christygobar
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2005
- Messages
- 512
Cast of Characters:
Linda - mom, 52, goes with the flow of her bossy, perfectionist of a daughter. Spent much of her trip sick. Left my dad at home
Christy - daughter, 26, the ultimate in over-planning and the biggest Disney fan in the family. Single.
My dining review scale: 1-5 stars *****
Part 1 - Pre planning and Friday
--------------------------
It's Animal Kingdom, DTD and Cirque de Soleil day!
Saturday morning was AK's morning EMH. We got there right at 8:00 and immediately headed to Kilamanjaro Safaris. Very short line and we were on a vehicle within 15 minutes. So the greatness of the EMH is that early in the morning, all the animals are out because it was nice and cool! We had a giraffe within 10 feet of our vehicle, saw not one but TWO baby elephants, the ostriches were chasing each other, the lion was out on top of his rock, and there were a good 15 hippos hanging out in their water!
It was getting warm at this point but we had brunch at Boma at 10:45 and didn't want to get wet at Kali River Rapids just yet. Time for Dinosaur, which is still NOT my favorite ride
And then to see It's Tough to be a Bug. Awesome. Best 3D/4D program that Disney has produced to date. I sat forward when the hornet stung, oh darn 
I am bug-squeamish, but still really loved this show.
Right after that, we walked around the Tree of Life, saw some monkeys playing around in their treehouse, and then took the bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge to eat breakfast at Boma.
We arrived a little early and before we checked in at the restaurant, decided to go to the observation balcony to check out the Arusha savannah. Sadly, it was empty. It was getting hot and sunny and I assume they were just hiding in the shade a bit further back. It was time to check in at Boma. And we waited. And we waited. And saw everyone else getting called before we did. Hmmm. It's after 11 by this point. Turns out, they lost our ticket somewhere after handing me our remote buzzer, and we ended up waiting about 25 minutes for our advance reservation. Only after I asked twice did they take us to a table. They apologized profusely, and it was fine since we weren't really in a hurry. I have no complaints about the meal, but hindsight being 20/20, I'd say this was my least favorite meal of the trip. The food was good for buffet fare, and my favorite parts of the entire meal were the omlette station and the apple turnover. But it wasn't anything truly special. Frunch and coffee were included and the meal ended up being about $36 with gratuity and tax. (again, we had free dining). I give it **. Nothing bad, nothing special.
Oh guess what? It's raining! Better get used to it. Unbeknownst to us, there is a tropical wave forming to our east that will cause us much precipitation over the next few days Since it's raining, it's cooler. Let's see if the animals are out in the savannah. We walked outside to watch two zebras playing and to see the Maribou stork drinking from the puddles and 4 giraffe in the back by the trees. That's more like it!
We wait for it to pass us by and then we get back on the bus to AK. Time now for Flight of Wonder. But the rain has closed the show. So since we are now already drenched (the rain stopped and started back up at this point), we head over to Kali River Rapids. Hey, we're already wet, right? Might as well get splashed.
Fun ride, but I wish it was longer with several smaller drops instead of the one big one!
That concluded our half day at AK. It was about 1:30 p.m. at this point and we had seen all we wanted to see (except Flights of Wonder). We had virtually no waits for anything that morning, and it was a good start to our day.
We head out of AK to our hotel and back to DTD for a fun afternoon of shopping and eating and Cirque de Soleil. I discover the greatness of Basin. And discover I have forgotten my buy one get one free Ghirardelli sundae coupon! The horror! In fact, I kept forgetting it the entire week until the day after it expired. Blast.
Cirque de Soleil. Wow. No other words can describe it. I am now officially an addict and want to plan a trip to Vegas to watch them all We bought a Tier 2 ticket but all seats looked great. We bought 2 light lemonades and popcorn OOP for ~ $12.
Dinner at Wolfgang Puck's Express over in the marketplace. Excellent! I had the 4 cheese pizza, mom had the chinese salad with crispy wontons. We each split chocolate cake and cheesecake (the better of the two desserts). I should add that it is also still pouring down rain at this point and we had to sit outside because it was so crowded. At least there was an umbrella covering most of the table I gave it *** stars and the dinner bill was ~ $38.
Oh, I spent one snack credit on a banana today at AK as well. The banana I bought at Earl of Sandwich last night found itself falling to the ground this morning as I went to eat it.
Time to head back to the hotel to get some rest for tomorrow! Tomorrow - EPCOT day and the Food & Wine Festival!
Linda - mom, 52, goes with the flow of her bossy, perfectionist of a daughter. Spent much of her trip sick. Left my dad at home
Christy - daughter, 26, the ultimate in over-planning and the biggest Disney fan in the family. Single.
My dining review scale: 1-5 stars *****
Part 1 - Pre planning and Friday
--------------------------
It's Animal Kingdom, DTD and Cirque de Soleil day!
Saturday morning was AK's morning EMH. We got there right at 8:00 and immediately headed to Kilamanjaro Safaris. Very short line and we were on a vehicle within 15 minutes. So the greatness of the EMH is that early in the morning, all the animals are out because it was nice and cool! We had a giraffe within 10 feet of our vehicle, saw not one but TWO baby elephants, the ostriches were chasing each other, the lion was out on top of his rock, and there were a good 15 hippos hanging out in their water!
It was getting warm at this point but we had brunch at Boma at 10:45 and didn't want to get wet at Kali River Rapids just yet. Time for Dinosaur, which is still NOT my favorite ride
And then to see It's Tough to be a Bug. Awesome. Best 3D/4D program that Disney has produced to date. I sat forward when the hornet stung, oh darn I am bug-squeamish, but still really loved this show.Right after that, we walked around the Tree of Life, saw some monkeys playing around in their treehouse, and then took the bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge to eat breakfast at Boma.
We arrived a little early and before we checked in at the restaurant, decided to go to the observation balcony to check out the Arusha savannah. Sadly, it was empty. It was getting hot and sunny and I assume they were just hiding in the shade a bit further back. It was time to check in at Boma. And we waited. And we waited. And saw everyone else getting called before we did. Hmmm. It's after 11 by this point. Turns out, they lost our ticket somewhere after handing me our remote buzzer, and we ended up waiting about 25 minutes for our advance reservation. Only after I asked twice did they take us to a table. They apologized profusely, and it was fine since we weren't really in a hurry. I have no complaints about the meal, but hindsight being 20/20, I'd say this was my least favorite meal of the trip. The food was good for buffet fare, and my favorite parts of the entire meal were the omlette station and the apple turnover. But it wasn't anything truly special. Frunch and coffee were included and the meal ended up being about $36 with gratuity and tax. (again, we had free dining). I give it **. Nothing bad, nothing special.
Oh guess what? It's raining! Better get used to it. Unbeknownst to us, there is a tropical wave forming to our east that will cause us much precipitation over the next few days
Since it's raining, it's cooler. Let's see if the animals are out in the savannah. We walked outside to watch two zebras playing and to see the Maribou stork drinking from the puddles and 4 giraffe in the back by the trees. That's more like it!We wait for it to pass us by and then we get back on the bus to AK. Time now for Flight of Wonder. But the rain has closed the show. So since we are now already drenched (the rain stopped and started back up at this point), we head over to Kali River Rapids. Hey, we're already wet, right? Might as well get splashed.
Fun ride, but I wish it was longer with several smaller drops instead of the one big one!
That concluded our half day at AK. It was about 1:30 p.m. at this point and we had seen all we wanted to see (except Flights of Wonder). We had virtually no waits for anything that morning, and it was a good start to our day.
We head out of AK to our hotel and back to DTD for a fun afternoon of shopping and eating and Cirque de Soleil. I discover the greatness of Basin. And discover I have forgotten my buy one get one free Ghirardelli sundae coupon! The horror! In fact, I kept forgetting it the entire week until the day after it expired. Blast.
Cirque de Soleil. Wow. No other words can describe it. I am now officially an addict and want to plan a trip to Vegas to watch them all
We bought a Tier 2 ticket but all seats looked great. We bought 2 light lemonades and popcorn OOP for ~ $12.Dinner at Wolfgang Puck's Express over in the marketplace. Excellent! I had the 4 cheese pizza, mom had the chinese salad with crispy wontons. We each split chocolate cake and cheesecake (the better of the two desserts). I should add that it is also still pouring down rain at this point and we had to sit outside because it was so crowded. At least there was an umbrella covering most of the table
I gave it *** stars and the dinner bill was ~ $38.Oh, I spent one snack credit on a banana today at AK as well. The banana I bought at Earl of Sandwich last night found itself falling to the ground this morning as I went to eat it.
Time to head back to the hotel to get some rest for tomorrow! Tomorrow - EPCOT day and the Food & Wine Festival!
