Here Now! first WDW family holiday - Day 7, Typhoon Lagoon & Raglan Road DTD

[scottishnellie]

Everyone was up by 7am apart from Hannah who got up about 7:30 which is waaaaaay early for her!

Today was a free day on the planner as the Eastons would move into their own villa today. Last night we had talked about doing a water park and Evan and Hannah got really excited about being able to do Typhoon Lagoon together. This morning us 4 adults had a bit of a debate about this as, being Saturday, we knew it would be busy. The McNicols have ultimates so if it was too busy we could easily leave and come back another day. But the Eastons tickets didn't include waterparks and we didn't want them spending $200 to get in and it being wasted. Dianne and I were were more worried about the kids reaction if they were told we were no longer going! In the end we decided to go, but be there in plenty of time for park opening at 10am to get decent beds before the rush really started.

There started the usual round of showers, getting creamed up etc, and Dianne and I left to boys to make up the sandwiches etc for the wheely coolbag to come with us. Dianne also got all their things packed up ready to move when they could get in after 4pm. All set by 9:15 and away we went. Parked up by 9:40. While in the car we had decided Kevin would go ahead of me with the towels and I would catch up with the kids and coolbag. The Eastons would be a little behind me once they got their tickets at the gate. We went through the main entrance and walked through until the point where the locker rental is just before the bridge and this is where the crowd queued for opening. I could Kevin up the front. I went to rent a locker and locked away the bags with wallets/phones etc. and joined the crowd towards the bag. At park opening at 10am they played a kind of wipeout type track and the crowd moved forward. Once the kids and I got through we stood at the top of the bridge and spotted Kevin. He got a brilliant spot with 4 beds for the adults right the the front of a little Island that juts out between the 2 main entrances to the surf pool. This proved invaluable later in the day as we could sit here and watch the kids quite happily in the surf pool at the times we were not in with them.

Whatsappd the Eastons to say which spot we were in. The kids were in the surf pool straight off. Evan, Hannah and Kieran are all competent swimmers so were right up at the red line for the 6 foot wave and could surf it in. Dianne picked up life vests from the rental booth for Matthew and Emma but once they got used to the power of the wave hitting their legs at the shallow end they didn't need them. Emma got quite adept at waiting for the wave to come at her at waist height and diving in underneath it. She played there all day long when we were not on slides. I was a bit more adventurous this time and went on some water rides. Dianne and I really only like the rubber ring ones. The others I still wont do for the same reasons I gave in my TR the other day! We did Keelhaul Falls (nice and smooth), Mayday Falls (bump bump bump, so not for me) and queued 25 minutes for Gangplank Falls which is the big family ring. Kevin had his GoPro on this one and I am not sure I even want to see the video and I got soaked over the head umpteen times and screamed like a girlie. To the point Kieran was trying to cover my head with his arms and giggling 'I've got you mummy, 'I've got you!'

By now it was 12 and we headed back for lunch and drinks from the coolbag. Patted the kids dry and gave them a spray of the Banana Boat sport sun spray which we had seen all he Americans using in the park the other day and picked up in Walmart for $6.49. As I was doing this the were starting to tuck into lunch which meant I missed doing their faces. Wish I had realised at the time as this came back to kick me in the butt!

Kids spent some time in the surf pool then Hannah and Evan were off the the slides. Kevin and Andrew took the little ones on the slides later and Matthew declared the crush n gusher to be AWESOME!

Evan came back at one point with a big scrape on his back as he and hannah had sat down in the shallows to be knocked over by the wave. He had scraped off the rough surface and it was a cracker of a burn. Dianne took him off to first aid who were really helpful, patched him up and gave Dianne some extra plasters.

Then about an hour later he appeared walking out of the pool with blood gushing from his nose! He had been kicked in the face by someone as the wave hit. Again Dianne patched him up then went and bought him an iced donut so he would sit still for 10 minutes before going back in. Hannah and I had Dippin Dots. We are seriously addicted to these things.

Dianne and I chilled and watched the world go by for a while. Come 3pm we decided to round them up and head for home, stopping at Walmart on the way for a McNicol stock up and the Eastons to do their first big shop for moving in. It was on the way home in the car I looked at Hannah and realised her face was bursting having had way too much sun.

Back at the villa, I slathered her face in sudocream and made her drink lots of water before going for a lie down. She was asleep in seconds. Dianne and Andrew discovered the code for the door wasn't working so the kids jumped in our pool with Kieran (who was busy practising with his new snorkel set he bought in Walmart), while Dianne made some calls. Within half an hr the 'pool dude' as he called himself arrived and got them in so the transfer of cases etc started.

We had a 8:30pm reservation tonight for Raglan road so needed to leave around 7:15 to be there on time so I reluctantly woke Hannah at 6:30 so she could shower and wash her hair. I think she couldve slept right through had I left her.

All ready and left at 7:15. I had read about road works at DTD making parking difficult but OMG, I had not realised how bad it would be. We crawled nose to tail all the way through and could not really see where to park until we were finally directed to park across the road from DTD and walked from there. Being Saturday night it was heaving so we grabbed hold of the kids and made our way to Raglan Road as it was now 8:25.

This had been Diannes pick when we were planning, saying she really fancied eating here with the entertainment. I hadn't been able to book it when I was booking my other ADRs through MDE but booked it directly on Raglan Roads own website with no problem. I had also requested that we be sat in the main room near the entertainment stage as I had read reports of people being placed a high stool tables with not a great view. When we went to the desk and gave the surname she initially said they might need to place us on a high table and my heart sank bit just then another girl interrupted and said 'Is that for McNicol? I have their table ready in the great room right now.' We were led to a cracking table just in front of the stage. We LOVED this place. The band singing Irish songs, the Irish dancers coming on inbetween, and the highlight of the night, Matthew dancing onstage. Yes, you read that right! The dancers came over and asked the kids if any of them fancied going up to dance. All the other vigorously shook their head apart from wee Matthew, who had been delightedly clapping and dancing at the table all through dinner, immediately said yes and off he went with the dancer backstage.

Well this wouldve brought a tear to a glass eye! He came out and gave it laldy, following all the dancers instructions and ended with the bar giving a massive applause and whoops and hollers!

Once he came and sat back down an american Lady came over to say how fabulous he had been, it was just brilliant.

Oh, I really should mention the food eh? Everything delicious. I had butternut squash risotto with Chicken, Kevin had a mixed grill, Andrew had a keen eye for a shepherds pie, Dianne had Cluck Curry (Chicken, no photo sorry). The kids all had chicken goujons with big fat Irish chips apart from Evan who had kids risotto with chicken. For deserts I had a Dundons delight (raspberry Pavlova), Hannah had a Dunbrodys kiss (rich chocolate mouse), Evan had a apple and strawberry crumble which came served in jar (photo is really dark) and Matthew had a kids strawberry delight which was a pavlova and much the same size as my adult one, only in a bowl. The food photos are all quite dark as the place just IS dark. Dianne and I used our iphone torches just to read the menu! Kieran had no desert as by this time he was snoring his wee head off again, with his head in his dads lap! The bill came to $276 for the 9 of us including and couple of half pints for the boys, a pint for Dianne and a couple of glasses of red wine for me. This place was a definite favourite for us and a great experience if you can get in the main room.

We walked (well, Kevin half carried Kieran) back through DTD and into the Disney store as both girls wanted to splash some cash. Hannah and I bought some nice wee bits of jewellery and then caught up with Kevin and Kieran who had headed straight back to the car. More traffic chaos to get out and back onto the I4. It was after 11 when we got home and we were all shattered. Made Hannah drink loads more water before bed and take a couple of paracetamol. By the time I had moisturised the life out of her and helped her off to bed, I just didn't have it in me to start the trip report so knew it would have to wait til morning. So I apologise to all of you who have told me you like to read this every morning over breakfast! I will try to do it each night whenever I can.

Tomorrow – Hollywood Studios, Hollywood and Vine, and Fantasmic.