And I think to myself: "It's a wonderful World!" UPDATED: (post 238 & 239)

[Chilly]

brilliant update, good on those two little old ladies

 

[VailaTigger]

I love chatting to other people in ride / bus queues, it's great!

We met some really lovely people this time, and some lovely CM's too!

Enjoying your trippie, must do more of mine, life just seems to have taken over from trippie writing at the moment!

 

[teetee830]

Welcome! I have been meaning to post more pics on the POFQ thread. If I posted them all here it would no longer be a TR I think you'll really enjoy it. I would love to see what they do with it in terms of decorations over Christmas. It must be beautiful. Maybe you can let us know.

I'll certainly let you know how the Christmas decorations are I plan to fill my SD card.

 

[2Tiggies]

I'll certainly let you know how the Christmas decorations are I plan to fill my SD card.

I like that idea! Rather too many than too few photos. We came back with around 3000. Of course not all of them are worth keeping so I'll probably spend the next year sorting them. I just LOVE Christmas time though so in a way it is odd that i haven't been then.

 

[2Tiggies]

Phew! Just read all 10 pages loving the TR so far, looking forward to reading more

Oh dear, that doesn't sound too promising!

Oh don't worry, it will probably be funny for those of you reading about it

brilliant update, good on those two little old ladies

Oh they were amazing. I am quite chuffed that they are in our ride pic that we bought!

I love chatting to other people in ride / bus queues, it's great!

We met some really lovely people this time, and some lovely CM's too!

Enjoying your trippie, must do more of mine, life just seems to have taken over from trippie writing at the moment!

Ah, life does that. I am so enjoying writing this though and find myself frustrated when I can't find the time.

 

[SusanEllen]

Another excellent installment describing a wonderful, memorable day. I can't imagine you'd find a better co-conspirator for your adventures than the one you've got--she hangs in there on long days, rides the big coasters, and takes really good photos.

Just a word in defense of the ticky-tacky Dinoland--According to official accounts of the building of Animal Kingdom it seems the Imagineers intended it to look just this cheap, like the roadside tourist traps and amusement parks that used to line the American highways of the 1930s, '40s, and '50s (like the old snake farms and places where Seminole Indians wrestled alligators for tourists in Florida or simliar attractions along Route 66 in my part of the world and the world of Radiator Springs in "Cars"). So, in its way, the restaurants, rides, and gift shops in Dinoland are as true to their theme as the more substantial looking things in Asia and Africa at AK. Afraid the Imagineers were a little too "inside" on this decision though, because if you haven't experienced the old tourist traps or are at least aware of them, I'm afraid the area just comes off looking cheap and in sharp contrast to Disney quality. BTW, that's what made Disneyland instantly stand out from all other amusement parks in the mid-50s. None of us had ever seen anything so glorious before Disneyland.

 

[2Tiggies]

Another excellent installment describing a wonderful, memorable day. I can't imagine you'd find a better co-conspirator for your adventures than the one you've got--she hangs in there on long days, rides the big coasters, and takes really good photos.

Just a word in defense of the ticky-tacky Dinoland--According to official accounts of the building of Animal Kingdom it seems the Imagineers intended it to look just this cheap, like the roadside tourist traps and amusement parks that used to line the American highways of the 1930s, '40s, and '50s (like the old snake farms and places where Seminole Indians wrestled alligators for tourists in Florida or simliar attractions along Route 66 in my part of the world and the world of Radiator Springs in "Cars"). So, in its way, the restaurants, rides, and gift shops in Dinoland are as true to their theme as the more substantial looking things in Asia and Africa at AK. Afraid the Imagineers were a little too "inside" on this decision though, because if you haven't experienced the old tourist traps or are at least aware of them, I'm afraid the area just comes off looking cheap and in sharp contrast to Disney quality. BTW, that's what made Disneyland instantly stand out from all other amusement parks in the mid-50s. None of us had ever seen anything so glorious before Disneyland.

Thanks Susan Ellen. Yes, my little trooper does very well at keeping up. I may have mentioned (not sure if it was on this thread), we have circled the World Showcase 3 or 4 times in a day as well as backtracked across Epcot for FPs and touring plans and not once have I heard a complaint about walking. She has also done a few full days at MK (not this trip) from 8 am to 3 am I know, what kind of parent .... but the only complaint I ever get is hunger or heat. She's well trained!

I'm glad you posted the background to the Dinoland theming. On reading your post it makes so much sense, but I had no idea. I assumed Dinoland was another animal section of the Animal Kingdom so I expected a prehistoric version of the natural wonder you find in the rest of the park. It would be nice if they had a "Did you know" in some form. I know I will look at it differently next time!

 

[dixonsontour]

Great update. I went on expedition everest for the first time this trip and once was enough for me.

 

[taylor91]

Great update I've finally caught up on page 10!
Sounds like you had an amazing time at AK, especially with all the times you went on EE lol. And those poor old ladies!
The popcorn bucket is so cute
I'm looking forward to your next instalment
By the way, could I ask how much a taxi was approx to the Prime/Premium outlets...(I can't rememeber which one you went to now ) i'm trying to decide taxi or bus... oneway or return etc

 

[BethEJo]

Just a word in defense of the ticky-tacky Dinoland--According to official accounts of the building of Animal Kingdom it seems the Imagineers intended it to look just this cheap, like the roadside tourist traps and amusement parks that used to line the American highways of the 1930s, '40s, and '50s (like the old snake farms and places where Seminole Indians wrestled alligators for tourists in Florida or simliar attractions along Route 66 in my part of the world and the world of Radiator Springs in "Cars"). So, in its way, the restaurants, rides, and gift shops in Dinoland are as true to their theme as the more substantial looking things in Asia and Africa at AK.

This is why I like it - it's "cute" almost!

Loved your day at AK Lee I'm not sure where I'm getting this from, but I get the feeling that Tove liked EE. Just a tad. Just a hunch I am getting

And i'm intrigued about this ride you will never ride again.....mwah ha ha haaaaaaa!

 

[princessoftea]

I'm really enjoying reading your trip report and it's giving me some good ideas for when we visit in October next year. Thanks

 

[stayhomemom77]

Subbing.

I'm really enjoying your TR...can't wait to hear more.

 

[jockey]

Great day looking forward to more

 

[NikkiMouse]

Hi, my name is Nikki and I am a lurker

I dipped in and out of your pre trip, I cried when I read how you were going to surprise your DD about going to Florida and again when I read about it nearly live

I need to confess to my new addiction - checking back daily,( ok three times daily at least!) to see if there are further updates of your fabulous adventures and excellent photographs, (will flattery help?!) but alas no more updates as yet

Please, please, please can you give us another update

I promise I will read every word and take notes. Your description of POFQ has already grabbed my attention and persuaded me to change from OKW with 42% off and free dining to POFQ and upgrade free QSDP to DDP

Waiting in anticipation

 

[2Tiggies]

Hi, my name is Nikki and I am a lurker

I dipped in and out of your pre trip, I cried when I read how you were going to surprise your DD about going to Florida and again when I read about it nearly live

I need to confess to my new addiction - checking back daily,( ok three times daily at least!) to see if there are further updates of your fabulous adventures and excellent photographs, (will flattery help?!) but alas no more updates as yet

Please, please, please can you give us another update

I promise I will read every word and take notes. Your description of POFQ has already grabbed my attention and persuaded me to change from OKW with 42% off and free dining to POFQ and upgrade free QSDP to DDP

Waiting in anticipation

Hi Nikki

I have not forgotten this thread. Far from it in fact. I am very frustrated because my Photobucket account notified me last week that I have reached my bandwidth limit and have to wait until the 25th of next month (can that be right ?) to load more photos. I didn't think people would read without pictures

Maybe someone can offer an alternative option to Photobucket in the meantime. I could write with the intention of adding pics later, but I suspect if I do that, those pictures will never be loaded.
Thank you for reading and apologies to all. I'm not really sure what to do about it.

 

[NikkiMouse]

Hi Nikki

I have not forgotten this thread. Far from it in fact. I am very frustrated because my Photobucket account notified me last week that I have reached my bandwidth limit and have to wait until the 25th of next month (can that be right ?) to load more photos. I didn't think people would read without pictures

Maybe someone can offer an alternative option to Photobucket in the meantime. I could write with the intention of adding pics later, but I suspect if I do that, those pictures will never be loaded.
Thank you for reading and apologies to all. I'm not really sure what to do about it.

Thanks for the update on the update.

I would love to be able to help re photobucket, but am clueless when it comes to anything like that!

I hear you on the intention of adding pics later but things just get in the way

So I'll just subscribe and wait patiently until the 25th of next month

 

[Pooh's-Honey-Pot]

I have three photobucket accounts linked to 3 email addresses!! Try that!!

 

[2Tiggies]

I have three photobucket accounts linked to 3 email addresses!! Try that!!

Aha!

 

[2Tiggies]

Oh, well – to heck with the Photobucket issue, which I will deal with later tonight. I am going ahead and typing up the next day.

FINALLY!

We didn’t have to get up too early since the waterparks only open at 10 am and it seemed that going at this time of the year didn’t call for a park opening time appearance if you want to do anything. Still, there was no point getting there too late either. We still hadn’t seen the MSEP and chances are that it won’t be on next time we go so absolute latest arrival time for MK was scheduled for 6 pm.

We were up and ready at 8 am. It looked like it was going to be a beautiful day. The sun was shining, there was no breeze and the sky was blue (a novelty where we live). DD took great delight in planning our day.

I noted with interest that almost everything was circled on the map as a must-do. You will see how much of that we really did as you read on

We trotted along to the foodcourt and shared some fruit and pancakes before returning to our room to drop off our mugs and collect the park bag. We merrily skipped down the stairs, me in front and DD behind me, both feeling we hadn’t a care in the world.

As I bounced along onto the pathway at the foot of the stairs I stopped dead in my tracks. A long, black snake lay right there, just in front of the bushes, its body coiled up like a large hosepipe, rearing its head as I approached. DD was only a step or two behind me and hadn’t seen it. I didn’t want her to move too quickly and give it a fright and I heard my voice shouting “Tiggi, Tiggi, Tiggi, Tiggi, SNAKE!!!” All this in under a second - I never knew I could speak so quickly! Of course she didn’t stop, but spun around and hot-footed it back towards the stairs. Her sudden movements gave the snake a fright and it immediately whipped itself around and it vanished into the bushes. I was surprised at how long it was as it had been coiled up, partly hidden by some of the shrubbery. DD was quite indignant at the creature’s very presence and demanded to know, “Who let a snake into Port Orleans?” It was actually quite funny; she had her hands on her hips and everything! Well now that we were awake ...... Sorry folks, I wanted to get to the waterpark so I didn’t go hunting for the darn creature to get a picture for you all.

We arrived at Typhoon Lagoon shortly after 10 am and DD wanted to go straight to the wave pool. We settled ourselves onto a couple of loungers and DD sat happily for about 5 minutes before announcing that we had to get into the water. We stayed there until lunch time and then went to get something to eat from Leaning Palms. Not being very adventurous, we ended up eating the same as last time. Well if it ain’t broke ..... I had the salad, which was just as good as last time, with a fruit pot for dessert and DD ordered a kids pizza.

We went back to the wave pool and DD played in the sand for a while. She wanted to go back into the wave pool but I said we should do some slides first since we really hadn’t done anything that day, so we headed off to Ganplank Falls, which we thoroughly enjoyed.

The only annoying thing here was the ice cold mist spraying onto the queuing area at the top of the stairs. Although it was a nice day, it was just too cold for this time of the year IMO and there were several little ones crying as the line stopped moving with them standing in the spray. Oh and my other challenge: the raft was way too big for me to manage on my own and DD was no help. I tripped twice and when I fell over the second time a really nice guy came up and offered to help me as they had enough people to carry their rafts between them. I was very grateful and offered for his party to go up ahead of us and he could just slip in front and join them when we got to the top. Had it not been for the raft issues on my own we probably would have had another go, but we went to do Mayday Falls which was lots of fun and at least I could manage our equipment on that one.

Once we got out at the bottom DD wanted to head straight back to the wave pool, where we spent the rest of the afternoon, interrupting ourselves to go and get icecream. DD had a cone and I ordered a sundae. Had I known how big these things were, I would have ordered one and shared it. I didn’t even make it to the top of the cup with the Sunday. It was delicious but could easily have served the two of us, possibly with some left over. Have you ever known a child to be put off by the volume of ice cream?

We messed about in the sand for a while and then headed back to POFQ at around 3.45 pm. We wanted to be at MK that night so we could see the parade properly so we had our shower and arrived at MK by 6 pm.

 

[2Tiggies]

There was hoola hooping going on in Main Street – irresistible to DD. She is fairly good at it (not me – I’m hopeless) so we stopped to let her have some fun. One of the CM’s was admiring her skills with the hoop and telling her to do things, like hop 3 times on one leg, shuffle round in a circle and goodness knows what else. She was loving it!

After about half an hour with the hoops we strolled over to Tomorrowland. We were going to watch the parade in Frontierland, as is our habit so it made sense to do what we wanted on this side of the park first. We hovered around the TTA, but a quick discussion and we agreed that with the long line, any unforeseen delays would ruin our plans for the parade. We noticed that the Carousel of Progress had a 5 minute wait time posted. I was convinced DD would hate it and she claimed that she didn’t remember anything about it , but I didn’t say anything when she enthusiastically jumped at the suggestion and we went through the entrance. We sat down and giggled as quietly as we could when a CM gave the usual ‘instructions’ in English (??) virtually impossible to understand. During the second scene, a family decided they weren’t enjoying it or needed to leave for whatever reason and got up and exited. Everything came to a grinding halt and the voice came piercing through the speakers, saying something along the lines of “Everyone to be sitting all the time. Nobody can go before you are finished”. This time everyone roared with laughter and I suddenly felt a wave of relief wash over me – I had felt a little mean while giggling away with DD (and guilty for instigating it) earlier, but somehow felt justified by the fact that I was apparently in good company. The scene we had been busy watching started from the beginning again (to the sound of groans and loud sighs – not us this time). When it was over, we didn’t move. The voice came back telling us we would “watch again”. And the same scene started for the third time, with the sound of chuckling and snickering carrying on all the way through. Okay, this time we also played a part and I made a mental note to try and act my age ..... Then my thoughts drifted to how much I pay for a holiday where I CAN ditch the high heels, make up and, er ..... acting my age and decided that I had earned my right to misbehave, having paid top dollar for the privilege.

We eventually exited the attraction and I asked what DD thought of it. “It’s great! Can we do it again?” So you think you know your kids!

Time to move over to Frontierland, stopping to grab a Buzz Lightyear fast pass on the way. I don’t like sitting for hours waiting for a parade but it is necessary if you want a decent view. I always feel like I could be doing something else instead. So we would use our usual useful time strategy: eat while we wait. We went into Pecos Bills. It was VERY busy so I hit the queue and sent DD to sit in the corner colouring in. We got a chicken salad wrap, kids turkey sandwich, juices and a chocolate cake. Oh and fries were on the tray but I have no idea what meal they came with as I didn’t order them.

EDIT: There is meant to be a picture here, but it just won't allow me to post it. You'll have to do the Figment thing and use your imagination.

We took our tray a little way down, across the road and found the white tape. This is very important. Don’t just stand behind the ropes. Find the tape, sit with your feet ON it and guard it. Can you tell we are used to busy parks? There was still an hour to go so we could take our time with our meal. I made sure that we sat directly opposite a trash can so I could get a clear run to dump the tray and rush back. (Can you tell we’ve done this before?) We were ready to tuck in. No, not quite – where was the chocolate cake? (You'll see it wasnt on the tray in the picture above). I told DD to sit tight and scooted the tray beside her so that it would mark my spot while I ran back to Pecos Bills. I had to get in line behind several others who had returned to collect missing items but it only took a few minutes. I raced back and DD reprimanded me for being so long – she said so many people kept asking if someone was sitting there. I told her that those were very nice people because at least they asked. I noticed two children, brother and sister probably, standing behind us, possibly aged around 10 and 7 respectively. There was still some room to my left and I got DD to move up and little and we invited them to come and sit there. What lovely children. We had the most wonderful time sitting and talking to them. It was their first trip and they were with their grandparents who were standing a row or two back and popped over every now and then to check on them. It was so much fun listening to their first experiences, all the highs of their trip, what they were doing the next day .... We had glo sticks in the park bag which I suddenly remembered so I pulled them out and the kids shared them and entertained each other (and me) with all their creations. It was almost parade time and the tray, still with quite a lot of food on it, was going to be a problem so I nipped the 10 steps across the street to the trashcan and trotted back to find a swarm of people standing asking my somewhat bewildered looking daughter if my spot was taken. They all looked so disappointed to see me when I got back!

We enjoyed MSEP and I was glad we made the effort. I still prefer Specto, but to be fair, I think that will always be sentimentally special to me. We bade farewell to our new friends and fought the crowds back to Tomorrowland to ride Buzz. The queue for the TTA (I still call it the TTA – DD keeps correcting me and telling me it’s the Peoplemover since that is the largest part of the name).

We strolled around Tomorrowland for a short while and agreed we should call it a day and beat the mass exodus at park closing. We stopped at MSB to grab a couple of cinnamon rolls and headed out of the park at around 10 pm.

Somewhere during the course of the day, this had appeared in our room.

Got it right

Our parade strategy still worked for us. You usually meet some nice people while waiting so to us, having a meal while waiting, chatting to people while the time passes, is like having a meal out with friends.
Leaving the park a little before closing saved us the big rush at the end and we walked onto a nearly empty bus and had a comfortable trip back to our resort. A peaceful ending to a really lovely day.


Could have done differently:

I don’t know what got into me this year with the criss crossing the park between parades/fireworks. We hadn’t intended to get a FP for Buzz and the plan was to stick with Frontierland after the parade. It occurred to me when we were eating our supper that this could be a problem, but we survived and it wasn’t as bad as the first night.

Next up: Day 8 – Ohana, Epcot and MK Evening EMH