Three Petals + one stem = Remember to water regularly, Day Two

[IvyandLace]

Date: May 9th, 2003
AM plans: Early Entry (EE) to Animal Kingdom then off to Typhoon Lagoon (TL)
Lunch: Leaning Palms at Typhoon Lagoon
PM plans: Enjoy Animal Kingdom Lodge and CBR
Dinner: Boma’s with PS @ 7pm

“It must have been Pete’s snoring that woke me up,” I think to myself as I glance at the clock. “3 am. Hmmm…only 3 more hours until we can get ready for the parks! What are we wearing again? Oh, that’s right. Today we don’t have matching outfits cuz we’re going to TL.” This conversation continues for some time. I look around the room and count sheep. At 4am I consider getting up for a swim but am afraid I will wake everyone else up trying to get changed in the dark. 4:30am finds me mentally shopping for new pins of the day. Finally…finally…I hear movement here and there. When Mickey calls to get us “up and a’tem”, everyone else wakes up instantaneously with foolish grins on their faces. We know something is different when “Pete” hops out of bed and is the first one in the shower. (Let’s just say he’s not a fast bloomer!)

We three petals look at each other and can’t keep the laughter down-or our voices! We are all so excited! From the sound of it, “T” Rose and “Mum” got as little sleep as I did…no matter how many times I tell myself I’m back in ‘da World, my mind refuses to believe it! Adrenaline forces us up and out the door draped in pins after munches of breakfast in our room.

After a quick stop at the ice machine to fill up our Brita water bottles, we sweat our way to the bus stop. The humidity is amazing…and it’s only 7:30am! We arrive to an empty bus stop but find some friendly people aboard our bus to the Animal Kingdom. How I love early morning in WDW…even when it’s 300 degrees outside! “T” Rose entertains us with smidgens of “Zippa-dee-do-dah” courtesy of her musical pin, and I break in my mini lime green backpack fan (already).

We are pretty surprised to see the long lines of people waiting for EE-we usually arrive on non-EE days and sneak in through the Rainforest Café park entrance-but today we wait in line for the Awakening complete with “Circle of Life” lip sync by yours truly. One of the things that shocks us so this trip is the number of people we find looking at maps saying, “What do you want to do?” Not us! I’ve had our itinerary down for months. First things first, of course, and that means booking it to Safari! With that goal in mind, we’re off! We are making pretty good time until I step on the back of a little boy’s shoe somehow managing to take it off mid stride and tripping him in the process. When I turn to help, I am a bit ashamed to see the cast on his arm. Oops! (“Sorry about the broken leg, kid!”) I consider throwing him a pin but reconsider when images of punctured eyeballs roll through my mind. (Too much nurse in me, I guess!)

Fortunately the “kid with the cast” incident (as it will forever be known) doesn’t slow us down too much. Safari is a walk-on. All four of us pile in the back seat and yell a very enthusiastic “Jumbo!” to our driver. “Pete” breaks out the infamous digital camera, and we bounce our way from great shot to great shot! We get the BEST up close look at the giraffes and rhinoceros-so close you could touch! It is our best Safari yet. Little Red was no where to be seen, though, which “T” Rose sardonically blames on “cutbacks”.
We hop to the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail and especially enjoy the fish aquarium and bird aviary. The naked molerats win the “yucky” award! We even stop to chat with a fellow pin trader at a cart who notices our passporter pouches-he just happens to frequent everyone’s favorite, Disboards. That makes us smile and whistle “It’s a Small World” while we amble our way toward Kali River Rapids. It’s time to get wet!

Kali is down, however, and so it’s time to be flexible, a word we are slowly learning to incorporate in our Disney touring. After a nice walk through the Maharajah Jungle Trek where we see “Mean Jean” (the Komodo dragon we nickname), those cool slightly weirdo bats, and the tigers who are just lying around in the shade looking too much like our own cats, we head to Dinosaur. I love Dinosaur-no matter how much I ride it, I always scream my head off. (I’m pretty sure that’s how the marbles get lost.)

We’re kind of AK snobs and so, in true fashion, stick our noses up when we catch a glimpse of “Chester and Hester’s Dino-Rama”. We unfortunately have to turn right around when informed that one of the Dinosaurs attempted an escape (or suicide? No one is talking) and fell onto the track, thus closing the ride. We are slightly bummed but decide to look on the bright side (as “Mum” always taught us)-we can now get to Typhoon Lagoon earlier! Yippee!

“Mum”, “T” Rose and I went to TL once right after it opened so many moons ago so we are eager to see how it compares with good ole Blizzard Beach. Plus, we’re all feeling pretty droopy by now! We get in, and I’m pleased to find that the park is not that crowded-I wasn’t sure with tonight being a grad night and the weather so hot and sticky. We form “base camp”, stash our loot and slather up. After a good quick lunch at Leaning Palms (Vernessa, a cast member there, is a bright and shining example of those little Disney extras-getting us free water, extra ranch dressing for our wraps, and melting the cheese on “Mum’s” chili hot dog so it’s just that much yummier), we do the slides, family raft ride (so fun, and I’m soaked!) and lazy river.

We absolutely love the theming here and spend time admiring it all; we especially like the motors that spray water at us unsuspecting lazy river floaters and the many broken-down boats poking out of the tropical foliage throughout the park. My favorite attraction at TL proves to be the shark reef where I go snorkeling for the very first time. I take my time and after reassuring my lungs that they can, indeed, breathe underwater after all, I am amazed at the wonders “under the sea.” The second time through I get so brave as to try to touch a fish close to me but manage only to go too deep and come up sputtering as my snorkel fills with water!


Side note-We have to watch “Mum” today, as she seems to find every exposed rough surface and uneven walkway to “trip” over! I am a bit afraid that Mickey won’t recognize her with all those bandages!

We stop for ice cream cones (with sprinkles), and I’m bummed to find that “T’s” $10.00 bill that she entrusted me to hold in my Velcro pockets has floated away! Yikes! “T” Rose, of course, is sure that I’ve stolen it away to gorge myself on Mickey bars and makes sure to tease me about her lost money throughout the rest of our trip.

We three petals love the surf pool and after “Pete” heads back to the room for an afternoon nap, we stay in to bob and dive and scream with every wave until we are all “prune-y.” Then it’s time for another float in the lazy river with just the girls. We are missing our “kids” (nephews/niece) and are happy to discuss our next big family vacation-a Disney cruise! “T” Rose and I have a laugh as we try to locate someone to take our picture on the river-everyone we peg keeps floating away just we go to ask them!

We had planned to stay at TL until 5pm, but by 4pm we are pretty waterlogged and so head back to CBR to change leisurely for our dinner at Boma’s. We are thrilled to find three washcloth animals left by our mouse-keeper-love that Disney magic! Our favorite…what “Mum” deems a “prayer angel baby” in our window! Needless to say, “prayer angel baby” stays in our window throughout our trip and always provides a smile at the end of the day.

Since we left TL early, we have time to explore CBR more in the daylight and even check out the main pool-lots of people there! The resort really is beautiful in its tropical setting, but the afternoon sun makes the enormity of CBR even more apparent. Wow! How they could redo the food court and not increase its size to be more appropriate for the resort capacity is beyond us! We definitely cannot see us staying here with “our” kids-we would lose them for sure!

Soon enough we are dressed, refreshed, and famished-ready to head to AKL for dinner! We walk to the Custom House to pick up our E-night tickets for tomorrow night, and then it’s a short bus ride to AKL. Even though we check in about 20 minutes early, we still end up waiting a good 30-40 minutes for our table. Bomas is packed, and there are tons of hungry people waiting! Finally, we are seated and attack the buffet. The food here is so creative! “Pete” and I especially enjoy splitting bowls of their yummy soups (there were ~6 different kinds!), and everyone gets a kick out of tasting hummus…we’re so trendy! I definitely feel as if I am on an eating adventure. We all give “T” a round of applause, as she tends to be a picky eater…but not so tonight! (Way to go, Idaho!) The desserts were good but not outstanding so “Mum” (our dessert queen) was a little disappointed, I think. We all enjoyed Boma’s and experiencing AKL more but don’t think it’s something we’ll do every trip. It’s definitely the most interesting buffets available at WDW, in our opinion. Tired of cheeseburgers and mac-n-cheese? Head to Boma’s.

We arrive back “home” around 9pm after putting off mini golf at Fantasia golf until another day. We decide instead to enjoy CBR’s pool and hot tub. It’s amazing how relaxing a hot tub is even when it’s still pretty warm outside. Though the warmth (and alternate cold of the pool) feels great, the CBR hot tub, in itself, is disappointing. There are only two jets in the whole tub and so, no bubbles!! Also it just looks like it needs to be rehabbed…but wasn’t this just done recently? We can’t figure it out. Oh well, having a hot tub without jets is better than no hot tub at all. We went to refill our mugs and “drag our wretched bodies” back to our room for some good ole sleep. What a fun day!

Weeds-go away!

1. Dinosaur and Kali were down today!
2. Humidity!
3. Losing “T’s” money and “Mum’s” bout of clumsiness”!
4. Having to wait for our PS at Boma’s and our disappointment with
desserts


Blooms of the Day


1. Getting up early-it’s our first day, no time to spare!
2. All the animals we saw on the Safari-wow!
3. We got to TL earlier than planned and loved it!
4. The shark reef, family raft ride and surf pool
5. Vernessa at Leaning Palms!
6. Having time to just enjoy CBR and leisurely change for a nice
dinner
7. Hot tub and main pool-a great precursor to a good night’s sleep.

 

[Marla Hellwig]

A fun day and ending it at Boma's - one of my favorite places - thanks for posting!

 

[Annie&Hallie'sMom]

Ah...sounds wonderfully refreshing.

 

[BurleyGirl]

I love the format of your posts! I really like the way you organize the good/bad points for your day--would help make a trip's highlights easier to remember. Keep the reports coming!

 

[tmq2766]

Sounds like a great day.

 

[GreatBiscuit]

Thanks for a great post! I really like the details and the follow up information.

 

[DawnAK]

love your weeds and blooms at the end. Glad to see the "blooms" for the day outnumber the "weeds". Looking forward to reading the rest. dawn

 

[Minniespal]

Thanks for sharing ~ Wonderful reviews!!!!!