I didn't get married, but I won the lottery and took a walk on the wild side at WDW!

YoungNY · Sep 28, 2012

Finally we made it to the world showcase. We saw a Duffy meet and greet and while I don't get the point of Duffy, Autumn thought it had been too long since she had hugged a character so we got on line.

While waiting in line I used my Disney app to search for snacks in mexico. I was getting hungry, but more importantly I was getting thristy. I couldn't wait to start drinking around the world. I was so excited when we finally got to Mexico.

In Mexico we went to a place called Cava del Tequila which is at the bottom of the ramp to the right when you walk inside. Its a small cozy bar. Its was kind of dark and I'm sure could get very crowded, but its a cute and could be romantic and quiet.

Autumn got a long awaited beer...

I got the signature Sangria...

We got an order of chips and salsa, but there was a wait cause they ran out of chips. The bar tender offered me a free shot while we waited, but I stupidly turned it down. I know my tolerance for alcohol and I know that one shot would have put me over the edge.

The chips were good. They came with regualr salsa without the chunks, white cheese and a fantastic BBQ salsa. I left Mexico a bit tipsy and we got to Soarin just in time for our fastpass. I was nervous about it since I'm scared of heights, but it wasn't that bad. When we got off, it was about 7:30 and we had ADR at Kona Cafe at 8:10, I was getting a little nervous. We took the monorail to the TTC and transferred to the resorts monorail. We made excellent timing. We arrived at the Kona Cafe with 7 minutes to spare. I chose Kona Cafe for one reason, the Lapu Lapu. I saw a picture of it in a trip resort and I knew I had to have one.

It did not disappoint.

Autumn got a beer and Pan Asian noodles with tofu

I also got the Pan Asian noddles with shrimp instead

For dessert we got our birthday cakes.

Autumn got some kind of Jasmin tea-infused cheesecake. It was horrible. It tasted like what I'd imagine a sweaty old sock would like taste like.

I got the upside down Pineapple. It was really good.

I convinced Autumn to tell the waitress she didn't like the dessert and ask to order a new one. She wasn't feeling completely comfortable doing that, but as soon as the waitress come over she said, "You don't like it right?" Apparently, a lot of people return that dessert. She was actually quite happy we returned it, she said maybe if enough people do, they will finally take it off the menu.

In exchange she got a chocolate cake.

We took our time eating dessert and I needed time to finish my drink. When dessert was done I still hadn't finished my drink, but that drink is very strong and I was half drunk already. I wanted to take my drink to go and I vaguely remember asking the waitress if I could get a cup-cup to go. I remember Autumn and I laughing a lot after that. I did get my cup-cup to go. We walked around the resort for a bit before catching the monorail to MK and then a bus back to our resort.

Oddly we were both surprised to see real pay phone. It reminded me of when I saw a little girl in Barnes and Noble ask her mother what the pay phone was. It's kind of like seeing a animal in the wild that going exstinct.

I thought I saw a hidden Mickey. Now I think it was just part of the rug.

The only thing I wanted from room service was a towel animal. After we didn't get any the first day, I left a note with a big tip saying how much we love towel animals and what a great job they were doing. Yes, I bribed mousekeeping, but I got what I wanted.

JIMINYCR · Sep 28, 2012

Glad to see you smiling and enjoying WDW with a friend who can help you put the sadness behind. Keep the pictures and good times coming.

maryszhi · Sep 28, 2012

loving your trip report! i am sorry about the circumstances, but at least you got to go on a fun trip

YoungNY · Sep 28, 2012

Ok, so now comes the good part. You might have wondered why I choose the title I did. I didn't win the actual lottery (I wish), but the odds of what happened are about as slim as winning the actual lottery. I know a lot of people don't like AK. Sure, it smells, there aren't a lot of rides, it's a half a day park most think, but I can say that this day at AK was the best day I have spent in Disney World...EVER! It was one of the best experiances of my life.

September 24,2012- Our wild, fear free, full of first AK Day

AK had EMH this morning, so we woke up early to get there, but of course we were running about 1/2 hour late. I ran down and got breakfast and brought it back up to the room. I borrowed a tray from the food court. I'm not sure if that's ok, but I did it. I said before my goal for this trip was to get on rides I'd been too afraid to ride before, so as soon as we got off the bus at AK we headed for EE. The plan was to get a fastpass then go to the safari, but the wait was 5 mins upon arrival. We got on line before I chickened out, it was a walk on. I was so scared the whole ride because I didn't know what to expect, but...

I did it!

I was so proud of myself. I know it seems silly, but I'm a wimp. I don't do rollercoasters and I'd been wanting to ride EE for years, but was always too scared to get on it once I got there. I think I literally skipped off that ride. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, I think I'd do it again. Only bad thing was Autumn didn't see the yeti.

After the yeti we headed towards Africa to do the safari, stopping breifly to watch the monkeys and for Autumn to bang on some drums.

By the time we got to the safari it had a 30 min wait, but that gave Autumn time to drink the coffee she had stopped for.

Now I know we've all seen a million safari pictures so, I'll only show you a few.

They aren't great, but those are just a preview of our safari adventures that day. After the safari, Autumn was interested in doing the Pangani Forest Trail. I had never done that before, it was interesting. It really got fun when we got to the gorillas.

This big guy was pretending to be asleep and posing.

I think we spent a good 10 minutes just watching this baby gorilla. He was playing and chasing bunnies around. It was adorable.

I told Autumn there was a petting zoo if you took the train to Rafiki's Planet Watch. She loves animals so we got on the train for the petting zoo. Another first for me. When we got there we saw Rafiki and got on line to meet him.

I have no clue what Autumn is looking at.

Seriously out of focus.

We finally got to the petting zoo. It was very different than what I thought it would be. I thought there would be more animals and different types of animals. I thought it would be bigger and I thought there would be food or bottles to buy to feed the animals. Oh well, it was still cute.

We soon got back on the train and back to Africa. I wanted to see the Lion King show so I suggested we hit up the character meet and greet in Camp Minnie-Mickey and then see the show. On the way over there, I wanted to stop and get a snack. I walked over to a snack chart across from Tusker House and was approached with the opportunity of a lifetime.

Briangwen7 · Sep 28, 2012

Did you get to be in the Parade???

YoungNY · Sep 28, 2012

Briangwen7 said:
Did you get to be in the Parade???

It was a thousand times better than being in the parade.

Briangwen7 · Sep 28, 2012

YoungNY said:
It was a thousand times better than being in the parade.

OMG I WANNA KNOW, Your Killing me! Haha <3

OswaldTheRabbit · Sep 28, 2012

Hurry already

. I am dying to know !!!!!!!

YoungNY · Sep 28, 2012

So the story goes...

I hadn't even gotten in line yet and a man wearing a disney name tag walks up to us and starts a causal conversation. He wishes us a happy birthday and asks if we're having a good day. He asks if we had done the safari. We said yes. He asks if we had done the pangani trial. We said yes. He asks if we enjoyed those experiances. We said yes. By this point I think he's doing some kind of survery. I think he's about to ask for our zip codes like they do at MK. I had no clue what he was getting at. He then asks if we would like a more depth experiance. I was interested so I asked him to continue. He said that he was doing a promotional shoot that day and was looking for guests that would be interested in particapting. I think my jaw dropped. He went on to ask if we had heard of the Wild Africa Trek. Neither of us had, so he showed us the filer for it. It had pictures of the safari animals, people in a safari truck and people on a rope bridge. He explained that it was sort of a backstage tour, it was a hike through the woods, with an in depth disscussion of the animals, a private tour and a snack served out on the safari. He said it was a 3 hour experiance that costs about $150 per person, but we would get it for free if we agreed to sign a wavier saying any photos taken of us during the experiance could be used for promotional purposes.

Now I looked at Autumn to get a feel for what she was thinking and she said it was completely up to me. I told the guy I was worried about the rope bridge because I'm afraid of heights and also the 3 hour time frame did bother me. We only had one day for AK and we had only done 3 things. The guy saw I was having trouble making a decision and gave us a moment to talk it over. I could tell Autumn really wanted to do it. I thought it over and figured I was pretty lucky to be offered this opportunity for free. I figured it was a once in a lifetime experiance and I was just gonna have to get over my fear. I had already done EE, I could do a rope bridge as well and as the promotional guy said, "Disney wouldn't do anything unless it was safe."

So we told him we'd do it. He was so excited. He took down our names and ages in a notebook as well as our phone numbers. He asked about dietary needs and wrote down that Autumn was a vegetarian. That's when he noticed her footwear. She was wearing sandels. He told her it was a requirement that all particapants wear hiking boots, sneakers, or clogs. He asks what her shoe sizes was and wrote that down too. He told us they would buy her a pair of clogs to wear for the day, she made a face at that because she detests clogs with a passion. He caught on and said they would get her a pair of sneakers instead. He asked us to be back there by Tusker House at 1:45 that afternoon. He said the experiance would start about 2:30 and be over by 5. We agreed to meet him there, thanked him and walked away.

It was about 11:45 when we walked away. We had to regroup and plan the day. I really wanted to do Dinosaur and so did Autumn so we went in that direction. When we passed Nemo I saw the next show was at noon and it was 5 mins til so we ran over there hoping there was still room. We ending up getting really good seats in the front row of the second tier. The nemo show was great as usual and made me cry. It actually surprisingly ended up being Autumn's favorite show in all of WDW. We ran to Dinosaur next.

Luckily it was a very short wait and a great ride. Autumn loves dinosaurs so she really enjoyed this ride.

We ruled out Kali River Rapids for two reasons. One, if we were gonna be on camera or in pictures we didn't want to be soaked. Two, Autumn was nervous about it, she hates walking around in wet clothes and it just wasn't hot enough for her. It was probably in the low 80's. So instead we hit up it's tough to be a bug.

On the way back to our Trek we saw a crowd standing around and taking pictures of a tree. We were curious and watched a moment and the tree started moving. I had heard about it, but never saw it before.

We met back on the side of the Tusker House in a little alcove with a few tables. One of the guides was there and she was talking to a family. A minute after we got there the Disney promotional guy showed up with 4 other people. He introduced a very tall man to us as the photographer, his name was Pinter (or something like that). The other three I'm not sure who they were but I think only one of them actually worked for Disney and the other two were models. I only say that cause one lady said she had done other things like this in all the other Disney parks and the other two were stopped and made to pose more than the rest of us.

Jumping ahead of myself. While sitting at these tables behind the tusker house the trek guide explained what we'd we doing, the promotional guy gave Autumn some Mickey sneakers and socks, they gave us several papers to go over and sign (basically saying they could use our photos and likeness and that if we get hurt we won't sue them). The other family that had been chosen was a family of 5. It was mother and her 3 kids. 2 boys ages 14 and 10 and a girl, 16, along with their grandmother. I should not the treks are only for 12 people max at a time. While we were signing our papers Pinter told us he didn't want us to act. He wanted us to be completely natural. He wanted to get our natural reactions to what was going on, so if we were bored than act bored. He didn't want us looking into the camera or smiling for the camera. He wanted us to just ignore him. After all the paperwork was finished the trek guides suggested we all use the bathroom as once we got started there would be no bathroom available to us for the first 2 hours.

Briangwen7 · Sep 28, 2012

Omg That is so Cool! Can't wait to see pictures!!!!

OswaldTheRabbit · Sep 28, 2012

Oh wow!!! Can't wait to hear all about it!

YoungNY · Sep 28, 2012

Once we got back from the bathroom, one of the ladies with the promotional guy wrote some numbers and our names on a white board. She had us hold up the white board beside our heads and took a picture of us. Once everyone had done that, the guides asked if we were all ready and escorted us to a door in the fence that goes down towards the river the bridge in Africa goes over. There was a path along the river that led us to a little hut in the woods. The guides explained that rules such as you must be mobile, over the age of 8, and between 90 and 300lbs. We were all told to empty our pockets and store our belongings in a locker provided. We were only allowed to keep a camera if it had a wrist strap attached.

They said the first thing they needed to do was weigh us privately to make sure they put us in the right size harness. We went up one at a time, got weighed and fitted with a harness. Then we got sent to another guide to make sure we got all strapped in correctly. Pinter went first because by the time I put my stuff in a locker and got on line to get my harness he was already busy snapping photos of us. I tried my best to ignore him, but its really hard to ignore a man taking pictures of you 5 feet away. The other guide zipped us up and made sure our straps were tights. He hooked up our cameras to the hooks in our harness and gave us a canteen to full and hook into our harness. Then we were sent to the practice bridge. They had a set up familiar to summer camps where you could get a feel for how shaking the bridge was gonna be. I felt like I could do it, but I was nervous because the themeing was that the bridge was decaying so the steps were have broken and far apart. After that we went up a little hill where they had bug spray and sun screen waiting for us. There they also gave us ear pieces so we could hear both guides throughout the tour. Several people in our group had issues with hearing or their ear pieces breaking, but they were used to this and had plently of extras. It was here we were told that not only would Pinter be taking photos of us, but the guides would be too as part of the package and the promotional guide would be taking pictures as well. So now we have three different people snapping cameras at us and we are supposed to pretend none of them are there.

Once everyone was ready they took us back out around the river and we took our first group photo under the tower on the side of Tusker House. We were allowed to pose and smile for that one. Then the guides led us through Africa up towards the Pangani Trail. That was really weird. 12 guests and 2 guides all strapped into harnesses walking through the park while some guy runs beside and ahead trying to take pictures of us at every angle and all the other park guests looking at us wondering what's going. Kinda hard to ignore and pay attention to what the guide was saying. I honestly have no clue what the guides said during that walk. I was too busy being stared at. We got a tour of the pangani trail until we got to the meerkats. Next to the meerkats was a gate in the fence, that's about when our walk into the wild started.

The trail into the woods was narrow and cluttered with branches. I think they did that on purpose to make you feel like you were really in the middle of the woods. We took a left at a hippo skeleton which led to the hippo pool. There we met another Disney guide with a bucket of lettuce and bananas. We were all hooked up to latch on a pulley system and led out on a cliff overlooking the hippo pool.

Just to give you an idea of where we were standing.

As the first couple of trucks went by, the people started waving at us and we started waving back. The guides quickly asked us to stop because apparently an open palm to the hippos is a command to open their mouth for food and if they don't get it they will stop responding to the commands. We got a lot of info about the hippos and were able to ask any questions we wanted. During our trek the female hippos were busy "talking". I forget what they called it, but they were making very loud noises you don't normally hear on the safari.

The pool we were above only had one male in it. The female were in the pool across the street. They have free reign to be where they want, but apparently the females they have now are quite nasty and prefer to stay alone. We also learned male hippos do something called "poo-showering". Which is when the hippos poo and swing their tails at the same time sending poo everywhere. Well, the lady hippos they have are so bad the like to do this too. In fact while standing out on this cliff we got a show of exactly that. Good thing they were farther away.

The 3 female hippos in the other pool.

We posed for photos with the hippo in the background. All the professional photos taken during the trek will arrive in 6 weeks via mail. When I get them I'll be sure to post them here for all to see. The pictures I have now are just what I was able to take during the trek.

We left the hippo cliff and got unhooked from the pulley system. We hiked through the woods a bit more learning about the foliage until we got to a tower in the woods. What I found weird was that Pinter would run ahead of us and set up his tripod off the path in the woods somewhere. It was kind of like playing where's waldo to find him. But I must admit the more interesting the tour got the less I noticed the many cameras clicking at us.

englanddg · Sep 28, 2012

That...is...awesome...

I was looking at doing that tour next year, now that the kid has turned 8!

Wonder if they'll let you know which video they'll use your footage in?

YoungNY · Sep 28, 2012

The steps up the tower were strange, they reminded me of the ladders on ships. But the view from the top was both great and scary.

They asked us to check our straps once more before going up, I tightened my straps around my legs so tight I thought I might cut off the circulation, but I really didn't care. If I fell I wanted to know that harness was tight and would hold me. The promotional guy knew I was scaried and offered to go in front of me and have Autumn go behind me so that no one would shake the bridge while I was on it. The other family went first and their grandmother was scared too, but she did it just fine. The mother actually slipped half way across and almost fell, but she made it across too. After the youngest boy went, I felt my courage rise and decided I better get it over with so I volunteered to go next. As I stepped out onto the first step of the bridge that's when I saw the second bridge. Not only would I have to do this thing once, but twice. The first bridge was over the other side of the hippo pool. The hippos were actually active below. Between the big spaces in the steps you could see them walking on the bottom of the pool. It was really cool I was terrified, but it was cool. The bridge didn't sway as much as I had thought it would, but there were moments I just wanted to stop and have it be over with. They made me stop twice on the first bridge for photo ops. It was only seconds, but that was all I could handle. I gave the thumbs up for the photo I knew would be sent to me and not used for the promo. The bridge started to sway and jump more the closer I got to the first platform, but I was so happy to finally make it. The guide waiting for me swung my pulley around and immediately sent me towards the second bridge.

The second bridge was much scarier because it was over the croc pit. Looking down between steps all I saw was crocs and one of which was waiting with his mouth open. I was getting distracted by the crocs and the trucks coming by. One the first bridge I could only see the tops of the trucks as they went by, on the second bridge I saw the people pointing at me. I was holding on so tight I'm surprised I didn't get rope burn. My arms did hurt the next day, I used muscles I hadn't used in a while. About half way across I felt Autumn join me on the bridge, she wasn't shaking it, but I wasn't just working against my own footsteps anymore. The movement of the bridge wasn't being created soley by me, not to mention the guide told me shortly after. It was also around this time that the other family who was safely on the other side started yelling out words of encourgement at me. They were really nice people. They were from Alabama and had a really thick southern drawl so when they were yelling at me, it was quite funny. I started laughing and getting nervous I might fall because I was laughing, t but before I knew it I had reached the platform. They asked me to stop once more on the bridge for a couple of photos.They unhooked me and I quickly snapped a picture of Autumn coming across the bridge right before she reached the platform.

Autumn said once she saw me get off the bridge she started rocking and bouncing like crazy. It was a terrifiying experiance, but I'm glad I did it. Though I'm not sure if I'd do it again. I did pray for it to be over more than once.

scoobygirl39541 · Sep 28, 2012

Still catching up here, but omg I LOVE those towel animals!! I remember getting those years ago when I was little (one time they dressed my stuffed animals in the towels and put them in the bathroom. They even put a shower cap on one haha!!) but nothing's happened since... maybe its time to start bribing the cleaning staff

Also, the mickey face in the sleep wool is the cutest thing ever!!! I may have to make a trip to the petting zoo next time too lol

Raven66 · Sep 29, 2012

Great trip report so far. I can't wait to read and see more pictures. And how exciting that you got to take the Trek for free. I want to do that so bad. I hope you had a great trip. It's nice that you had your friend that you took with you. It's always great to have a friend like that.

MITCH 112198 · Sep 29, 2012

YoungNY said:
After Space Mountain we met Space Chip and Dale.

The rest of our day at MK is picture free,sorry I'll try and make it short. I went back to Auntie Gravities and got an iced coffee float. It was so fillings that Autumn and I had to share. We did CoP, Winnie the Pooh (which I had never done before),our next fastpass+ was at the Haunted Mansion, then we did Pirates of the Carribean. We took a stroll over the bridge where you can watch the people on Splash Mountain. I debated if I was riding it for a while and decided if the fastpass was before the time we had to leave then we'd do it. Unfortunately or fortunately, I can't decide, the fastpass return time started at 2:30 and we needed to leave the park by 2. The standby wait was over an hour. We still had some time before our next Fastpass+ ride so Autumn caught a break room while I got a ice pop. Then we rode the only rollercoaster I actually like, Big Thunder Mountain. Soon after we left the park and took the ferry to the TTC where we took a bus to DHS. We got there just in time to catch on of thier many parades.

Of the time we spent in DHS, it just seemed like there was a parade or street show going on every half an hour. As the parade ended we slipped up a side street and checked in for our Fantasmic Dining Package at Hollywood and Vine. The food was ok. The buffet was small, the choices weren't that great. Not to mention this buffet was our most expensive meal of the trip. It was ridiculous. If I had paid for it, I would have been upset. I wasn't impressed and will not be back.

At least the dessert was good. Too bad I didn't get a picture of that. After dinner Autumn took a quick smoke break then we got on the movie ride. I now understand what people mean when they say a guide who doesn't speak English can ruin the ride. With the first woman I spent most of the time trying to figure out what she was saying and the second woman had such a high pitched, very fake, very bad, jersey shore, female gangster accent I spent most of the time with her wishing she would shut up.

As we left the movie ride, we debated either Indiana Jones or Beauty and the Beast. Autumn thought she remembered seeing Indiana Jones and I thought BatB is a better show, so BatB won. I took a quick right leaving BatB and got in line for the tower before I lost my nerve. The ToT and I have a love-hate relationship. I have a slight panick attack everytime I get on it, but I come off laughing everytime. It is terrorifying, but a lot of fun.

I wish I had gotten a better picture, but we are the two at the top in the middle. After ToT Autumn needed a smoke break so she pulled out the map and tried to find a place. I wasn't really paying attention until she said she couldn't find where we were on the map. So I looked at it and told her in disbelief that she was looking at the MK map. Several people close by laughed as well as we did for quite a while about it.

After a smoke break we found our way to Star Wars using the right map this time. It was my first time riding it after the refurb. I love it, but I thought it was similar to the old ride, only this time it was in 3D. I could be wrong.

It took us forever to get this picture as liitle kids kept running up and jumping on it and we just didn't have the hearts to tell people that there was a line. So we just waited patiently until it was clear and got a shot real quick. By that time it was time to head over to Fantasmic. It was a good show, we had great seats, but those benches were so uncomfortable. Our butts were hurting something aweful by the end of the show.

The walk out of fantasmic was long, slow and crowded. I found out something new about Autumn while trying to get out... she doesn't like crowds. I had no idea, but unfortunately for her, it would only get worse throughout the week. We tried to take our time walking out of the park, stopping to shop and hoping that by the time we left the crowds and bus lines would be down. It seemed everyone else had the same idea.

When we got back to the hotel we were both a little hungry, so we used two quick service meals to get a pizza and desserts. I got the beignets, Autumn got a Mickey shaped rice krispy treat.

Everything was really good.

THAT PIZZA LOOKS AMAZING!!!!

DisneyDebNJ · Sep 29, 2012

OMG how awesome is this!!!! Good for you!!!!!!!!! Can't wait for pics and updates

Alison1975 · Sep 29, 2012

I'm in..and hoping to spot myself in a picture of yours..LOL

sam_disney · Sep 29, 2012

wow!! i'm soooo jealous! looks so much fun! x

I didn't get married, but I won the lottery and took a walk on the wild side at WDW!

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