Me and My Girl - A Week in Pictures (Day 1 - Animal Kingdom)

wilma-bride

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Jul 13, 2005
Wednesday 12th March

After waking pretty much on the hour every hour, I was relieved when Mickey called at 5.30 to rouse us. I jumped in the shower while Sian checked Facebook, texted Lee and slowly came to life. I have no idea how she slept so well.

We were dressed and ready to leave by 6.30 (the park opened at 7am). India had mentioned the night before that the forecast was not good for today and Sian was going to take a jacket. I told her she would regret it if it was hot later and she had to carry it around with her, so at the last minute she changed her mind and left it behind. Of course, by the time we arrived at Animal Kingdom, it was starting to rain and it pretty much continued throughout the morning. Obviously, it was my fault that Sian didn’t have a jacket and so, as the rain continued, and her hair gradually gave in to the damp and reverted to its natural (curly) form, Sian got more and more grumpy.

Anyway, on with the photos.

Still dark when we arrived and I don’t think the Photopass photographer had his camera on the right setting.



I had never noticed these lights before – probably because they’re not normally lit as we’ve never been in the park when it’s dark.







Made our way over to Expedition Everest.





Still very quiet so no wait – rode it twice.



Then it was time for breakfast. Walked over to Kusafiri Bakery for breakfast, which was a (somewhat stale) chocolate dipped Elephant Ear and a diet coke (when will Disney cease their relationship with Coca Cola and start selling a decent product – Pepsi!)





Next, we were going on Safari – standby was only 10 minutes but we had FP+ for it so pretty much walked straight on.







Loads of animals out (despite the weather).











It was still a little early for one though.



Giraffes being un-interesting!





Back through Africa and heading towards the Tree of Life.



No, Sian isn’t tired – just bored!



Spotted this little fella (or lady) hiding in the bush.

 
The hair situation had gotten unbearable by now (I was sick of hearing Sian moaning about it) so we bought some hair bobbles from a shop, popped into a nearby restroom so Sian could tie her hair up and then she was happy again. My hair, however, couldn’t be saved…

Disaster averted (at least on Sian’s part), we explored the Tree of Life Garden







Then we met Mickey and Minnie. I just love the kissy noises that Minnie makes. We’d had a FP+ for Kali River Rapids for later this afternoon that we switched out for this Mickey & Minnie M&G. We waited about 15 minutes to get in, despite the fact that we were the only ones outside waiting. When we were finally allowed in, it became fairly obvious that the delay had been caused by the fact that the CM was getting chatty and (over) friendly with a large group of girls inside already. We were allowed in to the room while they met Mickey & Minnie and waited patiently while they posed for various combinations of pictures for well over 5 minutes. Finally, it was our turn. A quick kiss and a hug and a picture snapped and we were ushered out of the door and on our way.





Outside, we were approached by a CM with a clipboard who asked if I could spare her a couple of minutes to give some feedback on our experience. How timely!

We wandered up into Asia and made our way towards the Caravan Stage, where we were hoping to catch the first Flights of Wonder show.







There were lots of people waiting for the show but we were able to get seats fairly near to the front, off to the left of the stage. We sat patiently, waiting for the show to start while snacking on this little beauty.



We just saw this show in October for the first time (can’t believe we’ve not seen it before). It is pretty amusing and the birds are so clever.



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Just before the show had started, a lady had come in on her own and sat down behind us. She literally sniffed the whole way through the show, every few seconds. It was really loud and I ended up texting Sian to say “I’m going to give her a tissue in a minute”. Sian texted me back and said “Do you mean Sniffy McSnifferson?” I nearly died laughing.

After the show, we had a little bit of time to kill before our FP+ for Expedition Everest. Since we had a lunch reservation at Yak & Yeti, we wanted to ride just before eating so we didn’t have to back track too much.

We ended up spending a bit of time just wandering around and taking a few pictures.





At a little after 11am, this was the line for the FP+ kiosks (bear in mind this was before off-siters could use MDE to make FP+ reservations).



After our third ride of the day on Everest, we headed to Yak and Yeti for lunch. The table we were seated at was right near another DISer, Jenny, who I had been chatting with on the ‘March 2014’ thread so we spoke for a while. Jenny and her husband were on their first child-free trip and were having a whale of a time.

We sat down and ordered drinks – coke for Sian (not yet 21 remember) and a Yak Attack for me. I have waited so long to try one of these and it was well worth the wait.



Sian loved the fact that she gave me horns in that picture!

It took us a while to decide what we were going to order – actually, it was just me as Sian had already set her heart on the burger. After going back and for the between the honey chicken and the ribs, I finally settled on….

...the duck. Yes, after wavering between two dishes for the longest time, I ended up choosing neither of them. Instead I got the roasted half duckling with orange wasabi glaze, jasmine rice (I subbed fried rice) and stir fried veggies.



Sian got her burger – 10 oz grilled American Kobe beef burger with sesame-soy mayo and Asian slaw, served with shoestring fries.



As you can see, Sian’s burger came with a ton of fries. We did a bit of a swap – I gave her some of my rice and stole a few of her fries. They were really good. The rice was nice but it had onion in it, which I wasn’t expecting. I don’t really like onion but it was cut quite small so it didn’t bother me too much.

The duckling, however, was absolutely amazing. It was succulent and tasty, the glaze had a heck of a kick to it so I didn’t pour it all ever but settled instead for dunking the duck lightly into the little pot.

Having spent months discussing what we would have for dessert, we were both stuffed and had to pass. I had a $50 reward on my Landry’s Select Card, which I was able to use here so the check came to a grand total of $9.81. We left $20 since it is only right to tip on the amount that the check would have come to (which was $59.21 before tax). Even if we hadn’t had the reward, it would have been well worth it but paying $20 for the wonderful lunch we’d had was pretty sweet!

After lunch, feeling slightly full and uncomfortable, we decided to try and get in to the next Finding Nemo show as it was just about to start. Luckily, we were one of the last people let in but ended up sat right in the back row. We could still see everything perfectly well and really enjoyed the show, having not seen it for a few years.











After the show, we headed to Dinoland USA to ride Dinosaur! And then, after a quick look around the shops, we decided to call it a day. After a quick stop at Guest Services to buy the Tables In Wonderland card, we caught the bus back to the resort.
 
Back in the room, we chilled out for a while and spoke to Gary and Daniel on Skype. The wifi connection wasn’t very strong, though, so the picture kept breaking up. Eventually we gave up on video and resorted to speech only. We had reservations for dinner at Kona Café tonight so got showered and dressed, then caught the bus to Magic Kingdom before switching to the resort Monorail round to the Polynesian.

I love the Poly and hope one day to be able to stay here – once the DVC units are finished, hopefully I will be able to realise my dream.



The place was absolutely heaving. So many people were trying to get walk-ups and the poor CMs kept telling them they were fully booked. I have never seen so many people. One lady was shouting about how unfair it was that they couldn’t even get dinner at their hotel. I felt a bit sorry for people who don’t realise that you really need to make reservations in advance for these places.

We had arrived a bit early so were given a pager and went off to look around the gift shop. I spent the money Susan had given me on a pin for Daniel – he has decided to start pin trading on our next trip – and I also bought him some Phineas and Ferb sliders for his Magic Band.

Just as we were paying, our pager started buzzing and we made our way back to the restaurant. The poor CMs were under even more pressure now and people were crowded round the podium. I managed to edge my way to the front, handed in my pager and we were led to a cosy little booth off to the side.

It was nice to be sat down and away from the throng of people.



We already knew what we wanted so were able to place our order when our server first came over. I ordered a Kona Cool Sundown, Sian had a diet coke. We decided to share the sticky wings and both opted for the teriyaki steak with sticky rice and borccolini.

Our server brought us some bread, quickly followed by Sian’s diet coke. My drink took a little longer to arrive (as you can see from the picture, we’d already finished our appetiser).









The wings were delicious although it is only now, looking back at the pictures, I see that the portion size has shrunk considerably. Below is a picture of the same appetiser from August 2010.

DSCF6039.jpg


The steak was really nice but we had both ordered our steaks cooked medium and I would say they were nearer to medium-rare. Neither of us managed to finish – with the benefit of hindsight, I wish we’d opted to share since we were having the same thing.

With the TIW discount and the added 18% tip, the check came to $84.33.

After catching the monorail back to Magic Kingdom, I snapped a couple of pictures before heading for the bus back to the resort.



It was a beautiful night and we decided to take a walk around the lake before heading back to the room and bed.





 


Love the picture with the horns! Fast pass + seems to be working well for you. :thumbsup2
 
Lovely day and great pictures Joh :goodvibes

Thanks hun - I couldn't quite believe how many pictures I'd taken that first day. Until I saw how many pictures I'd taken the next day :rotfl:

Thorough report and well illustrated, Joh. Enjoying your trip right along with you.

Thanks Susan, I took well over 800 pictures on this trip with 25% of those taken on the first 2 days.

Love the picture with the horns! Fast pass + seems to be working well for you. :thumbsup2

Yes, Sian was very amused by what she'd done with that photo. FP+ did work well for us, I had major concerns (like a lot of people) that it would cause problems. The standby lines were really long as the day went on, though - probably more so than before but the odd occasions we risked it, we found the posted wait times seemed to be vastly over-inflated. I am looking forward to trying it again in October, now that you can get additional FP+ when you have used your initial 3.
 


I always have that problem first night, wake up, sleep, wake up, sleep .....

Sounds like a great first day though (although I'm glad they're a coke company can't stand pepsi it's too sweet!)
 
I always have that problem first night, wake up, sleep, wake up, sleep .....

Sounds like a great first day though (although I'm glad they're a coke company can't stand pepsi it's too sweet!)

I love Pepsi Max - it's like my lifeline so I always have withdrawals when we are at WDW.
 
Loving this trip report thank you. I used your corn bread recipe from a previous trip report last weekend when we told our niece she was going to Disney world in August - big success. Thank you :)
 
wonderful 1st day - bad mummy making Sians hair go all curly in the rain ;) lol food looks delish :goodvibes
 
Loving this trip report thank you. I used your corn bread recipe from a previous trip report last weekend when we told our niece she was going to Disney world in August - big success. Thank you :)

Glad you enjoyed the cornbread - I still use that recipe all the time. Thanks for reading :thumbsup2

wonderful 1st day - bad mummy making Sians hair go all curly in the rain ;) lol food looks delish :goodvibes

I know, I am a Bad Mother - although, you'd think at nearly 21 she could have made up her own mind ;)
 
Great first day by the looks of it. Might have to try Kona Cafe, those wings look great!
 
Joh

Just caught up with the fact this is now on the boards. Loving your report.

Had to chuckle at Sian's "Sniffy MacSnifferson" statement - that would have had me chortling.

On to read more now

Tam
 
Joh

Just caught up with the fact this is now on the boards. Loving your report.

Had to chuckle at Sian's "Sniffy MacSnifferson" statement - that would have had me chortling.

On to read more now

Tam

Haha Tam, that is the standard insult in our house now. The other morning Sian called me Distracty McDistracterson, when I spoke to her just as she was leaving for work and made her forget something :rotfl:
 
great day, had to laugh at you texting each other.
My husband and I use sign language at times when we're out.:rotfl:

Your Kona meal looked lovely
 

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