"How To Keep Your Husband Happy, Alcohol & Fishing!" April/May '14 TR ~Updated ~ 1/1

[pas130]

Thank you buckeev and pas130

 

[buckeev]

Thank you buckeev and pas130

x 2

 

[1lear]

I'm more of a lurker than poster, but I'm excited to read more of your trip, as you're pretty local to me (I live in Ashburn). Thanks for your husband's service to our country!
Lisa

 

[JnKinVA]

I'm more of a lurker than poster, but I'm excited to read more of your trip, as you're pretty local to me (I live in Ashburn). Thanks for your husband's service to our country!
Lisa

Welcome!

No not that far at all I play hockey down at the rink there sometimes!

Working on my next installment, trying to get all of my photos from Memory Maker edited so I can download them all.
350 photos is a lot to edit!
Plus the 100 we took last weekend

 

[mcconnellfam96]

Following along, too! We are counting down the days to our very first WL stay.....we are so excited!

 

[MeeskaMomma]

Joining in ::

I can't wait to see ft. Wilderness pictures. I really want to stay there when our son gets older.

 

[JnKinVA]

Still working on those photos folks!

With John getting ready to deploy, and Anna who is now 15 weeks old, it's tough to get anything important like this thread going

I guess I better hurry up though, the photos start disappearing June 9

I'll be back soon, I promise!

 

[pas130]

Still working on those photos folks!

With John getting ready to deploy, and Anna who is now 15 weeks old, it's tough to get anything important like this thread going

I guess I better hurry up though, the photos start disappearing June 9

I'll be back soon, I promise!

Take your time, and spend time with John!!! No worries, I never said it but I am so sorry for the loss of your furbaby!

 

[JnKinVA]

Take your time, and spend time with John!!! No worries, I never said it but I am so sorry for the loss of your furbaby!

Thanks, pas, wish. I could spend time with John but he has to go into training Mon-Fri so I only have one more weekend with him

Photos are getting there! I went from having 450 in PhotoPass to almost 900 so far with me adding borders and such hehe.

And thank you for you kind words for Bob. We miss her every day.

Krystin

 

[JnKinVA]

So off we went to enjoy our first day in the parks. We have made it a tradition to head over to Animal Kingdom on the first day to spend the afternoon.

John met me down by the spring and off we went to catch a bus. While we were waiting, I happened to notice something. It was HOT. Not so much the temperature but the humidity was crazy! We waited about 15 minutes for a bus that went to GF first then Blizzard Beach and then finally Animal Kingdom.

We made our way to the pathway to where you can see the Tree of Life in all its beauty and had some PhotoPass pictures done. I asked about Magic Shots for the first time and wasn't disappointed. We did this with practically every photographer we saw on this trip.



(I love the lady in the short shorts! )

Our first stop was in Asia for Expedition Everest...but first, some more PhotoPass shots! I was totally going to get my money's worth out of Memory Maker. On our way to Asia we saw Dug and Russell. We didn't meet them last year. John was having fun with the machine you barked into So we get close to the front of the line and the PP photographer started having issues with the wifi on her scanner. Great....John really didn't mind having them use our iPhone, but me on the other hand, I was going to wait it out. Thankfully she got it working again and we met them. Dug gave me doggie kisses and actually 'slurped' lol. Russell and John had fun making the 'W' with their hands. Our first character meet went well



Remember how I said we were on our way to EE? Yeah, I saw another PP Photographer so I ran over. This was the one who takes the pictures with Everest in the background. And of course I asked for another MagicShot. This was a new one she said, so I was excited to see who it was.



Surprise! It was Jiminy Cricket!

Since I was looking forward to having a Simba picture, we asked the photographer knew if anyone was taking that shot. And..... She Did! She told us on the pathway towards Africa, where there is a break in the foliage for the Tree of Life, the photographer there was doing it. We thanked her and THEN finally made our way to EE. John prayed there weren't any more photographers



Now we were off to tame the Yeti!
The last time we were here (April 2013) John had a herniated disc in his back so some of the rides, while fun, were painful. Thankfully we didn't have to worry about that this year.
We had a FP+ for EE and the line was waaaaaaaaaay back, but it moved quickly. The only bad thing about the entrance and the line being so long, people were just cutting in line and the CMs couldn't really control it.
We waited about 10minutes once we scanned our MBs to getting on the ride. We sat near the front, which I love on this ride since it goes backwards, it goes faster.
We conquered the Yeti and did our first shopping in the dump shop. I went and got our ride photo, John bought a t-shirt and a snow cat and had it shipped back to the room. (We used this service A LOT during this trip. I love it).



Now we were headed over to Kilimanjaro Safari for our next fastpass.

Here's where the first part of my ploy to make John happy on this trip. Alcohol.
We got our first drink just where the monkeys are as you make your way over back into Asia proper. It was some Raspberry Smirnoff Ice Lemonade (If I remember correctly). I had a sip and it was delicious!

As we were sipping his drink (so I had more than one ), we walked the path over to Africa. We found the photographer with the Simba MagicShot I love these shots!



She also took a really nice picture of John and I.



We finally made it to Africa and the Safari, after a few stops along the way including another frozen alcoholic concoction .

Up Next: Look Animals! Where's My Camera?

 

[pas130]

Thanks, pas, wish. I could spend time with John but he has to go into training Mon-Fri so I only have one more weekend with him

Photos are getting there! I went from having 450 in PhotoPass to almost 900 so far with me adding borders and such hehe.

And thank you for you kind words for Bob. We miss her every day.

Krystin

Awwww that is soon

I bought the photopass, hoping we get lots of pics, so I can't wait to see yours

 

[JnKinVA]

Awwww that is soon I bought the photopass, hoping we get lots of pics, so I can't wait to see yours

Lol looks like we posted at the exact same time! I finished my photos last night from both trips I had about 400 pictures and I ended up with almost 1400 after adding editing with borders. I have some posted on my last update from Animal Kingdom.

 

[Wood Nymph]

The special shots are really cute. We forgot to ask for them when we had photopass.

 

[pas130]

Thanks, pas, wish. I could spend time with John but he has to go into training Mon-Fri so I only have one more weekend with him

Photos are getting there! I went from having 450 in PhotoPass to almost 900 so far with me adding borders and such hehe.

And thank you for you kind words for Bob. We miss her every day.

Krystin

So far I am loving your pics. Is this John's last weekend home

The special shots are really cute. We forgot to ask for them when we had photopass.

This is what I am afraid I am going to do! Plus my DH will be a lot like John...hoping I don't find photographers

Lol looks like we posted at the exact same time! I finished my photos last night from both trips I had about 400 pictures and I ended up with almost 1400 after adding editing with borders. I have some posted on my last update from Animal Kingdom.

AK does get HOT! We always start early, and by lunchtime the kiddos and I are spent. I love ALL the pics! The Simba one is CUTE. Having fun reading along, keep up the good work! Sorry, people were cutting in line on EE. I actually did the standby line purposely after doing the FP line because the queue was SO COOL!

 

[JnKinVA]

The special shots are really cute. We forgot to ask for them when we had photopass.

I didn't really know about them when we were there last year. I remember maybe once at Epcot the PP had us point to the ground and look surprised (Stitch) but to be honest, I never really looked at our CD too closely after I bought it.
I made sure to ask almost every PP that we had if they had any.

So far I am loving your pics. Is this John's last weekend home

It is his last full weekend at home. I will have him next Saturday, but then he leaves for Indianapolis on his way to Afghanistan very early in the morning on Sunday

This is what I am afraid I am going to do! Plus my DH will be a lot like John...hoping I don't find photographers

I didn't care, I dragged him to every picture I could. Unfortunately you can see it in his face in some of the photos

AK does get HOT! We always start early, and by lunchtime the kiddos and I are spent. I love ALL the pics! The Simba one is CUTE. Having fun reading along, keep up the good work! Sorry, people were cutting in line on EE. I actually did the standby line purposely after doing the FP line because the queue was SO COOL!

We ended up in the Stand By later in the week, but yes, I love that queue! John does too. He's really into hiking so he loves all the backpacks

 

[JnKinVA]

So after meeting with Dug and Russell, finding practically every PhotoPass photographer in the park , taming the Yeti and downing a few alcoholic drinks, we finally made it to Africa to go on a safari.



I had made a fastpass for Kilimanjaro Safari, because there really isn’t much to fastpass at Animal Kingdom for us. When we arrived the Stand By time was 10minutes. Since this was our first time using FP+ I logged into the mobile My Disney Experience and tried to change it to something else, but I kept getting an error (It wasn’t until we got back to WL that I read on the DIS that there had been glitches going on with MDE that day). So since I couldn’t change the FP, we used it.

We boarded the truck, and were in the second row. Our driver was Barbara. She was really good at pointing out the animals and yelling at the parents who obviously didn’t hear her safety message the first 3 times

So, back to Animals…. They were out, and who didn’t bring their camera? And whose iPhone was dying? Yeah, that would be me! Ok, so the ‘bigger’ animals weren’t out (Lions, Cheetahs, etc) but the Hippos kept coming up for air, which I have never seen there, a crocodile may have moved. *sigh* John just laughed at me and enjoyed the ride.
Note to self, don’t forget a camera when on the Safari, Animals may appear!

From the Safari, it was about 4:00pm and very hot and humid. It hit us pretty hard coming from the cooler weather of Northern VA earlier in the day.
But we persevered and went on the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. In the few times we have been to AK, I can’t believe we have missed this!
We saw more Hippos! Well, 1 Hippo, who was lazy and resting on a rock, coming up for air every once in a while. But I was excited for it. Just a tiny bit more than John





The gorillas were the biggest part of the walk that both of us enjoyed. Most of them were just trying to stay cool, and hanging out in the shade.



The Silverbacks were out, further back, but still able to see them really well. It’s amazing how close they are to humans, because you could almost say it was a person dressed as a gorilla suit sitting there haha. In fact, I made this sarcastic comment to John and some lady got all rude and said, “Uh no, they are real.” WELL DUH!



We finished the trail and walked back through the walkway from Africa to Asia, stopping for yet another tasty alcoholic concoction. I believe this was a frozen lemonade of some sort. The CM working the booth had an issue with her computer, it froze as I was scanning my MB. So she had to redo it. Thankfully I was only charged once, considering it was about $25 for 2 drinks

We also stopped for more characters! This time it was Baloo and King Louie. I think the drink may have been getting to John at this point because he started singing “Bear Necessities” and dancing with Baloo



Our final FP for the day was Dinosaur and as we made our way into DinoLand USA I saw Goofy and Pluto were out. Since I was wearing my Goofy shirt, I wanted to show it off. We waited about 10minutes in line and I had a nice conversation with a couple who had a little girl wanting to meet them.

I did this a lot on the trip. I like to talk to people, whether it was waiting in line, for a bus, on the bus you name it, I struck up a conversation. This will come into play later on in the trip

So our turn came, and Goofy immediately saw my shirt and pointed and gave me a great big hug. Then he and I had some solo photo time… John just stayed away haha



Then we all got into the picture. Pluto, John, myself and Goofy.



After saying goodbye, we headed over to Dinosaur. It was REALLY hot by now. It was around 90-95deg and even the CMs were complaining it was too hot.

We did our travel back to the Cretaceous period, just missed the Big Bang, and got our dino package back to today.
I love that ride. It’s cheesy enough, but fun at the same time.
We picked up our ride photo. This was one part of Memory Maker that I loved, because each of these photos would have cost $15 just for the digital download.



We got back out into the heat, and John was ready to head back to the room, but I spotted one more character and there was no line. So off we went.
We met up with Donald Duck who, even though was in the shade must have been dying.
Jose, his handler was one of the CMs saying it was too hot and he was from South America lol



Once our meeting was done, we could now leave.

We had spent about 4 hours in the park, and we were hot, sweating, tired and did I mention Hot?

We caught the bus back to WL and we were going to take a short nap….. short turned into 4 hours! By the time we woke up it was close to 8:00pm and we were starving.
We headed down to Roaring Forks. We picked up a couple refillable mugs (Red for me, Yellow for John). We each ordered the pasta special of the day which was Chicken Alfredo. The pasta was really tasty!



I also ordered the Chicken Caesar…. Not realizing how large it was. I barely touched it, so I put the bowl in a ziplock bag so it wouldn’t stink up the fridge and put it away to snack on tomorrow.



And John picked up a ‘Smores Cupcake (which he ate the next day)



About $100 later (just kidding!) and off we went with our food back up to the room.

We ate, watched some TV, and then I heard it….. The Electrical Water Pageant music. I ran to the balcony to watch. John was snoring.
I love Pete’s Dragon so seeing Elliott all lit up on Bay Lake always makes me feel good….and John loves the Dinosaur

Soon after I heard the booms from Wishes, and you could just see the higher ones over the North Wing. I didn’t get any photos this time unfortunately.

Since John was snoring, and I was knackered myself, we had an early night.

Up Next:We Have To Be Up At What Time?

 

[buckeev]

Enjoying your report Ms K!...
We always try to remember to ask for the "special magic shots"...those are always fun to look at after trips!
So....could you tell me, Was it HOT at AK?...

 

[JnKinVA]

Enjoying your report Ms K!...
So....could you tell me, Was it HOT at AK?...

Thanks!

And.... Absolutely not. It was perfect weather. 80 deg and no humidity

Don't worry, the weather gets interesting as we continue on

 

[pas130]

We ended up in the Stand By later in the week, but yes, I love that queue! John does too. He's really into hiking so he loves all the backpacks

Very cool, and John looks pretty darn happy in the pics I've seen! I will pray for his safety and a speedy homecoming for him

I have been very guilty of forgetting my camera

about the lady butting in to tell you it wasn't a fake gorilla, really??

The food looks yummy! And it sounds like your room view at WL had some serious pixie dust. Poor John, you wiped your DH out

 

[JnKinVA]

Very cool, and John looks pretty darn happy in the pics I've seen! I will pray for his safety and a speedy homecoming for him

That's the 3 drinks he had

I have been very guilty of forgetting my camera

about the lady butting in to tell you it wasn't a fake gorilla, really??

I know right! I think I even looked at her with this stupid face, like Really?? Thankfully I had my Seriously Polarized Black Iridium Oakleys on so she couldn't see my eyes or eyebrows. Because they were a dead giveaway of how rude and not so smart she was at picking up the sarcasm there

The food looks yummy! And it sounds like your room view at WL had some serious pixie dust. Poor John, you wiped your DH out

Yeah, well it turns out I did this a lot during this trip We saw and did more than we ever have and he was pooped by the end.