Day 3
We slept until we woke up no alarm clocks. We got up around 9:00, got cleaned up, and watched the animals for a while. Around 10:00 we made our way over to AK and got breakfast at Tusker House. There was a fair selection of breakfast sandwiches but we were very disappointed in the bacon and egg biscuit. The bacon turned out to be very fatty Canadian bacon that I had to pull off the sandwich in order to make it edible.
Our first stop at AK was the Safari. We had an excellent guide from South Africa and saw lots of animals. We really love this ride. We spent most of our day at AK walking around looking at the animals. We got the trail guides that help you identify the birds and animals and really took our time. When were with the kids theyre not too excited about looking at animals and we have to rush through if we get to see them at all! It was our 5th trip to AK but my first time taking the train to Rafikis planet watch. While I know my kids would have been bored we would have to rate this as not to be missed for adults. We were only sorry we didnt time our visit right to see the animals receiving veterinary care.
We had a late lunch at Flame Tree Barbeque which, contrary to reports on these boards, is still very much open. On our last visit we had attended a presentation at Disney Vacation Club and they had given us coupons for a free meal at a variety of restaurants. We used them here. DH had the barbequed ribs and chicken combo platter while I had a pork barbeque sandwich with coleslaw. It also included dessert so we had a couple of slices of key lime pie. Everything was very good. We ate at around 3:00 and took our trays down to the waterfront. We basically had the place to ourselves. It was great! At 4:00 we left the park and caught the bus back to AKL.
DH and I have had some really good times at Pleasure Island in the past so we were really looking forward to an evening there. We had wanted to see the Osborne lights but were afraid wed be too wiped out for a night at PI if we went to MGM first so we opted not to. This was a mistake. We arrived at PI at 7:00 and it was dead. We figured we were just too early but we stayed until 10:00 and the people never materialized. The clubs were absolutely dead. Now this was a Monday night in December and I didnt expect huge crowds but this was ridiculous. We went to the Jazz club and there were only three tables filled and one was with the musician. The musician was excellent and we felt guilty about leaving because we didnt want him to play to a completely empty room. We tried to order something to eat at the jazz club but were told that they didnt serve food anymore despite the menus on the tables. We ended up eating a really awful slice of pizza from the pizza stand. Yuck! We enjoyed the comedy club but just had to leave PI afterwards. Im telling you it was really dead. One of the castmembers told us that it had pretty much been that way constantly since 9/11. She said that they had just started a policy where people could come in for free until 9:00 instead of 7:00 but that they couldnt go into the clubs. They could enjoy the street entertainment and shop in the shops until 9:00. I sure hope this lack of business doesnt last. We really loved PI in the past! We walked over to Westside to do a bit of shopping and walked down to the end. It was dead there too! We gave up and decided to go back to the hotel. Since we were down at the other end we decided to catch the bus at the Westside stop. Whoops! That stop is now closed. It was a long walk back to the PI stop but we finally made it and went back to our hotel.
On the morning of our last day we slept late, packed up, and drove over to DD for a day of shopping. We had breakfast sandwiches at McDonalds (2 for 1 with DVC coupon) and spent the morning and early afternoon shopping at every store! We got a few things but really did our most productive shopping in the parks. Lunch was a Big Mac for DH and a hot dog for me along with a couple of beers down at the waterfront and then it was time to leave for our 4:00 plane.
All in all it was a lovely trip and I really thank everyone on these boards for all their help and advice.
We slept until we woke up no alarm clocks. We got up around 9:00, got cleaned up, and watched the animals for a while. Around 10:00 we made our way over to AK and got breakfast at Tusker House. There was a fair selection of breakfast sandwiches but we were very disappointed in the bacon and egg biscuit. The bacon turned out to be very fatty Canadian bacon that I had to pull off the sandwich in order to make it edible.
Our first stop at AK was the Safari. We had an excellent guide from South Africa and saw lots of animals. We really love this ride. We spent most of our day at AK walking around looking at the animals. We got the trail guides that help you identify the birds and animals and really took our time. When were with the kids theyre not too excited about looking at animals and we have to rush through if we get to see them at all! It was our 5th trip to AK but my first time taking the train to Rafikis planet watch. While I know my kids would have been bored we would have to rate this as not to be missed for adults. We were only sorry we didnt time our visit right to see the animals receiving veterinary care.
We had a late lunch at Flame Tree Barbeque which, contrary to reports on these boards, is still very much open. On our last visit we had attended a presentation at Disney Vacation Club and they had given us coupons for a free meal at a variety of restaurants. We used them here. DH had the barbequed ribs and chicken combo platter while I had a pork barbeque sandwich with coleslaw. It also included dessert so we had a couple of slices of key lime pie. Everything was very good. We ate at around 3:00 and took our trays down to the waterfront. We basically had the place to ourselves. It was great! At 4:00 we left the park and caught the bus back to AKL.
DH and I have had some really good times at Pleasure Island in the past so we were really looking forward to an evening there. We had wanted to see the Osborne lights but were afraid wed be too wiped out for a night at PI if we went to MGM first so we opted not to. This was a mistake. We arrived at PI at 7:00 and it was dead. We figured we were just too early but we stayed until 10:00 and the people never materialized. The clubs were absolutely dead. Now this was a Monday night in December and I didnt expect huge crowds but this was ridiculous. We went to the Jazz club and there were only three tables filled and one was with the musician. The musician was excellent and we felt guilty about leaving because we didnt want him to play to a completely empty room. We tried to order something to eat at the jazz club but were told that they didnt serve food anymore despite the menus on the tables. We ended up eating a really awful slice of pizza from the pizza stand. Yuck! We enjoyed the comedy club but just had to leave PI afterwards. Im telling you it was really dead. One of the castmembers told us that it had pretty much been that way constantly since 9/11. She said that they had just started a policy where people could come in for free until 9:00 instead of 7:00 but that they couldnt go into the clubs. They could enjoy the street entertainment and shop in the shops until 9:00. I sure hope this lack of business doesnt last. We really loved PI in the past! We walked over to Westside to do a bit of shopping and walked down to the end. It was dead there too! We gave up and decided to go back to the hotel. Since we were down at the other end we decided to catch the bus at the Westside stop. Whoops! That stop is now closed. It was a long walk back to the PI stop but we finally made it and went back to our hotel.
On the morning of our last day we slept late, packed up, and drove over to DD for a day of shopping. We had breakfast sandwiches at McDonalds (2 for 1 with DVC coupon) and spent the morning and early afternoon shopping at every store! We got a few things but really did our most productive shopping in the parks. Lunch was a Big Mac for DH and a hot dog for me along with a couple of beers down at the waterfront and then it was time to leave for our 4:00 plane.
All in all it was a lovely trip and I really thank everyone on these boards for all their help and advice.
