Trip Report A Short Trip To WDW

Hello Friends,

We are less than 24 hrs away from another trip to WDW. This is the first trip there for us since our Cruise/WDW trip October last year. It will be a short, 5-day trip, but it promises to be jam packed.

Of course, we will get to see the tail end of the F&G Festival. But the one we are looking forward to is doing the Wild Africa Trek at Animal Kingdom. We have always wanted to do this, but never found the time or opportunity till now. So we are definitely excited about ticking this off our list.

And certainly, we want to see the new nighttime show at Animal Kingdom. We have a fast-pass reservation for it, so hopefully, we have a good viewing area. We also plan to see Wishes, probably for the very last time before it ends this summer. It will be an emotional goodbye, because it was during Wishes many, many years ago that I realized how much I love WDW, and that even in the pouring rain, there was no other place that I'd rather be at that time.

I'm almost all packed, even though unlike our normal SOP, we will be leaving rather later than usual. So I have almost half a day tomorrow to figure out what I'm forgetting.

As usual, I'll try to post live while I'm on the trip, followed by a more comprehensive report either when I'm back in my room or when I'm back home.

Zz.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

View attachment 201434 Walking in the sewer in liberty square.

Zz

We call it the river of poo.

 

[ZapperZ]

At my favorite spot, waiting for wishes.

Zz

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

That pic is making me rethink my diet plans right now!!

Diet? Don't worry when you go to Disney there are no calories there! It's part of the magic!

 

[ZapperZ]

We are back at our "home". The bus had problems with the rear doors not closing when it made its first stop at the grand stand. We decided to walk back to the carousel.

We saw our final show of Wishes. I won't lie, I shed a little tear at the end.

Thank you, Wishes, for years of unforgettable memories. You may be gone soon, but you will live in my mind, and in the many videos that I had recorded.

We leave tomorrow. So yes, this is a short trip for us. We won't be heading home, but rather we fly to N. Carolina to visit family in Chapel Hill. If any of you know or watch "A Chef's Life" on PBS, we will be dining for the 2nd time at the Chef And The Farmer restaurant out in Kinston. I'm a big fan of the show, so it was a no-brainer that we will go back to the restaurant next time we are in the area.

But for now, I need some sleep!

Zz.

 

[littleroo]

Thank you so much for your wonderful live report!! Have a safe journey on your next adventure!!

 

[MinnieM123]

Enjoyed your TR, especially your wonderful pictures. Safe travels home for you today.

 

[ZapperZ]

A final good morning from our home for the past 5 days.

I'm all packed and had breakfast already. We will be spending the morning at DS, have lunch, and then make our way to the airport late morning for an early afternoon flight to Rayleigh, NC.

I have a lot more stuff to report on after I get back, maybe even a video or two. So stay tuned!

Zz

 

[ZapperZ]

At the carriage house for the first time since we arrived to print our boarding passes.

Zz

 

[ZapperZ]

At DS while it is still mostly empty.
Zz

 

[ZapperZ]

Getting our Starbucks fix.

Zz

 

[ZapperZ]

Not a bad spot to enjoy my coffee.

Zz

 

[ZapperZ]

Been watching groups of guests getting on the balloon.

Zz

 

[ZapperZ]

One last look at DS before we drive away.

Zz

 

[ZapperZ]

We are on 417 heading to the airport. The disney part of our vacation is over!!



Zz

 

[MinnieM123]

ZapperZ, thank you for taking us along on your trip! I'm sorry it's over, too.

Loved all your photos.

 

[HakunaMatata89]

looks like we were hitting different parks on different days. I was there 22nd-28th. I was glad we had no rain all week


Glad you enjoyed the trip

 

[ZapperZ]

Thanks, everyone.

We are still in N. Carolina. Had a great dinner last night at Chef and the Farmer restaurant out in Kinston. We fly home late tomorrow. Weather in the Chicago area has been sucky the past week, and it won't get any better when we get there. Whoopie!

I will be posting more photos, especially from the ones we got while on Wild Africa Trek, after I get back.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Hey everyone. I'm finally home. Tired, but happy. I have a pile of laundry to do, and a lot of stuff to sort out.

In any case, I have a bunch of photos yet to look at, but here are the first ones that I promised, and they are from the Wild Africa Trek.

The photos are from my camera and also the ones taken by the Disney cast members who escorted us on this adventure. There are plenty of them, so I'll have to show them in several posts.

Here we were being fitted with our vest and harness. Everything that we brought must be tethered to the vest, so camera, cellphones, camcorder, etc. must have wrist straps or neck straps that can be attached to the vest. Even the Magic Bands must be removed. Everything else was stored in the provided lockers. They do not want anything to be dropped during the excursion.

Once ready, we were then led from the assembly area to the various areas that were also opened to the public. We were given detailed explanations on the various animals that we see along the way (we were fitted with earphones so that we can hear our guides).

Soon we left the guest area and were escorted to parts inaccessible to most people. We saw this lovely creature along the way.

We did a bit of hiking through the forest.

We got to our first observation area, and it was the hippos. We attached our tether line to a rail, and then we could walk all the way to the edge of the cliff to watch the hippos from above.

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[ZapperZ]

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And here were the hippos. It turned out that these two are father and son (the father is the one putting his head on the son's back).

Then more hiking as we go to the next location.

We finally came to the first of two rope bridges that spanned across the crocodile pond. To me, this was the highlight of the whole adventure.

First, a preview of what we were faced with.

They DEFINITELY made it very interesting to cross the two rope bridges.

So this was me, carefully crossing the rope bridges. I had to keep an eye on where I put my foot, because as you can see, there were missing planks in the bridge. I did wave a few times to the guests riding in the safari vehicles, and they waved back!

That last photo, and this next photo, roughly tells you what it looked like from the bridge.

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[ZapperZ]

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After everyone was safely across the two bridges (the crocs didn't get an extra meal that day), we then hiked some more.

At various points during the excursion, we saw various artifacts and items along our route. This was one of them.

At the end of this last hike, we came to our safari vehicle. The next few photos were the animals that we saw in the first half of the safari.

The wild dogs are out, but they were taking a nap in during the hot afternoon.

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