jsmla
DIS Veteran
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- Mar 19, 2001
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This evening holds an exciting first for us (well me at least): My very first ever evening Extra Magic Hours (EMH) 
!! Unfortunately this was also Scott's very first evening EMH. I'm afraid Scott was beginning to get a little theme-parked out.
The evening EMH for today is set for the Animal Kingdom. The Animal Kingdom is Scott's favorite theme park. He's what I call a poker. He loves to poke around just looking at all the stuff and the AK is the perfect place for this.
Tonight the EMH is set for 5 pm to 8 pm. Tarzan Rocks and Festival of the Lion King will be showing. It's Tough to Be a Bug and the rides in Dinoland are also open for EMH. All of the real animals are off the clock.
Here's a useful tip. Make sure you get a EMH Schedule when you enter the parks. The evening offerings (especially at AK) are different from the old morning ones. If you don't you may find yourselves humping it over to Africa only to find Africa dark and silent. (And the Darwa Bar closed).
Tarzan Rocks is set to begin at 5:45 but we decide to give this one a miss. My kids were far too grown-up and sophisticated for Disney movies by the time this one came out so I'm not so familiar with these characters as I am with something like Beauty and the Beast. The one time we did see Tarzan Rocks I wasn't all that blown away. Very loud, frenetic and confusing.
We chose It's Tough To Be a Bug as our first attraction. The CM's at AK were quite agressive about checking for wrist bands. (We picked ours up just across from the turnstile.) We had to show ours as we entered the queue. I saw a box of wristbands there so they must have handed them out at the attractions as well as at the front.
I'm not a big ITTBAB fan. I'm kinda afraid of bugs. I live in the sort of place where you have to check your shoes for bugs if you leave them outside. The phrase "cute as a bug" is an oxymoron as far as I'm concerned. Once Lizzie and I were alone in the house when it was invaded by the biggest spider I have ever seen outside of a zoo. There were no menfolks about so we did the only thing we could do. We spent 4 hours barricaded in my room with the door sealed off with a pillow. Scott came home and dispatched the killer spider in 2 seconds. Liz and I are still living that one down. I'm sure that ITTBAB is a fine attraction. It's just not my favorite. I'm afraid I root for the fly swatter and the giant aerosol can.
Festival of the Lion King. This is more like it. I'm not the least bit afraid of lions and elephants. They're much too big to crawl inside your shoes. And I know the words to all of the songs. The show is only about half-full.
Have you ever seen Indiana Jones after dark? It's way better. FOTLK is like this. The dark adds to the atmosphere of the show, especially the Be Prepared fire-baton part. This is way better than ITTBAB.
Off to Dinoland. We don't go to Dinoland for the rides. We go to Dinoland to visit our camper. If you're ever in Dinoland and don't have anything better to do go to the Restaurantosaurus. Get a beer and walk into the seating area. The back wall of one of the rooms is fused to an old Airstream camper. Walk into the camper take a little look around. Small, isn't it?
We took almost all of our early family vacations (especially Disney ones) in that camper. Well, not exactly that one, it's twin brother. Only ours has a kitchen
in it and Grateful Dead stickers on the back window. When the kids were little we inherited a 1964 Airstream camper. Back then there was no All Stars. For our young family a room at the Carribean Beach was $$$. A site at Ft. Wilderness was the best we could do. I'm not knocking Ft. Wilderness. We had some of our best times as a family there. It's a great campground. The best I've ever stayed in (and I've stayed in lots). Ft. Wilderness is a wonderful place if you have small children who need a place to blow off steam at the end of the day and River Country was the greatest "resort pool" ever. It's just that camping is not a complete vacation for me. There's no maid service and I have to cook. Scott loved Ft. Wilderness.
Anyhoo, everytime Scott goes to Disneyworld we pay a visit to the camper. Son of a gun if it doesn't have the same kind of walls as ours. And the same cabinets. Isn't that neat? Here's the best part. Way back in the '80s, long before the Animal Kingdom opened Scott named our camper. He named it Dino the Dinosaur.
Scott's so tickled at seeing his old friend that he doesn't complain a bit when I want to ride Dinosaur. I really don't think he's paying attention 'cause he's still chuckling to himself and saying stuff like "Whaddaya know, old Dino." The boy will never learn. He should know that if he's not on his toes at all times he may find himself on a thrill ride.
We have the best seatmates. A Daddy and his little boy. The boy is about 7 and you can tell that he's just having the time of his life. In the line he keeps saying stuff like "Mommy's afraid of this ride, huh, Daddy?" "We're not afraid because we're boys!" He's so proud of himself and so thrilled to be sharing something with his Dad. Moments like this are just the best part of taking your kids to Disneyworld. The only downside is that I'm afraid that they bought the picture.
As you exit the Dinosaur area onto the main drag there's another great attraction for middle aged guys. It's a car (I don't know what kind but apparently every guy who was in school in the '70s had one.) The car is full of old road trip memorabilia. Scott (and me too, I'll admit it) gets a big kick out of this. Not as good as the camper, but close. Animal Kingdom is Scott's favorite park in Disneyworld and it's because of details like this. He loves the landscaping, the architecture and the animal trails. It's really a very good park for people who aren't usually all that crazy about theme parks.
Scott's a still tad woozy from Dinosaur. He doen't like thrill rides and is still feeling the effects of last night's big Romantic Second Honeymoon evening so we decide to head out. There's really not all that much open at AK for EMH. We did everything but Tarzan Rocks, TriceraTop Spin and Primeval Whirl and had plenty of time left when we exited. I don't know if it was because of the newness of EMH but this was the least crowded experience of our trip.
Another excellent bonus of EMH at Animal Kingdom is that you can go, enjoy the attractions and still have time to get back to the hotel for a fun-filled evening of yelling at the TV. The Orange Bowl was on.
Jennifer
!! Unfortunately this was also Scott's very first evening EMH. I'm afraid Scott was beginning to get a little theme-parked out.The evening EMH for today is set for the Animal Kingdom. The Animal Kingdom is Scott's favorite theme park. He's what I call a poker. He loves to poke around just looking at all the stuff and the AK is the perfect place for this.
Tonight the EMH is set for 5 pm to 8 pm. Tarzan Rocks and Festival of the Lion King will be showing. It's Tough to Be a Bug and the rides in Dinoland are also open for EMH. All of the real animals are off the clock.
Here's a useful tip. Make sure you get a EMH Schedule when you enter the parks. The evening offerings (especially at AK) are different from the old morning ones. If you don't you may find yourselves humping it over to Africa only to find Africa dark and silent. (And the Darwa Bar closed).
Tarzan Rocks is set to begin at 5:45 but we decide to give this one a miss. My kids were far too grown-up and sophisticated for Disney movies by the time this one came out so I'm not so familiar with these characters as I am with something like Beauty and the Beast. The one time we did see Tarzan Rocks I wasn't all that blown away. Very loud, frenetic and confusing.
We chose It's Tough To Be a Bug as our first attraction. The CM's at AK were quite agressive about checking for wrist bands. (We picked ours up just across from the turnstile.) We had to show ours as we entered the queue. I saw a box of wristbands there so they must have handed them out at the attractions as well as at the front.
I'm not a big ITTBAB fan. I'm kinda afraid of bugs. I live in the sort of place where you have to check your shoes for bugs if you leave them outside. The phrase "cute as a bug" is an oxymoron as far as I'm concerned. Once Lizzie and I were alone in the house when it was invaded by the biggest spider I have ever seen outside of a zoo. There were no menfolks about so we did the only thing we could do. We spent 4 hours barricaded in my room with the door sealed off with a pillow. Scott came home and dispatched the killer spider in 2 seconds. Liz and I are still living that one down. I'm sure that ITTBAB is a fine attraction. It's just not my favorite. I'm afraid I root for the fly swatter and the giant aerosol can.
Festival of the Lion King. This is more like it. I'm not the least bit afraid of lions and elephants. They're much too big to crawl inside your shoes. And I know the words to all of the songs. The show is only about half-full.
Have you ever seen Indiana Jones after dark? It's way better. FOTLK is like this. The dark adds to the atmosphere of the show, especially the Be Prepared fire-baton part. This is way better than ITTBAB.
Off to Dinoland. We don't go to Dinoland for the rides. We go to Dinoland to visit our camper. If you're ever in Dinoland and don't have anything better to do go to the Restaurantosaurus. Get a beer and walk into the seating area. The back wall of one of the rooms is fused to an old Airstream camper. Walk into the camper take a little look around. Small, isn't it?
We took almost all of our early family vacations (especially Disney ones) in that camper. Well, not exactly that one, it's twin brother. Only ours has a kitchen
in it and Grateful Dead stickers on the back window. When the kids were little we inherited a 1964 Airstream camper. Back then there was no All Stars. For our young family a room at the Carribean Beach was $$$. A site at Ft. Wilderness was the best we could do. I'm not knocking Ft. Wilderness. We had some of our best times as a family there. It's a great campground. The best I've ever stayed in (and I've stayed in lots). Ft. Wilderness is a wonderful place if you have small children who need a place to blow off steam at the end of the day and River Country was the greatest "resort pool" ever. It's just that camping is not a complete vacation for me. There's no maid service and I have to cook. Scott loved Ft. Wilderness.Anyhoo, everytime Scott goes to Disneyworld we pay a visit to the camper. Son of a gun if it doesn't have the same kind of walls as ours. And the same cabinets. Isn't that neat? Here's the best part. Way back in the '80s, long before the Animal Kingdom opened Scott named our camper. He named it Dino the Dinosaur.
Scott's so tickled at seeing his old friend that he doesn't complain a bit when I want to ride Dinosaur. I really don't think he's paying attention 'cause he's still chuckling to himself and saying stuff like "Whaddaya know, old Dino." The boy will never learn. He should know that if he's not on his toes at all times he may find himself on a thrill ride.
We have the best seatmates. A Daddy and his little boy. The boy is about 7 and you can tell that he's just having the time of his life. In the line he keeps saying stuff like "Mommy's afraid of this ride, huh, Daddy?" "We're not afraid because we're boys!" He's so proud of himself and so thrilled to be sharing something with his Dad. Moments like this are just the best part of taking your kids to Disneyworld. The only downside is that I'm afraid that they bought the picture.
As you exit the Dinosaur area onto the main drag there's another great attraction for middle aged guys. It's a car (I don't know what kind but apparently every guy who was in school in the '70s had one.) The car is full of old road trip memorabilia. Scott (and me too, I'll admit it) gets a big kick out of this. Not as good as the camper, but close. Animal Kingdom is Scott's favorite park in Disneyworld and it's because of details like this. He loves the landscaping, the architecture and the animal trails. It's really a very good park for people who aren't usually all that crazy about theme parks.
Scott's a still tad woozy from Dinosaur. He doen't like thrill rides and is still feeling the effects of last night's big Romantic Second Honeymoon evening so we decide to head out. There's really not all that much open at AK for EMH. We did everything but Tarzan Rocks, TriceraTop Spin and Primeval Whirl and had plenty of time left when we exited. I don't know if it was because of the newness of EMH but this was the least crowded experience of our trip.
Another excellent bonus of EMH at Animal Kingdom is that you can go, enjoy the attractions and still have time to get back to the hotel for a fun-filled evening of yelling at the TV. The Orange Bowl was on.
Jennifer
