Boo to you and you and Whew... It’s too hot for a Halloween parade - A September TR

Hello friends and welcome to my September Trip Report! I’ve only been home a few weeks and I already miss Walt Disney World like crazy! I’m already going through withdrawals and searching for the possibility of any excuse to get back down to central Florida and to my favorite place on earth. Realistically, I’m thinking February or March 2013, but I would love to squeeze a trip in between now and then... Anyway, my last two Disney trips have been one extreme to the other - weather wise. I absolutely froze in December of 2010 and turned right around and melted in September 2011. But you know what? I LOVED every minute of it!

Click here to read my December 2010 trip report

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=718898

Now, on to the details of this trip...

When did we go? September 15-25, 2011
Where did we stay? Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge - Jambo House
How did we get there? We drove 8 and 1/2 hours
Who all went? Just me and my beautiful bride
Why did we go? Our 3 Year Anniversary! (Not that we need a reason to go to WDW)
Any other details to offer up? We had 9 day park hoppers and were on the dining plan

I started planning this trip before we even went on our December trip! Talk about excitement! Planning and thinking about two Disney trips at the same time was awesome!! Of course, with every trip to the World, our plans changed many times... but here is my pre trip report/itinerary so you can see what I planned and compare it to what we actually did.

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=733892

We actually stuck to our plans, for the most part, at least until the end of the week. I was proud.

Ok, I stated earlier that on this particular trip, it was just me and my wife. Here we are...
First up, we have myself, Jon. Tar Heel born and Tar Heel bred. The planner and over the top WDW fanatic.

Next we have my better half, my gorgeous bride, Brittany. The WDW veteran who loves Disney but doesn’t obsess about it 24/7 like her hubby...

Man, she’s hot!!

Anyway, we had been looking forward to this trip for a long time for many different reasons. Since we walked out of EPCOT on that last night in December, we had been longing to get back! I was so pumped that I packed like a week before our trip! I NEVER do that. I’m normally a last minute packer. I was so excited because, yes, I love WDW, but also this trip was going to allow us to experience a lot of firsts. This trip would be our first trip with “just us”; this trip would be our first staying at a deluxe Disney resort; and this trip would be our first time being on the Disney Dining Plan! Wooo Hooo! We were excited! So excited, in fact, that I was up at the crack of dawn 180 days before our check in date to schedule ADRs! Needless to say, we got all the restaurants and times that we wanted. Our departure day couldn’t come fast enough!


Thursday September 15, 2011

This day started like any other day. I got up, did my normal morning routine, and was ready to go to work. The only difference (besides my heart racing from excitement and anticipation) was the fact that we were leaving for vacation in just a few hours...
Having packed a week early and having stayed on Brittany to make sure all of her packing was finished on Wednesday night to avoid feeling rushed or stressed on Thursday morning, we were all set to go the second I got home from work around noon. As I left for work that morning, this was the sight I saw as I headed out the door...

The time crept by at work that morning as it seemed to take forever for lunchtime to come. I was like a kid on Christmas Eve... Finally, it was 12:00 and it was time to start our journey! I flew out of the office and minutes later into my driveway. I ran through the door, changed clothes, and finished packing everything into our Jeep Grand Cherokee. Brittany had most of our stuff loaded up already. God bless her! We jumped in the Jeep and were ready to roll! Brittany wanted to drive because she said she had an anniversary surprise for me... I went along with it.
Our traditional in the vehicle, pre-departure photo...

We were on our way! Brittany immediately handed me a thick envelope and told me to open it. When I did, I found a letter and a CD. The letter got mushy (I’ll spare you guys the details...) and instructed me to put the CD in. Each song on the CD had a special meaning which she explained in detail in my letter. It was the sweetest thing EVER. I love my girl! When we had listened to all of the songs, we pulled off the interstate and swung into a Chick-fil-a to grab a quite bite and got right back on the road. Now, it was my turn to take the wheel... and I had it for the rest of the trip.

77 South...

I don’t mind road trips. They are fun for me. I think the anticipation makes my excitement grow higher and higher as I near my destination.
We were making great time! I was only stopping if we had to - for gas, food or bathroom and I had packed a couple of empty water jugs. Just kidding about that last part. For the next several hours, I looked like this...

And Brittany looked like this...

Typical. You get this woman in a moving automobile, and she instantly transforms into an infant. She was out, so I listened to a couple episodes of WDW Today and the Be Our Guest Podcast and of course I had to pop in The Eagles - Hell Freezes Over album. Britt doesn’t like The Eagles, so I have to take advantage of her slumber when I can...
It was around 7:30pm or so when we both started to get pretty hungry. I spotted a sign for our favorite road trip restaurant at the next exit, so we pulled off, fueled up, and filled our bellies...

Love some Cracker Barrel!

We got back on the road and only had a couple more hours of driving ahead of us for the night until we reached our first destination.
Weeks before I had booked a room for $71 at the Holiday Inn Express in Orange City, Florida, which is only about an hour from Walt Disney World. Our plan was to stop there for the night, get up early the next morning, and have just a short drive to WDW so we wouldn’t feel like we were wasting a day of our precious vacation! The more time in the parks, the better, right?!? We pulled in to the parking lot of the Holiday Inn Express at exactly 9:30pm.

It had been a long day and we were tired (although I don’t know how Britt was tired considering she slept 90% of the drive), but I still had trouble sleeping because of the excitement of knowing that in the morning we would be at Disney World! I went to the restroom and when I came out, Britt was out again already. After catching a few highlights on SportsCenter, I finally drifted off to sleep...

 

[MEyeSeeKayEY]

Sunday September 18 Continued...



We hopped aboard the bus to the Magic Kingdom, and even though that would be our eventual destination, we had to make another stop for dinner first. The funny thing is, we would use 3 different forms of Disney transportation on our journey to dinner... We took the bus to the Ticket and Transportation Center, from there we took the Monorail to the Magic Kingdom, and from there we took a boat to Disney’s Wilderness Lodge! We were meeting some friends from back home who were at Disney also for dinner at the Whispering Canyon Cafe! As we walked in to the Wilderness Lodge, the lobby took my breath away like only it can...

Whispering Canyon was yet another first for us on this trip, as we had never eaten there before. I had heard a lot of good things about it online and the Be Our Guest Podcast had a good show on it a couple of months back that really had me looking forward to eating there.
Our friends were staying at the Wilderness Lodge, so they were already waiting for us in the lobby. Great, because we were hungry!
We checked in and after only waiting a few minutes, we were seated at our table.
Whispering Canyon is anything but a “whispering” restaurant! If you’ve ever been to the Wilderness Lodge, you know what I mean. It is LOUD. Yee Haw!! Haha. If you’ve never eaten here, you have to at least try it once. It is an experience to say the least...
Our waitress came around and we ordered our drinks. I made the mistake of ordering a “large” coke...

Yeah, it was a “two hander”...
If that wasn’t enough, our waitress brought me like four straws (because one straw would have drowned in my large coke) and told me to make do. I showed her...

This place was wild and crazy, but it was fun. If someone asked for ketchup, the waiter or waitress would yell out across the entire restaurant, “KETCHUP!!!” Then people would bring ketchup bottles from every table over to that one table, so the person who asked for it had like 30 bottles. Haha. Like I said, it was crazy. On top of that, they made everybody stand up and do the hokey pokey. It was fun and most people got into it. These people look less than thrilled...

After all that excitement, it was time for the highlight of the Whispering Canyon - the food! Brittany and I both ordered the Canyon Skillet. I can’t remember what our friends ordered. The skillet was awesome! It’s all you can eat, but we didn’t even come close...

Overall, we loved Whispering Canyon! It was so much fun and the food was delicious! The only thing is, do not go there if you are not patient or if you are in a hurry because it takes at least 2 hours to eat there. Our reservations were for 7:15pm and we barely got out in time to run down to the beach to catch the Electric Water Parade, Brittany’s favorite since she was a little girl...

After the water parade, we said goodbye to our friends and we decided that we would go catch another boat and head back to the Magic Kingdom for some Extra Magic Hours until 1:00am!
As we walked from the beach around to the boat dock, we admired the beauty and greatness of the Wilderness Lodge, which like most things at WDW, looks so much cooler at night...

We didn’t have to wait long for a boat to come and before we knew it, we were on our way back to the Magic Kingdom!
There is nothing quite like a nice boat ride on Bay Lake and the Seven Seas Lagoon at night. Words can’t describe it, especially during this time of year. We sat outside and the weather was just perfect.
Hello, Contemporary Resort and Bay Lake Tower!

Finally, the Magic Kingdom came into sight and it was nothing less than magical...

No matter how many times I’ve been to the MK, I get an excited feeling, like I’m a little kid, every single time I approach it. It doesn’t matter if it is by boat, bus, monorail or car. There is simply nothing like it in the world.
The boat docked, we disembarked and headed in, ready for a magical evening at our favorite Disney park.

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

WCC is one of our must do's now after we tried it in May. Thje skilet is sooooo yummy!! :slurp: Sadly though, we're not going in a couple weeks We're even staying at the WL but just don'thave time for it since its a shorter trip than usual. But, I did just book it for the first night of our April/May trip (Can't believe I'm already booking ADR's for spring and we haen't even gone on our fall trip yet!!)

I'm looking forward to taking the boat from WL to the MK. Never done it before so we're excited!

 

[93boomer]

What on earth! That coke was as big as your head! Wow! Learned your lesson there, didn't you! Ohh, the food looks good there. It looks really nice. Have to write that one down for the next time! Ha...looking forward to your score.

 

[TheMouseFan]

Welcome back and thanks for catching up on the TR! I look forward to seeing yours soon...
September crowds were great and I thought October crowds were supposed to be light as well. :shrug: Sorry about that. I recommend suscribing to touringplans.com, as we found it helpful and rewarding! Glad you guys had a good trip and Le Cellier is the best, isn't it?!?

Hopefully I'll be able to start my TR next week. I'm a little busy this week with Halloween being Monday and the kids having class parties and such.

I did subscribe to touringplans.com and they had 1 and 2 level crowds the whole week when we were initially planning the trip. Then, about a month before we left the numbers kept increasing to 7,8, and 9!! Oh well, we got to see almost everything that we wanted and we had a great time.

 

[fractal]

Whispering Canyon looks like a bunch of fun! Thanks for the review.

Enjoying your report so far!

 

[MEyeSeeKayEY]

WCC is one of our must do's now after we tried it in May. Thje skilet is sooooo yummy!! :slurp: Sadly though, we're not going in a couple weeks We're even staying at the WL but just don'thave time for it since its a shorter trip than usual. But, I did just book it for the first night of our April/May trip (Can't believe I'm already booking ADR's for spring and we haen't even gone on our fall trip yet!!)
I'm looking forward to taking the boat from WL to the MK. Never done it before so we're excited!

I'm jealous of your multiple trips to WDW!!! :fork: Haha, j/k.
You will love WCW!!

What on earth! That coke was as big as your head! Wow! Learned your lesson there, didn't you! Ohh, the food looks good there. It looks really nice. Have to write that one down for the next time! Ha...looking forward to your score.

Haha. WCW is a must do at least once. Buzz score coming soon. Stay tuned...

Hopefully I'll be able to start my TR next week. I'm a little busy this week with Halloween being Monday and the kids having class parties and such.
I did subscribe to touringplans.com and they had 1 and 2 level crowds the whole week when we were initially planning the trip. Then, about a month before we left the numbers kept increasing to 7,8, and 9!! Oh well, we got to see almost everything that we wanted and we had a great time.

I understand. Yeah, touring plans is good, but you have to keep a check on it and check past years for your week. Oh well, as long as you have a good time at Disney, it doesn't really matter that much!

Whispering Canyon looks like a bunch of fun! Thanks for the review.
Enjoying your report so far!

Thanks! It was a a lot of fun and I think you, your wife and kids would really enjoy it!

 

[MEyeSeeKayEY]

Sunday September 18 Concluded...




I can’t think of many things better than evening Extra Magic Hours at the Magic Kingdom. As great as the MK is during the day, it’s ten times better at night (in my opinion). There is just something about everything being lit up that makes it seem more magical. Another great feature of evening EMH is that the crowds are usually lighter and you can ride more attractions! So, what are we waiting for? Let’s go ...

First we walked down Main Street and through the castle before going to ride some of our favorite attractions...

Our first ride of the night was one of our favorites, the classic Pirates of the Caribbean!

After Pirates, we hit Splash Mountain and of course Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, which is SO much better at night...

We continued our clockwise tour of the Magic Kingdom, riding the Haunted Mansion next followed by Space Mountain and the TTA. We rode all of these multiple times and just walked around slowly just enjoying our time together in our favorite park. We made one more quick loop, hitting Space, TTA, HM, BTMRR, Splash and Pirates once more each before getting a funnel cake in Liberty Square and eating it with the castle as a backdrop. It was perfect.
By this time, we were worn out and it was approaching 1:00am, so we decided to make our way toward the exit since we had another early get up in the morning.

Not quite Bricker-worthy, but not too bad for us...

We headed out of the Magic Kingdom, caught a bus back to the AKL and were sound asleep by 2:15am... Not a bad day. We couldn’t wait to get up and do it again. Tomorrow’s destination... Disney’s Animal Kingdom!

 

[switts]

I think I really need to make one of my trips during the Halloween season. It just looks so awesome

 

[93boomer]

Yay Halloween Party!! It is soo much fun, isn't it? Your pictures turned out very scary indeed! Like the castle at night-spooky. Ahh your picture with the pumpkins turned out great! We did that too.

 

[MEyeSeeKayEY]

I think I really need to make one of my trips during the Halloween season. It just looks so awesome

It was awesome to be there during "Halloween" (decoration wise) and the crowds were so light. The only negative was the heat, but it wasn't unbearable.

Yay Halloween Party!! It is soo much fun, isn't it? Your pictures turned out very scary indeed! Like the castle at night-spooky. Ahh your picture with the pumpkins turned out great! We did that too.

MNSSHP was the best! We will definitely be doing it again if we go back during that time of year!
Thanks!!

 

[MEyeSeeKayEY]

Monday September 19, 2011




We had planned to get up early and be at Animal Kingdom at rope drop, but after 3 busy days in the parks in the hot sun, we decided to sleep in and take our time this morning. That’s the luxury of being fortunate enough to have 9 full days at Walt Disney World, you can slow down and enjoy things a little more. If you don’t get to a park at rope drop, who cares? You could always go to that park another morning or whatever. My dream is to go to WDW for two weeks. That would be the ultimate!
Anyway, we took our time getting ready and then we headed downstairs to the AKL bus stop to wait for our bus. We waited for quite a long time as several buses came for Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios and Downtown Disney before any Animal Kingdom buses came. When an AK bus finally came, we boarded and were pulling in at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in no time! The time was 11:15am.
Once again, Brittany was the awesome wife that she is and stood in the bag check line while I took pictures...

And a few reminders of the once planned Beastly Kingdom area of Animal Kingdom...

Finally, Brittany made it through the bag check and met up with me. We were about to head inside the park until we discussed the fact that we were both hungry. Since it was almost noon and the Rainforest Cafe was right there, we decided we would go ahead and eat some lunch before going in to the park. We had to pose for a PhotoPass shot first though...

Inside the Rainforest Cafe we went!
We love this restaurant. I think it has to do with the atmosphere more than the food, but we love it anyway. I didn’t get any pictures of our food here, but I got a grilled chicken caesar salad and I think Brittany got some type of chicken sandwich. Both were very good and as always, the atmosphere in the Rainforest Cafe was fantastic!

After we finished eating, we were ready to explore Animal Kingdom! This is probably Brittany’s favorite park because she LOVES animals, so needless to say, she was psyched!

As we headed through the gates, our only decision was which way to go - Asia or Africa...

 

[switts]

It was awesome to be there during "Halloween" (decoration wise) and the crowds were so light. The only negative was the heat, but it wasn't unbearable.

the heat doesnt bother me I am used to going in the middle of August and that is the real heat :ROFLOL:

 

[joanna71985]

Loving the TR! The pictures are the great. And now thanks to you, I really want to try Whispering Canyon

 

[MEyeSeeKayEY]

the heat doesnt bother me I am used to going in the middle of August and that is the real heat :ROFLOL:

September was hot enough for me. I don't think I'll be going in July or August...

Loving the TR! The pictures are the great. And now thanks to you, I really want to try Whispering Canyon

Thank you!! Whispering Canyon is great! You will love it! Check out the Be Our Guest Podcast - Episode # 330 - They do a great review of WS.

 

[MEyeSeeKayEY]

Monday September 19 Continued...



Into Animal Kingdom we went, making our way toward the Tree of Life. The tree is another one of those Disney icons that I can’t seem to pass without taking a picture of it.
The park seemed very crowed, but I think that’s just because we were still so close to the park entrance. DAK is so big, the crowds usually thin out the deeper you get into the park.

We decided to head to Africa first because we wanted to see what kind of wait there was for Kilimangaro Safaris, so off we went.

I love the bridges that take you into Africa and Asia! They provide some of the best views of Animal Kingdom. As we walked across the bridge to Africa, our favorite attraction at DAK loomed in the distance...

Finally, we arrived in the African village of Harambe and headed straight for Kilimangaro Safaris. We love to ride this first thing in the morning because, supposedly, the animals are more likely to be out roaming around and being active. Well, since we had slept in, took our time getting to the park and ate lunch first, we weren’t sure how good our safari would be...

The stand by line was 40 minutes and like I said earlier, we don’t wait that long EVER, so I immediately went to get us a couple of FastPasses. The FastPass return time was only about an hour away, so it made even more sense for us not to wait in line. We decided to go explore a little bit until it was time to go on our safari, so in to the Pagani Forest trail we went...

 

[MEyeSeeKayEY]

Monday September 19 Continued...



We saw a lot of cool animals on the Pagani trail, such as hippos (pictured in my previous post), monkeys, thompson’s gazelles and gorillas. We just took our time walking through and watching them play around. I could sit and watch animals all day. They just amaze me...

After we walked through the Pagani trail, we still had about 20 minutes to kill, so we decided to hop aboard the Wildlife Express! We weren’t going to get off at Rafiki’s Planet Watch and Conservation Station though, we just wanted to take a nice, relaxing train ride. It was cool because we got to see some behind the scenes areas of Animal Kingdom that you don’t normally get to see...

After our train ride, it was just about time for our safari, so we went back in to Africa and headed that way.

By the time we got back to Kilimangaro Safaris, it was 2 minutes past our return time! Man, were are good! Haha.
We jumped right in the FastPass line and made our way through the bascialy empty queue toward the loading area.

After a short wait, we were ready to board our safari vehicles! We love this attraction and could not wait to go on our two week journey...

 

[MEyeSeeKayEY]

Monday September 19 Continued...



Kilimangaro Safaris is one of our favorite attractions, not only at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, but in all of Walt Disney World. I know the story line is the same every time, but it really is a different attraction each and every time you ride. You never know which animals you are going to see or what they will be doing or how close they will be to your ride vehicle.
Here are a few of my favorite shots from our safari...

Our safari was great! We saw so many active animals roaming around!
Seeing all the animals was great, but I was ready for some thrills, so out of Africa we went...

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Just caught up on your report. Great stuff.

We totally could've been face to face on MK EMH night! We were there the night of the 18th, too! The boys & I stayed the distance. I took pics of the boys by a clock on Main Street veery near the same time you took yours! Craziness!

Lovin the ride with y'all! :sohappy:

 

[MEyeSeeKayEY]

Just caught up on your report. Great stuff.
We totally could've been face to face on MK EMH night! We were there the night of the 18th, too! The boys & I stayed the distance. I took pics of the boys by a clock on Main Street veery near the same time you took yours! Craziness!
Lovin the ride with y'all! :sohappy:

Thanks, Kelly!
We probably were standing right next to each other on Main Street and didn't even know it! Haha.

 

[MEyeSeeKayEY]

Monday September 19 Continued...



After our journey on Kilimangaro Safaris, we headed out of Africa because I was itching for some Everest!
On our way out, we stopped and listened for a second to these guys...

I was ready to get to Asia, but as we approached the Tree of Life, we had to stop at one of our favorite 3-D shows at Walt Disney World, It’s Tough To Be A Bug!

Like I said earlier, the detail in the Tree of Life is amazing. I could just study it for hours trying to find new things that I’ve never seen before...

And of course, the customary bug eye shot...

It’s Tough To Be A Bug is such a fun show! I know it freaks out some little kids, but overall, it is excellent; not to mention it gets you our of the hot sun on your Animal Kingdom day!
After ITTBAB, we headed directly for Asia and toward our inevitable encounter with the Yeti...

Animal Kingdom in general is so incredibly well themed, but to me it seems Asia takes it to a whole new level. I could literally just walk around a look at all the details for hours.
I also love watching these guys. They are so entertaining!

As we drew closer and closer to the Forbidden Mountain, our excitement and anticipation grew and grew...
Disney knows what they are doing. They tell a story throughout the entire park. Everything has a meaning and usually it has more than one meaning and somehow, it all seems connected. This is what sets Disney apart - the details!