Finally I have a lazy Sunday to myself to sleep in, do laundry, go to the gym, and Dis! And I must begin, as required by local law, with a hearty “
GO PHILLIES!”
Now back to your regularly scheduled trip report…..
Aaaaand when I left off, I think we were about to climb on Kali River Rapids, or rather into the FP line at Kali River Rapids. Which was long. And HOT. I had bought two little handheld fans to bring, which was a very clever idea. Except that I forgot that I am apparently an idiot.
I have lost track of how many times I have injured myself (and others) with this thing. I would consistently bring it too close to my arms/neck/face and we’d hear the ZZZZZZT noise that meant my skin was suddenly being hammered by the fan blades. Understandable once or twice, but about ten seconds would go by and I’d do it again. And again. At once point I got it tangled in Jakkie’s hair.
And so then, finally, we were climbing onto KRR. I cleverly wrapped my purse up in a plastic bag (because those ‘waterproof’ bins in the middle are anything but) and figured I did not need a poncho because it was so very hot out and we probably wouldn’t get that wet anyway.
Yup.
Dripping from head to toe, we wandered over to Camp Minnie Mickey. Jakkie somehow didn’t get that wet. She probably hid behind me somehow during the big splash. A CM at an ice cream cart that we passed pointed at me. “Hey, Kali River Rapids!” Yup.
We had an hour until the next Festival of the Lion King started, so we sunned ourselves on a bench outside the theater. We got great seats inside the theater (I was still soaked, by the way) in the giraffe section. It is hard to get good pictures in there but I attempted a couple.
I love love love the guys on stilts. They are so fun to watch. The show also seemed longer than I remembered, with several reprises at the end.
We somehow made our way back to WL after this, where I took an incredibly awesome shower, washing off Kali Riverwater. I changed and we excitedly headed out for a night doing something I could do only with Jakkie, one of my lone female friends. Shopping. At DTD! Yay. I knew there was no way that I could get Jack to follow me around World of Disney for three hours, so Jakkie and I planned a night of it. But first, eating time!
Here’s Jakkie at Rainforest Café, which I was excited about because I remember loving their blue crab dip last time I was there in summer ’06. I had gotten Jakkie all hyped up about said dip as well. Jakkie is the dip queen. She hosted her Halloween party on Friday night (funfunfun!) and made a beer & cheese dip, and a hot crab dip. And both were awesome.
In fact, let me interrupt this trip report to show you a picture from Halloween. Jakkie was a magician, so Tucker of course dressed up as a rabbit. Hee.
Anyway, we were in Rainforest Café, enjoying our artichoke dip, and flatbread
(They NO LONGER CARRY THE BLUE CRAB DIP, by the way. I was displeased.)
We were sitting at the bar and had a charming waiter/bartender, Jacob. I believe Jakkie had a beer, but it was gross and rainy out so I didn’t feel like having a drink. The weather was pretty bad this afternoon. We were anxiously awaiting news of some sort of tropical storm or hurricane that was threatening to hit Orlando….I believe it was Hurricane Hannah? My memory is a little fuzzy and I have blocked out the stormy unpleasantness from my mind
It was loud in there, so when I noticed my cell phone was ringing I chose to ignore it. But Jakkie looked at the screen and said “It’s your mom, go ahead and answer it.” I listened to Jakkie. This turned out to be a mistake.
I love, love love my mom with all my heart. And normally I love talking to her. But on this particular evening she was not calling to see how our trip was going, or tell a funny anecdote about my dad, or engage in any sort of happy conversation. No. My mother, who had apparently been glued to the weather channel for the past three days, was calling to
CONVINCE ME TO END MY TRIP EARLY AND COME HOME.
Yup.
I know you are all gasping in horror right now. And that is when I did something I am not proud of, which was be incredibly rude to my sweet mummy. I pulled out my angry voice and snapped “NO. I am NOT LEAVING EARLY.” And I was so furious with her for putting all this worry in my head about the stupid hurricane, because I am a worrier. And now I was anxious that the hurricane was going to appear and sweep us away, perhaps at that very minute, and I had no interest in ending my life in Downtown Disney pinned under the debris of a giant gorilla animatronic from the Rainforest Café.
So after hanging up with my mom I told Jacob I had changed my mind about that drink. He brought me a rum punch and Jakkie and I mulled over the weather. She didn’t care much because she was leaving the next day anyhow, but I was frantic.
After sucking down the last of my punch, I decided I needed some reassurance. Jacob was nowhere to be seen so I climbed halfway over the bar and grabbed the other bartenders (nametag read JOE) by the collar.
“Joe, I need to ask you a question.” I said. “Is this hurricane that is coming going to kill us?”
Joe was friendly enough, but not at all reassuring. “Probably not,” he said cheerfully.
“I’m supposed to be here until Saturday. I am asking you if I should go back home before then.”
Joe was noncommittal. I am guessing that he was afraid to tell me “No no, silly tourist. You will be fine, stay in Orlando as long as you want!” and then have me come back to the Rainforest Café with a vengeance after my hotel had been flattened by Hannah and a tornado had swept Jakkie off into the ocean.
“You will probably be fine. I don’t think you have to go anywhere. I might leave myself, but not until tomorrow at the earliest.”
Eventually talking to Joe did calm me a little, and Jakkie and I turned out attention to more important matters: shopping.
I just noticed that I only took one more picture for the rest of the night, of this painting at the Art of Disney:
I guess I was too busy emptying my wallet to take pictures. So I just now ran around my apartment taking pictures of anything I could find from this shopping extravaganza. I got a ton of holiday gifts and some things for myself. I will rely on what I just found around my apartment and my extremely long receipt from World of Disney to remember what we bought.
I know we started at the Christmas store, Jakkie’s favorite place ever. I purchased a bunch of mickey head ornaments for my family members. Those are all wrapped up in many layers of protective packaging that I don’t feel like breaking into, so you will have to use your imagination there. I used the ‘send to resort’ service at this store for the first time, which I was excited about. You’ll just have to wait and see how that worked out for me (oooh…cliffhanger!)
According to my receipts, I then went on to purchase the following at World of Disney from Neto, some nice college kid from England here on the international program:
-Mickey Mouse coffee & coffee scoop for my aunt
-Chocolate & candy for my boss/coworkers
-pens for stocking stuffers
-snacks for stocking stuffers
-Mickey Mouse dishwasher magnets (buried at the bottom of my gift drawer somewhere…)
-something called a “MK PC PRTFLIO”
-2008 WDW Bumper Sticker (currently in the driveway on my car)
-A whole mess of scrapbook stickers
-Fancy shoes for myself (don’t tell Stacy)
-Some cat toys that Mixi has already hidden
-A placemat for Mixi (please ignore the mess, she’s a bit of a pig)
-Hannah Montana mousepad (for my roommate Jeffy – it’s in his room now)
-Something called a “Mist TS MM Lbl”
And most importantly, $18 saved because I used my Disney Visa. Booyah.
We then wandered across the way to Basin – I had never been in there. And probably should never have gone in, because there went another $25. And I spent the whole week regretting I didn’t buy more (alas, never had the time to go back to DTD).
I LOVED Basin. There is a Lush store near my work, but everything is pricey so I treat myself to maybe two bath fizzies a year. Basin was like Lush if Lush was cheaper and had cooler stuff. It was awesome.
They had tons of scented soaps that had these incredible designs on them. Here are two that I got for my dad and aunt:
I also got one with Cinderella castle in it, which I already gave to a friend. And I bought a few bath fizzies for myself, one of which had confetti in it. And a little bag of special soap samples for myself, which I squirreled away somewhere safe and now can’t find.
I love Basin. I am glad there is no Basin in Philadelphia, because I would be broke. But at least I would smell nice.
Very sleepy, we finally dragged outselves to the bus stop, where Jakkie presented me with a lovely gift:
Yay, Alice teacup!
We eventually got back to our room where she started packing
and we got to bed by 11:30p.
Up next: A horrifying early morning attack that you will not want to miss.
DH and I always mean to stop there on our trips, but we haven't yet. 
I'll have to try to make a point to make it part of our itinerary......it really does look fun! 
We did do EE though, and I suprisingly liked it. There was no Yeti jumping out though; he must be broken. 
Me, in my head: "No, actually they can be heard in the wild up to 2 miles away." Me to Tony: "Let's leave now before I have to hurt this guy."
And thank you for the sweet compliment! 
I have only ever been to one game. Speaking of baseball it is CRAZY here right now!! I'm talking rioting in the streets every night!
And I haven't been to Tusker House since it became a buffet. 
Up Next! Up when? Up now? Ahhhhh! 
Won't tell Stacy about the shoes. 
