ScoJo15
There will be days when I don't know if I can run
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2005
- Messages
- 2,535
TR: Father & Daughter Take On The World Day 2 (9/19 AK & 48)
The Cast:
Me Disney obsessed 34 year old IT Manager from Canton, GA
DD7 7 year old Disney lover with 5 trips to the world already under her belt
Links to the entire report & photos:
POP Century Review
Dining Reviews
Pre-trip Report
Day 1: Wishes & Princesses
Day 2: AK & 48"
Day 3: MGM
Day 4: Incredible MK
Day 5: Epcot & Spectromagic
Day 6: MGM & World Showcase
Day 7: ToT & DTD
Post-trip Report
Photopass
300 Pictures that I took!
Day Two (9-19)
Alarm clock went off at 7am, followed by Mickey Mouse and Stitch telling us to move it!. After a couple of showers and a pop tart, we made it to the bus stop around 8:15am. The bus was already there and pulled out once we sat down (talk about good timing!)
We made it to AK about 8:30 and waited patiently at the front. It wasnt too long before a little girl was chosen as the honorary park opener .we all counted 3, 2, 1 and she then hit a drum to signify the opening of the park! It was now time for the first encounter with the biometric slow the crowd down thingamajig. DD put her card in and went through (under 10 does not require the fingerscans) I put my card in and then went to slide two fingers in only to find a rubber knob in the middle of the scanning device. After glancing at the CM with a Im a dumb tourist deer in headlights look, he prompted me to slide my fingers in with the knob between the two. Oooohhh, I see how it works now Im assuming that the low man on the totem pole job for CMs must be park entrance, I would get so frustrated at all of the people who cant get this process right (of course, some better signage would help!) Oh well, on to the park .
We were greeted in the Oasis area by multiple CMs holding fishtank sized plexiglass cases. The cases had various animals in them which my daughter enjoyed seeing. I will say that the CMs were incredibly friendly and very informative about the animals. I do have to admit that while we were standing there, I had visions of the Safari line lengthening to an unbearable wait time while we were stuck there looking some random huge spider while learning that it actually cant hurt us and what we should do from a conservation standpoint. But this was not dads commando vacation & we had all week to do whatever we wanted, so I enjoyed the time with DD & the CMs (see goal #2 in the pre-trip report).
We finally made our way through the Oasis, to the bridge and our first glimpse of the Tree of Life. The tree was not the only beautiful sight, as I noticed that the ropes had not been dropped yet and no one had beaten us to the Safari! Yahoo! See, patience does pay off sometimes
Minnie, Goofy and crew then pulled up and did a little presentation before the rope drop. Once the rope dropped, all of us followed the character bus back to Africa where we walked on to our first ride of the trip, Kilimanjaro Safari. It was pretty neat to see the animals as you would on a real safari ride thru Africa. Since we were there in the morning, most of the animals were out and it was cool to see the lions up on pride rock. I was disappointed in the fact that the animals were not grouped in together. Every animal was separate from every other animal and that took away from a true safari like experience for me.
After that, we went on the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail and checked out a few animals. The most impressive was definitely the gorillas! They are huge and very active in the environment that is set up for them.
DD then decided it was time to see Its Tough to be a Bug. Seeing the Tree of Life up close while walking through the queue line was awesome. There are so many animals carved in to the tree that you see new ones every time you look at it. Anyway, we walked in with no wait. The movie itself was pretty good. DD got scared when Hopper appeared and all of the smoke filled the room. SPOILER AHEAD: (she didnt like the bees swarming and the spiders coming down from the ceiling during this part I didnt really like it either, I thought it took away from the 3d movie)
From there we went over to Camp Minnie/Mickey and saw the Festival of the Lion King and the Pocahontas and Her Forest Friends shows. Talk about from one extreme to the other! The Lion King show was awesome. I get chills every time I hear the opening to Circle of Life (Naaaahhhhh ..hehnetna ..see .chills!). The Pocahontas show was extremely disappointing. The forest friends ran across a log in the background while Pocahontas ran around singing Colors of the Wind. Thankfully, it only lasted less than 10 minutes. By far the most disappointing thing we saw during the entire trip.
DIS thinking then kicked in and I realized that another Lion King show was going on, so that meant that the character trails should be empty. Sure enough, there was no more than one person waiting in line at each trail so in less than 5 minutes we got Donald Duck, Goofy, Minnie and Mickey Mouses pictures and autographs. Each character took its time with DD and she loved it! Minnie walked her around the trail and Goofy danced with her. They were also very excited to see the homemade autograph book we always get lots of attention when the characters see their pages containing their names and clipart.
We stopped for a bite to eat at Pizzafari next, which I reviewed in the Dining Review. While eating, we realized that Rafiki was signing over in Conservation Station but would be leaving at 1pm. We had never got his autograph before but it was already 12:30. My DIS commando instinct then took over .DD grabbed her frozen lemonade to eat on the way, and we hustled over to the train that would take us to Rafikis Planet Watch. Time fast forwarded and the train went in slow motion. We stepped off the train at 12:55 and began speedwalking through the trail, zooming past people that had to be wondering what the heck we were in such a hurry about the same people who we would later shove our Rafiki autograph in the faces of (ok..just kidding there). We got to the end of the trail and sensing our panic/determination, a CM said hurry inside, Rafiki is signing and he only has 2 minutes left. We darted through the door, pushed Stanley out of the way and wahlah .got Rafikis picture and autograph. Ok, we didnt really push Stanley out of the way but it did make for a better visual! We took time after that to visit the operating table and see all of the stuff that got removed from animals stomachs due to human carelessness. DD learned a lot about recycling and conservation there, it was a pretty cool place to hang out.
We rode the train back and decided to get autographs from Lilo & Stitch and Flik. Upon seeing the autograph book, Lilo left her post and came out to give me a hug!
DD then wanted to see Dinoland USA. I explained to her that unfortunately she wasnt tall enough to ride Primeval Whirl, she didnt want to ride Dinosaur and she didnt want to play in the playground so maybe we should skip Dinoland altogether. We then realized that Tarzan Rocks was located over there and we both wanted to see it, so off we went. On the way to Tarzan, we stopped to look at Primeval and I said Just for kicks, see how far away you are from being 48 inches So DD walked up to the measuring thing and .hit her head!! Yess!! DD is 48!!! Could we leave right now and go ride Rock N Roller Coaster? In our excitement, we ran up the ramp and rode Primeval Whirl. It was not nearly as rough as others have posted, we actually really liked the ride.
We then skipped merrily over to Tarzan Rocks, where I busted into a cabbage patch dance shouting my daughter is 48 inches .we can ride more rides now . Ok, we were happy, but no skipping or dancing actually took place.
Tarzan was a pure cheese-fest! I did like the fact that it was live musicians and they sang the songs from Tarzan (which is one of our favorite movies to watch together), but the host dude was just a little on the Ryan Seacrest side of extreme. And Tarzan well, was Tarzan. Id rather see them keep this show over Pocahontas, though.
It was now parade time, so we crossed a bridge over by the Asia part and grabbed some front row pavement. The parade was one of the better ones Ive seen. I really liked the music they played during it.
After the parade finished, we hit the Maharaja Jungle Trek. Seeing the bats up close like that was pretty incredible. It was interesting that there was no screen or glass separating you from them. The CM there said that they actually cant fit through the openings between the wooden bars. DD spent about 10 minutes with a very nice CM in the bird exhibit, trying to identify every single bird they saw on the bird guide that is provided. I have never seen this much awesome interaction between CMs and guests before and was incredibly pleased.
It was now 5:00 and the park was closing. Even though I had read on the boards that people only spend half a day here, we didnt get to see everything. We were very impressed with the park and really enjoyed our entire time there.
On the way out, DD shouted there is Jane! Sure enough, there was Jane Porter (from Tarzan)! We had made a page for her and she was really impressed! She signed youll be in my heart .Jane Porter and kissed the page for my DD. Very cool. Timon was right around the corner so we snagged an autograph & photo with him as well.
We then boarded the bus to Epcot where we had an 8:00 ADR at Alfredos.
We arrived at Epcot in less than 15min. It was only 5:45 so we had time for a few rides.
We walked on to Spaceship Earth and loved it as always .then came an awesome 64.7 mph ride on Test Track with no lines, no waiting. So with an hour and a half before dinner, we decided to go ride Soarin.
The wait ended up being the longest of our whole trip at 30 minutes, but was worth every bit of it! What an amazing ride! We were row 1 in the second queue (middle) so we were completely surrounded by the screen, with no feet dangling in our view (more on this later). We sat absolutely amazed, smiling, jaws dropped as we flew through the air over California. Everyone clapped after the ride and we wanted to ride again! Unfortunately, we did not have enough time before dinner, so wed leave future rides for our upcoming full day at Epcot.
We ate at Alfredos (review contained in my Dining Review) and caught the last part of Illuminations on our way out.
Our first full day was an incredible experience. No lines + two parks + two meals + ten autographs = four tired feet. We were wiped out and took our tired selves back to the hotel where we crashed pretty quickly. The alarm & wake up calls were once again set for 7am.
Day Three would bring her first trip to MGM, our first viewing of Fantasmic and her first ride on a looping rollercoaster (shes 48!!! Yahoo!!)
The Cast:
Me Disney obsessed 34 year old IT Manager from Canton, GA
DD7 7 year old Disney lover with 5 trips to the world already under her belt
Links to the entire report & photos:
POP Century Review
Dining Reviews
Pre-trip Report
Day 1: Wishes & Princesses
Day 2: AK & 48"
Day 3: MGM
Day 4: Incredible MK
Day 5: Epcot & Spectromagic
Day 6: MGM & World Showcase
Day 7: ToT & DTD
Post-trip Report
Photopass
300 Pictures that I took!
Day Two (9-19)
Alarm clock went off at 7am, followed by Mickey Mouse and Stitch telling us to move it!. After a couple of showers and a pop tart, we made it to the bus stop around 8:15am. The bus was already there and pulled out once we sat down (talk about good timing!)
We made it to AK about 8:30 and waited patiently at the front. It wasnt too long before a little girl was chosen as the honorary park opener .we all counted 3, 2, 1 and she then hit a drum to signify the opening of the park! It was now time for the first encounter with the biometric slow the crowd down thingamajig. DD put her card in and went through (under 10 does not require the fingerscans) I put my card in and then went to slide two fingers in only to find a rubber knob in the middle of the scanning device. After glancing at the CM with a Im a dumb tourist deer in headlights look, he prompted me to slide my fingers in with the knob between the two. Oooohhh, I see how it works now Im assuming that the low man on the totem pole job for CMs must be park entrance, I would get so frustrated at all of the people who cant get this process right (of course, some better signage would help!) Oh well, on to the park .
We were greeted in the Oasis area by multiple CMs holding fishtank sized plexiglass cases. The cases had various animals in them which my daughter enjoyed seeing. I will say that the CMs were incredibly friendly and very informative about the animals. I do have to admit that while we were standing there, I had visions of the Safari line lengthening to an unbearable wait time while we were stuck there looking some random huge spider while learning that it actually cant hurt us and what we should do from a conservation standpoint. But this was not dads commando vacation & we had all week to do whatever we wanted, so I enjoyed the time with DD & the CMs (see goal #2 in the pre-trip report).
We finally made our way through the Oasis, to the bridge and our first glimpse of the Tree of Life. The tree was not the only beautiful sight, as I noticed that the ropes had not been dropped yet and no one had beaten us to the Safari! Yahoo! See, patience does pay off sometimes
Minnie, Goofy and crew then pulled up and did a little presentation before the rope drop. Once the rope dropped, all of us followed the character bus back to Africa where we walked on to our first ride of the trip, Kilimanjaro Safari. It was pretty neat to see the animals as you would on a real safari ride thru Africa. Since we were there in the morning, most of the animals were out and it was cool to see the lions up on pride rock. I was disappointed in the fact that the animals were not grouped in together. Every animal was separate from every other animal and that took away from a true safari like experience for me.
After that, we went on the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail and checked out a few animals. The most impressive was definitely the gorillas! They are huge and very active in the environment that is set up for them.
DD then decided it was time to see Its Tough to be a Bug. Seeing the Tree of Life up close while walking through the queue line was awesome. There are so many animals carved in to the tree that you see new ones every time you look at it. Anyway, we walked in with no wait. The movie itself was pretty good. DD got scared when Hopper appeared and all of the smoke filled the room. SPOILER AHEAD: (she didnt like the bees swarming and the spiders coming down from the ceiling during this part I didnt really like it either, I thought it took away from the 3d movie)
From there we went over to Camp Minnie/Mickey and saw the Festival of the Lion King and the Pocahontas and Her Forest Friends shows. Talk about from one extreme to the other! The Lion King show was awesome. I get chills every time I hear the opening to Circle of Life (Naaaahhhhh ..hehnetna ..see .chills!). The Pocahontas show was extremely disappointing. The forest friends ran across a log in the background while Pocahontas ran around singing Colors of the Wind. Thankfully, it only lasted less than 10 minutes. By far the most disappointing thing we saw during the entire trip.
DIS thinking then kicked in and I realized that another Lion King show was going on, so that meant that the character trails should be empty. Sure enough, there was no more than one person waiting in line at each trail so in less than 5 minutes we got Donald Duck, Goofy, Minnie and Mickey Mouses pictures and autographs. Each character took its time with DD and she loved it! Minnie walked her around the trail and Goofy danced with her. They were also very excited to see the homemade autograph book we always get lots of attention when the characters see their pages containing their names and clipart.
We stopped for a bite to eat at Pizzafari next, which I reviewed in the Dining Review. While eating, we realized that Rafiki was signing over in Conservation Station but would be leaving at 1pm. We had never got his autograph before but it was already 12:30. My DIS commando instinct then took over .DD grabbed her frozen lemonade to eat on the way, and we hustled over to the train that would take us to Rafikis Planet Watch. Time fast forwarded and the train went in slow motion. We stepped off the train at 12:55 and began speedwalking through the trail, zooming past people that had to be wondering what the heck we were in such a hurry about the same people who we would later shove our Rafiki autograph in the faces of (ok..just kidding there). We got to the end of the trail and sensing our panic/determination, a CM said hurry inside, Rafiki is signing and he only has 2 minutes left. We darted through the door, pushed Stanley out of the way and wahlah .got Rafikis picture and autograph. Ok, we didnt really push Stanley out of the way but it did make for a better visual! We took time after that to visit the operating table and see all of the stuff that got removed from animals stomachs due to human carelessness. DD learned a lot about recycling and conservation there, it was a pretty cool place to hang out.
We rode the train back and decided to get autographs from Lilo & Stitch and Flik. Upon seeing the autograph book, Lilo left her post and came out to give me a hug!
DD then wanted to see Dinoland USA. I explained to her that unfortunately she wasnt tall enough to ride Primeval Whirl, she didnt want to ride Dinosaur and she didnt want to play in the playground so maybe we should skip Dinoland altogether. We then realized that Tarzan Rocks was located over there and we both wanted to see it, so off we went. On the way to Tarzan, we stopped to look at Primeval and I said Just for kicks, see how far away you are from being 48 inches So DD walked up to the measuring thing and .hit her head!! Yess!! DD is 48!!! Could we leave right now and go ride Rock N Roller Coaster? In our excitement, we ran up the ramp and rode Primeval Whirl. It was not nearly as rough as others have posted, we actually really liked the ride.
We then skipped merrily over to Tarzan Rocks, where I busted into a cabbage patch dance shouting my daughter is 48 inches .we can ride more rides now . Ok, we were happy, but no skipping or dancing actually took place.
Tarzan was a pure cheese-fest! I did like the fact that it was live musicians and they sang the songs from Tarzan (which is one of our favorite movies to watch together), but the host dude was just a little on the Ryan Seacrest side of extreme. And Tarzan well, was Tarzan. Id rather see them keep this show over Pocahontas, though.
It was now parade time, so we crossed a bridge over by the Asia part and grabbed some front row pavement. The parade was one of the better ones Ive seen. I really liked the music they played during it.
After the parade finished, we hit the Maharaja Jungle Trek. Seeing the bats up close like that was pretty incredible. It was interesting that there was no screen or glass separating you from them. The CM there said that they actually cant fit through the openings between the wooden bars. DD spent about 10 minutes with a very nice CM in the bird exhibit, trying to identify every single bird they saw on the bird guide that is provided. I have never seen this much awesome interaction between CMs and guests before and was incredibly pleased.
It was now 5:00 and the park was closing. Even though I had read on the boards that people only spend half a day here, we didnt get to see everything. We were very impressed with the park and really enjoyed our entire time there.
On the way out, DD shouted there is Jane! Sure enough, there was Jane Porter (from Tarzan)! We had made a page for her and she was really impressed! She signed youll be in my heart .Jane Porter and kissed the page for my DD. Very cool. Timon was right around the corner so we snagged an autograph & photo with him as well.
We then boarded the bus to Epcot where we had an 8:00 ADR at Alfredos.
We arrived at Epcot in less than 15min. It was only 5:45 so we had time for a few rides.
We walked on to Spaceship Earth and loved it as always .then came an awesome 64.7 mph ride on Test Track with no lines, no waiting. So with an hour and a half before dinner, we decided to go ride Soarin.
The wait ended up being the longest of our whole trip at 30 minutes, but was worth every bit of it! What an amazing ride! We were row 1 in the second queue (middle) so we were completely surrounded by the screen, with no feet dangling in our view (more on this later). We sat absolutely amazed, smiling, jaws dropped as we flew through the air over California. Everyone clapped after the ride and we wanted to ride again! Unfortunately, we did not have enough time before dinner, so wed leave future rides for our upcoming full day at Epcot.
We ate at Alfredos (review contained in my Dining Review) and caught the last part of Illuminations on our way out.
Our first full day was an incredible experience. No lines + two parks + two meals + ten autographs = four tired feet. We were wiped out and took our tired selves back to the hotel where we crashed pretty quickly. The alarm & wake up calls were once again set for 7am.
Day Three would bring her first trip to MGM, our first viewing of Fantasmic and her first ride on a looping rollercoaster (shes 48!!! Yahoo!!)
These reports are great! Sounds like you and your daughter had a wonderful trip. Looking forward to the rest of your reports. Something in the way you write, makes your trip come alive for me.Thanks 
Wow!!! I just realized 48 inches is 4 feet and then I realized... I'm only 8 inches taller than your daughter. 
Just noticed you are leaving for The World very soon. Have a great time!! And don't forget the aspirin. 
