Bazinga! It was LEGEN-wait for it-DARY COMPLETED

I love being able to see the Illuminations fireworks from the Beach Club. I was surprised that I could see some of them from Stormalong Bay one night when I went for a 9:00 swim.

Of course it's also pretty cool to be able to watch the show from the UK/France bridge and then be back in your room by 9:30.

Wow, that was quite a productive morning at AK so far. Gotta love early magic hours, especially at AK. I find that by late morning/early afternoon, that park gets too hot and crowded to stick around, so it is good to get everything done early!

I loved being back in the bed so soon after the fireworks!

I love AK in the morning--it's one EMH I really can't miss!
 
So, one thing Dan and Boo have done before on Daddy and Bood day is the Conservation Station. Last year, he said,

"I got turned around, hopped on a train, and met Jiminy Cricket."

To be honest, I didn't believe him.


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Well, I'll be a Cricket's uncle. He did meet him!

The kids played with the animals. Now living on a farm, this is something they do often, but it really ended up being a relaxing situation for the adults.

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They look happy.

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I love pigs. Just so you all know. They are my favorite animal.

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Sheldon brushing

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Boo chasing

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She seems to have a friend

We left the Conservation station to go back into the parks. It was closer to lunch time by now, and we were looking for a place to eat.

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My favorite tree in the whole world.

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Look at those distribution times for Kali River Rapids! I was surprised that the park really was not very crowded that day.

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Very pretty

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Look at the time it is! 11:53? You have got to be kidding me? We had gotten a lot done that morning!

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Ah, lunch!​

Now, Dan and I love Flame Tree BBQ. The kids not so much. So this time, we figured a good way to handle it. One of the kids stayed with me to order at Flame Tree BBQ. The others went with their dad to Restaurantosaurus. I took the FTBBQ to the other place (it's indoors, and although I love the scenery over there, I like eating in the heat less).

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Obligatory Flame Tree BBQ Food porn.

Having eaten, we went on over towards DinoLand.

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The first time I ever rode this, I was so scared I laughed forever. That's what I do--laugh like a crazy person when I get scared.

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That looks super scary!

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And from there, we headed over to Kali!

Having never gone back to the room this day, we headed on over to our next park for the day.

Coming up. . .Straight to Magic Kingdom.
 
When I went in 2009 and stayed at Pop Century, we were in the 50s and every morning as we walked passed the bowling pin pool, this is what we found...

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3-4 ducks and a lifeguard

..I wonder if they ever had to rescue a duck?
 
When I went in 2009 and stayed at Pop Century, we were in the 50s and every morning as we walked passed the bowling pin pool, this is what we found...

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3-4 ducks and a lifeguard

..I wonder if they ever had to rescue a duck?

:rotfl: The wildlife is certainly comfortable around people and their belongings at Disney!
 


So, we left Animal Kingdom that afternoon and headed straight for. . .

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For those of you, who have never hopped from any other park to the Magic Kingdom, this is a park hop that is interesting, to say the least. From any park, you must first go to the Ticket and Transportation Center. Of course, with Epcot, it's just from monorail to monorail, but from every other park, your bus lets off in a side parking lot that appears to be for tour buses and taxis. It's a bit of a hike to get from there to the monorail. This particular transfer is in my opinion, not the most filled with Disney Magic. That's okay, though, it was not long until we saw this through the window:

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Anywho, we headed over to the Magic Kingdom, because we had early dinner reservations at Liberty Tree Tavern. Honestly, we spent more time in Animal Kingdom than we expected to that day, but it was okay.

The hours leading up to an Extra Magic Hour at Magic Kingdom are less than magical at times. We had longer than normal waits.


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People everywhere!

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Dinner!

Dinner at Liberty Tree was not as great as I remembered it. I think this is a place that we love because we normally do it rather early in the trip, before we realize how great some Disney food can be. For us, this meal was just okay. Not bad. Not great. I think it will be some time before we go back. Of course, if we ever go at Christmas again, then it would have to be on our must do list.

We ran and got fastpasses for:


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We got these for Sweetie and myself to use during EMH. This is where I'm a little frustrated with the new fastpass policy. We pulled 4 fps and Sweetie and I each used two later in the evening. We were able to go back to the room, freshen up, and return. It's a shame that the policy is being enforced, and I don't like the idea of the NextGen deal, because it seems like it'll take away some spontaneity from trips.

From there, we took a ride around the Magic Kingdom:


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I love the steam trains!

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Really?

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Monorail from the train

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They appear to be racing.

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Can't go to Magic Kingdom without going here!

After our trip to the Magic Kingdom, we headed back to the Beach Club, where the mousekeepers had made Doug happy!

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Didn't I tell him no dogs on the bed?

Dan and the youger two were heading to the pool for a bit, while Sweetie and I were resting up to return to the Magic Kingdom.

Coming up. . ."Mama, you dropped what from Dumbo?"
 
I just found this trip report today and I have to say that I love it!! Thanks for posting and I can't wait to read more!!
..

As an aside to this commenter, I just have to chime in here and say that you have the best user-name EVER!!! :worship: LOVE it!!

....

We left the Conservation station to go back into the parks. It was closer to lunch time by now, and we were looking for a place to eat.....

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Ah, lunch!​


...

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Obligatory Flame Tree BBQ Food porn.




How much do I love you.......:love::love::love:


....

We got these for Sweetie and myself to use during EMH. This is where I'm a little frustrated with the new fastpass policy. We pulled 4 fps and Sweetie and I each used two later in the evening. We were able to go back to the room, freshen up, and return. It's a shame that the policy is being enforced, and I don't like the idea of the NextGen deal, because it seems like it'll take away some spontaneity from trips.


So what is the policy at this point?....is it still just enforcing the return time? And is the NextGen thing the new deal where resort guests get to "reserve" their FP ahead of time? Not into that at all. :sad2: Just wondering what we'll be up against in June.

From there, we took a ride around the Magic Kingdom:


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Really?


C'mon Amanda, everyone knows there's no dancing on the trains. :upsidedow




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Can't go to Magic Kingdom without going here!


Dang skippy!


LOVE all the BC and SAB pics....MUST stay there someday.

.
 
I LOVE FLAME TREE BBQ!!! You're making me want to jump up right now and drive the 10 mins over to AK except that it's not open yet..but that is always an option of mine which I love!!!!

No afternoon break?!! Whoa!!!!
 


I just came across your TR and I haven't even started reading yet, but I wanted to comment on your intros first :) I, too, am a SC teacher, and my DH and I LOOOOOOOOVE HIMYM and Big Bang! We actually own every season of HIMYM and watch them over and over. We also quote Barney's lines incessantly, and use aspects of the show in our lives (like when he brought me home a Starbucks and the cup said Swarley on it :rotfl: ) I can't wait to start reading your TR :thumbsup2
 
We thought about an ADR for Liberty Tree for dinner, but when it has O'hana's to compete with there isn't much of a competion.....love the updates.
 
Great report so far. I love that the adults take special time with some of the kids!
 
As an aside to this commenter, I just have to chime in here and say that you have the best user-name EVER!!! :worship: LOVE it!!

I agree!


[/SIZE] How much do I love you.......:love::love::love:

[/COLOR]

You are so welcome. I know how much you love it there.


[/B][/I]So what is the policy at this point?....is it still just enforcing the return time? And is the NextGen thing the new deal where resort guests get to "reserve" their FP ahead of time? Not into that at all. :sad2: Just wondering what we'll be up against in June.

Still enforcing the time. The NextGen is the ADRs for riding rides thing. I don't think they are there yet. I think most of that will go online with the new Fantasyland completion.



[/SIZE]
C'mon Amanda, everyone knows there's no dancing on the trains. :upsidedow


LOL. You know, I was thinking how in The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon tells everyone if they want to have fun, they should turn the day into a train day.




Dang skippy!

Of course!

LOVE all the BC and SAB pics....MUST stay there someday.

.

Could be a great place for a Babnana trip. . .

I LOVE FLAME TREE BBQ!!! You're making me want to jump up right now and drive the 10 mins over to AK except that it's not open yet..but that is always an option of mine which I love!!!!

No afternoon break?!! Whoa!!!!

Yup, no break, but going to FTBBQ and spending all that time in AK was so worth it!

I just came across your TR and I haven't even started reading yet, but I wanted to comment on your intros first :) I, too, am a SC teacher, and my DH and I LOOOOOOOOVE HIMYM and Big Bang! We actually own every season of HIMYM and watch them over and over. We also quote Barney's lines incessantly, and use aspects of the show in our lives (like when he brought me home a Starbucks and the cup said Swarley on it :rotfl: ) I can't wait to start reading your TR :thumbsup2

:welcome: It's nice to have another teacher on board!

We thought about an ADR for Liberty Tree for dinner, but when it has O'hana's to compete with there isn't much of a competion.....love the updates.

We've never done Ohana for dinner because the dessert has bananas. Sweetie is allergic. We may have to one day, though.

Great report so far. I love that the adults take special time with some of the kids!

:welcome:
 
We've never done Ohana for dinner because the dessert has bananas. Sweetie is allergic. We may have to one day, though.

That's one nice thing about disney. They work around your allergies. DH can't eat coconut. No bread for him and they brought out his own dessert. They also had ice cream with sprinkles for the kids as well.
 
That's one nice thing about disney. They work around your allergies. DH can't eat coconut. No bread for him and they brought out his own dessert. They also had ice cream with sprinkles for the kids as well.

I would love to try it someday, and I know they will accommodate, but I don't know how they would accommodate. Sweetie is extremely picky and if they give her vanilla ice cream for dessert, then she is not going to eat it. Dessert is one of the things she chooses a meal by. It's been tough convincing her to keep the ressie at Fultons this summer because we can't find a dessert menu anywhere.
 
After a short rest back at the resort, Sweetie and I headed back over to the Magic Kingdom for Extra Magic Hours. She and I arrived just in time for the fireworks, so that would make it close to 10:00pm when we arrived. I can say, there were a lot of people there, but the crowd quickly dissipated.

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Nice pic of that guy's head

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Is that a hidden Mickey?

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Wishes is one of those shows I can watch over and over and be happy!

We strolled a little around the Magic Kingdom, taking pictures here and there:


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We kept moving, heading towards the Haunted Mansion. Now this is one of the interesting factoids about the new queue: given the way it is set up, sometimes if you go through the interactive queue, you actually jump the line. This was one of those many times. You can usually tell when the line splits up if that is a possibility:

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I love the details in the new queue.

From there, we went onto Sweetie's favorite (not): It's a Small World:

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I love the clock

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Either the happiest or the most annoying

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These fellows are too much like clowns to me.

Notwithstanding the clowns, we had our one and only ride on that, marked it off of our list of must-dos even though we really don't like to, and headed over to Dumbo:

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Flying Dumbos

Although I normally take pictures on Dumbo, we had two problems against us. First, the lighting was not conducive to picture taking.

Second, was the item I dropped from Dumbo:

Sweetie's Cell Phone.

I had it because my phone's battery was dead. And it was in the side pocket of my bag. A few minutes after the ride started I heard something fall. Trying to figure out what it was, I realized. It was her phone. It fell off of the top of Dumbo.

After we landed, I looked for it. They paused the ride so we could look for it. I knew it would be destroyed. When I said what we were looking for, one idiot said, "Just call it." Dude, what will we call it with?

A few minutes goes by and an onlooker produces her phone. It fell outside the ride. The battery had come out, and I was not hopeful. But nothing was cracked on it, so I put the phone back together and fired it up. It worked! It had a couple of scratches, but it was fine.

I don't think I've been so relieved ever before!

So, with that little problem, we headed on to finish our night.
 
I'm just glad you dropped the cell phone on Dumbo and not at the top of Expedition Everest! :rotfl: Good to hear it still worked!

EMH at MK are so much fun! You all got a lot done that day!
 
Oh geez!!! My dad lost his phone on a roller coaster at Kings Island and lucky enough the next day they had it and it was a few scratches on it but that was it! Even the team member at guest relations said that most the phones on that ride are destroyed! It had even rained that night..he was lucky..and learned his lesson too!
 
I was behind a couple of updates. We were away (Atlantis) last week for spring break.

You had a great afternoon at AK. I love the pictures of the kids with the animals. I agree with you about pigs. They are very cool animals.

I also agree with you about the FP time enforcement, too. It is going to totally alter the way we tour. My husband is less enthusiastic about going to Disney with the new changes.

Your night pictures at MK are spectacular!!!

I'm so glad the phone was ok! I can just imagine the wrath I would endure if I was responsible for damaging Nate's phone. *shudders*
 
I'm just glad you dropped the cell phone on Dumbo and not at the top of Expedition Everest! :rotfl: Good to hear it still worked!

EMH at MK are so much fun! You all got a lot done that day!

We were so tired by the end of the evening! I'm still surprised that the phone worked after that. I think if it had been a smartphone, it would have been toast.

Oh geez!!! My dad lost his phone on a roller coaster at Kings Island and lucky enough the next day they had it and it was a few scratches on it but that was it! Even the team member at guest relations said that most the phones on that ride are destroyed! It had even rained that night..he was lucky..and learned his lesson too!

I learned my lesson--I need to secure the phone before we start a ride!

What if that had been my camera.

I was behind a couple of updates. We were away (Atlantis) last week for spring break.

You had a great afternoon at AK. I love the pictures of the kids with the animals. I agree with you about pigs. They are very cool animals.

I also agree with you about the FP time enforcement, too. It is going to totally alter the way we tour. My husband is less enthusiastic about going to Disney with the new changes.

Your night pictures at MK are spectacular!!!

I'm so glad the phone was ok! I can just imagine the wrath I would endure if I was responsible for damaging Nate's phone. *shudders*

I love pigs so much--I think it's because I lived on a pig farm as a child.

The FP enforcement stinks. Literally.

Thanks for the comments about my pictures. I especially like the Dumbo one. This summer, I'm going to do a similar one, but I'm bringing a monopod or tripod to do that one. I'm going to spend one evening only taking pictures.

I think if I had destroyed her phone, I would have had to buy her a new one. That would not have been good at all.
 
Back into the groove, we had Sweetie's phone, and were ready to move on. Next stop:


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Ready for some turns to make your stomach turn!


From there it was on to Tomorrowland, which I love in the dark:


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Our first time on this one

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If you've never been on the Astro Orbiter, it can be quite disorienting up there. One kid got up there and screamed and screamed and screamed!

From there, we went on to Space Mountain. . .


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Look at that stand by. . .gotta love EMH!

Even though it was still early in the evening, we were both feeling tired. We walked a little more, enjoying the night in Magic Kingdom. . .

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So pretty

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My favorite statue

We took the chance to ride some more rides though, even though we were moving more and more slowly:

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10 min at BTMRR, too? How cool is that?​

Our last ride, of course, was Pirates of the Caribbean. By this time, we were heading out of Magic Kingdom, and the crowd levels were really down:

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Almost no one left!

We took the bus back, and were finally on the way to the room. We took a detour back to the room through the Yacht Club, getting off the bus there instead:

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SAB without people. . .or ducks

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I don't even recall what time it was, but suffice it to say, no one was stirring when we got back to the room that morning. We had just a couple of hours of sleep in front of us before our visit to Star Wars Weekends!
 
Sounds like a great night for the two of you- preview of a trip to come (soon)?

I can't do the teacups or Astro Orbitor or nighttime EMH. I'm more of an early kind of girl. I think the latest I have stayed in a park is 10:30. Which is unfortunate, because the parks are so very pretty at night.
 

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