Our Happily Ever After Begins at WDW... An August 2016 Disneymoon report! The Re-write!

[disneylove16]

DH getting the WDW version of a michelada




And I got a raspberry mojito (note, this is just a regular raspberry mojito. Not the ginger one most restaurants have in their drink menu. That was awful, and will post a photo of that one soon.)

 

[disneylove16]

I wandered inside



and checked out Panchito's:




Apparently, that's the only photo I took at that time in Panchito's.
This resort is so lovely at night.


And it has an amazing view of the HS Star Wars fireworks.

 

[disneylove16]

Mousekeeping left another cute towel-creation:


UP NEXT: ANIMAL KINGDOM

 

[disneylove16]

DAY 3: ANIMAL KINGDOM

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By now, I started feeling more "with it" mentally. The state of shock, as well as jet lag, was wearing off. We rope-dropped AK, and DH was beyond excited. AK is his favorite park.
You could see some of the construction being done around the park, I'm assuming for Avatarland:

 

[disneylove16]

We were allowed into the park early, then corralled until opening time. We had to wait about 15 minutes. It was the longest, hottest 15 minutes ever. I know this park feels hotter than the others, but it was almost unbearable. Everyone was visibly dripping sweat, no sense of personal space, and it was sooo crowded. Definitely the heaviest crowds since we had been to WDW. To officially open the park, they flew some birds (Macaws?) over our heads, which was so cool. I wish I could've enjoyed it more and gotten better pictures, but I was in the middle of a mob, and at very high risk of being trampled.

 

[disneylove16]

The crowd was told Expedition Everest was having a delayed opening, which we later found out was due to the show "Blackish" being filmed in the park that day. We did get to see Tracee Ross, which was pretty neat. I tried my best to get a photo, but her face was totally blocked by the cameraman. I'll post it soon.
We had a 10:15 FP+ for Kilamanjaro Safari, but didn't know what else to do before it. The original plan was EE. I didn't want to do any trails and feel rushed to get back for our FP+, and I was feeling really fatigued from the heat already. So we just did Kilamanjaro early. I'm glad we did. We saw so many animals, and I loved it! My favorite animal is a hippo, followed closely by a rhino. I lucked out big time. *I took a lot of photos here*

 

[disneylove16]

 

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Given the chance, I would request sitting on the left side of the vehicle on this ride, you get a much better view of the animals. We continued on exploring the park, and did some of the trails

 

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Which brought us to my favorite part of the whole trip:










The hippo viewing station! I actually teared up a little, being face to face with my favorite animal. How did I not know this was here?!

 

[disneylove16]

DH pointed out I could not spend the rest of the day in there, and dragged me out to move on with our day.















We stopped for a frozen and iced chai, and I took some photos of the sweets. The donuts were huge!

On a side note... my nails were not dirty. I have no idea what was up with them this trip. I got a gel manicure before our trip, and every day they got more and more discolored as well as my magic band. DH thought maybe it was the water or soap, but I don't think so. Only thing I could think of, was at the airport they swiped my hands with something, no idea what. Maybe a chemical or metal that could cause discoloration? Anyone else deal with this?

 

[disneylove16]

We kept passing where they were filming "Blackish".

That is Tracee Ross with the Minnie ears on. I just stink at taking photos.

 

[disneylove16]

We headed over to Dinoland, and after riding Primeval Whirl (which we loved) it was time for lunch. I wanted to eat at Restaurantosaurus because of the fixin's bar. I knew DH would enjoy it. I didn't have high expectations though, since I haven't heard much about it, and it was just a QS place in AK. We were so surprised, it ended up being our favorite QS meal all trip! I got a grilled chicken sandwich, and DH got a burger, which we both proceeded to smother in toppings from the fixin's bar. I added sautéed mushrooms and onions to mine, along with some mayo. DH added jalapenos, blue cheese, and it looks like lettuce and tomato (that may have come on it already though). Both came with french fries, and we both got the strawberry cheesecake for dessert, which was good.




After lunch, we watched Festival of the Lion King. It was amazing, as usual.

 

[disneylove16]

Then we headed over to Rafiki's Planet Watch, which is a hidden gem in my book. I love it over there. It's never crowded, and I love the petting zoo. I also love Song of the Rainforest. For those of you who haven't been, there are rooms with headphones, and you close yourself in and put on provided headphones. It gets very dark (aka relaxing) and it's an audio "show". I enjoy it.

Often, there will be cast members out showing an animal and teaching about it.











I love this little guy:

 

[disneylove16]

We left Rafiki's Planet Watch, and went to explore more of AK.









We stopped for some root beer floats







While going through the FP+ line, a cast member saw our Bride/Groom gear, and was nice enough to give us anytime FP's for AK! We rode EE again

 

[disneylove16]

I spotted another filming site for "Blackish", and attempted to get a worthwhile picture.





We originally had 5:30 ADR at Boma for dinner. We ended up heading over to AKL way early (3ish?) Because we were tired, hot, and just done with AK. I didn't want to head back to our resort, and have to leave as soon as we got there, so we just headed to AKL early.

 

[disneylove16]

We sat and DH had a drink at the lounge to kill some time.





















I checked on MDE, and was able to move our ADR up to 4:30. Well, we ended up being the first people, which for some reason mortified DH, and I loved, because I could take my time looking at the buffet options without feeling rushed. Because we were the first ones, the hostess told us we were "family of the day" and they played drums/bongos while we were seated. It was different!

 

[disneylove16]

I will try to remember what everything is.. And same as Biergarten, the lighting wasn't so great for photos, so sorry in advance!





This terrible photo (sorry!) is the chicken, which was so delicious, fufu, asparagus, watermelon rind salad, and some other kind of cucumber salad.




I know this is the 2 different types of hummuses? (I'm not quite sure what the plural spelling of hummus is!), salad which I added feta and I believe the mango dressing to, and pita bread which was really good.



This is the Carrot Ginger Soup (my favorite) on the left, Seafood Curry Soup on the right, and a chicken-something chowder in the background.



A blurry shot of the Raspberry Ginger Mojito. It was terrible. Raspberry Mojitos are my favorite drink. I love ginger. Together, not so much. DH had to drink it for me, and he didn't like it either.



Desserts. The little coffee tart in the middle was my favorite.





Our server surprised us with complimentary champagne since we were celebrating our honeymoon! Then she also brought out another complimentary dessert! So nice.

 

[disneyAndi14]

Wow, love all your updates. Your pictures of all the places are wonderful. We didn't spend much time at Epcot this trip so I am enjoying all your photos of world showcase. We also enjoyed FEA, I really thought it was done well. We also saw E and A in their new spot and this was really cute as well. I love your dining updates as well, you ate at some good spots, I haven't been to most you all chose so this is fun to see the reviews!