A Road Trip Engagement...The End...Updated 1/31!

[Jennifer48]

Saturday December 6, 2008

All of my notes said that AK opened at 8a this day. It didn’t. We drove to AK and did not see one single vehicle entering. We drove back to AKL to find out from concierge that it opens at 9a. My notes were wrong! GASP! I felt so stupid. We hung out in the lobby until a decent amount of time went by before we left again. Oh and I double checked the park hours that I printed out back in October. It said it opened at 8 so there! Stupid Disney for changing the times!

First priority was of course EE so Dan had the task today to get us FP. I sauntered along taking in the scenery.

Once we met back up, we headed over to Dinoland to ride Dinosaur.

I resisted a bit since I don’t really like this ride but gave in when Dan said he really wanted to do it. There was a CM standing outside telling people the ride was down and there was no ETA when it would be back up. Shucks. So we headed over to hop in line for the first Finding Nemo Musical show. My favorite stage show used to be Festival of the Lion King until I saw this for the first time in April. It’s so well done and the music is fabulous. I still haven’t downloaded it off iTunes but I plan to soon.

Our FPs were ready for EE so we headed there and walked right on. Dan doesn’t like rollercoasters much but he loved this ride. So much so that when we got off, we got more FPs for later in the day .

There was a rumbly in our tumbly so we headed to Pizzafari for lunch.

mmmmm pizza...

We saw Devine!

At some point we got FPs for Kilimanjaro Safari but I didn’t put it in my notebook when but we headed to the return line after lunch. There were so many people crowded around waiting for their time so we decided to take a walk through the Pangani trail. The hippo was doing his exercises around the giant boulder so we were able to catch him when he walked by.

Meercat Manor

It was feeding time at the bachelor gorilla pad which was very exciting to see. There are 4 male gorillas that live here and each one had their own call when it was time to eat. When they hear this sound, they go to their assigned seat and wait for food to be served. They are so smart and so large! The female CM throws like a girl so she missed one of the gorillas by like 15’ and he just looked at her like “yeah right lady I’m not going after that.” I felt like asking if I could throw the heads of lettuce because I could be more accurate than she was HAHA.

The return FP line for the safari was cleared now so we proceeded in.

I don't care what Sam Brown says, these are ugly beasts!

The best part of the ride today, the white rhinos were standing right in the road but as the vehicle approached they backed up enough for us to get by. One woman in the car was afraid they would ram us. Of course they didn’t and of course we were on the other side of the car so the pic didn’t come out well.

We used our 2nd EE FP and then headed out. We wanted to get in more resort hopping this day and the plan was to head over to the Boardwalk.

 

[Lady Lallie]

Finding Nemo really looks like it's amazing.

You saw some great animal activity. I'd love to see the feeding time of the gorillas. How neat that they have a seat to be served in.

 

[Jennifer48]

The plan was to resort hop to see all the holiday decorations. We were a bit disappointed. I think our expectations were a little too high.

First stop, Boardwalk

Next was the Yacht and Beach Club

A Train Set? I could have made that. Where is the chocolate?!

We were too tired from the Yacht Club so we waited for one of the Friendship boats to take us back to the Boardwalk instead of walking. Those boats take a long time. We waited for a good 30 minutes.

We spent the rest of the evening packing and chillaxing in our room on the balcony watching the limited number of animals in our small savannah.

 

[Kimberly815]

Great Pictures of Finding Nemo: The Musical! I love this show too! We don't have any good pictures though, because the CM near us kept yelling at anyone who had a camera turned on! We weren't going to use a flash (since they ask not to) but it didn't matter!

The plan was to resort hop to see all the holiday decorations. We were a bit disappointed. I think our expectations were a little too high. [/IMG]

You guys did a lot of resort hopping this trip. You have some nice pictures of some of the things they show in the specials. Did you feel that it was worth it? Do they show pretty much everything in the specials? Was it too much work with too little return?

[/IMG]

Why is the tree smushed up to the ceiling!? Couldn't they measure it right!?

 

[Jennifer48]

Finding Nemo really looks like it's amazing.

You saw some great animal activity. I'd love to see the feeding time of the gorillas. How neat that they have a seat to be served in.

Finding Nemo really is a great show. I love how the actors faces mimic the faces of their characters.

Wouldn't it be nice if people fed us that way with assigned seats?!

Great Pictures of Finding Nemo: The Musical! I love this show too! We don't have any good pictures though, because the CM near us kept yelling at anyone who had a camera turned on! We weren't going to use a flash (since they ask not to) but it didn't matter!

Wow! They didn't yell at us. They just made like 2-3 announcements that you can use your camera, just no flash photography.

You guys did a lot of resort hopping this trip. You have some nice pictures of some of the things they show in the specials. Did you feel that it was worth it? Do they show pretty much everything in the specials? Was it too much work with too little return?

It was worth it to see the decorations. The reason why I felt a little disappointed was because we were hoping to see in person, the same displays we saw on the specials. Example, at the Boardwalk, there wasn't the gingerbread/chocolate replica of the Boardwalk. At the Polynesian, there was no replica of the Great Ceremonial house. At AKL, there was no African village outside Boma. So those that they showed in the specials were not there. But there was a large amount of others. Does that make sense?

Why is the tree smushed up to the ceiling!? Couldn't they measure it right!?

I didn't even notice that! Guess the imagineers didn't measure twice cut once!

 

[wdwgirl03]

Once again, great pictures, especially the ones from Finding Nemo! Maybe you've said this somewhere, but what type of camera do you have?

I'm not a big fan of Dinosaur either but I somehow manage to go on it each trip...even though it scares me to death (especially the ending... ).

 

[Jennifer48]

Once again, great pictures, especially the ones from Finding Nemo! Maybe you've said this somewhere, but what type of camera do you have?

I'm not a big fan of Dinosaur either but I somehow manage to go on it each trip...even though it scares me to death (especially the ending... ).

Thanks! It was actually DF's father's camera. Its a Sony DSLR 200. Takes great photos but we had a difficult time with the night shots.

Dinosaur doesn't scare me, although I do tend to duck at the end, its the bumpiness. I don't like being tossed around like that. I always end up with a bad headache after I ride it.

 

[Jennifer48]

Sunday December 7, 2008

I hate leaving WDW. It’s just about one of the worst days in a person’s life. Ok so I’m exaggerating but its still not fun especially when one has a 21 hour drive ahead of them.

I called for a wake up call the night before so our phone rang promptly at 8:30a. When I answered, there was no one there! This is the 2nd time it’s happened to me in the 2 times I’ve requested. So strange.

Saying goodbye to our animals

I think those animals know when visitors are checking in/out. We saw the most activity during those times.

We packed the car and left our AKL home around 9:25a. I wanted to hit DTD today to pick up any last minute things before our trek. Plus it is a tradition to do this on our last Disney day. Earl of Sandwich, here we come!

First was World of Disney store before it got too busy. We picked up some cute Mickey dish towels and oven mitts. We bought some stocking stuffers for Dan’s son as well as a scrapbook.

Pin station was next and no engagement pins. I did buy a TSM pin though and I'll take a picture of those and post them later.

We walked through the Pantry, making mental notes on how we can decorate our future house together. That was fun thinking that soon we would be living together. Christmas store was next and I was thinking of getting an ornament with our engagement date on it but decided against it. We did buy a cute door hanger though!

Tree outside Once Upon A Toy store

Lunch at EoS next and as always, it was yummy. Dan and I went to Las Vegas last October with friends and we ate at the EoS there too. The only 2 in the country and we hit them both!

We walked through the Art of Disney store and almost purchased a few paintings. You know, since we had a car and all I wouldn’t have to ship them home. I didn’t and regretted it a teensy bit later.

Goofy’s Candy Co was next and I made pretzels dipped in milk chocolate, 2 covered with Reeses PB Cups and one with holiday sprinkles. Dan had the Mickey Rice Krispy treat dipped in milk chocolate covered in Reeses PB cups. I’m pretty sure its still in his fridge too!

Dan's RKT being made

And there go my pretzels!

Dan wanted to check out the Lego store for gifts for his son but it was so darn busy in there that we took about 10 steps in before we turned around and headed out. I wanted to see the new T-Rex restaurant but it was starting to get really busy now and we had a long drive ahead. We gassed up at the Hess station and were on our way home around 12:10p.

Dan drove and made the decision to drive through. That’s right. 20 hours 43 minutes from Florida to Massachusetts. We arrived home around 9am, quickly unpacked the car and crashed for about 4-5 hours. We couldn’t sleep too much because we would never have gotten to bed that night.

Well thats it my dear DIS friends. Our engagement road trip ends. I have pictures of our souvies that I'll load to photobucket so I can post them. Thank you all very much for reading.

 

[Lady Lallie]

Oh no. I dont' want it to be over. This TR went by way too fast. It's been a pleasure reading about your Road Trip Engagement.

 

[Kimberly815]

Leaving Disney is awful! (Although, Goofy's Candy Co and the Earl of Sandwich do make it a bit easier!)

I can't believe its over! Will we get a trip report of that honeymoon cruise in your signature??

 

[Jennifer48]

Oh no. I dont' want it to be over. This TR went by way too fast. It's been a pleasure reading about your Road Trip Engagement.

Thanks for the kind words LL. I was afraid no one would read it! I updated as much as I could because I hate when people abandon their TRs. Now I can devote more time to your PreTR!

Leaving Disney is awful! (Although, Goofy's Candy Co and the Earl of Sandwich do make it a bit easier!)

I can't believe its over! Will we get a trip report of that honeymoon cruise in your signature??

I'll most likely do a DCL TR. Of course that all depends on how often we leave our stateroom

 

[Lady Lallie]

Thanks for the kind words LL. I was afraid no one would read it! I updated as much as I could because I hate when people abandon their TRs. Now I can devote more time to your PreTR!

I loved reading it!! And now that I know you survived your drive home, I have hope for us surviving.

I'll most likely do a DCL TR. Of course that all depends on how often we leave our stateroom

 

[Jennifer48]

I loved reading it!! And now that I know you survived your drive home, I have hope for us surviving.

You'll survive!! My advise, just take naps or breaks. We literally only stopped for gas and bathroom breaks. I was exhausted.

 

[A's Princess]

What a great trip report! Thanks for writing it.

I can not believe you drove straight through! Kudos to you both for making the trek!

 

[wdwgirl03]

Aww, it's over?! Well, I've really enjoyed reading your TR and seeing all your pictures. Thanks so much for sharing and congrats on your engagement again.

 

[MistyMoss]

Jen, I loved your trip report!! I can't wait to read your honeymoon one. It will almost seem like I am there!! Oh wait............I will be there. I mean if DH and I are going to stalk what better place than on your honeymoon.

Thanks for the kind words LL. I was afraid no one would read it! I updated as much as I could because I hate when people abandon their TRs. Now I can devote more time to your PreTR!

I'll most likely do a DCL TR. Of course that all depends on how often we leave our stateroom

I think I can write this off the top of my head:

DAY 1

8:00- Get up and go to breakfast. See stalkers (friends). Wave and eat breakfast.
8:30- Go back to room.

10:00- Go to pool. Lay in sun. Jump in pool. Wave to friends.
10:15- Go back to room.

12:00- Go to lunch. See friends. Wave and eat lunch.
12:30- Go back to room.

7:00- Go have a drink with friends before dinner. Make googly eyes at each other. Friends have been married for 23 yrs. They roll their eyes at each other.

7:30- Go to dinner. Make googly eyes at each other. Get dessert to go. Say "bye" to friends.

8:00- Go back to room.


DAY 2

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

 

[Jennifer48]

What a great trip report! Thanks for writing it.

I can not believe you drove straight through! Kudos to you both for making the trek!

Thank YOU for reading it! I still don't know how we made it through. Thank goodness for a supply of Coke!

Aww, it's over?! Well, I've really enjoyed reading your TR and seeing all your pictures. Thanks so much for sharing and congrats on your engagement again.

Almost! I still have to post pictures of the room (which I forgot) and pictures of the souvies. Thank YOU very much for reading and thank you again for the wishes!

 

[Jennifer48]

Jen, I loved your trip report!! I can't wait to read your honeymoon one. It will almost seem like I am there!! Oh wait............I will be there. I mean if DH and I are going to stalk what better place than on your honeymoon.




I think I can write this off the top of my head:

DAY 1

8:00- Get up and go to breakfast. See stalkers (friends). Wave and eat breakfast.
8:30- Go back to room.

10:00- Go to pool. Lay in sun. Jump in pool. Wave to friends.
10:15- Go back to room.

12:00- Go to lunch. See friends. Wave and eat lunch.
12:30- Go back to room.

7:00- Go have a drink with friends before dinner. Make googly eyes at each other. Friends have been married for 23 yrs. They roll their eyes at each other.

7:30- Go to dinner. Make googly eyes at each other. Get dessert to go. Say "bye" to friends.

8:00- Go back to room.


DAY 2

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Now I don't have to write one myself! I'll just throw in some pictures to prove we were actually on the ship!

 

[mejkjj97]

Aww, it's over?! Well, I've really enjoyed reading your TR and seeing all your pictures. Thanks so much for sharing and congrats on your engagement again.

I will second that! I am sad it's over. Congratulations on the Engagment and have fun planning the wedding. Look forward to reading future trip reports.
21 days to Pitchers and catchers report to Spring training! GO SOX!

 

[tinkerbell87512]

Jen I'm so sad your TR is over! It was great! I can't believe Dan drove 20 hrs straight...WOW! Thanks for sharing your trip and engagement with us. Would love to hear all about the cruise!!!!