Got up at 6am for my first day at Walt Disney World! Showered and left my hair curly today (I usually like to straighten it easier to deal with throughout the day). Oh, but not today it was POURING, so curly it is!
Had time to go to the food court to grab some breakfast. I ordered the kids Mickey waffle plate the adult version was not a Mickey shape but had the POP logo in the middle of it. Grabbed an OJ and sat down at a table and read for a few minutes. When I headed out to the busses, I noticed and DAK bus pulling away darn it!
It was raining like crazy, but I did have a poncho and umbrella in my backpack. Got to DAK and checked in under cover for the Behind the Scenes tour. This would be my first time taking this tour and I was excited, despite the rain. ****Spoiler Warning here - might have some info about the tour....if you don't want to know specifics, skip the next couple of paragraphs****
Paul was our tour guide and I loved that, I had read some good reviews online about his tours. He gave us all a free Mickey poncho! We got set with our radio headgear and headed backstage right at the Rainforest Café. Normally you walk to the back of the park at this time but since it was raining so hard, he had arranged motorized transportation for us! YAY!! We got to drive around the outskirts of the park in a couple of white vans I always sat in the passenger seat since I was the only solo in the group.
He drove around the park pointing out things like the fence to keep some out, more than some in, the buildings and the bike racks and path for the cast members that worked there. Our first stop was the elephant barn where we got to watch the morning wash routine for one of the bull elephants and we learned a lot, even getting to ask the trainer some questions. Disney is so great about recycling they even recycle the waste from the elephants makes great fertilizer! You needed to know that, right?!
Over a month back writing this and I cant remember the order of the places we visited, but we went to the Vet Center back at Rafikis, but no surgeries were scheduled that day. Note to self (and others if you would like): Friday is a travel day for the Vets there, they go around to make house calls to animals all around WDW, therefore, surgeries are rarely scheduled on Fridays. We also visited the dietary center were we saw many things of which I will not describe for you here
but just know those animals at DAK are WELL FED!~ A Cast Member was having a birthday party that day and they had stored his cake in the fridge with the animal food but they said it was well sealed and only in with the vegetation
..hmmmmm.
We took a break in one of the buildings to watch a film about conservation and Disneys Animal Kingdom. We got to take off the ponchos, use our new mugs to fix some hot tea or hot chocolate and grab some snacks.
From there we went the backstage entrance over to the safari. We loaded where the trucks normally unload. Paul was our guide as we didnt have the regular storyline. We drove past the loading docks and there were only 1 group of 4 waiting for a truck. Another Note to self: come to the DAK in the rain, there is no one here!!
The safari was great as we took it slow and Paul showed us many of the secrets of the safari and keeping the animals safe and separate from the park goers. After the ride, we gathered in Africa to check out a big hidden mickey of stones and then we parted ways.cont. on next post....
Only on page 1 but I wanted to ask a couple of tour questions:
