*Jeni and Carl's PJ and TR-SBP/CG/Wishes Cruise 8/17/09-UPDATE 8/09 - Discovery Cove*

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Day 17 - Part 3

Halfway round World Showcase and we were at the American Adventure. We were early for a show so we were able to see Voices of Liberty perform, and they were very good. We’d never watched the American Adventure before, and about half way through I came over very sleepy – I think we both slept for part of it –whoops! After the show we went and ordered a veggie burger with a side order of grapes, which was our food item, and shared it. We decided against funnel cake having already eaten school bread and churros, plus we always eat funnel cake at Sleepy Hollow in Magic Kingdom. When we were ordering we found that the CM was from England and we chatted to him for a bit.

Moving on to Japan we decided we would try some sake. We were browsing the menu and discussing options when a lovely American couple started chatting with us, and they recommended a particular brand. They were also kind enough to take a photo for us. The man was celebrating his birthday, and they also then recommended the Oktoberfest beer in Germany as we told them we were eating and drinking around the world.

From this recommendation we went back to Germany to buy the beer, and wandered into the UK pavilion to watch the British Invasion. It was about ten minutes into their set when we got there, and who should we see but mum and dad on a bench! We went over to them and my mum had evidently cheered up, which was a relief, so we shared the bench with them and watched the rest of the set.

After the show Carl and I went into Morocco and decided to get two side orders from the Tangeriene Cafe: cous cous salad and marinated olives. The area was incredibly hot, so Carl said he would queue while I stayed somewhere more shady. In the end he queued about 25 minutes, and I’m surprised he didn’t faint with the heat. The food was good, but it wasn’t worth that wait.

The final country was France and we decided to get two things here: a crepe with strawberries for Carl, and a Grey Goose slush drink for me.

By this time it was 8.20pm so we decided it would be a good time to find a spot for Illuminations. As we didn’t want to fight any crowds, we sat by the lake, and Carl went to get some chilli cheese fries for us to snack on while we waited. We had a pretty decent view for Illuminations, with just one overhanging branch, which doesn’t matter as we’ve seen it many times!

After Illuminations we headed back into Future World to use our FPs for Test Track. We managed to beat most of the crowds due to our choice of viewing spot, and very much enjoyed riding Test Track in the dark as it felt much faster.

After the ride we contemplated staying for more of EMH but the wait times for the rides were pretty high, and we were feeling tired, so we decided to head back to POFQ just after 10pm, but not befor grabbing some night time shots from a PhotoPass Photographer:

 

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Day 18 - Discovery Cove

Now we were into our final weekend and mum and dad had booked for the four of us to go to Discovery Cove. Carl and I had been on our trip in 2006, but we were very much looking forward to going back.
We wanted to be there early to get an early dolphin swim, so we got up just after 6 and got ready the few things that we needed to take with us. We left at 7am and had gone a short way when mum realised she had forgotten to bring any ID so we went back for that! In the end we arrived at 7.35 and were able to check in pretty much straight away. We were allocated a 9.25 dolphin swim and mum decided to rent one of the cabanas for the day so we had somewhere shaded, and a base to go back to. When we found our cabana we realised it was a distance to most of the activities so we persuaded mum to let us push her in one of the big sand buggy type wheelchairs, although she didn’t enjoy this! We walked (wheeled) around to get our bearings, and then went and ate a good breakfast.
We were shown to our cabana, which was lovely, with towels all laid out and a massive cooler filled with drinks and ice. There were 4 chairs around a table, as well as 2 loungers, and there were fresh flowers to decorate. There was also supposed to be someone who checked on our needs, although we rarely saw them, which was a little bit annoying.
Once we had arranged everything at the cabana and applied the dolphin friendly suncream we were ready for our swim. First we saw the video and had the talk about health and safety before being put into groups. Last time Carl and I went we had little Yoshi for our dolphin – this time it was 10 foot long Capricorn, and we remembered seeing him do some amazing jumps on our last trip! We all enjoyed the experience, even my dad, who did the shallow swim as he doesn’t really swim very well.

After we had finished with the dolphins we went straight to the stingray snorkelling pool. I was much better at this than last time – before I kept panicking and that would let lots of water in, but now I was able to stay more relaxed and enjoyed the experience more! We took some underwater photos but we are getting those developed on our next trip, as it is cheaper than developing them at home. Also we didn’t quite finish up one of the cameras.
Next stop was the lazy river where we floated around quite gently, and even managed to keep dad under control for most of the time. We stopped in the aviary for quite some time and had fun feeding the birds. We got dad to go through the steps and doorways before the waterfall, though, as it proved difficult getting him through those!

By this point it was time for lunch, which I was really looking forward to. I had pasta primavera, as did mum and dad, but Carl opted for breaded chicken and fries with a hot dog on the side! For dessert I had a little pot of strawberries and a slice of red velvet cake, which was delicious. In some ways it tasted like cherry bakewells, which are one of my favourite cakes. After lunch we spent an hour relaxing back at the cabana to let our food go down, although Carl got bored after half an hour and disappeared for a swim. When he came back we went together and snorkelled again, before going to the stingray touching pool to feed the rays.

At this point it was 3pm so we decided to go and look at the photos as they would be available. We had already decided to buy a package which included some prints, key rings, and a disc. At this time we were able to choose the photos fro the prints and key rings, but we would have to come back later to get the CD made as our most recent photos hadn’t made it onto the system yet. As it wasn’t going to be too long until we could do this, we decided to go and get ready to leave, as we had decided to go to evening EMH at Animal Kingdom. I really enjoyed using the gorgeous smelling Crabtree and Evelyn products that they provide in the showers and came out feeling refreshed. The last thing to do was to refill our snacks and drinks for on the way home, and do some shopping. Mum and dad were planning to stay a bit longer and then get a taxi back, still, so Carl and I picked up the photos and CD and headed off to Animal Kingdom at about 4.50pm, having spent the best part of 9 hours at Discovery Cove!
When we arrived at the gates to Animal Kingdom we found we were just about the only people driving in, as everyone else was heading out. We went straight through the gate and were able to park very close to the entrance. Once inside the park we checked the wait times board and saw that Expedition Everest had a wait time of only 10 minutes so we got in the standby line and waited less than 5.
As we knew we had plenty of time, we strolled up to the Maharajah Jungle Trek and waited patiently for the tigers. Tigers are my favourite animals, so I was more than prepared to wait, if we had to. We spent a good amount of time talking to the CM there, and she let us in on some secrets and put right some common misconceptions that people have. The info that she gave us meant our 20 minutes actually watching the tigers was even more enjoyable than normal, especially listening to some of the comments other guests were making.
After the Jungle Trek we found that Dinosaur had a wait time of 10 minutes, so again we got in the standby queue and found this wait was about right. I still got scared by this ride, as always! We decided to go to It’s Tough To Be a Bug next, and managed to walk in right as they were about to close the doors. Carl tried to make me sit right back in my chair, but I refused as I really don’t like the bit where you get “stung”, lol. By the time the show was over it was about 7.15pm so we decided it would be a good opportunity to go back to Everest again. It still said a 10 minute wait but going through the standby line this time it was a walk on! We could have walked straight back on again, but we decided to wait a little while longer and finally rode Everest for a third time at 7.45pm as the sun was setting in the sky, which was a great experience. We were pretty tired by this point, and as we had the car we were able to get back to our room nice and quickly, where we watched TV and had a couple of beers for an early night. We’re really looking forward to doing evening EMH at Animal Kingdom again, as we felt we got so much done with practically no waiting.

 

[Stefy]

Great updates

Loving all the photos, sounds like the KTTKT was alot of fun. We must do that one day.

Loving your Discovery Cove update, how awesome that you swam with the dolphins and all the photos are really good too

 

[tinkerbell 766]

Jeni,
Can I just ask where you booked DC? Did you book it in the UK and if so who with and how much did it cost. I am hoping that it will be possible (?budget) for DH to do this the day after our VR. Our whole holiday will be with all our guests (15 of us altogether) and I figured it would be great for DH and us to have one day on our own here as a sort of one day honeymoon!!! Thanks so much. It looks great fun!!

 

[Scrap_Vamp]

Jeni,
Can I just ask where you booked DC? Did you book it in the UK and if so who with and how much did it cost. I am hoping that it will be possible (?budget) for DH to do this the day after our VR. Our whole holiday will be with all our guests (15 of us altogether) and I figured it would be great for DH and us to have one day on our own here as a sort of one day honeymoon!!! Thanks so much. It looks great fun!!

It is a really great day! We did book it in the UK - I think we went direct through the DC website but I have a feeling you can sometimes find special offers. I'm not sure of the cost, but the website has all the details. It seems expensive but when you consider you get all your food and drink (including alcohol if you want it), and they limit the number of guests it is well worth it, as it is really relaxing.

 

[tinkerbell 766]

Thanks Jen
I will certainly be looking in to this!!!

 

[mad4282]

Just stumbled upon your trip journal and I have to say, what a fun and gorgeous wedding!!! Congrats!

 

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Just stumbled upon your trip journal and I have to say, what a fun and gorgeous wedding!!! Congrats!

Thank you so much