"You Look Like a Beached Jellyfish." An August 2017 TR! Finished 3/22

Love the start to your report! You scored awesome fastpasses and I'm sure you will have a wonderful time. BTW, my neighbours have a golden as well, but his name is Dug. Love Russell!
 
Love the start to your report! You scored awesome fastpasses and I'm sure you will have a wonderful time. BTW, my neighbours have a golden as well, but his name is Dug. Love Russell!

Thanks for joining in!! We considered naming him Dug, but it seemed like the obvious choice so we decided to go with Russell :) We have a cat named Kevin too and she's his best friend, so it works out well!

I'm going to go read your PTR now for your solo trip!
 
Following!

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"Hi there! I have just met you and I love you!"

Your pup is absolutely precious! He looks like he has such a personality, I love it lol!
 


Following!



Your pup is absolutely precious! He looks like he has such a personality, I love it lol!

Thank you, and welcome! Yes, he definitely has a big personality! He's constantly keeping us laughing with his antics. Today's excitement included picking a very small watermelon from our garden and carrying it around like another tennis ball.

In for the read!

Thanks for following along, happy to have you!
 
Love this report so far! We have two dogs and a cat and I love your idea of bringing home a new toy for Russell! I might have to do that for my own little zoo :)

Can't wait to read more! I love all of your details. I want to attempt my very first trip report for my September trip :flower1:
 
Love this report so far! We have two dogs and a cat and I love your idea of bringing home a new toy for Russell! I might have to do that for my own little zoo :)

Can't wait to read more! I love all of your details. I want to attempt my very first trip report for my September trip :flower1:

Thanks for following! Hoping to get another update in either tonight or tomorrow morning. You should definitely do a trip report! I think it's a fun way to relive the magic once you get home! :wizard:
 


Arrival and Lunch at Flame Tree BBQ!

We were so excited we were finally here! We had seen Pop Century once before and thought it was a really cute looking resort. I snapped a great picture on the way in.

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Since we were sitting only a couple rows back in the bus, we were able to get off pretty quickly and didn’t have to wait to grab our carry on bag since Chris was holding it. We walked straight into the lobby, where we didn’t have to check in! The lines weren’t too long, but I was still glad to not have to even bother with stopping!

Side note:

I should say right now that this is one of the little details that we just absolutely love about Disney and make the price tag of a Disney vacation worth it to us. I’ll have a couple of these details scattered throughout here because I’m a nerd like that. DH is really into customer service and learning about how businesses train their employees and generally improve to provide a better customer experience, so he’s super into the behind the scenes stuff of Disney. I’m just really impressed by how Disney has streamlined the process so much that you can arrive and head straight to your room.

Anyways, we were cruising past lines and checking out the theming in the lobby. Unfortunately, we were cruising so fast that we didn’t take any pictures. Oops... Anyways, the lobby was super cute and we really liked seeing the different decades! That being said we headed straight out the backdoor on our way to our room. I actually did manage to get a couple shots here!

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We quickly found our room in building 10. DH didn’t realize that value resort rooms opened to the outside, but he didn’t care. At exactly 11:00, I scanned my magic band and... voila! Welcome to Room 343!

Uhh... which I also forgot to take any pictures of... except these two.

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Ok, we were in a hurry to get to the parks, so don’t judge me! Anyways, we had your basic room with two double beds. We didn’t get the king bed we requested, but that was ok. My main priority was that we were close to the buses, and we definitely were. Our room was overlooking a small playground and the sidewalk next to it lead directly to the bus stop.

The room seemed nice and was certainly clean. We were both a little surprised that there wasn’t more theming. There was nothing wrong with it, but I guess I was thinking maybe the theming would be more similar to Art of Animation? I don’t know, I think I just expected a little more Disney. But again, nothing wrong with it at all.

After dropping our bags and taking a restroom break (P.S. why does these toilets flush with the force a great typhoon?), we were out the door and on our way to the bus stop!

We made the short walk to our bus stop and found only about 10 other people waiting at the Animal Kingdom stop. I was a little concerned that the mounted screens didn’t show an incoming bus time for Animal Kingdom, but after less than five minutes a bus pulled up. So far, A+ on resort and transportation!

On the ride over, DH said that he was pretty hungry and wanted to get lunch as soon as we got inside, which was fine with me. The bus ride wasn’t too long and we were quickly there and disembarking.

Side note 2: Here’s another little thing I love- they have the bus stops perfectly measured out to have the bus pull up and stop and then be able to turn and take off without ever having to back up and waste any time. That one makes me sound really nerdy, but it’s just impressive!

We hoofed it into the park and I headed towards bag check while DH went through the guests without bags line. While in the bag line, I noticed the woman across the table from me had some really cute sunglasses on. I told her I liked them and quickly discovered she didn’t speak a word of English. With some pointing at my own sunglasses and then gesturing at hers, I got the point across though!

Once I reconnected with DH, we got in line to scan our magic bands. The crowds looked a little rough here, but weren’t terrible.

I snapped two quick pictures on our way in.

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And then it was time for lunch at a new (to us) restaurant- Flame Tree Barbeque! I’d read a lot of good reviews of this restaurant and DH likes BBQ, so I figured we’d give it a try. It also looked like it had some really large samplers that we could split with one quick service meal, thereby stretching our dining plan out further.

We decided to split the ribs, chicken, and pulled pork sampler ($19.99), which came with beans, coleslaw, and jalapeno cornbread. We also got a side of fries ($3.29 which we used a snack credit for) and a Coke ($3.29, which was included as part of our quick service meal). We almost ran into a problem when I scanned my magic band and my pin number was not what I thought it was! I tried two different options and neither worked! I was about to panic when DH suggested one more and that did the trick!

We took our food and sat down.

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Everything was delicious! I liked the ribs the most as far as the meats went, but they were all good. The jalapeno cornbread was EXCELLENT! I don’t really like jalapeno, but this was really good! I was very glad we picked this as our first quick service option of the trip. It was plenty of food for us to split and an excellent value for one quick service credit. We also really enjoyed the outdoor seating which was very shaded.

Up next, we kick off our Animal Kingdom day right!​
 

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I'm literally so late in this reply but your trip is looking fabulous so far!

Totally agree on the usefulness of MBs. A GAME-CHANGER for the vacation industry. It does so many things, and in a destination like WDW, there's a true need for it. Also, purple magic bands rock and were Disney's best decision. ALSO also, I agree that they should have a new system for park-to-room purchases. We had to sign like 80 different slips this trip. Disney PLEASE.

Your shopping list is A+! I love the "You Are Here" mugs!

I'm so glad you got your room request! I actually really, really adore that 70's print on your room wall with Pete the dragon, I'd lowkey buy that.

Flame Tree is SO good. I would go there almost every time I went to Animal Kingdom last fall.

I can't wait to hear more about your AK-venture!
 
I'm literally so late in this reply but your trip is looking fabulous so far!

Totally agree on the usefulness of MBs. A GAME-CHANGER for the vacation industry. It does so many things, and in a destination like WDW, there's a true need for it. Also, purple magic bands rock and were Disney's best decision. ALSO also, I agree that they should have a new system for park-to-room purchases. We had to sign like 80 different slips this trip. Disney PLEASE.

Your shopping list is A+! I love the "You Are Here" mugs!

I'm so glad you got your room request! I actually really, really adore that 70's print on your room wall with Pete the dragon, I'd lowkey buy that.

Flame Tree is SO good. I would go there almost every time I went to Animal Kingdom last fall.

I can't wait to hear more about your AK-venture!

Thank you! This was honestly such a good trip for us. Got a ton done but still super relaxing.

DH was so excited, but tragedy struck in the form of the You Are Here mugs, which I'll get to soon... :(
 
Welcome!! So jealous of your long list of resorts stayed at in your signature! We've decided we would eventually like to stay at all the resorts Disney has to offer :cutie:

That's actually my goal!!! I was able to knock off SSR and CSR just this summer.:P But, I still have my favs, POFQ and WL...
 
That's actually my goal!!! I was able to knock off SSR and CSR just this summer.:P But, I still have my favs, POFQ and WL...

I love it! We really want to try out Beach Club, Yacht Club, or Boardwalk next. But I think if we do the big family vacation we've been talking about in 2019, our most cost effective option will end up being Pop again. But it'll be all refurbished rooms by then, so that should count for something, right?!
 
Animal Kingdom Day

After we finished up lunch, we said goodbye to some cute little friends who had joined us. We suspect they were in it not for the company, but just for the food.

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We decided our first ride of the trip would be Kilimanjaro Safari!

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While the wait time said 55 minutes, it seemed like the line was moving pretty well, so we figured we'd just go ahead and wait. We got to check out these cute cranes along with some babies while we were waiting.

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The line moved really steadily the whole time and I was really glad we decided to wait. We probably only had a 35-40 minute wait instead of the 55 that was posted!

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I was a little concerned that doing Kilimanjaro Safari right in the middle of the day wouldn't be great timing. It wasn't blazing hot and humid (actually the weather was very pleasant), but I still didn't know how many animals we would see. But we saw a ton!

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(Thanks for stampeding over Mufasa, jerks)

We got very up close and personal with some zebras.
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Also, our guide pointed out these ostrich eggs on the ground. Serious question I have for you all- are these real eggs? I genuinely do not know. I wondered if Disney plants them there, but that doesn't seem to be a very Disney thing to do. They just seemed very conveniently located to the tour is all :)

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Honestly, the only animal we didn't see on the Safari was the lions. And I don't know about the rest of you, but the only thing I've ever seen the lions doing is laying on some rocks napping, so I didn't feel too upset about missing out on them. All in all, I really good safari ride for the middle of the day!

OH, so when did they add in the falling bridge element again?! I remember waaaay back in the day they used to do the part where you go over the bridge and it's like the bridge is going to collapse. But then in our 2012 and 2015 trips, they quit doing it. Now they've started again?

Up next, we criss-cross our way across the park...

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I love it! We really want to try out Beach Club, Yacht Club, or Boardwalk next. But I think if we do the big family vacation we've been talking about in 2019, our most cost effective option will end up being Pop again. But it'll be all refurbished rooms by then, so that should count for something, right?!

For our trip in November, I actually wanted to stay at POP again, but there was no availability. So, we started at ASMo, switched to CSR (because we really liked it back in July) and ended up at the Contemporary Resort with a lake view...I haven't done YC, BC or BWI. They are DEFINITELY on my list too!!!
 
Yes, the eggs are fake. They are in the same spot EVERY time...We were fortunate enough to see the lions scratching on a tree a few years back. It was very cool...
 
Yes, the eggs are fake. They are in the same spot EVERY time...We were fortunate enough to see the lions scratching on a tree a few years back. It was very cool...

Thank you!! When he said I was like "I feel like I have vaguely heard this story before... also I don't see any ostriches." :magnify:
 

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