Disney Has the Best Chicken Nuggets Ever! - Update Dump - Finally Completed!

[pkondz]

Now I know of four TRS I need to get to....before @pkondz

What???

I'm actually losing ground now!

 

[afwdwfan]

Man, that sounded like a stressful day.

Really, there were plenty of good times. But the way our evening ended certainly was not a highlight of the trip.

So, your kids are walking stereotypes.

I'm just going by memory. I know DD made a pink car. I don't remember the score, but I do remember that it smoked DS's in the efficiency category. But he made a truck focusing on capability and power and he had help from BiL and me... so it goes without saying anything would have smoked him in efficiency. Still scored I think a 215 final vehicle score though!

Can't blame them there! Looks like they're having a blast in the photos.

Oh man, Drew does this all the time. Drives me nuts. I've gotten to the point where I do the opposite of whatever his first response is to a question, because I know he's going to change his answer.

See, if I'd do the opposite for her she'd just get upset and remind me that she told me she didn't want it. Seriously... CAN. NOT. WIN. with this one.

That'll learn you. If it ain't broke...

I'm sure it's a great thrill ride, absolutely worthy of a FP.

Well, it does have a hill.

And if you have a 5 year old daughter and don't want to stand in a slow moving corral for 3 hours...

I try hard to avoid thinking about that ride.

Fair enough.

I don't miss it. I defy anyone to tell me what the story was.

"So, uh...you get in a boat, and there's a storm, and then some trolls find you, and you go backwards, and uh...then you get to see a painting of a cruise ship and an oil rig."

But there were trolls and you go backwards. If that isn't good enough, you might as well just not even get on EE because trolls are way cooler than a dead yeti.

Wait, people thought you had a good idea?? I need to sit down.

My brain still hurts.

I feel like "Where's Mom?" should have been the title of the TR.

Probably should have.

I'm with him! You can't let pizza like that go to waste. It's a crime against humanity.

If only they hadn't confiscated your taser at the gate.

Disney security ruins all the fun.

I'm sorry. I've been there. Irrational temper tantrums are why I don't have much hair left.

Nothing I hate more. I don't deal well with them.

Disney not taking the opportunity to make money? What is this world coming to?

Iger needs to go...

As well you should have. C'mon, guys. Let's not go on autopilot here.

No kidding. I'm sure Fantasmic let out and the street got more crowded, but honestly, there was plenty of room for everyone. Not a big crowd waiting.

Cool! I'll look forward to seeing it!

The mix of the music, scenes from the movies, actual lasers shooting from the tie fighters all in time with fireworks. Star Wars nerd overload. When the music hit and the show started, the look on DS's face was one of those things that you just will always remember from a trip like this.

Wow, that is pretty bad. Terrible that the bus service wasn't adjusted, but also terrible that people are taking out their anger on what is most likely the wrong people.

It's hard. But frankly, service so poor should be complained about and they really throw those 1 or 2 poor souls out to the wolves when things don't go well.

a! Sounds like in general Rider Swap can be an pricey endeavor!

It can! Thankfully it didn't hurt too bad this time!

I have yet to actually make it in there. It is on my must do on our next trip!

Oh, definitely get in there! I've never gone in to sit down, but I always walk up to the bar and grab a drink to go.

The cupholders are for adults not kids...

True. But the tray inside the stroller where the kids sit has a cup holder too. We put the drinks in there while we rode so that we could put the rain cover over the drinks and keep them from getting watered down.

Were there people behind you? That must have been an awesome photo pass photo for them!

No! We had our own boat.

That is the worst. We sometimes would rather be in the rain in those super crowded gift shops. It must also be a nightmare for the CM's.

So sweet!

It really was. She loves him. He's the oldest cousin on either side of the family and he's always just been awesome with the younger kids.

Disney is good for that. Sucks that it happened, but anyone with kids has had it happen to them! Disney is tones of fun but also SUPER exhausting...

That's the truth.

I always feel bad for that person. They can ask a million times for a bus but ultimately they don't control anything. Sounds like they underestimated the amount of people going back to that resort.

They definitely underestimated something...

I think for once, your mom had the right idea! We did this after Fantastic the last time we were there. We took our time and the lines were at least a bit better.

Oh yeah, we do that sometimes. Honestly, I felt like DHS wasn't very crowded and didn't think it would be a big deal to get out of there. From what we saw inside the park, in no way did I ever envision such a chaotic and long wait for a bus.

 

[afwdwfan]

Not out of the ordinary for you.

Well, that's true.

Dude, I feel your pain. We've had to do that with Cal a few times and it sucked. Luckily, *knock on wood* Q hasn't had one of those inconsolable nights...yet. Do you wake up the other kids too and take them along?

No. They were asleep. I just took him and left while DW got some sleep.

I wonder if they'd ever skip the ice if you asked? At MCD's, I always order my teas without ice...

Tea without ice? Nah... gotta have my tea cold. What if it is a freshly brewed pot that is warm??? But I get your point. Worth trying. I mean the drinks are plenty strong, they could probably add volume to the drink without doing it at a big cost of adding alcohol.

Not that they couldn't afford to add some more tequila when you're pretty much over 15 bucks with tip for a frickin margarita. But at least they're good.

I can't remember if we've ever gotten the popcorn before. It's always the cookies or candy.

We typically get something from the bakery case as well, but the caramel corn there is really good and we always get some of that.

Crap

I know, I know... it isn't in Disneyland so it doesn't exist.

YES I HAVE! D'oh!

And in my defense, we never order ice cream in January

Ok, valid point.

Wow, $400 for an account?! Thanks for the recommendation of flickr, I'll be checking that out.

Oh man, that DD tantrum sounds AW. FUL. It really makes me cringe because I can totally see my DD being exactly like that on a trip someday. She is already very hardheaded and vocal when she doesn't want something a certain way.

Oh yeah... good luck with that. Sounds very familiar.

I'm glad everyone enjoyed the Star Wars show so much! I just couldn't get into it for some reason.

I can understand that. I wouldn't think most would enjoy it very much if they aren't into Star Wars. There's a lot of great visuals, but it just doesn't tell much of a story and I think you've really probably got to already know the story and be invested in it to get a lot out of it.

Oh no! What a crappy way to end the night with that bus situation! I think if they tout their bus transportation as a perk of staying onsite, they should never have the ridiculous lines that some of the resorts tend to get at the end of the night. It's not rocket science to dispatch tons of buses to all resorts at park closing!

Exactly. Seems pretty basic to me. They know that park closing is a big rush. I understand waiting sometimes, but when I saw the same bus driver come back on a return trip before we ever saw another bus that was kind of the end of my patience.

BTW: Hey @afwdwfan, where's mom?

Any parent who spotted those drinks would understand the need for alcohol...

When you're right, you're right!

Hah! Kind of looking forward to seeing where this pops up in each update.

It gets a little more rare later. I reach the point of just deciding she's a big girl and she can take care of herself so I quit worrying about it.

What an adorable photo!

It really is. He's always been great with his younger cousins and LG.

That's just shameful. My gosh. I would have so been tempted to reach over and grab a slice.

I know!

That's awesome! Guess that also explains why the park was so empty for the fireworks. Bummer you weren't able to use the passes, though.

Yeah, but we actually found TSMM to have some good FP availability all week long. I was surprised by that!

Ahh, kids. They have their moments.

I can't believe all those places were closed for the night.

I know. I looked and saw that Gertie's does tend to close early. Which really makes no sense on a July evening. Fall or winter, yeah, I get that. Ice cream when it is 50 degrees out is less desirable than ice cream when it is still 80 degrees after the sun goes down.

Good to know. I've yet to see the Star Wars show, but if it's better than HEA, I'm all for it.

That is a matter of a Star Wars fan's opinion. So I can't argue with someone who's not a Star Wars fan saying they don't like it. It doesn't tell much story, but if you understand the main ideas of the Star Wars universe and know the characters, it is a fantastic show with some awesome visuals and the use of lasers and pyrotechnics to make it feel like a battle is going on around you.

Wow, that's ridiculous. One bus for all those guests...And add the end of a long park day and I can only imagine the reactions people were having. If there were any resorts even moderately close to AKL, you probably could have hopped on an adjacent bus and been back before the bus made one circuit.
With as popular as AKL is now, you would think Disney would have the bus system figured out.

I know. I was really disappointed by that. From what I've seen it seems like AKL is either on it with great bus service or it is just horrible with not much in between. We must have hit a bad week.

 

[afwdwfan]

Not a fan of frozen (except Olaf), so I think I would've RATHER talked vs. listened.

I can't say that I love Frozen, but I like it. That said, DD has watched it so much that if I don't see it again in the next 10 years, I'm ok with that, but it is good.

I can think of two reasons why they wouldn't allow this
1) Health code
2) They can't sell you a pizza if they give you someone else's leftovers

I know you didn't have much time for photos, but the photos you have are fantastic. Another one here.

And I didn't even take this one...

Some good looking kids you've got there. Good thing they take after DW.

One of those isn't ours...

Hey Andy, where's mom? Don't see her in this picture...did she wander off again?

Probably

I can really relate to your tantrum outbreaks with DD. I hope it improves.

I hope it does too. This one was probably the worst one of the trip, but yesterday morning we had the worst one ever getting ready for school.

I can relate to your bus woes too. For many years, I was an advocate for using the Disney transportation system vs. spending extra money on a car rental. Our December trip had such bad bus service that we rented a car this trip. Our lives got about a million times easier with the car - well worth the $197! So much less loss of time and standing around impatiently! This point was driven home when we decided to leave our car at the Boardwalk the last day (ate at Bon Voyage) and then later take the bus from MK to Boardwalk to get the car before heading to the airport. And the wait for that BW bus!!! It was awful. Other buses would come through and literally drive away with nobody, yet they just wouldn't stop for our miserable looking line. The guy at the front of the line said that it had been awful his whole trip and they waited an hour once and his kids all had to go potty the whole time. I think he had been waiting 45 minutes for this one. I think we're rental car converts now.

This is just ridiculous. There's no reason you should have to wait 45 minutes for a bus. They basically say rule of thumb is every 20 minutes or less. That seems very reasonable and they've got enough buses to make it happen. They need to do a better job of dispatching them. When buses leave empty while other stops have huge lines, that really bothers me.

Oh my god! Twice now I thought I responded here and both posts are gone!

I hate it when the DIS happens.

I remember posting because you mentioned the San Angel Margarita and I commented that I would be having one Saturday. Well, since I'm at WDW now it will have to wait a tiny bit as I have some stuff to do today.

Well, I guess the margarita is worth the wait.

Now I know of four TRS I need to get to....before @pkondz

 

[franandaj]

Now I could swear that I posted responses here just like these, twice. But see no evidence of it. If these are duplicate posts, I'm sorry, just trying to keep up.

The posted wait was 80 minutes.

I wasn’t crazy about it, but then again, there was nothing else we urgently wanted or needed to do and we’d be in the air conditioning.

I can see that but, ugh, 80 minutes.

The line actually moved pretty well. I was worried about how the kids would handle such a long line, but they really did great.

That's good. I've seen quite a few kids in lines not so long doing quite poorly.

We had a minor meltdown with DD here. She got in line with me and didn’t want one. After I got a drink for myself and DS, she got mad and decided she did want her own. Being on the dining plan, we had snack credits so it wasn’t that big of a deal, but I was frustrated that she chose to wait until after we had ours to tell me she wanted one too.

I can totally see that....

I usually get the San Angel Inn Margarita. Nothing fancy, just the standard. And I love it, so why change, right?

And I'm going to be having one in just a few hours!

I’m sure people who saw margaritas in the kids’ cupholders thought we were awesome parents.

I'm sure they understood!

Quick question: Does anybody else say the Maelstrom spiel on the lift hill in a really crappy Norwegian accent?

“You are not the first to pass this way, nor shall you be the last.”

Just me?

I had only been on the ride a handful of times so I don't even remember the spiel.

The reason for the cropping is… well, you remember when we stopped at the baby care center and LG didn’t want to nurse? Well, DW might have used a few of the dark rides to accomplish that task. She didn’t realize there is a camera on this ride now.

Good thing you had the boat to your family!

It is physically impossible for us to walk past that shop without stopping.

I know what you mean. I stocked up our first day here.

it was less than 5 minutes later when they called my name. I called out the door to the family and got them all heading in the restaurant.

Except Mom and DD.

Yep… where’s Mom?

everyone else chose to order pasta dishes.

I don’t know what is wrong with them.

Nothing. Their pasta dishes are delicious!

We were joking about it being such a waste and when they came to bus the table, BiL asked if he could have the rest of their pizza.

So did they give it to him?

Meanwhile, the girls were picking their pearls.

this seems to be very popular with young girls.

This is where it all went south…

DD wanted to be carried. We told her that wasn’t going to happen

She threw an absolutely huge, ugly tantrum as we were leaving EPCOT.

It was just an altogether ugly hour or so with her being an absolute brat.

You are a far better parent than I would be!

There’s a fireworks show getting ready to start in about half an hour. Who in their right mind would want ice cream?

This was literally the worst bus experience I’ve ever had.

I'm sorry....

Mom easily made it out in time to get on the same bus with us. We joked that we should have all just stayed in the park for an hour or so instead of trying to get back to the room.

We usually employ this strategy when leaving after fireworks, or some other show.

 

[vrajewski10513]

The posted wait was 80 minutes.

I wasn’t crazy about it, but then again, there was nothing else we urgently wanted or needed to do and we’d be in the air conditioning.

I usually don’t wait in lines longer than 45-60 minutes, but I can imagine that air conditioned building was well worth the wait to get out of that hot Florida summer.

We wandered around for a few minutes before the others arrived to meet up with us.

I’ve learned this is a regular occurrence with a large group.

DW ordered a Cucumber Margarita, took one drink and didn’t want any more. She didn’t like it and said she just wanted a frozen margarita from the stand outside, so BiL offered to take the Cucumber Margarita and buy her one from the stand.

Ah, that’s the one I wanted to try on our next trip... now idk!

The FP was definitely a must have for this one! The queue was massive and it was great to walk right past all those suckers and get right on a boat.

Good to know! We got one for frozen over Soarin and TT and I was worried about that decision.

Anyway, I thought the ride was very well done. I always enjoyed Maelstrom. I can’t say that I was terribly upset that it went away though. I think this is a very nice replacement and something much needed in EPCOT. The park really needs more to interest kids and while I get the traditional concerns about not wanting to see EPCOT overrun by characters, it just makes sense. I don’t want to see the countries lose their feel and identity, but if we can fit in an IP here and there to add to the experience, why not?

I absolutely agree! Even with all the backlash, the wait times for frozen show how needed these types of rides are at Epcot. I can’t wait to see the Ratatouille ride in France!

I threw out the idea of leaving EPCOT to head for DHS to see the Star Wars fireworks show. BiL and Niece are Star Wars fans so they were all in and everybody agreed that it would be a good idea so that we wouldn’t have to rush to try and watch it after Fantasmic.

Great idea! I’m struggling with the same issue for our upcoming trip. We did a fantastic dinner package, so we’re definitely doing that but we will probably miss whatever fireworks they have going on (idk if it’s starwars or jingle bells jingle bam?)

We were seated in the main dining room, just inside the entrance past the end of the long table in the middle of the restaurant. It was loud and boisterous, as it usually tends to be.

We were seated in the main dining room for the first time last trip. I much prefer “patio” area.

At least DS was being nice and helping with Niece…

Awe, how sweet!

I felt sorry for one bus driver who was walking past us. Looked like it might have been the end of his shift or something and someone cornered him ripping him a new one about the bus service.

That’s terrible. The heat and fatigue of the day can definitely bring out the worst in some people.

This night soured me on the bus service as a whole. I understand having to wait on a bus. Maybe I come off as sounding privileged, but they call AKL a deluxe resort. If I’m paying a deluxe price, I feel like I should expect my bus service to be something better than that???? I don’t know, but when you’re waiting 45 minutes to leave a park, and all you see is the very same bus show up twice for your stop while the values are cranking a bus past you every 5 minutes… it just doesn’t sit very well

Definitely. Especially when they have bus after bus after articulating bus to clear out the value resort lines. I’ve never had greater bus service than when we stayed at Pop Century. I remember waiting for a bus after our dinner at Boma last year and it felt like everyone was waiting forever. I’d hate to deal with that everyday on my trip.

 

[afwdwfan]

Now I could swear that I posted responses here just like these, twice. But see no evidence of it. If these are duplicate posts, I'm sorry, just trying to keep up.

Well, you did post a response, but indicated you'd had some difficulties and it was shorter than this one.

I can see that but, ugh, 80 minutes.

At least it was only about an hour in the end. But normally, I would not do that.

That's good. I've seen quite a few kids in lines not so long doing quite poorly.

I was afraid they'd get bored, but I think it helped that they hadn't been in that queue before and there were enough things to look at and do and the line kept moving fairly well so it kept them occupied.

I had only been on the ride a handful of times so I don't even remember the spiel.

I don't remember much, but that first line has always stuck with me.

Good thing you had the boat to your family!

Nothing. Their pasta dishes are delicious!

Ok, I'll give you that. I'm sure they're great, but the pizza...

So did they give it to him?

Denited.

this seems to be very popular with young girls.

You are a far better parent than I would be!

I don't know about that. I wanted to throw a tantrum of my own.

We usually employ this strategy when leaving after fireworks, or some other show.

I just didn't think it would be bad getting out as low as the crowd seemed to be inside the park.

I usually don’t wait in lines longer than 45-60 minutes, but I can imagine that air conditioned building was well worth the wait to get out of that hot Florida summer.

I don't either. We just knew we wanted to do TT at some point and by waiting it would maybe free us up from rushing to Rope Drop in EPCOT another morning. The line was actually shorter after we waited. I think they just had that rush of traffic once it re-opened to work through before it dropped back to a 45 - 60 minute posted wait. We actually only ended up waiting about 60 minutes.

I’ve learned this is a regular occurrence with a large group.

Ah, that’s the one I wanted to try on our next trip... now idk!

You might like it! Never know. BiL definitely did!

Good to know! We got one for frozen over Soarin and TT and I was worried about that decision.

I think that makes the most sense. For one, you'd have to walk halfway across the park to do Frozen at RD and that's just a lot of wasted time and energy first thing in the morning. You can get to TT or Soarin very quickly and easily at RD. And with Single Rider at TT and the third theater at Soarin, there are some options to possibly catch a manageable wait for whichever one you don't do first.

I absolutely agree! Even with all the backlash, the wait times for frozen show how needed these types of rides are at Epcot. I can’t wait to see the Ratatouille ride in France!

Great idea! I’m struggling with the same issue for our upcoming trip. We did a fantastic dinner package, so we’re definitely doing that but we will probably miss whatever fireworks they have going on (idk if it’s starwars or jingle bells jingle bam?)

It's tough. I'm glad they're adding so many new things, but it does make it more difficult to plan! If they'd just spread the times out a little bit more. I mean start the fireworks in DHS even just 15 minutes later and it would be pretty reasonable to make it out of Fantasmic in time to find a decent spot.

We were seated in the main dining room for the first time last trip. I much prefer “patio” area.

I agree. I like the atmosphere of the main dining room and being able to see the ovens, but it is pretty loud and chaotic. The patio area just feels a lot more relaxed and is a quieter place to enjoy a meal.

Awe, how sweet!

He's always been great with his little cousins.

That’s terrible. The heat and fatigue of the day can definitely bring out the worst in some people.

Especially 5 year olds. They don't need head and fatigue.

Definitely. Especially when they have bus after bus after articulating bus to clear out the value resort lines. I’ve never had greater bus service than when we stayed at Pop Century. I remember waiting for a bus after our dinner at Boma last year and it felt like everyone was waiting forever. I’d hate to deal with that everyday on my trip.

I've said that for years. People worry about bus service at the values, but I think Pop and AoA have been the best bus service I've ever had at a resort.

 

[afwdwfan]

It's a Small Moon


Tuesday morning we woke up without much need to get a big breakfast. We had a late morning ADR, so we just grabbed some snacks in the room on the way out. We wanted to make sure to get an early start this morning so we could hit Pandora at Rope Drop. Having been open just over a month, we knew lines were still exceptionally long and we wanted to make sure to get there first thing.

We were able to grab a morning FP for Flight of Passage so our plan was to go straight to Na’vi River Journey to avoid waiting in the crazy lines.

We got up and moving plenty early and arrived at AK about 45 minutes before RD time, although we’d heard they were still possibly letting people into the park early as they were doing when Pandora first opened. Our bus stop wait was a rather short 15 minutes this morning and it does help being about a 5 minute bus ride away.

We approached the security area and I chose poorly.

I noticed on the far left, there was a short line with 1 person in it.

What I failed to realize before I got there was that every other security CM was getting about 4 people through the line in the time it took her to check 1.

She was being super thorough.

She went through every square inch of the bag.

She checked every nook and cranny of the stroller, including opening and closing canopies and flipping pockets and pouches inside out. She ended up sending DW’s phone flying about 8 feet away across the pavement after knocking it out of a pocket. Thankfully it was in a good case. I get the need for security, but this just seemed extreme, especially as people in the next line over are just getting the cursory look under the stroller and moving on.

I finally made it through and we lined up at one of the tapstiles to enter the park. In short time we were in. I was trying to get everybody moving towards Pandora. I thought everybody understood the importance.

Until we saw a restroom and we had to stop.

Please hurry…

Slight delay behind us, we quickly made it to Pandora and saw the masses lining up for FoP.

And yes, the floating mountains definitely look like some kind of a big monster trying to pick up a smaller mountain. Seriously, don't you see it?

Thankfully we had that FP and the line for Na’vi River Journey was a virtual walk on. We must have made it just in time because it was lined up past the beginning of a queue with a CM holding a sign marking the end of the line when we came out.

As for the ride, we thought it was good. It was a typical dark ride. I felt like it was too short, honestly, I’d have liked to have seen more. It’s something I’d try to do anytime I go back, but I see it like a Small World type thing. In fact, since Pandora is technically a moon, I think I’m going to start calling this one It’s a Small Moon. It’s maybe worthy of a 15 – 20 minute wait in line. The details are really interesting and there’s a lot to see, but it feels like it is a really short ride and not something I’d want to wait a long time to ride.

I made sure to really take in the Na’vi animatronic at the end of the ride. Having heard how impressive it is… well, it’s a big blue animatronic. It moves fluidly, but I didn’t get that lifelike feel from the eye contact or anything like that. Maybe hearing the reviews and comments about it set the bar too high, but I just didn’t get all the fuss about it.

We came out and it was time to use our FP for FoP. It was already hotter than hades, and we quickly learned that there is no shade in Pandora. Unless you can find a spot where the floating mountains block the sun, you’re out of luck. As hot as AK tends to have a reputation for being, I felt like Pandora was even worse. We went up to the FP line and grabbed some Rider Swaps while the first group went in to ride. The first group was Me, DS, DD, DW and Mom. I have some motion sickness issues with simulator type rides and dad has even more extreme motion sickness sensitivities so we felt like having Mom and me ride first to gauge how bad it is would be best.

We went through the pre-show and boarded the ride. I’d heard about the ride mechanism being a tight fit. Mom was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to ride, because I have long legs and big feet. I didn’t have any problems with it, but I did have to work a little bit to fit my leg in. My knee barely fit underneath the part that it had to fit in and it was pressing tightly against it. I was able to maneuver my leg at an angle that worked, and the mechanism closed with no problems, but it certainly wasn’t comfortable. I could easily see someone with legs a little bit longer and thicker than mine not being able to fit in there.

We linked with our banshees and took flight.

DD apparently likes flying on banshees even less than she enjoyed flying on Soarin.

I was next to her so I was close enough to reach over and put a hand on her to try to reassure her. This is where I think it went bad for me. I wasn’t focusing 100% on the screen anymore. I was looking back and forth between DD and the screen. I kind of got to see how we were moving on the ride vehicles in relation to the room and I saw the other rows of banshees around us. It was neat to see all that, but I started feeling a little bit queasy. I tried to turn my focus back to the screen, but DD was yelling about something so I turned back to her again. Way before the ride ended, I was ready to get off. Mom made the recommendation that dad not ride it based on how I looked getting off.

I’ll go ahead and give my first impression of the ride. Remember, we did have Rider Swap passes, so we’d have a chance to do it again. But as of the first ride, I wasn’t impressed. I never cared for the Avatar movie to begin with, and I was among those who weren’t crazy about this land being added to AK. When I got off the ride, I felt pretty lackluster about all of it. We’d take some more time to explore the land some more before moving on, but I’ll share a post here that I made on a private Disdads FB page later on that afternoon during our break:

“Yep, I guess I’m that damn stubborn. I never was overly crazy about Avatar. I tried to keep an open mind. I have to say the Imagineers did a fantastic job on all the little details. But at the end of the day it’s still a non-existent place that I could care less about… kind of like Harry Potter at that other park. The boat ride was ok. Flight of Passage was pretty good but screwed with my motion sickness. Long story short, AK is still a half day park for me and Everest is still the main reason I’m going. I’m definitely going on Flight of Passage if I can make it work, but it wouldn’t ruin my trip if I missed it. Going back in a couple of days to give it another shot and see. My first ride was with DD. We tried to talk her out of riding, but she insisted and then freaked out on the ride so I was trying to console her. I’m sure that played into my lack of excitement.”

After we rode, Sis, Sis2 and BiL went to ride since their FPs were still good and we could save the Rider Swaps for later. Since Dad wasn’t riding, DS took his band to ride again. Unlike DD, he absolutely loved this ride! They all enjoyed it and then we took some time to explore the land a little bit and get some Photopass pictures. DD was being stubborn again and we didn’t get any with just our family so I won’t share the ones of the whole group.

By the time we were done exploring, it was time to head to our breakfast ADR. We had a late breakfast seating for Tusker House. I’d been wanting to try this place for the longest time and on past trips we planned pre-Ropedrop ADR’s that we’d ended up canceling due to park hour changes or other changes to our schedule. This time, we booked a late breakfast to give us time to see Pandora and then eat. We booked this meal with the Rivers of Light dining package.

We got in there and downed a few glasses of the juice. That stuff really is great!

Soon enough characters were coming by. And apparently there’s still some issue with us actually getting pictures of Goofy at a character meal. At least we got one this time!

We were able to meet characters and get pictures, but it seemed like a rushed experience. There really wasn’t anything memorable at all about any of the characters, except for Donald. He seemed a little bit playful and was even going to the window and waving at people outside when he’d go between tables. But then again that really wasn’t anything special for our experience.

Our service was fine, but we had a server who refused to split the bill. We were paying out of pocket and Sis’s family and mine planned to use gift cards, so it was a pain in the butt to sort that out. I was away from the table when the bill came so I wasn’t able to question her or push the issue and Dad just gave her his CC to pay. I knew they’d use them anyway, so I just handed Mom some of our gift cards that we’d purchased to use on this trip.

The food was good. We had our meal at the perfect time because we got to eat breakfast and lunch. I sat with LG while everyone went to fill their plates. DW came back and told me I’d better hurry because they were clearing the buffet. I went out to see that the breakfast foods had been consolidated onto the dessert cart in middle of the buffet area and they were bringing out the lunch items. I took a plate of breakfast food and then got lunch for my seconds.

The food was good and we ate plenty. Overall, for the price, I wasn’t wowed by the food or the character interactions. It just wasn’t anything special. I can’t complain about it and we’ll probably go back sometime. I just don’t know that it will be a priority for us unless it is another “package” type thing for Rivers of Light seating or something similar.

When we got out, LG was getting really fussy. He just needed to get down and have some freedom. DW is not a fan of AK, at all. She constantly asked me while walking through the park why it was so spread out… Anyway, she decided to pass on using our next FP for the Safari and took LG back to the room.

The rest of us went on the Safari. I knew that our FP time wasn’t ideal, but it is kind of what we had to do to work around seeing Pandora first and then making our ADR. It was definitely a very hot and sunny day and the animals were not active at all in the early afternoon. The lions apparently decided it was too hot to even just lay on top of the rocks because we didn’t even see any of them out.

At this point, my sisters wanted to do the animal trails. It was just hot and I didn’t want to walk around. Since DD had been so grumpy the night before, we knew that we wanted to make sure we got a break that afternoon so I decided to take DS and DD back to the resort. Dad didn’t really care to walk around in the heat either so he was quick to offer to tag along and help get everyone on the bus.

We waited about 10 minutes for a bus. As much as I hated the AKL bus service on this trip, they really do a good job getting you to and from AK…

When we got back, the kids wanted to swim so I took DD and DS down to the pool while DW and LG were taking a nap. We swam and then grabbed some nuggets and fries from the Mara because the kids, who ate hardly anything at the $30 or $40 buffet 2 hours ago, were hungry.

After our snack, we went back up to the room so that DS and DD could lay down and take a little bit of a nap. We were hoping to avoid a return of Evil DD that evening and thankfully, we had plenty of time to let them sleep for a while.

I’m not much of a napper. Honestly, if I take a nap, I tend to just get more tired when I wake up if it was just a short one, or if it is a long nap it tends to throw my sleep schedule off. So I wandered the resort and spent some time sitting on our balcony. I even got to watch a giraffe for a little while.

 

[MeghanEmily]

She checked every nook and cranny of the stroller, including opening and closing canopies and flipping pockets and pouches inside out. She ended up sending DW’s phone flying about 8 feet away across the pavement after knocking it out of a pocket. Thankfully it was in a good case. I get the need for security, but this just seemed extreme, especially as people in the next line over are just getting the cursory look under the stroller and moving on.

Uggh how frustrating! And yes, I get the need for security, too. But my understanding is that the gate-check security is just one of many security measures, and that it isn't usually the most important but rather a little bit for show to make people feel secure. There are also undercover security personnel who are doing a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to keeping us all safe. I may have read that from an unreliable source, not sure. But since then I've always kind of questioned the set up a bit. Especially when I get stuck in a really slow line.

Until we saw a restroom and we had to stop.

Please hurry…

Why!? Always the restroom!! It's like nobody remembers to evacuate before leaving, and then decides it's time as soon as there's something pressing to do!

In fact, since Pandora is technically a moon, I think I’m going to start calling this one It’s a Small Moon.

I accept this.

This is where I think it went bad for me. I wasn’t focusing 100% on the screen anymore. I was looking back and forth between DD and the screen. I kind of got to see how we were moving on the ride vehicles in relation to the room and I saw the other rows of banshees around us. It was neat to see all that, but I started feeling a little bit queasy. I tried to turn my focus back to the screen, but DD was yelling about something so I turned back to her again. Way before the ride ended, I was ready to get off. Mom made the recommendation that dad not ride it based on how I looked getting off.

Uh oh. I feel you here. FoP got me for motion sickness, too. I'm sure mine is worse than yours, but I went in with high hopes after hearing how well-synced the video and motion was. I'm sure it didn't help that you had to keep looking away, kind of like how I can't look backwards in a moving vehicle.

We were able to meet characters and get pictures, but it seemed like a rushed experience.

I always kind of found this to be the case at Tusker House, too.

The food was good and we ate plenty. Overall, for the price, I wasn’t wowed by the food or the character interactions. It just wasn’t anything special. I can’t complain about it and we’ll probably go back sometime. I just don’t know that it will be a priority for us unless it is another “package” type thing for Rivers of Light seating or something similar.

I really like Tusker House, and I enjoy the food. I do, however, find the character interactions not to be as good as other places, and it always feels claustrophobic and chaotic in there to me for some reason. I like it, but I don't think of it as a must-do. I'm not sure any character buffet at Disney is really "worth the money," but I find the value for the price lower on this one compared to others.

We waited about 10 minutes for a bus. As much as I hated the AKL bus service on this trip, they really do a good job getting you to and from AK…

Hmmm, wonder why this is...

We swam and then grabbed some nuggets and fries from the Mara because the kids, who ate hardly anything at the $30 or $40 buffet 2 hours ago, were hungry.

Of course they were.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

It's a Small Moon

That's no moon...

I had to post that one before anyone else beat me to it.

We were able to grab a morning FP for Flight of Passage so our plan was to go straight to Na’vi River Journey to avoid waiting in the crazy lines.

Seems like a sensible plan.

We approached the security area and I chose poorly.

I noticed on the far left, there was a short line with 1 person in it.

What I failed to realize before I got there was that every other security CM was getting about 4 people through the line in the time it took her to check 1.

She was being super thorough.

She went through every square inch of the bag.

This is me in a grocery store. I pick the wrong line Every. Single. Time.

I thought everybody understood the importance.

And yes, the floating mountains definitely look like some kind of a big monster trying to pick up a smaller mountain. Seriously, don't you see it?

Absolutely! I can see Groot in there.

Looks like very cool theming and detail.

As for the ride, we thought it was good. It was a typical dark ride. I felt like it was too short, honestly, I’d have liked to have seen more. It’s something I’d try to do anytime I go back, but I see it like a Small World type thing. In fact, since Pandora is technically a moon, I think I’m going to start calling this one It’s a Small Moon. It’s maybe worthy of a 15 – 20 minute wait in line. The details are really interesting and there’s a lot to see, but it feels like it is a really short ride and not something I’d want to wait a long time to ride.

This is typically how I feel about most dark rides. They're fine, I guess.

It was already hotter than hades, and we quickly learned that there is no shade in Pandora.

That doesn't sound good.

DD apparently likes flying on banshees even less than she enjoyed flying on Soarin.

Yikes. That's, uh...not good at all.

I was next to her so I was close enough to reach over and put a hand on her to try to reassure her. This is where I think it went bad for me. I wasn’t focusing 100% on the screen anymore. I was looking back and forth between DD and the screen. I kind of got to see how we were moving on the ride vehicles in relation to the room and I saw the other rows of banshees around us. It was neat to see all that, but I started feeling a little bit queasy. I tried to turn my focus back to the screen, but DD was yelling about something so I turned back to her again. Way before the ride ended, I was ready to get off. Mom made the recommendation that dad not ride it based on how I looked getting off.

Sounds like it was a less-than-optimal first experience on this ride. But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?

DS took his band to ride again. Unlike DD, he absolutely loved this ride!

I wonder if your impression would have changed if you'd ridden with him instead of DD.

Our service was fine, but we had a server who refused to split the bill.

Oh, come on. This is standard practice in restaurants at this point, isn't it?

The lions apparently decided it was too hot to even just lay on top of the rocks because we didn’t even see any of them out.

Animatronics were down.

We swam and then grabbed some nuggets and fries from the Mara because the kids, who ate hardly anything at the $30 or $40 buffet 2 hours ago, were hungry.

I think there's a secret message board out there where kids post ideas like this on how to drive us over the edge. It's a conspiracy, I tell you! A conspiracy!

You'll appreciate my O'hana experience when I get to the Deep South road trip.

So I wandered the resort and spent some time sitting on our balcony. I even got to watch a giraffe for a little while.

There are worse ways to spend your time.

I love that building.

 

[missangelalexis]

I have definitely done that "make the wrong move by going to the shorter line when really its the slower line" move.

Glad you made it on Navi River Journey with a short wait. I agree that it's short but I enjoyed it and definitely would ride it again with a FP or a short wait.

Oh jeez I'm sorry you had a crappy first time on FoP. Curious to hear how your second time on it went.

Nice pics at Tusker House! I'm sorry it felt rushed though.

Sounds like it was a good (and needed) break at the resort!

 

[vamassey1]

We were able to grab a morning FP for Flight of Passage so our plan was to go straight to Na’vi River Journey to avoid waiting in the crazy lines.

Sounds a good plan of action.

What I failed to realize before I got there was that every other security CM was getting about 4 people through the line in the time it took her to check 1.

She was being super thorough.

She went through every square inch of the bag.

Seems to always happen to me too. I always pick the wrong line.

Until we saw a restroom and we had to stop.

This happened to us way too many times when we had a big group.

And yes, the floating mountains definitely look like some kind of a big monster trying to pick up a smaller mountain. Seriously, don't you see it?

I didn't notice this when we went. Now that you pointed it out I totally see is.

As for the ride, we thought it was good. It was a typical dark ride. I felt like it was too short, honestly, I’d have liked to have seen more. It’s something I’d try to do anytime I go back, but I see it like a Small World type thing. In fact, since Pandora is technically a moon, I think I’m going to start calling this one It’s a Small Moon. It’s maybe worthy of a 15 – 20 minute wait in line. The details are really interesting and there’s a lot to see, but it feels like it is a really short ride and not something I’d want to wait a long time to ride.

I agree with your assessment on this. It's a good ride to take the little kids on.

I was next to her so I was close enough to reach over and put a hand on her to try to reassure her. This is where I think it went bad for me. I wasn’t focusing 100% on the screen anymore. I was looking back and forth between DD and the screen. I kind of got to see how we were moving on the ride vehicles in relation to the room and I saw the other rows of banshees around us. It was neat to see all that, but I started feeling a little bit queasy. I tried to turn my focus back to the screen, but DD was yelling about something so I turned back to her again. Way before the ride ended, I was ready to get off. Mom made the recommendation that dad not ride it based on how I looked getting off.

I'm so sorry you had a bad experience. I get motion sickness real easy too. If I had looked away from the screen this would have happened to me too. I have to be in the moment. I hope you give it another try when you can just focus on your ride and enjoyment.

Soon enough characters were coming by. And apparently there’s still some issue with us actually getting pictures of Goofy at a character meal. At least we got one this time!

Really cute photos with the characters. LG doesn't look like he trust them yet.

The food was good and we ate plenty. Overall, for the price, I wasn’t wowed by the food or the character interactions. It just wasn’t anything special. I can’t complain about it and we’ll probably go back sometime. I just don’t know that it will be a priority for us unless it is another “package” type thing for Rivers of Light seating or something similar.

Our least favorite meal from May. We did it with the Rivers of Light seating, but we did dinner. Characters were rushed and the food was just ok. DH felt it was way overpriced for the experience.

We waited about 10 minutes for a bus. As much as I hated the AKL bus service on this trip, they really do a good job getting you to and from AK…

Of course!

After our snack, we went back up to the room so that DS and DD could lay down and take a little bit of a nap. We were hoping to avoid a return of Evil DD that evening and thankfully, we had plenty of time to let them sleep for a while.

I hope that rest paid off for y'all and the Evil DD didn't make an appearance.

 

[Steppesister]

I'm pages behind!! But determined to catch up as best I can before I leave in a week, Andy. Worked more hours this week than I have in a long time, so have a good excuse.

I’d noticed that TT was back up and running so we decided we’d go for it.

Good choice!

The posted wait was 80 minutes.

Hmmm, or not.

I briefly considered how expensive this ride was going to be.

The line actually moved pretty well. I was worried about how the kids would handle such a long line, but they really did great. They had fun designing cars. Again, I’m a bad TR writer and didn’t get pictures, but DD’s car was pink and efficient and made to look pretty while DS built a truck with the biggest wheels possible and it crushed the capability rating.

I need a re-do on this! I stunk at it last time.

After I got a drink for myself and DS, she got mad and decided she did want her own.

Next was the most important thing there is to do in Mexico. Visit La Cava del Tequila!

YES!!!!! Best choice of day!

Well this time, I did decide to change it up. I chose a Blood Orange Margarita.

Oops! Nope! This was your best choice of your day.

Well, ummm, if you'd liked it.

I’m sure people who saw margaritas in the kids’ cupholders thought we were awesome parents.

Not their business.

Just me?

Yes. Just you.

The reason for the cropping is… well, you remember when we stopped at the baby care center and LG didn’t want to nurse? Well, DW might have used a few of the dark rides to accomplish that task. She didn’t realize there is a camera on this ride now.

I don’t know what is wrong with them.

Awww, this is super sweet!

I almost forgot to mention this... a couple came in and were seated at a table next to us. They ordered a pizza and a couple of drinks. They each ate 1 slice of a large pizza and then left. We were joking about it being such a waste and when they came to bus the table, BiL asked if he could have the rest of their pizza.

And???

I finally just picked her up and started walking to the boat which only made her madder. Mom offered to take her and she calmed down some for Grandma, but she was still whining about the stroller tray. We boarded the boat and I sat in the back with the stroller while everyone else found seats near the front. DD calmed down considerably once she was away from me and the stroller.

Ugh! So sorry, Andy. That is....wearing.

We were far enough back that I think it was bus number 4 that we were finally able to get on. By the time they finally dispatched more buses to the AKL stop, we’d been waiting over 45 minutes, and there wasn’t a sole around waiting at the other bus stops. We still couldn’t fit all of the AKL guests into the queue, but at least they had 3 buses waiting in line to pull up to the bus stop.

People were really getting ugly in the line. There was a CM with an iPad that caught an earful from some guests. I guess that didn’t do anything.

I felt sorry for one bus driver who was walking past us. Looked like it might have been the end of his shift or something and someone cornered him ripping him a new one about the bus service.

This is totally unacceptable. But sadly happens WAYYYYYYYYY too frequently. Sorry you had to dela with that.

All the kids were asleep by the time we boarded a bus. Sis2 again helped us with DD and I think everyone holding a kid was at least able to get a seat. This night soured me on the bus service as a whole. I understand having to wait on a bus. Maybe I come off as sounding privileged, but they call AKL a deluxe resort. If I’m paying a deluxe price, I feel like I should expect my bus service to be something better than that???? I don’t know, but when you’re waiting 45 minutes to leave a park, and all you see is the very same bus show up twice for your stop while the values are cranking a bus past you every 5 minutes… it just doesn’t sit very well.

Yes!

Mom easily made it out in time to get on the same bus with us. We joked that we should have all just stayed in the park for an hour or so instead of trying to get back to the room.

My strategy usually. Grab a snack, find a bench. Wait it out.

 

[Steppesister]

Wait, what's up with PB?? Can we no longer use it? What is everyone using now? Help please!

I JUST switched to SmugMug and really like it so far. Paying $24/yr.

Now to get all my photos off PB and maaaaaaaaaaaybe redo my old TRs. Dunno. A lot of work.

 

[pkondz]

We wanted to make sure to get an early start this morning so we could hit Pandora at Rope Drop.

I'm hearing this is pretty essential right now.

We were able to grab a morning FP for Flight of Passage so our plan was to go straight to Na’vi River Journey to avoid waiting in the crazy lines.

Nice!

We approached the security area and I chose poorly.

I noticed on the far left, there was a short line with 1 person in it.

What I failed to realize before I got there was that every other security CM was getting about 4 people through the line in the time it took her to check 1.

She was being super thorough.

Of course you did. Of course you did.

She went through every square inch of the bag.

She checked every nook and cranny of the stroller, including opening and closing canopies and flipping pockets and pouches inside out. She ended up sending DW’s phone flying about 8 feet away across the pavement after knocking it out of a pocket. Thankfully it was in a good case. I get the need for security, but this just seemed extreme, especially as people in the next line over are just getting the cursory look under the stroller and moving on.

and if it was broken? Then what???

I thought everybody understood the importance.

Okay, that is seriously cool!

And yes, the floating mountains definitely look like some kind of a big monster trying to pick up a smaller mountain. Seriously, don't you see it?

It does!

Thankfully we had that FP and the line for Na’vi River Journey was a virtual walk on.

Good to know!

We must have made it just in time because it was lined up past the beginning of a queue with a CM holding a sign marking the end of the line when we came out.

That fast! For that ride!
I would've thought for sure for FoP, but not that one. Oy!

As for the ride, we thought it was good. It was a typical dark ride. I felt like it was too short, honestly, I’d have liked to have seen more. It’s something I’d try to do anytime I go back, but I see it like a Small World type thing.

Hmmm... Okay. Guess I'll see in a couple weeks, but... you're not exactly making me want to run out and ride it.

In fact, since Pandora is technically a moon, I think I’m going to start calling this one It’s a Small Moon.

I like it!

I made sure to really take in the Na’vi animatronic at the end of the ride. Having heard how impressive it is… well, it’s a big blue animatronic. It moves fluidly, but I didn’t get that lifelike feel from the eye contact or anything like that. Maybe hearing the reviews and comments about it set the bar too high, but I just didn’t get all the fuss about it.

I haven't heard anything about it. I'll keep an eye out too.

we quickly learned that there is no shade in Pandora.

erk.

As hot as AK tends to have a reputation for being, I felt like Pandora was even worse.

Well, it is in another solar system you know.

I didn’t have any problems with it, but I did have to work a little bit to fit my leg in.

Uh, oh. You don't look much different from me. Hoping I'll fit.

DD apparently likes flying on banshees even less than she enjoyed flying on Soarin.

Oh, no.....

Way before the ride ended, I was ready to get off. Mom made the recommendation that dad not ride it based on how I looked getting off.

Too bad. I keep hearing such wonderful reviews of it.

My first ride was with DD. We tried to talk her out of riding, but she insisted and then freaked out on the ride so I was trying to console her. I’m sure that played into my lack of excitement.”

Yeah. That would definitely do it. How can you enjoy something when you can't even really experience it?
Hope your next ride will be better!

We had a late breakfast seating for Tusker House.

I've wanted to go there for a long time.

This time, we booked a late breakfast to give us time to see Pandora and then eat.

Smart move! No rush, then.

Hey! She made it in a photo! And smiling, too!

"That is one big duck."

"No. Seriously. Have you seen how big this sucker is?"

Our service was fine, but we had a server who refused to split the bill.

I'm sorry... what????

So much for a tip.

I took a plate of breakfast food and then got lunch for my seconds.

Nice...

DW is not a fan of AK, at all. She constantly asked me while walking through the park why it was so spread out…

The lions apparently decided it was too hot to even just lay on top of the rocks because we didn’t even see any of them out.

Yeah... almost impossible to see them except in the early morning.

At this point, my sisters wanted to do the animal trails. It was just hot and I didn’t want to walk around. Since DD had been so grumpy the night before, we knew that we wanted to make sure we got a break that afternoon so I decided to take DS and DD back to the resort. Dad didn’t really care to walk around in the heat either so he was quick to offer to tag along and help get everyone on the bus.

Abandon park! Abandon park! Ahoooga!

the kids, who ate hardly anything at the $30 or $40 buffet 2 hours ago, were hungry.

Of course. This is a given.

Whoa! Beautiful shot, Andy!

Oh there it is!
I was like: "Giraffe? What giraffe?"

That's no moon...

I had to post that one before anyone else beat me to it.

Perfect.

 

[DisneyMichael]

Are ya sure those are ur photos? I found them on flickr so I was wondering.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

She checked every nook and cranny of the stroller, including opening and closing canopies and flipping pockets and pouches inside out. She ended up sending DW’s phone flying about 8 feet away across the pavement after knocking it out of a pocket.

Ugh. that is the worst. They are def being more way more nit picky than they used to be. But I have terrible line choice making as well. The one morning, DH and I each picked a row to see who was faster. I lost...

Until we saw a restroom and we had to stop.

Please hurry…

Oh the potty breaks! So many potty breaks and usually at the wrong time..

the floating mountains definitely look like some kind of a big monster trying to pick up a smaller mountain

I see it! Now that is all I am going to see!

Maybe hearing the reviews and comments about it set the bar too high, but I just didn’t get all the fuss about it.

Me too. I think it's because it's not a real thing. Or I guess not a real thing I care about reallly. The ride is totally a it's a small world ride and once the lines die down for it, it will be fine. Something to ride while you wait for your FOP fastpass.

. I tried to turn my focus back to the screen, but DD was yelling about something so I turned back to her again. Way before the ride ended, I was ready to get off.

Oh man! Not a good first time! I hope you ride it again and at least have a better ride.

OMG! His face!!!! He seriously looks like What in the world is THAT?!?

And he is just still staring. So cute!

We had our meal at the perfect time because we got to eat breakfast and lunch.

What time were you there? That sounds ideal time for us.

then grabbed some nuggets and fries from the Mara because the kids, who ate hardly anything at the $30 or $40 buffet 2 hours ago, were hungry.

Isn't that always the way?! Sigh.

We were hoping to avoid a return of Evil DD that evening and thankfully, we had plenty of time to let them sleep for a while.

Crossing my fingers that it worked. Rest always helps!

 

[Elizabeth Smith]

Glad to see you were able to successfully get on and off of it's a small moon in a relatively short period of time. I can understand where your wife is coming from with how spread out AK is. I haven't been in a long time, but I do get kind of irritated when walking through a park with nothing around for what seems like miles to get where I am going. It seems like a poor use of space. With AK, though, it's all about the immersion and all that, so I guess it makes sense.

I also find your review of FOP interesting. You are one of few who have not been impressed/blown away, from what I have read. I suppose between the motion sickness and DD's distress, it would make the experience less than favorable. But at the same time, I kind of hope you are right and that I agree with you because I'm pretty sure we're only going to be able to ride it once while we're there.

 

[khertz]

My feelings on the addition of Pandora are pretty similar. I honestly don't care that I haven't been back to WDW to see it yet, nor am I anxiously awaiting to get there to see it anytime soon. I'm also not really looking forward to Star Wars either, but that's a whole 'nother post. lol

Cute pics of the kids with the characters at Tusker House!

I sorely miss AKL! Love the pics from there too. I hope we are able to stay there again some day!

 

[docsoliday1]

We approached the security area and I chose poorly.

I noticed on the far left, there was a short line with 1 person in it.

What I failed to realize before I got there was that every other security CM was getting about 4 people through the line in the time it took her to check 1.

She was being super thorough.

She went through every square inch of the bag.

She checked every nook and cranny of the stroller, including opening and closing canopies and flipping pockets and pouches inside out. She ended up sending DW’s phone flying about 8 feet away across the pavement after knocking it out of a pocket. Thankfully it was in a good case. I get the need for security, but this just seemed extreme, especially as people in the next line over are just getting the cursory look under the stroller and moving on.

Sounds like she might have been new. I think they're trained to be that thorough, but they quickly realize it will bottleneck the line too much.

I finally made it through and we lined up at one of the tapstiles to enter the park. In short time we were in. I was trying to get everybody moving towards Pandora. I thought everybody understood the importance.

At least you didn't have another where's mom moment, but yeah, do a sergeant Carter...move it move it move it!

As for the ride, we thought it was good. It was a typical dark ride. I felt like it was too short, honestly, I’d have liked to have seen more. It’s something I’d try to do anytime I go back, but I see it like a Small World type thing. In fact, since Pandora is technically a moon, I think I’m going to start calling this one It’s a Small Moon. It’s maybe worthy of a 15 – 20 minute wait in line. The details are really interesting and there’s a lot to see, but it feels like it is a really short ride and not something I’d want to wait a long time to ride.

I made sure to really take in the Na’vi animatronic at the end of the ride. Having heard how impressive it is… well, it’s a big blue animatronic. It moves fluidly, but I didn’t get that lifelike feel from the eye contact or anything like that. Maybe hearing the reviews and comments about it set the bar too high, but I just didn’t get all the fuss about it.

We came out and it was time to use our FP for FoP. It was already hotter than hades, and we quickly learned that there is no shade in Pandora. Unless you can find a spot where the floating mountains block the sun, you’re out of luck. As hot as AK tends to have a reputation for being, I felt like Pandora was even worse. We went up to the FP line and grabbed some Rider Swaps while the first group went in to ride. The first group was Me, DS, DD, DW and Mom. I have some motion sickness issues with simulator type rides and dad has even more extreme motion sickness sensitivities so we felt like having Mom and me ride first to gauge how bad it is would be best.

We went through the pre-show and boarded the ride. I’d heard about the ride mechanism being a tight fit. Mom was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to ride, because I have long legs and big feet. I didn’t have any problems with it, but I did have to work a little bit to fit my leg in. My knee barely fit underneath the part that it had to fit in and it was pressing tightly against it. I was able to maneuver my leg at an angle that worked, and the mechanism closed with no problems, but it certainly wasn’t comfortable. I could easily see someone with legs a little bit longer and thicker than mine not being able to fit in there.

We linked with our banshees and took flight.

DD apparently likes flying on banshees even less than she enjoyed flying on Soarin.

I was next to her so I was close enough to reach over and put a hand on her to try to reassure her. This is where I think it went bad for me. I wasn’t focusing 100% on the screen anymore. I was looking back and forth between DD and the screen. I kind of got to see how we were moving on the ride vehicles in relation to the room and I saw the other rows of banshees around us. It was neat to see all that, but I started feeling a little bit queasy. I tried to turn my focus back to the screen, but DD was yelling about something so I turned back to her again. Way before the ride ended, I was ready to get off. Mom made the recommendation that dad not ride it based on how I looked getting off.

I’ll go ahead and give my first impression of the ride. Remember, we did have Rider Swap passes, so we’d have a chance to do it again. But as of the first ride, I wasn’t impressed. I never cared for the Avatar movie to begin with, and I was among those who weren’t crazy about this land being added to AK. When I got off the ride, I felt pretty lackluster about all of it. We’d take some more time to explore the land some more before moving on, but I’ll share a post here that I made on a private Disdads FB page later on that afternoon during our break:

“Yep, I guess I’m that damn stubborn. I never was overly crazy about Avatar. I tried to keep an open mind. I have to say the Imagineers did a fantastic job on all the little details. But at the end of the day it’s still a non-existent place that I could care less about… kind of like Harry Potter at that other park. The boat ride was ok. Flight of Passage was pretty good but screwed with my motion sickness. Long story short, AK is still a half day park for me and Everest is still the main reason I’m going. I’m definitely going on Flight of Passage if I can make it work, but it wouldn’t ruin my trip if I missed it. Going back in a couple of days to give it another shot and see. My first ride was with DD. We tried to talk her out of riding, but she insisted and then freaked out on the ride so I was trying to console her. I’m sure that played into my lack of excitement.”

After we rode, Sis, Sis2 and BiL went to ride since their FPs were still good and we could save the Rider Swaps for later. Since Dad wasn’t riding, DS took his band to ride again. Unlike DD, he absolutely loved this ride! They all enjoyed it and then we took some time to explore the land a little bit and get some Photopass pictures. DD was being stubborn again and we didn’t get any with just our family so I won’t share the ones of the whole group.

I'll try Na'vi, but thus far, I'm not a big fan of the dark rides except to get out of the heat.

I've never seen nor been interested in Avatar and I've heard several people complain about the motion simulator (more so at the dark side, but this one too). Still not sure if we go to AKL if this will be an attempt at FP or not. Sorry for the DD experience which hurt yours.

Our service was fine, but we had a server who refused to split the bill. We were paying out of pocket and Sis’s family and mine planned to use gift cards, so it was a pain in the butt to sort that out. I was away from the table when the bill came so I wasn’t able to question her or push the issue and Dad just gave her his CC to pay. I knew they’d use them anyway, so I just handed Mom some of our gift cards that we’d purchased to use on this trip.

You really haven't been having good results with servers this trip. Sorry Andy

We waited about 10 minutes for a bus. As much as I hated the AKL bus service on this trip, they really do a good job getting you to and from AK…

When they're only 5 minutes away, it's easier to get a bus within a reasonable amount of time even if it's only 1 bus. When it's a 4 hour round trip, it needs to have more than 1 bus in the rotation.

When we got back, the kids wanted to swim so I took DD and DS down to the pool while DW and LG were taking a nap. We swam and then grabbed some nuggets and fries from the Mara because the kids, who ate hardly anything at the $30 or $40 buffet 2 hours ago, were hungry.

Now why would they want to fill up on the expensive stuff when there's chicken nuggets to be had later?

After our snack, we went back up to the room so that DS and DD could lay down and take a little bit of a nap. We were hoping to avoid a return of Evil DD that evening and thankfully, we had plenty of time to let them sleep for a while.

I know it's still yet to come, but hoping the nap made her nicer/more tolerable later.

I’m not much of a napper. Honestly, if I take a nap, I tend to just get more tired when I wake up if it was just a short one, or if it is a long nap it tends to throw my sleep schedule off. So I wandered the resort and spent some time sitting on our balcony. I even got to watch a giraffe for a little while.

I got a bigger kick out of the ostrich. I realize they have a tiny brain and are not the brightest bulb in the animal kingdom pack, but it still had me amused for quite a while. I was sitting out on the balcony enjoying my tea and the beautiful climate (February vs. blast furnace) and this one ostrich kept going back and forth between two points in the electric fence about 50 ft apart. It would stop, put it's head/neck down and examine the fence looking for a way through/hoping there was a gap. It would then walk back to the other spot and do the same. Lather, rinse, repeat ad naseum.