Hold on you your hats people!!
Day 4 Monday 25th June Animal Kingdom
We were a little sleepy still this morning but soon got ready DS holding on to is fan. We had to keep reminding him to only point it in his own direction and only to squirt himself, he caught a few unsuspecting passers by yesterday with the spray
there was a lot of people heading to AK . We had talked between ourselves about what we wanted to do in this park, the plan was to try to get on Expedition Everest
(another first time ride). So again off we went without a map straight over to Asia wishing the CMs a good morning we probably seemed a bit
We saw a line we thought was for the FP machines but it was the standby line only a 20 min wait. We joined the queue and decided to take our chances with the other rides later on
we were gonna just chill out. The FP queue was on the other side from where we entered, got to say we loved the theme of the buildings even DS saw stuff he knew. Some of it brought back memories of camping holidays for DH and myself
. DS and DH rode in front of me I got paired up with a single rider
just then it hit me what had I let myself in for? Then the guy asks me if I had ridden EE before so I looked at him sat there biting his finger nails and and gulped and replied no it was our first time. He laughed and told me he had done it 5 times already
Was that why he was nervous I thought to myself, and quickly stowed hats and bag and sunglasses and got strapped in. The boys seemed fine in front so I tried not to think about it. Then we were off OMG there was so much screaming (mostly from DS) but I was amazed by the whole ride up to the point my neighbour said get ready I asked what for he answered a huge drop and then your photo
before I knew it were were done and getting back out. We regrouped and asked DS what he thought about it he proclaimed "that was mint"!
we had to agree, and yes we got the photo it's priceless
As we left the area DS begged to go to Dino Land we wanted to ride Dinosaur anyway so off we skipped all the way to Triceratops Spin wher Ds insisted he wanted to ride.As we got in the line we realised there was a Dream Squad CMs ahead.They had already given out YOAMD Dream Fast Passes to everyone already on board.
Had we missed them we wondered when one of them walked down to the turnstile and said to DH "we'll be right with you sir" and a couple of minutes later as we waited in the boarding area for our turn they came back
The guy standing at the front told all the families stood waiting there that we had all won the FPs and handed them out all we could say was "WOW thankyou" we were very surprised.
From then we were buzzing with excitement almost dancing along to Dinosaur which seemed bumpier than usual and very dark. We were really feeling the heat and decided to find out when the next show of the Nemo musical was scheduled to begin. We were lucky it was an hour and ten minutes to show time so we got in line and the queue started to build all the way back to Chester and Hester's now that's some queue. We watched the family of the day get escorted past us and several more YOAMD Dream Squad CMs walk by. DS was complaining he was hot and tired we siad everyone feels the same just sit in the shade and drink some water. Soon the line moved and we went in. The show was outstanding a great mix of live performers and puppetry and wonderful songs and definitely worth the wait.
When we left the Nemo show we checked the time and decided to head back to the front of the park we had a lunch ADR at Rainforest Cafe. I found it strange how they let guests enter and exit there there was a desk (not manned) for guests with reservation but we had to join one queue where everyone was lined up wether they had reservations already or to make new ones. Didn't seem very well organised at all and the servers seemed to take ages to do anything. We had checked in at 12.45pmand seated in 10 mins but the drinks took until 1.20 pm
The surroundings were okay but the animatronics got very noisy. The food finally arrived around 1.40pm it's just as well we didn't have to dash out.We didn't bother with starters DS had the pasta kids meal (he argued about what sauce to have so ended up with butter on) DH had one of the burgers no cheese and I had the "planet earth" pasta nice but a little on the spicy side with the chorizo sausage balls. We didn't have room for desserts we were stuffed. Oh the boys had a quick restroom break before we left and said the facilities were not very clean.
On our way back out of there we chose some new hats south western style and went back in the park and were walking over to Camp Minnie-Mickey.
We got as far as the bridge when out of the blue two cast members asked how we were doing and wished DH a "Happy Birthday" . We said we were having a great day and that we had been on EE. then they asked who we were and where we were from so we told them their next question was ....
"How would you like to be in a parade"? We said "we would love to be in one", trying to stay calm and grinning like Cheshire cats at each other DS was giggling. So they asked what we were doing next and we said we were going to see the "Legend of the Loin King"show . They said that they would wait for us at a certain place in Africa at a designated time after the lion king show kicked out they knew it could take us a while to get across to them from where we were. So we smiled and said "Oh we'll be there don't worry" and we said our goodbyes until later. We could hardly contain ourselves we were so happy.
The wait for the show was so long it seemed like ages before we went in but we still enjoyed the performances.
We had tried to grab seats near the end of the row so we could make a quick getaway.We got to Africa to the meeting point and the CMs were pleasantly surprised how quickly we managed to get there. DH had picked up and carried DS from Camp Minnie-Mickey while we ran almost all the way over. We were given safari outfits to wear
They explained what was happening, we were on a blue float with Goofy in no time at all. Then we were off in the parade going around the park it was awesome watching people looking at us,we were waving and smiling at them, all the while they were taking our photos and catching us on camcorders
.We had been given a disposable camera so we took some picture too, it was very unusual but great fun and we had a blast! These are the cast members who picked us
So that's an amazing memory of this trip we'll always remember. We needed to chill out after all the excitement so once we snapped a few more quick photos we actually got to use our Dream FPs on Kilimanjaro Safaris and the Pangani Forest Trail and DH had a close up photo of the alpha male gorilla,he was about 17 years old, his trainers were working with him to allow the others to go in for the night.
DS decided to try to spot some of the birds. Almost before we knew it the time was 6pm and we went to Tough to be a Bug and thought about dinner. Not much was available Africa was closing and the line for Flame Tree BBQ was long. We decided to go grab EMH wristbands back to the hotel, here's where we hit a snag. The bus driver could not get the back door to close after he loaded a disabled persons wheelchair so dispatch had to send 2 more buses as the line of guests wanting to return was long. By the time we got back and freshened up and headed to the food court it was 9 pm!! We decided to call it a day.
Of all the cast members in the parks the ones working in MGM and AK have been the most friendly and attentive to guests so far always smiling and happy.
, I was heartbroken for her
.
We were soon in the park and headed to the desk to get locker rental ($10 for a small one but you get $5 back on returning the key) and picked up a life vest for DS. The place was already busy so we headed over to Tikes Peak and DS disappeared for a while so we kept a look out for him. He did run back occasionally to tell us what he was doing etc.The strong sun made my arms itch so I had to go back to the shop for some Solarcaine to soothe it.From then on we did most of the rides including the lazy river. DS had lots of fun crossing the "ice breakers" . We broke for lunch at Lottawatta Lodge which wasn't very busy at the time and sat at a table quietly while we ate. We watched a family walk across to the table in front and the dad put down the tray of food leaving the kids to sit down while he got napkins etc. Just as he turned his back a flock if birds swooped over the table and grabbed some fries right out of the packaging and took off. The dad had just returned and seen the birds eating the fries and told off the son for feeding them the poor child was trying to explain and getting angry saying he had not fed them they grabbed them from the tray. We said to the dad his son was correct we had seen the whole thing happen so he reluctantly let it go.
)
