Who we are:
DH- 25 (had his b-day while on our trip), hard-working hubby and daddy and all around great guy. Hasn't been to Disney in 10 years.
DS- 2, a little ball of energy, loves Mickey Mouse (was Mickey for Halloween). This is his first trip.
DMil- 48, wonderful grandma coming along to help out with DS. Last trip was in '99.
Me- 24, stay at home mommy and main trip planner (I bought so many guidebooks that DH thought I was nuts
). Never been to Disney.
Saturday, May 4th
ANIMAL KINGDOM AND CHEF MICKEY'S
Today we woke up pretty early and again enjoyed breakfast in the lobby. As soon as we walked out of the hotel, we realized that today was going to be HOT! It had been in the 90's all week but today was the absolute worst of it. We got into Animal Kingdom around 9:20 a.m. DH and DMil went in to see ITTBAB because there was a wait of 0 minutes. I decided to wait with DS because of the way he freaked in Honey, I Shrunk the Audience. Honestly, the idea of all those bugs sounded kind of yucky to me anyway. I was just sitting on a bench waiting for them to come out and I was sweating buckets. I really thought I might pass out. Once DH and DMil came out, we walked about 3 feet when the wheel on our stroller broke off. DH tried to fix it with no luck. Dmil ended up renting us one since it was our last park day anyway. At least it waited that long to break, right? We next headed over to Dinoland and I did not like the looks of this area at all. I know there has been a lot of debate about this issue and I also realize that you can't possibly please everyone on everything, but that being said, Dinoland is just ugly, IMO. I absolutetly loved the rest of Animal Kingdom. It is just filled with wonderful details and it is probably the most beautiful park, IMO. Dinoland just doesn't fit. Anyway, DS and DH first took a ride on Triceratops Spin and then DMil and DH went on Primeval Whirl. DH said I would have hated that one but he laughed and had a great ride. DMil said she was never going on it again. We split up at this point so DH and I could go on Dinosaur while DMil took DS to see the Tarzan show. I don't remember if we used fastpass for Dinosaur or not, but we did not have any wait at all. This ride was pretty good. I liked it a lot but I couldn't describe much of it because it goes so fast. I'll just have to try it again sometime. The air conditioning was just heavenly. We looked at our picture at the end and it was pretty funny. Both DH and I are just non-chalantly looking over at the dinosaur like, "oh, how nice. A man-eating dinosaur." There was no real expressons on either of our faces. Meanwhile, everyone else on the ride with us is screaming their heads off. We got a good laugh over that and I still regret not buying it. We did, however, purchase a very big rubber dinosaur for DS. We used the package pick-up so we wouldn't have to lug the beast around with us. We all met up again after Tarzan let out and headed to Asia. We grabbed some fastpasses for Kali River Rapids and then decided to try and eat something. It was so hot, I really wasn't hungry but DS and I each nibbled on a frozen banana. These were pretty good. DH and DMil shared a chicken and rice meal from the restauran there. I tried a bite of each and the food really was very good. As the day was going on, it was starting to just feel hotter and hotter. I couldn't wait for Kali River Rapids. DMil and I lined up first. While we were going through the fast pass line, we saw a lot of wet people in the stand-by line, telling me people were going over and over. Sounded like a good idea to me. DMil and I both loved this ride. We got the "wet" seats but we didn't mind a bit. We were both dripping wet when we got off. I only wish this ride was about twice as long as it is because it's great fun. DH went next using his fastpass to go by himself. He also managed to choose the "wet" seat and came off sopping wet but smiling. I tried to convince him to get in the stand-by line with me but he didn't want to wait the 35 minutes. I guess we were all just spoiled by fast pass. Originally, we were going to do the train ride next for DS but he had fallen asleep while DH was on Kali so we decided to skip the train and head to the safari. DH and I did the safari by ourselves while DMil stayed with the sleeping DS. There was only a 5 minute wait in the stand-by line so we jumped right in. This had to be the best ride of the trip!! I have never seen anything remotely like this and I think it is something only Disney could pull off. I took almost a whole roll of film because we just saw so many animals. It was nothing short of amazing. When it was over, I wanted to immediately jump right on again but DH didn't . Reluctantly, we went to find DS and DMil. I will be back on that safari someday though. Once we were all together again, we decided it was time to go due to the heat. I would have loved to stay much longer, exploring the trails and catching the parade but we were all dropping so we left. On the way out, we stopped to pick up DS's present, which he loved, and to take a look at a picture of him with Pooh Bear that we had taken earlier. His eyes were all squinty in the picture, so we passed on it. Back to the Hawthorn Suites for a long swim in the pool. DS made some friends here and kept himself busy playing with them for at least an hour. We all enjoyed the water that afternoon. Then we were off to our dinner reservation at Chef Mickey's. The Contemporary is much nicer than I thought it would be. From the outside it doesn't look that impressive but inside it certainly does. The monorail running through it is certainly a sight to see. We were about 45 minutes early for our dinner reservation but we checked in early because we were all starving. We visited with Goofy and Donald in the lobby, got our group picture taken, and then we were beeped. It only took about 15 minutes. Once we were seated, we immediately were visited by Mickey, Minnie, Chip and Dale. The character interaction here was just great
!! The napkin dance was neat too. DS didn't quite have the hang of it and he almost smacked me in the face more than once but it was cute that he was trying. The food here was okay, not nearly as good as 1900 Park Fare, IMO. There was a lot of bbq and the famous potatoes wre not as good as I expected. The desserts were pretty good and the pies were garnished with 100 years of magic white chocolate medallions which was a nice touch. We had originally planned to stay for the fireworks but that was before our stroller broke at the park. It was only 8:00 p.m. and the thought of entertaining DS for 1 and 1/2 hours until the fireworks proved to be too much. We left with a final view of the beautiful castle all lit up and a promise to be back soon to see everything we missed. We all went to bed knowing the daunting task of packing and driving 24 hours home awaited us in the morning. Boo hoo 
.
DH- 25 (had his b-day while on our trip), hard-working hubby and daddy and all around great guy. Hasn't been to Disney in 10 years.
DS- 2, a little ball of energy, loves Mickey Mouse (was Mickey for Halloween). This is his first trip.
DMil- 48, wonderful grandma coming along to help out with DS. Last trip was in '99.
Me- 24, stay at home mommy and main trip planner (I bought so many guidebooks that DH thought I was nuts
). Never been to Disney.Saturday, May 4th
ANIMAL KINGDOM AND CHEF MICKEY'S
Today we woke up pretty early and again enjoyed breakfast in the lobby. As soon as we walked out of the hotel, we realized that today was going to be HOT! It had been in the 90's all week but today was the absolute worst of it. We got into Animal Kingdom around 9:20 a.m. DH and DMil went in to see ITTBAB because there was a wait of 0 minutes. I decided to wait with DS because of the way he freaked in Honey, I Shrunk the Audience. Honestly, the idea of all those bugs sounded kind of yucky to me anyway. I was just sitting on a bench waiting for them to come out and I was sweating buckets. I really thought I might pass out. Once DH and DMil came out, we walked about 3 feet when the wheel on our stroller broke off. DH tried to fix it with no luck. Dmil ended up renting us one since it was our last park day anyway. At least it waited that long to break, right? We next headed over to Dinoland and I did not like the looks of this area at all. I know there has been a lot of debate about this issue and I also realize that you can't possibly please everyone on everything, but that being said, Dinoland is just ugly, IMO. I absolutetly loved the rest of Animal Kingdom. It is just filled with wonderful details and it is probably the most beautiful park, IMO. Dinoland just doesn't fit. Anyway, DS and DH first took a ride on Triceratops Spin and then DMil and DH went on Primeval Whirl. DH said I would have hated that one but he laughed and had a great ride. DMil said she was never going on it again. We split up at this point so DH and I could go on Dinosaur while DMil took DS to see the Tarzan show. I don't remember if we used fastpass for Dinosaur or not, but we did not have any wait at all. This ride was pretty good. I liked it a lot but I couldn't describe much of it because it goes so fast. I'll just have to try it again sometime. The air conditioning was just heavenly. We looked at our picture at the end and it was pretty funny. Both DH and I are just non-chalantly looking over at the dinosaur like, "oh, how nice. A man-eating dinosaur." There was no real expressons on either of our faces. Meanwhile, everyone else on the ride with us is screaming their heads off. We got a good laugh over that and I still regret not buying it. We did, however, purchase a very big rubber dinosaur for DS. We used the package pick-up so we wouldn't have to lug the beast around with us. We all met up again after Tarzan let out and headed to Asia. We grabbed some fastpasses for Kali River Rapids and then decided to try and eat something. It was so hot, I really wasn't hungry but DS and I each nibbled on a frozen banana. These were pretty good. DH and DMil shared a chicken and rice meal from the restauran there. I tried a bite of each and the food really was very good. As the day was going on, it was starting to just feel hotter and hotter. I couldn't wait for Kali River Rapids. DMil and I lined up first. While we were going through the fast pass line, we saw a lot of wet people in the stand-by line, telling me people were going over and over. Sounded like a good idea to me. DMil and I both loved this ride. We got the "wet" seats but we didn't mind a bit. We were both dripping wet when we got off. I only wish this ride was about twice as long as it is because it's great fun. DH went next using his fastpass to go by himself. He also managed to choose the "wet" seat and came off sopping wet but smiling. I tried to convince him to get in the stand-by line with me but he didn't want to wait the 35 minutes. I guess we were all just spoiled by fast pass. Originally, we were going to do the train ride next for DS but he had fallen asleep while DH was on Kali so we decided to skip the train and head to the safari. DH and I did the safari by ourselves while DMil stayed with the sleeping DS. There was only a 5 minute wait in the stand-by line so we jumped right in. This had to be the best ride of the trip!! I have never seen anything remotely like this and I think it is something only Disney could pull off. I took almost a whole roll of film because we just saw so many animals. It was nothing short of amazing. When it was over, I wanted to immediately jump right on again but DH didn't . Reluctantly, we went to find DS and DMil. I will be back on that safari someday though. Once we were all together again, we decided it was time to go due to the heat. I would have loved to stay much longer, exploring the trails and catching the parade but we were all dropping so we left. On the way out, we stopped to pick up DS's present, which he loved, and to take a look at a picture of him with Pooh Bear that we had taken earlier. His eyes were all squinty in the picture, so we passed on it. Back to the Hawthorn Suites for a long swim in the pool. DS made some friends here and kept himself busy playing with them for at least an hour. We all enjoyed the water that afternoon. Then we were off to our dinner reservation at Chef Mickey's. The Contemporary is much nicer than I thought it would be. From the outside it doesn't look that impressive but inside it certainly does. The monorail running through it is certainly a sight to see. We were about 45 minutes early for our dinner reservation but we checked in early because we were all starving. We visited with Goofy and Donald in the lobby, got our group picture taken, and then we were beeped. It only took about 15 minutes. Once we were seated, we immediately were visited by Mickey, Minnie, Chip and Dale. The character interaction here was just great
!! The napkin dance was neat too. DS didn't quite have the hang of it and he almost smacked me in the face more than once but it was cute that he was trying. The food here was okay, not nearly as good as 1900 Park Fare, IMO. There was a lot of bbq and the famous potatoes wre not as good as I expected. The desserts were pretty good and the pies were garnished with 100 years of magic white chocolate medallions which was a nice touch. We had originally planned to stay for the fireworks but that was before our stroller broke at the park. It was only 8:00 p.m. and the thought of entertaining DS for 1 and 1/2 hours until the fireworks proved to be too much. We left with a final view of the beautiful castle all lit up and a promise to be back soon to see everything we missed. We all went to bed knowing the daunting task of packing and driving 24 hours home awaited us in the morning. Boo hoo .
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