"I'll trip a baby..." Nov/Dec '10 Trip Report

[KayBella]

I'm having so much fun reading your TR..its bringing back a lot of memories of when we went in August...I am missing WDW! (Thankfully, my sister and I along with our families are in the beginning stages of planning a trip in 2012..hopefully renting DVC...so I'm getting excited to start planning again!) Talking about the long wait times, I didn't think we had too bad of wait times when we went in late August. The longest we said we would wait was 30 minutes and I think that was about right. We used FP on everything possible! Couldn't imagine 100+ minutes in line! I lose interest pretty quickly and can't possibly think how cranky I could have gotten in those sort of lines! Thanks for the heads up on Hurricane Hannah's...might just have to put that on the list to check out since we are hoping to stay DVC over in that area!

 

[murmkc]

After an awesome morning and lunch with Shelly and Hannah, Karen and I went on another drinking excursion in Epcot.

We enjoyed our time in the parks but by far the highlight of the evening was our adventure at the Grand Floridian. While Shelly and Hannah were having a blast at Tuto Italia, Karen and I were living it up at Narcoossee's. I would share some pics but they did not turn out well! Dinner was fantastic. We actually ate at the bar and the service was wonderful!

From there we took a jaunt to Downtown Disney which continues to break my heart... That place was once had such a fun party atmosphere with so much nightlife! It is now a sad, empty, ghost town version of what it once was. I could rant forever about the decisions that took it there but I will save it for another thread!

 

[dawnmichele]

...Talking about the long wait times, I didn't think we had too bad of wait times when we went in late August. The longest we said we would wait was 30 minutes and I think that was about right. We used FP on everything possible! Couldn't imagine 100+ minutes in line! I lose interest pretty quickly and can't possibly think how cranky I could have gotten in those sort of lines!

30 minutes isn't bad at all, but yeah, 100 minutes? I can't imagine what I'd want to do enough to wait in a line, even with interesting staging, 100 minutes for. I guess I just have a short attention span. And I really can't imagine how a kid could be that patient, even for something like Buzz and Woody.

Thanks for the heads up on Hurricane Hannah's...might just have to put that on the list to check out since we are hoping to stay DVC over in that area!

You should definitely check it out. There's no inside seating, but the view is pretty nice an the food is fantastic!

 

[dawnmichele]

Friday was our last full day and we had decided to spend it at the Animal Kingdom. It was a nice, relaxing day and Hannah and I both had a great time. I took so many pictures I exhausted my camera's battery. I'll try not to force too many on you.

We got there and headed straight to the back for the Kilimanjaro Safari. I decided to not take any pictures on that safari ride and just enjoy what I was seeing. After that Hannah wanted to ride Expedition Everest but I decided to pass. Chicken, I know. But when Hannah came off the ride she told me I was right to back out.

I Loved the look of Asia, and this was my favorite.

Mount Everest

We headed into the Maharajah Jungle Trek to see if we could find the tiger's up to anything.

They were sleeping. I think it was a little too chilly out for them. I'd love to be there when it was hot and they were playing in the water.

We left the trek and decided to go back across the bridge. My friend had told us about DeVine, the lady made of leaves, and where to look for her. Hannah had a major goal of finding her before anyone else did. We did find her on that search, but she already had a big crowd gathered around.

Hannah smelled some of those sugary almonds and we headed off to find them. We sat down at a restaurant for her to enjoy them and were treated to show of African music and dancing.

We hopped on the Safari ride again, wondering what we might see this time. I think it was my favorite trip of the whole trip. I definitely took a lot of pictures.

White Rhino

When we got to savanah, there were a few buses lined up. Up ahead there was a giraffe on the road, roaming about oblivious to the cars and people. And after a few minutes, the giraffe simply sat down. Right in the middle of the road. I was loving it and Hannah and I were both wishing we had been on the bus closest to the giraffe. After a quite a while, I think they must have played the giraffe's signal because the sitting one got up and they all headed off in the same direction. The safari continued on.

Baby Giraffe

Wildebeest. They made me and Hannah think of the Lion King

Baby Elephant

Two Young Elephants

Hannah and me

Can you see the Lion?

Ostrich


That's a lot of pictures. I'm going to continue in a second part.

 

[murmkc]

AWESOME stuff. I want to go back right now!

- and I will add my two cents once you have completed part two!

 

[murmkc]

Sometime soon I hope!

 

[murmkc]

- at least relatively soon?

I want this trip report to be done before I set reservations for the next one!

 

[IheartDDuck]

After an awesome morning and lunch with Shelly and Hannah, Karen and I went on another drinking excursion in Epcot.

We enjoyed our time in the parks but by far the highlight of the evening was our adventure at the Grand Floridian. While Shelly and Hannah were having a blast at Tuto Italia, Karen and I were living it up at Narcoossee's. I would share some pics but they did not turn out well! Dinner was fantastic. We actually ate at the bar and the service was wonderful!

From there we took a jaunt to Downtown Disney which continues to break my heart... That place was once had such a fun party atmosphere with so much nightlife! It is now a sad, empty, ghost town version of what it once was. I could rant forever about the decisions that took it there but I will save it for another thread!

I am so in agreement with you on this! I miss Pleasure Island so much, and every time I walk through there now, I feel so sad. Now I have to go all the way to CityWalk to have fun.....

 

[murmkc]

Bah!

 

[murmkc]

Dearest big sister - we NEED to finish this trip report!
- and as you were the organized one with the notes about who did what each day I need your help!

There are more fun stories to tell!

 

[murmkc]

This is getting to be a bit crazy...

 

[lnk1229]

Guilty lurker- and I want to see the end too ( just like your awesome, goofy, amazing, incredible brother- perhaps if I suck up a bit more he will take me next time too!!

Loving all of the pictures- I am guilty of taking way too many during our trip.. And then when completing my TR trying to include every single one!!

Hannah is gorgeous, your family is so much fun, and it looks like you had an amazing time!! Can't wait to read more!

 

[Mrs. Sojourner]

I'm following along too and can't wait to here the ending. Soarin' is my absolute favorite and I am so glad you enjoyed it. I loved the pictures of your DD in Adventure Land at the same place at 4 and 17; so cool! Your pictures are wonderful. We were there Nov. 30- Dec. 1st and thought the weather and crowds were great then.

 

[murmkc]

Big sister - this photo should help to illustrate how I feel about you abandoning this trip report for the past couple months...

 

[PetersonFamily]

We were there the exact days you were! MK on the 28th, AK on the 29th, HS on the 1st... a few more similiar days that I can't remember. So funny!! Enjoyed ya'lls report!!

 

[dawnmichele]

Ok, I am a bad big sister and a bad trip reporter! And thanks for all your sweet replies. I guess I just don't want it to end, but here it goes...

After riding the Safari again, Hannah and I took the train to Rafiki's Planet Watch. It wasn't super thrilling, but on a nice easy day like this one, it was a fun thing to do.

I got to meet Jiminy Cricket.

The line for Rafiki was far too long so I just snuck a photo of him.

I got Hannah's picture with a gorilla, but don't worry, he wasn't real.

I had hoped to watch a vet checking out some animal, but no luck. All the lab rooms were empty. The train ride back offered unique views of some of the animal areas though and was very interesting.

We headed towards Camp Minnie Mickey next to see which characters we might find.

We saw King Louie and Baloo again, heading out for a rest.

We snuck a peek at Flick.

I couldn't help shooting another pic of the marvelous Tree of Life.

The monkeys weren't noisy like the first day we visited them, but they were out hanging around and fun to watch.

We rode Dinosaur again and I was still just as scared! Silly me.

I noticed Pooh and his friends were taking visitors. Hannah wasn't interested, but I wanted to get my photo taken with them. Meeting characters had been my favorite part of the trip and I didn't want to miss out on what might be my last chance.

Now this next area is very interesting to me. You can see it from the bridge into Camp Minnie Mickey. My brother told me a great story about how originally Animal Kingdom was meant to have a whole area about mythical beasts, but they scrapped the idea. I think it was a brilliant idea and it might have been my favorite part of the whole Kingdom. Hopefully my brother can tell you more, but here are the pictures I took.

We made it to Camp Minnie Mickey, but didn't take our pictures with anyone except each other.

We took the Safari one last time but didn't see anything spectacular.

While Hannah looked for a restroom, I made a quick trip to see the gorillas one last time.

We stumbled on the close of the day parade where my camera finally ran out of battery.

We wandered around the park some more till they started to kick us out because it was closing. Bad choice. We should have left sooner because the line for the buses were Insane! We were headed for the Animal Kingdom Lodge to have dinner at Sanaa, and my brother had changed his ADRs so we could all eat together that last night. He was much smarter and left earlier, so he was there waiting for us at the bar long before we even boarded our bus. Eventually we made it and had a fantastic last night at Disney World.

 

[dawnmichele]

The fog off the lake in the morning was amazingly beautiful.

We had a little extra time in the morning, so we took a quick trip to the Magic Kingdom where they were busy filming the Christmas special!

Tangled was just out when we visited the parks and we had kept an eye out for any of the characters. We finally saw Rapunzel and her Prince in some kind of private meet and greet.

Just before we left, Hannah met Alice, who she loved when she first met her when she was 3.

While we were waiting for the Magical Express, we checked out the pool. We had wanted to take a dip in it, but there was always something more exciting to do.

And then we were away. On the bus and then on the plane to Atlanta where we had to wait to take a plane back home to KC.

Hannah was pretty exhausted, and we were both very sad to be headed back to non magical regular life. We had such a fantastic time, every minute of it. Thanks so much to my brother for making it possible.

Now let's go back!!

 

[camsmomE]

By the time we made it back to Bay Lake Tower I may have had a drink too many! - I blame the wet floor.

Oh, I forgot to mention... hi. I'm joining you all on this "trip." -stace

 

[murmkc]

WOW! we can finally finish the trip report! Gimme a few to put it all together and I will add my last night/day!

 

[murmkc]

So Karen and I started out the day at the Magic Kingdom where the Christmas Parade was being taped. It was pretty cool but limited how much of the park we could enjoy as quickly as we would have liked.

I refrained from getting my photo taken with a team of cheerleaders and we headed to the Animal Kingdom.

This is where we got the lost children photo from earlier in the thread. We also got Karen showing off her pretzel thug life pose.

After that we headed to Kadani Village to see the Animal Kingdom side of DVC.

They have a bunch of wonderful proverbs posted next to golden butterfly sculptures - here is my attempt to be artistic with that.

Shortly after that we hit the bar (surprise!) and not many drinks later my sister and niece arrived for more awesome fun.

We had a great dinner and an awesome last night. Certainly one for the record books.

The next morning I did a little accounting and noticed that Karen and I had a table service credit left - so we hit up Chef Micky's!
I had heard so many great things about this place but it was only a decent buffet with a chance to meet the fab 5. I enjoyed it but will probably use my TS credits for establishments with booze in the future!

Shortly after our breakfast - Karen and I headed to the magical express area and were officially on our way home. The trip was awesome.