Stop Making Me Laugh Or I'll Pee My Pants! Go Back! I Lost My Shoe! Trip Report!

[3princesses+aprince]

Ooo, YAY, i'm patiently waiting Or not so patiently

 

[MICKEY4EVER!]

We'll be looking forward to it!

 

[disneygirlinnj]

Wow I missed a lot this past weekend. Glad to hear everything is sorted out with your mom. i'll be thinking about her today and tomorrow!

Great installments on the trip report too. Seriously...can I come with you guys next time? You all seem so much fun!

 

[aaaateamsgrandma]

Good morning Lisa. Thinking of your mom today. I know she is ready to go and have this over with.

 

[mickeystoontown]

You'll remember that I had just taken a enjoyable walk to the Custom House to pick up our Spirit of Aloha tickets while the rest of the gang finished getting ready. When I arrived back at the room, everybody was just about ready.

Because of the whole backpack/water bottle incident at Epcot the day before, we were leaving the backpack in the room and I took a small drawstring type backpack. I don't like taking them as much because there's no pockets but it was better than getting into a fuss again.

We all put on our celebration buttons, grabbed our sunglasses and were out the door at 8:20 a.m. We caught the bus at the Old Port Royale bus stop again and didn't even wait a minute before the Animal Kingdom bus pulled up. Great, we'd probably get to the park in time to take advantage of at least a little of the extra magic hour.

But, I forgot that we had to go through Blizzard Beach first. Since it was early in the morning, there were just people getting off the bus, not getting on. So, our loop through Blizzard Beach took about 10 minutes total. And, then we were off to Animal Kingdom.


John, Lacey and Hunter went through the "no bags" area and I went through the security line. Thankfully, it took just a few minutes and we were ready to hit the park. When we walked to the turnstiles, there were lines and lines of people waiting to get in. I left the family standing and found the closest castmember and asked where Disney resort guests went to enter the park early. They pointed me to the very end of the turnstiles. I went back to the family and we found the line for Disney resort guests and were through the turnstiles in less than 5 minutes.

We made our way through the Oasis which was nearly empty. We saw the castmembers putting the big Macaw birds out for the day which was pretty neat.

I knew that I wanted to get our Photopass pictures taken first while we still looked fresh and clean. I could tell it was already going to be a hot day! We waited for the Photopass photographer to take another family's picture and then it was our turn. She took a few and then told the kids to come over to the "lion's den". She had them hold their arms in a cradle and act like they were looking at a baby in their arms.

Once those were done, we headed straight towards Kilimanjaro Safari. Along the way, I took these pictures:

Aren't these the cutest lights!

And, I took this one because there's a "Disney sign picture" thread and I wanted to have pictures to post when I came back.

We continued our walk until we reached the safari which said it had a 10 minute wait time. Great! We walked all the way through the walkway and didn't stop until we got to the waiting area.

Something that I have failed to mention until now is how we all were wearing our celebration buttons. We got them when we checked in and wore them to Epcot on our first park day. Hunter got a lot of "Happy Birthday Hunter!" John and I got a lot of "Happy Anniversary!" And, Lacey.....well, so far, she's gotten nothing. Poor child was like Charlie Brown at Halloween.....she got a rock! It quickly became a running joke and we'd actually take bets on whether or not Lacey would get any kind of acknowledgment on her button. We even took a Sharpie marker and wrote "Graduation" under the words "I'm Celebrating".

Anyway, there was this really dorky looking guy working the lines at the safari and we all told Lacey that he'd probably be the first one to say something to her. We even put her at the front of the group and made her tell them how many were in our party. Did he notice her button? NO! But, we got Happy Birthday! and Happy Anniversary!

We all giggled and went and stood in the line he directed us to. The group in front of us boarded their truck and about two or three minutes later, our truck pulled up.

I took a picture of the animal recognizing chart thingie that was up above us:

Then, we were off. I have absolutely no idea what this is hiding behind a bush but I'm going to post it anyway.

These guys (maybe it was a girl...I didn't look very closely) were just waiting on us to take his/her picture:

Closer:

An even closer one:

****Gotta stop here. Boss is back. I'll be back at lunch

 

[mickeystoontown]

Ugh! Just noticed that the first rhino picture is totally blurry. Shouldn't have posted it but I'm not coming back and taken it out.

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Great AK & safari pics! We haven't done the safari in a few trips, I'd like to do it next time!

 

[MICKEY4EVER!]

Great update, Lisa! Poor Lacey! I'm hoping Lacey gets acknowledged soon. Can't wait to get the rest of the AK day.

 

[deedeew80]

Great update Lisa!! Love the Safari! I can't believe nothing has been said to Lacey yet!! LOL! I always wonder if the CMs get tired of saying stuff to people because I'm sure loads of people have those pins! When we were there on our Honeymoon, we had the pins and the wedding ears! People were saying stuff to us all day, everyday! LOL! It was funny! Hope to hear that someone finally recognizes her pin!!! Can't wait to read more!!

 

[aprilisis]

Great update, Lisa! I really hope someone acknowledges Lacey's Graduation pin soon...that is a huge accomplishment. The poor kid! Tell her I said Congratulations & Happy Graduation...I mean, I'm no cast member, but still.

 

[MadilynnsMomma]

Poor, poor, Lacey! I see some light on the horizon... you're setting us up for something grand (at least I hope so, for Lacey's sake )

 

[aaaateamsgrandma]

Congratulations Graduate! We all send her well-wishes. We dissisters know.

That is a great update by the way. You guys sure know how to fill a day with fun. I think the reason that one picture was so blurry was that Mel and I were running trying to get in it and messed you up. Sorry.

 

[longing2Batdisney]

Great update! Lisa,
Hope your day is progressing well!
I can't wait to hear when Lacey will be recongized! love the Charlie Brown quip! to cute....

 

[MICKEY4EVER!]

Congratulations Graduate! We all send her well-wishes. We dissisters know.

That is a great update by the way. You guys sure know how to fill a day with fun. I think the reason that one picture was so blurry was that Mel and I were running trying to get in it and messed you up. Sorry.

And we almost made it, too! Amazing how Lisa never noticed us. We sure created quite a commotion, huh?

 

[MadilynnsMomma]

Thanks for the BOO

 

[mickeystoontown]

Sorry we were so rudely interrupted by that small thing called......,,,my job

Here's another picture of a rhino who was hiding over in a corner. Our driver wasn't slowing down too much so I cut off part of this rhino's face. Oops!

Next up were the hippos (and birdies)

Then, we saw crocodiles!

After driving through some heavy foliage, we turned the corner and we see the savanna:

Continued in next post

 

[mickeystoontown]

Next up were the "lick-a-bus". For those of you who don't know or can't remember what I am talking about, let me explain or refresh your memory. When Hunter was really little, maybe 2 or 3, we were on the safari and the driver had to stop the truck to let a couple of giraffes cross. One giraffe came right up to our truck, stuck his head in the window, sniffed us and then licked the top of our truck. Hunter squealed and said something like "he licked the bus!". Everyone around us laughed at him. I can still see his smiling face. To this day, we call giraffes "lick-a-bus". What memories!
Now, on to the giraffe pictures.

This one has a giraffe and longhorn cattle in it:

I think this is a wildbeast (or is it spelled wildabest?)

Let's play the "see if you can find an animal in this picture because, obviously, Lisa saw one when she took it" game. I think there were monkeys hiding in there somewhere but I can't find them.

We were driving through lots of foliage again but I wanted to take pictures. Smile!

We came to an opening and saw this elephant. For some reason, we didn't see many elephants this trip. Maybe they were away on vacation or something?

A flock of flamingos:

These guys were just standing around shooting the hay! Oh, I crack myself up.

.
I have never been able to get a good picture of the cheetahs:

Since our driver wasn't slowing down at all to let us take pictures, I had to snap what I could of the lions:

We saw a few more animals before we were in hot pursuit of the poachers who had apparently kidnapped Baby Red. When the heck are they going to change that story line? It's been almost exactly the same since they opened the park. It needs a little revamping in my opinion.

***I will stop here for now. It's almost 1:30 p.m. and the boss should be back from lunch any minute now.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Wait a minute.......I spotted the monkeys in my picture!

 

[MadilynnsMomma]

Wait a minute.......I spotted the monkeys in my picture!

To the right of the middle tree?

 

[aaaateamsgrandma]

Let's play the "see if you can find an animal in this picture because, obviously, Lisa saw one when she took it" game. I think there were monkeys hiding in there somewhere but I can't find them.

Were the monkeys me and Mel?