Dec 2010: Mayhem Invades Disney World!!!

[Amy]

True, but you don't find dogs running wild all over the place at the WDW resorts like you do the squirrels.

Unless someone here is dumb enough to ____ off a squirrel (or any other wild animal you can find at WDW) to the point of attacking you, I don't think anyone has anything to worry about.
Sea gulls on the other hand, they'll blatantly "attack" you for any food you may have anywhere near you, whether it is your food or not. But then again, we can thank stupid guests for that.

Oooo, I think seagulls are cute too

[mindflipper]

Okay, people, leave the wildlife alone!

Anyone wanna post an update to their trip report?

[wewantsdaredhead]

Okay, people, leave the wildlife alone!

Anyone wanna post an update to their trip report?

I think they are stalling for time by distracting you with rodent-talk. If it's any consolation, mf, I updated my trip report with the final day.

[Amy]

Okay, people, leave the wildlife alone!
Anyone wanna post an update to their trip report?

I think they are stalling for time by distracting you with rodent-talk. If it's any consolation, mf, I updated my trip report with the final day.

And it was AWESOME!! (Your trip report, not the stalling talking about the rodents ) So now I think I might need the buzz to die down about your final day so there isn't any unfavorable comparing of my report to yours
Actually I uploaded about 1/2 of my Tokyo trip pictures last night. They were still uploading when I went to bed. That is what takes so long is loading all the photos and then resizing them, but that is the best part of the report so I will continue to slog away at them.
Why, you ask, am I working on the Tokyo pictures and not the WDW pictures from last month? Well, I didn't have my iphone where all my trip notes are so I wasn't sure where I had left off and where I needed to start again Oh my! Plus b-babe hasn't started her report yet so I am still golden (or...green, I guess )

[MadEye]

Sea gulls on the other hand, they'll blatantly "attack" you for any food you may have anywhere near you, whether it is your food or not. But then again, we can thank stupid guests for that.

Oooo, I think seagulls are cute too

So you haven't had one dive bomb you for your food yet I take it?

One day I was at MK in 05 or 06 and while I was eating some McDonald's fries in Frontierland I figured I would people watch as they were dropped into the Briar Patch on Splash Mountain. There was not a sea gull in site when I got there. Five minutes later there were about 20 who knew I had some food. They were all trying to get my food but one was brazen enough to dive bomb me and literally hit me in the back of the head with his wing trying to get me to drop my fries. I only had a few left and I ate all the fries that were in the container with no other incidents after that.

Ever since then, I've been wary of sea gulls wherever I go and the most aggressive I've seen since was in front of the attraction formerly known as Earthquake while my girlfriend tried to eat a funnel cake in 2008.

[Amy]

Sea gulls on the other hand, they'll blatantly "attack" you for any food you may have anywhere near you, whether it is your food or not. But then again, we can thank stupid guests for that.

Oooo, I think seagulls are cute too

So you haven't had one dive bomb you for your food yet I take it?
One day I was at MK in 05 or 06 and while I was eating some McDonald's fries in Frontierland I figured I would people watch as they were dropped into the Briar Patch on Splash Mountain. There was not a sea gull in site when I got there. Five minutes later there were about 20 who knew I had some food. They were all trying to get my food but one was brazen enough to dive bomb me and literally hit me in the back of the head with his wing trying to get me to drop my fries. I only had a few left and I ate all the fries that were in the container with no other incidents after that.
Ever since then, I've been wary of sea gulls wherever I go and the most aggressive I've seen since was in front of the attraction formerly known as Earthquake while my girlfriend tried to eat a funnel cake in 2008.

Oh my! I didn't know that could be that brazen I know I see people feed them and I just shake my head sadly because the food isn't good for the birds and it only encourages them to beg and be more pesty

[mindflipper]

I just had the black birds at MGM/DHS sit right on my table and wait for us to finish. They were very patient lunch guests.

[Amy]

I just had the black birds at MGM/DHS sit right on my table and wait for us to finish. They were very patient lunch guests.

Much more civilized than the gulls!

[Mousekedude]

Don't even get me started on Gulls....

Day 9, Wednesday 12-8-10

Our itinerary had us going fishing with the Boilers this morning, but we all agreed yesterday to cancel that due to the cold. Sooooo… unfortunately, no fishing or mouseketinkling mayhem to report.
However, we also had an ADR for breakfast with them at the Kona Café. So we headed over there. It’s a good thing we canceled fishing, because we were all very tired. You should have seen us all slumped over our coffee at the breakfast table. It was hilarious. Unfortunately we don’t have any pictures of breakfast. We were too tired to even remember to take any. Boilerbabe might have some when she posts her report, I don’t know.
After breakfast, we all decided to go to AK for the day. So while the Boilers went back to their room for some last minute adjustments, Mouseoholic and I admired the lush landscaping in the lobby:










When it was time to go, we went out to wait for a bus. Apparently there was some kind of issue going on with the monorails this morning. There were rumors of a breakdown, stranded passengers, etc. Even the buses were running late… probably due to overflow from the monorail issues… but all I know is that we waited a long, long time for a bus, and during that time one of the trains was completely stopped right over our heads for at least 10 or 15 minutes:




Finally our bus came, and we never did find out what had happened to the monorail. But a lot of people were talking about it. When we got to AK, we wandered the park doing a little of this and some of that. Passing by the Flights of Wonder, we snagged some shots of one of the most beautiful owls I’ve ever seen:






Here’s the Boilers driving to Dino-Rama:




One of the things we did was go to Rafiki’s Planet Watch. This shot here is almost identical to one that MadEye used in the “Where in the World” thread, which is why I was able to guess it so easily (see page 400 of that thread):




Rafiki’s planet watch was nice, but most of the animals were not in a very good mood today for some reason. I think this shot of a Rhino giving us the cold… um… “shoulder”… sums that up pretty nicely:




Another major milestone in Mouseoholic’s Disney life was achieved as well today: she finally conquered Expedition Everest! I’ve been trying to get her on that one for 5 years, and with the Boilers’ help and encouragement, she finally did it. Now she’s hooked, and kept wanting to go back to it over and over again.




Naturally, she had to get a stuffed Yeti as a souvenir (shown here later resting on our couch back at the room, wearing my furry Grumpy hat):




She loves that stuffed Yeti…


I don’t remember all the other details of what we did with the Boilers at AK… I only know that we had a really good time. Hopefully Boilerbabe can fill in more details and pics. But eventually we parted ways, and Mouseoholic and I headed back to the Boardwalk to rest and freshen up a bit. When we got there, the early evening sky was so beautiful that we just had to walk around a little and take a couple of pictures:






We had a dinner ADR set for California Grill at 7:35, which would give us the perfect opportunity to watch Wishes from the observation deck. But Mouseoholic decided she would rather try to video Wishes from Main Street this time, so we got in early for our ADR and ate quickly, then took a couple of quick shots of the view before heading down:





I haven’t tried to upload the video of Wishes yet… I’ve never done that before, so I’d have to spend some time on it to figure out how it’s done. I have to ask Mouseoholic where she stored the video file so I can upload it. Or maybe I can just get her to do it…

Anyway, after Wishes, we wandered around a while waiting for the crowds to thin out. Then we decided to get some more “artsy” shots of the castle. We never get tired of those. I had a hard time deciding which ones to post… we must have taken at least 50 pictures, then whittled that down to maybe 20 or so. But anyway, here’s 8 of my personal favorites:


















Well, that’s it for another glorious day of frolic and mayhem at WDW!
Stay tuned for more later, and hopefully Boilerbabe will be able to start posting her report soon.
Hey, Amy… you gonna post some more too, or what?

[mindflipper]

Great pictures of inside the castle, Mousekedude! It's been a long time since I've been able to see as they usually have the area blocked off most of time. I can't remember when was the last time I was able to walk straight through the castle.

Sorry the fishing trip got cancelled, but it would probably have not been as fun in the cold either. Central Florida may not get a breeze during the summer, but it can get windy during the winter, making the cold that more unpleasant.

[Amy]

Yes, M-dude, I am going to post some more You'll have to check over in the TDL and DLP threads, I've done a bit of my trips to each of those parks ~ mostly in pictures. My laptop is still acting up and I have only so much patience with the frequent crashes before I give up
I wonder if the animals were a bit grumpy because they were out way too late the night before and indulged in too much ambience?!
That owl in AK was amazing! I saw him as I was zooming through to get some photos of Divine, and then Mom and I watched the entire owl pre-show before going in to see the Flights of Wonder show. I have some nice photos of him that I will include in my trip report...he looked like he was going to eat someone in the audience
Love the shot of EE with the train coming down ~ that is a really nice shot Glad M-oholic got a Yeti to remember her conquering her fear of EE...he looks cute with his Grumpy hat
Nice shots of the castle as well, I have some of the tile murals too but it was really packed when I was trying to take them. I wonder why it is usually blocked off when you go mindflipper...are they taping something perhaps?

[mindflipper]

I think this shot of a Rhino giving us the cold… um… “shoulder”… sums that up pretty nicely:

Hmmmmm, I dunno why - but seeing this photo makes me want to go home and cook a rump roast....


Amy: many times, when they're doing the shows at the castles, they complete block the access way through the castle. I notice that his photos were at night, so I assume they removed the barriers at some time after the last castle stage show for that day.

[MadEye]

Amy: many times, when they're doing the shows at the castles, they complete block the access way through the castle. I notice that his photos were at night, so I assume they removed the barriers at some time after the last castle stage show for that day.

But they do block the way for Wishes fireworks that are shot off next to the Castle.

[Amy]

Amy: many times, when they're doing the shows at the castles, they complete block the access way through the castle. I notice that his photos were at night, so I assume they removed the barriers at some time after the last castle stage show for that day.

But they do block the way for Wishes fireworks that are shot off next to the Castle.

I guess I never thought of that, but it does make sense. I'm glad the night I left my Mom waiting for the evening shows and I went foraging for food that I didn't get blocked from coming back. That would take a lot longer having to walk way around instead of through

[Amy]

Alright, so I left off on Day 5, zooming from AK over to HS to meet my Mom...
As you can see, the park was already quite busy for so early in the morning


I arrived and found her eating brekkie at what was to become our favorite place to eat at HS, the Toluca Turkey Leg Co. which had really tasty pulled pork BBQ sandwiches, yummm! But I digress...

So, since F1gment was happily munching her eggs and biscuits I went ahead and went on ToT.
I love the attraction but I was very disappointed with my elevator full of people. They were a bunch of middle-aged jerks who felt the need to comment loudly about everything, and yell at the top of their lungs randomly, and just generally make the entire ride very unenjoyable. I asked the CM when I got off if it would be possible to ride again and explained about the behavior of the other guests. I told the CMs that I didn't know if the people had been drinking or were just being obnoxious. The CM seemed concerned and wanted to know if I truly thought they were drunk since it was only a little after 9:30. I said probably not but couldn't imagine why people would be that obnoxious without some help Anyhow, I got to follow another CM up or was it down? another elevator and back to the basement where I got on another elevator. It was still an awful elevator, very rough, couldn't decide if it wanted to go up or down Seriously though, this was a fun time through ToT. I'm not saying I don't expect a little bit of chatter or some screaming, but when people are obnoxious to the point of ruining the experience for someone else, I don't find that to be very nice. A big hearty thank you to the CM's for giving me another chance to enjoy the attraction

Here are a few photos from ToT...





Since I like to take photos, I like this sign above the photo counter in Tot...


As I exited ToT I ran into my friends' brother-in-law and his youngest daughter. My Mom and his wife had compared trip plans at Thanksgiving dinner and we found out we would overlap our trips by a few days. Mike and Callie were sitting out ToT while his wife, her Dad and their two oldest children braved the elevators. As shocked as I was to see them (I really hadn't figured we would see them since it was so crowded down there) he was really surprised to see me because his wife had never told him we were going to be there during some of the same days

After ToT I headed over to the RnR coaster but it was down By this point Mom was fed and ready for action so we headed toward Pixar place to check out Toy Story Mania.




The FP were all gone but luckily, for us anyhow, the ride had just come back online after having been down so we hopped into line. Unfortunately we didn't know to use my Mom's guest assistance card and we wound our way through the regular stand by line. Not that we minded waiting but the twisty turny queue posed a bit of a challenge for Mom who was only on her 5th day of negotiating the scooter. On the plus side I did get some good shots of Mr. Potato Head that I wouldn't have gotten in the handicapped accessible side. I won't subject you to all of them Just a few...





This reminded me of my school days


I really like the switchable track for loading people that require a little extra assistance. I hope they will be incorporating more of these features in new attractions and refurbs...It keeps the line moving for everyone and takes the pressure off the people that need more time to enter and exit the attraction vehicles safely.