Help Me Smithers! A trip with Barista, Swimming Babies, Unseasonably Cool Weather, But Still Lots of Magic. (updated 8/29/20)

[Clarf]

We went inside so the girls could get their bears signed by the CM. Of course it's a crap quality photo. The girls were impressed with all the Duffys the CMs had colored. You can sort of see them sitting behind him.



We kept moving through China.



We did see a PP and stopped to get some shots. We got some really good ones here that we'd never gotten before.



That thing Lucy is holding is a squishy elephant she bought in the shop. We have so many squishys in our house and I see more in our future. That and stuffed animals. And slime. So. Much. Slime.

Oh, I just noticed, Maura has a squishy too. SEE???





A few more shots of China before we move on.



It is really cool in there. Love the whispering.

We've never watched the movie in China before, but I think we will this year. I've heard good things.

You can see the back of that dragon we got PP with. I don't remember if that is always there or if it's just for F&G. I don't remember seeing it before, but I can't be expected to remember everything!



With that we headed out of China and over towards Germany. Of course there were more cool topiaries on the way.





I don't think this one was actually on the way to Germany, but I'm putting it here. Sue me.



And just like that, we're in Germany! Wow, that was a short trip.



There was a PP right there, so we stopped of course. If I'm paying for memory maker, I'm getting my money's worth darn it!



Okay, maybe Snow White was in Germany, because here's another one!



The trains of course!



We did get some more PP in Germany. Here's that dang squishy again. Maura's may have been relagated to the backpack at this point. She has a short attention span.



Jason=dork!



That's all I have in Germany. Sad, I know. I know the girls got their Duffys signed, but I really got no pictures here. I'm sorry. I tried.

Okay, I'm going to stop here for tonight. We'll start with Italy tomorrow and see where else we end up.

I do have some exciting news about our upcoming trip though! So for the first time ever, we're staying more than 5 days. We were going to do a week, but then when they canceled park hoppers (we're a hopping family), we decided to add an extra day so we can hit each park twice. My feet will not be speaking to me at the end of the trip, but it will be worth it. Here's the exciting news. We were booked at POR. We've stayed there before and love it. We would have been perfectly happy staying there again. We were looking forward to it actually. But, they aren't open. So, we got upgraded to .... wait for it...








BEACH CLUB!!!! For no extra charge! We have never done a deluxe because frankly, we're too poor. Our dream resort is the Poly someday. But we aren't complaining with Beach Club. The girls especially were so excited. We were supposed to have a regular room. Cool, fine, we got an upgrade, we can't complain. Then a couple weeks later we find out Beach Club regular won't be opening, just the vacation club villas. So, guess what? Yep, we're upgrade to a 1 bedroom villa!!!! OMG. We can't believe it. We'll have a full kitchen and washer and dryer! Again, no charge. We feel so lucky.

We had booked our extra day at Art of Animation because we had never stayed there. Of course they aren't opening until later now either, so we got upgraded to CBR which is awesome because that's our favorite resort! I think we're going to add 1 more day there since we have the 8 days of tickets now. Otherwise, we'd have to leave right from MK on our last day and since we drive, we wouldn't get too far.

Anyway, that's some of our plans. I'll be back tomorrow I hope!

 

[Clarf]

Okay, where the heck were we? Germany? You know, it's been 24 hours since I updated. I shouldn't be expected to remember.

I can't believe we didn't spend more time in Germany. We have really good friends who live there and I'm 1/2 German, and we're from Milwaukee, which has a lot of German roots. Maybe it hit too close to home, I don't know. I do know that we also stopped in the Africa Outpost on the way to Germany. I forgot exactly where that was, but I remember now. The girls of course had to try the drums. They could start a band. They aren't bad. Those steel drums are their favorites to play there. They sound so cool.





Lucy is still holding on to the squishy elephant for dear life. She really does love that thing. It's still around!



After a few minutes of drumming, we kept moving. As you know, we hit up Germany for a really short time. I definitely have no picture of the CM signing the Duffys. Boo! I'm a horrible person.

In Italy though, we looked around a lot more and took some good pics. I don't think any of these are blurry!







Some good friends of ours had an exchange student from Italy last year. She was with them a whole year, and they took her to Disney. I asked her what she thought of Italy in Epcot and she was impressed and said it was a really good representation of her country! She confirmed what we already suspected, that Disney didn't hold back when re-creating the countries and slack on the details, but it was nice to hear she was impressed.

This dude/dudette was hanging out on the speakers. I know a lot of people hate seagulls, but I personally think they're hilarious.



We really did get a lot of scenic shots here.





We got some PP here too. Love Orange Bird in this one! But there goes my husband making a ridiculous face. They got so much worse as the days went on.



At least he looks nice in this one. I mean, I know who I married, but sheesh. The faces! Of course now I look at them and crack up.



These masks were beautiful. They reminded me of Mardi Gras.





Lady and the Tramp, with the elephant front and center. And Maura's eyes look like she was out too late partying the night before.



As evidinced by this next photo, Lucy is truly her father's daughter.



We did make it inside and DID get a picture with the CM signing Duffys. Phew! I sort of redeemed myself.



We had seen everything we needed to see of Italy! No snacks here. Dinner was coming up and we didn't want to ruin our appetites.

We briefly stopped in America. Here's the thing. We live in America. I know about all the stuff we have so we didn't need to dwell too long. I do however think that for our upcoming trip I'm going to insist on seeing Voices of Liberty if they're performing. I don't know if they are right now or not. I've heard they are just incredible though.

We did stop long enough to get a few pictures though.

Of course we saw this guy. The American Ibis. You can only see him in America. They don't let him into the other countries.



A cowboy topiary for America of course. Here's the thing. America is known for cowboys. But they really aren't that popular here. I've been to Texas a few times and have never seen an actual cowboy. I'm not dissing cowboys, and have nothing against them, but I just wonder why that's a symbol that automatically comes up if someone is talking about America.

But I digress. Here's the picture. And it's Woody, and he's a great cowboy.



I had to take a picture of the funnel cake place. We enjoy them very much. And this one I get. Nothing says America more than fried dough! I'm totally on board.




Here's the gentleman who signed the Duffys in America. He was really friendly and nice and asked the girls a lot of questions. I think they answered him. Here's the thing about my kids. They never shut up. Ever. Especially Maura. But a person they've never met speaks to them and it's clam up city. I seriously don't know who they are sometimes.



No PP in America. I honestly don't remember seeing a person taking photos, though I'm sure there was. Like I said, we zipped through here pretty quick.

(continued in next post)

 

[Clarf]

Next up is Japan. We spent A LOT of time here. Honestly because of Mitsukoshi. It's such a fun store. We had lots to look at.







I do know in the store we got quite a bit of stuff. They kids each got a Totoro fan and got their names written on them in Japanese. You can see them holding the fans in the picture. I know Lucy also got one for her BFF. We got a ton of stuff sent back to CBR. I know besides the fans we got a sun bobber (is that what those things are called?) No, a solar bobble head! That's it! I got a pug for MY BFF. Who happens to be the mom of Lucy's BFF. I think the girls each got a necklace with something on it. And look! I did get a picture of the kind CMs who were signing.





I wish I could remember what else we bought, but it was 2 1/2 years ago for Pete's sake.

Oh wait, Maura got at least 1, maybe 2 stuffed Pokemon, oh and Lucy got a stuffed gutatoma (sp?) that she's holding in her hand. It's a little egg figure. They're actually really cute.



After looking around and spending a small fortune in the store, we stepped outside for some PP. We got a lot of good ones here!







There were a ton of different scenic backdrops in Japan!





And (sigh) here's the fun magic shot. And now Lucy's in on it too. And Maura has the perma-snacking mustache. But that's cute.



After that, we had to wrap up our world tour for now. Our ADR for dinner was coming up! We started hoofing it back up to Future World and The Seas. We were dining under the ocean tonight at Coral Reef. This is a family favorite. We were just a few minutes early and waited just a few minutes for our table. We were hoping for tankside, but that was not to be this visit. Thankfully you can see the tanks from everywhere so we still got to enjoy the sea life.

Lucy's face, don't ask.



We placed our orders quickly and the food started coming out pretty quick. First was the rolls and butter. Each sit down restaurant at Disney seems to have their own form of butter with the rolls. You can't tell in the picture, but if I remember correctly, this butter had sea salt sprinkled on the top. The rolls were a yummy start to the meal.



Lucy got a strawberry smoothie. Remember what I said before about slushies, smoothies, sno cones...? It was an option!



I only remembered half way through eating to take pictures of the food. I'm sorry. A food porn TR this is not! I did get the lobster mac and cheese. I LOVE lobster mac and cheese and hadn't tried this version before. It was delicious as expected!



Lucy, now on the adult dining plan at 11.5 years old, got the fish fry. It was on the kids menu, but they gave her the adult version. Clearly enough for 17 adults. Really, they could have charged us for the adult portion and brought the kids. We were on the dining plan anyway. This was So. Much. Fish! Tasty, but even the 4 of us together couldn't finish all that. It was a good fish fry I remember, and we know fish frys here in Wisconsin.



Maura got the kids spaghetti and meatballs with the sauce and meatballs on the side and really macaroni pasta instead of spaghetti. I don't know why my kids are kind of picky. We never gave them reason to be, but they are. No sauces ON things. They just like to dip. I never did that as a kid and never encouraged it. I think they learned it from their rotten friends.



Jason got some kind of steak with mashed potatoes. I'm sure it was delicious. I don't eat beef or pork anymore really, but he enjoys is. I'm lucky to have gotten a picture!



I took (or possibly one of the kids took) some crap pictures of the fish in the tanks. We had to try. No idea what this is.



You can see the legs of a diver that was in there. She had been eaten by a shark. Just kidding.



Turtles! They're pretty cute.



And a shark. He must have been swimming pretty fast because the fish behind him are in pretty good focus.



Maura loves sharks. LOVES. I know she was excited to see this guy.

Desert came before too long. We were stuffed, but we managed. The girls both got the cupcakes. We may have taken Lucy's with us because after her fish fry with 37 pieces of fish on it, she was pretty stuffed.



I got the cheesecake. I think. I know it was really good and looked so pretty!



Jason got the Bailey's and Jack Daniel's Mousse. He's gotten it before and it looks different every time he gets it! This time it was like a little tart or cheesecake. No matter what it looked like, he loved it.



With that, we rolled ourselves out of there and headed off to our next adventure. You'd think we were headed back to our trip around the world, but no, we were going to catch the monorail over to MK for a few hours. Since we had left early the day before due to the crowds, we wanted to go back for a bit. But Epcot had EMH that night, so we'd be back! The night was still young. Our dinner ADR had been for 5pm, so we had lots of time.

That will have to wait for tomorrow though. I have stuff to do.

 

[tundra1]

Thanks for reading and hello fellow 'Sconnie! What part of the state are you from? We will be in WDW in 23 days! We are so excited we can barely stand it! Can't wait to see how things are doing there.

We are from Kenosha County, between Milwaukee and Chicago. Have a great time on your trip! Maybe you will see some of the Bucks Players walking around! Fear the Deer!

 

[Clarf]

We are from Kenosha County, between Milwaukee and Chicago. Have a great time on your trip! Maybe you will see some of the Bucks Players walking around! Fear the Deer!

Oh, you're not too far from us up here in Milwaukee County! I'd love to see some of the Bucks!

 

[Clarf]

I can't believe 2 weeks from today we'll be falling asleep on Disney property! It's so close! The girls won't stop talking about it. I had to tell them to give it a rest today. We did end up adding a second night at CBR so we don't have to leave directly from the MK. We'll get to sleep and head home the next morning. I have to thank my friend and travel agent Lisa (the Dis's own mickeystoontown) for helping us plan such an awesome trip! Her TRs are hilarious and were the first TRs I ever read here. If you have a chance, check them out. She has several!

Anyway, back to 2018, before the world went crazy. We had just rolled ourselves on out of Coral Reef after a truly filling dinner. We wanted to head over to the MK for a bit, but before we did, we had gotten FP+ to meet the characters so we headed over there. We were let right in and were soon meeting the main mouse himself! We always enjoy meeting the characters here. It's always fun. Mickey was of course thrilled to see the girls. I didn't take any photos here, I let PP do all the work, so of course they're all good pictures thankfully.











Next was Goofy. He was silly and fun as always. He must have done or "said" something funny here hence Lucy has a big smile on her face.







Minnie was next. No matter how old my girls get, they love Minnie. Since first watching her on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse as tiny kiddos, they've just loved her so much. She still makes them smile. We got a lot of great pictures with her!



Clearly she did something very amusing here!



I do remember she told the girls how much she liked their autograph books. They were self decorated with Disney stickers and they got a lot of compliments on them.



Lucy must be inspecting Minnie's work.







Maura may not be amused that Minnie is trying to eat her here. Either that or she whispered a dad joke or something.





With that, we were up and out. Headed over to the monorail station to catch one over to the MK.

We got there pretty quickly. We had picked up a FP+ for BTMRR on the way over, so we headed over there first.



That's the only picture there is. I know I took it because I'm not in it.

After the wildest ride in the west, it was time to visit 999 happy haunts. This is a family favorite and it's really grown on the kids over the years. Now they love it. This has always been and always will be my favorite Disney ride. I LOVE Halloween and all things scary and creepy so this one it #1. Jason got some really great pictures this time on the ride!

He had to have Madame Leota with her eyes closed and then open of course!





Some floating heads.



I felt like we were being watched.





Ah! It's a floating head!



Lucy and I recently watched the Imagineering special on Disney +. They talked a lot about HM in one episode and it was really cool. The whole series is great! If you haven't seen it, I highly suggest it.



Okay, I have more HM pictures and more MK stories, but I'm going to be lame and stop here for tonight. I have to catch a couple Big Bang episodes before bed and if I don't go in there soon, Jason will go to sleep. I promise to continue this saga tomorrow though!

 

[Clarf]

Okay, I'm so lame, I didn't even finish our time on HM, so here we go. I have more pretty great pictures taken by Jason.





Constance Hatchaway! Lucy was her for Halloween later this year!


Here's Lucy. She did a great job.




I told you we loved Halloween here. She was going to be Sally Slater this year, but she's saving it for a year when Halloween will be less restricted. Stay tuned on that one!

Back to the real ghosts. These guys never get old. This song could run constantly in my life and I'd never get sick of it.



It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings!



And the hallway on the way out. Remember when you're at Disney, always look UP!



And with that, I would have been okay if we went home. We had ridden my favorite ride. I was happy. But not really I needed to ride it more than once so we'd save that for another day.

Since we weren't too far away, (and since we had FP+) we wandered over to Splash. We love this ride and this would be ride #2 this trip. I love it the way it is, but I'm not going to lie, I'm so excited to see what they do with the refurb to Princess and the Frog. I love love love that movie, and I love New Orleans, so to see how they incorporate that and the Bayou into that ride is going to be cool. Sad that this trip will be our last to ride it this way, but excited for it's future! It still was pretty decent weather wise so we weren't too worried about getting wet, but clearly the person behind us didn't feel the same.



After riding up to Chickapin hill, we walked to the front to get more Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom cards. We were enjoying the game. It became a contest to all hold a card out and see whose got picked by the window. I actually just dug our cards out the other day so we remember to take them on our trip! We collected some cards and played a few rounds in Adventureland. Then, since we were already there and there was no line, we rode Magic Carpets of Aladdin. And since Wishes was also happening, we got a nice photo. Although I wish I would have turned off my flash.

.

Since Wishes was happening, we knew MK was closing soon. We booked it back to the front of the park and up the monorail ramp to beat the Wishes crowds. We made it and headed back to the TTC just to jump the monorail back to Epcot. Why you ask? Well, first , that's where our car was parked, since we started out the day there, but also, yep, that's right, Epcot had EMH that night from 9-11. We were getting every ounce of fun out of this day! We are very commando style amusement park goers. If we're spending the big bucks, we're getting our money's worth darn it!

Plus the temperature was still decent so we figured we might as well take advantage. So, back to Epcot we went and hopped right onto Spaceship Earth. Jason got a great picture of the outside. It looks like a postcard. I think I said it earlier, but I'm going to say it again. Epcot is the most beautiful park at night. With all the lights, it's just breathtaking. I'm sad the parks are closing earlier when we'll be there in 2 weeks because we won't get to enjoy all it's beauty. But, at least we have the memories.



The line was short and we basically walked right on. I love EMH. Another thing I'm sad about not having this trip, but I really can't complain too much. I know it's going to be a pretty amazing trip despite the Covid. But I digress. Back to 2018. We walked on SE and as usual on the rides, Jason got some really nice pictures. I feel bad for smack talking him earlier in this TR about not taking pictures when we were on the road. But not that bad.



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I think I took this one. It's the only one that had enough light for a decent picture with my camera.









I will definitely miss Dame Judi Dench narrating this one. Her voice is perfect for this ride. My mom has never been to WDW (I know, the horrors, I was a deprived child), but I've always wanted to take her to Epcot. She loves Judy Dench and Ellen Degeneres, but now I'll never get her there because both of their rides are being re-vamped. I know there are other things she'd love about Epcot especially, but she's a party pooper.

(continued in next post)

 

[Clarf]

While we were riding back down to Earth, we got to see our futures! Our futures looked pretty similar, which I think is a good thing!







Maura's neck looks SUPER long and skinny!









We all made it onto the big board too!





After all that fun, we headed back to the WS. I guess Jason was hungry again, having digested his Coral Reef dinner. He was in search of poutine, so we headed to Canada. This is the lone picture we took, and the last one in the parks for the night.



We got to the poutine shop, AKA the Refreshment Port in Canada. They were almost done for the night and had just 1 poutine left. They also had just 1 cronut left. Guess what? We got pixie dusted and they gave us those items both for free! Jason was super happy and we got the cronut as a bonus for the kids! That was our lone experience in Canada for this trip, but it was a goody! We're looking forward to visiting again in our upcoming trip!

Lucy wanted to look in France and the girls wanted to get their Duffys signed. It was getting close to closing now, but we did look around the shop in France and got ice cream too! Clearly we hadn't eaten enough earlier, and Lucy's 23 pieces of fish from her fish fry had worn off. Ice cream obtained, signatures applied on Duffys, and Epcot was a wrap for this year. We didn't quite make it to all the countries but were close. This year my friends, this year! I'll keep you posted on how we fare.

We trudged back to the front and I know my feet were burning. We were back to CBR in no time, and this is what we saw almost immediately upon entering our room.



That's the sign of a good day at Disney, my friends! She just made it into her jammies and was out. The lights were still on for Pete's sake!

My Fitbit had 26001 steps for this day. I'm honestly surprised it wasn't more since we were park trekking so much! Off to bed we went. We had ADRs for an early morning breakfast the next day!

 

[Clarf]

Day 5. Here we go.

We were up early. We had an 8:10am ADR for Chef Mickey's. This is always a family favorite, and even though currently, the characters don't come to your table, and it's family style insted of buffet, we're still going there this year. I'm sure it will still be delicious. But way back in 2018, the characters came around. We started with the PP family photo. I will say that this photo was MUCH better than the one we had gotten a few years ago. That one was all off centered. You'd have thought I took the picture. This one turned out much nicer though.





We were seated right away, and barely had time to make it up to the buffet before the characters started making the rounds. Goofy was up first. As you can tell, my children hate him. They had no fun with him what so ever.





I'm fairly certain one of the girls told him he spilled something on himself to which hilarity ensued. How Goofy and Pluto sign autographs never gets old.



Speaking of Pluto, he was around next!



I think I was starving because I only took that one picture with Pluto. He was cuddly as always, though.

Next was our favorite duck, Donald himself! I know the girls were ready to hurl "Donald is #2" at him while I reassured him he was and always would be #1 with me.



I'm not sure what Maura is looking at here or what she was doing, but I'm sure it was something funny.



Mickey came out next and we all told him how much we enjoyed the breakfast he had made.



Minnie was last, and their must have been a small break between Mickey and Minnie, because as you can see, my children had time to scarf some food down. They both have chocolate around their mouths. I'm guessing they ate chocolate chips, because I remember you can get chocolate chips at the buffet to put on your pancakes. I'm sure that had that and some fruit for breakfast. But, Minnie came to see them, dirty mouths and all.



They always get excited to see Minnie. Always.

Before we headed out, the girls wanted to take some artistic shots. We were seated right next to this wall and the artwork was too tempting to ignore.







My kids are so silly. But these pictures are fun!

And that concluded our Chef Mickey's breakfast. I think we were in and out in less than an hour! It was fast and yummy, and just the thing to get us moving for our day at Animal Kingdom.

Since we were just eating at Chef Mickey's, and not going to MK that day, we were able to just park in the Contemporary lot, so we were out to the car in no time. We were at AK right after they opened. We had an early FP+ for the safari, so we headed right back there. First I had to make sure everyone knew where we were.



And because we passed some PP , and you know how I am, we had to stop for some pictures in front of the Tree of Life.



Here's a little magic. You can tell it was cooler that morning as most of us are wearing sweaters. As the day progressed, we slowly lost those. Note Jason and Lucy's faces. He's created a monster! Well I have news for these 2! It's going to be hard to make those faces in a mask!






I got my own picture of the Tree of Life too. Last time we were at AK there were refurb walls up in front of it, so it looked much nicer this time!



With that, we started over to Africa to get in line for the Safari. We were unpleasantly surprised when we got there to see that the FP+ line was out in the park farther than the stand by line was. We waited almost 30 minutes in the FP+ line, which is the longest we've ever waited. I feel bad for those in standby! It must have been long. We did find out though, it was because the safari jeeps got held up because there were animals on the road that wouldn't move. We can't be mad about that!

Here's a few pictures from the Safari. I don't think I was in charge of the camera.



Here's one of those horned things.



Here's some hippos in the water, and I think a bird of some sort on the shore.



I'm pointing at something. I think it's alligators.



No idea. Bird? Just a waterfall? I didn't take it.



Baobab tree. Wow. We saw a lot of animals on this safari. Either that or my kid preferred the foliage.



Okay, well here's another safari jeep across the way and a fake termite pile. Riviting, isn't it?



Here's some more horned things and fast running creatures.




(continued in next post)

 

[fractal]

Looks like you had a very nice meal at Coral Reef! I keep wanting to go back to that but somehow we always end up skipping it.

You are going to love BC villas!

 

[Clarf]

Finally some giraffes! I don't think they got as close to us as they did last time.



A SITTING giraffe! You don't see that too often.



He's saying hello!



Okay, I lied. I guess we did get pretty close.



A blurry picture of some fefelents.



This elephant isn't feeling social today.



Elephant rear ends. Just what you always wanted to see.



Oh, a baby elephant!



A mandril! I think. It might be a baboon. They look similar. I'm no zoologist.



Zebras!


This guy is my favorite. I love rhinos!



A shy rhino. He's the shy elephant's best friend.



And that was about the end of the safari. I know we saw the lions, but no good pictures. You've all seen them, you know how they look. It was a good safari! We saw lots of animals.

Since it took a bit to get on the safari, out FP+ was up for Expedition Everest, so we headed that way. The girls found this guy along the way so we stopped for a picture. Do you know what Fichwa Fellow means? I do!



We were on our way to Asia to ride EE but guess what? Yep. We passed a few PP, so duh, we stopped.







And then by this guy.





I think we weren't feeling this one.


And by the monkeys too! There were lots of PP out this day. I guess Lucy was the lone hold out for her sweat shirt this day. It must have been getting warmer!







The faces are back.



And then before we went to conquer the Yeti, we figured we'd stop for one more.





(continued in next post)

 

[Clarf]

Okay, enough nonsense. Let's get to EE already.

We finally made it over there! And no amount of convincing or bribery would get Maura on that ride. I swear, now she rides anything. We've told her no excuses, she's riding in 2 weeks. She promises she will. We'll drag her kicking and screaming if needed. But, Lucy was thrilled on this particular trip because it meant she got to ride twice, once with each parent. She and Jason went first and got this gem on the ride.



While they were riding, Maura and I were doing this.



That's a lemon ice if you were wondering. Maura, having only eaten chocolate chips for breakfast, was of course starving, so let's get some more sugar into that kid, stat!

Maura also took these pictures of her new friends. It was a little after 10am and we were already up 2 new stuffed animals.

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This picture is extremely important. This TR would be an abomination without it.



Lucy and I went searching for the Yeti then. Lucy has her eyes closed, but the girl in front of us legit looks like she's about to burst into tears. Maybe it was her first time riding it. Maybe she hates roller coasters and someone told her it was a gentle ride through the mountain. The possibilities are endless.



It was a great ride as always. Since we were in Asia already, we went over to Kali to see how long the wait was. It was short, because the weather was cooler, so we said what the heck and rode. I have no photographic proof of this, but my notes say so, so I know it to be true.

What I DO have photographic evidence of though, is the fun fountain in Asia. The one that looks like a bubble that you can sit in. I sometimes refer to it as the gastrointestinal upset fountain, because you never know who's been in there, but we've always been okay. I bet it isn't open right now though. But it was then. See?

Maura looks a little apprehensive about it. But hey, she's already wet from Kali, so who cares, right?



See?



My kids always like to dive head first into new things.



Jason is checking wait times here I'm sure.

Lucy got a Mickey ice cream sandwich at this point, because Maura had had the lemon ice. No picture, but again, the notes say it's true!

We were in the area, so decided to do the Maharaja jungle trek. I know the girls looked for tons of hidden Mickeys here, but I don't think any of them were documented. We did get some nice (well, sort of nice) bird pictures though and a few other animals.

Here's a monkey.



Some nice decorations.



This was cool! A CM was there telling us this is an enrichment tool they use for some of the monkeys. they have to get a ball through this maze with a stick, and if they do it a treat comes out at the end. Our girls had a tough time, but the CM said some of the monkeys are experts at it by now!



Jason pondering something.



Selfies by Lucy.

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Bats! I know some people don't like them but I think they're cool and they do so much good for bug control!



Tigers! But....there's no tigers here.



Very blurry tiger. Thanks, Lucy.



Jeez, you'd think we were in a moving vehicle. Here's some water buffalo.



Bird with a red beak.



Ducks of some sort.



Here's a better tiger picture! They're sleeping, but identifiable.



Nice scenery.



This is my dream bird house/feeder right here. I'd love one of these for my yard. We'd be the most popular house on the block for birds.



We have these birds at our zoo. It's a pigeon of some sort.



And to conclude our trek, here's a cute duck pigeon bird.



Okay, I'm going to stop here tonight. I'm going to try to beat the pants off my family at Mario Kart 8 and fail miserably. I'll be back with more tomorrow!

 

[tundra1]

Loving your report so far! I can't wait to hear about your upcoming trip.
I wish I was going with you to get away from all the rioting in Kenosha right now!
Stay well!

 

[Clarf]

Loving your report so far! I can't wait to hear about your upcoming trip.
I wish I was going with you to get away from all the rioting in Kenosha right now!
Stay well!

Thanks! We can't wait to GO on our upcoming trip. I've been thinking about everyone in Kenosha all week. Hope you're staying safe!

 

[Clarf]

Alright, where were we? Ah yes, we had just finished the Maharaja Jungle Trek. We decided to go to Rafiki's Planet Watch since we hadn't been there in a few visits. And the girls wanted to meet Rafiki again. So, we headed over to the train that takes you there. I think we got right on and soon we were seeing this



Maura just came and looked over my shoulder at the pictures I'm going to post (and the one I just did) and said "I think I took those." Yes child, yes you did. And you got your fingers in the way of the first one and forgot to focus for the others. So, I apologize again for the blur.

These were just little signs up on the path back to the building.







We got in line for Rafiki right away since he was scheduled to be out soon. Lucy was feeling tired, so she and Jason took a rest at one of the tables while Maura and I waited in line. The master photographer was back at it with her mad skills.





The cranky pre-teen.



While we were waiting, this CM came out with this sheep who was trained and doing all kinds of tricks. He was just hilarious and kept us entertained for quite a while.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2jB3onm]

It kept looking like he was running away, but he'd come right back.



Finally it was our turn and Jason and Lucy came back to join us. The PP caught Lucy mid-sneeze which was hilarious.





The girls went up to Mr. Blue Booty himself.



Rafiki signs up high too.



The cranky pre-teen is no more!







I remember this being a fun meet and greet and he spent a lot of time with the girls. There were others waiting though, so we said goodbye and headed off to see what else was happening in RPW. And what was happening was pigs and goats! My girls are never one to turn down one on one time with animals, actually, none of us are, so we went to brush some pigs and goats.





Not sure what this friend was looking at. Probably food!



We had to check out the souvenirs of course. Maura found a snake she needed to have. But hey, it wasn't a stuffed animal, so score!



After looking around a bit more, we headed back to the front to catch the train back to civilization. But while we waited, the girls saw a photo opp.



The train came soon and we got a couple of moving shots while on the train.





We decided it was time for a little snack. We all wanted something different though. We thought we'd find a seat at Harambe Market and then we could all get what we wanted. Lucy wanted a Mickey pretzel. Always a smart choice,



I was just a little hungry, so I got some hummus and veggies at the market there.



Jason and Maura went for Flame Tree BBQ. Jason was feeling ribs. I think Maura shared with him, and got some sort of kids thing because she's eating apple slices in the background of one of the pictures. I know Maura liked the ribs though, because she's already asking to go there for our upcoming trip.



It was a good snack and just what we needed. Since we had ADRs for breakfast, we had no real plans for dinner, but we knew we wanted to save some room for Pandora to see what they had there.

We had some avian visitors while we ate.





WE love the Disney Ducks. Our favorite story about them is when we heard on in the bushes at Epcot one time, and then suddenly it emerged from the bushes right next to Jason because he had a snack of some sort. It was really funny to see.

We still had a bit of time before our FoP FP+ was available, so we decided to go see It's Tough to be a Bug. The kids hadn't seen this since 2012 when they were hilariously terrified. Jason and I thought it was hilarious. They were terrified. Good times and our finest parenting on display. They were a lot older now though and wanted to try again. On the way there, we saw this little vehicle and of course they wanted a picture.





(continued in next post)

 

[Clarf]

The kids didn't realize we were going INSIDE the TOL to watch the show. That was exciting for them. We did get a few pictures on the way in. They actually turned out okay!





This is my favorite dinosaur, so I had to get a picture of him.



Soon we were in the tree waiting to get into the theater. I got a few pictures while we waited.

My daughter the fly.



This girl can always find something that stinks.



We were finally in and watched the show. The kids liked it much better this time and appreciated the humor and all the 4-D effects. Although before it started I think Maura asked me no less than 217 times "what does it feel like when the bee stings you?" I told her it felt like a finger poking you in the back. I don't think she believed me until she actually felt it. Nerd.

We were glad they enjoyed it this time and will be willing to see it again. While we were on the path out, we saw a new character for us! That's right, we saw Flik! How cool! He was really fun and animated! And there were hardly any people waiting to see him. He was kind of off in a hidden place, so we were glad we ran into him!









Jason and I had to get in on one too because, well, Flik!



With a new autograph in their book and a never before met character, the girls were excited. They were about to get even more excited, though! It was almost time for our FP+ for FoP! We started heading over to get our first glimpses of Pandora, but since we were on the trail by the TOL, we did get some more pictures.









"Mom, take my picture in this hidey hole."



TOL tour finished, we started heading over to Pandora to see what all the fuss was about. Of course we stopped at the entrance for some PP.









And then we were in! And yes, we were impressed. It really lived up to all the hype. Jason started snapping pictures right away.







And then our FP+ was ready so we hopped in line. The standby was still about 4 hours at this point, so we were really happy to have FP+. We literally walked right through the FP line and were waiting at the pre-show immediately. We were on the ride in no time. What did we think?


Wow. Incredible. One of the coolest rides ever. Maura upgraded this ride to her favorite. She wanted to ride again, but we had to tell her we weren't waiting 4 hours. She was accepting of that only because she found the Rookery and knew she must have her very own Banshee. She had her own money to spend, but we were figuring the Banshees would be minimum $120. We were pleasantly surprised to find out they were just $60. Still an expensive souvenir but definitely affordable for her! She wasted no time picking out an orange Banshee and immediately named him Link because she said that's what it said his name was on the ride. I think it said "link to something" on the screen on FoP, but she was convinced that was the name of her Banshee, and I wasn't one to argue. So, Link will be making his presence known in upcoming photos.

Here he is, because of course there was PP outside the ride, so here is Link's first photo with his new family.



Jason was feeling hungry, as the snacks we had shared earlier weren't a ton of food. He wanted to check out what Satu'li Canteen had, so while he went to look there, the girls and I went in search of a drink a friend had told Lucy about. We had to go to Pongu Pongu for that. We found what we were looking for, the Night Blossom. It was definitely a different flavor combo, but we really liked it!



Jason had found cheeseburger bao buns and the most amazing looking and tasting blueberry cheesecake mousse. Seriously, that dessert looked fake. But it did NOT taste fake. We all enjoyed it. We should have gotten 2 because Jason got it for himself, but I think he only got 1 bite!



Seriously, look at that dessert. We'll be getting more than one at our upcoming trip!

All feeling sated, we were able to get a new FP+ for Dinosaur, so we started walking that way. We did stop for some more PP by the ToL. Link is joining us again for the pictures.





This PP then told the girls to get out of the picture and she was going to take one of just mom and dad. She told us to look like we were in love, so without skipping a beat, this is immediately what we both did.



This right here friends, this is why we're married. We BOTH just instinctively knew to make this face. There was no discussion, no looks, we both just did it. The PP was laughing, we were laughing, the kids were laughing. We still laugh about it if we come across the picture. I'm sure it will be re-created on our trip, but it won't be as funny to us as it was the first time. We did then pose nicely for the PP.



(continued in next post)

 

[Clarf]

After all the ridiculousness, we headed over to Dinoland USA for our Dinosaur FP+. This is a family favorite, and we all enjoy this ride. They bumpy ride and the scare at the end are just fun.

Before we rode though, we had to find this guy and take some pictures. Maura and Jason did a photoshoot with this guy and all the dinosaur statues in this area during her first trip in 2012. She wasn't tall enough to ride yet, so while Jason and I took turns taking Lucy on, Maura met all the dinosaurs. This one is her favorite, and she always has to find him and get some pictures.







Just for fun, here she is in 2012 at just over 3 years old. This was the first time she met her friend and now he's a must see.



We were searching for the dinosaur in no time and soon came face to face with the Carnotaur.



Just in case you can't see that.



Now? Dorks, I tell you. Lucy never looks. I told her she has to this year. I'll hold her head up if I have to!

After riding that one, we went to see what else Dinoland had to offer.

We did Triceratop Spin. Here's a truly amazing picture.





We're in motion here.



Jason and Lucy rode Primeval Whirl then. Maura wanted to ride, but wasn't tall enough. I didn't ride because it will make me vomit, and no one wants that. I did take a picture of the ride though.



Maura is actually pretty sad this ride is closed now. She wanted to ride it now that she's tall enough.

We did a mini photo shoot while Jason and Lucy were riding.

I like this guy. He's cute.





As you can see by the pictures, it was getting later and AK would be closing soon. We totally regret not going back though to walk through Pandora at night. We heard how beautiful it is. We won't get to see it at night this time either, because they close so early. Next time. That's why we go back!

We headed back to CBR. Lucy and I went to package pick up to get our packages from Epcot from the day before. I know Lucy did a couple of pin trades while we were there. The girls got into that for the first time on this trip and are looking forward to more trading this time.

Jason took a snooze and was snoring away before we left the room. Maura stayed behind and watched Stacy.

While Jason was still sleeping, the 3 of us girls went to the Island Market in Aruba. This is when CBR was under construction, and each village had a little market where you could get grab and go stuff. The girls loved this and wanted to go at every chance they could. We also refilled our mugs.

Looks like we got a cookie, a chocolate Mickey, and uncrustables.

Once we finished those, we woke Jason up and headed out for more fun. We were headed back to MK for EMH this evening! I told you we were commando!

I'll get to that tomorrow though. I'm tired!

 

[Clarf]

Looks like you had a very nice meal at Coral Reef! I keep wanting to go back to that but somehow we always end up skipping it.

You are going to love BC villas!

Welcome! I almost missed your post!

We really do enjoy Coral Reef. It's not on the agenda for our upcoming trip, but we'll definitely be back!

We are SO excited about the villas! My kids are giddy with excitement about them!

 

[tundra1]

I love the photos your girls took! It keeps the trip real, and gives them great memories. I am always amazed at the things they find to be photo worthy, and you get a viewpoint from a much lower angle than you would otherwise! I am truly enjoying your TR!

 

[Clarf]

I love the photos your girls took! It keeps the trip real, and gives them great memories. I am always amazed at the things they find to be photo worthy, and you get a viewpoint from a much lower angle than you would otherwise! I am truly enjoying your TR!

That's why I share those pictures! It is fun to see a different point of view. I'm glad you're enjoying the TR! I am enjoying writing it!