Our WDW adventures & Magical Happy Halloween Cruise: Day 14 completed - 01/2010 pg 19

[anewmac]

omg the bathroom thing sounds hillarious. Glad the flights went off without a hitch for ya... basically. Cant wait to read about your time in the parks!

 

[diberry]

Great to start reading your real trippie Sarah!
There always seem to be long lines for the car rental when all you want to do after a long flight is just get on your way to the resort!
Why on earth would anyone want a bathroom in the bedroom and no door on the loo????? Weird!!!
Looking forward to hearing all about the parks!
Hope your health problems are all sorted out now!

 

[jenn&nelsonrego]

YAY! for your Trip Report!

I cannot wait until you get to the REAL fun part... meeting ME on the ship! LOL!

I didn't see you to tell you... but I think I got a picture of your daughters with Belle during the "Til We Meet Again" party. I have been uploading my pictures (all 1200+ of them) all day... so I will post it if it came out any good. I was up on deck four and had to zoom in.... but it should have come out ok!

 

[jns]

Glad you finaliy made it too Orlando
connecting flights look great when you are sitting at the laptop but are hard work
last year it took us over 24 hours to get there
this year we had a direct flight 8 1/2 hours
what a different

Graet start
tell the kids to use paper and pen for their homework from now on

 

[diberry]

You need more than one computer, my friend

Maybe Santa will find 4 cheap laptops to drop down your chimney, Sarah!!!

 

[TotallyAngelic]

YAY! for your Trip Report!

I cannot wait until you get to the REAL fun part... meeting ME on the ship! LOL!

I didn't see you to tell you... but I think I got a picture of your daughters with Belle during the "Til We Meet Again" party. I have been uploading my pictures (all 1200+ of them) all day... so I will post it if it came out any good. I was up on deck four and had to zoom in.... but it should have come out ok!

Thanks - I would love to see it!

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Maybe Santa will find 4 cheap laptops to drop down your chimney, Sarah!!!

I don't think I will be that lucky Di - Santa is already saving up for our next Disney cruise!

 

[diberry]

I don't think I will be that lucky Di - Santa is already saving up for our next Disney cruise!

Very wise, Santa!!!

 

[Disneygrl36]

for getting to Orlando with relative ease. for all the car problems. The room looks nice, but I agree with everybody else that no door on the bathroom aka "loo" is really weird!
Can't wait to ride EE with ya.
P.S. for booking your next cruise It's addictive I tell ya. We don't have a date for cruising again, but I know we will soon! I still have to get my nice day on Castaway Cay.

 

[TotallyAngelic]

I don't believe this - I have been on and off the computer all day writing up my next installment in the thread reply box - I finished it, and added all the photo links and then for some stupid reason unknown to me and the world I stupidly hit the back button instead of the submit reply button and I lost the whole thing! I am so annoyed with myself!

expect a significant delay while I give myself a swift kick up the rear - and then I am off to have a good cry.

 

[diberry]

Oh Sarah, how utterly infuriating!

I think I'll join you in that cry

partly because that's happened to me before and I know how much you want to scream right now, and partly because we'll have to wait a while for the next installment! Dare I suggest you type it up in a Word document or similar when you can face doing it all again? I learnt that the hard way too!!!

 

[anewmac]

aww Sarah, I have done that too... I suggest typing in word then copy and pasting hugs.. but ya have got us patiently waiting for the next instalment....

 

[wilma-bride]

Sarah, I too have done that before - it is truly infuriating. I now write all my trip reports in word, then copy and paste, add pictures and tweak a bit before posting.

Have a large glass of something refreshing, chill out and start again - hopefully tomorrow

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Isn't waking up in Orlando a wonderful feeling - I woke up first, but not at the usual incredibly early hour I usually wake up at on the first morning, it was actually a very respectable 07:30am. I showered and pottered about until 08:00am, when I heard the girls were up, and then we proceeded to be sufficiently noisy and disruptive to wake up Tony and the lads. Hey guys - we were in Orlando, and the theme parks were calling.......

We made it to Animal Kingdom by 09:05am, parked in Unicorn and it was fairly quiet. I love early mornings in the parks, that amazing feeling when you just walk through the gates and everywhere looks clean and uncluttered, and there aren't too many people crowding around and spoiling the views. Our immediate mission was to ride Expedition Everest - for the first time ever. Last time we had been here, in 2005, it had looked like this:

and now it looked like this:

Now thats what I call landscape gardening! I have to say that I was more than a little apprehensive, as I always am when faced with a new ride experience, but decided to take the bull, or in this case the yeti, by the horns and go for it, rather than let everyone else ride it and then give me a full account of every twist, turn and effect before riding it myself. I loved the whole theming of this area, and the waiting area was really atmospheric - here are the intrepid explorers waiting to board the train:

The wait time was actually 15 minutes, but it passed very quickly, and before long we were boarding the train. The ride was amazing, I loved the backwards bit and the very steep drop in the dark, although to be honest most of the ride was in the dark for me because I actually had my eyes shut for most of it .....sorry!

We arrived back at the station after escaping unscathed from our encounter with the yeti, and our immediate thought was -"get fastpasses", so 6 fastpasses were acquired, and a few photos taken to give the proper recognition to this momentous occasion of our first Expedition to Everest:

It is probably true to say that Tony's immediate thought was actually "get food" at this precise moment (or come to think of it - at any moment), but he was overruled by the majority and we headed to get some fastpasses for Kilimanjaro Safari for later. On the way we met the amazing De-Vine, and of course had to take a photograph.

We then decided to have some breakfast, and it was really lovely sitting outside at some tables, feeling the warmth of the sun,

while enjoying some really nice coffees and some iced coffees for the kids, with various breakfast items such as muffins, doughnuts and I had this rather enormous cinnamon bun which was divine:

After breakfast we headed back to see Mr Yeti, and I am very proud to say I completed the whole ride without closing my eyes once, and it was once again an amazing experience - sort of a more extreme Big Thunder Mountain. This time, Taryn decided to sit it out, as she doesn't really enjoy steep drops since she was unfortunately and irreversibly traumatised as a young child when her evil parents took her on Journey to Atlantis. She now tends to do new rides once and if there is any hint of a steep drop involved, then it ends up being once only. If the drop is visible, such as on Splash Mountain, then it is a no-go zone from the outset!

We then headed for the more relaxing and peaceful environment of the African plains, and the Kilimanjaro Safari, although in the waiting line our peace and tranquillity was interrupted by one very rude and obnoxious man, who was complaining loudly to every cast member and guest within earshot, about how disgusted he was that he had to wait 40 minutes when the wait time was showing 30 minutes, and he also demanded to know why people with fastpasses were getting put through ahead of him and his family ......"hello, Mr Obnoxious, doesn't the word “fastpass” sort of give it away!" I was convinced that he was actually an escaped Safari exhibit, but Tony assured me that the animals we would encounter on the ride would be far more appealing and much more photogenic, although I did see a hippo which bore a distinct resemblance, so maybe I was right after all.

We got to see quite a few animals, which is a good thing as that is what a safari is all about, but most of them appeared to be camera shy - I am sure they must have known which side I was sitting on with the camcorder, as they had all whizzed over to the other side before we got there. Taryn, who was sitting on the other side of the vehicle, managed to snap this rather nice photo of a giraffe.

All went well on the safari, although we had to take a brief unscheduled detour to sort out some poachers. I was a bit worried that they actually allowed poachers into a Disney park, but obviously some unsavoury types must get through the turnstiles occasionally.

After the safari we headed over to Dinoland to ride one of my favourites: Primeval Whirl. To our disappointment it was all boarded off and looked like it was being dismantled. There was a big crane hovering overhead, and parts of the structure appeared missing. This was a big disappointment, as this area now resembles nothing more than a glorified amusement park, and really could do with some updating.

We then wandered over to the Tree of Life,

at which point I was dragged onto It’s Tough to be a Bug, definitely NOT one of my favourites. In fact the last, and only, time I had watched this show I had spent most of the time on DH’s knee. Here is a photo of some honorary bugs wearing their bug eyes.

I hasten to add that this was the only time I wore my bug eyes, once inside that theatre they were well and truly off, no creepie crawlies were coming out of that screen to get me! After examining the seat and surrounding area for any potential nasty surprises, I spent the show perched on the edge of the seat with my legs up in the air in a position most contortionists would be proud of, and it was relief when it was all over.

To allow me to recover from the trauma, we decided to go and see Finding Nemo - the Musical and this was really really good. The performers were excellent and I enjoyed every minute. It was really colourful and cleverly done - and to me represents what Disney entertainment is all about! After the show the lads wanted to go on Kali River Rapids, and as the weather was warm and pleasant I decided that I might as well join them - we all ended up a little bit wet around the edges but poor Danny and Stephen got the worst of it: guess who was facing backwards on the drop!

To dry out a bit we decided it was time for lunch, and headed for the Flame Tree Barbeque, where we all had barbeque chicken - no surprises there then. No one really likes the bbq beans which accompany this meal except Tony, which ultimately results in him trying to eat all 6 pots of beans, at which point I really started to worry about the consequences of this and started to really like the sound of that sofa bed in our living area!

Tony, however, remained ignorant of my thoughts and carried on eating:

I really liked the Halloween cups, so I took a photo of them:

We had a lovely meal sitting on the decking area just up from the restaurant, although we were heavily harassed by scrounging ducks and other large birds. There was a sign asking us not to feed the birds, and we tried our best not to, but it was very hard not to feel guilty when there were staring at you with their little beady eyes.

It was by now time for the Jungle Jammin Parade, which I have never seen before, so I was immediately out their with my camcorder. This parade was really good, because I had my hands full with the camcorder, I have no photos - sorry. We then had a moochy around the shop and bought some pins. I was amazed at the amount of Halloween pins on offer - in Disneyland Paris you tend to get one or two, and here the choice was endless. I managed to restrict myself to one Halloween 2008 pin and one Pirates of the Caribbean Limited Edition for my collection of POTC pins back home.
We also had the obligatory silly hat moment in the shop:

By now everyone was starting to feel a bit tired around the edges, so we decided to head for home. Here is everyone looking very tired after having a wild time:

At Cypress Pointe, the kids decided to revitalise themselves by going for a swim, while Tony and I just chilled out in the apartment. Later we headed our for dinner at the Orlando Ale House, about 10 minutes walk up the road. The food was really nice, but the restaurant was very loud, mainly because of all the screens showing baseball and football and the place was full of very enthusiastic and noisy sports fans. I discovered that Bud Light was actually very therapeutic for a sore bladder, and tasted much better than potassium citrate. Once we had eaten we headed back home and were all tucked up in bed by 10:30pm, our alarms set for tomorrow.

Join me again for the next installment - Epcot, and our very first ride on Soarin!

 

[LivingtheWDWdream]

What a great report I just spent an hour catching up and I don't envy the long flights you have to take to get to Orlando, but your photos of your trip up to the gorge and sights really are amazing and I might have to plan a trip to the UK!

Sorry you weren't feeling well but you had a full day at AK which is one of my favorite parks!

I can't wait to read more!

 

[diberry]

After all my wise words to you last night Sarah I've just typed a lengthy response to your post, decided to refresh the page and lost it all! What an idiot! Will try again later - great first day!

 

[wilma-bride]

Great first day Sarah - it nearly always rains when we visit Animal Kingdom so it's nice to see what it's like when the sun shines.

You sound like my eldest DD, when it comes to ITTBAB - she refuses to put her glasses on and spends the entire time half-sitting/half-standing squealing a lot - and she's 15!!!

Looking forward to reading more.

 

[diberry]

Thanks so much for typing all that up again Sarah!
It looks like you had a brilliant time - you can nearly feel the heat looking at those pictures. Love Taryn's giraffe pic.
I remember that soaked look after coming off Kali - our favourite ride at AK.
Good to see all the DLP pins on Tony's lanyard!
I really hope someone else took a turn behind the camera so we get to see some pics of you too!
Looking forward to Epcot!

 

[anewmac]

looks like a great time, cant wait to go back and do animal kingdom now.

AND yes I too find Bud light to be a great medicine LOL

 

[MaryAz]

Great update, so sorry you lost the first one. AK looks so fun!