Thursday at Disney World

(Inside our room at the Dolphin) Knowing that even though Ed was supposed to be through with classes at noon again today - I wanted an earlier start because Animal Kingdom closed at 5 pm!!! So I got up, got ready, ate a banana for breakfast and headed out the door. This time, instead of taking the water taxi, I went out the main doors of the hotel and caught the Disney Bus and arrived in Animal Kingdom by 11 am. I headed straight to the Safari ride - it had a 60 minute wait - I was wishing at that point that I had brought Ed's disney pass with me to put it in the fast pass machine so we wouldn't have such a long wait - I could have done that and then met him right at the front of Animal Kingdom so he could get in....but since there weren't huge lines in MGM I had figured likewise for Animal Kingdom. I don't know whether it is just more popular or because it was a Thursday (therefore a busier day) but the lines were long.

I thoroughly enjoyed the safari - we got to see elephants and lions and a cheetah and monkeys and alligators and ostriches and lots of different kind of deer and antelope and even wildebeasts.

Of course it can't begin to compare with San Diego's animal world but it was really well done and it makes for a wonderful place for the animals to live.

Ed still hadn't called me when I got off the ride and so I wandered further into Africa and then called him. It was about 12:30 and he was still in the hotel finishing off some emails he needed to send out. So I told him I wasn't going to wait for lunch - I was getting shaky and needed more than that one banana I had eaten several hours earlier. So I got me a hotdog, some chips and a coke - only $8.75...cheapest meal I had eaten all week (well -other than the banana!) . Then I headed over to catch the train to Rafiki's world of Conservation. Actually, I had thought it was just taking me to another part of Animal Kingdom but this little section was all about taking care of the world we live in. I was really enjoying learning about a snake that had swallowed a golf ball there on one of the Disneyland golf courses and I guess by the time they found it, it was really in a bad way, as nothing could get past it, and its body couldn't digest it and the ball itself was disintegrating inside the snake. Ed called right then, so I guess I will never know whether it lived or died. I hurried outside to get better reception and Ed said - I'm in the park right now - where should we meet. I told him to go through Discovery Island and into Asia over to the jungle walk. I also told him I had to walk back to the train depot and wait for the next train and then I would scurry through Africa into Asia and look for him there. As I headed to leave I saw the cutest golden monkees - stuffed ones that would make great birthday presents for my twins. (The little ones , Joshua and Caleb - not Kelly and Kecia!!) Since their birthday is November 1 I had already decided I would buy their presents in the Park - I will look for other birthday and Christmas gifts on my cruise. So that took a minute or three (I can spend money really fast!! :D I rushed back down the path to the train station and of course had just missed the train by a minute and had to wait for the next one. Ed wasn't hard to find though - he had on his bright green MTC shirt - just like me. We looked like a couple of peas in a pod!

We headed to the jungle walk where we saw huge bats - probably with a wing span of 4-5 feet - that may not be considered huge but when you think of the small bats we have out west with a wingspan of maybe 8-10 inches - that seems huge!


There was a kimodo dragon - did you know that they have 53 different types of bacteria in their mouths and they bite their prey and then wait for 3-4 days till they die!! There were some gorgeous tigers - the disney cast member said they were a combination of several kinds of tigers. What was interesting was that there were a herd of asian deer in the same area as the tigers and someone asked why the tigers didn't eat them. The worker laughed and said that 'full' tigers didn't hunt...and Disney kept them well fed!

We also got to see some gorgeous - gorgeous birds in the aviary.

After we left the jungle walk we walked past the river raft ride and it said there was only a 20 minute wait - so we got to ride the rapids and we got soaked!! FUN!! Then we headed back to the safari so Ed could see it and we saw even MORE animals than I had in the morning. It was so fun.

The park closed at five and we caught the bus back to the Dolphin. We decided to walk back over to the Boardwalk and went to the Flying Fish - fantastic meal!!!! AGAIN

Friday morning I got room in service for Breakfast - french toast stuffed with bananas and decorated with fresh raspberries and fresh blackberries YUMM - then I took our dirty clothes and went to the laundry facilities at the Dolphin so we have clean clothes for our cruise.

We caught a flight from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale and we are sitting in a really nice Hampton Inn tonight. We will only stay here tonight and head to the ship tomorrow.


So I am signing off for a week. Hopefully I will right daily reports to word perfect so I can download them when I get back in range of the internet. Have a great week - I know I will!!