Tuesday, June 21, 2011

WDW Trip Report - Day 4 - The Only Good Dinosaur is a Dead Dinosaur

As promised, today's post will have MUCH more footage of Kyle & me, but it will all be at the end of the post because we filmed in the evening. (If you want to see the videos bigger, simply click on one, and it will take you to a fuller sized video on YouTube.)

The day started, as planned, at Disney's Animal Kingdom. I'm not going to go into graphic details, but if another child throws up in my presence on a Disney bus, I may just start renting a car. (OK not really, but it was gross!)

As soon as we got to the park, I begged Kyle to use PhotoPass with me. I'm glad I did, the colors we were wearing contrasted nicely with the greens all around us:
I was told to hold onto his waist & look surprised. One of our more fun photos from the trip. :)

We tried to ride Kilimanjaro Safari as soon as we got to the park, but the queue was winding through Africa, so we grabbed a FastPass and went over to ride Expedition Everest. Luckily its queue wasn't nearly as long. On my last trip, I only saw the FastPass line and had a hunch I was missing out on some neat themed elements. Wow, was I right! This queue is highly themed with Yeti "evidence", and I found that the line moved faster than I could look at everything.


After Everest, it was my turn to hold up my end of the Tower of Terror/Dinosaur bargain. I drug my feet as we went towards the attraction. Kyle was a gentleman and offered to let me bail out, but I don't back down on promises. :) Last trip I ended up a huddled, whimpering chicken on my sister's shoulder. This time I was determined to look up more. I did see more of the ride this time including most of the dinosaur that jumps out at the end. When we exited the ride, I offered to ride it again because I knew Kyle really liked it, and I kinda wanted to see a bit more of it. So those of you who know the ride know that a dinosaur jumps out of the pitch black at you from the right towards the end of the ride. I was ready for it and fearfully looked it in the eye this time. What I was totally unaware of was the HUGE dinosaur that looms over you from the center and seems to be lunging at you! I ended up screaming in Kyle's ear and grabbing his arm! *red face*

After the screaming, we decided to use our Safari FastPasses. Nothing really of note here. We saw animals. They were close to the vehicle. I didn't take any photos... just enjoyed peacefully watching the animals.
Around lunchtime I realized something was pretty wrong with me. In line, I put my head on Kyle's shoulder, and when he asked if I was ok, I lied. Yeah, I'm a horrible person for lying, but I was like a 5 year old having too much fun to admit she was sick. The nausea was back full force, and suddenly I had no energy. I really thought maybe food would help, so I got the pulled pork sandwich from Flametree BBQ. I ate about 2 bites, but wow those 2 bites were delicious! Then I sat there and watched the birds surrounding our table and made conversation while Kyle ate & looked at me all worried-like because I wasn't touching my food.
I didn't want to leave to go sit around at the resort, but it was becoming fairly evident that I wasn't going to make it at the park much longer, so we sorted out a plan at lunch. I was dying to see one of the shows, so Kyle suggested the Nemo one, and then we would head back to swim before dinner.

I can't rave about the Finding Nemo Musical enough! It was amazing, and that's saying something coming from someone who isn't really a Nemo fan! The music was beautiful, the puppetry was excellent, and the story telling was seamless. If you have a chance to see this show, go! In fact, go twice. It's worth it.

After Nemo we stopped to shop a bit on the way out of the park, and we found the 9" Vinylmation I've been wanting for months. It's technically a birthday cake, but I wanted it for my kitchen since I decorate cakes as a side business. I was super excited about my find! It was taken off of DisneyStore.com right before my birthday in February, so I really thought I'd have to buy it on eBay. (BTW - don't I fake feeling well for a picture amazing well? Hee hee!)

Back at the resort we decided to go swimming. It was a much better success than the night before. The pool was very warm, so I was able to swim around some while Kyle sat on the bottom of the pool. The floating helped my stomach feel some better and soothed my tired muscles. I really didn't want to get out, but we had to get cleaned up for dinner.

Our reservation that night was for Boma. The pool proved to be one of our best ideas because we were able to feel fresh again as we changed for dinner (that nice top I threw in the suitcase last minute came in handy, and Kyle looked quite dashing in his new 40th Anniversary WDW shirt). Looking good, we headed to the boat to Downtown Disney to bus over to Animal Kingdom Lodge to Boma.
This is one of my favorite trip photos because we both look so happy! I keep saying how happy we looked in photos, but really we looked that way the whole trip I guess...

While waiting at the bus stop, we made a video of what we ate. The whole joke is that I mostly watched Kyle eat because I knew food wasn't the right thing for my body at the time. I ended up eating off the kids' part of the buffet and managed to look like either a) the pickiest eater ever or b) a fat anorexic. Either way, I was a little mortified at what the waiter must have thought of me. For the record, the food did look good even if I couldn't partake.

The soup I had was a Black-Eyed Pea soup, not Black Bean. I misspoke in the video. Also after watching this video I made a conscious effort to pull my chin down in every other video.

No thanks to my ability to navigate Disney Transportation, we took the bus to Downtown Disney to go shopping. (I looked at the sign below at the last bus stop and exclaimed, "but this one doesn't say Downtown Disney either!!!")
Once there, we realized the crowds were INSANE! Once they cleared a little, the video camera came out again:

Kyle's look at 0:10 cracks me up every time I see it.

We walked further into Downtown Disney than I have ever walked before to get to to D-Street. This place *is* Vinylmation Headquarters! They had a WALL of birthday cake Vinylmations. Yes, that kinda stung as I thought I'd found a sold out Vinylmation at DAK. Hehe. I traded a Vinylmation there (mostly to say that I traded at D-Street). I made Kyle pick the number, and that's, I think, where I got the awesome Urban Gears/Steampunk VM complete with mustache! I ended up needing to buy more Vinylmations to trade, and Kyle also bought a couple, so when we got out of the store, we decided to open our Vinylmations on camera.

A note for those of you who haven't heard my niece explain Vinylmation: you typically buy Vinylmations in "blind boxes" meaning you can't see which one you're getting. You just know the series which has about 12 VM options. I tend to count how many I want out of 12 to get a "desirability" percentage before I purchase from a series. After you open them, part of the fun (for me at least) is trading them in stores throughout the parks. Kyle wasn't a trader until this trip.

Around the 3 minute mark I put the VM I just opened on the ground and make a weird face as I duck out of the frame. No, I'm not losing my dinner... I'm just a dork who makes weird faces...

After our Adventures in Vinylmation (which I named the video on my laptop and THEN realized I said on camera), we shopped in World of Disney, the world's largest retail Disney store. It was PACKED. We got separated at some point, and when I finished shopping, I texted Kyle with something like, "stop moving... where are you??". It was reminiscent of being told to hug a tree if you get lost in the woods. Anyways, the store is ginormous and a Disney shopaholic's dream!

We took the boat back to the resort that night. I have to say, boating to places in Disney World is the way to go. The breeze is nice. You don't get stuck standing like you do on a bus, and the whole experience is very calming. After we got back to the room we did our typical chatting and passing out thing. Every night we were pretty exhausted once we got in. :)

Next post: Kyle and I head to Magic Kingdom and then hop to Epcot, AND we'll take you on a tour of our day through both parks. Also, you'll get to hear my favorite line of all the videos: "the whole country?!"

14 comments:

  1. I just read all the trip reports so far ... you guys are SO SUPER CUTE! The videos are awesome! :D Thank you so much for sharing your trip! I can't wait to read more! :D

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  2. This D Street Vinylmation store sounds like a place I would like to visit. Did they have only Vinylmation, or did they have other items as well?

    Also, start wearing a haz-mat uniform on the bus. It's your only hope.

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  3. Yes, D Street has stuff other than Vinylmation in it. They sell clothes and Marvel stuff, but it's mostly Vinylmation.

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  4. Manda - Thanks! :) The next videos are the ones that make me laugh the most, so I can't wait to share them!

    KeeperofBooks34 - The haz-mat uniform might be a good idea at this point. You would really enjoy D-Street. The kids would too. They've got this HUGE table where you can draw your own custom VM. So fun! Tons of stuff to look at too.

    Kyle - Thanks for replying. I couldn't remember what else they had, but I knew there was a bit more than VM.

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  5. ha. you can always send me your cards. :)

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  6. I wondered if anyone else would notice the random cards discussion we were having when I started filming. :) Haha! Most of my cards end up in the trash... I used to keep them and realized I had nothing to do with them. What do you do with yours?

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  7. We keep them in tins right now... might keep them in a folder soon. but we trade.. a LOT so it's nice to get spare cards.

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  8. I've seen a lot of collectors online that won't trade unless there's a card too.

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  9. love the video's! It's like we are there :)

    how do you trade a Vinylmation? like how do you know someone else has one and wants to trade it?

    Also is the PhotoPass the "guys" that take your photo and you go to the kiask to pick them up? I don't remember hearing/seeing them when we were there
    A. Denman

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  10. Amy - So glad you're enjoying the videos! We had so much fun making them. Honestly was one of my favorite parts of the trip bc we tended to be fairly goofy when we pulled out the camera.

    Vinylmation trading (that I do) has official Disney rules similar to Disney Pin Trading. Numerous stores have blind boxes and open boxes that you can see a CM to trade with. Open boxes are clear acrylic boxes with 3 VM. If you see one you want there, you present your (in good condition) VM to the Cast Member and trade. If you don't see what you want, you can try a blind box which has anywhere from 15 (I think) to 24 numbers on it with a VM behind each number. You pick a number and trade whatever comes out! It's really fun, and I got some GREAT trades when I traded blind. You can only trade once per store per day, so you can trade a ton visiting various stores. Some people do trade online but I don't yet.

    PhotoPass are photographers in various places throughout the parks that take your photo for free. They scan a credit card looking thing each time for you, and when you get home, you enter the code on your card(s) into a website to view and buy the photos. It helps you end up with professional high quality photos with great backgrounds. :) I bought 5 of our PhotoPass photos as digital copies, so I could print them multiple times and upload them to my blog and FB and such. I've been adding them each day. They're the pics with both of us that aren't the "we just took this ourselves" shots. :)

    PhotoPass is something you kind of learn to look for. My last day of my Thanksgiving trip, I wandered around Magic Kingdom and had them take photos in some of my favorite locations (where I knew PhotoPass photographers tended to hang out). Those are at the end of an album from Thanksgiving. Kyle and I didn't use PP as much as I do with my family, but we got some really nice pics out of it.

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  11. Thanks for the explanation on the Vinylmations and photopass :) I will have to remember to look for them (the photopass people) when we go- not for another three years or so though- I'm not really big on carrying a backpack around- so it would be great not to have to worry about having a camera.
    Amy (I don't have any of those accounts LOL)

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  12. While they do take great photos, they're only at main photo spots in the parks (like Cinderella Castle and Spaceship Earth and some of the countries in World Showcase), so it's best to still carry a small camera for other photos. :) I carried a large purse that you can see in some of the pics. It was a bit smaller than a messenger bag but was comfortable enough to carry around.

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  13. So you to figure a percentage before deciding the worth of a particular purchase!

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  14. Yes ma'am! :D Granted, this time I chose the series with the lowest percentage because I was planning them to be traders, so I was willing to risk it while I tried to get the few I really wanted, and it paid off because I got a Monorail (as seen in the video) which I've been dying for ever since I started collecting Vinylmations! :D

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