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[Tigger's Mom]

Day 5 – Part 1

A busy day at AK, CS, Epcot, and PI. And, is Kris too old to be a groupie?

This day was probably my favorite day of the entire vacation! I am excited to finally be able to write about it…

We all woke up early – no wake up calls needed for this bunch!! We were headed to Animal Kingdom today!! All three of us are animal lovers, but Mom is probably the biggest one of the three of us. She was like a little girl – she was so excited to go! (My mom is NOT a morning person, so I could tell she was really excited!) Lucy and I got ready quickly and she and I headed out for a brisk walk up to the Pepper Market to get coffee, iced tea, and OJ, leaving Mom to get ready. It was a nice walk – and a long one! CS is an ENORMOUS resort and a lovely place to exercise outdoors!!

Morning drinks in hand, we returned to our room. Mom was ready and raring to go!! (MGM had the EE this am, but we voted on AK instead since we are not ToT or RnR fans!) Off we went to the bus stop!

Lots of people at the bus stop this am, but most went to MK and MGM, so there were just a few of us headed to AK. Or so we thought… We arrived about 15 minutes before opening and the lines were LONG!!! Mom needed to stop at an ATM machine, so we wandered around and found one next to the kennel. Wow, the lines were even longer now!! We could see and hear bits of the “awakening” going on, but weren’t close enough to get a decent view.

Finally, the gates opened up and we herded with the rest of the cattle through the turnstiles. We passed on the characters and were working our way back to Africa to grab FP for KS. Mom was trying to take everything in on the way, and I told her we needed to hurry back to KS, we could check everything out afterwards at a more leisurely pace. She’s such a good sport! KS was virtually a walk on when we got there, so there was no need for FPs. Excellent – we could ride this, then move on and not have to watch our time!

I had ridden this before, and wasn’t very impressed with it then. I live in a city with a terrific zoo, and I live within walking distance of Grant’s Farm (animal park owned by Anheuser-Busch), so for the most part these were all animals I had seen many, many times before, but it was a first for Mom and Lucy! They got the biggest kick out of it, as did I! We saw all kinds of animals – including the male lion! On my last visit he was just laying under the tree sleeping – not this time! He was pacing back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. He seemed ready to lunge at our vehicle at any moment – it was kind of thrilling!! Of course, L’il Red turned out to be ok, so we completed our adventure and began our next quest – cinnamon rolls at Tusker House!

Neither Lucy nor I are big breakfast eaters, but Mom definitely is, and the sweeter the better as far as she’s concerned! After reading Bob and Larry’s TR so close to our departure, I just knew the perfect place for breakfast! I must admit, all those dining reviews had me wanting to try several restaurants, but since we were working hard to watch our $s, I figured the cinnamon rolls at Tusker House weren’t beyond our reach.

We found Tusker House without any problem and went in to order. Mom ordered a ham, egg, and cheese croissant, (came with hash browns), and a coffee. Lucy and I thought this sounded pretty good, so we ordered one also – to share. We also ordered 1 cinnamon roll – to share between the three of us! Now, let me say, the only ham, egg, and cheese croissant I’ve ever had in my life prior was at Burger King. I always thought they were pretty darned good. Whoa, Nellie!!! This thing was terrific! A huge, fresh, pretty croissant with a real slice of ham (no pressed meat!), and real eggs! Holy cow this was good!! The hash browns were pretty terrific also. We scarfed this down and moved onto the cinnamon roll! This was, as promised, DELICIOUS!! [img]graemlins/yuma.gif[/img] I think we scraped the plate clean! So much cinnamon, and so much frosting!! A good, sweet treat to get our blood sugar up for the day!! (Good-bye again, Dr. Atkins!)

After raising our blood sugar to about 10,000, we headed back outside into the heat. Lucy and I were ready for a smoke, and I knew there was a smoking area behind the Dawa Bar, so the three of us headed over there. Man, was it hot and sunny! Mom decided she would wait for us over in Mombasa Marketplace – in the a/c. As Lucy and I were taking a break, a family with two small children showed up. If you aren’t aware, this smoking area is just past the end of the bridge into Africa and overlooks the Discovery River. Of course, the two small children just had to climb up the wall and hang over to look at the water, and the “campsite” below. The poor parents were trying to take a short break, but had to spend the whole time pulling their kids off the wall. We chatted with the parents and kids, and then headed off to meet Mom.

The drummer fellow was set up in front of the store and a large crowd had gathered to watch him. He had several audience members participating with various instruments – we watched for a bit – very cool. We found Mom inside looking at jewelry. No purchases here!

Next up was the train ride and Rafiki’s Planet Watch. Nothing too exciting to report about this part. There did seem to be quite a bottle neck of people on the pathways to and from the Conservation Station building. We hopped back on the train for our return trip.

We passed on Kali River Rapids for now, and did the Maharajah Jungle Trek. The bats were “icky” as usual, and the tigers were sleeping, as they were the last time I was here. They are beautiful though, even in their sleep.

One of the things we wanted to be sure to do at AK was see the Tarzan Rocks! Show (I’d wanted to see it ever since reading Tikibird’s appraisal of Tarzan!) We checked our Times Guide and there was a show starting relatively soon, so we hotfooted it over to DinoLand USA. We really enjoyed this show – we didn’t have very good seats, but the performers cover a lot of territory, so there wasn’t much we missed. Tikibird – you weren’t kidding! Tarzan rocks!! [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] (If only he’d get rid of the wig!!) I’ll have to make sure the next time I’m back with the family that we see this show – my boys are big skateboard/rollerblade fans and would really like that part of the show!!

After Tarzan we were debating whether to leave or grab some lunch somewhere at AK. We decided we’d go back to the hotel for lunch and a swim – it was REALLY hot and sunny!! On the way out, we of course passed the Tree of Life and Mom suggested we try to catch ITTBAB! The posted wait time was 15 minutes and we figured we could handle that. We got in line in the hot sun and 35 minutes later we still had a ways to go. Mom was getting really hot, and starting to feel rather claustrophobic “trapped” in the line with no end in sight, so we ditched. Back to CS to cool off in the pool, grab some lunch, and see what marvelous concoction Max the bartender would be serving us today!

Back at the hotel, we changed into our swimsuits and headed for Siesta’s. We found 3 seats at the bar and ordered nachos. We chose rum runners for our drink today. I’d never had one before, and I must say – I will definitely have them again –as a matter of fact, I did, but that comes later in the report!

We munched on nachos, swam a bit, and enjoyed our rum-runners. As a matter of fact, we enjoyed several rum-runners! Boy, are they good! And, of course, Max made them just perfectly – a little extra rum down the straw!! We enjoyed a good “girls” chat – meaning we talked about anything and everything! Mom was really enjoying herself – much more than she thought she would! She told me, under the influence of alcohol, that she didn’t think she’d really enjoy this trip too much and even considered just coming with us the first day (to make sure we could get the Florida resident discount) and then having my dad pick her up. She was very happily surprised to find herself having the time of her life! Ha – she’s becoming a Disney freak, just like her daughter!! Disney magic can work on anyone!!

As the afternoon progressed (meaning sometime after our 3rd rum-runner) Max set up a “shot” for each of us. They looked like Baileys or something similar. “To the girls’ vacation!” he said. “Here, here!” Down the hatch – Holy Cow!! [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] What were those things?!?! They tasted like a very strong chocolate mint. They were good, but they were very strong. Max told us they were “jaegermints.” All I knew was that meant there was jaegermeister (sp?) in them!! Yikes – I’d had a bad experience with that stuff years ago and hadn’t touched it since! Lucy didn’t like hers much, so Mom and I split what was left of hers while Max made her something else. Thanks Max!!

We finally settled our bill, and stumbled (not really, I don’t think) back to the room to get ready to head to Epcot for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Mom, with the help of a nice little buzz, was game!!

We caught the bus, and apparently this driver was “lead-foot Lucy!” She drove fast and braked hard. We got the biggest fit of giggles about this!! The few other people on the bus probably thought we were nuts – but at the time it was hysterical!!

Back at Epcot, we got Mom on SE! She really enjoyed this ride as well, so we went back and did it again. This time, however, it stopped about 4 times while we were on it. We didn’t mind the stopping when we were relatively level, but when you are coming back down in the steep parts backwards, it is an odd sensation. We were ready to get off this time!

Next up was HISTA – fun show! This made us laugh quite a bit – I’m sure the rum-runners added the extra humor!!

Then it was onto the WS! We stopped in a gift shop near the Showcase Plaza and the character bus pulled up just outside. We watched for quite a while as the characters interacted with kids and grownups alike. Chip and Dale were wreaking all kinds of havoc – they were fun to watch.

Ok, on to Canada! (This was my favorite part!!) We took Mom through the shops in Canada, and as we exited Off-Kilter was just taking the stage!!! Now, if you remember, I mentioned a certain fondness for men in kilts earlier in the report. Plus, after reading Cheryl’s (chezp) report and review of this group, I couldn’t wait to see them!! OMG - I LOVE THEM!!!! [img]graemlins/love.gif[/img] Not only did they all look great in kilts (especially the lead singer/bagpiper – great smile as well), but their music was great (I also love bagpipes!) and they seemed to be having so much fun performing!!! I just wanted to sit there for the entire rest of the trip and watch them over and over!! I didn’t know any of their songs (now I do because I bought a CD – Celtic Armadillo – and it’s all I listen to anymore!), but I was dancing in my seat the entire time! Apparently I was fairly obvious in my enjoyment of the music, because as soon as they began to play “Goodbye Muirsin Durkin” (quite a dancing song), a very animated fellow in the audience, who’d been dancing the entire time, grabbed my hand and pulled me out to dance with him!! It was great fun! I probably looked like a fool – more rhythmic stumbling than dancing, but my partner and I had a blast!! I thanked him after the song and returned to my seat! This show was over with much too quickly!! [img]graemlins/cry2.gif[/img] At the end of the show, the band introduces each of its members, and when they introduced the lead singer/bagpiper as Jamie I almost fell off my chair! (Jamie is the name of the character I mentioned in my last post – my favorite romantic hero – he wears a kilt too!) It was my own private little magical moment – but Mom understood because she’d read the books I am referring to as well. I told her I was going to become a groupie!! “You’re too old!” she said. “Am not!! Just watch me!” Unfortunately, good sense got the better of me, and I realized that was just a “pipe” dream!! All too soon, we left the Canada pavilion and moved on to UK.

Next up – The rest of our long day at Epcot and PI… And How Much Did Mom Pay for Sauerkraut?

[ 07-05-2003, 01:39 PM: Message edited by: Tigger's Mom ]