How we fell in love with WDW - Oct 1-15 2009 - Update 05/18 -Day 14 - DHS/DTD

[carps09]

Yes!!! I wasn't sure to put our meeting in my TR or not as I didn't have a photo, but can I add your photo in? That's the next day I'm putting up! How was the rest of your trip?

You can certainly add this photo! Our trip was amazing - we had the best time! I'll have to do a TR soon.

 

[praisehisname]

Joining in! I am loving your report!!!

 

[torsie24]

Day 6 - Animal Kingdom and our first Water Park!

This morning was the first one that we definitely felt like we'd adjusted to the timezone for. We were up and at the bus stop close to 9am.

We got to AK a little after opening and headed into Africa where we grabbed FPs for the Safari as our previous ride had been in the afternoon so we though we might see some different animals..

It was pretty busy so we had a while to wait, and decided now was a great time to explore the Pagani trail next door.

I love the trails, and we spent a long time wandering through. The mole rats were awesome! And I also really liked the birds, we were in their for ages talking to the birdie CM as most poeple sort of rushed through, but he knew so much about them and pointed out some of the sneakier ones that were hiding in the undergrowth.

The hippos were really amazing too! I love hippos.

But I don't think I'd like to be too close to the jaws of a live one! It was amazing to see just how big they really are!

We also watched the meerkats for quite a while, they are SO cute! The CM there was a little lacklustre but he did gross the kids out by telling them how the meerkats had caught and eeaten the wild rabbits that came into their enclosure!

Look at this awesome Gorilla taking a nap in the shade, it was a super hot day!!!

As we were nearing the end of the trail I spotted a couple in the super cute wedding hats taking photos of each other and offered to take on of them together. After I was done with the photo the gorgeous bride saw my LGMH and said she was a DISer too! Turns out it was Carps09 who I had been talking to on the DIS right up until we left!!! Yay! Dis meet! (Sorry I didn't hug you - it was very hhot and sticky! I hope you didn't think I was being rude!)

And here's the photo I took.

Once we were done with the trail it was Safari time, so we headed into the FP line which was pretty busy in itself, but we were soon on our truck and got the front row which was fun.

We saw loads of animals this time, I truly think you could just reride this a few times a day and always have a great time!

After we did the safari we headed over to Kali and grabbed ourselves some FPs. Guess what we did while we waited?

Thats right! The Maharaja Jungle trek!

I loooove this guy!

And we spent ages in with the amazing bats too!

I also made Jack watch the tigers for a long time as I really loves cats, and the bigger the better (don't tell Bella and Boo) their enclosure was just amazing too, really beautiful the way it is all like ruins. We loved it.

It was a hot day, makes a kitty very sleepy.

We also loved the birdies in here! And their awesome little houses!

Cutie!

Then it was Kali time! To be honest I thought it was pretty short, and was surprised when it was over. I'm glad we used FPs as it sure had a long wait that day.

After Kali we headed over to EE, and admired the funny monkeys on the way.

How many theme parks look this amazing?!?

Sadly the yeti was sick (CMs words, not mine) and the ride wouldn't be re-opening until they had some yeti medicine. It had been down a while so we didn't wait and headed over to Dinosaur as Jack wanted to ride again.

We grabbed FPs as the lines were long everywhere that morning, and as we were both getting pretty hungry we spent the FP wait time in Restaurantosaurus where we shared a cheeseburger meal.

By the time we were done and cooled down plenty it was Dino time! Luckily we made it out just before the asteroid hit. Do any of you guys say "We're not gonna make it! We're not gonna make it!" as much as Jack and I do? Or is his love of the ride a little too intense?

The park was getting busier and EE was still shut, so we headed on out, but via our friend the giant anteater as we love him. A CM with a little electronic computer thingy also asked me a few survey questions.

We hopped on the bus and were back at AKL pretty soon, where we filled up our resort mugs and chilled in the AC for an hour or so.

-----sorry no more photos from this point I didn't want to take my camera to BB-------------

Once we had restored some evergy with the help of BBQ Lays we hopped on the bus to Blizzard Beach for our first water parks visit of the trip.

It was really quiet, and once we;d got our locker all sorted we hopped into the lazy river for a bit of a relax. We jumped out at the runoff rapids, doing the joint one first as it had been at least a decade since either of us had been on a water slide, and then we ran bakc up again like kids and did the inividual ones too!

We got back in the lazy river and headed around a few more stops, getting out by the wave pool where we grabbed some rings and bobbed around for a while, but it made me kinda sea sick....wierd! After the pool we walked around for a bit before getting the ski lift up the the top of the scary hill and braving...







Teamboat springs! No way were we going on the big slides! We loved TS though. We had one more chill out on the river (our favourite part of the whole water park experience) and then got dried and headed back to AKL.

I'm not sure about you, but swimming pools always make me super hungry? So on the bus home we discussed trying to see if we could get into Boma as it wasn't peak dinner time yet.

When we got back I quickly showered and dried my hair, and then we headed down to Boma and asked about walk ups and they said 'no problem!' we waited about 20 minutes or so as the area was quite busy. But were soon seated.

I asked for the breakfast frunch to drink which wasn't a problem, and then we hit the buffet.

I really enjoyed all the food (I'm a big fan of falfel, couscous, curries, tagines etc. so it was right up my street) and also thought it was good value. I didn't try any deserts (way too much hummus and breads!) but Jack had about 3 visits and he loved them! We would definitely return.

After dinner we went back to our room for a while, and then out onto Arusha rock where we talked to a lovely CM who pointed out a giraffe asleep just by our room who we hadn't noticed at all! He was from Africa and had the most beautiful voice, he said he was really keen to visit England - we told him Florida was a LOT nicer!

We had a pretty early night as we had a very busy day ahead of us tomorrow!

 

[tashybea]

Yey! Can't wait for the next day. More please

 

[praisehisname]

Great animal pictures, and so cool that you met up with your DIS friend accidentally!

We love Blizzard Beach, too!

Boma sounds really good!

 

[carps09]

Yay! I'm excited we made it into your TR. We, too, we were upset that the Yeti was sick that day. Can't wait to read the rest of your report!

 

[tttessa]

Hiya,

another UK Diser here.... loving the TR so far - more soon please....

Tessa

 

[carissanboys]

Hello Victoria!!!

I'll be back later to get caught up on your report.

 

[Tiggerrn2]

BUMP-Torsie are you coming back soon?

 

[torsie24]

BUMP-Torsie are you coming back soon?

I'm here, I'm here! Will post day 7 now!

 

[torsie24]

A day offsite!

I had booked us the Dreams Unlimited tickets that included free Mears shuttle, the bus met us at the front of our hotel at about 8.50am. We waited for a while as a party was late, but then we were off (or we thought we were! )

We then headed over to the All Stars where we stopped at each resort in turn letting on more people and the driver checked off passenger names in the slowest method possible. I did get to see the big maraccas though.

We finally arrived at Universal at about 10am, which was opening time, so we weren't far behind on time really. Plus it was pretty deserted all day! The HHN decorations were all in place, which was pretty cool.

Once in the park we headed straight to the Rip Ride Rocket, which said a 10 minute wait. We jumped in line (after putting our stuff in a locker or course) and made it as far as the top of the staircase where you get onto the loading platform when a train came into the station and just stopped. And didn't move forward so the riders could get off.

After a few minutes the annoucements started. We decided to wait a while, but after another 10-15 minutes nothing was happening and a staff member said that it was going to be a while, but couldn't tell us how long. We decided as we'd seen absolutely nothing else of the park that it wasn;t worth waiting.

We left the queue and headed out for an explore, and over to the Simpsons ride which was a walk on except for a wait in the little holding room bit.

I enjoyed the ride, but wasn't blown away by it. It kinda gave me a sore nack as I felt I was looking up the whole time.

Next up was MIB, which I thought was awesome. The queu area was so detailed too! Really good. And I got the winning score even though Jack pushed the red button!

Then we took the obligatory Jaws photos, I wish I had my one form when I was 7 here so I could scan it in!

Next up was Jaws, we were the only people in line and I was really scared we'd be the only people on the boat, but luckily they waited a minute or two and a few more people got on! We both enjoyed this and thought it was good fun.

Next up the Mummy:

There actually was abotu a 20 minute wait for this, all of this was spent with a really loud drunk couple in their 50's behind us stinking of cigarettes and drinking cocktails (it was still morning!) so I was whispering to Jack that I didn't want to be near them on he ride incase one of the threw up, and they both smelt awful, so being in line with them was pretty rough. Let alone having them screaming next to me. Luckily, they weren't allowed on the ride, which was a great relief to us and a few others around us.

We LOVED the Mummy. I think it's better than the LA version. Very fun.

Next on the Agenda was ET, as we had tried to ride it on the way to the Simpsons but it wasn't opening until 11. I though the line was pretty awesome, all through the forest. But the poor ride is really showing it's age. It was fun to hear him say our names though.

We headed back to HRRR to see if it was open, and took some photos etc on the way.

It was still closed, so all we could do was take pictures of it. We didn;t wactually see it running again all day.

Jack really wanted to go inside the Monster Cafe, but it was shut too. I think it was just too quiet that day for much of the park to be open.

We headed out to IOA, past the staff who take the photos as you go in who were screaming at the top of their lungs to get you to buy your picture. No thanks. We really weren't in Disney anymore.

We walked along to IOA, but had some photos with the globe on the way of course. (Which i can't find, so here is a much chubbier Jack with the Hollywood one) you get the idea though.

We loved the entrance area to IOA, was really fun.

First stop, for my Comic Book loving future husband was of course Marvel Island! We took a lot of photos:

I asked Jack if he wanted to ride the Hulk, but he's not a fan of going upside down, and although I used to love big coasters I can take them or leave them now, so we headed over to Spiderman as he was very excited to ride that having read a lot of great things about it before our trip.

There was no wait at all and we were both very impressed.

We then headed through to Toon Lagoon, but stopped to admire these guys on the way:

I offered Jack to follow them so he could have photos, as he passed up the chance in LA and regretted it, but he said no, so we headed into TL and went on the Barges first.......we got SOAKED.

I didn;t think we could get any wetter, so we decided we may aswell ride Ripsaw falls too as it was also a walk on.

Turns out we could get wetter!! I seriously believe if I had jumped into a swimming pool I wouldn't have been wetter than after those two rides!

We really enjoyed the barges, and thought they were a lot better than Kali, but the falls had a lot of broken effects and stuff and was very poor compared to Splash Mountain.

Next on the agenda was a drink, and then Jurassic Park. We both enjoyed the ride, but I prefer the Hollywood version, I think it has a lot more detail.

We spent a while in the Discovery Centre, and found out what I'd look like if my DNA was mixed with a Dinosaurs. It was pretty scary!

Then we played with the big dinos that you can move - they were fun.

Next up we walked around a bit more and noseyed at the HP construction:

We were really impressed with the building for Poseidon's Fury, but it was a long wait until the next show/ride so we took some photos and carried on.

Into Suess Landing. We enjoyed looking at all the crazy buildings and details here.

I bet little kids really love it too.

We were getting pretty hungry, so decided to head for some food, but not before we rode Spiderman one more time for Jack.

Then we headed out to Citywalk and after looking at a few of the places we settled on Margaritaville.

It was pretty empty insde, but we were very glad of the A/C and it meant we were served quickly. We shared Quesadillas to start. And then I had HUGE ribs (we don't get them like that in the UK so it deserved a photo!)

Jack had the Mexicali burger which he said was good. My ribs were very tasty and I managed well over half which I was very proud of. Jack of course got cheesecake for dessert as he can't turn down an opportunity for cheesecake.

After food we wondered whether to head back to a park, but we checked and HRRR didn't appear to be running yet, and we felt we'd done enough. SO we called Mears and let them know we'd get the bus in an hour and then browsed the shops.

I like a watch and a couple of bags, but didn't think the prices were that much better than at home, so kept my money for more Disney goodies instead. I don't think the Orlando citywalk is very good at all compared to the Hollywood one, it has far less stores and I was pretty disappointed with it.

Soon enough it was bus time so we headed back over the bridge, but Jack was getting a little jealous of my lanyard and the ease of which I could have FPs/KTTW on hand, so he bought himself a Venom one in the store at the car park entracey bit.

We had a little wait for our bus, but were soon aboard and heading back to WDW.

I kept my fingers crossed we wouldn't stop at Allstars first, and luckily we didn't but we did drop off at CBR and POFQ before heading home, Allstars were the last drop off I think.

We had had a pretty long day for us, and were planning a very busy one the next day, so we grabbed some burgers from the Mara and chilled out in the room and caught up with home. Before having an early night in readiness for EPCOT rope drop the next day!

 

[Pooh's-Honey-Pot]

Love your report! Can't believe I'm only now finding it!!

 

[Dollyrar]

Excellent trippie Torsie! We are going on the 1st of October this year, which is the same day you went last year, so I've loved seeing what it's like at this time

 

[torsie24]

Excellent trippie Torsie! We are going on the 1st of October this year, which is the same day you went last year, so I've loved seeing what it's like at this time

Ooooh, I'm so jealous!!

It really was a perfect time of year, we have both agreed we'll definitely choose that time again.

Sorry I've got so slack with teh report! Almost done with the next installment so I'll try and do a few updates over the weekend.

 

[torsie24]

Sooooo sorry I've been such a bad trip-reporter. Between planning the wedding and booking a cruise and doing boring things like working for a living I've jsut had no time!

Next installment in the next 5 minutes though.

 

[torsie24]

I started the day with my usual bus stop photo:

Jack tutted with each one I took. But who's laughing now! I think it's a nice start to a day's photos!

We arrived at opening time and headed (just like everyone else did) straight to Soarin' although we did find time for a couple of SE photos as it was t first we'd seen it properly.

We grabbed FPs for Soarin' (which we never did use so are now in my scrapbook) and walked straight on. We both loved the ride, but Jack doesn't think it's worth all the hype it gets. We were in the back row though, so maybe next time we'll ask for the front.

After Soarin' I was excited for Living with the Land as it had been scheduled to be closed our whole trip but had re-opened early. We both really enjoyed this ride. Lots of photos were taken!

We then headed over to The Seas, stopping for the obligatory photos first of course!

Oh my gosh, we LOVED the clam ride!! I literally had goosebumps from the Nemo guys swimming in there, I just thought it was so magical. Eeee I love it.

I made a beeline for the Manatees when we got in there as I'd have a very brief glimpse of them from backstage on our wedding planning day. I stood for ages watching them, they are just so amazing.

Then we found Nemo!

We were ages looking at all the different sea life. We loved the big turtle in the huge tank. We loved watching him swim round so peacefully. Did you know he used to be in with the dolphins, but they learned they could push him with their noses and send him whizzing round the tank, which they found great fun, but not Mr Turtle, so he got put in the other tank.

He looks very happpy in there now.

We headed out of the Seas and onto Spaceship Earth. We didn't really know what to expect, but really enjoyed SE, especially the glimpse into our future! Hee hee.

Next up we headed over to Test Track, but the line was pretty big and the fast pass only 45 minutes away so we grabbed a couple and decided to give Mission Space a try.

I was pretty nervous as there are a lot of threads on the DIS about people who don't like MS because of the small cabin. And I cannot handle spinning at all (teacups make me feel off for a long while) so we chose the green team. Which had a much shorter line than the orange!

I was a littler nervous, but once we were in the actual waiting room bit I'd calmed down. It's a shame I can't say that for one of our fellow rides.

When we got put onto our 1-4 numbers we were with a dad and is son, and the son was already pretty uneasy. His Dad was saying over adn over to him "it'll be fine, it's fine" but it wasn't really helping. I gave Jack a look to say "I don't think he should go on this".

So we get on the ride and the little boy gets a bit more uneasy. Then the cabin closes and it esclates again. By the time we had blasted off we were into full on "I don't like it" screams. The poor boy was well and truly trapped now.

Jack and I tried our best to make it fun, laughing gently and never making surprised noises etc. But it was really hard worrying that this kid was hainvg a breakdown. The worst bit was he had the button that made us go hyperspeed or do something lous and shaky, so his button lit up, and his dad leant over and pushed it and the noise and shaking started and the poor little boy just started screaming "DADDY - WHY DID YOU DO THAT?"

It was a little bit funny, but the poor boy. The thing is if he hadn't been worked up befor we got on the ride really is pretty tame, so we recon that when he got off he may have re-evaluated the ride and decided he was overreacting and maybe had another go later. We jsut saw it a few times on our trip where the parents were clearly uneasy about how their kids were going to be, so started going "you'll be fine, it's not scary, you'll be fine" to them in the line, and they were always the ones who freaked out. I think they picked up on the parent's nerves.

So after our interesting flight (we did really enjoy the ride and said we'd ride it again in a hopefully quieter cabin!) we played around in the space area. And Jack modelled another fetching hat:

We had a trip over to Club Cool as we still had some FP time to wait, you guessed it, I'm a mean fiance!

Hee hee hee. I almost thought the Beverly was OK though, it was tonic water like I thought. We had fun trying all the flavours, I liked the Lift and Jack loved the VegitaBeta.

Then it was Test Track time! Even though we had FPs the wait was still pretty long. Once we got in our car the one in front broke down as we were going up the start ramp, so we had to sit for a while as they pulled it off the track.

We LOVED TT, here's our ride photo:

Jack looks so calm!

Next up - World Showcase!

 

[torsie24]

On to World Showcase!!

We decided to take the clockwise route, so you can guess our first stop:

We were really impressed inside the pavilion, and it was my turn for a silly hat!

We also rode the boat ride which we enjoyed.

We were getting a little peckish by this point, so we decided to try some food and wine offerings and shared the Tostada de Pollo - we love Mexican food and this was very tasty, but could have been spicier/more flavoursome.

Next stop on the tour was of course Norway.

We checked out the little Viking display place and then we stopped for some dessert to go with our Mexican snack, and of course I wanted a school bread!

After enjoying the shade for a minute or two we headed indoors to the ride. It was certainly entertaining! Jack thought it was very amusing that all we learned about Norway was there are just trolls and oil rigs there. Funnily enough this was a ride that I really remembered from my visit when I was 7 - I remember being really scared we were going to go down a drop backwards at the waterfall part. Gladly it wasn’t quite as traumatising 17 years on.

Next up was China. We spent ages looking at the awesome exhibition, and then we watched the movie which we enjoyed. We really liked the gardens too.

Onto Germany where we didn’t spend a lot of time really, we checked out the shops quickly but weren’t too blown away by the pavillion, I love Germany and would happily live there as it’s such a friendly and pleasant country, but I didn’t feel the pavilion was that great. We did enjoy the miniature train village though.

On to Italy next where we ate another food and wine offering, a little ham pizza, it was pretty boring and covered in grease so we had to dab it with a few napkins to save s eating loads of oil. We browsed the shops and liked the fountain at the back of the pavilion, I really love the buildings in Italy, and as we have never been to Venice we both said how it reminded us of Vegas!

Japan next, the awesome drummers were out on the pagoda so we watched and listened to them for a while before heading into the department store. Oooh I loved it. I would love to go to Japan as I think their culture and history is amazing, as well as their awesome fashion and cool gadgets so we were very happy in the store for a long while. Japan is my favourite pavilion for sure.

Morocco next which I think is the prettiest pavilion, I was sad I wasn’t hungry here as I love Moroccan food. And really enjoyed my time in the pavilion as it’s like an ideal version of Marrakech. (We visited a couple of years back and it is an amazing place, but I got E Coli and was ill for 2 months when I got home so sadly I don’t think I’d head back.)

I also need to include Jack in his funny hat.

France next and sadly another pavilion we were expecting more from I think, We really love Paris and I think it’s hard to do such a large, beautiful city justice. We did love the film though, and it definitely made us want to visit more of France as we’ve only been to a few parts. It could do with updating though we both agreed.

On the way out of France we spotted Marie! Before the trip I asked Jack the character he’d most like to see and he said Marie as she looks so cute in meet and greet form.

Sadly there was a huge line and it was scorching hot so we didn’t wait for her, we did manage a photo though.

She is just too cute!

We headed out of EPCOT through International Gateway to have a nose at Sea Breeze Point wedding location and the resorts. And because we both wanted to try Beaches and Cream! We headed out and over to the Boardwalk, by the time we got to the hotel we were so hot that we went into the lobby and had a chill out in the A/C for a few minutes, and we loved looking at all the bit and pieces, especially the Elephant Hotel, that was awesome.

Once we’d cooled down we headed back out and walked along the Boardwalk looking even harder (and getting a little frustrated) for Beaches and Cream. When we still hadn’t spotted it I looked up and admired the Beach Club and realised I had to make a confession to a very hot and tired Fiancé! Luckily it wasn’t a long wait for a boat to the other side of the lake! (I always make one mistake, direction wise, on a trip so at least this wasn’t too much of a big one!) We really loved the Beach Club, and walked along the front of the resort, between the building and the amazing pool and soon found ourselves at our destination!

As everyone is we were surprised by just how little and quaint it was, but luckily it was a little bit late for lunch and a little early for dinner so we were seated right away at the table by the jukebox.

I had the grilled chicken sandwich with melon and grapes as my side. It was really delicious and just a perfect meal for me that day. J Jack had a chilli cheese dog followed by the No Way Jose. He loved every minute of it!!

He finished it!

We will definitely be back to B&C!!

After we had filled up and cooled down it was back to EPCOT. I will admit we were really lagging by this time, so we sort of hurried through the UK and Canada as we knew we’d be back soon. We had a leisurely stroll though FW and we picked up our first inflations along with some toys for Bella, Jack also bought the Mickey Mouse vampire T-shirt to wear the following night at MNSSHP.

We headed back to AKL where some Zebra were waiting outside our room for us. After a long day of touring the globe the pool and hot tubs were calling us so we chilled out by the pool, and read, before taking some food from the Mara up to our room and snuggling down for the evening.

Tomorrow was going to be a late night and we needed our energy!

 

[tttessa]

Great update - we're still here watching...... sounds like you fitted a lot into that day!!!!

Tessa

 

[praisehisname]

Great update! Glad you made it to Beaches and Cream; it's so yummy there!

 

[Tiggerrn2]

So glad you're back!