No cats to herd this time! It's just the two of us!UPDATED 11/24-DIS Meet & Departure

[mkluvsmickey]

Way to leave us hanging Sara! I hope you got on the safari too.

Those were some crowds leaving the park as you came in!

Love the pictures of you two in front of the tree of life! You both look very happy and relaxed - aah!

 

[mommytothreeboys]

I love the picture of you on your arrival at the Poly! Beautiful job Shawn!

Woo-Hoo for the bus! We have always had really good experiences with Disney transportation. Even when we do have to wait a few minutes....we're at Disney for goodness' sake! I'm glad it seems to be working out for you so far!

I really love AK! Looking at your pics I realize how many pictures I missed! The giraffe with the Africa sign....the Tree of Life Garden sign...ugh! Oh well...gotta go back!

The pictures of you and Shawn are great! Totally frame-worthy!

Can't wait to hear about the safari...or not!

 

[kaysmommie]

Cliffhanger ! I want to know how long the wait was the Safari. I'm hoping the wait was short. Also looking froward to hearing how EMK at AK is. Your AK pics are great so far. on the next bus pulling up for AK in 15 minutes. That is why I like deluxe, seems you never wait longer than 20. SSR was nightmare with buses. Waiting for more

 

[mom2mek]

Hi Sara!!

Taking it slow must've seemed like a strange dream after all the cat-herding you usually do!!

AK is such a great park to do that, though. So much to look at and savor.

I agree that Harambe always looks jam-packed, no matter when.

Safari, so good...

Kathy

The whole trip was like a dream, Kathy. It felt great but also very foreign to me to only have the 2 of us to worry about. I did have a warm-up to the "slowing down" process on our girls trip and AK is a GREAT park to do that in. So much there - it's really so amazing how much detail they have put into that park!

I am loving your updates!! You are getting me in the mood to check in at the Poly in December, it looked lovely.

Great picture of you and your hubby at AK. It always does seem really crowded there, I hope you got to see the tigers.

Thanks Tracy! I will try to update a little more regularly....but I am notoriously slow....I was really hoping I would knock this report out much quicker since there isn't as much STUFF to remember (like who went where with whom, what they rode, which kid had a meltdown, which grownup had to stop a bazillion times...yada yada yada....) but alas, I'm just as slow to update when I have way fewer details to report. Many more pics of the Poly to come!

Way to leave us hanging Sara! I hope you got on the safari too.

Those were some crowds leaving the park as you came in!

Love the pictures of you two in front of the tree of life! You both look very happy and relaxed - aah!

Thanks Michelle! I was fine to see those crowds though, because I knew they were leaving! YAY!!! Thanks about the pic - as you can probably guess, I'm not a fan of the pics I am in, but I figured I needed to have some people in the report from time to time!

I love the picture of you on your arrival at the Poly! Beautiful job Shawn!

Woo-Hoo for the bus! We have always had really good experiences with Disney transportation. Even when we do have to wait a few minutes....we're at Disney for goodness' sake! I'm glad it seems to be working out for you so far!

I really love AK! Looking at your pics I realize how many pictures I missed! The giraffe with the Africa sign....the Tree of Life Garden sign...ugh! Oh well...gotta go back!

The pictures of you and Shawn are great! Totally frame-worthy!

Can't wait to hear about the safari...or not!

Thanks (see aforementioned comment about pics of myself...ick...but thanks anyway!)

I love that Tree of LIfe Garden sign that Shawn took - I never think to get down low and take it from that angle! In fact, I took a pic of that sign myself, so you can see the difference.

Sara's:

(I mean, it's not bad....I got the words and the toad and all...but the angle on his is so cool).
Shawn's:

Stay tuned for the Safari....

Cliffhanger ! I want to know how long the wait was the Safari. I'm hoping the wait was short. Also looking froward to hearing how EMK at AK is. Your AK pics are great so far. on the next bus pulling up for AK in 15 minutes. That is why I like deluxe, seems you never wait longer than 20. SSR was nightmare with buses. Waiting for more

LOL Nichole - I am SO bad at cliffhangers! Really, I should take some lessons from KathyRN - she is cliffhanger queen, but when I get to a stopping place, I just don't think of how to really keep everyone guessing! I'm usually so glad to have typed up an update I just "end" it and go to bed!

Sara

 

[DisneyJo]

Your room at the Poly looked lovely and woooohooo for being the first stop on the ME!

Wow that was a lot of people at AK, thank goodness lots were leaving, great photos BTW

 

[lovebuzzandwoody]

Really great update Sara! Your pictures are always so pretty!

I love how the sunshine filters through the trees in that first section of the park, The Oasis....it's truly beautiful!

^^^^^This sentence would not appear in a TR that included children.^^^^^

 

[ladybugmom]

WOW!! I love all of your AK pictures!! We hardly got any outside pics at AK due to the heavy rain the day we were there. Makes me want to go back even more!!

 

[mom2mek]

Your room at the Poly looked lovely and woooohooo for being the first stop on the ME!

Wow that was a lot of people at AK, thank goodness lots were leaving, great photos BTW

Thanks Jo! Yes, I was glad they were mostly all leaving too! It always looks bad when you are going in the opposite direction - salmon swimming upstream!

Really great update Sara! Your pictures are always so pretty!


^^^^^This sentence would not appear in a TR that included children.^^^^^

Thanks Nicole! That is very true about noticing things that you normally don't when you are herding a group the size of a small country around with you! Details....hmmm....yep, they kind of escape you!

WOW!! I love all of your AK pictures!! We hardly got any outside pics at AK due to the heavy rain the day we were there. Makes me want to go back even more!!

Thanks Becky! Yes, you must go back soon, soon, soon! During a really DRY season! LOL! Pick December or something!! Seriously though, I still can't believe how much rain you guys got! I just noticed you started your report - I'm on my way over!

Sara

 

[luvngoofy]

Loving the updates and the pictures are great!
BTW, where is that blue dock with the lilly pads floating around it?

 

[mom2mek]

Loving the updates and the pictures are great!
BTW, where is that blue dock with the lilly pads floating around it?

Thanks for sticking with me! I believe that dock is in between The Oasis and Discovery Island. Right after you come out of the Oasis and you are standing in front of the tree, it would be to your right. Someone correct me if I am wrong, please?

Sara

 

[mkluvsmickey]

Hey girl! I thought you were updating last night. Got up extra early just to read. I'll check back later.

 

[mom2mek]

Hey girl! I thought you were updating last night. Got up extra early just to read. I'll check back later.

Whoops! Maybe later I will have a chance to post it. Please accept this as my sincerest apology:

Sara

 

[mom2mek]

Day 1 - May 13, 2009

Part 6 - Jambo!

When I last left off we were headed towards the Safari with the hopes of getting on without too long of a wait. We weren't worried about it too much because we figured if we needed to skip it we would have more time to walk the trails and see the animals (mainly the tigers). I got a little concerned when I saw the amount of people that were flooded towards the Safari entrance, and even more concerned when I saw the sign that said the last safari would be leaving at 4:30. Ahhh...

However, as we got closer to the entrance I could see that the standby time was listed for 20 minutes! Fantastic! We hopped in line and, even after stopping to help a gentleman get his ECV un-stuck from around a pole in the Safari queue (I was amazed at how many people DIDN'T stop, but I digress), we still made it to the front of the queue in 15 minutes! Shawn took special notice of the architecture and, having come from a construction background, he was fascinated with the actual detail that was put into the authenticity of the buildings and overall queue area.

As we got up to the front we were guided to the first row of seats, right behind the driver. We were actually hoping for the back row though. Even though the back row is incredibly bumpy, you can usually get better pictures because you can take the ones off the back of the Jeep. It ended up being a good thing that we were sitting up front, but I'll get to that in a moment.

We took off on our 2 week safari with a fabulous driver. He was very easy to understand, thank goodness! (For some reason, I find the female safari drivers to be much harder to understand when they are talking over the speaker - something about the higher register voice that doesn't resonate well over the speaker) - and he also had a great repore with all of us!

As we took off, Shawn took this picture of me through the driver's side view mirror:

(Would have been slightly better had it not been so blurry....LOL)

Jambo Everyone! We were off down the bumpy dirt road and into Africa!!

Pictures at first were not coming too easy for either Shawn nor I. As usual, we got a lot of rear-ends! So without further adieu....

Yellow-billed Stork:

Hippo butt:

Blurry Nile Crocodile:

As we emerged from the thick vegetation of the Forest, and into the Savannah grasslands, we saw a lot of gazelle:

I always laugh at the giant termite mounds in this area....ewww.....

We rounded the corner with the flamingos up ahead and noticed a whole bunch of reticulated giraffe. YAY! I don't think I saw the giraffes the last time we went (except from a good distance) so I was excited that they were so close.

As we rounded the corner though, we came to an abrupt stop!

The safari jeep just a little bit ahead of us was stopped and we were following suit right behind him. Problem? Reticulated Giraffes hogging the road! I was very excited that we were getting stopped on the Safari, and at that point, I was especially excited that we didn't get stopped on the Nile Crocodile Bridge and that we were sitting in the front row, as the back row didn't have nearly as nice a view of the giraffes.

They were very pretty and apparently, very hungry...as they were NOT budging from the road, chowing down on some of the lush vegetation right there by the flamingo island. Shawn was snapping away at the giraffes....

This one was running down the hill after the other one:

After a while, Shawn turned his attention to the elephants that were starting to gather to our left:

(Elephant butt)

And the flamingos in the middle of some kind of spat:

After the first 5 minutes of sitting there, the giraffes looked like they might start to walk back up the hill.

(The first jeep and some of the giraffes)

Nope....still coming on down....more of them:

Back to the elephants:

(Seriously, we have so many pictures of giraffes and elephants - it'll last me a long time....)


These giraffes just did not seem to understand how long we had been sitting there and were taking their sweet time (good thing I like giraffes and elephants...I don't think I would have enjoyed myself if I had been sitting by the 20 ft tall termite mounds for 15 minutes)!

How much longer would we sit there? Would the giraffes ever walk away?

Sara

 

[mom2mek]

Day 1 - May 13, 2009

Part 6 (still on the Safari)

According to the time stamps on the pictures, this was 15 minutes into this giraffe stop and we were all beginning to wonder if this was indeed a 2 week tour (plus visions of the movie Jurassic Park were starting to enter my head...when the kids are riding along in the jeep vehicles heading out to try and see some dinosaurs when their jeep stops working and they are surrounded by man-eating pre-historic creatures....) It was eerily quiet!

(The baby was really cute though)

It was kind of amusing to listen to the driver of the other jeep talk to the head hancho people (we could hear the conversation through our driver's radio....THEY JUST AREN'T MOVING....I DON'T WANT TO DRIVE THROUGH AND HAVE ONE OF THEM NOT BE COMPLETELY OFF THE ROAD....ho-hum...we will wait....

Then driving over the side of the hill, came this guy:

Here I thought he was going to get out and work some kind of "giraffe whisperer" action on these creatures, but alas...nope....he just drove past them, and then backed up until they moved all the way back up the hill....very high-tech, I tell ya!

You can see his reverse lights on here....

Before we knew it, they had all walked back up the hill, and we were able to carry on...

Bye giraffes! (You can see almost all of them in this picture that I took before we finally took off!)

As we rounded the bend, we actually got to see the cheetah! Another animal we have always missed! It was out there posing on a rock, but I think our driver was trying to make up for lost time and sped on past it at a good clip, so all of our pictures all came out blurry.

Nevertheless, here it is:

(I think it was interested in what all the commotion was about too and came out to see! LOL)

As we came around the next bend and saw the high rock formation in front of us, I was really hoping we would have the same luck with the lions that we had had with the cheetah.

Woo-hoo! Finally! Usually all we see is the fur of a sleeping lion! This day, the lion was awake and looking around! Fabulous!

We finished up our 2 week adventure with a little Pumba-action,

and before you know it....we were back at the Park Ranger Station after successfully defeating the poachers and rescuing the fake baby elephant! Yay us!!

A few more shots as we left our longest Safari ever, and and then a change in our "un-plans!"

Sara

 

[jillyb]

Awesome safari pictures!

 

[KathyRN137]

Wow! You guys really lucked out with a super-long-extended safari!

I'm glad the driver was so cautious, though.

"Giraffe Whisperer"...


Kathy

 

[ladybugmom]

Oh wow!! How funny! But ya'll got some GREAT pictures of the giraffes nevertheless! As I read through your post I had our VBS song running through my head (our VBS theme is a Prayer Safari). "Jambo, means hello! Say Jambo to Jesus everyday, He listens when you pray. . ."

 

[mkluvsmickey]

What an awesome safari Sara! I love all the giraffe pictures (my favorite) and man, were they close! Pretty cool how the guy came in the truck to shoo them off the road. The Cheetah was cool too.

 

[mommytothreeboys]

WOW.....now THAT'S a Safari!!

You really got some beautiful pictures of the giraffes. I've never seen so MANY!! Awesome!

I was at the Jurassic Park reference! Can you imagine?? That would be so NOT magical!

And then the "giraffe whisperer" comment sent me .

Great updates! Can't wait to hear more!!

 

[mom2mek]

Awesome safari pictures!

Thanks Jill! I have like 75 pictures of giraffes and elephants and really I don't know if I actually posted the best ones....I just got tired of looking at them all in photobucket and trying to remember which one was slightly better than the other one, you know? (Guess I could have written down the #s as I went through them...but hey, I was trying to update....)

Wow! You guys really lucked out with a super-long-extended safari!

I'm glad the driver was so cautious, though.

"Giraffe Whisperer"...


Kathy

Yep - we got the XXL Safari! I would have been very nervous had the other Jeep driver gone on ahead and tried to avoid hitting them....then again the pick -up truck driving ranger was in a much smaller vehicle and those giraffes "listened" to him! (He wasn't carrying 30 people in his truck though!)

Oh wow!! How funny! But ya'll got some GREAT pictures of the giraffes nevertheless! As I read through your post I had our VBS song running through my head (our VBS theme is a Prayer Safari). "Jambo, means hello! Say Jambo to Jesus everyday, He listens when you pray. . ."

How funny, Becky! I bet it reminds you of Disney each time you sing it! (Did you pick it for that reason....hmmmm....) We were pleased ith where we got stuck - at least it was interesting. It got quiet, but it was definitely interesting!

What an awesome safari Sara! I love all the giraffe pictures (my favorite) and man, were they close! Pretty cool how the guy came in the truck to shoo them off the road. The Cheetah was cool too.

Thanks Michelle! You know I thought of you when we were stuck there because I know how much you love the giraffes! I thought it was interesting to see how they handle situations like that - I just wonder what they bring out when they are trying to "shoo" a rhino!! Don't know if I would trust a pick-up truck! Maybe a Hummer!

WOW.....now THAT'S a Safari!!

You really got some beautiful pictures of the giraffes. I've never seen so MANY!! Awesome!

I was at the Jurassic Park reference! Can you imagine?? That would be so NOT magical!

And then the "giraffe whisperer" comment sent me .

Great updates! Can't wait to hear more!!

When they just kept coming down the hill was when I first thought of Jurassic Park....There were just so many of them all at once and all around the area...then when it got quiet, and everyone was just watching, and the Jeep drivers stopped talking for the most part...creepy!

Thanks for reading everyone! Hope to have more up soon!

Sara