Ooh-de-lally! A dining heavy October '13 Trip Report *update 2/23-We're Going Back!*

[nfggirl5454]

I just stumbled upon your TR yesterday and am now caught up! Olivia is so adorable. What a great surprise for her to have Tara join y'all. I haven't tried Tusker House yet, but it's on my future list. I go to Disney with my sister and nephew who'll be 3 next month, and he's still iffy on character interactions. Chip and Dale are generally the best with him. Speaking of characters, the pics with Tiana and Naveen are too cute. I haven't met them in almost a year, but they're generally really good together. Looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip!

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

AHHHH I still want Beastly Kingdom!!!

Bahaha, nice job of the Tree of Life photos there Phil. The kids look SO HAPPY!!

Ha, Peter looks like he's staring a hole through Donald.

Everyone seems to enjoy breakfast there, but I swear for some reason I just have no apettite in the morning when in Disney. But then again, there's waffles and donuts. Decisions decisions.

Wow, awesome call on the AP and TIW. Grated you have to spend to save, but if you're doing these things anyway, it really works out well. Great Job!

 

[emmysmommy]

I'm a new fan of Tusker House too! Why oh why do I go for the Krispy Kreme when there are so many other options? They sure do suck you in. So do you like the juice or what? You probably got your weekly quota of vitamin C with breakfast - good job!

Your photo editing skills are superb! The transformation from grumpy kid to happy kid is amazing. I may need to keep that option in mind.

Peter appears to be interested in Daisy. Unless he is directing her to go away. Too cute either way.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Hi Phil! Tardy to the party, but finally all caught up and joining in.

Tusker House is my absolute favorite character meal. Next time, try booking a late breakfast for around 10:30-10:45. You'll get the tail end of the breakfast food and lunch is brought out around 11:00ish. The lunch foods are delicious with quite a variety. Animal Kingdom is my least favorite park, but Tusker House and Expedition Everest are good reasons to visit everytime we go.

I'm shocked your adorable kids were up for a breakfast adr after the late night. They're real troopers. Love your photoshop skills, too!

Thanks for joining!

That is an interesting thought as far as times for Tusker House. We tend to try to book pre-park opening breakfasts to maximize times - but i would be up for trying some of the lunch items as well as I did enjoy the food and the variety of it.

I think your last point may have hit on why the original photo didn't come out very well and photoshop of the kids was needed

 

[TheMaxRebo]

That juice is amazing! I had it for the first time on Christmas after accidentally discovering you can ask super nicely for a giant glass of it (They call it Moonshine and it's available on the buffet in half-filled half-pint glasses) at Trail's End. Good thing I ate there twice for breakfast and twice at Kona!

I really liked the Jungle Juice ... for some reason with many things I like blends better than straight up varietals ... goes for wine too

Any with the name Moonshine, would make me think there was booze in there ... not that there is anything wrong with that

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I'm up through Day 2 and will be back later to read more...

Ok - I'll try to respond to this in parts ... thanks for all the feedback!

The fakeorail! First time i've heard this name before. Brilliant

Wish I came up with that but I have read it here on the DIS before. I love it because it kinda sets the table for what it to come and almost is the official starting point of the vacation

Spicy hot fudge!? Very bizarre but something i would definitely try.

It was a little odd and I have to say a little too spicy for me. I like a bit of spice - like in Mexican hot chocolate or something - but it just lingered too long. But definitely something different and glad I tried it.

Wonderful food photos! Thank you for being so detailed in your descriptions. Makes my mouth water!

Thank you! Definitely have gotten everyone trained on having to take food photose. Actually I noticed the McNamees have started to do that even when the eat out now as I get food pics on Facebook from them

I like the idea of not visiting a park on the first day. You kind of ease your way into park mode.

It definitely works for us - especially since we usually only get the 4-day Military Salute ticket. If we were there for longer and getting like 10 day passes or something then I can see the thought of wanting to see Main St. as early as you can or something. But we like the compromise of going somewhere for dinner you can see Wishes from

LOL I died when I saw the GIF of Stanley!

Glad the princess breakfast was a success!

Thanks - we are glad it worked out and was like a crash course for them and we "got a bunch out of the way" Enjoyed the food to which helped!

I think you look absolutely lovely holding a purse and sparkly autograph book

Why thank you

A horchata margarita!? Holy calrissian that sounds amazing!

ok, I might be stealing Holy Calrissian from you. It was super yummy

Thanks Judi for your report on the Grand Marnier tasting!

I will - she enjoyed it and I think she really liked having some 1:1 time with her mom too

Seeing earth on SE is my favorite scene too.

I mean, it has to be that or the 70's club girl / engineer, right?

Okay what is this 'blue crab' game in the queue of the Ariel ride?! We have never had to stand in line before so not sure what this is.

So in the queue for the ride there are various spots that have monitors on which little blue crabs will come out carrying an item (fork, piece of gold, whatever) and you have to tell them to either add it to the collection they have started (does this item match the other items) or to return it. There are motion capture cameras that pick up your hand movements. It's pretty cool, but doesn't always work - but I appreciate the effort.

HAHA at the lights fixture!

Ugh. I just don't understand how one can allow their children to run around like that disturbing others. Glad you spoke up, even if the parents didn't care. Special snowflakes indeed.

Off to make dinner. Ya know, womanly duties.

I laughed when Judi pointed out that light fixture.

Yeah, was really annoyed. I mean, I know kids won't be perfect, but this was ridiculous when then make physical contact with us various times and I can't imagine thinking it was ok for my kids to act like that

Hope your womanly duties went well. On the flip side I was busy doing manly things like opening pickle jars and killing spiders.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

AHHHH I still want Beastly Kingdom!!!

So do I! Whenever talk of Avatarland comes up I can't help but think "um, can't we just build Beastly Kingdom instead? You know, that land you already have the plans for?"

Bahaha, nice job of the Tree of Life photos there Phil. The kids look SO HAPPY!!

I will make them have fun whatever the cost! ... or fake it in post-production

Ha, Peter looks like he's staring a hole through Donald.

Everyone seems to enjoy breakfast there, but I swear for some reason I just have no apettite in the morning when in Disney. But then again, there's waffles and donuts. Decisions decisions.

It's funny in that I really don't eat breakfast at home, but when at WDW I like chow down! I think I just get kiddy over the whole pre-park opening scenario

Wow, awesome call on the AP and TIW. Grated you have to spend to save, but if you're doing these things anyway, it really works out well. Great Job!

yeah, and now of course I have this AP burning a whole in my pocket and keep thinking of all the money we would save if we went on another trip this year .... of course we would save even more by not going at all

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I'm a new fan of Tusker House too! Why oh why do I go for the Krispy Kreme when there are so many other options? They sure do suck you in. So do you like the juice or what? You probably got your weekly quota of vitamin C with breakfast - good job!

We don't have any Krispy Kreme really close to us so it felt like a special treat so we had to get at least some ... but I did make a point to try other stuff too. Just "in addition to" not "instead of"

Your photo editing skills are superb! The transformation from grumpy kid to happy kid is amazing. I may need to keep that option in mind.

And for the record, I took Olivia's happy face from when she met Tiana and Peter's from when he was eating a cupcake - very clear what makes my kids happy

Peter appears to be interested in Daisy. Unless he is directing her to go away. Too cute either way.

I think he was pointing her out - at least when we read some of his books he likes pointing out ducks, so I think this was just like a freakishly large one in his mind (the largest one on any given page is, of course, the Daddy in his mind)

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Day 7 - Part 2: Animal Kingdom ... Curse you Yeti!​

After breakfast we headed up to Africa to go on Safari. However, the standby line at that point was over 1/2 hour already so we grabbed fastpasses which had a good return time for us.

We then shifted contents, heading to Asia to ride a pretty awesome coaster. While Bob and Kathy took the kids to see the bird show, Judi and I headed towards Everest.

Love the theming of this area!

The standby line for this attraction had also grown to about 1/2 hour - but Judi and I had already decided we would go the single-rider route to safe time. And boy did it as there was absolutely no one on line! In fact, it went so quickly we each went twice!

For the first time I tried to take some photos while on the ride:

Love how far you can see from the top:

You can make out some construction here which may or may not be related to Avatarland (I think indirectly b/c I think more about where Festival of the Lion King is being moved to, but I could be wrong)

and of course the obligatory "there doesn't appear to be any track ..." photo:

and some photopass pics:

I love the different reactions in Judi's photopass pic ... the girl behind her seems just horrified by the whole situation while the guy behind her is giving the big 'ol thumbs up

Speaking of reaction, my first trip I was sat next to a girl of about age 12 or so. She loved the ride but for about 1/2 of it she was just screaming at the top of her lungs "Curse you Yeti!!!!!!" which I found terribly funny.


After riding twice we met up with the rest of the family and seeing that we still had some time before our Safari fastpass return time we decided to hit up another of our favorites - Kali River Rapids.

No pics from the ride but Olivia absolutely loved it and wanted to go again. While she went back, this time with Judi and her mom, I took a ton of photos of Peter enjoying himself. Like I said, there is not a water play area he has met that he didn't love:

I also spent way too long trying to get a good shot of the baby monkey:

After this we did head back to the Safari ... and it was a good one, especially if you like giraffes. But I get to that next post.

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

Ahhh twice on Everest?? Love it! Generally one of the best single rider lines around.

I think you're right Phil and that is the new FOTLK Theatre.

OMG that poor kid behind Judi. She does not look pleased.

Haha, what is it with kids and water? And it almost looks like Peter is channeling Tom Thumb there (except with his finger).

I DO like giraffes!!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Ahhh twice on Everest?? Love it! Generally one of the best single rider lines around.

I think because it is more hidden and you almost have to ask for where it is (if you don't already know) means that unless you are looking for it you won't think to use it. Plus the queue is pretty interesting so most people don't mind waiting a bit

I think you're right Phil and that is the new FOTLK Theatre.

OMG that poor kid behind Judi. She does not look pleased.

I know! definitely not enjoying the trip - just found the fac that the guy behind her has such an opposite reaction to be truly funny

Haha, what is it with kids and water? And it almost looks like Peter is channeling Tom Thumb there (except with his finger).

I DO like giraffes!!

my kids especially love water - love to take baths ... hate to get out of said baths

Prepping all the pictures now, hope to have the safari post up later today or tomorrow!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Day 7 - Part 3: Animal Kingdom ... Safari part 1​

As mentioned in my last post, our Fastpass return window for the Kilimnajaro Safaris was now open! ... though not sure if the line we had to get in really was in the spirit of "Fastpass" as it was totally out the entrance and down the path about 50 people. It was so long that we actually lost Judi's parents at one point since they couldn't believe that was the Fastpass line and were looking elsewhere

Well, we got on line and it take us close to 20 mins to get to the front, but it is what it is. I am sure the wonderful world of Fastpass+ where nothing has ever gone wrong fix this once fully implemented

Ok, so on to the trip - I was focussed on taking pictures leaving the rest of the adults in our group to watch the kids so we don't really have many pictures of us watching the animals - just the animals. I took a ton of pictures and tried to just post the best ... still had to be split up among two post. Also, my memory at this point is a bit hazy so my advanced apologies if I get the names of any animals wrong.

There won't be a lot of commentary, so I kindly ask you to just imagine to yourself an older gentleman with a British accent narrating the pictures ... since I want to class up this joint a bit.

First, the Black Rinos:

Pink Backed Pelicans:

and now with another bird (condor?)

Hippopotamuses:

Nile Crocodiles:

Baobob Tree - which apparently is fake:

Ankole Cattle and some giraffes (which we will be getting to in earnest shortly)

Ant Hill:

First a solitary Reticulated Giraffe:

next a family of Masai Giraffe's - that's the baby that was born there fairly recently, Mosi:

There was then this one Masai Giraffe that was just hanging out on the road that we would drive by extremely close to ... felt like I could reach out and pet him.

Bontebok:

Antelope:

Ok, need to split this up ... coming up next: Elephant spam!

 

[herb102211]

Great safari photos! That's our favorite part of DAK!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Day 7 - Part 4: Animal Kingdom ... Safari part 2​

Ok, so finishing up the safari we were now approaching the elephant area:

If anyone has read that children's book "HUG" this made me think of that:

Next, we came to the "Hidden Mickey Isle" Flamingos:

The Cheetah was out - but lounging and making it a challenge to see a photograph:

White Rinos:

We could just make the male lion out:

and around back of their area we could see the 'around back' of the female lion:

and last, Greater Kudu:

We really enjoyed the trip and I think the kids really got a kick out of it.

We then went to go meet Minnie Mouse in her new meet & greet area but the stand-by line was just not moving at all - so we made the decision to get out of line and leave the park.

Ok, first, I am not one of those people that think Animal Kingdom is only a 1/2 day park. But with our schedule we hadn't really done much of the Food & Wine Festival and knew we needed to do that this afternoon. I would have loved to do Festival of the Lion King or go on the animal trails, but we have done that on past trips and just had to make a judgment call.

If it helps things out, here is a sneak peak of the festival - the first item I bought upon arrival:

 

[Leshaface]

Coming up on Day 5...I promise I'll catch up to you someday!

I'm eating M&M's while reading Day 3 and I choked on one seeing your bee-sting gif! You choose the best ones!

Wow. Never got around to looking at real photos of AoA (only early rendition stuff) and it looks so awesome!

@ triple filtered house water

Black truffle bread and butter!? Flavor overload

That is so sweet that she played your wedding song. And super nice that she gave you her CD.

Whoa! That coffee sounds DELICIOUS! And such a cool machine. Bet it has the best taste.

I need to get to V&A's someday soon. I've ever only heard amazing things about it. Saved over $100 with TiW, FTW!

I think DS would really like to see those characters at the Hollywood & vine breakfast. Do they only have June from the Little Einsteins or do they ever swap out other L.E. characters. He really likes Quincy.

Amazing Dopey great job! I love going to those drawing classes. Makes me feel like I have some artistic ability.

Yay on the cowboy version!

I need to see One Man's dream. Embarrassed to say i haven't gotten around to it. But I am reading Walt Disney: An American Original right now if it's any consolation.

Sam Adams is always my beer of choice

F! is such a good show! Love the music as well.

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

They REALLY need to come up with a better line system with FP+ due to all the scanning that has to happen. The line almost always extends far beyond the entrance. Sounds like this one was pretty long anyway though.

Aww I love the little baby giraffe.

Hidden Mickey Isle... Nice! Since they don't even mention it anymore (at least not on any of my excursions) it's nice to see this kept alive Phil.

Well it's just a fact of life... sometimes (always) the beer wins.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Great safari photos! That's our favorite part of DAK!

you snuck in between my posts

We love the safari - lots of great parts of DAK, but the safari is definitely what separates it most from the other parks

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Coming up on Day 5...I promise I'll catch up to you someday!

no pressure - I appreciate the dedication

I'm eating M&M's while reading Day 3 and I choked on one seeing your bee-sting gif! You choose the best ones!

Thank you - though I definitely don't want anyone to die reading my TR ... hope all is ok

Wow. Never got around to looking at real photos of AoA (only early rendition stuff) and it looks so awesome!

@ triple filtered house water

Black truffle bread and butter!? Flavor overload

That is so sweet that she played your wedding song. And super nice that she gave you her CD.

Whoa! That coffee sounds DELICIOUS! And such a cool machine. Bet it has the best taste.

I need to get to V&A's someday soon. I've ever only heard amazing things about it. Saved over $100 with TiW, FTW!

It's very nice inside V&A - a little formal and stuffy-ish (as are the outfits the waitstaff wear) but the attitude of everyone could not be more down to earth - really comfortable setting.

I think DS would really like to see those characters at the Hollywood & vine breakfast. Do they only have June from the Little Einsteins or do they ever swap out other L.E. characters. He really likes Quincy.

Back a few trips ago we went and they had June and Leo. I just saw though that they are changing characters and getting rid of Oso and June - so going forward it will be Jake, Manny, Sophia, and Doc Mcstuffins

Amazing Dopey great job! I love going to those drawing classes. Makes me feel like I have some artistic ability.

Thanks! They do make it fairly easy but still always nice when you feel like you did a good job at something

Yay on the cowboy version!

I was very excited - it's just so rare and funny that it took me a minute to realize what was going on.

I need to see One Man's dream. Embarrassed to say i haven't gotten around to it. But I am reading Walt Disney: An American Original right now if it's any consolation.

Well, it was my first time so I am not really one to talk either

I haven't read that book yet - did read the Neal Gabler biography Walt Disney: Triumph of an American Imagination. It was quite good, though a tad long. Made me realize that I am really most interested in how the parks were built so have been reading more about that and imagneering stuff.

Sam Adams is always my beer of choice

Definitely a good standby beer

I try to go a bit more adventurous and am actually brewing my own beer now, but definitely make time to get the Sam Adams Oktoberfest every year

F! is such a good show! Love the music as well.

It's sooooo catchy that music - I was humming it for days!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

They REALLY need to come up with a better line system with FP+ due to all the scanning that has to happen. The line almost always extends far beyond the entrance. Sounds like this one was pretty long anyway though.

Aww I love the little baby giraffe.

Hidden Mickey Isle... Nice! Since they don't even mention it anymore (at least not on any of my excursions) it's nice to see this kept alive Phil.

Well it's just a fact of life... sometimes (always) the beer wins.

yeah, the line is just really long - not sure what they can do other than reduce the # of FP they give out or something but it is a bit disheartening especially when it was a bit of a mob at the start of the line

The giraffes were so fun - it was neat how close they all came

Yes Beer does often win ... the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems

 

[missangelalexis]

Great pictures from the safari!