Ok, I've stopped slacking and I am back.
Day 9
Our original plan was to head out to the beach [Gulf Coast side] and then hit a Tampa Bay Rays game but as the story always goes with us, we just didn't go.
Instead we hit the mall, watched some playoff hockey in our hotel room and then decided to head out to the ESPN club for some the Celtics playoff game. Of course the place was PACKED. We waited maybe 10-15 minutes and we're able to get two seats at the bar. We got beers, nachos and boneless buffalo chicken tenders. Standard fare but very delicious. The bartender was friendly and attentive and we had a great time.
On the way home I popped into the Boardwalk Bakery because I knew they had flan which is my favorite all time dessert. I got a piece and brought it back to the room. It was quite a disappointment. No where near as good as what they had at Cape May and I am pretty sure I was sick to my stomach the next morning. Oh, well. That's what I get for buying a custard at closing time.
The next morning we checked out of Fairfield Inn and Suites and headed over to Caribbean Beach check in was efficient and friendly and because we just never learn we were at the bus stop at 8:30a waiting for the Animal Kingdom bus.
At 8:49a we were walking into the park. From Caribbean Beach Bus stop to AK gate was 19 minutes. Not bad. We reached Everest right at 9 and not only were the fast pass machines down, the ride must have got a late start because no one was let on until 9:08a. The line was ridiculous and people were absolutely losing their minds. We had our fastpasses in hand and headed over the the Safari for a 10 minute wait [this was 18 minutes after opening].
After the Safari we had a basic breakfast at Kusafiri Coffee Shop and Bakery. A pastry, a bagel [toasted was not an option], some OJ. Nothing earth shattering but good. One hour after opening the line for the Safari was at a 20 minute wait. On our way back to ride Everest we stopped for some character pictures since the lines for them were really short. No one was even waiting to meet Flick. He was all by himself.
Then we stopped to greet Anthony's favorite:
At 10:50 Everest was at a 35 minute wait. We hopped in the fast pass line and got on with barely a wait. By 11am Animal Kingdom was packed and we had a lunch at Biergarten to get to. At 11:15a we got on the bus to Epcot and were there in about 19 minutes. Spaceship earth of all things was swarmed. The line actually wrapped around the queue on the left. I had never seen anything like that before.
At 11:46 we got our fastpasses for Soarin with a return time of 3pm. Standby was at a 40 minute wait at that point. With some time to kill we headed to living with the land which was also packed. Posted wait time: 20 minutes. I had never waited for that ride before. In reality it was like a 10 minutes but still. We then went ahead and rode Journey Into the Imagination for reasons that still elude because that ride is terrible.
After Figment we went ahead and checked out Sum of All Thrills which only had a 15 minute wait. It was pretty cool, if not a bit nauseating. Finally we made our way over to Biergarten. Now, as you may have noticed we are not adventurous eaters in any sense of the word but we wanted to try different things this trip so here we were. Check in was friendly and we were seated shortly thereafter.
Now, I don't really recall what we ate but if you are familiar with Biergarten maybe you can spot something you recognize.
From what I can recall all of the food had some kind of seasoning on it that was just not palatable to us. Even the potato salad just want's quite right. The fried items were very dry. I did really enjoy the potato soup they had and the pretzel bread was delicious. Dessert did not bring any good news:
The black forest cake was forgettable, the vanilla pudding was bland. I mean it's pudding how do you mess that up? I don't even know what the third thing on the plate is but I don't remember if Anthony liked it or not. The entertainment as cool and I am glad we tried it but Biergarten is just not for us.
We left the restaurant and started to make our way over to Soarin'. Let me tell you walking around in the blazing heat, full of German food we did not enjoy= not good times. Thankfully there was a Mickey Bar on deck to save the day.
We did Soarin' then headed for the FP line for Test Track [got one before riding Soarin'] At this point it was 4pm and the standby times were 45 minutes for Soarin' and 50 for Test Track.
After the rides we headed back to World Showcase to catch Fran Cosmo. I must say that the day was hotter than the underworld. I was sweating buckets and was just glad to have a shaded place to sit and enjoy a frozen treat. The show was really good, I dozed off a bit during a really long song but otherwise it was enjoyable. We rode my favorite, Spaceship Earth, and then hopped on the bus back to CBR with plans to freshen up and head out to the Magic Kingdom for extra magic hours.
When we got to our room our keys did not work. I believe we were in Aruba so it was kind of a hike back to the customs house. We called the front desk and they had someone there within 15 minutes with new keys.
We arrived at the Magic Kingdom at 9pm and I believe Spectromagic was at 9:30. We got a great spot in the railing right across from the Diamond Horseshoe. Here are two of my favorite shots:
After Spectro we headed over the Big Thunder mountain and I lost track of how many times we rode but it is so much fun at night. Then we hit Splash Mountain not realizing it was fireworks time. We got to see a good portion of the fireworks from the ride which was super cool. This is one of my favorite pictures from the whole vacation. This is at the loading dock before we got off the ride:
After our awesome ride on Splash Mountain we were feeling kind of hungry so we went to Pecos Bill so I could have their taco salad that I absolutely adore. I just really wish they would offer chopped tomatoes for it but I'm just nitpicking.
You're handed the shell with the meat already in it and you can fill it to your heart's content at the fixings bar. There was a cast member at the fixings bar cleaning up who was super nice. I asked about sour cream, not only did she stop what she was doing to talk to me but she also went out to the back to get me sour cream. She didn't have to, she had things she needed to do so I really appreciated her being so helpful. I wish I had got her name.
Anthony wasn't super hungry so he opted for the kid's hamburger meal.
It was pretty good especially for $4.99. We will probably return to Pecos Bill. The food is pretty good, and ordering is so easy with the computers they have. I think more counter service locations should have these. We finally capped off the night with some ice cream from the Main Street Ice Cream parlor. It was so good and creamy and amazing. A perfect ending to a great day.
love 
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] Our fails were quite epic so I am glad people can take something useful from our shenanigans. Thanks for reading.
