Started by a Mouse, Now We're Here! August 2015 Trip Report (Updated 10/26 x2!)

[klazaro12]

"To all who come to this happy place, welcome!"

Here you leave today and enter the world of Yesterday, Tomorrow and Fantasy.
​

Hi there, and welcome to my first ever trip report! I've been lurking around for about 2 years and I'm so excited to finally share my trip with everyone here! Growing up, Disney always felt like home to me. I've been going since I was 18 months old and every time it felt more and more magical. The last time I ventured to the most magical place on earth was spring break during my junior year of college in March of 2012. It was chilly and crowded. Now that I've graduated and have been working for a year, I was ready for my first ever trip without parents!

Let's meet the cast of characters!

First there's me. I'm Kaitlyn!



I'm 22 and live in New Jersey. I just started my second year as a preschool teacher, and Disney planning is my escape from long days at school. When I'm not sitting on my laptop lusting after photos of the Polynesian, you can find me teaching dance to baby ballerinas and tiny tappers, or at the Jersey Shore. My new obsession is watching Disney vlogs on YouTube. What can I say? I can't get enough.

My Disney Fun Facts:
Favorite Movie: Beauty & the Beast
Favorite Character(s): Belle & Marie
Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom
Favorite Ride/Attraction: Mickey's PhilharMagic


Next up is my girlfriend, Jen!



Jen is 24 (soon to be 25!) and she also lives here in NJ, about an hour away from me. She works at an elementary school working one-on-one with children with special needs. When she's not changing the world one child at a time, you can find her boating on the bay at the Jersey Shore, quoting 30 Rock obsessively, and aggressively cheering on the Jets during Football season. The last time she was in Disney was in 1999, so watching her experience everything on this trip was like visiting with a first-timer and it was that much more magical.

Jen's Disney Fun Facts:
Favorite Movie: Hercules
Favorite Character: Winnie the Pooh
Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom
Favorite Ride/Attraction: Big Thunder Mountain/Buzz Lightyear


Last but certainly not least is Liz, but we like to call her Auntie!



Auntie is Jen's aunt & fairy godmother, and has definitely become an aunt to me as well over the past 2 years. Auntie loves to keep herself busy, but most of the time you'll find her chatting with crazy patients at a doctor's office, teaching classes at a nearby college, or being a rockstar at the gym with her trainers. In her spare time she's sure to be watching General Hospital, scrapbooking with her scrapping buddies, and daydreaming about George Clooney. She also hadn't visited the World since 1999 so she was very excited to get back to the magic!

Auntie's Disney Fun Facts:
Favorite Movie: Mary Poppins
Favorite Character: Cinderella/Belle/Ariel
Favorite Ride: Haunted Mansion & Great Movie Ride
Favorite Park: Epcot with MK as a very close second!



Now that we've gotten to know the who, let's talk about the when, where, why, and how.

When: August 21-28, 2015
Where: Caribbean Beach Resort!
Why: Because who really needs a reason for a Disney World Trip!
How: Well let's talk about how this trip came about. In January 2014, I was home sick from work one day and the Disney bug was definitely biting. I planned this hypothetical trip to Disney and had it all priced and planned out to a T. I presented it to Jen but I was still in college and she was living on her own near our college, and a vacation really wasn't in the cards for us at this point. Even though it didn't look like a possibility, the thought never left my mind. Every few months I would pick up Disney planning again. Finally in April of 2015, I saw a lot of my friends were in Disney for spring break and I was having serious FOMO. I priced out a trip for Jen and I and two of our friends and even made a powerpoint presentation with all of the details. They were unable to take time off and we couldn't think of anyone else we really wanted to spend a whole week with. We both looked at each other and just said "let's just go by ourselves." Thanks to a nice tax return check, we were able to fund this trip. As soon as we booked the trip, we were like kids in a candy store making ADRs (since it was way less than 180 days out). That night, neither of us could fall asleep. We were like this kid in the Disney Commercial, and our trip was still over 140 days away!

"

A couple months after we booked, we were hanging out with Auntie one day and talking about our trip and she kept saying how excited she was for us and that she couldn't wait to go back one day. We kept saying why don't you just come along with us. I think she was skeptical about coming on our vacation with us but we assured her she was completely welcome and after a few calls to her favorite Disney travel agent, she was booked to come along with us. We were ecstatic and the countdown couldn't come fast enough.
As crazy as it sounds, we decided to drive down in Jen's car. It cost less money in the long run and hey, we got to have a fun drive out of it!

I can't wait for all of you to come along on this Magical Vacation with us!

 

[klazaro12]

Table of Contents

Introductions

Departure Day!

"Arrival Day - This is the best burger I've ever eaten!"

Arrival Day Part 2 - "How can I ride the yeti?! I can't even do the carpets!!"

Arrival Day Part 2 Continued

Arrival Day MK Photopass Pictures!

"Africa, Asia, Broadway, Dinosarus alive and well! You name it, it lives here at Disney's Animal Kingdom Park!" Day 2, Part 1
​

 

[klazaro12]

Departure Day! - A long post about a pretty uneventful drive​

Our departure day was Friday August 21, 2015. I worked at a summer camp this summer and in years past, last day of camp was always an early dismissal day, so when we booked our trip, we planned on leaving at about 12:30 after I got out of work. (I had to work that day because we got a bonus if we didn’t miss a day of camp and who could say no to a little extra spending money at Disney?!) After we booked our trip I found out that the last day of camp wouldn’t be a short day and that it would be a normal 2:00pm dismissal day. This threw a wrench into my plans because we usually have to stay and clean out the classrooms that we use for camp but LUCKILY, my supervisor at camp is a fellow Disney Addict and when I told her my dilemma, she assured me I didn’t have to worry and that I would be in the car at 2:01pm, ready to drive into the sunset.


But let’s back up to Thursday night. Jen slept at my house since she’s an hour south of me and we were taking her car to Disney. I was all packed and ready minus all the things I needed for the morning, but falling asleep was so hard when you know the next day means you’ll finally be on your way to Disney!


Friday morning we packed up the car and Jen drove me to work. We said our goodbyes for the day, but not for long because Jen would be picking me up from work at 2pm with Auntie in tow ready for our long journey. Let me tell you that last day of camp was a long one. I work with preschool aged kids so we’re inside in classrooms for a majority of the day so we really had to clean out the rooms so that we could get the rooms ready to be cleaned for school to start in a couple of weeks. I cleaned all day so I could speed out at 2, so when 2pm FINALLY rolled around, my supervisor handed me my envelope of tips from all the generous families in my group and I was out the door with lots of well wishes from the staff. (I can’t even begin to describe how much I talked about this trip all summer!)


Sidestory – my supervisor was actually going to Disney a few days after me. Spoiler alert – I never got to see here there. But when one of my co-workers heard us talking about our Disney trips every day, the Disney bug bit her too and she soon planned a trip to meet us all down there for the week with her son. It was going to be a big camp counselor reunion at Disney!


When I got to the car, Jen and Auntie had HUGE smiles on their faces. We had been counting down to this moment for months and the fact that it was finally here was almost too much to handle. We were leaving my job at about 2:15pm. I live fairly close to where the Garden State Parkway meets the NJ Turnpike (95) so we were on 95 at 2:40 pm and hoping for no traffic. We did hit a few slow spots, but nothing crazy. There were a few delays heading into Delaware because they closed a few lanes on the Delaware Memorial Bridge. Jen and I gave a big wave as we passed the University of Delaware, our alma mater!


The drive was pretty uneventful. A few spots of traffic between Delaware and Baltimore, but otherwise it was smooth sailing the whole way. All summer long, whenever someone heard we were driving down on a Friday afternoon in the summer, they would give us that look basically saying “ARE YOU INSANE?!” So when we finally had a traffic-free drive, we were so relieved. We made a few bathroom stops, but not too many! This was an ongoing joke with Jen for the drive to FL and back. In the planning stages she warned Auntie and I that we were not stopping to use the bathroom so no coffee and only one bottle of water! (She was kidding about the drinks but not really kidding about the bathroom stops!)


We finally decided to stop for the night at a Holiday Inn Express in Smithfield, NC. Now I am very picky when it comes to where I sleep. I had visions of winding up in a yucky hotel after reading so many bad reviews of hotels along 95 on yelp. I had looked up hotels before we left and found a hotel with good reviews in almost every state, but we had driven so far that we actually made it past my NC selection, but my SC selection was too far away so we had to find another one on the fly. Let me tell you that this Holiday Inn Express was amazing! It smelled clean and lovely when you walked in and the rooms were clean and neat and well taken care of and I was one happy camper that night!


We got to the hotel around 11pm and got ready for bed. Yet again Jen and I were too excited to sleep but we probably fell asleep around midnight and had an early wake up call to finally get to WDW!

Since this was a pretty wordy post (sorry, I like to be detailed!) I'll leave you with some photos from our drive...(PS we loved laughing at the silly signs, like Dumfries. It's the little things people!)

 

[disvisitorkim]

Following along!! Hope your trip was amazing!

 

[vicceja]

Can't wait for more!

 

[Hannahinwonderland]

Following!

 

[klazaro12]

Following along!! Hope your trip was amazing!

Thanks for following along! It was definitely amazing! Can't wait for you all to see the rest!

Can't wait for more!

Welcome! More is on the way!

Following!

Thanks for joining me! Glad you're here!

 

[klazaro12]

Arrival Day - "This is the best burger I have ever eaten!"​

The next day we were up bright and early, at 6:30 am, so we could shower and get on the road. We were showered and out of the hotel by 7:30, and stopped at a Sheetz for coffee and breakfast before we hopped on 95. We’re from NJ so there are no Sheetz by us. We were pretty impressed with the selection and got some yummy coffee to caffeinate us for the rest of the drive. We were back on 95 by 8am!



















^^doesn’t that cloud look like Mickey?! Nice to see the mouse welcoming us!





Again, our drive was pretty uneventful. As we passed South of the Border, we couldn’t help but wonder “what in the world is South of the Border?!” I’ve passed it many times but the point of it is really a mystery to me. We got a few laughs and photos as we passed it, but we didn’t feel the need to stop. We made a few bathroom stops throughout the day but hit absolutely no traffic until we got onto I-4. That’s where the heavy rain began. We were worried that this warm welcome from Central FL would be a sign of weather for the week.


We finally started seeing Disney signs around 4:15. The GPS on our phone wanted to take us through the very unexciting Downtown Disney entrance. I thought that after such a long drive, we deserved a grand entrance into WDW. With a lot of google-ing and detouring and a few extra minutes in the car, we were driving through those arches at 4:20pm! There were lots of excited squeals in that car as we drove under them and finally started to see those purple signs!







We had received a text message earlier in the day that our rooms were ready, and we could bypass the check-in desk and head straight to our rooms thanks to the online check-in program.





We requested Martinique & Second Floor so that we could be close to Old Port Royale, and I like being up on a higher floor better than the ground floor. Auntie’s travel agent also put in a request for us to have adjoining rooms. We arrived at the Caribbean Beach Resort at 4:30pm and we were so excited to see that every single one of our requests was met! We really lucked out. Jen and I had a standard room and it adjoined to Auntie’s King Bed room. I was very impressed by our room. I knew that the rooms had been refurbed and the Disney Website still showed the pre-refurb rooms. I had only seen photos here on the Dis of the new rooms and I wasn’t disappointed. It was perfect for what we needed. And I can say that I loved the sliding doors to replace a curtain. It added an extra amount of privacy when getting ready, which was very nice. (I don’t have any pictures of our room, but Jen decided to Vlog [video blog] our whole trip so there is a video tour coming up that I will post here!)






When we were planning our ADRs, I originally made us a dinner reservation for 6:30pm at the Grand Floridian Café for our arrival night. I thought that we would be able to get there, unpack, go eat, and then head to MK for some rides and hopefully Wishes and MSEP. In the weeks before the trip, I started to get nervous thinking about when we would arrive and how traffic would impact our dinner reservation. Ultimately I decided to cancel the reservation because I got so worried about missing it and having Disney charge my credit card for a no-show. On the way there, we were making excellent time so as we got into Florida, we decided to make a dinner reservation at GFC again. This time the only reservation available was at 5:30. Since we didn’t get to the hotel until 4:30, we were in a rush to change into nicer clothes and drive ourselves to the GF. We could’ve taken a bus to MK and then the monorail to GF but I knew that would take forever, so we opted to hop back in the car and drive. We pulled up at the GF at about 5:15 and had some time to wander around. This is one of my favorite resorts. It is just beautiful inside, and one day I would LOVE to stay here!








We walked up to the GFC at 5:30 and were seated just a few minutes later. We had a great waitress, Larissa (which I only remembered because one of my college roommates is also named Larisa). Auntie is very friendly and is always able to engage every Cast Member in conversation, so we got to have some great chats with Larissa about how she loved working at the GFC. Always great to hear how much a CM loves their job. Now let’s get to the food. We were each on the Standard Dining Plan so we were entitled to an entrée, dessert, and non-alcoholic drink. This was one of the most delicious meals we had all week and really set the bar high for future Disney meals. (Sidenote: I really wanted to eat here because when I went to Disney in 2013 for Spring Break, my family had dinner here and it was during this meal I discovered I had Strep Throat for the first time since I was about 3 or 4. I wanted to eat here to redeem the experience!) We loved the bread that they brought out, especially the Currant Bread.



For drinks, Jen and I each decided to pay extra for an adult drink, while Auntie stuck with her non-alcoholic beverage. Jen got a Bahama Mama (which my notes tell me was very rum-y and very strong). I got a Pina Colava, which was DELICIOUS and Auntie got a club soda.













For dinner, Jen and I each got the Orichette Pasta with Grilled Chicken, Prosciutto, Peas, and Asiago Cream Sauce. OMG this was the best pasta I have ever had at Disney World. It was DELICIOUS, even with the peas which we both don’t like (we forgot to ask them to forget the peas).





Auntie got the Surf and Turf Burger, which is described as an Angus Chuck Burger, Butter-poached Lobster, Red Onion Marmalade, and Arugula on a Brioche Bun with Chips. Auntie described this on camera as the best burger she had ever eaten.



For dessert, Jen had the Mango Sorbet, I had the Pineapple Sorbet, and Auntie had the Berry Pyramid with Mango Sauce. We all loved our desserts but were almost too full to finish them…….almost.





Dinner was delicious, but we were STUFFED. From dinner we wandered around GF for a while, and then hopped on the monorail to our first park of the trip!

 

[Jenmouse]

Gimme gimme MORE gimme MORE gimme gimme MORE

 

[vleeth]

Found you! We talk about that same Disney commercial every time we are going to Disney. I'm so glad youtube is out there so I could show it to my daughter.

 

[klazaro12]

Day 1, Part 2 – I don’t think I can do the Yeti, I can’t even do the carpets!​

When I last left you, we had just finished a wonderful dinner at the Grand Floridian Café to kick off our trip! After we wandered around the resort for about 20 minutes, checking in the gift shop and taking in the beautiful sights and lovely sounds of the Grand Floridian we decided to head out and hop on the monorail to Magic Kingdom!!







It felt like the longest, but most exciting monorail ride of my life! I was bursting at the seams. I couldn’t wait to make it around that corner and see the castle for the first time! One short trip on the highway in the sky and we were arriving at the Magic Kingdom! We stepped out into that Famous Florida Humidity and walked up to the tapstyles. We had never used MagicBands before. Call me crazy but I had butterflies in my stomach leading up to this moment! If anyone understands, it would be you guys here on the DisBoards. All those moments of planning over the last few months had all led up to this moment. We tapped into the park and after taking a few selfies & pictures, we were walking right down the middle of Main St. USA!









We rounded the corner and finally saw the castle! It was such a magical moment. This trip had been in my head for years at this point and to finally be there, in my happy place, with Jen meant everything to me. I think my smile was bigger than it had ever been before. We slowly meandered down Main Street. We weren’t in a rush and we wanted to take everything in. (Also, I can’t stress enough how hot and HUMID it was outside. There would be no running anywhere. Even walking worked up a significant sweat. Who am I kidding, even standing still worked up a sweat!)

Like typical tourists, we were sure to take lots of pictures on Main Street with the castle.



































Continued in next post…

 

[klazaro12]

Day 1, Part 2 - Continued​

We were eager to get on some rides, and I was ready to run to a ride, so our first attaraction of the night was….drumroll pleaaaaase……THE TIKI ROOM. Now I know what you’re thinking: all that hype and of all the attractions you chose the Tiki Room?! Well yes we did. We had wandered to Adventureland and we were not used to the heat/humidity quite yet, so we needed some air conditioning.




Our one photo of the Tiki Room queue


After the birds sang words and the flowers crooned, we were off to our next ride. We chose the Magic Carpets of Aladdin since it was right outside the exit. We had a FP for Haunted Mansion coming up soon, but it wasn’t soon enough to go straight there. We decided to kill time on the 25 minute wait for Aladdin. The line was brutally hot. The queue is kind of squished and when you’re behind the walls of the area where the Cast Members sit, there isn’t even a breeze! We couldn’t get on that ride quick enough. I actually steered us so that the camel would spit on us because we could use a splash! I also steered us up and down pretty haphazardly, which made the ride a little more exciting. Jen isn’t a huge ride girl, so she pretty much screamed and laughed throughout the entire ride. When the ride ended she said “How am I going to do the Yeti when I can’t even do the carpets?!” Jen calls Expedition Everest, “the yeti.” When we were planning our trip, I bought her the Birnbaum’s Walt Disney World Book for Kids. Since she doesn’t go on many rides anywhere else, I thought that the straightforward ride descriptions would help her decide which rides she wanted to go on. It proved to be really helpful, but she was determined to go on EE this trip. Now she was definitely rethinking that……





From Aladdin we headed over to our Haunted Mansion Fastpass. When I was a kid, I was terrified of this ride. From the time I was 6, I REFUSED to go on it because I was so scared that a ghost was actually going to follow me home. I didn’t go on it again until I was 13 and my mom was basically like, you’re 13 and you don’t need to be scared of a Disney ride anymore so I sucked it up and now I love this ride. I can quote that entire monologue in the room with NO WINDOWS AND NO DOORS! It makes me laugh that I was actually scared of it! Jen and Auntie really enjoyed it too. After HM we moved to Fantasyland.


I love the Tangled/Rapunzel themed bathroom area. I really wish it was more than just a bathroom area because it is a beautiful area, especially at night with all those amazing lanterns. I just can’t get enough!





The Happiest Cruise that ever sailed was next, and I actually LOVE this ride. I know some people avoid it like the plague but it is so nostalgic for me and it makes me really happy. After it’s a small world, Auntie decided to head back to the hotel. MK was open until 2am but it had been a long day and she was happy to leave us behind to go back and get some rest. After we split from Auntie Jen and I decided to watch Celebrate the Magic and Wishes.


CTM and Wishes make me tear up every time I see it. It is just so quintessentially Disney for me. It felt surreal to finally be there. There were some serious happy tears.







When Wishes was over, we decided to go ride the people mover. We didn’t want to wait for 30 minutes for the parade so we decided to get a quick ride in. From there we grabbed a good spot on Main Street for the Electrical Parade. I’m thinking of the music right now and it puts a smile on my face. A few times during this trip, the parade left out the Pete’s Dragon/Elliot float. It is my mom’s favorite Disney movie so I love seeing Pete and Elliot, but this parade didn’t have it and I really missed them!





We followed the end of the parade down into the Hub and the branched off into Fantasyland for our Seven Dwarfs Mine Train FP. We LOVED this ride. It was so much fun and so cool to be able to do something new. I think at first Jen was a little scared since this was her first roller coaster EVER but in the end she decided she loved it! Plus, we had memory maker and getting to see our ride video was amazing too! I’ll post that once I get the chance to put it on youtube. We rode 7DMT at 11:30 pm and from there we decided to go to one of my favorite attractions, Mickey’s PhilharMagic. I have to admit that my favorite part is the pastry smell that they pipe in during the Be Our Guest scene. I love that they were able to use some of my favorite Disney movies in such a fun attraction. I just love it and I know that Jen did too. She was like all the kids in the audience, trying to touch the 3D things, like Ariel’s jewels and the food that Lumiere was offering us! I loved watching Jen experience Disney. It had been so long since her last visit that it was basically like visiting with a first-timer. That look of joy on her face every time we experienced something new showed me that this vacation was so perfect for us!


We then went over to Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid. I do like this ride but it still seems a little underwhelming to me. I can’t put my finger on why though. My favorite part is the Under the Sea room. I love the atmosphere and the music and how well themed that room is. It really does feel like a party!


Then we left Fantasyland and headed back to Tomorrowland for one last ride. This ride marked the first of MANY rides on Buzz Lightyear! We were determined to become a Galactic Hero, but this ride showed us just how much practice we needed.


At this point we were pretty worn out and we were ready to get back to the Grand Floridian to get our car. So we decided it was "time to say goodbye to all our company!"



When we arrived back to Caribbean Beach, there was a beautiful package waiting for us in our room! It was a Mickey backet with two bottles of champagne, Mickey champagne flutes and some chocolate truffles. The note said “Jen and Kaitlyn, Magical Wishes” She wouldn’t admit it but we think it may have been from Auntie J It was the icing on top of our perfect first day.



Before bed I hopped in the shower. While I was in the shower, we also noticed that there was an envelope on our table that had my last name on it but a different first name. It was the envelope and pamphlet that has all the coupons and special deals you receive when you book a Disney package and also includes luggage tags. Since it wasn’t ours, we decided to call the front desk. They didn’t really understand what it was so they didn’t make it seem like it was a big deal. Then they called back and asked us to explain what it was again and said that they would send the Bell Hop to our room to pick it up. Well 20 minutes later there was no knock at the door. We called back and they assured us he was on his way but we were exhausted. We asked if we could leave it outside our door but they thought someone would steal it (who would steal an envelope of luggage tags is beyond me) but 10 minutes later the bellhop showed up with a luggage cart. We handed him the envelope and he said “this is it?!” I guess there was a lot of miscommunication going on this night but by this time it was 2am and we were so ready for bed. We had an early wake up call for breakfast the next morning and we needed all the sleep we could get!


Coming up next: Our Animal Kingdom Morning!

 

[disvisitorkim]

Lol poor bellhop! But that's pretty weird that it wasn't yours ... disney mysteries And I definitely get the same butterflies feeling when you're just MOMENTS away from MK magic!

 

[klazaro12]

Hi Everyone! I'm back and ready for some trip report updates! I'm typing one up right this minute, but as I was looking through photobucket I realized I never posted any of our Photopass pictures from our first night at MK so here is a picture-only post of all of our wonderful Photopass Photos from MK. We purchased Memory Maker ahead of time so we have EVERY picture and let me tell you, we took LOTS.

Enjoy!!

 

[klazaro12]

"Africa, Asia, Broadway, Dinosaurs Alive and Well. You name it, it lives here at Disney's Animal Kingdom Park" Day 2, Part 1

Well it has been quite a while since my last update! Things at school have gotten hectic and by the time I get home I’m EXHAUSTED. But I’m really trying to get this trip report moving along because I have another trip planned in just 36 days to see Disney at Christmastime and be in the Magic Kingdom for my birthday. I was thinking of doing a PTR for that trip but most of that planning was done quickly since we only planned it about 80 days out. Maybe I’ll do another quick post explaining how that trip came about soon.


But for now, back to our August trip. When you last saw us, we were wrapping up a magical night at the Magic Kingdom, and hitting the pillow hard when we got back to Caribbean Beach.


The next day was Sunday August 23, 2015. We were headed here today





Jen and I were both up at 6:30am to get ready. In the planning stages of this trip, Auntie decided she wanted to skip Animal Kingdom altogether. There wasn’t anything she was really dying to do there, and it actually worked out better for her because she got some well-needed rest and had some morning plans for herself!


Jen and I were out the door by 7:05 to get our refillable mugs. We had the dining plan for this trip, so our mugs were included. I chose a purple mug and Jen chose a green one. We both got a coffee and then headed out the quickly to the Old Port Royale Bus Stop.


Let me go off on a coffee tangent here. The coffee at CBR was nothing to write home about. I actually found mine to be too watery. I’m also lactose intolerant so I have to have non-dairy creamer for my coffee, and I also like it VERY sweet. I had packed some powdered French Vanilla Coffeemate, but didn’t bring any to Old Port Royale so I had to settle for their plain non-dairy creamer and it didn’t help the taste much. I don’t think I finished my coffee this day, which isn’t a surprise. Jen will tell you I am notorious for never finishing my coffee. I did have an excuse though. When it is 85 and the humidity is at 90% there is no way I’m finishing my hot coffee! Jen on the other hand would be thrilled to have an IV of coffee in the mornings.


Coffee Tangent over…We were getting off the bus at Animal Kingdom at 7:30 but the park didn’t open until 8! Who knew Disney transportation would be so on point this morning! We decided to look around the little open-air gift shop that is at the entrance of the park before the tap-styles. We saw so many cute shirts, including one that said “rhinos are just chubby unicorns!” We got a laugh out of that one. The park finally opened at 7:52 (I was pretty good about checking times this early in the trip). After seeing this sight…





we headed straight for





We were ready for a Safari. We decided to save our FPs for our second park of the day, so we were trying to avoid a long wait for the Safari.


Along the way we found this guy…





We LOVE the safari! That was Jen’s one request for Animal Kingdom. She is definitely a huge animal lover so this safari was so exciting for us! We were able to see lots of rhinos and elephants roaming around so early in the morning. We consider that a successful safari!!


After the safari, we didn’t really have time for another attraction because we had a 9:05 breakfast reservation. So we decided to call our moms and look around some of the shops before they got too crowded. Then 9am finally rolled around and we were headed to………..







TUSKER HOUSE! We were SO EXCITED to be having our first character meal of the trip! We couldn’t wait to meet Donald, Mickey, Daisy, and Goofy!! Tusker house is a buffet breakfast. It had a lot of your traditional breakfast buffet fare, with a few African inspired dishes. There was also a small Gluten Free section with Udi’s brand products. (My mom is GF so I’m always on the lookout for GF options for her, especially at Disney). We OF COURSE thought the Mickey Waffles were delicious and so was the fruit and yogurt. Our absolute FAVORITE part of the meal was of course the Jungle Juice! It was so yummy we just wanted to bottle it up and take it with us!!


The food was good but the character experience was so-so. Goofy and Daisy came over rather quickly and we had pretty good interactions and got to take some cute photos with them.













BUT we never got to meet Mickey or Donald. We waited for a while after we were done eating too but they went on a break and when they returned they spent their time in the front dining room and never came to visit us in the back. We didn’t want to spend our whole morning waiting for two characters who we would be able to see another day so we were okay with heading out.


Now that our tummies were full we decided it was time for a show! We took a short walk over to Festival of the Lion King! We waited about 20 minutes for it, which was a pretty hot wait even in the shade, but once you got into the sunny area, it was BRUTAL. Let me tell you, August at Disney is NO JOKE heat wise!


Jen proudly wearing her Lion King shirt at FOTLK




I have to start a whole new paragraph to tell you how much I love this show. Growing up, the Lion King was definitely one of my favorite movies. My mom always tells me I used to sit in my car seat, listening to I Just Can’t Wait to be King and sing along with Simba, and I would say “Workin’ on da raaaa” instead of “I’m working on my roar!” I was two so I think that story is pretty cute!! In the past I’ve never been a big crier or very emotional but lately, especially where Disney is concerned, the waterworks come whenever they want. I was so moved by FOTLK, especially when the whole room is singing The Lion Sleeps Tonight and dancing and clapping. It just got to me…I had such happy tears and I think that’s when the moment of finally being in Disney surrounded by the magic REALLY sank in.

Jen also gave FOTLK rave reviews. It was a beautiful way to spend the morning, really.


Next up on our agenda was Kali River Rapids. We had watched ride videos of this on Youtube and saw how soaked people were getting, and we needed to get soaked before we melted away! When we got to the standby line, the wait was 75 MINUTES!!! Can you believe that?! We couldn’t justify waiting over an hour in the heat for that ride. We had done everything else in the park that we wanted to do and we were really just ready to go back to the hotel and nap. Now I know what you’re thinking…we only did two attractions!! Well the original plan leading up to this trip was that we would ride Expedition Everest (or the Yeti as Jen likes to call it). When we got to AK and saw Everest, Jen chickened out. I can’t say I blame her, that coaster is a TALL one and she had only gone on her first roller coaster the night before. And I know people love Dinosaur, but I refuse to ride it. I’m just not into getting scared by a HUGE dinosaur so thanks but I’ll pass. We decided to head back to CBR but not without getting some photopass pictures with the tree and Everest!





















On our way out, we saw a sign that said meet Pocahontas! Jen loves Pocahontas so we hopped in line. We had to wait about 20 minutes, but our interaction with Pocahontas was AMAZING and so fun! She asked about our long canoe ride all the way from NJ and made sure we were all sharing our rowing responsibilities. She also told us to be on the lookout for Meeko. He ran away to search for biscuits like he always does. We promised we’d help!











After meting Pocahontas we headed to the CBR bust stop. We got back to the hotel around 12:30 to fill our mugs again and relax. We decided to check out our photopass pictures from the day and get a quick lunch from Old Port Royale. It was hot and we wanted something light so we used a QS credit to split a Caribbean Salad with Shrimp. It was delicious, but maybe a little too citrusy for my taste. We also split a small Pineapple Upside down cake for dessert. It was delicious!! From there Jen napped while I relaxed and checked out social media on my laptop. We had a busy night ahead of us at Hollywood Studios!
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