13 Days of Disney - Everything We Never Knew We Always Wanted - June 2016 TR Update 1/30

[soniam]

Don't feel bad. We have looked like "those" parents before too. The first time DS rode 7DMT, he started acting scared and doing fake crying sounds. People around us were giving us dirty looks for trying to tell him he would be fine and ignoring his scared behavior. Finally, I loudly said that he would be perfectly fine, especially since he had just ridden Space Mountain twice in a row That made the look stop I am a chicken when it comes to drops and still haven't ridden Splash Mountain, even though I love Song of the South. I rode Everest and Rock n Roller Coaster in July, so next summer I will brave Splash

 

[Jfsag123]

Don't feel bad. We have looked like "those" parents before too. The first time DS rode 7DMT, he started acting scared and doing fake crying sounds. People around us were giving us dirty looks for trying to tell him he would be fine and ignoring his scared behavior. Finally, I loudly said that he would be perfectly fine, especially since he had just ridden Space Mountain twice in a row That made the look stop I am a chicken when it comes to drops and still haven't ridden Splash Mountain, even though I love Song of the South. I rode Everest and Rock n Roller Coaster in July, so next summer I will brave Splash

I appreciate the commiseration! And I actually am not a big fan of drops either, but Splash to me is so worth it! I think you will be you tried it once you do. The drop is over so quickly and the rest of the ride is just perfection. I also put up with the ToT drops just because the theming and the overall experience of the ride is amazing, but I scream like a mad woman during the drop sequence lol

 

[ontdvc2015]

I just stumbled upon your TR and I am loving it. We are new DVC members and we have a trip booked for February at BLT so I love seeing your posts from there.

 

[Jfsag123]

I just stumbled upon your TR and I am loving it. We are new DVC members and we have a trip booked for February at BLT so I love seeing your posts from there.

Welcome! Congrats on the DVC membership and the upcoming trip! We are so in love with BLT. Hope you end up loving it too!

 

[disny_luvr]

Don't feel bad. We had a very similar experience with EE. I'm sure people around us thought look at those parents forcing their child on the ride, but my son rode it before and loved it. I didn't want him to miss out and regret it. I'm sure Cora is glad she rode Splash. Speaking of Splash, my boys ride it for the first time this summer and LOVED it! It's a new favorite.

Thanks for the tip of where to sit for the Festival of Fantasy parade. I need to remember that.

 

[NJlauren]

I love that spot of parade watching too! Last trip we were behind the first group of people and it was still perfect! Shady and not overly crowded!

Love meeting the genie! How cool!

 

[Jfsag123]

Don't feel bad. We had a very similar experience with EE. I'm sure people around us thought look at those parents forcing their child on the ride, but my son rode it before and loved it. I didn't want him to miss out and regret it. I'm sure Cora is glad she rode Splash. Speaking of Splash, my boys ride it for the first time this summer and LOVED it! It's a new favorite.

Thanks for the tip of where to sit for the Festival of Fantasy parade. I need to remember that.

All this support is making me feel a lot better! Seems like there are a lot of us with kids who need a little prodding but ultimately end up enjoying themselves. You just have to know your kids! And yes, Cora is glad she rode it. Glad your boys loved it! They have good taste. It must be that June 20th thing.

I love that spot of parade watching too! Last trip we were behind the first group of people and it was still perfect! Shady and not overly crowded!

Love meeting the genie! How cool!

Yeah, it seems like the spot would work even being behind the first row - the shade would make it all worth it regardless, IMO!

And Genie was so much fun! Made coming that close to passing out from heat exhaustion almost worth it.

 

[Jfsag123]

Day 9 – June 14: Animal Kingdom, Part 1

We don’t like Animal Kingdom. If you read my PTR, you’ve heard about our AK history. For those of you who joined in here, a tiny bit of backstory: we have spent exactly one day in AK prior to this trip and it was back when there were still such things as an afternoon parade and Camp Minnie Mickey. We did not enjoy ourselves. It didn’t feel very “Disney” to us and the people seemed grumpier, both guests and CMs. We skipped AK completely last year. However, upon reflection, I recognized that our opinion may have been swayed by problems of our own making, as it was the last day of our trip, we were hot and tired, had taken almost no breaks over the course of the week, and 2-year-old Alex threw almost non-stop fits. I concluded that we were probably the grumpy ones, not everybody else. So we decided to give it another cautious shot this trip. We planned 1 park day out of 10 as an AK day.

Attempting to leave our pre-existing ideas about AK back at home, we headed out for the day. We got to the park around 8:20am and queued up to wait for rope drop. While we were waiting I snapped this shot of the Avatar construction. There are a million pictures out there much better than mine, but I needed my own.

We were let in the park by about 8:40, but held at internal ropes until right before 9:00. This might have rivaled the wait for the Jasmine meet from the day before as the hottest moment of our entire trip. Standing up against the rope in a thick crowd of people for 20 minutes…

We wanted to hit Kilimanjaro Safaris as our rope drop ride, as I had not booked a FP+ for it. I decided to skip the wheelchair for the first time on this day, as I knew we’d be behind the crowd if I had it and I thought I could make it okay.

So the birds did their thing, the rope finally dropped, and we booked it back to KS. We were able to get on the second truck, which was great.

This giraffe was a rock star.

He stood there literally right at the edge of the road waiting for the truck, like he was preparing to greet his public. As we passed him, he came right up and walked alongside us. I could have reached out and touched him (but I didn’t).

I swear there are lions in this picture.

Next we headed over to catch the first Lion King show of the day. This was one of the few pleasant memories we had from our first AK experience. Even at our grumpiest we can appreciate the awesomeness of this show. While waiting outside Alex wanted to pretend he was mountain-climbing. This is as high as he got.

The show was, of course, amazing. The kids insisted I take a poorly-lit shot of Simba.

As we headed out of Africa, we stopped to have some Photopass shots taken.

We’re so fierce!

So what next? Well it’s us, so you can probably safely guess it’s a character meet!

We had never met Tarzan before, so we had to stop by. He was a lot of fun and so perfectly in character.

I’ll break here for now, but suffice it to say the day had gotten off to a good, if hot, start. We were slowly starting to warm up to Animal Kingdom…pun intended.

To be continued!

 

[gracer9977]

So glad you gave AK another try. I absolutely love this park. I don't know what it is but I have just the best time when we are there. I love trying to find DeVine and dancing with the kids to the beat of the native drums, Walking on the trails around the tree and checking out all the amazing carvings that are on it, eating at Pizzafari, and of course we love EE, the Safari, Dinosaur, and Kali River Rapids. We have met some awesome characters like Baloo, King Louie, Dug and Russell. We met Tarzan for the first time this last trip and he was so much fun.

So awesome that you had that Giraffe walking next to your truck.

The Lion King show really is amazing and the perfect place to take a little break and cool off.

Going back to your Festival Of Fantasy parade, we like to watch all parades on the steps of The Liberty Tavern. We saw that parade for the first time last September and it was amazing.

 

[1Grumpy9]

FOTLK is one of my favorites at AK. I also like KS. My first ever trip to AK was in 2011, and I wasn't sure about it at first, but I don't mind it too badly...LOL!!!

 

[tinkerbell1991]

Can't wait to read more

 

[Jfsag123]

So glad you gave AK another try. I absolutely love this park. I don't know what it is but I have just the best time when we are there. I love trying to find DeVine and dancing with the kids to the beat of the native drums, Walking on the trails around the tree and checking out all the amazing carvings that are on it, eating at Pizzafari, and of course we love EE, the Safari, Dinosaur, and Kali River Rapids. We have met some awesome characters like Baloo, King Louie, Dug and Russell. We met Tarzan for the first time this last trip and he was so much fun.

We tried going in with an open mind and it seemed to help a lot! Very much enjoyed the atmosphere.

So awesome that you had that Giraffe walking next to your truck.

It was great, especially as Alex LOVES giraffes. Like, he has a small collection of giraffe stuffed animals that live on his bed. They are all named Gerry...

The Lion King show really is amazing and the perfect place to take a little break and cool off.

I agree! This was the only thing we were all really sad about skipping last year.

Going back to your Festival Of Fantasy parade, we like to watch all parades on the steps of The Liberty Tavern. We saw that parade for the first time last September and it was amazing.

We'll have to try that at some point!

FOTLK is one of my favorites at AK. I also like KS. My first ever trip to AK was in 2011, and I wasn't sure about it at first, but I don't mind it too badly...LOL!!!

Tolerable, eh? It seems like some of us may be slow-to-warm-up children where AK is concerned. I think part of the problem for us is that we have not one but two amazing zoos near us that we frequent, so none of the animal experiences really stand out as must-dos to us. Additionally, as far as I know, the bird show is pretty much the same one we had for years here at our state fair, which we attend every year. Done by the same group. They're no longer at the fair, but still do a smaller version of a show daily at our zoo.

 

[Jfsag123]

Can't wait to read more

Thanks!

 

[ariane37]

I'm pretty sure your rock star giraffe also stuck his heard waaaaay inside our jeep last month! I swear Steve or I took a picture but it seems to have disappeared. I'm glad you seem to be enjoying AK more than you did in the past, I always feel like we short change it and don't spend enough time there.

 

[NJlauren]

I have been to WDW I would say 25+ times give or take and have spent exactly 1 half day in AK! Horrible I know! I do need to go back and spend more time here, and I will the chance has just not presented its self I guess....

Happy your day is off to a good start!

 

[MrsSykes2014]

I am glad you gave AK another shot. Its my FAVORITE park. I am an animal lover to the core. Its one of the most beautiful places to me. The morning we went to AK and did safari the Lions had just eaten and were very vocal. That was probably one of my favorite moments of that trip. Cant wait to see more

 

[disny_luvr]

We have a love/hate relationship with AK. No one in my family ever really wants to go there, but when we are there, we have fun. My boys really enjoy Expedition Everest, Kilaminjaro Safari and Kali River Rapids. We also love the Lion King show and walking the trails. I think the problem is it's always so darn hot. It's no more than a half day park for us.

I'm glad you guys gave it another try and it seems like so far, so good.

 

[ArielSRL]

Glad you gave AK another chance! It's not as up in our list either though as one day seems to be enough for us. Fun Safari ride with the giraffe thisclose! My boys loved FotLK, too! We might skip it for Nemo next trip though. It seems hard to fit both in. Love the Tarzan meet! I need to plan more m&g's in AK.

Looking forward to more!

 

[Jfsag123]

I'm pretty sure your rock star giraffe also stuck his heard waaaaay inside our jeep last month! I swear Steve or I took a picture but it seems to have disappeared. I'm glad you seem to be enjoying AK more than you did in the past, I always feel like we short change it and don't spend enough time there.

Ha! He IS a rock star. He enjoys greeting his public.

I have been to WDW I would say 25+ times give or take and have spent exactly 1 half day in AK! Horrible I know! I do need to go back and spend more time here, and I will the chance has just not presented its self I guess....

Happy your day is off to a good start!

No guilt from me! I will always be able to understand the folks that don't love AK. This trip allowed me to actually understand the ones that do as well for the first time.

I am glad you gave AK another shot. Its my FAVORITE park. I am an animal lover to the core. Its one of the most beautiful places to me. The morning we went to AK and did safari the Lions had just eaten and were very vocal. That was probably one of my favorite moments of that trip. Cant wait to see more

I'm not a big animal person, which is probably part of why I have been slow to warm up to the park. However, we had a recent experience at our local zoo with extremely vocal lions and it was awesome. Would love to get to experience that up close on KS!

We have a love/hate relationship with AK. No one in my family ever really wants to go there, but when we are there, we have fun. My boys really enjoy Expedition Everest, Kilaminjaro Safari and Kali River Rapids. We also love the Lion King show and walking the trails. I think the problem is it's always so darn hot. It's no more than a half day park for us.

I'm glad you guys gave it another try and it seems like so far, so good.

See that's the thing - it doesn't have much in the way of attractions, but what it does have is pretty awesome. But yes, it is SUPER hot.

Glad you gave AK another chance! It's not as up in our list either though as one day seems to be enough for us. Fun Safari ride with the giraffe thisclose! My boys loved FotLK, too! We might skip it for Nemo next trip though. It seems hard to fit both in. Love the Tarzan meet! I need to plan more m&g's in AK.

Looking forward to more!

We will probably do 2 days in AK on our next trip, but a lot will depend on whether or not Pandora is going to be open. I can already tell that we're likely to be on the same rollercoaster of not knowing if things will be open for our trip until the last minute again next year! We were able to do FotLK and Nemo both in the same day standby by going to the first show of each. I will probably separate them into separate days if I can next year, though, because it is a little rough.

 

[Jfsag123]

Day 9 – June 14: Animal Kingdom, Part 2

I’m back! Sorry for the delay – I’ve been crazy busy with work! I may drop off the planet again a couple of times in the upcoming month because it will be pretty rough for me, but I will try not to.

Ok, so jumping back into Animal Kingdom – After we met Tarzan we…met more characters. We’re so predictable! We continued the trend of meeting characters we had never seen before and headed over to visit Russell and Dug. This line moved pretty slowly, but was completely covered, so we didn’t mind too much. What we did mind was that interactive thing they have in the queue that kept saying “bark like this” over and over and over and over…

After the boy and his dog we hopped into Pocahontas’ line. I think we got there just in time for her to have gone on break, because we sat in the same place for quite a while. Once the line started moving again they only sent a couple of families down the path at a time. We were the last family to be sent before she was scheduled to break again. Phew!

To our surprise and delight, Meeko was meeting with her. Pocahontas is Alex’s absolute favorite princess. He was determined to get a kiss from her.

Love fest!

There are those clasped hands again…

Cora told Meeko there were cookies in our bag. Of course being a raccoon, he had to investigate.

Success!

Once we said goodbye to Pocahontas and Meeko, we decided to head through Dinoland to the theater in the wild to try to catch the Finding Nemo musical for the first time. We ran in less than 10 minutes before it was scheduled to start. The theater was pretty full, but we managed to find decent seats.

Each of our trips has ended up with its own theme song – a song that we find ourselves singing almost constantly immediately after the trip has ended and that later on always reminds us of that trip when we hear it. For our first trip, it was When You Wish Upon a Star (cliché, I know). For our second trip, it was Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow. We found this trip’s song during the Nemo show – Go With the Flo-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow! That probably should have been the title of this trip report, as it’s completely appropriate for the way this trip went. We loved the show, loved the music, and found a new must-do. Like, Alex has listened to the entire soundtrack on d-cot.com several times since the trip and regularly bursts into rooms belting “In the Big Blue World.” Good times.

We decided to take our mid-day break at this point, as it was close to 1:00pm, it was getting really hot, and we realized that, once again, we had forgotten to eat! We drove through the on-site McDonald’s on the way back to BLT because I foolishly thought maybe they would have my beloved Dr. Pepper. They didn’t. The one thing that keeps WDW from being completely and perfectly magical for me is the lack of Dr. Pepper. This Texan cannot live without it! Yes, I brought some bottles with me and had them stored in the fridge back in the room, but nothing beats the fountain version.

This was the kids on the drive back – wiped out!

We needed the break! To be continued…