Oh the Places We Go, The People We See ...Dream Trip Report

[jenseib]

pure enjoyment

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ok then, I'll go on ;)

[jenseib]

On our way back the Beach Club I took a few pictures.

 

 

At times the sun would come out and really warm you up and we would take our jackets off, but it would fool us and chill back up again. It still was a nice day and better than being at home.

 

 

 

 

We then cut through the lobby of the Beach Club.

 

 

[jenseib]

And we made our way to the bus stop. We were going to Animal Kingdom for a few hours.

Now I had debated what we would do this afternoon. A lot of it depended on how fast we got to the Beach Club. We had thoughts of having lunch at Beaches and Cream, but basically once we got there and tickets in hand, we both just wanted to get to a park. And Claire also wanted to catch up with Alexis. I never planned to tour with the family all day long each day, but I did feel that this may be the only trip that Claire and Alexis would make together and I wanted her to enjoy the time with her cousin.

[jenseib]

We made it to the stop and had to wait a bit. This is my number one complaint about Deluxe resorts. The bus system is AWFUL. They seem to be slow and then they make about 500 stops at other resorts as well.

This became the start of our bad bus mojo of the trip. I think we counted several of each of the other parks buses come before and AK bus arrived. It seems like no matter what park I pick, I can’t get the one that has many buses flowing.

But eventually a bus did arrive and we made our way to Animal Kingdom.

I am always glad not to ride the tram. I think those are worse than the buses. But that’s just my opinion.

OH MY GOSH!!!!!!!! This was not expected at all! The tree is up. I had been told and researched that the Christmas décor goes slowly up in the beginning of Nov. but that my chances of seeing a lot of it, besides at the Magic Kingdom was pretty slim, or spotty. I was shocked and excited to see the AK tree up and ready to great us.

I made Claire go get in front of it.

One more shot before we head in.

[jenseib]

Let the Memories Begin!!!!!

 

 

 

We slowly walked in through the Oasis. Well I wanted to explore and soak it up, but Claire was more worried about me calling to find out where Alexis was, which I did as well.

 

 

 

 

[jenseib]

We continued our walk through the Oasis.

We found out where the family was (I believe back near Africa) and started to make our way there. I was also getting hungry. I am one of those people who needs to eat more in the day time or I get headaches and less than pleasant in nature.

We made our way back, but not before getting a few tree pictures.

And my worst fear …it was crowded.

When we first started planning this trip the crowd predictions were low. VERY low. But as time went on they got higher and then we found out it was Jersey week as well. UGH. But we couldn’t change the dates because the cruise was booked and family had vacation dates set.

I figured it couldn’t be nearly as bad as spring break time. Now I haven’t been here during the week before or after Easter, but I have been here in the spring break season and it can get really crowded. And sadly I was wrong. The crowds we encountered this week were very similar and even worse than spring break at times.

I didn’t let the crowds dampen my spirits too much though. I was so excited to be seeing Christmas décor all over the park!!!!

Well there’s an empty area.

[jenseib]

We stopped for a photo moment for Claire.

We found the family. I think they had gone to Flights of Wonder and then came the “what do you want to do’s”. EAT!!! I am hungry. Now I really need to start saying this about an hour before I want to eat, because it always seems like we get side tracked and then I am about to die of hunger …..Yep, I may be in my 40’s, but some days I feel like I may die of hunger.

We did stop and get Safari fast passes. The time was for about an hour or so away, so that would be a good time to sit and eat. Of course deciding what to eat is a whole other discussion.

I had heard of Tamu Tamu by many people and I saw it, so I went and looked at the menu. It would work for me, but not Claire. It consisted mainly of sandwiches and Claire is pretty much anti sandwich.

So a decision had to be made before I died of hunger pains. Some people liked the Tamu Tamu menu and stayed. I think that was Mom, Gail, Alexis, and Abby. Dad, Rob and Claire headed off with me. Pizzafari was not too far away and I knew Claire would eat there.

[jenseib]

It was fairly crowded in there, but several lines were open. I asked Dad if he knew how to use the dining plan, and of course he had no clue. And I asked if he had his kttw with him and he said no. UGH. Well then it hit me. He was in MY room so his credit and my credits were all connected so I could order and pay for him with my card. We made our decisions and I told Dad what he was allowed to get. I think our pizzas came with a Caesar salad and Dad didn’t want one, but I told him to get it and most likely someone else would eat it.

I think for desserts Claire got a chocolate chip cookie and I got cheesecake and we would share both.

We got our food and Rob got his and a meal for Gail as well. We then walked back to the area we left the family and sat some tables.

Well Rob was nice to get Gail food, but what he hadn’t realized was that she also was getting herself food at Tamu Tamu. We had a ton of food at our table.

We did the best to polish it all off as well as the extra meal that Rob got for Gail.

When it came time for dessert, let’s just say I barely had a bite of mine. Actually I only got a bite because I insisted on it. Claire had big eyes and not for the cookie. I think I saved that for later.

We were now super full. I spent most of this vacation feeling full and that might have been one of the last times I had felt hungry. After that I just seemed to be eating ALL the time.

We decided to head back towards the safari to use our fast passes.

First we had to take a picture of Dad’s new shoes. If you remember way back to the start of the cruise, Dad had complained about his feet hurting and Mom had tennis shoes in the suitcase …the one that had been left at the airport. Well those tennis shoes were new and they hurt his feet as well, so on the ship mom bought him a pair of crocs. We just found this so funny, because Dad doesn’t wear stuff like this, but his feet felt great in them and he wore them every day. In fact on our recent Williamsburg trip he packed them along and wore them then too.

[Mystic6]

I used my 18-55mm kit lens for a lot of the shots. I brought a few with me, but that was the one I kept on mostly, I believe.

 

I bought a more all in one type lens (18-200mm) recently and took it on our Williamsburg trip and I really liked it. I could get closeups and far away shots much easier without the hassle of changing lenses. It's heavy though and I had a neck ach most of the time, so now I need to find some new type of strap to make it more comfy. My friend has a suggested one to me and I need to look into it. That lens in photography terms is not the "best" but for what I used it for, I was happy and it will go on more trips with me and I'll take less of the others. It's just such a hassle to switch lenses out constantly and heavy to bring so many along.

 

I just bought a Rapid Strap RS-7 (Curve) for my camera. I have a T4i with the 18-135mm kit lens. I used the RS-7 for the first time last week at a museum. It was a LOT better than the regular neck strap, but I did notice since the camera was on my right hip that I had a tendency to hook my right thumb in the strap to rest my arm. That put a lot more pull on the left shoulder. Once I realized what I was doing and that it was making my shoulder sore, I tried to stop. The shoulder strap was certainly a lot more comfortable than the neck strap though. Now I'm hoping to find a neck strap that hooks onto the camera instead of the kit Nikon one so that I can switch back to the neck one when I know I won't need to wear it for long periods of time.

[jenseib]

I just bought a Rapid Strap RS-7 (Curve) for my camera. I have a T4i with the 18-135mm kit lens. I used the RS-7 for the first time last week at a museum. It was a LOT better than the regular neck strap, but I did notice since the camera was on my right hip that I had a tendency to hook my right thumb in the strap to rest my arm. That put a lot more pull on the left shoulder. Once I realized what I was doing and that it was making my shoulder sore, I tried to stop. The shoulder strap was certainly a lot more comfortable than the neck strap though. Now I'm hoping to find a neck strap that hooks onto the camera instead of the kit Nikon one so that I can switch back to the neck one when I know I won't need to wear it for long periods of time.

 

 

I might need to look for soemthing like that.

[jenseib]

Time for a Safari ride!

We had fast passes and we arrived a few minutes early so we had to wait till the time ticked right. We got in line and even the fast pass line was pretty busy today.

Luckily we didn’t wait too long and we were in line for our truck.

We got in and you know how bumpy those trucks are …we took off with a huge bumpity bump and Abby just started laughing so hard. This was her kind of ride.

We had a really good driver/guide. She reminded me so much of Brook (my friend and co-worker. I have traveled twice with her, and she has shown up in 2 of my past trip reports). She didn’t look like Brook so much, but the way she talked really reminded me of her. The newer spiel is better too. Kind of joking a bit in there and no more hunting for poachers and Red.

I took a ton of pictures on the journey. BUT the sun was not my friend, so some came out, but many are washed out or shadowed. And of course with a bumpy ride, I have some nice blurry shots too.

[jenseib]

There were a TON of trucks out on the safari today. Many times we had to stop because of a jam up. On top of that, there were many active animals, some who decided to stand on the road and not move out of the way.

[jenseib]

And here is one such animal. As we sat there waiting for the jam to clear up, Mr. Giraffe decided to cross the road, taking his own sweet time. I must admit, it was really neat to see.

Now remember way back on my first day at Animal Kingdom Lodge, when I went into Flamingo overload with pictures. Well now we are going to have giraffe overload!

[jenseib]

Here comes another one to cross the road.

[jenseib]

This guy was all by himself.

Um, we’re not supposed to go here. It says the road is closed!

I think this was the only elephant shot I could get today.

[jenseib]

Now how cute is this baby rhino?

Way back there is a glimpse of the cheetah, which was actually up and moving around.

If course the lions were not up and about. They are always lying on those rocks.

At least they were awake today.

[jenseib]

Here are Alexis’s favorite animals …The Geebras! Well that’s what Abby calls them.

And it was nice to not have to deal with Red and the whole poacher scene. This ride had a few more jokes, but also informative. I liked it much better. It did take us a bit to get off the truck. There was a backup, so we had to wait to get to the unloading dock. I think we had to wait a good 5 minutes or more to get there and off.

[jenseib]

I had Claire stop for a picture, but she wasn’t too smiley for it.

Alexis popped in to have some fun and lighten the mood.

I thought this flower was pretty.

And we saw a group doing the African safari trek. I really wanted to do this, but Claire was just shy of 8, the age you had to be to do it.

We picked up the stroller and then made some decisions on what to do next.

[jenseib]

We decided that those of us braver souls were going to get a fastpass for Expedition Everest. Claire has talked about doing this ride for a couple of years, but we haven’t been back since she has been tall enough. The thing is, Claire can be a chicken at times. BUT when you have your brave cousin with you, you might become a little bit brave yourself and Claire decided she would go.

We all headed that way.

[jenseib]

That sunlight was really not camera friendly.

We stopped off a minute to check these guys out.

And we decided to stop and get a photopass picture of our family.

At this very moment my Dad decides to turn his cell phone on and check his messages. We all kept yelling at him to get over here, but he totally did not hear a word we were saying and proceeds to stand there and call people back. Now if we had not stopped to get a picture done, he would’ve been left behind. He was totally oblivious to the world around him at that moment. Oh well, we’re not going to hold up the photographer.

Notice that Abby is missing from the first one. She wasn’t too sure about this. She decided to get in the 2nd one.

[jenseib]

But there was NO WAY she was going to give a thumbs up.

On we went towards Everest.

[jenseib]

We got our fastpasses and had a bit of time before we could use them, so we separated. I am not sure what the chickens, …..um I mean rest of the family did, but we made our way to dinoland to kill some time.

We saw a turtle swimming along.

[jenseib]

We entered Dinoland USA!

We decided to get in line for Triceratop Spin.

While in line, Claire and Alexis had a discussion about where they would sit and who would be driving. We figured out the best seat for each and I think they each got a front seat, while Rob and I were in the back seats. I think it was important to them to be able to lift us up and down.

I took pictures around the area before we got started and once in the air, I took some more.

[jenseib]

Weeeeeeeeeee!

[mountainbreeze]

I'm so glad you are continuing on with your Disney part of this trip!

Thanks for writing this review, your pics are awesome!!! :)