The Magic and the Misery ~ Updated 6/13: June Trip Report Started!

[Goofy442]

Love all the details. You are going to love the F&WF we ate around the world and it was good. If you are not on the DP do your self a favor and get a gift card it was so much easier then pulling out your credit card all the time. They gave me one to put on my wraist so I had it handy all the time.

 

[Dugette]

Love all the details. You are going to love the F&WF we ate around the world and it was good. If you are not on the DP do your self a favor and get a gift card it was so much easier then pulling out your credit card all the time. They gave me one to put on my wraist so I had it handy all the time.

I can't wait to eat around the world at Food & Wine! I'm glad you mentioned the gift card thing. We heard something about it the other day but were unclear...is there a special gift card that you get just at the event?

 

[Goofy442]

The one they gave me was different from the others. Everytime we would use it they would say I have never seen this one before. I think we got it at guest relations. We used our credit card one year and it was a hassel, so when we saw someone with a gift card we got one the following year.

 

[Dugette]

The one they gave me was different from the others. Everytime we would use it they would say I have never seen this one before. I think we got it at guest relations. We used our credit card one year and it was a hassel, so when we saw someone with a gift card we got one the following year.

Thanks for the info. Good to know. We'll have to look into getting one of those.



In other news, for anyone out there, Dug has not yet started our PTR for June. We leave in two weeks. But he has good incentive to start it soon: We just upgraded. Involves 2 different resorts (no more POFQ) and 3 new ADRs! I'll leave it at that for now. I'll let you know when the PTR is started...may be a few days, as Dug's at a conference till Sunday.

 

[Goofy442]

Can't wait for the PTR.

 

[Dugette]

We were up early the next morning, ready for another commando-touring day. Had another breakfast of breakfast bars in the room.

We took the bus over to Epcot and arrived prior to rope drop. Since I can be a pretty fast walker, I geared up to make the speedy trek over to Soarin’ for Fast Passes, while Dug would head towards Test Track to get in line. This would cover the first two items on the Touring Plan. When the rope dropped, I took off on my power-walk. Dug took a couple pictures on his way in:

I made it over to Soarin’, having passed much of the crowd on the way, and got Fast Passes fairly quickly. On my way back, Dug called to say that Test Track was out of order. We decided to meet at Mission Space instead, as it was next on the Plan:

I refused to try the intense orange side, since spinning with high g-forces tends to make my head hurt. So, we split up. Dug went to the orange side and I went to the green less-intense side. I was handed a red card that the CMs use to measure the wait time. This will not be the last time I get one of these this trip. We actually ended up getting quite a few on various rides. Strangely enough, we never got one in January.

Since it was so early, Dug got on his ride quickly. I was right up at the front of my line and went into the holding area to stand on my number. I ended up standing there for a long time, due to technical difficulties. The CMs were unable to tell us how long it might be, but kept encouraging everyone to wait. A couple at a time, people started bailing out. I tried to stick around for a bit, knowing that our Touring Plan did not include coming back here again, but I eventually opted out. Mostly because I was sure that Dug would be wondering where I was. And the video was getting obnoxious. We all got Fast Passes that were good for up to 5 people to go on either Mission Space or the Maelstrom during our trip.

I found Dug in the gift shop at the end of the ride. I actually had to walk backwards through the entrance of the ride, then go in the shop from the exit, to get there. But I found him. I think he was enjoying the chance to relax after experiencing the intense side.

At some point, maybe this one, we caught the fountain doing a show:

Also at some point, not sure when, we stopped at Club Cool. We had read up and knew that Beverly was awful, but had to sample it ourselves. Yuck! And to think that I like almost anything Italian...but not this! We enjoyed many of the others, though.

Next, the Touring Plan told us to ride Living with the Land. Since it was closed for renovations, we used our Soarin’ Fast Passes instead (after getting another set of them for later, as recommended by the Plan). We enjoyed our ride on Soarin’. This was one I had really been looking forward to, as it didn’t exist on my previous visits to Epcot.

At this point we made a small deviation from our Touring Plan and went to the Circle of Life movie. The Plan had it later in the day, but we needed to kill a bit of time before redeeming our second set of Soarin’ FPs. The movie was okay, but seeing it once is probably enough.

Back to Soarin’ again! Because we ended up waiting a long time right before the row-assigning area, they seated us front and center. That was cool to not have feet dangling in front of our view!

According to the Plan, we were supposed to do more Future World attractions now, like The Seas with Nemo and Journey Into Imagination. But Dug really wanted to try the Kim Possible Missions. As we passed through Innoventions earlier, we had reserved a Kimmunicator. So, we decided to deviate from the Touring Plan.

We headed into World Showcase to pick up our Kimmunicator and receive our mission. Looks like Dug took some pictures along the way:

We got our Kimmunicator and were assigned a mission in France. But, first, we had to stop by Canada. We had been unsuccessful in obtaining a Le Cellier ADR, so we thought we’d drop by shortly after it opened to see if they had any cancellations. No such luck! Dug took some pictures of Canada:

So, we decided to have a quick lunch in Morocco. We’d heard the Tangierine Café was a good counter service option. On the way there, we passed the United Kingdom and France:

We arrived in Morocco:

The Tangierine Café was not crowded at all and we got our food quickly. We used two of our free CS credits. I got a Chicken Wrap, a bottle of water, and baklava (the only dessert you can get on the DDP). Dug got the Lamb & Chicken Shawarma Platter, as well as a bottle of water and baklava. I think we also got a side of olives. We found a nice table inside, in the corner, and enjoyed our lunch. We both liked our food.


Continued in next post…

 

[LuvEeyore]

patiently waiting

 

[Dugette]

After lunch, it was time to do our Kim Possible Mission. We went into France, got our clues, had our picture taken from the Eiffel Tower, and solved the mystery. I really liked that the Mission forces you to examine the details in a country more closely than you would otherwise. I feel like we really saw France.

We kept the Kimmunicator for awhile, since it offered us another Mission, but we never had time to do another one. Ended up turning the Kimmunicator back in later in the day.

Also, while we were still in France, we happened to see inside the windows of Chefs de France. Guess who was in there? Remy from Ratatouille! That was pretty cool to see, as it was something we didn’t know about prior. We do intend to experience it close-up (instead of through the windows) on our November trip, though.

Before we made it out of France, there was one more thing that got our attention:

Super impressive show!

We decided to take the boat across the lagoon back to Future World:

Cool picture:

Me and Spaceship Earth:

Since Test Track was now up and running, we headed over. To save some time, we used the Single Rider Line and were on fairly quickly. Loved it! This had been another ride I’d looked forward to, as it didn’t exist on my previous visits.

Now it was time to pick back up on the Touring Plan. Next up was The Seas with Nemo and Turtle Talk with Crush. We enjoyed our ride through the aquarium. At the end of this ride, we witnessed a scary unloading incident. In one of the Clamobiles ahead of us, a man without legs accidentally tipped his wheelchair backwards while exiting the vehicle and fell out of his chair. Yikes! His family helped him back into the chair quickly, though, and he was laughing about it. The ride attendant (who looked somewhat traumatized) went straight to the phone after they left, though.

After the ride, we headed into Turtle Talk and took a seat. Enjoyed the performance. Pretty cool what they can do with technology!

Afterwards, we spent awhile exploring the aquarium:

There was one tank that I found amusing. A large fish was sitting on a small fish. Wouldn’t let the other fish out. And I could see his little eyes saying, “Please get me out!” I’m not sure if the big fish was aware that he was pinning another fish down. I suppose he made a nice cushion. I think this is a picture of it, though it’s hard to see what’s going on in the picture:

More from the aquarium, including Nemo (yes, we found him!):

Next up on the Plan was Journey Into Imagination. I was such a big fan of this back in 1990 that I got a souvenir Figment stuffed animal. Although the ride is still okay, it definitely has changed over time.

Next on the Touring Plan was the movie Honey, I Shrunk the Audience. We had seen this in Disneyland a few years earlier, so decided to skip it.

We had already done the next few things on the Touring Plan: watching the Circle of Life movie, using the Soarin’ FPs, and eating lunch. We jumped ahead to the next item on the list, which was Spaceship Earth. Enjoyed the ride, but we were disappointed that the animations at the end did not have our pictures in them. Not sure why, but it was just cartoon faces.

Now our Plan sent us over to the Universe of Energy. I liked the addition of Ellen into the attraction, as I remember this getting rather boring when I was a kid.

Next, the Plan said we should explore the Innoventions pavilions. We had to skip this, though, as we needed to make our way back around the world for our early dinner ADR. We could see our destination in the distance:

Dug took some pictures of our journey:

Continued in next post…

 

[Dugette]

We arrived for our 4:30pm ADR:

Used a couple of our free TS credits here. I got the Lasagna al Forno (with meat ragu, bechamel and parmesan), Sprite, and Cannoli (crisp pastry filled with sweet ricotta, chocolate and candied orange). Dug got the Tortelli di Vitello al Chianti (veal and Chianti ravioli, parmesan cheese, sage butter, roasted tomato), Ginger Ale, and Copetta Sotto Bosco (berries, zabaglione cream gelato and chocolate sauce). The food was good, but we've had better Italian food (both near home and in the real Italy). Part of me would like to try this place again, as we hear so many good things about it, but we just had an "average" experience here. We'll see if we make it back, I guess.

Here we are:

And here are the desserts (we shared, by the way, and both were good):

We also got a bonus chocolate mousse cup for our anniversary. I loved this! :

This meal was pricey, but not nearly as expensive as the CA Grill had been the previous night:

We headed out and took some pictures of Italy:

This was another point where we deviated from our Plan. Dug wanted to make sure to catch all the movies, so we ended up back-tracking a lot. The Plan was much smarter than we were, as it told us to cover the countries in the order they are, from Mexico to Canada. Would have made sense.

Here’s the way we did it, though. Since we were right by it, we went to check out the miniature train by Germany. Pretty impressive.

Since it was also nearby, we went to see the American Adventure. Although the show was good, I was super tired by that point. I kept dozing off. Oops. It was dark and I couldn’t help it. (Luckily, we went back to see it again on our January trip.)

After that show/nap, we headed over to France to watch the movie there. Dug has a little figurine of this at home, so he had to take a picture with it:

Then we went to Canada’s movie. Then China’s movie. We could barely stand/lean through it after all that walking. The movies were all pretty good, though.

Now it was about time for Illuminations. Since we had not staked out a spot in advance, we had to improvise as best we could. We ended up in Italy. Couldn’t see very well over everyone, so ended up climbing up on the footing of one of the big pillars. Not a comfortable way to watch the show, balancing on one foot and hugging a pillar, but the show was good.

It was now Extra Magic Hours until midnight. Dug was thirsty, so he headed over towards France/Morocco to find a drink. He ended up with a Grand Mariner Orange Slush from the French kiosk.

I was dying to ride Maelstrom, as I’d always wanted to as a kid, but never got a chance to. We headed over there and it was a walk-on. Didn’t even need those super-fast-passes we got earlier. I enjoyed the ride, especially the backwards part and the drop.

Time for another boat ride! We went to Mexico and walked-on to the Gran Fiesta Tour there. We got our own boat. It was so nice to sit in the front row, put our feet up on the front of the boat, and enjoy the scenery!!!

We had just enough time left to do one of my favorites again…Test Track! We waited in the regular line so we could ride together this time. Got another red time-check card. While we were waiting, the ride broke down. What had been a short line ended up taking a long time. Dug was very sore from all the walking that day, but stuck it out until the ride was back up and running again. Test Track at night is cool!

Time to head out:

We took the bus back to Pop. Found lovebirds in our window:

We headed to bed after logging the most insane step total ever (thanks to our Touring Plan deviations): 37,204!!!

Up next: A rainy day at Animal Kingdom, a delicious buffet, and our only Park-Hop of the trip!

 

[Dugette]

We woke up early again this morning to find a rainy, dreary day. Animal Kingdom was opening at 9am this morning. We got ready, ate our breakfast bars, and headed out.

Got to AK and enjoyed the opening show. Luckily, we had packed both mini umbrellas and ponchos, as we would be needing them for most of the day.

First up on the Plan was obtaining Expedition Everest Fast Passes. We saw our destination ahead:

When we got there, we found there was no line at all, so we just went on the ride instead. We got the back seat of the train and really enjoyed the ride. Again, this was another ride I’d been looking forward to, as it didn’t exist last time I’d been to WDW. (Well, nothing in AK existed, actually).

Due to the rain, there was still no line, so we went back on again. Got the front seat this time. Great view from the front, even though I was only peeking through a small opening in the poncho hood, glasses getting splattered with rain.

On the way out of Everest, in the gift shop, we saw something we’d been looking for since our arrival: spray-on sunscreen. We only had brought along the lotion-type sunscreen and it was so time-consuming to put on every day. So, even though it wasn’t exactly a day for it, we got some sunscreen. I think the gift shop CM thought it was an odd purchase.

Since we were already wet and in ponchos, we figured that this would be a good time to do Kali River Rapids. The Plan had it a little later in the day, but the park was not very busy, so we felt okay improvising a bit.

Before Kali, we went over to the restrooms to change. We’d brought along water shoes/sandals and swimsuits specifically for this. We changed, threw some clothes on over the swimsuits, put the ponchos on over everything, and made sure all our electronics were safely stowed in plastic bags. Time for Kali. Walked right on. The other people in our raft were staying on for their second ride in a row. Even with the ponchos, we still had gushes of water leaking in through the sides. Since we were already wet, we stayed on the raft and went again. It was fun, but I think we would have been able to see more of the surroundings if it hadn’t been raining. After the ride, we returned to the restrooms and changed back into our dryer things.

Next up, we decided to head to a dry, indoor ride: Dinosaur. When we entered the building to get in line, they made us take our ponchos off. Kind-of a pain. Got on the ride and enjoyed. Then put our ponchos back on and ventured back out again.

We’d skipped a couple of items on our Touring Plan. One was TriceraTop Spin, which we had no interest in. The other was Primeval Whirl, which we headed to next. We waited in a short (10-15 minute) line there. While we were in line, we witnessed another scary unloading incident. A girl, maybe about 13 years old, slipped on the wet surface while getting out of her ride vehicle. She fell and hit the back of her head on the ground next to the track, right in front of where the moving vehicle was. It looked for a split second that the vehicle could run over her head. It was really scary. Luckily, she was helped up very quickly and seemed okay. Still terrifying, though.

So, with images of that incident fresh in our minds, we boarded Primeval Whirl. Four people sit in each car, separated in pairs. We were on the right side, me on the outside of the car. If you’ve been on this ride, you may know that this led to me being squished horribly the whole time. And it was raining. We couldn’t get off this ride fast enough! Hated the whole experience!

We were thirsty at this point, so we went and got some Sprite. We found a table with an umbrella and relaxed under it with our drink.

Since it was still raining, we decided it was time for another indoor attraction: Finding Nemo – The Musical. We really enjoyed this show.

We decided to go see another show next: Flights of Wonder. It wasn’t too rainy at the time, so seemed like a good time to squeeze this show in. It was a great show!

Since it was still not too rainy, we took the opportunity to walk the Maharaja Jungle Trek. Enjoyed the animals and scenery.

Not sure when this was taken, but just wanted to throw in this cool scenery/theming picture:

We were hungry for lunch now, so we headed to the Flame Tree BBQ. We decided to share and just use one CS credit for this meal. We got ribs, baked beans, coleslaw, Sprite-ade, and bottled water (as dessert). Total would have been $16.01, but free on the DDP. Once we got the tray of food, we went over to the condiment bar. I hear that this has changed since (for the better), but they only had a small space to set a tray, which was being used, so Dug had to balance the tray while getting stuff. He ended up spilling the drink all over our whole tray. We were able to get a CM to help us and got a new drink. I think we had to wipe the Sprite off the food. We sat in one of the covered pavilions and enjoyed our lunch. Here’s the ceiling of it:

Although somewhat out of sequence, we’d done all the pre-lunch items on our Touring Plan, except for the Safari. Technically, the Plan told us to get Fast Passes for the Safari and come back later, but there wasn’t much of a wait, so we just got in line. That was the nice thing about the rain/drizzle all day…short waits (although it was pretty non-rainy at this time).

I was excited for our journey:

A lot of our pictures are blurry, but here are the non-blurry ones:

The next item on the Plan was to take the train to Rafiki’s Planet Watch. This wasn’t really a high priority to us, so we skipped it and moved onto the next item: the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. Enjoyed the trail.

At some point in the afternoon, we took these pictures:

Also, at some point, we used a couple of free snack credits. We got a veggie egg roll (the ones with meat did not work with a Snack Credit). We also got a frozen lemonade. The egg roll would have been $1.89 and the lemonade about $3.50.

There were only a couple more things on the Touring Plan that we wanted to do. First, we went to It’s Tough to Be a Bug. It was fun and the exiting bugs at the end surprised us!

Last attraction was the Festival of the Lion King. This show just blew us away! We didn’t know what to expect, so it really impressed us.

We had a bit more time before we had to leave for our dinner ADR, so we decided to take one more spin on Everest. It was only a light sprinkle now, with some sun peaking out, so we thought it might be nice to ride Everest without the rain beating down on us. Cool pic on the way over:

I love how they have even themed the pavement here. You can see the fake bicycle tracks in this picture:

Some more pictures of the detailed theming:

We got to ride in the front of Everest again. Not that it was bad before, but it was much more enjoyable without the heavy rain.

After this, we headed to the busses. We hopped on the bus to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We arrived a bit early for our 5:35pm ADR at Boma. We checked in, then went to use the restrooms while we waited. As I walked toward the women’s room, a woman leaving informed me that someone had thrown up in the doorway. Okay…. She was right. Gross! And I had to jump over it to get in! I also warned someone on my way out. I think the CMs came out to clean it up shortly after that.

We were seated and really enjoyed Boma. The buffet only had short lines and everything was very good and unique. It was 2 of our free TS credits, but would have been $58 (plus tip) OOP.

I tried nearly all the desserts on the buffet. Although the legendary Zebra Domes were very good, my favorite were the little bite-sized chocolate mousse cups (miniature versions of what they brought us at Tutto Italia). Yummy! I ate a bunch of these! We really enjoyed Boma and would definitely go back.

After dinner, we caught a bus to the MK. Yes, this was our one-and-only park-hopping experience on this trip. But we both agreed that it was worth having the PH tickets, just for this nice night in the MK. The rain had tapered off, only drizzling a bit on and off the rest of the night.

Once we got to the MK, we went to Tomorrowland, as we’d heard that the TTA was running again. It had been shut down, due to the SM work, I think. And I had fond memories of the PeopleMover from my childhood, so we had to ride! It did break down briefly during our ride, but started back up again quickly. Love the views of Tomorrowland at night!

Next, we decided to use that Super Fast Pass (from Winnie the Pooh the other day) to ride Peter Pan, since it had a line. The CM actually gave us the pass back with a wink, so that we could use it again (even though it was one-time-only)! That was nice! However, we never needed it again, as lines were short from there on out.

Next, we wanted to ride Jungle Cruise in the dark. That was fun. We also wanted to do the Haunted Mansion at night, so we did that too.

It was now Spectromagic time, so we headed over to ride Splash Mountain without a wait. There was a father and son in our log that had stayed on for a second ride in a row. We sat in the back again, so we wouldn’t get too wet on the hill. This ride was great to ride during Spectro, as we could see all the parade lights every time the log went outside the mountain…very pretty. As expected, we didn’t get wet on the hill. Yea! However, shortly after, we got nervous when we saw the empty logs ahead getting splashed by the logs that were going down the hill. Uh oh. We hoped it would get the front of the boat…they were already wet! Well, the empty log came down the hill and….drenched us! They offered to let us ride again, and it was very tempting, but it was getting close to Wishes time, during which we had other plans.

We got off Splash and went over to Big Thunder. We’d heard that it is a magical experience to ride BTMRR during Wishes, so we timed it to do so. By the way, at Disneyland, we’d ended up on the Matterhorn during fireworks, which was pretty awesome too.

We rode Big Thunder a couple times, but the fireworks hadn’t started yet. It helped to sort-of dry us off, though. Although it was slightly drizzly again. The third ride, right before park close, was when the fireworks started. Very cool view of them while on BTMRR!

After the ride, we just enjoyed the fireworks as we made our way across the MK.

We got to the bus area and went to the Pop Century line. It was crazy long!!! Dug’s feet were beat, so he found a nearby bench to sit on and we hoped that the line would get shorter if we waited a bit. Well, that didn’t happen. The line remained ridiculously long through several busses. I finally couldn’t wait any longer and went to get a spot in line without Dug. Told him he could meet me when we got close to the front. Eventually, we got on a bus and made it back to Pop Century.

When we got back, Dug decided to hop in the tub to soak his sore feet. After the wet day, I was happy to get all cozy in my nice dry jammies. This is when I had my Disney Meltdown Moment. Dug had somehow managed to overfill the tub and called to me for help. I ran into the bathroom and soaked my socks and the bottoms of my pajama pants in the flood on the floor. Then, I reached into the tub to unplug the drain and my whole pajama arm got soaked. Then, I tried to mop up all the water on the floor and just kept getting wetter. I just broke down at that point. I had been just looking forward to climbing into bed, but now I was soaked again! After throwing my little tantrum, Dug game me some of his clothes to wear to bed. Off to sleep we went.

32,500 steps taken this day!

Up next: Our DHS Day. What ride will break down on us this time? And lunch at the Sci Fi!

 

[Goofy442]

WOW I can't remember what we had for dinner two days ago and you are giving details from last year. Great Job!

 

[praisehisname]

What a great last day; you got a lot done!

Can't wait until the PTR starts!!!

 

[Dugette]

Just have a second here, but wanted to let you know that Dug finally wrote something.

Will be more to come:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=36777992#post36777992

 

[praisehisname]

Woo hoo! Headed over now!

 

[Dugette]

WOW I can't remember what we had for dinner two days ago and you are giving details from last year. Great Job!

You know, the notes really help! And the pictures. Otherwise, I usually don't know what I had for dinner two days ago either!

What a great last day; you got a lot done!

Can't wait until the PTR starts!!!

Thanks. It's nice to have a last day where you don't have to leave until mid-afternoon.

 

[Dugette]

Woke up this morning ready to hit Hollywood Studios in plenty of time for the 9am rope drop and Toy Story Mania stampede. We ate bars for breakfast in the room, as usual.

We finally remembered to take a few pictures of Pop Century. This is the view from just outside our room:

Sadly, this view and the lobby/bus stop area was all of Pop Century we saw during this trip. We intended to wander around and check out the other areas and cross the bridge at some point, but never had the energy/time for it.

The DHS bus arrived at Pop and we got on. It was pretty crowded, so we had to sit a few seats apart. I amused myself by listening to the two women next to me. They were going over their Touring Plans. Clearly, they had read the Unofficial Guide too!

We got to DHS, staked out as close of a spot as possible, and waited for rope drop. Once the rope did drop, we made our way to Toy Story Mania. Dug got in the Fast Pass line, while I got in the stand-by line. Dug obtained our Fast Passes and joined me in the stand-by line (we were right by the chain outside, so I opened it and let him in ).

After not too long, we were on the ride (for our first time!) And, about a minute later, we were stuck on the ride. Yes, another first-ride breakdown! This made 3 out of 4 days that this happened to me! As you can see, we were thrilled :

Then, while we were waiting, we decided to get fake action shots:

And some shots of the scenery around us:

Eventually, a CM came around and led us out of the ride. We all got re-entry passes for TSM. I don't remember when, but we did use them and go on the whole ride at some point later in the day. Loved it!

Next, we headed to the Tower of Terror:

Enjoyed the ride!

Next, we grabbed a Strawberry-Banana smoothie from a booth near the Rock ‘n Roller Coaster. It was normally $4.19, but we got it for a snack credit. We enjoyed it while we waited in line for RnRC:

We also enjoyed this ride!

Random hat picture:

Next on the Touring Plan was the Great Movie Ride:

I think this was one of the few times we followed the Touring Plan that day. Looks like we modified it quite a bit to make sure we hit the shows at the right times.

Next up, it was time for our 11:40am ADR at the Sci-Fi. We were very nervous about this ADR. We had heard a lot of bad reviews of the food. We had seriously considered cancelling this ADR. However, we decided we wanted to see the place and would stick with the “safe food.”

We checked in and were brought out to a car towards the front, right side. The server showed us the back row of the empty car. We had heard that the front row is a bit roomier, so we asked if we could sit there instead. The CM went to check. We stood awkwardly next to the car for a few minutes. During that time, another CM seated a family in the first two rows of our car. The CM came back and told us that there was no way they could move us. So, we squished into the back seat. The CM was not very friendly, so that wasn’t a great start to our meal.

We did enjoy the environment and the movie clips, though. That’s really why we were there. I think we saw the whole reel once. And the food we got was quite good. We’d stuck to our plan and both ordered cheeseburgers with fries (yum!), shakes (as our drinks), and desserts. I had a chocolate shake (best one I’ve ever had, I think) and Dug had an Oreo shake. For desserts, I had the Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake (not as good as it sounded…very hard) and Dug had the Cheesecake (covered in “treats”). We were glad we kept the ADR and we’d go back there again for burgers and shakes. This meal took 2 of our free TS credits, but would have been $52.77 OOP.

Continued in next post…

 

[Dugette]

After a quick bathroom break, it was time to make our way over to the Lights, Motors, Action show :

Cool view behind the stage:

Stunts:

We enjoyed the show. Now, it was time for Dug to get his Star Wars fix. We went to Star Tours :

When we came out, the Jedi Training Academy was going on, so we stayed to watch for awhile :

The show was very cute.

Next we got in line for the Backlot Tour. I grabbed a bottle of water (snack credit, but would have been $2.79!), since we were hot and thirsty. I remembered a lot of this ride from my 1990 trip. We enjoyed our tour.

Here’s a picture of Walt’s plane that we saw:

We walked through the Streets of America:

Next, we saw the Muppets 3D show. Enjoyed it.

We made our way over to the Indiana Jones Stunt Show next, but arrived a few minutes late. We were seated in the top, right side of the bleachers. We had missed the opening stunts, but still enjoyed the show:

After the show, we went to the Magic of Disney Animation presentation. Wasn’t that great and the CM was difficult to understand. However, when we let out of that, there were tons of characters in the greeting area (including Dug, who we didn’t meet until January). That was cool to see. We didn’t wait in any lines for them, though, just looked.

Oh, at some point in the day, we took this picture of these topiaries we really liked:

Now it was time for the Beauty and the Beast show. I know people seem to like this show a lot, but I didn’t get much out of it. Maybe because we were seated way high up and it was quite hot out. It was just okay for me.

Since it was so hot, it was definitely time for a Mickey Ice Cream Bar! It was one free snack credit, normally $3.50. Between us, it did not last long. Yum!

Time for more shows. We saw the Little Mermaid and enjoyed it. Then we saw the American Idol finale show and enjoyed it too.

We wandered over to check out One Man’s Dream. We were really enjoying the museum when the CM called out that the movie was starting. So, we missed a lot of the museum (don’t worry, we saw the rest in January). The movie was very good, though.

Now it was time to find some dinner. We ended up splitting up, as Dug wanted to try a giant turkey leg, but I didn’t. I ended up at Fairfax Fare and got a BBQ Chicken Sub, apple slices, Sprite, and chocolate cake. Used 1 CS credit, would have been $15.42 OOP. Dug came back rather upset from Toluca Legs. They didn’t have desserts there at all, so Dug asked for a bottle of water as a substitute (which should be okay and we did at other places). They refused. So, he used up 1 CS credit and only got a turkey leg, chips, and orange drink (would have been about $10 OOP).

Food was okay. Nothing too special, though.

We planned to see Fantasmic at 10pm and it was getting to be about the time we needed to head over and get seats. Dug had been enticed by the smell of Disney popcorn the whole trip, so we figured this was a good time to get some, as they had a booth near the entrance for Fantasmic. Well, it was burnt! Not exactly what he’d been dreaming of. Oh, well. (It was 1 snack credit, normally $3.69). We sat near the back, center area of the bleachers. The show was pretty cool. Probably would have been better a little closer, though.

After the show, we took the bus back to Pop Century. We found a mouse-bunny in our window. (I think we must have got one the previous day too). Here’s our collection of towel animals through the whole stay:

We were tired after our long day, even though it was “only” 18,500 steps, so we headed to bed for the night (our last night at Disney!)

Up next: A return to Animal Kingdom when it’s not raining! And I get “lost”! Also, will we make our Magical Express in time? All that and more, coming up!

 

[Dugette]

The last day of our whirlwind trip had arrived. Since we had the free CS credits to spare, we decided to actually eat breakfast at Pop for once. Because it was early, there were not many people around. I got a croissant sandwich and Dug got a breakfast platter. We both got orange juice. I also got a water and Dug got a lemonade. Total OOP would have been $24.99, but we used 2 CS credits.

We had decided to go back to Animal Kingdom for our last day. Since it had rained most of our only other day there, we wanted to experience it a little more fully. And it was a nice, sunny day.

We took a couple pictures at the bus stop:

Arrived at AK:

It was pretty:

We were in time to catch the opening show again:

We went straight to the Safari. Unfortunately, this driver was very fast and not very good. Most photos looked like this:

I think these two were the only non-blurry pictures from that safari:

After we got off that safari, we got back in line and got right back on. With a much better driver. A few photos:

Next, we grabbed Fast Passes for Everest. While we waited for our time to come up, we went on Dinosaur. At some point(s), Dug took some pictures of the cool theming at AK:

When we made it back to Everest, we ended up going twice (both times towards the back). It was great to ride when it was not raining! You see so much more!

It was lunchtime now, so we hit the Yak and Yeti Counter Service. When we got there, Dug realized that he couldn’t find his KTTW card. I ran back to Everest in search of it while Dug ordered and used my KTTW card. When I got to Everest, I asked the FP CM about the card and, luckily, she had it!

I went back to enjoy our lunch. We got Honey Chicken, Chicken Fried Rice, Lemonade, and Mango Pie. We used 1 CS credit (OOP would have been $17.25) and 1 Snack credit (OOP would have been $4.25). Shared the food and it was okay. The Honey Chicken was pretty good. While we were eating, our table was surrounded by hungry ducks. We had no intention of feeding them, but Dug held out a piece of chicken to show one of the ducks and he jumped up and grabbed it out of Dug’s hand! Oops! I find it amusing that ducks like to eat chicken!

After lunch, it was time to head out. We had to be back at Pop to catch the ME around noon (3pm flights). On the way out of the park, we stopped at the restrooms near the exit. As he was walking away, Dug said he’d meet me at the gift shop.

Well, I came out of the restroom and wasn’t sure where to go. This is Disney, there are a lot of gift shops. And I am not the map person in our party. Or maybe Dug hadn’t come out of the restroom yet? I waited a few minutes, just in case. No, he wasn’t coming out. So, where would this gift shop be? I saw a little shop across the entrance. Checked that out. Not there. There was a tiny gift display area near the restrooms. Not there either. Could there be a gift shop outside the park that he meant?

Here’s the problem: I had no idea where he went (or if he was still in the restroom) and he had both my cell phone and my KTTW card. So, I couldn’t call him. And I was afraid to leave the park, as I wouldn’t be able to get back in. I looked at the park maps, but couldn’t determine if there was a gift shop outside the park. And couldn’t see anything without leaving. So, I ended up circling around, over and over, between the restrooms and the “gift shops” that I could see. Very frustrating.

Finally, as I was coming back to the restroom area of my route again, I saw Dug. I think he was trying to ask people if I was in the restroom. I ran up to him and after simultaneous, “Where were you?!?!”s, we were both furious with each other. We had blown a ridiculous amount of time over this miscommunication. Naturally, he had been in the out-of-the-park gift shop. The one I didn’t know existed (and couldn’t ask him about, as he was walking into the men’s room while telling me he’d meet me at “the gift shop”). He couldn’t figure out where I had been. I’d been afraid to leave the park w/o a ticket or phone.

So, now we were frustrated, angry, fighting, and late!

As we were leaving the park, going through the turnstiles, we were arguing. However, the CM made sure to merrily wish us a “Happy Anniversary!” I wonder if they had any clue how angry we were at each other?! It was strange.

So, we’re speed-walking out to the busses and we see the Pop Century bus…leaving!

Since I generally take the bus to work every day, this is something I deal with on a regular basis. You walk out and the bus is pulling away. The thing about busses, though, is that there’s usually another one coming. So, my general rule is to never chase a bus. In my experience, you only end up looking like a fool, running down the street after a bus, and you still miss it. Dug didn’t know this rule.

He started running, screaming, and swearing his way after the bus. Not a proud moment. In fact, I was so embarrassed that I took off my Anniversary Button and put it in my pocket. I didn’t want to be associated with that spectacle.

So, of course, we did not get on that bus. We were first in line to wait for the next one, though. I don’t believe that we spoke to each other. Not fun.

I think we both calmed down a bit once we were on the next bus back to Pop. We had to divide and conquer. Our luggage was in our room, we had two Snack Credits left, and our ME would be leaving shortly after we got to Pop.

When we arrived at Pop, I made a run for Everything Pop and got two bottles of water for the road. Used up our last 2 free Snack credits, would have been $5.75 OOP.

Dug procured CM help with our luggage and got it all down to the ME area just in time. Hopped on the ME and headed to the airport.

If you recall, Dug had to go straight from this trip to a conference in Galveston, TX. I was going back home to MN. So, we had separate flights. We hung out for a little while in the airport, but then had to say goodbye and part ways for our flights.

Flights were uneventful and we got where we were going safely. When I got home, I was picked up at the airport by Dug’s sister and she brought me back to their place to get our car and our dog (both of which they were watching while we were gone).

Dug came home a few days later, after a good conference.

Pretty anti-climactic end to the trip, huh? (If any of you are still out there…maybe I scared everyone away with the impetigo picture earlier??) Not to worry, though. You probably already read about our January 2010 trip, just a few short months later. Great trip. And….we leave in 2 days to go back to WDW for Star Wars Weekends!!!

So, when we get back, I’ll post a link here to that TR (also see the PTR that Dug’s doing…link in my signature).

To anyone who’s made it this far, thanks so much for reading along! I can’t wait to tell you about this next trip!

 

[Goofy442]

Have a great trip! Have fun with the Star Wars weekend.

 

[Dugette]

Okay, so it's just barely started, but it's started. Haven't had much time lately. Here's the link (also in my signature):

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2487638

Enjoy! Hope to see you there!