Mic & Family - August 2007

Who: Anderson family, Mic & Jeff, Sean (12) and Sarah (9)
When: August 2007
Trip: Cocoa Beach and Kennedy Space Center, 5 nights at Disney, followed by a 7 night Magic for Less group cruise out of Miami, and then 3 nights of free dining at Disney.

DAY 4:
Today's report: A bit more on Fort Wilderness, Animal Kingdom and MGM

A little bit more on Fort Wilderness. It is definitely huge, it's not some place you would want to be walking from one end of the to other. There is the option to rent a golf cart, however we have chosen to try the internal bus system and see how that works for us. It's quite easy to figure out out. There are 3 different routes running through the campground with a color code for each (Orange, yellow or purple). As we are in the cabins we are on the purple route. It runs in two directions, one is called "purple outpost" and will take us towards the outpost, located near the front gate. This is where we checked in, it's where you can park any extra vehicles you have, and it's also where you catch the bus to go to AK, Epcot or DTD. The other direction the bus runs is "purple settlement" which goes to the Settlement area down near the waterfront, the restaurant is there, the dining shows, the barn and petting area (Cinderella's ponies live there), from here you can catch the water taxi to MK, or the other one goes to the Contemporary) or a bus to MGM. More in the middle of the resort is the Meadows area, which is where the main pool is located (there is a quiet pool also located in the loop where most of the cabins are located), where the nightly campfire sing alongs are held followed by a movie, the Meadows Trading post is located here as well as the Bike Barn which is the rental area for bikes, golf carts, etc. There are plenty of other activites here as well, basketball, horseshoes, tetherball, a nature trail that winds through the campground, you can play on the beach are, but you cannot (nor would you want too) swim in the lake. They offer fishing excursions, a segway tour (The Fort Wilderness Back Trail Adventure), dinner shows, wagon rides, and carriage rides. So much to do, so little time ! Once again, I realize I should have left more "resort time" in our schedule.

Today we are going to visit Animal Kingdom in the morning. We are there shortly after opening and zip through security and the front gate. I grab a time schedule and discover the first Finding Nemo show isn't until 11:30. This is one of the two things we want to accomplish this morning. So we head for Expedition Everest to pull fast passes. Return time is 10:45. The standby line does say "20 minutes from this point" but happens to have a line I would guess about 20 minutes long to GET To that point. So we grab the fast passes and decide to go and watch the monkeys for a bit.

Next we head over to It's Tough to be a Bug. We haven't done this show in several years and DD (9) didn't remember much of it. She was pretty freaked out I will admit at all the 3D affects. (not bad, but she did scream several times, she is a bit of a screamer).

We head over to the Mahajara Jungle Trek and spend some time watching the bats (one of DS's favorite animals), Tigers, Komodo Dragons and Tapirs. We talked for a bit with the CM by the Tapir and he told us there is only 200 of them left in the world, that includes in zoos. They were just added to a list of animals expected to be extinct within (I think he said 10 years). It was quite a frightening list when he started naming some of the animals on there. About halfway through we had to head for EE for our fast pass time.

We were on within about 5 minutes, had a little time to check out the incredible theming in the que line while we waited in a short line and then we were off. This really is an awesome ride, Disney did a great job on this one. It's original and fun!

After the ride we headed to the new Finding Nemo the Musical. The line wrapped almost down the entrance of DinoLand. They recommend getting there 45 minutes early, we were about 30 minutes early and stood in line til about 11:15 when they opened the doors. The theatre is quite large and I do not think anyone was turned away although there were families that showed up at the end that were separated for seats. When I saw this in March I was worried that the "people" would distract me but they really add to the performance. It's a GREAT show, do not miss it ! DH said it was alright, but felt it was geared more for younger kids. Not my impression at all but just wanted to share another viewpoint. J

After the show it is hotter and steamier than ever, so we head back to our resort for a break. We drove since you can drive in and out of Fort Wilderness but not within, and it just seemed the easiest way to go, especially since we were planning a break. We found a checkers down on 192 and picked up some lunch (yum ! We don't have these in MN), after that we headed up to the "big" pool Neither of the pools at Ft Wilderness have a slide, which disappointed my kids but it was nice to hop in and just hang out in the water for a bit. We returned to the cabin and rested for another half hour and then made our plans for MGM. We chose to go "light" and leave the backpack behind, the backpack with the ponchos.

We take a bus down the Settlement and wait for our bus to MGM. It comes along shortly and we hop on to the nice AC. We zip through security at MGM and head for the gates. The lines are all at a standstill. Seems they were having some major problems with the ticket machines, as they are all going slow. Oh but wait there's a family in front of us that is REALLY hanging up my line. Apparently 2 of them had expired tickets so they end up not going, while the rest of the family goes in. BUT they refuse to get out of line and keep arguing with the CM. Finally we get in but it's too late to get close enough to see the High School Musical Pep Rally that DD really wanted to see. So we head to Star Tours.

I once again request the front row and they let us, we just had to wait a bit longer. (I get nauseous when we sit in the back row, not sure why but it's a much better experience for me up front). And we are off to visit the Ewoks at Endor. BUT there's a glitch, it's a new pilot named Rex. Let me just say Rex needs a little bit more experience piloting the shuttle craft, and I hope you get a different pilot on your trip to Endor. We head into the gift shop and it's the moment DS has been waiting for and saving for for a year. He is going to buy his R2D2 robot. He is so excited and has saved both allowance and the Disney Dollars they both had a chance to earn before vacation for doing extra jobs for mom.

DD and I head off to get a good spot for the High School Musical show, we arrive in front of the hat and there is character greetings going on, but we hang around a bit longer and some CM's come to start taping things off. There is red tape and white tape, when the float comes in we had to be behind the white tape, then the CM's let us know when it was time to move forward to the red line. DD and DS were right in front. It was a nice show, lasted about 20 minutes. DD got to go out and dance at the end with a bunch of other kids. Then we headed for The Muppet Show which we always enjoy. After which DD wanted to "shop" in the store. Shopping with her is quite painful as she wants everything and it makes me nuts. We finally have to put a limit on her so we can MOVE on as the rest of us can only take so much shopping. She chooses a polly pocket's type Cinderella play set. (she is also using her own money this trip, although we bought each kid a souvenir at KSC).

As we leave we hear some big crack of thunder and it starts raining, we run for The Great Movie Ride (which was next on our list) and actually had to wait in line this time. Haven't done that in a long time but many other's wanted to get out of the rain as well. At one point the CM started to add to the que outside in the rain. We all looked at him like he was nuts, he didn't need to make it longer and there was no way I was standing in the now pouring rain. So when several other families ducked under the chain so did we. (yes I feel bad but there was NOT a line going out the door and there was no reason for him to extend the que). We got the scene with the gangster shootout. Riding this always makes me want to go home and watch old movies. By the time we left the rain had stopped.

We headed for the bus stop to the Polynesian as we had ADR's for `Ohana at 9:15. We were going to be a bit early so we hopped off at the Contemporary hoping for a peek at whatever they are up to where the North Tower was, but we didn't discover anything. We had a drink and then hopped the monorail for the Polynesian.

We requested a table by the window and though a bit of pixie dust we were right next to the window ! And the next bit of pixie dust is Stefanie (from MA) is seated right next to us ! She is down on a trip with her son Matthew and they were stretching their dinner out so they could catch the fireworks as well. I had met Stefanie and Joyce from NH a couple of years ago when I was going thru chemo and I went on a trip to Boston. It was so nice to run into her, and to meet her son ! This is a spendy dinner if you are not on the dining plan but it is so good and worth it in our opinion.

After we were done eating, we took the monorail to the Contemporary. DS asked if we could sit up front and we got too ! A little more pixie dust on our evening. We headed down to the boat dock to catch a boat for Fort Wilderness, from there we transferred to the bus and back to our cabin to fall into bed. Whew long but fun day !

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