The Florida Project! 12 Days @ WDW for our 10th Anniversary! UPDATED 9/23

[kimnscott]

cant wait to hear more

 

[AAshleySEG]

cant wait to hear more

Glad to have you! Thanks for joining in and reading along!!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Friday, June 9, 2017 (Part Three) - What Happened To The Tumble Monkeys?

We got cooled off at Saratoga Springs, got our bags and things up to the room, it was a much easier process at Saratoga, it is great to have parking right outside of your room instead of a large communal lot. One day I might do a "things we like best" at each of the DVC resorts. We have stayed at Saratoga a bunch of times. Usually it has availability last minute and if we are planning on going over to Disney Springs, it is very convenient. After we had rested and were ready for the evening we headed back toward Animal Kingdom, this time we took the bus! The first stop when we arrived was back toward Satu'li Canteen! We had such a great lunch there we wanted to have it again for dinner!

The restaurant looked more crowded in the dining area, but the line inside was still nonexistent. It did take quite a while for us to get our food once we ordered though, so not sure if we just missed a rush or what happened? This time I chose to get the same Sustainable Fish Bowl but with a base of Quinoa and Vegetable Salad with Black Bean Vinaigrette as the sauce.

Jeremy got the Sustainable Fish Bowl, I guess I should explain what that is exactly! It is Panko Breaded Mahi Mahi topped with crunchy vegetable slaw and boba balls. For his base this time he got the Red and Sweet Potato Hash with the same Creamy Herb Dressing as before. I also got a Pandoran Sunrise again, as well as that awesome Blueberry Cream Cheese Mousse dessert that was still so delicious!!

Not exactly sure if it was just a hiccup at dinner, or if they were in a hurry, but our dinner was not as good as our lunch there. The fish had a very faint crunch on the outside this time around, it was definitely a soggy panko instead of crispy like we had at lunch time. The fish was also much more overcooked and dry than it was at lunch. The flavors of both of the bases and sauces were still there, just not as enjoyable as the lunch. Although, the Pandoran Sunrise and Blueberry Mousse were still excellent, so overall I would still recommend this restaurant to try if you are at Animal Kingdom, just maybe go at lunch instead of dinner??

We had finished up our dinner and looked at the times for everything and we had time to go and catch the last showing of my personal favorite show at Animal Kingdom, which is Flights of Wonder! Again, said it before in this TR, I really love birds, if you don't like birds then more than likely you wouldn't like this show either but I think it is campy, funny, educational, and makes for a fun break, and I really love the theater too! One day, I might volunteer to go and sit on stage with my camera, I have never done that!

I love when *spoiler alert* they bring that gigantic Bald Eagle out towards the end. The first time I ever saw a Bald Eagle in person was at this show and I had no idea how large they were! Then back in 2012 we went to Alaska on the Disney Cruise and I got to see tons of them in their natural habitat! Such a cool experience to see them there, but anyway, I still really love this show!

After Flights of Wonder, we walked over toward Africa and decided to do Kilimanjaro Safari again! The wait was like maybe 15 minutes, but mostly it was walking down the path, there wasn't even a line until the loading area, and that was basically just waiting on the next vehicle to pull up! Oh, we saw the most adorable baby cranes! It was so hard to get a photo of because as soon as we noticed them, the mom was about to sit down and cover them up, so basically I have a really blurry picture where you can kind of make out that they are down there, but oh well, it was really cool to see, I had never seen the baby ones before, so I'm sorry that I can't provide a better photo than this for you. If you look directly to the right of the mother's feet you can see the two of them. My camera focused on the leaves instead because I was trying to get it quickly.

It was a lot cooler out this time of day, it was a nice safari ride, not nearly as many giraffe out but we still got to see a ton of animals! The wide open savannah area was full of Thompson's Gazelle, Watusi or Ankole Cattle, a giraffe, wildebeests, and was pretty cool to see all of them together!

We also had a great encounter with what I think was a Greater Kudu, please correct me if I am wrong, but I think that is what it was. It was right to the side of the safari truck, and when we stopped next to it, it turned to check us all out

Again, we had a bunch of animals on this one, these recent safaris have been so awesome, back when this attraction opened I don't remember seeing nearly as many animals as we see on them now, it could also depend on what time of day we are doing them, but it is so different every single time, it is hard to say. Next up was an elephant it was interested in us as well!

The last photo in this bunch is of the lazy lions, they are so pretty and I love the rock area they have for them here. It makes us want to watch Lion King every time. That might be what we do next! Jeremy loves that show!

We were already in Africa and it was just about the time for the last show for the evening of Festival of the Lion King to start letting everyone in. So we walked over and got in line for maybe about 3 or 4 minutes and we were getting settled in to see the show, we were in the Elephant section! Like I said just a second ago, Jeremy loves this show, his favorite part are the tumble monkeys! So he was psyched to see them...sadly that part of the show didn't happen. The tumble monkeys performers were still in the show, but they didn't do their act, we aren't sure if something happened and they don't do this portion of it anymore, or if it just didn't happen during our show, but he was a little sad about that, but it was still great!!

There were two showing of Rivers of Light tonight and we wanted to make sure we caught one, the first one looked crazy full, so we thought we would just take advantage of that and ride some more attractions and wait for the second one. So we headed over to Asia to ride Expedition Everest for a nighttime ride! On the way there Jeremy wanted to take a photo of that awesome statue/shrine when you are entering Asia, sometimes overlooked but still really cool, especially at night!

I am glad that Animal Kingdom is open later now, it is a lot of fun to ride Everest at night! It gives it a whole different mood and then being able to see everything lit up in the distance is really cool. After Everest we walked over to ride Primeval Whirl again, It is a lot of fun at night too, and still makes us giggle the entire time. The last thing we did before Rivers of Light was It's Tough To Be A Bug. Still a really fun little show and a nice atmosphere walking into the theater around the Tree of Life, definitely now that they have all of the projections on the tree! We walked back around and started in to the Rivers of Light area, we had great seats and had moved all of the way down, then all of the sudden when they opened up the next section, everyone started getting up, so in turn we had to keep moving down, which put us behind a giant pole. Well we stayed there for a long time to see how many more people were going to be coming in and then right before the show started and no more people were coming in, we moved to a better spot.

The colors are really pretty in the show!! Lots of really cool things to look at, overall it is really good. I would recommend checking it out if you have the chance. As far as for myself and my opinion of it, it was probably my 3rd or 4th favorite of the shows currently going on. I enjoyed the new Happily Ever After at Magic Kingdom more, I still like Fantasmic more as well. It is along the same lines as Illuminations for me. I think the reason is because of the Disney element, which is missing for me. Both Illuminations and Rivers of Light have more of a worldly theme, which is not a bad thing at all, I just prefer the Disney-esque themes of certain shows. The music is pretty cool too! Still definitely check it out! During this whole opening time of Pandora there are like "Extra" Extra Magic Hours in Pandora until 1:00am. We did want to walk over there and see the bioluminescent stuff at night, but we still didn't want to stand in the super long lines for the rides. So we walked over to check it out before we left for the night!

It isn't nearly as bright as you would think it might be, but it still looks great! There are lots of black light areas too where you yourself glow in it, the pathways looks really nice and overall they did a great job with the area!! It was finally time to end our day at Animal Kingdom, I think we got a ton done, definitely considering we left for an afternoon break! We rode Expedition Everest 3 times, Kilimanjaro Safari twice, Primeval Whirl twice, Kali River Rapids, walked both the Gorilla Falls and Maharajah Jungle trails, saw Festival of the Lion King, It's Tough To Be A Bug, Finding Nemo the Musical, Flights of Wonder, Rivers of Light and ate two meals in the new Pandora area and explored it! Not too shabby! I think it was a very successful day! On the way back to the resort on the bus we watched the Dodger game on Jeremy's phone that was going on, tomorrow we were planning on going to Hollywood Studios!

Stay tuned for today's budget post if you are interested!

​

 

[AAshleySEG]

Last Trip Report I did a budget post so we could see how we did in relation to how much I budgeted for our trip. We got a lot of positive feedback on it, so I am going to do the same thing this time, only a tad differently. Instead of doing a budget post at the end of each post, I am going to do one for an entire day once I am finished with it. That way, with it being in a separate post, if someone wants to read it they can, and if not they can just skip over it!

Our total budget we have saved for this vacation is $3500.00 in the savings account, the day we left we transferred that to checking and kept all of our receipts along the way, we also tallied everything up for each day at the end. Anytime we would have additional cash from other sources we would add that to a vacation envelope and we also always toss all change into a jar and so the change was converted into cash too, we were thinking we would use the cash for anything not budgeted for, souvenirs, snacks, things of that nature, in total we ended up with $578.00 in our cash envelope to take with us! So the totals at the bottom represent how we are doing as far as budgeted vs actual, and then below that, the cash is what we have left of the original $578.00. If you have any questions about how we budgeted for the trip or anything, just let me know!

Friday, June 9, 2017 Budget!

Budgeted Amounts
Breakfast - $20 - Animal Kingdom
4-Park Magic Tickets - $673.08
Lunch - $50 - Animal Kingdom
Dinner - $50 - Animal Kingdom
Total: $793.08

Actual Spent
Creature Comforts Starbucks - $11.79 (We had a $5 gift card)
4-Park Magic Tickets x 2 (Available through July 30th, 2017) $673.08
Lunch at Satu'li Canteen - $45.10
Dinner at Satu'li Canteen - $41.59
Total: $771.56

CASH - 2 Waters near Maharajah Jungle Trek - $6.00
CASH - Moara Margarita at Pongu Pongu - $9.86

Budget Status
$21.52 Under for Today
$67.44 Under Budget Overall
($536.89) Remaining In Saved Up Cash for Extras​

 

[annie170]

Three rides on EE and two on the safari in one day!? That's a really good day!

That's too bad your dinner was not as good as lunch at Satu'li Canteen. I think that's true of many restaurants. One time is great, next time not so much.

Still enjoying your budget report. Not to be nosy, but do you always eat that lightly? My day would have several snacks included. However, if it's too hot, that does kill my appetite.

 

[AAshleySEG]

Three rides on EE and two on the safari in one day!? That's a really good day!

That's too bad your dinner was not as good as lunch at Satu'li Canteen. I think that's true of many restaurants. One time is great, next time not so much.

Still enjoying your budget report. Not to be nosy, but do you always eat that lightly? My day would have several snacks included. However, if it's too hot, that does kill my appetite.

We were stoked to be able to do so many things, especially in the summer! It is almost like Fall/Autumn used to be the best time of year to go, now people know that and the summers are getting better to go! I thought it had something to do with Pandora opening, but in actuality the longest wait at any park we had was 24 minutes, we timed it to see, we didn't have a fast pass for the attraction, it was a very popular one, everything else was under 10 minutes the entire time! I don't want to give away what it was, but we got tons done at every park!

It is true, there are a few restaurants we go to that are consistently great! This one was by no means bad, and because of how good it was at lunch we will still go back, and try it again, if it is no good maybe 2 more times, then we might wait awhile before trying it again.

Glad you are enjoying the budget still! I didn't realize that we ate that lightly, but for the first few days you are totally right we did, I think it was a combo of it being hot and what we ate was really filling. At Satu'li for lunch we had like starchy curry vegetable pods and fish with rice, so we were really full from that...don't worry though, starting the next day on the TR we start eating snacks...I just checked LOL! I think Wild Florida was very humid, and then Animal Kingdom we just ate heavier meals, but we are definitely snackers too!!

 

[Raeven]

By far we both LOVED the Blueberry Cream Cheese Mousse! It isn't really a cheesecake so if that is what you are expecting, it is a different texture

I got the chocolate one, but I think I picked wrong the blueberry cream cheese mousse looks better.

As far as for myself and my opinion of it, it was probably my 3rd or 4th favorite of the shows currently going on. I enjoyed the new Happily Ever After at Magic Kingdom more, I still like Fantasmic more as well.

Agreed.

 

[ArielSRL]

I'm way behind as I am still getting caught up on reports that I got behind on from our trip. I just saw you had started this. We were there at WL when you were there but that was our AK day. We were at the resort for a break but we had a 5:35 ADR at Sanaa so we probably headed out just as you guys headed in! We were in a studio villa on the 4th floor and yes, we noticed how empty the villas common areas were!

My DH and I feel in love with WL and we just put an offer on a DVC resale contract at Boulder Ridge yesterday and it was accepted! We will be doing a (mostly) resort only stay in June 2018, with one day at MK.

Oh and boy was it a wet vacation! But it did keep the temps under control, so I can't complain too much! Okay, headed to page 2 to read a bit more before bed!

 

[ArielSRL]

I used to vacation at Myrtle Beach a lot as a kid as I grew up, and still live in, Atlanta! Lately we go to Amelia Island, FL and we got married at Tybee, plus we have done the gulf a few times. But I will always remember Myrtle!

I really want to stay at BCV. It is on the short list for 2020.

 

[ArielSRL]

I absolutely loved the margarita with the boba balls. As a matter of fact, I had two!

 

[ArielSRL]

Just FYI: the Tumble Monkeys did their act on Wednesday June 7th, just two days before you were there so I guess you guys just had bad timing for them. I had heard one got hurt a few weeks before our trip and they didn't perform for a few days. Maybe someone needed a rest or something?

We saw ROL but we did the first show with a FP because I have young boys. It was packed like sardines and was very uncomfortable as far as seating because it was so full. I liked the show but couldn't enjoy it.

I wanted to try the cream cheese mousse dessert but never did. We had plans to do 1.5 days at AK, our last being the Friday night you were there, but my boys vetoed that and we spent a third night in MK. In any case, we missed Pandora at night, but we can always see it on a future trip.

 

[AAshleySEG]

I got the chocolate one, but I think I picked wrong the blueberry cream cheese mousse looks better.

I thought the chocolate was still a pretty good dessert, just for us not nearly as good as the blueberry. Hopefully you will get a chance to try it! I am curious how you would like it!

Agreed.

I think I am going to give it 2 more chances in the future, I think I have seen Illuminations 3 times, total, but after that I just skip it since I don't like it that much. I think Rivers of Light will be like that, but I am going to keep an open mind for the next viewing, maybe in a different spot, who knows.

 

[AAshleySEG]

I'm way behind as I am still getting caught up on reports that I got behind on from our trip. I just saw you had started this. We were there at WL when you were there but that was our AK day. We were at the resort for a break but we had a 5:35 ADR at Sanaa so we probably headed out just as you guys headed in! We were in a studio villa on the 4th floor and yes, we noticed how empty the villas common areas were!

My DH and I feel in love with WL and we just put an offer on a DVC resale contract at Boulder Ridge yesterday and it was accepted! We will be doing a (mostly) resort only stay in June 2018, with one day at MK.

Oh and boy was it a wet vacation! But it did keep the temps under control, so I can't complain too much! Okay, headed to page 2 to read a bit more before bed!

So great to see you! Glad you found me, I have been so busy since we got home, I have not even had a chance to read any other TRs! We are in the middle of purchasing our new camper and a vehicle and things as usual are going crazy, then Arya went to the vet for surgery so we have been watching her constantly, just to make sure she gets all her meds and doesn't lick the sutures...lol! Hopefully it will calm down soon and I will be able to sit down and read!

Jeremy absolutely loved WL too, I already did, I think owning there would be awesome! It is sort of like our home resort which is Disney's Grand Californian, I think if we ever get more points it might actually be at Copper Creek because, oh man, would I love to stay in those cabins!

Definitely a wet one! We did have some good days, but you are right, it kept it relatively cool considering it was in the June summer heat for us, it was nice! For us it might have kept some crowds away too, because we didn't notice wait times being nearly as long as previous summers!

I used to vacation at Myrtle Beach a lot as a kid as I grew up, and still live in, Atlanta! Lately we go to Amelia Island, FL and we got married at Tybee, plus we have done the gulf a few times. But I will always remember Myrtle!

I really want to stay at BCV. It is on the short list for 2020.

Myrtle Beach, it is much different now than when I was younger, we used to go every year for the "Well Drillers Jubilee"....haha! At the time my Dad owned a Well Drilling company so we would go down there for that, well he would, my Mom and I would go to the beach and play Mini Golf and stuff! A lot of the places we would always go are closed now, and it is not really the same, when we get our camper Jeremy and I are going to try and check out a different part of it like near the Myrtle Beach State Park to see if we can get a new perspective on it, since it is pretty close to where we live.

We are planning on trying out BCV one more time to get a feel for whether we like it or not. We didn't really get a chance to experience everything since we were only there for one night, I do know that I don't really like how the parking is laid out, but that isn't completely terrible, the rooms are really nice too! We are looking forward to trying out the pool area in the future, and then of course being within walking distance of Flying Fish sounds amazing!

I absolutely loved the margarita with the boba balls. As a matter of fact, I had two!

It was good wasn't it!! So nice and refreshing on a warm day at AK! Those little Boba Balls are so fun, especially in adult beverages!

Just FYI: the Tumble Monkeys did their act on Wednesday June 7th, just two days before you were there so I guess you guys just had bad timing for them. I had heard one got hurt a few weeks before our trip and they didn't perform for a few days. Maybe someone needed a rest or something?

We saw ROL but we did the first show with a FP because I have young boys. It was packed like sardines and was very uncomfortable as far as seating because it was so full. I liked the show but couldn't enjoy it.

I wanted to try the cream cheese mousse dessert but never did. We had plans to do 1.5 days at AK, our last being the Friday night you were there, but my boys vetoed that and we spent a third night in MK. In any case, we missed Pandora at night, but we can always see it on a future trip.

Good to know that the tumble monkeys are still doing their part! Maybe we just hit an off showtime or something, Jeremy will be happy to hear that. Yeah, I think the reason we skipped the first showing of ROL was because of how many people were in it, luckily we had taken a rest or even we might not have been able to stay up for the second showing of it, we are early to bed early to rise type of people. 10:00 pm is past our bed time...haha!

Yes, hopefully it will still be on the menu next time you go, because we still think it was awesome! I think for us Pandora at night was almost hyped up too much or something, because while it wasn't a let down at night, it was just a little underwhelming, I think I imagined it being as bright as the videos of the inside of the River Journey, and it definitely was not that at all, so I need to change my expectations and go in looking at it a little differently in the future!

 

[suse66]

I just got all caught up on your TR! I really enjoyed reading your PTR so it is fun to come along and see how your plans turned out! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Teetah]

We drove down a really long road to get there and the entire way giant bugs were just smashing into the windshield, I think we dubbed it "Bug Rain" because it sounded exactly like rain drops and there were so many of them, it was crazy. They were not the biting/stinging kind of bugs though, just the nuisance kind that buzz around your face or land on your clothes. We made it into the parking lot and got parked and the wildlife had already come out to welcome us, there was a peacock standing on top of the car next to us!​

​

So I have to comment on the bug rain! For about 2 weeks here in Indiana, typically late May or early June, we have these spells where as you are driving you get the bug rain pretty consistently. Makes for a gross vehicle for those few weeks!

So glad you are here and reading along, I am still thinking about you guys going to Hawaii! That is going to come up before you know it!!

I can't stop thinking about it!!! 74 days, I think. We just booked our interisland flights last night, which was the last thing we had to book (except for the event items).

Thursday, June 8, 2017 (Part Two) - Flash, Flash, Hundred Yard Dash!

The weather was so great today so far! After the airboat ride we were both in a great mood! It was such a great time to do something we had never experience before, and we didn't realize how fun it would be! This is what Jeremy looked like when we were done, he had the biggest smile on his face! We would definitely recommend it to anyone to try! Now it was time to head out to the wildlife park side of Wild Florida!

So, if you happen to be going to Wild Florida! this year, the Wildlife Park is 100% Free to go to! There are so many amazing animals inside, if you are in the area and looking for something to do, and you or your family loves animals, then I would go! Like I said before, the tours and encounters are paid activities, but it is absolutely free to go into the park, just go to the counter and get your wristband!

First up we saw the macaws, I really love birds, we have a parrot at home and so every chance I get to see different types and varieties of those types, I enjoy it!

Another thing about this park, there are peacocks EVERYWHERE! They are all gorgeous and just, so pretty! As you saw, they are out in the parking lot area, they are walking around the entire place, and well, I love birds, so they are so cool to look at!

The park was much less crowded than the airboat tours were. There was plenty of space to explore at a very leisurely pace if you wanted, and it was really easy to get up close to see all of the animals! Next up was the giant tortoise!

We live near a very touristy town called Myrtle Beach. Some of you may have heard of it, some not, but I remember going there when I was younger and seeing all of the alligators at this one place, and especially the albino gator, i think they are so amazing! So, I was really excited to see them here, and Jeremy had never seen one at all before, so I think he really liked seeing them too!

About midway through the park, there was a giant deck viewing area where you could walk out over the gator pond, and they had a bunch of them in there, huge ones, middle size ones, and just really cool to get so up close to see them! I didn't mention that they also have shows at the park, we were planning on heading back after lunch and they second shows of the day didn't start until around 2:30. The first ones were during our airboat tour so we missed it, but there is a gator feeding I believe, and an animal encounter show where you get to see up close a lot of native Florida wildlife, so we are really interested to go back and check those out next time we are down in the area and we have some extra time!

We kept walking and more of those gorgeous peacocks started showing up and showing off for us! If we happened to walk by one and not notice it, it seemed to try and get our attention anyway!

Now finally, the animals I was most excited to see, I have never seen them in person, but after Zootopia, how can you not want to see sloths!! They are so freaking adorable, I literally just wanted to hold one, they might even be vicious, but they look so docile and sweet! Just hanging around in the tree!

One thing I forgot to mention was that they do photo type packages and stuff here too, you can get your photo taken at a few different locations with animals and things then look at them all toward the end, so if you want to hold a gator, you can! There were too many animals and photos to put into the TR, but we saw an amazing array of different birds, lots of gators of all sizes, alpaca, goats...OH YEAH, there was a petting zoo area too for anyone who enjoys that sort of thing! So there were zebra, watusi cattle, sloths, raccoons, foxes, deer, bobcats, wallaby, snakes, lemurs, and more and more! So many fantastic things to see! I will put the map in one more time so you can see the variety!

By around 1:00 pm we were ready to get some lunch! They have a really great outdoor restaurant and seating area there, and let me tell you the food was really good, and cooked to order, so it does take a few minutes to get it, but it was totally worth it! To drink we got a water and a swamp slush! It was this swampy green color, but it was like orange, lychee, passion fruit, and something, but man was it good! Definitely a nice way to cool off after walking around the park! It was fairly sweet, so be warned if you don't like fruity sweet drinks! For lunch, we split a catfish plate that was plenty for the two of us! It had catfish, fries, baked beans, and garlic bread! We didn't want to eat too much because later tonight we were having dinner over at Flying Fish on the Boardwalk!

We sat out in their little eating gazebo area that overlooked the water, it was nice and breezy and there was even a cat walking around over in there. The food was delicious!! The fish was so fresh and moist, the fries were seasoned perfectly, and the beans and bread too! It was all really good, so two thumbs up for that! As soon as we finished eating, my phone dinged and we had received our room ready notification! It was almost perfect timing because we were about ready to head back. We finished up, and started heading back out to the car, to make the drive back to Disney World. So to sum it up, Wild Florida is pretty great! We really enjoyed our time there and would go back, and even take someone along or recommend it to others, especially if you have never been to Florida and was to see the natural beauty of it! Definitely a little drive, so if you don't have a car or rental car not sure how you would get out there, but if you do, I would recommend it, because we had a great time!



​

I loved seeing all your animal pics and in the video!!!! The sloths!!!! SOOOO Cute - especially when that one turned and looked at you guys!!!

Thursday, June 8, 2017 (Part Three) - That's a Lot of Lobster!

As we started driving back to Disney World, the clouds cover started getting darker, and by the time we reached the gates, it had been raining on us for about 30 minutes! It looked like we were going to have a wet afternoon ahead, at the moment, we were headed to our second resort of the trip Disney's Beach Club, and we had never stayed there before!

It was barely drizzling when we were trying to decide where to park at Beach Club. We had only been there one time before and that was a character breakfast at Cape May Cafe! So I was trying to use the map to figure out the closest parking to where our room might be, well we ended up parking over close to the villas which ended up being a mistake because a lot of the sidewalks were flooded and we were walking around a pool area trying to find out how to get in, when if we would have just parked over close to the entrance bridge, it would have been much easier, well you live and learn!

After walking around in the rain for a bit, we finally found how to get to our room, and actually made it inside. We didn't take all of our stuff from the car the first time, so Jeremy went back to the car, moved it to a more appropriate parking location, and brought the rest of the things we needed up. While he was doing that, I took the time to take some photos of the 1-Bedroom Villa, and catch up on some journal notes from earlier in the day!

I think that I read somewhere that the Beach Club Villas had recently been renovated and from what we could see they were really nice! We really liked the room a lot. All of the 1-bedroom villas are mostly the same layout until you start getting to the newer resorts, then they change slightly but the decor was great and really beachy. We live really close to the beach, so this resort feels familiar, more like home as far as that goes, but we both really love camping and the outdoors, so as far as which one we like the best of the two so far, it was probably Wilderness Lodge for the interior of the rooms, and that is only the Boulder Ridge, we have seen photos of Copper Creek and those look really amazing!

I didn't take a photo of it for some reason, but our balcony overlooked some trees toward Epcot, and you could actually see the Eiffel Tower between them which was pretty cool! I think our dinner reservations were at around 5:00 pm this evening, so once Jeremy got back up to the room I needed to shower and start getting ready for tonight. We weren't really sure if we were going to do anything before dinner, and we ended up just hanging out in the room since it was only an hour or two. While I was fixing my hair Jeremy watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on TV. At about 4:30 we started the short walk over to the other side of the Boardwalk toward Flying Fish. We walked out of the DVC building the way you were technically supposed to this time, and so it was much better than the way we kind of entered it!

It wasn't too hot at all, and the cloudy sky made it really nice and breezy as well! We took our time and leisurely walked around taking a few photos and when we made it around to the other side, I took some more of us and the outside of Flying Fish!

They opened right on time, and we made our way inside. We were ready to eat, we had been walking around outside in the sun for most of the morning and that always takes a lot out of us, not to mention, we were REALLY looking forward to eating here. We had heard that they recently got a new chef and we had been reading over the menu and man the food here looks SO good, not sure if you don't like seafood, but they still definitely have a lot of options if you don't like it. Luckily, we love it, and so the stuff here we were super hyped to try!

The inside of this restaurant is beautiful! We never got a chance to go to it before the remodel, but now, it is pretty amazing. Disney Springs has a lot of new restaurant options so this restaurant doesn't get nearly as much clientele as it should! But, I am getting ahead of myself, I need to go back to when we got there! We walked in and only waited a minute or two until we were seated, we had a fantastic table overlooking the bar and open kitchen! I really like open kitchens, it is a lot of fun for me to see the chefs at work!

That bar is awesome right! This restaurant is a feast for the eyes as much as it is a feast for your appetite! Our server came over and introduced himself and told us a little about the chef, menu, drinks and everything and we pondered over what we should order. We already had a pretty good idea from reading over the menu before we came here, but there was a lot to choose from, we finally decided to skip appetizers so we could have plenty of room for the main course and the desserts!

So to start off with our server Craig, brought us some water for the table, I ordered a Blood Orange Margarita and Jeremy had a Kona Big Wave on draft. The margarita was awesome, highly recommended, with the exception that the orange in it was actually a regular orange not blood orange, but the flavor was definitely blood orange.

Even the silverware in this place was on point, it had fish scales on it and the handles were almost shaped like fins, really great attention to detail, that is something that I really appreciate when coming to a signature dining location at Disney!

It was finally time to eat what we had both been waiting for! I ordered the Maine Lobster Nero Pasta...and let me tell you, it was amazing! It had a huge portion of lobster on the top and then the in house made pasta with squid ink, and the sauce...YUM! It was delicious, the flavor combinations were perfect and if you like lobster it was definitely worth it! I couldn't believe how large of a lobster portion came on top. This was a great dish and looking back at the photo of it, makes me want to go back and get it again right now!

Once we got back to the room we changed into more comfortable lounge clothes and ended up not going back out tonight, we were going to rest for a bit and ended up being so tired that we went to sleep really early. So it looks like we are going to have to save the pool area at Beach Club for another trip. Tomorrow we are checking in to Saratoga Springs for four nights. Originally we were supposed to be going to the Florida Keys tomorrow, but with the weather forecast that didn't happen, and we were lucky enough to be able to book a 4-night room there last minute. So since we were at Disney for 4 extra days, we were going to be able to go to the theme parks after all. Our first stop tomorrow is Disney's Animal Kingdom! But for now, here is a video recap of the day!

Stay Tuned For The Budget Post for This Day!

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What a beautiful rest of your day!!! Those villas are lovely - I miss Beach Club!!! We walked through it a lot when we stayed at YC and it was just a beautiful spot to walk through.

Flying Fish looks phenomenal!!! My husband Tim is not a huge fish person, but as he has gotten older, he has started to try and like more of it. He has always liked most crustaceans tho!

 

[Teetah]

Friday, June 9, 2017 (Part One) - I've Never Seen A Tiger That Close!

I guess me and sleeping in will never be a "thing" again. This morning I woke up at around 5:55 am, then by 6:20 or so I decided to finally just get and and start getting ready for the day. Today, we were planning on going to Animal Kingdom! We had absolutely no plans and were just going to with the flow and Hakuna Matata since we didn't originally plan to go to the parks this trip. Once I was finished getting ready, I opened up my phone and made a few fast passes for the day to get started with! We drove to Animal Kingdom since we were changing resorts today, that way we could leave when the room was ready for our afternoon break. We made it to AK at about 8:00 am just as it opened!​

Creature Comforts is a Starbucks. One of our favorite breakfasts at Disney used to be to go to Sunshine Seasons in the morning grab some croissants and watch all of the people trying to get into Soarin'. So basically it has become a tradition of ours to eat croissants for breakfast and it just happens they have them here, and mostly only the Starbucks at each park. I really miss the old Main Street Bakery at Magic Kingdom, but I have started to learn that with life and Disney there will always be changes, we may not always like them, but we have actually learned to accept them...lol! Anyway, we grabbed our food in the empty restaurant and walked over to Africa in a secluded shaded seating area to sit down and enjoy it!​

A long time ago, not many people used to do these animal walking trails, and I have noticed in recent years they seem to get more popular, it is a great way to escape the crowds usually and more people have been finding that out! Today, not so much, there were maybe 4 other people in here with us, so it was a nice, quiet and relaxing walk!

One of my favorite photos of this trip was inside here, the decor and theme in here are so well done! They really make it feel like you have been transported to a different continent! The ruins, the flags, the plant life, it is just all so perfect, and we really love coming in here to explore!

Usually when we come in here it is later in the day, and on all of the trips we rarely get a chance to see the tigers really well. Today, however, that was not the case! Immediately when we walked into the tiger area we saw him all right!

He was standing right next to the glass!! Back and forth he was walking trying to get a glimpse of the other area across the way where his female friend was relaxing. I could not believe how close we were to this guy! Granted, it was pretty hard to get a non-blurry photo of him because he never stopped walking, just pacing back and forth trying to see her on the other side!

But so cool, one of the highlights of the day for sure was being that close to a tiger, like I said normally we see them from pretty far away if at all, and the female on the other side was relaxing in the shade, she couldn't care less that he was over here trying to find her!​

When we walked in, they gave us a menu to look at straight away, there is also a menu on the outside so you can see if you would like to eat there before you go in. We had looked at the outside menu and had already decided what we wanted to eat, so we proceeded to the station to order. We ordered one of the bowls where you choose your protein, base, and sauce and ended up with the Sustainable Fish Bowl with a base of Mixed Whole Grains and Rice, and Creamy Herb Dressing as the sauce, and it was delicious!!!

We also wanted to try the pods, so we got the Vegetable Steamed Curry Pods which came with 2 steamed vegetable curry pods with eggplant, cauliflower, sweet potato, carrots, and shallot cilantro cream served with crunchy vegetable slaw and vegetable chips. Jeremy wasn't too big a fan of these, but I really liked them, definitely another great vegetarian option at Disney now!

As Jeremy says he is Lame because he got a Coke to drink, and I tried the Pandoran Sunrise which was very tasty!! It was tropical juices blended with Powerade Melon. It actually went well with the food we had chosen too, so I was pretty happy with my decision to try it out!

We were splitting everything equally so we could both get a good sample of the new food and therefore we also got both desserts! We wanted to know which one was better for us! Jeremy as everyone knows is a chocolate fan, and I am a fruity fan, we would see which dessert here would win! We got both the Blueberry Cream Cheese Mousse with Passion Fruit Curd, and the Neytiri's Chocolate Cake which was chocolate cake with a crunchy cookie layer, banana cream and Goji berries.

By far we both LOVED the Blueberry Cream Cheese Mousse! It isn't really a cheesecake so if that is what you are expecting, it is a different texture. It is pretty much the texture of how they describe it, if you took cream cheese and made a mousse. Really good though, Every time we go back that this is on the menu, we are absolutely going to get it! It was that good of a dessert! We found a great table to sit down and eat, this is a really cool restaurant inside and from the lunch we had, would definitely recommend going at lunch to try it out!!

After we finished up eating we went outside and stopped by the restrooms and I reapplied my sunscreen. It was a pretty sunny day today and I definitely did not want to start getting burnt toward the beginning of the vacation. We had a little bit until our next fast pass so we decided to walk around and explore Pandora a bit while the rides were still closed and there were less people around inside. First we stopped by the little Pongu Pongu kiosk and got ourselves a Mo'ara Margarita since it was feeling tropical outside! It was with Sauza Conmemorativo Anejo Tequila with strawberry and blood orange flavor topped with strawberry boba balls. Jeremy giggled every single time he took a drink with the boba balls, it was both of our first times drinking a bubble type drink and it was really tasty! The combo of the strawberry and blood orange flavors was really great!​

There were tons of people over at the other areas and the gorillas were all hiding behind bushes and things in the shade eating so my photo would have just been of a bush...haha! So it was now about 12:45 pm and there was a Finding Nemo the Musical starting at 1:00 so we walked over there to catch it! We really love that show, at the beginning I didn't used to like it, but I actually appreciate it much more now! The live songs are so great and the performers do a great job with everything they are juggling! Bonus, it is air conditioned and you can sit down...haha! After the show we had a fast pass for Expedition Everest and that took no time at all to get on yeti again...get it yeti...again...okay that's lame I know...LOL! We decided that now was as good of a time as any to head to Saratoga Springs for our afternoon break and to get all of our stuff in the room and out of the car. We were definitely planning on heading back to Animal Kingdom after we cooled down and rested up!​

That tiger activity was awesome!!!! We have one had that kind of experience once - with some white tigers at the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa. Soooo neat!

Those fish bowls look yummy!!!! I'm glad you said what was in the Pandora Sunrise - I was assuming those were alcoholic. That margarita sure looked fun and yummy too!

Friday, June 9, 2017 (Part Three) - What Happened To The Tumble Monkeys?

We got cooled off at Saratoga Springs, got our bags and things up to the room, it was a much easier process at Saratoga, it is great to have parking right outside of your room instead of a large communal lot. One day I might do a "things we like best" at each of the DVC resorts. We have stayed at Saratoga a bunch of times. Usually it has availability last minute and if we are planning on going over to Disney Springs, it is very convenient. After we had rested and were ready for the evening we headed back toward Animal Kingdom, this time we took the bus! The first stop when we arrived was back toward Satu'li Canteen! We had such a great lunch there we wanted to have it again for dinner!

The restaurant looked more crowded in the dining area, but the line inside was still nonexistent. It did take quite a while for us to get our food once we ordered though, so not sure if we just missed a rush or what happened? This time I chose to get the same Sustainable Fish Bowl but with a base of Quinoa and Vegetable Salad with Black Bean Vinaigrette as the sauce.

Jeremy got the Sustainable Fish Bowl, I guess I should explain what that is exactly! It is Panko Breaded Mahi Mahi topped with crunchy vegetable slaw and boba balls. For his base this time he got the Red and Sweet Potato Hash with the same Creamy Herb Dressing as before. I also got a Pandoran Sunrise again, as well as that awesome Blueberry Cream Cheese Mousse dessert that was still so delicious!!

Not exactly sure if it was just a hiccup at dinner, or if they were in a hurry, but our dinner was not as good as our lunch there. The fish had a very faint crunch on the outside this time around, it was definitely a soggy panko instead of crispy like we had at lunch time. The fish was also much more overcooked and dry than it was at lunch. The flavors of both of the bases and sauces were still there, just not as enjoyable as the lunch. Although, the Pandoran Sunrise and Blueberry Mousse were still excellent, so overall I would still recommend this restaurant to try if you are at Animal Kingdom, just maybe go at lunch instead of dinner??

We had finished up our dinner and looked at the times for everything and we had time to go and catch the last showing of my personal favorite show at Animal Kingdom, which is Flights of Wonder! Again, said it before in this TR, I really love birds, if you don't like birds then more than likely you wouldn't like this show either but I think it is campy, funny, educational, and makes for a fun break, and I really love the theater too! One day, I might volunteer to go and sit on stage with my camera, I have never done that!

I love when *spoiler alert* they bring that gigantic Bald Eagle out towards the end. The first time I ever saw a Bald Eagle in person was at this show and I had no idea how large they were! Then back in 2012 we went to Alaska on the Disney Cruise and I got to see tons of them in their natural habitat! Such a cool experience to see them there, but anyway, I still really love this show!

After Flights of Wonder, we walked over toward Africa and decided to do Kilimanjaro Safari again! The wait was like maybe 15 minutes, but mostly it was walking down the path, there wasn't even a line until the loading area, and that was basically just waiting on the next vehicle to pull up! Oh, we saw the most adorable baby cranes! It was so hard to get a photo of because as soon as we noticed them, the mom was about to sit down and cover them up, so basically I have a really blurry picture where you can kind of make out that they are down there, but oh well, it was really cool to see, I had never seen the baby ones before, so I'm sorry that I can't provide a better photo than this for you. If you look directly to the right of the mother's feet you can see the two of them. My camera focused on the leaves instead because I was trying to get it quickly.



It was a lot cooler out this time of day, it was a nice safari ride, not nearly as many giraffe out but we still got to see a ton of animals! The wide open savannah area was full of Thompson's Gazelle, Watusi or Ankole Cattle, a giraffe, wildebeests, and was pretty cool to see all of them together!

We also had a great encounter with what I think was a Greater Kudu, please correct me if I am wrong, but I think that is what it was. It was right to the side of the safari truck, and when we stopped next to it, it turned to check us all out

Again, we had a bunch of animals on this one, these recent safaris have been so awesome, back when this attraction opened I don't remember seeing nearly as many animals as we see on them now, it could also depend on what time of day we are doing them, but it is so different every single time, it is hard to say. Next up was an elephant it was interested in us as well!

The last photo in this bunch is of the lazy lions, they are so pretty and I love the rock area they have for them here. It makes us want to watch Lion King every time. That might be what we do next! Jeremy loves that show!

We were already in Africa and it was just about the time for the last show for the evening of Festival of the Lion King to start letting everyone in. So we walked over and got in line for maybe about 3 or 4 minutes and we were getting settled in to see the show, we were in the Elephant section! Like I said just a second ago, Jeremy loves this show, his favorite part are the tumble monkeys! So he was psyched to see them...sadly that part of the show didn't happen. The tumble monkeys performers were still in the show, but they didn't do their act, we aren't sure if something happened and they don't do this portion of it anymore, or if it just didn't happen during our show, but he was a little sad about that, but it was still great!!

There were two showing of Rivers of Light tonight and we wanted to make sure we caught one, the first one looked crazy full, so we thought we would just take advantage of that and ride some more attractions and wait for the second one. So we headed over to Asia to ride Expedition Everest for a nighttime ride! On the way there Jeremy wanted to take a photo of that awesome statue/shrine when you are entering Asia, sometimes overlooked but still really cool, especially at night!

I am glad that Animal Kingdom is open later now, it is a lot of fun to ride Everest at night! It gives it a whole different mood and then being able to see everything lit up in the distance is really cool. After Everest we walked over to ride Primeval Whirl again, It is a lot of fun at night too, and still makes us giggle the entire time. The last thing we did before Rivers of Light was It's Tough To Be A Bug. Still a really fun little show and a nice atmosphere walking into the theater around the Tree of Life, definitely now that they have all of the projections on the tree! We walked back around and started in to the Rivers of Light area, we had great seats and had moved all of the way down, then all of the sudden when they opened up the next section, everyone started getting up, so in turn we had to keep moving down, which put us behind a giant pole. Well we stayed there for a long time to see how many more people were going to be coming in and then right before the show started and no more people were coming in, we moved to a better spot.

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It isn't nearly as bright as you would think it might be, but it still looks great! There are lots of black light areas too where you yourself glow in it, the pathways looks really nice and overall they did a great job with the area!! It was finally time to end our day at Animal Kingdom, I think we got a ton done, definitely considering we left for an afternoon break! We rode Expedition Everest 3 times, Kilimanjaro Safari twice, Primeval Whirl twice, Kali River Rapids, walked both the Gorilla Falls and Maharajah Jungle trails, saw Festival of the Lion King, It's Tough To Be A Bug, Finding Nemo the Musical, Flights of Wonder, Rivers of Light and ate two meals in the new Pandora area and explored it! Not too shabby! I think it was a very successful day! On the way back to the resort on the bus we watched the Dodger game on Jeremy's phone that was going on, tomorrow we were planning on going to Hollywood Studios!

Stay tuned for today's budget post if you are interested!

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Interesting dinner wasn't as good...I often think many things depend on who is working that day. Are they new, well trained, in a bad mood, etc. LOL.

You guys did SO much!!! So awesome. We haven't done Flights of Wonder or ROL yet but they are musts on our next trip. I agree with your comment on someone's else's post that it seems like the busy times are shifting. My SIL was just saying that the other day. Her and I went to F&W last fall and it was crazy packed at certain times.

You guys and your Dodger games lol!!!

BTW, I LOOOOVE your hair!!! So fun! Is it permanent? Do you like having it a different color?

Enjoying the budget posts as usual!

 

[Raeven]

I think I am going to give it 2 more chances in the future, I think I have seen Illuminations 3 times, total, but after that I just skip it since I don't like it that much. I think Rivers of Light will be like that, but I am going to keep an open mind for the next viewing, maybe in a different spot, who knows.

I'm giving Illuminations another try this trip because I didn't love it the first time, but I really liked ROL, I just enjoyed the other 2 a bit more.

 

[AAshleySEG]

I just got all caught up on your TR! I really enjoyed reading your PTR so it is fun to come along and see how your plans turned out! Thanks for sharing.

Awesome!! Yes, my PTR ended up being much different than the actual trip, weather is always a fickle thing to plan around! So glad you enjoyed the PTR and made your way over! I am very happy to have you reading along!!

 

[AAshleySEG]

So I have to comment on the bug rain! For about 2 weeks here in Indiana, typically late May or early June, we have these spells where as you are driving you get the bug rain pretty consistently. Makes for a gross vehicle for those few weeks!

I think we have seen bug rain one other time and it was driving, I *think* it was when we drove down to Atlanta to see a baseball game, then drove to Disney, either for a cruise or something, but it is crazy how many of them are all over the place, and definitely we did a car wash a few days later because it was really gross!

I can't stop thinking about it!!! 74 days, I think. We just booked our interisland flights last night, which was the last thing we had to book (except for the event items).

Oh wow!! You guys are close! I love finalizing stuff, it makes it more real and even more exciting! I can't wait to hear all about it! I think it is going to be so awesome, we are so excited too because we put the down payment on our camper on Wednesday and we get to pick it up and purchase on Monday! We already bought a Jeep Grand Cherokee to tow it with and that had a bunch of interesting things happen with it within like 9 hours of purchase, long story short on it, we are getting a brand new engine and 5 years of services for free, so it worked out well in the end, but it was a little headache and we are still waiting to pick it up as well!! We are so excited to be able to pick up and go every weekend if we want!

I loved seeing all your animal pics and in the video!!!! The sloths!!!! SOOOO Cute - especially when that one turned and looked at you guys!!!

Those sloths are the cutest things ever! They do a sloth encounter there too, so next time we go, I am seriously considering doing it! I think it would be a really cool experience and it is only like $30! We really want to go check out Wild Florida again and seeing the stuff that we missed because of times not aligning.

What a beautiful rest of your day!!! Those villas are lovely - I miss Beach Club!!! We walked through it a lot when we stayed at YC and it was just a beautiful spot to walk through.

Flying Fish looks phenomenal!!! My husband Tim is not a huge fish person, but as he has gotten older, he has started to try and like more of it. He has always liked most crustaceans tho!

Yeah, we had only been to Beach Club one time for a character breakfast and it is a really pretty resort, we definitely need to spend some more time there to get more familiar with it and figure out how high it is on our DVC resort list!

I can't wait to go back to Flying Fish, I am actually really glad we waited so long to try it because had we tried it before, the menu would have been completely different and had a different chef and look inside. Luckily they do have some other non fish stuff on the menu, but since we love seafood so much, we were in fish heaven!

 

[AAshleySEG]

That tiger activity was awesome!!!! We have one had that kind of experience once - with some white tigers at the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa. Soooo neat!

It was really amazing, as many times as we had been inside that jungle trek and they are always off hiding somewhere, to see them like that up close, I mean it was really cool!

Those fish bowls look yummy!!!! I'm glad you said what was in the Pandora Sunrise - I was assuming those were alcoholic. That margarita sure looked fun and yummy too!

Yep, they were non-alcoholic, very good, I am actually thinking about trying to figure out how to make something similar to that at home, kind of like when I used to make Jungle Juice and Pain & Panic Punch all the time...haha! It is a really good summery fruit drink! The margarita was really nice on a hot day at AK, it was probably not my favorite drink of the trip, but it was definitely worth a try especially for those strawberry boba balls!

Interesting dinner wasn't as good...I often think many things depend on who is working that day. Are they new, well trained, in a bad mood, etc. LOL.

I know, it was a little sad because had we not eaten there at lunch, I think our entire impression of that restaurant would have been different, but since we did, we still thought it was great and would go again!

You guys did SO much!!! So awesome. We haven't done Flights of Wonder or ROL yet but they are musts on our next trip. I agree with your comment on someone's else's post that it seems like the busy times are shifting. My SIL was just saying that the other day. Her and I went to F&W last fall and it was crazy packed at certain times.

I know right!! We used to go every single year during MNSSHP, and F&W, and now that the secret is out, it is crazy packed at the parties and the festival! We may have switched our opinions and our long trips will be in the summer and the short weekend ones will be in the fall. We can't wait to try out Fort Wilderness and see what that is like!!

You guys and your Dodger games lol!!!

I know, we are hopeless! They trick us every year, they play so well during the regular season, then they get into post-season and crush our dreams...LOL!

BTW, I LOOOOVE your hair!!! So fun! Is it permanent? Do you like having it a different color?

Thank you! I thought it was time for a change! I was blonde when I was little until about the age of 12, then when my hair fell out from chemo it came back dark, and I had left it brown since then, so I thought I should try and go back to being blonde again, so that is permanent for the time being. The purple, just seemed fun! It actually washes out and gets lighter with every wash, so it lasts maybe 8-9 washes. Then we put it in again! So it isn't permanent, we just keep re-applying it. I am actually considering doing it silver/gray/purple. It is actually a lot of fun to have it that way! I just needed a change since it had been the same for so long. I don't want a different cut or it short again like in my Alaska trip, that is not happening again...ever. So with the color just washing out, I may try some others just for fun!! I'm glad you like it!!

Enjoying the budget posts as usual!

Awesome!! We did really well on this trip, so well we made some little splurges throughout it too!