wannabee princess
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2003
- Messages
- 652
We started early with a bus ride to Animal Kingdom to arrive before 9. After getting through the bag check, we found the lines to enter long and longer. People would walk right past these neatly formed lines (I guess they thought we liked standing in line) get to the gate area, realize that those people in line were actually "In Line" to enter the park. It was kind of funny to see these groups traipsing back and forth over and over.
Anyways! Oldest ds and I decided we would do the run to the Safari and get in line, while youngest ds and dh meandered slowly over looking at the animals on the way. We got to the Safari and almost a straight walk-on - dh and youngest barely catching up to us in time! We had a good ride including an up-close view of an ostrich deciding to cross the road. After our ride we skipped Pangani (did it the other day) and I decided to go get fps for Dinosaur so, I left dh and boys while they made a bathroom break.
When I got the fps for Dinosaur (think this is the hardest fp station to find!) I noticed that Dinoland was completely empty-looking! I two-wayed dh and said for them to head on over! We walked right on the TriceraTop spin, went over and walked right on the Primeval Whirl (We all loved it! One of the favorite rides for everyone!), went back to TriceraTop Spin and let the boys ride it alone. The boys wanted to play in the Boneyard, so I told dh to stay there with them, I would go get in line for Tarzan Rocks.
The line wasn't too bad, and shortly after I arrived, everyone was admitted to the theatre. I went down to the front section, got our seats and two-wayed dh that I was seated. He thought I meant for them to come right then, so he and the boys came after getting drinks and chips outside. It was incredibly hot that morning, and the vendors were doing a good business with anything cold! After a few minutes, the show began, and we were swept away to the jungle.
After the show, we headed to Dinosaur to use our fp - great thing to have after the Tarzan show, because the Dinoland is now wall-to-wall people. On our way over, we saw the nicest CM who was at the Kids' Discovery Club station. The boys answered questions about dinosaur skulls, and got guides that she stamped. BTW, This is a really good program, and I was suprised that these areas didn't seem busier! I would recommend you take your dc to the stations - they are fun and educational!
After admiring Dino-Sue, we headed to the ride. We had explained the Dinosaur ride in great detail to youngest, but after the pre-show he was now thinking he may not like this ride afterall (always have done the swap before). Well, after showing him the picture on the park map he decided he could handle this one. Of course, the picture shows him with his face hidden, since we gave him the heads up before our unfriendly dinosaur made an appearance.
Now that we had seen and done everything we wanted in the area, we headed over to see who was at Camp Minnie/Mickey. We found our second Discovery Club station, and the kids earned their stamp before we discovered that we had already seen all of the characters that where there, so we headed on to Rafiki's Planet Watch, after looking at various animals on Discovery Island on our walk over. We got on the Wildlife Express Train without a wait, and on the walk up the path, found our third Discovery Club station. The nicest CM's are working at these spots, and the kids did a hunt for "hidden" animals to get their stamps.
We went to the Affection Section, got to pet a couple of goats, and headed inside to the Conservation Station. We started to go into the room with the outdoor sounds, but younget decided he didn't want to be in the dark, so he and I left. As soon as we stepped out of the room, we saw Pocahontas sitting in the middle of the building. We told oldest ds, and he decided to come along to get autographs and pictures. Rafiki was also here, but we had already visited him earlier in the week, so we took some time exploring and learning. This is another area that is not very busy, but has the nicest CM's! We saw ostrich eggs, felt how heavy a real ostrich egg would be, saw the kinds of food that the various animals eat, and overall had a very interesting time. We had to stop at the shop outside to buy new animals for our collection - one otter and one zebra are now members of our family!
Headed back to the Wildlife Express - again walked right on a waiting train - and back to Africa. We now decided to attempt It's Tough to be a Bug. We admired the Tree of Life on the way to the show, and then found our seats for the show. Youngest did not like this - but at least he wasn't screaming or crying like a few other traumatized children We left and decided it was time to get a bite to eat. We just wanted an easy meal, so went to Pizzafari and ate our lunch.
With our bellys full, we decided to head to Asia to see the big cats! We love watching these big cats play, and can easily spend a lot of time here. We did get a good "show" - one was playfully knocked off the wall into the water by the other one (and dh got it all on tape!). We found our Discovery Club station - and the CM from Dinoland had moved over to Asia - she even remembered us! The boys had a good time earning their stamp, and she looked to see what we had left - Discovery Island and Africa. We had exited ITTBAB the opposite way from the DC station, so we had missed it earlier. So, we headed to Discovery Island and learned about spiders and earned another stamp.
Now, we decided to find a spot for the parade that would be near the path to Camp Minnie-Mickey, so we could watch Festival of the Lion King show immediately after the parade. We found a bench, I sat and kept it saved, while dh took the boys to Africa. They had to get that last stamp on their Discovery Club guide to complete it!
When they returned, we decided it was time for a cold drink! I left them, went and got waters for the boys and a fruit smoothie for me (from Tamu Tamu Refreshments - yummy!!).
When I returned, dh noticed that Flik was standing behind Pizzafari, so I took the boys and got pictures and autographs. Following this, we all sat down on our lovely bench and enjoyed the parade. It was a great spot, and the boys got to shake hands/paws with several characters.
The minute the parade finished I took off on a mission to get seats for Lion King! Dh followed at a normal pace with the boys. I got to the line right before everyone was let in, and I got fantastic seats! We were Warthogs (again!) and I had landed on the second row (behind the short row, so no one could sit in front of the two boys).
Well, right after the boys made it in (with the masses) they were invited to come out to help with the pre-show!! Now, oldest was easy - he loves this stuff. But, youngest (who was told he didn't have to go if he didn't want to) decided he would go, but we immediately saw this was not going to be a good idea! If you were there, he was the cute little boy who looked like he was going to burst into tears at any second! He just stood there while we motioned for him to come back. No amount of us waving at him would get him to come back - he stayed out there the entire time (and it was painful to watch!) Oldest almost had to drag him back to our seats when the pre-show was over!
We did, however, enjoy the show! We told youngest that he could sit on the inside toward the end of the show so no one would make the mistake of asking him to come out again! As we left the theatre, we headed toward the exit slowly, not quite wanting the day to be over. We grabbed a bus back to the resort, and decided we were going to stay in and swim.
The boys had a great time in the pool, burning off the energy they still had (I enjoyed sitting by the pool trying to imagine how they could still be moving!). We stayed there until we all were starving. We ran to put on "real" clothes, and went to eat in the food court. I decided that I had better go to the gift shop to get a Christmas ornament since it was our last night and I hadn't done that yet. Since they didn't have the ball ornament, dh suggested we take a boat to DownTown Disney.
We had a delightfully quiet ride over with a wonderful Captain, went to the Christmas store - they were sold out both of the ornaments
Went to a couple of other stores, got the boys a bounceback ball (or whatever they are called) and I wished we had decided to go to DTD before we had eaten! The line at Ghiradelli's was incredible, so we decided to bypass dessert. We grabbed the boat back to the resort (another very nice Captain!). On the way back youngest started to drift off, so we headed to the room for our last night in the World
Anyways! Oldest ds and I decided we would do the run to the Safari and get in line, while youngest ds and dh meandered slowly over looking at the animals on the way. We got to the Safari and almost a straight walk-on - dh and youngest barely catching up to us in time! We had a good ride including an up-close view of an ostrich deciding to cross the road. After our ride we skipped Pangani (did it the other day) and I decided to go get fps for Dinosaur so, I left dh and boys while they made a bathroom break.
When I got the fps for Dinosaur (think this is the hardest fp station to find!) I noticed that Dinoland was completely empty-looking! I two-wayed dh and said for them to head on over! We walked right on the TriceraTop spin, went over and walked right on the Primeval Whirl (We all loved it! One of the favorite rides for everyone!), went back to TriceraTop Spin and let the boys ride it alone. The boys wanted to play in the Boneyard, so I told dh to stay there with them, I would go get in line for Tarzan Rocks.
The line wasn't too bad, and shortly after I arrived, everyone was admitted to the theatre. I went down to the front section, got our seats and two-wayed dh that I was seated. He thought I meant for them to come right then, so he and the boys came after getting drinks and chips outside. It was incredibly hot that morning, and the vendors were doing a good business with anything cold! After a few minutes, the show began, and we were swept away to the jungle.
After the show, we headed to Dinosaur to use our fp - great thing to have after the Tarzan show, because the Dinoland is now wall-to-wall people. On our way over, we saw the nicest CM who was at the Kids' Discovery Club station. The boys answered questions about dinosaur skulls, and got guides that she stamped. BTW, This is a really good program, and I was suprised that these areas didn't seem busier! I would recommend you take your dc to the stations - they are fun and educational!
After admiring Dino-Sue, we headed to the ride. We had explained the Dinosaur ride in great detail to youngest, but after the pre-show he was now thinking he may not like this ride afterall (always have done the swap before). Well, after showing him the picture on the park map he decided he could handle this one. Of course, the picture shows him with his face hidden, since we gave him the heads up before our unfriendly dinosaur made an appearance.
Now that we had seen and done everything we wanted in the area, we headed over to see who was at Camp Minnie/Mickey. We found our second Discovery Club station, and the kids earned their stamp before we discovered that we had already seen all of the characters that where there, so we headed on to Rafiki's Planet Watch, after looking at various animals on Discovery Island on our walk over. We got on the Wildlife Express Train without a wait, and on the walk up the path, found our third Discovery Club station. The nicest CM's are working at these spots, and the kids did a hunt for "hidden" animals to get their stamps.
We went to the Affection Section, got to pet a couple of goats, and headed inside to the Conservation Station. We started to go into the room with the outdoor sounds, but younget decided he didn't want to be in the dark, so he and I left. As soon as we stepped out of the room, we saw Pocahontas sitting in the middle of the building. We told oldest ds, and he decided to come along to get autographs and pictures. Rafiki was also here, but we had already visited him earlier in the week, so we took some time exploring and learning. This is another area that is not very busy, but has the nicest CM's! We saw ostrich eggs, felt how heavy a real ostrich egg would be, saw the kinds of food that the various animals eat, and overall had a very interesting time. We had to stop at the shop outside to buy new animals for our collection - one otter and one zebra are now members of our family!
Headed back to the Wildlife Express - again walked right on a waiting train - and back to Africa. We now decided to attempt It's Tough to be a Bug. We admired the Tree of Life on the way to the show, and then found our seats for the show. Youngest did not like this - but at least he wasn't screaming or crying like a few other traumatized children
We left and decided it was time to get a bite to eat. We just wanted an easy meal, so went to Pizzafari and ate our lunch. With our bellys full, we decided to head to Asia to see the big cats! We love watching these big cats play, and can easily spend a lot of time here. We did get a good "show" - one was playfully knocked off the wall into the water by the other one (and dh got it all on tape!). We found our Discovery Club station - and the CM from Dinoland had moved over to Asia - she even remembered us! The boys had a good time earning their stamp, and she looked to see what we had left - Discovery Island and Africa. We had exited ITTBAB the opposite way from the DC station, so we had missed it earlier. So, we headed to Discovery Island and learned about spiders and earned another stamp.
Now, we decided to find a spot for the parade that would be near the path to Camp Minnie-Mickey, so we could watch Festival of the Lion King show immediately after the parade. We found a bench, I sat and kept it saved, while dh took the boys to Africa. They had to get that last stamp on their Discovery Club guide to complete it!
When they returned, we decided it was time for a cold drink! I left them, went and got waters for the boys and a fruit smoothie for me (from Tamu Tamu Refreshments - yummy!!).
When I returned, dh noticed that Flik was standing behind Pizzafari, so I took the boys and got pictures and autographs. Following this, we all sat down on our lovely bench and enjoyed the parade. It was a great spot, and the boys got to shake hands/paws with several characters.
The minute the parade finished I took off on a mission to get seats for Lion King! Dh followed at a normal pace with the boys. I got to the line right before everyone was let in, and I got fantastic seats! We were Warthogs (again!) and I had landed on the second row (behind the short row, so no one could sit in front of the two boys).
Well, right after the boys made it in (with the masses) they were invited to come out to help with the pre-show!! Now, oldest was easy - he loves this stuff. But, youngest (who was told he didn't have to go if he didn't want to) decided he would go, but we immediately saw this was not going to be a good idea! If you were there, he was the cute little boy who looked like he was going to burst into tears at any second! He just stood there while we motioned for him to come back. No amount of us waving at him would get him to come back - he stayed out there the entire time (and it was painful to watch!) Oldest almost had to drag him back to our seats when the pre-show was over!
We did, however, enjoy the show! We told youngest that he could sit on the inside toward the end of the show so no one would make the mistake of asking him to come out again!
As we left the theatre, we headed toward the exit slowly, not quite wanting the day to be over. We grabbed a bus back to the resort, and decided we were going to stay in and swim. The boys had a great time in the pool, burning off the energy they still had (I enjoyed sitting by the pool trying to imagine how they could still be moving!). We stayed there until we all were starving. We ran to put on "real" clothes, and went to eat in the food court. I decided that I had better go to the gift shop to get a Christmas ornament since it was our last night and I hadn't done that yet. Since they didn't have the ball ornament, dh suggested we take a boat to DownTown Disney.
We had a delightfully quiet ride over with a wonderful Captain, went to the Christmas store - they were sold out both of the ornaments
Went to a couple of other stores, got the boys a bounceback ball (or whatever they are called) and I wished we had decided to go to DTD before we had eaten! The line at Ghiradelli's was incredible, so we decided to bypass dessert. We grabbed the boat back to the resort (another very nice Captain!). On the way back youngest started to drift off, so we headed to the room for our last night in the World 
