I made up the plan. It is MY plan! - A March 2015 TR - update 6/30 Epcot morning

[ksl5f123]

Lol, our Service Unit is only 4 towns.I have no idea how many we have in our county!
I'd love to do the Behind the Seeds tour sometime...

Well, our county only has about 60,000 residents which translates into about 500 Girl Scouts. We certainly couldn't divide into more than one service unit!

T-Rex sounds like a lot of fun - I've never ventured in there because when my kids were little even Rainforest Cafe freaked them out...maybe now they could handle it lol. The whole cars area at your hotel looks so awesome. My son was such a huge cars fan I think he would get a kick out of this even though he has grown out of his obsession! I love the "mine" picture! So cute!!

I was concerned about the noise. I bought D some headphones just in case, but he did OK. T was a huge Cars fan too, but he has informed me that it is too babyish for a first grader. He enjoyed it while we were at the resort though.

 

[ksl5f123]

Love the seagull picture. Glad you had a great dinner.

The food was pretty good. It wasn't outstanding, but it was fine. The seagull picture is one of my favorites.

We've never eaten at T-Rex though the kids have played in the "sand" pit out front.

Since you were seated near the big fish tank I am glad that this wasn't your view:

We walked through the cars area of AoA when checking out the report and my kids had to get their picture with every. single. Cars. Car there was. Really cute theming though

I am glad that wasn't my view too!!! Yikes! I wasn't a big fan of the rubber sand pit - the kids all got it in their shoes. At least they had a spot out there for them to wash their hands. We did almost every Car too. Such fun!

The kids look like they're having fun at T-Rex!

I love the AOA pictures - the Cars section is my favorite part of the hotel, I think they really did an amazing job with the theming there.

They really enjoyed it. I think the Cars theming may have been the best too. It doesn't light up light up like at California Adventure, but having the Wheel Well and Luigi's was pretty cool.

 

[ksl5f123]

I've been off the DIS all weekend (major headache which I still have) and missed two updates.

I skipped the description of the Behind the Seeds tour as we may do that this October or next year. I looked at the pictures...just didn't read.

We've never done T-Rex. Love DS in his dinosaur hat.

Great pictures around AOA...I love that cars section.

Sorry about the headache. I don't get them often, but when I do I can't do too much on the computer. I am not sure I would do T-Rex for the food - maybe for the atmosphere. It is fun if you have kids with you.

 

[ksl5f123]

Monday morning, the alarm clocks went off at 7 AM. I got up and started to get ready, but looked over and saw this in the other bed.

D is a morning person, but T certainly is not. We got dressed, ate some more of J's muffins, and got ready to leave. We decided we wanted to drive to AK this morning. I hadn't opened the curtains, so it was a little surprise when we opened the door to a torrential downpour! Luckily, MIL had brought enough ponchos for everyone. Of course, the kids had to argue about who was going to wear which one. This was my first hint that the kids had grown up and that old Disney magic that used to make them happy the whole time was wearing off. It was going to be a new type of trip.

We arrived at AK and were surprised that even the parking lot is under construction. We had to park farther away than we have in past years. Eventually, we got to the gate at about 8:30 to this view

MIL and FIL who had FL resident tickets needed to go make sure they were linked correctly to their Magic Bands. They headed off to guest services while we got in line. Guest services was slow, and the park opened just as they finished. We all met up just inside the tap styles and we were off to our first attraction of the trip. We always go to Triceratop Spin first!

We rode twice and then got off. Gabe, J, and T decided that they wanted to give Primevial Whirl a go. There was no line, so they walked right up to the loading location, where T chickened out and they walked right back off. Oh well. Gabe really wanted to do Dinosaur, but he couldn't convince any of the kids to join him. So, we left Dinoland and headed for our very first FP+! We were going to meet Mickey!

Along the way, we passed a CM who said that Daisy was meeting behind her with no line. We decided to take a little detour. T wasn't interested, but the others jumped right in. Since there was nobody behind us, Daisy took lots of time with us and even danced with D! I mentioned he loves the hot dog dance and so she did that with him too. So cute! Daisy was a lot of fun and worth the stop.




This one is a little blurry of D, but you can tell they are dancing.



From there, we finally made it over to Mickey. We used our FP+, but I am not sure how much time it really saved. The line was still pretty short at 9:30 in the morning. Mickey and Minnie were also fun.





Next, we were off to the 10 AM showing of FotLK. This is one of my very favorite things! I love this show. It was our first time to see it in the new location. I like the new theater, but I forgot all of my previous knowledge about where to sit and we wound up in the middle of the warthog section. I like to put the kids on the end so they have a chance to be chosen, but I just forgot.


Pumba! Leader of the warthogs.


I have read several other TRs where people had issues with their two year olds in this show. D, on the other hand, LOVED it (right up until the end when it got too loud). Here is how he spent most of the show.




When the ending got too loud, I had handed D his headphones. When the show ended, I took them back to put them away. This led to a full out toddler meltdown. He wanted to keep them, but I didn't want them to get lost at our next stop.

It was time for another FP+!

 

[KatMark]

Boo to the downpour, but for a couple of rides on the dinosaur wannabe Dumbos and then a fun meet up with Daisy and then Mickey and Minnie (I have yet to see Mickey and Minnie there and have that on my to do list for October).

I love the new theater too. Sorry you forgot to sit on the end, but D2 looks enthralled with the show.

 

[KathyM2]

What a brilliant idea with the headphones for loud/scary/dark rides/shows/restaurants Wish I had thought of that when my kids were at that stage. Looks like some fun times at AK despite the rain. Though I have to say this is one thing that bugs me about the amount of planning with FP+ etc...you can't really change your plans because of weather etc...sigh. But you guys had cool ponchos

 

[irene_dsc]

When we did our first trip, we did ear plugs (the squishy orange kind), mainly for Lights, Camera, Action, and fireworks. I haven't seen that same type lately, but the kid who really needed them is now better about loud sounds. (Conveniently, the older one who couldn't deal with fireworks was ok with them at the same time the younger one was, even with a 3 year difference!) I seem to remember handing out an extra pair of earplugs to the family sitting next to us at LCA...

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Love the kids matching shirts. Definitely seems like in the morning everyone either heads to the sarafi or everest so a lot of the other attractions don't have much wait - always annoying when you feel like you wasted a FP+

Cute meets with Daisy and Mickey and glad you enjoyed FOTLK ... good idea to bring the headphones!

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Bummer to start the day in the rain but it looks like you were able to make the best of it anyways! Love the shirts!

 

[SarahDisney]

Sounds like a good morning, despite the rain. I love the picture of D dancing with Daisy!

 

[jchurch0409]

Looks like a great start to the day, despite the rain!

 

[ksl5f123]

Boo to the downpour, but for a couple of rides on the dinosaur wannabe Dumbos and then a fun meet up with Daisy and then Mickey and Minnie (I have yet to see Mickey and Minnie there and have that on my to do list for October).

I love the new theater too. Sorry you forgot to sit on the end, but D2 looks enthralled with the show.

It was really kind of funny. MIL (who has lived in Florida for the last 40 or so years) commented early in the morning that Florida rains don't last long. We were all pretty surprised when it lasted until about 3 PM!

D really did enjoy the show - especially the tumble monkeys.

What a brilliant idea with the headphones for loud/scary/dark rides/shows/restaurants Wish I had thought of that when my kids were at that stage. Looks like some fun times at AK despite the rain. Though I have to say this is one thing that bugs me about the amount of planning with FP+ etc...you can't really change your plans because of weather etc...sigh. But you guys had cool ponchos

I have really sensitive hearing. I have never in my life gone to a movie in a theater without earplugs. C and D are both pretty sensitive to loud noises too. I picked up the headphones on an Amazon flash sale near Black Friday.

I do wish we could have changed the plan that day. I greatly prefer MK in the rain to AK.

When we did our first trip, we did ear plugs (the squishy orange kind), mainly for Lights, Camera, Action, and fireworks. I haven't seen that same type lately, but the kid who really needed them is now better about loud sounds. (Conveniently, the older one who couldn't deal with fireworks was ok with them at the same time the younger one was, even with a 3 year difference!) I seem to remember handing out an extra pair of earplugs to the family sitting next to us at LCA...

C occasionally uses earplugs, but it would be difficult for D to put them in since he is so small.

Love the kids matching shirts. Definitely seems like in the morning everyone either heads to the sarafi or everest so a lot of the other attractions don't have much wait - always annoying when you feel like you wasted a FP+

Cute meets with Daisy and Mickey and glad you enjoyed FOTLK ... good idea to bring the headphones!

Thanks! These shirts were some of my favorites of the ones I made for this trip. MIL liked them so much she wants one for our next trip.

I didn't mind too much about the Mickey FP+. There aren't that many things at AK that I really felt like I needed a FP for. Under the old system, we only ever used one for Safari and maybe one for Kali.

 

[ksl5f123]

Bummer to start the day in the rain but it looks like you were able to make the best of it anyways! Love the shirts!

Thanks! Can't let a little rain get you down when you're at Disney! It did slow the crowds down in the morning.

Sounds like a good morning, despite the rain. I love the picture of D dancing with Daisy!

Daisy was great! She may have been the very best character meet we had. There were a couple of other good ones, but Daisy was just so fun!

Looks like a great start to the day, despite the rain!

It was a really good day. A little wet, but really good.

 

[ksl5f123]

When I last left off, we had just finished watching FotLK. Before I move forward, I want to add a couple of pictures from the photopass of the Daisy and Mickey/Minnie meets.

 

[ksl5f123]

Don't you hate it when you write a really long post and then the DIS eats it. Ugh. OK, I will try again!

As we left FotLK, these pretty birdies were sitting right outside. I guess they were visiting from Flights of Wonder.

We then made our way over to our 2nd FP of the day. Our Safari window was 10:15-11:15 and it was now about 10:30. This FP felt more useful because the line was about 30 minutes, but we were on in under 10. I have really mixed feelings about them dropping the storyline they used to have on the safari. I don't miss the "rescuing Little Red" part, but I liked the "two week journey" party. Oh well. Off to Africa!

Hippos!

Bye Bye Elephant!

Pretty flamingos!

Rhino on the right, zebra on the left

As you can see above, that zebra was pretty close to the road. D was sitting on my lap and I am pretty sure he could have pet a zebra if I had let him.

A lot of the animals that we have come to expect seeing on the Safari were hiding that day because of the rain, but we still saw a good number and we saw some more unusual ones.

After the Safari, we stopped at a stand to grab a snack. It was now about 11:35 AM. A couple of the big kids got Mickey pretzels. D got a little snack pack that had cheese, crackers, grapes, and strawberries. He loved it and it averted the meltdown that I could tell was just about to start.

I am always surprised that they let us bring snacks into Flights of Wonder especially since some of the birds eat grapes. But, we asked and they said "no problem". The kids have always liked the Flights of Wonder show. I like all the pretty birds.

After FoW, we had to back-track to Africa to do the Pangani trail. DH wasn't too happy with the backtracking, but it is really hard to fit in everything with the limited show times. Somehow, I also messed up the timing here. I thought for sure we could see FoW at 11:45, walk the Pangani trail, and make a 12:15-1:15 FP+ at Kali - WRONG! The amount of time to just pick up the stroller and move everyone in the right direction was very slow. At about 12:50, I had to send DH, MIL, FIL, and J off to Kali while the rest of us finished Pangani. I had really hoped that we would all be able to ride Kali together, but D missed the height by about 1.5 inches and C and T decided they didn't want to ride. We spent a little extra time watching the gorillas which are one of C's favorite animals.

We made it to Kali just in time to see everyone else on the ride. As they came off, MIL suggested that DH and I go ride. I had not used my FP and DH could use T's. It was about 1:16 at that point. We made it to the queue at about 1:20, but they let us in without comment. So, I guess 5 minutes late is fine.

DH hadn't gotten wet at all on his first ride, but he got drenched riding with me. When we went down the slide, the water went up under his poncho and he got soaked!

Our next stop was the Maharajah Jungle trek. We have had good luck here in the past, but this day all of the tigers were either napping or hiding. The kids did enjoy the bats! I also have a picture of them looking at a Komodo dragon, but I can't remember if he is at Pangani or Maharajah. Either way, we spent about 10 minutes talking to a CM about him and watching him. Did you know they only eat once every 10 days?!

Finally, it was about 2:15 and time to head to our ADR! Up next, Yak and Yeti!

 

[irene_dsc]

I wonder if different CM's narrate the safari differently? I'm pretty sure ours used the two week tour bit, at least.

 

[KathyM2]

That bird show looks really cool..I never seem to have time for the shows at the parks because everyone is so ride focussed...maybe if we had a longer trip...sigh. That little snack pack sounds perfect...I want one!! Too bad about not getting to ride Kali together...but at least you got to go!

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Don't you hate it when you write a really long post and then the DIS eats it. Ugh. OK, I will try again!

Nope because I type up my posts in Word and then copy and paste them on to the Disboards as needed. I've got the bulk of the text written and edited for pretty much the rest of my PTR already done. All I have to do is scan over it for final edits and then insert the correct links for the pictures in the right spots.

As you can see above, that zebra was pretty close to the road. D was sitting on my lap and I am pretty sure he could have pet a zebra if I had let him.

Wow fun stuff! I'll have to show that to Little Miss when she is done with the stand off.

 

[SarahDisney]

You got some really nice safari pictures - even if not all the animals were out. That zebra really was very close - so cool!

I've heard they give you a grace period if you're a little late for your FP+ ... but ultimately it's up to the CM there. I'm glad you got a CM who let you go on with no problems.

Sounds like you guys were having a good time ... can't wait to hear about your experience at Yak and Yeti!

 

[TinksThree]

Awe we love T-Rex! And walking around the Cars section at AoA is so cool! I love that area!!

Even with the rain, it sounds like your time at Animal Kingdom was pretty successful!! The safari pics were great!! And you are so correct on the timing to see the shows and having to backtrack some!! I'm hoping to catch FoTLK in its new home next month and also Flights of Wonder-which I have yet to see!