glennbo123
DIS Legend
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- May 10, 2008
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Day 9 - Part 2
In the last chapter, you were treated to tantalizing tales of last-day laundry, beverage beakers left in bags with bell services, and peaceful poolside pastimes. Whoa, whoa, whoa…what’s with all the alliteration?
Anyhow, here’s the story of the remainder of the last day of our trip.
We hung out at pool until 1 o’clock, which was as long as we dared with a Magical Express pickup at 2. We’d brought changes of clothes with us, and went over to the bathrooms near the fitness center to shower and dress. Afterward, we went to lobby to wait for Magical Express.
For a few minutes we looked out over the savanna for the last time. Naturally, I couldn’t resist taking a couple of final pictures of the animals.
The animal observation area, where animals can observe humans safely enclosed behind wooden fencing.
James ran off to fill his mug yet again. Whenever he’d do that, the rest of us would exclaim “More Root Beer!”, as if that was his battle cry. We’d been saying it all week, every time he went off to the drink station. More on this later in the chapter.
The animal observation area is on the wrong side of the lobby if you’re looking for Magical Express, I’m sure you know. So as much as we hated to, we moved out front so that we wouldn’t miss it. A cast member from Africa was out at the porte cochere. His name was Mario, from Victoria Falls. He loved working at Animal Kingdom Lodge, although his time was nearing an end. He was really enthusiastic, and his energy kind of reminded me of the “Crocodile Hunter”. We talked with him for a little bit and at one point we had to let him in on a family joke of ours: the “this is my favorite song” joke. I started it years ago whenever we’d go to an ethnic restaurant. There would always be some ethnic music playing and I’d say, “Ooo, this is my favorite song!” The kids would ask, “It is?” Like as in, “are you kidding me?” And the answer was “yes” of course; I was kidding. Now they usually beat me to it, and on this occasion there was some African music playing out there and one of the kids said it was their favorite song, so we had to fill Mario in.
While we were waiting around, I took a picture of Judy and the kids.
Mario offered to take one so that I could get in the picture. He had a little trouble focusing, but at least you can see the new shirt I got for Father’s Day!
Magical Express arrived promptly at 2. The only stop we had to make before heading to the airport was at Jambo House. A guy sat next to me who had taken his family to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter on opening day, June 18th, and we talked about that for the whole drive to the airport. They knew it’d be packed, so they left the resort at 4am to get there and get in line. He saw himself on the local television news the next day, in line to get in, during a report on the opening-day crowds. He said the “Forbidden Journey” ride was surreal, like you were in the movie, playing quidditch. I asked him if he tried the butter beer and he said that he had and that it tasted like a mixture of cream soda and butterscotch. It all sounded really cool, and I decided that I really need to work-in a day at Harry Potter World during a future trip.
When we got to the airport, we learned that our flight was oversold and they were asking for volunteers to give up their seats. With the prospect of free tickets dangling before me I tried to volunteer, but they only needed one…they wouldn’t take all five of us, so unfortunately we’d have to get on this plane after all.
The girls’ pearl rings had now had enough time for the glue to set, so they wearing them on the trip home. The girls and their pearls.
I said, “Show me your pouty ‘I don’t want to leave’ face”.
Now we reach my last story from the trip, and the reason I told you about James’ “More Root Beer!” battle cry. Apparently after a weeks’ worth of “all you can drink” root beer, his body was ready to start “giving back”, if you know what I mean. He went to the bathroom at Kidani when we changed out of our swimsuits, and then again just before we left, when he rinsed out his mug. Then he had to go again, immediately upon arriving at the airport…it was urgent enough that we had to find a bathroom before we even went through security. Then, as is prudent before getting on a flight, we had him go again before boarding the airplane. Our first leg of the trip was a short hop over to Panama City Beach, and he went there during the layover. Then we started the longer leg of the trip, to BWI airport. James played his Nintendo DS for the whole flight, I finished up my trip report notes for the last day or so, and there was a college-aged girl in the aisle seat next to me, working on some writing of her own. No less than a minute after the pilot asked the flight attendants to prepare the cabin for landing, James turned to me and said he had to go. I told him he had to hold it. A little while later he told me he had to go…bad! I explained that since we were in the process of landing, no one was allowed out of their seats -- he’d have to hold it. “Just look out the window at the ground getting closer.”
We finally touched-down and the drive to our gate seemed to take forever with this poor guy squirming in his seat next to me. Then, we stopped. And we sat there. The pilot came on with an announcement: “Um, there seems to be a plane at our gate, so we’ll have to wait here. It should probably only be for 5 minutes or so. Please remain seated.” We had an empty water bottle with us (remember the air pressure science experiments from our flight at the start of the trip?) and he begged me, in a whisper, to let him go in the water bottle. I whispered back through gritted teeth, “No way! Absolutely not!” His bladder was under such pressure that he probably wouldn’t be able to even hang onto the water bottle, and I was sure that the poor girl beside me would be scarred for life.
Fortunately, the “5 minute wait” really was just a 5 minute wait, and we were soon parked at our gate and the passengers ahead of us started to get off of the plane. Judy and the girls volunteered to take our carry-on’s so that we could dart up the jetway unencumbered. Also the girl next to me, who hadn’t really let on that she was aware of the urgency of our predicament, let us get in front of her in the aisle, so she obviously was aware of more than I realized. Then, as soon as we could move, we ran up the jetway, into the terminal, and quickly found the closest Men’s room just in time.
Let’s just say that it was quite a relief to be back on the ground.
So there you have it, the last story from the trip. The rest of the ride home was relatively uneventful, which was a good thing.
I plan to do a couple more updates before sticking a fork in this trip report, so please stick around!
Up next: Parade o’ pics
Link to next chapter
In the last chapter, you were treated to tantalizing tales of last-day laundry, beverage beakers left in bags with bell services, and peaceful poolside pastimes. Whoa, whoa, whoa…what’s with all the alliteration?
Anyhow, here’s the story of the remainder of the last day of our trip.
We hung out at pool until 1 o’clock, which was as long as we dared with a Magical Express pickup at 2. We’d brought changes of clothes with us, and went over to the bathrooms near the fitness center to shower and dress. Afterward, we went to lobby to wait for Magical Express.
For a few minutes we looked out over the savanna for the last time. Naturally, I couldn’t resist taking a couple of final pictures of the animals.
The animal observation area, where animals can observe humans safely enclosed behind wooden fencing.
James ran off to fill his mug yet again. Whenever he’d do that, the rest of us would exclaim “More Root Beer!”, as if that was his battle cry. We’d been saying it all week, every time he went off to the drink station. More on this later in the chapter.
The animal observation area is on the wrong side of the lobby if you’re looking for Magical Express, I’m sure you know. So as much as we hated to, we moved out front so that we wouldn’t miss it. A cast member from Africa was out at the porte cochere. His name was Mario, from Victoria Falls. He loved working at Animal Kingdom Lodge, although his time was nearing an end. He was really enthusiastic, and his energy kind of reminded me of the “Crocodile Hunter”. We talked with him for a little bit and at one point we had to let him in on a family joke of ours: the “this is my favorite song” joke. I started it years ago whenever we’d go to an ethnic restaurant. There would always be some ethnic music playing and I’d say, “Ooo, this is my favorite song!” The kids would ask, “It is?” Like as in, “are you kidding me?” And the answer was “yes” of course; I was kidding. Now they usually beat me to it, and on this occasion there was some African music playing out there and one of the kids said it was their favorite song, so we had to fill Mario in.
While we were waiting around, I took a picture of Judy and the kids.
Mario offered to take one so that I could get in the picture. He had a little trouble focusing, but at least you can see the new shirt I got for Father’s Day!
Magical Express arrived promptly at 2. The only stop we had to make before heading to the airport was at Jambo House. A guy sat next to me who had taken his family to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter on opening day, June 18th, and we talked about that for the whole drive to the airport. They knew it’d be packed, so they left the resort at 4am to get there and get in line. He saw himself on the local television news the next day, in line to get in, during a report on the opening-day crowds. He said the “Forbidden Journey” ride was surreal, like you were in the movie, playing quidditch. I asked him if he tried the butter beer and he said that he had and that it tasted like a mixture of cream soda and butterscotch. It all sounded really cool, and I decided that I really need to work-in a day at Harry Potter World during a future trip.
When we got to the airport, we learned that our flight was oversold and they were asking for volunteers to give up their seats. With the prospect of free tickets dangling before me I tried to volunteer, but they only needed one…they wouldn’t take all five of us, so unfortunately we’d have to get on this plane after all.
The girls’ pearl rings had now had enough time for the glue to set, so they wearing them on the trip home. The girls and their pearls.
I said, “Show me your pouty ‘I don’t want to leave’ face”.
Now we reach my last story from the trip, and the reason I told you about James’ “More Root Beer!” battle cry. Apparently after a weeks’ worth of “all you can drink” root beer, his body was ready to start “giving back”, if you know what I mean. He went to the bathroom at Kidani when we changed out of our swimsuits, and then again just before we left, when he rinsed out his mug. Then he had to go again, immediately upon arriving at the airport…it was urgent enough that we had to find a bathroom before we even went through security. Then, as is prudent before getting on a flight, we had him go again before boarding the airplane. Our first leg of the trip was a short hop over to Panama City Beach, and he went there during the layover. Then we started the longer leg of the trip, to BWI airport. James played his Nintendo DS for the whole flight, I finished up my trip report notes for the last day or so, and there was a college-aged girl in the aisle seat next to me, working on some writing of her own. No less than a minute after the pilot asked the flight attendants to prepare the cabin for landing, James turned to me and said he had to go. I told him he had to hold it. A little while later he told me he had to go…bad! I explained that since we were in the process of landing, no one was allowed out of their seats -- he’d have to hold it. “Just look out the window at the ground getting closer.”
We finally touched-down and the drive to our gate seemed to take forever with this poor guy squirming in his seat next to me. Then, we stopped. And we sat there. The pilot came on with an announcement: “Um, there seems to be a plane at our gate, so we’ll have to wait here. It should probably only be for 5 minutes or so. Please remain seated.” We had an empty water bottle with us (remember the air pressure science experiments from our flight at the start of the trip?) and he begged me, in a whisper, to let him go in the water bottle. I whispered back through gritted teeth, “No way! Absolutely not!” His bladder was under such pressure that he probably wouldn’t be able to even hang onto the water bottle, and I was sure that the poor girl beside me would be scarred for life.
Fortunately, the “5 minute wait” really was just a 5 minute wait, and we were soon parked at our gate and the passengers ahead of us started to get off of the plane. Judy and the girls volunteered to take our carry-on’s so that we could dart up the jetway unencumbered. Also the girl next to me, who hadn’t really let on that she was aware of the urgency of our predicament, let us get in front of her in the aisle, so she obviously was aware of more than I realized. Then, as soon as we could move, we ran up the jetway, into the terminal, and quickly found the closest Men’s room just in time.
Let’s just say that it was quite a relief to be back on the ground.
So there you have it, the last story from the trip. The rest of the ride home was relatively uneventful, which was a good thing.
I plan to do a couple more updates before sticking a fork in this trip report, so please stick around!
Up next: Parade o’ pics
Link to next chapter
