Day 5 continued: March 17, 2010
We left off heading out of Africa behind the parade crowd. It was time for us to ride Dinosaur for the 2nd time of the day with our FPs. Seriously, can you imagine WDW without FPs anymore? I remember the time before they existed. There was this one trip when we were younger
the trip when Sis and I finally decided to conquer our fears and ride Splash Mountain for the 1st time. Thats how long ago this memory is from! Dad gets motion sickness and unfortunately cannot ride many of the major rides with us, so it was just Mom, Sis, and I going. It was the middle of the summer, so it was really hot out and this was the perfect ride to cool down. Since FPs were not in existence yet, we had no choice but to accept the wait time as it was and get in line. Sadly for us, the wait was over 2 hours!
We can still remember all the weaving around
and we can remember how crazy our nerves were getting the closer and closer we got to loading. Once we finally got on, we sat all together in one row, with Mom in the middle. I remember we were freaking out about there not being a lap bar or anything, HAHA. So, I can still remember Mom having her arms across me and Sis. By the end of the trip, we finally got Dad on it to see if he could handle it. Its now one of his favorite rides.
Okay
story time over! Back to AK! We decided to cut through the Tree of Life trail and hopefully bypass the parade and crowd. By the time we made it to the exit, we met up with the end of the parade again!
So, we hurried across when we saw the chance. As we were walking towards Dinoland, this lady starts walking towards us. She asked us if we would like her two Dinosaur FPs!
Of course we said yes! We thanked her and thanked her before she went back to her family. That was such a great surprise! So, here we are
walking to Dinosaur to use FPs twice! We couldnt help but laugh the rest of the way.
While we were in line to go into the pre-show, we saw some of the craziest outfits on people celebrating St. Pattys Day. Im talking about completely decked out in green..and shamrocks..the whole deal. One girl was wearing these huge, oversized clown glasses. I just dont see how they would have been fun to wear the whole day!!
Soon, we found ourselves back in the pre-show room..up against the back wall
quoting the lines with them..again. We crack ourselves up. haha. Once we made it back to the loading area, we got off our time rover, and headed out the gift shop. We were happy that our drinks were safely staying in our stomachs.
Instead of going right and ending up in that gift shop by Dino-Rama, we went straight to get back in the FP line. Of course, both the CM checking your FP return time and the CM taking FPs inside sort-of gave us a double look like You look really familiar. Didnt I just see you? haha. Before we knew it, we were buckling ourselves back in a time rover. Thats when we had a not so pleasant surprise. We werent moving; neither were any of the other time rovers. A few minutes later, the lights all came on and the music/noises stopped. We looked at each other and said Grrrrrrrreat!
After a few more minutes of sitting, two men randomly appeared with flashlights. They stopped and talked to the loading CMs before heading into what looked like a control room or something. A few minutes later, the lights shut off and the music/noises resumed. Yay!
All together, we were sitting there for at least 15 to 20 minutes, which felt like hours at the time, haha. I was just worried that it was going to break down again while we were on the actual ride. I know that I do not want to see that place with the lights on. It would just make me see everything differently and ruin a bit of the magic.
After our 3rd round of Dinosaur for the day, we decided we were ready to head over to DTD for the night. We havent been to DTD during nighttime in a really long time! Now, we just had to figure out how to get there. As we were heading to the bus stops, we made the plan to hop on the OKW bus to say hi to home, then ride the boat to DTD. Well, as we made it to the OKW bus stop and saw that the Saratoga Springs bus was already there waiting! So, there was a quick change of plans. We decided to just go to SS instead of waiting who knows how long for an OKW bus. Of course, we had to go right by OKW to get to SS, which made me completely sad. I just stared out the window as we went by home. When we had made it completely past OKW, I turned to Fiancé and gave him the sad face. He just laughed at me and said You know well be back there in July! So, I texted Kristen and she sympathized with me.
Thanks for being there girl! haha
When we pulled into SS, we decided to get off at the first bus stop we went to. Dawn, I thought of you the whole time we were there! This bus stop was crazy busy! There were no seats open on any of the benches, so we found a spot to lean against a wall. Soon after our bus left, an Epcot bus pulled up. A guy that had been waiting started getting really mad. Apparently he and his family had been waiting for a DTD bus for quite awhile now. He made that quite apparent and let the bus driver and all of us know how mad he was. Seriously dude, calm down! I understand how frustrating it can be to wait a really long time for a bus
but you cant let that ruin your whole day! Weve definitely learned that theres going to be a lot of waiting involved at WDW and to just roll with the punches. The trip is much less stressful that way!
Okay..so that bus pulls away. A few minutes later, another Epcot bus pulls up. Oh man, that guy was fuming again. This time, he just stayed with his family, but I could hear him complaining to them. Finally, a DTD pulled up. We did not realize how many bus stops SS has! Weve only been to SS once when we ate at the Turf Club a few trips back. Its a beautiful Resort. Again, its so much fun to take the time to explore new Resorts because Disney really pays a lot of attention to every single detail. Also, I absolutely love the walk-in pool that we saw near the main building.
When we had finally left SS, we were quickly pulling into the Marketplace bus stops. We really had no idea SS was that close to DTD!! Walking into the Marketplace was really weird without the rest of my family. This is one of our favorite places to spend a relaxing day. We shop, eat, and enjoy drinks from the margarita stand.
Right after we walked under the entrance
We walked by the Christmas shop. For those of you dont know me, we must always make a stop here. Sis, Fiancé, and I each get to pick out an ornament to eventually put on our Christmas tree later in the year. Since the family was not with, we decided not to even go in the store. We just couldnt. It wouldnt be right! haha. So, I just took a pic and said See you in July!
It had been awhile since we had lunch at Yak & Yeti, so we were getting pretty hungry. That led us to our next decision: where to eat!?!
~Up next:
Where do we end up for dinner?...and the rest of our DTD night
Can't wait to see if you get sick on Dinosaur 
Did you hit the trail behind the tree that passes the waterfall? I love that trail and there usually isn't anyone on it. You're the third person to suggest the "lost on safari" drink, I'm going to have to make a real effort to try it someday.
That line at Splash was enough to make us completely avoid the entire park for almost 2 years!!!
We really like how close SSR is to DTD. The first time we stayed there though we took the boat over to DTD. Then we realized there was a walking path that was much quicker! LOL. Aww can't wait to stay there again. 
(I've never been before to OKW)
