Alice, Mickey, and Pooh Bear ... Oh my! A First Timer's Trip Report -- Updated 8/19 About This Page:

[athenagwis]

Originally Posted by elbodans

i also love the commentary on KS. and for the record, i've been on...maybe six time? seven? multiple times per trip--sometimes multiple times per day--and i've never heard the same jokes. so i think it really is less scripted than you'd think (or at least that's what i'd like to think. oh and i LOVE the song that 'magically' comes on the radio near the male elephants. best song ever!)

as for the camera issues--are you sure that your lens works with the auto focus on your camera? they are not all compatible (well, at least for nikon cameras, anyway.) still--great zoom pics of the giraffe! i'm SO JEALOUS. i super would love a zoom lens for disney--particularly at AK. (perhaps santa will bring one for me..and then maybe the easter bunny can teach me how to use it? )

That's good to hear that it may not be as scripted as it was pretty funny and it makes it better knowing it's not something Disney designed. I don't remember the song what was it???

Not to make you more jealous, but the pictures of the giraffes were not taken with any zoom. I literally could have reached out of the car and touched them. In fact, she had to stop the car for a Giraffe to cross the road, and then speed up so another one in back of us wouldn't lick the back passengers. Like for reals, not like part of the script or anything .... LOL The Giraffes were my best shot of the day (I have about 10 other shots) because they were literally right on top of us.

Rachel

[elbodans]

Originally Posted by athenagwis

That's good to hear that it may not be as scripted as it was pretty funny and it makes it better knowing it's not something Disney designed. I don't remember the song what was it???

Not to make you more jealous, but the pictures of the giraffes were not taken with any zoom. I literally could have reached out of the car and touched them. In fact, she had to stop the car for a Giraffe to cross the road, and then speed up so another one in back of us wouldn't lick the back passengers. Like for reals, not like part of the script or anything .... LOL The Giraffes were my best shot of the day (I have about 10 other shots) because they were literally right on top of us.

Rachel

i don't know the name of the song--or if it even has a name. it's very harmony-ish and african sounding. kind of reminds me a lot of several songs on the paul simon album 'rhythm of the saints'. not sure if you're familiar with that. i have strange music taste.

and that's awesome about the giraffes! i'd be jealous, but we had a similar experience on the wanyama safari at AKL. they were RIGHT THERE.

ok...i'm still a little jealous!

[athenagwis]

Originally Posted by elbodans

i don't know the name of the song--or if it even has a name. it's very harmony-ish and african sounding. kind of reminds me a lot of several songs on the paul simon album 'rhythm of the saints'. not sure if you're familiar with that. i have strange music taste.

and that's awesome about the giraffes! i'd be jealous, but we had a similar experience on the wanyama safari at AKL. they were RIGHT THERE.

ok...i'm still a little jealous!

Hehe well at least you got to see them that close too!! It is pretty cool that they let them roam where the cars are like that. I didn't realize that they would. I know there are hidden barriers for the lions and hippos and stuff, so I just assumed that went for all the animals ... guess not!!

Rachel

[Laurast]

I just found your TR and wanted to tell you how much I am enjoying it. Looking forward to reading more

[thumper8524]

Absolutely loving your TR. I am looking forward to hearing more!

[RainbowRhapsody]

Great TR! Looking forward to reading more!

[athenagwis]

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

Glad you had a great time on the safari!

Originally Posted by Cam22

Kilimanjaro Safari is one of my absolute favorite attractions! So glad you all enjoyed it! I'm a little jealous that you all got a peek at the new baby elephant! Your giraffe pictures are great! And I :love the Mickey giraffe ears! I tried those on at AKL, but didn't buy them.

Thanks. I really did love the safari, and I was so excited to see the baby elephant and the baby gorilla. We were very lucky with the animals that trip. I wasn't sure how it would be since it was a bit later in the morning, but most were out and about for us. I love those ears too, I am sad that I have no where to wear them now!! I may have to come up with a Halloween costume to fit them just so I have an excuse to wear them again.

Originally Posted by mcc0313

Great pictures, love you DH's hair - so great that he gets into the magic. Glad that the ear plugs helped your son so much. You breakfast at Tusker House looked delicious.

Originally Posted by bsblady01

more please

Originally Posted by thumper8524

Absolutely loving your TR. I am looking forward to hearing more!

Originally Posted by RainbowRhapsody

Great TR! Looking forward to reading more!

Coming right up! This is going to be a loooong TR, so I hope no one gets bored of it!!

[athenagwis]

Hi everyone!

Sorry it has been a few days since my last update. Things have been crazy busy around here. I STILL haven't unpacked everything from our trip. LOL Hopefully next week will be a little more reasonable so I can get more done. The biggest thing I have to worry about are my Photopass pictures. My goal is to have to those done and the cd sent to me by October 20th, so I really hope I can make that. I have found that working on those late, late at night works best since there seems to be less strain on their server at that time. Luckily I am usually up until midnight or 1 AM anyway.

Now on to our next segment in the TR!


Which Way Next?

So far in our day, Animal Kingdom is turning out great. We had a wonderful character breakfast, a no-wait safari ride, and next we stumbled upon one of my husband's (and soon the whole family's) favorite characters ... Stitch (and Lilo too)!



When we arrived at his line, he was on a little break, but the guests waiting for him let us know that he would be back shortly. So we jumped in line, which really wasn't that long, and waited our turn. My son was watching the guests that went before him and he noticed that Lilo took one kid's hat and gave it to Stitch. So my son grabbed his own hat from my husband and put it on. I hadn't seen what happened, so I asked why all of a sudden he wanted to wear it, and he kindly explained to me. I just hoped it worked out for him! As we got to the front of the line, my husband got more and more excited. He was like a kid in a candy store. Of all the Disney characters, this is probably his favorite.

Luckily for my son, once we got up there, Lilo immediately grabbed his hat and passed it on to Stitch. My son thought this was just great!









We only got a few pictures with my camera, but the Photopass guy took a ton. We probably have more photopass pictures from this meeting than any other in fact.





We all got pictures with Lilo and Stitch ...



but of course hubby needed one with just him and his Disney idol.







After our fun encounter with Stitch, we turned around to see Chip & Dale walking by. I knew they were probably going to their break, so we didn't bother them, but it was fun to see characters walking in the park!!



Since we were on a bit of a roll with character interactions, we headed over to Camp Minnie Mickey to see what characters were out today. They had the 4 biggies, plus Thumper and Miss Bunny from Bambi. Of course we hopped (get it hopped .... hehe) in line. As soon as we got in line though, the 2 went for a short break ... this seemed to be a reoccurring theme for us! While waiting for the bunnies to return, we saw a gentleman that was singing songs over a microphone. He was looking for someone to sing about, so we volunteered my son. He asked Kolby a few questions, then went about singing a pretty funny song about him.



Sadly hubby didn't have his video camera, so we only got pictures, but it was so adorable! After not too long, the bunnies arrived back and we were ready to see them and get our autographs!



They had this whole routine down for switching autograph books, it was really cute.



There were no Photopass photographers here, so hubby did a great job snapping pictures for my son and me.



We decided not to see the other characters since we had already seen them at our breakfast, and the lines were rather long right then. So we sat down for a second to see where we wanted to go next.



Animal Kingdom is big, so we wanted to be sure to explore each section thoroughly before we moved on since back tracking probably wasn't a very good idea.



We finally decided to check out the Tree of Life, but it wasn't real obvious on the map just how to get there. We did a lot of map turning to figure out where we currently were, and where we wanted to be.



Finally we decided to ask the first CM we saw with a monkey, and *poof* there he was!



Wes showed us the super secret back path to the Tree of Life so we could get some nice up close pictures of it.



So we headed on our way.



Squirrel!!

Hehe ... yes every time we saw a squirrel we quoted the movie Up! and yelled "Squirrel" in the dog's voice. Hubby nabbed this picture one time, and turned to me and said "Yeah I took a picture of a squirrel." LOL He is so funny.

So even though I was the one that Wes told the directions to for finding the Tree of Life, hubby insisted that I was headed the wrong way.



I told him to get his butt in gear and that we were not headed the wrong way.



So who was right? Did we make it to the super secret path and find the Tree of Life?

Rachel

Go to:
Next Adventure: Living the Tree Life

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[JKnott17]

I hope you make it We've yet to get up close and personal with the Tree of Life, but its on the list for our November trip. Hopefully we'll have luck finding the super secret path

[elbodans]

For some reason, I find AK to be confusing, too. I've been there...well, a bunch of times now (maybe seven? eight?) and I STILL get turned around!

Sounds like a great day so far! And for the record, I believe you are headed the right way. Women are so much better than men with directions.

[athenagwis]

Originally Posted by JKnott17

I hope you make it We've yet to get up close and personal with the Tree of Life, but its on the list for our November trip. Hopefully we'll have luck finding the super secret path

Thanks! The Tree of Life is amazing, just don;t be afraid to ask some of the CMs and I am sure they will point you in the right direction.

Originally Posted by elbodans

For some reason, I find AK to be confusing, too. I've been there...well, a bunch of times now (maybe seven? eight?) and I STILL get turned around!

Sounds like a great day so far! And for the record, I believe you are headed the right way. Women are so much better than men with directions.

It was pretty confusing, but we made it around eventually. And thanks for the vote of confidence!!

[athenagwis]

Living the Tree Life

We continued on down the way that I believed to be the super secret path to the Tree of Life. Once we got to the end, we were greeted with a wonderful view.



The CM was right, we were so close to the tree and were able to nab some wonderful shots of the animals.







My husband is obsessed with with turtles (usually TMNT, but any turtle will do), so we had to snap a picture of this great one.



We had so much fun pointing out all the animals in the tree. I think you could look at it for hours and still not see every single animal that is in there. I know it's not a real tree, but it's still such a work of art.



The boys decided to try and figure out where to go next, seems like directions were hard to come by for us this day.



We wandered away from the Tree of Life by way of the Bugs Life ride and happened upon Flik. I honestly couldn't remember his name when we got in line. I knew who he was, but his name escaped me. I felt so bad! Luckily the handler said his name before we got up there, so we were prepared to meet him properly. We got his autograph.



And posed for a picture with him.



Squirrel!



(hehe .... second one this day!)

At each photopass photographer we saw, we would always ask if they had magic photos. We honestly did not see many photographers in Animal Kingdom, so we were excited to see one that was taking pictures with the Tree of Life in the background. We got one of those (they didn't come out great as my son was being weird), but we asked him if he did magic pictures too. Since he didn't have a line of people, he whisked us off to the side and gave us not one ...



not two ...



not three ...



but four magic pictures!!



We were beyond excited that he took the time to do so many with us, unfortunately the next guest was not so lucky. They tried to get more than one (but did not ask sweetly) and he wouldn't give them up. He truly gave us a little bit of the famous Disney magic by doing that for us, and his pictures came out great!!

We continued on our way and headed towards some shops. We brought our vinylmations with us to do a little trading and we finally found a shop that had the hidden trading box.



If you don't know much about trading, basically you pick a random number and the CM will pull out a little guy from that slot for you to trade with your little guy. You can only trade 3 inch figures and they cannot be the ones that you design yourself. Most of the CMs let us decide if we wanted to trade (so you didn't have to) and some even let us peek at them all to see if there were ones we would like.



We found that the choices with this type of trading were not very good. It seems that they just leave the figures that other people trade in there. It's not like the pins where they put newer ones in each morning. We found almost all of them to be pretty generic and all from the Urban line, which was apparently on sale recently. If I had it to do again, I wouldn't bother with this type of trading. It was a little fun, but even though we traded 8 or more times, none of us ended up with a figure we were ecstatic about it.



Speaking of pin trading, I don't have any pictures of this, but we did this A LOT this vacation. I picked up 150 pins from eBay before we went. We each got 50 pins to trade. We would put 10-12 pins on a lanyard each morning and had so much fun trading with CMs. We each had sets that we were working on, so we kept on the look out for those while picking up others we really liked. It was a great success, and I would definitely do this again. I would probably bring more pins in fact. Even though we may never look at the pins again, the cost is really not that much when buying on eBay as compared to the amount of fun we had trading them. I liken it to tickets to an extra event like MNSSHP, you have nothing to show for it when you get back, but the entertainment value is worth the cost of the tickets.

The other extra thing we did this vacation was pressed pennies. This was also a huge success. We found pressed penny machines all over the place and had a lot of fun pulling out the m&m containers with our quarters and pennies all ready to go. My son had so much fun being able to get all the pennies he wanted. We also found that many of machines to be pressed quarter machines, which was fine except for the fact that we weren't expecting that. We haven't gotten all our pressed pennies and quarters into books yet, but they will be a wonderful memory for us once we do.



After we came out of the gift shop, we decided it was time for a little snack break. The heat was so unbearable these past couple days. I was glad to find that any vendor that has fountain drinks would give us free ice waters. This saved us so much as we were walking around the parks!! For our snack today we decided on a nice cool treat. Hubby got a Mickey ice cream sandwich, I got a Strawberry Popsicle, and my son picked up a Pineapple Popsicle. It was a nice cooling treat for the day.



And we were back on our way to find our next exciting adventure.



I didn't really have a plan for this park beyond the safari breakfast and the actual safari ride. This is why we really depended on the map as we were walking around. It was hard for me though, as I have a condition that makes it so difficult for me to walk or stand for long periods of time. By this time of day, I was just pooped.



And so was Perry.



Kris finally decided that he wanted to go see the Nemo show. I was all for that as it would give me a nice chance to sit down for a while. We looked up the times, and there was a show starting really soon, so we picked up the pace to try and make that one so it wouldn't eat up our whole day. On our way to the show, we saw a sign for a character spot that would have the Winnie the Pooh characters in about an a hour. We made sure to make a mental note of that so we could head there right after the Nemo show, but we were already cutting the show really close as it was, so we rushed on our way. Did we make the show in time?

Rachel

Go to:
Next adventure: Finding Pooh Bear

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[lazanya]

What a great time so far! Hope you make the show!

[athenagwis]

Finding Pooh Bear

As we rushed up to the Finding Nemo show, we got into a rather short line. I was happy that we had made it, and even happier (though surprised) to see such a short line. We were ushered into the building, when I heard the CMs announce that the only seats left were bleacher seats. My heart sank. Due to my issues, there was no way I could sit on bleachers for a half hour. I told my husband that if we had to sit on the bleachers, we would have to go. Since we were already on our way in, we headed in the same direction as everyone else. About halfway into the theater, a CM stopped us and opened another rope and told us to wait for him. He let in about 10 people along with us. He guided us all down to the front two rows of the auditorium!! We not only got non-bleacher seats, but second row. It was so awesome. The funny thing was we ended up sitting right next to a family that we had met in line while we were waiting for Lilo and Stitch earlier in the day. I am guessing the seats we got are meant to be held for patrons of a certain restaurant, but when they don't get filled, they fill them in with other guests. We felt so lucky to have them, as otherwise we might not have seen the show at all.



The show was AMAZING to say the least.



We couldn't use our flash, so many of my pictures came out quite blurry. I waited until the stage was more lit up to even attempt to take a shot and was able to grab a few decent ones.



I had to explain to Kolby why there were people holding the fish up, but after that he really enjoyed the show as well.



I was impressed with their ability to get the whole storyline told in the half hour show.



They really touched on the highlights of the movie and brought the whole story to life.



It really felt like we were seeing a Broadway show, I am amazed that they have this quality of a show included right in the price of the park.



We were all really impressed with this show and were really glad that we got to enjoy it with the help of a little Disney magic.

After the show, we headed over to the character spot to see if the Winnie the Pooh characters were still there. We met a CM outside the spot and asked if the characters were down there. He was being a little silly, and said that he couldn't say and gave us a little wink. We laughed and tried to confirm again, and he kinda just gave a slight nod of his head. He said that he was supposed to be guiding guests into the spot, but he really only told people they were down there, if they asked. (Which I thought was funny considering there was a sign right there saying the characters were there, but I guess people don't notice that much). He said he did that to help keep the crowd down there a little smaller, which I thought was great (for us anyway!).

We headed down to the spot and we (thankfully) greeted by a very short line with no one behind us. We were quickly ushered in to meet Pooh Bear.





Kolby was the first one in, but when I headed in to say hi, I gave Pooh bear a hug



and then he grabbed my hand and tried to skip off with me! It was so funny.



For the rest of the trip, hubby and son teased me that Pooh Bear was my new boyfriend. LOL Which is rather amusing because before this incident, I never really was a Pooh fan. Now I certainly am!!



And of course hubby had to get some Pooh Bear action too! Perhaps he is high fiving him because he has good taste in women?



Next up, we got to meet Tigger himself.





Then we moved on to Kris' favorite Pooh character, Eeyore!



Kolby grabbed a quick hug and a pic of course.





And one with all of us ...



It was an awesome meet and greet. Since there weren't many people in line behind us either, we really got to have a nice interaction with each character. I would highly suggest this little hidden spot to anyone that finds themselves in AK.

After the meet and greet, we headed over to Dinoland, which is right up the road from there.



Kris & I were pretty tired by now, but this was going to be our only day in AK, so we wanted to at least see this part of the park. Kolby found a little play area right away, so we let him run around for a bit so we could sit and rest.





Once he was done, we went to check out the rides in this area. Kolby liked the looks of TriceraTop Spin, so we decided to give it a whirl (hehe).



He ended up really enjoying it, so we went on twice since there was literally no line. I guess it pays to go on the kiddie rides!! He kept saying over and over "See I can go on rides!!" LOL I was just happy he had such a fun time.



We went to a few shops on this side to find some pressed pennies and see if there was any more vinylmation trading. Outside one of the shops, the boys found this big dinosaur to take pictures with.



By this time, my feet were KILLING me. I could barely stand up anymore. When I get like this, the only solution is to keep walking. So when Kris pulled Perry out to take a picture of him as well, I started walking off because I just couldn't stand in one spot anymore. The funny part was that there was a couple there that commented to Kris about me walking off and something to the effect of me being embarrassed by him taking a picture of Perry. I thought it was hilarious (as I am sure that was how it looked) because I am usually the one to be taking the silly pictures like that!!



The only thing we had planned for the rest of the day was an early dinner ADR at the Yak & Yeti. I was hoping to get a window seat so we could watch a portion of the parade. Our reservation was at 4:45, and I thought the parade was at 5:00, but come to find out it was actually 4:30. I was disappointed as I was sure we wouldn't see any of the parade now. But we headed that way anyway, hoping to get lucky. Were we lucky enough to get the great view of the parade as we had hoped?

Rachel

Go to:
Next adventure: An AK State of Mind

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[athenagwis]

Okay last update for today!! (I had 4 today in case you didn't see them all, look up ) I have been slack about doing these lately and I really want to get the TR out while everything is still fresh in my head. Hopefully I will be able to update more often now.

An AK State of Mind

We made it to Yak & Yeti right at 4:00. This meal was covering our lunch and dinner needs. Since we were on the dining plan, having the breakfast at Tusker House today meant that we could only have one more official meal. Since there is sooo much food at Disney, it ended up working out great for us. Even though we arrived a bit early, I figured that there would be no way we could get in early for our 4:45 ADR to see the parade, so I didn't even bother to ask. We just checked in and sat down to wait. About 5 minutes later, we got notified that they had a seat for us. We headed upstairs with the CM and were pleased to be seated at a big window that looked right onto the parade!! It was going past just as we sat, and I was so excited that we got just the view we wanted without even asking.



We only caught the tail end of the parade,



but it was great to see the floats go by without having to stand in the crowds or the heat.







Once the parade was done, we ordered dinner. I decided to be a little adventurous and try the duck. I have never had duck before, so I thought it would be a great idea to have it now since I wasn't paying for dinner! Hubby had the sweet and sour chicken, and my son had chicken nuggets, fries, and rice. I thought the rice was an odd choice for him, but as it turned out we all got the jasmine rice with our meals and we all loved, loved, loved it! We actually contemplated how we could make this on our own at home, but came to the conclusion that we probably couldn't. I have NEVER liked white rice, but the jasmine rice was so great with a little soy sauce on it. Needless to say there was not a speck of rice left on any of our plates when we were done eating.

I didn't take any pictures of the food as I was too busy devouring it! We all enjoyed all of it very much. The duck was very good and my son really enjoyed the fries they had here. They were a really thin, shoe string fry, which were actually very good. We were stuffed from dinner, so we all took our dessert to go since we were headed back to the room anyway. Hubby had chocolate cake, my son had pudding, and I had cheesecake, which looked good even in a to go box!



Once we were all done eating,



we headed out. It had started to rain while we were eating, and though it was pretty much done by the time we left the restaurant, it was still a little drizzly. We grabbed a quick photopass picture to commemorate the end of the day.



Then we put on our ponchos and headed to the front of the park to pick up our picture from the Tusker House breakfast.

Once we got to the front, I was checking my pockets and realized that I had left the room key I had paid for dinner with at the restaurant! Hubby offered to head back there, while I talked to someone about our picture. I went to the Photopass area and told them that I was told that we would get a complimentary picture from the Tusker House and that it would arrive at our table while we ate. When it did not, our waiter told us to come here to pick it up. As I was explaining, another guest piped up and said he was there for the same reason. The CM checked some stuff in the computer and told us that the Tusker House did not offer complimentary photos. At this point the other guest stepped in and explained that he was told it was complimentary, because if it wasn't, he wouldn't have bothered to get the picture done at all as his grandfather had a hard time getting in and out of a wheelchair. He also pointed out that there were two guests, from two different parties there that were told the same thing. The CM explained that usually someone would come to the table with the picture and outline the cost of the different packages, but since we were told they were complimentary, that we would have to go talk to guest services. I honestly didn't care all that much since I had the same picture taken with my own camera, but the other guest was being very nice about it, and he was the one doing all the talking anyway. Plus I knew he needed me to prove his story, so I went ahead to guest services with them. Long story short they ended up giving each of us a free set of pictures. It was kind of a pain to stand around and wait for everyone to get approval for this, but, hey, they were good pictures!! I thanked the guy and found my hubby who had been able to get our card, and we went on our merry way.

We hopped a bus back to All-Star Movies, and headed right back up to our room. We were dog tired at this point, but we were delighted to see that our mousekeeper had had a little fun with our window.



I had left her a little tip and a note explaining that this was our first trip to the World. I guess she was happy with that, and took the time to do a little something extra for us. I had put up the orange lights and the vinyls on the window. She added our Woody toy and our bags for MNSSHP to the display. It was a wonderful treat to see after such a long day.

My son decided that he wanted to do a little swimming at this point, so we left my husband in the room to get a little homework done and headed out to the Mighty Ducks pool. I brought some glow sticks with us to have a bit more fun. I had brought glow sticks to Disney with the intention of using them at parades or at night in the parks, but this was the only time we used them on the whole trip! I just kept forgetting to bring them with us to the parks. Eventually my husband joined us with refills in our mugs and did a little swimming too. It was pretty dark by the time we got out of the pool, but it was a nice relaxing way to spend the evening.

Once we were in the room, we ate our desserts and put on the Disney channel to watch. Lemonademouth was on, so we watched that. My son was asleep 20 minutes into the movie!! Once the two boys were asleep I set up a little surprise for them to have in the morning, and went off to sleep myself.

Tomorrow our plan was to have pool time all day then head into the parks at about 4:00 for MNSSHP. Did that work out for us?

Rachel

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Next Adventure:Goofy's First Visit

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