It's The Magic That Can Happen When It's Autumn! - Animal Kingdom Lodge - Club Level

[TimNJ]

It's been a LONG time since July! Hurry back so we can read more trip report!!

 

[TheLittleKatie]

Day 7
Tuesday 6th September 2016
Part 1 – Early entrance to Island of Adventure


Good morning!
We woke up at 7am to get our early access to Hogsmeade that came with our hotel stay!

And remember those non-existent blue skies at Universal that I was complaining about?
Today looks like THE DAY!
I was camera ready!

I was ready and waiting by the door at 7:45am.
But Jamie was taking his sweet sweet time…

Luckily we still managed to get packed up, out the door, checked out and on our way to the park by 8am.

Thanks Portofino Bay it’s been swell!
(But we’ll see you later to pick up our luggage )

By 8:05am we were on a boat to the parks.
WOO.
What a beautiful morning.

At 8:20am we were walking into Islands of Adventure.

Welcome to Hogsmeade!

There were a lot more people in Hogsmeade than I thought there would be, but the line for Forbidden Journey was still fairly short.

Remember to look up throughout the queue!

I love this ride!
Like I said before, I’m kind of over simulation rides, but this is a really good combination of both simulation and track.
Plus all of the giant props and animatronics always make me jump, especially the spiders

We got out of the ride at 9am so we headed over to Spider-Man!

It was eerily quiet in Toon Lagoon…

The woman working at the front of Spider-Man said I was allowed to come in as a Hufflepuff, but no Slytherins were allowed
Unlucky Hymie.

There was absolutely NO ONE in line.
I did stop to get a picture of the photo on this man’s desk though.
If you can see past the weird mouldy purple croissant, I have the exact same photo of myself at the Leaning Tower of Pisa

Spider-Man was fun as always.
Plus he’s my favourite Marvel hero.
Him, and Captain America.
And Thor.
ANYWAY.

After Spider-Man we left Islands of Adventure.
Forbidden Journey and Spider-Man are the only attractions we really enjoy in that park.
I like the theming of the park and just wandering around listening to the music loops, but we looove the attractions at the other park more.

I really wish Rip Ride Rockitt didn’t have this vertical climb.

I rode it once in 2014 and hated going up that thing, and it ruined the rest of the ride for me.
I’d thought about giving it another chance, until I saw the video of the ride getting stuck vertically, and NOPED right out of that idea

We noticed this sweet memorial in a window for some of the Pulse victims a couple of months ago.

We were heading around to Men in Black, but we stopped in the Simpsons area for a healthy, nutritious breakfast…

Yes, we shared a hot dog for breakfast.
It was basic and bad.
But it gave us a slight energy boost for Men in Black!

Sadly Jamie won this round.
The power struggle continues.



Click for Day 7 - Part 2!
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[TheLittleKatie]

Day 7
Tuesday 6th September 2016
Part 2 – More Universal Fun


Next we headed towards The Mummy, and for some reason we stopped in an Irish store on the way.
They have some funny stuff in here!

Jamie is half Irish (and half Indian), so I thought it was absolutely necessary that he embrace his heritage and buy this t-shirt...

Sadly he did not buy it
We also found the coat of arms for my surname.

They didn’t have Jamie’s surname, but we found a name that was only one letter different…
And IT’S JUST THREE RANDOM FISH.

OF COURSE.

What a funny coat of arms.

We made it to The Mummy at 10:30 and rode it twice in 20 minutes WOO.

So much fun!
Although “I would’ve enjoyed it a lot more if I had gotten MY CUP OF COFFEE!!!!!”


Then we walked back over to Diagon Alley.
I was loving these blue skies.
I don’t think I’ve ever been to Universal on such a beautiful day.

We looked around for a while and considered riding Gringotts, but neither of us were bothered about it really.
We just did it yesterday and we both prefer Forbidden Journey.
I think deep down we were both eager to get back to Disney!
So we left Diagon Alley.

Now we were just waiting on the 12:15pm showing of Animal Actors!
Some people would say we were saving the best thing until last.
And I am one of those people.

In the meantime we rode Men in Black and I won with over 350,000.


…So we had to ride again so that Jamie could win
He’s actually a 6 year old.

It was 11:20am now and I think the heat was making Hymie delirious and crazy.

We looked in the Kwik-E-Mart, then rode ET again!

We were so glad we paid for a night in the hotel to get our Express Passes.
Totally worth the extra money to skip these horrendous lines.

Insane crowds.

Jamie was Universal-bounding as the ET walls!

We rode in the front row, and Jamie felt very important because ET was in the basket of his bike.
He concluded that he “brought ET home and saved an entire planet and all of its inhabitants”.


After our journey to Planet Crazy we had a quick look in Spongebob Storepants…

Then FINALLY headed over to the 12:15 showing of Animal Actors!

They play Upside Down by Jack Johnson at the start of the show which is a really nostalgic song to me.
It takes me back to a specific family trip to Venice, Italy when I was a teenager, sitting on the beach with my Irish, Dutch and Danish holiday friends

Anyway, on with the show!

Jamie looooves these dogs below.
I believe it’s a Samoyed.
But he calls them “Cloud-boyes” or “floofers”.

The show is so much fun!
We love animals, especially dogs, so this is always hilarious to us.
Plus, at the end of the show a few animals come out and let you pet them!
GAH they are SUCH GOOD BOYS.

Tongue slip!

So precious!

After Animal Actors we decided to ride Men in Black one last time.
I appreciate these people in full Men in Black suits, because it was SO hot out

Anyway, I won the game.
Don’t hate, Hymie.
Sassy emoji – alien edition:

It was now 1pm, so we decided to get the Hogwarts Express back to Islands of Adventure to get some lunch at our normal spot.

We arrived at IoA and went straight to Blondie’s!

We got a turkey, lettuce and cheese sandwich with the yummy potato salad.
We were sharing lunch today because we had a big meal this evening

Unfortunately it was too hot to sit outside, so we had to sit inside in the air conditioning, and not at our usual slurp table.
I made sure to get a picture with it before we left though

I love that slurp table.

After lunch we headed out of the park, and got the boat back to Portofino Bay to get our luggage.

At 2:30pm we had retrieved our bags and we were waiting outside for our Uber.
Time to head back to Disney!

Here’s my verdict on spending the night at Universal.
I really love Portofino Bay!
I liked feeling laid back about touring knowing we have two days.
And I really enjoyed relaxing at City Walk at night.

If we were travelling at a busy time I would definitely do this again.

However, when visiting in September, we really can do it all in just one day, certainly with one day of express passes.
And as much as I enjoyed the hotel stay, we’ll probably only spend one day there next time.

But to anyone travelling at a busier time, and planning on spending 2+ days at Universal, I definitely recommend a night at Portofino!

Click for Day 7 - Part 3!

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[TheLittleKatie]

Day 7
Tuesday 6th September 2016
Part 3 – The Garden Grill!


We’re heading back to Disney, YAY!
We ordered an Uber to go back to Animal Kingdom Lodge, but the driver took us to Animal Kingdom first by accident, doh.

When we got back to the room we both napped hard after our early morning and our day in the heat.

Then we headed to Epcot at around 6pm.
It was a beautiful evening

We went straight to The Land, as we had a dinner reservation at…

The Garden Grill!
It was our first time dining here.
I already knew that Jamie would like all of the meat they offer, and I was excited to see DALE!

We were shown to a great table on the bottom floor facing Living With The Land!

Before any food had even arrived, Chip and Dale came to see us!

I LOVE DALE.

I told Dale that he was my favourite, but don’t tell Chip..!!
He enjoyed that very much.
I reminded him that I had met him in Disneyland Paris last year, and that he was very interested in my hair back then.
Then he took my hair and made it into a moustache!
The exact same thing he did in Paris!

Honestly I was loving him so much.
GAH.
Dale is just the best.
And he loved me because I loved him.
He even gave me a kiss

I told him to come back and see us soon.

The waitress brought us some salad and bread.
I also ordered an apple juice and Jamie had a diet coke.

The salad had bacon, egg, tomato, beetroot, lettuce, cucumber and ranch dressing.
The bread and butter was kinda sweet and it was delicious.

Then came our main meal!
We had turkey, beef, sausage, onions and peppers, stuffing, mash, green beans and cranberry sauce!

There was also a plate of sweet potato fries and goldfish mac and cheese!

It was all soooo good.
Jamie preferred the beef and I preferred the turkey so that all worked out well.
We even ordered more of each.

Soon Mickey came round in his ADORABLE farmer outfit.

I asked him if he’d been working hard to prepare all of this food for us and he said yes and mopped his brow

One of my favourite moments of the meal was when Dale popped his head over from the other side of the booth to say hi to me again!

OMG he is simply the best.

Next came Pluto!
I told him I would save him some scraps and sneak some food under the table for him, and he was very happy about that.

And while we were still eating, DALE CAME BACK and gave me some more kisses!!!

I am actually in love with him.
Move aside Jamie.

For dessert we were served some strawberry shortcake!

I usually prefer chocolatey desserts to fruity desserts, but this was soooo good!!
It was nice and light which was perfect considering the amount of food we had just eaten

I think our waitress had seen how much we’d enjoyed the character interactions and noticed that we’re basically giant children, so when we were settling the bill she brought us a light-up Tinker Bell and Buzz!!!
These usually clip onto the kids drinks I think.

We had such a good experience at the Garden Grill!
So much meat and so much fun, with great customer service.
We will definitely be back sometime!


Click for Day 7 - Part 4!
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[BaymaxForever]

So glad you’re back!! Hope everything is well with you and look forward to reading more of your adventures!

 

[beckyx3]

I still can't believe I haven't done Universal with Ricky yet. Every time people post about it I'm dying to go but we never make it over. It looks like so much fun! One day...

 

[TheLittleKatie]

Day 7
Tuesday 6th September 2016
Part 4 – Epcot EMH


Now that we had a stomach full of food, the only logical thing for us to do was to use our fastpass for Test Track.
Ugh why do we always do this

We were very full so we took a slow stroll over there, and stopped to watch the Fountains of Nations for a few minutes.

The fastpass line at Test Track was quite long, which allowed our dinner to settle a bit

Jamie made our car but he only got 227.
This might sound like a high score, but last year he pretty much mastered getting 230, so he was rather disappointed in himself.

(The top score of the day today was 232 anyway, which Jamie has never managed before…)

I don’t know where our ride photo disappeared to. I find Test Track ones go missing a lot.
We also took some green screen pictures after the ride but they never showed up either

We left Test Track at around 9pm, and IllumiNations was starting!
It was really crowded at the entrance to World Showcase so we walked around the lagoon a bit and found a bench to stand on in the China pavilion.
We ended up with a great view!

YAAAY.
After the show we continued walking around World Showcase.
It was extra magic hours tonight!

Jamie enjoyed playing with these puppets in China.

Then we went in one of my favourite shops – the German Christmas store – to see the pickle tree!

They sell tiny pickles and huge pickles now too!

Then we looked at the German model village and THE TRAIN HAD DERAILED.

Jamie adopted a thick German accent and, referring to Britain’s emergency service number, said
“We should call NEIN NEIN NEIN!”


Tapestry of Nations started playing when we were around Italy!

When we reached Japan I tried to film some Tapestry of Nations for Snapchat but every time I did, Jamie noticed and started reading a Japan sign in a ridiculous and probably offensive “Japanese” accent.
So that didn’t really work out.

Next we went into Mitsukoshi!
OMG I had no idea just how big it was!
For some reason I thought it ended after the second area.
We were in there for ages looking at anime stuff, kimonos, bonsai trees, Japanese food etc etc etc.
So good.
Jamie loved it and said that we needed to come back here for sure.

We left Mitsukoshi at around 10pm and got ourselves the infamous Grey Goose Slush’s from the France pavilion!

I wanted a picture holding both of them, but we were pretty giggly at this point and this was the best we got

In fact, we were so giggly, we actually bumped into each other on the walk over to the UK, and Jamie got sticky slush all down his arm

After cleaning Jamie up, we continued walking, sipped on what was left of our drinks, then headed out of the park.

We got the bus back to Animal Kingdom Lodge.
The bus was quite full, but when we stopped at Kidani no one got off, which the bus driver said had never happened in the three years he’d been driving!
Interesting.

We got back to Jambo and headed straight to bed!

Goodnight


Click for Day 8 - Part 1!
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[TheLittleKatie]

Day 8
Wednesday 7th September 2016
Part 1 – Disney UniQlo!!!


Good morning!

We slept in until 9am and had a restful start today.
I got us some breakfast from the club level lounge at around 10am.
I got Jamie a bagel with cream cheese, two eggs, a chocolate milk and some coffee…!
I had to carry all of that back, then go back for myself!
For myself I got a bagel with cream cheese, a blueberry muffin and a coffee.

We watched King Kong (2005) as I don’t think I’d ever seen it.
TV was very universal-relevant this week.

Jamie went to the gym at 11:30am and I tidied up the room a bit.
We’d had the privacy tag on the door for a few days so the place was a mess!
I don’t know about you, but even with just the two of us we can make a mess of a hotel room very quickly and easily..!

At 1:30pm I was raring to go do something fun!!
I told Jamie this, and he started being tediously slow at everything on purpose…
For example, he slowly and carefully laid out three pairs of socks on the bed, lining them up with each other meticulously, and said,

“Which socks shall I wear?.....

…black…
…

…white…
…

…or grey…?”

​

I pushed him along and FINALLY he was ready.

We quickly went to the lounge to fill up our water, and grab some cookies to put in the fridge.
Then we finally headed out at 2pm!

(In the voice of Must-Do Disney’s Stacey)
“It’s time to check out, DISNEY SPRINGS!”

For the first time since the revamp!
WOOWOO.

We got off the bus right at the Coca Cola Store and had a look inside.
​

It was.. interesting…​

You have to REALLY love Coca Cola to buy handbag made out of old cans.

We decided to head straight to Earl of Sandwich to share something for lunch, because our dinner was coming up at 6:30pm.

I enjoyed the walk through Disney Springs.
The old Downtown Disney set up was very nostalgic to me, but I appreciate the huge overhaul project and I think they did a really nice job.
I’m just so thankful that the Marketplace survived!

I had to basically be DRAGGED past UniQlo!
There are a few UniQlos in London, including a HUGE one that is three or four floors.
I’ve been a big fan of their Disney stuff and regular stuff for many years.
I was certainly looking forward to a (pretty much) Disney-dedicated one!

Anyway, we went to Earl of Sandwich first and shared a turkey club, a cookie and a drink.

It was pretty good, and helped keep us going until our dinner reservation.
We did have bad service though, our cashier was really grumpy.
He literally took our receipt and just said “10.64” with no eye contact or anything.
BLEH.

ANYWAY it’s UniQlo time!

Me entering the store:

​

SO MUCH GOOD STUFF.
And it’s all very reasonably priced.

I also made friends with the cutest sales assistant.
We chatted for ages and I’m sure if we lived in the same city we’d be best friends.
We basically shared our life stories, and after leaving her to get on with her job, I came across her again later, and we just stood there talking for ages again.
I enjoyed her a lot

There really is an overwhelming amount of great, cheap Disney clothes in here.
I made a note of a few things that I would definitely be coming back to get.
The Up shirt with the balloons (below) was my favourite!

Click for Day 8 - Part 2!
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[Dentam]

Woohoo, you're back!!

 

[TheLittleKatie]

Day 8
Wednesday 7th September 2016
Part 2 – Disney Springs and Saratoga Springs


After browsing UniQlo we went to the Lego store.
Jamie liked the Star Wars stuff.

When we left I spotted this new addition.
I enjoy the dark concept of the Big Bad Wolf opening up a sausage restaurant

Then we had a look around the World of Disney.

I love these Monorail socks!!
Perhaps I’ll buy some later in the trip

Then we went to the Marketplace Co-Op.

I really like the D-tech, Centerpiece and Tag stores here.

Then we walked around kind of aimlessly, and we found the springs!

They’re a beautiful bright blue colour.

SPRINKLES is by the springs.
I’d heard they do delicious cupcakes there!

They even have a cupcake ATM.
All ATMs should be converted to cupcake ATMs in my opinion.
In my world, cupcakes would be currency.

We had a quick look inside and it looked and smelled GREAT.
But like I said, we had dinner at 6:30, and it was currently 4:15!
So we didn’t get anything right now, but we WILL be back!

Then we decided on a whim to walk around to Saratoga Springs and have a stroll around the grounds in the sunshine!

Jamie said he didn’t like it.
Because there's no one playing drums like at Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Jamie thought that this thing looked like WALL-E…

Yeah sure OK.


Then we walked back around to Disney Springs and called in at Goofy’s Candy Company to make sure that the Mickey Rice Crispy Treats are still a DDP snack (pro-tip: THEY ARE).

Then we headed back to the bus stop.

We had another quick look in the Coke store along the way, and I knocked over a Coke can dinosaur, which started a domino effect of toppling Coke can animals.
So that was mildly embarrassing.

Then we got the bus to our dinner destination!


Click for Day 8 - Part 3!
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[TheLittleKatie]

Day 8
Wednesday 7th September 2016
Part 3 – Whispering Canyon Café!


We’re at the lovely Wilderness Lodge for dinner at Whispering Canyon Café!
We first visited this resort last year and I thought it was just so beautiful.
Photos don’t do it justice at all.

They have very sweet resort-specific merchandise in the store.
The totem pole stuff is cute.

At 6:30 it was time to check into Whispering Canyon Café for dinner!

I don’t see this place get the greatest reviews, but we had dinner here last year and it was one of my favourite meals of the trip!
The food was great and the service was really fun.

Last year we were seated in a back room that was quieter and dimly lit.
There were fancy tables and chairs and a big fireplace and it was just looovely.
We got good food and a fun server, in a quieter, classy setting.

When we checked in today I asked if that back room was open but unfortunately it wasn’t.
However they put us in a different quiet room, which didn’t have any of the fancy tables and chairs, but it was still more peaceful than the rowdy main room.

Our table was in front of a pretty fireplace.

We both got the All-You-Care-To Enjoy Skillet again.
First came the salad and cornbread!
The salad wasn’t as green as last year, but the apple, blue cheese and the dressing are very unique and tasty!

Cornbread isn’t something we really have in the UK, and I can’t say I really care for it.
It’s basically just cake you eat before dinner, right?!
I call it dinner-cake.
Jamie enjoys it though, so he ate most of that!

Then we were brought the main skillet.

This has “Slow-smoked Pork Ribs, Barbecued Pulled Pork, Roasted Glazed Chicken, Oak-smoked Beef, and Western-style Sausage served with Seasonal Farm Fresh Vegetables, Mashed Yukon Potatoes, Corn on the Cob, and Cowboy-style Baked Beans.”

It’s fantastic in my opinion!

Unfortunately after our Earl of Sandwich just a couple of hours ago we weren’t as hungry as we were last year.
This skillet is amazing if you’re starving, but still very good when you’re forcing it down a bit..!

During our meal a family came and stood by our table, and were looking inquisitively at the fireplace.
I asked what they were looking for and they told us about 7 hidden Mickeys at the Wilderness Lodge, and one of them was on this fireplace!
They thought they had found it in some ambiguous-looking lettering, so they marked it down and headed off.
I didn’t think it was quite right, so Jamie and I kept looking, and eventually we found the real hidden Mickey at the very bottom of the fireplace!
You can’t really see it unless you get down to its level.

We were really full after the skillet and didn’t think we could manage dessert.
Our waitress offered to box it up so we could take it home, but we were heading to Magic Kingdom!
So we just ordered one to share, but unfortunately we didn’t enjoy it very much.
It was a key lime cheesecake.
I love regular New York style cheesecake but this was a bit sour for me.
The salad and skillet made up for it though!

We finished up and I took some photos outside.
It’s so pretty here.

Then we headed to the boat docks.

It was a beautiful evening!

At 8pm we were on the boat heading to the Magic Kingdom!

Our captain was so funny.
He was telling pirate-themed jokes… For example:

What’s a pirate’s favourite restaurant?
Arby’s.

Why can’t you take a photo of a pirate with a wooden leg?
Because it doesn’t have a lens or a shutter!

How does a pirate get his parrot to stay on his shoulder?
Polly grip.

He also threw in a Star Wars joke for good measure…

Have you tried the new Star Wars cookie?
It’s called a Wookie Cookie.

It’s a little Chewy..

Click for Day 8 - Part 4!
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[TheLittleKatie]

Day 8
Wednesday 7th September 2016
Part 4 – Late Night Magic Kingdom


Magic Kingdom was open until 11pm tonight WOO.

As soon as we arrived, we high-tailed it over to Fantasyland to use our 7DMT fastpass!

We were on the second row and had a great time.
This ride is fun in the dark.

Then we went to use our fastpass at the Jungle Cruise!
Shelby was our skipper and she did some of my favourite Jungle Cruise jokes, such as Dr. Albert Falls, and how to get a hippo to leave you alone.

(“This has worked well with all of my exes…
I LOVE YOU! I’M READY FOR COMMITMENT!”)

Wishes was on while we were on the Jungle Cruise, and when we departed we caught the finale from Adventureland!

Then we went to Splash Mountain and it was a walk-on!

Do you ever have to make a split second decision about how to pose for a ride photo and just PANIC?
We were chatting all the way up the climb, then when we got to the top we were like “WHAT DO WE DO.”
I think we wanted to put our arms in the air for the enjoyment factor, but also wanted to “pretend to be asleep!”
I’m not entirely sure…

Then we walked through the hub and over to Tomorrowland.

We walked over to the PeopleMover, and Jamie was singing
“I ride the PeopleMover everydayyy”
To the Pokemon Go song

But when we got there the moving walkway was off and the CM said it was closed!

We both said “noooo!” and the CM thought it was funny that we cared so much about the PeopleMover

We headed into Fantasyland and Jamie used the bathroom near Gaston’s Tavern.
When he was done he walked straight past me as though he hadn’t seen me, but I didn’t chase after him because I knew he was just pretending and had a stupid mischievous grin on his face, just from the back of his head
And I was absolutely correct.

Next we went on the Little Mermaid ride!

It was now about 10pm and we were pretty tired, so we headed out of the park.

Jamie was cracking me up on the walk out, and I didn’t even have to talk, I was just listening to him ramble.
He couldn’t think of the word “seafood”, and he kept saying “seafish”, going,
“..is that right? Seafish.. That doesn’t sound right.. what is the word? Seafish?”


Then on Main Street we saw a kid with an English accent running and yelling, and Jamie said,
“For the Queen!”
And I was like “Huh? Is that a reference to something?”
And he said, “No, it’s just what someone would say when charging in to battle. GOD, have you never done a historical war re-enactment before??!”
HAHA no I can’t say that I have pal.

Why do they always make Aladdin look so goofy in these models

We exited the park and got talking to a Canadian couple in line for the bus.
Everyone in line got a bit angsty because an ECV rocked up with literally (yes literally, not figuratively) 10 family members, and the bus line was VERY long.
After a bit of complaining, the woman we’d been talking to said,
“You have to question how many people actually need an ECV at Disney…”
Then we noticed that the guy in the ECV clearly had a broken foot with a big boot on it, and the woman was like, “OK, I’m going to hell.”

The bus called at Kidani, then arrived back at Jambo at around 11pm.
We went straight to the lounge to get a cup of tea but it was closed BOO.
So we went back to the room to get our mugs, then went to the Mara to get tea.
We took it back to our room, and ate the cookies we’d put in the fridge earlier.
We watched Two and a Half Men, and Friends, and fell asleep.

Goodnight!


Click for Day 9 - Part 1!
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[TheLittleKatie]

Hello! I have the rest of this trip report written out and ready to be posted asap, and once it's all finished I'll reply to comments!!

 

[Raeven]

Yay I'm so excited your back! (I know your not answering comments until the end, so I just wanted to get caught up with my commenting )

By 8:05am we were on a boat to the parks.
WOO.
What a beautiful morning.

I love Portofino Bay, it's so pretty! We're doing 1 night there for EP on this next trip, and I'm so excited to go back there again.

After Spider-Man we left Islands of Adventure.
Forbidden Journey and Spider-Man are the only attractions we REALLY enjoy in that park.
I like the theming of the park and just wandering around listening to the music loops, but we looove the attractions at the other park more.

Same Except for me I think it's Spiderman & either Kong or JPRA or whatever I'm in the mood for that day. I love IOA, I think it's so pretty and I love the atmosphere in most the sections but I don't go on that many rides when we're there. (I don't think I go on that many in USO either, but it seems like there's more to do).

Fine I admit it, we shared a hot dog for breakfast.
But you can eat what you want on holiday, right?

Right!

I wanted Jamie to buy this shirt below.
Doesn’t it look great on him??!!

I want Jamie to buy that shirt too

And IT’S JUST THREE RANDOM FISH.

In the meantime we rode Men in Black and I won with over 350,000.

Ooo go Katie!

But he calls them “Cloud-boyes” or “floofers”.

That seems like a good way to describe them. Now I just want to hug a floofy dog.

The show is so much fun!
We love animals, especially dogs, so this is always hilarious to us.
Plus, at the end of the show a few animals come and stand by the walkways and let you pet them!
GAH they are SUCH GOOD BOYS.

OMG I didn't know you got to pet the dogs after, we're definitely going now.

I think our waitress had seen how much we’d enjoyed the character interactions and noticed that we’re basically giant children, so when we were settling the bill she brought us a light-up Tinker Bell and Buzz!!!

I think Dale told her to send them over

I don’t know where our ride photo disappeared to. I find Test Track ones go missing a lot.
We also took some green screen pictures after the ride but they never showed up either

Our TT ones go missing a lot too, and usually I have to email Disney to get them back. We also did the green screen pictures on our first trip, and I'm not even kidding I randomly got them in my e-mail one day like 7 months later!

Then we looked at the German model village and THE TRAIN HAD DERAILED.

Oh no

Ooo nice picture!

I wanted a picture holding both of them, but we were pretty giggly at this point and this was the best we got

I think this one is adorable

You have to REALLY love Coca Cola to buy handbag made out of old cans.

You do, I think you really have to love Coca Cola to buy anything in that store, and I don't like soda at all so everything in there seems kind of pointless to me

They even have a cupcake ATM.
All ATMs should be converted to cupcake ATMs in my opinion.
In my world, cupcakes would be currency.

I agree, I want to live in your world!

 

[jandlinz]

Yay! So glad you are back. I’m loving the updates! I’m interested to hear how you liked AKL compared to the other resorts you have stayed at. It is on our list to do, but the distance to the parks has me concerned. Also, the only transportation is a bus and folding up strollers is a big pain. Are you headed back this September? We are going to be there at the end of the September.

 

[DLHNYC]

Wow, when you come back, you really come back! Glad you're back, we missed you!

Enjoyed your Universal update. Agree, Mummy is the best. And the queue is funny too.

 

[CCostner]

My husband and I are in your UniQlo storefront picture! How crazy!?!? Great trip report! We had an awesome trip that year. September is forever my favorite time to visit.

 

[Born 2B a Princess]

So glad you’re back! I love your trip reports!

 

[TheLittleKatie]

Day 9
Thursday 8th September 2016
Part 1 – Tusker House


Hello!

We got up at 8:45 this morning, and left the room at 9:30 for our breakfast ADR at Tusker House!

We checked in at Tusker House at 10:05am for our 10:10 reservation.

I try to be as positive and understanding as possible when it comes to Disney, but I’m going to give my controversial opinion right off the bat.

We had a terrible experience at Tusker House.
Probably the worst dining experience we’ve ever had

First of all, after checking in, we waited for ages, outside, in the scorching heat.
Bearing in mind our reservation was for 10:10, we were eventually called in at 10:40am, i.e. half an hour late, and just 20 minutes until the restaurant switched over to lunch food.

We had assumed it was really busy and they were operating a “one family out, one family in” procedure.
However I was baffled to see that the restaurant was almost completely empty!
I am not kidding!
There were three people at the buffet, and the entire main room (with the skylight) was empty.
All of the tables set up, but I guess they were saving them for the lunch guests?
This was not a good first impression.

Anyway, we were seated in a little side room with just four tables and we went right up to get food.
My first plate was the standard bacon, scrambled egg, and sausage patty, and also a bowl of oatmeal.

This was fine, although if I'm being nitpicky, the plates had a really small centre of gravity so they wobbled whenever we tried to cut something

Then Jamie went to the buffet to get some ham but there was no one there to serve him.

Probably preparing lunch.
Lunch is very important here apparently…

Then I went to get some fruit, and the fruit bowl was terrible and mushy and almost empty and actually made me feel queezy.
I get that it was 10:55 and lunch started at 11 so they weren’t replenishing it, but that just made us even more annoyed that we’d waited so long to be seated in an empty restaurant!

I got some melon, granola, strawberry yoghurt and raisins.
Meh.

We also had some Jungle Juice and coffee.

Also, are you supposed to be given new knives and forks?
Because I used the same spoon for oatmeal, coffee and yoghurt.
Maybe that’s my fault and we were supposed to pick up new cutlery at the buffet.
But I don't think I've ever done that at a buffet before..?

We chirped up a little when the characters came around.
There were two families with kids in our little room and the characters had some really adorable interactions with them.

So yeah…
That was our experience at Tusker House…
We weren’t very impressed at all, and it’ll take a lot of convincing to get me to go back!
Which is a shame because so many people love it here.

Next time I’m looking for a Disney breakfast buffet I would MUCH rather go to Boma and miss out on the character experience.
Boma is SO much better than Tusker House, in my opinion.

Bye Felicia!
ENJOY YOUR PRECIOUS LUNCH.


Tusker House should remember the wise words of George Michael Bluth.

After breakfast we went over to Expedition Everest to use our fastpass!

We asked to be at the back of the Everest train, and were seated in the second row from the back!
So that was fun.

Why do people do this? I wonder how this trend started?!

After Everest we browsed Zuri’s Sweet Shop.

Yum!

Click for Day 9 - Part 2!

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[TheLittleKatie]

Day 9
Thursday 8th September 2016
Part 2 – Animal Kingdom


I had a look on MDE and got us fastpasses for Kilimanjaro Safari right now!
WOOO.
The standby line was 30 minutes so this was very good news.

Our driver was Jambo Jason and he was good and funny.
We also had an enthusiastic bunch of people on our truck, which always makes it more fun.

Jambo Jason told us that giraffes can run fast but only for a short time, so they run, stop, run, stop.
The girl in front of us said, “Like me!”

Then Jambo Jason said, “Yeah me too, except I’m more like walk, stop, walk, stop”


Safari photoshoot!

I got a cute elephant video!

After a successful safari we went to see the Gorillas at the Pangani Falls Exploration Trail.
But apparently it’s not called Pangani anymore, it’s just called Gorilla Falls.

Baby Gorilla!

I find them so fascinating.
They’re so clever, and so similar to us, yet they will rip your face off no problem.
Just fascinating.

Then we went to the Maharajah Jungle Trek to see the Tiger.

Unfortunately she was sleeping.
I didn’t really save her dignity either, my apologies.

BAMBI.

I asked a CM about these ribbons and he said they represent prayers in Nepal and Tibet

After the Jungle Trek it was about 1:15pm, so we headed out of the park.

We stopped on the way to try out Dug’s collar.

Jamie’s bark translated to “We have walked very far today and I am tired!”
Ha! It actually works!

We were soon on a bus heading back to Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Click for Day 9 - Part 3!

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