Disney Through Another's Eyes (updated 2/1) Day 2/Part 2.

[jordanyosh]

ESPN Club...my home away from home....

The food is pretty good.....

By the by....you take really good pix.

 

[tammy]

Another great installment. I am loving the pictures.

 

[desiab]

I was caught by the title of your trip report and started reading, I just finished!!! I love your sense of humor and You and your hubby look so cute in all of your pics. I can't wait for more

and thank you for reading. I HATE being in pictures, so me allowing all of these pictures to be taken was because I love my sweetie.

SO glad you said that, because I thought the same thing! But thought everyone would think I was "a little off". But good grief, usually only couples that have been married 50 years or so look alike! So make sure you two don't have the same Great Grand Parents!!!

ESPN Club...my home away from home....

The food is pretty good.....

By the by....you take really good pix.

I don't remember the food at ESPN being that good, but it was great.

I just downloaded another manual for this camera so that I can learn better techniques.

Another great installment. I am loving the pictures.

Hey Tammy. Glad you are enjoying the pictures because I was a bit worried that I was putting too many in one installment.

 

[MadiMouse]

SO glad you said that, because I thought the same thing! But thought everyone would think I was "a little off". But good grief, usually only couples that have been married 50 years or so look alike! So make sure you two dont have the same Great Grand Parents!!!

Glen-Glen,

I thought it was just me, too! Wow, so you mean to tell me that in a few years, me and DH will start to look alike??

 

[desiab]

wow....i just wandered into this thread, and i have to tell you--ITS FABULOUS!! loved the pre-trip stores, now the actual trip, and the pictures are fantastic!! i cant wait to read more

and thanks for reading along!

 

[desiab]

The morning of day 2 illustrates why I need to learn to listen to my bodies cues. Plain and simple I pushed too hard and as a result I woke up in a foul mood.

The alarm clock sounded and I jumped out of bed to take my shower. While I was getting dressed I woke Sonny up for his turn in the bathroom. I also suggested that he call LJ and see if they had started getting ready yet. We had plans to get to Animal Kingdom this morning and I didn’t want to meet a line at Expedition Everest.

My intentions were to walk down to the food court and possibly bring my hubby some breakfast to the room. But I realized that Brianne and LJ would still need breakfast, so we would still have to stop later. I nixed that idea and walked into the gift shop. I just did some general browsing and picked up a pair of cute iridescent Mickey earrings.

On the way back to the room I took some more pictures of the grounds and stopped for about 15 minutes down by the pool and read a few chapters from a book I had been reading. All of the things that I did was to give everyone else a chance to get ready without me hovering and rushing them. I was seriously trying to take the vacation as it came and chill out.

That all went out the window when I got to the room and everybody was still asleep! When I, not so gently, nudged Sonny he immediately got out of the bed apologizing for falling back asleep. You know that inner struggle you sometimes go through where you want to scream, but you feel like decorum calls for you to act like a non lunatic? Well that is the place I was at.

It was after rope drop at this point and I saw the chances of us getting to ride Expedition Everest more than once go sailing out of the window.

Pulling out my laptop and going through the pictures we had taken thus far put me in a better frame of mind. When Brianne came through the connecting doors apologizing for turning their alarm clock off, I told her no problem and I really meant it. I simply explained to her that my main concern was that if we got into AK too late they would see some horrible wait times and fast pass return times into the evening.

We arrived in Animal Kingdom at about 10:30 and walked straight back to Expedition Everest.

The wait time was at 60 minutes and the fast pass return time was showing between 2:40 and 3:40. With only one glitch with LJ’s ticket we got our fastpasses and contemplated our next move. There definitely was a consensus that we didn’t want to stand in line for an hour, but with only a short time before our reservation at the Rainforest Café we were limited in our choices.

The four of us are standing there talking and I said something to Brianne that came across to Sonny the wrong way. So 15 minutes got sucked into a vortex as Sonny and I had a heated discussion about our “collective attitudes”. Trust me when I say that it was not pretty! Brianne and LJ walked off to give us some time and space. I didn’t realize until later that LJ was upset because he thought we were arguing about them. NOPE! Mr. & Mrs. SarCastro just had to take a minute to clear the air.

Once we expressed ourselves, cleared the air and made up, everything was fine.

By this point it is time for our reservation at RFC so we headed that way. Plus, with the late start we didn’t have any breakfast.

We browsed the gift shop until they called us for lunch and waited no more than 10 minutes.

I love the over the top theme in the Rainforest Café and we usually go at least once a trip. Brianne and LJ had not been prepped before hand about what to expect. We wanted them to be surprised. They loved the entire experience and the food was good.

The best part of the entire lunch was that we only spent $7 each couple for our meal and tip. How was that possible you ask? Stay tuned.

Up next: A $7 meal and Festival of the Lion King...

 

[MadiMouse]

Okay, I hate cliff hangers!!!!!!!!!!

 

[camelotcats]

Great update!

 

[Glendamax]

On no she Did-Ant! We supposed to sit here and WAIT to find out how they only spent $7 for their food? Huh!

 

[desiab]

Okay, I hate cliff hangers!!!!!!!!!!

Great update!

On no she Did-Ant! We supposed to sit here and WAIT to find out how they only spent $7 for their food? Huh!

 

[desiab]

I know that you are wondering how we possibly ate anywhere in Walt Disney World for $7 and came out full.

First let me give you a list of the items we ordered to show that we got more than enough food.

Sonny and I ordered:
A Caesar salad to share -- $5.49
An Awesome Appetizer platter to share – 16.99
Water for us both -- $0

Brianne and LJ ordered:
House Salad to share -- $5.49
Coconut Shrimp -- $9.99
Bacon Cheeseburger -- $13.97
Ice tea and a coke -- $5.98
Our Subtotal was $57.91

Several trips ago I signed up for RFC’s Safari Club for $15 and I can say that it was money well spent. The club card allows you to receive a free appetizer or a percentage off your bill. Plus, they periodically send you email coupons.

I originally was going to use my AP discount, but the manager came out and told us that we could use the coupon with the SC discount and save more money.

Our Subtotal was $57.91
Minus Safari Club discount $4.10
Minus an email coupon $5.00
Plus tax $3.18
Plus tip $12.00
For a grand total of $63.99

Brianne and I are also members of Mypoints dot com, which is a reward program that gives you points for reading emails. We both had enough points to redeem for a $25 Rainforest Café gift card.

Grand total of $63.99
Minus gift cards of $50.00
Total due $13.99


Therefore, after deducting the $50 rewards, our coupon, and our Safari Club discount, our out of pocket expense totaled $14. Split between the two couples -- we each paid $7. Voila!

Coupon Clipping Momma, say what!

 

[desiab]

After our awesome lunch, our next stop was the Island Mercantile so LJ and Brianne could browse for hats.

The guys being goofy.
​

LJ did buy a hat and he wore it every chance he got our entire week.

LJ and his hat.
​

At some point we lost Brianne. I don’t really know how you lose a person, but we did! After a few
phone calls we found out she was in the restroom. Here are the guys waiting for her to come out.

I think my poor baby was wore out.
​

Our fast passes weren’t ready yet, so we decided to head to Festival of the Lion King.

A few pictures along the way.

 

[desiab]

I love Animal Kingdom's Festival of the Lion King and that love has not diminished with seeing this show every trip.

There is not much I can add to the reviews you have already read, so I will just show the great pictures I was able to take sitting about the third row from the top.

Up next…”Expedition Everest and on Safari.

 

[jordanyosh]

 

[camelotcats]

I'm back! More more more!!!

Me likee LJ's Hat.

 

[Dylan_&_Blake's_mom]

Ok , I just have to ask agter seeing those wonderful FOTLK pics. What kind of camera do you have? Usually cameras, including mine, suck in these dark indoor type situations. Yours are the best I've seen of it.

 

[desiab]

I'm back! More more more!!!

Me likee LJ's Hat.

Thanks for the support guys. Taking a break with this for a minute. Got stuff going on IRL that has to take precedence, but I should be able to start anew after next week.

Ok , I just have to ask agter seeing those wonderful FOTLK pics. What kind of camera do you have? Usually cameras, including mine, suck in these dark indoor type situations. Yours are the best I've seen of it.

It is a Canon Powershot S5IS shot in sports mode. Thanks for the compliments, but I am aspiring to take pictures like Mark Barbieri on this thread. His pictures put mine to shame.

 

[jordanyosh]

I'm glad you're still around....

 

[Jamie77]

This is one of my best friends and he would kill me if he knew I posted his picture. He thinks it would hurt his chances with the “honeys”. Yeah right! QUOTE]


OMG desiab! He looks just like my youngest brother!