There's no place like "home" for the holidays...*updated 3/18 p. 43 and 44*

[Michelle_and_Aaron]

Awesome update! I am so jealous of you getting to go to the Christmas Party.
Everything is just so beautiful!
Ooh also lucky you getting to go to Disney on Ice. I am going to have to look that one up and see when it is coming here. I went to the one that was running last fall and it was great. It is nice to get in some local Disney magic isn't it!

 

[OneTreeHillAddict]

I want to see DOI! Looks like a lot of fun! Your parade pics are great too! I should have watched from Main Street. They look a lot better with the castle and decorations in the background!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Thanks for sharing the Disney on Ice pictures... it looks cute. So glad you enjoyed the Christmas party. I loved it too and you're right there was definitely something special about the atmosphere on Main Street with the lights, the "snow" and the music.

 

[Lady Lallie]

Your Disney on Ice pictures are awesome and they are getting me really excited. I am going to see Worlds of Fantasy this weekend!

MVMCP seems so awesome. I am so glad you were able to enjoy your party night.

 

[Jennifer48]

Your parade pictures are great! Man I should have watched it from Main St and not Frontierland. Oh well. Guess that means I'll have to go again!

 

[xoktenox]

Awww Disney on Ice looks so cool! It was here right after Christmas and I tried to convince my BF to go with me...he didn't go for it lol Great pictures and it looks like a show thats definitely worth it!

Great update too! All those parade pictures are soo good, you guys obviously had a good spot. Based on your pictures and review, MVMCP is definitely something worth going to!

 

[wdwgirl03]

Awesome update! I am so jealous of you getting to go to the Christmas Party.
Everything is just so beautiful!
Ooh also lucky you getting to go to Disney on Ice. I am going to have to look that one up and see when it is coming here. I went to the one that was running last fall and it was great. It is nice to get in some local Disney magic isn't it!

Thanks. The Christmas party was definitely one of the highlights of this trip.

I agree, it is nice to get some Disney magic at home especially when we don't have a trip planned at the moment.

I want to see DOI! Looks like a lot of fun! Your parade pics are great too! I should have watched from Main Street. They look a lot better with the castle and decorations in the background!

Yeah, the castle is the perfect backdrop for the parade.

Thanks for sharing the Disney on Ice pictures... it looks cute. So glad you enjoyed the Christmas party. I loved it too and you're right there was definitely something special about the atmosphere on Main Street with the lights, the "snow" and the music.

You're welcome! Disney On Ice was a lot of fun.

Your Disney on Ice pictures are awesome and they are getting me really excited. I am going to see Worlds of Fantasy this weekend!

MVMCP seems so awesome. I am so glad you were able to enjoy your party night.

Oh that is right, you mentioned in your PTR you are going to the Disney On Ice show. Have fun!

Your parade pictures are great! Man I should have watched it from Main St and not Frontierland. Oh well. Guess that means I'll have to go again!

Thanks! That sounds like a good reason to go again!

Awww Disney on Ice looks so cool! It was here right after Christmas and I tried to convince my BF to go with me...he didn't go for it lol Great pictures and it looks like a show thats definitely worth it!

Great update too! All those parade pictures are soo good, you guys obviously had a good spot. Based on your pictures and review, MVMCP is definitely something worth going to!

Yeah, it took some convincing to get my sister to go but I think she enjoyed it too.

We did have a pretty decent spot. And since we stayed for the later parade maybe there weren't as many people. The party is SO worth going to...I hope I can go again sometime in the future, though I don't know how that will work out being a teacher and all.

 

[wdwgirl03]

Friday, December 19, 2008 (part 1)
Animal Kingdom

Friday was another beautiful day and we decided to spend the morning at the Animal Kingdom. AK has to be my second favorite park (behind the Magic Kingdom of course!). I just love the animals and it's fun to explore there. We continued our streak of catching the bus literally seconds after we arrived at the stop and we were on our way! Within a few minutes we arrived at the park.

You can't really tell but I decided to wear my new MVMCP t-shirt that day. I'm not really sure why but I really like the walk up to the entrance at the Animal Kingdom. Maybe it's all the trees or the music, I don't know. But doesn't think make you want to be there right now?

Then right out front was the Christmas tree. Stupidly I didn't take a picture of the whole thing. I was too busy focusing on the bottom of the tree because I thought the decorations were really cute. You can kind of see what it looked like though, all covered in animals.

So after taking some tree pictures we went to get in line.

One courtesy of Emma...

As you may have noticed from our pictures, we tend to wear a lot of Wisconsin sports team apparel. That tends to bring about a lot of comments from other Wisconsinites. While we were in line the family in front of us was from around here as well so we talked to them for a while. It turns out they were also DVC members (who own at the Boardwalk...lucky) and they said how they usually take a couple of trips every year. It's nice to know that there are other Disney nuts out there like us because some people just don't get it.

Once the turnstiles were open we entered the Oasis (some day I'd like to explore that area a little more) and soon we saw this:

So pretty. Then Minnie, Goofy, and Pluto joined us for the opening show. I love all the parks' little openings. They're just so...well, Disney!

Our first stop was Expedition Everest of course! We all love this ride so on the way out we had to get some fastpasses for later. With fastpasses in hand we headed back to Africa to go on one of my favorite attractions...the safari. It amazes me that you can see all those animals. And some of them are so close! One of our first sightings was a rhino.

As we continued on we saw some more of the usual suspects (we see these on every safari!).

Before long we were entering the savanna, the best part of the ride.

Sadly the savanna was pretty quiet. It was a lot different from when we rode in the morning on our May trip where there were tons of animals out. But then we finally saw some signs of life! There were a bunch of some sort of gazelles (maybe...I don't really know what they were, haha) and we could spot a giraffe in the distance. My favorite!


As we got closer to the giraffe I was getting pretty excited because he was on my side of the car. I was determined to get a decent picture of it.

Then we ran into a little bit of a problem...giraffe in the road!

We had to stop for a while until he dashed off. But it was pretty cool to watch the giraffe right there.

Some more safari pictures:

It was so strange, we saw a bunch of elephants on this safari. Not that I am complaining, I love the elephants too. Usually we see one, maybe two at most. I think we might've seen atleast five this time.

Another rhino...

After the safari it was off to Dinoland!

 

[Lady Lallie]

Whenever I'm on the safari, I always hope an animal will cross the road. I don't know why but I think that would be so cool to see.

 

[OneTreeHillAddict]

Those Giraffes like to do their own thing don't they? You got some good pics on Safari and of the opening show!

 

[Jennifer48]

Thats the best part of the Safari, when the animals do their own thing and stop traffic. I love it! We got stopped once for a good 10 minutes because 2 giraffe just did not want to get out of the way!

Great pics!

 

[Dr_Finkelstein]

Hi Sarah

I can't believe i was so far behind!!!! All caught up now! Disney on Ice looked great as always - I'm always amazed how they can skate in those big costumes.

Enjoyed all the updates - MVMCP looked really fun! I'm getting homesick now looking at all the photos!

Di x

 

[irky416]

I just got all caught up and I really enjoyed your TR so far!

 

[wdwgirl03]

Whenever I'm on the safari, I always hope an animal will cross the road. I don't know why but I think that would be so cool to see.

haha, it was pretty cool.

Those Giraffes like to do their own thing don't they? You got some good pics on Safari and of the opening show!

The giraffes are so neat to watch though, I don't really care what they do.

Thats the best part of the Safari, when the animals do their own thing and stop traffic. I love it! We got stopped once for a good 10 minutes because 2 giraffe just did not want to get out of the way!

Great pics!

Yeah, we actually stopped another time on that safari because there was some animal in the road further up. Unfortunately we didn't see that one.

Hi Sarah

I can't believe i was so far behind!!!! All caught up now! Disney on Ice looked great as always - I'm always amazed how they can skate in those big costumes.

Enjoyed all the updates - MVMCP looked really fun! I'm getting homesick now looking at all the photos!

Di x

It is amazing how they skate in the costumes...but there were a few times when some of them did fall down. Oops!

The Christmas party was a blast and I'm so happy we got to go. I know what you mean about getting homesick, I feel the same way reading others' TRs and seeing their pics.

I just got all caught up and I really enjoyed your TR so far!

Hey, nice to see you back! Glad you are enjoying it.

 

[Michelle_and_Aaron]

Wow you had a great jungle ride thing. That is awesome! I bet the animals love the florida winters. In the summer they are always laying in the shade and sleeping.

 

[wdwgirl03]

Wow you had a great jungle ride thing. That is awesome! I bet the animals love the florida winters. In the summer they are always laying in the shade and sleeping.

Yeah, it was great. I love seeing the animals.

 

[wdwgirl03]

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Hope everyone has (or had!) a nice day.

I just wanted to share this with everyone. If you haven't already seen, the new American Idol attraction just opened at Hollywood Studios the other day. They had a big parade with former idol contestants and all the winners were on hand as well. Then at the attraction David Cook and Carrie Underwood (two of my favorite winners) performed a duet...they sounded awesome!

I can't wait to try this on our next trip...whenever that may be! I'm jealous of all you guys going soon...you'll have to try it out and tell me what it's like!

Another update will be coming soon... Thanks for sticking with me.

 

[xoktenox]

Heyyy just got a chance to read your update, sorry i've been out of it for a little while! Hope you enjoyed your valentine's day!

Loveee the safari pics! Funny that the giraffe was right in the middle of the road, i like the picture of his butt haha Cool that you guys got to see more elephants than usual too

 

[wdwgirl03]

Heyyy just got a chance to read your update, sorry i've been out of it for a little while! Hope you enjoyed your valentine's day!

Loveee the safari pics! Funny that the giraffe was right in the middle of the road, i like the picture of his butt haha Cool that you guys got to see more elephants than usual too

Hey, no worries. My Valentine's Day was alright...hope yours was good too.

It was crazy the giraffe was in the middle of the road...he just kind of walked along so we had to go really slow. The driver had a phrase for it but I can't remember what he called it. It was neat to see all the elephants.

 

[wdwgirl03]

Friday, December 19, 2008 cont'd (part 2)

After the safari we headed over to Dinoland.

Our first stop was Dinosaur. This ride kind of freaks me out but I just can't seem to pass it up ever. When we got to the Dino Institute we just missed the preshow but only had to wait a few minutes before meeting with Dr. Seeker. I don't know what you guys think but it seems like Dinosaur used to be a lot more crowded than it is now. Am I the only one who thinks that? It just never seems to have a wait at all! So we boarded our time rovers and were off to meet some dinos. I really tried to keep my eyes open for the big dinosaur at the end but couldn't do it. Maybe one of these years...atleast I'm not the only one freaked out by it, I heard one guy say afterwards that it was scary and not a kids' ride. After laughing at some of the ride photos we walked over to Primeval Whirl. The wait said it was 20 minutes but we didn't think it would take that long. Wrong. When we got in line they only had one side running. Then of course as we get closer to the front they decided to open the other side, so people who got in line way after we did pretty much just walked on while we still had to wait. Oh well, guess that's how it goes sometimes but it was maddening.

After finally getting off Primeval Whirl we went to use our fastpasses for Expedition Everest. It was just as good as the first ride. Love this one so much! On the way to lunch I took a couple pictures of the area:

Isn't it neat how you can see the mountain's reflection in the water?

And some of those Disney details...

We decided on Pizzafari for lunch so we headed over there before it got too busy. Let's just say that was a meal we will never forget! Since it was so nice we decided to eat outside. So we go to find a table and are all ready to eat. Then some ducks came up and decided they wanted to join us! It was actually kind of creepy because let me tell you, those ducks are not afraid at all! They really wanted some food and were literally right at Emma's feet. She was pretty much freaking out (ok, I'm not going to lie, I was kind of freaking out too ) I decided to throw a piece of breadstick to try to get them to go away, which they did for a while. But of course they came back. After a while I think they finally waddled off. Just wanted to share that little story. Beware of the ducks if you eat outside!

After eating we went to explore the area around the Tree of Life for a bit. We didn't see too many animals but here are some more flamingoes.

We also wanted to see Festival of the Lion King so we went over to Camp Minnie-Mickey and hung out there before the show. CMM was also decked out for the holidays. They had these little themed trees leading up to the characters. Here's Minnie's tree, complete with polka dot bows.

And here's Lilo's tree (the one on the left...you can kind of see those little dolls like the one she had) and I think Mickey's.

The character lines were pretty long but we did get to see Koda...I felt so bad because he was just standing there!

For some reason we decided then that we didn't want to see the show and would rather go to Downtown Disney. We thought about the best way to get there and ended up taking a bus over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge and from there we'd make our way to DTD. After all, AKL is another great resort to visit for the holidays!

up next: The Animal Kingdom Lodge and Downtown Disney