Go with the Flow....A Summer Trip to Remember! July 2012~ **Completed**

[solana131]

For some reason, I really love that last picture. I love seeing the train station all lit up at night and it shows how crowded it was too. Great shot Glad you all did fine on the Haunted Mansion.....I was worried about my little guy in Feb, but we will definitely try it next time.

 

[Mickey_Mom]

Oooo, two updates in a row for me to read on my lunch hour. Yay!

Nice pictures Noah! I love seeing what the kids choose to take pictures of. Demetri did a bit of that last trip and I plan to give him my old camera this time too. Fun!

Heavens, I thought you were going to say your DH had a shellfish allergy reaction - whew! I'm like you in that if someone else hadn't enjoyed themselves as much as I did - I feel bad. Glad your DH enjoyed his choice though!

My that picture of the Grand Floridian looks so..... epic lol! I thought at first that this beautiful beacon of light was shining out through the clouds.... and then realized it was the reflection.

Wonderful MK evening and good for Nick to conquer Haunted Mansion!

 

[eandesmom]

what a fun night! Frustrating at Ohana though, if they have a kids menu and you order from it, that should be that. My family loves Ohana but they really like that style of food so loved the noodles. We all found the pork dry though. I could see waiting until the boys are older to try again.

Fun that you got to do some new things, COP and the People Mover and what a great way to duck out of the rain and get some character pics! Very glad you got to go om BTMRR in the dark. It is so much fun in the dark!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[DisneyDoc5]

Great updates and pictures! We have been to Ohana twice and I always eat too much bread, appetizers, salad, noodles, that I can hardly eat the meat! But the bread pudding (which I don't normally like) is incredible, I will have to google that and try to find the recipe.

Can't wait for your review of the dessert party - always thought about doing this but haven't tried it yet.

Have a great weekend! Erin

 

[Angies1274]

I know exactly how you feel about Ohana. John and I love it but Hunter just thinks it's okay. Like you, I feel a little bad about enjoying a meal so much when Hunter is sitting there not enjoying it very much. Having said that, Hunter ate almost two loaves of the delicious bread they serve so he didn't leave the restaurant hungry. I think it's a little rude of the server to ask if Noah was sure he wanted something else. It's not their decision to make and it could be embarassing to the person asking for an alternate meal.

The pictures of the storm cloud rolling in are awesome! I love how that beam of sunlight is shining down on the Grand Floridian. Very very cool!

It sounds like ya'll had a good evening at the Magic Kingdom!

It was definitely hard to really enjoy the meal when I knew the boys weren't happy. Although, it was a little better once Noah finally received what he ordered. At the time, I was definitely irritated that the server didn't take his order the first time. I'm pretty sure I know what my child would like better than he would. But, looking back I think he may have just wanted to give Noah a chance to try the food to see if he enjoyed it before he put the order in.

 

[Angies1274]

For some reason, I really love that last picture. I love seeing the train station all lit up at night and it shows how crowded it was too. Great shot Glad you all did fine on the Haunted Mansion.....I was worried about my little guy in Feb, but we will definitely try it next time.

I love seeing MK all lit up at night!! The train station pic is one of my favorites.

I'm glad that Nick finally tried the Haunted Mansion. He's really not into that kind of thing. Noah on the other hand tried it when he was small and really liked it! I'm sure your son will too.

Oooo, two updates in a row for me to read on my lunch hour. Yay!

Nice pictures Noah! I love seeing what the kids choose to take pictures of. Demetri did a bit of that last trip and I plan to give him my old camera this time too. Fun!

Heavens, I thought you were going to say your DH had a shellfish allergy reaction - whew! I'm like you in that if someone else hadn't enjoyed themselves as much as I did - I feel bad. Glad your DH enjoyed his choice though!

My that picture of the Grand Floridian looks so..... epic lol! I thought at first that this beautiful beacon of light was shining out through the clouds.... and then realized it was the reflection.

Wonderful MK evening and good for Nick to conquer Haunted Mansion!

I agree...it's so fun to see what kids choose to get pictures of. Noah got things I didn't even think of getting. He did such a great job!! At the beginning of the trip, he only remembered to pull the camera out a few times but as the trip went on, he was getting pictures of everything. (which you'll see in later updates)

DH was very happy with 'Ohana! If we ever get the opportunity to take a couple's trip. Then I'm sure we'll definitely go back. But, I doubt we'll bring the boy's back anytime soon.

I know...I thought the same thing when I saw that picture of light over the Grand Floridian.

Oooohhhh....your trip is so close!!! You must be so excited!

 

[Angies1274]

what a fun night! Frustrating at Ohana though, if they have a kids menu and you order from it, that should be that. My family loves Ohana but they really like that style of food so loved the noodles. We all found the pork dry though. I could see waiting until the boys are older to try again.

Fun that you got to do some new things, COP and the People Mover and what a great way to duck out of the rain and get some character pics! Very glad you got to go om BTMRR in the dark. It is so much fun in the dark!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know...we were definitely a little disappointed in the service at 'Ohana. But, I'm still glad we tried it because DH and I really enjoyed the food and atmosphere. We'll try again when the boys are older.

We were so happy to try some new things and even happier that we enjoyed them so much!! I wasn't expecting the boys to like COP as much as they did so that was a nice surprise.

Great updates and pictures! We have been to Ohana twice and I always eat too much bread, appetizers, salad, noodles, that I can hardly eat the meat! But the bread pudding (which I don't normally like) is incredible, I will have to google that and try to find the recipe.

Can't wait for your review of the dessert party - always thought about doing this but haven't tried it yet.

Have a great weekend! Erin

Thanks!!

I couldn't believe all the food they bring out at 'Ohana.

YUM! I completely agree about the dessert! It was so yummy and I don't usually like bread pudding. I found the recipe on allears if you want to try it. I still have a few ingredients to pick up but hopefully I can make it this weekend.

 

[Mickey_Mom]

Oooohhhh....your trip is so close!!! You must be so excited!

Yes. Yes I am.

 

[Angies1274]

Yes. Yes I am.

These next couple weeks will go by so fast! It will be here before you know it!

 

[Angies1274]

“Tell everybody I'm on my way, New friends and new places to see…..” Brother Bear


July 13, 2012--Animal Kingdom



I woke up bright and early again on this morning which is really funny because at home, I’m usually the last one that gets up. DH has always been an early riser and the boys never like to sleep in… well unless it’s a school day and then of course they hate to get up. Anyway, I can never sleep in when I’m Disney. I’m always ready to get up and start my day. I pulled back the curtains a little to see what the weather looked like and was delighted to see that the sun was shining.

Our plan for the day was to head to Animal Kingdom, do a little mini-golfing later on and finally, finish the day relaxing at the resort. I was really excited for this day because in our original plans for this trip, we were only going to visit Animal Kingdom for a couple hours on our departure day. However, once things got changed around a bit. It left an entire day if needed. I was so happy about this change of plans because I hoped we could take a more leisurely approach to the park which is the whole point…right?

After puttering around a bit in the room, DH and the boys finally decided they were going to wake up. We talked about what we wanted to do for breakfast that morning since it was probably going to be close to 8:00am when we made it down to the food court. I immediately remembered what it was like our first morning around that time and really didn’t want to have to deal with the craziness if we didn’t have to so DH and Nick volunteered to run down and grab some coffee, juice and muffins for all of us.

After a more relaxing breakfast in our room it was time to head out to the bus stop. A short bus ride later, we arrived just after opening. Of course I had to get this shot-

A “Let the memories begin" sign….just because I thought it was really cute!

It was also at this point that I noticed all the tour groups off to the side waiting to go in. Take note of this…it will come in to play very soon.

After bag check, we made our way inside. Before we knew it we were seeing this lovely sight! Our first glimpse of the Tree of Life!

Another one…just because I love it so much!

On our way to our destination….

These benches are so cute!

Left or Right? Hmm….decisions, decisions

Actually we had already discussed it on the bus.

Our choice…..

Oooh…The boneyard.

The boys didn’t want to stop so I attempted a closer pic---

Oops….too close.

Dinoland U.S.A. is where we always start in Animal Kingdom. While everyone else seems to be running toward Africa or Asia, we like it over here for this very reason.

However….just minutes before on the path, I happened to glance behind me and I spotted a flag and a ton of teenagers following us. They seemed to be walking much faster than we were and I immediately became worried they were heading the same place we were. Ugh! What happened to everyone running to Kilimanjaro Safari or EE when the park opened? I informed the guys what was happening and told them to move quickly otherwise we would be stuck waiting behind them. Our original plan was to head to Dinosaur first thing but thinking that’s where they were heading, I led the guys toward Primeval Whirl. As we rounded the corner…what did we see but another tour group sitting down and waiting. At first I worried they were heading in but they were just coming out. Whew!!

We went on through and didn’t have too long to wait—

We had a great ride…or at least the boys did. They love this ride. As we were exiting another tour group was just entering. Hmm….maybe they didn’t head to Dinosaur after all.

Honestly, this was the only time that they seemed to impact our trip at all. Well...other than having to maneuver our way around them all the time. I just missed that relaxing, leisurely approach that we usually have when we get to Animal Kingdom at opening. It felt like we were always looking over our shoulder so we could be one step ahead on this particular day.

Okay…back to the report.

After our spin on Primeval Whirl, we decided it was finally time to make our way over to Dinosaur. Again, Nick had agreed to ride despite the fact that he wasn’t too happy about it. This was going to be both the boys first time on the ride. Noah was so excited! He loves Dinosaurs and he couldn’t wait!

Almost there….

Noah’s excitement was growing with each step!

We’re here!

Noah was in awe.

So cool!

After watching Claire Huxtable (at least that’s how I always remember her) on screen for a bit, it was time to board our vehicle. Again, I could feel Nick’s nervousness kicking in but I reminded him that he could always close his eyes if necessary. Noah was practically bouncing up and down waiting for the ride to begin.

So…… what did they think?

Noah absolutely loved every second of it. It was so funny because when we stopped to look at our picture he was looking right at the Dino with a huge smile on his face. The rest of us were either looking down or off to the side. Nick thought the ride was alright. He was glad he gave it a try.

After Dinosaur, we made our way over to the restroom and on the way out happened to see Pluto and followed behind him for a bit. The boys thought it was pretty cool. Apparently, he was coming out for pictures.

We stopped to have a look at a crocodile.

A little bit closer….but not too close.

After our semi-close encounter with the crocodile, we decided it was finally time to head to Asia.

Up next—Watch out Noah! Sharks bite!



​

 

[wdwgirl03]

Yay Animal Kingdom! I'm glad you were able to spend some more time there than you had originally planned. I just love it there!

Sounds like a pretty good morning so far, despite the tour groups.

 

[DisneyDoc5]

I love AK - always wished we could slow down and enjoy it a bit more - but always rushing from big ride to the next. My DS13 hates Dinosaur - and he is a thrill ride junky - it's just SO LOUD and he has ear/hearing issues. I find it so rough. But of all the kid, my DD loves it (I think it's fun for her to 'love it' when her big brother doesn't!)

Your boys are adorable (I'm partial to cute boys since I have 2 similar ages as yours), great smiles! Enjoying the reports!

 

[Mickey_Mom]

Animal Kingdom has grown on me.... the scenery is incredible and it's a great park to stroll around and just take everything in - and take lots of pictures!

I've never been on Primeval Whirl but I think we'll put Dinosaur back in our plans for this trip. It's been a while!

Sorry the tour groups were a bummer on your day.

 

[eandesmom]

Good move on breakfast in the room. First thing in the morning, crowded food courts are not my idea of a nice start to the day!

Fun morning so far and great job on Nick trying Dinosaur and surviving. It's funny, I finally tried Primeval Whirl for the 1st time this summer.

If you can take the time and slow down and really enjoy AK, it's magical. I've always felt like it's gotten short shift on our trips until this summer.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I'm glad to hear that you guys were able to keep one step ahead of the tour groups. I always get heart palpitations when I see those dreaded flags or dozens of folks in matching shirts. From the looks of your pictures, it doesn't look like Dinoland was all that busy.

 

[Angies1274]

Yay Animal Kingdom! I'm glad you were able to spend some more time there than you had originally planned. I just love it there!

Sounds like a pretty good morning so far, despite the tour groups.

Me too! Despite the tour groups, it really was such a fun day! I'm glad that we were able to spend more time there than we originally planned.

I love AK - always wished we could slow down and enjoy it a bit more - but always rushing from big ride to the next. My DS13 hates Dinosaur - and he is a thrill ride junky - it's just SO LOUD and he has ear/hearing issues. I find it so rough. But of all the kid, my DD loves it (I think it's fun for her to 'love it' when her big brother doesn't!)

Your boys are adorable (I'm partial to cute boys since I have 2 similar ages as yours), great smiles! Enjoying the reports!

Thank you!! That's so nice of you to say! I think they are pretty cute too.

It's nice to be able to slow down in AK if you can. There's so much to see. But, I can definitely see your point about rushing from ride to ride. That happens to us a lot too.

Isn't it funny how different siblings are? I know that most rides my youngest son enjoys (mostly thrill rides), my oldest has no desire to ride. I doubt he'll want to ride Dinosaur again. But, it's all Noah has talked about since we've been home. He loved it!!

Animal Kingdom has grown on me.... the scenery is incredible and it's a great park to stroll around and just take everything in - and take lots of pictures!

I've never been on Primeval Whirl but I think we'll put Dinosaur back in our plans for this trip. It's been a while!

Sorry the tour groups were a bummer on your day.

I agree! Animal Kingdom has some great picture taking opportunities. It's such a pretty park. I think one of my favorite things we've done was to just walk around the Tree of Life looking and taking pictures of all the carvings. Unfortunately, we haven't done that in so long. I really need to put that in our plans for next time!

Really? No Primeval Whirl? The boys make me ride it every time!

 

[Angies1274]

Good move on breakfast in the room. First thing in the morning, crowded food courts are not my idea of a nice start to the day!

Fun morning so far and great job on Nick trying Dinosaur and surviving. It's funny, I finally tried Primeval Whirl for the 1st time this summer.

If you can take the time and slow down and really enjoy AK, it's magical. I've always felt like it's gotten short shift on our trips until this summer.

I'm so glad that we decided to have breakfast in the room that morning. I really wish we would have done it more on the trip. I think we are going to try and do it more frequently on our next trip. It was definitely more relaxing than dealing with all those crowds first thing in the morning.

I really love exploring AK. I think it's such a great park. Unfortunately, it's not a favorite of DH or Nick so we never spend as much time as I would like to.

I'm glad to hear you were able to spend more time there this summer.

I'm glad to hear that you guys were able to keep one step ahead of the tour groups. I always get heart palpitations when I see those dreaded flags or dozens of folks in matching shirts. From the looks of your pictures, it doesn't look like Dinoland was all that busy.

I couldn't believe the amount of tour groups in the park that morning. Definitely more than we had seen at any park on our trip so far. Luckily, it got better as the day went on. I think it bothered me so much because the park wasn't that busy so we should have been able to relax and take our time but because of them we were always on alert which was really frustrating.

 

[Angies1274]

"Sure we could eat ya whole,but we have self-control,we know that fish are friends, not food." Finding Nemo the Musical



When I left off, we enjoyed a relaxing breakfast in our room, arrived at Animal Kingdom, dodged a few tour groups to make our way over to take a spin on Primeval Whirl, and traveled back in time to out run a few dinosaurs, spotted Pluto and a crocodile. Whew!

The boys were itching to ride EE much to my delight. So, we decided to make our way over to Asia.

We stopped to admire the scenery.

We passed the monkeys

One courtesy of Noah
Almost to our destination—

Yay! We made it!

Unfortunately, the wait time was pretty long already so we decided to grab fastpasses and make our way over to wait for the first showing of one of our favorite musicals at Disney.

If you have read any of my previous TR’s you would know how much we love Finding Nemo the Musical. Finding Nemo is one of my all-time favorite Pixar movies anyway. I could watch it again and again. What can I say? It makes me happy! Needless to say because of that reason, it has become a must-do for us at Disney!

As we made our way over to the theater it was about 10:30 or so at this point. I was determined to sit closer to the stage this time. We got in line…..well actually we got behind the one person who was waiting. DH told us to go sit down and he would stand in line for us. No one else was around and the lady in front of us was doing the same thing for her family.

We settled down on a nearby bench and I realized how awesome the view of EE was from there.

This is how Noah felt about having to wait in the hot sun.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to see the musical; he just didn’t want to have to wait for it.

We only ended up sitting for a few minutes before we joined DH. I knew that people would start lining up soon.

It wasn’t long before a CM came out to take down the rope so we could head inside the building. They ended up taking the family in front of us in first. So, that left us at the front of the line. We basically had our choice of any seat up front. Yay! Mission accomplished.

We made our way up close to the front and sat down. I seated Noah right by the side of the stage because I knew he would get a kick out of the performers going by him.

After spotting Nemo swimming around in the bubbles, it was time for the show to begin.
A few of our favorite parts of the show…

During the part when Bruce comes out and Dory get snapped with the mask and begins to bleed. The music picked up and Bruce came down the center stage and dived right at Noah as he sang….

“I need some food
I need some food
I need some food!!!”

Noah was so surprised and jumped back. We all laughed so hard. It was so funny to see Noah’s reaction.

After enjoying Finding Nemo, it was time to make our way back out to use our fastpasses for EE.

Since, DH doesn’t like these types of rides. He sat out with whatever boy wasn’t riding at the moment. Which meant I got to ride twice! Yay! Love this ride! It was as great as ever! Noah snapped a few pictures apparently, while they were waiting for Nick and I to be done our ride.

Sorry, no pictures from me. I’m terrified that I’m going to lose my camera on the ride!(which is just my luck)

Oh…I almost forgot Nick and I had the funniest two boys in front of us during our ride on EE. They looked like they were probably about Nick’s age maybe a little older and it was obviously their very first time riding and they were so funny to listen to. All we kept hearing was…..AAHHHHH!! BEST RIDE EVER!! And then a whole bunch of hysterical laughing, it was hilarious. Apparently, they really enjoyed the ride.

After looking at our picture, we met up with DH and Noah in the gift shop and decided to pick up some Chip and Dale’s trail mix. It was just what we needed to tide us over (or so we thought) as we made our way over to Africa to check the wait time for Kilimanjaro Safari.

At some point on the way over…I snapped this blurry "I spy" picture of the Tree of Life.

Again, the wait time was longer than we wanted to wait so we grabbed fastpasses and made our way over to Pizzafari for some lunch.
Since, this was our first time eating there; I really had no idea where it was so I checked the map. It didn’t appear to be too far from Africa. So, I told the guys to follow me. The whole way there all I heard was…

”Are we there yet?”
“I thought you said it was close.”
“It must be coming up soon…right?”
“It’s sooooo hot!”

Can you tell I had a few boys who needed to eat….DH included! I knew it wasn’t really that far but everyone was hot, grouchy and needed something in their stomach. That little bit of trail mix we shared just wasn’t cutting it. Plus it was so crowded and it felt like we were going in the complete opposite direction of everyone else as they were running to Africa.

Let me just say, we all breathed a sigh of relief when we saw that Pizzafari sign.

Awww…….food and air-conditioning! The perfect combination!

Up Next…a little lunch and our 2 week safari ride.


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[mickeystoontown]

Yay for getting seats so close to the front of the Nemo show stage! As you may remember, it's not our favorite show so it's been a while since we've seen it.

Isn't it neat to hear others' conversations before and after they ride a new attraction! I love hearing the comments.


Ummmmm Ummmmm, I could go for some Pizzafari right now.

 

[Mickey_Mom]

I love hearing other people's reactions to first times on rides. Almost makes it new again for you too Nice seats for Nemo!

Oh and yeah, if you're taking orders.... I could go for some Pizzafari right now too