The best laid plans .were worth it! A great first trip for dd and me! (4/20-28)

[JLR]

Part 3

Still hot, we stopped and got some ice cream. They did not have any no sugar added varieties, so I asked for “just a little.” I think the guy misunderstood me and piled my cone even higher than Madeline’s. I ended up tipping much of it into a trash can. Actually, Madeline ended up throwing quite a bit of hers away as well. We should have shared. That is another tip I want to remember. Portion sizes for everything are so huge, just share almost everything!

We then headed back up to Pacific Point Preserve to feed the Sea Lions. (See what I mean about not touring in an organized way?)

The sea lions are super cute, but it takes some accuracy to get the fish to them so the birds don’t steal them.

Now it was time to see Believe. We decided to stop and take advantage of our all day dining deal to get some drinks and fruit before crossing the part to Shamu stadium. The restaurants now were mobbed. Even if all you want is a drink you have to stand on line with the lunch crowd, then even though you just have to show the wrist band, you have to stand on line with those paying. This was an enormous, colossal waste of time. We did it though – after paying for the wrist band I didn’t want to pay for our drinks at a regular vendor. I personally would not do the all day dining deal again. We just don’t eat enough to make it worthwhile – and do not want to spend the time travelling to those restaurants and standing in line. I think we did eventually get enough fruit and drinks to make it pay for itself, I hated the hassle and loss of time!

We cruised across the park and Madeline was delighted to choose these seats for us:

Since the accident, the trainers are not in the water with the orcas. I hadn’t seen the other show, so I didn’t really miss what I’d never seen. All the female trainers also had their hair up. I always wondered why they didn’t do that before. We enjoyed the show.

I love this photo!

Getting Soaked at Believe



At this point we had planned to miss the Wild Arctic so we trekked back to the other side of the park.

It is a nice walk, but do you remember the lesson I learned about Dinosaur at Animal Kingdom? Apparently I didn’t………

We were going to pick up some more drinks and coleslaw or fruit when we saw that Manta still had no line!

I just love those aquariums in the queue!

I was trying to capture the Manta position here. This ride was particularly good. It felt faster. We were in the second row. They had the water set so we got a little splashed which didn’t happen on our other rides. It felt good!

 

[skier_pete]

Hmmm...we saw beleive back in I think it was 2007. I was amazed how much of the time the trainers were in the water with the Orcas...practically the whole show. They must have changed it quite a bit.

Seymore and Clyde have been around since I was a child, as I remember Sea World from back in the 70s, but it has changed quite a bit. (Well...different Seymore and Clyde I presume too.) Manta wasn't open in 2007 yet, and they were just building Aquatica (across the street). While we enjoyed it a lot, the park didn't quite measure up to the overall service and cleanliness of Disney. I thought Kraken was OK, though no real theme. Journey to Atlantis was neat, though maybe tried to be too many things at once. (Is it a dark ride? A flume ride? a roller coaster? Nope, all 3!)

I liked that you described how to get over there from Disney property. I am thinking if we go to WDW in 2011, we might need to leave a day for Sea World.(We do have Marineland not 30 minutes from our house in Canada...it's similar but not at the same high level as Sea World.)

 

[JLR]

Hmmm...we saw beleive back in I think it was 2007. I was amazed how much of the time the trainers were in the water with the Orcas...practically the whole show. They must have changed it quite a bit.

Seymore and Clyde have been around since I was a child, as I remember Sea World from back in the 70s, but it has changed quite a bit. (Well...different Seymore and Clyde I presume too.) Manta wasn't open in 2007 yet, and they were just building Aquatica (across the street). While we enjoyed it a lot, the park didn't quite measure up to the overall service and cleanliness of Disney. I thought Kraken was OK, though no real theme. Journey to Atlantis was neat, though maybe tried to be too many things at once. (Is it a dark ride? A flume ride? a roller coaster? Nope, all 3!)

I liked that you described how to get over there from Disney property. I am thinking if we go to WDW in 2011, we might need to leave a day for Sea World.(We do have Marineland not 30 minutes from our house in Canada...it's similar but not at the same high level as Sea World.)

I agree. I was thinking about that as I did my TR. I think I would have appreciated Sea World a whole lot more if I hadn't had several days at Disney to compare it to. Sea World was very nice and definately worth seeing, but it is indeed not Disney. A friend of mine commented,"Disney just does thing right." Manta was very, very cool and I really enjoyed the aquariums in the queue, but the other rides really are just rides. Otherwise, the animals are the reason to attend Sea World and we really enojoyed that.

 

[JLR]

We headed over to Journey to Atlantis for a second ride, but the wait now was 50 minutes! The park was so empty in the morning, but there were a lot more people in the afternoon. We did not want to spend our day at Sea World standing in line, so we headed on to see Pets Ahoy. We stopped again to pick up drinks. Madeline wanted a pickle and the coleslaw so we picked those up as well. The lines were still very long. The restaurant was right next to Pets Ahoy but we didn’t know that and walked in the wrong direction so it took us a while to find it. For most people, Pets Ahoy would not be on the do not miss list, but this is exactly the type of show Madeline would love.

It is a very cute show. The animals had all been adopted from animal shelters and consisted of dogs and cats as well as a pig, skunk and a few other more unusual animals. You can go up at the end and talk to a trainer and meet one of the performers. Madeline is just crazy about animals and her biggest regret in life is that I am allergic to everything with fur and feathers. I try to give her as many opportunities like this as possible.

At this point we had a little time before we had to be at Blue Horizons and Madeline decided she really wanted to ride the Wild Arctic Ride and see those exhibits. I said sure. See I had forgotten the Dinosaur lesson. Wild Arctic is clear across the park by Shamu Stadium. We headed on over and it was a hike. At this point we were pretty fit, so we didn’t mind the distance, but the time started to become an issue. Then you are there, so you might as well go. It seemed like there wasn’t much of a wait, but it turned out to be about 15 – 20 minutes, not bad, but we were on the clock. We needed to be back at the other end of the park by 3:00!

The queue is shaded but not air conditioned. It wasn’t too bad since big fans were running, but that made it very loud and very difficult to have a conversation to pass the time. Can you tell – I was getting a little sour at this point?

Finally we get in and ride the ride:

It was fine. I probably would have enjoyed it except for three things:

1. I was already a bit sour from the walk and wait.
2. It was a bit jerky and uncomfortable
3. I had already ridden Star Tours which is very similar and just a bit better done.

Oh well. I’ll know in the future to skip the wait and the ride and just visit the exhibits, preferably directly before or after Believe, to save transportation time. The time saved by fewer crowds was completely eaten up by the extra walking time!

The animal exhibits were cool but we had to use the facilities were trying to decide whether or not we had time to make it to Blue Horizons. Sadly, none of my pictures came out. After finding a restroom, it was clear that we did not have time. It was 2:55 and we were clear across the park. We’d been going for a long time, and Madeline had what was the closest to a meltdown she had this whole trip. It was sadly the last performance of Blue horizons that day and I was sad to miss it, too. We stopped and got more fruit and beverages and I also got an order of fajitas from Mango Joes to share. (This is the one restaurant not on the Waterfront to participate in the all-day dining.) We had eaten our brunch at about 10 am so we were both a bit hungry. We were trying to get ourselves in a better mood and decide what else we wanted to do. We enjoyed the mini parade of drumming stilt walkers while we sat, but my photos did not turn out. I thought maybe we should go home and swim at SAB, or alternatively check out Shamu’s happy harbor and the rest of the animal exhibits. We had some coupons for a free play at one of the carnival games in Shamu’s happy harbor that they were giving out after Believe. Madeline decided to go to the Hamlet. Madeline wanted to attend one of the wild animal greets. We gave the coupon to a family sitting at the next table and headed out.

The Hamlet – previously called the Clydesdale Hamlet is a big barn with two horses outside and a presentation, photo opportunity area inside.

The presentation was a brief one about a wallaby.

Then you had the opportunity to have your picture taken with the animal and ask one question afterwards. The Adventure Photo people were there, but they let you take your own photos as well:

I guess I would not recommend that you cross the park for this experience, but it was a pleasant time filler. It was time now to finish up our time as Sea World.

We checked out the Penguin Exhibit

The Manatee Rescue Area

And the Tortoises

Madeline asked a few questions of a trainer at the tortoise exhibit.

I think at this point we were too hot and tired to really appreciate what we were doing. I recognized that this is how many people feel at Disney and I was so grateful for all the information I’d gotten from UG, TGM, and DIS so that I only rarely experienced it!

Next time, I think we’ll either limit what we do, or spend 2 partial days at Sea World.

As we were getting ready to pick up our stuff from the lockers, we saw that Manta still had NO LINE! So we rode it twice in a row! That was a nice way to end and brightened us up a bit.

Hot and tired, I was not up to dealing with public transportation, so we took a cab home. Mears taxis line up outside Sea World – so I felt safe taking them. I’d heard bad things about the other cab companies, but Mears has a good reputation and I had my fare quote as well. I feel that it bears repeating that Mears cabs are impeccably clean and comfortable. The cabby was nice, but disappointed that we wanted air conditioning. I was delighted to lean back and let someone else do the driving!

And so ends our adventure at Sea World.

 

[smithpack]

Wow! Even though you crossed the park a lot, it seems like you got a lot done. This makes me want to do a mother/daughter trip when my DD gets older. I don't think my DH would let me though, he would hate to miss out on all the fun. I think I may have him convinced to go this fall before the baby is born. The only problem is I would be like 32 weeks pregnant, but I did ask someone on the phone at Disney if I could get something so I wouldn't have to stand in lines, and she said YES!! So I am trying to decide if I want to go big and pregnant. I know I will be worn out, but I can get something from guest services so we wouldn't have to wait in lines. I just can't decide what to do. I also could eat whatever I want and not feel guilty, but I might also get heartburn. I just know if we don't go this fall, it will be 2012 before we could go again. What to do, What to do.

 

[JLR]

Wow! Even though you crossed the park a lot, it seems like you got a lot done. This makes me want to do a mother/daughter trip when my DD gets older. I don't think my DH would let me though, he would hate to miss out on all the fun. I think I may have him convinced to go this fall before the baby is born. The only problem is I would be like 32 weeks pregnant, but I did ask someone on the phone at Disney if I could get something so I wouldn't have to stand in lines, and she said YES!! So I am trying to decide if I want to go big and pregnant. I know I will be worn out, but I can get something from guest services so we wouldn't have to wait in lines. I just can't decide what to do. I also could eat whatever I want and not feel guilty, but I might also get heartburn. I just know if we don't go this fall, it will be 2012 before we could go again. What to do, What to do.

Go go go go go!!!!!! It is so hard to do anything in that year after a new baby. Just plan a different kind of trip - you might do some things together and some things separate. Let the boys do the thrill rides you and dd can't and you do the girly things or more relaxing things. They have a buch of deals right now and it looks like you could use the 30% off either an ASM suite or a Wilderness cabin, or go for free dining. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you!

 

[smithpack]

I still have a pin code that is good for kids play, and dine free. So their tickets and dining plan would be free. It would save me right around $1000 since DD is 3 now. It's good until Oct 2nd, so I was thinking of going for my DS's birthday for 8 nights and doing the Mickey's not so scary halloween party. I think I may go ahead and book it and then I can cancel if anything comes up with the pregnancy.

 

[JLR]

I still have a pin code that is good for kids play, and dine free. So their tickets and dining plan would be free. It would save me right around $1000 since DD is 3 now. It's good until Oct 2nd, so I was thinking of going for my DS's birthday for 8 nights and doing the Mickey's not so scary halloween party. I think I may go ahead and book it and then I can cancel if anything comes up with the pregnancy.

That sounds just perfect! I am so excited for you!



I don't know about you, but I usually still feel pretty darn good at 32 weeks. Just do your back exercises so you can support that baby.

 

[smithpack]

All of my pregnancy's have been pretty easy. I was thinking what you were thinking, DH can take the boys on all the thrill rides, and I can take it easy with DD. I went ahead and booked, and I was still able to get dinner reservations everywhere that I wanted!! I can't believe it with that being free dining time and all. I was even able to get a BBB for DD and Cinderella's Royal Table! I could not believe it. My parent's just decided to do an addition to their house, so my DH is doing that on the weekends and we are able to pay off our car, and pay for our Disney trip!! I am excited now! Can't wait to hear more about your TR!!

 

[gallmcduck]

Phew I am tired just reading all about sea world and the distance you walked that day We done the believe show a few years ago but I cannot remember what the trainers were doing, I just enjoyed the coolness of the stadium The video of you both getting soaked is great looks real fun.

 

[gallmcduck]

All of my pregnancy's have been pretty easy. I was thinking what you were thinking, DH can take the boys on all the thrill rides, and I can take it easy with DD. I went ahead and booked, and I was still able to get dinner reservations everywhere that I wanted!! I can't believe it with that being free dining time and all. I was even able to get a BBB for DD and Cinderella's Royal Table! I could not believe it. My parent's just decided to do an addition to their house, so my DH is doing that on the weekends and we are able to pay off our car, and pay for our Disney trip!! I am excited now! Can't wait to hear more about your TR!!

yey you have booked. You'll need to get started on a ptr so we can see your ADRs and plans. That's really exciting Oh you got BBB and CRT your DD will just love it

 

[JLR]

All of my pregnancy's have been pretty easy. I was thinking what you were thinking, DH can take the boys on all the thrill rides, and I can take it easy with DD. I went ahead and booked, and I was still able to get dinner reservations everywhere that I wanted!! I can't believe it with that being free dining time and all. I was even able to get a BBB for DD and Cinderella's Royal Table! I could not believe it. My parent's just decided to do an addition to their house, so my DH is doing that on the weekends and we are able to pay off our car, and pay for our Disney trip!! I am excited now! Can't wait to hear more about your TR!!

Super awesome! Not only a Disney trip, but a financially guilt free trip! I am vicariously enjoying your ability to go back since it'll be a bit before we return. We were eating supper the other day and talking about Disney with my husband. I had been working on my Sea World TR and trying to explain that although we loved the animal exhibits, the rides are just so different from Disney. Not as clean for one, but also, just a different feel. He said was worried he would just hate almost every minute of our trip to Disney and have to hide it from the kids. I was trying to express to him that it isn't what he thinks. I believe he thinks it is like a bigger, slightly cleaner, much more expensive state fair. It is so hard to articulate that yes, it is super expensive and can be so crowded, but it is also so fun to be somewhere where they do things right. I don't begrudge the ticket prices when clearly they hire way more staff than they would have to, everywhere from bag check to keep us safe, to all of the CMs constantly cleaning the place. Then the impeccable upkeep, the smells, everything!

Phew I am tired just reading all about sea world and the distance you walked that day We done the believe show a few years ago but I cannot remember what the trainers were doing, I just enjoyed the coolness of the stadium The video of you both getting soaked is great looks real fun.

Thanks so much. You must be so excited for your own trip!

 

[JLR]

In our last installment we experienced the consequences of not learning from past mistakes, pulled our moods back up and called it a day.

Back at the hotel, we found this little fella:

I can’t recall what time it was at this point, but we didn’t have supper reservations until 7:30 pm. So we headed out for a nice dip in Storm-Along Bay. I was pretty tired, but a swim always refreshed us. A nice thing happened. Madeline found a nice young boy to play with and I got to sit in the hot tub with the grown ups. That was very nice. My only design complaint for SAB would be to have the hot-tubs set up so you can see the main pool. I guess some people want to get away from the main pool, but I hated not having my eyes on Madeline!

Refreshed and rejuvenated we headed back for a quick shower before our trek. As all of you know, there is no great way to get from one hotel to another and we were dining at another hotel tonight. I debated whether to:
a. Take a cab
b. Walk through Epcot and catch a bus
c. Take a Friendship to DHS and catch a bus
d. Take a bus to MK and catch another bus to the hotel

We decided to walk through Epcot. I know the experienced readers are shaking their heads. It looks like a short walk from the International Gateway to the front of Epcot. It is not. What is worse is that I kind of knew that. When I had considered going this way it was with the assumption that we’d have finished up much earlier at Sea World and might have time to ride Livin’ with the Land or Mission Space Green. We clearly did not have time, and we didn’t really have time even to catch a photo pass photographer which was another thing I was thinking of doing. I did get these photos though:

I guess if someone asked my advice, I’d say that taking a bus to MK and switching there probably would have been the best option. Oh well, it was some more good quality aerobic exercise right?

We had pretty good bus Karma and got right on a bus to AKL – Kidani village at the front of Epcot. It was nice to sit because my knee was really starting to hurt. I injured my knee ice skating several years ago and it protests when I over use it – not while I’m walking, but when I stop and rest.

AKL is very interesting. Everything is thoughtfully chosen and beautiful. The lobby is amazing! I have to say that I personally don’t care for the arid browns and was glad we stayed at BCV. That location just “felt” better to me – not surprising since it is a New England feel. However, I know that we will probably stay at AKL in the future. Madeline just loved it.

We checked in at Sanaa and asked if we could wait for a window table. That was the reason after all that we were eating there.

The pagers have a pretty good range, so they let us go out to the fire pit to wait. A cast member was telling a traditional story by the fire pit and Madeline sat with the other children to enjoy and I sat back and enjoyed the fire, the evening, and the animals. I saw giraffes, some type of ox, deer, and an ostrich.

Madeline was disappointed they didn’t have any cheetahs but I thought that might make more of a show than most visitors would want to see. As the sun went down I started to get chilly. I had packed a sweater for Madeline and not for myself. What was I thinking? After shivering for a few minutes I thought about supper in the air conditioned restaurant and went upstairs to pick up a fleece jacket at the gift shop. They had really nice ones at the beach club and I hoped they’s have some here.

No such luck! They had lots of t-shirts and tank tops. We eventually found a windbreaker that said: Disney Vacation Club Owner. Not exactly the souvenir I wanted but I hurt and was cold and tired, so I bought it. As I was checking out our buzzer went off. We hobbled downstairs and were seated at the very edge of the window. I sat my back to it, so Madeline could look out.

This restaurant is very beautiful, but I had a lot of difficulty getting decent photos. Here is the best I could do.

I was feeling like I was going to hit the wall again. I do have to say that I didn’t plan well. Both times I had planned for a really nice supper, I ended up too tired an uncomfortable to really enjoy it. I have developed a taste for Indian food over the last few years and had really been looking forward to this meal. Sanaa serves African food influenced by Indian spices.

We sat and considered the menu choices and ultimately, I decided to order an appetizer instead of an entrée. My server allowed me to substitute an appetizer for two in place of an entrée. I wanted this because it gave you three different things to try. I was going to order the bread and dipping sauces as well, but I had commented on my fear of having too much food and she told me that you can get 1 piece of the bread and dipping sauce for $1.50. Perfect! The bread, BTW is very nice, like naan. I remembered at this point that I had some ibuprofen in my bag so I took the maximum. It was hard to think about anything else except my pain, but I wanted Madeline to enjoy. What do you think: was she happy?

Madeline ordered the pizza and had tomato soup for her appetizer (it came with cheese toast). The server encouraged her to get a mango lassi smoothie for her drink (yes this counted on the dining plan.)

It was delicious and I would certainly recommend this to others.

My food came out pretty quickly, but they brought the wrong meal for Madeline and forgot her appetizer. She was OK though, enjoying her smoothie and trying out my food.

This is the Sampler for Two - Potato and Pea Samosa, Pulled Duck with Red Curry Sauce, Roasted Cauliflower. Sorry I didn’t follow food porn etiquette and take the photo before the first bite. Madeline liked the duck. I liked it all but the cauliflower the best. It is not spicy at all and I was a bit disappointed about that.

Our waitress brought us out a second dip for our bread because of the mix up and the long waits. They seemed quite understaffed that night and we waited long, long, long times between visits to our table. Our waitress was excellent when she was there.

Madeline saw several animals out the window during supper, which was nice. It was getting pretty dark.

When our waitress came back to take our dessert order, neither Madeline nor I were very hungry. She ordered the chocolate cake and I ordered the mango pudding, both to go. I made another error here: I gave the waitress my KTTW card so she could ring us up, and she did. Here’s the thing, if you want to charge the tip to your card, you have to get the initial bill, write the tip on it, then have them run the card. There was no place on the statement she brought me to write in a tip. All I had was a $20 and a $5. We waited for a while to see if she’d stop by so I could charge the tip or get change, but I really needed to get home and get to bed. I was not feeling well and really wanted to put my leg up. Eventually I left her a BIG tip. I just couldn’t’ leave a chintzy little tip. It wasn’t her fault she had too many tables. I just hope someone else can learn from my mistake.

We were pretty tired and it was quite late at that point. Instead of taking a bus to MK and switching, we just took a cab home. I am very glad they take credit cards, because I had just used my cash for the tip. It was a beautiful evening and good to get back to the hotel.

Tomorrow would be our final day. I felt a little sad, but I also missed John, Elena, and Viviana something fierce!

 

[JLR]

Today was our final day at Disney. I had left this day open for Madeline to choose what she wanted. Of course, she wanted to do everything! She wanted to ride Dumbo, Monsters Inc. Buzz, BTMRR and Splash, do another Kim Possible adventure at Epcot and I thought going in for the EMH 8 -9 then moving on, might be worthwhile. When the realities of touring and transportation were explored, I pinned Madeline down to Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom as being very important today. We did have another certificate for a magic fast pass, that we could use in the afternoon.

Madeline did want to ride Dumbo again. The ride is nice, but I’m not sure I really understand the incredible appeal it has. But it was her day – we looked at the options and how it might play out to go to MK in the morning and AK in the afternoon, then going from Hoop Dee Doo to possibly do one more Kim Possible adventure at Epcot. What was a bit awkward was that Hoop Dee Doo is much more easily accessed from MK. The other issue is that AK is so much more pleasant in the morning. So we finally agreed to give up on Dumbo, go to AK for rope drop – lunch then go to MK until 4:00 or so using our magic fast passes to hit Big Thunder and Splash, then we’d go to Hoop Dee Doo and decide there whether to finish up at MK or Epcot.

One other thing about today. We still had 7 counter service meals, 4 table service meals, and a number of snacks left and about 24 hours to use them!

We got a nice early start and soon we were here:

There were lines at the turnstiles but Madeline needed to use the restroom. When we came out there was a turnstile uncovered with no line – we asked the CM who said they’d just uncovered it – score!

Our goal today was to ride Expedition Everest, Safari and Kali, more than once if possible, go out to Rafiki’s Planet Watch and see if we could meet Chip and Dale at camp Minnie-Mickey. I got a daily schedule to see what else we might want to do and I just happened to see that they were not going to offer fast pass at Kali today. That seemed weird, but I hoped that meant it would be a very slow day! So I altered our plan a bit to accommodate that.

Once they let us in, we centered ourselves to see the welcoming show we’d missed last week.

Soon enough these guys arrived.

I’ve got the beginning and end of the show:





What a fun little show! Elena and Viviana love it!

When the rope dropped, we headed out with everybody straight to Expedition Everest and picked up our fast passes.

We then chose to ride it and took the time to take these photos:

We asked to be seated in the front, so we just had to wait one loading more.

What a great ride. Madeline finally bought herself a little Yeti. She wanted a snow cat, but they didn’t have them in the small size and I was starting to worry if we’d fit everything in our baggage. Also – we could not have them sent back to the hotel, so we’d have to carry her purchases all day.

As we came out, we noticed the wait time for EE was still 5 minutes – so we jumped back on! I really enjoy everything about this attraction! We didn’t ride in the front row this time but enjoyed it just as much.

OK it’s my last day – I’ll probably post most of the photos – so I better stop here.

 

[JLR]

Now that we had ridden the forbidden mountain we headed out to try to use up some of our TS credits. Pizzafari is open for breakfast. We thought we’d walk over there and then pick up our Safari fast passes. As we walked along, we saw this character with only one family in line.

Then across the way stood this little lady:

We also saw King Louie and Baloo, but the photopass photographer took the photos and I haven’t received my photopass order yet.

Now we were able to cruise up and pick up our Safari fast pass and head down to get a bit of breakfast.

The wait was really, really, long because they were out of sausage which is what Madeline wanted. Sadly, although Madeline likes the breakfast pizza at her school, she did not like it at Pizzafari. Fortunately, she liked whatever I had – scrambled eggs, I think, and we shared. I love the décor in Pizzafari.

Our tummies filled, we headed over to Camp Minnie-Mickey

We were very excited to see this fellow:

We had a pin-the-tail-on-Meeko game at Madeline’s 5th birthday.

Then we had to wait a bit, maybe 5 minutes for these fellows. They were worth it – my second favorite character interaction of the whole trip!

They played with Madeline’s hat, loved her Dale pin and were excited to see my Chip and Dale lanyard. I had forgotten that those were the characters on my lanyard, the Memories by Betsy lady had picked it out.

After Chip and Dale we got in line for Thumper and Miss Bunny. We were told they were going to have a brief carrot juice break, but would be right back. It was kind of cute, Thumper put his arm out and escorted Miss Bunny back. I think they were gone all of 90 seconds. Several other people left the line. (We were sitting on a bench) so we were first when they returned.

That accomplished, we didn’t need to get on any of the other lines, since we’d met the “fab five” at Chef Mickey’s.

Now it was time to head out to Conservation Station at Rafiki’s Planet Watch.

On the way, we picked up another set of Safari Fast Passes. Those darn things are addictive!

I think I’ll stop here – otherwise I’ll end up with too many photos in this update.

 

[smithpack]

Super awesome! Not only a Disney trip, but a financially guilt free trip! I am vicariously enjoying your ability to go back since it'll be a bit before we return. We were eating supper the other day and talking about Disney with my husband. I had been working on my Sea World TR and trying to explain that although we loved the animal exhibits, the rides are just so different from Disney. Not as clean for one, but also, just a different feel. He said was worried he would just hate almost every minute of our trip to Disney and have to hide it from the kids. I was trying to express to him that it isn't what he thinks. I believe he thinks it is like a bigger, slightly cleaner, much more expensive state fair. It is so hard to articulate that yes, it is super expensive and can be so crowded, but it is also so fun to be somewhere where they do things right. I don't begrudge the ticket prices when clearly they hire way more staff than they would have to, everywhere from bag check to keep us safe, to all of the CMs constantly cleaning the place. Then the impeccable upkeep, the smells, everything.

Just so you know my husband HATES stuff like the fair, and six flags. He always talks about how dirty, crowded, and overpriced they are. We don't ever do the fair because of that. I also must let you know that my DH LOVES Disneyworld. I broke the news to him that I booked us a trip to go back before the baby. I thought he would be mad that I didn't talk it over with him first, but he told me that he was actually excited about it because he does love to go. He said it is the only place that we go with the kids that he actually really feels like he is on vacation because the customer service is so great, and he doesn't have to do anything. It is so much cleaner and better than anywhere else because they do have so many CM's to keep up the place. He also likes the dining plan because then we don't have to keep up with how much money we are spending and instead of getting mad about how much we are spending on food we always get excited because we see how much we are saving. Last year the regular dining plan was $30 an adult and $10 a kid. Because our kids were free we only paid $60 a day for food. I kept up with our reciepts and our average day of reciepts was right around $200. Our Table Services alone were always right around $150. We saved so much money with the dining plan, and had prepaid for our food that we didn't mind buying our kids souvineers because that is all we really spent any additional money on. I meant to include on my TR that we paid $540 dollars to add our dining plan, and our receipts totaled right around $1800. I could not believe how much we saved, and we had a ton of food. Even if we had to pay the $10 for our kids, it still would have been a huge savings!!

 

[smithpack]

Sanaa looks good, and you can tell your daughter was enjoying the storyteller by the fire pit. Another creative towel animal. I guess it is a roasting chicken or something? So funny!!

You are going to have a busy day on this last day. I can't believe how much you had gotten done already. I love the pictures you took from the front of EE. That is really cool to see that. You met a lot of characters that I had no idea were even there. Can't wait to see all your pics!!

 

[JLR]

Just so you know my husband HATES stuff like the fair, and six flags. He always talks about how dirty, crowded, and overpriced they are. We don't ever do the fair because of that. I also must let you know that my DH LOVES Disneyworld. I broke the news to him that I booked us a trip to go back before the baby. I thought he would be mad that I didn't talk it over with him first, but he told me that he was actually excited about it because he does love to go. He said it is the only place that we go with the kids that he actually really feels like he is on vacation because the customer service is so great, and he doesn't have to do anything. It is so much cleaner and better than anywhere else because they do have so many CM's to keep up the place. He also likes the dining plan because then we don't have to keep up with how much money we are spending and instead of getting mad about how much we are spending on food we always get excited because we see how much we are saving. Last year the regular dining plan was $30 an adult and $10 a kid. Because our kids were free we only paid $60 a day for food. I kept up with our reciepts and our average day of reciepts was right around $200. Our Table Services alone were always right around $150. We saved so much money with the dining plan, and had prepaid for our food that we didn't mind buying our kids souvineers because that is all we really spent any additional money on. I meant to include on my TR that we paid $540 dollars to add our dining plan, and our receipts totaled right around $1800. I could not believe how much we saved, and we had a ton of food. Even if we had to pay the $10 for our kids, it still would have been a huge savings!!

Hopefully my husband will read this as he reads the TR - if not, I'll print it out. 2012 seems so far away....... I felt the same way about the dining plan. I don't know if we actually saved money because we could easily have shared almost all the counter service meals, and ended up not ordering as much food at our table service meals - but it doesn't really matter because I enjoyed having pre-paid for our meals and loved not worrying about what we were spending!

Sanaa looks good, and you can tell your daughter was enjoying the storyteller by the fire pit. Another creative towel animal. I guess it is a roasting chicken or something? So funny!!

You are going to have a busy day on this last day. I can't believe how much you had gotten done already. I love the pictures you took from the front of EE. That is really cool to see that. You met a lot of characters that I had no idea were even there. Can't wait to see all your pics!!

Thanks. As I get closer to the end I am adding more and more pics even the one that aren't that great. That towel animal was hanging on the bed BTW.

I had no idea it was so easy to see the characters at AK in the mornings!

It is funny - I never really heard anyone talk about Disney and now that I am back I know so many people that are going! My hygenist this morning told me she is going twice this year! The kids in orchestra are going for 10 days! Then she has a conference there in August as well. Several women at our clinic are also going this year and one of my best friends is bringing her daughter. She is funny - like my husband, she thinks she won't like it. I hope she plans enough to avoid lines and really focus on doing the things she wants to do!

 

[JLR]

In our last installment, we had gone character crazy. Now we were ready to go out to Conservation Station and Rafiki's Planet Watch.

The wait for this train was the second longest (after space mountain) of the whole trip. They don’t ask people to move together or completely fill the train which was irritating. Maybe that is their way of crowd controlling what happens at the other end. Finally we got on the train.

Technically, this is a “back stage” area, so not everything is themed.

I was not quick enough to get any interesting shots. Finally, we arrived.

We followed the paths to Rafiki’s planet watch.

We stopped to do the child education activity and get another stamp on her card.

The CMs were very kind.

One tip I would recommend for others would be to do these on the way out, rather than the way in.

Soon we were here:

Madeline was looking her hardest. We had heard there were over 100 hidden Mickeys in this building. Our real goal here was to see any live animal presentations or veterinary procedures. Sadly, they did not have any live animal presentations scheduled that hour and they were all done with that day’s veterinary procedures. If you want to see them, go to Rafiki’s Planet Watch first thing in the morning. They start them at 8 and continue until they are done.

Relieving the pain, however, was that there were more characters here! I was pretty excited to see Jiminy Cricket as I had heard he isn’t always around.

We also got to meet Rafiki and Pocahontas with only brief waits. Pocahontas loved Madeline’s hair!

Although there were not any animal greets, Madeline did participate in an education activity with this CM.

We also checked out the veterinary room.

On our way out we examined the map with the wild life preservation areas. There are a lot in North Dakota!

There was another long line at the train station back. I did not have my camera out and I wish I had – there were a number of things I would have liked to photograph on our way back to Africa.

Finally we were here:

Ahh – back in Africa and ready for our safaris.

 

[skier_pete]

We were eating supper the other day and talking about Disney with my husband. I had been working on my Sea World TR and trying to explain that although we loved the animal exhibits, the rides are just so different from Disney. Not as clean for one, but also, just a different feel. He said was worried he would just hate almost every minute of our trip to Disney and have to hide it from the kids. I was trying to express to him that it isn't what he thinks. I believe he thinks it is like a bigger, slightly cleaner, much more expensive state fair. It is so hard to articulate that yes, it is super expensive and can be so crowded, but it is also so fun to be somewhere where they do things right. I don't begrudge the ticket prices when clearly they hire way more staff than they would have to, everywhere from bag check to keep us safe, to all of the CMs constantly cleaning the place. Then the impeccable upkeep, the smells, everything!

I don't know your husband, but that is a common misconception. We ended up in 2007 going with my DW BFF and her youngest DD. BFF convinced her DH to come for 4 days - that's the most he was willing to stay. He hates crowds, hates waiting in line...his idea of a vacation is going off into the woods and shooting at animals. Even BFF wasn't really into the idea of going, was more going for her DD. (Older DD goes with friends every year, younger DD never went.)

Well, they had an absolutely great time. It helps that with me, you never ever wait in line for a ride. We went end of September, so the crowds were atrocious, but were definitely there, but we had to contend with the heat and rain...and still they loved it. Now, they really aren't in any hurry to go back again, but they did really enjoy themselves.

Personally, I don't know how someone that has a clue as to what there going into at WDW wouldn't have a good time, no matter your personality, you can tailor the vacation to them. With you already having been there, and you knowing your DH, I don't think there's anyway he doesn't have fun.

Too bad you have to wait until 2012. I think we'd have a tough time going 2 years now that we are full-formed Mousejunkies. We have a big trip planned for 2012 that likely will prevent a WDW trip that year...so we are already thinking a 2011 trip is a must. (I don't think 3 years between trips is doable for us anymore.)

And yes, WDW is expensive...but it can be done on a reasonable budget. Our family skis, and a budget Disney trip is much easier to pull off than a budget ski trip. One of the reasons we keep our trips low budget is so we can go more often. We've spent under $3000 (including air fare) on each of our trips to date. We only spent $1300 this past trip (not counting our AP tickets, which were already paid for) for 5 nights. Yeah, we skipped the DDP and avoided TS restaurants, but we still had a great time.