Who Says a Platypus Doesn't Do Much?

[tyandskyesmom]

So after our steamy hike through Africa we headed towards Asia again.





Which brought us back past that beautiful tree! We decided to stop at what is listed on my receipt at the Animal Kingdom Upcountry Beverage Cart for something cool.

We grabbed a Berry Yeti Blast and a Shangri La Cooler.



We all liked the Shangri La Cooler best...the yellowish one. It was lemony but not like lemon freezes though. We used two snack credits but it would have been $7.86 out of pocket. They were flavorful and cold....and that's just what we needed!

It was 2:34pm at this point and we sat under the shade on the dock that juts out looking onto the Tree of Life. There were a lot of tables and chairs set out along the walk way back here, which was a new thing to see for us.





Isn't that cool! It is part of the awning!



He was apparently the clean up crew but he was the only one.







We sat there for a little while just watching everything and trying to cool off.​

 

[tyandskyesmom]

Once we were feeling sufficiently cool...or at least as cool as we were going to get...we moved on.






No monkeys climbing today!


She's such a good work horse!

We wanted to go on Kali River Rapids but the line was all the way back to where we could see it from the corner!!!! And that's a long line too!!! SO we passed. Believe it or not, we never rode it on this horribly hot trip.

So we kept on moving.

You know where we were headed right?











We used our fast passes and moved pretty quickly through the small fast pass line.







And we got up to be the next ones in line...all really excited this time...and lightening struck...literally! And they closed the ride down. They said we could wait it out if we wanted to or take our fast passes for later if it cleared up but we knew we were heading out and it would be at least 30 minutes after the last lightening strike before they'd re-open the ride. So we just headed up around the tree to towards the front of the park.​

 

[tyandskyesmom]

We stopped to cool off inside a store and look around...love this...



And then is was nearing time for Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade to begin so we sat on a ledge to wait. Tyler ran and got us some Popcorn and a Coke Slushie and a Lemonade Slushie from Safari Coffee.



Skye and I liked the lomon one again but Tyler loves a froven coke...so he was happy withthat one. Oh, and paper straws are worse in slushies!

Tyler met up with one of his little "friends" from the pool the other day so they hung out while we waited. The othe rboy actually caught a lizard...but it had no tail. I don't know if he did that or if that was how he found him but I hate when they try to catch them!

The time on my receipt form the slushies says 3:45pm so we did not have much waiting time!​

 

[tyandskyesmom]

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! I am getting ready to update more...

 

[mousetravel]

Can't wait to hear more! (even though I had to get caught up again, since we returned from our trip)

I had to laugh at your Dinosaur pic because I had the same scared look as your son did! I'll have to post that pic to show you and put it in my TR when I get to that point in my TR!

We also went to Tusker House during our recent trip, and we loved it!!!

 

[SwiperFox]

Just started reading tonight (and caught up)! Can't wait to read more.

I was so excited looking at your pictures from the Move It, Shake It parade... the stilt walker you took a picture of is one of my best friends! I've never gotten to see her in it yet... so yay for a picture!

 

[tyandskyesmom]

Just started reading tonight (and caught up)! Can't wait to read more.

I was so excited looking at your pictures from the Move It, Shake It parade... the stilt walker you took a picture of is one of my best friends! I've never gotten to see her in it yet... so yay for a picture!

THAT IS VERY COOL! I always wonder if I am going to see someone I know or even us in someone else's pictures!

 

[mousetravel]

I decided to go ahead and upload the pic I was telling you about, where I had the same scared look as Tyler on the Dinosaur, (2nd row)

 

[tyandskyesmom]

That;s funny...I guess Tyler dons a popular pose for Dinosaur!

 

[tyandskyesmom]

Thanx everyone! I am working on getting more up but we've just been soooo busy! I think Christmas is finally over (had my mom's side of the family's party this past weekend) and we are getting back into routine with gymnastics twice a week, dance three times a week and all Tyler's activities (student council, the spring musical, schlastic bowl, mathletes, baseball and arena football) so I should be able to get some up soon!!!!

And just to show you all that Disney is educational, Skye had to do a diorama of an animal habitat. Well since Chickens were not allowed, she picked elephants. And do you know where we went for our inspiration??? Animal Kingdom pictures!!! AND...Tyler was at Scholastic Bowl last week and they were doing questions on art and he was the only one to know a bunch of Michelangelo and DiVinci questions...and some from an episode of Wizard of Waverly Place!

​

 

[tyandskyesmom]

So where were we??? A yes, the Jammin' Jungle Parade!

























...to be continued...​

 

[tyandskyesmom]

Oops...I think I posted those parade pics backwards except for the first and last...sorry!

We love this parade...the parade itself is great, the music is fun, and there are plenty of characters!

We were a bit further back than the kids usually like to be but for walking up pretty much as it was starting and getting a ledge seat not a seat on the ground, it was not all that bad for a change!

And Tyler ran into a kid from the pool there and they "hunted" lizards for a while.

After the parade, we headed up to the exit with everyone else.



We took our time and looked around at some of the Oasis animals that were still out since we did not do that in the morning.



As we headed out you could really tell it wanted to rain, and rain hard!



We checked out the Outpost Shop and the kids were looking for pin trading.



And we finally headed for a bus and Skye found a dollar on the walkway...







Where we waited quite a while for a bus to come.​

 

[tyandskyesmom]

Ok, so, I started freaking out becasue I could not find any other pictures from this day and I knew I had taken some...then I remmbered I did not bring my camera with me becasue we did not want to have it in the way later that nght....so the rest of the pics are from my phone. Phew, crisis averted...continue...


So we waited a while for the bus...hot, tired, hot, and tired...it was quite a long wait.

When we finally arrived back at All-Star Movies we stopped for refills in our mugs and headed to the room. It was probably around 5:30pm by now. When we got back to the room this was waiting for us...



We were so hot and pooped out from the day that we decided to take a NAP!!! Did you hear me??? We, collectively, decided to nap in Disney World!!! That is unprecidented!!! So we did. In our fereezing, as cold as the air woudl go, room. And it was needed. And it was nce.

Around 7:00pm we got up nicely refreshed. That nap was just what we needed!

We got ready to go pretty quickly and headed out. We had decided earlier to cancel our ADR at Sanaa for that evening becasue we were hot, tired, stuffed, and really just needed the rest. So we headed to World Premiere Food Court for dinner.

Skye had a Kid's Cheese Pizza, a breadstick, grapes and a small bottle of water.



Tyler had an adult's cheese pizza, a mickey rice krisp treat with chocolate ears and a coke.



And I had Chicken Penne Alfredo, a Blueberry Muffin, and a Chocolate Milk and I believe the salad that came with Tyler's pizza.



It was all very good. Tyler snagged half my chicken and Skye had a bunch of my pasta. We got bottled drinks becasue we were heading right out and did not want to carry around our cups where we were going or a bag to put them in and we did not want to go back to the room either.

Our cost here was $34.71 and it was all very tasty. We woudl eat in the food court again if time presented itself.

After dinner we headed to the buses and found the one for Downtown Disney. I absolutely hate going to Downtown Disney by bus...transportation there has always been so bad! So we got in line and waited for a bus.



One would think at 8:00pm they would come more frequently...but no. We probably waited about 20 minutes for a bus. We took it over to The Westside...









...and headed towards our destination for the night.



DISNEY QUEST!!!​

 

[tyandskyesmom]

We have not been to Disney Quest in quite a bit of years and it is nt a regular for us so every time we go it is new.

We get our tickets using a plus option on our passes and head in. We decided to go all the way up and work our way down. Tyler did not want to hang with us so he went off on his own to play. So I don't know what all he did. Skye and I walked around and did what ever we wanted to. It really wasn't that crowded so we pretty much had the place to ourselves.






We did not play that...Skye is too little still...but it was fun to watch from above!













And that is where I decided she is not getting a driver's license...EVER!

We played quite a bit of different games and had lots of fun. Skye seemed to like the kiddie ones better because she coudl see better and the driving ones. I don't think she ever won (you race against other people playing) but she likes doing it. And then they were kicking us out. I am surprized Disney Quest closes so early. You'd think they'd get a rush after park hours. Tyler ended up being in a car near us at the time racing like we were so we picked up and headed out. For me, it was a perfect amount of time. I am not a gamer. And since it was closing I did not have to pull kids out kicking and screaming...so it worked for us!

We decided to walk over to The Marketplace bus stop...STUPID, STUPID, STUPID!!!

But we had fun along the way!​

 

[tyandskyesmom]

So we headed over towards The Marketplace stopping whenever we wanted.





The Vinylmation store was pretty neat!




Isn't that cute!?!?!?!?


Loved the cute flowers!



We decided to stop at Cookes of Dublin for a snack.






I had been hearing about the Doh Bars and thought they sounded lovely! So we ordered one to share. We also got a bottle of water to share. I was always under the impressin somehow that Cookes was more restaurant style...nope, it isn't. You order at the counter, they make your food and you sit to the side in the small seating area with a few high top tables. I mean, it was fine, I was just under a very different impression before actually going there.

The total was $5.01 or two snack credits.

Here is another place where I am kicking myself for not taking a cross section picture of it once it was bt into to show the inside. It was really good and worth the fifteen minute wait. We ordered at 10:40pm and did not leave till almost 11pm. I think Skye scarffed most of it down but we all dug in quite a bit. Definately something to share!
​

 

[tyandskyesmom]

So we ate while we walked because I knew things were going to be closing up soon.

We approached T-Rex and found all the people!





We have eaten here once before and it was on the list for this time but unfortunately Downtown Disney is not someplace we frequent. We're lucky if we get there once a trip, even on long trips like this. So, it lost out this time. We loved it though and it is really appealing to look at. And fun!





We just went into the little shop...and I do mean little...and it was soooo crowded in there we couldn't really look around!

So we quickly regrouped and kept on our journey!



We next encountered the newly refurbished Lego Store! All I can say is WOW! I mean we loved the old lego statues and decor but just WOW! I don't know how you would even begin to put together one of those things! Well, let me shut up and just show you...







We were just in awe! I wish I had had my good camera (who right about now we had started calling "Butthead" because it hung at the exact right height to knock Skye in the head every chance it got!) so I could have gotten better pictures of them. I don't know which would be my favorite, do you?​

 

[tyandskyesmom]

So we next hit the World of Disney store.



Gosh, we could get lost in there forever! The kids (read : Tyler) were given strict instructions to stay together. It worked for the most part.

Even if you are not buying, looking around in this huge, wonderfully Disney decorated, over the top store if just always so much fun!


Just look at that room, how could it not be fun?!?!?!




This counts as a light fixture, right?







And it's even fun outside of it!









After trapsing through Once Upon a Toy we headed around the back for a short cut because we knew there really wasn't anything else we needed to see.​

 

[tyandskyesmom]

Around the back we found these cute windows...





And then these guys outside of the Christmas Store...



And this cute shirt near the Scrapbooking Store...



And then we saw THIS....



Yes, that is our line for our bus back to All-Star Movies!!!! And it stayed that way for a L-O-N-G time! And there were no buses coming through for All-Stars at all! And the one man working there was very rude! The woman behind me finally asked why they did not have more buses going. Well, it was around midnight. All other parks had closed a while ago excpet for Magic Kingdom which closed at 11pm. His response was that they have hundreds of buses running and many more people than that that need to go somewhere. He said they were experiencing more people on property than anticipated. To which the woman behind me said that Disney knows exactly how many people are on property at any given time and where they statistically are at on property at any given time and that she was not a newby and had been here many times and knows how it works. Well, he did not like that and stormed away. I'll bet Disney knows more about me than I do at this point so I think his excuse was exactly that...just an excuse for poor management of buses.

While we were waiting...and waiting...and waiting I took these to entertain myself...







It was close to 1:30 by the time we finally got to All-Star Movies...yep, you heard me...1:30AM!!!! We were at the bus stop at approximately midnight...that's an hour and a half to get home. It was absolutely THE WORST transportation we have ever had at Disney! And we have a few others in this trip but I'll wait on that till we get there. I think they have really cut back on transportation to save on costs but I don't think that is the place to do it. Not only did it make everyne mad, it caused my family to be more tired in the morning and if we had had dining planned, we may have missed out...making us upset again and thus losing Disney money. I did e-mail Disney about this and did receive a return call about it. In fact, she had to call three times before she got a hold of me but she kept calling. So hopefully if enough people complain, they will do something about it!

But we did finally get back to our room around 1:30am and it did not take us long to fall asleep...good thing we took that nap! ​

 

[tyandskyesmom]

So today was our sleep in day. Well, as much as we can sleep in at Mickey's House! And after last night., we needed it!

My alarm woke us up at 8am. I figured I'd give us time to take it slower this morning. So I hopped into the shower, then woke Skye and Ty. If I had not planned in a slow day, we would have needed it but ecause I did plan it in, we were ready and walking towards the bus stop by about 8:40am.







We got to our stop for Magic Kingdom and it was relatively empty out there.




Skye's foot shot for the day!



A bus came quickly and we were off...









Anf then we headed out on our walk to breakfast. We have never walked to The Contemporary. it is a nice little walk.



​

 

[tyandskyesmom]

Continuing on with our walk...






See the Parasailor?

Someone else was arriving for breakfast also...



I know some of you don;t like that but my kids love it and I've grown upo with parrots so it does not bother me...it's cute!

And our destination...



but we were a little early, well, quite a lot early, so we looked around n the stores on that level of the Contemporary. I think they have some of the best in all the resorts.











We checked in for our 10:50am ADR at about 10:30am and got our pictures taken and waited about ten more minutes to be called to be seated at Chef Mickey's for breakfast!!!​