Set the alarm for a bit earlier because we have to finish packing and ideally would like to get to the park after it opens with the early magic hours but before it opens to the general public. I figure if we're there by 8:30 we should be good.
Animal Kingdom
- wake up at 6:30 and get cleaned up and ready to go, head down for a western omelette at breakfast, check the luggage for the day and on the bus by shortly after 8 am
- get to Animal Kingdom by about 8:20 and the security lines and lines to get in are short which is nice - I was worried that the US Thanksgiving crowds getting bigger because of the way Hollywood Studios was yesterday but this morning is a pleasant surprise - down to more manageable levels - at least this time of day. Take a few snaps of yet another giant Christmas tree and head on in.
- First up is Kilimanjaro Safaris - it's at the back of the park so we walk through Discovery Island and over to Africa. Get some great snaps of Everest from the bridge to Africa. No line but the maze of what could be a line impresses upon us again how it is good to arrive early. We see all your typical zoo animals: lions, zebras, elephants, giraffe, etc. Catch a baby giraffe feeding from it's mother and you here all the ladies going "Awwww - sooo cute".
- A quick peek at Pangani Forest Exploration trail and we see a gorilla (my obligatory dad statement - "Hey Ethan, how did you get down there" - my dad always said that anytime he saw a picture of a monkey, orangutan or gorilla).
- Over to Asia and get a good snap of Ethan doing his thumbs up with the Tree of Life in the background. The Kali River Rapids are next. It's much warmer than yesterday but still a bit on the cool side - so I ask how wet you can get and they say "Anywhere from a few drops to like jumping into a pool". Hmm, ok, we'll pack the sweaters and they'll stay dry and we can put them on after if we need to. Disney thinks of everything and have electronically controlled (and free) lockers near the attraction so you can put your phone and anything else you want to ensure stays dry in it while you ride the ride. We hop right on and get a bit wet - more than a few drops - but not quite like jumping into a pool.
- Next up is the Maharajah Jungle Trek which is a walking tour of Asian animals. We see tigers, a komodo dragon, bats and lots of different kinds of birds. Someone says to me "Watch out sir" as I almost step on a little bird. That would have been a good sight for the kiddies - big man crushing cute little birdie.
- We have a snack at one of the restaurants in Asia and our visited by many of the feathered friends from the Jungle Trek. At one point it looked like it was going to be a scene from a Hitchcock movie.
- We are still early for our Expedition Everest FastPass by almost 30 minutes so we decide to give the standby line a shot even though it has a posted wait time of 30 minutes. It's a decently long line but seems to move fairly quickly. Didn't seem like 30 minutes, I'm guessing it was more like 20. Nice that they have stuff for you to look at for a good part of the line - which is why the wait probably doesn't seem that bad. Bells to ring and even a fountain in the queue are nice touches. Ethan is a bit nervous as I had heard the ride goes backwards so I say to him: "It might go backwards, but I'm not sure" - but again he is apprehensive but since things are moving, he doesn't have much time to get too nervous about it, since before you know it, we are headed up the big hill on the ride. He loves it and the moment we get off he's like "Let's go again!" - and we can since our FastPasses are now active and we walk right on for a second run. The second run was not as thrilling as the first but still fun.
- Time for an early lunch so I stop at Trilo-Bites in DinoLand USA to have a bit of a strange pulled BBQ chicken on a waffle sandwich. Still not sure if it was good or not - at least it was different than what I have been typically having. Apple slices instead of fries too - better.
- The "Finding Nemo - The Musical" show is scheduled for 12 so we head over there at about 11:30 and queue up. The theater fills pretty much completely and it's a cute show. When I first see the dudes doing the puppets I'm like "Uh, I can totally see that you are controlling the puppet", but there isn't much they do to try to hide the real performers. Ethan gets a little annoyed - a kid is kicking the seat behind us, but I use it as an opportunity to tell him why he shouldn't do that (as he was doing it the previous night at the Fanstamic show a bit). It amazes me how they can fill, empty, clean up and run a complete show in 40 minutes or so. Disney is good at herding large groups of people it seems.
- Over to the carnival area of DinoLand USA to ride the Primeval Whirl. We FastPass this ride too and avoid a 30 minute line. Would probably have skipped this ride if we didn't have a FastPass but it was OK given we didn't have to wait for it. We waited for at least 30 minutes for a similar one ("The Fly") at Wonderland.
- We have some time before our DINOSAUR FastPass so I let Ethan burn off some calories in The Boneyard. He is at the maximum age for this which tells me again that this was probably a perfect age to take him here. Lots of places for parents to sit and I take a look around and see each and every one of them buried with their noses in their smartphones (myself included at times - good time to connect back with home or check other attraction wait times). Of course now I have to find him which takes a bit of time and we head for DINOSAUR.
- We use our last FastPasses of the trip but wait a bit for some down time for the ride. Only about 5 minutes and then we were back on the ride. One of the teens in our buggy is teasing his little brother about "this is the scary part coming up". Ethan wasn't scared though - he liked the video at the end where it showed a dinosaur in the loading area of the buggies.
- Checking the lines, it looks like It's Tough to be a Bug has a 10 minute or less wait time and we're close so we head over there. We move quickly through the line but stand outside the auditorium doors for what seems like a good 10 minutes and it's a little claustrophobic. They finally pump some air in as it was getting hot with them squishing everyone into the pre-seating area and then shortly after they let everyone in. Someone must have miscounted as they had to usher some people back out as there was no place for them to sit. Good "4D" show with smells and physical sensations.
- We come out at the bottom of the Discovery Island tree and then check out some shops as I wanted to pick something up for Carrie and Ethan wanted to get some more souvenirs for himself. I get Carrie a Christmas Minnie Mouse ornament but Ethan can't find anything he likes in the store we were at. We head back to DinoLand for a more kid friendly store and Ethan picks himself up a Disney World novelty pencil and a Christmas light necklace for the Jingle Jungle parade. I grab a lollipop for Elliot - the same one I saw the first day at the Magic Kingdom.
- Last event here at Disney - the Jingle Jungle Parade is next. We get great seats next to an ice cream stand and I have an ice cream and Ethan has a snack before the parade. I'm feeling a bit of anxiety as I'm not sure when the parade will get to our location and if we are stuck in a post parade crowd to get back to the buses, and the buses back to the resort are busy, we do have a bit of a chance of being late for our bus back to the airport. Probably OK, but we'll have to leave straight after the parade.
- Ethan sits at street level while I stay back in the seat we had snagged and end up standing on it for some good snaps. One of the characters stops and talks to Ethan as he has all his Disney bling on: his mouse ears, his first visit pin, his Disney hoodie and his Christmas lights. Yep, Ethan got the full Disney experience. The parade is good with a holiday spin and Christmas music, but at the end we beeline it for the bus back to the resort.
- We just catch the bus as it's leaving for the resort, which is a good thing as they run every 20 minutes or so and that would have probably made us late.
Trip Home
- We get back to the resort around 4:45 and pick up our luggage. The luggage handler tells us that the bus that is just leaving is our bus and I'm like "What, I was told I should be at the bus stop no later than 5:10?" He corrected himself and realized he had the wrong time. We do a quick change into pants - it's cold back in Ottawa and it will be super late so don't really want to change then.
- Ethan plays a quick game of Space Invaders which is free in the Pop Century foyer. I make small talk with a family from Chicago.
- The Disney Magic Express bus is late by about 15 minutes but we still have plenty of time before our 9 pm flight. Disney thinks of everything and has a wrap-up video playing on the bus ride to pass the 30 minute ride back to the airport. Another nice little touch. A little bit of traffic but we are at the airport in good time. As we wait for our baggage to be unloaded at the aiport from the bus, Ethan is climbing a sign post and I tell him to get down. He doesn't listen, so I say "Ethan, if you don't come down, we are going home right now" and he was like "Uh, isn't that what we are doing?". Hmmm, I guess "You are going to stay right here" doesn't work in Disney World either cause that would be a good outcome for him too. Rats, I got nothing. Others chuckle at our interchange.
- I look for a sit-down restaurant and find an Italian place where I have my first sit-down table service dinner of the trip. I order a glass of white wine and some pasta and enjoy a slower meal than I've had in the past 4 days. Ethan draws a picture of his mom who he misses and is really well behaved waiting in the restaurant. We chat about how good of a time we have had.
- We go through security - looked like we were going to have to do the full body scan, but since I was with Ethan, we got to bypass that. Hit a coffee shop near the gate but the coffee was terrible and had a hugely overpriced chocolate bundt cake which wasn't very good. At least at Disney when you paid the big bucks for the food it was edible. Of course I still at the chocolate, but it tasted more like a $5 donut.
- We connect with home while waiting at the gate and Ethan passes time playing Little Alchemy on the iPod. It's clammy and uncomfortable in the Orlando airport - I'm kinda looking forward to the cool weather back home.
- We board the plane and Ethan's seat's window is not exactly beside him which upsets him a bit. He's going to be asleep soon anyway and he can kind of see out of the window, he just has to lean forward a bit. The plane takes off early and is planning an early arrival by about half an hour - sweet. We take off and fly right over the Magic Kingdom right at the time of the Wishes fireworks which the flight attendant says we can see, but neither Ethan or I see it.
- I watch Wolverine - Carrie would like this, there are some scenes with Hugh Jackman with his shirt off and he looks like he buffed up for the role. The movie is mediocre - I much preferred The Heat on the way down.
- At one point the flight attendant announces - "Is there a doctor or nurse on the plane - we have a bit of a medical situation that needs attention". The guy beside me stands up and disappears for like an hour. I kept thinking about the Airplane movies where Leslie Nielsen is the doctor and says "We need to get these people to a hospital." and the flight attendant says "A hospital? What is it?" to which Leslie says "A place where they keep sick people, but that isn't important right now." I am a little nervous that we will need to make an emergency landing though as the nurse runs up and down the aisle a few times with bottles of water. Later after the doctor and nurse were done, I go to the washroom and while in the washroom I hear the flight attendant announce: "If there is a police officer or paramedic on board, please identify yourself". Holy crap, what now? No idea what that was for or what the medical emergency ultimately was but never had that happen on a flight before.
- We land and go through Canada Customs fairly easily. They ask again about the letter from the mother for Ethan - good to know if we're ever travelling separately again. But no searching or more questioning which was good. Ethan had slept on the plane and woke up panicking trying to get his belt off. He was in a bit of a sour mood as he was tired which is understandable. Our bags took a while but once we got them, we headed back to the car, paid for parking and headed home.
- Got home about 1 am - Ethan fell asleep again in the car on the way home and I felt like it. Got in and woke up Winter and eventually Carrie who were both glad to see us. I started unpacking a few things Ethan and I needed for bed (toothbrush, etc.) and ended up unpacking everything (yeah, that's crazy). Got to bed around 2 am - what a trip!
Finally read your blog...amazing detail...thanks for the memories, even if Elliot and I couldn't go....:)
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