T
TSI_Fan
Guest
Monday 07/30/01
Today is the day of the Farewell breakfast. I wait for Nancy in the lobby, and once she is ready, we head on down to Tubbi's for the Farewell Breakfast. Unfortunatly there were less people at the breakfast than planned. PandyPaws and kids were there, as were disfanatiks, mickeyfaniam, and NHAnn (and respective SOs and kids where applicable). So we enjoy a quick breakfast and then book it to the bus to Animal Kingdom.
*WELCOME TO ANIMAL KINGDOM*
This is my first trip to AK so I was ready to do anything that seemed interesting as well as take pictures of anything and everything (some of which didn't turn out...bah!) First thing that I spotted that was well worth taking a picture of is the Tree of Life!
This tree is AWESOME, in it's size and in it's architecture. It's huge!!! Breath-taking, if I may say so myself. This tree also houses the "It's Tough to Be a Bug" show. It was a 10 minute wait, so Nancy and I head on in. I love the show! It's super-cute! I thought it would just be all kinds of weird icky bugs, but when I saw it was starring Flik and would be "Bug's Life"-based, I knew it would be funny and cute. I loved the show so much I bought a pin of it.
It's high on my list of things to do there (and I even hate bugs!).
Next stop...Kali River Rapids!
But first a cigarette break. The first official spot that I found was overlooking this area, so while Nancy was using the bathroom, I took the time to smoke and take a few pictures.
Both were taken from the smoking area.
Okay, NOW we head to Kali River Rapids. Here are some shots from the queue.
(not the comment about the last raft...doh!)
Here's a pic of the ride itself.
I loved the ride, but I still had issues about it. It's a fun ride, no doubt about it, but it's over too quickly. The theming is great!! Especially with all the burning wood and fires, and the drop is great!! Lots of fun but it should be longer. I had doubts about that center area actually keeping water out, but it managed! Surprise, surprise.
Next stop was something Nancy kept insisting that we do, b/c it's her favorite thing to do in the whole wide animal kingdom world...Festival of the Lion King show, so it's off to Camp Minnie-Mickey!
Well, it looks like Mickey and the gang are a bit pre-occupied now with their canoe, but we will move along to the show. Okay, okay, I had a good time, but that's it! It was a neat show..loved the acrobatics!! It was fun, hated fighting the crowds to leave, though.
It's off to grab some lunch. We heard bad bad bad things about Pizzafari, how the food wasn't that great and the bathrooms were super-dirty....so...in true Consumer Reports style, and to judge for ourselves, we ate at...yes, Pizzafari!! I had the pasta, Nancy had a sandwich and bought a souvenir mug. We totally enjoyed our lunch! We ate at 11:30, which was prime lunch crowd and we found a secluded dining spot away from people and we sat down and had a great lunch. My lunch was outstanding, and a good bargain! She really enjoyed hers, too. Okay, half done, we had to check out the bathrooms....SPOTLESS!!! Pizzafari got rave reviews from both of us, so we have no idea what everyone was complaining about.
After lunch we decided to do the two walking trails, but first, the ritual post-meal cigarette. Here's a picture from the smoking area.
Moving on, we, well, I decided to walk the 2 trails in search of animals. First stop was the Pangani something or other...hehehe. (okay, Pangani Forest Exploration Trail..thank you oh great park map! LOL) It was a nice trail, didn't see many animals but I didn't expect to!! We also toured the Marajah Jungle Trek and I snapped this picture of a kittie for Rajah. Never fails..I see big kitties..I think of Rajah..it's like a curse or something.
The kittie was looking for shade, so this was where he/she decided to camp out until it got cooler. We also saw bats...I thought bats lived in caves...apparently not, these creatures were out sleeping in the sunlight.
Next stop..the Passholder lounge!! Since Nancy is a passholder, we stepped out of the heat for a bit for some comfy chairs, a nice glass of water, and a great talk with the 2 CMs there. One was from Iowa, and she was down for the college program. She showed us some hissing cockroaches..which looked better in their cage. We also talked with the other CM about how out of hand pin trading can become. She shared a few funny stories with us and we said our goodbyes. Those two made my trip worth while...had a really pleasant conversation with them both and I WISH I could have gotten their names. 
Next stop..another smoke break! We headed over to Dinoland USA to check the times for Dinosaur. Nancy had issues about the ride and her back. I insisted that we won't do it because I didn't want her to risk an injury. She insisted that since she did Space Mountain, she would be fine. Well..she ran to the bathroom and I sat and had a cigarette and talked with a tourist from St. Louis for a bit. We then called Donna to see what was going on for dinner tonight. After hanging up with her, we walked over to Dinosaur.
Took a look at the stand-by line...50 minutes. Took a look at the FastPass time..2:30/3:30 (this was at 1P). We both agreed that if the wait times or FP times were outrageous, we would just head back..so guess what....we headed back! The walk out of the park was filled with little comments about the park, what we liked and what we didn't like. We both agreed that the paths could be laid out better. Some paths really create congestion around key attractions and it wasn't worth fighting the crowds to get to certain areas of the park. We also agreed that this park could be done in half a day. The walk back to the bus was long and hot. Ack! Better planning on this, too. Plus the bus back to Swan/Dolphin/Y&B/Boardwalk was PACKED!! It felt good to get back to the lobby to relax!!!
We relaxed for a bit and then it was time to meet up with people and head out to Boma's at Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner...woohoo!!!
Here are a few more pics of the inside of Animal Kingdom Lodge. This place looked very Wilderness Lodge-esque in the lobby area. I joked that all it needed to be like WL was a running streak of water in the lobby..lol.
We met up with the group, and eventually Pooooohbear and her now DH Marc showed up (they got married that day). So we presented them with some Mickey and Minnie wedding hats.
..and some rubber shackles we bought as a joke at the gift shop at Pirates at MK. I think Marc was getting some ideas about how to put those to good use.
Dinner was OUTSTANDING!!! Words cannot describe how great this food was. It's an all you can eat buffet, and frankly, I had all I could eat (which was a lot..ask people around me). I spent a lot of time with TownCrier talking about the food and talking in general. His DW agreed to chaperone the kids table to give all the adults a chance to talk and enjoy themselves..what a sweet lady, and she did a very good job at it. Got to give her {{hugs}} for that, it was a very nice gesture on her part. The soups were outstanding, especially the seafood gumbo. We kept trying certain soups to figure out which was which. Prime Rib was offered, as well as pork marianated in coca-cola, which was excellent! I cannot remember everything I ate, but it was A LOT and it was OUTSTANDING! Dessert was even better..lots of chocolate and non-chocolate dessert, some with alcohol involved and some without. I had 2 plates of dessert and I was stuffed!!! I cannot say enough about this place except that the theming was great, the food was great, and the service was great. Oh! quick note. Every time we all "dinged" our glass with our utensils, Maxine and Marc had to kiss. You know..newlywed tradition. What they didn't say is that often times we would ding our glasses when Maxine was at the table and Marc was at the buffett. I vaguely remember myself going over there and rapidly dinging on a glass while saying "I wanna see some tongue!!!" Oh boy....me in my true form.
We leave AKL with stuffed bellies and Pandy, TvT, Nancy and I get this grand idea to hit MGM one last time. Little did we know it was closing at 9p tonight! Ack! We did a babyswap with Pandy for RnR and we just BARELY made it to ToT, but couldn't do a babyswap, so Nancy lucked out this time. TvT and Pandy MADE me take the suicide seat for ToT. If you don't know..that is the seat that only has a seat belt to strap you in. And it's a regulra seatbelt, it's not the electronic one, so if someone hits that red button, you could go flying!! Trust me, that seat RULES!!!! There is no better way to ride ToT than to feel like you have to restraints holding you down. It took that ride to another level (haha!!), and I will try to get that seat in future trips!
Today is the day of the Farewell breakfast. I wait for Nancy in the lobby, and once she is ready, we head on down to Tubbi's for the Farewell Breakfast. Unfortunatly there were less people at the breakfast than planned. PandyPaws and kids were there, as were disfanatiks, mickeyfaniam, and NHAnn (and respective SOs and kids where applicable). So we enjoy a quick breakfast and then book it to the bus to Animal Kingdom.
*WELCOME TO ANIMAL KINGDOM*
This is my first trip to AK so I was ready to do anything that seemed interesting as well as take pictures of anything and everything (some of which didn't turn out...bah!) First thing that I spotted that was well worth taking a picture of is the Tree of Life!
This tree is AWESOME, in it's size and in it's architecture. It's huge!!! Breath-taking, if I may say so myself. This tree also houses the "It's Tough to Be a Bug" show. It was a 10 minute wait, so Nancy and I head on in. I love the show! It's super-cute! I thought it would just be all kinds of weird icky bugs, but when I saw it was starring Flik and would be "Bug's Life"-based, I knew it would be funny and cute. I loved the show so much I bought a pin of it.
It's high on my list of things to do there (and I even hate bugs!).Next stop...Kali River Rapids!
But first a cigarette break. The first official spot that I found was overlooking this area, so while Nancy was using the bathroom, I took the time to smoke and take a few pictures.
Both were taken from the smoking area.
Okay, NOW we head to Kali River Rapids. Here are some shots from the queue.
(not the comment about the last raft...doh!)
Here's a pic of the ride itself.
I loved the ride, but I still had issues about it. It's a fun ride, no doubt about it, but it's over too quickly. The theming is great!! Especially with all the burning wood and fires, and the drop is great!! Lots of fun but it should be longer. I had doubts about that center area actually keeping water out, but it managed! Surprise, surprise.
Next stop was something Nancy kept insisting that we do, b/c it's her favorite thing to do in the whole wide animal kingdom world...Festival of the Lion King show, so it's off to Camp Minnie-Mickey!
Well, it looks like Mickey and the gang are a bit pre-occupied now with their canoe, but we will move along to the show. Okay, okay, I had a good time, but that's it! It was a neat show..loved the acrobatics!! It was fun, hated fighting the crowds to leave, though.
It's off to grab some lunch. We heard bad bad bad things about Pizzafari, how the food wasn't that great and the bathrooms were super-dirty....so...in true Consumer Reports style, and to judge for ourselves, we ate at...yes, Pizzafari!! I had the pasta, Nancy had a sandwich and bought a souvenir mug. We totally enjoyed our lunch! We ate at 11:30, which was prime lunch crowd and we found a secluded dining spot away from people and we sat down and had a great lunch. My lunch was outstanding, and a good bargain! She really enjoyed hers, too. Okay, half done, we had to check out the bathrooms....SPOTLESS!!! Pizzafari got rave reviews from both of us, so we have no idea what everyone was complaining about.
After lunch we decided to do the two walking trails, but first, the ritual post-meal cigarette. Here's a picture from the smoking area.
Moving on, we, well, I decided to walk the 2 trails in search of animals. First stop was the Pangani something or other...hehehe. (okay, Pangani Forest Exploration Trail..thank you oh great park map! LOL) It was a nice trail, didn't see many animals but I didn't expect to!! We also toured the Marajah Jungle Trek and I snapped this picture of a kittie for Rajah. Never fails..I see big kitties..I think of Rajah..it's like a curse or something.
The kittie was looking for shade, so this was where he/she decided to camp out until it got cooler. We also saw bats...I thought bats lived in caves...apparently not, these creatures were out sleeping in the sunlight.
Next stop..the Passholder lounge!! Since Nancy is a passholder, we stepped out of the heat for a bit for some comfy chairs, a nice glass of water, and a great talk with the 2 CMs there. One was from Iowa, and she was down for the college program. She showed us some hissing cockroaches..which looked better in their cage.
We also talked with the other CM about how out of hand pin trading can become. She shared a few funny stories with us and we said our goodbyes. Those two made my trip worth while...had a really pleasant conversation with them both and I WISH I could have gotten their names. Next stop..another smoke break! We headed over to Dinoland USA to check the times for Dinosaur. Nancy had issues about the ride and her back. I insisted that we won't do it because I didn't want her to risk an injury. She insisted that since she did Space Mountain, she would be fine. Well..she ran to the bathroom and I sat and had a cigarette and talked with a tourist from St. Louis for a bit. We then called Donna to see what was going on for dinner tonight.
After hanging up with her, we walked over to Dinosaur.
Took a look at the stand-by line...50 minutes. Took a look at the FastPass time..2:30/3:30 (this was at 1P). We both agreed that if the wait times or FP times were outrageous, we would just head back..so guess what....we headed back! The walk out of the park was filled with little comments about the park, what we liked and what we didn't like. We both agreed that the paths could be laid out better. Some paths really create congestion around key attractions and it wasn't worth fighting the crowds to get to certain areas of the park. We also agreed that this park could be done in half a day. The walk back to the bus was long and hot. Ack! Better planning on this, too. Plus the bus back to Swan/Dolphin/Y&B/Boardwalk was PACKED!! It felt good to get back to the lobby to relax!!!
We relaxed for a bit and then it was time to meet up with people and head out to Boma's at Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner...woohoo!!!
Here are a few more pics of the inside of Animal Kingdom Lodge. This place looked very Wilderness Lodge-esque in the lobby area. I joked that all it needed to be like WL was a running streak of water in the lobby..lol.
We met up with the group, and eventually Pooooohbear and her now DH Marc showed up (they got married that day). So we presented them with some Mickey and Minnie wedding hats.
..and some rubber shackles we bought as a joke at the gift shop at Pirates at MK. I think Marc was getting some ideas about how to put those to good use.
Dinner was OUTSTANDING!!! Words cannot describe how great this food was. It's an all you can eat buffet, and frankly, I had all I could eat (which was a lot..ask people around me). I spent a lot of time with TownCrier talking about the food and talking in general. His DW agreed to chaperone the kids table to give all the adults a chance to talk and enjoy themselves..what a sweet lady, and she did a very good job at it. Got to give her {{hugs}} for that, it was a very nice gesture on her part. The soups were outstanding, especially the seafood gumbo. We kept trying certain soups to figure out which was which. Prime Rib was offered, as well as pork marianated in coca-cola, which was excellent! I cannot remember everything I ate, but it was A LOT and it was OUTSTANDING! Dessert was even better..lots of chocolate and non-chocolate dessert, some with alcohol involved and some without. I had 2 plates of dessert and I was stuffed!!!
I cannot say enough about this place except that the theming was great, the food was great, and the service was great. Oh! quick note. Every time we all "dinged" our glass with our utensils, Maxine and Marc had to kiss. You know..newlywed tradition. What they didn't say is that often times we would ding our glasses when Maxine was at the table and Marc was at the buffett. I vaguely remember myself going over there and rapidly dinging on a glass while saying "I wanna see some tongue!!!" Oh boy....me in my true form. We leave AKL with stuffed bellies and Pandy, TvT, Nancy and I get this grand idea to hit MGM one last time. Little did we know it was closing at 9p tonight! Ack! We did a babyswap with Pandy for RnR and we just BARELY made it to ToT, but couldn't do a babyswap, so Nancy lucked out this time. TvT and Pandy MADE me take the suicide seat for ToT. If you don't know..that is the seat that only has a seat belt to strap you in. And it's a regulra seatbelt, it's not the electronic one, so if someone hits that red button, you could go flying!! Trust me, that seat RULES!!!! There is no better way to ride ToT than to feel like you have to restraints holding you down. It took that ride to another level (haha!!), and I will try to get that seat in future trips!
