Lodge-hopping... from the Pacific Northwest to an African Savannah: A July 2009 TR!

[HollyBelle]

Day 7, Friday, July 17: Magic Kingdom/Epcot

Friday morning we woke up early (of course) and made our way down to the Mara for breakfast; a new experience for us, because we usually do sit-down breakfasts. But in an effort to save a bit of money , we eliminated table service breakfasts on our leg of the trip with the exception being on Brett’s birthday, which we’ll get to later.

I had a ham, egg, and cheese croissant, which was quite good and Brett got the Mickey waffle. We took our food out to the picnic area where nary a soul was seen. Must be too early for most folks!



Here are some calm and inviting pictures of the watering hole before it fills up with people:

[HollyBelle]

When evaluating our plan of attack for the last four days of our stay, Brett and I decided: 4 days = 4 different park openings. This one was to be our Magic Kingdom morning! This time we raced off to Frontierland with the masses and picked up BTMRR fastpasses before hopping in line for Splash Mountain. As I’m typing this I just realized it was my first Splash Mountain ride of the entire trip. Totally uncharacteristic, considering it’s the BEST RIDE EVER!





The Hidden Mickey at the end of the ride is my favorite. Probably because it’s one of the few I found completely on my own, having never heard of it before. It was a “no flash” photo and I apologize for the lack of quality:



Next up, we spent a little time in Fantasyland, and caught my favorite 3D attraction: Philharmagic!



We also rode It’s A Small World… a classic in my opinion!

[HollyBelle]

From there we headed back to Toontown in the hopes that some characters would be at the teardrop, but alas, there weren’t any. We got a snack and waited around for awhile but no one came out so we hopped on the train and made our way back to Frontierland. I can’t tell you the last time we took the train. It was fun and relaxing!

From our vantage point getting off the train, we could see that BTMRR was down. Booooo. I had an idea though; the old frontier was a great place to get my checkers revenge! So off we went to the checker set outside the Frontierland Shootin Arcade. Because it was so hot we decided “quick checkers” was a must and wouldn’t allow each other to think too long over a move. I should make this a permanent rule because I wiped the board with him! And didn’t even have to trick him to do it!



The park was really busy and everything had such long lines we weren’t willing to wait in. No doubt, the lack of Space Mountain and fact that BTMRR was still down had a hand in it. So we wandered around and made our way back to Fantasyland by way of the castle. An area we don’t tend to walk through often.



Without much else to do we ended up back at the teardrop again… no characters. Déjà vu: back on the train to check one more time on BTMRR. Waaahhhh. Still down. I was such a whiner about this because I really really wanted to ride it. The phrase “you always want what you can’t have” certainly comes to mind now. Pictures of the defunct Big Thunder from the railroad:





Without much time before lunch, we decided to go hassle Cinderella’s family. Now, usually when we meet them I find that Drizella is more fun and animated, but this day the award goes to Anastasia. And Lady Tremaine didn’t miss a beat either. First off, Anastasia wanted to take Brett off my hands. Of course, Lady Tremaine was sizing him up… she was having trouble believing a scruffy guy in a tshirt could possibly be made of prince material:



Look, she’s absolutely appalled that her daughter would choose so poorly:



Then when I decided to look positively snotty in my picture with them, Lady Tremaine acted absolutely repulsed by my behavior. She let me know just how unladylike I was and being that I wasn’t a lady she would not let me spend time with her two perfect angels for children!! I love Anastasia’s response to my being berated.

[HollyBelle]

On our way to lunch we passed by the Move It Shake It Celebrate It party. Too bad, we didn’t have time to stop and join in the festivities:



We had reservations at the Plaza. It’s one of my favorite lunch spots on property because the food is consistently good, the prices aren’t too bad, and there’s usually some kind of entertainment if you time it right: the Main Street citizens tend to frequent the place often. We had judged correctly this time because soon after we ordered (grilled chicken sandwich for Brett and the club for me) Miss Inga came strolling through the doors to adorn the 100th family of the day with a little magic. After this was out of the way the Birthday proceedings began! She made her way around the restaurant chatting with all the celebrants, doling out Mickey stickers and decorating tables with confetti. She was smitten with Brett:



And continued to pet him:



After scouring the room for all the July birthdays she made them get up and join her in a little Happy Birthday Hula! Back at our table Brett received the first of many free Birthday desserts! Let me just tell you, this cupcake was sooooo gooood. It had a delicious buttercream frosting and the cake part was super fresh.




Hopefully up by tomorrow: our afternoon at the resort, dinner and Epcot!

[sweetpee_1993]

OMG! You wore white shorts into a park and rode a wet ride?! I'm too chicken to even try wearing white shorts because I just know I'll end up with grubby-dirty-hiney-syndrome like I've been draggin' my backside thru the dirt. And on a wet ride! You are brave, chicca! LOL!

I've never had the Plaza before but have been thinkin' we should try it. I wonder if there will be other options for in-park breakfast in January if what I read about Crystal Palace being closed for refurb January/February are true. Brett's b-day cupcake does look yummy. I see he also received the "birthday check". Gotta love it!

I loooove Lady T & the girls! I met them for the 1st time in May at 1900 Park Fare and they were a hoot.

[mouselvrmom]

Love the Lady Tremaine and daughters pics!

[eagles]

love the pics, terrific character interaction.

[HollyBelle]

Originally Posted by sweetpee_1993

OMG! You wore white shorts into a park and rode a wet ride?! I'm too chicken to even try wearing white shorts because I just know I'll end up with grubby-dirty-hiney-syndrome like I've been draggin' my backside thru the dirt. And on a wet ride! You are brave, chicca! LOL!

I've never had the Plaza before but have been thinkin' we should try it. I wonder if there will be other options for in-park breakfast in January if what I read about Crystal Palace being closed for refurb January/February are true. Brett's b-day cupcake does look yummy. I see he also received the "birthday check". Gotta love it!

I loooove Lady T & the girls! I met them for the 1st time in May at 1900 Park Fare and they were a hoot.

Hah...don't feel too sorry for Brett, I picked up the real birthday tab at Jiko! But it's funny you noticed that.

I actually wasn't thinking much about my shorts... they're actually khakis, although they are rather light. I do make a conscious effort not to wear dresses or short skirts when we go to MK, usually because it causes major problems getting on/off Space Mountain.

I would love to see the Plaza offer a breakfast option, but you should definitely consider trying lunch their sometime.

Originally Posted by mouselvrmom

Love the Lady Tremaine and daughters pics!

Me too! Their actions are outrageous. Brett and I think there should be a Gaston meet and greet because he would be the male equivalent of the Tremaine's... constantly talking in the third person about how no one's as manly as Gaston or as great. Always assuming the ladies in line are there to fawn all over him. It would be hilarious!

Originally Posted by eagles

love the pics, terrific character interaction.

Thanks, eagles!!! Gotta love the characters.

[HollyBelle]

When we were finished with lunch we thought an afternoon at the new Kidani pool would be fun so we went back to the resort, changed and headed off to Kidani…. or NOT. Multiple CMs had told us that if you hop on the DTD bus it will take you over to Kidani and then to get back you can use any other bus because it will go to Jambo House before leaving the AKL property. I really don’t like the bus system, and realize I’m a bit spoiled because we always have access to our own vehicle while we’re there. So I still can’t figure out why I thought it would be a good idea to use them to begin with instead of walking or taking the car. But off to the bus stop we went.

After waiting 30 minutes (again, don’t know why we didn’t just up and go to the car), we finally got on the DTD bus. When it pulled out of the lot it went LEFT. We’d been had. It took off for Downtown Disney and there was nothing we could do but ride the loop around. I was so incredibly mad. I’m not kidding you, there was probably steam coming out of my ears. It took the full 45 minute loop for Brett to calm me down. And to top it off… when we got back, the driver did what he was supposed to do and pulled into Jambo House first. Grrrrrr. The drivers really need to stick with the route. So word of advice to anyone planning to use the busses to get from one property to the other… ask the driver which way he’s going before he takes off!

Even the signs tell you to use the DTD bus to get to Kidani:



It was overcast and about to rain so we just got back off the bus and went to our room. I seethed over a cold Landshark Lager and eventually let it go!

We got ready for dinner and made our way over to the Yacht Club a little early. I wandered around and took some pictures while we were waiting for our reservation time.





Some thunder was rumbling in the distance so Stormalong Bay had been cleared, making it an opportune time for pictures. I can’t wait until December because we’ll finally get a chance to relax and swim here:





We checked in at the Captain’s Grille and were shown to a table right away; the place was empty.



This was our first time eating here and to be honest I didn’t really have high expectations for it. I don’t know why that is, maybe because you never hear much about the place, but I just wasn’t expecting much. We were pleasantly surprised by the food. I had crab cakes (again) because I wasn’t hungry enough for a huge meal and Brett ordered the chicken breast with mushroom pearl pasta. And, wow, was his chicken good. It was really moist and the pearl pasta was delicious!





No special birthday attention at the Captain’s Grille for those of you who might be looking for fun birthday meals. But that’s okay because we were so stuffed from all the food. It was about 7:15 and we debated whether or not to move the car to the front entrance of Epcot, but in the end we decided to hop on over via the International Gateway. Tsk Tsk!

[HollyBelle]

I really love the atmosphere in England in the evenings; you just can’t beat the British Invasion, as they’re quintessential World Showcase. And I love that they embody all different aspects of Beatlemania… this particular night they were all Sergeant Peppered up!



From England, we found ourselves headed into Future World, where we took a little time to enjoy the Fountain of Nations (one of my favorite things about Epcot) before walking on Spaceship Earth. After laughing at our future selves and sending the email home as a fun reminder for later, we powered a city… it’s such a great little Project Tomorrow game!



From SSE we made our way to Test Track and then found ourselves in Mexico checking out all the Animales Fantasticos. I really wanted to get one but they’re so delicate and frail that I fear it would break before we ever made it home.





We slowly meandered through World Showcase as the sun was setting.





Eventually we came upon our destination: the American Gardens Theatre. The “Sounds Like Summer” concert series was in full swing and this week 52nd Street was playing (a Billy Joel tribute band). I grabbed a seat while Brett ran up to one of the kiosks to get a funnel cake and bottle of water. He said when he got out his wallet to pay the CM told him Happy Birthday and not to worry about it! Ahhh Birthday magic… only at Disney World! We got to hear one of my Billy Joel favorites, Scenes from an Italian Restaurant! Thank goodness they played it well because the last time we heard this song was in a piano bar on a cruise ship, and believe me when I tell you I thought the song had been murdered for life!

After the show we found a place near Japan from which to watch Illuminations. Words can’t describe it. The musical score alone gets me every time. Nough said!



When the show was over we exited the park and headed back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Another fantastic Disney day down!


Up next: a little Animal Kingdom pixie dust and we finally make it over to the Kidani pool!

[Mukta]

Thanks for the update! I just read a bunch so I will comment on everything that I can remember.
I loved the way you surprised Brett. The Lodge looks fabulous. I am glad you are getting some quality alone time.
I love meeting Lady T and Family. They are always awesome. Splash is one of my favorites too.
Your chipmunk pictures crack me up!
Last year I ate the pearl pasta at Captain's Grille. I made reservations again for this year just to eat it again! I am going to ask for a whole plate of it sans chicken.
I have reservations at Sanaa this year so I hope the bus thing doesn't mess us up. Thanks for the bus tip.
Your pictures of Stomalong Bay made me homesick. 15 more days!

[Disneyfalcon]

Your report is so fun, Holly. You take great character pictures. The Lady Temaine series is so funny! I also must say, I can not believe how many sit down meals you eat! It's awesome!! You would have to roll me from one restaurant to the next though.

[disneygirl1]

Great update and awesome pictures Holly!!! Thanks for the info about the characters at Animation in DHS!!! I sure hope they are still doing that in Sept. too!!!

P.S. love Bretts hat in the bus stop picture!!! Go Eagles!!!

[mouselvrmom]

I love Brett's puzzled bus stop picture!

We've been frustrated trying to get from MK to Wilderness Lodge for an early morning breakfast. The boat wasn't running yet, and all the buses at the WL stop were letting people off but not returning there. I was steaming much like you were I'm sure.

[diddy_mouse]

Looking at your early morning pictures I gotta say I think I'll try to make it to an opening one of these days. I love how everything looks and it's the same way right before sunset. World Showcase is an awesome place to walk around during that time of day. But MK is still my favorite at dusk...right as the lights start to turn on.

Oh, and I definitely want to eat at The Plaza! DH and I walk past it so often but have never eaten there. *adds it to list of things for next trip*