Day 5 (part 1) - Monday, November 15, 2004:
CAST OF CHARACTERS:
MOM - 57 year old somewhat disney nut.
ME - 34 year old DISNEY NUT who has had to wait one full year for her Disney fix.
TODAY'S AGENDA:
1. Animal Kingdom
2. Lunch at AK
3. Epcot and Dinner at Garden Grill
8:30 ringy, ding dong. Mom it's for you again, no you answer it. Okay, gee it's Mickey again telling me to get my but up. I'd decided to do this trip a bit different than other trips. I am trying to mainly hit one park a day and maybe dinner in another park but with very few rides/walking in second park.
We both find ourselves unusually tired. We associate this with the long drive up and the first days tour. We really haven't felt overly energetic and have been stiff (don't really think its the beds but it may be contributing to the stiffness). We are both beginning to move a bit more slowly but make breakfast and take our time getting dressed.
We head off to AK around 10:10 and are the only ones on the bus. Best part is for some reason this bus isn't sharing a ride with the Swan and Dolphin resorts so we're at AK in 10 minutes. We rent a locker for everything (just tired of caring around snacks, rain parkas, water, etc) which also includes my general bag with extra film. I gave mom $40 to hold for me, my PH in case we wanted fastpasses and we closed the locker. I only carried my videocamera which fits in the palm of my hand and it has a shoulder strap.
Usually at AK, we get to the gate at 9 and ride the safari 2x in a row. Well we decided to hit Lion King first. We love this show and could watch it again but left with a great feeling and singing songs until the parents stopped in front of us to ask their children what they wanted to do next (I had to remind my mother to get off of her soapbox and continued singing the lion sleeps tonight). Well we headed over to Dinoland where I road Primevil Whirl (sort of made me a bit dizzy).
Mom was sitting on a bench on the side of some shops next to the PW area. When I was walking back to her a CM had stopped to talk to my mom and had taken a package out of her backpack and gave it to my mom. When I walked up the CM told me hi and that she works in the area and was keeping my mom company and that she had to head off. Mom opened the package and found and authentic limited-edition commemorative lithograph by Don Williams. There was a Certificate regarding authentisity and that this was printed in 2002 and has 6,525 editions. The lithograph is of Huey, Louie, Dewey and Donald riding Primeval Whirl the year the ride opened. This really made my mom's day, a CM gave my mom something for free and she was overjoyed. The lithograph is really cute and I must admit I am glad it is Donald Duck and the nephews riding the ride (you get a little tired of seeing Mickey on everything).
Well after this I went on Dinosaur (Mom didn't want to mess up the picture and she didn't feel like riding it anyway), so after almost getting eaten by the big critter, we went back to the locker to put in the lithograph. I would like to make a note here. As we walked past one of the clothier places (area where Lilo and Stitch sort of stand in) mom and I briefly walked in and began to look around at the souvenirs in the shop before heading over to Pizzafari. We began walking out to head towards pizzafari and 2 CM's were blocking off the back part of the shop and when we walked past them out the side door (looking at Pizzafari), 3 security guards and a german shepherd were just coming to the area and one of the guards had the ger. shep. sniffing the benches, chairs, etc. on that side. We didn't see anything funny/wierd or left behind but they were looking that area over pretty well. First time I have ever witnessed this at Disney.
At this point it was 11:45 and we decided to eat lunch so I decided to buy 2 AK vouchers. Well the prices for these two vouchers are now $12.77 each (they used to be $12). We both ate Pizza's at Pizzafari and both were okay. We managed to get there before the crowd did so that was a great thing because the rooms fill up quickly.
After eating/bathroom break - mom had to clean me up as I always manage to spill food on me and this case it was pizza sauce (of course the wet wipes were in the locker) so I had to strip in the bathroom while mom attempted to get the huge stain out. Let's just say that I had a huge spot on the front of my shirt the rest of the day.
We headed to Africa for our two week tour of the Savannah which had about a 25 minute wait. We waited then took the tour. Now last year I called this tour the animal bathroom brigade as 5 different animals decided to take a poop right as we approached. Well this go round, we had to have one animal spoil the tour (stinky, stinky). We walked the trials at the end and decided to re-ride for another 2 week adventure as the line was down to 15 minutes. It is true that the safari is different everytime because the animals had moved closer to the vehicles the second ride around.
After the safari, we used the AK voucher and both got Mickey head icecream. Boy that chocolate is thick, used the other voucher to obtain soft drink to wash thick chocolate down while taking a break in Africa. As we headed down towards Asia, we saw Devine and sat and watched her show for a bit. I always love to film her and watch when new people realize that a women is in that plant. She is just amazing and so graceful.
Well we decided to switch paths and instead headed to It's Tough to be a bug. We really took our time looking at all the animals carved in the paths under the tree, that tree is amazing as well. We love this show and we were seated in the back of the theater with a lot of new comers. There must have been at least 10 kids in our row (ages 8 to 12) that had never seen the show as well as the parents who were sitting next to my mother. The expressions and comments made from the parents/kids were hilarious ecspecially when the acid ant and stink bug made their appeances. My mom was crying from laughing so hard. Well when the bees make their appearance and sting everyone in the back all the kids in our row jumped out of there seats at one time and looked at their seats. Mom and I never laughed so hard in our lives, those expressions were priceless - this is what Disney does for you. I'm still smiling thinking about it. Well as usual all good things must come to an end and the show did so we exited after all the cockroaches making sure not to step on them.
Well the day was coming to an end. We headed over to Asia, took pictures of the work in progress on Expedition Everest and walked the paths to see the tigers (and of course one of them just had to go the potty in front of us). Well mom didn't want to get wet on the rapids and as we intended on leaving right after this I decided to ride and of course got partially wet on the ride down. The parade was getting ready to start and people were already parked so we booked it out of the park, stopped to get out gear out the locker and caught the bus back to the BW.
RECAP:
AK -
Mom receiving free lithograph -
Security and Germ. Sheperd searching -
Pizza sauce on shirt -
No pooh safari tour -
Watching kids seeing ITTBAB for first time -
CAST OF CHARACTERS:
MOM - 57 year old somewhat disney nut.
ME - 34 year old DISNEY NUT who has had to wait one full year for her Disney fix.
TODAY'S AGENDA:
1. Animal Kingdom
2. Lunch at AK
3. Epcot and Dinner at Garden Grill
8:30 ringy, ding dong. Mom it's for you again, no you answer it. Okay, gee it's Mickey again telling me to get my but up. I'd decided to do this trip a bit different than other trips. I am trying to mainly hit one park a day and maybe dinner in another park but with very few rides/walking in second park.
We both find ourselves unusually tired. We associate this with the long drive up and the first days tour. We really haven't felt overly energetic and have been stiff (don't really think its the beds but it may be contributing to the stiffness). We are both beginning to move a bit more slowly but make breakfast and take our time getting dressed.
We head off to AK around 10:10 and are the only ones on the bus. Best part is for some reason this bus isn't sharing a ride with the Swan and Dolphin resorts so we're at AK in 10 minutes. We rent a locker for everything (just tired of caring around snacks, rain parkas, water, etc) which also includes my general bag with extra film. I gave mom $40 to hold for me, my PH in case we wanted fastpasses and we closed the locker. I only carried my videocamera which fits in the palm of my hand and it has a shoulder strap.
Usually at AK, we get to the gate at 9 and ride the safari 2x in a row. Well we decided to hit Lion King first. We love this show and could watch it again but left with a great feeling and singing songs until the parents stopped in front of us to ask their children what they wanted to do next (I had to remind my mother to get off of her soapbox and continued singing the lion sleeps tonight). Well we headed over to Dinoland where I road Primevil Whirl (sort of made me a bit dizzy).
Mom was sitting on a bench on the side of some shops next to the PW area. When I was walking back to her a CM had stopped to talk to my mom and had taken a package out of her backpack and gave it to my mom. When I walked up the CM told me hi and that she works in the area and was keeping my mom company and that she had to head off. Mom opened the package and found and authentic limited-edition commemorative lithograph by Don Williams. There was a Certificate regarding authentisity and that this was printed in 2002 and has 6,525 editions. The lithograph is of Huey, Louie, Dewey and Donald riding Primeval Whirl the year the ride opened. This really made my mom's day, a CM gave my mom something for free and she was overjoyed. The lithograph is really cute and I must admit I am glad it is Donald Duck and the nephews riding the ride (you get a little tired of seeing Mickey on everything).
Well after this I went on Dinosaur (Mom didn't want to mess up the picture and she didn't feel like riding it anyway), so after almost getting eaten by the big critter, we went back to the locker to put in the lithograph. I would like to make a note here. As we walked past one of the clothier places (area where Lilo and Stitch sort of stand in) mom and I briefly walked in and began to look around at the souvenirs in the shop before heading over to Pizzafari. We began walking out to head towards pizzafari and 2 CM's were blocking off the back part of the shop and when we walked past them out the side door (looking at Pizzafari), 3 security guards and a german shepherd were just coming to the area and one of the guards had the ger. shep. sniffing the benches, chairs, etc. on that side. We didn't see anything funny/wierd or left behind but they were looking that area over pretty well. First time I have ever witnessed this at Disney.
At this point it was 11:45 and we decided to eat lunch so I decided to buy 2 AK vouchers. Well the prices for these two vouchers are now $12.77 each (they used to be $12). We both ate Pizza's at Pizzafari and both were okay. We managed to get there before the crowd did so that was a great thing because the rooms fill up quickly.
After eating/bathroom break - mom had to clean me up as I always manage to spill food on me and this case it was pizza sauce (of course the wet wipes were in the locker) so I had to strip in the bathroom while mom attempted to get the huge stain out. Let's just say that I had a huge spot on the front of my shirt the rest of the day.
We headed to Africa for our two week tour of the Savannah which had about a 25 minute wait. We waited then took the tour. Now last year I called this tour the animal bathroom brigade as 5 different animals decided to take a poop right as we approached. Well this go round, we had to have one animal spoil the tour (stinky, stinky). We walked the trials at the end and decided to re-ride for another 2 week adventure as the line was down to 15 minutes. It is true that the safari is different everytime because the animals had moved closer to the vehicles the second ride around.
After the safari, we used the AK voucher and both got Mickey head icecream. Boy that chocolate is thick, used the other voucher to obtain soft drink to wash thick chocolate down while taking a break in Africa. As we headed down towards Asia, we saw Devine and sat and watched her show for a bit. I always love to film her and watch when new people realize that a women is in that plant. She is just amazing and so graceful.
Well we decided to switch paths and instead headed to It's Tough to be a bug. We really took our time looking at all the animals carved in the paths under the tree, that tree is amazing as well. We love this show and we were seated in the back of the theater with a lot of new comers. There must have been at least 10 kids in our row (ages 8 to 12) that had never seen the show as well as the parents who were sitting next to my mother. The expressions and comments made from the parents/kids were hilarious ecspecially when the acid ant and stink bug made their appeances. My mom was crying from laughing so hard. Well when the bees make their appearance and sting everyone in the back all the kids in our row jumped out of there seats at one time and looked at their seats. Mom and I never laughed so hard in our lives, those expressions were priceless - this is what Disney does for you. I'm still smiling thinking about it. Well as usual all good things must come to an end and the show did so we exited after all the cockroaches making sure not to step on them.
Well the day was coming to an end. We headed over to Asia, took pictures of the work in progress on Expedition Everest and walked the paths to see the tigers (and of course one of them just had to go the potty in front of us). Well mom didn't want to get wet on the rapids and as we intended on leaving right after this I decided to ride and of course got partially wet on the ride down. The parade was getting ready to start and people were already parked so we booked it out of the park, stopped to get out gear out the locker and caught the bus back to the BW.
RECAP:
AK -
Mom receiving free lithograph -
Security and Germ. Sheperd searching -
Pizza sauce on shirt -
No pooh safari tour -
Watching kids seeing ITTBAB for first time -
