February Break! We're Celebrating!!

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It all started at about 3am on Wednesday morning. I was up and treading gently down the street to the subway to catch a shuttle bus to LaGuardia (no comment) and then a plane (again, no comment on the airline) down to sunny Orlando and DISNEY WORLD!!!

The plane landed, and I went down to meet my parents at the Magical Express counter. They had already checked us in and were just waiting for me. We headed to the line and were quickly ushered out to our bus, which was ready to leave as soon as we loaded. And we were off!

A short time later, we pulled up to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. WOW! I'd never been there, and my mind was blown. My sister had gone by the night before to put her ID on the reservation and basically check us in, so we went on into the line to finalize everything. The check-in cast members were all helping other guests, but the girl covering online check-ins called us over. She couldn't find a note of sis's ID on the room, but the guy standing next to her said "Go ahead and do it. The last names and the names on the reservation match. It's ok." We just had to have sis go and show them her ID when she got off work. Slight glitch in that they had us down for 4 people in a room with a king-sized bed. So the CM called...someone...to get us reassigned to a room with 2 queens. One was available, so we headed down Giraffe Trail to room 3028 - pool view. Oh yeah...the CM pulled out 4 "I'm Celebrating!" buttons and said "I see a note that you're celebrating - unnamed but celebrating, so here are your buttons." More on that later.

SOOOOO pretty!!! I was in love from the start. We could see the pool, one of the hot tubs, the pond with greater flamingo, and a little bit of the Savannah.

By this point we were all starving, so we headed to The Mara for lunch. Basic fare - I went ahead and got my mug, and had pretty much paid for it by the time we went back to the room. Daddy wanted to lay down for a little while, so I unpacked and we turned on tv and found Olympic coverage. Then Mom and I looked out the window and saw giraffes at the tree we could see. I grabbed my camera and ran down to explore. I managed to see most of the animals you could - including the watusi cattle (I think that's their name). WOW those are big horns!! One had an ear infection, so he was leaning his head to one side. Another was doing the same in sympathy. It was kind of funny. I went back to the room, then went walking out again with Daddy, who was up from his nap.

By the time we got back from the walk, Sis was in the room. SHE asked what we were celebrating - something I'd been wondering myself. Apparently we were celebrating a little delayed: my finishing the Teaching Fellows program, my second Masters degree, and Sis's 10 year anniversary with Disney. Ok.

It was off to EPCOT for dinner at Chefs de France. YUM! I had never eaten there before, having been sick when the others ate there about 10 years ago. We were too late to see Remy but it was still a lot of fun. The funniest part came with dessert. Sis had selected the creme brulee, which looked wonderful. But after sampling my chocolate cake and my dad's puffs, she looked at her dessert and said "I'm sorry you don't live up to the others. You're good, but..." We all laughed.

The night finished off with Illuminations - as seen from the area in front of Italy. Then it was back to the hotel for some sleeps before getting up for Day number 2!!

I'll just put the links to my albums in facebook...it's easier that way. It took 3 albums!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=197107&id=642326320&l=f9eaf3fa42

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=197111&id=642326320&l=badbf19fa4

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=197118&id=642326320&l=3379f86b51

 

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Before I get into Day 2, I forgot to mention that when we got back to the room after Illuminations, there was a card and a present on my bed - I had a "Great job pal!" card from Mickey along with a paperweight featuring Jiminy Cricket which says "Always let your conscience be your guide"!!

Day 2, we awoke to the sound of the flamingos fussing about something. (This would prove to be an every morning occurrence...however, they at least waited until 7:30 or so.) We went down to The Mara for breakfast - nothing special, it was good, but ordinary breakfast fare.

Then it was off to Disney's Hollywood Studios. Yes it was a Fantasmic! day, and we knew it would be nuts, but we did want to see Fantasmic! so we decided to deal with it. Sis met us at the gate, and we went straight back to get fast passes for Mom, Daddy and Sis for Toy Story Mania (sorry, I'm not a big Toy Story fan, so I opted to skip it). The machines weren't working, so they were handing them out manually. We didn't realize until later that we actually DID have 4. Ooops! We went back and did The Great Movie Ride - always a favorite. We were stuck briefly in Munchkinland, but I can happily report that they STAY DOWN when they've finished their spiel so we weren't stuck listening to them over and over. Then we headed over for Beauty and the Beast - and had the misfortune of sitting in front of a group of high school kids whose school had apparently done the show "Like so much better", because we heard about it the entire show. (I must amdit, after seeing it on Broadway, the transformations are LAME comparatively speaking.) Then we went down to Tower of Terror to get fast passes for me and Daddy (Mom's a whimp! HA!), and decided to go on and do it since it was only a 40 minute wait.

This was our up-close-and-personal encounter with one of the gazillion Brazilian tour groups. Probably around 50 girls just came running up and dropped their pink backpacks in a pile and LEFT THEM THERE! Believe me, we briefly considered grabbing a handful each of the bags and making a run for it - probably could have paid for our vacation that way. But we didn't. I did ask the cast member who was organizing the line if THIS was in fact the line. He nodded, then his eyes about popped out of his head when he saw the pile of backpacks. He found the person in charge of the group and made it clear the backpacks couldn't stay there. We trotted on around into line. The group had apparently arranged for some kind of group fast pass and they all crowded around the fast pass check guy who was trying to hand them out and kept saying "One at a time! ONE! AT! A! TIME!" They were long done with the ride by the time we rode it, thankfully.

Best and roughest drop sequence I've been on! LOVED IT!

Mom had been charged with getting me a Rock n Roller Coaster fast pass, but they were out. I figured I'd give it a go later.

Over to the Commisary for lunch - where we were ALL not happy to see that there is no such thing as a SINGLE CHEESEBURGER ADULT MEAL. Seriously Disney? Not all adults are pigs who can eat a double cheeseburger, yet having a beef option is nice! I felt bad throwing away some of the meat, but I didn't have a choice. Again...

Then it was back to Muppet Vision 3-D - which we love. None of us got squirted though, so it seems like some of the seats in one row aren't working. Went out and saw Mater and McQueen - only from behind the rope. Then Mom and Daddy went to the Indiana Jones stunt show and I headed over to wait in the single rider line for the coaster.

Ordinarily that's relatively quick, but on this particular day, the cast member at the front of the line was earning his ears, and not doing a great job of counting as the other line went through, so kids were lying to him about how many were in their group - like if there were 3, they'd tell him 4 so someone wouldn't have to ride with a stranger. The people in line around me and I heard SEVERAL groups plotting to do this, and empty seats were going through. Finally - when the single rider line was back so far that people couldn't get out of pre-show - the man in front of me went up to talk to the person in front, who got a supervisor who sent someone up and down to patrol the lines getting into the coaster to make sure every seat was filled. Took me a while, but I got out finally.

By that point, the decision had been made to go to the first show of Fantasmic! (minor panic when I realized it was after 5!), so we went over to get in line. It worked out well - we ended up in Pocahontas section about midway down. WONDERFUL seats! Daddy went and got snacks for us. The show was wonderful - my favorite evening show on property!

Then Mom, Daddy and Did went to do Toy Story Mania and I did the Narnia walk through thing. We were all happy.

Then we took the bus (Sis drove her car) back over to Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner - Zebra Domes for me! YUM!!!

And then it was time to watch some Olympics and sleep to rest up for the next day!!

**I should note that we never had much of a problem at all with the buses from Animal Kingdom Lodge (I know there have been some complaints since the buses stop at Kidani first). Going "home" after Illuminations was crowded, but that's anywhere.