Day 5 - Part 1
June 16th, day 5 of our trip, was our last morning at Coronado Springs, and there was still one amenity of the resort that I wanted to try before we left -- the jogging trail. Due to all of the walking I do in the parks, I can easily justify not going for a run while on vacation at Disney World. But I really wanted to try out the jogging trail that goes around Lago Dorado, the lake in the center of the complex. So, I awoke before everyone else on and got out the door at 6:50 am. I went down the stairwells and through the buildings, stretched out, and then started jogging. The first time around I went the long way, going around by the Cabanas instead of across the bridge. By the second time around I was ready to be done and the voice inside my head was reminding me that I was
supposed to be on vacation. As I passed other early risers on the path, I wasn’t sure if they were impressed at my gumption or disgusted by the sweatiness that the Florida humidity was pulling out of me. Anyway, I was thinking that the resort map I had seen said that one loop around was a mile, so I figured I had gone at least 2 miles. When I got back to the Casitas buildings the second time around I stopped and walked back to the room. When I got there I was shocked to see that the time was only 7:15. Either I was really flying or…hmmm.
I found a map of the resort. It showed that it’s only .75 miles around the loop, so I had only run between a mile and a half to two miles. Oh well, I was on vacation, and at least I’d done something to work up a sweat.
Then I showered, dressed, and sat at the desk to write down some trip notes while the rest of my family started getting around. When you write a trip report and look back at your notes, sometimes you’ll be amazed at what you wrote. While writing this chapter, I ran across this entry in my notes, and I have no recollection of writing it:
“Disney conditioner is the consistency of kindergarten paste.”
Okaaaay.
But it’s true. The conditioner at the Disney resorts is so thick that you have to stick your pinky finger into the bottle to get it out. So apparently I used conditioner on June 16th. I can’t wait to see the pictures of myself that day. I’ll bet my hair looks great!
All right, enough about sweaty jogging and trip notes and Disney conditioner. Today we’d be changing resorts, saying goodbye to Coronado Springs and hello (again) to our DVC home, Kidani Village at Animal Kingdom Lodge. Once everybody got out of bed and looking alive, we downed some Pop Tarts and packed up all of our stuff. Once we’d determined which items we needed for the parks and which could be packed up, I called Bell Services. I like to let Disney do the lugging of luggage for us when changing resorts. (I know, quite a change of attitude from arrival day. What can I say?) The Bell Services guy showed up about 10 minutes after I called. While turning over our luggage and a tip, I said something to the effect of, “hot enough for ya?” (Although I’m sure it wasn’t that cliché. I try to avoid that lame phrase.) Even though English wasn’t his first language, the Bell Services guy had the perfect reply: “It feels like I took a shower inside myself”. We loved his response and laughed about it for quite a while.
We were going to go to the Magic Kingdom this morning, but before we left we thought we should say goodbye to our next door neighbors, our friends from PChef-dom, one of Judy’s directors under her. (The lady we saved a table for on the morning of “I see red people”.) They were just beginning to stir, but came out to say goodbye, and after a few minutes of pleasantries we were off to the bus stop.
We got to the Magic Kingdom at about 10:15 am. That’s much later than I like, but we had put in some pretty grueling hours so far on this trip and we had to pack all our stuff this morning. So, considering all that, it probably wasn’t too bad.
Dan (FauntleroyFan07) and Candi, who we’d had a DISmeet with at the Yeehaa Bob show earlier in the trip, were planning on being at the Magic Kingdom that morning and I wanted to catch up with them so that I could meet the world-famous Parker, their cute son with the perpetual smile. We texted each other and they were in Toontown when we arrived, so the rest my family headed in the direction of Space Mountain while I went over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad to get some fastpasses.
As I went from the hub towards Frontierland I passed some cast members taking streamers out of the trees and I asked them if they were hanging the flowers. They thought that was pretty good.
I guess I went through Adventureland because I passed Captain Jack Sparrow.
When I got to the fastpass machines at Big Thunder there was a guy complaining to the cast member working there. Apparently the guy was already holding a fastpass for a ride and so he couldn’t get one yet for BTMRR, but he was upset because he had gotten out of line for Splash Mountain to come over here and get a fastpass for BTMRR. The cast member just said something like, “sorry about that” and explained the time information on the guy’s fastpasses. The guy stormed off while I was getting my fastpasses, and I said to the cast member, “You’ve gotta know how the system works.” He agreed and said that it wouldn’t make much sense if you could just go around collecting fastpasses all at once. (Maybe not, but it still works pretty well if you spend your morning collecting them!)
Here are our Big Thunder fastpasses.
That’s a pretty decent return time considering our late start to the morning.
I started booking back across the park and in texting Dan found out that we’d missed them coming into Tomorrowland and they were now in line for Buzz, so we got in line for Space Mountain.
This time through the Space Mountain queue we had a little time to play some of the new videogames in the standby line.
Here’s a shot of the screen of one of the games. We were trying to dock space vehicles. (Obviously!)
In line, James again started in with, “I’m not going to go on the ride”. At first, the girls attempted to convince him to try it, but Judy kind of whispered to them to just say “fine”. And that’s what we did. When he’d say, “I’m not going to do it”, we’d say, “Okay. That’s fine.” After all of one minute of reverse psychology (the pressure of non-pressure) he buckled and said, “All right, I’ll go on it.” Marlene turned to me and said, “I can’t believe it worked so fast!”
Soon we were on our way, into space.
I don’t think James was really sure what he was getting into when that picture was taken, but his assessment of the ride: He loved it!
We knew he would, if we could just get him on it.
Here are a few pictures from our exit of the ride.
For some reason I can take decent pictures of the closed-circuit TV screen of my family ahead of me, but I can’t get a good picture of myself. The glare on the screen when I reach the right spot to be on-camera doesn’t help.
I’d received a text from Dan while riding Space Mountain. Again, we’d mis-timed it, and they were now inside Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor. Well, our plan was to try to do the “mountains” this morning, so we set off across the park to Frontierland. On our way, we passed this lady “helping” the band by playing bicycle horns. I took the picture as we walked past and didn’t even realize what she was doing. (Although, sitting here looking at it I’m not sure what she was doing!) Anyway, it looks like it could be quite embarrassing, so I put a disguise on her before posting this photo.
When we got to Splash Mountain the wait time was 60 minutes. Since we had an ADR at Whispering Canyon for lunch, we couldn’t wait that long for a ride so we decided to use our fastpasses on BTMRR.
Here are some pictures from the “wildest ride in the wilderness”. For once, I got to ride with Judy. James was behind us, seated by himself, and Lauren and Marlene were in the car behind him.
Man, we should have taken James to the Harmony Barber Shop.
The ride stopped once, just for a half of a minute or so, shortly before the end. It gave me an opportunity to take this picture.
As we left BTMRR I got a text from Dan that they were heading to the Country Bear Jamboree, so I told him we’d meet them there. We waited there a couple of minutes and they arrived.
Here’s the world-famous Parker.
In this one, nobody was ready for the picture except Parker. He’s obviously been photographed a lot; he’s a pro. I don’t think my family even realized that they were in the picture.
Dan and Candi.
It occurred to me that if Dan and Candi had one of those celebrity-couple mash-up names, (like Bennifer or Brangelina), they’d be “Dandi”.
Anyway, Dan and Candi are a really nice couple and we’re glad that we got to meet them in person, as well as on the DIS. We talked with them for a little bit and then let them go into the Country Bear Jamboree, but Pirates of the Caribbean was next on the agenda for us. We hoped that we could squeeze in PotC before we had to leave for our ADR. It was now a little after twelve o’clock and our ADR was at Whispering Canyon at the Wilderness Lodge at 1:30. Hmm, how long does it take to boat across that lake?
We walked over to Pirates of the Caribbean and the wait time said 30 minutes. That was going to make it a close-call on getting to our ADR on time, but we really wanted to get another ride in today so we got in line. We couldn’t believe that the line was outside of the two tunnels, and winding a couple of times through chained-off queue lines. I’ve never seen it that long before. We had to pick a side before ever getting to the tunnels. We went to the right, and hoped that the 30 minute estimate was accurate.
While in line I took a picture of this chess game, still in progress since the last time I visited.
Do they call this “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chess”?
We boarded our pirate boat just about 30 minutes after getting in line. I tried to take some pictures while on the ride, without flash of course, but they didn’t turn out. I've never been able to get a decent picture on that ride.
As soon as we finished the ride we began a hasty exit to the front of the park. Dole Whip Floats were calling Judy’s name as we passed by Aloha Aisle, but she knew that we’d be well-fed at Whispering Canyon, so we had to keep walking. Maybe next time Dole Whips!
Up next: How to tell who’s a tourist at Whispering Canyon Cafe
Link to next chapter
I give you extra kudos for running in the Florida summer humidity!
