Cue the Music: How we MADE money and slept with Ariel! Done!

[Steppesister]

Hey Lisa, I noticed you're pretty active on the CBR Thread. I just subscribed as the fam decided that's the one they want to be at in Oct, 2019. So, following along and keeping tabs on the progress there. I have a million questions and may hit you up for some answers.

 

[natebenma]

OOPS! I'm really behind here, like, I haven't read any of your updates yet. Here I go...

Disney's Yacht Club Club Level Room at over $17,000! That's not a typo. It was truly $17k.

Holy Guacamole!!!



Yeah, the Deluxe resorts are not the best place for free dining!

Loved reading about your pre-trip planning.

I'm a notes girl too!

 

[natebenma]

Sounds like your trip to the World went well. I can see why you are in charge of the camera, though. But at least John can handle the musical entertainment... or not! Too funny!

Your picnic was a smart change of pace.

Your room looks familiar. All Star Music was our first on-property stay. And the rooms are very similar to the All Star Movies where we stay during the class trips.

Sorry the food court at ASMu was disappointing and that there were issues at Sports. I have been reasonably impressed with the selection of foods at the All Stars. It will be interesting to see if the situation gets better, or if you even have many more meals there.

 

[natebenma]

The lack of coffee makers is the biggest drawback of the value resorts for me! In my stays there I have brought my own.



Here- fixed it for you!




I don't think I have seen a hippo out of the water before (I can barely see them in the water). COOL!

Wow! Oh, WOW!!!

Love this!

One of my Dis friends, Dee, had gone on one of the new tours being offered at Animal Kingdom park. It was the new Caring for Giants tour. It was something that I was really interested in and Dee had given it a solid two thumbs up. John isn't an animal kind of guy though. Don't get me wrong, he likes animals but as far as spending time at a zoo or aquarium just looking at animals isn't his cup of tea. When I mentioned it to John, he said that it sounded like something we would enjoy. We found the desk to sign up and, using our gift card, we paid the $30 per person fee. We were set to go on the tour on our second Animal Kingdom day!

The pressure's on!

Hope you liked the tour (I think you said on FB that you did).

 

[natebenma]

Great Safari! Giraffes never seem bother by the trucks as they always walk right up to them.

I am looking to do Caring for Giants on my next trip also due to Dee's recommendation so now I am interested to hear your review!

More pressure!

Glad to have you here! It was so weird feeling to be there as a couple but we really enjoyed it!


I love the giraffes as they do seem to get really close to the safari trucks.

I'll go ahead and tell you right now that we really really enjoyed the tour! Even John!

Phew!

I'll be contacting Disney about my commission later this morning.

 

[natebenma]

I hadn't heard the story of the Midnight Ride of Lisa and John to get a camera. LOL!

What does all of that rambling have to do with a trip report being written about a 2017 trip to Walt Disney World? Well, it does have a point. You see, after that incident, we never travel without at least a back up camera. And, now, there's even phone pics to toss into the mix.

This is SO me, too!


Great picture of the porcupines! They are really cool (from a distance). We saw our first one "in the wild" on a path in Alaska in August.

And a....a....what the heck was on this one that I thought I needed a picture of?

The fan? It looks like a clover.




I love the Tree of Life trails. I believed they had just been reopened after an incident with a falling branch a few years ago.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Love the AK photos...

I can't believe you saw one of the monkeys catch on fire one time! That's unreal!

 

[Steppesister]

The lack of coffee makers is the biggest drawback of the value resorts for me!

I can't believe you saw one of the monkeys catch on fire one time! That's unreal!

Just catching up on the chatter here and had to agree 100% with both of those statements... Being equally tragic.

 

[DLo]

Joining in a little late. But better late than never ? Enjoying your report. Looking forward to the rest

 

[mickeystoontown]

Hey Lisa, I noticed you're pretty active on the CBR Thread. I just subscribed as the fam decided that's the one they want to be at in Oct, 2019. So, following along and keeping tabs on the progress there. I have a million questions and may hit you up for some answers.

We absolutely love the resort! We visited this past trip and the construction was pretty bad. But, I can't wait to go back!

OOPS! I'm really behind here, like, I haven't read any of your updates yet. Here I go...



Holy Guacamole!!!



Yeah, can you believe that price!?!?!

Yeah, the Deluxe resorts are not the best place for free dining!

Loved reading about your pre-trip planning.

I'm a notes girl too!

Sounds like your trip to the World went well. I can see why you are in charge of the camera, though. But at least John can handle the musical entertainment... or not! Too funny!

He was being so sweet about having Hunter make the CD for our drive.

Your picnic was a smart change of pace.

It was a nice change too. I can't believe that we stopped doing picnics like that.

Your room looks familiar. All Star Music was our first on-property stay. And the rooms are very similar to the All Star Movies where we stay during the class trips.


Sorry the food court at ASMu was disappointing and that there were issues at Sports. I have been reasonably impressed with the selection of foods at the All Stars. It will be interesting to see if the situation gets better, or if you even have many more meals there.

I know that this will probably be an unpopular opinion but I would choose Sports over Music any day. And that's coming from a non sports loving gal.

More pressure!






Phew!

I'll be contacting Disney about my commission later this morning.

Get that commission check yet @natebenma

I hadn't heard the story of the Midnight Ride of Lisa and John to get a camera. LOL!

Oh it was quick the camera run and one that I don't want to have to do again any time soon.


This is SO me, too!


Great picture of the porcupines! They are really cool (from a distance). We saw our first one "in the wild" on a path in Alaska in August.





The fan? It looks like a clover.






I love the Tree of Life trails. I believed they had just been reopened after an incident with a falling branch a few years ago.

Love the AK photos...

I can't believe you saw one of the monkeys catch on fire one time! That's unreal!

It was actually the fire twirler guy. He was actually on fire and everybody was a cool as a cucumber. Of course, they weren't the ones on fire either. LOL

Joining in a little late. But better late than never ? Enjoying your report. Looking forward to the rest

Welcome! Never too late for one of my reports!

 

[mickeystoontown]

I'm joining in! I've enjoyed reading your report

Thanks for joining! I hope you enjoy!

 

[mickeystoontown]

If I'm going to tour a new land and escape from a Yeti, I need sustenance!

I had read before leaving for our trip that there were two entrances to Pandora. One near Pizzafari and another near the Lion King Theater in Africa. As soon as we walked out of the theater, I looked to see if others were going to Pandora and they seemed to be. So, we swam against the stream of folks and found that, sure enough, the entrance was open. But, first, I needed to take a potty break. One look at the line that went waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay (that's a long way) out the door and down the sidewalk and I decided to just hold it even if that meant that I had to do the pee-pee dance until I found another bathroom.

John waited off to the side and called Hunter while I walked over to the bathroom. He was surprised that I was back so quick. We talked with Hunter for a few minutes, made sure that he was up and at 'em, fed the pooches and all the jazz that went along with being stuck at home while your parents were at the Happiest Place on Earth. My Mom guilt was kicking in big time at this point. I'm talking BIG TIME. After talking with Hunter, I handed off the phone to John to say his goodbyes. I took some live video for Facebook making sure that I didn't get anyone else's face in the picture.

Let me go ahead and say that this entrance into Pandora was much less chaotic than the other entrance. It was nice and peaceful. You could hear the sounds of....of....what was it? I can't remember. I think maybe...maybe...I don't remember but I can tell you that it was nice and quiet and no herds of people. We didn't have Fastpasses that we could use yet so we just walked around in the new land for a few minutes all the while looking for a bathroom. John, having never seen Avatar, had no idea what any of the floating mountains, glowing formations, etc. were, was still impressed.

I snapped just one picture. Just a single picture before we found the bathroom.


Hunger pains were kicking in and we had another Fastpass to get to soon so our trip to Pandora was a quick one. The line into the new land from the front of the park was long. Like really long. Like cast members were holding up signs that directed guests to the correct side of the line and they were shouting directions.

We ended up at Pizzafari which is one of our "go to" quick service restaurants. The food isn't outstanding but it's not bad either. John ordered a flatbread that I'm not seeing on the menu anymore. I believe it was a cheeseburger flatbread.

This came with a side item and he chose the tomato, cucumber and onion salad. Oops this is one blurry picture.


I love salads. Love 'em. Could eat 'em every single day. My absolute favorite is the tossed chicken caeser salad at Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort. They used to have a similar one at Pizzafari but they had a menu change. Instead of the tossed salad, I had this:




I have to tell you that we were a little disappointed. I like a salad that's already cut/shredded. It was a little hard to cut the big piece of lettuce on the size plate that they put it on. It tasted okay but it didn't have enough dressing and I should have gone back and asked for a small cup to add to it but I didn't. John's flatbread wasn't anything to write home about.

Will that one meh meal keep us from returning? Nope.

We cleaned our table and then made a stop in the bathroom to wash our hands. We made a right turn and joined the line with everyone else and returned to the land of Pandora. We had a Fastpass that we needed to use. We were going on a river journey.

This time, we stopped to really take in the new land. We both kept commenting on how they had transformed the area from Camp Minnie Mickey to something so impressive. Not that Camp Minnie Mickey wasn't great in itself because we have many memories there. Like the time that Goofy grabbed a three year old Hunter's hand and led him into the land very first thing in the morning. Or that time that Mickey danced with Lacey during a meet and greet. And one can't forget about that time when John didn't think about what he was doing when he was posing solo for a picture and rested his hand on the small of Pocahonta's back and asked her if she were married. The things that come out of that man's mouth when he is feeling awkward.

'Nough about the olden days and back to the present. The floating mountains were spectacular!

I was trying to take a picture of the wait time but it's not showing up. I do remember that it was over 100 (and even over 300) on every single day that we were there.




As I said, we had fastpasses for the Navi River Journey on this day. We asked a cast member to point us in the direction of the Fastpass line because there were so many people and it was hard to tell where to go.

Continued in next post



​

 

[mickeystoontown]

If I'm going to tour a new land and escape from a Yeti, I need sustenance!

Once we found the line, we hopped right in and I took some pictures while we walked along. Thankfully, there weren't many people behind us so I could snap several.




When we got closer to the inside, we could see the stand by line. Holy snot! Look at the people. And the picture does not show just how many there were. Lots! Lots! Lots!


I mentioned earlier that John had never seen Avatar and I had only seen it once all the way through and then a couple of times I'd watch an hour or so while I was sewing. We boarded our boat and started the journey. I know that this gets mixed reviews but I liked it. Of course, I'm one that likes every Disney attraction whether it's a slow boat ride through Its a Small World to, hum, what's an attraction worse than that? Oh yeah, Stitch's Great Escape.

For real though. I enjoyed Navi River Journey. It was bright and colorful and gorgeous. I tried my best to explain to John what some of the things were as we floated along but he's hard of hearing and I was on the wrong side (he can hear better out of one ear than the other) and I felt like I was being too loud so I'd just point to him and say "look".

At one point we stopped underneath some giant leaves and you could see the "insects" jumping around and chirping. I took video but have no clue how to post it here other than uploading to You Tube and then adding the link. If there's another way, someone please tell me.

When we got to this beautiful lady, John was like "good gosh, what's that?". LOL





Once the ride was over, we stepped back outside and into the Florida sunshine. It was a gorgeous day!







**Up next: I've never seen a Yeti with a ponytail! Now I know why!​

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

We liked Navi River Journey also. I look at it like, The Three Cabelaros Boat ride... would you want to wait 90 minutes for that? It just needs to not have such a long wait.

 

[natebenma]

I don't think I have ever eaten at Pizzafari. The Cheeseburger flatbread sounds intriguing, but since it is no longer there, not sure I will be rushing to visit.

I enjoyed reading about your first look at Pandora. I thought the River Ride was ok- as a FP ride. Not worth much more than a 20-30 minute wait. My favorite part was the bugs on the leaf.

 

[buzzrelly]

I've only read your first post, but I'm totally joining in! Sounds fun! It's just going to take me a while to catch up

 

[rteetz]

I don't know if I have ever eaten at Pizzafari.

Great pictures of Pandora. It is one of my favorite areas in all of WDW now. The Navi River Journey is definitely nice but I just wish it was a bit longer.

 

[Caretames1]

We’ve not seen all of avatar either, but I’d better put it on our watch list so we know what we are seeing next year Dec!

 

[buzzrelly]

All caught up! Great report so far! I love all your AK pictures

 

[Mommy Poppins]

Great update! We love Pizzafari too!