Chapter Five
Today was Extra Magic Hours at Animal Kingdom, so we were up and out early and on the bus. But as we were waiting, I noticed these signs. Ummmm…okay, which is it?
Whatever. I quit about six years ago … and am soooo happy I did. You realize how much park time you waste looking for “designated smoking areas” and then standing around smoking?
Anywho, back to the day.
I had thought the crowd level would have calmed a bit as the week progressed, and at the beginning of the day, that seemed to be the case. But as the day went on, the crowds, once again, were crazy.
We got there before rope drop and waited, along with a couple thousand other people, for, well, the rope to drop. And off we went towards the safari … along with a couple thousand other people. Didn’t anyone want to go the other way? Since it seemed every single person made it to the safari before we did, so we grabbed fast passes and went back to It’s Tough to be a Bug.
I guess there was some kind of construction going on with the Tree of Life because we went a different way and ended up coming in from the other end. I am not sure how to explain it so it makes sense, but we came into the lobby from the opposite end than normal. Plus, when we left the theater, we could not turn to the left to go to the back trails around the tree. That’s a bummer. I love wandering the base of the tree to see all the carvings. There is always something new to see.
Making our way back to safari with our fast passes, I asked for the front seat. And, as usual, all the animals were on the other side of the truck. It never seems to matter which side of that stupid truck I get on, all the animals are on the other side. And this year was no different.
A bit disappointed (not surprised, but disappointed) with not getting any good shots, I thought I could get some good ones on the paths. So we headed to the Maharajah Jungle Trek where the tigers are. However, we got there just in time to see nothing but a tiger’s butt headed into their shelter. (trip)
I was able to get a few shots of the birds, the bats and the mere cats, though. And, I know I am going to freak a few of you out, but I think the bats are cute.
If you are you done shivering and going ‘eewwww, you are weird!”, we can move along.
As I was standing at one of the enclosures, I noticed a little lizard on the other side of the fencing right in front of me. I just could not resist his little tummy sticking through and I reached up and tickled his tummy. As he jumped and squiggled away, the lady standing next to me had a total break down and completely freaked out.
Oooooo…kay. It was just a little lizard. It’s not like I tickled the belly of Godzilla. Sheesh.
I also came across an interesting sight: this elk was trying to lock horns with this water buffalo (or whatever it was). The buffalo was about four times the size of the elk, but the elk just kept jabbing at him with his horns.
As we were wandering around, we headed over to Dinosaur and, with literally no line at all, we walked up and hopped right on. We decided to copy the McBride family and make goofy faces at the photo point on the ride. It didn’t work. Guess we will have to go back on the ride again. What a shame.
With the EMH almost over, we headed over to Expedition Everest to get some video footage of the area. Along the way I saw this little girl in pony tails walking in front of us hanging on to her Mickey. Too cute not to take a photo. When we got to the Everest area, the entire place was unusually devoid of people. The ride was down. Figures.
We spent the rest of the day just wandering around, riding safari (the animals were still on the other side of the truck) and Dino and catching the Lion King show. I don’t care how many times I see this show, it is still great. At the show we sat in the very back row so I could stand up and get some good video without heads in the way. I think I got some really good footage.
After the show, we grabbed some lunch at the Asian counter service place. We ordered sweet and sour chicken and fried rice to split. However, it never occurred to us that it would come out in those little Chinese take-out containers. How the heck do you split that with no plates?
As we sat there just staring at our food trying to figure it out, Leo noticed they forgot our steamed rice that came with the chicken. He went to the counter and they told him it was in the same container as the chicken…under the chicken. Well, this is new.
I ended up eating half the fried rice while Leo ate half the chicken and then we just switched.
While we were enjoying our musical lunch (get it? musical chairs, musical lunch?)…and it was yummy, by the way…this lady and her two kids came up and stood right next to our table. And I mean right next to it. Her butt was nearly in our faces. Really? You can’t stand … say … over in the hundreds of empty square feet of space over there? I was afraid she was going to start that tooting trick that guy at Epcot did.
We managed to finish lunch un-pooted on and resumed our wandering. Or, was it meandering today? Nope, it was wandering. In our wandering, we ran across Devine and just had to stop and take some pics.
Then it was off to Conservation Station for a bit. While there, I did the hidden Mickey hunt on the mural and found a lot of them. I also had to take a shot of one of the signs in the bathroom. Silly Disney.
Can you find the hidden Mickey on the hippo?
By the time we got back to the main part of the park, both the crowd level and the heat were in excess and it was time to call it a day. On our way out, we made one last potty stop and it was quite an interesting potty stop, to be sure. Number one (ok, that pun was not intended, but funny enough to leave in), there was a woman in there just screaming. Not the type of scream that would cause concern, just the type that would signify a pissed off or stressed out woman. It was totally weird.
Then, as I was washing my hands, I noticed a baby (of crawling age) on the floor playing by her mother’s feet as she used the toilet. I thought I was seeing things since I was seeing this in the mirror, so I turned around, bent down a bit and looked really well. Yep, that was a baby playing on the bathroom floor. I mean, I know Disney bathrooms are the cleanest public bathrooms I have ever seen, but they are still public bathrooms!
Maybe the screaming lady saw this too.
Anyway, we made it back to the bus stop just in time to catch the bus and made it back to Shades by about 5:30. The plan was for Leo to take a nap while I went in search of dinner, then we would head out to Hollywood Studios for the late Fantasmic show. I am glad they have gone back to showing this every night.
I decided to stop at the take-out station down near Mangino’s and order a spaghetti dinner. It’s an Italian restaurant, so they must have a decent spaghetti dinner, right? One would think so, wouldn’t one? Bwaaahahahaha!
I ordered the dinner and was told “15-20 minutes.” So I wandered the grounds for a bit and went back in about 20 minutes. As I walked up, the lady was taking a burger order from a couple young men and then she left her station. I thought she was on her way to get my food, so I sat on the wall and waited. And waited. And waited. And waited some more. At about the 30-minute mark a man sat next to me to wait for his dinner. And we waited. And waited. And waited some more. After 45minutes had passed, I said to the guy, “I guess they had to go to Italy to get my spaghetti.” Then, with absolutely no emotion on his face or in his voice, he replied in a totally deadpan tone, “I’m in real trouble if they went to Italy for my club sandwich.” I found that quite amusing and started to giggle. Ever try to hold in a really good guffaw? I nearly blew an ear drum.
Well, at about the hour mark, I decided to go to the front desk of the Garden Gallery next door and ask if they could find out what was going on. The lady who took our orders never did come back. All the lady said was, “the kitchen is busy tonight.” What? That’s your answer? I said, “Well, it has been an hour since I ordered and I was told 15-20 minutes. Now I may not even have time to eat it?” She just said, “She shouldn’t have told you that.” And walked away. And, by the way … Mangino’s wasn’t even open! How busy is that? (trip)
Not wanting to blow a gasket at the happiest place on earth, I too walked away … with steam rolling and not-so-Disney language being mumbled. By the time I got back to the room, Leo was awake and concerned about where I was ... especially since I left my phone in the room. Well, I thought I would be back in about 30 minutes, not and hour and a half. (trip)
By this time the food finally came out … all at the same time, including the burgers the guys ordered as I came back at the 20-minute mark. They should have kept it. It was seriously the worst spaghetti I have ever had.
The one tiny bread stick was harder than the croutons on the salad. As I banged it on the table like a gavel, Leo started cracking up. He nearly chipped a tooth trying to bite it.
On to the spaghetti. There was a lot of it. But a lot of crap is still crap. It tasted like cafeteria spaghetti. Mmmmm…mmmmm. I could not eat it. (trip)
On to the salad. They could not possibly screw up a simple Caesar salad, right?
Wrong!
For one thing, there was about six pieces of lettuce, two rings of onion and four croutons. And the final straw, the dressing was absolutely disgusting. So much so that Leo tried it, went into the bathroom, spit it out and rinsed his mouth out. And he eats balut (google it)! (trip, trip, TRIP)
Plus, some time along the way, it had started to storm. And it was coming down in buckets with wind, thunder and lightening. Since our plan was to go see Fantasmic and it was storming pretty bad with just over an hour until show time, we decided to stay home.
Of course, Florida had been in a drought since like September … and it chooses this week to break the drought? We have gotten more rain in just the first few days than we have in all our other visits. (trip)
Anyway, with the sound of the rain soothing my frayed nerves (and a hardy, nutritious dinner of PB&J), I drifted off to sleep hoping for better weather and edible food tomorrow.
I can tell you I will never attempt to eat at Shades ever again. Love Shades. Hate the food.
Today was Extra Magic Hours at Animal Kingdom, so we were up and out early and on the bus. But as we were waiting, I noticed these signs. Ummmm…okay, which is it?
Whatever. I quit about six years ago … and am soooo happy I did. You realize how much park time you waste looking for “designated smoking areas” and then standing around smoking?
Anywho, back to the day.
I had thought the crowd level would have calmed a bit as the week progressed, and at the beginning of the day, that seemed to be the case. But as the day went on, the crowds, once again, were crazy.
We got there before rope drop and waited, along with a couple thousand other people, for, well, the rope to drop. And off we went towards the safari … along with a couple thousand other people. Didn’t anyone want to go the other way? Since it seemed every single person made it to the safari before we did, so we grabbed fast passes and went back to It’s Tough to be a Bug.
I guess there was some kind of construction going on with the Tree of Life because we went a different way and ended up coming in from the other end. I am not sure how to explain it so it makes sense, but we came into the lobby from the opposite end than normal. Plus, when we left the theater, we could not turn to the left to go to the back trails around the tree. That’s a bummer. I love wandering the base of the tree to see all the carvings. There is always something new to see.
Making our way back to safari with our fast passes, I asked for the front seat. And, as usual, all the animals were on the other side of the truck. It never seems to matter which side of that stupid truck I get on, all the animals are on the other side. And this year was no different.
A bit disappointed (not surprised, but disappointed) with not getting any good shots, I thought I could get some good ones on the paths. So we headed to the Maharajah Jungle Trek where the tigers are. However, we got there just in time to see nothing but a tiger’s butt headed into their shelter. (trip)
I was able to get a few shots of the birds, the bats and the mere cats, though. And, I know I am going to freak a few of you out, but I think the bats are cute.
If you are you done shivering and going ‘eewwww, you are weird!”, we can move along.
As I was standing at one of the enclosures, I noticed a little lizard on the other side of the fencing right in front of me. I just could not resist his little tummy sticking through and I reached up and tickled his tummy. As he jumped and squiggled away, the lady standing next to me had a total break down and completely freaked out.
Oooooo…kay. It was just a little lizard. It’s not like I tickled the belly of Godzilla. Sheesh.
I also came across an interesting sight: this elk was trying to lock horns with this water buffalo (or whatever it was). The buffalo was about four times the size of the elk, but the elk just kept jabbing at him with his horns.
As we were wandering around, we headed over to Dinosaur and, with literally no line at all, we walked up and hopped right on. We decided to copy the McBride family and make goofy faces at the photo point on the ride. It didn’t work. Guess we will have to go back on the ride again. What a shame.
With the EMH almost over, we headed over to Expedition Everest to get some video footage of the area. Along the way I saw this little girl in pony tails walking in front of us hanging on to her Mickey. Too cute not to take a photo. When we got to the Everest area, the entire place was unusually devoid of people. The ride was down. Figures.
We spent the rest of the day just wandering around, riding safari (the animals were still on the other side of the truck) and Dino and catching the Lion King show. I don’t care how many times I see this show, it is still great. At the show we sat in the very back row so I could stand up and get some good video without heads in the way. I think I got some really good footage.
After the show, we grabbed some lunch at the Asian counter service place. We ordered sweet and sour chicken and fried rice to split. However, it never occurred to us that it would come out in those little Chinese take-out containers. How the heck do you split that with no plates?
As we sat there just staring at our food trying to figure it out, Leo noticed they forgot our steamed rice that came with the chicken. He went to the counter and they told him it was in the same container as the chicken…under the chicken. Well, this is new.
I ended up eating half the fried rice while Leo ate half the chicken and then we just switched.
While we were enjoying our musical lunch (get it? musical chairs, musical lunch?)…and it was yummy, by the way…this lady and her two kids came up and stood right next to our table. And I mean right next to it. Her butt was nearly in our faces. Really? You can’t stand … say … over in the hundreds of empty square feet of space over there? I was afraid she was going to start that tooting trick that guy at Epcot did.
We managed to finish lunch un-pooted on and resumed our wandering. Or, was it meandering today? Nope, it was wandering. In our wandering, we ran across Devine and just had to stop and take some pics.
Then it was off to Conservation Station for a bit. While there, I did the hidden Mickey hunt on the mural and found a lot of them. I also had to take a shot of one of the signs in the bathroom. Silly Disney.
Can you find the hidden Mickey on the hippo?
By the time we got back to the main part of the park, both the crowd level and the heat were in excess and it was time to call it a day. On our way out, we made one last potty stop and it was quite an interesting potty stop, to be sure. Number one (ok, that pun was not intended, but funny enough to leave in), there was a woman in there just screaming. Not the type of scream that would cause concern, just the type that would signify a pissed off or stressed out woman. It was totally weird.
Then, as I was washing my hands, I noticed a baby (of crawling age) on the floor playing by her mother’s feet as she used the toilet. I thought I was seeing things since I was seeing this in the mirror, so I turned around, bent down a bit and looked really well. Yep, that was a baby playing on the bathroom floor. I mean, I know Disney bathrooms are the cleanest public bathrooms I have ever seen, but they are still public bathrooms!
Maybe the screaming lady saw this too.
Anyway, we made it back to the bus stop just in time to catch the bus and made it back to Shades by about 5:30. The plan was for Leo to take a nap while I went in search of dinner, then we would head out to Hollywood Studios for the late Fantasmic show. I am glad they have gone back to showing this every night.
I decided to stop at the take-out station down near Mangino’s and order a spaghetti dinner. It’s an Italian restaurant, so they must have a decent spaghetti dinner, right? One would think so, wouldn’t one? Bwaaahahahaha!
I ordered the dinner and was told “15-20 minutes.” So I wandered the grounds for a bit and went back in about 20 minutes. As I walked up, the lady was taking a burger order from a couple young men and then she left her station. I thought she was on her way to get my food, so I sat on the wall and waited. And waited. And waited. And waited some more. At about the 30-minute mark a man sat next to me to wait for his dinner. And we waited. And waited. And waited some more. After 45minutes had passed, I said to the guy, “I guess they had to go to Italy to get my spaghetti.” Then, with absolutely no emotion on his face or in his voice, he replied in a totally deadpan tone, “I’m in real trouble if they went to Italy for my club sandwich.” I found that quite amusing and started to giggle. Ever try to hold in a really good guffaw? I nearly blew an ear drum.
Well, at about the hour mark, I decided to go to the front desk of the Garden Gallery next door and ask if they could find out what was going on. The lady who took our orders never did come back. All the lady said was, “the kitchen is busy tonight.” What? That’s your answer? I said, “Well, it has been an hour since I ordered and I was told 15-20 minutes. Now I may not even have time to eat it?” She just said, “She shouldn’t have told you that.” And walked away. And, by the way … Mangino’s wasn’t even open! How busy is that? (trip)
Not wanting to blow a gasket at the happiest place on earth, I too walked away … with steam rolling and not-so-Disney language being mumbled. By the time I got back to the room, Leo was awake and concerned about where I was ... especially since I left my phone in the room. Well, I thought I would be back in about 30 minutes, not and hour and a half. (trip)
By this time the food finally came out … all at the same time, including the burgers the guys ordered as I came back at the 20-minute mark. They should have kept it. It was seriously the worst spaghetti I have ever had.
The one tiny bread stick was harder than the croutons on the salad. As I banged it on the table like a gavel, Leo started cracking up. He nearly chipped a tooth trying to bite it.
On to the spaghetti. There was a lot of it. But a lot of crap is still crap. It tasted like cafeteria spaghetti. Mmmmm…mmmmm. I could not eat it. (trip)
On to the salad. They could not possibly screw up a simple Caesar salad, right?
Wrong!
For one thing, there was about six pieces of lettuce, two rings of onion and four croutons. And the final straw, the dressing was absolutely disgusting. So much so that Leo tried it, went into the bathroom, spit it out and rinsed his mouth out. And he eats balut (google it)! (trip, trip, TRIP)
Plus, some time along the way, it had started to storm. And it was coming down in buckets with wind, thunder and lightening. Since our plan was to go see Fantasmic and it was storming pretty bad with just over an hour until show time, we decided to stay home.
Of course, Florida had been in a drought since like September … and it chooses this week to break the drought? We have gotten more rain in just the first few days than we have in all our other visits. (trip)
Anyway, with the sound of the rain soothing my frayed nerves (and a hardy, nutritious dinner of PB&J), I drifted off to sleep hoping for better weather and edible food tomorrow.
I can tell you I will never attempt to eat at Shades ever again. Love Shades. Hate the food.
And how is it you always see DeVine? I have yet to see her. Hubby claims he saw her in 2008, but failed to tell me or DD#2, the only ones who CARED!!! 
Maybe in December?? Fingers crossed.
When never go looking for her, she just kind of pops up. 
We usually see her over by where all the drums and other musical instruments are out for the kids to play with near Africa. She sticks to the shadey trees. Maybe try asking at guest services to see if she has a set schedule. She is pretty fun to see.
...Disney could use it in one of their ad campaigns.
I am happy that someone here (I believe it was buffetgirl) told us about the golf clubhouse food as there still might be hope to get some decent hot food in the evening..
I LOVE your pictures and one of the Devine pictures looks so much like my mother when she was younger.. (Without the makeup and vines of course.) 
I can't wait to read more.. 
Loved your DH comment earlier! 
