Monday December 13, 2004
Walk Miles: 6.6
Unicorn 23
Jurassic Pancakes
Lack of sleep notwithstanding, I had to wake up early today, because I had been invited to tag along with a group of friends to breakfast. So, when my alarm went off at 6:45, I dragged myself reluctantly out of bed, downloaded my pics and finished writing my notes from yesterday, and packed the last few things in my luggage, before staggering into Classic Hall and checking out of Pop Century. My experience at Pop over the last 5 days had been almost entirely positive, except for the crowded busses and the somewhat sub-standard food at the food court, and my check-out CM was another up side to the whole trip.
Once I was checked out, I wheeled my ten-ton suitcase out to the drop off driveway, where a Mears bus was already picking people up, and waited no more than 3 minutes for the LimeGreenCheri Limo service to pull up and whisk me off to Disney's Animal Kingdom. While waiting I placed a call to SuzyQ to mooch a ride to the airport from her and Del, because their plane took off 30 minutes before mine did, so the timing was perfect, and I had stupidly forgotten to call Mears yesterday and schedule a pickup. Suzy generously agreed and said that I should call back a little later to arrange where we'd meet, since they were not going to a park that day were not sure where they'd be when it came time to go to the airport.
Cheri, Katyar, Cruey, BetsyAnn, Cshore, and DisneyPam (who met us just outside the AK park gate) had invited me to join them for their breakfast at Donald's Breakfast-osaurus; since I had never eaten at this popular character restaurant, I had accepted eagerly. Besides, it gave me a perfect opportunity to store my luggage in the back of Cheri's van instead of at the luggage storage room at Pop Century; I'm pretty nervous about leaving my laptop computer with anyone.
We made our way quickly to Breakfast-osaurus, checking in at the outdoor podium and stopping for the Disney photographer to take a group shot and swipe out PhotoPass cards. I was really getting to like this new PhotoPass system! After a wait that could not have been more than three minutes, we were taken inside and given a table near the front door. Our table was crammed into a corner, and I was half tempted to ask for another, simply because one edge of the table was right up against a sloping wall and a tall person could not have fit comfortably in the end seats. Luckily, not everyone in our party is 6'4" tall like me, so Cruey and BetsyAnn took the seats next to the wall (though Betsy is pretty tall herself, so she may not have been terribly comfortable, either).
Breakfast With Character
Our waiter was a guy named Neil, from Long Island, whom Pam recognized, having eaten at Breakfast-osaurus before. She had also heard about him online from others who were very happy with his service. Neil got raves because he is friendly and outgoing, and also because he takes plenty of pictures of his Guests and makes sure that each of his tables gets lots of face time with the characters. Before we even got settled he had the characters come by our table for photo ops, and it was a good ten minutes before we could go to the buffet to fill our plates.
I'm not usually a big breakfast eater, but on those occasions when I do eat a regular breakfast I mainly sick with the traditional American breakfast foods of eggs, bacon, hash browns or fried potatoes, and biscuits. Donald's Breakfast-osaurus didn't disappoint with any of these, and I also added some baked apples to my plate which were excellent. The group dawdled over breakfast quite a while before finally asking for the bill, and when it came BetsyAnn surprised us all by picking up the tab in it's entirety. Considering that there were seven of us, that was a mighty generous gesture.
After breakfast was over and we made our way slowly out of the restaurant, some of the group wanted to see Tarzan Rocks. Well, I've seen it, and although it's a great show, it's not exactly my taste, so once was enough for me. Cruey and BetsyAnn felt the same way, so the three of us went to ride Dinosaur while the rest of the group saw the Ape Man.
Primevel Hurl
Dinosaur was a walk-on; we walked directly into the pre-show room and were on the ride in less than 10 minutes, door to seat. We sat in the front row of the 3-row car, and enjoyed it so much that we turned right around afterward and rode it a second time, again with a wait of less than ten minutes. But the second time we rode, we decided to try the back row of the car, a decision which I regretted, as the back row of the ride vehicle seems to shake much more violently than the front.
By the time we finished Dinosaur, the others were finished with their Tarzan adventure, and we all met up near Primeivel Whirl. Well, BetsyAnn and Pam wanted to Whirl, but the rest of us decided we like our breakfasts right where they were, than you very much, and sat the ride out. But when the ride was done, we all played some of the carnie games on the midway, until a couple of us got antsy and started crieing out for more rides.
More rides was the next order of business, so it was off to Africa for the Kilamanjaro Safari. Since Africa is on the opposite side of the park from Dinoland USA, we took the scenic route around the outside of the park to get there, eschewing the shorter route through the park's hub, Discovery Island. The walkway took us past the construction site for Expedition Everest, the new roller coaster under construction on the edge of the Asia portion of Animal Kingdom. It's gigantic! Expedition Everest already looms over the park like Mount Fuji, even though it's only halfway completed. It's so big, and so tall, that it completely eclipses the Tree of Life, which tends to blend in with the heavy vegetation and become part of the background until you're right next to it.
Portions of the track were already in place; from these I could deduce that Everest is a modern, tubular-steel coaster, in the traditional car-on-top configuration, as opposed to some of the modern coasters which hang below the track. The track is, however, quite wide, and might possibly accommodate wide cars with four passengers per row. We spent most of the walk into Asia looking at the mountain and picking out details, and I took several pictures of it.
Out of Africa
When we arrived at Kilamanjaro Safari, were fortunate to have a wait time of only 10 minutes, and wound up in the last two rows of one of the safari vehicles. The Safari is always a bumpy ride, but it was especially so today, because the driver poured on the speed and didn't slow down even once for the Guests to get longer looks or snap pics of the various animals. I began to wonder if the drivers are now paid by the number of circuits per shift instead of by the hour.
We did manage to get a few nice pictures of the animals, however.
After the safari, I checked my cell phone and found that I had gotten a call from SuzyQ and hadn't heard the ringer. She left a voicemail saying she and Del would pick me up between 3:30 and 4 at Animal Kingdom Lodge; I called back and left a voicemail for her asking if she could pick me up in the AK parking lot so that Cheri would not have to leave the park.
Somebody had the idea to grab a snack and soda at Tusker House, since it was becoming a warm and sunny day, so the group made our way into Tusker and each grabbed something to eat or drink. Although it was early, I chose to get a full lunch instead of just a snack, since I knew I was going to be leaving the park soon to go to the airport. Everybody else got a lighter snack.
As we finished eating, Pam had to leave to go to work, so we all said our goodbyes, and I split off from the group to walk the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. I like Pangani; there's something about the gorillas that remind me of my brother.
The gorillas were out and active, so I got a bunch of good pics. About 3/4 of the way through the trail my phone rang again, and I finally got to talk to SuzyQ and confirm a pick up time of 3:45pm in the AK parking lot. Not two minutes after I hung up, the phone rang again, and I could tell by the crazy ringer that it was my best friend Rick, who had been taking care of my apartment and bringing in the mail while I was out of town. I gave him a status report on my trip and told him when I'd be coming home.
Shirt of many colors, but mostly gray
When I finished with Pangani, I made a bathroom stop at Tusker House and cleaned up a bit; the temperature had gone into the mid-70s. My next stop was Discovery Island, or the hub, as I like to call it. I wanted to browse the shops a bit, and I was instantly glad I did! The first shop I entered was a kid's clothing shop, but on one of the racks I saw a t-shirt that I had spotted in Epcot a few days before and wanted to buy before I went home. It was gray, and had Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto in black and white above a color 2004 in block letters. But since this was a kid's clothing shop, adult sizes were nowhere to be found. I did, however, ask a CM where I might find the shirt in adult sizes, and she directed me to Island Mercantile.
Island Mercantile is the main gift shop at AK. It's not as big as Epcot's MouseGear or MK's Emporium, but it's a nice shop with lots of AK-specific and general WDW merchandise. I went in and easily found the shirt I was looking for... Only it had 2005 printed on it instead of 2004. Ugh! Time to find another CM, who made a call backstage and found that there were indeed some of the 2004 versions of that t-shirt left, and another CM soon brought one out to me.
Note: the image on the shirt is the background image of this trip report!
It always pays to ask the CMs politely when you don't see something you want.
I bought the shirt and a couple of pages of stickers for my niece, and called Cheri to see where the rest of the group was. They were in Festival of the Lion King, which I hadn't had much desire to see, and when the show was over they all joined me at Island Mercantile for some shopping of their own. Once we had all spent our limit, we wondered out to the parking lot to wait for Suzy and Del.
Head 'em up, and move 'em out
At Cheri's van, I packed up my utility belt and camera, and emptied my pockets in preparation for the journey through airport security. I find it much easier to negotiate the metal detector if I have already put all my metal items into my carry-on bag before I get there; that way I don't have to fumble with a tray full of pocket change and other loose items. Once I was packed up, I pulled my bags out of the van and set them up on the parking lot. I didn't want to keep the others away from the park any longer than absolutely necessary, but they wanted to say goodbye to Suzy and Del, so they waited with me until Suzy and Del drove up a few minutes later.
After a string of goodbyes all around, and squeezing my mammoth American Tourister into the back seat of the rental car, we were off. We were soon way off, however, as Del took a wrong turn on World Drive and wound up on the road into Celebration. I couldn't fault him for this, though, since he and Suzy don't normally rent a car at WDW and are unfamiliar with the roads. Besides, I AM familiar with the WDW roads, and I had taken exactly the same wrong turn last December and wound up in Celebration, too.
Luckily we were able to see a place to turn around and get back to the Central Florida Greenway (SR417), which took us quickly to the airport.
We're not lost; I know exactly where we are!
We did get off the Greenway an exit early so that Del could fill the tank of the car before returning it to Alamo. Returning a rental car without a full tank of gas is apparently some sort of mortal sin, because the rental companies will charge you for the gas needed to fill it at about three times the going rate. The going rate near the airport that day, in case you're wondering, was $1.87 for regular gas.
We arrived at MCO at about 4:40, returning the rental car to Alamo and getting into the main terminal without further incident. It was here that I said my goodbyes and thank-yous to Suzy and Del, as they were flying with an airline that was at the opposite end of the massive terminal from mine, Southwest.
The line at SWA to check in and check my bag was very short, and I was soon riding the tram out to the satellite terminal. I stopped at the small food court in the satellite terminal to grab a McDonalds dinner before heading to my gate, then wrote some trip notes and called home while I waited for the aircraft to board.
My flight took off on time and landed a few minutes late; I called my Dad, who was coming to pick me up, and found that he was just arriving in the terminal, so I met him at baggage claim, collected my stuff, and was home by 11pm.
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We made our way quickly to Breakfast-osaurus, checking in at the outdoor podium and stopping for the Disney photographer to take a group shot and swipe out PhotoPass cards. I was really getting to like this new PhotoPass system! After a wait that could not have been more than three minutes, we were taken inside and given a table near the front door. Our table was crammed into a corner, and I was half tempted to ask for another, simply because one edge of the table was right up against a sloping wall and a tall person could not have fit comfortably in the end seats. Luckily, not everyone in our party is 6'4" tall like me, so Cruey and BetsyAnn took the seats next to the wall (though Betsy is pretty tall herself, so she may not have been terribly comfortable, either).
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