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| Happy Ellie ready to go to Animal Kingdom |
Friday started with breakfast at the bakery, as usual. We then hopped on the bus and headed to Animal Kingdom. This is not our favorite park, but there are some good rides. When we got to the park, we headed to Expedition Everest, it was our first FastPass. Our FastPass schedule was split up a little on this day too, which caused some problems. Because of the different schedules, Spence and I and my parents rode Everest first. It is a lot of fun. Probably my favorite roller coaster at Disney World. After we went, Sam and Lisa went. They had fun too. After Everest, we wondered through the park and ended up back at the Tree of Life. We found Starbucks, and got a drink. Not a mug this time. After that, we found that Tarzan was down a trail behind the Tree and Riley wanted to see him. We headed down there and then after meeting Tarzan found that the path went all the way to the other side and came out at the Mickey and Minnie Meet and Greet. We had FastPasses to meet Mickey and Minnie and ours were at this time and Spence’s family’s FastPass was later on in the day. Ellie fell asleep waiting on Tarzan so we traded Magic Bands so that Spence’s family could go now and we would go later. It seemed to work ok. We traded back after they were done with the meet and great.
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| Breakfast time |
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| View from under/behind the Tree of Life |
After Riley met Mickey and Minnie, we went back over to see
the Nemo musical. Ellie was still asleep
and when we got there they said it was a 45 minute show. We decided to skip the show, but everyone
else watched it. Shortly after we walked
away, Ellie woke up and was hungry. We
stopped at the Flame Tree BBQ for a snack.
To preface this meal, I was born and raised in Kansas City, and Lisa has
lived in Kansas City most of her life.
We have a pretty high standard for BBQ and are pretty picky about
it. When we walked by earlier, it
actually smelled really good. We ordered
a BBQ chicken meal for the 3 of us to split.
I also got a Safari Amber beer at the recommendation of our fishing
guide. The beer was pretty good and the
BBQ was actually really good. I was
surprised. It had a nice rub and a good
smoky taste. The sauce was ok, but the
meat was good. It came with beans and
cornbread, which were both good too.
Ellie really liked the chicken.
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| Ellie really like Miss Lady |
When we finished lunch, we went to meet the rest of our
group at the Safari in Africa, since we had a FastPass for it. We got there just as everyone was getting in
line and it worked out really well. As
this was our first trip with a kid, I thought the stroller parking for the
safari was really cool. It was in the
line, close to where you get on, and then it is easy to pick up the strollers
after the ride. We piled in to our jeep
and headed out. They had changed this
ride a little from in the past. There
was a poacher storyline that was taken out, and the ride seemed to be a little
slower. It was a lot easier to take
pictures and see the animals. I enjoyed
it and I think everyone else did too.
Ellie and Riley really liked see the animals. Ellie called them all “doggies”.
Safari Time
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| Hippos |
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| Crocs! |
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| Simba or Scar? |
We split up again after the safari because we used Spence’s FastPass for the Mickey and Minnie meet and great. Because of this, we switched Magic Bands with them and headed back to meet Mickey and Minnie. We got there and it was nice and air conditioned inside. Most of this trip was unseasonably warm and this day was probably the hottest. Ellie started getting cranky while we waited to see Mickey and Minnie and by the time we got there, she didn’t want anything to do with them. It was a pretty cool spot and the character interaction was great. The couple ahead of us was recently engaged and Mickey and Minnie went back and forth about getting married. They would point at the ring and other body language in reference to not being able to make the jump/commitment. It was cute. Then it was our turn and Ellie was done. She didn’t want anything to do with Mickey and Minnie. As a general rule she likes them both in cartoons and stuffed animals, but she was not happy with the life sized versions. We took a couple of quick pictures and got out of there.
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| Ok with Mickey |
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| Done with Mickey |
I texted my brother and they were getting lunch at Yak and
Yeti. We went to meet them. Through the week I had been talking to my
cousin who lives in Orlando and we were trying to find a time to meet
them. This was the only day they had
available so I was waiting to hear from her to figure out a time. She contacted me on our way to Yak and Yeti
saying they could meet us at Animal Kingdom, but we were all pretty much done
with Animal Kingdom. We decided to go to
the Magic Kingdom instead. Lisa and I
decided to leave our family at Yak and Yeti because Ellie needed to nap. She was really fussy at this point. We also needed to trade Magic Bands back so
that we all could get into another park.
During the process of leaving and getting Ellie ready to go and calmed
down, I lost my Magic Band. I looked and
looked as we walked out of the park, but I couldn’t find it.
In the past there were not buses from one park to another,
you had to take a bus to a resort and then take a bus/boat/monorail to another
park. Because of this, I decided to take
a bus to the Polynesian and then take the Monorail to the Magic Kingdom. We were a little worried about fussy Ellie on
the bus, but she calmed down and was ok.
When we got to the Polynesian, I went through all of my pockets and
backpack and realized my Magic Band was gone.
So, we walked into the lobby of the Polynesian and talked to the
concierge. I let them know that we were
staying at the Boardwalk and I lost my Magic Band. They used Lisa’s band to find our
reservation, and they gave me a new Magic Band.
It was really easy and they were very nice and helpful.
The Polynesian resort was awesome. I’m not sure if I have ever been there other
than to eat at Ohana, but Lisa and I both really liked it. It has been recently renovated and they did a
great job. The other highlight we found
at the Polynesian is you can get Dole Whips at the resort. So we did, of course. It was delicious. We then walked up to the monorail stop and
got on after a short wait. It was so
nice to just roll the stroller on to the monorail rather than collapse
everything and haul it on to the bus like we had been doing all week.
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| We got leis at the Polynesian Resort |
We took the monorail to the Magic Kingdom and found my cousin at the hub in front of Cinderella castle. She was there with my aunt, who was also in town from KC, and they said her husband and 4 kids were at the Dumbo playground. Right before we headed that direction, the rest of my family joined us. My dad said they found a direct bus from the Animal Kingdom to the Magic Kingdom. Darn.
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| On the Monorail to the Magic Kingdom |
We walked over to Dumbo and I made a detour and walked through new Fantasyland to get Ellie to fall asleep. The ground is pretty bumpy through new Fantasyland and is a great place to get her to nap (and I got to walk through new Fantasyland which is really cool). Once she was asleep, Lisa and I got a snack at the Friar’s Nook. They had pot roast mac and cheese. It was awesome. We then went over to Dumbo to meet our group. We waited outside about half an hour or so before we saw them ride Dumbo. As they all got off the ride, we got to say hi and visit a little. After saying hello, most of the group was hungry so we went to Cosmic Ray’s to get a bite to eat.
Lisa and I decided not to eat because we were going to try
and go to EPCOT to eat at the Food & Wine Festival. We did get a rotisserie chicken dinner for
Ellie though. It was pretty good. Cosmic Ray’s is an interesting place. I don’t think I have ever been in there
before. They have an audio-animatronic
alien named Sunny Eclipse singing for your entertainment. The kinds seemed to enjoy it.
Once everyone had finished eating, we decided to ride the
Journey of the Little Mermaid in the new area of Fantasyland. We enjoyed this ride a lot. After that ride, the kids wanted to ride the
race cars in Tomorrowland, so we went over there, but Lisa and I did not
ride. We chatted with my cousin and my
parents while everyone else went on the ride.
When they were done, it was 7:00pm and the park was closing to everyone
not attending the Halloween party so we had to go. We said our goodbyes and headed out.
Our original plan was to take the monorail to EPCOT to eat
at the Food & Wine Festival. We did
not anticipate the crowd and line to get on the monorail as everyone left the
park. We skipped that and headed back to
the hotel. We got sandwiches from the
bakery and beers from the lobby bar and went to our room. After putting Ellie to bed, Lisa and I
watched Game 1 of the ALCS, in which our Kansas City Royals were playing the
Toronto Blue Jays. The sandwiches were
pretty good, the beers were better and the Royals won. Ended up a pretty good evening.
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