Flowers, Friends & Pirates ARR Day 2

[MauiMouse]

Monday, April 21, 2008

Theme Parks visited today: Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, & Epcot

We left early for Extra Magic Hour at Animal Kingdom this morning and park in a very good parking spot, fairly close to the front. I go through bag check and Jim doesn’t have a bag and is already through. It dawns on me as I look through my pack that I don’t have my wallet with my money & Annual Pass. Great, I have no ID to get another Annual Pass, so Jim goes to the front of the park and I make my way to the bus stop. I wait and wait and wait for a bus. They are all dropping off guests but nobody is picking up. Finally after waiting a long time there is a Hollywood Studios bus, I think that well it’s better than standing around here all morning, so off I go to the Studios. I make it to the Studios and then over to Pop Century stop. I’m waiting less than 5 minutes when a bus pulls up and a very nice CM driver asks where I need to go. I said back to Pop Century. She said climb abroad and she will take me back. We talk and I tell her what has happened this morning. She told me that I should come down and work for Disney. She was very nice and said that she enjoys her job very much. I thanked her for taking me back to Pop Century. When I get to my room, I can’t find my wallet. I’m starting to get nervous about where it could be. I used it this morning to purchase some cough drops at the Everything Pop so I knew that I brought it back to the room. I went through everything and finally move the comforter away and there it was. I was relieved. Walked back to the bus stop and was on another Animal Kingdom bus within 5 minutes.

When I get back to Animal Kingdom I call Jim, he meets me up at the front. We see some characters out and about.We head off and ride Dinosaur, I've never had to queue this this area before. A bit blurry but here we are in the back row on the left side.Love the kids in the front hiding. Then off to ride Primeval Whirl. Jim has rode Everest and wandered both trails while I was gone. We decide that Animal Kingdom is getting very crowded so we leave for Hollywood Studios.

When we get to the Studios we park and enter. Jim has never been to the Studios before, so we first go over to Star Tours and get a Fast Pass, the line is already out the attraction. We are both hungry and go to Studio Catering Co, where I get a Chicken Caesar Salad Wrapand Jim get’s a Barbecue Pork Sandwich. Its okay but I don’t think that I’d get that again. After lunch we use our Fast Passes, we bypass everyone and are on the ride within 5 minutes.

After Star Tours, we do the Back Lot Tour, which Jim thought was “okay”. We wander around over to One Man's Dream and take in the movie. I have a mission to get some post cards, so off to the Rock N Roller Coaster Gift Shop. The line for RnRC is pretty long so we don’t ride yet. Jim isn’t interested in Tower of Terror which is okay with me. We leave Hollywood Studios after checking out some of the stores.

We go over to Epcot where we ride Journey Into Imagination, over to the Wonder of Life Pavilion to check out the Flower & Garden Festival merchandise, and then off to wander World Showcase. We go into the stores in Germany, Japan and Morocco, plus England. We see the movie in Canada, and then make our way out of the park as we have an ADR for Boma.

We arrive at Animal Kingdom Lodge early so we can wander around the grounds . We go out onto the savannah and check out the animals, for some reason only 2 different species were out on the savannah tonight. We come back and sit in the lobby and wait a while before Jim checks in for our Boma dinner. We finally get our table and have a very good meal. I haven’t eaten here since 2002 and back then I wasn’t a fan, well this trip changed that and I did enjoy this meal.

After dinner we went back to Pop Century as we have an early morning tomorrow at Animal Kingdom for the 10th anniversary festivities.

[Bethis26fan]

Sounds likea great and busy day.

[pogo]

Day two sounds very good with the exception of all the riding of buses and such.

So.... are you going to move to Florida and work at WDW ???? You could sell and I could get a discount !

Can't wait to read Day three !

[faline]

What a disappointing start to your day! At least, you found your wallet! On the other hand, you still managed to visit three parks in one day!

[pdrlkr]

Thanks for the report!

[offwego]

Three parks with a wallet then went missing for a while is pretty impressive!

Glad you enjoyed your day after such a rocky start.

[Beach Club Babe]

I'm glad you found your wallet! What an awful feeling that must have been! Glad the rest of your day was so enjoyable!

[wdwgrl377]

I'm so glad too you found your wallet! I know that feeling.

Sounds like you had a great day! Thanks for sharing!

[Jeff]

Rough start to your day but it sounds like you recovered quite nicely.

[dolphinmickey9170]

Thank goodness you found your wallett. I love your pictures. Thanks for sharing.