By now you all know the drill. Stitch wakes us and we start the day. We are going to attempt to get through Animal Kingdom without fighting today. We have been in the world for six days. We are starting to dread the halfway mark. We are also starting to feel tired. We have started early and ended late for a lot of days now. Even that special Pargo parking space was looking far away from our room.
I took a very long, very hot bath and got dressed. I reviewed my Tour Guide Mike notes so that I would feel prepared for the day. After so many trips many of you probably think this is nuts, but I like to feel prepared.
I woke the boys and they got dressed too. I thought about just skipping our breakfast ressie and letting us all sleep late. Nah. . . .
Come on kids Disney is a waiting. Lets go. Follow me boys. Come on, Donalds breakfast is a calling. I wake the boys and they get dressed with not quite enough enthusiasm for me. I ask them if they would prefer to stay and sleep but they want to go to Animal Kingdom.
We arrived and checked in at Donalds special line.
This breakfast gets some not so great reviews. My kids always want to eat here though. Since I never eat at buffets, I do not vote. If they want to eat here, it is fine with me. We love early morning reservations because we love being in the park first. We head toward Dinoland and past the Tree of Life. Head to the right boys and forget no wheels in the park. Just as we are turning the corner a Cast Member calls us to the sideGuess What No skating in the park.
I just love walking through the parks with no one else around.
Those early breakfast reservations like Donalds, the Princess Hottie Breakfast, and Crystal Palace are well worth the money just to walk and get pictures without a thousand people in your way and on your heels. Walt Disney and gang did after all build all of the se wonderful places just for me and my family. I am not sure how it came about that all of you got let in!
We are, of course, late for our reservation because we have stopped to take many photos. From our experience, we also know they never set you on time at Donalds anyway because they group the tables and seat everyone at the same time.
We get really excited as we see the wait staff call for their parties in such an exciting and animated way. Wow, this is gonna be fun. This one waiter in particular is really outgoing. He calls all of his families together and takes a big picture of them. He lines them up and immediately picks the targets of his jokes. The boys are anticipating our turn. We are next! A waitress calls our name and to my surprise it is not with a lot of excitement. I am disappointed but still hopeful. It only went downhill from there. She sighed when the kids asked for seconds on their drinks and actually at one point said You dont want anything else, do you? Having the really fun waiter at the tables next to us only added insult to injury.
The food looked like it was pretty good but just seeing all of that food lined up kinda trough like made me realize my vow to not eat buffets was a right one. It is not a cleanliness reason that I avoid those buffets it is because it is such a temptation to overeat. I hear so many people walking away saying they are overstuffed and I just want to avoid that.
The characters started around the tables in a fast, furious frenzy. Each character walked to your table, signed the books and posed for a picture in such a quick militant fashion I was not sure if we had actually seen them. We had to look back at our photos on the camera because we disagreed if Mickey had come to the table or not.
One more half hearted attempt from the waitress to act as though she was there to serve us and we paid our bill and left the restaurant.
We finished breakfast at 8:40 and headed out. Of course there were ropes up to keep us out of Dinoland. I intended to head straight to Expedition Everest and get Fast Passes so the boys could ride. Drew really liked it the previous day we were at Animal Kingdom. Steven announced that he would like to go to Dinoland first today. WHAT!!! Dont you know that Expedition Everest will run out of those sought after passes early??? Well, I felt that I owed it to him. I had run him 23 hours a day for almost a week. Okay, so we would visit Dinoland and then head toward Expedition Everest afterward.
We stood behind the rope and of course we were all alone because everyone else was standing behind the rope that led to the bridge that crosses over to Expedition Everest. The rope dropped and of course there was no running, pushing or hysteria. Of course, not at our rope. That was all happening at the other ropes. The Expedition Everest ropes. My heart was racing at the thought of all of those people getting tripped, elbowed and separated from their loved ones! You know Disney is not supposed to be a relaxing vacation, it is supposed to be a challenge for the fittest traveler. It is supposed to be a survivor kind of thing. Oh how I envied those survivors fighting for the spot to be the first to grab that fastpass for Everest. But my Stevie is the passive one, he is the rule follower, he is the one that walks when you are supposed to. He follows all of the rules except that one about no skating in the park!
We walked calmly toward Primeval Whirl where the boys rode and Rachel got her win a stuffed animal free pass. The boys were so excited as they ran down the exit ramp. They were the VERY FIRST ones on the ride. For being the first ones on, they were each given a numbered lithograph of Huey, Duey and Luey on the ride. It was fantastic. They were so excited and here was another free souvenir that was saving my wallet.
While we were waiting for her brothers to return from their spin with Chester and Hester Rachel and I went to use the free card for the carnival games. She chose to play the game where you throw the balls into the colored cups. After about 20 tries she scored a stuffed dinosaur. We had not paid for those twenty times. My daughter can be very charming and she charmed those balls right out of the hands of the cast member. Every time she missed the cast member would simply hand her another ball.
When the boys saw her prize, they wanted to try their luck as well. Steven wanted to throw the basketball in the impossibly small, lopsided hoop. No one ever wins that game. Three balls for five dollars. Okay you got it. First try swooshNothing but net. We played the water shooting game and won that game twice. Steven sat his dinosaur down from the basketball game and a man actually took it. I did not realize that it was Stevens until it was too late. I could not imagine taking a childs toy at Disneyworld. If you are reading thisman in the striped polo shirt that took a purple and orange dinosaur that you knew did not belong to youNo Soup for You.
The Cast Member at the water shooting game saw what had happened, he did not take the dinosaur back from the meaner than Captain Hook tourist but he did go get my son another dinosaur. Steven was very happy and we stuffed all of our loot in the stroller to go get those fastpasses.
We were crossing that bridge when there was a family taking a photo. The problem was the one taking the picture was not in the picture. I am very sensitive to this since I travel alone with three kids and am very rarely in a photo. I will interrupt almost any journey to take a picture for another group. I probably would not stop in the middle of the elbowing and trampling that occurs at the rope drop, but I do have that need to be first you know?
The point of all of that was that I stopped to take a picture for this group. It was a family of six, looked to be grandparents, parents and two middle school kids. After I took the photo the father reviewed it and was not happy with the kids smiles. He asked if I would take it again. Now I see that as a compliment. I have that Sally Fields syndrome in that I want everyone to really really like me. I thought I must have shown such niceness that this guy felt comfortable imposing on my precious vacation time even longer.
Well people, it pays to be nice. After I took the second photo, he said they had six fastpasses that they were not going to use for Expedition Everest. They had ridden it once and that was enough for them. Once I cleared the mountain of pixie dust that he had just dumped all over my head from my eyes I happily, excitedly even droolingly took those fastpasses from him. Low and behold they were good for right then. See how much time I saved by taking two minutes out of my day to help someone?
We ran to the entrance and in a very diva like fashion walked past those poor lost souls standing in the standby by queue to step to the front and enter through the fast pass queue. The boys rode the ride three times since we had six passes. I read Rachel a book and we fussed and argued while we waited. Now that is not necessarily a negative. I am strong willed and so is Rachel so we fuss and argue a lot.
After Everest I wanted to ride the safari. None of the kids seemed to excited at this thought, but after all I was just letting them go along for the ride. I had rented a double stroller and Steven was riding in it while Rachel sat in her umbrella stroller. Drew was pushing Steven and I pushed Rachel along the path leading from Asia to Africa
On the path we passed the ice cream cart. The Cast Member asked Drew if he would help her for a second. He walks over to her and she hands him a walkie talkie like phone and tells him to say All Clear with a full load.. He says it and she hands him a magical moment certificate and asks him what kind of free ice cream he would like. Of course she also gave the other two free ice cream bars and even one for their momma! Since I had skipped breakfast the ice cream was welcomed.
So far today we had gotten free ice cream, two free lithographs, free fastpasses to the most sought after ride on all pf the properties and a free stuffed dinosaur PLUS a replacement for the one that had been taken. Now you would think with all that pixie dust flying all over us we would be happy.
No we were tired. We were grumpy. We were worn out and although we were happy as each of these things occurred but the happiness was not long lasting.
As we neared the end of the trail, Devine was out again today. We had already seen her and remember it is all about us. There was a mass of people blocking the road and I swear it was already 127 degrees out there with 500% humidity. Steven yells up from his stroller THIS IS A WALKWAY NOT A STANDWAY PEOPLE. CLEAR THE PATH.
I could not believe it. I think he was getting tired. I could hardly blame him for saying all that I was thinking!
We got to Africa to find a 45 minute wait. We got in line for the fastpasses and it all came to a head. The kids really started fighting. I was resisting the urge to cuss. Drew was complaining about having to push a stroller. It is bad enough that I do not get to ride, but I have to push too.
I got to the distribution machine and took my passes just in time to hear the slap. I am not sure who did the slapping or who got slapped but I knew the giver and receiver belonged to me. I steered to a bench where I put Stevie and Rachel in the double stroller and put the folded umbrella stroller on top.
We headed out of Africa (heehee)
and toward the main hub. It was so crowded. It was so hot. The kids were so fighting. I was really starting to lose it. I thought we will just see Its Tough to be a Bug and then we will leave. I know what you are thinking. She has lost her mind, it is time to leave now.
There were so many people in the hub. I could not believe it. It was heel to heel. I was pushing the stroller very carefully because there are lots of slopes in that area. A very large, very bitter woman came to a dead stop in front of me so that she could check her map. I tried to stop and almost did. Almost. I tapped the back of her leg with the stroller. She turned her very ugly, venomous mug on me. Watch where you are going stupid, you hit my leg. She actually called me a name.
I was stunned. I tried to explain to her that it had taken all my power and strength to stop as much as I did. I wanted to tell her that it was her fault for stopping on the path. Not even trying to step to the side. I was not telling her all that though because Sally Fields would not do that.
She was relentless. She continued to tell me off for what was literally a bump. I finally said Just kiss my a** and turned the other way. Sally Fields probably would not have done that and I do not think that lady really really liked me either! My kids were in shock. I must say that at the time it felt really good but I am very ashamed thinking back on it. If you are that lady, I am sorry. I do however plead with you to not stop in the middle of the walkway. It causes havoc for those of us behind you.
The kids were still fighting so I pulled over to a back area. I talked to the kids for a few minutes, but I could not reach them any better than I could reach that mean lady. I gave in and decided it was time to head out.
We made our way to the front and turned in the stroller. We gave our fast passes for the safari to a family just coming in. We would head to the hotel and rest for a long time. Then we would go to Epcot for the evening and LeCellier.
On the way to the car we passed Baloo at the front. The kids did not want to stop. Since we were in the first parking spots, it did not take long to get to the car. When we got in it was a thousand degrees. The fighting still had not subsided. I just wanted to get back to the Pop.
In the next installment we will share our mussels with a very nice family from Arkansas.