10 Year anniversary trip!

Well hello everyone!
So, this is my first WDWMagic post....

My wife and I recently returned from a very short (but awesome) 4 day trip to WDW. I thought I'd share a couple of thoughts and pictures. This trip was a little different, as it was our first trip without the kids. Now, we did feel a little guilty about this.....but they where being spoiled by grandma and grandpa.....and it was our ten year wedding anniversary. anyway


Here we go!

We checked into the Yacht Club Resort for the first day of our 4 day extravaganza. Because of the special celebration I decided to go all out for this trip. We would be staying in luxury and eating like kings and queens (until we returned home....where we would be eating like peasants to pay for it all).

This is the first time we have stayed at the Yacht club, although we have stayed at it's sister resort.

I love the Crescent Lake area

Unlike it's sister resort, the Beach Club, The Yacht club is decorated in rich wood tones appropriate for it's nautical theme.

RANT: You will note that all of my pictures are carefully framed to keep the Swan and Dolphin out of them. I have already posted quite a rant about how much those two modern hotels annoy me, so I wont repeat it all here. I will however say that if they where elsewhere I would have no problem with them.....but they are right smack dab in the center of what is supposed to be three turn of the century hotels......annoys me to ne end END RANT


Well, after a good nights sleep we where headed to the Magic Kingdom. Both of us being military (Coast Guard) we got an early start and would be getting there in plenty of time for rope drop. This is good, as the crowds where nuts later in the day. First things first, however, we need to head over to the Boardwalk Bakery for coffee as the Yacht Club still has the horrendous Nescafe.

and now....The Magic Kingdom

We had lunch at Cinderella's Royal Table, but due to poor lighting I have no halfway decent photos of our lunch to share with the. The food was good (not excellent) but the food is not really the main draw to this one is it?

We had a blast, even without the kids. Every princess came to our table and chatted with us....including the most awesome Snow white in existence. She was brilliant and had everything down perfectly. It was as though she had jumped out of the film to be there. kudos to that CM!

gotta stop by the Tangled potties

Now dinner was to be at Flying Fish Café this evening, so we headed over to the Poly for a Coffee mug and a shirt (as our previous one had broken and worn out, respectively) Got a picture of the Grand Floridian DVC

back at the Boardwalk, Dinner was amazing

my wife tells me that is wasabi foam on top, who knew, right?

it was then back to the Magic Kingdom for evening EMH. We had got to do a lot with those last hours of the day, and we discovered that we both LOVE LeFou's Brew. I know that it has not been the most popular in these hallowed halls (and we have no way of comparing it to butterbeer) but it really hit the spot for us.

Well, It's off to Animal Kingdom and Epcot tomorrow...but alas, I have no more time tonight to post any further. so with that being said, we will see you tomorrow.


P.S. Please join me tomorrow as I have Wild Africa Trek, and a full day at Epcot to share, and if I have time I will tell you about my little dip in the Seas aquarium

 

[WLBound]

Congrats on your 10th Anniversary and here's wishing you many more! Your pictures are beautiful. I love the pictures from the hotel. We've only been at the Yacht Club for dinner but it is really well done.

 

[farrellbarrel]

Congrats on 10 years! Thanks for sharing your trip, the pictures are great! I do agree with your hotel statement.

 

[Mkcoastie]

I'm Back!

So the next morning we where up early again, we had to get to Animal Kingdom before it opened for the first Wild Africa Trek of the day. We start out this portion of my report with an empty Animal Kingdom!

We then met our crew for the tour. I really enjoyed this tour. It definitely afforded some AWESOME views

The tour starts out walking. You pass through some of the public animal trails before heading "off the beaten path" if you will. your first stop is the hippo pools where you are hooked into a safety rail and allowed to approach a cliff overlooking the hippos. They feed them so you get an extremely close up experience.

Next up you head to the bridge (above) which takes you over the crocs. This is followed by another cliff overhanging the croc enclosure. Then it's off to the savannah in a private truck that stops very frequently to talk about everything as the regular safari vehicles seem like they zoom by. Finally you stop at a small structure smack dab in the middle of the safari for your snacks and some more animal viewing.

After our three hours of being fairly isolated from the rest of the park goers, we emerged into Harambe to find the park PACKED. we decided that we would head off to EPCOT, but not before our tour guide (at our request) took us into Harambe to point out one last thing. This tree.

This unassuming tree is the a real Baobob, or "upside down" tree. Disney has a number of fake ones throughout the savannah (and one in Harambe right near the entrance to Kilimanjaro Safari). These fake ones present the trees as they would appear at a couple hundred years of age (they can live to be thousands of years old). This real one is only a baby....but that's still pretty cool if you ask me.

and now, it's off to EPCOT

By the way.....I LOVE the new Test Track, feels less Epcot and more EPCOT Center to me.

Part of the reason we needed to get to EPCOT was for lunch....at Coral Reef. This was to serve as kind of a preview for tomorrow when we would be swimming in the Seas tank

The good new is that this fella did not eat me.

Well, it's off to bed again, see you tomorrow for part two of this day (does that make sense?) either way, have a good night!

 

[KappleB2]

Looks like you had a great trip!! I'm following along! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Zipadeelady]

Thanks for sharing! Pictures are great and I totally get the Swan and Dolphin. Although I've heard wonderful things about the resorts they just stick out like a sore thumb.

 

[farrellbarrel]

I love the tour you did at AK. Very cool!