"Hey Ma! I Can See EPCOCK From Here!" UD 11/26: The Legend of Puffie

[AmandaSparks730]

I love Dinosaur! But, I'm terrified of it. My eyes are always close during that ride. You wouldn't think I was 23 years old

You got some great pictures of the Tree! And what a silly/cute looking bird!

Too bad about the baby but that Gorilla is amazing! I hope the rest of AK day went well.. can't wait to read more!

Aww. Our ride picture from last year was hilarious. No one in our Time Rover looked scared at all. We're all just looking blankly at the dino!

Okay, you had me at Epcock! LOL...anyway, I'm in! I can't wait to read more and the pictures are beautiful!!

Trish

Hi, Trish! Thanks for stopping by! I'll be telling about the "Epcock" story in a couple of updates

great update!
at least you call it dinoland. to us its "the place with the dinosaurs"

and i love dinosaur <33

Thanks! Haha, Dinosaur is pretty awesome.

 

[Kellybelly777]

Good update

 

[AmandaSparks730]

Good update

Thanks!

 

[AmandaSparks730]

Animal Kingdom, Part 3

Or

Safaris, Parades, and...more Parades?

First off, let's start off with a tiny life update. I started my Senior Year of high school today! Eeeek! I'm taking a pretty full courseload this year. English IV Honors, Intro Psychology (first semester; Film & Literature second semester), Intro Sociology (first semester; Astronomy second semester), Health/PE, Computer Science 1 & 2, Spanish V AP, and Human Geography AP. Whew! I've had several of my teachers in previous years, so that's no problem at all. And, with the exception of Computer Science, I have at least one friend in each class. Woot!

Moving on to the actual Trip Report-ing...

Mom and I went on to use our KS FastPasses (Dad headed off to find us parade seats). I was anxious as parade time approached; Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade is my favorite of the daytime parades!

Approaching the Harambe Wildlife Reserve:

Here comes our Safari truck! :

What would we see this trip? Would we see the new baby elephant? We hadn't lucked out with the baby gorilla...and it was rather hot out...let's see!

White Rhino:

Hippos are always around! :

Two words: Baby. Giraffe. <3 :

Two more words: BABY. ELEPHANT. :

Isn't that the most adorable thing you've ever seen?

Are these guys ever active? :

We happened to get pretty close to a warthog! :

Our 2 week safari ended with the capture of some pesky poachers, and we hustled out of the queue...to find...

THE PARADE!

Oh nooooo! It had already started!

We'd only missed half of it, though, and I was just happy to have seen the baby elephant and baby giraffe.

I jammed along to my favorite parade music while Mom got these fabulous shots:

Mickey waved RIGHT at me in this one! :

Though I missed Minnie in her lovely safari outfit, I was happy to at least have seen that. Mom texted Dad telling him that we were making our way back to Dinoland to catch the next showing of Finding Nemo: The Musical. We trekked around through Asia and...

Whaaaaaaaaaa....

WE RAN INTO THE PARADE. AGAIN!

I, the Keeper of the Disney Maps and Knower of Parade Routes had forgotten that THIS parade looped from Africa, through Asia, around Discovery Island, and back to Africa!

We ended up stopping and watching the first half of the parade! Well, that's a lie. We didn't STOP, per se, as we were on a Nemo mission (err..*I* was on a Nemo mission) but as we were hustled along the parade route, we ended up watching the parade all over again! From start to finish!

2 parades in one day? At Animal Kingdom? Not possible, you say?

Well, if you're us, it's possible

We ended up crossing past Everest and over the shortcut to Theater in the Wild via Asia. Dad was already waiting in the VERY long line for Nemo. Gosh, that line was LONG! And for the 4:15 show! We did eventually make it into the theater, and ended up sitting about 3 or 4 rows back from the runway that the actors/puppeteers run across.

Nemo pics will come in the next update!

Up next:

I'm gonna go explore...in the BIG, BLUE WORLD!

And...

The Origins of EPCOCK!

AND...

What IS the view from our room?

Love, Meg

 

[Rora]

Congrats on being a Senior!! All your classes look good! And thank goodness you have friends in almost all of your classes!!

Adorable pictures! That baby elephant would make me want to jump out of the truck and go squeeze him!

You know, I've never seen Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade! I'll have to check it out since it's getting good reviews! You got some AMAZING pictures!! I just showed my DH the one of Donald and he about had a heart attack (we're Donald people!). Those pictures need framed, especially the Mickey waving one!!

Hey, at least you got to see the entire parade! So happy you got into the Nemo show. That's such a good show. The puppets just look so neat and I love the music!

Great update, Meg!

 

[Kellybelly777]

you got some awesome pictures from MJJP!!!

We had seen the baby elephant too! It was soo cute

 

[AmandaSparks730]

Congrats on being a Senior!! All your classes look good! And thank goodness you have friends in almost all of your classes!!

Adorable pictures! That baby elephant would make me want to jump out of the truck and go squeeze him!

You know, I've never seen Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade! I'll have to check it out since it's getting good reviews! You got some AMAZING pictures!! I just showed my DH the one of Donald and he about had a heart attack (we're Donald people!). Those pictures need framed, especially the Mickey waving one!!

Hey, at least you got to see the entire parade! So happy you got into the Nemo show. That's such a good show. The puppets just look so neat and I love the music!

Great update, Meg!

Thanks! I'm LOVING my Intro Psych class!

The baby elephant was adorable! We were so happy to have seen her (I believe it's a her?). SO cute, and so tiny! (Well, tiny for an elephant )

MJJP is my favorite of the parades, as I've stated. I love the music, I love the floats, and I love the giant puppets and stilt walkers! The CMs in that parade are always smiling and happy...plus, you get to see the gang in their safari clothes!

you got some awesome pictures from MJJP!!!

We had seen the baby elephant too! It was soo cute

Thanks! I love Mom's high-tech camera and zoom lens, haha.

 

[MickeyisBeast]

Awwwww, the baby elephant! <333 And the baby giraffe!
Fabulous update, Meg

I heard an announcement today at school for the grad night thingy at WDW/Universal? You are a senior... do you have any plans of doing that? I've heard countless seniors around school talking about how excited they are for that stuff. I really don't know too much about it, but when I heard the announcement I was like "Luckies!" LOL, I've still got 4 years to go D:

 

[AmandaSparks730]

Awwwww, the baby elephant! <333 And the baby giraffe!
Fabulous update, Meg

I heard an announcement today at school for the grad night thingy at WDW/Universal? You are a senior... do you have any plans of doing that? I've heard countless seniors around school talking about how excited they are for that stuff. I really don't know too much about it, but when I heard the announcement I was like "Luckies!" LOL, I've still got 4 years to go D:

Grad Night? Oh, we don't get to do that. Our school is SERIOUSLY in debt, and we'd have to raise a crudload of money. We do a Senior Class Trip, though. Last year's Seniors went to Six Flags. Basically, it's raise a ton of money somehow, or no Grad Night.

 

[AmandaSparks730]

Animal Kingdom, Part 5

Or

Grab Some Shell, The Origins of EPCOCK, and...What Pool View?

As I stated beforehand, we were sitting down to enjoy a fantabulous (and very crowded!) performance of Finding Nemo: The Musical. (Is it sad that I have that soundtrack on my iPod?)

Bubbles! :

"Isn't it beautiful?" :

"Let's go to school!" :

"I wanna go explore...in the BIG, BLUE world!"

"They grow up so fast, don't they?" :

"Let's name the zones, the zones, the zones..." :

"La la la la la la la la la la!" :

"Hmmm?" :

"Oh, look! Sharks!" :

(Marlin...er...fainted? Haha!) :

"My name's Nemo!" :

The Tank Gang! :

That's...one big...bird...

"Dude..."

"You, mini-man! Takin' on the jellies!" :

"Just go with the flow-ow-ow-ow-ow!" :

"Nemo? ...that's a nice name." :

"Are you ready? Really ready?" :

Curtain call! :

Yay! :

Go, Bruce! :

After the show we got out, I was clamoring for Maharajah Jungle Trek. Gotta have my tigers! Of course, the one tiger that was out was being a silly sleepyhead!

But we did see this mean-looking bird:

After that, it was getting somewhat close to park closing. Since we were just so close to Everest, I suggested we check out the single-rider line. If it was too long, we'd just go to AKL. We asked the CM, and he said "just about 5 minutes".

Mom and looked at each other, and hopped right in line!

Well, that CM was wrong. It was really about 10 minutes. But who am I to argue? It was totally worth it in the end. By some stroke of luck, mom and I ended up in the same train.

And by an even bigger stroke of luck (or perhaps just my lucky necklace!), I ended up sharing the front seat with a very friendly Asian man! And, oh, my. The front row of Expedition: Everest? DEFINATELY worth waiting for! It's INCREDIBLE! The views are just breathtaking. You might feel the backwards part last, but I did get to see the track switching in front of us. And that drop! Such an adrenaline rush! I was terrified, but good terrified. You know what I mean? SO worth the wait.

Ah, so you're wondering where the EPCOCK came in, right?

As told to me by Mom:

So Mom was going single-rider, as you know. She ended up with another mom. She asked the mom if she'd rather ride with one of her two kids. The mom said "oh, no, honey! It's me that's afraid, not them!" So Mom rides with this other friendly Mom. Who was terrified out of her own mind of the ride. And kept yelling "oh, Lord. We're goin' backwards! We're going backwards! Oh, lordy child!"

So again, what about the EPCOCK?

Well, apparently this mom's sons took the two seats in front of my mom. And one of them said, on the part with the broken track before you go backwards, "HEY, MA! I CAN SEE EPCOCK FROM HERE!"


Now, this kid wasn't meaning to say this. He was probably about 7 or 8, according to Mom.

But we just thought that was the funniest thing ever! For the rest of the week, we referred to Epcot as "Epcock".

Thus, the title of this TR was born!

Back to the reporting-ness.

We checked outta AK after our thrilling (and amusing) ride. It was nearing 6:30, and we were getting hungry. We took the very short bus ride back to AKL, and decided to check out our room before heading down to The Mara to get dinner.

Room 3010...oooh...

Giraffe Trail.

Very close to the lobby/gift shop/bus stop.

Right around the corner was the elevator to the restaurants/pool.

GREAT LOCATION!

The room was nice enough, 2 queen-sized beds. A nice enough bathroom. Our pool view was somewhat obstructed by the roof, though.

Oh, well. We were hungry. We were tired. We had to be up early the next morning. We were on a mission, dangit!

So off to The Mara we trekked. I believe I ended up getting the mac 'n' cheese. And, to my delight...

What's that playing on the TV back there?

Could it...no...it couldn't be...

DISNEY. SING. ALONG. SONGS.

My GAWD. These were the STAPLE of my childhood! I was OBSESSED with those VHS tapes! I watched them ALL THE TIME! I nearly cried tears of happiness as the familiar Heigh-Ho video played out. Sometimes it's just the little moments...

After our meal, we went back to the room. By that time, it was 7:30. I took a shower, and flopped into bed. Mom and Dad settled onto the balcony and drank some wine. I remembered that it was Monday, and tuned into The Secret Life of the American Teenager at 8:00. After that, it was time for bed!

Sweet (Disney) dreams are made of this. Who am I to disagree?

Up Next:

Keys to the Kingdom Tour!

Love, Meg

 

[Hedy]

OMG I loved those tapes!

 

[AmandaSparks730]

OMG I loved those tapes!

And who DIDN'T? I got most of them handed down to me by my cousin. My grandparents had the Be Our Guest one and Friend Like Me. I loved them to pieces--probably wore one or two out!

 

[Rora]

Great Nemo pictures!! Hey, it's okay.. I have the Nemo Musical soundtrack on my iPod too. we're twins!

That bird is really mean looking...

Anyways, so glad you guys got to ride EE again! And WOW! First row? That's amazing! I haven't had the chance to ride in the front row yet. Crossing my fingers for my next trip!

LOL I love EPCOCK. Too cute!

Your room sounds fantastic! Oh, and nothing is better than those old sing a long VHS tapes!! I, too, loved those as a kid!!

Sounds like you had a pretty perfect day!! Can't wait to hear about KTTKT!!

 

[AmandaSparks730]

Great Nemo pictures!! Hey, it's okay.. I have the Nemo Musical soundtrack on my iPod too. we're twins!

That bird is really mean looking...

Anyways, so glad you guys got to ride EE again! And WOW! First row? That's amazing! I haven't had the chance to ride in the front row yet. Crossing my fingers for my next trip!

LOL I love EPCOCK. Too cute!

Your room sounds fantastic! Oh, and nothing is better than those old sing a long VHS tapes!! I, too, loved those as a kid!!

Sounds like you had a pretty perfect day!! Can't wait to hear about KTTKT!!

Mom and I were joking about the Nemo show. "Hey, I work in Disney!" "Really? What do you do?" "I'm the coral in the Nemo show!"

The CM at EE was like "go to row one!" And the CM at the ride operating stand was like "ooh, you're lucky!" Very fun, very terrifying...and my next mission is to ride front-row on the Hulk at Universal Islands of Adventure!

Ahh, Disney's Sing-a-Long Songs...how I miss you! Up until somewhat recently, I still had the Christmas ones...haha! I found clips on YouTube and was in heaven!

KTTKT was our favorite part of the trip! Definately worth the time and money.

 

[wicked.witch.of.wdw]

I have the Nemo soundtrack on my iPod, too, don't feel bad XD Just Keep Swimming is totally my happy song.

OMG I LOVE DISNEY SING ALONG SONGS. *may or may not still have and rock out to my tapes*

 

[AmandaSparks730]

I have the Nemo soundtrack on my iPod, too, don't feel bad XD Just Keep Swimming is totally my happy song.

OMG I LOVE DISNEY SING ALONG SONGS. *may or may not still have and rock out to my tapes*

I love Go With the Flow. It's just a fun song to jam out to!

 

[AmandaSparks730]

Keys to the Kingdom Tour

or

Secret Parade, Woody Squared, and FOOD!

**WARNING: THERE BE SPOILERS AHEAD!**

We woke up bright and early that next day. We had a Keys to the Kingdom Tour to take! Our tour was scheduled for 9:00, so we were up and ready by 7. The MK had morning EMH that day, so we took a bus on over to the happiest place on earth!

We passed through the gates late, closer to 8:00. After a brief check-in at City Hall, we beelined for the Main Street Bakery. Objective: obtain cinnamon roll!

Mission? Complete.

Oh, my. It was BIG! And YUMMY! Mom and I ended up splitting one. Yum, yum, yum.

I had snagged a table by the window, so I happily watched the people strolling down Main Street--and the Main Stree performers! Their trolley stopped right in front of the bakery, so we got to watch the show!

After our yummy breakfast, we went back to City Hall to obtain our headsets (they had to find a modified one for me) and to await the start of our tour.

But wait...look over there! DAISY DUCK!

(Side note, I had this HUGE fascination with Daisy Duck at the tender age of 4.)

I haven't seen Daisy in years, and certainly not in this pink dress she had on...

Mother, may I see Daisy Duck? Please please please please?

YAYYYY!

I told her that I loved her outfit, and she thanked me. Ya know, in that Disney character way.

We made it back to City Hall JUST in time for the tour! Our tour guide was named Gregg, and he was super-friendly right off the bat.

Gregg:

Our first stop was the Roy and Minnie statue:

We strolled down Main Street and learned about Walt's vision for the park and for that particular area. We looked at the windows in particular, especially this one over the Plaza ice cream shop:

Our last stop on Main Street was, of course, the castle!

This picture would be perfect if not for the few people:

And with that, the Walt and Mickey "Partners" statue:

Do you know what Walt's pointing at? It's his brother, Roy, located just down the street! It's as if to say, "I'm not always going to be here, but you can always talk to my brother, Roy".

We veered off into Adventureland first. It was nice to get an in-depth view of the area, especially one as detailed as Adventureland is. Our first ride of the day was Jungle Cruise! Gregg managed to get us a boat all to ourselves, and talked us through the attraction. No corny spiel for these special guests! We even got to stop the boat in a couple places! Very cool. And no wait!

After a quick biological break in El Pirata y El Perico (which was actually closed, but Gregg had the keys to get in! How cool! I wish this place was open more often...) we ended up going on Pirates of the Carribbean. Two rides in a row? WOO-HOO! We had a 5 minute wait for this, but we had a boat to ourselves.

After we fought buncaneers, we headed off into Frontierland. Here was where we encountered our first backstage area of the day! Of course, I'm under Disney-liason not to tell of what I saw, but I'll give you a brief overcap anyway.

Woody headed to "wrangle Bullseye" or "talk to Jessie" or whatever:

Meeting with his handler:

We passed the railroad tracks, and through a gate that completely blocked us from the park. From here there were several trailers, the back of Splash Mountain, and some audio-anamatronics down for fixing!

Oh, and Woody's...twin?

It was a bit discerning to see TWO Woodys standing there...and one with his head off...but still, we got to see how the costumes 'worked' which was actually kinda cool.

We got to see the water thank-thingy for Splash Mountain (massive!), and where they store the parade floats for the 3:00 parade and the Main Street Electrical Parade. They were actually doing light tests on the MSEP floats when we were there, which was really neat!

Right before we left, we caught the Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! parade heading out! The whole thing! How awesomely awesome. The characters really got their groove on (Mr. Incredible especially!), and waved at us as we gawked at our special, private parade. Once in a lifetime!

Anyway, the backstage area was really cool, but really HOT! I swear, it was 100 degrees in the MK that day! Felt like it anyway...hey, Gregg, can we go on Splash? No? Poop.

Back into Frontierland we went, where we walked around and learned more about the area. My feet were beginning to hurt then, and it was just so darn HOT! Luckily, our next stop was the Haunted Mansion. We got to go through the secret CM entrance. KathyRN, you know which one we mean! The one with the servant's quarters?

We actually got stuck at one point! I'm assuming it was to help a disabled guest, but we'll never know. Still, we happened to stop right at the ballroom scene! We noticed a ton of things that we'd never seen before--we were here for a good 3-4 minutes! I just love this ride. There's so much to see, and it's nice and cool there.

Our lunch was next, at Columbia Harbour House. We had all pre-ordered the food, and had a roped-off section of the upstairs in which to eat. Fish and Chips--YUM! I love the food here--you get a large portion, it's good, it's less crowded, and it's nice. By the time we finished lunch, it was around noontime---not bad, eh? We went over the Liberty Square bridge to the Hub, where we went backstage yet again (over on Main Street), and learned about Tinkerbell's nightly flight.

From there, we went to the famed Utilidoors!

I really probably shouldn't say what we saw there, but WHOA! So cool!

By the time we'd finished the tour, it was 1:00-1:30. Gregg was a great tour guide, very informative and friendly. He also does VIP tours, and did the Disney College Program.

We trekked back down Main Street to check out the wait time for Splash Mountain--70 minutes--no way! We ended up in Fantasyland, to see Mickey's Philharmagic. Such a great attraction; one of Disney's best. I have to wonder, though, why it's only here and in Hong Kong Disneyland.

I ended up getting a Mickey ice cream bar and eating it on the patio of Pinocchio's Village Haus. After our snack-itude, we went back up Main Street and out of the park. We took the monorail to the Contemporary, and poked around for awhile. We ended up in the arcade, and played there for a good 20 minutes or so. The prizes there were a lot lamer than the last time we went here, after our dinner at Chef Mickey's the last trip. What a shame.

Off to the bus stop to grab a ride to DTD!

Up Next:

DTD fun!

Love, Meg

 

[AmandaSparks730]

Bump?

Come on, lurkers!

 

[Rora]

KTTKT!!

First, I'm so happy you're a Daisy Duck fan! She's my favorite!!

Your Daisy picture is adorable! And, I will need to try Main Street's cinnamon rolls- they sound too good!

I LOVE the meaning behind Walt pointing at Roy. Almost makes me cry,, but, I cry about anything Disney, haha.

How luck you guys got to eat in the closed El Pirata AND get a Jungle Cruise boat to yourselves! I hate the cheese commentary- you were spared!!

How odd to see two Woody's but I bet it was so neat to see how the costumes worked!

It is downright amazing you got to see the parade in the way you did!! I would've been so so excited (and probably crying.. lolol). Anyways, I think I might have you send you a PM about those Utilidoors!

Did you learn anything cool about Tinkerbell's nightly flight?

I'm so glad you enjoyed the tour-- I need to do it!!

Great post!

 

[AmandaSparks730]

KTTKT!!

First, I'm so happy you're a Daisy Duck fan! She's my favorite!!

Your Daisy picture is adorable! And, I will need to try Main Street's cinnamon rolls- they sound too good!

I LOVE the meaning behind Walt pointing at Roy. Almost makes me cry,, but, I cry about anything Disney, haha.

How luck you guys got to eat in the closed El Pirata AND get a Jungle Cruise boat to yourselves! I hate the cheese commentary- you were spared!!

How odd to see two Woody's but I bet it was so neat to see how the costumes worked!

It is downright amazing you got to see the parade in the way you did!! I would've been so so excited (and probably crying.. lolol). Anyways, I think I might have you send you a PM about those Utilidoors!

Did you learn anything cool about Tinkerbell's nightly flight?

I'm so glad you enjoyed the tour-- I need to do it!!

Great post!

Well, we didn't get to EAT in El Pirata y El Perico, but we did take a potty break there! Wish we could've eaten there, though. Nachos, quesadillas, tacos...right up my alley!

As for Tinkerbelle's flight, we did learn that sometimes she gets stuck on the zipline, and has to pull herself in (of course most people are too busy watching the fireworks to notice!)

Thanks for still reading! And DEFINATELY take the tour--highly recommend it!