I Sneezed My Ears Off! An April TR (Finished 09/04)

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Mmm, Casey's corn dog nuggets
But even better, Sanaa
We've been there.....3 or 4 times? And love it! I adore the sauce the butter chicken is in, I've gotten that each time we've eaten there. I also absolutely love both Kidani and Jambo and after DH and I stayed there in January it became my favorite resort.

Your pictures from the Liberty Belle are great! Haven't been on that in awhile. And also love the Red Bubble shirt, I'll have to check there for Zootopia shirts. I've ordered a few from there before. I feel the sizes are "eh", except for the baseball jersey I got which fits perfect. Disney Store has one pink adult Zootopia shirt with the Yoga Gnu on it but I don't particularly like it, even though he's cool

Casey's was the perfect quick meal for the day for us! But Sanaa was so good! We've only ever been to Jambo House before so it was such a treat to see it! Animal Kingdom is such a lovely resort, I always sigh and say "someday" when I read TR where people stay there lol.

Thanks! And I buy the relaxed fit shirts, and tend to buy them a size too big just to make sure they'll fit. I wish there was more Zootopia adult stuff! I've seen that Yoga Gnu shirt and it's just...too bright and garish for me lol.

Your pictures are just amazing!

Thanks so much!

We've never ridden Liberty Belle either, so we'll definitely need to take time for that this summer. I love your pictures from the ride, hopefully we can get some good shots too!



Always good to keep the rude guests interactions to a minimum. I would have done the same you did, too. Like, if I'm still sitting here, I'm not done. And actually, if I'd still had so much as one corndog nugget left on my place when she complained about the lack of seating, I would have taken my sweet time nibbling it. (I am maybe a little too passive aggressive at times).



We haven't watched much of the dance party since they changed the song (at first especially we just didn't feel like the song was nearly as catchy as it used to be), but now that we're a little more accustomed to it, it's not so bad. Plus, it's basically the only place you can see Nick and Judy (and now also Phineas and Ferb ) so worth the stop just for that.

It was a nice relaxing use of the morning and there are some fun things along the way - specifically the other parts of the dioramas you can see from the train! And parts of Tom Sawyer Island that made me nostalgic for my childhood when there was more to do on the island.

I milked that iced tea for all it was worth, let me tell you.

So, fun story: I feel like nobody but me remembers the old song half the time, and it had gotten stuck in my head just before we left so I was singing it and getting weird looks from my family. And I know - I tried to get some good pictures of the brothers but from the angle it's very hard to since they're meant to be viewed at eye level.

Ugh those Haunted Mansion pictures!!

Way for that couple to just jerks, but then that seems to always happen at one point or another.

Aww that's awesome that Nick acknowledged your shirt!

I love the different Haunted Mansion angles you can get from the boat! That and Thunder are both so awesome-looking at this angle (though I love both of them at any angle, so...) And I may have been a bit of a fangirl when he did. I enjoy being a 5-year-old at Disney

 

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Silly Real Life Update!

I mean to update this TR but work has been winding down for the summer so I've been kind of lacking. But today's the last day and kids have a half day and my classroom is mostly clean so I'll be bringing my TR journal with me and I'll try to update today. If not, expect an update tomorrow

Anyway, we've decided on our trip for next summer - back to Disneyland! This is about as much planning as we've done, since Jey has become super focused on moving out there (*sob*) and my childhood friend and Disnerd Liz (who has made an appearance in every one of my WDW TRs, but if you haven't read those, she'll be introduced eventually in this one too) has never been. So I'm trying really hard to not be really excited about that because it's so hard to plan DLR so I have to reign in the planner in me.

 

[ajjoplin1]

Binge read your TR this morning....love it!!! I love this pics they are amazing. Also, it helps to read these TR's since my own trip is coming but won't be here 'til Sep. Looking forward to more posts!

 

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Binge read your TR this morning....love it!!! I love this pics they are amazing. Also, it helps to read these TR's since my own trip is coming but won't be here 'til Sep. Looking forward to more posts!

I'm so glad you've enjoyed my TR so far And hope your trip's amazing in September!

 

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Part Three

So, we were headed to our lunch....you know, right after eating our "brunch" of corn dog nuggets.

I do so love Disney eating logic.

We had to wait for our transportation of choice to get to us after we left Magic Kingdom. We must have just missed it because it took about fifteen minutes. We had to stop at another hotel first, but the family in front of us in line was running late for their own ADR and the driver was nice enough to drop us off at our destination first.

Anyone know where we were going?

Here's a hint:


No? How 'bout another hint?


Or a third?



Ah, Wilderness Lodge, how I adore you!

I do have to admit that every time I walk in from the boat into Wilderness Lodge I get lost so I was really proud of myself when I actually was able to get to us to the main lobby without getting turned around!

We were a bit early for our ADR (we had planned on the boat having to go to Fort Wilderness first) so we sat in the rocking chairs in the lobby and just enjoyed it.





I stayed at the Sequoia Lodge in DLP almost ten years ago now and it's always made me want to stay at Wilderness but I've never had the money to.

We decided we'd try to check in a little early and since we were eating lunch at such a weird time the dining room was deserted except for like 6 families dining (one left just before we got our food and another was sat near the end of our meal to keep the status quo lol) so we were allowed in right away.

And where were we eating?



Whispering Canyon!

I was kind of nervous about eating here - I'm not one to like the focus to be on me in front of strangers (I realize this sounds crazy since I do community theatre and I'm a middle school teacher but hey, y'know, it's weird) so I've always been hesitant to stay here but...but barbecue.

Actually, that's the reason why we went for lunch - they only have the pulled pork sandwich on the menu during the lunch time and I'm a pulled pork junkie.

As an aside - as we were being seated there were three guys and a woman standing at the podium. The three men were Jean Paul, George, and....like Amadeus or something. But the Jean Paul and George standing next to each other amused me. I don't remember the woman's name but she was from Central Massachusetts as well and we chatted for a few seconds every time she passed to go into the kitchen. The family that came in halfway through our meal was also from Massachusetts and they were sat across from us so she was enjoying talking about our winter.

Our waiter was very nice. I don't remember his name but he was soft spoken and generally if we wanted to participate in the hijinx he'd pull us in but he didn't force us to, which was cool for me because it helped me get used to it. There was another waitress who was much sassier who kept threatening to make us take part but never actually made us. She later asked where we worked, which is the most common question Jey and I get when we're together so I guess looking like we work for the company worked in my favor! (seriously, when would Disney's company rules ever allow me to have hair like this?)

So, anyway, let's talk about our meal shall we?



Jey got a burger and asked our waiter if she could get a fried egg on it as it was an option for other sandwiches, which he easily obliged. She really liked it! Which is good, considering she usually doesn't eat burgers.

I almost got the fish sandwich but we were going here for one reason and I knew I wouldn't hear the end of it if I didn't get the pulled pork so:


(I had started to disassemble my sandwich before I remembered to take a picture, oops!)

It was good. I enjoyed it, but with the bun and everything it was just so. much. food. I usually take my pulled pork sandwiches apart anyway and this one I still didn't even eat all the meat that way!

Jey and I were both pretty full by the end so she decided to get a shake and I'd get a dessert and we'd share.

So she got a caramel shake and I got:


Wagon Wheel Chocolate S'mores. I was going to get the gooey cake but this just called to me at the time. And I'm not disappointed - this was a great dessert!

Except for the fact that Jey did not eat any of it. The liar.

Which is fine. I totally ate it all by myself.

It's chocolate. I'm not ashamed.

We finished up and walked out to the buses. We figured since we had already been to the Magic Kingdom in the morning we'd go to another park for a bit. A bus was just about to leave as we walked outside and the bus driver was nice enough to stop for us so we hopped on.

But where were we headed?

 

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Part Four

So, we had left Wilderness Lodge and had jumped onto our next park. Where were we going?





So we knew we were going to be in the Studios on Thursday but we figured we'd just do a couple of favorites before heading over to Epcot to walk around the countries and find something small to eat for dinner. Jey popped in to get some coffee and I got us a Star Tours FP for 4-ish. We headed down toward Tower of Terror and found some streetmosphere and stopped to watch.







We enjoyed the joke off and it was getting close to the time we ad for our FP. We headed on over but still had time so we started talking with one of the CMs working in the area. As we did the little padawans were parading down to the stage so we stepped back to let them through and slipped next to the rope to watch JTA.

And here begins the gratuitous Jedi Academy spam, be prepared:























(I was totally into this for 7th Sister, not gonna lie)





















Yeah, told you, it's a bit of a crazy amount of pictures.

Now, the bald Jedi Master is the one we've seen the most often. Jey absolutely adores him - she thinks he's the best that we've seen and fits the role perfectly. While we were walking into the Star Tours building he walked past us and put his hand on her shoulder to let her know he was there and just ask to go around. She totally fangirled.

We rode Star Tours and got all the new scenes they had added for VII, then decided to head out and walk the countries.

 

[ariane37]

We're doing WCC for lunch in Nov. We ate dinner there a few years ago and my boys enjoyed all the antics, but now younger DS10 is a pain in the a** sourpuss so I know he'll get annoyed - which is exactly why I made a reservation there It's so fun watching him get an attitude! Really besides that we've wanted to go back and eat at WL for a couple years now and the lunch menu appeals to us a bit more than dinner.
I love how you just got on the next bus that pulled up; I miss doing that. I'd love to try it again but our next trip is during Thanksgiving and I think it may be just a tad too crowded of a time to try such an old school approach!

 

[Elandon]

Great trip report. Following along....

 

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We're doing WCC for lunch in Nov. We ate dinner there a few years ago and my boys enjoyed all the antics, but now younger DS10 is a pain in the a** sourpuss so I know he'll get annoyed - which is exactly why I made a reservation there It's so fun watching him get an attitude! Really besides that we've wanted to go back and eat at WL for a couple years now and the lunch menu appeals to us a bit more than dinner.
I love how you just got on the next bus that pulled up; I miss doing that. I'd love to try it again but our next trip is during Thanksgiving and I think it may be just a tad too crowded of a time to try such an old school approach!

I've always been hesitant to eat at WCC because I am not someone who likes being singled out for these types of antics but I was totally in love with it! (I had that sourpuss attitude as a kid, so your comment about your DS10 made me laugh out loud lol). The lunch menu is definitely my favorite, but I'd like to try dinner there sometime.

We went back to the old school go wherever approach this trip and it was so wonderful. Hopefully I have a couple more years of that lol.

Great trip report. Following along....

Thanks so much! And welcome!

 

[MarieLightning]

I definitely fell in love with WCC in November. Just being inside of the Wilderness Lodge is a perk, so you know, there's that, but the food was sooo good. I would go back many times for that skillet. Probably will try to fit it in during our 2017 trip cause I gotta have me some of that sausage and cornbread.

We've never actually taken the time to watch the Jedi Academy, although we've seen lots of funny and cute moments online. That 7th sister looks fierce.

Oooh Star Tours scene from episode VII! Here's to hoping we get that (hadn't started yet when we went and now it's back on the regular loop, so you know... coin toss).

 

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I definitely fell in love with WCC in November. Just being inside of the Wilderness Lodge is a perk, so you know, there's that, but the food was sooo good. I would go back many times for that skillet. Probably will try to fit it in during our 2017 trip cause I gotta have me some of that sausage and cornbread.

We've never actually taken the time to watch the Jedi Academy, although we've seen lots of funny and cute moments online. That 7th sister looks fierce.

Oooh Star Tours scene from episode VII! Here's to hoping we get that (hadn't started yet when we went and now it's back on the regular loop, so you know... coin toss).

We got the episode VII scene twice when we were there so hopefully it's still in the loop! I love watching Jedi Training Academy - the kids are always so cute and the actors are funny - bald guy and bearded man are the best of the Jedi Masters in my opinion (these are how we distinguish them lol)

I want that skillet! It was way too much food for me this time but it is my main goal. Maybe I could convince people to share it with me or something.

 

[MarieLightning]

I want that skillet! It was way too much food for me this time but it is my main goal. Maybe I could convince people to share it with me or something.

We shared it and it was definitely a good decision. For two people, it was a perfect amount of food, and we were a great match too Amber doesn't like ribs or grilled sausages, but I love both, and I was more than happy to let her have the chicken and pulled pork. We shared the sides and it came to a perfect amount of food.

 

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We shared it and it was definitely a good decision. For two people, it was a perfect amount of food, and we were a great match too Amber doesn't like ribs or grilled sausages, but I love both, and I was more than happy to let her have the chicken and pulled pork. We shared the sides and it came to a perfect amount of food.

hm, I'm planning this out now lol

 

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Part Five

This section has barely any pictures, oops. Sorry guys!

So we left Hollywood Studios around 5 and took a boat over to Epcot. I got used to doing the walk between Epcot and Studios last summer when I went to Florida with my aunt, so I did suggest just walking so it didn't take so long, but Jey wasn't in the mood to - to be fair, we tend to call it the Death March. So boat it was! It was pretty full so we had to split up as we were some of the last people on the boat but we still managed to be near enough to each other.

When we got to Epcot the boat was empty. It seemed most people were going to the hotels for dinner because quite a few people kept asking how to get to Boardwalk faster while we were at the Swalphin.

We went right into the countries, past an Aurora-in-training, and just walked. It was nice and relaxing but right around Germany I started to get a bit light-headed. It was so crowded and we were going upstream of the rest of the crowd that it was triggering my anxiety without me really realizing it. I told Jey it was messing with my vertigo (which will make her worry way less) and asked if we could stop at the Refreshment Outpost to get some water since we were almost there. We sat at one of the tables and drank our water slowly, talking about where we'd like to eat for dinner but we couldn't really make any decisions so we decided to just keep walking until we found something since neither of us were particularly hungry (did you see the size of that sandwich?!).

Weird, random sidenote: while we were sitting there I saw the parents of a girl I knew growing up walk past. Epcot was like the place to be for random encounters with people from home for me this trip.

Anyway, after the water helped me relax a bit we continued on our walk around the countries. The crowd felt like it had thinned somewhat too so that was helpful. We reached Norway and Jey popped in to buy some Laila (which was my plan all trip but I ended up not being able to and now my bottle is woefully short on perfume. I'll have to get some from Nordstrom asap!) and then stopped.

We both were desperate to get something from Kringla and we knew neither of us really wanted to eat a big meal so we went in. There was only one other person in there when we first went in - a man around our age who was buying himself a sandwich and was asking about the aquavit shot. This was the conversation:

Guy: What do you have that's not beer?
Cashier: We have Aquavit. It's a shot.
Guy: Cool, can I try that? What's the best way to drink it?
Cashier: Quickly.
Guy: Does it taste good?
Cashier: .....yes.
Guy: Really? (he can see Jey and I turning blue in the face trying hard not to laugh at that gigantic lie)
Cashier: Well, you've proven yourself if you can drink it in one go and not gag in our country.
Guy:....great.

She was trying so hard not to make him feel too badly about buying the shot but it was written all over her face just how she felt about it. We weren't helping. Aquavit just reminds me of old Swedish parties guys. We chatted playfully with her about the poor man once we were at the register and we paid.

We always have semi-weird experiences in Kringla.

Anyway, our snack (and some more water) in hand, we sat down at one of the tables to eat.

What'd we get? School bread? Troll horn? Sandwich?

(omg look, a picture! Finally!)


Nah, we got lefse! Lefse is one of those weird snacks that I feel like you have to have grown up with in order to like. We've told people about our love for it before and their general reaction once they eat it is usually "how can you eat this?" If you've never followed one of my TRs before, lefse is the thing Jey and I always have to get in Disney World, and I was devastated (among other reasons) when my aunt wouldn't stop to let me get it last year.

What is it? Um, basically a potato flatbread that's cooked on a griddle. You put butter on it (and cinnamon if you're my mother) and roll it up and eat it It's basically like bread and butter. It's really bland. Jey and I adore it. But I do put a disclaimer here that we both grew up in homes where our mothers' sides were very traditional Swedish families.

So, grains of salt all around.

Anyway while we were eating, this lady and her male counterpart kept trying to take our food.



I don't normally mind ducks but Disney ducks are mean so I kept shooing her away. There was a larger party near us in the sitting area that was clearly into their cups. There was one woman who kept feeding the duck, calling her "my angel! My baby!" The duck bit her. Twice. She still fed it. This was the first time this trip we had to ask someone to stop feeding the ducks because it was affecting our snack. I really wasn't a fan of the duck jumping at me and trying to take my food out of my mouth.

We left and took pictures of the topiaries, vowing that the next day we'd actually do this in the other countries:


Then we headed toward the front of the park.

Jey was on a mission to get her mother a couple things for her car:
- A new Tinkerbell ornament
- Doom buggy decal
- Mickey decal

Her mother had just gotten a new car and when she transferred Tink the leg fell off and she couldn't save the decals we had bought in Disneyland last summer so she asked if we could get them if we saw them. So we popped into Mousegears and looked around for them.

We found her the ornament but nothing else.

We had split up to look when an older CM came over to me. He complimented my Nick bow and asked me about it. Then he asked if I was too old to get Mickey stickers.

Um, dude, never too old.

He gave me some stickers and thanked me for the conversation. I was beaming from ear to ear.



I gave one to Jey when she returned and we skipped out of Mousegears. Thank you, old CM man, you made our night! I still smile when I think about it!

It was only about 8 but we decided we were ready to head back to the hotel and call it a night since the next night was EMH at Magic Kingdom and we were planning on going to stay up as late as we could for that.





There was a CM jokingly saying "see you tomorrow" to everyone so we told him that he would indeed see us tomorrow. He highfived us.

The trip back to the hotel was quick and easy. We headed back to our room and watched a little Stacy but since it was so early we went to see if there was anything we wanted to eat for a real dinner. Nothing appealed to either of us so we just filled our mugs with iced tea (J) and Powerade (me) then headed back to our room. We walked past the movie on the lawn.

It was Princess and the Frog.

We stopped and watched the end of the movie, standing awkwardly in the horse lane.



I just like this movie a lot, okay?

We showered and relaxed in the room for a bit, playing games and texting back and forth with our friend Liz chatting about what our plans were for Friday, then went to bed.

 

[DisneyJo]

Loving your report and I agree you're never too old for Mickey stickers

 

[Rozz]

Great trip report!
I'm almost caught up. I'm on the last page.
Your Disney bounding is fantastic! My daughter loves Merida!

 

[MarieLightning]

Definitely not judging you on not walking from HS to Epcot. We've never done it before XD We keep saying we should. But you know. Extra walking. Why.

What is it? Um, basically a potato flatbread that's cooked on a griddle. You put butter on it (and cinnamon if you're my mother) and roll it up and eat it It's basically like bread and butter.

I'm a big advocate of bread and butter, so if that's an equivalent, that snack is fine by me!

The Princess and the Frog is such an underrated movie

 

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Loving your report and I agree you're never too old for Mickey stickers

Thanks! And nope, never too old I just found them in my bag while packing for vacation and smiled all over again.

Great trip report!
I'm almost caught up. I'm on the last page.
Your Disney bounding is fantastic! My daughter loves Merida!

Thank you so much! And welcome!

Definitely not judging you on not walking from HS to Epcot. We've never done it before XD We keep saying we should. But you know. Extra walking. Why.



I'm a big advocate of bread and butter, so if that's an equivalent, that snack is fine by me!

The Princess and the Frog is such an underrated movie

lol, I've done it and it's not bad, but it was our first day of commando without any breaks this trip so we were on the "the least amount of walking is best" mantra at that point. lol.

I love my lefse but I'm always hesitant to give people the rec. But maybe you'll love it!

And Princess and the Frog is one of my favorite movies. <3

 

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Itadakimasu!

The next morning we were up and in Epcot by 9 - we got there just as the gates opened so we were doing really well with our Epcot timing!





So, mini tangent: there's a story behind that shirt When I was in grad school I had wanted to wear my University sweatshirt around Epcot, but a: they were having a shockingly warm January and b: the day we ended up going to Epcot was my birthday and I was wearing a dress. So I jokingly said I was going to come back some time wearing something from my grad school. This isn't a UoL shirt but it's a football club shirt and I was stupidly excited to wear it on one of our Epcot days.

And then they won the Premier League. By default but whatever!

Also, weirdly, I'm wearing the same shirt.

Tangent ended!

Anyway, we went onto Spaceship Earthafter popping into Mousegears to buy ourselves the Epcot Alex & Ani - we were both shocked that neither of us owned it since it's our favorite park!



I'm going to assume we got coffee as well, even though I didn't write it down? We've never not gotten coffee walking into a Disney park so I'm guessing we did?

So, while on Spaceship Earth we made faces for the camera like always and uh, this was our pciture:


Yeah...I have no head. And Jey has like a puff of hair and nothing else. Fail, SE.

We had a bit of time before we had to use our Test Track FP so we decided to take advantage and take some pictures of the topiaries in Future World.








We headed back over to Test Track and got through fairly quickly. This was the car we made:


We like to make it as powerful as we can.

We got on with a Portuguese family in the single rider line that either didn't understand how the single-rider line worked or they had assumed that they could get on together but they had a little boy maybe 5 years old with them and the poor kid was so confused and upset about why they weren't going on together. They were in line with us but were getting on two cars ahead of us so we couldn't do anything, but I felt bad for the poor kid.

Anyway, fun ride! Outisde of that one problem.

Then we decided we were hungry and wanted our early lunch so we headed to our favorite quick service: Sunshine Seasons!

Jey got fish tacos and a whoopie pie while I chose:


Mongolian beef and a whoopie pie!

It was yummy!

Filled up, we were going to get on Living With the Land but the line was over 30 minutes long! So we decided to just go over to the Seas. Nemo itself was really long too so we decided to just go in and look at the fish.





We left the Seas because it was getting crowded so we headed to the Imagination pavilion. That was down but we went and played with the jumping water.













It was after 11 so we decided the best idea would be to go walk around the countries.

But not before taking more pictures of the topiaries!









To the countries!

 

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Real Life Update!

Quick FYI - I won't be posting again until after the 9th! Saturday morning I'm heading down to New Jersey to spend the weekend with my friend Diane and then we'll be driving down Monday to spend the rest of the week in the Norfolk area. I'll post a quick mini-TR for that in here and then we'll be back to our regularly scheduled Disney TR