Thursday January 12, 2006
Today is Animal Kingdom day. The only time Ive been to Animal Kingdom, I went with my mom and brother and they werent thrilled by it but I liked it; I thought it was cute. My husband was really looking forward to checking it out but of course we got up early and therefore got a really late start. Since we were both hungry, we decided to make the walk to the food court which of course took a whole 12 minutes! We ate breakfast there, walked to the Custom House because we needed to pick up our Hoop de Doo tickets and then walked to the nearest bus station. Whoa! I get tired just thinking about it. Anyway, we get on the bus and we go. We finally got there at around 11:30a.m. and I was not a happy camper. We wasted a whole morning! But anyway, as soon as we were walking in, we got stopped by Photopass people to take pictures. Since we didnt mind, we posed and smiled and then kept going.
First thing we did was A Bugs Life. Let me say that seeing the Tree of Life up close is truly amazing. It is so cool to see all the detail that went into those carvings. A Bugs Life was great, we loved it and my husband had a great time. And guess who I found:
We left and began just walking around the park. Since my husband had no clue where he was going we ended up in Asia. He didnt want to get wet again (remember Splash Mountain) so we didnt do Kali. We took some pictures with Everest in the background and they were testing it out with empty trains.
It really looks awesome and I cant wait to ride it! We saw the little boat with all the characters cruising around so we waved and took some pictures of that. We continued walking and ended up in Dinoland. My husband won me two little dinosaurs while we were there and we also decided to ride Primeval Wave. As we were walking right now, one side of the ride broke down so we were sent to the other side. The line moved quickly and before we knew it the ride was over. It was cute and we enjoyed ourselves. We then went to Dinosaur, it was only a 10 minute wait so we really just went right in. I love this ride, it is so much fun. Somewhere along the way in this ride I lost my honeymoon button that I had gotten at MGM and at the same time the ride stopped for like 30 seconds, could it have been because of my button falling? I hope not. After laughing about it and stopping at the store to buy a snack, we stopped to see a show that they were putting on around the area. It was three guys that did some amazing juggling and other pretty interesting stuff. We wanted them for a while and it was quiet entertaining. My husband wanted to check out Maharajah Jungle Trek so we walked that after we made our wait to Africa. It was interesting, but nothing too exciting. We excited and decided to ride Kilimanjaro Safari which had a 5 minute wait. We had a great time doing this and my husband seemed amazed at what Disney had done. We were lucky that a lot of the animals we out and about that day (it was about 2:15p.m.) so it was a lot of fun being able to experience it.
We quickly did Pangani Forest Trail but then decided to leave and walk to the Lion King Show (my favorite!). On our way, we saw Chip and Dale and of course we had to take pictures with them (well at least I did). They were so cute and funny!
We finally made it to Lion King and we sat in the lion section (same section I sit in every time I go). The show was great as usual, I only wish I could have been sitting closer, I really wanted first row.
It was already 3:30p.m. so we made our way to find a good location for the parade. I found my perfect spot with a perfect view and saved our seats while my husband looked for snacks (he came back empty handed). The parade was great, we were up front so once again a lot of the characters came by and shook our hands and looked at my ring and gave my husband a thumbs up. I really loved the parades this time, I guess because I got so much attention. I felt like a little kid when Goofy or Mickey waved and pointed at me. It was like the whole parade was just for me. How cheesy but its true. I guess its the magic of Disney; being able to feel like a kid again, with no worries and not wondering what others are thinking about you.
The parade was awesome but we needed to make our way out of the park. That was fairly easy but I spotted Goofy and Mickey coming to the front of the park to take pictures. I ran to the line (there wasnt one) and got my pictures with Goofy and Mickey (again!). This time Mickey tried to steal me away and I told him I would marry him in a heartbeat.
We then ran to the bus stop to catch the bus to Wilderness Lodge since tonight was Hoop de Doo night. Bad luck! As soon as I got there, a bus was pulling out. Oh well, I guess well have to wait. It was already 4:45 and Hoop de Doo started at 5:00p.m. Needless to say, we were late. The bus finally came but took forever and when we finally made it we had to take the internal bus shuttle. The bus driver though was really nice and when he asked us if we were going to HDD he said I better step on it and he did. We quickly got there and were immediately escorted inside. We had table 13 and we thought we were all the way in the back. Wrong! Front and center! The host told us congratulations, number 13 is the lucky number here at HDD. As soon as we were seated, our waitress took our drink orders, brought our salads and bread (yummy!) and immediately the show began. It really felt like they were waiting for us (which Im sure they werent!). The show began and we had a fantastic fun. I didnt know I could laugh so hard! The actors messed with us so much that it felt like we were part of the show. People were laughing at us and with us. We even had to get up and dance.
It was an amazing evening and well definitely be going back to HDD. After the show (we were sad it was over) we grabbed a bus to MGM and then the bus to CBR. We were quickly back in our room with just enough time to get ready for Cirque de Soleil. Wow, we were busy bees tonight! We took the Downtown Disney bus and quickly found Cirque. We got seated (this place was packed!) and really enjoyed the show. I must say though, it was a little creepy, I thought I was going to have a nightmare but I survived. Some of the stuff they do there is truly amazing, there are no words to describe it! Cirque was over and we made our way to the bus stop
wrong idea! There was at least 50 high school kids waiting, maybe even more! It was really scary; so loud, annoying
ahhh (I sound like a 50 year old and Im only a few years older that those kids but oh my goodness, I couldnt take it). We decided we didnt want to wait for a bus there so we walked all the way back to Marketplace and immediately found our bus there. We were back at the hotel, exhausted from a long day, and went to bed to get ready for our last official day at Epcot!