dgaston
Proudly wears a "Believes in Fairies tshirt"
- Joined
- May 23, 2001
- Messages
- 5,883
Our Monday began with an early start for the Backstage Safari at AK. We were to meet at the far left hand side of the gates at 8:15. DS was sleeping in a bit and planning on getting his hair cut at the Barber Shop at MK. He loves the blue gel he can get there. DH and I drove to AK, and then the tram driver kept waiting and waiting to cram every possible person onto his tram. It took 12 minutes to get to the gates--I was needlessly worried though. Our tour group was large, 16 people and others arrived even after we did. Our tour guide was Debbi (no "e") and that made three Debbies altogether on this particular tour. We were all born in the 50's of course. There were eight family members who were part of a Magical Gatherings group as well. One of the more interesting couples included a vet and his wife who had transported some of the original ostriches to AK, stopping at grocery stores for 7 heads of lettuce as they drove from the midwest to AK.
I think with this large group, we needed another tour guide. In tour reports I've read on Deb Will's site it seems like they often add someone in training and I think it would have been helpful for the size of our group. The emphasis of this tour is learning about the Species Survival Plan, how the animals are cared for, seeing food preparation, vet facilities, and visiting with a few keepers. I was very impressed with the head keeper for the white rhinos, who even talked about the plans for hurricanes, and his obvious interest in the animals. The rhinos, like all the animals, are rewarded for behaviors and in the rhino's case, it's with alfalfa. We also met Ashanti, a young male giraffe, who was due to go out on the savanna very shortly perhaps by the end of the week we visited. His keeper rewarded him with alfalfa biscuits that smelled like oranges, and got him to show us his long tongue (two-toned to prevent sunburn while browsing). We saw a video about how the animals are conditioned for foot care, vet treatment, etc. and met a cockatoo named Foster. There was a snack and water break. We also went on the Safari ride, with Debbie pointing out features for animal control, and a few hidden Mickey's (which I can't remember now, of course).
The tour ended about noon, and Don and I split a chicken meal deal from Tusker House. We wandered over to Dinoland and rode Primeval Whirl, and tried to do Dinosaur, but it was down. We watched the painters juggle in Chester and Hester's area, and then went to Tarzan Rocks. My Goodness, is the fellow playing Tarzan a hunk!
After the show, we wanted to do Kali, but it was an EMH day at AK and the waits were too long. We decided to return to our campsite, and relax for a while. DS was already there with his blue hair. He'd only had to wait about 10 minutes for his cut, and had ridden Splash and Big Thunder Mts, but complained about the wait times for everything else. He decided to go to the pool.
This was the evening we wanted to see Fantasmic. I have a collection of Villains t-shirts and picked the one where Malificent is turning into the Dragon. We drove the van over from Ft Wilderness. We were early enough to catch a Flower Power concert at Epcot, so we took the boat transportation from MGM to the Yacht and Beach Club dock. We split up on the walk to the International Gateway with Don and DS taking the "low road", while I took the "high road." They were quicker! We walked to the Reserved Seating line at the American Pavillion and we couldn't get in because we were supposed to pick up a wrist band at Guest Relations at the International Gateway! The CMs were really strict and wouldn't let us in with just our APs. Poor DH took our three passes and trudged back to the Gateway. DS needed a drink and some of those warm nuts from the carts near the American Pavillion, so I waited. DH eventually got back--he deserved the Sam Adams he would shortly buy at the cart, and we found good seats for Davy Jones. I was impressed with his humor and graciousness to fans for photos. One of the jokes I remember. "I used to be a heart throb, now I'm a coronary." DS of course did not appreciate any of this music or the crowd singing along. Kind of funny to see all these geezers in their baseball hats rocking to Daydream Believer! After the concert we headed back to the International Gateway, enjoying the Bonzai at Japan, and quickly looking at the home depot display. We rode the boat the entire route to MGM. We just headed over to the Fantasmic area. We got a double cheeseburger meal at Rosies with a quick and casual voucher, and found excellent seats about six rows from the front in the center section. We enjoyed our food and watching the hs people at WDW for the Music Days events trying to get a good crowd wave going. The show was excellent, and we were almost too close, as the wind misted us with water from the water screens. No one commented on my t-shirt! Oh well. Of course the whole time we were in WDW I wore my DIS button and no one commented on that either.
We headed back to the campground with plans to head back to MGM in the morning.
I think with this large group, we needed another tour guide. In tour reports I've read on Deb Will's site it seems like they often add someone in training and I think it would have been helpful for the size of our group. The emphasis of this tour is learning about the Species Survival Plan, how the animals are cared for, seeing food preparation, vet facilities, and visiting with a few keepers. I was very impressed with the head keeper for the white rhinos, who even talked about the plans for hurricanes, and his obvious interest in the animals. The rhinos, like all the animals, are rewarded for behaviors and in the rhino's case, it's with alfalfa. We also met Ashanti, a young male giraffe, who was due to go out on the savanna very shortly perhaps by the end of the week we visited. His keeper rewarded him with alfalfa biscuits that smelled like oranges, and got him to show us his long tongue (two-toned to prevent sunburn while browsing). We saw a video about how the animals are conditioned for foot care, vet treatment, etc. and met a cockatoo named Foster. There was a snack and water break. We also went on the Safari ride, with Debbie pointing out features for animal control, and a few hidden Mickey's (which I can't remember now, of course).
The tour ended about noon, and Don and I split a chicken meal deal from Tusker House. We wandered over to Dinoland and rode Primeval Whirl, and tried to do Dinosaur, but it was down. We watched the painters juggle in Chester and Hester's area, and then went to Tarzan Rocks. My Goodness, is the fellow playing Tarzan a hunk!
After the show, we wanted to do Kali, but it was an EMH day at AK and the waits were too long. We decided to return to our campsite, and relax for a while. DS was already there with his blue hair. He'd only had to wait about 10 minutes for his cut, and had ridden Splash and Big Thunder Mts, but complained about the wait times for everything else. He decided to go to the pool.
This was the evening we wanted to see Fantasmic. I have a collection of Villains t-shirts and picked the one where Malificent is turning into the Dragon. We drove the van over from Ft Wilderness. We were early enough to catch a Flower Power concert at Epcot, so we took the boat transportation from MGM to the Yacht and Beach Club dock. We split up on the walk to the International Gateway with Don and DS taking the "low road", while I took the "high road." They were quicker! We walked to the Reserved Seating line at the American Pavillion and we couldn't get in because we were supposed to pick up a wrist band at Guest Relations at the International Gateway! The CMs were really strict and wouldn't let us in with just our APs. Poor DH took our three passes and trudged back to the Gateway. DS needed a drink and some of those warm nuts from the carts near the American Pavillion, so I waited. DH eventually got back--he deserved the Sam Adams he would shortly buy at the cart, and we found good seats for Davy Jones. I was impressed with his humor and graciousness to fans for photos. One of the jokes I remember. "I used to be a heart throb, now I'm a coronary." DS of course did not appreciate any of this music or the crowd singing along. Kind of funny to see all these geezers in their baseball hats rocking to Daydream Believer! After the concert we headed back to the International Gateway, enjoying the Bonzai at Japan, and quickly looking at the home depot display. We rode the boat the entire route to MGM. We just headed over to the Fantasmic area. We got a double cheeseburger meal at Rosies with a quick and casual voucher, and found excellent seats about six rows from the front in the center section. We enjoyed our food and watching the hs people at WDW for the Music Days events trying to get a good crowd wave going. The show was excellent, and we were almost too close, as the wind misted us with water from the water screens. No one commented on my t-shirt! Oh well. Of course the whole time we were in WDW I wore my DIS button and no one commented on that either.
We headed back to the campground with plans to head back to MGM in the morning.
