I See a Line, I Wait In It ~ A January 2016 TR - Completed 12/29

[SarahDisney]

Great character meet and greets!

Thanks

I don't know if I've ever met Pocahontas.

I think this was our second time meeting her. I loved that movie when I was a kid, but she's never really been a high priority for us.

Safari Mickey and Minnie are always fun.

I love Safari Mickey and Minnie because it's really the only time you meet them together ... and it's fun when they play off each other.

Primeval whirl is fun but I'd also like to see something else done with that area.

I totally get that sentiment. I kinda like the tackiness of that whole area, but I do think they could probably make better use of the space.

Great picture of Pocahontas! I haven't met her in a long time, I was very young when I last did that M&G. Congrats on completing the Princess challenge. That is something I definitely want to do one trip, but I would probably have to do it alone, or with only a couple of people, it could be a lot of running around trying to see all the Princesses!

Thanks!
It's definitely hard to try to track down all of the princesses in one trip (especially at Epcot, where the lines get long quickly), but it's a lot of fun!

I love all the other meets you did as well - you and Beth got so many done in such a short amount of time.

We got lucky with short lines for most of them ... it was great to be able to meet so many characters!

Your Minnie shirts are really cute. Its a good thing that you had a chance to finally wear them with the real Minnie in the picture. January in Orlando can be pretty chilly.

Thanks! The weather was actually not too bad (we only wore our sweatshirts once or twice), but we did know going in that it was going to be a possibility, so I'm glad we were able to get the picture!

Hello! I have been slowing trying to catch up on your report. I've made it to page 10 so far and just finished reading both 10k recaps. I wanted to say that I loved all the runDisney updates. I feel like you really captured how fun, friendly, and exciting a runDisney race can be, and you made me really miss participating in one! It was such a bummer to read that it rained for the first part of the 10K; I was glad to see the weather cleared up by the end for you guys.
Okay, I will continue to read tomorrow. Slowly but surely, I'll catch up!

Hi!!! Thanks for taking the time to read through ... I know there's a lot
runDisney races are definitely awesome, and even with the rain, we had a great time!

Whew! Trying to catch up around here!!! So much has happened lol. Love your pics from dinner of the castle show...what a great idea!! Also..have I mentioned I love the race medals and want some? Gotta work on getting down there for some RunDisney lol. Looks like a great day at AK...sometimes maybe it is good to try to loosen up on the planning...sigh!! Maybe next time. Also..best Flik Pics!!

You really do need to do a runDisney race ... they are a ton of fun and I'm sure you'll love it! (I'm going to keep encouraging you to do it until you finally sign up for one)
I really loved meeting Flik ... so glad we got good pictures with him!

 

[SarahDisney]

Day 8, Chapter 3: Big Blue World
Tuesday, January 12th, 2016
​

When you last saw us, we had just gotten off Triceratop Spin. Our next stop was FP+ #2 of the day … and a first for us:

I’m a big Finding Nemo fan, and we’d heard good things about the show, but we just had never taken the time to see it. So for this trip, we made a FP+ and “forced” ourselves to see the 12:00pm show. We waited in line a little bit before being let into the theater and finding ourselves some seats.

For those of you who haven’t seen the show (spoiler alert), it kinda goes through the movie using puppets and whatnot. Rather than try to explain the entire thing, I’m just going to share some of my favorite pictures:

It was a cute show, and we really enjoyed it. Not a “must see every trip” thing, but I’m definitely glad we took the time to see it. I’d definitely see it again, time permitting.

Once the show was over, it was time to head out from the “Big Blue” and make our way to see some land animals. More on that in the next update!

Coming Next: Bumpiest Ride Ever, Part One

 

[rteetz]

Great review of Finding Nemo the Musical! Its been a while since I have seen it now and I would agree its not a must do every trip but definitely should be seen. You got some great pictures of the show.

 

[FantasiaMagic]

Glad you finally saw and enjoyed the Nemo show. I agree, it;s very cute, but not something I have to do on every trip.

 

[fallonkendra]

Great character pictures! I've been inspired by your trip report to make it a priority to meet more characters this time around!

I love the poses of Baloo and King Louie! They were probably my favourite meet and greet that I did, they were so much fun!

I think I now need to add the Finding Nemo show into our plans for our upcoming trip too - so many things to do, so little time to do them all!

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

I finally got all caught up on your TR! You have some great character photos! And I love the you took a picture with Pete and Craig. I would imagine that really appreciate when fans say thank you and show that they like what is produced. Also, your Pocahontas interaction sounded so cute! I've never met her, but I would really like to next time!

 

[afwdwfan]

Congratulations on successfully completing the princess challenge. Pocahontas is definitely one of the more elusive ones to catch. I can't say that I've ever met her.

You definitely did a nice job fitting in all the characters you could. I was relieved to see you finally get in a couple of rides in Dinoland.

Thanks for the pictures of the Nemo musical. Still haven't seen that show yet, but would like to sometime.

 

[SarahDisney]

Great review of Finding Nemo the Musical! Its been a while since I have seen it now and I would agree its not a must do every trip but definitely should be seen. You got some great pictures of the show.

Thanks

Glad you finally saw and enjoyed the Nemo show. I agree, it;s very cute, but not something I have to do on every trip.

I think that seems to be the common opinion - cute, but not an every trip thing. Glad you agree!

Great character pictures! I've been inspired by your trip report to make it a priority to meet more characters this time around!

Yes!! Meeting characters really is so much fun! I can't wait to hear/read about all of the characters you meet on your next trip!

I love the poses of Baloo and King Louie! They were probably my favourite meet and greet that I did, they were so much fun!

Thanks! This was the second or third time that we've met them, and we always have a lot of fun with them!

I think I now need to add the Finding Nemo show into our plans for our upcoming trip too - so many things to do, so little time to do them all!

It's definitely a cute show ... but yeah, I totally get the "too much stuff, not enough time" thing.

I finally got all caught up on your TR! You have some great character photos! And I love the you took a picture with Pete and Craig. I would imagine that really appreciate when fans say thank you and show that they like what is produced. Also, your Pocahontas interaction sounded so cute! I've never met her, but I would really like to next time!

Thanks for taking the time to catch up!
Pete and Craig were very gracious, and I'm glad I got to meet them.
Pocahontas was definitely one of my favorite interactions of the trip - she was so much fun! I definitely recommend trying to meet her!

Congratulations on successfully completing the princess challenge. Pocahontas is definitely one of the more elusive ones to catch. I can't say that I've ever met her.

Thanks! Pocahontas is definitely one of the harder to find princesses (especially because we never spend much time at Animal Kingdom), but I'm glad we finally got to meet her and finish our quest!

You definitely did a nice job fitting in all the characters you could. I was relieved to see you finally get in a couple of rides in Dinoland.

It may have taken us until after 11am to get to our first ride ... but we made it there eventually!

Thanks for the pictures of the Nemo musical. Still haven't seen that show yet, but would like to sometime.

I think it's definitely worth seeing if you can find the time!

 

[amazingact21]

I'm caught up! It took me longer than I expected, but better late than never, I suppose. Of course, you're pretty much at the end of your trip but that's beside the point.

You two had what seems like an awesome day at the MK. So many FPs! I'm impressed with the number. And how cool to have been given a paper pass for 7DMT.

Thanks for explaining what Disney does for kosher food. I never knew. I was aware of how allergies worked, but I'd never read of anyone ordering kosher at a restaurant before. I'm just sorry the food wasn't spectacular.
The princess photos are great. I love that you had dinner with them and then woke up and had breakfast. That's my kind of Disney vacation.

 

[Wood Nymph]

I’m a big Finding Nemo fan, and we’d heard good things about the show, but we just had never taken the time to see it. So for this trip, we made a FP+ and “forced” ourselves to see the 12:00pm show. We waited in line a little bit before being let into the theater and finding ourselves some seats.

I finally got to see this show last year. It is cute and I'm glad I was finally able to talk my husband into going to it.

 

[BlvInMagic]

We adore the Finding Nemo musical too! On a recent trip, we sat very close to the front of the stage and I was just entranced by the couple doing the sign language for the hearing impaired guests. They were just amazing!!!! Another way that Disney goes above and beyond in what they do.

 

[SarahDisney]

I'm caught up! It took me longer than I expected, but better late than never, I suppose. Of course, you're pretty much at the end of your trip but that's beside the point.

Hey, at least you caught up before it was over!

You two had what seems like an awesome day at the MK. So many FPs! I'm impressed with the number. And how cool to have been given a paper pass for 7DMT.

Thanks ... we definitely did a good job with the FP+ that day!

Thanks for explaining what Disney does for kosher food. I never knew. I was aware of how allergies worked, but I'd never read of anyone ordering kosher at a restaurant before. I'm just sorry the food wasn't spectacular.

I think most people don't know about the kosher options, but I'm so used to it that it doesn't feel like a big deal anymore. It is nice to have the option, though, even if the food's not great.
The allergy thing, meanwhile, always amazes me ... thankfully, I've never had to deal with food allergies, so until fairly recently I actually didn't know that Disney was so awesome with allergies.

The princess photos are great. I love that you had dinner with them and then woke up and had breakfast. That's my kind of Disney vacation.

Thanks! I like your kind of Disney vacation .

I finally got to see this show last year. It is cute and I'm glad I was finally able to talk my husband into going to it.

I'm glad your husband agreed to see it - it's definitely cute!

We adore the Finding Nemo musical too! On a recent trip, we sat very close to the front of the stage and I was just entranced by the couple doing the sign language for the hearing impaired guests. They were just amazing!!!! Another way that Disney goes above and beyond in what they do.

That's so cool! I would love to see the sign language interpreters ... I've seen a lot of sign language interpreters who really get into their interpretetions and it looks so cool. I love that Disney has that option for hearing impaired guests to enoy the show!

 

[natebenma]

OOPS! I had read about half of your Pocahontas update but for some reason I didn't finish it or comment. The DIS has been freezing on me a lot, so I'm guessing that is what happened.

Anyway, congratulations on completing the Princess challenge. That is awesome!!!

Too funny about the discussion about the runDisney entrance fee. I hope she does decide to do one of the races. I'm sure that she would run like the wind. Or is that Bullseye?

Cute pictures with Mickey and Minnie. I loved themed outfits for meet & greets!

That's funny about the tree at the Goofy/Pluto meet & greet. Were there other decorations up at AK. I was amazed at how late the HS decorations were up and that was Jan 10!

Great job with the pictures on Primevil Whirl. I know what you mean about the sun on that ride- I have been blinded while riding too.

I have never been on the Triceratops Spin. Heck, my first time on Dumbo was just a year ago, so who knows when (or if) I will ever do that one. I love the way the selfie came out on the ride!

Now I have to go back and read about Nemo.

 

[natebenma]

I have only seen the Nemo show once. My boys are not really interested in going to Disney shows but I made it a condition... "We will take you to Disney, but you have to agree to go see The Lion King and Finding Nemo". They said ok. Of course, we had already booked the trip!



I love the movie and I thought the sets, props and puppetry in the show were incredible. I don't remember being blown away by the songs, though. The songs actually annoyed me, maybe because they are not in the movie so it was weird to have them in the show.

I wouldn't mind seeing the show again, but AK is typically a half-day park for us, so I'm not sure if we will be fitting in anytime soon.

 

[SarahDisney]

OOPS! I had read about half of your Pocahontas update but for some reason I didn't finish it or comment. The DIS has been freezing on me a lot, so I'm guessing that is what happened.

The DIS is weird sometimes - I'm glad you took the time to come back and comment!

Anyway, congratulations on completing the Princess challenge. That is awesome!!!

Thanks! It was a lot of fun to meet all the princesses!

Too funny about the discussion about the runDisney entrance fee. I hope she does decide to do one of the races. I'm sure that she would run like the wind. Or is that Bullseye?

She would certainly run with all the colors of the wind ...

Cute pictures with Mickey and Minnie. I loved themed outfits for meet & greets!

Thanks! I'm always happy when my outfit can match the character

That's funny about the tree at the Goofy/Pluto meet & greet. Were there other decorations up at AK. I was amazed at how late the HS decorations were up and that was Jan 10!

The Christmas Tree outside the park was still up, but I don't remember if all the decorations were up or if some of them had been taken down. There definitely were more decorations than I expected. It was almost three weeks after Christmas, I think they could have taken them down.

Great job with the pictures on Primevil Whirl. I know what you mean about the sun on that ride- I have been blinded while riding too.

Thanks! That's definitely a ride where I need my sunglasses...

I have never been on the Triceratops Spin. Heck, my first time on Dumbo was just a year ago, so who knows when (or if) I will ever do that one. I love the way the selfie came out on the ride!

It's really not that different than Dumbo. It's mostly the same ride, so I can understand skipping it.

I have only seen the Nemo show once. My boys are not really interested in going to Disney shows but I made it a condition... "We will take you to Disney, but you have to agree to go see The Lion King and Finding Nemo". They said ok. Of course, we had already booked the trip!

That's a nice way of tricking the boys into seeing the shows! A+ parenting!

I love the movie and I thought the sets, props and puppetry in the show were incredible. I don't remember being blown away by the songs, though. The songs actually annoyed me, maybe because they are not in the movie so it was weird to have them in the show.

It was definitely weird that the songs were there when they weren't in the movie. I didn't mind it, but I could totally understand why it might affect your experience. But I totally agree about the sets, props, and puppetry - they really were spectacular!

I wouldn't mind seeing the show again, but AK is typically a half-day park for us, so I'm not sure if we will be fitting in anytime soon.

Pretty much exactly how we feel - I'd see it again, but I don't spend enough time at Animal Kingdom to make it work.

 

[SarahDisney]

Day 8, Chapter 4: Bumpiest Ride Ever, Part One
Tuesday, January 12th, 2016​

After Finding Nemo, we left Dinoland U.S.A. and headed towards our next FP+ … but not before stopping for a picture with some random mountain in the background:

I can’t tell if I was not excited about that picture or just squinty, but … whatever. We made our way into Africa for our final FP+ of the day …

The FP+ line was super long. Like, beyond the FP+ entrance. I think it was because they were using a handheld MagicBand scanner instead of the regular FP+ scanning point. When we reached the FP+ entrance for the ride, because we had already scanned our MBs … we got high fives. It was super fun.

We eventually boarded a safari vehicle and made our way to …

Before I get into the pictures … this was not our best safari. We saw some good animals, but we didn’t always get good views, and there were some things we didn’t see. So while I have some pictures that I will share, there may be some fun animals missing from my pictures.
Also … it was a super bumpy ride. Bumpier than any of our previous safaris. So bumpy that we were willing to call it the bumpiest ride ever. We weren’t exactly fans.

With that information behind us … on to the animal pictures. I don’t always remember which of the animals is which, so some of the pictures will be unlabeled.

First Mystery Animal:

Hippopotamus:

Some sort of bird, I think:

Giraffes:

Behold, the Sarah in her natural environment. Note the camera in the right hand, pen held in the same hand, ready to mark off animals on the animal guide held (along with a map) in the left hand:

Yes, this is actually what I look like on Kilimanjaro Safaris. I’m a fascinating specimen.

Also, there’s some sort of animal in the background.

Elephant!

Upside Down (Baobab) Tree:

Flamingos!

Not sure what this is …

I think this is a rhino …

Sleeping Lion:

Ostrich Eggs:

Zebras: (we’ve had better views of them)

Final Mystery Animal:

All in all, it was not our best safari. We did see some animals, which was good, but we’ve had better safari experiences. Oh well … any safari is better than no safari.

Kilimanjaro Safaris was planned as our last ride of the day, so we started to make our way out of the park, stopping to see a few more animals on the way:

We still had a few hours before our DME pickup, so even though we had one more stop to make, we had time to stop for a few last sets of pictures before leaving Animal Kingdom … but you’ll have to wait for the next update to see those!

Coming Next: Bumpiest Ride Ever, Part Two

 

[rteetz]

The beauty of the safari is you never have the same experience twice. You got some great pictures despite the bumpy-ness. I love seeing you in you "natural environment" with the camera and list of animals!

 

[FantasiaMagic]

The safari is a hit or miss. I think the good thing is that you know you'll always see SOMETHING, even if you don't know exactly what it is Great picture of the giraffe though, those are my favorite!

 

[SarahDisney]

The beauty of the safari is you never have the same experience twice. You got some great pictures despite the bumpy-ness. I love seeing you in you "natural environment" with the camera and list of animals!

Definitely agree - even when we have a "less good" experience (despite the bumpiness, I still wouldn't say it was bad), it's still special because it's different than any other safari we've ever had!
That picture with the camera and the map/animal guide is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. It's such a random picture, but it's exactly what I look like on the trip.

The safari is a hit or miss. I think the good thing is that you know you'll always see SOMETHING, even if you don't know exactly what it is Great picture of the giraffe though, those are my favorite!

Exactly - there are always animals out, they just may not be animals I recognize...
And I love the giraffes too! I'm so glad we got a good view of them.

 

[SarahDisney]

Day 8, Chapter 5: Bumpiest Ride Ever, Part Two
Tuesday, January 12th, 2016
​

While we were making our way out of Animal Kingdom, we saw a PhotoPass photographer, and since we had a few minutes, we decided to stop for pictures. In fact, we stopped for several photo sessions, so I’m just going to lump all of the pictures together:

Sarah gets a turn with Pascal:

Hakuna Matata:

Tink:

Balloons: (The first time we’ve had this Magic Shot)

Beth gets another shot with Pascal:

When we finished our last photoshoot, we made our way out of the park, where we took one last picture before heading to the buses:

We had one stop left to make, but we couldn’t take a bus directly there, so instead we took a bus to our favorite resort …

Unfortunately, we weren’t hanging out at Art of Animation. Shortly after I took this picture, we were on another bus and our way to Disney Springs for one last stop …

Yes, more chocolate. We like chocolate. (Who doesn’t like chocolate?)

This was a quick stop – we went in, got our free chocolates, bought some chocolate to take home, and left. Then we made our way back to the bus stop, where we caught a bus back to Pop Century. Once we were back at Pop, we had lunch (cereal we had brought from home), bought a snack for the plane (more on that later), and then went to wait for our DME pickup.

Our bus came pretty much on time, and we made our way to the airport with no trouble (although I will state for the record that I hate the new DME videos … I miss the old ones). We got through security with no problems and went to wait at our gate. Everything was fine and dandy … until our flight was delayed because they couldn’t get clearance to land at JFK. Then they decided to board on time anyway, even without clearance from JFK. I sent an angry tweet to JetBlue, because I was afraid that they would make us wait on the plane on the tarmac while they were trying to get clearance, but we ended up taking off close to on time (but still without clearance to land). So it turned out okay … mostly. More on that later.

There was free wifi on the plane (yay), so I uploaded pictures to Facebook (which I had been terrible about doing during the trip), and then watched the DIS Unplugged podcast, which was a nice way to ease me out of the Disney Bubble.

Eventually we got hungry, so we decided to eat the snack that we had bought in the Pop Century Food Court.

That would be (Gluten-Free) Mini Brownie Cupcakes from Erin McKenna Bakery. There were 4 mini cupcakes, so we each had two. I started with a coffee frosted one, which was absolutely excellent (both the brownie and the frosting). My second one had white frosting, which I thought was vanilla, but was actually peppermint. I can’t eat mint (I also can’t handle the smell … I can’t even really be around mint), so … Beth had to lick the frosting off my brownie. It was good once it no longer tasted so much like mint. Beth’s two brownies were chocolate and strawberry frosting, and she enjoyed them both.
A+ for these cupcakes … they were excellent. I would definitely get them again. I’d just let Beth eat the mint one next time.

Back to the flight. So, you know how I said we couldn’t get clearance from JFK? It’s because there was a lot of wind, which led to a lot of turbulence. Very bumpy turbulence. Remember last update when we said that Kilimanjaro Safaris was our bumpiest ride ever? Apparently … that didn’t last very long. This turbulence was bumpier than the safari had been. We were not fans.

We somehow survived the new bumpiest ride ever and made it to JFK, where we landed, deplaned, picked up our luggage, and met up with our dad, who drove us home. And then the trip was over .

Coming Next: Final Thoughts