How Many ADRs Can We Fit in One Week?: April 2015 TR- Finished 7/3!

[DisneyMandC]

Thank you! We're staying at Beach Club Aug. 31- Sept. 7. I'd love to stay at AKL or WL on our next trip (planning to return already lol!)

Your view at AKL is just amazing!

I stayed at WL a long time ago too and loved it. It's so beautiful in there. AKL looks so much like it which is why I think I liked it. I hope you have a great trip!

 

[jandlinz]

Great update. Love all your pictures of the aquarium. Your pets are so cute.
-Lindsey

 

[kastoney]

Looks like a great day at Epcot so far (rude cast member aside). I'm with ya on test track, its fun and all but aside from the outside part nothing all that special. Much prefer Soarin'

Man you love some Up and Manatee's. Glad you got to spend some time in the oceans

 

[hokieinpa]

Sounds like a fun morning at Epcot!

I love your manatee pictures - and that cake topper is so cute!

You guys found some great hidden Mickey's - did you use the book or the app to help you find them?

Sorry about the rude CM at MouseGear!

The smells on Soarin' is one of my favorites things. But I could never imagine waiting over an hour to ride it! I can't imagine waiting over 30 minutes to ride anything though!

 

[DisneyMandC]

Thank you all for the comments! Sorry I haven't updated anymore. Almost have another entry completed, maybe I can finish it today since I have a slow day at work!

 

[DisneyMandC]

Sounds like a fun morning at Epcot!

I love your manatee pictures - and that cake topper is so cute!

You guys found some great hidden Mickey's - did you use the book or the app to help you find them?

Sorry about the rude CM at MouseGear!

The smells on Soarin' is one of my favorites things. But I could never imagine waiting over an hour to ride it! I can't imagine waiting over 30 minutes to ride anything though!

Thank you! We used the book. I actually didn't even know about the app until I heard someone in Disney talking about it. I'm glad I got the book though, because taking pictures, checking the Disney app on your phone for wait times, etc. is enough to drain your battery without using another app as well! My nephew and I had actually used the book back in 2005 when we came and really enjoyed it. I still have it! I bought this book for Chris for Christmas since they came out with the updated New Fantasyland edition. I have to say, we were really enjoyed looking for hidden mickeys. As you'll see in my Animal Kingdom report, we really went nuts there!

 

[DisneyMandC]

Day Three at Epcot: Two Charcuterie Plates in 48 Hours? Yes, Please.

Plans for the Day:

ADRs: Coral Reef 11:45; Le Cellier 6:55
FP+: Mission Space 10:40; Soarin’ 2:10; Nemo and Friends 3:20

So, it turns out I lied on my last post! We did snap a picture from inside Club Cool of all the different flavors! It turns out the Japanese soda was the gross veggie drink. The drink from Thailand was the one I enjoyed!

Ok, on to the actual trip report…

By the time we were heading out of Future World it was 3:30, giving us a good chunk of time to check out World Showcase and end up in Canada for our dinner at Le Cellier! But first, we stopped for a couple pictures with the golf ball.

At this point, we were starting to enjoy Epcot a little bit more with the F&G Festival. Chris really enjoys gardening, so he especially loved the sections where they were growing actual vegetables. He took a lot of shots of the topiaries, so I’ll be sure to post those! On our way back to WS, he snapped this photo of the Mickey flowers.

It’s entirely likely that my photos of topiaries are not necessarily going to correspond to where we are in WS. Apparently my camera enjoys just uploading pictures to facebook in random order, so bear with me!

Our first stop was Mexico! We had spent a good chunk of time checking out the goods being sold inside the San Angel Restaurant area, so we didn’t spend too much time looking around there on this trip. Plus, we had an ADR for San Angel for later in the week. So we decided we’d hope on the Gran Fiesta Tour with Donald! I always enjoy this ride since usually it’s a good little break to sit in the A/C for a minute and just relax. Chris snapped a couple pictures while we were on it, including this one featuring a hidden Mickey!

Once we were all done riding, we headed back outside to continue our around the world journey. I tried to get Chris to buy a margarita, since those are his once in a blue moon drinks, but he didn’t want one. We were still too full from lunch at this point to try any nachos or anything. So we just headed onto Arendelle. Oops, I mean Norway…

Let me digress right here to talk about Frozen for a second. Frozen lovers, please proceed to the next paragraph! I am not a big fan of Frozen. I don’t get it. But apparently all of America’s youth does, because this movie is like CRACK. I mean, does anyone know the figures on this film? I feel like Frozen and its merchandise has probably made more for Disney than any other princess movie combined at this point. When we came to Downtown Disney in 2014, Chris and I were laughing at the signs that limited the amount of Frozen merchandise that could be purchased to five per family. Well now I see why! I could not BELIEVE that there were entire stores in MK and HS that were now devoted solely to Frozen! I mean, truthfully, has any other Disney movie ever had this kind of marketability that has been so readily gobbled up by its patrons? It just blows my mind. That movie has been out for almost two years now and is still going strong. Whatever. I mean, good for Disney, but jeesh! Find a new movie, kids! Let it go!

That being said… we’re now in Norway.

We checked out the bakery here since I’d heard so much about Schoolbread. It didn’t really look like my thing, but I saw a berry cream puff that looked delicious. I couldn’t stomach anymore food though, so I vowed to come back for it another time.

We also stopped in the Norway/Frozen museum to see the Norwegian/Frozen artifacts. And we didn’t ride Maelstrom because apparently Elsa is exercising her iron grip over that now… I’m only a little bitter, guys. We’ll just go to China now.

Something really neat happened between our journey from Norway to China though. As we came out of the museum, we saw a lot of people pointing towards the backstage area between the two countries. There’s sort of a wall and a couple trees there. I thought maybe there was an animal or something that people were pointing at when suddenly I looked up. It was a rocket! You could only see sort of the tail it left behind, but that’s definitely what it was clear as day! I wish we could’ve gotten a picture, but it probably wouldn’t have really turned out. I later learned that it was the Falcon 9 leaving Cape Canaveral on a cargo mission to the Space Station. I know that they send many different rounds of cargo up, but I wonder if this one was sent up in relation to the failed launch we had at Wallops Island in Virginia a couple months prior. It was pretty neat to watch, especially from Disney World!

On to China… We didn’t really do too much in China it appears, since I have no photos! We weren’t really in the mood for a movie, even though it would’ve been nice to get in the A/C. At this point, it had gotten pretty hot. We checked out some of the different snack offerings from the F&G festival, but didn’t stop to purchase anything. We sort of just cruised on to Germany, but suddenly we hit a roadblock!

They were bringing out the Illuminations Globe! I had never seen that done before, and thought that was pretty cool. It sort of just chugged along and out into the lagoon. I wish I had gotten some more pictures, but we were able to sort of peek back into the area where it had come from too. It took several minutes for the globe to move and to get the bridge back down. We sat down for a second in the meantime. Once it was finally done, we stopped by the Outpost momentarily for Chris to snap a pic of one of his favorite Disney movies!

Then we headed into Germany:

Again, sort of just cruised along. At this point, I think I was pretty hot. I was trying not to be a grumpypants, but I knew I would probably need to stake out some A/C and a chair before too long.

By the time we meandered into Italy, I needed something cool. And there it was- GELATO. Y’all, I didn’t even get a picture of my gelato, I ate it so fast. Who knows what flavor I even got at this point? Probably chocolate, but the point is it was delicious and definitely cooled me down! We grabbed our gelatos and booked it over to The American Adventure to sit in Liberty Inn where it wasn’t crowded (it was almost 5:00 by this point) and catch some A/C while eating our gelato. This was a much needed break. We sat here for about 10-15 minute just adjusting our pins, propping our feet up, and talking about what we’d done so far. We didn’t get any pictures or really check out anything here other then the topiaries, but it was a nice place to rest.

I checked out the menu at the Smokehouse stand there as well, which looked excellent! They had a Bacon Chocolate Cupcake that looked delicious, but I was content after my gelato and definitely didn’t want to fill up before Le Cellier.

Next it was my favorite country in WS- Japan!! I have always loved Japan in general and wanted to travel there. Haven’t made it that far yet, but I’ve always been fascinated by the culture, and particularly by geisha, which is a subject I love reading up on. The shopping here is excellent, but I’ve eaten at both Teppan Edo and Tokyo Dining, and wasn’t particularly impressed by either. Chris and I are BIG sushi fans, but we didn’t think much of Tokyo Dining on our 2012 trip. The shopping, however...

I didn’t get a lot of pictures in the store, but we spent a good chunk of time in there checking it out. I’m always fascinated by the kimono section, and occasionally see some people trying them on, but I feel bad wasting the CM’s time when I know I’m not going to buy one. I always love the Hello Kitty and Totoro sections! I was a big Totoro fan when I was little, and always want to buy all the Totoro stuffed animals! Chris has never seen it and thinks I’m nuts.

I finally made it back to my real love... candy. I always love seeing all the crazy candy and packaging in here. Like Green Tea Kit Kats... no thank you!

The best was the descriptions of the gummy candies on the bags though. I wish I had taken more pictures because it was pretty hilarious!

I did purchase some gummy candy while we were there since that’s my go-to candy, especially when I’m stressed. Hence the reason I gained ten pounds when studying for the bar exam last summer. Oops.

The CMs checking us out were very nice as well, and congratulated us on our wedding. I know I said at the beginning of this trip that we were going to do the “kiss every time someone congratulates you” thing. Well, 48 hours in we had completely lost track of the number of congratulations we got! They were coming at us left in right! We were definitely well over 50 by this point.

We headed out of Japan and to Morocco. We didn’t spend much time here, but stopped back by to explore a little later in this week. We did spot this hidden mickey though!

I’m going to stop here since I’ll be over my picture limit if I don’t! Our WS ventures will be completed in my next section!

 

[DisneyMandC]

Welcome back! Sorry for the interruption, too many pictures of WS! I just loved those topiaries!

Next up was France! I love the France layout. It’s so beautiful, and especially so with the F&G Festival. There were some great topiaries there. Belle was also out, but she left as soon as we went to get in line! Oh well. We also did a little shopping here a previewed the delicious snacks. I knew we would back here later this week!

I almost bought this apron for my (new!) brother-in-law, but it was a little pricey. However, I will say that he is an AMAZING baker. And he is awesome at making macarons. He was really jealous that we were at France with these delicious baked goods. Actually, he was really jealous we were at Disney World at all, but we’ll discuss that later!

We also got some great pictures of us in France!

Next up, we breezed past the International Gateway entrance and stopped into the United Kingdom. I’ve never eaten here, but have heard really great things and would really like to! There was a great band playing outside that had a mix of different British bands greatest hits going on. There were actually quite a few people watching.

We stopped in a couple of the store and checked stuff out. I flipped through a couple books about the royal family and the royal wedding. Yes, I am the person who woke up at 4 AM to watch the royal wedding, and I am not ashamed. That is when I realized I wanted a lace wedding dress! I thought surely I had gotten more pictures here, but apparently not.

Finally, we were headed to Canada! I can’t remember where exactly this little garden area was located, but I believe it was near Canada. They were growing some vegetables in it, and Chris really enjoyed looking at it. He came up with some ideas he wanted to implement for our own garden when he got home.

I can recognize cabbage, kale, swiss chard, sage, and oregano in this picture, all of which we have in our garden at home!

At this point it was only about 6:30, so we were 30 minutes early for our ADR. I remembered enjoying the film in Canada previously, but my feet were definitely not feeling having to stand in a movie! We decided we’d just go into Le Cellier to see if we could get in early… and we did! They seated us almost immediately. I have to say, we barely waited for any of our ADRs, and often got in early for most of them. Except one to be mentioned later, that was not stellar.

Y’all, I LOVED Le Cellier! No doubt about it, it was my favorite meal all week. I’ve always heard people say how a piece of steak was so good it melted in your mouth… well this was the real deal.

We had a great waitress who came over and told us congratulations on our wedding. We perused the menu for a few and looked at what some of the people around us were eating. A table next to us had poutine which looked amazing, but our waitress told us it couldn’t be subbed for an appetizer. Oh well, next trip. We both thought the cheddar soup sounded great, and I’ve heard so many wonderful reviews, but I was still just so hot that I couldn’t stomach the idea of eating a hot soup. Instead I got the charcuterie (yes, again, no shame), and Chris got the seared scallops.

Both appetizers were delicious, but I will say I actually thought my charcuterie plate at Be Our Guest was better! It was still excellent though. For our entrees, I ordered the filet mignon with the mushroom risotto and Chris ordered the rib-eye with potatoes (I think he ate them before he got a picture, they were definitely there though. I’m not lying when I say this is the best steak I’ve ever had. It was so incredibly tender and perfectly cooked. I’m so confused whenever I see a poor review of Le Cellier because our meal was incredible!

We were crazy full after this, but still had dessert, and we are definitely not ones to turn down food! I was so full though that I only ordered sorbet. I can’t remember what flavor it was, but it looks like there are some apples with it. Chris wanted to get the chocolate mousse, and the waitress told him that the kids’ mousse was better, so Chris went for that. Heck yes it was better! That little moose was adorable!

At this point, we were essentially in a food coma. I just looked back to where Chris posted a picture of his dessert on facebook and just said “food coma.” It was around this time that we started wondering whether or not we were gaining weight or losing weight. Chris has a Fitbit that said we were averaging 15,000 steps per day so far. My feet and legs were definitely killing me, so I felt like I was getting a lot of exercise! However, so far in the just over 48 hours that we’d been in Disney World, we had eaten meals consisting of appetizer, entrée, and dessert at Liberty Tree Tavern, Be Our Guest, Boma (ok so that was breakfast), 50s Prime Time Café, Coral Reef, and now Le Cellier. But hey, it was our honeymoon and you’re supposed to get married and get fat, right?!

Once we were all done, we headed back out into Canada. We were both pretty tired thanks to our food coma and full day of walking, so we decided we wouldn’t hang out for Illuminations and would instead head back to the hotel and get in the hot tub. We snapped a couple pictures of topiaries on our way out and got some nice photos of us as well!

We pretty much beelined back to the front of the park to grab a bus back to our hotel. We were both pretty worn out by this point and looked forward to hanging in the hot tub for a few. We hadn’t really checked out the pool area at the hotel other than having walked down to the Mara to get our refillable mugs. We’re not big pool people though, so we weren’t too concerned. The hot tub was great though! We got in the hot tub at about 9:30 and stayed in until it closed at 10:00.

When we got back to the room, we just hung out for a little bit organizing our pins and going over the hidden mickeys we found. In retrospect, I wish we had spent some more time looking for hidden mickeys in WS, but we were honestly just so hot walking around it that we really didn’t feel like doing much. I think in the future I will really consider taking a half-day/day to do Future World, and then coming back another day to do WS. There’s so much there I feel like I haven’t seen, even though we do go back to WS later in the trip.

It was also at this point that Chris officially went pin-crazy. We obviously didn’t want to trade some of the nicer pins we’d bought while there, and only had a fewer older ones each that we were willing to part with. So Chris went online and ordered some from Amazon! I know some people don’t like this, but I will say the ones we got were legit. I think he ordered a set of maybe 25 or 30? Since we’re Prime members, we got two day shipping on them and looked forward to receiving them later in the week to trade!

Lanyards now rearranged, it was officially time to say good night and get ready for the next day’s adventures!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I looked at this picture quickly and thought that Topiary Mickey was giving you rabbit ears

Walking around World Showcase might be my favorite thing to do at WDW - but it can get hot so understand how you were probably feeling by the end.

Oh, so I have 3 little kids and they are all totally into the Frozen thing and I can kinda get it. Actually, I've read a lot of theories about why it is so popular and one that makes sense to me is that it is about familial love rather than romantic love and little kids can relate to that more so it is easier for them to identify with the characters .... either that or the girl in the sparkly dress gets to sing the big show stopping number

We've never eaten at LeCellier and now that they have raised the prices/made it 2 TS credits, not sure if we ever will. My wife doesn't eat beef or pork so just doesn't appeal to her, especially, again, the prices. But your meal looks awesome and how great that your server suggested the kids moose! That is a great looking dessert.

Sounds like a nice evening and after such a full day (and full bellies) taking it easy probably felt really nice

 

[DisneyMandC]

I looked at this picture quickly and thought that Topiary Mickey was giving you rabbit ears

Walking around World Showcase might be my favorite thing to do at WDW - but it can get hot so understand how you were probably feeling by the end.

Oh, so I have 3 little kids and they are all totally into the Frozen thing and I can kinda get it. Actually, I've read a lot of theories about why it is so popular and one that makes sense to me is that it is about familial love rather than romantic love and little kids can relate to that more so it is easier for them to identify with the characters .... either that or the girl in the sparkly dress gets to sing the big show stopping number

We've never eaten at LeCellier and now that they have raised the prices/made it 2 TS credits, not sure if we ever will. My wife doesn't eat beef or pork so just doesn't appeal to her, especially, again, the prices. But your meal looks awesome and how great that your server suggested the kids moose! That is a great looking dessert.

Sounds like a nice evening and after such a full day (and full bellies) taking it easy probably felt really nice

Haha too funny on the picture! I hadn't even noticed that!

And I can understand not eating at Le Cellier, especially when you have kids and its 2 credits. Vacations for us, regardless of where we go, is all about the food though. I know a lot of people won't eat at TS if its 2 credits, but we don't really mind.

 

[kastoney]

Wow, what a perfect day you all had in the world showcase and a rocket launch to boot (side note we were in Chincoteague last year for the Wallops launch and saw the rocket explode, scary stuff).

Love the candy in Japan too!!! I always have to go in and find some crazy things to take back home with me. My hubby thinks I'm crazy to buy things that I have no idea what they are, but I just think its an adventure.

Your meal at Le Cellier looks amazing. And yes it is perfectly acceptable to have charcuterie as many days in a row as you deem appropriate. Wedding + honeymoon + disney + three course meals = perfection!!!

 

[chunkymonkey]

I am all caught up now! I really do miss WDW looking at your pictures since we were there at the same time! Your dinner at Coral Reef looked pretty good, but Le Cellier looks amazing!! I do love the filet there with the risotto. Even though filet is not my favorite cut ( I like ribeye) I do get it there...just delicious.

BTW, green tea kit kats are yummy! If you've had green tea ice cream it tastes like that. But with chocolate

That's really cool you saw the illuminations globe! I love illuminations so I will have to check it out next time...

 

[LiLs]

Day Two at Hollywood Studios: Where We Get Fooled by an Alcoholic Beverage


Plans for the Day:

ADRs: Boma 9:50; 50s Prime Time Café 5:15

FP+: ToT 1:05; Star Tours 2:55; RnRC 4:20


I’m waking up at Disney World, so obviously this is the best day! It doesn’t even matter that my feet are already aching, I’m looking at this off my balcony:

We took our time getting ready this morning as we were eating breakfast at Boma in the hotel. This ADR was sort of last minute as we had previously been planning to get a table service meal in HS. However, the table service restaurants there really leave something to be desired. We had eaten at Sci-Fi Theater on our trip in 2012 and didn’t really care to repeat it. I had eaten at Hollywood Brown Derby previously as well and couldn’t really remember it meriting 2 credits. So we settled on a big breakfast at Boma and an earlyish dinner at 50s Prime Time.

While we were getting ready we tried on our new ears. This is the only time Chris would have his on the entire trip. Oh well, we at least have a cute souvenir.

We headed downstairs to Boma where we had an AMAZING waitress. She was so nice, as soon as we sat down she asked us about getting married and wanted to know all about the wedding. Then she asked us if we’d like some free mimosas to celebrate. Now, you should all know that neither of us drink. I simply don’t like the taste of alcohol. Chris will have the once in a blue moon margarita. But we didn’t want to be rude since she was so nice to offer it, so we decided to take her up on it. She offered to have it made with their Jungle Juice with guava and pineapple (I think?). We agreed to do that and then went to get our plates.

YUM.

We absolutely loved everything. We thought it was so delicious. I ate two plates and then hoped that I would somehow get three more stomachs like a cow so I could eat more. When we came back from getting our first plate, we had our drinks waiting on the table. I picked up the mimosa to take a small sip and wait for the inevitable disgusting taste. It was DELICIOUS. I couldn’t believe how much I liked it! I figured there must not be very much alcohol in it, but that was fine since I preferred it that way anyways and it was free. I told Chris he had to try it and he agreed that it tasted great. I couldn’t believe I was actually enjoying an alcoholic beverage! ...until the waitress walked over with the actual drinks in champagne glasses. Turns out she’d just brought us some glasses of the Jungle Juice alone to make sure we actually liked it before bringing out the actual mimosas. Oops! One sip of the mimosa and I said “blech, champagne!” and begin to dilute it with the rest of my Jungle Juice remaining in my glass. Oh well!

Those of you who know anything about alcohol would have immediately known that I wouldn't served champagne in an orange juice glass. But like I said, I don't drink and definitely have never ordered a mimosa haha.

Our waitress was also nice enough to take this photo of us with our drinks. The ACTUAL drinks haha.

After our amazing meal, it was time to head out to Hollywood Studios! We stopped on our way in to get a couple of pictures. I LOVE Fantasia, so I loved having our picture here.

Once we got inside, I knew exactly where I wanted to go first. TOWER OF TERROR! Now I know I said Space Mountain is my favorite, but in reality I really think Tower of Terror is my ultimate favorite. I’m honestly not sure there’s any ride at any theme park I love more. We went to check out the wait time and saw that it was only about 20 minutes long. I unilaterally decided that was worth it and we jumped in line.

Tower of Terror is probably my favorite line. Yeah, I know that sounds weird. But it’s just beautiful. The landscaping is amazing and I’m always amazed at just how real the attraction looks. You really feel like you’re stepping back into time to an old Hollywood hotel. I love seeing the lobby (and feeling that first cool blast of air conditioning!).

We got into our elevator and had the ride of our lives! I just loved it! There’s nothing like riding your favorite ride after three years away. By the way, I love this little girl in the front row!

Once we got off, we still had a while before our FP for Tower of Terror again (because, why not?!). Chris wanted to see the Indiana Jones Show, so we headed that way. I'm usually not a super big fan of shows like this, but I thought it was pretty cool! We enjoyed the stunts and seeing the audience play along. Unfortunately, it started raining pretty well during the show and they did not get to perform the third scene. But oh well. It got us out in time to head back to Tower of Terror again!

Once we got off our second Tower of Terror ride for the day, we headed to RnRC to check the line. It was only about 15 minutes for that, so we decided to get in line for it. We made it through the line in closer to 10 minutes and decided to sit in the front row. How much fun is it to stand in that line and watch car after car take off? I’ll never forget when I first rode this ride in 2005 with my nephew, who was only about 8 at the time. I still have the picture of us screaming as the car takes off full speed. We loved it!

We got in our front row and sped off to the concert!

When we got around to the exit station, we both stood up to leave when the CM saw our just married buttons and told us congratulations. We thanked him and then he said “want to ride again?” Are you kidding?! Of course we do! He directed us through a door and put us right back on the front row to ride again! Woohoo pixie dust!

After a great second ride, we thanked the CM again on our way out and headed into the gift shop. We decided to talk to one of the CMs in order to trade some pins. We had noticed that some of the CMs had their lanyards flipped around so you couldn’t see their pins. We sought out one of their CMs and asked to see his pins, and he told us we’d have to answer a trivia question in order to see his pins. I thought that was pretty neat! He offered Disney Parks or Disney Movies trivia. I went with Disney Parks first, and he asked me who the two original “characters” of Epcot were. I knew one was Figment, but I am not really an Epcot person, so I had no clue on the other! He told me it was Dreamfinder. Never heard of him! Don’t strike me down, Epcot fans! He offered to give me another shot on Disney Movies. He asked if I had a favorite and I told him Up! My question: Where is Mr. Fredricksen trying to travel to in his home? Duh, Paradise Falls! Unfortunately I cannot remember which pin I traded him for, but I thought it was a fun little game nonetheless!


Next, we watch some more shows and later in the evening almost become a permanent guest (for real) on Tower of Terror!

So nice of the CMs! and congrats on the wedding!

 

[DisneyMandC]

Day Four at Animal Kingdom: Find ALL the Hidden Mickeys!

Plans for the Day

ADRs: Yak & Yeti, 1:00 PM; California Grill, 8:45 PM
FP+: Kilimanjaro Safari, 9:25; Expedition Everest, 2:15; Festival of the Lion King, 3:30

Good morning! Day Four! How are we halfway through our honeymoon already?!

We got to sleep in a little this morning since we were planning to go to AK today and we were so close to it, so we knew it wouldn’t be a long trip. We must have basically woken up and gotten dressed and out the door though, because I don’t have any pictures of animals from the balcony that morning. I do remember one thing we ate for breakfast though- Zebra Domes! Chris had mentioned to me that he’d read online that they were supposed to be really good, so we decided to check them out for breakfast, because why not! I ran down to the Mara to grab them while Chris finished getting ready. We ate them in secret on the bus (sorry, Disney!). They were pretty delicious!

The bus ride was super quick! We also chatted with a nice CM during our short wait for the bus who was in the DCP and from Virginia Tech! She was the first CM from Virginia that I’d seen in the college program.

AK had EMH that morning starting at 8 AM, but we got there just before 9 AM. Regardless, there was hardly anyone there! I checked the wait times on the Disney app on the bus and saw that the wait time for EE was only 10 minutes. We decided we’d go ahead and go straight there to hop on before our Safari FP!

We only snapped one quick picture on our walk into AK and didn’t stop for any Photopass pictures then. On the way in, Chris also pointed out the signs to me that featured the dragons on them in addition to other animals. I had definitely known about the intended “Beastly Kingdom” beforehand, but had definitely forgotten about it until Chris said something. I don’t think we snapped a picture unfortunately.

Once we got inside, we basically hoofed it straight back to EE! We didn’t really look at any of the animals or anything since we really wanted to get a ride in before our FP later in the day. We made it back there quickly and couldn’t believe that the wait was only 5 minutes! We immediately hopped on and raced through the line all the way to the loading area! My photo shows we were on at 9:09 AM.

And then again at 9:21 AM!

We had such a great time on our first ride we figured why not get on again! We are definitely the type of people to ride things multiple times in a day, as you can see. The more the better for me!

Once we were finally done with EE, we headed to Africa to use our FP+ for Kilimanjaro Safari. I know a lot of people aren’t big fans of Animal Kingdom or call it a “half-day park,” but I think we could easily spend all day there looking at the animals. It’s probably Chris’s favorite park, to be honest. We were looking forward to riding the Safari relatively early in the day and hopefully seeing a lot of the animals out. On our way there, we stopped for a picture.

And a snack!

We had a great ride with a wonderful tour guide! It wasn’t quite as exciting considering we’d been checking out animals from our room everyday, but we still really enjoyed it. We could see the members of the Wild Africa Trek hanging out with the crocodiles as we came by. Chris really wants to do this tour next time we go to Disney, but I don’t know how I feel about hanging out with crocodiles and don’t like the look of that rickety little bridge thing from the pictures! We’ll see... Behind the Seed seems more my speed!

Once we were done with our Safari, we hopped out and headed to the Pagani Forest Trail. I loved watching the hippos and gorillas here, especially since some of the baby gorillas were out! The hippos were still for so long we seriously thought they might have been fake until one blinked. We got a picture on our journey.

We enjoyed exploring Pagani for a while, and on the way out saw the Wildlife Express Train. I had never really paid attention to Rafiki’s Planet Watch, or maybe not even heard of it for that matter, but we were really looking for Hidden Mickeys this day and saw that there were A LOT at Rafiki’s! We hopped on the train and headed that way. We really enjoyed the train ride over and seeing where the animals were kept, particularly the elephants. Talk about some big enclosures!

When we arrived at Rafiki’s, we headed straight down the trail to start looking for our Hidden Mickey’s. When we arrived at the front of the building, there was a CM out front with a microphone and a guitar playing some songs and interacting with the crowd. We were looking for a hidden mickey that was supposed to be in the stonework on the ground in front of the building and having a tough time finding it. The CM was nice enough to come over and help us spot it when we were looking in the wrong area. Thanks, friendly CM! We had more than one CM help us during the week, which really made it a lot of fun. It’s amazing how many of them know where hidden mickeys are. I wonder if they pick up this knowledge in some sort of training, or if they just eventually spend enough time helping people out that they eventually find them all in their area.

I don’t think it’s the best hidden mickey, but it’s clear it’s intentional in my opinion. We headed inside then where it was Hidden Mickey Mania! I won’t post every picture here, but I think we found just about every Hidden Mickey in the place!

We also got our picture taken with Rafiki!

We didn’t explore too much in terms of the sound booths in there, but we did watch them perform some activities with a turtle, something about it having to pick the cup a treat was under. We spotted a couple more hidden mickeys and then headed out!

Up Next: I want to be a Wilderness Explorer!

 

[DisneyMandC]

Wow, what a perfect day you all had in the world showcase and a rocket launch to boot (side note we were in Chincoteague last year for the Wallops launch and saw the rocket explode, scary stuff).

Love the candy in Japan too!!! I always have to go in and find some crazy things to take back home with me. My hubby thinks I'm crazy to buy things that I have no idea what they are, but I just think its an adventure.

Your meal at Le Cellier looks amazing. And yes it is perfectly acceptable to have charcuterie as many days in a row as you deem appropriate. Wedding + honeymoon + disney + three course meals = perfection!!!

That is scary seeing the rocket explode! And now SpaceX has exploded, so they're not having much luck rocket-wise.

I am all caught up now! I really do miss WDW looking at your pictures since we were there at the same time! Your dinner at Coral Reef looked pretty good, but Le Cellier looks amazing!! I do love the filet there with the risotto. Even though filet is not my favorite cut ( I like ribeye) I do get it there...just delicious.

BTW, green tea kit kats are yummy! If you've had green tea ice cream it tastes like that. But with chocolate

That's really cool you saw the illuminations globe! I love illuminations so I will have to check it out next time...

Thanks for reading! I've been waiting to find someone who was there the same time! I've seen a lot of people's TRs who were there just before and just after. Where did you stay while you were there?

 

[chunkymonkey]

Thanks for reading! I've been waiting to find someone who was there the same time! I've seen a lot of people's TRs who were there just before and just after. Where did you stay while you were there?

Actually we were there right after you...we went in mid-May. But it's the whole Flower and Garden theme...makes me wish I was back there!
Your animal kingdom day looks really fun too! I myself think AK is just a half park day. I'm really only there for the animals too. But I did go to Rafiki's Planet Watch this time around. It was my first time there and I thought it was really cool!

 

[DisneyMandC]

Actually we were there right after you...we went in mid-May. But it's the whole Flower and Garden theme...makes me wish I was back there!
Your animal kingdom day looks really fun too! I myself think AK is just a half park day. I'm really only there for the animals too. But I did go to Rafiki's Planet Watch this time around. It was my first time there and I thought it was really cool!

Ah, got it! Yeah, we really enjoyed F&G. I don't think we would have spent the whole day in Epcot otherwise, but Chris really liked all of the gardening exhibits. We actually spent less time in AK this trip than we normally would have! Hopefully I can get the rest of the day's update done soon!

 

[kastoney]

The bus ride was super quick! We also chatted with a nice CM during our short wait for the bus who was in the DCP and from Virginia Tech! She was the first CM from Virginia that I’d seen in the college program.

Go Hokies!!!!

We had such a great time on our first ride we figured why not get on again! We are definitely the type of people to ride things multiple times in a day, as you can see. The more the better for me!

How can't believe you got to ride twice so fast. Great timing on your parts.

Once we were finally done with EE, we headed to Africa to use our FP+ for Kilimanjaro Safari. I know a lot of people aren’t big fans of Animal Kingdom or call it a “half-day park,” but I think we could easily spend all day there looking at the animals. It’s probably Chris’s favorite park, to be honest.

I'm with hubby. I think MK still wins out in my heart for the classiness of it, but AK is primed and ready to sneak right in there. I love just exploring and getting lost into the majesty of it all. And theming wise, the other parks can't even touch it.

! I won’t post every picture here, but I think we found just about every Hidden Mickey in the place!

Wow, I had no idea all these were here. Especially love all the ones in the eyes. Think I just found a new game for my daughter next time we're there ; )

 

[DisneyMandC]

Wow, I had no idea all these were here. Especially love all the ones in the eyes. Think I just found a new game for my daughter next time we're there ; )

There are a TON. We took pictures of a lot of them, but there were seriously probably 30 or 40 of them in there, a good chunk of which was on the initial mural. It was really neat and we spent a lot of time in there looking for them! Besides the fact that is a really incredible painting.

 

[DisneyMandC]

So sorry that it's been so long since I've updated! I had gotten this written last week but then my photobucket account wouldn't work right, so I had to wait until I got to work to access my photos. Here's Day Four!

Day Four at Animal Kingdom: Make Sure You Pat Dug’s Head!

Plans for the Day:

ADRs: Yak & Yeti, 1:00 PM; California Grill, 8:45 PM
FP+: Kilimanjaro Safari, 9:25; Expedition Everest, 2:15; Festival of the Lion King, 3:30

Once we were done with our Hidden Mickey journey through Rafiki’s, we decided to head to Yak and Yeti since we were approaching our ADR time. I’m not sure if we got a little lost or just took the long way around, but however we went we ended up running into these two!!

My absolute favorite!!! If you can’t tell, most of my pin purchases up until this point are Up pins. I have a couple extra on my lanyard to trade, but I think with the exception of the F&G pin and an AKL pin, all of the pins I bought were from Up! I mentioned previously that our golden retriever’s name is Russell and our cat, who is a girl, is named Kevin. I LOVE Up! Even though it was now about 12:15 and our ADR was at 1:00, I made Chris get in line to get pictures them both. The line wasn’t terrible, but Russell and Dug had to take a snack break at one point! I was so excited when I finally got to see them!

Russell loved my pins! I wish they’d gotten a picture of him leaning in to look at them all. He sort of longingly pointed and stared at my “Ellie” pin as well, which was really cute. I told them about our dog who looked like Dug, but was named Russell, which they thought was funny, and Dug gave me a kiss! We got our picture and I was getting ready to walk away, when Dug started leaning on me. I was laughing and wasn’t sure what he was doing, but he just kept leaning in more and putting his head on my shoulder until I finally realized he wanted me to pat him on the head! Too cute! I really loved this character interaction.

I should mention now, since we had seen Dug and Russell, that I had spotted the Wilderness Explorer set ups earlier that morning on my way in! I love this idea! I really kind of wish I had done it, even though it’s technically for little kids. But who are we kidding, Disney is for everyone! I never signed up for it, but I did spend most of the day screaming “THE WILDERNESS MUST BE EXPLORED” at Chris whenever we saw a Wilderness Explorer stand. Truthfully, Chris loves Up too, so he would usually answer me with “heeeeeere snipey, snipey, sniiiiipe ::clap clap clap”::” I married the right man!

Once we were all done, it was about 12:30. Since we were right at The Tree of Life and there was no wait for It’s Tough to be a Bug we decided we’d hop on that real quick before lunch, even though we’d be cutting it close. It was funny and enjoyable as usual!

Once we were all done, we booked it over to Yak and Yeti to make our reservation. We got there shortly after 1:00 and had a small wait.

Neither of us had eaten here before, but had heard good reviews. We were seated in the upstairs area. Our waiter was very nice, he seemed a little spaced out, but we were happy with him. I didn’t seem to get many pictures of our food other than dessert though! We were very hungry.

For our appetizers, I got the pork egg rolls and Chris got the firecracker shrimp. The egg rolls were fine, they’re hard to mess up. His firecracker shrimp were very good! I really wanted the Ahi Tuna Nachos, but it’s an appetizer for two and Chris is always very lenient about letting me pick food and I could tell he really wanted the firecracker shrimp. I’ll try the nachos next time!

I believe Chris got the Kobe Beef Burger for his meal. He really enjoyed it and said the beef was excellent. I liked it as well, but I’m not a big fan of ****ake mushrooms so I’m glad I passed. I wasn’t too adventurous for this meal and just went for the combo shrimp and chicken lo mein. Holy cow!! It was huge!! And talk about a ton of chicken and shrimp. I honestly felt bad about how much I left on my plate, especially how much meat I left! They really gave you a lot of food. If you’re really hungry and looking for a good deal, I would definitely recommend the combo lo mein.

I was super full by the time dessert rolled around, but of course I powered on. Chris ordered the fried wontons. I really would have liked to have gotten these, but I was just so full I couldn’t stomach the idea of something that heavy. I got the mango pie instead, which was excellent and pretty refreshing.

While we were eating, we had a wonderful CM stop to talk to us. I can’t remember specifically what I said, but I think I was referencing something regarding all of the construction around AK. The CM asked if he could answer any questions for me, and we started discussing the construction and Avatar Land. As I’ve said, I only joined the DIS shortly before our trip, so wasn’t really up to date on all of the construction. We talked for a bit about Avatar Land and the choice to bring that in. I have never seen Avatar, so perhaps I’m missing out and seeing it would aid my excitement for it? It just doesn’t really seem to fit into AK from what I’ve heard of it, but perhaps I’m wrong. Anyways, it was a nice chat with the CM and I remember being very impressed with his knowledge. Thanks, nice CM!

Once we were done with lunch, it was time for our FP on Expedition Everest again! I really enjoy riding in the front row for a couple of reasons. First, the view when you’re sitting at the top of the mountain is excellent. It’s really amazing how spread out everything is! I also love being able to see the portion of track flip over when you get ready to go back forward again. Disney engineering is really amazing!

Also, maybe I’m the only one, but I didn’t realize that the Yeti is “broken.” When I started reading TRs, posts, etc. on “disco yeti” I had to look up what the heck people were talking about! I had only ever previously ridden EE in 2012 on our trip, as they were building it in 2005 when I last came. So apparently I’ve only ever seen Disco Yeti, and not the fully functioning one. Hilariously, I somehow completely missed seeing the Yeti altogether the first time we rode it in 2012!

Once we finished up at EE, I decided to steer/forcefully drag Chris towards Dinosaur! We rode this in 2012 and he was pretty scared, as was I! Honestly, I really do think this ride is kind of scary! I do enjoy it though, so I made Chris get on it with me. We basically walked on!

And here it is. Without a doubt the greatest ride photo from our trip...

Chris’s face is the best! Notice that there are multiple children in our car who aren't as scared as he is. Once we were all done, we headed back towards Dinoland. We checked out a store while we were there, I loved the ceiling in here! We hadn’t really done any shopping in AK yet, so we looked around here for a while. I have to say, I’m really disappointed in the lack of Up merchandise sold by Disney. It seems to me like this would be a total moneymaker. You could do stuffed animals of Kevin and Russell, and a talking dog for Dug easily. They barely even have keychains or anything else related to Up though. It seems weird. Anyone know why they’ve never really made merchandise for this? I for one would probably one of everything… haha.

We decided to hop on Primeval Whirl while we were in the area since there was no wait. I don’t really have much to say about this Disney ride… it’s fine, it fits in the area that it’s in. I don’t think there’s much more to it than your average amusement park ride though. I’ve ridden something very similar at the Busch Gardens near us.


By the time we got off of Primeval Whirl, it was time to head over for our FP for The Lion King! Neither of us had ever seen this show before and were really looking forward to it. We stopped on our way there for a picture, but all of the Photopass pictures came out blurry! Oh well, here's the door

I will also say that we had been keep our eyes open for DeVine during our journeys through this area, but never saw her. We did see her during our 2012 trip, but no luck this time!


Africa was pretty crowded when we arrived and I was definitely getting pretty hot by this point. It was just after 3:30 at this point, the opening time for our FP, and we checked out the line. It didn’t look too crowded, so we decided to grab a delicious little pineapple flavored snack for our wait.

These were perfect and definitely helped us cool down while we waited. We had to eat them pretty fast before we got inside, but we didn’t mind.

I’m not really sure this show was a great use of our FP+. I guess it’s more helpful when you want to sit right up front, but we both wanted to sit in the back so we could lean back against the back railing. It didn’t seem too terribly crowded either. The sections were full, but it wasn’t that bad.

We LOVED the show! I thought this was very well done. We both love the music from The Lion King, and all of the vocalists sounded great. The choreography, vocals, and sets were all amazing. We really enjoyed it and I wish I had some video of it! We were definitely singing along in the crowd! I especially loved the “Be Prepared” portion. Great show!

Once we were done, Chris said he wanted to head back over to Asia and try Kali River Rapids. I’m not a big fan of water rides, mainly because I’m ALWAYS the one to end up totally soaked. When we got over to KRR, it was about a 30 minute wait. There was barely a wait for EE, so we hopped back on that for the, uhhh, 4th time that day… cough cough. Whatever, don’t judge me.

I thought that would be enough to assuage Chris, but when we got off the KRR wait time was down to 20 minutes… grrr. I begrudgingly agreed to go on it after we put our items in a locker. Also, shout out to Disney for free locker rentals for the first couple hours. I think I’ve spent a small fortune paying for lockers at Busch Gardens.

Anyways, we stowed our things away and got in line. We had to wait about 20 minutes, so I took some pictures.

Once we got to our raft, I sat down and immediately experienced the wet butt feeling, which is always delightful. As we began our journey out of the boarding area, I got to see Disney in action when somebody disobeys the rules. We were just moving down the straightaway from the boarding zone when all of a sudden a huge burst of water came our spraying directly onto the tube behind us. At first I thought it was just a random jet to soak the people, but then I saw a CM yelling and a guest standing up in their tube! Apparently this guy just decided he’d stand up to impress his friends. The CMs were not amused. The jet of water pushed the tube over to a little holding area where a CM was standing. The guest was immediately told to get out of the tube, and the rest of his party followed. Way to stand in line for 20 minutes only to not get to ride because of your stupidity…

Honestly, I don’t have much to say about KRR other than I got COMPLETELY SOAKED. And I don’t just mean “oh my shirt got wet and my shoes and socks are wet. No. I want backwards down the hell and had that huge wall of water slam over top of me. I was completely soaked head to toe. Like, didn’t even get a picture because it probably would have been indecent… I was not very amused! Chris, naturally, found it hysterical.

Other than that thought, I really didn’t care for KRR. And not just because I got wet. I just really didn’t think there was much to it. It seemed like you had that one hill and wall of water and that was it. I got to the end and remember thinking “that’s all? We waited for that?” Oh well.

Despite being soaked, we stopped to do a little shopping on our way out of AK. Since we were about mid-way through our trip, we decided we should probably start doing some souvenir shopping since so far we’d only bought a gift for my mom. I looked in vain again for Up merchandise, but no luck. We did find a shirt for Chris’s little brother though. It was overtly Disney, but did say “Animal Kingdom” in small letters at the bottom and had a graphic of giraffes filled in with a cool print. He must have liked it because he wore it when he came to say with us recently! We didn’t really see anything else we wanted to get for anyone. I can’t remember if we bought anything for ourselves there, but we honestly didn’t buy ourselves too many souvenirs other than pins, so I doubt we did!

Once we were done shopping, we headed to the exit. I think we had crossed Animal Kingdom about 4 times at this point, and now I had soaking wet shoes, so my feet were a little tired. Fortunately we were just a short bus ride away from our hotel though! We did see this little gem before getting on our bus. I thought that was pretty funny and had to send a picture of it to my friend who is a huge Monsters, Inc. fan. Speaking of which, I just watched Monsters University for the first time this past weekend and loved it!

Since I was soaked from KRR and Chris was fairly drenched as well, we decided to take showers and regroup before heading to our dinner at California Grill. Since our reservation wasn’t until 8:45, we still had a pretty good chunk of time until we needed to be at the Contemporary. We decided that we’d sort of take the long way around to there. We hadn’t ridden the monorail yet, so we decided to hop on a bus to Epcot and get on the monorail there to go to the Contemporary! When we got to Epcot, we had just missed the monorail so we waited for a few. There was hardly anyone in line though, and we didn’t mind hanging around for a bit. I can’t remember which monorail we finally got when it came, but we were still running pretty early for our reservation. We switched at the TTC to head to the Contemporary, where there were a lot more people waiting for the monorail. We still got on the first one that came up though.

In no time, we arrived at the Contemporary! I hadn’t been in the Contemporary since my trip in 2005 when we went for a breakfast at Chef Mickey’s. My nephew and I had also done some Hidden Mickey hunting while we were there. That being said, I hadn’t really checked out the interior of the Contemporary in a long time. I have to say... I’m not a fan. Neither Chris nor I were. I’ve heard other people use this word and I have to agree- it’s sterile. And Chris is a big fan of Contemporary design, but he didn’t like it, especially the lobby area.

We strolled around the hotel a little bit killing time before our reservation. We stopped in the Fantasia store and shopped a little bit. The CMs working there saw us with our Hidden Mickey book and asked us about the ones we had found so far. I wanted to take Chris out to show him the Hidden Mickey sitting on the back of the hotel, since my nephew and I had found that on our trip and really liked it. It was starting to rain a little bit though. We decided instead to go upstairs and try to get in to our dinner a little early.

There were quite a few people checking in for dinner at California Grill when we arrived, but we got into our elevator fairly quickly. We were taken immediately to our table when we arrived upstairs. I was hoping for a great view of the fireworks, but knew we could just go outside to watch if we didn’t have a great view.

I was very happy with our view!

We weren’t right up against a window, but we were sitting along the side where there is a long bench on one side and tables with one chair on the other side (if that makes sense). I sat on the bench side facing our view while Chris sat across from me.

We had such a fantastic meal there! We love sushi, so for Chris’s appetizer he ordered the dragon roll. I ordered the tempura softshell crab. YUM! Both were excellent.

As soon as I saw bison on the dinner menu, I immediately told Chris I was ordering that! I had the bison striploin. It had potatoes and brussel sprouts with it. The bison was excellent. I didn’t like the brussel sprouts, but they have to be basically charred black in order for me to like them, and even then it’s iffy.

Chris had the Pork Two Ways, which included pork tenderloin and pork belly with applesauce. He really enjoyed his meal and I thought it was delicious as well.

Now I have to stop with the food commentary here to discuss the one bad thing about this meal. The “oh my god, control your child, are you even actually a parent” out of control kid at a table close to us. There was a woman sitting at a table for about 6 in the middle aisle area of the restaurant with a child who was probably 4. I have no idea where all the other members of her party were, but this woman was drinking wine and literally just allowing her child to run laps around the table. The kid was constantly knocking into stuff and being really irritating. At one point, I watched him run into the legs of their waiter who was carrying a tray full of food. Mom, meanwhile, continues to drink her wine and had randomly struck up a conversation with the table next to her. I could tell the waiter was visibly irritated, but he didn’t say anything. So after a few the waiter had gone over to the table to I think ask mom if she wanted anything else or something of that nature. That’s when this kid decides to slam into the waiter again. At this point, the waiter had (rightfully so) had enough and actually picked the kid up and put him down in a chair! I couldn’t believe it! He just grabbed him sat him down and then immediately walked away from the table while mom just sat there. I think he must have immediately gone and told his manager what had happened because I then saw the manager come out and the waiter didn’t go back to her table for the rest of the evening. I don’t know if mom complained or if they actually said anything to her about controlling her child, but I don’t blame the waiter for grabbing the kid one bit. He was totally out of hand. Anyways...

For dessert, Chris decided to get the Sundae Sampler. I can’t remember exactly what was on his, and the menu has now changed, but the reverse root beer float is the same!

I can’t remember what my dessert was called, as it is no longer on the menu, but it was something along the lines of being a “peanut butter and jelly” creation. It was DELICIOUS. It was peanut butter ice cream on top of some sort of cooked peaches. The little chips on the side were sprinkled with cinnamon and were excellent. I really liked it, and it was something I wouldn’t normally order.

I have to say, California Grill really times their service so well. Our desserts came out right as Wishes was starting! Chris came and sat over on my side where he had a view of the fireworks. This was honestly probably one of the most romantic parts of our trip, sitting there eating dessert and enjoying the show. We didn’t get any pictures of the fireworks, and instead just sat back and watched. It was really great to see the full show since we had seen part of it our first night, but weren’t really paying attention since we were trying to leave MK for the night. Chris did get a short video of one portion, and he was really excited because he happened to start filming right before the Hercules music portion, which is his favorite. I didn’t tear up watching the show, like I’ve heard so many people say, but I will admit that I’ve watched it online since being home and got a little choked up! I think I just really miss Disney World though.

Once we were done with dinner, we decided to step outside and check out the observation deck. It had been raining quite a bit during dinner, and was still sprinkling a little bit when we came out. We got a picture of Magic Kingdom lit up and then headed back inside. We decided we’d head over to MK since it was open until midnight and just do a little shopping on Main Street. However, by the time we had made it downstairs to walk over to MK, it was now pouring down rain. It was getting fairly late by this point as well, so we just decided we’d forego MK for the evening and head back to AKL for the night. It had been a long day! Fortunately, we were planning on taking it a little bit easier for our next day!