ACK! so, I somehow managed to completely lose steam and never uploaded the last day of our trip. For some reason, I can't copy my photos in any more, the way I did fo rthe earlier entries. So here goes a text only update:
Day Seven – Animal Kingdom, Chef Mickey’s, & Osborne Lights
It was very hard getting up this morning. Between it being the end of the week, plus the late night before, we all very easily could have slept until noon. But, there was one more park to visit, so we all rolled out of bed moaning when the alarm went off, and we managed to make rope drop at Animal Kingdom. We headed straight back to the Safari, as is our tradition. We got to see just about every animal this time, which is a first! Of course, that doesn’t mean they were all moving – just that they were there. After the safari, the girls stopped to do some of the wilderness explorers activities by the exit. And yes, everyone was wearing tiaras today – myself included!
We made it back into the square in Africa and had a pow wow while watching the drummers perform. The afternoon before, we realized that we had an extra table service meal, and we were NOT going to leave that on the table. So we had checked the reservations website and saw that we could get an early lunch at Rainforest Café, so we grabbed it, and moved a couple of FP+ around to make it happen. Originally, our plan had been to head over to Dinoland next, but we moved that to after lunch. This left us with time to wander leisurely, or time to run to EE and attempt a ride using either standby or single rider. I knew Josie was NOT going to be into rushing, and to be honest neither was I. So we decided DH would take Sara & Rachel and go to EE, while Memere, Josie & I wandered leisurely, and that we’d meet at the restaurant at our reservation time. Once we decided this, I looked up, only to see that Rachel had joined the band. She was shaking her booty like there was no tomorrow!
Once done, we split up, and I gave Josie the camera to document our walk. She became enamored with the lampposts, birds, pretty much anything she could take a picture of. I’ll spare you those – she has a long way to go before anyone is calling her an expert photographer.
But as we were wandering, we stumbled onto a line, and saw at the end of it another native Virginian: Pocahontas. Josie loved this; I was a little disappointed that Pocahontas didn’t have more questions/conversations planned for when someone from Virginia stops by. I mentioned we’d been to visit her home in Jamestown, and she looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language! Oh well – maybe next time.
Slowly, we made our way to the Rainforest Café, We were early for our reservation, so Memere and I sat by the entrance, while Josie went crazy taking pictures in the store. I think I have over 100 pictures!
While we made our way around the oasis and met with a princess, DH, Rachel & Sara were able to get their ride on. Apparently, Sara loves to be seated next to strangers, and struck up a conversation with this lady that lasted the whole ride! So, if you were at Animal Kingdom on November 8th and had a chatty soon to be 8 year old girl next to you -- hope she didn't say anything too out there!
DH and the other 2 girls hustled over, but still ended up being a little late for our reservation. Even so, we got seated fairly quickly, right in the first room by the bar. After we ordered, I let Sara take my camera for a photo tour, since she was jealous that Josie had been able to do so.
Lunch was slow. I mean, we all definitely needed the break. But we were pushing up against the end of our next FP+ window. I knew the only thing that would save us was the 15 minute grace period. But it was still a long walk over to Dinoland, to try one ride that we hadn’t previously been able to catch: Dinosaur! We were all surprised at how bumpy the ride was – Rachel clutched her tiara the whole time! And I don’t think anyone was actually scared of the big Dino, either. After Dinosaur we hit Primeval Whirl, but then had to hustle to get to our next FP+ -- EE. Memere sat this one out, while the rest of us enjoyed our tour up the forbidden mountain.
Once done, we headed over to our last FP+ for the day at Kali. We had a little time to wait, so we watched the gibbons playing, and then played in the fountains by the lockers. We stored our bags in a locker and grabbed ponchos, scanned our bands, and got just about to the merge point when the ride went down. We waited for about 10 minutes, and then they made everyone exit the queue. I think Memere was a little relieved.
We had one more item on our to do list for the day, and that was to see the Lion King show. We didn’t see it on our first trip, and it was closed/moving to the new theater on our next trip. I figured it would get us out of the heat and allow us to rest our feet. So we headed over to the theater, and just made it into the show. We were pretty far in the back, but we could see just fine.
When the show ended, it looked like Sara and Josie (and Memere) were ready to collapse from exhaustion. So, the four of us headed back to the Contemporary while DH and Rachel had some daddy-daughter time. They ran to catch the next Nemo show, then took a few photos together before joining us back at the Resort. Back at the Contemporary, I’m pretty sure Memere took a nap. She might have called home to confirm who was picking her up from the airport the next day, too. AS soon as we got back, Josie & Sara decided they were plenty rested and wanted to swim, so I took them down to the pool. It was cold sitting there! I covered myself up in towels while they had fun going down the slide, then we all hung out in the hot tub. We headed back inside after about an hour, as I wanted to get started packing, plus we had one more meal.
It finally reached our reservation time, so we headed downstairs at met Memere at Chef Mickeys, where we officially celebrated Sara’s birthday. We’d eaten here before, and the girls all requested we eat here again, so I couldn’t refuse. We were seated almost immediately, and since lunch had been early, we were all ready to hit the buffet. But we kept our eyes out, because we didn’t want to miss our hosts!
Once all our friends came around, our bellies were full, and Sara had opened her presents from Memere, Rachel and I headed over to DHS. Remember that sweatshirt she saw on our first day? Well, she still wanted it, plus she had her sights set on a Donald Duck hat. This worked for me – it meant we’d get to see the Osborne lights that opened the night before! So we said goodnight to Memere, DH, Sara & Josie, and headed off to the bus stop. We caught a bus in no time, and soon were entering DHS. And we figured the best way to get to the Star Tours gift shop was to ride Star Tours!
After that, she got her sweatshirt, and we wandered over to the streets of America. CMs were funneling traffic down
Pixar Place and around past LMA to get to the display. We stayed through one cycle of the dancing, then headed back out to the front of the park. MK had EMH that night, and we still needed to find the Donald Duck hat. We found the bas that went to the MK, and were on a mission to get in and out before the crossway was blocked by the MSEP. We made it into the Emporium and found the hat, plus a few other items I decided I had to have, and were back outside the gates in 30 minutes. And while I think Rachel would have been up for trying to hit a few rides and staying out late, I knew we’d need to be up for our flight home the next day, and didn’t want to push it. With that, we said goodbye to the MK, and jumped on a monorail back to the CR.
DAY 8 -- Time to head home.
We woke up this morning to find rain. The only real rain we'd experienced all week -- seemed fitting it was on our departure day. I felt bad for all the wine & dine marathoners, but they werren't having to board the not so magical express like us. We had an uneventlful bus ride, seemed to fly through security, then said goodbye to memere and went off to find our gate. We didn't wait too long before boarding and then all too quickly we were back home. With no more trips planned.
That's it -- hope you enjoyed the TR. If I can figure out why my photos won't upload, I'll add them in later. Otherwise, watch for a PTR soon, as Rachel & I are headed back to WDW in August for a special trip, just she & I, to celebrate her graduation from elementary school.
