It was very upsetting to wake at 8.30. All those days on the bloody beach when I was awake at 7am and today with a theme park in my immediate future and I had lazed half the day away.
Never let it be said that I air brush these trips and only give you the edited highlights. In the spirit of full disclosure at this point in the trip Louise and I were not on speaking terms. I won’t bore you with the trivialities of the subject matter, as to be honest I can’t really remember, but as all long-term couples know, this happens from time to time.
Suffice to say that I of course would have been totally in the right and Louise would later issue a full and unreserved apology.
After exchanging dirty looks and mild insults as we got ready, it was decided best for all concerned that Louise didn’t join us this morning. After declaring our undying love for each other, I left the room with Emily, who was all disdain and eye rolls at our mature behaviour, with me deploying full flounce and we went in search of food. Of course, for all our moody tantrums and vitriol I had made sure Louise had money and everything she needed for the day, as of course deep down we both knew that at some point in the not too distant future it would all be sorted out.
We bought a breakfast from the Beach Club Marketplace. A breakfast sandwich and a bounty platter, which thankfully did not contain any coconut, were consumed outside within minutes and we were soon on our way to Animal Kingdom after a quick stop at the All Stars for some parents. At the entrance to the car park I reclaimed some of the costs of staying on site by flashing my magic band rather than handing over $50 or whatever the car parking cost that week.
My joy was short-lived as there was a huge queue to get into the car park. It snaked all around the perimeter, its size only matched by the size of my bottom lip. As Disney tend to do, they shifted a huge number of people in a short amount of time and we dumped the car in Giraffe 46.
We didn’t have long to wait for the tram and after a bag check, scanner and a queue at the turnstiles we finally got into the park just after ten.
The first FastPass of the day was the safari, so we headed in that direction. That’s a good old walk especially with two almost octogenarians in your party but it was worth the trek.
We had a great guide and saw a god amount of stuff. I have promised myself that I shall keep returning to WDW until I can manage some non-blurry photos on the safari.
It isn’t often these days that it happens so at the first sign of a huge horn I took a photo of it.
There’s a probably an animal somewhere in that photo.
Ah there it is…..
I’d tell you that this was a hippo….But that’s just lion…..
As is often the case, my milkshake brings all the birds to the yard….
Smile!
After returning from our two-week safari, we set off for our next FastPass which was to be Everest.
Since our last visit a stadium seems to have grown in the middle of the theme park.
Dad rode Everest with myself and Emily and we all loved it. It’s one of the rides that just make you smile every time. It is a good one to ride early in the day as it blows the cobwebs off, gets the adrenaline flowing and puts you in a great mood.
When we got home and looked at our Memory Maker we had a few random photos that very obviously not taken by me.
Like these…
We walked on around to Dinoland where Mum & Dad played some of the games.
Emily and I moved on to Primeval Whirl.The stated 30 minute queue turned out to be just ten which made us happy.
We left battered and bruised and now Emily joined her Nana in battle.
No prizes were won alas.
It’s Tough To Be A Bug was next on the list and with a standby wait of just ten minutes we walked through all the queuing bits, with me trying to snap as many of the animals as possible in the tree.
It went well didn’t it?
It is quite usual for there to be screaming in this show, especially as it comes to an end due to some of the effects used. However, this show started with that too, as we seemed to have another screaming kid being subjected to something they absolutely did not want to go through. For all new parents out there, as much as the theme of this show might seem kid friendly, it is absolutely not suitable for toddlers as this poor screaming soul was demonstrating. Of course the parents didn’t take it outside and when it is still in therapy well into its twenties, it can read this blog to find out why.
It was 1pm now. We’d done a lot hadn’t we? We needed a drink and a sit down so we headed for Starbucks. It took a while to get served as we were behind a large group of teenage girls, each ordering drinks more complex than the theory of relativity. The shapes and colours of their drinks were a mystery to all but themselves.
Mum and Dad had a strawberry smoothie and I continued to order whatever Emily did and had another iced coffee thing. See how Starbucks had to really try to not spell my name with a G.
We watched the world go by for half an hour waiting for our next FastPass slot to come round. It was to be the Kali River Rapids, but by the power of the app, I discovered it was down. Instead we wandered over to the Lion King for the two o’clock show.
I have raved about this show every time we have seen it, and this shall be no exception. What a stunning, talent filled feel good fest this is.
I have the same photographs of it many times over so I decided to just sit back and watch it this time…oh apart from doing a Facebook live…but that took no effort.
As I wandered around today I noticed quite a few folks staring at my torso. Now, this is pretty normal when you have a physique like mine. But even for me, today it was noticeably more frequent. Disregarding the usual number of pestering females undressing me with their eyes, I think everyone else was admiring my T-shirt, which is one of my faves.
You’d think after all our visits that I would know the official name for all the rides and attractions. I don’t. Apparently according to my notes we did the “Gorilla Trail thing”.
and eventually the trail led to an actual gorilla.
For the first time in many years next we took the train up to Rafiki’s Planet Watch otherwise known as the place where you pet goats.
However, as nice as the goats were, this guy was my favourite by a mile.
Next, we stroked a cow with horns, which is not a euphemism.
During our safari, our guide had told us that the restrooms at Rafiki’s Planet Watch were the best in all of the theme parks. I therefore felt duty bound to test that theory. I’d give it five minutes if I were you.
They may be the best but they still had that huge gap at the bottom of the door which mean that passers-by could see my knees. Spladosh!
We caught the train back and headed for Yak & Yeti. Louise had been in touch and said she would meet us there. This was no doubt as she had realised he error of her ways and realised her undying love for me. Either that or she really wanted to eat at Yak & Yeti.
As we made our way there, I demonstrated one of my top tips. If you see a huge queue to meet a character, simply take a picture of it with a random child and save yourself half an hour of waiting.
For those of the nerdy disposition, these, I think, are the projectors used for the new tree show thing. They are huge.
As we approached the restaurant, Louise and I spotted each other from a distance and ran in slow motion towards each other, meeting with an embrace and from somewhere romantic music poured out over us.
We waited for about twenty minutes before being seated upstairs.
We ordered some appetizers of Egg Rolls…
and Dad had some Firecracker Shrimp, which I think was due to some tight shorts.
Various strange lemonades and some wine for Louise arrived as we ordered….
Me – Combo Lo Mein
Dad – A Salmon Thing
Mum – Sweet & Sour Chicken
Louise – Teriyaki Chicken
Emily – Honey Chicken
The food was superb again. It was $225 including a healthy tip.
We consulted the app to plot our next move and seeing the safari was just a ten minute wait we decided to do it again for the benefit of Louise. See, I am so kind and considerate ever when she has been totally in the wrong.
There weren’t as many animals out and about at this time which frankly serves Louise right.
You lucky lot, getting two lots of blurry safari photos in one day!
We then walked all the way back to Everest. Louise, Emily and I rode using our recently acquired Fastpasses and then I let Emily and Louise use Mum & Dad’s FastPass to ride again. Again, how lucky is Louise?
As dusk approached we had to get ourselves in place for our first viewing of Rivers Of Light. We thought we could just wander across from Everest to the entrances we could see but no, they were for folks who had made a FastPass for it. Instead, we had to walk about six miles to the other side of the park to the muggle entrance.
We sat for just under an hour waiting for the show to start. That was fine as we were tired and it gave Louise more chances to apologise to me. Having just eaten obscene amounts of Chinese food we had a thirst that was life threatening. It was also very hot of course. It was a bit gutting not to see one drinks vendor wandering about. If I had wanted to buy some plastic tat that would light up, I had vendors walking by every few seconds. But if I needed life saving water, I would have to wait it seems.
There are few better places to be on the planet than a Disney park at dusk.
The show itself was very good. I suspect we’ll need a good few viewings to take it all in.
After the show we spilled out into Dinoland and we immediately bought lots of water and drank it as if we’d be wandering in the desert for a few days.
Louise needed to restroom so we sat for a long while waiting for her to release the chocolate hostages. Once she had returned we wandered slowly through a now quiet park.
We trammed back out to the car and dropped Mum & Dad off at their hotel before heading back to the Beach Club. We read and phoned for a while until sleep took us.
Minor domestics aside, that was a properly good full theme park today. We left satisfied that we’d done a lot.
Till the next time…..
Mkingdon's Blog 
Hilarious as always – I thought it was only me that took wildlife photos with no apparent wildlife!
I also thought I was the only one who got unreserved apologies from my wife when she steps out of line!