faline
05-24-2011, 03:51 PM
Monday, May 10, 2011
Who: Gene & Me
Plan for the Day:
Animal Kingdom
Yak & Yeti for Lunch
Rose & Crown for Dinner
When you have a three page itinerary for your trip and you are on page 1 of 3, you know you have plenty of vacation ahead of you and all is good! When you flip over to page 2 of 3, it’s still okay and you need not think about going home yet. However, when you get to page 3 out of 3, you know the end is coming. Your thinking shifts. You begin thinking about the packing to be done, the bags to be checked, what’s left undone and how you are now running out of time. We shifted to page 3 last evening.
We did go to the Magic Kingdom last evening. Once again, it was not a long wait before a bus arrived and delivered us to our destination. I did not bring a bag with me which was a very wise choice. The security lines to get into the Magic Kingdom were the longest we’ve seen so it was nice to be abel to bypass them. We wandered through the Main Street shops. It was now still before 8 p.m. and almost all the curbside spots along Main Street were already occupied. Alrighty then. We found a spot just outside City Hall and held it until the Main Street Electric Parade began – about 80 minutes later. There was a family with three little children behind us and Gene allowed the children to come sit at the curb where he had been standing. As the parade progressed, I became aware of a couple who had been no-where near the front of the crowd behind us, but who had managed to weasel their way through the crowd and were now interfering with others who were also trying to get nice pictures of the parade. Just before the last float came out, the husband indicated he wanted his wife to step in front of the little girls to whom Gene had given his spot and I said no, they were for the girls. The mom of the girls said it was okay as they would be leaving. So were we all after this last float came by so I still said no. If anyone was going back into that spot, it would have been Gene.
After the last float went by, we entered the shops and hung out there for a while and then went out and stood on Main Street around about where the ice cream shop is. I didn’t have my regular eye glasses so I could not distinctly see the photos projected on the Castle but the special effects were pretty amazing! I must be getting older – I like it better when Wishes is at 9 rather than 10. I can walk for fairly long distances but standing in one spot for a significant length of time really bothers my feet. I stood for far too long last night in stationary spots. By time Wishes started, I was a bit uncomfortable so, although the display was lovely as always, I did not enjoy it as much as I might have liked.
When Wishes ended, it did not take us long to head back to the bus stop. A bus came along within five minutes and we were even able to find seats in the very back of the bus. It seemed to take a very long time to get back to Animal Kingdom. At one point, I could see the monorail running along the right hand side of the bus – I’m not sure why as I thought I would surely see it along the left hand side of the bus. Finally, a bit later, I did see the monorail along the left. Finally, we were home but it was after 11. It was midnight before lights were out.
With such a late night, there was no way I was going to get us up out of bed early. In fact, today I began wondering why I had been doing such early get-ups for most of our trip. Yes, I understand you get quite a lot accomplished in the first hour after the park is open but getting in the park early is a real killer if you want to stay later into the evening. I think I will return to our typical style of touring (unless I have a specific reason to do otherwise) which is to get up when we get up regardless of whether it is earlier or a bit later. We still seem to manage to do those things we want to accomplish.
With that said, it is after 9 before we venture out to the bus this morning. Animal Kingdom is just a short journey away. We walk over to Expedition:Everest. The standby line reads 10 minutes but it really is a walk-on and probably took about 5 minutes to be boarded for our ride. From there, we head over to Dinosaur which is also a walk-on. After we are all strapped in, a mother in front of us wants to know if we’ve done the ride before and if there are any significant down-ramps. I say it is rather rough but, no, there are no down-ramps but it is also quite dark and can be a little scary with things that jump out at you. By the end of the ride, her little girl is a bit upset and scared. Think you might check out the ride before you’re strapped in?
We’ve not yet seen the tigers so head to the Maharaja Jungle Trek. We speak with one of the cast members who tells us about some birds that fly at 31,000 feet and will migrate over Mount Everest! That’s pretty amazing given that our plane flew down here at 35,000 feet! She also told us they feature a baby condor in some of the Flights of Wonders shows. Inside the bird sanctuary, we speak with a cast member who tells us about several birds who are currently building nests. Bird B has been stealing nest building materials from Bird A and Bird C has been stealing the nest materials from Bird B! One woman was walking around with a clipboard, a checklist and binoculars. I asked if she was taking an inventory and she said she was. She told us they have more than 200 birds in the enclosure.
It was now time for our lunch so we walked over to Yak & Yeti. We had been here once before but we were not at all impressed so had not returned. This was their opportunity to redeem themselves. We were quickly seated on the second floor – not far from the staircase. This seems to be our week for pot stickers as we started our meal here with the pork pot stickers. Very nice with a wonderful dipping sauce. I have the sweet and sour pork for my meal while Gene selects the sweet and sour chicken. Both are good though different from what I am used to being served at Chinese restaurants back home where sweet and sour meats are coated in a breading of some sort. After having a negative opinion in the past, I would say, this time, that I would return. It would not be at the top of my list of favorites but the food was decent and the service was good.
After lunch, we take in It’s Tough to Be a Bug. It’s quite crowded and we have to shuffle through a line to get there. As is usual for this attraction, we are aware of a number of frightened children in the theater and notice one little girl in tears as we get up to exit. Poor kid!
Time to leave. Clouds are building and it looks like there could possibly be a thunder shower this afternoon. We head to the bus stop and see a bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge pull away from the stop as we near. Oh well. We’ll wait for the next one. The next bus arrives within 15 minutes. A young man exits with his t-shirt held up over his nose and mouth. As we enter the bus, we discover why. It literally stinks on this bus! It smells like either diesel fuel or an exhaust leak. Other folks who entered the bus after we did are holding their t-shirts over their nose and mouth. We decide to exit at Kidani Village simply because we don’t want to stay on the bus any longer than we need to.
Exiting at Kidani Village, we head to the desk and complain about the bus (Not the driver who was fine.) and state the bus should be taken out of service – don’t know if they did or not but they certainly sounded like they would report it.
We went to Sa’ana and had a drink in the lounge. The server had only been there two weeks and apparently had not encountered the Tables in Wonderland card before but was able to get it squared away with the assistance of a manager. We then looked around a little bit. Went out to one of the outlooks and found a cute little area with a fireplace and some comfortable seating areas.
When we had complained at the desk about the bus, the person on the desk said we could grab an Animal Kingdom Lodge van outside the door to transport us to Jambo House. Sure enough, when we exited the van was sitting there. The driver had gone indoors briefly but quickly reappeared and brought us home again.
It’s a little after 3:30 p.m. We’ve decided not to head to the pool today so are hanging out in our room for a bit before we venture back out of doors.
More to come….
Who: Gene & Me
Plan for the Day:
Animal Kingdom
Yak & Yeti for Lunch
Rose & Crown for Dinner
When you have a three page itinerary for your trip and you are on page 1 of 3, you know you have plenty of vacation ahead of you and all is good! When you flip over to page 2 of 3, it’s still okay and you need not think about going home yet. However, when you get to page 3 out of 3, you know the end is coming. Your thinking shifts. You begin thinking about the packing to be done, the bags to be checked, what’s left undone and how you are now running out of time. We shifted to page 3 last evening.
We did go to the Magic Kingdom last evening. Once again, it was not a long wait before a bus arrived and delivered us to our destination. I did not bring a bag with me which was a very wise choice. The security lines to get into the Magic Kingdom were the longest we’ve seen so it was nice to be abel to bypass them. We wandered through the Main Street shops. It was now still before 8 p.m. and almost all the curbside spots along Main Street were already occupied. Alrighty then. We found a spot just outside City Hall and held it until the Main Street Electric Parade began – about 80 minutes later. There was a family with three little children behind us and Gene allowed the children to come sit at the curb where he had been standing. As the parade progressed, I became aware of a couple who had been no-where near the front of the crowd behind us, but who had managed to weasel their way through the crowd and were now interfering with others who were also trying to get nice pictures of the parade. Just before the last float came out, the husband indicated he wanted his wife to step in front of the little girls to whom Gene had given his spot and I said no, they were for the girls. The mom of the girls said it was okay as they would be leaving. So were we all after this last float came by so I still said no. If anyone was going back into that spot, it would have been Gene.
After the last float went by, we entered the shops and hung out there for a while and then went out and stood on Main Street around about where the ice cream shop is. I didn’t have my regular eye glasses so I could not distinctly see the photos projected on the Castle but the special effects were pretty amazing! I must be getting older – I like it better when Wishes is at 9 rather than 10. I can walk for fairly long distances but standing in one spot for a significant length of time really bothers my feet. I stood for far too long last night in stationary spots. By time Wishes started, I was a bit uncomfortable so, although the display was lovely as always, I did not enjoy it as much as I might have liked.
When Wishes ended, it did not take us long to head back to the bus stop. A bus came along within five minutes and we were even able to find seats in the very back of the bus. It seemed to take a very long time to get back to Animal Kingdom. At one point, I could see the monorail running along the right hand side of the bus – I’m not sure why as I thought I would surely see it along the left hand side of the bus. Finally, a bit later, I did see the monorail along the left. Finally, we were home but it was after 11. It was midnight before lights were out.
With such a late night, there was no way I was going to get us up out of bed early. In fact, today I began wondering why I had been doing such early get-ups for most of our trip. Yes, I understand you get quite a lot accomplished in the first hour after the park is open but getting in the park early is a real killer if you want to stay later into the evening. I think I will return to our typical style of touring (unless I have a specific reason to do otherwise) which is to get up when we get up regardless of whether it is earlier or a bit later. We still seem to manage to do those things we want to accomplish.
With that said, it is after 9 before we venture out to the bus this morning. Animal Kingdom is just a short journey away. We walk over to Expedition:Everest. The standby line reads 10 minutes but it really is a walk-on and probably took about 5 minutes to be boarded for our ride. From there, we head over to Dinosaur which is also a walk-on. After we are all strapped in, a mother in front of us wants to know if we’ve done the ride before and if there are any significant down-ramps. I say it is rather rough but, no, there are no down-ramps but it is also quite dark and can be a little scary with things that jump out at you. By the end of the ride, her little girl is a bit upset and scared. Think you might check out the ride before you’re strapped in?
We’ve not yet seen the tigers so head to the Maharaja Jungle Trek. We speak with one of the cast members who tells us about some birds that fly at 31,000 feet and will migrate over Mount Everest! That’s pretty amazing given that our plane flew down here at 35,000 feet! She also told us they feature a baby condor in some of the Flights of Wonders shows. Inside the bird sanctuary, we speak with a cast member who tells us about several birds who are currently building nests. Bird B has been stealing nest building materials from Bird A and Bird C has been stealing the nest materials from Bird B! One woman was walking around with a clipboard, a checklist and binoculars. I asked if she was taking an inventory and she said she was. She told us they have more than 200 birds in the enclosure.
It was now time for our lunch so we walked over to Yak & Yeti. We had been here once before but we were not at all impressed so had not returned. This was their opportunity to redeem themselves. We were quickly seated on the second floor – not far from the staircase. This seems to be our week for pot stickers as we started our meal here with the pork pot stickers. Very nice with a wonderful dipping sauce. I have the sweet and sour pork for my meal while Gene selects the sweet and sour chicken. Both are good though different from what I am used to being served at Chinese restaurants back home where sweet and sour meats are coated in a breading of some sort. After having a negative opinion in the past, I would say, this time, that I would return. It would not be at the top of my list of favorites but the food was decent and the service was good.
After lunch, we take in It’s Tough to Be a Bug. It’s quite crowded and we have to shuffle through a line to get there. As is usual for this attraction, we are aware of a number of frightened children in the theater and notice one little girl in tears as we get up to exit. Poor kid!
Time to leave. Clouds are building and it looks like there could possibly be a thunder shower this afternoon. We head to the bus stop and see a bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge pull away from the stop as we near. Oh well. We’ll wait for the next one. The next bus arrives within 15 minutes. A young man exits with his t-shirt held up over his nose and mouth. As we enter the bus, we discover why. It literally stinks on this bus! It smells like either diesel fuel or an exhaust leak. Other folks who entered the bus after we did are holding their t-shirts over their nose and mouth. We decide to exit at Kidani Village simply because we don’t want to stay on the bus any longer than we need to.
Exiting at Kidani Village, we head to the desk and complain about the bus (Not the driver who was fine.) and state the bus should be taken out of service – don’t know if they did or not but they certainly sounded like they would report it.
We went to Sa’ana and had a drink in the lounge. The server had only been there two weeks and apparently had not encountered the Tables in Wonderland card before but was able to get it squared away with the assistance of a manager. We then looked around a little bit. Went out to one of the outlooks and found a cute little area with a fireplace and some comfortable seating areas.
When we had complained at the desk about the bus, the person on the desk said we could grab an Animal Kingdom Lodge van outside the door to transport us to Jambo House. Sure enough, when we exited the van was sitting there. The driver had gone indoors briefly but quickly reappeared and brought us home again.
It’s a little after 3:30 p.m. We’ve decided not to head to the pool today so are hanging out in our room for a bit before we venture back out of doors.
More to come….