The Mighty Morphing Birthday Trip - Thread 2 - COMPLETE!! - UPDATED 12/1 About This Page:

[mestitch]

This is second thread in the series, if you need to go back to the beginning you can do so HERE...

Monday, July 9 ~ Day Four Part One

We woke up to another blisteringly hot day. I'm so glad that our trip fell during the heat wave of the summer. I swear, watching the news, which we did EVERY MORNING (Andy would turn the TV on headline news and we had to watch that Robin chick give news and be stupid) but in watching the news it seemed like the whole country was suffering from a massive heat wave. Makes for a fab sweaty trip.

b/c of said sweatiness and heat I just threw my hair back in a ponytail that morning, Andy grabbed a pastry from Roaring Forks, and we were on our way to the AK. We never seem to make it anywhere at opening so we arrived about 9:30 and made our way over to Everest. The standby was already a little long and we wanted to get to the Safaris before it got too bad so we grabbed a couple FP's and then headed to the Safaris. I swear, Asia is the HOTTEST part of that park. As much as I love EE, I hate walking around on that side of the park. It's just unbearable!

We had a little bit of a wait at the Safaris but it went by fairly fast. Our driver was a graduate of the Jungle Cruise program....he was full of witty remarks and he drove that vehicle like he stole it. We have a little video of some of his jokes and his crazy driving. I'm working on uploading it right now so come back for that later. Here are a few pictures I took on the ride...




This is the hidden mickey shaped island in Elephant Country


I seem to get a lot of blurry animal side and butt pictures on the safaris ride, but oh well

After we returned from our two week cut short trip we walked through the Pangani Forest Trail. I had just read the Imagineers Field Guide to the AK before our trip so I was telling Andy about the little details that are put into the different parts of this park. It is really neat and if you haven't read the book I highly recommend it. It is a little technical and hard to start, but it's worth it to know all the little hidden information. I found a couple of the hidden mickeys along the trail and then we headed back towards the hotlands that is Asia. On our way we stopped in the Fort area of Africa and found the weird sausage fruit tree. It was discussed in the book and the things hanging from the tree are actual fruit that look like sausages...


While we were wandering around in there some of the African musicians came out and we snagged a quick photo...


Then the time had arrived!!! Our expedition was about to begin!! And we were ready! We love this ride and we have to ride it in the back so that we get that extra special warm fuzzy that the Yeti brings upon you at the end of the ride. Sadly the standby line was WAY too long when we got off and the FP time was for after 2:00 and I knew we probably wouldn't be around then. But Andy insisted we get them just in case. So we go over there and Andy sticks his ticket in and nothing happens.......... Finally a CM comes over and helps us and we try to tell her that we put in our ticket and nothing came out so she takes his ticket and puts it in another machine and I'm thinking that's stupid b/c now it's gonna tell him he can't have another FP!!! And that's exactly what happened.... CM: "You already have a FP sir" ME: "No we're trying to tell you that the other machine is broke and we put our ticket in there and we got no FP but now we can't get a FP anywhere b/c of that...." After like 10 minutes of mass confusion on the CMs part she says for us to come back in a few hours and tell them that she said we could ride and to get her if we needed her..... yeah.....not going through all that trouble but thanks for the gesture. While we were standing there during all this another machine ran out of tickets and freaked out another family. The whole FP area of EE is ridiculous in my opinion. We ran into more problems with it later in the trip. These tour groups just come up and rather than wait in the 5 minute standby line that's there they get every FP they can and push the FP time to late afternoon. We actually were witness to this at Splash Mtn. on our last day. The wait was nada for Splash and we walked right on but the 50+ tour group outside was too busy getting FP's to notice. It was REALLY irritating me.

Speaking of....I was getting irritated with our current FP issue and the fact that I was about to melt away like the wicked witch herself in Asia that I said we had to get outta there and get some lunch. We had to have some Flame Tree so while Andy ordered I found us a nice spot under the shelter all the way down by the water. It was a great, empty spot with a nice view of EE...


I don't really like to talk to strangers when I'm completely by myself, but this fellow was sitting at a table across from me by himself and he saw my bday button and wished me happy birthday. Then he started telling me how they are there celebrating his son's birthday. We ended up finding out that we were both staying at the WL...they had lunch at CRT the day before, we were having lunch there the next day.... we talked about where we were from. He was by himself at the moment b/c he said his wife and son were still in the bed and he couldn't just waste time like that Andy came up with our food and I introduced him to my new friend....and then my new friend had to go...

Word to the wise about Flame Tree....if you love their special BBQ as much as I do, get it at the CS area from the little pump thingy. They only had packets down where we were sitting and just assumed that they had switched....and it wasn't as good. And then we saw the pump when we were leaving and I kicked myself for missing out! Before we left our fab little seating area I took some pictures of the surroundings..

I just love the detail and how pretty things are....you sometimes get so busy that you don't notice it.

And we had to do a self shot by resting my camera on a post


And then I had to get this photo op...


And I saw this guy hanging out..


By now it was getting hotter if that was possible and later in the afternoon. I had one last goal of meeting my blue friend. He's so reliable here. I can always count on seeing him at the AK. On our way I took a few more photos..


Then the big moment....there's nothing like the first Stitch encounter of the trip. We have video of that as well (of course) so that'll be with the crazy safaris driver video

Stitch first wanted my bday button, he tried to take it off and I wouldn't let him. Then he eyeballed one of my Stitch pins and tried to take it off, but again, I said no no.... so then he just gave up and yanked me in for a big ole Stitch hug


When Andy walked up to be in the picture for the photopass lady Stitch pushed him out of the way which was cute I don't know if Andy caught that on tape.....

Still glowing from my encounter we made our way to the exit. We stopped and checked out some of the exhibits on the Discovery Island Trails... we found this guy...

He's kinda hard to see......and then he became very camera shy..

...and left....

We continued to make our way out of the park. We were on a bus and back at the WL in no time.

Coming up ~ Video clip of the AK and a backseat dinner date

[DrDolphin]

Great update Melissa! Can't wait to see the video!

[PrincessSharon]

Glad you were able to find Stitch, Melissa! Can't wait to see the video!

[Caldercup]

Yay - you got to see your little blue alien!!

Craziness with the FPs...

More, more, more!
Eileen

[lauren-roxy]

Great update Melissa!! Glad you got to see your blue friend!! Love the photos!!

[jpod523]

so that's hidden mickey island! i'd heard of it, but could never see it. thanx for the pic! i get it now!!!

[amandal]

I am still in awe over how much you have done in such a short period of time. I hope we are that lucky in Sept. . . . Doesn't it seem like everyone has something bad to say about AK at some point or another in their trip? I think it's just the fact that there is no sun protection or cooling off areas and it just makes everyone cranky. Apparantley, including the CM's (fastpass?). Well I'm stoked about the video that is hopefully forthcoming. . . . Great job as usual.

[Suzie&Jay]

Great update Melissa! We'll be trying Flame Tree BBQ for the first time this trip (RIP Tusker House) thanks for the tip about the sauce!

[mattnkatsmum]

Sorry you ended up in FastPass hell, Melissa.

Great photos with Stitch

[chezp]

Great update Melissa - and I'm glad to see you got your first Stitch encounter in!

[goofysdtr]

Sorry about the Fastpass business . . . you'd think they'd have things figured out by now . Can't wait to see the new video!

[dsnytina]

Melissa:

Fantastic update about AK!
Thanks for the warning about EE Fastpasses...eek!

Andy:
Can't wait to hear more!

Tina

[luvnwdwgal]

Loved the update Melissa!!

[kimkdmm]

Great update!!!
ugh...that stinks about the fast pass
glad you got to see your buddy....yay!!
awesome awesome pictures...
thanks for the imagineers field guide book info...i will have to check it out
looking forward to the video!!

[ArielsMomto2]

Another great update Melissa. Your pictures are just awesome. We too like to eat down by the water at Flame Tree and yes the AK is the hottest place in the world. I just start to melt the minute I walk thru the gate.