"See the Line Where the Guests Meet the Mouse? It Calls Me..." March 2017 *New Post 7/4*

I know many people look at Animal Kingdom as a “half day” park, but that’s just blasphemy to me!

Agree! We love Animal Kingdom and never want to leave part way through the day.

For some reason, MANY people will leave the park in droves, and after the rain you should experience some decreased attraction waits.

I've noticed this. We're going in August, and it'll be my first summer trip since I was a kid, so I'm preparing myself to wait out those summer thunderstorms.

Scott bought me this compass necklace from a boutique on South Congress in Austin for Christmas. What accessory could be better for a day focused around adventure?

How sweet! I love this! Very AK appropriate.

Scott: One of my favorite photo ops in DAK. I love the way the alter lines up with the mountain.

I've never noticed this before! What a cool shot! It's especially neat with the fog.

I saw that they had a beer called the Sunfish from Sea Dog Brewery. This is a local Orlando brewery, and we ate there when we lived in Orlando so it caught my eye. I ordered one for Scott, and we took our drinks to sit and relax in the Rivers of Light viewing area.

There are a couple of Sea Dog Breweries in Maine, too...which seems kind of random since they're independent and it seems like two totally distant and unconnected states to be in! I remember seeing on their website not long ago that they were "Now in Orlando!" We're planning to eat there on our way to the airport for our upcoming trip because we're flying out of Maine and they have some good gluten free options. :)

The thing I love about Animal Kingdom the most, is just taking time to bask in the gorgeous scenery.

Best thing. There may not be as many "attractions" as, say, Magic Kingdom, but there's so much to see and experience.
 
This morning was very foggy, but it made for a very cool atmosphere.
I agree!

Scott: One of my favorite photo ops in DAK. I love the way the alter lines up with the mountain.
This is always a favorite picture for me, too!

Following the show, we headed to our Dinosaur FP, which was for 10:40. This is one of our favorites!
YES!!! Mine as well.

There is so much seating available here during the day, it’s an awesome place to hang out with a meal or snack.
Great idea! :thumbsup2

I hope our words and pictures bring you some Disney magic, wherever you’re reading from!
Always :goodvibes

Have a great time at Disneyland! Do you like Indiana Jones or Dinosaur better?
 
Great update and wonderful photos! We are hoping to spend more time at AK park in the future as well. I know it always seems to be a half-day park but we never get much done there so I think we will have to expand it in the future. I love many of the shows there and haven't seen them in a long time. Unfortunately my kids and family are all about RIDES RIDES RIDES so they can do EE, Dinosaur, the Safari and the rides in Dinoland really and be done.

Have a great time in Disneyland!
 
Agree! We love Animal Kingdom and never want to leave part way through the day.



I've noticed this. We're going in August, and it'll be my first summer trip since I was a kid, so I'm preparing myself to wait out those summer thunderstorms.



How sweet! I love this! Very AK appropriate.



I've never noticed this before! What a cool shot! It's especially neat with the fog.



There are a couple of Sea Dog Breweries in Maine, too...which seems kind of random since they're independent and it seems like two totally distant and unconnected states to be in! I remember seeing on their website not long ago that they were "Now in Orlando!" We're planning to eat there on our way to the airport for our upcoming trip because we're flying out of Maine and they have some good gluten free options. :)



Best thing. There may not be as many "attractions" as, say, Magic Kingdom, but there's so much to see and experience.

Getting to and from the parks can be a bit of a hassle, so it just doesn't make sense to me to leave on account of rain. Maybe if it was already late and we were planning to leave anyway. Otherwise, you would just be getting totally soaked trying to escape the rain anyway!
That's funny that Sea Dog is in Maine too! Their food in Orlando is good, so it should be a good experience!

I agree!


This is always a favorite picture for me, too!


YES!!! Mine as well.


Great idea! :thumbsup2


Always :goodvibes

Have a great time at Disneyland! Do you like Indiana Jones or Dinosaur better?

Personally, I prefer Dinosaur. It's just so fun! I love the queue and the setting as a museum, and the silly preshow too of course. Indiana Jones has had some issues the last few times we've ridden it, where the effects don't quite work. I also like the layout of going through a lot of smaller areas on Dinosaur, rather than the larger room in Indiana Jones. It's going to be under refurbishment next weekend while we're there, so hopefully they get that worked out. However, I do love that they have such a thrill ride in their Adventureland!

Great update and wonderful photos! We are hoping to spend more time at AK park in the future as well. I know it always seems to be a half-day park but we never get much done there so I think we will have to expand it in the future. I love many of the shows there and haven't seen them in a long time. Unfortunately my kids and family are all about RIDES RIDES RIDES so they can do EE, Dinosaur, the Safari and the rides in Dinoland really and be done.

Have a great time in Disneyland!

Have you guys ever walked the trails (Gorilla Falls and Maharajah)? I just love them and they provide something to see and experience, but at a relaxed pace.
 


Have you guys ever walked the trails (Gorilla Falls and Maharajah)? I just love them and they provide something to see and experience, but at a relaxed pace.

We have done them...it's been a while though. One time we stopped for a long time and listened to one of the cast members talk about the different gorillas. It was pretty interesting.
 
Sunday, March 12th: A Magic Kingdom Park Day, Part Three


Welcome to the ending of our first park day! Where we last left off, we were in Tomorrowland and our Jungle Cruise Fastpass for 5:15 was ready to go, so we headed back across the park to use that.

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As you may have read, when I did my Disney College Program, I worked at the Jungle Cruise. Weirdly enough, we actually didn’t ride this when we visited in 2015 (crazy, I know), so we wanted to make sure we did this attraction. I think at the time, it was just sad that I didn’t quite “belong” there anymore, and I felt awkward in a way. This trip, I didn’t feel that at all and I had a great time.

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After cruising around the four major rivers of the world, we walked to Main Street to get on the train. It seems like the Main Street stop is often a lot less crowded than the stops in the other areas of the park. If you’ve never ridden the train, YOU NEED TO! It’s shaded with a nice breeze. Once you’re on it, you can stay on as long as you like, which would make this a really good spot if you want to stay in the park with a child who’s taking an afternoon nap (if they can sleep through the occasional train whistle, but sitting towards the back of the train should help with that).

Scott: If you're catching the train, avoid catching it at Storybook Circus. The SC stop is the only stop that's really... Obvious. Most people blow by the Main Street stop and the Frontierland stop in favor of other attractions, but the Storybook Circus stop always seems to have a line. Plus I have to say that catching the train from Main Street just feels right.

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We got off the train at the Storybook Circus stop. I know that Storybook Circus is thought of as a “kiddie” area, but we love hanging out here. The theming is just so perfect. From the peanuts and animal prints in the pavement, to the delicious smell of sweets emanating from Big Top, it’s just a very transformative area.

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We decided to go into Big Top and I wanted to see if they had fresh cotton candy, as I thought they might make it at the sweet shop in the center of the store. Well, they do, but they don’t make it to order. So, I didn’t end up buying any cotton candy right then. BIG MISTAKE! I don’t know what was going on, but there ended up being some sort of cotton candy shortage throughout all the parks besides Magic Kingdom for the rest of our trip!


At some point after the Jungle Cruise, we picked up a Fastpass for Buzz Lightyear at 6:40 and we headed towards Tomorrowland. I had read somewhere that Tomorrowland Terrace had “dipped chicken tenders” and it had been awhile since we ate a meal, so we wanted to stop there before we rode Buzz. We used to love getting the dipped chicken tenders they had at one of the carts in Animal Kingdom, Friar Nook’s in Fantasyland, or the Backlot Express in Hollywood Studios. I don’t know of anywhere still serving them right now. When we walked over to Tomorrowland Terrace, it was closed. I should’ve known it was only open for lunch. So we decided to head on to Buzz. We passed the infamous Purple Wall on the way, and I rejected Scott’s request for some “purple wall pics.”

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Scott: It could have been a gorgeous, purple photo, but Alli is just to0o0o0oo0 co0o0o0ol.

Obviously, Scott obliterated me on Buzz. I just cannot get the hang of that game!

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Scott: The orange robot's left hand, the top of the volcano, and the bottom of Zurg's little flying pod thingamajig. And then you can pose for awesome pics like this...

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When we left Buzz it was 6:54, we went to look for another Fastpass and found one for Splash Mountain at 6:55! Woo! I promise, if you just look, there are so many options! If you really have your heart set on something, just keep checking when you have downtime, like in line for the restroom or a food stand.

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We knew that we wanted to ride Splash Mountain a couple more times, and now day one we were already on ride two! From what we saw, picking up a Fastpass for Splash Mountain was never that difficult, so I wouldn’t use one of your initial Fastpasses there. I’m sure this had a lot to do with the cool weather, but even during warm times, there are more Fastpasses available for Splash Mountain than there are for the other thrill rides.


It was a really fun boat full of all young adults like us. I think it’s so funny when people get scared that each of the tiny little drops are going to be “the big one.” It’s as if they teleported to the load area, and didn’t just walk right by the huge drop to see what it looks like!


So, finally, it was time to get some dinner for real! We wanted a turkey leg, but missed the stand in Frontierland (there is still one there, right?) so I looked on the app and saw that there were turkey legs at Tortuga Tavern. This turned out to be a great place, because there was basically no one there. I think the registers were closing pretty soon, so check if it’s still open on the app if you’re heading there for dinner. The other good thing was that the turkey leg was served in a tray, so we found it a lot easier to eat than normal.

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Scott: I'm (obviously) a huge fan of the Pirates movies, so I was visibly excited to find this "Crew Roster" in the back room of the Tavern.

We just hung out at a table in the room by the fireplace with the Sorcerers spot for a while and then we decided to play another APATOSS map. This time we did the Heads You Lose map.

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After we were done, we had time for another map before Wishes, so we did Blackbeard.

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This was the last map because the fifth map isn’t currently working. We got another set of Fastpasses for doing two more maps and decided to save them for our next time at the Magic Kingdom (they didn’t expire until the end of the month, so we knew we could hold onto them to use later in our trip.

Scott: I was pretty bummed that the 5th map (Guardian's Curse) wasn't operating. It's always been my favorite. Let me also take this second to say PLAY APATOSS. If possible, play at night. The symbols are harder to find, but most of the spots have amazing lighting effects. Look at that pearl!!!

At this point, it was 8:30 so we decided to go get a spot for Wishes at 9pm. We stood in the street to the left of the Partners statue. Now that there’s no nighttime parade, the street is fair game for fireworks viewing, which creates so much more space. I saw a friend who worked at the Jungle Cruise while I did, who now coordinates on Main Street, and she was telling me that back when there was a nighttime parade, they couldn’t keep people out of the street. But now that there isn’t one, people always leave the space empty.


While it’s certainly sad that Wishes is leaving, I know that these things need to change and I’m very excited to see what’s coming next!

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After the fireworks ended at 9:12 on the dot (we used to use them to tell time because they’re so precise!) we decided to just wait out the thirty minutes until Once Upon a Time.


We loved the music from Celebrate the Magic, and the part with Walt always meant so much to us! However, the projection effects and quality in Once Upon a Time is just so superior. It’s an awesome show! I find it kind of odd that they’re not showing it right before the fireworks anymore, but maybe the schedule will change when the new fireworks show begins in May.

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Scott: Celebrate the Magic was my all time favorite night time show. I loved it with a passion, and I was crushed when they announced that it would be leaving. The new show is great. The projections are crisp and beautiful. However, it lacks emotion, and it's just way too "Beauty and the Beast" for my liking. Great show, but I prefer CTM.

We didn’t want to join the mass of people headed to the buses just yet, so we decided to ride Haunted Mansion again. On our way there, we walked through the Tangled restrooms thinking that we may take a picture holding on of the lanterns in the new photo op.

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Well…that line was wrapping around the entire area, so we decided against it and just headed on.

Scott: Most people don't realize that there's a puzzle to be solved hidden in the bust eulogies in the interactive graveyard. There are 5 busts and it's your job to figure out who killed who. Start at the center, and you'll quickly realize that each description lines up with a picture that's placed on another bust's eulogy. For example, Uncle Jacob was poisoned, and there's a vial of poison on Bertie's eulogy. But when you get to the last bust, Cousin Maude, it claims that "her dreams went up in smoke," implying that she burned to death in her sleep. (Isn't this a family park?) But there are no family members left to blame, so who dunnit?? Well check out Maude's bun...

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MATCHES! The story goes that Maude had used matches to hold up her bun, and they ignited while she slept!! Pretty gruesome. Another mystery solved!!

I’ve told you about how our attitude has changed towards being a lot more relaxed in the parks over the last few years. Well, personally, I HATE the crush of people trying to jam out of the stretch room and into the load area. So, we now just always hang back for as long as possible. If you wait in the stretch room for just a bit longer than usual, you will hear the voices of the gargoyles below the portraits whispering to you.


Once we were in our doom buggy, we had a situation occur in front of us due to an issue with the age policy. Any child under 7 years old needs to ride with someone 14 years or older. It seems that Disney Cast Members are receiving some extra pressure to follow this rule tightly. So, if cast members ask your child their age etc., that’s probably why. They had to Emergency Stop the ride and switch a party’s seats around, because I guess there was a 6 year old riding alone from their party.

Scott: BEHOLD! THE ONLY CLEAR (ish) HAUNTED MANSION PHOTO I GOT!

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BEAUTIFUL!!

We slowly made our way back out of the park, moseying down Main Street and taking in the beautiful nighttime lighting.

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Eventually we made our way back to the bus and were at Pop around 11pm.


So on this day, we left the resort at 7:15am and lasted until 11pm (this will change drastically as the weather changes throughout the week). We used a total of eight Fastpasses, rode a total of sixteen attractions, and watched three shows and parades. We also did all of the APATOSS Maps, and had meals or snacks five times. It was an absolutely awesome park day! I wish I could live it over again right now!


However, our next day at Animal Kingdom was one of my favorites ever! But am I going to say that about every park day? Probably…


Thanks for reading along! I hope our words and pictures bring you some Disney magic, wherever you’re reading from!
your facts are absolutely amazing. You've made me super excited to go do the Pirates of the Caribbean game when we get there in May
 
Really loving your TR! Fellow Texas resident here too! I did the college program wayyy back in 2005 - was one of the best times of my life! I still keep in touch with many of the friends I made in that time :)

Your pictures are so great! Thanks for sharing with us!

Oh and I LOVE Hoop Dee Doo. If I ever get around to writing a TR for my last trip (which was in Dec) I will include it. It's something I do at least every other trip. We always sit Category 1 and the food is awesome - but the show is what makes it! Hope ya'll enjoy it!
 


I want to be your friend. I live in Austin too so this should be easy. Mayor Adler just replied to a tweet of mine so you know I'm pretty big time.
Great pictures, by the way.
 
your facts are absolutely amazing. You've made me super excited to go do the Pirates of the Caribbean game when we get there in May

Thank you so much! I'm so glad our knowledge is being put to good use!

Really loving your TR! Fellow Texas resident here too! I did the college program wayyy back in 2005 - was one of the best times of my life! I still keep in touch with many of the friends I made in that time :)

Your pictures are so great! Thanks for sharing with us!

Oh and I LOVE Hoop Dee Doo. If I ever get around to writing a TR for my last trip (which was in Dec) I will include it. It's something I do at least every other trip. We always sit Category 1 and the food is awesome - but the show is what makes it! Hope ya'll enjoy it!

Thanks! We're so excited to finally experience Hoop De Doo!

I want to be your friend. I live in Austin too so this should be easy. Mayor Adler just replied to a tweet of mine so you know I'm pretty big time.
Great pictures, by the way.

And I went to A&M! :)
 
Great report! You guys are so fun and informative and your pics are lovely. My first trip is next month and I'm really looking forward to AK, the theming is great
Have fun in Disneyland!
 
Do you like Indiana Jones or Dinosaur better?

I will always love Dinosaur more, but Indiana Jones is fantastic. IJ feels a bit more immersive, only because on that ride, you're supposed to be INSIDE a temple, which is easy to pull off. On Dinosaur, you're supposed to be in an outdoor environment 65 million years ago, which is a bit harder to pull off inside a building. I think Disney does a great job of this, but you still can't help but realize that you're actually inside. Does that make sense?

P.S. on the wall inside as your car is puling off, there's some letters on the wall. Something like CTX - WDI - AK98. Which stands for "Countdown to Extinction - Walt Disney Imagineering - Animal Kingdom 1998." Anyway my point is that Countdown to Extinction is a one million times cooler name.

You've made me super excited to go do the Pirates of the Caribbean game when we get there in May

It's AWESOME. And you get free fastpasses (maybe). Seriously though if you only have time for one or two and Guardian's Curse is functioning, ask to do that one.

Great report! You guys are so fun and informative and your pics are lovely. My first trip is next month and I'm really looking forward to AK, the theming is great

Thank you for your kind words. I hope our reports help you with planning your trip. It's going to be amazing.

Hi guys! I'm following along. Such a fun read!

:welcome:

Love the report so far! Enjoy your other trip but please do finish this one when you are back =)

Once summer comes, we'll put out updates a lot more frequently! It's my personal life goal to finish this report before we start our next trip.

Following along. Your report is really fun!

:welcome:
 
I hope you have a great trip to Disneyland for Mother's Day!

Animal Kingdom is such a gorgeous park. I think most people overlook the best part, which is the sheer amount of details. I enjoyed all the photos you captured throughout the day; it reminded me how rich AK can be.

Your Expedition Everest photo was awesome.

Dinosaur is genuinely scary. I always feel so bad for the little kids I see in the queue. The parents have no idea what's about to hit their kiddos. :rotfl2:

What a bummer that it rained yet again on your AK day, but at least you were able to enjoy an "adult" Dole Whip.
 
Animal Kingdom is such a gorgeous park. I think most people overlook the best part, which is the sheer amount of details. I enjoyed all the photos you captured throughout the day; it reminded me how rich AK can be.

It's amazing how authentic everything looks. Everything. Even down to Chester and Hester's Dinorama, which I have unique feelings about. But more on that later.

Your Expedition Everest photo was awesome.

Haha just wait on our next few.

Dinosaur is genuinely scary.

ITS SO SCARY!!! And so loud. And so perfect.
 
Love your report.
Too bad you couldn't do the last map for the treasure hunt, just if you don't know, once you finished the 5 maps and get the 5 treasure cards you get a 6th card with a message from Jack Sparrow written on it (something saying that you become a captain in his fleet if I remember correctly)
 
Too bad you couldn't do the last map for the treasure hunt, just if you don't know, once you finished the 5 maps and get the 5 treasure cards you get a 6th card with a message from Jack Sparrow written on it

I think we did get that card, but I'm bummed that we didnt get the Guardian's Curse card. It's the best map. Hopefully it's working again when we go in July.
 
Hi everyone! I am just sitting down to start writing our update for this weekend. Like I said in our last update, we skipped last weekend because I was on a trip to Disneyland with my mom. I thought I'd give you guys a tiny little trip report on that weekend. If you love Disney World, but have never been to Disneyland, you should really look into going! For a couple years after we left WDW I think I actually preferred going to Disneyland, but now I think I'm back on the WDW side of things. However, both WDW and DL have their strong suits!

I flew in pretty late Friday night, got an uber from LAX to our hotel, the Courtyard Marriott Anaheim Theme Park Entrance. There are so many hotels in the Disneyland area in Anaheim that they have to be really specific with the names! The location was awesome! We were upgraded to a corner room "family suite" that had a little side room with bunk beds and two showers. We also had a great view of Disneyland where we could see both Space Mountain and the Matterhorn.

We walked to the Grand Californian from our hotel and ate at the Hearthstone Lounge for a late dinner.

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We both got a Raspberry "Vo-Jito" (mojito but with vodka) and we had ahi tuna poke and a bbq chicken flatbread to eat. This was a really good, easy meal. There were a lot of open tables, but again it was way later than a usual dinner time. My only complaint was that it smelled like a rotten bar in that area. You know that bad bar smell? I hate that! But it was a pretty location.

Saturday morning we were up early to head to Disneyland. We redeemed our tickets purchased through the Disneyland app at the turnstiles and I was so elated because I got the cutest ticket ever!

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We got a Fastpass for Hyperspace Mountain, rode BTMRR, and then had beignets and a mint julep in New Orleans Square for breakfast.

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The past two times we visited Disneyland, Haunted Mansion was down and being set up for the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay. I knew that they did Fastpasses for the holiday version of the ride, but this trip they had Fastpasses open as well.

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I don't know if these are always being offered now, but both times we got a fastpass they were available for use just 40 minutes later (that's the shortest wait you can pull a paper fastpass for, the time will always be at least 40 minutes away) and there was never anyone back in the courtyard area where they're distributed. The parks were very very crowded all weekend, especially Disneyland!

Since we were celebrating Mother's Day, I took my mom to get tea at Steakhouse 55 for lunch. This was an amazing experience, I highly recommend it! We got the deluxe tea, which is pricy but you get to try so many different delicious things! The service was amazing and we were stuffed full!

We went back to Disneyland but ended up switching over to DCA later in the afternoon, because DL's overly crowded walkways were stressful. DCA has such massive walkways, it was a nice change of pace. My mom ran in the Tinkerbell Half Marathon Sunday, and we went to DCA when she got back from the marathon. We got fastpasses for Soarin' and ate lunch at Carthay Circle, which was awesome as always! Again, great service here and great cocktails and food too! If you don't get to DCA right at park opening, it's kind of hard to do everything there, specifically Radiator Springs Racers. However, we were able to get a Fastpass for Toy Story Midway Mania later in the day. Fastpasses are new to this attraction in California actually! For once, because I wasn't in a car with Scott, I was actually able to get the highest score in the car haha!

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We ended up going to the 5:30 showing of Frozen at the Hyperion Theater. The line to get into the holding area for the sections of seatings started all the way back by Monsters Inc! It was wild! We walked so far to find the back of the line, that we didn't know if we'd even get to see the show. However, we ended up getting into the balcony section just fine. I am so glad we ended up committing the time to see this show! My mom is a huge Frozen fan, and I really enjoy it but I guess working at Disney World the year the movie came out and was immediately overlaid onto everything made me a little disenchanted by it. However, this show was incredible!!! The effects were both impressive and creative, the cast was very talented, and they thought of really clever ways to depict many of the scenes. This is a must see and it was easily my favorite thing we did during the trip.

After the show, I found a really cool "Maps of Disney Parks" book for Scott in the Off the Page shop. The book is exactly what it sounds like, and has basically every map imaginable from the Disney Parks all over the world. We returned to Disneyland to close out our weekend. You may have heard of the very popular Tigger Tail sold in the Winnie the Pooh shop, which we love. This time there was a new selection in the treat case, a chocolate and caramel dipped marshmallow wand, and since this is pretty similar to the Tigger Tail, we decided to get that instead.

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It was really good, but a bit different from the Tigger Tail since it's covered in rich chocolate instead of sugar and sweet white chocolate. I told Scott that it tasted like really fancy Easter candy! haha

I got home from that trip on Monday, had a fast and furious four day work week and now we're on to the LAST WEEK OF SCHOOL! Yes! This means we won't wait until the weekends to update anymore because these two teachers are soo close to summer break! ...and our upcoming WDW trip in July :)

Ok, now I am off to work on the "real" update, back at Animal Kingdom!
 

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