Life Begins at 50 The Dream Tour

[2waterford]

Also forgot to add your photos are outstanding.

[Guest]

brilliant reports you did fantastic on the weight loss takes years off you great photos

[Guest]

That report on DC bought tears to my eyes too - we thoroughly enjoyed our day there too! We had all our photos put into frames and they are now on the wall up our stairs as a daily reminder of our day - which was also Jacks birthday.

[Guest]

A brilliant report and great pics

[Guest]

What wonderful trip reports. Cannot wait for the next installment. Along with others, well done on your weight loss, I know how hard it is. Just one more thing how the h**l did you manage to stay dry in the soak zone? Only ever sat there once with GChildren (always wanted an excuse) and walk out of the stadium dripping

[Guest]

It was really disapointing to stay dry Grumpy Girl, as we sat there purposely to get soaked as we had on previous visits, but I guess whales are just unpredictable in where they land when they jump in the air! Better luck next time? wait & see on day 13!

[Guest]

Day 5 Rest Day, DVC, Hoop-de-Doo Revue Sunday 29th July 2007

I suppose that this was a day we were all ready for - a rest day! I was still up at 7am, sat on the balcony listening & watching. To be fair, we did not see too many giraffes at this time from our balcony, they tended to be there later in the day & at night. I got connected to the internet & put a message on the boards to let everyone know that AKL was definitely not closed. I then decided to take my re-fillable mug & sit by the pool with a coffee or two.

It was a beautiful day & I just lounged and swum until around 10-00, when I went to get my team up. We decided to drive to the Golden Corral on the 192 for a spot of breakfast. I was getting really brave with the driving now, but it brought back memories, as this is only a couple of minutes from Formosa Gardens, where we had stayed on our two previous visits. The menu was just changing from breakfast to lunch, so we had the best of both worlds - bacon & steak!

We headed straight back to the pool & there we stayed, until the daily storm clouds started to gather. This was an excellent opportunity for us to have a really good look all around the Lodge & take in all the different viewing points etc. We were still every bit as in awe of the place as we were when we first walked in. Ben went off to the arcade for a while, so Lisa & I sat in the Uzima Springs pool bar and had a couple of cocktails. We then got ready to be picked up by our host from the DVC, who was taking us to Sarratoga Springs for our meeting.

I do not want to say too much about the DVC meeting, because I think everyone should go along and listen to what they have to say. The concept is excellent, and it was very tempting to buy into it there and then, but we needed more time to think about it. We will be buying points eventually though, and there was absolutely no pressure put on us whatsoever. They served us with ice cream & took a nice picture of us, before the DVC minibus delivered us right to the doorstep of Fort Wilderness, ready for the Hoop-de-Doo Revue.



We had just enough time for a quick look around before the show began, as this was the place we had contemplated coming to, before opting for AKL. To be honest, we were so thankful that we had decided on AKL, as this place really didn't appeal to us that much. Having to ride everywhere in a golf cart might seem like fun at first, but I can imagine it becoming a bit of a pain.

Anyway, on to the HDDR, this was a night that worried me slightly, as I didn't really know how Ben would react to it, as a very mature 12 year old. I needn't have worried, this was his favourite night of the holiday, and one he kept asking if we could do again. Our seats were right at the centre of the stage, just 2 rows back. We got a big bucket of salad and large loaf of corn bread and were quickly served with our choice of drinks.



I had beer, while Lisa had red wine & Ben had coke all served in jam jars.



Then the entertainment started & Ben chuckled his way through it all, especially Six Bit, the large guy with a hint of Peter Kay about him.



The main course of ribs & chicken served in buckets & accompanied by beans and mash was really nice and again, very plentiful and Ben had a second bucket of chicken all to himself.









The entertainment kept coming, intermingled with the food and drink, and the strawberry shortcake was absolutely delicious, but I was too stuffed from what had gone before it to do it real justice.





I became part of the show as they took the mick out of my Yorkshire accent (Toot Toot) and there was a rousing finish with washboards a plenty. It had been a truly enjoyable night, and Ben & I would spend the next few days blurting out the theme song, all together now "Hoop de Doo, Hoop de Doooo"

We made a quick getaway to get on the boat back to MK, and saw the water pageant going by as we crossed the lake. We took up our position for Wishes, right in front of the castle. This is the first time we have watched it from here, and I don't know if it was the positional change or whether it has improved since our previous visit, but it seemed even more spectacular than ever before. I really loved it, and yet again felt quite emotional about it (I really am turning into a soppy old so & so! )

We shot off to try & get on Buzz before Spectro Magic, but the line was too long so we re-visited an old favourite, The Carousel of Progress. This turned out to be one of the funniest moments of the holiday, as it went drastically wrong, and the animatronic father in the last scene was shaking violently before it started re-playing & all sorts of amusing things. It was sad really to see this old classic going wrong, but it really was funny - and I always thought they were real actors! We giggled our way back into position for the much less crowded second showing of Spectro Magic, which was as spectacular as ever before doing Thunder Mountain. It had been a less hectic, but equally tiring day, so we headed back home at 12-30am & fell straight into bed.

[Guest]

Day 6 Animal Kingdom & Rainforest Café,
Monday 30th July 2007

We had planned to get up early and do EMH at Blizzard Beach, but I couldn't wake my team up, so I decided to go and relax by the pool and drink coffee while they surfaced. They finally came down at around 10am, so we went and had a bit of breakfast in Mara and then continued to sunbathe and soak in the pool until around 1pm.

We got ourselves organised & then set off to Animal Kingdom. We took advantage again of the Photopass photographers, as I was determined to get at least 100 photo's on my pre-paid CD!



We headed straight for the Tree of Life to do It's Tough to Be a Bug, which we all enjoyed



For the third visit running, it was throwing it down with rain by the time we surfaced. We took shelter for a very short time while it passed over, then fastpassed the Kilimanjairo safari before catching the steam train to Raffikis Planet Watch. I was a bit disappointed with this, so we quickly caught the train back again.

We headed off to look at the queue for Everest which was massive, but this was our first look at the ride & it certainly looked impressive, the ice cream wasn't bad either.



We decided to try again later, so went & did Dinosaur, but Ben was desperate to give Everest a go now that he was a coaster addict, so we joined the line, and actually only waited half an hour before boarding what is easily the best ride at Disney. We loved it, and it certainly holds a few surprises!

Next we had to shoot off for our fastpass on Safari and this again turned out to be a totally unforgettable experience. When we had done it on our 2 previous visits, we saw plenty of animals, but only from a distance. This time was totally different. Our transport had to stop twice, firstly because giraffes were crossing our path, and I hadn't been this close to a giraffe even at the lodge. Then we had to wait as two rhino's, a mother & baby played around our truck, within touching distance. This was truly amazing & yet another unforgettable moment.





We had to quickly make our way to Rainforest Café for our 6pm ADR. I loved the setting, but Lisa got a bit fed up after the third or fourth time that the gorillas next to our table went through their routine.



I must admit, it did become a bit irritating after a while, but the food was good, if a little on the expensive side. We had chicken wings & quessadillas for starters which were very good. Lisa & Ben had their usual cocktails, with Lisa's being served in a multi coloured light show of a glass, which was so impressive that we brought one home with us.



We all enjoyed a very tender steak with all the trimmings, but we were too full to attempt the volcano, so we had a good look around on our way out. Lisa was just glad to get away from those damn annoying gorrillas!







By the time we got out of the Rainforest, it was time to get our EMH wristbands for AK, so we did this & made straight for the Khali River Rapids. We all got well & truly soaked on the ride, but unfortunately, so did both our cameras, both of which packed up on us. We wanted to get back on Everest, but the line was huge, so we went & did Primal Whirl, which was much better than I remembered it from our previous visit. It was made all the more amusing by a couple of Japanese girls that shared our car, as they screamed & shouted in a very high pitched Japanese accent all the way round, bringing tears of laughter to both Ben and my faces. We decided that we had to do Everest again, and it really was worth waiting for.

We were all still a bit wet from the rapids, so we decided to get back to AKL for a dip in the pool & to pack our bags in preparation for our night in the Hard Rock Hotel tomorrow night. The news on the cameras was not good, as neither of them would work, & we still had 9 days of memories to record. Still, we were not going to allow this mishap to spoil our holiday. We made sure everything was packed and ready, so we could get an early start in the morning, to take full advantage of the front of line benefit at Universal.

[Guest]

Hoop de Doo - we loved that too - a good evenings entertainment. The guy that got picked on with the "toot toot" was a n elderly guy and it was sooo funny! Really enjoying these trippies.

[Guest]

Day 7 Universal Studio's, Hard Rock Hotel & Islands of Adventure
Tuesday 31st July 2007


We bought a couple of disposable cameras on our way to the car, and drove straight to the Hard Rock Hotel, arriving at around 8-20am. I was getting really good at this driving thing now, & even used the cruise control as we travelled up the I4. To our surprise, our room was ready for us, so we offloaded our bags, and looked at all the Beatles pictures on the walls. Apologies if the pictures over the next couple of days are not as good or as plentiful, due to using disposable cameras, but I suppose anything is better than nothing at all!



We then made our way on the short but picturesque boat ride to Universal Studios.



We had to pick up our e-tickets for the meal deal that I had booked, and have the customary photo taken with woody woodpecker superimposed (they have stopped doing the ones with Tinkerbell at MK for some reason)



we then headed straight to the front of the line for Shrek 4D. This was very good, although the story line is a bit hiddledy piddledy, and I found the pre-ride entertainment a bit long & boring. Next we did Terminator & ET, before watching the horror make up show. This was across the road from Mels Drive In, so we made first use of our meal deal & sipper cups, which were to prove excellent value for money.



Well & truly filled up, we headed for our first experience of Mummy, which is now second only to Spiderman in my favourite Universal rides. We rode it again after we had been to Twister, and then did Earthquake. Next came one of my old favourites, Jaws, which is still a very good ride.



I thrashed Ben on Men in Black, having to listen to a thousand excuses about his gun not working etc. We headed off to Jimmy Neutron, which was another new one to us, and very enjoyable. By this time, the storm clouds had moved in & as we stood buying our ponchos, the loudest clap of thunder I have ever heard shook the building. We decided to walk back to HRH for a rest & a swim in the superb pool, & the rain really came down, leaving deep puddles for us to fall into as we made our way, but unfortunately when we got back, the pool was closed due to the lightening.

Being a brave & confident driver now, we decided to head to a local shopping mall, to see if we could pick up a cheap replacement video camera. Unfortunately, although there were bargains to be had, there were issues with the compatibility, with the British PAL system being different to that used in the States. By the time we got back to HRH, the pool had re-opened & we joined in with the disco taking place in the water which was great fun. The slide into the pool was also excellent & Ben really enjoyed it, and the underwater music was also a good experience.







A quick change, and we made our way back to US, where we had pizzas & sweets as part of our meal deal. Ben was really keen to have a turn on Spiderman, so we walked over to Islands of Adventure, and cut straight to the front of a very long line. It was every bit as good as we remembered it, with Ben keeping his 3D glasses on this time, unlike our last visit, when it really scared him!

Even with his new found confidence, Ben was still a bit wary of riding the Hulk, but he decided to give it a go & loved every second of it. Dr Doom was disappointing, a good adrenalin rush, but much too short. We did Spiderman again before heading to Duelling Dragons, which again Ben really enjoyed. We headed straight back to US after this, just time for a bit more pizza & cakes & a re-fill of the sipper cup before the night show began.

This was OK, but doesn't live up to the standard of the Disney night shows somehow. It had been a really hectic day, and it was nice at this stage to be able to go and have a drink & take in the atmosphere of Citywalk, without having to worry about driving home. We sat outside Pat O'Briens watching a very good group play, while drinking a couple of their famous hurricanes. These went straight to my head, & I actually felt quite tipsy, so we got on the boat back to our room. It was nice to have a beautifully presented bottle of wine & nuts waiting for us, courtesy of the Loews club.



We were all totally exhausted, so we went straight to bed.