From the Sea to the World - Completed!

[englishrose47]

Sorry you didn't enjoy BOG !! I have to agree that it is dark. I enjoyed my meal the seafood dish was amazing and the Lemon cupcake was wonderful. I had an amazing meet and greet with The Beast , who was vey attentive to me !! I am hoping to get aFP folunh there in May !!

 

[Poolrat]

Rob the CM is a shining star. What started out as him just clearing his cart allowed him to make your evening. So glad he stepped up to that and really that he has the power and authority to do that. That is one thing Disney does right- give the front line the ability to comp items and do special things without having to ask for permission.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

I went for a burger – with cheese and bacon:

it was a delicious burger and that is exactly what I wanted. I think I have mentioned often enough that burgers (good ones, not McDonalds) are not common here, so I love getting restaurant burgers when in the USA.

A woman after my own heart!

And his friend had a French dip sandwich:

I was quite fascinated by this as I had read about it, but never had a sandwich like this. I found the process of dipping the sandwich into the gravy a bit strange. But the sandwich did look very tasty, so I could imagine trying it at some point in the future…

A French dip is usually a solid choice. Roast beef sandwiches can get a little dry and chewy sometimes, so the juice helps with that. Although I think it's funny that the menu always says "served with au jus" when "au jus" is translated as "with juice". So your sandwich is served "with with juice".

After lunch we headed to a place for which our friend was kind of the “entry ticket”. It is a place called Property Control. It is a shop where Disney sells all kind of “leftovers” to their CM, or people who come there with a CM. There was a section that is only for CMs, but a large part was open to us as well. They do sell heavily discounted merchandise, t-shirts etc. But they also sell other things that are no longer in use.

That sounds really cool!

It is really rather interesting to see the backside of the magic. You start to appreciate what a large operation this whole thing is! We drove around that area a bit and our friend pointed out various places. I really loved that tour as it was something I had never seen before and would have never ventured into on my own!

What a neat experience! I'm very jealous now.

The next question someone else was quicker. And then the third question came and it was something rather difficult. I think it was who was the voice of Belle in Beauty and the Beast. No one knew and Michael hesitated at first as well, but then tried an answer and it was right! So he got the very nice hat:

I know that my opinion is different from the popular one, but I did not like the restaurant at all.

I'm sorry this turned out to be a bad experience for you. It's the first negative review I've read, but I can see where this experience bothered you.

This put our lovely CM friend into activity and he said how sorry he was for us having a bad dinner and that we should wait for a bit. He went back into his cart, got us a second churro and gave us a plastic bag with two Mickey soft pretzels, a pot with cheese for dipping and one with chocolate sauce for dipping and gave it all to us saying that this could be our dinner with compliments from him.

Three cheers for Rob the CM!

 

[mickeymouse108]

love your report I have never been on a cruise and want to go so seeing yours will help me decide if its for me

 

[GoofyFan1515]

Wow what a busy day. You got so much done. The tours sounded like a lot of fun.

Sorry you had a bad experience at Be Our Guest! I’ve heard so many wonderful things about the place. Hopefully your experience was just a glitch. I still want to give it a try sometime.

Great that CM Rob bestowed some and made your evening special again!

And what a special ending to your day with the giraffes being outside your balcony.

 

[Flossbolna]

Sweet Rob, how wonderful that he turned a negative experience into something positive. Sucky BOG waiter, that just was not nice.

I visited the world this year in Jan with my family and again in early March, just myself. Neither time was I able to get a reservation to BOG. Now I am glad as I have read several bad reviews about the place. I hope Disney becomes aware and changes things.

Looking forward to more of your adventures.

Thanks much for sharing.
Kate

p.s. What does flossbolna stand for?

I think the opinions on BOG are rather split. Most people seem to love it, but those who don't seem to take a rather strong dislike to it.

As to my screen name: Floss is the little village I grew up in here in Bavaria and Bolna was the name of our family dog.

Oh, I remember your BoG experience very well. I think while it was still fresh you need a lot more words to tell me about it! I'm so sorry he tried so very hard to spoil your evening!

The meal at Olivia's looks very nice though, as does OKW. What a pity it was raining so much when we were there. I remember I felt wet and cold.

Looking forward to th pictures from the Trek!

I think you are getting OKW and Port Orleans mixed up. We were in OKW on the October 2011 trip when we had breakfast there before heading to Typhoon Lagoon. So it must have been a warm day. I remember sitting for ages at the bus stop waiting for a stupid bus... I know we were there before as well, when we took the boat to Downtown Disney. If I had written a better TR about that trip, I could link you to the appropriate update!

 

[Flossbolna]

Oh wow, I'd love to see Property Control! That sounds awesome, but I'm sure it's kind of pot-luck on what you might find available on any given day.

Ouch, I'm sorry about your experience at Be Our Guest. I'm surprised that they don't use tablecloths, that sounds especially odd if they're trying to be "fine dining"! And to lecture the patrons is ridiculous...he could have told you that it was their policy but been more apologetic about it.

Yay for Rob! Cast members like that make all of the difference!

I had high hopes that I would find something really cool to buy at Property Control, but just as you say, it is quite some pot-luck, and I wasn't lucky that day!

Rob was really great, you could tell that he loved making magic for us!

Sorry you didn't enjoy BOG !! I have to agree that it is dark. I enjoyed my meal the seafood dish was amazing and the Lemon cupcake was wonderful. I had an amazing meet and greet with The Beast , who was vey attentive to me !! I am hoping to get aFP folunh there in May !!

I am not sure whether I would want the Beast to be attentive to me!!! Did you get him to do a pole dance with you????

 

[Flossbolna]

Rob the CM is a shining star. What started out as him just clearing his cart allowed him to make your evening. So glad he stepped up to that and really that he has the power and authority to do that. That is one thing Disney does right- give the front line the ability to comp items and do special things without having to ask for permission.

Little things really make a huge difference. Something similar once happened to me at Starbucks when I spilled some of my coffee and one of the people working there saw it and not only came to wipe up the mess, but also brought me a new drink! This little incident made me a regular customer at that Starbucks.

A French dip is usually a solid choice. Roast beef sandwiches can get a little dry and chewy sometimes, so the juice helps with that. Although I think it's funny that the menu always says "served with au jus" when "au jus" is translated as "with juice". So your sandwich is served "with with juice".

I'm sorry this turned out to be a bad experience for you. It's the first negative review I've read, but I can see where this experience bothered you.

Three cheers for Rob the CM!

Thanks for the explanation about the French dip! That makes a lot of sense! And you are totally right about the with au jus thing!! In colloquial German we sometimes have the opposite thing if you want to order something without an ingredient, for example I would get a kebab sandwich without onions and I would order it "with without onions".

I think our opinion of BoG would not have been that great anyway for a lot of reasons. But the good thing is: we won't have to bother with trying to get an ADR there in the future!!

Rob is the best example about how little things can make a difference!

 

[Flossbolna]

love your report I have never been on a cruise and want to go so seeing yours will help me decide if its for me

If you have any questions about cruising, just ask ahead! I might not be the biggest expert, but I did a lot of research about Disney!!

 

[Flossbolna]

Wow what a busy day. You got so much done. The tours sounded like a lot of fun.

Sorry you had a bad experience at Be Our Guest! I’ve heard so many wonderful things about the place. Hopefully your experience was just a glitch. I still want to give it a try sometime.

Great that CM Rob bestowed some and made your evening special again!

And what a special ending to your day with the giraffes being outside your balcony.

Besides the bread issue, I know that BoG will never be high on my list. Partly the atmosphere, but I also don't find the menu appealing. But then there are people who don't like the food at Boma and I love it. So it is totally fair that Disney offers different things for different people. Hopefully you will enjoy it much more than me!

It does not really show in the trip report, but we did spend quite a bit of time hanging out on the balcony watching the animals. So much even that I would love to get a savanna view again the next time. I do think it is worth the additional points (if I have them, currently I am very point poor!!)

 

[Flossbolna]

Day 16:

If you know a lot about WDW you already suspect what this chapter is going to be about. But let’s start with the start of the day.

Today we had originally planned to head out a little earlier, but only were halfway successful. Our park for the day was going to be Animal Kingdom, where we had a appointment at 1:15pm.

The big thing of the day was that we were going on the Wild Africa Trek. This is a guided tour through the area of the Kilimanjaro Safari ride. It has a neat backstory that you are on your own special safari with two guides. First you “hike” through the countryside and then you get to go around the savanna on your own special safari truck. Another friend of Michael and her boyfriend joined us for this adventure. The bonus for us by having them along was that they are both CMs. And there was a huge discount offered for CMs: They could get the tour for 50% off. The normal price then was about 200$ per person. So when we discussed going on it, we thought we would spend 100$ each. Still a steep price, but we both love AK and the experience had lots of great reviews. However, when Michael’s friend called to book, it turned out that for taking a later tour in the hot season, the price was only 150$ - so in the end we paied 75$ each. We felt extremely lucky to have been able to safe that much money!!

So, despite our best intentions of getting there early, we did not get there as early as intended…

But I did get to take lots of pictures of AK!

Heading towards Asia as we wanted to do the Maharaja Jungle Trek:

No good tiger pictures, these are the only pictures I have from the Maharaja’s jungle:

And then we were on our way towards Africa…

….to finally get to our destination:

This is the check-in area for the Wild Africa Trek and it is right next to the entrance of Kilimanjaro Safaris. You are asked to check in a little early for your tour and then you are outfitted. Our group had two guides, Josh and Lauren, and they were wonderful! The check-in process is very streamlined as there are all kind of steps they take you through. I am propably getting them mixed up now… You get a safety harness, which includes a vest. You have to leave all your stuff in a locker, but you can keep your camera. You get a water bottle (which you can keep afterwards) that you can clip to your vest. And you are weighed to make sure that the safety systems that you will be attached to can handle you. The weight limit is 300 lbs, so I am sure that it would be very obvious that some people have no chance to be close to it, but I guess it is easier to just have everyone step on the scale, so they don’t have to single people out that look heavy. But, it is set up in a way, that only the CM can see what the scale says, so there is no danger of your weight being announced to a group of strangers.

Everyone also got a name tag and instructions. After everything is done, you end up in a small holding area where there is a water container to fill up your bottle and a huge tub of sun screen in case you had forgotten to apply some. Very thoughtful!

This is my water bottle with my name tag:

Once everyone was outfitted, we got some instructions and then we left- Our tour started with a short walk through the Pangani Forst Trail.

Our guides had a camera as well and we got a DVD sent to us by mail after the tour. Even though we were a group of four, but with different home addresses we got one copy of the DVD each. Only if we had the same address, then they would not send one to everyone. I thought that this was great! They even shipped it to Germany without any additional fee.

I am going to use the Disney pictures as well as my own ones, but you can pick out the Disney ones as they are “more green” than mine.

Along the Pangani Forst ( I think we went in at the exit) we saw some birds:

Then we went through a small gate off to the side and suddenly we were in the wilderness. We followed a narrow path through the “forest” and immediately it was clear why the require you to wear closed shoes for this.

We got a first view of the road the safari trucks take:

And then we were above the hippo pool. There we met with another guide who told us all kind of things about the hippos. We got attacked to a safety hold there and with that we could go really close to the edge of the rock above the hippos:

Me with hippos in the background:

They had a hippo skull there with which Josh explained us how their mouth works:

Look at those teeth!!! Josh and Lauren were both CMs who actually work with the animals as well, I think they were both biologists or something similar. I was really impressed with their knowledge (as well as with their cheerful and fun way to guide us through our adventure!!).

Continued in Part 2 in the next post!

 

[Flossbolna]

Next we had to cross two rope bridges, the first one over the hippo pond and the next one across the crocodile pond. We actually met up with another CM there to help with the logistics of attaching us to the security rope and to help taking lots of pictures. Here is a little map of our trek where you can see the two bridges:

me on the bridge in the distance:

me on the bridge closer look:

scary crocodiles:

And this is our lovely guides Lauren and Josh on the bridge:

Along the trek there were all kind of informative stations (like the hippo skull), this one here was about foot prints:

And there was also a crocodile skull:

From the crocodiles it was not a long walk until we made it to our safari truck. Once there we all got a cool towel (that we got to keep) and there was water to fill up your water bottle. The trucks for this don’t have benches after one another like the one for the safari ride, but one long bench running in U-shapre all around the sides and the back of the truck. We stopped quite frequently and then you could get up to take pictures. They also had binoculars that they handed out for people to use.

We kind of followed more or less the same route as the safari, but stopped at multiple points and Josh and Lauren told us all kind of stories about the different animals and their stories. It was truly fascinating.

We then stopped at the little safari lodge which you can see on the savanna. It is in a fantastic location as you can see in all directions from there. It is just a covered area with a veranda around it. It does have bathrooms though!! Very important! Those were very pretty, they had beautiful tiles:

I don’t have a lot of pictures of the lodge itself..

There are a few tables and we were invited to sit down and then we were served our lunch. I had ordered one without seafood as I don’t eat shrimp and therefore it came with a little note:

It is two levels and both were filled with delicious little goodies:

Continued in Part 3 in the next post

 

[Flossbolna]

After lunch we had time to take pictures:

there was a second viewing deck which could be reached via a boardwalk and from there you had a great view of the rhinos:

After a while it was back onto our truck and we continued along, seeing even more animals:

At the end of the tour we were told that part of our tour fee would go towards the Disney Wildlife Fund. We could choose which project we wanted to support by putting something (it might have been a stone?) into a certain box at the exit. They told us a little bit about each project. I chose the elephant project. This is a project where they teach African farmers to become bee keepers. Elephants are afraid of bees and therefore having bees on the farm prevents the elephants coming in and trampling everything down. And since the elephants are no longer a threat to the farmers, they are less likely to side with the poachers. I loved that this projects not only helps the animals, but also the humans as well. I often think it is so easy for us to want to protect the wild animals as our livelihood is not threatened by them.

In the end we all agreed that this was a spectacular experience! Even though it was baking hot that day we had enjoyed every minute of it. The description makes it sound as if it was a strenuous expedition, but it really was not at all. I think the Keys to the Kingdom Tour at the MK was much harder as it had far more walking and standing. The actual walk on this tour was rather short. But you are outside all the time, and often you are in the sun. However, I don’t think it is worth 200$. I think it is a great experience and it was definitely worth the 75$ we paid for it. Even 100$ is still justifiable.

After the tour our first thought was to get into an airconditioned building. So we started to hang out in the shops for quite a bit, just to cool down again! So we headed towards the central area – I was still fit enough to admire this view though:

Shopping brought some picture opportunities:

We got back to the hotel at around 4:30pm and just spent the rest of the evening at the pool. We ended up making a meal out of the leftover spinach and potatoes from Flying Fish, some of the hummus we had bought at Publix, chips and some butternut squash soup that we got from Mara in our villa. It was so nice to actually relax and unwind in our own place without having to sit in a bedroom as it would normally be the case in a hotel room. I tell you, I am really spoiled now after staying in a one-bedroom-villa!

Next: Water, Headache and more Disney Magic

 

[Flossbolna]

I thought it was time to say something about the upcoming Disney travel plans, especially since I now have two big things coming up (and maybe a third...).

First: The next trip will be a version of this one, but we could call it "From the Sea to the Land" - yes, I am going to cruise to Disneyland!

This will be quite a trip. Michael and I will start out in Fort Lauderdale again. This time we are staying directly at the beach in a very nice hotel for which I got an incredible deal through a German package holiday provider. After four nights on the beach we will board the Disney Wonder on May 2nd (which is exactly one year after we disembarked from the fabulous cruise I wrote about in this trip report). The 15-night cruise will take us to Key West, Cozumel (Mexico), Cartagena (Columbia), through the Panama Canal, on to Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas (both Mexico) and then finally to San Diego. From there we head up to Anaheim to stay for a week at the Villas at the Grand Californian. Besides touring Disneyland, we will also see some other local sights.

I already have a new notebook sitting here for trip notes and am planning to write about this epic adventure. I don't know how long it will take me to write about it since it is going to be nearly four weeks long! Hopefully those many sea days will not be too eventful, so there is not too much to write about in the TR!

Then the next trip that got booked this past week involves Katharina. We are going to do another sister Disney trip! But not to WDW and neither to DLP. We are going to go on a cruise!!

Last week they came out with the summer schedule for 2015 when the Disney Magic will be in Europe again. For a one week sister trip it is just much more practical (and once you factor in plane tickets, also more economical) to cruise in Europe. However, it turned out that the cruises were priced differently than we originally thought and even though I had not considered it at all at first, we ended up booking a 7-night cruise from Copenhagen to the Norwegian Fjords. Or maybe I should say that my lovely travel agent Brook booked it for us.

I hope that by now Katharina is able to remember the name of the ship that we are going to be on, earlier this week she was very confused about this... It is still over a year away, but now that it is booked, I am horribly excited about it. Especially once I started looking into the places the cruise goes to. Wow, this is going to be soooo beautiful!

So - the more reason to get this TR done as soon as possible as there will be plenty more to write about!!

 

[Poolrat]

Little things really make a huge difference. Something similar once happened to me at Starbucks when I spilled some of my coffee and one of the people working there saw it and not only came to wipe up the mess, but also brought me a new drink! This little incident made me a regular customer at that Starbucks.

And that is why sometimes here at work I wish I could do more- because you do remember it and I hate leaving a bad taste in someone's mouth because there is a way to solve the problem but I don't have absolute authority to do it.

I do think it is worth the additional points (if I have them, currently I am very point poor!!)

Oh I hear you on that one!!!!

This one made me Thanks I needed that today. It has been a kind of day.

We then stopped at the little safari lodge which you can see on the savanna. It is in a fantastic location as you can see in all directions from there. It is just a covered area with a veranda around it. It does have bathrooms though!! Very important! Those were very pretty, they had beautiful tiles:

I don’t have a lot of pictures of the lodge itself..

Another - I think I may have rubbed off on you. Yes you MUST have tile pics- it is always so interesting to me that the theme goes all the way through the bathrooms. Those are indeed special and would probably forget about the lodge pictures too.

There are a few tables and we were invited to sit down and then we were served our lunch. I had ordered one without seafood as I don’t eat shrimp and therefore it came with a little note:

It is two levels and both were filled with delicious little goodies:

Good to know I get a "special " meal if I ever get the chance to do the Trek.

I am sure the note is for an "allergy" to seafood, but I would think the NO seafood one would not say just seafood...

Further confirms that I need to find time to do this ( Preferably when the price comes down or there is a special)

After the tour our first thought was to get into an airconditioned building. So we started to hang out in the shops for quite a bit, just to cool down again! So we headed towards the central area – I was still fit enough to admire this view though:

That is one of my fears. I get overheated pretty easily and it isn't pretty. I guess I could always book a FP+ on Kali afterwards. That would cool me off. With my luck that would be the ONLY time I don't get soaked.

 

[nodnol]

I think you are getting OKW and Port Orleans mixed up. We were in OKW on the October 2011 trip when we had breakfast there before heading to Typhoon Lagoon. So it must have been a warm day. I remember sitting for ages at the bus stop waiting for a stupid bus... I know we were there before as well, when we took the boat to Downtown Disney. If I had written a better TR about that trip, I could link you to the appropriate update!

Maybe it didn't rain, but I remember that I was freezing during our breakfast there and afterwards - so didn't really enjoy looking around…

I think I would really like to do the Wild Africa Trek sometime, but not for 200$!
I'm very proud of you for crossing that bridge actually walking :good vibes
Maybe I would enjoy the part on the truck and in the lodge even more, I feels always rushed on the normal trucks! And I love the lodge. We should really meet up for a weekend in Leipzig and go to the zoo there. The lodge they have looking across the fake savannah is really similar, but much bigger. Leipzig zoo is the only zoo I have seen that gets at least a little bit close to AK!

Then the next trip that got booked this past week involves Katharina. We are going to do another sister Disney trip! But not to WDW and neither to DLP. We are going to go on a cruise!!

Let's just hope it all works out! I can't get vacation approved before november I guess, although I will let my boss know next week….

I hope that by now Katharina is able to remember the name of the ship that we are going to be on, earlier this week she was very confused about this... It is still over a year away, but now that it is booked, I am horribly excited about it. Especially once I started looking into the places the cruise goes to. Wow, this is going to be soooo beautiful!

I'm so glad you are looking forward to Norway now as well! I don't know, but it appeals to me so much more the the mediterranean… And it will be so much fun to go to Denmark again together. I just hope the weather will be better this time!
We once went on a bicycle tour to Denmark, but had to abandon the tour after three days, because it rained so much and our old tent didn't manage to keep the floods out. So I never got to see baby seals...

 

[nodnol]

just thought about it, I could get a new ticker! But it's more than a year to go….

 

[lovealldisney]

Wow! Those travel plans sound AWSOME! I'm completely jealous....

 

[glennbo123]

Thanks for the great write-up on the Wild Africa Trek, I definitely want to do that someday.

Wow, your upcoming trips sound great! Both will be amazing!

 

[eandesmom]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Those are some amazing trips you have planned, they sound incredibly!

(pretty sure it's the Magic in Norway )


I am so glad you enjoyed the Trek, I thought it was extremely well done. $200 though...that's a bit brutal to be sure. How lovely to get such a great deal!

Even lovelier though is enjoying leftovers in your own villa. The one bedrooms really do spoil you!!! I love love love having that kitchen (and the washer/dryer is pretty nice too!)

What a fun update and wonderful pictures of you on the bridge.