Before I start in on Animal Kingdom, we forgot to mention that we saw a talking trash can at Magic Kingdom! There was a girl and a couple of other people walking, and the trash can came zooming up behind her and everyone was pointing and laughing and she turned around and jumped, but we were too far away to hear what they said, but we were very happy to see it at all!
Stitch and Mickey woke us up again and we were off to Animal Kingdom. Now, let me preface this by saying Mystik and I were not too excited about this day. We go to the zoo a lot, had season passes last year, so seeing the animals was not a huge thrill for us, and we were nervous about taking Ariel on anything that lasted more than a few minutes because she can get quite vocal about her displeasure if she doesnt want to do something, so the Safari was out and even though shes tall enough to go on Kali River, we didnt know if it would be too much for her, but we did plan on taking Darth on it. And EE was definitely something that we wanted to make sure we did. When we got there we were walking in and we saw a talking palm tree! It was hilarious. Some guys were walking in front of it and apparently they muttered something about talking palm trees under their breath and it spun around and started following them saying, Hey! What did you say about talking palm trees?! Whats wrong with talking palm trees?! It was great! They turned bright red and took off running!
We made it in to the park and headed towards Asia. We took it easy, since there wasnt a whole lot we wanted to do, we figured wed live if we had to wait for our return time to Everest. We got the fast passes and it was already about a two hour wait for the return time, but it was fine.
We strolled around a bit looking at everything and Darth started getting pouty.
There just wasnt enough excitement for him, I guess, so we gave him a walkie talkie and sent him to check out Kali River while we took Ariel over to check out the Boneyard. While we were over there, we rode Triceritop Spin a couple of times and then headed into the Boneyard. She loved it!
She went down slide after slide and had a big time in general. About that time, Darth radioed us saying that he had walked onto Kali River TWICE and he was ready to meet back up with us, so we met him and headed back to Everest. On our way back to meet Darth, we saw the street performers doing the painting act, and it was great! The guy walking around on the ladder was very good. We headed over to EE and Mystik and Darth hoped on and we got our first parent swap ticket so I could go after they got back. I think fast passes and parent swap are about the best things Disney has ever come up with!
While they were on the ride, Ariel and I waited in the gift shop and she just HAD to have a baby yeti, and like has been previously mentioned, she has me wrapped around her little finger.
Mystik and Darth got off the ride, both all smiles
, so I knew I was in for a treat! Darth and I hopped right back on (Thanks Parent Swap!) I loved it! In general, I prefer wooden roller coasters, but I have to say, Everest is right up there on the top of my favorites list! The themeing was great, the backwards part was great, the yeti was great, it was all great! Probably my favorite ride of the trip!
Mystik and I had skipped breakfast that morning, and everyone was getting pretty hungry so we headed over to Flametree to eat lunch. We arrived to find it closed, with four or five people in front of us. They told us that they would be open any minute, so we waited. About that time a steel drum band started playing behind us, and Darth LOVES steel drums, so he went over to watch them. We turned around to find a Flametree employee standing behind us, asking us to help them open the restaurant! It consisted of her yelling to each section of the restaurant and us yelling, ARE YOU READY?!? and then them screaming and banging on counters. It was really neat! After the ceremony we got a Magical Moment certificate and got to order first! We were pretty excited!
We got Ariel a fruit plate (She LOVES fruit!) and Darth just wanted French fries. I got the ribs and Mystik got a pulled pork sandwich. The food was quite good, especially for a CS meal. The ribs were a little dry, and most definitely not fall off the bone tender, but it was good. We were not a fan of the baked beans, however.
After lunch, we strolled around some more, looking at some animals and taking our time. Ariel was starting to get a little tired, and it was HOT so we decided to head back to the hotel. There are certainly things I would like to do there that we didnt get to this trip, but, hey, theres always next time! On the bus ride back, there was only one other person on the bus with us, so it was a pretty nice trip back!
When we got back to the room, Mystik and I laid down with Ariel to try to get her to go to sleep and Darth went to go swimming. After about a half hour of her not going to sleep, I got up and went and got Darth and we headed out to go to Typhoon Lagoon! He and I love water parks, and I was really excited to spend a little guy time with him. We caught a bus and were on our way!
We got there, knowing we only had about three hours before we needed to be back at the room to meet Mystik and Ariel to head to dinner at Whispering Canyon, so we got right down to business! We hopped in the wave pool for a few minutes, but it was so packed, I was afraid I was going to crush a little kid (Im 62 and weigh 280 pounds, I could do some damage to an eight year old!)
so we headed to Crush 'N' Gusher. It was GREAT! I loved the whole going uphill part! I dont remember the order that we did everything else in, but we got to ride EVERYTHING. Only one time each, but we still fit everything in! I was super impressed with all of it, especially Humunga Cowabunga, it was so fast! We had a great time at the water park, and I was so happy that we got to do it together! When we were waiting in line for Mayday Falls, there was a guy who we later heard say he was form South Africa coming down, and when he got to the bottom of the slide, he had the biggest grin on his face, and he paddled for all he was worth towards the side yelling out that he was getting all the ride out of it that he could! It was hilarious!
It completely embodied the feeling of Disney for me, bringing the kid out of and not caring who knew how much fun they were having!
We headed back to the hotel and came in right as Ariel and Mystik were waking up from there nap, and got ready to head to dinner. We hopped a bus to Magic Kingdom and then took a boat over to the Wilderness Lodge for dinner at Whispering Canyon. The boat ride was nice. Crowded, but nice. Darth decided to be a rebel and sit on the row of seats across the isle from us and was soon joined by a mom and her three daughters! He looked mortified! It was great! He soon squeezed out and joined us in our seat.
We got to Wilderness Lodge about 45 minutes before our ressie, and I went to check in while the rest of the crew went exploring. That place is huge! Id love to stay there sometime. Our buzzer went off after just a few minutes and we were taken to our table. As soon as we sat down, Darth turned into a little grouch. We ordered our drinks, Darth, Ariel and I got bottomless milkshakes, and Mystik got the drink with the light up Tinkerbell on the straw, completely for the light up Tink. Shes cute that way. Our server came back, threw the napkins and straws at us and took our order. Darth refused to order anything, and didnt want anything to do with the skillet the rest of us were eating, so we ordered him the chicken. The server told him if he didnt lighten up, she was going to put him in jail. After she left, we told him if he kept up the attitude, they were going to publicly humiliate him. That snapped him out of it, sort of. It came time for the Stick Pony Derby and he took his little sister up and ran around with her, and it was so cute!
Ariel loved it! After the Derby was over, she kept hoping out of her seat and running around the restaurant, following the same path they had taken! The food came, and it was good, but, honestly, we didnt feel it was any better than Flametree BBQ. After several tables needed ketchup and a couple of kids had to ride around the restaurant singing happy birthday to themselves, one of the servers had a little girl stand up in her chair and the whole place sang happy birthday to her. As we were singing, her server was behind her eating her birthday dessert! The look on her face was priceless when she turned around! It was a fun dinner, but, honestly, not one were likely to repeat.
After dinner, we took a bus to Epcot to try to squeeze in some stuff that we had missed, but it was EMH there that night, so it was PACKED. When we stopped at the campgrounds, some of the rudest, loudest, most aggravating people Ive ever had the displeasure to be around got on, packing the bus to overflowing.
We made it to Epcot and went in. Mystik and Ariel headed over Nemo while Darth and I went to Mission: Space. I dont have a weak stomach at all, but Ive heard a few too many stories about people losing their lunch after riding it, that I was a little nervous, I will admit. We got in the intense line, went through the pre-ride show, and got on. Darth was the Navigator and I was the Pilot. As we prepared for launch, I was starting to get a little apprehensive, but I loved it! The sensation was exactly like I would imagine taking off in a space shuttle would be like. Ok, maybe not EXACTLY, but it certainly didnt feel like we were spinning. It felt like we were going up. Way up. We both really liked it.
On our way back to Nemo to meet up with Mystik and Ariel, we stopped by MouseGears and I bought Mystik the Pirate Mickey she had wanted on our first day. After we were all back together, we decided to try to take a spin through the World Showcase, but Illuminations was starting, so the place was packed, and it was dark, so we couldnt really see much of anything, and the fireworks were making Ariel quite jumpy, so we decided to call it a night and headed back to POP worn out but with smiles on our faces!
first. Ariel LOVED
it!!
