Anderson Adults - October 2005

Cast of Characters:
Myself (Mic) 39 and DH Jeff (38)

Days 1 & 2 - October 8 & 9
We flew on AirTran direct flights from St. Paul to Orlando, our flights went smoothly, although there was a short delay on the flight home, only about 30 minutes or so. The flight attendants actually went through twice with the drink cart, I don't see that very often anymore!

We used Disney's Magical Express to get to our resort, it worked slick, we checked in our bags at home with the special Magical Express tags on them, and didn't see them again til we got to our resort. When we arrived in Orlando we checked in with Disney, waited about 10 minutes and then hopped on our bus, waited about another 10 minutes on the bus and we were off. (they are using the Mears buses for this). We arrived at Animal Kingdom Lodge shortly before 7pm, got checked in, checked out our room and then went to their food court restaurant to eat dinner(Mara). The food was good but I always feel the food courts are overpriced. We tried the African beer here called Tusker. Then we wandered about the resort for awhile, checked out the pool, checked out the animal viewing with night vision goggles (way cool!) and headed back to our room.

Our bags had showed up somewhere in that time (about 2 1/2 hours after we arrived, I was expecting 2-3 hours from other trip reports, but DH was getting nervous!LOL). The bed was quite comfortable, although the tv channel selection left a little to be desired, once you have watched all the Disney stuff, they didn't seem to have many of my "usual" channels.

The next morning we tried to sleep in but of course when you have no reason to get up your body never cooperates. So we had breakfast at Mara, you can choose indoor or outdoor seating, or get the food to go. We decided to sit outside this morning and I was fairly irritated by the family that were allowing their girls to feed the birds in the area. AKL is very clear on this to NOT feed the animals and I am sure their request included the birds in the court area. We were told when we checked in and had to initial something that we understsood NOT to feed the animals, there's a brochure on your table in your room and it's mentioned on the Disney tv channel. As as side note we heard on one of our boat rides from MGM to Boardwalk that Disney had removed all bird feeders from the property as the birds were getting too dependent on humans and in the end becoming almost aggressive. Anyways, after breakfast, we started exploring all the animal look out sites. The best spot we found was an outer stairway where we could see animals on 2 different savanahs, so we plunked down and watched the giraffes, zebras and several types of antelope (I can't remember all the names) and identified them on our animal guide sheets. Animal Kingdom Lodge is surrounded by 3 different savanahs and has different animals in each one, and viewing areas all over the Lodge. Sadly we didn't get a savanah view room (although the cast member tried really hard to get us in one they were all full, so we had a pool view), but there are loads of good spots all around to sit and watch the animals, and cast members to ask questions of. We met two cast members from Botswana, and when I mentioned I was reading a book taking place in Botswana, they asked if it was #1 Ladies Detective Agency (it is!). We were told that the people in Botswana are just like they are described in that book (very kind and peaceful).

Anyways, we then took the bus to MK, transferred to the ferry across to the Transportation Center (saw a couple of otters stalking some ducks in the lake) and then another bus to Shades of Green to pick up our tickets for the parks. Shades of Green is a MWR owned resort on Disney property open only to military and DOD personell, and we get discounted and tax free tickets there too. We wandered around Shades a bit checking out the remodel they recently did (looks very nice and the the food/drinks are much cheaper here than at other places on Disney property). Then we headed back to AKL as we were eating at Boma's that night. Boma's is their African buffet restaurant and I had made an PS (priority seating or whatever they call them now, ADR's or something) for 5:40. We had an excellent meal and were stuffed when the waitress brought out MORE desert on a cutting board decorated in chocolate that said "Congratulations on your Recovery". After this we hit the hot tub, checked out the night vision again and headed to bed.

Days 3 & 4 - October 10 & 11
Monday we were moving to Boardwalk Villas (1 bdr unit using DVC points) so we got up and packed up, left our bags at Bell Services to be transferred for us and hopped on a bus to Epcot. The Food and Wine Festival is going on in the World Showcase so we were pretty pumped. As soon as we arrived we headed to the Land pavililon to get a fast pass for Soaring. This is a ride that makes you feel like you are hang gliding over California. VERY COOL ! What a diverse state with all sorts of landscapes ! So glad we got the fast pass though as it was the only one we were able to get all week (it was about 10am and our fast pass was for 1:30-2:30, although we didn't use it til that night around 7:30 ). After grabbing a quick breakfast at the counter service there (pretty much just bakery choices) we headed to the World Showcase.

Epcot adds in booths from extra countries so there's more food/wine and beer choices than usual! We started out with the cheddar cheese soup from the Canada pavillon and had no sooner finished up than we noticed our friends Pam, Steve and Hanna walking by ! We intended to call them later but this was better ! We watched the Canada movie with them (nice air conditioning - did I mention it was VERY hot and humid all week?), and then were walking through the United Kingdom when a man asked if we wanted to do the beer tasting ! (DUH!) So we got our "beer fast passes" for 1:30 and wandered around the UK for awhile, taking in the World Showcase Players with their show about The Holy Grail. They are street performers who draw the audience into their show, also pull a couple of people up to play parts and so the show changes a little bit each time, very funny. Then it was time for beer tasting. We got to try 4 beers (split the bottle 4 ways)(Brahma from Brazil was my favorite) and listened to a mini seminar on beer, when it was over people that didn't finish their beers started leaving the unfinished bottles at our table. ROFLMAO !

We then travelled to France for yet another air conditioned movie. After this we sampled some food from the India booth (a curried chicken that was yummy!), and some hummus with flat bread from the Morocco Booth (also yummy!), travelled through Japan and had a sit down in the American pavillon. At which point we decided to go and get checked into our room and our friends decided to return and see if their room was ready. They were at the Yacht Club, right across the lake from the Boardwalk where we were staying. Both with in walking distance of Epcot, which was great, or a slow boat ride away for those times when my feet were just too tired and sore to walk any further. After a nap, and a whirlpool we headed back to use our Soaring Fast pass, after which we headed in the other direction, trying a Puerto Rican beer (yuk!), a rice dish from there (yum), we went through Mexico, stopped in Norway for a Carlsberg and a swedish meatball, made our way through China, Australia and to Germany where we grabbed a pretzel. (note to self: pretzels are HUGE, next time share with DH) After that it was back to our room for the night.

The next morning we walked to MGM so I could ride the Great Movie Ride, then we had lunch at the Sci Fi cafe, you sit in a convertible and they play old sci fi flicks on the big "drive in" movie screen while you eat, and I had to see the Muppets show, we also checked on the next stunt show but it wasn't for a couple of hours and by this time I was already tired. So back to the room (on the boat this time) for a rest.

That night we had tickets to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom, after talking with our friends who were also going, we got our plans made, and Deb's family was gonna be there too so she was able to add us on to their PS, we got to eat at Liberty Tree Tavern, the food is served family style, ham, roast beef and turkey, mashed potatos and gravy, green beans, rolls and butter, stuffing and then ice cream and/or cherry cobbler for desert, and the characters are there in costume (Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Chip and Dale). After this we let the kids in our group pick the rides, we rode Big Thunder Mountain, the Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan, Mickey's Philharmagic, the teacups, Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear.

Days 5 - 7 - October 12 - 14
Wednesday we did more of the same at Epcot with our friends, we had lunch at the Rose and Crown, yummy cottage pie, and then had beer fast passes, the guys got shut out of cuz we left them to pay the lunch bill at Rose and Crown and they would NOT let them in late, WHATEVER!), we went and played in Innovations a bit (more airconditioning) then we hit the other side of the World Showcase starting at Mexico, did the boat rides in Mexico and Norway, made it around to China for the acrobats show. It was older kids than I remember seeing last time and the show was a little different, more balance tricks than tumbling. After this I decided it was time for my mid day rest, so DH and I headed back to BW.

I had been playing phone tag with Melissa from the list also but we never quite got hooked up. I know I will get to meet her at the Minnesota Mousefest Meet in December, but really wanted to meet up with her and her family at the world. After our mid day rest went back to MK so I could ride Pirates of the Caribean (it was broken the night b4). We had a hot dog for dinner at Casey's on Main Street and watched the crowds pouring out (it was extra magic hours for resort guests from 9-midnight).

Thursday, ummmm, back to Epcot. We sat at the Tangerine Cafe in Morocco for lunch, had a very good lunch there. I also called Carol V. around lunch time as I knew she would be in that night and we were hoping to get together before she headed to the MNSSHP at MK, however she got held up in traffic and our meet never happened. My phone was cutting out a bit but I think she might have said she was meeting up with Melissa and going to the party (?) so they might have been able to get together. LOL.

We watched a show in the Botswanna pavillon and I talked for a while with the basket weaver there. She used palms made into very skinny weavers for her baskets. She was really nice and asked if I had any pictures of my baskets that I have made, but I don't of course. We tried to ride Soarin again but no luck (out of fast passes and an 80 minute wait), we grabbed a fast pass for Living with the Land and wandered over to the Festival Welcome center to see what they had (mostly wine and books for sale), after using our fast pass we rode, Spaceship Earth, adn then Figment, and then slowly putzed around the World Showcase eating AGAIN. One night we did catch Illuminations at Epcot, might have been the night with the German pretzel, but they are kinda running together at this point. It's an awesome fireworks and light show out on the lake in the middle of the World Showcase that we never seem to tire of watching.

And Friday ? Well our Magical Express bus was picking us up at 7am so it was up and out of there early for our flight.