Merrie May Travels - Part 2
May 2, 2011
Who: Gene & Me
Plan for the Day:Check in Animal Kingdom Lodge
Magic Kingdom
Citrico’s for Dinner
When I left off, we were still in the air and on our way to Orlando. It’s now 10 p.m. so I will cover most of what we did today but, because I’m very tired, will leave comments on our accommodations to another post.
Our flight landed early - before 9! Yay! We quickly disembarked and made our way to the tram. Well, this is different! You can no longer see into the tram cars when the tram is in the station. Very strange. Wonder what prompted that change! From there, we make our way to the luggage carousel where we were met by our limo driver, Jack. “Hi! Jack” we both intoned when introduced. To which he responded “You can’t say hijack in an airport!” Our bags didn’t take very long to spew out of the mysterious background world from which luggage magically appears. Jack led us to his car and loaded our bags into the trunk. One quick stop at Publix for a “few” things which cost more than $60! Yikes!
In discussion with Jack along the way to Disney, we learned he moved to the area 55 years ago to work for a construction company. That company, he said, went on to build most of the roads to and through Disney and the monorails. He states he had met both Roy Disney and Walt, himself and describes Walt as a very nice man.
Jack makes his way to Jambo house. While Gene takes care of the bill for the limo ride and gets the luggage sorted out for storage, I go in to check in. Check in is quick and easy and is completed before Gene has finished settling the luggage. As I suspected, our room is not ready but they promise to leave me a voice mail message when it is available. Although I don’t know our room number yet, I know we will be on the 5th floor and on the Usima Savanna. I’m pleased with that location. On our last stay here, we were on the Sunset Savanna which is the first time we’ve stayed in that area and would not want to stay there again. For the whole trip, we saw only one animal, an Ankele Cattle who essentially hung out there the whole time we were there.
I meet Gene at the door as he is on his way in and I’m on my way out to find him. We’re both hungry and decide our first order of business will be to find some nourishment once we reach the Magic Kingdom. We head to the bus stop where we find busses for every possible destination (except the Magic Kingdom) all lined up. There are two buses for Animal Kingdom; one for Epcot; one for Disney Studios and even one for Magic Kingdom. About five minutes after the bus jam disappears, a bus for the Magic Kingdom appears. We pile on and find the bus to be quite full. We’re lucky to have found seats! The question as to how long it takes comes up often on the boards so, according to the clock on board the bus, it takes about 16 minutes from the Animal Kingdom Lodge to the Magic Kingdom bus stop (once our bus begins to actually move away from the bus stop).
Surprisingly, we are on board the bus before 10:30 a.m – earlier than I expected. We are let off the bus into a literal sea of people! Wow! I’ve never seen May so busy! Despite groups of people coming from every direction – ferry, monorail, boats, and busses, we find an overlooked security line and are in a few moments. Also, there is no line to get through the turnstile into the park itself. Since our room was not ready, we are carrying some stuff with us that we would not normally bring to the park so we stop to rent a locker. That completed, we begin our walk up Main Street. The first thing we notice is that the colors on the buildings are so much more vibrant than they used to be. I’m really liking this change in color scheme! The walk up Main Street is rather slow as it’s a circuitous route to avoid all the other folks also walking up Main Street. At one point, I practically push Gene into another gentleman in order to avoid being rammed by a back to back double stroller!
We stop at Plaza Restaurant even though we do not have a reservation. My plan had been to dine at Cosmic Ray’s but Plaza has no problem accepting us without a reservation though they will not officially open for another 10 minutes or so. We hang out and are the third party paged upon which we are led into a mostly empty restaurant. I order a turkey sandwich with a vanilla shake. Gene has a tuna sandwich with iced tea. We are both much happier after we have filled our tummies!
Now, we venture out into the park. The day is sunny and warm – but not terribly humid which is nice. Our first stop is the Swiss Family Treehouse. Gosh! Is there really a line and is it really backed up? It is -but still it moves along nicely and we, once again, have the opportunity to admire the ingenuity of this shipwrecked family. The standby line for the Jungle Cruise is 40 minutes so we opt to get fast passes. I need to insert my ticket several times before the machine spews out a ticket for me. I was beginning to think my ticket had not properly logged me into park entry but just as I began to speak to a cast member about the lack of a fast pass, I inserted the ticket one more time and was, this time rewarded with the fast pass I was seeking.
We head to Aladdin’s Carpets. We get on line and we walk and we walk and we walk and now we’re around the back side of the ride and I am beginning to realize that the line is far more extensive than we first thought it was. Let’s see – looks like a 40 minute line for 3 minute ride. Think we’ll save this for another time. We backtrack and exit the line. Instead, we go to Pirates of the Caribbean. This line is incredibly long as well! It not only snakes back and forth in the plaza area but also extends into the walkway outside the plaza. Still, it moves quickly.
Exiting this area, we thread our way (literally) through the masses to the train station in Frontierland. We take a leisurely train trip around the park. We’re both quite thirsty and dry so stop and buy a couple of waters. Very refreshing though expensive (After this, we’ll be bringing our own water which we purchased on our grocery stop)! We pick up fast passes for Big Thunder Mountain and then go and use our other fast passes for the Jungle Cruise. This was a rather unsatisfying ride. We were seated on the water side of the boat though we usually end up on the dock side. This pleased me. However, the speakers on the boat were not working very well and it was very difficult to hear the driver over the sound of the engine. I only know what she was saying because I know most of the spiel so well.
There’s still some time before we can use our Big Thunder fast passes so we wander into Frontierland. Country Bears is just loading as we walk by so we quickly enter at the back of those heading into the theater. The theater is not full and we enjoy the antics of Big Al and crew before heading back into the bright sunlight.
It’s now time for a wild train ride so we head there. On the way, I notice that the river boat is in operation. I thought it was going down for refurb effective today – maybe it’s down after today? As we head to Thunder Mountain, they are beginning to put up the ropes for the 3 o’clock parade. We relinquish our fast passes and pretty quickly tour the mountain. We decide to make the River Boat our last ride of the afternoon – given its uncertain future and the chance it will not be running when we return. We make it on board and enjoy our circular trip. Once we disembark, it is almost time for the 3 o’clock parade to begin. Fortunately, we are able to make it down Main Street unencumbered.
We gather our belongings from the locker and turn in the key. There is an Animal Kingdom bus at the stop but there is also a very long line. I don’t think we’ll make in on board. Folks stop boarding when the driver announces that it’s standing room only. Another family boards and we do as well. We’re the last on board and barely fit across the yellow line. Still, it means we don’t need to stand and wait for another bus to come along. We might be old but we’re not so old that we can’t stand for 15 minutes or so!
At Kidani Village, we board a man in a scooter who has a prosthesis. When he sits down, a young boy next to us looks at him and says “Is that a fake leg?” He responds that he is. Whereupon the boy inquires as to what happened. The man said “I had a boo-boo.” Perfect response for a youngster!
Back at Jambo House, we get off not
knowing if our room is ready or not. It’s not quite 4 yet and we haven’t received the promised voice mail with our room number. Now there is a long line at the check in desk. I go stand in line there and Gene heads over to concierge. Here is where something surprising happens! While I’m in line, a cast member walks down the line offering free cold bottled waters to those in line from a basket she is carrying! I’ve never seen Disney hand out free bottled water before!
Gene is able to get our room number from concierge who explains they had a “technical problem” and had been unable to send out the voice mails with room numbers. We head up to our room. We have a one-bedroom that is close to the elevator. Inside, I do my bed bug check which passes my inspection. Gene calls for our bags and they arrive a short time later.
We unpack and get settled in. I check out the balcony which is quite large but still only has 2 chairs and 1 small table on it. I see giraffes, tommies, ankele cattle, eland, and some birds – already more animals than I saw in my entire stay here on the other savannah.
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Thread: Merrie May Travels - Part 2
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