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

[DLHNYC]

I loved this post! Your pics of California Grille, the Contemporary and AKL made me want to transport myself to Orlando right now. Thanks for the awesome TR!

 

[MeghanEmily]

Oh how I miss the welcome show!

Aka Pedro, since he’s so cryptic about his identity here on the DIS, so that is what Lu and I call him.

Ooh, I like this! Maybe I'll adopt your nickname for good ol' @pkondz

Pedro had some bags of delicious Canadian candy that he gave to us!
This was the contents of it.

I currently have 3/5 of these sitting in a "junk food stash" in my closet. The taffy, Caramilk, and Smarties. Canadian candy is great.

We exited Splash Mountain just in time for the Main Street Electrical Parade!
We sat in Liberty Square right by the bridge.

Oh how I also miss the Electrical Parade!! <3

Wow, how beautiful!

In fact, Kris said that she’d actually seen and recognised JAMIE first, which he was thrilled about.
That lead him to believe that everyone likes him more than they like me

Hymie is becoming quite the celebrity!

 

[sjrec]

Your California Grille pictures were beautiful! And I think that bird was an osprey.

 

[Raeven]

We were eating at the new Skipper Canteen tomorrow night, so I told Jamie to “look at the menu”…
Which he did… literally.

I love this picture!

At this point I was wondering whether they would give refunds, or discounted tickets to another party or something.

I've heard from others you can ask for tickets to another MNSSHP or a refund at guest services. But I don't know if they give it unless you ask for it, and I don't know it they give them unless everything has been canceled? But I know one year I watched a vlogger who went to a party where rain canceled a bunch of stuff and she got tickets to another one later that week.

And we found these chairs!
WHY do these exist.

So creepy

The woman next to us saw me taking pictures of our sandwiches and asked if we wanted a picture of us holding them

That happened to us at Jiko with the waiter

I got the banana-flavoured cupcake!
It was so good and soft and banana-y.

Yes I loved the banana one yum.

It's so pretty at sunset!

 

[TheLittleKatie]

Day 20
Monday 19th September 2016
Part 1 – Animal Kingdom


Gooood morning!
We got up at 9:30am today.
Tomorrow is our last full day, so we have stuff to cross off our to-do list!

Jamie was feeling pretty chubby as we were getting ready.
We always eat so much at Disney
He was looking at his stomach and said,
“I don’t have abs, I just have one giant ab.
It’s my usual Florida ab.
It’s a FLAB!”

We were cracking up.
It was so silly.

At 10:30am we got some breakfast from the lounge.
I got cornflakes and Jamie got two eggs and a chocolate milk.

Some top quality Disney food photography below:

You’re welcome

Then we headed over to Animal Kingdom!
Pandora progress:

As we entered the park I was like, “OOH!” and pulled out my camera and pointed it at the bushes.
Jamie was like, what the heck is going on.
I’d spotted DiVine for the first time!

I got Jamie to take a photo of me in front of the tree, and as we were positioning up, I spotted Francis Dominic from Instagram coming up behind Jamie and walking past us!
You can see him in the Up t-shirt in the background of this shot

Today we (I) wanted to see Finding Nemo the Musical!
I really love this show and I sing the songs all the time at home!
We got really good seats behind some small children, so I didn’t have any heads blocking my view

BYE. BYE. BYE.

Next we took the train up to Rafiki’s Planet Watch!

We donated to the conservation fund and got a cute badge.

We started off petting some animals.
Jamie loves doing this, which I find so funny because we have a bunch of these farms animals right by our house, but sure, we’ll fly across the Atlantic to pet them

The cow is always Jamie’s favourite!

And this guy is my favourite!

I love his little hair-do!

We also went into the conservation station.

HELLO.

I found the sea turtle nest display interesting.

Hey… Priscilla…!

After exploring Rafiki’s Planet Watch we got the train back to civilisation and got lunch at Harambe Market.

We shared the beef gyro and the chicken skewer.
I would happily eat that entire beef gyro to myself though.

We gave away one of our milk tart desserts to the people next to us because we were so full.
Plus we don’t really like it, it was all they had to offer as a dessert at that time
But I'll just pretend I was being generous.


Click for Day 20 - Part 2!

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[TheLittleKatie]

Day 20
Monday 19th September 2016
Part 2 – Hollywood Studios


After lunch at Harambe Market we left Animal Kingdom and got the bus to Hollywood Studios!
On the bus ride there we were talking to a guy from Salt Lake City Utah who told us all about his city and his guns
It’s so strange to us Brits who aren’t allowed guns!
He was very friendly.

When we arrived at Hollywood Studios at 2:30pm and we went straight to our Toy Story Mania fastpass.

In the line behind us there were four kids who were really young.
One of them was like 4 or 5 and the other three were maybe 7 or 8.
The video you see in line says that kids under 7 need to ride with a buddy who is over 14.
HA these kids were FREAKING out trying to come up with some elaborate plan to get on the ride.

When we got to the front the cast member asked how old they were and they were like,
“7, 7, 8 and 10.”
LOL.
That tiny little child was definitely not 7. I would guess 4.
The cast member let them ride anyway, I guess they have a rule not to argue these things or something.

Anyway, I won again, yay!
I got 189,800, but the best in car said 179,000…
I WAS ROBBED.

We wanted to see the 4pm Beauty and the Beast show but we were a bit early so we wandered through One Man’s Dream first.

Peter Pan's Flight!

Save Mr. Lincoln’s dignity for goodness sake!

I learned on my Keys to the Kingdom tour the other day that, because Walt had passed away when the Magic Kingdom opened, Roy asked for Mickey to be stood up at the podium with him because he wanted the next best thing after Walt

Then we headed to Beauty and the Beast, and we arrived at 3:30pm.

We sat right behind the control centre.
I like it here because usually no one’s giant head will block your view, however one of the control people didn't sit down the whole time, so this spot is a bit hit and miss I guess!

Next we saw the Indiana Jones show!

Then we went to see Voyage of the Little Mermaid!
I think this was the first time Jamie and I had seen this together.
Jamie needed to stretch out his sore muscles while we waited for the show

This show was not very impressive
I feel like they could update it.
Although Ariel had a nice singing voice.
I mean, of course she does. She’s Ariel.
AND the seats were comfy, and it was nice and air conditioned on this boiling hot day.

And OMG, we loved Max so much!
Max should have a meet and greet.

YAY for Hollywood shows!



Click for Day 20 - Part 3!

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[TheLittleKatie]

Day 20
Monday 19th September 2016
Part 3 – Making friends, and Disney Springs


After catching all of these shows there was just one left to do, Fantasmic!
Although the weather was not looking good…!

Fantasmic was on at 8pm so at 6pm we went to Fairfax Fare to get dinner.

Jamie got the ribs and chicken and I got the baked potato.
This was fantastic!
I had no idea you could get such a good quick service meal here.
It was very good value for money.

Unfortunately it started POURING rain, it was thundering so hard, and I’m sure the Carthay Circle building opposite us got struck by lightning
So eeevvverrryone in the area took cover in the undercover seating area next to Fairfax Fare.

We were wandering around looking for a sheltered table, when a woman invited us to sit at their spare seats.
We sat and talked to her, and her husband when he returned, and they turned out to be the greatest people ever!
They were called Don and Kim, they were probably in their 40s or 50s and were from Colorado.
They actually lived in England for 6 years, and Don really missed it so he loved talking to us about England.
They were at Disney with their son who was our age, Kim’s sister, and her two daughters and a granddaughter – and those guys were all dashing back and forth between rides and our rain-shelter, so we got to meet all of them too.

We had SO much fun with Don and Kim.
Fantasmic got cancelled because of the rain and we didn’t have another chance to see it before we went home in a couple of days, but I wasn’t even mad at all because we had such a great evening!
We sat there for like 3 hours, they bought us a round of beers, then we bought a round, then they bought another round, and we just chatted and drank beer all evening in the shelter from the rain!!
And we closed out the park!

We all added each other on Facebook and said our goodbyes to Don and Kim!
They said that if we ever get married here in Florida they would come, since we can’t afford to ship all of our family over from the UK, so they said they’d be our temporary family

We left the park and luckily there was an AKL bus waiting there for us.
I needed to pee so bad, I’m a real liability after a few drinks

We got back to AKL and I ran down the corridor to the bathroom
Then Jamie stayed at the Lodge, and I went to Disney Springs!

In World of Disney I bought a sweater for me:

And a sweater for Jamie (which has since become mine )

Disneyland 60th ears!

Two pairs of monorail socks!

And a Dumbo pillow pet!

I also went into Basin and bought some amazing smelling Disney soap!
I bought one for me, one for my mum, and one for my dad.

Jamie was sending me pictures of his milk and club lounge treats:

So I decided to go home and get some too.

My own private AKL bus came just for me, and when I got back I picked up a delicious Tanzanian brownie from the lounge, before heading back to eat treats with Jamie!

Goodnight!

Click for Day 21 - Part 1!
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[TheLittleKatie]

Day 21
Tuesday 20th September 2016
Part 1 – USA Appreciation morning


Our last full day has arrived!!!
We’d been here so long, it felt like this day was never going to come!
Tragical Express notice.

Sad bean.

I didn’t stay sad for long because we had an absolutely wonderful last day!

At 1pm we went to the Magic Kingdom.

I started to head back to the room to get my sunglasses but changed my mind when I got back to the shop, so I turned around and got back to Jamie right when a bus was pulling up!
I was so glad because if anything had gone wrong today Jamie definitely would have blamed me missing that bus

We arrived at Magic Kingdom at 1:15pm!

As we entered we saw the Dapper Dans playing Mr. Sandman!

We stopped on Main Street to get this precious photopass!
I have this first one printed out in a little frame in my office

Mickey’s Royal Friendship Fare was just ending as we walked down to the castle so that was kinda magical.

We were finally getting lunch at Columbia Harbour House today!
Or as we affectionately call it – Broccoliville

I absolutely love the chicken pot pie they do here.

And Jamie got his chicken nuggets and fish.
And of course they both came with sides of delicious broccoli!

It was very quiet inside so we got a nice window table upstairs.

Jamie got a greek yoghurt as his dessert, which he obviously regretted because he took a big bite out of my chocolate cake before I got the chance to photograph it

YAY Broccoliville!

This was turning into a patriotic morning (for a country we do not belong to) because we decided to see the Hall of Presidents, since it was right next door, and it would be changing soon!

This is one of only two of these presidential seals, the other one being in the White House!

America, we love you

Click for Day 21 - Part 2!

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[TheLittleKatie]

Day 21
Tuesday 20th September 2016
Part 2 – Railroad and Storybook Circus


Next we went over to the Splash Mountain store and I bought a mug!
But the story of this mug does not end here, so I will show you a photo of it later…

Then we went up to the Frontierland station to ride the Railroad!
This is another thing we haven’t done before!

Up here you can hear Morse code, which I believe is the Disneyland opening day speech!

WHO THREW A RED TAG UP THERE.

Get ready for an overabundance of photos…
It’s my first railroad experience!

I did not know that you could see Splash from the train!
Very cool!

Big Thunder had been closed during this trip so it was exciting to see that up close.

YAY RAILROAD.
We did a full loop, plus one stop, and exited at Storybook Circus in Fantasyland.

Jamie kept asking if I wanted to do the Barnstormer, to which I kept saying no, but I think he was the one who actually wanted to do it.

We rode Dumbo instead!

Hello yes we are adults.

I always get great pictures of Jamie having the time of his life on Dumbo
Here’s the 2016 version

I like the peanuts in the ground at Storybook Circus!

I asked Jamie what he wanted to do next and as you can predict, he said…
“Barnstormer!”

So we got in line and rode the Barnstormer, a ride that lasts approximately 9 seconds.

Then we went into Storybook Treats to get some water.
It’s a snazzy store.

Click for Day 21 - Part 3!

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[TheLittleKatie]

Day 21
Tuesday 20th September 2016
Part 3 – PeopleMover and Pirates


Next we went to ride the PeopleMover, and we saw the biggest doggo you’ve ever seen.
What a magnificent boy.

We rode the PeopleMover twice!

Then we rode Space Mountain!
We were on the left track for the first time this trip!
I think I prefer it, it feels smoother to me.
I was in the front, and from the photo you can see that I clearly enjoyed myself.

Next we headed over to ride Pirates!

After being a bit rainy earlier on, the weather was amazing now for our last day!

YO HO.

Click for Day 21 - Part 4!

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[TheLittleKatie]

Day 21
Tuesday 20th September 2016
Part 4 – Epcot


After Pirates we left the park and got the monorail to the TTC and then Epcot!
Both monorails were loading right when we got there.
After having to use buses to and from AKL, I have a new appreciation for how easy the monorail system is

We arrived at Epcot at 5:45pm.
Photopass!

We headed straight for World Showcase, and moseyed around hoping to do the American Adventure attraction – another first time attraction for us!
We took it slow and made some stops along the way.

Thanks for making our pavilion so pretty Epcot!

We reached America but we had just missed a showing, so we headed back to Japan to look in Mitsukoshi!

I had one of these as a kid!

I love the Japan store.
I wanted to buy some incense and a build-your-own zen garden
But I fought the temptation.

Then we headed to our last ADR of the trip – Chefs De France!
As we walked over the ground was SOAKED which was weird because it hadn’t rained at all.

Then we saw these guys battling with a burst pipe or something!
They had to lay a trash can over it to try to block it!

Our feet got a bit wet walking through.
We see this quite a lot!
I’ve definitely witnessed a few episodes of water flooding out of a wall in Fantasyland at Magic Kingdom.
It seems very stressful to deal with!!


Click for Day 21 - Part 4!

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[TheLittleKatie]

Day 21
Tuesday 20th September 2016
Part 5 – Epcot and Disney Springs

We made it to Chefs De France, and as soon as we were seated at our window table it changed from being a beautiful evening to pouring rain!
Florida in September is so unpredictable!

It was fun to watch people run around frantically in the rain, from the comfort of a restaurant

We shared the lobster bisque as an appetiser, and it was really delicious!

Then we both had the filet of beef with potato gratin and green beans.

This was really really good too!
The steak was cooked perfectly medium for me, and the sauce was very tasty.

For dessert, Jamie had this chocolate cake:

And I had the chocolate swan!

My dessert was the better of the two

I was so so happy with our meal at Chefs De France!!
We were both pretty hungry, and we had kinda low expectations, so I was very pleasantly surprised!
I would come back again for sure!

After dinner we went back to the American Adventure and caught the next show.

The theatre is beautiful and the show is good!
American history is really inspiring.
And it’s crazy to me how “young” the USA is.
Like, if you’re 24 years old, you’ve lived through 1/10th of American history…!
Kinda.
That’s insane.

Anyway!
Our fastpass for Test Track ended at 9pm so we quick-timed it over!
We got to design a car each today, which is a rare occurance!
Neither of us managed to get 232…
I got 225…

And Jamie got 230…

Interestingly, even with the food and wine crowds, no one had got 232 today, so Jamie was still the top design of the day with his 230!

OK so remember that Splash Mountain mug I bought earlier?
As I was exiting the Test Track car I gave the carrier bag to Jamie, and no later than when we were walking through the Test Track showroom, he was swinging the bag back and forth…
He SWUNG the bag forward…
And LET GO OF THE BAG.
AND THREW IT ACROSS THE ROOM.



It flew up and forward, and crashed onto the ground.
What the actual HECK.

And I knew it had smashed because Jamie was feeling it through all of the wrapping, and he asked,
“Is it supposed to have a handle?”

Yes dear, the handle was included in the price.

When you buy yourself a present, and give it to Jamie to carry for 30 seconds.

Honestly I can see the funny side of things like this, which I did.
Actually I found it hilarious.
But I was just COMPLETELY BAFFLED.
I have no idea what goes on in that boy’s head sometimes.
Thankfully we had some money we still needed to spend, so I made plans to go get another one tomorrow.

Anyway, we said our goodbyes to Epcot!!

And we got the bus to Disney Springs!

We went into Sephora, and a member of staff called Brittany who was stood at the front of the store recognised me from the DIS!
It was so fun to talk to her, and she helped me put together a create-your-own eyeshadow palette!

I was really happy I got something from Sephora because I love that store, but the closest one to me is Paris… which is kinda far

Then we went to UniQlo and Jamie bought three t-shirts!

Then we went into the Marketplace Co-Op and I bought some travel toiletry bottles, a tea towel, and a mug!

Then we went to Goofy’s Candy Company to use up most of our last dining credits!
We got fudge, small fat cookies, big flat cookies, Minnie’s bake shop cookies, Mickey krispie treats, peppermints and popcorn!

Jamie was messaging Don (who we had met last night) about their day at Universal, and he sent them this picture, which they found very amusing

Then we headed back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for our last night, arriving back at midnight!

We unwrapped the Splash Mountain mug…
Jamie looked VERY guilty…

Sadness.

Would I get a new one?
Stay tuned!

We packed up our luggage late into the night.
Maybe until about 3am.
How very irresponsible
No regrets.
We had a great last day!


Goodnight!


Click for Day 22 - Part 1!

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[MeghanEmily]

We all added each other on Facebook and said our goodbyes to Don and Kim!
They said that if we ever get married here in Florida they would come, since we can’t afford to ship all of our family over from the UK, so they said they’d be our temporary family

How sweet is this!?

I love this sweatshirt! I've almost bought it for myself so many times now!

 

[Smilelea]

So somehow only one of my quotes saved. I cant believe how far behind I was even before your marathon updates this week!

I'm not very encouraged by your bus issues at AKL. We are staying there in a few weeks and I do hope that isn't the case for us.

That stinks about how your MNSSHP night started out. It wouldn't have crossed my mind about the rain messing it up that much. We are trying that for the first time in September.

Then we went into the Test Track exit to use the design studios there, so that Jamie could refresh his memory on how to build a super-car.

This answers one of our questions that came up yesterday! Our 6 year old is adamant that he isn't riding Test Track again this trip but he does want to do the design. We didn't realize you could do this. So yay!

Unfortunately, I cant remember what else I wanted to comment on. But I am enjoying you TR!!

 

[UDFlyer12]

I'm so glad you're back! I love that you did Keys to the Kingdom. We did it two years ago and loved it (I had already seen the utilidors since I worked in Fantasyland, but my family was super amazed by hallways of concrete ). I think we are going to do the Marceline to Magic Kingdom Tour next!

 

[LISAMWDW]

Woohoo! Welcome back! All caught up. Great trip report updates!!! How awesome, 3 week trip!!!

 

[Raeven]

Unfortunately it started POURING rain, it was thundering so hard, and I’m sure the Carthay Circle building opposite us got struck by lightning

So we were on a trip during the same time, and I remember that night because it's the hardest it's ever rained while we were in the parks! We got stuck in AK under the area near Tusker House because it was the closest shelter, and we had been on our way to the safari. But it never let up and it got really crowded under there so we ended up making a run for it after an hour and got soaked

In World of Disney I bought a sweater for me:

I love this, I almost bought it last trip!

OK so remember that Splash Mountain mug I bought earlier?
As I was exiting the Test Track car I gave the carrier bag to Jamie, and no later than when we were walking through the Test Track showroom, he was swinging the bag back and forth…
He SWUNG the bag forward…
And LET GO OF THE BAG.
AND THREW IT ACROSS THE ROOM.

How?!

We unwrapped the Splash Mountain mug…
Jamie looked VERY guilty…

 

[mamamelody2]

Found this report yesterday, and just made it through.
What a great report!
We were actually there for part of your trip! Arrived the 17th.
Also really enjoyed the first week of your report as that's when we're going this year (8/30-9/8). I would love to see the low crowd levels you saw!
How do you walk all day in flat sandals? Or Converse?? Maybe I am just too old, but I cannot do that!
Anyway, looks like an amazing trip!!

 

[starousse]

Love your reports! I'm hoping you have a new one coming up after this.

 

[pkondz]

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

How would you like it if instead of opening early... they kept everyone else out for an hour after regular opening time?

Pretty!

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

Move your butt, mister!

I want to live there.

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

Really! I'm very surprised by that.

Remember to look up throughout the queue!

I did! Well... on the other coast, I did.

this is a really good combination of both simulation and track.

Katie... Do. Not. Move.

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.

Was he sad he was forced to miss the ride?

I have the exact same photo of myself at the Leaning Tower of Pisa

This is a rule when you're there isn't it? Like they kick you out of the country if you don't do it?

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

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

Perhaps an elevator?

I rode it once in 2014 and hated going up that thing, and it ruined the rest of the ride for me.

Why did you hate it?

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

Well... okay, I can see that.

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

That's a nice tribute. I wonder if those mentioned worked there or had some sort of connection to Uni?

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

I see ketchup.... that's a vegetable, so... yes. Nutritious.

But you can eat what you want on holiday, right?

Sadly Jamie won this round.
The power struggle continues.

He probably cheated.

Next we headed towards The Mummy, and for some reason we stopped in an Irish store on the way.

Of course... because if you live in London, you should travel to Florida for Irish items.

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

I would have insisted he get it... and wear it.

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.

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

Nice! That's my DD's favourite.

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

Coffee? Who needs coffee when you have hot dogs???

Nice shot!

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.

DD loved that too! Especially petting the pups afterwards.

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

Woot! Atta girl! Way to kick Hymie's butt!

…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.

It was? I thought that was his normal state?

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.

You really don't want to be walking up and down, back and forth all day do you???

Jamie was Universal-bounding as the ET walls!

I believe it’s a Samoyed.

correct.

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

Also correct.

Plus, at the end of the show a few animals come and stand by the walkways and let you pet them!

Best part, right?

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

Oh! I remember that one from your last time.

We ordered an Uber to go back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge, but the driver took us to Animal Kingdom first by accident, doh.

Might as well go on a few rides.....

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

I bet!

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

Never eaten there.
Then again, I'm not big in to characters... unless it's one particular mermaid...

Awwwww.

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!

No way!!

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

Wow! That looks great!

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

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

#priorities

For dessert we were brought some strawberry shortcake!

Yum! Had that for eldest DD's birthday recently.

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!!!

Nice of her!

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

Of course.

"Welcome to Test Track. Or perhaps you'd prefer MS orange? aka the Vomitorium?

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 boy's lost his stuff, Katie.

It's tragic... but it happens.

Jamie enjoyed playing with these puppets in China.

You know you can just stop writing after "playing", right?

Then we went in one of my favourite shops – the German Christmas store – to see THE PICKLE TREE.

Yay! A great North American tradition that has nothing to do with Germany!!

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

OMG!!!!!! The horror!

“We should call NEIN NEIN NEIN!”

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.

Oh dear.

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.

That store is amazing. Best part? It's not chock full of the same Disney stuff that's in every other store on property.

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

mmmm... those things are sooooo good.

We watched King Kong (2005) as I don’t think I’d ever seen it.

I prefer the 1976 version. This one was too gory to really enjoy it.

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…?”

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

Um.... no.

That's.... weird.

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

Another place on my list!

Dang that looks good.

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.

Maybe he had to pee. That can really put a damper on things.



ahem

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

Not surprised.... at all.

I enjoy the dark concept of the Big Bad Wolf opening up a sausage restaurant

Now that's just brilliant.

Perhaps I’ll buy some later in the trip

Did you? Model time!

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

Oh! Hadn't seen that fountain.

Pretty.

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

They do! Had one in California.

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

Jamie said he didn’t like it.
Because there are no drums being played like there are at AKL.

The man has a point.

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

Another place I really need to get to.

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.

At least now we know it wasn't an asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs. It was just a tipping/domino incident.

We first visited this resort last year and I thought it was just so beautiful.
Photos don’t do it justice at all.
It is magnificent.

It's gorgeous. I have a hard time choosing between that, GCH or Aulani.

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!

I remember that.

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.

Nice of them!

There is no way you are eating all of that. No. Way.

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!

Huh... It wasn't awkward? I mean, them basically coming up to your table while you were eating?

It was a key lime cheesecake.
I love regular New York style cheesecake but this was a bit sour for me.

Well... it's supposed to be, I guess. It is lime.
I'm planning on making one soon.

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.

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

I don't think I've done it in the dark. Huh.
Must remedy that.

Love your expression!

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!”)

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

It was not! Lies!!

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…

I'm either planned well before I leave for Florida... or I'm thinking about it as I walk up to the ride, before boarding.

Beautiful shot with the lanterns.

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

What?!?!?!? Noooooo!!!

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

Clearly he just doesn't understand.

"Yay. Yippee. So happy to kiss him. Great. No. Really."

I didn't even know that marijuana was legal in Florida. Huh.

After the ride I found my favourite hidden Mickey at the exit.

That one is tough to find. I knew where it was.... and had to get a CM to point it out to us anyways.

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?”

She sells seafish by the she sore.

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??!”

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

Brush with new Cleft! Leaves your teeth sparkling white while fusing them all together for that seamless smile!

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.”

Oh dear!

Okay... that's it for now. Rest later.