We Stuffed our Faces and Searched for the Tronorail, It's Trip Report Time! *11/3

[Bridora]

I didn't do anything to the car........it was just tired of being out in the heat I guess, not my fault, really. (I would give you a smiley thing here but i don't know how)

Oh, I was sure you had majicked it somehow...

You are so cute, if you click on 'post reply' there should be a whole box full of smilies just smiling and dancing at you...all you have to do is click the one you want! I'll have to show you sometime...

Love your TR! I closed my eyes too on RnR my one and only time - it was too scary for me Plus it gave me a headache but maybe I'll try it with my sons on our upcoming trip.

That is too weird about the Prius - cars sometimes have minds of their own.

Thank you!

I think you should give it another try...and try to keep your eyes open! Maybe the headache came from having your eyes closed. It's really neat inside, there are plenty of things to look at!

Yes, thankfully it has not done that again!

Wow, you are a strong woman!! I never would've been able to leave DHS and go back to AK!! But it does sound nice been able to park hop and all that. Man, I need an AP!!!

Do you guys use anything like touring plans or tour guide mike or do you just go with wherever? I've never seen AK crowded at all!! Crazy. I wonder why people are always there when you are!! Must be the cool thing to do!!

But there were so many things we wanted to do at AK, PLUS we had our ADR to make...

Nope, no touring plans. That's exactly what it is! People find out where we're going and just flock to the place. Seriously, I don't know what it is. Maybe next time we'll go by a touring plan for our AK day.

 

[Queenofallthings]

That street performer is one of our favorites, we caught him in January when we were there and we laughed so hard we cried! He was so funny!

 

[mermaid764]

Joining in!

I just found your TR this afternoon and am loving ever minute of it

can't wait for more

 

[Brave teacher]

Just checking in! I have things settled down here, so I am back to read on all my subbed threads. I have lots to do this weekend. I'm looking forward to it though.

 

[Bridora]

That street performer is one of our favorites, we caught him in January when we were there and we laughed so hard we cried! He was so funny!

He was funny! We've really only seen the ones who drive around in their car, making the next big movie...and have never really stopped to watch, but seeing this guy just out on the street was a neat experience!

Joining in!

I just found your TR this afternoon and am loving ever minute of it

can't wait for more

Sorry to make you wait for so long for more!

Just checking in! I have things settled down here, so I am back to read on all my subbed threads. I have lots to do this weekend. I'm looking forward to it though.

I'm glad you're still here! I know what you mean about getting things settled down... When school started back, my extra time poofed itself away.

 

[creativeamanda]

I'm so far behind and such a bad DIS friend. But I love your updates--especially the picture looking over the monorail towards the Grand Floridian.

 

[RachelNinja]

Haha, I don't know if I would take the quest to find the "legendary Rainforest Cafe turnstile." I vaguely remember someone pointing it out in a diagram; I'd have to show the pic to Weird so that he could direct the way!

Your kids are braver than I am! I don't think I'll ever get on RnR. I'd be too afraid of getting dizzy and feeling sick for the rest of the day.

Hilarious! Loved the pics of the undercover guy!

 

[wdwgirl03]

That is strange AK was so crowded. Usually when we go we've found what the CM told you to be pretty true. Generally it's not too crowded at all.

Your kids are braver than I am! I don't think I'll ever get on RnR. I'd be too afraid of getting dizzy and feeling sick for the rest of the day.

Oh come on Rachel, if I can do it you can do it! LOL. Honestly I think the fact that it is in the dark may help the dizziness factor. You should try it.

 

[Bridora]

We had just returned from a quick trip to Hollywood Studios. We cleaned up and at 5:30 we left Bay Lake Tower for Animal Kingdom. Yak & Yeti was awaiting our arrival. I’m pretty sure we drove our car that night. Upon arrival, we headed straight for Yak & Yeti.

We were seated in the front room, near the far wall. It wasn’t a bad table, but I felt like if we’d sat farther inside the restaurant we’d have felt more of the atmosphere. As it was, we enjoyed our surroundings:

We were hoping to be finished with our meal in time to run over & catch one of the last Safaris of the day. Remember, earlier that we’d gotten Fast Passes for it? We had not used them yet. Our waitress, however, was extremely slow. I mean slow. I mean super slow. That’s when we started wondering if they were slow on purpose, because we were on the Dining Plan. Here’s what our food looked like:

Luke’s Chicken Bites with sides of choice, fried rice & applesauce.

This blurry shot is of Allison’s Sweet & Sour Chicken.

Max had the Maple Tamarind Chicken. From allearsnet.com: Seared chicken breast, Indonesian tamarind glaze, coconut ginger rice, baby bok choy, shiitake mushroom stir fry. Sorry for the blurriness!

That was mine, and it was good! From allearsnet.com: Crispy Mahi Mahi - filet of mahi mahi, Japanese bread crumbs, Cantonese sweet and sour sauce, jasmine rice, stir-fried vegetables.

We had to wait so long for our sweet waitress to do each & every task. Drink orders, food orders, refills, desserts, bring the check, taking our payment, bringing back our receipts, each one took about 10 minutes to do. It was decision time. The Safari is one of our must dos every trip. Isn’t it one of everybody’s? We were running out of time. The last Safari that night was at 7:30. I don’t remember if we knew then what time the last safari was or if we were just estimating what time it would be. Either way, we were trying to decide whether we should just give up dessert and hope we made it in time or if we should just give up on the safari and enjoy our dessert. When we mentioned this to our waitress she offered to box up our dessert choices for us so that we could take them with us to enjoy when we had time. Great idea! (Even though it took a long time!) Here are our desserts, ready to go:

Luke chose the Chocolate Chip Cookie:

He didn’t want to wait to eat his:

We left Yak & Yeti as soon as we could and booked it over to Africa.


It was too late.


The last safari for the day had already left.


Boo.


We tried to make the best of it. Max went to that bar for a Tusker Ale. He can only get them while we’re in Animal Kingdom. No one around here carries them. Africa is my all-time favorite place in terms of atmosphere at Animal Kingdom. It so beautiful! I love it there, especially as the sun begins to set. I took some pictures while waiting for Max.

The kids were passing the time by jumping from this little wall.

Africa-ed out now? Me neither, but we moved on then to find a place to enjoy our desserts, before they got too warm. We left Africa by going not over the bridge, but to the left of it, past the drums. Know where I mean? Just down the path a little ways there is a hidden little path on the left. We discovered it a few years ago, but hadn’t been on it lately. We decided to walk down that way to see if there was somewhere back in there we could sit and have dessert. No such luck there, but we did get some pretty pictures:

……continued in next post……

 

[Bridora]

We did find a great place to eat our dessert, though. This was on our right hand side somewhere before Asia, I think:

It was a neat little dock place with tables and fans.

Max left to get the rest of us drinks while the kids ran around like wild hooligans. We were the only ones down there! He came back with hot tea for me and frozen lemonade for the kids:

And then we got to open up our dessert bag! They weren't even destroyed from riding around in that bag...

Max’s Mango Pie - shortbread cookie crust, fresh whipped cream, raspberry sauce. (description from allearsnet.com) He liked it.

My Chocolate Cake - Chocolate pudding cake, raspberry sauce. I don’t usually get chocolate cake for dessert when we go out, but I didn’t want to order the same dessert as anyone else, so that was what I chose. I also don’t normally like raspberry things, but Wow! That was good cake. I wish I had some right now…

Allison had the New York Cheesecake - New York cheesecake, mango and strawberry coulis, and fresh whipped cream. It was very good, too!


And we all know Luke’s cookie was long gone by that time. He had some bites of my cake, though, so don’t feel bad for him!

Asia is also really beautiful at night. Actually, all of Animal Kingdom is. That sounds an awful lot like what I said about Magic Kingdom, too. I tried to capture the beauty in pictures:

That’s where Max got our drinks!

We did have direction in our wanderings. Have you guessed yet where we were going?

At least we have accomplished a ride on Expedition Everest! This was the first time for the kids to ride, and only the second for Max & me. We had fun! I bravely strapped the video camera tightly to my hand and took video the whole way. We haven’t watched it yet, but I told Max he’d be able to hear some real screams from me on the video! We always laugh at my super Southern accent on our home movies. It’s bad, y’all! I only hope I don’t sound that way to other people in real life. Surely the camera exaggerates accents like it adds pounds, right? So this year I was determined not to talk while taking video. But I did scream.

After EE we continued on toward Dinoland USA.

The kids love to play in the Boneyard and since we didn’t have to chance to go in there last year, we took them over there to let them play.

I made some notes in my little Trip Report notebook. Did I mention I chose the lime green one?

I don’t know how long we’d been in there when it began to lightning and sprinkle a bit. We decided to make our way over to Dinosaur before the downpour. The wait time was posted as 40 minutes, but we got in line anyway. What else were we going to do? After our Dinosaur ride it was really raining out there:

We hung out in the gift shop for as long as we could stand it before we ventured out into the night. We stopped at that other gift shop, too on our way. The one close to Primeval Whirl and the restrooms….The kids wanted to go on Primeval Whirl when we came out. Max was a bit miserable because we doesn’t like to walk around wet and he was a little wet, but mostly he was afraid it would start raining again and he’d get even more wet. And, no, we hadn’t brought the new ponchos we purchased with us. But Max was nice enough to wait on us while we rode. The seats were only a little wet, it was fun!

After that we left the park. We had another day of Disney World ahead of us and Max & I were not entirely sure what we would do with it. Epcot would have Evening Extra Magic Hours that night and we had a lunch reservation at Kona Café. The question was: what to do with our time before lunch?

 

[creativeamanda]

I love being in Animal Kingdom late--it seems to really come alive! Those are some great photos!

 

[Bridora]

I'm so far behind and such a bad DIS friend. But I love your updates--especially the picture looking over the monorail towards the Grand Floridian.

Don't worry about it, girl! I have been behind lately, too...I was just telling Max that the other day. Since school started it's hard to find time to sit down and really catch up on everybody plus write a TR!

Thanks! That was such a wonderful sight to see...

Haha, I don't know if I would take the quest to find the "legendary Rainforest Cafe turnstile." I vaguely remember someone pointing it out in a diagram; I'd have to show the pic to Weird so that he could direct the way!

Your kids are braver than I am! I don't think I'll ever get on RnR. I'd be too afraid of getting dizzy and feeling sick for the rest of the day.

Hilarious! Loved the pics of the undercover guy!

Ok. It was a quest, but not a difficult one. It was nothing like getting to Mount Doom or anything.

RnR is so much fun, but I don't think I'd do it twice in a row! It can make me feel a little weird sometimes. But usually a Coke will fix that...

Thanks! He was funny & Luke had a good time talking with him.

That is strange AK was so crowded. Usually when we go we've found what the CM told you to be pretty true. Generally it's not too crowded at all.



Oh come on Rachel, if I can do it you can do it! LOL. Honestly I think the fact that it is in the dark may help the dizziness factor. You should try it.

Yeah, we must have done something to upset the AK balance. It's just been these last two years that we've run into crowded crowds at AK. I really don't know!?

It probably does help being in the dark, because it's even that much harder to tell if you are upside down or not.

I love being in Animal Kingdom late--it seems to really come alive! Those are some great photos!

Yes, it does...it even has a different feel to it at night.

Thanks!

 

[racefanof88]

We have only been in AK one time late in the evening, and that was this May after our GG dinner. We usually do AK in a half a day so we just aren't there late.

I love your update. Tyler and I ate at Yak and Yeti last year and we really liked it.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I hated to read that you missed the last safari of the day. Darn that slow waitress!

I know exactly what trail you were talking about. Too bad that you weren't able to eat your desserts there. At least you were able to find the other place though and the kids were able to run off some excess energy.

 

[Leleluvsdis]

Love your pictures from AK... it is our favorite park also... i think he really has a hidden beauty!! If you take time to look at all the little detail they have, you can really appreciate it. Sorry about the safari, I do hope you got to ride it sometime during your trip!!

 

[MaryAz]

Great update!! We Yak and Yeti!!! great AK pics. Like Dana I was at AK in the dark this past May. I like twilight better. Dark was kinda

 

[princess_momma]

I love your nighttime AK pics!! I have never been there late but now I really want to check it out one day!!

Oh and we went to Royal Anapador Tea too! (How the heck do you spell it?! I have no idea!) It was soooooooooooooo good! One of my favorite beverages all trip!! MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!

AND...I took a video on EE too!! We're so cool!! I put mine on FB if you want a sneak peek! Of course, now I'm DYING to hear your Southern accent. You're such a tease!

Can't wait to hear more!

 

[Bridora]

We have only been in AK one time late in the evening, and that was this May after our GG dinner. We usually do AK in a half a day so we just aren't there late.

I love your update. Tyler and I ate at Yak and Yeti last year and we really liked it.

I guess we are just night owls! The problem is, though, I want to go to rope drops and Evening Extra Magic Hours! We liked it there, too...it was just harder to enjoy when we were worried about making the Safari...

I hated to read that you missed the last safari of the day. Darn that slow waitress!

I know exactly what trail you were talking about. Too bad that you weren't able to eat your desserts there. At least you were able to find the other place though and the kids were able to run off some excess energy.

I know it! We were pretty upset...just another attraction to add to our list of "didn't get to dos" BUT, I'm glad we went ahead and ordered dessert to go...it would have been really bad to miss the safari and dessert!

I'm glad you were able to understand where I was talking about on that trail...it's fun to be off the beaten path!

Love your pictures from AK... it is our favorite park also... i think he really has a hidden beauty!! If you take time to look at all the little detail they have, you can really appreciate it. Sorry about the safari, I do hope you got to ride it sometime during your trip!!

Thanks! I love how there is so much detail everywhere...even more than I can notice! It's fun to slow down and really look around...there is so much to see! We were bummed about missing the safari for sure...

Great update!! We Yak and Yeti!!! great AK pics. Like Dana I was at AK in the dark this past May. I like twilight better. Dark was kinda

Thanks! I can see where you think dark is ! It definitely could be...all those animals and dinosaurs...and if you've read the Kingdom Keepers series...

I love your nighttime AK pics!! I have never been there late but now I really want to check it out one day!!

Oh and we went to Royal Anapador Tea too! (How the heck do you spell it?! I have no idea!) It was soooooooooooooo good! One of my favorite beverages all trip!! MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!

AND...I took a video on EE too!! We're so cool!! I put mine on FB if you want a sneak peek! Of course, now I'm DYING to hear your Southern accent. You're such a tease!

Can't wait to hear more!

Thanks! You really should be there late...it's another one of those places that gets Magical at night...not like there aren't many places like that around Disney, but...

I watched your video on Facebook! It was so cute! You & Steph could be the new Stacey! I tell you what, if I can manage to load that video on Photobucket I will post it here for you... But it's bad, I'm telling you, bad!

 

[Bridora]

No, I never got tired of waking to that sight out my front window and off my balcony.

This day was going to be a weird one.

Not weird in that something bad happened necessarily, but weird in that we deviated from our normal Disney routines yet again.

It was Tuesday, June 1 and we had originally had a 12:35pm ADR at Kona Café. We were still itching to go to Typhoon Lagoon. Plus, we had purchased the Water Parks & More Option instead of just one day water park tickets. Sometime in there we decided that it would be better to have our Kona Café ADR for dinner instead of lunch. That would give us more time at Typhoon Lagoon and time to do a few other things we wanted to do around the resort. We rescheduled our Kona ADR for 6pm, and planned to spend the rest of the evening in Epcot, because it had Evening Extra Magic Hours. We were beginning to grow tired of planning our days around our ADRs. I know that that’s just what you do when you’re on the dining plan, but we were not used to doing that every single day. Usually we’ll have 2-3 table service meals a trip. The rest of the time we just eat when we’re hungry, where we are. It’s not all bad, though--we were the ones who decided to do water parks and the dining plan this time all on our own. Maybe that was too many new things for one trip!

We were up, out, and at Typhoon Lagoon within 30 minutes of its opening, I’m pretty sure! We had no problems renting a locker this time, and chose not to rent any towels.

Once our stuff was put away, we were ready to hit the slides! Our first slide was Crush ‘n Gusher. We quickly found out there were 3 different slides, so we kept going back until we had done them all! It worked out because we all got to go with each other at different points: Max & Luke, Allison & I, then Max & Allison, Luke & I, and finally Max & I, Allison & Luke! There were PhotoPass Photographers waiting in the pool at the end of the slides & they took pictures and gave us new cards every time. I still have to put our PhotoPass pictures on Photobucket. The cards were really handy, though because they were smaller (about the size of, say, a Kroger keychain card) and had a rubber band attached so that you can wear them around your wrist. Needless to say, I didn’t take my own camera, so no water park pictures this time.

Next, we tried out the Storm Slides. Crush ’n Gusher used tubes, but the Storm Slides didn’t. There were 3 slides there, too, but you waited in the same line until you got to the top, so it was easy for us to wait together, then choose different slides, and meet back up at the bottom. Once again, we kept going back up until we’d done them all!

After that we tried the Shark Reef, but backed out before we actually went in. Max was a bit worried about Luke and I was getting a bit freaked out myself. I think Max was disappointed about not getting to go, but he didn’t throw a fit!

Then, we did it.


Somehow we got in line for Humunga Kowabunga.


Well, somehow I got in line for Humunga Kowabunga. The rest of them had been living for this moment, I think. I remember saying to Max that I was just going without even thinking about what I was doing. I thought that if I just kept walking I wouldn’t know any different until I was at the bottom of the slide. And I was right! It was so much fun, and I’m so glad I went! I think there were 3 tunnels to this slide, so one of us had to go at a different time than the rest, but I don’t remember who that was, Max, maybe? Anyway, we all loved it! Allison said she screamed all the way down. I tried to scream, but I was going too fast. I think I kept my eyes shut, too. Poor little Luke SAT UP the entire time! I don’t know….he said he was going too fast and that he didn’t have time to lie down!?!?! And Max is a pro, so, you know: all in a day’s work.

We did another raft slide that I’d wanted to do, but the consensus was that it was boring. I can’t remember which one it was; maybe Keelhaul Falls. The website says it’s the mildest of the 3 Falls raft slides.

Luke really wanted to get in the lazy river, Castaway Creek, so we did that for a bit. We were beginning to get hungry, but had to stop by the wave pool first. We decided to just leave Typhoon Lagoon then and eat in the Contemporary’s food court again.

After a quick shower we were back at the touch screen ordering station, ordering up some yummy food!

That’s my turkey sandwich with the best, yummiest, house chips ever!

. . .and there goes a monorail!


After lunch, we walked outside to explore around the Contemporary’s grounds a bit.


We were also on a mission.


I don’t know how many of you have ever driven up to the Contemporary, or straight to the Magic Kingdom, and I didn’t take a picture of what I’m about to attempt to describe, but just before you drive past the Contemporary the road slopes downward a bit and there is an underpass. The underpass is kind of like a tunnel when you’re in it because it’s enclosed on the sides, unlike an interstate underpass. Two to three times when we’ve gone under that we saw strange things. The first time we could have sworn we saw a boat going across the ‘bridge’ above us. The next time, it was definitely a boat! We could not figure this out. Max said it must be some sort of water bridge, a water overpass. It really blew my mind that they had that type of thing. And we were on a mission to find it!

We found it! We just kept walking until we met the water. From up there, you can’t even tell you’re going across a ‘water bridge’! I’m sure this type of thing is not at all a new concept for many of you, and that this type of thing surely has its own proper name, but it’s new to me! And here it is, from up top, complete with jet skis crossing!

Mystery solved, we returned to the main building of the Contemporary. I wanted to show the rest of the family the really cool spot I found for watching monorails that day they were all in the arcade. Remember the day my coffee & I took you on that tour? That one. It’s just a landing/deck area on the end of the side of the Contemporary that faces the Magic Kingdom, one level down from the monorail track. There are speakers out there, though, and some benches, too. Here’s what I took pictures of from there that day:

And then, there was some action!

Don’t know what it was, though.


Then, after that, we took a quickish drive over to Caribbean Beach to look in their gift shop for some Caribbean music on CD. I had been wanting some to play at home while we’re out on the patio. We didn’t find anything, though. We almost, almost played some Fantasia Mini-Golf, but the kids were way too tired for that. I even drove us to the parking lot, but they were showing signs of grumpiness and Allison was almost asleep I think, so we went back to BLT for some naps instead. That was a good call!


By the time 6pm rolled around, we were ready for our Kona Café meal! We took a monorail to the Polynesian and reminisced about out stay there the year before. The once again slow server (of course, not the same one) aside, we had a nice meal. Want to see some pictures?

They brought us this bread….I love places that bring you bread.

Here’s Luke’s meal, with a bit of Luke’s face…he had the Mickey Ravioli

Allison’s Teriyaki-style New York Strip - sirloin strip grilled with pineapple teriyaki glaze served with sticky rice and stir-fried broccolini (allearsnet.com)

Max’s Ginger Crusted Ribeye - with tamarind jus, mashed Yukon Gold potatoes, and stir-fried broccolini (allearsnet.com)

They said both were delicious!

That’s my Coconut Almond Chicken - sauteed chicken breast served with Asian greens tossed with honey-lime dressing, golden pineapple, strawberries, and toasted almonds (allearsnet.com)

This was also wonderful.

But the best thing about the meal was this:

Chocolate fondue! Yummy.


After our meal, we took a monorail to the TTC to await our monorail to Epcot. Our fingers were crossed that it would be the Tronorail breezing in the station to pick us up!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Sounds like you guys had a great time at Typhoon Lagoon. Our favorite part of the park are the water slides too. I, for one, don't blame ya'll for backing out of the shark reef. We did it and Hunter freaked out which kind of freaked me out.

Oooh cool story about the underwater bridge thingie! Great detective work on your part.

Once again, your food pictures are helping me decide where to eat next trip.