Disney according THE Spreadsheet...Day 5

[clubhouse]

Day 5... Animal Kingdom... Monday 6th September 2010

We have a character breakfast booked this morning at Tusker House so are up before the alarm at 6am. All ready and out by 7.30am and we arrive at the Animal Kingdom parking lot at 7.45am. We have our kerching moment as we breeze through with our residents parking pass, and pull up at



Second row, -it's near enough the gate to walk, happy days. DD is seems excited this morning

and I am trying not to be nervous about her reaction to the characters as DD was understandably nervous around them last time as she had just turned one and was still a baby really. She was great with the princesses the other day but I'm not sure how she'll go with the sensational six and their pals. If she doesn't like something she'll definitely let you know - there's no politely hiding it with this one.

We manage to see a bit of rope drop and are amazed to see that theres a stampede going on. Not the wild life you'll note, but guests trying to get to the check in desk first. We take our time, like we've a choice as kids refused to go in the buggy! Pick your battles I tell myself.

We get checked in and the moment I am most nervous about is upon us. Our family portrait with Donald. Well DD is petrified and clings on to me like a limpet, fingernails are imbedded in my neck and I hold her to the side as far away from Donald as possible and break out my cheese face, another great photo (NOT). Oh boy, if it stays like this, we'll need to rethink A LOT of the holiday and the fantastic planning as detailed on THE Spreadsheet is in jeopardy.

Our server takes us in to our table, explaining all the food choices on the way. She organises coffee (which DH says was very good) and we each have some jungle juice (mixed fruit juice - which all enjoyed) DH and I take turns getting some food for us and kids, including some Krispy Kreme donuts, yum . Its all going well. So far. Oh boy. Here comes Mickey. DS can hardly contain himself, this is great, he is in his element and gets my (his) autograph book signed and picture taken great. DD is quite happy watching her brother but as soon as Mickey makes a move towards her she goes a bit bonkers. She does NOT want him to get any closer. So we blow kisses and get a nose wiggle from Mickey instead. From here on we take the approach that one of us will lift her out and stand between her and the character and quickly get the pic and I will get my own (DD's oops, the secrets out now I think) autograph book signed. We get to see all the other characters and they sensitively keep their visits short as DD does not improve. Notice I have both hands on her on below,holding her down for the photo .



DS takes part in the parade with the noise makers and is having a great time.

Someone comes over with our photo package and I am so proud of myself for remembering the $10 off coupon which was in our welcome pack from checking in. He tells me I can't use it and I am pretty miffed so he says he'll check with a manager. It clearly states it can be used in Tusker House and Chef Mickeys so I'm not sure whats going on. He comes back an apologises and I get the photo package for $21.25 - another room charge. Our bill would have been $57.48 with another $10 tip, but we used 2 Adult TS credits and 1 childs TS credit. I highly recommend this character meal and it makes a great start to your day at the Animal Kingdom.

We leave just before 9am and soon hoardes of guests are streaming through the park. We go get a fast pass for Everest and the go on the Kilimanjaro Safari, which had only about a 10 minute wait. It is very very hot today. We are in the front of our jeep and are having a great time until it has to stop because a giraffe up ahead is not prepared to move. It gets hotter and hotter and our guide does his best to keep us entertain us and DD also does her best cutie pie act for a bit so it's bearable. We manage to watch the new baby elephant playing hide a seek for a bit and we're soon off on our travels again.



From here we go to Everest and use the baby swap option, which is effectively just another fast pass. We take turns riding and it's fab. I love rollercoasters and can't wait for the kids to be big enough to join me because it's not as much fun riding solo.
It is very hot by now and while I'm waiting for DH I use another 2 snack coupons, 38 left!


From here we make our way to the Kali River Rapids and encounter DeVine for the first time, we spend a couple of minutes watching her, bu the kids don't get it. When we get to Kali we already know DS is big enough to ride (as he went on last year) so DH and I take turns taking him. DD is still not really aware she's missing out so we manage to distract her with the squirty fan and some teddy bear biscuits. Bribery eh? works a treat.

We enjoy Kali and get suitably wet, DD is soaking as shes been having so much fun with the squirty fan. We get some more photopass pics with Everest in the background which again are not great, even more so because we are all bedraggled looking after Kali.

We go to the Flights of Wonder show next and DD is getting a bit grumpy so we break out the bribes again but they are not really effective. We go on to Dino Land next and have a bit of a play at the Bone yard, although it's so hot even DS gives up after a few minutes.

We are getting a bit peckish now so make our way to Pizzafari. It look busy but we find a table. DH stays with the kids and I get the meals we decide to share 2 adult meals and I choose Cheese Pizza with Salad and Pepperoni Pizza with salad, a large diet coke, bottled water and chocolate mousse and strawberry parfait for dessert. We are surprised at how nice this is and we all enjoy it but DH and I agree 2 QS meals are really enough for us. No price on the receipt for this one, but looked up the cost and I think it would have been about $29.56 for these meals.



We get the train over to Rakifi's planet watch now and enjoy the ride.

We end up having just a quick walk about here as it's way too hot to hang about although I think if it was a bit cooler the kids would have enjoyed grooming the animals and all that, just not today in this heat.

Wooo we are all melting. DD has got right into conservation at an early age - check out the tree hugging.

We do the characters and get our Autograph books signed. DS's highlight is meeting Jinimay (Jiminy) Cricket as he didn't do this last year and he is pleased as punch.




Continued on next post...

[clubhouse]

Continued from above..

We head back to Dino Land and have a ride on Chester and Hester

then feel in need of some refreshments. So we visit Dino Bites Snacks and partake in a Vanilla Sundae and Choc Chip Cookie - 2 snack credits, no drinks, hmmmmm. We must have had the water from lunch to drink here, oh just found another receipt. Mystery solved, they didn't have apple juice at Dino Bites so had to visit a nearby cart to get apple juice, another snack credit - only 35 to go.

We do some character trails next and have autographs and photos done with Winnie the Pooh and Friends - DS remembers this from last year and is quite excited. DD is still petrified although we do convince her to blow kisses, progress? I hope so.





We go round and get in on time to see the Nemo show. This show is very well done and DS loved it. DD on the other hand was entering brat mode. She managed to slip between the rows of seat with all her wriggling and I thought she'd really hurt herself, but she was OK. In hindsight reviewing this day I can totally see why she was a bit fractious, but at the time I felt sorry for everyone else trying to enjoy the show. She settled after a bit and finally closed her eyes :Zzz: for a rest in the very last minute of the show as the bubbles came down... I kid you not. I carried her to the buggy and successfully managed the precision operation of placing my sleeping toddler into the buggy without waking her as life will not be worth living if this happens.

We walk for a bit trying to decide what to do next and notice the Jammin Jungle Parade is passing. We are quite far back but DH pops DS up on his shoulders and he enjoys it.



I take the executive decision to flout whats on THE Spreadsheet and for DS and I to go to the Lion King show next and DH sits this out with our sleeping angel ha ha. We are in the Warthog section but wanted to be in the Elephant section as the leader there is much better! Didn't manage to get any pics here as we were enjoying ourselves too much.

After the show i tracked down DH with my trusty NET 10 phone and found him at the exit near a character trail. He told me that Mickey had come over and sat next to them as he had no-one waiting in line. I am a bit miffed as I could have got some Mouse time, pah!

DD is just starting to stir so we make our way out of the park and find its very, very busy and there is a closing ceremony going on. DS fell asleep in the buggy at this point. It'll be fun getting him in to the car then.

Managed to DS in the car and he sleeps all the way home only waking in the lift.

On getting back to our room I am pleased to see that Mousekeeping have FINALLY taken the tip envelope, yay, hope they appreciate my craft efforts, its been a while. A quick search of the room tells me that there is still no towel animal boo .

DH decides that he fancies a takeout from Chilli's and I have to admit its on THE spreadsheet so it's OK. He and DD go off for this and he comes back with Southwestern Eggrolls, buffallo wings, mushroom swiss burger, kids meal. Not sure how much this was, DH misplaced the receipt. DD was delighted as she got a balloon and some Mardi gras beads. We ate about half the food and enjoyed it.

DH fancied some retail therapy, well truth be told we both did, however not fair on the bambinos given the day we've had. So I send him off to the shops and tell him to make the most of having no children round his ankles and no buggy to get in the way and make sure he buys the main things he is after on this trip.

I sort out a jacuzzi bubble bath for the kids and they have a ball! Don't think I've ever seen so many bubbles! Once they are nice and wrinkly I get them ready for bed and they soon flake out.

DH comes back empty handed (!) from Premium Outlets after a couple of hours. I am a bit annoyed about this, I mean how is that possible? :angry:

We settle in for the night and are soon in the land of nod :Zzz:.

Next... Florida Mall, DTD & California Grill

[col2501]

ooohhhh I LOVE tusker house! we're going there on our first day for breakfast, we did this last year and loved it! My DD was older than yours (3) but she too was terrified of the characters, we had to constantly stand inbetween them if we wanted her in the photo's - hoping she's different in Oct (she'll be 5)
And men and shopping, how can he come back empty handed, esp when he was childless lol!
Great day! looking forward to tomorrow!

[Guest]

I'm just loving your report, your family is soooo adorable! Looking forward to more!

[mossyflossy]

only a man can take himself off shopping and come back empty handed!

the picture of your DD blowing a kiss is just too cute for words.

you packed so much in today!

[Ariel's Mum]

Wow, what a busy day. We have breakfast booked for Tusker House and I'm looking forward to it even more after reading your report...

[MEZZA]

Lovely day
the photo's are fab

[Disney_Diva]

Another fantastic day...lunch at animal kingdom looks great so going to add that to my list x

[Milner]

What a lovely day at AK and great photos. Coming back with no purchases from Premium Outlets!

[anniebee65]

I am loving your report! Thank you for taking the time to do this and to post such lovely pics!