Now we hadn’t been to Animal Kingdom for three years. We had quite literally burnt ourselves out on Animal Kingdom after writing a story on it for our magazine and spending quite literally 6-7 days at the park (not in a row!).
We got up I believe around 8:30 or so, ate our croissants (love those), and headed for the park. It was the unofficial guide’s best park, plus it was a crowd level 4 so I expected the crowds to be low and they were. Our first stop was to head for Kilimanjaro Safari for a fast pass, when we arrived the stand by was 40 mins, and the fast passes were for about an hour later, so we figured we could grab a fast pass, and take the walking tour next door.
The obligatory tree shot
Mr. Anti SocialThe Pagani Forest Trails main exhibit is the lowland gorillas, but the trail was packed with people, obviously that's were everyone was hanging out! Going back to the trail though, pretty cool. I am pretty sure Pagani is the trail with the bats, and I have to say Busch shows off the bats better, the have a twilight-like environment were you get to see the bats flying about. Animal Kingdom they were all just hanging there. Makes you just want to go out there and poke one to make sure they are real. :)
When we headed out it was about 11:30 and we still had some time for our fast pass so we went and grabbed lunch. We were near Asia so we headed to Yak and Yeti Anadapur Café (Counter Service), we had tried the Table Service version a few years ago and liked it. Both Jeff and I decided on the Honey Chicken, with a chocolate chip cookie as our dessert. Overall it was good, it wasn’t full of just veggies, and the chicken didn’t taste as it had sat around for awhile. Truthfully though it wasn’t much different then what you could get at a close by your basic chinese restaurant. That can be a good thing though.
Some nice theming in the Asia section.
After eating we saw the crowds pouring into the same line that was non-existent when we arrived at the restaurant so we figured we had hit that just right. Next, we headed to the nearby Everest it was about a 40 minute standby so we picked up a fast pass. We also noticed the in-station steam train effect was working, which was a plus over our previous visit. Turns out that was about the only thing that WAS working. I will leave you hanging for a brief moment as we journey back to Africa though.
We headed back to Kilimanjaro Safari and noticed the stand by stated 20 minutes. We used our fast pass, but found it a waste, the fast pass line joined the stand by line at the same point, causing fast pass to save us absolutely zero time. Overall the wait itself was maybe a few minutes before we were in our jeep vehicle and headed out on our 2 week journey.
Why do all birds like to show off around us? seriously?Prior to today I had ridden Kilimanjaro Safari several times, it IS the premier attraction at Animal Kingdom, and it is one aspect of the park that quite literally beats Busch to a hilt. It is amazing from minute one to the end. In this case our ride was even better then usual. The Ankole Cattle were right up next to our vehicle, standing on either side of the road. I could have stuck my hand out and touched one (don’t worry I am not that stupid). Amazingly a Giraffe came about just as close, walked right next to us parallel to our vehicle. That’s about the closest I think I have ever been to these graceful creatures. Towards the end of our journey an Ostrich decided to block our path for a few minutes. He (who knows it could have been a she), just stood there, looking at us, thinking what the heck WE were doing THERE. Very funny. Finally, she/he/it moved, and we were on our way. Overall it was a great ride, one of our best experiences on the safari, plus we had an excellent driver, I especially loved his comment about the radio station being the #1 station for the last 11 years. :)
See what I mean about the birds?
My theory is that the animals here ignored us since we visited the animals at Busch first.After disembarking, we shopped a little bit in the Harambe market, and then headed for Asia once more. Our time wasn’t up for Everest yet so we stopped at the Maharaja Jungle Trek, home to the Bengal Tigers and also a wonderful bird exhibit. I know both walking paths have bird exhibits but we saw several more birds in Asia then we did in Africa. What especially is memorable is that two large, colorful birds (I think pheasants?) stood for a few minutes right in the middle of the pathway! In fact I am not truly sure who was on display, us or them! Since more of the exhibit birds like to hide out of the way, this was a unique experience.
Nope, no Yeti home today.
One of the rarest species at Animal Kingdom, the rare Expedition Everest hawk.After exiting we headed for Everest. As I mentioned it was positive to see the “minor” steam theming working in the station, but that is were the positive comments begin and end. (ok the hawk at the spur end was working too). However the Yeti. What can I say? Everest was the biggest, I mean THE BIGGEST disappointment of the trip. The first time we rode Everest, during AP preview the Yeti was absolutely amazing, it almost felt like the Yeti was about to pick you up out of your car. A few years later, they had a tether holding the yeti’s arm up, obvious yes, tacky, yes, but the Yeti still moved (somewhat), and was still visible. This time though. Disney should be ASHAMED. If we hadn’t known the Yeti was there, we wouldn’t have known it was there. We saw a brief flash of a strobe light, a bit of motion, and growl and that was it.
Moving on to a more positive experience our next stop was Finding Nemo the musical. The next show was at 3:30 and we were in line 45 minutes before showtime. What that scored us was about as front row seat as you can possibly have, we were sitting right next to the center bump out (runway), Jeff got some great photos and it was pretty cool being that close, and being able to see the details of the actors faces. We had seen the show during the very end of “dress rehearsal” but it has significantly improved since then, the story was intact, the actors and dancers were spectacular and incredibly talented. It almost made up for Everest. Almost.
After exiting the show we headed for Dinorama, we stopped at a pin kiosk and traded a pin or two, plus picked up a lanyard for all the pins we have traded for. As it was approaching 4PM, we decided to head through the Dinorama store, and then head out. As we were heading out it looked like they were preparing for the parade, I thought the parade was at 3PM though? Maybe not. Overall even with Everest it was a good day, the weather was nice, it was sunny and comfortable to be outside.
When we arrived back at Boardwalk the main parking lot (closest to the building) was pretty full, we realized that there must be a convention going on (or two or three) and we found out later that the place was packed! We ended up finding a spot, and walked to our room, where we relaxed a bit and began the awful task of starting to pack.
We had an ADR for Chefs De France at 7:30, so close to 6:30 we began heading down. Instead of heading directly to EPCOT we stopped by Community Hall first and picked up a movie rental… yep Wall-E, I was on a real Wall-E kick this trip for some reason! We dropped the DVD off at the room, and headed for EPCOT. The walk there just proved how packed the place was, Sea Breeze point had a large convention gathering, The Boardwalk was packed, and the beach at Beach Club, was smashed like sardines full of tables. People in suits and business clothes were everywhere!
We entered EPCOT, and milled around the France pavilion for a few minutes and then headed to check in for our ADR at Chefs. About two years prior we had eaten at Bistro, and while the reviews of Chefs seemed either love/hate I went in with an open mind. Overall, it was okay. Not the worst food I have ever had at Disney, not the best French food I have ever had. (it might have been the bistro we ate at in Montreal overwhelming this Florida version). I had the Roasted Breast of Duck and Jeff had the Filet. Originally, before traveling I had thought for sure I would have the Salmon, I wish I had stuck with that decision. The duck was not the worlds greatest, it tasted as if it had sat under the heating lamps for a little too long. Maybe the duck was waiting on Jeff’s beef, which turned out to be quite good.
The aspect that really sticks with me though isn’t so much the food, but the noise! My gosh it was loud in there! It made our waiter somewhat hard to understand, even though he was quite attentive and checked back with us often.
One interesting point, is that in my decision on where to eat for our anniversary I had a hard time deciding between Narcoosee’s and Bistro, obviously we finally chose Narcoosee’s, but Bistro was a contender for the one reason that it has a soufflé on its dessert menu. I had assumed you could only order that from Bistro. It turns out that in some cases you can order off the Bistro menu from Chefs De France. Interesting.
Instead of a soufflé of course Jeff and I went off the regular menu. I almost chose the crepe, but instead went with my original desire the Crème Brule, while Jeff had, you guessed it, the chocolate cake (he is not the most original when it comes to ordering but you have to give him points for staying the course) The Crème Brule was EXCELLENT. Probably the best dessert of the week.
Chefs in the end turned out to be one our quickest meals, as we finished about 8:30, and with us moving to the Polynesian the next day, we headed back to our room for one last night.
Okay yes we saw Illuminations Wednesday night but Jeff hadn't uploaded those photos yet, so I figured this would be a good time.
I finished up the packing, it was nice that through the week we had washed almost all of our clothing, allowing me to pack mostly clean clothes. While packing I had put Wall-E and watched it into the evening. The next morning would be a early rise, for the highlight of the trip. I will leave you hanging…
Since there will be VERY few photos for this day I figured I would share a few more of the Boardwalk.
You can see our room, its the 2nd to the top room in the yellow section.I woke up with the alarm clock at about 6:45 and headed for the shower, that was one great shower head, overshadowed by the experience for the next two days at Polynesian (notice I have this obsession with keeping you hanging?) I looked out the window, a beautiful day, the sun was rising over EPCOT, I wish I had taken a photo but alas I did not. Jeff got up, got ready next, and with a minute or two of free time we finished up two croissants that we had picked up at the Boardwalk Bakery the previous evening.
The next thing I knew I was calling down to Bell Services to pick up our bags, this actually was a relatively unusual situation. With Pop Century early in the trip, we had left our luggage in the room and bell services picked it up after we had left. Boardwalk wouldn’t do it, we had to be there for them to pick up the luggage (I wonder if it has anything to do with wanting a tip?) instead as we were on a time limit we pulled our luggage down to bell services, or rather Jeff did, while I returned the DVD we had picked up the previous night.
We meet back in the room, for one last look, I was depressed to leave that room it was so luxurious and amazing, I will never see a standard hotel room ever the same way again…
Thank you DVC.
We got in our car and headed for the front entrance of EPCOT, I still haven’t spilled what was up yet have I? Well I will leave you hanging no more. Two weeks prior to our trip Jeff and I had finally made the decision to book the tour of all WDW tours, the $200 tour I like to call it, otherwise known as Backstage Magic.
The reason I call Backstage Magic the $200 tour is relatively obvious its $200 PER PERSON, for a 7 hour Backstage tour of the four parks (yes I said four). I was hesitant to book the tour, you might assume because of the price but also because of some of the mild reviews I had read. However, we had been discussing taking this tour for about 5-6 years so this time seemed to be the perfect time.
Our group that we meet at the EPCOT entrance included 32 people on the tour that morning and two tour guides, Wayne and Monica. Our guide was Wayne, and he lead our group, which was about 15-16 people total. We were given headsets which proved indispensable allowing us to hear Wayne even if we were in the back of the group.
Before I had signed up for the tour I had read a few reviews, and some of them were not the best. However, what I seemed to get from the reviews is that sometimes people don’t really want to see the “guts” of how everything works, they want the magic, and want to ride rides. There was no riding on this tour unlike Keys to the Kingdom, but that was just fine with us. Jeff and I have worked at our local amusement park for what is now a combined 23 years (and we are going back for more!), we are interested in how rides are pulled apart, refurbished, and how they run behind the scenes. For that reason this review will be very detailed, and if you don’t want the magic spoiled I would recommend you skip the next few paragraphs.
SPOILER ALERT********************************************
We climbed on our motor coach home for the next 7 hours, (yes it was a 7 hour tour! Why else would it be $200?) our first stop after riding behind the scenes, including seeing the backside of Test Track (not near as cool as the back side of water though), we stopped behind the American Adventure. I had read about this, and as I really enjoy this attraction I was very excited to finally see how all those animatronics work, and function as part of the show. Interesting enough at EPCOT the back areas, while very clean, are functional, and un-themed. Wayne mentioned that when the EPCOT resorts (Boardwalk/Beach Club, etc) were built this caused a problem, requiring that they not only plant a tree barrier to hide the unattractive, unthemed, back area, but they also chose to minimally theme some of the upper levels of the back area buildings. Reasoning, these "back areas" were now not entirely "back areas" and had become visible from the new resorts being built. While it’s a human touch that the big shots at Disney didn’t realize that one point until after the resorts were built, (five legged goat anyone?). I also think its a testament to how truly concerned Disney is with detail, that they fixed what is basically a view from a few balconies almost a mile away.
So back to the American Adventure, we learned that they test the show twice before the park opens. We were to see the show from the backside. There is no way I can fully explain how the animatronics function, and as we couldn’t take photos. Well no photos. However, if you think about a roller coaster, all 26 full-size animatronics are enclosed in their own steel structure and then mounted all together on one giant steel "car". When the show starts each time, the "car" then rolls BELOW the audience like a coaster train (in a way). During the show each character raises and lowers as their scene is played. It was massive, and surprising, I had no idea that the show actually sat below the audience! Very cool.
After watching about the first five minutes of the show, we headed back out to the empty World Showcase, while our tour guide explained some details in the construction of the various buildings (force perspective, that type of thing). Jeff and I were called in to serve as dummies, one comparing a short person and one comparing a tall person. I wonder which was which?
We soon boarded the bus again, and headed towards Magic Kingdom. Now most of us know about the new Bay Lake Tower DVC that was built, and Jeff and I feel in love with it so much that we bought in, so its rather personal for us. Wayne made a quick comment that I found funny, of course Bay Lake Tower’s acronym is BLT (like the sandwich) well I guess the cast members had decided that if there was a BLT, then the main Contemporary Tower would be the Toaster. It sort of looks like one, come to think about it…
Anywho, we pulled into the back area of Magic Kingdom, and headed down for a quick tour of the Utiladors, (for those who don’t know Magic Kingdom, the park is actually on the 2nd floor, the 1st floor is and underground tunnel that contains basic behind the scenes operations, these are known as the Utiladors). This short portion of the tour was very much like what we had seen on Keys to the Kingdom, however I liked the point about the large suction trash tube that runs the length of the ceiling (keep in mind trash cans are straight above), ahh no more smelly dumpsters!
After Magic Kingdom, we boarded the bus once more and headed for the real back area, Central Shops. I had no idea these were covered on the tour, and we were excited to hear where we were headed, though I was worried if it might just be a quick drive by. Nope. We did drive by the Monorail/Steam Train round (square) house, and the holidays warehouse, which had several parts of various Christmas trees outside waiting for packing.
We stopped outside the massive Central Shops. For those that have been to a regular Six Flags, or Worlds of Fun, Central Shops was as large as practically the entire park itself! This is were all the rides, ride units, animatronics, signs, and basically anything that requires painting, maintenance, electric, or metal work gets worked on. Every park I have ever been to has a Central Shop, and really Central Shops at WDW seemed just a much LARGER, CLEANER, more maintained, more detail oriented version of what every other park has. Just better. MUCH better.
While visiting we had to wear safety glasses, for obvious reasons. While there we had the chance to pass by a carousel horse being repainted, and I found it amazing that the Magic Kingdom park has fiberglass copies of their horses, so that when they are repairing the real classic wood version, the guests never know.
Another amazing point, when we were there they were painting one of the dinosaur cars from Triceratop Spin at Animal Kindgom (basically a spin and puke ride). What took me a while to realize was that in order for Central Shops to be working on one of the dinosaur cars, they would have had to have a back up out in the park. Why this is so unusual (besides the extra cost involved) is that at most parks if they were needed to repair a ride unit the park would leave either an empty hole where the car would be, or the ride would be completely down for maintaince. In this case, nope. Disney has back up units for EVERY ride, even basic spinning rides! That's pretty amazing that they not only spend the extra cost just to protect the appearance and operation of one simple ride, but that they even consider the option.
So after Central Shops what more is there to see and do? Well as you might imagine we were both quite hungry, as it was now close to Noon, so our next stop was food! That morning we had been told lunch would be at Whispering Canyon and Wilderness Lodge, one of our favorite resorts, and favorite restaurants. (lunch is included with the tour price) While we had a moment of sadness when we discovered milkshakes weren’t included, the food was good as usual, plus we ran into one of our favorite servers Jeffro!
Back out on the bus after lunch our next stop was MGM for a look at park costuming. A few previous reviewers complained about this stop, mentioning it was basically what you see from the Backlot Tour at the park. I have to completely disagree. It was amazing that Disney creates costumes specifically for the actor playing that major character (Belle, Cinderella etc), and if that person should quit the costume isn’t re-altered, its destroyed. In the lobby area they had several ornate costumes on display as decoration (it was a real working area) including a heavily beaded costume from the Legend of the Lion King at Animal Kingdom, and one of my favorites, a costume from Tapestry of Nations. Inside the work area we got to see the seamstresses, and costume designers at work. This is where all costuming from Disney World, as well as the Disney Cruise line is designed and created. It was pretty amazing. I couldn’t help but think of our small costuming department at Worlds of Fun, and how Donna the head of WOF costuming since the park opened would love to have a work area like that!
After costuming we headed over to Tower of Terror, to check out briefly their small maintainance department (every major ride has its own crew dedicated to that ride or attraction) we had a chance to check out the Tower of Terror ride vehicle that was on stand by should another car go down for maintenance. Pretty neat to see the car up front, and see just how small the “track” really is as it basically just a simple copper wire imbedded into the ground.
We headed back to bus, and after a few minutes headed for one of our last stops, the back, back, back area of WDW, the greenhouses. It was interesting driving through natural Florida, and realizing that this was that 26,000 acres that you always read about! Wayne talked about the tree nursery they used to have for growing mature trees, and “back up” trees to replace more important thematic trees. This was started when WDW opened and there weren’t any tree farms in the vicinity to buy specific, or more mature trees. Now that that has changed, the tree nursery has pretty much been abandoned, and most of the remaining trees were used to fill in Animal Kingdom park.
The topiary Greenhouses were though one of the best parts of the tour. It was about a month before Flower and Garden festival (which Jeff and I have never attended though we would like to), and many of the large topiaries were near completion or had been completed already. Let me say, they were pretty amazing! We were able to take photos here, as they are on a different camera I will add them later. However, for those who have not been during F&G Festival, GO. Hopefully I will have the opportunity myself soon.
After hanging out around the greenhouses for a bit of time, we headed for the buses one more time for our last stop. Previously the tour had ended at Magic Kingdom I guess to see the floats for the mid-day parade. Instead of heading there we headed to the fourth Disney Park Animal Kingdom. Now Jeff and I had been behind the scenes of Animal Kingdom before when we had been working on a story on the park for our magazine. However, in this situation we stopped somewhere we had never been, at the float storage for the Animal Kingdom parade. Of all Disney parades this is one of the few I really like (the others being Tapestry of Nations and Main Street Electrical Parade), as the floats are so unique and fit into the Animal Kingdom theme so well. We got to see up close how each of the floats “worked” though most were pretty basic. After we headed out and met back up with our bus for the last time, it was closing in on 4PM, and time to head back to EPCOT. Overall, it was a very enjoyable tour, our tour guide Wayne was quite possibly one of the best tour guides we have ever had on any Disney tour, he was easy to listen to, and was incredibly informed!
**END SPOILERS****
As we left our bus in the EPCOT parking lot, we picked up our collectible pin, and headed for our car, left in the first line of cars so long prior. Overall, though the tour was incredibly expensive, and if we were to take it again for that reason it wouldn’t be for a long time. However, I would highly recommend the tour for anyone who has a real interest to see the inner “not so magical” workings of Disney World. It was great for us as we had worked at a park for many years ourselves, and both of us have always been interested in just how Disney does everything different, how they achieve such a great final product. Well now we know, atleast somewhat.
So after getting in our car, our next stop was obvious, it was to check in to our final home for the last two nights, a place I had been looking so forward to for two months after it became my Christmas present, the Polynesian. Overall I was underwhelmed with the entire experience, and overall quality. We had stayed there once before for one night, and that was magical, but the magic wasn’t entirely there the second time around as you will soon read.
We had done online check in a few days prior, and I was happy to find out that atleast part of our request, for Tokelau building was fulfilled, but not a high floor. I was okay with that, I wasn’t expecting to get every single one of my requests for all the places we stayed at, and in fact I think overall in the request department we did quite well. We had a bell services cast member who took us by golf cart to our room, we tipped him then checked out the room.
Now maybe it was because we had such an amazing experience at Boardwalk, with such a great room, and great view that maybe the comparison left me underwhelmed, but I don’t think that was entirely it. Of course the room did feel small compared to Boardwalk, but there was some significant wear and tear to the room too. Now a lot of families with small children stay at Polynesian, plus if you consider that many people don’t leave comments with the front desk about room problems I can understand some of the problems with our room.
However it was a downer considering how much we did pay for the room, for some $225 a night is a drop in the bank, for us it was a lot of money. In comparison though, Pop Century was honestly in MUCH better shape. The fan blowed the entire time, and white it wasn't too cold, it was definitely loud! There were holes and peeling wall paper in the bathroom, and when I say holes I am not saying holes in the wallpaper but entire dents in the dry wall itself. The woodwork was knicked in many places, and the desk lamp was either burnt out, or the electric outlet wasn’t working properly. Plus, our refrigerator went on the fritz and only worked about half the time we were there. All minor issues if taken by themselves, together though…
Anyway, we did enjoy our room, it was incredibly large compared to other basic resort rooms on Disney property, and the location couldn’t be beat. After checking out the room, we headed out to check out the shops, and stopped at Captain Cooks to use up our last Counter Service credit. I had the grilled cheese with pinapple for dessert, Jeff had the bacon cheeseburger. To be honest, the chips were very good, everything else… not so much. It seemed the cooks were trying to hard to be gourmet, with what is just basic food. A grilled cheese should be bread, cheese, and butter. Not a gourmet thing, a grilled cheese… I took a few bites and finished my meal with the chips, and pineapple.
After finishing up we noticed it was getting close to 6PM so we hurried towards the front of the lobby of Polynesian for the torch lighting ceremony. We arrived right as the ceremony was starting with the blowing of the conch shell. It was a quick show, but pretty cool, I especially enjoyed the fire dancer/eater. (with real fire!) We planned on heading back the next night for photos, unfortunately we didn’t make it, but it is definitly worth the time.
Our next decision was what to do with the rest of the evening, and we both decided to head for the Magic Kingdom for Wishes fireworks. Now as we headed back to our room somehow we got caught up with stopping at the DVC booth, I think it was to maybe ask about BLT pins? Well to make a long story short (something I really need to work on!) we ended up having a nice conversion with Jennifer the DVC sales lady, and amazingly ended up with a coveted (for me atleast) BLT pin! Multiple thanks to Jennifer and for all those looking at buying DVC, go see Jennifer at Polynesian to set up your tour! She’s wonderful as anyone with the name of Jennifer of course naturally is.
About 7PM we began our journey to the Magic Kingdom, we headed for the monorail which was pretty packed all the way there. We made it to the park in good time though, and after entering decided to camp out on Main Street USA and people watch for a bit as we waited to join the crowd in front of the castle. As the time drew near we got up and waited out about 15 minutes for the start of the show.
Pet peeve time, I hate it when at the last minute parents hoist their kids on their shoulders… GRRR there are adults behind you who would like to see the show too. (it probably frustrates me more then most as I am fairly short) Anyway. We thankfully had very few this time around, and come to think of it I think this might have been the first time we saw Wishes directly from in front of the castle. The show was AMAZING, we had seen Wishes from Tommorowland, Liberty Square bridge, Main Street USA, and California Grill, but nothing beats standing right there in front of the castle itself. Very magical, and to a certain extent I can understand why so many guests feel the way they do about Wishes.
After the show, we hung around the park for a bit, Jeff taking photos of the castle, the hub and most importantly Tommorowland, which looks its best at night anyway. In fact we were there so long we actually were the last people to stand in Tommorowland that night. As the crowds had thinned out we headed back to the monorail, and back to Polynesian for the night.
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