I Knew You Would Eventually Get Tired of Disney World - April '12 TR - Completed 2/9

[Backstage_Gal]

Monkeys have tails. Apes? No tails

.

WOW, never knew that (or ever thought about it for that matter), so thanks for that education. I'm feeling very smug about knowing this little fact now.

Really enjoying your report

 

[MEK]

I checked the DIS boards this morning just for your update! And I am remembering to comment all at the same time. Big feat for me!

First question - what the heck type of camera do you have that you took it on Kali? Is it waterproof. I love your pictures of the ride, but I am not brave enough to take a camera on there. Excellent though.

Great picture of the 4 of you and of you and Dylan on EE. Love that ride. So glad it started out a walk-on.

I love the AK park - my personal fav. Can't wait to see what's next.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

What a nice way to ease into Monday with an update from you!

First, I have to say that I am impressed with the wardrobe coordination. You all match and look appropriate for going on a safari/Asian trek! Very impressive organization!!! And a very cute family.

Did you use a particular touring plan/guide to decide to go to AK that day or was it luck?

Looks like the kids were merciless with the water guns.

So glad the hat was found!!

 

[laura74]

"Wait a second - the heading says, 'Dinner at Yak and Yeti', but you're Dinner Photo (tm) was definitely NOT taken at Yak and Yeti. Explain."

No. Not yet. There's no time.

Oh sure. Leave us hanging.

The bus gets you to Animal Kingdom fairly quick, due to the fact that CSR is AWE-SOME!

Agreed! We stayed there twice.

But hopefully not today. In we go, and it appears we just missed rope drop.

Just kidding. Rope drop, shmope drop.

I'm going to try to take pictures during the ride, which is always fun.

I'm too afraid to do that on Everest.

Love the theming at AK - they really pay attention to every little detail.

Yes! The park is beautiful.

I basically know the story of Avatar.

Dances With Wolves In Space

Great update Nilla! Love your photos.

 

[Queila]

Not sure about this Avatar land either. If it really had to come down to this I think I would have preferred a Pocahontas land, you know what I mean? Or maybe even a Tarzan land for that matter. Lots of apes there to keep the common thread of the park going.

 

[mike the canuck]

First question - what the heck type of camera do you have that you took it on Kali? Is it waterproof. I love your pictures of the ride, but I am not brave enough to take a camera on there. Excellent though.

I was wondering this too

 

[mmeb144]

And, where's the next update? I came over from Laura's TR and have been reading yours all morning and half the afternoon. Fun stuff!

 

[phineasfan100]

I'm not too thrilled about Avatarland either, Disney had no involvement in that movie anyway. Great update and I can not wait for more!

 

[orangecats2]

Just wanted you to know that you have a great TR and I am reading along.

You can count me as another one who could care less about Avatarland.

I am a lurker though, so this may be the only time I post.

 

[nilla]

WOW, never knew that (or ever thought about it for that matter), so thanks for that education. I'm feeling very smug about knowing this little fact now.

See, there IS a point to this story!

First question - what the heck type of camera do you have that you took it on Kali? Is it waterproof. I love your pictures of the ride, but I am not brave enough to take a camera on there. Excellent though.

It's Canon handheld. I know where you get splashed and where you don't. I get some pics quick, then put it in the case and in my pocket. Then I cover my pocket with my hand. Then a drape a poncho over my hand and spray it with waterproofing.

Well, I do most of those things. You can strike the last sentence from the record.

I love the AK park - my personal fav.

It's getting there for me. More on that to come!

First, I have to say that I am impressed with the wardrobe coordination. You all match and look appropriate for going on a safari/Asian trek! Very impressive organization!!! And a very cute family.

Yeah, we're funny like that

Did you use a particular touring plan/guide to decide to go to AK that day or was it luck?

I'll let Kristin answer that one.

I'm too afraid to do that on Everest.

I am, too! But I do it anyway. Sacrifice!

Dances With Wolves In Space

It's become my Rebecca Black's "Friday" of movies - it's like a game to see how long I can go avoiding it. I'll probably see it when they open the area.

Not sure about this Avatar land either. If it really had to come down to this I think I would have preferred a Pocahontas land, you know what I mean? Or maybe even a Tarzan land for that matter. Lots of apes there to keep the common thread of the park going.

I hear there are blue apes in Avatar. Or was that in the Smurfs?

And, where's the next update? I came over from Laura's TR and have been reading yours all morning and half the afternoon. Fun stuff!

Give me time! It's coming soon.

I'm not too thrilled about Avatarland either, Disney had no involvement in that movie anyway. Great update and I can not wait for more!

Thanks! I think they need to make it Dragon Land. Pump a billion dollars into a crazy dragon movie and milk it with the attractions. Problem solved.

I am a lurker though, so this may be the only time I post.

You have a large post count for a lurker

On to the updates!

 

[nilla]

Ok, Kilimanjaro Safari's next. I've heard that Disney is planning to phase out the whole "Little Red"/poachers storyline and let the fact that there are amazing animals roaming somewhat free in a very natural-looking environment stand on its own merit. Who'da thunk it?

Again, no wait, since late April/early May is AWE-SOME! I quickly grab a "number 5" shot before we board, but it soon becomes apparent that there may be another one. We're riding right up front, and the driver is raising her hand with one finger up. Now two. Now three.

"Kristin, get the camera ready! Five is coming!"

Now four. And.....five! Got it! Awesome! She's probably wondering why we like her hand so much, and has possibly since left this job to try to become a hand model. Who can say? We can only speculate.

The vehicle starts up, the riders say a bunch of things in Not English, and it's off we go into the African Savannah! Rumor has it this attraction is PACKED with gorillas of all shapes and sizes, and that rumor is soon confirmed true. I believe this is an authentic African Long-Legged Grass-Eating Gorilla, but it's hard to tell with the trees in the way:

Up next, we see a Horned Gorilla being lazy:

From the looks of it, it's probably best that he's inactive, because when active, these types of primates have been known to get positively FILTHY.

Here we have a variation on the first ape we saw on this trip, the Long-Legged Grass-Eating STRIPED Gorilla.

Now you may be asking, "I though gorilla's liked bananas?" Well, they do. A little known fact about this species is that they like to mold blades of grass into the shape of a banana before eating it. Of course, that all happens before the park opens, so we never get to see it. Up next is a Deep Beaked Gorilla...

...a Semi-Aquatic Fat-as-Heck Gorilla...

...and a few Immobile Snapping Gorillas.

We take a break from the cavalcade of apes to bring you the Lumberknot:

The Lumberknot is a Green Creature with Hexproof. It gets +1/+1 for every creature that hits the graveyard. From experience, it can be a real pain in the butt if you don't deal with it early on.

(commercial break)...

 

[nilla]

...and now back to our show. In the distance, you may be able to make out a Tricked By Scar into Killing Mufasa Gorilla:

As we make a turn, we spot some Long Necked Gorillas.

There are supposedly two kinds - The Run-of-the-Mill type (genus Ordinarius AsSeenonTVus) and the Reticulated type. Thank you, Lisa Simpson, for forever making it impossible for me to hear that word without thinking, "yes you are, you're so reticulated!" Those are apparently banana trees out there, by the way, judging by how much they like them.

From what the driver tells us, when born, these apes drop up to seven feet from their mother. Not that big a deal, since I've seen Donkey Kong fall several stories and come out ok. Still, probably a tough start to life outside the womb. I'm imagining that these creatures would rivals humans and dolphins in intelligence were it not for the jarring blow to the head they experience at this time.

I could go on forever, but maybe I'll move on to another topic. Feel free to send me a PM for more gorilla insight.

Anyway, another fun part of this attraction is playing "what's real and what isn't". I'm pretty sure the Lumberknot isn't real, or else it would be swinging at us for 7 damage at this point. The termite mounds look suspect, too, and I'm starting to wonder if it really takes over 5 years for Long Neck Feathered Gorilla eggs to hatch. I mean, that one was sitting there when Em was a baby. It STILL hasn't hatched? What's the hold-up? Mom seems to be wondering, too.

Plenty more apes where that came from, and I'm too lazy to name them all here, so fell free to look them up for yourselves:

It seems like they're really downplaying the whole "Little Red" storyline today, which can only mean good things to come. We get back to civilization, Dylan proclaims our driver to be the "best driver we've ever had", and it's back into the wild.

 

[nilla]

Now that that's done, where should we go next? We rode Everest, Kali, and the Safari...how about Expedition Everest? That's supposed to be fun. Plus, we have FPs we can't use later, so we'd better head on over now.

You know what would make this ride even better? Even more FastPasses. Can't have too much of a good thing, right? So FPs are attained, and on we go. Kristin and Dylan ask for the back so they can watch the track flip over, and I'm in charge of making sure Emily's head doesn't bounce around like a Super Ball. Of course, that means a brush-burned arm (fortunately, not my Coral Reef bench-burned arm) and sore shoulder for me, but it's ok. I try to get some in-motion shots, but to no avail. It's hard to scream like a 12-year-old girl, hang of for deal life, keep your daughter from flying over the side of the mountain, AND get great pics at the same time, after all. Maybe a professional photographer can do it. Maybe MEK. But not me.

But I can get still kid shots!

And shots of random coolness:

And shots of the Flame Tree Barbecue:

What should we do next? Hmm, not sure. I am feeling a strange rumbling in the pit of my stomach...should I eat? Is it time to eat? Remember, we aren't following any touring plans this year, so I don't know if I can make a decision like that! Would we normally eat at this time? Is my hunger an 8 or a 9? And where would we eat?

Oh, I know! Let's eat at the place I said we ate in the chapter heading in the Trip Report! Sound good? Great. But wait - Finding Nemo: The Musical is starting in five minutes, and there's no line! We can hit that before we go to eat, but it will require rewinding time and going back to before I took that Flame Tree picture. Can we do it?

Of course we can! This is Disney, where the magic lives! So let's go back and watch, ok?

The spirit of not planning is alive and well, since this was supposed to be a "Lion King year". Last year was a "Nemo year"...have we lost our minds? But what about the plans, man? The plans!

Forget the plans! We're winging it! Now let's go watch!

 

[nilla]

The plot of this one is simple - there are people in spandex carrying puppets of various types of aquatic gorillas. I don't take pics because the lighting is not condusive to my camera and I don't play that flash crap. Great show, though, as always. I wonder if the actors ever get bored of doing it again...and again...and again.

Hey, why do I smell root beer? Have I been teleported to the Gathering of the Juggalos?

...

Nope. Emily's just eating root beer Bottle Caps. Speaking of eating, I'm hungry. Can we hit the Flame Tree now?

Sure thing, says the woman. Coming off a ton of ribs (and chicken) just two nights ago, Kristin wants to hold off on getting the rib platter, and instead opts for the ribs with chicken.

I double down on the ribs.

The kids get hot dogs. We use an adult meal to get Dylan a kid's hot dog meal. Money well spent!

Kristin asks if we should sit in our usual spot, and I respond by asking where else we could possibly want to sit. The area is remarkably empty, which is less remarkable when you factor in that (1) there's no one in this park today, and (2) people never seem to come down here. I don't know why. It's the best view, clearly.

Death! Destruction!

More Everest:

These ducks dig it, down here, too.

As does Em.

The female duck was sleeping on one leg. I find it interesting that Disney goes through the trouble to cast Timon and Pumba in a series of hilarious PSAs about feeding the animals, distributed on cards with each meal, and STILL people feed these ducks. It messes up their natural food-finding instincts, the card tells me. But when you think about it, as long as these ducks don't outlive Disney's Animal Kingdom, they're pretty much set for life. They have natural instincts, and those instincts say, "people think you're cute." So the animals get fed.

Fortunately, not a lot today, because they can become a pain. The food is finished, and was great as always. This is always up there with my favorite CS restaurants.

With that down, our Everest FPs are now almost overdue. Kristin's not really keen on hitting it a third time just yet, so instead, it's over for Kilimanjaro FPs. Amazing - we've hit most of the big things and we're still hitting them again.

For some reason, the adbot on my computer thinks that EVERY banner ad in my browswer should be for PacSun swimwear. I'm not complaining, just noticing.

 

[nilla]

At this point, I realize it's early in the day and I'm almost all the way through a full four-post update. I need to speed this up!

But first, more Flame Tree pics!

I tell Kristin those boys are called macaws. She asks if it's because of their claws. Nope, that's not it.

I go off to get the FPs, and Kristin takes the kids to the Boneyard. Boneyard Pics!

I don't know what kind of rocks they are, but they have the ability to instantly flood your shoes. It's awful.

Emily checks in with the office:

Now it's time to play "Oh my god, where on Earth is my small child?" I heard the final part of the Everest Challenge is just that.

Random dino pic:

I tip Emily off on what would be a cute picture.

She's not as excited about it. She's rapidly approaching "miserable mode". Dylan's a better sport.

I loved dinos as a kid, and still think they're pretty darn cool now. So how about we go on Dinosaur?

...(walk)...(walk)...(walk)...

40 minute wait? Really?

No. Not doing it. But we can gets some shots first!

Ok, three more dino pics, then I'm going to bed!

Dinoland U.S.A. is a bizarre place indeed, and almost seems out of place in this park. But I like it. And I don't know where else it would fit. The only thing it needs are real dinosaurs. C'mon, Disney - we know you're working on it. Make it a reality.

This laptop has completely cramped my hands. I'm done! See you tomorrow!

[POST=45129516](next update)[/POST]

 

[nilla]

By the way, if you are currently writing a Trip Report and would like another reader, please let me know. I'm actually keeping up with a few, so I want to push the limit of how many I can juggle

 

[MEK]

Phew - I'm exhausted. That was a long update and your Safari commentary was hysterical. I am going to reread it when I am more awake so I can LOL a few times.

I didn't know there was such a good view from Flametree. Nice! the food looks great too and the empty park is awesome.

Love all the pictures. You got some cool and interesting shots.

I am just finishing a very long TR so I doubt you want to join that, but it does have links. But I'll make sure to pm you when I start the June TR (unless you disappear from the boards again).

 

[Queila]

Great update.
Flame Tree BBQ is a no brainer in our house. There is just no other place we would eat lunch at AK.
I have managed to drag my TR for over a year now so I don't think you would have a problem keeping up.

Q

 

[mmeb144]

I had no idea there were so many gorillas at AK!

I'm trying to convince my family that Flame Tree would be a fun place to eat in June. Is it cool in the shade back at your favorite table?

 

[phineasfan100]

Great update! Never knew there are so many Gorillas in AK, even though I was there in February!