Operation Photopass! First trip to Disney World - TR - COMPLETED 07/16

[DisneyStitch626]

*hugs* It's hard going back to work. My son was almost 2 before I could bring myself to go back to work. Even then it was only part time a few days a week. It wasn't until he started school that I was able to go back full time.

Great pictures!! I love AK. It's one of my most favorite parks. I love EE. It's one of my family's favorite rides.

I just had to say that Seth's cake is absolutely adorable! My first birthday cake was also a Mickey Mouse cake. My dad was an awesome cake decorator and I have pictures of it in my baby album.

Hi there!

It is so hard going back to work. I wish I didn't have to. But if I don't find something soon, we are going to start getting into financial trouble, and I really don't want that. I know it's my fault for not sticking it out, but i just can't force myself into things I don't like to do. Hopefully I can find something else soon.

That was nice of your Dad to make something like that for you. Makes it more special. I am hoping to get into some cake decorating classes this year and learn to do stuff like that. It looks so fun.

 

[CatNipRules]

Hi there!

It is so hard going back to work. I wish I didn't have to. But if I don't find something soon, we are going to start getting into financial trouble, and I really don't want that. I know it's my fault for not sticking it out, but i just can't force myself into things I don't like to do. Hopefully I can find something else soon.

That was nice of your Dad to make something like that for you. Makes it more special. I am hoping to get into some cake decorating classes this year and learn to do stuff like that. It looks so fun.

It is hard. Trust me, we had hard times and I'm not sure how we would have survived if it wasn't for my DH's family. We ate many dinners over there and they helped us out a bit. I started working about 20-30 hours a week. It brought in some money, but it didn't make it any easier to leave my son. We finally found a great daycare and that made it easier. Still hard, but easier.

I would love to do cake decorating, but I've got zero artistic talent. LOL!! My dad was creative, my brothers are creative and so are my sisters. Me? Not at all. Zip. Zilch. Nada. LOL!

Once you find a job that you like it will be much easier to go back to work. It honestly sounds like you were overwhelmed and they were piling too much on you. Sending lots of Pixie Dust your way. Being a mom is wonderful and the best job I ever had.

*hugs*

 

[DisneyStitch626]

It's hard to get clear photos in a moving vehicle, but we managed to get a few, so here is our safari ride. I don't remember what some of the animals were called, so there won't be much more than photos in this post, lol.

I was amazed at how close some animals got to the vehicle:

Flamingos!!

You can see a lion poking his head up in this one:

I believe these were ostrich eggs:

All in all, it was a really fun ride. The driver was funny and was very informative, even though I have forgotten a lot of it already. Lol.

After our ride, I was really wanting to do one of the walking trails, but Dillon was really tired and wasn't up to it. I was a little disappointed, but I didn't push it, cause I was actually pretty tired too. After 5 days of non-stop walking, your feet get sore pretty quickly!

At this point, I was starting to get a bit hungry. So I stopped at Flame Tree BBQ to get a fairly light lunch:

I ordered the bbq chicken salad. It was good, but I wasn't expecting the cold meat, so it threw me off a little bit. Dillon was still full from breakfast, so he just had a few bites of my lunch. My key lime dessert was so good!​

To be continued...​

 

[DisneyStitch626]

I forgot to mention after our Safari Ride, we picked up FP's for Kali River Rapids. So after lunch, that's where we headed. We didn't get any photos of it, as it was spitting rain a little at this point so our camera was in our bag.

We got soaked on this ride. But I was a little disappointed in how short the ride was. I was expecting so much more. I don't love the one in California Adventure either, but I do prefer it to the one in AK as it's a little longer, or at least it feels like it is.

Some monkey's near the exit of the ride:

Next, we really wanted to see Festival of the Lion King, so we headed off to Camp Minnie Mickey.

The show was just getting seated when we got into the area. So once we got seated, we didn't have to wait long for the show to start.

We thought it was a really great show, and we were definitely happy that we had taken the time to see it. So much fun!

By this time, it was starting to get close to time to leave so we could start making our way over to the Grand Floridian for our reservations at the GF Cafe. But first, I wanted to take one more quick trip over to EE to pick up a cute stuffed Yeti for Seth. Dillon stopped to take some photos of EE as I was making the purchase.

After I claimed my Yeti, we made our way to the exit and hopped on a bus back to the Pop to get ready for dinner.

This is what we saw in our window when we arrived at our room:

They had taken our ear hats, and our Ohana photo and made a display in our room window. We were a little surprised to see it and it definitely put a smile on our faces. ​

Next up: Dinner at the Grand Floridian Cafe!​

 

[archdandy]

I'm joining in! I'm a little late but I'm enjoying the report so far. The window display they made you was really cute!

 

[solana131]

Great update! AK was a new park to us also. I didn't love it, but I think it was just too overwhelming for a first day first park thing. And it was hot and crowded. Can't wait to go back this July and actually see all the shows. Festival of Lion King looks so good as does Nemo! Can't wait to hear about your GF Cafe meal....I had that booked for us, but cancelled it a couple days ahead to make way for more Kona Cafe (we just loved that place)

 

[smile4stamps]

All caught up!

I'm sorry you had so much trouble with your job. I hope something else you like better comes along soon.

Your day at AK sounds like you were able to do quite a bit!

I can't wait to ride EE, see FOTLK and Finding Nemo!

 

[DisneyStitch626]

I'm joining in! I'm a little late but I'm enjoying the report so far. The window display they made you was really cute!

Welcome! Thanks for tagging along.

Great update! AK was a new park to us also. I didn't love it, but I think it was just too overwhelming for a first day first park thing. And it was hot and crowded. Can't wait to go back this July and actually see all the shows. Festival of Lion King looks so good as does Nemo! Can't wait to hear about your GF Cafe meal....I had that booked for us, but cancelled it a couple days ahead to make way for more Kona Cafe (we just loved that place)

We had a relatively cool day, so it wasn't so bad. I thought it was a good park, but probably 3rd out of 4 for us.

All caught up!

I'm sorry you had so much trouble with your job. I hope something else you like better comes along soon.

Your day at AK sounds like you were able to do quite a bit!

I can't wait to ride EE, see FOTLK and Finding Nemo!

We missed Finding Nemo unfortunately. We just didn't get time for everything.

I ended up getting a part time job at Michaels. It's not much, but at least it's something for now. I am really enjoying the early hours (usually from 5am-10:30am) as I get to come home and still spend lots of the day with Seth. We will see soon if it's enough money though. I want to start saving for the Diva's trip but not sure I'll be making enough money to. I really need this trip, so I have to figure out how to get saving!

I am finally working on another update!

 

[DisneyStitch626]

Actually it will be a little later tonight, as my husband has done something with the computer the photos are on, so I can't access them from mine at the moment. Oh well, hopefully tonight I can continue.

 

[Trentmom]

Looks like a great day at AK. Breakfast at Tusker House looked great

That pic in everest looks like the two people behind you were doing rocks, paper, scissors...

 

[DizNee Luver]

Andrea I love the Animal Kingdom pics!!! Do they ever stop on the safari, or do they just drive slowly?? Just wondering how hard it is to get decent pics on this ride. They've made Jungle Cruise at DL almost impossible to get good pics on now as they seemed to have sped up the ride.

On ride pics of EE.......NICE!!!!! Very impressed and loved seeing a different view. Also enjoyed all the other pics you got from the ground.....lots of angles so we could see more of the ride. Most pics are just of the mountain.

Did you feel rushed to do everything at AK??

We are starting our day at Tusker House, want to see the Lion King & Finding Nemo shows, ride the safari, EE and Kali River. Ty wants to do Dinosaur & we'll probably take the kids to the Dinoland rides. And we want to see the parade, King Louie and maybe some of the nature trails (Rafiki, the Tigers, etc) Do you think one day is enough??

I'm really concerned about AK & DHS and getting everything done in a day. We still have our "Pick a Park" day.....but we'll only get to go back to one.....so just trying to get a realistic feeling on these 2 parks.

 

[DisneyStitch626]

Andrea I love the Animal Kingdom pics!!! Do they ever stop on the safari, or do they just drive slowly?? Just wondering how hard it is to get decent pics on this ride. They've made Jungle Cruise at DL almost impossible to get good pics on now as they seemed to have sped up the ride.

On ride pics of EE.......NICE!!!!! Very impressed and loved seeing a different view. Also enjoyed all the other pics you got from the ground.....lots of angles so we could see more of the ride. Most pics are just of the mountain.

Did you feel rushed to do everything at AK??

We are starting our day at Tusker House, want to see the Lion King & Finding Nemo shows, ride the safari, EE and Kali River. Ty wants to do Dinosaur & we'll probably take the kids to the Dinoland rides. And we want to see the parade, King Louie and maybe some of the nature trails (Rafiki, the Tigers, etc) Do you think one day is enough??

I'm really concerned about AK & DHS and getting everything done in a day. We still have our "Pick a Park" day.....but we'll only get to go back to one.....so just trying to get a realistic feeling on these 2 parks.

Thank you for the compliments on the pics! They do stop the safari occasionally so you can get some decent photos in. But they recommend you set your camera to the "motions" setting so you can get some decent photos while you're moving as well.

We didn't feel too rushed at AK. We got to do MOST of what we wanted to do, and had to leave at 5ish to head to an ADR at GF Cafe. The only thing we didn't do that I would have liked was another ride on EE and one of the walking trails to see more animals. Only reason we didn't do the trails is because our feet were getting so sore. I really regret not doing it though. I really wanted to see some of those animals.

DHS was our favourite. We did everything on our list of things to do and a little more as well in one day. We ended up going a second partial day and did repeats and a few more things that weren't on our list. Can't say specifically why it was our favourite, but it just was. The rides, the studios, and the shopping areas were my favourite. Not to mention the pulled pork hot dogs. Yummy!

 

[DizNee Luver]

Thank you for the compliments on the pics! They do stop the safari occasionally so you can get some decent photos in. But they recommend you set your camera to the "motions" setting so you can get some decent photos while you're moving as well.

We didn't feel too rushed at AK. We got to do MOST of what we wanted to do, and had to leave at 5ish to head to an ADR at GF Cafe. The only thing we didn't do that I would have liked was another ride on EE and one of the walking trails to see more animals. Only reason we didn't do the trails is because our feet were getting so sore. I really regret not doing it though. I really wanted to see some of those animals.

DHS was our favourite. We did everything on our list of things to do and a little more as well in one day. We ended up going a second partial day and did repeats and a few more things that weren't on our list. Can't say specifically why it was our favourite, but it just was. The rides, the studios, and the shopping areas were my favourite. Not to mention the pulled pork hot dogs. Yummy!

Problem with setting the camera for motion is the graininess.....maybe Mike's new fancy camera will be better for that.

Everyone says you can do one day at AK and at DHS. Derek said we should be able to get everything done at AK in a day......he got a late start (after lunch) and did everything but the safari & rapids ride. So, we'll probably be ok that day.

I'm thinking our "pick a park" day will be at DHS. There's so many things I want to do there......and if we do a 2nd day....we'll add in Fantasmic to the itinerary. I won't add a meal/package....we'll use the girls GAC's to find seating.

 

[DisneyStitch626]

I don't think you will need GAC's for seating. The place is huge! It does fill up, but we were there about 40 minutes early, and it was still more than half empty. It didn't look full until about 10 minutes prior.

 

[DisneyStitch626]

After a short rest in our hotel room, we headed out to take a bus to MK so that we could hop on a monorail to the Grand Floridian for our dinner at the GF Cafe. When we got to MK, we noticed that a boat was loading up to go over to GF, so we decided to hop on that for the fun of it.

This is our boat after getting off at GF:

And then some views of the beautiful grounds as we made our way to the Cafe.

A view of MK from the dock:

Dillon was hungry and wasn't liking stopping for photos, lol:

It wasn't the nicest weather at this point. There was a little break in the rain so we were able to get a few shots, but as we got closer to the doors, it was coming down again and lasted most of the way through our meal.

These girls had a great laugh, because they were dancing to some song they were singing and didn't notice me taking a photo until just after I snapped this. They were intrigued to see the photo, lol.

We didn't even have to wait for our table, we were shown to it almost immediately.

Some photos of the beautiful restaurant:

And a pretty rose on our table:

​

To be continued...​

 

[DisneyStitch626]

Shortly after we were seated, we were given a basket of bread and then placed our drink order:

I ordered what I think was called something tropical mango cocktail. It came with a souvenir light up ice cube:

And Dillon ordered some lemon flavoured cocktail:

They were both really, really, good but also really, really strong, lol. I also saved my ice cube, and now Seth loves to play with it!

We were really hungry, so we decided to order appetizers for this meal:

Dillon had the french onion soup:

And I ordered a caesar salad, sorry for the darkness of the photo:

And then we both ordered the Bone-In New York Strip Steak:

There are mashed potatoes in this meal too, but they were hidden by the steak.

This meal was delicious! For once the steak wasn't overly greasy or fatty, and it was cooked exactly the way we like it. The sauce was very good and the veggies were cooked just right. And of course I loved the potatoes as I almost always do, but mixed with the sauce, they were awesome.

We were stuffed full after this meal, but we still had to order a dessert. We didn't know what we wanted, so we decided to order the sampler for two.

We basically just picked at it all as we were just so full. We couldn't even finish the Mickey. Also I felt a little guilty mutilating him, lol. We each took an ear, and that was all we could eat.

Over all this was the best meal of our trip. We just loved it. And the atmosphere was great as well. Really love this resort.
​

Next up: A quick walk through the main building of GF, and then off to MK for a late evening.​

 

[Trentmom]

Your food at GF Cafe looks really good

I love that little chocolate Mickey. He is so cute!!!



BTW.......You should update your title, so people know you have updated. I missed the last few ones as i didn't realize it

All caught up now


I loved your animal kingdom pics. Looks like you had a great time

Also, in that EE pic, it looks like people behind you were playing rocks, paper, scissors

 

[DisneyStitch626]

Your food at GF Cafe looks really good

I love that little chocolate Mickey. He is so cute!!!



BTW.......You should update your title, so people know you have updated. I missed the last few ones as i didn't realize it

All caught up now


I loved your animal kingdom pics. Looks like you had a great time

Also, in that EE pic, it looks like people behind you were playing rocks, paper, scissors

Thanks for reminding me! Forgot the title!

And yeah it totally does look like they are playing that.

 

[smile4stamps]

Great review of the GF Cafe. I usually only hear good things about it! Haven't dined there though and I don't see us being able to go this time either.... The decisions faced when planning WDW meals!!

 

[DisneyStitch626]

After our lovely dinner, we took a small walk around the lobby of the beautiful hotel.

Then we headed up to the second floor to get to the monorail station to head to MK for the evening.

A couple more photos at the resort first:

And then we caught our ride:

Magic Kingdom was open until 2am on this night, so we were looking forward to taking advantage of the extra hours.

We decided we wanted to spend a bit of time on Mainstreet, so we picked a side and headed that way, but first a pit stop at the train station for a photo or 2:

We picked the left side of Mainstreet and started making our way down.

At the Emporium (I think?) behind one of the registers, they had these guys all dressed up:

Of course, I thought they were the cutest things ever.

We made our way to the end of MS and got a couple photos of the Castle and moved into Adventureland.

To be continued....​