Elisa's Daily Scoop | Tanya's Daily Scoop |
Animal Kingdom Re-capGreetings from Disney World, Florida!!  Saratoga Springs - our Disney Vacation Club Home Resort Yesterday was my second day here at the Disney World. I arrived yesterday around 10:30AM after a pleasant 2-hour drive from Clearwater. The kids were completely exhausted and slept most of the drive. The good news is that they had plenty of room to sprawl out in the back seat in our new Chevy Impala car rental, following the debacle with the itsy bitsy teeny weeny Fiat.
After checking in, it was time to get the day going in Animal Kingdom! Disney has a new system - it's called the MagicBand, which is essentially a plastic bracelet that holds all of your reservation, dining plan and dinner & Fast Pass information and serves as your Park entrance and room key. Long gone are the days of the plastic card. My MagicBand is blue and by matching the little Mickey icon on the bracelet to the respective "Mickey" at park and attraction kiosks, you are good to go. I have to admit, it's kind of big brother-ish and little creepy. But, it is convenient. And ya gotta hand it to Disney - they are the merchandising kings. They sell "accessories" for the MagicBands so you can personalize them. The creative marketing genius never ceases to amaze me.  Disney "MagicBand" - no more "cards" Everyone was famished since we really hadn't had much to eat for breakfast. After arriving via Disney Transport to Animal Kingdom, we grabbed a quick snack and headed for Kilimanjaro's Safari. I always loved this attraction. They changed it up a bit. In the past, they had a whole schtick with poachers that had supposedly been caught and required the "safari" be cut short. This was different now, as it was more of an actual safari ride. I was absolutely impressed with the number of animals that were throughout the park!  White Rhino (endangered animal)  Hippo taking a swim   Young Elephants playing  Every twist and turn of the drive, revealed a different species and there were many of them! Lots of elephants - a troup of females and babies and even a male bull elephant who was solo (as they usually are in the wild.) A small herd of zebras, black rhinos, white rhinos, giraffes, hippos, crocodiles, flamingos, cheetah, a pride of lions, warthogs, wilder beasts, antelopes, monkeys and others. The kids had a blast. Gianna and I were snapping away, which seemed to irritate Kelsey, but we both sort of ignored her.  View of Expedition Everest Roller Coaster in Asia, Animal Kingdom  Me & Gianna after riding Expedition Everest Next stop was Expedition Everest! Me and Gianna are the only ones in the family on this trip who like roller coasters. Last time we were in Disney a few years ago, Gianna was too small to ride this one, so she was extra psyched to go on. She realized she was a roller coaster nut after our trip to Busch Gardens, Virginia two summers ago with Tanya and her gang. So, she was not missing out on riding "Everest." The ride was really great! The drops were not terrible, but the twists and turns were sharp and took you by surprise at a number of points since you were in the dark inside the "mountain." Both Gianna and I let out a few loud screams throughout the ride!!  Dinoland in Animal Kingdom   Primeval Ride, which kids went on alone We hit DinoLand next where Gianna and Kelsey went on a few of the rides alone, including Primeval which was too spiny for me. It hit me how grown up they had gotten which was bittersweet as it allowed me to relax a bit, but on the other hand, it was a reminder of how they are growing up.(insert sniffle) Our third and final Fast Pass was for the Finding Nemo, The Musical. It was absolutely delightful! Full of color and adorable puppets and costumes, this musical was so full of life. Unfortunately, my lack of sleep over the past few days was catching up with me and I found it hard to keep my eyes open at time as I sat comfortably in a dark theatre.  Finding Nemo, The Musical was delightful! Dinner at the Asian-inspired Yak & Yeti was delicious as usual! I've eaten here a number of times and I've enjoyed it every time. I will be doing a feature on this Animal Kingdom restaurant in an upcoming Foodie Friday! Here's a little preview of some of the meals we ordered: Crispy Honey Chicken and Kalbi Steak & Coconut Shrimp!!
The last and final attraction was A Bug's Life. The kids insisted on this, but I was really exhausted and had been to this one several times in the past, so I passed and walked through one of the retail stores instead. Was too tired to make any purchases (you know I'm tired when I can't even muster up the energy to shop!!!!!). It was a nice first day! Today, I'm heading out bright and early to get in a power walk and then the plan is to head to Magic Kingdom for lunch at The Plaza Restaurant around noon, which will be followed by a huge list of attractions compiled by the kids. Dinner at The Crystal Palace - a fun, Winnie the Pooh themed buffet! One of the kids' favorites! It's supposed to be a lot warmer today - high 70's, so I'll be breaking out the sunscreen to take along. You can bet there will be lots of pictures from today!!! I wish you a Marvelous Monday!!! See ya back here tomorrow! -E xoxo PS: Don't forget to vote today!! ----->>>>>----->>>>>----->>>>>  | Washington's BirthdayHi there everyone! It’s President’s Day, and the last day of our extended weekend. I hope that you got the day off from work and from school, and can enjoy your freedom for one more day! I've always liked holiday weekends, not only for the extra day of fun, but also because it means that you have a short work week ahead. Not bad. After a fun filled weekend of being away at CAMP! We will be heading home later this afternoon.  Between all of the lovely vocal training (which was so awesome and touching that it gave my goose bumps), and the fun dance instruction, we got to take another short hike yesterday, the boys finally got to play some basketball, I stepped out to catch a colorful sunset over the city lights down below, there was fun around the campfire, and to wind things down it was movie night.     After hike group picture  Beautiful sunset over looking the San Bernadino Valley  After s'mores Today will be more training for the kids and then the bus ride back down the mountain. And after a weekend of Dominic and Cosette waking up much earlier than usual, I’m pretty sure that they’ll be catching up on their Zzz’s later tonight! Once I get home, I’ll be doing some menu planning for a very fun foodie week - Fat Tuesday, Chinese New Year, Brigitte’s Birthday, and our little Oscar Party! Hopefully you are keeping up with Elisa’s fun Florida theme park trip - makes me miss Disney World and look very forward to our visit there next year!  In going with the 2015 theme of top 15 - Here’s 15 fun and funny Presidents Facts for Presidents Day:
Well that's about all folks! Catch ya back here same time same place tomorrow, -T PS - Please remember to continue voting for us - every vote counts! ---->>>>---->>>>---->>>>  |
