DAY 6 : Animal Kingdom
June 21st
Okay in order to explain this morning I need to back up to something I forgot to include in last nights close-up.
After we finshed our late dinner at Beaches n' Cream last night. My DH asked what the game plan was for the next day. I told him.. sorry but I have a breakfast ressie at Tusker House at 9:00am. He said "NO please no.. I can't get up that early again." And since it is father's day tomorrow I decide to wave the white flag on our adr. I told him sorry but I was thinking we only had one day for this park so I wanted to start early. Then I head to the the front desk to ask if there is any possibilty that we can get into the Cape May Cafe at about 10:00. There is a really nice (I think he was a manager) man named Chris. He tells me that the adr system closes down at 10:00pm and he can't check to see but he is positive he can get us in. He asks for my cell phone number, says he is in at 8:00am the next morning but promised not to call until after 8:30 to let us know if he can get us in. Great!
Next morning, 8:45 am my cell phone rings - it's Chris and he says - "Come on down and we will walk you over - the manager is taking care of it" - Thanks so much !! We get up head down and as I am standing there with my family waiting to be helped at the desk - a greeter (not Art) walks up and asks if we are the ***** family .. I say yep.... He says good morning to ya ... and says I am suppose to walk you over

He walks us over and we are given a pager and seated shortly there after. I can not say enough about all the excellent customer service we were given to this point.
My dear kids and Goofy:
My Dear Goofy hubby and Goofy !!
After breakfast we head to the bus area and catch the bus for Animal Kingdom. OH MY LORD it is HOT. My DH reads his iphone... it says severe weather alert... the heat index is off the chart.. and you should not go outside unless you have to. Well, we are at Disney so I guess we have to

But now looking back we shouldn't have !! I think to myself that at least Animal Kingdom is mostly shade.
When we arrive we are starting down a path, and my DD yells "Hey something just moved!" We stop and look, wow Divine- first time we have ever seen her. It was undescribable. She walked forward and made an arch for the kids to walk through.
If you look really closely to the left of the red flower area you can make out her face. We were amazed that my daughter noticed her.
Next we head over to Expedition Everest. My DD is all pumped up because she is tall enough to ride it. We have never been brave enough to do this one, but besides Tower of Terror it is the only ride we haven't done. So here we go. The stand-by line is only 20 minutes. So my DH grabs fastpasses and we wait in the stand-by line.
Here are some pictures of the museum of the Yeti as you walk through the stand by line:
We loved this ride!! My DD liked it but told me that next time she was riding with me because DH didn't hold her tight enough!!
The time to get another fastpass was very quick so we get another one and head away from here for now.
Immediatly we are roasting, so we head inside and see "It's tough to be a bug." Very cute - Philharmagic still my favorite though.
After this we wander around looking at a shop a bit. Then we meet up with some characters on the way towards The Tusker House.
Flik:
This terrible because I don't know this ones name: HELP !! (Tarzan

)
We then head to the Tusker House for our 1:30 lunch adr. I love the look of the inside of the resturant, but the food just doesn't do it for me here. They do have a lot of the Disney standards and they have a few native dishes. I am very plain and scared when it comes to food, so it is probably more me than it is the buffet !! But at this point even DH says "I am so sick of buffets!!" I think we are just fooded out - if thats a word - and at Disney on Deluxe Dining I am sure it is a figure of speech that has been used a lot.
After lunch we head out and go towards Dinosaur. We are able to walk right on the ride. And because I am dying of heat exhaustion at this point, we ride it twice to avoid the outdoors.
After this my DH and DS decide they want to ride the Prime Evil Whirl. My DD is not tall enough, and I am greatful. We decide that we will ride the TriceraTop Spin. We only have to wait for the current ride to end and we are on. Oh my heck... the seats are burning hot !! What were we thinking. I swear I remember it like it was yesterday. We are waiting for the seat belt check and I feel like I am melting !! The ride is over and my DD is happy but it was so not worth the roasting. We head into the little store on the side and my DD suckers me into buying what was I believe maybe 12 starburst in a goofy candy bag - it cost WHAT... 3.00.. now I know my brain is fried !!
Okay DH and DS are back and now they are ready for Everest again !! Here we go .... 2 fastpasses each to burn up....
After riding we stop in the store and purchase a Yeti plush pillow ball for my DD who wants to remember how brave she was. And I am so proud of her, she is only 5.. and for sure she is very brave for going against the Yeti 4 times in one trip !! DS adds 20.00 dollars to his...Disney Racer calculator !!
We leave here and decide to go use our fastpass for Kali River Rapids. We all sit down on a bench and change into our
crocs that have been in a bag hanging on the stroller all day. And head onto the ride. It was a blast. Me and DS get soaked !! And I am thinking, we should have done this sooner, I actually feel better now!
Here is where we really make a mistake. We are heading down the hill coming off the ride and we are unsure where to go. There is a sign - it says : "Exit only"- DH says oh here and we begin to walk...

After walking for a while we see a couple people with a placemat looking thing and they are all looking for birds !! I say to DH - did you see that, they are on a bird watching hike. He says ummm .. yeah. And we walk and walk and walk. I am ticked... where the heck did you lead us too... Then we see the tiger, how pretty. And finally we come out a door. I turn around and look and indeed my DH has just had us do the Maharajah Jungle Trek backwards

Gee I wonder if that's what the sign meant when it said "EXIT ONLY !!" - Okay I am at home in the A/C - so now I can laugh !
After this little excursion I am done. And we leave Animal Hot Kingdom without even doing the Safari.. because I feel like I am going to be sick from the heat.
On the bus on the way back to Beach Club, DH says "Maybe you were right about October"
We get back to hotel and collapse in the room for about an hour. Then I gather up strength and go with DS to the Marketplace. We fill up our mugs and rent Wallie because DH has never seen it.
At 8:30pm we head back down to Cape May Cafe Clam Bake. The kids are so excited to see that there is paper on the table and crayons. While DH goes to get his plate of food we take a bunch of crayons and write Happy Father's Day on the table and draw hearts and mickey balloons.
This will go down as my favorite Dinner Buffet. Did I mention the HEAT today !! The waitress at the Clam Bake asks us "What park did you go to ?" We say Animal Kingdom - she says "Oh lord- I used to work there- it's the hottest park there is." I am like what about the shade?" She then explains that because of all of the low lying plants it actually traps the heat and makes it HOTTER - plus most of the pavement is black and retains the heat !! I am thinking... no wonder... where was she yesterday with that info
At the buffet they had clam chowder and tomato bisque soup. A full salad bar with fruit and cottage cheese. Then fried fish,clams,mussels, and carved meats. Peel and eat shrimp and the best corn bread ever. Plus mashed potatoes with gravy, green beans, asparagus and little red boiled potatoes. The food was all very good. For desert (no ice cream) cookies,brownies, chocolate mousse and my all time favorite the oreo mini bon-bon.
After dinner we head back to the room. Everyone showers because we are just gross from sunscreen and heat. Now we feel so much better, so we all hop on my bed and begin to watch Wallie... I don't even think I made it to the part where Wallie meets Eve and I was out !! My kids too ! First and only night we fall asleep before midnight !!
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