Chapter 6 – Sunday, 3/25 – Animals and Crowds
The plan was to go to Animal Kingdom for EMH. I woke up early-ish and Alex woke up about the same time. We took showers and I tried to wake the girls.
Me: Cait, do you want to go to the Animal Kingdom?
Cait: Aaarrggghh…
Me: Are you sure?
Cait: Snargle, gargle..rassafrass…
As my 3 yo grand-niece told me at Christmas, “Caitlin and I speak gibberish.”
Yep, you do. I took that as a no because I’m fairly fluent in gibberish.
We headed down toward the buses. I should have realized that I hadn’t looked at my handy dandy itinerary closely when there was no one else waiting for the bus. I thought we were just really, really lucky. Duh.
As we got on the bus, the bus driver told us, “You two are smart. Hardly anyone gets up early on Sunday. When I’m not working on Sundays, I always go to one of the parks really early.”
Hey, we were smart! Well, me, not so much. We drove to the YC/BC and the Boardwalk and no one else got on the bus. That’s when I realized I’d probably made a mistake. I’d made a list for each day with all the park hours, EMH’s, fireworks times, and our ADR’s. Each morning, I’d tear off that day’s listing and put it in the little pocket on my camera case. As I unfolded that day’s listing, I groaned.
Me: Alex, you’re going to kill me.
Alex: I doubt that.
Me: There is no EMH at the AK this morning.
Alex: Oh, well. We’ll be first in line.
See why I love him? I was SO glad I hadn’t insisted that the girls get up.
We arrived and sauntered up to the turnstyles. We weren’t first in line. We were second behind a big family. Whoopee. A whole hour of waiting in line.
I was sad I hadn’t made a Breakfastasaurus reservation. Those folks were allowed right in. Rats.
So, we stood in line and were bored for an hour. And I talked badly about myself under my breath. "I cannot BELIEVE you made me get up at the crack of the dawn for THIS!"
The talking palm tree entertained the crowd for awhile. Once we were allowed into the park, we followed everybody to the rope and waited another 15 minutes.
After standing still so long, we were a bit stiff but managed to speed walk along with everyone else to Expedition Everest. I’d done this on the last trip without Alex and he had two must-do’s for this trip. One was EE, the other was Soarin’.
I thought about getting FP’s for a second ride but we were kind of pulled right into the line and walked right on. It was great. An exhilarating way to start the day. I have no pictures of EE because of the mass of people and also because I have a zillion pictures from previous trips—both the construction and the finished project. Sorry about that. Alex loved it, too, so after looking at the now 40 minute standby line, we decided to get FP’s.
Oh. My. Gosh. I then waited in a FIFTEEN MINUTE line just to get FP’s. At that point, I was ready to get the heck out of Asia! With the FP’s tucked away, we decided to try the Safari.
One thing I love about the AK is all the little tucked away gems. Here’s some stuff we saw on our walk over to Africa. And here’s where I make up for not taking any pictures of EE.
Alex was fascinated with this little building. And when he saw my pictures, he said, "No, take a picture of the little windows at the top." So here are the little windows at the top. This is a man who once watched The History of the Stick on the History Channel so remember, he's easily amused.
As we arrived at Kilimanjaro Safaris, the line was deceptively not long. However, we still ended up with a 20 minute wait because the jeeps just kept driving past empty. We ended up with a great guide who was worth the wait, though. It seems like most other times we’ve been, we ended up with someone brand new or someone really bored. This guy gave us a lot of information and actually slowed down when animals were around and went quickly through the empty portions.
I took this as we entered the Safari line:
My pictures are always the pits from the Safari but this time, our lovely driver went very slowly by a giraffe and her baby that were strolling along right next to the vehicle. So, you are privileged to see my two best pictures EVER from the Safari.
Okay, after two weeks with no food, I was starving. As usual. I didn’t mention our breakfast in the hotel room this morning but we had donuts. Again. I love vacation—I never eat donuts at home. But the donut didn’t last very long so we headed to the Tusker House.
We were practically the only people in the place. That was nice. However, it took about 15 minutes for our order to be put on the tray. It was weird—there were about 6 people behind the counter all just standing there. It was like a big game of chicken. Who would be the one to break and put the food on the tray? Just as I was ready to jump over the counter and get it myself, a woman walked in from the back and that seemed to break the stalemate.
We both had scrambled eggs, bacon, fried potatoes, and toast. It was very tasty. I mean, not lick my plate clean but it’d hold me until later. We sat in a fairly deserted corner but I was able to overhear the wails of an overstimulated little boy and his frustrated parents. Apparently, he was having too much fun to think about eating. The mother seemed mortified, if it hadn’t meant getting up and walking all the way across the restaurant (I was kind of tired and needed to conserve my strength), I’d have walked over and told the mom not to be embarrassed on my account. Caitlin still does this. Well, not the wailing but definitely the not eating. Whining is involved. In fact, she’ll do it tonight at dinner. (Even though I didn’t know that at the time!)
Refueled, I was ready to head out again. We went back to Expedition Everest. Once again, you’ll have to imagine it. Imagine it with a LOT of people. We used the fast pass and it still took about 20 minutes to get on the ride. Which was much longer than we’d waited the first time without the fast pass. And, once again, WHOOPPPPEEEE! We loved it. But I hate crowds so once we were off the ride, I tried to find somewhere less congested.
We decided to try the Maharajah Jungle Trek. This was so beautiful. Even the theming on the pathways was beautiful. I took a BUNCH of pictures so enjoy your walk! You will notice that there are no pictures of bats or birds. They both creep me out and we walked through those sections at warp speed.
I think I enjoyed these murals even more than the animals. Mainly because I didn't have to fight to look at the murals.
After having people invade my personal space to see the tigers over my shoulder, I decided that I had had enough. We held hands so as not to lose each other. Yikes, it was as bad as Christmas. We waded through the crowd and broke free as we headed toward the bus stop. I spread my arms and twirled around—so delighted to have some space. Really, I did that. You can laugh—Alex did.
We get to the bus stop and my phone rings. The girls are finally up. And guess what? They’re on their way to meet us at the AK. AARRGGHHH… I explained how crowded it was and that Alex and I were headed back to the Dolphin for a nap. The girls decided they’d skip AK and head to the MK. I reminded Cait about our dinner reservation at the Biergarten and gave her a specific time to be back at the hotel.
And Alex and I returned to the Dolphin for another nap. Ah…I love vacation.
Next up: Chapter 7: The Biergarten
but I am the one who loves Alex 
Pie and chips, Amy, Pie and Chips!!!
Oh, all the ladies love Alex. You two will have to fight my mom for him. She's not giving him up. 
my mom is coming home today! Thank god! Her cumidin level is high enough for her not to be at risk for developing any more clots right now. She still has to be monitored pretty closely but all in all GREAT NEWS!
I am so happy to know that I will have an installment per day until I leave! You know I will hold you to it!
If he only knew, he'd be embarassed to death.
...cough...cough
--a "nap"?!?!
You deserve some sort of award for reading this all in one shot. 
There is a whole lotta drama with girls, though. 
We moms of 16 yo girls need to stick together!
