Trip Report **COMPLETED** The "Hey what's your name" and "I want to ride Home Depot" Trip Report

Hey all
We have been back for just about a day now so I figured why not start the Trip Report!
Also, I'm on call this week so its probably going to be a pretty sparse week sorry!

Who?
Also I am feeling lazy so I'm making abbreviations for mostly everyone
Left to right: My Dad (Jeff) - D, my nephew Max - no abbreviation, my sister Betta (her real name is Elizabeth) - B, my Mom (Mary) - M, Me! (Megan) - no abbreviation, my sister Jill - J and my brother-in law Nick - N
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When?
April 27, 2018 - May 5, 2018 (B and Max from April 29-May 5)

Where?
Port Orleans French Quarter :) Our favorite moderate

Why?
Celebrating my Mom's 5 year cancer free anniversary! (oh, and it was J and N's honeymoon - aka familymoon :joyfull: )

Day 1 April 27, 2018
2 am...2 am came very quickly this morning...especially since the NFL draft started the night before and I couldn't sleep until we made our first pick :joyfull:
Nonetheless, up I got and got ready to leave for the airport.
We got fancy with our dates sign this time :inlove:
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We shoved all 5 *yes 5* suitcases into our car and soon enough we were at the airport after a short 15 minute drive (bonus...no traffic at 3 am).
We got to the Southwest counter just after it opened and the one worker was OBSESSED with our luggage. She literally told us if our luggage doesn't show up in Orlando it was because she stole it :joyfull: Our luggage is Minnie Mouse...J actually has the same luggage and the worker was trying to steal hers too and then realized we were all related!
TSA precheck wasn't even open so we went through regular security which was only a bummer because it meant I have to take out my computer and iPad which is annoying :cautious::hilarious:
I was wearing my Wishes shirt that N got me for Christmas!
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May you rest in peace Wishes :cry:
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There actually weren't any food places open yet so we sat around a bit waiting for J and N to arrive. J actually lost her kindle because she didnt take it out for security (so TSA did) and had to go grab it after an overhead page alerted her of such :joyfull:
After she grabbed it we all went to Tim Hortons but that wasn't open yet either..
Finally 4 am hit us and our usual bagel place opened so we headed there :)
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I didn't take any pictures apparently but we shared a few bagels and got some water.
Soon enough it was time to board our flight. We got in line and we were like A20-24 I think. There were quite a few people ahead of us but I didn't say anything even though I knew they were probably after us. Eventually a woman in front of me did ask what their numbers were and the woman responds "Group A..." as if the rest of us weren't A :joyfull:. She then said what does it matter if we are all A anyway. The only reason I bring this up is because when we got up to gate to scan our tickets the Southwest worker kicked them out of line and made them wait until it was their turn (they were numbers like 40-41 or something). My Mom turned to me and said "burnnnnn." :joyfull::joyfull:
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Next up: arriving in Florida
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Seeing those Ohana pictures makes me wish I could fly down for a last minute reservation. I need Ohana's dinner in my life. We actually ordered a second helping of the noodles in March and my sister in law and I put a huge dent in those as well. We both have the philosophy to never let a noodle go to waste LOL. After dinner, we passed Trader Sam's and I popped my head in to see it and there was no wait - and it was half empty. But no one else wanted to go in :( Oh well, next time!! And I can't wait to hear about your experiences with the Caring for Giants Tour. My husband and I did that tour in March and we both enjoyed it.

My Dad just said today he isn't sure if he would go back to 'Ohana because it was too much food :joyfull::facepalm::cautious: My Mom and I were like...what? Those noodles are soooo good! Aw man next time you have to go to Trader Sams its so fun!

Following Along, can't wait to hear about the tour as well. I hope to do that tour someday.

Thanks for reading!
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Please tell me there's a closeup where you can read your dad's shirt coming up? Does that say Giraffic Jam?!? If so, your dad is now my favorite (sorry Mary!!)

It does indeed .....
Its his favorite shirt
He wears it EVERYWHERE :joyfull:

Oh hey I'm here!

THERE WERE SO MANY CHEERLEADERS (and their cheer moms). I'll give it to them though, they may have been annoying in the way that large groups of young girls usually are, but I never saw them being disrespectful or causing a problem like some of the other groups do. I did see a lot of bows bigger than my head though :hilarious:

Totally fine I agree I barely even knew they were there. In years past they used to be a little obnoxious like any big group can be! But yes...the bows!!! So funny!
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Following along.
We have never Tried Ohana’s for dinner. Every time I read it in one of your reports my stomach growls. We won’t be back to the world until 2020:cry::cry:. It will be on my MUST TRY list for that trip.

Oh definitely put it on your list! We have never had a bad meal there

I’m late!

Sorry

But I’m here now & following along.

Love your lion and cheetah pictures & window decorations and keen to hear about the caring for giants tour

Aww thanks for following...I was wondering where you were :joyfull:;)
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Ohana sounds like a yummy dinner and Animal Kingdom sounds like a super fun day so far! How many times did you ride Everest? I love that ride!

I love that ride too! Just twice this day and once the other day we went to AK... a low Everest count for me usually I ride it way more!

Safari pics! and lots of baby animals :inlove:. Doesn't everyone who does KS have tons of pics from every adventure?
Loved Caring for Giants tour so much thinking about repeating it in June ...

We loved it too! Every single time I go on I say I'm not taking pictures and come out with a 100. I have no idea what I will ever do with all those pictures but I keep taking them!
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Loving your TR already. We were there from April 27th until May 11th. Just came home to the Netherlands :cry: we were in Building 1. A shame I didn't bump into you! We loved the resort as well! So tranquil and beautiful!

There were indeed a lot of cheerleaders, but we experienced less of them than last year. Mostly summit cheerleaders, last year we saw a lot of world championship cheerleaders as well as the summit girls.

Looking forward to the rest :)

Aww really?! We were so close! I was in building 4 ! I wonder if the World Championships aren't always there and maybe thats why there were more?
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2 continued
We got off the Safari just a few minutes before we had to check in for Caring for Giants. Good timing....but also close timing....I think my Dad was more anxious than me which is odd but nice for once :joyfull:
We checked in and they had my Dad's name listed as Jess instead of Jeff so we all laughed about that and called him that for the next hour :hilarious:
I took this random picture but realized as I was looking today that Jill and Nick are in it :) It's like Where's Waldo :joyfull:
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Funny side story I brought bug spray as instructed and we sprayed ourselves and then offered it to another family we thought was on the tour with us but turns out it they were on a different tour :joyfull: They probably didn't even need to bug spay!
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Soon enough it was time for our tour ! It was the 5 of us an an older couple from Tampa (who turned out to be really ANNOYING)!
Anyway the tour started backstage so no pictures there. When we were walking to our bus we saw the backside of Pandora and I said "its the backside of water" and the CM laughed and said the backside of Pandora was better :joyfull::joyfull:
Eventually we got to the little bridge where the tour takes place (you can see it from the Safari by the elephants) and we met our keeper Connor and our cultural representative Missy who is from South Africa! We learned about the elephants at AK specifically (like personalities and stuff) and just about elephants in general. They were saying that their herd at AK is the largest in North America. They were also talking about new research they are doing to see if they can get the males to form a group instead of being separate so thats cool!
Here are a million elephant pictures...
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Next up: more elephants...........and more
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2 continued
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It looks like they are so close to the safari!
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Connor said we got the elephant's best side in this picture :joyfull:
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The hour flew by super quickly and sadly we had to say goodbye to the elephants and Connor and Missy. We loved this tour! It was super informative but also very casual which was nice. I liked seeing the backstage areas because they were cool to see but also didn't ruin any "magic" like I imagine seeing backstage MK may be! I think we would have liked it even better without the couple with us :joyfull: Only because they said over and over again "when we were on a safari in REAL Africa" and then also asking questions like "why do you think evolution made elephants to do - insert some random thought here" as if they keepers know why evolution made something happen :banghead:
At some point Jill just started talking over them and asking real questions :joyfull: Clearly they were not listening to our questions though because then they asked the same questions later :hilarious:
Anyway in summary we loved the tour and I would highly recommend it! I would do it again too because I think it would be different depending on your cultural representative and keeper :)
If you have any specific questions feel free to ask me :)

Next up: leaving AK
 

Captain Barbossa

Well-Known Member
Sounds like the other people on the tour were flat out snobs :hilarious: Overall, it looked like y'all had a good time. Like I've said before, I've heard nothing but good things about Caring for Giants. I contemplated on booking it for my trip next week, but decided to skip it because I already have some other tours planned. Maybe next time.
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Wow! Sounds like a fun and really interesting tour! Sorry about the show-offs you were with! The crowd pic with Jill and Nick is funny!o_O That kind of thing happens to me sometimes~

It was super fun! I honestly think I took that picture to show how crowded it was its funny they were in the shot.

Caring for Giants sounds like a cool tour. I'll have to remember that.

It was really cool highly recommended!
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Sounds like the other people on the tour were flat out snobs :hilarious: Overall, it looked like y'all had a good time. Like I've said before, I've heard nothing but good things about Caring for Giants. I contemplated on booking it for my trip next week, but decided to skip it because I already have some other tours planned. Maybe next time.

Definitely book it next time! Its nice too because its pretty cheap and not super time consuming!

I'm definitely putting that tour on my list of things to do! That and Wild Africa Trek both sound awesome. Also I love your shorts!!

Thanks! The Wild Africa Trek was definitely more involved and super cool but way more money :joyfull:
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I'm glad you enjoyed the Caring for Giants tour, we have it booked for July and we are really looking forward to it.

You will really enjoy it I think! Its mostly just a bus ride and standing around watching the elephants but like I said it was super chill which was nice!

I'm so late to the party! i can't wait to catch up on all your adventures :)

Thanks for following!
 

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