“All Aboard the Seven Dwarfs Whine Train!” A May 2015/Mother's Day TR! ***TR COMPLETED 2/8!!!

[Gina Starr]

Joining in! We were in Disney at the same time and I had the same Ariel bow from Hot Topic (along with a Peter Pan one) I also love Taylor Swift and just went to her concert a couple days ago in Pittsburgh. It was awesome, you will love it!!

 

[ursalita]

Mom and I spent the time waiting for the chef Kim-watching. Kim and I made eye contact once and I nearly choked on my chocolate milk. It was the best of times…

So sorry you had bad food and service but at least you had Kim.

I didn't know much about this Character breakfast but it seems like a good deal because there are so many characters. It seems like most other character meals are limited to 4.

 

[princessesandpascal]

Ugh...sorry you had snippy service and so so food. I've been trying to get an ADR here but...wondering if I should stop trying if it isn't worth the trouble...not that I've been able to get one yet anyway...but...still. The pastries and berries looked good though...and you got to meet princesses so that's something.

Usually the restaurant is really delicious. I'd keep trying to make the ADR if I were you, since we've eaten there five times and only had one so-so experience, so it's usually really great. And the princesses are always good, although not reliable as to which would be there!

I think I lost track - where was Snooty Norwegian Girl #2? But wow, that sounds like a lot of snootiness! Glad you at least got good princess interaction!

I think there were two at the podium! The princesses made it worth it!

Joining in! We were in Disney at the same time and I had the same Ariel bow from Hot Topic (along with a Peter Pan one) I also love Taylor Swift and just went to her concert a couple days ago in Pittsburgh. It was awesome, you will love it!!

It's such a cute bow, eh? I love the little dinglehopper on the back Thanks for following along, I am so excited for her to finally get to Toronto!

So sorry you had bad food and service but at least you had Kim.

I didn't know much about this Character breakfast but it seems like a good deal because there are so many characters. It seems like most other character meals are limited to 4.

Ahh, Kim I've seen it (through both our own trips and other TRs) at anywhere between 3 and 5 princesses. We got really lucky with 5, and they were ones that we really wanted to see too (well, Mulan, Ariel, and Poppins, and Belle of course!)

 

[princessesandpascal]

Just wanted to say quickly that I'm sorry it's been so long between updates! We're doing a complete overhaul of our craft room (continuing last summer's project in which we moved my bedroom/the guest room to where the old craft room was), re-organizing, etc so we can get to scrapbooking some of our Disney photos from this year! So our real life stuff is taking a lot of my attention away from writing the TR. Luckily I've got a pretty long chapter today and another one set for tomorrow. I also finally transferred the Photopass shots from Mom's computer to mine, as our photos are in their expiration week. So I have those to update with more often now! Enjoy the next chapter!

Chapter Seven: "This Is the Best Day of My Life!", or, A Change of Parks and a Festival of Fantasy!
May 5, 2015

Where I left off last, we had just finished our breakfast at Akershus! We strolled out of Norway and back to Future World by way of Mexico, through a definitely more crowded Showcase. We stopped to watch the Mariachi band because it was Cinco de Mayo and Mom loves mariachi and Mexican music/food/culture as a whole.

As we were watching the performance, I noticed that the main singer (second from the right) was wearing a blue CM tag. I leaned over to Mom and pointed it out to her, remembering that the blue legacy tags show how a CM has gone above and beyond in their time at the parks. I learned this from watching SeeYaReelSoon, and the whole trip our eyes were peeled for blue tags. The band was really good and I’m glad we stayed to watch the end of their set. Mariachi music is really unique and it was a good fit for our little piece of Cinco de Mayo! We browsed the gift stand for a little while, and I found a shirt I ended up buying for Dad later in the week. I don’t have a photo of it because he took it with him on a trip recently, but it had a little drawing of each country’s food and drink on it (so beer and steak for Canada, margarita and nachos I think for Mexico, etc). He seemed to really like it. there were no Mickey heads on it, anyways, so that's good for him!

Before going back to Future World, we stopped in Port of Entry to pick up some skincare products one of my roommates asked me to pick her up while I was in WDW. It’s these things that look like giant chapsticks but they’re a shea-based lotion. Both her and I deal with eczema and super dry skin and she swore by them, so I picked one up for myself and got her the two she asked me to get. We decided to keep with shopping and head to MouseGear after this. I was trying to reason when we should go to the MK because we wanted to catch Festival of Fantasy in Frontierland that afternoon. Without that extra half of Innoventions and with dealing with FP+, Epcot wasn’t as much of a draw as it used to be for us and I was starting to rethink a lot of the rest of our trip, especially having an EMH night planned there which would make World Showcase a zoo. In short, I was way overthinking things and it was only day two!

I was slightly stressed and had a hard time communicating to Mom that I needed her to help me out with formulating a plan. It all culminated in a slight breakdown outside of MouseGear, where we sat for a little bit and I watched the dancing fountain and got it together enough to explain that I felt like I was overwhelmed in having planned almost the whole trip myself, and that while Mom thought she was helping by letting me make all the choices, I was becoming way too stressed. In the end, I agreed to make sure I voiced when I needed help making choices, and Mom agreed to help me out by making choices when I was struggling to do so. And we didn't really have any other altercations for the remainder of the week, which was nothing short of a miracle.

We also decided to leave Epcot for the day. Mostly because we weren’t feeling it and we wanted to go to the MK for FoF anyways, so we figured we'd just leave a bit earlier than planned. We were feeling a quick change of clothes/t-shirts that we’d brought along, a cool monorail ride, and some ice cream at the MK. So, a little earlier than we had planned, we headed toward the park exit in much higher spirits. I got changed from my Ariel Disneybound into an Ariel crop top I'd gotten from Marshall's and I can't stress enough how nice this felt. It made my bag a little heavier each day, but having a change of clothes was a godsend on days where we weren't taking a break. We grabbed some Photopass photos, then bid Epcot farewell until Friday.

We hopped on the monorail and enjoyed our ride to the TTC. When we got there, the other two people in our car had no clue where they were going (they were trying to get to the MK as well) so we just motioned them to follow us. We all made it to the MK in one piece, thankfully, bid goodbye to the other mom and daughter, and were off to have a great afternoon. It was a hot day, but we were in better spirits after our monorail trip and ready to conquer the rest of our day.

We decided to head to Tomorrowland and get some ice cream floats at Aunty Gravity’s. I went with orange pop and vanilla ice cream, and I believe Mom got vanilla ice cream in iced coffee. The floats were delicious and EXACTLY what we needed to pick us up and get us through the afternoon. We sat and people-watched and chatted and moved our Buzz FP+ a little earlier in the afternoon so we could hit it right after Festival of Fantasy.

Before we knew it, it was time to walk over to Frontierland to find a place for the parade. We ended up across the street and a little bit down from the Country Bear Jamboree, right on the rope (I sat and Mom stood behind me). The spot was right in the sun, but we didn’t mind, because it was on the side of the street that Flynn Rider is on. Flynn Rider, my favourite Disney character and secret husband. The one place I can see him is in this parade because he’s too popular. My life is so hard. [cue the sad flute music.]

(A little something for my fellow millenials-slash-Zoey 101 fans. #thememories.)

We waited about a half hour or so, saw the marching band and the Grand Marshalls go past (that is honestly my DREAM), and then it was TIME.

Festival of Fantasy was the #1 thing on my Disney Must-Do list for this trip. I must have watched it on Youtube at least five times before we got to Florida and I was so excited to see it in person: dedicated space to Tangled and Brave, the gorgeous music and costumes... it was a dream parade for me. And I’m not at all ashamed to admit that when I heard the first notes of the song and the first “Away we go! It’s a Festival of Fantasy!” and saw the dancers, I totally cried. Luckily, the tears just looked like sweat running down my face, because again, it was so freaking hot.

The parade was completely magical. Here are some of our best pictures (all photos taken by me, sitting on the ground, so they’re all taken upwards but they’re still good):

When the Tangled float approached, first of all, I was out of my mind with excitement, of course. I was waving with one hand and taking pics with the other. The thugs, the detailing on the braid, the littlest parts of the float were absolutely stunning. I didn’t have my Tangled ears because I totally forgot when I left the room that morning that we were watching FoF that day. But that didn’t stop Flynn from looking down from his perch and waving/pointing at me, which caused me to freak out just a little. Okay, it was a lot. There was a lot of squealing and I smacked Mom's leg a little with a "PLEASE TELL ME YOU ALSO SAW THAT."

Man, I love Flynn Rider.

The parade continued:

(Continued in next post)​

 

[princessesandpascal]

(Continued from last post)

(We have really good dragon photos from later in the week to share!)

This ended up being my favourite part of the trip. Every second of that parade I was in awe. From the dragon breathing fire right in front of us to the dancers to the floats and characters and Flynn Rider. We weren’t parade people before, but we are now. FoF converted us, and we loved it!

After the most magical 10 minutes ever, we decided to walk back to Tomorrowland for our Buzz FP, which was going to be active soon. We gushed about the parade the whole way over, I still had butterflies, and it was a GOOD DAY. We still had time before our FP+, so we decided to hit up the TTA. *ahem* I mean, the Peoplemover. And we got stopped inside Space Mountain for a good 5-10 minutes. As is standard for us on the TTA, if we get stopped, it is ALWAYS inside Space.

But it was cool, in the shade, and we were sitting, so we were happy.

After the Peoplemover, we decided to see the Carousel of Progress, which we missed last trip. There were a surprisingly large amount of people in the theatre, but we still had lots of space around us so we could talk a little. Mostly me asking Mom, “did you guys seriously have one of those?” in the 1950s scene. CoP is seriously one of my favourite attractions in Disney. We didn't take any photos or video, we just enjoyed the show. We couldn’t stop talking after it was done about how cool it is that it’s still a Disney staple after so many years, and how it’s one of the things that started it all.

We had a Buzz FP+ to check in for after we got out of Carousel, so we headed over there! I was thrilled when I hit the target on the back of the robot’s hand perfectly and was a Galactic Hero by the time we were in the scene with the volcano. Mom got her best score ever on Buzz and was only about 50,000 points away from being a Galactic Hero! And the camera didn't work for our photo, so all you have is this one of my score:

The day was still young and we had plenty more adventures to have!

Up Next: Chapter Eight: "I Tried To Do A Backflip Once", or, Characters, First Rides, and A Big Splash!​

 

[KathyM2]

I love your FoF pics...I have to remember to actually watch that whole parade next time. I'm sorry you felt overwhelmed about all the planning...I totally get it. I have a love/hate relationship with all the planning that a trip to WDW now entails. It's fun in a way, because you get to think about it so much beforehand...and it's like a puzzle trying to figure out how to get everything in that you want to do and see and eat...BUT once you get there...sometimes those plans you made months ago aren't exactly what you feel like doing at the time. When that happens...it's frustrating because it can be an ordeal to change things...and sometimes the desire to change one little thing can have a domino effect. So I totally understand how you felt...sigh. But the rest of your morning/early afternoon sounds like it was looking up! Also...you made me want a float right now.

 

[princessesandpascal]

I love your FoF pics...I have to remember to actually watch that whole parade next time. I'm sorry you felt overwhelmed about all the planning...I totally get it. I have a love/hate relationship with all the planning that a trip to WDW now entails. It's fun in a way, because you get to think about it so much beforehand...and it's like a puzzle trying to figure out how to get everything in that you want to do and see and eat...BUT once you get there...sometimes those plans you made months ago aren't exactly what you feel like doing at the time. When that happens...it's frustrating because it can be an ordeal to change things...and sometimes the desire to change one little thing can have a domino effect. So I totally understand how you felt...sigh. But the rest of your morning/early afternoon sounds like it was looking up! Also...you made me want a float right now.

It's truly stunning: my number one must do for when we go back again! (That and more rides on Dinosaur!)

It was overwhelming, but a discussion that we definitely needed to have. It took a lot of stress off and made the mood a lot lighter! It's tough to fit it all in and we didn't have a trip planned and didn't know if we'd be back for a very long time (my best friend and I are now in very early planning processes for a trip for May/June 2016, mostly in the 'can we actually afford this' phase! I wish I'd known that before, I would've relaxed a lot more and tried less to "see it all."). It definitely looked up and it was worth it to have 20 minutes of upset time in order to make the rest of our day more flexible and understanding.

The floats were to die for!

 

[princessesandpascal]

(This could've been two chapters but I wanted to make up for being a bit absent recently, so it's a super-long chapter! Enjoy! )

Chapter 8: "I Tried To Do A Backflip Once.", or, Characters, First Rides, and a Big Splash!

After Buzz Lightyear, we decided to stop for an early dinner at Cosmic Ray’s before our FP+ at Ariel’s Grotto. Cosmic Ray’s is one of Mom’s favourite CS places in Disney. We both got bacon cheeseburgers, which we do not have photographic evidence of once again. (Again, this is why I have not written a dining review. The other reason being that I know nothing about food other than "Yep, tastes good." I don't have a refined palate. I barely even know what a palate is.) You know what a bacon cheeseburger looks like. We actually don’t have photographic evidence of Cosmic Ray’s at all, other than this photo of the castle Mom took on her phone to send to Dad.

Right below the castle was the construction site which we could see from our seats. What was being blocked by the giant covers was essentially a giant mountain of dirt. Needless to say, we kept our eyes on the castle rather than Dirt Mountain. We sat in the quiet area (not the Sonny Eclipse room) and planned out the rest of our evening. (Our food photos get better as the trip goes on, I swear. By that, I mean that we actually will take some.)

Cheeseburgers in our bellies, we headed out to Ariel’s Grotto to meet one of my favourite princesses for the second time that day! We’re big fans of the Ariel meeting area. It’s not air conditioned, but the mist created by the waterfalls make it nice and cool, plus the shade. We never visited the old one since the line seemed to always extend out into the heat. We were pretty happy to wait here for a little while, it was around 10-15 minutes even with FP+.

Ariel was pretty good this time around: we think she was a bit more comfortable with little kids than with me. She pointed out that my crop top makes it look as though Sebastian has long, flowing hair because his red shell blends into her red hair which made everyone in the room crack up with laughter. She was also very interested in my human legs and complained about not being able to do backflips. Though she can do them underwater, I pointed out, which seemed to satisfy her a bit.

We paused outside the Grotto for some Photopass photos and magic shots, and then continued to Belle’s Village where we took a few more.

We still had some time before our Splash FP+, so we decided to whip out the Sorcerer cards that we’d picked up at some point that I don’t think I mentioned in the TR, and play our Fantasyland mission. I got Sleeping Beauty and it was fun, as usual. And I remembered how bad I am at reading maps, as usual, as I ended up at three different portals before I eventually found the one I was actually supposed to start at. (Those maps are confusing!! They need better labels for people who are map-illiterate like myself!!)

Mom took the opportunity to play photographer and document my mission to save the Magic Kingdom from… Hades? And Maleficent? Working together? I don’t completely understand the SOTMK plotline. I’ve never actually completed it. I usually do 2-3 missions a trip and call it a day. (We did see a kid and his dad who were completing what looked like the final mission in the plot later that trip, which was pretty cool.)

(Mom likes this photo because you can see the Mickey nails I did for her before we left. Also, if you ever wondered what the ground looked like by a SOTMK panel, now you know.)

It was fun, except for the traders lurking around one of the portals asking if I wanted to trade. I knew I had nothing that he’d want, and I politely told him so. I was just starting and I knew all of my cards were not rare. (I really hate trying to play SOTMK and being bombarded by traders. My social anxiety kicks in like crazy and it's just super awkward for everyone involved.)

After saving the Kingdom (at least for the time being), it was time to go to Frontierland and ride Splash Mountain! On our way we stopped at Rapunzel's tower for a washroom break, and took a few pictures by the tower after we were freshened up.

And soon we were here!

We zoomed through the Splash queue with our FP+ and were on a boat almost immediately, in the last row. I always take the right side that gets wetter than the left. I’m so kind. It probably helps that every time we get onto the boat, Mom goes "Oh no! The seat is so wet!" The ride was super fun: we had a ton of boat backups that caused us to slam repeatedly into the boat in front of us and ended up in a ridiculous pile going up the lift hill. Which caused the younger girls in front of us to freak out that we’d get shoved over the edge of the drop.

We didn’t, luckily. Though I look as if we did from the fear in my eyes.

And then, of course, due to the backups, we got stuck right by the waterfall. Every one of us on the right side were climbing onto our seat partner to try and get away from the water that was slowly but surely drenching us from our position right next to the waterfall. At least we all had a good sense of humour about it, and the entire boat was laughing through our screeches.
Thankfully, we finally got off of our boat and headed off to make another FP+. We used the Jungle Cruise machines (which weren’t busy due to JC still being under refurbishment until the last days of our trip). We snagged a FP for the Speedway and made our way back toward Tomorrowland! On our way we passed Tiana and Naveen, whose line was closed for the current set, but we figured we could make it back in time to see them that night.
We scurried across the Hub, passed the covered Partners statue with sadness, and finally arrived at the Speedway. We’d never done this before and had always wanted to give it a try sometime. With FP+, we got to bypass the line and head right to a car, which really helped us out.

This was so much fun. The cars are on a track, sure, but we were so horrifically terrible at steering them that we were shrieking with laughter the entire way around the track. Seriously, I did not stop laughing once. I could not get that car’s steering together whatsoever.
Before we permanently smelled like the Speedway, we headed back across the Hub to Liberty Square to meet up with the line for Tiana and Naveen’s next meet and greet. We were happy to find that the line was still open and hurried in to reserve our spots. This is probably our favourite overall meeting area in Disney, and it’s one of our must-dos every year. We waited about a half hour or so between arriving, letting them finish their set, have a break, and before we made it to the front of the line.

(Continued in Next Post!)​

 

[princessesandpascal]

(Continued from Last Post!)​

They were on point, just as they always are! They asked immediately if I’d met Ariel, and I told them about how she said she isn’t ready to do backflips on land yet. This launched Naveen into a story that began with, “I tried to do a backflip, once.” I responded with “Tried?” and Naveen adds, “Yeah, and one time!” They were hysterical and so perfect. We had gotten the same friend of Naveen’s for the last few trips (2009, 2011, and 2012), and we had a new friend this time who was just as wonderful.

Between Flynn, Naveen, and Kim from Akershus, it was a great day.

We left the park at around 8:30, knowing we wanted to get out before MSEP took over Main Street. We had to stop in to Town Hall to resolve a Photopass issue (we had trouble viewing all of our photos on the browser and got that cleared up right away), and were on our way to the bus stop in no time.

When we got on the bus back to Pop, we were seated across from a family whose little girl (she looked to be barely three) had been to the BBB and was dressed like Sofia the First and covered in glitter. (So was the rest of her family, from both parents to Grandma to the baby brother). She took an immediate affinity to me, and directed her eye contact my way. We (meaning her whole family, plus me and Mom) assumed she was trying to sing “Never Smile At A Crocodile” because she kept swinging both arms together and yelling “SNAP!” every few seconds which then turned into laughter and then unintelligible babble. It was seriously the most adorable thing.

I tried to keep her distracted from her song (which she had clearly been going on about for quite some time, judging by her parents’ expressions) by talking about princesses and exchanging stories. She was so wound up that she crashed about halfway through the bus ride and was sound asleep by the time we reached Pop.
We went to the food court after saying goodbye to little Sofia girl’s family and grabbed some Disney pizza in the food court before bed. I also got a Woody sticker from the CM at the cash, so I was a happy camper. We ate down in Everything Pop before going back up to our room, where we were greeted with this:

MY USERNAME HAS COME FULL CIRCLE. PRINCESS PASCAL. PRINCESSESANDPASCAL. IT IS DESTINY.

We both took showers, looked at the day's Photopass pictures on my iPad, and fell asleep to get ready for another busy day: early Extra Magic Hours at Animal Kingdom!

Up next: Chapter 9! “What Could Go Wrong?” “FAMOUS LAST WORDS.”, or, We Go Up a Mountain and Back in Time at Animal Kingdom!​

 

[irene_dsc]

Great photos, again!

I have to say, we didn't run into anyone trying to trade cards when we did SOTMK. That surprises me - I didn't know that was a thing!

Too funny about the little girl falling asleep on the bus! Go, go, go - collapse...

 

[nilla]

I think the Sebastian magic shot would've been better had you been holding a plastic fork in the other hand.

 

[cajunfan]

Awesome update! Love the pictures! We had a fantastic time with Ariel on our trip. She was fabulous with my great niece and another grown up Ariel fan in our party. Tiana was one that we wanted to do but just did not have time. I love talking to people on the buses and in lines...okay just about anywhere! LOL!

Thanks for sharing and can't wait for the next installment!

Lynn

 

[KathyM2]

Great update!! I love your interactions with the characters...that must have been a lot of fun!! You managed to fit in a lot of stuff with sorcerers and rides and food and characters...so much fun. I do love the speedway...I'm terrible at driving it too - it's so funny how even if you know how to drive an actual car...it's really hard to drive smoothly on those things!! My DD had a lot of laughing on that when we went too.

 

[jojuvanlaanen]

So excited to read more! Great TR!

 

[debjk4]

Love reading your trip report! Can't wait to hear what's next!

 

[melduckie]

All caught up! Absolutely loving your trip thus far! I'm going with my Mom in September and your trip is getting me very excited!!

 

[Someluck]

Thanks for writing such a charming TR and sharing some great photos. You have a smile that leaves me smiling!

 

[princessesandpascal]

Great photos, again!

I have to say, we didn't run into anyone trying to trade cards when we did SOTMK. That surprises me - I didn't know that was a thing!

Too funny about the little girl falling asleep on the bus! Go, go, go - collapse...

Thank you!

We have a few times: usually single adults are the ones wanting to trade. They have big binders full of cards, it's pretty crazy!

She was so cute, and the whole back of the bus was having a good laugh.

I think the Sebastian magic shot would've been better had you been holding a plastic fork in the other hand.

That would be hilarious! Maybe next time...

Awesome update! Love the pictures! We had a fantastic time with Ariel on our trip. She was fabulous with my great niece and another grown up Ariel fan in our party. Tiana was one that we wanted to do but just did not have time. I love talking to people on the buses and in lines...okay just about anywhere! LOL!

Thanks for sharing and can't wait for the next installment!

Lynn

Thank you! We had a fantastic Ariel later in the week which we were both happy about. Tiana's one of my favourites, make sure to go in the evening so you get her and Naveen the next time you're there. She's great on her own but Naveen is just too great to miss.

Great update!! I love your interactions with the characters...that must have been a lot of fun!! You managed to fit in a lot of stuff with sorcerers and rides and food and characters...so much fun. I do love the speedway...I'm terrible at driving it too - it's so funny how even if you know how to drive an actual car...it's really hard to drive smoothly on those things!! My DD had a lot of laughing on that when we went too.

Thank you! I always attribute my love of characters to not going to Disney when I was super little, so I'm making up for lost years. It was a busy day but a really fun one. We didn't feel in the moment like we'd done a ton but looking back on it we were really busy!

So excited to read more! Great TR!

Thanks!

Love reading your trip report! Can't wait to hear what's next!

Thank you! Even more big adventures coming up

All caught up! Absolutely loving your trip thus far! I'm going with my Mom in September and your trip is getting me very excited!!

Thank you! I've always wanted to go in the fall, especially for the Halloween party.

Thanks for writing such a charming TR and sharing some great photos. You have a smile that leaves me smiling!

Thank you!

 

[Randy Miller]

Usually the restaurant is really delicious. I'd keep trying to make the ADR if I were you, since we've eaten there five times and only had one so-so experience, so it's usually really great. And the princesses are always good, although not reliable as to which would be there!



I think there were two at the podium! The princesses made it worth it!



It's such a cute bow, eh? I love the little dinglehopper on the back Thanks for following along, I am so excited for her to finally get to Toronto!

Ahh, Kim I've seen it (through both our own trips and other TRs) at anywhere between 3 and 5 princesses. We got really lucky with 5, and they were ones that we really wanted to see too (well, Mulan, Ariel, and Poppins, and Belle of course!)

 

[princessesandpascal]

Chapter 9! “What Could Go Wrong?” “FAMOUS LAST WORDS.”, or, Up a Mountain and Back in Time at Animal Kingdom!
Day 3: May 6, 2015

We woke up bright and early the morning of our third Disney day, excited to go to the Animal Kingdom for Extra Magic Hours! We skipped AK on our 2012 trip and got rained out of it on our 2011 trip, so we hadn’t had a proper AK day since 2009. We were super excited to get to the park and explore everything it had to offer. We left the room around 7 and went down to Everything Pop for some breakfast. We both got waffles, strawberries, bacon and sausage:

After breakfast, we walked over to the bus stop and got in line. This was one of the mornings that we watched countless buses drive by for other parks while nothing came for AK. Luckily, they had Trevor, a CM with a tablet at the bus stop, who got a bus for the crowd in the AK lineup. By the time it finally came, it was almost 8am already, but since AK isn’t a park you really need to arrive at opening for, we were fine with a leisurely start and took our time. The sky looked like it was threatening to downpour, but luckily it didn’t!

Our first stop was Expedition Everest. We had FP+ for EE (12:30-1:30), Dinosaur (1:40-2:40), and Kilamanjaro (9:30-10:30) that day. We joined the flow of traffic walking over to Asia and snapped photos along the way:

When we arrived at Everest, we got in the standby line and unfortunately were followed in by a very rowdy group of elementary school kids on a field trip, most of whom were seated behind us in the train. This was one of my favourite rides last time we were here, but I wasn’t as big of a fan this time. I think I kept my eyes shut last time which helped, but this time I kept them open and it made me incredibly dizzy. And Mom was convinced it went upside down, even when I googled it to confirm that it didn’t. We decided one ride was enough for us, and decided not to hit up our FP+ for it later (we changed it to two singles for the Mickey/Minnie meet that we knew we would never make it to so another group could take our Everest pairing.)

We decided, since it was still EMH, to head over to Dinoland to get Primeval Whirl and Dinosaur in before the park opened and our FP window for the Safari approached. We sat for a little while until our heads stopped spinning from Everest, and then went right onto PW. (Because, you know, when you’ve just been dizzy, jump into line for something that has the word “whirl” in the title. Logic!) This is one of my favourites, and it was incredibly fun as usual. Still frustrates me that Everest threw me for a loop, but PW spins pretty much the whole ride and I was fine. I will never understand my body’s intolerance for thrill rides.

PW was just what we needed to get back into a great headspace after being thrown for a loop (literally, according to Mom) on Everest. We opted not to take a second ride on it, however, and proceeded to the next destination on our plans, Dinosaur!

We had never ridden Dinosaur before: I don’t know why, exactly. Maybe it was tucked away where we couldn’t find it, maybe we just weren’t interested, maybe it’s for reasons that I’ll never understand. The wait was posted 10 minutes, but it was a walk on so early in the morning.

The Carnotaurus skeleton was INCREDIBLE. I walked in the room and my jaw hit the floor, basically. I love dinosaurs: always have, always will. (Before you ask, I haven’t seen Jurassic World yet! We’ve been busy lately and Mom’s and my schedules haven’t matched up many times, and I don’t really have friends to see it with here at home. But we’re really hoping to catch it before it leaves theatres.)

Of course, we were rounded into the pre-show, and even though I knew the general plotline of Dinosaur beforehand (to me, it was “carnotaurus tries to eat you multiple times whilst you hold on in fear while sitting in a car that’s trying to buck you out of it”), I really knew we were in for it when the host ended the pre-show with, “What could go wrong?”

The answer is LOTS, buddy. You do not mess with time travel.

(I may have audibly replied “FAMOUS LAST WORDS” to Mom as we stood in the darkness of the pre-show room.)

The theming of Dinosaur is fantastic, I was really impressed with how cool it was descending the stairs and seeing the time rovers waiting for us. It was a complete walk on, and the best part was we got front row seats in the rover for our first-ever ride! There were only seven people in our entire rover. #EMHperks.

It was SO GOOD.

Dinosaur is now in my top 3 rides in Disney (awkwardly, it pushed Soarin’ from the top 3. Oops.) Clearly, I handled the presence of the Carnotaurus super well. (If you think I look scared here, our seatmates on our last ride of the day were even more terrified. It's a photo I can't wait to share.) I actually got so into the ride that when the guy at the end is yelling “THEY’RE NOT GONNA MAKE IT! THEY’RE NOT GONNA MAKE IT!”, when we finally rounded the corner and saw our dino there, I actually said, “We made it!”

REAL LIFE ADULT, GUYS.

As soon as we were off, Mom and I looked at each other with the same look. “Wanna go again?” she asked.

“Definitely,” I replied.

So we went AGAIN.

I am clearly still fearless. Mom just looks amused.

After our second romp through time, we took some photos with the dinos before leaving the area until later!

We had a Kilamanjaro Safaris FP+ at 9:30, so we started the trek across the park. I wanted to stop at Royal Anandapur Tea Company on the way for a frozen chai (chai tea is my entire life and I was SO excited to have a frozen one!). We did stop, and also picked up a giant doughnut to munch on for the rest of our walk to Afica.

The frozen chai was really good, and the doughnut was just okay. It was sweet and tasty, so we couldn’t complain. The only thing was, since they were out of the AK-friendly straws, we were given only a spoon (with the choice to drink it right from the cup or eat it with a spoon), which made it a little harder to consume. (No chai pictures, but we ended up going back for more later!) We arrived at the entrance to KS just after our FP window opened, and stood outside to finish our snacks before tapping our bands and going into the line.


We probably didn’t need a FP, but it was nice to have to keep our wait time really low. We essentially walked right onto a safari vehicle, and our tour of the savannah began! Time for a KS picture overload (here's some mood-setting music, as I'm always trying to keep the experience authentic.):

(continued in next post!)​