Never Mind The Clever Title, Here's My Trip Report! December 2014 Solo Trip (Completed)

[PrincePluto]

Hi, Everybody! (Imagine that said in the voice of Doctor Nick from the Simpsons.)

In case you were wondering the origin of the title of my trip report, it is a reference to that classic 70's punk album, "Never Mind the B*llocks, Here's the Sex Pistols!"

For those who have not read either of my previous trip reports, (or even for those of you who have) I am Jeff, a forty-something single IT professional from New Jersey.

As those of you who read my first trip report may remember, a year ago in November 2013, I had a week of vacation I had to use up, and decided to go to Walt Disney World. The result of that experience is in the first trip report in my signature, "From Freezing to Sweating".

Now, in November 2014, I had the same situation, where I had a week of vacation at work to use up by the end of the year or I would lose it. I decided, once more, to go to Walt Disney World, as I can get a good rate on accomodations as I am on my father's timeshare contract, and I was able to find decent rates on airfare through JetBlue and car rental through Alamo as I am a club member.

The dates of my trip were December 6-13, 2014. The 6th and the 13th were mostly travel days, so I really consider it more of a 6-day vacation...

For the details of my planning, please see my Pre-Trip Report linked in my signature below.

I will provide a quick table of contents of my trip report entries below.

Day 1: Travel day
Orlando Airport and Timeshare

Day 2: Disney's Animal Kingdom
Kilimanjaro Safari Part 1
Kilimanjaro Safari Part 2
Kilimanjaro Safari Part 3
Festival of the Lion King
Festival of the Lion King part 2
Festival of the Lion King part 3
Harambe Village shopping
Kilimanjaro Safari Trip 2, Part 1
Kilimanjaro Safari Trip 2, Part 2
Kilimanjaro Safari Trip 2, Part 3
Dinoland U.S.A. and Restaurantosaurus
Working my way through Asia and earning Wilderness Explorer badges!

Day 3 - Disney's Hollywood Studios
More "Walt Disney: One Man's Dream"
For The First Time In Forever - Frozen Sing-Along
Frozen Sing-Along Part 2
Star Tours Dump Shop
The Sorcerer's Hat and Sunset Boulevard
Tower of Terror
Lunch, and an After-Lunch Cocktail
Walk of Fame
More handprints and footprints, and I end my day at DHS

Magic Kingdom Arrival
Entering the Magic Kingdom
More Main Street Shopping Pictures
Additional Main Street shopping and Main Street photos
Photos in front of Cinderella Castle
Jingle Cruise
"Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom" in Adventureland
A Voyage Aboard the Liberty Belle
Rapunzel restrooms
It's A Small World
Teacups, and New Fantasyland
Tomorrowland
Cosmic Ray's, BTMRR, and Walt Disney Railroad
Contemporary Resort
Polynesian Resort
Grand Floridian, and the end of my fourth day

EPCOT Day 1, park arrival
Soarin'
Various Future World snapshots
Mission Space
Mission Space dump shop, and Ellen's Universe of Energy
Canada
UK - Alice and Mary Poppins
France, Princess Aurora, lunch at Tangierine Cafe, and Belle
Wandering around Morocco
American Adventure, and a focus on my shirt
Agent P mission in Germany
Weinkeller
Kunstarbeit in Kristall, part 1
Kunstarbeit in Kristall, part 2
Kunstarbeit in Kristall, Hummel figurines
Dinner at Biergarten, Candlelight Processional

EPCOT Day 2
Park entry, around Spaceship Earth, and Test Track
Mission Space, and Test Track dump shop
More Test Track dump shop photos, and various holiday topiary photos
Agent P Adventure in Mexico
Grand Fiesta Tour, part 1
Grand Fiesta Tour, part 2
Grand Fiesta Tour, part 3
Mexico shops
Norway
Norway, continued - School bread and Puffin's Roost
Puffin's Roost, continued, and China
China, continued
Visiting with Mulan and Snow White
Living With the Land, and end of last theme park day

Last two days of the trip

Animal Kingdom Photopass pictures
Magic Kingdom Photopass pictures
Disney's Hollywood Studios Photopass pictures
EPCOT Photopass pictures part 1
EPCOT Photopass pictures part 2
EPCOT Photopass pictures part 3


Coming up: Day 1: Travel day

 

[PrincePluto]

I was going to be flying JetBlue out of Newark Liberty Airport at 9:00 AM, so I had arranged for the car service to pick me up at 6:45 AM. I woke up at 6:00, ate a light breakfast, and was all dressed and ready when the car showed up.

The ride to the airport was smooth, as it was a Saturday, and the driver said Saturday morning usually has no traffic, the only lighter day, traffic-wise being Sunday.

I arrived at the airport terminal A at 7:30, and did Curbside checkin, as it was worth the $2 a bag (only one checked bag, $2 total, with JetBlue the first checked bag is free) to avoid the line at the regular checkin desk. The curbside guy printed out my e-ticket, and I headed for the security checkpoint.

I have never had any trouble with the Newark Airport security checkpoint, and this time was no exception. The line was short, and I was through in about 5 minutes. The longest thing was taking off my fleece and shell and stuff them in my carry-on, which was the type of backpack that students use to carry their books.

As soon as I got into the terminal, I got an iced coffee, but regrettably it was not a Starbucks iced coffee. I believe some of the other terminals in Newark have Starbucks, but not terminal A. I settled back to wait for my flight to board.

While I was waiting, I saw an El Al plane sitting on the tarmac. I had seen this plane on the tarmac the last time I was going to Disney, which was also a Saturday, so all I can figure is that the El Al plane is always sitting on the tarmac at this time.

At 8:10, the plane arrived at the gate and started disembarking passengers. Below is a picture of the plane at the gate. If I recall correctly, the name of the plane was "Baby Blue".

The plane boarded at 8:30. At this point, I had put my point and shoot camera away. The next couple of photos are taken with my phone.

Wheels-up was at 9:15 AM. After we had gotten to about 15,000 feet, I took the following picture looking out over the port wing.

The flight was smooth, with no turbulence, and before too long I saw fluffy white clouds:

We landed at MCO at 11:30 AM, about 20 minutes ahead of schedule.

Next: Orlando airport and timeshare

 

[PrincePluto]

Once we pulled up to the gate and waited for the door to open, I walked off the plane, and past this electronics vending machine in the terminal:

I took a couple of obligatory photos of the Christmas tree in the terminal hub:

I was about to embark on my first "ride" of the trip, the Orlando Airport monorail, or what many Disney World parkgoers call the "faux-no-rail" in comparison to the monorails at the Magic Kingdom and EPCOT.

I then went to baggage carousel 10 and picked up my luggage, and headed over to the Alamo car rental counter. I had originally picked out an economy car, but when I saw how small an economy car is, I allowed the agent to twist my arm into getting an upgrade, especially since it cost the same to upgrade to a midsize as it would to upgrade to a compact car. I ended up picking out a Chevrolet Cruze. It still had the new car smell, and it was the first car I had ever driven that had a digital dashboard. I know, it's the little things that impress me.

I then headed for my timeshare, Vacation Village at Parkway, which is off of Route 192 in Kissimmee, on the same road as Arabian Knights. I took the Greene Way to get to it, which charges $3.75 in tolls to get 10 miles!

I arrived at the timeshare at 1:30 and checked in. The lobby was really decorated for Christmas:

I was assigned room 6602B, which is the B unit (smaller half of an A-B suite with separate entrances, the difference is an A unit sleeps 8 and a B unit sleeps 4, with the A unit having a full kitchen and the B unit having a kitchenette), in Building 6 on the 6th floor.

Below are some shots of the unit, before I messed it up:

It was 80 degrees outside, so I decided to go swimming. There were two large swimming pools as well as a kiddie pool and a hot tub in the center courtyard between the complex of 6 buildings in which I was.

The first pool I went into was blood warm, probably about 92 degrees, so I wasn't getting cooled off. I found the second pool, which was a little cooler, about 81 degrees, so I found that a little more comfortable. I was chatting with a guy from Ontario, Canada, until my fingers started to prune up, so I dried off and headed back to my room.

I then got dressed, and made a call home to let my mom and dad know I had gotten to Florida safely, and went to Publix at the Celebration shopping center, and got breakfast food. I then stopped by Chik-Fil-A and picked up dinner at the drive-thru to eat back at the timeshare.

I watched TV while eating dinner, and then went to bed.

NEXT: Day 2 - Disney's Animal Kingdom

 

[PrincePluto]

I see that over 100 people have viewed this thread in under 5 hours, but nobody's commented yet. It encourages me if people let me know what they think of my trip report, and makes me want to continue it. Ah, who am I kidding, I'd continue this trip report if nobody viewed it!

Seriously, though, if you like this trip report at all, feel free to comment on it...

 

[PrincePluto]

I got up at 6:45, and was all ready and out the door by 7:30.
I drove to Animal Kingdom, paid $17 for parking, and parked in row Unicorn 25.

I then started walking toward the park entrance:

I took a few pictures of the Christmas Tree by the entrance:

I got to the turnstiles at the front of the line.

The park then opened at 9:00. As I was walking in, I spotted a Photopass photographer, and had a picture taken on my MemoryMaker and on my own camera. In future entries, when you see a picture with me in it, it was taken (in 90% of cases) by a Photopass photographer, and I will also post the Photopass pictures when I finalize my MemoryMaker disc.

I took a picture of the Tree of Life, which was surrounded by construction fences; I'm not sure what is being built there... does it have anything to do with Avatar land?

In the former flamingo enclosure, there are now red kangaroos. However, the old Flamingo Wilderness Explorer station is still located there...

I had an hour until it was time for my Fastpass+ for Festival of the Lion King, and I saw that the standby line time for the Kilimanjaro Safari was 5 minutes, so I decided to ride.

Next: Kilimanjaro Safari part 1

 

[PrincePluto]

The Kilimanjaro Safari sign showed a Standby time of 5 minutes, but in fact it took exactly as long as it took me to walk from the entrance of the queue to where you board the vehicles, and people were passing me when I stopped to take pictures.

On the Safari booking desk, this sign gives an answer to one of the Wilderness Explorer badges:

As I boarded the vehicle, I took pictures of the animal identification key:

And away we went on our "two week safari".

Black rhino:

Hippopotami:

Crocodiles:

It's interesting to see the suspension bridge over the crocodiles. I don't know how comfortable I would be walking on that...

Next: Kilimanjaro Safari Part 2

 

[PrincePluto]

Approaching the Savannah:

I forget what these are called, but I believe they may be the symbol of the park:

Termite mounds:

Continuing with the safari:

Giraffe:

Mandrills

Young bull African Elephant

Flamingos

White Rhinos

Next: Kilimanjaro Safari - Part 3

 

[PrincePluto]

Cheetahs

Antelope crossing road

Lioness:

Zebras

Greater kudu

On that note, the safari was over, and it was time to head over to the Festival of the Lion King.

Next: Festival of the Lion King

 

[Chief Powhatan]

Thanks for sharing another trip report with us. I look forward to reading the rest of it.

 

[PrincePluto]

I started walking towards the Harambe Theatre, where the Festival of the Lion King is now held, since the closure of the Camp Minnie-Mickey area.

This was the first Fastpass+ I had used on this trip, and it was successfully linked to my hard ticket with no problem (since I was staying off-site I did not have a wristband, and did not see the benefit of paying extra for one).

I hustled through the Fastpass line, pausing to take a few pictures along the way:

I have not been able to find a translation of the below message, anywhere on the Internet:

The details of the theming on the queue were excellent, as always:

We were led into the theatre, and I ended up in the Elephant section:

We waited with bated breath for the show to start.

Next: Festival of the Lion King - Part 2

 

[stephm0188]

Following

 

[PrincePluto]

Following

 

[PrincePluto]

After about 10 minutes, the show started. It had been about 5 years since I last saw it, and it was even better than I remembered! Considering that I was using a point-and-shoot camera, I was very happy with how my pictures came out!

There were four main characters, each taking leadership of one quadrant of the theatre.

For each quadrant, there was a representative animal. They were the Lion, the Warthog, the Elephant and the Giraffe. A member of the audience was selected for each quadrant to teach the crowd its animal cheer.

The Lion section was represented by this little girl, who had hold out her "paws", and do her best roar:

This guy represented my section, the elephant section, and he had to hold up his arm like an elephant's trunk, and make a trumpeting sound.

This little girl represented the Giraffe section. The woman asked her "Do you know what noise a giraffe makes?" and she said no, and the woman said, "That's OK, I didn't know it at first, either, they make a sound like a sheep." Then the little girl made this cute little "baa" sound, while holding up her arm like a giraffe's neck.

It was then time for the show to start:

Next: The Festival of the Lion King part 3

 

[PrincePluto]

The tumble monkeys:

Continuing on with the show:

 

[PrincePluto]

I then decided to explore the Harambe Village and decided to explore a little, as I had some time before my Kilamanjaro Safari Fastpass+ window at 11:20.

I decided to take some more shopping pictures:

A nice selection of South African wines:

I took more pictures in this shop, but that's probably enough for this trip report.

I then proceeded to my Fastpass ride on the Kilimanjaro Safari, where I took a whole lot of pictures with my phone, which has a much higher shutter speed than my camera, and thus is better for shooting from a moving vehicle.

Next: Kilimanjaro Safari trip 2

 

[PrincePluto]

This entry is going to be picture-heavy, and text-sparse.

Okapi:

These people were doing one of those wilderness treks. One of these trips, when I have extra time and extra money, I want do do this.

Hippopotami:

Nile Crocodiles:

Next: Kilimanjaro Safari Trip 2 part 2

 

[PrincePluto]

We came out onto the savannah:

Ankole Cattle:

I took a lot of pictures of this young bull elephant, but I didn't realize until I got home and went through them that there appears to be a big pile of droppings in front of him, so I will only post one picture of him:

Older members of the troop the young elephant originally grew up in before being separated for harmony's sake:

I believe this is the elephant the driver said was the youngest elephant in the preserve:

Flamingos:

White Rhinos, which every driver points out the fact that the name is a mis-translation of the Afrikaans word for "wide".

Next: Kilimanjaro Safari Trip 2, Part 3

 

[PrincePluto]

Unfortunately, this time, when we passed the lion area, there were no lions to be found:

However, the warthog was out and about:

Another white rhino picture:

Zebras:

Alas, the safari was too soon over, and I headed over towards DinoLand U.S.A., where my next Fastpass+ was, for Dinosaur!

I went via Asia, and took a couple of pictures on my way:

Next: DinoLand U.S.A and Restaurantosaurus

 

[PrincePluto]

I got to DinoLand U.S.A., but I had miscalculated my fastpass time for Dinosaur, thinking it was for 11:50 when in fact it was for 12:50, so I decided to have lunch at Restaurantosaurus, as I had never eaten here before.

Before I did that, I took a couple of pictures of the Dinosaur ride exterior:

I then went into Restaurantosaurus and checked out the seating options, and found that there were a few empty tables in Pteradon Pterrace, so I decided to eat in there as I liked the theming a little better...

I got in line, and ordered a deluxe chicken sandwich meal. I realized after I paid for it that I had forgotten to order a drink, so I additionally ordered that. That is why you see two receipts on my tray in the picture below:

After eating my sandwich, which was delicious, I decided to take pictures of the theming of the restaurant, for which the premise, if you haven't eaten there before, is of the mess hall of a fossil dig out West.

"Award for the person who washed the least laundry"

Rocks that are supposed to have been painted by previous dig members:

I think they also put up some memorabilia of the band Dinosaur, Jr. just because of the name...

This was cool: a darts game based on the age of the earth. The center was the "Big Bang", and the rules stated that you had to hit the Big Bang to start scoring, then in order to win the game, you had to hit the Quaternary Period ring, the thin outermost ring of the dartboard. This represents the most recent 2.588 million years of the Earth's lifespan.

After finishing taking pictures in Restaurantosaurus, I decided to head over to Dinosaur for my fastpass window. On my way, I took pictures of the Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil cast.

I then used my Fastpass to ride Dinosaur - as far as I could tell, the people who entered Standby got on the ride at exactly the same time as those of us who had fastpasses...

After I got off the ride, I headed over to where Donald Duck was posing for pictures:

You can't see it in this picture, but there are three duck bills in this picture; Donald's, Perry's on my shirt, and the Duckbilled dinosaur behind Donald and me.

I then decided to pose with Pluto and Santa Goofy, as well as it seemed every family with toddlers and kids in the park, and the characters took 2 breaks before I finally got to the front of the line. I think the pictures came out pretty good, though...

I then decided to work on getting "patches" for my Wilderness Explorer book, that I had started the last time I was in Disney's Animal Kingdom, in December 2013.

Next Asia

 

[darrenf67]

Hey there - subbing in - looking forward to the rest of the report- l love the safari - though at times it reminds me of the Jurassic park scene in the car and there's nothing to see! Haha