I Wish I May, I wish... WE DID! - Day 7 ~ Jungle Juice, Cheetahs and "Skiwalls"

11th November 2014

Lots of photos again today. I'm not apologising though as I know you all like to see other people's holiday photos really!

My back was in agony when I woke this morning and I barely slept a wink all night due to my inability to turn over. I managed to get up and take 2 ibuprofen and 2 Paracetamol in the hope that the pain would subside.

We all had showers and Amelia had a big jaccuzzi bubble bath. Hair washing was essential this morning. Although her BBB hair style was still in place, there were a few stubborn strands sticking out, and I thought she must be uncomfortable with it still up (I know how feel if I've had my hair in a ponytail all day!) So despite her protests, we washed it all out and got her dressed into her Animal Kingdom top and shorts. I made this as a dress for her for our 2012 trip and I couldn't believe it still fit her!

We had an ADR at Tusker House this morning with Dan, Sam and Sarah, so no need for breakfast. Sarah knocked on our adjoining door when they were all ready, and we were pulling away from Old Key West at 8:30am.

In the car on the way, we continued our new "thing". You know those things most families do on holiday, a word or phrase or something that just makes everyone laugh, like the Wizards sleeve on our 2012 trip.. Well this year it was the word "Squirrel!" (said in the voice of Dug from Up) and everyone had to stop dead in their tracks and do a silly pose. It was funny the first 5 or 6 times but it kept the kids entertained. Even more so when Amelia shouted it out in the back of the car as she couldn't pronounce it properly so it was "SKIWAL" all the way to Animal Kingdom.
No getting lost this morning (phew), and we parked up in Unicorn 26 and walked to the entrance.

Once we were in, there were a few people standing around looking up at something. On closer inspection, I realised it was DiVine they were all looking at. I'm so pleased we got to see her as we missed her on our last trip.

Our first stop was Kilimanjaro safari. We had a FP slot between 9am - 10am and it was already 9:30am, so we hot-footed it over to Africa, taking an obligatory Tree of Life pic on the way…

The line for the safari wasn't too bad. I think there was one truck in front of us, and then it was our turn. I was so glad we picked the earlier safari and there were lots of animals out this morning. Brace yourselves… the non-animal-lovers among you may want to skip this bit and come back later. Here come the boring animal pics.…

We saw Rhinoceroseseseseses…

Hippopotomuseseseses

These guys.. (insert name if you know it)

Giraffes…

Elephants…

Flamingos…

Lions…

Zebra…

And this pretty cool tree…

There were tonnes of other animals too but I won't upload them all here. For the animal enthusiasts though, feel free to check out my Flickr album.

Our ADR for Tusker House was at 10:10am, so we made our way over, parked up the strollers and waited to have our memory maker photo taken. Cue disappointment… Where's Donald? Has he stopped doing the photos now or was it just our bad luck on the particular day? Maybe he had bird flu?

We sat outside in the 'holding area' while we waited to be seated inside. Two CM's came over and asked the girls if they wanted to play an animal game, so they went off and did that. I think there was a bit of a language barrier with their strong accents, and Amelia's speech is not great (she's currently seeing a speech and language therapist), so it was a bit awkward. Thankfully we were called a few minutes later! We thanked them and said our goodbyes. They were really nice and so happy. Who wouldn't be though working in Disney?

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I never realised just how big Tusker House is. After a trek through the restaurant we got shown to table 523 in the centre of a little room. Table 523! Jeees. I dread to think how many servers they employ in that place.

Look at Oliver with his autograph book at the ready… I know he secretly loves meeting those characters!

Our server, Sylvia filled our glasses with jungle juice (Mmmmmmm) and told us the characters would be around shortly, and to hurry and fill our plates before they got to our table if we wanted to. So we went up to the buffet and filled our plates with delicious carved ham, bacon, sausages, scrambled eggs, mickey waffles, potatoes, etc.

As soon as we got back, Goofy made an appearance. Amelia was in her element. He still remains her favourite character since our 2012 trip.

Next up was Donald. It appears he just likes to stay inside in the air conditioning now then?

I do love Donald. He kept hitting me with his tail when he was with the family behind us. Hehe.

Next was Daisy…

And then the big man…

After lots more food, tea, coffee and jungle juice, we paid the bill which of course was zero to pay, apart from the gratuity which was $19.25 and left Tusker House at 11am.

Daniel, Sam and Sarah went off to do their own thing but we would be meeting up with them again later on.

We watched these guys for a bit…

And just took a leisurely pace around the park, did the discovery Island trails, looked in the shops, and I took lots of photos. We also had some memory maker ones taken.

We spent a bit of time looking at the Tree of Life, spotting all the animal engravings.

Amelia spotted a plush cheetah on one of the little carts they have dotted around the park and decided that was what she was going to spend her money on today. We promised her we could come back and get it later so we didn't have to carry it all day. ALL DAY, all she spoke about was that blimmin cheetah!

We headed over to Asia as our Expedition Everest fast pass was between 12:10- 13:10pm. I love the scenery here.

We did the Maharajah Jungle Trek which we all enjoyed. Amelia loved the bats.

More photos were taken …

And then it was time to ride this bad boy…

We got the kids some ice creams and they waited at the exit while Paul and I rode after receiving strict instructions not to move from that spot.

Up until now, my back hadn't been too bad, but as soon as I sat down on EE, it felt like I slipped a disc or something. So painful! Despite that, EE was as brilliant as I remembered. The ride photo is less than flattering though, so I'm not uploading it!
We wanted to ride again, but we felt guilty enough leaving the kids and by this time, the line was huge so we said we'd go back later on and see what the wait time was like.

Next was Tough to be a Bug which was showing a 5 min wait but closed for technical difficulties just as we got in line. Typical. We went back again at 2pm and it was still only a 5 min wait. I could really see why afterwards.

Amelia was all happy in the line…

…Until I stupidly told her something which JoJo88 told her boys on their last trip (It was you wasn't it Jo?); "If there's any parts you don't like, just shut your eyes". I wish I'd shut my mouth, as from then on she played on being scared. I may sound like I'm being harsh, but I know what she's like. And if I hadn't said anything, I'm sure she would have enjoyed it and found it funny. But she moaned and whinged through the whole thing. By the end she was on my lap with her head buried in my shoulder, refusing to watch. In a way it was a good job she wasn't in her seat for the finale. Those of you who have been on will know what I mean. I'll save the surprise for the rest of you though.
I thought it was quite good, but couldn't enjoy it because she was so scared. I probably wouldn't go on it again.

To console her, we decided we'd go and find her plush cheetah. We found one cart but they didn't have any, so we carried on walking and found it. However it wasn't the same cart from this morning and she knew! God knows how. Despite us explaining to her that the cheetah's are all the same, it was no use. She wanted the one from this morning and no amount of bartering with her was going to change her mind. So we ended up traipsing over to Asia to try and find it. As soon as the cart was in sight she yelled "there it is!" and ran over to it. She picked up the cheetah but then couldn't stop looking at all the other plush toys on the stall. Baby Simba's, baby gorillas… you name it. After 10 minutes she finally decided she was going to get a baby tiger wrapped in a leaf blanket instead and named it Lilly (Tiger Lilly) and she didn't let it go from that moment on. It came everywhere with us. According to the receipt it was at the Kali Cart and it was $25.51 with tax.

Oliver was still saving his money, but he did part with $9.54 for some star wars bandits for his magic band at Disney Outfitters.

The next showing of Festival of the Lion King was at 3pm, so we plodded over to the Harambe Theatre and got in the queue. Only a few minutes later, this happened…

She was sparko, and even through all the noise, walking through the queue system and finding our seat, she never woke up. I was worried she was going to miss the entire show. As we were waiting for everyone to enter the theatre, we saw Daniel, Sam and Sarah and they were sat a few rows down in front of us! If we hadn't have gone back to Africa for Tiger Lilly, we probably would have missed them! Such a small world.

As the lights went down Amelia woke up and she couldn't stop smiling. Obviously a little nap was just what she needed.

The show was as amazing as ever and still remains one of my favourite shows in Disney.

We met up with the others outside and decided we'd all go on Kali River Rapids together. Sarah was doing the Wilderness Explorer challenge so we stopped at a few places on the way.

When we arrived at KRR, Amelia was JUST tall enough to ride. She was given a special card that she had to hand to the CM at the raft station so they would know to seat her in a special seat with a seat belt. The wait time stated 20 minutes, but it was more like 10.

I think I was the only one who didn't get that wet. Oliver was soaked and Amelia was just in hysterics with laughter around the whole course every time someone got wet, and loved getting wet herself. Lol.

When we got around to Expedition Everest again, the wait time was only 10 minutes, so Oliver waited with the girls again and kept them amused while we rode one last time, this time with Daniel and Sam. They had never been on before and loved it!

We made our way around to DinoLand USA and rode the Triceratop Spin. We were all in agreement that this area needs to be removed! The whole area is just a waste of park space.

About three times throughout the day we saw a strange man wearing a long cloak and sorcerers hat with a big sign around his neck saying "free hugs". He looked very odd and not the sort person I would feel comfortable approaching. He didn't look like a cast member. Has anyone else seen him before? I vaguely remember reading something or seeing him before - maybe it was on our last trip. I don't know. But I definitely had a twinge that I'd seen him before. Kind of like de-ja-vu!


We were all a bit hungry by now so we decided to go to Flame tree BBQ for a quick service meal. I read on a trip report to sit away from the restaurant at the tables over-looking the lake, so that's what I did - much to the others annoyance having to walk so far. We had:

Me: 1/2 rack ribs and chocolate mousse. It was lovely! I couldn't finish mousse though as it was so filling!
Paul: Ribs and chicken combo and key lime mousse - He said it was really nice and chicken was lovely!
Oliver: Turkey sandwich and choc mousse
Amelia: hotdog, grapes and strawberry yoghurt.

I was glad we sat where we did. It was very quiet and such a beautiful view of Everest as the sun was setting. There was lots of construction work going on though which spoilt the photos a bit.

We made our way back to the car park after dinner. The sky was beautiful.

We went back to OKW via the general store where we bought half a gallon of milk ($3.49), a box of Entermanns cookies ($3.79) and two mouse head key covers ($5.95 each).

We went back to the room and I packed for our one night stay at Hard Rock Hotel and then had tea and cookies on our balcony with Daniel and Sam while the girls played and Oliver face-timed his mates back home on his phone.

I had a shower and we went to bed at 11pm, very excited about tomorrow, but panicking I'd forgotten to pack something!

Tomorrow: Hard Rock Hotel, Diagon Alley and Universal Studios.

Day 6 - Amelia's Unbirthday With the Princesses ~ November 2104

10th November 2014


My alarm went off at 8am this morning and I logged in to YouTube ready to play "A very Merry Unbirthday" to wake Amelia up. She was fast asleep when we went into the lounge area of the villa where the kids were sleeping. I turned the volume up full blast and she eventually started stirring and then a huge grin appeared on her face! I had wrapped up the dress and drawstring bag I made her last night, so she opened that and loved it!

Then she went over to the front door to see if an invitation had been "delivered". Cinderella had been!

Paul got the kids some cereal and toast for breakfast and then we all showered and dressed. I gave Amelia a bath and put her dress on and pinned the "Future princess" badge on her. Sarah was also having her BBB today just after Amelia and she was dressed in her Rapunzel dress. So much girliness. I loved it!

Obligatory pre-park day balcony pics were taken…

And then we were off. We were so busy that Paul and I realised when we got in the car that we hadn't had any breakfast. As we pulled out of our parking bay, I spotted a maid balancing a HUGE stack of towels on her head all the way up the flights of stairs to one of the studios at the top. No hands or anything!

Despite being here 5 whole days now, the roads to Disney were still confusing us. I knew from yesterday that once we'd turned left out of OKW, at the next junction we needed to go straight over, but Sam told Paul to turn left which took us god knows where, and well over an hour to get back to Magic Kingdom. I declared I'm never getting in the car again. I was so angry and sick of wasting my holiday driving around being lost. I was taught as a child that if I had nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all. So I sat in the front in silence. Paul was so annoyed and hungry which makes him 10x worse… It wasn't a pleasant environment. I wanted today to be special and it was ruined before it had even begun. And then, to make matters worse, Sarah threw up in the back of the car and the nearest vessel to contain it in happened to be my empty resort mug. I was not happy. I just wanted to jump out of the car and get on a bus.

When we eventually arrived at the TTC we had 20 minutes to get to Amelia's BBB reservation! I was praying there wasn't going to be a huge line at the gates. Daniel told us to go ahead without them so they could get Sarah cleaned up. Thankfully none of the sick had gone on her dress or the car.

Our luck was obviously out that morning as there was a huge queue for monorail and the ferry was already there, so we hot footed it down to the dock. Big mistake! It took forever as we had to wait for clearance half way over. We arrived at MK at 11:25am and our BBB reservation was at 11:30am!

Amelia and I left Paul and Oliver with the pushchair and the bags, hopped through the bag less line at bag check. At the entrance, the CM commented on Amelia's "button" (badge) and said he'd never seen one like it before. We swiped our bands and did my fingerprint and ran up Main Street and around the back of the castle. No time to take in the sights, the music or the sweet, delicious popcorn scent this morning!

Thankfully we got in with no trouble and took a seat to wait. Amelia could not stop smiling. One of the fairy godmother's in training was speaking to her and kept calling her Princess and told her how beautiful her hair and her dress was. Everyone was looking at her. Such a proud mummy moment! I was welling up already and I had to look down at a leaflet I'd picked up on the check in desk to stop myself from turning into a blubbering wreck!

Paul and Oliver turned up 10 minutes later and went and parked the stroller. Meanwhile "Princess Amelia" was called and taken to a chair at the back on the right of the Boutique. Her Fairy Godmother in training, Maggie, was lovely. She made her comfortable in the chair and asked her to choose the style she wanted. Thank heavens she picked a nice one! Then she picked out her tiara, make-up and body jewel.

Maggie put a gown on her and proceeded to do her hair. We weren't asked for her own hair brush, despite being told on the phone to bring one when I booked 180 days ago!

Paul and Oliver came over and sat on the bench in the middle. Oliver said he was hungry so we said he could go and get a snack if he wanted to. He had his own pin number set up for his magic band. He didn't need telling twice!

Half way through doing Amelia's hair, another lady came over and did her make-up. She was asked to choose a nail polish although it wasn't applied. Not sure if they forgot or if it wasn't part of the coach package.

She loved every second. I could see Paul welling up which set me off. It was so magical. All the while, a photo pass photographer kept coming over and taking photos. I don't know how Maggie did her hair but it was perfect! Not one strand out of place and it stayed in until the following day!

Oliver came back grinning. He had walked all the way through Adventureland to find a hotdog!

When Maggie was finished she put a pink sash on Amelia…

And then gave her a face shield and sprinkled some magic pixie dust on her hair.

And then she was allowed to look in the mirror

The whole experience was just perfect from start to finish and I am SO glad we booked it. It was worth every penny.
Amelia had the coach package which included hair and make-up styling, face jewel, tiara, barrette, then the makeup palette and jewels that they used, a tail comb (I've pinched this and it's the best one I've ever had! It's really strong!), a BBB sash and a big pink drawstring bag to keep everything in with the BBB logo on. We also got asked if we wanted a BBB T-shirt ($18.95) as we were paying. I was totally caught up in the magic and said yes, but to this day she hasn't worn it! We were in there for about 40 minutes and the total for everything was $78.71. I don't think that's too bad at all for such a magical experience.

The package also included a "Fairytale bundle disc" - or at least that's what it says on my receipt. I'm assuming this is the photo shoot that we had next. We were told to go to Castle Couture where there is a little studio. The photographer had Amelia doing all kinds of cute princess poses. All of the photos were scanned onto our magic band at the end, but I think if we hadn't have had Memory Maker, we would have probably been given a disc of all the photos. They were really nice. There are loads, so I won't bore you with all of them. Here's a couple though…

While she was having her photos taken, Paul bought another autograph book as Amelia's was full already! He got her a Tinkerbell one this time ($12.73 including tax).

We had a little while before our lunch ADR at Cinderella's Royal Table (CRT) so we went on to Main Street and watched the parade..

And had a few memory maker photos taken...

 

...And then before long it was time to make our way to CRT.

We checked in with a CM as we went in and waited a few minutes for our turn to meet Cinderella. Oliver sat this one out again (Princesses aren't his thing apparently Lol), but Amelia was in awe of her. She signed her autograph book and had some photos taken… They let me take some first and then the photographer took some for our memory maker.

We sat down afterwards in the little waiting area until we were called. While we waited, Sam, Daniel and Sarah came in. Unfortunately when we booked this ADR, we couldn't get a table for all seven of us, so we had to book separately.

When my name was called, we made our way up the spiral staircase. The theming was amazing. It's the little details that really make Disney. I particularly liked the stained glass window.

We entered the dining room which was amazing. It really felt as though we were in a castle. We were seated at a table by the window (table 15) over-looking Fantasyland. I couldn't have been happier!

Our server, Carl, bought over a "Chef's Tasting plate" (for the life of me I can't remember what was on this. I think it may have been salad as only Paul touched it and it was almost full when they took it away), a wishing star and a magic wand for Amelia, and a sword for Oliver and then took our order.

Image source: Unknown, Flickr

Paul and I had the Slow braised rib which looked something like this if I remember rightly (I didn't take any food pics apart from dessert I'm afraid). It was sooo delicious and just melted in the mouth..

Oliver didn't like the look of anything on the adults menu and threw a teenage strop. Not wanting to create a scene, I asked 'Carl' if he could have something from the children's menu. He wanted the kids chicken pot pie so he said that was fine and he would make him up a larger portion which was good of him. He wasn't impressed when it arrived though. He said it was nice, but like a bowl of soup with two biscuits in (and that's exactly what it looked like!)! He said he wished he'd ordered the same as Paul and I when he saw ours. "I told you so" sprang to mind.

Amelia had chicken tenders but barely touched them. (I won't bore you with pics of chicken nuggets, I'm sure you've all seen them before. I'm sure they brought her a little pot of cheese and grapes to eat prior to the entrees being brought out too.

Everyone applauded when the princesses came out. One by one they all came round to our table. Amelia was in her element! I apologise in advance for yet another photo of Amelia, but out of all the memory maker ones we had taken today, this one is my favourite. And I took it myself! Lol. (If you look closely, in the background, you can also see Sarah - they were seated right behind us).

First to come round was Snow White…

Followed by Aurora…

…. Then Ariel…

And jasmine. When Jasmine came over she told Amelia she loved her hair and asked if she used camel spit in it to make it stay up!

We all had desserts. Paul, Oliver and I had The Clock Strikes 12. Oh my god. This was divine!

I think Amelia had ice cream, but my notes fail me.

This meal would have cost $200 had we paid out of pocket, but as we had the dining plan it was free. This restaurant does take up 2 table credits per person, but in my opinion, it was well worth it! I wouldn't hesitate to book again.
Included in the cost was also a lovely photo in a decorative cardboard frame with 4 smaller photos.

Daniel, Sam and Sarah were still eating and had different fast passes to us for the afternoon, so we said our goodbyes and left for some park action.

Our first fast pass was for Anna and Elsa in the Princess Fairytale Hall. There was one other family in front of us, and when they let we were the only ones in the room with them. Anna was absolutely BRILLIANT! She was so much fun and spoke to Amelia about how at princess school, they teach you everything... even how you shouldn't blow bubbles in chocolate milk! I asked her if Amelia could see the A on the back of her boots as Amelia's name begins with the letter A too and she showed us, giving us a twirl and told us it actually stands for Arendale.
She signed her autograph book and gave her a hug and then we moved over to Elsa who was a lot less fun! She signed her book and did the love and shove, but that was about it. And what is going on with her wig? Surely you can do better than that Disney?

As we were leaving Anna started jumping up and down across the room shouting "Bye Amelia! It was lovely to meet you!"

Next, Mickey's Philarmagic was showing a 5 minute wait, so we went on that which we all enjoyed. Amelia kept jumping and trying to grab the air in front of her. Hehe She loved the bit at the end - I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't done it.

Our next fast pass was for Ariel's grotto. Great interaction here and Amelia loved it.

It was 4:30pm now and the kids were feeling a bit peckish. We went to the Pretzel Wagon where they had a churro each and I got a pretzel (1 snack credit each). I'd been seeing people walk around eating these Mickey pretzels for a few days now and they looked delicious. Unfortunately looks were very deceiving. It was disgusting and after a couple of bites, I threw it away. I did end up eating half of Amelia's churro though when she got bored of it. It was really nice.

Our next fast pass was for Goofy's barnstormer. Oliver refused to go on it (wuss) But Amelia loved it! She put her hands up and screamed the whole way around and when it finished she said she wanted to go on again and ride it all day! The queue was showing a 10 minute wait, so we got in line and rode again. She wanted to go a third time but evil mummy said no and tried to console her crying her eyes out with a promise of more Ariel. We made our way over to the Little mermaid Journey under the sea which was showing a 10 minute wait, but was a walk on. I sat with Oliver and Paul and Amelia were behind us. Amelia loved it, and I think secretly Oliver did too

We paid a visit to Fantasy Faire where Oliver bought a Marvel Thor Pez and I bought something that was $21.95 but I have no recollection of what it was! The receipt says XM/HB/MN/NEWHOLLY so make of that what you will! Lol.

By 6pm we started to flag a bit. The kids and I went on the Carousel, and then we decided to call it a day. #We wandered out of the park at a leisurely pace. We'd had such a lovely, magical day. One of the best days of my life in fact.

Paul text Daniel to see where they were and as we got half way down main street I spotted him in the huge crowds looking down at his phone, texting Paul! What are the odds?! They wanted to stay a bit longer, so we gave them the car keys and took a bus back to OKW via Goods To Go where we all got a QS meal each. By the time we walked back to our villa though it was barely luke warm.

My back was still in a lot of pain and was getting even worse by the evening. As I lay in bed that night I couldn't move because I was in so much agony.

A totally magical day and lots of lovely memories to cherish today.