The previous day had been restful enough that Silas and I seemed to be on the upturn with our colds. Megan on the other hand still had her worst furious vomit ahead of her. It came pretty early in the day of Wednesday, April 18, 2012. We had escaped the hotel vomit-free, but after boarding the bus from the All Star Movie Resort to Disney’s Animal Kingdom at around 10am, she let loose. I had just finished a plastic bowl of fruit, so I handed that off to help capture some of the spew. The good news in all of this was that this signaled the end of Megan’s illness. The bad news was that she had just vomited on a bus.
My baby takes the morning train…er, bus
We arrived at Animal Kingdom at about 10:20, with some of us heading (rushing) to the restroom. But soon enough everyone was clean and ready to get on some rides. Adam was a bit nervous about our first one over in DinoLand U.S.A. This one was my personal favorite in the park, Dinosaur. Megan wasn’t tall enough to ride and would have probably flipped out anyway, so Mom took her to get FastPasses for Expedition Everest while the rest of us rode this virtual walk-on.
Ashleigh, Silas, and I are ready to enter the park. Of particular note: Silas’ foot.
The Family of F meets the Tree of Life
Adam’s first Animal Kingdom ride: Dinosaur
The surprised participants of Dinosaur… especially Adam and Bob
For some reason, I’m 99% certain that I had never ridden the Primeval Whirl, so Denise and I embarked on it. This mild spinning rollercoaster had almost no wait either. Here we discovered that Adam did not quite make the 48-inch cut for some of the larger rides. He didn’t want to ride this one anyway, but we figured out that we’d better be finding a way to stuff his shoes for the next day’s rides.
Heading up the track of Primeval Whirl
Denise and I ascend the first hill
We had early dinner reservations ahead, so we decided that we’d better eat early, so by 11:30 we grabbed some food at the Restaurantasaurus, which is much harder to spell than it is to say. I had a bacon cheeseburger and some cheesecake with my Disney dining plan.
Silas takes his first nap of the day in Adam’s chair
The gang heads toward food
This or a reasonable facsimile of this event seems to take place at every meal
Rollercoasters are never the best idea after lunch, so we decided to watch Finding Nemo – The Musical. Our seats were way in the back and consequently I didn’t enjoy this as much as I had the first time in 2010, when I was up front. Adam got extremely bored with it, so Aaron ended up taking him out. The 40-minute show didn’t keep Silas occupied either, so he was fidgety.
Our time was up to utilize our Expedition Everest FastPasses so we headed over to Asia and boarded within five minutes. As always there were thrills aplenty and G-forces during the backward portion that made my stomach flip, but I really wish the scary Yeti was more visible. Just my two Himalayan cents.
Adam and Denise ‘climbing’ Mount Everest
Bob accidentally rode with a stranger on Everest… but everyone got along swell although she appears to be a bit braver than him
Silas wakes up. Megan conks out. Adam is non-committal.
Silas slept through most of the next attraction: It’s Tough to Be a Bug! located inside The Tree of Life in Discovery Island. That is probably for the best because I think he probably would have freaked amongst the noise and invading bugs in the dark. Megan wasn’t all that keen on it herself.
Aaaand he’s back under, as Ash and Silas prepare to enter the Tree of Life
The Buggermans
Bug and Beetle Chandler
When kids are sleeping, it’s okay to give them bug eyes, isn’t it?
Ash and the Tree of Life
After the 3-D flick starring Flik, we stopped at the nearest outdoor dining area to give Silas a good feeding. Then we headed toward Africa and the Kilimanjaro Safaris. The kids really enjoyed this one and we got a better look at some of the wildlife than we sometimes do. Mom, Bob, and the three kids all left after this ride and went back to the All Star.
Snack break
Kilimanjaro Silachi
Adam faces off with an Akole Bull
Those one things with long necks
Cat
The heat was really starting to blaze after the outdoor trek, so we stopped by one of the African vendors and I picked up a Bali Hai Strawberry Margarita. Aaron watched one of the musical jams going on, while Ashleigh, Denise, and I – after getting momentarily lost – walked through the Maharaja Jungle Trek to check out the tigers, giant bats, lovely birds, and what-not.
The four of us then headed out as well to catch a bus to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We had early dinner reservations at Boma, the African buffet where I had eaten during my last Animal Kingdom visit. It so happens that we were randomly chosen as the family to ‘open’ the bar, so we received a special certificate and we got to dance our way into the restaurant amidst music and cheers from the restaurant workers. It was quite the scene. I think everyone was as impressed with the food as I had been the last time.
The official document. Totally official.
Boma heaven
The kind of stuff you find there and put on your plate and into your belly
After dinner, we checked out the animals that were roaming around outside the lodge in the broad daylight. Then Ashleigh left to go back to the hotel. Only Denise, Aaron, and I had Park Hopper passes, so the three of us went over to Epcot to try and pick up a few rides that we had missed on Sunday. We arrived there a bit after 6pm.
It’s a jungle out there. This is what is roaming around outside the Animal Kingdom Lodge.
Our first ride was Journey into Imagination with Figment. It’s cute and all but I will always maintain that they have never improved upon the original ride that opened the park. We were going to try and see Captain EO before the ride, but they had just started it, so we caught it after the ride and didn’t have to wait. This 3-D Michael Jackson opus just seems to get dumber with each viewing. Denise had never seen it before, and commented when it was over, “well, I don’t really know what to say about that.”
Figment welcomes us back to his home
We then took a leisurely stroll through the World Showcase, walking counter-clockwise against the grain. Aaron and I fondly recalled our drinking binge around the countries from five years earlier. As we pointed out the Moroccan location where he was forced to buy a margarita instead of a beer, I decided to try one of their Sultan’s Coladas. Denise joined me for a drink, but when the workers saw my camera come out, they decided to card her.
Denise purchases a margarita, and scares the barkeep into carding her
It was 7:30 when we hit the Mexico pavilion and took a spin through the Gran Fiesta Tour starring The Three Caballeros. It may have been the exhaustion – or the alcohol – but none of us could stop laughing when, due to some unfortunately misplaced fat people, our boat was dramatically weighted down on one side. Instead of making it better, we decided to all move to the left until there was only about an inch before the water would have started coming into the boat. After the ride was over and our fun and laughter had subsided, Aaron abruptly decided to head back to the hotel.
The (slightly exaggerated) tilt of our Gran Fiesta boat
This left just Denise and me to continue on our Epcot trek, so we did the first things that came naturally to us… headed for the Joy of Tea to have a Japanese margarita. Denise ordered the Canto Loopy and I had the Green Tea Plum Slush. Mine had the most unique sweet and salty flavor of any drink I’ve ever had, and after a few sips I decided that I loved it. More importantly, I decided that I like the name of it even better, so as we walked the World Showcase – clockwise – I decided to tell many people I saw slowly and deliberately about my “Green. Tea. Plum. Slush.” Denise would then chime in Lucy-style with “Canto-Loopy!” In the end, we decided to bypass The American Adventure attraction – although I was certainly torn.
The stuff legends are made of
However, since we came out on the right side of the World Showcase, we decided to hit one last ride: Soarin’. The wait was over an hour, which is incredible since this ride is typically almost a walk-on at California Adventure. Remarkably, since the ride was about to close, the workers offered to let us stay on the ride to see it one more time. Denise and I shifted to the front row and did it all again. Fun!
We headed toward the exit around 9:30, stopping by one last time to see my Leave-a-Legacy images (you just never know when it will be the last time). Then we walked to the bus line. Apparently there was some giant group leaving at the same time as us, as the lines for both our resort and one of the other All Star resorts was jam-packed with people. We waited it out, and eventually got on the bus. It was close to 11pm when we got back to our hotel.
The golf ball at night. I mean geodesic sphere.
One more look at our 2001 faces
Our proximity to Spaceship Earth. Follow the exact bottom of this photo from left to right until you come to two apparent squares just right of center sitting next to each other in the bottom left plate (fourth one down). Our pics are directly above them. Like you care.
We’d have one last day at my candidate for the happiest place on earth.
The Disney World trip will wrap up in the next posting…
Somehow, I feel like even a Disney park must be a bit of a letdown for Denise since at Kings Island, she deemed the Firehawk ride “the craziest things she’s ever done.”
No doubt that’s going to be really tough to top…
Peter
June 21st, 2012