but it was still dry. All dried and dressed we hopped in the shop and picked up the glasses. Transaction complete by 4.05. I don’t have a receipt for this but my budget spreadsheet says we spent $28.75. I have a feeling I left the receipts for today lying around in the room and the maid binned them. I was inputting our spending into my budget spreadsheet daily anyway. We turned to leave the shop and it was hammering it down. We had no ponchos, no towels. We just looked at each other and laughed. We put everything in the backpack and just walked into the rain. It was your standard Orlando storm, mega thunder and rain and no chance of making it out with a dry patch on your body if you’re as unprepared as we were! We were soaked before we even got to the gator at the front of the park. We had meant to get our pic with him and decided why let the rain stop us!

I don’t think it picks up how wet we were. It was so funny. We got to the bus stop and there was a DS bus there but a humungous queue. We waited (in the rain) with our fingers crossed but we didn’t get on. Everyone rushed under the shelter but we figured we wouldn’t get any wetter so stood it out and waited in line. The guy behind us said “I bet you don’t get this much rain in the UK!” and he would be right! Everyone sees the funny side and bands together in the Florida rain.

It didn’t take long for the next bus. When the bus driver pulled up he just laughed at us. There were pools of water on the bus as we all got on and it was absolutely freezing because of the aircon. We got to DS and again didn’t feel the need to rush as we were soaked. I did take my flipflops off as I was slipping everywhere. There was around a 15 minute wait once we got to the FQ stop.

The bus that arrived was going to Riverside and FQ but luckily we stopped at FQ first. We strolled through the freezing lobby, waded through the puddles and dreaded going into the room… we’d left the aircon on! As soon as we got in it was freezing so we started running the bath and Garth put the coffee maker on. I got in first and felt it was the right occasion to use my dragon egg bath bomb that I’d bought from Lush at home. It was amazing just what I needed. I tried not to be too long so Garth could get in and warm up. Soon we were both in our jammies. We ironed clothes for tomorrow, backed up photos and wrote up some notes. We’d managed to get burned today (how? ! ) so we aftersunned up. We had no set plan for tonight. We considered going to Disney Springs but with dodgy weather we weren't too sure if we could be bothered so we decided to go and explore Riverside. The thunder was still rumbling on so we put our ponchos on and left at 7.15pm.

The walk was lovely, albeit soggy.

It reminded me a lot of the walk from Cheyenne/Santa Fe to the parks in DLP with the walk along the river. It took around 10 minutes. From the outside Riverside looked like a beautiful resort.

However when we walked in it was bedlam! Of course, the weather probably played a part as people may have vacated the parks to hide from the rain. But you could barely move in there. We went into Riverside Mill to have something to eat. There were really long queues and it was all a bit stressful, but we had avoided the French Quarter foodcourt at dinner time so this might just be what it’s like at this time in a Disney resort! We wanted different things so Garth went to the pizza counter and I went to the grill. While I was queuing a Mum came up to a girl in front of me, she must have been at least 16, and put her magic band on her and told her to get herself what she wanted while she went to get a table. I thought it was babying her a bit to not allow her to wear a magic band? At 16 I was responsible enough to start saving for my first WDW trip! And I know not all 16 year olds are the same but I’d have hated it if my Mum didn’t trust me with my magic band. Anyway, when it was my turn I ordered a Cajun chicken sandwich. I met Garth who had his meat lovers flatbread from the pizza counter and was just waiting for his breadsticks. They came quickly and we were soon “paying” with 2 QS credits. It would have cost $21.48+ tax. The lady at the till complimented my Moana top! I got a few compliments on this one, Moana seemed to have made an impact over there. Now it was time to try and find a table! We found one easily enough but there were no chairs. I sheepishly asked a fair few tables if I could pinch a chair and eventually found 2. When I was back Garth went to fill up our resort mugs. I had coke and he got a minutemaid. Finally time to eat!

I didn’t really rate my sandwich. The bread was soggy and the chicken was chewy. My chips were nice though and I had a honey mustard dip. Garth’s dinner was a lot nicer. I pinched a breadstick and they were nice but not Olive Garden quality! We ate kind of quickly, it was a bit uncomfortable in there! Once we’d finished we went for a nose around the resort.

The pool was smaller than I thought it would be, but I suppose they do have the quiet pools as well.

The resort was beautiful but it felt so big compared to French Quarter. We felt like we’d chosen the right place for us! We went back inside to look at the massive reception and massive shop.

When we were done browsing Garth used the loos and then we headed back “home”. On the way the camera complained that the memory card was full even though it wasn’t. We thought that the camera had given up at this point. I got it for Garth’s 18th birthday and it’s done us for several years worth of days out/holidays. It’s nothing special it’s just handy having it instead of clogging up our phones! It turns out it was just having a funny 5 minutes and it’s still going strong. Back at French Quarter we nipped into the shop. We picked up the French Quarter pin and also got some aerial toppers for the car. I have no pics or receipts I’m afraid I got the sorcerer Mickey 2017 topper, a Buzz Lightyear topper and a stars and stripes one. Now we were in the last week we were happier to start spending. The total came to $26.62. We filled up our mugs with hot chocs and we were soon back in the room. We sorted the camera out and got into our PJs and we were in bed by 10pm. We did a bit more Disney trivia before dozing off after a slower paced but another great day.

Tomorrow we hit Animal Kingdom again, before having dinner at Raglan Road and spending the evening doing magic hours at Magic Kingdom!

Steps today: 18968

[yellowrose78]

Another fab day, the sunglasses saga is hilarious

[Goldia]

I can't believe Garth lost another pair of sunglasses. There must be thousands of sunglasses lost on rides at WDW, I'm sure most of them go to landfill so it's not too cheeky of him to claim a pair, what a shame they were prescription though!

Such a lot of rain...It is horrid getting on the busses after the rain as it's so cold. Still a fun a day though.

[H_C-2017]

Oh bless Garth and his sunglasses! :P
I think mine come off in a wave at Typhoon Lagoon but I found them washed up on the beach. I feel like everyone has lost sunglasses in those waves.
It rained like that on us at Typhoon Lagoon too and it was a very soggy experience getting back.
Love reading your report, you really look the same as when you were 18! To be honest I do too :P

[Unexpectedpenny]

A lovely, if slightly damp, day! I’m loving Garth’s sunglasses saga

[collybird]

I think Garth is going to need to face facts, he needs a sunglasses strap.

Not very nice weather today, glad you made the most of it.

[LostPrincess]

Originally Posted by yellowrose78

Another fab day, the sunglasses saga is hilarious

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He's so silly, he's always losing things! Thanks for reading

Originally Posted by Goldia

I can't believe Garth lost another pair of sunglasses. There must be thousands of sunglasses lost on rides at WDW, I'm sure most of them go to landfill so it's not too cheeky of him to claim a pair, what a shame they were prescription though!

Such a lot of rain...It is horrid getting on the busses after the rain as it's so cold. Still a fun a day though.

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I know! First his phone at the start of the trip, then the repeated sunglasses situation. At least we're familiar with lost and found locations now Hopefully the owner of the prescription glasses got them back

We ought to have left when we felt the storm approaching. It didn't take long to warm up once we were 'home' though

Thanks for reading!

Originally Posted by H_C-2017

Oh bless Garth and his sunglasses! :P
I think mine come off in a wave at Typhoon Lagoon but I found them washed up on the beach. I feel like everyone has lost sunglasses in those waves.
It rained like that on us at Typhoon Lagoon too and it was a very soggy experience getting back.
Love reading your report, you really look the same as when you were 18! To be honest I do too :P

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Lucky you found yours on the beach! Because we didn't really know exactly where he had lost them it was difficult to know where to look. It makes a funny memory looking back though

It's funny being rained out of Typhoon- we may as well have stayed in our swimwear!

I'm hoping one day we'll be grateful for our apparent inability to age, I definitely think I'm going to be one of those people who is still being ID'd when they're 30!

Thank you for reading and commenting

Originally Posted by Unexpectedpenny

A lovely, if slightly damp, day! I’m loving Garth’s sunglasses saga

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It was a great day! Thanks for reading

Originally Posted by collybird

I think Garth is going to need to face facts, he needs a sunglasses strap.

Not very nice weather today, glad you made the most of it.

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He definitely does! We must get him one, we're going to New York in July and I'd rather not have to spend the trip in shops getting new sunglasses

We were lucky to last until late afternoon really! Thanks again for reading and commenting

[tinkerbell92]

As much as the sun is gorgeous in Florida, walks in the pouring storms are so memorable! Your walk out of Typhoon Lagoon reminded me from 2014 of my boyfriend and I splashing through puddles along Citywalk heading back to the car - such a lovely memory to have xx

[Our Grumpy1]

Feel your pain of the final week but today is one that will make you smile for years to come

You do have to be careful on the floor surface at TL. DD was washed over by a wave in the shallow area when she was 7 and still has some mild scarring on her skin.

When I saw how soaked you were all I could think was how cold you'd be on the bus

Oh Garth what can we say! Perhaps on future trips spare sunglasses are needed and secure them with a strap when in use.

[Cazzius]

Good decision to use an Uber to Typhoon Lagoon. You beat the Disney bus and got a nice early start on the slides.

I agree with the other commenters that Garth needs a strap for his sunglasses... and either jazzier glasses or to TippEx his name on the inside of one of the arms so he can identify them at Lost Property.

You got a lot done before the 4pm monsoon, such a shame that you ended up getting caught in the rain and being absolutely drenched.

Riverside looks pretty, but the size of French Quarter seems perfect - you are so close to everything and no long walk on tired feet from the bus stop or to get dinner.

A shame that your dinner was a bit disappointing, but you have had so many great meals I'm sure you had more good than bad.

Thanks for sharing your day