CJK
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2001
- Messages
- 7,595
Today we had our first Mickey wake up call. I'm glad that we quickly figured out to stay on the phone while the music played because you'd get to hear Mickey's cheery voice. What a way to start the day. Today we planned on going to the Animal Kingdom. We still hadn't done the Safari ride on this trip. Were there a lot of animals to see! A rhino was right on our path and we had to sit there for quite a while. We decided to give the Pangani trail a try on this trip. The gorillas were so much fun to watch. The kids were having a ball tickling and chasing each other. What a treat this was to see.
On our way from Africa to Asia, we saw the renowned "Divine" for the first time! I almost missed her until she started moving and doing some funky acrobats. This is one of those things I love about Disney. Divine isn't typical in themeparks but Disney throws it in for extra enjoyment. I do hope Disney realizes that the repeat customer LOVES things like this so don't do away with it!! We then watched Flights of Wonder for the first time. Dh and I aren't typical animal lovers so I doubt we'll go to this show again. It satisfied my curiousity. It was a VERY hot day today and I do agree with others when they say the Animal Kingdom is hotter than other parks. We decided to go explore Animal Kingdom Lodge.
What a wonderful job they did on the resort. There were no animals in the savannah at this time. A CM told us they weren't there for some reason but I forget why. The heat was really starting to get to us so we went back to our hotel for a swim. Had a quick lunch at McDonald's and went to the Magic Kingdom. We were struck by the CROWDS. We had been spoiled until today. It was a Saturday and Spectromagic and Fantasy in the Sky were on that night. I guess locals like to come on weekends too.
We got a fast pass for Buzz Lightyear and wandered the shofts a little. When we did get on BL, I got a car that was in rough shape. The laser didn't really work and the paint was really coming off. How old is this ride? We got a fast pass for Space Mountain and rode the TTA. I'm not sure what happened but the TTA stopped halfway through and didn't regain motion for about 15 minutes. No problem for us though as we were just waiting until our SM fastpass. After SM, we headed over to Frontierland.
In just an hour, we did Thunder Mountain, Jungle Cruise and Pirates. By now it was dark so it was fun doing the JC in the dark. It was raining off and on during this time but I guess people were determined to stay for the parade and fireworks. We had to use Fast pass for most rides. No problem.
We waited for the parade right across from the Country Bear Jamboree. It was raining quite hard by now, but the parade still went on. Interestingly enough, we were disappointed in the parade. I think that because of the rain, some CM's were sent home early thinking the parade wouldn't go on. There were EMPTY floats going by, big gaps between floats and missing floats altogether (The Ursula float, Fantasia villain float). I was glad we would be in WDW the following Saturday because I was anxious to see the parade again to see if it was just cutbacks or if the weather had to do with the missing parade sections. (Note: I found out the following the week that weather was indeed the problem - not cutbacks!!! ).
In between the parade and fireworks, we made a run for Splash Mountain and managed to get on before it closed. I just love this ride at night. What a terrific view of the castle! We stayed for Fantasy in the Sky and loved it as always. The MK was jammed packed but you know, I didn't even mind. I was just so thankful to be in the MK at night with all the twinkling lights (despite the rain). While I loved the crowds during our first week, we really missed seeing the MK at night since it closed at 6 all but 3 days of our stay. After shuffling with the crowd, we got back to our hotel and collapsed into our King size bed. Oh how I miss that bed now that we're back in our Queen!
On our way from Africa to Asia, we saw the renowned "Divine" for the first time! I almost missed her until she started moving and doing some funky acrobats. This is one of those things I love about Disney. Divine isn't typical in themeparks but Disney throws it in for extra enjoyment. I do hope Disney realizes that the repeat customer LOVES things like this so don't do away with it!! We then watched Flights of Wonder for the first time. Dh and I aren't typical animal lovers so I doubt we'll go to this show again. It satisfied my curiousity. It was a VERY hot day today and I do agree with others when they say the Animal Kingdom is hotter than other parks. We decided to go explore Animal Kingdom Lodge.
What a wonderful job they did on the resort. There were no animals in the savannah at this time. A CM told us they weren't there for some reason but I forget why. The heat was really starting to get to us so we went back to our hotel for a swim. Had a quick lunch at McDonald's and went to the Magic Kingdom. We were struck by the CROWDS. We had been spoiled until today. It was a Saturday and Spectromagic and Fantasy in the Sky were on that night. I guess locals like to come on weekends too.
We got a fast pass for Buzz Lightyear and wandered the shofts a little. When we did get on BL, I got a car that was in rough shape. The laser didn't really work and the paint was really coming off. How old is this ride? We got a fast pass for Space Mountain and rode the TTA. I'm not sure what happened but the TTA stopped halfway through and didn't regain motion for about 15 minutes. No problem for us though as we were just waiting until our SM fastpass. After SM, we headed over to Frontierland.
In just an hour, we did Thunder Mountain, Jungle Cruise and Pirates. By now it was dark so it was fun doing the JC in the dark. It was raining off and on during this time but I guess people were determined to stay for the parade and fireworks. We had to use Fast pass for most rides. No problem.
We waited for the parade right across from the Country Bear Jamboree. It was raining quite hard by now, but the parade still went on. Interestingly enough, we were disappointed in the parade. I think that because of the rain, some CM's were sent home early thinking the parade wouldn't go on. There were EMPTY floats going by, big gaps between floats and missing floats altogether (The Ursula float, Fantasia villain float). I was glad we would be in WDW the following Saturday because I was anxious to see the parade again to see if it was just cutbacks or if the weather had to do with the missing parade sections. (Note: I found out the following the week that weather was indeed the problem - not cutbacks!!! ).
In between the parade and fireworks, we made a run for Splash Mountain and managed to get on before it closed. I just love this ride at night. What a terrific view of the castle! We stayed for Fantasy in the Sky and loved it as always. The MK was jammed packed but you know, I didn't even mind. I was just so thankful to be in the MK at night with all the twinkling lights (despite the rain). While I loved the crowds during our first week, we really missed seeing the MK at night since it closed at 6 all but 3 days of our stay. After shuffling with the crowd, we got back to our hotel and collapsed into our King size bed. Oh how I miss that bed now that we're back in our Queen!
