Pixie Dust Overload - the day I won One More Disney Day

[luckylady]

Great pictures. Have never walked the grounds at night unless it was going back to a room. Looks like I'm missing a lot. Koodos to the PP seems like he was fun. Man on the bus, ohLord he could have always waited for the next one and gotten five seats then. Shut Up you are no more special then the next "normal" person. Can't wait for the next day.

 

[natebenma]

Ok, awesome day and magical night!!!

The photopass pictures are great, but can I tell you that I am just blown away by the one in Morocco.

I think I would be ok that view! Beautiful!

Yummy meal! My son is obsessed with potstickers too.

 

[lvjen777]

My son is obsessed with potstickers too.

Really? That is TOO funny! Must be a "boy" thing!

 

[ProudMommyof2]

Awesome updates! We were on 1st floor Tahiti as well when we won our trip

 

[vassar36]

great updates. So happy you got such great rooms too!!!

 

[brookelizabeth]

You look quite at home there lounging in the Poly chair in your room! And to watch Wishes from your room with a view like that - PARADISE! LOVE it!

 

[lvjen777]

Today was our day to go to Animal Kingdom. DS and I really love this park!

This day was supposed to be a bit cooler - a high around 65. It was pretty chilly that morning, but we were hoping that as soon as the sun got going it would be a little warmer..

This day is definitely going to have to be recapped in two parts because I always go photo-overboard in this park. I just love all the animals, all the plants.. this park is so photogenic! As you can tell, anything tropical or green is definitely my thing! What can I say? I'm from ugly ol' brown-desert-Nevada!

We did great on time this morning and got to the park before it opened. Our KTTW cards wouldn't work right to admit us. EEK. We were afraid that somehow our park hoppers didn't get transferred correctly with all the confusion at the Poly check-in the night before.. However at the time we were at the new RFID entry side and the CM said they were still working all the bugs out, so "maybe it was them, not us". They asked where we were staying & quickly confirmed our tickets were still valid on their handheld computer-thingy and we were through the gates... phew! We hoped we we weren't going to have any more trouble with our hoppers!

We headed straight for Africa, for the Kilimanjaro Safari. DS loves the safaris.

We had a great ride - all the animals were out & about, posed perfectly for their photos to be taken, ha ha!

I brought my handy-dandy zoom lens for my camera.. It was cool to see some of the far-away critters more closely!!

After the Safari, we headed to our favorite ride of all Disneyworld, Expedition Everest!

DS was beyond THRILLED that we got placed in line for the FRONT ROW! He was jumping up and down like crazy!!

Of course I think sitting in the front row was also a great opportunity to take some awesome photos and video!

What? Doesn't everybody take photos while on a roller coaster?

The view from the tippy top:

Here's a link to a VIDEO of part of our ride!

(Warning: lots of screaming, fyi !!)

We had two heart-stopping moments where DS almost lost our Photopass+ lanyard... He's at that age where he insists he's just as responsible as an adult, but still manages to have a lot of kid "moments".. haha. This time, he realized he left my precious lanyard in the pouch of our car!

I panic... (as in TOTALLY freak-out!)

Luckily I realize that the CM's are well-trained & very efficient in pin-pointing which train is which and checking the pouches as they rotate back around. In no time we are reunited with our lanyard, PHEW! Losing anything photo-related during a trip would be completely devastating!!

So after all that excitement, we grab a Fastpass for Expedition Everest for later and then head off to find some more rides & adventures...

We rode Primeval Whirl for the first time.. We never laughed so much, that ride is totally silly!

Here's our photo from Dinosaur. It is totally hilarious!

I look like I'm laughing, DS looks like he's scared & DBF is all like "When's lunch". (men!!)

And that little guy behind DS is too funny!!

We went back to ride Everest again. This time we got the very back row, so it was fun to see which was best - the very front or the very back..

Verdict: the front, most certainly !!

After EE, we headed over to eat for the first time at Flame Tree BBQ.

The food was good, but what was even better was the atmosphere..

I loved eating in this pretty setting, by the water, with a view of Everest in the background.

There were hardly any other people around! I love finding peaceful spots like this, amongst all the park craziness.

You're welcome, family, for all my diligent Disney research!!!!

DS decided this little begging guy was the bird-version of our dog, back at home. Ha Ha!

Love this photo .. It also reminds me how proud I was that DS chose NEON GREEN for the bands on his braces the week before our trip. Kids, gotta love them !!!

(to be continued in part two..........)

 

[lvjen777]

After lunch we headed to Its Tough To Be a Bug. I always love strolling around the Tree, seeing what kind of animals we can spot.

The show was great as usual.. All of the 3D, well I guess 4D shows at Disney are just so fun and we really enjoy all of them.

More pretty scenery..

Crowds today seemed LOTS better , the worst we waited for anything was about 20 minutes.

We are indeed seeing a lot of those South-American teen tour-groups and they can be a little crazy. Luckily they're usually wearing matching bright shirts and waving a big neon flag, so anytime we saw that coming our way, we would exercise our right to get the heck out of the area.


Time to hit the trails to see some more animals:

This hippo was SO COOL to see close up!!

What about this guy.. Isn't he cute?

The gorillas are always so interesting to watch & their eyes are so haunting to me!

This little guy was too funny to watch. He had the best time playing with this green tub!

Near the tigers, DS started jumping up and down calling for me to come over by him.. He said he found a "Hidden Tyler." He totally cracked us up.. too funny!

Afterwards we managed to spot DiVine for the first time! She was really interesting to watch, part magical, part beautiful, and part kinda CREEPY!

Animal Kingdom closes kind of early at 5pm, but that actually worked out well because we had the evening to do whatever we wanted to do. We originally had a dinner reservation, but we decided to cancel it and not be tied to any kind of schedule for the rest of the day.

Since we were on that side of the "World", I thought we should take a little bus ride over to check out the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I love checking out all the other resorts, and seeing what they're like.

I always thought the AKL looked neat online, and was originally considering choosing it for part of our trip, but it never really appealed to the boys..

Okay, first of all - the lobby. WOW.

It reminded us of the lobby from our stay at the Wilderness Lodge, same shape/basic design.

It was really beautiful and so detailed... We walked outside and explored some more. DS thought it was really neat that you could see animals from your room.

The pool area was really gorgeous...

The boys really changed their tune.. they loved it here. DS said, "Can we stay here someday?" DBF just pretended to ignore us... he just LOVES it when we talk about "next time" when we haven't even finished our current trip!

The details and theming at some of these resorts are just amazing. The only drawback to AKL for us is the transportation, as we all really love having options other than busses, and we especially enjoy all the boats (we're from the desert, remember!). For some reason, we had quite a wait heading out of there, which probably sealed the deal with the boys on us ever staying there (boo!) .. Oh well!

We finally made it back to the Poly. The boys decided to swim a while in the quiet pool, while I did a little laundry. Luckily laundry was close enough that I could go back & forth checking on it and sitting by the pool watching them swim. (Plus it gave me an excuse to chicken out on swimming because it was too cold for me.. The water was heated really nicely, but you sure do freeze for a little bit when you get out.. brr! )

As you can see, we are the ONLY crazy people at the pool

After swimming/laundry, we ate dinner at Captain Cooks, which was yummy. I had the "grown-up grilled cheese", while the boys had flatbread pizzas. Followed by a round of Dole whips, which is clearly the best part of Captain Cooks!!!!!

Afterwards we watched the fireworks again from the beach, followed by the Electrical Water Pageant a bit later.

Time to go to bed! It has been a really great day.

Goodnight castle.. we'll be seeing you up close tomorrow!

 

[ProudMommyof2]

Great updates! We loved it when we stayed at AKL! Your pictures are just beautiful! Disney should pay you for that one at Everest with the car coing out of the mountain!

 

[luckylady]

Great update. Love the look on DS's face coming down EE. That last picture is beautiful.

 

[Wanna be Ariel]

Great update. I love the hippo picture. That had to be really cool to see one that close.

 

[heaven2dc]

Loved your update! and watching your front seat view of EE! I agree with you about AKL - it is so beautiful but the downside is the only transportation besides a car is the bus.

 

[gracer9977]

So happy to read more of your awesome trip.

We love EE too. Last time we were there the ride wait was so short we went on a few times in a row. We had a great time with the ride photos. My favorite one (it's hanging on my wall here at home) shows my niece and my brother in the front and they are pretending that they are sleeping and my husband is flexing his muscles. My little princess is in the back hanging on for dear life and I am the only one with my arms up. Love that pic!!!

Looking forward to hearing more on your trip.

 

[lvjen777]

So happy to read more of your awesome trip.

We love EE too. Last time we were there the ride wait was so short we went on a few times in a row. We had a great time with the ride photos. My favorite one (it's hanging on my wall here at home) shows my niece and my brother in the front and they are pretending that they are sleeping and my husband is flexing his muscles. My little princess is in the back hanging on for dear life and I am the only one with my arms up. Love that pic!!!

Looking forward to hearing more on your trip.

That sounds like a really great photo!

I would love to try taking some funny ride photos, it's on my ever-growing list of Disney things I want to do "someday" !!

 

[Wishes2you]

Very much enjoyed your latest update to your TR. Like you I Love Animal Kingdom and photographing it. We too were fortunate to see all the animals out. I think we have some of the same photos even. LOL We have a good eye! I was very excited to get a really good close up of one of the giraffes. Love your front row photos from EE. I went on it 6 yrs ago, I can say I went on it but once is enough. This trip I just photographed DD & DDBF on it. We ate a late lunch at Flametree while watching the parade. It was great. Love the part about your DS, "DS decided this little begging guy was the bird-version of our dog, back at home. Ha Ha!" So very true. Love the picture of your son with DeVine. One of my trips goals was to photograph DeVine and I did. Oh I can so relate to the feelings of the photo pass incident. Looking forward to hear more from your trip. Very much enjoying it.

 

[lvjen777]

Very much enjoyed your latest update to your TR. Like you I Love Animal Kingdom and photographing it. We too were fortunate to see all the animals out. I think we have some of the same photos even. LOL We have a good eye! I was very excited to get a really good close up of one of the giraffes. Love your front row photos from EE. I went on it 6 yrs ago, I can say I went on it but once is enough. This trip I just photographed DD & DDBF on it. We ate a late lunch at Flametree while watching the parade. It was great. Love the part about your DS, "DS decided this little begging guy was the bird-version of our dog, back at home. Ha Ha!" So very true. Love the picture of your son with DeVine. One of my trips goals was to photograph DeVine and I did. Oh I can so relate to the feelings of the photo pass incident. Looking forward to hear more from your trip. Very much enjoying it.

It really does seem like we are a lot alike!! I'm really glad you're enjoying my TR, thanks for following along !!!!!

 

[lvjen777]

Today was our Magic Kingdom day, yay!!

Based on the crowd calendars, the "best" day for MK had finally arrived. We love MK, so by this point we really were excited to get there!

However, since this was Day #5 of our trip, I think all the excitement and walking was starting to get to us, and we were pretty tired.
So, we planned on (hopefully) taking it at a slightly slower pace today! Ha!

We had just two basic goals for Magic Kingdom this year:

1- Ride Rides.
2- See New Fantasyland.
3- Get Citrus Swirls and/or Dole Whips.

(not necessarily in that order!)


We grabbed a quick on-the-go breakfast at Captain Cooks, and headed out.. On the way to the dock, we passed by the volcano pool.. so pretty!

It was supposed to be pretty nice today (high of 68), but we were wishing it was a tiny bit warmer for swimming!

At this point so early in the morning, it was pretty darn chilly!! brr. Come on sunshine...

We probably should've ridden the Monorail over to MK, but we really enjoy the boat ride over, so we chose it instead. I guess we'll just sacrifice freezing for scenery!

About half-way through our journey, we realize that maybe this wasn't the best decision ever........ brr!!!!

But soon enough, we are approaching the MK dock, yay!!

Look , there's the warm Monorail !

We get inside the park, onto Main Street, spot the Photopass photographer..... and...... REALIZE WE DON'T HAVE OUR PP+ LANYARD!!!!!!!!!! OMG !!!!!

It's back in our hotel room. arghhhhhh.

After we take turns blaming each other for whose fault this was , we decide that ALL of us will be going back to get it. We don't want our money to go to waste, and of course we're sure there will be lots of photos we will want to have taken today.... arghhhhhhh. DBF decides DS cannot be "in charge" of the lanyard anymore after the Everest incident, and now this.... So that puts DS into silent pout-mode. Oh great! I hope it's not going to be THIS kind of day!

Sooo, out the gates we go. Do we pick the warm Monorail this time? Heck no! The boat is at the dock ready and waiting, so we chose it again.

Look on the bright side --- we get the WHOLE boat to ourselves!!
(Naturally there are exactly ZERO people LEAVING the park at 9:00am!)

Going back to our room...

Hey, at least it's a scenic walk, right guys..? Hello..? Guys???

umm, I'll just wait for you guys right over here.....

So, the lanyard was retrieved, and NOW we go back to the boat dock.

We get the same boat captain (who makes fun of us), and we set sail yet again..

Goodbye Poly, I mean it this time!

This boat ride was actually kind of fun.. Since we were the ONLY ones on the boat again, the captain started telling us all sorts of old trivia about the Electric Water Parade and then showed us the remains of the old "wave machine" that used to run back when WDW was new. That was a really interesting bit of trivia that we really enjoyed hearing about!

And here we are back in the park again..... phew!

Not exactly the best way to start our morning!!!!!

We got a lot of rides accomplished pretty quickly... Luckily, the crowds were pretty nice so far!

We love to compare rides between WDW and DL..

Here's a few we came up with:

Space, small world, Pirates, Teacups - better in DL
Jungle, Haunted Mansion - better in WDW

Lunch today was here:

We don't eat burgers all that often , but we couldn't pass up coming back to this place again, because the fixin's bar is definitely the place to be! The sauteed mushrooms and onions....... yummy!

Oh, and don't forget "a couple" tubs of yummy warm "plastic cheese"....

DS had the pork sandwich again. On our last trip, he declared this sandwich to be "life-changing" (his words.. he cracks us up!) However, for some reason this time, he said it didn't change his life. What?! Say it isn't so!!

DBF said he was thoroughly disappointed in DS's excitement level about this sandwich compared to last time, and if he didn't start getting more excited about things, we were going to ship him home right away!


Frontierland shooting gallery = Tradition

We decided to go check out Tom Sawyer Island. We've done it before at DL, but never at WDW. It actually surprised us with how fun it was over there!!

We really enjoyed exploring all the caves, forts, bridges, etc.

Way better than DL. We were so glad we went over there!

(continued in part two.........)

 

[kittylady1972]

More great updates...I'm finally caught up and ashamed at how far behind I am on getting my TR done...well BOTH of mine! That's my plan for today since I'm home all day with a sick kid.

And I wanted to mention I would LOVE more comparisons between DL and WDW from you. We are planning out our first trip together to the west coast this summer with the kids. DH and I have been to Disneyland a few times but it's been quite a while for me (over 15 years) and we've never done California Adventure. We have plans to hit ALL of the SoCal area amusement parks while there and spend three days exploring Disneyland and California Adventure which I hope is enough for those two parks.

Can't wait to read more and now I need to get myself in gear and get my TR going again!

 

[lvjen777]

More great updates...I'm finally caught up and ashamed at how far behind I am on getting my TR done...well BOTH of mine! That's my plan for today since I'm home all day with a sick kid.

And I wanted to mention I would LOVE more comparisons between DL and WDW from you. We are planning out our first trip together to the west coast this summer with the kids. DH and I have been to Disneyland a few times but it's been quite a while for me (over 15 years) and we've never done California Adventure. We have plans to hit ALL of the SoCal area amusement parks while there and spend three days exploring Disneyland and California Adventure which I hope is enough for those two parks.

Can't wait to read more and now I need to get myself in gear and get my TR going again!

TWO trip reports!? Now THAT is dedication! Trip Reports are so much fun, but they sure are lot of work to keep up, especially when pesky things like work, laundry, etc. keep getting in the way !!! I'm enjoying your Nov TR so far. My current Disney obsession is CRUISES, so I will definitely enjoy reading about that part of your trip!!! I'd really love to book a cruise in the next year or 2.

Wow on your summer trip.. sounds like you have a lot planned! I think you might be okay with 3 days.. that's the very minimum we do when we go.. figuring basically one day for each park, then one day to catch the stuff you didn't get to, or try to repeat the stuff you loved! Over the years, CA keeps getting better and better. We used to spend most of our time at DL, and not even a full day at CA, but now there is a lot to see & do at CA after the expansion/Carsland, etc we spend about equal time in both parks. Sounds like that is going to be a great trip for you guys!!!

I do have some more comparisons included on my next update, which I'll hopefully be posting sometime today or tomorrow for sure. Thanks so much for following along & commenting !!!

 

[kittylady1972]

TWO trip reports!? Now THAT is dedication! Trip Reports are so much fun, but they sure are lot of work to keep up, especially when pesky things like work, laundry, etc. keep getting in the way !!! I'm enjoying your Nov TR so far. My current Disney obsession is CRUISES, so I will definitely enjoy reading about that part of your trip!!! I'd really love to book a cruise in the next year or 2.

Wow on your summer trip.. sounds like you have a lot planned! I think you might be okay with 3 days.. that's the very minimum we do when we go.. figuring basically one day for each park, then one day to catch the stuff you didn't get to, or try to repeat the stuff you loved! Over the years, CA keeps getting better and better. We used to spend most of our time at DL, and not even a full day at CA, but now there is a lot to see & do at CA after the expansion/Carsland, etc we spend about equal time in both parks. Sounds like that is going to be a great trip for you guys!!!

I do have some more comparisons included on my next update, which I'll hopefully be posting sometime today or tomorrow for sure. Thanks so much for following along & commenting !!!

Yes the cruise was nice and I can't wait to get back to writing about it. I figure I'll finish up the most recent trip first since it's still fresh in my memory...and I took notes on my phone with that one. As for the cruise...well I will do my best to recall as much of it as possible.

Good to know we are okay with our four days. Our other plans include Six Flags, Knotts Berry Farm, Universal, and the San Diego Zoo. Looks like Universal is easily a day trip and for the most part my kids will be big enough to do most rides in the parks. We have a total of 10 days for this trip and plenty of time to plan but I'm already obsessing over where to stay!

Can't wait to hear your comparisons and more about your fabulous trip!