May 2011 Walt Disney World Trip Report - Day 8

Day 8 - 5/28 – Magic Kingdom & Yehaa Bob

This was our “Fantasyland at Rope Drop” day, also known as the “Dumbo Dash.” We arrived at the Magic Kingdom in time for the Welcome Show, counted down with Mickey and quickly headed down Main Street U.S.A., through Cinderella’s Castle and into Fantasyland to the Flying Dumbos. They were completing a test run when we arrived.

We got onto the first cycle. I rode with DD while DW and DGM rode together.

 I like to try to get a good picture of the castle from atop the Dumbos. This one didn’t turn out too badly.

From Dumbo, we headed over to Pooh. The time stamp on this picture is 8:10am (park opened at 8am today) – so you can appreciate just what it’s like, even on a busy weekend like Memorial Day Weekend, to arrive early. I always tell people that we’ll ride more rides in the first hour than we will the rest of the day. I also reassure them that after that first hour, which is a little “purposeful” (rather than “hurried”), we’ll have the whole rest of the day to amble about.

We had ridden Pooh earlier in the week with FastPasses, but going through the standby queue we were able to check out some of the new interactive features.

This is the new Honey Wall that is fun to play with. I tried not to think about how many grubby hands had been touching this thing before me. Oooops, too late.

After Pooh we rode Peter Pan, and coming out we saw Mary Poppins all by herself, so we grabbed a quick photo.

I had never noticed the Sword in the Stone before, even though I knew about it and saw it in so many trip reports. After posing with Mary Poppins, it was right around the corner, so we each gave it a shot. DD rooted DGM on, but alas, no magic for us.

We rode Snow White (soon to be gone to make way for the Fantasyland Expansion) and then headed over to the Mad Hatter’s Tea Cups. We usually all ride together, and when DD asks to ride again, I bravely take the bullet. This time, with DGM along, all four of us squeezed into a tea cup. There’s always joy and smiling before the ride starts.

…but as we start spinning faster and faster, for people over 10, that joy starts to turn into… something else…

 …and as DD screams to make it go faster, all of the adults start to wonder how much longer this ride goes. DD laughed and laughed when I showed her this picture. She screamed, “Gramma looks seasick!” Gramma confirmed that she did indeed.

From the Tea Cups, it’s on to Tomorrowland to ride Buzz. We can usually ride 3-4 times without any wait at this time of day. And since none of us particularly care for Space Mountain, that’s pretty much it for the first crucial hour. We stopped on the Tomorrowland Bridge to get some family pictures.

For some reason, the PhotoPass photographer asked us all to make muscle arms, so we did. I expected that there would be some sort of enhancement that would make sense of this pose, but there wasn’t. And so 50 years from now our great grandchildren will wonder why their ancestors were making muscle arms at Disney World, and conclude that it was because of the greenhouse gases.

There was one enhancement which came out great. The photographer asked DD to jump, and this was the picture that resulted. It really looks like she’s being lifted up by the balloons, don’t you think?

Our next destination was BTMRR for the rootinest tootinest ride this side of the Pecos, but on our way through the castle hub area we spotted the Dapper Dans who had a very special song for the birthday girl. I missed the very beginning of it…

On to BTMRR. I always try to get this shot with the castle in the background. It doesn’t seem so small in person, but in the pictures it always looks so far away.

DD and I rode a couple of times while DW and DGM waited. After that it was time for an ice cream break, so while we waited for the Pirate Tutorial to begin, we enjoyed Dole Whips and Mickey Bars.

Before the show, Jack Sparrow’s assistant Mac came out and entrusted DD with the important job of standing on the rope so it didn’t move.

Later DD was conscripted into Jack Sparrow’s crew.

After the Pirate Tutorial we rode Pirates of the Carribean and, in keeping with the nautical theme, headed to Columbia Harbor House for lunch. I don’t have it in my notes, but I remember it took a really long time to get our food. It was about noon by the time we were finished so we got on board the Liberty Belle and took a ride.

Sort of like Titanic, but also, not really at all like that.

Having just finished the first three Kingdom Keepers books, we were on the lookout for this area. It figures prominently in a few different parts. I tried to convince DD that those were real people and she almost bought it, but really didn’t believe me.

This is kind of how we all felt about halfway through the ride.

 We were pretty tired by this point, so we headed back to the hotel. We bid a fond farewell to DGM, did some swimming and took a nap.

Dinner plans were at Grand Floridian Café. I don’t think I’d ever want to stay there, but the lobby at the Grand Floridian is beautiful.

 There was also a jazz band playing – the Grand Floridian Orchestra or something like that. While we waited for our table we listened to the music. Dinner itself was OK. I would have been more disappointed if we had ben paying out of pocket. It wasn’t so much that anything was *wrong*, but the service was really slow (almost indifferent) and the food was just OK.

From the Grand Floridian we drove over to the Port Orleans to catch the Yehaa Bob show. We had heard a lot about it but it had never made our agenda before. It was a real blast! It’s a family-friendly sing-a-long. He gets the kids up on the stage a few times, and also has the adults up there too. I believe this was “The Green Grass Grows All Around.”

We’re planning on going back again in October. After the show Bob poses for pictures with everyone. He autographed a photo for DD.

And then posed for the family picture.

His first set starts at 8:30 and goes until 10. After the show we headed back to the hotel for our final night. Up next, nostalgia ain’t what it used to be.

May 2011 Walt Disney World Trip Report - Day 7

Day 7 - 5-27 – Animal Kingdom & Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?

Our rope drop plan at Animal Kingdom is different from anyone else we’ve heard of. DD has tried Expedition Everest a couple of times, but has firmly decided that she doesn’t like it. Any EE riding that DW and I get to do is usually done Single Rider Line style.

So, while most of the park opening crush is to get to EE or the Safari, we head straight to Kali River Rapids. We poncho it up, get on board, and stay on as long as they’ll allow (or until we see people starting to queue up). We usually ride 3-4 times, but DW and DD set a record of riding five straight times a couple of years ago.

After a couple of times riding, I got off and let DW and DD continue. My mother (DGM) was driving in from Tampa and I went over to meet her near the Safari. Shortly after she arrived, DW and DD came over excited to inform us that they had tied their record of five straight times on Kali.

I grabbed us FastPasses for Safari, and then we boarded the train for Conservation Station/ Rafiki’s Planet Watch.

After the train pulls into the station, you have about a five minute walk to the building where the exhibits are. They were going to be doing a physical on a Golden Tamarin, so while I staked out a spot by the viewing window, DD and DGM were brave enough to pet this snake.

We waited about half an hour for the medical staff to bring the Tamarin out. When they did, there were so many people around the operating table that we couldn’t see anything. We ended up watching on the nearby monitors, which was kind of like traveling to Walt Disney World to watch the most boring and poorly filmed nature documentary ever. It didn’t stop DD from capturing the “excitement” on video.

After the Tamarin encounter, we made our way around the building, with me deftly avoiding anything with eight legs (not a spider fan). There were two characters on hand for greeting – Rafiki and Pocohontas.

There were basically no lines for either of them, so the interaction was great. No PhotoPass photographers, though, so the pictures were not.

There’s a petting zoo out behind the building, and even though I had read (in multiple places) that your local zoo probably has a better petting zoo, I didn’t want to believe it. I should have. There were basically goats. DD kept chasing this guy around.

In the history of goats, there have probably never been as well-brushed goats as these. And goats have been around along time so that’s really saying something.

Seriously, don’t bother going to Conservation Station/Rafiki’s Planet Watch. Lesson learned.

After that we had lunch at Flame Tree BBQ. DW went off script and got the fruit platter with yogurt dip. A week of eating more food than usual, mostly steak and ice cream, will make you do things like that. It was almost instantly regretted – it didn’t look anything like the picture on the menu. DGM’s BBQ Chicken Salad, however, looked awesome.

From there we went to the Festival of the Lion King, and then headed back to Africa to use our FastPasses for the Safari. I realized two things as I was preparing this report:

1.      I always take way too many pictures of the animals on the safari.

2.      They are never of the lions (they’re always hiding).

We did get a really close up encounter with a hippo, so I’ll share that one.

After the Safari and wandering around the Pagani trail to look at the Gorillas, we headed back to the hotel to freshen up before our Chef Mickey’s dinner.

Since DGM was staying with us for the night, we showed her around the place a little. As soon as we looked out onto the savanna, DD saw that there was a bunny eating grass near the watering hole below our balcony. She declared that she needed to draw it, and she got her notebook and colored pencils and went to work.

After a quick change, it was on to Chef Mickey’s. I’m not a huge fan – the food is just OK, the wait to be seated is long, the prices are kind of steep – but on the Dining Plan it’s not the worst value. We arrived a little early, hoping to get seated a little early, but we ended up waiting about half an hour and by the time we sat down we were starving.

Building upon DD’s discovery of clams at Crystal Palace, she tried, and liked New England style Clam Chowder. But she ate way too much food too fast (mac and cheese, pizza, etc.) and got a little stomach ache. We tried walking around the Contemporary to see if she would feel better but it didn’t really help. We still managed to get pictures with the Fab Five…

  

…as well as twirl napkins in the air to some unintelligible song.

With full (overstuffed) bellies, we headed back to the hotel. DGM brought her twin-size Aerobed which we set up on the floor between the sofa bed and the regular bed. DD slept on that, and was very excited about it, while DGM got the sofa bed. It was certainly cramped, but doable for one night.

Tomorrow, the Dumbo Dash, and "Gramma looks seasick!"

May 2011 Walt Disney World Trip Report - Day 6

Day 6 - 5/26 – Hollywood Studios and a Birthday Luau

She had been wearing her birthday pin religiously throughout the trip thus far, but today was DD’s actual birthday. When we had started looking at weeks in May for a trip, our initial priority was to pick a week before it got ridiculously hot (we have frequently gone in August) or ridiculously busy. Since most schools would still be in session in May, we thought that would be a great time to go. It dawned upon us that we could combine the trip with DD’s birthday – what better party could you hope for?

We packed some of DD’s birthday presents (books, Star Wars action figures) but left her largest present (a Littlest Pet Shop set) at home. We printed a picture of it and included it with her card and a note explaining that it would be waiting for her when we returned. Here she is pointing to the picture we printed.

After presents and a hurried breakfast, we hustled over to Hollywood Studios, arriving a little later than we usually do. We were a little nervous when we saw how long the lines at the turnstiles were.

We implemented the DHS Rope Drop Plan. After we went through the turnstiles, I collected the tickets and quickly (but without running) worked my way as close to the rope as I could. DW and DD, meanwhile, made their way up at a little more leisurely pace.

When the rope drops and we’re led over to Toy Story Mania, I stay as close to the front as possible, nimbly dodging four-year-olds being dragged by their parents, bags falling off strollers, etc. I get right into the FastPass lane and get FastPasses for the three of us. Meanwhile DW and DD head over to the standby line.

We usually arrive at the standby line at about the same time, and we ride together, with FastPasses in hand, and without subjecting DW and DD to most of the mayhem.

Once in the standby queue at park opening, it moves pretty fast. There’s always a holdup by the Mr. Potato Head while people take pictures.

After Toy Story we headed over to MuppetVision. Normally people would be heading over to Rock n’Roller Coaster, or Tower of Terror. But DD is frightened of Tower of Terror, and not tall enough for Rock n’Roller Coaster (which is one of DW’s favorites). We’re all fans of the Muppets, though.

On the way over we spotted these Star Wars shackles. They leave them up all week, even though they’re only used for Star Wars Weekends. Given some stuff that’s been going on at our house lately, I could have really used a set of these.

I like how everything at MuppetVision has a joke worked in.

After Muppets, the plan was to take DD to “The Bug Playground” while DW rides RnRC a couple of times in the Single Rider line. We had to stop for some more photo opportunities, though. Looking at this snowman picture gave me the idea of taking some Christmas Card photos at WDW during our October trip. Maybe bringing Santa hats or something.

 Unlike the crazy lines over the weekend, there was no wait to get onto the Speeder Bike.

We parted ways with DW, grabbed a quick trip on Star Tours riding standby, and then headed over to the Bug Playground. DD loves to organize the kids to pretend they’re ants and whenever the sound of the grasshopper plays, they all have to run and hide.

When she was younger I used to keep a closer eye on her, but now I camp out in a shady spot near the exit and ask her to come by every five minutes or so to check in. That way, I get to watch all of the parents on hands and knees crawling through tunnels after their kids, and I reminisce, which in my head sounds a lot like laughing.

After a couple of rides in Aerosmith’s super-stretch limo, we joined up with DW and had lunch at Pizza Planet. We had a really bad experience. The line took about 20 minutes to get through. This was at 11:30 with literally four people in front of us. None of the lines were moving. There were about 10 CMs on the other side of the counter looking alternately at us, and then back into the kitchen. But none of them were actually serving food.

Once we were served we went upstairs to find a table. They were all pretty messy (again, even though this was well before the lunch rush) but at this point we weren’t being picky. We wiped it down and ate.

This was a short day at DHS, because we had a birthday surprise for DD. We had reservations at the early Luau at the Poly. So we went back to the hotel for some swimming, and then got ready for dinner. DW found this tropical-themed dress for DD.

One of the things DD talked about a lot was how she wanted to drink out of a coconut. Since we read that they offered a tropical alcoholic punch in a coconut, we asked if they could bring milk or just water in the same thing. The waiter was more than happy to (charging us $10 for the souvenir coconut), and DD was excited.

The food was pretty good, but I thought the Spirit of Aloha show was really not very good. It was super campy. There’s a story line about a cousin leaving her family to go off to college. There were some fun parts, though. At one point they invited everyone celebrating a birthday to come up to do a Birthday Hula.

They also had a fire dancer who was really great. I’m not sure if he’s the same guy who juggles fire at the Festival of the Lion King show, but it was kind of like that, but a lot more intense.

After the show we made our way back through the Poly, with DD stopping for some photo opportunities. She broke into an impromptu hula dance by this palm tree.

We drove back to the hotel and went to sleep, with DD proclaiming it was the best birthday ever. It was no Chuck E. Cheese, I’ll tell you that much.

Tomorrow – Gramma in the hizzouse.

May 2011 Walt Disney World Trip Report - Day 5

Day 5 – 5/25 - Magic Kingdom & PhotoPass Phun

After staying out late the night before watching fireworks, we slept in a little this morning, got ready in a leisurely fashion and arrived at the Magic Kingdom around 10:00. We grabbed some FastPasses to see Mickey Mouse at the Town Hall, and headed straight for Frontierland to see what kind of waits were in store at Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

We grabbed a FastPass for Splash Mountain and hopped on BTMRR. This time DD was much better about holding the ‘big arms” a little longer…

…but not too much longer.

From here we made our way over to the Haunted Mansion. We hadn’t had a chance to check out the new interactive queue, which had just opened. We had DD pose near the busts. Apparently, by reading the inscriptions and solving some kind of riddles, you’re supposed to be able to figure out who killed whom. But when it’s 90-degrees and sunny, playing Encyclopedia Brown wasn’t on the agenda.

 The new “hitchhiking ghosts” portion of Haunted Mansion is really cool. The way they’re able to make it appear that the ghost is removing your head – it’s pretty cool technology.

After Haunted Mansion we walked through to Fantasyland, grabbing FastPasses for Winnie the Pooh and riding the Carousel.

It was about lunchtime at this point, so we headed over to Cosmic Ray’s. As per usual, it was a mad house. DW and DD secured a table while I went to the different stations to get the food. I like that there’s a wide selection of menu items, but it gets so crowded in there.

After lunch I grabbed some FastPasses for Buzz, in case we came back to MK later in the evening, and we headed over to use the Pooh FastPasses we had collected earlier. From there we used the Splash Mountain FastPasses, and headed into Adventureland.

One of the attractions DD read about and wanted to try was the Swiss Family Treehouse. So while DW wisely waited in the shade below, DD and I climbed the gajillion steps and looked at what the Robinsons had built. I hadn’t been up there before, so it was kind of neat. DD absolutely loved it. When we were just about all the way to the top, I looked back down and noticed this:

Under that pavilion is an overflow queue. I *never* want to be at WDW when that overflow queue is needed for Swiss Family Treehouse. It’s a nice enough attraction, but really.

On our way out of the park we went in to see Mickey and Minnie at Town Hall with our FastPasses. What a great system! It’s so easy and quick to see them now. It used to be a long wait in ToonTown to get a picture with Mickey, but this new procedure is so much better.

It was when we were going to hand our PhotoPass card to the photographer that DW realized that she couldn’t find it. She searched through everything but couldn’t find it. We got a new one from the photographer, and then headed to the PhotoPass counter in Town Hall to see if they could help us out.

We had been using the card we lost for most of the trip, and it had all of DD’s Jedi Training Academy and Star Wars Weekend pictures on it. By telling the CM at the PhotoPass counter the time and location of one of the pictures, we was able to identify our card number and pull up all of the pictures that had been on it, transfer those over to a new card, and we were back in business.

He left us with this advice – take a picture (with a regular digital or cell phone camera) of the number of your PhotoPass card. That way, if you lose it, you’ll still be able to load the pictures into your PhotoPass account when you get back home.

With this lesson well learned, we headed back to the hotel for a quick rest, before cleaning up and heading over to the Poly for dinner. The Poly reminds us of a Las Vegas resort. It kind of smells like the Mirage or Treasure Island. The foliage inside is beautiful and they do a great job with the overall themeing.

Kona Café is one of our favorite restaurants. The food is wonderful – we’ve never had a bad meal there. It’s our usual “date night” place, when we drop DD off at Simba’s Cubhouse. But tonight we decided to bring her along.

After dinner it was back to the hotel. Tomorrow is DD’s birthday, and we’ve got to get to Hollywood Studios for Rope Drop in the morning!