Day 5 Albatross Cruise Cape May Cafe Hollywood StudiosLive(ish) Taking The Grandparents This Time Ju

[closeder]

This morning we were all up by 7.30ish. The men were playing golf at Lake Buena Vista at 10.04 ( they go for this tee time as it's cheaper just after 10am but still not quite as hot as starting later in the day). Derek and I went to beach club market place and picked up breakfast sandwiches for him and Dad, and kids waffles and kids scrambled egg sandwich for me, mum and the kids. Derek and Dad said theirs was surprisingly tasty compared to how it looked and I was delighted to have my first and probably only Mickey waffle of the holiday. A very quick breakfast gobbled down the men left for their game. For information of you are staying on Disney property and playing a disney course they provide transportation via complimentary taxi. Also bell services have been storing the clubs safely for the men and had them all ready for them to take, they were very happy with the service provided here.

The kids were booked on the Albatross cruise at 9.30, which leaves from the boat dock basically at the foot of our stairwell so very convenient. This was a surprise for them, I had told them the previous night we had special plans so they had been pestering ever since and some pretty wild guesses were floating about until Derek ended up telling them they were litter picking! When I told them in the morning they were going on a boat treasure hunt they were excited but not overly so. When we got to the boat dock however and they realised they were going without me and it wasn't just some game I had made up, the excitement levels increased, geez thanks!

I confirmed and paid for the booking and I was given a pager and contact number for the cruise. There were six other children on the booking all siblings and cousins from the same family. They were all given pirate bandanas and life vests and piled onto a sun cruiser but with pirate flag and canopy. There was a lady Captain and her first mate. We waved them off and the first clue was in a bottle out in the lake tied to a buoy. After taking some pictures we left them to it until pick up time at 11.25.

Mum and I headed back to the room to pick up our loads of washing and headed to the laundry by the quiet pool. Using my credit card I got powder from the vending machine for $1, and then operated the washing machine by swiping a credit card on the machine in the wall and picking the corresponding machine we had chosen, this cost $3 and once the 30min wash cycle is done you swipe again for a 60min dryer cycle, again $3 so in total $7 for your load. Meanwhile we found a very relaxing spot at the extremely quiet pool. Mum in particular really loved this area but I too appreciated some rest time and no sand!

I went back and picked up the kids at the alloted time. They had a fab time, they had gone to Epcot on the boat and Hollywood studios area, Mickey even waved to them from Italy and they came home with lots of loot (plastic jewels, rings, compass, coins etc) and had had refreshments on board. Murray wanted to know if this was something he could do every day, it $39 each so no but worth it for them to be able to do something completely different and on their own.

The kids quickly changed into their swimming stuff and we're happy to head to the quiet pool with strict instructions from me they were not to be loud or boisterous and play nicely etc. really no need for these instructions as the pool had only Mum at it when we arrived, but they were really good and Katie spent most of the day pretending she was Ariel with her newly acquired plastic jewels.

The pool area started to fill with people a little more and then a whole bunch of lifeguards arrived for training. Luckily they didn't close the pool and we were able to stay and it was quite a good distraction. There was one female guest who took complete offence to this happening in her quiet pool and stormed off to complain about her relaxation time being disturbed but everyone else including us seemed happy for them to be there. Let's face it with 15 or so lifeguard it had to be the safest pool on Disney property.

We had a great time at the pool, at one point I brought us lunch from Hurricane Hannas to the pool which was tasty enough. Vegetarian falafel wrap shared between Mum and I. Cheeseburger and chicken nuggets for the kids served in souvineer buckets and spades.

We headed back to the room around 3pm for a rest and the men had returned from the golf by this point and had a steak sandwich at the Crews Cup bar. Unfortunately Derek's driver had broken, probably in the plane, so he was grumpy about that, otherwise they enjoyed their game.

We had a reservation at Cape May Cafe for dinner mainly as I planned for us to go to Hollywood studios for Fantasmic and Star Wars fireworks and thought staying in the resort for dinner and a buffet would be quickest. We had a while to wait before being seated and turns out we weren't overly impressed with this choice. I specifically chose a dinner here as I don't really enjoy the character buffets that much, I find them really busy and chaotic and when the kids were young they were great as no queuing and undivided attention (sometimes) is great but now they are older they have lost their appeal. The evening buffet I felt was just as chaotic however, really noisy and we ended up shouting to each other and also didn't feel there was much choice on offer. I'm thinking lots of people come here for the snow crab legs, certainly a family nearby just kept piling then high in the middle of their table but after our experience at Captains Grille they were firmly off the menu for us so we probably didn't appreciate the best part of the restaurant's appeal. Not trying to put anyone off, it just wasn't for us, especially following our Teppan Edo experience the night before.

I had fast passes booked from 6.30 onwards, we missed our star tours one but were on time for our Toy Story one, making it three times we've been on this(for some of us four) this holiday, unheard off! After this we had tower of terror fast passes, not my favourite but Katie said she wanted to go on, everyone else decided to sit it out. It was actually really good and Katie said she loved it although her knees were shaking when she came off apparently. This time for me was better than before and I would do it again I think.

It was time for finding a seat at Fantasmic at this point although it was 8.15 and we had left it late as I can't ever face waiting any longer on the uncomfy seats and they totally squeeze you in anyway up to a certain point. No one was feeling it though and we decided to just wait for the Starwars fireworks instead. Meanwhile wecwentbto watch the film in Star Wars launch bay, had a further nosey at the memorabilia. We had planned to watch the fireworks near the exit to the park for a quick get away but after asking a photo pass CM where she recommend watching it, she said as close to the Chinese theatre as possible and yes this is definitely a tip if you are willing to wait a long time for the perfect spot, the firework go off to the left and everything is projected onto the theatre plus pyrotechnics, our view of the fireworks (and everyone who wasn't right up front) was obstructed by the trees and pillars. That being said the visual effects were spectacular and it is very well done and I wouldn't miss it as it's something new and I would have regretted not seeing it, just try to get right up front if you want to be wowed I think.

This picture gives you an idea of the set up. We took a while to filter out the park and it was about a 15 min wait for the boat but luckily we managed to board the first one that arrived. We were in the room for 10.45ish which wasn't bad going and would have been much later if we had been in the villa.

We had a longer lie planned for the next day with a later trip to Epcot followed by Narcoosees, hopefully I can update with that tomorrow.

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New Photo Added by closeder - 30 Jun 16 5:05 AM.

[Yorkshiredisney]

Gotta love the yacht and beach club area we where there in 2014 one of our favourite resorts

[Loopylooloo]

I love waking up and reading your reports! Your children are really sweet, they look very well behaved!

The Yacht club looks like such a wonderful place to stay...

I know what you mean about the buffets etc - I really want to do Ohana next year but am worried it will be too loud, last time we went to Kona Cafe, also in the Poly, and the noise coming from Ohana was relentless, but I still want to go for some reason! Daft or what.

Looking forward to seeing your photos from narcoossees, I recommend the lobster bisque. And the nemo cupcake. mmmmm...

[JenD1]

Another great day. The pirate cruise sounded fun! Shame about Cape May but you don't know till you experience things do you? Looking forward as always to tomorrow's read.😊

[margyloveswdw]

Another great day; thanks for sharing

[mick]

A nice relaxing day shame you didn't enjoy your evening meal

Joan

[Jake71]

What a treat for the kids, sounds like they had a ball. I'm looking forward to the Star Wars fireworks - although I've 2 years to wait! Shame about your dinner booking. I hope you enjoy Narcoossees, we absolutely loved it.

[twinkleshmoo]

A lovely relaxing day. I'm liking the idea of the quiet pool. Glad to see that you got some tasty snacks from hurricane Hannah's but a shame that your evening meal disappointed.

I'm so enjoying following along. Thanks for sharing

[Gusgusmummy]

Lovely day and the boat thing for the kids sounds great ! One to keep in mind for the future!
Xx