PTR: Thanksgiving at Walt Disney World

[televisedconfession]

It's gonna be another week before you update again, isn't it Natalie?

 

OH YOU LEAVE SUCH CLIFF HANGERS! UGH! (just how I like it )

[dandaman]

You can thank Siemens for that.

 

Hee, hee. I said Siemens.

 

I vaguely recall making a joke involving sponsorship of "The Making of Me" some years back...

[ebl]

Natalie, your great TR made me realize how much I miss Epcot. It's already been two years since I was there.

 

"Thank you! I use a Canon Rebel XT."

 

I'm looking into getting a Rebel XTi. All I have to do is save a few bucks.

 

Eric

[natatomic]

It's gonna be another week before you update again, isn't it Natalie?

 

HAH! Showed you!

 

Day 2 - Disney's Hollywood Studios

 

Since Christa had to work early, it was just Chris and I for most of day, right up until he had to go to work as well and I was left all by my lonesome boo hoo hoo blah blah blah. Anyway! It was unsurprisingly busy, but luckily DHS doesn't have too many must-do rides for me, so by the grace of the all-mighty Fastpass, the crowds weren't too much of an issue.

 

I heard some only-so-so reviews for the new Toy Story ride, but I actually liked it well enough. Of course, I didn't have to wait two hours to ride it. Plus I totally dominated Chris at all the games because I have killer aim. So. All good.

 

Also, the Osborne Lights? ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL. Oh my goodness, I almost thought about crying (sorry - stone heart. I haven't shed a single tear since the late 80s. It's tragic, really.)

 

Oh, one last thing before I get to the pictures:

Somehow I didn't manage to get a single photo of the one and only coaster in the park. I don't know how I can even call myself a coaster enthusiast after that. Sorry. Just stone me now and get it over with.

 

Having said that, here we go -

 

(UPDATE: I accidentally uploaded two wrong photos, and when I uploaded new versions, they went all the way to the bottom of the trip report. Sorry about that. Is that fixable?)

Farewell from Disney's Hollywood Studios. Next up: Animal Kingdom

But we all lived to see another day and to take a picture of a Turkey Leg stand.

After this room on ToT, the doors closed and the spiel continued, but we didn't move. And we sat there in pitch black for about 2 minutes, which isn't too terribly long or frightening, unless you have an itty bitty fear of the dark. And plummeting to your death. Not that I'm describing my own fears, but I suspect that if I was scared of such things while stuck in that car, I might have suddenly found myself convinced that something had gone tragically wrong and we were all in fact seconds from our untimely deaths. And I might have panicked a little.

 

Good thing I wasn't scared of that stuff then, huh? Ha. Ha. Ha.

Pretty sure this was another head-as-a-tripod shot.

Alright, back to the rest of the park.

(Yes, some of my photos are a bit crooked. Explanation: with me being so short, people's heads were blocking most of the lights in my photos. So I ended up balancing the camera on my head, standing as still as I could, snapping a picture, and hoping for the best. Needless to say, I got a few odd looks.)

So beautiful, no captions needed. Enjoy.

Osborne Lights!

The End.

Then I turned into a smokin' hot dragon.

 

Literally.

Look! It's me! Natalie Maleficent Visage.

 

That's right, Mickey. Cover your eyes, so I can't see you. That's how it works.

Right up until she fell.

 

Haha, no, just kidding. Trick o' the camera.

Ahh, so romantic and graceful.

Yeah, I bet he likes her in that pose.

Mmmmm...trippy.

Sort of Flamboyant Mickey

Pontificating Mickey

Oh, wait, no. It was just the show. Well, that was kind of disappointing...

Then I died in a a tragic Wave accident. But ZOMG! WHITE-LIGHT-AT-THE-END-OF-THE-TUNNEL POV!!!!

OOOO! WAVE POV!!!!!!!!

The Wave. Didn't expect that in a large crowd with nothing to do but wait until the show starts.

By now Chris had left for work, so I had the pleasure of saying, "No, I'm not saving these seats for anyone because I'm at a theme park all alone which is completely normal so stop looking at me like that mmmk?" more times than I'd like to remember.

And my kids will all be fluent in both these languages. Yeah, they're going to be the coolest, least-nerdy kids in school.

One day, I'm going to live in a house exactly like this. Minus the giftshop inside.

I've never seen this store open before, so this was a pretty big moment for me.

Okay, so they're more impressive at night, but we'll get to that shortly.

Sort of...

Christmas lights!

There's a crazy rumor that this attraction might not last much longer, so I took a picture because, you know...the picture would.

I don't know who they're fooling with that sky mural. I mean, it was pretty obvious after I stared at that wall for a half hour and realized that those clouds weren't moving. Duh.

This guy, whose back of the head you're looking at, was with his family and on the VIP tour (note the guy in the plaid vest), which meant that he was either 1) rich or 2) rich and Somebody. Chris SWORE that he was some VP of some monorail department at Disney (he would know, because he's a monorail pilot as well as a Disney Corporate who's-who buff), so I took this picture for him.

 

Then Chris saw his face and realized he was wrong. But it made for a good story, right? Well, it made for a story, at least.

Chris also insisted that I take this photo of him by the poster because he is obsessed - OBSESSED - with this show. I was all, "Psh. Nerd," (by the way - pot, meet kettle), "but fine, go pose." And then when I got home, I downloaded the first episode, and next thing I knew it was a whole day later and I had caught up to the current episode of the season.

 

And my life was better for it. Thanks, Chris.

Some people like to spend an hour in line to get their photos taken with characters. I like spend 3 seconds of my time taking pictures of characters with other people.

Maleficent? Me? Little, sweet, innocent ME?

 

Eh, yeah, that's probably right. I'm pretty cold.

Chris was Tarzan, which I thought was pretty spot on. I mean, they're bot guys, so that's pretty good, right?

Lumiere also helps people figure out who they are, you know, on the inside.

Like draw! And let me just say, after seeing how great my characters turn out during these lessons, I could TOTALLY be an animator. Just so long as I had someone showing me how to do it step-by-step. They'd do that, right?

This park isn't big on ride-able attractions, but there are lots of little interactive things to do.

I insisted on having my photo taken in front of this log cabin, which made perfect sense given how Lincoln Logs were one of my favorite toys as a child and, like an true southerner, I grew up in a log cabin.

Chris insisted on having his photo taken in front of this part of the wall, which I didn't get seeing as how he is neither a Sheriff nor from the 1800s.

It spoke to my childhood.

Another well-themed queue.

Yes, this photo is a bit anachronistic in the report, but the wait time of the ride was steady on this number all day long. TGFFP. (I think you can figure out what that means.)

The Pixar area is pretty heavily Toy Story themed for now, but I hear that it may be a bit more varied in the next year or so.

I swear, it took me 15 minutes to find the "me."

Most of this was new since I'd been there last.

It just doesn't have the same ring as Disney-MGM Studios. :/

I HATE drop towers, but I love, love LOVE Tower of Terror. I assume it has something to do with the fact that I can't see the ground (nor my potential death) rushing toward me.

I never quite got what a wizard hat has to do with Hollywood. Shouldn't there be a giant movie camera, an super-sized Oscar, or at least a Democrat Party headquarters as the centerpiece instead?

First stop - Sid Cahuenga's for some trivia time, which, between Chris and I, we had all the answers, thus the nifty certificates.

For some reason I took a photo of the welcome sign, but not the sign of the name of the park. Just so you know, I'm at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Not Welcome World or something like that.

[ginzo]

Wow, they do an amazing job of lighting up that park. Kind of makes me feel like I made the wrong choice by going to Disneyland this month. They have nothing that good in terms of holiday displays.

[Woogle]

I just absolutely LOVE your photos. Very clear. I wish I could have been there too...

[cfc]

Osmond Lights!

 

Wha? Did you take a sidetrip to Utah?

 

I thought Midway Mania was great, too, last October; alas, I rode it but once. (Hmm--actually, I'm pretty sure it'll be great next October, or any other month, for that matter. Just thought I'd clarify my comments a bit.)

[dandaman]

After this room on ToT, the doors closed and the spiel continued, but we didn't move. And we sat there in pitch black for about 2 minutes, which isn't too terribly long or frightening, unless you have an itty bitty fear of the dark. And plummeting to your death.

 

You would've hated my Demon Drop experience at CP a few months ago. A friend and I got stuck for 10 minutes at the top of the elevator shaft. (Death-plummeting fearing-people unite!)

 

Dan "Didn't help that there was no warning when the ride jerked back to life..." Smith

[ginzo]

I thought Midway Mania was great, too, last October; alas, I rode it but once. (Hmm--actually, I'm pretty sure it'll be great next October, or any other month, for that matter. Just thought I'd clarify my comments a bit.)

 

That's why Liz & I opted out of Rock 'n Roller Coaster that day. So we could greedily snatch up another pair of Midway Mania Fast Passes.

 

The Disneyland version seemed almost identical. Although they didn't do Fast Passes, they had a nice (read: short) single rider line. MM does not seem to lose any of its fun even after a large amount of rides. It's really going to be awesome when they start doing stuff like adding games that are specific to whatever holiday the parks are celebrating.

[natatomic]

Osmond Lights!

 

Wha? Did you take a sidetrip to Utah?

 

I thought Midway Mania was great, too, last October; alas, I rode it but once. (Hmm--actually, I'm pretty sure it'll be great next October, or any other month, for that matter. Just thought I'd clarify my comments a bit.)

 

Um, whoops. Sorry, doped up on cold medication. Fixed!

[printersdevil78]

It's gonna be another month before you update again, isn't it Natalie?

 

Fixed!

[dino]

Natatomic is now a "Pushing Daisies" fan...? Natalie just got even cooler .

Hilarious captions as always .

[TheRapidsNerd]

Wow...just wow....(picks jaw up off floor from the awesomeness of it all)

 

Well done, good lady. Well done indeed.

[Swimace]

I love Hollywood Studios, although even as a passholder I still haven't taken the time to do some of the smaller, non-ride attractions at that park. I sort of want to go find out what Disney character I am!

 

p.s. I am also a Pushing Daisies fan, it's a guilty pleasure of mine.

[gotdane]

Amazing, hilarious, trip report so far!

 

Can't wait for the rest!

[Anfronee]

Great captions. I actually laughed out loud a couple of times.

 

And there are Pushing Daisies fans on this site? Wow! I am falling in love with this place a little more each day.

[nay]

Great TR! Disney photos always brighten my day.

 

And there are Pushing Daisies fans on this site?

 

YES! I still can't handle the fact that it got canceled.

[natatomic]

Day 3: Animal Kingdom

 

I must be hitting a post-holiday slump because after I typed that first line, I stared at this otherwise blank box for about 20 minutes trying to figure out what on earth to say here. Um, Animal Kingdom is fun? Good times were had? What a wild park it is, yuk yuk yuk?

 

(5 more minutes)

 

Yeah, still nothing.

 

OKAY. Animal Kingdom: Great time. The lines were not bad at all, again, thanks in part to the lovely fastpass. I got to ride the Safari four times, Everest twice, and all the other major attractions once, and I still had plenty of time to just putz around and wander. Granted, I didn't do any of the shows this time around, and I stayed as far away from Kali River Rapids as possible (no moisture must EVER touch my precious, precious hair once outside the shower, lest terrible, ugly things happen), so I'm sure that all has something to do with it.

 

Primeval Whirl was also back up and running during my visit, but since they were only operating the one side that I already have in my credit count, I didn't bother. I seem to remember that PW is one spinning mouse that lives up to its name, almost to the point of being all painful and whiplashy, so coaster or not, it's not one that I need to do twice unless another credit is involved.

 

(What you're about to read isn't all that exciting. It's a lot harder to make animals funny than you may realize. That being said, after uploading a million Safari photos and still having more than than half the park to cover, I decided to split the report of this park into two. I'll post the rest of Animal Kingdom later. kthx)

Unrelated to the photo, but this TR is taking longer than I thought, and it's getting late here on the east coast, so I'm gonna end here and I'll finish the rest of Animal Kingdom in the next day or so. Promise!

 

Or I'll try to promise, anyway.

I waited around for 15 minutes to get a three second glimpse of the otters. Good thing they were cute.

If my dad were writing this TR, he'd probably make some crack about his first ex-wife right about now.

You can see my reflection, but I swear I am not at all that red. No, my skin is definitely closer to the color of...hmmm, plaster, probably. Yeah, that's how I'd describe it. Plaster white.

These next few photos were taken on the little nature trail walk-through thing near the safari.

You can't really tell here, but that island is actually a hidden mickey.

This ostrich needs an intervention.

The female made a decent appearance on the last go-round, though.

This is the best shot I got of the male all day.

Turns out that the feline animals are more active during the later part of the day (the opposite is true for everything else, so if you have the chance, you really should do the safari first thing in the morning, and last thing in the afternoon to see all the animals), so, blurry or not, I at least have one picture of the cheetah where I can confidently point to it and say, "There. There is the cheetah."

There's a cheetah somewhere in this photo, I swear. Don't ask me where it is though, because I couldn't tell you. But everyone else in the truck was pointing and shouting, "There it is! There it is!" as we passed. Well, I never saw it, but I figured I might as well take the photo, that way I could search for it later at my leisure. Still, no luck.

Almost forgot a picture of the "over 1000-years-old" tree.

All of my tour guides let it be known to us that this was their "favorite view of the savanna." You'd think they were going off a script or something.

I didn't get a great photo of the hippos this trip (out of all those go-rounds ftw?!), so I'm using this one from a past trip.

 

Is that cheating?

Every time we reached the crocodiles, everyone in the vehicle emitted audible gasps and moans as though they were worried that the crocodiles were suddenly going to leave their relaxed state of sunbathing, dart the 30 yards towards us, climb the 5 yard natural barrier separating them from us, climb in our truck, and eat us all alive, all within the 7 seconds it took us to drive past them.

Birds don't have deodorant, so they have to air out their pits from time to time.

Even though my safari trips were spread throughout the day, for efficiency's sake, I'm condensing the photos into one group.

I think you'll all agree that the "& Bar" is the most important part.

Obviously that tree isn't real, but are there any real tree in the world that are really that short and squat? The Tree of Life just always struck me as rather...obese.

[lil jimmy norton]

A script, no way. I bet you guys didn't have to chase poachers like we did. I just came home from Disney about two hours ago, you have perfect timing.

[televisedconfession]

Oh nat, You make my day!!!!

[natatomic]

Day 3, continued

So long from Animal Kingdom! Next I'll be taking a break from Disney and doing the Universal thing. The very windy, very rainy Universal thing.

I don't know what the hell that thing is on the bird. Is that it's heart popping out? That's just gross.

Monkey Island or Monkey-topia or something like that...

Whoops, almost forgot the must-take photo of Everest.

And I took a picture of this because of the whole turtles-are-the-best-ever thing.

I found this over in Camp Minnie-Mickey, and I thought it was so neat that I decided that when I have my own house someday, I (read: my husband) am gonna build one of these in my backyard. I took the picture so I'd have some sort of plan to go by.

See, this is when you know a park is themed well - when the bathrooms are pretty enough to take a picture of

Whoa, spoiler alert!

View from It's Tough to be a Bug's queue

Then is scared the holy poop out of me when it flew right by my face.

I found this pretty bird sitting on a fence...

And doesn't Disney already have, like, eight other attractions just like this on property?

I mean, Wild Mice are soooo Six Flags-esque. Or at least Ma and Pa Amusement Park & Tackle Shoppe-esque.

This is one of my least favorite lands in Disney - too state-fair like, too unmagical and gaudy.

Turtles are my favorite animal, so I just couldn't help myself. Had to take the picture. Then I printed it out and put it under my pillow at night to keep me company.

See what I mean?

In the station, where they do NOT warn you about stepping on butterflies. At least they can't shoot you when we return if you screw things up since they don't tell you HOW to not screw up.

But this guy gives me the willies. I don't like people who break the rules, especially the rule about smuggling in Dinosaurs from the past.

Before you board, you must be debriefed by Mrs. Huxtable.

This is a good ride, but it's just so darn LOUD. Every time we come up to the Carnotaurus right as they take you picture, I instinctively cover my poor, delicate ears. I've ridden this attraction at least a dozen times, so it's not like I have no idea what's going to happen, but even being consciously aware of it, I've yet to ride Dinosaur ONCE without losing control of my arms as they automatically dart up to the sides of my head.

I'm kind of a Ride Phone enthusiast.

Mmmhmm, how I'd love to run my fingers through that fluffy arm hair...

Oh my stars and garters! What ever shall we do?!

I would like to know what kind of plant food they give that tree. That is quite the vibrant shade of green.

Up we go.

I dunno, I kinda think the Yeti is cute. I like my men hairy.

That's the real Mt. Everest, you know. Disney bought it, hooked it up to a trailer, and brought it over. It wasn't as hard as you'd think it'd be.

[ebl]

Animal Kingdom is a very nice park. Expedition Everest was fun, but a bit of a letdown for me. I guess I was expecting more.

 

That bright green tree is a secret Sears paint test site. At least that's what I heard...

 

But, yeah, Primeval Whirl was...prime evil. I'm not crazy about that kind of spinning coaster. And I didn't ride Dinosaur because I knew it was similar to Indiana Jones, and I'm not really big on that, either.

 

The safari and all of the walkthroughs were well done, in my opinion. I would like to go back there again.

 

All in all, great series of pictures, Natalie! Thanks for sharing.

 

Eric

[jackskellington101]

Man, Hopper's so photogenic. See people, you don't need a flash to get a good picture of Hopper. NO FLASH!

[U2Rox]

YAY!! Natalie!!

Love the report!!

 

Your shots of Dinosaur are great!! My brother used to work that ride! He was the guy that would say, "How many??"

 

Your report brought back some memories!! Thanks!!

[TheRapidsNerd]

I'm kind of a Ride Phone enthusiast

That one really struck me funny for some reason. Nice!

 

As always, terrific pictures and fun captions.

 

Did you see or get pics of the tree lady on stilts? Those charactors are most fascinating to me.

 

EDIT: I like your new spin on WTF? - FTW? (Fut The Wuck?)