Hakuna Matata, A Baked Potato! -Oct '17 TR *Completed, New PTR Link*

Following along! And now dreaming of Dole Whips. Yum!

Thanks for joining! Dole whips are just sooo good!

There's just something about Main Street that makes me so happy. Such cute pictures!

So cute! Window decorating has become a tradition for us. It's so fun!

Thank you! Main Street is so lovely :)

This was my first time finally doing it, it really is fun and I looked forward to seeing it every night when we got back to the room!

Agreed ::yes::

Very cute :thumbsup2

I am impressed, that was a long day:faint:

Thank you!

It was a long day and maybe we overdid it a little but it was worth it!
:dogdance:

Looking forward to reading another of your reports!

Especially since this one kinda-sorta overlapped with mine.

Congrats to your parents on their milestone anniversary. Disney is such an awesome place to celebrate.

Going back to read the other posts now.

:goodvibes

Thanks for joining in Dee!

It was nice to celebrate as a family!

GREAT start to your trip.

I LOVE the beautiful lights of the city and the sunrise from the plane. Also, fantastic arch picture.

It's great that the transportation fairies were with you and you were able to get to MK quickly. No better place to start a Disney trip.

All of your photo pass pictures are adorable, but I especially love the ones of you and your shadow on Main Street. Very Peter Pan.

I have never watched the Royal Faire castle show. It looks like fun and your mom's pictures are great.

Love the rides you did, good FP selections. I'm glad you were able to eventually ride Mine Train.

OK, I have seen this in a couple of trip reports... where is the purple wall? Asking for a friend....

Very, very impressive first day.

:thumbsup2

We were so lucky to have such good transportation fortune! Loved being able to start the trip at MK.

Thank you, I love those PP pics too!

The castle show is very cute, hopefully you get to see it one trip!

It was a successful day!

Hehe the purple wall is near the Tomorrowland Terrace restaurant. If you head to Tomorrowland via the bridge, it is just off to your right. Hopefully that makes sense, for your friend of course ;)
 
Same!!! :goodvibes

This picture is GORGEOUS!!! :cloud9:

Yay! I love it when I see decorated windows! :thumbsup2

Main Street (and MK as a whole) is just so magical!

Thank you! I couldn't resist stopping for it on our way out!

It was my first time doing it and I definitely want to make it a tradition!

So cute! Happy Disney Birthday celebration!

This is so pretty! Disney sunsets are the best kind :)

Thank you!

They really are! :)

What a really great arrival day! Just no better way to spend the first afternoon than in MK, in my opinion.

I really have to make sure we catch the Muppets show next time we are there. We always seemed to miss it on our last few trips! It looks really cute.

It was a great day, it was nice having time to get to a park!

The Muppet show is cute if you are able to stumble upon it!

Aw cute! We're the same age!

So pretty!

Love this! One of the fun things about values and moderates!

We are in the 30 club together! :)

Thank you!

I always love seeing the decorated windows, I was glad we were able to do it too!

Hi There!:wave2: Joining in!

Looks like a great first day at MK! Always love starting with a ride on the Peoplemover!

Glad SDMT opened back up for you!

Hi! Thanks for joining in! :wave2:

It was a wonderful first day and a perfect first ride of the trip!

My parents were very much looking forward to SDMT so I am glad we were able to ride it!

Sounds like a great first day! Can't wait to hear more.

Thank you! :)
 
Day 2, October 22, 2017 - Animal Kingdom!

We were up bright and early today to head to Animal Kingdom! The goal was to get to the park early so we could get onto Flight of Passage without too long of a wait (I was not able to secure a FP for it).

We were at the bus stop by 6:45 and it was still pretty dark out!





The time on the bus tv schedule said a bus would be arriving at 7:03- perfect! But then the time kept changing...and changing...and I started panicking. I wanted to be at the park at 7:30! The final straw was seeing the time change to 7:27. I made the decision to call for an uber. I placed the request at 7:15 and we were at the park by 7:30. Best $15 I spent the whole trip honestly! Who knows what time the bus would have eventually shown up! And the uber left us closer than the bus would have :)

So we got to the turnstiles and while there was already people lined up, we were in a good position. As time went on I noticed the crowds get bigger and bigger. At 8:15 they opened the turnstiles! Green light for me, Green light for mom, Blue light for dad. They kept making him try and the CM got kinda snippy and said "Sir are you sure that's the right finger?". The funny part is prior to that, my dad specifically said to me "I remember which finger I used yesterday". Finally another CM came over and just reset it for him.

After that we were off! People were running past us but we chose to just briskly walk. We got over to the bridge to Pandora where they were holding everyone. There were SO many people!



It was a little before 8:45 when they started herding us towards the ride. It was such chaos- people pushing, people trying to cut other people off. We stood our ground and just walked with the crowd until we finally made it into the queue! Now we could finally look around and appreciate everything. Wow, the details of this land are incredible!











We made it pretty quickly onto the ride and once we were done we were pretty much in awe. We thought it was amazing! Even my dad, who has never seen Avatar, was blown away and for the rest of the trip could not stop talking about it! And to boot, we were off the ride by 9:20! I was pretty nervous about how this morning would go and I was glad it all worked out!

We spent some time in the gift shop where my mom bought a shirt and I bought some pins.





I did not buy this baby navi.



After that another mission needed to be accomplished- I needed to buy a night blossom!



This was super sweet and delicious! My mom had some with me, I definitely wouldn't be able to drink this by myself!

And of course pictures had to be taken in front of the moss wall :)







Up next...We continue to admire Pandora!

 


So we got to the turnstiles and while there was already people lined up, we were in a good position. As time went on I noticed the crowds get bigger and bigger. At 8:15 they opened the turnstiles! Green light for me, Green light for mom, Blue light for dad. They kept making him try and the CM got kinda snippy and said "Sir are you sure that's the right finger?". The funny part is prior to that, my dad specifically said to me "I remember which finger I used yesterday". Finally another CM came over and just reset it for him.

Oh no!! This is so frustrating!! And that system glitches so often that the CM shouldn't have been blaming your dad. :( It also seems that the pressure you use when you first set your fingerprint makes a big difference. Glad it got fixed!

It was such chaos- people pushing, people trying to cut other people off. We stood our ground and just walked with the crowd until we finally made it into the queue!

Wow!! Intense!

We made it pretty quickly onto the ride and once we were done we were pretty much in awe. We thought it was amazing! Even my dad, who has never seen Avatar, was blown away and for the rest of the trip could not stop talking about it! And to boot, we were off the ride by 9:20! I was pretty nervous about how this morning would go and I was glad it all worked out!

I'm so glad this worked out so well for you! It's a really impressive ride, and it's a challenge to get on it without FP, so good for you guys!

38294377494_a5794fea2f_z.jpg

This is such a pretty background! You look so nice!
 
Yay! So glad you got to ride FoP! Good decision to call for an Uber, those darn buses can be so frustrating! We really enjoyed the Night Blossom but agree it is sweet! Great moss wall pictures, of course Andi knew this was a thing, lol!
 
Glad you were able to get right on FoP! Those crowds though... OMG Not looking forward to having to deal with that! We got a FP but I was hoping for more than one ride. Maybe not though because all the crowd pictures give me anxiety lol.

Cute pictures with the moss wall!!
 


We were at the bus stop by 6:45 and it was still pretty dark out!

Talk about dedication! ;)

The time on the bus tv schedule said a bus would be arriving at 7:03- perfect! But then the time kept changing...and changing...and I started panicking. I wanted to be at the park at 7:30! The final straw was seeing the time change to 7:27. I made the decision to call for an uber. I placed the request at 7:15 and we were at the park by 7:30. Best $15 I spent the whole trip honestly! Who knows what time the bus would have eventually shown up! And the uber left us closer than the bus would have :)

I guess that's the nice thing about those tvs..you at least have some warning if there isn't going to be a bus for a while! Glad y'all made it :)

They kept making him try and the CM got kinda snippy and said "Sir are you sure that's the right finger?".

I get this question when it's a little kid, but with an adult...? I've had that happen to me, and I've been very tempted to tell them that I use the same finger every single time (on every trip) so YES I'm sure! :laughing:

And to boot, we were off the ride by 9:20!

Woah! That's pretty impressive. :thumbsup2
 
So glad your morning worked out (once the bus situation was fixed with the uber!). I had the same plan for one of my AK days in August and it was basically exactly like yours! Isn't that ride just incredible?!?! :cloud9:
 
Oh no!! This is so frustrating!! And that system glitches so often that the CM shouldn't have been blaming your dad. :( It also seems that the pressure you use when you first set your fingerprint makes a big difference. Glad it got fixed!

Wow!! Intense!

I'm so glad this worked out so well for you! It's a really impressive ride, and it's a challenge to get on it without FP, so good for you guys!

This is such a pretty background! You look so nice!

Yeah it wasn't very pleasant, but it was something we laughed about after the fact and I would tease him the rest of the trip to use the correct finger :rotfl:

It was a little crazy but it really did work out for the best so it ended up being a good strategy for us.

Thank you! :)

Yay! So glad you got to ride FoP! Good decision to call for an Uber, those darn buses can be so frustrating! We really enjoyed the Night Blossom but agree it is sweet! Great moss wall pictures, of course Andi knew this was a thing, lol!

Of course the one morning I was worried about getting to the park at a certain time was the morning the buses decided not to work in our favor! But it all worked out for us which was great.

I am not surprised Andi knew about the moss wall! ;)

Glad you were able to get right on FoP! Those crowds though... OMG Not looking forward to having to deal with that! We got a FP but I was hoping for more than one ride. Maybe not though because all the crowd pictures give me anxiety lol.

Cute pictures with the moss wall!!

It's great that you got a FP for it! And you may have luck getting it as a 4th FP later in the day too if you keep refreshing. I can understand how the early morning strategy might not be for everyone, but once the worst of it is over it's definitely worth it!

Thank you!!

Talk about dedication! ;)

I guess that's the nice thing about those tvs..you at least have some warning if there isn't going to be a bus for a while! Glad y'all made it :)


I get this question when it's a little kid, but with an adult...? I've had that happen to me, and I've been very tempted to tell them that I use the same finger every single time (on every trip) so YES I'm sure! :laughing:

Woah! That's pretty impressive. :thumbsup2

Haha I was determined to get on FoP!!

Yeah those tvs were pretty handy throughout the trip!

It was so weird how snotty she got! But it was c leared up quickly so no harm no foul.

I was very pleased with how the morning turned out!

So glad your morning worked out (once the bus situation was fixed with the uber!). I had the same plan for one of my AK days in August and it was basically exactly like yours! Isn't that ride just incredible?!?! :cloud9:

Great Disney minds think alike! ;) Oh my gosh, SO incredible! I was very impressed!!
 
Day 2, October 22, 2017 - More Pandora!

We then just spent some time walking around the land and taking in all the details. And of course stopping for PP pictures ;)



























Then it was time to use our FP for Navi River Journey! I know it gets a lot of hate, but I liked it! It's short, there's no real story, but visually it's very beautiful.











After we got off, we headed out of Pandora!





Up next...We see some animals!
 
I'm all caught up now!
Love your first day at at MK. Such cute pictures. And I like how you decorated your room window! So cute, feels like when you decorate your door on a cruise!
I'm pretty amazed at how quickly you were able to ride FoP! It pays to go early I guess. Just this past weekend FoP had a 255 minute wait. That is almost 4 hours, but @ArielSRL told me were people saying they waited almost 6 hours total. I can't imagine my whole day being taken up by one ride. The nice part about standby are all the cool stuff you see on the line, which I have not seen since our AP Preview back in May. It pays to hit it at rope drop!!
Love the pics with the moss wall. I still have to get the purple wall and moss wall and all the "wall" pictures. I always forget, and Steve doesn't care for all that kind of stuff and whenever he takes a picture of me it's like always...bad. Seriously. LOL. :crazy2:
 
Wow, those crowds seem crazy for FOP. I'm beginning to wonder if I was nuts to put that on the schedule for January. I'm definitely not trying it with Mom in February since we have a FP. I'm also nervous about the buses that morning, you aren't the first report I've read where someone has chosen to get an Uber. That just might be the way to go.

Beautiful pictures, I can't wait to see it in person in a few weeks!
 
Happy Holidays to you and yours! I agree with you on the Na’vi river ride. I really enjoy it for what it is, a visually stunning river ride! Great pictures in Pandora.
 
The time on the bus tv schedule said a bus would be arriving at 7:03- perfect! But then the time kept changing...and changing...and I started panicking. I wanted to be at the park at 7:30! The final straw was seeing the time change to 7:27. I made the decision to call for an uber. I placed the request at 7:15 and we were at the park by 7:30.

:scared:

Great call to use Uber!


They kept making him try and the CM got kinda snippy and said "Sir are you sure that's the right finger?".

"Let me show you the finger!"

:thumbsup2


Your pictures around Pandora are gorgeous. I like the ones you took in the gift shop.

I did not get a night blossom or pose in front of the moss wall. Fail and Fail!

:sad2:
 



Is that a bird up in a nest or is it flowers that just look like one?






I love your mom's blue hair bow. It matches her shirt perfectly!



More great Pandora pix, especially from River Journey.

I agree with you- not much of a story but it really is a serene and visually stunning ride.


::yes::
 
I made the decision to call for an uber.

Great decision! Probably saved a ton of stress.

It was a little before 8:45 when they started herding us towards the ride. It was such chaos- people pushing, people trying to cut other people off.

Ugh, I'm not bad with crowds but this sounds kind of awful... but I'd probably do it for FOP cause it's great.


So pretty! Love the pink tree peaking through.

After that another mission needed to be accomplished- I needed to buy a night blossom!

No alcohol at 9 in the morning? :rotfl::scratchin
 

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