A Pirate looks at 30
Day 2 - Plans change, concierge becomes a hero.
Cast:
Darren aka ktulu aka darrrrren - me, 29 (30 on Aug 11), and I'm a pirate, arrrrr
Jill - my wife, 26, not a pirate, but the best wife in the world!
Arrrrrrrrrr, avast ye bilge rats, bring her around to the port side and be ready to board. Arrrr, ye cowardly dogs are about to be rewarded, arrrrrrr. Arrrrr, continuing firing, and someone turn off that ringing, arrrrr!!!
What is that racket? I pick up the phone, 'hello?' and all I hear is some joker playing music, what stuff am I supposed to look at, I'm sure it's neat but I don't know if your collection is complete. Then the person rambles about some big doins goin on. I slam the phone down, people should really supervise their kids!
My wife and I get out of bed and ponder todays plans. But first, it's time for breakfast! We put on some clothes and wander out to see what bountiful buffet awaits us. Bagels, muffins, croissants, cereal. We eat and then wander back to our room, we pass by the concierge desk and one of the CM's (don't remember the name) mentions that today would be a good day to visit Animal Kingdom. Rainy and cool, the animals will be out. We figure sure we'll see if he's right, so we go back and get ready.
Fast forward (boop woop), if you read my pre-trip you'll know that these trip reports are powered by Tivo, thus allowing me to fast forward.
We wonder down to the bus stop and get aboard AK bus. About 15 hours later we're there! It's raining, and due to my previous poncho being a failure, the first stop of the day is to buy a poncho to protect me and the camera. The crowds are light and we head off to Kilimanjaro Safari's. Our plan is to get a fast pass and then head to another attraction. We arrive, 5 minute wait is posted. Woohoo! We jump on board and we're off for our two week adventure through the wilds of Africa. While on our trip it's reported that some poachers are there and they need our help. I quickly offer to head back to the hotel to get my gun, sword and crew to patrol the rivers, but the look I got from the driver told me that I should just sit down and be quiet. I throw a quick arrrr his way and climb back to my seat in the last row. I'd also like to take this time to apologize to the lady in the 3rd row, had I known it was a wig, I would have not tossed it to the crocodiles. (shhh, I'm actually not sorry arrrrr
)
We find the poachers and the little baby elephant, uh...stevie, is just fine. We've saved the day and we're back.
We head down the Pangani Exploration Trail and look at the different animals. This is fun, but we're hungry.
We head over to Tusker House. After a long 2 week journey of fighting poachers and bad wigs, I am hungry. My wife has a salad and I get a chicken sandwich. Both are very good. While waiting in line we spot Baloo and King Louie, so I get my picture with both. We eat, and leave. Fun eh? I bet you all thought we'd just buy the food and throw it away! Oh, we spent about 45 ZAR on lunch.
After lunch we decide to check out Asia. A short trip through the wilds of pathways between Africa and Asia and we're there. We first stop and get some dessert, mickey ice cream. Yummy! We walked through the Maharajah Jungle Trek and then head to Kali River Rapids. Neither of us were interested in getting soaked, but we did spend some time hitting the button to make the elephants squirt water on the boats passing by. At one point there is a guy who thinks he made it without getting wet, guess again! Arrrrr, never trust a pirate standing next to a button!
It's now 3 hours later and we're bored of that we head back to Africa to use our fast passes for the safari. We're on the truck and again we're off for our two week safari adventure. It seems we've made it just in time for the animals to go into hiding. It takes a while before we start seeing the free range animals. We do get some good close up shots of the Giraffes again, but that's about it.
Now, you'd think that they would fix that bridge, it's still falling apart and we almost die. I'm seriously thinking about writing a letter to the safari management informing them of the problem. Again we're called onto helping find the poachers. Again, another letter will be sent informing them they need better protection, and this time I'll offer me and me mates services, for a fee, arrrrrr.
We then head off and see It's Tough to Be a bug, we like this show and are both happier people when we leave. We stare at the tree of life for a while and get some pictures of the carvings, if you look close enough, some of them look like animals!
We head to Dinoland to ride Dinosaur, and it's currently broke down, no fast passes left. We leave, our previous happiness sucked out by this tragic turn of events. We sulk off. One thing I would like to say about Dinoland. It's very well themed, but the two dinosaur characters we saw running around were horrible. It looked like they had just enough left in the budget to pay someone like me to design these. Okay, maybe not me, mine would be a 5 story tall T-Rex, with blood dripping out of it's fangs, but not just any blood, human blood muhahhahahahahahahahahahahhahaha
After they escort me out of the park, we head to the bus stop and head back. We decide it'd be fun to go check out the monorail resorts, so we head off. We've been to the contemporary, so we make our first stop at the Poly. This is nice, a bit too 70's for me, but we like it. The pool is nice, and the bunny rabbits are friendly, that is until some drunk moron goes chasing after one. I ponder dragging him to the lake and making him walk the plank, but I quickly remind myself of the stupid things I've done drunk and let it go. We do some shopping here and head out. We're tired at this point and we skip the GF to visit another day. We head back to the WL and have some snacks. Snacks are not enough and we need food.
We head down to Whispering Canyon Cafe. We wait about 5 mins, which is nice as we get to relax and soak in the beauty of the Wilderness Lodge. Just as I get nice and comfy, the pager goes off and we head in. Our waitress is Kate. She is nice and takes care of us, but the fun is had at the other tables with kids. We enjoy watching the others, and our food comes. Jill gets the chicken and I get the skillet.
Side note: we're from Texas. Bar-b-que is one of our many specialties. Jill's chicken is a bit dry, and just okay. The pulled pork is good in my skillet, the rest is just okay. Disappointed, we pay our bill and head back up into the room. Total cost was, uh, 1 million dollars!
Another side note, my wife and I are both bbq snobs. Her Dad makes the best ribs this side of the Caribbean, he can also make some killer fish. My Dad cooks up a brisket like none other, and for some reason I can really cook up chicken breasts on the grill, they are always juicy and cooked just right. While the atmosphere of the Canyon Cafe is nice, the food needs work, maybe it was an off day. I'll try again in the future, I am a glutton for punishment, after all, I did eat at Mcdonalds the first day!
Back to the room I go. Jill went ahead of me so she could get us some drinks before they picked it all up. I go up. A nice family holds the elevator for me. I pull out my card to get access to ole number 7, that's right kids, give me room, I'm on '7'.
I head into the room, have a drink and sleep, tomorrow is the 11th, and I turn (que dramatic music) 30!.
Next: Day 3 - A pirate turns 30.
Day 2 - Plans change, concierge becomes a hero.
Cast:
Darren aka ktulu aka darrrrren - me, 29 (30 on Aug 11), and I'm a pirate, arrrrr
Jill - my wife, 26, not a pirate, but the best wife in the world!
Arrrrrrrrrr, avast ye bilge rats, bring her around to the port side and be ready to board. Arrrr, ye cowardly dogs are about to be rewarded, arrrrrrr. Arrrrr, continuing firing, and someone turn off that ringing, arrrrr!!!
What is that racket? I pick up the phone, 'hello?' and all I hear is some joker playing music, what stuff am I supposed to look at, I'm sure it's neat but I don't know if your collection is complete. Then the person rambles about some big doins goin on. I slam the phone down, people should really supervise their kids!
My wife and I get out of bed and ponder todays plans. But first, it's time for breakfast! We put on some clothes and wander out to see what bountiful buffet awaits us. Bagels, muffins, croissants, cereal. We eat and then wander back to our room, we pass by the concierge desk and one of the CM's (don't remember the name) mentions that today would be a good day to visit Animal Kingdom. Rainy and cool, the animals will be out. We figure sure we'll see if he's right, so we go back and get ready.
Fast forward (boop woop), if you read my pre-trip you'll know that these trip reports are powered by Tivo, thus allowing me to fast forward.
We wonder down to the bus stop and get aboard AK bus. About 15 hours later we're there! It's raining, and due to my previous poncho being a failure, the first stop of the day is to buy a poncho to protect me and the camera. The crowds are light and we head off to Kilimanjaro Safari's. Our plan is to get a fast pass and then head to another attraction. We arrive, 5 minute wait is posted. Woohoo! We jump on board and we're off for our two week adventure through the wilds of Africa. While on our trip it's reported that some poachers are there and they need our help. I quickly offer to head back to the hotel to get my gun, sword and crew to patrol the rivers, but the look I got from the driver told me that I should just sit down and be quiet. I throw a quick arrrr his way and climb back to my seat in the last row. I'd also like to take this time to apologize to the lady in the 3rd row, had I known it was a wig, I would have not tossed it to the crocodiles. (shhh, I'm actually not sorry arrrrr
)We find the poachers and the little baby elephant, uh...stevie, is just fine. We've saved the day and we're back.
We head down the Pangani Exploration Trail and look at the different animals. This is fun, but we're hungry.
We head over to Tusker House. After a long 2 week journey of fighting poachers and bad wigs, I am hungry. My wife has a salad and I get a chicken sandwich. Both are very good. While waiting in line we spot Baloo and King Louie, so I get my picture with both. We eat, and leave. Fun eh? I bet you all thought we'd just buy the food and throw it away! Oh, we spent about 45 ZAR on lunch.
After lunch we decide to check out Asia. A short trip through the wilds of pathways between Africa and Asia and we're there. We first stop and get some dessert, mickey ice cream. Yummy! We walked through the Maharajah Jungle Trek and then head to Kali River Rapids. Neither of us were interested in getting soaked, but we did spend some time hitting the button to make the elephants squirt water on the boats passing by. At one point there is a guy who thinks he made it without getting wet, guess again! Arrrrr, never trust a pirate standing next to a button!
It's now 3 hours later and we're bored of that we head back to Africa to use our fast passes for the safari. We're on the truck and again we're off for our two week safari adventure. It seems we've made it just in time for the animals to go into hiding. It takes a while before we start seeing the free range animals. We do get some good close up shots of the Giraffes again, but that's about it.
Now, you'd think that they would fix that bridge, it's still falling apart and we almost die. I'm seriously thinking about writing a letter to the safari management informing them of the problem. Again we're called onto helping find the poachers. Again, another letter will be sent informing them they need better protection, and this time I'll offer me and me mates services, for a fee, arrrrrr.
We then head off and see It's Tough to Be a bug, we like this show and are both happier people when we leave. We stare at the tree of life for a while and get some pictures of the carvings, if you look close enough, some of them look like animals!
We head to Dinoland to ride Dinosaur, and it's currently broke down, no fast passes left. We leave, our previous happiness sucked out by this tragic turn of events. We sulk off. One thing I would like to say about Dinoland. It's very well themed, but the two dinosaur characters we saw running around were horrible. It looked like they had just enough left in the budget to pay someone like me to design these. Okay, maybe not me, mine would be a 5 story tall T-Rex, with blood dripping out of it's fangs, but not just any blood, human blood muhahhahahahahahahahahahahhahaha
After they escort me out of the park, we head to the bus stop and head back. We decide it'd be fun to go check out the monorail resorts, so we head off. We've been to the contemporary, so we make our first stop at the Poly. This is nice, a bit too 70's for me, but we like it. The pool is nice, and the bunny rabbits are friendly, that is until some drunk moron goes chasing after one. I ponder dragging him to the lake and making him walk the plank, but I quickly remind myself of the stupid things I've done drunk and let it go. We do some shopping here and head out. We're tired at this point and we skip the GF to visit another day. We head back to the WL and have some snacks. Snacks are not enough and we need food.
We head down to Whispering Canyon Cafe. We wait about 5 mins, which is nice as we get to relax and soak in the beauty of the Wilderness Lodge. Just as I get nice and comfy, the pager goes off and we head in. Our waitress is Kate. She is nice and takes care of us, but the fun is had at the other tables with kids. We enjoy watching the others, and our food comes. Jill gets the chicken and I get the skillet.
Side note: we're from Texas. Bar-b-que is one of our many specialties. Jill's chicken is a bit dry, and just okay. The pulled pork is good in my skillet, the rest is just okay. Disappointed, we pay our bill and head back up into the room. Total cost was, uh, 1 million dollars!
Another side note, my wife and I are both bbq snobs. Her Dad makes the best ribs this side of the Caribbean, he can also make some killer fish. My Dad cooks up a brisket like none other, and for some reason I can really cook up chicken breasts on the grill, they are always juicy and cooked just right. While the atmosphere of the Canyon Cafe is nice, the food needs work, maybe it was an off day. I'll try again in the future, I am a glutton for punishment, after all, I did eat at Mcdonalds the first day!
Back to the room I go. Jill went ahead of me so she could get us some drinks before they picked it all up. I go up. A nice family holds the elevator for me. I pull out my card to get access to ole number 7, that's right kids, give me room, I'm on '7'.
I head into the room, have a drink and sleep, tomorrow is the 11th, and I turn (que dramatic music) 30!.
Next: Day 3 - A pirate turns 30.
