brivers222
12-23-2011, 01:03 AM
Previously on OVMDC
Day 1:
http://www.intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=187818
http://www.intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=187824
Day 2:
http://www.intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=187837
Agenda: Ohana, AK, Boma, MVMCP #2
Photos to go along with story: http://photobucket.com/DISNEYmoon3
The ferry whistles awoke me with such a clatter…I rose out of bed to see what was the matter. It was just stitch up to his crazy antics reminding us that today was our first of two visits to ‘Ohana breakfast with Lilo & Stitch. Because we didn’t receive a towel animal, nor did she actually take my tip, and we had 2 extra towels we decided not to have house keeping come to our room today. Cost savings in effect.
When we were given our leis we were told to sprinkle them with water and place them in our fridge for longevity. This morning we decided to give it a shot and wear it to breakfast. I do remember that agreed upon walking to the ceremonial house just to see how long it would really take. 12mins from our door to ‘Ohana’s check-in. The CM saw our real Leis and said we need to keep those on (of course). We posed for the $29.99 picture, which we did end up buying because we had the real lei’s. If not we wouldn’t have thought twice about saying no thank you.
Once again all the characters came around rather quickly and we saw them all. The only problem with family style and characters is that your food has a chance to get very cold while stopping to interact with them. The guava juice they have there is out of this world. I think myself I had 6 glasses...Thank you sir may I have another? I love the pineapple bread and skillet always tastes so good, even if it is slightly cold. This is and always will be a staple on our trips to Disney, dare I say a must for anyone looking for good food and good character interaction. As another treat we were given yet another cupcake, this time with an umbrella on it. It wasn’t the best nor was it the worst. Then again it could just be because I was full from the delicious food!
During dinner they characters all go on a parade to the “Hawaiian Rollercoaster” song. This one was extra special because Mickey came up to a paraplegic girl in a wheel chair and starting pushing her around as the start of the parade. It was so touching. It was pretty emotional; I took pictures but have since cropped them to keep the identity of the girl to a minimum. But this was so special to see Mickey do this!
After breakfast I decided this would be the allotted Animal Kingdom day with a quick change up of dining making a 4:40pm ADR at Boma. We opted to drive the car over to animal kingdom lodge as to not rely on the slowness of the buses moving from extremes of the resort. We got to our car and it was showered with bird poop…so much eww that I just had to take a picture of it! Since it was only a 15min car ride it gave us some time to check out the lodges Christmas tree and such. As much as I don’t like staying at the resort (had a bad trip the first time there) I really do like the smell you are greeted with upon the door opening. The tree was the focal point pretty much just slamming you in the face the second your eyes adjust from the sunlight. We looked around a bit and then decided to head over to AK for a quick jaunt. All I wanted to do was make sure we saw FOTLK this time. So we went down to the bus area. Figuring it was AKL and AK was like 10seconds away buses should be pretty regular. Hmmmm totally NOT the case. We waited 45mins (and 3 MK buses) before an animal kingdom bus arrived. Not really restoring hope in the bus system.
We did make it to AK and we leisurely took our time walking around. We ended up back by Expedition Everest and I glanced at the standby line (45mins) Nope, not this trip again… I can’t break my code of 15mins or less. Well wait, there is a single rider line entrance and I am a single rider, lets give it a shot. Asked the CM the wait time and after a quick look behind her she replied back, “5mins tops” AWESOME! I asked YO! if that would be okay and she just found a spot to sit and wait. I got seated within 3 mins of arriving in line and shortly there after I was whisked away to the top of Everest next to an older guy who didn’t really talk much. Which was fine by me actually because I just wanted to enjoy the ride as it was almost 5 years since I was last on it!. Ride ended and I met up with and she actually told me to go back for another run. SCORE! This time I was paired with a young girl who was on her first rollercoaster. The mother was in the row ahead of us with the girls younger sister. I asked the mom if she was nervous because I would rather try to make her less scared then have her freak out on her first coaster. She ended up loving it! I made sure I pointed out the Disco Yeti (so sad, the last time I was on this in ’06 it was live action yeti). When I met up with YO! she informed me that she saw me on the drop with my arms out stretched and everything lol
I glanced at my phone and noticed we had literally 15mins to make it across the park to the FOTLK or we would have to wait a longer time and that would be really pushing our 4:40 dinner ressie. we made it there in time before the show started and we were only 4th row in the giraffe section. I didn’t tell YO! anything about this show because I wanted her to be amazed. She was blown out of her mind at the coolness of it. I managed to take a few decent shots without my flash using a steady hand and longer shutter speed. Upon show end we were dropped off near the character greeting area and we decided to meet Santa goofy. He was entertaining and we got a nice picture with him both on my camera and on the photopass. By this point I realized we could actually catch the Christmas parade if we hurried. We were on our way until we saw Pocahontas standing there with only 2 people in line. Neither of us had met her before so we totally had to! She was friendly and ask YO! questions about her ring and the wedding and our trip so far. But really we had to make the parade! Which we did and I have the pictures to prove it. I hope you enjoy them!
After the parade ended we followed it past the front entrance where we made a right turn to head out of the park. It was then that we saw the clouds looking very evil in the distance. It was pouring rain! So far this trip we had decent luck with the rain being all around us but never on us. Today our luck ran out! Thankfully the skys opened up while we were on the bus and then again while we were at dinner.
Dinner was absolutely awesome! I didn’t make an ADR last year and I really regretted that so this year I was going to go here either dinner or breakfast. Dinner fit a lot better for us. The food was amazing however I focused mainly on the desserts as we have been eating so much already. Zebra domes were my favorite but I actually liked all of them! We once again got greeted with another dessert. This time a mousse tort. Oh man I did actually eat all this one. We finished early so we still had some time before we had to leave to get ready for MVMCP #2. We went up to the lodge tree and I was practicing taking some pictures (Photopass style) since I had almost the exact same camera and flash they had. On Day 2 night after Crystal Palace I forgot to mention that I had a nice long talk with a Disney Photopass person who actually set up my camera to the exact settings that they had on theirs. Also she let me take a picture of their cheat sheet. I had all the settings but I just couldn’t get the photo to turn out exactly right in front of the tree at the Lodge. Luckily this photopass CM was just as friendly and showed us how placement of the subject is the key. Okay, class dismissed I am ready to roll now at the parks!!
Rain was still pouring down, all the way until we pulled into the lot in front of the Tahiti building area. We went up to our room and got stuff together to head out to the party. We checkout out our balcony and the rain appeared to have stopped, awesome, bring it on party! We headed out towards the TTC and just as we entered the first awning the sky opened up, and I mean opened up for just a second. But that second was enough for me to say enough with the camera I have to put it a way for a bit. So I loaded into the backpack and we jumped aboard the Express monorail to the Magic Kingdom. We paused inside the terminal and put on our $.99 walmart ponchos. I had it covering my backpack and everything. Going through security was a blast having to take off the backpack from under my poncho without ripping or removing the poncho. We did it though and after a brief pause we had our wrist bands on and were in the party.
It was pouring and the park was flooding, I was wondering about fireworks if this rain kept up. We went back to fantasyland and all the rides were long wait times. We went to the cookie and cocoa area next to it’s a small world and sat for a bit. It was then that we decided this just wasn’t fun. We had the Key to the Kingdom tour in the morning and since I left my other trusty shoes at home I couldn’t afford to have these water soaked for a 5 hour walking tour ☹ Much to our surprise as we headed out the fireworks started however the smoke held around the castle and it masked a lot of the fireworks from view. It seemed more like MNSSHP fireworks than MVMCP fireworks. Okay time to head home and call it a night.
We went back to our room and then decided to hang out at captain cooks for a bit. I realized that I had an extra TS that we weren’t going to use so I bought a man a complete CS meal. YO! and I had a mickey bar for me and a fruit bar for her. We stayed down there for a bit then agreed it was time for bed with the tour bright and early at 9am
To be continued with day 4 (OUR 1 MONTH ANNIVERSARY!)…
Day 1:
http://www.intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=187818
http://www.intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=187824
Day 2:
http://www.intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=187837
Agenda: Ohana, AK, Boma, MVMCP #2
Photos to go along with story: http://photobucket.com/DISNEYmoon3
The ferry whistles awoke me with such a clatter…I rose out of bed to see what was the matter. It was just stitch up to his crazy antics reminding us that today was our first of two visits to ‘Ohana breakfast with Lilo & Stitch. Because we didn’t receive a towel animal, nor did she actually take my tip, and we had 2 extra towels we decided not to have house keeping come to our room today. Cost savings in effect.
When we were given our leis we were told to sprinkle them with water and place them in our fridge for longevity. This morning we decided to give it a shot and wear it to breakfast. I do remember that agreed upon walking to the ceremonial house just to see how long it would really take. 12mins from our door to ‘Ohana’s check-in. The CM saw our real Leis and said we need to keep those on (of course). We posed for the $29.99 picture, which we did end up buying because we had the real lei’s. If not we wouldn’t have thought twice about saying no thank you.
Once again all the characters came around rather quickly and we saw them all. The only problem with family style and characters is that your food has a chance to get very cold while stopping to interact with them. The guava juice they have there is out of this world. I think myself I had 6 glasses...Thank you sir may I have another? I love the pineapple bread and skillet always tastes so good, even if it is slightly cold. This is and always will be a staple on our trips to Disney, dare I say a must for anyone looking for good food and good character interaction. As another treat we were given yet another cupcake, this time with an umbrella on it. It wasn’t the best nor was it the worst. Then again it could just be because I was full from the delicious food!
During dinner they characters all go on a parade to the “Hawaiian Rollercoaster” song. This one was extra special because Mickey came up to a paraplegic girl in a wheel chair and starting pushing her around as the start of the parade. It was so touching. It was pretty emotional; I took pictures but have since cropped them to keep the identity of the girl to a minimum. But this was so special to see Mickey do this!
After breakfast I decided this would be the allotted Animal Kingdom day with a quick change up of dining making a 4:40pm ADR at Boma. We opted to drive the car over to animal kingdom lodge as to not rely on the slowness of the buses moving from extremes of the resort. We got to our car and it was showered with bird poop…so much eww that I just had to take a picture of it! Since it was only a 15min car ride it gave us some time to check out the lodges Christmas tree and such. As much as I don’t like staying at the resort (had a bad trip the first time there) I really do like the smell you are greeted with upon the door opening. The tree was the focal point pretty much just slamming you in the face the second your eyes adjust from the sunlight. We looked around a bit and then decided to head over to AK for a quick jaunt. All I wanted to do was make sure we saw FOTLK this time. So we went down to the bus area. Figuring it was AKL and AK was like 10seconds away buses should be pretty regular. Hmmmm totally NOT the case. We waited 45mins (and 3 MK buses) before an animal kingdom bus arrived. Not really restoring hope in the bus system.
We did make it to AK and we leisurely took our time walking around. We ended up back by Expedition Everest and I glanced at the standby line (45mins) Nope, not this trip again… I can’t break my code of 15mins or less. Well wait, there is a single rider line entrance and I am a single rider, lets give it a shot. Asked the CM the wait time and after a quick look behind her she replied back, “5mins tops” AWESOME! I asked YO! if that would be okay and she just found a spot to sit and wait. I got seated within 3 mins of arriving in line and shortly there after I was whisked away to the top of Everest next to an older guy who didn’t really talk much. Which was fine by me actually because I just wanted to enjoy the ride as it was almost 5 years since I was last on it!. Ride ended and I met up with and she actually told me to go back for another run. SCORE! This time I was paired with a young girl who was on her first rollercoaster. The mother was in the row ahead of us with the girls younger sister. I asked the mom if she was nervous because I would rather try to make her less scared then have her freak out on her first coaster. She ended up loving it! I made sure I pointed out the Disco Yeti (so sad, the last time I was on this in ’06 it was live action yeti). When I met up with YO! she informed me that she saw me on the drop with my arms out stretched and everything lol
I glanced at my phone and noticed we had literally 15mins to make it across the park to the FOTLK or we would have to wait a longer time and that would be really pushing our 4:40 dinner ressie. we made it there in time before the show started and we were only 4th row in the giraffe section. I didn’t tell YO! anything about this show because I wanted her to be amazed. She was blown out of her mind at the coolness of it. I managed to take a few decent shots without my flash using a steady hand and longer shutter speed. Upon show end we were dropped off near the character greeting area and we decided to meet Santa goofy. He was entertaining and we got a nice picture with him both on my camera and on the photopass. By this point I realized we could actually catch the Christmas parade if we hurried. We were on our way until we saw Pocahontas standing there with only 2 people in line. Neither of us had met her before so we totally had to! She was friendly and ask YO! questions about her ring and the wedding and our trip so far. But really we had to make the parade! Which we did and I have the pictures to prove it. I hope you enjoy them!
After the parade ended we followed it past the front entrance where we made a right turn to head out of the park. It was then that we saw the clouds looking very evil in the distance. It was pouring rain! So far this trip we had decent luck with the rain being all around us but never on us. Today our luck ran out! Thankfully the skys opened up while we were on the bus and then again while we were at dinner.
Dinner was absolutely awesome! I didn’t make an ADR last year and I really regretted that so this year I was going to go here either dinner or breakfast. Dinner fit a lot better for us. The food was amazing however I focused mainly on the desserts as we have been eating so much already. Zebra domes were my favorite but I actually liked all of them! We once again got greeted with another dessert. This time a mousse tort. Oh man I did actually eat all this one. We finished early so we still had some time before we had to leave to get ready for MVMCP #2. We went up to the lodge tree and I was practicing taking some pictures (Photopass style) since I had almost the exact same camera and flash they had. On Day 2 night after Crystal Palace I forgot to mention that I had a nice long talk with a Disney Photopass person who actually set up my camera to the exact settings that they had on theirs. Also she let me take a picture of their cheat sheet. I had all the settings but I just couldn’t get the photo to turn out exactly right in front of the tree at the Lodge. Luckily this photopass CM was just as friendly and showed us how placement of the subject is the key. Okay, class dismissed I am ready to roll now at the parks!!
Rain was still pouring down, all the way until we pulled into the lot in front of the Tahiti building area. We went up to our room and got stuff together to head out to the party. We checkout out our balcony and the rain appeared to have stopped, awesome, bring it on party! We headed out towards the TTC and just as we entered the first awning the sky opened up, and I mean opened up for just a second. But that second was enough for me to say enough with the camera I have to put it a way for a bit. So I loaded into the backpack and we jumped aboard the Express monorail to the Magic Kingdom. We paused inside the terminal and put on our $.99 walmart ponchos. I had it covering my backpack and everything. Going through security was a blast having to take off the backpack from under my poncho without ripping or removing the poncho. We did it though and after a brief pause we had our wrist bands on and were in the party.
It was pouring and the park was flooding, I was wondering about fireworks if this rain kept up. We went back to fantasyland and all the rides were long wait times. We went to the cookie and cocoa area next to it’s a small world and sat for a bit. It was then that we decided this just wasn’t fun. We had the Key to the Kingdom tour in the morning and since I left my other trusty shoes at home I couldn’t afford to have these water soaked for a 5 hour walking tour ☹ Much to our surprise as we headed out the fireworks started however the smoke held around the castle and it masked a lot of the fireworks from view. It seemed more like MNSSHP fireworks than MVMCP fireworks. Okay time to head home and call it a night.
We went back to our room and then decided to hang out at captain cooks for a bit. I realized that I had an extra TS that we weren’t going to use so I bought a man a complete CS meal. YO! and I had a mickey bar for me and a fruit bar for her. We stayed down there for a bit then agreed it was time for bed with the tour bright and early at 9am
To be continued with day 4 (OUR 1 MONTH ANNIVERSARY!)…