IloveJack
10-21-2010, 10:28 AM
Wednesday, October 13, 2010: Animal Kingdom and Epcot
I drove from there through Chattanooga, where Paige fell asleep, and through almost all of Georgia, while David played on his phone and the girls slept. Around I-475, I started falling asleep, so I stopped for gas, then David and I switched off, and he drove for a while. I slept for about an hour during that time, but he started getting worried about getting lost, so I stayed awake after that. He was falling asleep by the time we reached Ocala, so we stopped at a rest stop. I decided that the best idea would be to sleep for a while, especially since a security guard was walking around. We slept for an hour, then I got up and changed clothes, and we were back on the road at 7:00am.
Paige woke up when we pulled back out, but Sammie slept until Paige exclaimed, "I see Hogwarts!" while driving through Orlando. She'd been asleep for over 12 hours straight!
We had no problems finding Pop, although I had never driven to Disney. We parked and headed inside. David went to the restroom and Paige took Sammie to watch cartoons. I'd checked in online, so I headed there. There was no line, so I walked right up to the counter. The CM had my things ready soon, and I was amazed to find that our room was already ready. 60s building, room 4437. I hadn't paid for a preferred room, but we got one anyhow. I had requested a room close to the kiddie pool, so that may have done it.
We drove around to the parking lot and unloaded the car. It took very little time to realize that there are no close parking spaces for the 60s buildings. It took us a while to carry all of our stuff to our room, but we finally found it in the "Play-doh" building. It was on the backside, overlooking the abandoned early years of Pop.
We tossed everything in the room, brushed our teeth, and David and Sammie shared a Pop-Tart. He called for a fridge, as I needed one to keep my insulin in. It only took them about 5 minutes to get it to the room. I stuck my meds in it and we headed out to the bus stop.
An Animal Kingdom bus was pulling out as we got to the stop, so we had to wait, and we waited and waited. It took about 30 minutes for the bus to show up, and boy, was the wait hot! The low temps for our trip were the high temps back home. We just weren't used to these 90° temps.
We headed into the park at a little after 11:00, using our e-tickets from our Cast Member family friend, and on around to the Oasis. The Tree of Life had just come into view when our friends called and said they had 3 fast passes for Expedition Everest, so we headed there to meet them. On the way, we stopped to get a couple of photo pass pictures. I'd pre-ordered the cd, so I wanted to take full advantage of it. Sammie saw the "hoo-hoos" (monkeys) on their little island play-place, so we had to stop and watch for a while.
Once we got to our friends, and got past the familiarities, we realized the fast passes weren't good for awhile. So we headed all the way over to Africa to get fast passes for Kilimanjaro Safaris. Seven people aren't good at directing each other, so after a while, I just took the lead. We stopped for a large group photo pass picture on the back side of the Tree of Life, the only group picture of the trip.
When we got to Kilimanjaro Safaris, we had to wait a few minutes to get the fast passes, as our friends' window didn't open until 11:50. I took advantage of the wait and traded pins with a Cast Member. I'd brought about 10 "trader" pins, from home, that I no longer liked, so that I could trade for things that I collect (Tink, Stitch, Jack Skellington, Pirates, etc.). I also explained the workings of pin trading with our friends, because they thought you just bought what you wanted, and dealt with it.
The Everest time was up, so we split up. Paige, David, and Jeff (the dad of the other family) headed to Everest, even though Paige didn't want to go. She ended up chickening out right as they were boarding the ride. Sammie and I went with Christy and Alex (the mom and son, a 11-year old) to walk down Pangani Forest Trail. Sammie loved looking at the animals, and I had to drag her away from the fish, which is fairly normal around any fish. David called when we were about three-fourths of the way through and said they were getting another fast pass for Everest and would be back at the Safari soon.
We met back up and rode Kilimanjaro Safaris. Fast pass got us through in about 5 minutes. Sammie wanted to sit in the seat, and not let anyone hold her, so I put her on the outside, beside me. She really enjoyed it. I wish I had taken her again... but as it was, we ran out of time. That soon became the theme of the day...
Sammie was incredibly hungry by then, and letting me know about it. But the guys were determined to ride Everest during their fast pass time. I told them that you could go late, just not early, but as I said, they were determined. I was determined to feed Sammie. So again, we split up. They dragged Paige along with them again, even though she didn't want to go. And of course, she chickened out again.
I wanted Flame Tree BBQ, but Alex is really, really picky, so we went to Flame Tree, grabbed a table and then waited for her to get him a corn dog from the stand nearby. Once Christy got back, she sat with Alex and Sammie while I got my lunch (half chicken, carrot sticks, grapes, chocolate mousse, and a drink). Then she went to get her lunch while I fed Sammie. She ate all my grapes, some of the carrots, and pretty much drank my drink. Like I said, it was hot! I didn't remember from our trip last year that you can get a large drink with counter service, so I got very little of my drink. After this meal, I ordered a large every time!
About the time we were done eating, the others showed up, so we sat and waited for them to eat. Their ordering was like a comedy of errors, as multiple things went wrong (running out of Coke, giving orders to the wrong people, etc.), and it took forever. Our lunch ended up taking almost 2 hours.
By this point, I was getting rather annoyed at the whole "pleasing others instead of myself." I'd wanted Sammie to get to see lots of animals, and so far, that wasn't happening. That was the whole point of us coming to Animal Kingdom. So we ended up splitting up from our friends. We did it the polite way, though. Alex was dying to go to Dinoland, and I think it's a waste of space, so we went to see some characters in Camp Minnie-Mickey.
We walked up on Miss Bunny and Brer Bear. As we were standing in line, Meeko arrived. And this is where we learned the lesson of "don't force your child to see characters." Sammie loved, loved, loved the characters... from about 5 feet away. Any closer, and she freaked. So we have lots and lots of pictures of her on one side, the character on the other, and one of us in the middle. We even tried bribing, but nope. We weren't like the crazy parents that we saw a few minutes later, though, yelling "I PAID FOR THIS TRIP AND YOU'RE GOING TO GO SEE THEM!" We just let Sammie take the lead, and took pictures of whatever we could. We also saw Minnie here before running back to the last showing of Finding Nemo.
This was on my must-do list, and Christy met back up with us at the theater. We learned another lesson here, too. Sammie is afraid of scary noises in the dark. I tried to comfort her, but decided, for the comfort of others, to leave the theater with her. As the "jellies" arrived, we left... sad that I missed Crush and Squirt, my favorites. We sat outside, waiting, until the show was over and the other three arrived. We decided we were done, as I'd wanted to be in Epcot by 4:00, and it was already 5:30.
I drove from there through Chattanooga, where Paige fell asleep, and through almost all of Georgia, while David played on his phone and the girls slept. Around I-475, I started falling asleep, so I stopped for gas, then David and I switched off, and he drove for a while. I slept for about an hour during that time, but he started getting worried about getting lost, so I stayed awake after that. He was falling asleep by the time we reached Ocala, so we stopped at a rest stop. I decided that the best idea would be to sleep for a while, especially since a security guard was walking around. We slept for an hour, then I got up and changed clothes, and we were back on the road at 7:00am.
Paige woke up when we pulled back out, but Sammie slept until Paige exclaimed, "I see Hogwarts!" while driving through Orlando. She'd been asleep for over 12 hours straight!
We had no problems finding Pop, although I had never driven to Disney. We parked and headed inside. David went to the restroom and Paige took Sammie to watch cartoons. I'd checked in online, so I headed there. There was no line, so I walked right up to the counter. The CM had my things ready soon, and I was amazed to find that our room was already ready. 60s building, room 4437. I hadn't paid for a preferred room, but we got one anyhow. I had requested a room close to the kiddie pool, so that may have done it.
We drove around to the parking lot and unloaded the car. It took very little time to realize that there are no close parking spaces for the 60s buildings. It took us a while to carry all of our stuff to our room, but we finally found it in the "Play-doh" building. It was on the backside, overlooking the abandoned early years of Pop.
We tossed everything in the room, brushed our teeth, and David and Sammie shared a Pop-Tart. He called for a fridge, as I needed one to keep my insulin in. It only took them about 5 minutes to get it to the room. I stuck my meds in it and we headed out to the bus stop.
An Animal Kingdom bus was pulling out as we got to the stop, so we had to wait, and we waited and waited. It took about 30 minutes for the bus to show up, and boy, was the wait hot! The low temps for our trip were the high temps back home. We just weren't used to these 90° temps.
We headed into the park at a little after 11:00, using our e-tickets from our Cast Member family friend, and on around to the Oasis. The Tree of Life had just come into view when our friends called and said they had 3 fast passes for Expedition Everest, so we headed there to meet them. On the way, we stopped to get a couple of photo pass pictures. I'd pre-ordered the cd, so I wanted to take full advantage of it. Sammie saw the "hoo-hoos" (monkeys) on their little island play-place, so we had to stop and watch for a while.
Once we got to our friends, and got past the familiarities, we realized the fast passes weren't good for awhile. So we headed all the way over to Africa to get fast passes for Kilimanjaro Safaris. Seven people aren't good at directing each other, so after a while, I just took the lead. We stopped for a large group photo pass picture on the back side of the Tree of Life, the only group picture of the trip.
When we got to Kilimanjaro Safaris, we had to wait a few minutes to get the fast passes, as our friends' window didn't open until 11:50. I took advantage of the wait and traded pins with a Cast Member. I'd brought about 10 "trader" pins, from home, that I no longer liked, so that I could trade for things that I collect (Tink, Stitch, Jack Skellington, Pirates, etc.). I also explained the workings of pin trading with our friends, because they thought you just bought what you wanted, and dealt with it.
The Everest time was up, so we split up. Paige, David, and Jeff (the dad of the other family) headed to Everest, even though Paige didn't want to go. She ended up chickening out right as they were boarding the ride. Sammie and I went with Christy and Alex (the mom and son, a 11-year old) to walk down Pangani Forest Trail. Sammie loved looking at the animals, and I had to drag her away from the fish, which is fairly normal around any fish. David called when we were about three-fourths of the way through and said they were getting another fast pass for Everest and would be back at the Safari soon.
We met back up and rode Kilimanjaro Safaris. Fast pass got us through in about 5 minutes. Sammie wanted to sit in the seat, and not let anyone hold her, so I put her on the outside, beside me. She really enjoyed it. I wish I had taken her again... but as it was, we ran out of time. That soon became the theme of the day...
Sammie was incredibly hungry by then, and letting me know about it. But the guys were determined to ride Everest during their fast pass time. I told them that you could go late, just not early, but as I said, they were determined. I was determined to feed Sammie. So again, we split up. They dragged Paige along with them again, even though she didn't want to go. And of course, she chickened out again.
I wanted Flame Tree BBQ, but Alex is really, really picky, so we went to Flame Tree, grabbed a table and then waited for her to get him a corn dog from the stand nearby. Once Christy got back, she sat with Alex and Sammie while I got my lunch (half chicken, carrot sticks, grapes, chocolate mousse, and a drink). Then she went to get her lunch while I fed Sammie. She ate all my grapes, some of the carrots, and pretty much drank my drink. Like I said, it was hot! I didn't remember from our trip last year that you can get a large drink with counter service, so I got very little of my drink. After this meal, I ordered a large every time!
About the time we were done eating, the others showed up, so we sat and waited for them to eat. Their ordering was like a comedy of errors, as multiple things went wrong (running out of Coke, giving orders to the wrong people, etc.), and it took forever. Our lunch ended up taking almost 2 hours.
By this point, I was getting rather annoyed at the whole "pleasing others instead of myself." I'd wanted Sammie to get to see lots of animals, and so far, that wasn't happening. That was the whole point of us coming to Animal Kingdom. So we ended up splitting up from our friends. We did it the polite way, though. Alex was dying to go to Dinoland, and I think it's a waste of space, so we went to see some characters in Camp Minnie-Mickey.
We walked up on Miss Bunny and Brer Bear. As we were standing in line, Meeko arrived. And this is where we learned the lesson of "don't force your child to see characters." Sammie loved, loved, loved the characters... from about 5 feet away. Any closer, and she freaked. So we have lots and lots of pictures of her on one side, the character on the other, and one of us in the middle. We even tried bribing, but nope. We weren't like the crazy parents that we saw a few minutes later, though, yelling "I PAID FOR THIS TRIP AND YOU'RE GOING TO GO SEE THEM!" We just let Sammie take the lead, and took pictures of whatever we could. We also saw Minnie here before running back to the last showing of Finding Nemo.
This was on my must-do list, and Christy met back up with us at the theater. We learned another lesson here, too. Sammie is afraid of scary noises in the dark. I tried to comfort her, but decided, for the comfort of others, to leave the theater with her. As the "jellies" arrived, we left... sad that I missed Crush and Squirt, my favorites. We sat outside, waiting, until the show was over and the other three arrived. We decided we were done, as I'd wanted to be in Epcot by 4:00, and it was already 5:30.