Tuck your elbows in - day 12 - going wild at DAK/DS/MK

[lumosq102]

2 October 2017

Day 11 is here
Index is here

I had promised us a lay in today after the Epcot 35 anniversary celebrations, however I was still on the balcony at 7:15 with my camera: just look at this sky. Worth getting out of bed for, no question.



















Its just glorious isn’t it?

We started getting our morning routine going (coffee on, showers, light breakfast) and popped WESH on to see what was going in in the world.

This morning was the morning of the Vegas shooting, it was just a little after 4am on the West Coast so details were fuzzy still, just the horror of a field full of people and shots raining down from a nearby hotel. Needless to say our morning routine was halted and we sat glued to the TV in horror. Those poor souls.

It was an EMH morning at Animal Kingdom today, and whilst there was no way on earth we would be getting there for 8am we had fastpasses we wanted to use, including that ever elusive Flight of Passage fastpass, so we shook ourselves off and headed out of our room, getting to the Grand Flo bus stop at 09:18 where a bus promptly arrived and whisked us away to Animal Kingdom, arriving a very reasonable 18 minutes later (I use the Moves app on my phone so get to be oddly precise with timings!).



We took a slow stroll through the entrance of Animal Kingdom, stopping to say hello to my Parrot friends



Where they were very tolerant of my desire to take 101 photos of them on their perch.



They’re just so pretty



Another lovely birdy friend



We nipped in to Riverside Depot for a quick blast of air condition on our way to our first ride of the day.


Pretty much.



Hi there dino!

We were nearing the end of our Dinosaur fast pass window so we joined the line and were swiftly ushered into the pre show which had already started – the peril of slow crowd mornings. Yes, I’ve seen the video before, but I still down like missing the start. What can I say, I’m a little odd.

We left the pre show and joined the main line where there were 3 young boys and their parents who desperately did not want to ride – perhaps they should have missed Seeker’s briefing? It had freaked them out good and proper.



You can see how it went from the ride photo



There is a third little one there, honest. Poor kids. Traumatised by Dinosaur. The parents don’t look like they’re too pleased either. Hopefully they enjoyed the rest of their day.

The ride was great though, well, for us. I'm sure there were effects working that I haven't seen in years, if ever. Wish they would sort the toaster start though...



R wanders off – part 10002303. Who can blame her – those are prehysterically low prices.







No time for Chester & Hester today – it was time to be moving along.



I adore this view, it is just so restful.

We found ourselves back in Discovery Island just as they were doing the parrot display. Those birds are just such a glorious spectacle.



They’re all waiting to fly off, apart from one on the right who was already off. Look at that gorgeous rainbow feathered wing.







Next time I’m determined to get a better, in focus, photo, but look at them go



We grabbed a quick photopass photo in front of the Tree of Life



Met some rambunctious animal friends



Then onwards to Pandora! It was just as gorgeous as ever, I still have absolutely I desire to see the film, but that area is a joy to walk around. We scarpered straight to our FP for Flight of Passage and was in the first pre show room about 10 minutes later. I’m sure you have all heard the usual praise filled posts about Flight of Passage by now (along with those who are less than impressed, of course) so I’ll keep it down, but we enjoyed it just as much as we had on our earlier visits. E very banshee we have ridden has been a little different, with different breathing patterns; we were picking up different aspects of the film… needless to say it’s a huge hit for us. It’s just a very special and surprisingly emotional experience.

As we left the ride building we realised that Satuli Canteen had just opened, and that light breakfast we had back at the hotel was not going to cut it until our lunch reservations that were 3 hours away, so in we went.

We split the veg curry steamed pods, I had a soft drink and R had the Pandoran Sunrise, sans alcohol.



This was really rather good, especially the veggie chips. I think the hamburger pods are probably more of a sensation due to how unusual they are – these were very reminiscent of the veggie steamed buns we get at a dim sum place in London. A point to note - the soda fountains have cherry coke. That right there is a major selling point for Satuli, well, for me!







We left Pandora via Africa



Heading past the Tree of Life



So pretty





Before arriving at that forbidden mountain





The crowds were picking up by now so we actually queued in the fast pass line which meant we got to take in some of the details we normally scurry past – and make a fast pass for that evening – multi tasking!





Another detailed food review from the Kirstys





We stopped off for a quick photopass photo



love those water views



And stopped by the Discovery Trading Company for another blast of air conditioning



Before we headed to the exit at 12:15



It had been a brief but lovely visit to Animal Kingdom.

[lumosq102]

As I mentioned, we had a lunch reservation at 2pm which was over at Disney Springs and of course the buses to Disney Springs from the parks don’t start until 4pm. We decided we were overdue a visit to the first WDW hotel we ever stayed at – Port Orleans French Quarter - where we would take the boat on to Disney Springs from there.



It was 1pm by the time we arrived at the resort thanks to a bit of a lengthy wait for a bus at Animal Kingdom, but nevermind, we had plenty of time before that lunch reservation.

We had a little wander before we got to the boat dock at 1:20, where we were just missing a boat. Of course. We had almost 20 minutes to wait for the next one where we learned that snakes hide in the rocks at the boat dock from the boat captain who was manning the dock – and saw a couple of teenagers quickly scurrying off the rocks as they heard that. Not to self – don’t sit on rustic rocks in Florida; you never know what you might meet.





Not our boat.



We finally boarded our vessel and were taken to Disney Springs by a rather funny Captain Joe who was both informative and hilarious – perhaps he was a Jungle Cruise skipper in another life?



We walked from the marketplace stop over to the landing at pace as we were now just a couple of minutes away from our reservation time at Homecoming. And you know what? Walking at speed in that heat reminds you how large Disney Springs is. Phew.



Homecoming (yeah, I’m not losing the G. The new iteration of the name is a little annoying) was the reservation R was the most excited about all trip. I was most excited about trying the hush puppies. We had both walked up an appetite and were very ready for our lunch.

We were seated quickly and our first course arrived very quickly – we decided to split those hushpuppys.



These we loved – especially the pimento cheese. Something I had never eaten before but will actively seek out in future. It was delicious.

Our drinks arrived quickly too – R went with the moonshine mash, I have no idea what I have – lost to time and poor not taking. But I do remember we enjoyed them. Very useful!



Then came the cardinal sin - they brought out our mains whilst we were still eating our started. Nope.



I had 3 sides - cheese biscuits, fries & mac n cheese. They were fine, nothing earth shattering, but I could have just stuck with the puppies. It was the peril of being vegetarian at a very meat heavy restaurant – all the heavy carb filled sides.



R loved her fries chicken and doughnuts. Best fried chicken ever apparently, so if that's your thing, run don't walk. She did leave quite a bit through – this was a meal that could feed 2 quite easily.

A final little moan – this was not a relaxed experience, we were in and out in less than an hour. We spent 40 minutes in Satuli with our curry pods that morning. A little more time to enjoy our food would have been preferred.



We had a little wander around the shops, buying a super cute Peter Pan cushion before heading on to the Vineland outlets via Uber. They now pick up over in the old marketplace bus stop area – don’t be fooled by the sign saying taxis pick up elsewhere, Uber pick ups are treated differently.

The Disney outlet was a wash out - nothing at all we wanted which is very unusual! We were pressed for time so we quickly left the outlet to walk over to Publix to pick up the essentials to take home and a few extra snacks for the room. Then we were in yet another Uber to the Best Buy in Kissimmee as no one in either the outlets or Publix sold memory cards and I was quickly running out of space. I had foolishly forgotten my external hard drive this trip. Moron.

Memory cards at great discount were bought, giant stoves & fridges were drooled over (one day...) and we were soon dashing back to the grand with a very sweet Uber driver who was telling us about his family in Puerto Rico who had been impacted by the hurricane...

We arrived back at the Grand at 6:40pm, so in 2 and a half hours we had managed to go to the outlets at Vineland, Publix and the Kissimmee Best Buy. That was very speedy work for us, heck we could spend that long in just Publix on a good day. That’ll teach me to be more cautious around memory cards!



We made a quick stop off at the room to drop off our packages & we were heading over to the Magic Kingdom for another viewing of Happily Ever After, walking through that tunnel at 7:15 – not bad at all.



The first time we saw that Disney had put their flags at half mast in consideration of the souls lost in shooting in Vegas. So sad.


We took Main Street a little faster than we normally would as 90 minutes before fireworks the hub was already jam-packed. We thought we had found the perfect view for the fireworks just behind the Partners statue – its my favourite place to take photos of the fireworks at MK. I mean – look at that view.



There was a lady already there who was saving a seat for her daughter to view the fireworks as they had missed them due to the rain a couple of nights before. We got chatting which is lovely, always happy to make new friends! Unfortunately things took a turn for the worse – R was checking her phone where she saw that it looked like Tom Petty had passed away. Our new friend misheard and thought that we were talking about that mornings shooting. At that point it wasn’t clear if there was any group claiming the shooting, but our new friend was very clear on who she thought was responsible and she very quickly got very nasty, talking about she had hounded a lady wearing a hijab out of her local movie theatre as she and her daughter didn’t feel comfortable with her there… rather than cause a scene we found a flaky excuse to leave – apparently one of our friends was asking us to join them elsewhere in the hub, and we skedaddled. Yes, I’d normally confront racism but my gentle responses were not getting through and I didn’t want to taint Magic Kingdom with a nasty conversation, so we took the chickens route and scarpered to find ourselves here:



Not so shabby!



Right by the slope up to the castle. We settled in, listening to the rather lovely music and got ourselves ready for our second viewing of Happily Ever After, so obviously it is time for an onslaught of photos:

[lumosq102]

Is there such thing as too many castle photos?

No one told me Ursula would be here.



You can do it Eric!

[lumosq102]

Scroll quick enough and its like you’re there…

It was a great spot for viewing the projections, but of course the view of the fireworks was more limited.

[lumosq102]

Fireworks over, eyes mopped we headed out of the hub and towards Fantasyland, stopping of course for another castle photo.

And wandered past Alice as we headed for a late night snack at Auntie Gravities. Yummmmm…. I was so excited I forgot to focus

And it was cool enough this evening to sit outside to enjoy it, it was a lovely peaceful moment, enjoying Tomorrowland.

Whilst we were eating we saw that we had received an email from Disney to say that our fastpass experience – Space Mountain – was down. Again.

So Peoplemover it was!

And with that – look, Space Mountain was open again!

So off we hopped – time to take our flight into space

And nap through it.

Next up, we visited Buzz Lightyear who seemed to be having an existential crisis

go, fight Zurg

Serious faces

We managed to get a fifth fastpass whilst we were in line for Space Mountain which was now open – time to visit with Pooh Bear and his Hundred Acre Wood pals.

By this time the park was closing and we needed a quick restroom stop so we nipped over to the Tangled loos.

As we came out we saw that the line for the Tangled lantern photopass shot was finally pretty short and despite the fact that the park was now closed they were still happy for us to pop in line. It’s a really lovely little shot:

I look exhausted, a little sunburned, but very very happy

pretty much my standard Disney look then.

Nighttime backside of castle with full moon in the background, its all kinds of perfect.

And a little of the front too, for balance.

We took a slow walk out of the park, stopping for what I would like to call Mickey pumpkin heads – a tribute.

R - really would like to be in bed now, thank you

We hopped on the monorail at 11:30, half an hour after park close, and we were done. My hand was starting to bother me following last nights mosquito bite right on my little finger knuckle. Bahh. We pulled into the grand Floridian 15 minutes later and made it back to our room at 11:50, with 1 last failed photo as my shutter was slower than the lift door:

And a little look down at the fountain from our floor.

So pretty.

And quickly after that we were in the land of nod – our chilled day hadn’t really worked. Perhaps we would do a better job of that tomorrow.

Day 13 is here

[Inky]

Fabulous photo's

[florida_2012]

That’s a fabulous viewing location for HEA. There doesn’t seem to be anyone else there / no crowds. Is it just to the left of the castle? Went 6 years ago so I can’t remember round the castle very well.

[collybird]

It’s good you liked pimento cheese, as it seems to be the latest fad!

What an amazing view of Happily Ever After!

[lumosq102]

Originally Posted by Inky

Fabulous photo's

See more...

Thank you!

Originally Posted by florida_2012

That’s a fabulous viewing location for HEA. There doesn’t seem to be anyone else there / no crowds. Is it just to the left of the castle? Went 6 years ago so I can’t remember round the castle very well.

See more...

We're essentially front row, which is why there are no pesky people in my photos, in the main. As you come up to the hub there are 2 ramps that lead up to the castle and through to fantasyland. People can only go as far as the line in the concrete at the bottom of the ramp



You can kinda see where the grey paving of the ramp meets the red of the hub in this photo, we were on the left side though, not the right.

Hope that helps! and wishing you the most fantastic trip, you have so many amazing new things to see

Originally Posted by collybird

It’s good you liked pimento cheese, as it seems to be the latest fad!

What an amazing view of Happily Ever After!

See more...

ha! it does seem to have sprung up everywhere doesn't it!

And yes, it was a very happy accident, and pretty chilled for the most part.the HeA crowds are so much more intense than the wishes crowds used to be!

[Goldia]

The answer to your question is no, you can never have too many castle shots, especially at night when it's all glittery and sparkly!

Another fab day, a shame homecoming (Totally agree they were mental to lose the g) brought out your mains before you'd finished the starters, but otherwise pretty good day from sunrise to sunset.