Chapter 12... Animal Kingdom continued!
After our yummy lunch at Tusker House, we both perked up a bit, and were ready to explore some more of Animal Kingdom! It was our Fastpass return time for Expedition Everest, so we made our way there again, only to discover it was still out of action! Boooo!
It hadn’t been working all morning apparently, and showed no signs of starting up again soon.
Instead, we took a photo and headed towards Dinoland. Ah, well. I’m sure we would have loved Expedition Everest, but just not on this trip! It gives us something new to do next time!
Dinoland kinda reminded me of a cheesy 80’s carnival… which isn’t necessarily a bad thing! It was actually much quieter there than anywhere else in the park, which was nice, so we hung out there for a little while.
First we had a ride on Primeval Whirl, which we thought would be a fun little quiet ride after lunch. But actually… YOWZA!!! Primeval Whirl HURTS!!
There was just the two of us in the little pod thing, so every time we turned a corner, we both went “Bang!” into the edge of the seat and jarred our shoulders. And went we went the other way, we both went “Bang!” into each other. That ride is seriously jerky and rough!! By the 12th time my shoulder banged into the edge, we were both saying, “OW!! I want to get off!” I know, I know, we’re big wimps, but we so weren’t expecting it to hurt!! Ouch!!
After limping off Primeval Whirl, we hobbled over to Dinosaur. We waited for about 5 minutes, then jumped on. We both enjoyed Dinosaur, but if I was a kid, I would have been peeing my pants. That big dinosaur is scary, and it’s really dark in there!
We went for a little wander after that, and bought a DELICIOUS frozen banana on the way from one of the little carts around the park. When the CM picked up on our Australian accents, she said, “Oh, I’m sorry to hear about Steve Irwin.” (He had just died the week before) We looked at each other, shrugged, and said, “Hmm, I think Americans liked him more than we did!” to which she replied, “Yeah. Even we didn’t like him that much though.” Hehheheheee. That little exhange just makes me chuckle. There’s amusing things in there about being so polite about other cultures, when really, we all just think the same way. (And I know, some people adored Steve Irwin, and each to their own! But you know what I mean!)
Munching on our fabulous frozen bananas while walking through the park, we came across this tree lady… I can’t remember her name now! Whoops! What is it again? Anyway, here she is. For now, we shall just call her Tree Lady…
Next up was It’s Tough to be a Bug. DF loooved this movie, and yes, it was quite cute, but I’m a bit paranoid about bugs. I spent the whole time lifting up my legs, because I knew at some stage they would gush out cold air onto your legs and pretend it was bugs, and I knew I would freak out completely when that happened. Heeee. So when everyone else screamed and jumped around in their seats because bugs were touching their legs, I just chuckled quietly to myself and kept my legs up. I think we’d been to too many 3D movies at that stage! It was fun though, and so nice and cool in there!
Here’s the Tree of Life…
By that stage, it was around 2.30, and the park was getting ridiculously crowded and painfully hot. We decided to call it a day and head back to Pop for a relax. I think this was the first day for us that the heat and the sweaty crowds just outweighed the fun.
Never mind – we still got to see most of the things we wanted to, except for Expedition Everest of course. Ahhh, well. Maybe next time!!
Back at Pop, we refilled our mugs with frozen coke, bought some more cheese popcorn, and watched a SuperNanny marathon on tv!
Well, I watched SuperNanny while DF slept. I don’t really know why I chose to watch SuperNanny instead of having a sleep, but I think I was just so happy to be back in our quiet little hotel room with the air-conditioning and the cheese popcorn! What more could one ask for!?
At around 5.30, I woke DF… it was time to get ready for our ADR at Spoodles! We were both looking forward to this meal. We chose it by looking at the AllEars menu, and thinking it looked great – but then, so many people on the DIS boards said the food was awful! We were interested to check it out, anyway.
We caught a bus to MGM, then a boat to the Boardwalk, which is just beautiful! We had a little bit of time to explore the hotel and the boardwalk itself, which we loved. It was just like the fair in Big! Very cute! Anyhoo, our ADR was for 7pm. We were seated straight away, and enjoyed one of the best meals of our trip!!
I had the Mediterranean Dips for an appetizer, which were huge and delicious, followed by the Fettuccine Alfredo, then an orange cheesecake thingy for dessert.
DF chose the Garlic Shrimp for his appetizer, the New York strip as his main, and the Make Your Own Sundae for dessert.
The food was all fresh and tasty, the service was excellent, and the whole restaurant had a very relaxed and cruisey vibe! Our total for this meal came to $102 – we still couldn’t get over the fact that it was actually free!! Yayyyyy!
Here I am looking very relaxed about to board the boat at the Boardwalk…
It was turning out to be a lovely night! We both love eating out at nice restaurants, and looking back, I think some of our favourite times at Disney were at the restaurants! After all the hectic pace of the parks, it was so nice to be able to explore other hotels, then sit down and enjoy a fantastic meal to finish off the day. We’d definitely do the dining plan again next time – free or otherwise!
Back at Pop, we decided to do some washing in the coin laundry. Not very glamorous, I know! But since we were away for 7 weeks, coin laundries were our best friend. While our clothes were in the wash, we went for a swim. Nice!! I love night-time swims.
If you happened to be at Pop Century on the 10th September last year, you would have seen a guy and a girl trying to do “The Lift” from Dirty Dancing in the pool. You know, that dance move when Patrick Swayze lifts up Jennifer Grey straight above his head? Well… that may or may not have been us in the pool that night. Okay, it was. And we nearly got there!! Well, not really. Can anyone else in the world do that except Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey? Nup.
I love Dirty Dancing.
We eventually had to get out of the pool, because we were scaring the young children, and also because our washing was ready to put in the dryer. While putting it in the dryer, DF made a friend. A really big, tough, bikie dude who was holidaying at Disney with his family. Heh. He was actually really nice, and started off the conversation by saying to DF, “I saw you playing in the pool with your missus.” Heeee. How embarrassing.
DF ended up chatting to the huge biker dude for over 45 minutes in the laundry, while I went back to our room, showered, and watched some tv before bedtime. And ate some more cheese popcorn, of course.
Apparently the biker dude knew a lot about mining in Australia, and taught DF all about it!!
So, that was pretty much our day! It seems wrong that we had so much more fun resting at Pop, eating dinner, swimming in the pool, and making friends with a biker, than we did at Animal Kingdom. But it’s true!! I think sometimes the best things at Disney World (and indeed, the rest of the world...) are the unexpected things, and I will definitely remember that for next time! I will remember to take time out, and to do silly things, and to enjoy the little moments, instead of trying to do all the things you think you should enjoy!
Philosophical moment, over.
Next up… Our last day at Disney World – AUGH!! Blizzard Beach, here we come!
but I have told him he can have a rest in the afternoon. We are planning a rest day in the middle so we can relax, just hang by the pool and check out other resorts. We don't want to get totally exhausted so we don't have any fun. Saying that though I have never been to WDW and I am probably going to get overwhelmed no matter how much I plan 
I believe you about the jumping spiders, but seriously, I've never seen one!! Don't let it put you off coming to Australia, because I think you'd have to be really, really unlucky to have one jump on you!! It's like saying I wouldn't go to America because I might run into a coyote! Hee! I am, however, with you on the bug thing. Bugs are evil!! 
