manchurianbrownbear
<font color=green>Not very concise<br><font color=
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2002
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Here are several highlights, very few lowlights and some general observations from our recent trip to WDW, October 30 November 6.
Our party consisted of me DW, DS12, DS8, DD7, DD4, FIL, MIL and on the last day of the trip, BIL, SIL and niece, age 2.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4
Another warm, humid day with plenty of sun. Our traditional way to start our days was to take one of our DDs with me to the food court to fill mugs with hot chocolate for DDs and DW and coffee for me. This was the second time weve stayed at the All Star Resort and for some reason I love walking into the food court early in the morning to fill the mugs. I love the smells, the Disney background music, the fact that its not real busy yet, saying good morning to cheerful CMs and other sleepy guests, the palm trees lining the sidewalk between our room and the food court. I think the relative peace and quiet just gives me a minute to catch my breath and be thankful that my family and I have had the opportunity take this fun trip!
Anyway, this was Animal Kingdom day. We drove to the park instead of taking the bus because its close to our resort and because we were considering eating at Rainforest Café and were concerned that we might finish after the buses had stopped running. On the way in, I made note that there was a unicorn on the end of the row we were parked in.
We arrived several minutes before the park opened and we were entertained by a talking palm tree. Our kids reaction to the tree provided us with some of the better pictures and video of the trip! On our previous trip, we had a similar experience with a talking trash can in Tomorrowland in MK. The trash can called my DS8 (5 at the time) by name; he was wearing his ears with his name stitched on, just as he was in the middle of a tantrum over something. Great moment! Sorry for the rabbit trails.
We also took time to look at the CMs holding insects and small animals in small acrylic boxes. The night before Id lectured DS8 for stomping on a big beetle outside of MGM. One of the CMs had a beetle that looked a lot like the late beetle at MGM and she was lecturing on why it is important that we not bother insects that arent bothering us. The guilty look on DSs face was great!
Waiting for rope drop, in the middle of a large crowd, I was as hot and uncomfortable as I was at any time on the trip. I was never sure what the temperature was, the forecast on the WDW channel in the hotel was always more optomistic than The Weather Channel, but it must have been closer to 90 than 80 and the humidity was definitely up there. One of my favorite things in AK is the vegetation. Its beautiful, but it really cuts the breeze!
We went to Kilimanjaro Safari first. So did almost everyone else, so we waited about 15 minutes to ride. We had a great view of several animals; hippo, giraffe, elephant, ostrich and a few other lesser known animals whose names Ive forgotten. We probably took too many pictures. The pictures on the safari are just not nearly as good when you see them live.
We went on Pangani Trail, but were slowed by crowds. We still enjoyed the walk, but there were lines for anything interactive and we sometimes had to wait to get to a good spot to view different things, like the gorillas.
For some reason I get disoriented in AK. We came upon Its Tough To Be A Bug on the way to Kali River Rapids. I dont know if that was the most direct route, but there we were. There wasnt a wait for ITTBAB, so we went in! We were among the last people into the threatre and ended up in the front two rows on the far right side. ***RABBIT TRAIL ALERT - When youre asked to keep moving all the way to the end of the row, keep moving all the way to the end of the row. This DOES apply to everyone!*** A couple of our kids were a little nervous about this attraction anyway and I was pretty sure that Hopper makes his entrance right in front of where we were sitting, and a few minutes later I found that I had remembered correctly. Im glad we were prepared for that, because that might have pushed a kid over the edge if we hadnt been ready!
In hindsight, while Im happy we didnt have to wait in line, I kind of missed having time to appreciated the animal carvings at the base of the Tree of Life.
Kali River Rapids was next. The sign at the entrance said there was a 25 minute wait, but we didnt want to come back so we waded in without FP and prepared for a wait. Well it was one of the longest waits of our trip, but it wasnt more than 15 minutes which isnt bad when youre expecting 25 minutes. DW doesnt like to get wet so she waited with DD4 while I rode with DS12, DD7, DS8 and MIL & FIL. DS8 and MIL got most of the water (MIL at least had a poncho on!)
Now we headed back to the Tusker House for lunch with a stop for pictures and autographs with Baloo. My opinion here was that the food quality was pretty, DW and I split a wrap sandwich with fruit and corn chowder, and the portions were generous. A nice surprise to us was the option to get coupons for a Mickey Bar and a Coke that could be redeemed later in the day at the snack stands in the park. Great idea!
Next was Festival of the Lion King. This is a very enjoyable show. I guess its hard to go wrong with the Lion King music and the costumes are great. Our family particularly enjoyed the acrobats!
While in Camp MinnieMickey (or is it MickeyMinnie?) we found Mickey, Minnie and Goofy with no lines! Woo hoo! DD4 overcame her fear of characters for the first time on the trip and stood next to Goofy for a picture! Next we moved to Mickeys station. As we walked toward Mickey, he got down on one knee and opened his arms to DD4 to give her a hug and unfortunately, this scared her away! Oh well, well always have the Goofy picture!
Dinoland was next on our agenda. We did Dinosaur with FPs and child swap then headed over to Primeval Whirl and Triceratops Spin. PW was a little rough. I wish Id had a flak jacket! The part of the park with PW and TS just dont have the Disney feel. Its more of a carnival atmosphere, which I think is the idea, but I didnt enjoy it as much. Just my opinion.
We were about ready to head out, but the kids wanted to try Kali River Rapids one more time. OK, maybe I did too! We had another wait of between 10 & 15 minutes. We had an amusing experience in line. On one of our WDW trip planning videos or CDs, which the kids have memorized, there is a British women getting off of KRR and she says, you dont get wet, you get soaked in a heavy British accent. The kids like repeating this line with the accent. We happened to get into line (should I say queue up) right in front of a group of British guests and the kids enjoyed trying their accents on some authentic British people and we tried to get them to do an American accent.
On our last trip to WDW in 2000, the kids were fascinated with the powdered soap, which I understand went away following the anthrax attacks a couple years ago. This year they loved the POWER hand dryers found in many of the rest rooms. Outside of KRR we found a dad drying the clothes of his naked preschool son under one of these dryers! They had definitely gotten soaked.
On the way out of the park we lucked into a pretty good spot for the parade. I like (not love) parades, but I HATE the way people behave at parades, so I dont see a lot of parades. This one was nice. It had many large puppet animals similar to those in the Tapestry of Nations parade.
DS8 was begging to go to Rainforest Café, but since there is one near us back home at Mall of America, we decided to go to the Trails End Buffet in Fort Wilderness instead.
We got into the parking lot and I started looking for the unicorn row in the parking lot. I found there isnt a unicorn row. There is a huge unicorn section of the parking lot! It took us several minutes to find our van. A white Dodge Caravan. One of about 100 white Dodge Caravans in the unicorn section that day!
We made it to Fort Wilderness and found you cant drive to Trails End, you have to park at the edge of Fort Wildnerness and take a bus to Trails End. The first time I visited WDW with my family as 16 year old in 1980 we stayed in a tent in Fort Wilderness, so driving through the campground brought back pleasant memories.
Trails End was very enjoyable, but the kids were very squirrely that night. They had great grilled tuna steak, boiled red potatoes and apple cobbler and bread pudding with vanilla sauce. Ed, our server was great!
We stopped at the restroom, which because of construction was in a trailer outside the restaurant and DS8 ended up leaving his fanny pack, with his disposable camera in the restroom. We called Trails End back at the room, but no one ever turned it in.
I left my real glasses back in the room that morning and wore my sunglasses during the day. So I couldnt see very well and took a wrong turn leaving Fort Wilderness and we ended up REALLY lost! Somehow, we ended up driving behind Space Mountain, then by MKs power plant and out of the park. Im not sure what rode we were on, but I can tell you that about a quarter mile out of the park, youre really back in the swamp! It was a dark little two lane road and it took awhile for us to get turned around and back on the right road. We finally reached ASMo about 45 minutes after we left Fort Wilderness. This didnt go over well with DW because she needed to do laundry that night in preparation for the 3-day cruise on The Wonder we had coming up 11/6.
Eventually laundry got done, I did the folding as a peace offering! And I took the kids to the pool for an hour or so. A nice way to end the day!
Our party consisted of me DW, DS12, DS8, DD7, DD4, FIL, MIL and on the last day of the trip, BIL, SIL and niece, age 2.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4
Another warm, humid day with plenty of sun. Our traditional way to start our days was to take one of our DDs with me to the food court to fill mugs with hot chocolate for DDs and DW and coffee for me. This was the second time weve stayed at the All Star Resort and for some reason I love walking into the food court early in the morning to fill the mugs. I love the smells, the Disney background music, the fact that its not real busy yet, saying good morning to cheerful CMs and other sleepy guests, the palm trees lining the sidewalk between our room and the food court. I think the relative peace and quiet just gives me a minute to catch my breath and be thankful that my family and I have had the opportunity take this fun trip!
Anyway, this was Animal Kingdom day. We drove to the park instead of taking the bus because its close to our resort and because we were considering eating at Rainforest Café and were concerned that we might finish after the buses had stopped running. On the way in, I made note that there was a unicorn on the end of the row we were parked in.
We arrived several minutes before the park opened and we were entertained by a talking palm tree. Our kids reaction to the tree provided us with some of the better pictures and video of the trip! On our previous trip, we had a similar experience with a talking trash can in Tomorrowland in MK. The trash can called my DS8 (5 at the time) by name; he was wearing his ears with his name stitched on, just as he was in the middle of a tantrum over something. Great moment! Sorry for the rabbit trails.
We also took time to look at the CMs holding insects and small animals in small acrylic boxes. The night before Id lectured DS8 for stomping on a big beetle outside of MGM. One of the CMs had a beetle that looked a lot like the late beetle at MGM and she was lecturing on why it is important that we not bother insects that arent bothering us. The guilty look on DSs face was great!
Waiting for rope drop, in the middle of a large crowd, I was as hot and uncomfortable as I was at any time on the trip. I was never sure what the temperature was, the forecast on the WDW channel in the hotel was always more optomistic than The Weather Channel, but it must have been closer to 90 than 80 and the humidity was definitely up there. One of my favorite things in AK is the vegetation. Its beautiful, but it really cuts the breeze!
We went to Kilimanjaro Safari first. So did almost everyone else, so we waited about 15 minutes to ride. We had a great view of several animals; hippo, giraffe, elephant, ostrich and a few other lesser known animals whose names Ive forgotten. We probably took too many pictures. The pictures on the safari are just not nearly as good when you see them live.
We went on Pangani Trail, but were slowed by crowds. We still enjoyed the walk, but there were lines for anything interactive and we sometimes had to wait to get to a good spot to view different things, like the gorillas.
For some reason I get disoriented in AK. We came upon Its Tough To Be A Bug on the way to Kali River Rapids. I dont know if that was the most direct route, but there we were. There wasnt a wait for ITTBAB, so we went in! We were among the last people into the threatre and ended up in the front two rows on the far right side. ***RABBIT TRAIL ALERT - When youre asked to keep moving all the way to the end of the row, keep moving all the way to the end of the row. This DOES apply to everyone!*** A couple of our kids were a little nervous about this attraction anyway and I was pretty sure that Hopper makes his entrance right in front of where we were sitting, and a few minutes later I found that I had remembered correctly. Im glad we were prepared for that, because that might have pushed a kid over the edge if we hadnt been ready!
In hindsight, while Im happy we didnt have to wait in line, I kind of missed having time to appreciated the animal carvings at the base of the Tree of Life.
Kali River Rapids was next. The sign at the entrance said there was a 25 minute wait, but we didnt want to come back so we waded in without FP and prepared for a wait. Well it was one of the longest waits of our trip, but it wasnt more than 15 minutes which isnt bad when youre expecting 25 minutes. DW doesnt like to get wet so she waited with DD4 while I rode with DS12, DD7, DS8 and MIL & FIL. DS8 and MIL got most of the water (MIL at least had a poncho on!)
Now we headed back to the Tusker House for lunch with a stop for pictures and autographs with Baloo. My opinion here was that the food quality was pretty, DW and I split a wrap sandwich with fruit and corn chowder, and the portions were generous. A nice surprise to us was the option to get coupons for a Mickey Bar and a Coke that could be redeemed later in the day at the snack stands in the park. Great idea!
Next was Festival of the Lion King. This is a very enjoyable show. I guess its hard to go wrong with the Lion King music and the costumes are great. Our family particularly enjoyed the acrobats!
While in Camp MinnieMickey (or is it MickeyMinnie?) we found Mickey, Minnie and Goofy with no lines! Woo hoo! DD4 overcame her fear of characters for the first time on the trip and stood next to Goofy for a picture! Next we moved to Mickeys station. As we walked toward Mickey, he got down on one knee and opened his arms to DD4 to give her a hug and unfortunately, this scared her away! Oh well, well always have the Goofy picture!
Dinoland was next on our agenda. We did Dinosaur with FPs and child swap then headed over to Primeval Whirl and Triceratops Spin. PW was a little rough. I wish Id had a flak jacket! The part of the park with PW and TS just dont have the Disney feel. Its more of a carnival atmosphere, which I think is the idea, but I didnt enjoy it as much. Just my opinion.
We were about ready to head out, but the kids wanted to try Kali River Rapids one more time. OK, maybe I did too! We had another wait of between 10 & 15 minutes. We had an amusing experience in line. On one of our WDW trip planning videos or CDs, which the kids have memorized, there is a British women getting off of KRR and she says, you dont get wet, you get soaked in a heavy British accent. The kids like repeating this line with the accent. We happened to get into line (should I say queue up) right in front of a group of British guests and the kids enjoyed trying their accents on some authentic British people and we tried to get them to do an American accent.
On our last trip to WDW in 2000, the kids were fascinated with the powdered soap, which I understand went away following the anthrax attacks a couple years ago. This year they loved the POWER hand dryers found in many of the rest rooms. Outside of KRR we found a dad drying the clothes of his naked preschool son under one of these dryers! They had definitely gotten soaked.
On the way out of the park we lucked into a pretty good spot for the parade. I like (not love) parades, but I HATE the way people behave at parades, so I dont see a lot of parades. This one was nice. It had many large puppet animals similar to those in the Tapestry of Nations parade.
DS8 was begging to go to Rainforest Café, but since there is one near us back home at Mall of America, we decided to go to the Trails End Buffet in Fort Wilderness instead.
We got into the parking lot and I started looking for the unicorn row in the parking lot. I found there isnt a unicorn row. There is a huge unicorn section of the parking lot! It took us several minutes to find our van. A white Dodge Caravan. One of about 100 white Dodge Caravans in the unicorn section that day!
We made it to Fort Wilderness and found you cant drive to Trails End, you have to park at the edge of Fort Wildnerness and take a bus to Trails End. The first time I visited WDW with my family as 16 year old in 1980 we stayed in a tent in Fort Wilderness, so driving through the campground brought back pleasant memories.
Trails End was very enjoyable, but the kids were very squirrely that night. They had great grilled tuna steak, boiled red potatoes and apple cobbler and bread pudding with vanilla sauce. Ed, our server was great!
We stopped at the restroom, which because of construction was in a trailer outside the restaurant and DS8 ended up leaving his fanny pack, with his disposable camera in the restroom. We called Trails End back at the room, but no one ever turned it in.
I left my real glasses back in the room that morning and wore my sunglasses during the day. So I couldnt see very well and took a wrong turn leaving Fort Wilderness and we ended up REALLY lost! Somehow, we ended up driving behind Space Mountain, then by MKs power plant and out of the park. Im not sure what rode we were on, but I can tell you that about a quarter mile out of the park, youre really back in the swamp! It was a dark little two lane road and it took awhile for us to get turned around and back on the right road. We finally reached ASMo about 45 minutes after we left Fort Wilderness. This didnt go over well with DW because she needed to do laundry that night in preparation for the 3-day cruise on The Wonder we had coming up 11/6.
Eventually laundry got done, I did the folding as a peace offering! And I took the kids to the pool for an hour or so. A nice way to end the day!
