Jack Bauer is a Sissy Pants. 24- Disney Edition **** updated 9/22 (almost)

[Pixie Princess]

We loved the O'hana breakfast. Our seats were covered in glitter before we sat down, so apparently some little princesses were there before us.

I am so impressed you lasted as long as you did. You DD looks exhausted at Ohana.

See you SOON !!! I can't WAIT !!!

Susan

Bless her heart, she was exhausted. We both were, but I knew if we went back to the room that would probably be it for the day. Not to mention if we did get back to Epcot later in the day there would be no TT or Soarin' FP left.

EEEP! Three more days!!!

Great report and congratulations on finishing the day! Your theme was really imaginative and so entertaining. Thanks for sharing.

Awww, thanks! Thank you for stopping by to read about our adventure!

 

[IheartDDuck]

I love the 24 theme! Such a great idea for that day.

Wow! So complicated on the merchandise purchasing. However, I suppose it makes sense due to the limited availability.

I have a hard time getting in and out of Space Mountain in flip flops too! I always drop one back into the ride. Hahaha!

We took the boys to Enchanted Tales with Belle in July, and they absolutely freaked out at the magic mirror effect.

I was the wardrobe too!

Shame on you game wrecker! Hahaha.

I totally wish I could have been there for the 24 hour day. I definitely wish I lived closer, because it would make quick trips easier to accomplish.

Breakfast after the day was over! Very clever planning!

Ear buds on Soarin' to sync the music.....I've never thought of that.

 

[Pixie Princess]

I love the 24 theme! Such a great idea for that day.

Wow! So complicated on the merchandise purchasing. However, I suppose it makes sense due to the limited availability.

Yeah, I've read stories about people buying up tons of special event merch in the past and then selling it on Ebay to all the poor schmoes who stood in line and didn't get any. They had to do something to give folks a fighting chance. But it was hilarious how many people made a bee line for the Emporium.

I have a hard time getting in and out of Space Mountain in flip flops too! I always drop one back into the ride. Hahaha!

We took the boys to Enchanted Tales with Belle in July, and they absolutely freaked out at the magic mirror effect.

I was the wardrobe too!

Shame on you game wrecker! Hahaha.

We still talk about that.

I totally wish I could have been there for the 24 hour day. I definitely wish I lived closer, because it would make quick trips easier to accomplish.

It's a blessing and a curse! .

Breakfast after the day was over! Very clever planning!



Ear buds on Soarin' to sync the music.....I've never thought of that.

I sometimes pop the earbuds in for Illuminations too.

 

[Pixie Princess]

Im pretty excited for todays trip to AK. This is the best themed out of all four of the parks. It oozes theme. So many details and things to discover, and today wed be re-discovering it! Why you may ask? Well if you havent, I highly recommend you listen/watch DisUnplugged Undiscovered Animal Kingdom podcast series. I learned so much about AK that I didnt know, and was excited to check out some of the details.

We headed out for RD and were at the turnstiles a little before opening. Note to those who think, or may know those who think, it is a good idea to buy tickets from one of the sellers on I-drive or 192, Craigslist or any other outlet where the tickets are significantly less than regular gate: Dont do it. Our entry into AK was delayed thanks to a family group that I am presuming acquired tickets in a way that wasnt exactly on the up and up . One of the kids in the group got in, but then a couple of adults tried their tickets and couldnt get in. At least one of the adults had a ticket that wasnt good for that day in particular. That adult said he had the same ticket as the kid that got in. Sure. Something was definitely not right, and they ended up pulling the whole group aside to try and straighten it out. Folks, Im all for saving a buck, but sometimes it just isnt worth it.

Once inside we went straight for the safari. We had a pretty good driver. She wasnt effusive, but did a great job in locating animals and sharing facts about them.

The lions were up and about!!

Umm..cough cough...get a room you two.

After the safari we headed over to EE where we rode single rider a couple of times. The standby wait was 35 minutes or so, and we decided not to bother waiting or coming back with a FP.

After that it was time to go to Dinoland USA. I have always kind of thought this was a throwaway area, but now that I understand the story, thanks to the podcast, I appreciate it a lot more!

It had been a while since we have done Primeveal Hurl..um I mean Whirl so we tackled that straight away. We didnt have to share our car, which made for a particularly whirling experience. After that we went and did Triceratops Spin. Another thing we havent done in a while. We wanted to get on this before the sun got too much higher and really heated up those plastic seats.

A pic from line

After that DD wanted a Mickey Bar, so we grabbed her one and looked for a shady spot. Everything tastes better when it is Mickey shaped doesnt it.

While she enjoyed her bar, I took some photos of the area buildings. First thing of note was this bench.

NOT PLASTIC. Lots of plastic benches in AK. Somebody in Imagineering has a sense of humor.

I also discovered this little courtyard area behind a shop. Theres some more seating in the shade and a friend

Since DD had finished her treat, we decided to head on over to Dinosaur.

Along the way we discovered some more friends

When we reached Dinosaur it only had a 10 minute wait, so we joined the line and went on our journey in time.

After Dinosaur I was on a mission to find one of the items discussed on podcast- the American Crocodile. We searched on our own, because that is just more fun, but came up empty. We ended up asking a friendly CM who pointed us in the right direction.

Finally, the American Crocodile.

The CM at the enclosure was full of great information about the croc, none of which I can remember. Thats sad isnt it? But I do remember finding what he was talking about interesting.

From there we were going to do some exploring on Discovery Island. I hear they have kangaroos!

 

[jecskc]

We have seen the kangaroos !! I think you were even with me when we discovered them waaaayy up in the back. We assumed they were there because the don't play well with others. Kinda like those pesky zebras.

 

[wiigirl]

Awesome pics!

 

[Pixie Princess]

We have seen the kangaroos !! I think you were even with me when we discovered them waaaayy up in the back. We assumed they were there because the don't play well with others. Kinda like those pesky zebras.

Don't remember that. We really have done a whole lot of exploring on Discovery Island, but I'm old and I probably forgot we'd been up there. I said the same thing about that dino statue that is made from broken glass bottles. I swore up and down on this trip to DD I had never noticed it and took a bunch of pictures of it. Then after staring at it for a while, I realized I had seen it before. (insert smiley making a loser face here)

Awesome pics!

Thanks!

 

[Pixie Princess]

We were on our way to Discovery Island when we passed the delicious aroma of Flame Tree BBQ. That was it. It was time for a lunch break! DD wasn’t really up for Flame Tree, and wanted Pizzafari instead. I on the other hand do not care for anything served at Pizzafar. So we did what we usually do, she went on up to Pizzafari and I went to Flame Tree. Once I got my order I joined her at Pizzafari.

I had the very yummy BBQ chicken salad

She had the pepperoni pizza w/Ceasar salad

One thing I like about this arrangement is that we do eat in an air-conditioned place rather than in the open being attacked by wildlife like we would if we both had eaten at Flame Tree.

I love these little guys on the ceiling

After lunch we went on the search for kangaroos. This would prove not to be as easy as one would think. The don’t call it Discovery Island for nothin’ people.

We went up the first trail one encounters as one enters AK. We discovered lemurs first. There were two ring tailed lemurs and then another variety.

As I recall the CM said the ring-tailed lemurs were male and the other one was a female. She was in a separate tree and wanted nothing to do with the two ring-tailed ones.

We stopped to check out our wingspan.

What you really want to do here get down on the level of the bird.

We came to the end of the trail and and moved along trying to find another path that would take us to Kangaroos.

Here are some of the sights along the way.

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Some how we ended up right back where we started, and we broke down and asked a CM where the trail was with the Kangaroos. Turns out we had walked right past it.

Finally! Kangaroos. They were huddled up in the corner of the enclosure. Sigh. But it was still cool.

Then I took more pictures of the Tree of Live carvings, because, you know, you can never have too many of those!

I can’t remember if we found this tortoise on the trail with the kangaroos or afterwards, but here he is.

That’s one big tortoise.


We headed back up towards Africa to take the train to Raffiki’s Planet Conservation Watch Station.

 

[jecskc]

Oooo - I love the carving photos. We never really get down there enough. I think the last time we went down there is when we were with you - taking a short cut or something.

See what I mean about the kangaroos?? They are really hard to find. And they have them hidden all back up in there. My theory is that they don't play well with others.

Susan

 

[Pixie Princess]

Oooo - I love the carving photos. We never really get down there enough. I think the last time we went down there is when we were with you - taking a short cut or something.

See what I mean about the kangaroos?? They are really hard to find. And they have them hidden all back up in there. My theory is that they don't play well with others.

Susan

This must be the reason kangaroos are always depicted as boxers in cartoons. There is a kangaroo rescue/ reserve not to far from us. The guy who runs it only opens it up to the public for a very limited time each year.

 

[Pixie Princess]

On the way to the train, I took a picture of this lovely tree.

Virtual cardboard cookie to anyone who knows what kind of tree it is.


There was quite a lot of people headed back to the Planet watch. So we spent some time winding through the queue before we reached the loading platform.

We finally were able to board and arrived at Rafiki’s

We looked around at some of the exhibits and did that sound of the woods thing. There were no characters out and about to meet. Until….

We heard an announcement about an animal demonstration about to occur. A CM came to the center of the room bearing a snake. EWWWWWWW!!! If there is one thing Indiana Jones and I have in common its that we’ve both had to outrun and gigantic boulder lest we be flattened like a pancake. However if there were two things that Indy and I have in common, it would be that both hate snakes. Hate em. Stepped on one once, and now I’m totally weirded out by them.

My DD’s science teacher that year was a herpetologist (fancy name for snake lover), so my DD really wanted to see the demonstration. The snake was the FL pine snake. I can’t recall the specific reason how AK had come to acquire this snake, but the snake was rescued and being rehabbed. At the end of the presentation the CM invited those watching to come up and touch the creature. EWWWWWWWW!! You may want to look away from the next picture.

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That done, DD went to wash her hands. We decided to skip the petting zoo, and head on back for the train. We grabbed a Mickey Bar and fruit bar to enjoy on our walk back to the station. The train back to Harambe was also quite crowded. Once back we decided we would head back over to Asia to see my favorites, the tigers!

 

[Pixie Princess]

We headed off to the Maharaja Jungle Trek. Now, I do love the trails, both Paganini (yes, I know it’s Pangani, but every time I see it I think Paganini. Don’t you?) and Maharaja, but truth be told, I really just wanted to see the tigers. I love them. I do. If they wouldn’t turn on me and I lived on a big piece of land, I’d want one for a pet.

We did of course stop and look at the other animals. See…obligatory bat picture

But the main stars were these guys.

When we finished the trail we decided to head on out for the day. We walked on through Asia on to exit the park.

We spotted this guy in the Oasis on the way out.

It was dinner time and we both were getting hungry, so we stopped off AoA to grab some dinner from the food court there. As disorganized as this food court is, the food itself is really good. I forgot to take pics, but I a boring ol’ build your own burger. Nothing fancy, just meat, lettuce and tomato. A tip if you are looking for something a little different in the burger area. Try the seafood burger. Crab cake topped with shrimp. Good stuff!

After dinner we went back to our room and just chilled out for the night. We were both still kinda wiped from our mission earlier in the trip. We watched some Disney Channel and packed up. The next day we’d be heading home. It was a short trip, but a short trip is better than no trip. We wouldn’t have time for a park in the morning because DD had recital rehearsal that evening, so we would need to get on the road first thing.

 

[Pixie Princess]

We got up in the morning and packed up the car and headed out. Luckily since it was a holiday, there wasn’t much traffic on the road, and DD made her recital rehearsal in plenty of time!

So final thoughts. Well, it was great as always. I would say this Memorial Day weekend was more crowded than the last, but it has been my observation that crowds are up in general over previous years at the same time since New Fantasyland opened up.

As for the 24 hour event- it was awesome. I will say that the CMs working that early shift seemed less than excited to be there. I can’t imagine what time they had to be in the park, to get the place up and running at 6:00 a.m. I’m sure it was an unpleasant hour, but darn it guys, put on a happy face. If you have the opportunity to go to a 24 hour event in the future, I HIGHLY recommend it.

And guess what, in 2014 you can! If you haven’t heard, Disney announced at the Earmarked conference that there will be a 24 event next year. When the DisUnplugged mentioned it on the podcast they said it would be an event to kickoff the summer, but no date had been given. You can bet your sweet bippy we will be there. And not only will we be at WDW, we will be at DLR and DCA (assuming both participate again) as well! Yes, you heard it second (DD was the first to hear it), we will be going to all three parks in 24 hours!

I actually had this brain child for this last event, but came up with it too late. We could’ve done it, but b/c it was so last minute, I didn’t have enough money to do add on extra time at the CA parks. We haven’t been to the CA parks yet. So between the craziness that went on at the Leap Day event at Disneyland, and the fact that there was a Grad Night event that would be taking Carsland and several other areas out of play at DCA that evening, I just couldn’t justify spending the money to go to CA. We would miss out on too much. However, now I have a lot of notice and time to plan and save! If you want to follow along with the adventure to pull this off, come join me on my PTR. I could use all the advice I can get about CA parks! I’m sure I’ll make a royal nuisance of myself over on the Disneyland boards!

Well folks, that wraps this up, and hey, I actually finished a TR!!! Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. And if you want read about more of our WDW adventures please stop on by the TR I’m writing for our Labor Day weekend trip, Yeah Baby, We’re Legal!

Keep it Magical, y’all.

 

[jecskc]

I love the tigers, too. They are so beautiful. Just like giant kitty cats.

DCA ?? I so wanna hear about THAT !! Going over to your PTR to check it out !!