"DIS meets galore!" - Oct 15-23, 2016 -Link to New TR added - March 2nd

[skier_pete]

YUM Sanaa is definitely a favorite, and gotta love staying right at the resort - what a nice relaxing start!

the naan bread service is SO SO worth it - we've definitely ordered extra Naan though, the sauces are too good to leave behind. As you mentioned, I like to just do the samosas and the naan. Absolutely fabulous! Plus they have some great drinks (south African wine flight too!).

We are heading down to Florida in a month for a Universal trip, but we are lunching at one of our off days at Sanaa. Since our daughter loved the bread service so much, we plan on ordering double bread! DW and I are talking of just getting the bread and Samosa's, and skipping the actual meal. My DMIL doesn't have a lot of experience with Indian/African food, so she may prefer to order a meal. We'll see....but it really is one of my favorite restaurants at WDW.

 

[franandaj]

I love Sanaa! I agree the bread service is the best. I have got to try this Butter Chicken someday. We get so full on the bread service that we have started splitting an entree or just ordering a couple appetizers.

Nice animal shots as well!

 

[skier_pete]

I love Sanaa! I agree the bread service is the best. I have got to try this Butter Chicken someday. We get so full on the bread service that we have started splitting an entree or just ordering a couple appetizers.

Nice animal shots as well!

Right - that's how we feel next time - just bread and a couple of Apps.

 

[skier_pete]

After lunch, we had plans to go swimming. However, DW wanted to get a jump on some shopping at Disney Springs. Our plan was to meet there later in the afternoon to get a quick bite, and then we were going to head over to Port Orleans Riverside to see the Yeeha Bob show. So DD and I went down to the pool for an hour or so.

It’s probably as good a time as any to give you my opinion on Jambo vs Kidani. In the end, we decided that we prefer Jambo house. We like the easy access to the food court, the much larger and nicer pool, the much larger and nicer store, and we thought the room we were in was nicer as well. (Refurbed.) That said, I would say that Kidani beats Jambo for one particular thing. If you are getting a Savannah view room, all the rooms in Jambo are on the 5th floor, whereas in Kidani they are 2nd – 6th floor. I much prefer a lower room, so in my view – if I were booking a Savannah view in the future I think I would try Kidani again. If I am booking a Standard View room, I think next time I would choose Jambo house. And I would also book a value room anytime I can. In fact, this trip made me think our eventual plan to get enough points eventually and be able to afford the occasional 1-bedroom value room. (The 1-bedroom value rooms at AKV are only about 30-40% more than studios at many of the premium resorts.)

OK – enough DVC talk - at about 4:45 PM we left for Disney Springs. Turned out we botched this pretty badly. First off, we should have left earlier. Secondly we timed the bus extremely bad, and we waited about 25 minutes for a bus (I think our worst wait of the trip), then the bus took FOREVER to get there because of traffic. It was almost an hour from when we left the room to when we got to the Springs. In addition on the bus my wife called and said she wasn’t at the Springs, but instead she had travelled over to Magic Kingdom. I guess she was looking for a very specific Pandora bead, and that was the only location that had it. So it was now just over an hour until we were supposed to be at Riverside to meet our friends, and DW wasn’t anywhere near us.

DD and I got to Disney Springs, and I had wanted to check out the Jock Lindsey’s Hangar Bar. We walked through the main Springs area. I have to say it is very nicely done, but holds no appeal to me to shop at these overpriced non-Disney stores.













We got to Jock Lindsey’s, but by this time, I figured that we would never have time to meet here and get to Riverside. So I took a few snaps and off we went.





Named after Jock’s pet snake!








DD and I hopped a boat right next to Jock’s place over to the main dock, and got lucky that a boat was just leaving for Riverside.





DD and I hopped a boat right next to Jock’s place over to the main dock, and got lucky that a boat was just leaving for Riverside. The boatride is nice and peaceful, and takes about 20 minutes. A quick view of French Quarter – our first 3 Disney trips with DD we stayed here, but haven’t been back since 2008.



We got to Riverside and had dinner in the food court. The food court area was VERY crowded. DD had I think corn dogs, while DW and I both got a couple of specialty burgers that sounded really good, and we actually split them, each taking half.



While there our friends showed up, and after eating we moved over to Yeeha Bob’s. We had a group of 7 people, so we had two tables.

This was our first time ever at a Yeeha Bob show. It’s a piano singalong show that is definitely oriented towards the whole family. He sings for about 2 hours, playing piano and getting the crowd extensively involved. It was a ton of fun – I would say I probably like Jellyroll’s a little bit better because it is more adult oriented, but this was also a blast and we would definitely do it again.







DD reluctantly participating


Around 10 PM he takes an intermission and takes pictures with everyone in your group.


After the show was over, we took a taxi back to Animal Kingdom and headed off to bed. After a quiet day today we had a busy day tomorrow.

 

[rteetz]

That bus situation does not sound fun. Jock's looks really cool but is something I am saving until I am 21.

I can't believe you have never seen Yeehaw Bob before! He is the best. For a moderate to have entertainment like that is great in my opinion.

Love the group picture.

 

[skier_pete]

That bus situation does not sound fun. Jock's looks really cool but is something I am saving until I am 21.

I can't believe you have never seen Yeehaw Bob before! He is the best. For a moderate to have entertainment like that is great in my opinion.

Love the group picture.

Yeah - it's just something we never got around to. It definitely is a great thing. While I would still say I prefer Jellyrolls over this show, this is more family oriented and a great night out. We are going to take my MIL next month while we are on our Universal trip. (We're actually staying very close to Disney though.)

 

[khertz]

Ugh, the bus situation sounds sucky. Over the summer, we had a similar experience where buses to and from Disney Springs seemed to take the longest, so when we went back for the podcast taping day, we drove because we didn't want to deal with that again. Otherwise, we didn't have any problems with Disney transportation that trip.

Jock Lindsey's was pretty cool! Too bad you didn't get a chance to do more than just take a few photos before having to leave.

I've heard lots of good reviews of Yeehaa Bob, but never worked it into our plans. Maybe one night if we have a sitter on one of our trips it'll be something to try. Great group pic!

 

[franandaj]

Someday I hope to see Yeehaw Bob. I'm not sure Fran is (or would be) on board with that so I'd have to see. Too bad you didn't get to check out Disney Springs. We have a plan to do that on our next and "final" trip. We just made a lunch ADR for Art Smiths place so I guess we won't be ch eking out the sausage compay or burger bar.

 

[skier_pete]

Someday I hope to see Yeehaw Bob. I'm not sure Fran is (or would be) on board with that so I'd have to see. Too bad you didn't get to check out Disney Springs. We have a plan to do that on our next and "final" trip. We just made a lunch ADR for Art Smiths place so I guess we won't be ch eking out the sausage compay or burger bar.

I would say he's definitely worth seeing once. It's a fun rollicking show.

We are planning on spending an afternoon at DS in February - though we are dining at T-Rex per our DD request, so probably won't get to sample much food.

 

[skier_pete]

Before starting the report section - I switched my images from Photobucket to Flickr. Please let me know if anyone is having trouble seeing them. I can see them now, which makes writing a little easier.

On to Day 7. Today was our Animal Kingdom day. One of the great things about Animal Kingdom Lodge – super close to DAK. So we were able to get out of the room a little later than usual. In fact, we didn’t get out until about quarter to 9 AM, so we weren’t really shooting to beat rope drop for a change. (Well, we were but the rest of the family was slow.) Our day was sort of planned around meeting some of our friends and hanging out for the day. They had not had such a relaxing day, and weren’t planning on being in the park until closer to noon. So we wanted to do a few things in the morning first.
I couldn’t resist a couple of shots of the new Pandora, which is still visible from the buses.

Entering the park a little behind the crowds.

Entering where we always go first – Africa and the Safari.

The line was already really long for the ride. It said 20 minutes when we got in line, but it was really closer to 30 minutes that we waited in line, as for about 10 minutes it wasn’t even moving. This might’ve been the longest wait of the trip, and of course I am always sort of steaming when we get a late start and a stuck in lines, but I think I was relatively calm about it. (You would have to ask my wife if this is true.)

I do have to say it was some pretty good viewing today! Lots of animals in good spots. My better camera from previous trips also helped. (These are unedited shots from the camera.)

TWO Lions out and looking awake.

I haven’t seen the ostriches in a few years.

Next we decided to do a quick run through the Gorilla forest trail. We hadn’t done this in a few years. (Used to be Pangari Forest Trail, apparently now Gorilla Falls.)

These birds were getting busy making upside-down nests. You can see one above it.

Not a good shot of the underwater hippo.

After that, we decided to see the bird show. DD used to love this show – in her teen disgruntlement, she still liked it.

Check out the little girl on the right of the picture - I think she is suffered from FOB. (For those that have never seen the show - Fear Of Birds.)

I think this one came out about as good as you could hope:

Time for a Mickey Bar Selfie!

To be continued in the next post...

 

[skier_pete]

Finally time to meet up with the gang. We all had a FP+ for expedition everest, but not everyone joined in. Those of us that did decided to flash the peace sign, which was DDs go to when she takes a picture now. She was too terrified to join in though. (The lady next to me was not part of the group, but decided to join in on our "peace" march.

We next headed over to the Maharajah Jungle Trek – which I usually really love.The bats:

and especially the tigers, but the tigers weren’t out today…it was getting into the main heat of the day, and I think even the kitties were tired.

I just love the temple here

We all headed to lunch at Flame Tree BBQ. While this used to be my favorite QS in all of WDW, I think the quality of the food has gone down a bit, so while it’s still pretty good, it’s no longer the best.

Next up we had a FP for Kali River Rapids – only a few of us actually went on. The line looked bad, and the standby WAS over an hour, but we only waited perhaps 15 minutes before we were loaded on for our soaking. Actually, we didn’t get that wet. Boy this ride kinda sucks. I didn't risk my camera, so no pictures!!!


A trip to AK would not complete without a tour of Festival of the Lion King!

Continue on next post...

 

[skier_pete]

Once this was done – we had decided to take a mid-day break and come back for the evenings activities (well, the Safari and the Tree of Life Awakenings). So we headed back to the bus stop and to the resort. DD decided she didn’t want to go back to the park at all (TV is too interesting) and we weren’t that interested in a fight.

We met our friends again in front of Pizzafari. They were looking sort of beat down, but were ready to head out on the Safari.
Dance party in Harambe

We had timed our FP+ for the safari so that we would be going out right at twilight. The timing was really perfect, it was still dusk as we left, but it was full 100% dark by the time the ride was done.

Here’s a shot of the fake twilight. It was a sort of cool effect, but I don’t know if it really fools the animals.

The Giraffes were still hiding in the trees.

And the Lions still haven’t moved from the morning.

We now headed back towards the front of the park. The tree of life show was going on, and we stopped and watched a couple of them. There were a lot of folks standing around watching this. It was really pretty awesome, though pictures don’t particularly do it justice.

We then got a Photopass photographer to get a group shot of those of us that were together today. (Except DD.)

And that was it. It was about 8 PM, but we didn’t really want a late night tonight. Tomorrow was our very last day, and we had a lot going on.

Day 7 Summary:
# rides/attractions: 8 (Safari, Gorilla Trail, Flights of Wonder, EE, Jungle Trek, Kali, FotLK, Safari)
Total through trip: 40
Waits in excess of 20 minutes: 1 (Safari in the AM)

 

[princessemsmom]

I am really enjoying your report! We have not stayed at AKL but am enjoying the pics and seeing it. Maybe someday we will try!

 

[rteetz]

Great photos! Looks like it was a great day at AK. I agree that the photos don't do the tree awakenings justice.

 

[Imagineer5]

Really nice day at AK! Love the gorillas, was sad we were too late by like 5 minutes in December! We really enjoyed FOW as it had been a few years since seeing that, too. Looks like a nice combo of group and family time.

 

[skier_pete]

I am really enjoying your report! We have not stayed at AKL but am enjoying the pics and seeing it. Maybe someday we will try!

Thank you - we were loving it there - even with no animal views from the rooms. It certainly won't be our last trip there.

Great photos! Looks like it was a great day at AK. I agree that the photos don't do the tree awakenings justice.

Thanks a lot, yes, that show was a lot of fun. It was weird the way people were all sort of packed in this narrow area for that show, though. It's clearly not the ideal show to be watched by a lot of people - which is I suppose why they kept it short. The night safari was only so-so as well. They better get Rivers of Light right.

Really nice day at AK! Love the gorillas, was sad we were too late by like 5 minutes in December! We really enjoyed FOW as it had been a few years since seeing that, too. Looks like a nice combo of group and family time.

5 minutes late for the gorillas or for FOW?

 

[Imagineer5]

Thank you - we were loving it there - even with no animal views from the rooms. It certainly won't be our last trip there.



Thanks a lot, yes, that show was a lot of fun. It was weird the way people were all sort of packed in this narrow area for that show, though. It's clearly not the ideal show to be watched by a lot of people - which is I suppose why they kept it short. The night safari was only so-so as well. They better get Rivers of Light right.



5 minutes late for the gorillas or for FOW?

For the Pangani forest exploration trail lol! Sorry! It closed at 4:45 I think and we weren't paying attention to the time.

We did see the FoW show though. I took Dugette's DD with me and my two DD's while she and her DH rode EE.

 

[skier_pete]

I'm pushing to try and get this TR done before our Universal trip in a few weeks. (YAY! or is it BOO!) This is the last full day of our trip, though I am only through to lunch time so far...perhaps it will get done, perhaps not.

Day 8 Last day – Magic Kingdom day. It’s funny, if you remember back to our first MK day, we tried to catch an early bus and get to the park for opening, and we had JUST missed a bus, and waited 25 minutes, and then we were coming through security as the opening ceremony was going on.
Well, a few weeks prior to the trip, they had changed today to an 8 AM park opening, and the park being open until 10 PM or something. So, while we felt the crowds would be high, we really didn’t feel like rushing too much in the morning, Well, we got to the bus stop and there was a bus pulling away. Oh well, I wasn’t going to sweat it, but then immediately another bus came, and we got on and had an empty bus to MK. The bus didn’t stop at Jambo either, but sped off to MK. We got there in under 20 minutes, and as we are walking up to security, they are just starting the welcome show. So, on Tuesday we left the hotel at 8:05 AM and didn’t make 9 AM rope drop, and today we left at 7:25 AM, and made 8 AM rope drop…so it just goes to show that you never know what you are going to get.
Here’s us at 7:32 AM on the bus leaving AKV.

And at rope drop at 7:54

Entering the park

Even at 8 AM there’s always crowds entering MK

But Here’s the crowd in Liberty Square at 8 AM:

We headed right to one of our favorites – even though we’ve ridden it once already – Haunted Mansion!

Dang it, still construction going on at BTMRR

DD wanted to look for Mr. Toad

Next we headed to Pirates – 8:30 AM and crowds are getting a little CRAZY in Adventureland!!

This queue is KILLING me. The CROWDS!!

We had a half-full boat, and enjoyed our 2nd ride on this one – with Captain Jack seeing us off.

To be continued in next post...

 

[skier_pete]

After the ride, we headed over to Splash Mountain, as we didn’t ride it the first day.

See that hat? Say goodbye to that hat – you will only see one more picture of that hat…

We actually had a FP for Splash mountain around this time, but we “bumped” it back to another ride and a later time. (I think it was to Small World.) DD decided she wanted to sit out Splash Mountain – she’s a little afraid of the drop. Since she is old enough to sit by herself, we allowed her to do so. I tried to get a picture of her as our log went by, but I don’t think she was quite in the shot.

Time to be turning around! (OK - this isn't where that line is...)

For those that may not know, this is my #1 ride at all of Disney World. (Radiator Springs Racers beats it at Disneyland.) I love that they took what I think is a fairly boring ride, added a story that almost no-one knows anymore, made a 6 minute long ride with both a dark aspect and a thrill aspect, and did so flawlessly. (Actually, now that I think about it RSR does the same thing, which is probably why I like it so much.)

I always like that you can see the castle from here.

And there it is – the last ever seen image of my Disneyland Diamond celebration hat. In fact, literally less than a second after this picture was taken, it was gone.

I am not sure what I was thinking wearing it. I have a history of losing hats on Disney rides. I lost an Epcot visor in 1982 on Space Mountain. I lost an Alaska hat on Dinosaur in 1997. I lost another hat (I don’t remember the specifics of this one.) here in the 2000s, and then this hat. I was pretty upset with myself over this – I really thought this hat might be irreplaceable. The good news – when I got home, I decided to check on ebay to see if anyone was still selling these hats. It turned out that they must have sent a bunch of these to an overstock house, and in doing so I was able to pick up a brand new one. The first hat cost me probably $25, the second one only $15. (Also point out we are wearing our free "Maid of the Mist" ponchos. I seriously recommend if you ever ride Maid of the Mist, that you keep your ponchos for Disney - they are great rainy day ponchos.

Anyways, a few more shots from the ride…still my favorite ride even though it ate my hat.

So – checking the photo time – this next picture was taken at 9:32 AM – 90 minutes after opening, and three rides into our day. (Admittedly three very long rides.)

Next up DD wanted to do the Tiki Room. I will never say no to the Tiki Room!

It was just about 10:20 AM, and we had a FP for the mine train:

One these days we’ll wait in the standby queue, but NOT today! Here’s the gang as we’re taking off!

Then we were too early for our FP for Small World…so I moved those FP AGAIN, and we did it standby. The crowds really were picking up now, and the wait was listed at 20 minutes, though I have to say it was closer to 15. I had again moved my FP, this time to Space Mountain in the afternoon.

We finally got around to using a 2nd FP, we had lunch at Skipper’s Canteen, so decided we would first ride the Jungle Cruise:

Not the Skipper Canteen menu – though I should point out that this sign inspired a menu item at Skipper’s Canteen.

So not too bad – it was noon-time in MK, and we had hit a total of 7 attractions in 4 hours across 4 lands. That might not seem the greatest, but many of these attractions were longer rides, and we certainly didn’t rush to get there. In actually - we also saw an 8th attraction, as somewhere iin there we watched the Muppets History show again. DW had missed most of it the first time, so we luckily saw the Paul Revere one again. Overall, I have to say it was a pretty successful morning in MK. And now we got to try a brand-new dining experience.

Next time - Skipper's Canteen and Skipper Keith.

 

[Imagineer5]

Very nice!! Seems like a pretty relaxing morning in MK really, with no waits and doing what you wanted. We are such rope-drop people for that reason!! Hope your lunch was great! I look forward to reading about it