Arkansas Family 7-Night Frist Blast in Disney (A Trip Report) - Page 3 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Great TR so far. I am sad you didn't care for Marrakesh though. It's one of our favorite restaurants in Epcot. We aren't adventurous eaters ourselves, but we think the food here is delicious. But it's great that you at least tried it.
But I am really enjoying your TR.
My first thought, was why did you bus to DHS to go to DTD when POFQ has their own boat to DTD. But then I realized I think you meant you took the boat to the boardwalk!
Glad you enjoyed your meal. Looking forward to your first day in the parks!~
LOL, I had that thought too. I'm so glad everything went well. I knew you were going right before us and I wondered how it all went. Great start and I can't wait to read more.
Loving your trip report. I keep reading the trip reports waiting with excitement for our trip in July. My daughter is counting down the days and is having us read her postcard from Mickey to her daily. Thanks so much.
Happy I could be part of the magic for you family. Our son loved the card the got from a FGM prior to our trip as well.
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We let everyone sleep until they woke up this morning. A lesson learned that would have a positive impact on the day. However, my kids do not really sleep in. By 7 or 8 a.m. the boys are fully up. So we arrived at Animal Kingdom by 10 a.m. Took little longer on the bus this morning.
When we arrived at Animal Kingdom I was surprised at the number of people. The park seemed to be more crowded than the MK or EP had been that last two days. The guard that check our bag actually made my wife empty ALL the contents of the bag and even questioned her about her camera and cell phone. In the past, all they had done was look in the top and poke around.
I has not impressed with the entry to the AK. Not much to look at. Then we made our way through the vegetation paths, again not much to look at. We really did not see many animals as we walked, then we topped the hill and turned left an boom! There it was. That tree is amazing.
I remember just looking at the tree thinking, is that this real? It looked real. Amazing pictures and even more amazing as you get close enough. Like everyone else we headed toward the tree, not really noticing anything else along the way. We did stop for several FP pictures.
Once we made it to the tree it was almost time for “It is Touch to be a Bug.” We got in line and followed the path to the show. We had opportunities to see the carvings up close. They are so interesting.
The bug show was so cool. The is no 3-D like Disney 3-D. The show was very fun. Jaron loved it. We jumped and screamed together, especially at the end when the bug left ahead of us. When the seat moved I jumped and yelled like a little girl.
Then we headed off to see Legend of the Lion King, amazing by the way and then the boys wanted to get in line to see Minnie Mouse. My mom and sister found us in line and I was off to get FP for the Safari and Exp. Everest. They are on opposite end of the park and I was exhausted in the heat. When we meet up again it was at the main gate from Camp Mickey Minnie and Africa at the Bridge. I had stopped at the little ice cream station for a drink of water. One thing everyone should know is that at any station where they serve fountain drinks, they will give you a FREE ice water. Grate way to save money, just ask.
While I had stopped for a drink, the family came along and we decided to see if we could get in a little early for our Tusker House reservation. While we waited we walked around Africa. The staging is so amazing. I spent two week in Africa on a mission trip in 2008 and this is exactly what I remember about the look of the cities. I was blown away.
Our pager went off and we were taken in for lunch. The buffet was amazing. They had such a variety of traditional and African options. I loved the choices and found some amazing foods that I may have never tasted were it not for this place. The salmon her was excellent, and some of the salads we very unique. One with raisins and date was especially good.
After lunch we did Kilimanjaro Safari. It was pretty cool. I had read that the safari was so fast you could not take pictures. I did not find that to be the case. Our guide was awesome. She slowed down at stopped throughout the trip. Plenty picture opportunities, but we still did not get good pictures. But that was a poor camera that does not zoom well. There were giraffes and Rhinos right next to the road. The lion was even on his post on pride rock. We had a great tour.
If you eat at Tusker House between 1:00 and 2:00 they will get you a preferred seating pass to Nemo the musical for that afternoon. So that is where we headed. We seated on the 2nd row. The show was my favorite in all the parks. Live actors provided the movement and voice of their puppet character. A truly amazing theatre experience. I loved it and my boys were glued.
Next we were off to Asia. We had one FP for Everest. I took my 2 year old up and asked for a Rider Swap and he gave me one. So we gave the FP away and my wife and sister used the rider swap. I wanted to, but chickened out. My 4 year old also wanted to, but he was not 44 inches so was told no by the cast member. I am glade he could not ride. It just looked to scary. They thought it was a cool ride, but overrated. While they were on it mom and I took the boys to Dinorama. Jaron wanted to ride the Primeval Whirl, but was not tall enough. So he settled for Triceratops Spin. Another Dumbo type ride. How many of these are there at Disney. Then we headed to the Bone yard Playground. They boys had a blast there.
By now it is mid afternoon and mom and Sarah are ready to head out. They took the boys with them, so Candi and I again had a great afternoon together. We went and rode Dinosaur. I am a huge coward and could not enjoy the ride. I know it was all fake, but I was scared to death ad did most of the ride with my eyes closed.
It let us back off at Dono-Rama so we did the Primeval Whirl. It was a very fun ride. We would have rode it again, but there was a 30 minute wait. Before leaving this area we played one of the silly midway games. Then it was off to explore Asia. I remembered that I had an ADR at Yak and Yeti that I had not canceled, so the wide and I decided to give it a try. It was after 6 and the park was clearing out. When we arrived we were seated instantly. We had a great waitress. Candi had the Sweet & Sour Chicken and I had the Steak and Shrimp. But were very good. About like any other Chinese restaurant. Good, but nothing special except the presentation. We decided to take dessert with us and head back to the POFQ.
As we left we had a couple more FP pictures taken and then made it back to the POFQ about 7:15. We had ADR for T-Rex at 8:15. The boys had not eaten because they took a nap. Mom and Sarah did not want to go, so we gathered the boys and headed for the boat shuttle to Downtown Disney. It took forever to get on a boat. It was 8:15 before we got on, and it is a 20 minute ride. Then we had to find our way to T-Rex which was a good walk carrying the boys. I just knew they would turn us away, but they did not. In fact, it was only a few minutes. We were seated right at nine.
T-Rex is amazing. I had read some bad reviews. Said it was loud, slow and bad food. At this pint we did not care, the place was so cool. Candi and I had already had dinner so we decided to do appetizers and dessert so the boys could eat. The sampler ordered had cheese dip, brochette and a chicken quesadilla. All were very good and arrive quickly. The dessert was described as a layers ice cream sandwich. It was the best dessert we had all week. It was soooooo yummy. We especially like the place because it was loud and there was a lot going on. The kids acted up a little and no one even knew. They loved the dinosaurs and the meteor shower. We walked around and just looked at everything and look pictures. Then when we left they had a gravel pit where the kids could dig up bones. This was not on the DDP and so it was $43 OOP with the tip for what we had. Well worth it. It will be a MUST DO the next time we go to Disney World.
By this time the kids are asleep again and we walked back to the boat. We had to wait about 20 minutes on the next boat, and that was a long time holding the boys. But it was well worth it for the great time they had.
On the ride back to POFQ Candi and I talked about our day and how much we loved the AK. We had not expected to like it as much as we did. Maybe even our favorite park. The next day was to be a relaxing day at the resort day. But we decide to go back to AK again with the boys by ourselves. We still planned to have some swim time and we had a date night, but want to spend the morning at AK.
We had a great day and looking forward to Wednesday.
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Sounds like y'all had an amazing trip - I can't wait to read more! We leave in 31 days for our first family experience - our oldest just turned five and we have a 2 year old and the baby will be 11 months - I love your advice on the free things you found!
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Disney Magic - Oct 2015
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