1st trip: snow, stuck on a roller coaster, & a scratched cornea (lots of pictures)

[lmbcdb]

Day 2 of HS - we slept in ( a little ) and got to the park at 9:15. No problems there - still plenty of TS Mania FP. We went and watched Voyage of the Little Mermaid. Pretty neat up until the middle when they show parts of the movie to skip to the end of the story. Got us all a little confused!

Headed back and used our FP for TStory. Great ride! Loved the theming on the way in with all the over sized toys. Daniel really enjoyed it and was able to play with no help. (totally unlike the Toy Story ride at MK, but more on that later)

This is one of those days that I wished I had written that night, because now it's all a blur. I know we had lunch at Hollywood and Vine, with the Playhouse characters. Would have been nice if Pooh and Tigger and been there, instead of Jojo. Daniel doesn't even know who Jojo is. Food there was mediocre, but the characters were great with the kids, and spent lots of time with them.

The kids also spent some more time in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground. Probably a nice cool place to go when it's hot! Daniel loved looking at all the over sized stuff.

The DH and kids then took off to get pictures with Lightening McQueen and Mater. While they were doing that, I rode Tower of Terror which I walked on to in the middle of the afternoon! Pretty cool. I'm glad I read a description of the ride beforehand or I would have peed my pants.

We then went to Muppet 3D. Not super-impressed, probably won't go again. Philharmonic was much better. Weird thing about both, though, my husband and I both thought the glasses were dirty and/or didn't fit right. We just felt like we weren't getting the whole 3D experience.

Then off to Indy Jones stunt show. All I can say is WOW! Set changes, gunfire, fake fights, explaining how stunts are done, fire and more. MUCH better than the Lights Motors show we went to the day before. We were enthralled the whole time.

Almost forgot about the Block Party Bash! Cool "parade". (even thought it didn't move until it was over)
The costumes and the dancing was fun! Good music and spectacular floats!

We then left HS for the day and went to check out Wilderness Lodge. I hadn't built any time to visit other resorts, even though it was recommended. The Lodge came recommended by most to go visit, and they have a CS. (which the Fort doesn't!) BOY was it cold that night on the open boat to the Lodge. People on the boat probably thought I was torturing my 2 yo - she refused to wear her hat and kept taking off her jacket. The wind chill had to have been 30, so we "papoosed" her in a blanket, like you would swaddle a newborn, so she couldn't get her arms out. She screamed the whole way. Oh well. The things we do for our kids. But, we needed dinner and couldn't use anymore of our TS - we had ADRs for Donald's Safari in the morning. Live and learn. If I had realized it was that cold on the lake, I would have gone to the store at the resort and bought PBJ.

The Lodge was nice. I had some kind of flatbread pizza that wasn't very filling and didn't have a side. I forget what DH had. Like I said earlier, this day is a blur.

We did ask to go see a room at the Lodge, contemplating an adult-only trip. While it was nice, I wasn't super-impressed. It looked like a nice La Quinta. It made me wonder what the values look like in comparison. Are you paying for the coffee maker or what?

Off to Animal Kingdom tomorrow....

 

[MEK]

Nice TR. How frustrating to have your first family trip when the temperatures were so low. January is so unpredictable. I traveled that time 2 years ago and it was in the low 80's all week. I learned that when I travel in November - Feb its always best to throw some dollar store gloves in the old suitcase, just in case!

I am very impressed with the results of your son's pirate makeover. WOW! He looked amazing. Very, very cool. Too bad it took all week to get the makeup off.

You children are both very cute. And you know how kids are - they don't get cold so they never want to wear what we consider necessary cold weather items!

 

[lmbcdb]

Nice TR. How frustrating to have your first family trip when the temperatures were so low. January is so unpredictable. I traveled that time 2 years ago and it was in the low 80's all week.

80's! Wow! While I wasn't expecting that high, I was at least hoping for mid 60's or so!

I am curious about our 2nd trip. We are going the last week of November/first few days of December. My BIL said it would probably be 90, since our first trip was record lows!

 

[lmbcdb]

Animal Kingdom

I was expecting this to be my 2nd favorite park (next to MK). I guess I built it up too much, though. While we had a good time, it didn't feel very Disney. It felt like a big zoo with characters here and there.

We got there before opening because we had an ADR for Donald's Safari breakfast. It was for 8:15, and we got there at 7:45. 7:55, they let us all in the park.

It was really cool to see the Tree of Life after all the descriptions I had read here at DISboards. Here's my first picture:

The didn't make us wait at the restaurant - it was kind of a first come, first serve. But, half the restaurant was empty, so I guess it was no big deal.

I had heard good and bad things about this character buffet. If I had come to it first, it would have been fine. However, after the Princess Buffet at Epcot, I was very disappointed.

We were very rushed with the characters. They packed one of the small rooms completely full ( I guessed to get the characters through all at once and not have to do repeat visits) Donald was the required picture out front, with no autographs.

As you can tell, it was again quite cold that morning. (cold as in southern cold - probably 30)

The food was mediocre compared to the other places I had been in the week - reminded me of Denny's. Big plus for the kids - Mickey shaped waffles.

Character pictures as they came around - they signed Daniel's book, but left after the picture.

All in all, I won't do this one again - especially after the wonderful Princess brunch and then the wonderful job the Playhouse Disney characters did at Hollywood and Vine.

Right before each character some obnoxious guy would walk around the room yelling, "Mickey's coming, get your books and cameras ready!" with a tone equal to "If they aren't ready, you don't get a picture or autograph!"

Daisy and Goofy were also there:

They also had the kids get little instruments and dance around the room which both my kids loved:

We got out of there with time to spare before park opening. Interesting that all the advice everyone gives is 1 1/2 to 2 hours for a sit down TS, and most of ours were right at an hour, even with my slow eaters.

We followed TGM's plan for small kids. We got FP for Safari and headed over to Dinoland USA.

On the way, though I saw (quite by accident) the character spot for AK. A really sweet CM at HS had mentioned it to me when we missed Tigger by 2 minutes and Claire had a meltdown. So, we ducked in and there was NO LINE!

The kids got to spend lots of time with some of their favorite characters. Check out the looks on their faces:

The Photopass guy got a PRECIOUS picture of Claire kissing Pooh on the nose. I'll post it when my CD gets here tomorrow.

Daniel and I then rode Primeval Whirl, which he got quite a giggle out of. He would have ridden again if the line hadn't grown from 5 minutes to 30 while we rode it! It ended up being a 15 minute wait where we met a really nice lady and her son from Minnesota. We compared weather notes - and that come every January to escape the months of cold of north for a little while!

We then did rider switch for Dinosaur! which scared my son. It was one of the few rides I didn't read up on, and TGM had said his 7/8 year olds ride it, so I thought we would be okay. He was quite shaken, actually. But he's not a big fan of dark places, either.

We then worked our way through Asia and Africa back to Safari, not stopping to do anything but the drums in Africa:

We then rode Safari. FP got us right on. Here's my disclaimer: In Texas, we have a few of these JUST like the one at AK. They are near major tourist spots: San Antonio (SeaWorld), Fossil Rim, and there's one just north in Oklahoma near Turner Falls. Anyway, they are called "drive through safaris" where you drive through in your own car. They are anywhere from $40-60 a car, and you get to feed the animals.

So, the one at AK was identical except you don't get to drive, stop or feed the animals. It was nice having the commentary on the animals, though. Here's a few pictures I took:

(5 feet from the truck)

So, if you've never been on a drive through safari, it's great. If you have, it's okay.

I tried to do a "pass it on" after the ride - the CM forgot to take our FPs, and I totally missed her. So, I saw found a couple headed in the standby line and gave them our FP. The guy was all "it's after the marked time" and I told him that I promise they will still work. As I was walking away, I saw them get in the standby line, which was 60 minutes. OH well, I tried.

Afterward, we saw a sign for the Pangini Forest Exploration Trail. It sounded interesting, but was not. Comparable again to the zoo. Maybe we just have a really awesome zoo here in Fort Worth.

We then went to Pizzafari for lunch. Good, hot, quick pizza. Not huge servings, but we all got enough to eat.

After that we headed for Festival of the Lion King. We got there 15 minutes before the show and they had already filled up the auditorium. So, we went and explored the Tree of Life and found the trail that took you up behind and close up to the tree. (which by the way was not very well marked - I had to use my map extensively) Seeing the tree up close was neat:

We also did the kid's thing were they talk to a CM about some science thing and get a stamp in a book. (Daniel liked this) It was about spiders in the area under the tree) We then took the long way around back to the Lion King show.

I didn't take any pictures of this one. I was tired (actually took a few 10 second power naps during the show) and just sat back and enjoyed the show. One of the better shows we saw that week.

We ended up heading back to the cabin around 3:30 and didn't explore Asia or Raffiki's Planet Watch. The descriptions looked too much like zoo exhibits.

So we headed back,had PBJs for dinner and did an early bed for everyone. Which was great, because we did MK open to close the next day!

 

[praisehisname]

Joining in!

 

[disneyaddicted]

Great update. I agree with you about AK not feling very Disney like, I get a sense of Disney there but not like I do at the other parks.

 

[lmbcdb]

Joining in!

Welcome! Thanks!