More Adventures in WDW: June, November and December Trip Reports

[meeko_33785]

I love this shot!


I've never seen this before either

Thanks.

I can't remember if I'd ever seen it before this trip either. It's somewhere between the Asia and Dinoland bridges over by the Tree of Life. It's amazing how much art is just hidden throughout the park.

I just love the AK. your pictures are making me so sad we're not going in a few weeks.

That sea horse is cute. I've only been in the aviary once - we got in there by accident - and I was so consumed by fear and panic I couldn't see anything.

Not an aviary fan, I'm guessing.

 

[meeko_33785]

After exploring Asia, Buzz and I made our way to Dinoland USA.

We were starting to get hungry, so we got some lunch at Restaurantosaurus since it wasn’t too far away from our next priority of the day- Finding Nemo: The Musical. The fact that it’s also one of the few air-conditioned counter service restaurants in the park also played into our decision to eat there.

Buzz ended up getting the chicken nugget meal while I had the shrimp po boy and fries. Even though I’d heard middling reviews of the Disney po boys on the DIS, I enjoyed it and appreciated having something a little different on the menu. Buzz liked his nuggets as well. This was our first time eating here since they stopped serving McDonalds items. Based on what we had, I think the menu has improved since our last visit.

The decor is really one of the best parts of the restaurant. The attention to detail and mix of serious and silly is great here.

A look at the outside of the restaurant.

After lunch, we knew that it was about time to head over to get our seats for Finding Nemo, but on the way, I suggested that we swing by Dinosaur and pick up some Fastpasses so we could get right on it after Nemo ended. The return time worked perfectly with that plan, so we got our passes and moved on.

We skimmed past Dinorama on the way. It was even festively decorated for Christmas.

A retro snowman decoration near Chester and Hesters.

More dinos.

When we arrived, they were already letting guests into the theater, so we walked right through the queue.

A few of the signs along the way

We were seated in the theater a little over 20 minutes before show time and were still able to get some nice seats near the front of the second level which gave us great views of both the stage and the performers and puppets when they came down the aisles and runways into the audience. I decided to just enjoy the show and not both trying to take any pictures, and I really did enjoy it. This has to be one of my all-time favorite shows that I’ve ever seen at Disney. Not only is it a fantastic spectacle with some fun songs, but the performances were great too. If you haven’t seen this show yet, I’d highly recommend it.

After Nemo, we headed back to Dinoland to use our Dinosaur Fast Passes.

Another look at Restaurantosaurus.

When we got to Dinosaur, the line really wasn’t too bad (10 or maybe 20 minutes at the most), but it was nice to be able to use the Fastpasses to get right on.

The ride was fun, as usual. I don’t know it it’s because we were just there a month or so beforehand, but Dinosaur really reminded me more of the attractions at Universal than the attractions at Disney. That certainly isn’t a bad thing, but I thought it was interesting.

After Dinosaur, we still had some time before we wanted to find our spots for the Jingle Jungle Parade, so we decided to go on Primeval Whirl. The wait time listed was around 10 or 15 minutes so we figured that would give us just enough time to get through the ride and get to the parade route.

I know that Primeval Whirl and Dinorama in general get a lot of flak for looking cheap and tacky, but I think the theming is kind of fun. It’s not my favorite thing at Disney by any stretch of the imagination, but it still has plenty of fun details and sight gags all around it.

As time went on, it seemed like the line was moving slower than I anticipated. In the end, our wait turned out to be a little over 20 minutes, which is hardly unreasonable, but just a bit longer than we expected.

The ride was corny but still a fun mild thrill. It’s not really a must-do every time we go to the Animal Kingdom, but it had been a while since we had done it, so it was nice to revisit it.

With less than 30 minutes before the parade, we knew we needed to get over to Discovery Island.

One last look at Dinoland for now. And, yes, that dinosaur is wearing a Santa hat.



Next chapter: A Holiday celebration and a snowy adventure

 

[jenseib]

Looks like fun. I have heard good things about Restrauntasaurus. (I'm sure I butchered the spelling). I wanterd to give it a try, but we now won't be hitting AK next trip. But I have man ymore in the future to give it a try....at least I'm hoping.

 

[dawnbu40]

I haven't been on the Dis in awhile but now I'm all caught up

Nice updates! IMO AK is the best park for photography and your pictures are great I especially like the ones of the tigers

 

[Jennifer48]

I always hated Dinoland because, well, I never understood it. But once I read the back story about Chester & Hester, I love checking out the theming.

Love the Santa hat on T-Rex!

 

[wdwgirl03]

I agree about Dinorama. Maybe it's cheesy but it is still fun! And the back story is really neat too.

You got some amazing pictures of the tigers!

 

[MeMom]

The decor is really one of the best parts of the restaurant. The attention to detail and mix of serious and silly is great here.


I know that Primeval Whirl and Dinorama in general get a lot of flak for looking cheap and tacky, but I think the theming is kind of fun. It’s not my favorite thing at Disney by any stretch of the imagination, but it still has plenty of fun details and sight gags all around it.

That is a fun restaurant. We have been there a few times.

We enjoy Dinoland for exactly what it is supposed to be. It's not supposed to be like other Disney World attractions, but we think the whole story behind it is fun. My granddaughters both think it's cool to ride in circles on a dinosaur, and the oldest one likes to pretend like she's playing the overpriced arcade games.

Nemo is awesome - so colorful and lively!

I enjoyed seeing all of your pictures as the snow accumulates outside my window again!

 

[not_Joanna_eggs]

First, how on earth did we miss the dinosaur with the santa hat on? Oh my goodness, that's awesome.

I gotta say, I'm not a fan of primeval whirl. Beyond the theming, which I get is intentionally like an every-day amusement park or carnival - but I still don't like it, the ride wasn't fun for me. I want to say it was too jerky, but I'm the girl that says Dinosaur isn't jerky enough, so I don't know what it is about the ride itself that I don't like.

I can't wait for your parade pictures, I can never get any of my companions to watch the parades - I'll have to live vicariously.

 

[meeko_33785]

Looks like fun. I have heard good things about Restrauntasaurus. (I'm sure I butchered the spelling). I wanterd to give it a try, but we now won't be hitting AK next trip. But I have man ymore in the future to give it a try....at least I'm hoping.

Restaurantosaurus is an easy name to butcher, isn't it. I know I had to double check it when I was writing to finally get it right. We enjoyed it. I'd say it's a little above average from most of the in-park counter service restaurants but not worth making an extra trip over for.

I haven't been on the Dis in awhile but now I'm all caught up

Nice updates! IMO AK is the best park for photography and your pictures are great I especially like the ones of the tigers

Hey Dawn! Great to "see" you.

Glad you liked the pictures. AK is such a beautiful park, but I always find it the most challenging to photograph. I'm pretty happy with some of the shots I got this time though.

I always hated Dinoland because, well, I never understood it. But once I read the back story about Chester & Hester, I love checking out the theming.

Love the Santa hat on T-Rex!

I think Dinoland is a lot more enjoyable if you "get" what it's supposed to be too. Some of that theming is really a hoot.

I agree about Dinorama. Maybe it's cheesy but it is still fun! And the back story is really neat too.

You got some amazing pictures of the tigers!

Thanks. It was nice to have so many tigers near the windows in various states of activity. It was probably one of my best visits to Maharajah Jungle Trek.

That is a fun restaurant. We have been there a few times.

We enjoy Dinoland for exactly what it is supposed to be. It's not supposed to be like other Disney World attractions, but we think the whole story behind it is fun. My granddaughters both think it's cool to ride in circles on a dinosaur, and the oldest one likes to pretend like she's playing the overpriced arcade games.

Nemo is awesome - so colorful and lively!

I enjoyed seeing all of your pictures as the snow accumulates outside my window again!

Glad you're enjoying the report. Stay warm in that snow.

First, how on earth did we miss the dinosaur with the santa hat on? Oh my goodness, that's awesome.

I gotta say, I'm not a fan of primeval whirl. Beyond the theming, which I get is intentionally like an every-day amusement park or carnival - but I still don't like it, the ride wasn't fun for me. I want to say it was too jerky, but I'm the girl that says Dinosaur isn't jerky enough, so I don't know what it is about the ride itself that I don't like.

I can't wait for your parade pictures, I can never get any of my companions to watch the parades - I'll have to live vicariously.

I was impressed with the amount of Christmas decorations Dinoland had- especially since it was still weeks until Thanksgiving! The Santa hat was such a great touch.

The parade pictures are coming- hopefully next week.

 

[meeko_33785]

About 20 minutes before the Mickey’s Jingle Jungle Parade was scheduled to step off, Buzz made our way to Discovery Island and found plenty of front-row seating near the entrance to It’s Tough to Be A Bug. It would take a little longer for the parade to get to us than if we were closer to Africa, but that was ok. Plus, we figured since we weren’t that far from Asia, we could sneak over to Everest after the parade passed and see if the wait time would be short while the parade was continuing to Asia.

When the parade got to us, the crew from The Jungle Book were leading the way. I think that King Louie was ready for his close-up.

Rafiki on board the first float.

Since this was the Jingle Jungle Parade, all the floats were decorated for the season. Honestly, it still felt way too early in the season for a Christmas parade, but it was neat to see it- especially since we had never seen the Holiday version before.

Minnie Mouse in her jeep full of Christmas desserts. It smelt pretty good as it passed by.

A monkey with a Santa hat.

The Brers dance down the street.

Santa Goofy.

All the jeeps had a lot of fun details on them.

Terk and Timon recreate the story of Frosty the Snowman.

Donald Duck!

Sorry Mickey, but I think the Duck is a lot more photogenic. I always seem to get a lot more nice pictures of him than of the Mouse.

More stockings.

A snowman and our first Disney snow of the season coming off the back of the float.

A giant kangaroo.

Happy Holidays!

Mickey brings up the rear. All in all, the Jingle Jungle Parade was pretty fun. If you’re expecting a completely different parade from the regular Jammin’ Jungle version then you would probably be very disappointed. Still, for what it was, I liked it and thought that all the extra decorations on the floats were great. After the parade, Buzz and I followed Mickey’s float over the bridge to Asia.

Since we hadn’t been on Everest yet today, we figured that this would be our last chance to get a ride in.

To our very pleasant surprise, Everest was practically a walk –on!

We managed to see some of the great theming of the queue as we quickly passed by.

The ride was fantastic. Again, this might be because we had just gone to Universal recently, but I couldn’t help but compare it to the Revenge of the Mummy coaster that they have there. As much as I really liked the Mummy, I think Everest is my favorite of the two. The theming and thrills are great in both, but Everest just seems like it took both of them up a notch. I’m so glad that we didn’t miss out on this one.


With less than 30 minutes left until park closing and all of the major priorities for the day completed, Buzz and I tried to decide to do with the rest of our day.



Next chapter: The finale of our visit to the Animal Kingdom

 

[Jennifer48]

Great pics of the parade! I still haven't seen that one, Jammin' Jungle. Looks great!

Nice close up of King Louie!

 

[dawnbu40]

I love the King Louie picture

Nice update! The Jingle Jungle parade is one of my favorites

for a walkon at EE. No wait times are the best!

 

[jenseib]

That shot of King Louie is great. I love the regular AK parade. I hope to see the christmas one someday too.
We finally have a trip booked. It's going to be different than the ones in the past for us. We are flying down on 3/30 and going to Port Canaveral then going on the Dream on the 31st. When we get back on Sunday (4/3) we will head over to Pop Century and stay the night there and go to MK for EMH's till 2 AM. On monday we will switch to offsite and go to Residence end by Seaworkd and do Sea World for the day for something different. Then on Tuesday back to Epclot for the day and fly home Wed.
It's going to be so different, but I'm sure we'll have a good time.

 

[meeko_33785]

Great pics of the parade! I still haven't seen that one, Jammin' Jungle. Looks great!

Nice close up of King Louie!

Thanks. Both regular version and Christmas version of the parade is a lot of fun- maybe the best day parade they have right now. I'd recommend that you give it a try on a future trip.

I love the King Louie picture

Nice update! The Jingle Jungle parade is one of my favorites

for a walkon at EE. No wait times are the best!

Thanks Dawn. I think the King Louie picture is my favorite one I got of the parade this time around. It's always great whent he characters stop and pose for you in the middle of the parade.

I was amazed there was no wait at Everest. It was so fanastic!

That shot of King Louie is great. I love the regular AK parade. I hope to see the christmas one someday too.
We finally have a trip booked. It's going to be different than the ones in the past for us. We are flying down on 3/30 and going to Port Canaveral then going on the Dream on the 31st. When we get back on Sunday (4/3) we will head over to Pop Century and stay the night there and go to MK for EMH's till 2 AM. On monday we will switch to offsite and go to Residence end by Seaworkd and do Sea World for the day for something different. Then on Tuesday back to Epclot for the day and fly home Wed.
It's going to be so different, but I'm sure we'll have a good time.

Thanks. Seems like everybody loves that picture of King Louie.

That sounds like quite the trip you're planning! I'll have to keep an eye out for your trip report later this spring.

 

[meeko_33785]

With less than 30 minutes before the park closed, Buzz and I decided to head back to Dinoland. I was really hoping to meet Goofy and Pluto since I hadn’t been to their new fancy meet-and-greet location there. Plus, they were the only characters that would still be out by that time of day.

On the way, I heard a little from this streel drum band performing over by Finding Nemo. Of course, they were playing "Under the Sea"

Goofy and Pluto were still out and had a pretty short line too. Since Goofy is one of Buzz’s favorites, he even came along to see them.

I thought their location was really well done. It seemed to fit right in with the theming, and the pictures turned out pretty good too. The dino-covered Christmas trees and Holiday accessories on the characters (note Goofy’s antlers and Pluto’s jingle bells) were a nice touch.

After our meet-and-greet, Buzz wanted to do a little shopping at the pin cart in Dinorama, so I looked around and got a few more pictures of the area.

Back when the park first opened, the Dino Dinner used to sit right near the entrance to the land. It looked great up there, but it seems a little sad looking back in the least-themed corner of Dinorama.

A few pictures from the better-themed corner of Dinorama, next to the shop.

A bit of trivia: Route 498 got its name from Animal Kingdom’s opening in April 1998.

The roof of Goofy and Pluto’s photo location.

The park closed and dusk was just starting to fall, so we headed back to Discovery Island. We were hoping to see a few more animals on the trails, but it looked like most of them had been brought in already.

Pointing the way to the exit.

While we were planning for our day at the park, Buzz and I heard about the Adventures’ Celebration Gathering, a short show/ street party that is done at the entrance of the park 15 minutes after park closing. Since we’d never seen it before, we decided to stick around and watch.

Minnie, Santa Goofy and Pluto were in attendance, but Mickey was strangely missing. Goofy acted as the masters of ceremonies.

A number of dancers engage the crowd and teach everyone some dance moves.

Goofy and the gang dancing above the street party. I don’t remember everything they did, but I think there was a conga line going around at some point.

Out came the pom-poms for the big finale.

“We Celebrate You!”

The show was pretty cute. It’s certainly not a big thing, but it was a cute way to end the day at the Animal Kingdom, especially if you have kids or enjoy a good conga line with strangers (neither of which was really us, but hey, we enjoyed getting some more pictures of the characters).

As we left the park we got one last look at the Christmas tree and Buzz got one last pressed penny at the gift shop just outside the park. After that, we just had a short walk over to the Magical Moments parking lot and our day at the Animal Kingdom was over. Now, in the plans, this was when we were going to go home, but we didn’t really want to leave. After all, it wasn’t even 6pm yet and we were still up for another hour or two at Disney. So, we decided to go to our spot of choice for some free Disney entertainment and atmosphere.



Next chapter: An evening at Downtown Disney finishes our day trip.

 

[dawnbu40]

Nice update

I think the Goofy/Pluto picture spot in Dinoland is so cute! I like that they are putting more theming into some of the meet and greet locations.

The closing ceremony looks like fun and you got some great pics!

DTD sounds like a great way to end your day

 

[not_Joanna_eggs]

Great parade pictures. I wish I could get my ADD DH to sit through a parade. It looks so cute!

I'm glad you pointed out that Goofy was wearing antlers - I was so confused by his outfit!

I had no idea about the closing ceremony - we'll have to check that out next time.

 

[jenseib]

That closing ceremony is so neat. I have never heard of it before. Do the ydo it year round? or just at Christmas time? I swear I learn somehting new from you all the time.

 

[meeko_33785]

Nice update

I think the Goofy/Pluto picture spot in Dinoland is so cute! I like that they are putting more theming into some of the meet and greet locations.

The closing ceremony looks like fun and you got some great pics!

DTD sounds like a great way to end your day

Thanks Dawn. Glad you liked the update. And yes, Downtown Disney would turn out to be a great end of the day. It just felt too early to leave otherwise.

Great parade pictures. I wish I could get my ADD DH to sit through a parade. It looks so cute!

I'm glad you pointed out that Goofy was wearing antlers - I was so confused by his outfit!

I had no idea about the closing ceremony - we'll have to check that out next time.

Well, maybe someday you'll get to see a parade. You never know.

I wasn't aware of the closing cerimony either until recently. I'm glad I did though. It's nice that AK has a little something to end the day with since they don't have any night parades or fireworks.

That closing ceremony is so neat. I have never heard of it before. Do the ydo it year round? or just at Christmas time? I swear I learn somehting new from you all the time.

I think they do it all year long. Despite the costumes and decorations, it wasn't a Christmas show at all. It's not listed on the Times Guide in the parks, but I saw a listing for it online. Right now, it says that they're doing in daily from 5:15 - 5:30.

 

[Jennifer48]

I didn't notice Goofy's antlers until you pointed them out

I'd never heard of the closing ceremonies before at AK. Thanks for those shots!