~When I First Felt The Magic...FINALLY!~ April 2010 Trip Report

Great updates! I'm glad you ended up like the Maharajah Jungle Trek. The trails are really underappreciated. It seems if it's not a ride people don't really care. But I always like taking a stroll down the trails. You never know what you're going to see!

Looks like a fun time at the pool too. I love how a lot of the resorts play movies at night. Very cool!

Thanks, Sarah! :-) They are really underappreciated. You can't see every animal in AK just on Kilimanjaro. I sadly never got to do any of the trails on my second trip, but I'm upset I didn't, since I still haven't done Pangani yet and that one sounds really interesting.

Yeah, a lot more than I expected and it was great to watch Nemo poolside. The two resorts I've stayed at have played a movie poolside at least one night so I don't know how I could go to a resort and not be able to do something like that now Hahaha :-)
 
Hi,Timmy...I'm really enjoing your TR...You are doing an awesome job!!!:thumbsup2. My oldest son is about your age and trust me...he would never, ever write something like this...well, perhaps if there was a gun pointing at his head he might have come up with maybe two or three lines:rotfl: He really likes Disney though but he is more a thrill ride guy...Anyway, keep up the good work, I'm going to check out your new TR now...Tchau (that's bye in portuguese) Tania.
PS: Sorry about my english, please feel free to correct it...;).
 
Hi,Timmy...I'm really enjoing your TR...You are doing an awesome job!!!:thumbsup2. My oldest son is about your age and trust me...he would never, ever write something like this...well, perhaps if there was a gun pointing at his head he might have come up with maybe two or three lines:rotfl: He really likes Disney though but he is more a thrill ride guy...Anyway, keep up the good work, I'm going to check out your new TR now...Tchau (that's bye in portuguese) Tania.
PS: Sorry about my english, please feel free to correct it...;).

Hi! :-) And :welcome:

I'm glad you are enjoying it. :-) And that's good to hear I'm not of only a very few guys my age who like Disney. Though I'm not surprised about the TR writing, I like writing and not many people in the first place like writing so I'm just one in a millon :teeth:

I hope you enjoy the rest of it :D

P.S. Your English is fine, so far :-)
 
Count me as a fan too. Also my grandkids ask "did Timmy update his report yet? Is he writing his pre-trip, I hope he gets to go for his Birthday". So you have two more fans!

You do a great job and I love how you show your unbridled joy and love of everything Disney (also I saw you kids talking about Pottermore, the grands and I missed out but we'll have something to look forward to in the fall).

Anyway keep up the good work and hope to read more on BOTH reports soon.:surfweb:
 
Count me as a fan too. Also my grandkids ask "did Timmy update his report yet? Is he writing his pre-trip, I hope he gets to go for his Birthday". So you have two more fans!

You do a great job and I love how you show your unbridled joy and love of everything Disney (also I saw you kids talking about Pottermore, the grands and I missed out but we'll have something to look forward to in the fall).

Anyway keep up the good work and hope to read more on BOTH reports soon.:surfweb:

Hello! And :welcome:, again! :-)

Awwww... my many fans! I promise to update the other one as soon as possible and the PTR will come soon after :thumbsup2

Thanks! Disney is my biggest obsession, currently. And I'm sorry you didn't get into Pottermore early :( I'll probably be raving again the day I get my Welcome email so I may be able to give a sneak peek ;)

I hope you enjoy all my new updates! :D
 
CHAPTER 14: IT'S A CHARACTER INVASION AT EPCOT!

Sadly, we have finally arrived at our last full day in Disney ): Always a very sad day. It's so hard knowing that the day after you'll be leaving to go to that place called home and never be happy again. WAH! Yeah, maybe not entirely true, but I think you understand the conflicting emotions you feel during that last day, so let's get right down it...

I think this was another one of those uneventful mornings. We woke up, got ready and were off to the buses in a very smooth fashion, though, I think today was the day where we made it to the park closest to the time of Rope Drop, so we were there pretty early and getting inside the park was very quick. Here are my sisters waiting around:

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Entering into Future World, we saw the map display and of course had to grab the obligatory map, but we also noticed they had it in other languages. My sister, of course, grabbed a Spanish one for me to bring to school to my horrible Spanish teacher (I talked about her earlier). I took it to try to read it, but I ended up just using the English map, though I found it fairly easy to maneuver your way around EPCOT.

As we continued on into the first half of EPCOT, I began noticing the character lines building up. It was depressing, because they were so long and we always brushed by, like we had no interest. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed, way off to the side, a certain blue alien taking pictures with NO LINE! If you’ve noticed the characters we’ve met so far were all at the Crystal Palace, because of the insane lines at regular M&Gs. We charged towards Experiment 626, taking advantage of this opportunity. We did have to wait behind one other family and a couple, but they were very quick and soon it was our turn:

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These are probably my favorite photos from that entire trip. Firstly, because Stitch is one of my favorite Disney characters, but my mom just got great shots of the whole meet & greet. The one of all three of us is my iPod background and was my computer background forever. I also cut up the picture of myself hugging Stitch for my introduction picture. The M&G itself was also a great one, the best part was before we left, he ran up to my mom and gave her a kiss. Awww… Stitch :-)

After that, we went deeper into Future World and decided to go check out Soarin' at the land. Oh, I forgot to mention my dad wasn't with us at first, but he met up with us after meeting Stitch, so he got to walk with us to the Land. When walked into the pavilion, I noticed right away, the Garden Grill, our ADR that afternoon, so there was no worrying about searching for it. We proceeded downstairs to go find Soarin’.

We didn’t notice it at first, but saw Living with the Land with no line and decided to check that out:

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All of us actually enjoyed this ride. While it isn't a Space Mountain or Small World, it was still very cool. It was also a nice way to relax and just enjoy yourself for a moment. I could definitely see myself going on again.When we got off, we went straight to Soarin'. The wait was around 45 minutes, but we've learned sometimes those times are off, so we hopped in the stand-by line.

The wait wasn't too bad, it wasn't the longest we had to wait and it was inside with AC, making it not as painful. We also got one of the red cards that they use to time how long a wait it is :D I think the biggest problem we had were other guests in line. In front of us, there was a huge group of teenagers, probably just a year older than me, one even looked like my best friend, Trever (who made a special appearance in my other TR), of course he was nothing like him. This group was really loud and obnoxious, they wouldn't stop talking. I gave them all a few glares, stares, glances, etc. and apparently it looked like I was staring at one of the girls and they shouted out "Hey, do you like her?" I was really taken aback by it and didn't answer. The one who looked like my friend came up and tried to smooth things out, but just came off as arrogant, rude and a jerk. They kinda ignored us after that, but were being really irritating when we were lined up to get on the ride. Ugghhh... and of course, they get the front row and we get second :sad2:

Either way, I must say the ride was very nice. I wasn't impressed by it, but it was exhilarating to say the least. You really felt like you were hang gliding. The thing with me was I've been on similar rides (not where you are on hang-gliders), but you get the same effect, so it wasn't "OMG, THAT WAS AMAZING!" to me, but very nice.

When we exited the ride, we left the pavilion. On our way out, the jerk, who looked like my friend, followed us out. Already extremely sketchy and stalkerish, he went up to talk to my mom. Of course, she had to mention the fact that he looked like my friend. The rest of us stayed back while she talked with him for awhile. I must add though, my mom was crafty and lied to him about going to World Showcase, we started off in that direction, getting ahead of him, then took a sharp turn back towards the Land, but, of course, we weren't going back there, we were going to the Seas!

At first look, I thought this looked like a really cool pavilion. I loved how out front they had the seagulls on the rocks while the waves splashed. I don't think I could ever get annoyed by "Mine, mine, mine, mine..." Hahaha And the queue for the Seas with Nemo & Friends ride was even cooler. I'm pretty sure it was longer than the ride. I think the bad part about it was there was barely a line and you had to go through this extremely long queue :/

We did like the ride, it was very cute, but there was a girl with one of those really nice digital cameras taking FLASH pictures. It was really distracting, luckily she stopped 1/4 of the way through the ride. It didn't stop my mom from taking some pictures during that whole debacle, no she didn't have the flash on, but they are kinda cool to look at:

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When we got off the ride, zooming through the aquarium area, we found ourselves in, of course, the gift shop. DYS was ecstatic when she saw all the plush animals. Of course, she had to get one and, from some of my mom's persuasion, she bought a Squirt plush, very cute. Along with this, my mom donated to one of those organizations helping to keep the ocean clean and safe for the animals who live there and got one of those nice little buttons. She pinned it to her purse and left it there for the whole trip and months after (well.. the months after were because I forced her to hehehe).

We got outside and found that the evil teenagers were no longer following us, so we were totally in the clear. We saw people taking pictures by the little display of all the Finding Nemo characters and decided to join in and get a picture ourselves. I got stand next to NEMO:

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After we found Nemo (again), we went back into the heart of Future World to check out Innoventions. I'm pretty sure we were in Innoventions East, but I may be wrong :/ We looked around a bit and saw some really cool things, but there were already a ton of people in line to do them and they said they were long waits, so we saw this Hook & Loop Velcro show about to begin, so we headed over in that direction. I was a bit hesitant about this because it didn't seem like there were a lot of interested people (we were the first ones to walk over), so I wasn't sure if this show was good or not, oh well...

The show I must say, was actually quite entertaining. It basically was a game show/ comedy. They made some pretty funny jokes actually. I think my favorite was when they opened the door letting you exit, they said "Now please exit to your right, where you'll find the only door in Disney that doesn't lead to a gift shop." All the adults and I thought that was pretty funny, my sisters remained unamused. Here are some pictures and a video of my sisters playing one of the games, I thought it was quite unfair with only the two of them on one side (sorry no sound again) ):

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If you notice, at the end of this, when the other team's structure falls over, the guy host starts running over, he actually knocked off a second one to make it a tie :laughing: Yeah, not that funny

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The show I thought was okay. I don’t think it was amazing, I mean they did have the one good joke, but the rest was just… not interesting. Everything was very controlled and there was no point to the game show at all. All my sisters won for "tying" was a sticker that said "Winner" on it. They ended up giving it to my dad who didn't wear it very long. At the end though, we did get Velcro frogs, which we could make our own. Of course, we lost them before coming home, so I sadly don’t have pictures ): Oh well, they really weren't worth photographing anyway.

Once we got out of Innoventions, we decided it was time to check out EPCOT's other half... The World Showcase! As we were walking over, we saw a sign for Disney's Ocean and I stopped us to take a quick picture. I don't understand why I stopped us there, I'm weird like that LOL:

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We then continued onward. Just as we were about to enter into the World Showcase, we turned around to see some famous and infamous faces strolling about:

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The Queen of Hearts and Mary Poppins had just shown up, practically out of nowhere from the Character Spot in EPCOT. There was nobody around and we weren't going to waste much time, so we rushed over. First, we went up to Mary Poppins:

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She was a very good Mary Poppins I must add. When we walked up she asked if we were enjoying ourselves, we all just nodded, a bit starstruck, I'm sure, then she asked DYS if she had met Mickey yet, we all answered again in unison with "No". After that, she asked us if we were being polite and well-behaved children like Jane and Michael. We kinda hesitated, but nodded. My mom and dad had their cameras out now and Mary noticed this so she said "Come now, spit spot!" And thus the photo was taken:

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We bid farewell to the practically perfect nanny and crossed over to the "other side" LOL Ummm... no, we actually just went to visit the ever-gracious Queen of Hearts. I must say this was probably the best meet & greet of the trip.

When, it was our turn, my mom, my sisters and I all walked up together. I happened to be the furthest away from the Queen and my mom the closest. The Queen suddenly started walking towards me, creeping on my mom who flipped out :-)lmao:), as the Queen gave me her hand. I didn't understand at first, but was of quick thinking and kissed it. My dad actually got a photo of this moment:

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Fortunately, I had done exactly what her majesty had anticipated I’d do and we prepared ourselves for the picture:

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Oh wait there's more... We all then ran up to go see how the picture came out on my dad's camera, without a farewell to Her Majesty. Apparently, the Queen has been trained in the art of exceptional sneaking and came right behind us. I, of course, was the first to notice her, but wasn't quick enough to alert my mom, who turned her head to find her there. She freaked out again, moving out of the way, as she gave my dad her hand, and following my example, he kissed it as well. We then bid Her Majesty goodbye and moved towards World Showcase.

CHAPTER 15: A TRIP CUT SHORT... FOR THEM! coming soon!
 
Made it. Loving the pictures!

I finally make it to this one, and you're starting another one! :scared1:

:welcome: MeMom! Glad you could make it :-)

Thanks, I'm glad you like the pictures :teeth:

Well I just finished one actually and I had the PTR in my mind for awhile, so I just started today. It is going to be up for a LONG time, though. I need to update again though since I need something more for it :teeth:
 
CHAPTER 15: A TRIP CUT SHORT... FOR THEM!

After meeting the infamous Queen of Hearts and the practically perfect in every way, Mary Poppins, we decided it was time to venture into the other half of EPCOT: World Showcase. Of course though, being just around the beginning of the afternoon we decided to take a detour for a bathroom break.

After our break, we noticed people taking pictures on this bridge that winds around into World Showcase. It looked like a really cool photo opportunity, so we took advantage of that:

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After getting our pictures, we weaved our way through the maze of bridges to our first country in World Showcase- MEXICO! I must say, I was totally in awe walking up to this pavilion. I had seen pictures through Disney websites and videos, but it just looked that much cooler in person, I must say. As I said, it was around noon at this time and we had done a lot already, so it was about time to have a bite to eat.

I noticed part of the pavilion, the one by the lagoon, was being refurbished. There seemed to be a lot of those going on the week we were there. Apparently, the place being refurbed was home to the Mexican Counter Service, which had now become more of a stand with only one cashier. This created a problem because there was a huge line to get food. We all were completely famished and desperately needed a meal, so we stepped into line to get our meal. This was also a great chance to use up some of our CS credits for the day.

For orders, I got the big Tacos plate along with my parents. I also ordered a Mountain Dew for a drink. My sisters both got the little Nachos plate instead. I don't remember what everyone got for drinks, but I'm sure DYS got a Root Beer, DOS a Sprite, and my parents Diet Cokes. We also had churros to go with this meal, which was really cool. Once we had our meal, we noticed that the tables set up for this CS were all taken so we ended up sitting on the walls surrounding the pavilion to eat.

It was pretty unanimous in the fact we all enjoyed this place. The Tacos were fantastic! It definitely loaded your plate I could say that much. My sisters were even ignoring their plates to eat some of ours though I think they liked theirs too. I think the only problem with them was they were messy which required A LOT of napkins. Though, I think the crowd-pleaser were definitely the churros. We had never tried them up to this point and my sisters and I raved about them. We ate ours so fast, my parents ended up giving us theirs to eat. Oh, Churros :love: I would definitely be going back to this place again.

After this, I was ready to check out the pavilion, but today was turning out to be a hot day and my family was in desperate need of a water ride so we bypassed Mexico for now and headed into our second pavilion in World Showcase... NORWAY! It was a bit crowded in there and we thought we would have to wait forever to get on Maelstrom, the only (water) ride there, but we soon found out, it was a line for one of the restaurants and so we slid by them and got into the queue for the ride.

There was no line, but DYS, of course, was hesitant. I had never really read up on Maelstrom before this trip, but saw a few things and thought it looked decent enough, but I didn't know everything. DYS pestered me with questions all the way up through the queue asking the same old question "Is it loud?" I didn't know and I was sure it wasn't, but she was still nervous, so my mom asked the CM running the ride. He, of course had to ruin things and say something about a thunderstorm at the end. Of course, this was just right before we were about to get on the ride and she didn't want to go on, so she and my mom had to move out of line, while DOS, my dad and I went got into our boat and we were on our viking voyage to "face peril and adventure".

I had a bit of high expectations for this ride, but it definitely didn't live up to them. The drops were mediocre and you never really got wet. Also, none of it was scary as I guess it was supposed to be. Also, I think the troll you seem popping out from under the tree isn't working as well as it maybe should. That was another negative. I don't think I would be going on it again. For my sister, if she was up to do it yes, but thinking for myself, no.

In the Disney fashion, the ride led us directly to... wait for it... the gift shop. And this gift shop seemed to go on forever. I mean, one room led into another and then another and then another... but we did manage to have a little fun. What is Norway without some Vikings?

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We searched the Gift Shop a bit to find my mom and DYS and soon found them at one of the Kidcot Stations. DYS was doing some coloring and my mom was just standing by. We walked up, caught my mom's attention and then waited while DYS finished up her craft. Sadly I don't remember what it was at this time since we never brought this home. I think DOS made one of these too, but I can't be sure. DYS gave some final touch-ups and we left and backtracked to Mexico and inside the pavilion we went.

The Mexico Pavilion is quite cool inside I must add. The ambiance it creates with the stars in the sky and the contrast between the dark and bright colors, it gives a feel that you are in the midst of a night-time fiesta. Then you have the Mexican architecture going along the Gran Fiesta Tour, which is always very nice to look at. Speaking of that tour, why don't we take it for a ride, shall we?

Well... I'll just skip the ride and get to our thoughts. First, you must know, we are a Donald Duck family. I think it started with my Aunt (my dad's little sister) who has a huge obsession with the duck. She always did little impressions of him (I also have good impressions :D) and I think it's made Donald Duck into a household name with my family. So, of course, we loved this ride with Donald and all of his shenanigans, it was fun to watch and the Mexican culture thrown into all of this made it that much better. This ride totally exceeded my expectations.

When we got off the ride, we headed straight to the Gift Shop to check out some of the cool Mexican merchandise, but didn't stay too long and we were out once again in the Florida heat. We began heading back in the direction of Norway and the rest of World Showcase when, speak of the devil, our favorite temperamental mallard, all decked out in his mexican attire was out and about. If you don't know who we are talking about THE Donald Duck! We had to get a picture with him. My dad even said "That's auntie's favorite", so we got in line and soon it was our turn.

My mom, my sisters and I all went up to go say hi to Donald, when my mom turned around and yelled out to my dad, "Come on and get in the picture!" He was a bit shocked, but didn't reject of course asked the character "handler" (or whatever they're called to take the picture). We all scooched in to accomodate my dad when Donald got in on the action. He started directing us in various directions and moving us around for the picture and with a few clicks, we had our christmas card :laughing:

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It was also our only family picture of the trip. We said goodbye to Donald and continued on into World Showcase. We passed Norway, no need for anymore endeavors there and ended up in China. We soon found a tiny little gift shop outside of the pavilion and goofed off a little:

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The thing though that really intrigued us were these little puppets. All three of us "kids" ended up playing with them for awhile. It was very entertaining. I think this was the most fun we've ever had in a gift shop, even after releasing our inner viking at Norway.

We also took a picture of us in front of the pavilion bowing, but trying to remain true to the Chinese culture. I'm sure none of us were on par, but we gave it our best shot:

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My mom ended up finding out there were some shows going on in the pavilion and wanted to check them out. I think from the front, there looked to be some acrobats or something going on. My mom wanted to go in, but I was just in the mood for some more walking. My magical persuasive skills got her out of it and we continued on.

We strolled by the outpost and ended up in Germany, we saw Snow White was out giving Meet and Greets and we were about to get in line and meet her, but the CM controlling the line told us she was going to be leaving soon. That idea was depressingly shot down. We still got a picture of her:

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I was still interested in checking out the German pavilion, but we continued on. We did end up stopping at the Italy pavilion because we were intrigued by some gondolas. Also, my grandfather is very Italian so it was only proper that we stop here. We found another great photo op on a bridge in front of the pavilion and took some pictures:

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I think we were giving a shout-out to Jersey Shore here LOL

My parents also got a picture. I think there was romance in the Italian air today..
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After that, we left Italy and made it all the way back to America. Wow! That was quick! We wanted to see the show they had to offer so we entered into the pavilion. We found ourselves face-to-face with the Voices of Liberty who were FANTASTIC! That's what acappella should sound like. I watched them for a bit when I needed to go to the bathroom. My mom got a bit aggravated because of my many bathroom breaks, but let me go. I ran over to the one at the back of the pavilion.

When I came out, my dad was waiting for me and my mom was outside talking to some random lady. It just takes a quick bathroom break for her to make a new friend. She saw my dad and I walk by and told the woman she had to go and came up to us. We found out that the lady was there with a schoolgroup or something. They were only allowed in EPCOT because of their resorts vicinity, but could go to other parks when the day determined it. I'm sure you are wondering how this is important to this TR, but I had a feeling I was going to Disney again next year with Chorus at this time (which I did, as proven by my recently finished TR) and so I think she was wondering how it worked with other groups.

After uploading photos to the computer, I discovered my mom had caught one of the Voices of Liberty before she left and got her to take a picture with my sisters. I don't recall her being one of the soloists, but still she must've been an amazing singer and I just love the authentic colonial American wear:

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My mom and sisters were getting very weary of the World Showcase, they weren't interested in finishing a tour of the place. I definitely didn't want to stop here, only halfway around the world and shockingly my dad too. So they said they would go get a ride on one of the boats going around the lagoon and meet us at the end near Canada. We approved of this and said goodbye as they went to go find a boat launch.

Thus began our Father-Son trek around the Globe...

CHAPTER 16: OUR TREK AROUND THE GLOBE COMMENCES! coming soon!
 
Oh my gosh that was the first time you had a churro?! Churros are so amazing aren't they? We had them the other night at my college cafeteria and they were no where near as good as the ones at Disney (and Costco, they have the best!)

I really really love your family picture with Donald Duck. It's so cute, I can see why you all would use that as your Christmas card!:thumbsup2

I must see the VOL next time I go to the World. They seem so amazing but everytime we go by the America pavilion we just breeze by it:sad2:

Can't wait to hear about the rest of your adventure around the showcase with your Dad!
 
Oh my gosh that was the first time you had a churro?! Churros are so amazing aren't they? We had them the other night at my college cafeteria and they were no where near as good as the ones at Disney (and Costco, they have the best!)

I really really love your family picture with Donald Duck. It's so cute, I can see why you all would use that as your Christmas card!:thumbsup2

I must see the VOL next time I go to the World. They seem so amazing but everytime we go by the America pavilion we just breeze by it:sad2:

Can't wait to hear about the rest of your adventure around the showcase with your Dad!

Yup... I had seen them everywhere, but I just decided to try them in Disney. I tried a lot of things in Disney, I go all out when I'm there. There is no stopping me. And yes, they are amazing-ly DELICIOUS! :love: Oh, that's awesome! BTW, hows school going now? I know you were having trouble adjusting before so I wanted to ask. :D Oooo... Costco has them too? More reason to go there now... ;)

Thanks! Yeah, we actually talked about it the moment we took the picture. Disney always seems to be the thing to put on Christmas cards, so it was going to happen, but I really pushed for it when we were making them LOL

Oh, definitely go see them! They are amazing! I think they usually come out before they start another show, which I still have to see :headache: My next trip I need to redeem myself completely.

I'll update ASAP! :thumbsup2
 
Yup... I had seen them everywhere, but I just decided to try them in Disney. I tried a lot of things in Disney, I go all out when I'm there. There is no stopping me. And yes, they are amazing-ly DELICIOUS! :love: Oh, that's awesome! BTW, hows school going now? I know you were having trouble adjusting before so I wanted to ask. :D Oooo... Costco has them too? More reason to go there now... ;)

Thanks! Yeah, we actually talked about it the moment we took the picture. Disney always seems to be the thing to put on Christmas cards, so it was going to happen, but I really pushed for it when we were making them LOL

Oh, definitely go see them! They are amazing! I think they usually come out before they start another show, which I still have to see :headache: My next trip I need to redeem myself completely.

I'll update ASAP! :thumbsup2

Yes Costco has the BEST churros ever! They're really big and they're only $1! Definitely worth it if you ask me, Lol!

Thanks for asking about school:) It's going a lot better, the first few days were really rough for me, being away from my parents and all. But it's definitely gotten better. It's hard meeting new people for me, but I love my roommates and we have our club fair this weekend so I'm hoping to meet some more people in the Disney Club!:woohoo:
 
I haven't commented in a long time...I think the day before I went to Disney was the last time actually. Anyway, I'm still here and all caught up!

My mom and sister said the pool at Kidani was AWESOME, but I never visited it when we stayed at AKL. It looks great from your pictures though!

Your pictures with characters all turned out great! The one with Fiesta Donald is really good! It's always nice to have a big family picture! :thumbsup2 Don't worry about a weird Meet and Greet with Mary Poppins. I always get flustered around them. I think I was about to cry when I met Mulan :lmao:

Ugh sorry about obnoxious teenagers in The Land. It's really sad that a lot of the general teenage population is like that :headache: Why'd they have to go to Disney?!

No love for Maelstrom?? :lmao: It's so pointless. I love it. You can get Fastpasses for it, you know. Forget Soarin', I'm going on the Maelstrom mad dash at 11!

I want to try the Mexico CS next trip! Is it outside? I always get confused if it is or not...maybe because I can't picture where it is :confused3 It sounds really good though!

Did you get to watch the American Adventure? Or just the Voices of Liberty? I got to see AA last trip, but not the VoL. I love both :goodvibes

Can't wait to read more!!
 
Yes Costco has the BEST churros ever! They're really big and they're only $1! Definitely worth it if you ask me, Lol!

Thanks for asking about school:) It's going a lot better, the first few days were really rough for me, being away from my parents and all. But it's definitely gotten better. It's hard meeting new people for me, but I love my roommates and we have our club fair this weekend so I'm hoping to meet some more people in the Disney Club!:woohoo:

Ooooo... I got to grab some next time I'm there :thumbsup2

That's good to hear. I've heard it's sometimes hard to get good roommates and that's nice you have ones you like. Hope you have a nice time meeting at the club fair! You should definitely mention the DIS to them or see if any of them are on the DIS, that would be cool :-)

I haven't commented in a long time...I think the day before I went to Disney was the last time actually. Anyway, I'm still here and all caught up!

My mom and sister said the pool at Kidani was AWESOME, but I never visited it when we stayed at AKL. It looks great from your pictures though!

Your pictures with characters all turned out great! The one with Fiesta Donald is really good! It's always nice to have a big family picture! :thumbsup2 Don't worry about a weird Meet and Greet with Mary Poppins. I always get flustered around them. I think I was about to cry when I met Mulan :lmao:

Ugh sorry about obnoxious teenagers in The Land. It's really sad that a lot of the general teenage population is like that :headache: Why'd they have to go to Disney?!

No love for Maelstrom?? :lmao: It's so pointless. I love it. You can get Fastpasses for it, you know. Forget Soarin', I'm going on the Maelstrom mad dash at 11!

I want to try the Mexico CS next trip! Is it outside? I always get confused if it is or not...maybe because I can't picture where it is :confused3 It sounds really good though!

Did you get to watch the American Adventure? Or just the Voices of Liberty? I got to see AA last trip, but not the VoL. I love both :goodvibes

Can't wait to read more!!

Oh, it's okay! Glad you caught up! :teeth:

It's really fun and the thing is, we never really found that many people were there, which is nice after a crazy day in the parks. By the end of the night, we were practically the only ones there and when we took the pictures of us going down the slide, we were the only ones there, it was cool.

Thanks! :-) It was so much fun meeting Donald and he was the one who set up the photo, which was the best part. :goodvibes It definitely gets awkward with face character M&Gs. I want to do more since you get to talk to them, but still I was nervous. Hopefully I won't act so weird next time I meet one of them.

I know right! They really need to grow up sometimes. They just are too independent and just don't get it. I'm so glad I haven't run into them in Disney and when my school was in Disney, I never heard of complaints about them *breathes*

LOL, that's the point because the ride has no point. Some parts of it are cool, but... you can get a better experience on other water rides like Splash or Kali, so I just don't bother with it. I may try it out again because of the short waits, but I'm not sure :/

Yep, it is outside. There is a TS inside, then the one connected to the CS outside. Just remember to look towards the lagoon when going by Mexico and it's right there, hopefully it won't be too crowded. I've heard mixed reviews besides me so I hope you like it :)

I never got to see AA sadly. I've heard it's fairly good, but the Voices of Liberty were enough entertainment, they are amazing! I got to make sure if I go to see the show, I will come a few minutes before just to listen to VoL again :cloud9:

I'll update ASAP! :-)
 
Hey Timmy! I'm loving your trip report. Just wanted to leave a quick comment to let you know I'm at chapter 5 now. :) I'd write more but my moms bugging me to get ready to run errands!
 
Hey Timmy! I'm loving your trip report. Just wanted to leave a quick comment to let you know I'm at chapter 5 now. :) I'd write more but my moms bugging me to get ready to run errands!

Hi Stephanie! Glad you're enjoying the report. :-) Can't wait to hear what you think of it! :teeth:
 
CHAPTER 16: OUR TREK AROUND THE GLOBE COMMENCES!

Once, my mom and sisters were on their way to take the easier way of moving around World Showcase... by boat, my dad and I began our trek around the world. Saying goodbye to the American Adventure, we moved on to Japan.

When we arrived in Japan, nature’s calling was upon us again and my dad needed to use the restroom. We had no clue where the bathrooms were here so after listening to the drums for a little bit, we bee-lined for Teppan Edo or one of the CSs there. After talking to a CM, we found out they were on the second floor. After climbing up the stairs and getting to the entrance of the restaurant noticing a huge line, we decided we would wait for another rest stop and with that, we left Japan.

Continuing our trek around the “globe”, we ended up in Morocco. We didn’t ever really stop in Morocco, but we did see there was some entertainment on the stage by the lagoon, I think a belly dancer came out but we could barely see anything. With nothing of interest, we marched on.

For anyone who understands the layout of World Showcase well, we were now in France. Here, we saw a Chef and his little acrobat waiter putting on a show. They were stacking/balancing chairs as well as bottles. It was pretty cool. We stopped to watch for awhile, but we didn't want to stay too long. We continued on and then hit a dead end.

I'm sure most are laughing at us right about now, knowing how stupid we were not to have studied the map hard enough to know, there was an elusive bridge you had to cross to get to the other half of World Showcase when we were heading straight towards the International Gateway. We soon discovered this when I pulled out my map and re-aligned ourselves to head into the next country, the UK!

At the UK, we just leisurely walked by, seeing if there was anything to really do. We did end up seeing Alice and Mary Poppins having some meet and greets. My dad asked if I wanted to go meet them, but I had already met Mary and I wasn't interested in Alice, though this one was very bubbly. You could hear her all the way to the lagoon. This is another one of those regrets I had on my first trip. Oh well, always next time! :thumbsup2

At long last, we were at the last country in World Showcase, Canada. This was a place already near and dear to my dad and I since my nana (his mom, of course) was a native Canadian. She passed away long before this trip, but we've always had a big does of Canadian blood in us, so when we saw the photo opp outside the pavilion, we took a moment to get a picture:

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My dad and I did not know, even after we saw the picture, the girl was there, it's really strange that we missed her. I think she showed up right before we took the picture. Awkward...

After that, knowing my mom and sisters were waiting for us, we didn't want to spend too much time, we sped by the pavilion, but then noticed Off-Kilter playing. So we stopped again to listen to them:

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We then found ourselves at the end of World Showcase and my mom or sisters were nowhere to be in sight. I texted DOS to see where they were at and in mid-(impatient)-pace we spotted these guys:

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We've spotted a few ducks around WS, but it was right here where we noticed a ton. Those were not the only ducks there. I kinda preoccupied myself just watching them. Ducks are an amazing source of entertainment you know? Forget Criss Angel, Contortionists fitting themselves into boxes an 1/8 the size of the of themselves when you've got ducks walking right beside you. I know these guys were doing some interesting things, but it's been so long I've forgotten what :rotfl2:

Soon enough, we found out they were just at the entrance to World Showcase getting off the boat launch near Canada. We did find them there not knowing what exactly to do. This was probably the only moment we were stuck in a rut. Shocking, right? While we ponder what we did next lemme show you what was happening with my mom and sisters while my dad and I finished the long walk around the World:

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Yeah, pretty boring. I would've given you a more glamorous view of our lovely trek around the world, but my dad had his camera and he wouldn't let me touch it, because first thing it wasn't his, it was one he borrowed from work. He was only responsible for mainly the character photos, but for the most part my mom and sisters took the pictures. I asked my dad if I could've taken a picture during our journey, but he just wouldn't let me. I promise I'll give you a more intriguing and captivating view into when I make another lap around the world.

Alright so as I said we were in a rut and this rut was deep, because I can't remember what we did next. I have a feeling this was when my dad and DOS went to check out Test Track. DYS and I were apprehensive of that particular ride at the time so when it was decided that was our next move we stayed back.

I have a feeling we went back to check-out Canada when we ran into Leslie (the DisFreak 9th Grade Teacher at my school who I DIDN'T have) and her daughters after they had completed a Kim Possible mission. We chatted with them for a bit and got into Pin Trading. This was kinda the conversation where I truly pulled into the world because as you know now from my last report, I have a decent-sized collection for a first timer. We didn't talk with them for long and they left on another mission.

I don't know when and I don't know how, but this picture fits into all these events that ocurred:

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:confused3

After this, we met up with my dad and DOS after their Test Track pleading with us to go on, telling DYS and I it wasn't too bad. We agreed, but currently we had an ADR to get to. With all things back in order, we headed back off towards the Land.

CHAPTER 17: THE BEST THANKSGIVING FEAST EVER WITH A NICE SURPRISE! coming soon!
 

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