Jill worked twelve and a half hours today, and she was beat, so no pictures yet. She will get to them, and to her comments, but meanwhile, I'll try to hold down the fort.
Wednesday was our first official full day, and our plan was to open Animal Kingdom and head straight for Expedition Everest. I was up at five, so I walked around Pop a while, still just glad to be there; still absorbing the fact that I really was. I went to Everything Pop early and went ahead and got a bunch of postcards for people back home and for some fairy godmailer surprises for some Dis kids that will be going in the near future.
Trent and Kristi wanted to ride Everest, too, so they joined us. I was surprised they got up early, but they did. We got fastpasses for EE, then went to ride Dinosaur, which had a five minute wait. We did baby swap again. I sat out with Brooklynn while they all rode, then I rode with Jill and Kristi. We all made "frightened" faces for the camera, and the guys got a kick out of that as they waited with Brooklynn.
Everest was a little more intense than any of us had imagined. We thought it would be more about the theming with a moderate roller coaster ride, but the ride itself was pretty wild. At least we all thought so. When the four of them came off, they were drawing straws to see who had to go back a second time, because it had given them a run for their money. I just said never mind, then, and I'd ride it later, but Trent said no, he wanted me to ride it right then, and he volunteered to take the beating again. I think he was ready to lose his breakfast after two rides in a row, but he held it down. I agreed with all of them, that it was a little more than I wanted in a ride. Everybody has their own level of fun with coasters, and that one is just a little more than I consider to be fun. Parts of it were fun, but parts of it were more than I wanted. All that is just my personal opinion. I rode it, and I didn't feel the need to do it again, at least for that trip. Maybe in the future.
We went on Kilimajaro Safari. While were standing in line, a CM came and asked me how many were in my party. I told him six, and he said to come with him. We, along with a few other small groups, got taken to a jeep that was ready and waiting, and we took off. It was a pretty normal safari as far as animal activity. We did have to stop for a couple of minutes to wait for an ostrich to cross the road in front of us. There was a hippo that was completely out of the water standing up on the land, and that was kind of different, because usually at least part of all of them are in the water.
Trent and Kristi headed back to Pop to swim and work out, and the rest of us went to eat at Flame Tree. I got the turkey sandwich, Jill got the pork sandwich, and John got the half chicken. Brooklynn got chicken, grapes, and applesauce. The portions were huge, and we took some with us. We were the only ones under our pavilion until almost the end of the meal. After that, we saw Flights of Wonder, browsed some shops, and then headed back to Pop for some rest and some time inside a cool room.
In the evening, we headed to MGM. We lined up to see High School Musical, but due to the weather, they only did a quick drive-by as they sang. We got fastpasses for Tower of Terror, then went to Playhouse Disney and One Man's Dream. We met up with the couple that owns Jill's daycare and talked with them and their two kids for a few minutes. Then we headed to Backlot Express to eat. We had turkey sandwiches and cheeseburgers and more fries than a person can eat in a day.
Trent and Kristi met up with us and we all went on The Great Movie Ride. The wait was longer than what it has ever been when I've been there before. I guess because of the rain a lot of people just wanted to be inside. After that, Trent, Kristi, and John headed off to use the Tower of Terror passes, while Jill, Brooklynn, and I started toward Fantasmic to hold seats for our crew and Jill's bosses and family.
Fantasmic was bumper to bumper waiting, of course. We were right at the rope on the left side, and people kept getting out of the mass crowd and walking up the handicapped aisle. Several people were getting mad about that and mouthing a little, but no rioting came from it. Just some grumbling from others who continued to stand in the bumper to bumper hot, sweaty crowd. It felt like a long time before we moved, and my claustrophobia was getting to me, but I held fast. Finally, the mass began to herd into the theater. I jumped a bush to get Brooklynn's stroller to stroller parking, and quickly caught up with Jill. We found good seats, then stood until we saw John, Trent, and Kristi and waved them down. The boss family had arrived shortly before them. The show was awesome, as always.
Since we had seen the second show of Fantasmic, it was late when we got back to Pop. We found Drew and Sam at the pool...with girls. They had been to Epcot for much of the day and had ridden Mission:Space and Test Track and done a few other things. We mostly saw Drew and Sam
a) asleep
b) coming in very late
c) at the pool
We did occasionally cross paths in the room, but not often. The only thing they really did with us was the last day, when we all went to Caribbean Beach to eat before we left!
Side note - In our afternoon downtime at Pop, Jill had met 5boyz at the pool. She came in and told me, but by the time I had gotten freshened up and could walk again (the swelling had already started in full force), rain had come in and everyone was leaving the pool. As I opened the door, 5boyz and her bunch were walking back toward their room.
This is a synopsis of 7-25. It had been long and tiring and FUN! We quite enjoyed saying over and over, if it was inconvenient to do something right then, "Oh well, we'll catch it later." We were gloating inside because we were on the front end of the trip and had days and days ahead of us.
I'm going to go try to find some pictures to go along with this now. Give me just a little bit, because I'm still a rookie.