We went back to Disney - A July '19 trip report - Updated 11-27 - THE END

Oh my. I hope we don't have to count higher than two. I'm not that good at math.


It is amazing, upon falling one fits so easy, trying to get up, that's another story.

I ended up with about four on my left arm and one big one on my knee. I think that if I hadn't wedged myself into such a small area, I would have been able to manage getting up on my own. But the small area and my knee pain was just a combo that I couldn't overcome. It makes for an interesting story!

Oh no! I'm sorry you had such a crummy day that day. A whole lotta disappointment. Boo.

It was truly a crap ton of disappointment to only ride one ride and see one show the entire day. But it just gives me more motivation to work hard and save up so we can go back!
 
Still reading along! Sorry about the disappointments on your HS day. The Disney Gods weren't smiling down on you that day. Sometimes you just have to enjoy what you're able to do. But, the fall! Yikes. So sorry that happened! But, it sounds like you were able to shake it off and soldier on. Hope the rest of your day at AK went well.
 


July 8th - Animal Kingdom - Part 2
After singing along with my friends at Festival of the Lion King (no requests for a solo - I'll try again another trip), Tony and I decided that we were getting a bit hungry. I wanted to try mobile ordering. I had heard a lot of good things about it and waiting in line in the ECV with a million screaming children is just not a happy time for me. And it was hotter than the blazes, so preferably somewhere inside with some air conditioning would be best for us. I got on my phone and found the best place for us would be Pizzafari. Now on a normal day, I would be more inclined to eat somewhere a little more exciting. I honestly wanted to go to Flame Tree BBQ, but Tony didn't find the menu appealing to him. So pizza it was. I got on the app and did our mobile ordering and since we were about two minutes away, clicked the "we are here" button. About a minute later I got the text that our food was ready. It was really that easy.

It was pretty crowded in the restaurant, so I sent Tony on ahead to find us some seats and I got into the designated line for mobile ordering pick up. The line I was in was about five people deep. The many lines with the many registers for the other people was about 50 people deep. I am in love with mobile ordering. After getting our food, a very nice cast member helped me carry everything to where Tony was waiting. I appreciated his help, since it was so crowded and I just knew I would get accidentialy bumped and food would go flying everywhere.

Tony ordered the shrimp flatbread - roasted shrimp, tomato, red pepper, alfredo sauce, and savory pesto topped with arugula, served with small caesar salad. I gave him a curious look when he ordered this because I wasn't sure he would like the arugula.

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I was right (I mean seriously - I cook for him every day - I know what he likes). Tony picked off the arugula and claimed the rest "was fine". I ate one of the shrimp and it was cooked well.

I ordered Caesar salad with chicken - served with croutons and Caesar dressing. Since it was so hot, I thought a nice salad would be better and not such a heavy meal.

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It was fine. Nothing special. Not bad. It was a salad. The ice cold bottled water was the best part of both of our meals.

All quick serve restaurants should have the mobile ordering option. It is so much easier and such a time saver.

After we had eaten and made our way out of the restaurant, I spotted another photo pass opportunity. I headed over to the line and surprisingly, Tony joined me. I guess after my earlier guilt trip about pictures, he wasn't going to skip another picture.

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You can kind of see the bruises on my left arm.

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And you can really, really see them in this picture. Apparently I bruise really easily and they last for a long time. I am seriously a mess by this point.

After pictures we used our third fast pass so that Tony could catch a glimpse of the Yeti. Me, not so much. Tony happily rode twice while I found a shady spot to just relax and drink water. Our next stop was the Nemo and Friends show. We came in after it started and sat in the back. We had both seen it before, but it was another opportunity to get out of the heat and a fun show to watch.

So apparently I took no further pictures on our Animal Kingdom day until later that evening. My best recollection of the remainder of the day had us walking thru some of the animal trails. I know in particular Tony wanted to see the birds (but not the UP show - he didn't enjoy that the last time). I am not sure why I didn't take any pictures, as that is clearly not my pattern. Maybe because it was the warmest day of the trip and the clouds were rolling in and I just knew deep down in my heart that our evening plans would not work out.

What we were supposed to do - have an early dinner at Boma, wander around the AK lodge and then come back to AK for an evening safari (I got us another FP for later). Did we do these plans? Did we even come close? You'll have to stay tuned to find out!
 
Still reading along! Sorry about the disappointments on your HS day. The Disney Gods weren't smiling down on you that day. Sometimes you just have to enjoy what you're able to do. But, the fall! Yikes. So sorry that happened! But, it sounds like you were able to shake it off and soldier on. Hope the rest of your day at AK went well.

I'm glad I still have readers! I always worry that my constant babbling will make people run in the other direction.

HS was just unfortunate. I'm so glad we got to ride TSM and the non-typhoon parts of the day were enjoyable. All ten minutes of them!

Sorry that you had such a bad day. Im really enjoying reading your trip report.

Glad to hear you're still reading along. AK was better and I still haven't gotten to the best day ever!

Hope you are feeling better! Looking forward to hearing more about your trip.

Thank you - I am feeling all better now. It took me a while to get my strength and energy back after a week in the hospital. I had no idea I would be so wiped out.
 
I'm here too -- Love your reports :earsgirl:
That salad looks good. I'll put that on my list. I do a lot of salads. Especially when its hot.
 


We love The Lion King too. The show is awesome and its a great place to escape the heat or the rain.
Ruthie, they really need to let you belt out that solo! in the spotlight! :earsgirl:
 
I'm here too -- Love your reports :earsgirl:
That salad looks good. I'll put that on my list. I do a lot of salads. Especially when its hot.

Thanks for reading along. The salad was good. It was much too hot for pizza!

Joining in!

Glad you're with us on this crazy journey!

😲 ....when I saw the boo boo.

I just love lion king, Even though I've seen it a bunch of times, I always leave feeling happy.

Those bruises lasted over a week. It was crazy.

I love FOTLK. It gives me all the warm fuzzies.

We love The Lion King too. The show is awesome and its a great place to escape the heat or the rain.
Ruthie, they really need to let you belt out that solo! in the spotlight! :earsgirl:

I had my solo opportunity last summer! It is in my last trip report, but the short version is that Tony and I were the very first people to walk into the empty theater and we crossed the main floor, so I stopped in the middle and started to sing! It was fabulous!

Of course, after all, she IS the lost princess.

Yes, yes I am!

Ruthie , everything ok?

Not being pushy, just wondering since you did have a health issue.

Yes, I'm fine. Thanks for checking on me. Work has been crazy this past week and I've not had time to get an update posted. I might have time later today or tomorrow. I have to finish up Animal Kingdom before I can move onto the BEST DAY EVER!!!
 
July 8th - Animal Kingdom - Part 3
Sorry for the delay in an update - work has just been kicking my butt the past couple of weeks! Don't people know that I've got a trip report to pay attention to before I lose my audience?!?!?!?

So when we last left off, Tony and I were headed out of Animal Kingdom to catch a bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner at Boma. We had never been to AKL, so this was a new to us experience. And I'll be honest, this was the one dinner that I was not really looking forward to, but Tony was. He thought that trying authentic African food would be exciting and fun.

Spoiler alert - it wasn't.

I was surprised when doing our planning that there isn't a walking path between Animal Kingdom and AKL. How cool would it be to take a stroll down a path and pass the giraffes, zebras and random other animals between the two places? But that is not the case and since nobody from Disney is asking for my suggestions, we hopped on what would be the fastest bus trip over to the lodge.

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As always, I was just in shock over the resort. Every detail was amazing.

We poked around a little bit and finally found the elevator to get down to Boma. We checked in and only had a short wait until we were seated.

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The dining room was huge and the buffet line was very long. Our waiter took our drink orders and explained the food on the buffet. So let me say that we are not very adventurous eaters, but we like to eat and have plenty of choices. The one good thing about Boma was that there were a lot of choices of African inspired food and regular food. Unfortunately, neither Tony or I liked the spices of most of the African inspired food. There were plenty of other options, but I honestly felt that this was a wasted dinner service credit for us and could have been better used somewhere else. And even further unfortunately, some of what Tony ate made his tummy a little rumbly, so he just wasn't a very happy camper.

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I got bored waiting for Tony.

After settling the bill, we went outside for a few minutes. I could have stayed out there all evening, but per usual, Mother Nature had other plans for us. It started to drizzle and rain as soon as we stepped outside.

Come on Mother Nature - forgive me for my sins!!!

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Tony looks so tiny.

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This was the only picture of the animal area I got before the heavens opened up and the rain started pouring down. I was so disappointed because there was a cast member outside who was talking to the guests and I just wanted to sit and listen and have my own personal guide for information about the animals. I can certainly see the draw of staying at AKL, but only if you have one of the outside balcony rooms. How cool would it be to drink your morning coffee and see the animals roaming around?

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The AKL had the coolest gift shop! So many fabulous things and it was just so pretty.

So even though I had secured another fast pass for safari, the weather and Tony's tummy just had us calling it a night. We got a bus back to Animal Kingdom and then another bus back to the resort. I would call our AK day a success in that we at least got to ride more rides than the previous day and the weather held off until the evening. I cannot imagine that we would revisit Boma for a meal, as it just wasn't for us.

Up next - our mid-trip rest day which can also be known as the best day ever!
 
Poor Tony....

Did you happen to have any of the butternut squash soup (if they had it), it's like warm pumpkin pie. I like about 4 things at Boma, and two are the soups.

And yes, we have stayed at both Jambo and Kidani and love being able to sit on a balcony , drink coffee and watch animals. One day we hope to get that perfect room, 50 ft from lobby and tons of animals .
 
Love the beautiful AK lodge too, but Boma wasn't for me either. Like Tony, it upset my stomach a bit. I guess the food just isn't for me, although I do like lots of different international foods, just not African I guess.
So rotten that it started raining again just as you were going outside. I know how aggravating that can be from our October 2018 trip. It was bad the first week, but then eased up.
I agree! work needs to back off and let you do your report. LOL
 
July 9th - Rest Day
Best Day Ever!
While I was planning the trip, I really wanted to try and do something special for Tony. As much of a hard time as I give him, he really is an amazing husband. He works very hard and while I'm out saving the children and driving around drunk college kids, he keeps the house going, does most of the cooking and takes very good care of me. I had thought about doing a dessert party, but the prices are really high and he just really isn't an "eat sweets" person - at least not enough to justify the price. Then I thought I would reserve a fishing excursion for him. He absolutely loves to fish and our house is full of fishing stuff (I have no idea what most of it is). The prices for that was even crazier than the dessert party!

And then after some more research, I found the most perfect idea. A cabana rental. They had them at both the Grand Floridian and the Contemporary and they could be rented for either a 4-hour or 8-hour timeframe. I called and for the date of our "rest day" the only availability was the Contemporary. That was fine. I took the 4-hour rental and booked the morning block - 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM. After tax, it came to $178 for the both of us (that was the charge no matter how many people were going to be there). I was going to try and keep it a secret, but I really wanted to tell Tony, so I did by showing him pictures of the cabana and he was immediately sold on the idea!

We got up on the morning of July 9th and got our things together and headed out to the busses to get on a bus for the Magic Kingdom. I planned about 45 minutes for this and once again, I was just wrong. What is going on with my time management??? By the time we got to the bus, made our way over to Magic Kingdom and then down the path to the Contemporary and then found the pool area (never been over there before), it was close to 10:30. I was trying to stay calm and remembering that this was a gift to Tony and me freaking out would only make him irritated. So I just yelled at myself in my mind. Not a healthy coping skill, but you do what you have to do! We found a cast member and got checked in.

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I had told them when making our reservation that we were celebrating our anniversary, and this was sitting on the table just outside the cabana. It was at that point that I started to relax. Because friends, look at this view.

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Sorry - couldn't resist - but he's just adorable.

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Yup, this view!

So apparently I took no pictures of the actual cabana looking inside of it. But it had two loungers to lay out in, two couches under the cabana, several tables, a refridgerator completely stocked with soft drinks and water, a huge television, small sized H2O products and a phone to call all of my friends in Kentucky to tell them where I was and that they weren't there! Yes, I'm that person! HAHAHAHA!!!

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Okay, I didn't call anyone, but the phone was there when we wanted to order lunch or if we needed absolutely anything.

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There was nobody else at the pool for the first hour we were there. After a while the cabana on the left of the picture had a family in it. But we felt like we were on our own island. And look, it wasn't raining!!! I slathered us up in sunscreen and we spent the next 90 minutes just relaxing in the pool. It was fabulous and the best money spent the entire trip.

While we were swimming, the cabana person brought us over our complimentary fruit plate. She also told us that we could order lunch from the Sand Bar any time we were ready. Since we were getting pretty deep fried in the sun, it was a good time to get out and lounge. We nibbled on the fruit plate and reviewed the menu. We used the phone to call and place our order.

Tony got the Foot-Long All-Beef Hot Dog served with house-made chips. He exchanged the chips for fries and got chili and mustard on his hot dog. It was messy and drippy and he claimed it to be delicious. Since we already had soft drinks and an alcoholic beverage was an option, he ordered an angry orchard to drink. I got the Pressed Turkey Sandwich served with white cheddar, cranberry aioli, arugula, bacon, brioche, and house-made chips. After taking off the tomatoes and arugula, it was a good turkey sandwich. We also shared an order of nachos with chili and cheese. Mostly because YOLO and we were still trying to hack away at some of our snack credits. I also got an angry orchard to drink, but I gave most of it to Tony. The cabana person brought the food right over to us and we just ate and talked and enjoyed our time there.

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After the fall and the rain and our disappointing HS day, this was exactly what we needed.

About 20 minutes before it was time for us to leave, the cabana person came over to tell us what time it was. We started packing up and basically taking everything we could - including all the leftover soft drinks and water!!! Good thing there are baskets in front of our ECV's! We took a few more pictures before leaving paradise.

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I couldn't love anything more!

Up next - more of the best day ever!
 
Poor Tony....

Did you happen to have any of the butternut squash soup (if they had it), it's like warm pumpkin pie. I like about 4 things at Boma, and two are the soups.

And yes, we have stayed at both Jambo and Kidani and love being able to sit on a balcony , drink coffee and watch animals. One day we hope to get that perfect room, 50 ft from lobby and tons of animals .

We didn't try the soups. I'm not even sure I saw them on the buffet. It was pretty huge.

How cool that you've been able to stay there. We've been to all of the deluxe resorts to have a meal and my favorites are the Yacht and Beach Club. Some day we will get there!

Love the beautiful AK lodge too, but Boma wasn't for me either. Like Tony, it upset my stomach a bit. I guess the food just isn't for me, although I do like lots of different international foods, just not African I guess.
So rotten that it started raining again just as you were going outside. I know how aggravating that can be from our October 2018 trip. It was bad the first week, but then eased up.
I agree! work needs to back off and let you do your report. LOL

Yeah, the food just didn't agree with him. But we tried it and know better for next time!

Ugh, the rain. Every single day we had some kind of rain coming down. Mother Nature just hates us for some reason.

A new post is up and ready to be read!
 
Never thought of renting a cabana. I'm pretty cheap when it comes to spending on extras. Don't do expensive restaurants or buffets, but the cabana looks like fun and great way to relax.
Okay I'm ready for the next chapter. lol
 

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