Lisa and Jason's DFTW TR, Sept 2nd, 2007: UK Pavilion & Living Seas

we're so alike...i always forget to put on lipstick and i remind myself on special occasions...mark thinks i'm crazy. can't wait to read more!
 
We’re in Disney World!

Well, we pull into the Polynesian (instead of the GF) first and by that point I really just wanted to get off that awful, hot bus!! So we hop out and proceed to try to find our way to Franck’s. I let Jason lead while I call our WP to tell her we’ll be there soon. When I get off the phone I realize Jason is leading us towards the parking lot, so I convince him we need to go back to the lobby and get directions. Then we find our way to the right pathway, without any other detours. This is when I learn how much heat and humidity really affects Jason. Now we have plenty of heat down in Texas but nothing like the humidity of Orlando in late August. Jason is quickly becoming drenched with sweat. His head is soaked, sweat’s dripping down his face, and his shirt is already pretty wet. I was amazed and felt bad that he was so uncomfortable.

Mom and dad are waiting for us and have bottled water that’s much appreciated (even though it was a little warm.) While we waited for our WP, we got to see Cinderella’s Coach! We were surprised that it had little ponies instead of the full-size horses we had seen last time (at our planning session.) I think I would have been disappointed if I was expecting big horses and got little ponies instead, but maybe that’s a choice brides get to make? I did take a picture of it but seemed to have lost it somehow.

Anyway, we have our little meeting. There didn’t seem to be much point to it. We went over the morning schedule briefly and were told to keep our cell phones on before the ceremony. She told us we were the only wedding in all of Disney World that day, which I thought was pretty cool! (I’ve since realized that that simply wasn’t true, since I know of at least one other bride who was married the same day in Disney :confused3 ) ) I asked her about our rain backup. I knew it was at AA, but I was concerned that our minimal ceremony décor wouldn’t be enough for that location. She dismissed my worries, saying that “Murphy’s Law” applied. Since there were 6 weddings on Saturday and only mine on Sunday, it would certainly rain on Saturday if it were going to. Also, she said, it hadn’t rained in the morning for months. Still, I wanted her to know that if we did need to change venue, I’d want our floral designer to add to the décor as necessary. She assured me that I didn’t have to worry. And then she said to call her if we needed anything.

The only thing that seemed a little unusual was that our WP asked whether we were all set with photography. I gave a somewhat puzzled, “I guess so” as a response. We were using Disney for photography/videography. At our planning session, we had been told that we’d have two photographers, one for the traditional, posed pictures, and one who would use a photojournalistic style. I assumed that was all we needed to know. Well, I guess we were supposed to have already talked to our photographer about the event. This was news to me, but our WP said I could expect a phone call within the next day or two.

After the meeting, we decided to drive to All-Star Music to pick up the welcome gifts/letters that needed to be transferred to Coronado Springs. On the way, dad stopped for gas. Jason wanted to offer to pump the gas, but I quickly stopped him before he could. For some reason, it really bugs my dad that it’s illegal to pump your own gas in NJ, so he really LOVES to do it when he can. Odd, I know. But picture-worthy in my mind:
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Just then, I get a call from our photographer. (I guess our WP thought this was something that needed to be taken care of right away!) He asked whether we had any questions. I couldn’t think of any and just told him we didn’t have a wedding party and didn’t want a bunch of posed pictures after the ceremony with anybody other than our immediate families. (Earlier in the summer I had been to a cousin’s wedding where they took pictures of pretty much every possible permutation of family members. It took hours!) He asked whether Jason and I were going to see each other before the ceremony. I said “no” and that was about it.

When we got to the All-Star Music lobby, I was so happy to see all of our welcome boxes neatly stacked behind the desk. Sadly, I left my camera in the car. I really wish I could have taken a photo. We retrieved the boxes and headed to Coronado. Things weren’t quite as well organized there, but we finally managed to explain what we were trying to do. Overall, mom said that delivery of the welcome gifts was pretty easy. The All-Star resorts were by far the best and most receptive. Coronado was the most difficult (but ended up doing a better job with the actual delivery than the Wilderness Lodge.)

FINALLY, we were heading to our hotel!! (If you haven’t noticed, day 1 was a looonng, tiring day, and it’s not nearly over yet…)
 

Lisa,
Great TR so far... Day does sound really long! I know I probably would of crashed by now, but when you are in Disney this sense of reality sets in and you just get over the tired part and just soak in the Disney fun. I hope you all kept drinking water! Sounds like it was really hot down there!
 
I hope you two got some rest that day!

Rest?? In Disney World? If only we were so sensible...

i'll let you know when we're in austin next, we go rather often to visit the outlets...we have a round rock addiction...

Definitely! I even know how to get to those outlets. (Even though I've lived here for over a year now, I still have a serious problem finding my way around :confused: )

Lisa,
Great TR so far... Day does sound really long! I know I probably would of crashed by now, but when you are in Disney this sense of reality sets in and you just get over the tired part and just soak in the Disney fun. I hope you all kept drinking water! Sounds like it was really hot down there!

Yep! I have Jason to thank for the water. I had so much else on my mind, I wasn't thinking about the "little" important things like that. He kept buying me water and sharing his with me, throughout the week. It was really very sweet. And helpful!
 
Evening at the Wilderness Lodge

It was close to 7pm by the time we arrived at the Lodge. Jason had talked to his parents while we were driving around: the plan was to have dinner with his parents, my parents, his sister, and her family (husband, 3-year-old, and infant) at the Whispering Canyon Café at 7:00. I didn’t want to wait any longer before checking in, though, so we could (hopefully) get our luggage soon. The CM at the desk said we had a reservation for two nights, that we’d be checking out on the 1st. I said, yes, but then we’re moving to a Honeymoon room for 2 nights and then back to a Standard room for another 3 nights, since we’re here for our Wedding! I was a little surprised that she neither reacted to this news nor gave any indication that this information was in her computer. After all, we had 40+ guests staying in this resort alone for our wedding. But I guess weddings/anniversaries/birthdays and other special events are so common among resort guests that our wedding didn’t seem like such a big deal to this CM. She simply responded by saying that we’d still have to check out on the 1st, get new keys, and then check in again if we had another reservation. I said fine and thanked her.

Jason really wanted to go up to the room and drop off our bags and stuff, but it was time for dinner already, so we just walked across to the Whispering Canyon. This is when I registered the fact that there was a huge wall up around the whole center of the lobby with a sign that said they were working on the area. Oh, no, I thought. I hope it’s down before our guests start arriving. That “wow” you get when you first walk into the lobby was a big part of the reason we chose this resort. Oh well, can’t worry about it now. We’re tired and hungry!

Finally (I know), I have some more pictures. The whole group, except Jason, complete with our bags by my feet:
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The left side of the table with Jason’s sister, Kim, ordering for our flower girl. Jason’s family had signed up for the free dining plan, and this was their first meal, so there was a bit of confusion. Fortunately, Kim was an accountant in her pre-mommy days, so she kept everyone organized:
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On the right side of the table, Jason’s dad is quite puzzled about the whole thing and wondering why it’s so loud in the restaurant and why the waitress insists upon yelling. I sympathize completely. After our long day of travel, a rowdy restaurant was not the ideal choice for me!
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No food pics, but everything was quite good. We got a bunch of appetizers including chips and dips and the cheese and sausage plate (which was a big hit.) I had the roast chicken with mashed potatoes, which was way more food than I could handle! And a glowtini, just because of the glow :) But they were out of the glow cubes, so I just got a little clip-on tinkerbell instead. I could tell our FG was a little jealous, but she was very good for a 3-year-old and didn’t fuss at all about not getting one. So after I finished my drink, I gave Tink to her.

Our flower girl was a big fan of her dessert: worms in dirt, which is chocolate pudding topped with cookie crumbles and some gummy worms. By the time dessert comes, she’s moved to sit between me and Jason (her favorite uncle!) So I get the job of repeatedly cleaning up her face. Also, Jason’s sister manages to signal to me from the other end of the table that I should try to take the worms away when FG isn’t looking. Apparently, she has a habit of swallowing them whole. Well, operation steal-the-worms is successful but after a few minutes she notices their absence. (You can’t get anything by this smart little 3-year-old!) I tell her Uncle Jason ate them. Uncle Jason denies it, saying he only eats real worms. Well this cracks her up. “Silly Uncle Jason!” She continues to tease him about eating worms throughout the rest of the trip. :)

All in all, it was a very nice first meal and we’re finally off to our room!
 
Thanks for posting your TR! It's fun to read and I'm really enjoying it! I can't wait to read more about the wedding day! Congrats on your marriage!
 
Thanks for posting your TR! It's fun to read and I'm really enjoying it! I can't wait to read more about the wedding day! Congrats on your marriage!

Thank you!! I'm getting impatient to get to my wedding day myself. Maybe I should have just started with that. I had no idea this was going to be so long when I started. Guess I just remember more than I thought I would. ;)
 
Will this day ever end…

Our room seems perfectly nice. No view (just the parking lot) and not on the same floor as our parents and Jason’s sister, but fine just the same. (At first, I worried that the Lodge ignored our request to keep guests close together, but they ended up just putting them in two groups, which was fine. Just about everyone had other wedding guests nearby.)

No luggage yet, so we can’t shower and change. Jason is annoyed that it’s not there yet, but I know they generally say it can take up to 3 hours after check-in. But still, I hoped that since we had taken Magical Express almost 4 hours ago, we might have gotten it more quickly. Jason wants to call down to the front desk to ask. You see, we still want to go get our annual pass vouchers turned into tickets, so we don’t have to hold everybody up in the morning. Unfortunately, the phone in our room doesn’t work at all :( So I call mom on my cell to ask her to call the front desk and ask about our luggage and tell them our room phone doesn’t work.

A little while later our luggage arrives! Yay, it’s all here!! And we have a very nice CM named Arny who seems excited about our wedding and says to find him if we need anything at all :) He seems like he’s in a hurry to go deliver other luggage, but we tell him about our phone and he uses his walkie-talkie to connect to maintenance directly. They say they’ll send someone up right away. Love Arny!

Jason is very, very happy to finally get to take a shower. It’s been a long, hot day. Unfortunately, our shower doesn’t drain, so it’s not a pleasant experience. Even worse for me, since I have even more water collecting in my shower. Yuk! So we try to call down to the front desk, but the phone still isn’t working… We head down to the lobby to ask about the phone, the shower, and how best to get to Downtown Disney, since I’d read that we can get our annual passes there. The concierge tells us, no. We need to go to one of the parks. MK is closest and open for another hour and at this point, a boat ride seems much more appealing than another bus.

Nobody else is waiting for the boat, so we read the sign carefully. Green flag/left side of dock for Magic Kingdom. Blue flag/right side of dock for Fort Wilderness. A green boat gets there in a few minutes and we board with a bunch of other guests. Now I’m exhausted at this point and not really paying attention, and I haven’t been to Disney for a real vacation (longer than a day for our planning session) in over 8 years. So, when the boat stops, we just get off. Now right away, I realize something’s wrong. This doesn’t look like the Magic Kingdom I remember… We’re at Fort Wilderness :shock: and there’s a really, really long line waiting for boats for the Magic Kingdom.

Now the only good thing I can say about this mistake is that it led to a “I’m so glad I’m marrying Jason moment.” At first he was really angry about the sign and the flags and the delay but once he saw how sad I was about it and that I fully blamed myself, he immediately stopped ranting and started comforting me instead. It was really sweet and made the wait seem not-so-bad. (Also, the fact that several other families had made the same mistake made me feel less dumb.) Anyway, we had to wait for a couple more boats to come, since the line was so long. I only hoped we’d make it in time!

When we finally boarded the boat, Jason double-checked with the CM that this boat (with a green flag) was really going to the Magic Kingdom. We got a sarcastic, smart-assed response, which was somewhat annoying after the day we’d had. But at least we were pretty sure that we’re actually on our way to the Magic Kingdom!!
 
A Happy Ending to Day 1

Aaahh… this looks more like it! I’d never pulled up to the Magic Kingdom at night like that. (We were always a get-to-the-park-at-opening type of family.) It was such a beautiful sight. (Sorry, by this point in the day, I was too tired to remember to take pictures.) We walked over to the nearly deserted Guest Relations to get our annual passes. The nice CM gave us our passes, congratulated us on our wedding, asked a little about it, and then gave us our “Just Married!” buttons. Very exciting!! :)

At this point, it’s about 15 minutes until the park closes and the crowds are already swarming out, but Jason surprised me by suggesting we try to go on a ride before we leave. Instantly, my energy level is refreshed!! I had read that the Haunted Mansion might be open until the 1st, when it would definitely be under construction. So that was my first choice. Now, navigating through the masses of people trying to exit was extremely difficult but kinda fun in a way, too.

After we get past main street, we’re heading towards Adventure Land. (We really had very little choice. It was either try-to-go-left or try-to-go-right.) The crowds have thinned a little bit now, but this really big guy is barreling down the center of the path, with his head down, and almost runs smack into me. But as I jump out of the way, I catch a glimpse of his face and yell after him, “UNCLE JIM???” It was my mom’s brother!! What are the chances… His family had been there for a few days, and I guess he was trying to make a quick escape.

He gives me a big, somewhat sweaty, bear hug and sweeps his arm behind him, saying that everybody else is back that way. I think it’s kinda funny that he’s ditched his wife, children, and grandchildren. We tell him our plan, and he says the Haunted Mansion is closed and has been all week. Oh well, at least we didn’t “just” miss it. Plan B: off to my FAVORITE ride: Pirates! I’m hoping we’ll make it before it closes!!

Our happy ending: the ride is open and there’s absolutely no line!! We just stroll right through and get on a boat. I couldn’t have been happier. It was my first time on the ride since the changes, but I liked them. Still my favorite ride!! (While we were on it, I wondered whether my cell phone might ring. Its ring tone is the “yo ho, yo ho” theme song :) It didn’t but went off as we were exiting the ride, so almost!)

It was my newly arrived friend telling me she had to argue with the front desk about getting her welcome gift/letter. To be safe, we had told as many guests as possible about them. It would have been nice to surprise everybody, but we just didn’t trust that they’d get delivered. Unfortunately, we were right to doubt the resorts. :( That caused us a little stress, since our guests needed to get the transportation schedule for the morning of the wedding… so we added that to our to-do list for the next morning.

We walked out through the nearly empty park and boarded a boat back to the Wilderness Lodge (after double-checking its destination!) I’d like to say that it was all smooth sailing back to the resort, but we got held up by some boat traffic caused by the Electrical Water Pageant. But while we waited, we had a nice conversation with a family who was leaving in the morning. They wanted to know all about our wedding and asked whether we would wear the bride/groom ears. When we said we weren’t sure, they said they had seen A LOT of people wearing them who definitely weren’t newlyweds. That proved to be true for us, too, so we ended up skipping them.

It was pretty late when we got back, and all we wanted to do was get to bed, so we didn’t meet up with any friends or wait for my brother who was due to arrive that night. One upside to such a long day was that we were both able to fall asleep IMMEDIATELY, despite our excitement!!
 
Thank you!! I'm getting impatient to get to my wedding day myself. Maybe I should have just started with that. I had no idea this was going to be so long when I started. Guess I just remember more than I thought I would. ;)

It's great that you remember so much! I love reading the details. You'll definitely have to make sure you save this thread once you finish the TR. It will be a nice thing to look back at 20 years from now so you can reminisce on all the details :)
 
It's great that you remember so much! I love reading the details. You'll definitely have to make sure you save this thread once you finish the TR. It will be a nice thing to look back at 20 years from now so you can reminisce on all the details :)

Thanks! I've been writing everything in Word first (so I avoid losing anything if a post doesn't work!) It's been fun trying to remember the details. I can't believe it's been over 3 weeks already since my wedding!
 
Day 2: Animal Kingdom, rehearsal dinner, and more!

6:30am – Time to wake up! I hopped in the shower and found that it hadn’t been fixed yet. Still flooding. :( Dressed in a new tube top which was a little on the skimpy side but I wanted NO tan lines for my strapless dress! First stop was the front desk to complain again about the room phone that still wasn’t working and the non-draining shower AND to emphasize how important it was that the welcome letters/gifts be delivered to our guests. Without the letters, they wouldn’t know what time to catch the bus for our wedding!

7:15am -- My parents met us at the Roaring Fork for breakfast. We ate there just about every morning. I just had a bowl of fruit and a bagel with cream cheese. I was still full of excited energy and didn’t have much of an appetite. (This is where I’m clearly a novice TR-writer. No food pics… it never even crossed my mind. :( ) Overall, I’m a big fan of the Roaring Fork. Fast, always plenty of seating, perfectly adequate food. Never had a bad experience there. At breakfast, I told my parents all about our evening and then continued babbling about how we found out that we were the ONLY wedding in all of Disney World on Sunday. Mom just smiled and listened, but dad blurted out, “We know!! We were there with you at the meeting.” Everybody thought it was pretty hysterical that I was too excited about everything to remember. Just like a little kid.

7:45am – We met Jason’s parents, his sister and family, and one of my friends since high school, Anne, in the lobby. Most of our guests hadn’t arrived yet, and my mom said my brothers would probably sleep in and then go to the Magic Kingdom for the day. So we had a total of 9 adults, a 3-year-old, and an infant in our party, complete with a stroller and an electronic scooter. We were off to catch the AK bus! Boarding was somewhat eventful, since this was the first time Jason’s mom was using a scooter. The bus driver insisted that she drive it onto the bus and parallel park. It was pretty difficult for her (especially since one of the reasons she needed the stroller was her bad arthritis that makes it difficult to do things with her hands), but she finally got it into place. As the week went on, she got much better at using her scooter. It just took a while for her to get used to the controls.

Still, we’re at the Animal Kingdom!! And we’re early… While we waited for the gates to open, I explained that once we went in, we wanted to go get FASTPASSes for anybody who would want to ride Expedition Everest later that day. Jason, Anne, and I would go straight there and then meet everybody else back in DINOLand. Getting FASTPASSes for a whole group of people at once ended up working very well for us throughout the trip. The only thing we should have done differently was get as many FASTPASSes as possible every time, regardless of how many people said they wanted to ride. And that’s only because our “little” group had a tendency to grow…

After we entered the gates, Jason, Anne, and I grabbed all the park passes and started off towards Asia… I was a little surprised that we couldn’t get too far. Everybody was stopped. Then I remembered reading about how now the parks open somewhat incrementally. When we were kids, we’d just make a mad sprint towards our favorite ride when the park opened (always earlier for resort guests.) It was precisely because of kids like us behaving like that that they changed the system. :sad2:

Then something really cool happened!! There was a whole “opening the park” show with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Pluto. As if we weren’t excited enough!!
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Even without the show, it was kind of fun to be stopped there like that. Jason had never been to the AK before (and I’d only been once.) He was really impressed by the Big Tree. I told him about the animal carvings and said we should try to get closer later in the day to look at them all. Unfortunately, we ran out of time for that. Guess we’ll just have to go again ;) During the show, Jason was worried that the rest of our group was too slow and might be missing it. But then we looked up ahead and saw his niece (FG) up on her dad’s shoulders right near the front!! We were so happy that she was getting to see all this. Somehow, they had managed to get past us, going along the side.

When the show finished and they let us all in “for real” this time, Jason, Anne, and I quickly made our way towards Asia. When we got to Expedition Everest, there was already a pretty long line for the ride. For me, it was cool just to see the ride. It hadn’t been built yet last time I was there. Fortunately, the FASTPASS lines were pretty quick and the three of us were able to get our passes pretty fast. Next stop: DinoLand!!
 
Touring the Animal Kingdom: Dinoland!

Dinoland was really, really empty. Like ghost town empty. I half expected tumbleweed to start rolling by… We circled around looking for everybody else and found my parents pretty quickly. No sign of everybody else, though. We figured the Boneyard was a logical starting point for them, so that’s where we waited:

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(Jason, Anne, me, and my mom)

For the next 10-20 minutes or so, our family members kept arriving and leaving. A couple would run off in search of water. Then a couple would go to use the bathrooms. Nobody in Jason’s family had eaten breakfast at the hotel, so they were searching for food. (Dinoland didn’t have any counter service.) A few of my cousins showed up, and then we had to do introductions for everybody. Our flower girl and her dad played in the Boneyard for a while, but we really weren’t making any progress. I’m thinking: this group thing just isn’t going to work for us!

I was hoping that we’d all (except for babies and “old people who don’t like rides”) go on Dinosaur together, but who knew how long it’d take for our group of (now) 15 people to get in the same place at the same time. So I suggested that anybody who wanted to go on Primeval Whirl would do that. Usually I don’t like spinning rides, but this one wasn’t too bad. More silly than sickening. Right at my threshold for too-spinny. I kept cracking up laughing at all the little turns and spins. We had fun! My younger cousin was excited about riding in the car with Jason and me:

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After that, we went to Dinosaur with as much of the group as we could find. There was hardly any line. While we were waiting, the phone calls and texts began. Mostly, they were from one of my uncles, the same one who called a couple times the day before. Now, we had given all our guests a pretty detailed itinerary (which is how my other cousins knew where to find us.) And this uncle in particular had mentioned getting the welcome gifts/letters. Said they were “adorable”. For AK, we told everybody when we’d be arriving and what our route would be. But he kept calling/texting, “We’re at X. Where are you?” So at the time, I found his texts pretty annoying. Just find us already!! Don’t expect me to come looking for you! At the same time, I was also getting random texts from other friends/family all day, telling me about their travel progress, whether they were annoyed by people in the plane, what they thought of the lobby, etc. On the one hand, it was nice that our guests were so excited about Disney and wanted to share with me, but at the same time, I also just wanted to enjoy the AK with the guests who were there with me…

By the end of the day, my uncle and his family never managed to meet up with us, so they told us they were going to Epcot for the evening and maybe we’d want to meet up with them. I was like, sure, we’ll just ditch all our other guests who have been told we’re going to the Boardwalk tonight to hang out with your family… :sad2: But I was nice and just said, “sorry. we have other plans.” Well, it turns out that he never saw the itinerary that was on the second page of our welcome letter!! :guilty: Another uncle told me the story after the wedding: the “pestering uncle” was in my other uncle’s room the morning of the wedding when he spotted our itinerary and exclaimed, “WHERE DID YOU GET THIS?? THIS IS WHAT WE NEEDED!” When I heard that, I felt really badly that he had actually tried so hard to meet up with us but was never able to. I would have liked to spend some time with those cousins before the wedding, but it just never worked out. (And that family flew home the same day as the wedding.) Anyway, that was a long side story. Back to the AK portion of the TR…

We all had fun on Dinosaur! This is a picture of the screen. One of my cousins bought us all the nice printed pictures but ours went home with my parents, so I can’t post the good/real version yet. If I remember, I’ll replace this with the better version when I get it. 8 of us are in the first two rows:
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When we exit the ride, we find my mom and Jason’s dad enjoying some shade with the baby. My cousins were very excited about the baby. Jason’s dad was pretty patient but I could tell he was getting annoyed by all the poking. Somehow my mom managed to tactfully intercede and get them to ease up a little:
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Then Jason’s sister, brother-in-law, mom, and our FG joined us. We’re finally all together! AND they just all won the Year-of-a-Million-Dreams FASTPASSes as they were coming off the TriceraTop Spin ride!!! So they’re all excited about that. :) They figure they can quickly go on Dinosaur now while the rest of us slowly make our way towards Expedition Everest. So, up next: Asia and Africa…
 
Touring the Animal Kingdom – Part 2

For some reason, it takes Jason’s sister and husband a really long time to catch up to us in Africa. (I think they got lost.) So we spent some more time just sitting and waiting. But then… Expedition Everest!! This was my first time ever on the ride, and it was fun to ride with such a big group. 8 again, I think? We couldn’t get our parents to try it. I really liked it a lot:
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(Again, picture of the screen)

After that, we gathered up tickets again to run off and get FASTPASSes for Kilmanjaro Safari. As we’re heading back towards Asia, Jason’s sister calls him to say that they’ve got seats saved for us up front at the Finding Nemo show. We get held up momentarily by this walking tree/mime-like performer. Hard to describe unless you’ve seen it yourself, but it was pretty cool. But we made it to Nemo in time! I thought the show was pretty good, but it was definitely a must-see for the little kids. Jason’s nephew (6 mos.) was totally mesmerized by all the bright, bold colors. I was glad we’d found something fun for him, even if he’ll never remember it! The 3-year-old really enjoyed the show, too. And everybody really, really liked sitting down in the air conditioning for a little while :)

For some reason, Jason’s parents didn’t go in to see the show?!? We told them that EVERYBODY was going to ride KS! So far, they really hadn’t seen or done anything. Of course, they were happy to just be spending time with their grandchildren. (Somehow, we did lose my cousins at this point, though.) On the way to KS, we decide that it’d be good to grab a little snack for the kids now and then we’d have lunch right after. For some reason, that turns into a major production that I won’t bore you with… Eventually, we do get to Kilmanjaro Safaris!!! This is another “new” ride for me!

Here’s some pictures of everybody waiting for the ride to start:
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Jason took a bunch of pictures of the animals, but there wasn’t anything particularly memorable for me in those pics so I won’t bother posting them. I think I enjoyed just being with our families as much as the ride. Our FG was very cute. Whenever she spotted animals, she’d tell uncle Jason to quick! take a picture! Everybody had a very nice time on this ride.

When we got off, we ran into the cousins from earlier in the morning. (They’re real Disney pros and never have a problem finding their way around!) My uncle, aunt, another cousin, and her boyfriend were all with them as well. This is the same uncle we ran into at the MK the night before. So we had another round of introductions and then went our separate ways. We were off to lunch! The original plan (as listed on our itinerary) was Tusker House. But it was closed :( I suggested Pizzafari and tasked Jason with the job of getting us all there. After a hectic morning of trying to coordinate the group and deal with all the texts and calls, I was ready for a little break!

At Pizzafari, I discovered I still have my “Disney jedi skills” when it comes to finding the shortest lines at counter-service restaurants. Anywhere else in the world, I pick the slowest line. But at Disney, 9 times out of 10, I’ll get lucky. So what ended up happening is that I got food for Jason, Anne, and myself very quickly. It took a while for everybody else. My parents were the longest – my dad is the WORST at picking lines!! We were able to get a bunch of tables in the back corner of the restaurant and eat together. The food was just o.k. Not even close to Jersey quality pizza!! Our FG asked Jason again if he was going to eat real worms.

Now I had hoped we would go on Kali River Rapids and see the Lion King show, since I had heard good things about both. But the timing of the next show wouldn’t work out for us, and getting soaked didn’t appeal to me just then. So we decided to just head back to the hotel to rest a little before the rehearsal dinner. We left my friend Anne (who wasn’t going to the dinner) with one of the Dream FASTPASSes and gave a couple of the others away on our way out of the park. Just as we were leaving, the skies opened up and buckets of rain fell down on us. So we got soaked anyway ;-) The bus ride back was COLD, with the air-conditioning and longer than the trip there, since the bus stopped at Typhoon Lagoon.

All in all, it was a very nice day at the AK! Next up, the rehearsal dinner!!
 
It is so much fun reading about your trip!

Can't wait to hear about the wedding!!
 












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