Somebody shoot that rooster! OK, well, I’m reeeaallly tired today but as usual I get up, pull the divider curtain closed, and turn on the light to make the coffee. And there it is. The mug. THE MUG! There’s a Mickey coaster on the top with a note….Good morning, Mom…We LOVE you…Mimi & Emily. Did I hear an “aaaaawwwww”? I thought so. Aren’t they sweet? Love my girls. But can’t hug them yet…gotta let them sleep a little longer.
I’m inserting this photo again to show you something because this is the morning I start a new habit. See that bench on the left just at the lower left hand side of the photo? That’s my bench.
My bench. Today (and for the next two days) I sit on
my bench and drink coffee from
my mug while I watch the sun come up over Ole Man Island. I watch people on the coffee walk and wave at tiny princesses on their way to the castle. Some folks stop by my bench to take pictures of dawn at the Riverside Mill. It’s absolutely breathtaking. And my coffee tastes better, too, out of the mug. TFI.
So I go inside to shower and wake the dead. I touch/shake everyone and only get one response….Mimi. Wanna go to Animal Kingdom for rope drop? Sssssuurrreee. (
Mimi saw my TR on the screen and added this revision: MOM I was way more excited than that! Mom and MiMi get to do something on their own?! AWESOME!!) Great! We shower, dress, get the bag ready, leave the keys of the folks we’re leaving behind, and head out. Today we decide to take our car and hope that the purple signage is good because A—I haven’t seen many Animal Kingdom busses at POR this week, and B—it’s a long way to AK from POR and I don’t want to be late for rope drop.
We’re at AK in about 10-15 minutes and we head in via our top secret TGM route. We end up at the rope right behind another family…mom, dad, two cute kids. Now I have mom pegged for a TGMer due to her Bagallinni bag and her prowess at passing up the other dweebs who are now behind us. So I ask her…if she’s a TGMer (she is) and we talk briefly. There’s another man right up at the rope who appears to be alone and is talking to all the CMs who obviously know him. Goofy and Minnie come out to do the cute little opening show and I snapped this photo.
Ladies and gentlemen….meet the Sillies and the Yeti Man. Mr. Silly has his fingers in his ears due to noise issues (not removing a love bug…I asked) and his wife is the lovely Haley B. I refer you to their trip report from which I recognized them….Journey into the Heart of Dorkness…here on the TR board.
Also, please meet….from
Disneyland Momma’s trip report….the Yeti Man. He’s the guy in the sunglasses just in front of Mr. Silly. He has several Disney tattoos and has ridden EE something like 700 times which accounts for the fact that the CMs all know him.
The rope is dropped…sort of. Two CMs actually carry the rope and walk us slowly over to Asia in search of the Yeti. I stay close to the rope and when we see Everest, I quickly follow Mr. Silly to the fastpass machines.
I am the first at my fastpass machine and the return time is about 10:30 (I think) and I see the time go up 10 minutes as I walk away. And then we enter and hurry past the cool queue Yeti stuff. This is a ride where it wouldn’t be so bad to stand in line. And then we board…the train. We are in the last car. Suffice it to say that the ride is very, very cool. Although I loved it….sadly, I was a little queasy afterward.
Now Mimi and I are on a mission. We head directly to Dinosaur which none of us rode on the last trip. It’s showing a 20 minute wait but we walk right on. My only comment about this ride is it’s a lot rougher than I imagined and I think it may be very scary for some little ones. The coffee is frapped…again….and now I am officially nauseous. Getting older stinks!
We pass on Primeval Hurl and check out why it’s so tough to be a bug….or the Tree of Perpetual Crying Children as Sheridac so aptly put it. (Miss you, Sher) Just so you know, some kids are very afraid of this movie! Mimi was 10 on our last trip and sat outside the exit door to wait for us….not seeing it…nope. But the movie is cute if you’re not afraid of bugs and the queue is nothing short of fabulous.
We walk to Africa via Asia and take every path that appears to lead down to the water. This is a beautiful day and the views along the water are spectacular. Mimi takes lots of pictures at every opportunity.
It’s around 10:00 and who should we meet on the path but….Devine!! Wow…this is a spectacle unlike any other. The “vine” is at least 7-8’ high and moves beautifully sometimes stopping to perch along the way and “become” part of the backdrop which scares the poor suckers who aren’t paying attention.
We head on over to the safari which I haven’t done before due to my delicate condition on the last trip. No wait…bonus. The safari is very cute and we see lots of animals on the trip.
Little Red is saved…phew….that was close. So we head back to Asia to get another set of fastpasses for EE since the rest of the group will want to ride and Mimi and I only have 2 tickets with which to fastpass.
Now we’re holding four fastpasses and we head back to Africa for lunch with some time to spare. There she is again….Devine. Mimi is fascinated! Snapped pics left and right.
We head on over the bridge at Harambe. Here's the view off both sides of the bridge.
Just on the other side of the bridge, we head down the trail that goes along the other side of the “river” and right up to the Tree of Perpetual Crying Children. There are animal exhibits on this trail and it leads right up to the waterfall….gorgeous.
Back to the Tusker House and we finally get a call from the rest of the gang. They are at the POR bus stop with no AK bus in sight…..
DO…. get to AK at rope drop. The little opening show is cute and there’s NO waiting for the biggies. Do look for Devine! She generally appears on the hour until mid afternoon on the trail that runs between Africa and Asia. Do walk down all the little trails along the water and around the Tree of Life if you have time. The views are stunning. The Animal Kingdom is the most beautiful of the four parks in my humble opinion.
DON’T….split up the group without making sure everyone has their key to the world. I have read so many trip reports where one person leaves for a park with all the keys and then has to trek back to the gates to connect with the rest of the group….very time consuming. Don’t forget that you can use your fastpasses all day once your initial return time has passed. Disney won’t tell you that but it is commonly known on the DIS.
) and I remember how hard it was to sing a piece acapella. They make it look like a breeze. That is an incredibly talented ensemble and I will most definitely make seeing them a priority on our Thanksgiving trip. 
Glad you came away with something new. But let me tell you....the youtube video does not do justice to the VoL. They are beyond-belief wonderful....gives me goosebumps every time. And it makes sense that you are a singer...what a gift. Hope the NMs have a most wonderful Thanksgiving in Disney World!
(it's not offered with the land/sea package) and we're not willing to pay that kind of money, we'll go somewhere else.
We came from NJ and I am sincerely thinking of moving somewhere else, especially after the freak storm we had here in Oct. (Knocked out electric for 8 days for us, flooded the basement with 2 ft of water and we are still recovering!) But, then again, 
And I don't mean Binghamton.
But once I was aware she was there, I found her fascinating!
