Walking Softly and Carrying a Big Stick: A TR-Approved TR Updated 8/30

[VBsHustla]

We then enjoyed a three hour-long bus ride to MGM, where we had to stand, but had a delightful time regardless. In fact, we enjoyed one of the oddest chats of our entire trip! We were reminiscing about how much we adored season one of Laguna Beach and then made a note to ourselves to break out our DVDs and relive that glorious season and then tune into The Hills.

For some odd reason, we decided to go to Star Tours first. It was likely because we had a few minutes until our Mama Melrose ADR, and this ride is in the general area. The sign claimed it was a reasonably short wait (must have been 10 minutes or we surely would not have went in), but we entered and promptly exited once we saw the entire first room was full of people. The CM commended our decision and told us to come back later when there would surely be no queue.

We then headed over to another all time fav attraction, The Muppets! We were lucky enough to walk in just seconds after the last group entered, so we were able to enjoy the entire chickening pre-show. We just love physical comedy involving chickens, so this show is right up our alley. We also adored being able to see Joan (aka Miss Piggy, who performed as Joan S. Jonas with our favs the Joni.)

Unfortunately, it was just about time for our ADR. So we didn’t get to watch the actual show!

We headed over to Mama Melrose and enjoyed the most delightful meal! We love this place. Those pizzas are delicious!

Another traditional photo we take each year is with the giant Kermit statue across from the restaurant. Liz and Laura illegally climb onto this building and take the oddest of photos! They then break a few limbs jumping back down.


After our Mama Melrose dinner two years ago, we thought up what became one of our all time favorite games in times of boredom: top five lists. We play this game on many of our bus trips, including the ride back to the GF that night. Someone proposes a topic and then we list the top five reasons we love it. We established that we’re very Letterman, but with half the attention span.

We also were pleased because a child sitting across from us on the bus engaged in the most animated Suite Life handshake with his dad right before our eyes! It was brilliant!

 

[VBsHustla]

When we got back to the GF, we played in the lobby for a while and mailed some correspondence.


Once we returned to our room, we still had tons of energy to work off, so Liz and Laura were sent out to the balcony to have a dance party to that outrageously loud Electrical Water Pageant. We had an excellent view and simply loved the tunes!

Then, we did a little exercising on our GF bench. We highly recommend this! We then showered and set our television’s sleep timer, since Liz and Laura are too frightened without it. However, we had quite the odd night’s sleep, because our television never turned off! Laura awoke multiple times throughout the night to a series entitled Jetix or something of the nature, and both Liz and Jen awoke at various times to the Little Mermaid cartoon. All of us were just confused in our sleepy states and couldn’t make the decision to turn it off until Laura finally realized at like 5 a.m. what was going on and turned that nuisance off!

 

[VBsHustla]

Happy Christmas, everyone!


Wishing you a magical day! ​

 

[VBsHustla]

August 29, 2008:

After dreaming all night of getting to enjoy Where Are Ya, Son? The Musical, aka Finding Nemo , Jen grudgingly awoke to her alarm at 6:45 am, plugged in her Chi and began readying for the day. Laura and Liz woke up at 7 am and we all crowded around the vanity, enjoying the sounds of Matt Lauer. Astonishingly, Jen was actually ahead of schedule this morning (having only woken up 15 minutes earlier than Laura and Liz, this was quite the surprise!), so she headed down to Saspy’s (Gasparilla Grill, which our dad always forgot the name of and called Sasparilla’s throughout our last trip).

She picked up a fruit cup for herself and a bagel each for Laura and Liz. We all met up and headed to the bus stop via the service passageway between Saspy’s and Sago Cay. The area was very crowded, but luckily as soon as we finished Coppertoning ourselves, an AK bus pulled up. A very crowded AK bus . Jen found one seat and sat on down so she could enjoy her delicious fruit cup. Laura and Liz could not find open seats, so they were forced to stand. Sitting across from Jen was a boy who looked to be about 13 who whispered to his dad that the people in the back of the bus were jerks for having backpacks on two seats when two girls were standing. The boy’s dad agreed, and silently so did Jen. Regardless, Liz and Laura had a great time standing, swaying about as the bus skittered along. When the bus totally paused at one point, Liz almost flew out the door . She loved it. Thank goodness those backpacks needed their own seats .

We arrived at the AK at about 10 minutes to 9, so we zoomed through the entrance and through the Oasis to the center of the park near the Tree of Life.

Except we were actually rather far away from the Tree of Life. We hated it. People were literally shoulder to shoulder, and there was no way to maneuver any closer.


Our plan was to get to the safari, since we are perfectly happy riding Everest on the single rider line, and can do that at any time of the day. We vaguely understood that the opening ceremony was going on as we bemoaned our situation, but of course could not actually see or hear it . When the crowds finally began moving, we inched along behind the hoards of strollers and general slow pokes. Relief came as the entrance to Kilamanjaro Safari finally came in to view! However, we saw that there was already a 60 minute wait posted as the standby time for the safari! Although it felt like it took 120 minutes for us to arrive at our destination, it really was about 9:05 when we arrived. Absurd! So we bopped over to the fast pass machines, which we had been planning to do before riding standby anyway. Laura asked a CM if the posted standby time could possibly be right, and he assured us that it was, and strongly suggested we get FPs and just come back later.

We think there must have been tour groups that got on the safari early that morning, or perhaps the Tusker House early breakfasters getting into the standby line before the general crowd creates a huge backup these days. We’d certainly never experienced a crowd like this at the safari on any of our previous AK mornings.

Anyway, we decided to get on with our day and made our way from Harambe over to Anandapur. Along the way we stopped and grabbed our first cups of free water (sans straws). We were actually looking forward to trying the paper straws that we’ve heard are so disgusting because we’ve never gotten them at the AK, but the drinks didn’t come with any and we didn’t see any out. Plus we were on a mission. We really needed the water though, even so early, because it was unbelievably hot already! The AK is always just SO hot! With our refreshing waters in hand, we walked along the path and saw lots of dads running from Asia to Africa, presumably with the family’s fast passes for Everest in their pockets. We loved it. We felt sorry for the dads at first for having to run all over the place, but then decided that they probably get the better end of the bargain, as they were not the ones navigating the strollers and the hot, angry children through the insane crowd going to Africa that we had been in earlier. Yes, we decided, we’d prefer to run the extra mile to and from Everest and then meet mom and the kids at the safari. Anyway, while discussing this, we took a few photos, and eventually wound up at Everest, which we all enjoy.

 

[VBsHustla]

We found that the single rider line was not yet open, but happily the standby line was very short, so we went through that! We had actually never been through the standby line (only FP and single rider), and we really loved the theming!


Even though we were moving at a brisk pace, we of course found the time to take photos!


Jen even took photos of the train before we boarded. This greatly amused a CM, who decided to jump into one of Jen’s photos, which greatly amused Jen, so she is posting it here.

We had a lovely ride, and then Laura and Liz had some fun in the gift shop with their Elizabeth Swan crowns.

Because we had zoomed through Everest, we had time to get in a second ride before we needed to head over to Finding Nemo. It was late enough at this point that we were able to get more FPs, so we got some Everest FPs to use for later, then headed back into the standby line. The line was a bit longer this time, but we still made it on the ride quite quickly. It was another great ride!

 

[VBsHustla]

After this go round on Everest, we walked over to the Where Are Ya, Son? theater . Liz and Laura had to remove their Elizabeth Swan crowns as we were no longer in Asia, so they would just look silly.


Back with their Cinderella and Belle tiaras securely on their heads , they were back to normal and ready for entrance into non-Asian territories.

We had decided we wanted to catch the first Nemo show of the day, since it was our most important attraction at the AK, and we didn’t want to risk missing it. We also wanted to get over there early, since we have heard it gets very crowded, and when we saw the show last year we sat in the absolute last row, because we strolled in about two minutes before the show started, and were actually pleased with our seats initially because we thought we would want to duck out after a few minutes. Needless to say, last year we absolutely loved the show and stayed until the end!

Well, this year we waltzed into the theater, after being curtseyed to by the CMs outside, and it was almost completely empty! We had our pick of seats, and considered sitting in the middle of the theater to get a comprehensive view of the production, but used our better judgment and marched straight down to the front just because we could! We sat in the second row because the first row was a short bench meant to accommodate one or two people and a few wheelchairs. There was no one around us for a while, but finally a few families came down just before the show began, so we didn’t feel so awkward.


The show was fantastic! We really love everything about this show – superb tunes, great actors, gorgeous puppets and sets, and an adorable story! Definitely one of our fav DW shows!

After leaving the big blue world, we swam together over to Dinoland, USA. Jen bought and read the Imagineering Guide to the AK (and the guides for the MK and Epcot) before our trip, and learned that Dinoland, USA is supposed to be a town where fossils had been found and then the intellectual Dino Institute was founded, and locals also created the carnival and kitschy places like the gift shop and Restrauntosaurus. We had never realized the story behind this land, and always just thought it was a rather weird mish-mash of Dinosaur the ride and a bizarre carnival and 1950s-style Americana. The story behind Dinoland, USA really made us appreciate it more! Despite appreciating the backstory, Liz was still terrified as we waltzed through the land. She has an inexplicable, yet very real fear of dinos.

Regardless, Jen and Laura forced Liz to ride Dinosaur.

A fun time was had by all (but one)! But we told Liz she had loved it and moved on, skittering back to Everest. Our parents had arrived in the AK while we were in Nemo, and now they wanted to ride Everest. Mom, dad, Laura, and Liz rode Everest while Jen waltzed over to the Royal Anandapur Tea Company for a frozen chai tea. She had read raves on the DIS about them, so wanted to try one out. And while Jen loves roller coasters and most all rides, she sometimes gets sick of riding them multiple times in a row, and enjoys taking the time to explore other areas. She took some pics on her path from Everest to the tea stand, which was now millions of times more crowded than it had been earlier this morning. She was disappointed to learn that the Royal Anandapur Tea Company does not accept snack credits for any of their frozen drinks; she’d been planning to get frozen teas for mom and dad, but now decided against it. She still got her own frozen chai tea, which was great!


She thought the frozen chai tea was especially great in the heat of the Animal Kingdom! However, not having a straw really diminished her enjoyment of this frozen treat! As it was a very hot day, the frozen chai melted quickly, leaving ice at the bottom of the cup, and a puddle of chai at the top.

Jen meandered back over to the Everest area with her tea, taking a few photos.

Jen then met up with Laura and Liz after they had ridden Everest. Reunited, we headed over to the safari to grab some fast passes for our parents. They went to see Finding Nemo while we did this. Their FP return time was not for very far from the time that we picked up the FPs, so we decided to kill some time and ride with them later. We had wanted to do one of the jungle trails, and we’d never been on the Maharaja Jungle trek, so we bopped back over to Asia to check it out. We first grabbed some water cups so we wouldn’t melt away in the heat, and took some pics along the way back.

 

[VBsHustla]

When we arrived at the Maharaja Trek, we were completely enchanted! We felt that we had stepped into one of our fav new films, Cheetah Girls: One World. The whole trek was so very cheetahlicious and we loved it! We found it much more fun than the Pangani trail – better theming, and, oh yeah, the tigers were excellent too!


We had been wanting to get pics with the animals carved into the tree, but we hate the Bug’s Life film, so we don’t like to go up there. We asked the photopass photographer if there was a way to get up close to the tree without going to the film, and she suggested we check if a path to the left of the tree, on the way to Africa, might be open. She said it was near the tattoo stand, and sometimes blocked off, but that we should give it a try. We walked around and saw an opening in the jungle near the tattoo stand, nothing we would ever have suspected was a path on our own, but we walked in and it turned out to be the right path, which was open! We kept walking in and were pleased to get to see the beautiful (albeit somewhat creepy, what with the abundance of rodents and other critters on the actual tree above us) animal carvings up close!

 

[VBsHustla]

-

 

[DonnaMartinGraduates]

Update soon.
You know I love it.
I'm hoping for a Kelly (either Clarkson or Taylor) reference in your next update, though.

 

[Theodore]

Well ladies! I thoroughly enjoy the update! It's been ages since I last stumbled upon this exquisite thread! Those wooden animal carvings are so lifelike! My pal Bluebell and I simply adore them. However, we feel like the turtle has some sort of goiter growing out of its neck. Perhaps the craftsmen who constructed that wonderful piece should perform some emergency wood/veterinary surgery!

That colourful bicycle cart reminds me of my old days in Moracco...oh the days! It's so pleasent to see you enjoying such an olden piece of tranportation. Before I conclude this post, I must say, you all look to extravagant in your tiara's. What beautiful princesses! Lisa Turtle would approve of such fine pieces of royalty!

 

[Theodore]

Update soon.
You know I love it.
I'm hoping for a Kelly (either Clarkson or Taylor) reference in your next update, though.

Better make it a Kelly Taylor reference! Jackie Taylor would love it.

 

[VBsHustla]

Update soon.
You know I love it.
I'm hoping for a Kelly (either Clarkson or Taylor) reference in your next update, though.

I'm sure something throughout our day was reminiscent of one of the delightful situations Kelly Taylor found herself in! In the meantime, I will provide you with the emoticon evolution of Kelly Taylor:

1) high school: + +
2) OH NO! A love triangle with Dylan McKay and Brenda Walsh
3) OH NO! A love triangle with Dylan McKay and Brandon Walsh
4) Whomever shall I choose?!
5) a brief interlude from this stressful situation after being tricked into joining a cult
6) I choose me!
...Unfortunately the timeline must end here, as Kelly Taylor's subsequent actions are not Dis appropriate.

As for Kelly C, I will have to consult my notes from that day to determine whether or not we took a risk, took a chance, made a change, or broke away. We will try to update soon, but if not, at least the summer love will keep us warm long after our autumn goodbye, autumn goodbye, autumn goodbye!

Well ladies! I thoroughly enjoy the update! It's been ages since I last stumbled upon this exquisite thread! Those wooden animal carvings are so lifelike! My pal Bluebell and I simply adore them. However, we feel like the turtle has some sort of goiter growing out of its neck. Perhaps the craftsmen who constructed that wonderful piece should perform some emergency wood/veterinary surgery!

That colourful bicycle cart reminds me of my old days in Moracco...oh the days! It's so pleasent to see you enjoying such an olden piece of tranportation. Before I conclude this post, I must say, you all look to extravagant in your tiara's. What beautiful princesses! Lisa Turtle would approve of such fine pieces of royalty!

Thank you Teddy! Glad you are loving the TR! Worry not, now that we know there is such a demand for Kelly Taylor references in DW trip reports, we will be sure to work one or two in from now on! Hope you are recovering nicely from the recent Melanie C birthday bash I'm sure you threw!

 

[Neve]

I must say, I just happened upon this TR after a jaunt through my fav the Budget board and I love it! What a great distraction from the bitter winter chill!

You have the most refreshing view of the world! If I had one wish, I'd love to explore the magic or Norway or a safari with you!

On many a trip, I myself have squished into a two person seat with two other companions--I adore a good squished ride!

I particularly enjoy your lovely photos! It must be a delight to stop for a photo every few feet in the blazing heat! But, I am sure you are glad you did it!

I also found the Kelly Taylor timeline quite helpful- soapnet has been causing chaos on my memory. That gal has too many situations to keep track of when they play them all out of order.

Keep up the great TR! Cannot wait to read more!

 

[DonnaMartinGraduates]

That Kelly Taylor timeline is brilliant. What a whirlwind! I feel like you captured the essence of her character perfectly. I absolutely loved it. Thank you! I especially loved that you included her brief stint in the cult run by her fave psychology professor. If only there was a smiley to illustrate her hatred towards Valerie Malone. But then you would need to include that whole Tara nonsense (whic I loved - I'm not going to lie) , so it's good you ended when you did!

And the pic taken of y'all posing with your arms spread out certainly works for a Kelly C reference. You're spreading your wings and learning to fly.

 

[VBsHustla]

That Kelly Taylor timeline is brilliant. What a whirlwind! I feel like you captured the essence of her character perfectly. I absolutely loved it. Thank you! I especially loved that you included her brief stint in the cult run by her fave psychology professor. If only there was a smiley to illustrate her hatred towards Valerie Malone. But then you would need to include that whole Tara nonsense (whic I loved - I'm not going to lie) , so it's good you ended when you did!

And the pic taken of y'all posing with your arms spread out certainly works for a Kelly C reference. You're spreading your wings and learning to fly.

Oh yes, good point about the Kelly C spreading our golden wings photo! Excellent. The horrifying Tara situation and Valerie Malone enmity, amongst many other absurd Kelly Taylor situations (the fire, her case of amnesia, her brief diet pill addiction, and not to mention getting shot by a gangster) were all considered, but didn't have any appropriate corresponding emoticons. Unbelievable!

 

[VBsHustla]

I must say, I just happened upon this TR after a jaunt through my fav the Budget board and I love it! What a great distraction from the bitter winter chill!

You have the most refreshing view of the world! If I had one wish, I'd love to explore the magic or Norway or a safari with you!

On many a trip, I myself have squished into a two person seat with two other companions--I adore a good squished ride!

I particularly enjoy your lovely photos! It must be a delight to stop for a photo every few feet in the blazing heat! But, I am sure you are glad you did it!

I also found the Kelly Taylor timeline quite helpful- soapnet has been causing chaos on my memory. That gal has too many situations to keep track of when they play them all out of order.

Keep up the great TR! Cannot wait to read more!

Neve! So glad to have you onboard! I came across your response while enjoying a little "Rhythm Divine" by Enrique, and I was so delighted that I launched straight into a dance party! Hope things in bananaworld are going well!

 

[VBsHustla]

We wandered near the animal carvings for quite a while, but when mom and dad called to say that they were at the safari waiting for us, we wrapped up our photoshoot and started for the safari. We made it pretty quickly through the FP line and were soon traveling through the Kilamanjaro Safari, with a really excellent guide named Amber. We’ve never really thought much of our safari guides – they’ve always seemed knowledgeable enough – but Amber really told us a lot of information and was hilarious! In addition to our great guide, we also loved that we saw hundreds of animals! We’ve definitely never seen that many animals on the safari, even though we usually hit it up first thing in the morning when there are supposed to be an abundance of animals, and usually in the afternoon as well. It was about 12:30 when we went on this great safari. Even though everyone knows what the animals look like, here are some of our fav safari pics from our fav safari trip :


Some of the best things about the safari are the baobab trees. We’re huge fans of the Little Prince, and the safari is the only place we’ve seen those rude baobabs in real life. Although we understand how harmful they could be for the Little Prince, they are very lovely to look at!

After our perfect safari, we were all hot and hungry, so we headed to the exit (while mom and dad headed to ride Dinosaur). We made our way out of the AK and over to the bus stop – the GF bus stop was the first one, so we were very pleased! We were not pleased, however, by the absolutely horrendous wait we had to endure! After waiting for what felt like an eternity, mom and dad moseyed out of the park and got in line with us. We watched multiple buses come for all of the other resorts. Our line grew very long. A second bus for the Poly pulled up right next to us, and with no GF bus in sight, we (and several others who had been waiting in the GF line) boarded the Poly bus. From this point, we had a fairly uneventful ride over to the Poly. On our bus were cute identical twin girls who were about 10, and one wore clothes that were all shades of blue, while the other wore all shares of pink. Obviously this seems like a weird comment, but the twin sighting will come into play later. Let’s call this our unsubtle brand of foreshadowing.

 

[VBsHustla]

When we got to the Poly, we were starving, and although we had planned to grab lunch at the GF, we took the opportunity to check out Captain Cook’s before journeying to the GF.


Jen had the Multigrain Turkey Club, which she really enjoyed. All of the ingredients were fresh, and the sandwich was filling without making Jen feel stuffed.

Laura had the kids’ grilled cheese, after quite the ordering ordeal. Even though she really liked this meal, Captain Cook’s was not exactly the best at dealing with food allergies. Laura got the children’s grilled cheese with fries, apple sauce, and a Mickey ice cream bar. This was a very confusing transaction apparently! She couldn’t have the adult grilled cheese, according to someone behind the counter preparing the food. He said Laura could have the kids’ version, because that bread didn’t have nuts. This was perfect, because she just wanted a regular, plain grilled cheese. However, the CMs at the cash register insisted that she had to get a children’s sized beverage (a teeny water bottle) and a pudding cup rather than a beloved Mickey ice cream bar. Liz and Laura tried to explain that she had paid for the adult dining plan and due to food allergies, had to have the children’s bread, but that the rest of the meal should be the same as an adult meal. They agreed, luckily, because Laura was ravenously hungry after waiting an hour at the AK for a bus to the GF. Laura ended up loving her kids’ grilled cheese, so all was well! Liz had the adults’ grilled cheese, which she also enjoyed.

By the time we ate our dessert, Mickey Premiums all around , they were certainly well on their way to melting. Eating it was still a glorious experience, even if we did have to do it with a fork!


After lunch we hopped on the monorail and had an uneventful one-stop trip to the GF. We returned to our room, and Jen and Liz threw on their bathing suits and an extra layer of Coppertone and headed down to the beach pool , while Laura went back to the GF lobby to enjoy the atmosphere and keep up with her correspondence .


Jen and Liz enjoyed the pool, which was fairly crowded, but we had no problems finding seats to throw our towels on and our Crocs beneath. After a refreshing swim, we returned to our room where we met up with Laura (but not before taking a pic of Laura outside of our room, and her taking a pic of Jen on the balcony).

We all proceeded to get ready for the rest of our day – showering, spraying our heads down with Fructis, spraying our bodies down with Coppertone – and we danced till the dance floor fell apart, then danced to some “Burnin Up.”

Up next, a nautical, international evening!

 

[Neve]

Thank you for the kind welcome!!! This TR is so entertaining!

Great Update!!

I am such a fan of elephants and am glad to see you got such great shots!!

And I am so pleased to hear someone else dances til the dance floor falls apart! Uh oh! All over again!

Cannot wait to hear more about this trip and a how you liked Toy Story Mania! I am personally such a Toy Story Mania Maniac!

 

[VBsHustla]

Thanks for reading, Neve! We're glad you're enjoying it! And, just hold on for a bit longer to find out how some of us felt about our first experience as Toy Story maniacs!