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

[meeko_33785]

Nice update You always seem to have the best luck with finding the characters! I don't think we've seen Brer Bear since Caitlin was 5. The bunnies are too cute!

Thanks. I always love it when I run into characters that I wasn't expecting, and Brer Bear was really an unexpected surprise. And the bunnies were incredibly adorable. If you haven't seen them yet, you've got to head over to Camp Minnie-Mickey. They're not to be missed.

I agree with the Hidden Mickey's in the mural at Conservation Station, there are loads!

Great character meets!

I was really surprised how obvious some of the Mickeys were, but you really don't notice them just walking by since they keep the area so dark. You really have to either know where they are or really look for them. Buzz had a ton of fun finding them.

 

[jenseib]

Love the characters. I am cracking up about Daves chair too. Thats funny.

 

[jenjolt]

Seriously great character mojo you had that day! I'm starting to find that AK is the park to go to and get great character meets!!!!!!! Yay for Thumper and Miss Bunny WOOT WOOT!!!

 

[tspooh]

Hi Meeko,

I love your pictures of the characters, especially the bunnies. I had to smile at the one of Meeko and Pocahontas! She is the only character my husband would pose with years ago when we were at Camp Minnie-Mickey with the boys. Go figure...

Teresa

 

[meeko_33785]

Love the characters. I am cracking up about Daves chair too. Thats funny.

I don't know what is is about Dave's chair, but I love it.

Seriously great character mojo you had that day! I'm starting to find that AK is the park to go to and get great character meets!!!!!!! Yay for Thumper and Miss Bunny WOOT WOOT!!!

I feel like all the parks have been getting better at each having some really great and unique characters at each of the parks so it's not like years ago when it felt like you were seeing the same characters everywhere. With Thumper, Miss Bunny, Jiminy, Meeko, Pocahontas, etc., AK really has some fantastic meet-and-greet oppertunities right now.

Hi Meeko,

I love your pictures of the characters, especially the bunnies. I had to smile at the one of Meeko and Pocahontas! She is the only character my husband would pose with years ago when we were at Camp Minnie-Mickey with the boys. Go figure...

Teresa

Pocahontas always seems to be a favorite of the dads, doesn't she? I think the pictures of the bunnies were some of my favorite of the trip. They were so cute and did such great poses.

 

[meeko_33785]

On my way back to the main character area after meeting Meeko and Pocahontas, I paused to get some shots of these guys fishing by the stream.

Even after all the fantastic meet-and-greets that I’d just had, there was one more character I wanted to see before heading on- Mickey Mouse! In all my times going to Disney, I’d met Mickey at Magic Kingdom, EPCOT and the Studios, but never the Animal Kingdom, and I wanted to finally meet him in all four parks. Since Mickey is one of Buzz’s favorite characters, he even came along.

Mickey’s line was a little over 10 minutes, which was longer than any other character meet-and-greet that day, but for seeing Mickey Mouse it wasn’t too bad of a wait at all. Plus, Mickey looked great in his Christmas outfit. After we got done seeing Mickey, the Festival of the Lion King had ended, dumping most of the audience right into the character lines. We decided to take a look around at the Christmas decorations around the area and then head off to Asia.

I really think that one of the most overlooked parts of Disney at Christmas is the array of Christmas trees at Camp Minnie-Mickey. There are a ton of them, all decorated to represent many of the characters represented in the park. This one was Mickey’s.

Nearby were Lilo and Stitch’s trees. Lilo even had her doll Scrump on her tree.

Minnie’s matched her style perfectly.

Goofy’s tree.

Goofy’s son Max even left a present on the tree.

Donald’s tree had a nautical theme.

Snowducks courtesy of Huey, Dewey and Louie.

The gang from The Festival of the Lion King had a nice tree next to the theater.

Look, I found… you know.

Any guesses whose tree this is? I don’t think they come around to the Animal Kingdom much anymore. They’re probably too busy putting on shows at Magic Kingdom.

Before checking out the last few trees, I got a photo of another camper fishing.

An ornament on Mickey’s best pal’s tree.

Chip and Dale had a tree too.

Even Meeko had his own tree. I think this one was my favorite.

As we headed back to Discovery Island, we spotted some more ducks out on a hike.

We stopped for a little bit in Discovery Island to take in a little of the trails. The flamingos are always interesting to watch.

The Tree of Life looked great with those blue skies behind it. It was a gorgeous day.


On the way to Asia, I took a quick peak inside the Disney Outfitters shop to see if I could find the pressed penny machine that had the design of John Smith from the Disney Princes pressed penny series that I’ve been collecting recently. I saw online that it was in that store and after looking through the whole shop twice, I finally found it- with the help of Buzz who pointed out that it was right next to the caricature artist’s stand just outside the shop just as I had given up on it. And if you can believe it, this was my first Disney World souvenir of the year (and, yes, this is my second trip to Disney that year). With that, we headed off to Asia for some more adventures.



Next chapter: Asia and the Maharajah Jungle Trek

 

[Jennifer48]

I've been to WDW once during the Christmas season and I didn't see those trees at Camp Minnie-Mickey. Thanks for sharing those pictures! The trees are so cool!

I have no idea who's tree that is with the bear

 

[wdwgirl03]

I remember seeing some of those trees the last time we went after Christmas. They are really neat but there are a bunch that we must've missed unless they are new. I definitely don't remember a Nemo tree.

 

[jenjolt]

Awww...Mickey is so adorable in his Christmas outfit at AK!!!!!

Gotta love all the details paid attention to the ornaments!! Just gorgeous!

 

[meeko_33785]

I've been to WDW once during the Christmas season and I didn't see those trees at Camp Minnie-Mickey. Thanks for sharing those pictures! The trees are so cool!

I have no idea who's tree that is with the bear

The trees really are fantastic. I can't believe Disney doesn't promote them more. If you make it back to Disney at Christmastime in the future, I really recommend seeing them in person. As for that mystery bear tree, I'll give you a hint- the characters whose tree it is wasn't from a movie (originally).

I remember seeing some of those trees the last time we went after Christmas. They are really neat but there are a bunch that we must've missed unless they are new. I definitely don't remember a Nemo tree.

I know that the display has grown since the last time I was there. Then again, that was before Finding Nemo even came out. The Nemo tree seemed to be the most popular tree of all. It always had a line of people wanting to get pictures in front of it.

Awww...Mickey is so adorable in his Christmas outfit at AK!!!!!

Gotta love all the details paid attention to the ornaments!! Just gorgeous!

The details on the tree were so great. They were fantastic. And it was great to see Mickey in his Christmas outfit. I wish more parks dressed up the characters for Christmas (I remember EPCOT and the Studios did up until a couple of years ago).

 

[jenseib]

The trees are gorgeous, and I like the shots you got of them. I love the eye you have for taking pictures.

 

[not_Joanna_eggs]

Those trees are awesome. Now I'm bummed we didn't go into camp minnie and mickey. They would have been fun to see!

How great you got to see some rare classic characters. When we went in December, there was one way we walked by a bunch of characters and I could only figure out who 2 of the 6 were. (we eventually figured them all out...) And they all had long lines! It was kind of funny.

Thumper and Ms. Bunnny are adorable! Great update as always.

 

[meeko_33785]

The trees are gorgeous, and I like the shots you got of them. I love the eye you have for taking pictures.

Thanks so much. I'm glad you liked them.

Those trees are awesome. Now I'm bummed we didn't go into camp minnie and mickey. They would have been fun to see!

How great you got to see some rare classic characters. When we went in December, there was one way we walked by a bunch of characters and I could only figure out who 2 of the 6 were. (we eventually figured them all out...) And they all had long lines! It was kind of funny.

Thumper and Ms. Bunnny are adorable! Great update as always.

Next time, you'll have to check out Camp Minnie-Mickey. I bet you'd love it.

I love it when the rare characters come out. Usually (although it doesn't sound like it was on your trip) they're also the ones with the shortest lines too, which I also love .

 

[MeMom]

Thank you for so many good pictures. I am certainly enjoying them on this snow day.

 

[Dr_Finkelstein]

Hi Meeko!

All caught up now! Great updates and photos as always, the decorations are lovely. Thumper and Miss Bunny were very cute!

unsurprisngly Pocahontas is a character my DH wants to meet when we go back! lol!

Di x

 

[meeko_33785]

Thank you for so many good pictures. I am certainly enjoying them on this snow day.

Hi! Glad that you enjoyed them.

Hi Meeko!

All caught up now! Great updates and photos as always, the decorations are lovely. Thumper and Miss Bunny were very cute!

unsurprisngly Pocahontas is a character my DH wants to meet when we go back! lol!

Di x

Hey Di!

Pocahontas does seem to have her share of fans among all the DIS dads, doesn't she? Maybe they should start having John Smith out with her to keep an eye on them all.

 

[meeko_33785]

Continuing through the Animal Kingdom, Buzz and I made it to Asia.

It seems like there’s art everywhere you turn in this park. This statue was out in front of a snack stand near the entrance of the land.

Upon arriving in Asia, we decided to check the standby and Fastpass times for Expedition Everest. Once we got there, it turned out that both the Fastpass window and standby times would interfere with the Finding Nemo showtime that we were aiming for, so we passed on Everest for now and hoped that we’d be able to get back to it later.

On our way back from Everest, we saw that the siamangs were active so we watched them for a bit.

More theming along the paths in Asia.

Next, we made our way to Maharajah Jungle Trek for a bit of exploring. The Komodo Dragon was very active today. They apparently can move a lot faster than you’d think.

They’re a little intimidating when they look at you like that, but let’s face it- they’re always pretty intimidating.


We moved on the the tapir habitat only to find that tapir didn’t seem to be out and all the signs about the animal. I’m not sure what happened or if they still have any tapirs or not.

We made a quick stop in the bat house. I’m not a big bat fan, so I moved on fairly quickly to see some of my favorites- the tigers.

There weren’t too many in the first outlook, so I moved on to see if they were farther down the trail.

The theming here really is suburb.

In typical cat fashion, most of them were sleeping by the windows.

While the others were sleeping, this tiger was awake and staring down the guests.

Farther down the trail we watched some of the cattle and dear.

One last look at the tiger habitat before moving on to the aviary.

This one still continued to stare at the guests (or perhaps that Simba plush the kid is holding).

Inside the aviary, there weren’t too many birds, but it looked like the bird houses got some new paint and detailing since the last time that we were here.

There weren’t too many birds out at this time a day, but the Cast Members were helpful in telling everyone where to look. Most of the birds weren’t in very photogenic places but were cool to see.

After finishing the Jungle Trek, we headed back to Discovery Island (where we discovered more animal art like this seahorse) and went to get some lunch.



Next chapter: Dinoland USA and Finding Nemo the Musical

 

[jenseib]

Awesome shots of the Tigers

 

[Jennifer48]

I love this shot!

I've never seen this before either

 

[not_Joanna_eggs]

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.