As I wrote this morning, we got to spend some time in our new hotel – well, our old hotel. And Steph was able to join us around noon. We decided to head off to the Magic Kingdom so Judi could wear her Minnie Mouse ears and get her photo taken with the REAL love of her life (more than Paul McGann, more than Takeshi Kaga) — Mickey Mouse! Well, by the time we’d arrived, there were already over 60,000 people in da ‘dom. So we were turned away. We decided to go to Disney’s Animal Kingdom since only Steph had been there before.
We got in the line for the Kilamanjaro Safari almost immediately. The line was at the 2 hour long bit and was going to stop at 4:30pm (due to the early setting sun) so we figured, what the hell. The Safari’s the most important bit of the Animal Kingdom and we hadn’t talked with Steph in ages. So we spent 2 hours slowly walking around lots of turns with lots of people (some of them almost becoming fast friends by the end of the trip) talking with each other. It was a very pleasant 2 hours. Lovely balmy weather, great conversation, and good friends. Can’t ask for much more.
Once we finally got in our tour jeep, we found ourselves in the front row. Our tour guide was very friendly and energetic and often spoke to us off the mic. And the animals – geez, you’d’ve thought they were paid to come out at each showing. We got to see all of the animals and everyone was showing off, except the cheetah, who was sleeping. And they had Lions! No black lions, like my Leo, but a lion and his lioness (or is that backwards?) The lioness was staring down a gazelle (or something antelopish) but couldn’t get to it thanks to the moat between them.
We left the safari and to (a) celebrate our successful capture of poachers on our safar and (b) to spend some of the birthday money that the ‘rents gave me, I bought an Aussie-style Bush hat, with several pins in front. Alas, I didn’t check the size before grabbing one eagerly and ended up with an XL. But it still looks cool and I’ll probably not wear it a lot. But I have some teddy bears at home that would look very stylish with that hat on. So, thanks mom & dad for my new hat! Maybe tomorrow I can upload the photos of me in my new hat!
On our way to see the Bug movie, we went to Flights of Wonder, a bird demonstration show. And we saw some pretty well trained birds. They flew over the audience, talked to us, stole money from some lady in the audience, and other cool things. The two “actors” on stage were very entertaining. They even brought out a bald eagle (no longer on the endangered species list – woohoo!) I was quite impressed with the whole production.
We headed off to see The Hard Life of Bugs or whatever that 3D (4D?) movie is called. I was impressed that I didn’t get ill with the 3D glasses. And damn, if there weren’t some impressive shocks in the production. Watch out for stinging insects! Steph and I were bad girls and kept our 3D glasses. They make great Physics demos!
So we wandered around Animal Kingdom for awhile, looking at the dinos and whatnot, and then we figured that, as it was 6pm, we should head back to Epcot to get on the freebie shuttle back to the hotel. This we did, and by 7pm we were on the bus on our way back to the hotel. Ours was the second stop, and we got in and rested up just a bit before we headed to Angels seafood buffet. Why this place you ask? Well, our cabby who took us from the airport to our hotel told us about the place. He said they had lobster and steak and crab legs on the buffet and that the food was very good.
Well, we had the front desk call Mario and ask for transport. Then we sat outside and waited. Eventually a Liberty Transit cab pulled up. But Mario’s company doesn’t have cabs, just unmarked cars. The driver in the cab was there to pick up someone who wanted to go to Econo Lodge. Not us. But then he said he could take us to our destination. He tried to prove that he knew Mario and that Mario was busy and said he could do that job. So we eventually acquiesced and went along. Now, the restaurant isn’t very far – we could probably walk it if we hadn’t walked all day. And the asshole tried to charge us $8. We talked him down to $6 and got in.
We had a further 20 minutes to go before we could be seated (we called ahead and got our name on the waiting list) so Judi and I played a game of air hockey in the hotel arcade. When the score was 2 to 5 (with me in the lead) Judi passed off to Steph. Steph then held her own until it was 6 to 6. But in a lucky break, I got the puck in under her superb defenses. Go me!
They soon seated us in the restaurant and Adam, our waiter, explained the rules of the game. We once again got in line, this time NOT a 2 hour wait, and got lots of food. Sushi, which I ate while in line, rolls, baked scallops, shrimp scampi pasta, breaded fried shrimp, fried clams, hushpuppies, steak and prime rib, crab legs, and lobster. And that’s just what I got. We ate and ate and Adam showed us how to crack lobster (and promptly sprayed Steph with the juices from Judi’s lobster) and then we ate some more. And when we were done with the real food, we had dessert. Pecan pie (nowhere near as good as mom’s), chocolate chip and sugar cookies, chocolate & vanilla soft serve and others. The vanilla soft serve and the cookies were the best of the desserts. Good eats all around. And the final tally after coupons, taxes, and tip (for Adam, whom we also recommended for employee of the month) was $30 a person. After not eating since breakfast some 11 hours earlier, this was indeed a meal and a half.
We called for another transport from Mario only to have our friendly neighborhood charlatan arrive. And soon another transport arrived – it was either one of the charlatan’s friends, or Mario really did send him. He also charged $6.
So we got back to our room and have been vegging ever since. Elsa upgraded Judi’s computer memory, I downloaded photos from all 3 cameras, and we all vegged. Now everyone’s waiting for me to get off and go to bed. So that’s what I’ll do.