Just Pretend the Raindrops are Snowflakes!~A 12/11 TR! *Trip Wrap Up! Pg 21, 2/23!*

[SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE]

I want Spectro back, too! I'm just not a fan of MSEP.

How neat that you got the same horse for both sleigh rides! Glad to hear you enjoyed it! If and when we ever make it back during the holidays, I would love to do that. I think it would be really interesting to see all of the lights and decorations!

 

[oboedm]

The holiday sleigh ride sounds great-- can't wait to read about the haunted carriage ride in your OCT TR, though! This trip is doing an effective job at convincing me I need to visit WDW this Dec!

 

[Nermel9]

Im back from WDW but happy to be catching up on your TR

I have seen a special on all of the campsites during Christmas time, I am glad to hear that it is just like what I saw on TV I thought that looked so cool, it must be amazing to see in person. I think I need to do one of the carriage rides next time, it sounds like such a fun thing to do!!

I am a total Spectro gal myself too... DF LOVES the electrical parade though, so shhh dont tell him!!

Getting back from WDW is the worst. I wish we could all just live there! How was the marathon? I saw your updates on FB, but are you doing a TR for it?

The campsites are ridiculous, I can't believe how detailed some of them are! I can't believe people have that many Christmas decorations! You should definitely do a carriage ride sometime, they are so much fun!

I love Spectro...in fact, I need to put on the DIS radio, because they play it all the time on there...

Glad you made it to FW for the ride! Wishes is surprisingly far behind MK. The bigger ones that kind of surround the castle are amazingly far! I guess they need the distance to get them to match the castle! We could see them from our room at BLT and it was such an interesting prospective!!

Wasn't the sleigh ride great!? DH and I really enjoyed ours!!

One of these days we have to try one of the ice cream sandwiches!! It looks crazy good!!!!

I am surprised at how far away the fireworks looked from the FW beach, it's crazy! When you are in front of the castle, they are right in your face! That must have been nice to watch them from your room, that's such a good reason to stay at CR or BLT!

I loved the sleigh ride, it was a lot of fun! I was almost wishing it was a little chilly that night so it would have felt more like Christmas!

The ice cream sandwich was really good...the cookies were so soft!

Your carriage ride sounds like it was so nice! (The getting to said carriage ride, not so much..) I always forget about the ice cream sandwich at MSB! That does look fabulously awesome!

Yeah, getting to FW wasn't fun, but once we got there, it was worth it! It's much easier to drive over there!

I always forget about it too, until Brandon saw someone carrying it! It's so good, and it's so ridiculously big! I don't see how one person could eat that entire thing!

I want Spectro back, too! I'm just not a fan of MSEP.

How neat that you got the same horse for both sleigh rides! Glad to hear you enjoyed it! If and when we ever make it back during the holidays, I would love to do that. I think it would be really interesting to see all of the lights and decorations!

I really miss Spectro. I didn't appreciate it the times I saw it before they brought back MSEP the way I should have, and now I regret it!

You should definitely do a sleigh ride if you ever go for the holidays, it's a lot of fun! It was strange that we got the same horse, but it was definitely him! He was cute, but both drivers said he's really stubborn and just kind of does what he wants sometimes!

The holiday sleigh ride sounds great-- can't wait to read about the haunted carriage ride in your OCT TR, though! This trip is doing an effective job at convincing me I need to visit WDW this Dec!

It was a lot of fun, I liked the Haunted Carriage ride a little more, but that's just because there is a story that goes along with it! I'm on Monday in my October TR, and we did the carriage ride Tuesday, so that will be in the next couple of updates!

You should visit in December, it's a lot of fun!

 

[Nermel9]

I'm not getting up, we're on vacation!!!​

Sunday, 12/11

Hi everyone! I apologize if you are following my October TR too and you have to read another AK update here! I'm going to try to breeze through it and get through the whole morning in one update so I don't drag it out too much!

So after our late night at MK, I just wanted to sleep! I wanted to feel better, I wanted my throat to stop hurting, and I hoped sleep would help. It was the worst night of Disney sleep that I've ever had! I couldn't breathe out of my nose, so I kept waking up because my throat was so dry, it hurt soooo much! I would have to get up, drink some water, have a cough drop and try to go back to sleep. Brandon was snoring, so I kept kicking him, throwing things at him, shoving him, nothing worked he wouldn't stop! Even my earplugs wouldn't block him out! We were even in separate beds, since the Pop beds are so small, but I still wasn't far enough away! I almost contemplated trying to nap in the bathroom somehow, I was that desperate! I must have been up every hour.

Finally at 8:30 I gave up. Which at Disney, is late for me. I woke Brandon up and asked if he could get up and start getting ready, so we could go to Animal Kingdom, which apparently was the wrong thing to ask at that moment, because he said he wasn't getting up.

I'll spare you the details, but we got in a little fight about getting up and going to a park. He was tired from the night before and just wanted to sleep. I wanted to go to AK. I explained that I was the sick one who got NO sleep and we were only there for 3 more days, and we need to go to a park. He responded with "I'm not getting up, we're on vacation".

So my response to that was "fine, you can stay here and sleep, I'm getting on a bus and going to Animal Kingdom, you can meet me there when you get up" and I started to get ready.

I guess he knew I was serious, because he got up, got ready and we were out the door within maybe 15 minutes.

Since we had no idea where to eat breakfast in AK, we decided to go to Everything Pop for breakfast. I bought my very first refillable mug, and we both got the croissant sandwiches.

Everything was really good, but I still think the best ones are at the Wilderness Lodge!

We got to Animal Kingdom around 10. The entrance looked so beautiful, with the Christmas decorations and the tree!

They had PP photographers doing magic shots, where I think if you held a present, in the picture Stitch pops out and I wanted to do that, but I felt kind of stupid, and anyway, I looked terrible since I was sick. I don't think there are any pictures of me from this day, actually.

We went in and took our time going through the Oasis, since last time we ran through it! We checked out all the birds and everything, but as usual, I got bored pretty quickly. The birds are pretty, but there's only so long I can look at them, you know?

Finally we went past the Tree of Life and over to Asia! We had to start this AK visit with Expedition Everest, since the last time we started with Festival of the Lion King!

We grabbed some FP's for later, and then hopped in the standby line, which I think was maybe 15 minutes or so.

See those bells? I've never seen anyone touch them until this trip. They ring. Loudly. There was this one girl who would jump up and ring them every time we moved up. Then other people saw her do it and they figured "well she is, so I better" and they would ring them. I wouldn't have minded a few times, but I had to hear those bells ring like 20 times and it was seriously making my head vibrate!

I tried to distract myself with the lovely little details that I never bother noticing

and before I knew it, it was our turn! We didn't bother waiting for the front row that time, it was kind of strange not sitting in the front, but it was still fun, of course! And I took lots of pictures, which was fun, not my usual end of the track pics!

Brandon said those were rainclouds, and I of course said "yeah right, the sun is out". Little did I know what would come later that night...

Pretty right? Especially the one of Brandon's nose? Ok, I could have cropped him out, I just thought it was funny! And I do really like all of those pictures, I actually looked in different directions this time, so it was a new experience! I always look straight ahead!

When we got off EE, my throat was killing me, and I wanted something cold, so we went to the little tea stand and I got a frozen chai, which was SO good! There was a bench off to the side, so we sat for a few minutes and watched these hipsters order coffee and then congregate and talk like they were at their local coffee shop...it was weird, they all seemed so out of place in Disney! Like the only reason they were there was to get coffee. Hipsters.

Anyway, we saw a shop across the walkway that neither one of us had ever noticed before, and Brandon wanted a bracelet, so we went over there. It was cute, very small, but I looked at everything in about 2 minutes, so I wandered while Brandon agonized over bracelets (he loves the jewelry in AK for some reason and always buys a bracelet, and he either loses it or it breaks before we get home!) and looked around. It was again, a little section of AK that I don't think I've ever seen before! And if I did, it was in 2008, which has basically been erased from my memory for some reason!

Brandon finally got a bracelet (which he still has, btw!) and we didn't know what to do next. We settled on...Rafiki's Planet Watch! We went down to the train, waited forever (I don't know what was with all the waiting for transportation on this trip, but it all seemed to take forever, unless I was just really impatient because I wasn't feeling well!) and finally made it over to RPW!

We went in the building to see if there were any animals getting a check up (nope) or any interesting characters out (just Rafiki...so mad Jiminy is gone!) and we went outside to the petting zoo part...the Affection Section, right?

It was adorable, Brandon and I both love animals, so to see them roaming around freely and getting to touch them was awesome! I didn't touch them too much (I didn't think I should, since I was sick), but Brandon was brushing them and petting them and everything, it was really cute!

There were these absolutely adorable little pigs, sleeping in a little pile, and we looked at them for a few minutes, and a CM came over and chatted with us about the pigs. I think she was bored and wanted someone to talk to, so we asked her some questions about the animals there, she was so sweet! I felt bad that when she would try to talk to people about the animals they would just be like "yeah" and walk away. I wish I took a picture of these pigs, because they were so tiny, but they were full grown pigs!

Eventually we were finished with RPW, so we went back and we considered going back to Pop to go in the pool, but then we decided to do something different...the Maharajah Jungle Trek! Brandon got a beer before we went in, so when he was drinking it, I looked around at the shops near the entrance, and they have such cute dresses there! I will definitely be getting one on my next trip!

We went in, and I didn't really care about anything except...tigers! And there were so many tigers out that day! We looked in every tiger viewing location and saw them, they were just hanging out, having a great time being Disney tigers!

​

We watched the tigers for a while, but finally we moved on. Brandon wanted to see the bats, so I tried to watch them, but they are so gross to me, so I moved on from that quickly. I don't know why bats freak me out so much, since I'm an animal freak, but I just can't deal with the thought of them. Bats and snakes. Ugh!

There were a few other animals on the trek, but we really only went in to see the tigers, so we headed out after briefly checking out the other animals. Again we thought about going swimming, but we still had those EE FP's from earlier...so we went on EE again! I didn't take any pictures, but as always, it was a great ride, one of my favorites in all of Disney!

It was around 1:30 by then, so we decided to call it a day in Animal Kingdom. We had pretty early dinner reservations and then a whole night at DHS and if I wanted to be awake for it later, I felt like I should take a nap. Again, I was hoping to feel better, but at that point, I was pretty convinced I'd be sick this whole trip. We said goodbye to AK and walked to the car and went back to Pop. I could not wait for our night at DHS!

Up next...Christmas at the Epcot resorts and DHS!

 

[KatMark]

Jen, I'm several updates behind.

Sorry your meal at Tony's wasn't very good., We've learned WHEN we eat there (which is rarely) to do lunch...it's never as busy, etc.

Love your pictures of the Christmas tree and lights at the MK -- so pretty.

I'm so sorry that you got so sick on your trip...never fun.

We have never gone to Ft. Wilderness...probably because neither one of us are the outdoor types and neither oen of us like horses.

I'm sorry you don't like the Electrical Parade. Ia ctually like it a lot...but then it was the first one they had the first time I went.

You got some great photos at the Animal Kingdom. And poop on Brandon for not wanting to get up.
Would you really have gone without Brandon?

 

[Simba22]

I'm so sorry you felt so miserable! And for the record, on a family trip to Virginia one year, my dad was snoring SO LOUD that I actually did go sleep in the bathroom! I turned on my walkman (yes, at the time it was a legit walkman!) grabbed my pillow and some extra blankets and slept right on the floor. In the bathroom. Gross? Maybe? But it was a great sleep, I'll say that!

I wish you took pictures of the Hipsters! LOL Lumar is always making fun of Hipsters so I had to read that part outloud to him. He goes "see?"

I love bats and snakes but you know what freaks me out (aside from spiders...)? Opossums. The babies are cute. The adults look like botched zombie lab rats on steroids. Although I hit one getting off the highway one night and I felt HORRIBLE about it. Although I do not feel bad about killing spiders...or flies...or mosquitoes...

Moving on...

Great pics of the tigers! I can't believe you caught one yawning! How cute is that?

 

[ronnmel]

Wow! So many beautiful pictures! I especially love the one with the parrot and the waterfall in the background, and the one going up Everest with all the little clouds.

 

[marDgreen88]

Ugh, I know I've said it before but I'm so sorry you were sick! That just sounds awful.

Way to go getting Brandon to go to AK though! hehehe

So funny, I had never noticed that 'don't take the tea' sign at Everest until this last trip, either! Makes me wonder if I'm just really that unobservant or if it's new?

Disney tigers have it made! They're so awesome. That's one of those things that blows my mind about Animal Kingdom. It's a theme park just down the road from the other parks but there are wild, dangerous animals living there. It's so awesome. ONLY DISNEY!

 

[Merida]

Aw, I'm sorry you couldn't sleep! I hate doing that whole sleep-wake up-sleep-wake up thing. It's the most frustrating thing ever.

I didn't realize there were birds there! I also couldn't find the kangaroos (I didn't look very hard, but there are kangaroos there, right?).

AHHH THOSE BELLS. I HATE THEM. Not really, but definitely the worst part of the Everest queue. We ha a large group of teenagers (okay, maybe just a family or two) and they kept ringing those bells. It gets old soooo fast because they're not exactly melodious.

But the Maharajah Trek is awesome - even the bats! I love the themeing in there. Lucky you for seeing so many tigers!

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

The hipsters getting coffee made me laugh. It's so funny when you see people that just seem ENTIRELY out of place at Disney. Like, "alright, let's be honest, I know you're just here for the chai."

That's awesome that the tigers were so out and about that day! Whenever we try to see the tigers or lions, they're always fast asleep!

 

[kittylady1972]

Yeah...love the big kitty photos! I must make it a point to check that out in a few weeks now! Sucks that you were still feeling miserable though.

Good for you for threatening to go without Brandon. I would have done the same thing!

 

[PirateKate]

If you had to be sick, it's too bad it was rainy too. The sleigh ride looks awesome and I love the pictures from the top of Everest.

 

[MEK]

You go girl - taking pictures on EE. I can't wait to see them. Sorry you were still feeling so terrible. That's stinks, but I think you did a lot considering the fact that you weren't feeling well.

I finally did Maharaja trek this trip and I thought the bats were super cool! I found them entertaining. Not as entertaining as the tigers, but still pretty cool. It was so nice to visit during the cooler weather. I loved it!

Be back later to see all your pics.

 

[klacey1]

Awesome update! Sorry you felt so terrible in the morning! No fun! I would have done the same, though-- sucked it up and went to a park!
Love your hipsters comment! I guess there's something at Disney for everyone...including hipsters .
We LOVED the Affection Section! I couldn't get enough of those sheep! Too adorable.

 

[TanzUnited99]

Oh no not feeling well and how the day started I'm glad Brandon got ready just as you were leaving and you didn't have to tour AK on your own

Lol at hearing the bells ring 20 times - that must have been annoying!! Great EE pics!

I loved Rafiki's Planet Watch! It sure is a great place to visit on a nice sunny day.

You got some nice shots of the Tigers - they were sleeping when we visited!

 

[jess20k]

I am loving your TR!! So sorry you were not feeling well, but at least you had a great time!! Love all the pics!

 

[MEK]

Wow! Tiger pay dirt.

That first picture with the tree and the cloudy ski is very cool.

Love the parrot picture!

The one on the lift hill going into the clouds is my favorite. Nice work!

 

[oboedm]

Great update! Too funny about the Hipsters. I am generally baffled by them as well. I have never been to RPW, but I may have to take the train up there next time

BTW-- your photos are great! The bird picture looks like something from natual geographic!

 

[Nermel9]

Jen, I'm several updates behind.

Sorry your meal at Tony's wasn't very good., We've learned WHEN we eat there (which is rarely) to do lunch...it's never as busy, etc.

Love your pictures of the Christmas tree and lights at the MK -- so pretty.

I'm so sorry that you got so sick on your trip...never fun.

We have never gone to Ft. Wilderness...probably because neither one of us are the outdoor types and neither oen of us like horses.

I'm sorry you don't like the Electrical Parade. Ia ctually like it a lot...but then it was the first one they had the first time I went.

You got some great photos at the Animal Kingdom. And poop on Brandon for not wanting to get up.
Would you really have gone without Brandon?

I've never thought to do Tony's for lunch, but either way, I'll be staying away from there for a while!

Thank you, and it was not fun being sick, but I'm glad I could at least drag myself through the parks!

Ft. Wilderness is really cute, it's not very Wilderness-y at all!

I don't mind the MSEP, it's the music that kills me! The actual parade is cute!

Thanks! I was going to go without Brandon, he was making me so mad that morning that I was seriously going to hop on a bus and just go.

I'm so sorry you felt so miserable! And for the record, on a family trip to Virginia one year, my dad was snoring SO LOUD that I actually did go sleep in the bathroom! I turned on my walkman (yes, at the time it was a legit walkman!) grabbed my pillow and some extra blankets and slept right on the floor. In the bathroom. Gross? Maybe? But it was a great sleep, I'll say that!

I wish you took pictures of the Hipsters! LOL Lumar is always making fun of Hipsters so I had to read that part outloud to him. He goes "see?"

I love bats and snakes but you know what freaks me out (aside from spiders...)? Opossums. The babies are cute. The adults look like botched zombie lab rats on steroids. Although I hit one getting off the highway one night and I felt HORRIBLE about it. Although I do not feel bad about killing spiders...or flies...or mosquitoes...

Moving on...

Great pics of the tigers! I can't believe you caught one yawning! How cute is that?

I was seriously thinking about finding a way to prop myself up on the toilet so I could go to sleep. I was so mad. If we had the extra money, I would just get us a one bedroom villa for our next trip, so I'd have somewhere to escape to when I can't sleep!

Haha, I should have taken a picture of the hipsters! Brandon and a few of my friends call hipsters "bag hats" now. Trust me, when you see hipsters, you will notice they all wear bag hats, and you'll be calling them that too!

Ugh, opossums are gross, but I feel bad for them! Brandon ran one over once, and the noise was SO loud when he hit it, I felt awful! I hate snakes. If they didn't exist, I'd be happy!

I love that picture of the yawning tiger! It reminds me of my cats!

Wow! So many beautiful pictures! I especially love the one with the parrot and the waterfall in the background, and the one going up Everest with all the little clouds.

Thank you! I love that I know how to edit them now too, it makes the pictures more vibrant...although, the grass in some of the tiger ones is a little too green, but whatever!

Ugh, I know I've said it before but I'm so sorry you were sick! That just sounds awful.

Way to go getting Brandon to go to AK though! hehehe

So funny, I had never noticed that 'don't take the tea' sign at Everest until this last trip, either! Makes me wonder if I'm just really that unobservant or if it's new?

Disney tigers have it made! They're so awesome. That's one of those things that blows my mind about Animal Kingdom. It's a theme park just down the road from the other parks but there are wild, dangerous animals living there. It's so awesome. ONLY DISNEY!

Thanks! It was pretty awful. I hate being sick to begin with, so being sick at Disney was extra annoying.

Haha, I was so annoyed with him, we were wasting so much time fighting that I just got ready and said I was leaving. I'm actually kind of surprised that got him up, I figured he'd want to stay and sleep!

There are so many things at Disney parks that when I notice them, I wonder "how long has that been there?" then I wonder if I've been totally oblivious this whole time too!

It is kind of crazy that there are lions and tigers and all these scary animals right down the street from the Magic Kingdom!

Aw, I'm sorry you couldn't sleep! I hate doing that whole sleep-wake up-sleep-wake up thing. It's the most frustrating thing ever.

I didn't realize there were birds there! I also couldn't find the kangaroos (I didn't look very hard, but there are kangaroos there, right?).

AHHH THOSE BELLS. I HATE THEM. Not really, but definitely the worst part of the Everest queue. We ha a large group of teenagers (okay, maybe just a family or two) and they kept ringing those bells. It gets old soooo fast because they're not exactly melodious.

But the Maharajah Trek is awesome - even the bats! I love the themeing in there. Lucky you for seeing so many tigers!

That was definitely a frustrating night of sleep. It made the night seem so long!

I have never seen kangaroos at Animal Kingdom, but I think I've heard they are there too! I have no idea where!

Those bells are pretty awful. At first I tried to tolerate them, but after a few minutes I just wanted to yell "ok, enough!!!" They're just so loud!

The Maharajah Trek is really cool! I loved the Tigers, and the bird part was cute too! I can do without the bats!

The hipsters getting coffee made me laugh. It's so funny when you see people that just seem ENTIRELY out of place at Disney. Like, "alright, let's be honest, I know you're just here for the chai."

That's awesome that the tigers were so out and about that day! Whenever we try to see the tigers or lions, they're always fast asleep!

Haha, they seriously did look like they were just there to get coffee! There were lots of hipsters at Disney in December, I noticed. Everyone loves Disney, even hipsters!

The tigers were so cute! The lions are usually asleep when we see them too, but we got lucky with the tigers!

Yeah...love the big kitty photos! I must make it a point to check that out in a few weeks now! Sucks that you were still feeling miserable though.

Good for you for threatening to go without Brandon. I would have done the same thing!

Thanks! Definitely go see the tigers, they are adorable! Thanks, I can't believe I was sick for that trip. Figures.

I was all set to go without Brandon. I even contemplated taking the car and letting him figure out the buses, but I thought that might be too mean! Luckily he got up and we avoided that whole situation!

 

[Nermel9]

If you had to be sick, it's too bad it was rainy too. The sleigh ride looks awesome and I love the pictures from the top of Everest.

Yeah, the sickness wasn't fun, and then the rain made it even worse! Luckily, it didn't rain all day, so we had some sun! The sleigh ride was a lot of fun, I can't wait to do one again!

You go girl - taking pictures on EE. I can't wait to see them. Sorry you were still feeling so terrible. That's stinks, but I think you did a lot considering the fact that you weren't feeling well.

I finally did Maharaja trek this trip and I thought the bats were super cool! I found them entertaining. Not as entertaining as the tigers, but still pretty cool. It was so nice to visit during the cooler weather. I loved it!

Be back later to see all your pics.

I'm surprised we did so much while I was sick...I kept telling Brandon that if we were home, I would have been calling out of work, so I guess the pixie dust kept me going!

Ugh, I'm just not a bat fan, which is weird, because I love animals. But bats scare me!

Awesome update! Sorry you felt so terrible in the morning! No fun! I would have done the same, though-- sucked it up and went to a park!
Love your hipsters comment! I guess there's something at Disney for everyone...including hipsters .
We LOVED the Affection Section! I couldn't get enough of those sheep! Too adorable.

Thanks! I'm glad that even though I didn't feel good, I still made it to the parks, because it could have been a lot worse!

LOL, Disney is for everyone, even hipsters!

I loved the Affection Section too, the animals were so cute, and I love that you are allowed to touch them!

Oh no not feeling well and how the day started I'm glad Brandon got ready just as you were leaving and you didn't have to tour AK on your own

Lol at hearing the bells ring 20 times - that must have been annoying!! Great EE pics!

I loved Rafiki's Planet Watch! It sure is a great place to visit on a nice sunny day.

You got some nice shots of the Tigers - they were sleeping when we visited!

Haha, I'm glad I didn't have to do AK by myself either! If I had to do any park alone, AK would be last on the list! The other 3 seem ok to do alone, but AK seems a little scary, maybe because I'm still kind of unfamiliar with that park! I was going to, though, so I'm glad Brandon finally got up!

Ugh, those bells were obnoxious!

Thanks! Some of the tigers were sleeping, but most of them were up, roaming around! I think when we did that in 2008, we saw like, one tiger, so it was nice to see lots of them!

I am loving your TR!! So sorry you were not feeling well, but at least you had a great time!! Love all the pics!

Thank you! I did have a great time, even though I was sick! Disney at Christmas is magical!

Wow! Tiger pay dirt.

That first picture with the tree and the cloudy ski is very cool.

Love the parrot picture!

The one on the lift hill going into the clouds is my favorite. Nice work!

Thanks! I tried to take pictures of things I don't normally take pictures of on this trip! I really think I might get a real camera for my next trip. I might use it to reward myself if I lose a decent amount of weight this year or something. I think it's time I got a big girl camera!

Great update! Too funny about the Hipsters. I am generally baffled by them as well. I have never been to RPW, but I may have to take the train up there next time

BTW-- your photos are great! The bird picture looks like something from natual geographic!

Thanks! Hipsters are definitely strange...and where did they even come from? It's like they came out of nowhere the last year or so...and now they're everywhere, even Disney!

Thank you! I really love the parrot picture, it's one of my favorites!