Our Fantastical Photo-Filled 5 Day....Day 4 Magic Kingdom...UPDATED

[Hypermommy]

I hope they notice the response they get to the queue, and really start getting back to heavy theming in the queue area. I think they learned their lesson after the disaster that was the queue line for Soarin' (although it's a bit better now that it's interactive).

One of the guys on another site I frequent recently bemoaned the lack of theming in the queue areas as a result of fast passes. If I'm understanding him right he thinks that imagineers aren't theming the queues as much any more becuase they figure most people will get fastpasses and forego the queue. I'm with you.... hope they get back to livening up the queue area. It's like the prologue to the show and is very important to the story, IMO.

Yes, we did go out to Rafiki's. All we had time to do was take a peek around and meet Pocohantas, Jiminy Cricket and Rafiki while there. Next trip we'll have more time to really explore the area. I know Alison would love it!

If you get a chance next time you go, try to hit Rafiki's in the morning. I know... it's a difficult thing to do becuase you gotta get your Everest fix in before it gets too crowded. I'm right with you there! But I'm sure you probably saw the big glassed in examination room looking thing. Well, they do most of their more major veterinary (sp?) procedures in the morning and they usually have a cast member standing with the guests to explain what's going on. Your daughter would love it. I know my son, the future vet or animal trainer, surely did.

Can't wait to read more! Thanks for such an interesting trippie and all the wonderful pictures!!!

 

[Kimbere]

That sounds awesome! They mentioned something about viewing the surgeries on the train-ride out there. Since we were leaving right after the Jungle Parade to head to Epcot for dinner, we were pressed for time. On the positive side...we'll do all those things on our next trip, and it will be new! We can't go back until November 2009, so I'm trying to keep happy thoughts...even though I'm so bummed we have to wait for so long.

 

[Schminston-Mo]

Thanks for the great trip report and terrific pictures! It makes me even more itchin' to go back!

 

[LiteBrite]

If you get a chance next time you go, try to hit Rafiki's in the morning. I know... it's a difficult thing to do becuase you gotta get your Everest fix in before it gets too crowded. I'm right with you there! But I'm sure you probably saw the big glassed in examination room looking thing. Well, they do most of their more major veterinary (sp?) procedures in the morning and they usually have a cast member standing with the guests to explain what's going on. Your daughter would love it. I know my son, the future vet or animal trainer, surely did.

Can't wait to read more! Thanks for such an interesting trippie and all the wonderful pictures!!!

If you stop by Guest Relations on your way into AK in the morning, they can find out for you what specific vet procedures are being done that day at Rafiki's, and at exactly what time.

I am also loving your report!

 

[chief19spixi]

Great pics!! thanks for sharing!! I can't wait till I go to the world this year!!

 

[Kimbere]

Okay, after getting Dino-Land out of the way it was back to Everest to use our FP. Since I knew what was going to happen on the ride, I decided to take some pics this time around. Alison was claiming she didn't want to ride it again, but secretly she was excited and was just being dramatic.
Oh the drama with an 8.5 year old girl! God help me!

She ended up loving it the second time around!! I guess knowing what to expect took the fear factor out of it!

We decided to walk over to Africa and check out the train to Rafiki's Planet Watch. On the way we saw Baloo and King Louie...of course we had to stop for pics!

We dropped our stoller in the enormous sea of stroller and headed for the train. A little advice about the strollers...if you rent one bring a scarf or ribbons or something to tie to the handle. Trying to find yours in a group of 200 or so isn't fun! Matthew is a train freak, so he was excited to have a ride. We were looking forward to sitting down for 5 minutes!

We you arrive there is a long walk thru the "forest" until you arrive at the main building. There were some nice things to look at, including this:

We weren't sure what to expect when we arrived but were hoping to get a picture with Rafiki. They mentioned that sometimes you can watch surgeries on the animals, but since we were short on time this trip, knew we couldn't stay and investigate. On our next trip we will plan to spend more time out there....it has a lot to see and do. When we got inside we saw 3 different lines...one for Rafiki, Pocohantas and Jiminy Cricket! Yay!! We felt like we hit the character jackpot! So we got in line for Rafkii first and got some cute pics!

Next up was Jiminy and then Pocohantas. I actually didn't know she was there right until we were done with Jiminy. She was kind of hidden away in the corner.

Headed back to the train station to have lunch and then the Safari. Took these pics while waiting:

The train itself is really cool. Lots of old looking bags and packages on top to look like a train in Africa. On our ride back our conductor CM was quite amusing. He played this fun game with a high school senior sitting next to us...."Are you Smarter Than a Fifth Grader"? Of course the questions were trick and she failed miserably...but everyone had lots of laughs.

After locating our stroller we decided to forgo the Flame Tree BBQ for lunch, in favor of saving time walking all the way over there and ate at Pizzasafari instead. We picked up our FP for the Safari and went to eat. The park was getting fairly crowded by this time and we were glad to be leaving after the parade. Next up is the Safari!

 

[2goofycampers]

Great pics ! Hey , I had dinner with Pocoha' at the Artist Point several years ago! Okay,,I was really hav'n dinner with my beautiful bride and she just came to our table. But she must'a really had a crush on me cause she scooted in next to me real close! All right,,it was just for a picture shot. But I think she really liked me cause she just kept hanging around ! Okay,,so we were the only table in there for quit a while. It was still fun . Oh , and the dinner was excellent......Frank..Mr.

 

[IDoBelieveInFairies2]

I love Jiminy! You really had great photo op's with the characters! What a fun time with your kids! Thank-you for sharing.

 

[scott62]

Great report and awesome pictures Kim! I am really enjoying reading it and vicariously accompanying you all!

Scott

 

[Kimbere]

Great pics ! Hey , I had dinner with Pocoha' at the Artist Point several years ago! Okay,,I was really hav'n dinner with my beautiful bride and she just came to our table. But she must'a really had a crush on me cause she scooted in next to me real close! All right,,it was just for a picture shot. But I think she really liked me cause she just kept hanging around ! Okay,,so we were the only table in there for quit a while. It was still fun . Oh , and the dinner was excellent......Frank..Mr.

Yes, Frank, I'm sure she was totally hot for you. It must be hard to keep all those women off of you. Seriously, that must have been fun for you both!

I love Jiminy! You really had great photo op's with the characters! What a fun time with your kids! Thank-you for sharing.

We definitely had great luck finding the characters! We purchased a Disney Photopass CD before we left, saved over 20% by doing it that way, so seeking out every Photopass photographer was a must! Had to get our moneys worth! I think we did!

Great report and awesome pictures Kim! I am really enjoying reading it and vicariously accompanying you all!

Scott

Okay, cracking up! I'm so clueless this morning, saw your location and was thinking, "Cool, someone else from Livonia? Small world." Then I realized it was you (Scott is my brother-in-law). Slow but friendly on this monday morning! Glad you enjoyed it! Hope you subscribed...much more to come!

 

[Kimbere]

After a surprisingly decent lunch at Pizzasafari, we head over to the Kilimanjaro Safari with our FP. We were all really looking forward to this "ride", but Alison seemed to be most excited. Not surprising since she's the major animal lover...elephants are her favorite wild animal. We walked right onto the jeep and were off on our adventure! I loved the bumper stickers inside our jeep. We were sitting in the first row behind the driver.

We saw lots of different animals but it was very hard to get good pics since we were moving. This is the pool where the hippos were hanging out...you can see one on the far left of the pic.

Next came this large bunch of gators, followed by the lions napping in the grass and the we drove up to these White Rhinos.

They were so close, it was amazing. The two of them were standing there, and in between them there was a baby Rhino. Apparently they always stand on either side of their baby to protect it. So cute!

The ride lets you out on the Walking Trial with a ranger cabin and this cool drinking fountian right there.

We walked over by the waterfall, looked down and saw these 2 hanging out.

All of the sudden one walked over to the other, who was minding his/her own business by the way, and just hauled off and clubbed him upside the head. Needless to say, the big guy won that battle. Man, he was a big one too!

Interesting factoid about gorillas that I learned that day, every gorilla has a different nose print, like our fingerprints our different, and thats a way to keep track of them. I could have watched them all day, but we had a Parade to catch!

 

[2goofycampers]

great gorilla story: we were there with DS and his girlfriend looking at the gorillas thru the plexy, this gorilla spotted DS girlfriend came to the plexy put his hand up to hers, we were there for 20 minutes every move she made he followed keeping his hand next to hers on the plexy. when we left he followed as far as he could go. I guess they like 6 foot blondes. >Denise

 

[VACAMPER]

Love your pictures!!

 

[chief19spixi]

Great pics!!

 

[Kimbere]

Moving onward....

After the Safari, we headed over to Camp Mickey & Minnie to see The Lion King and meet some characters. We had about 2 hours till the Jungle Parade and were leaving for Epcot right after that....so time was pressing on us a bit at this point in the day. We crossed over the bridge and spotted some cute things right away.

We got into the very long line for the Lion King show...but fortunately the line started moving right away. We ended up sitting up in the 2nd tier on the end section, but there isn't a bad seat in the house. My pics aren't very good cuz it was pretty dark in there for the whole show.

The show was about 35 min. long and we headed out into the sea of humanity to find the greeting trails. Brad went in search of the stroller (again) and we hit Donald's line. We hadn't seen him at all yet so this was our first priority. They were playing lots of "radio disney" type music right there. Donald was dancing his tail off....he was seriously crackin us up. They put the Cha Cha Slide on and he was doing the running man, sprinkler and just about everything else he could think of.

The funniest thing though....when he was signing Matthew's autograph book he was scribbling on the page, we thought maybe the pen wasn't working or something. When we left the line, we noticed that he had scribbled out the sorcerer Mickey on the bottom on the page. That Donald was SASSY!

We looked at the line for Mickey and the wait was 50 min and Minnie wasn't much shorter. So, we decided to go explore the Tree for a few before waiting for the parade to start. This tree is incredible and you could spend hours looking at all the detail. Our next trip we will be spending more time going around the entire thing and spending more time in the trails. I did get some great pics though!

Next up is the Jungle Parade and then on to Epcot!

 

[BigDaddyRog]

I love the lizard right between Daisey's eyes!!!!

 

[VACAMPER]

You spot everything don't you

 

[DznyRulz]

Nice shots of the tree. I just love the detail they put into it. I see something new everytime I look at it.

 

[Kimbere]

I love the lizard right between Daisey's eyes!!!!

OMG, that's hilarious! I didn't even notice that. VACAMPER is right...you do notice everything.

 

[Kimbere]

On the way to our parade spot we saw Lilo and Stitch...so of course we stopped. Those characters certainly can derail your plans. When the photopass photograper was trying the take pics of the kids, "Stitch" kept waving his hand in front of the camera so she couldn't get a picture. Typical naughty Stitch. The photog scolded him and he stopped. The kids were loving it! We got some great shots and continued on our way!

Our day at AK was nearing it's end and after briefly exploring the Tree Of Life, we found a spot for the Jammin' Jungle Parade! Once again we found great seats right as we came out of the Tree path. We staked out our spots and then I took Alison to buy a pin for her lanyard. When we came out it was a mass of people!! Seriously, we could barely get back to our spots because of the human gridlock. Finally, the parade started. All I can say is amazing! The "floats" were incredible, animals that were manually operated by the person underneath. It reminded me of the animals in the broadway production of The Lion King. Very creative and super cool!

The parade ended around 4:30 and we were right on schedule to get to Epcot for our 6:30 dinner ressies. We walked to the car and hit the road for our evening at Epcot!