Christine
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Aug 31, 1999
- Messages
- 32,601
Travelers:
Christine (Me), 41, 5th or 6th trip to Disney (lost count on those trips I took as a child)
DH, 43
DD, 13
DDs Friend, 14
DS, 10 (peanut allergy)
My parents - youthful 60s!
Thursday, June 16th
Today, following our "best days" plan, was Animal Kingdom. We had cereal in the room. Also, at the SoG, there is the Express Stop which serves bagels, coffee, tea, donuts, breakfast sandwiches, etc., all at very good prices. So every morning I was able to get my $1.00 tea, some donuts for the kids, and my son had a bagel. We arrived at AK shortly after park opening. We immediately went to the safari ride which had a 30 minute wait already. FastPasses were available for the upcoming hour. Got those and then headed over to Tusker House to purchase our meal vouchers for $11.99. This is a good deal if you are going to eat at any of the counter service places and get a meal. You will also get a soda or water and a snack item. I think we saved about $3 per person using this. For 7 people, it adds up.
We then headed over to Kali River Rapids which had a 10-minute wait. Got on that. I wore my poncho and was glad of it because I was wet. Normally I don't care, but we had a 5:00 PS at Boma with no time to clean up in between. After Kali, we walked over to Dinosaur and that only had a 20 minute wait. I think it was even a shorter wait then posted. We were on and off that and headed back over to the safari ride for our FastPass time. On the way there, I ran into one of my co-workers who sits two cubes down from me in the cubicle farm. I knew she was going to be there but couldn't imagine I would actually bump into her. They had been there for 3 days and she said they were just worn out. Oh, and the heat on this day was incredible. I have been in June before and I guess I lucked out because it only got to be about 90. I wasn't aware of it at the time, but found out later that the heat index was well over 100 degrees.
Our safari ride was good. I saw more animals this time than I ever have despite the heat. By the time we got off the safari, it was almost noon and we figured we better eat. We went to Tusker House. I got the Salmon that everyone here on the DIS raves about. True to its reputation, it was fantastic. As good as some full service restaurants. It had a nice relish on top. The green beans were excellent. I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to green beans (can't stand frozen). I'm fairly sure that these were frozen but they were so good, I think they have fooled me into thinking they were fresh. DH had the rotisserie chicken and the kids all got fried chicken sandwiches. They weren't crazy about these though. My parents also got the salmon and loved it.
After this, we went to see It's Tough To Be A Bug. We FastPassed this and went over to do Dinosaur again. This is my favorite ride. We still had some time to kill and the kids were able to walk on twice on the Primevial Twirl. Is it June here or what? Where are the crowds?
Did the Bug Show and then left to do Tarzan Rocks. In all my visits, I had never done this. I wish I hadn't. The theater was so hot, people were just having a fit and dripping wet. I really didn't think I was going to make it. Then the show started. That was the dumbest show I have ever seen. I could hardly sit through it. I was sitting next to two Cast Members who worked at MGM next to me. They thought it was one of the best shows at Disney. Oh well. After that, it was time to head out to our Boma ressie.
We arrived at the Animal Kingdom Lodge a bit early. We walked around just to look at the resort. It seemed very nice but I didn't feel like I wanted to stay there. Reminded me a lot of the Wilderness Lodge. But it was nice and cool there. I went in the bathroom and freshened up a bit. It was so hot that we were all drenched. It was really quite gross. Finally, it was time for our PS at the long-awaited Boma. We immediately addressed my son's peanut allergy, so the chef told us about each food and all the ingredients. There were many things my son could not have, but there was certainly enough to keep him occupied!!
I really, really enjoyed this buffet. Now, I'm not a big "lamb" person, so there were a few meat items that I just didn't eat. But I was happy enough with the prime rib, which was excellent for a buffet. Lots of wonderful sauces for it too. The flavors of the food here are very different from anything you get anywhere and I had a hard time identifying them. I tried a few of the soups. Everyone agreed that the Mulligatawny and seafood soups were the best.
The watermelon rind salad was excellent. Reminded me a lot of the gingered, marinated cucumbers I used to eat in Japan. Also, the grapefruit, papaya, and avocado salad was really good. My parent skipped some of these because they "didn't look like much and they were getting full" but they were really good so don't make this mistake.
The dessert were very good. Zebra Domes are good as everyone says. Pineapple cheesecakes, banana bread pudding with vanilla sauce, fruit tarts--all excellent. This buffet was so good, I really should have done it a second time.
On the negative side--the two girls in our party (teens
) really did not like this. They tried everything and hated most of it. At $27.00 for each of them, that wasn't what I wanted to hear. My DS 10 with the peanut allergy, really enjoyed all his food. He wanted to try so many things, but couldn't, but he really like it. Go figure.
The other negative side was the serving. It was crowded and people just kept jumping in front of me. It was nice that there were serving pods which contained only about 4 items per pod, so you really didn't have to get in one long line. But, you really should learn to stick to a line within each serving pod. People could just not do that for some reason. Then, when I went back to get my second helping of banana bread pudding, I waited forever. Turns out there was a man up there, on his cell phone, having a conversation in the buffet line while also trying to serve himself. That didn't go well. I really just wanted to kick him in the back of the knees.
Other than that, it was a wonderful day. My next report will include Typhoon Lagoon, Grand Floridian Tea, and Marrakesh.
Link to next day:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=843142
Christine (Me), 41, 5th or 6th trip to Disney (lost count on those trips I took as a child)
DH, 43
DD, 13
DDs Friend, 14
DS, 10 (peanut allergy)
My parents - youthful 60s!
Thursday, June 16th
Today, following our "best days" plan, was Animal Kingdom. We had cereal in the room. Also, at the SoG, there is the Express Stop which serves bagels, coffee, tea, donuts, breakfast sandwiches, etc., all at very good prices. So every morning I was able to get my $1.00 tea, some donuts for the kids, and my son had a bagel. We arrived at AK shortly after park opening. We immediately went to the safari ride which had a 30 minute wait already. FastPasses were available for the upcoming hour. Got those and then headed over to Tusker House to purchase our meal vouchers for $11.99. This is a good deal if you are going to eat at any of the counter service places and get a meal. You will also get a soda or water and a snack item. I think we saved about $3 per person using this. For 7 people, it adds up.
We then headed over to Kali River Rapids which had a 10-minute wait. Got on that. I wore my poncho and was glad of it because I was wet. Normally I don't care, but we had a 5:00 PS at Boma with no time to clean up in between. After Kali, we walked over to Dinosaur and that only had a 20 minute wait. I think it was even a shorter wait then posted. We were on and off that and headed back over to the safari ride for our FastPass time. On the way there, I ran into one of my co-workers who sits two cubes down from me in the cubicle farm. I knew she was going to be there but couldn't imagine I would actually bump into her. They had been there for 3 days and she said they were just worn out. Oh, and the heat on this day was incredible. I have been in June before and I guess I lucked out because it only got to be about 90. I wasn't aware of it at the time, but found out later that the heat index was well over 100 degrees.
Our safari ride was good. I saw more animals this time than I ever have despite the heat. By the time we got off the safari, it was almost noon and we figured we better eat. We went to Tusker House. I got the Salmon that everyone here on the DIS raves about. True to its reputation, it was fantastic. As good as some full service restaurants. It had a nice relish on top. The green beans were excellent. I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to green beans (can't stand frozen). I'm fairly sure that these were frozen but they were so good, I think they have fooled me into thinking they were fresh. DH had the rotisserie chicken and the kids all got fried chicken sandwiches. They weren't crazy about these though. My parents also got the salmon and loved it.
After this, we went to see It's Tough To Be A Bug. We FastPassed this and went over to do Dinosaur again. This is my favorite ride. We still had some time to kill and the kids were able to walk on twice on the Primevial Twirl. Is it June here or what? Where are the crowds?
Did the Bug Show and then left to do Tarzan Rocks. In all my visits, I had never done this. I wish I hadn't. The theater was so hot, people were just having a fit and dripping wet. I really didn't think I was going to make it. Then the show started. That was the dumbest show I have ever seen. I could hardly sit through it. I was sitting next to two Cast Members who worked at MGM next to me. They thought it was one of the best shows at Disney.
Oh well. After that, it was time to head out to our Boma ressie.We arrived at the Animal Kingdom Lodge a bit early. We walked around just to look at the resort. It seemed very nice but I didn't feel like I wanted to stay there. Reminded me a lot of the Wilderness Lodge. But it was nice and cool there. I went in the bathroom and freshened up a bit. It was so hot that we were all drenched. It was really quite gross. Finally, it was time for our PS at the long-awaited Boma. We immediately addressed my son's peanut allergy, so the chef told us about each food and all the ingredients. There were many things my son could not have, but there was certainly enough to keep him occupied!!
I really, really enjoyed this buffet. Now, I'm not a big "lamb" person, so there were a few meat items that I just didn't eat. But I was happy enough with the prime rib, which was excellent for a buffet. Lots of wonderful sauces for it too. The flavors of the food here are very different from anything you get anywhere and I had a hard time identifying them. I tried a few of the soups. Everyone agreed that the Mulligatawny and seafood soups were the best.
The watermelon rind salad was excellent. Reminded me a lot of the gingered, marinated cucumbers I used to eat in Japan. Also, the grapefruit, papaya, and avocado salad was really good. My parent skipped some of these because they "didn't look like much and they were getting full" but they were really good so don't make this mistake.
The dessert were very good. Zebra Domes are good as everyone says. Pineapple cheesecakes, banana bread pudding with vanilla sauce, fruit tarts--all excellent. This buffet was so good, I really should have done it a second time.
On the negative side--the two girls in our party (teens
) really did not like this. They tried everything and hated most of it. At $27.00 for each of them, that wasn't what I wanted to hear. My DS 10 with the peanut allergy, really enjoyed all his food. He wanted to try so many things, but couldn't, but he really like it. Go figure. The other negative side was the serving. It was crowded and people just kept jumping in front of me. It was nice that there were serving pods which contained only about 4 items per pod, so you really didn't have to get in one long line. But, you really should learn to stick to a line within each serving pod. People could just not do that for some reason. Then, when I went back to get my second helping of banana bread pudding, I waited forever. Turns out there was a man up there, on his cell phone, having a conversation in the buffet line while also trying to serve himself. That didn't go well. I really just wanted to kick him in the back of the knees.
Other than that, it was a wonderful day. My next report will include Typhoon Lagoon, Grand Floridian Tea, and Marrakesh.
Link to next day:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=843142
