The how we ate and drank our way around the World Trip Report - UPDATED 05/06!

[FairyGodmothers Sis]

After the Lion King show, we meandered over to It’s Tough To Be A Bug.

I love this show, however the part where the bugs are trying to kill all of us and the spiders drop down from the ceiling is scary and it never fails that about a dozen parents have to shuttle their shrieking children out of the theater! I KNOW that as a child I would have been petrified of that part. Oh well. Moving on…

My mom is not a huge fan of anything with wings on so we went to the bird show. If you’ve never seen it before, I highly recommend it. It was VERY enjoyable. And surprisingly funny, too!

After the bird show, where my mom survived just fine, we made our way over to Dinoland.

To ride…

It seemed to both my sister and I that the ride seemed a little darker and a little quieter than the last time we rode, although it could have something to do our aging sight and hearing… not that I’m old… but my sister is. Love you, sister!

Finally. Lunch. My favorite.

We prretty much make it a must to come here every trip.

Mmmm… eggrolls. They’re VERY good.

I had the chicken lo mein. I love it. I get it every visit but you could easily split it with someone. It’s a huge portion.

My mom got the sweet and sour chicken. She liked it but it’s really not a huge portion.

And then there’s my sister. She got the mandarin chicken salad. She liked it. Didn’t love it. Probably wouldn’t get it again. If you like styrafome, you’ll love it.

Next? Nemo. Cute show but I was tired and had just eaten so it was hard to stay awake for it. But still love it.

The one thing we did notice was that hardly anyone was at AK today. This was a typical walkway.

Expedition Everest was practically a walk-on – at 2:00 in the afternoon!?

Watched these guys for a bit.

Next up Animal Kingdom. Still. Lions and Tigers and … bats, oh, my!

 

[MyHappyPlace]

Wow - it looks like you guys went at the perfect day. No crowds and looks like the weather was decent. We've also gone to the bird show a few times and have loved it! You are right - it is suprisingly funny!

That salad looks hilarious!

Enjoying the report! Keep it coming!

 

[katt789]

I don't think I will EVER do ITTBAB, I just haven't heard very many good things about it! Haha

I WISH the crowds were that good when I was there, EE being a walk on at that time is awesome!

 

[FairyGodmothers Sis]

Wow - it looks like you guys went at the perfect day. No crowds and looks like the weather was decent. We've also gone to the bird show a few times and have loved it! You are right - it is suprisingly funny!

That salad looks hilarious!

Enjoying the report! Keep it coming!

Happy,

Yes. It was an awesome day to be there! We surprisingly really loved the bird show. Even my mom.

Salad was VERY funny!

 

[FairyGodmothers Sis]

I don't think I will EVER do ITTBAB, I just haven't heard very many good things about it! Haha

I WISH the crowds were that good when I was there, EE being a walk on at that time is awesome!

Hi Katt! Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

Yeah, ITTABAB isn't bad, necessarily, it just gets a little scary at one point... but overall, it really is a great show... if you can get past the darkness and spiders hovering around you.

Yeah, it really was a great day to be there... would love to go the parks when they're all like that!

 

[__disneygirl]

The first time I saw It's Tough To Be A Bug, I was 10, and I was SO scared I had my eyes closed for a lot of it. Way too intense for the little ones!

"My mom is not a huge fan of anything with wings on so we went to the bird show."

The chicken lo mein at Y&Y looks amazing. I will definitely have to try that next time.

 

[jpmandan]

I'm in!

 

[FairyGodmothers Sis]

The first time I saw It's Tough To Be A Bug, I was 10, and I was SO scared I had my eyes closed for a lot of it. Way too intense for the little ones!

"My mom is not a huge fan of anything with wings on so we went to the bird show."

The chicken lo mein at Y&Y looks amazing. I will definitely have to try that next time.

See... I knew it was too scary. Oh well. It's fun for the adults, right?

It's a good thing my mom has a sense of humor!

 

[FairyGodmothers Sis]

I'm in!

Great to see you! Thanks for joining in!

 

[FairyGodmothers Sis]

So, remember my mom’s aversion of anything that flies? Well, my sister has inherited a touch of it and when she saw these HUGE bats…

Her hood immediately went up and this was her reaction.

Even though it looks like a petrified 80 year old woman in this picture, it’s really not. It’s my sister. Love you!

Cutest tiger ever! I just wanted to crawl right up next to him!

And how can you be in Disney without having one of these?

It was more like Mickey b00bs… not a Mickey Bar because we had a giggle or two at how it looked. It seemed to be very cold.

First day at the park. Home by 6:00. Exhausted already. Watched a bit of t.v. and we called it an early night.

Next up… Keys to the Kingdom Tour at MK and how we averted a near-death experience.

 

[katt789]

Gah! Spiders are dark? No thank you! Haha I'll steer clear of ITTBAB

I definitely don't like flying things either, but for some odd reason, it's just birds, I love bats! Haha

Super excited to read about the tour the next day!! It's one I've always wanted to do!

 

[FairyGodmothers Sis]

Gah! Spiders are dark? No thank you! Haha I'll steer clear of ITTBAB

I definitely don't like flying things either, but for some odd reason, it's just birds, I love bats! Haha

Super excited to read about the tour the next day!! It's one I've always wanted to do!

Ummmm... you love bats?

The tour day is going to come in several posts. Our heads seriously hurt at the end of the day. I could not have squeezed in one more Disney fact! But AWESOME!

 

[__disneygirl]

"It was more like Mickey b00bs… not a Mickey Bar because we had a giggle or two at how it looked. It seemed to be very cold."

That is too funny. And I'm with katt789 - I love bats! I know it's weird, but I find them kind of adorable. And totally fascinating. I've spent way too much time staring at them in Animal Kingdom!

 

[katt789]

Ummmm... you love bats?

The tour day is going to come in several posts. Our heads seriously hurt at the end of the day. I could not have squeezed in one more Disney fact! But AWESOME!

Haha!! I dunno, I'm weird, I think it comes from working at camp, and all the bat & bat houses they have out there. Little baby bats are just so cute!! Heehee! As for birds, I got mildly attacked by seagulls in australia a few years ago, so that probably doesn't help

 

[FairyGodmothers Sis]

Lia and Katt,

You are a strange duo but to each his own, I guess, right?

My sister's fear of bats comes from growing up in an old(er) home and having bats come in through the attic. They might look all cute hanging around at a zoo but not so much when they're running up your bedroom wall and flying around your home.

Now I should be the one who is really scared of bats because this is a true story:

I was sleeping one night and my dog was on my bed with me. He was barking at something and I could also hear squeaking but I thought the squeaking was the metal of his collar or something... he had woken me up so I wasn't really thinking properly.

Anyway, I couldn't get him to stop barking so I finally got out of bed. Walked over to my light. Turned it on and there on my PILLOW was a bat. It had been sleeping with me and that's what my dog was barking at.

So... again. They may look all cute and harmless - until they decide they want to nuzzle next to you to sleep!

 

[__disneygirl]

OMG! That is crazy! I would be horrified and probably pass out from shock if a bat had been sleeping with me. I mean, WOW. Yeah, bats at AK = cute. Bats in my bed = not so cute!

 

[traveldis]

As her sister I can attest to the facts of the bat story. Unfortunately, we have more than one bat story.

However, in my defense the bats at Animal Kingdom have a 6 foot wing span. AND.... there are NO SCREENS on the windows! How can they do that? AUGH! The CM said it is because the wings can get through the windows .... yea whatever!

It was a great vacation!

 

[FairyGodmothers Sis]

As her sister I can attest to the facts of the bat story. Unfortunately, we have more than one bat story.

However, in my defense the bats at Animal Kingdom have a 6 foot wing span. AND.... there are NO SCREENS on the windows! How can they do that? AUGH! The CM said it is because the wings can get through the windows .... yea whatever!

It was a great vacation!

I think what my sister meant to say was that their wings CAN'T get through the windows.

Glad you finally joined in!

 

[FairyGodmothers Sis]

OMG! That is crazy! I would be horrified and probably pass out from shock if a bat had been sleeping with me. I mean, WOW. Yeah, bats at AK = cute. Bats in my bed = not so cute!

Yeah, it was quite awful, to say the least. The worst part? Our parents were out of town so I slammed my door shut, ran in my sister's room and we called the police. They came over with a tennis racket. Batted (no pun intended) it down and took it away in a brown paper bag.

 

[FairyGodmothers Sis]

My mom, as I have previously stated, is the absolute best, most generous mom out there and honestly, we can’t possibly thank her enough for what she has done for us and our families, so we thought we’d give a little thanks back to her by surprising her with the Keys to the Kingdom tour. So… rather than drop it on her as we’re walking into MK, we thought we’d let her know the night before because we wanted to give her time to process it (and look forward to it). She was an accountant in her before retirement life so she needs to process things. So… while she was planning the trip for us, we were arranging this little surprise on the sly. One of the drawbacks about leaving someone, i.e., the planner, out of the loop is they change things on you at the last minute. Unbeknownst to us, my mom was arranging to meet up with some friends at MK so a few days before we left, she dropped it on my sister and I that we were changing the day we were going to MK. Normally, it wouldn’t matter at all; however, we had this tour planned. Fortunately, we were able to move the tour to the new day but we agreed that we wouldn’t be changing any more plans.

If you’re not familiar with the Keys to the Kingdom tour, it’s a guided tour around Magic Kingdom and you go “backstage” several times, which also includes going underground into the tunnels or utilidors. All the details are below so let’s begin!

Up early today – 6:00 a.m.! We needed to be at MK at 8:00, which was an hour before it opened so I have pictures of us and pretty much no one else, which was kinda eerie.

They were forecasting rain – not just rain but thunderstorms – and this tour is rain or shine so we were doing some serious praying that the skies wouldn’t burst on us and we got lucky! It started out looking pretty gloomy but it ended up turning completely sunny. And hot.

Here’s mom on the monorail. We keep telling her not to say “hi” when we’re taking a still picture but she forgets. Often. Love you mom!

Here's me on the first monorail of the trip! Why do the monorails smell so bad? I keep thinking every time I go, they’ll smell like Disney but they smell the same year after year - like barn!

Here is our arrival.

We arrived at MK right around 8:00; told them we had a reservation and bam – we were in. It surprised me that they didn’t have anything to confirm that we really did have some type of reserveration because why wouldn’t everyone just say they had a reservation to get into the park an hour ealier to get some awesome pictures?

Pretty empty park.

I’ve always loved this and how nice to be able to take the time to really look at it.

This was the first time I was able to slowly walk through the castle and really appreciate the detail of the five mosaic murals that tell the story of Cinderella without hundreds of people around. Did you know that many of the hand-cut tiles are fused with sterling silver and 14 carat gold? I love how Cinderella’s wicked stepsisters appear with a little added color – one sister’s face is clearly “red with anger,” while the other sister is a little “green with envy,” as they watch Cinderella try on the glass slipper. Ahhhh… the Disney details!

Next up… the tour begins!