dianachaney77
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2008
Enjoying your report! I love that you were able to surprise your family.
Shopping and Eating Our Way Around the World. Feb 2018 Mother/Daughter TR Updated 7/10!
- Thread starter Pluto0809
- Start date
dizneefan13
Earning My Fins
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2013
Great new update. We don't do the character meals so I live vicariously through yours! lol
Nice items to add to your collections. I'll have to check out those owls. How many colors do they have?
Nice items to add to your collections. I'll have to check out those owls. How many colors do they have?
Pluto0809
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2012
I'm sorry Mom wasn't feeling well this morning. I can usually count on Disney food getting the best of me at least once a trip as well.
Great PP pics in Pandora! I'm glad your mom ended up loving FoP! And that you found the sweatshirt you wanted!
That stinks that Tusker House wasn't the bestThe character pics came out cute though!
Disney food is just so rich, it's a rare trip when it doesn't bother me at least once.
Yeah, I still can't pinpoint why we didn't care for Tusker House that day. It may have just been how we were both feeling more than the food. Although I will say the Mac and Cheese was definitely off that day.
Yes, the Shaman is the best part of NRJ but still not worth the FP to me. I think we are going to try to rope drop that one in October.
Someday I might get up the nerve to try Tiffins. The menu is just a bit too adventurous for me but it gets such rave reviews I really want to try it out.
Thanks! Glad you are enjoying it.
I actually have a whole trip planned in October with zero character meals! I'm going with my Brother and SIL and they don't like them. I did manage to sneak one in on my August trip although I'm not usually a fan of doing them when I'm there solo.
I wasn't sure how many colors but I managed to find the little paper they give you when you purchase one. Looks like there are 10 colors.
Pluto0809
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2012
Visiting Our Favorite Primates
We had some time to kill before our Safari FP so we headed towards the Gorilla Falls Trail. Mom and I can spend just as much time looking at animals as we can shopping.
We spent a lot of time at the gorilla habitat. Lilly was sitting near the windows and the two young males, Cory and Flint, came down the hill as we watched. Lilly was born in 2010 and the two boys a month apart in 2014. Mom and I have watched the three of them grow up over the years and we are always fascinated to see the changes since the last visit.
Eventually we tore ourselves away from the gorillas and headed off to use our FP for the safari.
I love seeing the Hippos out of the water, it’s such a rare occurrence.
After our safari, we headed back over to Tusker House to say hi to the Chicago Gang. They also had a late lunch ADR with Rivers of Light Package. My poor aunt was in bad shape. She has motion sickness issues like I do and FOP had done her in. She said she came very close to throwing up. It’s funny how some rides affect people differently because I was fine on FOP. I did get slightly nauseous the very first time I rode but I quickly figured out what part of the movie affected me and I’m able to combat it by concentrating on one area of the screen during that scene.
We talked for a few minutes and then Mom and I headed off. I told them to text me when they got done and were headed to Dinosaur and we would meet them there. They did tell me later that they liked Tusker House but had a bizarre incident at the very beginning. Their name was called and they headed into the restaurant only to discover someone was already at the table they were being lead to. The CM told them that someone else had said they were my Uncle’s group and took their table. While my Uncle does have a pretty common last name I find that pretty unbelievable and I think the restaurant just screwed up. They had to stand off to the side for a few minutes until they got another table ready for them.
Meanwhile, Mom and I headed around towards Asia because we wanted to see if the baby tigers were out.
We were both dragging a little so we stopped at an ice cream cart near the Flights of Wonder theater and shared a Diet Coke. We sat on a bench there for a while and just relaxed. The area was very quiet because FOW was still closed for renovations. I actually hit up pretty much every ice cream cart around AK because they all have pin boards. You’ll see at the end of my report the treasure trove of pins I found that day. I love pin hunting at AK!
We continued on but got sidetracked once again by more animals. This time it was the Gibbons.
As we were standing there gawking at the monkeys, I noticed that a lot of other people were gawking up at the sky. I kind of knew there was a rocket launch that day but didn’t realize we might be able to see it from Disney. NASA launched their SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket that day. All we could see was a white streak that could easily be mistaken for an airplane but several people around us were watching the launch on their cell phones so we knew that’s what it was. Pretty cool, unexpected bonus that day.
Up Next: Finishing Out a Fun Filled Trip
We had some time to kill before our Safari FP so we headed towards the Gorilla Falls Trail. Mom and I can spend just as much time looking at animals as we can shopping.
We spent a lot of time at the gorilla habitat. Lilly was sitting near the windows and the two young males, Cory and Flint, came down the hill as we watched. Lilly was born in 2010 and the two boys a month apart in 2014. Mom and I have watched the three of them grow up over the years and we are always fascinated to see the changes since the last visit.
Eventually we tore ourselves away from the gorillas and headed off to use our FP for the safari.
I love seeing the Hippos out of the water, it’s such a rare occurrence.
After our safari, we headed back over to Tusker House to say hi to the Chicago Gang. They also had a late lunch ADR with Rivers of Light Package. My poor aunt was in bad shape. She has motion sickness issues like I do and FOP had done her in. She said she came very close to throwing up. It’s funny how some rides affect people differently because I was fine on FOP. I did get slightly nauseous the very first time I rode but I quickly figured out what part of the movie affected me and I’m able to combat it by concentrating on one area of the screen during that scene.
We talked for a few minutes and then Mom and I headed off. I told them to text me when they got done and were headed to Dinosaur and we would meet them there. They did tell me later that they liked Tusker House but had a bizarre incident at the very beginning. Their name was called and they headed into the restaurant only to discover someone was already at the table they were being lead to. The CM told them that someone else had said they were my Uncle’s group and took their table. While my Uncle does have a pretty common last name I find that pretty unbelievable and I think the restaurant just screwed up. They had to stand off to the side for a few minutes until they got another table ready for them.
Meanwhile, Mom and I headed around towards Asia because we wanted to see if the baby tigers were out.
We were both dragging a little so we stopped at an ice cream cart near the Flights of Wonder theater and shared a Diet Coke. We sat on a bench there for a while and just relaxed. The area was very quiet because FOW was still closed for renovations. I actually hit up pretty much every ice cream cart around AK because they all have pin boards. You’ll see at the end of my report the treasure trove of pins I found that day. I love pin hunting at AK!
We continued on but got sidetracked once again by more animals. This time it was the Gibbons.
As we were standing there gawking at the monkeys, I noticed that a lot of other people were gawking up at the sky. I kind of knew there was a rocket launch that day but didn’t realize we might be able to see it from Disney. NASA launched their SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket that day. All we could see was a white streak that could easily be mistaken for an airplane but several people around us were watching the launch on their cell phones so we knew that’s what it was. Pretty cool, unexpected bonus that day.
Up Next: Finishing Out a Fun Filled Trip
missangelalexis
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2012
Great pics from the trail!
How bizarre that someone took your Uncles table at TH!
I love that the carts at AK have pin boards!
How bizarre that someone took your Uncles table at TH!
I love that the carts at AK have pin boards!
Pluto0809
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2012
It was a very bizarre story from Tusker House and that's why I think they were just trying to cover for screwing up somehow.
AK is the best park for pin hunting, I always have great luck there.
Pluto0809
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2012
Finishing Out a Fun Filled Trip
After watching the Rocket launch, we moved on to the Maharajah Jungle Trek. We were hoping to catch a glimpse of the tiger cubs, Anala and Jeda. Jim and I got to see them in January although he was not really impressed. What we didn’t realize was that they were getting ready to shut down the trail for the night. It was 4 pm at that time and I think we were one of the last to be let on the trail.
We did stop at some of the other animals but didn’t dawdle since the tigers were our main goal.
Hidden Mickey!
Unfortunately when we got to the Tiger enclosure, the CM there told us the babies had already gone in for the night. There was only one male tiger out and the only place to see him was through a very dirty window that was crowded with people. This is the only shot I got and it’s horrible.
We ended up hurrying through the rest of the trail so we could head towards Dinosaur. I only took one more picture of this bizarre bird in the aviary. I don’t think I have ever seen one of these before.
And that was also one of the last photos I took that night. We made it over to Dinosaur before the Chicago Gang so we got ice water at Restaurantasarus and sat outside waiting for them to get there. They arrived and we headed to the ride. My aunt still wasn’t feeling right from FOP so she sat out with Emmett who was too little to ride.
I tried to warn the Mom’s a bit about how intense the ride was. Once again, Maddie and Lewie (in the front seat) loved the ride, while Isla (middle seat) and Ray (back seat next to me) were terrified. Ray screamed at the top of his lungs the entire ride. I felt so bad for him but there was nothing more I could do for him that his Mom wasn’t already doing. And then of course, right before the end we got stuck for about 5 minutes. Poor Ray was such a mess when we got off the ride.
When we finally exited, my Uncle pulled two rider swaps for FOP out of his pocket and asked who wanted to ride again. Each pass was good for 3 people so they had 6 slots available. Lewie immediately said he did as did one of my cousins and his wife. Ray did not, no surprise he had hated the ride. I’m sure miss daredevil Maddie would have gone but she had been a millimeter too short for the ride. My Uncle said he would go which left two spots. No one else volunteered so my Uncle turned to me and Mom and said we were going. I wasn’t going to protest!
So we split up. The other group talked about going to see It’s Tough to be a Bug but I talked them out of it since it’s just as scary as Dinosaur. No need to traumatize the kids on back to back attractions. They ended up going on the Safari again. We agreed to meet up at the Dining Package entrance for Rivers of Light which was right across from the Finding Nemo theater.
We headed back to Pandora and enjoyed another ride on FOP. Still loved it just as much on ride #4. My cousin’s wife is a bit of a ride chicken but they talked her into trying FOP and she ended up loving it. Funny though, her favorite ride of the day was Dinosaur, the same ride that terrorized her son.
After FOP, we needed to head back for ROL. I did not want to be cold again after freezing the previous two nights so I ran ahead to our locker to grab my sweatshirt. I was so fast that I caught up to them right by Flame Tree. When we got to the entrance, the other group was nowhere to be seen. We tried calling them but no one answered. Eventually they got someone to answer and it turns out they went to the FP entrance which is way over by the entrance to EE. They finally arrived but then had to park strollers and run to the bathroom so we ended up entering the dining section much later than I wanted to. I wanted to get us seats either on the stone benches or on the first row of wooden seats. We ended up on the second row of wooden seats and our view sucked. The wooden seats are not angled very well so mostly we saw heads. I didn’t even try to take pictures. I liked the show a lot when we saw it in January but this time I was bored by it. Mom didn’t like it either and the kids were pretty restless during the whole thing. I don’t think I’ll bother seeing it again for a while if at all.
The park was closed after ROL so we followed the masses out to the buses. I took one last blurry picture of the tree as we exited.
Before we left the park we said our goodbyes to the Chicago Gang. They were doing one more half day at HS but Mom and I had a flight out at 1 pm the next day.
The bus stops were crazy but we managed to get on a bus pretty quickly because they were sending one right after the other. When we got back to the resort we realized we were hungry so we dropped our bags off at our room and walked over to the food court. I took a few pictures along the way.
At the food court, I ended up getting roasted chicken with a double side of mashed potatoes. I didn’t like any of the other sides so the CM gave me two scoops of the potatoes.
Mom got fried chicken with what looks like rice and cabbage (?) as her sides.
The food was OK, nothing special and the mashed potatoes were a bit runny. But it did the trick and filled us up.
Here’s my haul of pins for the day. I had some great luck at AK with all the pin boards they have. The Maleficent one is my favorite from this trip.
And I made a Pop Century pressed penny at the food court that night.
And my Fitbit stats.
Let’s finish out the last day since I only have a few more pictures to post. First up a photo of all the toiletries that the Mousekeepers left us. We only used one or two bars of soap but they just kept leaving us more. I almost took it home with me but I knew I wouldn’t use it so we left them behind.
We packed up our suitcases and hauled them over to the TSA area. There was no line so we had our bags checked quickly and headed in for some breakfast. I decided to have one more plate of Mickey waffles. I don’t know what Mom had because I forgot to take a picture.
Then we made on last round of the gift shop. I bought a Pop Century magnet.
And a pair of Mickey earrings.
When I checked out, I noticed a Donald pin on the CMs lanyard so I traded her for it. Donald is Jim’s favorite so I try to grab Donald pins for him.
We then went back to our room and picked up our carry-ons and headed to the Magical Express. Our trip to the airport was without incident and we grabbed some McDonald’s fish sandwiches to hold us over on the plane. My flight was first so we said goodbye.
When I arrived at the Atlanta airport there was a tragic accident. When I was walking along my big carry-on bag fell off of my shoulder and ripped the ear off of my Stitch bag.
I was so sad but luckily a friend was able to fix him. I’ve decided to retire him from air flights though so it doesn’t happen again. I’ll probably just use him locally. I recently got a new Disney backpack for future trips but don’t have any pictures to share at this time. I'm sure it will show up in future TRs!
I made it home without any more incidents and that folks is the end! I do have two more pictures to share with you. First up is my budding elephant collection. I bought the one on the left out in CA. The middle one was from this trip and the end one came from AK during my January trip. I haven't even gotten that far in my January TR!
And finally my File cabinet with all of my magnets. I used to collect key chains everywhere I went but they got cumbersome to display so I switched to magnets.
Overall this was a really fun trip. Trips with Mom are always a little different since we take it so much slower. We didn’t get on a whole lot of rides but that was OK. Since we are lucky enough to go so often we can pick and choose what we want to do each trip. October is definitely going to be interesting trying to balance the slower pace for my Mom with trying to get a lot done for John and Jocelyn who only go every 3 or 4 years. We might have to find Mom benches here and there while the rest of us go off to do stuff.
Thanks for reading along! I still have my PTR going for August and October and also my TR from January. So if you haven't joined either of those, come on over! Links are in my signature.
After watching the Rocket launch, we moved on to the Maharajah Jungle Trek. We were hoping to catch a glimpse of the tiger cubs, Anala and Jeda. Jim and I got to see them in January although he was not really impressed. What we didn’t realize was that they were getting ready to shut down the trail for the night. It was 4 pm at that time and I think we were one of the last to be let on the trail.
We did stop at some of the other animals but didn’t dawdle since the tigers were our main goal.
Hidden Mickey!
Unfortunately when we got to the Tiger enclosure, the CM there told us the babies had already gone in for the night. There was only one male tiger out and the only place to see him was through a very dirty window that was crowded with people. This is the only shot I got and it’s horrible.
We ended up hurrying through the rest of the trail so we could head towards Dinosaur. I only took one more picture of this bizarre bird in the aviary. I don’t think I have ever seen one of these before.
And that was also one of the last photos I took that night. We made it over to Dinosaur before the Chicago Gang so we got ice water at Restaurantasarus and sat outside waiting for them to get there. They arrived and we headed to the ride. My aunt still wasn’t feeling right from FOP so she sat out with Emmett who was too little to ride.
I tried to warn the Mom’s a bit about how intense the ride was. Once again, Maddie and Lewie (in the front seat) loved the ride, while Isla (middle seat) and Ray (back seat next to me) were terrified. Ray screamed at the top of his lungs the entire ride. I felt so bad for him but there was nothing more I could do for him that his Mom wasn’t already doing. And then of course, right before the end we got stuck for about 5 minutes. Poor Ray was such a mess when we got off the ride.
When we finally exited, my Uncle pulled two rider swaps for FOP out of his pocket and asked who wanted to ride again. Each pass was good for 3 people so they had 6 slots available. Lewie immediately said he did as did one of my cousins and his wife. Ray did not, no surprise he had hated the ride. I’m sure miss daredevil Maddie would have gone but she had been a millimeter too short for the ride. My Uncle said he would go which left two spots. No one else volunteered so my Uncle turned to me and Mom and said we were going. I wasn’t going to protest!
So we split up. The other group talked about going to see It’s Tough to be a Bug but I talked them out of it since it’s just as scary as Dinosaur. No need to traumatize the kids on back to back attractions. They ended up going on the Safari again. We agreed to meet up at the Dining Package entrance for Rivers of Light which was right across from the Finding Nemo theater.
We headed back to Pandora and enjoyed another ride on FOP. Still loved it just as much on ride #4. My cousin’s wife is a bit of a ride chicken but they talked her into trying FOP and she ended up loving it. Funny though, her favorite ride of the day was Dinosaur, the same ride that terrorized her son.
After FOP, we needed to head back for ROL. I did not want to be cold again after freezing the previous two nights so I ran ahead to our locker to grab my sweatshirt. I was so fast that I caught up to them right by Flame Tree. When we got to the entrance, the other group was nowhere to be seen. We tried calling them but no one answered. Eventually they got someone to answer and it turns out they went to the FP entrance which is way over by the entrance to EE. They finally arrived but then had to park strollers and run to the bathroom so we ended up entering the dining section much later than I wanted to. I wanted to get us seats either on the stone benches or on the first row of wooden seats. We ended up on the second row of wooden seats and our view sucked. The wooden seats are not angled very well so mostly we saw heads. I didn’t even try to take pictures. I liked the show a lot when we saw it in January but this time I was bored by it. Mom didn’t like it either and the kids were pretty restless during the whole thing. I don’t think I’ll bother seeing it again for a while if at all.
The park was closed after ROL so we followed the masses out to the buses. I took one last blurry picture of the tree as we exited.
Before we left the park we said our goodbyes to the Chicago Gang. They were doing one more half day at HS but Mom and I had a flight out at 1 pm the next day.
The bus stops were crazy but we managed to get on a bus pretty quickly because they were sending one right after the other. When we got back to the resort we realized we were hungry so we dropped our bags off at our room and walked over to the food court. I took a few pictures along the way.
At the food court, I ended up getting roasted chicken with a double side of mashed potatoes. I didn’t like any of the other sides so the CM gave me two scoops of the potatoes.
Mom got fried chicken with what looks like rice and cabbage (?) as her sides.
The food was OK, nothing special and the mashed potatoes were a bit runny. But it did the trick and filled us up.
Here’s my haul of pins for the day. I had some great luck at AK with all the pin boards they have. The Maleficent one is my favorite from this trip.
And I made a Pop Century pressed penny at the food court that night.
And my Fitbit stats.
Let’s finish out the last day since I only have a few more pictures to post. First up a photo of all the toiletries that the Mousekeepers left us. We only used one or two bars of soap but they just kept leaving us more. I almost took it home with me but I knew I wouldn’t use it so we left them behind.
We packed up our suitcases and hauled them over to the TSA area. There was no line so we had our bags checked quickly and headed in for some breakfast. I decided to have one more plate of Mickey waffles. I don’t know what Mom had because I forgot to take a picture.
Then we made on last round of the gift shop. I bought a Pop Century magnet.
And a pair of Mickey earrings.
When I checked out, I noticed a Donald pin on the CMs lanyard so I traded her for it. Donald is Jim’s favorite so I try to grab Donald pins for him.
We then went back to our room and picked up our carry-ons and headed to the Magical Express. Our trip to the airport was without incident and we grabbed some McDonald’s fish sandwiches to hold us over on the plane. My flight was first so we said goodbye.
When I arrived at the Atlanta airport there was a tragic accident. When I was walking along my big carry-on bag fell off of my shoulder and ripped the ear off of my Stitch bag.
I was so sad but luckily a friend was able to fix him. I’ve decided to retire him from air flights though so it doesn’t happen again. I’ll probably just use him locally. I recently got a new Disney backpack for future trips but don’t have any pictures to share at this time. I'm sure it will show up in future TRs!
I made it home without any more incidents and that folks is the end! I do have two more pictures to share with you. First up is my budding elephant collection. I bought the one on the left out in CA. The middle one was from this trip and the end one came from AK during my January trip. I haven't even gotten that far in my January TR!
And finally my File cabinet with all of my magnets. I used to collect key chains everywhere I went but they got cumbersome to display so I switched to magnets.
Overall this was a really fun trip. Trips with Mom are always a little different since we take it so much slower. We didn’t get on a whole lot of rides but that was OK. Since we are lucky enough to go so often we can pick and choose what we want to do each trip. October is definitely going to be interesting trying to balance the slower pace for my Mom with trying to get a lot done for John and Jocelyn who only go every 3 or 4 years. We might have to find Mom benches here and there while the rest of us go off to do stuff.
Thanks for reading along! I still have my PTR going for August and October and also my TR from January. So if you haven't joined either of those, come on over! Links are in my signature.
missangelalexis
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2012
The end of your trip sounds nice! I'm glad you got to ride FoP again! I'm sorry you didn't have the best seats for ROL.
Love the pins you got! And the earrings!
Aww poor stitch! I'm glad he was able to be salvaged!
Thanks for sharing
Love the pins you got! And the earrings!
Aww poor stitch! I'm glad he was able to be salvaged!
Thanks for sharing
missjackiemcg
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2013
I just love reading about your trips with your Mom! Sounds like things wrapped up nicely, and what an incredible experience, especially now, that you were able to spend part of the trip with your aunt and extended family, too. These are the memories we get to keep forever. So happy you have these together!!
Pluto0809
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2012
The end of your trip sounds nice! I'm glad you got to ride FoP again! I'm sorry you didn't have the best seats for ROL.
Love the pins you got! And the earrings!
Aww poor stitch! I'm glad he was able to be salvaged!
Thanks for sharing
I was very happy to get an extra ride on FOP! And I'm lucky to have a friend who sews and was able to fix Stitch for me.
This one did go pretty quick since I didn't take my usual massive amounts of pictures. But I've still got January going and in just over two weeks, I'll have the August one to start!
I did enjoy ROL the first time. This second time I think it was the horrible view we had. I'm tall and I could barely see over the people in the row in front of me.
Thanks! We always have a great time while we are there.
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