Magical One-Day Birthday Trip
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tkd lisa · 10-02-2008, 06:48 PM

Hi everyone! I know, I know. I haven't finished my last two trip reports, and here I am starting another one. But this trip wasn't even going to have a trip report until it happened. However, it was so filled with pixie dust, I had to share with people who would appreciate it. So I'm going to try to get it all done in mostly one setting, which means I won't leave you hanging halfway. Okay??? Here goes.

When: Saturday, 27 September
Who: Me, just turned 44 years old, since moving to Tampa I'm losing track of how many visits to the Mouse I've made.
DD, 16, loves Disney and is always up for a quick trip
DM, 70, comes along for the ride, but is becoming quite the Disney lover too.
Why: Food & Wine Festival and for my birthday

We have a two night trip booked for mid-October to enjoy the Food & Wine Festival, and I usually get a birthday button on that trip, but I was checking some websites and saw that the F&W festival started on the 26th. Now DS had a car wash scheduled for that Saturday to do fundraising for his ROTC troop, but I hadn't committed to helping out. I had to go out of town for work actually on my birthday, so my mom was going to be in town to stay with the kids. "Plans" went something like this.

Monday, 22 September I called Mom on my way home and said "Hey Mom, do you want to stay over Saturday and go over to Disney to check out F&W festival? It's kind of for my birthday too." She said "sure", and that was the planning. We had really enjoyed the new Toy Story Mania ride on our Labor Day trip, so I thought we'd start over there, then walk to EPCOT once WS opened. When I was travelling, I checked the park hours and saw that the Studios had EMH that morning, so I figured it wouldn't be a good time to go to Studios since the lines for TSM would probably be pretty long by 9am.

Friday evening, I drove back from central Georgia just in time to get to the high school for another ROTC fundraising activity. We've started offering face painting during the games, and we do fairly well (typically about $50-$60 an evening). We work pretty cheap, charging $1 for a cougar paw or a players number. I've learned that a paw is just an oval with 3 or 4 blobs on top of it, and I'm pretty quick at it! DS works the flag detail and security during the games, plus they clean up the stands afterwards, so we finally headed for home around 11:00 Friday.

Saturday I set my alarm to get everyone up. The 3 ladies were pretty well ready to go when I woke up DS who was going to be picked up at 7:30 to work the car wash. We were on our way out the door by 7:25, and as we headed toward I-4, I asked DD where she wanted to start the morning, after explaining that the Studios had EMH. She said "Let's go to Animal Kingdom." Sounded okay by Mom and me, so that was our choice. We pulled in the lot about 8:15, and I made a quick trip to Guest Services to get a birthday button. We waited about 15 minutes for them to open the turnstiles, then headed up to the area near the Tree of Life to wait for the opening ceremony. We had a nice chat (and did a little pin trading) with a nice family who was finishing up their vacation. Their son really liked all my pins, and I enjoyed talking about why some of them weren't traders. As we waited for the opening, I saw that the first Lion King show was going to be at 9:30. Since we had missed that on our Labor Day trip, I suggested that I go get FPs for the Safari while Mom and DD headed over to Camp Minnie & Mickey. We were up pretty close to the front, so I got a good shot of the opening.

Once the rope dropped, I quickly walked over to Africa. I chatted a bit with some CMs along the way, catching this picture of the really tall drummer.

I got FPs that were good for 9:35, then started heading back to Camp Minnie & Mickey. About this time, my phone rang. DD said "Hey Mom!!! Can we stay at this park all day?" Since DD really LOVES the F&W festival, I knew something was up. It turned out that she and my mom had been picked to be in the AK Parade! So of course I said "Yes", and headed to meet them. It turned out that the two of them were the first ones in that area of the park, so they were offered a chance for a group photo with all the characters, as well as the parade opportunity. They took the group picture before I made it over, but I saw it later when I looked at our photopass.

I chatted with Maria who explained that we needed to be near the Safari entrance by 3:30, and she took down all our information. DD had originally thought she was offering us the castle. I guess the conversation went something like "Are you folks going to be around this evening?" to which DD answered "Well, if you're going to give us the castle, I'm pretty sure we can stay over!" Once they worked out the details, that's when DD called me.

Once that was done, Mom & I walked over to get our picture with Donald, who had no one in line. There was a couple getting autographs, and a stroller with a 4 year old sitting in it, so we just kind of hung back there not knowing if the kid was with the picture people? Anyway, another family came up and jumped in front of us, but we waited to be sure that the picture people were the kids parents. Turned out that they were, but DD actually had asked the boy where his parents were before they said anything. Meanwhile, Donald had to take a break. We decided to go ahead and wait since the show wasn't starting for 10 minutes, and we were right there. We had a nice chat with the handlers, while DD took a bunch of pictures of the flowers in the area. Once Donald was done, we got this picture.

DD had said that Donald had kind of pushed Mickey away from Minnie while they were doing their group shot, so I teased him a bit over that. Once we were done, we walked into the Lion King theater, just as they were demonstrating the animal sounds. Mom picked the lion section and we sat just behind the wheelchairs. There wasn't hardly anyone in the theater (maybe 4 rows in each section were full), so we got some good pictures.

I really LOVE watching the fire twirler!

Once we finished, we headed over to use our Safari FPs. Even the standby line was only 10 minutes, so the park wasn't busy at all. DD took the camera, and she must have had it on a very strange setting, because most of the pictures were just smears of stuff. The only one I could salvage was this one of the rhino rolling in the mud pit.

The animals were REALLY active! As we came around near the elephants, there were two giraffe on either side of the road. The giraffe's butt was right up next to the window where DD was sitting. And his butt was up almost to the roof! You don't realize how BIG they are until they're that close. We had a really wild driver and were bounced around a LOT. He was fun though, but I wouldn't have wanted to have a bad back and been on that truck.

Once we finished, we decided to catch a bus over to the Beach Club to get lunch at F&W festival. We've had bad luck catching EPCOT buses from AK, and we weren't going to Future World at all, so this seemed the best option.

As we left the park, I stopped and pin traded at the gate. The CM asked if it was my birthday, and I told him it had been Wednesday. He told me to close my eyes and open my hand, and he gave me one of the Tink pins! Pretty neat!

We made it to the bus stop where we ended up still waiting abut 20 minutes. There was a family waiting when we walked up, and they must have said something to the bus manager, because he eneded up getting a special bus which just took us to our locations then returned.

Coming up... Another dream!!!!

tkd lisa · 10-02-2008, 07:15 PM

We got off at the Beach Club and walked toward the International Gateway. As we were heading over, I was mentioned how nice the day was. It seemed like it was in the low 80s with a nice breeze blowing. But once we started walking from the Beach Club, I swear the temperature rose 10 degrees, and the sun was just BEAMING down! I had left my water bottle in the van, so that probably didn't help. As we walked, we saw this heavily laden surrey bike

I didn't know that many people could fit into one! Anyway, we walked through about 11:15, and I saw a couple of families wearing the dream mouse ears. As we got toward the top of the hill, I saw they were handing them out right there! I couldn't believe we got two dreams in one day! Here's DD wearing her set.

She ended up giving them to a little boy a few minutes later, but I wore mine the rest of the day.

I picked up a brochure, and we headed over past France. DD wanted to hit the shops in Japan and Mexico because she had a little money to spend, but first, we stopped by the French quarter where New Orleans is the featured booth this year.

These masks were in the French market. They have various sizes, and ranged from $10 for bitty ones, to over $100 for bigger ones they had on the walls of the shop. They were really neat though.

They were having cooking demonstrations, and the next one was going to be at 12:40. I snapped a quick picture,

then picked up an etouffee and a praline bread pudding.

I always forget what etouffee is, but it's kind of like a seafood gumbo with rice in it. It was good! I give it a 4/4, and DD REALLY loved it. It had shrimp in it too. The bread pudding was yummy also, but a little bit sweet especially with how hot it was getting. I had picked up a couple of plastic cups, and we all had some water which really hit the spot.

Mom went to the restroom, while I got a beef & hummus pita pocket plus a baklava in the Moroccan booth. DD is a baklava HOUND, so I figured we wouldn't get much of it. But when I picked up the order, the man in the booth saw my birthday button, and he gave me an extra baklava for free! That left DD to have a piece all to herself!

The pocket was pretty good. It had some crisp veggies on it, but very little sauce. It was ground beef, when I was expecting shredded beef. I'd give it a 3/4. The baklava was great as usual, but I was feeling pretty full when we finished. Now remember that my family just gets one of the sample sizes, and splits it among the 3 of us, so it seems kind of silly that I was full. But the sun was really brutal and I was feeling the heat.

DD headed on over to Japan while Mom & I finished the baklava and had some more water. We saw that Miyuki wasn't performing that day, and DD bought her pokedoll plushie in the store. She said that they had gone up $2 since Labor Day, so she wasn't really happy. She only had just over $4 left, but she was sure she could find something in Mexico. By this time, it was almost noon, so Mom decided to head back toward New Orleans to get in line for the cooking demonstration, and get out of the sun. DD and I kept going, and boy were the people starting to stream in. I checked out a couple of the other booths' offerings, but they all had big lines, and neither of us was really hungry. We spent about 15 minutes in the Mexico pavilion cooling off. DD saw a couple of bracelets she really liked, but they were $8-$12, which was more than she had left. I told her she would be back in a few weeks, and would have more money then. I had some money from my former mother in law for my birthday, and I picked out a nice purse there. But I decided to wait to buy it until our October trip because I didn't want to carry it around with me. We ended up walking the rest of the way around the Lagoon. Mom got into the cooking demo just as we were leaving Mexico, so we agreed to meet her when it was done.

The crowds were just getting bigger as we came over by the Future World side, so we didn't stop for anything. DD remembered that she had really liked the food in Chile last year, so we planned on that for our October trip. As we came past Canada, we saw people heading back into the area where the Espresso cart is set up. It turned out they were having a major Food Competition in that building that's behind the gate there, and people could go in and watch. I've always wondered what was back there. It's one of the places you see people who are in dance competitions, or that type of thing come and go from. Anyway, we headed in and took a few photos.

The name of the contest. Apparently Al Roker was one of the judges, but I didn't see him.

This was a really neat water display. It was a waterfall type thing that would spell out words, or pictures. I got a couple of words, but not enough to do it justice. DD said she saw a map of North America on it, but I missed that. I saw things like "Sysco, sponsor, EPCOT" etc.

Some of the contestants in their work area.

From the brochure, it looked like they had been cooking all morning, and it did smell good in there!

We headed on over and saw the World Showcase players in the UK.

This guy did a ReALLY good job as a knight.

Then we saw the Chair guys in France.

Hopefully you can see that the act is a bit different. They've got everything set up on big champagne bottles instead of the chairs just being set on the table. I missed the beginning, but this seemed much more difficult!

We met back up with Mom about 1:15, then wandered back over to the Beach Club to catch the bus back to AK. I forgot to mention that the love bugs were out in FULL FORCE over near the bus area at BC. They were covering the benches! We ended up waiting about 25 minutes for a bus, and finally one came about 2:00. DD was convinced we were going to be late, but I knew we had plenty of time.

Coming up, the end

**Colexis Mom** · 10-02-2008, 07:22 PM

What a great birthday trip Lisa!! Magical!! Can't wait to hear about the parade

tkd lisa · 10-02-2008, 07:39 PM

As we were riding back over to AK, we noticed that the Air Conditioning on the bus wasn't working well. Most times, Disney buses ac is FULL BLAST, but it was probably at least 85 on that bus. Not sure what was up with it, but we were just happy to be moving.

When we had headed into the AK that morning, one of the CMs had a skull she was showing kids. DD asked her "Is that a babaroos?" The CM was surprised DD knew what that was, but I guess they have some over in the entrance area. It kind of looks like a skinny pig, but it's tusks grow out of the top of it's mouth. She had wanted me to go see them, and I told her we'd do it on our way back in. So we headed over to the right side of the entrance, and I got some really nice pictures.

I guess I've always just stayed on the left side and headed over to the Safari most times when I come in. This side really had some pretty animals and scenery. And believe it or not, it felt 10 degrees cooler than EPCOT. I've always been one of those who thinks that AK is hotter than the other parks, but it wasn't on this day for some reason! Maybe because it was shady and the direct sunlight was what was making me so hot?

By this time, we were a little hungry, but we decided to see if we could get some cut fruit over by the Safari, since we'd seen some that morning. I picked up a bowl of pineapple, and DD got a whole grapefruit. We sat down by the bathrooms to eat, and were promptly attacked by another flock of lovebugs! They were really bad there!

Anyway, we finished up just after 3, and DD moved over by the backstage entrance to wait on someone to let us in. I wandered around pin trading, and found out that most of the CMs in that area don't wear pins. The lady at the FP entrance for the Safari explained that it's hazardous to the animals, so only the CM at the main Safari entrance and people in the shops wear them.

About 3:35, when I wandered back, a couple of the character handlers were standing by the gate. We approached them, and had a really great chat. Jason was the main one we talked to, and he was a riot. He asked who had told us we were in the parade, and we said "Maria". He said "Little Latin lady, talks a lot?" I said "yes" and he said "Don't know her." We joked that how could he know about her if he didn't know her, and I said, "Well, I know two ladies named Maria, and they're both little, Latin, and talk a lot so that's probably just a lucky guess!" Eventually, he told us to wait over by the gate for everyone else to get there.

They had a photopass photographer come, and Jason told us all to call him "Aquaman", which would make him laugh really hard. Of course we did, and he got the giggles. A second Photopass guy showed up, and we promptly dubbed him "Superman". He asked how we knew his secret, and I told him his cape was showing. Eventually, they took us all backstage, group by group. We put our stuff in a locker, and they gave us safari vests and pith helmets with Mickey ears to wear. They also gave us earplugs, and reminded us to not take pictures backstage. We were on the "Minnie" float, and about 3:50 they walked us over there. We climbed up a big staircase and had to buckle our seatbelts and put in our earplugs. Minnie climbed into her float behind us.

Jason had disposable cameras for each group, and he took a picture as we left the gate, then handed us the camera. It was really a lot of fun, but you don't think about the fact that you only hear your little portion of the music, since it moves with you. Unforunately, our part wasn't even really words. It was something like "humba, ah mmumba, jamba jamba jamba" with a lot of drum beats. I waved like a mad woman, particularly at all the kids. Here's some pictures along the way.

Just as we were starting out. We were behind a big giraffe float, and they were having the giraffe pretend to eat the tree leaves!

Crossing the Africa bridge I got a good shot of Everest. Our float was probably 7-8 feet high, so we were way up there.

These guys were directly behind us. The dancers were our escort to our float, and had to remind DD NOT to jump off the float!

These were the interpreters. They were set up near the shop between Africa and Camp Minnie Mickey were they have the big bouncy balls outside.

Crossing into Asia

This boat is tied up off the Asia bridge

And at the end.

There was a CM just outside the safari, and he was waving really hard. I waved back, and he waved harder. We had a wave contest, and I ended up waving BOTH hands really fast! Too funny! Once we were back inside, they cut the music (which is when I realized how LOUD it was), and helped us off the float. They had water for us, and the photopass photographers came and gave us each our cards with our pictures on it. They had been in Africa and Asia taking pictures of us on the floats. Unfortunately, I don't know how to link the photopass shots since we haven't bought any of them before. Is there a way to do it during the 30 day period that they're visible on the web?

By the time we finished up, the park was closing so we headed out. We decided to go over to AK and get something to eat at Mara. Mom & I split a rotisserie chicken while DD had chicken strips. We had zebra domes for dessert and they were great as always. We made it home about 7 to find that DD had worked the full day at the car wash since no one else showed up.

So I hope you enjoy the report! It was really a magical day!