Trip Report It can only go up from here

ginadee · Nov 29, 2013

Look forward to reading.

Allym146 · Nov 30, 2013

You're definitely not horrible parents haha! If I had a little kid I would want to do the same

.

Lyear · Nov 30, 2013

ginadee said:
Look forward to reading.

Thanks ginadee, I'm looking forward to updates on your post as well.

Lyear · Nov 30, 2013

Allym146 said:
You're definitely not horrible parents haha! If I had a little kid I would want to do the same.

Thanks Allym146, We were definitely on the fence, going back and forth a few times. In the end we were happy with our decision. We got some adult time in the parks, and Luke had an awesome week with the grandparents.

Lyear · Nov 30, 2013

By the time we finished packing it was almost 11pm. We went to bed, knowing it was going to be a short night. The alarm went off at 2:45am. We got up and ready, put the suitcases in the car, and by 3:45am we were on our way to Disney!!!

We live in York, PA, which is about 1 hour north of Baltimore. On previous trips, we had a friend or family member drop us off and pick us up at the Baltimore airport. This time that didn't work out, so we had to do long term parking. This meant we were driving down ourselves. The drive to the airport was very uneventful. I think we saw a total of 3 cars until we were within 5 miles of the airport. I did my best to keep myself from dozing off as it was black all around me.

Around 5am we were pulling into the Econopark parking lot. We loaded a bus to the airport, and arrived in plenty of time for our 7:10am flight. Since we had time before our flight, my lovely wife Sara enjoyed a Starbucks muffin for breakfast.

The day before our trip, Sara had gotten her nails done in honor of the occasion. These became a conversation starter wherever we went.

We flew down on Southwest. We had done this several times before, so we were familiar with their A,B,C tier type boarding policy. At 7:10am the day before (24 hours in advance), I had gone online to check in for our flight, and was shocked to find we were in the C group. I'm still not sure how that happened. We had always been A, or one time B before. I was very concerned that we were not going to be able to sit together, especially seeing the line of people ahead of us.

After a long wait, we were finally cleared to board. We went past row after row after row that was full. Finally, 3 rows from the end we found seats together. Yay for being able to fly to Disney together! The flight was fairly uneventful, we even got to watch some Today show on the way down.

Once we arrived, we waited a long time to finally be able to leave the plane. Once we reached the terminal, we discovered the Orlando airport was unusually crowded today. It seemed we were dodging people everywhere. We made our way over to the little monorails they have.

Once we arrived at the main building, we got lost. It had been a long time since we had been there, and we didn't exactly remember where to go. We would normally see cast members in the main area, but didn't come across any this time. We remembered our agent at AAA saying the magic express shuttle was on the B side, so we went that way. It seemed we covered about the entire length of the airport before we saw these beauties...

We had our magic bands on, and it was a really quick process getting through and into the right line.

We shared a bus with the All Star resorts, which got dropped off first. On previous trips, I always seemed to find myself being impatient with transportation. I always felt that a bus should be there immediately and should take me exactly where I wanted to go (why I thought I should be so privileged I don't know). I realized that this led to a lot of frustration that really wasn't necessary. Let's face it, anytime you're using public transportation anywhere, there's bound to be a few hiccups that cause delays. I went into this trip telling myself I was going to enjoy the journey and not get upset about things I couldn't control. And for the most part, I was successful doing this on the trip. One benefit of going to the All-stars first was that we got to scope these out (through a bus window). We think when we eventually come back with Luke in the future, we will probably be staying at one of the value resorts, and since he's such a big Buzz and Woody fan, we figured the toy story area at All-Star Movies could be a good pick. Didn't get to see too much from the bus window though.

Eventually we finished our stops at the 3 All-Stars, and made our way to Coronado Springs. We had arrived at our home for the week.

acrab3t · Dec 1, 2013

I love your wife's nails! I had attempted Mickey designs for my last trip but they didn't work out to well. I should have spent the extra $ and had a professional do it. I don't think you are wrong for leaving your toddler behind. My DH and I left my then 10 year old son at home for our Disneymoon. We had originally planned on a cruise but decided what we really wanted was a Disneymoon. He still doesn't know and it has been almost three years! I did feel a bit guilty but we have taken him with us the last 2 years. I think age 4 is a better age to start introducing Disney. My son was 6 for his first time, I was 4 for my first.

Lyear · Dec 1, 2013

acrab3t said:
I love your wife's nails! I had attempted Mickey designs for my last trip but they didn't work out to well. I should have spent the extra $ and had a professional do it. I don't think you are wrong for leaving your toddler behind. My DH and I left my then 10 year old son at home for our Disneymoon. We had originally planned on a cruise but decided what we really wanted was a Disneymoon. He still doesn't know and it has been almost three years! I did feel a bit guilty but we have taken him with us the last 2 years. I think age 4 is a better age to start introducing Disney. My son was 6 for his first time, I was 4 for my first.

My wife had been looking forward to getting her nails done like that for over a year. Thankfully when she walked in to the shop (salon? I don't know what they're called) and explained what she wanted they said it would be no problem. We are already thinking about our next trip, probably when Luke is about 4 or 5, and just imagining how much fun he will have there.

DisneyMorgan · Dec 1, 2013

Y'all are not horrible parents! Me and my husband did a "late honeymoon/1st anniversary" trip last november and left our daughter with the grandparents for a week

however next time we go she will be with us. it was nice to have a week to ourselves though!

Looking forward to reading the rest of your report

Lyear · Dec 1, 2013

So we were staying at Coronado Springs, which actually was not our first choice. My previous three trips we had always stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter. We actually just fell into that resort the first year, loved it, and kept coming back. We love the atmosphere, the fact you can catch a boat to Downtown Disney, the cast members, and the fact everything is within a short walk. Unfortunately, all the POFQ free dining rooms were booked by the time we were making our reservations, and Coronado was the only moderate resort with rooms left. We decided we would give it a try.

We walk into the lobby and the place is crazy busy. People are everywhere. We must have come at the prime time for check-in/check-out/doing every other thing possible in the lobby. We find the registration area, and are herded into a line. The line is coming out of the queue ropes. This is going to take a while. While I was waiting, I decided to snap a few pictures. I really liked the mural behind registration.

After about 10-15 minutes, we get called to the desk. Check-in actually goes quite smoothly with the bands. When asked for my pin, I just enter a four digit pin I thought of, and forgot to tell my wife, which I would soon regret. As we wrap up, our registration cast member told us we would be staying in the ranchos. Whoa, hold on a second. We had requested Casitas. Well, turns out these are preferred rooms, so there would be a charge to move there. I was flustered in the moment, and didn't even think to ask about the Cabanas section. I soon wished I had.

Coronado is divided into 3 different sections around a lake. As you exit the rear of the main building, the Casitas are directly to your left, and the Cabanas to your right. All the way on the other side of the lake is the Ranchos. As we were planning our trip, we knew that Ranchos was where we didn't want, but unfortunately that is where we were placed.

We decided before the trek to our rooms we would look into getting our refillable mugs. Did I mention it was crowded in there today? Well that goes for the little Café/snack bar (Cafe Rix) as well. We forged our way through the crowded, small room, only to find they only had cups with orange lids on display. We knew from this website mostly that they offered different colors, so decided to forge ahead. We walked towards the Pepper Market, but they had just closed between breakfast and lunch, and would be opening in about 30 minutes.

Sara decided that she would go back into Café Rix and ask a cast member. I waited at the end of the hall with our carry-ons. I waited there for what seemed like 10 minutes expecting her to come out, and eventually I'm like, well, I've got an iphone, I might as well see what's happening in iphone world. It must have been as soon as I looked down, Sara came out into the hallway waving to me. Of course I didn't see her, so she calls me (this has become common practice for us in stores and other crowded places). Turns out they had green and purple lids underneath the counter, but she needed my pin number to get them. I went in and stood in the long line (so that's what took her so long), and eventually we had obtained and filled our mugs.

Now we were ready to make our long trek to the rooms (it really wasn't that long, just longer than we had hoped for). When we had landed in Florida, it was clear it was a rainy, dreary day. But in the time from when we entered Coronado's main building and now, the heavens had opened and it was pouring. We check the weather, but realized that unless we wanted to wait until about 6pm, it was 11am now, we were going to have to go for it. We walked as long as we could through the main building, then exited into the wall of water. I realized later we could have asked at bell service for a ride on a golf cart. If only I had known then what I know now.

We were off, hoods pulled over our heads, looking down at the ground, trying to go as fast as we can. We were both wearing heavy sweatshirts (we had come from Pennsylvania after all), and they were soaked through within the first minute. I was in front, and I kept looking back to make sure Sara was coming, and she kept saying she was fine and to keep moving. We made it to the wooden bridge that leads over part of the lake. As I'm hurrying across this bridge, I hear a thud behind me, and a cast member who was walking in the other direction asks, "are you ok?" I turn around, and sure enough, Sara is on the ground.

She had worn flip flops that day to make it easier to get through airport security. Unfortunately the flip flops didn't have much traction, and on the wet wooden bridge, she lost her step. She said she was fine, but that her foot was hurting a little. She was good to continue on. We cross the bridge and I do my best to remember which direction to turn, hoping that we come to building 6B soon. We did eventually come to our building, and it felt good to get under cover and out of the rain. Thankfully our magic bands did the trick with the door, and we were inside.

We placed our carry-ons in the room, and quickly got out of our sweatshirts. They were pretty much soaked. Sara sat on the bed and looked at her foot. It was a little swollen, and painful to the touch. I was a little worried about a possible sprain type injury, but she was confident she would be ok. She did have some sneakers she was able to change into for the rest of the day.

As we sat there, soaked, Sara looking at her foot, I did my best to look at the bright side, and uttered "well, it can only go up from here." This became a phrase we kept coming back to. At this time I was pretty frustrated with our room placement, with the long process of getting a mug, and the fact that the long walk in the rain had left me soaked. I was also worried that Sara's foot might turn out to be a little worse than she thought.

Thankfully, this was a clear low of the trip, and things really did go up from there.

The rooms themselves were pretty standard for a moderate resort, and we were overall pleased. The décor was a bit blah, but from what I hear that seems to be the direction Disney is going in now.

We got ourselves together, and as is our tradition, decided to head to Epcot.

Lyear · Dec 1, 2013

MorganInWonderland said:
Y'all are not horrible parents! Me and my husband did a "late honeymoon/1st anniversary" trip last november and left our daughter with the grandparents for a week however next time we go she will be with us. it was nice to have a week to ourselves though!

Looking forward to reading the rest of your report

Thanks Morgan. Definitely uplifting to read yours and others encouragement on this. Thanks for reading.

Lyear · Dec 2, 2013

Sara had packed a poncho and umbrella for this trip, but had them in her suitcase, which hadn't arrived yet. I didn't even have that amount of foresight, forgetting both entirely. We decided that we would put back on the same sweatshirts we had been wearing and make the best of the rainy day. We made our way to bus stop 3, and after about 7-10 minutes, we were on a bus to epcot. The bus ride itself only took about 5 minutes.

Through the bag check, and then the entrance. No problems with the magic bands. We have a tradition that our first ride each trip is always Spaceship earth. It started my first trip in 2005, when we walked in, saw no line, and figured why not. Since then, SSE has always been our first ride, except for one year when it was closed for a refurb. That year we just looked at it and frowned. While it wasn't a walk on, it was only about a 3 minute wait. The person in the car behind ours insisted on taking flash photos of everything, which also seems to be a tradition (albeit an unwelcome one) when we are on this ride. After a smooth ride, and after hearing the narrator say the word "future" just about 123 times, we were exiting the ride. The post ride attraction was pretty full, so we skipped it.

What do you know, it's still raining.

The plan going in had been to go to Sunshine Seasons for a quick service meal. By now it was already 1:15, and we had dinner reservations in Mexico at 7:30. We definitely didn't want to be stuffed before our dinner. We walked into Sunshine seasons, and nothing was really that appetizing. We decided we would not eat an actual meal, but just do a few snacks in the afternoon. We found a soft pretzel stand just outside the Land pavilion, and split one. Next we went to the Imagination pavilion store. My wife is a huge Figment fan, and we were hoping we could find Figment "bandits" (the little magic band decoration things) here. No such luck. We later found out since magic bands are still in the test phase, you can only buy very limited decorations at the resorts.

Once again keeping with our tradition, we headed off to world showcase.

This one again goes back to my first trip in 2005. We actually arrived a bit later that year, probably 3-4, and decided since we didn't have a full day we would do world showcase. Since then, that is always our first day's itinerary. We just find it a more relaxing pace than the rest of the parks, and the perfect way to start a vacation. It's so calming to just stroll around the lagoon and see the different sights.

We started in Mexico, and while we were there rode the grand fiesta tour. We then continued on to Norway. The plan was to ride Maelstrom, but the doors were shut and there were exasperated cast members out front explaining over and over that the ride was shut down for technical reasons and they didn't know when it would be back up and running. Hmmm...could boat 22 be the problem?

Onwards to China. Here we found out that due to the weather, they had moved the acrobat performance inside the building. They were doing the performance, then opening up the theater for Reflections of China. Sara and I have never been that into the little shows, with the exception of the United Kingdom Comedy group. We have watched the shows here and there, but usually there are big crowds that gather around, and unless you're there right at the start, it's difficult to see anything. Today, we decided we didn't feel like waiting. Quick photo of a bird that happened to be standing in the little pond.

Around this time we realized we were feeling hungry again. The half of that soft pretzel just wasn't doing it. We remembered the bakery in Norway, and decided to backtrack to see what we could find there. We settled on one of the Viking helmet pastries. I can't remember the name of it, and I wish I had taken a photo. It was really a neat looking chocolate coconut treat decorated like a helmet. We sat in the little covered seating area (it was still raining after all) and enjoyed. Our vacation was just beginning.

Lyear · Dec 3, 2013

Earlier this year, one of our friends had gone to Disneyworld, and throughout his trip he was posting photos on facebook and challenging readers to guess where he was. It was a fun game for us to play while we couldn't be there. We decided we would copy his game and do the same type of challenge. It was a good way to share our Disney fun with our friends at home. Below is my challenge picture from our first day. Can you guess where it is? Answer is below.

Once we had finished our snack in Norway, we continued around and came to Germany. We took some time going through the shops. My wife got held up in one of the crystal shops, so I took some fountain photos while I waited.

We had dinner reservations for later in the week in Italy, so we decided to skip this pavilion today. We came next to the American Adventure. We must have just missed a show, because there was a half hour wait until the next show. No worries, we'll come back. We went on to Japan, and took some time taking in the sights. Japan might rank as the most beautifully done of all the countries. My iphone photos don't do it justice.

We took about 20 minutes in Japan, then made our way back to America. I had forgot to mention earlier, but at check-in I was given a birthday pin. My birthday was technically the week before our visit, but when the CM checking us in saw this, she gave me the pin anyway. I was wished happy birthday countless times on our trip, and one of the first came in the American Adventure. As we were walking in, a cm saw me and pointed me over to a phone, where I got a birthday wish from Mickey and his friends.

We listened to a little bit of the Voices of Liberty, then into the show. We've seen this so many times, but it's always good to have a nice long rest when you've walked so much, and to us the song itself makes the show worth it. "America, spread your golden wings..."

We spent just a little bit of time walking around Morocco, then off to France.

The Moroccan clothing display

We walked into France just as the show was starting (awesome). Afterwards, we walked into what must have been a new area since we were last there. Sara and I didn't remember it at least.

We walked into the Boulangerie Patisserie (I know this was here before, but I think it moved into a bigger area?) and instantly were blown away by the number of yummy choices. We hadn't planned to use any more snack credits that day, but Sara took one look at the chocolate chip brioche and had to have it. It was now 5:30, and we had dinner reservations at 7:30, so I was hoping we would still be hungry. The brioche was so tasty it was definitely worth it.

In addition to having reservations at Italy later in the week, we also had reservations at the Rose and Crown in 2 days. So we walked through the United Kingdom and into Canada. Canada is another country that would compete for most beautiful in the World Showcase. Again, pardon the appearance of the iphone photos.

We checked out the Martin Short film. There was one person in front of us who was laughing out loud at all the jokes. Yup, she was the only one. We like the new show, and the song is another one that while it gets stuck in your head, is fun to sing.

Now it was time to try to use our fastpass plus. Going into the day, we had scheduled two throwaway fastpasses (SSE and Nemo) as we knew we would be in world showcase most of the day. But now, it was time for our third, and the one we were most looking forward to - Soarin. Soarin is Sara's favorite ride in Disneyworld, and it would have to be at the top of a short list for me as well. I love when you fly over the orange grove and smell the orange scent. We got the middle section, in the second row. Not too bad a view. As we were exiting, we noticed living with the land was a walk-on, so we did it at night for the first time. We both agreed that daytime is best for this ride, but it was good anyway. I didn't notice any Mickey shaped pumpkins this time. I'm not sure if they weren't there, or if I just missed them. I know they used to be a staple of this ride.

By now it was after 7, and time to head to Mexico for our dinner reservation. If you are still wondering, the photo challenge above was from a shop in Germany, in the clock section

Up next, dining in front of the Mexican volcano.

Lyear · Dec 5, 2013

As we were heading towards our first table service meal, I was in full vacation mode. We had last been to WDW 6 years earlier, but it felt like we had barely left. It felt like we were home. We walked towards World Showcase again and took in the sight of the Epcot Christmas tree, then made the left to Mexico.

A little background here. My wife and I are both vegetarian. Both have been vegetarian for over 10 years. And we have found that there are very few places on Earth that are better for a vegetarian than WDW. Almost every restaurant has at least one vegetarian option, and most of the times chefs will be willing to work with you to create something you like if you give them a little notice. This has worked out well for us as my wife tends to be on the picky side when it comes to food.

We made our way to the San Angel Inn. There were a good number of people there, but luckily we were able to find a bench in a quiet spot and call my parents to check in on Luke. He was doing fine, just like we knew he would be. After about 5 minutes, we got the buzz that our table was ready. We were seated against the very back wall of the restaurant (nearest the plaza) which was good because there was plenty of light. Some of those tables can be very dark. You could tell our waiter, Jose, had quite a few tables he was waiting on, but he came quickly and got our drink orders, and confirmed our meal plan on their little iphone things. The magic bands worked.

As we scanned the menu, the vegetarian option was a vegetable tortilla plate. This sounded good to me, but Sara wasn't so sure. Jose suggested that the chef would be happy to make her a cheese quesadilla plate with rice and beans. This sounded much better to her. We enjoyed some chips and salsa while the food came. So good.

After a short wait, it was here.

My plate, yes there are tortillas and beans under there.

Sara's plate

Both of us thought it was delicious. Thankfully we were both hungry. We saved some room for dessert. Sara had a custard and fruit dessert, and I had a caramel Cheesecake. Both were great. Our first meal had knocked it out of the park. We had eaten at Mexico once before, and I was impressed, but trying a new dish you never quite know. San Angel Inn was going to be a tough one to top. After we had paid and were getting up, Jose noticed my birthday pin. He quickly got some other servers together, and they sang Feliz Cumpleanos to me.

At this time, it was about 8:30. It was a good time to stake out a spot for illuminations. Knowing that the entryway to the world showcase would probably be packed, we made a left out of Mexico. We actually found a good spot just beyond the Mexico quick service restaurant seating area. It was a brief wait.

Illuminations always seems to get better and better, and tonight was no exception. After you've seen Disney fireworks, it makes other fireworks shows just seem so lame. I didn't take pictures of the show itself as I was pretty sure they wouldn't turn out, and I just wanted to take it all in. Illuminations has been an end of the first day staple for all of our trips, and the excitement of the show really sets the tone for the rest of our trip. As an added bonus, there was a fireworks launch point just in front of us. Talk about adding a bit of excitement to the show!

After the show, everyone began heading towards the exit. We went the other way. We figured it might be a good time to take pictures. Now, I admit I am no professional photographer. I've seen the amazing photos that people have posted on this website, and I know I am not in that league. I have my iphone camera, which I used for most of my pics, and we also have a Nikon point and click camera. I admit, nothing special. These were taken with the Nikon. I was happy with how some of these came out.

It was really nice getting photos with no crowds.

And with that our first day had come to an end. Our alarm had gone off around 2:45am, and it was now 10pm. We were feeling it. We caught a bus back to Coronado with very little wait. We found our room, only getting lost a little. Our luggage had arrived. Unfortunately there was one last bad surprise. My mouthwash bottle had leaked over a few of my clothes. Looks like I was going to smell minty fresh the next few days. Oh well, no time to think about that, we had fastpasses for Kilimanjaro tomorrow at 9:10am. Off to bed. Disney beds are sooooo comfortable...

fractal · Dec 6, 2013

wow; what a first day! We live in Berks County and although most of the time we fly out of Philly, sometimes we'll take the longer trip to Baltimore because it's a much nicer and easier Airport to fly out of.

Sorry about the rain and Sara slipping. I have a pair of Croc "sandals" that are super comfy but are downright deadly when they get wet. Looks like you had a great time in Epcot!

The birthday call is pretty cool!

Lyear · Dec 7, 2013

fractal said:
wow; what a first day! We live in Berks County and although most of the time we fly out of Philly, sometimes we'll take the longer trip to Baltimore because it's a much nicer and easier Airport to fly out of.

Sorry about the rain and Sara slipping. I have a pair of Croc "sandals" that are super comfy but are downright deadly when they get wet. Looks like you had a great time in Epcot!

The birthday call is pretty cool!

I've only been to the Philly airport once to pick someone up. We know the layout of BWI pretty well, and flying out of there has always gone smooth. The weird thing about her slipping was neither of us was thinking about it. Obviously looking back we should have thought, hey, better be careful here. But in the moment, not a thought. Thankfully she ended up being fine. Thanks for following along.

Lyear · Dec 7, 2013

We both slept soundly our first night. We got up sometime around 7am. It was actually nice to wake up on our own instead of being woken up by a two year old. One of the perks.

I was very excited about today because it was going to be an Animal Kingdom day. Sara and I have different views on the AK. I absolutely love it. Animal Kingdom would be tied with Epcot for my favorite of all the parks. I love viewing the animals and all the work Disney went through to make it as genuine a habitat as possible. I love the theming of the Africa and Asia continents. I love the fact that there are animal footprints in the ground as you walk.

Sara has never been so enthralled. Her feeling is that she can see animals at any zoo, and she feels Animal Kingdom is a very large park with a lot of walking. She also doesn't seem to like the feeling of walking through a jungle. I've wondered if our background with Disney has anything to do with this difference. Sara knew of a WDW without Animal Kingdom, I did not.

Every prior trip we had been on, AK was the last of the theme parks we visited. Usually by the time we got here, our feet were tired from days of walking, and that bit of dread that the end of your vacation was coming was starting to seep up. This trip, I wanted to do Animal Kingdom early, while our feet and the vacation were still fresh. Sara thankfully consented.

I was the first one ready, and while Sara was finishing up, we agreed that it would be best for me to go to El Centro (Coronado's main building) to fill up our mugs. This little guy met me just outside our door. Tiny

As I walked, I quickly realized one of Coronado's strongest selling points, it is downright gorgeous. There was no wind, and the water in the lake was almost completely still.

A view of the cabanas section...

The original plan was to get hot chocolate for each of us. Unfortunately Café Rix did not have hot chocolate. Neither did Pepper Market. I went with hot tea on an impulse, and got the flavor I thought Sara would like the best. I completely forgot to get sugar. I usually drink my tea straight, but Sara uses sugar. No worries, we just used the sugar in the room that was there for the coffee.

With that we were off. We went to bus stop three, and holy cow there is a backlog of buses. This never happens. I think the front bus had had some boarding delay issues, but I'm not sure what happened. 6 buses were lined up, 2 of them for Animal Kingdom. We got on the first AK bus, and were in AK in about 5 minutes.

We took our time as we approached, as we still had a bit of time before our fastpasses that actually ran from 9:10 - 10:10.

Sara saw this guy, and insisted I get a picture.

Upon entering, we decided to go up the right path. We had always gone left before. I'm glad we did, because it allowed us to finally see DiVine.

We then of course had to get the obligatory shot of the tree of life. Many more of these would be taken through the day.

I enjoyed our slow trek, just taking it all in. So many times it seems when we are at Disney, or anywhere, we are rushing to get somewhere. Sometimes that is called for, but today it was great to go slow and take it all in.

We reached Kilimanjaro. I love this ride. Disney does such a good job with it. It really starts with the cast member at the entrance saying "Jambo" letting you know you're in for something that is outside of your everyday world. Disney did such a good job with the theming of this ride. We were in the fastpass queue with people behind us, so I didn't get too many pictures to show what I mean. Soon we were in our safari vehicle. Some of the photos were blurry, I'm sure you can figure out why.

Our tour guide did a very good job in my opinion. He was very knowledgeable about the animals, and went into good detail about the baby giraffe when we saw it. We saw about the same amount of animals we normally do. Overall very good.

Longers · Dec 7, 2013

We were in Disney the same time as you. (Although we left on 21st) Will be good to hear about your trip. I love looking at other peoples photo's - I take loads and everyone says surely I've taken all the shots possible but I still see good shots on here that I need to copy! Love your wife's nails, hope she was ok after her fall.

Lyear · Dec 7, 2013

Longers said:
We were in Disney the same time as you. (Although we left on 21st) Will be good to hear about your trip. I love looking at other peoples photo's - I take loads and everyone says surely I've taken all the shots possible but I still see good shots on here that I need to copy! Love your wife's nails, hope she was ok after her fall.

Thank you Longers, thanks for following along. She ended up being fine. Foot was sore a few days, but didn't bother her walking around at all.

Lyear · Dec 7, 2013

So here is the "where are we" pic of this day. Just like before, the answer will be below.

So after the safari, we find ourselves back in Africa. Sara wanted to find a bench for a few minutes and have her breakfast bar that she packed. I took some time to take photos around Africa.

You can't really tell it in the photos, but Africa was packed today. I think we were seeing the big wave of people getting into the park and heading directly to the safari's. The line for the safari was out of the queue. Right around this time, these guys started up.

They drew a pretty good crowd themselves. The guy in front of the stage was very entertaining. He kept trying to get kids to come up and dance with him, but none of them were having it when I was there. It looked like each of these guys broke into a sweat within 2 minutes of starting to perform. It was going to be hot today.

After watching the performance, Sara and I decided to give Rafiki's planet watch a try. We had done this on our very first trip back in 2005, but not since. I think we went over with the biggest wave of people to go that day. It seemed like all the people we had seen going through Africa before were now getting off the Safari and going to Planet Watch. I'm sure it wasn't all that bad, but I wasn't expecting such a crowd for this attraction. Almost all the space on the train was full. The train ride itself was neat. It was cool to see a somewhat behind the scenes look at the safari area. And wow, they are not kidding when they tell you to keep your arms, etc in the cars. They have the bushes growing right up to the tracks.

We exit the train, and kind of hang out until the bulk of the crowd has gone ahead. We then start down the path towards the conservation station building.

The thing that makes planet watch worth visiting is the CM's. I found them to be very knowledgeable about their individual areas, and more than willing to talk with you about it. The one CM in particular who stood out (and I can't remember his name) was talking to us about a sea turtle they had rescued, and then tracked as he went throughout the Atlantic, getting to the Bahamas twice. We saw a bird getting a veterinary examination, then sat through the song of the rainforest attraction. Then it was back to the main park.

It was almost lunchtime. I know I was starting to get hungry, but we had a later dinner reservation and didn't want to eat just yet. I remembered hearing about a hidden path that ran alongside the path from Africa to Asia. I wasn't even sure if this existed anymore, or had ever existed. We decided we would look for it. We found a paved path that no one else was on. Was this the hidden path, or just an extra path? If it was the "hidden path", it wasn't the most hidden. We did see a small waterfall.

I suppose if there is a more hidden path, it's too hard for us to find.

We then see another path that goes down towards the water between Africa and Discovery Island. This appeared to just be a photo op for the tree, but we were able to see under the bridge into some construction. Is this the new Avatar Land?

We were feeling pretty accomplished after this shot. Hee Hee Hee, build a wall to keep us from seeing what you're doing??? We'll just find another way.

We also decided to get a shot of the tree, since we were so close. (OK, full disclosure...I don't really know if this is the shot of the tree from the back that I took here. When I was loading my photos to the PC, they all got jumbled, and I'm not enough of a tree expert to tell them apart). But here is "A" picture of the tree we took this day.

With a little more time to kill before lunch, Sara wanted to go through the discovery island stores to see if she could find an Animal Kingdom soundtrack. It took a while, but we finally found one, with some CM help. It was only about 3 stores we had gone through. I thought this pillar inside one of the stores was cool.

Now, it was pizzafari time. Pizzafari is just what it sounds like, a pizza place. You get a personal sized pizza, a salad, drink, and a dessert. Fairly basic, but for vegetarians, not a bad place. We like the theming inside, which is consistent with the discovery island motif. It was pretty crowded today. As we were finishing up, not quite done mind you, a cast member comes up and offers to take our tray. We remove what we are still eating from the tray, and she takes it and empties it. She was either going above and beyond in caring for the customer, or they were having a massive tray shortage at pizzafari. The second is the more fun option. I can just imagine a manager in the back freaking out telling everyone, "go out and get us some more trays!"

Anyway, after we were done, we had to carry the rest of our trash to the trash can, which wasn't as bad as it seems since we were close. Now it was time to conquer a mountain.

And the pic of the day - from just inside the doors at conservation station.

Trip Report It can only go up from here

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