[jwdj4lfe]

Hey everybody, I just returned from Disney this weekend :( with my church youth group. We stayed at the all star music, and went to blizzard beach…just a short one-day thing. This is my first trip report so sorry if I don’t know the guidelines of what to talk about, etc.
It all started on Friday (may 17th), we arrived at the church at 6 pm, and left at about 6:30 pm. Of course there just HAD to be a car problem, while we were pulling out we noticed that one of the car tires was flat. (There was a nail in it) so we had to unpack everything and load it into another van (My church has 3.) So we were on the road officially at about 7 pm. we arrived at the all star music at about 11 pm in the pouring rain. There was a huge check in problem (im not going to get into it…but at the end we got 77 dollars taken off our bill) so we didn’t actually get checked-in until midnight. Walking into our beauty and the beast/ Broadway room brought back up the reasons why I disliked the all star sports…..the rooms are incredibly small! We had adjoining rooms so this at least made it feel a little bigger, however for the cheap price we got on the rooms it was well worth it.
So now its Saturday, may 18th. Wake up call at 8 o’clock, I loved hearing Mickey’s voice, it finally hit me that I was in Disney world! We ate at the intermission café; I got the cinnamon roll and orange juice, very nice, But the 3 people in the group that got the scrambled eggs and pan cakes were complaining.
We arrived at blizzard beach at about 9:20, the water park opened at 10. We ran to get a pavilion to put our cooler, towels, and etc. down. Then it was every man for him self! About 4 of us ran to melt away bay just to get wet and splash around for a while (get into the water park feel, lol) Then headed for team boat springs. We rode this about 8 times thru out the day; the line was 10 minutes the whole day. We tried to get in line for summit plummet, but the line was a constant 45 min./hour the whole day. We went on the toboggan racers twice in a row (by far my favorite ride!!) We went around the lazy river a couple of times, and finally got out to go eat lunch at the lowatta lounge (I think that’s what it was called.) I got the hot dogs and French fries, which were good---based Disney standards. After lunch we got in line for the slush gusher. This was the most interesting part of my day. In line right next to us, I met this 17-year-old south African girl! She was really cool, and she spent the rest of the day with me and the 3 other people I was walking around with. She had lots of questions about America, because it was her first time to the states, and we had plenty of questions for her (especially me because I just finished a chapter on south Africa in school.) Slush gusher was a great ride, big thrill, I don’t know how I would of handled summit plummet if I thought slush gusher was a little to steep, lol! It rained for about 5 minutes at about 3 o’clock, typical Florida weather…it poured and then cleared up very quickly. I spent the rest of the day afloat in the lazy river, and going on the family raft ride. O, I went on run off rapids once, I was on a double tube, very cool ride. I wish I could of gone in the enclosed one, but the line was to long. The park closed at 6, so we caught the bus to the all star music, and invited Caroline (the south African girl) and her brother to join us on the ride back because they were staying at the all star movies, and the same bus runs to all three. When we arrived at the hotel I exchanged email addresses with her (I don’t know how my mom would feel about long distance calls to south Africa, lol)…..sorry that this has turned into more of a romance story then trip report but I just keep thinking about her…. Her being 2 years older isn’t that bad right? I think she liked me, after all she started talking to me first, and after I said good-bye to her she came back again for another good bye.
Saturday night we went to downtown Disney to eat at rainforest café, I got the big islander chicken salad, very good! We spent the rest of the night shopping at the Disney stores. Sunday morning we checked out at about 10, and arrived home at 3 ( that includes a stop at the fort drum rest stop for lunch) .
All-in-all, in my opinion the all star music was a nice hotel! Nicer then the sports because I liked the pools better, and the quite little rose garden w/ water fountain just added to the appeal. Blizzard beach was the BIGGEST water park I’ve ever been to, I mean I lost track of time while on the lazy river, and when I got off at the closest stop I was amazed that there was a whole other section (I discovered the kiddies section.) The rides were the longest water rides I’ve ever been on. The crowd wasn’t that bad at all. The only negative thing I have to say about blizzard beach is the stairs!!! You had to climb a billion to get to the entrance to the slides on top of mt. gushmore, and after going down the slide, u had to do it all over again! I definitely had fun and cant wait to do it again!
Joe:)
P.S. and about caroline….she gets back to S. Africa on the 28th ( lucky her she had another week in Orlando) and I plan on getting in touch.

[shawnp0001]

Joe: Did you buy the big drink cup at Blizzard Beach? I was just there a week and a half ago, and the person said that if you ever planned on returning you should buy the big cup. While we were there, all other drinks were free (they put a bar code on the cup) if you went to three specific locations, and if you return on another day you can buy a new bar code for $5.00 I think (the cup costs $10.00 when you first purchase it).

[jwdj4lfe]

no we didnt get the cups, we had a cooler with us stock full of cokes, sprite, dr. pepper, etc.... so there really was no need for the mugs. I remember reading the post concerning the cups and i told my mom. We considered getting those On the way up to blizzard beach, but what we forgot was we purchased a group package i think. That meant we got a coupon giving each of us the choices of 3 combo meals (combo one: a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich w/ chips and a drink, combo 2: a hot dog w/ french fries and a drink, and combo 3: a personal pizza with a drink.) When we got our drinks they were these little plastic mugs ( i think they were the kiddie size) and they resembled the mugs u were talking about ( i saw them on display) just with a straw. So the small mug kind of made up for not buying the big one. If i was there on vacation with my family and didnt have these coupons the mug would of made a great deal!! We got those mugs when we stayed at the all star sports a year ago, they were priceless!
joe:)