1200 pics, 1100 miles, 15 deluxe dining meals, 1 great time at POR *Completed 9/5*

[starousse]

Glad to see you back!

We did Boma for dinner and I was very underwhelmed. It wasn't awful but it wasn't all that it's cracked up to be. We said that we may consider going back for the breakfast, but after your story, I think I'll pass.

 

[alan_renfroe]

I'm so sorry that service was such a disappointment at Boma and that the food was not up to the standards of the previous visit. We went in December 2013 and were extremely disappointed...for both of the same reasons. We went again in March and the service was outstanding and the food was excellent.

Great photopass pictures at AK, Alan.

I do love the que for Expedition Everest; I just hate the ride.

I had to say I was at your wife's pic on EE and also your son's--I think he has that look all of the time.

Can't wait to hear if you get into FOTLK.

I totally agree about how service can make or break an experience. I would definitely go back to Boma, but I would absolutely ask that our server NOT be Edna. That's how bad it was! The food was just fine, but in retrospect we could've upgraded one of our dinners from a table service to another signature service. That being said, the food wasn't really the issue.

Those PhotoPasses at AK were my favorite! That's why I chose the one in front of the Tree of Life as my intro photo for this trip report. I thought it best captured our experience! I've got some more from later that day that will be posted in a future chapter.

I had to laugh about Expedition Everest and the que! I think it's hilarious that you really enjoy the que...but the ride...not so much!

The FOTLK question will be answered here in the next episode!

So glad to see your back on the boards Alan!!! Sorry about BOMA I have never eaten breakfast here only dinner and had good experiences I feel that mostly all the buffet breakfast are the same in all the places hit or miss. I have to ask you about your fast pass experience I am going down in 2 weeks and have just received my tickets it was a last minute trip and worried about pre-booking fast passes is this a must do? I just liked the old way better seemed more convenient .

Jeanine

Yep, I would agree with that assessment totally Jeanine. Buffet service can certainly be hit or miss. If this had been our first visit to Boma I probably wouldn't have been so harsh on the review. But after an amazing experience last time, we were quite disappointed with the boboti, the jungle juice (what little we had)...but mostly the service. And the story gets worse! Wait until our last day and I'll explain why!

We actually LOVED the new FastPass system! I think you'll be fine to go ahead and pre-book them now. You can always change them once you get to the park. I'd probably get them early as possible so that you can add more once you've expired the first three. Make sure you get your headliners scheduled!

Belated Happy Anniversary!

Glad to hear everything is working out with your parents.

I've never eaten at Boma, but I will say that the worst service we've ever received has always been at the buffets. My experiences have been similar in that you get your drinks and don't see the server for another 30 minutes. Getting the check is a lesson in patience.

Let me guess, Edna charged your meals to your room instead of putting them on your dining plan.

How does your son remain so stoic on the rides!?

Thanks Annie! Yes, everything is starting to get resolved and moving in the right direction with my folks!

I would have to agree with you regarding servers at the buffet restaurants. Overall, I feel like we've gotten signature service at signature restaurants, but some of the least best service has been at buffets. Lessons learned for sure.

Oh, you are SO close on your guess about Edna charging the meals to the room! I don't want to give it away just yet....but yeah, she screwed us up big time. More on that on my last day post.

Hahahaha! I think DS is just at stoic dude! I'm a very passionate person...and my highs get really high and lows get really low! My best friend is always calm and cool...and handles everything calmly. DS is the same way. His highs are never too high, nor his lows aren't too low. I think that's just how he rolls!

Glad to see you back posting Alan!! And so glad things are looking up for your parents.

AND HAPPY (belated) ANNIVERSARY!!!!

Oh dear, so sorry to have the worst server on your anniversary. That's not good. I guess (based on your pictures) because the place was so darn crazy busy (yes sarcasm).

I may make fun from time to time, but I really am looking forward to Avatar. I know it'll be amazing. But I still want Beastly Kingdom.

I do love me some Everest in the morning.

YAY for FotLK!!! Is it wrong that I'm just as excited just to see the new building, lol.

Thanks Rob! Later on this day you'll see we will have a very nice anniversary celebration!

Geeesh I know! The place was practically empty and yet we STILL couldn't get good service. I just had to wonder where Edna disappeared to for so long. Smoke break perhaps? Who knows!

I think I'm mostly looking forward to the Avatar expansion simply because AK really needs more attractions...and a new "land". If done right, this Avatar land could be an area that really competes with some of those grandiose Universal attractions. I'm mostly looking forward to seeing the atmosphere and decor! Should be a spectacle once finished!

Ahhhhhh Everest. Not only is it my favorite ride at Animal Kingdom, it is my 2nd favorite ride in all of Disney World! (Rock N Roller Coaster being my absolute favorite!) I just LOVE going backwards up into the mountain!

No it's not wrong! I was SOOOO excited to see the walls down that were there only a few days earlier!!! Would we be lucky enough to catch FOTLK on this trip? Just seeing the theatre in the distance made me smile!

I want to chime in and say how much I have enjoyed your trip report so far.

Also to say that good service seems paramount to a good meal, whether in Disney World or the real world. We stopped going to our previous favorite restaurant near our house because of bad service twice in a row.

Awwww, thank you very much JoshMom5! Glad you are enjoying the trip report!

You are SO right about good service (or lack thereof). It can make or break a good meal.

So sorry to hear that you didn't enjoy your anniversary breakfast as you could have. Bad service can ruin even a wonderful meal. Sounds like you're off to a good start at Animal Kingdom, though!

Well, the anniversary breakfast was only one of three meals on this day! Lunch and Dinner must be much better right? Stay tuned!

Yep, we are off to a great day at Animal Kingdom! Now...will we get to see FOTLK? I sure hope so!

 

[alan_renfroe]

It was Tuesday morning, June 3 at about 9:30am when we approached the Africa section of Animal Kingdom. I was soooo hoping we would get to see the Festival of the Lion King show. It's one of my very favorite attractions! I didn't think we would get to see it, but we could see that the walls were down and the new Harambe Theatre was in sight! We couldn't even see it when we were here back on day one!



We walked briskly to the standby que. There were already tons of people in line for the 10:00am show. Since the show has been closed for the past six months, I wasn't sure if we'd be able to get in without a FastPass....but we approached the standby line and took our chances.





DW had to run to the restroom, and I was afraid we would lose our place in line, but we didn't.






Would we get in?


We waited in the standby line...


The FastPass line started moving quickly....


There were a LOT of people with FastPasses.


Soon, the standby line started moving...


It moved slowly, but it was moving....


Moving....but moving slowly...


...and sometimes stopping completely...leaving us to believe that they might have reached full capacity...


Just don't know if we'll make it in for this performance or not...


We were starting to get near the standby entrance to the new Harambe Theatre...


I remember looking back at the folks who were at the end of the line and wondering if they would get in or not...


We turned a corner...


and we could see inside the theatre!


There appeared to be plenty of seating!!!!


And we walked right in and got some pretty good seats about 1/3 the way up on one side!


This theatre is HUGE and can seat lots and lots of people!




We were thrilled to be seated and enjoy the show!

We would get to see one of the first few performances EVER of the Festival of the Lion King in the new Harambe Theatre!

We took LOTS of pictures!







Now in the title of this Trip Report, I promised 1,200 pictures. That much is true! But what I didn't declare was that about 10% of them were from the new Festival of the Lion King show! We love this show SO much!














Coming up next: more pictures from the new Festival of the Lion King...and a great day at Animal Kingdom!

 

[annie170]

That's awesome that you saw one of the first performances in the new theatre! I feel like FOTLK is so close to a Broadway show, it's worth the price of the day's admission to the park.

I'm really impressed that you seem to do most attractions as a family. So often teenagers want to go off on their own. You've got some great kids there!

 

[maryj11]

Those were some really good memory maker pictures ! Love the look on your wifes face on Everest

 

[mickeystoontown]

I wanted to post first about your parents before I get to the Disney update. It's so good to hear that the insurance company is on the ball and your parents found a house so very quickly. I know that's such a blessing to them. Prayers have been answered, that's for sure!

 

[KatMark]

You got in!

Great pics so far. The burning question: is it different from the original. There were many rumors that they were totally redoing the show.

 

[mickeystoontown]

What a bummer that breakfast at Boma wasn't as good as your previous meal there! I hate it when you get all worked up and excited about a meal and then .

You lucky dog you! You guys were able to ride Everest with a 10 minute wait AND see the Festival of the Lion King in the new theater. If I had known that it was open, we'd have planned another trip over there. I'm officially jealous!

 

[ddstratton]

So glad you got in to see FOTLK!! Shhhh... We've never seen it... I do plan on correcting that little oversight on our next visit, however.

 

[alan_renfroe]

That's awesome that you saw one of the first performances in the new theatre! I feel like FOTLK is so close to a Broadway show, it's worth the price of the day's admission to the park.

I'm really impressed that you seem to do most attractions as a family. So often teenagers want to go off on their own. You've got some great kids there!

I totally agree! It's like one of my favorite Disney movies mixed with a Cirque de Solei performance! And the new theatre is beautiful! FOTLK definitely makes you feel like it's worth the day's admission.

Thanks for the compliment on the kids! I'm sure they would have both preferred to have a friend along with them, but we sort of knew this might be our last WDW vacation with just the four of us....so they were good enough to play along!

Those were some really good memory maker pictures ! Love the look on your wifes face on Everest

In retrospect I'm really glad we forked over the $149 for MemoryMaker. We ended up getting about 80 or so really good pictures from the iconic places in the parks and the ride photos! Gotta love some of those ride photos!

I wanted to post first about your parents before I get to the Disney update. It's so good to hear that the insurance company is on the ball and your parents found a house so very quickly. I know that's such a blessing to them. Prayers have been answered, that's for sure!

Thank you VERY much Lisa! Yes, for sure, prayers are being answered! I can hardly wait until they get settled in their new home...hopefully around Labor Day or so!

You got in!

Great pics so far. The burning question: is it different from the original. There were many rumors that they were totally redoing the show.

Yay! We got in! It was getting really hot outside, so we were all just happy to be in the air conditioning if nothing else! Harambe theatre seems much larger to me than the old theatre. It's been five years since we last saw the show...and I think it was basically the same show. I cannot remember all of the acts from before, but I don't think there's anything new. Anyway, LOVE that show and go glad we got to see it on this trip!

What a bummer that breakfast at Boma wasn't as good as your previous meal there! I hate it when you get all worked up and excited about a meal and then .

You lucky dog you! You guys were able to ride Everest with a 10 minute wait AND see the Festival of the Lion King in the new theater. If I had known that it was open, we'd have planned another trip over there. I'm officially jealous!

I've got to chalk our bad breakfast experience up to poor service. Also, this was the earliest we got up all week, so I think we were all dragging a bit.

Yeah I was feeling pretty lucky that morning that we had gotten to do my two favorite things in Animal Kingdom all before 10:30! It was a nice day indeed.

So glad you got in to see FOTLK!! Shhhh... We've never seen it... I do plan on correcting that little oversight on our next visit, however.

Oh my goodness, Darla, you are in for a real treat!!! The singing and the music are really good. And those are some classic songs from that movie anyway. You should definitely put FOTLK on your 'must-do' list!

 

[alan_renfroe]

Photos from Festival of the Lion King!
Enjoy!







































The theatre still had that "new car" smell! And the performances were stellar! I was so glad we got to see the new show in the new theatre! FOTLK is one of my favorite Disney attractions period.

Coming up next: more fun at Animal Kingdom...and lunch at Yak & Yeti!

 

[Jeanine3kids]

Can't wait to hear about Yak and Yeti always wanted to eat there. Also can you believe all the times I have been to disney I have never seen festival of the lion king I am going to make this a must this trip.

Jeanine

 

[KatMark]

More great pics from FOTLK. Seeing your pictures, it doesn't seem like anything changed from the show which makes me very happy.

I can't wait to hear about your lunch at Yak & Yeti (hope you enjoyed it as much as we did ours).

 

[NaughtyQueen]

Great FOLK photos! That is my favorite show in all of WDW. Can't wait to see it in the new theater!

 

[MidnightParade]

lol, I've made a note for our Boma breakfast in October to ask for "Not Edna".

Your FOTLK pics are great! Getting me all excited to see it ourselves!

 

[TinkyBelle]

subscribing! Loving the story so far.

 

[alan_renfroe]

Can't wait to hear about Yak and Yeti always wanted to eat there. Also can you believe all the times I have been to disney I have never seen festival of the lion king I am going to make this a must this trip.

Jeanine

Hi Jeanine! Yes, you definitely need to put FOTLK on your 'must-do' list. I'm usually more about spending time on the thrill rides, but this show is pure Disney magic! I would definitely recommend it!

More great pics from FOTLK. Seeing your pictures, it doesn't seem like anything changed from the show which makes me very happy.

I can't wait to hear about your lunch at Yak & Yeti (hope you enjoyed it as much as we did ours).

Hi Kathy! Yeah I really don't remember any changes at all in the show. In fact, it seems to be most of the same performers also. Most importantly, it was as good as I remembered!

Would Y&Y be as good as I remembered? We will see!

Great FOLK photos! That is my favorite show in all of WDW. Can't wait to see it in the new theater!

Thanks! I think it's probably my favorite show in all of WDW also. You will love the new theatre! It still had that "new car" smell!

lol, I've made a note for our Boma breakfast in October to ask for "Not Edna".

Your FOTLK pics are great! Getting me all excited to see it ourselves!

Hahahahaha! Yes that's a good note to make! I realize that you can get good servers on bad days or even bad servers on good days, but there weren't but just a few tables of people in the restaurant. I have no idea what was keeping her so busy.

Thanks for the compliment! I think it's funny...most people at AK take a ton of safari pics....on this trip we took a ton of FOTLK pics!

subscribing! Loving the story so far.

Hello TinkyBelle! Welcome aboard and thanks for reading! We are glad to have you along for the ride!

New chapter will be posted here soon.

 

[PrncessA]

So sorry for your experience at Boma.

I love all of your FOTLK photos, we ended up not making it to the show on our trip. I can live through your photos until next time!

 

[alan_renfroe]

It was about 10:30am on Tuesday morning, June 3rd when we got out of FOTLK. We really didn't have a plan at this point, but we did have an 11:00am FastPass for Expedition Everest...so we made our way to It's Tough To Be A Bug.



The posted wait time was 10 minutes, but we literally walked right in as the theatre doors were just opening.



DD and I literally stood up and crouched during the bug attack part! I like this attraction except for that part! Kids are screaming...crying....gnashing of the teeth! There really should be more of a warning for parents with small kids...this show can be very scary to little ones. Anyway, we all enjoyed seeing it again. On our way out, DD spotted this little guy:



We started making our way over towards the other side of the park and stopped in Dinoland to ride Primeval Whirl. It had a posted standby time of 20 minutes, but we were on in about 15 minutes.









You can see that DD is looking a little tired and hot. Primeval Whirl is not her favorite. Five years ago she absolutely hated this ride...but once we rode she really like it this time. DW and DS LOVE this ride!



By the time we got off Primeval Whirl it was about 11:20am. We had a Fastpass for Expedition Everest from 11:00-12:00 and an ADR at Yak & Yeti at 12:00. Timing was working out perfectly!

We walked over to Asia to use our Fastpass for Expedition Everest.

Uh oh.

It was down.

As we approached the fastpass line, the CM told us that we would be reissued a Fastpass for Everest good at any time throughout the day once it was back up and running. Good to know.

In the meantime, now it was about 11:30am...too early for our ADR at Yak & Yeti...so we walked around a bit and I took some pictures.







Clouds began to form and it looked like another afternoon shower might be heading our way.

We made our way to Yak & Yeti to see if we might get seated a bit early.







We checked in and didn't wait very long at all before we were seated.



Coming up next: Lunch at Yak & Yeti!

 

[colachdec]

So glad you were able to see FOTLK! It was my favorite part of Animal Kingdom.
We also are at Yak and Yeti and just loved it. I hope you had a great experience there, unlike Boma.
Happy to hear things are moving along with your parents and their home.
Enjoying your trip report so much!
-Mary

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