"Our TR - Now with 100 % less POFQ!" - Nov 10th-20th(3/5-Last Day & Final Thoughts!)

[skier_pete]

Hey everyone! It’s that time again – when the PTR transitions into a Trip Report. That’s right the trip is around the corner, and since I am now caught up with the most modern of technology – the smart phone – I figured I would start my Trip Report before I leave and therefore I might even manage to make LIVE updates during the trip.

So, for the few people that might stumble across this without having joined in on my Pre-Tripper, here’s a quick introduction to our “Gang of 4”.
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20October%202010/DSCN5044.jpg

First, there’s me – Peter. No, I don’t run the DISboards – different Pete. As stated in my PTR, I was lucky enough to get to go to Disney many times as a child, mostly with my grandmother (on my mother's side). We would go down to Florida to visit my Grand-Uncle, and I have great (but vague) memories of Disney (and Sea World, and Cypress Gardens..etc.). These trips really formed a basis for where I like to spend my free money as an adult (on travel and entertainment).


After the final childhood trip in 1983 with my mom and step-dad, the next two trips were with my DGF and eventual DW. Our first vacation together was to WDW in 1997, and we went back again 2000. We still weren't addicted then...that didn't happen until we stayed on-site in 2006 with DD and DMIL and at the same time I was introduced to the DIS. We have since gone six times in 5 years, and this will be our 7th trip.


While I am the Disney planner, DW is a much of a Disney addict as I. We’ve been together for 16 years now and we make a near perfect Disney team. (I plan the trips and she…well, she let’s me without complaining.) She is a full-time mom and works part-time at a cemetery. (No – she doesn’t work the graveyard shift! Ba bum – ching!)

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20October%202010/Photo2188FourBySix.jpg

The third piece of our triumvirate is DD, who is 8.5, and is unfortunately an only child who is spoiled rotten, much like myself. (We would’ve liked more kids but that is a whole ‘nother story.) She is as much a Disney nut as her parents, a kid who’s favorite music is the Disney Parks Music CD, and who loves watching old vacation videos of our trips. She is NOT into characters, though she says because she doesn’t know what to say to them. She also doesn’t like trying new rides – a bit of a scary cat – but honestly once she tries them

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20October%202010/DSCN5165.jpg

So last summer I’m talking to my Mom about our upcoming trip and she says “maybe I could join you on the trip?” Well, that trip was all planned with ADRs for 3 and a special surprise of staying @ the AKL – so I told her, maybe this year isn’t so good, but how about November 2011. And here we are a year and a half later, and she is excited to join us, every though she is a member of the “Disney’s Just for Kids” club. Here’s a picture with DD and Grandpa – who’s staying home for this one.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Utah%202010/DSCN4498.jpg

Up next - a quick summary!

[skier_pete]

Table of Contents!

Day 0 - Arriving at Disney! Post #67 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43351955&postcount=67)

Day 1 - MK - 8 AM Opening! Fantasyland in 75 minutes! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43360609&postcount=74)
Day 1 - More pictures (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43379516&postcount=82)
Day 1 - MK Part 3 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43385270&postcount=86)
Day 1 - Dinner at California Grill (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43388065&postcount=87)

Day 2 - AK Part 1 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43412892&postcount=103)
Day 2 - AK Part 2 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43412978&postcount=104)
Day 2 - AK Part 3 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43420021&postcount=110)
Day 2 - Sanaa Review (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43458124&postcount=114)

Bonus Photopass Pictures (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43474705&postcount=120)

Day 3 - Epcot Part 1 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43474748&postcount=121)
Day 3 - Epcot Part 2 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43496664&postcount=133)
Day 3 - Epcot Part 3 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43496687&postcount=134)

Day 4 - Downtown Disney (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43512208&postcount=145)
Day 4 - Caribbean Beach Resort (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43513829&postcount=147)
Day 4 - Epcot/The Land/Garden Grill (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43546064&postcount=158)
Day 4 - Illuminations Cruise! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43546083&postcount=159)

Day 5 - Disney Hollywood Studios - Part 1 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43555996&postcount=171)
Day 5 - DHS Part 2 - 50's Prime Time (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43623791&postcount=183)
Day 5 - DHS Part 3 - Osborne Lights (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43623825&postcount=184)

Day 6 - Epcot Part 1 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43679695&postcount=199)
Day 6 - Epcot Part 2 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43679729&postcount=200)
Day 6 - Epcot Part 3 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43679759&postcount=201)
Day 6 - Biergarten (dinner) and Jellyrolls (Night out) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43710608&postcount=211)

Day 7 - Typhoon lagaon Part 1 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43762681&postcount=218)
Day 7 - Typhoon lagaon Part 2 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43762697&postcount=219)
Day 7 - CBR Pictures (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43895164&postcount=233)
Day 7 - Crystal Palace and MK Evening Shows (all 4) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43895186&postcount=234)

Day 8 - Animal Kingdom Pt 1 (added Feb 8) (http://http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43959309&postcount=239)
Day 8 - Animal Kingdom Pt 2 (Added Feb 10) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43989506&postcount=244)
Day 8 - Animal Kingdom Pt 3 (Added Feb 10) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43989532&postcount=245)

Day 9 - Magic Kingdom Pt 1 (Added Feb 17th (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=44055783&postcount=250)
Day 9 - Magic Kingdom Pt 2 - Cinderella's Royal Table (Added Feb 21st) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=44094671&postcount=257)
Day 9 - Magic Kingdom Pt 3 - Evening wrap-up (Added Feb 28th) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=44165431&postcount=266)

Day 10 - CBR and leaving WDW (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=44241791&postcount=272)
Final Thoughts (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=44241807&postcount=273)


NEW LINK FOR Disneyland / Austalia PTR (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43888003&postcount=232)

[skier_pete]

For those NOT following along on my PTR – here’s a quick summary of the plans:

So, the initial title of our TR – “Our TR – now with 100% less POFQ!” comes from our original plan. We stayed our first 3 trips at POFQ – but not since 2008 have we stayed there, and I was determined to stay there again because we LOVE it. We even had it booked with Free Dining. We had three nights room only and seven nights on a free dining package booked. However, as is want with Disney plans – things change. They extended the Dining plan one day early, and then came out with a room discount, and I determined that we could save an additional $200+ by moving to a different moderate. We decided on Carribean Beach Resort. We have never stayed there, and besides the size of the resort, find a lot there that is appealing. So, we are trying something new on a trip that has it’s main theme being “Reliving the greatest hits.”

A quick summary.
Thursday November 10th – Arrive @ MCO around 7 PM. DD has today and Friday off from school. DW is taking the time off. I will work a half day, and then we have a parent teacher conference @ 11:30 AM. After that we will be heading for the airport. Meanwhile, DM is flying from Phoenix to Ft. Lauderdale on 11/7 to visit a friend, but then is meeting us @ MCO. Her flight lands 25 minutes before ours, so all goes well we will all be arriving at the same time. In order to book at CBR we are staying a single night in a preferred room before moving over to a standard room tomorrow.

Friday, November 11th – Magic Kingdom for an early (8 AM) rope drop. Stay until around 2 PM – then back to hotel to change rooms / swim / unpack. Dinner @ California Grille and a view of Christmas Wishes.

Saturday, November 12th – Animal Kingdom with dinner @ 5 PM at Sanaa in AKL / Kidani.

Sunday, November 13th – Epcot and the final day of Food and Wine – plus dinner at Restaurant Marrakesh.

Monday, November 14th – Probably a resort/DTD day, with evening @ Garden Grill and Illuminations. (We could switch and do Typhoon Lagoon today if the forecast for later in the week is iffy.)

Tuesday, November 15th – Hollywood Studios, with lunch @ 50s Prime Time and the Obsorne Lights.

Wednesday, November 16th – Epcot. Dinner @ Biergarten. DW and I going out for an evening @ the Boardwalk / Jellyroll’s

Thursday, November 17th – Typhoon Lagoon – assuming no switch to Monday – and dinner @ Crystal Palace followed by the Castle Lighting, Main Street Electrical Parade and Wishes.

Friday, November 18th – 2nd Animal Kingdom day. Lunch @ Tusker House. Early evening for more swim time?

Saturday, November 19th – MK in the morning and evening. Some hotel time during the day, and dinner at the Castle.

Sunday, November 20th – DM leaves in the morning, our flight isn’t until 6 PM – so a few hours to get in a last minute entertainment.

We have 8 days of DDP mixed in there, and are really looking forward to a nice “relaxing” vacation. I will try and post the occasional update during the trip, with maybe even a picture or two.

[DisMomAmy]

Here! :wave:

[prisjoyce]

I'm in. Lovin' that you went with the title! :goodvibes

[PrincessInOz]

Marking my spot!

Safe travels and make sure you have 100% more FUN.

[Colleen27]

Wow, single digits! Subbing in, eagerly awaiting the live updates. :)

[skier_pete]

Here! :wave:

Welcome! :Welcome:

I'm in. Lovin' that you went with the title! :goodvibes

I couldn't come up with anything better. Unless we get a really good quote from our trip - I can always change it...but figured it's good for now!
Marking my spot!

Safe travels and make sure you have 100% more FUN.

Thank you. But 100 % more fun than WHAT? Work? No problem there!

Wow, single digits! Subbing in, eagerly awaiting the live updates. :)

I know I'm sort of excited to share as we go. I probably won't spend a ton of time each day doing this. I'm sort of against the whole "spending your life on your social media instead of on your actual life" thing. Probably a brief update each evening unless something totally spectacular happens.

[Disneychix]

Wow, what a nice long vacation! I missed most of your PTR but I'll be around after your trip :)

[skier_pete]

Wow, what a nice long vacation! I missed most of your PTR but I'll be around after your trip :)

Hey Disneychix! Haven't heard from you in a while. Looks like you must be "just back" from a trip. Thanks for joining in!

[tigerdragon]

I'm really looking forward to reading your live updates! We will be arriving the same weekend that you're leaving so reading your TR will make me even more excited!

I think you will enjoy CBR. We have stayed there three times and have always loved it.

[TheWrightTrip]

Signing in over here! I think it's gonna be so cool to follow the trip reports of those there at the same time as my family.
We will be in Epcot the same day (16th)!
Doing the Princess breakfast at Akershus. We went this route instead of CRT for my DD(5) and DD(3). Then hoping all 3 of the kids hang for a long day!

[skier_pete]

I'm really looking forward to reading your live updates! We will be arriving the same weekend that you're leaving so reading your TR will make me even more excited!

I think you will enjoy CBR. We have stayed there three times and have always loved it.

:Welcome: and thanks for joining in. Hopefully I can manage a few entertaining posts while we are there!

Signing in over here! I think it's gonna be so cool to follow the trip reports of those there at the same time as my family.
We will be in Epcot the same day (16th)!
Doing the Princess breakfast at Akershus. We went this route instead of CRT for my DD(5) and DD(3). Then hoping all 3 of the kids hang for a long day!

:Welcome: - and welcome to DIS as well. look for my Lime Green Mickey Head (LGMH) tags as on my red backpack as you wander around the park. I think we will be spending more time in Future World that day, since we are hitting World Showcase hard on the 13th for food and wine.

Akershus is a slightly better deal than CRT - we've eaten there twice ourselves, but with the free dining decided to "splurge" and "blow" the credits on the Castle. Both are still ridiculously priced, but had really good princess interaction at both. You're kids will love it.

[LisaKeys]

I'm in! Looking forward to reading your TR. Looks like a good schedule has been planned. :surfweb:

[FosterA]

3 more days:banana::banana::banana:

Have a great time!

[khertz]

Marking my place. :thumbsup2

[joy13]

I'm here :) It doesn't look like we intersect at all :( Though I was thinking of checking out the boardwalk area on the 17th if we have the energy since DHS closes at 7:00.

We have so much in common - I'm an only child too and so is my daughter (not by plan either) who is 8 (she'll be 9 in December).

[skier_pete]

I'm in! Looking forward to reading your TR. Looks like a good schedule has been planned. :surfweb:

Thanks for joing and :welcome:

3 more days:banana::banana::banana:

Have a great time!

Two days now - actually 50 hours! Ugh - I try not be one of those people that "wishes their life away" wanting to be to a certain date because every day is a blessing...but I JUST CAN"T WAIT FOR THURSDAY! I am going to be so useless at work that morning, can't you tell.

Marking my place. :thumbsup2

Never had anyone join my Trip Report while they are on a trip themselves! :lmao:

I'm here :) It doesn't look like we intersect at all :( Though I was thinking of checking out the boardwalk area on the 17th if we have the energy since DHS closes at 7:00.

We have so much in common - I'm an only child too and so is my daughter (not by plan either) who is 8 (she'll be 9 in December).

Not even then...we'll be on the boardwalk on the 16th, if at all. Don't know what your Sunday the 20th plans are, but perhaps we will cross then, as our plans are up in the air for now. It's somewhat amazing that you can take a vacation at the same "place" and never even come close to crossing paths. And we've had trips where we've run into the same people several times across mulitple days. (That's pretty rare though.)


While I'm posting I should mention my mom is in Ft. Lauderdale safe and sound...so SHE is already on the trip - sort of...

[joy13]

Thanks for joing and :welcome:



Two days now - actually 50 hours! Ugh - I try not be one of those people that "wishes their life away" wanting to be to a certain date because every day is a blessing...but I JUST CAN"T WAIT FOR THURSDAY! I am going to be so useless at work that morning, can't you tell.



Never had anyone join my Trip Report while they are on a trip themselves! :lmao:



Not even then...we'll be on the boardwalk on the 16th, if at all. Don't know what your Sunday the 20th plans are, but perhaps we will cross then, as our plans are up in the air for now. It's somewhat amazing that you can take a vacation at the same "place" and never even come close to crossing paths. And we've had trips where we've run into the same people several times across mulitple days. (That's pretty rare though.)


While I'm posting I should mention my mom is in Ft. Lauderdale safe and sound...so SHE is already on the trip - sort of...

Glad your Mom arrived safely! :thumbsup2

My mistake on the dates there, bummer! We will be at Epcot on the 20th.

[skier_pete]

Glad your Mom arrived safely! :thumbsup2

My mistake on the dates there, bummer! We will be at Epcot on the 20th.

There's a decent chance we'll hit Epcot - well about 33 %. :lmao: So, I'll look for you if we're there.

[joy13]

There's a decent chance we'll hit Epcot - well about 33 %. :lmao: So, I'll look for you if we're there.

I think FosterA will be in Epcot too, we could have a big Dis party :banana:

[Candlz]

I'm here too!

We are staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge - we check in 11/9. Not sure what the plans are for us, other than MK on 11/11

To exciting!

[skier_pete]

Just a quick test message from my phone. One day to go!!!:cool1:

[khertz]

Never had anyone join my Trip Report while they are on a trip themselves! :lmao:


:rotfl: That's what happens when your kid's normal bedtime is 7:30 at home and you are trying not to disrupt the routine too much on vacation! We actually got done so early today that we had time to watch a movie. Not used to that on a Disney trip, that's for sure! So I've had a little time to squeeze in some DISing in the evenings. :thumbsup2

[mickeystoontown]

Joining in and just in time to see you off. I hope that you guys have a great time at the CBR and WDW in general! Looking forward to reading all about it.

[skier_pete]

:rotfl: That's what happens when your kid's normal bedtime is 7:30 at home and you are trying not to disrupt the routine too much on vacation! We actually got done so early today that we had time to watch a movie. Not used to that on a Disney trip, that's for sure! So I've had a little time to squeeze in some DISing in the evenings. :thumbsup2

That DOES make a big difference. DD is 8, but we still try and be back to the room by 9. Just last trip did she get to the point where we could really "abuse" her and have a few later nights. I really try and spread them out though, usually try to have 2 or 3 early night in between the later ones.

She woke up early this morning (before 6:30 AM) and told me "I surprised myself when I realized we're going to Disney today!" I might just have an new alternative TR title!

[tinkerbells mum]

really looking forward to reading a live trip report, have a fantastic time xx

[skier_pete]

Made it to WDW without problems. Got upgraded to preferred for entire stay!!!!!! In Martinique 26. About 100 yards from Port Royals. Bags arrived about 10PM. Early start tomorrow.

[joy13]

Made it to WDW without problems. Got upgraded to preferred for entire stay!!!!!! In Martinique 26. About 100 yards from Port Royals. Bags arrived about 10PM. Early start tomorrow.


:woohoo: For Upgrades and no problems!

[mickeystoontown]

Made it to WDW without problems. Got upgraded to preferred for entire stay!!!!!! In Martinique 26. About 100 yards from Port Royals. Bags arrived about 10PM. Early start tomorrow.


Glad to hear that you made it to WDW and were upgraded to a preferred room. We stayed in Martinique 26 once and the walk to OPR was very short. Hope you continue to have a good time.

[skier_pete]

Day 1 was awesome. MK was empty until noon. Did most of the park by 3. Heading to CG for dinner. Tomorrow AK

[FosterA]

Glad things are going smooth so far and that's awesome about the upgrade!

[skier_pete]

Spent the whole day at animal kingdom and only rode one ride. I love that place. Much warmer than day 1. Saw the jjj parade. So cool. Dinner @Sanaa was incredible ...so good.we were @the room by 7:30,but felt real late. Tomorrow epcot and F&W.

[PrincessInOz]

I assume you saw a HEAP of shows at AK! :thumbsup2

[joy13]

Great trip so far - I hope the crowds are still low in a few days!

[skier_pete]

Yesterday @EPCOT was great. Ate so much@F&W we skipped dinner. Today was rest day.Spent @DTD (both ways) and at the pool. Now off to GG for dinner and the big surprise.

[mickeystoontown]

It certainly sounds as if your vacation is going great! Spending down time at the Caribbean Beach Resort is one of our favorite things to do while at Disney.

[joy13]

Yesterday @EPCOT was great. Ate so much@F&W we skipped dinner. Today was rest day.Spent @DTD (both ways) and at the pool. Now off to GG for dinner and the big surprise.

I see the weather was nice for a down day! Sounds like a fabulous time so far!!!

[reelmom]

Loving the live updates. I hope you continue to have a wonderful trip.

[PrincessInOz]

Sounds like you're having a fab time.

[khertz]

I'm glad y'all are having such a great time!!

[DisMomAmy]

Hi Pete! Sorry we missed you at MK last Friday. We didn't get there until almost 11:00. That was a chilly day! We weren't expecting it & had to go back up to our room to get more layers!

Hope you are enjoying your trip!!

[skier_pete]

DisMomAmy: It was cold that day. It's been much warmer since.

Monday 's big surprise was an Illuminations cruise! Thanks to rider ClaireH for sharing with us. We had an awesome time. Yesterday was DHS. Very warm day but a lot of time in shows. Highlight was the Osborne lights. We even found purple cat! Past the halfway point now. Just a great week so far.

[skier_pete]

Amy- It was a cold day wasn't it. We had dinner at CG and it too cold to really be out watching the fireworks.

The rest of the week has been much warmer. Monday night the big surprise was an Illuminations cruise. Thanks to ClaireH for sharing. We had a great time. Yesterday was a full day at DHS. Osborne lights are awesome. Today back to epcot.

[ChefDisneyLu]

Love the updates, sounds like you are having a great time!

I can't wait for the TR!

Thank you for sharing.

Lisa

[PrincessInOz]

Pete - Is ClaireH English? I hope you enjoyed your Illuminations Cruise.

[khertz]

An IllumiNations cruise, how awesome!!!

[skier_pete]

Pete - Is ClaireH English? I hope you enjoyed your Illuminations Cruise.

Yes Princess. You did indeed meet her. I saw you in a picture she had on a TR. As usual...it is a small DIS world!

[skier_pete]

Yesterday it was cloudy with a little drizzle but we went to Typhoon Lagoon anyway. Right move. Park was EMPTY! !!! No lines all day and the sun came out by noon. CM said there were less than 1000 people in the park. In the evening we were at MK for parade and fireworks. Crowds were even not bad.

Trip is winding down. AK today. DD wants to get to her face painted.

[PrincessInOz]

Sounds like you picked the right week to visit. Low crowds! :thumbsup2

[skier_pete]

Last day @MK. The crowds have arrived. We are running low on energy. Fun trip but ready for home. Lots of pictures for the TR. Stay tuned.

[skier_pete]

Last day @MK. The crowds have arrived. We are running low on energy. Fun trip but ready for home. Lots of pictures for the TR. Stay tuned.
Ut

[skier_pete]

Well, we made it home OK yesterday! The trip is done, and it's time to start compiling all those pictures and plotting out the report. It was another great trip. My mom had a great time, as did we. Glad to not be typing this on my phone for a change. Didn't meet any DIS'ers in the parks, but did run into one on a bus that saw my bag and recognized the LGMH. Can't wait to tell you all about it!

[lacy1101]

DisMomAmy: It was cold that day. It's been much warmer since.

Monday 's big surprise was an Illuminations cruise! Thanks to rider ClaireH for sharing with us. We had an awesome time. Yesterday was DHS. Very warm day but a lot of time in shows. Highlight was the Osborne lights. We even found purple cat! Past the halfway point now. Just a great week so far.

Would you mind to share where you found the cat (you can IM me if you don't want to spoil it for everyone ;))? We were there Friday night, but had to leave earlier than we planned and never did see it.

[mickeystoontown]

Well, we made it home OK yesterday! The trip is done, and it's time to start compiling all those pictures and plotting out the report. It was another great trip. My mom had a great time, as did we. Glad to not be typing this on my phone for a change. Didn't meet any DIS'ers in the parks, but did run into one on a bus that saw my bag and recognized the LGMH. Can't wait to tell you all about it!

Glad to hear that you made it home safe and sound. Please be sure to post the link to your trip report when you start.

[skier_pete]

Glad to hear that you made it home safe and sound. Please be sure to post the link to your trip report when you start.

Oh, this IS the Trip Report. I had a PTR separate - I started this one just before the trip to post the in progress updates. It will continue from here. As I start posting, I will put links on the 2nd post so that they will be easy to find.

[mickeystoontown]

Oh, this IS the Trip Report. I had a PTR separate - I started this one just before the trip to post the in progress updates. It will continue from here. As I start posting, I will put links on the 2nd post so that they will be easy to find.

Goodness, I am soooo out of it today. Well, I guess I'll be following along once you get started posting the pictures and story.

[solana131]

I'm joining in! I'm new to the DIS and we are taking our first family trip in Feb, so I am trying to get as much exposure as I can :thumbsup2 Can't wait to read more!

[joy13]

We're home too! Wasn't the weather great?! I can't wait to hear how your trip went.

[skier_pete]

Goodness, I am soooo out of it today. Well, I guess I'll be following along once you get started posting the pictures and story.

Coming soon, I swear!

I'm joining in! I'm new to the DIS and we are taking our first family trip in Feb, so I am trying to get as much exposure as I can :thumbsup2 Can't wait to read more!

:welcome: That first speech is super special when all is new! I hope you can learn something from this.

We're home too! Wasn't the weather great?! I can't wait to hear how your trip went.

The weather was absolutely fantastic. The only rain we saw was Thursday AM at the water park, and the result of it was a near-deserted water park!

[DisMomAmy]

Welcome Home Pete!

[FosterA]

Welcome home! WE just got home yesterday. boooo hoooo waaaah.
Yep, we didn't run into each other but that's because I had a few snafus and my plans got switched some and I got SICK ON THE TRIP:scared1: I will fill you all in on my report when I get started.
Can't wait to hear all about your trip!

[skier_pete]

Welcome Home Pete!

Sorry we missed you! Hope your trip was as good as ours.

Welcome home! WE just got home yesterday. boooo hoooo waaaah.
Yep, we didn't run into each other but that's because I had a few snafus and my plans got switched some and I got SICK ON THE TRIP:scared1: I will fill you all in on my report when I get started.
Can't wait to hear all about your trip!

Oh, bummer. I was fighting a cold early on the trip, and after we got back DD seems to have caught one. It can be the worst being sick at Disney. Hope it didn't bring you down too bad. Sorry we didn't get to meet, either. Only met one DISer the whole trip, and not one I had "met" before. (Well, I'm not counting the Illuminations cruise, which was all DISers I guess. That was a great bunch and we had a lot of fun.)

[PrincessInOz]

Welcome home Pete!

I'm looking forward to hearing about your trip.
Just think....your TR to write and then it's on to AUSTRALIA!!!! :cool1:

[donnaf516]

Looking forward to your trip report!

[khertz]

Welcome home! I can't wait to read all about your trip. :goodvibes

[skier_pete]

It was finally here – November 10th! The day we leave for Disney that we’ve been counting down to for 13 months! And it started out with me…going to work. (Yeah!) In addition, as of the day before – I felt like I was coming down with a cold. Not real terrible, but sinus headache and a little off. My DW insists on airborne leading up to Disney trips, and truth be told, the cold was pretty much gone by Saturday, but I thought I would mention it.

Anyways, don’t want to talk about work…so we skip ahead to meeting with DDs teacher for a Parent / Teacher Conference. Overall, DD is doing OK, though she really struggles at math. Teacher gave us a pile of homework to do during the trip, and we were off to get some lunch and finish packing up the car.

Off to the airport, which is about 20 minutes from our house. Friends were letting us store our van in their driveway, and they gave us a ride to the airport. Nothing exciting there! Flight left on time, we had Subway sandwiches on the plane. DD looking very excited on the plane:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0010.jpg

Landed in MCO right on schedule, and there is my mom waiting for us at the gate! Awesome! After a potty stop, we hit the ME line, and immediately board the bus for CBR. After about 10 minutes on the bus, it’s off to Disney and watching that great video.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0013.jpg

We get to the resort and it’s only about 1 hour 20 minutes since we deplaned. For those that follow our TR, I was stressing a bit over our reservations. We had three continuing reservations. One for one night in a preferred room (no standard room available for that night), one for a night in a standard room, and one for the last 8 nights with a package with free dining. So, I was concerned about having to move after the first night – and we had packed our bags accordingly so we didn’t even have to go into our suitcases.

Well, good ‘ol Disney had a happy surprise for me. Rather than have us move rooms after the first night…we were upgraded for our entire stay to a preferred room! As turtle crush would say…Sweeeeet! In addition to a preferred room, we also got our requested Building - #26. Apparently if you are booked preferred and you request a building, you almost always get it. Our room was on the first floor and literally a 90 second walk from Old Port Royale. We check into the room and I took a few pictures before we cluttered it up:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN5922.jpg

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Even though the whole check-in process was very smooth, it was now 9 PM and we were pretty tired. DW worked on getting DD to sleep, while DM and I went over the food court – we had eaten on the plane, but DM had not – to get a sandwich. DM got her first taste of Disney pricing sticker shock. We also picked up a ½ gallon of milk in the store. We came back and did a bit of unpacking. This was the nicest thing of the first night – being able to unpack. We had an early start the next day as Disney played an evil trick on us and changed the opening of MK to 8 AM. At least we don’t have to worry about our bags the next day, but we did have to get new room keys.

Normally at this stage I would give a review of the resort – but I think for now I’m going to hold off a bit. Our first few days were pretty busy, and we didn’t really get a good feel for the resort until later in the trip. The fact was the room was very nice though. It’s been a few years since we’ve been to a mod, and the room size is really just right. The room was clean and well kept and everything worked. The bed were full-size, but were fairly comfortable.

Next up – a long, long day and WDW! Here's preview with an early morning picture at CBR. That's the MOON up in the sky - not the sun!
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN5926.jpg

[FosterA]

:goodvibes happy to see your report started!

That is so awesome about the room upgrade!!

Your mom had sticker shock huh? She has been before right? I guess it's been along time though.

Can't wait to hear more!

[skier_pete]

:goodvibes happy to see your report started!

That is so awesome about the room upgrade!!

Your mom had sticker shock huh? She has been before right? I guess it's been along time though.

Can't wait to hear more!

Well, the last time my mom and step-dad went was for 1 day to AK around 2001. Before that, the last time I went with them was '83, so I don't know if they've been there in between. In '83 admission was like $12 for the day...hard to believe it was EVER that low! She was more looking at the prices in the gift shop and food court. You know, $2.50 for a soda. $4 for 4 strawberries. Personally, I don't think Disney's prices are any worse than other entertainment venues...but they don't go out and due to much outside of casinos where they get comped for most things.

[joy13]

Sounds like the first day went very well -that's such a nice way to start the trip :thumbsup2

[PrincessInOz]

That's great Pixie Dust right there from Disney. How awesome to get that preferred room for the entire stay! :thumbsup2

And sticker shock? Wait till you see Aussie pricing. :sad2:

[khertz]

Awesome deal on the upgrade!! It's such a relief not having to move in the middle of the stay. I just can't fully relax until I have my stuff unpacked & spread out for the week. That must be one of the Nemo rooms, too, right? It looks so cute & colorful!

8 am opening after a day of traveling...braaaaave!!! :rotfl:

[skier_pete]

Sounds like the first day went very well -that's such a nice way to start the trip :thumbsup2

It really was. I always find with Disney trips you plan, and plan, and plan...but that doesn't mean things can't go wrong. Really the travel day went absolutely perfect. It sort of amazes me that we can leave our house at 2 PM and be checking in at a hotel at Disney World at 8:30 PM. Just - WOW!

That's great Pixie Dust right there from Disney. How awesome to get that preferred room for the entire stay! :thumbsup2

And sticker shock? Wait till you see Aussie pricing. :sad2:

Ugh - don't wanna think about Aussie pricing. I don't think I'll have sticker shock because I am already feeling prepared for it. I think it's much like with Disney pricing. I get it in my head beforehand what its going to be - so dealing with the reality wasn't so bad.

The preferred room was a pure slice of wonderful. One of my fears of the resort is how spread out it was, and how far away some rooms are. That fear was confirmed, you can easily end up with a room that's a 10 minute walk from the main body of the resort. One thing I hate at Disney is having to walk a lot at the resort. After being upgraded to preferred, I have to say we would be very tempted in the future to PAY preferred if we were to stay at CBR again.

Awesome deal on the upgrade!! It's such a relief not having to move in the middle of the stay. I just can't fully relax until I have my stuff unpacked & spread out for the week. That must be one of the Nemo rooms, too, right? It looks so cute & colorful!

8 am opening after a day of traveling...braaaaave!!! :rotfl:

That was a Nemo room - though from what I understand, if you don't get a pirate room (which costs extra) ALL other rooms are now Nemo rooms. It definitely was a cute motif. There were also hidden mickeys in the bedsheets which I didn't take photo's of.

The 8 AM wasn't so bad - the mistake was at night ---- I'm getting there.

[skier_pete]

Our first full day in the world…hurray! We were doing something to day that most people do but we NEVER do – start out with Magic Kingdom. The reasons for this are many. The fact it was a MVMCP day we knew it would be a slow day. Saturday was no good as too busy (and they were open until 3AM which would draw people like crazy) and Sunday we wanted to hit Epcot for Food and Wine. Since Monday was an off day it was either do MK today or wait until 5 days into the trip, and that was too long.

As I mentioned before, Disney threw us a curve this morning by opening the park at 8 AM. The weather was very cool today, the coolest of the trip, and while I had shorts and t-shirt, the rest of the party started out with jackets. In addition, we collectively managed to forget our Sunglasses. I forgot, DW forgot, and neither of us remembered DD. So, we were up and out of the room by 7 AM - and stopped at the shop to drop a cool $50 on sunglasses. Not souvenirs I was really looking for.


We made it to the bus stop by 7:15 AM, which was my goal. The bus came quickly, and it was nearly empty, only two other families on it. The good news – apparently no-one actually wanted to be there at 8 AM – and the opening ceremony crowd was very very sparse – probably not more than 500 people. When we got there at 7:30 AM, they were still holding people outside the turnstiles. Here's a view you don't see to often at Rope Drop - no one in front of the train station:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN5928.jpg

The whole day was actually pretty slow really, especially considering it was Veteran’s day.

We started out with our normal Dumbo Dash. DM kept up with us, but was afraid to ride Dumbo lest she get sick. (It would NOT have made her sick, but she wouldn’t listen.) So DD and I rode in one Dumbo, and DW rode in the other.
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This was our last ever ride on Dumbo in this location, so a bit bitter-sweet. I will miss circling just outside the castle, moving the spinners off aways certainly removes the small amount of appeal this ride has to me. (The reason we ride it first is to ride it with ZERO wait. We barely missed the first ride, instead getting on the second.) What is super cool right now is you get to get up in the air and look over the wall. The construction of the Fantasyland Expansion is well along. Both Beast’s Castle and the Little Mermaid rides are well built, and even the Mine Car ride appears to be getting very close. What impressed me most is their appeared to be hundreds of workers. When on the ground, you can’t see ANY of them! I didn't get any pictures of the construction, because I was videotaping at the time. Sorry!

After a spin on Dumbo, we rode Peter Pan…a family favorite with no wait at all. Also pulled some FP for it, while also getting Philharmagic Passes. (Note to newbies – if you are at MK on a busy day, get Peter Pan FP early, and they give you bonus Philharmagic Passes. Use them later in the day, and you walk right in to Philharmagic .)

Following PP was Small World – another family favorite, DD and DW put this as one of their top attractions. I won't go that far, but I do enjoy that there is so much to see here. As usual I took a bunch of pictures. My mom first rode this ride in 1964 at the World’s Fair, so she got a real kick out of riding it again 47 years later. (And yes, she had rode it in-between as well.)

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN5932.jpg

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Next up – Snow White – and DD first fit thrown. I don’t know what it is with this kid – she is 8 years old, yet she gets in these jags where she is scared of a ride she rode numerous times before, and she basically was bawling and we had to really cojole her to go on the ride. I wouldn’t have even really cared, but with this ride closing soon – I really wanted her to have the chance to experience one last time. She basically closed her eyes the whole ride though, so what was the point! No wait for this ride. There never seems to be much of a wait for this one anymore, so I see why they chose it to be eliminated, that combine that they are installed another Snow White ride.

Fifth was Winnie the Pooh – almost ZERO wait – let’s call it less than 5 minutes. While I am not a big fan of this ride, it does have it’s charms. After seeing the movie, it appeals to me more. I think I still prefer Mr Toad’s, what with its dual track and its conclusion where you are killed and go to hell…so NOT Disney.

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After a potty break, DM came out of the bathroom with a small lizard, which fascinated DD no end. We put the lizard down near the planters by the tea cups.

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Rode the tea cups next – again DM sitting out. Couldn't blame her on this one - fortunately DD is not a spinning maniac on this ride.

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It’s now about 9:15 AM, Fantasyland is complete with 6 rides down - DD doesn’t like doing the carousel for some reason, and Philharmagic is a “later in the day” show.

Next up - Adventure is calling my name! (Anyone get that reference?)

[solana131]

Great update :) So sad Dumbo is going to be closed for our trip. I don't remember going on it all those years ago, and its the first trip for DH & DS. And with Thunder Mtn closed as well...I feel like we are missing the classics! But, alas...all the more reason to book a return trip soon :woohoo:

Love the empty rope drop pics. Hoping ours will be similar. Should be pretty cool in Feb, so maybe everyone will stay in bed :)

[FosterA]

I'm impressed that you guys could get there so early!! We didn't make rope drop one single time:scared1: Usually within an hour or so but still....You guys are awesome!

Cool about how you get a bonus fastpass too. I had never heard that before.

Also pretty neat how you saw so many workers. It's crazy how they keep all the mess and goings-on so well hidden!

p.s DD is super cute with her lizard. See you could have saved tons of money and instead of Disney trip, just went to a pet store to look at lizards!

[skier_pete]

Great update :) So sad Dumbo is going to be closed for our trip. I don't remember going on it all those years ago, and its the first trip for DH & DS. And with Thunder Mtn closed as well...I feel like we are missing the classics! But, alas...all the more reason to book a return trip soon :woohoo:

Love the empty rope drop pics. Hoping ours will be similar. Should be pretty cool in Feb, so maybe everyone will stay in bed :)

Meh...Dumbo is a "classic" in that its traditional. The ride itself is a bore, and there's three of the same ride available elsewhere (Aladdin's Carpets, Astro Orbiter and Triceratops Spin). I wouldn't say your missing that much missing it, especially if you have no "tradition" with it.

BTMRR is a different story, a great ride in that it is a full size coaster that's mild enough that you can take your 5 year-old on it, and also most ride chickens will ride it. A very cool ride. Sorry you will miss it. However, it's an excuse to go back again!

Oh - and if you love the empty rope drop pictures, wait until you see our TL pictures.

I'm impressed that you guys could get there so early!! We didn't make rope drop one single time:scared1: Usually within an hour or so but still....You guys are awesome!

Cool about how you get a bonus fastpass too. I had never heard that before.

Also pretty neat how you saw so many workers. It's crazy how they keep all the mess and goings-on so well hidden!

p.s DD is super cute with her lizard. See you could have saved tons of money and instead of Disney trip, just went to a pet store to look at lizards!

I'm really militant about rope drop, at least early in the trip. You can just get so much done in those first few hours without anyone around. Of course, us rope-droppers rely on all the people that can't make it.

For us - we are normally up at 6 AM every day at home. Getting up at 7 AM for a 9 AM rope drop is not even difficult at all. The 8 AM one was a little rough, but doing it one time a trip is not that big a deal.

The only other thing I insist on is I have a "rides first" policy. For the first 60-90 minutes, we don't look in shops, we don't stop and watch shows, we don't wander around. We do rides. Mostly applies at MK, and to a lesser extent DHS.

This is the only place I've seen a bonus FP. They set it up a few years ago when they took out the Philharmagic FP machines. Philharmagic doesn't even HAVE FP anymore, but we always get an early AM FP from Peter Pan, and I think the last 6-7 times we've also gotten the Philharmagic FP. It hardly necessary, as Philharmagic doesn't really have a wait usually, but it still back-doors you to the front of the line.

Oh - and as far as going to pet stores and looking at lizards - our DD loves this! We have a friend that has pet lizards and snakes, and she loves to hold them and carry them. We won't let her get one though, because (1) DW doesn't like lizards/snakes and (2) I find them to be really lousy pets..because, well, what do they do? Why do I really want a pet that just sits there and does nothing.I might as well have a pet rock. But, she does really love animals, that's for sure. And she's not afraid of much - except not a big fan of spiders.

[PrincessInOz]

That's a great first hour to get 6 Fantasyland rides done!

And with Adventure calling your name....I can't wait for the next update.

[joy13]

Wow - what a great first morning! I love it when the park is so empty!

[khertz]

Wow you guys did a LOT in that amount of time! I was pretty impressed with all we got done on our 9 am rope drop morning at MK, but y'all definitely have us beat. :rotfl: I guess as hard as it is for some people to be there early enough for a 9 am opening, it is even harder for them to get to an 8 am one. Very impressed that y'all made it after a day of traveling!

Side note, I love your DD's Minnie jacket!!

[skier_pete]

That's a great first hour to get 6 Fantasyland rides done!

And with Adventure calling your name....I can't wait for the next update.

Coming soon...I promise.

Wow - what a great first morning! I love it when the park is so empty!

See picture in the next post to see how really empty it was!

Wow you guys did a LOT in that amount of time! I was pretty impressed with all we got done on our 9 am rope drop morning at MK, but y'all definitely have us beat. :rotfl: I guess as hard as it is for some people to be there early enough for a 9 am opening, it is even harder for them to get to an 8 am one. Very impressed that y'all made it after a day of traveling!

Side note, I love your DD's Minnie jacket!!

It was pretty sweet, especially compared to the insanity at MK just 8 days later. The Minnie jacket is DD's favorite. DW bought her a new larger one on this trip because it's the only thing she'll wear.

[skier_pete]

My mom sent me her pictures - so here's a few from what we've done so far:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1649.jpg

Us riding on Dumbo:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1652.jpg

Us on the teacups:

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Heading over to our next destination - adventureland. This shot I think really shows how uncrowded the park was around 9:15 AM:

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A nice shot my mom took of the partners statue:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1662.jpg

Some of the holiday Pointessas:

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Yet another shot of the castle, this time one of mine:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN5958.jpg

More to come

[joy13]

Great pictures - it looks deserted! I have pictures like that from our 2009 trip, but we never got anywhere early enough to get them this trip.

[FosterA]

Love the pics!
I wish I had taken more of the crowd/non crowd shots for my TR.

I love those poinsetta trees!

[skier_pete]

Great pictures - it looks deserted! I have pictures like that from our 2009 trip, but we never got anywhere early enough to get them this trip.

Love the pics!
I wish I had taken more of the crowd/non crowd shots for my TR.

I love those poinsetta trees!

I know, I never think to take crowd shots either, it's really just a coincidence if I get them. I wish I had taken one showing the crowd at opening on the 11th and the 19th. There was maybe a couple hundred people on the 11th, on the 19th at rope drop the entire corral past the turnstyles was PACKED with people. Ugh...I'm still kicking myself for doing MK that day....but I'm getting ahead of myself...

[skier_pete]

Before I start the "Adventure keeps calling my name" is a reference to the Adventure's Club and one of the Library Shows with Samantha Sterling would sing this song. If there are any AC fans reading in: Kungaloosh, and stay tuned later in the report for addition AC references.

I still couldn’t get more FP since the PP one was for 9:40 AM, we decided to head over to Adventureland and another DD favorite, the Jungle Cruise.

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Good skipper, good ride. Favorite (semi-new) joke of the ride “These cliffs here on the right are sandstone. I point them out because some people take them for granite. Either way – they ROCK!” Just the last part I hadn't heard before. I'm always amazed how unresponsive people are on the JC...DW and I were groaning loudly throughout the ride - really getting into it. At one point the skipper asked us "Are you people all right over there?"

It was now time to get those next FP. I left the family driving one of those RC Jungle Cruise boats....the single biggest ripoff in all of Disney World. So I headed across to Tomorrowland for some Buzz passes. I was back in < 10 minutes, and they were snacking on a package of grapes. It was not yet 10 AM, but we decided to do the Tiki Room next. I was SO looking forward to this. The OLD Tiki Room. Back as it was. I was sure I was going to break down and bawl once the show started, but I didn’t. I did get a little misty eyed when the moment passed when Iago would have normally come out of the ceiling. It's been 13 years and 6 months since I last saw my beloved Tropical Serenade. I didn’t take pictures or video, I just sat and enjoyed. It was like watching a old movie you’ve seen a billion times but not in a long time. Like comfort food. Truthfully, the show is really not that great, and it’s actually been shortened in spots (the final sing-a-long verse of “Let’s all sing like the birdies sing” is gone), but its such a piece of my childhood (my absolute favorite as a kid) and such an original Walt Disney creation that I am glad they brought it back.

We were heading for pirates next, but we stopped and watched the Tutorial first with Captain Jack. DD was worried about being "volunteered" but I told her they would only take you if you wanted it, so she was happy to sit and watch. After that show we tried to ride Pirates – no good it was down. DD wanted to look in the store as she likes Pirate stuff (she tends to more like the boy stuff than the girl stuff) but she didn’t find anything she really wanted except a gun, and I convinced her to hold off on that. On the way out, the ride was STILL down, so we decided to head back through Fantasyland to ride PP again and then head over for lunch. I detoured by Space Mountain for Fastpasses, and then we hit Peter Pan.

After PP – we next saw Mickey’s Philharmagic. Again, DD put up a stink (#2) she doesn’t like the 3D stuff shooting at her, but again she’s seen it half a dozen times, so we made her sit through, even though she hid for ½ of it. (Remember – she’s an 8-year old!) DM really liked the show. Her biggest comment from the morning was “I can’t believe how empty the park is!” and “You told me we wouldn’t be waiting in lines, and I didn’t really believe you, but so far we aren’t.” and I replied “That’s right, and you won’t either!”

It was approaching lunch-time now (around 11:30 AM) so we decided to stop for lunch. The original plan was Cosmic Ray’s, but DD wanted Pinnochio Village Haus, and since everyone saw something on the menu they liked, we went with it. The restaurant was actually very crowded for so early in the day. DW and DM had a salad, I had the chicken Parm, and DD had pasta with meatballs. The salads were quite good, the chicken as well. The pasta sauce was rather spicy, and I made the mistake of not ordering it on the side for DD. She got an order of breadsticks with it, and mostly ate those. The meatballs were bad, and she didn’t like the sauce. Overall, I give the meal a 7/10.

Our final destination of the day was (can you guess from this?)...
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...Tommorowland. Look I finally pulled the camera out again!

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On the way over, we were lucky to have a run-in with “Push” the talking trash can. DD is fascinated with “Push”. One previous trip she had just bought a stuffed bat (don’t ask) and saw him – “Push” told her to put the bat on his lid. Then he started rolling around with it saying “Na-na-na-na-na-na-na Bat-Can!” Too funny!

We were going to hit Buzz first, but for some reason there was a huge line for FP people sticking out the door, so we decided to see the Monster’s Inc laugh floor. DD had just pulled this movie out the week before, and was high on seeing them. I like this show a lot, but I still missed out on being “That guy!” Best joke of the day, which DD kept repeating the whole trip:
“What did Darth Vader say to Obi-Wan Kenobi when he served him some toast?”
“What?”
“It’s a little on the dark side!”

We then rode through Buzz.

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I love the big veiwmaster for the briefing. Reminds us that they're all just toys!

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I rode with DD while DM and DW rode together. I beat DD, but DW won the group. DD got upset that I beat her, I told her next time she should ride with Grandma.

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Next up – fourteenth if you are counting – was the Peoplemover, formerly the TTA, formerly the Peoplemover (they seem to change this one all the time). Don’t know why, but the peoplemover is just awesome. Maybe because you can really get off your feet in some super comfy seats.

Next – Carousel of Progress, another thing DM saw back at the 1964 World’s Fair. I’ve seen this one enough lately since DD likes it a lot, but sitting through it once a trip isn’t terrible. Another classic that should be kept forever, regardless of what I think of it. DW likes this one to take a nap. I don't find the seats comfortable enough - but we've seen this one enough times lately.

Our final ride before returning to our room – space mountain! DD had promised she would try it, but backed out at the last minute. I had four FP so DW and I rode it. Love this ride, but again once a trip is enough to satisfy me. Gave DW bunny ears in the redneck ride photo!

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN5971.jpg

So, at this point, it’s a little after 2 PM – the crowds are still relatively small (Standby at Space Mountain was like 30 minutes, but didn’t look that long inside) but we had a dinner ADR for late, and wanted to spend some time at the resort. We’d seen 16 rides/attractions at MK – and the only biggies we hadn’t hit were Pirates, HM, BTMRR and Splash Mountain. We hadn't waited more than 5 minutes in line for anything yet - that was Space Mountain FP line. Honestly we could've finished the park today if we stayed. (I also stopped getting FP at noon.) I was figuring we’d save these for our other day, so we decided to head back to the room. We didn’t need to switch rooms, but we did need to finish unpacking, and really were hoping to get in a swim and a change of clothes for dinner.

Up next - dinner @ the California Grille.

[skier_pete]

So – we went back to the hotel. After we made her work on her homework a bit, DD and I went for a swim. It was cold though – a little too cold. She LOVED the pool. There are two slides, one a little bigger and in the dark. After about an hour of swimming, I insisted we go in the hot tub, which was nice and warm. We had to then get dressed for dinner at the California Grill. We took the bus to MK and then went on the monorail to the Contemporary. This turned out to be the only monorail ride we took the whole trip, and it was very crowded because the park was "closing" for MVMCP.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN5975.jpg

OK – I’ll say it right now – I wanted to do the CG / fireworks for my daughter and mom – and this was really the best night on the schedule to do it. It really wasn’t worth it. DD was tired and spent most of the dinner whining.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN5974.jpg

DM thought the restaurant was too loud and crowded for what it was worth (which she was right about). On top of that, by the time came around for the fireworks, it was FREEZING outside, and none of us had clothes warm enough for the weather. So, other than me, everyone just stayed inside. And it seemed like DD never fully recovered from this too long day with enough sleep to catch up – she just seemed tired and cranky most days of the trip, moreso than in more recent trips. It was a LOT of money, and I feel like it was a bit of a waste to spend it, though a portion of that was due to the weather and outside of my control.

DW keeping DD entertained with bunny ears!
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN5983.jpg

All that said, the food was indeed fantastic, and I don’t think the prices are really out of line for the level of service and cuisine. The atmosphere was very noisy, much more noisy than I remembered from our first time there. Perhaps because it was a Friday instead of Tuesday, I don’t know.

Here comes the food porn:

Triple Cheese Flatbread (Appetizer) - this was very good.
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN5977.jpg

Hearts of Romaine Salad (DM) - Also good - but basically a Caesar Salad
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN5979.jpg

Sonoma Goat Cheese Ravioli - with Sun-dried Tomatoes, Pesto, Shiitake Mushrooms, and Basil - This was one very large raviloli - and very tasty.
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN5978.jpg

My DM had what I can't recall exactly was a vegitarian Lasagna with butternut squash or something. She said it was really good.
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN5984.jpg

I had the All Natural Duck Two Ways - seared breast, potato rosti, cherry demi, confit leg, pomegranate gastrique. The leg itself was very plain, but the breast and potato rosti were fantastic.
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN5986.jpg

DW I think had the Florida Snapper - dungeness crab risotto, Zellwood corn, snap peas and sauce choron
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN5985.jpg

DD had a Pizza - which was slightly above the quality of the typical Disney pizza. (I didn't take a picture of it.) She also had ice cream for dessert.

We were all pretty full, but split an order of Heirloom Apple Bread Pudding - brown butter and candied bacon ice cream, Jack Daniel's Anglaise
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN5987.jpg

The fireworks were "Christmas Wishes" and I was the only one that stood outside to watch. It said it was 54 degrees out, but felt colder. The good news was they did dim the lights inside and play the music, so the rest of the family did get to see the show. DD spent the whole night saying she wanted to go home and she didn't want to see the fireworks.

Anyways, I wish I could say this was a highlight of the trip, but it really wasn’t. We took a taxi home afterward rather than trudge back to MK for a bus, and collapsed into bed about 10:30 PM. With the taxi ride it ran about $250, too. Fortunately, this evening came out of a special fund I of extra money I set aside over the year - which I consider "free" money. Good thing - or I would've been really upset.

Overall, the day at MK was wonderful, the evening was not great, and it is something I will not repeat until DD is much, much older. Next time we go for a nice meal at WDW, we will find a kids club to put her in. I give the food a 9/10 but the experience a 6/10.

Day 1:
Characters Met: 0
Rides/Attractions seen: 17 (including Christmas Wishes)
Waits of > 5 minutes: 0

Up next - Day 2 @ AK - it DOES get better!

[FosterA]

Great update with lots of good details!:thumbsup2

First and foremost, I want that ravioli right now!

Secondly, that is AWESOME how many attractions you guys got accomplished! Plus you are dealing with a grandma and a little one. very impressive.

Too bad that DD had her cranky pants on at that dinner. I hope she was able to bounce back and get some rest so she was ready for the rest of your days!

Can't wait to hear more.

[skier_pete]

Great update with lots of good details!:thumbsup2

First and foremost, I want that ravioli right now!

Secondly, that is AWESOME how many attractions you guys got accomplished! Plus you are dealing with a grandma and a little one. very impressive.

Too bad that DD had her cranky pants on at that dinner. I hope she was able to bounce back and get some rest so she was ready for the rest of your days!

Can't wait to hear more.

The good thing is while she lets me lead - DW is pretty much in sync with me at Disney...which is why I try to say "us" instead of "me". DM was pretty much willing to go along for the ride, and though DD has plenty of protest in her, she did GREAT really. This was her first trip without a stroller, and she hardly complained about the walking, though I was very careful to minimize the backtracking when I could. You notice we did Fantasyland - Aventureland - Fantasyland - Torrowland - not a lot of skipping back and forth.

[PrincessInOz]

Wow! That's a full day. Pity about CG and Wishes....I've vaguely thought about doing it but I'm not sure that CG pricing is worth it for me.

[skier_pete]

Wow! That's a full day. Pity about CG and Wishes....I've vaguely thought about doing it but I'm not sure that CG pricing is worth it for me.

So are you saying the average dinner in Australia won't be as expensive as the California Grill? :goodvibes

We really enjoyed it a lot the first time when it was just DW and I. It really can be fun, but the combination of things worked against us:

1) The early opening @ MK meant for an extra early rising...really only affected DD.
2) We weren't really prepared for how cold it was - this was really the only evening we had this issue the whole trip.
3) I thought with only spending 6 hours in the park and then having a bit of down time at the hotel would work in our favor - however, I think the swimming helped tire DD out even more.
4) Last trip DD tolerated a few late nights pretty well (we were out until Midnight twice) so I thought she would handle 10 PM OK.

Oh well, live and learn. It wasn't a horrible night by any means - if we let DD whining at us ruin things we'd never do anything..the kid has a stubborn streak a mile long...it just wasn't great is all.

[Pre]

I came over from FosterA's TR and am loving your TR! I'm excited to hear what you thought of CBR over POFQ! I'm thinking of POFQ for my next solo trip and have stayed at CBR before though so am wondering if sticking with what I know would be better.

[khertz]

What a great MK day! I'm glad y'all got to experience a day of low crowds there, because we didn't have the same luck. Looks like we should have spent Friday there instead of at DTD! :laughing: Oh well, there's always next time. Too bad such an expensive meal was a disappointment. Hopefully your DD was not ruined for the rest of the trip after the late night!

[DisMomAmy]

Still here... finding little DIS time lately with all of the holiday hussle & bussle! Sorry Cali Grill didn't live up to expectations. I've considered getting a late meal to see Wishes or Illuminations somewhere but I always change my mind knowing the boys will be too tired to sit in a restaurant. Maybe when they get older...

[skier_pete]

I came over from FosterA's TR and am loving your TR! I'm excited to hear what you thought of CBR over POFQ! I'm thinking of POFQ for my next solo trip and have stayed at CBR before though so am wondering if sticking with what I know would be better.

We liked both, but if I was going for an adults only/singles trip, I would pick POFQ every time. The smaller size makes it a very quiet resort. CBR is probably better with kids because of the new pool and all the activities they do for them. Of course, CBR does have the quiet pools with POFQ does not have, but there never seemed to be a ton of people around at POFQ. Plus I still like the less walking and the way the busses work there (first on, first off every time). Especially since you haven't been there - I would say try POFQ.

What a great MK day! I'm glad y'all got to experience a day of low crowds there, because we didn't have the same luck. Looks like we should have spent Friday there instead of at DTD! :laughing: Oh well, there's always next time. Too bad such an expensive meal was a disappointment. Hopefully your DD was not ruined for the rest of the trip after the late night!

Hey yeah-you should've joined us! Who needs DTD!

Still here... finding little DIS time lately with all of the holiday hussle & bussle! Sorry Cali Grill didn't live up to expectations. I've considered getting a late meal to see Wishes or Illuminations somewhere but I always change my mind knowing the boys will be too tired to sit in a restaurant. Maybe when they get older...

I agree - wait until they are older and can appreciate the meal as well as the fireworks.

[PrincessInOz]

So are you saying the average dinner in Australia won't be as expensive as the California Grill? :goodvibes

We really enjoyed it a lot the first time when it was just DW and I. It really can be fun, but the combination of things worked against us:

1) The early opening @ MK meant for an extra early rising...really only affected DD.
2) We weren't really prepared for how cold it was - this was really the only evening we had this issue the whole trip.
3) I thought with only spending 6 hours in the park and then having a bit of down time at the hotel would work in our favor - however, I think the swimming helped tire DD out even more.
4) Last trip DD tolerated a few late nights pretty well (we were out until Midnight twice) so I thought she would handle 10 PM OK.

Oh well, live and learn. It wasn't a horrible night by any means - if we let DD whining at us ruin things we'd never do anything..the kid has a stubborn streak a mile long...it just wasn't great is all.

Pete - It depends on where you eat. I like 'Cheap Eats (http://theageshop.com.au/offer.php?intid=571)' and you'll see from the link that I'm not the only one who does. The Age newspaper in Melbourne issues this publication every year....as it does the Good Food (http://theageshop.com.au/offer.php?intid=933&intcategoryid=48) guide. Establishments listed in Cheap Eats might set you back about $10 - $15 per person, entrees only.
And the Cali Grill pricing for entrees is maybe about $5 - $10 more per dish than entrees in Oz.

But this was about "When in Rome". I look at the Cali Grill pricing compared to other establishments in the US and I think they are a tad overpriced. ;)


Its a pity that your DD was a bit whiney this trip. It's amazing how it changes from one trip to another, isn't it?

[skier_pete]

Pete - It depends on where you eat. I like 'Cheap Eats (http://theageshop.com.au/offer.php?intid=571)' and you'll see from the link that I'm not the only one who does. The Age newspaper in Melbourne issues this publication every year....as it does the Good Food (http://theageshop.com.au/offer.php?intid=933&intcategoryid=48) guide. Establishments listed in Cheap Eats might set you back about $10 - $15 per person, entrees only.
And the Cali Grill pricing for entrees is maybe about $5 - $10 more per dish than entrees in Oz.

But this was about "When in Rome". I look at the Cali Grill pricing compared to other establishments in the US and I think they are a tad overpriced. ;)


Its a pity that your DD was a bit whiney this trip. It's amazing how it changes from one trip to another, isn't it?

Well, we are definitely going to be going with "cheap eats" when we visit. I keep telling people it's weird that I am planning the most expensive vacation I've ever taken while at the same time trying to plan it as a "budget" vacation. But we'll be up for trying one of those "cheap eats" from the book when we meet you!

Actually though - Cali's prices are I feel more typical for that level of food at a good US restaurant than when you pay $30 to eat the lousy food at Chef Mickey's. As I said, the food was actually quite wonderful, and prevented the meal from being what could've been a total bust. Not quite the best food of the trip - but a close 2nd.

[Moodyzblu]

Joining in !

I'm SO not an early riser and a lucky to get to the parks by lunch time. I can't get over how EMPTY the park was though .. that's awesome.
My boys are 7yrs old and although they aren't big whiners .. but there are certain rides that they refuse to do which irritates me since I don't ask them to do anything really wild (like TOT or Mission Space) but fun things like Splash Mountain and It's Tough To Be a Bug ! I'm hoping bribery might work our next time around.

Great report so far .. can't wait to read more !! Great pics too .. your dd is adorable. :love:

[skier_pete]

Joining in !

I'm SO not an early riser and a lucky to get to the parks by lunch time. I can't get over how EMPTY the park was though .. that's awesome.
My boys are 7yrs old and although they aren't big whiners .. but there are certain rides that they refuse to do which irritates me since I don't ask them to do anything really wild (like TOT or Mission Space) but fun things like Splash Mountain and It's Tough To Be a Bug ! I'm hoping bribery might work our next time around.

Great report so far .. can't wait to read more !! Great pics too .. your dd is adorable. :love:

Just so you know, I love you and all the other late risers like you! You make our trips so wonderful.

Thanks for the compliments. We haven't solved the "get her to ride it" part yet. She totally refused some things, like Splash Mountain which she has ridden at least 8 times before. But she did try Mission Space and liked it quite a bit (the green side).

[Moodyzblu]

Just so you know, I love you and all the other late risers like you! You make our trips so wonderful.


:lmao: You're welcome !

[PrincessInOz]

Well, we are definitely going to be going with "cheap eats" when we visit. I keep telling people it's weird that I am planning the most expensive vacation I've ever taken while at the same time trying to plan it as a "budget" vacation. But we'll be up for trying one of those "cheap eats" from the book when we meet you!

Actually though - Cali's prices are I feel more typical for that level of food at a good US restaurant than when you pay $30 to eat the lousy food at Chef Mickey's. As I said, the food was actually quite wonderful, and prevented the meal from being what could've been a total bust. Not quite the best food of the trip - but a close 2nd.

I'll have to put my thinking cap on. Depending on what else you've eaten, we might do something in the moderate category.....or if you prefer, a home cooked meal. :teeth:

[skier_pete]

I'll have to put my thinking cap on. Depending on what else you've eaten, we might do something in the moderate category.....or if you prefer, a home cooked meal. :teeth:

:thumbsup2 We would probably not object to home cooking - as other than with our friends we will be doing a awful lot of eating out for that month!

[skier_pete]

Clearly still being affected by a too-long first day – we struggled this morning to get up in time. The good thing was we were heading to Animal Kingdom, one of our family favorites and one my DM was really looking forward to. Plus, it warmed up significantly overnight, and like the rest of the trip we had a beautiful sunny day with temperatures in the high 70s…sweaters were a thing of the past. In addition to getting ready, we had to again have our keys re-issued and get our official KTTW card...I went down at 7 AM and did this. Even though we struggled, we actually made it out to the bus stop by 8:15 AM, but with the further distance and all, we got in line at Animal Kingdom only a few minutes before they let us through the gates. Fortunately the lines weren’t that long, and since most people there that early are positioning themselves for the EE/KS sprint, we were able to get pretty close to the front for “The Adventure Begins” show. Whose kid is that, anyways? And noticed that Hidden Mickey on the truck?

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN5992.jpg

I promised my family that we would be able to take a more leisurely pace today, but ONLY after the Safari Sprint. Sorry everyone…RIDES FIRST! RIDES FIRST! Because we watched the opening show. (Which we could hear from our balcony last year @ AKL.) we were more at the middle of the pack coming in. But really we didn’t have to wait at all to get on the Safari. Here’s some of the better shots…

Got a nice treat early on with one of the black rhinos being right up near the truck having a snack.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN5994.jpg

Giraffe checking out a termite mound:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6001.jpg

A two headed Giraffe?
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6002.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6004.jpg

Wildebeast
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6006.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6007.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6009.jpg

Hidden Mickey Island
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6010.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6013.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6014.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6016.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6017.jpg

Has anyone noticed the Ostriches? It’s been a few years since we’ve seen them on the ride. Do they not bring them out anymore?

Anyways, after the ride, we got into Animal Kingdom mode, which means…it’s time to slow down and take it in. After a bathroom break for DW and DM where DD and I snacked on some pistachios, we headed into the Pangari forest trail. It’s funny having walked through here 7 times in the last 5 years, I don’t really tire of seeing the same animals. While we probably didn’t spend as much time there as my mother would have liked, it was a good 45-60 minutes that we spent walking through. We looked around and found most of the birds in the aviary:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6023.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6027.jpg

Then onto the Meerkats. They were doing some behavioral training with the Meerkats, trying to teach them to sit on a overturned bowl to get their treat, the keeper did indicate they were new to this, which is good because they were very bad at it.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1678.jpg

Finally the Gorillas. We were hoping to see the baby, but we only got a glimpse of her playing on the hilltop:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6030.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6029.jpg

Next up - RFP.

[skier_pete]

Once we finished the trail, we headed out to Rafiki’s Planet watch. It was already 10:30 AM at this point, so I was worried that we would have missed the animal procedures, but they were doing an examination on a blue-feathered Macaw that was pretty cool. They had him under some gentle anesthesia:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6036.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6039.jpg

DD also sat through a Demo with a snake which she later got to pet. I seem to remember this was a king snake or something like that:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6040.jpg

We did a little of the petting zoo, but then folks were getting antsy for lunch, and since we were headed to Flame Tree BBQ for lunch, it would take a little while to get there. As we made our way through Harambe we got over by the drums and I saw people gathered round the bushes next to the drums. I spotted one special bush and brought my mom over and said to her “Watch that bush right there!” she stood peering at it for a about a minute and said “Oh my gosh, it’s a person!”

It was Devine, and we just happened to pass by at a moment when she was well hidden. We also got a snapshot and signature with Turk from Tarzan. We had sort of decided that we weren’t going to go after characters as much this trip. Last trip we wanted to meet 50 characters and met 52….this trip with DD anti-character thing we decided we would only do M&G if they were characters we’d never met before and the lines were short. Well, Turk qualified:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6042.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6041.jpg

We finally made it across the park to Flame Tree BBQ for lunch. One of the top QS meals at WDW in my opinion, plus a great place to sit on a beautiful November day.

They have a great BBQ Chicken salad that both DW and DM got

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6043.jpg

I decided to go with the BBQ Ribs…I am a super rib-snob as I only want ribs if they are super tender and fall off the bone with no effort. Somehow, they get the latter right here without quite hitting on the former, but they give you a very tasty BBQ sauce for dipping and a large rack of ribs, so overall it’s a hit. Plus beans and cole slaw make a great DDP meal.
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6044.jpg

Dessert of chocolate mousse or keylime mousse:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6045.jpg

To be continued with afternoon of fun.

[joy13]

You got some great pictures on the Safari! The rhino picture was cool! We saw ostriches on our Safari (the 19th) I don't think I got a picture though.

I missed that your daughter was not feeling the characters this trip until this update somehow. That saved you a lot of time, I felt like the only thing that had waits were character lines! My daughter is the same about rides. I have a good story about that from our last day - so stay tuned to my report - lol

[Moodyzblu]

AK is by far my most favorite of the parks. I could walk around there forever.
You got some great shots of the safari !
Flame Tree is also one of my favorite CS meals. I loved surprising my friend last trip with these little gem's because she thought we would be eating burgers all week. NOT. :)

[PrincessInOz]

Great Safari pictures Pete. And I practically licked the screen with that picture of the ribs!

I loved the t-shirt your wife is wearing. It's gorgeous! :thumbsup2

[FosterA]

I agree, great Safari photos!
I also did see the hidden Mickey on that jeep. Very sneaky:thumbsup2

I thought the weather on our AK day was so perfect!
So what were your mom's thoughts? Did she seem to enjoy AK?

[skier_pete]

You got some great pictures on the Safari! The rhino picture was cool! We saw ostriches on our Safari (the 19th) I don't think I got a picture though.

I missed that your daughter was not feeling the characters this trip until this update somehow. That saved you a lot of time, I felt like the only thing that had waits were character lines! My daughter is the same about rides. I have a good story about that from our last day - so stay tuned to my report - lol

Haha! Nice plug for your TR! Don't worry, I have been following along. She's been afraid of meeting characters for a while, except in a "dining" setting she loves it. I don't know why it is. The one time I got anything out of her, she said "I don't know what to say to them." I do think she still thinks they are the real deal. (Of course, so do I.)

AK is by far my most favorite of the parks. I could walk around there forever.
You got some great shots of the safari !
Flame Tree is also one of my favorite CS meals. I loved surprising my friend last trip with these little gem's because she thought we would be eating burgers all week. NOT. :)

I am sort of amazed at myself on a few of those shots. That's just a little Nikon CoolPix Point&Shoot. It takes really good pictures though - unless it's at night. The funny thing is I discovered on this trip that my PHONE appears to take the best night shots. Who'da thunk it?

Great Safari pictures Pete. And I practically licked the screen with that picture of the ribs!

I loved the t-shirt your wife is wearing. It's gorgeous! :thumbsup2

Mmmmmm. It had me drooling a little too.

I think my wife got the shirt last year at AKL. She's really good at finding Disney clothes that aren't just the typical T-shirt.

I agree, great Safari photos!
I also did see the hidden Mickey on that jeep. Very sneaky:thumbsup2

I thought the weather on our AK day was so perfect!
So what were your mom's thoughts? Did she seem to enjoy AK?

We had two near-perfect weather days for AK. The only really "HOT" days of our trip was Wednesday which turned out OK because it was DHS and we spent a lot of time sitting watching shows.

My mom did love AK - it was her favorite park of the 4. I think it helped that we could do it at a much slower pace than the others by devoting two days to it. She also loves animals, which seems to be a family trait. (I did as a kid, and DD really does to the point she wants to be a zookeeper someday. I sort of picture her working at AK someday - if even just in a CP.)

SkierPete

[skier_pete]

I forgot to put this picture of DM and DD from the train ride to RPW:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6033.jpg

So, the goal for the afternoon was to see Flights of Wonder, the Lion King, and the Parade. So of course, DD insisted we had to go to the boneyard.

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We gave her a half hour there before we had to head to the Lion King show. So far, the crowds were not too bad around the park this day. Of course, we haven’t really gone on any rides since 9 AM. The Lion King show as good as usual, but our entry timing was bad as we were stuck way in the back of the Lion section. DD had really wanted to be part of the parade at the end, but our lousy seats precluded that. I also didn’t bother with pictures because of where we sat, but this show was as fantastic as always.

After it let out, we had a little bit of time to look at the character trees. I really wanted to take pictures of ALL of them, but we just didn’t have the time.

Here’s a couple – see if you can figure out who’s who:
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So, #1 (as well as the last) is Pluto, #2 is Chip and Dale, #3 is Big Al (or one of the other country bears) and #4 is the same one we couldn't figure out 2 years ago, but what I think is for "Brother Bear" or "Koda".

We never did get back over to see the rest of them…bummer! Next up flights of Wonder, but first DD had been pushing for a frozen lemonade since lunch. It was actually in her list of top 3 things at AK (Boneyard, Flights of Wonder, Frozen Lemonade) and even though she had one at MK the day before, she was insistant. DD wanted to get picked for this as well, and even though we were early enough to be in the second row, she didn’t get picked. Told her that’s the breaks.

Is it just me that finds the funniest thing about this show the fact the guide’s name is Guano Joe..which essentially means S**t Joe!
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6053.jpg

And why oh why is this man wearing a women's blouse? :rotfl2:
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Two down, one to go, we headed toward the front of the park and a spot to catch the parade. We chose where the Dinoland entrance branches off the main hub. DD was starting to tire, so her and DM sat on a bench in part of the ITTBaB queue area while DW and I held a front row spot for the parade. Of the three day-time parade, this is the only one I really enjoy. It’s mostly about the floats, which their cool animal designs. I really really want to get picked to be in this parade, but have yet to really find an effective way to do this. I also love the Christmas overlay of the floats:

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Love Santa Goofy’s Naughty and Nice list! That Donald!
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Also get a real kick out of all the character stockings. Timon’ and Pumbaa's are full of bugs, of course! Chip and Dale get nutcrackers - get it! And Remy and Emile full of gourmet food! The last one there is I think Jane from Tarzan. King Louie (Jungle Book) is also on there.
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On the back of Santa Goofy's float are the stockings for Pooh and friends. A bit blurry, but you can clearly see Santa left Eeyore a tail! And of course Pooh's is all Hunny.
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Even the characters are decorated – Timon with a popcorn garland
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It was now a little after 4 PM and we had a 5:00 PM dinner ADR at Sanaa, so it was time to head out. On the way out, we got a few shots of the tree. I’m still kind of amazed it is November 12th, and the entire park’s Christmas Decorations are already up!

Next up, Sanaa, a meal not to be missed!

[FosterA]

Oh man, I wish I had seen that parade!! Those are the best photos I've ever seen of it probably.

I also never saw those character Christmas trees. I never saw the bird show.....What the heck? Did I even go to AK:laughing:

Thanks alot, now I just HAVE to go back.
p.s. I lOVE frozen lemonade too!

[PrincessInOz]

You've reminded me what a great parade that is. Thanks for the lovely shots of the christmas overlays. I missed out on seeing that parade in 2010 :mad:.

Mmmmmm. It had me drooling a little too.

I think my wife got the shirt last year at AKL. She's really good at finding Disney clothes that aren't just the typical T-shirt.


I'll assume that you're publically stating that you're drooling over the ribs.....not your wife's t-shirt....which you can drool in private. :laughing:

[skier_pete]

Oh man, I wish I had seen that parade!! Those are the best photos I've ever seen of it probably.

I also never saw those character Christmas trees. I never saw the bird show.....What the heck? Did I even go to AK:laughing:

Thanks alot, now I just HAVE to go back.
p.s. I lOVE frozen lemonade too!

:lmao: I'm pretty sure you were there - though I hear you were heavily medicated perhaps? Flights of Wonder isn't really great, but not bad. DD just loves it though. We have to see it twice per trip. The good thing is they change it up a bit at different times, so we just make sure to see it at different times.

And for the compliment on the pictures - thank you. They did come out mostly pretty well. While I might not use a super-good camera, I pride myself on my shot-framing ability. The floats really fascinate me...I am not sure if you can tell this, but they are mostly manually-propelled. As with most of Animal Kingdom, the level of detail is amazing.

You've reminded me what a great parade that is. Thanks for the lovely shots of the christmas overlays. I missed out on seeing that parade in 2010 :mad:.

I'll assume that you're publically stating that you're drooling over the ribs.....not your wife's t-shirt....which you can drool in private. :laughing:

Definitely drooling over the ribs - what I do over my wife's T-shirt is for a completely different forum...;)

[skier_pete]

One of our absolute favorite meals of our last trip (or any trip) was at Sanaa, a restaurant situated in the Kidani Village portion of Animal Kingdom Lodge. When we stayed a Jambo last year, we tried all three AKL restaurants. We thought Boma was so-so and overpriced, but Jiko and Sanaa were fantastic. Since Jiko costs about twice Sanaa, I scheduled dinner @ Sanaa for tonight – since at one point it looked like we would not be on the dining plan yet. Well, we were so here we are…

…oh – I missed those couple of shots of the tree:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6078.jpg

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So, anyways – of all the restaurants at AKL – Sanaa is the only one that looks out on the Savannah. We were able to spend a little time looking out there before our meal, but since we were at the first dinner seating (5 PM) we were seated pretty quickly. We got a seat right by the window and even saw some animals right outside:

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At one point, two cranes started flipping out outside. They came right up to the window. Don't know if they were mating, or fighting over a mate. I didn't get a real good shot, but you can tell how close the animals could get.

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Let me start by saying Sanaa is simply a beautiful restaurant. I neglected to get interior shots though. The other thing that was very noticeable compared to California Grill from the night before was how much quieter this restaurant was, and also how the tables were NOT at all packed in. Even as the evening wore on and the restaurant got more crowded, the noise level remained very low.

We started out with drinks, and I ordered a Mango Llasa (sp?) Smoothie, which is blown-away delicious. My DM had a glass of African wine which she really enjoyed. Pricey, yes, but a pretty big glass. We got a bread service for starters because we love the Indian breads. This is a picture from last year, but we got the same thing this year: Naan, Roti, Paratha for the breads, and Mango Chutney, Garlic-ginger Pickle, Roated Red Bell Pepper Hummus for the sides. All absolutely delicious:

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We skipped getting Samosas for starters…these are a favorite of ours, but we will get to them at Tusker House.

For dinner – DM had the “Today's Sustainable Fish - With Shrimp and scallops served with seasonal vegetables in a light curry broth”. She said this was the best meal she had of the entire trip:

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DW had the “Slow Cooked in Gravy, Simple and Well Seasoned - Chicken with Red Curry Sauce & Shrimp with Green Curry Sauce with Basmati Rice. She really enjoyed it.

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I had the Tandoori Lamb with rice pilaf – also fantastic. Do you sense a pattern?:

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DD had meaty macaroni, which she liked but didn’t rate a picture…however, she insisted I take a picture of the desserts! DD had chocolate cake for dessert. (What, no ice cream?)

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DW listed this dessert in her “Top 3 Must Haves” before the trip: The Orange-Sesame Cake - with Tropical Fruit Kulfi.

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I looked on the menu for DM's dish. I though it was some sort of rice pudding, but the closest listing I could find was the Mango-Berry Tapioca Pudding:

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And I had the Dessert Trio - Chocolate Cake, Tropical Fruit Kulfi, and Chai Cream (in the middle here)

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We were so full, but enjoyed these desserts so much. The meal was absolutely wonderful again. I would honestly consider this restaurant the biggest “must do” of any Disney trip, as it is our families favorite. I would give it a 10/10 because not only is the food and atmosphere great, the prices are very reasonable considering what you get. (Our total bill including tip for 3 adults, one child would have been $138, but $107 of that was on the dining plan, with the bread service, wine and tip OOP – compared to $225 the night before for a similar level of food quality.) I cannot say enough good things about Sanaa, and though I tend to think that Disney food quality is good to very good in general – this is the rare piece of non-Signature excellence. If you want Signature dining (2 TS credit) food at regular dining (1 TS credit) pricing – check it out!

By the time we were done, it was only about 6:30 PM, but we were pretty tired from the last two days of course, so wanted to head back to the hotel. DW wanted to stop at Jambo House to pick up an order of Zebra Domes, which we were all much too full to eat that night. Our plan was to take a bus back to Animal Kingdom, and then hop a bus from there back to the resort since the park didn’t close until 7 PM. I told DW to hop the first bus available, since they mostly stop at Kidani first, then Jambo, then the final destination. Well, so she hopped on an Epcot bus, while we waited for an AK bus.

So, we were only there a few minutes when one pulled up. The driver let us on, but he was NOT happy about it, saying that we should take a bus to a different park, and that he wasn’t supposed to take anyone back to the park. (I’m thinking now I should’ve just said I was parked there!) Anyways, we got back to Jambo, and he let everyone off, and then he was again saying we should get off and go to a different park. Well, DW was still there at Jambo, so we decided to just get off the bus and wait for her. Once she was there, we got on a DHS bus instead. We were whisked to the park, and then had to get a bus to Carribean Beach. Surprisingly in all this, we really didn’t wait that long for any buses, and were back at our resort in under an hour. Everyone was pretty tuckered out, and I warned them all that the next day would sort of be one of our longer days – or at least a lot of walking and crowds – it’s FOOD AND WINE AT EPCOT!

[Moodyzblu]

The food at Sanaa looks amazing !! The desserts looks yummy as well. TOO much food for us though !
Great update and pics ! :thumbsup2

[PrincessInOz]

I'm thinking that when you come, a nice home cooked meal with a different curries might be on the agenda at my place.


Great looking food and what a score with the table. Nice to be able to give the animals a view of the food as they walk past.

[FosterA]

Wow! all that food looks incredible. I'm a bread-y so seeing that bread makes me want some, now! I'm not sure which entree looks the best to me. Maybe the fish or the chicken one. Sorry, lamb is just to "exotic" for me:laughing:

The desserts look to die for!

Seems like a lot of bus hopping around but if it all took under an hour, that's not bad at all really. When did ya'll eat your zebra domes? I wanna see a photo of those because I've heard of them but not sure I know what they are.

Hope you got lots of rest this night for your big day following!!

[khertz]

You got some great pictures of the Jingle Jungle Parade! We have STILL never managed to catch more than a glimpse of the AK parade, and none of the Christmas overlay parade. One of these days we will have to see it.

Sounds like an interesting dinner. How cool that you can see the Savannah from inside the restaurant! I've said before I'm not an adventurous eater, but that fish dish looks yummy!

[skier_pete]

The food at Sanaa looks amazing !! The desserts looks yummy as well. TOO much food for us though !
Great update and pics ! :thumbsup2

Really, the portions weren't that huge, really just right...and again the prices aren't really bad at all $18-$24 for entrees.)

I'm thinking that when you come, a nice home cooked meal with a different curries might be on the agenda at my place.


Great looking food and what a score with the table. Nice to be able to give the animals a view of the food as they walk past.

Yummm...now I'm drooling again! I did ask for a window seat when we walked in. Since the restauarant had literally just opened, it wasn't a problem.

Wow! all that food looks incredible. I'm a bread-y so seeing that bread makes me want some, now! I'm not sure which entree looks the best to me. Maybe the fish or the chicken one. Sorry, lamb is just to "exotic" for me:laughing:

The desserts look to die for!

Seems like a lot of bus hopping around but if it all took under an hour, that's not bad at all really. When did ya'll eat your zebra domes? I wanna see a photo of those because I've heard of them but not sure I know what they are.

Hope you got lots of rest this night for your big day following!!

Yum...and Indian bread is sooooo good. The food here is a bit on the exotic side, but they don't really go very far with the spices. The desserts are all soooo good too, again, slightly exotic, but really not weird or anything.

We were totally unimpressed by Boma, but I do have to say Zebra Domes have a reputation for a pretty good reason. They are sort of like mini Tiramisu treats. Here's a picture from last year, they are the two striped desserts on the right:

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They have like a cake inner layer with chocolate outside, and they use a liqueur called "Amarula". It's an African drink that's sort of taste like a cross between Kahlua and Ammiretto (sp?). DW has sort of become obsessed with this, and is constantly making desserts with Amarula in them. (We have a big bottle in our house!)

She didn't run into the restaurant and swipe them...you can buy them at "The Mara" which is the quick service store at AKL.

We DID finally eat them a few days later. It's so hard to actually come back to the room HUNGRY on the dining plan. They were still good even after a few days.


You got some great pictures of the Jingle Jungle Parade! We have STILL never managed to catch more than a glimpse of the AK parade, and none of the Christmas overlay parade. One of these days we will have to see it.

Sounds like an interesting dinner. How cool that you can see the Savannah from inside the restaurant! I've said before I'm not an adventurous eater, but that fish dish looks yummy!
That parade is well worth seeing! Way better than the other two daytime parades. The problem is getting a spot for it, since the pathways are so narrow, you do have to stake out your viewing spot a good 30 minutes ahead.

And you really should try Sanaa sometime, especially since you guys have a car, you don't have to deal with the bus transportation to get there. I would argue that it really isn't that "out there" food, and they have some selections such a steak and chicken that are very very mainstream. I recommend eating when it is still light out so you can see the animals - they are open for lunch as well. As I said, two trips in a row where it was the best meal we had!

[skier_pete]

Our photopass share wrapped up, and we were sent the pictures. Here's a few from the first TWO days of the trip. Day 3 hopefully coming soon:

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[skier_pete]

Well, it was up with the usual morning routine, alarm off at 6:45 AM, and out the door by 8:00 AM. We had food we brought from home and a jug of milk from the food court. It was another beautiful day, though today was a bit warmer, probably low ‘80s, but humidity still wasn’t too bad. We got to Epcot with several minutes to spare. They have completely eliminated rope drop at Epcot, so now they just start letting people through the gates. It’s kind of disappointing really, as I kind of like the rope drop ceremonies, though Epcot’s was fairly minor, they did have the Fab 5 come out, and if you were right on the rope you got a quick high five.

We have a pretty consistent opening pattern at Epcot, which is that we head first thing to the character connection. For having a daughter that mostly wants nothing to do with meeting characters she LOVES meeting the Fab 5 here. Don’t ask me why that is, but she does. She also insisted on bringing “her” Mickey Mouse to pose with the characters. Donald wasn’t so happy about this.

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Second on the agenda is Nemo, but not before getting a Fastpass for Soarin’. So while I went to get those, the family took some pictures in front of Nemo:

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It’s hard to believe it’s been 5 years since the Nemo ride opened, and we were one of the first ever to ride it during the soft opening. I didn’t think much of the ride the first time we did it, but it really does have it’s charms as a traditional Disney dark ride. We then spent a good hour wandering around the aquarium.

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We also went and saw Turtle Crush, which we hadn’t seen the last few trips, but thought my DM would enjoy it. Of course we got the traditional “Eaten By Bruce” pictures. There was literally NO-ONE in the Pavillion for the first 30 minutes or so, so we had plenty of time for pictures.

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We also check out the aquarium of course, looking for that movable hidden Mickey that’s always in the main tank:

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I started pushing for us to move on, I really wanted to get to World Showcase as close to 11 AM as we could, because I KNOW how long you can spend there. The only other thing we wanted to do prior to that is Soarin’. We used our FP and I don’t have any pictures to show of it. DM was nervous about it, but she really, really loved Soarin’. DD put up a stink about riding it, but we got her on it the one time. I really like this ride a lot, even though it triggers my “fear of heights over water” phobia big time. And DW gets motion sick, so she spends ½ the ride with her eyes closed. We all had a pleasant flight – but also once per trip is enough.

Next up - Bring on the food, Bring on the wine! (and beer!)

[Moodyzblu]

Great pictures and update ! :thumbsup2

I never do rope drop anywhere so not sure what it's all about .. but from what I've read they seem to be doing away with any kind of production to it ? (with the exception of MK). Wonder why ?

I love Soarin' (although I suffered a bout of vertigo last spring and had a hard time enjoying most rides) .. I still managed it twice last year. The second time on we got the top row !! Talk about feeling dizzy .. I didn't dare look anywhere but the screen !

I like Nemo too .. that song gets stuck in my head .. until we hit Figment .. then it's a whole OTHER song that gets stuck. :rolleyes:

[skier_pete]

Great pictures and update ! :thumbsup2

I never do rope drop anywhere so not sure what it's all about .. but from what I've read they seem to be doing away with any kind of production to it ? (with the exception of MK). Wonder why ?

I love Soarin' (although I suffered a bout of vertigo last spring and had a hard time enjoying most rides) .. I still managed it twice last year. The second time on we got the top row !! Talk about feeling dizzy .. I didn't dare look anywhere but the screen !

I like Nemo too .. that song gets stuck in my head .. until we hit Figment .. then it's a whole OTHER song that gets stuck. :rolleyes:

"In the Biiggg Bluueeee Worllddd...."

vs

"Immaaaaggginaaaatiion!"

Yeah, I agree - that 2nd one gets stuck in your head. DW complains about "one little spark". DD and I will sing it just to annoy her.

And I especially hate being on one of the end seats on Soarin'. One of the first time's we ever rode it, we were in the top row, and I was thinking "Oh we're probably not that high" and I looked over the edge....Holy Poo! :scared1: It's a good 20 feet down to the concrete, and further to the bottom of the screen.

We DID notice the rope drop show at DHS was also gone, and I heard rumor that they pulled the rope drop show at DAK as well. Probably cost cutting measure, but disappointing as its a neat little extra. Not something that would get me too worked up as long as they keep the MK show.

[Chicago Mo]

im here!!! going back to catch up!

[FosterA]

Great family photos Pete! I especially love the magic ones. That one cracks me up in AK where your DM is doing the lion paw thing. It's almost like she's thinking "what in the world are we doing this for":laughing: You and your wife do awesome magic photos though, you've got good acting chops!

Ok, that's it....I'm beginning to wonder if I even went to Epcot now. How come I never saw the big shark head anywhere?:lmao:

[skier_pete]

im here!!! going back to catch up!

Join in, I will try and update at least weekly if I can.

Great family photos Pete! I especially love the magic ones. That one cracks me up in AK where your DM is doing the lion paw thing. It's almost like she's thinking "what in the world are we doing this for":laughing: You and your wife do awesome magic photos though, you've got good acting chops!

Ok, that's it....I'm beginning to wonder if I even went to Epcot now. How come I never saw the big shark head anywhere?:lmao:

Yeah, DM didn't quite get into that one. The Magic shots are all about selling it. You can't go too over the top in those cases - you are interacting with a cartoon after all. Big and broad is the way to go.

From last year:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20October%202010/Photo2337FourBySix.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20October%202010/Photo2239FourBySix.jpg

The big "Bruce" shark is in the Shark-room which is near the exit to the Seas, kind of opposite from the Turtle Talk show. The "Shark Mouth" picture has become quite a family tradition:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/DSCN3000.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20April%202010/DSCN3787.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20October%202010/DSCN5229.jpg

[Chicago Mo]

LOVE the TR.. LOVE the pictures!!!! i have to ask about the purple cat?!?!?

[skier_pete]

LOVE the TR.. LOVE the pictures!!!! i have to ask about the purple cat?!?!?

Oh...you will have to keep reading through at least day 5 if you want to hear about the Purple Cat! Though on day 3 I did have a Pint of "Abita Purple Haze"!

[PrincessInOz]

that's a great morning and fab PP pictures! :thumbsup2


Settling in for the next installment....food porn! popcorn::

[skier_pete]

that's a great morning and fab PP pictures! :thumbsup2


Settling in for the next installment....food porn! popcorn::

Oh...I'm going to have to disappoint you there...for some reason, I didn't take pictures of the Food at Food & Wine! What's wrong with me...I just don't know what I was thinking! There's a few food pictures in there..but not many. So sorry! Please don't stop reading!

[FosterA]

HA! love it, you guys have the most exciting magic shots I've ever seen:laughing: What a fun family:goodvibes

[skier_pete]

HA! love it, you guys have the most exciting magic shots I've ever seen:laughing: What a fun family:goodvibes

THough as I look back, it mostly involves me gaping a lot! :goodvibes

[skier_pete]

Next up, it was time to head into World Showcase. Now, unfortunately I somehow neglected to take ANY pictures of the food we ate. I don’t know why. We did fill out the little passbook, and DW noted everything we tried. I was debating about typing out every little detail of all the things we ate, but without pictures I think it could get a little boring, so I am going to mention a few things as we go.

Here’s the gist of my opinion about the food and wine festival – if you can get over the fact that the amount of money you are going to spend is a bit ridiculous, it’s a really good. Everything we tried ranged somewhere between really good and absolutely yummy. Most foods seemed to run between $2.50 and about $5. In our case, we instituted a policy of if the price was greater than $3.50, we used a snack credit, and if it was less, we charged it to the room. When all was said and done – we charged $75 to the room, and used another $113 in Dining Credits. This didn’t include a couple of drinks DM had, as well as DW bought one or two things with cash. So, overall we spent about $200 on food and drinks for the day. That said, we were pretty filled up by the end of it.

DD first HAD to have a pretzel. We then headed over to the Canada area, where we all tried something from the “Greece” booth. I also had to have a beer, so I grabbed one at the entrance to world showcase, and we started heading towards Mexico. We stopped at each booth, and one or the other of us tried something from most of them. There were about 10 booths between Canada and Mexico alone. When we got to Mexico, DD really wanted to color a Duffy bear, so we went inside.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6110.jpg

It’s become a tradition the last few trips for me to let her pick out a small wood animal carving from the carvers here in Mexico. Here’s a picture of the three she now has at home – the one from this year was the Cat.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/2011-12-16_21-56-16_980.jpg

DM and DW went in to wander around the “marketplace”, while I sat to watch DD. I remember at this stage already starting to feel a bit wound down. I don’t know if everyone gets this, but there always seems to be at least one day on every Disney vacation where you just kind of “hit a wall” in terms of being tired. Today was mine. We really hadn’t done that much by this stage – it was probably around 12:30 PM – but I really just wanted to sit and relax. I’ll get back to more on this later. After some coloring, it was time to ride the “Rio Del Tempo” or whatever it’s called nowadays. I for one really like the makeover with the 3 Caballeros. I usually don’t argue when people complain about “liking the old one better” on rides – but in this case your just nuts. The old one was merely a giant advertisement for Mexico Tourism. The new one is much the same, but with a whimsical story of Jose Carioca and Panchito. In fact, I just picked up “Saludos Amigos”/”3 Caballeros” for DD for Christmas (shhh---don’t tell her). I suspect these are not great movies, as they come from the Disney “lean years” in the 1940s when they were packaging shorts together to make feature length movies, but I am curious to see them.

Back to the story at hand, we headed over to Norway after we picked up our Kimmunicator and DW and DM got some Swedish Meatballs. One of DD favorite things is the Kim Possible adventures in World Showcase, and I would even admit they are kind of neat in small doses. You get a Kimmunicator which sends you around each country, solving simple puzzles and performing tasks. (In the case of Norway – we even had to go up to a CM to get a clue.) DD and I did this, while DM and DW shopped in the “Puffin” and apparently also went on Maelstrom while I wasn’t looking. (DD didn’t want to ride, and I simply didn’t care that much, so was OK with that.)
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6111.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6113.jpg

What I did get once our “mission” was done was something I had never tried but had heard about on the DIS…schoolbread. I’ll be honest, the look didn’t appeal to me that much, as I am not a big fan of coconut (and how do they have coconuts in Norway anyways).

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6114.jpg

But let me tell you something…this thing was really really good. The coconut was not very strong…and the dollop of custard on top was also laced throughout. It was sort of like a large custard donut, the dough was very soft and fresh-tasting, and the custard was delicious, sweet but not overwhelmingly so. There was enough to share, so I gave a few bites to DW and DM.

Next we continued on to China:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6115.jpg

Though I didn’t try anything to eat there, DW did have some sort of Pork/noodle dish that was surprisingly spicy. We did the KP mission here as well, though I handed it off early on to DW and let her do it with DD while DM and I did the 360 Movie. This movie is OK – I actually prefer the France one because mostly it means you can sit down. By this point, I was really feeling tired and a bit hot. It was warmer again today, not really bad, but probably low ‘80s, and I am not sure if it was all the food, but I really just wanted to sit. DD saw a marionette Dalmatian that she really wanted so we let her use her money to buy that. She kept wanting to play with it all day, and it kept getting tangled.

Continued in Next Post.

[skier_pete]

We moved onto Germany next.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6117.jpg

I couldn’t resist getting a beer, and also got a sausage on a pretzel roll for DD and myself. The crowds had been building all day, and it was now sort of crowded. Not really bad, and in fact not as bad as when we had done F&W last year on a Sunday. We explored Germany a bit, and again did the KP mission here…the last one of the day. We also couldn’t miss out on treats at Karamel Kuchen…though how I managed to miss out on any pictures here I just don’t know. I’ll cheat and use one from last year.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20October%202010/DSCN4910.jpg

We then moved on to Italy, but not before looking over the miniature trains in Germany.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6118.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6119.jpg

I really just wanted to sit a bit, so I took DD over to the coloring station and let her color for a while as I sat there. I took a few pictures and watched Sergio – the juggling clown, from a distance.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6120.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6121.jpg

At this point, I sort of didn’t know where DM and DW were for a while, and I tried to call DW and she didn’t answer (she doesn’t answer her phone probably 80% of the time) so called DM and eventually found them again. It was about 4:30 PM at this point, I know this because the “Ziti Sisters” came out, another comedy act in Italy. DW decided she wanted to see it. I stood there somewhat unenthusiastically, and eventually went to sit with DM and DD.

I had really wanted to see Big Bad Voodoo Daddy at 5:45 PM, and we had a dinner ADR at 6:30 PM at Restaurant Marrekesh, but I was feeling so full I had no interest in eating. I kept proposing changes to our plans at this stage, and in a very uncharacteristic move on my part – I could not for the life of me decide what we should do. I think it was a bit of a combination of being tired, finally hitting the “relax” button from the stress of leaving on vacation, a few beers, and the heat. Fortunately, DW took charge and decided we would go and get a seat for the BBVD show, and everyone that wanted food could go and get some. We would cancel the ADR at Marrakesh. The good thing about doing this is that we had one more TS meal scheduled than we had available Dining Credits, so canceling this meal allowed us to have lunch at ‘50s Prime Time later in the week on the dining plan. Having decided a plan, we could all get food as appropriate for further eating.

It was at this point we were able to get the single greatest Snack Credit value in all of WDW – the “Lobster Roll”. It costs $7.50 if you pay for it, and while it’s a decent bit of lobster, not really worth that. However, the fact that it is still only a single snack credit makes it a great deal. DW and I both had one, and DM had TWO. (I still didn’t get a picture – dummy!) Meanwhile, we got a chicken nugget meal for DD, and we sat and waited for the BBVD show to start. I got another beer (Sam Adams winter – yummy,yummy!)

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6125.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6123.jpg

I really enjoyed this show, and I think the rest of the family did too. As a story, when DD was little (like small enough I could pick her up and swing her around) I used to put on BBVD and we would dance around the living room, and I would “swing dance” her, in other words, swing her around in a circle, and up into the air. For whatever reason, DD at the time called this music “bat music”…we never figured out exactly why that was, but I always thought maybe we called it “fast music” once and she got “fast” and “bat” confused – remember she was only a toddler! She hardly remembers this, but remembered the songs and she was hopping around quite a bit. In the meantime, the sun started to set, and cooling off and the rest put me in a much better state of mind for the rest of the evening.

So, the nice thing about not having dinner is now we could take our time getting out of Epcot. We weren’t staying for Illuminations (that is Day 4) so we made our way around WS the rest of the way. We really didn’t stop in any of the countries, except DW and DM did try a few more bites to eat on the way out. (I’d had quite a bit by this point, and was not feeling hungry in the least.) We ended up using I think around 20 of our 36 snack credits today. We stopped in France for some Crème Brule for DW and DM, and decided to get our picture taken by the fountain:


http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/Photo0334FourBySix.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/Photo0331FourBySix.jpg

I trimmed these to remove DD. She didn’t want to be part of the picture, but she also sat pouting in the background:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/Photo0333FourBySix.jpg

However, when I pulled out my camera to take her picture, it was a big hit:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6127.jpg

On the way up, we passed the Christmas tree. Much of the decorations of Epcot were already up, but there were none of the special Christmas shows going on while we were there:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6128.jpg

We also let DD pick up a light sword. She had bought one of these a few years back, but hers at home had partially broke. The Photopass person took one of her with her sword first:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/Photo0338FourBySix.jpg

Then one of the lot of us, except for DW who had stopped in a store and was going to catch up with us later. The Photopass girl was funny, she was complaining to us about how Disney puts up all the Christmas decorations so early, and they completely ignore Thanksgiving. She says she doesn’t care, instead of saying “Merry Christmas” she’s going to say to people “Happy Thanksgiving” and “What are you Thankful for?” We knew we were thankful to be able to be at Disney! She really wasn’t doing this in a gruff way, but more in a playful way, so it really was sort of fun:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/Photo0340FourBySix.jpg

DD always likes to play on the light pads outside of Spaceship Earth, but today it didn’t last very long. On the way out, it still wasn’t super late yet (probably 7 PM at this stage) so I asked her if she wanted to ride Spaceship earth? She said “Yes” so we went on this.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6134.jpg

My DM didn’t remember this story, but when I was a kid the first time we went to Epcot on 1983 we had gotten on SSE, and my step-dad and I told my mom that when it got to the top it turned into a roller coaster going really fast back down. Of course, that wasn’t true! In fact it moves so slow, we could get pictures of everyone before the ride started.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6133.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6132.jpg

After it was done – we headed out for the bus. It had been a long day. I had been really nervous about DD walking today, and while she was a bit whiny, she did pretty well – remember, first trip without her carriage/stroller. I didn’t do so well, but by evening I had recovered.

Day 3:
Characters Met: 5
Future World Attractions: 4 (Character Spot, The Seas, Soarin’, SSE)
World Showcase Countries: 5 (Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy)
Waits of > 5 minutes: 1 (Soarin w/ FP was still about 10 minutes.)

Since I forgot to do this for Day 2:
Characters Met: 1
Rides/Attractions seen: 8
Waits of > 5 minutes: 0

Totals (3 days):
Characters Met: 6
Rides/Attractions seen: 34
Waits of > 5 minutes: 1

Tomorrow is our all-important “down” day, which really isn’t quite a “down” day at all. But the question remains, how did we do?

[Chicago Mo]

I see the BLUE cat you got from Mexico!! IT'S NOT PURPLE?!? I can't WAIT!!!!

[solana131]

Okay, one thing I have been wondering....
I don't remember Spaceship Earth from when I was little. I remember the big ball and all, but didn't realize there was a ride in there until I joined the DIS. It looks fun and I want to try it, but my question is...is it good for a 5 year old? It looks kinda boring?? Should hubby and I do it the night we have off (parents watching little one so we can do WS and Illuminations)??

[Moodyzblu]

Okay, one thing I have been wondering....
I don't remember Spaceship Earth from when I was little. I remember the big ball and all, but didn't realize there was a ride in there until I joined the DIS. It looks fun and I want to try it, but my question is...is it good for a 5 year old? It looks kinda boring?? Should hubby and I do it the night we have off (parents watching little one so we can do WS and Illuminations)??

My boys are 7 and it's one of their favorite rides and has been for years ! :goodvibes

[solana131]

My boys are 7 and it's one of their favorite rides and has been for years ! :goodvibes

Good to know...thanks :thumbsup2

[skier_pete]

Okay, one thing I have been wondering....
I don't remember Spaceship Earth from when I was little. I remember the big ball and all, but didn't realize there was a ride in there until I joined the DIS. It looks fun and I want to try it, but my question is...is it good for a 5 year old? It looks kinda boring?? Should hubby and I do it the night we have off (parents watching little one so we can do WS and Illuminations)??

It's one of the few "original" rides at WS - slow moving and dark, but unless I 5-year old was very scared of the dark, I think there is enough stuff to see to keep them interested. Make sure your child sits up straight for the picture they take at the beginning. They scan everyone's face and at the end you use the touch screens to make a video using your faces, every child gets a kick out of that. (You can also e-mail the video to your home in the exit area.) There are some neat interactive games that at 5 our DD was already playing, though not very sucessfully.

[skier_pete]

I see the BLUE cat you got from Mexico!! IT'S NOT PURPLE?!? I can't WAIT!!!!

Nope - still not PURPLE CAT! Just gotta wait until day 5!

[FosterA]

Nice updates!!
First of all, I LOVE coconut and I want some of that school bread!

Also, I completely understand that hitting the wall feeling and just wanting to sit down. I imagine all the snacking really slows you down too.

I love the pic of DD chilling with the sunglasses on:thumbsup2

Great photos! I love Epcot:love:

[skier_pete]

Nice updates!!
First of all, I LOVE coconut and I want some of that school bread!

Also, I completely understand that hitting the wall feeling and just wanting to sit down. I imagine all the snacking really slows you down too.

I love the pic of DD chilling with the sunglasses on:thumbsup2

Great photos! I love Epcot:love:

Oh...if you don't mind the coconut, then you HAVE to try it next time you go...hope you are already making a list for your return. :woohoo:

I think it might have been the drinking rather than the snacking. I wasn't stuffed full or anything, the portions are pretty small.

[DisMomAmy]

Thanks for the links Pete! I'm all caught up now. :thumbsup2

Your first three days were packed full! I'll have to take another look at the Sanaa menu - the restaurant looks beautiful.

This was our first completely stroller free trip too. We'd been mostly stroller free last spring but had grabbed a stroller for a couple days at the end of the trip. I think it's the heat that bothers DS8 the most. We'll see how he does in April because he's definitely too big for a stroller now. DS11 likes to have a stroller to sit in when we are waiting for parades & fireworks. We didn't do too much of that in November but he didn't have any complaints.

Was Day 3 the last day of F&W? It didn't seem too busy. It was very crowded when we were there.

[skier_pete]

Was Day 3 the last day of F&W? It didn't seem too busy. It was very crowded when we were there.

Yes, it was the last day. I was surprised how not crowded it was. We went last year to Epcot on a Sunday for F&W in October, and it was much worse than this day was. I would still in the future try to catch F&W mid-week, but Sunday is not a bad alternative.

[skier_pete]

Well, one thing that certainly made it feel like a down day, there was no pressing need to get up in the morning. Now the big thing we wanted to do was to hit DTD during the day. Our only real obligation was at night – we had dinner at the Garden Grill, and then the big “surprise!” (which has been already revealed elsewhere).

There was no real hurry to get up this morning, but since everyone in the family is early risers and with all the people moving around, everyone was awake before 7:30 AM. We didn’t rush to get out of the room or anything, though – but we did want to go to DTD in the morning rather than later in the day. We left the hotel about 9:15 AM and were headed for the bus. The buses to DTD always seem brutal, partly because of the stop at Typhoon Lagoon. It was about 10 AM by the time we got down there.

At this point we more or less split up, with DM and DW going directly to the WoD store, while DD wanted to ride the carousel. (No, she doesn’t want to ride the MK Carousel, just this little one that cost $2 a ride.) We stopped in Once upon a Toy and she also played in the squirty fountains.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6135.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6137.jpg

After the walk-through, we headed over to WoD where we met with DW. Thanks to our Disney Visa, we can get 10 % off here – so we do most of our shopping here. We also did a bit of shopping for DW and DD (I didn’t really buy anything for myself) including a picture frame and a snow globe. I always by DD a snow globe for every Disney trip we’ve been on…this would be the 7th. We picked out a Alice in Wonderland Tea Cup Spinner Snow globe, which we thought was very cool, the whole globe is on a swivel base, and you can “spin” the globe, instead of shaking it. (I’ll add a picture later.)

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6138.jpg

We “spent” about an hour in there. (I amused myself with the double-meaning phrase “We SPENT the day at DTD” for much of the afternoon.) DW and DM stayed behind while DD and I went on to the Lego store. She really likes Legos, as do I, and I was really looking forward to the mix-and-match lego bins. First she played outside with the car-racing blocks, then we went inside and picked out some stuff.

Maleficent Dragon / Prince Phillip Lego sculpture:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6139.jpg

Seven Dwarves:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6140.jpg

DD Lego vehicle:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6141.jpg

I had budgeted $100 for Legos. We spent $30 on the bins and got two big jars of Legos, which was really awesome. The engineer in me kicked in with the best way to fill the jars with the most possible legos. The only negative is you couldn’t buy wheels, which is what we really, really wanted. We then picked out a couple of the new “Creator” sets where you can make multiple things out of the same kit. I also let her make three “people” as well, though that was a big rip-off (3 people were like $10 and theres like 15 pieces versus the 100s of pieces we got for $15.)

Woody with DD:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6142.jpg

And with Buzz:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6144.jpg

DD liked the dogs:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6143.jpg

We got out of there spending $117. Overall, I spent $367 at DTD in a few hours. Definitely “Spent” that day! It was around 1 PM and we wanted to have some time to swim before we got back. We ended up walking over to the Pleasure Island bus stop, since we were more or less in the middle, and I figured walking back would lead to only a longer bus ride. It was good timing, as we didn’t wait 5 minutes for the bus. (Turns out the only bad bus karma of the trip was from my mom, who left earlier than we did, but waited almost 45 minutes for a bus, and therefore only got back to the resort just before we did.)

Next up, a little time at our resort.

[Moodyzblu]

I believe you are talking about the same snow globe that I bought a while back for my dd. She's a huge Alice fan.
We LOVE the Lego store ! We spend the most souvenir money there. We really liked the re-model .. those little tv boxes that show the product on the screen were really cool. :thumbsup2

[skier_pete]

We came back and got some lunch. DD got a hot dog, while I got the Caribbean burger. This had crispy onions, mango pineapple salsa, a plantains on it, and it was absolutely delicious. (Sorry, no pictures – how did I miss that.)

After we ate, we had enough time to head for the pool for a little while – maybe 2 hours – so we did. I brought the camera. The pool area is great, and they have games and stuff for the kids to do for most of the afternoon. I’m not sure if this is something they are newly instituting or not (I notice POFQ had it now as well) but DD sure liked it. She also liked the two pool slides. Here are some pictures:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0043.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0044.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0045.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0047.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0048.jpg
The stairs up to the big (dark) slide.
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0051.jpg

The view from the parapet:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0053.jpg

Coming out of the slide:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0055.jpg

The bigger slide exit:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0056.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0058.jpg

The smaller slide:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0060.jpg

There was also a “splash” area designated for little kids. DD never actually tried to go there, but later in the trip we noticed you had to be under 48”, which she wasn’t anymore, and there wouldn’t have been able to go.

Now is as good a time as any to talk about this resort. As anyone following my TR knew, I was a bit skeptical about staying here. Realistically I was concerned about three things versus our preferred location at POFQ – the multiple bus stops, the size of the bed (full instead of queen), and size of the resort. The first two were not even remotely an issue, there was one time that the multiple bus-stops seemed to really slow us down, but otherwise it was not a problem at all. The size of the resort was completely canceled out by the fact that we were upgraded to “preferred” location. We were so close to the center of the resort it was ridiculous. Here are two shots I took standing in one spot, the first I faced one way and took a picture of our room. The second I faced the other way and took a picture of Port Royale.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0070.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0071.jpg

It was probably about 60 seconds from our room to the food court, and maybe 2 minutes to the main pool. We were probably closer to the main pool than the quiet pool. However, after staying preferred, I would have to say this might be a case where I would pay for the same privilege in the future. We walked around the resort a bit on our last day, and there are quite a few room locations that would be very, very far from the main hotel, and even quite a few that would far from a bus stop.

To the positives, we really liked the Old Port Royale set-up. The food court was very good for lunch/dinner with quite a bit of selection. Breakfast at usual was wholly mediocre (our one main criticism). The pool was very nice, and the activities they staged at the pool were great and went on for a good portion of the day (from 1 PM into the evening with movies on the big screen). There was also some other activities such as boat/bike rentals that we didn’t take advantage of. The staff was absolutely wonderful, and we never had any problems at all.

We’ve now stayed at 4 Disney Resorts (AKL, POFQ, Pop Century and now CBR). I would in fact recommend all four to anyone, as we had great experiences at all of them. To rank them would even be difficult. Pop Century is obviously for a more modest budget, and while we had great stays there, I would certainly prefer the mods, but would not object to going back. AKL is of course an amazing experience, but there were a few negatives there and would only recommend that stay as an extravagance. Of the two mods, I still would say I prefer POFQ personally, but if I were coming again with young children (a likely prospect) I would probably pick CBR for having a better pool and more activities surrounding it.

A few last shots from that day:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0067.jpg
Christmas decorations went up when we were there. They were somewhat sparse, but I thought appropriate…it’s not a resort that screams “Christmas!”

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0074.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0068.jpg

After spending some time at the pool, we had to get ready for our dinner.

Next up, an evening at Epcot.

[Chicago Mo]

. Of the two mods, I still would say I prefer POFQ personally, but if I were coming again with young children (a likely prospect)
Next up, an evening at Epcot.

Congratulations?!?!?!? :confused:

[skier_pete]

I believe you are talking about the same snow globe that I bought a while back for my dd. She's a huge Alice fan.
We LOVE the Lego store ! We spend the most souvenir money there. We really liked the re-model .. those little tv boxes that show the product on the screen were really cool. :thumbsup2

Could well be, I will snap a pic from home eventually. I don't really remember the old store that well, we didn't really go inside it much. There were lots of neat stuff in the store. Again, the only negative was I couldn't buy some wheels!

Congratulations?!?!?!? :confused:

No,no, no new kids. I guess I still consider our DD to be "young" as in 12 and under. And there is no trip back in the works either - a vague plan for 2013 is all. This is really the first time in 6 years without a WDW trip to plan, I thought I would go through withdrawal, but so far not so much. I guess its all you nice folks listening to my stories. :thumbsup2

[Chicago Mo]

yes we are dueling TR comments!!! :rotfl:

We won't be returning until about 2013 FOR the new Fantasyland! i am thinking about the new animation building too... But i REALLY LIKE THE POLY.. Insert best whinny voice..

[Chicago Mo]

No,no, no new kids. I guess I still consider our DD to be "young" as in 12 and under. And there is no trip back in the works either - a vague plan for 2013 is all. This is really the first time in 6 years without a WDW trip to plan, I thought I would go through withdrawal, but so far not so much. I guess its all you nice folks listening to my stories. :thumbsup2

OK read too much into that.... ;)

[FosterA]

That's so funny that your DD only will do the carousel that costs money. What's up with that?:laughing:
The DTD bus situation I do remember being so long. ugh. The day we did DTD was my worst sick day and I swear that bus took forever and I hated having to go through Typhoon Lagoon. Glad I'm not the only one that thinks it's a bit brutal.

You got some great photos of the resort. I love all the pastel colors:love:

[skier_pete]

That's so funny that your DD only will do the carousel that costs money. What's up with that?:laughing:
The DTD bus situation I do remember being so long. ugh. The day we did DTD was my worst sick day and I swear that bus took forever and I hated having to go through Typhoon Lagoon. Glad I'm not the only one that thinks it's a bit brutal.

You got some great photos of the resort. I love all the pastel colors:love:

I totally understand why they share a bus - the volume for the water parks doesn't really justify their own bus, and DTD is right across the street, but it makes the bus travel really long, especially since the route through DTD is really slow too.

In general, I HATE going to DTD Disney and spending money. I prefer to completey avoid it as my own personal protest to the (incompetant) shuttering of Pleasure Island. I only did it this year because of the 10 % discount @ WoD and the Lego store.

As far as resort photos, my DM didn't take a ton of photos on the trip, but she did take a bunch of resort photos when she stuck around while we went to TL. So, they'll be more coming up eventually.

[skier_pete]

That's so funny that your DD only will do the carousel that costs money. What's up with that?:laughing:
The DTD bus situation I do remember being so long. ugh. The day we did DTD was my worst sick day and I swear that bus took forever and I hated having to go through Typhoon Lagoon. Glad I'm not the only one that thinks it's a bit brutal.

You got some great photos of the resort. I love all the pastel colors:love:

I totally understand why they share a bus - the volume for the water parks doesn't really justify their own bus, and DTD is right across the street, but it makes the bus travel really long, especially since the route through DTD is really slow too.

In general, I HATE going to DTD Disney and spending money. I prefer to completey avoid it as my own personal protest to the (incompetant) shuttering of Pleasure Island. I only did it this year because of the 10 % discount @ WoD and the Lego store.

As far as resort photos, my DM didn't take a ton of photos on the trip, but she did take a bunch of resort photos when she stuck around while we went to TL. So, they'll be more coming up eventually.

[skier_pete]

Merry Christmas everyone! (Or whatever other holiday you celebrate!) I thought for Christmas I would share a picture of our Christmas tree. It's small, but it reminds us of what Christmas is all about.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/2011-12-23_13-46-07_946.jpg

:thumbsup2 Thank you to everyone who takes time out of your life to read my ravings and TR. May you and yours have a wonderful holiday season. And don't forget to spend some time on Christmas watching the Disney parade!

[PrincessInOz]

Hey! I missed a couple of updates. How did that happen?? :confused3






Oh wait! :eek:




MERRY CHRISTMAS!







(Is it over yet? :cloud9: I need to go back to spending time on the DIS)

[Moodyzblu]

Merry Christmas everyone! (Or whatever other holiday you celebrate!) I thought for Christmas I would share a picture of our Christmas tree. It's small, but it reminds us of what Christmas is all about.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/2011-12-23_13-46-07_946.jpg



I think it's perfect !! :thumbsup2

Thank YOU for sharing your trip with US !

[skier_pete]

Hope everyone had a great Christmas. We went to cousin's for Christmas eve for a while, so we were out until 9:30 PM and DD fell right to sleep, which was nice. She had a small fit Christmas day when she opened one of her gifts and it was clothes. :confused3 but otherwise the day went well. The stress is starting to slide away! It's been unseasonably warm and dry here...yesterday we went for an afternoon walk around the block to visit some neighbors. In the 40s and still zero snow on the ground. So far enjoying the lack of snow, but it'll soon be cramping our winter ski plans!

Gotta work two days this week, hopefully it will be slow. We are then heading out of town to my Dad's in Massachusetts for 5 days. Hope to get a little more TR in between. I was able to cut and paste in more of my report below. Enjoy!

So, we headed out for Epcot somewhere a little after four. We had a 5:45 PM ADR for the Garden Grill, and I was hoping to squeeze in “Living with the Land” and “Circle of Life” before dinner so we didn’t have to come back to The Land pavilion on our other Epcot day. Well, the bus came quickly and we were in Epcot before 5 PM. We headed for LwtL and of course there was very little wait.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6151.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6152.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6153.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6154.jpg

DD really likes this ride for some reason. I always enjoy making Jungle Cruise jokes during the opening section:
“Did you know those butterflies can grow anywhere from 12” up to whopping 1 foot?”
“There’s Smiley, he’s always looking for a handout.”
My family of course hates me for this! Can’t say I blame them. It’s definitely worth a ride each trip, but once is enough. DM and DW also enjoyed the ride.

After that, DD insisted we should see the “Circle of Life” and of course our timing was such we had to wait about 10 minutes for the movie. Again, this is a movie I don’t really need to see ever again. (For the record, I am pro-recycle big time.) It’s a nice environmental sledge hammer message and while I guess it’s good to give the kids, I feel the fact that DISNEY of all places is telling us to conserve energy and be one with the environment gets me all irritated. I mean, perhaps they DO try to conserve here and there – but how about providing examples of this? It’s like GE preaching to me to buy new light bulbs to reduce energy usage or something.

Anyways, the movie was running later than our ADR, and I sort of thought there would be a wait, so I ducked out of the movie with a few minutes left and put our names in. There was a few people around, and we had to wait a few more minutes. We were seated by about 6 PM. I was concerned about getting out by 7:15 PM, as we needed to be at the Beach Club for the Illuminations cruise. Because of the late timing, I didn’t request a lower tier table, but we were fortunate to get one anyway.

Dinner at the Garden Grill is a tad different from most Disney Character meals. It’s a revolving restaurant so there really isn’t anyplace to set up a buffet, so the meal is served family style. I neglected to take pictures yet again (What’s wrong with me?) so I’m going to cheat and show last year’s pictures. Right when we sat down the Big Cheese himself came by:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6155.jpg

They brought out the salad and bread course first. This was followed by the main meal, which is made up of Turkey and mashed Potatoes, beef with stuffing, and fish over succotash (the pictures show veggies, but that had changed):

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20October%202010/DSCN4914.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20October%202010/DSCN4913.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20October%202010/DSCN4915.jpg

The kids get chicken legs (DD ate 3 of these) mac and cheese, sweet potato fries and broccoli:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20October%202010/DSCN4916.jpg

We actually got seconds on the beef, turkey and also the broccoli (a rare vegetable at Disney!). The food is quite good, not really great, but for the family style it is a decent meal – not for the price of course!

Now, we started in the back of the restaurant, ate our salad and our meal, we were now rotated to the front of the restaurant, had been there almost an hour, and still no other characters. This was a bit strange from my perspective, as this restaurant is not very big, and last time we saw every character twice…so FINALLY Chip came along:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6156.jpg

And IMMEDIATELY behind him was Dale. This was actually kind of neat, because they were interacting with each other. Now, I like that this dinner you can see Chip and Dale, but really these are two characters that should be together, and to see them here together was fun:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6157.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6159.jpg

We got our desserts, which for DD was an ice cream with oreos (this picture actually taken tonight!):
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6161.jpg

For us, it was apple cobbler, and I admit I like my apples mushy in my apple cobbler, and these are crunchy, so not so great. (Again, last year’s picture.)

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20October%202010/DSCN4920.jpg

We were waiting for Pluto. The ladies went to the bathroom while I waited with DD…it was getting late and I was about to say we have to go…I did ask the waitress at this point, who was very good…if there was anyway we could see him, but she didn’t seem to do anything to hustle him up. We saw him coming and asked the Table behind us if we could skip ahead just to get a quick picture:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6162.jpg

Now, I had still not told the family the “surprise”…however, when I told them that they needed to use the bathroom before we went, DW guessed what we were doing. But anyways, on our way from The Land to World Showcase, I told everyone what the surprise was…an Illuminations cruise!

[skier_pete]

So, now I can tell the whole tale. I didn’t book this myself, but I knew there was a thread of cruise shares here on the DIS. We had a few nights we could’ve done one so I decided to watch for one that might open up on those nights, but I wasn’t going to re-arrange my plans. Well, early in the summer I spotted ClaireH from the UK looking for people to share a cruise this night (November 14th). I wrote to her and told her I was interested. Well, twice it looked like things were going to be changed – once Disney messed up the booking, and a second time which I won’t get into here – but both times it came back around.

So, in the end I was able to keep the cruise. We basically had to pay for 1/10th of the boat each, which came to about $35 a person. So, we went out the back entrance of Epcot (International Gateway) and took the Friendship boats over to Yacht/Beach Club, with two more bathroom stops in between. We got to the cruise and met our fellow travelers. There was a friend of Claire’s (local DISer) another couple from the UK on their anniversary, and another couple that had just gotten engaged a few days before.

The skipper was a WDW veteran, and we boarded about 8:20 PM, they took us out for a ride down towards DHS and back.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6164.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6168.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6163.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6170.jpg

I didn’t get many quality pictures. One of the other guys had a good camera, and was going to share the shots, but I haven’t gotten them yet. (I didn’t really want to post the other families anyways.) We rode back towards the International Gateway and moored underneath the bridge between England and France. I mostly videotaped, so again not many pictures, but here’s the view from where we were docked:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6171.jpg

Seeing Illuminations from this vantage point seemed VERY luxurious. I am not a huge, huge fan of Illuminations but do enjoy the show, but always dislike the whole “staking a spot/standing for an hour” that you have to do with these types of things. (I mind it less for Wishes for some reason.) Being able to sit on the boat while seeing people standing above/around you was a lot of fun. The Skipper also gave us an overview of the story of Illuminations, which I hadn’t really known, and that made the show more interesting as well. After that, we rode back towards the Yacht/Beach Club and got off. It was a lot of fun.

So, would I recommend an Illuminations cruise? Well, that depends. At $35-40 a person, I would wholeheartedly recommend it. We had a very good time, met some very nice people, and thoroughly enjoyed it. However, I would not pay $350 myself for the event. The boat next to us had only 1 family (2 parents, 2 kids) on it, and I kept thinking “Wow, that’s an expensive evening out!” If you can get in on a share, then I would say give it a try. Even DD liked it, though we gave her ear plugs which I think helped a lot. She was pretty tired by the end though.

At the end of the night we went in through the Yacht Club (which I’ve never been in) and got a taxi. We had to wait about 10-15 minutes for the taxi, which sort of surprised me. There were several other families in front of us, and I assumed that this would be fairly common and they’d have taxis at the ready. In the end, it was the easiest mode of transport back to the room. We were still back at our hotel around 10 PM and it was right to bed for everyone, for the next day, the most important rope drop of all…the Toy Story Drop…er I mean Hollywood Studios Drop.

[Moodyzblu]

I've always wondered how those cruises worked as far as cost and such .. and you're right .. unless you can share it, that's a LOT of money to pay for one family. I feel the same about the character meals .. as much fun as it all seems, I can't justify paying so much for a meal. We sort of just nibble our way around the parks.

Hope you have a nice visit to MA ! I, personally, am LOVING no snow ! We practically live at the bottom of Wachusett Mountain ski area but really only go there a couple of times a year so the boys can snowboard. This is usually a huge week for them .. lucky for them they have snow makers. :thumbsup2

[skier_pete]

I've always wondered how those cruises worked as far as cost and such .. and you're right .. unless you can share it, that's a LOT of money to pay for one family. I feel the same about the character meals .. as much fun as it all seems, I can't justify paying so much for a meal. We sort of just nibble our way around the parks.

Hope you have a nice visit to MA ! I, personally, am LOVING no snow ! We practically live at the bottom of Wachusett Mountain ski area but really only go there a couple of times a year so the boys can snowboard. This is usually a huge week for them .. lucky for them they have snow makers. :thumbsup2

I grew up near Springfield. Don't know if you remember Mt. Tom Ski Area. My dad ran the Ski Shop and my uncle and aunt ran the Ski School. I don't know what it's been like there in NE, but here our local mountain just opened with 2 trails and 2 lifts. Still charging $50 a head. No thanks! Supposed to get some snow overnight finally.

The character meals are stupid expensive, but since we mostly do go on Free Dining, and we all know how to eat, the price doesn't bother us so much.

[skier_pete]

Sorry -meant to add this with the previous posts...here's the snowglobe that we got from DTD:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/2011-12-24_15-14-05_222.jpg

[khertz]

Cute snowglobe!!

The Illuminations cruise sounds awesome. But that pricetag...:scared1: Sound like a share would be the way to go. I bet the ladies loved your surprise!

The dinner at Garden Grill sounds like a good option...we might have to give that one a try when DS is a little older. :thumbsup2

[FosterA]

Merry Christmas:santa:! I love your cute little Charlie Brown tree.

anyhoo...nice updates! I personally really really like Living with the land for some reason. Wanted to do the tour but never got around to it though.
As far as Circle of Life film, have no idea what that is all about. Is it 3-D or anything cool like that?

That's really neat how you arranged that cruise. I think I'd really like to try that one day too though not at full price! yikes:scared1: So did your mom seem to be enjoying Disney so far? She looks pretty happy in the photo on the boat:)

[PrincessInOz]

Nice update Pete. Glad you enjoyed Illuminations cruise. Which way was the wind blowing?

We did it last year and the wind blow the smoke straight at us. I enjoyed watching Illuminations from under the IG; but didn't enjoy the smoke and soot falling all over us much.

LOVE :lovestruc that snowglobe. :thumbsup2

[skier_pete]

Cute snowglobe!!

The Illuminations cruise sounds awesome. But that pricetag...:scared1: Sound like a share would be the way to go. I bet the ladies loved your surprise!

The dinner at Garden Grill sounds like a good option...we might have to give that one a try when DS is a little older. :thumbsup2

They did love the surprise. DW and DM were both thrilled, and even DD enjoyed herself - and it wasn't exactly a kid-friendly voyage.

GG is fun, but expensive. Better when you are on the DDP!

Merry Christmas:santa:! I love your cute little Charlie Brown tree.

anyhoo...nice updates! I personally really really like Living with the land for some reason. Wanted to do the tour but never got around to it though.
As far as Circle of Life film, have no idea what that is all about. Is it 3-D or anything cool like that?

That's really neat how you arranged that cruise. I think I'd really like to try that one day too though not at full price! yikes:scared1: So did your mom seem to be enjoying Disney so far? She looks pretty happy in the photo on the boat:)

Re: the tree: Thanks, we were on the plane to Disney when I saw it in the Skymall catalog and told my wife "That's what I want for Christmas!"

The Circle of Life movie is not 3-D, just a big-screen movie showing the evils of man versus the environment. DD likes it because it shows lots of animals as well as Timon and Pumbaa. I wouldn't go out of your way to catch it.

Nice update Pete. Glad you enjoyed Illuminations cruise. Which way was the wind blowing?

We did it last year and the wind blow the smoke straight at us. I enjoyed watching Illuminations from under the IG; but didn't enjoy the smoke and soot falling all over us much.

LOVE :lovestruc that snowglobe. :thumbsup2

The weather was actually pretty good. We were a little nervous after the Wishes Debacle, but it was very mild and calm that evening, and a light jacket was more than enough to keep away the chill. The wind was blowing slightly towards us, so we did get some ash coming down around us, but not really much of the smoke, at least not to a degree that it was bothersome. I could see where it could be pretty bad under the right conditions.

[Moodyzblu]

Sorry -meant to add this with the previous posts...here's the snowglobe that we got from DTD:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/2011-12-24_15-14-05_222.jpg

I missed this pic ! Yup .. we have that same one. My dd love all things Alice. :ccat:

[Chicago Mo]

Awesome report!!! i also have the charlie brown tree!!! it's smack in the middle of my bay window!!
the cruise looked awesome! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your family!!!
Glad you had a great Christmas!!!

[ClareH37]

I've just sat and read your report so far Peter, you guys really had a great time didn't you and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting you all on the cruise :wave2:

I agree re. a group for the cruise, it's definitely the way to go as I just couldn't even comprehend having paying full price for a cruise, that is way too frightening a thought :scared1:

I love everything to do with Alice in Wonderland and adore the snow globe you purchased, wish I'd seen that myself lol

[skier_pete]

I missed this pic ! Yup .. we have that same one. My dd love all things Alice. :ccat:

We still haven't seen Alice in Wonderland, but she did get it for Christmas. It's a great snow globe, in that you just spin the teacup to shake it up rather than having to pick it up and shake.

Awesome report!!! i also have the charlie brown tree!!! it's smack in the middle of my bay window!!
the cruise looked awesome! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your family!!!
Glad you had a great Christmas!!!

Thank you so much. Another update hopefully before the day is out. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to you too!

I've just sat and read your report so far Peter, you guys really had a great time didn't you and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting you all on the cruise :wave2:

I agree re. a group for the cruise, it's definitely the way to go as I just couldn't even comprehend having paying full price for a cruise, that is way too frightening a thought :scared1:

I love everything to do with Alice in Wonderland and adore the snow globe you purchased, wish I'd seen that myself lol

Hello Claire! Happy Christmas as they say over there, and thank you again for sharing your cruise with us! We had such a wonderful time. I still haven't been able to get a hold of James re. the pictures though - tried e-mailing twice. If you are in contact at all, perhaps you could mention to him? I would still love to at least get a shot of the whole group.

Oh...if I had only known about the snowglobe, I would have picked up one for you! They do seem to change-over the snowglobes fairly quickly, but hopefully your next trip back they will still have them...or else you could mail order...not inexpensive I would think! I've gotten one for DD every trip so far, and this is my favorite to date.

[skier_pete]

We are up to Tuesday the 15th of November, the half way point of the trip (at the end of the day) and what was probably the warmest day of the trip. We were hoping that the heat wouldn’t turn out so bad as we were going to spend a lot of times indoors watching shows. I was a bit concerned with getting everything done we wanted to get done as this is the one park we gave ourselves only one day for. Normally with the 3 of us this isn’t an issue, but we wanted to try and fit in the things we thought my mom would like that we wouldn’t necessarily care about. We knew this was going to be one of our fullest days yet.

The good news – the park was really, really slow for the most part. We really didn’t have to stress over the crowds. And we did manage to cram in everything we wanted, though it really meant going from opening to closing.

So, of all the rope drops, this is the one that we always try and get to the front of, so we leave ourselves plenty of time to get there early. I also have a special “trick” which generally allows us to get to the front of the rope drop without being at the gate an hour ahead of time. This is my one secret I won’t share, so don’t ask. Suffice it to say I break no rules in doing this.

Anyways, they started letting people in the park unusually early, like 8:40 AM. So, we stood at the rope for a good 15-20 minutes. We had some nice conversations with the TSM cast members, as well as a park manager who was hanging out in the area. All were very friendly and nice with a good sense of humor about their job. They had a large stage set up in front of the hat – not the normal stage, and I was quizzing them about what it was there for. The manager person indicated that they were having some sort of ceremony around the 40th anniversary, honoring CMs that have been there since the park opened in 1971. She was telling about the woman who trained her, who was one of them but she never knew it. I thought I took some pictures here, but when I went back to look, apparently not.

No rope drop show anymore, so they just announce and drop. The nice thing about being in the front is since the CM are leading the charge, no-one is trying to shove by you to get further up. Our strategy is I keep up with the front and get the FP – while the rest of the family head for the queue. Since we were so close to the front they got a little ahead of me. I don’t like skipping by people in the queue, but I did cut about 20 people to catch up with them. (Let it be known I felt guilty doing it!) We rode the ride and really enjoyed it as usual. DM liked it too. No pix again, though. A lot of times we get a second FP when eligible, but I decided I wanted to FP Star Tours this time.

So, after TSM we headed to Star Tours. This is the first time riding it since the re-furb, and the truth is, I loved it! The refurb was excellent, much sharper picture and sound, love the use of C3PO (even though it makes little sense in the “Star Wars” universe) love the 3-D being less about “in your face” than immersive, love the changing story-lines (we got mostly different segments on the 2nd ride-through). Made it feel so much more current technology than the older version. Nice job imagineers!

First Photo Op of the day:
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After finishing that up, I pulled some FP and DD and I headed to the “Ant Playground” while DM and DW went to see the Muppetvision 3-D. DW likes this a lot, probably more than I do even though I’m a big fan of the muppets. DD doesn’t like the 3-D movies, so decided this was a good compromise. DD got tired of the ant playground fairly quickly for some reason. I don’t know if its that she is starting to grow out of it, because she never got tired of the boneyard, but I did start to think we wouldn’t be spending too much time here in the future. We got the standard ANT picture – which we’ve gotten for many years now:
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When leaving, DW called to say that she was in line for Phineas and Ferb, so we boogied over there for some shots. DD again didn’t want to see the characters. I asked Phineas “Where’s Perry?” and he started running around looking. I love these guys!

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Then we went over to see Mike and Sully from Monster’s Inc. DD had drawn a picture of Mike, Sully and Boo and wanted to give it to them. Unfortunately, Mike was on break so we just got Sully. DD didn’t want to meet him, but we told her she had to come if she wanted to give him the picture.

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It was now time for the Indiana Jones Stunt Show, but first DD really, really wanted a Mickey Ice Cream bar, and we were all hot so we each got one. DD didn’t actually finish hers, as it got too melty too quickly. On the way we saw Stitch out by the hat with no one in line. Now, believe it or not, we have never, ever gotten Stitch’s picture and autograph, even last year with our “50 Character extravaganza”. His line is always too long. So we went for it.

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We had fun with Stitch…I tried to give him Rabbit ears – but he somehow figured me out and gave ‘em right back!

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We went into the theater and I asked the CM where the best place to sit to volunteer. We got a seat low down (3rd row) on the left on the end. I wanted DW to have a chance to try it out. She got picked in the first round of volunteers, so she just had to pretend she was falling into a pit of snakes. She later told me she really didn’t understand why I was so insistent that she volunteer, but once she did it she understood. I did this a few years ago, and it is a great way to see the show from a whole new angle. I wouldn’t do it the first time ever watching it, but it’s great for returning guests. A lot of people complain about this show, but we never get sick of it. (Having seen it at least 9 times now!)

Shaking hands with Indy:
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Preparing for her big scene:
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There’s panic in Cairo!
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Readying to watch a stuntman take a fall:
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The most impressive thing of this show is that when you see it from the extra perspective you notice they don’t even come CLOSE to hitting eachother.

We did a little shopping at the store, where DD wanted an Indiana Jones comic book. (She a huge fan, even though she’s never seen the movies. She likes “adventure” stuff, like Indiana Jones, Tomb Raider, Star Wars, etc.) DM picked up a shirt for DSD (step-dad)After the show it wasn’t quite time for our ADRs, so we decided to go back and do Star Tours with our FP. DM sat it out, as it was a bit too jarring for her, but DD liked it enough to go again, even with the dreaded 3-D!

Spare Astromech Droids (yup I’m a geek)
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I also took a picture of REX – the pilot from version 1.0 which is sitting in the Droid repair area…but it didn’t come out very well. We came out and they were just starting a Jedi Training Academy. I have to say, this show seems better to be in it than to watch. Rather boring really, but would be awesome to be a little kid and get to fight Darth Vader. I asked DD if she wanted to do the show, but even though she likes Star Wars and bought a 2nd lightsaber this trip, she didn’t want to join in the fun.

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We didn’t stay for the whole show, as we had an ADR for lunch at ‘50s Prime Time Café.

The rest of the day will likely have to wait until after New Year's to wrap up...but since there has been so much interest in it, I'll leave you with one last present for the 2011....

Purple Cat!

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See you next year!

[ClareH37]

Hello Claire! Happy Christmas as they say over there, and thank you again for sharing your cruise with us! We had such a wonderful time. I still haven't been able to get a hold of James re. the pictures though - tried e-mailing twice. If you are in contact at all, perhaps you could mention to him? I would still love to at least get a shot of the whole group.

Oh...if I had only known about the snowglobe, I would have picked up one for you! They do seem to change-over the snowglobes fairly quickly, but hopefully your next trip back they will still have them...or else you could mail order...not inexpensive I would think! I've gotten one for DD every trip so far, and this is my favorite to date.

Happy Christmas to you guys too :goodvibes I haven't heard anything from James for a while, I think he may be away for the christmas/new year holidays, but I've just had a look at the link and have retyped it hopefully in such a way that you'll be able to get access to the photos.

I bet your DD's room is really magical with all those gorgeous snowglobes :)

[skier_pete]

Happy Christmas to you guys too :goodvibes I haven't heard anything from James for a while, I think he may be away for the christmas/new year holidays, but I've just had a look at the link and have retyped it hopefully in such a way that you'll be able to get access to the photos.

I bet your DD's room is really magical with all those gorgeous snowglobes :)

I sent you a PM, but I was able to access the pictures. Thanks! I won't be posting any of them here though - as I don't feel as they are mine to post. But I will definitely download them and add them to my files

[PrincessInOz]

Nice pics of HS morning. It's been a while since we went to that playground but I love that its pretty cool'ish on a hot day.

You got great pics of your DD today.

[PrincessInOz]

Happy Christmas to you guys too :goodvibes I haven't heard anything from James for a while, I think he may be away for the christmas/new year holidays, but I've just had a look at the link and have retyped it hopefully in such a way that you'll be able to get access to the photos.

I bet your DD's room is really magical with all those gorgeous snowglobes :)

:wave: Hello Clare! Fancy bumping into you here. Nice to 'see' you. Are you doing a TR? Let me know...I'd like to sub in.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

[FosterA]

This is an exciting update since it's Nov 15 (you wrote Dec. but I think you meant Nov right?) and Nov 15 is the day we arrived. NOw I can start looking for my family in the background of any of your photos:lmao:

I just love that ant photo. As usual, we never even saw that!! I would love to have a pic of my kids on that thing.

Also...love that your DW got to be in the show, how cool is that!

very very interesting that you have a secret ace in the hole on how to get into HS so quickly at rope drop. I can't imagine what trick you have up your sleeve:laughing: Good job though!

[skier_pete]

Nice pics of HS morning. It's been a while since we went to that playground but I love that its pretty cool'ish on a hot day.

You got great pics of your DD today.

Thanks...I really purposefully tried to get more pictures of the family this trip. We've seen all the "stuff" so we don't need more pictures of the front of TSM.

:wave: Hello Clare! Fancy bumping into you here. Nice to 'see' you. Are you doing a TR? Let me know...I'd like to sub in.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

SkierPete's TR - bringing old friends together since 2011. :hug:

This is an exciting update since it's Nov 15 (you wrote Dec. but I think you meant Nov right?) and Nov 15 is the day we arrived. NOw I can start looking for my family in the background of any of your photos:lmao:

I just love that ant photo. As usual, we never even saw that!! I would love to have a pic of my kids on that thing.

Also...love that your DW got to be in the show, how cool is that!

very very interesting that you have a secret ace in the hole on how to get into HS so quickly at rope drop. I can't imagine what trick you have up your sleeve:laughing: Good job though!

Fixed the date - thanks! That's right you were over at MK that day for MVMCP, right? That is part of the fun reading same time TR - "Where was I right then?" We are up to about 12:45 PM in the story so far! Just settling into your hotel, right?

The "ant playground" is too young for your kids, but they might get a slight kick out of climbing around in there/some of the photo ops. I like the giant dog nose way up in the back myself!

I forget, did you guys get to see that show on your trip? When you go back, you should go again, and when they ask for volunteers, just around like a madwoman...they'd never expect you to do it! Of course with your pokey family you'll probably be sitting way in the back.:rotfl:

And the only way to ever get this secret out of me is to be at DHS rope drop with me...or buy me a few drinks would probably do the trick. :dance3:

[FosterA]

I forget, did you guys get to see that show on your trip? When you go back, you should go again, and when they ask for volunteers, just around like a madwoman...they'd never expect you to do it! Of course with your pokey family you'll probably be sitting way in the back.:rotfl:

And the only way to ever get this secret out of me is to be at DHS rope drop with me...or buy me a few drinks would probably do the trick. :dance3:[/QUOTE]



NO, we never did see the Indiana Show and I so wanted to! Just ran out of time. And you are so right...we would be sitting in the far back:lmao:

Maybe you can auction off your secret on how to tackle HS and Toy Story to the highest bidder:laughing:

[DisMomAmy]

We love the Indy show! We didn't make it there in November & the kids commented about it so we'll be sure to hit it in April.

We're going to head to Jedi Training sign up right at rope drop in April too. I hear you have to get on the list first thing. Seems like a pain but a much better way to do it in my opinion, especially as the mom of TWO boys. They wouldn't be very happy if one got chosen & the other didn't.

Happy New Year!

[skier_pete]

NO, we never did see the Indiana Show and I so wanted to! Just ran out of time. And you are so right...we would be sitting in the far back:lmao:

Maybe you can auction off your secret on how to tackle HS and Toy Story to the highest bidder:laughing:

Nope...no auction. The only way to get the secret from me is to meet us for rope drop. Let's pencil it in: November 16th, 2013, 8:30 AM!:rotfl:

We love the Indy show! We didn't make it there in November & the kids commented about it so we'll be sure to hit it in April.

We're going to head to Jedi Training sign up right at rope drop in April too. I hear you have to get on the list first thing. Seems like a pain but a much better way to do it in my opinion, especially as the mom of TWO boys. They wouldn't be very happy if one got chosen & the other didn't.

Happy New Year!

From what I hear that's the way to get the Jedi Training. Sign up at rope drop. DD doesn't seem to want to do it, though, so we've never bothered to try. She has TWO lightsabers now...so you think she'd have the interest. Oh well.

Almost back in the swing of things, hopefully I'll squeeze an update in this week.

[joy13]

All caught up (via links) it's funny to compare what your daughter likes vs mine since they are about the same age. My daughter has her pickiness too, but seems to be opposite of yours. My dd loves Soarin' - wouldn't even consider Star Tours, mine loves all the characters (though didn't want to stand in line too long to see them most of the time), but we had to leave the Indy show last time because the fighting and fire scared her - so she wouldn't see it this time. Kind of funny.

[skier_pete]

All caught up (via links) it's funny to compare what your daughter likes vs mine since they are about the same age. My daughter has her pickiness too, but seems to be opposite of yours. My dd loves Soarin' - wouldn't even consider Star Tours, mine loves all the characters (though didn't want to stand in line too long to see them most of the time), but we had to leave the Indy show last time because the fighting and fire scared her - so she wouldn't see it this time. Kind of funny.

Nice - glad to see someone use those links!

Kids are so funny that way. DD doesn't like the fire parts very much - she ducks down and covers her ears - but I think she must really like the stunt parts.

[skier_pete]

Happy New Year everyone! I'm back and updating again. Hopefully I can continue to do this pretty regularly and be done by the end of February. You also might notice a new ticker appearing at the bottom of the page. Expect a Pre-Trip report link to be coming along very soon!

Anyways, back to the update. When I last left off, we were heading to 50s Prime Time Cafe (PTC) for lunch.

This was the only true “new” restaurant we tried this trip…we’ve pretty much done all the TS ones within the parks, so it’s hard to find new ones. ’50s PTC is pretty much what is says, a restaurant themed to a ‘50s/’60s TV show, like you are at the supper table at Lucy’s place. We got there and we had to wait about 20 minutes to get a Table. It was warm out, but all the seats inside were full, but I got a spot at the bar, and DM and I decided to get a cold beer.

The bar – TVs were sort of everywhere in this place:
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No ‘50s sitcom would be complete without the Aluminum tree.
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We finally got seated. I think much like the Jungle Cruise, a lot of the pleasure you get out of this restaurant requires (1) a really good CM and (2) embracing the conceit of it. In our case, we got a fantastic CM waitress who was Aunt Doris or something like that. I didn’t get her picture for some reason. She really played the role joking with our table and all the tables around us. You could tell she’d been working there a while. Some of the other waiters and waitresses around weren’t as into it, though so I think we were very lucky in that respect.

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The other important thing was – how was the food? It was fantastic. DW and I started out with shakes for our drinks. I had chocolate and she had chocolate peanut butter.

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They were huge, each metal glass held like 3 glasses worth of shake. I don’t think I finished it! The meals were all really good. DM had the chicken pot pie, DW had the pork chops, and I decided to try the combo platter of meatloaf, pot roast, and fried chicken:

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They were all quite delicious. Comfort food at its best. DD had the chicken and pasta, and liked hers as well. She actually ate some vegatables, though I was disappointed the waitress didn’t make her eat ALL of them!
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We also had desert, but somehow I forgot to take pictures of them! Where’s my DIS head. We really didn’t need the desserts, though. I just remember getting the s’mores dessert and not being able to eat more than half of it. Overall, we really really enjoyed this meal, a lot more than I was expecting. While I still prefer the Sci-Fi, this is definitely a fun alternative, especially if you get a willing and able cast member running your table. Overall, I give it a 8 out of 10.

By the time we got out of there it was already something like 2:30 PM, and we had a LOT left that we wanted to do so we had to time things just right to accomplish them.

Continued in next post.

[skier_pete]

Since I didn’t take a ton of pictures of what was next I will just sort of list things off. It was mostly shows, so even though it was sort of a hectic pace it really wasn’t too tiring:

1st: Voyage of the Little Mermaid : Good show, but to me really good use an update/modernization.
2nd: Disney Junior Live of Stage: Kill me now! Kill me now! I so hope by the time we get back again DD has outgrown this awful thing.
3rd: Beauty & the Beast – this was a 4 PM showing, and I blew it off to try and squeeze in RnRC and ToT as I didn’t think there was any other way for me to get these in.

So, I’ll digress here a bit, because I got in the single rider line for RnRC. The single rider line is great, because you not only bypass the stand-by line before the preshow (which the FP line does), but when you come out of the Aerosmith preshow the single riders get there own, almost non-exisitant line, so in this case I was basically at the cars with no wait at all. However, the ride immediately broke down. After standing there about 5 minutes, they let everyone out. They offered me a FP to return, but I said, “No Thanks!” So instead, I headed over to ToT and rode it twice. On the second ride, I took at little nap (lower right).

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Took this FP shot on the way back to TSM:
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4th: TSM – used our FP for a re-ride
5th: Animation Academy. Of course our timing was bad here, and we JUST missed the 5 PM session, so we had to sit and wait about 25 minutes for the next one. In the meantime, DW and I met with the Bob and Helen Parr.

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By the time we were out of the animation academy, it was almost 6 PM, and this meant we missed the lighting of the lights. DD was getting tired (it was a busy day) and she threw a fit saying she didn’t want to see the lights. Ugh! She drives me crazy sometimes. Well, we eventually dragged her there and of course once she got there she was much better. It of course helped that we bought her a pretzel. For those that haven’t seen the Obsorne Lights, they are just absolutely incredible. I am not one for excessive Christmas lights on a house, I like simple and pretty, but this is just so over the top, it really works amazingly well. It’s one of the few things that I see in Disney World that I think effectively gets me to feel like it is really Christmas:

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It was down this alley up high that they had “Purple Cat” hidden. As you can see, it wasn't easy to spot without just the right angle.
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I wanted to find Purple Cat, and I was looking all over. A CM overheard me telling my DM about it, and he took me to find it. He also told us the story behind purple cat. He claimed that when the lights were originally shipped to Disney, they were unpacking all the boxes and they found a purple cat. They couldn’t figure what it the world that had to do with Christmas, and when they asked Jennings Osborne, he said that it was a Halloween decoration that had accidently been packed in with the Christmas ones. Well, a CM decided to put it up anyways, and it has become a Holiday tradition to put the cat in a difficult to find spot. Well, this one this year was pretty difficult, as you had to stand in exactly the right spot and look down a side alley to see it. It was so specific that you really couldn’t even see the whole cat at once. Here’s the best picture I could get, which I already posted earlier but will repeat here:
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So, my DM and I left DW and DD at this point. My DM is a real big American Idol fan, and I wanted to be sure she got to see the show. The finale show was scheduled for 7:30 PM, and it was still only about 6:30 PM, so I suggested we kill time by checking out the Great Movie Ride. Now, I’m not a huge fan of GMR. Some of the concepts are good, but I think they did just a very poor job in most cases of capturing the fun and excitement of the movies that I just don’t care for it very much. Some concepts are good – having the Tram taken over by a movie character – but just not that great in execution. However, DM did enjoy the ride quite a bit, and I didn’t mind it, so it was a fine diversion. And by the time it was over, we had to head in for AIE.

I am not a big fan of American idol. I have nothing against it, it’s nice that they at least get people that can actually sing and give them their big break. However, I find the format of the show so filler-ific that I can’t stand watching it. If there is 30 minutes of actual singing in a 2 hour episode of AI I would be shocked, and the results shows are even worse. But, I knew my mom would enjoy this show, and so these a the sacrifices we make for our families!

This was the first time I ‘ve sat through this show, and it was a pretty accurate rendition of the actual show. They have people come out and pump up the crowd, show videos of former contestants, and introduce the judges.

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Actually, I got a bigger kick out of seeing the judges, because two of the three were former Adventurer’s Club CMs. The middle one I saw play Samantha Sterling the last time I was in there, and the guy I’ve seen play Fletcher Hodges as well.
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It’s funny that they introduce these people as “record producers/executives”, I wonder if the contestants think they really are that. I would hope not. It’s also funny that they are so accurate to the real thing that they have Coke product placement in front of them.

The show involved the “champions” of all the shows for the day. Each one got to sing 2 minutes of a song. And honestly, while none of them were terrible, none of them really stood out either. (I decided not to post pictures of anyone because I probably shouldn’t.) The one thing I found annoying is that some of the song mixes actually included someone singing along in the background. If I’m judging people singing, how about letting me hear them sing?

But in the end, someone won, got the “golden ticket” from Willie Wonk…I mean the Ryan Seacrest clone and the show was over. I don’t think I will ever need to sit through that again.

At the end of the day, we made our way back to the hotel. The crowds at the bus wasn’t bad, and neither was the wait. It was funny in that it was sort of a pack-filled day with us opening and closing the park, but it really didn’t feel too bad. We were pretty beat though, and by the time we got back to the room were pretty much ready to go to sleep. I think we might have gotten some food at the time, I got an oriental chicken salad but didn’t finish it as I was still pretty full from lunch some 8 hours before. It was a fun day and we got quite a bit done.

Since I forgot to do this for Day 4:
Characters Met: 4
Rides/Attractions seen: 3
Waits of > 5 minutes: 0

Day 5:
Characters Met: 6
Rides/Attractions seen: 13*
Waits of > 5 minutes: 0
*I only counted the Muppets/HISTK Playground as 1, and BatB/Tot as 1, since we did them concurrently.

Totals (5 days to date):
Characters Met: 16
Rides/Attractions seen: 50
Waits of > 5 minutes: 1

[orcasandowls]

Catching up via links and subscribing. Looks like an awesome trip!

[Chicago Mo]

FINALLY The Purple cat!!!

I didn't know anything about the purple cat what a great story!!

Happy new year!!!

[Moodyzblu]

Congratulations on being able to photograph the elusive purple cat !! :thumbsup2

[skier_pete]

Catching up via links and subscribing. Looks like an awesome trip!

:Welcome: and thanks for joining in! There's still a long way to go for the end.

FINALLY The Purple cat!!!

I didn't know anything about the purple cat what a great story!!

Happy new year!!!

Congratulations on being able to photograph the elusive purple cat !! :thumbsup2

Looking back, I realize I didn't even describe how "elusive" it really was. The picture before the purple cat, the one with the basketball hoop, shows exactly where the cat is, but you can't see it. It is actually on top of that blue and green lighted building, directly to the left of the basketball hoop. If you look at the previous picture right above this one, you can't even see where the alley is. Two more above that is a further back view, and you can sort of see the alley (just below the Lion King billboard). You have to position yourself not too close to that alley, and at just the right spot so you are looking down it at the right angle to see the top of that blue & green building. The CM that helped me knew where it was and had a hard time finding it. It definitely would be a major challange to find on your own.

[PrincessInOz]

Nice updates and thanks for sharing Osbourne. I haven't yet been lucky enough to go to the World during Christmas...it is on my bucket list....so I'm always enviously looking at the Christmas TRs with the beautiful decorations.

That's a great story about the purple cat. I've seen heaps of people post pictures of the purple cat and had wondered why. Now I know. :thumbsup2

And I like that new ticker of yours..popcorn::

[skier_pete]

Nice updates and thanks for sharing Osbourne. I haven't yet been lucky enough to go to the World during Christmas...it is on my bucket list....so I'm always enviously looking at the Christmas TRs with the beautiful decorations.

You definitely should. You don't even really have to come at Christmas. It was still almost 40 days away when we visited!

That's a great story about the purple cat. I've seen heaps of people post pictures of the purple cat and had wondered why. Now I know. :thumbsup2

So nice that the CM helped us out...it just makes me think how wonderful all the CMs we interacted with on our trip were. I'm sure there are bad ones out there, but we always get such great interaction. I think because we always have a smile and are polite to them. I'm sure they have so many rude customers and I sometimes wonder if the times you read about problems its really the tourist being rude first before the CM. But anyways, the CM at Osborne lights overheard me searching, and not only took me over to find it but also told that story. Great job on his part!

And I like that new ticker of yours..popcorn::


The planning (and the PTR) will be starting in earnest very very soon. You know I will be picking your brain some more! :worship:

[joy13]

I thought about 50's Primetime for Dinner - actually had an ADR there - but then cancelled it because I wasn't sure how Maddie would respond to the schtick they do there. One day she could love it, but in the wrong mood, it could bother her, so I wasn't going to take a chance - LOL! Food looked great too! The night we were at DHS, it closed early for some convention group - so the Osborne lights were so crowded, I don't think I was able to get down that alley - but I remember the basketball hoop :)

[Colleen27]

50s Prime Time looks great! DD10 insisted on an ADR there and your review actually has me looking forward to it for the first time.

Great job finding the purple cat! When we were there at Christmastime my family ran out of patience on me so I never did track it down.

[FosterA]

Great updates!
Very interesting about the purple cat thing. I had heard DIS people talking about it some here and there but now I know the REAL story. pretty cool! I wish I knew to look for him before we went.

I think you got some super photos of the lights!

speaking of great photos....gotta love that one of you sleeping on TOT!:lmao:

Glad to hear the deets about American Idol too. David was slightly interested in seeing that but we ran out of time and I really didn't do a lot of "research" on it anyway but now I sort of have a better idea. Maybe next time.....?

[skier_pete]

I thought about 50's Primetime for Dinner - actually had an ADR there - but then cancelled it because I wasn't sure how Maddie would respond to the schtick they do there. One day she could love it, but in the wrong mood, it could bother her, so I wasn't going to take a chance - LOL! Food looked great too! The night we were at DHS, it closed early for some convention group - so the Osborne lights were so crowded, I don't think I was able to get down that alley - but I remember the basketball hoop :)

You definitely can't be overly sensative at 50's PTC. I was constantly scolded for having my elbows on the table (a bad habit I know).
50s Prime Time looks great! DD10 insisted on an ADR there and your review actually has me looking forward to it for the first time.

Great job finding the purple cat! When we were there at Christmastime my family ran out of patience on me so I never did track it down.

A lot will depend on your server, but the food was good regardless. I forgot to mention the prices weren't too bad either...though this was the meal that was originally planned as OOP, but when we ended up skipping out on Restaurant Marrakesh we got to put this one on the DDP.

I could see where the family wouldn't have pateince for you searching for it! I don't think I ever would have found it on my own.

Great updates!
Very interesting about the purple cat thing. I had heard DIS people talking about it some here and there but now I know the REAL story. pretty cool! I wish I knew to look for him before we went.

I think you got some super photos of the lights!

speaking of great photos....gotta love that one of you sleeping on TOT!:lmao:

Glad to hear the deets about American Idol too. David was slightly interested in seeing that but we ran out of time and I really didn't do a lot of "research" on it anyway but now I sort of have a better idea. Maybe next time.....?

Thanks for all the praise...much appreciated to know people are enjoying the updates! I was trying to come up with fun things to do in the ride photos. I actually like the guy next to me and his "panic face".

I guess I didn't say it with the AI review, but my mom LOVED it. I think it's one of those attractions that if you are already a fan, you would enjoy it, but if you are not, you don't think too much of it. It's definitely not an attraction that will outlast the end of American Idol when it comes.

[khertz]

Dinner looks great! We haven't eaten there since the last time I was still living with my parents and we went on a trip. Once when DH came with us (when he was still DBF!) he gulped his glass of Coke down in seconds, and the waitress made a smart comment about it and said she'd get him a refill. She came back with a tray of about 5 or 6 glasses of Coke for him! He tried valiantly to finish them all just to show her he could, but there was no way. Definitely a great memory from that place. The right waiter or waitress really makes the whole experience fun. And their fried chicken is delicious!

:rotfl: at you sleeping on ToT. And I learned the hard way that the single rider line on RnRC is not always great!! I think that's coming up on the next day of our trip.

Yay, Osborne Lights!! I know both you & I were very excited about them this year. I just LOVE those lights! And how cool that you found the purple cat!!

I'm with you on American Idol...so much filler. I can't watch it unless it's on DVR so I can fast forward through the junk. Especially the results!! I always fast forward to the last five minutes just to see who goes home. And all of this is only for seasons where the contestants actually keep my interest. Last season didn't at all, and I'm thinking it was the judges, so I may not be an AI viewer much longer! All that, and I have NO desire to see any of the AI shows in the parks. But it was nice of you to see it with your Mom. I bet she appreciated that! :thumbsup2

Great updates!! Although I'm curious, how did your Animation Academy drawings come out? You should post them!!

[DisMomAmy]

We love 50's Prime Time - I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I LOVED seeing the Osborne Lights!! I didn't know about the purple cat though! If I ever get back while the lights are up, I'll be sure to look for it!

[pld5]

Looking forward to reading more.

I was going to post to ask about your wife's shirt from your AK day, but decided to read through your report again and saw that you answered this on page 8 of this thread.

Please pass along to her again how cool it is. I hope to find something similar in 2 weeks when I am there.

[skier_pete]

Dinner looks great! We haven't eaten there since the last time I was still living with my parents and we went on a trip. Once when DH came with us (when he was still DBF!) he gulped his glass of Coke down in seconds, and the waitress made a smart comment about it and said she'd get him a refill. She came back with a tray of about 5 or 6 glasses of Coke for him! He tried valiantly to finish them all just to show her he could, but there was no way. Definitely a great memory from that place. The right waiter or waitress really makes the whole experience fun. And their fried chicken is delicious!

:rotfl: at you sleeping on ToT. And I learned the hard way that the single rider line on RnRC is not always great!! I think that's coming up on the next day of our trip.

Yay, Osborne Lights!! I know both you & I were very excited about them this year. I just LOVE those lights! And how cool that you found the purple cat!!

I'm with you on American Idol...so much filler. I can't watch it unless it's on DVR so I can fast forward through the junk. Especially the results!! I always fast forward to the last five minutes just to see who goes home. And all of this is only for seasons where the contestants actually keep my interest. Last season didn't at all, and I'm thinking it was the judges, so I may not be an AI viewer much longer! All that, and I have NO desire to see any of the AI shows in the parks. But it was nice of you to see it with your Mom. I bet she appreciated that! :thumbsup2

Great updates!! Although I'm curious, how did your Animation Academy drawings come out? You should post them!!

I totally agree the server would make 50s PTC. Too funny that your DH tried to drink all that Coke! I guess I'm lucky I got a beer at the bar, because I would've gulped down my first drink that fast as well.

I guess I skipped over part of the Animation Academy experience. Well, we ran into a problem in there - as we are walking in, I'm going into a row, and I turn around, and this other family has barged in between us. Well, they wouldn't give up their seats, so we only had two seats in the row, and by the time we realized what was going on, the whole place had filled up. We gave the seats to DM and DD, and in the end they gave us a spot in the front row, which only had a lap desk. DW was really upset because this is one of her favorite things. Then on top of that, they had us draw Karl Fredrikson (from UP), which to me was rather an uninteresting choice. I guess that's why my mind blanked out on describing the experience. :lmao: We did save the drawings, though. If I think to, I'll take pictures of them and post them.

We love 50's Prime Time - I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I LOVED seeing the Osborne Lights!! I didn't know about the purple cat though! If I ever get back while the lights are up, I'll be sure to look for it!

Well, since you were "Finally getting to see the lights" I would hope that you loved 'em!

Looking forward to reading more.

I was going to post to ask about your wife's shirt from your AK day, but decided to read through your report again and saw that you answered this on page 8 of this thread.

Please pass along to her again how cool it is. I hope to find something similar in 2 weeks when I am there.

Thanks for joining in. How awesome that you are fulfilling a childhood dream (as in your avatar) with a Disney stay! My wife bought that blouse in Animal Kingdom at the store in Africa...we can't remember the name, but across from Tusker House. She bought it in 2009, so hard to say if they still have them.

[skier_pete]

As we pass the ½ way mark of our trip, we start to go back to parks we’ve already been to. In doing so, I start to loosen up the rope drop rule. In particular, with Epcot it’s really not necessary, especially since the family consensus was we did not need to ride Soarin’ again. So, the plan was a more leisurely pace this morning, with a target of getting to the bus stop around 9:30 AM.

Well, DD woke up early and decided that she really wanted to go down to the pool. It was a pretty warm day again (the last of the really warm days we had) so I was OK with the idea. We went down around 8:30 AM, with the idea to swim for about 30 minutes. At that early a time the pool was fairly empty, the slides weren’t yet open and the lifeguards weren’t on duty yet. We got down to the pool, and DD asked if we could stay long enough for the slides to open. I said, “OK, but just a few minutes after.” We still had to go back and get dressed to go to the parks. Well, the lifeguards start arriving, and DD is chomping at the bit to go on the slides…the head lifeguard sees this and says to her “Would you like to help us open the slides?” She says “Yes” and so they set her up with a pirate hat, eye patch and a sword and they have her declare the slides open. They also have her do a countdown to when the water on the slides turns on…countdown from 20, and they must have it timed just right, because when they get to 1 the water starts gushing out of the slide.

Of course, this is the one time I didn’t bring my camera with me, so I didn’t capture ANY pictures or video of it. We ended up having to stick around for about 15 more minutes because they gave her a “Magical Moments” certificate. (This sort of stuff started up with the “Year of a Millions Dreams” promotion back in 2007/2008.) We got back to the room, and I had her put on all the pirate gear and go up to the door to surprise DM and DW. They got a kick out of it. I then finally got her picture in full pirate regalia:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6261.jpg

After we changed we headed out to Epcot. We had a little different plan, basically after lunch we were going to split up. My DM wanted to explore the countries a bit more, while we wanted to hit a little bit more of Future World. We had a dinner ADR at Biergarten at 5:45 PM, so we were going to meet there at dinnertime.

As we entered the park, we were asked to participate in the new “Next-Gen” gate entry. This was big news on the boards around that time (and even got talked about in the podcast). DW was excited to help out, as she said it meant “we were part of the EP in EPCOT” – that’s “Experimental Prototype” for those that don’t know. They put a sticker on each of our tickets that had a RFID chip in it, and then they scanned our ticket. We then went up to the new-style entrance gate. You were supposed to scan your ticket in front of the Mickey scanner, and then still give your finger scan. When it was successful, you just walked through, no turnstile.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6262.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6263.jpg

DW was excited, I was annoyed. This worked just terribly, it probably only took about half the people on the first try. We maybe had 10 people in front of us and it took about 5 minutes to get through. For our party, two of the four of us never got the scanner to work, and the tickets were scanned separately. I hope they bring it back to the drawing board, because the last thing I want to do is be held up entering the park at Rope Drop. In this case, it was somewhat less annoying because we were already an hour into the park hours, but I still wanted to get through. We stopped for a photopass shot on the way in, you can see the sun is well up over the ball by this time.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/Photo0820FourBySix.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/Photo0821FourBySix.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/Photo0824FourBySix.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1743.jpg

So, it was pretty close to 10:30 AM by the time we got into the park. We had decided we would try something “new” and see Ellen’s Energy Adventure. But first, a picture of poor, dead “Wonders of Life”:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6264.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6265.jpg

DW and I had done this back in 1997 or 2000, and we hadn’t done it since. From what I remembered, the show is amusing but way too long. After doing it again, I would say my assessment hasn’t changed. But DM and DD both really liked the show a lot. DD especially liked seeing dinosaurs without the fear of being eaten. She even wanted to ride it a 2nd time, but we held our ground on that one!

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6267.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6273.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6270.jpg

We had picked up FP for Test Track on the way in, and by the time we came out, I pulled another set for Mission: Space on the off chance I could get the family to ride it. By this point, we were all ready for some lunch, so we headed across the park for our third stop of the trip at the Land for Sunshine Seasons. This place is quite possibly the best Counter Service location in the entire park. The quality of the food combined with variety makes it a great choice for a meal. We each had something different and unique and it was all quite good. I had the pork loin chop with mash potatoes, but got a rice crispy treat to save for later.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6280.jpg

DD got an adult meal because she loves Chinese stir fry noodles and a chocolate cake. (The DDP doesn’t know the difference between kids meals and adult meals on CS.)
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6279.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6278.jpg
DW also got a Chinese stir fry meal with a strawberry shortcake.
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6281.jpg
DM got a grilled veggie sandwich and Tiramisu.
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6282.jpg

As expected, the food was really excellent and we enjoyed it a lot. Next up we split.

[skier_pete]

After lunch we split up, with DM heading to World Showcase. I will return with some of her pictures later. In the meantime, we had to return to the Seas for DD, who can’t go to Epcot without a quick search for Nemo. We also found a very,very small hidden Mickey in the “Shark” area:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6285.jpg

More Shark pixs:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6286.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6287.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6290.jpg

We then headed over to TT and used our FP. We basically walked right up to the pre-show rooms, but then after the pre-show the wait was probably about 10 minutes, so this one I guess goes over the 5 minute limit. Test Track was fun as usual, not a great ride, but I do love the ending. We tried to do silly faces for our photo, but messed up where the photo spot was, so nope just boring. (And DD was ducking down for some reason, so she is “missing”:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/Photo0938FourBySix.jpg



I then did what I thought was fruitless and tried to convince my family to try Mission:Space. Amazingly, DD and DW both agreed to it! DD was nervous, but I was so proud that she agreed to try a ride without any threatening or cajoling. We rode the green side and guess what, everyone loved it! We were only the three of us, so I had to play two roles. (There was no wait at all.) Afterwards, we played some of the games in the exit area, and we sent some electronic postcards home.

As usual with Epcot, the day just seemed to be slipping away. It was already around 3:30 PM, and we hadn’t even had a chance to hit World Showcase yet. We wanted to at least see Miyuki in Japan and do one Kim Possible mission before meeting DM, so we decided to take the boat from Mexico to Germany and then walk over to Japan. First, a photopass op. We used this photo in our Christmas Card this year:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/Photo0984FourBySix.jpg

Well, the boat was only running from Mexico – Morocco – Germany circle (the dock in Canada was closed) so we got off in Morocco. I left DW and DD in Japan and headed over to the KP station near Italy to get a Kimmunicator. On the way over, I noticed this next to the American pavilion…they had a Characaterpalooza going on, Smee, Pluto, Chip and Dale, Tigger and Goofy, all out at the same time. Since other than Smee we did not need any of these characters, I only stopped to take a picture. An hour later they were all gone.
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6291.jpg

I went back over to Japan. DD wanted to do Pick-A-Pearl, so we did this first. I don’t know why I bother, but she seemed to enjoy it. She doesn’t want any jewelry, just the pearl. I think she has three now.
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6292.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6293.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6299.jpg

We then went through the KP mission, and it was time for Myuki, the candy lady. She shapes animals from hot sugar candy, and is strictly speaking awesome. DD got picked for an animal, so asked for a Cricket and somehow Myuki didn’t know what that was. Then DD asked for a seahorse:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6300.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6301.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6304.jpg

I headed over the Germany before Myuki’s show was over, because we were running a bit late. I just didn’t want DM wondering where we were. She had had a good time on her own. See the next post for some pictures of her adventures.

[skier_pete]

Here are a few of DM's pictures, which show a nice travelog of the “World”:

Canada
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1744.jpg
England
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1746.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1748.jpg
The “Channel”
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1750.jpg
France
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1752.jpg
Morocco
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1753.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1754.jpg
Mo Rockin’!
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1755.jpg
Belly Dancer!
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1757.jpg
Japan
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1758.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1760.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1761.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1762.jpg
America Christmas Tree
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1763.jpg
Italy
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1764.jpg
Germany
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1767.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1766.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1768.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1769.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1770.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1771.jpg

Next update will cover dinner @ Beirgarten as well as DW and my evening at Jellyrolls!

[Moodyzblu]

You had my most favorite meal at Epcot .. the pork chop !! I find myself craving those things. I usually get that with the strawberry dessert .. but might try the tiramisu next time. :thumbsup2

I just love Epcot .. the day does go by fast when you're there .. there is just SO much to see and do there and I haven't even done it all yet.

[joy13]

Great Epcot day! How fun that your daughter got to open the slides, looks fun!

[FosterA]

That's cute how they had your DD "open" the slides for the day. And I gotta say, she looks pretty fierce in her pirate getup!;)

Also pretty neat that you got picked to participate in the Next-gen thing even though it sounded like it slowed things down. At least by now in your trip rope-drop isn't quite so crucial.

OMG! your DD wanted to do Ellen again??? Oh Lordy, I can't imagine having to sit through that twice:laughing: I'm glad you put the kabosh on that idea and didn't give in. You wouldn't be here writing your TR because you'd still be on that slow moving thing about now!

Oh man! I wanted to see that candy lady so bad and we never did. You got great photos of her and the seahorse though so I "sort of" feel like I saw her. I also love all your DM's photos of Epcot since we only did World Showcase at night and never really saw any of those things. I would just love to walk in some of those gardens:love:

[Chicago Mo]

HOW AWESOME your DD was picked!!!!! We were always missing her show!!!
That is seriously awesome!!!
You are rockin the TR!!

[Chicago Mo]

OMG! your DD wanted to do Ellen again??? Oh Lordy, I can't imagine having to sit through that twice:laughing: I'm glad you put the kabosh on that idea and didn't give in. You wouldn't be here writing your TR because you'd still be on that slow moving thing about now!

:lmao:
that's hysterical.

[skier_pete]

You had my most favorite meal at Epcot .. the pork chop !! I find myself craving those things. I usually get that with the strawberry dessert .. but might try the tiramisu next time. :thumbsup2

I just love Epcot .. the day does go by fast when you're there .. there is just SO much to see and do there and I haven't even done it all yet.

Agree with everything you say 100 %! That was one gooood pork chop.

Great Epcot day! How fun that your daughter got to open the slides, looks fun!

It was a fun surprise. We didn't even know they did anything special.

That's cute how they had your DD "open" the slides for the day. And I gotta say, she looks pretty fierce in her pirate getup!;)

Also pretty neat that you got picked to participate in the Next-gen thing even though it sounded like it slowed things down. At least by now in your trip rope-drop isn't quite so crucial.

OMG! your DD wanted to do Ellen again??? Oh Lordy, I can't imagine having to sit through that twice:laughing: I'm glad you put the kabosh on that idea and didn't give in. You wouldn't be here writing your TR because you'd still be on that slow moving thing about now!

Oh man! I wanted to see that candy lady so bad and we never did. You got great photos of her and the seahorse though so I "sort of" feel like I saw her. I also love all your DM's photos of Epcot since we only did World Showcase at night and never really saw any of those things. I would just love to walk in some of those gardens:love:

I think they were asking anyone that would join in to participate with the next-gen test. I can't imagine how annoyed I would have been with it had it been at rope drop.

The Energy ride was even worse before they put Ellen in there, though it wasn't as long. The whole dinosaur section is the same from back then, just throwing in the Ellen animatronic. I kind of enjoy the humor of the show. (I get the biggest kick out of the Einstein just stands there and does nothing the whole time.) However, it's NOT really a show I want to see every trip, but I'm afraid we might have to see it again next time too!

Watching Myuki work is amazing, that she takes a blob of sugar and turns it into these sculptures in 2 minutes is amazing. You definitely have to give yourself more time for Epcot next trip. I know your cold/bug screwed up your Epcot plans, but it is a park that needs a lot of time. Every trip we leave Disney with that being the one we say "We really could've used more time at Epcot." We never even get time for Innoventions.

HOW AWESOME your DD was picked!!!!! We were always missing her show!!!
That is seriously awesome!!!
You are rockin the TR!!

Actually, getting picked for Myuki isn't that hard. Gotta get there 5 minutes before the show starts and plop your kid front and center. Then just get them to jump up and down with their hand raised...your chances are very high...but only expect one per family. This is at least the third time Myuki's made something for DD.

SP

[Chicago Mo]

I am THERE!!!! thanks!!!:thumbsup2

[khertz]

How awesome that DD was chosen to open the slide! :thumbsup2 It's always so great when something unexpected like that happens that makes for such a magical moment.

I love the picture y'all used for your Christmas card. So cute! :goodvibes

One day, I just have to stop at Sunshine Seasons for nothing else except that strawberry shortcake. It looks divine. Maybe it will be the "Butterfinger cupcake" of our next trip...a dessert we just HAVE to try!!

[skier_pete]

How awesome that DD was chosen to open the slide! :thumbsup2 It's always so great when something unexpected like that happens that makes for such a magical moment.

I love the picture y'all used for your Christmas card. So cute! :goodvibes

One day, I just have to stop at Sunshine Seasons for nothing else except that strawberry shortcake. It looks divine. Maybe it will be the "Butterfinger cupcake" of our next trip...a dessert we just HAVE to try!!

That Strawberry shortcake ranked in the Top 5 Desserts in WDW in the Disney Food Blog, so I guess its considered pretty good. Definitely worth a try. There's not many sit-down restaurants that I genuinely "miss" if we don't get there, but Sunshine Seasons is one of them.

[skier_pete]

So, for dinner we ate at Biergarten. We first ate here back in 2006, and enjoyed the show and thought the food was so-so. Overall, this experience was very similar. My father was born and raised in Austria, and my mother met him while skiing, so my background is half-“German” and we both enjoy this type of food. The food here is somewhat authentic but my big complaint is that the quality of the meat is all very low, mostly sausage and brats with lots of filler. For $35 a head, we should at least get a decent quality meat. The salads and the desserts were all quite good. Overall, not a bad meal. The show we saw was lots of fun but was rather short, at least it seemed that way. My mom and I both wanted some beer, so I ordered a large beer (at $13) and we split it. (Cheaper than two individual beers.)

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6305.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6307.jpg

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http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6309.jpg

I would give this restaurant a 7/10, with 9/10 for the atmosphere and 6/10 for the food. (10/10 for the beer though!)

Towards the end of the meal, we were again going our separate ways. DM was going to take DD back to the hotel, while DW and I were to get a night out on our own. We started out with what was not much fun to me, though. More shopping. DW hadn’t gotten a chance to stop in Morocco, France, or England, so I tried being patient husband while she shopped. We did take a photopass picture though.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/Photo1016FourBySix.jpg

We exited through the international gateway and took the Friendship Boat over to the Boardwalk. It was a little after 8 PM by the time we arrived at Jellyrolls. While I have been to dueling piano bars in the past (most notably Pat O’Briens in New Orleans) I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. There was a $10 per person cover charge, which isn’t too bad. The bar itself is relatively small, with perhaps 20-30 tables and less formal bar seating wrapped around the outside, I’d say the place could hold perhaps 200-250 people at most. Center stage were two grand pianos which were facing each other, with a tilted mirror behind it that allowed you to see the actual keys of the pianos. There were of course two guys working the pianos, I can’t say I noted their names:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/2011-11-16_21-22-42_360.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/2011-11-16_21-22-52_337.jpg

When we got to the bar, the place was still fairly quiet, but it livened up quite nicely as the night went on. I was wondering how the bar would handle the lull between sets, but surprisingly (to me) they solved this problem by having TWO sets of two pianists, and each set would come out and work for an hour while the other team took a break. This allows for what was essentially non-stop entertainment. The music was predominantly by request, with requests being written on napkins and carried up on stage by the patrons, a tip with your request moved it higher up the list.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/2011-11-16_21-24-21_84.jpg

What was most impressive about all this was the range of songs they would play. While there is no way to tell if there were requests that were refused for lack of knowledge, what was played was pretty amazing. They hit upon the usual standards (you could tell that they had no desire to play “Piano Man” for the 1,000th time, but did it anyways) to country songs (the one area my musical expertise failed me but I think there was a Taylor Swift song in there), to Meatloaf (“Paradise by the Dashboard Light”), Queen (“Bohemian Rhapsody”), Bryan Adams (“Summer of ‘69”), Bon Jovi (“Livin’ on a Prayer”), U2 (“Where the Streets have no name”), Eagles, Jimmy Buffet, Steely Dan (they struggled with the lyrics to “Reelin’ in the Years”) Garth Brooks, Train (that new sort of annoying one with “Mister Mister” in the lyrics), Etta James, Chuck Berry, Elvis, Journey, the Beatles, Sade (the one song they “couldn’t” do, as they didn’t know the words to “Smooth Operator”, but gave it a try) and many, many more. It was so impressive that they knew all these songs, though a different guy would take the lead depending on the song. One thing we found very neat was they used the piano as a percussion instrument as well, lifting the lid to drum out the beat, along with a tambourine. As the night went on, the “sing-a-long” aspect kicked in more and more as the crowd got larger and drunker. (I myself had 5-6 weak-a$$ drinks, so was mildly buzzed, DW only had two, but still ran up a bar bill of $60 – don’t come in expecting any food, though!) We really had a blast, probably slightly more-so myself than my wife. They also a couple of times have the wait-staff come up on stage to help perform the songs.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/2011-11-16_23-37-54_135.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/2011-11-16_23-37-59_123.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/2011-11-16_23-38-12_458.jpg

We finally tore ourselves away at 1 AM, where we had to go find a taxi back to our hotel.

I have to admit something here, while I was having a great time on this vacation, I wasn’t really getting into it up to this point. I usually have a hard time getting to the point of relaxation on a trip, and maybe it was combined with trying to keep an extra person (DM) happy, but I also was getting a bit of a “been here, done this” vibe from the trip to this point. However, this night allowed me to really loosen up and let my (lack of) hair down. I found even though I should have been really tired the next few days, I felt a level of invigoration from this night, a shot in the arm that I really needed. I didn’t much care that the night ran us $100+, I just had a really, really great time, and the buzz lasted another 48 hours. (Until the crowded hell of Saturday at MK, anyways.)

Day 6:
Characters Met: 0
Rides/Attractions seen: 4
Waits of > 5 minutes: 1

Totals (6 days to date):
Characters Met: 16
Rides/Attractions seen: 53
Waits of > 5 minutes: 2

[joy13]

I love dueling piano bars :thumbsup2 JellyRolls sounds like a lot of fun!!!!

[FosterA]

Great review of Jellyrolls! It sounds like ya'll had a fun night! I'm glad that you finally got to relax and let your hair down:laughing:

I think we would like Biergarten for the beer but I honestly don't like German food. blah! It's really sausage, just not a fan I guess. But the entertainment and beer would be fun!

p.s. like the photo of you and DW, super cute.

Did your mom and DD do anything fun after they left or did they crash out early for the night? Maybe they went to a different bar to tear it up and you didn't even know?:lmao:

[skier_pete]

I love dueling piano bars :thumbsup2 JellyRolls sounds like a lot of fun!!!!
It was definitely!

Great review of Jellyrolls! It sounds like ya'll had a fun night! I'm glad that you finally got to relax and let your hair down:laughing:

I think we would like Biergarten for the beer but I honestly don't like German food. blah! It's really sausage, just not a fan I guess. But the entertainment and beer would be fun!

p.s. like the photo of you and DW, super cute.

Did your mom and DD do anything fun after they left or did they crash out early for the night? Maybe they went to a different bar to tear it up and you didn't even know?:lmao:

The food was even worse (or wurst perhaps :lmao:) than that. The "meat" was very low quality. The carving station had what they called "German Meat Loaf" which had basically the taste and consistency of Bolonga. The Sausages weren't much better, being also not very "meaty" at all. The best meat was the chicken schnitzle, which was pretty good. I ate a bunch of food, so I enjoyed it enough, but was not very impressed. For the price they charge, I would never considere it without the Free Dining. For the beer, you can get that out in the main pavillion, and it's quite good. (I also like the Morrocan beer a lot.)

DM and DD did not really do anything fun, at least nothing that they told us. DD had been having to do homework assignments, which I haven't really talked about here, so I know she spent a little time with that. It was close to 7 PM by the time they left the restaurant. They are both pretty early-to-bed types, so I wouldn't be surprised if DD went to sleep at 9 PM and DM was about 20 minutes behind her.

SP

[khertz]

Jellyrolls sounds like a fun way to spend the evening! I have heard it was fun but never really seen it reviewed in a TR. It will definitely have to take a spot on my "Disney bucket list." :goodvibes

I feel you on the shopping. :laughing: I enjoy some shopping in Disney, don't get me wrong, but it is usually me trying to drag DH out of the stores so we can get to something else!

[PrincessInOz]

Now I'm really bummed that we gave JellyRolls the flick in 2010. DH and I were supposed to go with my DB and his girlfriend. But they opted for a quiet night instead and we didn't go.

Something to put on the list for my next trip! :thumbsup2

Looks like you had a GREAT night there.

[skier_pete]

Jellyrolls sounds like a fun way to spend the evening! I have heard it was fun but never really seen it reviewed in a TR. It will definitely have to take a spot on my "Disney bucket list." :goodvibes

I feel you on the shopping. :laughing: I enjoy some shopping in Disney, don't get me wrong, but it is usually me trying to drag DH out of the stores so we can get to something else!

Ah...it's was just "Oh goody - we have a night to ourselves...what should we do...I know, let's shop!":rotfl2: It really wasn't too bad, I was just feeling tired and not into it.

Now I'm really bummed that we gave JellyRolls the flick in 2010. DH and I were supposed to go with my DB and his girlfriend. But they opted for a quiet night instead and we didn't go.

Something to put on the list for my next trip! :thumbsup2

Looks like you had a GREAT night there.

I could see Jellyrolls being very "up-and-down" based on the crowd. There was a large group from a John Deere convention (they make tractors and stuff like that) which was quite loud and rowdy, which really helped liven it up. I could see on a quiet night this being less entertaining, but it was a great time! The biggest issue I see for our future attendence is how to go when it doesn't really liven up until 10 PM, but we need to get someone to watch DD. We could drop her in one of the nearby Kid's Clubs (Boardwalk or BC/YC) but those only are open until 11 PM.

You definitely should check it out if you get the chance, though. The musicianship of these guys is fantastic.

[skier_pete]

Day 7

It was a late night, and morning dawned as our only rainy period of the trip. We had planned to go to Typhoon Lagoon today and it was tempting to try and change things around, but I don’t like messing with the structure of the trip. There were no thunderstorms in the forecast, so I said we should still go to the park. In my view, the BEST park to go to on a rainy day (as long as its not cold) is a water park. #1 – you are already in your bathing suit and spending much of your time wet. And #2 – other people will avoid the water park because most people don’t agree with #1. (Sit by a pool and watch everyone leave when it starts to rain.) DM had decided she didn’t want us to spend the money on the water park for her, so she would just hang out at the resort for a while.

The nice thing is that the water parks do not open until 10 AM, allowing us to sleep in a bit more than regular rope drop. However, we decided because we had an early buffet lunch that we were going to just have a big breakfast and the snack at the water park. So this is what we ate at Port Royal, DW had the breakfast sandwhich:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0072.jpg
DD had the kids waffles and I had the Bounty breakfast or whatever they call it here:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0073.jpg

I am not much of a “breakfast out” person. The reason being I can prepare most of the typical breakfast foods much better than what restaurants do, and much cheaper too. Occasionally at home I like eating out for breakfast, but rarely on vacation. That said, the food was passable, but not very good. In fact when I rated the resort at the end of the trip, I only marked off for the breakfast food. (Specifically - the biscuit and meat and potatos were good, eggs bad, french toast horrible.)

We did get our gear together and headed to Typhoon Lagoon for rope drop. The bus ride over was uneventful and quite fast.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0076.jpg
Right from the start – this park was EMPTY! This is our 4th stop at TL in the last 4 years, and normally at rope drop there are around 500-1000 people standing around to get into the park. Today, there were literally about 20 people standing talking to the cast members. Still somehow a different family got picked to be “The Big Kahuna”! (Well, one child gets picked as “Big Kahuna” and gets to open the park and I think gets other perks as well.)

We made our way into the park and picked a chair. It was raining lightly so we decided to stay under a canopy. We hit the wave pool for a few minutes, here’s the opening crowd in the wave pool:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0078.jpg


DD loves the two mid-size slides to the left of the wave pool, so she did those a few times,
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0079.jpg
and then I insisted we head for the slides before the “crowds” arrived. (Really wasn’t necessary.) We went and ran the three tube slides. Here’s a picture and a video:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0080.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/th_100_0082.jpg (http://s111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/?action=view&current=100_0082.mp4)


DD then wanted to do the kiddie tube slide at Ketchakiddie Creek. Unfortunately, she was declared too tall! So we played a little in the area, spotting a couple hidden Mickey’s in a cave.
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0083.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0085.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0086.jpg
We also moved all our stuff to a covered area here, but by this point the rain had let up, and it turned out it was completely over for the day. We then used the lazy river to take us over to Crush N’ Gusher:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0090.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0091.jpg
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http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0094.jpg
I thought DD would love it, but after one ride she said it was way too rough, and her bum kept rubbing on the ground (an obvious flaw of the ride). We figured it was now late enough in the morning to get some of one of our favorite treats in all the “World”, the fried mini-donuts. For some sick reason I didn’t take a picture, but they are exactly what they sound like. Small fried donuts that cost $7 for a dozen (though you actually get 15-16) and are a heavenly combination of fried dough and powdered sugar. Way, way, way better than beignets, or at least the ones they serve on Disney property.

Continued in the next post.

[skier_pete]

So we again got in the lazy river. I have to say, the water everywhere was so nice and warm. The water in the lazy river was perhaps even too warm, as I think the sign said it was 85 degrees. Here’s some of the wreckage you see riding around the lazy river.
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0097.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0090.jpg

We looped around after a stop at our bag, we went over to the Shark Reef. DD loves fish (as you may already realize, but in the past when we tried to do the Shark Reef she had a hard time because they do not provide kids masks and snorkels, and they were simply too big for her. Well, this time we brought our own – thus the stop at our bag. We headed for the shark reef, and again ZERO wait. They give you a brief tutorial and then you snorkle across this large tank. It’s about 20 feet wide and maybe 150 feet long, and full of fish and small sharks. The water is usually quite cold, but for whatever reason it was a little warmer today, I remember one of the CM said 73 degrees, so it didn’t feel too bad. (Usually it’s in the sixties.) I really wanted to give the underwater camera a test-out, so I took a lot of pictures.
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0100.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0101.jpg

I was quite surprised to see a hammerhead. At one point, he swam really up close to me. He must be very well fed, though.
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0104.jpg

Hidden Mickey 15 feet under!
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0106.jpg

This fish got really up close to me, must’ve been new…
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0108.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0112.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0116.jpg
DD absolutely loved this. Loved, loved, loved it. So much so that we had to go around and do it three more times. Again, with no wait, this wasn’t a big deal at all. I also want to say at this stage I was VERY impressed with this little cheap-o ($63) Kodak Easy-Share underwater camera. It doesn’t take great pictures above water, but really nice underwater stuff. It held up through the whole trip, and we definitely will be taking it with us to Australia.

The day was going quickly, and it was already afternoon, so we decided to head back to the wave pool. We had to leave by 2:30 PM or so, because we had a 4:50 PM dinner ADR at Crystal Palace and needed time to get back and shower and change.

This is where I really was in awe of how empty the park was. The next time someone starts one of those “Show me pictures of an empty park” thread, I will post these pictures. But, remember, these were not taken when the park opened. These were taken at 1 PM. And I need to point out by this point, the sun had come out and it was a beautiful sunny day probably high-seventies, just absolutely gorgeous.
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0120.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0121.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0123.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0126.jpg

DD for some reason didn’t want to play in the big waves as much as she usually did, but in addition to the massive waves, they run a couple times a day for 30 minutes of gentle waves, so we went out in the pool for some more of these.
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0131.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0133.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0136.jpg
We wrapped the day with another three laps of the shark reef, and then I wanted to do one run down the Storm Slides. Again back to the crowds, on the way out, DW asked a CM at the gate if they thought there was a thousand people in the park. The answer she got: “Oh no, there were much less than that.” So there you go, less than 1,000 people at a Disney (water) park.

Overall, it was an absolute fantastic day at Typhoon Lagoon. I really have to find a way not to schedule stuff in the afternoon of our water park day, I really would love to spend the whole day here at one point.

[Chicago Mo]

awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Moodyzblu]

We just love Typhoon Lagoon !! We tried Blizzard Beach once and didn't care for it at all .... but we could go to TL everyday !

[PrincessInOz]

I love it when you practically get the whole park to yourself. Your day looks fantastic here and DS has already said that we need to check out the water parks next time we're at the World. Definitely going to do that! :thumbsup2

[FosterA]

Wow!! Pete, your waterpark day look AMAZING!:banana:
I've never really looked at photos of the waterparks too much so it was nice to see all of yours. I can't believe how empty it was, how lucky for ya'll!!

oh...and I can use some of those donuts about now:love: Never had them before, but I know I NEED them!

Cute photos of you and DD playing around. Give it another year and you wont be throwing her around anymore since kids grow sooooo fast!
I also like the lazy river photos...that's where I would hang out for sure. Can you munch on mini donuts while floating around?:laughing:

[skier_pete]

awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks!

We just love Typhoon Lagoon !! We tried Blizzard Beach once and didn't care for it at all .... but we could go to TL everyday !

It's been so long since BB, and I know there are some awesome slides, but TL just gives such a laid-back vibe. It's all that beach music playing on the sound system.

I love it when you practically get the whole park to yourself. Your day looks fantastic here and DS has already said that we need to check out the water parks next time we're at the World. Definitely going to do that! :thumbsup2

They are well worth checking out if you've never been!

Wow!! Pete, your waterpark day look AMAZING!:banana:
I've never really looked at photos of the waterparks too much so it was nice to see all of yours. I can't believe how empty it was, how lucky for ya'll!!

oh...and I can use some of those donuts about now:love: Never had them before, but I know I NEED them!

Cute photos of you and DD playing around. Give it another year and you wont be throwing her around anymore since kids grow sooooo fast!
I also like the lazy river photos...that's where I would hang out for sure. Can you munch on mini donuts while floating around?:laughing:

Oh, I already can't throw her around unless it's in the water.

I never thought of eating the mini-donuts in the water. It would be hard to balance the donuts and the dipping sauces on the edge of the tube. Make sure if you ever try them to get them coming right out of the fryer. Warm fresh mini-donuts...yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

[khertz]

It looks like y'all picked a perfect day to go to the water park!

Since it seems that y'all do this on all of/most of your Disney trips, maybe I can pick your brain. We tossed around the idea of doing either BB or TL on our next trip just because we have the Premier AP's so we can get into a water park using that (I doubt we would ever do it if we had to pay OOP for a ticket, we are not that big on water parks). Do y'all normally plan your water park day to be the "off" day or do you find it too busy to be considered a relax day? We probably would not want to set aside a day for the water park AND have a day spent away from the major parks since we will only be there for a week. We will be going in October...I can't remember from your Oct TR, did y'all do a water park and if so how were the crowds? Thanks for any wisdom you can impart on a water park newbie! :goodvibes

[skier_pete]

It looks like y'all picked a perfect day to go to the water park!

Since it seems that y'all do this on all of/most of your Disney trips, maybe I can pick your brain. We tossed around the idea of doing either BB or TL on our next trip just because we have the Premier AP's so we can get into a water park using that (I doubt we would ever do it if we had to pay OOP for a ticket, we are not that big on water parks). Do y'all normally plan your water park day to be the "off" day or do you find it too busy to be considered a relax day? We probably would not want to set aside a day for the water park AND have a day spent away from the major parks since we will only be there for a week. We will be going in October...I can't remember from your Oct TR, did y'all do a water park and if so how were the crowds? Thanks for any wisdom you can impart on a water park newbie! :goodvibes

Good questions. I would generally consider the water park day to be more of a relaxing day. Now, because we went to the park in the evening, ours wasn't really so much, but I've sort of told myself that next time I want to try and resist the "parks in the evening". But, at least at TL is definitely more relaxing for a number of reasons;

1) Much less walking than a regular park. The size isn't nearly as big as one of the theme parks, plus you can use the "lazy river" form of transportation.

2) Much less "must-dos". You can pretty much ride all the "rides" in very short order, so there isn't the pressure to get it "done". Realistically you could really ride everything in about 2 hours if its not super crowded. (We probably could have done it in an hour that day.)

For you, with the Premeire AP, I would definitely go and check it out on your off day. Bonnet Creek is right next door to TL I think, and it's got a great kids area. Get there early and stake a spot in the shade in the kids area, and then you and DH can switch off watching Paxton while you each check out the slides. Ketchakiddie Creek has a little sandy area near the "spray box" (New England term) area that little ones just love. At 2 years olf, there's not a lot he'd be able to "ride" there - they might let him in the lazy river with a swim diaper and a life vest, but I don't think I would take him in the big wave pool, but you could go for a few hours and then head back to the hotel for nap time.

October is a good time for the water parks - not that you will have the unreal low crowds we just had, but we went to TL the year before in October, and the crowds were quite managable. the biggest deal for getting they're early is to get the best seats in the shade, if that's what you want. Otherwise from a crowd standpoint, the lines and crowds in the wavepool were totally doable.

At Paxton's age, I would personally pick TL over BB. BB does also have what most describe as a pretty good kiddie area, but I think overall there are more areas to go with a small one @ TL. There are some very shallow pools set back from the main wave pool with sand, and also the run-off pool from Crush-N-Gusher is a very shallow (perhaps 2 feet deep). Plus there's a viewing area for the shark reef where you could bring him to look at the fish. (It's inside the overturned ship if you look at my first underwater picture it shows the view ports.)

(I also agree that I wouldn't PAY for the water parks with a Toddler unless I also had older kids. We first took DD @ 3.5 and that to me was maybe even a little young to really get value out of it. However, as part of an AP I would.)

I hope I didn't ramble too much for you.

[pld5]

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/Photo1016FourBySix.jpg

This is a great picture of you and your wife! Very sweet!

[DisMomAmy]

I'm excited to check out Typhoon Lagoon in April. We have one waterpark day scheduled & I'm pretty sure that's where we'll end up. I'm sure the kids would like Blizzard Beach too but I want to ride Crush n' Gusher & I think Zach would like the shark reef. I've added snorkels & masks to the packing list! Thanks for the tip!

[joy13]

Wow, I can't believe how empty it was even after the weather cleared! How perfect! Someday we'll get to a Disney waterpark.

[LaDonna]

We did the waterparks for the first time last time we went in Sept. and absolutely LOVED it! We went on a Sunday and it wasn't packed at all, we kept getting on and off the crusher gusher ride.....it was perfect! While the 4 of us kept taking turns my then 3yr old had a blast in the sand and water there in the same pool area ahhhh memories
I was however SHOCKED by how hard the mega wave was in the wave pool, I wasn't even that far in and my 3yr old got knocked out of my hands and my daughter lost her glasses so BEWARE! if I had been prepared it would have been fun ;)

[skier_pete]

I'm excited to check out Typhoon Lagoon in April. We have one waterpark day scheduled & I'm pretty sure that's where we'll end up. I'm sure the kids would like Blizzard Beach too but I want to ride Crush n' Gusher & I think Zach would like the shark reef. I've added snorkels & masks to the packing list! Thanks for the tip!

Glad to help! It is definitely a good idea.

Wow, I can't believe how empty it was even after the weather cleared! How perfect! Someday we'll get to a Disney waterpark.

Just gotta do it!

We did the waterparks for the first time last time we went in Sept. and absolutely LOVED it! We went on a Sunday and it wasn't packed at all, we kept getting on and off the crusher gusher ride.....it was perfect! While the 4 of us kept taking turns my then 3yr old had a blast in the sand and water there in the same pool area ahhhh memories
I was however SHOCKED by how hard the mega wave was in the wave pool, I wasn't even that far in and my 3yr old got knocked out of my hands and my daughter lost her glasses so BEWARE! if I had been prepared it would have been fun ;)

Yeah, that wave is nuts, especially closer to shore. I like going out where it's deep, it's more fun to ride that way. The only difficulty is you have to keep swimming out. It's really amazing that it moves you 20-30 feet in an instant.

[skier_pete]

For anyone interested, I have started a new PTR for my upcoming trip which encompasses both Disneyland and Australia. I know this might not interest everyone, but if it does - please feel free to join up. The thread is actually in the Australia section of the board, but HERE IS THE LINK.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2870103

[skier_pete]

Before I get into the evening, here are some pictures DM took from around CBR while we were at the water park. I didn't really make any comments because I wasn't there.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1773.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1777.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1778.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1779.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1781.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1787.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1789.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1790.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1793.jpg http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1794.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1795.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1798.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1799.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1803.jpg


The next post continues with the rest of our evening.

[skier_pete]

Coming back to our evening plans. We wanted to catch the four night-time shows at Magic Kingdom - Castle Lighting, Main Street Electrical Parade (MSEP), Magic, Memories, and You (MMY), and Wishes. MSEP was only running on 3 nights of our trip, and this was honestly the best night for it. The nice part is Wishes was only at 8 PM, so we could run through all the shows in about 2 hours time.

So, we went back to the room, changed, and to the bus. On the way, we had what was clearly one of the worst bus experiences of the trip. First we waited for the bus about 15 minutes, but then once we were on, we seemed to have the slowest bus driver ever. She stopped at all the other stops around CBR. She then drove about 20 miles an hour to Magic Kingdom. Somehow, a trip that had taken <20 minutes in previous travel took 40 minutes. Fortunately, we had left with plenty of time, but we were about 5 minutes late for our reservation even though we went to the bus about an hour before.

A meal at Crystal Palace has become one of our few family “traditions”, though I personally wouldn’t have minded jettisoning it for this trip. However DD - for all her character dislikes - seems to love seeing the Pooh characters and we do enjoy the food so I guess we’ll keep eating here.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6311.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6312.jpg

So, I’ll keep it short – the food was pretty good, the character interaction was OK – it took quite a while for ANY of the characters to show up, we were pretty well onto dessert, but then they showed up in fairly quick succession. We were there about an hour, which is pretty normal for CP. I though the food was very good as usual. Still our favorite character buffet food-wise. Overall 8 out of 10.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6313.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6314.jpg

At this point it was about 6 PM. I had been surprised coming into the restaurant that at 5 PM, so many people had already staked out their spots for the parade, so I was a little worried about us finding a good spot. However, we were able to find a pretty good spot where we’ve sat before. Right at the hub with the castle to our left and us facing right down the bridge going towards Liberty Square. We were in the second row behind another family. My DM had a bit of a hard time with it, though. She decided to try sitting on the ground since she didn’t want to be way back (being a bit on the short-side) and she was fine at first but by the time of the parade she didn’t have enough leg room and got some really bad lef cramps during the parade, and had a real hard time getting up. (She said she thought she was gonna die for a minute, so it was pretty bad.) Once she stood, though she was OK. We didn’t have too much trouble with the seats, though early on had some people basically walk on top of us to get through the crowd instead of going around through the corridors. Before the parade, DD had her bubble gun out, as she loves getting younger kids to chase the bubbles around. (She plays much better with younger kids than with kids her own age or older.)

First show: 6:30 PM, Castle Lighting show. We’ve seen it once before, but it was still amazing the way they light up the castle. “Bibbity-Bobbity-Boo!” Though it seems like even Disney forgets their own Myths…it’s not “Cinderella’s Castle” Disney, it’s “Cinderella Castle”! Great show. Here’s a few pix.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/2011-11-17_18-18-15_503.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/2011-11-17_18-20-55_715.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/2011-11-17_18-21-08_598.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/2011-11-17_18-21-49_583.jpg

Next up at 7:00 PM (or actually about 7:10 by the time it got to us) was the Main Street Electrical Parade. This is also our second time seeing this one. I like Spectromagic slightly better, but there’s a lot of good parts to this one. I like the “Alice” section, as well as Cinderella’s Step Sisters fighting over the Prince. I find the ending kind of boring, as it makes me think of the ending of the “Muppets 3-D” as if it’s “A tribute to all nations – but mostly America”, though face it, it’s just America. I love America, and I love all the America-centric things they have at Disney World, but that ending is just a little too in-your-face for me. After that we stood up and moved back from the castle a bit for the last two shows.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/2011-11-17_19-14-32_365.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/2011-11-17_19-14-52_647.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/2011-11-17_19-15-05_959.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/2011-11-17_19-18-36_905.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/2011-11-17_19-19-51_413.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/2011-11-17_19-21-00_955.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/2011-11-17_19-22-48_43.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/2011-11-17_19-27-51_621.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/2011-11-17_19-29-42_421.jpg

Third, right around quarter to eight – the second “castle show” of the night – the Magic, Memories and you – with the Christmas overlay. This was our first time seeing this show, and I have to say – Holy Cow it was amazing. I didn’t take any pictures because I didn’t think any would do it justice, but they use projections to show things on the castle, but it’s more than just showing pictures of people on the castle, it’s decorating it in dozens of different ways (as presents, snowflakes, gingerbread) and it is done so well it actually looks almost real. I gotta say, after the cake abomination of 1997 and the gold-leafing of 7 years ago, they finally figured out how to use the castle right.

Finally was “Wishes” - my favorite nighttime show of all. I just love the fireworks going off behind the castle. I know many like “Christmas Wishes” because of the bigger finale, but I just like the story of “Wishes” so much better, and all those fireworks going up beyond and around the castle are good enough for me. That’s why for me there is one place and only one place to watch this show.
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/2011-11-17_20-08-45_604.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/2011-11-17_20-10-45_78.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/2011-11-17_20-12-04_329.jpg

We were back a bit but still near the hub. We agreed DW would take DD by the hand, and I would take DM, and we would make our way out of the park as quickly as possible. We got out, and the bus line wasn’t too terrible, I think they were loading a bus shortly after we got there, and then another showed up and we were able to get on the second bus, so really didn’t wait too long. It wasn’t even a real late night, as we were back at the hotel by 9 PM.

Day 7:
Characters Met: 4
Rides/Attractions seen: 12
(I’m counting Rides/Attractions from TL: 5 water slides we rode (not counting repeats), the shark reef (only counting once even though we did it 6-7 times), the wave pool, and the lazy river. I also am counting the 4 nighttime shows, but am not considering “waits” for those my “wait of > 5 minutes” only applies to rides.
Waits of > 5 minutes: 0

Totals (7 days to date):
Characters Met: 20
Rides/Attractions seen: 65
Waits of > 5 minutes: 2

[PrincessInOz]

Glad to see that you enjoyed dinner at Crystal Palace and those pics your mom took of CBR are great. :goodvibes

[FosterA]

Hey Pete.
Was wondering when you'd get a new update up. Nice photos and details as usual:thumbsup2
I loved loved the Memories and You show on the castle too. Especially the part where it looks like it's crumbling down and the rainbow part and the rocket blasting off part and ..........all of it!

I also really love the Elec. Parade too because there's something about the music that pulls me in.

Cute photos with Pooh Bear!

Gonna head over and check out your PTR about Australia now....

[khertz]

Love the pics of your DD with the CP characters! It's nice to see her in at least a few of your character pics! :laughing:

[skier_pete]

Glad to see that you enjoyed dinner at Crystal Palace and those pics your mom took of CBR are great. :goodvibes

Thanks, she did a nice job. She got to spend more time there than we did!

Hey Pete.
Was wondering when you'd get a new update up. Nice photos and details as usual:thumbsup2
I loved loved the Memories and You show on the castle too. Especially the part where it looks like it's crumbling down and the rainbow part and the rocket blasting off part and ..........all of it!

I also really love the Elec. Parade too because there's something about the music that pulls me in.

Cute photos with Pooh Bear!

Gonna head over and check out your PTR about Australia now....

I know the updates have been slow. Work and home are both busy. I actually have day 8 and 9 written, but I need the time @ home to upload the pix. Hopefully I can keep the updates coming and wrap this up before March.

MM&Y ended up being just amazing. They knocked that one out of the park. I did get some video, but I haven't even uploaded that yet.

Love the pics of your DD with the CP characters! It's nice to see her in at least a few of your character pics! :laughing:

She loves meeting Pooh and the gang @ CP. In fact she insists on it. We like the food there, so it's not a problem, as long as we are on the DDP. (It occurs to me next trip she will be a "Disney Adult", making Free Dining even more critical.)

[skier_pete]

I'm getting real close on this...the TR is actually all written out (in a separate file) now it's just about uploading the pictures.

Man the trip is really going by fast, even in review. Our second Friday of the trip dawned to be ABD (another beautiful day). We had our second Animal Kingdom day today. We’ve said before that we love AK, but one thing we really love about doing it for two days is that you really can do a good portion of the park the first day, and then the second day gets to be a lot mellower of a pace. We arrived at the park shortly after rope drop (probably about 9:15 AM) and took our time walking through the Oasis. We had a few goals on the day. We had lunch at Tusker House, check out the Finding Nemo show, I wanted to get in Expedition Everest, the Maharajah Jungle Trek, and most important to DD, she wanted to get her face painted.

This was a new thing, really. She saw some kids on Tuesday at DHS with it, and was hemming and hawing about it until late in the day she said she wanted to do it. I told her “No” not at the end of the day, so we said if she still wanted to do it on Friday we could. Well she did, so on the way in we asked a CM where this could be done, and it was in Harambe and in Dinoland. Well, the other thing DD wanted to do was go back to the Boneyard, so we headed for Dinoland. On the way, we first stopped for a photopass Op:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/Photo1207FourBySix.jpg

Then, we ran into this guy!

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/Photo1211FourBySix.jpg

And then, we ran into THIS guy!

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/Photo1219FourBySix.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/Photo1221FourBySix.jpg

The face painting sort of surprised me. One was the price wasn’t as bad as I thought – it was like $12 for the whole face. Two was how fast they were able to put it on yet make it look so good. She was in the chair for no more than 5 minutes and they were done. She selected the tiger look, and I think it looks excellent!

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6315.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6316.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6317.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6318.jpg

After this, she decided she really wanted to do the Boneyard. We explained that it wasn’t going to be open for another 30 minutes, but she wanted to wait. We did get her to ride Tricepatos Spin in the meantime.
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1832.jpg

A Chester and Hester Snowman:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN1831.jpg


At that point, my DM said she wanted some time to herself to explore, so we said, let’s meet for the 11 PM bird show (DD loves Flights of Wonder). We walked through the Cretaceous Trail, which I have to say is the least impressive “attraction” in all of Disney World. The excitement of prehistoric plants! How does this even rate being listed on the map? But, we did manage to find a Hidden Mickey.
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6319.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6320.jpg

So, I ditched DW and DD at the boneyard, ran to get FP for Kilimanjaro Safari for later, and then went to ride EE. Twice.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6321.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6322.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6325.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6326.jpg

I ended up in the second row, which allowed me to get a couple of shots off looking out at the end of the ripped track.
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6327.jpg

How cool really is this view!
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6328.jpg

Couldn’t come up with better ideas for the pictures than “Sleepy” and “scared”. Or is it, where the heck is the Disco Yeti!

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6333.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6330.jpg

I wish they let you scan these all with photopass though, I think an entire album of pictures of us on rides asleep would be priceless!

Headed back over to the Boneyard and apparently DD had already had enough – she wanted a stuffed pretzel. I knew she wouldn’t like them, because the cheese is Jalepeno, so I bought one anyways, let her taste it, and then got her a plain one, with DW and I splitting the one. She really wanted to go over to the bird show. I explained it didn’t start for another 30 minutes, but she insisted! (Do you sense a pattern here – same thing at the boneyard.) So we went over there and say outside the show for 20 minutes waiting for them to open the doors. The reason she wanted to get in there early was she really, really, really wanted to be picked to throw the grape to the hornbill. Well, guess what….
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0138.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0140.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0148.jpg

….she was! This of course totally made her day. Once this show was over, we had two things we sort of wanted to squeeze in before lunch, and we had about an hour and a half to do it.

To be continued!

[khertz]

How cool that she got chosen to be in the show again!!

Love the facepaint. That's really amazing for just a few minutes time. And not as expensive as I would have guessed, which is always a plus in WDW. :thumbsup2

[FosterA]

Kinda sad that your trip is coming to an end....well the TR anyway. It just went so fast!
First of all....I love the face paint. That is crazy how fast they do it. That would take me forever to do!

I also really like the full body photo of you and your wife with the blue bug. Ya'll look like teenagers! Is that a magic photo pass pic?:laughing: I want one of those!

Seeing your EE pics makes me miss AK. I just love this park, probably even the most of all the parks:cloud9:

[PrincessInOz]

Awww...she stars again! :thumbsup2

Gorgeous tiger paint job...and awesome PP pictures.

[skier_pete]

How cool that she got chosen to be in the show again!!

Love the facepaint. That's really amazing for just a few minutes time. And not as expensive as I would have guessed, which is always a plus in WDW. :thumbsup2

Yeah, considering I think you pay about $35 for the same thing at the Pirates League, right? I still would insist she get it done in the morning if she wanted to do it again. It gets smudged as the day wears on, and comes off pretty quickly when washed.

Kinda sad that your trip is coming to an end....well the TR anyway. It just went so fast!
First of all....I love the face paint. That is crazy how fast they do it. That would take me forever to do!

I also really like the full body photo of you and your wife with the blue bug. Ya'll look like teenagers! Is that a magic photo pass pic?:laughing: I want one of those!

Seeing your EE pics makes me miss AK. I just love this park, probably even the most of all the parks:cloud9:

Don't worry, it'll be a few more weeks before it's done. I need more time to focus on my new PTR, though!

I looked back at the pick with Flik (see what I did there). DW hairstyle does make her look younger. Me, I just noticed I got an awful lot of gear on me!

And I also love AK (I think I used the word love about 20 times in the review), I tend to get very defensive about the park, as a lot of people really dislike it. Not me though!

I promise more updates before the week is out!

SP

[skier_pete]

Once the FoW show was over, we had two things we sort of wanted to squeeze in before lunch, and we had about an hour and a half to do it. The first was Maharajah Jungle Trek. This is my favorite of the animal trails, mostly because I love the theme-ing of the ruined temple, but also because the tigers are just so beautiful. I know my DM would’ve liked to spend more time here – but DD is all about moving through.
Kimodo Dragons:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6335.jpg
Some kind of asian duck:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6336.jpg
Fruit Bats:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6338.jpg
And Tigers:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6337.jpg
Oops – the real Tigers:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6339.jpg

Other Deer:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6340.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6341.jpg

Love the Aviary here too. Love the bird feeders. Why can’t we get one of these:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6343.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6344.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6346.jpg
Can you spot the wild snow leopard?
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/100_0152.jpg

We then headed over to revisit the safari with our FP – again the two weeks flew by.
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6349.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6350.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6351.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6352.jpg http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6354.jpg http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6355.jpg http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6356.jpg http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6359.jpg
These were White Rhinos that had apparently just taken a mud bath. It was kind of cool. One of the fellow DISers, “FosterA” I believe, went on the Safari slightly earlier the same day and the Rhinos she snapped weren’t covered in mud, so it must have been a fairly recent event:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6361.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6362.jpg

We just made it out of the Safari when we had to hit our ADR at Tusker House.

Don’t know how much of a review this will be – cause we just LOVE Tusker House! Our favorite Buffet at Disney World by far. Love the ethnic food, love the building, love it all. The biggets problem is we don’t have enough room in our bellies to eat as much as we’d like!
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6363.jpg

And again the food didn’t disappoint. Still have Samosas, which are an Indian fried pastry with a potato/pea/curry filling. Uh…so good. One of our friends at home makes these, and hers are of course better, but these are still pretty good. The other foods are also good.

I also must comment to say our waitress was very friendly and very attentive. I also asked her about the upcoming change to making lunch “character dining”. I don’t mind the addition of characters, but if they take away the great ethnic food I think I’m going to kick somebody.

After dinner, we left with a pass in hand for priority seating for the Finding Nemo show. This was a great perk of Tusker House (that I hear they are eliminating with the switch to character dining) and the first time we’ve taken advantage of it. What it did was allow us to be let into the theatre right before they opened it to everyone else. So, we were able to get seats down towards the front, and what we ended up doing was sitting directly to the right of the main ramp that goes from the mid-point of the theater down onto the stage, which the characters occasionally run up and down.

This is our third time seeing this show, and while it is far from a favorite of mine and DW, DD likes it a lot. The previous two times we had sort-of lousy seats, and I have to admit with the closer seating we enjoyed the show much more. The costumes/puppetry are amazing, and the songs are gradually becoming less irritating with each listen, if not quite catchy. There’s no denying the CMs are working it in this show!

[skier_pete]

Once this show was done, DW and DD called it a day and headed back to the hotel. DM and I headed towards the tree of life. One of the things I love about Animal Kingdom is the way they incorporate Animals in all the designs. I didn’t take pictures, but if you pay attention, each of the pavilions in Flame Tree BBQ is themed off of a predator/prey relationship. Likewise, in Pizzafari, each room is decorated with animals with a common theme. (For instance, all striped animals.) The building around the Oasis/Tree of Life area also are covered with animals:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6365.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6366.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6370.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6369.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6371.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6364.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6372.jpg

DM really wanted to see It’s Tough To Be a Bug as it was a favorite from her only visit to AK. We hadn’t seen it since 2000, as it would scare the bejesus out of DD, even at 8 years old and she hates 3D shows anyways. We just got across in front of the parade before they cut off the entrance, so we knew it would be a pretty empty theater. Seeing it for the first time in a few years, its still pretty intense. Like everything else at AK, the design of the theater is amazing. Still, I think it’s a very clever show, and I wish DD would give it a try. Maybe in a few more years.

Small bit of Disney Trivia: The only Disney attraction in the entire world that opened PRIOR TO the movie that it was based on. ITTBaB opened with the park on Earth Day (April) 1998, while the movie didn’t open until November of that same year.

When the show was over, so was the parade, and we headed out of the park with the crowd. We spent the evening at the hotel and using the pool. I’d like to say it was a slower paced day and I suppose it was but as the week wear’s on we are getting pretty beat down by this point, and it didn’t seem like it was a more relaxing day. Another note on the evening, I noticed that there were a LOT of people around, and I kept overhearing people saying that they just got here. This makes a lot of sense, as Friday was the last day for free dining. If you checked in on Friday, you could get FD for the entire week of Thanksgiving. However, I just kept thinking “Uh oh…I shouldn’t have saved MK for our last day!”

Day 8:
Characters Met: 1
Rides/Attractions seen: 9
Waits of > 5 minutes: 0

Totals (8 days to date):
Characters Met: 21
Rides/Attractions seen: 74
Waits of > 5 minutes: 2

Up next, our final day at MK , or “Oh, here’s where all the people are…”

[PrincessInOz]

That's a fantastic set of pictures for DAK. Love the tigers and the tree of life. And I love Tusker House too.

Thanks for sharing.

[FosterA]

I just love the Maharajah jungle trek too, for the same reasons. I think the crumbling temple effect is awesome! I've never done the other "gorilla" trek though so I'm not sure what that one is like.
I don't remember if it was in my TR or not, that I had a photo of the rhino's.:laughing: I'll have to hunt it down and go take a look.

Right now I'm starving so the Tusker House food photos look yum! Thanks alot, now I need to go eat something.

It's funny that so many people are scared by the Bug Movie. It doesn't seem scary to me at all because everything is so cartoony. I mean kids scared is one thing because you know how they are....but alot of adults are freaked out by it and I don't get it all since it's so cartoony:confused: Before my trip I head alot about Mickey's philarmagic but I think the Tough To Be a Bug attraction is waaaaaay better as far as 4-D movie attractions at WDW.

now what day is this update on again? I noticed an upsurge in people coming into the resort probably on the Monday before Thanksgiving.

[skier_pete]

That's a fantastic set of pictures for DAK. Love the tigers and the tree of life. And I love Tusker House too.

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks, I am sometimes surprised at what good pictures I get out of that little point-and-shoot. Of course, some of that is I have some training on photo composition, and some of it is that I only post the better pictures.:thumbsup2

I just love the Maharajah jungle trek too, for the same reasons. I think the crumbling temple effect is awesome! I've never done the other "gorilla" trek though so I'm not sure what that one is like.
I don't remember if it was in my TR or not, that I had a photo of the rhino's.:laughing: I'll have to hunt it down and go take a look.

Right now I'm starving so the Tusker House food photos look yum! Thanks alot, now I need to go eat something.

It's funny that so many people are scared by the Bug Movie. It doesn't seem scary to me at all because everything is so cartoony. I mean kids scared is one thing because you know how they are....but alot of adults are freaked out by it and I don't get it all since it's so cartoony:confused: Before my trip I head alot about Mickey's philarmagic but I think the Tough To Be a Bug attraction is waaaaaay better as far as 4-D movie attractions at WDW.

now what day is this update on again? I noticed an upsurge in people coming into the resort probably on the Monday before Thanksgiving.

You do have pictures of the Rhinos, and they aren't as muddy. I remember thinking you only must have been on there an hour or so earlier than us, so they must have just rolled in the mud.

I agree that I don't know how adults could be "scared" by the Bug's Life movie, but I can easily see how kids would. It's one attraction I haven't pushed our DD to see because she doesn't like the 3D effects anyways. (I think she more doesn't like the air/water shooting at you.)

This day was actually Friday. I wasn't that the resort seemed crowded, I just kept hearing people talking about having just arrived, or first day tomorrow or something, and made me think "Uh Oh!"

Hey, by the way, did everyone hear they are modifying the safari ride to have additional savannah at the end and an area for the zebras? Right now, you might not notice the zebras, they are way off to the left right after you go over the "collapsing" bridge. Speaking of which, this was the first trip in ages where the "collapsing" bridge actually was working. I was glad to see it, because it is kind of a neat little effect, especially if you are not expecting it.

SkierPete

[Moodyzblu]

Wow ... Great pics from AK ! I love it when it's so beautiful out and the sun is shining so bright. :love:

My boys refuse to do ITTBaB as well. Funny, they'll go on EE but won't do that little 3d show. :rolleyes:

[skier_pete]

Another beautiful day dawned, and we headed out for the 9 AM opening. I knew right from the start that this was going to be trouble. The bus was very crowded, and although we got to the gate about 20 minutes before opening, the place was packed. The area beyond the ticketing turnstiles was completely and utterly full. I plan my trips to avoid the crowds, but I made an exception for today. I wanted the last evening at MK, and I never should’ve done it. In the end, it wasn’t a terrible day, but I must say it was probably the most crowded park day we’ve ever had, with the possible exception of the

So, fortunately I took some notes, so I can recall some of what went on today. First up we headed to Fantasyland again. Really once we got through the entrance, the crowds did thin out for the first hour or two. We hit Peter Pan first right after I grabbed a FP for later. (Yup, a fourth time on this ride – what can I say, a family favorite when you don’t have to wait in long lines.)
Then, DW and I did Snow White Scary Adventures one last time, while DM and DD sat and had a snack. We followed that up with It’s a Small World for the 2nd time of the trip, and with that we had cleared out what we wanted out of Fantasyland.

There weren’t a lot of pictures from this day, as you get towards the end of the trip, we always spend less time with the camera out…however, we did get a shot of DD working the Sword in the Stone:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6373.jpg

Apparently she is not the next King Of England…

I was ready for another FP and so we headed towards Liberty Square. DW had wanted to meet Tiana for a few trips, so I told her to head there and I would get FP for Big Thunder Mountain. We got back to Tiana – no more Prince Naveen it seems – and it turned out the FP photographer’s camera was broken. We decided not to just stand and wait, so we just took the picture with our camera. DD was being shy, but Tiana talked with her about her favorite foods and got her to appear in the shot.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6374.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6375.jpg

Next off, we headed into Adventureland, on the way we ran into a FP photographer – perhaps the one missing from Tiana. Got a few shots:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/Photo1566FourBySix.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/Photo1567FourBySix.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/Photo1570FourBySix.jpg

We headed for Jungle Cruise. The wait was pretty darn short and we got through it within a few minutes. (It was only about 10 AM at this point.) I then made the choice to go see the castle show – Dream Along With Mickey – don’t know what I was thinking here, breaking my own “rides first” rule! I so much wish they would change this one up – it’s been going for 5+ years! It’s OK and all, but we’ve seen it an awful lot. DD still likes it, though. We then posed for an additional castle shot:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/Photo1572FourBySix.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/Photo1573FourBySix.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/Photo1576FourBySix.jpg

We came back to Adventureland, and the choice was Pirates or Tiki Birds. DD wanted Tiki Birds, and I again went against my “rides first” perhaps because I was so happy the original show was back, we went with it. When we came out though was close to 11:30 AM, and the crowds were getting HUGE. We headed over to Pirates since we hadn’t ridden it on our previous day, and the wait time was listed 25 minutes. And for sure that’s what it was. My DM is a bit claustrophobic but she’d been doing OK up to this point, but us packed in that dark queue for 25 minutes really bugged her. She was ready to go back to the room. We decided to get some lunch first and stopped at a family favorite: Columbia Harbor House. The food here is generally excellent, and in addition there is a TON of seating, so even though the lines were long we had no problem getting a table. The food was great as usual, with the adults getting either the fried shrimp or fish, and DD getting chicken nuggets. I love the Apple Cobbler here, one of my favorite desserts in WDW. However, the only food picture we got was this one:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6376.jpg

During lunch, I ran over to Tomorrowland to get FP for Buzz Lightyear. We were now sitting on 5 sets of FP! (I took this prior to the 5th set…don’t know why I didn’t wait. I’m gonna miss being able to do this if the rumored FP restrictions really come through.)

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6377.jpg

So, after lunch we decided we would go ride Splash Mountain while DM watched DD again (DD said she didn’t want to ride Splash) and then get in line for Haunted Mansion.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6378.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6379.jpg
Well, DD decided she really wanted to ride HM first – basically because she didn’t want to walk over there and back – so we told her that she would have to ride SM with us if Grandma went back to the room. She agreed, so Grandma left and we went and got in line for HM. Again, the line was pretty bad, it said a 30 minute wait, and it was all that. We wanted to check out the new queue, not realizing that the line to by-pass the queue was MUCH, MUCH shorter than it was. However, the queue was pretty neat and kept you reasonably entertained while waiting.
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6380.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6381.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6382.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6384.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6386.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6387.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6388.jpg
We also got the bad fortune of a breakdown on the ride, right near the beginning by the paintings. We were stuck there a good 5-10 minutes before restart.

Next we headed over to use our first set of FP – BTMRR! The wait with FP was very short, we were on in < 5 minutes. It was now time to ride Splash Mountain, and would’nt you know it, DD had a fit and refused to ride. We were furious, since now we would either have to switch off or not ride it. We were so annoyed, we just wanted to go back to the room. I know we punished DD with something (took away her TV I think) but DW kept saying she played a “dirty trick” on us, and that’s what it was. So instead, we got on the railroad and headed back to the hotel. On the way back through the train station, I saw this poster:

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n147/skier_pete/Disney%20November%202011/DSCN6389.jpg

I am not as sentimental as most, and with a few exceptions think any ride should be eligible for replacement or update…however it is still sad to see any original park ride close…at least there will still be a SWSA in DLR!

Well, we had stayed much later than planned, it was probably near 3 PM by the time we got back to the room. We had a 6:40 PM ADR for Cinderella’s Royal Table. We did go down to the pool for a little while, but there wasn’t really too much time as it was getting dark and it got rather cold. We were back at the hotel for a few hours break though which was nice.

To Be Continued