Trip Report "When We're Together" - December 2024

So yall that read my trip report for May already know that we booked a bounceback offer before leaving WDW so that we could use those 2 free park tickets. Well, Disney should be proud to know that their "free" ticket plan worked and we are for sure returning to WDW in December - and this time I'm purchasing the MVMCP and Jollywood Night Tickets I just purchased plane tickets, party tickets, and travel insurance (if you know, you know LOL). This is the first time we've been more than once in a year so I'm super excited!! I told R that maybe it will help me get more comfortable on flights and maybe next time I can do one longer than 2 hours I am holding off on getting Mears until closer to the trip - I'm hoping that they release a Disney+ or Disney Visa room discount that has more selection than the bounceback offer at Riverside. I'm not complaining about Riverside though since it's our place but I would like to save a little extra money (or stay at AKL cheaper), if at all possible. This year's discount selection is not very good compared to past years.

When we went in December 2021 for the short 3 night stay, they didn't have the full Christmas Party just the abbreviated themed After Hours event. We loved it but I'm seriously looking forward to a full Christmas party though. And we've never done Jollywood Nights

 

[erstwo]

I do plan on doing a trip report but it will be slow going. I'm having technology issues again. By the time I'm able to get this thing finished, I won't remember much of anything LOL. I kept having pen issues and wasn't able to write in my travel journal but for one night. Thanks to the frigid weather while we were there, I didn't end up in the ER so that's a major positive There were a few lows while we were there but for the most part it was a very good trip! It wasn't as magical to me as the December 2021 trip but still one of my favorite trips. R said it was because we stayed at Riverside again, and he probably isn't wrong! We're now thinking of planning a Disney Cruise and I have a bounceback offer booked for September just in case. Although, I am thinking about changing it to the week before Christmas based on what looks like low waits at the parks this week! Anyone else stalk the MDE app to check wait times after returning from a trip? Or is that just me??

Glad the weather cooperated! And this gets me excited for my stay at Port Orleans. Loved Olaf peeking around your tree - they are both beautiful trees
Looking forward to more!

 

[LeighM]

Glad the weather cooperated! And this gets me excited for my stay at Port Orleans. Loved Olaf peeking around your tree - they are both beautiful trees
Looking forward to more!

We stayed at PO French Quarter in 2021 and it just wasn't the same for us. It's still a great resort (and I actually prefer the Christmas decorations in the FQ lobby) but Riverside just feels like home to us.

 

[LeighM]

Day 1 continued - Monday, Dec 2

I just realized that, since I changed this from a pretrip report to a trip report, I never clarified my vacation dates LOL. We checked in on Monday, December 2 and checked out Saturday, December 3rd. I warned yall that this trip report will be scattered

After getting ready, we took the boat to Disney Springs and it really was a great start to the trip! The boat ride is so relaxing. I don't necessarily like the longer walk to the Marketplace section compared to where the PO dock used to be, but it's still so much better than a bus ride.

The primary purpose of rushing to Disney Springs was for R to get his favorite lunch at Polite Pig. While he got in the line, I got "our" seats while they were available. I saw the ad for their coquito (in the bottle) and asked R for one. What I didn't expect was an overpriced cocktail but it was still tasty. Just not the kind of coquito I was expecting (my husband is Puerto Rican for those that may not know and he's gotten me addicted to it during the holidays).

His favorite - the chicken. He didn't get the corn, despite it being one of his fav sides because I didn't want to share it. Because I wanted the beet salad and I'm glad I chose it to go go with the meatball appetizer that I got so often in May.

There's a cinnamon stick on the cocktail pick.

I don't recall the times or what we did after lunch but I know we eventually got on a bus to Yacht and Beach Club because I wanted to see their Christmas decorations since I missed them in 2021. We got to Yacht Club first. And I absolutely LOVE this lobby. And their tree! I told R that I really want to stay here one day for a couple of nights.

A CM was nice enough to take our picture

A close up of the tree

I think Yacht Club may have had one of my favorite decorated lobbies of the trip. And I really enjoyed the little village.

We walked over to the Beach Club. I have a few pictures from their lobby but I wasn't able to upload them. However, I could upload ones of their gingerbread carrousel

There was no line for their gingerbread (and they had a GF option) but I said I would come back later and get one (spoiler alert - I actually never did). It was getting close to the start of Jollywood Nights so we waited for the boat to take us to HS. Despite it being chilly, we picked the seats outside on the back, and glad we did.

Up next - Jollywood Nights and a game of Can We Find My MagicBand

 

[rshell68]

Just catching up on TR's....your Christmas trees are beautiful!!!

 

[LeighM]

Just catching up on TR's....your Christmas trees are beautiful!!!

Thank you! I haven't forgotten the trip report but been having more issues with my computer and really slow internet.

 

[LeighM]

Day 1 - Jollywood Nights

Because we arrived shortly after they started letting guests into the party, we avoided all of the lines. We also missed the announcement that we should've gone to the special entrance into the right for the start of the party.

Oh well, going straight into the park got us into Galaxy's Edge sooner.

I think I still prefer the vintage decorations at HS during Christmas.

All of the wait lines were extremely low. At 6:30PM, the line for Rise was only 20 minutes, which was really a walk on.

The queue was so hot though and everyone was removing their coats. And despite there being no wait, they squeezed strangers onto the seat with us rather than wait for a new ride vehicle. I can understand it when there's a line. But when it's a walk on? Seriously Disney??? And when did this animatronic stop working and why hasn't it been repaired?

After Rise, we went to Smuggler's Run, which was another walk on.

We had a vehicle all to ourselves and we were both pilots. Failed miserably LOL. In my excitement over no wait times, I forgot I wanted to get the Ronto Wrap before they closed for the party. By the time we got off the ride, they had closed. I was not a happy camper

We stopped by Oga's Cantina just to check out the inside. It wasn't crowded so they escorted us inside so that I could take a few pictures. And oh my gosh, it was sooooo loud in there.

However, it was the start of the party so I was happy for that.

I wanted to get the special event pin and shirt. I had seen online that the lines can be long so we eventually found our way to the store and got in line. It wasn't a very long wait but the party was very dark and our aging eyes had a difficult time reading the map I don't have a picture of the merch, unfortunately. We tried meeting some of the characters that were out but the lines were INSANELY long. And stayed that way for the duration of the event.

We discussed what food options to try and we settled on these.

I think these were the empanadas, which was very good, but also very small. R got the hot chocolate, which was a custart like dessert he wasn't expecting.

Later on, we stopped for this. A real cherry hot chocolate, which was delicious but was a mess to drink. And maybe samosas? They were good but still tiny. The lines for everything else we wanted to try were too long.

 

[LeighM]

At this point, it starts to get really fuzzy. We had gotten in line to meet Pinocchio when I realized that I was missing my new MagicBand+.

So we decided to backtrack and see where I had lost it. It wasn't at the QS where we had a snack. So we went back to Runaway Railway. They checked their lost and found, not there. But we got in line again.

After we went to Toy Story Mania and it wasn't there either. They had already taken their box to the front so they told me to check there after the party. The lines were still long but I did get these during a walk by.

There was a grown man having a VERY emotional moment with Lotso. Seriously, he was totally monopolizing the bear's attention when there were easily 50 people in line.

This was the best pic I could get of a dancing Sadness because one woman kept getting in front of me to take her own picture. I guess I was invisible that night

We discussed whether we wanted to see any of the Christmas offerings but we were really happy to just enjoy the no waits for the rides since we didn't get a chance to go to HS in May.

The one holiday offering we did see was the Latino band and the dancers. They were soooo good. And so many drunk women dancing with absolutely no rhythm. It was a very enjoyable (and long) wait to see this special bird.

At this point, we were both frozen solid. And neither of us really packed for these kind of cold temps.

The PhotoPass photographer was annoyed here because there were a couple of unsupervised kids playing behind the trees ruining the photos.

I wanted to see Scrooge McDuck because the Ducks are my favorite and I'm a 90s Disney Afternoon kid. But I guess Baloo will do.

We made our way back to Smuggler's Run to check on my MB. It wasn't there either and I had given up hope on finding it and was hoping it would be at the front of the park, which I was going to check on the way out. But there wasn't a wait for Smugglers so we entered the queue. We were asked if we wanted our own vehicle again but we were happy to sit in the back row and watch the young kids in the other party be pilots. Afterwards, we went to our first ride of the evening - Rise of the Resistance. The CM asked me to describe it. After 5 minutes, he came out carrying my MagicBand. I lost it when I took off my coat in the line LOL. It took me hours to even notice it was missing on my arm. We rode Rise one more time since we were there. And still packing people into the ride vehicles. Come on now!! That was ridiculous. I wanted to go see the Soiree but the music had ended just as we got there.

Had to take a pic to document our total failure at seeing and doing 99% of the Jollywood Nights offerings On the way out, we saw this super hero.

We were both tired from a very full travel day and frozen solid so we left the park around midnight. On the way out, we got our special marshmallows. It wasn't the party we had planned for but we still had a lot of fun. And were looking forward to not having to wake up early and rope drop the next day.

Up next - Day 2 - Tuesday and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.

 

[rshell68]

Glad you found your MB!!

 

[LeighM]

Day 2 - Tuesday- Disney Springs and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

Sorry yall for the delay but I promise I will eventually finish this trip report - and there will be a surprise at the end

We slept in this morning since we were going to have a late night at MVMCP. Because R had Polite Pig yesterday, it was my turn to break my GF diet by going to my fav, Pepe! We walked to the lobby to get a picture of the Riverside tree while the lobby wasn't as crowded.

I LOVE everything about this resort and couldn't believe that I haven't stayed at Riverside since 2016. My stay at French Quarter in 2021, just wasn't the same!

Did some shopping for resort pins and saw this shirt. I took a picture and sent it to my cousin who is now a professional fisherman.

It was a leisurely boat ride to Disney Springs. I wanted to stop by Joffrey's to check out the new coffees for a friend of mine and to get a cup of hot chocolate because this day was shaping up to be another chilly one. I was tempted by this apple danish. I took a bite before I remembered to take a picture LOL.

This was one of the best danishes I probably ever had. It wasn't dry at all and the apple was perfectly spiced with the cinnamon. And it was huge!!!!

We started the Christmas Tree Trail map on the way to Pepe. I didn't take pictures of them this day because of the danish and hot chocolate - I just didn't have enough hands. I saw Pepe now had chicken fritters so I had to try them.

If you like cheesy goodness, get the fritters!!!! My gallbladder totally hated my decision but my tastebuds were thrilled. While eating we stayed entertained by a group of kids making a TikTok video. They looked like idiots while they were doing it but they were having a blast. We decided to go to Grand Floridian to see the gingerbread house and see the Poly decorations before going to MK at 4PM.

 

[LeighM]

I was happy to discover that the GF gingerbread smell was back in the lobby. Over Thanksgiving, we learned that the wife of R's cousin worked on the gingerbread house so we went to see it.

And yall, we learned to NOT go to the GF lobby the day of a Christmas Party. The lobby was absolute insanity when we were there. The line to buy gingerbread was just ridiculous and there was a very long line to take a picture in front of it. We decided to do that later in our trip.

The line to have a picture taken in front of the tree was very reasonable so we did that.

We went upstairs to browse more of the shops because there was a Guerlain perfume that I wanted to sample. While up there, we saw a photographer in the special spot and there was only a short line.

Finally got a pic with Cinderella's glass shoe!

Also, got a picture with the present box. We split it this way on purpose as R has Jewish heritage on his mother's side.

Eventually we finished up with the lobby (I think we skipped the Poly as we were having dinner at Ohana the next day) and got into the long line for the monorail. It was at this point I knew the crowds were going to be horrible and no where near the experience we had at the MK Christmas After Hours in 2021

 

[LeighM]

The lines to enter the party weren't all that bad and were much more orderly than the last time. We were directed to the event entry path to get our ornament and picture opportunities. I don't have all that many pictures from the event because I really wanted to focus on being in the moment and soaking up the Disney pixie dust.

This guy was playing some good music and was actually quite funny.

I couldn't really figure out the purpose of stilt walking snowflakes but they were still neat, I guess.

First order of business was getting the spring rolls! We got into a long line only to find out they didn't have the marinara dipping sauce. Okay, that's fine. We forgot to take a picture until after we ate, but here is the proof that they are still good!

The line for HM was low so we rode that.

Complete picture fail but whatever LOL. The ride stopped in the attic scene and I was so happy to finally be able to get a good shot of the bride! However, the ghosts must've been acting up because this is how all of my pictures turned out.

I could see the bride in the view but never in the final shot. It was so strange. After that, we went to Gaston's to try the new creme brulee croissant only to find out they were sold out. They still had a couple more hours before closing but they were out of one of their major items with no plans to get more. Okaaaay.......

 

[LeighM]

And the rest of the night is kinda blurry. The lines were too long to meet the majority of the characters, we didn't get a chance to do any of the food options because they lines were always crazy, didn't see either of the parades because of the sheer amount of people. It felt like a normal busy park day instead of a limited ticket event. We had fun (even though I had to go by first aid to get a bandage wrap for my ankle) but it will be a long while before we do another one. That said, here are some pictures.

I looked like I had been crying but I promise not this trip LOL. My eyes were just very irritated and I was deep in concentration to win - which I did.

We rode Dumbo for the first time ever and that air was COLD!!! We did see the stage show, which was really cute. I have to apologize for the pictures going forward because at some point my camera settings got changed and I didn't know how to correct the problem.

The projections on the castle are nice but my heart is still broken that I never got to see them drapped in Christmas lights.

I had to ask for a few magic shots and this is one of the ones we received.

We saw a low line for Peter Pan so we hopped in. At this point, the door behind us opened and a few CMs came out with one of them cursing up a storm and dropping the f-bomb multiple times. My ears couldn't believe what it was hearing!

It was a very awkward character interaction but I couldn't tell you what was off about it. Maybe it was me because I was still reeling from the cursing CM. We tried to go find a place for the second parade but every single place was taken. So a decision was made - we got into line for Jake and Sally since it was only 20 minutes. And we both had an absolute blast. I don't know how these actors come up with half the things they do but we were all laughing hysterically. Jack some something so off the wall that the photographer choked and couldn't immediately take a picture. This was the fun place to be this night!

R was showing off his Santa Jack shirt, who was mightly pleased by it.

After this we did see the fireworks show, but I have zero pictures as I wanted to enjoy them in the moment. Afterwards, we did get something to eat and more hot chocolate because it was borderline frigid. I can't remember what food I ordered, maybe the orange chicken, and the dry crunchy noodles were just awful. We were going to go ride some more attractions but R was slowing down, it was cold, it was too crowded (still!!!) so we decided to call it a night and go back to the resort.

Up next - Day 3, Rest Day and dinner at Ohana

 

[LeighM]

Day 3 - Rest Day and Ohana dinner

We slept in really late this morning. We walked to French Quarter to try the GF beignets.

They were okay but not as good as the normal ones. They were really heavy - they tasted fine but it was a really heavy dough that had none of the typical lightness of a regular beignet.

There was an issue in the kitchen after this and a lot of orders had somehow gotten lost. A CM had to come out and start writing down the orders after talking to everyone waiting in the cafe.

While I prefer Riverside to French Quarter, I do have to say that I like the holiday decor at FQ better than Riverside! We also bought a shirt for R for Scat Cat Lounge. We later had to return it for a bigger size and a manager had to get involved because instead of being able to do a simple swap, their system kept saying we owed one penny. The manager was able to get it fixed. Our reservation was at 3:30PM for Ohana so we decided to go to MK and then go to the Poly.

I still miss the former lobby. We didn't have a very long wait after we checked in and we were actually the first people to be seated.

We had a great view! They brought out all the normal food items....

This is the first time we had a complaint about the food - the steak was mostly fat and inedible. We didn't ask for more because we had enough on the table to eat but they really shouldn't serve that for the price people are paying. And, I ended up having no self control and ate more of the pot stickers and noodles than I should have. So I told R that we could no longer go to Ohana because I can't act right around food I should not have.

The bread pudding was good as always and they brought us this extra dessert for our anniversary.

Next time, we won't mark us as celebrating anything because I hate food going to waste.

 

[LeighM]

After eating, we rode the monorail to the GF to get those pictures we were unable to get the day before.

The crowds are more reasonable today. There was no line for the picture in front of the gingerbread house.

That's not the camera suddenly adding 10 pounds, that's just the consequences of the Ohana dinner LOL. After exploring and taking more pictures with my suddenly heavier self, we decided to go to Disney Springs.

One of the things that I kept forgetting to do in previous trips was to have pictures taken in the PhotoPass studio. I'm glad that we did this but I wish I had planned it better to not have it be the same day as the Ohana dinner. Extremely poor planning on my part. At least I will forever have photographic evidence over why I am no longer allowed to eat at Ohana

I liked the magic shot of Tinkerbell in her winter clothes. We continued more of the Christmas tree trail.

Does Arribas Brothers sell many of these items?

You can buy this or a place to live.....

The price of this bird was much more reasonable

On the way to the boat back to Riverside, we saw an "elf" in a sleigh talking about Santa

Soon we were back at Riverside and getting ready for bed as we had an early day planned for Epcot.

Up next - Day 4 - Epcot

 

[LeighM]

Day 4 - Epcot

If you're thinking I'm rushing through this trip report, you are correct LOL. There was a lot that happened (including drama) over the holidays, which contributed to me forgetting a whole lot of the details of this trip. Plus, I'm trying to hurry up and get to the surprise for anyone that is actually still following this much delayed trip report.

For those that followed my May trip, you know that my Epcot day did NOT go according to plan. So there was more than a little trepidation for Epcot. However, it was shaping up to be a warmer day and either Monday or Tuesday, but not so hot as to possibly trigger any issue. I also broke down and purchased LLMP earlier in the planning phase because I was concerned that the speakers for Candlelight Processional might increase crowds. And, boy, was I correct!

We didn't feel any sense of urgency this morning because we already had the 3 rides booked - Living with the Land first thing, Ratatouille, and Nemo. The plan was to rope drop the LL for Living with the Land to book Soarin while we were still in the Land Pavilion. Which worked out perfectly. After checking in for LwtL, I got a LL for Soarin, and enjoyed the rest of the ride.

We were hoping to ride a second time after it got dark to see the Christmas lights. After that ride ended, we had time for a quick breakfast. I'm still so sad what happened to Sunshine Seasons, which used to be one of our favorite places to eat in Epcot. But the croissant breakfast sandwich was still tasty.

After eating, we got in line for Soarin. At the second touch point, I was able to get one of the last LLs of the day for Frozen Ever After but it wasn't going to be until 8:50PM. After a short 10-15 minute wait, we were boarding our seat in the middle section of the lowest row and nothing was distorted. When Soarin ended it was almost 10:30AM. We rode Nemo, which surprisingly had a long wait time so the LL actually came in handy. We always enjoy the aquariums and R had to say hello to his favorite seahorses.

By this time, my ankle was starting to hurt from the previous night's activities so off to the first aid center I went to get another bandage LOL.

We popped into Mexico to play with this display while waiting for our lunch at Space 220.

 

[LeighM]

I was sad that I had to cancel the lunch ADR I had in the Space 220 Lounge but I was able to get one in the regular restaurant this trip. And I was so excited. We were one of the first ones in line.

The elevator was a pretty neat experience. I took a video of it after it started playing.

We arrived at our space destination and saw the circling greenery.

We had a nice seat and because we had such an early lunch booking, it was very quiet inside the restaurant for the first 30 minutes and were able to enjoy the thematic music they had playing before more families were seated and the talking became louder.

The water was real fancy

For the appetizers, I ordered the beet salad and R got the shrimp tacos

The beets in that salad were soooo good with that cheese. Loved it! R wasn't as happy with his shimp because he's not a fan of cold shrimp. But he said it was still tasty.

I was trying to limit my gluten due to my pigfest at Ohana the day before so I ordered the Pad Thai and R got the steak.

The shrimp in the Pad Thai were perfectly flavored and cooked but the Pad Thai itself was just pretty standard. Nothing special about it. But the steak and fries R ordered were perfection! The steak was perfectly cooked. He said the entire entree reminded him of one of his favorite meals at Be Our Guest dinner in their early days. However, he was too full from this early lunch and I ended up having to cancel my Biergarten dinner. One day, I'll get to eat there LOL. The dinner was very expensive and I'm glad we were able to try it at least once. I can't say that the steak was enough to bring us back a second time with those prices. But I do feel like everyone should experience it at least once, much like Cinderella's Royal Table - just try to get an ADR for the Space 220 lounge instead.

 

[LeighM]

I wish I had purchased this shirt when I saw it but I didn't have the room in my luggage!

We saw the Epcot gingerbread Spaceship Earth but the countdown wasn't working.

We got a few more pictures taken

I was a little disappointed by the Epcot Christmas tree

I was getting annoyed by the crowds everywhere and we kept missing the storytellers but we did catch the Jewish one in our explorations after the Ratatouille ride, which was a walk on for us with lightning lane.

Much better than the 60+ minutes we had to wait first thing in the morning during our May trip. But I didn't like the change of squeezing 3 people to a row. There was a couple in the front row and we were in the back. It was enough space for everyone to have room to move. But the CM put another couple in with us who had gotten into the single rider line - except they were both plus sized. The man got into the front row, which already had a larger man sitting in the middle seat because like us, we were expecting to have the row to ourselves. The woman sat next to R and he tried to mooch over into my space so he could have more room away from her. I don't think any of us actually enjoyed the ride except for the couple from the single rider line. Paid LL costs way too much money to be squeezed into ride vehicles like sardines with total strangers. Heck, I wouldn't want someone I did know half sitting on my lap.

We browsed the stores in the Japanese pavilion but crowds made it hard to difficult so we popped into this quiet exhibition. Anyone know if Disney has any plans to update this anytime soon?

We popped into the America pavilion and caught the end of these wonderful singers.

After the crowds dispersed, we were able to see the portraits done by President George W. Bush.

You could see the care he put into each painting and how passionate he is over this topic. On the way out, there was this sign by the door.

I wish more attention was paid to the Veteran Check-In sign because I don't think it ever gets highlighted enough.

 

[LeighM]

These are in no particular order but we had stopped by some of the food kiosks. I can't remember what these were or where they were from but they were both very tasty.

I also went to the Scentsy exhibit, which the bees were more attracted to than the people.

We also rode The Three Cabelleros, which had the longest line I've ever seen for this ride. It said 10 minute wait but it turned into 20+.

It was getting late and we still had over an hour until our Frozen Ever After ride. That's when I learned that I couldn't get another LL for LwtL, which really angered me. All of that money and you can only ride each ride once. We got to the point where we had ridden all of our favorites but couldn't see another ride reservation. The wait times for it never got below 40 minutes and we didn't want to wait that long to see it again with Christmas lights. So we made the decision to forgo Frozen and go back to the resort. We went to French Quarter so that R could get the regular, gluten filled beignets to end our day.

I was getting hungry so I got a quick order of chicken strips which came with way too many French fries

We got back to the room and I attempted to connect my streaming to the TV and got this message

Well, it was further than I got than in May at CSR

We made it an early night as we had to get up bright and early for rope drop at AK. I had paid for Flight of Passage, which caused me much anger but I knew R was upset at not being able to ride it in May so I went ahead and paid $30+ dollars for it. Maybe it was closer to $40 but I'm trying to forget it LOL.

Up next, Day 5 at Animal Kingdom and our last full day

 

[LeighM]

Day 5 - Animal Kindom

I found out somewhat last minute that AK had changed it's park hours and it was now opening at 7AM instead of 7:30AM. Which meant a very early wake up call to be at the park for rope drop.

We got into the crowds, with R accidentally cutting into a line he didn't know existed - sorry to all yall, that was not intended. I was just there to get a closer look at a bird LOL.

We went straight to Navi River Journey since we had a ILL for FoP. We were one of the first ones on, no line to speak of, yet they squished everyone into the same seats again. Why Disney, why???!!!!!!! I have no pictures of anything else until we made our way to Kilimanjaro Safari. I didn't get the LLMP so it had to be standby. To guarantee, we had a chance of riding it this time, we got into standby line, which was all the way back here....

Once the ride opened at 8AM, the line moved pretty quickly. We got seated with an irritating family and the mother ended up accidentally kicking my sore ankle so that was back to hurting again. The safari was nice but because it was so early most of the animals weren't out yet.

There weren't any giraffes at all and just this one lone elephant.

The driver said that the animal team was doing training this morning. In no particular order, we did see the following animals

It was next to impossible to take any good pictures because of the family next to us but I was able to get this one of the new, younger lions

We stopped at a couple of PhotoPass spots. And I have to say some of our worst ever pictures were taken here. Some of them were laughingly bad and I could only assume they were all new to a using a camera.

The woman who took this picture was trying her best but she knew the sun was in our face and it was a struggle not to squint the entire time. And this there was this gem in Pandora....

She was way below our height and she told us to look serious and mad. Ummm, why? At this point, I don't think I had to struggle all that hard to show annoyance.

 

[LeighM]

This one got dropped from the previous entry - the African painted dogs in pixelated form

We explored the Africa animal trail hoping for more animal viewings

I can't remember whether the hippos were from the Safari or the trail but here they are, all out of the water for a change.

I couldn't get a good picture of this animal so I settled for the signage instead I always enjoy watching the birds in the enclosures. These were the ones that I enjoyed the most.

And this little fella who was busy gathering materials for their nest

These little cuties were actually very active this morning and I was able to get a decent picture of them minus the strange pixelation that is occuring in the light.

On the way to see the gorillas who are always a favorite

After much walking, we found them!!!

R was starting to get hungry so we walked over to Asia and he got something from Yak and Yeti QS. Can't remember what and apparently there is no picture to remind me. We sat by the water and relaxed for a few. After eating we made our way to the Asia animal trail.