The Disney Grump & Family Take on the World-Our '09 Christmas w/ the Mouse, COMPLETE

[Lovemy3babes]

Yep, SW MN. (very close to the SD border) Let me know if you ever get down this way! No one on the Dis lives here! LOL! A May trip sounds absolutely wonderful!! I think that would be my second favorite time to go.

 

[Charleston Princess]

Your May trip sounds like it is going to be a blast! How nice to be able to get away with just your mom for a week!

 

[disneydusted]

I love that you are going in May with your mom!! We have gone in May and have had incredible weather, very pleasant. Tell your mom is beautiful, I would never guess she is 60! You two will have such a wonderful time making mother/daughter memories... great idea!

 

[Spartangirl]

Awwww.......I think it's fantastic that you are able to take a trip with your mom! You'll be able to build wonderful memories that you'll always be able to cherish and look back on...

 

[brookelizabeth]

Your Mom is beautiful! And yes, I can only hope to look that good when I'm 60 too!!!!

Your plans look wonderful. Lots of Epcot time for fully taking advantage of the festival. I can't wait to see your pics and everything....the F&G festival has been on my wish list since I heard about it, it always looks so beautiful.

We have had a Noon ME pick-up in the past and it was fun to just dip into MK to get a few things done, grab some lunch and say good-bye to the Castle. It made it easier to leave!

 

[SoonerGirl]

Your plans sound great! You guys are going to have a blast! Just leave that last day open and see where you feel like going.

I'm really excited, I think we'll have a great time. I am leaning towards just not planning anything for the last day and see what we feel like doing. I was just trying to figure out how many days we needed to get on Mom's ticket, but really the difference between 6 & 7 days is only like $3, so if we don't go to a park that last day it's not like we wasted a bunch of money.

Yep, SW MN. (very close to the SD border) Let me know if you ever get down this way! No one on the Dis lives here! LOL! A May trip sounds absolutely wonderful!! I think that would be my second favorite time to go.

It's been a couple of years since I went up, it's about time for a visit! Depending upon how far south you are, we've probably driven very close to you several times! Depending on our mood we go one of two ways, we'll either cut over at Sioux Falls and take 23 north (my Mom's hometown is very close to Marshall) or we stay on I29 and cut over just north of Brookings.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the weather is like in May. I've been when it's chilly, stiffling hot and then once when it was in between. I'm hoping May is plenty hot enough to swim, but not so hot that we're melting like we do in July!

Your May trip sounds like it is going to be a blast! How nice to be able to get away with just your mom for a week!

I'm looking forward to it. No kids to complain about me stopping to shop (or husbands telling me I'm spending too much money ), no one pulling me from one attraction to the next, or constanly begging for one more treat or one more trip to the arcade.... Yeah, I'm gonna enjoy it! Of course, I'm sure I'll have those moments when I miss the kids and feel guilty for leaving them too!

I love that you are going in May with your mom!! We have gone in May and have had incredible weather, very pleasant. Tell your mom is beautiful, I would never guess she is 60! You two will have such a wonderful time making mother/daughter memories... great idea!

I will tell her, she'll turn 62 about a week after we get home and she's still as active & energetic as ever! It's in her genes though, her mother worked and golfed and stayed active until she got sick and had to stop in 2005. I'm sure my mom will be the same way. I'm really looking forward to creating some special memories on this trip.

Awwww.......I think it's fantastic that you are able to take a trip with your mom! You'll be able to build wonderful memories that you'll always be able to cherish and look back on...

I'm so glad that she agreed to go, there was a time when there would be no way that she would leave my stepdad at home alone for a week, but thankfully that has changed. She and her mom & sisters had always talked about taking a trip together someplace warm & fun, but Grandma always said, 'after Grandpa's gone'. He was 8 years older and not in nearly as good of health as she. But God had other plans and my Grandmother died of cancer before my Grandfather passed and without ever having gone on that trip with her girls. I know that has stuck with my mom because she seems to live her life more for today now.

Your Mom is beautiful! And yes, I can only hope to look that good when I'm 60 too!!!!

Your plans look wonderful. Lots of Epcot time for fully taking advantage of the festival. I can't wait to see your pics and everything....the F&G festival has been on my wish list since I heard about it, it always looks so beautiful.

We have had a Noon ME pick-up in the past and it was fun to just dip into MK to get a few things done, grab some lunch and say good-bye to the Castle. It made it easier to leave!

Thanks for the compliment on my mom, she's a pretty special lady!

I tried to get a bunch of Epcot time in there, I know that is what she will enjoy the most. And I can't wait for the F&G festival either, all the photos that I've seen are so pretty. I just can't wait to share WDW with her and hopefully get her to understand what keeps drawing me back there.

I do love to finish up a trip at MK, somehow it makes the trip seem complete. Even if we just pop in and wander around, grab some corn dog nuggets (yep, put that in there just for you ), and take some goodbye photos it'll be worth going over I think. We'll see!


Well I thought for sure that my PhotoPass CD would come today, it shipped a week ago for goodness sake! But, no luck, so I think I'm going to continue without it and post the PhotoPass pics when they come!

 

[SoonerGirl]

Sunday, December 20th

Today we were going to Animal Kingdom and the plan was to be there at park opening, but we just couldn’t get moving this morning! We arrived at the park about 30 minutes late. First we stopped at the giant tree to get a photopass picture. I'll put it in a separate post once I get the CD. This tree is gorgeous – I loved it!! I’ve got a few pictures of it to share at the end of the day.

Next we stopped to talk to a CM about the African Elephants. He was holding one of their tusks. He gave the boys all kinds of information, which I’m not sure they even listened to, they were hoping to get to talk to the lady that had the tray full of different kinds of

(gotta love boys) but she had quite a crowd, so elephant guy was the next best option.

After getting inside and stopping for a couple more pictures

Just pretend there is a photopass pic here

We headed over to Asia to get a FP for Expedition Everest. Fastpasses secured, we checked the stand-by time and saw that it was only 20 minutes, so we jumped in line. I took a few photos in the queue.

After we barely escaped being eaten by the Yeti, we went over to Dinoland. First up was Primeval Whirl, but hmmmmm, it had a wait time of 40 minutes – no one likes it enough to wait 40 minutes do they? Certainly not us! So, we decided to check out Dinosaur instead. A couple of pictures taken before we headed over:

Dinosaur was down – bummer! Our morning plans were just not working out. We put our heads together and decided to go walk the Maharajah Jungle Trek. Sooooo, back to Asia we went. I took this along the way

And one of this fountain

Then we hit the trail. We watched the bats for a long time. There was one in the back that was climbing all over the place – they’re pretty creepy when they’re moving about! The one close enough for a decent pic though was just hanging out. I waited and waited for him to do something, but he never did.

Up next, the Tigers – such beautiful animals!

A few more photos before we left the trail.

I was playing with the settings on my camera & thought this one turned out pretty cool

Once we were done the boys and I decided we needed a snack. We all got pretzels, the boys got regular ones and I got a jalapeno cheese stuffed one – mmmmm, it was good, the boys were coveting my pretzel after they tasted it! While we ate our snack we sat there and marveled at the number of people coming off of Kali River Rapids – many of them were soaked and looked miserable, it was pretty chilly this morning, probably in the 40s, certainly not warm enough to be wet. It got me wondering what these people were thinking!

Reenergized from our snack, it was now time to use our EE fastpasses, so we took another ride with the Yeti. Pictures taken on the way:

Continued in the next post

 

[SoonerGirl]

After our ride on EE we started walking towards Africa. As we were passing Flights of Wonder we noticed that a show was just starting, we’ve never seen it, and so we popped in to check it out. I was pleasantly surprised! I didn’t really think we’d like it, but we did.

At the end of the show we went to get a FP for the Safari. The line here was really long, it took me awhile to get them, but once we had them in hand we went over to walk through the Pangani Forest Trail.

I love watching the gorillas, but they were not very visible or active on this day. Maybe it was just too cold for them. We did manage to catch a couple of glimpses.

It was getting close to our lunch ADR time now, so we started back in the direction of Asia. We saw Flik with a very short line, so we stopped to say hello.

Then it was lunchtime. Our ADR was at Yak & Yeti. This was a new restaurant for us, but I’d read good things about it and was looking forward to this meal. Pictures taken in the waiting area

For lunch Don had the Salmon, I had Tempura Shrimp, Justin ordered the Honey Chicken and Jared had Chicken Nuggets & French Fries. Everyone enjoyed their meal. Normally when we are at AK we eat at Pizzafari, it was great to have a nice quiet meal and avoid all the craziness that accompanies Pizzafari on a busy day! For dessert Justin wanted the Brownie Sundae for two, so Don split that with him (Don wasn’t going to eat dessert anyway so he didn’t care) I had the cream cheese wontons w/ pineapples – yum! I seriously wanted to lick the plate, but I refrained! Jared had ice cream.

Now that we had full bellies it was time to book it back over to Africa to use our Safari FPs. I took lots of pictures, here are a few (or quite a few) of my favorites.

Love the elephants!!

Next Up: Festival of the Lion King & Nemo

 

[RachelNinja]

Mmm, just the mention of your jalapeno cheese stuffed pretzel made me drool! I've never had it or seen it before, but it sounds so yummy and would definitely hit the spot right now! Was it really spicy or just a kick? I'm not supposed to have anything spicy, but if it's not heartburn inducing, I'd so go for it in April!

 

[Lovemy3babes]

It's been a couple of years since I went up, it's about time for a visit! Depending upon how far south you are, we've probably driven very close to you several times! Depending on our mood we go one of two ways, we'll either cut over at Sioux Falls and take 23 north (my Mom's hometown is very close to Marshall) or we stay on I29 and cut over just north of Brookings.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the weather is like in May. I've been when it's chilly, stiffling hot and then once when it was in between. I'm hoping May is plenty hot enough to swim, but not so hot that we're melting like we do in July!

I live right in between Sioux Falls and Marshall so we must be close.

 

[JenAusty]

poop lady... haha I'm sure she was pretty entertaining!

I also hate waiting in the long lines.. thats why we always try to go during off season times.

I love all the small touches that Disney does in there parks, and it really sticks out in AK.

I have never been to FOW, it looks really cool. I have to add it to the list of possibilities.

FLIK! I am soo jealous!! I have never seen him there before!

Thanks for all the great pics!

 

[Happydog]

Great UPDATE! Wonderful photos! I got a photopass CD too, and have not ordered it yet, have to this week!

BUT I think your pics are great! Those pretzels are AMAZING. My favorite AK snack!!!

 

[SoonerGirl]

Mmm, just the mention of your jalapeno cheese stuffed pretzel made me drool! I've never had it or seen it before, but it sounds so yummy and would definitely hit the spot right now! Was it really spicy or just a kick? I'm not supposed to have anything spicy, but if it's not heartburn inducing, I'd so go for it in April!

No they aren't really spicy, just have a bit of a kick to them. The boys were afraid to get them because they thought they would be too hot. They took a bite of mine and then kept asking for more - I wouldn't share though, it was too good!

I'm pretty sure the only place you can get them is at AK, I've looked elsewhere in WDW and haven't been able to find them.

I live right in between Sioux Falls and Marshall so we must be close.

Yep sounds like it!

poop lady... haha I'm sure she was pretty entertaining!

I also hate waiting in the long lines.. thats why we always try to go during off season times.

I love all the small touches that Disney does in there parks, and it really sticks out in AK.

I have never been to FOW, it looks really cool. I have to add it to the list of possibilities.

FLIK! I am soo jealous!! I have never seen him there before!

Thanks for all the great pics!

The lady with the poo was pretty popular with all the kids - guess we know what they're interested in!

AK is a great park to take pictures in, so many interesting things to look at there.

FoW was much more entertaining than I thought it would be. Don't go if you don't like big birds flying low over your head though!

Flik was on the walkway between Africa & Asia, close to where you have that great view of the Tree of Life. There was a little path that led down to where he was greeting. Hope you can find him next time!

Great UPDATE! Wonderful photos! I got a photopass CD too, and have not ordered it yet, have to this week!

BUT I think your pics are great! Those pretzels are AMAZING. My favorite AK snack!!!

Love the pretzels - they definitely made the must have snack list!

 

[ladybugmom]

Great update!! You got some really beautiful pictures of the park and the animals!! I can't wait to visit AK again! When we were there in May it rained 11 inches the day we were there! Needless to say we didn't get to explore the park like we had hoped!!

 

[If U Had Wings]

I can't imagine what people were thinking riding Kali in those temps. Seriously, you deserve to be cold for even trying it. Just crazy. I didn't even think about riding while I was down there in Dec.

 

[heaven2dc]

Perfect photo of EE and the statue! Great job!

 

[Lovemy3babes]

Great update! Why is it not at all suprising that boys are fascinated with poop? Go figure.

The pretzel sounds yummy. Much better than my shredded wheat I'm eating for breakfast.

Yak and Yeti sounds like it was delicious! Is it on the dining plan? Yum!!

You got some gorgeous safari pictures. Good work.

 

[Charleston Princess]

Yeah, when you're a boy, it is hard to get excited about elephant tusks when you know someone is talking about poop nearby!

It looks like the tigers and safari animals were pretty active -- we have never seen the cheetahs so visible before!

We enjoyed the food and theming of Yak and Yeti as well -- it's nice to be able to escape to a nice, quiet restaurant during the day.

 

[brookelizabeth]

I do love to finish up a trip at MK, somehow it makes the trip seem complete. Even if we just pop in and wander around, grab some corn dog nuggets (yep, put that in there just for you ), and take some goodbye photos it'll be worth going over I think. We'll see!

thanks for the "shout-out"!

The poop comment made me laugh. I know those days are soon approaching when Henry will find it hilarious! Currently just the word makes him laugh, but when he sees it ON DISPLAY! I'm sure it will be a highlight....

NYE week at Disney did something kinda funny to me - when you mention a 40 minute wait I now think..."not bad".

 

[marsa1969]

Great pictures of the safari the animals were out posing for you! We ate at Yak & Yeti it was quite tasty! Wish I would have had the wontons, those sound great. We all split the brownie sundae.