The Greatest Hits: A Trip Like This Needs a Soundtrack!-A July 2012 TR Upd. 5/5!

[therussells08]

"Hakuna Matata"- The Lion King​

July 9, 2012​

It means no worries
for the rest of your days
Its our problem free philosophy
Hakuna Matata&​

After a glorious first night in our perfect Beach Club room, I woke up at 6:40 to shower and get ready for the day! I woke John up at about 7:20, and we were ready to leave by 7:40! I wasnt hungry at all, so I settled on a Vitamin Water for breakfast!

Dont worry, I wont make you suffer through a dining review over a lemonade. It was tart and refreshing. Nuff said.

Ready for the day!

Can you guess by my shirt where we were heading? If you guessed Disneys Hollywood Studios&youre wrong. We were going to Animal Kingdom, and we were going to get there in time for Extra Magic Hours!

We pulled into the parking lot right before 8:00 and parked in the Unicorn lot!

You know what I do when Im super excited about a park, right? I take a TRAM PICTURE.

See how empty the tram was? EMH, baby. All of the popular attractions, like parking lot trams, are nearly people-free!

We had to wait a few minutes for the park to open when we made it to the entrance, but it was already getting pretty crowded!

After just a few minutes we were inside! Helloooo Tree of Life! I missed you!

I remembered Lia telling me just a few weeks before my trip that part of the Tree of Life had fallen off, but I was relieved to see that it didnt look any different. It looks like they got that cleaned up pretty quickly!

We had every intention of taking full advantage of our EMH, so we headed straight to Asia for some Yeti time!

It was scurry.

YESSS! Johns favorite park is Animal Kingdom, and EE is one of his favorite rides, so we were both pumped!

I think the decorations in Asia are one of my favorite decorated places in all of Disney. Ive never been to Asia, but it just seems so authentic!

We basically walked right on to the ride, and John was so excited I could barely keep up with him!

I forced him to stop long enough so I could take a picture of the evil deer mask for my deer loving buddies, Jess and Kristen!

Hes mad because he got lipstick on his teeth. I can totally relate.

We only had to wait for one couple in front of us, and then we were on the ride!

Theres another one of those magical experiences I just cant get enough of- your first ride on a favorite! Theres nothing like the anticipation you feel as the CMs come around to check your seat belt and the ride gets ready to go!

As we were ascending Everest, I snapped a picture of the view!

It was an AMAZING ride, of course! I love how fast EE goes. After it was over I took a picture of myself to see how messed up my hair was, and John thought it was cute so he told me to keep it!

When we got off of EE we decided to go ahead and get Fast Passes so we could ride again in a little bit! If you remember from my previous TRs, John and I always ride EE about a million times each trip. We just cant stay away from it!

John wanted to stop to smoke a cigarette while we were in the area, so I took advantage of the opportunity to do some pin trading with a CM! She had a Mulan pin that I liked, so we traded and talked about how much we both love Mulan. I told her about meeting her in Epcot the day before and not having to wait at all. She acted genuinely excited for me, even though meeting a character at Disney World isnt exactly big news. I love friendly CMs!

As I walked back to John to show him my successful trade, I realized that my hair was just not going to cooperate for the day. It had been on one ride, and it was like, Sorry Joni, Im going to stick up all over and get in your face. DEAL WITH IT. I didnt have a mirror, so I settled for taking another picture so I could see what it looked like. My face looked so disgruntled, I just had to save it and share it with you guys.

At that point I decided to just go with it. Its DISNEY. Who cares if my hair looks like Ive been sticking my fingers in an electrical socket?

I met back up with John, and we headed off to Africa for our next stop: Kilimanjaro Safari! On the way I had to take a few more pictures of the gorgeous Tree of Life!

Its just so photogenic!

Up Next: Adventures on a revamped safari! Stay tuned!

 

[JessicaFaye508]

Oh my goodness!! I LOVE that Lion King shirt! I wanted it so bad when I went to the Disney Store in Pittsburg but they didn't have any size besides XL

Why do they have a unicorn parking area? How frumpy. Animal Kingdom has some very weird mythical creature confusion.

HAHAHA EVIL DEER.

BAHAHA I totally make that face when I take pictures sometimes. I can relate, girl.

 

[therussells08]

Oh my goodness!! I LOVE that Lion King shirt! I wanted it so bad when I went to the Disney Store in Pittsburg but they didn't have any size besides XL

Why do they have a unicorn parking area? How frumpy. Animal Kingdom has some very weird mythical creature confusion.

HAHAHA EVIL DEER.

BAHAHA I totally make that face when I take pictures sometimes. I can relate, girl.

Thank you! John gave me that shirt for my birthday! I love it so much! UGH, I hate when I want something really badly but they don't have it in my size!

Hahaha I know, it really doesn't make any sense! I guess pretty soon they'll have to have a blue person from Avatar parking area? I still don't know how I feel about that...

That deer is so angry! I just don't get it!

Haha I'm glad I'm not the only one!

 

[therussells08]

"The Lion Sleeps Tonight"- The Tokens​

July 9, 2012

In the jungle
The mighty jungle
The lion sleeps tonight​

It was still super early, so luckily there was virtually no wait for Kilimanjaro Safari!

I took that picture hoping it would give me some good luck on my safari. If you don’t know this about me, I’m notorious for taking terrible safari pictures. I’m also notorious for posting all 1,000,000 of them in my TR every time, so ENJOY!

Things started off a little bumpy (literally) with some awkward blurry deer shots.

But luckily they got progressively better!

Hungry hungry hippos!

Where are all of their marbles? They must be starving!

Alligators? Crocodiles? I can never remember.

We had a pretty good view of some giraffes, so I took full advantage of the opportunity. I was the paparazzi to their Lindsey Lohan.

This giraffe is like, “Oh, you want to take my picture? Well then let me just turn my head upside down for you.”

One of my co-workers who is the yearbook editor at my school gets REALLY mad when anyone sticks his/her tongue out in a picture. She would not be very happy with that giraffe.

Ain’t no party life a gi-raffe party, cause a giraffe party don’t stop!

Then we saw some wildebeest! I always have mixed emotions at this point. They’re cool looking, but I can’t help but wonder…which of you jerks went all Black Friday on Mufasa?

Check out the antlers on this guy.

Then we saw one of my favorites- ELEPHANTS!

They’re so cute.

Flamingoes!

I always think that if any of us DIS people ever made it onto Jeopardy and Alex Trebek said, “Flamingoes are pink because they eat this,“ we would all be able to say, “What are BRINE SHRIMP, Alex!” because we’ve been told this a billion times by our helpful safari guides.

Next we saw our most exciting part of the safari, and I took my favorite picture!

Look at him rub his wittle face! He’s so cute!

I was really proud of my lion pictures on this safari.

Overall I was highly satisfied with our safari experience, but it wasn’t over yet. The warthogs were out!

I had been really curious about what this new safari would be like, since it was the first time we had ridden since they had gotten rid of the whole poacher storyline. I noticed we weren’t doing nearly as much communicating with Simba One throughout the ride, although we did still get to listen to that soothing African music on the radio. I was dying to know, however, how they would explain cutting our “two week” safari so short, since there were no poachers to chase down or baby elephants to save! So, here’s how it went down: toward the end of the safari, our guide mentioned they were building a new viewing area for zebras, and he offered to take us to see the construction site.

After we drove around the construction our guide said that we had unfortunately gotten lost on our detour and he would have to cut our safari short, and that was pretty much the end of it! Overall it was a pretty anticlimactic ending, but I think it’s a nice temporary story while they finish the zebra viewing area. I’m just happy to have more animal viewing time on the safari, rather than having to look at animatronic elephants!

Up Next: More animal watching, and I finally get to see the Festival of the Lion King again! Stay tuned!

 

[emma212010]

I love that Lion King shirt!! So cute!

Yay Animal Kingdom!! Asia is definitely my favorite because of the decorations! The whole park is so photogenic, but I think Asia is the coolest! PLUS, it has EE and that is my FAVORITE EVER!!! I love it so much!

Your hair is so funny! I can totally relate!

 

[beachmama3]

Awesome updates today-- love Animal Kingdom and my boys are huge fans of EE also. Can't get them on ToT but they will ride EE all day long. Love. And you still looked adorable with Everest hair and all. I have the same problem. My hair is poker straight until it hits EE and the FL humidity, and then it's allllll over.

We didn't see any lions on our Aug trip, so I appreciated your pics! Great Jeopardy reference too- my fave show!

Had to comment on John's Warrior Dash shirt! My husband and I ran it last year in Pennsylvania and it was soooooo much fun!! I rock my Warrior Dash sweatshirt as often as possible!

 

[marDgreen88]

UPDATES!!!!!!! I'm really excited right now.

OMG I love your Lion King shirt! That's awesome.

John knows what's UP! I love when Animal Kingdom is someone's favorite park because it just doesn't get enough love!

HAHA. That picture IS cute! You're precious. And thank you for providing a picture of the view from the top of Everest because AHHH. I just love it.

BAHAHAHAHA. "Black Friday on Mufasa." That is just BRILLIANT. Haha it's okay, it wasn't any of the ones at Disney... it was one of their animated (far) distant relatives.

Excellent lion pictures. Where is the clapping smiley when you need it? This is the second time I could have used it...

 

[Disneyfreak616]

YAY some entertainment while I curl my hair for my show this morning! Thanks Joni!

I loooove your Lion King shirt. How appropriate for a DAK day.

I love that deer in the Everest queue! Thanks for thinking of us Frumps.

Your safari pics are great! I always feel so educated after that ride, even though they almost always tell us the same things every time.

 

[heathsf]

I always think that if any of us DIS people ever made it onto Jeopardy and Alex Trebek said, “Flamingoes are pink because they eat this,“ we would all be able to say, “What are BRINE SHRIMP, Alex!” because we’ve been told this a billion times by our helpful safari guides.

 

[Aussiesalad]

Your shirt is adorable!!

Ahhh I agree that super-excited tram pictures are the best way to show pre-park excitement.

Yes you always have to take the good hair shots within the first 10 minutes of being in the parks. After that if the rides don't get it, the humidity will!

Awhhh the lion is too cute! Rubbing his little facey-wacey

The temp story line made me laugh.
They could have at least attempted to tie it in.
'Oh no, the evil poachers are now into construction and poaching dirt! BOO HISS....oh wait never mind they are bringing us zebras...Hooray!!'

 

[cindianne320]

Great update! I love Animal Kingdom. We resisted going until 2010 but loved it and will now go there every trip!

I, too, love your shirt! And your park hair! LOL! Not sure how I feel about the new safari... Hopefully once it's done, it will all make sense and the Zebras will be worth it!

 

[Curiouser&curiouser!]

I love the Lion King shirt! It is perfect for AK!

What a great start to the day!

 

[__disneygirl]

YAY you got up so early. I've never gotten up before 7 at Disney, so I admire this!

OMG I totally forgot about the whole thing with part of the Tree of Life falling off. That was crazy.

I love that John's favorite park is AK! It's my mom's favorite too, and it's so great going with someone who appreciates it so much.

Jess and Kristen have totally brainwashed me when it comes to deer. Like now every time I see them in the parks I'm like "DEER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The view from the top of EE is one of my favorite things!! Great picture!

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!! I've never seen male lion rub up on the tree like that. You lucked out! One of the most exciting things for me is the anticipation on what (if anything) the lions will be doing. I love them!!

Personally, I didn't really miss the whole Little Red storyline. I mean, it's a safari with tons of animals, there's enough going on. And the zebra addition is awesome too!

 

[monica23535]

Ha I nearly choked on 'Black Friday on Mufasa' so funny!


Sounds like you had fun at AK, we love EE too.

Great pics of the lion

 

[stimmons]

OMG! I just read your guy covered in blood update! I about passed out. I don't do blood very well. Gross!!!! I'm surprised you didn't faint while watching.

 

[saintstickets]

It was an AMAZING ride, of course! I love how fast EE goes. After it was over I took a picture of myself to see how messed up my hair was, and John thought it was cute so he told me to keep it!

As I walked back to John to show him my successful trade, I realized that my hair was just not going to cooperate for the day. It had been on one ride, and it was like, Sorry Joni, Im going to stick up all over and get in your face. DEAL WITH IT. I didnt have a mirror, so I settled for taking another picture so I could see what it looked like. My face looked so disgruntled, I just had to save it and share it with you guys.

That got me laughing. I caught DW one day taking a pic of herself with her cellphone and at first I wondered what she was doing. Then I realized she was doing the same thing you were doing!
No need Joni, you're cute ALL THE TIME!

 

[flyergrad09]

Um, that is probably my favorite flavor of Vitamin Water, so I wouldn't mind a review of it!

I've always wanted to take pictures on EE, but I'm too scared that I'll drop my camera.

Hahaha, I love the upside down giraffe picture! And the tongue! So sassy!

 

[amandaw]

Good start to the day at AK! I'm with you - I love the feeling of your 1st ride on your favorite. It's so exciting!!

Love all of your safari pictures!

 

[Disneybuckeye]

Hi Joni,

Back from our trip and caught all back up. Loved your Cape May review so much I think I am going to give it another try.

Can't wait to read more!

 

[WEDWDW]

AHH I'm so excited for the Disney magic that has brought you to my TR. And seriously, you telling me my TRs are as good as Jess and Kristen's is the best compliment you could give me. Thank you so much!



Hahaha oh bless your soul. The only time I could escape the tour groups on our trip was in our hotel room, so I think if they would have prank called me I might have lost it.

You're welcome!The effort you 3 put into your TRs is amazing!

I think Disney should have Mickey standing at the door to the DME bus for the return trip to OIA from All-Star Sports and present a limited edition pin to all July Guests that says "Congratulations Pal For Surviving A Week In Little Brazil!"!