Nants igonyama bagitha baba! August 2013, updated 7/20!

[paradesintherain]

Hello! I decided to start writing a very long overdue trip report that may be a little hazy on the details and heavy on the pictures. (And by the way, the words in my title are the lyrics to the beginning of Circle of Life, just in case you didn't know!)

First things first: Hi, I’m Kara! This Disney vacation took place on August 9-16, 2013. It was kind of a last minute idea. My dad had a work trip scheduled in Nashville and we were originally going to go to Dollywood and do some other Tennessee exploring, but my dad decided that since we were already halfway to Florida we should just drive down there after his work trip.

So now I’ll tell a little about myself and then onward to the trip report! I’m 26 and currently in nursing school (I was 25 at the time of the vacation) so I really needed a trip to Disney for my sanity. I have a cat named Princess Leia and a new kitten named (Princess) Merida. In 2006 I did the Disney College Program and worked at Animal Kingdom Lodge in in-room dining and at The Mara. Other than that experience I have visited Disney World 5 times (including the 2013 visit) and Disneyland 9 times. And because I really love reading favorites I’ll list some of mine.

Top 5 Disney movies: The Lion King is my all-time favorite movie. Brave, Beauty and the Beast, Frozen, and Aladdin
Favorite park: Probably Epcot. I think Hollywood Studios is the best at Christmas though.
Favorite ride(s): Tower of Terror, Splash Mountain, Spaceship Earth pre-Judi Dench, Magic Carpets… yes, really. I found them so underrated when I worked at Disney and they’re SO FUN. You get to control the carpet and sometimes the camel spits on you and there’s nice views. I just love it.
Favorite Disney show: Definitely Festival of the Lion King, followed by Fantasmic
Favorite Disney resort: Obviously, Animal Kingdom Lodge.


By the way, here I am enjoying a churro at Disneyland

 

[paradesintherain]

Table of Contents
Day 1, Part 1
Day 1, Part 2
Day 1, Part 3

Day 2, Part 1

 

[paradesintherain]

Day 1, Part 1: Magic Kingdom!
We started off our vacation at Islands of Adventure because we had an extra day between when my dad and I arrived, and when my brother flew in. My dad and I are huge Harry Potter fans so when I suggested Islands of Adventure he readily agreed. It was a pretty fun day, the Forbidden Journey is a very unique, thrilling ride. The details in Hogsmeade are spectacular. I thought the shops were just way too small and Universal really botched them. I know they’re small in the movies, but I think there’s ways they could have made them seem small without making it impossible to maneuver in them. I also thought having the Forbidden Journey in Hogwarts was sort of a wasted opportunity. There’s so much that could have been done with the interior of Hogwarts that it seems kind of a cop-out to essentially have it as a show building. So while I loved Hogsmeade and trying Butterbeer and Pumpkin Juice, I spent most of the day wishing I was at Disney!

Luckily for me, the next day we checked out of our (disgusting) Days Inn bright and early and headed over to Disney World! It was such a relief to finally be driving under the gates after such a long time.

Our first stop was Art of Animation to check in so we had our Keys to the World.

I stayed in the car because I knew I’d want to take a billion pictures of the lobby and we were on a time crunch to make our 8:55 am ADR at Kona Café. It was a close call, but I checked in right on time while Dad parked the car. And then I looked around me and realized the restaurant was basically empty so I had been panicking for no reason. Oh well!

We had made the reservation with one thought in mind, and I’m sure many of you know exactly what it was. Tonga Toast.

It more than lived up to my expectations. I ate all but a tiny corner, and I even enjoyed the Disney bacon which is so loathed. I thought the strawberry compote was way too sweet, which was sad because I was hoping to love it, but you can’t win them all!

After admiring the lobby of the Polynesian we hopped on Monorail Salmon and made our way to the Magic Kingdom!

Stepping onto Main Street again was so perfect, and just what I needed. It was a gorgeous day, even if it was a billion degrees. I was so happy to see the castle again that I couldn’t be bothered with taking decent pictures.

Dad made the decision to veer right into Tomorrowland, so I decided the first order of business would be to grab Fastpasses for Space Mountain. Right as we were at the Fastpass kiosks a man asked us if we wanted his Fastpasses that were ready for use! Score! Instant good luck. Dad didn’t quite understand how lucky it was to get free, ready to use Fastpasses, but I did.

After the thrilling journey through space we took a more peaceful approach and jumped on the PeopleMover. I love the PeopleMover, it’s so nice to see everything from that vantage point, and there’s rarely a line so it’s perfect.

On the way out of Tomorrowland we ran into Push! I love watching him, and this time his operator was hidden really well. It took me about ten minutes to find him.

Just admiring the view

I was obsessed with these new walls.

I admired the new Tangled bathrooms, which are so photogenic I couldn’t help snapping a few pictures every time I passed them.

Then we got in line for Haunted Mansion. The new interactive queue was cute, but I’d rather not wait in line long enough to need an interactive queue.

Since we hadn’t gotten a Fastpass yet our next destination was Splash Mountain to pick one up.

Splash Mountain may be my very favorite ride at Disney World, even though I don’t really enjoy getting wet. It’s just such a fun ride, and it’s so long with so many drops.

While we waited for our Fastpasses to be good we headed over to ride Pirates of the Caribbean. Along the way we ran into Captain Jack Sparrow!

Every single time I rode Pirates this trip someone was constantly taking flash pictures. It’s so irritating and it really ruined the experience for me.

We were pretty hot by that point and still had some time to kill before our Fastpasses were good, so I think we watched Philharmagic. That show never gets old, and I absolutely adore The Lion King section. There needs to be more Lion King at Disney World! After Philharmagic Dad, being the expert photographer he is, got this lovely picture of me trying to remove the sword from the stone

By the time the show was finished our Fastpasses for Splash Mountain were good. Everything seemed to be working well, and every single drop got my stomach!

I look like I’m crying in the ride picture, but I was just hiding my face from the splash. We didn’t get wet at all, thankfully!

I was still hot and it was about time for Aaron’s Magical Express bus to arrive, so we took the monorail back to the Polynesian Resort to get my car and headed back to our home for the next 8 days, Art of Animation!

 

[librarygeek]

I'm excited to follow along with your TR! I'm glad you decided to do it even though it's been a little while - I just started my TR from February so I know the feeling.

Tonga Toast looks sooo good. I just showed your pic to my husband and his response was, "Where are we eating there?"

And your pictures are all beautiful! Can't wait to see more!

 

[paradesintherain]

I'm excited to follow along with your TR! I'm glad you decided to do it even though it's been a little while - I just started my TR from February so I know the feeling.

Tonga Toast looks sooo good. I just showed your pic to my husband and his response was, "Where are we eating there?"

And your pictures are all beautiful! Can't wait to see more!

Thank you! I'll have to read through your trip reports, I'm always looking for new ones especially since I'm planning a December trip now! And Tonga toast is just as good as it looks, I was not disappointed at all!

 

[paradesintherain]

Day 1, Part 2: Art of Animation

When we got back to Art of Animation we explored the resort a little bit, (we wanted to wait to see the room with Aaron), but it was starting to rain so mostly we sat at the Drop Off bar.

I just love Simba.

Big Blue pool! With some ominous clouds.

I was hungry at that point and Aaron texted that he already ate something at the airport (how dare he!) so I decided to try the make-your-own pasta from Landscape of Flavors.

I got bow tie with alfredo, mushrooms and chicken. It was really good, and a huge portion. I couldn't finish it all. I also bought my refillable mug. It was super good, and I was worried because alfredo sauce can be very hit or miss for me.

Aaron’s bus arrived at around 3:30 and I had wanted to get a picture of him getting off the bus, but I had to settle for this shot instead.

And then it was time to see our room! We were in The Lion King section because how could I stay anywhere else?

Our room was in building 10, room 0512. It was on the far end of the building from Animation Hall, but the walk wasn’t bad. I was glad we ended up with a ground floor room.

The bed in the "master" bedroom. This is where I slept because my dad and brother snore and my dad says I'm a bathroom hog. It was such a perfect room, I was especially obsessed with the shower, and I thought it was so clever to have outlets in the TV stand.

The Inova bed that my dad slept in. He said it was extremely comfortable.

Very excited to be staying in a Lion King suite

Pull out sofa in the living room where Aaron slept. He got a little annoyed because Mousekeeping would put the sofa away each day, but maybe if a note was left asking them not to it wouldn't be an issue?

Cute little kitchenette. Having a refrigerator is so handy.

TV in the living room

After settling into our room it was time to head back to the Magic Kingdom so Aaron could see it for the first time in over a decade!

This was right outside the door of our building. Could you ask for a better sight? I think not!

So majestic!

Aaron had to get a photo with Rafiki

When we got back to the Magic Kingdom there was a crazy cloud behind the castle. It looked so neat

Aaron was feeling a little touristy

I made my family get a picture in front of the castle. Love the man on the left taking a photo with his huge iPad!

I decided I'd waited long enough to see New Fantasyland, so that was our destination.

We didn't pay much attention to the Storybook Circus section but I thought it looked super cute and if I was a kid i would have loved to play in the sprinklers.

Even though my brother and I had already ridden Under The Sea at Disneyland this became Aaron's first ride of the trip. The Little Mermaid was one of my favorite movies growing up. I remember watching a taped from TV copy on VHS (shhh) and at the beginning there was a real life "Eric" picking up a real life "Ariel" from a limo. I assume it was from special, but I just loved it.

The queue in Disney World is phenomenal; Disneyland's just doesn't compare.

I love Journey of the Little Mermaid, but I just can't get over how they completely skipped over the battle with Ursula. I think it would have made a really cool scene, and it's really needed to progress the story. It just feels disjointed the way it is. I had been hoping that a scene had been added to the Florida version but they're, sadly, identical.

 

[paradesintherain]

Day 1, Part 3

We continued exploring New Fantasyland. Beauty and the Beast was another one of my childhood favorites so I was very excited to see Belle's village.

"I use antlers in all of my decoooorating!"

Dad and Aaron had to try out Gaston's chair. For some reason it was empty when we got there.

I was so excited to see Beast's castle because I knew Be Our Guest was inside. I've been so anxious for that restaurant to open since it was announced, and I was dying to see the ballroom. I hadn't been able to make dinner reservations so we were planning to try our luck at lunch at some point during the vacation.

This is definitely my new favorite picture-taking spot

I'm not entirely sure what we did the rest of the day but I assume we rode some classic rides like Pirates and Haunted Mansion.

We definitely wandered by the Tangled bathrooms again and I definitely took more pictures.

We toured the Swiss Family Treehouse and Aaron really wanted to play the piano. He's really into music.

When night came around we made it back to Tomorrowland

Dad and Aaron wanted to ride Carousel of Progress, so that's what we did!

I really do love this show.

I believe we had picked up FastPasses to Splash Mountain at some point earlier, so we went for the second ride of the day.

Not my best attempt at taking a picture of a ride photo. Aaron's face looks pretty similar to a Splash Mountain ride photo when he was in the second grade. In that picture he looks like he's literally about to die of fear. I'll try to include it at some point in the report because it is priceless.

Main Street Electrical Parade is something I remember watching when I first went to Disneyland when I was 5. I remember the little bugs, or snails coming up and nodding at me and it's just a great memory. So I had to make sure that we watched it. We got a nice spot in Frontierland, and it wasn't very crowded at all.

Always gonna be Main Street Electrical Parade to me (and the rest of the Dis)

I was so impressed with how well my iPhone was able to capture this parade. I'd say it did better than my real camera (which isn't fancy at all, but still). Most of the vertical photos are iPhone.

After MSEP it was time to go back to the room and crash!

 

[paradesintherain]

I want to post more but I feel like that might be too many pictures on one page. Decisions, decisions.

 

[elsie7119]

Yay for trip reports!!! I want to try Tonga Toast and oh, how I miss the Tangled bathroom. It's the best bathroom in all the World.

 

[elsie7119]

Also, I am jealous of your Electrical Parade photos. Mine always look terrible.

 

[paradesintherain]

Also, I am jealous of your Electrical Parade photos. Mine always look terrible.

Just use an iPhone! It'll do all the work for you

 

[paradesintherain]

Day 2, Part 1!

On the second day I woke up with a migraine that made me very nauseous, but I wanted to try to forge through so I went to Landscape of Flavors and buy a lemon cranberry muffin, but I couldn’t manage to eat it. I knew there was no way I could make it through the day feeling the way I did so I made the decision to take some medicine and rest a bit longer. Dad and Aaron opted to wait with me and luckily I started to feel better before noon, so we made our way to Animal Kingdom.

It was another beautiful and incredibly hot day.

I made my family stop for another icon photo. And yes, I did plan to wear my Simba shirt specifically on Animal Kingdom day. I really liked the real photopass pictures but I couldn’t justify spending $12 or whatever absurd price they were per picture. So I’m really glad that for our december vacation we’ve already bought Memory Maker!

I love the word Harambe.

Can you tell where we were heading? I just noticed that walls are up here for the new Festival of the Lion King theater!

If you guessed Kilimanjaro Safaris you were correct! We picked up some FastPasses and continued onward to conquer a mountain

Of course Aaron had to stop to play the instruments

I love this shot

But I love this one more. It seemed like we used trails I had never been on before.

Our first sighting of this majestic view! I was really excited for my brother to ride this for the first time.

I think the line was pretty short so we just waited. Plus it’s an interesting queue.
Soon enough we were climbing the hill of Expedition Everest!

hard to beat this view

Aaron thought Expedition Everest was awesome. It was already one of Dad's favorite rides, but this time he actually saw the yeti! Don't ask me how he never saw the hulking yeti dangling over him before... We had some time to kill before our FastPasses were good, so Aaron and I did single rider a couple times.

Then it was back to Kilimanjaro Safaris to view some animals!

We saw some Mufasa-killers

Cute little baby giraffe. But not the smallest baby there was!

This is a terrible picture, I was obviously on the wrong side of the vehicle to take a picture, but I have to include it because that baby was less than a month old!

This was the first safari that I had actually seen the cheetah. Very elusive, that cheetah.

And then a miracle happened. The lions were fully visible!! Again, this was the first safari I’d really gotten to see them. Usually I can see a hint of gold that might be a lion leg, but there was no guess work this time. They were pretty sleepy, but who can blame them in that heat?

After actually seeing the lions I didn’t care much about the other animals, but hey there were zebra, and that was kind of neat because they were new to the safari at that time.

Next: lunch at yak and yeti!

 

[librarygeek]

Your pictures are so beautiful - they are very vivid! And I had to laugh at your story about your dad not seeing the yeti before. It's so dark and you're moving quickly so that I think I missed it the first couple of times I was on too!

I hope you update again - I would love to hear about your lunch at Yak and Yeti!