Taking a Walk on the Wild Side: A Day in Animal Kingdom

Wow are we exhausted.  After an insanely late night last night, we had an equally early morning this morning.  Our first day at Disney World involved going to Animal Kingdom, which has Extra Magic Hours on Saturdays, which means those staying on property (like us) can get in an hour early.  Since we have FastPasses for Flight of Passage for Monday afternoon but weren't able to get one for Na'vi River Journey, we saw this as our opportunity to ride Na'vi River Journey.  Most people, however, opted to head for Flight of Passage, and when I say "head", I mean run.  I had heard about this happening, but I didn't think it was actually true.  Unfortunately, it was.  By the time the park opened, there was already a 2 hour wait for the ride.

I have to say, I understand why people are a little bit on the fence about Na'vi River Journey.  It was a beautiful ride, and the technology was impressive, especially when it came to the Shaman, but it was little more than a boat ride.  My favorite parts (other than the Shaman) were the tree spirits floating all around you, and the bioluminescent plants under the water.  It's the little touches like that that really makes Disney stand out about the rest.  Bryan and I both agreed that we wouldn't spend more than 20, maybe 30 minutes waiting for that ride, so we were glad we were pretty much able to walk right on.  Towards the end of the day, there was over an hour and a half wait.  If it were the end of the day, or we needed a break, it would have also been a wonderful opportunity for us to just sit down and take a break.  Since it was our first ride, we were wide awake, well rested, and our feet didn't hurt at all.  I still liked it, but it's not something either or us are beating down the door to ride again.

After Na'vi River Journey, we decided to trek all the way across the park to Kilimanjaro Safaris.  The line was super short, and I'd heard the animals were much more awake in the mornings.  It didn't matter to us that we had a FastPass for it for Monday.  So, we walked all the way across the park, and we're both so glad we did!  I've been on that ride three times now, and that was probably the best safari I've done.  The amount of animals we saw was absolutely amazing.  I'm also incredibly glad I had my actual camera with me, as I was able to take some stunning pictures.

All of the giraffes seemed to be out and eating, which I, of course, absolutely loved.  They were all over the place, and, at one point, some of them were just wandering around in the road, so we got to stop (our driver said that we weren't going to be able to stop on this part of the ride, but she would drive as slowly as possible so we could see as much as we could).  I, of course, was absolutely beside myself, as I wanted to see as many giraffes as humanly possible.  There were probably eight or nine out, all gathered together.  Not only that, the painted dogs were up and playing with each other, which was awesome.  Even though they're wild dogs, they reminded me of Molly and Baxter.  It was hard for me to reconcile with the fact that these wild dogs are related to my spoiled, lazy dogs.  We always tease Baxter when we see the commercial for Blue Buffalo dog food, because it says inside every dog is the heart of a wolf, and we ask Baxter if that's the same for him, because that's super hard to believe.  What was really exciting was the fact that the lions were still awake and still somewhat active.  I ended up getting some great shots of the male as he wandered around, just hanging out a little bit before bed.  Usually when I see them on the safari (or even at the zoo), they're fast asleep, and the only movement I see is from one sleeping position to another.

After our wildly successful safari (no pun intended), we were supposed to have FastPasses for Dinosaur.  But, oh darn, the ride was closed.  There were absolutely no complaints on my part about that, as that's the ride I'd been looking forward to the least.  Instead, we wandered around and opted for some character meet and greets instead.  We started with Dug and Russell from Up! Even though I'm not a big fan of the movie, it was a blast seeing them.  Russell showed off the Wilderness Explorer badges he's the proudest of, and Dug showed me his favorite spot to be scratched (for future reference, it's his nose).  It was a lot of fun, even though Bryan's not that big into meeting characters.

After meeting Dug and Russell, we discovered Dinosaur was back up and running, and since they'd had to cancel our FastPass for it before, they gave us a generic FastPass to be used on select rides, including Dinosaur, so we decided to use it for that.

On our way over to Dinosaur, we ran into the Rafiki and Timon meet and greet, so we stopped there.  It was definitely a longer wait that Dug and Russell, but Rafiki and Timon were a lot of fun.  This is one of my favorite pictures from yesterday,  Timon took Bryan's hat and decided to give it a try himself.  They were a blast, and they really took their time with us.  They talked about the dinosaurs on our shirts, we asked about Pumbaa, and we overall had a wonderful time with them.

Once we were done, I knew we couldn't delay it any longer, and we had to head over to Dinosaur.  This was the ride Bryan really wanted to ride, so we were going to ride it because he agreed to this trip in the first place.

As you can see, I'm plugging my ears.  I hate loud noises, and I bought earplugs just for this ride, but I couldn't find them.  This caused me to panic, but I was going to power through it, and we were going to do it.  The ride was super bumpy and a little weird.  Some of the dinosaurs looked pretty realistic, while others looked a little hokey (such as the one eating another dinosaur).  The part that made me scream is really funny and absolutely pathetic.  It wasn't the giant dinosaur trying to attack us, it was the flashing light from the camera.  I know, that's so pathetic, but it's true.  Oh well, I survived, so it doesn't matter.

On our way out of Dinosaur, we ran into Pluto, so we stopped to say hi to him.  Bryan pointed out that an overwhelming majority of the characters in Animal Kingdom are collected in Dinoland, USA.  There are some scattered other places throughout the park, but most of them are all over.  After meeting Pluto, we headed over to meet Chip and Dale.  I was looking forward to meeting them, as they're so adorable and  fun, especially in their little dinosaur costumes.  I mean, how can you not love those outfits!?  As expected, they were extremely goofy and silly.  We talked about how Bryan loves dinosaurs and even has a stegosaurus onesie, just like Chip.  Of course Chip loved this, and he had to show off his onesie to us.  I was surprised, though, because they weren't as flirty as I remember them being, but there are going to be plenty of other opportunities to meet them throughout the parks.

After some time in Dinoland, USA, we went to Flametree BBQ for something to eat.  I'd really been looking forward to the french fries with BBQ pork and cheese on top, and they were well worth it.  I'm even thinking of getting them again when we go back on Monday.

Afterwards, we went and met Pocahontas, but there was a wonderful surprise there.  As we got in line, we turned around, and Meeko was standing in line behind us.  This was a fantastic treat, as Meeko doesn't usually come out.  He's not a super rare character, but he's not around very often either.  Of course, he wanted to know what was in our backpack, wondering if there were any treats (we might have lied and told him there weren't any even though we did have some).  I also talked to Pocahontas, telling her I use her lesson to John Smith about how the Powhatans are fully capable of using the land on their own without the English help in my classroom (which is true).  She was incredibly happy and proud to hear that, and said it's important that we remember to respect the land.  This wasn't a PhotoPass location, so a cast member used my phone to take the photos, but they're gorgeous.  Some of them have this awesome rainbow going across them, almost like the colors of the wind.

From there, we headed over to Expedition Everest for our second FastPass of the day, and it was a blast!  It's definitely one of our favorite things we did yesterday.  The rollercoaster was thrilling and exciting, and the yeti was absolutely terrifying.  Unfortunately, Bryan wasn't wearing his glasses, so he couldn't see the yeti, but he still loved the ride. 

Then, we headed down to Pandora to explore a little bit more.  We took some wonderful photos, saw a banshee fly above us (okay, it was a magic shot), and headed to Pongu Pongu for a night blossom.  We opted for the rum version of course.  Unfortunately, Bryan spilled his, so we split mine.  Even though it wasn't very hot, it was still a delicious, refreshing drink.

Once we finished eating, it was time for our next FastPass where we got to meet the man, or rather mouse, in charge himself.  Right now, this spot in Animal Kingdom is the only place you can meet Mickey and Minnie together.  They were delightful hosts, and Minnie absolutely loved my polka dot nails and little Mickey decals.  We suggested she go get her nails done to match, and she was excited about that.  It was perfect having a FastPass for them, as there was an hour wait otherwise, which would have been insane.  We waited about fifteen minutes, if that.

After meeting Mickey and Minnie, it was about three o'clock, so we decided to get Bryan some coffee.  When we stopped at Creature Comforts that morning, I saw this cupcake, but I knew it was too early to get it, so I got it this time around.  This was the best cupcake I've ever had in my life.  It's the Valentine's Day one, so it's only there for a little while longer.  It's a chocolate cupcake with strawberry icing, little strawberry and chocolate crunchies on top and a chocolate covered strawberry.  Since I felt bad, I gave Bryan the smallest bite, but only a little one.  I could eat that cupcake every day for the rest of my life, which is saying a lot, because, honestly, I don't actually like chocolate cake.  This, however, was rich, and didn't have that weird chocolate cake taste that I usually don't like.

At this point, we wandered around a little, and Bryan bought a new hat.  I love that the first non-food related purchase of this trip came from him.  As much as he loves that fedora he wears, it's also made of wool and acrylic, so he was dying.  We found him a nice, lightweight hat that he'll probably end up wearing for the rest of our trip.

From there, we went to Yak and Yeti for our Valentine's Day dinner.  The food was delicious.  We got the dim sum basket, and then I just got pot stickers for dinner since they were so amazing in the dim sum basket.  Bryan got some sort of chicken wok, which he said was amazing too.  We then wandered around Pandora at night.  I discovered night mode on my camera, which, along with a little bit of editing once the pictures were taken, allowed for some stunning pictures like this one.  It really helped to capture the stunning lights all around Pandora.  I know it's just black lights, but still, it was gorgeous.

We ended our night with seeing Rivers of Light, the Animal Kingdom night show.  This was completely new to me, as there was no night show when we were here last time.  Since there are animals in the park, they don't use fireworks.  Instead, they use fountains of light, but it was easy to imagine what it would have looked like with fireworks. The show focused on the animals from Disney movies, along with animals in the wild, and how we should all work together as one global community.  We greatly enjoyed it, and it was one of our favorite things that day, along with Expedition Everest.  This is even though a few minutes into the show, they had to stop and restart due to technical issues, but everything was back up and running within five minutes, so it wasn't that bad.

Back at the hotel, we got a bottle of wine and some more cupcakes.  I saw this one on a Facebook group, and I desperately wanted to try it.  It's a vanilla cupcake with orange filling and strawberry icing on top.  Unlike the cupcake from earlier that day, this icing was super sweet.  It was a good cupcake, but it was easily overshadowed by the cupcake from Creature Comforts.  Bryan got a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter filling.  He said it was pretty good.  We split a bottle of wine, then we decided to call it a night around 11.  Overall, it was a wonderful first day in Disney World, and we have 7 more days to go!

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We Finally Made It!

I can't believe it, we finally made it to Disney World.  Honestly, it's hard to believe, because we've been planning this for so long.  On our last vacation in July, we even spent time then getting ready for this trip.  After all that planning, stressing and obsessing, we're finally here in Disney World.  Okay, maybe we're not actually in Disney World, but we're at our hotel.  It's after 12:30 in the morning, and we should be asleep, but we're not.  We'll just have to pay the price tomorrow.

First things first, I'm super surprised at how quickly today, and this week in general went by.  I was fully expecting this to be one of the longest days of my life, but that definitely wasn't the case.  My wonderful coworker gave me a ride to work, then another equally wonderful coworker gave me a ride to Bryan's office.  We drove his car to his friends' house, where it'll stay while we're gone, and they offered to give us a ride to the airport so we wouldn't have to Uber.  At the airport, we learned that TSA actually does find things in your bag, because Bryan forgot to take a corkscrew out of his medicine bag (oops).  Ironically, it's not the corkscrew that they had a problem with, it's the little blade attached used to cut labels on wine bottles.  We told them to just throw it out, we have three more at home.

After going through security, we headed over to Firkin and Flyer, which is a wanna-be English pub type restaurant.  It looked decent enough, so we had some appetizers and drinks before heading to our flight.  I'll be honest, my biggest concern was that something would go wrong, and we wouldn't be able to leave when we planned to.  A lot of that came from the fact that it's February, and it was perfectly plausible to get a snow storm.  As we got closer and closer to today (well, yesterday), those fears dissipated, but I was still a little worried.  Thankfully, there weren't any problems, and our flight went without a hitch.  Okay, so there was a tiny, dumb problem.  I couldn't get the dumb app to work to watch the free movies they have available on my iPad, but they also had live TV available, so I watched that on my iPad instead.  In all my planning and preparing, I can't believe I forgot to download some movies and TV shows onto my iPad for our trip.  I'll have to remember to do that for our return flight next weekend.

At Orlando airport, we grabbed our bags and headed for the Magical Express, which is a free service for those staying on Disney property.  I was also a little worried that it would take us a while to get to our hotel, but we were the second stop.  It's also worth noting that the first stop was Art of Animation, which is right next door.

Even though we did the pre-check in on the app and could have just headed straight to our room, we still stopped by the front desk to opt out of housekeeping.  My doing so, we've gotten a $70 gift card, on top of another gift card our wonderful travel agent had sent to us (it was a discount she got for our trip that was reimbursed in the form of a gift card).  So we have a little bit of spending money ready and waiting for us for tomorrow (today).  As expected, the cast members are all super cheerful and helpful.  I was also surprised to see some people walking around and hanging out even though it was close to 11:30.  I was also surprised that I wasn't tired, especially given the fact that I'd been awake since 6 in the morning and am definitely more of a morning person than night person.

Since it's nighttime, I didn't really take any outdoor pictures of our hotel, but I'll try to get some tomorrow on our way to the bus.  Our room is in the 50s part of the resort.  Each set of buildings is modeled after a specific decade.  Our includes giant statues of Lady and the Tramp, along with a 50s themed pool and large decorations, all in the shape of bowling pins.  It's a lot of fun and is pretty close to the building where we get the bus and also kind of near the skyliner stop, which we'll use on Sunday for Hollywood Studios.  Our room is wonderful.  It has a queen bed and the table can be used to support a second queen bed, which is actually a murphy bed in the wall.  It's the perfect size for us, especially given the fact that we probably won't be in the room very often.

I'm purposefully trying to keep this brief for two reasons: one, I don't have a lot to say, and two, my posts for the next week are probably going to be fairly long.  Tomorrow we head off to Animal Kingdom, and we're getting up early since there are extra magic hours in the park.  Be sure to come back tomorrow to know if I survived riding Dinosaur.

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Our Final Pre-Trip Walt Disney Wednesday

That's right, I can't believe it!  We're just under 60 hours until our plane takes off and we head for Disney World.  It's been a whirlwind planning for this trip since May, and now we're in the final hours.  We started the countdown at over 200 days, and it's practically here.  Bryan and I just have to get through this week, which easier said than done, especially for Bryan.  He has a lot to do for work this week, so it's been particularly stressful for him.  We spent some time together last night, but we didn't really have a chance to go over any last minute plans for the day of.  I've managed to get a ride to work and a ride to Bryan's work from two absolutely amazing coworkers, and then we're going to leave Bryan's car at his friends' house (they live near the airport) and Uber from there to the airport.  It sounds complicated, but it's actually way easier and cheaper than leaving his car there for ten days.

So, I've been driving Bryan a little bit crazy obsessing over our FastPasses.  I haven't cancelled anything, but we didn't use all our Hollywood Studios FastPasses.  Since I wrote my Hollywood Studios blog post, they did change up the FastPass tiers, which I was happy about, but we still didn't get any new ones that we really wanted.  Like I talked about in my FastPass blog post, once you use up all three of your FastPasses, you can get new ones, but you have to use up both Tier 2 ones, which is a little unfortunate (but it makes sense).  I added Muppet*Vision 3D to our Hollywood Studios day and the meet and greet with Mickey and Minnie in Animal Kingdom, but those were just so we had them, they can easily be changed later on if we need.  I don't want to change the Mickey and Minnie one, but we may change the Muppet*Vision one to another time if necessary.

In terms of packing, I have a pile of stuff that's been accumulating for a few weeks now.  Whenever I think of something I need to pack, I simply throw it into the pile.  I do have a list, so when I pack, I'll go through the list and make sure I have everything.  When it comes to clothes, it's actually been fairly easy because I made all our shirts for our trip.  In the short run, this was a pain because I had to cut all the vinyl, assemble everything and iron it on.  There were some stressful moments, and I did mess up a shirt or two, but not in a way that's overtly noticeable.  I'm purposefully not posting the final products because I want to keep it all under wraps until we get to the parks.  You'll just have to check back each day either on Facebook, Instagram or right here on my blog to see what we wore and what I made.  I will tell you that each shirt was carefully chosen, and they might not match, but they follow the same theme.  Also, Bryan had complete control over what shirts he will wear.  I've been asked how I got Bryan to wear shirts like this, and it was actually pretty easy since we picked them together.  We did this before at AwesomeCon, and then we did have matching shirts (pictured to the right).  Bryan was actually the one who said, "Let's do Star Trek shirts" and picked the design, while I'm the one who made them.  It's one of my favorite shirts that I've made, and we got some compliments on them, which is always reassuring.

Up until this week, I've been avoiding looking at the weather for two reasons: I know it's going to change, and I didn't want to jinx it.  With less than a week left, however, I figured the weather would pretty much be accurate (ish), and I had to know what to pack.  To be honest, I was expecting temperatures in the mid-70s, not in the low to mid-80s.  It's definitely a pleasant surprise, especially given the fact that it's been dreary and in the 40s or 50s here (it's apparently going to be freezing here in Maryland the day after we leave, but that's not our problem).  So, that's cause me to rethink my packing list.  Previously I planned on packing pants and short sleeve shirts.  With this shift in temperature, however, I'm opting more for capris and t-shirts.  I don't want to pack shorts because it's supposed to be in the mid-50s or 60s in the evening.  This also means I'll have to bring a few sweaters to carry around in the park for the evening.  I'm definitely excited about the warmer weather because that means I get to wear sandals, but that means I want to get a pedicure in addition to the manicure I'm getting after school today.  Oh well, I'll look cute.

Speaking of packing, there are a few things that I'm definitely going to make sure I pack.  First, an unhealthy number of external chargers.  I have two larger ones (including one affectionately called "the brick"), along with a few smaller ones that size of a tube of lipstick.  I doubt we'll need all of them, but it's better to be safe than sorry.  I just need to make sure to pack enough micro-USB cords to charge all of them at night.  I also bought a tube of Epsom salt gel.  Theoretically, you put it on your feet at night, and it helps with some of the pain and discomfort from walking all day.  I have no idea if it actually works, but some of the Disney Facebook groups I'm in highly recommended it, so I thought it was worth a shot; it's not like it was very expensive.  I also bought us ponchos.  I don't do rain, I hate being wet.  I know it rains often in Orlando, and I wanted to be prepared.  Hopefully we won't need them very much, but they're better to have and not need than need and not have.  Even though I'm excited to wear sandals all week, I'm also bringing some closed toe shoes to rotate through if my feet need a break.  This is another tip I learned from the Disney Facebook groups.  I'll probably wear my sandals two days in a row and then see if I need a break from them.  In all, I'm bringing a pair of sandals, a pair of sneakers and a pair of ballet flats that are super comfortable.  Finally, we're bringing our own water bottle.  Many years ago when we were in Dollywood in Tennessee, we learned if you bring your own water bottle into a park and ask for water, they'll fill it for free.  It's usually tap water, which may not be ideal, but it's way better than paying $4 for a bottle of water.

In terms of preparation for next week, I've asked my professor for the work for next week so I can do it this week and not have to worry about it on vacation.  Unfortunately, my professor is sick, so he hasn't given me the work yet.  I still have time before we leave (the assignments for this class don't take me nearly as long as previous classes), so I'm hoping he'll get back to me by Friday morning so I can crank it out before I leave.  Fingers crossed.

When I first outlined this blog post, one of my biggest concerns was getting a boarding group for Rise of the Resistance.  I've heard stories of people getting to Hollywood Studios at 6 AM so they could get a boarding group.  At the same time, I recently heard about people who got there at 6:45 and got a boarding group that rode the ride by 11:30 AM, so I'm torn about how early to get there.  Our travel agent and her husband just went this past week and rode it, so I'm going to ask her (or, Mrs. Bobby, if you're reading this, let me know).  It's definitely something we want to ride, and, like I said before, we have an entire day dedicated to Galaxy's Edge and Star Wars stuff because we're not entirely sure how long the lines are going to be.  There are now FastPasses for Smuggler's Run, but by the time we found out, they were all gone.  Unfortunately, this means a significant wait in line to get on, but we already know that that's going to happen, so it won't be as bad (in theory).

All in all, I can't believe our trip is practically here.  It's been a whirlwind of planning, which, strangely enough, I've absolutely loved (I love planning trips).  There have been some stressful moments, but we're finally (almost) there!  Even though we started planning this back in May, I spent almost 11 months before that begging and pleading to go to Disney World.  Now, we're almost there.  I wonder what I'll ask for next...

So, next time I post about Disney World, it'll be from our trip.  My goal is to post every day after we get back from the parks, but we'll see if I actually follow through on that.  It'll all depend on how exhausted I am.  It's going to be a long, exhausting and exciting trip.

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It's Single Digits Day!

I'm going to try and keep this post relatively short, as I don't have a whole lot to say.  First of all, I'm absolutely over the moon that it's our single digits day.  This means there are only 9 days standing between Bryan and I and our Disney vacation.  It's so hard to believe that we're at this point; we've been planning this trip since May (and by "we", I mostly mean "me").  For each of my park posts, I talked about what I'm looking forward to the most in each individual park, but now I'm going to talk about what I'm looking forward to the most as a whole.  There's not too much for me to say, as I've gone into much more detail in each of my individual park posts.

First and foremost, I'm super excited about all the food, especially in Magic Kingdom and Epcot.  To be honest, the food at Hollywood Studios hasn't really called to me, but I'm sure there will be delicious nonetheless.  Since I spoke about the Peter Pan float in the Magic Kingdom post, but I'm also looking forward to the spring rolls in Adventureland.  Most people opt for the cheeseburger ones, but since I don't like cheeseburgers, I'm super excited to try the pepperoni pizza ones, because I love both pepperoni and pizza.  I am a little bit disappointed they won't have the macaroni and cheese ones, but I did find a place that has bacon mac and cheese french fries, which sounds like nothing but carbs, but carbs are delicious and amazing.  Speaking of carbs, there are also french fries with cheese and pulled bbq pork in Animal Kingdom, and I definitely want to get some of those.

There are so many rides I'm looking forward to, and I talked about each park individually in the four posts I did (one for each park).  Disney has opened so many rides since the last time I've been there, and there are so many classics that I can't wait to visit again.

As a whole, however, despite the food and the rides, what I'm looking forward to the most is spending time with Bryan.  We've been on a few vacations together in the past, but nothing like this.  In the past, we've gone away for a long weekend or even as much as five days, but this trip will be ten whole days, including travel days on either end.  Our previous trips have always been incredibly laid back.  We know where we're going and maybe one or two activities that we want to do, but we don't really have any sort of game plan.  Instead, we just wing it and play it by ear each day.  When it comes to Disney World, however, you can't really do that.  You have to know what you're doing, make dining reservations 180 days in advance, get FastPasses either 60 or 30 days out, and go in with some sort of plan or attack.  This has been a huge shift for Bryan.  While I'm the type of person who likes a vacation full of activities and things to do, he's the type of person who likes a vacation where you relax.  This is going to be a huge shift for him, but I know we're going to make it work.  I know this may sound mushy, but the only thing I really care about is the fact that we're going to be together.  We always have fun together, and this trip is going to be no exception.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but next week is going to be my last Walt Disney Wednesday post before we leave for our trip!  I'm going to talk about what I'm packing, and what I plan on carrying in our park bag.

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Prepping for Disney World By Binging Movies

I can't believe I'm almost done with my pre-trip Walt Disney Wednesday posts, I only have two more left (I may have misspoken last week and said there two more left then, and if so, I apologize).  This week's post is one I originally planned at putting towards the beginning of my Walt Disney Wednesdays, but I thought it was better suited for the end.  Let me start out by saying that I have absolutely no idea how I convinced Bryan to watch pretty much nothing by Disney movies with me for the past two months.  If I knew, I would tell you, but he has the patience of a saint and put up with it without too much complaining.  For those of you wondering just how many Disney movies we've watched to prepare for this trip, the answer is a whopping 43, and we still have one more left to watch tonight.  We also skipped over Lion King because we got to that movie right after my dad died, and I just couldn't watch it, although we saw the new one over the summer, so we're counting that.  Now, we didn't watch all of those in the past two months, we watched a few last year before we knew we were going on our trip and a few over the summer before Disney+ came out.  Once Disney+ came out, though, it was all over, and that's pretty much all we've watched since.  It'll be weird not watching that.

When we first started out, watching movies, we watched in any random order; he would pick one, then I'd pick one, and we went back and forth like that for a while until I picked Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and commented how it was the first Disney movie.  From then on out, we pretty much went in chronological order, which I found fascinating because it showed the development and growth of Disney movies.  Not only did the animation and special effects improve, but Bryan and I both commented on how the role of the female characters changed as well.  In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, you have a fourteen year old girl who runs through the woods screaming and then spends the rest of the time cleaning and taking care of the men.  By the time you get to Aladdin, however, you have a strong female character in Jasmine who knows what she wants and isn't afraid to take no for an answer.  Up until she met Aladdin, she even refused to get married because she didn't meet anyone she liked.  I wish we had started watching that way from the beginning, but that's fine.  I was going to list all the movies we watched, but, like I said, it's quite extensive.

Believe it or not, there were several Disney movies that we watched that I had never seen before, albeit not that many.  Bryan's list is significantly longer, and we can't even really remember which ones he had seen and hadn't seen.  As for me, there were only eight movies we watched that I had never seen before: Avatar, Robin Hood, Monster's University, Brother Bear, The Good Dinosaur, Ratatouille, Wreck-It Ralph and Ralph Breaks the Internet.  For the most part, I greatly enjoyed all the new ones I saw, although I didn't like The Good Dinosaur at all, I thought it was weird and just a bit too out there.  It was easy to see why it is the least popular Pixar movie.

Okay, time for me to talk about my top three movies that we watched.  Two of these really shouldn't be a surprise, but the third one is a new movie for me, and I was surprised at how much I loved it.

Beauty and the Beast has always been one of my favorite Disney movies.  I think it's because I could relate to Belle so much, especially given her bookish tendencies.  Let's also talk about that library the Beast gave her.  It has always been a dream of mine to have a library like that, although I also know the likelihood of me getting a library like that is pretty much nonexistent.  I also adore Belle's personality.  She knows what she wants, and she's not afraid to say it.  If anything, she's one of the earliest Disney princesses who really stands up for herself.  Ariel has a little bit of this, but she's also a flighty teenager who falls in love with someone she's never met.  Belle, on the other hand, isn't afraid to stand up to the Beast and brings out the best in him.  I know some people say she has Stockholm syndrome, but if she did, then she wouldn't have run away and wouldn't have stood up to the Beast and pointed out his faults to him.  She simply fell in love with him by bringing out his true personality.

This is another movie that shouldn't be much of a surprise at all either.  I love Stitch so much.  Yes, he's chaos and havoc all rolled into one, but just look at that little face!  He's positively adorable, and I can't get enough of his face.  Don't even get me started on Lilo.  Her tirade about Pudge the fish is one of my favorite Disney movies because on its surface it appears to make absolutely no sense, but once you learn that Lilo's parents died in a car crash during a storm, suddenly you understand why it's important for her to keep Pudge the fish happy so he'll make the weather nice.  Nani is also a wonderful character.  She might look like she's losing control of the situation with Lilo, but you have to take into consideration her age and the trauma both of them have been through.  Nani's about nineteen years old, and she's trying to take care of her five year old sister who has a wonderful spirit, so she's trying to keep her in line while simultaneously encouraging her keep up that wonderful spirit.  The underlying message of "ohana", or family is amazing too.  It truly shows that family doesn't have to be related by blood.

Like I said before, I had never seen Avatar before.  Personally, I thought it was overrated, and I hated that they kept releasing it in theatres with a few extra seconds of footage and then claiming it's the highest grossing movie ever (for the record, when inflation is taken into account, it doesn't even break the top ten).  I also hate that I love this movie because I feel like I'm jumping on the bandwagon here, but since I'm over ten years later, I feel like it's not that bad.  First of all, I thought this movie was absolutely gorgeous.  The scenery was stunning, and I can't wait to stand in Pandora in Animal Kingdom and get as close to being in the movie.  I also love Jake's fighting spirit.  It doesn't take long for him to have an appreciation for the Na'vi people and the nature.  He showed tremendous growth as a character and learned to live with nature, not fight against it.

As can be expected, I also asked Bryan for his top three favorite movies that we watched and why he liked them.  Unfortunately, he just couldn't decide, which honestly surprises me.  I thought that he just went through the motions of watching the movies to appease me, but it would seem that he actually enjoyed watching many more of them than I originally thought.  Glad to know I'm getting my boyfriend into enjoying Disney movies.  There's hope for him yet!

Of course, we didn't like all the movies we watched.  We agreed on some of most of our bottom three movies, but there were some we disagreed on as well. 

Neither of us liked The Three Caballeros.  Both of us found it incredibly weird.  For those of you wondering if it's even a Disney movie, yes, yes it is.  And if you're wondering why in the world we watched it, it's because the characters, Donald Duck, Panchito and Jose lead guests through the ride at the Mexico Pavilion in Epcot.  The movie focuses on Donald, who receives gifts from his friends, Panchito and Jose, and with the help of those gifts, he learns about the beauty of Latin America.  Disney created this movie as propaganda of sorts to teach its viewers about how wonderful Latin America is to boost its image during World War II and get people on board with allying ourselves with Latin American countries.  Bryan and I both found this movie incredibly strange.  It was a blend of animation and live action, not that that is a downside, if done properly.  Bryan was particularly not fond of the ending, which was simply Donald chasing a bunch of women in bikinis around the beach.  Yes, that's a great thing for children to see.  We both thought so highly of the movie that I fell asleep, and he almost fell asleep.

Neither of us were particularly fond of Pinocchio either.  Personally, I thought it was a movie that didn't know what it wanted to be.  You have a puppet who becomes a real boy, and the next day, the dad immediately sends him off to school without showing him around the village or spending time to teach him the ins and outs of existing in the first place.  Bryan's complaint with Pinocchio stemmed from the third act, which he said was "literally hand waved  with a note saying his dad had been eaten by a monster unseen or talked about before this very moment."  It was as if they didn't know how to wrap up the movie within the time or budget allotted, so they threw in the giant whale to bring it all to a close.  Had they at least mentioned the whale earlier, it might not have been so bad.  For me, however, it really stemmed from the fact that the movie was all over the place.  You had Pinocchio coming alive, then working in a sideshow, then turning into a donkey, then getting swallowed alive by a whale.  It's a mess.

Even though we didn't have to watch The Good Dinosaur to prepare for our trip, Bryan absolutely loves dinosaurs, so we watched it.  Like I said earlier, it's easy to see why this is the least successful Pixar movie.  It focuses on the concept of what it would have been like if dinosaurs hadn't gone extinct and instead become intelligent creatures, while humans are more similar to animals in terms of habits and intelligence.  I know, it's super weird.  It tried really hard to teach lessons of being yourself, bravery and friendship, and I can see small children quite enjoying it.  As adults, however, we thought it was just strange and a little bit too out there, even for a Disney movie.  Despite my complaints, I did think Spot was rather adorable, and I wished there was more of him.  Arlo the dinosaur, on the other hand, I found whiny and annoying.

Bryan's final least favorite movie we watched was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and I can see where he's coming from, but I just love the dwarfs so much.  While he does admit that it's a classic, he didn't really care for the overall plot (it is Disney's first movie, so they were just getting started on telling stories, and it makes a lot more sense than Pinocchio in my opinion).  He also complained about "the rampant sexism", which I also understand.  I'm not making excuses, but the movie did come out in the 1940s when you didn't have nearly as many strong female characters as you do today.  I know I talked about this already, so I'm not going to go into more detail.  Personally, I didn't find the movie awful, although it did bother me that the dwarfs spent all the time looking after Snow White and killed the Evil Queen to save her, and the Prince shows up, and she immediately runs off with him as soon as she wakes up.  It's like she didn't even care about what the dwarfs did for her.

Well, that's it for now.  There are only two more Walt Disney Wednesdays until we leave on our trip.  Next Wednesday will be our single digits day, and I'll talk about what I'm looking forward to the most in all the parks as a whole, so be sure to check that out.

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Why We Got Memory Maker

We're coming close to the end of our pre-Disney World Walt Disney Wednesdays, but I have a few ideas for some post-Disney World posts as well, but I'll reveal those after our trip.  Today, we're going to talk about Memory Maker (some people refer to it as PhotoPass, but it's the same thing).  This was something I insisted we add to our trip, and I even offered to pay for all of it, but Bryan said it was fine (we split the trip down the middle at my insistence).

You might have been able to figure out from the other name, PhotoPass, that Memory Maker is the photo package for Disney World.  I've never gotten a photo package at a theme park before, I usually just take my own photos, and I call it a day.  Memory Maker, however, offers so much more than just random photos of you throughout the park.  Plus, I love to scrapbook (see my previous post about preparing for a Disney scrapbook if you haven't read it already), and I love having photos of Bryan and I, so this seemed like a no brainer.

It's important to note that Memory Maker definitely isn't cheap.  If you order it ahead of time, it costs $169, but if you order it when you get to the park, it costs $199.  We ordered it ahead of time and saved $30.  It's still quite a bit of money, but it's important to break down what exactly you get in the Memory Maker package.

Before I go any further, I want to give a huge shoutout to my cousin, Sam, who kindly sent me some of his Memory Maker photos to use for this post, as I don't have any yet.  He said I can use any of the ones he sent me, so you're going to see some amazing pictures of him and his friends.

First, one of the biggest ways you're going to use Memory Maker is with character experiences.  You simply tap your Magicband against the sensor or use the card they give you if you don't have a Magicband, and it will automatically sync up the photos to your account for you to download later.  Instead of just having the posed character pictures, however, they start taking photos right away, which results is some wonderful candid shots that may be better than the posed photos.  You can see that in the photo of Sam with Woody and Bo-Peep, it's just them joking around and talking.  If you have kids, this is the perfect way to capture their reaction to meeting their favorite character for the first time.  Even if you don't have kids, it's a great way to capture some magical moments.

Memory Maker also includes something called "magic shots".  In these photos, Disney adds in little animated characters or features to your photo.  It might seem strange reacting to something that's not there, but once you see the completed product, it's so worth it.  You can see that in the photo with Sam and his friends reacting to Lumiere appearing to hang out with them.  There's a wide range of characters who they can add to your photos, depending on where you are in the park.  Magic shots also include adding different features to the photos, not just characters.  In Pandora, you can have banshees fly above your head.  They can also add Mickey Mouse shaped balloons on Main Street, USA in Magic Kingdom.  Sam had snow added in his picture of him in front of Expedition Everest in Animal Kingdom.  These magic shots really only work if you react to whatever is being added into the photo; if you don't, it just looks strange and out of place.

Scattered throughout the park is the opportunity to simply have wonderful, beautiful pictures taken.  This includes in front of famous locations (such as Spaceship Earth, Cinderella's Castle, the Tree of Life, etc) or just random places throughout the park.  This is a great opportunity to simply capture the magic of your trip to Disney World.  Simply look for a Disney cast member with a camera.

Now, if you're like me, you want to get the most out of your Memory Maker package.  Thankfully, Disney is one step ahead, and you can scope out where all the Memory Maker locations are in each park and even get walking directions to one you're interested in visiting simply by using the Disney World app.

When you open up the app, you'll get a screen that looks like this (at least this is what it looks like as of right now, I'm imagining once they get rid of boarding groups for Rise of the Resistance, the homescreen for the app will change.  You're going to want to click on the closeup of the map of Magic Kingdom.  This will bring you to the map of all the parks in Disney World.  The default is the wait times for the rides at Magic Kingdom, but you can easily switch it around.  If you can't figure out how, don't worry, I'm going to show you how to switch it up to different parks, including Disney Springs.

Once you see the map of Magic Kingdom, you're going to click on the top of the screen where it says "Wait Times", along with a little arrow pointing down.  This is a drop down menu with all sorts of options for you to pick.  There are plenty of types of maps for you to refer to in the app.  It's going to be your best friend on your trip, trust me.

Like I said before, the default for the maps is the wait times, but you can also see where various characters will be (along with what times), where restaurants are located (and if they utilize mobile ordering), various entertainers (not just shows, but also street performers), bathrooms, guest services, etc.  For today, we're going to select "PhotoPass", which is the same as Memory Maker.

You'll immediately see a screen like the one pictured to the right.  Each of the little geotags coordinates with a Memory Maker location in the park.  When you select a geotag, it will tell you what the Memory Maker will be, (ie: which character or what it is so you know if it's one you want to do).  If it says "Character Experience", that means it's a character who is regularly scheduled to be there.  Please note, some characters simply wander around, so you might not know they're going to be there because there's not schedule for them.  So, always keep your eyes open!  If the description says "attraction photos", then that is an in-ride photo, which I'm going to get into momentarily.

Now, just like the app defaults to wait times for rides and attractions, it also defaults to showing you all of the parks at once, with Magic Kingdom being the center point.  Instead of trying to zoom out and move the map all over the place to find another park, there's a way that the app will only show you one park at a time.

If you go back to the top of the map, next to where you can select the content of the map, there's a small button that says "Filter".  This is what you want to select.

Now, you're going to have all sorts of options.  In addition to the four parks in Disney World, you can also select Disney Springs, Galaxy's Edge (although those attractions also show up when you select Hollywood Studios), and even the Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon (although they don't appear with every type of map).  Simply select the park or location you want to focus on, and the map will appear.  It updates fairly often, so you'll have fairly accurate information, although it's not entirely full proof.

One aspect of Memory Maker I'm super excited to take advantage of are the ride photos.  I've always loved looking at photos of me on rides, but the photos are always so expensive, so we never get them.  With Memory Maker, they're already included.  The best part is that you don't need to stop anywhere to get them added to your account, there's a small RFID chip in your Magicband, so it will sense you on the ride and add the photos.  Now, if you know you took some photos, and they don't show up in your account, that's no problem.  Simply contact Memory Maker, tell them where the shot was taken, about what time and what you were wearing.  They'll find the photos and add them to your account.  You also might end up with some random peoples' photos on your account every once in a while.  It's not a perfect system...yet.

Anyway, back to the ride photos.  This is something I'm definitely looking forward to the most.  I did a little research, and to help you out, I've compiled a list of the various rides throughout Disney World that have in-ride photos, and I've even researched where the cameras are if you want to know and make sure you're looking in that general direction (if you don't want to know and want more of a candid shot, that's fine too).

Magic Kingdom
There are six rides in Magic Kingdom that include in-ride photos: Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin (pictured above), Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion.

Space Mountain
The camera for Space Mountain is near the beginning of the ride.  At the end of the blast-off part/end of the star tunnel before you really start the ride, there is a camera.  The side that the camera on depends, however, as there are two different lines to get on the ride in the first place.

Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin
This camera is near the end of the ride.  You'll probably be so focused on scoring as many points as possible that you won't notice the camera.  In the room with the giant Zurg, you'll notice a flash come from Zurg; that's the camera.

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
The Memory Maker experience on Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is a little different from other rides in Disney World.  First, there are two cameras.  On the left of the track right before you go down the big hill, that's where you'll find the first camera.  At the bottom of the hill, you'll see another camera.  In addition to the photos, you also get a video of you enjoying the ride, which should be amusing.  Verbolten in Busch Gardens Williamsburg has a similar video experience.

Splash Mountain
Unfortunately, Splash Mountain will be closed for its annual maintenance when we're in Disney World.  The photos from Splash Mountain, however, are some of the most famous.  People are known for bringing in all sorts of props and really having a blast with this one.  Simply Google "Splash Mountain photos" to see all sorts of them.  You won't be disappointed, I promise.  Predictably, the photos are taken on the big drop, about a third of the way down.  The drop is so quick, however, it's best to be prepared and ready for the entire duration of the drop.

Pirates of the Caribbean
This ride photo is fairly new, as it was added in 2017.  This camera is located at the beginning of the ride.  As you ride, you'll see a skeleton steering a ship.  The camera is located in the talking skull on the side of the boat, just to the left of your ride vehicle.

Haunted Mansion
This is another fairly new ride photo.  And when I say fairly new, I mean it was added in April of 2019, so it's not even a year old.  This photo is taken near the beginning of the ride.  After boarding your doombuggy, you'll enter a room plagued with lightning and with paintings on one side.  The last two photos are of a horseman and Medusa, and these are where the camera is.  The flash is hidden by the lightning, so you won't even realize it's taking your picture.

Epcot
Unfortunately, Epcot only offers two ride photos (but there are tons of other Memory Maker spots throughout Future World and the pavillions).  The first is Test Track, which will, unfortunately, be closed when we're there (I'm really upset about this).  The second is Frozen Ever After.

Test Track
After designing and testing your car, your car will go on a test drive.  Once you get outside, you'll go down a little hill.  Immediately after the hill, the camera is to the right of the track.

Frozen Ever After
When they replaced Maelstrom with Frozen Ever After in the Norway Pavilion, they didn't change a whole lot in terms of the track.  Your boat will go down a small drop, and that's where the camera is located (think of it like a super small Splash Mountain, just without the splash...or the racist undertones).

Hollywood Studios
In Hollywood Studios, there are three rides that have in ride photos: Tower of Terror, Rock'n'Roller Coaster and Slinky Dog Dash.  I'm curious to see if they'll add one to either Smuggler's Run or Rise of the Resistance; one can dream.

Tower of Terror
Bryan and I have decided not to ride Tower of Terror (why ride it when we live it every time we get into the super sketchy elevator in his apartment building?)  When you get to the top of the elevator shaft, the doors open, giving you a wonderful view of the park.  Moments later, you're dropping at a rate faster than gravity (that's right, the cables pull your car down at a rate faster than you would if you were free falling).  So, make sure you smile, or at least try to conceal your nerves to the best of your ability.

Rock'n'Roller Coaster
Honestly, I think Rock'n'Roller Coaster gives you the best chance for a candid ride photo.  Immediately after your limo is launched (that's right, it's a launch roller coaster), you get your photo taken.  You're so wrapped up in the launch and the blaring music, you don't really have time to react.  This leads to incredibly amusing photos.  Last time we went to Disney World, we almost bought the photo for this ride, since my dad's face was hilarious.  Needless to say, he didn't enjoy the ride very much, and his face gave that away.  I wish we had that photo.

Slinky Dog Dash
It's kind of hard to describe where the camera is for Slinky Dog Dash.  After the second launch, you go over four mini hills, followed by a u-turn to the left, then a turn to the right.  When Slinky gets ready to turn right, get ready, because that's where your picture will be taken!

Animal Kingdom
Just like Epcot, there are only two rides in Animal Kingdom that have in ride photos: Expedition Everest and Dinosaur.

Expedition Everest
Part of Expedition Everest includes going backwards after you discover that the yeti has ripped up part of the track (oh no!).  Right after you start going forward again, you go down a big drop.  This is where the camera is located, just to the right of the track.

Dinosaur

I still can't believe Bryan is dragging me on this awful ride.  I keep telling him that the only consolation for me is the fact that he'll get a nice picture of my death for a keepsake.  The facial expressions on this ride are hilarious.  Just like Rock'n'Roller Coaster, it's the perfect opportunity for some wonderful (and terrifying) candid shots.  When the dinosaur charges at you from the right (why am I going on this ride again?), the camera is located up and to the right to get your reaction to the terrifying dinosaur.  I mean, look at it!  I'm thoroughly convinced that this ride will in fact be the death of me.

So, that's it; an overview of Memory Maker, along with a crash course on how to use the app.  I can't believe we only have two more pre-trip Walt Disney Wednesdays left, but, like I said, I have a few ideas for post-trip Walt Disney Wednesdays, so these will be around for a little while longer.  Next week, I'm going to talk about all the Disney movies Bryan and I have watched to prepare for this trip.  I don't think we'll be 100% done with all of them yet, but we're getting pretty close (yay!).  Until next week!

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A Closer Look at Animal Kingdom

It's hard to believe I'm doing my last write up on a specific Disney park.  It's also hard to believe it's only 30 days until our trip (but who's counting?).  The irony of this post is that while I'm writing about Animal Kingdom last, it's actually the first park we're going to on our trip.  A lot of that came down to where we wanted to eat our first day of vacation (more about that later), along with when Disney has Extra Magic Hours.

First, a tiny bit of history about Animal Kingdom.  The idea for an animal-themed park originally came up in the late 1980s after Disney opened MGM Studios (now Hollywood Studios).  Since this park involves large amounts of living, breathing animals, there was extensive research necessary.  Additionally, Imagineers traveled all over the world observing animals and collecting artifacts that could be used throughout the park to create as immersive an experience as humanly possible.  The majority of this planning, research and travel was spearheaded by Joe Rohde.  If you've ever seen a documentary about Disney World, he's the one with the huge earring (you'll know who I'm talking about as soon as you see him).  It took a little over ten years, but the park finally opened in 1998.

So much about Animal Kingdom has changed since the last time we went fourteen years ago (moreso than Epcot and Magic Kingdom but definitely not as much as Hollywood Studios).  I also feel like there's a lot that there was there when we went fourteen years ago that we didn't do because we just did the rides.  A lot of that comes from the fact that Animal Kingdom is so much more than a park, and in order to get the full experience, it's important to not only know that but also take advantage of it.  Like I said before, we just did the rides last time we went to Animal Kingdom, and it sounds bad to say this, but that caused us to miss huge parts of the park that are absolutely amazing.  On top of that, there are plenty of new rides and attractions that have opened in Animal Kingdom, including a whole new part of the park.

Animal Kingdom is broken into seven distinct areas: Discovery Island, Africa (including the fictional port city of Harambe), Asia, DinoLand USA, Oasis, Rafiki's Planet Watch and Pandora.  Just like the lands in Magic Kingdom, each of these areas is unique and provides visitors with a different experience.  Originally, Imagineers also wanted to include a part of the park that focused on fantasy animals, but this was eventually discarded, although Pandora can be considered an area that focuses on fictional creatures.

First, I want to talk about the few things I've done previously in Animal Kingdom that I can't wait to do again.  First and foremost is Kilamanjaro Safari.  This is what Walt Disney originally wanted for the Jungle Cruise in Magic Kingdom; a place for guests to real animals in their natural habitat.  When Disneyland first opened in 1955, it was deemed an impossible task, which is why the Jungle Cruise has animatronic animals.  Kilamanjaro Safari is one of the main reasons Animal Kingdom is so huge, it covers approximately 110 acres, or about 19% of the entire Animal Kingdom.  The safari is set up judiciously where animals appear to be wandering around at their leisure, but they're actually separated by natural barriers (so you don't have lions attacking and eating zebras in front of small children) and are lured out closer to the path with things such as food and air conditioning.  Guests catch a ride on safari truck where a cast member serves as your guide.  Unlike the Jungle Cruise where the cast member (aka the "Skipper") feeds you cheesy jokes, this time you're told factual information about the animals as you cross them.  The one risk with this ride is you never know what you're going to get, you might see a lot of animals, you might not.  Disney does work hard to ensure you see as much as possible.

Another attraction I'm excited to see is housed in the main focus of Animal Kingdom: the Tree of Life.  Pictured above, the Tree of Life looks like a solid structure.  Up close, however, guests realize that all sorts of animals are carved in intricate detail into the trunk and branches, 325 carvings in all.  It's absolutely gorgeous, and it's easy to spend ages just looking at all the detail.

While the tree looks like a large, solid structure, underneath the roots is actually a 428 seat theatre where guests can watch the 3D production It's Tough To Be A Bug! based on Pixar's 1998 movie A Bug's Life.  At first, Imagineers struggled with how to build a large tree with a theatre underneath that could not only support the weight of the tree on an average day but also withstand the potential winds and rain from hurricanes.  Eventually, they decided to use an oil rig, which was perfect to withstand the weight and stress.

Like I said before, It's Tough To Be A Bug! is a 3D show where the characters from A Bug's Life explain the hardships and struggles they endure being bugs.  The point is driven home with special effects such as smells for the stinkbugs, air that feels like bugs crawling up your legs and even something that comes out of your seat and pokes you in the back to feel like a stinger.  It absolutely terrifies children, and there's always children screaming who have to be taken to the back of the theatre of comforted.  I remember the first time we went to Animal Kingdom in 2000, and I had heard that the show can be a little intense.  I was a bit of a wimp at the time and didn't want to sit down.  Disney is always wonderful and accommodating, however, and a cast member kindly stood in the back of the theatre with me.  When we went in 2005, I did sit in a seat and enjoyed the show.

The last thing we did last time we went to Animal Kingdom I want to do again is Festival of the Lion King.  I've heard this show compared to seeing Lion King on Broadway, but since I've seen Lion King on Broadway, I'm having a little bit of a hard time swallowing that.  I remember it being a lot of fun and there being a lot of color and beautiful dancing.  Unlike the Broadway show, however, Festival of the Lion King uses fur characters similar to the costumes used for characters around the park, not puppet-like costumes you see on Broadway.  It's an abbreviated version of the movie that focuses mainly on the music, with four story tellers filling in the rest of the story as you listen to the music.

Like I said before, there's plenty that's either been added to Animal Kingdom since we last went or that we didn't do last time that I would like to do this time around.  Perhaps the biggest change to Animal Kingdom is Pandora, based on the movie Avatar.  Now, it's important to note that at this point, I haven't actually seen Avatar, but it's on our list of movies to watch before we go on our trip (more about that in a few weeks).  This Pandora includes the floating mountains, exotic plants and sounds.  At night, everything lights up to look like bioluminescent plants.

There are two main rides in Pandora: Flight of Passage and Na'vi River Journey.  Flight of Passage is similar to Soarin' in Epcot where it feels like you're flying through Pandora while in front of a giant screen.  When you ride Soarin', however, you're simply sitting in a seat.  On Flight of Passage, however, you ride one of the banshees from the movie.  The banshees even feel like they're breathing as you sit on them!  The detail is supposed to be amazing, and I've only heard great things about this ride.  FastPasses for this ride are difficult to come across, but we're fortunate enough to have gotten one for our second day at Animal Kingdom.

The other ride in Pandora is Na'vi River Journey.  I've heard this ride isn't as good as Flight of Passage, but I still want to ride it.  As the name implies, this is simply a slow, leisurely ride through Pandora where you can even meet a Na'vi shaman.  When I watched Imagineering Story on Disney+ (which I can't recommend enough), they talked about creating this shaman.  When Disney parks first opened, the motors used in the animatronics were significantly larger, which is why you don't see a lot of changes in emotions on rides such as Pirates of the Caribbean.  Now, however, the motors are incredibly small, meaning animatronics are capable of changing their emotions and having many more fine motor movements.  In Imagineering Story, they demonstrate this by showing the shaman from Na'vi River Journey.

The realism in the shaman is beyond amazing.  When I showed this clip to Bryan, he immediately got excited and started asking if we were going to be able to see the shaman up close.  It also reminds me of the conversations we have about "Uncanny Valley", which is the concept that if something looks far too realistic, the brain pretty much short circuits as it tries to comprehend the fact that what you're seeing isn't real even though it's comprehending it as something that is in fact real.

In addition to Pandora, Asia has expanded in Animal Kingdom to include a new roller coaster: Expedition Everest.  On this ride, you are traveling through the Himalayas in search of the elusive Yeti.  Things go wrong, however, when they track you're riding on has been ripped up by the very Yeti you're looking for.  As you zoom through the mountains, you even briefly encounter the Yeti.  The building of this ride is absolutely fascinating.  The Yeti, track and mountain are all so large they had to built in tandem instead of building one, then another, then the last one.  This was, understandably, a logistical nightmare.  The video below goes into more detail about this, including the research done to make the ride look as culturally accurate as possible.

I'm also looking forward to seeing Rivers of Light, which is the night show at Animal Kingdom.  Unlike the other shows in Disney World, there are no fireworks in this show so as to not to scare the animals.  Instead, gorgeous boats with colorful lights and scenes from Disney movies projected on them float along the water, along with fountains, all to music.  It looks absolutely gorgeous and like a wonderful way to end a day in the park.

There are a few things that were available when we went to Animal Kingdom last time, but we skipped them.  First and foremost is the ride Bryan's probably looking forward to the most: Dinosaur.  I, however, have some much different thoughts about this ride.  On this ride, you're sent back in time to retrieve a specific dinosaur egg.  As always, however, things go wrong when you're there, and the meteor shower that killed the dinosaurs starts.  It's a loud, intense ride that includes dinosaurs roaring at you while you scream in terror.  I'm convinced I'm going to die on this ride.  To make matters worse, this is the very first ride we're going on in Disney World, so I keep saying that anything we plan after that is useless, as I'll be dead.  Bryan thinks this is hilarious (isn't he the best?).  I did buy earplugs for this ride, so let's hope they work.  The good news is you get a photo from this ride, so that should be amusing.  I did watch a few videos of this ride ahead of time so I would know what to expect, and it's pretty much just darkness and screaming, which doesn't bode well for me at all.  We'll have to see how this goes, although Bryan seems excited.

Recently, as in the past week or two, Bryan and I have decided to add Rafiki's Planet Watch to our trip.  In order to get to this part of Animal Kingdom, you have to ride a train.  This area includes a petting zoo, conservation efforts and drawing classes (which is the main reason we want to go).  While it sounded interesting, it wasn't really a top priority for us, it seemed like something more geared towards small children.  I recently saw a TimTracker video, however, that showed his visit to Rafiki's Planet Watch and the drawing classes they have up there.  Just like Art of Animation, these are free, and they provide all the supplies.  With the help of a Disney animator, you learn to draw an animal from a Disney movie.  Now, I'm an absolutely terrible artist, but it seems like fun and a cool, free souvenir to take home with us.

Like I said before, Animal Kingdom is so much more than a theme park, it's also a way to appreciate animals in as close to their natural habitat as possible.  There was a lot of controversy when this park first opened with accusations that live animals were being used simply to amuse people.  That definitely isn't the case, however, these animals are probably treated better than if they're in a zoo, and extensive research went into creating the park.  Even Jane Goodall gave her stamp of approval, which is good enough for me.  In order to be more than just a theme park, Animal Kingdom has Gorilla Falls Exploration and Maharajah Jungle Trek.  As the name implies, Gorilla Falls Exploration is an opportunity to see gorillas up close on a trail of sorts that winds through the park.  Maharajah Jungle Trek is similar, although its main focus is tigers, along with other creatures from Asia (such as komodo dragons).  Both of these seem like a great way to spend some time and to get some fantastic photos of some animals.

Compared to the other Disney parks, there aren't as many characters that I'm looking forward to meeting in Animal Kingdom.  Even though Chip and Dale are available in other parks, I really want to make sure we see them in Animal Kingdom since they wear adorable dinosaur outfits.  I think they're so cute, and Chip and Dale are always fun to interact with (although my mom would tell a different story).  They're such flirts.

Even though I'm not a huge fan of the movie Up! (please don't hate me, I know most of the people out there absolutely love that movie), I do want to see Russell and Dug.  Russell is quite a piece of work, and Dug reminds me of my dogs, especially his love for squirrels.  Baxter's always chasing squirrels, even though he has yet to catch one.  I also want to meet Pocahontas.  We have photos of us seeing her and Meeko somewhere around our area over twenty years ago when the movie first came out, but that's the only time I've met her.  I know they've updated her costume to make it more culturally accurate, but I still like her old one, as it was simpler and just like the movie.  I'd also like to meet Tarzan.  I've never met him, so I can't really speak to what he's like as a character, so we'll just have to wait and see.

Finally, I really want to meet Mickey and Minnie.  While Mickey and Minnie are available to meet in many places throughout all four parks, this is actually the only place you can meet them together.  I love their safari outfits, and I really want a nice picture of Bryan and I with Mickey and Minnie together.  I don't want to talk a lot about what photographs I want, however, as that's going to be our topic for next week's Walt Disney Wednesday, our photo package that I insisted on getting.

Like I said at the very beginning of this post, this is the first park we're visiting.  This decision came from the fact that we're celebrating Valentine's Day a day late and wanted somewhere nice to go for dinner.  After doing some research and asking around, we decided on Yak and Yeti, which is an Asian restaurant.  It's one of the two table service restaurants we're visiting (the other being Sci-Fi Dine-In in Hollywood Studios).  From what I've seen and heard, the food is delicious, and the atmosphere is amazing.  I did want to do a few more table service restaurants, but they're expensive and take up a lot of time, and I'd rather be on rides and experiencing the parks than sitting in a restaurant.  I'll be sure to let you know how the food is and take lots of pictures inside the restaurant.

As always, I did ask Bryan what he's most excited to see and do at this park.  He did say that out of the four parks, this is the one he's most excited to visit.  Of course, he's extremely excited to ride Dinosaur, and we keep joking about how this ride is going to kill me (which he seems weirdly excited about as well).  This shouldn't surprise me at all, that man is obsessed with dinosaurs, to the point that he wore a dinosaur t-shirt on our first date (it's his favorite shirt apparently).  Bryan's also excited to do the drawing class up at Rafiki's Planet Watch.  When I told him about it, he said he used to doodle all the time when he had to take notes in school, which I didn't know.  Because of that, he's probably going to do leaps and bounds better than me doing this, not that that's very hard.  Finally, Bryan's looking forward to Kilimanjaro Safaris.  We've been to the zoo together here in DC, but that was about two years ago and for something for school, so we were on a mission (not to mention it was pouring that day, and we got stranded in the gorilla house for about half an hour, and if you know me, you know that was torture).  I keep saying we need to go up to the zoo in Baltimore, but I feel like Kilimanjaro is going to be even better.

So, that's it, I've talked about all four parks, what we want to do and what we plan on doing.  Next week, I'll talk about the memory maker photo package that I insisted on purchasing and what I hope to get from it, along with some fun ideas I have that I can't wait to share with the rest of you.  Until next week!

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