Before I start, I apologize for the lack of photos for this day - we just really didn't take many worth posting!
This was a day that Bill had been looking forward to for a long time – Animal Kingdom day! Bill loves animals, and the last time he had visited Disney World, Animal Kingdom was just being built. So, he was very excited for this.
We got fast passes for Expedition Everest right away and then headed over to the Kilimanjaro Safari. We waited in a pretty long line here, and talked to my mom on the phone while we waited. I like how they have the tvs overhead giving information about the animals – it helps you forget how long you’ve been waiting… but you remember quickly when the video starts its loop over again. We finally ended up on a safari vehicle and had a good trip, although Bill’s camera battery died pretty early on so he wasn’t able to get many good animal pictures.
We did a few more attractions but it was very hot and pretty crowded at Animal Kingdom that day (the crowds would die down a bit over the next couple of days, as the long weekend crowds departed) so we decided to head back to Port Orleans Riverside for lunch and a swim.
We stopped for lunch at the Port Orleans food court, and it was really good. We used two counter service credits here – Bill had a gigantic turkey sandwich and I had a make-your-own-pasta dish with shrimp.
We headed back to our room to get changed into our bathing suits, but we ran into people leaving the pool – there were storms in the area and so no one was being allowed in the pool. We both ended up falling asleep in the room, and when I woke up I REALLY wanted to still try to go for a swim before our dinner at Cape May Café, so I made Bill get up and head to the pool.
At least during our nap we had good company, left by the mousekeeping staff:
The Port Orleans Riverside pool is awesome! There are waterfalls, and a slide, and a pretty private area with lounge chairs and plenty of shade. We spent more time at the pool later in the trip, so I’ll have pictures then, but this day we only were able to have a short swim, because we had an ADR for Cape May Café.
After getting ready for dinner we headed to the Beach Club and were seated at Cape May Café with just about no wait at all. Our server was nice, and the food was really good. I believe I had one of the blue Glowtinis here, but I don’t remember what Bill had. In any case, we each had big platefuls of steamed clams and yummy salads and things, plus some tasty desserts. We would definitely go here again. We used two table service credits here – the bill came to $64.72.
After dinner Bill used the men’s room, and I took advantage of the time to sit outside of the Beach Club, in the gorgeous late afternoon sunshine and call my mom – my parents had always been interested in the Cape May Café clambake dinner, but had never been… so I had to call to gloat a bit. We had planned on going to MGM after dinner – we were on a mission! We knew that Rock and Roller Coaster was going down for rehab the next day, and I wanted Bill to be able to ride it at least once. So we took a very nice water taxi over to MGM, headed in and got our EMH bracelets.
We went right over to Rock and Roller Coaster and waited in a very long line – seems more people than just us knew that this was the last night it would be running for a few weeks. We finally made it on and had a great ride, as usual… Bill loved it. Mission accomplished! We then took a ride on the crazy elevator at Tower of Terror – this is one of my favorite rides for its amazing theming. The wait here wasn’t long at all… after we safely made it off the elevator, we went to the Fantasmic arena so that Bill could see the show. This was the first time I saw Fantasmic without the dinner package, and it was actually kind of nice to see it from somewhere other than the far left hand side of the arena.
The show was fantastic as usual – Bill really liked it. After the show we decided to brave the crazy crowds that gather in the shops and browse a little – to avoid the crazy crowds trying to leave the park, hahaha. Bill decided he wanted to buy a white ceramic bowl with little Mickey heads all over it, so we got in an endless line to buy it. The cashier was VERY nice, and sweet, but she was just way too talkative with each customer, given the huge line of people waiting. Eventually we paid at about 11pm and headed back to Port Orleans; we were tired after our long day.
Back at the resort, we filled the new bowl with candy that we had brought from home and left a sign for the mousekeepers that told them to help themselves. Then we went to bed – another magical day done!
Up next: Can we drag ourselves to a park after a huge breakfast prepared by Mickey?