NMAmy-Day 7

[NMAmy]

Day 7 – 3/4/04

Cast:
Alex—DH and stepfather to:
Caitlin, 13,
and me, Amy, official trip planner

Woo hoo! I finally get to go to the Animal Kingdom today. I dragged everyone out of bed early and we breakfasted in the room again. Egg McMuffins & Diet Coke/Frappaccino/coffee. We’re living like royalty here.

Cait really does not want to go here but she finally cheers up when she realizes that she feels badly that I’ve already missed the Biergarten. I swear we only have to go for half a day (although I wish I’d never said that!) so we hop on the bus for AK. It’s a LONG walk from the bus stops to AK. Or maybe I was just antsy but it seems like it was a long ways away. We laugh (quietly to ourselves) as we see a man intently trying to take a picture of all the buses parked there. Umm…why? Cait said he was taking a picture of the buses in their natural habitat.

Even though Alex and I kind of wanted to take our time through the Oasis, I persevered in getting us ALL the way back to Kilimanjaro Safaris. There was a fairly long line but we decided to tough it out since it was still pretty early and a cool morning. As we got in line to get in the car, this other family started to push on right behind us. Since we’d never ridden before, I thought maybe the CM’s had decided to try to fit more people in a seat. There were the 3 of us, then 3 more people came on board with 2 kids. Luckily, the CM caught them and told them—nope, you need to wait for the next car. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to see anything after waiting all this time! Just a misunderstanding, but I was glad we had more room—I was all over the place on this ride!

This was one of the highlights of our trip. I took an entire roll of film on this one and then we rode it the second time, Cait took a whole roll of pictures as well. There were animals everywhere—giraffes, antelope, warthogs, crocodiles, a hippo out of the water on a little island, the elephants and one had their little baby, two lions. It was just incredible. We all had a blast and Cait wanted to do it again. So we hopped back on and enjoyed it every bit as much the second time.

Harambe was really great. Alex has spent some time in Africa and thought that it was very well done, in a clean Disney way. We stopped at a little bakery here for a turnover for Alex & I and a bagel for Cait. As we were eating, a group of dancers/slash acrobats began to perform. Dinner AND a show! We weren’t expecting that when we found a bunch of empty tables.

As we were walking to “It’s Tough to Be a Bug,” we caught a little family drama. A little girl was walking with her two brothers, her dad, and another gentleman. We could hear her saying, “But he keeps looking at me!” referring to her brother. Her poor dad was exasperated and said, “He can look anywhere he wants. Now stop whining and have fun!” It’s amusing to me because there’s a reason I only have one kid! Caitlin and I were giggling at the whole thing and I whispered to her, “She could come with us. We wouldn’t look at her if she didn’t want us to.” Cait replied, “That poor little girl is with all those BOYS. No wonder she’s whiney.” Everyone seemed to be getting along when we left them in the crowd.

Cait has been afraid of any kind of bug since she got stung by a bee when she was 2 so I REALLY appreciated her going on this with me. She’d been on it with her school trip so she hopped to the floor during the part when the bugs crawl on your seat and covered her eyes through the parts that gross her out. This was a great attraction and I loved walking through the Tree of Life to look at the carvings.

Next, Cait got to choose so we went on Evil Hurl, excuse me I mean, Primeval Whirl. I’m not a big spinny fan although it was actually pretty fun and didn’t spin all that much. As we were getting in line the first time, there was a dinosaur standing beside the line just inside the door. Since I hadn’t ever been there before, I thought it was just a plastic statue. Cait realized what was going on as we went past and just as the dinosaur lunged for me—she pushed me right into him! They both scared the bejeebers out of me! It’s nice to know Cait is just willing to give me up to a dinosaur in order to save her own hide. It was one of the dinosaur characters that walks around DinoLand. Cait and I did the ride again while Alex went for a break, but she made me scope out the entrance first and make sure that dinosaur wasn’t still there.

Ok, there’s only one more ride that I’ve been dying to get onto and that’s Dinosaur. Cait again went on this last year and didn’t like it so Alex, bless his heart, said he’d take her to a gift shop while I rode. There was no line but I got stuck behind a woman and her granddaughter who were debating back and forth. The little girl was scared and I actually heard this woman tell the child, “It’s just a ride in a car. It’s not a scarey ride at all.” Umm…excuse me? I got in front of them to wait but I felt so badly for that little girl. She was terrified and as I got on, I saw Grandma herding her into another car. I don’t know what happened afterward. I sat in the front seat with two other people who had never ridden before (I’m a chatter even if I only have a couple of seconds before take off!). This thing was loud and scarey! When the carnosaur popped out from the side and they take your picture, I had scrunched my neck up in this way and had to take a pill when we got back to the hotel! Alex & Cait looked at the picture with me and Alex said, “Wow, your neck looks weird. That has to hurt!” Yep—he scared me!

I’d made a promise of a half day so we started wandering out. In DinoLand we stopped at a gift shop for me to get some postcards since Cait & I had used up all my film on the safari and I didn’t have a lot of pictures of the rest of the park. Lo and behold, they had Mr. Potato Heads. Cait decided that she was no longer too cool for one and she’d really like one now, please. We met a great CM in here—he told us that he had made a bride & groom potato head for his grandparents’ 50th wedding anniversary. Isn’t that a sweet idea? He was sure we hadn’t stuffed enough parts into our box and was helping us get more in there. He kept saying, “Stuff it till the sides pop out!” He made a special Potato Head in our honor. I love to see people having fun like this at work!

We used up the rest of the film and headed back out to our bus and back to the Dolphin for lunch. I put my foot down and said No More Tubbi’s. Today anyway. We went to Fresh. It was nice but Cait is such a picky eater that there wasn’t much for her to choose from. Even the sandwiches were fancy. I enjoyed it but it sure wasn’t worth the price of Cait’s meal. Well, now I know. I had some really excellent French onion soup.

After lunch and a rest, we decided to go to Epcot. Since Cait was sick the other day, I didn’t get a chance to look around World Showcase very much and it seems like on every visit we end up blowing it off. As we came in the International Gateway, Aurora was standing around with no one else there so Cait got her autograph and had a picture taken with her. Then we headed off to Test Track since it was closed the other day. There was a line but I had promised (I need to stop doing that!!) so we waited and rode, then waited and rode a second time. Again, long wait for not that much fun in my opinion, but Lord knows I’m in the minority on this one.

We stopped at San Angel Cantina for dinner. This was Cait’s favorite meal besides grilled cheese. She had a burrito and ate all my beans even though I warned her they were black beans and not pinto beans like she was used to. I had Tacos al Carbon which were very tasty. Alex wasn’t hungry and just had buenolos. It was funny—when I ordered those, the lady at the counter asked if I spoke Spanish. I’ve taken Spanish in school and I lived in New Mexico long enough to get by but I’m not fluent by any means. She told me she thought from my accent that I spoke Spanish. She asked me if I knew what buenolos were. Every time I’ve ever had them, it’s a big pastry (sort of like fry bread or funnel cake) with lacy patterns covered in powdered sugar. She said, yes, those were buenolos but no they did not sell that kind here. It was a little package of cookies. Alex decided that was fine with him but it was very nice of her to make sure we knew what we were getting.

We headed around World Showcase and stopped to see the Chinese Acrobats. These children are just amazing! We watched from a bench on the sidewalk. Just before it ended, we headed off to beat the crowd. I wanted to ride Maelstrom but Cait was tired of rides (poor baby!) so it was on to Italy. As we approached, we saw a huge crowd and stopped to watch one of the Living Statues. This was just hysterical—she did SUCH a good job. A little boy wearing sunglasses stood in front of her and she reached down and took them off, then held them too high for him to reach—gesturing that she wanted a kiss in return for the glasses. She knelt down and he was still trying to retrieve the glasses without giving the dreaded kiss (he was at that age when girls are yucky). He finally gave her a kiss and the entire audience broke into applause. It was so funny—he came by me on his way out and he was wiping his mouth dramatically and saying, “Ick!”

We went through the other countries, checking out gift shops and taking pictures. I had never been to Canada so we went on up to check it out and found one of the characters from Brother Bear. Since I’ve never seen this movie, I’m not sure who, but Cait knew him. He was such a flirt—it was adorable. When we arrived, he was on the ground with a little girl who was probably 2 or 3 and they were cuddling away while Dad took pictures. Next was Cait’s turn, and he wanted a kiss in exchange for everything. She got a little embarrassed but seemed to enjoy it. Of course, I had once again run out of film. I’m a bad, bad mom.

We decided to head on home to the Dolphin but we had to stop at the gift shop at the International Gateway. Cait had seen a shirt there that said “Mexico” and decided it would be great to wear to Spanish class. Two older ladies were running the cash register and they actually sang the Mickey Mouse Club song to us! We were instructed to do the Donald Duck part and they seemed a little disappointed that none of us could do the voice correctly. It was a hoot.

Back home, finally. It was a long day and I was very tired and for the first time since we arrived, my feet hurt like gangbusters. Tomorrow is our last full day so I’m betting I’ll be exhausted tomorrow night!

 

[Annie&Hallie'sMom]

What a great day!

Love the man taking photos of the buses in "their natural habitat."

 

[Minniespal]

Great report ~ Thanx for sharing.