REPORTING LIVE FROM...Home! :(

[iloveeeyore]

Torrential downpour during IllumiNations tonight. Damp even with ponchos!

At yachtsman now. Best bread ever!

 

[emmysmommy]

Yay for Yachtsman! You are going to have such a wonderful dining review!!!

 

[stepdisney]

Glad you got some park time in before the downpour. Yay for Yachtsman Steak House. We'll be at YC very soon!

 

[pas130]

So we rode haunted mansion and its a small world with maybe 5 minute wait at each...and dh and i fell asleep on small world! Clearly it was time to head back...but first i really wanted to ride new dumbo in the dark!

Fell asleep on small world

Great choice on vn. I don't imagine you will be disappointed.

Marie will do great! I kept telling myself this is disney they wont hurt me! And they tell you how to signal them to pull you down if you want them to.

As for Dani maybe you can convince her to come to tambu on friday evening. DH and i plan on going for a drink anyway. We would love to meet you both. I am a bit shy but you don't have to worry about what to say...DH does a lot of talking!

We will be there!!!!! DH LOVES Tambu!!!! And I will be sure to grab Dani!!! So if you see a woman dragging a young, pretty Staten Islander by her ankles....that's us! My DH is the shy one...but after a Lapu Lapu...all good!!! What time Friday??? We are doing EMH at MK after so I will know when to be on the lookout for Eeyore

I love the Poly shirts at Boutiki!!!

 

[deenbrad]

I'm really looking forward to your dining report! These little dining tidbits keep throwing me off!

 

[iloveeeyore]

We pretty much closed down the yachtsman last night (maybe one or two couples left in there when we left around 11:20). We walked over to dhs which had evening emh and waited for the boat. First of all...the walk wasn't that short. Second we seemed to wait a long time for a bus. We finally boarded the bus at 11:55 and were back at the poly by 12:20 after stopping first at CR. We fell into bed shortly after that with lots of excitement for our next day at AK.

 

[iloveeeyore]

This was the morning we had booked the wild africa trek. We had an 8:45 tour so we were to arrive at 8:30 with closed toe shoes. After a little truffle mac and cheese breakfast from our fridge we headed out to the bus stop. We waited about 10 minutes and the bus arrived at 7:57. We were at AK by 8:18. We checked in for the tour, signed the release papers and headed in toward africa and the dawa bar which is where the group gets outfitted for the trek. There were 9 people on our tour, my family, another family of 4 ("kids" a little older than mine) and a man touring solo.

 

[OThopeful35]

Glad to hear that you are enjoying yourself and also good to know that I am not the only one who fell asleep on Its a Small World before

 

[jerseytinkerbell]

The suspense is killing me! I am really looking forward to reading all your dining reviews, especially Yachtsman. I REALLY want to do the Wild Africa Trek! Definitely want to read all about it!

 

[DebbyLof428]

Hope you had a great day at Animal Kingdom!! Is there a bounceback offer in your room? If so, what are the dates. Mahalo

 

[iloveeeyore]

We learned how to use our harnesses and carabiners and then started along the pangani trek to the special gate that took us along a trail along the river where the hippos and crocs are. We had intimate encounters with both and that was when we crossed that high suspended wooden bridge. Despite my fear of heights i felt completely safe at every moment. After the bridge we removed the harness and got into a small truck that broight us out onto the savannas. We were super close to so many animals...elands, giraffes, ankole cattle, elephants including 2 babies warthogs, wildebeasts, white rhinos, lion, cheetahs and more. In short it was excellent. We stopped at about 11 out on the savanna between the elephants and the lion and literally watched the animals while we ate this gorgeously prepared "snack" that was more like a meal. Aaron and Stephanie our guides were incredibly kind and knowledgeable and elevated the experience to another level. We were given water bottles name badges and conservation pins as souvenirs and will receive a photo CD of the experience in 3-4 weeks. I highly recommend this experience to anyone. We were so happy we did it!

 

[iloveeeyore]

We were done with the trek by about 12 and AK was the most crowded i have ever seen it! This was one of the days in our itinerary where easywdw and touring plans disagreed. Easywdw recommended AK and touringplans expressly did not. I signed up for touringplans after already scheduling our days and our tour based on recommendations of the former. We were a little nervous but ultimately decided not to switch since all we really wanted to do was the tour and ride EE. So after the trek we fought our way through africa and asia to grab fps for EE. Our time was 1:50-2:50 but the standby line was 75 minutes. Kali was wodse with fps at 3:30 and standby more than 100 minutes. It was so hot and crammed!

We did the maharaja because we love the bats and the tigers and then made our way back to africa because we wanted to do panjani. By the time we got to africa, we were wilting! Instead of walking the trail we decided to check in at tusker house for our lunch...scheduled for 1:30 but it was only 1:00. We were seated immediately.

 

[DebbyLof428]

We were done with the trek by about 12 and AK was the most crowded i have ever seen it! This was one of the days in our itinerary where easywdw and touring plans disagreed. Easywdw recommended AK and touringplans expressly did not. I signed up for touringplans after already scheduling our days and our tour based on recommendations of the former. We were a little nervous but ultimately decided not to switch since all we really wanted to do was the tour and ride EE. So after the trek we fought our way through africa and asia to grab fps for EE. Our time was 1:50-2:50 but the standby line was 75 minutes. Kali was wodse with fps at 3:30 and standby more than 100 minutes. It was so hot and crammed!

We did the maharaja because we love the bats and the tigers and then made our way back to africa because we wanted to do panjani. By the time we got to africa, we were wilting! Instead of walking the trail we decided to check in at tusker house for our lunch...scheduled for 1:30 but it was only 1:00. We were seated immediately.

The tour sounds like a lot of fun - might have to try it. I love the bats and tigers. Animal Kingdom has to be the hottest of the parks. I'm guessing you guys are exhausted so I hope you have a great night's sleep so you'll be all refreshed and ready to go in the morning.

 

[dvc at last !]

Thanks for keeping us who are not at WDW posted. Sounds like you are having a great vaca. I also like EE. Have never been to Tusker House -
how was your meal ? What did Eeyore order ?

 

[jsrj21]

Great job with this "LIVE" trip report . My family and I usually go every year from around August 2-11. This year however, we are doing a renovation project to my house and we couldn't go . I am totally living my WDW vacation through your reporting. Thank you so much for doing this.

Enjoy the rest of your stay!

 

[ireneryan]

I am looking forward to doing that tour once my DD is old enough to experience it. She's my partner in all things fun, but she's only 3.5 so we have some time to wait for that to be part of our trip.

I am so glad you had such a great time doing it and that you were able to be seated so quickly for your meal to save you from wilting.

Your report is just making me so excited for our trip and really I almost feel like I'm there with you now...almost!

 

[fightinillini229]

Really enjoying following along with your report!

We did MGM today and it was PACKED! Must be just a crowded week this week. Plenty of Brazilian tour groups to be found, but I don't want to get flamed too much so I'll leave it at that.

Tomorrow is MK for rope drop. Hopefully we all find a bit of relief from both the crowds and this marginal weather we've been experiencing!!

 

[iloveeeyore]

We rode EE at 2:20 and stopped in a few shops on the way out of the park. We were back at the poly by 3:30. We took a power nap and dh and i went out to the volcano pool. It was busy but not packed. The line for the slide was not bad at all. We found lounge chairs in the area where the kids water play area is. Ireneryan I'm sorry i didn't have my camera with me. I will take pics there tomorrow for you! It was fun to sit there and watch the little ones having so much fun.

After the pool fun we cleaned up for dinner and headed to dtd for raglan road. We were early so we got off the bus at the market place at 6:30 to meander over to pleasure island. I don't personally love dtd. Im not really a shopper and what i need i know i can find in the parks without going out of my way. I go because dh loves shopping in disney and the kids love raglan road. It has been my experience that the buses to and from there are terrible and a real hassle but i have to admit the last few trips the buses have been pretty good. Except they are not air conditioned...they are refrigerated! So so cold!

DD is looking for a specific item we can't find so i didn't mind going to look for it there. I now doubt the item exists. By the time we made our way to raglan road it was 7:30, half an hour before our adr. We checked in at 7:30 and were seated at 8:05. Of all our adrs, this was the one i was least excited about based on past experience. To find out if this time improved my opinion please watch for my dining report!

After dinner we checked out a few more stores, hopped on the meat locker um i mean bus, which stopped at CR first. We got back around 11:00.

Tomorrow's is rope drop at mk!

 

[ireneryan]

We rode EE at 2:20 and stopped in a few shops on the way out of the park. We were back at the poly by 3:30. We took a power nap and dh and i went out to the volcano pool. It was busy but not packed. The line for the slide was not bad at all. We found lounge chairs in the area where the kids water play area is. Ireneryan I'm sorry i didn't have my camera with me. I will take pics there tomorrow for you! It was fun to sit there and watch the little ones having so much fun.

Ooh and it is that close to the volcano pool? Lovely! I'm dying to see the pics so I can show my DD3.5, she likes to be well informed, I'm not kidding.

 

[iloveeeyore]

Sorry for so many typos. Im doing this on my phone so essentially texting the whole thing. It's too hard to edit the typos.

All bus rides to and from the poly take Adkins 20 minutes.

It isnt as hot as it was this same week in 2010.

It rains every day sometimes pours in afternoon or evening. Afterwards it feels cool...almost too cold to swim.

We encountered 3 big tour groups so far, one in epcot yesterday and two in mk sunday.

We haven't waited longer than 9 minutes for any boat bus or monorail so far.

Deluxe dining is too much food for us even though it's 2 ts per day. We are glad we tried it but won't do it again.