Monthly Archives: April 2018

Saying Farewell to Walt Disney World

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It inevitably begins the day before the last day of our vacation.  I start to get anxious and wonder how the days went by so impossibly fast.  After all the planning and anticipation, vacation is practically over already!  Then I get a little depressed thinking, “Oh, NO! Tomorrow’s the last day!”.  And you know what?  I ruin the last day of vacation for myself.  This time?  I’m bound and determined not to let that happen.

Saying Farewell to Walt Disney World

Next month we’ll be spending a long-awaited five-and-a-half-day family vacation at Walt Disney World.  The dining’s been planned, the FastPasses have been booked and soon the packing will start.  Once we arrive, I know time will mysteriously and tragically speed up.  While it might not be possible to change the fact that time does indeed fly when we’re having fun, I’m planning to do everything possible to slow it down a little and make our last day every bit as happy as the first.

Over the past nearly five year existence of this blog, I’ve been dishing out advice like crazy…it’s time for me to listen to me.

My Strategy

Slow down – I plan so much stuff, it’s always full steam ahead all day, every day.  This time I’ve built-in big blocks of time to relax.  I’m convinced this will make our vacation seem to last longer.  As an added bonus, we’ll be less tired and Megan (who will be 7-months pregnant) will certainly benefit from less time on her feet.Epcot meeting Minnie

Stay in the moment – With tons of plans, comes a whole lot of looking ahead.  I love to take pictures, so maybe I can capture special moments while NOT thinking about what comes next.  In the past, when I’ve focused on being present and soaking up the magic of both being at Walt Disney World and also being surrounded by my most favorite people in the world, I seem to make better memories.  Who remembers what they were looking at on their cell phone at any particular time?  I certainly don’t.

Don’t over-plan – I always think the more we accomplish, the more fun we’ll have…as if we’ll never be back. That’s crazy and I’m not doing it again. I’ve deliberately only planned a few things for our last day and, because our plane leaves late on departure day, I’ve only planned one thing for that day.

Let someone else take the lead – To facilitate this, I’ve already emailed a spreadsheet of our itinerary to everyone.  I’m hoping Joseph will take the lead on Animal Kingdom days.  Thanks to the Disney College Program, he’s now more an expert than I could every hope to be.  I haven’t asked yet, but I’m sure Megan and Grant would be happy to take a day to lead the way.  I do love planning everything and giving everybody options on what we’ll do between FastPasses and where we can grab our Quick Service meals.  If I let go of the reins, though, maybe I’ll relax more.

I have a feeling that beating the last-day-blues will take practice, but I’m determined to conquer it!  My Grandma always said, “Quit while you still want more”.   While that seems to always be the case with every Disney vacation I take, it never feels like my choice to quit when it’s time to go home.  This time will hopefully be different with my new and improved strategy.

Do you have any advice for making the last Disney day more special?  I’d love to hear it.

 

 

Magic Kingdom – Tater Tots, Fried Twinkies & Pirates

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The new menu items at The Friar’s Nook in Magic Kingdom were on my wish list for Joseph’s dining reviews.  Lucky guy, he possesses both the metabolism and intestinal fortitude to try food items I would not.  The other day he had a chance to pop over to Magic Kingdom and grab a snack before checking out the newest version of Pirates of the Caribbean.  Here’s what he had to say about all of it. (Good job on the pics this time, Joseph!)

Magic Kingdom – Tater Tots, Fried Twinkies & Pirates – According to Joe

By Joseph Green

I knew The Friar’s Nook was in Fantasyland, but having never eaten there, it took me a minute to locate the restaurant.  Like many of Disney’s quick service snack shacks, the menu is small.  My choices were limited to tots, tots, tots, hotdog and tots, and the fried Twinkie.  I zeroed in on the Loaded Fiesta Tots (currently $9.49) and the Twinkie with chocolate sauce (currently $4.99).  There’s an assortment of sauces offered which also includes vanilla, strawberry, and caramel.

The Fiesta Tots were surprisingly good.  They’re topped with chili, cheese sauce, pico de gallo, and jalapenos.  Like those fries in the Refreshment Port’s poutine, the tots were hot, fresh and crispy.  The chili wasn’t greasy, but with the cheese sauce, might have been too heavy without the pico de gallo and peppers, which added just the right amount of freshness to this snack.  It didn’t hurt that the appearance of this tot concoction was really appetizing.  For what it’s worth – this tasted like something I could get at Taco Bell (I like Taco Bell).

Now, let’s talk about that Twinkie.  It looked harmless enough covered with powdered sugar and the chosen chocolate topping.  Unfortunately, frying a Twinkie causes it to lose much of its Twinkie-ness.  I’m not sure how to describe the texture, but it was denser than the non-fried version and less spongy.  The cream filling was gone completely.  It was a sweet, battered, fried dessert…if that’s your thing, you might like it.  Think funnel cake in log form.

A few words about Pirates.  I went to see the new Redhead and was blindsided by the changes that came before that part of the ride.  The mermaid skeleton is gone and the beach looks barren and unadorned, not to mention less menacing.  I liked it the other way better – menacing set the right tone and added just the right creepy feeling at this point in the ride.  The Auction scene looks great!  I was expecting the dialogue to be at least as funny as the old version and for me, it fell a bit short.  This was a missed opportunity to make the change more acceptable to those who didn’t want it.  I think it could have been a lot better or at least more clever.

Watch for my Blaze Pizza review coming soon and thanks for reading…Joe

Best Time for Animal Kingdom’s Kilimanjaro Safaris?

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If you’d asked our family this question a few weeks ago, we would have answered “Morning!”.  With gusto!  Having had amazing experiences in Animal Kingdom early in the day, we started always making FastPasses for Kilimanjaro Safaris at the beginning of every Animal Kingdom visit.

Best Time for Animal Kingdom’s Kilimanjaro Safaris?

During our last visit to Animal Kingdom, we wanted to wait until Joseph was finished with work for the day so he could ride with us.  I ended up making a late afternoon FastPass for Kilimanjaro Safaris and honestly had very low expectations for animal viewing.  I was so very wrong!  The animals were active, were close to the vehicle and we saw things we’d never seen during our dozens of previous safaris.  One of the best was this bull elephant enjoying his enrichment activity – playing with an enormous log!

As our expedition moved through all the different habitat areas, I was having a great time!  I started wondered exactly how far from sunset it was so I could share this with you and also try to replicate it in the future.  A quick check of my weather app and I calculated we began the safari just over an hour before official sunset time.

Animals were perky and the light on the savannah was beautiful.Best Time for Animal Kingdom's Kilimanjaro Safaris? Best Time for Animal Kingdom's Kilimanjaro Safaris?

Many animals were right beside our safari truck.  It was a treat to see them closer than ever before!Best Time for Animal Kingdom's Kilimanjaro Safaris? Best Time for Animal Kingdom's Kilimanjaro Safaris?

Okay, the hyena was sound asleep, but still!  We usually only see the African painted dogs, which swap habitats with the hyenas every evening. The switch had already taken place by the time we came along, so we got to see a hyena…sort of.Best Time for Animal Kingdom's Kilimanjaro Safaris?As I’ve mentioned before, I can’t not take a million pictures on each and every safari.  Raymond, Megan and Joseph can always be counted on to tease me about this irresistible urge.  This time was different though.  I was, as expected, snapping away, but the experience was so extraordinary that Raymond, from his place on the outside left of the safari truck, jumped in and took pictures right along with me, knowing I wouldn’t want to miss a thing.  (That’s true love for sure.)

So…Next time you find yourself booking a Kilimanjaro Safaris FastPass, check on sunset and book accordingly.  Hopefully, your tour will be as awesome as ours was.

Is Kilimanjaro Safaris an Animal Kingdom must-do for you?  What time of day was it when you saw the most amazing sights?