Trip Report *Completed!* The "pick a celebration and stick with it!" Trip Report :)

My husband and I have just returned from six wonderful days at WDW! The trip could not have gone better. I seriously did not want to leave.

I won't delve too far into the background here, because it's all in my pre-trip report here: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/because-im-driving-myself-crazy.882149/ Don't want to read all that? No problem. Here's the Reader's Digest version:

The cast:

My husband and me:

With guest appearances by our dear friends Jason,Karissa, Neil, and Barbara (pictures of them to appear later).

The reason:

Pick one!

1) DH and I have both had weight loss surgery (the gastric sleeve, to be exact) and maintained our goal weights for over two years. For before and after pics, see the pre-trip report. He's lost over 200 pounds, and I've lost 130. We both have our health back!
2) I had been unemployed for several months and finally found a new job in January.
3) We were celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary (May 27th, but since I teach, we couldn't go anywhere until after school got out).
4) Add numbers one, two, and three, and what do you get? The go ahead to stop taking birth control, that's what!

So, yeah... this trip was a "celebrating weight loss/return to gainful employment/wedding anniversary/conceptionmoon (yes, apparently that's really a thing- I had to Google it to get the name of it) trip."

And, if the trip had had just one more drop of pixie dust, I would seriously think we were dreaming the whole time. Maybe we were...

The when, where, and how:

On May 31, we drove down to Orlando from Atlanta and spent the night with our friends Jason and Karissa. They live just outside of Orlando and were kind enough to let us crash at their place the night before our check in so that we would be refreshed for the parks the next day. On Sunday, June 1, we checked in at the Pop at eleven and stayed there until Saturday, June 7, when we drove home.

And now, let the report begin!

 

[cw1982]

Saturday, May 31:

We left home at about 9 am. After stopping to get quarters for all those Florida toll booths and grabbing a quick breakfast, we were off! Traffic wasn't terrible (except for the road work for the first mile on the interstate), and we made great time. We got to Jason and Karissa's place at about 4:30, and spent the next three hours catching up on things and just hanging around. We ate dinner with these great people in Orlando, at a place called Adobe Gilas. Food was okay; drinks were nothing special (albeit VERY strong!)... but here's a picture of our lovely friends:

Jason was in our wedding, and Karissa is just awesome!

We basically fell asleep in Jason's car on the ride back to their house, so it was a fairly early bedtime for us, which worked out nicely because we were in for a LONG day the next day! So, after eating a pancake breakfast (turns out Jason makes a mean pancake stack) and saying some emotional "farewells," it was off to the Pop!

We got there around 11:00 am, got checked in quickly, and discovered that our ground-level, 80's building room that faced away from the pool was already waiting for us. We even had anniversary buttons with our paperwork!

We had a lovely view from our room:

and even had a Mickey towel waiting for us!

Not only was there a Mickey towel, a nice view (for a ground-level), and anniversary buttons, but I soon noticed the message light on our room phone was blinking. Imagine my surprise when the message was from Mickey and Minnie, who had called to wish us a happy anniversary, to the tune of "Happy Birthday." Too cute!

After a quick glance around the rest of the room, it was time to explore the resort. Our first stop: a picture with Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head:

We soon decided we had picked the right place for our stay, and decided it was time to head to the Magic Kingdom for lunch, our first round of fastpasses, and evening EMH! I was a little too stoked about getting to stay at the MK until the wee hours of the morning.

And this, my friends, is where the true pixie dust really started to work. We went out to the bus stops and immediately boarded a bus to the Magic Kingdom! It was as if the bus was waiting for us LOL

The plan was to find lunch as soon as we got to the Magic Kingdom, but I got a tad distracted when I saw that the wait for Tinkerbell's m&g was only 15 minutes. So of course, I had to have a picture:

to which my husband immediately started giggling about me not being much taller than the pixie. Sigh... She asked me why I was wearing "the ailing color (purple)," and when I reassured her that I felt fine, she said that her friends clearly did not want her wearing their color.

After getting our obligatory picture in front of the castle:

it was time for lunch. DH got his first turkey leg of the trip, and I had a pepperoni flatbread from Pinocchio's Village Haus.

As you can see in the picture of the castle, rain was coming in. Since we were right by the turkey leg cart, we decided to check out the Hall of Presidents. It was okay, but it gave us a great way to escape the rain for a few minutes.

But, it was still raining when we got out! What will we do next? Stay tuned to find out

 

[disney4life2008]

Congratulations on the weight loss - both of you look amazing. I know what a joy it is to go to disneyworld and be able to be comfortable in your skin. I experienced that in 2011 - I was almost skinny (well in the high 200s compared to 400 I was in before). But I have gained a lot of weight back so this summer I am hoping to loose before my August trip.

 

[cw1982]

So, yeah... in case you haven't figured it out yet, Sunday was the day of a lot of rain. Luckily, DH and I had our Dollar Store ponchos with us that all the kind people of these forums have recommended on other threads, so we threw them on and kept things moving. We took them off when we got into the Hall of Presidents, but when we got out it was raining again, so on the ponchos went again and off we were. According to the MDE app, wait for IASW was only 15 minutes, and it was right across from our first FP+ (Peter Pan- I know, I'm a big kid... but it's a favorite from my childhood, so I had to ride it at least once!). We even took a selfie on IASW...

DH swears he wanted a picture with the ride in the background... I think he didn't want to admit that he thought the ride was cute

After IASW and our FP+ for PP, it was ponchos back on as we headed back towards Adventureland. We rode PoC with a 20-minute wait (was more like 15) and headed to Tomorrowland to ride TTA (which I was beyond thrilled to do, since it was supposed to be down for a refurbishment for our whole trip and the date got changed to allow us one day to ride it lol) before our next FP+, Space Mountain. The rain was still coming down pretty hard, but it wasn't anything our ponchos couldn't handle. We loved Space, but we didn't move quickly enough to get a snapshot of the picture at the end. We learned to act quickly, and from that moment on getting those ride pictures on our phones became a game.

By then, it was time to move back into Frontierland to explore Tom Sawyer Island and ride Splash before using our BTMRR FP+ (dinner ADR's were right after this window, and I figured at least we would be dry for dinner if we rode BTMRR after Splash lol). I knew we were cutting things close, but we made it to dinner just in time. BoG was pretty darn neat!

We split the steak for dinner:

and each had one drink (beer for him, wine for me) before we were each given a sample of the Grey Stuff for free, since it was our anniversary and all. DH also had a cupcake that was oh so decadent.

While we were finishing up dinner, Beast was busy stirring up trouble. He tried to take the desert cart away from the servers!

Finally, we got to meet him!

After dinner, we decided to try LeFou’s Brew. It was a lot better than some here make it out to be, but I was a bit surprised that the marshmallowy flavor seemed to be in the actual drink, while the foam on top was more of a fruity flavor (others had seemed to imply that the marshmallow flavor was in the foam… hmm…) but we liked it!

On to The Little Mermaid! Yes, I totally met Ariel. I mean, there was no wait, so why not, right?

Then we decided to ride Dumbo, the tea cups, and Buzz. Matt sure was determined to get a good score on Buzz!

By now, it was getting later, and lines were seriously dropping. After riding CoP, we decided to head back towards Frontierland, because Matt wanted to ride HM, which was the only other ride he cared about at MK that we hadn’t done that day. On our way, the MSEP parade started (2nd showing; we had missed the fireworks during CoP… I totally forgot!) so we ended up watching MSEP from the sidewalk that leads off towards BTMRR. Something really cool happened here: Alice saw my anniversary button, and she wished us a happy anniversary from atop her float during the parade! She then proceeded to have a conversation with us about Matt’s watch (since he had the time, the rabbit would be looking for him LOL). Good times!

We then decided to ride BTMRR one more time while we were over there and hit up HM and Pooh before heading to the room. It was only 1:30 when we decided to head out (EMH was until 3:00), but we were both worn out and had decided we had done everything we could do for the night (after a late- night trip down the Jungle Cruise... almost forgot about that!). We did stop by the mine train one last time before leaving, but the wait was over an hour still, and I didn’t want to make DH wait that long, especially since he was getting tired and cranky, so we went back to the hotel and went to bed.

All in all, day one was perfect! But if you think that’s a great day, wait until you hear about day two!

 

[cw1982]

Congratulations on the weight loss - both of you look amazing. I know what a joy it is to go to disneyworld and be able to be comfortable in your skin. I experienced that in 2011 - I was almost skinny (well in the high 200s compared to 400 I was in before). But I have gained a lot of weight back so this summer I am hoping to loose before my August trip.

How awesome that you’ve come so far in your journey to being healthier! I love meeting people who understand the struggle… it’s not easy! Maintaining is harder than losing, IMO… losing is temporary, but maintaining is for life, so it’s much more difficult to find the right balance. You’ll get back there and keep going as low as you want!
Thanks for the kind words… you got this! I can’t wait to hear about your successes

 

[cw1982]

hall of pres. was just ok??

this is one of my favorites

I think Matt liked it a lot more than I did… I’m just not much of a historian. I will say, though, that I did enjoy watching the animatronics. It was very cool to see all of the presidents in one place like that. I have to say, though, Obama’s animatronic looks nothing like him lol. I think I was enjoying it a lot more until I saw him… that one bit threw me for a loop.

I didn’t not like it, but I’m sort of a big kid, so I was much more enthralled with Fantasyland than I am with anything historical.

 

[cw1982]

I should add here that I made a very big mistake during our ride down on Saturday: I decided that I would give up my Fastpasss for 7dmt so that we could check out SWW on Friday. I just hated for Matt to not get to see any of that, and I wanted to be sure he didn't miss out on something just because of one ride that he cared nothing about. So we did check the line Sunday night, and even rode Pooh before leaving for the night in hopes of getting in a shorter line afterwards, during evening EMH. No dice. So I figured it was no big deal, that we would be there all week and surely we'd find time somehow, right? RIGHT?!?

I can't wait to share the rest of this, but I can barely keep my eyes open lol. Good night for now!

 

[DisneyPrincess5]

Great TR so far!!! It's so nice to see that they did some special things for your anniversary. Looking forward to more.

 

[LAM378]

I'm loving this report! Glad your trip started out so great, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest!

 

[RMichael21]

Great trip report so far! I'm happy you had a wonderful trip.

 

[disneygeek 2069]

Love your trip report! Reading about your "late night trip down the Jungle Cruise" made my heart smile. One of my favorite things to do when I'm at Disney.

 

[cw1982]

Thanks everyone

One more thing I forgot to add... I just happened to stumble on some very important pictures while I was adding them to my computer this morning! @LAM378 you'll be happy to know that I can now tell you the story of Damnit the Horse

You see, Damnit holds a very dear place in our hearts (well, mine anyway). About six years ago, when I was still in my mid-20's, DH and I were at a Tractor Supply store just killing time. I saw this horse and declared (jokingly) that I wanted him because he was huge! This prompted us to look at the price, and when I saw he was only about thirty bucks, I had to have him! So, my husband uttered a "damnit," rolled his eyes, and took the horse to the register. Ever since then, we had him in our spare bedroom as a sort of decoration (what else are two adults going to do with a horse like this one... haha!)

Fast forward to about three weeks ago. Jason and Karissa had come to visit us on their way back from Ohio for Karissa to be in a wedding. They had their one year old with them, and she fell in love with Damnit, but they couldn't put him in their car, because it was so packed from their trip. So, I loaded up Damnit into our car on Saturday morning. He had the back seat all to himself!

He was thrilled to be going to a home where people would pay attention to him

So yes, Damnit the Horse got a ride all the way to Orlando, a new name (since he now belongs to a little girl), and a new family whose daughter will play with him. She spent all kinds of time "riding" on his back that afternoon. It was priceless!

 

[belledream]

This is wonderful! Happy & celebrating in style

 

[cw1982]

Now that all the last-minute additions are out of the way, time for day two: Hollywood Studios!

We had originally had a FP+ for ToT at 11:00, but after our late night at MK we were dead to the world until about 9:30, which was later than I had anticipated. In my haste to be sure that we wouldn't miss our FP, I moved it back to be our last one of the prebooked three. Imagine my surprise when, just like on Day 1, the bus we needed we out there waiting for us I thought to myself, "Two days in a row?!? Surely this is too good to be true!" Turns out, even with taking time to get pictures done, we would have made it well within our window; that's okay, though, because that just meant that we had time to see the Indiana Jones show and LMA before heading over to our first FP+: ToT... eek!

I was literally crying in line for ToT, as in, I was borderline having a panic attack. It was horrible. Matt made me get on the ride anyway ('cause, by golly, we weren't going all the way to WDW and NOT riding ToT!), and turns out I loved it! Haha! Here's our ride photo:

Of course, we would be on the front row my first time riding it! I thought that would make it even scarier, but it turned out just fine. Notice I was clutching Matt's arm for dear life haha!

Since we made it to ToT at the end of our FP+ window, it was time to work our way back towards Star Tours for FP+ #2. On our way there, we saw a round of Jedi Training underway... cutest thing ever! Hearing Darth Vader say "the force is strong with this one" and other such comments while kids who were a fourth of his height went at him with light sabers was priceless!

After Star Tours, we walked around for a while and took in our surroundings before our lunch ADR's at SciFi. I had been dying to try their fried pickles, since that's one of my favorite comfort foods, so I ordered them as my meal and Matt ordered a burger with cheddar and bacon. I got to try some of his burger, and I have to say that we thought it was pretty darn good! The food pictures didn't turn out well because it was so dark in there (I didn't want to use flash because it would ruin the experience for others), but the screen was pretty cool:

After lunch, we still had time to kill before RnRC, so we watched the Little Mermaid show and rode the Great Movie Ride. Finally, it was time for what I knew would be Matt's favorite ride of the whole trip!

And it was

When we got out, we went to check out the FP+ kiosk, since it was right by the entrance to the ride. Since there was nothing left to claim that we really cared about enough for a FP+, I chose to go ahead and take a pass for the second Fantasmic! showing. I figured, that way, if we decided to stay late enough to experience it, we wouldn't have to wait in as long of a line to get in.

In the meantime, we walked back over towards Jack Sparrow and grabbed a time to watch that show (not a FP, but they apparently give you a ticket with a time to come back now to keep people from waiting all day since the room is so small). While we waited for that time, we did the Studios Backlot Tour and grabbed a few snacks.

Funny story about those snacks: We decided we wanted something cold, so I got a Mickey bar and Matt got a frozen banana. He decided that he hadn't had enough to eat and wanted something else, and the Mickey bar was just a bit too sweet for me to have eaten the whole thing (I was feeling a bit ill), so we went in search of a second snack lol. I wanted something salty to balance out all that sugar, so when Matt stopped at a place that had pickles, and I had remembered seeing comments about those pickles here, I jumped on it and got a little too excited about having one. Matt looked at me and said, "ice cream and pickles? Really?!? Is there something I need to know?!?" Hah! I had only been off my pills for two weeks, so I doubt the cravings were what he was implying, but it was funny nonetheless.

So, what kind of trouble will we get into between now and Fantasmic? Find out in my next post

 

[LAM378]

I'm lol-ing at Damnit the Horse...I was picturing a little stuffed horse, not a big monster horse taking up your whole back seat! I'm happy he found a new home (with a rider).

 

[pumpkin7]

Great report so far. And many congratulations! You have much to be celebrating!

 

[cw1982]

So, after the Studios Backlot Tour and controversial snacks, we walked around a few of the shops and started contemplating what souvenirs we might want to get by the end of the week... don't laugh, but there was an adorable plush baby Dumbo that was seriously calling my name. I'm such a sucker for that kind of thing! Matt wanted to go into the candy shop, so in we went, and walked out with a chocolate covered rice krispies treat.

All that shopping and meandering eventually had us getting hungry, so we ended up grabbing dinner at the food stands across from Fantasmic. I now see why everyone says that food at HS is just okay... not only did it take way too long to get through that line for the quality of food we were getting (I was getting a tad claustrophobic in line), but on top of that, the girl running the register miskeyed our order, so we ended up having to wait another minute or two while the guy who puts the orders together fixed it. He then forgot to give Matt his chips (mine shouldn't have had any since I just ordered a hot dog), so the guy was a bit flustered by then and gave us two bags of chips. I would have felt worse about it if we hadn't overpaid for Matt's food (what the girl rang up was a dollar more than what Matt wanted... so that probably cancels out those chips anyway, right? lol). Not the end of the world, but I learned two lessons: 1) The hot dogs and barbecue at the stand near Fantasmic are not worth the wait and 2) any time after 7 pm is a bad time to be trying to get food in that area, as people are already starting to wait for seats to open up for the show. Lesson learned

After dinner, it was time for our Jack Sparrow show.

We enjoyed the cute little show, and Jack Sparrow swore us all in as pirates Afterwards, we checked my phone for wait times on the MDE app and saw that Muppetvision 3D wasn't busy, so we headed that way. It was a cute little show and all, but I can see why some say that the preshow could use a revamping. Still a great way to spend a few minutes sharing a giggle or two. Dinner was wearing thin by then, and Matt was seriously wanting funnel cake from a place we had seen by the lake right after we had bought the ice cream earlier. So, funnel cake it was, and an insane amount of it too:

Best. Funnel. Cake. Ever!

When we got done, I took a few pics of the lake. It was so pretty at night! This was my favorite shot:

I could have stayed there all night if we didn't have a few other things we had planned!

We still had a little while before our FP+ window opened up for Fantasmic!, so I checked the phone app again and saw that RnRC had a 20-minute wait! That never happens... lol! We booked it across the park and made it over there right before the mad rush of people who were exiting the first Fantasmic! made it into the line. We got in line at 9:30, just 15 minutes before our FP+ window for Fantasmic! opened (9:45-10:15), and we were out of there by 9:55. It was awesome. By the time we got out, the wait time was showing as an hour. Craziness.

Since we were already directly across the sidewalk, we figured it was time to head into Fantasmic! and get seats. No offense to anyone who is in love with that show, but as cool as it was, I was actually glad that we had the FP+ for it and didn't have to wait the insane times others have reported just to get in. It was worth getting there 30 mintues early. I don't think I would have done it otherwise, now that I've seen it and know what to expect. Great show and all, but when in WDW I have too many other things I want to do with that time than wait an hour or more for a show.

Once we survived the post-Fantasmic! stampede, Matt took me by the hand and dragged me back in line for ToT. Again. It was walk-on, so might as well, right? This time, we sat in the very back of the elevator. I decided I actually liked the front better, because I could see more of the effects leading to the drops from the front seat.

Obligatory post-ride photo:

I got him back for making me ride it again, though

He cared nothing at all about TSMM, but I was curious about it. By the time we got off of ToT, we were well into EMH and the park was less than an hour from closing, so I checked the wait times on my app again, and sure enough: TSMM was only a 30-minute wait. So yep, you guessed it! TSMM it was!

While we waited, Mr. Potato Head talked to Matt. He told Matt he wanted to guess his weight. Matt shrugged and said, "sure, what's my weight?" Mr. Potato Head replied, "about 25 minutes!" lol... I was giggling pretty well by then. Maybe because I was tired? Either way, it was funny

By the time we rode TSMM (which Matt admitted was a pretty cool ride), the park was pretty much closed, which worked out perfectly since we were ready to go to bed by then. But as we got on the bus, Matt looked down and noticed that his anniversary button had broken. The entire face of the button was gone. Not the end of the world, but they make cute souvenirs, so I didn't want to not have one for both of us. So, when we got back to the hotel, I went to the front desk and asked for a replacement. Not only did the girl at the desk replace it immediately, she then offered to take a marker and write the number of years on our buttons for us. She did a great job, too... even did little Mickey ears for the period at the bottom of the exclamation marks after "8 years!" too cute.

Our final dose of pixie dust for the night came in the form of a surprise waiting for us in our hotel room:

I'm going to get a nice frame for that picture!

With that surprise greeting us, it was definitely time for dreams of Mickey Waffles... which I may have been planning to have the next morning.

 

[PrincessNelly_NJ]

Loving the report!
The buttons do make cute souvenirs! I ended up losing my Anniversary Button completely, It flew off while I was riding space mountain!
I'm glad you enjoyed BOG & Sci-fi! I love them both! Can't wait to keep reading!

 

[cw1982]

Day 3: Animal Kingdom!

We got up at around 9 and made it to the food court for breakfast at 9:45. I was a little nervous about getting to AK in time for our Safari FP+, since I had heard that the AK bus tends to take longer than the others, and I'm not gonna lie... I got a tad cranky because it was taking us longer to get our breakfast than I wanted it to take. Luckily, one of the CM's working the station where I was waiting picked up on my mood and was really quick to make small talk with me, with a warm smile on her face, and before I knew it I was feeling much calmer lol. In fact, I was so thankful for how easily she was able to help me change my mood that I made a point to stop by her station each morning the rest of my trip and bid her good morning lol. I also plan to make sure the management at Pop knows how awesome she is, as soon as I can figure out the best way to do that.

The sight of these made it even better:

This was the kid's meal! It was a perfect portion for me, though... well, one of those is a perfect portion for me, plus the little side cup of berries, and I'm all set. Matt enjoyed the other waffle with his omelette. This became our morning routine for the rest of the trip lol. It also came with a 12 oz water, which was perfect for helping me to make sure I got started on my fluids early.

When we got out to the bus stop, the bus was filling up, and at first I thought my pixie dust had run out; but lo and behold, another bus for AK literally pulled up right behind that one! Not only did I not have to wait long for the bus, but I got a seat on this one (if we had gotten on the other one, we would have been standing). Score!

We noticed lots of photographers at AK, even moreso than at HS. We definitely took advantage of their services:

Obligatory Tree of Life photo

By the way, let me take this opportunity to mention that the photopass photographers were all great about being willing to take pictures on my phone. I have about 90 pictures in our photopass account as well that I can order, or I can pay $169 if I want all of them (basically buying Memory Maker after the trip), but since so many of them are identical to what we have on my phone, I may just buy two or three where the poses are a little different for $15 each. I haven't fully decided yet.

I loved this shot of Everest. Such a peaceful view... talk about irony lol!

We made it to the safari in plenty of time and headed straight there after a little exploring and picture taking. I got tons of pictures from the safari, but they're not all that great because a lot of them have other people's heads, hands, phones, etc in them lol. Either way, seeing those animals was a cool experience.

We walked the Pangani trail afterwards, and saw lots of animals there too. By then, it was time to go use our Expedition Everest FP+.

Unfortunately, when we got there, the ride was down. The CM's were letting people wait, though, because they were hoping to have it up and running any minute. So we waited for a few minutes, and then they opened up the queues. We scanned our bands, walked the FP+ queue, and right before we got to touch bands again, we were stopped and told the ride was back down and to not scan the bands. We were ushered out of the ride with deep apologies and paper fastpasses for any attraction at AK of our choice. I looked on my app, and turns out we got the paper one in addition to a floating fastpass in place of the one for EE... so we now had two wildcard passes each So, while I was a tad worried about whether or not we would get to ride EE, I figured surely the problem would be fixed before we ate dinner, so we shrugged and kept things moving.

Since we weren't too far away, we explored the Maharajah Jungle Trek while waiting for our Kali River Rapids pass to open up. That was absolutely amazing! Lots of tigers, gorillas, and tropical birds, among other things. I was completely engulfed with the scenery too. It wasn't like walking around in a zoo; the level of work that went into immersing guests into these environments is awesome.

After Kali River (which, by the way, soaked us... since we went down the hill backwards!), we stopped by the FP+ kiosk in front of Asia to see what other passes we could add. We wanted to add something for right after lunch. Perfect! We were able to get a 2:00 time slot for Primeval Whirl and no, the 4th FP+ did not interfere with the floating FP+ on our account or the paper one. We still had two wild cards! So, we had lunch at Flame Tree (where the barbecue chicken is phenomenal, btw) and took a leisurely stroll into Dinoland. I could definitely see why people are more critical of this area, as it doesn't really have the same feel as any other area of any park at WDW... it feels a bit dirtier, a bit cheaper somehow. I'm sure this is exactly what they were going for, but it wasn't my favorite. The actual ride, Primeval Whirl, though, was pretty neat for being a "carnival ride."

We immediately found the nearest FP+ kiosk and snagged one more pass, this time for Dinosaur. We had an hour to kill first, though, so we checked the phone app and saw that Everest was back up. We headed that way and quickly discovered that the line looked like what we'd expect at 7DMT or Anna and Elsa. Holy Cow! The Fastpass line was literally over the bridge and all the way in front of Nemo. There must have been a few hundred people in that line! And that was just FP+! I overheard a CM telling someone that they were only riding FP+'s right then, but they were letting people get in the standby queue as well for when the FP+ got caught up. We got in line literally in front of the Nemo theater, and we were pleasantly surprised by how quickly the line moved. Our only picture of that ride is blurry, but you'll get the idea:

It was so worth the wait! Loved it!

By now, we were hot and curious about Dole Whips. Spiked Dole Whips, to be exact I pulled up the forums on my phone and searched for the thread about the Dole Whips being available at AK, and this helped me to quickly find them. We tried one of each: I had the coconut rum, and Matt had the dark rum:

Absolute heaven! We walked around the Tree of Life and took everything in while enjoying the pineapple goodness that is a Dole Whip. Never again will I go to WDW without experiencing one of these gems!

By the time we finished our treats and our walk, it was time for Dinosaur, which we rode twice (there was no wait after the first ride lol).

The people we rode with were hilarious! The girls in the front kept screaming, and the girl sitting behind Matt was saying some pretty funny things. Her face in that picture says it all hahaha!

 

[cw1982]

Oh yeah... I forgot to mention that we also saw Flights of Wonder. Good show! A huge bird flew right over my head... twice! I might have shrieked the first time haha. Oops.

After riding Dinosaur, we decided to go meet Donald Duck, since he was right around the corner without much wait. I got some adorable pictures with him, but I think this is my favorite:

He was trying to dance with me lol!

As we walked away, Matt told him that the mouse didn't do anything nearly that cool... Donald was too thrilled with this comment. He started acting like he was laughing. It was cute.

Well, since we're not loyal or anything, we left him and went straight to Mickey and Minnie, where this happened:

So I got my Mickey and Minnie picture taken off my bucket list

We still had time before dinner, so we went back and used that last FP+ for Everest. It was just as awesome the second time as it was the first time! Matt said he couldn't decide if he liked that better or RnRC!

For some reason, Matt wanted to look around in the big gift shop just in front of the entry to Africa. Since we still had a few minutes before dinner, we did... I never could figure out why he wanted to go to that shop, but when we got separated, I did notice him standing near the cashiers... I figured he'd find me when he was ready so I looked at shirts and hats until he said he was finished.

Finally, it was time for dinner at Rainforest Cafe. Talk about too much food! Geez! And it was all soo good, too!

and the drinks were pretty yummy too

The one with the orange slice on top was mine... it was some kind of tropical fruit cocktail. Loved it! Matt's was the one with the whipped cream on top and it was strawberry flavored. It was good too (I may have sampled it lol).

The atmosphere was pretty cool too. If you've never been to a Rainforest Cafe, I highly recommend it. It's not Disney specific, but there's not one near us, so it may as well have been a Disney restaurant, and the animals come to life and cause all kinds of commotion. Pretty neat!

We had decided earlier in the day that we would go back to the hotel after dinner tonight for a swim, and that's just what we did. But it was cold in that water! Whoever said the pools at the Pop are maintained at 80-something degrees was sadly mistaken! We were so cold that we were sitting in the water shivering... but we didn't want to get out, because then we would have been cold lol... so then we found ourselves sitting in the pool laughing at what looked like nothing. I'm sure we looked like a couple of crazies.

I ended the night with a blackberry lemonade cocktail from the pool bar:

and some snuggling with my prince while we watched old Disney cartoons on TV. That was actually very relaxing and a fun way to wind down. I found myself giggling at how many of them I remembered, and soon I was asleep.