Nope, Not Ready For Kids - An October 2011 Trip Report

Welcome to my trip report. This trip was planned as a sort of last minute excursion to WDW, although my mom and I had discussed the possibility of this trip for awhile it just never came about until what seemed like last minute. Our dates were October 15 - 21, staying at Pop Century. We chose these dates because this was the time that the school district that I work for took Fall Break. Leading up to the trip these dates made me nervous that the parks would be crowded considering the possibility that other schools would also be on break. We had a glimmer of hope when we were able to get most of the ADRs that we wanted; however, that would be short lived.

Now for your cast of characters:
Me - Rachel, 25, have been going to WDW since I was less than a year old. I work at a high school. My official title is Reading Assistant, but I pretty much do whatever they need me to do. I am certified to teach History and Language Arts. I received my Master’s in the Art of Teaching in July, and as a graduation present, my parents got me a Nikon D5100. I am still very much learning how to use it.

My mom - Disneybird, older than me, has been going to WDW since around the time it opened. She is responsible for not only my love of Disney but for planning all of my trips as well, thus far. After all of these years she still looks forward to trips to WDW as much as I do.

My grandmother - 81 and cruises around in a scooter while in WDW (which will be quite an ordeal throughout the trip). She finds any and every excuse to head to WDW for a quick getaway and will pay for just about anyone to go if they will take her.

My nephew - Victor, 4 ½, and he is very proud of that ½. This is technically his 3rd trip to WDW. He went for the first time in January 2010. That trip included a lot of our family. Plus it was my husband’s first trip to WDW, as well. You can read about it HERE. He went to the Magic Kingdom with my parents for a few hours in April, also. He is a lot of fun to be around, but we (my mom and I ) tried a lot during this trip to bring out the adventurous little boy inside of him during this trip. He is just a bit too cautious and practical for his age (parents fault).

My sister - Amanda, Victor’s mother, 33. She has gone to Disney quite a bit, as well. However, her trips have become farther between. She had a few vacation days that she needed to take before the end of the year, so she decided to join us for a few days and before flying back into Chattanooga.

For those of you who did not see my trip report, my husband and I were doing the Insanity workout system before I left on my trip. I told him that I would do the program as long as I could eat whatever I wanted to on the trip. I know that he was worried that I would just throw all of my hard work away over this week, but I reassured him that I would not go overboard on eating and would walk a significant amount during the trip. So, determined to prove my ability to maintain what I accomplished, I weighed myself the morning I left, took a pedometer, tracked the amount of steps we took, and weighed myself the morning after we returned.

So, there we all are. Now on with the show!

 

[popsicletrees]

I love the Fall decorations around the Magic Kingdom, especially all of the decorated pumpkins.

Here is Victor dressed as a knight for the party. Also, here is his new haircut. I need to add that when we got to the resort he looked in the mirror and said, “I don’t look like Victor anymore.”

At the beginning of the party our main focus was to walk around and find the candy spots.

 

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I didn’t see any inflatables around Tomorrowland like I have seen at the party before, but I saw this, which looked pretty good.

We walked around Tomorrowland and stopped by the candy station there.

We navigated our way back across the front of the castle. The villains show was about to start, so that was a task in and of itself. There was another candy stop in Adventureland beside the Jungle Cruise, which is where we went to next.

We circled around Adventureland and wound up in Frontierland beside Splash Mountain. The first parade was about half an hour away, so we decided to go and find a place to watch. We stopped directly across from the Country Bear Jamboree.

The area where we stopped was taped off as a walkway. We made sure to stay behind the tape until time to move like good little boys and girls. The CM working that area was really good about keeping the walkway clear. She told us that she would set the rope whenever the Headless Horseman made his run. Then, we would have to move back to keep the walkway clear again. Once the parade was making its route she would move the tape and set the rope for a final time. She asked that priority of course be given to children to be up front by the rope. Everything went fine when the Headless Horseman came out for his run, and Victor was able to move up to the rope once it was closed off. Afterwards, we went back to the side behind the tape. Well, closer to the time of the parade the walkway was getting more and more crowded. Again, the CM was great about being very vocal in keeping the walkways clear and making sure that those who were already waiting where they were supposed to would get priority when the rope was put up for the final time. Around the time that the parade was in sight a group of adults crossed the route and stopped dead center where we were waiting to stand. At this point the CM had her hands full trying to take up the tape, set the rope, and remind people not to stop there until the rope was up. Well, Amanda and I already told Victor that as soon as the rope goes up he can move over to see the parade. As soon as that group stopped Amanda laid into them. This is definitely where we differ as family members. I would have said something considering how long we had been waiting, but I had to remind her that there where children, including her child, around. They moved, and we sat Victor directly behind the rope, while we sat behind him.

 

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Victor did great during the parade and there was only one moment that scared him. If you have seen the parade, then you have seen the part where the men with the shovels place them on the ground and turn around in a circle creating sparks. Well, they just so happened to do this right in front of Victor. He jumped so high and back right into us. He was fine after that, but I understand that it could be scary at that age.

After all of the Western themed dancers went by the next float with the hen (sorry, not sure of the correct character’s name) stopped. We waited and waited awhile for the parade to get moving again. I have to give it to the person playing the hen because they kept character and were energetic the entire time going around to each side of the float.

Finally, the parade started moving again. Once the float with the hen passed we saw the float with the band being towed away. Sadly, no band members were allowed to stay on.

The hero for the night:

Alright I was really disappointed with the final float of the parade. It was just very anti-climatic and Goofy was nowhere to be seen.

 

[popsicletrees]

After the parade we decided to hit up the candy patch that wound through the queue of Splash Mountain. We racked up here.

Since it was the Halloween Party it wouldn’t have been complete if we had not gone for a ride on the Haunted Mansion.

Even though Victor had gone on it already once that day and nothing happened to him, I just think the mood of the place that night scared him a bit. A couple of months ago he got into the stage of being afraid of the dark. He absolutely protested when we tried to get him to go on the ride. He doesn’t throw temper tantrums, but his demeanor can completely change when his mind is made up that he doesn’t want to do something. So out sticks his lower lip as he put on his best ‘feel bad for me and don’t make me do this’ voice. Amanda and I tried to reason with him as best we could. He wasn’t having it. I even brought up the letter he wrote to me before we left. Finally, Amanda looked at him and said, “If you don’t want to ride then I’m just going to buy you a plane ticket so you can go back with me on Tuesday. Is that what you want?” The kid did a 180. He stood straight up and in a completely normal tone said, “Okay.” “Okay, what? Do you want to go home on Tuesday?” “No, I’ll ride it.” We never heard another protest from him that night. I had to cover my mouth to keep from laughing. The way he completely turned around at the threat of having to go back home with her early had me so tickled at him. I’m just glad mom wasn’t there because we would have lost it if we were there together to hear him.

This time we decided to wait a few minutes longer and go through the new line. I thought it was really neat, and Victor enjoyed playing with some of the interactive parts.

As we were exiting the ride it sounded like the place was being bombed. We quickly realized that the fireworks show was going on. We decided to walk through Fantasyland to ride The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh before leaving.

 

[Disneybird]

Great pictures Rachel. I especially love the Haunted Mansion nighttime ones. By the time of our May trip, you should be a pro with your camera.

 

[Raven66]

Your trip report is great and I can't wait to read more. I think your pictures are excellent and I am enjoying looking at them. Victor is a cutie.

 

[joanna71985]

Alright I was really disappointed with the final float of the parade. It was just very anti-climatic and Goofy was nowhere to be seen.

That is really interesting- Pluto is supposed to be on that "float" with the driver. And Goofy was not out at all (he has a float of his own, where he is on a bike)?

And for future reference- the hen is Clara Cluck

 

[popsicletrees]

Great pictures Rachel. I especially love the Haunted Mansion nighttime ones. By the time of our May trip, you should be a pro with your camera.

Well, I hope to at least be a little past the beginner stage by that point.

Your trip report is great and I can't wait to read more. I think your pictures are excellent and I am enjoying looking at them. Victor is a cutie.

Thank you! I'm glad you are enjoying it.

That is really interesting- Pluto is supposed to be on that "float" with the driver. And Goofy was not out at all (he has a float of his own, where he is on a bike)?

And for future reference- the hen is Clara Cluck

Yeah, Pluto and Goofy were no place to be found. I thought that I remembered Goofy being on a float with a bike, but I didn't know if maybe they had changed it (for the worse).

Thanks for the info on Clara!

 

[popsicletrees]

While we were walking through Fantasyland towards Pooh it was really neat to look around and just be surrounded by fireworks. Of course, I didn’t bother to get any pictures of that.

After Pooh we were really too tired to keep going. It had been a long day for all of us. I was proud of Victor. It was around 10 or so, and he had been going nonstop since 7 that morning.

Not sure if I mentioned this earlier but I took a pedometer with me for the trip and recorded the amount of steps that I took at the end of each day. Step total for day one was 18,324. I had completely forgotten to take it out of my bag until after lunch, so all of that was after lunch for the day.

 

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October 17, 2011

We woke up around 7:30 this morning. Our plan was to go to Animal Kingdom for the morning. We had reservations for 10:30 at Tusker House for Donald’s Safari Breakfast. This was my first time going to the Tusker House for breakfast. My mom had been before. I think my sister thought that she had because she protested when we told her our plans claiming that it was too limited in its options.

My grandmother doesn’t care much for the Animal Kingdom, so she decided to stay in that morning. We went down to the bus stop and waited for a few minutes. Bus after bus came to all of the other stops but none to ours. Having a bit of an inpatient streak from the convenience of driving the day before we decided to get out of line and head towards the car.

When we arrived at Animal Kingdom we went to the safari to grab fastpasses. Then, Amanda and I went over to EE while Victor and mom watched.

While we were walking back towards Tusker House, Victor participated in one of those activities for kids along the way.

A CM had an owl out while when we walked past Flights of Wonder to promote the show. I’ve still never seen this, maybe next trip. It seems like something that Jordan would enjoy.

 

[popsicletrees]

Alright, so we saw a lot of things on our way back to Tusker House, including DiVine, and Victor decided to stop and play his favorite instrument, the drum.

So, finally it was time to go to Tusker House. We checked in right on time and were directed to go to the back of the building. I had no idea this holding area was out there. I was half expecting to be just immediately whisked inside through a side door, but we walked around back to see a lot of other families also waiting for a table. Plus, it was incredibly humid that morning, and by 10:00 it was miserable outside.


First up was our picture with Donald. Mom didn’t want to get in the picture with us, so she had the honor of taking our picture.

We waited for about 15 more minutes after we had our picture taken. Victor entertained us with Flinkers while we waited. Flinkers is the purple dragon that lives under Victor’s bed and protects him from the evil dragons Trink, Tronk, and Trong. About a year ago Victor started talking about Flinkers, so for Christmas of last year my sister found him a purple dragon. This is one of those things that we have absolutely no idea where he came up with all of this, but I'll always be glad to encourage a creative imagination. Flinkers tagged along in the parks in Victor’s backpack during our trip.

Finally we were called in for breakfast. Again, I didn’t know what to expect, but I was going off of good reviews for this place. I was amazed by the selection. There was so much to choose from. I’m not a huge fan of breakfast, so all I had was one plate of food. However, what I had was really good, and I didn’t even make it the entire way around the buffet. I ignored the pastries and yogurt bar, but the selection was definitely impressive.

Victor ended up getting food three different times. The boy can eat.

The characters came around quickly. I was disappointed in the character interaction that Victor received. They seemed to be in a hurry when they reached our table. I’m sure that only having one child with us while some other tables had multiple children didn’t help the time spent either. Still, Victor enjoyed it, and that is all that matters to me.

Right before Mickey came by to see us they had one of those children’s parades where all the kids are given toys to go around the room with the characters and shake them. Well, for some reason Victor did not want to participate. I think he was the only child that could walk who didn’t go. There was a girl around Victor’s age that chased after Mickey the entire time with her hand held out towards him. She had tears in her eyes the whole time. It was cute and hilarious at the same time. She just seemed so desperate to reach him.

Oh yeah, so what was my sister’s verdict on the place that just has a poor selection and nothing for her to eat? She thought that they had an excellent selection and really enjoyed eating there.

 

[popsicletrees]

It was time for us to use our fps for Kilimanjaro Safaris. We practically walked right on and had a decent ride.

This guy was building a nest (notice the stick in his mouth).

The bridge for the Wild Africa Trek:

Hanging out over the crocodiles:

The look from below:

I showed my husband these pictures, and he thought that they were neat. I know he would love to do something like this, but the price has just gone up too much per person to justify it at this point in our financial lives.

We did get a good view of the lioness, with the male sleeping (of course) in the background.

 

[popsicletrees]

We were running out of things that we could do or wanted to do after the safari. No, I'm not really in the camp that Animal Kingdom is just a half day park, but I probably enjoy it more than everyone else that I was there with which just doesn't make it as enjoyable. Victor wanted to go watch EE again and Amanda and I thought about riding it one last time, so we went by there for a few minutes. Unfortunately it was down.

We walked over to Dino Rama because I did want to ride Dinosaur before we left. Victor is definitely not ready for this ride, so mom took him to play some games.

 

[myhappyplace]

Beautiful EE pictures!! :sohappy:

 

[TheMouseFan]

Great TR so far!

We ate at Tusker House in October with three kids. I also felt that the character interactions were very rushed. I also agree that the food was delicious!

Can't wait to read more.

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Finally all caught up!

Love the pics! I'm getting a new Canon T3 before my trip in April/May. Hopefully I'll have some time to play around with it cause I am CLUELESS when it comes to cameras!! lol

Victor is adorable. Love that your sister was able to convince him to ride the HM at night. And glad to hear ya'll loved Tusker House. We made ressies there for May so I'm glad to hear you gave it a positive review. Breakfast is my fav so I'm excited to try it out!

Can't wait to read more!

 

[ArtieJim]

Awesome TR so far, pictures look awesome. Shouldn't worry about the fact that you were still getting used to the new camera on this trip. That's half the fun of getting anything new!

 

[TakeMeThere81]

Loving your TR so far!! I love the pictures from your new camera. Even the ones that seem imperfect to you still look so great. Crisp with great colors, even in the ones that are more blurry. It makes them look like they were taken that way on purpose. Your night photos in DTD the first night were great! Did you do those by hand or use a still surface? Any tips on those that you did?

Speaking of T-Rex, your pasta looked so yummy! We have had great experiences with T-Rex overall and plan on hitting it up on our next trip! The boys love it and the food is awesome.

You are so funny about your sister! It is a good thing she's not on the boards!(like your mom said!):lol:

I love how your nephews favorite "ride" is the monorail...my sons have each gone through that cute stage. And lucky him, a haircut and a show! Now that's Disney!

I love picture 139, it is the one where you are looking up toward the Croc in the Peter Pan signage. Beautiful perspective.

Flights of Wonder is a great show! It is a nice way to sit and take a load off and learn something about birds, while being entertained. And not to spoil it but there is a great part where they bring out a bald eagle and it flies over your head! It always makes me tear up.

Keep up the fine work, I'm really enjoying the report!

 

[popsicletrees]

Beautiful EE pictures!! :sohappy:

Thank you!

Great TR so far!

We ate at Tusker House in October with three kids. I also felt that the character interactions were very rushed. I also agree that the food was delicious!

Can't wait to read more.

Yeah, I wish he could have had more time with them. He's always loved the characters, but I was really impressed with our meal.

Finally all caught up!

Love the pics! I'm getting a new Canon T3 before my trip in April/May. Hopefully I'll have some time to play around with it cause I am CLUELESS when it comes to cameras!! lol

Victor is adorable. Love that your sister was able to convince him to ride the HM at night. And glad to hear ya'll loved Tusker House. We made ressies there for May so I'm glad to hear you gave it a positive review. Breakfast is my fav so I'm excited to try it out!

Can't wait to read more!

I am clueless too about camers! I've done some reading, but most of this was trial and error.

I hope you enjoy Tusker House. I was really impressed, and I am not a big breakfast eater. We are going down in May too, and I told my husband that we would do some breakfasts because that is his favorite too.

Awesome TR so far, pictures look awesome. Shouldn't worry about the fact that you were still getting used to the new camera on this trip. That's half the fun of getting anything new!

Thanks - I did enjoy trying out different things with it. I just get so worried that I will start experimenting and mess up some of the settings, so I have been incredibly cautious with it. Still it is the best new present I've gotten in awhile.

Loving your TR so far!! I love the pictures from your new camera. Even the ones that seem imperfect to you still look so great. Crisp with great colors, even in the ones that are more blurry. It makes them look like they were taken that way on purpose. Your night photos in DTD the first night were great! Did you do those by hand or use a still surface? Any tips on those that you did?

Speaking of T-Rex, your pasta looked so yummy! We have had great experiences with T-Rex overall and plan on hitting it up on our next trip! The boys love it and the food is awesome.

You are so funny about your sister! It is a good thing she's not on the boards!(like your mom said!):lol:

I love how your nephews favorite "ride" is the monorail...my sons have each gone through that cute stage. And lucky him, a haircut and a show! Now that's Disney!

I love picture 139, it is the one where you are looking up toward the Croc in the Peter Pan signage. Beautiful perspective.

Flights of Wonder is a great show! It is a nice way to sit and take a load off and learn something about birds, while being entertained. And not to spoil it but there is a great part where they bring out a bald eagle and it flies over your head! It always makes me tear up.

Keep up the fine work, I'm really enjoying the report!

Thank you! Honestly I bought a nice tripod before the trip and never took it out once. I plan on using it next trip, but I was satisfied with what I had on this trip. 90% of the photos that I took at night I took with my 50mm f1.4 lens. That helped a lot. Some of them I propped up on a surface and others I just snapped away. Some I set a higher shutter speed and others I just hoped for the best. In no way was any of it technical, and I am still trying to figure out how to determine what my best settings will be for different light situations. In this case the right lens helped a lot.

I would order the pasta again if I go to T-Rex, but my sister's skewers looked really tempting too.

My sister - I lover her, but we are two totally different people. Anyone who has interacted with both of us would agree.

Any time we asked him what he wanted to ride the answer was always, "the monorail." We kept telling him that he could ride other rides too.

Thanks for the nice comment about the picture. A nice thing about the new camera was being able to play with a lot of different settings.

I plan on seeing Flights of Wonder during our next trip. I showed my husband the picture of the owl, and he was like 'yep, I want to see it.' We would own a zoo if he got his way.