O beautiful forest, There are tears in the forest Woodsprite(s) We cry out, calling. (Translated from Navi).
If its Thursday then it must be Animal Kingdom. If it Thursday then the park doesn’t open until 9am so we had an extra 30 minutes lay in. We are always grateful for small mercies. I had my usual porridge before setting off. Barry & Ellie were off to Hollywood Studios for the morning.
As we pulled up to Animal Kingdom’s car parking booth’s I suddenly realised I was missing my Curve credit card. It was not in my wallet. I used an Amex to pay instead whilst we tried to rationally and calmly think where I must have lost the other card. Then we remembered that it must have been in Outback the previous night.
I recalled that our waitress had asked one of the clearers to take our payment as she was so rushed off her feet. When she brought me the receipt to sign and add the tip I don’t think she brought the card back to me. I would have to wait until they opened at 11am to call them to check though. I was convinced that was what had happened and that there was nothing deliberate or malicious on their part but I still put a lock on the card on the Curve app to make sure.
As soon as the park completely opened, we headed to ride Dinosaur. This is still a favourite of Neil’s although to me it is old and needs replacing reminding me of a just a bumpy old car ride. Then we walked over to Everest where we walked straight on through the single rider queue. Karen was just behind me next to someone who had never ridden it before and was taken by surprise when it started going backwards at high speed. It was all very amusing.
Then it was allotted time for Kilimanjaro Safaris. Now we have done this loads of times before, but this was possibly the best ever. Our driver Will was definitely the best we had ever had. His knowledge and enthusiasm were second to none. Afterwards I lodged a ‘compliment’ for him in the Disney app. On top of that I had a Giraffe on my side of the vehicle that was so close that I could have easily just stroked it, in fact Neil was peeved that I didn’t attempt to.
As we exited the ride, we continued walking to take the Gorilla Trail which was as entertaining as ever. I love watching Gorillas especially close up. We watch them play for a while.
Karen & I then went and sat outside a very hot with little shade Starbucks and recuperated after our efforts so far this morning, whilst Neil did the River Rapids and Everest again.
It was then time for the film ‘It’s tough to be a bug’. It had been a few years since we had seen this and we found we still enjoyed it. It still managed to scare some small children into hysterics which is always amusing when they are not yours!
Then we wandered back to ride the Navi River Ride recalling as usual the time I had a hissy fit waiting as the queue didn’t seem to moving and so stormed out of the queue. Only to find out from the rest of the family who stayed that I was just one corner and less than 2 minutes from getting onto the ride.
Anyhow the ride really doesn’t amount to much but it pleasant enough and some of the design effects are pretty good. Let’s just hope the next Avatar film which is due to be released soon isn’t a major flop.
Neil then had hot Pineapple Cheese wrap thing before we made the long walk out of the park.
On the way back to the villa our first stop was back at the Outback who had indeed confirmed they still had my credit card. I was just grateful to be able to be reunited with it. Then we made a stop at Public to stock up on milk etc.
We soon joined Barry & Ellie who were already in the pool when we got back and had a lovely afternoon chilling and relaxing. They went out early to visit Celebration, whilst we headed back out to Disney Springs, controversially parking on the ‘Watermelon’ outdoor parking lot.
For our meal tonight we ate in ‘Chicken Guy’ a chain set up by Guy Fieri who is an USA TV chef, this was somewhere Neil had wanted to try for a while. Essentially it is a fast-food chicken store, but with a famous person’s name attached to it and the prestigious location, meant that for take away food the price carried a premium. Still, it wasn’t too bad and made a change.
We wandered down to have a Ghirardelli ice cream as our dessert. Karen went and fetched them whilst I found a table outside. The table I found had a great view of the large outdoor stage nearby. Just as we started eating the band came on. They were called the M 80’s and just did cover versions of 80’s music. They were terrific. They covered things from Hip Hop to dance music. All with a smile, zany costumes and silly dances. They got a large crowd really going. Karen loved them was well into them and wanted to stay to watch all their other sets that evening.
Instead, we wandered into the Disney Co-Op store where I ordered a ‘Paver Tile’. These tiles were originally offered for sale for installation at the entrance to Magic Kingdom with people’s names on them. Sadly, many got broken and eventually when they changed the entrance, the rest were all taken up. To make up to the people who had paid considerable amounts of money to have their tiles installed, Disney offered to produce another one for these people to take away with them as compensation. Then they are started to offer tiles to anyone if you were prepared to pay for them, which I was. I wanted it to put on the Garage Wall next to the Hot Tub where I think it will look good.
I was told it would take 30 minutes to produce so we went for a wander. One of the places we wandered to was the Plumeria stall. Some avid readers of the blog will recall I purchased one of these back in April. They come with a guarantee of a replacement should they not grow. Well, mine did well to start with and then just died on me. So, I had brought it back out with me and they replaced it quickly and without any issue which was good customer service on their part.
We then collected the now completed ‘Paver Tile’ and I was very happy with the finished article. We had chosen the inscription carefully.
By now it was getting late and so we headed back to the Villa where Neil and I watched game 5 of the World Series before retiring for the day,
