PamNC
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 19, 1999
- Messages
- 4,597
Day 7 Animal Kingdom and Extra Magic Hours at the Magic Kingdom
Cast: Me and my DH, Uncle Albert
Resort: Beach Club
Okay folks. This day goes down in history as one of the best Disney days in the history of our vacations.
Breakfast wasnt the reason this was a magical day. It wasnt so great. We decided to go to the Yacht Club Galley again. As I said in an earlier report, Uncle Albert liked it but I thought it was just so-so. I didnt tell him that because he liked it so much I didnt want to spoil it for him. This time the service was the problem. It was HORRIBLE. We sat there for at least 10 minutes before being greeted. And we were finally greeted only because we flagged down a waitress. The excuse was I didnt know this was my table. Not a good experience. Then later there was an excuse that the computer was down. A bad experience. To the point where I wont go there again. Im done. Didnt like it anyway.
So that was that. And that wouldnt ruin my Disney day. We took a quick dip in Stormalong Bay and then took showers to head out to the Animal Kingdom. Goal: to see Lucky the Dinosaur. We arrived around 11:00. It really wasnt that crowded, which surprised me since we were getting there so late. Before heading to Dinoland, we grabbed a fastpass for Kali River Rapids. We dont usually ride it because of the impending soaking, but it was so hot we decided to ride it this time. When we got to Dinoland, we had about 20 minutes before Luckys next appearance. We noticed a 0 wait on Triceratops (sp??) Spin so we took a ..spin on that ride. Ill tell you, it makes you dizzy. My DH says he gets dizzier on it than Mission Space. I personally think hes just trying to convince me to try Mission Space, which I havent done yet. After the dizzying but fun experience, we grabbed a spot at a bench with a little shade to wait for Lucky. It was HOT, once again. DH grabbed one of those frozen orange bars and I got water. We heard boom boom boom it was Lucky! How adorable. I love the sound effects, the loud boom sound as he walks and his growl. We took tons of pictures and watched him sign an autograph for a little boy. The professor who accompanies with him is quite fluent in Spanish. I was impressed with that. The poor man was sweating to the point that he looked like he had been on Kali River Rapids. I personally think Lucky belongs in the Animal Kingdom. Not CA Adventure. Cmon now, its DINOLAND. One thing I will say is Lucky isnt exactly what I expected. He is more like a cartoon character dino than a dino like you would see in the Dinosaur ride. Which is what I expected. I still love the idea of a walking audio-animatronic.
After Lucky, we took a ride on Dinosaur. With a 5-minute wait. We love this ride always have and always will. In fact, we rode it twice. Why not, no line! After Dinosaur it was time for our fastpass @ Kali River Rapids. Which couldnt have come at a better time because we were super hot! And were southerners who love the summer. The wait was about 5 minutes with our trusty pass. You know how 2 people in the raft get totally soaked, and the rest of the people are just .wet? Well, guess who the two lucky rafters were this time? Yep me and Uncle Albert. Soaked to the bone. Clothes dripping. This would have normally got on my nerves, which is why this was only my second time riding it, but we discovered that this is an excellent way to cool off and keep cool. We strolled through the Maharajah Jungle Trek enjoying the bats, tigers and all the beautiful birds. We took our time. We could do that because we were comfortably wet and cool.
We decided to head back to the BC to rest up because we had a big night ahead of us. Extra Magic Hours at the Magic Kingdom. We opted not to take another swim. I told my DH that if he wanted me to make it until the wee hours at the MK, I needed to get out of the sun and take a chill pill. And so we did. First, we grabbed some light snacks at the Marketplace at the Beach Club. I had a yogurt parfait and I cant remember what Uncle Albert had. Nothing heavy, we just had light snacks. We went back to the room and we watched Dallas. Fell asleep during that but woke up when we heard Knots Landing coming on. We watched that and enjoyed every minute. I use to watch it religiously when it was the hot show way back when. We decided we wanted to have dinner at the Yachtsman Steakhouse, not at the Artist Point where we had our PS. We had smelled the delightful smells from the place all week, especially while swimming in Stormalong Bay. We couldnt resist. So we made a phone call and switched it with no problem. Got a 5:30 @ Yachtsman. Hadnt been there in years and we were excited because it use to be a favorite of ours.
Now about our Yachtsman experience. First the positive. The Service! Best service weve had a Disney restaurant. Greeted promptly, full water glasses, food came quickly. The server was excellent!!!!!!!! DH ordered salmon and I opted for the filet medium rare. Slowly we started noticing that the smell of the grill was getting stronger and stronger and it was actually a little smoky in there. Im talking to the point where our eyes were watering, just a little. Hmmmmm. Out came the food, rather quickly I might add. As soon as I saw my steak, I knew it was overcooked. But, I cut into it to be sure and it was medium well, not medium rare. So I sent it back. Within seconds, here came the waiter with my steak. He said Im sorry, we accidentally gave your steak to another guest and her steak to you. No problem I thought things happen. Still, my steak looked charred. Guess what? It was medium rare sure enough on the inside but the outside was charred I mean horribly. My DH took a walk up to the grill; he likes to figure things out. He said the flames were really high. We concluded that they had the grill to hot that evening and that was the problem with my steak, or the outside of my steak, and the smokiness of the place. Dont get me wrong, the inside of my steak was delicious, but I had to eat around the charred meat. I didnt bother sending it back again because I figured with the grill so engulfed in flames; I would get the same thing again. The mashed potatoes werent that good. I got a cappuccino to cap off the meal and it was probably the best one Ive ever had anywhere. Very strong!!! Uncle Albert said his salmon was pretty good but nothing special. So all in all we were a bit disappointed. You would expect more from such an expensive restaurant. We werent doing very well with Yacht Club restaurants today were we?
Oh well who cares. We were off to the MK. So off we drove to the MK parking lot. We arrived around 7:00. The MK was open until 2:00 for us due to the EMH. We had heard so many negatives on the boards about the crowds being awful on EMH evenings at the MK. I had even read to stay away from it completely. Well, let me say that we had the opposite experience. WE LOVED IT!!! But well get to that, its only 7:00 in terms of this report.
We had missed Jungle Cruise before due to a technical problem, so we did that first. About a 10-minute wait. We had the funniest, best CM boat driver weve ever had. We ended up sitting beside some folks who lived just 1 hour away. The driver was asking people where they were from and the first two guests said Amsterdam and Canada. Then he asked the folks sitting next to us and they said Mebane. Of course nobody knows where Mebane is, right? WRONG. Its about 1 1/2 away from us and we know the area well. So we struck up a conversation with the family. Had a blast. After Jungle Cruise, we did POC again. We rode it on a previous MK day, but you cant ride POC too much, right? As we strolled through the shop that youre dumped into after the ride, I noticed a Johnny Depp doll. Really its a Captain Jack Sparrow doll, but to me its a Johnny Depp doll. I love Johnny Depp. My DH knows that and hes comfortable with it. I thought about buying it, but that would be embarrassing. My DH made fun of me, of course.
I left Johnny in the POC shop and we headed for Splash Mountain. Im sure you cant remember this but on a previous trip we were in line for Splash we had used Fastpass. The ride broke down just as we were getting on so they gave us a Switch pass. We didnt use it that day, so we had it with us. We were going to see if we could use it this night, it didnt have a date on it. We got on with no problem. Next we rode Big Thunder. I was only a 10-minute wait. Ill have to say we were quite pleased with the crowds. It wasnt empty but we were pleasantly surprised after hearing all the negatives on these boards. We rode Big Thunder twice love this ride. At one point when the train is up high, I actually saw the finale of Illuminations in the distance. Its such a magical ride in the evening!
We noticed that the Liberty Belle Riverboat was still in operation, so we headed over. Got right on and we were sprinkled with pixie dust. Spectromagic was coming around the bend through Frontierland. So we were able to watch it from the boat. It was quite special. I took lots of pictures, but youll learn on Day 8 that it didnt matter how many pictures I took. It was fun riding the boat at night. As we turned past Big Thunder and the burning cabin we noticed the WDW railroad was coming along. The boat and the train tooted at each other. The boat would do two toots, and the train reciprocated. Then the boat would do three toots, so would the train. Another little sprinkle of pixie dust for us. What a fun riverboat excursion.
Next we headed for Fantasyland to see what we could get into. Then, we thought we had better get our wristbands. So we backtracked and went to the Caribbean plaza where they were giving them out. Then we decided that we had better settle down somewhere to watch the fireworks. Instead of fighting the crowds on Main Street, we opted to watch from Fantasyland. Its a great spot they appear to be right on top of you and all around. We grabbed a coke and waited. We were right near Dumbo. What a location! The fireworks are almost too close for comfort. But, it was magical and wonderful as usual. After the fireworks, it was officially EMH. Yipeeeee. I informed my DH that we only had one more night at Disney and we hadnt ridden the WDW railroad and that was unacceptable. So we headed for Toontown. They werent loading the train said they had to wait for clearance after the fireworks. We waited and waited about 20 minutes. But I was determined. We took the grand circle tour all the way around back to Toontown. We are WDW train buffs, so we really should consider taking the Steam Train Tour on our next trip!
Next we headed for Tomorrowland to ride space mountain. Only a 20 minute wait, but we opted to grab a fastpass and ride the TTA and COP first. TTA is fun at night. Great views of the castle changing colors. Every time I see COP I wonder if it will be my last. This show means a lot to me its got so much of Walt in it. I hope it never goes away. We sat on the front row. Ill have to say that my pal John, the audio-animatronic dad needs a little refurbishing. As does Rover. Maybe I wont sit on the front row again. I enjoyed it nonetheless. Now it was time for Space Mountain. With our trusty fastpass (gotta love em) we waited about 3 minutes tops. Got right in our rockets and blasted off into space. Another nostalgic ride for me, but Id love it if they updated it to be more like the one in Paris. My husband always screams and yells through this ride. Not like a normal person. Just short, choppy yells. Its hilarious and I always laugh through the entire ride. This time we got the people sitting in front of us tickled. I think I was giggling like a teenager. And their teenagers thought I was silly. I dont care I am silly. Silly and happy.
We went back to Fantasyland to catch Pooh. It wasnt working right it stopped at each and every scene. The whole thing was off. Oh well. By this point it was approaching 1:00 a.m. and we typically go to bed with the chickens back home so we decided we couldnt hang any longer. So we took a nice, slow, leisurely stroll down Main Street. One of the Disney photographers took our picture in front of the beautiful lit up castle. I HATE that final stroll down Main Street. We knew we werent coming back to the MK the next day, which was our last day. I kept turning around and looking at the castle, all the while getting choked up. As we got to the end, before we walked under the train station, we took one last gaze. My DH always says, Well be back real soon. And, the great thing about it .hes always right. Its sad nonetheless.
We hopped on the monorail, then the tram and then got back in our car. On the way out of the almost empty parking lot, we saw a herd of deer grazing right near the parking lot. Its amazing what you see at this hour. We also saw a truck driving in a zigzag pattern through the parking lot. It was actually sweeping and picking up trash. It sucks right up into the truck.
We headed back to the Beach Club. This was undoubtedly one of the best MK visits weve had in our 11 years of visiting WDW. What a truly magical evening. We slept like little babies, until Hurricane Dennis woke us up around 1:30. Nothing horrible, just heavy winds and rain. Oh, and thunder and lightning of course. It wasnt hard to go back to sleep as we were exhausted from all the magic. Stay tuned for our last day Day 8.
Cast: Me and my DH, Uncle Albert
Resort: Beach Club
Okay folks. This day goes down in history as one of the best Disney days in the history of our vacations.
Breakfast wasnt the reason this was a magical day. It wasnt so great. We decided to go to the Yacht Club Galley again. As I said in an earlier report, Uncle Albert liked it but I thought it was just so-so. I didnt tell him that because he liked it so much I didnt want to spoil it for him. This time the service was the problem. It was HORRIBLE. We sat there for at least 10 minutes before being greeted. And we were finally greeted only because we flagged down a waitress. The excuse was I didnt know this was my table. Not a good experience. Then later there was an excuse that the computer was down. A bad experience. To the point where I wont go there again. Im done. Didnt like it anyway.
So that was that. And that wouldnt ruin my Disney day. We took a quick dip in Stormalong Bay and then took showers to head out to the Animal Kingdom. Goal: to see Lucky the Dinosaur. We arrived around 11:00. It really wasnt that crowded, which surprised me since we were getting there so late. Before heading to Dinoland, we grabbed a fastpass for Kali River Rapids. We dont usually ride it because of the impending soaking, but it was so hot we decided to ride it this time. When we got to Dinoland, we had about 20 minutes before Luckys next appearance. We noticed a 0 wait on Triceratops (sp??) Spin so we took a ..spin on that ride. Ill tell you, it makes you dizzy. My DH says he gets dizzier on it than Mission Space. I personally think hes just trying to convince me to try Mission Space, which I havent done yet. After the dizzying but fun experience, we grabbed a spot at a bench with a little shade to wait for Lucky. It was HOT, once again. DH grabbed one of those frozen orange bars and I got water. We heard boom boom boom it was Lucky! How adorable. I love the sound effects, the loud boom sound as he walks and his growl. We took tons of pictures and watched him sign an autograph for a little boy. The professor who accompanies with him is quite fluent in Spanish. I was impressed with that. The poor man was sweating to the point that he looked like he had been on Kali River Rapids. I personally think Lucky belongs in the Animal Kingdom. Not CA Adventure. Cmon now, its DINOLAND. One thing I will say is Lucky isnt exactly what I expected. He is more like a cartoon character dino than a dino like you would see in the Dinosaur ride. Which is what I expected. I still love the idea of a walking audio-animatronic.
After Lucky, we took a ride on Dinosaur. With a 5-minute wait. We love this ride always have and always will. In fact, we rode it twice. Why not, no line! After Dinosaur it was time for our fastpass @ Kali River Rapids. Which couldnt have come at a better time because we were super hot! And were southerners who love the summer. The wait was about 5 minutes with our trusty pass. You know how 2 people in the raft get totally soaked, and the rest of the people are just .wet? Well, guess who the two lucky rafters were this time? Yep me and Uncle Albert. Soaked to the bone. Clothes dripping. This would have normally got on my nerves, which is why this was only my second time riding it, but we discovered that this is an excellent way to cool off and keep cool. We strolled through the Maharajah Jungle Trek enjoying the bats, tigers and all the beautiful birds. We took our time. We could do that because we were comfortably wet and cool.
We decided to head back to the BC to rest up because we had a big night ahead of us. Extra Magic Hours at the Magic Kingdom. We opted not to take another swim. I told my DH that if he wanted me to make it until the wee hours at the MK, I needed to get out of the sun and take a chill pill. And so we did. First, we grabbed some light snacks at the Marketplace at the Beach Club. I had a yogurt parfait and I cant remember what Uncle Albert had. Nothing heavy, we just had light snacks. We went back to the room and we watched Dallas. Fell asleep during that but woke up when we heard Knots Landing coming on. We watched that and enjoyed every minute. I use to watch it religiously when it was the hot show way back when. We decided we wanted to have dinner at the Yachtsman Steakhouse, not at the Artist Point where we had our PS. We had smelled the delightful smells from the place all week, especially while swimming in Stormalong Bay. We couldnt resist. So we made a phone call and switched it with no problem. Got a 5:30 @ Yachtsman. Hadnt been there in years and we were excited because it use to be a favorite of ours.
Now about our Yachtsman experience. First the positive. The Service! Best service weve had a Disney restaurant. Greeted promptly, full water glasses, food came quickly. The server was excellent!!!!!!!! DH ordered salmon and I opted for the filet medium rare. Slowly we started noticing that the smell of the grill was getting stronger and stronger and it was actually a little smoky in there. Im talking to the point where our eyes were watering, just a little. Hmmmmm. Out came the food, rather quickly I might add. As soon as I saw my steak, I knew it was overcooked. But, I cut into it to be sure and it was medium well, not medium rare. So I sent it back. Within seconds, here came the waiter with my steak. He said Im sorry, we accidentally gave your steak to another guest and her steak to you. No problem I thought things happen. Still, my steak looked charred. Guess what? It was medium rare sure enough on the inside but the outside was charred I mean horribly. My DH took a walk up to the grill; he likes to figure things out. He said the flames were really high. We concluded that they had the grill to hot that evening and that was the problem with my steak, or the outside of my steak, and the smokiness of the place. Dont get me wrong, the inside of my steak was delicious, but I had to eat around the charred meat. I didnt bother sending it back again because I figured with the grill so engulfed in flames; I would get the same thing again. The mashed potatoes werent that good. I got a cappuccino to cap off the meal and it was probably the best one Ive ever had anywhere. Very strong!!! Uncle Albert said his salmon was pretty good but nothing special. So all in all we were a bit disappointed. You would expect more from such an expensive restaurant. We werent doing very well with Yacht Club restaurants today were we?
Oh well who cares. We were off to the MK. So off we drove to the MK parking lot. We arrived around 7:00. The MK was open until 2:00 for us due to the EMH. We had heard so many negatives on the boards about the crowds being awful on EMH evenings at the MK. I had even read to stay away from it completely. Well, let me say that we had the opposite experience. WE LOVED IT!!! But well get to that, its only 7:00 in terms of this report.
We had missed Jungle Cruise before due to a technical problem, so we did that first. About a 10-minute wait. We had the funniest, best CM boat driver weve ever had. We ended up sitting beside some folks who lived just 1 hour away. The driver was asking people where they were from and the first two guests said Amsterdam and Canada. Then he asked the folks sitting next to us and they said Mebane. Of course nobody knows where Mebane is, right? WRONG. Its about 1 1/2 away from us and we know the area well. So we struck up a conversation with the family. Had a blast. After Jungle Cruise, we did POC again. We rode it on a previous MK day, but you cant ride POC too much, right? As we strolled through the shop that youre dumped into after the ride, I noticed a Johnny Depp doll. Really its a Captain Jack Sparrow doll, but to me its a Johnny Depp doll. I love Johnny Depp. My DH knows that and hes comfortable with it. I thought about buying it, but that would be embarrassing. My DH made fun of me, of course.
I left Johnny in the POC shop and we headed for Splash Mountain. Im sure you cant remember this but on a previous trip we were in line for Splash we had used Fastpass. The ride broke down just as we were getting on so they gave us a Switch pass. We didnt use it that day, so we had it with us. We were going to see if we could use it this night, it didnt have a date on it. We got on with no problem. Next we rode Big Thunder. I was only a 10-minute wait. Ill have to say we were quite pleased with the crowds. It wasnt empty but we were pleasantly surprised after hearing all the negatives on these boards. We rode Big Thunder twice love this ride. At one point when the train is up high, I actually saw the finale of Illuminations in the distance. Its such a magical ride in the evening!
We noticed that the Liberty Belle Riverboat was still in operation, so we headed over. Got right on and we were sprinkled with pixie dust. Spectromagic was coming around the bend through Frontierland. So we were able to watch it from the boat. It was quite special. I took lots of pictures, but youll learn on Day 8 that it didnt matter how many pictures I took. It was fun riding the boat at night. As we turned past Big Thunder and the burning cabin we noticed the WDW railroad was coming along. The boat and the train tooted at each other. The boat would do two toots, and the train reciprocated. Then the boat would do three toots, so would the train. Another little sprinkle of pixie dust for us. What a fun riverboat excursion.
Next we headed for Fantasyland to see what we could get into. Then, we thought we had better get our wristbands. So we backtracked and went to the Caribbean plaza where they were giving them out. Then we decided that we had better settle down somewhere to watch the fireworks. Instead of fighting the crowds on Main Street, we opted to watch from Fantasyland. Its a great spot they appear to be right on top of you and all around. We grabbed a coke and waited. We were right near Dumbo. What a location! The fireworks are almost too close for comfort. But, it was magical and wonderful as usual. After the fireworks, it was officially EMH. Yipeeeee. I informed my DH that we only had one more night at Disney and we hadnt ridden the WDW railroad and that was unacceptable. So we headed for Toontown. They werent loading the train said they had to wait for clearance after the fireworks. We waited and waited about 20 minutes. But I was determined. We took the grand circle tour all the way around back to Toontown. We are WDW train buffs, so we really should consider taking the Steam Train Tour on our next trip!
Next we headed for Tomorrowland to ride space mountain. Only a 20 minute wait, but we opted to grab a fastpass and ride the TTA and COP first. TTA is fun at night. Great views of the castle changing colors. Every time I see COP I wonder if it will be my last. This show means a lot to me its got so much of Walt in it. I hope it never goes away. We sat on the front row. Ill have to say that my pal John, the audio-animatronic dad needs a little refurbishing. As does Rover. Maybe I wont sit on the front row again. I enjoyed it nonetheless. Now it was time for Space Mountain. With our trusty fastpass (gotta love em) we waited about 3 minutes tops. Got right in our rockets and blasted off into space. Another nostalgic ride for me, but Id love it if they updated it to be more like the one in Paris. My husband always screams and yells through this ride. Not like a normal person. Just short, choppy yells. Its hilarious and I always laugh through the entire ride. This time we got the people sitting in front of us tickled. I think I was giggling like a teenager. And their teenagers thought I was silly. I dont care I am silly. Silly and happy.
We went back to Fantasyland to catch Pooh. It wasnt working right it stopped at each and every scene. The whole thing was off. Oh well. By this point it was approaching 1:00 a.m. and we typically go to bed with the chickens back home so we decided we couldnt hang any longer. So we took a nice, slow, leisurely stroll down Main Street. One of the Disney photographers took our picture in front of the beautiful lit up castle. I HATE that final stroll down Main Street. We knew we werent coming back to the MK the next day, which was our last day. I kept turning around and looking at the castle, all the while getting choked up. As we got to the end, before we walked under the train station, we took one last gaze. My DH always says, Well be back real soon. And, the great thing about it .hes always right. Its sad nonetheless.
We hopped on the monorail, then the tram and then got back in our car. On the way out of the almost empty parking lot, we saw a herd of deer grazing right near the parking lot. Its amazing what you see at this hour. We also saw a truck driving in a zigzag pattern through the parking lot. It was actually sweeping and picking up trash. It sucks right up into the truck.
We headed back to the Beach Club. This was undoubtedly one of the best MK visits weve had in our 11 years of visiting WDW. What a truly magical evening. We slept like little babies, until Hurricane Dennis woke us up around 1:30. Nothing horrible, just heavy winds and rain. Oh, and thunder and lightning of course. It wasnt hard to go back to sleep as we were exhausted from all the magic. Stay tuned for our last day Day 8.
Pam and Uncle Albert, I love reading your reports. You all have such a good time together.
.
