Wednesday, January 14th, 2004

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Animal Kingdom:

If you're traveling with a pet, Animal Kingdom offers the opportunity to include them in your family photo at the gate! This is because the kennel is inside the turnstiles. The Photo CMs will be thrilled to include doggy in the picture. They were for us!

Must-do list:

Get to the opening. I plan to bring my Simba Mickey to do "The Presentation". John doesn't know this.

See the Lion King show to see the difference with the building enclosed.

See Pocohantas and her forest friends. John says it's part of our nostalgia trip.

See the wild bird show.

Jammin' Jungle Parade.

Stay in the park until dark -- or until they throw us out, whichever comes first. We want to see the park lighting.

I sing as I put in my contacts. Suddenly remembering my roommate, I look around wildly to make sure I'm not being recorded on the camcorder!

Oh we slept in so late! We miss the park opening and John is spared the Presentation of Simba Mickey.

I drive (illegally! I'm not on the rental car agreement. Oh the rebellion!). There's something so fun about being the one following the purple street signs.

John gets a wonderful meal at Tusker House -- a salmon that melts in the mouth, he says. And of course, his traditional piece of carrot cake. I help him eat that.

John says the meerkats are just like me: cute, little, sociable, and armed with sharp teeth and claws.

John insists I put in that we're trying for a "little souvenier". For those of you who have seen the Disney Cruise commercial, you'll understand.

The Lion King show enclosed lives up to and passed our expectation. We've always loved this show, but now it's even brighter! The lighting is wonderful. We told a CM we thought so, and she said they really did it so they could air condition (or heat) the theater, but she will happily pass along that we found it made the show even better.

We do have to wait now for them to clear the floats before the audience can exit. I wondered why: more room for to people to exit or were people screwing with the floats?

John goes to "Flights of Wonder" to see a show he hasn't seen in awhile. I also enjoy seeing the Bald Eagle, the owls etc., but confess that I really go to see that one bird WHACK the little rubber alligator!

We're so glad we watch the Jammin Jungle Parade! We forgot how much fun it is and the great look of the costumes and floats. Plus!

• Chip gave me a hug.

• Gator man gave me a wink! I still got IT! Pasty white legs and all!

I see the toy poodle helper dog again. I'm telling you, I could slap a couple saddle bags on Casey and get her in the parks!

We don't see the park in the dark, but we do see it at sunset. The rosy light on the Tree of Life is fantastic! And even in this twilight, the park lighting is pretty.

Hey! We get to help at "Dinosaur"! OK, we just hold the little tag that allows them know how long we waited in line. But you never saw anyone take such a task to such dramatic responsibility!

We don't look to see what parking lot or space we're in! We have only a rough idea where we're parked based on coming "in from the left". Oh boy!

We go to see Pocohantas and her forest friends. C'mon! I look more more Native American than she does! And I'm Irish-American (or, as John and I like to say, a McAmerican)! The Sprig animontronic seems better though.

Nothing like coming out of the Lion King show to see someone picking her nose. It outta be a pin, but who would want to wear such a gross thing?

The Pangani Trail closes at 5 pm, so thinking of staying to dark walking around it isn't making us late enough.

Along the Jungle Trek, we notice mesh along the bridge. The CM tells us, sadly, people were dropping things -- meaning trash -- into the enclosure! This is even more sad because Animal Kingdom received visitors from Washingon (State) Zoo who were stunned by this. They have open enclosures too with no problems with guests dumping things into them. They say they are stunned by the lack of respect.

Only 2 days left in our vacation!!

While looking at the deer and kangaroos, we see this group of two families. The kids ask to go to a ride, and the mothers (I still can't believe this) tell them, "You can't have fun at this park." John has to drag me away before I attack them. He teases me that Disney has a no "slapping other families" policy.

Dinoland: John, tired of being a Pal Mickey widower, argues we should no longer do pins, Pal Mickey, trip reports or Hidden Mickeys. In trying to grab Pal Mickey, he knocks PM to the ground! Somehow, PM gets shut off and we don't know it until Africa. It goes without saying, this is an argument that took Disney magic to save -- Disney Magic and Primeval Whirl slamming against each other, making us hold on to each other!

I accidentally brush my teeth with hair gel! The bottles are both blue with sliding tops! And then I don't put any gel in my hair!

The bachelor gorillas run around in a fantastic show of Hide-n-seek which keeps the crowd glued forever! The young male across the way, smaller and younger and still living with Mom & Dad, beats his chest like Tarzan to show the other single males that he is also "all that"!

All along the Pangani Trail and the Jungle Trek, people crowd around me to listen to Pal Mickey talk about the animals.

As we pass by the first tiger enclosure, John says that would really make the marathoners earn those medals: have a Tiger Encounter as the last part of the marathon!

He also had to say his usual, "You know if they just put the tiger in with these deer..."

I said let's get a SNACK! We end up with a basket of fries for me, onion rings for John, and many cups of BBQ sauce. I can say this: we are well qualified to recommend the french fries, onion rings, AND the BBQ sauce at Flame Tree Barbecue! AND John -- who is an expert on the topic -- rules their key lime pie the best ever!

A hand dryer in Harambe keeps blowing and blowing. Four of us use it and it still goes. Perpetual hand dryers... only in Disney!

We go to the Conservation Station since we haven't seen it in a while, and because we figure the trip will enable us to keep us to the closing hours. We get on the train, and I notice we're the only ones. John says, "We have the train to ourselves." The CM overhears us and says, "That's right. Nobody else can come onboard."

On the way out to the parking lot, we joke about not knowing where we're parked, saying we'll have to beg cast members how to get to "Yak 53". And when we stay past the closing hours for Conservation Station, we wonder if we've missed the last train and will have to be helicoptered out of the park! We honestly do feel guilty about making the cast members stay late to run the train (thankfully, not just us on the train this time!).

Walk down memory lane:

When Kim & I were here for our "Girls gone wild at WDW" weekend, I bought a Minnie Mouse beanie with her all decked out in AK gear. Waiting in line, Kim made Minnie talk: "Hi! I'm a paid companion!"

At the end of Kilimanjaro Safaris, he says, "I'm so glad Little Red is okay! Those poachers are lucky! I was going to -- " and he goes on in this angry little voice about what he would have done to the poachers!

Favorite pictures (click thumbnail for larger photo):

Romantic moment for a PDA (Public Display of Affection)

We walk arm in arm in the sunset of the park, all alone on the path.

This is about how my little computer helped us:

I didn't want to eat at Tusker House, so I look up the menus to find what vegetarian options AK offers.

Harambe sweat pants! Not only are they great looking, they were half price!

I saw a woman wearing them and followed her almost all the way to the exit before I get a chance to ask her!

When we buy the sweatpants, the (male) cast member asks if I know what Harambe means. I say yes, confused because who wouldn't? He says he just had a woman put the pants on then come to him, stick her behind in his face and say, "What does this mean?"

Pixie stick!! Chester's has a station to create your own Pixie stix! John and I have a blast doing this!

Downtown Disney:

Comdey Warehouse: Cool! I get a suggestion for interesting careers into the show: novelist because I'm distantly related to James Michener (my grandmother's cousin)

At the Adventurer's Club, we hang out in the main salon for the whole night, watching people talk with the characters.

While the characters are fun at the Adventurer's Club, it's overrun with conventioneers. They apparently lack creativity because every one of them -- including the women -- are in khaki pants and dark polo shirts. They also all carry a plush guitar, and lack common courtesy. They never look where they swinging the things and we, along with a lot of other people, are hit with them repeatedly and are never given an apology.

The conventioneers are filling the Adv. Club, cheerleaders fill the island! They're just as rude. I'll be glad when they are gone.

I poop out early. I tried holding on, but can't do the whole night. I got a major headache and needed to crash. The Colonel flirted with me though.

Read Day 6