So far, the day at the Animal Kingdom was going great, but less than an hour before the parade, rain begins to possibly skuttle the parade for the afternoon.
After a while of looking in the shops, I noticed the rain was stopping and that there were CMs beginning to mark off the parade route. I took this as a good sign and got a dry seat for the parade.
The weather was great when the parade finally started. I had never seen the full parade before (I had seen it in the rain last year, but it was only an abridged version and going much faster than usual speed). It was great. After the parade, it was getting kind of late and that I had to get back to the hotel to get ready for dinner at Downtown Disney. I did manage to take a minute looking around the Oasis and the animal exhibits there.
As I was exiting the park, I got another wonderful surprise. Jane Porter from Tarzan was doing greets in the entrance courtyard. She is one of my favorite characters and I had never seen her in the parks before so I knew I had to go and meet her. She was very nice and perfectly in character. I got her autograph and took her photo. It had been a great day at the Animal Kingdom, but the day wasn't over yet.
After returning to my room, my first stop for the evening would be the Sassagoula Steamboat Company River Cruise that goes from the Resort to Downtown Disney. IMO, this is one of the most overlooked attractions at WDW. It's so relaxing and very scenic. It was kind of sad seeing Port Orleans French Quarter closed and empty, but the driver on the boat said that it should hopefully be open in about 5 months or so. The cruise also passed the Saratoga Springs Resort (former Disney Institute) before arriving at the West Side.
For this evening, I decided that I would try Bongo's for dinner. This was another restaurant I had never done before and was very impressed. There wasn't any wait (no PS here so you never know how long of a wait you may have) and I was seated right away. I hadn't heard a lot about the restaurant here on the boards and wasn't exactly sure what to expect. The food was probably the best Cuban food I have ever had and the atmosphere was great- defiantly a little I Love Lucy-esque with the Cuban nightclub type of theme. A wonderful meal. After dinner, I spent a little time in some of the shops at West Side and then it over to the Marketplace.
First stop was World of Disney. The store was an absolute mad house! After a little while of trying to attempt to see any merchandise through the seas of people in the shop, I decided to leave and check out some of the other shops. Once Upon A Toy was my next stop. I had not been to the Marketplace since this shop was added so it was nice to see. Lots of toys based on the attractions. Next, it was on to the pin shop to see if there were any interesting pins there. Next stop was just a little browsing in the Art of Disney and then the Scrapbooking Shop. Lat time I had been to the marketplace, the Scrapbooking shop was a book store so I was wondering what changes had been made. There werent too many- it still sold books along with all the scrapbooking paraphernalia- but there were defiantly more stickers and kits for scrapbooks than in past years. After looking around these shops, it was back to the hotel, again taking the River Cruise. As relaxing as it was in the daytime, it was even more relaxing in the nighttime, with peaceful music playing and even seeing some fireworks up in the sky (not sure what park they were from though). I returned to my room to get some sleep. Tomorrow would be another early morning.
