A Series of Unfortunate Events...that led to a great trip!

We are back! We got back home late (LATE!) Sunday night and crashed into bed. The next day it was "rise and shine" and back to work and real life.

We had a whole bunch of random and weird stuff happen on the trip, but both came home saying it was a great time. I'll work through day-by-day with lots of pictures (I think we had more than 2k total pics).

 

[MRGEFF]

So sorry about your kitty. We know that is, our's got a gastro virus right before we left and had to board him at the vet. Looking forward to the rest of your report and of course your 2k pix.

 

[DisneyDebNJ]

Im so sorry for your kitty, hope he or she gets better. I know what you mean by seeing people getting sick at Disney, after I feel sorry for them, it takes me a few hours to calm my own stomach down. Between heat, rides, lots of food and excitement, it can be tough on anyone's constitution, unfortunately. Terrific pics and TR, looking forward to updates!

 

[tink65]

Hope your cat is recovering nicely! Just got updated to your TR and am excited to read more... I know what you mean about someone getting sick.....the sound bothers me too more than anything!

 

[cba]

1. Poor cat
2. Awesome pics, especially the food (Mmmmm)
3. Awesome Report!!!

 

[Uncle Lupe]

Looking forward to more.

 

[allexx]

its funny how strange events happen at the world , just like your puke insident .. , we were waiting on the train in adventure land

 

[Kristia]

Your kitty looks like a long-haired version of one of mine. She is a biter too. One minute she will be loving on you, the next she is attack cat! Great report, can't wait to read the rest, especially the race part!

 

[Hannah1284]

its funny how strange events happen at the world , just like your puke insident .. , we were waiting on the train in adventure land , on one trip and a kid thought he would be smart and stick is leg in between the rail and thought he could be slick and remove it , well it was a dud . he got it stick and it took a cm and his parents. plus the conductor to pry hius leg free!...

That sounds scary! ...but I'd be annoyed too, haha!

 

[Hannah1284]

So sorry about your kitty. We know that is, our's got a gastro virus right before we left and had to board him at the vet. Looking forward to the rest of your report and of course your 2k pix.

So sorry to hear that! I hope he's doing better!

 

[Hannah1284]

Im so sorry for your kitty, hope he or she gets better. I know what you mean by seeing people getting sick at Disney, after I feel sorry for them, it takes me a few hours to calm my own stomach down. Between heat, rides, lots of food and excitement, it can be tough on anyone's constitution, unfortunately. Terrific pics and TR, looking forward to updates!

Oiy...the ToT run was the worst with sick ppl! More details will follow, but I had a HUGE blister by the end and had to keep walking to get past the pukers after the finish line!

 

[Hannah1284]

Hope your cat is recovering nicely! Just got updated to your TR and am excited to read more... I know what you mean about someone getting sick.....the sound bothers me too more than anything!

Ahh! The noise!! I think because I don't get sick very often it bothers me even more. My older brother is quite the gagger anytime he feels a tinge of an upset stomach and I have had to leave the house to get away from him when we both still lived at home!

 

[Hannah1284]

1. Poor cat
2. Awesome pics, especially the food (Mmmmm)
3. Awesome Report!!!

Thanks!

 

[Hannah1284]

Your kitty looks like a long-haired version of one of mine. She is a biter too. One minute she will be loving on you, the next she is attack cat! Great report, can't wait to read the rest, especially the race part!

I can finally tell when she's going to bite so I can stop petting. I wouldn't pet her before (she is my husbands and lived at my in-laws until a few months back) because I couldn't see the signs and was afraid of being bitten!

 

[Hannah1284]

Day 3, Part 1: Welcome to the Animal Kingdom!!

...short on pics for this day...

Our first full day at Disney! I planned for us to be at Animal Kingdom. If I had it my way, we would've headed straight to the park and had breakfast there, but DH was a bit sleepy so we stayed in bed later than I would've liked and had breakfast at our resort. At least Coronado Springs has a nice patio with a beautiful view!

We arrived at AK shortly after nine and had to stand in the LONGEST bag check line all week! I couldn't take it so I took the water bottle and went through the "no bags" line while DH waited. I filled the bottle and hung out in the shade on the other side until he got through.

Once in the park, we high-tailed it straight to Expedition Everest! With almost no wait, we rode two times. The first time we even waited the one minute extra for the front car! Second time I requested the back row (hey, why not!).
I LOVED this ride! DH liked it, but wasn't nearly as impressed as me.
DH loves making funny faces for the cameras so we actually purchased the ride photo from our second ride.

We headed to Dinoland next. As we passed Nemo it was about to start and I really wish we had swung in and waited because we ended up not being able to make any of the show times and since we weren't back at AK all week, we missed it all together.
In Dinoland we did Dinosaur and Primeval Whirl. Does anyone else find Dinosaur a little scary? I have some issues with seeing in the dark and with lights (glare and trouble adjusting to dark rooms) so I think that had a lot to do with it. We should've bought this picture, too, because I am clinging to DH's arm and the kid in front of us was hardcore buried in his mom's chest!
DH was a little worried about getting sick on Primeval Whirl, but I convinced him it would be okay because of cars. He was a little nauseous but recovered quickly...albight saying never again. P

We noshed on lunch from Flame Tree Barbeque. DH had chicken and ribs and I had the chicken salad. The salad was soo good! DH said the ribs were good (he's normally not a rib guy so I was a little surprised he liked them), but the chicken was a little greasy. We both had the chocolate mousse for dessert. My advice, if you're gonna get the mousse, eat it first. Ours was yucky melty by the time I got around to it.

To let our stomach's settle we wandered around the Tree of Life and ended up in "It's tough to be a bug." While I really enjoyed the show, I HATED being under the tree before the show started. Something about the dark room, the "low" ceiling, the warmth/steaminess and the crowds, it just really started to make me claustrophobic.

 

[Hannah1284]

Day 3, Part 2: Safari Riding!

Next up was Kiliminjaro Safaris, which I LOVED! My only beef was we were seated in a row with a guy and his girlfriend. The g/f was on one end and I was on the opposite. The g/f kept holding up her iphone the whole time and blocking any good shots of the animals on that side...which they all seemed to be on. I was crazy annoyed by the end, haha. We did get some good photos though! We rode again later, so I'll post all of them together since I'm not sure which are from the first ride and which are from the second.

Here's a little preview of the AK photos...

After the Safari, we rode Kali River Rapids. I did NOT want to ride this, but DH did, so I sucked it up. I wish I'd stood my ground. We ended up getting totally soaked, while the people on the other side of our boat were almost dry... No biggie, except it was so gross and muggy that my shirt wouldn't dry for several hours. I also think I was having some sort of reaction to the water because my face looked like I had sun burn, but by the end of the day I was back to my normal ghost-white skin.

After KRR, we sat for a little bit and I snapped these...

We rode the Wildlife Express Train up and toured Rafiki's Planet Watch, Conservation Station and Habitat Habit. They were nice... DH liked petting the animals. I was still grumpy from being wet.

Given my grumpy-state, DH was nice and agreed to ride KS again! Yay! I asked the CM if we could sit on the opposite side of the vehicle this time and he gave us our own row!
I'll post some of the pics in a separate post!

We finished out our AK day with Festival of the Lion King. I really liked the show, but has anyone noticed its quite warm in that theater? We had to choose between Nemo and Lion King at this point and due to the WDWMagic boards and rumors that Lion King may either disappear or go on hiatus, or whatever's being rumored...I pointed us toward Lion King. Since I can't compare to Nemo, I can't judge if it was the right choice or not.

KS pictures post next!!

 

[Hannah1284]

 

[Hannah1284]

Day 3, Part 3: Dinner! ADR change #1...

Our plan was to eat dinner in AK at Tusker House. I had an ADR for 615p. However, at the last minute I made a switch and booked us at Boma. The only reservation available was 845p so I grabbed it. On the way to AKL DH was all "I don't wanna eat that late" so I called and was lucky enough to secure us an earlier reservation, but it still required some wait at AKL.

We wandered around and I have to say this is a gorgeous resort!

We were starving to DH got a beer and I got some crisps at the bar/cafe area. I forget the name (and am too lazy to look it up right this minute). The crisps with hummus were delicious!

We wandered a little more and then got tired of wandering so we headed down to Boma and let them know we were there (about a half hour early). We waited about 10 minutes and they seated us. Our waitress, Debbie was great! And, a dobbleganger of DH's aunt, haha.

Here's some food pics!

In typical Hannah-style, I grabbed one of each of the desserts!

...sad to say I wasn't able to finish them all.

 

[Hannah1284]

Day 4, Part 1: DH loves DH!

Whew! After that bag check line yesterday we learned our lesson. Got up early and did some scanning before entering a bag check line. Luckily none were as long as AK's yesterday so we were able to head in quickly!

First up was Toy Story Mania! We basically ran/walked there. Thanks so much for the suggestions to do this first! The wait said 50 minutes, but we ended up only waiting about 15. We got pushed to the FP line because we were a group of two, which helped speed things up!

We both really enjoyed this ride! So much so, we were tempted to pick up FP for later, but the FP was already at like...2p by the time we came out (crazy!) so we passed. We were planning to be back at DHS so we figured we'd catch it again that time.

We jetted to my favorite ride (from memory...and from Disney Paris) Tower of Terror!!! It said 10 mins, but really wasn't even that long. Unfortunately we got a bit of a dud for the ride. It was just a bunch of tiny drops, no real big ones...bummer. Not to worry though...we shall ride again. )

DH suggested Rock 'n' Roller Coaster so we went there next. Again, short line... He loved this! I liked the ride, but I have started having issues with some rides lately. I first noticed when we were in Disney Paris and my head slammed against the shoulder harness and gave me a terrible headache. Then, at HersheyPark (close to our home) I got a very intense headache from some of the roller coasters. So apparently I need to be very cautious about rides that go upside-down and are jerky at all. I also need to essentially press my head back against the ride so it doesn't bounce around a ton...makes for some funny ride photos!

Star Tours! DH was super excited to ride this. I was actually on the fence before hand -- not a big Star Wars fan. The darn ride beat us up! DH got quite nauseous from it and as we were leaving the room I ran into one of the arm rests and got a major bruise on my leg (visible in some later photos!). Poor DH was a little disappointed. I actually quite liked the ride and wanted to do it again, but DH didn't think he could stomach it.
Oh well.

Next was Indiana Jones. DH said some woman was breastfeeding a few rows down from us, but I didn't see. Not that either of us really care, but seems you'd want one of those "hooter hider" things for such a public place? By the time it was over our stomachs were growling...

 

[Hannah1284]

Day 4, Part 2: Cupcake!

For lunch I was dying to check out Starring Rolls. Holy crowded Batman, that place was packed! Of course, I waited, I wanted my cupcake!

Here's some food pics to satisfy your hunger...or make you hungry. )


Both had the turkey sandwich - sooo good! What's on this thing?!

My dessert: Carrot Cake Cupcake -- good but not a big fan of the orange icing? The nuts however...I was devouring!

DH's dessert: Eclair (he loves eclairs and doesn't understand the Disney cupcake thing).

While we were eating, DH noticed a couple obviously not from the US unsuccessfully searching for a seat. Since we were at a table for four, he invited them to join us. They were from Japan and were quite nice. What an interesting lunch! DH kept referring to them as "our friends" and kept looking for them the rest of the week. Got some great tips on visiting Japan!


Post lunch pic!

 

[Hannah1284]

Day 4, Part 3: Slowing it down a little...

::: Minor Commercial Break :::
There's a little discrepancy in my notes. We went and saw Beauty and the Beast at some point, but I'm not sure where it fit into the day... Good show! I highly recommend. It was after seeing this show that DH and I both said "now we want to go watch all the Disney movies again!).

Back to our regularly scheduled programming...
We decided to once again hit up some of the "Easier" rides while our stomachs were full. First Muppets! Seriously...they need more muppet merch! I loved this...would've just sat there and watched again and again all afternoon and evening, but DH wanted to move on.

Next was the Great Movie Ride. I enjoyed this, but man is it slow and a little hokey at some points. At little disappointed we only got one ride in this trip, but there's always the next time (hopefully not 18 years from now!).

Finally we did the Studio Backlot Tour. I know this gets a lot of negative feedback from people, but its a ride I really like. I like the whole tram ride with talking and stuff... Hey! DH enjoyed it, too! I'm not the only dork around these woods. )