mackeysmom
Let's Go Mets!
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2003
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Cousins take on the World - Day Two 12/7 - The day the unthinkable almost happened
Cast of Characters:
Laura (me) - age 34 (sister to Am and and cousin to Annmarie)
Annmarie - age 32 (cousin to Laura and Am)
Annmarie - age 38 (sister to Laura and cousin to Annmarie - to avoid confusion will be called Am)
Our 6:45 wake-up call shocked us out of bed. I checkout out the savannah - more birds. We got showered and were ready to leave for breakfast when I saw some antelopes and a giraffe. Yay - something other than birds. We had breakfast at Boma - delicious. (Check out Annmarie's restaurant reports). Annmarie called home to check on Nicole. We both checked our voice-messages, still no word from Am. (A call home to my mother confirmed that Am was safe and sound in Tampa - not that we'd know that, though!)
After breakfast, we headed off to the bus-stop. The bus to Animal Kingdom was waiting for us. (I can get used to this!!). Outside of the AK gates, we encountered a group of acapela singers. They were great. We made our way through security (a little note about security - the lines for security never took longer than about 3 or 4 minutes. They ran smoothly - but of course, there were always people who were complaining about it.) We walked into the park and I immediately saw a cast member holding a glass cage with some sort of tarantula/spider thing in it. Now, Annmarie is terrified of any kind of spiders. I knew she would freak out, so I pushed her along. She had no clue why I was pushing her, and seemed very confused. It was only after we were no longer in view of the creature did I tell her. As I suspected, she said she would have bolted right out of the park if she had seen it.
We made our way over to Kilamanjaro Safaris. We walked right on - no wait at all. The tour guide was great and we saw tons of animals. Oh yeah, and we also saved Little Red!! After that, we decided to walk to Pagano Trail. The stench of urine was overpowering, and we ran back. We walked over to Dinosaur - there were no lines so we rode it and grabbed a FP for later. It had been a few years since we've ridden Dinosaur (Annmarie was pregnant the last time we came), and it was cool to experience it again.
We walked over to Primeval Whirl and contemplated whether or not to ride it. I'm afraid of heights, and Annmarie doesn't like the spinning. We finally got the courage up to ride it. The line was about 10 minutes long, and when we were seated, they sat us with two other people.
***Disclaimer*** The story that follows was one of the funniest things I've ever experienced. No doubt it will not translate well, but try to imagine if it happened to you. Having never been on the ride before, Annmarie and I were unfamiliar with it. Once we were seated and found a place to put our pocketbooks, the ride had already begun to move out of the start gate. Somehow, my left arm was stuck above the safety bar in an odd position. Annmarie's arms were sort of stuck under her safety bar as she was holding onto her bag. I was at the end, Annmarie was next to me, next to Annmarie was a woman in her 40's, and next to her was her brother (also 40-ish). As the ride starts to take off, the guy starts to heave and make the motions that he is going to throw up.
I panicked and started shouting "Stop the ride, he's going to vomit" while waving my "stuck" arm in the air, pointing frantically. Annmarie attempted to cover herself with her jacket, but her hands were stuck under the safety bar. At this point, we are both screaming and feeling as though we are about to vomit ourselves. Suddenly the woman said, "Don't worry - he's just choking on his own tongue - he has trouble swallowing". The kicker is that she was so nonchalant about it - no big deal, he's just choking to death. As we began our first incline, they both started screaming "I'm coming to you Mom", "Are you waiting in Heaven for us Mom?". Needless to say, the ride itself was nothing in comparison to the drama that occurred as it began.
After that ordeal, we decided to play a few of the carnival games. Annmarie and I each won some prizes, and gave them away to some little kids who were also playing. Annmarie called home again.
We went back to Dinosaur and used our FPs to ride again. Annmarie made a really great "scared" face on purpose for the picture. We should have purchased it, but didn't. We decided to head back to the hotel to freshen up, as we had PSs for lunch at the Magic Kingdom. On the way out of the park, Annmarie suffered a freak nosebleed.
We got back to the AKL and found that "mousekeeping" had make cute little animals out of our towels. There were tons of animals in our savannah and we watched them for a while.
We make our way to the bus-stop. About 10 minutes later, the MK bus pulled up and we were on our way. Oddly enough, when we arrived at the MK they dropped us off at the All Stars bus-stop. As we walked to the MK, we checked out more of the Mickey statues. I had been trying to locate the one designed by Wyland, as he is my favorite artist. Sure enough we found it - Mickey in scuba gear. It was cool.
Main Street was packed. It turns out that although they filmed the Christmas Day Parade for ABC the day before, they were filming additional footage that day. We had quite a bit of a wait for our Plaza PS's, so we got to watch Regis and Kelly film their parts. Annmarie was cold, so she ran off to purchase a fleece. She nearly got stuck on the wrong side of Main Street as the parade was coming by. Just as Annmarie placed another phone call home, our names were called for lunch.
Lunch at The Plaza was great. Over lunch we started to reminisce about "vomitous boy", and were laughing so hard I thought they were going to kick us out. Seated next to us was another odd person -- a teenaged girl (alone) who stacked her french fries into a fortress and spoke to her pins. Oh well
After lunch we headed off to Carousel of Progress. It was great to see that again. We had the theatre almost to ourselves and (of course) sang along merrily. Don't get me started on my COP rant
We got FP's for Buzz, and then did Space Mountain two times in a row. The wait was only about 5 minutes each time. We went to the left the first time, and to the right the second time. Annmarie had a problem with her safety-bar the second time (it didn't lock right away), and was terrified for the entire ride that it was going to open. After that, we rode Buzz. (I got 53,900 and Annmarie got 35,000).
We walked over to Toontown, and hopped the train to Main Street. We were going to leave, but noticed that the parade had just let out and the crowds were unbelievable. We continued on and got off the train at Splash Mountain. There was absolutely no line. We were put into row 5. Little did we know that was the first row. We got absolutely drenched. Annmarie was scared as always (she doesn't trust rides that don't offer a safety-bar), but admitted that it was fun. Seated behind us was the cutest little elderly couple who were having a blast. It's nice to see that you don't have to grow up and get stodgy.
As we made our way out of the park, Annmarie stopped for hot chocolate and I got Dolewhip (pineapple/vanilla swirl). We got back to the AKL an stopped in the gift shop. We got ready for dinner and made our way to Epcot. We had about a 15 minute wait for the bus to Epcot. It was very cold that night. We made our way to La Cellier and had a great dinner.
After dinner, we made our way back to the hotel and walked around a bit taking pictures of the lobby. We got donuts and hot chocolate and sat in the lobby for a while people watching. Annmarie made another phone call home. Still no word from Am. We made our way back to the room and got ready for bed.
Overall thoughts -
It was cold. I am always hot and had only packed a light denim shirt to wear. Luckily, I had worn a heavier fleece to the airport and had that handy.
La Cellier was amazing. I would kill for a bowl of the cheddar cheese soup right now.
Strangest overheard conversation (while in full view of Cinderella's Castle) - Man on cell phone says, "Where are we meeting up? At the big, big castle? We haven't seen that yet. We haven't got there yet. Where is it at?"
Stay tuned for Day Three - Will Am ever get in touch with us, will we run into to "vomitous boy" again, will we be able to pack up and say goodbye to the AKL????
Cast of Characters:
Laura (me) - age 34 (sister to Am and and cousin to Annmarie)
Annmarie - age 32 (cousin to Laura and Am)
Annmarie - age 38 (sister to Laura and cousin to Annmarie - to avoid confusion will be called Am)
Our 6:45 wake-up call shocked us out of bed. I checkout out the savannah - more birds. We got showered and were ready to leave for breakfast when I saw some antelopes and a giraffe. Yay - something other than birds. We had breakfast at Boma - delicious. (Check out Annmarie's restaurant reports). Annmarie called home to check on Nicole. We both checked our voice-messages, still no word from Am. (A call home to my mother confirmed that Am was safe and sound in Tampa - not that we'd know that, though!)
After breakfast, we headed off to the bus-stop. The bus to Animal Kingdom was waiting for us. (I can get used to this!!). Outside of the AK gates, we encountered a group of acapela singers. They were great. We made our way through security (a little note about security - the lines for security never took longer than about 3 or 4 minutes. They ran smoothly - but of course, there were always people who were complaining about it.) We walked into the park and I immediately saw a cast member holding a glass cage with some sort of tarantula/spider thing in it. Now, Annmarie is terrified of any kind of spiders. I knew she would freak out, so I pushed her along. She had no clue why I was pushing her, and seemed very confused. It was only after we were no longer in view of the creature did I tell her. As I suspected, she said she would have bolted right out of the park if she had seen it.
We made our way over to Kilamanjaro Safaris. We walked right on - no wait at all. The tour guide was great and we saw tons of animals. Oh yeah, and we also saved Little Red!! After that, we decided to walk to Pagano Trail. The stench of urine was overpowering, and we ran back. We walked over to Dinosaur - there were no lines so we rode it and grabbed a FP for later. It had been a few years since we've ridden Dinosaur (Annmarie was pregnant the last time we came), and it was cool to experience it again.
We walked over to Primeval Whirl and contemplated whether or not to ride it. I'm afraid of heights, and Annmarie doesn't like the spinning. We finally got the courage up to ride it. The line was about 10 minutes long, and when we were seated, they sat us with two other people.
***Disclaimer*** The story that follows was one of the funniest things I've ever experienced. No doubt it will not translate well, but try to imagine if it happened to you. Having never been on the ride before, Annmarie and I were unfamiliar with it. Once we were seated and found a place to put our pocketbooks, the ride had already begun to move out of the start gate. Somehow, my left arm was stuck above the safety bar in an odd position. Annmarie's arms were sort of stuck under her safety bar as she was holding onto her bag. I was at the end, Annmarie was next to me, next to Annmarie was a woman in her 40's, and next to her was her brother (also 40-ish). As the ride starts to take off, the guy starts to heave and make the motions that he is going to throw up.
I panicked and started shouting "Stop the ride, he's going to vomit" while waving my "stuck" arm in the air, pointing frantically. Annmarie attempted to cover herself with her jacket, but her hands were stuck under the safety bar. At this point, we are both screaming and feeling as though we are about to vomit ourselves. Suddenly the woman said, "Don't worry - he's just choking on his own tongue - he has trouble swallowing". The kicker is that she was so nonchalant about it - no big deal, he's just choking to death. As we began our first incline, they both started screaming "I'm coming to you Mom", "Are you waiting in Heaven for us Mom?". Needless to say, the ride itself was nothing in comparison to the drama that occurred as it began.After that ordeal, we decided to play a few of the carnival games. Annmarie and I each won some prizes, and gave them away to some little kids who were also playing. Annmarie called home again.
We went back to Dinosaur and used our FPs to ride again. Annmarie made a really great "scared" face on purpose for the picture. We should have purchased it, but didn't. We decided to head back to the hotel to freshen up, as we had PSs for lunch at the Magic Kingdom. On the way out of the park, Annmarie suffered a freak nosebleed.
We got back to the AKL and found that "mousekeeping" had make cute little animals out of our towels. There were tons of animals in our savannah and we watched them for a while.
We make our way to the bus-stop. About 10 minutes later, the MK bus pulled up and we were on our way. Oddly enough, when we arrived at the MK they dropped us off at the All Stars bus-stop. As we walked to the MK, we checked out more of the Mickey statues. I had been trying to locate the one designed by Wyland, as he is my favorite artist. Sure enough we found it - Mickey in scuba gear. It was cool.
Main Street was packed. It turns out that although they filmed the Christmas Day Parade for ABC the day before, they were filming additional footage that day. We had quite a bit of a wait for our Plaza PS's, so we got to watch Regis and Kelly film their parts. Annmarie was cold, so she ran off to purchase a fleece. She nearly got stuck on the wrong side of Main Street as the parade was coming by. Just as Annmarie placed another phone call home, our names were called for lunch.
Lunch at The Plaza was great. Over lunch we started to reminisce about "vomitous boy", and were laughing so hard I thought they were going to kick us out. Seated next to us was another odd person -- a teenaged girl (alone) who stacked her french fries into a fortress and spoke to her pins. Oh well
After lunch we headed off to Carousel of Progress. It was great to see that again. We had the theatre almost to ourselves and (of course) sang along merrily. Don't get me started on my COP rant
We got FP's for Buzz, and then did Space Mountain two times in a row. The wait was only about 5 minutes each time. We went to the left the first time, and to the right the second time. Annmarie had a problem with her safety-bar the second time (it didn't lock right away), and was terrified for the entire ride that it was going to open. After that, we rode Buzz. (I got 53,900 and Annmarie got 35,000). We walked over to Toontown, and hopped the train to Main Street. We were going to leave, but noticed that the parade had just let out and the crowds were unbelievable. We continued on and got off the train at Splash Mountain. There was absolutely no line. We were put into row 5. Little did we know that was the first row. We got absolutely drenched. Annmarie was scared as always (she doesn't trust rides that don't offer a safety-bar), but admitted that it was fun. Seated behind us was the cutest little elderly couple who were having a blast. It's nice to see that you don't have to grow up and get stodgy.
As we made our way out of the park, Annmarie stopped for hot chocolate and I got Dolewhip (pineapple/vanilla swirl). We got back to the AKL an stopped in the gift shop. We got ready for dinner and made our way to Epcot. We had about a 15 minute wait for the bus to Epcot. It was very cold that night. We made our way to La Cellier and had a great dinner.
After dinner, we made our way back to the hotel and walked around a bit taking pictures of the lobby. We got donuts and hot chocolate and sat in the lobby for a while people watching. Annmarie made another phone call home. Still no word from Am. We made our way back to the room and got ready for bed.
Overall thoughts -
It was cold. I am always hot and had only packed a light denim shirt to wear. Luckily, I had worn a heavier fleece to the airport and had that handy.
La Cellier was amazing. I would kill for a bowl of the cheddar cheese soup right now.
Strangest overheard conversation (while in full view of Cinderella's Castle) - Man on cell phone says, "Where are we meeting up? At the big, big castle? We haven't seen that yet. We haven't got there yet. Where is it at?"
Stay tuned for Day Three - Will Am ever get in touch with us, will we run into to "vomitous boy" again, will we be able to pack up and say goodbye to the AKL????
