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Day Six – Thursday, January 13, 2005 – Brazilians,
Golf Shirts and “That was Wishes?”
I was up at 6:30, the others at 7:00. We had decided to go to AK
today. Because Michelle wasn’t feeling well, we missed a few
attractions and she and Barb had missed the Safari. Steph decided
to stay at the BW today. She was going to relax a bit and then get
in her run and workout.
We arrived at AK just before opening. We had a CM take our picture
again – this time with our hands cupped holding baby Simba.
I gave him the card I got from the MK and he swiped it so the pictures
will, presumably, be together for viewing.
They held us at a rope just past the Oasis while the opening ceremony
took place. We were standing in a crowd of several hundred people
watching Mickey, Minnie and Goofy go through the park opening performance.
A couple of folks were behind Stephen and he realized they were
trying to see over him, which, since he’s 6’ 4”,
is no easy task. He stepped a bit to one side to afford them a view
and… it happened. The guy behind him was the leader of a Brazilian
Tour Group. He raised his flag and started weaving his way through
the crowd until he was right at the rope. He was followed by 30
blue-shirted (Brasilia tee shirts) teens… followed by another
tour guide with a flag and another group of 30-40 teens. They basically
just pushed their way through until they were all at the front.
Now we have several hundred people queued up waiting for rope drop
and watching this show. What made these 2 groups think it was OK
to just ignore them and move in front? Damn, this stuff makes me
angry.
The ceremony concluded and the rope dropped. We made our way, with
most of the crowd, to Harambe and the Safari. Except… we needed
to stop for a restroom break on the way. Stephen, Will and I waited
out front and estimated that we just let about 150 people in line
ahead of us.
We finally got to KS and walked through the queue. We had only
a 3-4 minute wait before boarding a bus. For some reason, the CM
assigned the 5 of us to a single row in the vehicle. We’re
not overly large people and we fit, but barely. All the other rows
had 4 and we would have happily split into 2 groups. I guess we
should have said we were a group of 3 and 2.
The Safari was a good one although we only saw one of the baby
elephants this time. Both the lion and the lioness were out in full
view but, oddly, no giraffes were visible at all.
We exited KS and walked through the Pangani Forest Trail. I really
like this because you can spend as much or as little time as you
want with the various animals and exhibits. The gorillas were mostly
moving through the brush toward the rear of the viewing areas. There
was a large silverback that was sitting, with his back to the crowd,
no more than 30 feet from us. He was simply sitting and staring
at the rock in front of him. Do gorillas meditate?
We walked toward Asia intending to visit the Maharajah Jungle Trek
(MJT) next but noticed that a Flights of Wonder (FoW) show would
be starting in a couple of minutes. We started to head there until
Barb and Michelle decided it was time for another restroom visit.
I sent Stephen and Will in to grab some seats while I waited outside
for the girls.
I’ve seen this show 3 times and, even though it changes little,
I still enjoy it. Will had the honor of being picked to stand up
and hold a dollar bill in his hand while a bird flew out to retrieve
it. I did notice that the ‘condor-vulture’ thing that
flies low over the crowd (and hit me in the head with his wing in
November) has been changed to a smaller hawk.
After the show, we grabbed FPs for Kali and then walked the MJT
looking at bats and watching the tigers sleep.
Now it was time for a ride on Kali River Rapids (KRR). It was essentially
a walk-on so we didn’t even use the FPs. I noticed (again)
that while riding through the burning rain forest, you can clearly
see the construction on Expedition Everest. It’s coming along
nicely. You can see the metal grid framing and most of the coaster
tracks (what appears to be the beginning climb looks very long and
very steep). They’ve begun putting the ‘skin’
over the framing as well. My guess is that in a couple of week’s
time, it will resemble a mountain.
KRR was fun, as always, but seemed to be missing something. Other
than the one drop, it was a relatively calm (and fairly dry) ride.
I recall a great deal more spinning, bouncing off walls and splashing
water on previous rides. Maybe it’s me.
I stayed fairly dry but Barb and Michelle, particularly Michelle,
caught a lot more water over the drop. Fortunately, it was in the
80s again, and sunny, so drying out should be no problem.
We left the park and the rode the bus back, exiting at the Swan
– the first stop. From the Swan, we noticed a fire engine
and EMT truck behind the BW, near a construction area. I suspected
there might have been an accident on the site.
We walked back to the BW. As we passed Big River Grille we could
see some commotion up ahead. There was a lot of water on the sidewalk
in front of the Screen Door. Water was dripping off the balcony
above and quite a stream was flowing out of the drainage pipe. There
were CMs sweeping water out of the store. The lights in the store
were out and it appeared that a large area had been roped off and
a lot of the merchandise was wet. Upstairs, we noticed another fire
truck and EMT vehicle parked in front of the hotel. I’m suspecting
it was a second floor water leak but the presence of the fire equipment
may indicate a fire and/or deployment of the sprinkler system.
We went back up to the room to get Steph and freshen up a bit.
As long as we had the rental car, I wanted to make a shopping trip
to the Belz Outlets to visit the Character Warehouse and Character
Premier (is that name right?). I had never been but had heard a
lot about some great deals there.
I went down to retrieve the car but first stopped at Guest Services
to verify the directions I had. The very nice CM went into another
room and brought me a 2-page document with directions to Belz and
a bunch of other malls, supermarkets, tourist attractions, etc.
I asked about the BW water problem and he said “We’re
aware of it”. I said I realize that but I was wondering about
the cause. Was it the sprinkler system? He kind of shrugged. Was
it a water pipe break? He said, “Yes. It was a water pipe.”
For some reason, I wasn’t buying it. I’m still betting
on a small room fire and a sprinkler deployment. And I can understand
why CMs would not be eager to explain that to a guest.
I went outside to get the car. As I was waiting, two pickup trucks
pulled up: One from the All Stars Resorts and one from Coronado
Springs. One had 4 or 5 of those large blowers that are used to
dry floors, the other 4 or 5 large shop vacs. Apparently, the Boardwalk
had sent out the ‘Code Red’ on the water leak problem.
We piled in to the Grand Caravan, went up I4 to 75A and found I-Drive.
From there, we saw the sign for Belz but it took several tries and
laps around the buildings to find the right 2 buildings that housed
the Disney outlets.
We found the Character Warehouse first and I bought 2 golf shirts.
One was grey with a black collar and armbands that has Walt Disney
World on the chest. It sells in the parks for $39. I got it for
$11.99. Woo Hoo. I also bought a Greg Norman, with the Disney/Mickey
logo. In the parks for $79.99, my price $24.99. We also picked up
a globe ($12). There were lots of good buys, but not much in the
areas that we were interested. We walked to the next building and
found Premier but the selections were very similar. I still call
the trip a success.
Stephanie had noticed a Couch store at the Premium Outlets and
asked if we could stop there. I decided to drive International Drive
all the way down for some sight-seeing. Big mistake. I-Drive, which
I haven’t seen in a number of years, is very, very tacky.
What wasn’t tacky was swarming with the 100,000 people that
were coming in for a Home Builders Show/Convention.
We hit the Premium Outlets and I gave everyone 35 minutes to do
whatever they want. I wound up buying two tee shirts in the Nike
Outlet. Will bought a Polo shirt. No one else bought anything. The
girls visited Couch and found a 50% off sale but apparently the
$450 list price for a purse scared them off.
We headed back to the BW and I stopped at the Hess station at the
corner. Regular was $1.75 which is a bargain when you’re from
New York. Gas up here is currently over $2 per gallon. I also noticed
that the Hess price on soda (2 12-packs for $6) was less than what
we had paid at Publix. Live and learn.
We were back in the room at 3:45, freshened quickly and back out
at 4:15 for a bus to the MK. I had a 5:20 PS at the Liberty Tree
Tavern (LTT) and we arrived a few minutes early. I checked us in
and we were seated in about 5 minutes.
Our server was Raymond, from Puerto Rico (is this a trend?). We’ve
eaten here several times before and I’ve always enjoyed it.
The menu is family style – turkey, stuffing, flank steak,
roasted pork loin, mashed potatoes, gravy and carrots. It’s
also a character meal and we get lots of attention from Minnie,
Goofy, Chip and Dale, and Pluto.
Just after we were seated, Raymond asked who Stephanie was and
told her to leave the table. He didn’t ‘ask’ her,
he ‘told’ her. It took me a while to figure out who
he reminded me of but it finally clicked. His demeanor and accent
were Hank Azaria’s character in ‘Birdcage’. Anyway,
with Steph gone, he asked if we wanted to purchase a birthday cake.
Sure, why not?
Steph returned and we enjoyed our dinner. Minnie took a particular
liking to Stephen. He got a back rub, several hugs, and a bunch
of kisses. I threatened to tell Mickey, but Minnie didn’t
seem too concerned. As we finished dinner, several servers came
over, rang a bell and announced Steph’s birthday to the room.
She was becoming embarrassed by this but still gave us a bit of
“Happy Birthday to me…” The servers don’t
sing but they do recite something to the tune of Yankee Doodle Dandy.
They rip through it so fast that I caught very few of the words.
The chocolate cake had a candle that Steph blew out and the cake
was very good. I joked with Steph that with all these birthdays,
she’s now 34 years old.
At one point during dinner, the table next to us cleared out. Raymond
was there cleaning up and complaining. There was a fair amount of
‘debris’ on the table, seats and floor. He said he didn’t
need to pick up like this after his own children and shouldn’t
need to after someone else’s. While I agree with him, I don’t
think he needs to be making these statements to other guests.
We finished dinner and walked across Liberty Square to snag a spot
for viewing SpectroMagic. We found a pretty good spot at the beginning
of the wooden deck that runs along the river to FrontierLand. While
there, we had 3 adults come by, hop the fence, plow through some
shrubbery and take up a spot on the street. All that to avoid walking
about 30 feet around a corner. When I’m in charge of Disney
Security, I’m issuing stun guns to the CMs for these occurrences.
It began to sprinkle just a bit. Our first taste of anything other
than sunshine and 80 degrees. The forecast is calling for rain Friday
(our last full day) and cooling temperatures.
We enjoyed SpectroMagic. I haven’t seen it up close in a
number of years. When the parade ended, the rain had stopped but
it was getting windier. We walked up through FantasyLand with the
intention of finding a spot for Wishes.
Somehow, we wound up on the first bridge to the hub, not the TomorrowLand
bridge. There were open benches which surprised me but we set up
camp. Too late, I realized we were looking at the side of the Castle,
not the front. We were also very close.
Tinkerbell did not fly tonight – probably due to the wind.
Wishes was nice but our angle was bad. We were so close that all
the fireworks were well to the right of the Castle. We were also
so close that the fireworks were loud enough to obscure most of
the soundtrack. I was not happy. I had built Wishes up and I didn’t
think this was a sampling worth judging. Maybe we’ll try again
tomorrow.
After Wishes ended, we waddled out of MK and caught a waiting,
and uncrowded, bus to the BW. I settled for a beer on the balcony
while I watched IROE. I couldn’t hear the music and I only
saw the higher fireworks – but it was nice.
Things I Think I Think – I think some people (Brazilian Tour
Groups) have no problem inconveniencing others as long as they are
accommodated. I think they need to restrict the KS jeeps to 4 to
a row. I think I’ll try and hit the Belz Outlets more often
– there are some nice buys. I think I-Drive has gotten really,
really tacky in some areas. I think I’m finally done with
Steph’s birthday. I think I screwed up on Wishes and didn’t
offer the first-timers a fair opportunity to judge it.
Day 7...
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