BhamWriter
04-20-2009, 10:55 PM
Day 3 started well, especially considering we expected storms. Instead, the morning was cool, comfortable, and sunny. So, with Animal Kingdom opening early, we prepared ourselves and headed that way, entering the gates only a few minutes past opening. After a PhotoPass picture, we walked straight back to Kilimanjaro Safari. We didn’t need a FastPass, so went stand-by, which didn’t take long at all. Soon, we were seeing all sorts of animals. Many were out this morning, so it was fun to watch. There were a couple of young elephants with the herd, huge crocodiles, an okapi and other ungulates, rhinoceri, hippopotamoi, giraffes, one lion, the ostrich eggs that seem never to hatch, and more. I may have even noticed a mosquito or gnat, but not sure.
Did you hear they’re adding Stitch to the safari?
No, just kidding! Imagine the outcry of protest to be summarily dismissed by the “suits” (hmm, and I wasn’t even a hippie in my youth).
When our two-week tour was abbreviated due to our heroic poacher poaching, we walked through Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. I discovered one thing and remembered another: okapi have huge tongues and naked mole-rats are still gross (there was also a mammoth frog that was pretty gross himself). There was also a gorilla who seems to like the limelight: he’s the one who faces the crowd rather than sits with his back to the hairless gawkers.
Next was Maharajah Jungle Trek, which had cool tigers. I explained to my wife that the little deer she saw were placed there for the tigers to hunt and eat (think “Jurassic Park”). I told her that tigers don’t survive in captivity unless their primal instincts are satisfied and they hone their hunting skills. She believed me, which meant I then had to unexplain my explanation.
We then picked up a FastPass for Expedition: Everest. Yes, you read right: “a” FastPass. No amount of cajoling could convince my wife to accompany me on this relaxing, scenic tour of the Himalayas. So I spend hours looking at huggable little furries, and she won’t spend a few minutes looking for a tiny little yeti. Oh, well….
Then it was time for the mountain. I dared her to do her worst, to roar and rumble causing this inconsequential man who dared breach her sheer walls and trespass onto her sacred slopes to quake in fear. She did a pretty good job! The ride is intense, with the red-eyed abominable snowman guarding the mountain with gusto. I managed to hold down breakfast, though, and vowed to return to scale the heights yet another day.
A FastPass for Dinosaur was next, followed by meandering around the park to wait for Finding Nemo to start. We got some PhotoPass shots with Pooh, Eeyore, and Tigger, then about 20 minutes before the show, we joined a huge line to enter the building. This was my first time to see the new theatre, which was impressive. The show was even more impressive, with first-rate singing and performances. It reminded me of The Lion King, but not the competing show in the park: the Broadway-style show touring the country I saw with my youngest son. Some people have trouble seeing both puppets and actors, but it doesn’t really bother me. After all, not many clown fish, sharks, and turtles break into song at the drop of a fin, so the reality bar isn’t set too high.
But now for a pet peeve. The powers that be prohibit videos and flash photography, but say nothing of other types of photography. Well, digital cameras without flash are just as annoying and intrusive as video cameras. Their large screens light up distractingly, prominently displayed to the people sitting behind the photographers. A woman immediately ahead of me took a large number of pictures, although she at least was courteous enough to lower her camera between shots. Still, in a darkened theatre, I want to see the show and only the show, not tiny luminescent images all across the audience.
Once the show ended – again, excellent program – we rode Dinosaur – fun as usual, but it’s nearly always surprising how dark it is – and left Animal Kingdom. As we were leaving the park, I noticed the dragon still embedded with the other animals in the AK logo. I explained to my wife that Disney had envisioned a Mythical Animals section (Beastly Kingdom: I had to look it up). I think it would have been fun had Disney built that section of the park, but c’est la vie (at least there’s a yeti now).
With Animal Kingdom behind us, it was time to check on Perry. We hadn’t seen him since the night before. Unfortunately, although he seemed generally fine, he had opted to do his business in his hotel room overnight rather than waiting until morning. He also eschewed breakfast (apparently turning it into an afternoon snack instead). Concerned, we took him out, played with him, went through some of his training exercises, then escorted him back to his hotel. (We took him out again twice later in the evening and he was much better, so we were relieved.)
We had eaten only a small breakfast – Entenmann’s – so were hungry after trekking through the park. Since we were already at Epcot, we decided on lunch there; but then the storm clouds frowned upon us with sufficient intensity that we turned around and headed to the car. Within 5 seconds of closing the door, the rain started in earnest. Even so, it didn’t last long and the storms I expected throughout the day really never materialized. We returned to our hotel and picked up lunch from the food court, a meatball sub for me and a Philly cheese steak for my wife. They were good and hearty, so, confident that the fare would see us through the afternoon, I settled in for a well-deserved nap.
Now for an observation: I’ve been to WDW many, many times, but only now have I noticed adult women wearing princess attire. Is this a new trend, or have I been merrily unobservant in times past? I’m accustomed to the sight of little girls sporting Belle and Ariel and Snow White garb. But 30-year-old women, some of whom seem to stand 6 feet tall (if not 7)? Perhaps someone will enlighten me.
Tonight, we returned to Epcot, spent time again with Perry, then entered the park for a relaxing evening. Epcot is a special nighttime experience. Although daylight when we entered – providing us enough time for pictures of the magnificent landscaping – the light became muted, then reduced to pinpoints as the evening flames and lamps came to life. Where the Magic Kingdom is hectic day and night, Epcot becomes a different place when darkness settles upon it. The hectic rush to the next ride becomes lost, forgotten, as you stroll through faraway avenues and vistas. Temptations abound, from kiosks plying spirits and food, to performers filling the air with music and dancing, to vendors selling glasswork and various bright trinkets, to the most insidious temptation of all: the desire to do nothing, to leave all cares behind in some “other” world of demands and schedules and constraints. Here, all that otherness melts away, some tickle in the back of the mind, but nothing more. In this sense, Epcot is the true magic kingdom, for it doesn’t whisk you away to a fantasy land, but to the greatest fantasy of all: that you live without a care in the world.
So tonight, I drank a Grand Marnier orange slush in France, listened to a dazzling violin in Morocco, ate some French pastries, became enamored of twinkling lights in, of all places, America, shopped for glass in Germany, and floated on a lazy river while two caballeros sought a quacking third. And all the while, the email I had received on my Blackberry about a deadline on Wednesday faded farther and farther from my consciousness. Tomorrow will be time enough to worry about demands; tonight there was only the music, the food, the drink, and the pinpoints of light.
After leaving the park – entering that “other” world – we checked again on Perry, who is doing well again, and returned to POFQ. My pedometer shows more than 20,000 steps today, the highest number that little machine has ever registered. So now, those hardworking feet must rest, for perhaps the number will climb higher still tomorrow.
Did you hear they’re adding Stitch to the safari?
No, just kidding! Imagine the outcry of protest to be summarily dismissed by the “suits” (hmm, and I wasn’t even a hippie in my youth).
When our two-week tour was abbreviated due to our heroic poacher poaching, we walked through Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. I discovered one thing and remembered another: okapi have huge tongues and naked mole-rats are still gross (there was also a mammoth frog that was pretty gross himself). There was also a gorilla who seems to like the limelight: he’s the one who faces the crowd rather than sits with his back to the hairless gawkers.
Next was Maharajah Jungle Trek, which had cool tigers. I explained to my wife that the little deer she saw were placed there for the tigers to hunt and eat (think “Jurassic Park”). I told her that tigers don’t survive in captivity unless their primal instincts are satisfied and they hone their hunting skills. She believed me, which meant I then had to unexplain my explanation.
We then picked up a FastPass for Expedition: Everest. Yes, you read right: “a” FastPass. No amount of cajoling could convince my wife to accompany me on this relaxing, scenic tour of the Himalayas. So I spend hours looking at huggable little furries, and she won’t spend a few minutes looking for a tiny little yeti. Oh, well….
Then it was time for the mountain. I dared her to do her worst, to roar and rumble causing this inconsequential man who dared breach her sheer walls and trespass onto her sacred slopes to quake in fear. She did a pretty good job! The ride is intense, with the red-eyed abominable snowman guarding the mountain with gusto. I managed to hold down breakfast, though, and vowed to return to scale the heights yet another day.
A FastPass for Dinosaur was next, followed by meandering around the park to wait for Finding Nemo to start. We got some PhotoPass shots with Pooh, Eeyore, and Tigger, then about 20 minutes before the show, we joined a huge line to enter the building. This was my first time to see the new theatre, which was impressive. The show was even more impressive, with first-rate singing and performances. It reminded me of The Lion King, but not the competing show in the park: the Broadway-style show touring the country I saw with my youngest son. Some people have trouble seeing both puppets and actors, but it doesn’t really bother me. After all, not many clown fish, sharks, and turtles break into song at the drop of a fin, so the reality bar isn’t set too high.
But now for a pet peeve. The powers that be prohibit videos and flash photography, but say nothing of other types of photography. Well, digital cameras without flash are just as annoying and intrusive as video cameras. Their large screens light up distractingly, prominently displayed to the people sitting behind the photographers. A woman immediately ahead of me took a large number of pictures, although she at least was courteous enough to lower her camera between shots. Still, in a darkened theatre, I want to see the show and only the show, not tiny luminescent images all across the audience.
Once the show ended – again, excellent program – we rode Dinosaur – fun as usual, but it’s nearly always surprising how dark it is – and left Animal Kingdom. As we were leaving the park, I noticed the dragon still embedded with the other animals in the AK logo. I explained to my wife that Disney had envisioned a Mythical Animals section (Beastly Kingdom: I had to look it up). I think it would have been fun had Disney built that section of the park, but c’est la vie (at least there’s a yeti now).
With Animal Kingdom behind us, it was time to check on Perry. We hadn’t seen him since the night before. Unfortunately, although he seemed generally fine, he had opted to do his business in his hotel room overnight rather than waiting until morning. He also eschewed breakfast (apparently turning it into an afternoon snack instead). Concerned, we took him out, played with him, went through some of his training exercises, then escorted him back to his hotel. (We took him out again twice later in the evening and he was much better, so we were relieved.)
We had eaten only a small breakfast – Entenmann’s – so were hungry after trekking through the park. Since we were already at Epcot, we decided on lunch there; but then the storm clouds frowned upon us with sufficient intensity that we turned around and headed to the car. Within 5 seconds of closing the door, the rain started in earnest. Even so, it didn’t last long and the storms I expected throughout the day really never materialized. We returned to our hotel and picked up lunch from the food court, a meatball sub for me and a Philly cheese steak for my wife. They were good and hearty, so, confident that the fare would see us through the afternoon, I settled in for a well-deserved nap.
Now for an observation: I’ve been to WDW many, many times, but only now have I noticed adult women wearing princess attire. Is this a new trend, or have I been merrily unobservant in times past? I’m accustomed to the sight of little girls sporting Belle and Ariel and Snow White garb. But 30-year-old women, some of whom seem to stand 6 feet tall (if not 7)? Perhaps someone will enlighten me.
Tonight, we returned to Epcot, spent time again with Perry, then entered the park for a relaxing evening. Epcot is a special nighttime experience. Although daylight when we entered – providing us enough time for pictures of the magnificent landscaping – the light became muted, then reduced to pinpoints as the evening flames and lamps came to life. Where the Magic Kingdom is hectic day and night, Epcot becomes a different place when darkness settles upon it. The hectic rush to the next ride becomes lost, forgotten, as you stroll through faraway avenues and vistas. Temptations abound, from kiosks plying spirits and food, to performers filling the air with music and dancing, to vendors selling glasswork and various bright trinkets, to the most insidious temptation of all: the desire to do nothing, to leave all cares behind in some “other” world of demands and schedules and constraints. Here, all that otherness melts away, some tickle in the back of the mind, but nothing more. In this sense, Epcot is the true magic kingdom, for it doesn’t whisk you away to a fantasy land, but to the greatest fantasy of all: that you live without a care in the world.
So tonight, I drank a Grand Marnier orange slush in France, listened to a dazzling violin in Morocco, ate some French pastries, became enamored of twinkling lights in, of all places, America, shopped for glass in Germany, and floated on a lazy river while two caballeros sought a quacking third. And all the while, the email I had received on my Blackberry about a deadline on Wednesday faded farther and farther from my consciousness. Tomorrow will be time enough to worry about demands; tonight there was only the music, the food, the drink, and the pinpoints of light.
After leaving the park – entering that “other” world – we checked again on Perry, who is doing well again, and returned to POFQ. My pedometer shows more than 20,000 steps today, the highest number that little machine has ever registered. So now, those hardworking feet must rest, for perhaps the number will climb higher still tomorrow.