Trip Report March 2016 - A 30th Birthday Eartravaganza!

Ciara · Jul 7, 2016

Well this looks fun! Following along

ArtieJim · Jul 9, 2016

I'm back! Being super busy at work this week and being generally TKO'd by Fourth of July weekend after I wrote that first post has led to this delay, but I'll do my best to get through this TR in short order. I can't guarantee that it'll take less than two months though, however since Alex and I have a week long vacation planned the first week of August, I'll do my best to finish up before that.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We were seated in the Grand Ballroom, which really is huge!

Alex and I were super pumped that the drinks here are help yourselves, or however you like to call it (soda fountains, whatever). That picture above is a bit dark 1) because I refuse to touch up our pictures - I'm too lazy and; 2) the room itself is fairly dark, but not too dark that you're fumbling around (looking at you Shula's). Before I get into how great the food is here, I should preface this by saying Alex and I will, 99% of the time, order different meals. One percent would be this time, because we both got this awesome French Onion Soup:

Since this was our first meal on this WDW trip and we were ravenous there was no chance we were taking another picture once we dug into our food. I can tell you though, this soup was awesome. Alex eats a lot of French onion soup, pretty much any time we dine out, and this was one of the better that we've had (I say "we" because she eats about half of it, all around the onion, and then I eat whatever remains, it's typically a lot.) For our entree, we chose the excellent roast beef sandwich (the much more officially and elaborately named Carved Prime Chuck Roast Beef Sandwich from the menu):

This sandwich was great, the meat was super tender and horseradish not overpowering, I didn't feel like my nose was on fire from it which is a plus. That arugula was super easy to pick off, since arugula on a sandwich is disgusting, arugula in general really. Also, can you ever go wrong with Disney french fries. Finally, for dessert (if you didn't read the PTR, we were on the DDP so I was making sure to take full advantage of that) I went with the Lemon Meringue Cupcake:

It's hard for me to say no to lemon meringue. This cupcake was good, the seared meringue topping was a little too dense for my liking and didn't have as much of that lemony taste as I'd prefer, but the cake was great - nice and moist. I was having fits trying to get that wrapper off though, does any one have any tips? Alex told me to use a knife and then I almost sliced the cupcake in half. She was embarrassed, to say the least. Once I finished that puppy up and we settled up our bill (basically, the soup and tip - always tip well! The CMs put up with people much worse than you or me, so make sure they know we appreciate them) we decided to check out the other rooms and take a few pictures. We thought BOG was, as everyone else, super awesome and well designed. Alex and I have trepidation when it comes to taking pics in restaurants because we hate being bothered when we're eating and we want to not bother people while they're eating as much as possible... BUT enjoy these any way and sorry to any one we bothered while you were eating:

Do you guys know about Alex's obsession with WDW light fixtures? I left out the shot of the light on the Railroad, but trust me, there are a few.

And of course, her all time favorite Disney related light fixture:

Now that we had eaten it was time for us to really explore the New Fantasyland. Do people still call it that? or can we go back to calling it Fantasyland? The last time Alex and I were on a WDW journey the Mine Train wasn't open and there was still some general work going on around the area. I don't need to recap what Fantasyland looked like when we were down there in October 2013, that's why there's a link in my signature down there.

ArtieJim · Jul 9, 2016

After leaving BOG we ended up heading to Under the Sea. This was one of the two new rides we were able to take on the last trip and Alex loves it. When you combine a well done queue and a good ride, we're riding again. Especially when the stand by time is only 30 minutes on a Saturday at 1:45 p.m. Enjoy these photos of the Under the Sea queue, because they'll make up the majority of this post and the next (see how I reward you guys for putting up with a few long paragraphs in my TRs? LOTS of pictures, I know what we're all actually looking for in TRs.)

Where Alex loves the light fixtures, I love the waterfalls.

And we both equally enjoy sea life, especially if it's fake.

ArtieJim · Jul 9, 2016

Still going!

Since our last WDW trip we were still just dating and Alex is very impressed with her engagement ring... and this light, here's a pic of them both.

This next picture may look familiar, it should, look at that last post (it is a different picture though, look at that angle!)

This next one, I love that the Imaginears still have a great sense of humor. Take it how you will.

Finally, we made it on the ride after a bit more than a half-hour queue since it broke down a couple times. It happens, you can't expect everyone to get off as quickly as you can! I will have you all know now, we never use flash on rides. Do us all a favor if you do, STOP! And invest in a camera with a great low-light mode. If you can afford a WDW vacation, you can afford this type of camera.

Hello, friends.

Get a good look at Ariel's face in this next shot. Fellas, if that's the face you see before you go in for a kiss, maybe stop going in for that kiss. Definitely stop going in for it.

And that concludes our Journey... on this ride.

MegRuss626 · Jul 10, 2016

ArtieJim said:
I'm back! Being super busy at work this week and being generally TKO'd by Fourth of July weekend after I wrote that first post has led to this delay, but I'll do my best to get through this TR in short order. I can't guarantee that it'll take less than two months though, however since Alex and I have a week long vacation planned the first week of August, I'll do my best to finish up before that.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We were seated in the Grand Ballroom, which really is huge!

View attachment 150183

Alex and I were super pumped that the drinks here are help yourselves, or however you like to call it (soda fountains, whatever). That picture above is a bit dark 1) because I refuse to touch up our pictures - I'm too lazy and; 2) the room itself is fairly dark, but not too dark that you're fumbling around (looking at you Shula's). Before I get into how great the food is here, I should preface this by saying Alex and I will, 99% of the time, order different meals. One percent would be this time, because we both got this awesome French Onion Soup:

View attachment 150184

Since this was our first meal on this WDW trip and we were ravenous there was no chance we were taking another picture once we dug into our food. I can tell you though, this soup was awesome. Alex eats a lot of French onion soup, pretty much any time we dine out, and this was one of the better that we've had (I say "we" because she eats about half of it, all around the onion, and then I eat whatever remains, it's typically a lot.) For our entree, we chose the excellent roast beef sandwich (the much more officially and elaborately named Carved Prime Chuck Roast Beef Sandwich from the menu):

View attachment 150185

This sandwich was great, the meat was super tender and horseradish not overpowering, I didn't feel like my nose was on fire from it which is a plus. That arugula was super easy to pick off, since arugula on a sandwich is disgusting, arugula in general really. Also, can you ever go wrong with Disney french fries. Finally, for dessert (if you didn't read the PTR, we were on the DDP so I was making sure to take full advantage of that) I went with the Lemon Meringue Cupcake:

View attachment 150186

It's hard for me to say no to lemon meringue. This cupcake was good, the seared meringue topping was a little too dense for my liking and didn't have as much of that lemony taste as I'd prefer, but the cake was great - nice and moist. I was having fits trying to get that wrapper off though, does any one have any tips? Alex told me to use a knife and then I almost sliced the cupcake in half. She was embarrassed, to say the least. Once I finished that puppy up and we settled up our bill (basically, the soup and tip - always tip well! The CMs put up with people much worse than you or me, so make sure they know we appreciate them) we decided to check out the other rooms and take a few pictures. We thought BOG was, as everyone else, super awesome and well designed. Alex and I have trepidation when it comes to taking pics in restaurants because we hate being bothered when we're eating and we want to not bother people while they're eating as much as possible... BUT enjoy these any way and sorry to any one we bothered while you were eating:

View attachment 150192

View attachment 150193

View attachment 150194

Do you guys know about Alex's obsession with WDW light fixtures? I left out the shot of the light on the Railroad, but trust me, there are a few.

View attachment 150195

View attachment 150196

And of course, her all time favorite Disney related light fixture:

View attachment 150197

Now that we had eaten it was time for us to really explore the New Fantasyland. Do people still call it that? or can we go back to calling it Fantasyland? The last time Alex and I were on a WDW journey the Mine Train wasn't open and there was still some general work going on around the area. I don't need to recap what Fantasyland looked like when we were down there in October 2013, that's why there's a link in my signature down there.

LOVE BOG and the French onion soup!! And I've eaten there 3 times now and have given up with the cupcake paper. I usually just leave it and dig a fork in for the cupcake!

ArtieJim · Jul 18, 2016

Once we wrapped up our Under the Sea Journey it was time for one of our FP+'s - Space Mountain! One of our favorite rides in all of WDW. I'm not sure what was going on with the SM FP this day (see above), but when we got there to the get on line this is what we saw:

DUN DUN DUN!!!

It turns out, people just don't really understand how lines work. For whatever reason, people were all just standing in the FP line and the poor CM had to tell people as they walked up to the scanner (whatever those are actually called, with the Mickey head that lights up) that they were on the wrong long. Either way, once that silliness was sorted out we were on the ride quickly. I don't think I can put into words how much I love Space Mountain, it's just so awesome. Space in general is awesome, so this ride is super awesome.

There we are taking a picture of us while having a picture taken of us! Always a good one! Had to stop and say hi to this fella on the way out, of course:

Since you can't always get the times that you want when you want we were headed back to Fantasyland for our next FP+ - the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train! We were very excited for the Mine Train since this trip would be our first chance to take a spin. Having read a lot of complaints about how the ride is so quick and it takes such a long time to get through the queue, wah wah wah, we couldn't wait to find out for ourselves. Well, that's why there are fastpasses, sure there's still a bit of a line but we couldn't have been on the line for more than five minutes. And we loved it!

It is a quick ride, but that's because of the speed and how much fun it actually is! Do you want to sit on a slow, boring ride? I doubt it, so don't knock the Mine Train because of how little time you spend riding it. Look how cool it is (even though these pictures aren't the best)!

And who doesn't like a good Castle view from a ride?

I didn't say which Castle. And of course, Alex snapped a light shot while we were on the ride. Why not?

Once off the ride we decided it was time to head back to POR, whether the room was ready or not, because we were beat. And wouldn't you know it, on the way out of the park we got the call that our room was finally ready!

Perfect timing.

ArtieJim · Jul 18, 2016

One last thing before we left MK for the day... I had to get my pin!

Just because my birthday was still a couple days away doesn't mean I don't deserve the pin! Once we got back to POR it was finally time to head to our room. We picked up our bags and took the walk, isn't that first walk to the room always the longest? It felt like twenty minutes, but it was really not even five. You have to understand just how big POR really is, but we were lucky to be in a building that was closer to Ol' Man Island (back side of building 85). Ol' Man Island is kind of the epicenter of POR, which was really nice for us. We didn't go to the pool at all but it made walks to the dining hall and pool bar that much easier (and shorter). Before I call it a night, here are a few shots of the building (huge building) and the room. Thanks for coming back after another week of no posts, I'm going to try and get a few out this week.

Come back next time for an awesome journey where I geek out big time over all things Star Wars at MGM!

ArtieJim · Jul 19, 2016

After we were rested and washed up from our long morning and afternoon it was time for us to head on over to MGM for my birthday present (to go with my awesome new shirt). Alex kept this a surprise as long as she could but when I told her I wanted to head over to Epcot for dinner she had to give it up. The surprise was that she had booked us spots at the Symphony in the Stars Firework Dessert Party. I was so pumped for this, but since we had about thirty minutes to kill before check-in from when we got to MGM I decided it was plenty of time to go check out the new (to us) Star Wars Launch Bay. On our way we ran into these guys:

Alex was able to get me to slow down and look at her for two seconds on our way to the Launch Bay, I was on a mission but she did get me to smile instead of scowl as I was saying we needed to hurry up!

When we got to the entrance we had just missed the last crop that they let in so we had to wait about five minutes for the next group but once we were finally let in we saw this dude:

He had taken a broom from a CM and was sweeping around people for a solid five minutes. Hey, Jawas are gonna be jawas. Unfortunately, we had to rush through the Launch Bay (this time around), but I did stop and get myself a custom R2-D2 Magic Band - just so you know, if you plan on getting a custom magic band made in the park, give yourself a good 15-20 minutes. They're well worth it, but they take a bit of time. I took this on my phone, so it's as good as it's going to get (and a mirror image):

After Alex was finally able to get me out of the Launch Bay it was time for some spirits and some desserts! Here were our options to quench our thirst - and let me tell you - we were thirsty!

The Force was definitely my favorite with the First Order Finale a not too distant second. I really do not like green apple so I didn't try the Jakku Juicy Cocktail, so I can't comment on that, Alex thought it was a bit sweet though.

I'm going to miss this! I write this in every post, but does any one remember when they put the Horace Grant goggles on the Earful Tower when he went to the Magic in 1995, or somewhere around there? It was great.

Once we got ourselves situated I decided to wander around a bit (to the bathroom). In doing so I found out that we were able to pick up our complimentary mugs, they are awesome and still have a prominent place in our apartment today. You'll have to excuse the flash, but trying to get everything in this picture with the lo-light mode just wasn't happening:

Yep, Chewie heads. When I took my trip to the bathroom I picked up some popcorn since Alex wasn't much of a fan of anything that was available, dessert-wise. I also decided to pick up a lightup X-Wing clip, because I could, it's clearly not lit up in this picture. We had enough trouble getting the Chewie heads with the X-Wing lit up so we just turned it off. Just because Alex wasn't a big fan of a lot of the food doesn't mean I wasn't as well.

Those "Scorched" pesto crisps were great, I may be biased though because I really love pesto. The "Quarter Ration" biscuits were also really good, unfortunately though, I couldn't bring myself to eat C-3P0's head despite the fact that he's always stealing R2's glory. Here's what I loved the most:

CHEESE! Who doesn't love cheese? Those cheddar-olive sticks were great for me and Alex because she hates cheddar and I hate olives, so we split that one up nicely. I think I also ate about 15 of those provolone and tomato "sabers," provolone is wonderful! Alex was also very happy to see that there were grape "sabers" as well. I thought the food, for the most part, was great. It's going to be as good as you want it to be, you have to remember that it's sitting outside in the central FL heat so if it isn't going quick and you take that "last one" it'll be a bit funky. All together though, very good. The bartenders were also very quick on the drinks and stuck to the "two per ID" WDW rule. Stick around for a bunch of firework pictures NEXT!

ArtieJim · Jul 19, 2016

As promised:

ArtieJim · Jul 19, 2016

And some more:

We saw this dude on our way out.

I gotta say - this fireworks show was incredible. I know it has since changed but what I saw was unbelievable, especially for such a big Star Wars fan. While Alex was snapping away at all of those pictures I was standing there watching with tears in my eyes. Years of loving the music of Star Wars and then seeing it set to an incredible fireworks show with my wife who took me here for my (early) birthday, man, it left me speechless.

After departing MGM we decided to take a walk on over to the Yacht Club and grab a bus over to Disney Springs, it's always such a peaceful walk, especially at night, from MGM to that resort area. Once we got to Yacht Club it took about 20 minutes for the bus to show up, since the new countdown boards that say when a bus to where is going to show up weren't working so well. Our bus actually showed up right as we were about to hop in a cab, so I guess it's nice it worked out how it did (that's a big "I guess").

Keep this in mind when reading what I'm about to write, Disney Springs still had a lot of construction walls up and had a lot of areas blocked off. Once we got off the bus at Disney Springs we did the usual wandering around the Days of Christmas shop and then decided to head towards some of the new bars, especially Jock Lindsey's. I had been reading all about Jock's and could not wait to get in there and have a drink. It all went downhill from here. Walking there was a disaster, I understand it's going to be busy on a Saturday night but this was worse than Epcot during Food & Wine Festival on a Saturday. People were incredibly drunk and it was even harder to maneuver because of all the ongoing construction. Once we got to Jock Lindsey's people were borderline passing out on the bar, but still being served, to the point that Alex and I stood at the bar for ten minutes without the bartender stopping by once to see if we wanted anything before we took off.

After we were finally able to get out of Disney Springs past all the riffraff we headed to the gas station to pick up some beers for the room (say what you will about how I complained about the drunkards at DS and then picked up beer, but after battling through that crowd we needed a couple). Not wanting to walk back to the only operational bus stop we decided to just call an uber and get back to POR. After he was finally able to get us (took a bit) we ended up with a Mets fan, what're the odds! We're Mets fan! It's always fun having a nice driver that can provide good conversation on the way back. Finally, we made it back around 12:30 a.m. After the usual really long first day at WDW we were done for the night. Great day, shoddy ending, but it's all part of the adventure!

Thanks for sticking around, and stay tuned for day two!

ArtieJim · Jul 23, 2016

Day 2 - A Big Day for Alex

Hi folks, thanks for hanging in there. The likelihood of me finishing this TR before Alex and I vacation next week doesn't look very good, but I'll do my best. With this "heat dome" rolling through I might be able to do some damage here this weekend though.

I hope you're all excited for day two of our short trip, I know Alex certainly was; why is this you might ask? Well, for starters, we began our day at her happy place:

That's right, our return to Animal Kingdom. Alex will make it her mission that we go to any zoo in any city we visit, so you can imagine how much she loves Animal Kingdom. On our walk after entering we were greeted by these two:

One was a bit camera shy, but they're such great looking birds. And this is always a welcome sight off in the distance, isn't it?

Alex and I were on a mission, however, as we had a date (fastpass) with greatness. As we zig-zagged through families stopping for pictures and did our best not to barrel over folks that would be walking at a normal pace and then do they ole stop in the middle of the walkway out of nowhere. In short order though, we made it to our destination:

Once we finally made it on we did what any one would do, took a bunch of animal pics, duh! Please enjoy my zoological prowess!

Here's the zebrahorse:

It's distant cousin, the zebradeer (so elusive):

The massive duocorn sneaking a nap in the shade, I wouldn't want him charging our safari vehicle!

More napping in the lair of the hiphopopotamus:

Then of course, a bit of flora, the oddly wide tree with branches that are proportionally too small:

Next up, sleeping dogs:

If I wanted to see a sleeping dog I could just go to my parents'.

ArtieJim · Jul 23, 2016

We weren't nearly done. Next we ran into a couple long-necked leopards:

Not far from those two beauties we saw a bunch of... elephants. Just a lot of elephants getting dirty really:

And this dude was all by himself:

Look at this island of pink birds:

After seeing the long-necked leopard, we saw an actual leopard. Or maybe it's not a leopard, I'm not sure, she looks hungry though so I didn't want to stick around and find out:

Nope, turns out just tired:

We found Simba (he's very lazy)!

After we passed the lions an actual zebra came up and started eating next to our vehicle. I've been having nothing but issues trying to upload the pics I want to upload from this day to this blog, so below, please enjoy my MS Paint interpretation. If, at any point, I can get the actual photo uploaded, I will because it's really cool:

ArtieJim · Jul 23, 2016

The final beast we saw on our journey was this big horned horse:

Once back at base (wait, we're not doing that any more?) we took a walk to see some gorillas:

And this sad sack:

Cheer up buddy! Next up we had a FP+ at Everest before lunch because we really cram our days at AK since we don't spend much time here. I'm more of the mindset that it's a "half-day" park, whereas Alex strongly disagrees. Who knows, maybe now with the nighttime business I'll feel different, but until we see them we'll never know. On our way to Everest we couldn't help but get this shot of the Tree of Life (I think we have about 20 of this picture from our different trips):

And we also saw this guy just walking on his own:

I was never a fan of Jungle Book so I don't actual know his name. Balou? Well, here's his butt:

And it's always exciting to get one of these, I don't care what any one says:

It's the little things at WDW sometimes. Enjoy these queue pictures like you've never seen it before!

We were #10, but who cares!

ArtieJim · Jul 23, 2016

Alex will not miss a chance to get a photo of a nice light fixture:

And up we go into the bright bright Florida sun!

I can't get enough of these views from the tops of the rides, although not much to see from here:

Looks like we've run out of track!

And look who decided to show up, kind of:

I don't need an Avatarland, I just need a Yeti that works dammit! After the ride it was time for lunch at one of our favorite lunch spots in the World. First, we saw another sad primate:

What's with the sad primates in Animal Kingdom? It's unfortunate. Despite the sad apes, we had an ADR to get to and we were hungry! Yak & Yeti here we come! You can't miss this thing when you get to the area of the restaurant, because it's massive, and despite all of the "NO CLIMBING" signs, people let their kids climb all over it, so it's super easy to spot:

Animal Kingdom was exceptionally crowded today and a lot of people must still not understand the beauty of Advance Dining Reservations because after we checked-in and were told it would be about a ten minutes wait (around 1:30-2 pm at the time) we saw at least five groups, big groups, told the wait would either be an hour or the restaurant would not be able to accommodate them for lunch. Once our name was called we were lead upstairs to a nice little table in the corner near the window, right by this light fixture:

It also happens to be situated near an exit, which is good in case of emergencies. This light was also right next to my face, outside the window.

It didn't take us long to remember why this section and table seemed so familiar... it was the exact same table that we sat at the last time we dined at Yak & Yeti on our last WDW trip! It's a very cozy little table in a quiet upstairs room, so we weren't about to complain. To top it off, our waiter looked very familiar. BECAUSE IT WAS THE SAME GUY! If you're at Yak & Yeti and sitting upstairs, make sure to say hi to Sam from Orlando, FL. He's in the WDW Management Program so he gets bounced around the parks but is mostly in AK and likes to help at the restaurant. He and his wife are locals and he's an awesome guy and he's finishing up his masters. So say hi!

ArtieJim · Jul 23, 2016

Now on to the eats! If you haven't been to Yak & Yeti for lunch in a while (or ever) take a gander at this menu, starting with drinks of course:

That's a nice looking specialty drink menu if you ask me, especially on a warm Florida day. So nice, in fact, that I decided to get myself a Big Bamboo while Alex got herself a simple large Bud Light (22 oz).

The Big Bamboo was delicious, super refreshing and none too strong. I'd highly recommend this to any one that likes a nice tasty drink. As for the eats, well, lets take a look:

With a menu like that our options were plentiful, which is always great since Alex is a picky eater. Since we had the DDP we decided to forego the 'Small Plates' section today, although those pot stickers and firecracker shrimp sound outstanding. We also knew that the "Shareables" weren't for us, since we'd already ordered the same thing on the first day we were staying away from that as best we could the rest of the trip. With so many options we finally made our choices (or I finally made my choice, since it seems that Alex always knows what she's getting before we even sit down half the time). Alex went with the Crispy Honey Chicken and a side of the fried rice:

It may not seem like a lot of chicken because of the amount of vegetables but there is quite a bit on this plate. Between this and the fried rice, this is almost two meals. Lucky for me, Alex doesn't usually finish her food so I ended up eating this at some point later on in our trip when we were in our room after a long night. The chicken in this dish is great, fried to perfection and not too sweet. As for my meal, I went with the Malaysian Seafood Curry:

This was a great dish as well with much more seafood than I expected. Sure, the menu says what's in it on the menu, but when you get it it just seems never ending. Two issues I had with this dish: first, the zucchini - I just don't like zucchini at all but it was listed on the menu so I knew it would be in there and was able to just pick it out. Second, tails on the shrimp. TAILS ON THE SHRIMP! I understand this keeps some authenticity (I guess) to the dish, but when eating a curry like this it's such a pain to get those tails off. Aside from those things, I absolutely loved this dish. It had a great spice as well, I really love spicy foods and will usually add hot sauce, but with this I didn't even need to so that was perfect. The pictures above also makes this dish seem kind of small, but it was definitely not. There was so much seafood in here that I had to take it with me, there was just so much and that's great, especially for a $22 lunch dish - you're getting your money's worth.If you like seafood and spice, get this dish, you won't regret it (aside from the having to get the tails off those shrimp). We wanted to save room for our desserts since they were included with the DDP and boy were we excited for those. Having ordered them with our entrees, we knew what was waiting for us so we didn't fill up too much (which is why we ended up with two to-go containers), and here they are! Alex went with the Trio of Sorbets, because she loves sorbet:

From left to right is raspberry, lemon and mango. The mango tasted more watery, but those are the dice you roll when it comes to mango flavored stuff. The raspberry was (to me) great, tart but nothing too intense. As for the lemon, Alex loved it and that's what mattered since she's a big fan of lemon sorbet. Now on to my dessert, which was phenomenal. The Fried Wontons:

Holy crap. These were one of the best desserts I've ever had - not just in WDW, anywhere. That honey vanilla sauce is incredible, you could put that on almost anything and it would taste good. The wontons themselves were very good, not overly fried which is always a plus. The pineapple and strawberries were nice and fresh and finally the ice cream was your typical vanilla ice cream and was basically just an added bonus to the whole thing. This dessert is super filling though, especially after a big meal. I can't suggest this dessert enough. Since that was it for us, we chatted with Sam for a bit and then settled up. Before heading out we stopped to say hello to friendly laughing Buddha:

Our next FP+ wasn't for a while so we had a couple hours to kill and no better way of doing that than walking around Animal Kingdom. On our walk we saw one of my favorite small fountains, I'm easily impressed by simple water works:

joshsprincess921 · Jul 23, 2016

I laughed about your tails on the shrimp. I live in South LA so I likely wouldn't have enough thought twice about it since most shrimp dishes down here come with the tails on...some even unpeeled with the heads on too!
Trip looks great and your food and drinks look delicious!

ArtieJim · Jul 24, 2016

Since we had way more time to kill than we expected, we figured we may as well take a trek. This trek:

Since it was early afternoon a lot of the animals were doing their best to avoid the sun and get their naps in, we did however capture a dragon:

And a sleepy tiger:

Since this was a more crowded trek than we expected, we didn't get much else but we saw plenty. On our way out I spotted these awesome tap handles on a cart that wasn't even open, and looked like it hadn't been open for quite some time:

Since we're a bit obsessed with the look of Everest, we couldn't help ourselves from get another shot on our way out of Asia:

Having taken our time enough to get to the early end of our FP+ we decided to head on over. This ride is a toss up for us usually, I'm not sure why exactly since we always have a lot of fun, but we finally made it:

After not very long we were watching our lab video and quickly moving through the basement of the Dinolab to our time machine. We were #2:

As I mentioned, it's always a fun trip on this ride. We also caught this on the way out through the gift shop, which I thought was hilarious:

Next, I needed to take a twirl on my favorite ride in AK. Alex always needs time to digest her meal before we go on this ride, but there's no denying me Primeval Whirl. I absolutely love this ride, here is our trusty steed:

And here we go! We had to start by going back:

ArtieJim · Jul 24, 2016

Way back!

Beware!

And then, just like that, we were back in the present. That was a close one. I love the noises this ride makes, those beeps and boops, they're great.

Do any of you guys actually play these midway games? The fact that you have to pay to play them is a major turn off for me, I understand that you win a prize, but maybe no prize and play for free?

Once we wrapped up in Dinoland it was time to enjoy the main reason we'd come to AK. The Dawa Bar. The New Dawa Bar, no less. We'd yet to experience the "new" location of the Dawa Bar as it was still in it's comfy little corner the last time we were in AK. Alex was very happy with this new spot, as was I, and the fact that we both got a seat (even though Alex got out of her's to take these pictures)!

It's so unfortunate that the majority of people now, as soon as they plop down at a bar, will just whip out their phones. Disney or not, it happens every where, it's ridiculous. Talk to each other.

Different spot, same great bar. Great place to kill an hour or two before heading to your next AK expedition. After a couple drinks we decided to head on out and back to POR, but slowly. Please, enjoy our exit pictures.

This guy didn't look too depressed, just straight up angry:

I'm excited to see what the Tree of Life looks like when it's lit up at night, but until then here's our mandatory Tree of Life shot:

This is a fun light fixture that you won't see too many of:

And here's this long beaked fella:

ArtieJim · Jul 24, 2016

This poor guy has an unfortunate growth on his beak:

NSFW pic coming up, duck butt!

This guy was staring at us the entire time we were standing by this pond taking pictures, which turned out to be a solid ten minutes because no one was around and we were enjoying a nice quiet nook of AK (good luck finding one of those). He started yelling at us so we started taking his picture and he shut his yap. What a ham:

We wanted to get a shot of this description board since we would never remember what the next things were:

These guys look like they had had a long day, they also kind of look like four-legged kangaroos:

I made a friend on the way out:

That's the largest type of beetle that still exists. Keep that in mind, a beetle that is that big actually still exists. Shelby, the CM, was doing a great job of scaring the crap out of any one that walked by her while holding this thing. I struck up a conversation because I wanted to know what the heck it was and if it was real. Sadly, it is. Shelby however, loves bugs and loves working at AK because it lets her learn even more. Say hi to Shelby if you see her!

Check this out, he was standing like this for a few minutes before a family came up and asked for a picture:

He was doing a good job of not being seen back there. I'm not sure what he was doing outside the gate of AK though, do the Br'er crow usually hang out here? I'd never seen them outside of Frontierland. Well, he wasn't the only one, because this goofball was just wandering around too:

After watching those two do their thing is was time to head to the bus stop, which was incredibly far away unfortunately.

We always have wild adventures! And finally, before boarding our bus back to POR, I spotted a survey marker and had to get a picture:

If you like spotting these, this one is at the front of the covered bus stops on the far left side. Stay tuned for the rest of Alex's big day.

Trip Report March 2016 - A 30th Birthday Eartravaganza!

Ciara

Well-Known Member

ArtieJim

Well-Known Member

ArtieJim

Well-Known Member

ArtieJim

Well-Known Member

MegRuss626

Well-Known Member

ArtieJim

Well-Known Member

ArtieJim

Well-Known Member

ArtieJim

Well-Known Member

ArtieJim

Well-Known Member

ArtieJim

Well-Known Member

ArtieJim

Well-Known Member

ArtieJim

Well-Known Member

ArtieJim

Well-Known Member

ArtieJim

Well-Known Member

ArtieJim

Well-Known Member

joshsprincess921

Well-Known Member

ArtieJim

Well-Known Member

ArtieJim

Well-Known Member

ArtieJim

Well-Known Member