Feelin' Hot Hot Hot in Walt Disney World (May 2010) - The Final Decision...Hmm

[PolynesianLily]

A Delicious Breakfast

This morning’s breakfast brings us to the Grand Floridian Café located in the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. Instead of going for a walk to the Grand Floridian, my mom and I just sat in the room watching TV while my dad got ready for breakfast. Our reservation was for 7:45am so we left the Polynesian at 7:15am. We’ve eaten at the Grand Floridian Café before for breakfast, but mainly for lunch. We enjoy eating at the Grand Floridian Café for lunch and enjoyed the one breakfast that we had there, but we weren’t really sure if we liked it as much as the Kona Café. Of course…all of that changed in the matter of a breakfast.

We all ordered the Maple Vanilla French Toast, and well let’s just say that it was DELICIOUS! Yes, although the Kona Café is good, it is not as good as the Grand Floridian Café. This led to a change of events in our breakfast plans for the rest of the trip. The atmosphere at the Grand Floridian Café is lovely, as is the Grand Floridian in general. While we were eating breakfast we noticed maids cleaning the outside of the building with feather dusters. Now we like the Polynesian, but as much as we like it we have been noticing that in comparison to the Grand Floridian, it is not as clean as it could be. When you are paying that much money per night you would hope to get a clean resort, and sometimes that is not the case.

The breakfast was nice, and after we finished eating we walked back to our room to get ready for our day at Animal Kingdom.

 

[PolynesianLily]

It’s NAH-TA-ZU!

I spent years trying to figure out what "Nah-Ta-Zu" meant because it was always written on the front of the Animal Kingdom Park maps. It was not until I saw a commercial for Animal Kingdom that I figured out what it actually meant:

"Animal Kingdom is many things, but one thing it's not...It's Nah-Ta-Zu!"

Clever Disney, very clever.

Well I guess I should begin by saying...JAMBO everyone! Welcome to Disney's Animal Kingdom Park. Yes, it is Thursday, sadly, but seeing the tip of Expedition Everest as we were driving into the parking lot certainly made up for that. I tried to avoid the subject of going to go see "It's Tough to Be A Bug" by taking random picture, and it worked. Once we were in the park we decided to head over to Kilimanjaro Safaris to get a fastpass as well as do the stand-by line. I like this ride, but the one thing that frustrates me is when I am trying to take pictures and I cannot because the camera is too slow and/or we hit a bump etc. This ride is fun, but it is certainly not smooth sailing. It's always cool to see animals that you can never and want to never see in your own backyard.

Anyways, the stand-by line said that it was only a 15 minute wait so we decided to do that once we got the fastpasses. The one thing that I really like about Disney is that they are very dedicated to the themeing of ride queues. I’ve been to theme parks where the themeing clearly was absent, but this is not the case at Walt Disney World.

It wasn’t a long wait until we were on our African Safari seeing Bongos, Alligators, Elephants and more. Then we attempted to catch the poachers, now that is a ride of it’s own. I wonder if I’m the only one who finds the poacher part of the ride quite frightening as you are being flung around the safari vehicle.

Once we got off Kilimanjaro Safaris we decided to head over to Rafiki’s Planet Watch (Conservation Station). We haven’t been here for years so we decided that maybe it was time to try it again while we waited for our fastpass return time. We clearly had missed the previous train, so we had to wait about 8 minutes for the next one. It was alright because they had fans going, and the atmosphere was quite nice surrounding the train platform. I like the train because you have to sit sideways which is an odd feeling when I am use to sitting face forward in a vehicle.

What is the one thing I hate the most? Spiders – even saying that word makes me shiver. Of course little did I know that in a mere few feet I would be surrounded, of course behind glass, by those creepy, crawly creatures. I refused to go up to the glass because I didn’t care to see huge spiders. Nooooo thank you.

Anyways, we didn’t spend too much time at Rafiki’s Planet Watch, just because it seemed like there wasn’t much to see, and what there was to see we had already seen it. So we decided to head back to the rest of the park to see if it was time to use our fastpasses. Of course it was time, so we headed back in the line up for Kilimanjaro Safaris and again in a short amount of time we were on our next Safaris!

By the time everything was said and done it was approximately 12:00pm. We decided to head back to look at some shops and find something to eat. Where oh where in Animal Kingdom did we eat? You’ll have to wait to find out!

 

[PolynesianLily]

Is that a T...T-Rex?!

We decided to eat at Pizzafari for lunch - we have wanted to eat here before but were not sure if we would enjoy it. We must have entered the order line-up for food when it was the big lunch rush because that line-up was long. I guess that is what we should have expected for trying to get some lunch right at 12:00pm.

Anyways, I ordered the Cheese Pizza with a side Caesar Salad. My parents ordered the Hot Italian Style Sandwich. I'm not a big fan of pizza but I enjoyed the slice of pizza that I had. I only had one piece because I was going to eat the Caesar Salad which looked like a lot in itself - so my parents split the rest of my pizza. I heard that this restaurant had many different themed rooms to eat in but I had no clue that there were that many. I think if I can remember correctly we ate in the nocturnal room. Regardless - it was delicious!

There is one little thing I have to say. I might get in trouble for saying this but it is just what I noticed in the restaurant. I noticed many families leaving behind their trays of old food and garbage wrappers. In all seriousness when there are many people looking for places to sit and eat - why would you leave all that garbage at your table? The garbage bin was not that far of a walk. I guess some people are use to others cleaning up for them...

Anyways, after we finished in Pizzafari we decided to look around in the other shops located near the entrance of the park. After we had finished in those shops we decided to head over to Dinoland U.S.A. Yes, I would again be facing my worst nightmare...DINOSAUR. Of course during the entire ride I would not be looking and screaming my head off, like usual. I find that ride really jerky with the whole "Right! Left! Right! Left!" movements being called from the ride host.

But soon enough the nightmare was over and then we headed over to Expedition Everest. We didn't ride Expedition Everest only because the line up was a bit long. We had decided that the next time we go to Animal Kingdom (which would be Sunday), we would ride Expedition Everest first. Yay!

We never really spend that much time at Animal Kingdom - only because we tire ourselves out with all the heat. We made our way back to the park exit, and decided at that point that it was time to leave the park. Of course we would not be heading straight back to our hotel - but rather visiting Animal Kingdom Lodge.

 

[PolynesianLily]

So the last time I left you we were leaving Disney's Animal Kingdom Park and heading over the the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Since we did so much walking at the park, we decided just to look in the shop at AKL then leave and possibly go check out Kidani Village.

The AKL shop has a lot of cool African items. My parents bought two hand painted mugs on the last trip and they love them. This trip, they didn't buy any of those mugs even though they had planned on it. I ended up buying a Safari Pooh Bear. Ever since the last trip I had wanted to buy a stuffed pooh. It was just a matter of what kind. I decided to buy the Safari Pooh Bear just because it seemed more unique to me. He is so cuddly and cute .

Anyways, like I said before we just visited AKL to look in the shop and leave. We drove over to Kidani Village to look around but quickly left as there wasn't much to see there. It was very confusing though actually getting TO Kidani Village, but the themeing is nice!

After we finished up at the AKL we decided to head back to our resort for some dinner. For dinner I got french fries and my parents got the Pulled Pork Sandwich. We again didn't do much that night - just sat in the room and watched some Disney Channel and ate some snacks.

Tomorrow = where oh where will we go tomorrow?

 

[PolynesianLily]

So apparently I have not done an update in 10 days which means that one is most overdue. I have some great news though, I can now post more pictures since we upgraded our monthly internet usage limit . This means that I will let the pictures do the talking and I will take the backseat and add a few lines of commentary.

***​

Alright, so the last time I left you it was Friday, May 7 and of course, this day starts off with a breakfast. We were supposed eat at Cape May Cafe for breakfast but we decided to change it to the Grand Floridian Cafe since we loved the breakfast that we had there the day before. This poses a question - could the Grand Floridian Cafe be replacing our other breakfast plans because we love it so much? Well, you will just have to wait and see!

For some reason I never took a picture of my parents food, but I did take a picture of my own of course. My parents both had the Maple Vanilla French Toast and I had the 4 pastry selection. I remember the last time we ate at the Grand Floridian Cafe for breakfast on our 2008 trip they had a "Continental Breakfast" which was 4 pastries, a cup of juice and some tea. Now they only have the pastries and well, they to met left a lot to be desired. Not what I remembered, which seemed to be the theme for the day.

*Back Row: Apple Muffin, Croissant, Blueberry Muffin; *Front Row: Cheese Danish​

Anyways, after we finished breakfast we decided to take a stroll around the Grand Floridian.

View from the Marina

Then we decided to head back to the Polynesian.

Once we got back to our hotel room we got ready and decided that it was time to head out to the parks. Which park did we go to? Well this will give it away...

My favorite sign! My stomach is growling just looking at it...​

We decided for this trip to the Magic Kingdom we would focus more on the Fantasyland and Tomorrowland attractions that we missed the last time we were at the Magic Kingdom.

Tomorrowland from a distance (I have to stop taking pictures while trying to walk​

We decided to walk through the castle to get to Fantasyland

Of course we ended up in Fantasyland but what attraction did we go see first? Well, it involves...a pot of hunnnnyyyyyy =D

 

[heaven2dc]

***​

For some reason I never took a picture of my parents food, but I did take a picture of my own of course. My parents both had the Maple Vanilla French Toast and I had the 4 pastry selection. I remember the last time we ate at the Grand Floridian Cafe for breakfast on our 2008 trip they had a "Continental Breakfast" which was 4 pastries, a cup of juice and some tea. Now they only have the pastries and well, they to met left a lot to be desired. Not what I remembered, which seemed to be the theme for the day.

*Back Row: Apple Muffin, Croissant, Blueberry Muffin; *Front Row: Cheese Danish​

Of course we ended up in Fantasyland but what attraction did we go see first? Well, it involves...a pot of hunnnnyyyyyy =D

I love your selection of breakfast foods Exactly what I would pick out!

I love Winnie the Pooh ride!! I also love Peter Pan - two of my favs in Fantasyland