I Can't See a Thing and Tiger Lady, Oh My! A Nov Mother & Daughter TR Update 5/7

I totally noticed your arm in Pluto's mouth in the picture your mom took. :rotfl: It really is less obvious in the PP shot. Yes, your height was a surprise to me when we met. And it looks as if your mom may even be a bit taller. Is she or am I just imagining that? It looked like you had a GREAT meet and greet with your favorite Disney furry! Loved the picture of the big smile on your face hugging Goofy, wish they would have gotten that shot with you and Pluto! :rolleyes:
 

As we walked through the Oasis area, we stopped to look at a few animals. I took pictures but I have no idea what they were. Maybe Stephanie can follow up for me.

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Those two are a Sulawesi Babirusa

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Reeves' Muntjac


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This looks like a Patagonian Mara to me, but it's not listed as an animal at AK. Must be a new animal to the park though cause it really looks like one to me! They are also called Patagonian Cavy.


Animal answers above :goodvibes

Love the pictures of you with Pluto, and Santa Goofy. And I have heard of the alligator in Dinoland, but always forget to look for him.
 
First of all... So sorry it's been so long since I've been by... I sometimes forget to come to the TR section of Disboards.

I love FOLK too - and I think your pictures turned out great. I learned on my last trip to use the low light function on my camera - most of my pictures turned out really great then.

The pizza looks delicious... I could go for pizza.... LOL

And I love the Pluto tree -and I expecially love that you totally matched it! :)

LOL that Goofy was mad at you... Poor guy - he is almost as neglected as Donald.

But it looks like Pluto gave you a great hug - I love how happy you look in all the pictures!

You and your mom look great by the Christmas tree!

And LOL at the santa hat on the dinosaur.

Hopefully I can be better about keeping up now. :)

D~
 
Maybe the character tree with bears is from Brave (Merida?)

One of my colleagues is in Disney with her family this week. Her friend (another colleague) showed me a picture she had sent her. All you can see behind her husband and sons is a sign with the words "Chester & Hester" and immediately I was like "oh, they're at Animal Kingdom!". My colleague was impressed at how I figured it out. :rotfl:

Yep, give me a jerky, dark and loud Dinosaur any day. Fun, fun, fun!
 


oh wow where do they keep that gator?

He's right smack in the middle of Dinoland!

Oh my gosh those jokes are hilariously bad! Lol.

Awesome pics with pluto! Love it! Glad you finally got to meet him!!

The jokes were really bad! I think he told some more but I only remembered the two. I'm glad I finally got to see my guy!

I totally noticed your arm in Pluto's mouth in the picture your mom took. :rotfl: It really is less obvious in the PP shot. Yes, your height was a surprise to me when we met. And it looks as if your mom may even be a bit taller. Is she or am I just imagining that? It looked like you had a GREAT meet and greet with your favorite Disney furry! Loved the picture of the big smile on your face hugging Goofy, wish they would have gotten that shot with you and Pluto! :rolleyes:

I had no idea my arm was in his mouth till I saw the photos! Mom's actually about 1/2" shorter than me. I ended up right inbetween Mom and Dad height wise. Both of them are the shortest of their siblings so it was no surprise I ended up tall. Mom's "baby" brother is 6' 8".

I did have a great Meet with the two of them. I think it was my fault that the photographer didn't get my first hug with Pluto. I hugged him with my head on the wrong side away from the camera. The photographer actually had me hug him a second time so he could get a better photo.


Animal answers above :goodvibes

Love the pictures of you with Pluto, and Santa Goofy. And I have heard of the alligator in Dinoland, but always forget to look for him.

Thanks once again for the animal names. I'm pretty sure that Cavy is correct for the last one, that sounds really familiar. The thing really just looked like a rabbit on steroids. :rotfl:

You'll have to look for the Alligator next time you are there. There was also another pen next to him that had I think some kind of turtle. I didn't take pictures and my memory is fuzzy at this point.


First of all... So sorry it's been so long since I've been by... I sometimes forget to come to the TR section of Disboards.

No worries, I've been having trouble keeping up with everyone's threads lately too. I'm barely managing to keep up with my two.

I love FOLK too - and I think your pictures turned out great. I learned on my last trip to use the low light function on my camera - most of my pictures turned out really great then.

I'm not sure what function I used but it seems to be working so I'll stick with it! I got even better pictures on my solo trip.

The pizza looks delicious... I could go for pizza.... LOL

It was really good!

And I love the Pluto tree -and I expecially love that you totally matched it! :)

That tree was very cute and I did match it well that day, didn't I?

LOL that Goofy was mad at you... Poor guy - he is almost as neglected as Donald.

Yeah he was mad for a minute but I loved it! I agree he is neglected. I probably wouldn't do a meet with him but that spot for meeting Pluto is the best. ]

But it looks like Pluto gave you a great hug - I love how happy you look in all the pictures!

Thanks, I was really happy with the pictures and finally getting to see my guy!

You and your mom look great by the Christmas tree!

Thanks! Those pictures did turn out really nice.

And LOL at the santa hat on the dinosaur.

I loved that Santa hat on the dinosaur. So random. They must have to bring in a crane to get it up there!

Hopefully I can be better about keeping up now. :)

D~

Like I said above, no worries. Whenever you can drop in is fine by me.

Maybe the character tree with bears is from Brave (Merida?)

One of my colleagues is in Disney with her family this week. Her friend (another colleague) showed me a picture she had sent her. All you can see behind her husband and sons is a sign with the words "Chester & Hester" and immediately I was like "oh, they're at Animal Kingdom!". My colleague was impressed at how I figured it out. :rotfl:

Yep, give me a jerky, dark and loud Dinosaur any day. Fun, fun, fun!

You know, it might have been Brave. I kind of forget about that movie since it's so new.

Glad you could impress your friend!

Love me some Dinosaur! I can't wait to take DH on it in October. He's a big wimp so I'm thinking the ride photo is going to be awesome.
 
Mom had mentioned that she would like to see the Animal Kingdom Lodge if we had time. It was only 2:30 when we left AK so we hopped on an AKL bus. We got off at Jambo House and walked up to the Lobby.

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There was a Photo Pass Photographer by the Christmas tree. He said we were his first customers of the day and he had just finished setting up for the dinner crowd.

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We walked around the lobby some more and checked out the different areas.

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Then we headed outside and I continued to take pictures of both the lodge and the animals we saw:

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This guy was just sitting on a rock right above us checking everything out:

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More animal pictures:

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The giraffes unfortunately were way in the back of the area and we could barely see them. There was a young CM in that area from South Africa. I felt kind of bad for her because it seems like they stuck her out there without much training. She was trying to use a picture book of the animals to tell people what they were. I think I knew more about the animals than she did.

A few more pictures from outside of the resort:

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When we went back inside we stopped off in the Sunset Overlook room to see if we could see the Giraffes from there. We couldn’t but there was a lady in there that started talking to us and it took almost 20 minutes before we could get away from her. I don’t think Mom or I got a word in edgewise. I finally cut her off a bit and said we had better get going so we could get to our dinner ADR. I think she was just lonely.

We spent a few minutes in the gift shop but didn’t buy anything then headed out to the bus stops to catch a bus to Hollywood Studios.

Up Next: We have a Crab Cracking Good Time
 
Such a beautiful picture of you and your mom in front of the tree!!! If you were a couple it would make a great Christmas card! :rotfl:

AKL is so gorgeous! We have eaten at Sanaa... and that savannah view table is perfection! :cloud9: Boma is on must do list for our next Disney vacation. I need to try Zebra Domes! ::yes::
 


AKL is my dream resort, savannah view of course! :thumbsup2

Great pictures of the resort and animals, and the PP tree pictures were good too!
 
Loved your AKL pictures... I also hope to stay there some day - I know my girls would just love it, even if they weren't that impressed when we ate at Boma. I just don't think they realized how awesome it is.

I love that picture of you and your mom by the tree too - it's adorable!

D~
 
Such a beautiful picture of you and your mom in front of the tree!!! If you were a couple it would make a great Christmas card! :rotfl:

AKL is so gorgeous! We have eaten at Sanaa... and that savannah view table is perfection! :cloud9: Boma is on must do list for our next Disney vacation. I need to try Zebra Domes! ::yes::

:rotfl: Mom and I got a lot of pictures in front of Christmas trees during this trip!

AKL is beautiful. I've never eaten at any of the restaurants there. I wanted to try Boma in October but DH shot it down. He was very picky with the restaurants for our trip which surprised me because he will eat just about anything. I'm sad to say that I totally forgot about the Zebra Domes or I might have gotten some to try.


AKL is my dream resort, savannah view of course! :thumbsup2

Great pictures of the resort and animals, and the PP tree pictures were good too!

I would love to stay there too! I just have never been able to justify the extra cost for a Deluxe. I'm never in the room so it seems like a waste of money. When I win that lottery we were talking about I'm definitely going to stay here. :rotfl2:

Loved your AKL pictures... I also hope to stay there some day - I know my girls would just love it, even if they weren't that impressed when we ate at Boma. I just don't think they realized how awesome it is.

I love that picture of you and your mom by the tree too - it's adorable!

D~

I loved AKL too. Someday I may stay there. I'd want to make it a really long trip though so I would have time to enjoy the resort and the parks!

Thanks, we got a lot of pictures this trip by Christmas trees!
 
I somehow missed the AKL update, but boy do I ever want to go home now! Lol. I love that resort so much. It's just so amazing and majestic and awesome! Glad you guys got over there to see it in persona!
 
I somehow missed the AKL update, but boy do I ever want to go home now! Lol. I love that resort so much. It's just so amazing and majestic and awesome! Glad you guys got over there to see it in persona!

We really did enjoy getting to see that resort.
 
What a nice visit to AKL! I love how they decorate it for Christmas. If you ever get a chance to stay there, I would definitely recommend it. We loved our stay :) That poor CM out by the animals! I hope that she was just covering for someone, or she gets some training soon. When we were there, we spoke to a couple of different CMs during our stay and they were quite knowledgeable and comfortable in that setting.
 
I don't think I will ever tire of seeing pictures of AKL, so thank you. I want to stay there so bad!
 
What a nice visit to AKL! I love how they decorate it for Christmas. If you ever get a chance to stay there, I would definitely recommend it. We loved our stay :) That poor CM out by the animals! I hope that she was just covering for someone, or she gets some training soon. When we were there, we spoke to a couple of different CMs during our stay and they were quite knowledgeable and comfortable in that setting.

It is a beautiful resort! I felt so bad for that CM, she did say she had just started so I hope she did get some more training.

I don't think I will ever tire of seeing pictures of AKL, so thank you. I want to stay there so bad!

You are welcome, Mom and I loved the resort!
 
First off, a quick update on my hip. I saw the bone doctor last week and he said that the bone injury to my hip is old, probably from childhood and is not the cause of the pain. It turns out that the problem is related to my ankle on that side that I broke very badly about 10 years ago. I never got full range of motion back and it's affecting the way I walk on that side. I kind of thought that was what the problem was in the first place! I start physical therapy next week so hopefully I will completely heal from this.

Now on to the actual update......

We caught a bus from the Animal Kingdom Lodge and headed to Hollywood Studios. That wasn’t our final destination though. From HS, we caught a Friendship Boat to head to the Boardwalk. By this time, we were both feeling really crappy. The boat was really crowded but I managed to spot a row where a family of three was taking up the whole seat. I said “Mom you sit here and I’ll stand next to you”. I don’t think the Dad was too happy that he had to scoot over but oh well, I wanted Mom to have a seat.

The family got off at the Swan & Dolphin so I sat down with Mom. It was about 4pm now and we needed to be at the Beach Club by 6 pm. Our dinner ADR wasn’t until 7 pm but Mom needed a Concierge desk so she could check in for her flight the next day. We decided to get off at the Boardwalk and walk around there a bit. A few shots of the resorts across the water:





We headed into Thimbles and Threads and bought a bottle of orange juice to share. That seemed to help a bit so we did some shopping. I once again checked out the Dooney & Bourke purses. I’m not sure at this point if they even had the style I had been looking for. I did buy a car decal that says “My other car is a Monorail”. Mom found a really cute vintage looking Mickey keychain that she got to hang on her purse.

Then we headed into the lobby of the Boardwalk Resort to check out the Christmas decorations. There was a gingerbread gazebo:



And also a gingerbread house with a little store inside:





We spent some time trying to find all of the Hidden Mickeys on the gazebo. There was a sign that told you how many there were and it was a huge number if I remember correctly.

And of course I couldn’t visit the Boardwalk lobby without taking a picture of these creepy guys:



I don’t know what’s worse, them or the creepy clown pool. I am not a fan of clowns.

On the other hand, I loved the elephant above the fireplace. The Elephant was my sorority’s mascot back in college so they have a special place in my heart.



We headed back outside and stopped to look at the Boardwalk Christmas tree. It wasn’t really anything special:



We also stopped at the Boardwalk Bakery but all we got was a glass of ice water. I think we visited every bakery and candy shop at Disney and never bought one thing.

We continued around the Boardwalk and checked out the menus at some of the restaurants. We also stopped briefly at Sea Breeze Point. Mom was looking for a garbage can to throw out the cup from the ice water. I’m not even sure I would have remembered that but we just found out that my Cousin is getting married at Disney in Feb 2014 and the ceremony is going to be at Sea Breeze Point.

The sun was just starting to go down when we got to the other side of the water but that made for some pretty pictures.







We got to the Beach Club at about 5:15 which was way too early. So we shopped a bit in their store and then checked out the gingerbread carousel.









There was also a gingerbread “window” where they were selling sweets.



Mom headed to get in line to check in for her flight at 5:45 pm. She was on Southwest and wanted to get a good letter for boarding. I was on Delta and already had a seat assigned so I didn’t need to check in early.

I found a couch to crash on and found a hidden Mickey in the rug.



I also thought this light fixture was really pretty:



You can see part of the Christmas tree in that picture but I never took one of the whole tree.

Mom finished checking in for her flight and came over and joined me. If you haven’t figured it out by now, we were headed to Cape May Café for dinner. Since we were feeling so crummy, I tried to check in early at 6 pm but had no luck. So we just rested and people watched and I went back and checked in about 6:40 pm. Our pager went off right at 7 pm which was our ADR time.
We were seated right next to the buffet and we both ordered orange juice to drink and then headed to the buffet. Mom started with a bowl of Seafood Chowder which she said was excellent:



Here’s mom’s first plate. I’m not sure at this point what everything is. Well, I’m not sure if I ever knew.



And here’s my plate:



I got Crab Legs, a piece of beef, mashed potatoes, beef short ribs with dumplings, and Mac& Cheese. Oh and there’s a roll hiding in the back.

Neither one of us had experience cracking crab (I thought Mom had but I was wrong) but our waitress took pity on us and gave us a demonstration.

We both went back for a second plate but my hands were a bit greasy so I didn’t take pictures. I know I got some more crab legs and Mac and Cheese and also some roasted potatoes. There may have been more but it’s been a long time since this trip! Mom got a variety of seafood salads which she really likes. We both loved the food at Cape May. Everything we tried was delicious. I think the only downside was that our waitress was a little slow. She disappeared one time for a while. But her help with the crab cracking made up for that.

Mom was too full for dessert but I had to try some. I had really been looking forward to the Oreo Bon Bons but knew they were no longer offered. Here’s my dessert plate:



From the top, flourless chocolate cake, Boston Cream cake and some kind of cookie bar. I really liked the Boston Cream cake. The flourless chocolate cake was good but it had raspberry sauce on the top that I didn’t care for. I didn’t eat the cookie bar because I realized after I got back to the table that it had nuts, not chocolate chips like I thought. If I’d still been hungry, I’d probably have gotten a few more of the Boston Cream cakes, they were that good.

After dinner, we talked about heading to the Yacht Club to see the decorations there but we were done. Feeling lousy all day had really caught up to us. So we headed to the International Gateway and walked through Epcot to the front. I was bummed because there was EMH till 12 pm at Epcot and I was hoping to run into Stephanie (PhoenixStrength on here) but there was no way we could do more.

We did stop for a few more PP pictures before leaving. We actually look a lot better than we felt.





We caught a bus back to CBR and got off at Centertown. We got some meds and juice at the Straw Market and I also bought a Mickey Rice Krispy Treat to take home to my boss. She is obsessed with Rice Krispy treats and said the Mickey one was the best she ever had. We headed back to the room and Illuminations was going off as we walked. We packed a bit since we were leaving the next day and then turned off the lights around 11 pm.

Up Next: Third Time’s a Charm! Or is it?
 
No fun that you guys weren't feeling good!

I like all of the pictures of Boardwalk and Beach Club! The food from Cape May looks great too!

Sorry we didn't get to see each other at Epcot that night. That was actually the night I was feeling bad too and left early. Must have been something in the air making people feel crummy.
 
I'm sorry that you weren't feeling well :( Beautiful photos around BW and BC though! I've only ever eaten at Cape May for breakfast, but it looks like they have a good selection for dinner too.

I'm glad to hear that your doctor has a plan for your hip pain - I hope that the therapy gets rid of it for you!
 
No fun that you guys weren't feeling good!

I like all of the pictures of Boardwalk and Beach Club! The food from Cape May looks great too!

Sorry we didn't get to see each other at Epcot that night. That was actually the night I was feeling bad too and left early. Must have been something in the air making people feel crummy.

Cape May was very good. It ranks in the top three meals we ate that trip.

I really wanted to take some time to look for you that night be we were both so miserable. At least it was only the last day and a half of our trip.


I'm sorry that you weren't feeling well :( Beautiful photos around BW and BC though! I've only ever eaten at Cape May for breakfast, but it looks like they have a good selection for dinner too.

I'm glad to hear that your doctor has a plan for your hip pain - I hope that the therapy gets rid of it for you!

The selection for dinner was really good. I'm not a huge fan of seafood, I liked the crab legs but wouldn't go out of my way to eat them, but I found lots of non-seafood items to enjoy.

Thanks about the hip. I was relieved that it's something that can be fixed rather than the bone disease they thought it was.
 
We were up at 6 am on Saturday. We had decided the night before where we were headed on this day. We weren’t worried about making rope drop at our destination so we took our time getting ready and finishing with our packing. Plus by this point, we had full blown colds. I was sick for about a week after the trip but Mom got it much worse. Hers turned into Bronchitis and she was sick for over a month after we got back.

I called bell services and they picked us up around 8:15 to take us to the Custom House. We left our carry-ons with bell services and got in line to check our bags.

I went first and then headed over to the Concierge desk to get a new Magical Express ticket printed. That took just a few minutes and when I was done, we caught the internal shuttle over to Centertown to get some breakfast.

We had realized the night before that we each had three snack credits left so we used two each to get our breakfasts. Here’s our tray:



As you can see, we didn’t get anything different than previous days except Mom got a yogurt to go with her muffin. The Coke and Orange Juice were actually purchased the night before.

After breakfast, we once again walked back to Jamaica to catch the bus. It was just so much easier than dealing with the crowds at the Centertown stop. I finally remembered to take some more pictures of the resort as we walked. A few of the Marina:





Playground on Caribbean Cay:



A few more interesting things on Caribbean Cay:







We caught a bus fairly quickly and were at our destination by 10 am. So where did we decide to go for our last few Disney hours? Maybe this will give you a clue:



Yep, we were back at Epcot. It was so sunny that morning that Space Ship Earth kind of looks ghostly in that picture.

I had something very specific in mind to do this day but it was in World Showcase which wasn’t open yet. So we headed toward TT to see if it maybe we could sneak in a preview ride. Fountain picture along the way:



We got to test track and nope, not open yet. We ended up missing the opening by one day.



So what to do for a little bit till World Showcase opened? I decided to drag Mom here:



She had never ridden Mission Space so I figured she needed to ride it at least one time. There was no line at all and I choose the green side for us. I’m just not confident enough in the motion sickness pills I take to risk the orange side.

As we watched the intro video (only reason I ever want to ride this one, Gary Sinise, yummy) Mom started to get a bit nervous. Well, she was freaking out a quite a bit. They didn’t do a separate video for the green side so there are all kinds of warnings that don’t really apply. I kept telling her it would be fine, that the green side was not bad, but she was not happy. It didn’t help that the two teenage boys they put with us told her that they crashed every time they rode. It was actually quite funny and I was trying not to laugh the whole time.

Well, she survived the ride but she took her button pushing during it very seriously. She actually said “was that it?” after the ride was done.

Finished with our exciting trip to Mars, we walked behind Mouse Gears and headed to World Showcase. That area back in there between TT and Mouse Gears is really pretty.













Continued in Next Post
 

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