JanJ and KenJ's January 2014 Trip Report

Login to post comments
192 posts / 0 new
MrHub's picture
Offline
Joined: 10/29/2009
Posts: 9503

Never woke up to 28 degrees in Savannah before.

disneydoc's picture
Offline
Joined: 06/27/2012
Posts: 2415

mrhub wrote:
Never woke up to 28 degrees in Savannah before.

OMG! It is that cold in Atlanta too, but supposed to make it into the low50s by tomorrow. crossfingers

__________________

magicalkingdoms.com Ticker DIStickers.com Ticker

Offline
Joined: 12/28/2011
Posts: 1039

Great report!!! Gotta get back there soon. . . mickey

__________________

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.
J. R. R. Tolkien

Offline
Joined: 07/19/2013
Posts: 1562

Breakfast at the Grand Floridian Cafe this morning.

Lobster Eggs Benedict

Greek yogurt with honey.

French Toast with bacon.

We then headed over to MK.






Then a huge highlight for us was meeting up with MrHub and Scrappy (aka Mark and Judy)! We had a nice chat and rode the People Mover. Really great people and we're glad to have met them in person!

Jan and I then headed to Epcot and had dinner that the Coral Reef. It was very good and we enjoyed not only the fish, but all the divers that were in the tank. Some of them were interactive with those of us in the restaurant. It was really cool.

The backwards waterfall.

Off Kilter putting on a great performance.

On the walk back to the Boardwalk.

We've seen this street performer quite a few times on the Boardwalk. He put on a great show and the audience really enjoyed it.

alicemouse's picture
Offline
Joined: 10/22/2013
Posts: 2832

Wonderful pictures! They make me feel like I'm right there with you guys! So glad that you all got to meet up today. I hope the weather is warming a bit mickey

__________________

Be good at something. It makes you valuable. Have something to bring to the table because that will make you more welcome. --Randy Pausch

Find me on Facebook

Trip Reports:
December 2013: 10th Anniversary, 1st DVC Stay | April 2014: Birthday on the Boardwalk | May 2014: Star Wars Weekend, Navigating WDW with a wheelchair | August 2014: Villains Unleashed | September/October 2014: MNSSHP, F&W, Tower of Terror 10-miler | March/April 2015: Disneyland and California Coastal Cruise | November 2015: Wine & Dine Half, Food & Wine, 1st Disney Cruise | February 2016: Presidential Classic Gymnastics Meet | March 2016: "Work" Trip, Tours, F&G Festival | April 2016: Conference at Disneyland | Fall 2016: Festive Fall Fun | January 2017: Festival of the Arts | May 2017: AbD Backstage Magic | July 2017: AbD San Francisco | Sorry I had to give up doing trip reports. Too many time commitments right now.

finngirl's picture
Offline
Joined: 04/11/2012
Posts: 1072

Great photos. It looks like it was a beautiful day.

__________________

Diana

Time marches on. Eventually you realize it's doing it across your face.

Offline
Joined: 08/01/2012
Posts: 2037

finngirl wrote:
Great photos. It looks like it was a beautiful day.

And a whole lot warmer than where I am. Brrrrr!

JanJ's picture
Offline
Joined: 07/14/2013
Posts: 1681

finngirl wrote:
Great photos. It looks like it was a beautiful day.

It was a beautiful day, got up to 21C. Hope you got dug out at home - we heard Guelph was hit pretty good yesterday.

finngirl's picture
Offline
Joined: 04/11/2012
Posts: 1072

JanJ wrote:
finngirl wrote:
Great photos. It looks like it was a beautiful day.

It was a beautiful day, got up to 21C. Hope you got dug out at home - we heard Guelph was hit pretty good yesterday.

I would gladly take 21C right now! Yesterday was nasty! London had over 15 cm of snow - again!!!! - plus with the wind, it was about -25C (real temp a balmy -18C). We had 2 hours of sun this morning, and now it is snowing again. Our snow removal guy is earning his money this year! I am so done with winter! yuck

__________________

Diana

Time marches on. Eventually you realize it's doing it across your face.

Offline
Joined: 07/19/2013
Posts: 1562

Today is Animal Kingdom day!













Had lunch at the Yak and Yeti. One of our favourite restaurants!

Safari Amber Ale.

Firecracker Shrimp.

Pork Potstickers

Kobe Burger and Fries.

Bourbon Chicken.

JanJ's picture
Offline
Joined: 07/14/2013
Posts: 1681

I had the Kobe beef burger and it was as delicious as everyone said it would be. I ordered it with the Asian slaw and the shoestring fries were great as well. Love the Yak & Yeti - we have never been disappointed there! Just back at the room for a bit then headed over to Epcot later for a snack and to watch Illuminations.

JanJ's picture
Offline
Joined: 07/14/2013
Posts: 1681

PirateGirl wrote:
finngirl wrote:
Great photos. It looks like it was a beautiful day.

And a whole lot warmer than where I am. Brrrrr!

Hey PirateGirl - it was a very nice and sunny 70F. We're missing cold and snow back home too. It's a little more overcast today, but still pretty nice. I'll take it.

Offline
Joined: 08/01/2012
Posts: 2037

JanJ wrote:
PirateGirl wrote:
finngirl wrote:
Great photos. It looks like it was a beautiful day.

And a whole lot warmer than where I am. Brrrrr!

Hey PirateGirl - it was a very nice and sunny 70F. We're missing cold and snow back home too. It's a little more overcast today, but still pretty nice. I'll take it.

I am so enjoying your trip report and wished I was there. I just came in from shoveling snow and throwing salt so I can do it all over again tomorrow morning. Yeah! yuck

Kris1971's picture
Offline
Joined: 08/10/2011
Posts: 2350

Wow...great shot of the hippos! I've never seen them out of the water when I've been on that ride. Cool!

__________________

alicemouse's picture
Offline
Joined: 10/22/2013
Posts: 2832

Baby giraffe!!! So cute muchlove

__________________

Be good at something. It makes you valuable. Have something to bring to the table because that will make you more welcome. --Randy Pausch

Find me on Facebook

Trip Reports:
December 2013: 10th Anniversary, 1st DVC Stay | April 2014: Birthday on the Boardwalk | May 2014: Star Wars Weekend, Navigating WDW with a wheelchair | August 2014: Villains Unleashed | September/October 2014: MNSSHP, F&W, Tower of Terror 10-miler | March/April 2015: Disneyland and California Coastal Cruise | November 2015: Wine & Dine Half, Food & Wine, 1st Disney Cruise | February 2016: Presidential Classic Gymnastics Meet | March 2016: "Work" Trip, Tours, F&G Festival | April 2016: Conference at Disneyland | Fall 2016: Festive Fall Fun | January 2017: Festival of the Arts | May 2017: AbD Backstage Magic | July 2017: AbD San Francisco | Sorry I had to give up doing trip reports. Too many time commitments right now.

Offline
Joined: 07/19/2013
Posts: 1562

Kris1971 wrote:
Wow...great shot of the hippos! I've never seen them out of the water when I've been on that ride. Cool!

I know! It was amazing as I've never seen them out of the water until today. We were able to see a lot of the animals today in fact. All the lions were out sitting on their heated rocks too.

Offline
Joined: 07/19/2013
Posts: 1562

alicemouse wrote:
Baby giraffe!!! So cute muchlove

I agree! We saw this little guy back in September too and he's grown a lot since then. I have pics of him in our Sept. trip report. The safari driver told us he was 7 feet tall when born.

JanJ's picture
Offline
Joined: 07/14/2013
Posts: 1681

Kris1971 wrote:
Wow...great shot of the hippos! I've never seen them out of the water when I've been on that ride. Cool!

It's the first time I've seen any out of the water too! It was very overcast so I guess they weren't worried about getting sunburned!

Offline
Joined: 07/19/2013
Posts: 1562

The driver was quite humorous too. He told us the hippos don't really know how to swim. They just hold their breath and sort of bounce around on the bottom. laugh

alicemouse's picture
Offline
Joined: 10/22/2013
Posts: 2832

KenJ wrote:
alicemouse wrote:
Baby giraffe!!! So cute muchlove

I agree! We saw this little guy back in September too and he's grown a lot since then. I have pics of him in our Sept. trip report. The safari driver told us he was 7 feet tall when born.

WOW! we only saw him sitting down, but I would have guessed him to have barely crested that height in December!

__________________

Be good at something. It makes you valuable. Have something to bring to the table because that will make you more welcome. --Randy Pausch

Find me on Facebook

Trip Reports:
December 2013: 10th Anniversary, 1st DVC Stay | April 2014: Birthday on the Boardwalk | May 2014: Star Wars Weekend, Navigating WDW with a wheelchair | August 2014: Villains Unleashed | September/October 2014: MNSSHP, F&W, Tower of Terror 10-miler | March/April 2015: Disneyland and California Coastal Cruise | November 2015: Wine & Dine Half, Food & Wine, 1st Disney Cruise | February 2016: Presidential Classic Gymnastics Meet | March 2016: "Work" Trip, Tours, F&G Festival | April 2016: Conference at Disneyland | Fall 2016: Festive Fall Fun | January 2017: Festival of the Arts | May 2017: AbD Backstage Magic | July 2017: AbD San Francisco | Sorry I had to give up doing trip reports. Too many time commitments right now.

JMUDukz's picture
Offline
Joined: 03/28/2012
Posts: 822

I love your pics!! The ones of the food are now making me rethink my ADRs! That bread and butter pudding looks SO good!

__________________

magicalkingdoms.com Ticker

magicalkingdoms.com Ticker

JanJ's picture
Offline
Joined: 07/14/2013
Posts: 1681

JMUDukz wrote:
I love your pics!! The ones of the food are now making me rethink my ADRs! That bread and butter pudding looks SO good!

It seriously is the best dessert I've had on site, ever. I would definitely recommend it. I could actually eat it again right now. wink

JoAnn C's picture
Offline
Joined: 05/20/2011
Posts: 6757

It's great you got to meet up with Mr Hub and Scrappy. I hope to meet them someday.

I've only seen the hippos in the water too.

__________________

amy1989's picture
Offline
Joined: 12/30/2013
Posts: 1404

Great TR I'm now very excited for my ADR's at both Yak and Yeti and Raglan Road!!!

Also fantastic pictures!!!!

Offline
Joined: 07/19/2013
Posts: 1562

Today we did the Marceline to Magic Kingdom tour. They advertise it as the "light" version of KTTK, but I disagree. It's an altogether different tour. I was able to take some pics again before the park opened to the public.

A bride's ultimate dream photo perhaps?

Hidden Mickey under the roof of the train station.

An empty park.








Then, my favourite... The Haunted Mansion with nobody around!




After we rode HM with our guide narrating throughout, we got to go behind the scenes in the lower floor of HM. We stood right beside the ballroom and saw how that effect is done. Being there was really cool. All you can hear is the sound of motors, solenoids and pneumatics. There a LOT of motors running in that place. You can also hear thunder sound effects. But you can't hear any of the music or narration as that is all piped directly into the doom buggies. We could see the buggies running right above our heads!

The official Disney family crest mounted on the back of Cinderella Castle.

We finished the tour with a private ride on Carousel of Progress. Our tour guide narrated throughout and we learned how the attraction is such a huge part of Disney's history.



I took this shot on the way out of MK. This is the maintenance vehicle doing work on the monorail. It appears they are replacing the electric third rail.

We had an ADR at Cali Grill tonight. It was great as usual!

Table by the window for Wishes fireworks!

I ordered the Bison. Never had it before, but it was really good. I think I still prefer good ol' filet of beef though.

Jan ordered the "Pork Two Ways".

The view from our window was great!

JanJ's picture
Offline
Joined: 07/14/2013
Posts: 1681

Today we had lunch at the Liberty Tree Inn (sorry no pictures). It was really good and it was nice to have a good salad for lunch. We had never eaten there before, so it was a nice change.

Also forgot to mention from last week that we finally got to see the cowboy version of the GMR at DHS. We've only ever seen the gangster version and didn't even realize there was a second one until I was reading about it on the forum.

As Ken said, we are off to the Cali Grill for dinner. Looking forward to see the changes that have been made. Tomorrow we have FP+ for Epcot and we plan to enjoy our morning coffee on the balcony as we don't have to be there until early after lunch.

Almost met up with Mandy today at MK, but we missed her. Hopefully we'll get to meet her before we head home on Saturday.

Allie's picture
Offline
Joined: 06/26/2012
Posts: 5477

Trying to catch up on your trip report today and none of the pictures are working for me! Wah wah! sad They all say "This person moved or deleted this image"

Offline
Joined: 07/19/2013
Posts: 1562

Please bear with me folks as I rebuild parts of this report. I messed up all the links and have decided just to go back and rebuild the report. I think this means this thread will pop up as "new" each time I edit it.

Thanks!

Offline
Joined: 07/19/2013
Posts: 1562

Allie wrote:
Trying to catch up on your trip report today and none of the pictures are working for me! Wah wah! sad They all say "This person moved or deleted this image"

Hi Allie, you should be able to see all the pics again. I've finished rebuilding the links. mickey

Offline
Joined: 07/19/2013
Posts: 1562

So, today (Tuesday) we were at Epcot for most of the day. It was a "leave the camera at home" type of day so I don't have any pics. We rode Soarin' and Living with the Land. We then just wandered around the park.

However, the highlight of the day was this evening. MrHub and Scrappy graciously invited us to join them for a Wishes cruise. I've never done anything like it before. We were driven around Seven Seas Lagoon and Bay Lake in a very comfortable boat and had a really great view of MK and all the resorts in the area.

Meeting up at the Poly.

The welcome we received when stepping into the boat!

The amazing views from the water.

Let the show begin! What a unique experience this was. Seeing the fireworks from the lake with the music piped directly to the boat was amazing.



A boatful of happy people!

Thank you MrHub and Scrappy! We thoroughly enjoyed this new experience. Thanks for sharing this Disney magic with us (and all the trivia too)!