A Practically Perfect WDW Vacation Day 4-or "No worries at all!"

Hettie

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jun 24, 2001
Messages
507
Dates: September 16-22, 2001

Resort: Animal Kingdom Lodge

Cast:
Heather (me)—25—Marketing Support Rep, Graduate student. Former WDW and
Disney Store Cast Member, obsessive vacation-planner.
Chad—26—Network systems programmer. Made fun of my obsessive vacation-
planning, but acknowledged the importance and appreciated the work.

Day 4 or “No worries at all!”
September 19, 2001

Mickey let us sleep until 7:45 this morning. We had an 8:30 PS at Boma and were seated immediately. Ordered the press pot of coffee and the special “frunch” juice. Now that was some good juice. As for the buffet, I really wasn’t that crazy about it. I know that many people love it. The main reason I didn’t love it was that the food was not very hot or fresh. I’m sure that was due to the restaurant not being full enough to keep the food circulating. There was a huge selection though. My favorite items were the quinoa and pap porridges. Maybe I just wasn’t very hungry that day. I’ll try again next trip.

We went straight to the bus stop to go to Typhoon Lagoon after breakfast. We arrived there right at 10:00 and got a locker and towels. We found a shaded area and claimed a couple of chairs and went straight for the Lazy River. We floated around to the slides and got out and did all the slides except Humunga Kowabunga. I’ve never gotten up the nerve to try that one. No lines for the slides. We liked the Storm Slides and got a little cardio workout climbing that hill three times quickly. I love the atmosphere and landscaping at Typhoon Lagoon, which is part of the reason I haven’t been to Blizzard Beach. If I have to choose between them, I just can’t give up Typhoon Lagoon’s atmosphere for the slides at Blizzard Beach. I must fit both in next time.

We hit the wave pool after the slides. We tried and tried and just could not master body surfing. We even tried to copy this guy who was a pro and we were awful still. We did have fun laughing at our sad attempts. After that we floated around in the Lazy River some more with all the British people who were very nice and we had a good time listening to them talk. When Chad almost ended up in one guy’s tube with him, the man only pleasantly said, “No worries at all.” Very good vacation attitude. After a couple times around the park we got out and found ourselves some beer and a hot dog. Chad got back in the wave pool and I relaxed awhile. I waited. I started to get impatient. I waited some more. I was starting to fear sunburn. Finally I swam out to Chad and tried to drag him out. “Just a couple more waves!” he says. So, five or six waves later he emerges and we decide to leave. (He really is just a big kid and I was glad he liked the water park so much.) The park was pretty crowded by this time and it was getting hard to move around in the water. We forgot to look at the picture that the photo guy had taken in the Lazy River and I pouted about this all the way back to the lodge. I called to see if they could just send it to me and was informed that they keep the photos saved for five days and you can get a shopping pass from Guest Services to go in the water parks without paying admission if you just want to visit a shop. I think that is a very convenient set-up.

Back at the lodge we relaxed for a couple of hours and then got ready for our big dinner at Flying Fish. We ran into Chad’s friends who were on their honeymoon at the lodge (can’t go anywhere without seeing someone we know). We took the bus over to MGM and then took the boat to Boardwalk. I like that boat shuttle and would like to stay at one of the resorts that it stops at (maybe the Yacht club…). We were late for our PS but it didn’t matter, we wouldn’t have needed it anyway. We had the place practically to ourselves. Our server at Flying Fish was a pro. We were very impressed. He was classy without being snooty and did a great job of going over the menu. After observing the other servers we decided that you have to be a seasoned professional to work at this restaurant. This is another great-looking restaurant as well. Not at all noisy on this particular night, but I’ve heard that it can be. We ordered some drinks and took our time looking at the menu. Decided to start out with the chowder. Definitely the best chowder we’d ever had. Then we ordered the lobster appetizer. It was melt-in-your-mouth fabulous. We wanted to order different entrees, but neither of us would give up the Potato-wrapped Red Snapper, so we both ended up with that. It was unbelievable. Even though I was stuffed, I had to try the Banana Napoleon that I had heard so much about, and now I see what all the fuss is about. The meal was just great overall, and now we can’t decide which we like better, Jiko or Flying Fish. It remains a toss-up.

After dinner we claimed a bench out on the Boardwalk and watched the ducks and looked at all the lights. One of the WDW survey people came by and we chatted with her for quite some time. Evidently all this while a mosquito had decided to camp out in the legs of my cropped pants because I later discovered 10-15 bites on my legs. I hadn’t noticed any mosquitoes before then, but was diligent with the repellant the remainder of the week. I had originally planned for us to go to Jellyrolls and have some drinks, but we were so full from dinner that we didn’t even attempt to fit anything else in our bellies. We just headed back to the lodge instead and watched some TV in the room.

The day had been relaxing and laid-back. I certainly recommend a day off from the theme parks in the middle of a trip to anyone who has time. It really does refresh you and prevent touring burnout.

Day 5 soon! (MGM, Boma dinner, and Fantasmic)
 
I would love to have a day like you did. If I could just get out of my park commando mode. Thanks for posting!
 
Another great trip report Heather!!! Sounds like you had a wonderful day off at Typhoon Lagoon and Dinner at the Flying Fish! Hope you got to go back and look at your picture.....maybe in the next post right?! :D
 
Sounds like a heavenly day to me! I just can't wait to go back to Flying Fish. We're eating there in January and I know it will be awesome. Thanks for the report.

Beth
 















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