[Goofy3230]

Originally Posted by packerbeth

I'd recommend the video. I got it from Netflix, but you can probably get it on Blockbuster or wherever. It's done by John Walsh, the man who lost his son, and who really brought the kids' safety thing out in the public consciousness. It's hosted by "Superside Safety Chick" or something like that, who is kooky and crazy and makes it fun to learn about "don't knows" and "kind of knows." Puts things in kids' language, and presents the info without being scary. I actually laughed quite a bit during the video. It gets the discussion going about a topic that can be hard to talk about!

I'm going to have my brother get it from Netflix for me! Thanks so much for the info and keep that TR coming!!

[cinderbella]

Oh my goodness!! Somehow I missed this TR when it started but I love being able to catch up on it now!!
Your girls have grown so much since your last trip! You have such a beautiful family! I can't wait to read more..and I am totally jealous about the Poly!!

[packerbeth]

Day three - Wednesday, April 30 – my favorite day

Since we were out so late at the Magic Kingdom the night before, we got to sleep in a little this morning, but not too late, since we were meeting my brother and his family for breakfast at Kona Café at 9:00. Since Kona is right in the Polynesian, we didn’t have far to go once we all got up and moving! As we walked to Kona, I took a photo of the lobby, since I can’t seem to walk into this beautiful place without taking pictures!



Hugh and his family arrived not long after we did, and once we checked in, we were seated fairly quickly. Originally, I had wanted to try to pay for our part of the meal with the DDP, but pay out of pocket for Hugh’s family. I tried to explain that to our server when we arrived, and at the time, he seemed to understand, but when it came time for the bill, it appeared that he had forgotten. Let’s just say he wasn’t the best server we had all week…

I absolutely love going out for breakfast! I’m not much of a cereal eater, so usually I like hot breakfasts, but who has time for that every day? So I was really going to take advantage of this opportunity to get a hot, delicious breakfast. First thing we ordered were smoothies! I got some sort of berry one; the reason I can’t really remember which one is that Kate drank most of it. Rick ordered one, as well; I think this is his.


For breakfast, I got the Macadamia Pineapple Pancakes - with macadamia nut butter, pineapple sauce and bacon; Rick got the Tonga Toast - banana stuffed sourdough bread, rolled in cinnamon sugar and served with Strawberry Compote and your choice of ham, bacon, or sausage, without the strawberry sauce. Grace decided that she couldn’t make up her mind, and asked the waiter for three breakfasts! After I explained to her that she only could choose one, she picked Goofy Toast (“only Goofy would fry an egg in the middle of a piece of toast”) and ended up not liking it! Rose got Minnie's French Toast - rolled in cinnamon sugar.

I told my brother that this breakfast was on us, so they should order whatever they wanted. They protested at first, but I told them that it was not up for discussion, since I already told Mr. Hugh the Epcot CM that I would be treating them to breakfast! My sister-in-law got Tonga Toast, , and I am pretty sure my brother got the Big Kahuna - French toast, Macadamia-Pineapple pancakes, eggs, home fried potatoes, ham, bacon, and sausage. Their DD4 got Mickey Pancakes - buttermilk pancake shaped like Mickey. There was some discussion about whether or not to get their DD2 her own meal, but as we looked around at the size of the portions around us, they decided, as we had, to just have her share with the grownups!

Once our orders were placed, I took a minute to look around at the restaurant. It's very open, and people have said loud, but my group was probably one of the loudest, so I didn't notice! I looked for this statue, as I had read it was made of chocolate and sprayed in shellac so that it would last!


I don't remember how long it took for the food to arrive, because just like yesterday's wait in the line for Barnstormer, we passed the time chatting and visiting. Rose and Grace took lots of interesting pictures with my camera, some better than others...







This is the only picture of my brother and me together.




Rose loved SIL's shirt; pandas are her favorite!





There's a Hidden Mickey in my glass.

You can see it, right?


Awwwwwwwww........


OK, girls, I think that's enough photos for now...

[JustaT]

Originally Posted by packerbeth

OK, girls, I think that's enough photos for now...

This is my favorite photo so far!!!! I love how silly they are

[packerbeth]

Originally Posted by JustaT

This is my favorite photo so far!!!! I love how silly they are

This is pretty much how things look at my house all the time!

[packerbeth]

Hugh and his family were off to Epcot before heading back to Georgia, so we said good-bye, but only for a week or so. We would be seeing them next week, when they were going to be staying with my parents on their way to his IL’s house. We walked with them back to the lobby,and sent them off with hugs and kisses. We didn’t have any plans until this afternoon, so I sent the boys back to the room while the girls and I explored our lovely resort. Kate thought that this woman was fascinating; she was making leis with real flowers!


They especially loved the tikis, so we went on a tiki hunt! When I had seen these online, I thought the girls would be weirded out by them, but they thought they were great fun!








I believe the girls did some more window shopping at this point, but they hadn't brought their Disney Dollars with them, so they didn't do any actual purchasing. Rose was anxious to buy some pins, so we stopped to look at the pin kiosk near the monorail station each time we passed it, but so far she had held onto her money. They certainly didn't have enough to buy everything they wanted to, but that didn't stop them from looking! I had my eye on the tote bag you could get for $10 when you spent $40, but that would have to wait until a little later in the week.

One more photo in the lobby before heading back to the room!


We walked back toward our "Tokelau house," as Kate called it, to collect Daddy so he could take the girls back to the volcano pool for a while. We were planning on staying at AK until it closed at 9 p.m. so I wanted Christian to have a little rest before we left.

[JustaT]

I don't think I have ever seen pictures of those tikis. Looks like they had a blast finding each one.


I didn't know AK stayed open until 9pm I guess we are always there in the winter months. The latest I saw was 6pm.

[packerbeth]

Originally Posted by JustaT

I don't think I have ever seen pictures of those tikis. Looks like they had a blast finding each one.


I didn't know AK stayed open until 9pm I guess we are always there in the winter months. The latest I saw was 6pm.

It was evening EMH the night we went. The park closed at 6 p.m. the rest of the week. I specifically chose to go to EMH because I wanted to see the Tree of Life and EE all lit up at night! Stayed tuned to see how it all turned out!

[JustaT]

Originally Posted by packerbeth

It was evening EMH the night we went. The park closed at 6 p.m. the rest of the week. I specifically chose to go to EMH because I wanted to see the Tree of Life and EE all lit up at night! Stayed tuned to see how it all turned out!

I can't wait to hear all about it! AK ended up being my favorite park on our last vacation....so much for the kids to do and they just LOVED IT.

[missymouse]

Originally Posted by packerbeth

Hmmm...why does Daddy look so happy, and what is Christian looking at?!?!?!?

DH was reading your TR with me this weekend, and this CRACKED him up!! It is quite hilarious!

[missymouse]

Originally Posted by packerbeth

I'd recommend the video. I got it from Netflix, but you can probably get it on Blockbuster or wherever. It's done by John Walsh, the man who lost his son, and who really brought the kids' safety thing out in the public consciousness. It's hosted by "Superside Safety Chick" or something like that, who is kooky and crazy and makes it fun to learn about "don't knows" and "kind of knows." Puts things in kids' language, and presents the info without being scary. I actually laughed quite a bit during the video. It gets the discussion going about a topic that can be hard to talk about!

I didn't realize you could get that from Netflix. I've seen the ads on tv for it, but I didn't want to BUY it. I'm going to get this for my little ones before our trip.

[packerbeth]

Originally Posted by missymouse

DH was reading your TR with me this weekend, and this CRACKED him up!! It is quite hilarious!

Glad you both enjoyed it; whenever someone sees this photo, they laugh. Yup, he's almost 13!

Originally Posted by missymouse

I didn't realize you could get that from Netflix. I've seen the ads on tv for it, but I didn't want to BUY it. I'm going to get this for my little ones before our trip.

I felt the same way. Be sure to watch it with them; there's a break in between sections where they encourage you to stop and talk about what you learned, etc.

[Goofy3230]

I love that you really took time to explore and enjoy the Poly. We stayed there 2 years in a row, and we enjoyed it, but we kept our schedule so full, we never got to see all of the little "hidden treasures" like the tikis the way you did. We're staying at the Pop this summer and I'm going to make it my mission to see more of the resort (and the other's we'll visit during our vacation). Keep this report coming!!

[dancing4disney]

So glad to read more about your trip. I love all the details and pictures!

[missymouse]

Originally Posted by packerbeth

I felt the same way. Be sure to watch it with them; there's a break in between sections where they encourage you to stop and talk about what you learned, etc.

Very good tip--thank you. We will watch with them. I think I'm going to wait until it's close to our trip to get it so it will be fresh in their minds. I've always had a fear of one of our kids getting lost, but WDW is sooo huge, and there are soooo many people there . . . it's just terrifying to me. Two years ago, my in-laws went with us, and as we were walking past Pirates a woman was running toward us screaming hysterically because she had lost her daughter. We knew this because she just kept yelling, "Anna! Anna!" I started crying and wondering what I could do to help. FIL was thinking the same thing. As we were going to ask the woman for a description of her little girl, we realized that she was speaking Spanish. We felt helpless. Luckily, a CM stepped up to help her, and they did find the little girl right around Pirates. We were all standing there staring like a bunch of idiots, but it was such a relief to see that mom get her little girl in her arms. I can't imagine the fear she felt. I'm crying right now, remembering it. Scary, scary, scary. We have to watch that video!!!!!