Tusker House is a counter-service food place in Africa that serves breakfast and lunch/dinner. I eat there a lot, because the food is not only excellent, but the portions are quite large, making it a great value for the money. Today I got a scrambled egg platter with home fries and bacon, and found the quality of the food to be even better than that of Donald's Breakfast-osaurus, the much more expensive character buffet on the other side of the park. I took my time eating, enjoying both the meal and the air-conditioned dining room.
After breakfast, I picked up a FastPass for the Kilimanjaro Safari and walked both the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail and the Maharaja Jungle Trek, which was in Asia. I took a lot of pics of the animals; something in AK always make me a little snap-happy.
When I finished with the walking trails, I made a bathroom stop back at Tusker House, finding the bathrooms much cleaner than they had been on my last trip, in December 2004. Then it was on to Kilimanjaro Safari, the park's signature ride.
I took a lot of pics on the Safari, though not as many as I usually take. Maybe it's my imagination, but I swear that the ride has gotten bumpier over the years. Part of the reason is probably that the drivers are stomping on the gas a little harder these days, but I think that Disney, for some reason, re-paved the roads, and made the fake wheel ruts and mud textures in the concrete road much bumpier and more violent. I found it very difficult to get pictures of the animals because of the motion, but I did manage to snap a few excellent elephant and giraffe shots.
Once I got off the Safari, I decided that I was finished in AK for the day. I was skipping several attractions, but I had a few other things to do today, since I was checking out to go home tomorrow, and I wanted to keep my time at AK short.
I left the park and drove off Disney property to the WalMart on US 192 to pick up a few odds and ends, and on the way back I looked for an old favorite of mine for lunch - Sonny's BBQ. But to my shock and dismay, I found Sonny's closed and boarded up! Sonny's had been there for at least 15 years - I ate there on my very first Disney trip in 1990 - but there was no indication on the building that the place had relocated or was going to re-open later. Sonny's was located in the same general area as WalMart and Medieval Times, and that entire section of US 192 was undergoing massive reconstruction, so all of the small businesses were suffering.
I still wanted lunch, so I wound up eating at the Checkers at Olde Towne, and spending a few minutes walking around Olde Towne, browsing some of the kitschy tourist shops.
When I had walked the length of Olde Towne, not buying anything, I drove back to ASMU. I showered and spent a couple of hours packing and preparing for check-out tomorrow, including downloading today's pics to my laptop and going to the front desk to get a printout of my bill and room charges. I had about $20 left on my room charging account, so I closed it out and got the money back in cash.
After a quick stop in the food court to fill my water bottle, I went to Epcot and got a cheese steak dinner at Electric Umbrella. I also called home to update my friend Frank, who was going to pick me up from the airport tomorrow, on my flight time.
Since tonight was Evening Extra Magic Hour at Epcot, I went to the East Breezeway, the path from Innoventions to the eastern half of Future World, and found a place to get my EMH wristband, then went on to Test Track. But TT had a 50-minute stand-by line, a 30-minute single rider wait, and was out of FastPasses for the day, so I skipped it. Mission: Space, on the other hand, had no wait at all, so I went right in and rode it.
Outside of M:S, I ran into MargaretJ, Matt, and Danny, and sat outside talking to MJ while the boys rode Mission: Space, then I took a trip to the nearest bathroom, which was over near Test Track. This was the worst bathroom I had seen all week; it was dirty, wet, and unattended by any CMs. Of course, it was also one of the busiest bathrooms in the park, which is probably why it was so dirty. After my bathroom break, I rode Mission: Space again.
But at this point my stomach started to ache a little. The same thing had happened the last time I had a cheese steak at WDW, only that one had been at the Pop Century food court. I guess Disney is using something in the cheese steaks that doesn't agree with me.
I sat on a bench outside of Ice Station Cool to make a few notes and enjoy what was turning into a beautiful night. Although it had been hot today, it had been less humid than yesterday and more breezy, making the day much less unbearable.
With my stomach not feeling good, and the fact that I was getting pretty tired, I decided to call it a night early and skip both Illuminations and EMH. I left the park at 9pm and went back to ASMU, where I downloaded the rest of the day's pictures and watched TV until about 11:30.