Rhonda Horinski & Family - December 2008

The Horinka Family - Disney Christmas
Day 3 – Sunday, December 21 - Animal Kingdom
Cast of Characters: Rhonda, 44 years young, single mother of 3 awesome punks and lover of all things Disney, Sharon, 19 year old DD, Morgan, 16 year old DD, and Payton, 12 year old DS.

We caught the bus to Animal Kingdom at 7:15 and were there in plenty of time for the opening ceremony and rope drop. We made our way over to Asia to secure FPs for Expedition Everest. Morgan has never ridden this ride as she is not a fan of roller coasters, but has agreed to give it a shot this trip. After securing our FPs we rode it and she LOVED it. She was not impressed with the Yeti, and I thought it seemed different, too. It wasn't until our return home that I read on AllEars that the arm swinging had caused a stress fracture in the Yeti's foundation so much so that he no longer swings his arm until the Imagineers get a fix in place. I just thought he seemed less intimidating because I had seen him so many times! After riding, we tried to tell Morgan that if she could do EE, then she could handle Rock N Roller Coaster (she WON'T do inversions) because the inversion doesn't feel any different than the "backwards-and-uphill-in-the-dark" sensation from EE. She's contemplating it, but you can tell she's not quite buying it. We ride Everest a second time and then head over to Dinoland for a spin on Primeval Whirl. This used to be one of our favorite rides, but it seems different this time. Much more jerky and we all came off with either aching backs or banged-up elbows. We decided that one spin was enough this trip! We made our way over to Dinosaur and "experienced" it. My "experience" is to grab on to the handle bar in front of me and close my eyes and hold my head down the entire ride – and it always shows in the post-ride photo! Hate it, hate it, hate it. I ride it as a favor for the kids. After that one, we headed over to Camp Mickey-Minnie and grabbed an ice cream and have photos done with Minnie Mouse while we wait to view Festival of the Lion King. This is our favorite show in all of the parks (although it would be replaced later in the week…..) and we always look forward to it. We had front row seats but had our view partially obstructed by the handicap section. We were seated in the elephant section. The show was fabulous as always. After, we headed to Africa and secured FPs for Kilimanjaro and then walked Pangani. Got a great view of everything there. It's warm but not too warm (about 80 degrees today and yesterday) so all of the animals are out. After we exited Pangani, we watched the African drummers perform outside Tusker House and then headed to Pizzafari for a little lunch. I do miss the Tusker House counter service and will never eat at Flame Tree again since I got the bloody chicken. We got our pizzas, Chicken Parmegan, and Chicken Caesars salad and had a seat in the "upside down" room. For those who don't know, each room in Pizzafari is themed for a specific type of animal behavior or environment – our room featured bats, possum, and other "upside down" animals. The meal was filling and adequate – nothing to write home about and we left quite full and headed back to Africa to ride Kilimanjaro Safari using our FPs. Didn't see as many animals as I normally do, but it was still a fun trip. Apparently they don't do the "the bridge is collapsing" thing anymore as it didn't happen at any time we rode this our entire trip.

After riding, one of the kids spotted the sign for Rafiki's Planet Watch and asked it we could head over. I had planned on doing this one on Christmas Day, but figured I'd give in to the kids requests the entire trip as it is their trip. I wasn't sure how well it would go over as they are older and I know one of the big parts of this area is the petting zoo, but they all really, really enjoyed it! We ended up spending about an hour and a half over there. They got to hold elephant poop, see a snowman made out of poop, they learned lots of information about owls and raptors and saw quite a few that the handlers were showing, and they really enjoyed heading outside and brushing the llamas, goats and cows.

After the train ride back, Morgan ran to get Kali River Rapids FPs. We used our EE FPs for another ride and then rode Kali as it was our break time and we wanted this to be the last thing we did in case we got soaked. Good thing, because we did, AND my oldest was wearing blue jeans! She took the brunt of it and was actually so uncomfortable that she was MAD as we left the park. The only thing that cheered her up was the Photo Pass lady stopping us for a funny picture in from of the Tree of Life highlighting our wetness! After a VERY uncomfortable (air conditioned, wet clothes, hard plastic seats) bus ride back to CBR at 3:30, we all went and changed into dry clothes and then headed to the marina to rent Surrey Bikes. I was worried about my stamina given the amount of walking we had been doing, but we were able to ride those two bikes around the resort twice in the 30 minutes we had them, and I actually felt BETTER after I got off. We filled our mugs and relaxed in the room until 5:30.

We took the bus to the Magic Kingdom for our 6:30 ADR at Payton's restaurant pick - Tony's Town Square. I had eaten here last in 1995 when I was 38 weeks pregnant with Payton. I didn't like it then, but I did enjoy it this time! Sharon and I had the steaks and Payton and Morgan had the spaghetti. There were a lot of couples eating in the restaurant and they were having their photos taken by their waiters in the standard "Lady and the Tramp" spaghetti-kiss pose. Cute idea. The desserts at this place were just the best! Morgan had the Ice Cream Bomb, Sharon had the Mocha Cappuccino Cheesecake, I had the Pistachio Crème Brulee and Payton had the Green Apple Sorbet. We passed them all around and enjoyed a bit of each. In the end, we all agreed that the Green Apple Sorbet was the best. I never thought I would say this, but I would eat there again. Our waiter Ed was great.

After the meal, I headed to Main Street to grab our souvenir bucket of popcorn (we have collected these buckets through the years) while the kids took my camera and took photos of Main Street and Candy Cane Lane. We then went back to the hotel and were in bed watching the Giants/Carolina game at 8:30 p.m. We all went to bed early as most mornings find us waking up at 6:30-7:00 a.m. "Disney Vacation" is the biggest oxymoron I know!

Tomorrow - Epcot

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