Going from Friday the 13th to Enchanted- Day 9: 'Round Midnight update 7/19/11

[Moira222]

We interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you a message from..

Photopass LOL the CD came in yesterday’s mail!!
And while I am interrupting here, let me just see if anyone has caught on to the trip report titles and why I picked them????


Here are some shots from Saturday and Sunday morning

Welcome to Hollywood studios!!!

You may recall our off schedule visit to DHS. Despite having breakfast around 9am, we didn’t make it to the park till a bit after 11. So we were getting hungry! and were munching apples when I came upon the first Photopass shot of the trip.

Hey hey we’re the Monkees…. do monkey’s munch apples?

Dinner at 1400 Park Fare

Epcot Saturday night…there was a heck of a rain late afternoon and it really cleared out the park! by the time we got there after dinner, crowds were just how we liked ‘em!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
now back to our regularly scheduled program....

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Great photopass photos, especially the apple ones as they are unique!

 

[KatMark]

MaryEllen, those are awesome photopass pictures. Although I like them all, I really love the ones with the apples and the ones with Katie snickering while you guys are kissing.

 

[Lidian]

I loved ALL of the pictures! However, I think my favorite is the Test Track one. Everyone looks bored except Katie - who looks terrified.

 

[lbuzz52]

What a great bunch of photopass pictures! It seems you got a couple photographer who were really into their job. Very creative!

We showed up at MK that rainy Saturday right before that storm. We got there too late to say if it helped withthe crowds or not- but I was most happy it cooled things down!

 

[lizzyshakuntala]

Just finished reading through your PTR and of course I have to join your TR!

Despite some set backs here and there, you guys seemed to be enjoying every Disney moment... and I especially love the apple munching family picture!

Looking forward for your updates! Cheers

 

[Moira222]

MaryEllen, those are awesome photopass pictures. Although I like them all, I really love the ones with the apples and the ones with Katie snickering while you guys are kissing.

i love the kissing photo. too cute!

I loved ALL of the pictures! However, I think my favorite is the Test Track one. Everyone looks bored except Katie - who looks terrified.

she WAS! she was holding to us but loving it at the same time. truly when the development down the road from us was under construction he used to do crazy driver there and aside from the high speed turns it was pretty close to TestTrack.

What a great bunch of photopass pictures! It seems you got a couple photographer who were really into their job. Very creative!

We showed up at MK that rainy Saturday right before that storm. We got there too late to say if it helped withthe crowds or not- but I was most happy it cooled things down!

oh that heat in the morning was tough!

Just finished reading through your PTR and of course I have to join your TR!

Despite some set backs here and there, you guys seemed to be enjoying every Disney moment... and I especially love the apple munching family picture!

Looking forward for your updates! Cheers

Welcome!! Are you really in Jakarta? A friend of mine was living there for a few years teaching. Is it still siesmically crazy? I used to keep a book mark on my pc to track the earthquakes there when she lived there.

 

[Moira222]

It was going on noon now (my how time flies at Disney!) and we needed to get special bracelets for our 2pm session in the Pixar area with Jonas Rivera. I had no idea where we were going! First we headed way back to the Flower & Garden central.

(Side note: that is Joe, his back to me, surveying the floor. See the nice tan travel vest? Very handy – it has lots of great pockets and ventilation. You may have seen it on my PTR. Know what I did not know when I ordered it? It’s almost identical to the tan vests worn by cast members at all of the parks. We totally lost track of how many times people stopped Joe to ask him for information. One or two seemed rather perturbed when he said he didn’t know. They asked “Well, aren’t you a cast member?” he just laughed and said no, I’m a visitor just like you! SO, if you are shopping for a great travel vest for your hubby or yourself, there is a benefit to ordering black or olive green over tan. )

It was pretty back there, and while we really would have liked to see Vern Yip, we also needed to get these bracelets! I think Joe and Katie wandered a little while I waited my turn to speak to two ladies at a booth marked “Information”. When I asked them about the bracelets they had no idea what I was talking about and seemed a little bothered that I was asking them as they were volunteers not associated with Disney. I laughing pointed out that they were in a booth marked “Information” – the one lady didn’t think it was funny and dryly said “Yes, plant information” well! The booth didn’t say Plant information! So I found a cast member who told me we were completely in the wrong area!

Once again we found ourselves power walking through Epcot --- Bye Club Cool! I see you but Joe is on a mission and won’t stop till he gets there. The Pixar Central is our destination.

Its back behind Canada & the UK. Wow! It is huge (and air conditioned yippee) they have a nice series of poster/info boards lining up to the entry.

Right outside the entry way is the check in for the Jonas Rivera presentation. I still wasn’t sure if Katie and I were going to join Joe—I wanted to see it but wasn’t sure if it was something Katie would be interested in, and I didn’t want her to chatter through it and ruin it for Joe--but got all of our bracelets to be safe. Katie was starving, and Joe was getting hot and crabby so he went into the air conditioned building and Katie and I went looking for food.

By now it was after 1 – I knew there was a DISMeet at Rose & Crown at 1 but I couldn’t identify anything looking like DIS’ers, plus Katie was hungry. We looked in one or two stores thinking I could get a light snack for her but there was not much besides cookies, and chocolate covered cookies, which would be instant mush in the heat.

So Katie and I got in line for Fish & Chips. I wasn’t hungry, so I just ordered one QS for her & got a drink for myself. Sorry, no pictures – too difficult to juggle fish and chips, two drinks, my bag, plus keep a hand on Katie and steer her through the crowd. And it was hot and crowded in the UK--- we just decided that we would go back to the Pixar area and at least eat in the air conditioning! It took a few minutes for us to find where we were going, but soon enough we were seated in heavenly air conditioning, Katie eating her fish & chips (ok I may have had a few bites) and the Green Army men had come in and were doing some Pixar Trivia – with prizes!

I texted Joe to let him know we were in the back eating, and then the army guys asked a question that Katie knew. Her hand shot up and she was picked – What was Remy’s job in the rat family? Food Tester! Yes! Katie won a really cute Pixar themed mouse ears – with Mater buck teeth and goofy ears. wahoo. she loved that!

Lunch finished, Katie wanted to sit up front with Daddy now (she wanted to show off her prize, too). He had been saving 2 seats for us so I threw away our trash and we headed up . front row. nice!

The presentation by Jonas Rivera was really interesting. He gave lots of insight into the development of Pixar story lines, characters development, the team of artists and graphic designers working on it. We all really enjoyed it – even Katie who liked seeing how some of her favorite movies came together.

After the presentation, Katie and I got in line to see Russell from Up! I was a little bummed because before we went into the presentation, Carl and Dug were out. I would have loved to see them but Russell was good too!

Also out next to us were Boo and Sully, Mr. Potato Head, and Mater—but we’d been in there for well over two hours and didn’t want to wait in any more lines, so I just snapped photos as we went through- Joe was already waiting outside.

As we exited we received really cool Cars 2 posters. Each of us got one (photo to come!) so when we got home, Katie gave one to her friend at church who is a HUGE Cars fan.

Back out in the heat (but not as bad now because it was around 3-3:30) we headed through World Showcase. We stopped in the shops in the UK – we were on a mission to find a pipe for Joe’s dad. Joe was sure he’d seen them in ’09 so we were looking everywhere. No pipe here! but Alice was signing autographs, so we stopped in a short line to visit with the petite girl.

(Katie was almost as tall as her!) Alice also commented on the very cool MouseEars that Katie was wearing, congratulating her on winning a prize. (she took them off before the picture)

continued next post

 

[Moira222]

After this the mouse ears were handed over to me.. of course they were easier to wear than carry. and we headed onward toward France….

and slushies!!! Katie and I stopped at the parasol booth, she wanted to pick out one that was already designed because she didn’t want to come back in 40 minutes. (just like her daddy!) and while I helped Katie pick, Joe wandered away and came back with a very yummy grey goose slushie. mmmm I had a sip of his and headed for my own….Grand Marnier slushie. FANTASTIC!

Since we had our own yummy frozen treats, and we had to wait while Katie’s name dried on her new parasol,

I took Katie back for a yummy pastry treat.

MMM lots to pick from, she had a hard time but finally chose a strawberry tart.

Joe had made another unsuccessful pipe search while we were getting a pastry, and had managed to nab a table outside so we could sit. I took my turn browsing the shops in France (no bags that I liked there either) and then sat with them for a few minutes while Katie finished her treat. Tastebuds satisfied for a bit we headed to Morocco.

Katie and I had fun trying on the belly dancing hats and checking out all of the exotic clothing. Joe had disappeared looking for the pipe. No luck again!

We walked through the shops in Japan, saw where the pick a pearl was and made a note to return later in the week.

In a little we walked along and found Rapunzel’s tower and the miniature village. The perspective was just right to make the tower look huge.

Outside of Germany we found the little kiosk where I had purchased my favorite glass mug during our last trip. Joe was so happy! He has been suffering mug envy for two years now! He found a Mickey mug for himself, a Pluto mini-mug for Katie, and a Cruella goblet for our awesome house and dog sitter Sharon. We ordered the personalization and then had them shipped directly home.

We didn’t stop anywhere for too long as we were heading to dinner reservations at Germany.

I know there are so many fantastic restaurants in the World Showcase and in EPCOT as a whole. Sometimes I get a little mad at myself for returning to past favorites, but, well what can I say? We are creatures of habit! We enjoy the atmosphere of the Biergarten, the family sized tables where you sit with strangers to break bread. The selection of German style food is great – for an area settled significantly by Germans NE Pennsylvania), German food is really hard to find here. So to have a wise selection of real sausages, sauerkraut, schnitzel…ymmmm. And Joe is rather fond of those beers, too! The polka music is great fun to listen to, and Katie really enjoyed some time to dance and run around on the dance floor.

We shared a table with a family from New York State who had two girls, both within a year of Katie. While I can’t say we were engrossed in conversation, we did chat a bit and it was just pleasant. They were familiar with our area of Pennsylvania, and we’d been up to their part of the state on camping trips, so we had some common ground.

What did we eat? I have pictures but not sure if they will really show that we tested everything. Mmm pretzels rolls, german sausage, cabbage and noodles, spaetzle, schnitzel, german potato salad, beet salad….more I am sure I probably should have taken notes but I was too busy eating!

Did I mention how much Joe enjoyed desserts in Disney World? Every time we ate at a dinner buffet he sampled EVERY dessert on the table. He was really enjoying himself!

At the Biergarten, there was a delicious fluffy cheesecake, rich chocolate cake, raspberry and crème and I am not sure what is in the little dish – some sort of pudding. I had the crème, and I had some strudel – no photo of my plate, and I only had one plate of dessert (unlike some people….)

After gorging, we waddled our way out… Still looking for the elusive pipe, we checked in the stores at Germany and again at the stores in Norway. I did get to take some photos inside of Norway. I just love those big … not gnomes…ogres or trolls?


Pick a winner!

and Katie was totally feeling Viking-esque

I really wanted to do Maelstrom but was outvoted as Joe & Katie looked forward to some pool time.


We took a bus back to the lodge and headed up to get in our swim suits. We hit roaring forks, filled our mugs with diet coke, then brought our trusty bottle of Captain Morgan with us for adult enjoyment poolside. It was nice to have some relaxation time. Katie and I caught the geyser erupt, watched the Electric Water Parade, and then kick back to watch Alice in Wonderland on the beach. I think I dozed off for a little on the beach before realizing it was really time to call it a great day at DisneyWorld!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Sounds like a busy and fun day!

Congrats to Katie on winning the ears!

I love the backdrop they had for the Up! characters.

Great family photos by France.

 

[jm106]

Yourpictures in france came out so nice! I didnt have any Photopass pics in Epcot(I actually didnt see any CM taking pics there.) looks like a wonderful day. I too tend to eat at my old favorties in Epcot.

 

[heaven2dc]

I just found your TR and enjoying our trip! Am so glad you ended up with the room you originally requested (what a hassle!). Loved the interaction with the Fairies - I didn't know they were at Epcot too (was this only during this time of year or do you know if they appear there frequently?)

 

[lizzyshakuntala]

Wish i could go during that PIXAR 25th Anniv. Weekend! We'd both really enjoyed it, especially DH. And I would've loved getting in a picture with Boo! I don't think I've ever seen her in any character pictures But then again, I'm a newbie here

Yes, I really am in Jakarta, born and raised even Moved to DC in 2000 for school and didn't come back til 2 years ago, so I wasn't around for much of the sad/scary catastrophe that has since hit our country. Although, lucky for those living in Jakarta, the vibration here was rather smallish compared to those areas near the center of the quakes (mostly underwater). I hope your friend was not affected by them

 

[pinkxray]

I missed the last few updates. I never hit suscribe when I joined in over here I was wondering why you were taking so long to update. I thought you were slacking over here.

You got some great photopass pictures! I love the one with Katie snickering while you guys kiss.

It looks like you guys had tons of fun at Pixar weekend. I only saw Carl and Russell, I was hoping to get a glimpse of Dug. Oh well.

The presentation looks like it was very interesting. The ears that Katie one are pretty cool and they look very cute on her.

We walked by Alice in Wonderland playing on the beach a few times that night. I kept wanting to go and watch it and Caitlin did a bit too. DH said we would do it another night though. I wish we had just walked over, we would have saw you. Funny to know you were so close.

It really looks like you guys are having a great time

 

[lbuzz52]

i love this picture! its really sweet!

i'd love to have some of those mugs! great idea for a useful collection. do you remember what sort of prices they were once personalized and shipped?

the vest story made me laugh out loud!

pixar looks crowded, but it seems like you had a lot of fun!

I got a kick out of your DH getting silly with your DD. Mine would never do that- he says i have enough silly for the both of us. But Katie really seemed to be enjoying the goofy time with him!

I hope you guys eventually found the pipe. It seems that we had the same trouble- we could find anythign except what we were specifically looking for!

 

[Moira222]

Sorry I am so long in getting back here. I had to work Friday till 10 pm and Saturday till 8 pm. UGH! no time for DIS'ing? Ridiculous!

I did start to write out the next day this morning then realized I had only 35 minutes to shower and dress for church! Time flies when you are in Disney - for real or in your head!

Sounds like a busy and fun day!

Congrats to Katie on winning the ears!

I love the backdrop they had for the Up! characters.

Great family photos by France.

Welcome! and thanks - the France photo was fun, and the Pixar area was awesome.

Yourpictures in france came out so nice! I didnt have any Photopass pics in Epcot(I actually didnt see any CM taking pics there.) looks like a wonderful day. I too tend to eat at my old favorties in Epcot.

I think I only found photo pass CMs at the entry and there in France. OH! I just remembered -- there were photo pass CM's at the Pixar area, so maybe that's why there were so few out in the park?

I just found your TR and enjoying our trip! Am so glad you ended up with the room you originally requested (what a hassle!). Loved the interaction with the Fairies - I didn't know they were at Epcot too (was this only during this time of year or do you know if they appear there frequently?)

Hi Debbie! welcome!! I don' t know if the Fairies were here only for F&G...I believe that they are temporarily relocated to Epcot until next year when Fantasy land is finished. I'm sure that some of my DIS friends here can verify that, right??

Wish i could go during that PIXAR 25th Anniv. Weekend! We'd both really enjoyed it, especially DH. And I would've loved getting in a picture with Boo! I don't think I've ever seen her in any character pictures But then again, I'm a newbie here

Yes, I really am in Jakarta, born and raised even Moved to DC in 2000 for school and didn't come back til 2 years ago, so I wasn't around for much of the sad/scary catastrophe that has since hit our country. Although, lucky for those living in Jakarta, the vibration here was rather smallish compared to those areas near the center of the quakes (mostly underwater). I hope your friend was not affected by them

Pixar was cool -- and you should have heard the crowd cheer when Boo cam out. it was great! we were already in line for Russell and would have spent another hour waiting if we'd jumped lines. so I settled for snapping shots in between others' heads!

My friend was home (in PA ) for the tsunami as it was right after Christmas. i recall that she had friends vacationing in Band Aceh at the time but they were okay. I am glad that your family felt no disastrous effects although i can only guess at how it continues to effect people in the whole country. She was not much effected by the quakes, though her husband is a science and he was taking his class on a field trip when the volcano began showing signs of activity -- they left pretty darn quick!

I missed the last few updates. I never hit suscribe when I joined in over here I was wondering why you were taking so long to update. I thought you were slacking over here.

You got some great photopass pictures! I love the one with Katie snickering while you guys kiss.

It looks like you guys had tons of fun at Pixar weekend. I only saw Carl and Russell, I was hoping to get a glimpse of Dug. Oh well.

The presentation looks like it was very interesting. The ears that Katie one are pretty cool and they look very cute on her.

We walked by Alice in Wonderland playing on the beach a few times that night. I kept wanting to go and watch it and Caitlin did a bit too. DH said we would do it another night though. I wish we had just walked over, we would have saw you. Funny to know you were so close.

It really looks like you guys are having a great time

LOL I do that too - forget to subscribe then have to dig to find updates!

How funny that you kept walking by! Katie and I just left Joe in the hot tub and headed over on our own. If we'd waited for him we would never have made it! The beach movies were nice. I seem to recall catching a little bit of another movie, but cannot think of what it was right now. I'll have to check my notes!

i love this picture! its really sweet!

i'd love to have some of those mugs! great idea for a useful collection. do you remember what sort of prices they were once personalized and shipped?

the vest story made me laugh out loud!

pixar looks crowded, but it seems like you had a lot of fun!

I got a kick out of your DH getting silly with your DD. Mine would never do that- he says i have enough silly for the both of us. But Katie really seemed to be enjoying the goofy time with him!

I hope you guys eventually found the pipe. It seems that we had the same trouble- we could find anythign except what we were specifically looking for!

Joe never did find a pipe for his dad - he bought him a Donald mug (he's a big Donald Duck fan) and bought him a pipe locally after we returned!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE my mug. I got mine in 2009 and at the time they said they were closing that kiosk. Luckily, in true Disney fashion, they did close that kiosk -- and reopen it 15 feet away!! Joe was thrilled to see the mugs! AND I am pretty sure you can order them online. ok just dug through my bag and while I could not find the reciept, I think Joe's mug was bout $15 or so. The web site is www.arribas.com -- they have a big store in DTD along with the Kiosk outside of Germany in Epcot.


Joe can be a very silly guy.....ok at any given point in time at least on of the 7 dwarves names can be used to describe him. LOL not Dopey too often (though i can) but pretty much all the others!

sigh off to walk the dog, who has waited very patiently. I shall return! Lots of DIS'ing to catch up on and an update to post!

 

[KatMark]

Great update! Love the photopass pictures. Katie looks like she is enjoying her dancing at Biergarten. Unfortunately, we were very disappointed in Biergarten last September as we've always loved it. We were very upset it was chicken schnitzel and not veal, and it was very dry (and we were the first seating ). Love all the photos in the shops.

 

[Moira222]

Monday morning started without a hitch. Joe got up & ran, and I got dressed while he was out. When he got back, he brought up coffee (the in room stuff is grotesque) and we woke up Katie. Light bites all around from our grocery order – cereal, fruit, yogurt and we were off.
Animal Kingdom!

my favorite! I was psyched and Joe and Katie were pretty clear that this was MY PARK …so they were sort of my captives for the day! We hopped a bus and arrived right at 8 am for a morning EMH….but …. no opening show? I was thrown off but only for a second!

The one thing I added to my touring plan for AK was the Safari – I’d heard from so many others here on the boards that if you can get on really early that it was worth it. Know what? they were right!!! We walked through Discovery Island on our way to Africa (oh yeah, this was MY day, so we did not POWER walk and we did stop for one or two photos. uh huh, I like this pace!).

We did have to make a stop or two (that coffee goes right through me!) and Katie was glad to make some pin trades while waiting for mommy.

Then…SAFARI!

It took only a few minutes before we had our safari guide

and we were off. Front row seats, which were great! We could see and hear everything as the driver pointed them out.

What’s a trip to Africa without seeing Timon & Pumba?

And this is about where my batteries died. And the memory card in Joe’s camera was full. I swear I went through a set of batteries every day, sometimes twice a day. I had a back up set but didn’t want to look away to dig in my bag for them.

When we returned from our Safari, we saw that we still had about 15-20 minutes to wait till Rafiki’s Planetwatch opened.

We did a little shopping. SCORE! I found the perfect bag!

– I love this bag! it has plenty of pockets for me to organize stuff, and could be a shoulder bag, an across the torso bag, or a “belly bag”. A light weight fabric I could put my pins on it (though that didn’t turn out to be the best idea as I lost a few getting on and off rides) it dries fast and is washable. LOVE IT! joe bought the mini me version of it – a true belly bag (aka fanny pack?) and Katie picked up a cute tee. You’ll see her in it—it was a little cool Monday morning so she changed into it and put the tank aside for later -the tee is pink with a leopard print mickey on it.

ok done with the sales pitch…but LOVE the bag really!

We strolled through the nature trail there – I am not even sure what its called …but we had just a little while to wait so wanted to stick around in Africa, and we were hoping to catch a glimpse of Baby Lillie the baby Gorilla.

No baby but we did catch

daddy gorilla I presume?

and for the record, Joe really does have an arm span to match a gorilla’s.

No hurries, just a nice casual walk through, a little time for learning about bamboo

and naked mole rats

and a ginormous frog

(next post)

 

[Moira222]

(sorry for some of the huge pics... i have photos on two different sites and the one site i can't seem to resize. )

Walking through the aviary we saw lots of beautiful birds. I love that they provide full color double sided sheets for you to walk around with so that you can identify the birds as you see them.

Then it was time to ride

The Wildlife Express. We had only a few minutes to wait and an enjoyable ride.

There was lots to see and read – I personally could have spent 2 hours there or longer reading everything, watching the animal care takers at work, getting autographs… but I knew that I was only going to get so much out of this area. I could only hold my family hostage for so long before they got grumpy. So we went through faster than I would have liked but well, it is what it is, right?

Now here was where I was very sorry that we’d said we were not going to wait in character lines. We had decided this while waiting for the bus in the morning – we’d spent a LOT of time the day before waiting to see the fairies and then again to see Russell – we probably waited a total of nearly 2 hours just for those signatures alone, so the plan was to skip long lines & only go for autographs if the line was short or fast. Joe thought he had the autograph book but he didn’t.
In the Conservation Station there were very short lines for Jimminy Cricket, Rafiki and Pocahontas. I was bummed. I did snap shots of Jimminy Cricket and Rafiki in between kids. I hadn’t seen Pocahontas till we were rushing to the bathroom so I didn’t get a shot of her at all.

Hidden mickey!

Affection Section

This was cute but a lot of the animals were sort of clustering in the middle where it was hands off for the kids. I’m guessing they’d had had enough attention for a little while. I am an animal person and just love watching them and watching Katie interact –and it was very cute and fun for Katie who would have spent hours there if I’d let her!
So I’d pushed my family’s limits at Rafiki’s Planet Watch…we caught the last train to Nashville…

sorry. monkees on the brain
Our merry band departed Africa to make our way to Asia. OH! one more “must do” thing on my list: Flights of Wonder. What luck-- a show was just seating and a hawk out in the walking area peaked the interest of my less than thrilled at my description family.
This was a great show. We had good seats, not front row but close enough to see what was going on.

Catching birds in flight was cool.

and I got picked to volunteer in the show!

If you look to the right side of the stands, you can pick Katie in her pink tee standing up, about 3 rows back in the stands.
Myself and another guest had an owl fly right toward us and then perch directly behind my head.

The show was fun and informative -Joe and Katie were pleasantly surprised. Actually they were surprised all around at how much fun they were having at this park that I had to insist on a full day at. Ha!
So, what’s next?

Yeah baby! Ok we just picked up fast passes at this point – we had lunch reservations at Katie’s favorite place – Rainforest Café – so we were sort of meandering our way down and around to get to the front of the park. We wanted to have the fast passes to ensure a ride later in the afternoon.
Fast passes for Everest in hand; we had plenty of time to visit DinoLand on our way to RC. And what did we see there?
.

 

[Moira222]

Of course – face painting!

She has moved on from the princess look of our last trip …. and really I like this better. I considered doing it myself!

Face painting complete we all took a ride on the Triceratops Spin. Joe and Katie rode in the front seat, I in the back. I tried to snap a few pictures while we were on the ride.

We really wanted to ride Primeval Whirl but it was closed, reason unknown. Bummer. But we needed to head back for lunch now anyway. I have to say the park was just perfect this day. The weather was great, the crowd was very mild, my family was ALL in their happy places (even if it was not the park of their choosing) and I’d found a most excellent day bag.
Onward we strolled to the front of the park for lunch at Rainforest Café. This is just Katie’s favorite place to eat, and is requested by her every time we go to Disney. We have none that I know of near us, so it’s the only time we can go to one.

We used the park entrance to Rainforest Café and entered through the store. The entry way was pretty and fun with water fountains and giant mushrooms and such.

We checked in and watched the fish for just a few minutes before our table was called. As much as I find it hard to predict when we will be hungry for dinner five or six months ahead of time, I do like knowing that when we get to the restaurant, we will have only a few minutes to wait. Where we live in PA there are scads of chain restaurants with ridiculous waits. Most of them do not take reservations – the best you can hope for is to call before you
leave the house to shorten the wait. So not waiting is great in my book!

Our server was a very interesting young man. We chatted with him a bit at various times during lunch. He had lived in Pittsburgh along with many other cities around the country, taking advantage of being young and single to experience life. He was very intelligent and street smart – always a good combination – along with being an excellent waiter. He knew just when to bring things and when Katie’s flavor for her drink was not available, he brought her a different one and “made up for it” by bringing her free ice cream after lunch.

So what did we eat? We ordered the big appetizer combo – it had everything in it – nachos, wings, chimi changes, cheese sticks.

Seriously we probably could have had just that. But we didn’t! Joe and I were torn between the portabella burger or a real hamburger, something we have very rarely now that we are calorie conscious. We decided to order one of each, cut them in half and each have half of each. Throwing caution to the wind we had the fries too. The portabella burger was absolutely awesome. The regular burger was also very good but we both liked the portabella burger better.

Katie, despite having talked about popcorn chicken for weeks, ordered the most delicious grilled cheese sandwich ever. Really, it was very yummy!! just the right amount of cheese, butter slathered on the bread before grilling it to deliciously butter perfection.

We looked around the shop a little and I bought Katie a jacket thinking it would be chilly that night at the Magic Kingdom. She changed back into the tank top she started the day in as it had warmed up, and we were off.

Thinking that riding Everest immediately after stuffing myself was not the best idea ever, and the fates working perfectly into my plans, we left Rainforest with exactly enough time to go to the Festival of the Lion King.

I had no idea what to expect from this show – I just knew I wanted to do it. We were so surprised to see acrobats and trapeze along with the amazing animatronics and performances. We were just blown away. Being a rule follower I did not use flash photography –so my pictures are just okay, not nearly as spectacular as the show itself. Once again, even my skeptical hubby was pleasantly surprised at this show!

After FotLK we leisurely headed back to DinoLand. We stopped along the way at the DiscoveryKids spot—where even the cast members joked about how Joe was dressed just like them. Yes, we know—he told them how people keep mistaking him for a CM.

Next stop: Dinosaur! Yet another item on my list (man I just love how this day was all working) we headed to Dinosaur! And, NO WAIT. How awesome! We headed in for some prehistoric time travel to capture a dinosaur. (Which by the way even now almost a month later, Katie jokingly comments from time to time about the dinosaur and the ghosts (from HM) that followed us out of the park and home. Oh yeah, she had fun!)

We all loved that ride, it was so much fun. There was a couple in front of us wearing the bride and groom Mickey ears and for some reason, her “veil” glowing in the black light and flapping in our faces just added to the crazy effects on the ride. We told her about it and said thanks after the ride.

Heading back up through DinoLand we stopped at the Boneyard playground for a little while. Katie had a ball running around, and discovered the one spot on a ‘cave’ with running water trickling down that kids can run through. Well, it had warmed up and Katie practically stood there – she was soaked. Sadly her very cool face paint came off in the water play, but hey, that’s life, right? She had a great time, and Joe and I enjoyed sitting and chatting with other parents for a little while. Once she was sufficiently soaked and had burned off the ice cream from lunch, (and our lunches were sufficiently settled) we were ready to tackle the …YETI!

(continued next post)