Halloween in August Trip Report

[wendinator 109]

I don't have the photos to prove it but my digital bread crumb trail tells me that I did the Laugh Floor after this (henceforth abbreviated as MILF - you've been warned). I probably did MILF 3 or more times on this trip and not once did I get the bit they used to do where they pick people from the audience to be Mike/Sulley/Randall/Boo. Do you remember that? Here's a picture I took in Aug 2015 because the guy in the row ahead of me was picked to be Mike (with one I) - you can see my arm and phone in the picture.

That one was a lot of fun. Now they only do the bit where they can tell you the capital of any country. I hope I just got unlucky on this trip and that the Mike/Sulley gag is still in rotation.

This is also a good point for me to talk about FastPass. Was it here where I read the trick about refreshing MDE? If it was then thank you because I used it several times successfully. Here's the short version. Say you want a FP for MILF at 4ish but all it will give you is 7ish. Book the 7 pm FP then go back and edit it and say you want to change the time. Keep refreshing until you see a time you like better. It may offer you 6:something. Take that, then edit again and keep refreshing. Before you know it you get the time you want. This even sometimes works for different attractions. Want Pirates but can't get it? Book Haunted Mansion, then edit. Boom. Pirates appears. I have no idea why/how this works but it does. I suspect I had good luck with this because I was searching for a party of 1. Your mileage may vary for parties of 2 and up.

From MILF I went to City Hall to tell them I thought Kasha was a great Jungle Cruise skipper. They always seem so happy to have someone giving them good news. I imagine most of their day is unhappy people. I was done with the MK for the day so took the monorail back to the TTC and drove to the GF.

I know not everyone is a fan of signature dining and think it's not worth the money,  but I made myself an ADR at Citrico's to take advantage of their 30% discount for AP holders. You can read about that dinner here.

While at the Grand Floridian I noticed they had some Halloween merchandise out. I don't think it was there the day before when I went for tea. Either way,  Halloween is my favorite holiday so I was enjoying the merch.

That was it for excitement for the day. I drove back to the time share and did some laundry for my sister. Here's what my Fitbit thinks I did as a step count. 11.37 km converts to a little over 7 miles.

Tomorrow is my first park day with my BIL and kids. Stay tuned for rope drop at AK. My sister opted out of all our park stuff except for one.

[wdwpoohbear...Jennifer 40]

I am really enjoying reading your trip report.  I didn't know the trick for the fast passes.  I will have to try that for next time.

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

What a great thing for you to pay for that mother's champagne!  I'm sure you made her day.

[slices 16]

I'll confess as a Brit living in Florida married to an American, I had to show my wife that photo to work out why the we're obviously Brits. 

[Beckers 1,136]

I think this is the first time I think I have seen your picture, it's normally just food (which reminds me I need to read you tea update).

we love tiki room, especially the noise that the tikis make, not their "voices" but the mechanical noise. I also enjoy small world, it's not my favorite it's just not a trip to Disney without it. An added bonus is embarrassing my kids by singing the whole time. 

Your 7DMT pic is pretty flipping fantastic!! Good job on the selfie!!

ican needs to hit the road, I will forever be a PUSH fan. 

The eclipse was a bust in NJ due to clouds, I think we were only 80% so it made no difference. My brother/his family and my parents went to TN for a vacation based around the eclipse and they experienced %100 totality and said it was amazing. We are planning on going somewhere in 2024 that's going to be %100. 

 

[Ivy 36]

 

Really enjoying your TR.

Great tip on taking a photo of the parking row. I will have to remember that.

My family and I were in Bowling Green KY for the total eclipse, about 2 hours from where we live. We drove there to see it in totality. Our home location only had 97 percent.

It was an amazing thing to see. Memphis above described it perfectly. I plan to be at the next one in 2024, lol 

Here are a couple of photos before totality and during totality. Wendinator, I will remove these if you prefer them not to be in your TR. Thanks

 

 

 

[Jenvp 2]

enjoying the trip report, I was in Mobile, Al for the eclipse and it was too cloudy to really see anything

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

Oh my gosh... some awesome stuff here!

First:  That photo of you on 7DMT is priceless!!  I absolutely LOVE it!

Second:  Cream cheese pretzel?!  Didn't know about this; my husband would love that!  Is the cream cheese inside the pretzel?? 

Third:  The CMs signing.... how awesome is that?!!

[wendinator 109]

9 hours ago, Ivy said:

Here are a couple of photos of before totality and during totality. Wendinator, I will remove these if you prefer them not to be in your TR. Thanks

I'm happy to have them included, but I can't actually see them! Photobucket. :-(

32 minutes ago, twiceblessed....nacole said:

Second:  Cream cheese pretzel?!  Didn't know about this; my husband would love that!  Is the cream cheese inside the pretzel?? 

Yes, there's a warm, sweet, cream cheese filling inside the pretzel. I like them a lot.

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

1 hour ago, wendinator said:

 

Yes, there's a warm, sweet, cream cheese filling inside the pretzel. I like them a lot.

How did we not know this?!   Thanks for posting about that... it's now on our must-try for this next trip 

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

Great update!! I LOVE Cream Cheese Pretzels.... They are really the only kind I like, too much salt on everything else...

[wendinator 109]

Our plan for Tuesday was Animal Kingdom. None of us had been since Pandora opened. My sister and family had to check out of AKL that morning so that was my sister's task for the morning since she wasn't coming to the parks with us.

I picked up the 3 boys (BIL & 2 nephews) at AKL and we drove to AK.

Here's this morning's parking reminder - taken just a bit before 8 am. Park was scheduled for 9 am opening.

We cleared bag check without any problem and I got in the tapstile line off to the left. Apparently the boys had some kind of ticket that required activation before they could use it. (Don't ask me.) So they stood in the ticket line and got that sorted out. Once they rejoined me in line we had a discussion about whether it was better to stay in the line we were in or go through the Rainforest Cafe and enter there. The crowd behind us was growing. One of the kids went off on a reconnaissance mission and reported back that there was nobody in there, so we abandoned our line and went to the Rainforest Cafe tapstile and the good news is that sure enough we were the only ones there. The bad news was that while we were relocating, the tapstiles had been opened up and people were flooding into the park. Oh well.

We joined the herd who were all going to the same place. No need to wonder where you're going - just follow the crowd ahead of you. In short order we were queued up on the bridge to Pandora. As has been reported by others... it's HOT and stuffy. I was glad I had my little fan. I had a couple of these and they were great. Well worth the price when you're at Disney in August. This isn't a great picture but you get a rough idea of the size of the crowd behind us.

I don't remember how long we waited there - maybe 20 minutes? And then the crowd started moving forward. It was largely an orderly affair but wow some people sure get pushy. I just let them go ahead. We got to the fork where it's Navi River Journey one way and FoP the other way. Yeah... nobody was going to NRJ. The poor CMs tried their best to entice people. The line into FoP moved pretty quickly with the exception of people stopping to take pictures of the scenery. How many times have you seen this same picture?

To give you an idea of our rope drop progress, I took this selfie at 8:54 am. Can you guess where it was taken?

Not a lot of visual clues there... But that's where I sat and waited at the chicken exit. I get motion sick pretty easily and despite lots of people along the way trying to encourage me to ride, I gave it a pass. The guys enjoyed it though. From here we went and did the Navi River Journey. There was a bit of a line but nothing very long. I think we entered the queue by about 9:10. Rope drop paid off. I didn't take any pictures (I wanted to experience it for the first time without my phone in the way) so don't have any to post. I thought the ride was... ok. I'd intentionally avoided any spoilers before going (no YouTube ride videos, etc.) so was going in without any particular expectations. It sure didn't knock my socks off, and there's no way I'd wait an hour for it. Meh.

We decided to do the Kilimanjaro Safari so headed in that direction by way of a bathroom break. Apologies to anyone who's eating while they read this but I couldn't resist taking a picture of this toilet. It looked to me like somebody had flushed a set of keys so it was cracking me up.

My BIL said, "wow it must have really hurt when they passed those keys!" We're easily amused, what can I say?

We didn't have a FP for the Safari but didn't have a long wait. This ride also makes my head a little woozy with all the rocking around so once is enough. I only took one picture and it was right at the very beginning. There's a photo from several years ago where we were doing a selfie in my row and my sister photobombed it from the row behind. Since my sister wasn't there this time, I asked a girl behind me, "can you please photobomb my picture?". She seemed surprised but obliged. Which begs the question, does it really count as a photobomb if you ask someone to do it? Probably not but I was amused anyway. Sorry for not posting it - I'm not comfortable posting pictures of my sister's kids. Not my kids, not my place to put them on teh internetz. It's blurry anyway.

After the Safari the kids wanted to do some pn trading at a nearby gift shop. I was amused by these little fans that make light up shapes when they're on. I tried to shoot a little video of it but it didn't really turn out.

We had a FP for Primeval Whirl so headed in that direction. You won't be surprised to hear that I gave this one a pass too, so one of the boys got to use my FP and ride a second time. I hung out in the "Chester & Hester's Dinosaur Treasures" gift shop instead for some sweet sweet air conditioning. The kids did some more pin trading here too. I was interested to note one CM working there who would ask a trivia question that you'd have to successfully answer before she'd show you the pins in her collection. She asked tough questions like, "Name one animal you've seen today."

The guys wanted to do Dinosaur after this and I decided I'd actually go on this one. I've done it once before so I knew what I was getting into. The posted wait time grew while we were standing in line so it was probably half an hour. In the ride photo I look mildly amused, but the kid in the front row sure isn't having a good time.

We split up after this - BIL and one kid went to Expedition Everest and took my MB and the other kid's MB so they'd could ride twice. The kid I took wanted to go back to the Pandora gift shop and I was hungry and wanted to go to the Satu'li Canteen, so that's where we went.

I liked this sign at the entrance to Pandora but I dared not try to take a picture of it at rope drop for fear of being trampled.

And the giant spitting flower thing was cool too. A kid can't resist getting flower spit on a hot day.

Satu'li Canteen was my first time seeing Mobile Order. The pickup area was deserted. That seemed very appealing so I fired up the app and ordered us some grub.

Looks like only one other guy had the same idea.

Here's the blueberry mousse for the kid. It must have been good because I didn't even get to steal a bite! I wish I'd taken a picture of the inside.

And here are my steamed buns that I talked about here.

After this we headed over to the Pandora gift shop. I wish I'd taken more pictures here - like of the custom Navi barbie doll you can get made for something like $80. And those weird banshee shoulder puppet things. The appeal is certainly lost on me, but they sure know how to part people from their money. The kid found a pin he wanted so I went with him to the cash so we could use my AP discount. The cashier told him there's an AP-only pin as well and showed it to him. He liked it and asked if he could buy two - one for his brother. He's WAY nicer to his brother than I was to my sister at that same age. BIL and other kid finished with EE and met us at the Pandora gift shop (Windtraders). More pins were bought. They ate some sandwiches they'd packed and then we decided we'd had enough for now and we left.

Since you get to use the resort facilities all day on your check in and check out day, I took them back to AKL. We'll pick up there.

[Seals 111]

Cream cheese pretzels may be ok unless it's after midnight on the last day of a cruise and you're stuffed but want to have one more "free" food item before you go back to the real world and so you point and ask for a pretzel thinking it's a pretzel and you settle down by the pool and bite into it and it oozes.  Been there done that.

Is there some kind of FF prize for a trip report that manages to include in the inside of a toilet. That has to be a first (?). 

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Sorry to hear about your motion sickness.  Sounds like yours is a lot worse than mine.  No fun.

[caveat lector 181]

Wow, you packed a lot of stuff in this tr that piqued my interest

1) I need to look into the benefit of buying one large gift card when you're traveling in from the great white north. I'm a finance guy and love knowing the angles.

2) the kid on the leash. I'm sure there's a reason, but........

3) the intergalactic phone. I can't believe I've never noticed it. Nice catch

Great TR!

[caveat lector 181]

.....oh,and sadly as I sit here reading your finemail tome,my fitbit only say 3,475 steps......epic fail on my part.

[bdm 47]

Love your ride selection in MK and AK...  I see no need to submit myself to abuse by engineers that design thrill rides since turning 35 nearly a decade ago.

[Ivy 36]

On 9/22/2017 at 8:55 AM, wendinator said:

I'm happy to have them included, but I can't actually see them! Photobucket. :-(

 

The photos are now hosted with flickr. Should be able to view them now.

 

[wendinator 109]

16 hours ago, caveat lector said:

1) I need to look into the benefit of buying one large gift card when you're traveling in from the great white north. I'm a finance guy and love knowing the angles.

I haven't really done the math here but I know that credit cards don't exactly use favorable exchange rates (well... favorable to THEM but not so much to me) so my logic is that one transaction of $100 is going to be better than 10 transactions of $10 when buying things like Dole Whip, cream cheese pretzel, quick serve lunch, etc.

14 hours ago, bdm said:

Love your ride selection in MK and AK...  I see no need to submit myself to abuse by engineers that design thrill rides since turning 35 nearly a decade ago.

I think we're the same age!

11 hours ago, Ivy said:

The photos are now hosted with flickr. Should be able to view them now.

I see them now - thanks! And yes, a totally different viewing experience.

[wendinator 109]

I drove us all back to AKL. Even though my sister and family had to check out that day, they still had use of the facilities until the end of the day and that included the club lounge. I went up with the boys and saw someone there with a drink I knew I had to have.

That is a jungle juice mimosa! One of the many perks of club level is free beer, wine... and jungle juice mimosas. It was tasty but WOW did it ever go straight to my head after being out in August heat.

The kids went swimming and I sat poolside and watched for a while. I also took this picture because I was trying in vain to make a slide rule joke. As if anyone uses slide rules anymore.

Around 6:15 I headed back to AK - I had a FP for Rivers of Light and also wanted some dinner. The later you arrive, the further away your parking.

I looked on MDE to see if there were any tempting ADRs for 1 person available, but ultimately I decided I'd just hang out at the Nomad Lounge. You can read about my food here. I thought I could sit outside to eat but decided it was far too hot to be comfortable, so I sat inside at the bar. Chatted a bit with the barman who is from England and says "taco" the same way my husband does (Taa-co rather than Tah-co). Also talked a bit with some guys from Vegas (is anyone actually from Vegas?) who said they'd spent a year in Toronto and loved it.

My BIL and nephews came back to AK by bus and swung by the Nomad Lounge while I was there and we yakked for a bit, but then they left to do their FP.

One of the things I had on my to do list for AK was: "As you cross the bridge after leaving Kali River Rapids, there are buttons that can be pressed to deploy the elephants to spray guests on the ride. Just remember…what goes around comes around!" so I headed over to KRR to see about that. Sure enough I found the spot and the buttons.

(Not my hand.)

I hung out on that bridge and watched the rafts come and go - and watched lots of other people pressing the button. I think I rode KRR once in 1999 but not since then.

Just before 8 I headed to my ROL FP viewing area.

When I zapped my MagicBand the woman with the reader said, "Happy birthday!" which was interesting because a) I wasn't wearing a birthday button, and b ) it wasn't my birthday (yet) and c) I had no idea that it would display that on their screens. The Mouse really does know all.

It was a pretty sunset. And a hot night. (Weird pano of the seating area.)

As I mentioned in my Nomad Lounge food post, the FP seating area is on stone benches. Wow did the stone ever hold onto the August sun's heat! I had well toasted buns by the time the show was over. I was glad I had my thin zip up hoodie to sit on.

And you know those dispensers of insect repellant they have scattered around? The people sitting in front of me availed themselves of some of it... then grabbed onto their Disney Parks shopping bag... that promptly shed its blue ink ALL OVER one woman's hands. She looked as blue as a Na'vi. I had a few wet naps in my purse so offered them to her, which she gladly accepted. It took some of the blue off, but I bet she could still have convincingly posed for Photo Pass pictures as a Na'vi until she got to proper soap and water.

They had people selling $3 bottles of water in the stands but I bet they could have made a killing selling Mickey bars. I would have done anything for ice cream that night but had nobody to hold my spot in order to go get one.

ROL was an interesting show and I'm glad I went to see it but I can't see getting the same emotional attachment to it as say MSEP or Wishes.

 

When the show ended I went back over to see Pandora at night. I didn't bother trying to take any photos - I knew my phone would do a lousy job. It was quite crowded and I didn't stay long. I headed out of the park and to the parking lot. Instead of waiting for a tram I just walked to my car. It was a fantastic symphony of car horns as a large group of people all tried to find their rental cars at the same time.

Here was the day's AK step count. 13.77 km is about 8.5 miles.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) is a Magic Kingdom day with the BIL and nephews.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Nice that you got to use the Club Level lounge after check-out.  My last Club Level stay was at the Grand Californian, and I made the mistake of asking if we could use the lounge after we checked out. That was a big no.  I would have been better off not asking.  They have a concierge desk outside of the lounge there, and the concierge CM's watch the door like hawks, so maybe not.  My recollection of the AKL Club Level Lounge is that the concierge has a desk in the lounge, but there are no doors to guard.

I kind of feel bad that I've only seen ROL once.  And that was at the CM preview last November. I just haven't been interested in going back.

TCD

[dblr....Rennie 224]

WOW Disney missing out on a money making opportunity with the hose sprayers,  most parks charge for the privilege of soaking total strangers.

[wendinator 109]

18 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

My recollection of the AKL Club Level Lounge is that the concierge has a desk in the lounge, but there are no doors to guard.

Yes, you have to use your MagicBand to get to the club level (after you zap your MagicBand in the elevator it auto-selects the right floor) and there is a concierge desk after you exit the elevator.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

23 minutes ago, wendinator said:

Yes, you have to use your MagicBand to get to the club level (after you zap your MagicBand in the elevator it auto-selects the right floor) and there is a concierge desk after you exit the elevator.

You can also take the stairs.  There's a gate and reader on the floor below.  One time we were Club Level at AKL, but our room was one floor below the lounge.

TCD

[Cortezcapt (Derek) 156]

Gotta love the car horn symphony!   

We had a great concert the other night at Epcot.