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© Lisa Cubbon, 2003
Who: Andy and Lisa Cubbon (over 50, retired and no kids at home!)
When: November 9-12
Where: Animal Kingdom Lodge
It was time for a return trip to WDW! We were there for a week in August, just before my birthday and now we had a dance competition in Plant City November 8th so of course, a small diversion to WDW was in order before heading back home to start the holiday festivities. When the Annual Pass rates came on in September I jumped on the phone to our travel agent and we got three nights at $149 per at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, Savannah view that means animals!!! If this resort was not to far away from the other parks, I think we would stay there all the time. It’s great to wake up in the morning, throw open the drapes and see Giraffes, Bongos, Impalas, Ostriches and assorted birds. But I am ahead of the story.
Friday, November 7th. We left Atlanta around 9:20am and drove to Lakeland Florida. Nothing special about the drive but we did stop at the Disney Welcome Center in Ocala and bought our new Annual Passes (AP). Our old ones had expired in September. They were more than happy to sell them to us and they were activated for that date forward. I could have bought them at one of the parks when we got there but I just wanted them in hand when we checked in on Sunday. Of course, they never asked to see the passes but I felt legal this way.
Sunday, November 9th. We left the Hampton Inn in Lakeland around 10:00am. I drove so Andy could continue waking up. We arrived at Disney’s Animal Kingdom around 10:35am. We left the luggage with the bellman and I went to check in while Andy parked the car. The check in line was very long. Usually, we check in around 4:30p since we have driven from Marietta that day. We got a very nice CM who got us processed quickly. Of course our room was not ready. I asked where our room might be and explained that last time we were initially given a room overlooking the hot tub and that was not the kind of wild life we were interested in seeing. She showed us where our room would be located, without revealing the room number. I was not too happy and asked for a room further out. Well, we got a fabulous room, 2364. It’s way out at the end of Kudu Trail. We had animals within view constantly since the room was out past the animal barn and they all wanted to be close to the food. I knew that the Kudu Trail rooms could be very close to the ventilation fans from the restaurants too. As much as I love Jiko’s, I did not want to be smelling those wonderful aromas all the time.
We headed to the bus kiosk to see where we wanted to go first. Generally, we take the first bus but this time we decided on the Magic Kingdom. It was close to lunchtime and we could eat there. It was misting out; very light rain but nothing that kept us from enjoying ourselves. Getting into the Magic Kingdom was easy. Not a big backup at security or at the turnstiles. It was wonderful to be home again. We headed up Main Street and turned towards Tomorrowland. The crowds were not bad at all. We headed to Carousel of Progress first. Amazingly the theater was almost full. It’s still one of my favorites and I am always happy to experience the last century, especially since it’s not always open. I know lots of people think this attraction is way outdated but I am not at WDW to change the attractions but to savor those oldies but goodies. After CoP, we headed up to take a ride on the TTA. Yippee! Not too fast either and there were plenty of people on this one too. We then got Fast Passes for Buzz Lightyear too. We went over to Timekeeper, which had a very short wait. Robin Williams makes this show. He’s absolutely manic at the mad scientist. Then we got our picnic lunch. Andy got the sodas and turkey leg and I got a Caesar Salad (no chicken) at Starlight Café. It’s got to be my favorite Caesar Salad in the world. Tons of garlicky dressing and great croutons too. We huddle together against the mist over by the Autopia viewing area. It’s fun to watch the cars go by and watch parents panic as the little ones get their first driving lessons. After lunch it was time for Andy to beat me at Buzz Lightyear. I got a measly 6600 points and he was disappointed with his 320,000. Beats me why he was disappointed. We headed towards Fantasyland via the Sunshine Tree Terrace for a strawberry swirl. We were both filled to bursting from our picnic but this is also a tradition for us. We walked through Fantasyland and it was packed with strollers. We now knew where all the people were. We decided that we would catch Mickey’s PhilharMagic on Tuesday when we came back for the SpectroMagic Parade and Wishes. We headed towards Liberty Square and headed to the Hall of Presidents. We were just in time for the next show. Next we headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean. It had a 25 minute posted wait so we sat outside in the sun (rain was gone now) and watched people. There was one little kid who was obviously bored so he was leaning forward in his umbrella stroller and running his fingers on the pavement between the double wheels. Since he was unable to hurt himself that way, the then tried the same trick with his fingers behind the wheels. It was amazing that he didn’t tumble out and crack his skull. Parents were just moving on and never saw this. We headed over to the gift shop at PoC to see if they had and stuff promoting the “Black Pearl”. Nope, still not a thing. Disney really missed the mark with this movie and no stuff. No Captain Jack wig or gold teeth or Barbossa’s hat or Will’s sword or Black Pearl medallions. Really a shame.
It was about 3:00p now so we headed towards City Hall to see if our room was ready yet and it was. So out to the bus and to the AKL! Found the room and I was thrilled with the view! There were Giraffes, Bongos, Impalas, Anoki cattle, Ostriches, Ruppel’s Griffon Vultures, and East African Crown Cranes all outside of our little balcony. This is a great floorshow. Our luggage got to the room quickly so we unpacked and headed out to Epcot. One of the main reasons for this trip was to experience the Food and Wine Festival. The Epcot bus came pretty quickly and we were off. Dinner tonight was large scale grazing. We started with Canada and worked our way back to Mexico. We generally had a three-course snack. In Canada we got the cheese soup (loved it!), maple sugar fudge (big chunk and very sweet and good) and Inniskillen Ice wine (WOW. Sweet and thick tasting. We actually bought a bottle if it as a Christmas gift since we can’t find this at home). Next stop was Cognac, Port and Brandy (who knew this was a country?) where we only had a two-course snack, the flourless chocolate cake and Osborne Ruby Red Port. I loved it. The choco thing was like a hunk of soft fudge and with port, simply yummy. Andy decided he wanted more substance so he went to New Zealand and got a lamb chop. Pretty good too.
We headed towards France, skipping Great Beers of the World. At France we got the Goat Cheese and Tomato Tart, which was missing its tomato, but delicious with the Cabernet we shared. The two flavors really complemented each other. We next hit Australia for food but only a two-course snack this time. We had the tenderloin with bbq sauce and the Pavlova. We have an Aussie Bakery here in Marietta and their Pavlova is very different. We decided to skip the wine tasting in Australia and do it another day. By then, I felt like we had been doing too many shots of wine and I was full! And we had only made it not even half way around. So we just strolled along the promenade and headed to Norway for some Rice crème from the bakery to end the food fest for that night. It was coolish and I was tired of feeling damp so at 7:15p we headed back to AKL for an early night. Usually, you can’t drag me out of Epcot before Reflections of Earth but was pooped and wanted to rest. When we got back to the room, I checked for animals but it was dark and hard to see anything. I did later detect a couple of giraffes playing tree and another one nested in the grass. How cool! I do love this place.
Monday, November 10th. I was up around 6:30a (as usual and without an alarm clock). I quickly went over to the balcony to see if anything was out and about but nothing yet. Andy was sleeping a deep sleep so I puttered around, got dressed, and then checked outside again and the keepers were out feeding. Headed down to The Mara for breakfast food. We brought cereal but I needed milk and fruit. I did get one of a Granola Yogurt, which is huge and very good. I had no place to store it so I ate most if it and it really did stick to me all morning. Much better that cereal does. I brought back a chocolate muffin too but that was not nearly as good at the bakery items from the Boardwalk Bakery. While Andy was getting ready, I perched myself on the balcony and just watched. Soon, one if the keepers came by in a truck and stopped just outside our balcony area. Seems that one of the vultures had found a snake. They had to find out what kind it was of course. So they tried to get the bird to drop it. No deal. Then they got our some kind of special snack to entice the bird to drop it. Finally the vulture was more interested in the kibble and the snake where a bongo was standing. The Bongo seemed to be totally uninterested in moving so they tossed handfuls of kibble at him and finally it moved, they keeper picked up the snake and took it back to the truck to bag it for identification. Meanwhile the savannah grapevine must have been working since a bunch more animals appear for snack time. I love this place! We headed to the bus Kiosk and since the weather was still kind of dreary, we decided to head to Downtown Disney (DtD) to do a little shopping and, boy did we shop. We found all sorts of things we needed or wanted. We got two sets of Mickey wine glass charms that are so cute. One set is has a charm from each of the four parks and two Mickey heads. The other set has Mickey through the ages charms and each box also includes coasters too. Plus we finally got two Mickey head martini glasses. We had to make two trips to the car to unload all the stuff. I found myself wondering how we were going to fit it all in the car for the trip home! We also got some very nice smelly soap at Basin’s. It’s Tahitian Vanilla. We moved the car over to the West Side parking lot and went to browse Virgin, got nothing and then went to Puck’s Express for a quick lunch. We shared a four-cheese pizza, a Caesar Salad and Mac’n Cheese. The pizza and Mac were very good but I think the MK Caesar salad is much better. We went back to AKL, then to the bus kiosk to go to the Animal Kingdom. It was starting to drizzly again and we had just bought new nylon slickers, which were safely dry in the trunk of the car now. Grrrh. But we did have our umbrella. We picked up FPs for Kilimanjaro Safari and then went down the Pangani Trail but first we had to push our way past a huge herd of folks clustered around the FP return waiting for their time to enter the line. Why do people do this? Are these the same people who stop at any exit and then decide which way to go? We did not spend much time on the trail. There was just not much going on and it was still drizzling. We went over to the Dawa Bar area and just sat under the eaves watching other people walking in the now pretty steady rain. When it was our time, we headed into the FP line. Not a lot of animals out and about either. Still haven’t seen the baby elephant. We headed over to Festival of the Lion King. It’s really nice now that it’s air conditioned and enclosed. It’s such a nice show and I hate to miss it on any trip to WDW. We then headed in the rain to It’s Tough to be a Bug. Wandering through the long cue in the rain is not fun! We left the park after Bug and went back to dry off, rest and have dinner at Boma. Our PS was for 6:10p and we were seated very quickly. I was in charge of the feeding this time. I got dessert first (our server said to do it!): Zebra domes (yummy) and some other things. Then I got three kinds of soup: mulligawantney, Lamb and Barley, and something else I can’t remember. Andy liked the Lamb one good enough to go back for another whole bowl. I also got sides, salads, meat, etc. It was a fun way to eat and taste many different dishes from other places. We might try this again with a large group but for us, it’s back to Jiko’s. We left AKL and headed to Epcot for Reflections of Earth. We got to Epcot just before 8:30p so we parked ourselves on the bridge into Mexico and waited for the performance to start. There was a family in front of us with a couple kids planted on the bridge wall and security came by to get them off. Yeah!!! After the RoE, we joined the march and headed to the bus kiosk. There was a bus there and off we went.
Tuesday, November 11th. Veteran’s Day. A couple years ago, just after 9/11, we were at the MK on Veteran’s Day and it was very special so I wanted to do it again. Andy’s a veteran; my Dad, two brothers and our daughter all served in the military and I feel very proud of them. We decided to start the day at Epcot then go to MK for the flag lowering ceremony, SpectroMagic and the new fireworks, Wishes. So, as we got to the bus kiosk we decided to go to MGM first then Epcot. I wanted to see the Haunted Mansion Movie walkthrough plus we really like MGM and had not set foot in the park this visit. The park was not very crowded on Tuesday. We wandered back to Mickey Blvd and quickly entered the Haunted Mansion walk through. It wasn’t much but gave you a flavor of the movie. I could not guess how good the movie might be from this but I believe that Disney wants people to see this. They had the original set for the ballroom from the movie and that was cool and some costumes and a little “making of” video. The whole thing took about 15 minutes. We then headed to Muppets, which was just starting. We lingered in the back of the crowd waiting for them to sort themselves out. We were in the second row center. Nice viewing point. We then decided to just sit and enjoy the ambiance of the park. So we headed to the hub. There were character greetings going on so we found a bench in the shade, got a box of popcorn and enjoyed the sunshine. We left the park and headed to Epcot on foot. The boat was just leaving and the weather was nice so it felt good to walk. We crossed over the front of the Boardwalk Resort using the “shortcut” past the tennis courts and through the valet parking lot, up to the front and down the stairs to the boardwalk. There was an Epcot boat at the dock so we took that to Epcot. When we got into Epcot our goal was the wine tasting at Australia. To continue our snaking around the world program, in Italy, we got pizza and baked ziti carbonara. They were both very good and I knew we needed something in our stomach before we started wine shots again. We got to Australia just as they were opening up for the day. Goody, fresh wine!!! Bought our passport and started thru the stations. We each got a different red wine to taste so we were pretty sloshed early in the day. We finally took temporary leave of Australia and get some food before we did the last sampling. The CM said that lots of folks get the passports and come back days later. Too late for that for us! We went to South Africa and sampled the Beef Sosatie and Durban Spiced Chicken. They were both pretty good. Then we headed back for our final wine sampling. This time we tried chardonnays and found one we liked. We picked out two reds and the one white and decided to come back on Wednesday before we left to buy them. We were not going back to AKL until after Wishes and I was pretty sure Andy, my temporary sherpa did not want to haul wine around the MK even if we did put it in a locker and we did not want to go back to the AKL first. We headed towards Future World to see if the photo spot sign between the Land and Imagination had appeared yet (footnote; When we were at WDW in August, we decided to take Andy’s photo at every posted photo spot. Not a photo of Andy framing the attraction that is being featured, but of Andy and the signpost. One CM saw us doing this and really got a chuckle out of it. So did some folks who offered to take our picture together. The one in Future World was missing and still is. But the one in the MK by the Carousel was brand spanking new so we have only one blank in our photo book. In August, we actually took a photo at each of these spots with Andy pointing to the missing signpost. It was fun for us.) We decided that we needed a Mickey Ice Cream Bar for no good reason. Andy let me have one ear and he ate all the rest. We headed to the Fountain view for a short rest. I actually napped for a few minutes. We headed to the monorail and took the ferry to the Magic Kingdom. The afternoon parade was ending as we came up from the Main St Train station. We threaded our way back to Fantasyland and picked up FPs for Mickey’s PhilharMagic. The FPs were for after 4:50 so we just wandered around for awhile. I was starving since all we had eaten was “junk” so I got a hot dog from a kiosk in Adventureland. I was surprised at how good it was. I tossed most of the bun but what I tasted was very good. One of the nicest things about having annual passes and knowing that we will be back is the lack of the need to do commando-style touring. We eventually settled on a bench over by Tiki Birds and just sat and watched the crowds go by. It was very pleasant. We eventually left and went to us our FPs for PhilharMagic! We entered the fast pass line and quickly were moved into the pre-show area, which is no big deal. We let a bunch of folks in ahead of us and tried to settle into the center of the theater about 6 rows back but a CM was herding everyone down to the end of the aisle. I wish we had just stayed put because he got tired and just let others stay put. We did have good seats even with this minor adjustment. The show was fantastic! I loved how the stage just went away at some point and the screen kept getting bigger and bigger. I felt totally immersed in the experience. I can’t wait to see it the next time and the next time. The smells part was too good. We headed to Pinocchio’s Village Haus for chicken salads and Figaro fires. Yummy dinner for us. Then we headed back down towards the Haunted Mansion and Liberty Square to find a standing spot for SpectroMagic. We found a nice piece of fence to lean on by the riverboat landing. We could see the parade coming directly at us. After the parade we skirted the crowds and got standing room space on the bridge into the hub to watch Wishes. We were in an OK spot and had a railing to lean on this time but a tree screened most of the high fireworks. I really liked Wishes; I think I could love it if I saw it from another vantage point. We could see the effects on the castle. Andy liked it much better than the old one. After Wishes we headed to the buses and to bed.
Wednesday, November 12th. We decided to have breakfast at Spoodles today. It was our last day here and we wanted to go to Epcot to buy the wine and then head home. Plus it was time to pick up my emergency bakery supplies from the Boardwalk Bakery! I started packing the car while Andy was getting ready. Andy came and we got all the presents stuffed in and the original luggage. Those Disney Resort laundry bags are lifesavers. We had two this time filled to the top with dirty clothes. We got to the Boardwalk quickly and got seated quickly at Spoodles. It was about 9:30am and there were very few people in the restaurant. Andy had a ham and cheese omelet and I had an egg white ham and cheese omelet. They were both very good. I was glad they could accommodate my preference for egg whites only. I used to get the semolina pancakes but they have taken those off the menu. After breakfast we went to Epcot and then walked around the World Showcase to Future World. We went into Mouse Gears and poked around for a bit. We did buy a photo/scrapbook album. I wanted a place to amass all the menus etc that I have been accumulating. We have friends who we are trying to coax to WDW with us and food seems to be the carrot. We waited around Mexico waiting for the World Showcase to open and then we hightailed it to Australia to buy our three bottles of wine and went and bought a gift bottle of Inniskillen Ice Wine for our friend. After that, we headed out the International Gateway and to the Boardwalk Bakery. I picked up all the cinnamon Yummies (one!) they had and six chocolate chip muffins. It will be several months before we get back and I always have emergency supplies. We also picked up a chicken salad sandwich for lunch. It’s great chicken salad with large chunks of white meat chicken and a tasty dressing. The trip home was uneventful. We were home by 7:45p and the trip was over.
Our next trip will be the end of February, beginning of March. This one should be longer with us spending more time in the park. And maybe get to Pleasure Island and the Comedy Club.
Till then.....Lisa