"I brushed my teeth, and I don't have cooties." An August DFTW and Disneymoon TR

[pkondz]

I'm thinking it's about time that we start a drinking game for this TR. You drink every time I come back here and say something about how busy I've been and/or where does the time go?, etc.

I don't think anyone could possibly drink that much.

Also, I think I should probably change the name of it to "Meghan's Trip Report of Good Intentions."

Where does the time go? ...oops. *drinks*

I had great intentions of getting the updates up this past week

we road tripped from Nova Scotia to Ottawa, Ontario

That sounds like a nice drive.
Was it?

the capital of Canada

No way! It is???

It was two days of driving, three incredibly busy days at the con (where we'd work hard all day painting and making sales, and then come home at night and shower and immediately fall into bed!),

tomorrow morning we hit the road again!

Again! Oy!

(This three-week trip will also include my solo days at Disney, and I'm getting pretty excited!)

I bet!

Pretty! I like it.

Speaking of returning to school...as of yesterday I finally found that I will, indeed, be returning to school for my second year! I just got word that I've passed all of my courses....and that means I live to fight another day!!

Hey!!! Congrats! That's great! Way to go Meghan!!

see some of the tulips from the beginning of the Canadian Tulip Festival

Oh, nice!
I've been to Ottawa a few times and always miss it. Closest I came was just after the festival. Nothing but tulip stalks with no petals.

 

[vamassey1]

Congrats! on passing this year. Onto the next year!

 

[MeghanEmily]

Hi Meghan
I'm glad you aren't updating quick, since I'm following along at a snail's pace anyway!

I feel like this is 100% me on all the TRs I'm following. It's hard to keep up!

Loved reading about your Busch Gardens day. We used to go often when I was little since my great-grandmother lived in Fl. and I have fond memories of the park. I've wanted to get back and now have 2 free passes in my possession from a work thing, so I know we'll go in the next 14 months before the expire. Ricky and I will enjoy all the coasters and all the animal exhibits look great!

Oooh nice! I had grandparents who used to live in Florida, and that's also when I visited as a child. I hope you get to go and everyone enjoys it! It's such a nice park.

Safe travels on your next road trip!

Thank you!

Congrats on passing all your courses!!! I know you worked really hard at them.

Thank you! It really was a challenge, with some courses more than others. I'm glad not to have to worry about it any more.

Love the hair, and it seems like the perfect fun thing to do while you're traveling around with your husband this summer. Fun!

Thanks! It's a lot of fun. I don't have the time, patience, money, or spunk to do it long term, but it's a lot of fun to play with it for the meantime!

In case I'm not back here before your next trip, have fun on your solo adventure to Disney!!

Thanks so much!!

You sound so busy, but look! A silver lining!

Yes! I'm counting down the days now! (And there aren't many to count at this point )

Very pretty! I like it!

Thanks! I'm having fun playing with it for the time being. I think I'll work my way around the colour wheel, so next month might be purple, and then maybe pink. What's life without whimsy?

Congrats on school! ANd LOVE the hair!

Thanks so much!!

 

[FantasiaMagic]

Congrats on passing all of your classes and looking forward to reading the next update!

 

[MeghanEmily]

Your hair looks so awesome! Perfect idea to use the summer to get creative with it

Have so much fun on this upcoming travel and enjoy your enjoy solo time at Disney!

Thanks so much! It's super fun! I figured this is the perfect time to try our some funky colours if I ever wanted to.

I'm game!!

Good luck! My TRs may be about to get as tipsy as @kastoney's!

That's awesome, Meghan!!!! Congratulations And now you can truly enjoy your travelin' summer without being anxious about that!

Thanks so much! In past I haven't had to worry about school as much, but we had a high pass mark and some tough courses! It's such a load off my mind knowing that I'm all set for next year.

I don't think anyone could possibly drink that much.

I would protest, but you may be right on that one.

That sounds like a nice drive.
Was it?

It was! I'm not a big fan of driving...well..pretty much anywhere. But it was a nice one! We broke it up over two days each way, so we only ever had at most 9-10 hours of driving in a day. We also popped into Montreal on the way home because the only Canadian distributor for Nathan's spray paint is there, and it's much cheaper not to have to ship it when we can avoid it. We'll likely be doing most of that same drive again another couple times before the summer is out.

Pretty! I like it.

Thanks! It won't be a long-term kinda thing, but for the next couple months I'm having fun playing around with it.

Hey!!! Congrats! That's great! Way to go Meghan!!

Thanks so much! I feel so much better having that burden off my mind. I ended up with A-'s in the two courses I was concerned about, so nothing to worry about in the end. But the wild thing is that in my program, my mark of an A- was almost exactly halfway between getting 100% and failing. Tough standards. At least I can feel confident that they're not graduating people who aren't qualified and working hard...but man, it can get stressful!

Oh, nice!
I've been to Ottawa a few times and always miss it. Closest I came was just after the festival. Nothing but tulip stalks with no petals.

It was a lovely time to be there! We just caught the beginning of it by a couple of days. Makes me even more excited to be catching the last day of the Flower and Garden Festival in a little over a week.

Congrats! on passing this year. Onto the next year!

Thanks so much!! Onward and upward!

 

[MeghanEmily]

Congrats on passing all of your classes and looking forward to reading the next update!

Thanks so much!!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

It's hard keeping up with everyone else trip reports and writing your own AND you being an adult! I totally get it.

Uggh. I was planning to get back here about a week ago. How is that even possible? Where does the time go? ...oops. *drinks*

Ha!

I just got word that I've passed all of my courses....and that means I live to fight another day!!

CONGRATS! I am sure that can be super stressful!

I hope you survive your 3 week trip. That is a long time to be away from home. I know know if I actually have been away that long...

 

[MeghanEmily]

It's hard keeping up with everyone else trip reports and writing your own AND you being an adult! I totally get it.

It seems like the eternal Dis-struggle!

CONGRATS! I am sure that can be super stressful!

Thanks so much! I'm really glad to have it behind me for the summer.

I hope you survive your 3 week trip. That is a long time to be away from home. I know know if I actually have been away that long...

Thanks! It's going to be a long haul for sure!

 

[CanadianPrincess]

Oh my gosh, guys! I'm thinking it's about time that we start a drinking game for this TR. You drink every time I come back here and say something about how busy I've been and/or where does the time go?, etc. Also, I think I should probably change the name of it to "Meghan's Trip Report of Good Intentions."

Uggh. I was planning to get back here about a week ago. How is that even possible? Where does the time go? ...oops. *drinks*

I had great intentions of getting the updates up this past week for the next day of the trip, and I even have all the pictures ready to go, but I did NOT anticipate how busy life on the road would be. Last week I started travelling with N for his work for the summer, and we road tripped from Nova Scotia to Ottawa, Ontario—the capital of Canada, for those who might not be up on their Canadian geography—so N could paint at Ottawa Comic Con. It was two days of driving, three incredibly busy days at the con (where we'd work hard all day painting and making sales, and then come home at night and shower and immediately fall into bed!), and then two days of driving home. I've already consumed almost two full audiobooks. Now I've been home the last two days, and then tomorrow morning we hit the road again! This time we'll be gone for about three weeks straight, so I've been struggling to pack for a three week trip, including snacks/meals for an allergy-ridden diner. It's a challenge! (This three-week trip will also include my solo days at Disney, and I'm getting pretty excited!)

My good friend Haynnk the septopus has also been travelling with us and has been documenting his experiences. If you're the kind of person who enjoys Instagram, you can feel free to follow him @findinghaynnk to see some of the places we go this summer.

In other big news, my lovely blonde do is now a thing of the past, and has been replaced with this frosty look:

I'm having lots of fun with blue hair! Pastels are a pain though because they fade really quickly, so every couple of washes I end up with slightly greenish fading locks and I touch up the colour or change it up a bit. I'm planning to try out a few different colours over the summer break, before returning to school in the fall with a more "professional" look again.

Speaking of returning to school...as of yesterday I finally found that I will, indeed, be returning to school for my second year! I just got word that I've passed all of my courses....and that means I live to fight another day!!

While in Ottawa, in the limited time when we weren't working or sleeping, we got a chance to take a couple of hours and see a bit of the city, see some of the tulips from the beginning of the Canadian Tulip Festival, and visit Parliament (where the Canadian government does its governing stuff.)

Alright. So I'm hopeful that the updates for the next trip day will make it from my fingertips to your computer screens as soon as this time tomorrow.

Be warned: this is gonna' be a big day! (Not wedding-big or anything though. So if you've read to this point, I know you can handle it!) There are lots of pictures, so I'll try my best to limit the chatter and let them speak for themselves over the course of the several updates they will require (due to photo limits.) See ya' real soon!​

I wish I had known you were in Ottawa! I would have totally loved to grab coffee and pick your disney brain! We are going on our disneymoon in November and your trip reports have been SO helpful! Hope you enjoyed Ottawa!

 

[MeghanEmily]

I wish I had known you were in Ottawa! I would have totally loved to grab coffee and pick your disney brain! We are going on our disneymoon in November and your trip reports have been SO helpful! Hope you enjoyed Ottawa!

Shoot, so sorry to have missed you! If it helps, it really was quite a whirlwind trip. But I'm sure we could have squeezed in a visit for someone as important as a Dis-friend! But yes, we did enjoy Ottawa while we were there! It's a really nice, friendly-feeling city. You must be getting SO excited for your Disneymoon!

 

[MeghanEmily]

We Get Wild and Go Trekking
Disney Day 10 - Part 1

Okay, I warned you I had run out of good quote-based chapter titles. So sue me.

We were up at 6:50 this morning and had arrived at Disney's Animal Kingdom by 7:30am. It was already a beautiful [read: warm] day.

We were there early enough and parked close enough that we could walk from the parking lot to the park in 4-5 minutes, at least according to the Disney parking lot signs.

So, we did. And soon (4-5 minutes later) we were seeing this:

And this:
(definitely early, since this was the line, even with Pandora having opened a few months prior)

Why were we here this early, you ask? You may recall that when we went to Discovery Cove, it was my wedding present to N. This morning, I got my wedding present from him! We were doing the Wild Africa Trek tour! We hit the restrooms, met our tour guides, and found ourselves fortunate to be on a tour with only two other guests! We were let in to the park, and it was basically EMPTY. Our tour guides, Jason and Danielle, told us that this was super rare these days because the Pandora crowds are usually let in to this area early. The only people we saw were those in the tour ahead of us:

Jason and Danielle waited for them to get out of frame, and then allowed us to take pictures in front of the tree of life in an empty AK.

This tour begins right next to Kilimanjaro Safaris. You may have noticed the sign there before.

All of our bags and loose item were put into secure lockers, except for glasses and cameras that could be secured to our vests with straps. (I opted to rely solely on their photos and soak up the experience, rather than taking pictures with my camera.) Speaking of vests, this is when we were weighed, and fitted with our harnesses and ear pieces. We were also given metal water bottles that clipped to the vests with the Wild Africa Trek graphic on them. The one camera I did bring was the GoPro, with the chest mount. I put it on over my vest and took video of our tour. But, since I'm always so busy and scattered drinking1) I have yet to process this video into some consumable form, so I don't have any of it to post here. Maybe eventually I'll come back here after the TR is written and post some youtube clips from the trip...drinking1)...but, yeah...don't count on it.

The first part of the tour takes you through the same gorilla trail that is accessible to all guests at AK, but the guides stop along the way and provide all kinds of interesting tidbits about the birds and animals. Sidebar: our guides were awesome! They were super friendly—and there was never an awkward moment or pause in the conversation, despite there only being four of us on the tour with them—and they were also very knowledgeable. They both loved their jobs. Danielle had actually started at Disney on the College Program, but she stayed and found an opening in this position, her dream job.

Here was our group:

We started through the trail...

At this point, rather than continuing the length of the trail, we were taken backstage, and the terrain became much more low-intensity-hike-like. Soon, we were hooking our harnesses in to safety cables, so we could lean out to overlook the hippo enclosure. One of the CMs was there to feed the hippos and tell us all about them. They weren't feeling it that morning and decided to stay away and not get their snack, but it was still neat to get closer to their habitat and learn more about them.

We continued along the backstage trail, stopping once in a while for info from our guides.

Then it was time for the part I was worried about...the rope bridges!

If you've ever looked into Wild Africa Trek before, you'll know that in the regular version of the tour, if you don't have any accessibility requirements, you're asked to cross swinging bridges over the crocodile habitat. This was my biggest concern, and the only hurdle that made me consider not doing the tour. I'm mildly afraid of heights, but I wasn't particularly concerned about the safety of these bridges. I knew that Disney has its bases covered in terms of safety and a lack of lawsuits, and that even if the bridge were somehow compromised, your harness keeps you safely suspended. My concern was due to my brain condition and motion sickness. I was worried that the swinging and movement of the bridge would cause me to get dizzy and ill. This was even more of a concern, because you actually cross two bridges, separated by a landing, so if I had trouble on the first one, I'd have to cross the second one knowing how bad it would be! So how did I manage...?

The guides told me I should cross last to minimize any extra movement from others on the bridge, and that since our group was so small that we'd have time for me to wait until the bridge was totally clear before I stepped onto it. (Normally one person begins crossing when the person in front of them is halfway across.) The mother and daughter in our group went first, and then N crossed after them...

Then he was across the first bridge, and it was my turn...

I did it!! I only got mildly swimmy, and actually kind of enjoyed the challenge! The biggest issue was that some of the boards are spaced pretty far apart, which can be an actual issue if your legs are as short as mine are. But I did it! I was almost across the bridge, when N called out to one of the CMs with a camera that they needed to get my picture with the crocs below me for the drama factor:

This ended up being one of my favourite non-wedding pictures of the trip.

Then we clipped back into the safety cables again and overlooked the crocs.

Another CM was there to discuss crocs with us...and N and I knew him!! If you happened to have read my very first trip report from our Christmas/Engagement trip (wow! That feels like so long ago now! My TRs have come a long way...) then you may remember that we were given a "magical moment" on that trip where we were offered a free private one-hour safari tour with two of the trek guides, Becky and Davis. It was an amazingly special experience that we'll never forget, and it encouraged us to do Wild Africa Trek on our honeymoon. So when we got to the croc area, we were pleasantly surprised to see Davis there! We reminded him about that day eight months prior, and he remembered us well. It was so nice to reconnect with him again, and he promised to also say hello to Becky for us. If you're ever around AK and run into Davis from Georgia or Becky from Delaware, make sure to give them a big smile. They're cool folks.

As Davis was ending his spiel, N had become obviously distracted. When Danielle noticed and asked him what he was looking at...it was a lizard. And not some cool rare kind of lizard-dragon or something, but a common tiny Florida native. Our home in Canada isn't crawling with these little guys like Orlando is, so N is always fascinated by them! Danielle offered to take a picture of the lizard with her camera for him!

​

 

[MeghanEmily]

We Get Wild and Go Trekking
Disney Day 10 - Part 2

At this point it was time for a change of pace, and were led onto a safari truck for the next portion of the tour. This is the same type of experience N and I had during our "magical moment," but as you'll likely guess, just like on Kilimanjaro Safaris, you never have the same safari tour experience twice. By this point it was also getting TOASTY (#AugustThough) so the guides gave us complimentary cooling cloths. The cloths are infused with some kind of natural essential oils, but as N was using his he started getting uncomfortable and found it burned his face! Weirdest thing! The guides had never seen that happen before. So he stopped using it, and he was absolutely fine. I made fun of him for being a drama queen. But I really appreciated the chance to cool off a bit! Our guides had all kinds of great information for us, and fortunately I still have a lot of it in my GoPro videos, but of course I don't remember much of it right now. So I'll just leave you the pictures...

One thing I do remember though, is that N and I had been having a debate about whether the baobab tree on the safari was real or not. I was sure it wasn't, and he thought it might be. N decided to ask the guides to weigh in, and so Jason took a poll on the truck of whether we thought the tree was real, or Disney-real. (Which has since become one of my favourite terms for the fabulous feats of imagineering I encounter in the parks!) Jason said that I was correct, and that the tree was engineered, but that he'd been surprised to learn that when he started working there. He told us that real baobabs look very much like that, and that they rarely have leaves (unlike the ever-green Tree of Life at the center of the park,) and that if that tree on the savannah were real, it would probably need to be somewhere around a thousand years old.

They knew I was there for giraffes, so we spent lots of time there and got some nice pictures...

You can see a safari truck in the background of that last photo. The tour goes through the same savannah area as Kilimanjaro Safaris, but it uses a smaller vehicle (you may have seen it before when you've ridden the ride,) and it can park off to the side and spend more time with the animals.

Giraffe-satisfied, we continued through the savannah, stopping along the way.

Before we knew it, we had arrived at the Boma!

Now I don't mean Boma, the fabulous buffet restaurant at the Animal Kingdom Lodge which specializes in delicious bread pudding and soups. A boma is just an enclosure or meeting place, and the boma on the AK savannah is a lovely spot that overlooks the animals. This was where we could use the facilities, and where we were seated to receive the refreshments included in the tour.

I thought I'd taken a picture of the food they brought us, but I can't seem to find one, so I'll steal some from a google search...

It was served in these cool multi-level metal tiffins (a contain for lunch/snacks, where the restaurant by the same name got its namesake.)

And because we had a morning tour, our snack (more like a light meal!) looked like this one:

There was fruit, yogurt, charcuterie meats, a salmon/cream cheese type roulade, little flatbreads, and this fig bread/cookie/loaf/thing. Mine was gluten and dairy free, so it contained most of the same things, but it had a quinoa salad, something else (maybe a kale/herb salad of some kind? or maybe a GF pastry or something? not sure...), and no yogurt or salmon, and none of the little flatbreads. Everything was beautiful and fresh, and even the flower was edible.

After our snack, we were led around the boma to where we could view some more of the animals...

We came back around the front of the boma, and we caught the coolest thing! All of the giraffes (I believe there were 7? Maybe 9? Don't quote me on that) were spurred into action after seeing another animal sprinting across the savannah... Earlier in the tour, Jason had mentioned how giraffes are really cool to watch when they run because they have the most interesting drunken-style gait. We got to see it in action multiple times, as the entire tower of giraffes loped across the savannah! It's one of my favourite Disney memories. One of the guides caught a few of them on camera for us.

The boma offered the most wonderful expansive views of the savannah, and we enjoyed it for as long as we could.

Then we had to get back on the truck and finish out the end of the tour.

I wondered how I'd fare on a three-hour tour in the August heat—and yes, it was hot, even first thing in the morning!—but the time flew by. Before long, we were being returned to our lockers to collect our things. But before the tour was over, we got to choose which types of animals we wanted to contribute to. One neat thing about the Wild Africa Trek tour is that, while it's very expensive, a small portion of every registration goes to the Disney Conservation Fund, and guests get to choose which animals they want their tour cost to benefit.

I can't recommend Wild Africa Trek highly enough if you want to splurge on something special and have any interest in animals. The cost was a bit steep for us, but the experience is SO worth it, and it also includes digital copies of all the photos they take on the tour, your food, and a contribution to the Conservation Fund. It was such an awesome highlight of our trip. Even though it was a gift to me, N also loved it, and he keeps suggesting to me that we should find a way to do it again sometime soon.

We hated to say goodbye to our guides who'd made our morning so very enjoyable. Thanks so much, Danielle and Jason!

As we were leaving, N started talking to Danielle about what he does for a living, and she was interested in his spray paint art. He gave her his card, and later that day we noticed that she'd started following his instagram page. Who knows...Danielle, if you're out there, maybe we'll even see you at MegaCon next week, or during our brief visit to Disney! ​

 

[MeghanEmily]

We Get Wild and Go Trekking
Disney Day 10 - Part 3

Naturally, after spending three hours out on the savannah, the next thing we did this day was ride the safari ride with a FP+. While it wasn't anything like the amazing tour we'd been on, we still had a great safari! I've already oversaturated this report with animal photos for today, so I'll only include a few more:

Then we headed over toward Dinoland for one of my Disney Must-Do's: Finding Nemo the Musical!

Okay, now I know I said I'd try to limit the chatter on these updates, but this is something I have to talk about. When I was writing my now-forever-lost Marathon Weekend trip report, I had written a long and heartfelt review of Finding Nemo the Musical that encapsulated its ups and downs and my profound feelings about it. I don't have the time or the strength to do this again for you now, but I'll do my best to get the gist of it across...

I love Finding Nemo the Musical. I have long considered it to be the best non-nighttime show at Disney, and I rarely get through it without crying. Festival of the Lion King is excellent, and both shows have Broadway-level talent, but it doesn't have the narrative continuity that I love so much about Finding Nemo. I like to think that I also know the show pretty well for an audience member. I have the soundtrack on my phone and regularly listen to it in its entirety while I'm running, or even just for fun. I expect that I could sing most of the roles tonight if asked, and not miss a lyric or a harmony. Leading up to our Disneymoon, I began seeing reviews in other people's TRs about how people were surprised to find that it was a terrible show, and the performers couldn't sing, etc, etc. I was shocked and heartbroken! It couldn't be true! Either these folks had no taste, or they were seeing an incredibly disappointing B-cast, or there was something seriously wrong. I vowed to investigate on our August trip. When the show began, it was quickly evident to me that many of the cast veterans (whom I now recognize instantly) had been replaced or weren't appearing on this day. (When I started writing my Marathon Weekend TR, I did some extreme Googling—a favourite pastime of mine—and found that there had been a ginormous audition casting call for nearly every role in the show a while before, and I suspected they were dealing with many performers who were new to the show.) While the cast I saw wasn't as blatantly bad as reports I'd read had suggested, they were definitely really "off," and I was highly disappointed by all of the new actors, with the exceptions of Nemo and Crush. When the show ended, I was surprised to find that I had been so engrossed in critiquing and noticing obvious flaws that I hadn't even allowed myself to be touched by the story and shed a tear. It wasn't a total loss—Crush's "Go With the Flow" still blew me away, and I was very proud in that moment!—but I was saddened by the quality of the show I'd seen. I suspected that the new cast had made headway since they'd been seen by those disheartened reviewers I'd been following on the Dis, but that they still had a LONG way to go. I worried about the future of my favourite show. I will say, however, that when we returned to Animal Kingdom for Marathon Weekend, (as you would know if my trip report hadn't been eaten by the evil technology gods,) I was pleasantly surprised by the improvement in much of the cast! While the show still wasn't as polished and striking as it once was, songs were tighter, there were far fewer noticeable errors, and performers who I hadn't loved back in the summer, like Marlin and Dory, were starting to grow on me and to seemingly develop their own more nuanced readings of their characters. I was surprised and overjoyed when, at the end of the show, I noticed that I was crying happy/emotional tears. I am anxious to return and see the show again in future and see what continual improvements are being made.

On that note, pictures:

Much love.

We'd had a weird food day to this point and were ready for something to eat but didn't want to ruin our appetites for dinner. We decided on one of my now-favourite places: The Nomad Lounge.

N ordered the Night Monkey:

And I ordered the Zingiber Fizzie:

As Stacey would say, this place is both YUM and WOW. I like it here anyway, but they also happen to be good with dietary restrictions. We also ordered from their small-plates-type menu, and N got the wagyu beef sliders, I got the pork ribs, and we shared an order of cinnamony deliciousness in the form of their churros (which are naturally gluten free! ) Normally they come with a strawberry sauce and a vanilla one, but since I was avoiding too much dairy, they doubled us up on strawberry sauce instead. I have since learned, however, that mixing the two sauces is actually quite divine.

After the lounge we decided to pop back to the timeshare for a bit for a nap. Then we did our laundry and packed ourselves up again for the transfer to our next Disney resort. (I did warn you that there would be an unreasonable amount of resort-hopping on this trip!)

We were headed to...

...the Wilderness Lodge!

We went up to check out our room, and we'd left our disgusting amount of luggage with bell services.

Once we got to our room and had waited a short time, we decided that we were cutting it too close for our dinner and couldn't afford to keep waiting for bell services to arrive (apparently they'd gotten held up with a lot of luggage transfers.) We called down and asked them to hold our bags, and we'd get them that night. The we were off again for our dinner reservation.​

 

[MeghanEmily]

We Get Wild and Go Trekking
Disney Day 10 - Part 4

Where were we eating dinner?, you may ask. We were in for a treat! It was our first time dining at Sanaa. And spoiler alert: we weren't disappointed.

We were seated, and I was sad that we weren't anywhere near the windows that look out on the savannah. I was also a little crabby because we'd been running late, and I hate to be late, and then we'd nearly gotten lost navigating the maze from the parking at Kidani to the incredibly hidden restaurant. All that was forgotten, however, when our appetizer arrived...we ordered the bread service! (Duh! You can't go to Sanaa and NOT order the bread service!) It came with five naan breads, and they offer a gluten free option, so I got two GF, and N got the rest in an assortment of their regular types of naan. We also ordered all nine accompaniments. Let me just say: bread service here is a big win. All the yes.

N ordered the braaivleis (which I always manage to spell with one too many vowels for some reason). It's an assortment of three (seasonal? how is meat seasonal?) meats with sides. They ended up giving him an allergy-friendly version of it so I could sample it, and I ended up liking this a lot more than my own meal. This is what I ordered when we went back there last December.

I got their mix-and-match kinda entree. I want to say it's called "harvest" or something like that? Not sure. Not going to look it up tonight. Sorry. But it was braised beef, rice, and a tomato-chickpea wat. It was good, but I wasn't crazy about it, so I nibbled from both of our plates.

We left stuffed, and headed back to Animal Kingdom. When we parked, there was a tram about to leave, so we ran...er, I mean, walked briskly...we'd never run at Disney!...and we caught the tram. But that was a bad idea. I took this selfie to demonstrate why nobody should ever run for anything in the August Florida heat after filling up on Sanaa:

NOT a good feeling.

When we got to the turnstiles, again I was surprised to see that the Annual Passholder entrance had a line when none of the other stations did. I really don't understand why people do this.

We decided to explore Pandora a bit more thoroughly now that I wasn't in a Flight-Of-Passage-induced motion sickness coma.

We had a FP for Navi River Journey, so we gave that a whirl.

I really enjoy this ride. It's peaceful and really beautiful. I know it's not the most thrilling ride, but as someone who has motion sickness I like that I have this as an option in Pandora. That said, I'd never spend much of my time waiting in line for it, nor do I consider it a Must Do.

We headed toward Everest so N could use his FP on it.

While he rode, I figured out where to go for our Rivers of Light FP, and I ordered myself a cup of my personal vice, a frozen lemonade. It hit the spot on such a humid evening. We entered early for Rivers of Light, maybe about 45 minutes before the show? The first few rows of the FP viewing area were full at this point, by a CM noticed that we were a party of two and directed us down to an empty spot in the very front row! When the CM saw that we were celebrating our wedding, they also gave us a free light-up lotus flower, which I then amused myself with for the next 15-20 minutes.

We had the most amazing view of the show, so I took this hilariously long panorama to document it.

I took some pictures of the show, which I'll post here now. But to sum up my feelings: I think Rivers of Light is very pretty, and I really enjoyed it. I like that Animal Kingdom has a night show now that I feel really matches the dynamic of the park. I do think it's a bit confusing and lacking in story. I have seen it again since, and still feel this way. I start to lose attention about halfway through. I will happily watch this show again, but I wouldn't feel pressured to make sure not to miss it, or to wait for it for a long time to have the best seats. I also think the images on the water screens aren't very clear, even compared to Fantasmic. But I enjoyed the show and thought that some of the effects are really lovely.

We went back toward Pandora to see it glowing after dark, and stopped at a PP photographer for this moderate-quality photo:

We also picked up a few Pandora-related pins for my collection. We were starting to accumulate a stupid number of pins by this point, but we still weren't finished yet. There would be more purchased before the trip was over. Then we made our way to the front of the park...or actually, I seem to recall that N made his way to Everest for the single rider line after dark, while I made my way to the front of the park. I really wanted to see the "awakenings" shows on the tree of life, and I wasn't disappointed. That's probably my favourite thing about the longer hours at Animal Kingdom now. They're so simple and lovely, and the projections are much more crisp, and clever, and impressive than I would have anticipated. N joined me after his ride and we watched a couple more of them together before leaving the park.

When we got back to Wilderness Lodge, we called for our bags and they arrived quickly. I looked in the bathroom and was happy to see this adorable tile in the shower, as I'd seen it on other TRs (I believe @Raeven posted a picture of this?)

I peeked out the window and was surprised. I hadn't noticed it when we stopped in the room earlier that day, but our standard view room, which overlooked a CM loading-type area below, also yielded this view beyond it...

I was seeing the Contemporary, and Space Mountain, right out of my room window! I was looking right over into the Magic Kingdom! It was a lovely little extra sprinkling of pixie dust. This stay was the beginning of a love affair with the Wilderness Lodge that continues to this day. ​

 

[pooh'smate]

Yay for passing all your tests!!!!

I really want to do that tour maybe on this next trip hmm. I am going to look into it. It will be a great bday present for my dh who has a big one on our trip.

 

[pooh'smate]

You snuck in a 3rd part before I was finished responding lol. I love the Zingerber Fizzie. I had one at Tiffins on our last trip. Your review of Sanaa has me really excited for dinner there.

 

[pkondz]

I would protest, but you may be right on that one.

It was! I'm not a big fan of driving...well..pretty much anywhere. But it was a nice one! We broke it up over two days each way, so we only ever had at most 9-10 hours of driving in a day.

Those are pretty good distances, though.

We also popped into Montreal on the way home because the only Canadian distributor for Nathan's spray paint is there, and it's much cheaper not to have to ship it when we can avoid it. We'll likely be doing most of that same drive again another couple times before the summer is out.

Get some decent poutine? Or Montreal smoked meat on rye?

Thanks! It won't be a long-term kinda thing, but for the next couple months I'm having fun playing around with it.

What will we see next, I wonder?

Thanks so much! I feel so much better having that burden off my mind. I ended up with A-'s in the two courses I was concerned about, so nothing to worry about in the end.

Good for you!

But the wild thing is that in my program, my mark of an A- was almost exactly halfway between getting 100% and failing. Tough standards.

I get that. I've done a few courses where you had a dozen or more exams where the pass mark was 80%.

At least I can feel confident that they're not graduating people who aren't qualified and working hard...but man, it can get stressful!

Have a headache so I'll read the update in the morning.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Oh my gosh! i just read your marathon post!

We were there early enough and parked close enough that we could walk from the parking lot to the park in 4-5 minutes, at least according to the Disney parking lot signs.

I love that they tell you how long the walk is.

This morning, I got my wedding present from him! We were doing the Wild Africa Trek tour!

Amazing!!!!

fortunate to be on a tour with only two other guests!

Seriously, that is basically a private tour.

Jason and Danielle waited for them to get out of frame, and then allowed us to take pictures in front of the tree of life in an empty AK.

Great pic with the park empty!

You may have noticed the sign there before.

I have never noticed that sign!

Great photo.

One of the CMs was there to feed the hippos and tell us all about them. They weren't feeling it that morning and decided to stay away and not get their snack, but it was still neat to get closer to their habitat and learn more about them.

Hippos amazes me, they seem so aggressive looking but really I guess they are actually pretty docile? Our local Zoo had some sort of tour and the people were actually petting the hippo!

If you've ever looked into Wild Africa Trek before, you'll know that in the regular version of the tour, if you don't have any accessibility requirements, you're asked to cross swinging bridges over the crocodile habitat. This was my biggest concern, and the only hurdle that made me consider not doing the tour

This does look super scary! I will give you that and even knowing that it's Disney I feel like your mind can't compute that.

YEAH!

I was almost across the bridge, when N called out to one of the CMs with a camera that they needed to get my picture with the crocs below me for the drama factor:

Def a great pic!

he tree was real, or Disney-real.

I like that term too!

we were seated to receive the refreshments included in the tour.

This seems like an amazing expierence to eat in that overlook area.

Earlier in the tour, Jason had mentioned how giraffes are really cool to watch when they run because they have the most interesting drunken-style gait. We got to see it in action multiple times, as the entire tower of giraffes loped across the savannah! It's one of my favourite Disney memories. One of the guides caught a few of them on camera for us.

I was just saying how Giraffees seem like such a strange animal. This must have been really cool to see them running. I always want to see the kangaroos running but they never seem to be doing that.

The cost was a bit steep for us, but the experience is SO worth it, and it also includes digital copies of all the photos they take on the tour, your food, and a contribution to the Conservation Fund.

They do seem like you do get a decent amount of expierence with it.

It is a good shot! Did they say why the giraffes are over there. I feel like they didn't always hang out over there, that they used to be more in the beginning of the tour. Wonder if the giraffe moved naturally, or if they encouraged them to move.

I love Finding Nemo the Musical. I have long considered it to be the best non-nighttime show at Disney, and I rarely get through it without crying.

I love it as well. I didn't notice a terrible performances but I am not a big critic of it. Maybe the new cast just needed to find there rythmn. I am sure they practice together before they take stage, but for how long.

...the Wilderness Lodge!

YEAH!

Let me just say: bread service here is a big win. All the yes.

I want the bread service now...

When we got to the turnstiles, again I was surprised to see that the Annual Passholder entrance had a line when none of the other stations did. I really don't understand why people do this.

You would think people who are AP holders wouldn't be this "dum" to wait in a line when there are open lines, but it seems to happen often.

they also gave us a free light-up lotus flower, which I then amused myself with for the next 15-20 minutes.

Yeah! Lotus Flower.

I start to lose attention about halfway through.

This is exactly the problem. It starts off beautiful and cool to watch and then it just starts to get long... They need to adjust the middle to something.

That's probably my favourite thing about the longer hours at Animal Kingdom now. They're so simple and lovely, and the projections are much more crisp, and clever, and impressive than I would have anticipated. N joined me after his ride and we watched a couple more of them together before leaving the park.

It's funny, that this really is kind of cooler than ROL.

r, as I'd seen it on other TRs (I believe @Raeven posted a picture of this?)

I don't know if I have posted this picture but I have taken many pictures of it. So cute!

I peeked out the window and was surprised. I hadn't noticed it when we stopped in the room earlier that day, but our standard view room, which overlooked a CM loading-type area below, also yielded this view beyond it...

Best secret of WL.... Well, I assume at some point this will change... I am waiting patiently for the 2019 rates to be released, wonder if they will have a Castle Vewi category.

 

[disneyAndi14]

Looks like a fun tour in AK, we did the caring for giants tour which we loved! Wow, you really did get up close and personal to the crocodiles! The bridge does look woozy inducing! Props to doing this in August. We did the giants tour in August very hot!

Congratulations on passing all your exams, enjoy your summer of travel. I’m jealous, ha!

 

[SweetSerenity]

That tour looks amazing! I'm so proud of your for crossing the bridge. I am beyond terrified of heights (I'm 5' 9". . . it doesn't make sense) and bridges. For my birthday my husband and I went up to the mountains and climbed through tree canopies via bridges. I was so scared. But I did it! It's a great feeling to accomplish our fears!

As always, love your updates!