Day Three......WONDERFUL WEATHER and we decided to go to the Animal Kingdom. Upon arriving, John went right up to the first gift stand he saw and bought an outback hat. He really thought he was in a different continent, LOL.

The first thing you see when you walk in is The Tree of Life The detail of all the animals carved into this tree is really amazing. We headed over to Africa and got our fast passes for the Kilimanjaro Safari ride. We also ran into Flik, Baloo and King Louie here. While waiting for our time to come up, we walked through the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. This was like a mini zoo. Of course, our favorites, the gorillas were out, about and very playful. The meerkat (Timon) exhibit also proved very active.

We then boarded our Safari ride. Much more interesting and fun then the Safari at Great Adventure, where you are riding through in your car, and with your windows up.

After that we decided to get our tickets for the Kali River Rapids. As we walked over there, we noticed a LOT of people who were quite wet.....we were nervous.....and for good reason. In order to bide time here, we went to the Maharajah Jungle Trek. We also watched a monkey who, I guess, has his run of the park, as he was out in the open moving around various poles and wires...

On to our river ride.......we were having a blast and then saw "the drop". John and Johnny ended up being on the side that goes down backward and they got SOAKED...... I had read a tip to say to wear nylon type of shorts and other quick drying materials when you went to Animal Kingdom, and I'm glad we did. They did dry off in about an hour or so. The rest of us got wet too, but nothing like the boys. Hint for the ladies.....do NOT wear a white shirt ;-)

I think from here we went to Pizzafari for lunch.

After we came out, we saw Lilo and Stitch, but then they had to go in for a brief break and just Stitch came back out. We then headed over to DinoLand and were disappointed as Dinosaur was having technical difficulties. The kids ended up going on the Triceratop Spin and then all of us about 48" went on Primeval Whirl. I think Tommy would have been fine on that ride, but there are a couple of neck snapping moves, so I guess they just want to protect the little ones..

We didn't hit any of the shows, which I was disappointed, but my boys really didn't appreciate the live action things.....thought they were a waste of time, so we blew them off..... I actually think they would have liked the shows here, but it was actually getting quite hot, and we were going to call it a day soon as well.

We hit It's Tough to be a Bug last, which is located in that tree that you first see when you walk in. I think the kids favorite part is when the stinkbug blew his 3d green stink at you......and yes, there was also an odor in the theater to accompany the vapor, LOL

We also skipped the whole section of Camp Minnie Mickey which had a lot more characters and the parade, but like I said......we would have had to wait 30-45 minutes for the parade, and the kids wanted to go swimming at the pool.....so off we went to the hotel.

We ended up eating at the restaurant/food court in our hotel, and boy were we annoyed. It ended up being Grad Night on that night in Disney, where they close the Magic Kingdom early for high school seniors, and it appeared that they all came down to eat at the same time as us, so we stood for a good 30 minutes on line waiting for a food court burger!!! I guess we could have timed that better.

I think we just went back to the room and chilled that night, did some homework, journaling and planning for the next day.

Epcot

It was slightly drizzling this morning, so we set out with the three $1 store ponchos we had, and the one umbrella. We thought we packed two, and to this day, we haven't been able to find it. Who knows where the umbrella goes?? LOL

We decided on Epcot because there was a lot of indoor activities and not a lot of walking in FutureWorld.

The week we were there, the Flower and Garden show was going on. There were amazing topiary scenes all throughout the park.

The first thing we hit, and probably everyone hits, was Spaceship Earth. That is the BIG ball that is part of the Epcot sign. This ride is inside it. Really cool and scary, when you think about how this ride takes you all inside this ball and goes through history.

We then headed over to Test Track. Again, both boys were crying that they didn't want to go on, especially after this pre-ride film tells you of all the things you'll be doing (of course, it wasn't as intense as these "scientist" make it out to be). It was a really neat way to see how they test brakes, steering, speed, etc..... It feels like you are going SO fast, but on the straightaway, you are doing just 60 mph. However, you are in less than a convertible, so it just feels a bit more wicked, LOL. Going 60mph through drizzle however does NOT hold well for hairdos. In fact, I am sure you CAN'T have good hair days in Disney, LOL. We get off the ride, and the boys want on again, immediately ;-)

We then headed over to the Wonders of Life pavilion and got on the ONLY thing that made us motion sick......Body Wars. We thought it was going to be JUST like Star Wars, but there was a lot more rocking and thrusting going on. John and I needed to sit down after that one. It's one of those flight simulator rides that the seats move, and you watch a movie on the screen and think that you are in the screen.

We skipped the Making of Me and headed to Cranium Command That was a cute little show that made you feel like you were inside a brain and seeing how all the different parts of the brain and body react during a normal day.

At this point, we were getting hungry and were making our way to Germany. We ate at the Biergarten and enjoyed a wonderful buffet and drinks, and a show by Bavarian musicians. Hearing Edelweiss on the bells was very sweet......I almost teared up, LOL.

Now we were ABSOLUTELY stuffed at this point, but continued to walk around the path by the rest of the countries. We hit a bunch of characters on this route and ended up on the other side of Future World. Here is where we hit my favorite pavilion from when I was here last in 1985, and I introduced my kids to Figment, ya know, from my imagination ;-) I don't know if my kids were just saying this to please me, but he was a favorite of theirs too.

Next, we went to our next AWESOME 3D show. Honey, I Shrunk the Audience I think this is the show, were the mice got loose, and I don't know what the special effect was but I was shrieking with my legs on my chair as they have something flitter past your legs, LMAO Or was this one the snakes, and muppets the mice?? And, of course, the kids don't feel a thing as there legs don't reach the ground, but all the adults feel this one, LOL.

The next pavilion we hit was Living with the Land. This was a really neat cruise through Disney's greenhouses. They are perfecting certain vegetables and fruits to help with different problems. They are also growing things up on strings to reduce the amount of space needed for certain crops, and they are growing without dirt. It is a process that just is constantly misting the roots. The kids and I all thought that some of this stuff was so neat!

We were getting tired at this point, and soon had dinner reservations, so we squeezed in one more movie, and skipped the Sea pavilion. We've seen plenty of aquariums all up and down the East Coast, so I didn't think there would be much missed there. The movie was about how different decisions humans make for the environment affect the whole circle of life. Although the movie was good, I took a little snooze.....I was so tired, LOL

On our way to dinner, we stopped at Ice Station Cool. It is a FRIGID environment that CocaCola sponsors. You get to taste the different soft drinks from around the world. I think our favorites were Krest Ginger Ale from Mozambique and Kinley Lemon from Israel.

John tasted something from Italy, and told me it was used as an apertif. It was grapefruit flavored, and I really almost puked after taking a swig...

From here we moseyed onto the monorail over to the Polynesian for dinner at 'Ohana. I was told this was a must see restaurant, but I tend to disagree. Or, it could be the fact, that even though we ate lunch 6 hours before, we were still too full to be eating dinner. The food on the skewers was hit and miss. The turkey breast chunks were phenomenal.....the steak was too chewy, the pork was too fatty and the shrimp was not peeled for you...
The pineapple with caramel dipping sauce for dessert was AWESOME.

We were now TOO stuffed and beat, so we decided not to see Spectromagic and Fantasy in the Sky. This was our only opportunity to see both of these things while we were down there, so I was a little bummed, but it really would have been silly to make our way to the Magic Kingdom and enjoy ourselves properly.

We made our way make to the hotel, and crashed, LOL.

Day two is over

We told the kids we were going to Washington, DC for business. This way there could be suitcases around the house, and they didn't become suspicious. We woke up at 3:45am and headed to my MILs house, so she could drive our van to the airport. Upon approaching the airport, I mentioned how I no longer wanted to go to DC. John then said, you're right, how 'bout we all go to Disney. The kids were in shock telling us how it couldn't be. I guess they finally believed us when we told them to get out of the van and the van pulled away. At that moment, Johnny turned white and you could see his stomach drop. He started complaining that he didn't want to go, he couldn't fly, etc..... Luckily for us, we were a little late, but still early, that the boarding started immediately, and before he knew it, we were on the plane and taxiing out to the runway.

We arrived in Orlando on time, and our driver was waiting for us. After a short grocery store detour, we were headed to Port Orleans - Riverside (view from our room)

The hotel was okay. I was upset that they closed the sister hotel while we were there for a 12-18 month rehab, so there were some things that we couldn't do (dragon slide at the pool and the restaurants from that resort), but it's not like it ruined anything at our hotel.

We unpacked and it was time to hit the parks!!

First up.......Disney-MGM Studios

The first thing we saw was the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular! We missed the first scene where the big rock is chasing them, but we enjoyed the rest of the show. Next, we headed to Star Tours. Jim Henson's Muppet*Vision 3-D was the first of our three 3D attractions throughout our trip. We have NEVER seen 3D this good......totally an awesome experience. When we came out of here, it just started drizzling. We passed Mulan, and just said "hello". We let the kids run around in "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" Movie Set Adventure. Since we didn't know how the rain was going to affect us, we headed over to "The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror" I sat this one out with Tommy. This was the first ride of many that we "made" Johnny go on, and after much protesting, after the ride was over, he always wanted to "go again" LOL. Then it was my turn to have fun with Steffi at Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith After going 0-60 in 2.8 seconds and flipping, turning, jamming to Aerosmith, in the dark, I wanted to go again, but I had to let John have a turn. Johnny passed both times, but we did eventually talk him into it, when we returned later in the week. Here is a fun fact about that ride....."Pulls between 4 and 5 big, fat, monster G's. That's more than astronauts feel when they're launched." Totally freaking great ride!!

We then found a "dry" spot to watch the parade, however, after 15 minutes of waiting, they announced that the parade would be cancelled for the safety of the perfomer's :-(

To kill some time before dinner, we went to Sounds Dangerous starring Drew Carey. It was okay, just a time filler, LOL.

Then we headed off for Hollywood & Vine to eat. The show we were going to watch at 8:30 that night still was a couple hours away, so we caught "Beauty and the Beast" -- Live on Stage under MUCH protest from Tommy, who will still tell you that was the worst moment of Disney, LOL

We finally had killed enough time, and it was time to enter Fantasmic! Amazing, AMAZING show that was worth every minute!!

Finally, our first day was over and it was time to head back to the hotel. While walking to the buses, we saw the Epcot fireworks.

One day down, six more to go.....