Feb 2018 TR: Fun, Tragedy Strikes, and OMG I Just Flashed Everyone. UPDATED 3/11/18

[desertbloom]

Greetings, all! Here is my TR for our latest trip... It was our 20th visit to Disney! We first went there on our honeymoon in 1994.
Your cast of characters are:
Myself: celebrating my 45th birthday
The Husband: 47. Loves Disney as much as I do!

And we are off.....

Day 1: After a long day of getting everything packed and traveling, we finally arrive at our home away from home for the next week. Animal Kingdom Lodge. This was our first time staying at this resort. We chose it because of the great rate I got with a Disney Visa discount. I must say that walking into that lobby was pretty impressive. We had stayed at WL before so I had an idea of what to expect but I really liked the theming and atmosphere here just a bit more than at WL.

After what seemed like an eternity walking down corridors, we finally get to our room. After the usual bedbug check and disinfecting of door handles and light switches we enjoyed the view from our balcony. I had sent a fax 5 days prior to arriving and asked for a partial savannah view and I was lucky that they were able to make that happen. Our view was amazing and we saw so many animals. (Especially in the morning). Our room also had bunk beds as well as the queen sized bed. Much to my husband’s dismay, I called the top bunk first. I caught him sitting up there several times though, when he thought I wasn’t paying attention.

(our room view)

By now it is well past lunch time so it is down to the Mara for some quick eats. We split the tomato flatbread. It was really delicious. I loved it so much that we actually ended up eating it like 4 more times over the course of our vacation! After lunch we strolled around the resort a little before heading off to evening fun at Epcot.

Epcot was packed! Especially in World Showcase. Lesson learned not to venture there on a Saturday night if I am not feeling up to crowds. We slowly headed over to our Frozen FP, making a stop at Mexico since it’s one of my husband’s favorites. At this point I really needed some caramel corn, so we braved the extremely long and slow moving line (why they have one cashier on a busy night is beyond me). It was delicious as always. At this point we are feeling pretty tired and make our way to Spaceship Earth before heading back to AKL for the night.

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[desertbloom]

Stay tuned for Day 2!

 

[mamamelody2]

I'm in!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Following!

I had sent a fax 5 days prior to arriving and asked for a partial savannah view

Was this a standard view? I have a standard booked for June and wondering what section of the hotel you were in.

 

[desertbloom]

Was this a standard view? I have a standard booked for June and wondering what section of the hotel you were in.

Yes! We ended up on the Uzima savanna. Pixie Dust for sure!

 

[desertbloom]

Day 2: The Transportation Debacle


Our second day started at a relaxing and slow pace. We enjoyed some time watching the animals from our balcony. There always seemed to be 2-3 giraffe and a whole herd of deer with an occasional wildebeest and zebra thrown in the mix. We headed down to the Mara for some coffee and eggs before heading out to the MK for our Peter Pan FP and lunch reservation at The Plaza.


We get to the bus stop and it was going to be way too crowded for my taste so we decided to just drive over there. Apparently forgetting that it is a lengthy and involved process to actually get to the MK when taking your own vehicle. We park, grab the tram and proceed to the ferry dock. At this point I am getting anxious because we are going miss my FP for Peter Pan and possibly be late for our ADR at the Plaza. With no ferry in sight, we decide to hop on the resort monorail instead. It stops at the Polynesian and wouldn’t you know it decides to break down. My FP window expires. I call Disney Dining to let them know that we are stuck on the monorail and running late. The agent tells me to get off the monorail and walk to MK, that we will just make it in time. I said “I didn’t think you could walk there from the Poly”. She assures me that we can, so we exit. Lo and behold, you CAN’T walk there….as I thought. We finally end up on the little ferry boat and made it to our ADR about 20 min late. The ferry was really nice though and we decided that next time we would take the same route to get to the park but would allot more time.


Lunch at the Plaza was very nice once we had calmed down from our dramatic arrival. We had never eaten there before. I chose it based on the sandwich menu. My husband ordered the turkey club and I got the tuna on a croissant. It was nothing spectacular or original but it tasted good and the fries were hot and fresh. The fries were the skinnier type, as opposed to steak fries. We both got sodas, though I was tempted by the milkshakes. The soda at the parks always has a strange fish water aftertaste to me. Unfortunately, I was too starving and forgot to take a phot of the food before we had already devoured most of it.

After lunch we went off to the rides. I don’t know how anyone else gauges a crowd at the park but for us it is how long the wait for Small World is. Today it was 40 min. We ended up riding the things we had a fast pass for and skipping most everything else because the waits were just too long for things I have been on dozens of times. We did take the opportunity to explore some things we normally don’t, such as Tom Sawyer Island. I hadn’t been on there since my honeymoon in 94. It was a relaxing way to escape the crowd for a little while. We waited the 15 min for the Peoplemover and then it was time to leave because the Superbowl was starting soon and we needed to pick up supplies at Publix.


The rest of our night was spent stuffing our faces with junk food in bed and yelling at the television.

And so ends this chapter.


Day 3 coming soon!​

 

[desertbloom]

Forgot to ask... Does anyone have any insider tips to get to the MK faster without taking the busses?

 

[desertbloom]

And so begins day 3……


Today we started out with a late breakfast at the Whispering Canyon Café. We had eaten here on previous trips for dinner but this was the first time trying out breakfast. The atmosphere was a little bit more laid back than the dinnertime chaos. Our server only gave me a little bit of sass when I started tidying up all the straws he kept throwing at me.


I ordered the banana bread French toast. OMG! This was AMAZING! It was 3 slices of banana bread French toast, served with a bananas foster sauce and bacon on the side. I was grateful that they leave the sauce on the side because it was so rich that a little bit went a long way. I forgot to take a picture of it in my haste of stuffing it in my face.


The husband ordered the breakfast skillet. He seemed pretty pleased with his choice. He said the home fries were nothing to write home about and were only somewhat warm but everything else was good. I stole some of his cheddar biscuit and thought that was really yummy. After all the sweetness of my breakfast, I needed to end on something savory.

Once we were stuffed beyond a comfortable level, it was time to head to Animal Kingdom.


HOLY CRAP! AK WAS CROWDED!!! This was the first time we had been to this park in several years. We always found it to be a half day park for us so when we dropped getting the hopper option due to price increases, we stopped going because we saw it as a waste of a day. We had afternoon FP’s for Kilimanjaro Safari, FoP, and EE. We pushed our way through the surging crowds to get KS. I was happy to see that they had dropped the whole “poacher” drama. I am sure this is old news to most of you but it has been AGES since we rode this.


Next up was our FoP fastpass, but we had 2 hours to waste in between. It was impossible to actually get on any rides or even walk around the park comfortably due to the crowding situation. We ended up going through jungle trek and then just finding an out of the way spot near a cast member door to sit and check our emails until it was time to find our way over to Pandora.

I am sure many people will disagree with me but I was unimpressed with Pandora during the daytime. I have a feeling this is probably an area that is better viewed at night when things are glowing. It just looked like everything else in AK. Maybe it was just hard to take in because of the sheer number of people milling about. At this point it was getting humid so we stopped to try a Night Blossom.

If you like things sweet then this is the drink for you! It was a bit much for me after my already sweet breakfast so hubby ended up drinking most of it. My favorite part was the tapioca balls. It was fun getting them up the straw and then popping them in your mouth. I now understand why my DD loves bubble tea so much…lol.


We finally get in the FP line for FoP. It moved quickly and I have no complaints about how long it took us from entering to taking off. This was seriously the highlight of my trip. The ride was amazing and was worth all the crowds and waiting around for our FP time.

After exiting the ride we decided to skip our EE FP and just get the heck out of the park.


We headed over to Epcot to find much more reasonable crowds. We managed to get a FP for TT and had a relaxing front row trip through The Land. The sound on the ride was broken and it was quite relaxing to just slowly boat around in silence through the greenhouses.


We headed over to WS to grab some fish n chips for dinner, then stopped at Spaceship Earth on our way out for the night. At this point I was exhausted and a long, hot shower and my pj’s were just what I needed. We watched the fireworks off in the distance from our balcony and then it was off to bed.


Little did we know that day 4 would alter the course of the rest of our vacation. ​

 

[Lesley Wake]

Following along!

Forgot to ask... Does anyone have any insider tips to get to the MK faster without taking the busses?

I think either with Minnie Van or Uber to Contemporary and walk. With a Minnie Van, they can use the bus dropoffs, so you don't have to go to the TTC. Before MV though I think a lot of people just got an Uber to the Contemporary and walked on the sidewalks. MV is probably faster but more $$$

 

[desertbloom]

Following along!

I think either with Minnie Van or Uber to Contemporary and walk. With a Minnie Van, they can use the bus dropoffs, so you don't have to go to the TTC. Before MV though I think a lot of people just got an Uber to the Contemporary and walked on the sidewalks. MV is probably faster but more $$$

The Uber to Contemporary is a great idea! Thanks for the tip. Definitely going to give this a try when we return in June. We saw the Minnie vans tooling around. They were super cute. Really, the busses are the easiest option but I hate having someone crop dusting my face when it’s standing room only.

 

[desertbloom]

Day 4 started out promising…
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We had to wake up super early because today was the day that we had our “Undiscovered Future World” tour scheduled. I love doing early morning tours because it is so nice to be able to go into the parks before they open. Since Epcot is our favorite, we figured we would really enjoy all the info a tour provides. Anyone who has been on tours knows that you are restricted in what you can take pictures of so I apologize for the lack of cool insider info.
​

The tour started out by meeting at the Pin Kiosk right in front of the fountain. Our cast member was really nice and started the tour with giving us information about Walt’s Vision for EPCOT and showing us lots of really cool concept designs and old construction photographs. We heard about how different companies sponsored different pavilions throughout the Showcase and got to go through the VIP entrance to take a ride on Spaceship Earth. Now I finally understood why I have seen people entering the ride from what appears to be the exit area! Lol!
​

The tour was around 4 hours long. We were able to take pictures in one of the VIP lounges above the Coral Reef Restaurant. We also visited The Land and learned about the mosaic before having a 15 min break to grab a drink or snack.

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Rounding out the tour was a visit to the HP lounge in Mission Space, a chance to ride Test Track via another “secret” entrance and my absolute favorite part of the tour…… a visit to the wardrobe department of the Cast Services building. There were SO many costumes in there. I didn’t realize that cast members don’t actually own or borrow a specific uniform. They check one out, much like a library book, and then have to check it back in and pick out a new one! It was really interesting. We were lucky enough to see a “face” cast member getting fitted in his wig, and the makeup area where they get ready.
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After the tour we were starving so it was off to England to split some fish n chips. Always greasy…. but always delicious. (We just wanted something small because we had an early reservation coming up at Via Napoli). Boy, you have to watch your food if you sit over by the water. Those birds are fierce! Lol! For dessert we decided to meander over to the Beach Club for a cupcake and to relax in the shade a bit. I had forgotten to pack my hat and being the translucent person that I am, I get sunned out easily. The cupcake I chose was yellow cake with vanilla frosting. Simple but it was delicious. I ate half of it and DH had the rest. I also picked up a cute baseball cap while I was there to solve my sun problem.

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After walking around and hitting some more rides it was time to head to Via Napoli for our reservation. We are finally seated in a lovely spot outside after a 15 min or so wait. We are about to order when suddenly the phone rings. My FIL had passed. I explained to the waiter what happened and he gave us all the time we needed before we numbly decided to order a pizza. I don't even know why we ordered anything. It's like we were on autopilot. Needless to say, we have no idea what the pizza tasted like.
They did bring both my husband and I a dessert cookie thing for my birthday which we numbly ate but I honestly can’t tell you how that was either.

After searching for flights out of Orlando while we ate, and having little luck because of a major snowstorm, we ended up having to finish out the last 2 days of the trip.​

Most of the rest of the night was spent in the room and we went to bed exhausted and upset.

​

Day 5, coming soon…..​

 

[scrappydew]

I am so sorry about your FIL's passing. Prayers to you and your family.

 

[Suejacken]

So sorry for your loss

 

[jrmint427]

I'm so sorry for your loss.

This sounds like a really busy time to have visited! The Epcot tour sounds awesome. We're requesting a partial Savanna view room on our next trip, which will be our first time staying at AKL. I am so glad to hear you were able to see animals, including giraffes, from your room. I hope we get as lucky!

 

[Stasieki]

I'm so sorry for the passing of your FIL.