Tales of the Tye Dye Gang: an April May TR -Magic Kingdom, Epcot & home 10/27

[MEK]

does it work out cheaper to buy an AAA ticket & upgrade when you compare it to the cost of an AP with the DVC discount? just wondering

I have their credit card and since I used a credit card for virtually everything I get their rewards in $50 increments. I can use them to buy tickets. So it makes sense for me to use my rewards on tickets and then upgrade. I think they are a few dollars cheaper and they are definitely cheaper is I use my credit card to pay for them (I think like $8 a ticket cheaper if I pay with AAA credit card and not rebates). Then they get upgraded to the full value at the gate (if you take them inside).

Right now I am using my rewards to pay down my Disney cruise.

Sounds like you lunch at BOG was pretty much a bust. The kids choice sound terrible and the idea of a steak (not sliced) on a row does not appeal to me AT all!

 

[Moira222]

Awesome pics!

Sorry for my belated reply. I have really been so busy trying to get my planner in order for our next trip that I've been missing update everywhere!

I have their credit card and since I used a credit card for virtually everything I get their rewards in $50 increments. I can use them to buy tickets. So it makes sense for me to use my rewards on tickets and then upgrade. I think they are a few dollars cheaper and they are definitely cheaper is I use my credit card to pay for them (I think like $8 a ticket cheaper if I pay with AAA credit card and not rebates). Then they get upgraded to the full value at the gate (if you take them inside).

Right now I am using my rewards to pay down my Disney cruise.

Sounds like you lunch at BOG was pretty much a bust. The kids choice sound terrible and the idea of a steak (not sliced) on a row does not appeal to me AT all!

Hmm Definitely sounds like there are perks to the AAA card. Maybe I won't shred the next app that comes in the mail!

The adult menu was yummy at BOG, but yeah, not big on big hunks of steak on a roll. Love my cheese steaks PA style with chipped steak, smothered in cheese, onions and peppers!

 

[Moira222]

On the drive over, it was decided that I would take the girls to the pool (I am not much of a napper anyway) and Joe, Duchess & O’Malley would catch a nap. I took no photos down at the pool area, but I found a comfy lounger & settled in with my drink & my nook, and the girls hit the water. They had a ball, joining in on the dance party for a while, swimming, then playing with some other kids in the waterworks/play area.



After some play time, the three of us headed back to the room & the girls laid down for some nap time. Again, sleep in the middle of the day is not for me…but I thoroughly enjoyed some quiet time on the balcony, watching the animals graze, reading, and texting with my friend.

Eventually the gang mustered. Earlier in the day we decided to cancel our reservations at Tony’s and venture out. We still had to exchange Katie’s autograph tee for a bigger size, and needed one or two other things that we knew we could buy cheap at Walmart.



After that we headed to a BBQ place. The WildSide Bar & Grille. It was pretty empty inside, and our server was really helpful, gave us lots of tips on what to order Katie, Marie and I shared a rack of ribs, the guys had a combo of chicken, ribs & pulled pork, and I think Duchess ordered spare ribs. Everyone enjoyed dinner, and I think there were some desserts going on as well



It was getting pretty late and we headed straight from dinner back to the Magic Kingdom. I’m thinking I only used my phone for these photos so some of them are pretty grainy.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-...AAAAFNg/ERVG2F3TfPQ/w753-h424-no/IMAG1033.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-...AAAAFNg/ERVG2F3TfPQ/w753-h424-no/IMAG1033.jpg

At this point I am totally guessing at the order in which we did any rides! My pictures tell me we stopped at the Monster’s Inc Laugh In

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-...AAAAE-A/Z2wYxtfxwsA/w762-h429-no/IMAG1037.jpg


where we really had a good time, and while sadly at this point I can’t remember the details, I do remember that Joe got “picked on” by Mike & had of course they had to pick up on the whole matching shirts. We had fun, which is the most important part.
We went on a few intergalactic missions, first to track down alien criminal masterminds, and then on to battle the evil Emperor Zurg.

I think that Joe, O’Malley, Katie & Marie went back to Space Mountain. I remember wandering around a bit with Duchess, riding the People Mover and enjoying the sites in peace.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-...AAAAE9Y/ZGEQ3N5UIng/w762-h429-no/IMAG1051.jpg
We caught a bit of the fireworks from back in Tomorrowland, but not much.

I know I bought a bag of honey roasted almonds, another one of my favorite treats. By the time the boys & girls joined us, I had eaten half the bag myself. Joe and Katie were kind enough to finish them. LOL


We headed back toward the Carousel & Beast’s castle

and I think the girls may have gone back on the Barnstormer, because I can’t guess why else I have photos from there that were taken in the dark!

I have an extremely grainy photo attempt from Pirates of Caribbean, so we must have headed over to Adventureland. I think this is the night we took in a night time Jungle cruise ride and Magic Carpet ride.



My last photo was taken at 12:57am so thinking that the MK closed at one am, we made our way back out to call it another fun day done at Disney World.
Goodnight Magic Kingdom!

LOL Joe is DONE! I can tell by the walk, he's headed home to crash & burn!

 

[Moira222]

Tuesday morning found us packing up from our luxurious two bedroom villa at the Animal Kingdom Lodge to check in at Saratoga Springs Resort.



At this resort we each had our own studio, and we had requested them to be near each other. We packed up as quickly as we could and headed over to SSR. We knew we were way early but decided to try our luck.


Entering the Saratoga Springs Resort was entering another world. The doorman greeted us in top hat and tails! We all felt woefully underdressed to walk past! This was our first visit to SSR ever – we had no idea what to expect. The Lobby is just lovely – soft colors and a horse theme everywhere as you can imagine.

Katie loved the pillows on the couch by the television – they showed a horse from Rapunzel and well I confess, I can’t remember where the other horse is from. Anyone???

As we checked in, we discovered that while our room was ready, O’Malley & Duchess’s room was not. Chomping to get at the park, they parked their car near ours & headed out to the park. Joe, Katie & I took our stuff upstairs to get settled into our new digs for the rest of the week.



SO where were we? Congress Park:

kitchenette:

Love those Mickeys on the bed!

View from the balcony:

not bad for a parking lot view – yes there are cars , but plenty of trees and serenity also.



We hurried ourselves out to the bus to head to Epcot to meet up with O’Malley & the gang.

According to the image time, we had checked out, checked in, unpacked & were at the bus stop at 10:23 a.m. Not a bad morning!


We had a short wait (we’d just missed a bus) and arrived at Epcot about 11 a.m.

I messaged Duchess that we arrived and we texted back & forth for a few – they were just about to get onto a ride but can’t remember which one.

Knowing that we are far more photo and autograph happy than our friends, we stopped to see some friends as we entered the park.

(grr I have to interject a side comment. I’ve been using Google photo storage for a few years now, and like it. Easy and free. All of a sudden tonight I went to edit a photo and got an error telling me I had to install chrome. Grr. I had no desire whatsoever to install yet another browser program on my laptop. But, held hostage by my photos, I did. And its taking forever for the photo editing tools to open now. I am very mad at google right now. and the stupid editing tools never would open for me so I can't post any of the family shots because i cant blur out Joe and I am not on my computer with photoshop to do it there. sigh. sorry folks!)


After seeing Mickey & his pals, we headed over to see a fun loving purple dude we hadn’t seen in a while.

[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]

 

[Moira222]

round about now we heard from our friends -- I think they were getting on Soarin’ so we headed over to the Land.

On our way we stopped to visit with Mulan

We met up at Sunshine Seasons. Love the choices here – there is absolutely something for everyone. I have no notes at all on what we ate, though I have to comment on how even the guests are (mostly) friendly at DisneyWorld. If you’ve ever tried to get six seats together at Sunshine seasons at lunch time, you know its quite a trick. A gentleman was sitting in between two empty tables, and he was so very kind to move over one so that the six of us could sit together. How thoughtful! Thanks kind stranger!!





O’Malley & the gang had already gotten fast passes for test track at 1:00 p.m. We had not yet gotten fast passes for either TT or Soarin, which they had just ridden, so we had to make plans. Remember those fast passes for anything that the women gave us on the bus earlier? They totally helped out plan out the afternoon.



After lunch, we all headed over to ride The Land.

After the Land, I took passes from Joe & Katie and went for Soarin’ fast passes, with plans to meet back up at Figment. O’Malley, Duchess & Marie had not done this ride before, and Joe and Katie were game for a second round.


Know how friendly cast members are? As I approached the cast member outside the entrance, I paused to check out her pins. She knew exactly who I was, and what pins I was going to trade for! My family had outed me, and Katie had accurately guessed which pins I was going to want – the cast member pointed them out to me! Funny stuff!


I went around to the Kodak shop to wait for the gang to finish their Journey through Imagination.


From there we walked on, marveled for a bit at Brooke’s favorite dancing fountains, and then walked through a time warp in to the early 80’s. Yep, we did it. Captin EO.

Oh

My

GOSH
did we crack up at a show that was not really supposed to be a comedy, but to us it was. This was the first time any of us had seen this show.



Okay, any trekkies out there? Did they not blatantly steal the Borg Queen from the main robot/alien character in Captain EO? Joe and I were having a sci fi/ trekkie/geek ball picking out elements from Captain EO that we had seen in an assortment of Sci Fi tv shows & movies over the past 20 years.


Okay, giggle time over, and a bit more dancing water fountains later, we vowed that this was one attraction that need only be done once. Ever.



We headed over as a group to ride Test Trak. O’Malley’s family had gotten fast passes, and the timing was right for us to use our gifted fast passes so that we could all six ride together.


We had a fun building our competing race cars, and rode 3 and 3 in the car, comparing our design enhancements and flaws.



Our car:

Blurry, but car comparison:

(Marie designed the green car, though with mom as an engineer, and dad as a race car fan, I think she had a bit of an edge over us!)

Joe, O’Malley, Marie & Duchess decided to brave Mission:Space. I prefer to taste my meals only once, and Katie wanted to hang with me, so we wandered a bit & landed in the space aged game area outside of Mission Space.

I’d never been back in this area – the games were a lot of fun, and Katie and I enjoyed playing on team Orion, who won the space race that day.



Joe came out of Mission Space once again impressed with how smoothly Disney’s cast members handle touch situations. In this case, the guy getting off the ride behind them was twenty shades of green and reaching for a garbage can in the hall. Joe waited to see him come out of the exit area but he never did – poor guy must have been escorted out a side door to get some fresh air and perhaps heave in more privacy.



After playing a bit more, we took our first trip into Ellen’s Universe of Energy.

This was fun – I might encourage Katie to go on it again, it’s a great history and science lesson, as well as a good place to cool off, rest your feet and take a nap if you are so inclined. We all enjoyed it (though I do think Joe dozed a bit!)


Marie finally got the chance to go into “the big ball” that she’d wanted to visit on Saturday night. For the third (fourth for Joe) new attraction in a row, we all took a ride on Spaceship Earth. Pretty cool, and we enjoyed it, though I couldn’t get good pictures here. I think I need a new camera too! Oh well, you’ll have to suffer through my camera shots & my Cannon point & shoot pics while I have them.

We were feeling might thirsty after all this time and space travel, so Joe and I thoughtfully suggested a place with what else, free Coca Cola beverages from around the world! We all talked up everybody’s favorite Italian drink….

O’Malley was funny because he thought he had a “bad fountain” and actually tried it at every fountain till he agreed it was the drink, not the fountain that was bad!


We made our way over to The Seas and rode Nemo and caught some fin with Crush.



Joe & Katie had to get in their traditional Bruce shot.

look how much my girl has grown in six years:

It was getting close to 4 and frankly, we were ready for a break. At least, our family was. O’Malley, Duchess & Marie were going to stay and tackle the World Show case.


Katie had plans for this:

We headed back to Saratoga Springs, checked out the gift shop, grabbed some coffee, and headed back to the room to rest & refresh just a little.





We had a date night planned!

 

[MEK]

I couldn't read everything, but it looks like you had a great night at MK. I am impressed you made it to 1am. I think the latest I have been there is 12:30pm, which isn't bad for someone who still wakes up at the crack of dawn on vacation..

Love the Congress Park area. Not the parking lot view, but it looks pretty covered, so nice! Hope you got to enjoy the pool there. It's one of my favs.

I'll be back to read about Epcot. Gotta go to work now!

 

[Moira222]

I couldn't read everything, but it looks like you had a great night at MK. I am impressed you made it to 1am. I think the latest I have been there is 12:30pm, which isn't bad for someone who still wakes up at the crack of dawn on vacation..

Love the Congress Park area. Not the parking lot view, but it looks pretty covered, so nice! Hope you got to enjoy the pool there. It's one of my favs.

I'll be back to read about Epcot. Gotta go to work now!

You are quite the early riser ME! I think the mid day nap/break helped us with to the late night I am an early riser on vacation too, can't help myself - I get so excited - and not being a napper, well I drink a lot of coffee on vacation!

Joe has been teasing me because we were supposed to have a "no park" day for our upcoming trip....then I saw that the MK is open till 3 am on our "no park" day. I told him I could give him a good 8 - 10 hours at the resort but there was no way I'd be able to resist the lure of extra late magic hours!

Forgot to add, Joe LOVED the pool at Congress Park - he got to enjoy it by himself as Katie and I went on a (failed) quest. We did use the main pool, which we had almost to ourselves and it was nice. We requested Congress Park again for October - this time I asked for a view of the walkway to DTD so I am hoping it lands me a water view

 

[MEK]

I hope you get a water view at CP. There are some absolutely stellar views there. I think I read that the pool now has a snack bar? That's convenient.

Finished the rest of your update this morning.

Just love your sweater on SSE. I need that next time! I HAVE to have that sweater.

Love Katie's character pictures and loved seeing her old Bruce picture. How cute is that.

I have to admit - I do think it would be fun to try a really late night EMH. Of course, knowing me I would still wake up at 6am and then I would be dragging all day. It takes me a full week to get out of early wake up mode. Still sounds fun to experience an empty MK that late at night.

 

[Moira222]

I hope you get a water view at CP. There are some absolutely stellar views there. I think I read that the pool now has a snack bar? That's convenient.

Finished the rest of your update this morning.

Just love your sweater on SSE. I need that next time! I HAVE to have that sweater.

Funny -- I just saw a sweater like that at Kohls. Picked it up. looked closely, said "hell no, so NOT me"

Love Katie's character pictures and loved seeing her old Bruce picture. How cute is that.

we take that pose every time we go to WDW, and its fun to compare them. one day I will do a collage of Joe & Katie inside Bruce over the years

I have to admit - I do think it would be fun to try a really late night EMH. Of course, knowing me I would still wake up at 6am and then I would be dragging all day. It takes me a full week to get out of early wake up mode. Still sounds fun to experience an empty MK that late at night.

that is exactly what happens to me -- last trip one night I was doing laundry at 2 a.m. Still woke up at o'dark thirty. but for some reason, when I am in the parks late late at night, I get that little secret thrill that I got when I was 15 & sneaking out my bedroom window . silly I know. and don't tell Katie that I snuck out my bedroom window!!!

 

[Moira222]

Just to finish up our Epcot park day, I edited a few pics in photoshop to respect Joe’s wishes … (stupid chrome, stupid google)

And found the figment type characters designed by Joe & Katie in the play area after Figment. Not sure what happened to mine, but here are theirs:

Kaylee (by Katie)

Rosco (by Joe)

And finally...
A Grown Ups night out at the Boardwalk:

Eventually the Aristocat family made it back to Saratoga Springs and actually checked in & got their room. They were two doors down from us which made it nice.

I don’t believe they had any rest time, but truthfully cannot say for sure. What I can say is that we had a date night planned, so while the girls just got comfy, the adults spent a little extra time getting dressed.
We were pushing it because we got back in the car about 5:45 or so and had reservations to check the girls into the Sandcastle Club at 6 p.m. I wasn’t thrilled at being our driver for the night, but we were running too late to try for a bus, and really had no idea how to catch a cab, so car it was! We parked at the Yacht club & walked up to the Beach Club to get the girls settled in to the kids club, then we walked back to the Yacht club for our 6:50 reservations at the Captain’s Grille.
We all enjoyed a before dinner drink, and everyone had some sort of steak for dinner…but I have no food pictures at all!
It was strange to be out without the girls, especially at Disney. This was actually the first time we’d left Katie with a non-family member/ friend ever. She goes to an aftercare program after school, but oddly several of the young women who work there worked at the Little Gym where she took classes as a toddler – so we knew them.
We had a nice dinner, and our server was very helpful. I wish I had written down his name—he gave us some good suggestions and was very pleasant …and nice enough to take a photo of the four of us. If Google Chrome actually starts working I will post the picture (Yes I am still mad at Google!)

After dinner, we walked over to the Boardwalk area. We watched people play the games a little and ducked some raindrops by heading into one of the shops there. We all thoroughly enjoyed browsing without being mom’d and dad’d to death. Contrary to stereotypes, the ladies did not make any purchases and the men did.
After wandering in and out of all the little shops and the art gallery there on the boardwalk, we made our way to the Boardwalk Bakery. Oooohhh that was dangerous! Having walked a bit we were ready for some dessert, which we had declined at the restaurant. Joe ordered the peanut butter, banana, and candied bacon pie, but when he opened his little wrapped box, it was not the right item. He went back to ask for the right thing, and they gave him the right one, and told him to keep what they’d given him by mistake. (I looked online to see if I could remember what we had) Between the four of us we shared a salted caramel ganache, the peanut butter banana and candied bacon pie, the peanut butter bar cake (the mistake) and the cheesecake brownie. Oh My Gosh. Soooo fantastically yummy. I had forgotten till just now how good these treats were. Here are some photos from the Disney food blog:

and

After we had our desserts, my sweet sweet hubby gave me a special present that he’d purchased in the shop.
(photo borrowed)

Now if you’ve seen the movie Up, you have an idea of the very special meaning of the “Ellie Badge”. What you may not know was that first, we definitely had an Up theme to our 2012 anniversary trip, and Joe’s mom, who passed away in March of 2012, was Ellie, so it really had a much more special, sentimental meaning to us beyond the movie’s meaning. It was really very sweet.
Now that we were all ready to fall into a sugar coma, we knew we needed to walk around a bit more. We walked up to the end of the boardwalk area and just took in the view for a little bit before heading back for some entertainment.

We were torn between the dueling piano bar or the dance club, Jelly Rolls. Never having been to either, we decided on Jelly Rolls – we were looking forward to some dancing!
Okay….Jelly Rolls.. on a weeknight it was dead. There were a few couples there, but not really dancing. But we didn’t care. We picked a table and ordered drinks and kicked back. The DJ’s selection was, to say the least, eclectic. Very. He’d get everyone (all 5 couples) out on the dance floor with some disco or some 80’s flashback stuff and then switch to hits from the 50’s. or jump into an ultra modern hip hop type song right after some classic rock (there was absolutely no one under 30 there). There were videos playing for the songs as well, so we really cracked up again—who else here remembers the premier of MTV, and the music videos that were random concert clips all put together with a bit of Dancin’ on Air mixed in for kicks? (MAN I hope I’m not the only one who admits to that!)
While it was not the dance club outing we were hoping for, we did have a fun time. After a few really poor music choices, we decided to walk over to the piano bar – but as much as it seemed like a great time inside, we were not willing to pay a cover charge when we knew we had only 30 minutes before we had to pick up the girls.
We took our time walking back to the Beach Club to pick up the girls, walking through the grass, making a wrong guess as to the correct “back door” to get into, and running into a cute frog

And a not so cute snake on the way ---no snake pictures, but I’ll tell you that Duchess and I decided that walking barefoot through the grass might not be a great idea after we saw the snake!
The girls had a nice time, and sort of “buddied up” with the college girls who were the running the kids club. At nearly 10 I would say that Katie & Marie were at the top end of the age I’d use the kids club. They were just at the edge of the boredom zone. Which is a shame because at 10 we would not be okay with leaving the girls alone in our room for more than an hour so it doesn’t leave many grown up options for parents of young tweens. (Good thing my SIL is traveling with us in October. Joe and I will take advantage of her at least once while we’re down there!)
I will also add that while Marie, a bit of a picky eater, was okay with the kids chicken nuggets, Katie was not thrilled with the dinner options. I think she had a burger plate, but definitely would have been happier with two dinner portions because they are not very big portions. If you are considering a kids club for the evening and you have a child with a good appetite, or one who prefers the options of a grown up menu over pizza, burgers & nuggets, then feed them first. I know that we purchased a treat for Katie at the Main St. Bakery, and think that O’Malley & Duchess did the same for Marie.
Once again seeing the early side of the next day, we headed back to our resort for a bit of shut eye.
(I am trying hard to finish this TR before we leave to go back to the world, so apologize that it makes me even further behind in reading TR's. I am hoping there's good WiFi on the auto train -- plenty of Dis time then!)

 

[Moira222]

Wednesday May 1 Animal Kingdom
Wednesday morning came along fairly quickly for us. I ran up to Artist Point & picked up coffee for Joe and I & a big muffin for Katie for breakfast. We’d packed our electric griddle for the trip, so Joe and I stuck to our usual eggs for breakfast – boring I know, but keeping some meals simple lets us splurge in other areas!
By 8 am we were waiting at the bus stop. The Aristocats headed out a bit earlier than we did. They had evening plans to visit friends nearby so they drove to the park. (their car was not big enough for all of us)

(Katie wore her zebra print skort since we were going to Animal Kingdom. Love that girl's fashion sense some days!)

Before we knew it, we were walking in here and then making our way to the back of Animal Kingdom.

We headed straight back to Kilimanjaro Safari. I texted Duchess on our way, but they were just finishing a safari ride & there was no line,-- we boarded a truck right away!
We had an awesome early morning safari ride. I’ll let the photos tell you how awesome it way.

(Flash backs for Joe, walking over that bridge last year !)

as we came upon the Lions area, we saw the big guy chilling in the early morning hours.

and were happy to see him bright eyed and bushy tailed

His mate, however, was not to thrilled to see our safari.

She had to come check us out.

She was really really interested in the truck behind us. She paced back & forth a few times and roared at them a few times. It was an AWESOME display of power. She wanted us to know this was HER territory.

Not sure what Joe was pointing to. Cheetah maybe? they are always so hard to find!

 

[wiigirl]

Great update!

 

[MEK]

How great that you guys had a date night. Dinner was wonderful, I'm sure - even though you don't have any pictures.

I have never been in the Atlantic Dance Hall. It sounds like an interesting experience. At least you got a little dancing in and another adult beverage.

I like your dessert choices.

Yay for AK and double Yay for getting a picture of the lion, which I have YET to get. I have decided its never going to happen for me.

Looking forward to me.

Hope your travel day on Friday goes really well.

 

[KatMark]

I'm so sorry Mary Ellen; I had no idea you had resumed this. I am off to bed but will be back to read tomorrow.

 

[Moira222]

Great update!

Thanks! Its slow moving but I REALLY need to finish!!

How great that you guys had a date night. Dinner was wonderful, I'm sure - even though you don't have any pictures.

I have just accepted that I am awful about remembering food pictures until everyone has started digging in.

I have never been in the Atlantic Dance Hall. It sounds like an interesting experience. At least you got a little dancing in and another adult beverage.

LOL Glad you have the name right because I didn't! Jelly Rolls is the piano bar, right? DOH! We did have fun despite the bizarre music changes. and the drinks were decent!

I like your dessert choices.

Those desserts were sooo yummy. We will be stopping back there next week for sure!!

Yay for AK and double Yay for getting a picture of the lion, which I have YET to get. I have decided its never going to happen for me.

We could not believe how awake and active the lioness was. The lion of course just posed, but he was awake which is amazing by itself. hmmm kind of sounds like life in general, right?

Looking forward to me.

Hope your travel day on Friday goes really well.

THanks MEK. Looking forward to the train ride!

I'm so sorry Mary Ellen; I had no idea you had resumed this. I am off to bed but will be back to read tomorrow.

No worries Kathy, I am quite a slacker. Well online anyway. Just so much going on that its been hard for me to fit it all in. and the changes in the google photo tool has seriously messed me up. but I am too cheap/frugal/broke to pay for space on photobucket or flickr.

 

[Moira222]

aargh -- me practicing Pirate Speak -- stuck at work waiting for one last report to finish running so I thought I'd get in an update or two while I wait. Tomorrow morning we drive to Virginia to take the auto train to Sanford Fl. By Saturday I will be right back where this next entry takes you....Animal Kingdom!

````````````````````````

The Aristocats had gotten on again, apparently their first tour guide was not that great – so they finished their ride just a few minutes after us.
We met up with them right outside of the safari exit, where a very nice cast member was sharing information with us about the parks and was kind enough to take our photo.

As it was still early we had time to take a walk on the Pangani Exploration Trail.

While I apparently did not take any other photos, we did have a great time. We were enjoying watching the animals and sighting birds in the bird area there.
Following the trail, we hopped a ride to Rafiki’s Planet Watch

It was early when we got there, and there were no character greeting happening. We watched through the window at the animal care takers, but Katie was anxious to get to the petting area.

After a while we went back inside, and Rafiki was there

Joe was monkeying around behind us

and Rafiki just couldn’t resist getting in on the photos

Eventually we headed back to Africa and were making our way to Asia, making a little music along the way

when
we came upon the exquisite DeVine

sadly I had been messing with the settings on my camera, and most of my shots were way over exposed. Thankfully Joe took some with his camera!

 

[Moira222]

We stopped to watch Flights of Wonder

And then we walked the Maharaj Jungle

There was a bit of rain off & on throughout the morning, but we didn’t let it get to us.
Most of us rode Khali River Rapids, though Duchess passed on this one..which was nice because she then became our bag lady!! I did not bring any camera on the ride with me, so no photos. Boo.

 

[Moira222]

We were making our way to Everest….

as I was checking out my photos to put up, I realized that my redneck Everest photo had NO ONE from our group in it! LOL
Following Everest we made our way over to DinoLand. The rest of the gang hopped in line for Primeval Whirl. I passed on this one – I wasn’t sure how spinny the ride really was, and didn’t want to feel nauseous. I wandered around the area, checking out the games and face painters. I was just enjoying taking it all in and did not take a single picture! I think too because it was an on /off rainy day that I had my phone & camera in plastic bags, and I didn’t want to keep pulling them out.
Once the gang returned, they were psyched to see more dinosaurs! We walked on just as our mission film was ending. We caught only the last few seconds of it.
Only one redneck photo here…

After Dinosaur, we had just enough time to head over to catch the Festival of the Lion King. We really did time it close, and got there just as they opened the door. Which was nice because we got seats up front (but behind the handicapped & VIP seats).

Our friends had plans to meet up with other friends of theirs outside of Orlando, so we had just a few more minutes before they needed to go. We found some old friends at Camp Mickey & Minnie

Katie and I went to see Donald,

When I suggested that Donald sign Katie’s tee the way he did last year at Epcot, he totally QUACKED up. Really. The photo phass photographer was totally thrilled with it too & had to get a few shots of Donald making his ultimate statement.

while our friends headed over to Mickey

After this, O’Malley, Duchess & Marie headed out for their evening plans. Joe, Katie and I wandered over where we were able to see another absolute favorite duo

Russell and Doug were so funny!! There were a few young ladies in line on front of us – 20something I think, and very pretty. Well as any tween boy and his dog would do, they just fell all over these girls, flirting and horsing around with them. It was really funny.
They continued their antics as Katie & I came up, fighting over who was going to have their photo taken first, who was going to get to stand in the middle, etc.
Of course, Katie and I could not resist calling out “SQUIRREL” – which got Doug looking all over for it LOL
By now it was about 4 p.m., it was hot, muggy, and raining off and on. And we were tired. We decided to head over to Asia to see if we could get in before our 5pm dinner reservations. Apparently due to the rain, the place was empty. We walked up to Yak & Yeti and asked if we could be seated early and there was no wait at all. YAY!
Beautiful wood carvings

We’d never eaten here (and by the way, they do NOT take TIW cards here.) but we really enjoyed our dinners. And do you know what they have at Yak & Yeti? Something that Joe always wants at Disney World and cannot ever seem to find any where.
Pie! They have Pie! Joe and Katie shared a mango crème pie – the slice was huge.

So you see the hint of a smile there? Oh my hubby was happy….he loves pie!

and Joe & Katie are both talking about how good it was. We may have to stop there next week just for a piece of pie!
After dinner, we were done. I mean D O N E done. We headed back to the bus. And the skies absolutely opened up just as we got on the bus. Joe and Katie both fell asleep on the ride back to Saratoga Springs. We headed back to the room, totally bushed. I think I went to get decaf & hot chocolate for us to enjoy and we pretty much sacked out. We put on a movie, I pulled out my laptop to copy pictures off of our cameras, well, frankly I think we all fell asleep with the TV on by 9 p.m.

 

[MEK]

Great AK day. Sounds perfect. You got a lot done and you got so many great pictures. Too funny that you took the wrong red neck photo. Oops!

Love EE. Love Dinosaur. Love FOTLK. I also love Flights in Wonder.

Can't believe you are leaving tomorrow. Have an absolutely fantastic time. Try to convince Joe not to have his face altered anymore.

 

[Moira222]

Great AK day. Sounds perfect. You got a lot done and you got so many great pictures. Too funny that you took the wrong red neck photo. Oops!

Love EE. Love Dinosaur. Love FOTLK. I also love Flights in Wonder.

Can't believe you are leaving tomorrow. Have an absolutely fantastic time. Try to convince Joe not to have his face altered anymore.

We really did do a lot, you wouldn't know how much rain we ducked in and out of that day.

I have really really tried to get Joe to budge on the whole face altering image. sigh. Cops.

We are on the autotrain right now. Its really quite nice and the coach seats are very comfortable--lots of leg room. The one thing they don't tell you in the literature is that the wifi is really only good in the club car, which is where I am right now with my sister in law Nina. They are playing Casablanca on the flat screens tv here, i'm drinking a glass of wine that I filled from the included carafe at dinner...life is good!

Let's see if I can get my next update up before I watch the last Harry Potter with Katie!