The Promise of Spring: Flower & Garden Festival 4.0 -- A Cam and Luke TR COMPLETED 8/27 About This Page:

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Day 1 Part 1 – Thursday, April 27, 2017

As I start this trip report, it is now the evening of Monday, 5/15. I had a list of tasks to get done this morning and then I planned to begin writing. But it was very pleasant today and we’ve been discussing on our walks the past few weeks that we needed to sweep out and reorganize the garage, so guess what we did. We worked for three hours clean up the garage. Now it's 9:45 and I’m determine to at least get a few paragraphs of this trip report written up.

First, a confession. I took fair notes for three days, the fourth day the notes get very sketchy, and then totally disappear completely until day 11 when I made a total of three sentences. As cute as my Southern accent may be to some folks, Siri and the Notes app can’t seem to figure out what I’m saying so I gave up on that method after one attempt this time. I’m really hoping using the photos, the receipts, what notes I did take, and picking Luke’s memory, I’ll have some stories to tell you about our adventures. I do enjoy doing these trip reports. I just don’t enjoy taking notes anymore.

The adventure began at 7:10 AM when I couldn’t sleep anymore. My notes say I had breakfast and read, but what I ate specifically is now a mystery to me. Once Luke was up, I did a little packing and then started getting ready around 8:30. Unfortunately, while getting ready I made a mess that required a small load of laundry that was left to hang dry in the bathroom while we drove off for vacation. This cleanup delayed our start by about 15 minutes, but we’d given ourselves a cushion of time. So instead of a 10 o’clock departure, we left at 10:20.



As we pulled out of the garage, the thermometer read a chilly 52 degrees. The day was overcast all the way to Nashville and the temperature creeped upward very slowly. We ran into some construction on the Natcher, but it didn’t really mess with the flow of traffic. We only made one stop for the restroom at a little town called Franklin near the Kentucky-Tennessee border.

By 12:30 we arrived at Executive Travel & Parking where we dropped off the Edge for the next 11 days.



A shuttle drove us to the airport, dropping us at the Southwest terminal. Luke had noted on the airport’s website that we could now do a self-check of our bags. Perfect, especially as there was no line in front of us for these. We printed our tags, and then moved to where each suitcase was weighed and sent on the conveyor to be loaded on our plane. Bye bye, luggage. See you at the resort later tonight! I was so excited about flying again, arriving at MCO, riding DME to Animal Kingdom Lodge, and our luggage magically appearing in our room.

Neither of us had gotten TSA Pre-check, which was a little disappointing. But in the end didn’t really matter as the lines were short all the way through security. For the first time in forever (Are you now singing that song from Frozen? Sorry!), our flight was departing from a nearby gate, Gate C7. We didn’t have to walk the entire length of the terminal to get to our gate. Really, we are almost always at the gate farthest from security.



We found a comfy spot to wait for boarding, and Luke headed off to get lunch. He did ask before he left what I wanted, and I told him to surprise me. He chose Burger King and was back in a few minutes. He asked me to guess what he’d gotten, and I ran through ever item I have ever purchased there. The response was : to every one of these. Surprise! The airport Burger King serves hot dogs with fries. Who knew?! On the receipt these are identified as classic dogs. In fact, these dogs were fully dressed with ketchup, mustard, and relish. Lots and lots of condiments. Delicious, but oh so messy.

Shortly after we’d finished our hot dogs and licked our fingers clean, my phone announced a text. I pulled it out of my bag and was shocked to see a text from Disney letting me know our room at Animal Kingdom Lodge Jambo House was ready. Really, we haven’t even boarded our plane and I know we are going to be in room 5303. We boarded right on schedule. It was a full flight and a gentleman who was flying standby was excited when he found an aisle seat in our row just waiting for him. Our plane landed around 5:30 PM EDT, but didn’t get to the gate for debarkation until 5:40. Since our seats were close to the front, we were off fairly quickly with a quick stop at the restrooms. From there we boarded the fake monorail to the main airport center.

We walked Level 3 where it is prettier than the bottom level, and then took the down escalator and elevator to Level 1. Once we reached Disney Magical Express check in we had a short wait for our line assignment. We were the second couple in the Animal Kingdom Lodge line. But we were surrounded on all sides by herds of cheerleaders who were excitedly waiting for their DME buses to arrive. An accident on the interstate had caused a delay for any buses arriving at the airport. The cheerleaders were so cute cheering whenever their line was selected for the next bus. Finally, at about 6:30, a bus arrived for those of heading to Animal Kingdom Lodge. The first stop was Coronado Springs, but we were the next stop. At the resort we immediately headed to Kudu Trail and room 5303. We both walked straight to the balcony to check out the view. What did we see first? A giraffe, of course.





Plus some wildebeests.



And Zebras and Somali Wild Asses



As well as Thompson's Gazelles



I turned to the right and realized we could see Arusha Rock from our balcony, too. Score!





While we were watching this bird, Luke noticed some wildlife that we often in our own backyard. Rabbits! Three of them on the fringes of the savanna.









I managed a few photos of the room and our view, but then we really had to get a move on as our dinner reservation was quickly approaching. We had originally planned on an earlier flight and had made our reservation for 5:30. So as soon as we booked our flights, knowing we wouldn’t arrive in Orlando until 5:35ish, I had moved the reservation later to 8:00 PM.















NEXT: Now would we make it despite the DME bus delay at the airport?