Flowers and Gardens - Part 5
May 7, 2014 Wednesday
Plan for the day
Animal Kingdom for early morning extra magic hour
Magic Kingdom in the afternoon
Fastpass+ for Haunted Mansion; Winnie the Pooh and Pirates of the Caribbean
Dinner reservation for Citrico's
How the day actually went
We were up extra early this morning to get to the extra magic hour at Animal Kingdom. When we arrive at the bus stop, it is a Wow! moment - look at all the people waiting for an Animal Kingdom bus!! The line is so long at least two busses will be needed to clear it out. While waiting, we see just about all the other busses but no sight of even one Animal Kingdom bus.
Around 20 minutes to 8, a bus arrives, fills and leaves. Gene and I don't make it on that bus but bus 2 comes along right behind it. The good news is that we are now close enough to the front of the line to get a seat on the bus. It takes a bit of time to get through heavy traffic around the Polynesian. Still, we enter the park shortly after extra magic hour begins.
Before we were allowed in, our bands are scanned to be sure we are resort guests and then we are allowed into the park. We make our way to Expedition Everest which is totally a walk-on. I would have gone again but it has made Gene dizzy so one trip will be the extent of our ride this time around. The safari is just abut a walk-on. By time we get emerge, the park is now open. We make our way to Dinosaur which is still a walk-on. From there, we walk the Maharajah Jungle Trek. On our way to the Pangani Forest Trail, we walk by the Flights of Wonder arena which is about to begin so we take the detour.
I'm a bit disappointed with the Pangani Trail on this day. The only gorilla we see is a young one who has his back to us - no others are in sight at all.
Lunch is at Flame Tree Barbecue where we both have the pulled pork and share an order of onion rings.
We exit the park and locate the bus stop for the Magic Kingdom. It's a bit of a wait but we are finally deposited at the Magic Kingdom.
We go on It's a Small World which has a 20-25 minute standby time. When we exit, I believe it is time for our Haunted Mansion fastpass+. Oops! I'm an hour early!! We go to check out the standby time at Pirates but there is not a standby line as the ride is totally down. Instead, we attend the Country Bears followed by Hall of Presidents. By then, it is the right time for our Haunted Mansion fastpass+. We now discover the fastpasses are a total waste as there is absolutely no line at this point in time - it's totally a walkon!!
After attending Mickey's Philharmagic, we head over to Winnie the Pooh to use that fastpass+. We do not return to Pirates to see if it up and running and leave the park without using that fastpass+.
We take the boat home, shower and change and head back out to the boat dock. After 1/2 hour, we haven't gone anywhere. We had been standing in line for the Magic Kingdom boat but Gene decides we should take the one to the Contemporary so I get out of the Magic Kingdom boat line and head over to the Contemporary boat line. Where did Gene go? Oh - he's over there talking to the crew of the Magic Kingdom boat. He motions me to go over as he has now decided to take the Magic Kingdom boat. So, instead of being within the first dozen folks on, we are essentially the last ones on the boat. I am not a happy camper. We finally arrive at the Magic Kingdom. Gene had wanted to take the boat to the Grand Floridian but there is a really long line for that so he decides we should take the monorail. There is a monorail at the top of the ramp so Gene goes sprinting up the ramp leaving me to struggle along to catch up. He is literally preventing the monorail from leaving when I catch up to him and board. I am an unhappier camper!! Then we are faced with the two thin, young men taking up an entire monorail seat on which 6 people could easily have been seated. When I say "excuse me", they grudgingly move over a bit. Gene has to instruct them to move over before they move enough to allow both of us to sit down. In the meantime, I don't think the eyes of either one ever left the screens of their telephones. I calm a bit on the ride around and am on a more even keel by time I disembark.
Surprisingly, we have arrived in enough time to be able to listen to the Grand Floridian band for a little bit before we move over to Citrico's to check in. At Citrico's, we are promptly seated in a window table overlooking the Grand Floridian grounds and quiet pool.
For an appetizer, I had Arancini which looks a bit like a giant meatball made up of crispy risotto with Italian sausage with Mozzarella inside along with a tomato sauce. Gene had the cheese plate. For our entrees, we each selected the filet mignon along with a bottle of red wine. Dessert was a specialty coffee.
When the bill is paid and we are ready to leave the Grand Floridian, it is 9:45 p.m. Wishes is scheduled to start at 10:00 p.m. In that 15 minute time frame, we took a monorail to the Contemporary, made our way outside to the ground floor, checked in at Bay Lake Tower, got the elevator to the 16th floor and were approaching the viewing patio when the first firework went off!! From the prior evening, we knew the boat dock would be busy with the incoming pirate cruises so decided to stay for a drink before heading for a boat home. Gene went off the men's room and I remained at the table. For the entire time he was gone, I was totally ignored. One server stopped at three nearby tables and even chatted with the folks seated at one. She never acknowledged my existence. By time Gene returned, no-one had yet approached our table so we decided to leave.
We went to the boat dock and we were soon on a boat back to Wilderness Lodge where we headed to bed as we had another early wake-up call scheduled for the next day!
