"I brushed my teeth, and I don't have cooties." An August DFTW and Disneymoon TR

[MeghanEmily]

I'm so glad you enjoyed your meal at Beaches & Cream. Now, my shameful little secret is that for more than 6 years after I started managing the Beach Club FAQ thread, I had never eaten at Beaches & Cream. Had a couple of reservations to dine there and always ended up canceling. Finally, Mark and I ate there on our anniversary trip. We were underwhelmed. Mostly our fault. We ordered the wrong things and we didn't end the meal with ice cream.

Sorry to hear that you didn't have an awesome experience there. But you're totally right, you can't end your meal without ice cream! It's the definite star of the show. I'd go without real food and only get ice cream as a meal there if I had to make the choice.

Your timeshare room is HUGE!!!

It really was!! By the time my grandmother went to book it for us, the smaller ones were booked up, so we had TONS of space. It was so nice to be able to spread out and feel like we were really moving ourselves into somewhere cozy for a few days. It's a nice property.

I know what you mean about dining at Cape May when you come from a place that has spectacular seafood. I still like it. They have a lot of great options there.

Agreed on both counts.

The giraffe feeding and safari sound incredible. Nothing like getting up close and personal with an exotic animal. Too funny that she tossed aside the lettuce core.

It was amazing! Such a fun experience, and with really knowledgeable and friendly guides. The giraffe had an attitude, which was hilarious.

Congrats on passing all your classes! I knew you could do it! Hopefully that will let you breathe easy this summer until classes start up again.

Thank you!! It's so nice to have that first year behind me.

WOW OH WOW! on the African Trek. Sounds incredible!

AMAZING

Food at the Nomad lounge looks and founds fantastic!

It really was! It's one place where I'm always thinking about how to fit it in to a trip now.

MMMMM!!!! I haven't eaten at Sanaa, but it really looks fantastic. So many yummy, exotic places. So little time. Thanks for sampling so many for us!

We really eat WAY too much when we go. But it's for the exact reason you give, there are just sooo many great different places to try! Dining reservations were also a great way to get out of the heat in August.

I think it's because I've gotten my hair into a pretty low maintenance routine now, and I don't want to mess with that It's those darn curls.

Haha oh I can totally understand that! My hair is straight...ish. So you wouldn't think it would give me much trouble. But it does. I become a fluffy frizzy mess without a little hair maintenance. Sometimes I just roll with it. I can't imagine straightening your long thick curly hair all the time though! Even though I'm sure it looks beautiful either way, it would be so much work!

speaking of which, it needs cut. It's out of control. The front pieces that used to frame my face, now go to mid-chest... I haven't had it cut since before the wedding

I wish I had this problem! Mine is beginning to grow out again...slowly. The joys of a pixie cut I guess! The back grows like crazy. The front and sides and top take their time. I never noticed how hair grows at different speeds on different parts of your head until it was this short.

 

[docsoliday1]

And I was really concerned about Disney in August last year, but I was shocked at how well we managed. We'd built it up so much and had been so prepared that it actually wasn't as bad as I'd anticipated. And we mostly adjusted to the temperature within probably 4-5 days, so since it was a long trip we didn't have much trouble for the second half.

Funny thing for me...since I've been doing umpiring this year, it gets HOT in all that gear, so now the heat (although not yet full Hotlanta status) hasn't bothered me.

Hey @Terra Nova guy, just do all your summer driving without using the AC in the car or better yet, keep your windows up as well. You'll be ready for August in FL.

 

[pkondz]

I like to think this way!!

So true. It was great to be working in the US for a weekend and dealing in USD. We ended up buying some Disney gift cards to help pay off our August trip, and it was great not to be thinking about how much we were losing on silly bank conversion fees alone. Uggh.

Huh! Not a bad idea!

 

[MeghanEmily]

Hey, friends! Since I've obviously been doing such a bang-up job keeping up on my TR, and all of yours, I decided that now is as good a time as any to begin my next report!

If you haven't lost faith in me yet by this point, you're welcome to come follow along with it here:

"I DON'T LIKE MY FAMILY!!" —
A May WDW Solo Mini-Trip Report + A Summer of Art

This report will detail my recent solo mini-trip to WDW after travelling to Orlando with N for work. I'll also use it as a vehicle to share some photos and brief comments from some of the places we've been travelling this summer for N's spray paint art. As always, you're welcome to hang out, ask questions, tell stories, make me blush with mildly suggestive jokes, recommend recipes, etc., etc., all over there at the link above. I'll try my best to keep up.

Some of you may also remember that I made a resolution back in January to attempt to read 12 books for pleasure over the course of the year, one for every month. Being on the road with N has been busy, and I haven't had much time to crack a physical book (and I can't read in the car without getting sick!) I have, however, found a good solution: audiobooks! They pass the time driving, and help me to stay "well-read." So far in 2018, I've read physical copies of Turtles All the Way Down by John Green, and A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. (I also just watched the film on the plane ride home last night.) And I've listened to The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman, This Is Me by Chrissy Metz, and Born a Crime by Trevor Noah. If you enjoy autobiographies at all, (or if you don't yet know that you do,) then I highly recommend Born a Crime. Specifically, I recommend listening to the audiobook narrated by the author, himself. I had occasionally watched some of Trevor Noah's bits/sketches over the last few years because N and I enjoy that kind of politically-charged comedic reporting, but I wouldn't have considered myself a particularly big fan of his. Regardless, I found his book gripping, yet easy to listen to, and incredibly memorable. He's a great storyteller, and what a remarkable story he has to tell. I may not have been a fan before, but I am now.

I just got home from Niagara Falls last night, so I'm doing my best to get caught up around here again. I'm hopeful that you're about to see some updates here in the next day or two, as well as some likes/comments on your TRs if I've been following them.

 

[amalone1013]

Hey, friends! Since I've obviously been doing such a bang-up job keeping up on my TR, and all of yours, I decided that now is as good a time as any to begin my next report!

I want to start a PTR for this Fall and next summer, plus do some mini-TR that tells a little about our other 3 trips with our APs... I have a problem!

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. (I also just watched the film on the plane ride home last night.)

Wrinkle in Time is on my list. I never read it as a kid!

 

[MeghanEmily]

I want to start a PTR for this Fall and next summer, plus do some mini-TR that tells a little about our other 3 trips with our APs... I have a problem!

Right!?? I'm right there with you!! I was thinking to myself, "You know, I could really start a PTR for our anniversary trip...I miss when I was writing the one for the wedding...there's so much to write about...and to get your Disfriends excited about for when you write the TR..." And then I was like NO. Stop it, Meghan. You have a problem.

Wrinkle in Time is on my list. I never read it as a kid!

I hadn't either! It was neat! I love that she wrote a sci-fi/spiritual mash-up story about a scientifically-minded girl protagonist.

 

[pkondz]

I made a resolution back in January to attempt to read 12 books for pleasure

I didn’t know 50 Shades had 12 books in the series.

I have, however, found a good solution: audiobooks! They pass the time driving

This is what I do.

 

[MeghanEmily]

I didn’t know 50 Shades had 12 books in the series.

Haha oops! Perhaps that could have been worded differently! I have never, however, read a 50 Shades book. And I don't particularly feel like I'm missing out. I've read lots of stuff from various "Banned Books" lists. But not those ones.

 

[buzzrelly]

I have, however, found a good solution: audiobooks!

Did you join audible? I think I could get into audiobooks, but I don't feel like paying for them. Instead I listen to a ton of Podcasts while I drive

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle.

I love that book. I read it with my kids a few years back and we all enjoyed it. I still haven't seen the movie but we are heading down to SC in July so I may buy it for the car ride down.

I'll pop over to your new TR, see you there

 

[amalone1013]

Right!?? I'm right there with you!! I was thinking to myself, "You know, I could really start a PTR for our anniversary trip...I miss when I was writing the one for the wedding...there's so much to write about...and to get your Disfriends excited about for when you write the TR..." And then I was like NO. Stop it, Meghan. You have a problem.

 

[MeghanEmily]

Did you join audible? I think I could get into audiobooks, but I don't feel like paying for them. Instead I listen to a ton of Podcasts while I drive

We joined long enough to get our free trial credits, both on the Canadian version of the site, and the US one (pro tip!) But then I cancelled both accounts. I have paid for several audiobooks, and I know it's good to support the industry, but I still hate to pay for them. Especially where I won't have a hard copy to put on my shelf. For some reason it's easier for me to justify buying actual hard paper copies of books? (And I do that far too often!! I buy more books than I have time to read!!) The best thing I've discovered though is that our local library offers a lot of audiobooks, and they have also connected with an app that lets you borrow audiobooks from your phone. You download them and get to keep them and listen to them through the app for 2 weeks, and then if you don't renew them they magically disappear when your loan is over. There's a waitlist for a lot of the most popular ones, but it's still an awesome tool...and free for anyone with a Nova Scotia library card!! Free is my favourite thing.

Nathan also listens to a ton of podcasts while driving. There are some where he can listen to them all day long and not get bored.

I love that book. I read it with my kids a few years back and we all enjoyed it. I still haven't seen the movie but we are heading down to SC in July so I may buy it for the car ride down.

I couldn't believe I'd never read it because I would have loved it as a kid. I liked the movie, too. It wasn't everything I'd hoped it would be, but it had some nice moments, neat visual effects, and a good message. It was a good plane movie because it was easy to follow and kept my attention, without being too intense and complicated. Spoiler alert: it's missing the whole scene with Aunt Beast/Ixchel though, which was disappointing to me because I thought that was a neat part of the book.

Yes!

 

[MeghanEmily]

Hi, friends! In the continuing saga of Meghan's Summer of Magical Pastel Hair: I visited my fabulous stylist yesterday, and she hooked me up with some fun new purple locks! I'm a big fan.

Then today my mom and I ran (run-walked, let's be real,) a local 5K. It's a women's race, untimed, which supports a local non-profit running group for young girls of all abilities and walks of life. It's a neat event! Their theme colour is also purple, so my new hair worked out perfectly! They also offer tutus as an add-on to your race registration pack, because the woman who started the whole race was a serious runner who used to scoff at people who wore tutus, and then one race she tried wearing one herself and ended up winning that race. More than that, it shifted her perspective about not judging other women, and building them up, wanting everyone to just do their best and make it across the finish line, etc. It was a fun evening...and now I'm exhausted!

The medals were also super awesome. Even better than my runDisney 5K Pluto medal, if I'm being unbiased. I told N that I only do these things for the bling.

And now, a return to your regularly-scheduled programming...


"James Cameron Imagined Floating Rocks—a Disney Trip Report"
Disney Day 11 - Part 1

We were up early this morning, well-rested after the busy day we'd had the day before. We probably should have slept in, knowing what a long day we had to come...but that would have been the logical thing to do, and there's something about Disney World that just sucks all the logical right out of my malformed brain. Today was our very first ever Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party day!!

The smart families usually take the first half of a party day as a rest day so they can party all night long......We did not do that. So I'll try to cram almost everything before the party into this update, and then the next update will kind of be where the MNSSHP reporting begins.

We had a reservation this morning at 7:35am at Boma. I love getting the earliest seating here because it's so much quieter, you don't need to fight a massive line to get to the buffet, and your server can take more time with you...but it means having to get out of bed. Our favourite server at Boma is Theresa. She's really fabulous, down-to-earth, and she'll sit at your table and talk to you like you're a friend. We requested her section, but she wasn't working that morning. Instead...we got Cindy. You may remember her from my little TR detour earlier where I shared about our February trip. This was our first experience with her, and it was less funny than February's encounter, and mostly just weird. She was nice enough, and she brought us our drinks and the cheque, which was her job. But she was weird and clingy, and initiated the same conversation with us over and over again. I wouldn't NOT recommend Cindy. She was perfectly nice. And totally fine. We didn't want for anything. I just wouldn't go out of my way to recommend her either. It was a weird interaction. (And it only got worse when we had her again in February, as you'll remember if you read that part!)

I've done Boma enough times now that I have a good idea of what I can eat safely on the buffet, and what risks I'm willing to take, but Cindy INSISTED that I have the chef come out and take me around the buffet again anyway, so I did. And I'm pretty sure this chef was trying to kill me. He seemed to want nothing more than to cross-contaminate me, and if I didn't know the buffet and my allergies so well, I could have had a major problem! (If you're unfamiliar: for allergies, "cross-contamination" is when something doesn't directly contain the allergen, but it's made near or with other things that do, like making gluten free pizza in a normal pizza kitchen where there's flour flying around in the air, or using the same utensils for things, or deep frying gluten-free things in the same oil that had battered items, etc. Some people who aren't very sensitive don't have to avoid cross-contamination. I'm hit or miss, so I usually try to on vacation.) The chef took me to the oatmeal and casually told me it was fine. WAIT. No. Oats are one of the most highly cross-contaminated foods ever because they're usually processed on the same equipment as other grains. Even though oats don't contain gluten themselves, they're not typically considered to be gluten free unless they're processed in a dedicated facility. I asked him if the oats were certified gluten-free. He looked nervous, said he didn't know, but he didn't think so. (I noticed the next time I returned to Boma that the allergy-friendly menu here no longer listed them as safe for gluten.) Okay, so no oats for me. Then he told me that the tater tots were fine. AND that the fried plantains were fine. I challenged him again on whether they're fried in a shared fryer with wheat-containing items. Well...yes, they were. So again, hard no on those ones. He was very kind and was trying his best, so I hope that I was able to educate him a bit more about what some allergies require so he didn't make the same mistakes with others.

We brought back our food, which was delicious, and also requested that they make us mimosas with jungle juice. Cindy brought them out for us and informed us that they were a gift from the restaurant for our honeymoon! Score!!

Much food. Many love.

I also don't typically drink, or even eat food cooked with alcohol in it, because it seriously doesn't agree with me due to my brain condition. I happen to LOVE mimosas though, so I managed to drink about half before the negative side effects were starting to set in, and then poor N had to finish mine for me. What a burden. What a tasty, tasty burden... *slurp* #worthit

After Boma we drove over to Epcot.

I was in a weird mood from getting up early, and from our weird Boma encounters of the morning, and maybe even from the virtually non-existent amount of alcohol in my system, so we were making snarky/silly jokes. They weren't actually that funny looking back, but it was just the mood we were in, I suppose. To backtrack, we have a running joke now, after all the TRs I've written, that whenever we hear a good quote we tack "a Disney trip report" onto the end...for that matter, even if we didn't hear it in Disney. N loves this game, and I humour him. We parked in the "Imagine" section of the lot, and I started going on and on about how imagination had made Disney so much money and created so many cult-classics, etc. Nathan made a comment about Pandora, and I too-sarcastically replied, "Yeah!! James Cameron imagined floating rocks! And NOW look at what came of that!" N then became far too amused with the phrase: "James Cameron Imagined Floating Rocks, a Honeymoon Trip Report." ...For some reason, it never stuck.

We arrived at the gates at about 8:45am and were held under Spaceship Earth until we were let inside at 8:57. It had been a while since I'd done an Epcot rope drop, and the crowds caught me off-guard. Shortly after this was taken, most of them began what I recently heard a CM refer to as the "Frozen 5K."

We'd been hoping to FP Soarin', and I managed to unexpectedly snag a 9:20am FP while we were waiting to be let in. Awesome!! That worked perfectly because it gave us just enough time to rope drop Test Track first. We headed over that way and decided to get in the single rider line to maximize touring time. It turned out to be an awesome strategy, because since the single rider line is much shorter than the standby line, we ended up bypassing everyone who had headed for standby the same time we got there, and so we ended up loading into the ride before there were any standby folks around, and we wound up in the same row of the same car anyway! Another win! This morning was starting to shape up nicely! It's really hard, looking back, to pick a "Best Day Ever" from this trip, other than the wedding day itself, because there were so many special ones.

Then we headed over to Norway for Frozen. I was feeling a little funky from Test Track and from my forbidden mimosa, so I decided to use DAS here just in case I ended up getting worse and having to leave the standby line (which had already gotten reasonably long.) Then I ended up feeling quite a bit better, so all was well. While we waited for my DAS to open up, we puttered around Norway, did a lot of gift-shop-browsing, and hung out with some trolls.

Then we rode Frozen, and I somehow managed to get really wet. I know there was a ride photo for this, but for some reason I can't find it anywhere. But it happened. I promise.

By this point we were nearing the end of our FP window for...

We made our way to the Land, and got in the FP queue, noticing that standby line was only 40 minutes. The FP line, however, was backed up further than I'd ever seen it. Shortly after, an announcement rang out that there was an unexpected malfunction increasing wait times, and that the current standby wait would be around 80 minutes. Then shortly after, a similar announcement, but that now the wait had jumped up to two hours. The FP queue moved slowly, but still much faster than standby. Everyone was grumbling. But I love Soarin', so I wanted to try to wait and stick it out. When we got closer to to the CM, it seemed that the left theatre was down. We waited a total of 30 minutes before reaching the video. Not terrible, but long enough that I was happy to finally see Patrick!

I don't know why I always take his picture in this video? I feel like, at this point, I could probably gather all my photos of him together and put them one after another in sequence and be able to recreate the entire beginning of the video in a stop-motion type of effect, complete with all of his facial movements synched to the text. #DisneyObsessionProblems

After we...ya know...soared, we decided to go sign up for the Behind the Seeds tour, something we'd been meaning to try for a while now. There was room on the next tour in about 15-20 minutes, so we headed off outside to buy some popcorn and a frozen lemonade bar, ate our snacks, and returned to the tour desk.

The Land pavillion is really so neat—something I appreciate even more now after having done the UnDiscovered Future World tour a couple weeks ago—and I stopped on the way back to take it all in.

Our Behind the Seeds tour was really neat, and definitely worth the reasonable cost. It turned out, however, that we were the ONLY ones on that tour, so we got our own private tour! Honestly, the extra attention was really great, but I almost found it a bit strange and awkward on this tour for it to just be the two of us. Our guide was nice and knowledgeable. She was a college student studying a botany-related field and was working for Disney on her internship. She wasn't, however, the kind of person who can just charismatically talk to strangers for days with ease, so it felt for me like there were some awkward silences and weird moments on the tour which might have been fixed by having a larger group. There were times I started to get a little bored or found it getting slow. That said, N, who—like his father—is more interested in gardening, seemed to have a better experience than I did and didn't find it slow at all, so it may have just been me.

We got to walk through a backstage area. Then our guide showed us a video and told us about the work they're doing using other insects for pest control instead of using pesticides. She took us through the green houses and explained the plants to us, and talked about some of the really cool innovative growing techniques that you learn about more briefly when you ride Living with the Land.

I had heard about this plant in other reports (though now I can't, for the life of me, remember its name! I should go back and re-read @Steppesister's reports...I feel like it's probably in there! Also, if you don't read her reports, you should. )

It was lush and beautiful, until you tried to touch it. Then the leaves shrivelled up before your very eyes!

I had heard tales of guides dramatically giving the plant a big shake, or sticking their hands all the way inside it and wiggling it around, etc. Our guide just kind of gently stroked its leaves and encouraged us to do the same. A little anti-climatic, but still such a neat phenomenon! Plants are cool!

Then she showed us some of the hydroponic gardening they do—which I know @chunkymonkey knows a lot about since her husband, Steve, is an avid hydroponic gardener!

While she talked to us, she had a big bag of cucumbers for us to munch on. It was a bag intended for a full sized group, and they weren't allowed to reuse it, so she said to eat as many slices as we wanted. N hates cucumbers. HATES them. So it all came down to me!! I took a deep breath, and tried my level best to polish them off. It was just too many cucumbers.

I was also sad they weren't Mickey-shaped.

One of the neat things about this tour is getting to go behind the scenes (or seeds, if you will) of Living With the Land, and digging a little deeper. Unfortunately, the ride wasn't running at the time, so we didn't get to watch the guests and try to look all superior and VIP-like. They just kept sending through empty boats the whole time we were there. It was kind of eery.

Our guide showed us those giant winter melons you see hanging when you go through the ride. She told us about how heavy they were (... ...come on, it's been almost a year now! I have no idea how heavy they are now.) And then she got super-strong N to pick one up. Ginormous!

Sadly, apparently they're pretty bland.

We saw the giant "nine pound lemons," not quite ripe, and not quite yet nine pounds.

Then in one of the cooler parts of the tour, she taught us about their fish farming practices, and how the fish are served in several of the Disney restaurants, and we got to feed them.

It felt ironic that we were feeding them so that, someday, they would likely be feeding us.

The final greenhouse was probably the most exciting. It had a lot of big beautiful tropical plants, like the giant palm you may remember from the ride. There are also lots of spices growing there, and she gave us a "scent test" to see if we could recognize some of them by scent alone.

Then she offered to take any pictures we'd like, recommending one in front of the Mickey-shaped tree.

Shoot. I'm only just remembering now that I was supposed to post this one she photo-bombed on social media and tag the Behind the Seeds tour in it. Oops.

I did enjoy the tour, though I wished there had been a few other people there to stimulate the conversation and ask questions we might not have thought of. I think it's an excellent value though, with a very reasonable price. I was also worried about the heat of the greenhouses in the summer, and they were certainly warm, but never unbearable, so I needn't have been anxious. N came out already planning on taking his dad on the tour someday if we could ever get them back to WDW. He's an avid gardener and enjoyed the ride, and we both thought he would have gotten so much out of this, and would have wanted to experiment with some of the growing techniques.

It was nearing lunch time, so we decided to grab a bite in Sunshine Seasons. I think neither of us was all too hungry after Boma that morning, so I think we shared the chicken meal, a bag of caramel popcorn, and a vegan parfait-type fruit dessert.

We decided to make our way out of the Land...

...to go back and rest up, and change into our costumes for the Halloween party that night. On the way out, I couldn't help but snag a quick selfie in front of the famous "bubblegum wall."

We were about to have a very busy night!!​

 

[disneyAndi14]

Wow, awkward CM interactions at Boma, glad you knew the cross contamination concerns! I always worry about that with Andi’s peanut allergy!

I’m so glad you did the future world tour at Epcot, we loved this tour.

I have thought of doing the Behind the seeds tour but Andi doesn’t seem to interested. Glad you two liked it!

Excited to hear about your first MNSSHP I hope you weren’t to tired.

 

[buzzrelly]

I visited my fabulous stylist yesterday, and she hooked me up with some fun new purple locks! I'm a big fan.

You really pull that off…looks great!

Then today my mom and I ran (run-walked, let's be real,) a local 5K.

Congrats!

I told N that I only do these things for the bling.

Why ELSE would you run?

we wound up in the same row of the same car anyway! Another win! This morning was starting to shape up nicely!

This happened to us, too

Not terrible, but long enough that I was happy to finally see Patrick!

Yay! I love him and Soarin'

 

[MeghanEmily]

Wow, awkward CM interactions at Boma, glad you knew the cross contamination concerns! I always worry about that with Andi’s peanut allergy!

Allergies are tricky business! I'm lucky that mine aren't life-threatening, so at the worst I'll just feel quite sick for a few days. But it would be so easy for a chef to seriously endanger somebody! I know you're always taking a risk when you eat at a restaurant with allergies, but 99% of the time I feel really safe eating at Disney.

I’m so glad you did the future world tour at Epcot, we loved this tour.

It was such an excellent tour! I'm still always remembering little tidbits I learned on the tour and thinking about how I can't wait to show things to Nathan! Especially some of the neat things I never knew about in Spaceship Earth!

Excited to hear about your first MNSSHP I hope you weren’t to tired.

It made for a long day for sure, but we had a lot of fun! So much so, that we have it booked again without a second thought for this August.

You really pull that off…looks great!

Thanks! It's a lot of fun. And it initiates conversations with complete strangers much more often than I expected!

Congrats!

Thank you!

Why ELSE would you run?

Exactly!

 

[EvilVillainess]

I've been enjoying your trip report and even read some others you wrote. I can't wait to see your costumes. We love MNSSHP.

 

[MeghanEmily]

I've been enjoying your trip report and even read some others you wrote. I can't wait to see your costumes. We love MNSSHP.

Thanks so much!! MNSSHP was so much fun! I know a lot of people complained when Disney added party dates in August, and I get that it's insanely early to celebrate Halloween, but I loved that we got to experience it for the first time because of that!

 

[Raeven]

Hi, friends! In the continuing saga of Meghan's Summer of Magical Pastel Hair: I visited my fabulous stylist yesterday, and she hooked me up with some fun new purple locks! I'm a big fan.

I love the purple!

So it all came down to me!! I took a deep breath, and tried my level best to polish them off. It was just too many cucumbers.

That's a very yummy task you had there.

It felt ironic that we were feeding them so that, someday, they would likely be feeding us.

 

[kastoney]

And I'm pretty sure this chef was trying to kill me. He seemed to want nothing more than to cross-contaminate me, and if I didn't know the buffet and my allergies so well, I could have had a major problem!

Yikes, that is pretty scary. Good thing you were educated. He could have seriously hurt someone with his lack of knowledge.

We brought back our food, which was delicious, and also requested that they make us mimosas with jungle juice. Cindy brought them out for us and informed us that they were a gift from the restaurant for our honeymoon! Score!!

How have I never thought of this??? Genius !

N then became far too amused with the phrase: "James Cameron Imagined Floating Rocks, a Honeymoon Trip Report." ...For some reason, it never stuck.

I wanna play....MeghanEmily and her Ever Changing Hair Color, a Disney Trip Report

t turned out to be an awesome strategy, because since the single rider line is much shorter than the standby line, we ended up bypassing everyone who had headed for standby the same time we got there, and so we ended up loading into the ride before there were any standby folks around, and we wound up in the same row of the same car anyway!

Brilliant!!!! I'll have to steal this one on for future trips.

Shortly after, an announcement rang out that there was an unexpected malfunction increasing wait times, and that the current standby wait would be around 80 minutes. Then shortly after, a similar announcement, but that now the wait had jumped up to two hours.

I had heard tales of guides dramatically giving the plant a big shake, or sticking their hands all the way inside it and wiggling it around, etc. Our guide just kind of gently stroked its leaves and encouraged us to do the same. A little anti-climatic, but still such a neat phenomenon! Plants are cool!

Wow, that is very cool. Never seen anything like that before.

I did enjoy the tour, though I wished there had been a few other people there to stimulate the conversation and ask questions we might not have thought of. I think it's an excellent value though, with a very reasonable price. I was also worried about the heat of the greenhouses in the summer, and they were certainly warm, but never unbearable, so I needn't have been anxious.

Glad you all had a good time. A private tour does sound nice, but I can see how that could get awkward without the right guide. Once Casey is old enough I definitely want to do this someday. I've loved the land since I was a kid so it would be great to see behind the scenes.

 

[missangelalexis]

That's pretty unfortunate that the chef at Boma wasn't as well-informed as he should have been! Good thing you'd already been there to know what you could/couldn't eat!

Haha I love hearing about how slap happy you two were that morning!

Pretty impressive doing all 3 big ticket rides so quickly!

Glad you decided to do the tour! I'm sure it felt awkward at times being the only 2 though!