10 of us together and whose taking bets on when the bus will get here! UPDATED 10/6

[bballbabe]

Day 4 – Animal Kingdom part 1

It was another beautiful day for park touring. In my original itinerary we were supposed to go to the water park today and then go to Whispering Canyon for dinner, but because it was unseasonably cool, we scrapped those plans and went to AK today. Luckily I was able to get reservations for Tusker House for the 10 of us. We were all really excited to do this park because it would be the first park that none of us had ever done.

We headed to the bus stop and we started taking bets for when the bus would get there. Miracle of all miracles happened. We only had to wait 10 minutes for the bus !!!
We were at the park in no time at all.

Of course the first thing we had to do was search out the photopass person so we could get our family shot.

We were all totally amazed at the Tree of Life.

As we were walking pass it, my parents wanted to do Bug’s Life. There goes my itinerary again. Oh well, as long as we can get on the rides we want. So we headed into see Bug’s Life and of course get to see the Tree up close.

We realized when we went into the theatre that we were too close to the front and didn’t get the full 3d effect that you get when sitting further back. Unfortunately, Meghan was on the end and didn’t like the attraction one bit. The smoke freaked her out along with the bugs on the seat at the end. She says she will not go back on it, but I am hoping to change her mind when we get down there in Oct.

We now head over to EE. We first grab fast passes and since the wait is only 30 minutes we decide to also ride stand by. Meghan on the other hand wanted to have nothing to do with this ride! Kenny opted to take her over to DinoLand to see what was over there. Now I must say, Kenny really had no choice but to do something else with Meghan. I missed doing Space Mountain and there was no way in hell I was going to miss this ride!! So off they went and off we went.

Cont. in next post

 

[bballbabe]

Cont. from prev. post

As we walked through the line que we were really enjoying everything there was to look at. Disney did a great job of making you feel like you are actually in the Himalayas. Walking through and looking at everything, we weren't sure if the stuff we were looking at were actually artifacts or just Disney Magic. Because we were so enthralled by everything to look at, the time in line went by really fast. Before we knew it, we were getting on the ride, but not before a snaffu. Just as we were getting in our seats, Lauryn chickens out and decides not to ride. So she waited for us trackside. I was sitting with Rachel and she was nervous about the ride. But I told her to relax and to just have fun. Now I must say that the hill up was quite steep and the view from up there is spectacular. When we got all the way to the top and then started to go backwards I was a little surprised on how fast you went backwards and in the dark no less. Watching the behind the scenes at Disney on the Travel Channel, did not quite prepare me enough for that part of the ride. As the ride was coming to an end, Rachel was sitting next to me asking if the ride was over, are we all most done, I want to get off. I reassured her that the ride was almost over and that she could get off in a minute. After we got off and collected Lauryn, Rachel wanted to know when we could ride it again! Wasn’t she just the one wanting to get off the ride. When we got off we met up with Kenny and Meghan.

This picture was from one of the later rides that day. I circled Rachel and Kenny

We all then headed over to DinoLand because Meghan wanted to go on a couple of the rides over there with everyone. First up was Triceratop Spin

And then Primeval Whirl

My sister looks thrilled dosen't she.

After they were done with both rides we noticed a pin stand. We had already bought the girls lanyards and a couple of pins, but I think this is when the pin frenzy started with us on this trip. We or I should say I decided to get the girls pins from the rides that they were able to conquer and from each of the parks and from the luau. We didn’t buy them all then, but this is where it all started.

As we headed over to ride on Dinosaur we saw these 2 characters. Of course we needed to get pics taken and autographs.

Coming up next: Did we enjoy Dinosaur and When’s Lunch?

 

[MICKEY4EVER!]

Loved your Beach pics and the DHS update. I got a mickey profile pic on the ground at DHS in March. I love that they do that! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVED your animal Kingdom day. You got some really great photos of EE. How awesome was that?

You also got some good ride shots in Dinosaur Land. I can't wait to hear what you guys thought of Dinosaur!

 

[MICKEY4EVER!]

Oh, and I forgot to mention the character photos. Pluto is so cute!

 

[dismagiclover]

for Expedition Everest and Rachael being so brave. I love those Goofy and Pluto shot. Goofy's outfit cracks me up I'd like to see him in Dinoland someday.

 

[aaaateamsgrandma]

It is so nice to see AK with sun shining. Love your update. It is excellent. Too bad not everyone wanted to ride EE. I think it is totally awesome. And fast. I hope they liked Dinosaur.

 

[dd50]

Looks like you all are enjoying yourselves. We haven't been there yet and I can't wait.

 

[bballbabe]

Loved your Beach pics and the DHS update. I got a mickey profile pic on the ground at DHS in March. I love that they do that! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVED your animal Kingdom day. You got some really great photos of EE. How awesome was that?

You also got some good ride shots in Dinosaur Land. I can't wait to hear what you guys thought of Dinosaur!

Oh, and I forgot to mention the character photos. Pluto is so cute!

We had a great time down at the beach. Just do nothing but relax.

I was really glad that I got that mickey pic at DHS, I was the only one that managed to get it in my family

EE was the highlight of our day at AK. My father even managed to video tape the whole ride. He needed to ride it again because he had no idea how the ride was.

Dinosaur was and adventure as you will see from the pics coming up soon.

We were lucky and had great interaction with all of the characters we met. I just love Goofy's expression on what Pluto did for the camera.

 

[bballbabe]

for Expedition Everest and Rachael being so brave. I love those Goofy and Pluto shot. Goofy's outfit cracks me up I'd like to see him in Dinoland someday.

We tried to bribe Meghan to get on, but she wouldn't budge. Now that she has conquered the roller coasters at Hershey Park, she can't wait to get down to Disney to ride EE and RnR.

Goofy and Pluto were fantastic. There was only a couple of other people there when we stumbled upon them and they had a lot of fun with the girls and doing crazy stuff with them.

 

[bballbabe]

It is so nice to see AK with sun shining. Love your update. It is excellent. Too bad not everyone wanted to ride EE. I think it is totally awesome. And fast. I hope they liked Dinosaur.

We got really lucky wit the weather that week. Every day was perfect.

I think I am starting to get the hang of doing these reports now finally, so thank you for the complement.

As for Dinosaur, you're just gonna have to wait to see the pics from that ride. Here's a hint

 

[bballbabe]

Looks like you all are enjoying yourselves. We haven't been there yet and I can't wait.

We all had a blast and are looking forward to the Oct. trip. I am sure that you are going to have a great time. Only a couple of more days to go. Make sure you tell us all about it.

 

[aaaateamsgrandma]

We got really lucky wit the weather that week. Every day was perfect.

I think I am starting to get the hang of doing these reports now finally, so thank you for the complement.

As for Dinosaur, you're just gonna have to wait to see the pics from that ride. Here's a hint

I bet on your next trip down there will not be a problem with everyone riding all those rides. I hope not anyway cause they are so much fun. Don't you love the photopass pics of you all together? That was one of my favorite things we did. I wish we had done lots more. I wish they had gotten more creative with so many in a group like they do the smaller groups.

 

[bballbabe]

I bet on your next trip down there will not be a problem with everyone riding all those rides. I hope not anyway cause they are so much fun. Don't you love the photopass pics of you all together? That was one of my favorite things we did. I wish we had done lots more. I wish they had gotten more creative with so many in a group like they do the smaller groups.

Everyone is raring to go. There even have been requests to ride Dinosaur again. We really don't have a lot of shots osthe family altogether bacause someone was always taking the pic. That's why I love those photopass people. The only fun on we have has a group was at DHS when they had us make the frightened face and then there is one of all of us pointing at the ground with Stitch coming out of the ground. I am looking forward to having a LOT MORE pics taken with the photopass people. This time I am bringing a map so I know where they are located.

 

[NorweJenNY]

Glad I caught up with your report, I a thoroughly enjoying it!

I love the pic of how mousekeeping positioned everything, like the lion reading on the bed & the towel animal drinking from a cup. You had a great mousekeeper!

 

[bballbabe]

Glad I caught up with your report, I a thoroughly enjoying it!

I love the pic of how mousekeeping positioned everything, like the lion reading on the bed & the towel animal drinking from a cup. You had a great mousekeeper!

Every night we came back to the hotel there was another fun set up with the animals. You'll have to wait to see what else she did.

 

[bballbabe]

Animal Kingdom Day 4 - part 2

When I last left off we had just had a visit with a couple of “characters” Pluto and Goofy and we were heading to Dinosaur.

When we got over to Dinosaur there was about a 15 minute wait to get on the ride, so we were like okay. As we were waiting on line my Dad notices all of the warning signs in the que line about the ride. Now since Meghan had her meltdown on It’s Tough to be a Bug, we weren’t sure how this was going to be. Of course I just kept saying you ride in a car and it tells you the story about Dinosaurs, she’ll be fine. We did find the stuff that you see while waiting to get on the ride very interesting, especially this big guy.

When it was our turn to get on the ride, my Dad of course had to take a picture of us all

Notice all of the happy and smiling faces. Now we are off and the ride starts. That was one of the loudest rides I have ever been on. You could not understand a word that they were saying on the ride. And of course the being tasseled around wasn’t any better. Here is the picture of all of us from the ride:

You’ll notice my niece Lauryn has her ears plugged, Beca doesn’t look to happy and Meghan and Rachel are hiding. Needless to say this WAS NOT their favorite ride. Everyone was like – sure just go on a car ride and learn about Dinosaurs! NOT!

After that fun ride, we decide it was time for lunch. As we were heading to find a place to eat, my sister ran ahead to get FPs for the Safari. On our way to find some lunch we saw these guys performing.

We ended up grabbing lunch at Yak & Yeti CS. Now I know everyone on the DISboards seems to love the food here, I wasn’t that impressed. Since the girls were on the adult menu, they didn’t find that much to eat there either. My sister came back from the Safari and all of the FPs were gone for the day. It looks like we’ll end up riding stand by later. We finished up lunch and decided to use our FPs for EE. OF course another fun ride and Lauryn chickened out again at the last minute. When we got off someone handed us 2 fast passes and Kenny and Rachel rode it again. Remember, this was the girl who couldn’t wait for the ride to end and has now ridden it 3 times! After EE the girls wanted to ride on Kali, but we told them they would get too wet and it was too cold out to be walking around wet. They weren’t too happy. We then headed over to the Safari. The stand by line was I believe at least 100 minutes long. We all wanted to do it, so we got on line. I think by the time we actually got in a car we waited longer than the 100 minutes. The ride was interesting, but not that great. Especially for having to wait that long to get on. I would never wait that long for that ride again. Here are some pics from our Safari ride.

When we came out of the Safari, the parade was just ending. That now makes us not seeing a whole afternoon parade in any of the parks! Since we had time before our ADRs we went and walked the Pagani Trail. We all thought that this was better than the Safari ride. Everyone had a great time watching the gorillas.

When we were done with the trail, we still had sometime to kill before dinner. Someone had just given my sister 3 FPs for EE and Lauryn said she wanted to go on, so off they went. We decided to go and find some characters. We found Lilo & Stitch. They weren’t that entertaining. The Stitch at MK earlier in the week was fantastic.

We then ran into this guy. He was super funny and interacted with the girls very well.

It was now time for dinner. When we got there, Sharon and Frank were there with Lauryn. She chickened out now for the third time. Oh well, maybe next time.
Here we all are having dinner at the Tusker House

Again, I know I everyone seems to rave about the food here. I again found it just OK. Nothing fantastic. None of us would go back there to eat again. When we were finished, the park had closed and we had it all to ourselves. This was very enjoyable. We took our time walking out of the park and enjoying all that there was to see. As we were on our way out of the gate, we struck up a conversation with this CM about pin trading. This really excited the girls and turned them into monsters with the pin trading and wanting us to buy them more.

We headed back to the hotel for an early evening. Kenny, Frank and my Dad headed down to the bar to have a beer and the girls headed to the pool to go swimming. They were determined to get in the pool sometime before our vacation ended.


Coming up next: Day 5 at Epcot and what did dinner do to my Dad’s stomach!

 

[dismagiclover]

100 minute wait for the Safari It must have been a busy day! We've only done Tusker House for breakfast and really enjoyed it. I don't know if we'll ever try it for dinner. Keep the report coming

 

[burly]

NICE

 

[aaaateamsgrandma]

I find Dinosaur jerky but I love it. EE is better for sure. Keep trying for them all to ride. Love all your pictures. I am watching a Disney special on Fine Living. Makes me want to go back.

 

[bballbabe]

100 minute wait for the Safari It must have been a busy day! We've only done Tusker House for breakfast and really enjoyed it. I don't know if we'll ever try it for dinner. Keep the report coming

We did a lot of waiting for things on this trip. We were down there during all of the spring breaks. We knew it would be crowded going in, so we just tried to make the best of everything.

NICE

Welcome aboard. Hope you enjoy the reporting.

I find Dinosaur jerky but I love it. EE is better for sure. Keep trying for them all to ride. Love all your pictures. I am watching a Disney special on Fine Living. Makes me want to go back.

Actually with talking to everyone recently, my Dad, plus my nieces and my girls all want to ride Dinosaur again. As for EE, that one I know we will have NO PROBLEM getting everyone on, including all of the girls. They are making another trip to Hershey this Wed. to go on the tougher rollercoasters.