Hello everyone, I just got back from a big trip to Disney World with my in-laws. Technically it was "moderately sized" because we only went to 2 of the parks, but since we live on the other side of the country every Disney World trip is a big trip. Mskate and her family left about a week prior to drive to a diabetes conference before the big event, and I had to fly just for the Micky's Christmas Party and other Disney festivities. I'll get to the fun events later, but first all the prepping. I bought many snacks for everyone to eat along the adventure, and they packed up most of them while I packed many others. We were also staying at the camp grounds where there was a camp fire thing and outdoor table, so we also brought some of our camping materials (mainly the table cloth and clips, and marshmallow sticks). Then since it was a 2 week trip for the in-laws I packed bags of powder laundry detergent so they could do laundry while we were there. For the week I was by myself I made my chili because I knew mskate doesn't really care for it. Just a simple at home time. Though there was something kind of crazy that happened, the Saturday before I left I had someone win an ebay auction I was running, and paying at 8:04 PM. This resulted in going to 2 different authorized USPS shipping locations trying to find someone that would still take it. I found someone though, so that was good because otherwise it would have had to wait until after the trip (or possibly finding someone in the airport).
Now it's time for the beginning of the adventure. I woke up at about 5AM Sunday morning with the car mostly packed already (just needing the last minute things like my mouth guard), and as I was vlogging my cold feelings I realized I forgot to get my mouth guard. Getting to the airport was nothing super crazy, but like with the New Mexico trip I found an abandoned luggage cart and loaded my carry on bag on it and wheeled it to security. .Unlike last time though I found the cart return and got my quarter. Yay. When I went through security my one bag got flagged, because we had a little smores making present for IRA and the tin set off the alarm. Thankfully no problem and it went through, so no harm no foul. I got to the terminal and started pulling out snacks. My breakfast consisted of Animal Crackers, Cheese Its, and Rice Crispy Treats; not very substantial but it got me through the trip (plus, I had a lot of snacks). The flight was pretty uneventful, though they did have to de-ice the wings (something that happened about 2 decades ago when I went to Disney as a child). I watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem and half of V for Vendetta. TMNT wasn't very good, I liked some of the things they did and I guess it is on brand considering the lingo from the 80s cartoon, but there was just too much "modern meme culture" for my liking (and I'm someone who likes memes). V for Vendetta was pretty good though, even though I only got to watch about half of it. I also was going to take video of the plane taking off and flying for creative commons uses, but unfortunately the people in my row were already against the window seat and I didn't feel like saying "please move, my ticket is for the window and I need to take creative commons video for my youtube channel." When I touched down in Orlando I wanted to explore the terminal some, but unfortunately with how it's laid out there wasn't much to explore, so I just went to the ride share place and got my uber. I did stop at the duty free shop to maybe pick up a couple dollar mini bottles of liquor (because I knew Disney would be super expensive and eventually I'd want a drink that week, and duty free is always kind of cool), but what normally costs $1 plus tax at the grocery store would have cost $5 tax free. I don't care what the tax rate on alcohol is, I know it's not 400%. While on the uber ride I did end up taking some video while driving that I'm uploading with creative commons attribution.
This video is uploaded with creative commons attribution, you can find the original video here (youtube rumble bitchute)
When we got to the resort the GPS took the driver to the bus entrance, which caused some problems in that we now had to drive around until we found the actual entrance. When I got there I was supposed to beat the in-laws there, drop off my suit case with bell services, and do my smashed penny exploration before they got there. Well they ended up beating me there and started getting the golf cart to drive around the resort (because everything is very spread out and the only way to get anywhere in a reasonable time is with the golf cart or internal bus). We were going to just go to the restaurant and get some lunch while we waited for the cabin to get ready, but I was the one driving and no one in the group was a good navigator, so we ended up going around the entire resort until we got back to the main lobby. Well by the time we made it back the cabin was ready, so we found the cabin and started unpacking. Mskate and I lived in the living room section on the pull out couch and the other in-laws were in the single bedroom. I unpacked my stuff into 3 drawers and made a little nook "mine." After the unpacking we found our way to the restaurant and shared a pizza. It was pretty good and had this fun box design.
With lunch over IRA and I went on the quest for the resort pressed pennies. With Disney celebrating their 100 years of animation there were special 100 year pennies available at various locations. I had gotten many on a previous trip and I just had about 15 left. The plan was to ride different modes of transportation from all the different locations, but I accidentally kept my pocket knife on me from when I was setting up the cabin, so I couldn't go on the transportations that require going through park security. Oh well, the busses still got me Pooh and Piglet, Pocahontas, Meilin, Raya, and Tiana and Naveen. After the adventuring we got back and unloaded. Now for dinner. We had hot dogs that we made at the cabin. We had a little charcoal park grill that I got all set-up, and then roasted using the marshmallow sticks we brought for the party since we didn't have any tin foil for the grill (and park grills are "never clean"). I did the cooking and all went well, and everyone else did the clean up.
Now it is time for the first "Disney theme fun." We brought the marshmallow sticks because of the campfire sing along with Chip and Dale. The event is free and you can bring your own supplies, but if you don't have supplies Disney will provide them for what is likely an outrageous fee. Being prepared we brought our own. While many people were using the disposable wooden sticks, we were using our telescoping tongs with ergonomic grip, and since I'm quire familiar with proper roasting techniques having gone camping many times and growing up with a fire place in my childhood what we used quite often, I was showing everyone how it was done. One kid was having some trouble with his marshmallow catching on fire so I showed him where to put it. His dad was like "yeah he's the professional, just look at his equipment." The real fun started when Chip and Dale came out for the sing along. We were hoping to get pictures with them (specifically with the dog), but that wasn't part of their appearance (guess one needs a park ticket for that), but it was still fun dancing the Hokey Pokey with them.
Time for Monday, the start of the "real disney adventure." Monday is the day we were going to the Micky's Very Merry Christmas Party at Magic Kingdom from 4PM to midnight. That was going to be great, but it left us with about 8 hours of down time. What are we to do? We went to Disney Springs. IRA kept reminding me "don't bring your knife," and I didn't. The rest of the family really likes to go shopping, but not so much me. So while they were doing their shopping at all the big stores I did the Disney Springs Christmas Tree scavenger hunt. Throughout Disney springs there are various themed Christmas trees with corresponding stickers to line up on a map. If you line them all up, you get a button. I did them all and got myself and mskate a single button for our collection and IRA a button for his (2 total). This worked out quite well because, as I said, I don't really care for Disney shopping and IRA wouldn't have been patient enough to do the hunt even though he definitely would have wanted the button. At about the same time I finished the scavenger hunt they finished the shopping, and we decided to meet at Chicken Guy (the Guy Fiery restaurant). IRA likes the fried chicken, but I just wanted to try the sauces with fries. This time they had more than just ranch and mayonase based sauces, which was great because I don't like either of those. When we got back to the cabin I had one of my ramen bricks. Ramen is such a great hotel food, all you need is hot water and the ramen is very easy to transport, so it makes for a great travel meal. Here are some pictures and video from the scavenger hunt.
OK, now it's time for the main event, Micky's Very Merry Christmas Party. We drove our golf cart down to the boat dock, got on the boat, and road it to Magic Kingdom. We found our way to the line to get in and there was definitely a better way to queue us; we had to like circle back, stay to the left of the path to let the transportation people through but then cross over that path, things weren't very well defined with constantly having to be herded by cast members, and some other smaller things. Oh well, we eventually made it in and got our wrist bands. We were taken down an employees only corridor where we got our Christmas ornaments. We could have gotten our picture taken with the parade toy soldiers, but we don't care much for the parade characters and the line was kind of long, so definitely not worth it. Our first ride was the Jungle Cruise (or should I say "Jingle Cruise"). While on our way I saw a family with a great set of shifts ("most expensive Christmas ever"); I complimented them on their shirts. For those that don't know, the Jungle Cruise is a river ride through the rainforest with different sets of animatronic animals doing funny things, and during Christmas they give it a Christmas theme with wrapped presents and garland on different set pieces. It's pretty creative. After Jingle Cruse we got dinner at KC's Corner, a garment hot dog quick service. I got a chili cheese dog and it was good.
The next thing we did was some "for the family" attractions. IRA and I went to the Enchanted Tiki Room. This was one of my special needs uncle's favorite attractions. He just loved the singing birds, always singing "in the tiki tiki tiki tiki room, in the tiki tiki tiki tiki room." It was the first time IRA did that experience and was like "I love this, why didn't I do this before?" It's because mskate doesn't really believe in "do it all no matter what" and doesn't do a whole lot. IRA likes having me because now he has someone that says "we're going to do it all." After Tiki Room we went to Small World, my uncle's other favorite ride. Since he was in a wheel chair it was a big ordeal to get him in the boat, so when the ride was over the operator let him ride it as many times as he wanted. I told the operator the story and she thought it was so cool. Mom told me when she saw the wheel chair accessible boat how easier that would have made things 50 years ago. Small world is small world, it's a fun little song with simple animatronics. Since Peter Pan was right next door and was my brother's favorite ride, we rode that one next. It's a fun little dark ride that takes you through the story of Peter Pan. Then because it was right there, we rode the Winnie the Pooh ride. We were able to jump right onto the rides because during the transition period between Christmas party starting and kicking out the non Christmas party guests. What was really great about these is we were unable to do them mskate's and my honeymoon trip due to trouble planning, so that was great to finally do them. Some time around this time I got a picture at Gaston's Tavern. I wanted to get a picture with Gaston, but he wasn't there so I settled for his Tavern. Do you know the joke I'm showing here?
The next thing we did was the first "real Christmas party" attraction, and that is the Tea Cups. What made it "Christmas party" was the music and lights they did (red and green lights and Christmas music). I'm not the biggest fan of the tea cups (not super into spinning rides), but one has to do as much Christmas themed stuff as we can. The next thing we did was go to one of the dance parties at one of the restaurants in tomorrow land. This was a 4 fold thing. First the disability fast pass got screwed up so mskate had to go to guest relations up at the front of the park to sort it out and we needed to wait for her. Second mom-in-law needed to sit down and take a rest. Third, this was a place where we could get free cookies and cocoa because of the party. Fourth, this was my opportunity to meet a character since there was Timon and Doc McStuffin on the dance floor, and I danced with Timon. It was a fun little thing to do. After we had our fun IRA and I went to meet Santa Goofy. It was a bit of a hike and a wait, but nothing too big, we got to meet a Christmas character. I also tried to meet Alice and the White Rabbit, but the line was either long or they were leaving for 40 minutes, so I just missed out on them.
Now for some really fun stuff, tomorrow land Christmas theming. First thing we did was Space Mountain. What makes Space Mountain really cool is is they turn the lights on some, have projected snow flakes on the ceiling, and play Christmas rock music (for us it was Carol of the Bells). It was really fun. Mom-in-law didn't ride it so she just held onto our stuff. After Space Mountain we rode the people mover, mainly because we could get a good view of the inside of Space Mountain and it was right next to it. I took some video of it which was cool.
Now for the "crazy event." The newest ride was the Tron lightcycle roller coaster, where the rider gets in the light cycle and rides it like a pocket bike. This was kind of a crazy endeavor, because as the new ride they did the virtual queue thing, which is like everyone has a fast pass thing, but you can only get in line when they're calling your queue and it's a far narrower window than fast pass, and the ride kept breaking down so our queue kept getting pushed back, and when we got to the disability pass area they didn't have any signs saying what the queue number was so we had to keep checking the app, but then the app wasn't working very well so the only way we got in was because I asked "what are we on now" since it was stuck at 3 spaces before us for like 20 minutes. After that run-on sentence of an ordeal, we got in line and found our locations. Since nothing could be taken and mom-in-law doesn't like roller coasters, we left everything with her. They do have a pretty neat system though, where there are what seem to be free lockers that you drop your stuff in at the start of the ride and then pick-up from the opposite side of the wall on exit, all locked and unlocked with magic bands. There was also a pre-show thing where they "digitize" you. I decided to T-pose because that's how 3D character models are stored in video games, and the people that joined us T-posed as well thinking it was some kind of instruction they missed out on. That made me laugh. Light Cycle Run was OK, it was definitely a fun roller coaster but not worth the effort of getting on it in my opinion. Personally I say wait a year or so for it to no longer need the virtual queue and extra long lines. But as IRA said, it's great that Tron is finally getting some love from Disney. And some time around this time I got to dance with Nick Wild at a different dance party.
Now time for some "opportunity cost." IRA and I wanted to go on Monsters Inc Laugh Floor, but with all the resting mom-in-law needed and the Tron craziness we were cutting it close to the fireworks. Mskate was OK missing Laugh Floor so she and mom-in-law found their way to the fireworks, and IRA and I went to Laugh Floor because we wanted to see it and it was Christmas themed. The show was very similar to normal, but Roz was wearing a Christmas sweater and all the jokes were Christmas themed, and it was pretty fun. However, when we got in the fireworks started and mskate was freaking out wondering where we were, and IRA and I ended up missing the fireworks. Oh well, I was OK with missing them but mskate wasn't able to really enjoy them because she was worried we would be upset. After laugh floor I had enough time to ride Buzz Lightyear before the parade. So they went to find the viewing for the parade and I got to ride Buzz. I got a pretty high score I think, and it was a walk on since everyone was gathering for the parade. At the picture I did a Gene Simons, and then got my picture with Zerg.
Now for the final event of the night, the Christmas parade. IRA found a perfect viewing spot right by the rout and unobstructed because that was a walking path, and mskate and mom-in-law found a nice place by The Plaza restaurant where they could see things from a table. IRA kept trying to get the ladies to join us, but they didn't want to. The parade was pretty fun, we saw everyone in their Christmas outfits and all sorts of fun things. After the parade we got back on the boat and went back to the cabin.
Now it's Tuesday, a "break day." Today was a day for us to hang out at the resort and do things at the resort. Since dad-in-law was an "Arizona born native cowboy man," we did the horseback riding experience. It was a fun little thing, even though it rained. My horse was Jack, and as I was sitting on him waiting at the stable to go down the trail he kept adjusting his stance. I told him "I know the feeling bud, it's not fun to just stand around waiting." It was kind of a perfect pairing since I also have some trouble standing still. Of everyone I was one of the very few people that didn't need one of the horse trainers to give me directions on how to correct my horse (we got along very well, and I was able to correct him very well). It was a fun hour long adventure. I was the first to get off my horse so I was able to take pictures of everyone as they got off their horses. After the adventure we went back to the cabin and warmed up (because we were all kind of soaked. We basically hung out at the cabin for the rest of the afternoon since it was all rainy (I had my other ramen, and mskate might have gone somewhere to do a little shopping).
Around 4PM mskate and I went out for our anniversary date night. For our special date we went to Beaches and Cream at the Beach Club resort. To get there we took a bus to Hollywood Studios, took the Skyliner to the back door of Epcot, and then walked to "the waterfront themed resorts" that have a walking path to the Epcot back door. The skyliner ride was fun, the Epcot stop is like the farthest stop and requires a long travel, and goes over the France section of the park so we got to see some of that. Before going to the restaurant, we went to the Yacht Club resort and saw their gingerbread lighthouse. I did some pin trading while we were there. After the Yacht Club we went to the Beach Club where the restaurant was. The theming is a beach side ice cream parlor, and their signature menu item is "The Kitchen Sink" (8 scoops of ice cream, every topping in the store, and a whole can of whipped cream *restaurant guests* a whole can!?, where every time someone orders it the lights go dark, the siren lights turn on, and the server announces it to the entire restaurant). It was really fun. I got a French Dip with a s'mores milkshake cocktail (which was quite good, though a little rich for me). Mskate got a fancy grilled cheese, and for desert got a milk shake. It was quite a fun thing.
After dinner we did a little more exploring of the Beach Club and Boardwalk. The main thing I wanted to do at Boardwalk was to get the remaining 100 year pennies I needed; Vanellope, Rapunzel, Bing Bong, Mr. Increadable and Elastigirl and Frozone, Edna Mode, and Joe Gardner. While on our walk we went to a photo booth and took a photo. It was a little expensive but it was an anniversary fun memory. Mskate was getting pretty done by the time we finished getting the pennies, so it was good that the boat dock was right by boardwalk. We rode the boat back to Hollywood Studios and then took the bus back to Fort Wilderness.
Now it's Wednesday, our Animal Kingdom day. In addition to being our park day, this was our character breakfast day. Unlike the 2 Micky waffles, 2 strips of bacon, and a half pint of milk, this was a big buffet at Tusker House with the characters. We got our pictures with Donald, Daisy, Goofy, and Micky. I can do the voices a little bit and it's always fun when the characters react to me doing their voices. Then I had a giant breakfast of waffles, tater tots, potato wedges, bacon, sausage, a croissant, and a piece of sunrise Savana bread (plain white bread but food colored to look like the rising sun of the Savana). Since this was all you can eat and stupid expensive for what we get, I snuck some bags of waffles and potatoes to eat later (because the $50 continental breakfast isn't just the cost, I'm spending loads on the park tickets and hotels and all the other $8 milkshakes and $10 kids meals). It was quite good, and we had a lot of fun meeting the characters and getting autographs. One of the best things is one of the pennies I needed was at the restaurant, so I got it really easily. Then there was also someone else with the same last name as my wife and I (and that's rare because I have a very unusual last name in America).
Now the park fun begins. Since we were right by the Kilimanjaro Safari ride we rode that first. For those who don't know, it's a safari ride where we see all the different animals as they free roam the attraction. We ended up seeing a gazelle and zebra tussle after the zebra intruded on the gazelle's territory. That was really fun. We also had a giraffe come right up to our ride vehicle and was maybe 5 feet away from us. I've ridden this ride many times, and while I really miss the poacher plot this was really fun and one of the best experiences. Here are some of the pictures I took.
After the Safari we went on a little walking trail where we saw the gorillas from the Disney behind the attraction animal kingdom show on Disney plus. That was really fun. The gorillas were also right up close to the glass and interacting with the audience some. One of the small gorillas banged on the glass to get a little rise out of people. Not thinking anything of it I waved to one of the gorillas (for humans it's a friendly gesture, for most animals they think it's just a weird thing the human does). The cast member then told me and everyone else not to wave as the gorillas may interpret that as a sign of aggression. Yeah, that's always a challenge with humans and greater primates; we're not so dissimilar that gestures and actions are completely foreign to the other (it's REALLY fun to watch baby gorillas play because they play almost exactly like curious human toddlers, whereas with dogs we only know that nipping at the ears is playing after generations of observation), but we're also not similar enough that gestures and actions mean the same thing (take the smile for example, with humans it's a sign of happiness and joy, with chimps it's a gesture to intimidate). I apologized and didn't do it again, and that's also why you should never do a Tarzan chest drumming around them since that's a sign of "I want to fight." We walked the whole trail and it was pretty cool.
After the gorillas we road the Wildlife Express Train which took us to Rafiki's Planet Watch. While there IRA and I decided to do the Wilderness Explorer kids activity. Based on the movie Up, you get a Wilderness Explorer manual and go to different stations all around the park to get sticker badges, and if you get all of them you get a Wilderness Explorer ranger badge or something, and along the way you learn bits of trivia about nature. It's a really fun activity, I highly recommend it. During the tracking badge I was able to let my knowledge from taking the actual Boy Scout tracking merit badge shine, by answering all the questions and leading the discussion. I could tell the cast member was happy to have someone skilled help out, or maybe she thought I was some kind of "regular auditing plant." But I'm getting ahead of myself, there were 5 badges in the planet watch area, and there wasn't much there except for a "how to draw" class and a petting zoo. The petting zoo was pretty fun though; I love petting zoos, it's fun to pet the animals and they're always so friendly. The fun thing is the goats had a play structure that was basically the same kind of play structure found at a human park (just lower to the ground, kind of like what one might find for a small child). I can't believe I didn't think of this when I took the video; play structures, fun for kids of all species. Another fun thing was there was this one goat that was scratching it's neck against a bench, so I went up and said "hey little guy, let me get that for you," and scratched his neck. He was like "oh yeah, that's the spot." Then the rest of the family joined in and scratched his neck while I took video.
After the Planet Watch IRA and I picked up the badges that were around the restaurant and safari area we missed out on earlier (and I got another penny I needed). We had to go back to the exit of the safari and into the gorilla walk again, but no big deal, mskate and dad-in-law just waited for us to finish. This is when they went on Kali River Rapids while IRA and I did another walking trail to get more badges and see more animals. It was fun, we saw bats and tigers. When we got our bat badge I asked cast member which one was Dracula (just trying to make a joke, they were some kind of large fruit bats and not vampire bats so I wasn't expecting one to actually be named that). She said "he's in there somewhere, we also have a Vladimir." That caught me off guard, I was just making a joke about if the bat was actually a vampire, and didn't think that all the animals have names and of course the best name for a bat is a famous vampire. IRA asked what other famous vampires there might be, and all I could think of was Edward. The tigers were also pretty fun.
After our walking path and the rapids we watched the Finding Nemo show. It's a stage show where there are puppeteers with these probably 3 foot puppets doing and abridged musical version of Finding Nemo. It's a really good show, almost broadway quality (just not broadway length). A nice detail I picked up on was Dory's actress had mismatched socks to go with Dory's scatter brained personality. Then there's also the "big blue world" song Nemo sings that's also in the Finding Nemo ride at Epcot. It's a great 30 minute show that offers a great heat or rain break. After the show we went on Expedition Everest. Dad-in-law stayed behind because he's not into the big rides, so that was OK since he stayed with our stuff. Expedition Everest is a really fun coaster, it goes forward, then backward, then forward again (which I recently learned is a safety mechanism so they can run multiple trains on the track at once), and has some really cool theming with the yeti. After Expedition Everest we went to It's Tough to be a Bug, the Bugs Life show that's a little scary (the tarantula shoots stingers into the audience, the termite sprays you with acid, the stink bug stinks you, and then hopper tries to bug bomb you, has hornets sting your back, and drop black widows on you). I remember my brother got scared and had to leave once, and I got scared and had to leave another time, and my boss's kid had to leave once. They're supposedly replacing it with some Zootopioa thing that's probably going to be more tame. I still had a lot of fun. After it's tough to be a bug I got 2 of my last pennies in the discovery island area.
Now for a funny thing. The next stop was Dinosaurland where we road the Dinosaur ride (the ride where we're going back to right before the asteroid hit to get a dinosaur that was tagged as we ride over all sorts of off roading). I remember I watched a "how they do it" thing years ago and it's really cool. It's one of my favorite rides at Animal Kingdom. The interesting thing is I don't think most people know it's based off an animated movie of the same name (do you remember the Love Monkey?). Yeah, deep cut right there. Now for a funny thing. Dinosaur land is REALLY geared towards little kids, with a spinning flying dumbo type ride, midway games, 2 character meet and greets, and a play place. The Wilderness Explorer activity is also geared towards little kids (with IRA and I being the oldest people I saw doing it). Well Disney decided to put 2 of the badges inside the play area. It felt a little awkward being a group of 4 full grown adults walking around a playground with 2 doing a children's scavenger hunt, but Disney lets adults be kids so no harm no fowl. Anyway, this is also where I got my last smashed penny, yay.
Now for the last real location we had to go to, Pandora, the land of Avatar. First we rode Navi River Journey, a simple river ride through the land of Pandora at night. It's a really cool dark ride that really feels like another world. It uses a lot of practical effects and matt projections to really bring the world to life, and then there's a dancing Navi animatronic at the end that's pretty life like. I tried taking some pictures using the pro mode on my camera phone, but it wasn't working and I spent most of the ride fiddling around with it. After the river ride we rode Flight of Passage, a 3D simulator ride where it feels like flying on a Banchi. Last time I rode it I got motion sick, but this time I made sure to keep my head forward and did much better; still got dizzy, but didn't feel nauseous. We had a little dinner thing at the cantina restaurant where IRA had a cheeseburger pod, and I almost did as well but I decided $8 wasn't worth it just for a little food, especially when I still had breakfast left overs. Once all the food was eaten and rides rode IRA and I got our wilderness explorer badges from this area. Now onto the next thing, the Lion King Show.
Well, not quite. Mskate had the foresight to ask when the wilderness explorer thing closed, and it was in about 15 minutes, and we still had 2 badges to go. Mskate and dad-in-law went on their way to the lion king show while IRA and I hoofed it to the final badges near the opening of the park. Thankfully the last 2 were in the same stop, but we ended up cutting it close. The funny thing is the cast member doing that one saw us at one of the other badge stops, and remembered us because 2 grown men without kids doing a kid activity for real (we participated with all the things, not "just give me the sticker") is kind of unforgettable. We got our sticker and wilderness explorer certificate stickers with about 5 minutes to spare. OK good, now we just had to get to the other side of the park where the Lion King show was. IRA and I made it no problem, just had to hoof it. The Lion King show isn't much "Lion King," it's primarily a stunt show with acrobatics, fire juggling, and flying ballet among other things, all set to Lion King music. I'm not complaining, it's a really fun show, I'm just saying don't expect an abridged Lion King story like the Finding Nemo show.
Now's the time where we kind of went our separate ways. Since Animal Kingdom is the smallest park we had done everything by about 5:30 PM, with the park closing at 7PM. I wanted to stay for the Tree of Life night show at 6PM but everyone else wanted to go explore Animal Kingdom Lodge, the resort that's next to Animal Kingdom and can see some of the animals from certain rooms. It was also raining (had been since Dinosaur) so it wasn't the most comfortable even with the rain gear, so I don't blame them for wanting to leave. I saw them out and then went back in. I was going to get pizza from Pizzafari, but they had been closed for about 30 minutes at that point (no worries, I just ate the food I brought). I decided I was going to go back to the walking trails just to really enjoy them and maybe see some things I missed, but they had been closed for about an hour by then. I made my way back to Dinosaur land and decided "I'll just ride Dinosaur again, the app is saying it's a short line anyways." This is when something even better happened. When I got to Dinosaurland Chip and Dale were doing a meet and greet in their dinosaur costumes, and the line wasn't very long because a lot of people had already left (about half the park was closed by now). I barely had enough time to dig my autograph book out by the time I reached the front of the line. I got my pictures with them and did my best attempt at the voices, but they gestured "no you didn't really get it." Chip and Dale are hard to do, and I was pretty tired anyway so it was only that much harder. Then as I was going over to the ride there was a Donald and Daisy meet and greet in their Christmas outfits, also without a very long line. I decided to get them as well. I had a little more time to dig out the autograph book, and they had to take a break which gave me some more time to deal with that. When I got up I said "great weather for ducks" (an old joke about rain if you've never heard it), and they did the laugh gesture. I also did my best Donald Duck yell and they gestured "ok but not the best." It was a fun set of pictures.
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OK, now it's time for the reason I stayed, the tree of life video show. The lights went down and then the video got projected on the tree of life. This was pretty cool, there was a little story about a bunny and it was going through a winter story. It was a short 5 minute show, and then the lights went on. I'm like "oh, OK, I guess I could go watch ride something else, let me just figure this out" for 5 minutes, and then there was another scene. Once again the lights went down and a little video story started. I thought it might be the same thing as before but it wasn't, this one was about a fox in the winter. I'm like "oh nice, it's something different." I watched it and once again the lights went up after about 5 minutes and lasted about 5 minutes before the next show." I watched about half of it and then said "I'm not super interested, let's see what the lines are like" and the River ride was a 5 minute wait. I walked over to Pandora and was blown away by what it looked like at night. The river ride wasn't the only place that showed how Pandora comes to life at night; the walking path was all glowing with black light illuminance, there was all sorts of animal noises, the fake flowers were lighting up, really cool. Then I got to the ride and rode it again but kept my phone in my pocket and just enjoyed the ride. It was really fun, paying really close attention to everything and it was so cool. Then when I got to the dancing Navi lady, and teenage boys out there, she is anatomically correct. During her dancing her giant necklace thing swung out while I was in just the right angle and there was a blue booby with a blue nipple. I felt like Zeke at the museum of natural history in Bob's Burgers in that one episode. I was just admiring the animatronic work and boom, boobies. How about I change the subject and just show off some of the cool Pandora pictures I took.
Given how cool Pandora was I decided I was going to walk the entire park before they closed and see what the imagineers put together, or see how far I could get before I got shooed back to the front of the park. First thing, the path between Pandora and Africa at night with low crowds is very creepy; the path is dimly lit, there are animal noises pumped in from all around you, there is a single path with foliage on both sides, it was kind of rainy which in writing is a way to show bad things are going to happen, and there is no one around. It was activating my fight or flight reflex, but not too panicked. Then I got to Africa and there was a group of cast members walking in the opposite direction. I was expecting them to say "sir park is closing turn back," but they didn't, I walked by them without them even acknowledging me. OK, guess I'm free to explore the park at night. Africa was pretty much all closed; all the shops were tented, the restaurants locked up, the rides over, and the only people that were really around were the clean up crews. The kind of funny thing is they were wearing the same uniforms as everyone else there and not like "janitor jump suits," so Disney still keeps the magic going even when the magic is mostly gone. Oh, I was also like the only park guest around, which added to the weird vibe of the atmosphere since the place is normally full of people. Then when I went to Asia I stopped at "the market" (a collection of window service restaurants with a collection of tables) and had some snacks. There were 2 other people there that I'm pretty sure were also just finishing their day and having a snack. I got to Expedition Everest right at 7 PM when the park closed, but the queue line still seemed open with a posted 5 minute wait time and coasters still going. I might have been able to get on the last ride but I didn't want to push my luck and get kicked out. I did see that the tree of life show is projected on the entire tree of life since the bunny video was playing again, just from a different angle. I also saw some pretty cool light set pieces which was a detail I know most guests don't get to see. Even though the park was closed I got bold and walked through dinosaur land and it was also pretty cool seeing everything lit up and the midway closed. By the time I got out of the park it was like 7:15, and the tree of life show was still going on and people were still hanging around. I guess at Animal Kingdom they don't really kick you out, they just kind of turn off all the fun stuff and wait for people to leave on their own (or maybe they really kick you out after 8PM or so to say "no free loaders, get out," but I had to get back to the cabin and the Disney transportation only runs for like 1 hour after the park closes and I wasn't taking any chances, though next time I might try expedition Everest if given the chance, because I'm sure that's really cool at night). Anyways, I made it back no problem and did a lot of packing for the following day. They also got pizza for dinner and saved me some. After seeing what I did after everyone left mskate wished she stayed with me because they didn't do much exploring of the resort, but then again she wouldn't have been able to keep up with me and all my night time fun.
It's now Thursday, the go home day. The rest of the family packed up everything in their car and left about 30 minutes before me. I had some left over pizza from the previous night for breakfast lunch. I also had to take back the golf cart along with checking out. I almost forgot the magnet with our names on it that said it was our cart, but I got it before they threw it away. I also did the check out. I ordered my uber and waited outside after doing a little pin trading at the lobby. The uber driver got the wrong gate again, and it was a simple ride to the airport (finished watching The Poof Point). I got to the airport and got my ticket, and made it through security after having to take out all my gaming equipment which was kind of annoying. When I got on the people mover there was a woman with a wiener dog puppy that was visibly shaking. Then she started trying to get away so making some small talk I asked "nervous?" and the owner said "yeah, she's just a little puppy so this is very overstimulating." I got to the gate no problem, just opened up my bag and got some snacks while I waited for boarding. When it was my time I got on and got comfortable. I took some creative commons video and watched some movies (finished V for Vendetta and watched The Michaels VS The Machines, both pretty good). I did nod off a couple of times, but nothing crazy.
This video is uploaded with creative commons attribution, you can find the original video here (youtube rumble bitchute)
Then when we landed I found my way to the car, drove home, and that was basically it. I unloaded my stuff and got the mail). Then I lied down on the floor for about an hour because my back was sore after sitting in an uncomfortable chair on the plane, and nodded off. Then I just climbed into bed and slept for like 3 hours, and watched videos on my phone for about an hour because I was just exhausted. I got up and did some "normal relaxing" because I didn't want to fully throw off my sleep schedule, but still went to bed pretty early. It was a really fun trip. I might have been able to get a little more out of the Christmas party, but whatever. I managed to get all my smashed pennies for the 100th birthday of Disney animation. I managed to get some great creative commons video (even if I wasn't able to get any audio library samples because there was copyrighted music everywhere). I had a lot of fun at the parks riding the rides and meeting the characters. I also did a lot of pin trading and now we have a much larger and cooler pin collection, including some cool new buttons. My only regret is that I didn't clear off my memory cards and had to ration my video recording come Animal Kingdom. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.
