"Mom, My Wish Came True!" Our best-trip-ever-week-before-Thanksgiving '09 TR!

[ShannonMB]

Im ging to drive over there and stage a sit in if ive not heard by monday!! Im so frustrated at waiting for them to call and sitting watching Cam suffer its just wrong !! The childrens hospital is an hours drive aaway but im going to do it if I have too just to make a point if nothing else !!!

Loved your new update - waited ages and theres 3 at once Fantatsic cant wait to read more !!

Good for you! And thanks for hanging in there with me!

 

[ShannonMB]

Magic Kingdom, cont.

Soo, when I left off, we had just had an extended break watching the parade from the flower boxes in front of Pecos Bills. It was great to have a nice place to sit for the parade!

Afterward, we headed into Adventureland...

We waited about 5 minutes to ride the pirates...

and Lily, Mom and Andy went up in the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. Lily really enjoys this one. After her first time checking it out on our last trip, she said she wanted to live in a treehouse like that. I always felt that way when I was a kid, too!

Next was a ride on the Jungle Cruise! It was about a 10 minute wait standby -- which is SO short for that ride! Our guide was an older man, he was soo cute and funny. Some of them really get on my nerves, but he was really awesome!

As we approached the "Shirley Temple"...

...our guide picked Lily to drive us through it!

Luckily, we made it out of there alive!!! Lily was so serious while she was driving, trying not to crash! After we were through the temple, everyone on the boat gave Lily a round of applause. It was a great moment for her!!! And does that CM not look so sweet? I loved him!

Next we spent just a couple minutes waiting for the Magic Carpets of Aladdin..

 

[ShannonMB]

Magic Kingdom, cont.

I had been hoping we'd have time to eat dinner at Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe this day, because Lily really loves it there -- she loves their fries dipped in the cheese sauce from the fixin's bar. Well, we had plenty of time, so headed over there! We were all starved because we hadn't had a meal since our Crystal Palace breakfast (except Andy, who had the chicken sand before the parade).

We got there about 5:15pm, and it was pretty much deserted! Woohoo, time to chow!

OMG, my burger was so good! Except yes, the new wheat bun crumbled.

I forget who all had what of this stuff, but everyone thought the mashed potatoes were "tangy" (I tried them, and they were), and the chicken was really dry. Whoever had the ribs gave me a bite, and they were fatty, but very tasty.

Lily LOVED her meal, and said, "If they had this at 50s Prime Time Cafe, I would have been a clean plater!"

Andy was actually ragging on Sonny Eclipse. I'm pretty sure he was serious, too! He was like, "This guy's jokes are horrible, OMG!"

So I don't think the meal was a huge hit with everyone, but Lily and I loved it and we'll definitely continue to eat here!!

We were seriously rocking the Magic Kingdom today, and the only land we hadn't hit yet was Tomorrowland -- so off we went!

Just before 6pm, we walked on to Buzz Lightyear...

...then popped into Monsters, Inc Laugh Floor to wait for the next show.

Supposedly, Andy didn't get the jokes. I thought it was hilarious as always.

We didn't bother with Space Mountain, because it was still in refurb (although they had been doing soft openings from what I read on the DIS). We couldn't tell if it was open or not and just didn't feel like walking over to see. Besides, it was almost 6:30pm -- and time for the Castle Lighting Ceremony!!!! Woohoo!!! We watched it from the edge of Tomorrowland, sorta in front of the noodle station.

So beautiful!! And I couldn't have planned to be in the right place at the right time better if I tried!

This was a MVMCP night (which we were not attending that night), so we watched the Castle Lighting, then made our way out right around 7pm. We would be attending the party on Thursday, but for now it was time to head back to the resort and relax after a long, perfect, awesomely wonderful day at the Magic Kingdom!!!!

Believe it or not, there was a 1/2 full POFQ bus waiting for us at the stop, so we hopped on and were back at our resort by 7:15pm! I jumped in the shower and laid down on the bed - never to get back up that evening. I was seriously BUSHED! But Lily and Janie headed back out of the room to check out the caricature artist -- she'd always wanted one of these and her Aunt Janie was happy to oblige!

Janie said it was a shame that for all that money ($25 or $30!), that he didn't even draw Lily's freckles! They got back to the room just before 9pm.

While this was going on, Andy, Billy, and my mom went to the bar (I think the one by the pool). Not sure what she meant by this, but my notes say, "Lily said Nana was acting the fool @ the bar". I can only assume that meant she was dancing -- in her perfect *Elaine from Seinfeld* style. But I can't swear to that, as, like I said, I was back at the room resting my poor tired feet! OMG, I'm right now!

 

[cbg1027]

Okay, so let's make another deal -- if one of us wins the lottery we will upgrade the other's next trip to deluxe! We don't have to shake on it or anything.

We can "cyber shake" on that one!!!! Deal!!!!!!!!! But we should go at the same time and stay in neighboring rooms! And I could bring my niece, Ellianna - she's 8, so Lily would have a buddy her own age! But Ellianna rides big stuff...maybe she could convince Lily to join. Nothing like some peer pressure, eh?

 

[buzz for boys]

Another fab update !!!

 

[mcdowelj]

That is so funny that Lily said Nana was acting like a fool at the bar. We kept going to the bar to see them that night and from what I could tell the 3 of them, Billy, Andy and Nana were all just sitting there talking. Nana was buttering up to the bartender a tiny bit but that's just how she is. That cracks me up! Lily loves to pick on her Nana!!

 

[nania]

That Lily! If I'd known she was going to rag on me so much, I would have given her a hard time.. AND danced!

 

[ShannonMB]

We can "cyber shake" on that one!!!! Deal!!!!!!!!! But we should go at the same time and stay in neighboring rooms! And I could bring my niece, Ellianna - she's 8, so Lily would have a buddy her own age! But Ellianna rides big stuff...maybe she could convince Lily to join. Nothing like some peer pressure, eh?

AWESOME! Now make sure you're buying those lotto tickets!

Another fab update !!!

Thank you, faithful reader!!!

That is so funny that Lily said Nana was acting like a fool at the bar. We kept going to the bar to see them that night and from what I could tell the 3 of them, Billy, Andy and Nana were all just sitting there talking. Nana was buttering up to the bartender a tiny bit but that's just how she is. That cracks me up! Lily loves to pick on her Nana!!

That Lily! If I'd known she was going to rag on me so much, I would have given her a hard time.. AND danced!

That is hilarious, especially now that I know you weren't out there dancing by the pool!

 

[Panotchr]

Just in... found your report today. I have a daughter named Lily who is 9 too! She is quite the character just like your Lily. Not a drop of personality.. LOL

Lily is precious and I love her trip report. I teach Kindergarten and I LOVE seeing what/how kids write and experience things.

Our next trip is in July, but after reading this, I am going to hate those wait times. We own DVC, so we go at a leisurely pace, but still!!!

 

[ShannonMB]

Just in... found your report today. I have a daughter named Lily who is 9 too! She is quite the character just like your Lily. Not a drop of personality.. LOL

Lily is precious and I love her trip report. I teach Kindergarten and I LOVE seeing what/how kids write and experience things.

Our next trip is in July, but after reading this, I am going to hate those wait times. We own DVC, so we go at a leisurely pace, but still!!!

Aww, thanks for joining! Another 9 year old Lily! You should get her to write a trip report when you guys get back from your next trip! I keep telling my Lily that her report would be easier to read if she used some punctuation every once in a while -- I KNOW she knows it!! But that's her and her aunt Janie's project, and it's not being graded, so what the heck! I also have gotten a kick out of reading it -- I love at one part where she said she was so exhausted she "crashed the hay" This age is so much fun!!! Although I think she already thinks she's practically a teenager -- I bet yours does, too, especially with older sisters!!

Yeah, mid-November wait times were definitely something to behold!! But as Lil gets older it'll be less and less off-season time/trips for us. See you in July in a couple years!

Thanks again for joining us!

 

[praisehisname]

I have to eat breakfast here soon!

You had fabulous mojo with being able to just walk right on the rides!

So cool that Lily got to drive the Jungle Cruise boat!

The castle lighting is awesome, isn't it?

 

[buzz for boys]

I know I spund like a stalker but any chance of another update ???

 

[ShannonMB]

I have to eat breakfast here soon!

You had fabulous mojo with being able to just walk right on the rides!

So cool that Lily got to drive the Jungle Cruise boat!

The castle lighting is awesome, isn't it?

That plate does look SO good, huh? It was!!!

I can't wait to walk on all the rides THIS November!

Lily was concentrating SO hard driving the boat. It was really a great moment!

Castle Lighting...

I know I spund like a stalker but any chance of another update ???

Sorry UK stalker -- I don't know why it's taking me so long to get through this TR. But here you go...

 

[ShannonMB]

DAY 5 -- Animal Kingdom!! Wed, 11/18/09

OKAY! Time for Animal Kingdom day!!!! I LOVE Animal Kingdom day!!!! I know some people consider it a glorified zoo, but I really don't get that? I LOVE all the attractions there, and I was looking very forward to the meals this day, too!!! So was it an awesome day at AK? YES!!!!

We (I) had planned on being at the bus stop by about 8:45-9am for a 9 o'clock opening, but honestly, we weren't even really rushing because of the serious *walking on all the rides* mojo praisehisname mentioned in her reply! We were actually on track to be there by 9am, but Lily couldn't find her birthday button, and as she said, "I'm not going ANYWHERE without THAT!". We ended up finding the original that evening, but in the meantime I got another one from the concierge. Saved the day!!!

So we hit the bus stop at about 9:15am and arrived about 9:35am.

I absolutely LOVED the Christmas tree out front!

Janie, Lily, and I had reservations for Donald's Safari Breakfast at Tusker House at 10am. I wasn't able to add my mom and Uncle Billy when they decided to come to Disney with us, so I booked them at Yak and Yeti for 11am. Andy decided he'd rather have that with them, so we were splitting up for the early meal of the day.

We were planning on riding the Safari before us girls had breakfast, but when we arrived at the park, Lily and I saw Rafiki and Meeko signing autographs before the entrance to the park. The others had already gone in, but Lily was dying to meet them, so we did!

I called the others and told them we'd meet them when we were done. It just took a couple minutes, but we didn't have time for the safari before breakfast. Lily and I made our way back to Africa...

We found the others, then it was time for Jan, Lily and me to go to Tusker House for breakfast. While we ate, Mom, Andy and Billy rode the safari.

The sun was shining right at me when I tried to take a pic of Lil with Donald...

...but they will have to do, since I couldn't part with the $30 something it cost for the picture package. The pics were gorgeous, but come on!

The food here was scrumptious!

And the characters were great!

We loved meeting darling Daisy for the first time!!

Lily did the parade, which kinda surprised me -- she was having a really good time...

Then she got another breakfast cupcake!

This meal was a great experience, and we will definitely do it again!

While we were eating, Mom, Bill and Andy went on the safari, as I mentioned, then did the Pangani Forest Trek. Apparently Andy made friends with one of the gorillas -- I guess he liked Andy's shirt! You'll see pics of the shirt later. But now it was time for them to eat and for US to go on the safari!!!! I LOVE IT!

cont...

 

[ShannonMB]

Animal Kingdom, cont...

Safari time!!

I didn't love my safari pics this time. I didn't get one of the lions, but we did see them. Sometimes that truck goes by too fast and my pics are a blur. Last trip I didn't get ANY decent ones, but this time at least I got a few. On our first trip my safari pics were AWESOME, so at least I do have some good ones!

There were some highly annoying people with us on the safari. This one group who was sitting right behind us were chattering their faces off the WHOLE ride, "OMG, look, a bird!", etc, etc, etc, etc, etc! I mean their enthusiasm was sweet, but it got to the point where Janie and I were looking at each other like, geez, have you never even been to the zoo before?

After the safari, Janie, Lil and me headed over to Asia to wait for the others to finish at Yak and Yeti. Photo ops along the way!

And while we waited, I spied the Anandapur Tea Co. I'd been dying to try a frozen chai, so I beelined over there...

LOVED it!

When the others emerged from Yak and Yeti, I was like, "How was it???" They all had the steak and shrimp, and they all said it was good, but they weren't RAVING about it the way I was after I ate there on our last trip.

From there we headed to Lily's favorite ride -- Kali River Rapids!

Being the good DISer I am, I was prepared with disposable ponchos for all. Of course there was no wait, and when we got off, they were letting you do a u-turn to get right back on, so we all rode twice. AWESOME!!!

This being Lily's favorite ride, she wasn't done yet when she saw we could yet-again get right back on, so everyone else went to check out the 1pm Flights of Wonder show, and Lily and I rode Kali 3 more times!!! Even with the ponchos, we were pretty wet afterwards, but I was happy to oblige Lil, because as she pointed out, there aren't that many rides there that she likes. All of us gave our ponchos to other people in line when we were done, and they were most appreciative!!

cont...

 

[ShannonMB]

Animal Kingdom, cont...

We got finished with our Kali expeditions at the same time they finished the bird show, so now it was time for Andy and me to conquer Mt. Everest!!! We were the only 2 who wanted to ride.

Here's that shirt the gorilla liked...

Andy and I waited about 15 minutes for our first ride on Everest, but of course Andy LOVED it and we decided to go one more time. This time we walked right on!! WooHoo!!!!

While we were doing Everest, the others all went on the Maharaja Jungle Trek, and I guess they enjoyed it. Billy (the zookeeper) had hoped he would see more of the zoo stuff on this trip, so I don't know if a couple treks did the trick or not, but...so much to do, so little time!!!

We headed to Dinoland next!

We went on Dinosaur in 2 groups since Lily opted to sit it out and everyone else wanted to give it a try. First group was me, my mom, and Uncle Billy.

SCARY!!! While we rode, Lily, Andy and Janie rode Triceratops Spin (no wait -- and we also walked into the preshow of Dinosaur with no wait), and played the carnival games. Then when Janie and Andy rode Dinosaur, my mom took Lily BACK to the carnival games. Everyone loved Dinosaur, and Lily made out like a bandit at the games, winning tons of prizes!!!

Uncle Billy really wanted the chameleon she won, so she said if he gave her money to win something else, she'd give it to him. She headed back over, and won something else! So Uncle B got his chameleon!

Okay, we were starting to get short on time, just because AK closes at 5pm and we still had a few key things that HAD to be done. So I rushed us back to Discovery Island...

It was nearing parade time, but I figured (was hoping!) we'd probably have enough time to hit It's Tough to Be a Bug before the parade. So we headed over...

Lily was TICKED, because she was just SURE she was going to miss the parade. I explained that we HAD to try to squeeze this in, because right after the parade we were going to the Lion King show, and then the park would close. And I REALLY wanted Andy (the only one who hadn't seen it) to see the bugs (not to mention that I LOVE it, too). She didn't want to hear it, and was complaining that she didn't want to see Lion King anyway!

Well, we ended up seeing ITTBAB (GREAT!), and just as we exited, we got a great spot for the parade (which hadn't started yet!), so it all worked out. Lily was still a little aggravated with me, though, I'm afraid, as evidenced by this pic...

The parade was awesome, as usual, except this time we got to see the Jingle Jungle version, which made it even more special!!!

This is our favorite daytime parade at Disney. I wish my pics were better, but we all really enjoyed it!!

But RIGHT after it was over, we had to book over to Camp Mickey-Minnie, because we were going to see the Festival of the Lion for the first time (for all of us!).

We got there just as the show was starting. Wow, was that a great show!!! I absolutely loved it, and shed a few tears. Lily was still acting like she didn't like it, because she had demanded that she didn't want to see it in the first place. But she HAD to like it, what's not to like??!!!

cont...

 

[ShannonMB]

Animal Kingdom, cont...

Sadly, Animal Kingdom was closing when we got out of FOTLK, and Lily was mad at me yet again, because for some reason she thought she was going to get to greet Minnie somewhere today. We never did see her on this trip, but we will make her a priority for our next trip!

We didn't have reservations at Boma until 6:20pm, so we hung out for a little while in the jungly area near the Rainforest Cafe. No need to rush out to the bus right at closing time. So we chilled and goofed around for a little bit, then headed out to the bus. We got to the AKL right around our reservation time, got a beeper, and they beeped us almost immediately. Woohoo!!! Time for Boma!!!!

I had purposely planned on Wednesday for our AK day, because I was hoping the same menu would be at Boma as when we ate there on a Wed on our 2007 trip. Lily had especially liked the Pepper Pot Soup, and she was disappointed they didn't have it when we ate there on a Monday back in Feb. I was thrilled to see that the Wednesday menu was the same this year!!!

Chicken Pepper Pot Soup (which Lily didn't even like this trip! But I LOVED it!)

Seafood soup with pearl couscous (yum!)

Sausage lentil soup (good)

Carrot ginger soup (soooo good!!)

I tried most everything on the buffet, so here was the meat selection...
sirloin of beef (good), chicken with African spices (okay), pistachio-crusted salmon (sooooo good!), falafel balls with mustard sauce (sooooo good!), and BBQ ribs (pretty good)...

And the side dishes/salads...couscous (good), coconut rice (really good), sundried tomato hummus (they had 2 other hummus' as well) with pita, curried pasta salad (very good), and sauteed veggies (good)...

And the desserts (clockwise)...watermelon (good), butterscotch banana bread pudding (YUM!!!), apple crisp (good), peanut butter mousse with chocolate ganache (OMG), Kenyan coffee tartlet (soo good), passionfruit tart (great), zebra dome (mmmmm!), and in the middle pineapple upside down cheesecake (seriously so good I'm drooling!)...

And if that weren't enough, Lily got a birthday cupcake!

Sorry for all the detail of the Boma buffet! But in case anyone wondered what the Wednesday menu is, you've pretty much seen it all!! I did much prefer this menu to the Monday one, but interestingly, my mom liked the Monday one better. So guess you can't go wrong.

I really love Boma, but this was our 3rd trip there in 3 trips, so I think we will skip it on our next trip. We will for sure return there, though!

After dinner, we decided to taxi back to POFQ. We always do this after Boma night, it's just easier. We found a taxi-van out in front of AKL that could take us all, and it turned out to be $17 -- well worth all of us putting in for it! We were back in our rooms by 8:15pm!!

I was SOOO tired!!! After a shower, I was lying on the bed trying to write my notes for our AK day, and I kept trying to write the same sentence over and over, but kept falling asleep while I was writing. Finally Andy took my journal away and I crawled under the covers and CRASHED! Other than Lily getting a little mad at me a couple times, it was a super great day!!!

 

[nania]

Great pic of Lil being aggravated! haha... Andy, Billy and I LOVED the skirt steak with Shrimp at Yak and Yeti... I could eat that everyday! I don't know how to post pics... but I have a cool one of the lion on the safari and the skirt steak.. Also... GREAT pics of the parade... My favorite parade for sure!

 

[buzz for boys]

Thank you Thank you Thank You !!!

Fantatstic update and fab day. I love the look on Lilys face when she was annoyed with you made me laugh out loud.

Louisex x x

 

[ShannonMB]

Great pic of Lil being aggravated! haha... Andy, Billy and I LOVED the skirt steak with Shrimp at Yak and Yeti... I could eat that everyday! I don't know how to post pics... but I have a cool one of the lion on the safari and the skirt steak.. Also... GREAT pics of the parade... My favorite parade for sure!

Glad you guys did enjoy Yak and Yeti, I just don't remember you guys mooning over it like I would have -- but maybe it's just me that does that? I have to get back there on my next trip -- I really missed it. SOOO good! I love that pic of Lily, too, it captures exactly how she was feeling toward me at that moment!