2 Friends & A Ninja Turtle ~ July 2011 Trip Report - Complete - Photo Heavy!

[Amunet]

After our enjoyable meet with Lilo and Stitch, we tromped off towards where we thought the Lion King show was. We got turned around a bit but we were still able to make it to the show. In fact, they were just opening the doors when we got there so we were able to file in!
If I remember correctly, we were in the Elephant section. I like trumpeting like an elephant! Really, where else can you without being thrown into the looney bin?

I have a bit of photos AND video for you to enjoy of this show ^_^

BELOW ARE PICTURES/VIDEOS OF THE LION KING SHOW!!
Scroll quickly if you haven't seen the show and want to keep it a surprise ...

Lion King Show Opening Video

I love the birds, they're so pretty! And so is their dancing ^_^

Dancing Birds Video

Lion King Show End Video​

We all very much liked this show! I think it's definitely worth seeing if you've never seen it. I mostly appreciated the dancing of the birds during the 'love song'. Just beautiful!

On the way out, I found a duck!​

Next up on the list was to find a character that Amanda and Jon REALLY wanted to see ... and could only be found in Animal Kingdom. So I pulled out my handy-dandy map and tried to figure out how to get to the meeting spot. I led the way and we were there in no time! At first, we thought he wasn't there and was really sad BUT then we found him!

Baloo! I wasn't huge on meeting him, but I do like his character. Amanda actually showed real excitement when meeting him! I know, astonishing, right? I was just really excited that she wanted to participate in character meeting. Up to this point, she wasn't really into it.
Just goes to show you, doesn't matter how 'cool' you are, there will ALWAYS be a character at Disney that can get you excited to meet them

By this time, we had two more things on our list to do ...

... Kali River Rapids and ...

Finding Nemo! We saw that the next show for Nemo was starting soon, so we got a FP for Kali River Rapids and headed off to the show.
We didn't really wait in line much since they had already opened the doors. Our spot wasn't too bad!
I did take a bit of pictures, but my camera isn't all that great in the dark (without flash) and we were farther back that a video wouldn't have really helped much. So I picked out the best photos of the show (only 3) to give you a little taste:

I LOVED IT! Amanda and Jon also agree that it was a very good show. After this show, we had finally completed one of our goals upon coming to WDW: Watch every 'mini broadway show'. I would probably rate them thusly;
1) Beauty and the Beast
2) Finding Nemo
3) Lion King
4) Little Mermaid
Of course, this is just from my experience. I really would like to give the Little Mermaid show a try again because I love that movie! I really need to applaud every performer on these shows because they are just wonderful and really bring the magic to life ^_^

By this point, I believe it was around noon or 1pm and the sun was REALLY beating down on us. We ducked into some of the shops and looked around but ultimately didn't find anything we wished to purchase at the time. In the end, we decided to call it a day and leave Animal Kingdom, because not much really appealed to use.
I gave away my Kali River Rapids fast pass (though, I would have enjoyed riding it in this weather), we had more important things to look forward to ...

 

[Amunet]

We were on our way to one of the few reservations we made outside of our dining plan. I have to say, this is one of the things that Jon and myself were looking forward to most for the trip. It was also a surprise for Amanda who only knew that we where going somewhere fun for lunch (and that she'd need to chip in a bit for the bill).

Have I peaked your interest yet? Here, I'll give you a clue where we are going ...

The Grand Floridian Resort! Okay, first, this place is big. When we got off the bus we actually went left towards the wedding conference center area. It was pretty funny. We went back the way we came and went straight past the bus station and towards the entrance (where that nice car is).

We were a bit early for our reservation, but we checked in anyways and rested in the atrium area. My goodness this resort is fancy! The CMs in the lobby were pleasant but some of the resort goers, well, they kind of snubbed their noses at us when they saw us sitting on the couches in our park wear. It only bugged me a bit, but I shrugged it off easily, I mean hey, we are in DISNEY WORLD! You enjoy it in your polo shirts and sun dresses, and I'll enjoy it in my capris and tank top.

After listening to the beautiful live music (piano) in the lobby, they called our name and we were finally seated in ...

The Garden View Tea Room! Yes, we like tea and we LOVE enjoying tea time during our various vacations (if wherever we're staying has one). Once I found out about this tea room, we KNEW that we had to try it out!

We're ready for our tea! Good picture of them both​

So, we ordered and enjoyed our tea time treats ...

First up the British Cheese Plate for us to share

This is my tea, the Imperial English Breakfast tea, with cream and sugar of course!​

I forget what Amanda and Jon ordered for their tea, but I do know that Jon ordered the Prince Edward's Tea. It included (as quoted from wdwinfo.com) "A delicious array of ducy and cherry terrine, chicken & pork roulade, country pate en croute, and English Blue Stilton, the "King" of English cheeses. Served with marinated fresh berries, and cumberland sauce. We then offer our delicious fresh baked scones served with rich Devonshire cream. Your choice of our tea with a glass of our Fonseca Bin 27 Character, Port"

I ordered the Buckingham Palace, which included (as quoted from wdwinfo.com); traditional tea sandwiches, scones and jam tarts complimented by fresh strawberries & cream, or a selection of freshly baked pastries, served with your choice of tea"

Jon's Prince Edward's Tea platter

My sandwiches

My tart and some of the scone Jon gave me from his platter

Amanda's Triffle

My 'dessert platter' of a mini eclair and fruit tart

Jon's 'dessert platter' of a chocolate dipped strawberry and a ... well, I think it's a petit four​

If you read the description, I'm sure you're confused as to why Jon has a dessert platter. Well, Amanda doesn't drink alcohol and we respect her views and making her uncomfortable is the LAST the we wish to do, so Jon asked if he could swap out the option of the glass of port for something non-alcoholic. Well, our waitress let him pick two items off the dessert trolly. Let me tell you, we weren't pleased. We were expecting something worth the same as the port, since it's a bit more expensive, not the little desserts. It didn't help that the waitress was rather rude with us and didn't give us much time except to take our orders and serve them.

Anyways, while waiting for our check, I spotted a familiar carriage outside our window ...

I started bouncing up and down in my seat and was ready to go so I could get outside to see it! I read here on the DIS that it's somewhat rare to see the carriage out, let alone for a wedding. Amanda and Jon looked at me like I was crazy

We finally got our check and we made our way outside to the buses.

My review of the Tea Room? I think it would have been better if we had a better waitress. On our way out we saw her mingling with other guests and it kind of hurt us a bit that she found it perfectly okay to mingle with other guests, but not us. It's not like we ordered only bread and water, we laid down a pretty decent size of money for this (which, of course, we budgeted for). It was very disappointing and I'm really not sure if I'd ever be back. It just seemed like the Grand Floridian is just a bit too snobby for us.

On a better note, while we were outside waiting for our bus, I saw the carriage again! Actually, I heard it first and actually jogged outside the bus waiting area so I could get a decent photo!

Isn't it beautiful? Ah, so pretty!

Actually, it was a bit after this time is when I gave my FP tickets for Kali River Rapids to a family that was heading to AK. They appreciated them very much!

What, not go to Animal Kingdom you say? Yup! We weren't going back to the park, we had our fill for this vacation. No, we decided to head somewhere else to finish up our shopping before leaving tomorrow, today was our last day at WDW after all.
Downtown Disney, here we come!

We got off and it was at this moment that Amanda and Jon realized that the tea went right through them, so they had to visit the bathroom. I was perfectly fine, so I waited outside and snapped this photo:

Judging by the wreath, I was outside the Christmas shop. Which was PERFECT because we decided to go back inside and buy an adorable Eeyore christmas sculpture and 2 ornaments. We headed over to The World Store (which is what I call it lol) and had some fun with the merchandise ...

I also took a picture of my sister's favorite princess

We walked around DTD and happened upon a really interesting musical act. I mostly filmed the video because my sister was playing clarinet at the time:

Music DTD Video​

After making some more purchases ... including a rather cute tea cup set, we decided that we better head back to the resort to pack and get some food.

We stopped by the store at the resort for some reason, I don't quite remember why, but I do remember what happened!
It was rather hilarious; a CM came up to me and Amanda and gave us beads (we were in the French Quarter after all) and started talking to us. First it was the normal 'welcome to the store' and then where we're from, he said happy anniversary to me and then promptly proceeded to ignore me. I was fine with this as I noticed he started being a bit more friendly to Amanda. Not the creepy friendly, just a lot more smiley than the normal CM.
I kind of snuck off to Jon, where he was browsing and we hid while watching the CM flirt with Amanda!! We were trying hard to keep our laughing quiet.

I even snuck a photo! Notice the casual 'I'm-trying-to-be-cool-leaning-against-something' posture? Yeah. He's totally digging Amanda.
Finally I figured she probably wanted to be rescued so we wiped the tears of laughing off our faces and walked up to Amanda and the love struck CM to announce our departure.
Amanda didn't linger.

We went out to the food court and picked up some food ...

We were using up snack credits and I got some mac & cheese and some soup. I believe Amanda is posing with her fruit cup. I do not recall what Jon got.

After we were fed, we went up to our room and packed everything up for tomorrow. It's always sad packing, you know? I can't be sure how late we stayed up, but I know eventually we did finally fall asleep.

 

[Amunet]

Today we woke up a bit sad. Our vacation has come to and end. The only thing that got me out of bed was the call of Mickey Waffles ...

Jon's last Disney World Breakfast of Biscuits and Gravy

Amanda's last breakfast of a GIANT Mickey Waffle (I want this waffle maker ...)

And mine, the same as all the other mornings. Yeah, I don't like my bacon touching anything ​

After our breakfast, we headed back to our room to finish up packing, showering and soaking up the last bits of Disney Magic that we could. After a bit, we went back to the food court to finish up our food credits and snack credits ... it was A LOT of food!

​

Then, one last goodbye to the food court that we've come to love ...

and off to ...

Waiting for the Magical Express to take us out of this beautiful world. While we were waiting, I amused myself with ... gasp! More photos!

Finally the bus came and we piled on, dragging our feet like we were headed towards the gallows

Haha, Amanda sitting with all our bags​

We made it back to 'The Real World' and we had to accept the dirty floors and bathrooms of the airport. Check in went smoothly, so did boarding, but then a rather nasty storm broke out and we were stuck for a bit.

I couldn't help but wonder about the people back at the parks, wondering if they had ponchos and were running to their ADR's too​

Finally, we were up, up and away!

Which made us all rather happy that we weren't stuck anymore.

And with that, we all went back to Utah and lived Happily Ever After, for a little while anyways

 

[Amunet]

Thought I'd just post a few more pictures

I'm sure you're curious what we bought, right? Well, that is, if anyone actually is reading ...

This is Amanda's stash! She's not huge on buying lots of souvenirs.
She got a nice Mickey Beach Towel and a Scarf.
The Planet Hollywood keychain was free with a voucher from our package and the Button and beads were free from Cast Members
Also not pictured is the free Disney Refillable Mug (her's is pink)

Jon and I buy a bit more

From left to right: Jon's new hat, my Flounder, Jon's Donald, Jon's Stitch Ornament, American Flag Mickey keychain for my mom, Sleeping Beauty plate for my sister, Alice in Wonderland Tea cups & tea for me and Jon, my Mickey Sorcerer ornament, Eeyore Xmas sculpture, my plush Eeyore and a Disney Refillable Mug (this one is actually Amanda's). I got the blue lid/handled mug and Jon got the black one.

In the end, Amanda very much enjoyed the vacation and, while she wasn't completely into it as much as me and Jon, she did have a blast!
For me and Jon, it was a lot of firsts and we can't wait to go back

 

[Amunet]

Can a moderator move this to the Completed section?