This time we did it right! (Updated 3/2!)

[Nicole786]

the baby looks so cute with the troll and the mexico hat! Awesome pics, epcot rocks my socks off!

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Looks like the YMCA was fun, anyway! Baby Blaize looks so cute in that hat! The only thing missing is the glasses Can't wait for more

 

[pierresgirl]

Hi Julie- looks like a great first day, Blaize looks adorable in that hat! All the food sounds so good, I'll have to go during F & W festival one year. I Can't wait to hear more!

 

[mkluvsmickey]

Great update! It looks like you all had a fun time even with the wet weather.

 

[jordanyosh]

The update was very nice...

Ahhh...the rain. At least it wasn't an all night event.

The pictures of the baby are ones that your friends can look back on w/ such joy and laughter.

What a great start to your vacation. Caprese salad a favorite of mine as well.

 

[disneyaddicted]

That does sound like a great first day. and you didn't let a little rain get you down.
I did not know that Epcot had baby stealing trolls. lol I love you teasing and saying you get soaked on the viking ride, I will have to do that to that to Reese, we skipped all of WS last time so we missed that ride.
I am enjoying this TR can't wait for more.

 

[babieemelly]

GREAT update! I can't get over how cute Blaize is. The troll pictures cracked me up! And that little sombrero's the cutest!

I've always thought the same thing about Poland being in the World Showcase. My mom's side of the family is half Polish and I've always loved the food and culture. That's why the F&WF is so cool, they offer so much more than Epcot already normally does. That's a whole lot of good food!

Keep up the great work, I'm really looking forward to more!

 

[dismom9761]

Had to do some catching up.Lovin' the updates and pics!

 

[SwansLoveDisney]

the baby looks so cute with the troll and the mexico hat! Awesome pics, epcot rocks my socks off!

Yep, that baby enhanced WS! I love Epcot too. It's my fave!

Looks like the YMCA was fun, anyway! Baby Blaize looks so cute in that hat! The only thing missing is the glasses Can't wait for more

How could we forget the glasses?!?!

Hi Julie- looks like a great first day, Blaize looks adorable in that hat! All the food sounds so good, I'll have to go during F & W festival one year. I Can't wait to hear more!

You should absolutely go during F & WF. It was soooo good!

Great update! It looks like you all had a fun time even with the wet weather.

Yep, we didn't let a little rain stop our fun!

The update was very nice...

Ahhh...the rain. At least it wasn't an all night event.

The pictures of the baby are ones that your friends can look back on w/ such joy and laughter.

What a great start to your vacation. Caprese salad a favorite of mine as well.

The rain was on and off...much more do-able than constant rain!

And those pics will be good to tease the baby with when he is about, oh, 13 years old.

Caprese...yum!

That does sound like a great first day. and you didn't let a little rain get you down.
I did not know that Epcot had baby stealing trolls. lol I love you teasing and saying you get soaked on the viking ride, I will have to do that to that to Reese, we skipped all of WS last time so we missed that ride.
I am enjoying this TR can't wait for more.

Watch out for that Troll! He may try to get Reese!

I think it's so funny to tease people like that. Probably cuz I grew up with 4 older brothers and I was teased incessantly!

Put Maelstrom on your must-do list! It's great!

GREAT update! I can't get over how cute Blaize is. The troll pictures cracked me up! And that little sombrero's the cutest!

I've always thought the same thing about Poland being in the World Showcase. My mom's side of the family is half Polish and I've always loved the food and culture. That's why the F&WF is so cool, they offer so much more than Epcot already normally does. That's a whole lot of good food!

Keep up the great work, I'm really looking forward to more!

You are so right...Food and Wine Festival adds so much to WS. It was great to see all the other countries represented there!

That baby is making me want to have a baby of my own! But then I remember that I gave Blaize back to his mom and dad at then end of the night and there would be no giving my own baby back! I think we'll wait a couple more years!

 

[SwansLoveDisney]

Our wake-up call came at 7 a.m. this morning. The wake-up call was some music that seemed like it might be African-inspired. (?) I was a little sad that it wasn’t Mickey or Stitch, but I got over it pretty quickly. Sarah and I laid in our beds for about one minute after the wake-up call and then I said “Let’s check for animals in our back yard!” And with that, we both literally jumped out of bed and ran to the balcony and saw some early morning friends. What a great incentive to get out of bed. (As if being at Disney World wasn’t enough!)

I got in the shower while Sarah made some coffee. (She’s a coffee-aholic). Then I dried and straightened my hair, which turned out to be a waste of time! I had a bagel with peanut butter and Sarah had some Golden Grahams, all of which we purchased at Publix. I texted Beth to make sure they were on track for our 8:20 departure.

We packed our ponchos, water bottles, moleskin, and all-important glasses and walked down to Beth and Jason’s room. They shocked me by being ready to go! Beth was my roommate for 6 years and has been my best friend for 10 years and she is VERY rarely on time for ANYTHING! I think Jason was the reason they were on time!

We said good-bye to Blaize and Grandma and headed out to the car for the super short drive to Animal Kingdom.

We pulled up to Animal Kingdom at 8:30ish and went to the front gates. Sarah decided that the room coffee wasn’t enough, so she got in line for a coffee at that coffee stand that’s right outside AK. Beth, Jason, and I went through the bag check and waited for Sarah.

And we waited.

And we waited.

And we waited.

And my blood pressure went up.

And my heart rate went up.

This was going to be my first park opening EVER and I didn’t want to miss it!


Finally, Sarah came through the bag check. WITHOUT coffee!!!!!!! What the heck?!? After waiting all that time, she decided she better just come through because she would have been waiting much longer.

We all went through Rainforest Café to the super secret entrance in the gift shop and they were just letting people through the turn styles when we got there.

We rushed in to the place where the opening ceremonies take place. It started to rain, but just a little bit. We waited about 10 minutes.

Here's the back of my head while I'm waiting! Notice that my hair is already in a ponytail and it has already started to curl! Thanks a lot, rain!

And then the opening ceremonies happened. They were so cute! I was so happy to be there for that!

And finally, they let us loose! Jason consulted the map and decided we should head through Dinoland to Expedition Everest. So we walked as fast as our legs would walk without running over to EE. Beth was wished “happy birthday” about 1000 times on our way to EE. That was so much fun for her!

It seemed like it took forever to get there, but when we reached EE, Sarah and I grabbed Fast Passes for everyone and Beth and Jason got in the stand-by line. We joined them in the stand-by line and walked through the entire queue all the way up to the front of the ride! I was a little bummed that we didn’t wait at all because it looked like the theming of the queue was awesome. Beth did find time to try to steal a shovel of some sort.

Since there was NO wait at all, we asked to ride in the front car.

Here's the rest of the group waiting for the front car.

Sarah and I went first.

Then Beth and Jason were on the next one.

This was my first time on EE and I had NO idea what to expect. All I knew was that I was about to have a close encounter with a Yeti!

The view from the top of Everest!

Uh oh!

I LOVED it!!! I screamed so much! I think it may be my new favorite ride at Disney World! (Aside from Tower of Terror.) Being in the front car was great.

Here's Beth after getting off EE!

I tried VERY hard to redneck a pic of us on EE, but I was unsuccessful. I tried about 10 times, but they were all SUPER blurry.

After EE, we headed over to Dinosaur, another first for me (and everyone else in our group.) This was a walk-on as well. So nice. Dinosaur was so cute! I loved the queue. And the ride itself was so much fun!

Beth rednecked this one!

After Dinosaur, we did Triceratops Spin. Another walk-on. I had been on this ride with DH before and I remembered it being lots of fun. And it is still a super fun ride. We all screamed a lot on that one!

After Triceratops Spin, we couldn’t decide if we should brave Kali River Rapids. The rain had stopped and we weren’t sure we wanted to get soaked. We had already had quite a bit of rain and we weren't sure about inviting MORE water. Our EE fastpasses weren't up yet, and we couldn't decide if we should walk ALL the way over to get FPs for the Safari.

Beth and I consulted the map.

Would we go on Kali? Would anyone get SOAKED? Would anyone get SOAKED and GRUMPY? Stay tuned…

 

[SwansLoveDisney]

Had to do some catching up.Lovin' the updates and pics!

Thanks!

 

[iggbees]

Somewhere along the way, we saw a F&WF booth for Poland! Beth and I have always thought WS was not complete without Poland. Shout out to my fellow Polacks!

woot woot! fellow polack here! i've always wanted to go to the food and wine fest just to go to the polish station. did you try the food? i like to imagine that the pierogies are just not the same as homemade... just so i'm not so bummed about never being able to go.

 

[dismom9761]

Sounds like all of you are having a blast! I am glad you got to ride EE in the front. Still ovin' the pics...

 

[MAGICFOR2]

EE Rocks!!! I think it is my new fav, also! I love going backwards! When we rode, we got the Dream FP for the whole train when we stopped - so it will always be my fav! I don't know how you could snap those pics w/o dropping the camera. Glad you had such a good time - I hope those glasses helped you map out your day!

 

[MeMom]

Nice pictures from the top of EE. That ride was a little more intense than I expected, so we only rode it once this summer. I'm thinking about seeing if Drew will ride it with me on this trip. I need one more time to make up my mind about it for sure. I'd like to ride it like you did - from the front - to try and get a good picture, if nothing else.

It had to be exciting waking up at Animal Kingdom Lodge, knowing there was wildlife right outside your door. What kinds of animals did you see that first morning?

 

[pierresgirl]

Great EE pics! Sorry I wasn't there to do your hair What ride would you compare EE too? I'm a ride wimp but MUST do this one!

 

[babieemelly]

Great update! Isn't Everest the BEST?! We sat in the last car and got whipped around those curves real good, and had an AMAZING view of the Yeti! Next time I definitely have to try the front to get all those great views out over the park.

Looking forward to more!

 

[disneyaddicted]

I loved EE, and can't wait to ride again, I am going to try for the front car if the wait is not too long, I never thought about taking pictures on the ride, did you use your camera or a disposable? I would worry about dropping my camera.
Good thing you had your glasses with you, the writing on those park maps can be awfully small.

 

[DisMomAmy]

Great update! I love the pictures - especially during EE!

Can't wait to read more.

 

[Nicole786]

Haha Animal Kingdom is awesome! I love those glasses on you guys consulting the map!