We've got a room. Check. A view? Check. Luggage? Check. Let's roll!
What I didn't tell you in the last installment that when we had been waiting for a few hours for our room to be ready, we had only spotted one elevator which was beyond the lobby, down passed the pool, beside the rest rooms....So when our room is ready, we headed out of the lobby, passed the pool doors, the "food court", the public phones, the rest rooms, to get on the elevator....We walked and walked then ran and ran to find our room!
Now that we are ready to head out, my younger yet wiser DD spotted elevators very close to our room. We took those and guess what? They drop you off...right...in....the.....lobby! This is a fancy place.
We wandered around looking for the bus stop to take us to Animal Kingdom...ending up outside in luggage services with all the big bins that they use to transfer the luggage (what is up with me and luggage services this trip?) and Chloe saying "I told you this wasn't it, Mom." Gee, thanks honey.
We asked for directions (no husband with us this trip) and got ourselves to the bus stop. Whew. We should have brought a compass because I am not going to remember my way back.
We arrive at AK with two objectives. Chloe has never seen the Jungle Jammin' Parade and we have never been in the park after dark. I want to take cool pictures of Everest with the lights on and ride it (front car only
) to look around at the view at night.
We arrive just in time to find a spot near the safari for the parade. We get a nice, sunny spot which aids with the current afternoon heat and humidity. We had planned to use up our last two snack points (from our Pop package) tonight on ice cream for dinner. I leave Chloe and run over to the snack stand and get two waters and two milkshakes. We watch and wait and sweat for a little while....as parade time approaches, the CMs start directing people out of the parade route for their safety...that's about the time my Disney OCD kicks in and I'm thinking that I should run and get a fast pass for the Safari. AAAALLL of these people are going to rush into the Safari and swarm the line and wouldn't it be handy to have a fast pass? I think about taking my chances and bolting across the street but I'm afraid of 1. getting caught and reprimanded and 2. having the parade start and getting stuck on the opposite side of the street from Chloe. So we don't get fast passes. Hey, look kids - a chicken at Animal Kingdom.
Chloe drank her milkshake super fast and isn't feeling well. She sits down during the parade and misses out on meeting and greeting with the characters in the parade. I run over as soon as the parade is over and get fastpasses. I was here in January over Martin Luther King weekend and all of these passes were gone by 1 p.m. so this is great luck.
I suggest that we walk thru the Pangani forest. Walking off a milkshake-induced bellyache is probably not the best advice I could give. Chloe sat down at every exhibit and I felt guilty spending so much time watching the gorillas (my FAVORITE!).
We take our chances and walk over to see the wait time for Kali River which is only 10 minutes. What a lucky day!
We end up in a boat with a family in ponchos that only spoke Spanish. As the ride went on, they were chatting and looking at us, probably saying "Look at the big dopes with no ponchos!" As Kali karma would have it, the big dopes got soaked and the spanish family folded up and put away their nice, dry ponchos.
This is a random picture of tourists:
and a big, wet dope:
Chloe's really not feeling well now so we head back to the hotel. Alas, my nighttime ride on Everest remains on my things-to-do list for Disney.
Next Up: An exciting evening at the Lodge.
What is it about Kali and the selected soaking? When we went my husband was absolutely dumped on, right thru to the skin and we were dry... poor guy had another 5 hours at AK and didn't really dry off! 
He had a rough day!
Tell us more, please????
I love Disneyworld. The obsession started years ago when I was a SAHM and we couldn't afford to go. That was before I found out about the Dis board, codes, or annual passes. 
