The Trip we thought would never end! 9/4/17 - 9/12/17

Finally on the move...we head over to Typhoon Lagoon. It was so hot and humid this early in the morning, we couldn't wait to get there!

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This place looked like a LOT of fun!!

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LOTS of fun photo ops!!IMG_5698.JPG

So glad this park was pretty much empty. We had availability to set up anywhere we wanted. We chose to be right next to the wave pool. We dropped our gear and jumped right in.
 
Now let me tell you....I've been in MANY different wave pools. But THIS ONE....HOlY CRAP!! This was NOT a wave pool!! This was literally a typhoon! When those alarms went off telling you it was coming, you better brace yourself! We watched this HUGE wave coming towards us and thought, this can't be THAT bad....LOL! Boy we were we wrong! It knocked us on our butts! And it was AWESOME!!!!!!

If you read my Pre-trip report, you know about the waterproof pouches I bought for our phones. And they worked great! I was really nervous about them and decided I just wouldn't submerge my phone and i would be okay. BUT...when that typhoon hit, I was under! We laughed so hard! And then stood there waiting for the next one....lol.

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After getting knocked around about a dozen times, we were exhausted. We took a break and rode the lazy river. This was much more relaxing than the one at Blizzard Beach.

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Hidden Mickey!
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The kids chose to ride some of the slides while we just chilled out.

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What a great park! This is my all time favorite water park and it is officially on the list of things to do every time we come back to Disney.
Highly recommended!!!

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Just as we were thinking about heading out, a very heavy rain storm moved in. It was quick and we thought it would pass quickly, but it wanted to stay for a while. There was lightning nearby so they cleared out the pools and river.

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Back to the resort for some lunch and to chill out a bit before we head off to the Animal Kingdom!
 
Back to the resort to unload our wet swim suits, eat lunch and maybe take a nap....NOT!!

DS had to check out his collection of goodies while we ate.

On every bus and monorail, he asked the driver or conductor if they had any trading cards. Most of them said they were out, but the ones that said yes were very generous! They sorted thru what they had to give him a couple of different cards.

He managed to get some older bus cards, but also the newer ones too.
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And here a few of the monorail cards he collected...

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And after all these years, we finally saw a Boat card!!!

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A new thing to the transportation are these wooden nickels..

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Now that he had at least one of each, he grabbed his lanyard and was ready to start pin trading.
 


We enjoyed a quick lunch and because it was still pretty early for our Fast Passes, the kids jumped in the pool for a bit and we enjoyed the hot tub. Until the kids joined us...

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As long as no one else was in there, we let them stay. I normally don't let the kids hang out in the hot tub. Adults Only! lol

Time to trek over to the Animal Kingdom.

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Maybe because it was later in the day, but I have never seen this park so empty before. I thought for sure it would be packed because of the Avatar stuff.

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Our first FP was for Kali River Rapids. In all of the times we have been going to Disney, we never get to this ride. It was the first thing we put on the bucket list when we discussed AK.

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Prepared to get drenched, we wrapped up what we could, had our phones in our waterproof pouches and buckled up for the ride.

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I have to say, with all of the warnings we got about getting soaked on this ride, we were kinda disappointed. The ride was over way too quickly and it felt like nothing more than a bumpy boat ride. No one on our raft got wet. If the line wasn't 20 minutes long, we would have gone again.

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But alas, we had more FP to worry about. Next stop....Avatar and Flight of Passage!
 
We had heard a lot about the Flight of Passage ride and it was a must do. When I was trying to get FP's, I had to totally switch up our daily itinerary because I couldn't get them for the day I wanted. It was almost how we handled having breakfast in the Castle. You see what's available and then work your daily plans around that. Luckily, I was able to find something.
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Walking around to find Avatar Land we took in some of the sights. This is honestly our least favorite park, but the scenery is amazing!

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We even said Hello to Russell along the way!

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Finally, we find the land all are raving about. It really was beautiful scenery, but not having seen the movie, it did nothing for me.

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So this ride....It was always compared to Soarin'. Same concept. You are strapped in and taken on a "ride" like you are flying. In Soarin', you are seating in a regular seat but it's supposed to simulate a hang glider. On FOP, you are seated on something similar to a bicycle. It's supposed to be like you are on the back of a Banshee. At first it was a little uncomfortable. But once it started....WOW!! This was sooooooo much better than Soarin'!!! The"bicycle" moved around just like you were flying. Dodging things, turning left and right. Dipping, racing...it was AWESOME!!!

Another ride that was HIGHLY recommended!!!

The day was starting to catch up us and we were getting kinda tired, but our next favorite ride was coming up...Expedition Everest!!!
 


During our trek over to EE, we ran into some old friends...

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We finally make it over to EE. I don't like that it's all the way in a back corner. But oh well,...it's still a great ride!

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This is a ride we could do over and over again....We have and will again! When we get to the park early in the morning, it seems like most head towards the Safari ride. We've gotten to EE before and were able to ride back to back at least 3-4 times before the lines got long. This time, we had a FP. But the stand by line was only 15 minutes long. We used our FP and then jumped back into the SB line and rode 2 more times.

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After that, we let the kids go by themselves 2 more times.

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It was starting to get dark, so we decided to head out and go back to the resort for some rest...but wait!!!
 
We stopped into Restaurantosaurus to grab a bite to eat. We rested for a while and talked about our plans for the next day. The park seemed to be pretty empty, so we planned a leisurely stroll out.

Right after dinner, we were cleaning up to leave and this elderly gentlemen stops by and asks us if we are DVC members. I told him no, but we are here on a friends points. He asked if we had wristbands....huh??!! Wristbands for what?? He told us that on that night DVC was holding a Moonlight party for DVC members only. The park will close and clear out at 9pm EXCEPT for those that have wristbands. He had a few he was not able to use because his friends didn't show up. So he passed them on to us! Now we were able to stay in the parks well after closing - until 1am!!
As if the park wasn't empty enough, now it clears out more for just the DVC members!

Mind you...we are already exhausted, but this totally gave us a second wind!! Now we can head back over to Avatar and do the Na'vi River journey...the one I couldn't get FP's for! So excited!!

We were just in time to grab a quick seat for the River of Light show. I heard this was kinda boring, but we figured we could hang out until the park empties.

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it was okay....it was a nice resting period. I wouldn't do it again. It really was quite boring...

As we were walking out, I noticed many people taking pictures behind me. I couldnt get a good picture on my phone, but the moon was aligned right behind EE and it was eerily awesome!

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So we did the Na'vi River Journey...zzzz....it was pretty, but there really isn't much to it. This is still our least favorite park....

So we walked around a bit and there were so many characters out! This was probably the best part of the after hours party.

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Is this guy Carl so freaking cute or what?!!!

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As an added bonus, one of the shops was inviting everyone to walk right thru while they handed out Mickey ice cream bars! Another Mickey snack off the bucket list!

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For real now, we were just too tired and decided to call it a night.

Good night Tree of Life!!

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Looks like fun!! Joining in!! :flower1:

That's awesome that you guys got to attend the after hours party!! :dance3:

O/T, Do you and your daughter wear the same eyeglasses? Just curious, looking at the photos!! :cool1:
 
I have to admit...waiting until the 4th day of our vacation to get to the Magic Kingdom was very unusual for us. Watching the weather every night and noting the progress of Hurricane Irma, I can't say I wasn't getting very nervous. I really wanted to spend some quality time in the MK and this was also the night of the Halloween Party. I had everything crossed that the weather held out so we could enjoy this day. I woke up early, as usual, and this was sight I was greeted with.IMG_5972.JPG

As you can see, there are some dark clouds looming over MK. I was trying my best to get everyone moving...still praying this wouldn't become anything big enough to ruin the day.

By the time we left the resort, it was getting pretty dark...

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We hightailed it over to the boat launch near the Great Ceremonial House where we took a leisurely cruise straight to the MK.

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I love this little boat! It's small and out of the way, and not many people know about it or prefer to ride the monorail.

In about 6 minutes, we disembarked and headed into the MK!!
 
On thru security and time to make use of all of those Photopass photographers all over!

I will have to post those later as I haven't finished editing them yet...

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I love that all of the fall / halloween decorations were already up, but I miss seeing the park in its original glory.

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These friendly characters were smiling at everyone as they walked by...

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Main Street is my favorite place to be in the MK. I love the ambiance. I love the decor. I love that old Mayberry feeling. The buildings are so gorgeous.

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On to a surprise that we have always wanted to do, but were never able to...another bucket list first!!
 
Viewing the castle in the distance, we heard the bells of the Main Street Trolley behind us!

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It had just pulled up practically right next to us and the Dapper Dans sang to us to Hop Aboard!

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We have always seen people riding this trolley along Main Street and I was always so jealous of them! How exciting to finally get this nostalgic ride right up to the castle!

We had to greet Walt and Mickey of course...

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and 5 minutes later, the castle show began and we practically had front row seats!

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This magical day at the MK was off to a wonderful start!!
 
As went entered Adventureland...

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DD asked "what is the Enchanted Tiki Room?"....what??!!! All these trips and she had never seen it?? Of course not!! Not when the top priority was getting to Splash Mountain or Big Thunder Mountain!!!

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They thought it was cute, but corny. I thought it was a great spot to take a break! It was already hot and humid and taking a toll on me...and we had just gotten to the park...

Next up was one of my old time favorites...The Jungle Cruise. Somehow, for the same reasons listed above, we always miss this ride during the day. We end up taking the cruise just at dusk and it's kinda hard to see much. I prefer the daytime...much more fun!

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Next we checked into the Pirate Adventure League....
 
This was a fun Scavenger Hunt for the kids.

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I liked that it was just in Adventureland and not the whole park like the Sorcerer's of the Kingdom is. We were given our map and sent on our way. When we found all the clues, we checked back in to get our collectors cards, and the next map. There are 5 adventures altogether.

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After the 2nd adventure, we were awarded FP's for Pirates of the Caribbean. We were anxious to move on out of Adventureland, so we moved on to the ride.

On our way, we saw Captain Jack giving his Pirate's tutorial.

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DS decided he wanted to spend some time here playing the Sorcerer's of the Kingdom game, so we took a break and let him play while we enjoyed a Citrus Twist.

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We MUCH prefer the Dole Whip over the Citrus Twist. The frozen orange juice was quite overwhelming...it definitely needed a lot more vanilla ice cream.

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While relaxing, I found a hidden Mickey,...in my shadow..

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Moving on the Frontierland...

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I look up and who do I see walking about....Clarabelle Cow!!!

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I did not even realize she still made appearances in the parks! I was so excited! We raced over to do a meet and greet and she wouldnt stand still. Apparently, lots of characters are just doing walkabouts. There is no line, no spot to see them, you just have to follow and try and get their attention. Which DS was able to do and had a blast strolling around with her.

In the meantime, a few other Country Bears made their appearance. After a few minutes of strolling about, the music started and we all did a do-si-do with all the bears. Then we did the chicken dance, and the Electric Slide.

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We had a great time! After dancing in the hot sun, we went inside to watch the Country Bears Jamboree show. It was a nice break in a cool place...

After the show, the kids wanted to try their skills at some target shooting.

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Next up was a walk over to Liberty Square.
 
My favorite aunt could be your doppelgänger! I am following along - seems like a great trip so far!
 

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