Day 3: Animal Kingdom
Okay! So it's day 3. Jon and I woke up early and shortly after 9am, we walked from the Boardwalk over to the Beach Club for breakfast. We didn't have an ADR for the character breakfast at the Cape May Cafe, but we tried our luck. We only had to wait five minutes (enough time for me to look around the gift shop and track down eyedrops for contacts because I forgot mine!), and in fact, we often lucked out on our trip being a party of two amongst lots of larger groups and families.
I may be 28 years old and married, but I'll always be just as excited as the children around me when I see Disney characters. Some may call me crazy; Jon calls me cute.
I thought the food at the Cape May Cafe was good - lots of options, from eggs to pastries, from Mickey waffles (oh, you know I had to have one) to fruit. I went up several times, you know, small portions but lots of variety. Luckily we didn't have to stay any longer than our meal to get pictures with all of the characters available: Goofy, Minnie, and Donald, all dressed in beach gear. Minnie was particularly fond of my wedding ring!
At the end of our meal, our server brought us a cupcake dessert for being on our honeymoon. However small it is, I still consider this a little sprinkling of pixie dust and honestly, it was enough to make me smile! Even the littlest surprises can make my day that much better.
So now, it's off to Animal Kingdom! Jon and I caught the bus right there from the Beach Club and arrived around 11am. It had been awhile since I'd visited Animal Kingdom, and Jon had never been, so it was a completely new experience for him. We entered the park and went through the gift shop first, and then made our way to Expedition Everest. EE wasn't even built the last time I was in AK, but Jon and I had read about it and couldn't wait to go on! The queue is very detailed and interesting once you get inside the building, with lots of information about the Yeti and failed attempts to capture it by expeditions (the ones who made it back, that is). The outside queue was covered, but the bells! Those bells! People could not resist dinging the bells, even when it was right by someone else's head and not their own (not that it happened to me, or anything...
). I was relieved to get away from the bells, for sure!
I knew the basic premise of this ride (starts off going forward, ends up backward), but I braved it and kept my camera out anyway. Or actually, I kept my camera out until we reached the top - snapped a few shots of the view and the 'broken track', and then shoved it in my backpack in the bag holder really fast before we went backwards. I loved it! We both wanted to ride again, but the line was getting pretty long and there were other things to see. Like the safari!
This I'd been on before, but I didn't remember seeing so many animals! I couldn't tell you the correct name for all of them, but we saw alligators, elephants, white rhinos, some sort of gazelle, other gazelle-like creatures, giraffes, some goat-like creatures, and more. Real specific, I know. I missed my calling as a zoologist. Either way, I enjoyed it!
I don't know what it is about the days I visit AK and extreme temperatures, but we were here on a near-record hot day. Just 2 degrees below the record high. When I was here back in Dec 2000, we hit a streak of record lows (seriously. if you check out the temperatures over the New Year's holiday in Dec 2000-Jan 2001, you'll see the record lows for Orlando were hit, and remain, on those days. There's a picture of my brother and I in AK with winter coats on sitting together looking absolutely freezing. In fact, the parks had sold out of mittens/gloves, and my dad ended up using a pair of socks to keep his hands warm!) Anyway! It was in the 90s, which is not unheard of for Florida, but still, high for the end of September. For some reason the heat just feels more... hot in Animal Kingdom. So Kali River Rapids was the natural choice in attractions. I've got no pictures of it, and if you've ever been on it you'll know why my camera was inside a waterproof bag inside my backpack inside the bag container in the middle of the raft. Because I got soaked. And it felt amaaaaazing.
We walked around Dinoland, USA for awhile and went on Dinosaur (this ride actually scares me, but I like it haha). Now we had a big breakfast, so even though it was after lunchtime at this point, we were getting hungry. Jon and I got a snack and sat on a bench and made plans to have a late light lunch (how's that for alliteration?). AK is a small park compared to the others, so it's usually a half day for me. We decided to head out and catch the bus back to our resort.
Look at me holding my ears!
Jon and I meandered around the Boardwalk resort taking some pictures while we walked over to Epcot to find something for lunch. We decided on the San Angel Inn. The a/c felt so good! I think we guzzled down our waters right away. It was almost 3:30 and we had dinner reservations for 7:45, so we got just enough to hold us over but not fill us up. We shared what I think was Tostadas de Tinga, a side of guac, and... well I can't remember. (I really wish I had written this right after our trip!). It was yummy and I loved the atmosphere of the restaurant (although with it being as empty as it was, I wish our table was closer to the water).
Every time I come to WDW, I never get a chance to just relax by the pool. We're always on the go, which is not a bad thing, but I specifically planned on pool time for us. So after lunch, we slowly walked through the World Showcase and made our way back to our resort. Pool time! Just a little bit of time to spend in the quiet pool and hot tub before dinner. Our ADRs were just at the Rose & Crown pub, so there wasn't much pressure to start getting ready really early or anything.
Our ADRs were at 7:45, so we checked in early to make a request for an outdoor patio table. We walked around England until they seated us a few minutes past 8. We had a patio table, but it was under the awning, so my plans for photographing illuminations was foiled. It's okay though, because sometimes it's nice to have an excuse to
not take pictures.
Dinner was yummy, typical English pub food which hit the spot but isn't necessarily anything to write home about as pub food often is (this is not a diss, by any means). But I did get a light up ice cube! Jon and I left dinner after Illuminations and went back tot he Boardwalk just in time to catch some performers. I'm from southern New Jersey originally, so the whole Boardwalk thing is familiar to me. It was fun to see funnel cake stands and boardwalk games! The performers were entertaining, and the Boardwalk itself was so pretty lit up at night. My pictures ended at this point, so to the best of my abilities I must assume we called it an early night, especially given our very early day planned for day 4.
They're making me SO excited for our upcoming "belated honeymoon!" Thank you so much for sharing your trip (and helping me get even more excited 
).
Jaw Dropping! Have you considered posting on the picture of the day thread? Looking forward to more reports!
