“This is *NOT* a Family Friendly Coaster!” Labor Day Weekend 2018 [Update x2 4/20/19]

"Sit down RIGHT NOW!" (Day 4, Part 2 - Sunday, September 2nd)

We cruised through the Fastpass line at Kilimanjaro Safari but with the ECV, had to wait for the wheelchair accessible truck. It's always a little mind boggling to me how you never really think about the number of scooters and wheelchairs in the parks, until you see them congregated on that little platform waiting for the riders to return.

First up, as usual, were the okapi and a bongo.
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A Black rhino
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Hippos
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As we crossed over the crocodiles, our driver said very loudly, clearly, and firmly, "You need to SIT DOWN. MA'AM. SIT DOWN. RIGHT NOW." Someone apparently thought this was a great time to stand up for photos. The driver even made a sarcastic quip about it later in the ride and I wish I could remember exactly what it was but I remember thinking, "Oh SNAP!" It's not exactly secret that the drivers are trained to hightail it out of there if someone falls over the side of the truck at that exhibit. No one needs to see the carnage that would ensue.

Continuing on, I was very excited to see baby Aella ("eye-la") out and about; she was just two months old at the time and had only been announced to be available on the savanna just a few days earlier!
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And this is a different giraffe from another area:
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Elephants are my favorite!
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All three lions out snoozing in the sun.
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The White rhinos:
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And finally, the zebras:
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Then it was off to Asia for UP! A Great Bird Adventure
 
The wait really didn't feel like it was 45 minutes and there was so much to look at! I'm glad we did the standby line because when we went through the Fastpass line later, it skips SO MUCH.
I only did FoP once using FP. It was a great ride. But I almost wish I found a way to do it again stand by because it does skip a lot. Some of that SB line looks incredible. But I didn't want to wait the 2 hours or whatever it would have been to do it stand by.
 


I am SO SORRY that I abandoned you all for so long! I just kind of lost the motivation to write for a while. In mid-December, I was rear-ended at a stoplight, hard enough to hit the car in front of me, and causing my car that I'd owned a whole SIX MONTHS to be at the repair shop for seven very long weeks - no physical injuries though. The other driver was completely at fault, so her insurance paid for all repairs and my rental car(s) during that time, but I'm still battling with them on a depreciated value claim. In January, I went back to Buffalo for a long weekend and saw Panic! at the Disco from stageside on the floor, which was great! I didn't start really getting into them until maybe September, so I missed them when they played Seattle/Vancouver in August. In late January to early March, I fostered two 8-year-old sister cats whose owner (a cousin of my friend/former assistant manager at the cat shelter I used to work at in Buffalo) needed to surrender them due to finances/housing issues. Their former owner is also from Buffalo but she now lives in Vancouver, and when we couldn't find a shelter to take them for a reasonable fee (as they both needed dental work), she paid for the one that needed more extensive work and I paid for the dental on the other, and then took them in to rehome them - and I did it! I found them a very nice older woman just over the border in Canada whose cats both passed away within the last four months - one at age 17 from general old age, and one at age 12 from pancreatic disease.

My mom and I have planned a new Disney excursion for this November/December that we're quite excited about. On Thanskgiving (because this isn't a major holiday for me - I don't have family out here), I'll fly from Vancouver to Orlando via Toronto, arriving around 11:45pm and staying one night at Coronado Springs. On Black Friday, I'll probably spend some time at the resorts (Epcot area?) and/or Disney Springs admiring Christmas decorations before meeting Mom back at MCO, where we'll travel to the Country Inn & Suites at Port Canaveral because we are OFFICIALLY BOOKED ON OUR SECOND DISNEY CRUISE! (And no, we are NOT telling Cheryl about this until the last possible minute, so she can't invite herself along. Remember my last cruise TR?) We're doing the 7-Night Eastern Caribbean on the Fantasy. Once we disembark, Mom will fly home and I will continue on to Universal Orlando (currently booked at Hard Rock Hotel, but that might change) for three days to explore the parks and Volcano Bay (weather permitting). Super excited!

So expect a new update from me in the next couple of days and then continuing on until this TR is DONE! And there's really not that much left - the rest of the day at Animal Kingdom, the last day split between Hollywood Studios and MNSSHP, and then our last day was entirely travel back to our respective homes.
 


I only did FoP once using FP. It was a great ride. But I almost wish I found a way to do it again stand by because it does skip a lot. Some of that SB line looks incredible. But I didn't want to wait the 2 hours or whatever it would have been to do it stand by.

I feel reasonably confident saying that a 2 hour wait in that queue wouldn't be completely unbearable...there's so much to look at! Even outside in the winding queue among the rocks, the plants are so pretty and different. My tip to avoid that two hour standby is to do what we did - pick a morning that the park opens earlier than usual - even an Extra Magic Hour day is great for this - arrive 30 minutes before park opening, dash to River Journey so the initial rush at FoP dies down a little - one can hope? - and then immediately head to FoP standby line. 45 minutes was completely fine and didn't even feel that long, and I say that as someone who generally thinks a 20 minute wait is pushing it (aside from World of Color at Disney California Adventure - I've waited 90+ minutes for that show with ZERO REGRETS).

The baby giraffe is so cute! Looks like it was a good safari!
I love seeing the babies out on the safari. One of my favorite parts about the DCP was watching one of the baby elephants grow up over the 8 months I was there, coming to Animal Kingdom on my days off. And really - is there ever a "bad" safari?

It's been a busy time for you! Sounds like a fun trip you have planned at the end of the year!!
Surprisingly busy. My life day to day is not exciting at all, but I'm also working on some volunteer projects for organizations I work with. #CatsForLife

Your trip in November sounds great!
I AM SO EXCITED! JetBlue released their flights last week (earlier than I was expecting) and the prices were REALLY good, with EXCELLENT non-stop times, so I bought my mom's flights because I knew the prices would only get higher (and it was almost $100 less than I had budgeted so what a steal!). Now that we have all of our flights purchased, it's real. Things may change (stateroom category, where I'm staying at Universal) but I know where we're staying for the two nights beforehand (and my CSR room is also paid for), and I KNOW we'll be on that cruise, even if we need to go to a lower stateroom category for budget, and I KNOW I'm going to Universal even if the hotel is different (it would definitely be cheaper to stay at, say, Aventura and just buy the Express passes then to stay at Hard Rock, so I'm torn).

Another internal debate: I have the opportunity to visit a park on Black Friday FOR FREE. Do I brave the level 10 crowds and go for it? #EpcotSnacks Or just stick with my original plan to visit the resorts and/or Disney Springs. I don't need to head back to the airport until about 5:30pm.
 
The Downpour to End All Downpours (Day 4, Part 3 - Sunday, September 2nd)

Here we are, ready to head in to Up! A Great Bird Adventure:
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Don't get me wrong, I like Up. In fact, I even skipped my high school senior prom (for a number of reasons) and ended up seeing that movie with my friends who were a year older. So it holds a special place in my heart. But...I don't think this was the best way to work it into the park. Did it need updating? Probably. Do they need to throw a character in to everything so people will come see it? Nope.

It was cute, but not a must see, and even less so because it felt like Russell and Dug were out of place.
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I know we had lunch at Tusker House as part of our Rivers of Light package. I couldn't tell you a single thing that I ate there. It was clearly not all that memorable. During the meal we had a large family sitting near us with a small child who was TERRIFIED of the characters. We laughed it off because, as my mom told that family to comfort them while their child was screaming in terror, I used to be the same way! We didn't get any pictures or autographs this time - I've dined there twice before so I have all the pictures and the autographs already. We only chose this option because it was more affordable and less "fancy" than Tiffins. I wish they had a bigger selection of restaurants for the ROL package - if the dessert party had been available, I totally would have been down for that.

Anyway, while we were eating...it came. The downpour of the trip. Most Disney World trips have "that" story, of that one particular day/time where the weather was just determined to beat you. For me, October 2011 - it was the first full day and a half of the trip, where it MONSOONED like I have never seen. July 2013 - at Universal Studios, after I had JUST purchased outrageously expensive dry shorts because mine were wet from the water rides and they were chafing - BAM, DOWNPOUR! You get the picture. Well, in this case, the scooter was outside, unprotected. There's nowhere to keep them inside, so you're supposed to line them up outside along the front of the "hut" that serves as the Tusker House check in/waiting area. Yup, it got toooootally drenched. We didn't even think about it when we went in to lunch, but you can bet we did going forward. We gave up and went back to the resort in the rain. I think I even attempted a poncho for a while but that was kind of a wasted effort.

Back at the hotel we napped and freshened up before stopping at Landscape of Flavors for dinner. I got my usual (fresh-prepared pasta with shrimp) and Mom got this (Caprese sandwich and I think Nutella gelato).
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Then it was time to head back out to Animal Kingdom for some evening fun!
 
I would actually think Disney Springs would be more of a crowded nightmare than the parks on Black Friday!
 
Animal Kingdom After Dark (Day 4, Part 4 - Sunday, September 2nd)

Returning to the park around 7:30, we headed straight to Pandora for our second ride on Flight of Passage, this time via the Fastpass line.
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As I mentioned before, the Fastpass queue is not nearly as interesting as the standby queue.
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This ride was more...intense than the first one. We were not on the top-most level because if I looked up and back a little, there were riders above us. I assume it was because we were lower that the ride didn't feel as smooth. The visuals were just more "in your face".

We were off FoP within 25 minutes and heading over to Dinoland to get our seats for the 8:45 showing of Rivers of Light.
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I was quite surprised at the size of the stadium they've constructed for this show!

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That was at 8:35, so it was pretty full by that time. We elected to leave the scooter for the CMs to put in a "storage spot" and sit on the regular benches, rather than at the top in the handicapped area.

A few more photos before the show started:
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It's showtime!
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An Evening at Animal Kingdom [continued] - (Day 4, Part 5 - Sunday, September 2nd)

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My thoughts on the show: it was pretty. It was not particularly memorable. I haven't felt the urge to really put effort into chasing down the soundtrack - I did a cursory hunt on Youtube when we got home and there wasn't any good quality audio readily available so I didn't pursue it. I feel like they were going for a combo of IllumiNations and World of Color...but if you've read any of my Disneyland trip reports, you'll know that World of Color is my ALL TIME FAVORITE night time thing in any US Disney park, and Rivers of Light just doesn't even come close. It was nice, I'd recommend everyone see it once, but I'd also be okay skipping it in the future.

Afterwards, I left Mom to fight her way out of the crowd with her scooter and power walked over to Everest to join the single rider line. I think it took me about 15 minutes to board.
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We met up in the gift shop and I REALLY wanted some soft-serve ice cream in a waffle cone from that little truck in Asia. There weren't that many people in line but it took FOREVER to order and get our items. No lie, from the end of Rivers of Light until we were heading back over to Pandora: 45 minutes - I'm not kidding when I say I spent less of that time waiting for Everest than for the ice cream!

A cute Photopass picture in Asia:
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I'd actually never had the opportunity to be at AK after dark any time before this. I was pretty awed by how empty the park was, even at 15 minutes before closing time.
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We did stop to watch a Tree of Life Awakening - this one seemed to be based on Bambi.
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Only 7 minutes until park close! We rushed back to Pandora to get a few nighttime photos of the area.
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This is that plant that lights up and makes noise:
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So pretty with all the "bioluminescence"!
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We left the park around 10:15 and I asked Mom to take a picture of me in this "frame" that's set up outside the entrance.

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REALLY?! I love my mother dearly, but she is a HORRIBLE photographer. People, cats, still backgrounds...sometimes she does okay with still backgrounds but usually her pictures are a blurry mess.


With some cropping and adjustments, I think I made it passable.

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Up next: our last day, first time at Toy Story Land, the story of our title, and an evening at Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party!
 
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Great ROL photos! My thoughts on the show are pretty similar to yours though!

Sounds like a great end to the night!
 
Audiologist here too. Enjoyed your report and hope I get to see your TSL one - I love that land!. I will say you should still use your Dr. title. Call your self Dr. Gretchen or Dr <last name initial>. You worked hard for that degree. That's your public service announcement from Dr. Dachsie. :thumbsup2
 

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