therussells08
Roger, Simba One!
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2010
- Messages
- 1,881
When we left off our first full day at Disney had come to a close. I was finally back in my happy place, and I barely made through ten of Stacey’s rapid-fire “must dos that you must do when you must do the must dos…” before I was sound asleep. Before falling asleep, however, I did apologize to the Disney gods for thinking it was a good idea to spend two days in Orlando before coming to Disney. I’ll never make THAT mistake again.
We woke up bright and early the next morning. John was itching to get to his favorite park, Animal Kingdom, so he was actually out of the bed before me. While I got ready he went to Mara and grabbed a quick breakfast and some caffeinated goodness for our resort mugs. Speaking of resort mugs and AKL, here’s a little rant. As much as I LOVE LOVE LOVE AKL and Animal Kingdom, I cannot stand the paper straws.
I totally get why they use them, but they make me inexplicably angry. Within two seconds of drinking out of them they get all soggy and gross and start to make me gag. However, as much as I hate soggy straws, I’m sure innocent wild animals hate choking on plastic even more, so I’m going to suck it up and move on. Heh…suck it up. PUN INTENDED.Aaanyway, I came to the realization very quickly that staying at AKL meant I needed to add like 10 minutes to my getting ready time in the morning. There’s two reasons for that:
1-The rooms at AKL are very dimly lit, so excruciatingly difficult procedures (like making myself look presentable enough to go out in public) took an extra long time.
2-The wallpaper in the vanity area of our room was super distracting. It was this amazing map of Africa with little animals and random points of interest illustrated. Every time I looked at that amazing wallpaper I found something new, so I found myself staring at it for extended periods of time while I blow dried one side of my head into a frizzy oblivion.
While I took my sweet time getting ready, John busied himself by exploring our balcony, which looked out onto the parking lot. This ended up being the source of a running joke for us. Even though our view was of the PARKING LOT, there was still a sign on the sliding glass door asking us to please not throw food to the animals. We quickly deduced that Disney must mean the homosapiens wandering around below, so we decided it was not in our best interest not to toss them our leftovers, despite their begging. So if you were a person wandering around outside AKL and you wondered why people weren’t throwing food at you, don’t blame us. Disney said we couldn’t.
Finally, after a whole lot getting ready and a whole lot of rambling in this update, it was time to go to ANIMAL KINGDOM!
Like I mentioned earlier, this is John’s favorite park. He is obsessed (yes, I literally mean obsessed) with wild animals, especially big cats. He is also obsessed with anything pertaining to the outdoors, and he loves reading about safaris and expeditions. Despite all of this, however, Animal Kingdom always ends up being the park that we visit the least. I think it’s because you can get so much done there in a short amount of time, whereas you can spend an entire week in the other parks and still not see everything. This trip was certainly not an exception, and believe it or not, we spent LESS time in AK on this trip than on any other. I’m blaming our neglect of the beautiful AK on the fact that we felt like we were there all the time since we stayed at AKL, but I still feel guilty.
What is up with me rambling today? Feel free to scroll to your heart’s content. Alright, more pictures!
I have no idea why that crappy photo is the ONLY picture I took of the Tree of Life. It’s not like there’s not ample photo opportunities everywhere in Animal Kingdom. Come to think of it, this was pretty much the theme of the day- Joni takes really crappy pictures.
We were there pretty early, so the crowd level was still relatively low. John booked it over to Asia to grab FPs for Expedition Everest, and I started moseying over to Africa to wait for him at the safari.
I’m pretty sure that before I was able to catch my breath and wipe the sweat off my face John had already arrived with our EE FPs like he had just taken a nice leisurely stroll in the park. That man is a machine.
And so continues our theme of the day, because I took the worst safari photos I’ve ever seen. You didn’t think I was going to spare you, did you? Nope! Here they are!
I felt like the entire time the animals were aware of my poor photography skills and were walking away from me in disgust. Like this rhino.
This hippo couldn’t even bring himself to come above water to look at me.
Look, these crocodiles are talking about me and laughing!
Finally when we got to the Savannah I thought I saw a prime photo opportunity. This little deer creature was coming right toward me!
I was like, “Here he comes! This is it! Best photo of the day, right here…”
Then the deer creature was like, “HAHA JK! None for Gretchen Weiners.”
And he sauntered right on by. Look at that picture and tell me he’s not sauntering. I never realized deer creatures were so cocky.
So at this point I was realizing that this wasn’t going to be a very successful safari, but I refused to give up hope!
I took a picture of a giraffe, but he turned his head.
When he looked back I was sure that THIS was the shot, but I’ll be darned if he didn’t blink.
What kind of a nerd takes a picture of a blinking giraffe? This kind.
Next I saw some cows with big horns whispering about me in the trees.
And a mean elephant showed me his backside.
Finally, FINALLY, after this horrific and embarrassing safari in which I was shunned by dozens of animals, I found some kind souls willing to let me take a picture.
Warthogs and an ostrich. The world’s ugliest pig and bird were the only ones who didn't ignore/mock me. Although I will say, I was super excited about the ostrich picture. I have a student who works part time on an ostrich farm, and I took it back and showed it to him. He loved it!
When we finished with our safari I was ready to put it all behind me. It was like reliving middle school, only instead of being judged by awkward prepubescent tweens I was being judged by wildlife. John, however, wanted a good experience on the safari so he insisted we come back later.
We still had a little time before we could get more FPs, so we went to ride Dinosaur. If you remember from my first TR, I am absolutely and completely TERRIFIED of the Carnotaurus. Just to prove my point (and to give you a nice chuckle) here’s the ride photo from the first time I ever went on Dinosaur in 2007:
LOOK AT MY FACE. That is sheer terror, folks. Anyway, as you can see, I am ridiculously afraid of an animatronic dinosaur. John always gives me a hard time when I cover my eyes at that part, so my latest technique is to very casually shut my eyes, and then claim I blinked in the ride photo. It’s seemed to work so far, but I think he’s going to catch on soon…
After I got the bejeezus scared out of me it was time to use our Expedition Everest FPs. John walked with purpose and got us some safari FPs first, and then we went on our Expedition! It was amazing, as usual, and we quoted Stacey endlessly, as usual. THERE DOESN'T SEEM TO BE ANY TRACK.
Up Next: A special treat post for a few of my DIS friends, and we try that safari again! Stay tuned!
I mean, I understand, but they are so gross! 
All my reasons aside, sorry to hear you weren't exactly happy with your pictures, they look perfectly fine to me. Might I mention, it's hard to get good pictures when you're constantly moving just saying.
to EE FPs and riding the Safari! 
And you are so right about the deer creature, he is sauntering by. There is a VERY clear smirk on his face. Though, I've gotten pictures like that so he may be just hamming it up, but based on the laughing alligators.... I don't know lol Way for the giraffe to turn away and the cows to talk smack about you 
I absolutely hate those things, except for the pet snake in my science teacher's room at school, he's cool. 
All aside, love the epic deer pictures! I think I'm slowly falling in love with those things 
Okay so maybe I’m weird for wanting these, because I’ve never been to Disneyland and I really have no desire to go since I life 500 miles from Disney World, but allow me to explain: THEY WERE ONLY $1.99!!! (Can I get a *what what*?! Wait…we don’t say that anymore? Nevermind… 
) Also, I am really weird about going to Goodwill and places like that and buying random t-shirts that make it look like I have this super fascinating life, like a bunch of 5k shirts or something, so people think I did all these cool things. Now people will see me wearing these and think, “Oooh, that girl’s been to Disneyland. I’m jealous.” HAHA I’m so weird. 
