Who knew choking each other would earn us fastpasses?

[dismagiclover]

Love all of the pictures of the details. Thanks for looking out for your TR groupies Also had to laugh at the John sleeping pictures

 

[mickeystoontown]

Hey everyone! I'm lagging behind as usual and haven't had a chance to post reponses. We had two major deadlines today and I just got the last one out....thank you Lord! I was able to post a new post on my blog today for any of you who want to check it out.

I uploaded more Disney pictures onto photobucket at lunch and hopefully I can get another updated posted tomorrow.

 

[BPATSMouse]

Hey, Lisa
I really don't want to be a lurker but lately I've barely have time to read your posts. I want to sleep all the time like John I can't figure out how to respond on your blog I guess I need to get one of my daughter's to show me how

 

[mickeystoontown]

Hey, Lisa
I really don't want to be a lurker but lately I've barely have time to read your posts. I want to sleep all the time like John I can't figure out how to respond on your blog I guess I need to get one of my daughter's to show me how

It's so weird that you posted....not weird-weird but weird because I was just thinking about you and how your family is doing.

I had to get Lacey to show me how to register so that I could start my blog. Gosh I am so techno illiterate.

 

[brookelizabeth]

I just read your last two updates and was cracking up all through them both! The choking pictures are HILARIOUS and then top it with the various sleeping pics! Soooo funny!

Wonderful updates! What a great way to end the day at DHS, laughter with the family and some pixie dust!

 

[mickeystoontown]

I left off saying that up next was a whole lotta nothing. Well, there's certainly a whole lotta nuthin' alright.....right between my ears! I thought the next day was one of our "down" days but I was wrong. It was our Animal Kingdom day.

I got up first and readied myself for the day. You may remember that Hunter started out sleeping in his Mamaw's room but changed over to our room after just a day or two. Why? 'Cause Mamaw wanted to go to get early and Hunter did not. He is a night owl just like his Daddy and could stay up all night long if I'd let him. Anyway, I woke everybody up, called over to Mama's room and told her I was headed down to the front desk to get our Spirit of Aloha luau tickets.

As I stepped outside, I could feel that it was going to be another sweltering day. I know that I took the camera with me and took pictures as I walked to the Custom House but I can't find them right now. When I do, I'll post them in a separate post. I was all sticky by the time I made it to the Custom House. I wasn't sweaty all over, just that light sheen and it was only 8:00 a.m.!

Once I made it to the Custom House, I hopped into the line for the concierge desk. The castmember immediately pulled up our luau ADRs and said he needed my card to swipe. He swiped it and OH NO! I just realized he had used two of my table service credits for Mama's tickets. He hadn't thought about it and I hadn't thought about it. He said it was no big deal, we could just use Mama's dining service credits to buy our meals. For some reason, he kept saying we would use 12 of Mama's credits. I kept saying no, it would be just 2 credits that she owed us. I had to actually get a piece of paper and make a little spreadsheet for him. It didn't really matter if he understood or not, because I understood what I had to do to get my credits back.

The castmember gave us our luau tickets and then I remembered that we were going to the Hoop Dee Doo too. But, I didn't want to do it right then because I'd have to use more of our credits for Mama's meal. That would be too confusing so I told the castmember that Mama and I would be back later to pick them up.

Tickets tucked away in my Vera Bradley purse and I was back on the path to our room in Jamaica. The walk is so pretty and I enjoyed a little time on my own despite the fact that it was already hot. When I got back to the room, the rest of my crew was ready. I took a minute to blot my face with a kleenex and make a potty stop.

We made sure that the door was locked and that everybody had their sunglasses, tickets, etc. And, we were off to the bus stop. Again, the bus gods were looking down upon us because we had barely sat down when the Animal Kingdom bus pulled up. I was always nervous about Mama having to stand on the bus. Every since she had her surgery, she gets a little off balance and I knew standing on a bus wasn't an option. We saw that this bus had many seats available so we hopped right now. Mama, again, was a pro at getting on the buses with no problem.

I remember that I timed our ride to the park but I don't remember how long it was. I do know that it wasn't long before we were pulling up to the bus stop at the Animal Kingdom. It had been 10 long years since Mama had been there and were were excited for her to see how it had grown....literally.

The first thing I wanted to do was have our picture taken by a Photopass photographer.

The next destination I had in mind was, of course, the safari. I love the safari and it's a must do for us every time we visit. But, I also knew that would probably be everybody else's destination as well so I told John that I'd get us all Fastpasses and we'd explore Pangani Forest in the meantime.

Pictures I took on the way over:

We met up with several tour groups during this trip and here's just one set of them coming from the safari:

I got everybody's tickets and walked ahead to get the Fastpasses. I don't remember what the return time was but it wasn't too terribly long. We'd have plenty of time to explore the Pangangi Forest before returning. I met back up with Mama, John and Hunter and they were all looking at these strange things hanging from a tree:

We figured it must be some sort of fruit bearing tree but we couldn't ever find a castmember to give us the name of the tree. I guess I could google it and find out.


***Oh great! I have three lines ringing. Gotta sign off.

 

[3LittlePirates]

Looks like we still have the same park schedule I love reading your trip reports..really gets me in the Disney mood for our upcoming trip!!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Read through your whole report today while trying to avoid studying for exams. You have a great family and I love how much fun you all have together.

 

[johnsonmatt3]

Read through your whole report today while trying to avoid studying for exams. You have a great family and I love how much fun you all have together.

UGH!!! I hate semester exams. But we only have 3 or 4 exams this semester out of 9 classes

 

[brookelizabeth]

I just realized another reason we should never do the DDP, I'd get sooooo confused with keeping track of those credits! I hope it all works out in the long run!

I like your plan on FPing the Safari and hitting the trail right next to it!

 

[jenseib]

I saw those weird hanging things on another thread. I totally forget what they are, but I think they are really heavey and I think the flower stinks, if I remember right. LOL!

 

[KatMark]

Lisa, great updates (sorry I've been missing in action...I hope to stay more up to date now).

 

[johnsonmatt3]

Saying that it stinks has me remembering what it is!!!. We went on a carnival cruise in 09 and went to Belize. We stopped the bus and the tour guide got out to get one and it is a...







wait for it...







a Stinky Toe!!! Now if thats what its really called I don't know, but he opened it up and said it really stank like a really smelly toe.
Finally, mystery solved with the help of the disboards gang. I think this calls for some nanners and other dancing.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I promise ya'll that I am not ignoring you. It seems like there's not enough hours in the day....with planning Christmas, keeping a Christmas surprise for Jesse, helping Hunter do two school projects and then all of the normal household chores....I'm stretched pretty thin.

I apologize that I haven't posted replies but I wanted to at least try and get an installment posted so you'll have something to read. So, while the boss is still out....I'm off to do a little writing.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I had gotten the Fastpasses and met up with the rest of my bunch who were looking at some very odd things hanging from the trees. We looked at them a while and I took the two pictures and then we were off to explore the Pangani Forest:

I love all of the benches at the Animal Kingdom. They would look so good on my front porch:

We saw this guy first:

As we walked on further, we entered the little building that houses some exhibits and the naked mole rats. Big ole' frog:

The nasty looking mole rats:

We quickly walked around the exhibit that the snake was in. Mama is deathly afraid of snakes and just looking at them on television makes her sick to her stomach. So we bypassed that and looked at the other little creatures before walking out the building and outside to look for more animals.

We found these beautiful fish swimming in the water surrounding the walkway. Their colors were gorgeous:

A castmember who looked to be in her 60s came over to talk with us and, while she was certainly informative, we were ready to ditch her after about 15 minutes. She just wouldn't hush up. While she talked, I took more pictures and responded to whatever it was she walk talking about.

Finally, a little boy came up to the castmember and asked a question and we told her thanks for the information and to have a good day. We continued on to the next section where the hippos were. You can barely see the back of his head above the water:

And he went down and all you could see were the crain and the ducks:

Next up was the meerkat exhibit but we saw very few meerkats. There were these two who looked to be on watch:

And, I think we saw two more but that was it. Usually, we see lots of them scampering around. Maybe it was too hot and they were resting somewhere in the shade where we couldn't see them. There were some type of deer and vultures out:

***Continued in next post

 

[jenseib]

I promise ya'll that I am not ignoring you. It seems like there's not enough hours in the day....with planning Christmas, keeping a Christmas surprise for Jesse, helping Hunter do two school projects and then all of the normal household chores....I'm stretched pretty thin.

I apologize that I haven't posted replies but I wanted to at least try and get an installment posted so you'll have something to read. So, while the boss is still out....I'm off to do a little writing.

Whats the surprise for Jesse?

 

[mickeystoontown]

I remember seeing a newsletter saying that there had been a baby gorilla born at the Animal Kingdom park and that it was out for the public to see. I was excited to see if we would get a glimpse of it. As we rounded the corner, I could hear oohs and aahs and knew that meant the baby was out. After waiting and waiting and waiting, we were finally able to see just a little of the baby:

The other guests weren't so nice about "sharing" window space so I had to snap these two pictures pretty quickly or not have any at all. I don't know about ya'll but, if we are up front at an exhibit, we look for a short while and then step aside so the next set of people can see. Well, apparently, other guests aren't like us. These people would stand right in front and never move. When we left, there were three or four people who were there when we got there and they were still there when we left. I think that's just plain old rude.

We continued along the path and I reminded Mama that this was the path that would take us to even more gorilla enclosures. I told her about the time Hunter and I had come first thing in the morning and we saw gorillas all around us. That's the year I got the most amazing pictures of the gorillas. This time, we were able to see several gorillas but didn't get as many pictures.

But, just a little further down the path, we found a little nook and saw this big guy (or gal...I didn't look that closely) getting a drink from the waterfall. I even took a video but I guess I didn't put it on Photobucket.

It was the neatest thing to watch. I think the gorilla knew that we were all standing around watching him/her and was putting on a show for us. It would scoop us a handful of water and then turn and look at us as if posing for pictures. I could have stood and watched him a bit longer but there were others who wanted to watch so we moved on.

We finished walking the trail and it was time to use our Fastpass for the Kilmanjaro Safari so we headed on over that way. We were able to walk on by the long long standby line and, yes, we got a few upturned noses looks but, hey, learn to use Fastpass people! Once we reached the front of the line, we continued on with the standby line people into the queque.

Soon, we were boarding our safari truck and were off to explore Africa. I, of course, took pictures all along the way. Some turned out okay and some were tad blurry:

**Continued in next post

 

[mickeystoontown]

Whats the surprise for Jesse?

He's trying to get to our house a day earlier than Lacey expects him. She has no idea!

 

[jenseib]

He's trying to get to our house a day earlier than Lacey expects him. She has no idea!

How wonderful!

I love those pictures of the gorilla by the waterfull. Amazing!

 

[mickeystoontown]

And then we came to my favorite part of the safari, the savanna:

I know that I took more pictures of the safari but that's all I can find right now. As with each trip, we loved the safari and are always amazed at how close some of the animals get to the truck.

**Up next: More Animal Kingdom



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