Halloween Week at Disney -little princess's magical vacation, food allergy, photos

[MomoMama]

We got a spot to watch Mickey's Boo To You! Halloween parade in Frontierland. We waited, the headless Horseman passed by, then another wait...then the parade started! Oh, this was such a fun parade! I saw Alice in Wonderland characters first and that got me so excited!
Boo to You6 by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

Boo to You5 by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

Mad Hatter came over and said something to DH. I love the character interactions!

Boo to You4 by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

Boo to You3 by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

Boo to You2 by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

Boo to You1 by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

I loved seeing rare characters, like hyenas from Lion King! But what excited DD was Pain and Panic! We love Hercules!

I thought the ghost dancers looked great. DD was trying to figure out if they were real ghosts...when one of them got close to boo, that have scared her a little.

 

[Frozen2014]

Very cool that your DD met Rapuzel as Rapunzel. And so true...she is one of the few princesses that are not at the princess meals (also Tiana). Love that you dressed as Mother Gothel and DH as Pascal. Very cool!

We loved the Boo to You Parade too. Pretty impressive isn't it? Gosh you got some great photos. Did you see the castle show and fireworks (I'm guessing that's coming next? )

 

[MomoMama]

After the parade we were in the mood for some rides. We went to Big Thunder Mountain, I checked it before the parade and the wait was short. After the parade the wait was still like 20 minutes. Oh, this was fun! I liked it was much longer than the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. And DD...well she said she liked the Severn Dwarfs one better. I understand, those dwarfs are really cute.

Then we went to Haunted Mansion. I was not sure about this one for DD, but it was Halloween Party night...and DD said she wanted to see ghost before the trip, so we went there. As we walked through, DD became scared. She said she did not want to go... DH said we should leave the place, but we did not see any CM around and were not sure where to exit. We held her and told her the ghosts were not real. A nice lady in front of us joined us to comfort DD too. We thought she was okay and went ahead with the ride. During the ride we held her and kept telling her how funny those ghost looked and laughed. So, she survived the ride without crying. But she said she would NEVER want to go there again. We felt bad for taking her there...

To cheer her up, we went back to Fantasyland.
The line to see the seven dwarfs was still very long. But right next to them was the evil queen with almost no wait! DD said she did not see her. So I stood in line by myself. Villain to villain, the evil queen gave me a big hug. Then when we posed for the photo, DD joined in. It seems she felt she had to be in every photos...

We did Under the Sea Little Mermaid ride. Then we saw Trick-or Treat station in front with short line, so let DD go get the candies.

Then to the Dumbo the Flying Elephant! No wait at all, we rode twice without getting off in between!

Halloween_Fireworks2 by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

While we were riding Dumbo, we saw the fireworks started! Then I realized we missed Celebrate the Magic and Hallowishes!

Halloween_Fireworks1 by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

We got off the ride, and watched the fireworks there.
So I do not know how the Halloween fireworks show is different from the regular one, but it was kind of cool seeing the fireworks while riding flying Dumbo!

 

[MomoMama]

Very cool that your DD met Rapuzel as Rapunzel. And so true...she is one of the few princesses that are not at the princess meals (also Tiana). Love that you dressed as Mother Gothel and DH as Pascal. Very cool!

We loved the Boo to You Parade too. Pretty impressive isn't it? Gosh you got some great photos. Did you see the castle show and fireworks (I'm guessing that's coming next? )

We met Tiana on Disney cruise last year, but there was no Rapunzel on the ship. So meeting her was kind of "high" on our (me and DD) to-do list. I wonder if it is hard for Rapunzel to appear at the restaurants, with all that hair...

The Halloween parade was fun! Great lineup of the characters, and the ghost dancers were great! The giant candy corns were little odd though. I thought something might come out of them and kept looking at them, but they only moved along with the parade...

 

[MomoMama]

After the fireworks, we caught Daisy right outside the circus area. We had a quick photo taken, then another photo in the rose garden. There we saw something was going on in front of the castle, it was villains on stage. This was something I was curious to see. We got closer and watched it a little. DD or DH were not interested much, and I did not want DD to get scared again, so we left. Then we headed to Tomorrowland.

There, we saw a dance party going on! It was a dance party with Monsters Inc. characters! DD and I got excited and ran to there, but once we got there DD got a little shy. She danced a little, but kind of stayed away form the characters, or just starred at them without moving.
I regret not taking photos or video there. There was a Photopass photographer and he took some of DD's photos, but not with the Monsters in the same photo... he saw 2 girls (DD and another girl) dressed as Rapunzel, and took the photos of them together. I did not realize that until I checked the photos later online. So no Sully or Mike photos, but one of the photos does have Mike's arm in it.

Then we went to Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor. This was a fun interactive show. I hoped DH would be picked to be laughed at, but he did not.

We saw the wait line for Astro Orbiter was not long, so went to line up. I have seen the wait time going to 1 hour on this ride, so I was curious about this ride. Once we got up and saw the ride...I was actually surprised that this was just another flying plane ride, kind you see in any amusement parks. And this one tilted as it flew, that kind of hurt side of my body. DD had fun, but I would never stay in line for this again...

Then we saw Stitch's Great Escape!. DD and I both LOVE Stitch, but this attraction was not great... And it was hard for DD to understand what was going on.

We went back to Fantasyland. There the line to see the seven dwarfs had gotten shorter, so I convinced DH we should line up. We waited, and saw the dwarfs leaving for a break again. But we were told that was 10 min break, so we waited. They came back, the line started moving slowly...As we got closer, I saw what was going on and why this was taking long. Just like any other meet&greet, this is an interactive meeting. I saw Bashful became shy and going to the corner, other dwarfs bringing him back. Since this was an open air meet and greet, I could see him repeatedly doing this. And I must admit, I got a little irritated. When there were only a few people before us, the dwarfs left for the break again! We did not want to waste the time we have already spent on the wait, so we stayed.
When finally it was our turn, I told DD to go sit with Dopey, but she got shy or scared. So I sat with her in the front. Later I looked at the photo and my big wig was covering up half of Grumpy's face. It looked like he was "grumpy" at my hair...

It was past 11:30 pm already. DD wanted to ride Seven Dwarfs Train again. The wait for Thunder Mountain was shorter, and I thought maybe we could ride twice on that one. But DD wanted seven dwarfs, and seven dwarfs she got. I think the posted time was 20 minutes and that was about the time we waited.

When we got out of the park it was about 12:30. Yes, DD slept on the bus.

Overall we got to do a lot that night. We were all tired, but it was FUN!

We got some great fun photos that night too... I was a little disappointed that there was no Photopass photographer around Rapunzel tower. But we got the photos from other places...

Evil Queen_Photopass by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

Halloween Daisy_Photopass by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

Haunted Masion_Photopass by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

 

[Frozen2014]

Hi MomoMama,

Your last pictures aren't showing up...but wow, beautiful ones caught on Dumbo with the fireworks.
So sorry your DD was scared on Haunted Mansion. It's my DD (and my) favorite, but can understand how it's not for everyone. How did she like Little Mermaid? That would be #2 for DD and DH said her reaction the first time was priceless.

For the parade, not sure about the candy corn. Either it was a reference to one of the movies, or, just a candy for Halloween?

I love how many characters you saw...and perfect age for your DD to be so excited for every one. Have heard that the Seven Dwarfs line is the long one at the party...but how annoying that they kept taking a break. Their interaction sounds cute but a shame it was so repetitive (and you could see this so wouldn't hvae been new when it was your turn).

Can't believe your DD made it to 12:30pm. Good for her and that you could take advantage of the whole party. Sounds like you all had a blast,

 

[MomoMama]

Hi MomoMama,

Your last pictures aren't showing up...but wow, beautiful ones caught on Dumbo with the fireworks.
So sorry your DD was scared on Haunted Mansion. It's my DD (and my) favorite, but can understand how it's not for everyone. How did she like Little Mermaid? That would be #2 for DD and DH said her reaction the first time was priceless.

For the parade, not sure about the candy corn. Either it was a reference to one of the movies, or, just a candy for Halloween?

I love how many characters you saw...and perfect age for your DD to be so excited for every one. Have heard that the Seven Dwarfs line is the long one at the party...but how annoying that they kept taking a break. Their interaction sounds cute but a shame it was so repetitive (and you could see this so wouldn't hvae been new when it was your turn).

Can't believe your DD made it to 12:30pm. Good for her and that you could take advantage of the whole party. Sounds like you all had a blast,

Thank you so much for letting me know! I was able to see the photos when I posted, so I did not realize the issue. I edited and hopefully now you can see them, including the ghost magic shot you missed!

We rode the Little Mermaid last year, so there was no surprises. Still a very cute ride and DD enjoyed, but just as your DH said, the reactions from the first time was priceless.

I saw the doors on those giant candy corns, and thought someone will jump out. I wish I focused on watching other characters for those minutes I spent staring at the candy corns

Our DD does a pretty good job staying up late, when she is having fun! When we put her in the stroller, she fell asleep right away. We rented a stroller for her to sleep in, and it was very useful...especially since the bus stop to POP was all the way at the end. Carrying her and waiting for a bus would not have been fun for us when we both were also tired.

 

[MomoMama]

After the night of MNSSHP, we did not get to Epcot next day till 10:30 am.
we got the "mandatory" photo with Spaceship Earth in the background taken, and headed to The Land. Our first FP was Soarin. I read that the ride should be avoided after meal, so we wanted to ride it before lunch.

At the outside character spot, we saw Dale. Somehow there was no Chip, but DD wanted to see him. The line was short and we had enough time for FP, so we went to see him.

Epcot Dale by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

DD gave Dale an acorn (fake one I brought from home). He was so happy, he gave DD extra long big hug.

Then we went to ride Soarin. This ride was okay. I think I expected too much because of the good reviews. It was a fun ride and DD enjoyed it. We flew over the cities in California, but the transitions from cities to cities were chopped...the ride would have been more believable if the transitions were smooth.

Our lunch reservation was at Akershus at noon, so we walked to World Showcase. Food & Wine Festival was going on, but I was surprised to see the place was not crowded at all. Later in the evening more people showed up, but during the day there were no line at the food booths.

We tried Akershus last year, so we knew what to expect. I actually was planning to dine this time at Chefs de France, but after finding out the Chef Remy is no longer making appearance there at lunch time, I picked Akershus again. I expected DD to interact with the princesses better than last year, and she did and had great time.

Also this time DD enjoyed the little princess parade, that she did not follow last year. It is just a little walk around inside the restaurant, but it is cute to see the kids enjoying it.

Akershus Snow White by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

DD was dressed as Snow White that day, so Snow White seemed very excited to see her. DD had a Snow White doll too, and when Snow White saw it she picked it up and showed it off to her friend, Ariel. It was kind of fun to see that, but to be honest her action caught me by surprise. The doll was in my purse. It was an open purse so the doll was visible, but still it was inside my purse. I would expect Stitch to grab something out of my purse, but not a princess...


Food
The food was also better this year. Last year there was grilled chicken on the kids menu and chef said he could get that for DD. This year the chef (it was a different chef) asked us what we wanted, and DD asked for beef. Often her choice of meat is limited to chicken, so it was very nice of the chef to ask us what we wanted. Thank you, Chef!
From the appetizer bar I got cheese, tomatoes, carrots, and salmon for DD. And on her plate were beef, rice, and green beans. I think the dessert was raspberry sorbet. She had plenty to eat and enjoyed her meal.

 

[MomoMama]

After lunch we were going to Future World, and decided to go around the World Showcase. We walked to the next China. There Mulan was about to show up. We did not get to see her last year, so stayed in the short line and waited. When Mulan appeared, DD noticed her unusual shoes and asked me what they were. I told her to ask Mulan about them, but DD got shy and did not...

Mulan Epcot by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

As we were passing by Germany, a Photopass photographer noticed DD wearing Snow White dress, and told us Snow White will be showing up in few minutes. We just saw Snow White at lunch, but the wishing well settings were nice and DD wanted to see her again, so we waited. Snow White was a little late for the scheduled time, but she was a lovely princess.

Snow White Epcot by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

Then we walked in hurry to see Aladdin & Jasmine in Morocco. I wanted to see them in Epcot rather than on MK day. We went to Morocco, and could not tell where the meet and greet was. I walked around in and out of Morocco, and finally found a CM to ask. This was held indoor, and there was no sign. I passed by twice without noticing it.
I stayed in line with DD, while DH waited outside. The line moved very slowly, because Aladdin and Jasmine took time with each guest to talk. Staying in the line, I wished I had found the location sooner...
But when finally it was out turn, it was a fun meet! Aladdin and jasmine asked us where we were from. DD was being shy or goofy, did not talk much, but those two talked a lot!

Aladdin & Jasmine Epcot_Photopass by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

I kind of wanted to see Belle in her peasant dress too, but I could tell DH was not happy talking time to meet all those characters, so we did not stop by France.

When we were passing the bridge we saw a Photopass photographer, and asked if she could do a Tinkerbell magic shot. Yes, she could! This photo turned out better than another Tinkerbell magic shot we got at MK, because the background was just pretty flowers and blue sky, not a heavy crowd in MK

Then we went to VISA card holder meet and greet in Innoventions. We were a little surprised to see several families staying in the line. Last year there was only one family ahead of us and we had hard time finding this photo spot.
This year we saw Minnie and Pluto. They do not talk and this should be a quick meet and greet, but somehow the line moved very slowly. I wonder if they were taking breaks behind the curtains...

It was almost 3 pm. We let DD to take a nap. Once she laid down in the stroller, she fell sleep easily. We rented City Elite stroller for this purpose...for DD to sleep in. It is more comfortable than the park stroller, and it is great that you don't have to carry a child to the bus stop on those late nights.
I was thinking DH and I could walk around World Showcase again, but poor DH was tired. I guess Disney trip is more exhausting for him because he is not as excited as DD or me. We found a quiet corner in Innoventions building and all took a rest.

 

[MomoMama]

After a little over 1 hour nap, We woke up DD and went to The Seas with Nemo & Friends. Then to Turtle Talk with Crush. We rode Nemo last year so nothing was new to us, but still a very cute ride and we enjoyed it. Then the Turtle talk...this was fun! DD did not get picked to talk to Crush, but we all enjoyed it and laughed.

We saw some fish at the Sea Base and also took photos with Bruce. Everyone was taking the photos in Bruce's mouth, so I sent DD in there too. I did not realize but there are no steps and DD could not reach the mouth. A nice lady behind her held her up, but not long enough for me to snap a pic. So the second time I went in there with DD. Later I saw the photos and realized other people waiting for their turns are also clearly in the photos. So if yo are getting the photos taken in Bruce's mouth, you might want to step back a little till your turn... or you will end up in other people's photos.

Then we headed to Food & Wine Festival's Chocolate experience. We were not driving so we were not buying any bottles of wines to take home. We went straight to the Chocolate Experience, and was a little disappointed how small the area was. We got a piece of sample chocolate for each one of us. There were some characters made of chocolate.
Chocolate Food&Wine by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

To be honest I was not impressed. I think when food is used for something like this, they should look yummy but they did not...

I got the chocolate drink I was there for. Very chocolate-y. Not something DH liked, but I am a chocoholic. I let DD taste it a little too. she liked "having" the chocolate drink rather than the drink itself. I liked it, I could have had it in a bigger cup...

Photopass
Before going to the special event pavilion, we stopped by Photopass service first to pick up a print from VISA card meet and greet. There I asked questions about the magic shot. I have read about Stitch magic shot and wanted to know where to get it. The man behind the counter said you can get ANY magic shots at ANY parks by ANY photographers. I liked this answer, but later turned out it was not true... Later on MK day I asked to get Stitch magic shot around. One photographer said he could not do Stitch, but he could do Lumiere. Another said no Stitch but could do Olaf, and another said Tinkerbell only. One photographer said he could not do magic shot while he was using a tripod. And lastly, one photographer told me you can only get the Stitch magic shot at AK or Epcot only. We did not get our Stitch magic shot...

 

[Frozen2014]

I am so loving reading your posts as a lot of it is the same experience (well, except that you got to a lot more character greets than us). I thought the same thing with Soarin btw.

Such a sweet picture of DD with Snow White (well, all of them are so sweet). And its cute how something so simple as a 'parade' can be so enjoyable for them and make them feel important. And my DD sounds like yours wrt being shy with the characters.

Oh no...had no idea there was a Chocolate Experience or I would hae so insisted on that one too.

Glad you got a great Tinkerbelle magic shot. For Stitch, we got one done at the Epcot entrance near the flower beds (hint for next time)

 

[MomoMama]

I am so loving reading your posts as a lot of it is the same experience (well, except that you got to a lot more character greets than us). I thought the same thing with Soarin btw.

Such a sweet picture of DD with Snow White (well, all of them are so sweet). And its cute how something so simple as a 'parade' can be so enjoyable for them and make them feel important. And my DD sounds like yours wrt being shy with the characters.

Oh no...had no idea there was a Chocolate Experience or I would hae so insisted on that one too.

Glad you got a great Tinkerbelle magic shot. For Stitch, we got one done at the Epcot entrance near the flower beds (hint for next time)

DD wanted to meet ALL princesses. And her wish came true.

DD did much better with the characters this year. If she was relaxed, she would talk. But at age 4 there are still times she gets shy. At home, she never stops talking though.

Chocolate Experience was hosted by Ghirardelli. The only thing that I had to get there was the drinking chocolate. It was like smoother melted chocolate, definitely a drink for chocoholics

 

[Frozen2014]

DD wanted to meet ALL princesses. And her wish came true.

DD did much better with the characters this year. If she was relaxed, she would talk. But at age 4 there are still times she gets shy. At home, she never stops talking though.

Chocolate Experience was hosted by Ghirardelli. The only thing that I had to get there was the drinking chocolate. It was like smoother melted chocolate, definitely a drink for chocoholics

Ghirardelli - oh my gosh. Probably a good thing we didn't know about it.

Yes...my DD is the exact same with respect to talking at home and then how she was with characters. Funny how they get, and the characters do try and help out by talking to them (well, the characters that talk at least).

 

[MomoMama]

Then we walked to World Showcase again. Our plan was to have the food from Food & Wine Festival as our dinner and use up all snack credits from the dining plan. I also wanted to experience each pavilions more.

We got to Showcase Plaza and could see now there were more people. We saw Duffy dressed in the pumpkin outfit. DD was not interested in him at all in the morning, but the weather was cooler and she was hyper after sipping the chocolate drink, she wanted to meet him this time.

Duffy Epcot by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

I am not a Duffy fan, but thought he was cute in the pumpkin hat.

Soon it got dark and it was time to eat!

World Showcase Epcot by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

We checked the menu carefully. There were several items that interested us. For DD we looked for gluten-free items, and them picked few items from them that also did not have other allergens for her. But it was hard looking for food for her, we also gave her snacks we brought with us.

The best food for us came from Brazil...crispy pork belly! DD loved it too and I regretted not getting 1 for each of us. But Brazil was popular and I did not want to go back to the line, so we moved on.

I was enjoying the food and it was dark outside, so I did not even try to take photos. Also we ended up not exploring each pavilions. Just walking around and eating consumed our time. Unlike earlier in the day, people were lining up at each food booth, so just ordering the food took some time too.

DH and I wanted more photos of just 2 of us at Epcot, and got nice photos taken at France in front of the fountains. We also had photos with the Eiffel Tower in the background, but those photos did not turn out well... you cannot even tell there is Eiffel Tower if not pointed out. We should have gotten the Eiffel tower shot during the day.

We stopped by Les Halles Boulangerie & Pâtisserie to get some desserts to take back to the hotel. Nothing was there for DD, but we wanted something for us to eat after DD goes to sleep

We made one round and were back at the plaza again. Now the time was close to 9 pm, time for IllumiNations!
We got a spot to watch the fireworks show. DH said he would go get the dessert and champagne for us, but I told him to just watch the show and we could get them later... So we enjoyed the fireworks, when it was over we turned around...and saw the food booths were closed!! It was Extra Magic Hours day, and the park was open till 11 pm. the Food & Wine festival information booklet said the international market places (food booths) hours as 11 am -PARK CLOSE, so I assumed they were open till 11 pm that day. This was a huge disappointment for me. I was not done eating! I was sad I missed the dessert and champagne, and glad we stopped by the pastry shop earlier...

We went back to Future World, and saw the wait time for Test Track was only 20 min and ran to it. It seemed many people were doing the same thing. After we got inside the building and saw more people, I checked the wait time again and it was changed to 30 minutes. I thought they were great at keeping the real time posted.
So it was our turn next, we were standing on the number and waiting, when DD said she needed to go potty... My fault for not taking her before the ride. We told CM we had to leave. But when he found out why, he gave us a Fastpass to come back! I was SO glad they did that... I could not imagine coming back and staying in the line again, the line was getting longer and longer!

So we came back and went to the design room. DD said her car would be purple. I was looking forward to see what kind of dream car she would create, but somehow the touch screen was not responding well. People next to us did not seem to have problems. I could not tell if it was us, or our station had the issues. Our car was very boring sedan in red color...we just selected whatever the options that responded.
So the designing part was disappointing, but the ride was great! I was worried it may be too fast for DD, but she really enjoyed it. She wanted to ride it again, but it was getting late.
We got the photos taken again in front of the entrance. The night time photos did not turn out so well, so I am glad we got those taken during the day too. Then we left. It was about 10: 30 pm.

 

[MomoMama]

Animal Kingdom by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

This was our Animal Kingdom day. Originally I had FP for Kilimanjaro Safaris early in the morning, but changed it to the afternoon. Good thing I did, because we did not make it to the park till past 10: 30 am. Days of staying up late and walking around all day were catching up to us

Our first FP was It's Tough to be a Bug. The construction work covered up around Tree of Life and we did not find the entrance easy. We almost missed our FP, but it really did not matter since the place was not full. I remember staying in line for over 1 hour for this attraction 14 years ago, so I was a little surprised.
The show was cute and DD really enjoyed it. I think 14 years ago bugs exited by our feet at the end of the show, but that has changed.

Then we headed to Asia. It was still early for lunch so we walked Maharajah Jungle Trek and saw the animals.

Bat at Maharajah Jungle Trek by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

Maharajah Jungle Trek by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

Flags at Maharajah Jungle Trek by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

Maharajah Jungle Trek by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

There were CMs who could talk about the animals and birds you see there. I thought that was nice.

When we exited we were getting hungry, so had lunch at Yak & Yeti quick service.

Food
The chef said no allergy-free chicken tenders were available there. But he offered to make grilled chicken for DD. So she got grilled chicken, carrots and grapes.

 

[Frozen2014]

Looks like you got to taste some great eats at the Food & Wine festival. Your comment made me laugh though (about not done eating after it was closed)

Phew..so glad the CM gave you a FP for Test Track. Murphy's Law your DD had to go to the washroom just as you were going to go in to build your car. Ah ok...so this is the experience you mentioned about Test Track design not working. Such a shame.

Nice seeing some pictures about Animal Kingdom as that's the one park we didn't get to. Look forward to reading more about it.

 

[MomoMama]

Looks like you got to taste some great eats at the Food & Wine festival. Your comment made me laugh though (about not done eating after it was closed)

Phew..so glad the CM gave you a FP for Test Track. Murphy's Law your DD had to go to the washroom just as you were going to go in to build your car. Ah ok...so this is the experience you mentioned about Test Track design not working. Such a shame.

Nice seeing some pictures about Animal Kingdom as that's the one park we didn't get to. Look forward to reading more about it.

Haha..it does sound funny now, doesn't it? But I was a little mad at that time though... My fault assuming "park close" time included extra magic hours.

We spent 2 days at AK. More reports coming soon!

 

[MomoMama]

After lunch we let DD take a nap in the stroller, and DH and I walked around. We passed by the Everest, and had our photos taken on the bridge with the Everest in the background. We did not ride it since DD has not met the height requirement. I cannot wait for her to grow taller!

We came back to Discovery Island. That is when I realized AK is not as big as I remembered. 14 years ago I visited the park in hot August, and it was very crowded. I did not get to do much and thought the park was huge at that time, so for this trip I allocated 2 days to AK. Maybe 2 days were not necessary, but I don't really regret doing so. We did not have to rush to do everything in one day, so we kind of took it easy.

And just when we got to Discovery Island, we saw macaws flying over our heads! It was quick and I did not get a photo, but it was amazing to see those colorful birds flying through the park! Too bad DD was sleeping and missed it. I hoped to see them again the next day, but we did not...

Dug&Russell AK by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

I saw Dug and Russell and went to see them, while DH waited in front of the gift shop. This was the only M&G I did without DD. Russell would not talk, but he smooched at me.

Tree of Life by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

We walked around Discovery Island Trail, checking out the beautiful Tree of Life. Not many people were walking around, so it was quiet and nice.

Saddle-Billed Stork by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

Also got to see some beautiful birds there.

DD woke up from the nap. She did not sleep much. I guess she was not tired enough because we did not do much that morning. Our FP for Kilimanjaro Safaris was for 3:30, and we still had time. So we walked around Pangani Forest Exploration Trail, which was right next to the safari ride.

Gorillas Pangani Forest Exploration Trail by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

We saw the gorillas. Glad to see those animals are given larger, nicer places than the zoos. Every time I go to the local zoo, I feel bad for those animals living in the tiny spaces.

We got out of the trail, and we still had time before our FP time. But the wait line for the safaris was only 10 min, so we went for it.

Safari by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

Upside-down Tree by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

It was a good ride, but maybe not as exciting as I thought it would be. We have been to the safaris in Texas where you drive around in your own car and you get to feed the animals, including zebras. So just watching them was not as fun, especially for DD.
Still it was a nice ride, so we went back to use our FP to ride it again.
The second ride though...we encountered a problem. For whatever the reason our ride had to stop for...maybe 30 min? or so. The driver/guide did not seem to be informed the reason for it. Our ride stopped right next to the lion. But the lion was not moving around, and you do not really want to stare at a sleeping animal for 30 min... There was nothing else to see and we were stuck. And I was starting to worry that we will miss the last (5 pm) Lion King show. So when the ruck finally started to move, I was glad.
We got off the ride and ran to Festival of the Lion King show!

We had FP for this, but it did not matter as we arrived there late. Still the seat we got were okay as the place was not full.

Festival of the LionKing by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

We were sitting in a warthog section, and were instructed to make hog-like noise.
It was a beautiful show, and 30 minutes felt really short!

 

[MomoMama]

When the Lion King show ended, all we could do was to exit the park since the park closing time was 5 pm. We went to catch the bus to Animal Kingdom Villas Kidani Village because we had a dinner reservation at Sanaa. We did not have to wait too long, and it was nice we did not have to wait for the second bus to arrive...the lines for POP was always too long at park opening/closing times, we were getting used to wait for the second or third buses.

We had plenty of time before our 7 pm reservation, so we checked out the resort. This was one resort I wanted to stay...watching animals from your balcony sounds quite an experience. In the end we chose a value resort, because after listing out everything we wanted to do, it did not look like we had enough time to relax at the resort.

Animal Kingdom Lodge by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

We also took the shuttle bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge. They were both beautiful resorts, but I thought the lobbies are not as large as I thought they would be. I liked the feel there and would love to stay and explorer more, but DH was actually more impressed with AoA, so it will be hard to convince him for our next trip...

When we checked in at Sanaa, we were told they were running late and there will be 20 minutes wait. We were there early and did not like the extra wait, but it was worth it. The service was great and this food was probably the best we got from this trip.
We did not get the window seat, but that did not matter as it was dark outside and we could not see the animals anyway. It was a little chilly there and I was glad I had my jacket with me.

Food
The chef prepared grilled fish and sauteed spinach for DD. She ate well, but said she did not like the spinach. Curry-flavored spinach was new to her, and I could see why 4-year-old was not agreeing with us that it was good. But what made her so happy was the dessert. She got S'mores parfait!
Sanaa Kids' Dessert by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

She did not finish them all so I tasted a little. It was made with regular pudding, nothing special. But it was special to her. She had never had a parfait prepared at a restaurant before.

Sanaa Dessert by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

Here is the dessert trio we got for ourselves. Now, those were GOOD! I especially love the chocolate mousse...

 

[MomoMama]

It was 10/31, Halloween. But since we did not buy MNSSHP ticket for this day, we went to Animal Kingdom again. There are no Halloween decorations at AK and it did not feel like Halloween at all. I forgot it was Halloween until we left the park.

The park was open at 8 am with the extra magic hours, but we did not get there till little past 9 am. We had to check out POP and bring the luggage to the bell service in the morning, so that took a little time.
We had FP for Kilimanjaro safaris good till 10 am. We saw the wait time listed for the character meet at Adventurers Outpost was 20 minutes. We thought we had enough time to stop by.
Turned out...this simple meet and greet with Mickey and Minnie took more than 40 minutes wait. After 20 minutes passed, we thought our turn should be soon so we kept waiting. After 30 minutes past, we knew we would not make it for the safaris FP so we continued to wait in the line.

Mickey AK by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

We were not really happy with the wait time, but at least we got a nice family photo with Mickey and Minnie there.

Since we missed our FP, we also stopped to see Pocahontas on Discovery Island Trail.

Pocahontas AK by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

DD asked what the name of her bird (Flit) was and where Meko was. Pocahontas took her time to answer all the questions DD wanted to ask.

We had about 1 hour before our breakfast/lunch reservation. We were in Africa and saw the wait time for Kilimanjaro safaris was 10 minutes, so we went in, hoping our ride will not get stuck again. Well the ride was fine...but the wait time was more like 20 minutes. I guess the wait time at AK may not be as accurate as MK.

AK Safaris by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

I heard the animals are more active in the morning. But we did not see differences...

When we got off the safari it was just the time for our reservation at Tusker House. We checked in, and with no wait time we were led to our table.

Donald at Tusker House by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

We saw Donald, Goofy, Mickey, and Daisy. I did not know Mickey was there, so it was a nice surprise.

Food
I asked for allergy-free Mickey waffles for DD from the Chef. For dessert, he brought a plate full of cookies! I believe those were Enjoy Life cookies, and again I had those to-go as DD could not eat them all. I cannot remember what I got for DD from the buffet. I think there were less selections for her here than 1900 Park Fare, but still enough to select from. The chef did not say he would show me the buffet to explain each item, I had to ask him to do it.

Mickey Waffle at Tusker House by PeachAnnie, on Flickr

I liked the atmosphere here, and loved the characters in safari attire. The tables seemed to be setup little too close to each others though. People were constantly getting up to go get food, to take photos with the characters, blocking the way for others to walk through. And it was a little annoying I had to listen to the conversations from the table behind us so clearly...it was not like I wanted to listen.