Renewed, Reunited and Finding Our Hillbilly Bone- An Oct. TR- UPDATED 4/16

[jecskc]

You’ve all read about them right? The symbol that identifies you as Disboarder… the lime green Mickey head. I’ve read umpteen posts of people who put them on strollers, resort windows and bags of all sorts. Having never seen one, I’ve written it off to being an urban Disboard legend- kind of how I felt about people taking photos on dark rides. Well I’m hear to tell you the LGMH wearin’ folk do exist! People really do it!

There we were, heading to the stairs down to the Soarin’ cavern when I saw it..a LGMH affixed to the flap of woman’s backpack. Across the LGMH she had written her screen name. We were a good distance from her, so I picked up the pace to try and catch her and say “hello!” As it was nearly noon, the crowd was pretty thick, and we couldn’t catch her before the escalator. When we got downstairs, I tried again, but continued to be foiled by the masses of people. As we approached Soarin’ she turned for the FP machines never to be seen again. No I didn’t follow her over there.. I had a FP to use! Not to mention my DD would think I was crazy for chasing some random stranger down when we could be getting on Soarin’

So if you were at Soarin’ just before noon on October 4, and have a black backpack with a LGMH with your screen name written on the backpack- I saw you! Hi!!!

So one more urban legend verified. Yes, Virginia people do take pictures on dark rides and they do display Lime Green Mickey Heads!

I have seen them as well. I even have one that I keep forgetting to put on my backpack. Maybe I will remember in April.

 

[jecskc]

I am very interested in the Art of Animation resort. I have seen photos of the rooms, but I wonder how big they will really be. This is supposed to open in April of next year ??

We have always rode front row on Soarin' We have never had to wait more than 10 extra minutes to get our request.

I love the Jammitors. They are fun to watch.

 

[Pixie Princess]

After grabbing some lunch, and hitting a couple more attractions in Future World, we head out to unload at AKL. We just have a standard view room. Savanna view was a tad out of the budget. That is fine because as we found out the day before, there are a number of areas where one can view the savanna. Plus my research showed that the standard view rooms are generally near the lobby area and thus the pool, restaurants, bus stop etc, and sometimes you get a room with a savanna view that is not good enough to warrant savanna view prices. I figure if I have to lean a little.

We arrive at AKL and have bell services take our luggage. We are assigned a room on the kudu trail, and as it turns out, were sent the long way to our room. We were in room 2212, and were actually not too far from the lobby. I’m glad we figured that out quick and weren’t schelping all the way to the elvators on the hall to leave!

We arrive to our room, and my DD is in heaven…bunk beds! She is so excited about this. She immediately assigns herself the top bunk.

Not sure who she thought would fight her for it, but it was cute none the less. Since we weren’t assigned one of the rooms that faced the parking lot, I made a bee line for the balcony door to see if we’d be able to see anything on the savanna. Here’s what I saw walking straight out on to the balcony:

And if I turned just slightly to the right…

AWESOME! What a view! Since the CM at check-in didn’t tell me our room was upgraded, I’m not sure what view room we actually had. But if this is Standard View, I’ll take it any day of the week. We were on the Sunset savanna. There weren’t too many animals out and about yet, but the closer to sunset the more came around. Could that be why it is called the Sunset Savanna? Hmm.. Lol!

There will be more pictures to come from our lovely room, but on this day we could only enjoy the view for a little bit, as we were headed back to Epcot to Eat to the Beat.

 

[Pixie Princess]

Oh my gosh! I am soooo excited for Eat to the Beat. The band we are there to hear is .38 Special. I love me some classic rock, and southern classic rock even more so. Last year .38 Special came the week after we left, and I was so bummed. I thought about coming back down, but reality sank in and I didn’t. So I was definitely doing the happy dance when the performers and dates came out, and I saw I’d be able to catch them this year.

Now you may be thinking my poor kid was going to be bored out of her mind, and probably doesn’t even know who .38 Special is. Well, not so much. Both her dad and I listen to a classic rock station in the car, so she is familiar with them…or at least their big hits anyway. She is far less familiar with contemporary pop acts than she is with classic rock. Is that wrong? You know it might just be. LOL!

We drive over to Epcot, and decide to grab a sausage in pretzel roll from the Germany F&W kiosk for dinner. We love pretzel bread. We take our dinner (and some apple streusel for my DD) and head over to grab a seat for the 6:00ish show. I have to say the sausage was not that great. Thank goodness for mustard that gave the thing some sort of flavor. The pretzel roll was yummy though. Having eaten, we kickback and wait for the band. Right on time, the show starts up. It was a GREAT show. The audience for this show was more the sit down and take in the music sort than the stand up, dance and sing type of crowd. This is bit distressing to me as I am ready to rock on out, but I totally get it. There are shows where I’d just prefer to take it all in, and am forced to stand up because the crowd is on their feet. So I sit and bebop in my seat to great songs like: “Wild-eyed southern boys”; “Rockin’ into the Night”; and “Back Where You Belong.”

But why talk about it when I can show you:

And if you want to hear it, check this out! This was the last number of the set. (Viewers with motion sickness, vertigo or who generally find jumpy videos annoying should not watch this video. The image stabilization on my camera doesn’t work too well when the operator is dancing. )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8giWECqVBs

 

[archdandy]

Great updates. If that's a regular view room I would have no worries about booking that and not being satisfied. After all, aren't the animals and the views what people book there for? I'm jealous! I would love to stay there one day.

 

[Pixie Princess]

Great updates. If that's a regular view room I would have no worries about booking that and not being satisfied. After all, aren't the animals and the views what people book there for? I'm jealous! I would love to stay there one day.

That's what I said..if this is standard view I'll take it any day, and happily save the $$ on the savanna view! It was a really neat resort. I LOVE WL, and I wasn't sold on AKL over WL at first, but the longer were there the more I enjoyed AKL.

 

[jecskc]

I love your room photos. That is the exact setup we had at Wilderness Lodge. The kids really enjoyed the bunkbeds. We are super excited about staying at AKL in April.

I am so jealous of you getting to see 38 Special. I would have loved to have seen them. Looking forward to reading more.

 

[Pixie Princess]

I think y'all will really enjoy AKL...especially the kids. There is so much to do there. After staying in the middle of it all BWV it might feel a little "out of the way", but then again you are supposed to be in a lodge on the African savanna so you shouldn't feel like you are in the middle of things, right?

 

[jecskc]

I think y'all will really enjoy AKL...especially the kids. There is so much to do there. After staying in the middle of it all BWV it might feel a little "out of the way", but then again you are supposed to be in a lodge on the African savanna so you shouldn't feel like you are in the middle of things, right?

BWV was awesome. It was so nice to be just right there. But I am really excited about AKL. We got a savanna view so I hope that turns out well. We are really looking forward to it.

 

[Pixie Princess]

BWV was awesome. It was so nice to be just right there. But I am really excited about AKL. We got a savanna view so I hope that turns out well. We are really looking forward to it.

I bet it was. That's what I'm looking forward to when we stay at YC in June. We never ventured over to Kidani, so I'm looking forward to seeing your pictures from there.

 

[Pixie Princess]

After the show we head back toward the “front” of the World Showcase. As we are doing so, the last show of the day of the new acrobatic act from China is getting under way.

It is a good, act, but I like the previous group better. Of course since we are passing though China, we must spend and inordinate amount of time at the gift kiosk along the walk way for DD to play with the Chinese yo-yo, batons, and now the plates. She was inspired by the girls in the act, and must learn how to spin plates!

Eventually I drag her away, and we get a lovely spot for Illuminations. There is this great area down close to the lagoon between the two gift shops. How I have not found this area before I am not sure! It was a great spot to watch. I understand they use the area for private events, so perhaps that is how it has escaped my notice thus far. I go grab DD and I a little sweet something to snack on while we wait. The show start up, and is lovely as always. I always forget how much I like this show until I see it. Visually I don’t think the show equals the its musical accompaniment, but as a package it is great.

We make our way out to the parking lot along with the rest of the masses after the show, and head back to AKL. I will go ahead and admit my one great mistake in staying at AKL…we never went to observe the animals with night vision glasses. I know..the horror! I don’t know how I managed to forget to do that, but I did.

Tomorrow is another early day as we are headed to HS. And we all know what that means RD for TSM!

 

[Pixie Princess]

We head off bright and early for HS, where we join several thousand of our closest (by proximity) friends in the mad frenzy that is the morning rush to Toy Story Midway Mania! Our plan of “attack” is to ride, and if we feel the need to go again, we’ll get a FP. This what we’ve done for a few years now. It simply isn’t worth getting in the FP fray. Although, that fray has improved over the years. I think have CMs there to move the process along has helped tremendously. Anyway, we make our way through the queue and ride. I lose…a first. I had a horrible round. I didn’t even break 100,000! Grrr. I spent the whole time trying to find the Easter eggs. I think there is a FP to redeem myself at the exit!

So, at this point we decide we want to investigate something we passed in the herding over to TSM. We saw a sign related to something going on with AFV- Americas Funniest Homevideos. We go back to the sign and find out we need to head back to a theater in the Streets of America area. We head back to that area of the park, but first we must take a tour (or two, or three) of a galaxy far, far away. I am a Star Wars geek, and LOVE the reboot of the Star Tours attraction. We take several spins around the galaxy, and even end up in the same speeder in the same seats twice. Pretty weird, huh? It was funny because we also had the exact same beginning on all three of our rides, and the same end twice. Not as random as one would hope, but still a good time.

With the rebel spy safely delivered, we head back to the Streets of America. I had grabbed a map earlier and the theater isn’t on it, but we soldier on and will ask when we get back there. As it turned out we didn’t need to ask. A CM was back near the theater recruiting people. The CM explained that we’d be watching the videos that were in the running for the $100,000 prize, and if we hurried we might make it before they closed out this group. The next viewing would be in an hour. We hustled back and just made it.

Once in both the DD and I must sign releases, and we are handed a sheet to vote for the video of our choice. A man comes out to explain what’s up and kind of warm up the audience. Then we are treated to short video with Tom Bergeron further explaining what we’ll be viewing and the prizes at stake. Here’s the skinny. We’ll be watching six videos. Each has won the weekly $10,000 prize and now is up for a $100,000 prize. That’s what we’ll be voting for. The video that wins the $100,000 will be in the running for the season grand prize of a DVC membership for life and some other stuff. Frankly after DVC membership I quit listening and began thinking of what videos I had at home I could send in.

Finally the videos begin. The first two were hilarious- a poor grandmother being tortured by a laser pointer, and a bride that gets in to a complete giggle fit during her vows. There was also a some cute animal ones and funny children ones. I really don’t remember them because the first two were that funny. The time to vote comes, and DD immediately votes for the laser pointer grandma video. I am really torn between that one and the bride. I end up voting for the bride because it was truly spontaneous.

For our voting efforts we are rewarded with AFV t-shirts. I didn’t think to ask when the episode would air, so I had to keep tabs with what was going on via the AFV website. The episode aired in December before the show went on hiatus. As it turns out Laser pointer Grandma won the $100,000!! The winner is also from a town in Georgia not too far from us. I think a little piece of that $100K is in order since we are fellow Georgians and DD’s vote helped in the win, don’t you? LOL! Seriously, laser pointer grandma, if you aren’t interested in the DVC membership, should you win it, we’ll be happy to take it off your hands.


It was a neat thing to do. It is things like this that keep me coming back to Disney time after time. You just never know what (or who) you might see on a Disney vacation. T-shirts in hand we head off for the big must do of this trip to HS…meeting Phineas and Ferb!

 

[jecskc]

Wow. You never told me about the AFV thing. How lucky for you that you got to do that!!! And how lucky for the winner to get a DVC membership!!

 

[Pixie Princess]

Wow. You never told me about the AFV thing. How lucky for you that you got to do that!!! And how lucky for the winner to get a DVC membership!!

I could have sworn I told you about the AFV thing. Shame on me! It was a really cool thing to do. I wish they shot a Disney Channel show at DHS. Oh well, guess a trip to CA and DLR is in order!

 

[Pixie Princess]

We love some Phineas and Ferb in this house! Needless to say meeting the duo was high on the list. Luckily their M&G area was near the theater where we had just participated in the AFV voting. We headed over there, and the boys were between sets. We joined the line, which was long, but not crazy, backed up to the Muppet fountain long. A few minutes after we joined the line, music begins blarring announcing that P&F were on their way to the “set”. The set up for this meet and greet is that P&F are shooting their movie, and all of us in line are extras. The “director” makes his appearance, and then finally P&F make their big entrance. As folks begin go meet the boys, the director begins to recruit those in the line to be “extras” in the movie. The recruiting includes adults, and frankly they were the most entertaining. They have those pulled in to be extras do things to various songs from the show. The director also throws out some trivia questions for the audience to answer. It was a great, great experience. We waited in line for 10-15 minutes, but there was so much else going on, you didn’t notice it.

Much to DD’s chagrin she was not chosen to do anything, but there’s always next time. We get up to the boys, and I snap a few photos.

Then as they pose for the “big” picture, my camera lets me know my memory card is full. No more pictures for me! I was so upset! Luckily there was a photopass photog there, but sadly I never even ordered anything. I didn’t even register the card. I completely forgot that the P&F picture was on the card. Grrr… OH, well, there’s always next time, right.

We leave the boys, and I frantically start deleting pictures that have long since been transferred to the computer from the card. On the way out, DD says she must, must, must get a picture with Ducky Mo Mo. She LOVES Ducky Mo Mo! So here they are. I don’t think she was ever this excited to meet Donald.

After the meet and greet we go catch the Muppets in 3D. I’m proud of myself b/c I manage to actually stay awake and see the show this time. The first time we saw it I fell asleep about five minutes in. It was a deadly combination of a hot, humid day, a technical delay and glorious A/C. I didn’t stand a chance.

After the muppets we decide it is time to head off and grab a bite. We’re not particular fans of anything in HS, so we take this opportunity to try something new..Beaches and Cream.

 

[jecskc]

We need to see the P&F meet and greet and get some photos. When we went to see the Muppets in October, DD was bearing meltdown so I couldn't concentrate and enjoy t, so I need to see it again. We love Beaches and Cream. I can't wait read what you think of it.

 

[Pixie Princess]

We need to see the P&F meet and greet and get some photos. When we went to see the Muppets in October, DD was bearing meltdown so I couldn't concentrate and enjoy t, so I need to see it again. We love Beaches and Cream. I can't wait read what you think of it.

P&F is the best meet and greet in the place. I love the whole set up. There were many people who were there just to watch the show. Try and squeeze it in when you go in April. We probably won't go to DHS when we head down in a 12 days (woo hoo!), so it will be June before we can go back to meet the boys. Next time I'm getting MY picture with Ferb. I love Ferb.

 

[Pixie Princess]

DD and make our way over to the Friendship Boats for the trip over to Beaches and Cream. And don’t you know it, a boat is about to dock as we are nearing the dock area. I told you…good bus (or boat in this case) luck the entire trip! As we are making our way down the dock, who do we see getting off the boat, but this guy…

No chiz, as they say on iCarly. (Maybe I shouldn’t have referenced a Nick show on the DisBoards!)

Anyway we sail on over to the YC/BC and find our way to Beaches and Cream.

We were able to get seated pretty quickly. I’ve read people rave about the burgers there, so that is what I plan to get. DD gets a hot dog as there is nothing else there she cares to eat.

While we’re waiting the lights dim, and sirens begin to blare. Yes, someone has ordered the kitchen sink. Not familiar? let me enlighten you. This is a icy, sugary concoction of enormous proportions. Eight scoops of ice cream, every topping know to man, or at least all the ones they offer there, and if that weren’t enough, a whole, yes, a whole can of whip cream. CRAZY! They serve this thing in a “dish” shaped like a sink. Shocking I know. The menu says this thing serves 4 people. Umm…I’m not sure in what universe that serves just four people. The thing is huge. Now that I’m thinking about it maybe the menu said 4-6, but regardless the number served and the size of the “sundae” did not mesh. This thing is massive! The hubbub dies down, and our food arrives shortly thereafter. The burger was good, but honestly not that much better than what you get at the parks. Perhaps I had pumped it up a little to much in my mind. DD doesn’t care too much for her hot dog either, but that is not so much a reflection on the dog, as she only has lukewarm feelings about hot dogs in general.

Being that we are in an ice cream shop, it would be practically sinful to not get some sort of sweet, cold treat right? Well, unfortunately I cannot partake of such things, but DD is very excited by this part. She decides she would like to get the mud slide sundae. Sounds good. I don’t see anything of the non-ice cream variety that I’m interested in which is probably for the better anyway. Out comes the sundae…and Monday, and maybe even part of Tuesday. Man alive this thing was pretty darn big as well.

Love the Mickey ear oreos!

Time to get serious!

As you can see she got through about half of it. A valiant effort. She also got cold eating all that ice cream and had to put on the shirt we got from the AFV thing. She went outside to warm up while I paid, and then we headed on back to DHS.

While the burger didn’t live up to the hype in my mind, we did enjoy Beaches and Cream, and look forward to visiting again.

 

[jecskc]

We LOVE Beaches and Cream !! I really like the burgers there and we always get the onion rings, too which are very yummy. Your DD's sundae looks amazing. It really is too bad you can't eat anything from there. We had the Milky Way sundae and it was amazing !! Oh well, at least you finally go to go and give it a try. Didn't you just get back from a trip ??

 

[Pixie Princess]

We LOVE Beaches and Cream !! I really like the burgers there and we always get the onion rings, too which are very yummy. Your DD's sundae looks amazing. It really is too bad you can't eat anything from there. We had the Milky Way sundae and it was amazing !! Oh well, at least you finally go to go and give it a try. Didn't you just get back from a trip ??

I wish I could eat the ice cream too!! Beaches and Cream is definitely on the intinerary for the June trip since we are staying at YC. I think a Kitchen Sink will be in order. I'll have to share a plate of the onion rings with someone. I like onion rings but Katie doesn't.

Unfortunately we had to cancel our trip over the weekend. The condo where I have my Groupon ended up booked up by the time I got around to switching my reservation. It wasn't that big of a deal, but I wasn't feeling too good about spending hotel money I hadn't planned on having to spend. Then my SIL ended up in the hospital for the third time in six weeks. Between the buyers remorse over the hotel, and then feeling that I should delay our departure by a day to help out with my nieces and nephew, I decided just to reschedule the whole thing. We would have only had two full park days (which would have been 10s), and it is just too much time in a car all there in a row when there isn't something new or special your going to do. It all worked out for the best anyway.