The Snarkiest Safari That Ever Sailed! An October 2018, Food & Wine Trip! Complete 4/26/19!!

[Terra Nova guy]

We will only have three park days and since we'll need to use a day for DHS, I think we're going to skip EPCOT this trip

It's a hard choice, but only having 3 days and with teenagers who I am sure want the big rides, it makes sense to skip Epcot.
I just can't imagine skipping any of the parks

Let me cut to the chase and tell you right now..we did not stay for ROL.
I don't know what it is but at least four trips I have had this in my touring plan and just decided not to stay to see it.

My family saw ROL, we basically made a special trip back to AK one evening for that. I'm happy to say that I've seen it, but definitely would not go out of my way to see it again. I would see it again if I was walking past and could get a seat with minimal wait. In my TR (which I will update eventually!) I described ROL as "like 15 minutes of the boring part of Illuminations where the globe spins around".

From there we went over and waited for the next Up, Bird Show to start.
Mike and I loved the old Flights of Wonder bird show and were excited to see this one for our first time.

Hmmm...I was curious about the new show but skipped it. To be honest, I wasn't really a fan of Flights of Wonder. Sounds like if I didn't like thew old show, I won't like the new one.

Mike refused to buy one because we have so many already and he hates to be wasteful. I hate being wasteful also, but I hate being wet even more so I gladly shelled out my $9 for a lovely new poncho to add to our collection…

I would have been very tempted to be like Mike and not buy one. I hate being wasteful too. But I would also hate being that soaked. I probably would have caved and bought another poncho.

Awakenings, the show on the Tree of Life, was super amazing though! We stood and watched for a long time…

I only caught a small part of Awakenings, but I enjoyed it. It is a nice addition.

 

[cstorm65]

What a great evening at Animal Kingdom! That dinner in Pandora looks great! We've always loved the meals we've gotten there as well!

 

[missjackiemcg]

Merry Christmas! Happy New year!

I know what you mean about ROL! It took us a couple of trips to finally make it there, and once we did we weren't in a hurry to bother seeing it again. BUT, I do love the Awakenings they do on the Tree of Life. Definitely worth pausing for!!

 

[disneyAndi14]

I felt the same way about the UP bird show, it was okay but not something I would have to do every trip

Love the animal interaction on the Safari

Satu’li is so yummy, I hope to eat there soon!

Thanks for the tip about the rain ponchos!

 

[buzzrelly]

How very seasonal of you. I haven't watched it in a couple years, even though I own a copy.

Wow, I'm SUPER impressed!

In my TR (which I will update eventually!) I described ROL as "like 15 minutes of the boring part of Illuminations where the globe spins around".

Sounds enticing

To be honest, I wasn't really a fan of Flights of Wonder. Sounds like if I didn't like thew old show, I won't like the new one.

Definitely not…the birds do pretty much the same thing…the show is cornier

I probably would have caved and bought another poncho.

I married a stubborn one, all right.

What a great evening at Animal Kingdom! That dinner in Pandora looks great! We've always loved the meals we've gotten there as well!

That was our first time but we'll definitely be back!

Merry Christmas! Happy New year!

Happy New Year to you and your family as well, Jackie!

Satu’li is so yummy, I hope to eat there soon!

I'll go again in May!

Thanks for the tip about the rain ponchos!

An even better tip about ponchos…don't leave them in your hotel room

 

[pkondz]

Wow, I'm SUPER impressed!

 

[Tracy161]

Happy New Year!

Let me cut to the chase and tell you right now..we did not stay for ROL.
I don't know what it is but at least four trips I have had this in my touring plan and just decided not to stay to see it.

I haven't managed to see ROL yet either! And I've had plans to on each of my last trips too. I guess I just haven't found the enthusiasm for it at the end of the day.

This was also my first time seeing Pandora at night and it was so beautiful.

Yes, isn't it?! I love Pandora at night.

You're getting so close to your April trip! And I love saying that selfishly because I hate winter so if you're getting close to your trip, that means spring is within reach too right?

 

[buzzrelly]

Happy New Year!

Thank you! Happy New Year to you as well!

You're getting so close to your April trip! And I love saying that selfishly because I hate winter so if you're getting close to your trip, that means spring is within reach too right?

We are! I just checked in for our cruise last night (yes, I woke up at midnight to book our Palo brunch and dinner!), so we are getting really close!

I am counting down to Spring too! And I am thanking my lucky stars every time we get a bunch of rain around here instead of snow. I don't know how long this will last, but I'll take it. And in the meantime…only 74 days until Spring

 

[kastoney]

So I checked the flights and saw there was a flight the night before that lands at 10:45 pm. Perfect! I also called and added a night to POFQ and there was still availability so we are now going down April 2-April 13th! I'm really excited to be able to do EMM at DHS with my mom and kids and I know they'll love SDD

Awesome!!!!!!! Nothing like getting a full Disney day in. Jason is headed down in February before Casey and I so he can register for the races. I already got his ticket but saw a $49 fare 2 days prior and mentioned it to him, so he is now campaigning to go down 2 days before us instead of a few hours

We will only have three park days and since we'll need to use a day for DHS, I think we're going to skip EPCOT this trip

You have to have a ticket even when you purchase the EMM one????

Let me cut to the chase and tell you right now..we did not stay for ROL.
I don't know what it is but at least four trips I have had this in my touring plan and just decided not to stay to see it.
Maybe in April

Or May since I'm in the same boat and have never seen it either

We're so scary…

Shakin in my boots

before we headed our safari…this was NOT the snarkiest safari…that comes later.
But it was enjoyable and we saw lots of animals doing amusing things...

You've got me on pins and needles. I'm dying to know what the snarky safari was all about.

Amazing safari! I don't think I've ever seen the giraffes get so close-up.

You might remember me bragging about how long we've had our Disney ponchos for and how when they rip we just turn them in for new ones. We have 5-6 in our owner's locker and we just leave them there so we will have them when we need it.
Well, when this rain started, I thought of all those ponchos, safe and sound in our owner's locker…back at the Poly

Murphy's law. We always carry ours with us (I just buy the disposable ones from Amazon) and thankfully haven't had to use them for the last 2 trips. But we still keep carting them around just in case

Wow, that was some serious rain. He looks soaked.

To nobody's surprise, I got the Chopped Wood-Grilled Chicken Bowl, which is essentially another salad.
@kastoney I can feel your eyes roll from here

Am I that transparent?

This does look great though. We ate here on our last trip too and really enjoyed it, though I did not get a salad

 

[wdwnut61]

Before I get back to our October trip, I wanted to share some pre-planning thoughts regarding our April trip that I can now officially say is now in LESS THAN 3 MONTHS

Congrats on scoring another flight and adding a day at POFQ We have EMM booked for MK and HS for our March trip can't wait to try both of these.

especially since Nicholas' new favorite ride is FOP.

DD's favorite too our FP day is approaching and her only request is multiple FOP FP's

We didn't love this one. I think the whole story was too distracting and long. I don't know if I'd rush back here to see it again.

That's a shame we also really enjoyed the previous Flights of Wonder

Very cool can't believe how close this guy got

Again very cool we have the Rhino tour booked can't wait to see these guys up close.

Beautiful

Stunning shots from Awakenings!

 

[Tracy161]

I just checked in for our cruise last night (yes, I woke up at midnight to book our Palo brunch and dinner!), so we are getting really close!

Yay! Glad you got them

And in the meantime…only 74 days until Spring

Thank you for this number! I usually start a "countdown to spring" in my office around this time... this will save me from having to count myself

 

[buzzrelly]

I already got his ticket but saw a $49 fare 2 days prior

What?? We never see low fares like that around here anymore! He absolutely should take advantage of that

You have to have a ticket even when you purchase the EMM one????

I think so? I'll check into it because if this was a separate thing, we would probably just stay at DHS for the morning and then hit EPCOT with our ticket.

Or May since I'm in the same boat and have never seen it either

#Riversoflightgoals

And speaking of May, maybe we should make some (any) plans soon

Wow, that was some serious rain. He looks soaked.

He was. I can't even describe how bad the rain was because it was coming down too hard to even get my phone out and take pictures. He's not fussy about stuff like that though. If it were me, I would have been leaving AK immediately to get dry clothes

Am I that transparent?

Let's just say, we are at opposite ends of the eating spectrum

 

[buzzrelly]

We have EMM booked for MK and HS for our March trip can't wait to try both of these.

Awesome! We did MK in April and it was amazing! We got at least 8-9 rides on 7DMT and could have gotten more if we wanted. It's so much fun!

DD's favorite too our FP day is approaching and her only request is multiple FOP FP's

Good luck! Let me know how it goes!

Again very cool we have the Rhino tour booked can't wait to see these guys up close.

That sounds fun! Mike and I love tours, but we haven't tried any at AK yet. That one sounds really cool I think you need to start a TR after that trip!

 

[buzzrelly]

Thank you for this number! I usually start a "countdown to spring" in my office around this time... this will save me from having to count myself

It's in sight, hang in there! (I'm talking to myself as much as I'm talking to you!)

 

[KathyM2]

Mike and I loved the old Flights of Wonder bird show and were excited to see this one for our first time.

I really liked the old show too, it's too bad the new one wasn't as good.

 

[buzzrelly]

I really liked the old show too, it's too bad the new one wasn't as good.

It is kind of disappointing, especially because UP is one of my favorite movies. It just doesn't really fit and almost detracts from what should be the stars of the show, the birds

 

[buzzrelly]

October 20, 2018
Cobb Salads For Two


We we heading to DHS this day and didn't care if we made it to RD, so we took our time getting ready.


Our Plans:

We were on the bus by 10:07

and made it to DHS by 10:30, or so. I didn't take notes about how long our bus wait were,
but I think we had pretty good luck all week as far as that goes, no matter what time of day it was.

We headed straight to Sunset Boulevard to "our" first FP…

Of course, Mike still wouldn't go on but he was nice enough to wait with me in line,
and then he took the regular elevator down from the top.

I know I've said this before, but I used to HATE this ride
I went on in 2006 with my then 4-year-old son and I thought we were going to die.
Years later, I learned that the ride doesn't drop, there is a big arm that pulls you down and this seems to have made all the difference to me and while it's not my absolute favorite, I kind of enjoy this ride now.

Don't I look happy?

I'm still never going to let go of those handles!

After that, we made our way through the Launch Bay and checked out some Light Sabers…

Mike tried drinking some of the blue milk someone had left out…

We also met Chewie while we were there He was very polite

We also met Kylo Ren, who kind of creeps me out…

We escaped his evil clutches and made our way over to Star Tours to use our FP.

After that, we got into a fairly short line to meet Mickey and Minnie. After we had been waiting about 15 minutes, a CM came out and announce that the line was going to take longer than originally thought because there were some guests coming in through the back. We had 2 groups ahead of us at this point, but it took at least another 30 minutes from there. We could see who they were bringing in and there were at least 10-20 families pushing children in wheelchairs though, so we didn't mind waiting. The CMs gave out stickers to all of us for being patient, but we were happy to do so.

We eventually got to meet Sorcerer Mickey…

and Glamorous Minnie

Minnie is easily my favorite character to meet, going back to, well, forever
I used to love her house in Toon-Town and was seriously sad when it closed

Around 1:30, we were ready for lunch. We headed over to the HBD and put our names on a waiting list to get in, but then the
maiter de told us there was a table outside available right now if we wanted so we decided to sit there.
It was an absolutely gorgeous day and there was a bit of shade from the trees next to us which was just perfect.

Our server brought us a menu, and though I had never eaten here before this, I already knew what I wanted…

To nobody's surprise I got the Cobb Salad, but in a surprising turn of events, so did Mike.
I think I must have talked it up a bunch and he wanted to see what the fuss was about.

He also got a Bloody Mary, and I got an unsweetened Iced Tea.

It was a delightful lunch, and we both really enjoyed everything. I will definitely go back again.
We thought for a minute about trying the Grapefruit Cake, but we were both too full and decided to skip it.

It wasn't quite time for our next FP, so we waited stand-by for TSM…

And when we got off, it was time for my SDD FP…

Mike went and waited on his bench while I rode, and after that we headed out and back to the Poly to relax. ​

 

[Jenny Sanders]

I love Glamorous Minnie! How cute is she!!!

 

[kastoney]

Looks like you all had a great day at MGM. I'm totally with you on the Tower of Terror, though even the knowledge of it being pulled doesn't help me I still enjoy it after the fact. Jason and Casey won't ride so its a rarity that I get on.

Despite all the greenery going on sitting outside at HBD and enjoying some food and drinks sounds like a perfect afternoon to me!

 

[wdwnut61]

I know I've said this before, but I used to HATE this ride
I went on in 2006 with my then 4-year-old son and I thought we were going to die.
Years later, I learned that the ride doesn't drop, there is a big arm that pulls you down and this seems to have made all the difference to me and while it's not my absolute favorite, I kind of enjoy this ride now.

LOVE TOT glad you like it now

Minnie is easily my favorite character to meet, going back to, well, forever

Minnie always looks fabulous but I especially love this dress so chic!

Around 1:30, we were ready for lunch. We headed over to the HBD and put our names on a waiting list to get in, but then the
maiter de told us there was a table outside available right now if we wanted so we decided to sit there.
It was an absolutely gorgeous day and there was a bit of shade from the trees next to us which was just perfect.

Glad you enjoyed HBD its one of our favorites

Mike went and waited on his bench while I rode, and after that we headed out and back to the Poly to relax.

Can't wait to ride SDD is it more intense than 7DMT?