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Day 8 - Friday, July 30, 2004
Plan for the Day: SeaWorld, Rainforest Café, Cirque du Soleil
We get up and get a taxi to SeaWorld. I was planning on using the Lynx bus, but didn't want to get up any earlier than I had to, so I
decided to call for a cab around 8:30am. We get there a little after 9am. We check out the flamingos and turtles on the way. The
continuing theme on this trip was that Josh walks about 50-75 feet ahead of me and always appears to be in a rush to get somewhere. I
like to stroll, take in the sights and smells and atmosphere, you know, just take it all in. Today is no different and he seems to be
in a hurry to get somewhere, but when we get there, he wants to go on to the next thing.
We check out the flamingos and turtles on our way to Dolphin Cove. They weren't open for feeding yet, so we just watched them for a bit
before we headed to the Manatee exhibit. The movie wasn't playing and they were having difficulties, so we bypassed it and looked at
them underwater. Again, in a mystical need to hurry, we go find our seats for the Dolphin Show at Key West.
Good show and though I've seen it before, I still enjoyed it. After that, we go through the Penguin Encounter & do some shopping. We
decide to go grab our seats for Clyde & Seamore Take Pirate Island as we want to be there for the Mime preshow. We then head over to catch
lunch at Voyagers Woodfire Pizza place. After a leisurely lunch for me, we go through the Shark Exhibit, check out the horses at the
Clydesdale Hamlet and make our way down to the underwater viewing area by Shamu Stadium. We hang out there for about a half an hour.
There's not much we can do before we have to get our seats and I decided that for once, I just really want to sit and people watch.
Around 1:30pm, we get our seats and catch the show. It was neat seeing the baby orca swim by as we didn't have any interaction with
them the day before. People around us were talking about the "attack" at the SeaWorld in Texas. One thing we learned over the
past two days was that these are trained wild animals, not domesticated animals. The people working them understand and accept
that. It's the public that freaks out when stuff like that happens.
Anyway, we go over and catch Wild Arctic, by land of course. Since Josh didn't fare so well on Star Tours, I figured we better take the
motionless ride to the Wild Arctic Base Station. Walking through the animals, Josh was, once again in a hurry. I could have stayed and
watched them all for a long time, but I guess that will have to wait until next time.
We leave around 3:30pm or so, and get a cab to Downtown Disney. We head to the Basin so Josh can pick up something for his mom and get
to Rainforest Café for our 4pm Priority Seating. We are seated promptly and have a nice meal. It was cute, but I think I was
expecting more from what everyone said. I will definitely go back, though. The Rumble in the Jungle wrap was delicious!
We get done around 4:45pm and head down to the dock to get the boat to the West Side. It takes us right to Cirque du Soleil and we only
have to wait a few minutes before they let us in. Cirque du Soleil is definitely worth the expense, at least in my opinion. I never
wanted to pay that much, but I gave Josh a bunch of "extras" to could choose from and he picked this. When it was over, we grabbed the
boat back to the Marketplace and then grabbed our boat back to the hotel.
Josh got his stuff together to go swimming and I decided to do some more laundry for myself before I hit the pool. Another great night
for the hot tub, finish up the laundry and head back to the room. Quick call home for Josh and it's lights out at 10pm.
Day 9 - Saturday, July 31, 2004
Plan for the Day: MGM for RNRC & TOT, Epcot, Magic Kingdom
Well, instead of going to Disney-MGM Studios to do Rock n RollerCoast and Tower of Terror, we have to go to Epcot to see if they can do
anything about Josh's lost pass. I honestly didn't they could with no numbers, but Scott at Epcot Guest Services did some searching
using my ticket as a point of reference, found his original, found the replacement, canceled it and issued him a new one. Needless to
say, I held on to it this time.
We have a small wait before Epcot opens but head straight over to Test Track. The wait is about 15 minutes, so we decide to go with
it. About 5 minutes into our wait, they come over and say there is a slight delay, so we decide to just get a Fast Pass for later in the
day and head to Living Seas. Josh gets sidetracked in Innoventions playing Toon Tag, which is a real cute idea, but I was surprised him
being the video game king he is, totally stunk at it!
We make our way to Living Seas & The Land. I wanted to try to eat at the Land, but at 11am, nothing was open yet. We do Journey Into
Imagination and Honey I Shrunk the Audience. We grab the boat to Morocco, go to USA, have lunch, see the American Adventure, grab Josh
a Turkey Leg, do Maelstrom and decide to head to Test Track now. I gave the CM our Fast Passes and he thanked us for finally coming
back. It was about 3pm and our Fast Pass return time was 9:15-10:15am. He still accepted it and we went in. We got to about 3rd
in line and the ride shut down completely and they asked everyone to please exit through the doors they came in from. We got ride shut
down Fast Passes, which we gave away because we had a PS at Sci-Fi Dine In and I'm sorry but I will NOT miss that for a ride!
We hop on the boat to Disney-MGM Studios, do Muppet Vision 3-D, and chill out for a bit before our PS. Unfortunately, we were too late
for lunch - I love the ham sandwiches here. Josh got the ribs, didn't like them, so our server got him a corn dog, instead. He
wasn't very hungry anyway. I got the BBQ Chicken Sandwich, which was ok, but expensive and not my favorite ham sandwich. We finish up and
make our way to the bus stop to the Ticket/Transportation Center and then grab the incoming Ferry to the Magic Kingdom.
Yes, I know Magic Kingdom on a Saturday, but that is how I end my Disney World visits. We do the Enchanted Tiki Room and ride the
train for a bit before we head back to the hotel.
When we get back, we quickly pack up and go for a swim before Josh calls home and lights out at 10:30pm.
Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
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