Celebrating at POFQ/AKL in September 2015! COMPLETE

[Dentam]

Yup, illness is just no fun. At least it only hit me on the last 2 days of my last trip. *must remember not to touch eyes or nose*

The parade pictures are gorgeous! I appreciate parades more now than ever.

Looking forward to hear of your exciting news as well!

Same here - I was just really sick the last two days and went through a bunch of cold medicine from the gift shop downstairs... and used the elevator instead of the stairs!

Thanks! I wish I could find the ones of Maleficent - that one was my favorite! We don't normally watch afternoon parades but I really wanted to see this one based on all the good comments I'd read on here about it. It didn't disappoint!

I'm excited to share it! I'll try to finish this report up this week and then tell you all the plans for my birthday next year!

 

[Gena001]

I don't think I realized it was a new parade. ?!? We took DD6 to watch the water parade, but I can't recall us watching any of the parades on our Sept trip. In fact, I know one time we cut over the docks to pass up the parade headed toward Liberty because we wanted to get to the next ride! It looks fantastic and I'll have to set time aside next trip. Thanks for the photos!

 

[Dentam]

I don't think I realized it was a new parade. ?!? We took DD6 to watch the water parade, but I can't recall us watching any of the parades on our Sept trip. In fact, I know one time we cut over the docks to pass up the parade headed toward Liberty because we wanted to get to the next ride! It looks fantastic and I'll have to set time aside next trip. Thanks for the photos!

Well, our last trip was back in 2010 so even New Fantasyland was new to us!

 

[Gena001]

Well, our last trip was back in 2010 so even New Fantasyland was new to us!

My last one was Dec 2010 as well - guess I get used to them running the parades for so many years and I didn't give it a second thought.

 

[Dentam]

The following morning, we had an early breakfast at Boma! I wasn't feeling stellar, but at this point I was still in the sore throat and not much else phase. We got to Boma at opening time and had the place to ourselves as well as first dibs on all the food!



Yum!!



After eating, we hopped on a bus to the AK and arrived a bit after park opening.



I had planned for us to make a beeline for the safari, but my mom had different plans. She wanted Starbucks so we stopped there and waited for her to make her way through the line.

And then I had my most embarrassing moment of the trip. While waiting for her, I was checking out the Starbucks AK mugs. I picked one up in the box and tilted it to try to see the price tag... when it slipped right out of the box and crashed into a million pieces that flew far and wide across the floor. Perfect. The CM's were extremely nice about it and insisted that I let them clean it up and made sure I was okay. They told me not to worry about it and that I didn't need to pay for it. I felt so bad! Not to mention that being the center of attention is not my favorite thing!

Anyway, after that memorable moment, I went outside to wait so I couldn't break anything else, lol! We finally got on our way, but by the time we got to the safari, there was a 45 minute wait. So we waited - probably our longest line of the trip and it was hot and sticky already! Oh well, we had a great safari!



There were a lot of baby animals out which was awesome!





And then it happened. A very stubborn ostrich stopped in our path and refused to budge. Our guide had to call someone from the research team to come out and lure it off the trail, which took a good ten minutes at least. While we waited, we watched this lion napping on the rocks overlooking the trail. I hoped he would continue napping and not wake up hungry!



Our guide grumbled over and over about how much he hated the ostriches so I assume this wasn't the first time they've had this problem, ha!

After we finished our eventful safari, we headed to the wildlife express train station to go check out Rafiki's Planet Watch.



The best part of this train ride, aside from seeing some of the behind the scenes areas, was the wonderful breeze! Did I mention it was hot and sticky out?

 

[DonnaBeeGood]

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[kastoney]

Welcome back!

Looks like some delicious meals at AKL. Love Sanna and their bread. Smart idea to just make a meal of that. Never tried Boma, but it looks delicious.

Can't believe you dropped the mug. Though its totally something I would do too. Sounds like they handled it well though.

 

[Angeejoe]

For some reason I didn't get a notice of the update this week. I really enjoy the Boma breakfast we had & the Boma dinner. That's cool that you were the 1st one there, pre grubby hands!

I'd say the Safari is by far my favorite thing at AK! You can ride it a million times & every day is different.

 

[Dentam]

Team Clumsy! I'll be the captain, you can be my beautiful assistant!

Clumsy is my middle name sometimes! Glad I'm not alone in that!

Wow - sounds heavenly. Stuck on a beautiful safari due to an ornery ostrich. I hope this happens to me!

Yeah, it wasn't too bad - just HOT! I felt bad for all the people waiting in line to get onto the safari - at least we were out there looking at animals while we waited!

Looks like some delicious meals at AKL. Love Sanna and their bread. Smart idea to just make a meal of that. Never tried Boma, but it looks delicious.

You can't go wrong with a meal at the AKL! Well...except for the quick service restaurant. That one wasn't so good except for the desserts and drink refills.

Can't believe you dropped the mug. Though its totally something I would do too. Sounds like they handled it well though.

I couldn't believe it either! I wrongly assumed that it was secured in the box somehow. Nope!!

For some reason I didn't get a notice of the update this week. I really enjoy the Boma breakfast we had & the Boma dinner. That's cool that you were the 1st one there, pre grubby hands!

That happens to me all the time on here. I have to check my "watched threads" all the time because the updates are so hit and miss.

Every time we have been to Boma for breakfast or dinner it's been amazing! It's one that we never skip!

I'd say the Safari is by far my favorite thing at AK! You can ride it a million times & every day is different.

We love it too! But next time hopefully they will go along with my plan to go there first before the line gets so long! Or I guess we could get a fastpass for it?

 

[Elevationist]

We got to Boma at opening time and had the place to ourselves as well as first dibs on all the food!

I want dib on ALL the food! That sounds awesome!

Look at that delicious Mickey waffle. Gimme!

And then I had my most embarrassing moment of the trip. While waiting for her, I was checking out the Starbucks AK mugs. I picked one up in the box and tilted it to try to see the price tag... when it slipped right out of the box and crashed into a million pieces that flew far and wide across the floor. Perfect. The CM's were extremely nice about it and insisted that I let them clean it up and made sure I was okay. They told me not to worry about it and that I didn't need to pay for it. I felt so bad! Not to mention that being the center of attention is not my favorite thing!

Oh noooo! You poor thing! I'm sure it happens more often than you might think, though!

There were a lot of baby animals out which was awesome!

I love dem babies animals!

And then it happened. A very stubborn ostrich stopped in our path and refused to budge. Our guide had to call someone from the research team to come out and lure it off the trail, which took a good ten minutes at least. While we waited, we watched this lion napping on the rocks overlooking the trail. I hoped he would continue napping and not wake up hungry!

At least you had a neat view while you waited for bird-butt to get moving!

 

[Dentam]

I want dib on ALL the food! That sounds awesome!

It was definitely awesome to have the place mostly to ourselves! It was like a giant buffet of fresh food just for us, ha!

Look at that delicious Mickey waffle. Gimme!

I can't wait to have one (who am I kidding, not just one) in a few weeks at Storytellers Cafe at the Grand Californian!

Oh noooo! You poor thing! I'm sure it happens more often than you might think, though!

I don't know... I tend to excel at this kind of stuff more than the average person.

I love dem babies animals!

I'm a sucker for baby animals! I live very close to our zoo here so I'm able to get my baby animal fix pretty often.

At least you had a neat view while you waited for bird-butt to get moving!

Very true! And luckily Mr. Lion snoozed peacefully the entire time!

 

[Dentam]

Okay you guys, I've been bad with updating again but I'm determined to get this TR done this weekend (I have Fridays and Saturdays off) so here goes! As a side note, I am working on my old laptop using an external mouse since that's the only way it'll actually let me do anything. My photos are still stored on this dinosaur and let me tell you, it is SLOW going here. I didn't wake up with an abundance of patience this morning, but so far I've managed not to throw my laptop across the living room, so there's that! And sorry, @Elevationist - I have no idea why my quotes for your comments got messed up.

All right... we left off with us boarding the train to go see Rafiki's Planet Watch. The train provided a very welcome breeze along the way, as well as some peeks at offstage areas. When we arrived, we poked around the displays a bit.





It's all a bit fuzzy at this point (this is what happens when it takes you six months to write a TR) but we eventually made our way up to the park entrance, got some shots of the tree, and headed out of the park.



Apparently we headed back to the AKL (since those are the next pics showing up in my album) and grabbed a refill on drinks at The Mara before heading out to check out some other resorts!





Next up: The Wilderness Lodge and Villas

 

[fallonkendra]

I just started reading, I imagine it'll take me a bit to catch up but I just wanted to let you know I'm following along! I might have to steal your spreadsheet for our next trip! It's so well planned out!

 

[Dentam]

We made our way over to the MK and then took the monorail to the Contemporary. We looked around a bit, but didn't spend too long as this resort isn't a favorite of ours. The style just doesn't do it for us.



We were actually able to take a bus from here over to the WL - the bus driver was nice and offered to drop us off - pixie dust!

The Wilderness Lodge is one of our favorite resorts. We are toying with the idea of buying DVC points someday and this very well may be the resort we end up getting as our home resort once the new DVC units are built and for sale.

Anyway, we spent a good amount of time wandering around and checking out the main lodge, the grounds, and the Villas.









They had new furniture in the main lobby that I really liked!





The Villas have their own lobby and a nice sitting room with a fireplace and models of the trains Walt loved.







After soaking up the atmosphere of the WL, we headed out to grab a bus to the Poly. There were a few things in the gift shop we wanted to grab that we'd seen earlier in our trip.

At this point, I was also starting to feel pretty tired and run down, and still had a sore throat. I headed back to the AKL to rest a bit before our dinner in the MK that night. I planned to meet my parents outside Be Our Guest in a few hours!

Up Next: The Best Evening of the Trip!

 

[Dentam]

I just started reading, I imagine it'll take me a bit to catch up but I just wanted to let you know I'm following along! I might have to steal your spreadsheet for our next trip! It's so well planned out!

Thanks for joining in! You'll see that my TR is actually a combination of a PTR and TR. I was too lazy to start a fresh TR when I got back, plus I did a bit of live reporting while we were there.

I have a couple of fun trips coming up though and will make new PTR's for those next!

ETA: Oh, and the spreadsheet was inspired by @Elevationist - she is a master planner and even sends people on here her spreadsheets if you want to use them!

 

[Dentam]

After relaxing at the resort a bit, I took a bus over to the MK to meet my parents at Be Our Guest restaurant for dinner! I was really looking forward to finally seeing the inside of this place for myself!

I took a snapshot of some safety guidelines on the bus. I love these and actually have collectable cards with all the safety tips that I got on a trip years ago. They're SO cute!



Then I took a few pics of the fall park decorations along Main Street as I made my way back to New Fantasyland.







Finally, we met up at Be Our Guest, then had to check in and then wait some more for our names to be called. At long last, we were in!





We were seated in the Music Room which was nice!



My dad and I decided to have a beer with our meals. We went with our waiter's recommendation, which ended up being pretty expensive! I think they were about $10!



For our main courses, my mom and I each chose the seafood in a puff pastry and my dad got the pork chop. Sorry for the dark photos!





So... it could be that my sore throat was interfering with my taste buds, but I wasn't overly impressed with the food here given the price of the meals. My dad said that his was just okay also. Luckily the atmosphere was awesome and we were glad we tried dinner here!

To be continued in the next post...

 

[Dentam]

For dessert, we shared a serving of the Grey Stuff - the plating on this left a lot to be desired!



After finishing our meals, we wandered around the rest of the restaurant a bit. We got a kick out of these guys - they were hilarious! Especially when one fell asleep and started snoring!



After stepping out of BoG, we realized that we only had about 10 minutes left in our fastpass window for 7DMT! We walked straight across and right onto the ride!

And... I have only two photos of this, both in the waiting area as we cruised through and onto the ride. Both are super high quality, but I don't want to brag too much so I'll just post one.



We loved this ride! I didn't have my hopes set high at all for this one based on all the reviews I'd read on the boards here, but I was very pleasantly surprised! We would have loved to ride it again, but the standby wait was always over an hour (when it wasn't broken down) so this ended up being our only ride on it.

Just as we stepped off the mine train, the fireworks started!! How's that for awesome timing?! And what an amazing spot to watch them from! We were surrounded by fireworks as they went off behind New Fantasyland and around the Castle!






The fireworks seemed to last longer than we remembered and were probably the most magical part of the trip for me!

There wasn't too much time to dawdle after the last firework fizzled out - we had to book it to Main Street and the train station platform, which would be our viewing spot for Celebrate the Magic and the Main Street Electrical Parade!!

 

[Dentam]

We speed walked (as much as one can in crushing crowds) and made it up to the train station platform to watch Celebrate the Magic! There were even a few spots left along the railing for us. Score!



See the crowds?!

We had never seen this show before and really enjoyed it! It's so cool how they play all of the scenes on the castle walls!



After this show, there was a short break before the MSEP began - the second most magical time of the trip! I love this parade since it brings back so many memories of watching it when I was a kid at Disneyland!









I just love the costumes the performers wear for this parade! So cute and I love the lights added to them!









I just love this parade!

And on that note, I think I will wrap up this TR! The next two days of the trip went downhill for me as I was too sick to really do much but hang out in the hotel and buy out most of the cold and flu medicine they had in the gift shop!

 

[Dentam]

Upcoming Trips!!

The Disney trips continue for me this year! In less than a month, I'm heading to Disneyland with my parents, sister, and my sister's boyfriend for a quick four day trip to celebrate my dad's 60th birthday!

We will be staying at the Grand Californian Hotel! We love this place but haven't been able to afford to stay there recently. However, we decided to go during Dapper Days this year and a bonus was that they were offering GREAT rates at the GCH! (My sister and her boyfriend decided to stay offsite at a cheaper hotel across the street since the rates had gone up by the time bf decided to join us). Here is a photo of the resort courtesy of Disney's website!



I also just bought a cute dress to wear for the Dapper Days Expo at the DL Hotel on Saturday! It was $33.99 on amazon! We will be leaving Saturday evening, so we'll miss the Dapper Day in the parks on Sunday but I still wanted to dress up!



Now I just need to find some shoes to go with it and maybe a red lipstick to wear and I'll be set!

And, for those who like spreadsheets, here is the one I created for this trip!



As you can see, my family really loves the Blue Bayou!

Can't wait!! I will write up a TR when we get back and will do my best to complete this one much more quickly!

​

 

[Dentam]

Upcoming Trips Continued!!

I also have a very exciting trip to Shanghai planned for early July!

This one is work related (at least for five days of it) since I was invited to a conference there. I'm planning to add at least five days onto my trip after the conference and will be splurging to stay two nights at the Shanghai Disneyland Hotel with two days of park tickets!! I was planning to stay at the cheaper Toy Story Hotel, but figured heck, this is the only time in my life I'll be going, so I might as well spend a couple hundred more and stay at the fancy place!









This new park is scheduled to open in mid-June, so I will be there a few short weeks after it opens! I am trying to talk my dad and sister into joining me. My mom would never be able to handle the July heat and humidity there and doesn't really have an interest in going. My sister wants to hold a panda, so her number one reason for visiting China would be to accomplish that. There is a sanctuary there that lets you hold baby pandas for a photo op, but it is hours away from Shanghai so it would require a separate plane ticket to get there. We shall see. I plan to go to Beijing to see the Great Wall and some other major sites after the Shanghai portion of my trip!

I can't wait for this trip!! I will of course post a TR for this one as well with lots of pics! ​