Disney: Delicious innards on a sandwich of Panic! A Sept. '11 TR [Completed; Feb. 28]

[poisonapple_PRINCESS]

lmao, I had to pay far too much to go to school to learn to be a photographer, and I don't even use much of what I learned anymore. I think I'd rather cut my student loans in half and take less than stellar pictures.

Noooo, I love looking at other people's AMAZING photo's! I just wish I could afford to take photography up as a serious hobby.

I forgot to mention I LOVE your countdown! I wanted it while we were at Disney and then just figured I'd order it off the internet when we got home...well by the time I got around to doing it they didnt have it on their website anymore!

Soo I'll just admire yours I suppose!

 

[teekathepony]

I'm jumping in late, but I wanted to let you know you have another reader eagerly anticipating your next update. Love the photos from Christmas, too!

Well hello, and welcome!! Thanks too

Noooo, I love looking at other people's AMAZING photo's! I just wish I could afford to take photography up as a serious hobby.

I forgot to mention I LOVE your countdown! I wanted it while we were at Disney and then just figured I'd order it off the internet when we got home...well by the time I got around to doing it they didnt have it on their website anymore!

Soo I'll just admire yours I suppose!

You can actually learn a lot of photography tips on youtube and Flickr and places like that. I've seen famous high paid photographers who do all their work with an iPhone! It's more about how you manipulate the light and place your subject(s) than how fancy the camera is.

 

[teekathepony]

Tuesday, September 27.

It's Animal Kingdom Day!

After fighting long and hard with myself this morning, debating whether or not to bring my good camera, I decided that my little point and shoot would do. For one thing, I have 3 previous trips worth of AK photos at home, and for another, I knew we wouldn't get another chance to visit AK so I didn't want to skip any rides (EE, Kali) because I was encumbered with a huge camera. So I might just slip a few old pictures into this post to jazz it up.

The day started just fine. We agreed not to wake up too early because of our previous late night, but we did decide to be at the bus stop for 9am. We did just that and found the lines for almost every park were absolutely crazy. We joined the AK line that snaked around the queue markers and wayyyy past the next bus stop, but we were optimistic knowing that Disney busses never take long!

What a mistake. We waited over an hour and within that time we only saw ONE bus. MK in that same length of time had 9 busses. The heat was unbearable and we took turns leaving the queue to stand in the shade for a few minutes. People were getting agitated and running into Pop to report that we weren't seeing any AK busses. Finally a second bus came and we actually managed to squeeze on this bus. This was the first time I've ever seen a family split up -- they let a whole family on the bus except the mom! I've never ever seen Disney anything split up a party before. We didn't get to the park until 10:40. It was my worst Disney bus experience ever, I'm sorry to say.

Finally!

By the time we got there we were all so hot and annoyed that we headed straight to Kali River Rapids, hoping to get soaked.

Well, Johnny and I certainly got our wish! As always, we were the only two coming off dripping wet. Feeling much better, cooler, and happier, we decided to head to Expedition Everest!

It was actually more of a walk on. Johnny's parents decided not to come on with us, but we had a blast as usual! We hung around Asia for a while waiting for my in-laws who were off exploring the Maharaja Jungle Trek.

When we met up again we decided we were starving and headed to the Yak and Yeti cs restaurant. We managed to snag seating for 6. I had the Honey Chicken and it was delicious.

Actually I could totally go for some of that right now...

We then went to the Safari!

It was only a 30 minute stand-by wait, so we went that route. We had a great safari with a good cm. The giraffes were particularly awesome this trip, coming right up to our vehicle and nearly poking their heads in!

Here's just some pictures from the safari, both this trip and previous, just to spice things up.

After the Safari we split up. Johnny and I went one way, Melissa and Ron went another, and my in-laws another. What way did we go? Find out in the next chapter!

 

[TanzUnited99]

Tuesday 27 September was the day we were leaving the magic behind I remember how hot it was on that day and was sweating by the time we were leaving for the airport.

Not a day where you want to be stuck on a bus for so long

Yay on getting wet on KRRs! Mmm the honey chicken looks yummy!

Also great safari pics - I think your pics turned out just as nice with the small camera

 

[MEK]

I hate when you have to wait that long for a bus. That happened to me once when I was staying at BLT and trying to get to HS. It was so frustrating.

I appreciated your decision on whether to bring the good camera to AK. I absolutely love taking pictures at AK. It's a photographer's dream and I never get tired of finding new details to photograph. But who wants to bring a big camera on kali or EE.

Sounds like you had a great morning! I can never do the Mahalaraja Trek when its that hot. Lovely safari pics!

 

[teekathepony]

Tuesday 27 September was the day we were leaving the magic behind I remember how hot it was on that day and was sweating by the time we were leaving for the airport.

Not a day where you want to be stuck on a bus for so long

Yay on getting wet on KRRs! Mmm the honey chicken looks yummy!

Also great safari pics - I think your pics turned out just as nice with the small camera

It was possibly one of the hottest days of the trip I think. Definitely a rotten day for standing in a line! I was sooo happy to get wet on Kali!

I hate when you have to wait that long for a bus. That happened to me once when I was staying at BLT and trying to get to HS. It was so frustrating.

I appreciated your decision on whether to bring the good camera to AK. I absolutely love taking pictures at AK. It's a photographer's dream and I never get tired of finding new details to photograph. But who wants to bring a big camera on kali or EE.

Sounds like you had a great morning! I can never do the Mahalaraja Trek when its that hot. Lovely safari pics!

The long wait was really frustrating, it was the only time that I've ever waited that long for a bus at Disney!
If I know I have two days at AK, I bring my good camera one day and do the animal trails and things, and the second day I just take my little one and do the rides! Hahaha

 

[teekathepony]

I just want to do a little tiny life update before I get on with the show. A day and a half ago I bought a saltwater aquarium with two clownfish! (Nemo!)

If you're a Nemo fan, you might notice that the stripes on my clowns unlike Nemo and Marlin, do not go all the way around. It's called a "misbar" pattern.

I'm very excited about my new babies (and there are other critters in the tank as well!)

Enough about me, on with Disney!

Chapter 14: The rest of Animal Kingdom

We had just split up to go our separate ways. When they heard that Johnny and I were heading to FOTLK, my in-laws decided to come with us. We had a great seat in the very back of the elephant section and we all LOVED the show, as always. My in-laws who had never seen it couldn't stop raving about how awesome it was. I agree!

After doing FOTLK we decided to take a nice relaxing stroll through the Pangani forest trail.

These baby ducks were cheep cheeping and they were oh so very cute!

Just chillin.

After the trail we headed over to Dinoland.

Where we spotted Pluto!

Hey Pluto!

Of course we went on Dinosaur:

Then we headed to Tusker House for our 5:10 reservation. Unfortunately I have no pictures of our meal, but I do know that I tried a lot of different things and liked most of it. Our service was unfortunately bad. I know it's a buffet and there's very little service anyway, but we had to wait forever to get our first drinks, and she never came back once to see if we were doing ok, clear plates, get refills or anything. I believe we had to ask another server to get her to bring our check. And the place was nearly empty! I will tell you that the automatic tip for large groups left a bad taste in our mouths for that meal. She did not deserve a tip.

But at least the food was good.

When we got out the park was after closing an hour ago so we meandered through the empty park on our way to the exit. We snapped a few pictures with the Tree of Life:

And said goodbye to Animal Kingdom:

Johnny and I and my in-laws decided we were going to get a snack and relax by the pool, Melissa and Ron declined so we said good night and changed into our bathing suits. Cooler in hand we went for a swim.

We headed back to our rooms not too late, knowing we had an early morning ahead.

 

[MEK]

You new fish are so cute. Great picture.

The baby ducks are adorable.

I hate when you get bad service at a buffet. I mean, Really?

 

[TanzUnited99]

Congrats on the new additions - I love that they look like Nemo!

Lol at the pic of the gorilla just chillin!

Oh no on having bad service at TH - there is no need for it especially when it wasn't even busy

Great tree of life pics!

 

[mousescrapper]

Getting caught up...what a headache w the bus to AK I have never heard of waiting that long for a bus to take you to the park

You got some nice shots and hit some a the good stuff...so glad the day wasn't all bust

Relaxing by the pool at the end of a long day sounds wonderful

 

[teekathepony]

You new fish are so cute. Great picture.

The baby ducks are adorable.

I hate when you get bad service at a buffet. I mean, Really?

Thanks
I know right? Like, you don't have to remember my order, bring me my food or put up with me for the most part, the least you could do is bring me something to drink. If I could get THAT myself too, I would!

Congrats on the new additions - I love that they look like Nemo!

Lol at the pic of the gorilla just chillin!

Oh no on having bad service at TH - there is no need for it especially when it wasn't even busy

Great tree of life pics!

Hehe thanks Tanz!
That's what was more frustrating than anything I think, there were maybe 5 other full tables in the whole restaurant.

Getting caught up...what a headache w the bus to AK I have never heard of waiting that long for a bus to take you to the park

You got some nice shots and hit some a the good stuff...so glad the day wasn't all bust

Relaxing by the pool at the end of a long day sounds wonderful

(re: bus wait) Nor have I! I'm always praising the Disney bus system. Just a hitch or glitch or breakdown I'm sure, but I was very surprised that something wasn't done about it sooner.
We had a very good day despite the bad start. Typical Disney, they can make anything better!

 

[IheartDDuck]

Okay, caught up now.

That's absolutely crazy that you had to wait for a bus that long, and at POP no less. POP normally has absolutely the best bus service of all the resorts. That's just not cool. I would have been angry too!

 

[teekathepony]

Okay, caught up now.

That's absolutely crazy that you had to wait for a bus that long, and at POP no less. POP normally has absolutely the best bus service of all the resorts. That's just not cool. I would have been angry too!

At the time it was really awful, and so very hot out that day. Of course now I think back on it and think to myself "One bad bus experience in 4 trips to Pop Century is not that bad really" but that logic was just not coming to me in the Florida heat that day!

 

[teekathepony]

Before my next post, I just wanted to share a few of the Photopass pictures from Animal Kingdom with you. I just realized that I never uploaded them to Facebook, which is where I have been getting the pictures for my updates, so you haven't seen any!

Turns out we didn't get very many really nice ones at AK, but that's ok.

There! All caught up.

Now onto our regularly scheduled program.

 

[teekathepony]

Wednesday, September 28

I lost my notes for this day with a cell phone update, but I think I can remember it ok.

This was the morning I'd been waiting for!

After the relaxing evening previous and the early bed time, I was up with the sun and ready to go. Our group met at the bus stop at around 7:00 and got in the Magic Kingdom line (which was empty!)

I believe we only waited 10 minutes for our bus. It was a most relaxing 10 minute wait though. The sun was only just coming up and it was lovely and cool out, just a perfectly beautiful day. When our bus came we hopped on, I triple checked that I had my camera, batteries, lenses, flash, whatever else I might want and we were on our way!

We got to the Magic Kingdom in no time. There weren't too many people around and we found the early entry line easy enough.

We wandered around and got some pictures and some PP too.

So we walked up an almost empty Main St. Wow. It was an amazing sight. I could have stared at that castle forever. We were nice and early for our 8:05 breakfast, so we took our time taking lots of pictures.

In case anyone is thinking "Wait... I was there at that time and there was an ugly crane behind the castle!"

Yes there was. BEFORE Photoshop that is.

So we slowly headed to Crystal Palace to check in.

We got our buzzer and I wandered away with my camera again.

Everyone relaxing under the palm trees waiting.

Our buzzer went off and I had time for one last shot:

And we were in!

We were back in a quiet corner which was nice. This was our view:

I honestly can't remember much of what we ate (bits of everything I guess!) and I didn't take pictures! Sorryyyy haha

Characters came around:

...

 

[teekathepony]

We relaxed and took our time and got out of the doors just as the MK opening ceremony was finishing up. We walked back down Main St. to go rent a locker for my camera.
Stopped on the way to watch these fine folks:

I locked up my camera and gear and we were ready for a full day at Magic Kingdom!

We walked back into the park trying to decide what to do first. We hopped on the train and decided to decide along the way!

When the train pulled up in Frontierland we thought this was as good a place to start as any, and we hopped off the train.

Onto SPLASH MOUNTAIN!

We thought it would be a good idea to get soaked early in the day. There was no line to speak of and we got right on. We had a blast and got a little wet too, just enough to cool us down. We figured since we were in the area we may as well head to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad! Another non-existant wait time and we were on and off the ride before you could blink.

We wandered back in the general direction of Liberty Square. I stopped in front of The Country Bear Jamboree and considered for a moment. It had literally been 20 years since I'd seen this show and although I knew it hadn't changed, I felt I owed something to Walt Disney to see his show again. I haven't seen it on previous trips because I remember thinking it was boring when I was 5. I told the others that I was going to go in and watch the show, warned them about the corny aspect and they decided to come anyway.

This was about the part of the trip when everyone stopped trusting my judgement.

I think next we went to Pirates of the Caribbean but I can't find a picture anywhere!

After that we definitely went to the Jungle Cruise!

Next was my absolute favourite MK ride -- The Haunted Mansion!

I loved the new queue, wish it were just a little wider so that people who wanted to rush past could, while others (like me) who wanted to take their time and see everything could a little easier. But anyhow, it was neat. I also loved the new hitchhiking ghosts! They made Johnny's head disappear!

From THM we headed back to the hub to decide what to do next. We ended up wandering towards Tomorrowland. Stopped along the way for a PP:

Or two...

First to my close second favourite MK ride:

BUZZ Lightyear to the rescue!

Johnny got the highest score of all six of us, I may just have gotten the lowest.

I believe at this point Johnny's parents went back to the hotel to relax and swim. I wanted to do a marathon day at MK so I stayed, Johnny stayed with me, and Melissa and Ron for whom today was the last day, stayed to milk every last minute.

Next we headed to Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor comedy club. The jokes were of course, old but good. I like that place.

Now my memory gets a little fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure Johnny and I split up from Melissa and Ron. I'm going to end the post here and see if Johnny remembers better.

Next post, I will finish Magic Kingdom!

 

[MEK]

I love your pictures. they are absolutely stunning. It's been years since I have been in the MK before park opening. I think I really need to do that. What a great photo op.

What a great breakfast and such a fun morning!

 

[IheartDDuck]

I love going to MK early in the morning. It really is the best time to get some great pictures. I'm sorry about the crane obstructing your view, but at least you could Photoshop it out.

Love breakfast at the Crystal Palace. The only thing that I don't love about it is how crowded and crazy it seems to be. At least that was my experience the last time.

 

[TanzUnited99]

I love the PP pics at AK especially the magic shot!

Wow at the MK bus line being empty - don't think we ever saw that though that's probably because we were never about that early!

Main Street looks empty - my goal for my next trip is to get into MK early with a breakfast ADR.

I loved our breakfast at Crystal Palace - it sure is the best

Yay on getting 2 of the mountains done and dusted so early in the day and having a great day at MK!

 

[teekathepony]

I love your pictures. they are absolutely stunning. It's been years since I have been in the MK before park opening. I think I really need to do that. What a great photo op.

What a great breakfast and such a fun morning!

Thank you! It was a fantastic photo op, I'll do it again every trip if I can!

I love going to MK early in the morning. It really is the best time to get some great pictures. I'm sorry about the crane obstructing your view, but at least you could Photoshop it out.

Love breakfast at the Crystal Palace. The only thing that I don't love about it is how crowded and crazy it seems to be. At least that was my experience the last time.

That was my first time, I'm so glad I did it!
For some reason (maybe where we were seated?) it didn't seem crowded at all this time! Normally though I agree with you.

I love the PP pics at AK especially the magic shot!

Wow at the MK bus line being empty - don't think we ever saw that though that's probably because we were never about that early!

Main Street looks empty - my goal for my next trip is to get into MK early with a breakfast ADR.

I loved our breakfast at Crystal Palace - it sure is the best

Yay on getting 2 of the mountains done and dusted so early in the day and having a great day at MK!

Early entry is really really worth setting the alarm a little earlier! It was so cool to wander around a near empty Main St.!