faline
12-12-2009, 09:42 PM
December 5, 2009 – Saturday – 5:25 p.m.
I’m sitting inside our room at Animal Kingdom Lodge. Outside is an Ankole Cattle and an East African Crowned Crane. In retrospect, this is a crowd – rush-hour traffic on our Savannah view for this week. In sum, I end up being sorely disappointed in our Savannah view but more about that later.
But, I’m jumping ahead. When I last left off, we were waiting to board our plane to get here.
Shortly after I observed that the logistics of getting two planes out of the same gate in such a short period of time didn’t appear likely, they announced a gate change for our flight. We’re now scheduled to leave from Gate 12 so just a short repositioning from Gate 14. We can still see our old gate from our new location.
While waiting, I look up and see a gaggle of teenagers. Oh oh! A cheerleading squad will be on board! Okay.
Our plane arrives. We’re asked to line up for “A” boarding. Yes – we did pay the extra money for early bird boarding passes. We’ve been assigned A17 and A18.
Surprise, there is no-one there for A1 – 15 and one gentleman in front of us has A16. One other family pre-boarded as they were traveling with a child with a disability.
Once on board, we select our seat. Soon, though, we find we are surrounded by the cheerleaders. In all, though, they were really good kids – the usual and expected teenage giggles but nothing else.
We take off a little late and are told that we likely land about 20 minutes late due to rough weather and strong winds.
After having a drink and reading a bit of my book, I doze off. Then I have a horrid experience! In retrospect, I think I was air sick though flying has never bothered me before. Gene said the pilot had been changing altitudes frequently while looking for less bumpy pockets of air. I think all these changes may have affected my equilibrium. I wake up feeling light-headed, nauseous, and about to pass out. I also feel feverish and sweaty. I spend a few minutes thinking I must have contracted H1N1 which I understand often develops quickly and feeling badly for all those cheerleaders I may be infecting! I fall back asleep but wake up once again with all of the same feelings. I thought for sure I would never be able to walk off that plane without collapsing and how embarrassing that will be. But, by the time we land, I am pretty much back to my normal self and quite glad to realize I am not seriously ill!
We were scheduled to land at 9:20 p.m. We actually land around 10:10 p.m! From there, we find our way to baggage claim, gather our bags, and then need to traverse to the other side of the airport to get to Magical Express.
After a 5-10 minute wait, we were placed on a bus which left, mostly full, about 20 minutes later. The audio was working, but not the video, so the driver turns it off and we spent the rest of the journey in silence.
Though it was late and I was tired, I still smiled at the sight of the Disney World gate!
Our first stop was Pop Century. Then, it was on to Coronado Springs. Finally, we arrived at Animal Kingdom Lodge.
At midnight, we were assigned to room 4224 – just two doors down from my brother. We did not get the king bed we requested and have two queens instead.
When we arrived, it was raining quite hard. We unpack and settle it by 1 a.m.!
I had hoped to make it to Extra Magic Hour at Disney Studios today but expected I’d sleep later given our late night. It’s 6:30 a.m. and I can’t fall back to sleep. Ugh!
We get up and head to the showers. Dressed, we step out on the balcony and I think I can hear my nephew talking, but can’t see anyone on their balcony from where we’re situated. There are no animals out on the Savannah this morning (or any other morning for the duration of our trip)!
I re-enter the room and find that I have a voice mail from DSIL. I call her and we agree to meet in the lobby.
When we meet, we catch up a bit. They ended up renting a car so canceled their reservation with Quicksilver. It rained pretty hard here on Friday. They did go to Animal Kingdom on Friday and went to Nemo and did the Safari but left when the rains picked up even more and ended up hanging around their room in the afternoon. The evening before, they had reservations at Mama Melrose’s and had hoped to catch the Osborne lights after dinner but had a very slow waiter so didn’t make it to the lights. On their arrival night (Thursday), they had a good meal of Boma’s.
All caught up, we head out to the bus stop to make our way to Disney Studios. We wait about 10 minutes and it’s standing room only though we did manage to snag a seat for DB to share with DN. Gene was holding DN’s stroller while DSIL had DN’s sippy cup. This led a bus passenger to observe both and ask where the child might be?
Security was a breeze. We head directly to Toy Story Mania. It’s a damp, cool and drizzly morning. Our umbrellas are in the up position!
Once we get to Toy Story Mania, things get a bit messed up. Gene takes all of our tickets to get Fast Passes while we park DN’s stroller. I guess it took at bit too long to park the stroller and the Fast Pass line was a bit shorter than we expected. Anyway, Gene thought we were in line and tried to catch up with us. We couldn’t find him but we got on line and figured he’d catch up. He called me but we got disconnected. I left the line to go back outside to find him but still – no Gene. I tried calling him but went to voice mail. Finally, he comes out of the building. Thinking we were in line in front of him, he entered the line and excused himself all the way up to the very ride when he realized, of course, that we weren’t there. He then needed to ask a cast member for an exit which is when he returned outside and we found each other. We got back into the end of the standby line and about 10 minutes later, we spotted DB and his family about to head up the stairs even though we had not yet gotten to Mr. Potato Head. As we were coming down the stairs, we spotted them again just coming to the end of their ride. Then, as we were assigned to a gate to board the ride, they rolled up and we boarded the very vehicle they were exiting! How odd is that?!
That fiasco over, we looked for a place to have some breakfast. Given that it’s still drizzling, indoors might work better than outdoors so we head to the Writer’s Stop where coffee, muffins, and cinnamon rolls does the trick! It also doesn’t hurt that it’s warm and dry!
From there, we walked right into Muppetvision. This seemed to get a mixed review from Sam. We forged ahead to the Great Movie Ride. Sam liked part of it but seemed to find other parts a bit scary. Still, we made it through. We just missed getting in the Little Mermaid and the next show was 25 minutes away so we decided to leave the stroller where it was and walk back to Toy Story Mania to use our fast passes. As we were walking along, Gene said “Don’t you know those people?” I turn and see Carol et al walking the other way! I turn and call “Carol” a couple of times. No reaction. So I call “Donna” and she turns! What luck to have run into this great group! I knew they’d be here but since this trip is all about Sam, we really wouldn’t have the opportunity to hook up with them! Hey all you guys! It was great to see you!
We complete our ride on Toy Story Mania but find we’ve missed Little Mermaid again and the next show won’t be until 12:30! I remember that Cars is Sam’s favorite movie so we collect the stroller and go in search of the Cars Meet and Greet site. When we arrive, the handlers and photo pass photographers are chatting amongst themselves and there is absolutely no-one there! Same loved his visit with the Cars! He was reluctant to leave and fussed a bit as we said “bye bye Cars”!
This time, we made it into the 12:30 Little Mermaid performance. DB wanted to see the car stunt show so we headed there next. This show was also a hit with Sam!
Time for some lunch.
I’m sitting inside our room at Animal Kingdom Lodge. Outside is an Ankole Cattle and an East African Crowned Crane. In retrospect, this is a crowd – rush-hour traffic on our Savannah view for this week. In sum, I end up being sorely disappointed in our Savannah view but more about that later.
But, I’m jumping ahead. When I last left off, we were waiting to board our plane to get here.
Shortly after I observed that the logistics of getting two planes out of the same gate in such a short period of time didn’t appear likely, they announced a gate change for our flight. We’re now scheduled to leave from Gate 12 so just a short repositioning from Gate 14. We can still see our old gate from our new location.
While waiting, I look up and see a gaggle of teenagers. Oh oh! A cheerleading squad will be on board! Okay.
Our plane arrives. We’re asked to line up for “A” boarding. Yes – we did pay the extra money for early bird boarding passes. We’ve been assigned A17 and A18.
Surprise, there is no-one there for A1 – 15 and one gentleman in front of us has A16. One other family pre-boarded as they were traveling with a child with a disability.
Once on board, we select our seat. Soon, though, we find we are surrounded by the cheerleaders. In all, though, they were really good kids – the usual and expected teenage giggles but nothing else.
We take off a little late and are told that we likely land about 20 minutes late due to rough weather and strong winds.
After having a drink and reading a bit of my book, I doze off. Then I have a horrid experience! In retrospect, I think I was air sick though flying has never bothered me before. Gene said the pilot had been changing altitudes frequently while looking for less bumpy pockets of air. I think all these changes may have affected my equilibrium. I wake up feeling light-headed, nauseous, and about to pass out. I also feel feverish and sweaty. I spend a few minutes thinking I must have contracted H1N1 which I understand often develops quickly and feeling badly for all those cheerleaders I may be infecting! I fall back asleep but wake up once again with all of the same feelings. I thought for sure I would never be able to walk off that plane without collapsing and how embarrassing that will be. But, by the time we land, I am pretty much back to my normal self and quite glad to realize I am not seriously ill!
We were scheduled to land at 9:20 p.m. We actually land around 10:10 p.m! From there, we find our way to baggage claim, gather our bags, and then need to traverse to the other side of the airport to get to Magical Express.
After a 5-10 minute wait, we were placed on a bus which left, mostly full, about 20 minutes later. The audio was working, but not the video, so the driver turns it off and we spent the rest of the journey in silence.
Though it was late and I was tired, I still smiled at the sight of the Disney World gate!
Our first stop was Pop Century. Then, it was on to Coronado Springs. Finally, we arrived at Animal Kingdom Lodge.
At midnight, we were assigned to room 4224 – just two doors down from my brother. We did not get the king bed we requested and have two queens instead.
When we arrived, it was raining quite hard. We unpack and settle it by 1 a.m.!
I had hoped to make it to Extra Magic Hour at Disney Studios today but expected I’d sleep later given our late night. It’s 6:30 a.m. and I can’t fall back to sleep. Ugh!
We get up and head to the showers. Dressed, we step out on the balcony and I think I can hear my nephew talking, but can’t see anyone on their balcony from where we’re situated. There are no animals out on the Savannah this morning (or any other morning for the duration of our trip)!
I re-enter the room and find that I have a voice mail from DSIL. I call her and we agree to meet in the lobby.
When we meet, we catch up a bit. They ended up renting a car so canceled their reservation with Quicksilver. It rained pretty hard here on Friday. They did go to Animal Kingdom on Friday and went to Nemo and did the Safari but left when the rains picked up even more and ended up hanging around their room in the afternoon. The evening before, they had reservations at Mama Melrose’s and had hoped to catch the Osborne lights after dinner but had a very slow waiter so didn’t make it to the lights. On their arrival night (Thursday), they had a good meal of Boma’s.
All caught up, we head out to the bus stop to make our way to Disney Studios. We wait about 10 minutes and it’s standing room only though we did manage to snag a seat for DB to share with DN. Gene was holding DN’s stroller while DSIL had DN’s sippy cup. This led a bus passenger to observe both and ask where the child might be?
Security was a breeze. We head directly to Toy Story Mania. It’s a damp, cool and drizzly morning. Our umbrellas are in the up position!
Once we get to Toy Story Mania, things get a bit messed up. Gene takes all of our tickets to get Fast Passes while we park DN’s stroller. I guess it took at bit too long to park the stroller and the Fast Pass line was a bit shorter than we expected. Anyway, Gene thought we were in line and tried to catch up with us. We couldn’t find him but we got on line and figured he’d catch up. He called me but we got disconnected. I left the line to go back outside to find him but still – no Gene. I tried calling him but went to voice mail. Finally, he comes out of the building. Thinking we were in line in front of him, he entered the line and excused himself all the way up to the very ride when he realized, of course, that we weren’t there. He then needed to ask a cast member for an exit which is when he returned outside and we found each other. We got back into the end of the standby line and about 10 minutes later, we spotted DB and his family about to head up the stairs even though we had not yet gotten to Mr. Potato Head. As we were coming down the stairs, we spotted them again just coming to the end of their ride. Then, as we were assigned to a gate to board the ride, they rolled up and we boarded the very vehicle they were exiting! How odd is that?!
That fiasco over, we looked for a place to have some breakfast. Given that it’s still drizzling, indoors might work better than outdoors so we head to the Writer’s Stop where coffee, muffins, and cinnamon rolls does the trick! It also doesn’t hurt that it’s warm and dry!
From there, we walked right into Muppetvision. This seemed to get a mixed review from Sam. We forged ahead to the Great Movie Ride. Sam liked part of it but seemed to find other parts a bit scary. Still, we made it through. We just missed getting in the Little Mermaid and the next show was 25 minutes away so we decided to leave the stroller where it was and walk back to Toy Story Mania to use our fast passes. As we were walking along, Gene said “Don’t you know those people?” I turn and see Carol et al walking the other way! I turn and call “Carol” a couple of times. No reaction. So I call “Donna” and she turns! What luck to have run into this great group! I knew they’d be here but since this trip is all about Sam, we really wouldn’t have the opportunity to hook up with them! Hey all you guys! It was great to see you!
We complete our ride on Toy Story Mania but find we’ve missed Little Mermaid again and the next show won’t be until 12:30! I remember that Cars is Sam’s favorite movie so we collect the stroller and go in search of the Cars Meet and Greet site. When we arrive, the handlers and photo pass photographers are chatting amongst themselves and there is absolutely no-one there! Same loved his visit with the Cars! He was reluctant to leave and fussed a bit as we said “bye bye Cars”!
This time, we made it into the 12:30 Little Mermaid performance. DB wanted to see the car stunt show so we headed there next. This show was also a hit with Sam!
Time for some lunch.