So here's the thing.
I write great trip reports in my head when I am at WDW.
You would be impressed.
No Really!
But I found on my last day there while being interviewed for a survey that I could barely remember which day I had been where. Now writing it down might be a good idea, but then you have to be organized and keep paper and pen handy and when you get right down to it that is way to much work on vacation. Now you may be thinking that we had way to much to drink while down there and thats why it's all a blur. You would be wrong. We're just naturally that way.......
So who are we:
This I can handle: DH 47-disney fanatic
Me 47-hey I consider myself one of Walt's kids
On our 11th (we think) trip to the world and maybe about 4 without the kiddies. (so sad, they have college and all)
What you say, it can't possibly be fun without the kiddies...
TRUST ME!!!
If you are looking for a day by day, planned ahead, written on paper which park which day report you are about to be sadly disappointed. Some day we know the next day where we are going and some days we decide when we get up in the morning. Bless the people that are that organized but I think that since dh and I have very organized and brain powered jobs we go on strike when we are on vacation. Some planning gets done ahead but not much! The thrill of hitting early mornings has dimmed as well and sleeping in a bit seems like a nice idea. We did do a couple of evening entries though.
With that note here is our take on the parks, what we continue to love after 12 trips, what we could skip and what we miss.
Animal Kingdom
We love the safari and that you see different things each time. We usually hit this first thing when the park opens and found that even though the wait time says 20 minutes that you walk right on the safari vehicle. One trip the rhinos were acting very feisty, running around and almost charging the vehicle. The baby was with them so don't know if the baby was making them feel young at heart or not. We missed the new baby elephant by a few days, but did see the other 2. They are still so cute! We did fast pass this in the afternoon wehn we decided to see what was happening later on and it was a good thing. Some lady was giving cm a good deal of grief when we unloaded one time. Apparently she missed the message about stowing loose items or hanging on tight......And....while I hate to admit it, I am getting a little tired of saving little red and his mama, I know, gasp, but it's true. I console myself with the fact that I only did it a few times in a week, but that cast member...... CM seemed to be less likely to ad lib a bit this week than at other times.
Don't forget to check out the gorilla spot just to the right when you get off the safari ride. One day the male that seems to reside there was laying belly down on a pink blanket. Real men do do pink! He is usually almost straight down and to the right.
Take the time to walk down Pangani Forest Trail. The okapi was actually out, close up and moving instead of hiding way in the back. His back is the most beautiful dark, brown color. Course it looks better on him than as clothing for me! We love watching the birds and the hedgehog. There is so much to see in the naked mole rat room if you take the time. No birds have pooped on me yet unlike those stupid seagulls..... We even saw one of the gorillas climb way up in a tree.
We like riding the train to Rafikis conservation station and our girls used to enjoy visiting the goats because they missed theirs at home. We stopped to watch a bird getting his foot unwrapped in the vet clinic and shifted over to the poop pickers. A cm engaged us in conversation regarding breeding efforts and told us a new elephant was on the way. He also said that a few years ago the hippos were way to friendly resulting in several births in one year. Birth control was tried but the solution now is...well you know how you see hippos on both sides of the safari vehicle? One side is boys and one side is girls and never the two shall meet.....I love it when we stop and take the time to talk with those cms....We also saw signs on the way back to the train that were like if you are waiting here it's so long till you board the train...remind me not to go when it is really busy.
Every time we go to the Maharaja jungle trek I am reminded of the time my parents went. We were all looking around and I heard my mom say to my dad "Isn't this just beautiful" Dad replied that he thought disney needed to keep it up a bit better. We had to let him know it was supposed to look like that. The tigers were playful. Best place I think is to go up the stairs right after you see the bats. Good place to see the bats are next to this stair if the other part is busy. We say a teenagery asking cm all sorts of questions about bat care and bats as pets. She did a good job staying in character while telling him where he could get more information. No bird poop here either!!
Looks like at Kali River Rapids they don't let you take your shoes off anymore, or at least no one wanted to..Darn I didn't have my rain poncho this day so we skipped it. I don't do the bug and we don't care for dinosaur. No patch for primeval whirl....Jeez what a whiner I am
We did go here for the late night but could only stay 2 hours do to a darn ADR. We saw Lion King...love this and Tarzan. Had to be quick to get from one to another. Dh spent time taking pictures of the new ride from every spot he could see it. Thank goodness for digital cameras. It is amazing how much they had done since May. WE also spent time just following the paths around the tree of life but the romance was somewhat diluted by all the barriers in the paths forcing you to go a certain way.
Take time to enjoy this park, it really is beautiful and a wonderful chance to slow down. We missed Devine this time for the first time.
Epcot
We wanted to make sure and get Soarin in. We did fast pass this and it was a good idea. For my claustrophobic sufferers..the first part of this line isn't bad, there are pictures and stuff but the last part there are these really tall blank walls like a jetway but higher....I didn't enjoy this so much......we got on and there was no one else in our row despite the long lines in the standby line. Guess we go different ways. this reminded me very much of the old theater at Cedar Point, while the seats did not move you got the camera angles and such and I always felt like I was moving at Cedar Point so it didn't seem much different to me. I would not have been happy to spend much time in that claustrophobic hallway for this.....Screaming and yelling and running out may have scared small children and they might of thought something hairy was chasing me.....
Which brings me to tip # maybe 5...if you want to use the bathroom by soaring time it between the time that the rides are unloading if you want to see the actual toilet.
We love test track but this is a must fast pass although even this line is more a slow track.
We went to sea base alpha adn we enjoy the large aquarium and the displays but the line for crush was huge....so haven't seen this attraction. This was the only crowded part in the place.
Can't believe we missed innoventions, Ellen, Shrunk the kids but we did do Journey into Imagination. Iforgot all my emails, left them where I wrote them down, so I couldn't send any emails.....poop....
Skipped Mission to Mars, some day when I am properly drugged for puking and screaming I am going to try this....
So we decided to use the boat to get across the lagoon. It took a while to load, lots of people breathing my air, window won't open...we got off at the first stop so we went a few hundred feet in about 30 minutes and we could have walked it in maybe 3. Get off that boat before something big and hairy...never mind.
Lets be honest, we go to world showcase to eat and we've already done that. Also shopped for candy in the different countries as this is what dd2 and grandma wanted for souveniers and Christmas. Great Britain cm's are great in helping pick out their chocolate made with "chocolate and not candle wax"
Enjoyed British Invasion. A few times we had seen several characters, like Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast,Jasmine in gardens by the country but we didn't see that this time.
Illuminations: I know I am one of the few that is not all that impressed with this. We decided to do this at the last minute walking from CP. We stopped on the bridge between France and GB because of the way the wind was blowing and the smoke can trigger my asthma. Not a great place because of the trees, we were on the downside towards France. But we did see something fun. The area next to the water was blocked off very vigorously by cms to keep is riff raff out. The site itself was divided by not 1 but 2 ropes into a bigger area where the flower planters are and a smaller area. Not the smaller area was soon filled with many families with strollers. The larger area just had few adults only. Suddenly the stroller group decided to go under the 2 ropes to get into the larger area. I guess they were thinking the ropes were just a fun obstacle course designed by disney. All of us standing above saw this happening and were laughing. The cm were still busy at the entrances guarding against the riff raff. Finally one guarding the top entrance noticed all the strollers in his all adult area and started shooing them back. While he was shooing more were lifting ropes and coming over. It took 3 cast members to restore order and they left one to guard the border. Kept us entertained anyway. So illuminations started and once the fires were lit the smoke was incredible. Those poor people in GB. I hope it wasn't blowing all over those people with the primo spots at the restaurant. You could barely see the fireworks at all so the trees didn't really matter. The ending with "Let there be peace on earth" was so beautiful even if you could barely see the fireworks through the smoke. Too bad more people don't believe it.
Wow am I windy. Have to finish the parks later.....
I write great trip reports in my head when I am at WDW.
You would be impressed.
No Really!
But I found on my last day there while being interviewed for a survey that I could barely remember which day I had been where. Now writing it down might be a good idea, but then you have to be organized and keep paper and pen handy and when you get right down to it that is way to much work on vacation. Now you may be thinking that we had way to much to drink while down there and thats why it's all a blur. You would be wrong. We're just naturally that way.......
So who are we:
This I can handle: DH 47-disney fanatic
Me 47-hey I consider myself one of Walt's kids
On our 11th (we think) trip to the world and maybe about 4 without the kiddies. (so sad, they have college and all)
What you say, it can't possibly be fun without the kiddies...
TRUST ME!!!
If you are looking for a day by day, planned ahead, written on paper which park which day report you are about to be sadly disappointed. Some day we know the next day where we are going and some days we decide when we get up in the morning. Bless the people that are that organized but I think that since dh and I have very organized and brain powered jobs we go on strike when we are on vacation. Some planning gets done ahead but not much! The thrill of hitting early mornings has dimmed as well and sleeping in a bit seems like a nice idea. We did do a couple of evening entries though.
With that note here is our take on the parks, what we continue to love after 12 trips, what we could skip and what we miss.
Animal Kingdom
We love the safari and that you see different things each time. We usually hit this first thing when the park opens and found that even though the wait time says 20 minutes that you walk right on the safari vehicle. One trip the rhinos were acting very feisty, running around and almost charging the vehicle. The baby was with them so don't know if the baby was making them feel young at heart or not. We missed the new baby elephant by a few days, but did see the other 2. They are still so cute! We did fast pass this in the afternoon wehn we decided to see what was happening later on and it was a good thing. Some lady was giving cm a good deal of grief when we unloaded one time. Apparently she missed the message about stowing loose items or hanging on tight......And....while I hate to admit it, I am getting a little tired of saving little red and his mama, I know, gasp, but it's true. I console myself with the fact that I only did it a few times in a week, but that cast member...... CM seemed to be less likely to ad lib a bit this week than at other times.
Don't forget to check out the gorilla spot just to the right when you get off the safari ride. One day the male that seems to reside there was laying belly down on a pink blanket. Real men do do pink! He is usually almost straight down and to the right.
Take the time to walk down Pangani Forest Trail. The okapi was actually out, close up and moving instead of hiding way in the back. His back is the most beautiful dark, brown color. Course it looks better on him than as clothing for me! We love watching the birds and the hedgehog. There is so much to see in the naked mole rat room if you take the time. No birds have pooped on me yet unlike those stupid seagulls..... We even saw one of the gorillas climb way up in a tree.
We like riding the train to Rafikis conservation station and our girls used to enjoy visiting the goats because they missed theirs at home. We stopped to watch a bird getting his foot unwrapped in the vet clinic and shifted over to the poop pickers. A cm engaged us in conversation regarding breeding efforts and told us a new elephant was on the way. He also said that a few years ago the hippos were way to friendly resulting in several births in one year. Birth control was tried but the solution now is...well you know how you see hippos on both sides of the safari vehicle? One side is boys and one side is girls and never the two shall meet.....I love it when we stop and take the time to talk with those cms....We also saw signs on the way back to the train that were like if you are waiting here it's so long till you board the train...remind me not to go when it is really busy.
Every time we go to the Maharaja jungle trek I am reminded of the time my parents went. We were all looking around and I heard my mom say to my dad "Isn't this just beautiful" Dad replied that he thought disney needed to keep it up a bit better. We had to let him know it was supposed to look like that. The tigers were playful. Best place I think is to go up the stairs right after you see the bats. Good place to see the bats are next to this stair if the other part is busy. We say a teenagery asking cm all sorts of questions about bat care and bats as pets. She did a good job staying in character while telling him where he could get more information. No bird poop here either!!
Looks like at Kali River Rapids they don't let you take your shoes off anymore, or at least no one wanted to..Darn I didn't have my rain poncho this day so we skipped it. I don't do the bug and we don't care for dinosaur. No patch for primeval whirl....Jeez what a whiner I am
We did go here for the late night but could only stay 2 hours do to a darn ADR. We saw Lion King...love this and Tarzan. Had to be quick to get from one to another. Dh spent time taking pictures of the new ride from every spot he could see it. Thank goodness for digital cameras. It is amazing how much they had done since May. WE also spent time just following the paths around the tree of life but the romance was somewhat diluted by all the barriers in the paths forcing you to go a certain way.
Take time to enjoy this park, it really is beautiful and a wonderful chance to slow down. We missed Devine this time for the first time.
Epcot
We wanted to make sure and get Soarin in. We did fast pass this and it was a good idea. For my claustrophobic sufferers..the first part of this line isn't bad, there are pictures and stuff but the last part there are these really tall blank walls like a jetway but higher....I didn't enjoy this so much......we got on and there was no one else in our row despite the long lines in the standby line. Guess we go different ways. this reminded me very much of the old theater at Cedar Point, while the seats did not move you got the camera angles and such and I always felt like I was moving at Cedar Point so it didn't seem much different to me. I would not have been happy to spend much time in that claustrophobic hallway for this.....Screaming and yelling and running out may have scared small children and they might of thought something hairy was chasing me.....
Which brings me to tip # maybe 5...if you want to use the bathroom by soaring time it between the time that the rides are unloading if you want to see the actual toilet.
We love test track but this is a must fast pass although even this line is more a slow track.
We went to sea base alpha adn we enjoy the large aquarium and the displays but the line for crush was huge....so haven't seen this attraction. This was the only crowded part in the place.
Can't believe we missed innoventions, Ellen, Shrunk the kids but we did do Journey into Imagination. Iforgot all my emails, left them where I wrote them down, so I couldn't send any emails.....poop....
Skipped Mission to Mars, some day when I am properly drugged for puking and screaming I am going to try this....
So we decided to use the boat to get across the lagoon. It took a while to load, lots of people breathing my air, window won't open...we got off at the first stop so we went a few hundred feet in about 30 minutes and we could have walked it in maybe 3. Get off that boat before something big and hairy...never mind.
Lets be honest, we go to world showcase to eat and we've already done that. Also shopped for candy in the different countries as this is what dd2 and grandma wanted for souveniers and Christmas. Great Britain cm's are great in helping pick out their chocolate made with "chocolate and not candle wax"
Enjoyed British Invasion. A few times we had seen several characters, like Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast,Jasmine in gardens by the country but we didn't see that this time.
Illuminations: I know I am one of the few that is not all that impressed with this. We decided to do this at the last minute walking from CP. We stopped on the bridge between France and GB because of the way the wind was blowing and the smoke can trigger my asthma. Not a great place because of the trees, we were on the downside towards France. But we did see something fun. The area next to the water was blocked off very vigorously by cms to keep is riff raff out. The site itself was divided by not 1 but 2 ropes into a bigger area where the flower planters are and a smaller area. Not the smaller area was soon filled with many families with strollers. The larger area just had few adults only. Suddenly the stroller group decided to go under the 2 ropes to get into the larger area. I guess they were thinking the ropes were just a fun obstacle course designed by disney. All of us standing above saw this happening and were laughing. The cm were still busy at the entrances guarding against the riff raff. Finally one guarding the top entrance noticed all the strollers in his all adult area and started shooing them back. While he was shooing more were lifting ropes and coming over. It took 3 cast members to restore order and they left one to guard the border. Kept us entertained anyway. So illuminations started and once the fires were lit the smoke was incredible. Those poor people in GB. I hope it wasn't blowing all over those people with the primo spots at the restaurant. You could barely see the fireworks at all so the trees didn't really matter. The ending with "Let there be peace on earth" was so beautiful even if you could barely see the fireworks through the smoke. Too bad more people don't believe it.
Wow am I windy. Have to finish the parks later.....
