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

[Dugette]

I'm in! I remember you stopping over to my TR and I had perused your PTR a bit at the time. Just happened to stumble upon your TR now. Very cool doing the surprise trip. I'm glad to hear it went well. Also very cool to see the BCV Studio, as we have that booked for our November short trip. Loved your balcony view!

Can't wait to hear more!

 

[JLR]

Subscribing to your TR! Can't wait to here what you thought of Discovery Cove. I'm going there for my 3rd time in June!

Can't wait to see the rest!

Glad to have you signed on. Is there any other reaction than awesome to DC?

I'm in! I remember you stopping over to my TR and I had perused your PTR a bit at the time. Just happened to stumble upon your TR now. Very cool doing the surprise trip. I'm glad to hear it went well. Also very cool to see the BCV Studio, as we have that booked for our November short trip. Loved your balcony view!

Can't wait to hear more!

Dugette - you will love the BCV. It was perfect for the two of us. How nice, I assume you'll get to hit the food and wine festival. That will be great!

 

[JLR]

The wake up call only had music – I didn’t tell Madeline to expect anything else so she wasn’t disappointed. I made Madeline do her school writing assignment. (I know, mean Mommy!) We took a shower and dried our hair. I have one other comment to make about BC: the hair dryers are kind of wimpy. We have thick hair and it was very hard to get our hair dry. This was what I felt was the biggest time waster of our trip, because we usually showered twice a day! (This also led to, for me at least, a less attractive hair choice later in the trip.) We picked up the room, to make sure bedtime friends didn’t get misplaced, double checked the battery situation (I charged everything up and packed the fanny packs the night before). We both had toasted English Muffins, oranges, and milk. I also had cottage cheese and she had some Provolone. This was the only morning she ate anything resembling a real breakfast before we left.

This was the plan for today:

Go to Epcot and
FP Soarin’ and ride immediately
Test Track
Mission Space
Pick up KP Fastpasses
Spaceship Earth (if line is minimal)
The Seas and turtle talk with Crush
(If time) Soarin’ again with FP
Princess Lunch at Akershus
Kim Possible Adventure hopefully in Norway area, maybe 2
Back to the hotel to rest, swim, and recuperate.

Go to Magic Kingdom at about 5 pm
Buzz FP
Mad Tea party
Supper at Cosmic rays
Get another FP for Buzz
Monsters, Inc.
TTA
Check line for astro orbiter
Ride Buzz x2
Wishes


Pretty ambitious, huh?

We set out in what I thought was reasonable time for Epcot. Soon we were here:

Bag check and entering the park went quickly. Boy, did Madeline like dealing with her own card (which I carried in my lanyard)! I’m sorry none of my photos do this park justice. It is gorgeous! I don’t know what I expected, but it was far more lovely than I anticipated. Especially in the morning, entering through the International gateway, when there were few crowds.

Once in the park, Madeline immediately spotted the KP station in the UK. I’m sorry I don’t have a picture. We spent a significant part of our trip doing or discussing Kim Possible, and no pictures of the secret agent stations!

Well it wasn’t in my commando plan, but this trip was for Madeline and we stopped and signed up. Then we started walking toward our future in future world. We were not quite here

when we heard the opening ceremony and rope drop. Nowhere near the front of the Soarin’ dash!

A little aside: it was a bit chilly this morning so we wore light cover-ups. That was a mistake we did not repeat. Once you start walking you are hot until you are in an air-conditioned area. Now mind, you, we over-generalized this principle. It is always a good idea to have something warm for table service meals. More on that later!

So we fired the afterburners and made it here

at the end of the herd. The posted wait time was still 10 minutes. We waited behind a delightful family from Massachusetts. (We met a lot of these, they were on spring break this week.) It was longer than 10 minutes, but the time flew. I love talking to strangers in line! At the end of the line, the attendant looked at our first visit button and assigned us here

I was dancing on the inside – I knew from my DIS friends that this was a good place to be! Then we were assigned to section B! What pixie dust! We flew Soarin’ and it was great, but Madeline didn’t want a repeat and the FPs were already out to 11:45 am or so (at 9:40 in the morning) so we didn’t pick up FPs. (The stand-by wait was 60 minutes already!) We headed on over to Test Track and it was a good thing we didn’t have any FPs yet because the stand-by there was long. I cannot remember exactly how long, but longer than I wanted to wait, so we picked up Fps

and moved on to

Mission Space where the Green Line was 5 minutes.

We were

and had a good time. I thought it would be boring, but they do something to you and we both liked it. We were disappointed never to get back. Another things for newbies to be aware of: they have interactive exhibits, cool ones at the ends of some of these rides, but the waits can be long even if there are only 1 – 2 people in front of you!

After MS it was time for a snack, so we got a croissant to share and Madeline really liked it. I thought it was mediocre. She also had a really yummy smoothie.
Then we passed a pin trading stand. Now I had read about pin tradings, but had made an executive decision not to prepurchase inexpensive pins, planning to say “no.” Well, pin trading is ubiquitous. Most of the nicest cast members have pins to trade, and Madeline really, really wanted to do it. So I gave in and bought a few pins. If you are looking for my advice, I’d say prepurchase about 8 inexpensive pins for your kids from e-bay. Just make sure they are the official Disney pins with the stamp on the back. The cast members can only trade official Disney pins. Also, buy extra backs and carry them in your bag. I ended up spending 3x as much as I would have on pins if prepared!

We saw some cool street performers.

That was fun. It was roasting hot already and Madeline took a little break in the misting fans. I was mean and didn’t let her play in the fountains today.

 

[JLR]

The line for Spaceship earth seemed a little oppressive so we headed over to

It was OK but Madeline was disappointed that they were closing the doors for Turtle Talk with Crush while we were taking this photo.

She was a little sad for a bit and was ready to rebel when I said we couldn’t wait for the next show 20” later. I half wish we had, since we never got back. I was so sure we would! Madeline cheered up quickly when we found this photo spot:

On to Spaceship Earth. The wait time was about 10 minutes, so we entered the queue. Madeline took these pictures. She loved the camera, but really always wanted to put her fingers over the lens.

My aside about the camera: I missed my Canon, but enjoyed the convenience of point and shoot. I did not like that it did not have a lens cover and was always worried about the lens, keeping it wrapped in the lens cloth between shots in my bag. It was also difficult to see the screen in bright light which is the only way to see what you are shooting at. I also did not learn until the last day that it can help to shade the lens with your hand while shooting outdoors.

We enjoyed our little trip in the geodesic dome and I let Madeline choose our future.

It was then time to head on over to Test Track for our fast passes.

We enjoyed the ride and got our first photopass to boot! Finally! I cannot believe we had not come across any photographers yet.

We then headed over to World Showcase for our audience at the castle. We travelled along the Odyssey Center path and Madeline was thrilled to find a really big hidden Mickey.

We fully intended to return Saturday morning after DHS for Crush, Living with the land and anything else that struck our fancy, but we never made it. We could have spent a whole week at Epcot alone! Well there is a reason to come back!

 

[Mrs. D]

Nice! A mom & daughter trip...love it! The matching shirts are so cute, and your daughter's smile is so big and bright...she looks so happy! This is really cute....

 

[JLR]

We picked up our Kimmunicator along the way, so we’d be ready as soon as lunch was over and before we knew it we were waiting here for our seating.

We waited briefly to meet Belle.

Belle was quite friendly, as were most of the princesses. I was not thrilled with Ariel, but Snow White was so wonderful she more than made up for it!

I am not a Snow White fan, in general, but this young woman was remarkable in a very brief meeting!

We were seated right next to the buffet, but I went in without expectations, so no biggie. What I wasn’t prepared for was how good the food was. I had the chicken and risotto and it was truly delicious! I neglected the food porn photos until they brought out the dessert.

Enjoy!

I suspect all character meals feel both rushed and yet still take a long time. I was very, very glad at this point that I had changed from the deluxe dining plan to the basic. I enjoy table service meals, but once a day when you are so busy is enough!

Onward to save the world from super villains!

For those of you who do not know what the Kim Possible adventures are, I’ll try to give you a scoop without too much spoiler. You get to be a secret agent, hunting down a super villain. In this case a shape shifting evil clothing designer using antique pelts. You receive mini missions on your handheld “kimmunicator.” You have to find out important information about the country you are located in and trigger special events (signals, etc.) within the country. My 9 year old daughter absolutely adored this! She would have happily gone to Epcot every evening to do these adventures. She really wanted to do a second adventure after the first, but the kimmunicator would not give us that option and we had to return it to the secret location. We learned later that if there are too many people playing, then they don’t allow you to do additional missions.
Along the way, we had our obligatory photo with the Troll

Then we rode Maelstrom.

Perhaps we angered the Norse gods because disaster struck!

As we walked away from Maelstrom, Madeline realized she had lost her fanny pack. Oh no! Would we get it back? Would it ruin the rest of our day?


We tried to go back in but the doors were shut to the off loading area. The cast member seemed confused and suggested that we check with lost and found at the end of the day. I really did not want to do that, so I asked, assertively whether we could check the boats. We were first sent to the loading area and then finally to the unloading area. Both of us were working hard not to be upset or one of “those people.” After all, it was our own fault we lost the pack. Anyway, after looking into 2 or 3 boats, a lady got out of a boat stating she’d found a pack. Cue the choir of angels singing! It was Madeline’s.

What a relief! We celebrated with the obligatory Mickey bar.

Yummy! And messy too. I’m noticing in this picture the new misting fan. It was roasting by this point and we bought one, filled it with ice water, and it really helped! However, the misting fan was really good at knocking buttons and pins off lanyards. Beware!

Now our mission was to leave the park and enjoy our hotel’s fantastic pool. It was later than we planned (this was a theme of this trip!). Have I said it before? This park is HUGE. It cannot be overstressed that it takes a long time to get where you want to go! We stopped by Canada for this photo opportunity.

We got to listen to these guys.

Boy, are Off Kilter talented!

Madeline thought this garden was cool and insisted on a picture.

It is to the left as you are approaching the International gateway from inside the park.

When we got back to the room we found this:

What do you think? Is it the Eiffel Tower? We were stumped, but appreciative. And truly exhausted. I tried talking Madeline into a nap, but I am glad she wanted to swim after all.

 

[JLR]

Nice! A mom & daughter trip...love it! The matching shirts are so cute, and your daughter's smile is so big and bright...she looks so happy! This is really cute....

Thanks so much Mrs. D! Madeline really loved the matching shirts, and I felt it made it easy to see we were together. It was great to do the Mom and daughter trip even though we missed the rest of the family, I truly feel closer to Madeline.

 

[JLR]

We enjoyed the pool. I gave myself a break from the camera. That sand bottom feels great on sore feet. I wouldn’t have thought it, but the hot tub felt great even on this hot day after the refreshing swim. Fully relaxed, we showered up, struggled with the wimpy hairdryer and left. We just caught the MK bus (whew!) and found ourselves at the MK a full hour later than planned. Oh well.

Now, tonight’s plan had us no place close to Frontierland, but Madeline really, really wanted to ride BTMRR. So we boarded the train again and picked up FPs in Frontierland.

We got back on line for the train to Toon Town. As was typical on our trip, we met a nice family on the train. One of the things we brought with us on this trip was several tubes of glow bracelets purchased from the bargain bin at Target. Madeline had fun finding unhappy children and giving them glow bracelets to cheer them up. We gave some to this little girl too.

I’m noticing something I’d like to comment on. Starting this second day, I let Madeline wear contacts on this trip. We bought daily wear disposables. These are better (safer) for kids. I had to put them in and take them out. I carried her glasses and a spare pair of contacts in my fanny pack, and we had to use them on a few occasions. I initially looked into this so she wouldn’t have to fuss with glasses at Discovery Cove (day 6). The more I looked into it, the more sense it made to allow her to have regular sunglasses that provided more protection than her clip-ons (which she constantly takes off). It worked out somewhat, but she took off her regular sunglasses frequently as well, but when they broke, it wasn’t a bit deal. It was a little hassle getting the lenses in (out was not a problem) but she was highly motivated so was quite cooperative.

As we walked through Toon Town, Madeline was entranced by Donald’s Boat and Goofy’s Barnstormer. Again, the trip was for her and we hopped on the short line for the Barnstormer.

We gave out some more glow bracelets and engaged in a bit of pin trading and learned that not all pins sold on Disney property are Disney pins. Oh well. The ride was cute and short. We hit the facilities and headed out. Our next stop?

You guessed it!

The Mad Tea Party. Here is my lovely child challenging my equilibrium.

Not too seriously shaken, we set out for supper at Cosmic Rays. The servings were so huge we ended up sharing a meal (cheeseburger). I tried to get some photos, but I was really struggling with the camera that day and they all were terribly blurry or dark. We enjoyed Sonny Eclipse, but had trouble calling home to check in because it was so noisy. I had a difficult time finding anyplace other than our hotel quiet enough to call home.

Filled up and refueled we picked up some fast passes for Buzz. Then I made another tactical error. When astro orbiter’s line was determined to be atrocious (over an hour for a 90 second ride!) we hopped on TTA.

Don’t get me wrong, TTA was enjoyable and restful to our tired feet. It was fun to go on that little tour.

However, we missed Monsters, inc. Would we ever make it back?

When we were done we had to trot over to ride Big Thunder. Madeline was very happy with this!

She sure does love this ride. Afterwards it was time for Wishes and we got some very good seats in the hub. We gave out some more bracelets. Seriously – this was so much fun, I would recommend it to others! I could not get a decent photograph, but here is a brief video for your pleasure.




I really was almost teary. Wishes is a great show. I thought it was over after the first segment and was ready to leave when it segued into the next segment and it happened again later! Amazing!
At the end, we gave away our Buzz Fast Passes and left the park. It wasn’t too bad because the park wasn’t closing. This was that weird night that Spectro was after Wishes. It worked for us. We were too dead to struggle with a long wait to get back to the hotel. We washed up and poured ourselves into bed.

So to review our plan –
Go to Epcot and
FP Soarin’ and ride immediately
Test Track
Mission Space
Pick up KP Fastpasses
Spaceship Earth (if line is minimal)
The Seas and turtle talk with Crush
(If time) Soarin’ again with FP
Princess Lunch at Akershus
Kim Possible Adventure hopefully in Norway area, maybe 2
Back to the hotel to rest, swim, and recuperate.

Go to Magic Kingdom at about 5 pm
Buzz FP
Mad Tea party
Supper at Cosmic rays
Get another FP for Buzz
Monsters, Inc.
TTA
Check line for astro orbiter
Ride Buzz x2
Wishes
In actuality we arrived a little late, but Madeline did not want to ride Soarin’ a second time anyway. The big morning activity we missed out on was Turtle Talk and the evening activities we missed out on were Monsters and Buzz, riding Barnstormer and BTMRR instead. We were truly moved by Wishes. All in all a great day!

 

[JLR]

So what do you think so far? Too many photos? Are they too big? I'll wait for some feedback before I do more. I've noticed most of our pictures have us in them - that probably won't change much. I love my kid, what can I say?

I get it now, how time consuming it is to do this! I am writing into a word document as time with the kids allows then pasting to DIS. Up to this point is 20 pages! There is no way I can spend time with my family and finish this before I go back to work for real on Monday. I also love how much more I remember as a result of doing this. that is a real benefit!

 

[skier_pete]

So what do you think so far? Too many photos? Are they too big? I'll wait for some feedback before I do more. I've noticed most of our pictures have us in them - that probably won't change much. I love my kid, what can I say?

I get it now, how time consuming it is to do this! I am writing into a word document as time with the kids allows then pasting to DIS. Up to this point is 20 pages! There is no way I can spend time with my family and finish this before I go back to work for real on Monday. I also love how much more I remember as a result of doing this. that is a real benefit!

I think your TR is going great. Pix are fine. I did notice your daughter is in most of the pictures...this is fine...but it reminded me of a college friend who would show her photo album, and her or her family would be in ALL the pictures. I just remember she had gone to an air show, and even with the air show going on, they were pictures of her in front of the air show. (The planes are flying through the air...and there's her standing in front of them.) But truthfully in the digital age, you can never have too many pictures of your kids. Your daughter will look back at those pix and remember the great trip where she got mom all to herself.

As far as the length of time for TRs...it seems to me most people's take month's, while many appear to never be finished. I do similar and write it out in Outlook...I've started mine in that form, just haven't had time to transfer the pix. I also listed out our activities on our MK day. Believe it or not we did something like 23 rides/shows/attractions in a single day, not including eating lunch and dinner.

So, take whatever time you can. It IS a great way to remember all the little moments of your trip.

And I totally agree about Epcot...you can easily spend two full days there and still not get to everything you want. It's only my 3rd favorite park because there's not a lot there that I really love, but there's an awful lot to like. Our DD also loved the Kim Possible missions. It's too bad that they started that up at the same time that KP has virtually disappeared from the TV.

Gotta go to bed...later!

 

[DisneyFairytale]

What an absolutely darling of a little girl! I loved hearing all about your trip! thanks for sharing it with us!

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

Thanks for sharing! What a special time with your daughter!

 

[JLR]

I think your TR is going great. Pix are fine. I did notice your daughter is in most of the pictures...this is fine...

I wanted to take more of those detail pics I enjoyed so much in others' trip reports, but 1. I was a first timer and just getting around and 2. my camera just wasn't taking the beautiful pictures I see from others' cameras. I don't know if it was the camera or me. Probably me since there are a few beautiful pics, oh well.

As far as the length of time for TRs...it seems to me most people's take month's, while many appear to never be finished.

I totally get it now. It makes me appreciate all of you who have taken the time to share with us! I hope I am a finisher. It is raining and 42 degrees here today. We had planned to go for the Zoo opening (we love our zoo) but this is a little too hard core for me - perhaps especially after a week at Disney! So I'll have some time in between making Minnie Mrs. Potato Head (most popular souvenier gift for the twins so far!)

Believe it or not we did something like 23 rides/shows/attractions in a single day, not including eating lunch and dinner.

I believe it! You've got the Disney Mojo! I would imagine you would have to stay in one park all day though. We tended to take at least a short break and hop every day.

And I totally agree about Epcot...you can easily spend two full days there and still not get to everything you want. It's only my 3rd favorite park because there's not a lot there that I really love, but there's an awful lot to like. Our DD also loved the Kim Possible missions. It's too bad that they started that up at the same time that KP has virtually disappeared from the TV.

I agree. Fortunately, you don't need to know the show to do the adventures. I hope they keep them and just re-theme as necessary. I do want to finish seeing future world - I felt like we just hit some of the highlights. I really enjoyed how beautiful world showcase was, and feel that that could be a "regular" Disney thing for us if we can ever become "regular" visitors.

Gotta go to bed...later!

What an absolutely darling of a little girl! I loved hearing all about your trip! thanks for sharing it with us!

Thank you. I appreciate the encouragement. You must be bursting with excitement for your trip!

Thanks for sharing! What a special time with your daughter!

Yes - I really felt it was special and it felt both stimularing and also safe and doable. I'm not sure another vacation would be that way. Thanks! What will you be doing in DL?

 

[LoveMyTwoPrincesses]

You are doing awesome! Keep it up!

 

[JLR]

You are doing awesome! Keep it up!

Thanks! I'm going to try to get day three up now.

 

[JLR]

I wish I had taken better notes! This was such a full day and I didn’t take a single note until the following day. I’ll do my best with those notes and the photos.

The plan for today:

Animal Kingdom! Madeline absolutely adores animals and we are zoo groupies at home, so I figured she’d love this. Given how much Madeline liked BTMRR, I was hoping she’d like Everest. We hoped to be there for rope drop, then:

FP Everest
Ride Everest
Triceratop spin
Primeval Whirl
Fossil Fun Games.
Skip Dinosaur because I thought it might be too scary
Pick up FP for Kali
Watch Flights of Wonder
Possibly do ITTBAB
Pick up FP for Safari
Eat lunch at Pizzafari
Festival of the Lion King
Ride Safari
Kali
Everest
Go back to the hotel
Swim and rest

Go to Epcot
Kim Possible
Biergarten for supper
Second Kim Possible
Special Surprise
IllumiNations!

So a pretty full day was ahead of us!

Today Stitch woke Madeline up – she was confused at first and then excited!
She wrote her writing assignment and I packed us up. I made breakfast, but I think she was too excited to eat. We both drank our milk and brushed our teeth. We took a baggie of Cheerios and a carton of blueberries.

We were about ten minutes later than we hoped, but I figured we could still make rope drop. We had about a 5 minute wait for the bus and we were off!

A word about the hats: I bought those at Target with the hope they would be unique enough that we could always keep track of each other. Also, I am prone to getting sunburn at my hairline. Certainly we didn’t see any other hats like these and many people commented on them. They are soft and so tolerated getting stuffed in fanny packs during rides.

What I did not realize was how little the entry area at AK is. By the time we got there, the lines were outside the area where you could see the opening show.

I was disappointed. I had heard the show was cute, but Madeline didn’t know any better so no big deal. We were in a fairly big herd of people as we finally made it through the gate and released us, but didn’t have any significant waits to fast pass or standby Everest.

The queue area is really, really cool. We even let a few people pass us. Madeline, predictably, loved it!

We are in the back row. She also loved the yetis in the gift shop. Recurrent refrain this trip was, “can I have one?” and my “is that what you want to spend your Disney dollars on?” She had $50 Disney dollars for souvenirs. I also discouraged her from buying early on, so she’d know what she really wanted. I also didn’t want to have her buy anything too big. Who wants to pay for more luggage these days?

FPs for later safely stowed in the lanyard, we headed off for dinoland. We got caught by a cast member with the “cementasaurus” joke and entered into a very quiet area.

We spun in the Triceratops.

And progressed over to the Primeval Whirl.

I was not impressed with PW. The queuing area was very, very fun, but the ride was both uncomfortable and unthrilling. I’ll give it a miss next time. We were put in a car with a nice young man and his son who were talking about Dinosaur and Madeline started thinking about riding it. She wasn’t sure and decided not to. Word to the wise: if you want to save yourself a lot of walking, make a rule: ride now or forever hold your peace. Our decision not to ride Dinosaur now made us walk a lot more later in the day when it was roasting!!!!!

Quite a few people commented about our shirts. These were the only matching shirts we had before I bought a few for this trip. I had volunteered at her Girl scout camp - we "camped like a girl." Some people thought we were there on a Girl Scout trip. No, we didn't sell that many cookies.

We headed out to Fossil Fun Games. I know it sounds silly to do this in the morning, but I really wanted Madeline to be able to win. Madeline loves carnival games and I hate the filthy, cheating ones at our state fair, so I thought I’d invest some money here with her promise that we wouldn’t play any at the fair this summer.

Madeline loved this. She is not great at these kinds of things. We do not have video games at home and, really, she IS related to my husband and myself. We are not noted for eye-hand coordination. I bought enough tickets so she could play against me. (You have to have two players to play most games) and she surprised me by throwing a basket. You go Madeline!

Something to think on for others: If you are staying on Disney property and will be there a few more days, you can have your purchases shipped back to your hotel gift shop for free and not have to lug them around. If you wait until the end to buy stuff, you will be toting it yourself. Now, you can have any prizes you win at fossil fun games sent back as well for free! I had brought a nylon backpack just in case but was delighted to hear that they could be sent back. The young lady was struggling with the computer, though, so we left our things with her, promising to come back and get the paperwork later. We took the opportunity to visit the facilities and pick up the Disney Mr. Potatohead parts. (I’ll try to remember to post picture of these at the end. Elena and Viviana absolutely adore these and we play every day!) They have boxes for build your own Mr. Potatohead, but if you already have the body you don’t have to take one and you just jam as many parts in the box as you can. I had these and some mickey hair clips sent back to the hotel as well. Did you know that Cotton Candy counts as a snack on the DDP? It is about $4.00 a bag. We both enjoy it and it’s only a bit more than 100 calories. When we headed out the CM at FFG had our receipts and we jogged on over to pick up our Kali FPs before Flights of Wonder.

 

[JLR]

When we left off we were getting ready to watch the Flights of Wonder Show.

The theater was about ½ full and I thought we’d have to sit in the back, but there were two empty spots right behind the handicapped seating area right in the front! Check out the cotton candy tongue:

The FOW show is quite well done. Entertaining and educational. I ended up putting down my camera, because it is easy to miss things.

Madeline had her magical moment and got to be the math volunteer. Woo hoo! Could we be any luckier?


She was dying to find an animal to feed that sunflower seed to! I finally made her throw it out. I would definitely recommend this show to others, even if my kids won’t be in it.

Now our FP time was up, so we could head on over to Africa to pick up our safari FP. I kept my eyes peeled, I didn’t want to miss DeVine if she was out, and who should we find all the way in Africa? The fine performance artist herself!

We snuck in for a quick photo. I was lucky – her face almost got cut out. It was so sunny this day, I could not see a thing on the screen of my camera and I didn’t want to make anyone else wait!.

We headed on into Africa, but had to stop for these guys.

Madeline also played the drums in another section, but I must have not taken a photo. She did it again later – and I think I have that one documented.

We headed into Harambe and got our FPs. At this point I breathed a huge sigh. It was about 11:15 or so. We planned to catch the 12:30 Festival of the Lion King so we had a bit of breathing room. I thought we’d sit down and enjoy our lunch, but Madeline really wanted to see ITTBAB. OK – this is her trip. She’ll have to be all kinds of flexible when we bring the babies, so I can be all kinds of flexible now.

I passed Robo’s secret trail on the left but feared if it came out at the exit, it might be faster to go around front to the entrance. Nope. It is a long walk around discovery island to the ITTBAB entrance. Live and learn! We did share that tidbit with several other people at the park though. The queue for ITTBAB is worth doing!

So we make our way into the tree and are deemed worthy of being honorary bugs. Here we are stylin’ in our new glasses:

You know what? I really enjoyed this show and so did Madeline. I had it on our OK to miss list, but it was quite fun!

We took the secret path on the way out and it was cool and pleasant!

When we got out there was quite a line for Pizzafari though and by the time we were through I thought it’d be best to bring our food and eat while we were waiting for the Lion King to start.

Oops – another rookie mistake! No food in the theater! We ended up balanced over a trash can eating our lunch. It turns out we had plenty of time and could have eaten at pizzafari and still gotten decent seats, maybe even better ones. We were at the back of the lion section and the next group got put up front in a different section. Now remember, this is not summer time. I assume our rushing would be warranted at a busier time of the year. This show is great! This is the best photo I could do for you.

Weirdly, my little camera takes better video in the dark than photos. I have to say, I am so impressed by these performers who can put on the same show several times a day with full commitment and joy as if it is fresh and new to them! Here are two short clips for your enjoyment.


We both enjoyed the show. One little tip for those of you travelling with children: make sure they know this is not the Lion King story, just a celebration honoring Simba. Madeline kept wondering when they were going to tell the story.

 

[JLR]

In our last installment, we were enjoying the festival of the Lion King.

We strolled on out. Our rushing for the day over (or so I thought) and headed on out to ride the safari. It was roasting hot at this point and the sun was blazing down. Harambe was packed! As we got closer to the safari, there was a huge line extending into the town. It was the Fast Pass line!!!!!! Apparently, the ride had broken down. We decided to come back later. I was voting for Rafiki’s planet watch, but Madeline tells me she wants to ride Dinosaur . OK – we hike over there and the standby line is about 25 minutes. I do not want to wait that long so we grab fast passes and hike back over to Kali. It was a haul! We rode Kali, and thank goodness for FP! The standby line was very long. Now here is where something started to puzzle me. The FP is clearly marked and in the guide maps. The FP return time was significantly shorter than the standby time. Why were people waiting in line? We didn’t try to explain this time, although we tried at other times. I sure felt badly for those people, though!

One of our seatmates obligingly took this picture. I don’t know what I am doing with my hands though.

We were both hoping to get wet! We did!
Then we wandered around the Maharajah Jungle Trek until the Dinosaur FP time was past so we could pick up another FP for Kali. We wanted to do it again before we left AK.

Giant Bats
We headed back over to Africa and played the drums some more.

The safari was still down so we headed down for Dinosaur. It looked like we would be in this park a lot longer than we thought! There is a fabulous ice cream stand just outside the doors to Africa.

You cannot use snack credits, but we didn’t care. They serve Haagen Daz, both regular and no sugar added varieties, yum! You can see that Madeline was already dried off and hot again.

We headed over to Dinoland for a third time. Oh, how I wished I had just encouraged her to do Dinosaur earlier! My feet were hot and hurting! We stopped by one of the Kid education centers. I forgot to mention earlier that we had done some others. They are interesting and the cast members are really nice to the kids.

Finally, we were ready.

After all that work, Madeline did not really care for the ride. I didn’t either. Again, I found the building, statue, and queue more interesting than the attraction itself. Oh well, the only way to know is to try it.

We headed back on over to Africa and the safari was running! They had even worked through most of the fast pass line, yeah!!!!

We were placed in the front seat, so Madeline interacted quite a bit with the guide, who was funny and perhaps quite a bit drier than most.

This is a great attraction!

By the time we finished our safari, they were preparing for the parade! Wow! We should have been in the pool already! We decided to wait for the parade. We initially found a shaded spot on the way over to Asia, but Madeline really really wanted a frozen lemonade. We trekked back to Africa and wound our way around and ended up in the hottest part, but with a great view right at the start of the parade.

What cool floats! Madeline also got lots of hi-5s from the characters. Once the parade was over, we headed over to Asia for our second date with Kali and met up with the other end of the parade. In the future, we will watch the parade from the paths in Asia. They are shady and cool. It does not take very long for the parade to make it around Discovery Island. Well, now I know.

On our way, we visited the Yeti shrine, then thoroughly enjoyed getting drenched at Kali the second time. We got soaked through and it was great!

We enjoyed our final ride on Expedition Everest and headed out of the park. A great but exhausting day!

I know many people say there is not much to do to fill a day at AK, but that was not true for us. Granted, we were really inefficient with the Dinosaur ride, and hit up EE and KRR twice, but we also wanted to spend more time at the discovery stations and checking out the animal exhibits. We also completely missed Rafiki’s Planet Watch, and Finding Nemo.

 

[JLR]

When we got back to the room we found this. Do you suppose it is an elephant?

If so – it is serendipitous since we were at AK!

We cleaned up and headed directly over to the Biergarten. No break today.
I cannot believe I did not get a picture of the Germany square. The host was really cute.

Madeline had a great time. We were seated with a nice family where one couple was celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. Awesome! We enjoyed talking with them and once the entertainment started again, the kids had a great time!

The food was good, but the value of this restaurant is in the atmosphere which is very fun. The other adults adored the desserts, but I was too full and too tired to try by this point.

But our day wasn’t over! It was time to save the world at least once! We had picked up our KP as we entered the park and after our Snow White topiary photo, we headed over to Norway to pick up our kimmunicator and assignment.

We stopped by Mexico and rode the boat ride (the name escapes me at the moment) and engaged in a bit of pin trading with the nice Mexican CM. I also admired the painted animals and bought one. A nice CM told us that near Mexico was a good place to watch Illuminations, so we kept that in mind.

Then we were off to save China! It was starting to get dark now, so the adventure was more challenging. The adventures really get you to see quite a bit more of the pavilions.

I took quite a few photos, but I don’t want to reveal any spoilers, so I’ll leave them out. Finally we saved the world! (Or at least china’s treasures.) We also saved another family from a crying baby with the strategic donation of more glow bracelets. I have to say, we loved doing that! Madeline wanted to do another adventure, but it was getting dark and we had our special surprise!

We headed on over to Japan. We had a date to Pick-a-pearl! We bought our ticket (and two lucky dragons) and did not have to wait.

The ceremony is nice with bowing and the drum and the CMs very kind to children. Madeline picked a 6.75mm pinkish hued pearl and had it set in a 4 leaf clover charm.

We were instructed to come back at store closing to pick it up. It was now time to find a place to watch IllumiNations. I had planned for us to find a place on the bridge near France, but Madeline wanted to do what the Cm in Mexico suggested and with a foggy brain, I acquiesced. We walked, and walked and right about Norway I saw a little spot between 2 families where Madeline could sit up against the fence and I could sit behind her. I don’t know why I didn’t stick to the plan. The location was indeed good, but not worth the walk. It was a long day. Illuminations is great though. Disney sure does know how to put on a show!

We made the long trek back around World Showcase Lagoon and picked up our pearl. The store was locked, but they kindly let us in. I don’t know why I hadn’t just had them send it to the resort. Actually, I do know why – I was numb with fatigue and not thinking straight. That afternoon rest is important at least for me! We washed up, set up the wake up call, and went to sleep!

 

[JLR]

Stitch woke us up at 5:50 am. We had a 7:10 date at Chef Mickey’s! We struggled once again with the wimpy hairdryers. How I wished I had my own hair dryer or at least my flat iron! I left them home to save space and because I did not want to be prissy on a vacation with my own child, but I still felt uncomfortable about it. It was too early for Disney transportation, so we caught a cab. Our driver was pleasant and I cannot remember what we paid. It was a bit confusing to find where we needed to go at the Contemporary. The staff didn’t seem to be quite awake yet. As I walked through the lobby, I was grateful I hadn’t changed our reservation to the Contemporary (or rather Bay Lake towers) when I had the chance. I just don’t find that cool, modern ambiance very welcoming. And of course, the pool can’t hold a candle to SAB! Still, it was interesting to see. When we got up to Chef Mickey’s floor (was it the 4th?) we saw the sun coming up over the lake. How beautiful!

They called us in and we had our pictures taken. Silly me – I thought this was like the Princess lunch and we would get them for free or have them put on our photo pass card. They caught me in a moment of weakness later and I actually bought them. I hate paying a lot of money for photos! Oh well, they came out nicely enough. I don’t have them in digital format though.

Soon we were seated and waiting for the characters. We had time to get our breakfast. The food was fresh and good enough as breakfast buffets go. I did enjoy Goofy’s breakfast lasagna. Madeline took an enormous amount of food. This is funny, because she is a five bites and I’m full kind of girl.

Again, I was glad Madeline didn’t have any expectations. I think these characters were running on auto pilot. Minnie was sweet, and Mickey was OK. Pluto was the liveliest. Goofy and Donald did not seem to want to be there. Madeline was happy and that’s all that matters, right?

Soon we were ready for our first monorail ride!

Bag check and admission went quickly and we were nice and early. We got the traditional shot:

Rather than try photographs, I took a video of the Opening Ceremony. I thought the twins might like it and they do. I could put it on continuous loop and they would love it!



We got to enter the park. We were a bit behind the herd as we stayed centered for the opening ceremony.

It was just fine though. We were anticipating a quiet day. The crowd calendar predicted a “4” for today, but I still planned to follow a hybridized UG/TGM plan as if it were peak season. I didn’t like what RM suggested we do.

As we headed into the park, Madeline was thrilled to say “hi” to Alice, who commented on our hats then stated she was late to catch the white rabbit and she skipped on.

The path through the castle was blocked off, so we went right and then up the path that goes past the wishing well. Dumbo was an essential ride for us. Ever since we started bringing her to the state fair, Madeline has called the elephant on the carrousel, “Dumbo” and the fair has not been complete unless she got to ride it. We were in the third group to ride Dumbo that way and had a very short wait. It was interesting to see parents manhandling their children up to the front of the Dumbo ride. I think I would hate to deal with this on a busy day. We enjoyed our brief ride.

It is a nice view of Fantasyland.

I’m glad we didn’t have to wait a ½ hour for this, though.

We then walked on to Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh. Madeline then said she wanted to ride Snow White’s scary adventure and I initially started to say no, but again, it’s her trip and it is short. This was also a walk-on. She then wanted to see Philharmagic, which we had missed the first night, but she was good about having this delayed. I thought we could see it without any wait later in the day. Then she said the words that brought my plan to a halt. “I want to meet the fairies.” She had heard about the fairies from other kids on the trip. At least her timing was very, very good. We got over to the Toon Town rope at 9:40 am. They had a mini fairy quiz and opening ceremony and walked us back. We were probably the 4th or 5th family to meet the fairies. A relatively short wait.

I just have to say, the fairies are worth it! For me, these were the best character interactions during the whole trip. Even though they were fairly (ha!) short, they were so energetic, interactive, and in character that they were a highlight.

Fawn came over to fetch Madeline and made a big deal about the hats. She wondered if they were flower pots and maybe we were upside down flowers. Tink doted over Madeline’s Tinkerbell lanyard and Terence made sure we had enough pixie dust to get home. Kudos to the fairies!

Photopass took over after this so I don’t have any more pictures of the interaction. I’ll have to remember to come back and fill in when I get my CD.