Day Six: Thursday, 5/5/16 - Walt Disney World (***A much delayed post***)

Well, we're back home after our awesome trip to Walt Disney World. As you can see in the previous posts, I was keeping a pretty steady pace with regard to regular, daily updates. But, when it came to Thursday night, May 5th, I was literally falling asleep sitting in bed with my laptop trying to type. So, that was the end of that. But even though the memories aren't quite as fresh now, they still definitely aren't stale so I'm going to do my best to remember a lot of the little details.

Disney's Animal Kingdom. When we first visited this park back in 2007, I remember being totally blown away by Kilimanjaro Safaris. I think a lot of the appeal for this attraction--and by extension, the park--came from just how long the Safari ride is. I'm probably wrong about the exact time but, I'm pretty sure it's close to twenty minutes in length. But as much as I love this ride, I still miss hearing "Simba One!" while riding in the truck.

See, as you wait in line for the safari vehicles, there is a video playing in the queue that features a man talking about the Harambe Wildlife Preserve--which is completely fictional--and one of the main focuses of the video is poaching. As I recall, he says he needs the help of the--------

....Aaaaaand that's where my last post that was actually composed in Disney World was composed. While I was writing that third paragraph, I was struggling against sleep. I was sooooo tired and I recall falling asleep repeatedly before finally giving up and going to sleep. It's kind of a shame because now, over two months after our trip, I don't remember all that many small details. But, I wanted to continue this blog because it's kind of fun.

Plus, I just saw last week that a friend of mine commented on one of my blog posts and I was like, "Oh yeah! I meant to keep blogging."

So, since this post is about Animal Kingdom, here are some Animal Kingdom pics from my phone (since I have not yet finished processing the pictures I took with my DSLR yet... sadness).

This was in the shop that you can visit outside the gate to the park. I really should have bought this.

We saw Joe and Ashley from See Ya Reel Soon fame eat at this restaurant. Very cool (from the outside. I didn't actually go in for pictures.)

Joy's beloved ride: Dinosaur

Sophie's super awesome Walt Disney World hat that we got at the Animal Kingdom.

Lily, in her Walt Disney World hat, waiting to start the Wilderness Explorers...thing.

Lily is sporting those fashionable glasses from It's Tough to be a Bug.

Caleb and Sophie gazing upon the Tree of Life. Sophie was our little beast of burden for a bit.

Sophie, Lily, and Flik (Flik is the tall, blue one)

Somewhere in Asia. I just thought this ice cream cart was very cool looking.

That's all I have this time around. I plan on going through the pictures from our last day at Disney and, once I do, I will sit down and write some more on here.

Day Four: Tuesday, 5/3/16 - Walt Disney World

Tuesday, May 3rd was our day at Epcot. We got a fairly early start after having a light breakfast in our room and headed down to the Disney Transportation System pick-up area. Or, in layman's terms: the bus stop.

We didn't make rope drop but we still arrived at the Epcot gates at a very reasonable hour. After going through the bag check process, we went to the character meet and greet to see Mickey, Goofy, and Minnie. Along the way, we saw a line of people waiting to get their pictures taken with Pluto, one of Joy's favorite characters. But, we made a very common mistake and said, "We'll do that later." Naturally, we didn't but, the character interaction with Minnie, Goofy, and Mickey was still very good.

After the character meet n' greet, we got in line for Spaceship Earth. I rode with Caleb, Joy rode with Lily, and Molly rode with Sophie. We've been on the ride several times before but I still enjoy it, if only for the cool settings and practical effects that Disney employs on there.

Joy and Lily on Spaceship Earth

The silly video that plays near the end of Spacsehip Earth

A little while later, we headed over to the Electric Umbrella to have lunch. The upstairs dining area was open but we opted to sit outside. I'm glad we did because the temperature was very comfortable and there was a nice breeze. Plus, we got to hear the Epcot area fountain-view music that I love so much. A few years ago, we ate outside at the Electric Umbrella and the birds that hung around outside were a bit of a nuisance. In fact, one of them took a french fry right out of Caleb's fingers--and he wasn't even trying to feed it! He was literally holding a french fry with the intention of eating it and the bird kind of flew up and took it! This time, Caleb saw one of the birds (not sure what kind) pick up food from the ground and feed it to another, larger bird. I'm no ornithologist and I'm really not familiar with Florida birds at all but, this really puzzled Caleb and me. We were wondering, why is this seemingly adult bird feeding the other, larger bird? Truly deserving of some cursory internet research.

Lunch at the Electric Umbrella

After lunch, we rode Test Track. We all enjoyed creating our cars and then seeing how they "performed" during the ride. The car that Caleb and I (mostly Caleb) designed was pretty cool and did pretty well. The cars that Joy and Lily, and Molly and Sophie designed were appropriately funky and fun.

Joy and Lily's Car

Sophie and Molly's Car

The Car Caleb and I created

We headed over to the Seas area and rode The Seas with Nemo and Friends. This ride is simple and cute and includes some music from the Finding Nemo the Musical, an excellent production that still runs over at the Animal Kingdom.

Since we were already there, we spent some time at the Seas area and looked at some manatees, a diver in the aquarium with a HUGE stingray, and we saw a diver enter the lockout tank.

A clown fish at The Seas (a.k.a. Nemo)

The diver is in the lockout tank.

Leaving the Seas behind, we went over to the Land.

The whole Land area really used to be a very busy location. Always, there were crowds outside, crowds of people inside, and so many people eating at Sunshine Seasons that the place really felt alive. This time, though, it was very different. Not empty, to be sure, but definitely not the crowded area we were used to. Joy and I both attribute this to one thing: Soarin' is currently closed. Set to reopen this summer, Soarin' always had crazy lines and, unless you had a fast pass, you would easily be waiting over an hour to ride it. And rightfully so, because I think Soarin' was an awesome experience. I hope the revamp of the ride maintains the secret recipe that made it such an amazing attraction to begin with.

At least the sign is still there.

After we left the Land area, we saw what looked like storm clouds approaching so we decided that we needed to seek out another attraction that was indoors. (Also, the butterfly garden was closed and that was one of Sophie and Lily's must-do's.) So, Journey into Imagination was the solution.

Joy and I rode Journey into Imagination when we first visited the park back in 1996 and I really didn't remember anything at all about the ride, other than the music (thanks Subsonicradio!) and the fact that we found it boring. I know, I know. That isn't nice but, since I didn't visit Epcot as a child in the 1980's, I never grew attached to Figment or this attraction. Still, it's a cute ride.

After Journey into Imagination, Molly, Caleb, and I went to Fountainview--which doubles as a Starbuck's--and got a couple of drinks. We met Joy at the playground and we were able to visit the butterfly garden (I probably have this out of order so, Caleb or someone can correct me).

At the butterfly garden

The Phineas and Ferb: Agent P's World Showcase Adventure was something that Caleb was really looking forward to doing. Quite honestly, I was looking forward to it too so, we were all pretty disappointed when we saw the "recruitment" station already closed at 5:30pm, even though the signage clearly showed it open until 6pm. But, as we were coming out of the playground area, Caleb could see a cast member opening the little kiosk area back up so we headed on over there and signed up. 

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Disney has updated the phones they use for this experience from older flip phones to smart phones. Also, you can use your own device to go on the Adventure. I almost used one of Disney's devices for the experience but decided against it when the cast member told me that if you use one of their devices, the experience times out after 10 minutes of inactivity. Using your own device has no time-out limit. Knowing that we have six people in our family with different interests, I decided to use my own phone.

This worked out great. We were able to do the mission in the UK and in France. After that, we decided to take a break and restart in Mexico since that was where we were going to eat dinner. Unfortunately, when I gave Caleb the phone in the Mexican pavilion, the "quit" icon was accidentally selected rather than continue. Caleb was extremely disappointed at this and so was I. But, at least we did get to solve a couple of missions.

Speaking of the Mexican pavilion, Joy's plan was to eat at the outside, quick service restaurant, La Cava del Tequila and watch Illuminations from there. When we finally got there after 7:30 (later than planned), we saw that a lot of other people had the exact same idea. In fact there was absolutely no where to sit and eat. Thankfully, though, it took a ridiculously long time to get our food and, by the time I picked our trays up, we Joy and the kids had found a table.

After dinner, Lily had to use the bathroom so Joy took her and Molly, Caleb, Sophie, and I waited just outside the cool Mexican pyramid, listening to the countdown to Illuminations. Joy and Lily came out of the bathroom just in time for us all to enjoy watching the show.

After Illuminations, we rode the Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros. I love that ride. It is so simple and laid back. Kind of like It's a Small World, only with WAY better music and theming.

 Love this ride. That's an order, not a comment.

Sophie and Lily, pre-fight formation

Singing their song

Leaving the Mexican Pavilion, we decided to ride Test Track one last time and I'm glad we did. Riding that at night was totally worth it.

For the return home trip, we were able to get on the first bus back to Pop Century, even though we had to stand. Thankfully, Sophie was able to sit right away and before we left the parking lot, a lady gave up her seat so that Lily could sit. Sophie fell asleep quickly on the bus and Lily asked me, "Can I take a nap? My eyes are shutting down." I thought that was so cute! And she did fall asleep, if only for the fifteen minute ride back to our resort.

Well, that was probably way too detailed but, as I write this post this Wednesday morning, there's been a crazy thunderstorm going on. In fact, it's supposed to storm pretty much until at least 1:00 today. We were supposed to go to Animal Kingdom today and then take tomorrow off but, it's looking like we're taking today off and going there tomorrow. So glad we built some "off" days into our schedule.

Until tomorrow...

Day Three: Monday, 5/2/16 - Walt Disney World

Yesterday was our "off" day, which means we didn't go to any theme parks. Instead, we just hung around the resort, played in the pool, and saw some sights. So, I hate to use the word "off" because it sort of implies that going to the parks is some sort of work but, after going to the parks, being on your feet all day in the heat, failing to properly hydrate yourself, and then carrying the occasionally sleeping child, it gets very tiring. So, that's why we call these sorts of days our "off" days.

For this off day, we had a nice relaxing late start. We ate breakfast at the Everything Pop dining area here at the Pop Century Resort hotel and it was pretty good (no, I didn't take pictures of our food). After that, we hung out at the pool for a couple hours. Before we went to the pool, I was very careful to apply sunblock to the kids and myself. Somehow, though, I still managed to get sunburned on my shoulders and back--and my scalp, I think. This is probably because the sunblock we used (water babies) is only waterproof for 80 minutes and we were swimming for 2 hours. Oops! I'm probably spending too much time talking about this for too long but, when we first visited Walt Disney World twenty years ago, I got the worst sunburn of my life. That totally changed the way I spend time in the sun--particularly with my shirt off so, I'm a bit overly cautious.

After the pool, we got cleaned up and headed over to the Art of Animation resort, which is just across the Generation Gap Bridge and Hourglass Lake. We walked around for a bit taking pictures of the beautiful theming and cool movie-based sculptures and statues. A couple years ago, we walked around and enjoyed all of The Little Mermaid, Lion King, and Finding Nemo areas. This time, we focused on just the Cars area. In addition to some photo ops, we ate lunch at the Landscape of Flavors dining area.

Some Pictures From The Art of Animation Resort:

 Lover this cool Cars motel sign.

 Lily's blurry but Simba held still pretty nicely for this picture.

 Simba, in the Art of Animation Resort Lobby

 Caleb, keepin' it real in the Art of Animation Resort Lobby.

 The Ink and Paint Shop.

 These girls are always playing. Always.

The Cozy Cone signage.

From the Art of Animation resort we decided to ride the monorail at Epcot so, we hopped a bus and headed on over. The ride on the monorail was neat but uneventful. The particular train we rode on had Zootopia see-through decals on the windows so, it looks pretty cool from the outside. Unfortunately, these sort of decals make for so-so viewing from the inside and horrible photography so, I didn't even pull my camera out once.

From Epcot, we headed over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge, just to check it out. Right when we got there, it started raining but, wow, what a beautiful resort! We walked out onto one of the balconies and saw a couple zebras prancing around a few other Animal Kingdom animals in the distance but, we couldn't make them out.

 In the lobby of the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Waiting for the bus at Animal Kingdom Lodge.

We hung out at Animal Kingdom Lodge longer than we expected because we had to wait out the raging thunderstorm outside but, when it finally let up we decided to head back to our resort. So, we hopped a bus for Disney Springs (formerly Downtown Disney). When we got off the bus at Disney Springs, it was raining pretty heavily so, we were thanking the Lord when we stepped out into the rain after seeing a Pop Century Resort bus coming and, we were even more grateful when we were able to step right onto this virtually empty bus and ride it back to our hotel! All told, it took us over an hour to get to Pop Century from the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Back at Pop Century, we ordered a couple of their seriously very delicious pizzas and called it a night. On the way back to our room, we saw a frog perched on the top of one of the trash cans. Lily happens to like frogs (and all small critters) so, that was a neat treat for her.

Today, we visit Epcot. I'm mentally preparing myself for a lot of walking but this ought to be a nice day for a seemingly strange reason: we don't have a lot of must-do's for this park. But, I'm glad to just go there and see the sights, shops, etc.

More updates to come tomorrow!

What Emotions Does This Image Conjure?

The picture above was taken in the bus queuing area at the Magic Kingdom. Obviously, this was taken during the day and, unbelievably, there's almost no one in this shot! 

But back to the title of this post: what kinds of emotions does this image trigger in you? If you've never been to Walt Disney World then the answer is probably nothing. If you have been to "the World", you're either thinking, "Aww! I can't wait! Remember when... [insert special memory here]". But, you may see this waiting area and think, "Ugh. My feet and legs hurt just looking at this." 

For me, I see potential. Potential of a new day at The Magic Kingdom with my family, having awesome new experiences and making memories that will last a lifetime. But, I also see the potential of standing in that line at 11:30pm behind hundreds of other people that just want to get on the bus, get back to Pop Century, and fall onto their bed immediately after trudging back to their room. I also see the promise of a quick bus ride back to the resort, only to be dismayed by a family of 20+ people accompanying their family member that happens to be on a "jazzy". (No offense to those that need to use jazzies. My wife and I had a couple experiences of disappointment at the hands of large families mostly filling the bus before anyone else can get on. Is this complaining? I hope not. I don't mean to be complaining.)

But, no matter what the reality ends up being, waiting in line at Disney is still better than "no line, no waiting" anywhere else in the world.

We'll find out what's in store for us in this waiting area in 52 days!

Unless we drive to the park...