"Rushing" Through The World - **LIVE** September 2010 (updated: 9/7/10 with pictures)

[twelveone]

Day Three Summary:

Today began with an early morning trip to the Animal Kingdom for breakfast at the Tusker House. We had never been to the Tusker House before so we did not really know what to expect. Upon arriving, we were greeted by Safari Donald for a picture. They later came by the table and offered the picture package to us for around $30. As far as the food goes, I must say, it was the best breakfast I have had at Disney. We are used to Chef Mickey's breakfast and have made it a tradition, but the Tusker House was way better. The biscuits and gravy were great, lots of bacon, and even doughnuts. We had a fabulous server named Luis. He was fast, courteous, and helpful. As we were seated in at our table, Mickey, Goofy & Daisey were busy posing for pictures and signing autographs. Our waiter instructed us to simple wait for the characters to arrive at our table before getting our food. This was great advice. Within a matter of minutes, all three characters made there way to our table. We were then able to get our food and eat without interruption. Here are a couple of pictures from the breakfast.





After breakfast, we went immediately to the Kilimanjaro Safaris and enjoyed watching the animals. Our 1 year-old son was so full from breakfast that he fell asleep on the bumpy roads of the safari.



After the safari ride, we made our way to get FastPasses for Expedition Everest. My daredevil 5 year-old daughter was excited about her first ride on the attraction. Upon arriving and getting FastPasses, we realized that the attraction only had a 10 minute wait and was virtually a walk-on. So we decided to ride now and ride again later with the FastPasses. My daughter had a blast. As a matter of fact, she rode it two more times after that. After Everest, we went to get in line for Finding Nemo: The Musical. We cannot go to the Animal Kingdom without see this attraction. We waited for a while, but the spot was shady and the wait was enjoyable. My son did not cooperate with us during the show and my wife ended up taking him out early so we did not interrupt the other guest. The two of them played around outside until the show was over.



When then went back to Everest to use the Fast Passes we had picked up earlier. My wife and daughter each rode two more times. By this time we had worked up enough of an appetite again to get a couple of chicken nugget meals from the Restaurant-asaurus. We shared them as a family, which means we have a ton of quick service and snack credits left. I ran over to grab a couple Fast Passes for Dinosaur while everyone else finished their snack. My wife, then, took our son over to the Baby Care Center so he could get a nap in the air conditioning (although I am wondering if it was more for her). The rest of the group made our way to It's Tough to be a Bug. After the show, we wasted some time looking around and then I went to the Baby Care Center to meet my wife. My mother-in-law agreed to watch all the kids while my wife, her dad, and I went on Dinosaur. It was my wife's first time riding the attraction and I think it may also be her last. She was not thrilled. After Dinosaur was all made our way to the bus station to pick up a bus for Fort Wilderness. By this time, it was 4:30 and the park was closing soon. Here are a few photos from the day.


(Don't worry, I had the flash off.)



I know it sounds like we didn't do much, but this is part of our new "relaxed" approach to the parks. I must admit, it is taking me some getting used to. As I expected, the crowds were much heavier today than the past two days. They were still manageable. The heat was a little worse today, but I always find Animal Kingdom to be the hottest park. It is our families' least favorite park and we might not make it back there the rest of the trip. Although, the kids still want to ride Kali River Rapids.

For me, the favorite part of our day was our dinner at the Whispering Canyon Cafe. The food was great, but the atmosphere was the greatest. Although we arrived an hour early for our reservation, we were seat immediately. I ordered the Rib Eye, my wife ordered the Pot Roast, and both her parents ordered the Canyon Skillet. The kids had the chicken kids meal. Our waitress had a great time teasing us throughout the entire meal. Anyone who has eaten their knows what happens when you ask for ketchup. Our kids loved it. In the middle of the meal, the entire restaurant had to get up and do the hokey pokey. After my third refill of coke, the waitress brought me out this huge glass of coke that I would never be able to finish. My father in law drank his weight in the bottomless milk shakes and when he could drink know more, she brought him out one in a mug about the size of a shot glass. The kids rode around the restaurant on wooden horses and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. It really was a great meal. Here are a few photos.

The Rib Eye


The Pot Roast


The Canyon Skillet


My Oversized Coke


Before heading back to the All-Star Sports, I rode the boat over to Fort Wilderness just to checkout the place. We will be pulling our Travel Trailer down for an extended weekend stay at Fort Wilderness in January. I just wanted to take a look around. After doing so, I am more excited about our trip in January. It is sad when I still have 7 days left in this trip and I am counting down the days until the next one.

We do not have any Table Service reservations for tomorrow as we will be at Hollywood Studios and there really isn't a place we wanted to eat. We have been to the 50's many times and while we like it, we did not want to go again on this trip. I try to keep updating from the parks when I get the chance, Again, you can follow me on twitter or using our flickr page.

 

[twelveone]

Day Four Summary:

I am posting this from my phone on the way back to our room at the resort, so it will be short. It is 12:35 a.m. local time and we spent the last few hours utilizing the extra magic hours at the Magic Kingdom. The crowds were heavy today! I will give a summary tomorrow. For now, we just need to get kids in bed.

Until tomorrow...

 

[onescgirl]

I'm enjoying your live TR & pictures! Looks like ya'll are having a great time!
The food pics are making me hungry, especially the fish & chips!

Yay for your brave daughter riding EE!
I have to ask why your wife did not like dinosaur because I plan to ride it for the 1st time on this trip.

Have fun today! I'm sure the park will be crowded today, but hopefully tomorrow the crowds will go back down for you.

 

[opal6779]

Just wanted to chime in - really enjoying the TR and pics! It's interesting to keep up with one that's semi-live hope the parks slow back down for you after today.....looks like everyone's having fun anyways! (We'll be down there in October with my 2 little ones (4 and 1) and my grandparents, so ours will be a more "relaxed" trip too, hope we have as much luck with the crowds!) Thanks for sharing!

 

[twelveone]

I'm back at the Yorkshire Fish Shop for more Fish and Chips today. The crowds are lighter todayI'll post yesterday's and today's summary tonight. For now, I am taking the girls in play at innoventions.

 

[twelveone]

Day Four Summary Continued:

With no breakfast reservations to make, we woke up around 7:00 and made our way to the Hollywood Studios around 10:00 a.m. I gathered everyone's tickets and quickly made my way to Toy Story Midway Mania to grab FastPasses for later in the day. By the time I made it to the FastPass Kiosk, the return time was already 2:20 p.m. The cast member at the kiosk told me that she expected the passes to be gone within the hour. This alone should give you an idea of the crowds we faced. I met the group at the Tower of Terror since my 5 year-old daughter wanted to ride. She is the dare devil in our family. My 7 year-old wanted nothing to do with the ride. Our wait was somewhere around 25 minutes. During the ride, she appeared a little scared, but told us later that she wanted to ride again.



After Tower of Terror, my father-in-law and I went to wait in the 30 minute line for Rockin' Roller Coaster while everyone else went to meet the Playhouse Disney Characters and watch the Little Mermaid Adventure. We met up after these attractions to have lunch at the Backlot Express. Lunch was nothing special, just a hamburger and some chicken nuggets. After lunch, we made our way to the Lights, Motors, Action Stunt Show. This the first of only two shows for the day so the stadium was packed and HOT! We endured the heat and enjoyed the show.



Immediately following the show, we thought we would use our FastPasses for Toy Story Mania. The crowds, however, were so heavy, the standby wait time was nearly 2 1/2 hours and the fast pass return line was even out the door. I spoke with a cast member who informed me that even with our FastPasses we should expect to wait close to 40 minutes. He advised us to come back later. We took his advise and decided that the combination of the crowds and heat were just too much to deal with so we went back to the resort for an afternoon nap.

After our afternoon nap, my in-laws decided to keep our 1 year-old son at the resort while my wife and the girls went back to take advantage of our Toy Story Midway Mania FastPasses. It was around 7:00 p.m. when we arrived back at the Hollywood Studios. The crowds were lighter and the sun was going down. Many people were already lined up for the 8:00 p.m. showing of Fantasmic! We went straight to the Toy Story Mania and were on the ride in less than 10 minutes.





Here was my score!



We then went to Pizza Planet for dinner.



On our way out of the park, we stopped to ride Star Tours since the attraction will be closing on Tuesday.

After Star Tours, we thought it might be fun to head over to the Magic Kingdom since it was Extra Magic Hours. We arrived right as the Main Street Electrical Parade was beginning. If I thought the crowds at the Hollywood Studios were bad, they were nothing compared to the Magic Kingdom crowd. The cast members were directing guest around Main Street via backstage from Tony's Town Square to the Plaza Restaurant. I just knew that if we could get away from Main Street and the Hub, the crowds in the rest of the park would be light. As my wife was quick to remind me, I was completely wrong! The crowds stayed heavy all the way until end of Wishes. We decided to wait crowd out by riding the TTA Peoplemover. We waited the 10 minutes it took to get on!



Once Wishes was over most of the crowd headed towards the exit. It was not 10:00 p.m. and Extra Magic Hours had begun. While there were still alot of people in the park, we were able to ride several rides with only a minimal wait. In the hour and a half we stayed at the park, we rode, Peter Pan, The Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Jungle Cruise, and the Magic Carpets. The short wait times and the cool night made this a great time to be at the park. We finally returned to our hotel around 12:45 a.m.

 

[twelveone]

I have to ask why your wife did not like dinosaur because I plan to ride it for the 1st time on this trip.

My wife said the ride was just too loud. It is a very rough and bumpy ride, but it can be exhilarating. I always try to ride when at the Animal Kingdom. My wife is the one who usually watches the kids while I ride. This time, her mom watched them so her dad and the two of us could ride.

It is worth going on at least once.

 

[twelveone]

Day Five Summary:

We scheduled a relaxing shopping day for the middle of our trip. Because of the late night last night, we slept in until around 8:00 a.m. My wife planned to take our son and her mom to DownTown Disney to do some shopping. Our original plan was to left me keep the girls at the resort, and then meet her at Planet Hollywood for dinner at 5:00 p.m. After talking with the girls, they wanted to go to Epcot instead of swimming at the resort. I was more than happy to take them and my father-in-law joined us. We do much at Epcot. The girls wanted to ride Spaceship Earth immediately upon entering the park. There was no wait!



After Spaceship Earth, made our way to the Kim Possible mission station to try schedule our mission. We were to report at the International Gateway at 11:30 a.m. Well, it was already 11:00 a.m. so we went straight there. We were given our phone, I mean our "Kimmunicator", and I was so glad our adventure was in France. It meant a short walk in the heat. My 7 year-old had a blast, but the 5 year-old was bored and wanted to ride more rides. They have completely different personalities. While in France we stop our adventure long enough to take pictures with Aurora and Marie.

After our adventure was over, we may our way to Innoventions to play some of the games they have. Particularly, the one "piggy bank game" and the trash truck game" as my kids called them. We had a lot of fun and the best part was that we were in the air conditioning. We wasted a couple of hours playing around, then decided to ride Spaceship Earth once more time before heading to DownTown Disney Early. Here are a few pictures from the day.







Since we drove to Epcot, we simply got in the car and made the short drive over to DownTown Disney. It was around 3:30 p.m. when we arrived, so we wasted a little time looking through the World of Disney store. You could tell it was Labor Day because many people were trying to get their last minute souvenirs before heading home. We were even greeted by one family who were headed to the airport but wanted to get rid of some free breakfast coupons they had for the Disney Resorts. We took them off their hands and may used them later in the week. After shopping, we went to Planet Hollywood and had a very tasty dinner. I, of course, had the New York Strip, the kids had cheese pizza and spaghetti and my wife had the turkey club.









Tomorrow we have early breakfast reservations at Chef Mickey's and dinner reservations at Ohana. I had to work hard to keep that Ohana reservation so I am hoping it was worth the effort. We hope to spend the entire day at the Magic Kingdom.

Again, you can follow me on Twitter and on Flickr for updates on our trip!




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[cjtwer]

I'm ejoying your updates. Hope you have a great meal @ Ohanas tomorrow. Looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip.

 

[twelveone]

Day Six Summary:

Today was our earliest morning yet. We had to reservations for Chef Mickey's at 7:40 a.m. so we had to leave our resort with plenty of time to get to the Contemporary. My wife was up by 4:45 a.m. and I was up shortly after. We managed to get the kids and grandparent out of the room by 6:15 a.m. We decided to drive to the TTC and take the Monorail over to the Contemporary Resort. That way we could just get back on the Monorail for our day at the Magic Kingdom. We were so early pulling into the TTC that the parking attendants were not our and I pulled into the first spot on the first row. It was kind of spooky getting there so early. We walked over to the Resort Monorail and was told it would be another 20 minutes we could get on. Our wait went by quick and a we soon found ourselves at the restaurant.





Chef Mickey's has become a tradition for our family. We have been there nearly five times in the past few years. Our girls were really excited about this breakfast. The breakfast is a buffet style breakfast that is similar to almost any Disney breakfast buffet. They had biscuits, gravy, eggs, bacon, sausage, fruit, and much more. After eating at the Tusker House, both my wife and I agreed that the food seemed better there than at Chef Mickey's. The environment was fun for the kids. The characters came out to meet each table. We got autographs and pictures with each one, except Donald. Somehow, Donald skipped our table while Mickey was with us. We thought he would come back but he never did and we did not mention it to our waitress. To be honest, we have enough pictures of Chef Donald. We decided that we would rather make our way to the Magic Kingdom than wait Donald to make his way around.



We arrived at the Magic Kingdom via Resort Monorail just a few minutes before the opening ceremony. This ceremony is a family favorite. After the park opening, we made the dash to Fantasy Land to ride Dumbo before the line got too long. We took advantage of the short lines and continued our way through Fantasy Land. We then worked our way over to the Tomorrow Land Speedway. I really dislike the ride and would love for it to be replaced with something that fits the theme of Tomorrow Land, but the girls love it so went for the drive. The line was really short, but it took us nearly 30 minutes to ride because the cars kept breaking down. It was unreal the amount of trouble these cars were having.

From there we went to Toon Town to meet Minnie & Mickey. The wait was only about 20 minutes. The line for the Fairies had a 45 minute wait posted, but I feel sure it would have taken less time. We asked our girls if they wanted to go meet either the princesses or the fairies and they said, "no." This was a shock to me as they are usually excited to get autographs. I guess they have just done it too much. Maybe the Disney excitement has worn off? It was after leaving Toon Town and entering Tomorrow Land for Space Mountain that we realized the crowds really were light. The wait for Space Mountain never exceeded 10 minutes. All the other rides around the park were virtually walk-on. The only long lines I saw were at Peter Pan & Dumbo. Even those were not as long as they had been the days before. It was nice to have manageable crowds again. We rode everything we wanted to, and still had time to waste before our dinner reservations at Ohana.

The only draw back on the day was the heat. It was incredibility hot and the heat is starting to takes it toll on us. Even though we are going slower than usual, the heat still has us extremely exhausted. I was hoping for rain all day, just to cool things off. We only got a short shower around 4:00 p.m. Overall, our day at the Magic Kingdom was fun! We accomplished all of our "must do" attractions and were even able to go on many favorites several times. For some reason, Pirates was closed when we were in Adventure Land. I don't know if this was all day or just the brief time we were there. Here are some photos from the day.

The Opening Ceremony


Goofy's Barnstormer


The Tea Cups


Dumbo


We were able to get so much done today that we lost one one of the wheels on our stroller in all the walking. It has been through several Disney trips so I am surprised it has lasted this long. I think it was the fact that my 5 year-old and my 7 year-old both sat on it at the same time since they were tired of walking. I just put the wheel back on and am hoping it will last the rest of the trip.



We left the Magic Kingdom around 5:00 p.m. in order to make our reservation at Ohana. We took the boat across the Seven Seas Lagoon and make our way upstairs to the restaurant. We were promptly seated and explained how we would be served. Ohana uses a "family style" of service meaning they bring to food to the table and every eats from those plates. If you want more, you ask and they bring it. Most of our family was nervous about this meal as they have traditional taste in food. Most of our group enjoyed the salad, but the pork dumplings and the noodles did not go over very well. I really enjoyed the pork dumplings dipped in the sweet & sour sauce, but I was alone in that. It was not until they our waiter started bringing the meats that the meal really kicked off. The steak and the chicken were the biggest hits. I asked for seconds and then thirds on both. Everyone enjoyed the food. The waiter recognized that our kids were not going to eat anything, so he brought them each plates of chicken nuggets and french fries. They were much happier after that. We really enjoyed our time at Ohana and will likely return their at some point. I would not add it to our "must do" list just yet though.





We do not have plans for tomorrow except for dinner at Teppan Edo. That means we will probably sleep as late as our kids will let us and then make our way to Epcot. I am hoping for an overcast day simply to get some relief from the heat.


I also thought I would add that most of the picture I have posted on the thread have been taken from our phones. This is why the quality is not the best. It is hard to upload the pictures from my camera since my internet connection is slow. I am tethering my phone to the computer in order to get online and it is not as fast as I would like. It still beats paying Disney $10 per 24 hours for internet.

Until tomorrow....