Flowers, Friends & Pirates ARR Day 3

[MauiMouse]

Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Earth Day
Animal Kingdom’s 10th Anniversary

Today we are up early as we have decided that we will venture over to Animal Kingdom to see the dedication and also check out the Joe Rhode talk in Theatre of the Wild. We park almost in the same spot as yesterday and make our way to the front of the park we are here very early a little after 7:30am and there is hardly anyone around. We check into WDWCelebrations and get our lanyards and pins and then make our way to wait at the turnstile. I spot Mikki and tell Jim that I’m going to say “hello”. We more or less stay with Mikki until they open the park. We make our way to the area where you are stopped on a normal park day and wait until 9:00am for the dedication, there are a lot of various television camera’s setup and of course we all have our camera’s ready as well. Unfortunately we are back just a little way and can’t see much until the Jeep comes with Erin Wallace, Jane Goodall and Joe Rhode. Each have a little speech and then Jane does her chimp imitation.

Once the park is open, Mikki, Jim & I make our way over to Expedition Everest and get Fast Passes for later in the morning, then make our way over to Theatre in the Wild to join other Cast Members to listen to Joe Rhode. The talk is very informative and I’m glad that we had a chance to attend. Joe had a lot of slides which showed the various art concept for the park. The talk lasted 45 minutes and again was excellent.

When we left we used our Fast Passes for Everest. After Everest we bid farewell to Mikki, but we will see her again on Wednesday night for the Pirate & Princess party.

Jim & I decided that Animal Kingdom was getting a little crazy so we left for Epcot and got a Fast Pass for later in the evening for Soarin’. We were hungry and both thought that Tangerine Café in Morocco sounded good. We both got the Lamb Platter and sat outside with our lunch.

After lunch we took in Voices of Liberty and then the American Adventure. We made our way over to Norway to ride Maelstrom. After Maelstrom we made our way over to Innoventions and I showed Jim the Exhibit for Epcot Center. We stayed here for a while, taking it all in and of course taking photos.

We decided that we’d go back to Pop Century and rest for a while before coming back to Epcot for our dinner at Garden Grill and to watch Illuminations tonight.

Back to Epcot we ride Spaceship Earth with little wait, then go over to ride The Seas with Nemo and Friends. We still have some time before our Fast Passes are ripe for Soarin’, but we make our way over there and just wait around for a little bit. We are on the ride after about 10-15 minutes. We get row B-1, Jim has never flown on Soarin’ so I was anxious to see what he thought. Well when we got off he said it was “okay” but really didn’t want to do it again. Once was enough for him.

From there we went to check into Garden Grill. We were a little late, but not a problem and we were seated shortly. They have changed the menu a bit as there isn’t the Turkey any longer, but Rotisserie Chicken. We have great character interaction and a great meal.

When we were done we wandered over to World Showcase to find a spot for Illuminations. We made our way over to watch Starship playing in the outside Pavilion. From there we find a spot on the bridge between France & England & settle in to watch Illuminations. After Illuminations we walk back to the car and are back at the resort by 10pm.

[pdrlkr]

Thanks for the report!

[Bethis26fan]

Sounds like a great day. So they changed from turkey to chicken at garden grill. It looked good was that the only change?

[Jeff]

Sounds like a good day.
I love the food at Tangerine Café.

[dlpmikki]

I was so pleased to see you in that line! It really made the wait go quicker and was great fun to hook up wit you for the morning. It was worth the early start to see Joe Rohde!

[Beach Club Babe]

Sounds like another terrific day!

[pogo]

Another great day at WDW, but I can't help but get sad thinking we were supposed to be there too at this time. Now we have to wait until December to meet you, Mikki and Andrew.

[offwego]

Sounds like a good day overall, thanks for sharing it with us.

[dolphinmickey9170]

Another great day and awesome pictures. Thanks for sharing.

[wdwgrl377]

What a great day you had! I love seeing the pictures too! You always take great pics, Mary!
Thanks for sharing!!

[castlelady36]

Love reading your reports and seeing the pics....stinks about the Turkey though...thanks for sharing!!!

[faline]

Hearing Joe Rohde talk would have been the highlight of my day! What a great way to start your morning!