The Trip that Almost had No Memories! Nov. at WL! About This Page:

[bsblady01]

more please

[Colexis Mom]

Glad you were able to get a camera, and had a great time in Epcot!! More please!!

[Principessa_di_Fata]

I'm so glad you got a new camera, phew! I would have done the very same thing! Sounds like a nice start at EPCOT!

[mcc0313]

Glad you were able to get a new camera (I probably would have done the same thing). Happy to hear that you did not have a problem getting seated for your ADR even with the long wait for the bus. We love the breakfast at Norway, not only is the character interaction good but the food is quite yummy .

Can't wait to hear more...

[westie22]

After we finished our late breakfast (ahem, lunch), we went to explore Norway a bit. We walked right onto Maelstrom. Kylie loved it (she loved every ride). I bought Kylie an EPCOT passport book and she went to her first Kidcot stop to get her book stamped, signed, and began her first mask. It took a lot of persuasion to get her to not color the whole mask but rather leave parts to do at another Kidcot stop. We also did our first pin trade with a CM in Norway. Kylie caught right on to this new hobby as well. We had so much fun pin trading! We were constantly in pursuit on different types of pins and would trade “up” frequently. I was so glad I had bought cheap pins that we didn’t care about off of Ebay because it was easy to part with them for something better . What Kylie had trouble getting was that she thought when she asked to see their pins, that meant she had to trade, not just say thank you. It took a while for her to realize that she could decline a trade if she didn’t see anything she really liked.

We tried on the Viking hats and took some really cute pictures here. I bought a 2008 EPCOT pin with all the different flags of the countries (I kept all the pins we bought at WDW) and then we headed over to the Land to get a fastpass for Soarin’.
As usual, my rapid walking pace created a bit of concern for DH, who apparently is not quite as fast as a walker as I am , but one underestimates the need for speed when it involves getting a Soarin’ fast pass! Again, fortunately, DD5 was in her stroller and just enjoyed the ride.
When we finally got up the hill to enter The Land, we realized that we were supposed to park the stroller down the hill. Hmmm….that should have been made more clear, so we park the stroller and head down to get the FP’s. They weren’t for a while yet, so we decided to go watch Circle of Life with Timon and Pumbaa. Pumbaa is one of my favorite Disney characters so I enjoyed this little show about preserving our planet. We then rode Living with the Land and my gardener husband loved this ride, just like I thought he would. We bought a little African Violet that is grown in a sterile jar that came from the green houses in the Land.

After that we headed to the Living Seas with Nemo. We stopped outside and watched the “Mine” pelicans for a bit, while I got some video and a great photo of this, with the EPCOT ball in the background, just as a monorail went over. That was probably my best picture the whole trip !

We entered into the Seas and went on the Nemo ride. That was cool enough. From there, we just barely made it into a showing of Talk Turtle with Crush. We sent Kylie down front and found a seat in the back. When they asked for questions from the kids, I could see Kylie’s little hand shoot up but they didn’t call on her. She was a little upset about that , but hey they can’t pick everyone. This was a funny show and we were totally like, talking like surfers, dude , after it was over. We then took some pictures of Kylie in Bruce the Shark’s mouth and decided it was time to move on.

[disneydreamer33]

I am so glad you were able to get a new camera. 3000 pics, awesome.
Akershus sounded wonderful, a little Disney magic to get in.
EPCOT sounded great. More please.

[DyanKJ130]

Fabulous updates!! I could almost feel that weight lift off your shoulders as you got the new camera! How nice of the cab driver to wait for you with the meter off!! Sounds like you're having a super time! Looking forward to more

[MayraLR]

I'm so glad you were able to buy a new camera and take such wonderful , I can just picture them in my mind as you describe them. It's been such a great trip so far, can't wait to read how it all finished.

PS: Like your daughter, I am also a huge Tinkerbell fan .

[TNTWheels]

Do you remember how roomy it was in Akershus restaurant? I need to find out since I use a wheelchair.

[westie22]

Originally Posted by TNTWheels

Do you remember how roomy it was in Akershus restaurant? I need to find out since I use a wheelchair.

I think you will be able to get around just fine. Any others think differently?

[westie22]

We then went to Spaceship Earth and got in after a chilly, windy 15 minute wait. We really liked this ride. I can’t wait to take my mom on it. Of course our favorite was when they took our pics and made it into a video at the end.

It still wasn’t time for us to return to Soarin' so we went and explored Innovations West. Since we are Disney Visa cardholders, we were eligible for our private meet-n-greet and free 5 x 7 photo. We waited about 10 minutes and got in to see Mickey, Minnie and Goofy. This was great! No one else but us in there. We got lots of pics with our camera and Photo Pass pictures. We even had a really cute one of all of us turn out that we were able to claim for our free 5 x 7! My DH’s favorite character is Goofy so this was his first experience to meet Goofy. We have some cute pics of them hugging. Kylie was ready with her autograph book to get all the signatures of course. This was definitely a cool perk for Disney Visa cardholders!

After that, we let Kylie stop at the Innovations West Kidcot for a few minutes and then we had to press her to move on. At this point in our vacation, I was still under the mentality that we had to go back to our hotel in the afternoons to rest. I would come around later on this idea and decide it was a waste of time. It’s probably more important in the heat of the summer.

Since the time was right, we went ahead and grabbed a set of FPs to Test Track on our way out. I wanted to ride Mission Space but it just didn’t happen this trip. We headed back to Wilderness Lodge about 4 p.m. with the plan to return shortly to be back at our ADR for the Biergarten at 6:55. By the time we got to our hotel, explored the gift shop briefly and “tried” to get Kylie to rest for a bit , it was time to head back to EPCOT. I don’t think we had to wait as long this time for a bus.

We decided to ride Test Track on our way in. Kylie loved this ride! This was the only time when I saw the bottom lip quiver when she had to get off. I really had to persuade her that our turn was up and the other people were waiting to get on.

By now it was 6:30 but we decided to go ahead and go over to Soarin’ to redeem our very ripe FPs before we went to eat. Heaven forbid we run out of time and lost our FPs to Soarin’! We walked right onto to Soarin in our FP line and got in the top row of the topmost “hang glider” so that we were dangling over everyone. What awesome seats! I didn’t even realize I had much of a fear of heights, but it came out in this ride. I was gripping the bars on the sides of my seat so hard that my knuckles were turning white . Kylie was a lot more carefree on her ride and not even holding on. That was scaring me to death! Maybe next time I will ask to sit in a lower “flyer”….But the ride was awesome, even more awesome that I had imagined it would be! We really felt like we were flying over California. It was absolutely incredible and we collectively decided that after it was over that it had to be the best ride in all of WDW!

From there we hurried to Germany, which is so much further away than it looked on the map. We were about an hour late (again) but they still seated us. Our waiter there was the worst we had the entire trip. Once he took our drink orders, he disappeared. We knew Illuminations was coming up so we tried to hurry. Kylie basically ate a plate of beets and not much else but DH and I loved the food. We visit Fredericksburg, TX often and love German food . We also liked the Oompah band that was playing. It was a lot of fun and would have been better with a decent waiter and more time. We had to hunt him down to pay so that we could hurry out for a spot for Illuminations. We caught most of it. Personally we enjoyed Wishes better at the MK but it was nice. After that we took a languid walk through the world showcase, admiring the way the buildings are all lit at night and got to our bus stop just as a bus was pulling out. We had to wait a while for the next bus but finally got to WL at the decent time of 10:30ish.
Next up, our day at Animal Kingdom!

The weather today: sunny, clear, windy and chilly
The best things: Soarin’
Worst thing: Not enough time
The funniest thing: Kylie’s giggle of excitement during Test Track
Today we tried: To do all of EPCOT
And the result was: We need more time, we only saw Norway in the World Showcase
The most magical moment was: Soaring over California in Soarin’

[westie22]

The plan today was to get there as early as possible. While we didn’t get there at rope drop, we still did fairly well. We played in the gift shop just outside the gate, trying on all the different hats and taking pictures. Kylie and I fell in love with a Dale chipmunk hat. We also liked this shirt that had Pooh on it holding a magnifying glass, examining a real tiger asking, “Tigger is that you?” But they didn’t have this in a t-shirt in Kylie’s size.

As soon as we got in, we darted through Asia to go get our Fast Passes for Expedition Everest. After that we took our time walking back and saw that the wait for It’s Tough to be a Bug was only 10 minutes so we got in line for that. We enjoyed winding around the Tree of Life and looking at the animal carvings in its trunk. As we entered the theater, we managed to get middle to back seats and warned Kylie about the 4-d effects of the show. In the past she has been notorious for hating any kind of movement in her seat or water squirting in her face. We have had to leave such shows she was carrying on so. This time we had her sit in my DH’s lap to minimize the seat sensations and hoped for the best. She loved the “buggy” 3-D glasses and knew that there would be a stinkbug that would “toot” on the audience. I knew she was just waiting for this to happen. Being that she is only 5 years old, anything with potty humor, especially something that toots is hysterical . Once again her maturity surprised us and she loved the show. She even said next time that she wants to sit in her own seat. I was able to even get a picture (without a flash) of the stinkbug tooting on the audience to preserve for all time and included it in her own little photo book to share with her friends. I could always tell when she was explaining that photo by hearing them die laughing.

After It’s Tough to be a Bug show we decided around 10 something in the morning that it was time for a snack. Kylie wanted a bucket of popcorn and DH and I opted for a jalapeno cream cheese filled pretzel along with our first Safari Amber of the day. I quickly learned it’s very hard to push a stroller with a pretzel in one hand and a full beer in the other . This is a situation that needed to be rectified quickly but we set ourselves on a quick course to the next showing of the Festival of the Lion King. Once we finally figured out where to be, we saw the sign saying no food or drink in the theater. Man! Okay, so I parked the stroller and very carefully set our two half full beers underneath and prayed for the best. We had long ago finished the very yummy pretzels. We ran into the theater just in time before they quit letting people in and found a seat in the back of what turned out to be Pumbaa’s (my favorite) section. I wish we would have been a bit closer for this performance but loved it nonetheless. The music from the Lion King is one of my favorite soundtracks and I found myself happily singing along. I tried to get some pictures but the performers were moving so fast and we were sitting so far away that not many turned out well at all. After we left the show, I had worked up quite a thirst and was looking forward to finishing my beer, hot or cold. Of course, they had to move around the strollers and our beers were nowhere to be found which made me visualize money literally going down the garbage can. Sigh.

[DyanKJ130]

Great updates!! Sounds like a great time at Epcot & AK! Glad they were still able to seat you at Biergarten and you were able to see some of Illuminations! Just a helpful hint, you can use your FP anytime on the day it is issued as long as it is after the initial time - it has an 'expiration' time on it, but you can use your FP after that as well. Hope this helps! Looking forward to more

[Colexis Mom]

More great updates!! Sorry about losing the beers while you were inside FOLK!! More please!!

[disneydreamer33]

Great updates. More please.