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Steve Simmons -- September 2003 -- Walt Disney World (AKL)Normally the “players” are listed first on trip reports. In this report, they will be listed in just a few and you’ll see why in a moment.The planning for this trip began about two years ago (but then I am ALWAYS planning a trip to WDW) when I announced to the family that I wanted to have a family reunion at Walt Disney World for 4 days around Labor Day 2003. That would give my three sons enough time to save up for the trip. I did announce that their mother and I were going to provide the transportation (one of my sons lives in Denver, CO) and also cover the hotel room(s). We also said that we would cover all the expenses for our grandson. So the initial number of participants was going to be at the most 9 (me, wife, three boys with their significant others and our grandson). Considering that, I was debating between three rooms at one of the All Star Resort or two rooms at Dixie….(oops, I mean) Port Orleans Riverside. We fast forward to March of this year. There are now about 120 days before “The Trip”. Due to many factors, it now has come down to the fact that none of my sons are going to be able to make the trip. However, our daughter-in-law and grandson are still eager to go. So as I begin to put my plans in place, Disney throws a new wrinkle into the mix by offering a package deal, 7 days for the price of 4. As my mind spins, I quickly do some quick calculations and present a new deal to the participants: instead of PO Riverside, how about 7 days at………..The Animal Kingdom Lodge. You see, I had calculated that with this package, the 7 days came out to be just a little more than the original 4 days at PO. Of course all members agreed and I called and booked a room. We were all excited. But, in a strange turn of events, not two days later our daughter-in-law and grandson had to withdraw from the trip, leaving just my wife and I with the room booked for 4. What to do? We really didn’t want to go down to WDW alone, and we were really dejected that we weren’t able to enjoy seeing our grandson take in WDW for the first time, so we turned to a friend of ours, Tom and asked if he wanted to join us. Now the three of us had last been to WDW back in 2000. During that previous trip, Tom had even gone swimming in the Living Seas (a.k.a Divequest) so it didn’t take much to persuade him to join us again, especially when we mentioned that we were staying at the AKL. So, the next day I booked the airlines, and the transportation between the airport and WDW (Tiffany Towncar) and I also booked the wife and myself for a swim with the dolphins. Tom was again going to do the Divequest. It appears that we are going to have a great trip. But we aren’t done preparing yet… We now fast forward again to July. It is about 50 days prior to the trip when we had a major event happen which forced my wife and myself to head out to California for a couple of weeks. During that trip discussions were held between the two of us and we decided that we were going to pull out all the strings on this trip, so I made a quick call to the AKL and upgraded our room to one on the concierge level. At the same time I also made reservations for the three of us for the Sunrise Safari. But we decided not to let Tom know that we upgraded. I can’t wait to see the look on his face when he finds out. I returned back to Atlanta with about 30 days to go. My wife remained out in California to finish up. I contacted Tom and we got together for a final review of what we had planned. During this meeting we decided that we wanted to dine in the California Grill to watch the fireworks one night. I checked the Disney web site and found that the only night that the fireworks were to be held was on our final night, Thursday. So I called down to the AKL concierge and requested preferred seating for that night and got it. So, finally (are you still with me? I hope so, as we haven’t even gotten to the parks yet) we are ready. The Participants are:
Dates: August 29, 2003 through September 5, 2003 Where: Animal Kingdom Lodge (our first time – previously we have stayed at Dixie…. oops there I go again, Port Orleans Riverside) Mode of transportation: AirTran from Atlanta (our home) to Orlando. Then Tiffany Towncar from the airport to the AKL. Oh wait…..with less than three weeks to go I ordered a Passporter and it came in the mail and now I have everything in one neat place. Armed with this and the book I bought which lists over 400 hidden Mickey’s at WDW…. I’m in heaven! Let’s not wait any longer. Let’s go! We now fast forward to August 29, our departure date. We taxied down to the Atlanta airport and await our flight. About one hour and 10 minutes of air time and we arrived in rainy Orlando! In fact, the rain and lightning was so strong that we were held on the ground in the plane on the tarmac for about 15 minutes. What a way to start our journey. We finally arrived at the gate and headed for baggage claim and our Tiffany Towncar driver, Hector, is waiting for us. He assisted us with our bags and as we departed the airport I asked if we could do a grocery store stop (btw, we discovered very soon that we REALLY didn’t need to stop on this trip, as everything we really needed we could get at the hotel – but more on that later). However, Hector seemed upset that we requested at grocery store stop and said that we didn’t request it when we made the reservation. Funny, I’ve never had to do that before. No biggie as he did allow us a quick stop and we only spent about 5 to 10 minutes inside. So now we are finally on the way. The anticipation is building. We enter the Disney grounds and several minutes later we finally arrive at what will be our hang out for the next 8 days and all any of us could say was WOW! As others have said, the pictures do not do it justice. This place is marvelous. A true work of art. I informed the cast member who greeted the car that we were staying in the concierge level and he took our bags and immediately whisked us up to our room on the Zebra trail. After setting our bags inside and getting our room keys we were off to meet the staff (well, we just had to spend several minutes staring out our balcony at the zebra, giraffe and large horned African cattle just in front of our room. You’d swear that they just knew were coming and showed up to welcome us!) So up to the Killamanjaro lounge and we met Andrea, one of the concierge staff who were very helpful during our stay. After getting briefed on what was available we began our own discovery tour of the resort. After wandering each hall and checking out the observation decks we finally ended up at Boma for dinner. After a very wonderful dinner we wandered outside for a little nighttime viewing and then up to bed as we have an early start tomorrow… Our first adventure, the Sunrise Safari. I sure hope that you stay with me during this adventure. I’ve got another week of laid-back journeys through Walt Disney World and hopefully will have a few tips along the way. The Hidden Mickey Tour – Day 1 It’s an early morning today as we have the Sunrise Safari in store for us today. Oh, I should mention that when we checked in yesterday, we were given an itinerary of our visit. Somehow, even tough we were only going to be here from August 29 through September 5, we were assigned to the Sunrise Safari for September 30th. After some juggling, they were able to squeeze us in on the correct date (August 30, today!) We meet up in the Concierge Lounge at 7:15. There are about 50 of us going on the tour. After our eye openers (coffee for some, OJ for me), we are headed downstairs where we are given our nametags and then headed out to the buses. The busses take us over to the Animal Kingdom and.. our first looks behind the scenes. Now, please for those of you with cameras, no pictures until we get back onstage. The busses take us around until we are backstage of Hamarabi Village. Then we are led to our safari vehicles and we are off. OK, your cameras should be ready now as you are in for a treat. This safari vehicle stops, frequently! And since it is early morning and the animals have just been released into their areas, you will see LOTS of animals, up close! Can you say photo opportunity? After being out for what seemed like hours we returned back to civilization and were led to the Tusker House for breakfast. (It should be noted that as we approach the Tusker House the park has just opened and there are people coming from the entrance heading to the entrance of the safari. Can you image their faces as they see a crowd of over 50 people already in the park! I love it!) Hopefully you didn’t eat too much back in the concierge lounge because the spread here is huge! After breakfast we were given a fast pass for, of all things, the Safari so we went again. This time there weren’t as many animals out but it was still nice. After leaving Africa we wandered over and caught the Flights of Wonder show and after that we decided to leave the AK and head over to Epcot. But as we were leaving we ran into DeVine and I got a few good photos of her. We ran over to Epcot and immediately headed for Mission Space. The wait times were quite high (with the single rider line saying 75 minutes) but we really wanted to go so we went and stood in the single rider line. It only took 30 minutes to get into Mission Space and that ride is everything that people say it is. However we had to sit down for about an hour afterwards as my wife, Sherry was affected by Space pretty hard. Normally she can take most anything (even better than me) and she is an avid roller coaster fan (she loves Rock N Roller coaster) but this one really hit her hard. We ended up sitting down at the Electric Umbrella while she recovered. Afterwards we wandered around and caught Off Kilter playing for a set, then wandered around the world until we reached the Japanese area did a little shopping and went upstairs and had dinner at the Tempanyaki Dining. Dinner was during the Illuminations so we missed that and after dinner we were one of the last ones out of the park that night. When we returned to the hotel room we discovered that the room had an animal in it. We quickly cornered the critter and got a photograph of the towel monkey (created by housekeeping). So our first full day covered two parks, where we opened one and closed the other. We enjoyed the Dark Continent; the planet mars and enjoyed several shows. As we laid our heads down to rest, we began planning tomorrow’s activities at MGM studios. Will you be there? Hope so. The Hidden Mickey Tour – Day 2 Well, I see that you’re still here so obviously you’re as much into Disney as I am so let’s not waste any time and get on with the show. You know, I have gone a whole day and didn’t mention anything about Hidden Mickey’s. I’ll have to do something about that today! Well, perhaps I shouldn’t sound as if I’m in a hurry, as this is a vacation after all. We all got up about 9 or so, not relying on any alarm clocks to wake us. We all headed over to the window and were greeted by our friendly giraffe and several zebras. We were to learn later that our savannah contained two giraffes (the others had up to 4) and other assorted animals. We dressed, headed up to the concierge area for a quick bite to eat and had them make arrangements for us to dine at Mamma Melrose’s for a Fantastmic dinner package. But first we have a few stops to make. We entered MGM and immediately headed to the right and directly to Tower of Terror (we always like to get that one out of the way first and then attack RnR!) The Tower dropped us what seemed like 5 times, a record for us and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. Did we find the hidden Mickey’s inside? Well, today I found two and we found another one on our final trip through on day 6. Curious about hidden Mickey’s? Well, check out the table as you enter the main lobby and you’ll find one (hint – check out the glasses at the correct angle) and then watch the video and you’ll see another. The third one is a toughie. When you are in the library, check out the sheet music and you’ll find a friendly mouse. Now, I’ll probably mention the fact that we stumbled over more as we went along, but I’d spend the entire report just reporting on Hidden Mickey’s! So, let’s move one to something else. After Tower we went directly over to RnR and grabbing a fast pass entered the studio. We were on in less than 10 minutes (not bad for Labor Day weekend, and MGM was probably the most crowded we had ever seen it). As soon as we got off we picked up our photo and headed back on again. We never can do it just once! . So, we now began walking across the park. We got to the center and to kill a little time we decided to do the Great Movie Ride. While there I found several more hidden Mickey’s both outside and inside. After exiting we proceeded over to the Muppets area so I could be sure that the key was under the mat (it was!) so we went in and enjoyed the show. Afterwards we killed a little time before dinner and then headed over to Mama Melrose’s. On our way over to Mama’s we found a new character interaction area (for us at least), which allowed photos taken of Mike and Sully from Monster’s Inc. We couldn’t pass up a quick photo opportunity. Mama served up quite the meal, so afterwards we decided to kill a little time by taking the animation tour. After the tour we headed back down towards the main entrance so we could go see Fantasmic. Now for those of you who haven’t done the dinner package I hear you saying, “Hey, you’re going the wrong way!” and normally you’d be right, however in order to get to your reserved seating, you have to go in a “special way” and, yes, it again is backstage, so put your cameras away again please for just a few. Oh yes, I should make mention that we almost got lost backstage here. There is a cast member who checks to be sure that you have the proper pass to go backstage and then they tell you that you can go, but once backstage there is nothing to tell you where to go. After questioning another cast member we discovered, we were directed down the proper path and made our way to the Fantasmic Theater. We found ourselves seating near the back right near the exit (hint hint!). We were near the middle of the theater and the viewing was just fine. The show had a small glitch at the beginning and they had to halt the show for several minutes to resolve a technical difficulty (one of the water screens wasn’t working!). But the show was continued to everyone’s delight. Parents want another hint? Perhaps you should do the dinner package. It may seem expensive, but consider the alternative of showing up early and sitting around in the Fantasmic theatre having the vendors coming up and down the aisles pushing bags of cotton candy, popcorn, and sodas with glowing ice. We watched one father mortgage a house to keep his kids in place. Once the show ended, we “Mickey walked” (it’s a term that we use for speed walking through a crowd) back towards the buses and back to the hotel. Tonight as we entered our room we discovered another “critter”, a duckie on our bed. We went upstairs to the Kilimanjaro Lounge for a nightcap but didn’t stay long as we had another early day in front of us as we were going on the backstage safari tour at the AK tomorrow. Have I bored you? I hope not, because we are heading back to AK tomorrow for about half a day and then a little night action at Pleasure Island. See you then! The Hidden Mickey Tour – Day 3 Jamb o Everybody (please excuse the spelling, it’s supposed to be an African greeting!). OK, so we are heading back to the Animal Kingdom again today for the backstage Safari Tour. So we have to be at the turnstiles at 8:15 in the morning. So we are up early and we head to our regular morning stop, the Kilimanjaro Lounge for a quick jolt before we leave. We arrive at the turnstiles early and while waiting for our tour guide I finally get to meet a character I have heard so much about but have never seen, Wes Palm. What a character. In fact, Sherry learned a valuable lesson because of Wes – never give a character your hat. When last seen, Wes was attempting to sell the newly acquired hat to any takers. I’d go into details about the backstage tour but of course I’ve signed this agreement with Mr. Disney to keep his secrets. Seriously, this tour doesn’t guarantee interaction with the animals, but you can be pretty sure that you be able to touch something during this tour. We were taken backstage again (geez, if they didn’t have this rule, I’d have a few hundred more photos) and shown the pens where some of the animals are kept from elephants, to giraffes and rhinos. We were even allowed to touch the hide of the rhino. We were also shown where the meals are prepared for the animals and shown some of the training techniques. Our tour took us out behind the Conservation Station where we got to watch several of the veterinarians work on one of the monkeys (it was just a routine checkup). After the tour we watched some of the street performers and then we walked down to the It’s Tough to Be A Bug and then we went and had lunch at the Flame Tree BBQ. After lunch we left the park to prepare for the evening by returning to the hotel for a break. While at the hotel, Tom and I sat and watched the animals while Sherry took in the pool (no fast pass required) OK, we’ll skip the time while we asked the zebras to stand still for pictures and move on to the evening. But first a quick snack in the Kilimanjaro Lounge (we sure do find our way up here frequently….) After an afternoon snack we head over to Downtown Disney to do a little shopping. (And hidden Mickey searching as well!) We found several things to purchase (which of course we had shipped to our hotel!) and we worked our way slowly towards Pleasure Island. We arrived at the entrance of PI at about 8 pm and I was taken back that there wasn’t anyone to take our tickets or put on the wristbands. We wandered to the front door of the Adventurer’s Club and wandered in (well, we really didn’t wander, we knew exactly where we wanted to go!). Downstairs and we were ushered immediately into the library, as the members were already present. We found a place to sit and immediately ordered our favorite Jungle Juice and began to enjoy the night while Samantha Sterling performed. Then we were ushered out to the Treasure Room where the Maid (I believe her name was Tish Myash) was entertaining. Then back into the library for another show and then we had to go back out and go out and re-enter Pleasure Island (it was time for them to account for all of us) so we went out, got our new wrist bands and re-entered the AC and immediately were ushered into the library again. This time it was time for the Serial Radio Thriller Broadcast, led by Pamela Perkins and Otis T. Wren. Of course, be prepared for audience participation. (You guessed it; I was selected to be the sound man that night!) I’m still trying to find enough cash to pay off Tom who videotaped the whole thing. He is threatening to put it out on the web! (Seriously once he gets me a copy, if you want to see what goes on in the AC, send an email to me and I’ll find a way to get you a copy. Kongaloosh! Well, several Jungle Juice’s later (we stayed until after the Balderdash Cup was awarded) we decided that we’d enjoyed the company of the AC and decided to head for the hotel. Labor Day weekend is finally over so we are now ready to head over to the parks without the crowds. Tomorrow it’s the Magic Kingdom. The Hidden Mickey Tour – Day 4 Another late rising morning. So late that even the animals have already gone to the barn so there is nothing waiting for us when we looked outside. So we are off to the Magic Kingdom today to enjoy ourselves. We were running so late (11 am) that they had already removed the early morning munchies from the Kilimanjaro Lounge so we exited directly to the MK. Upon arrival I was able to get a couple of photos of some characters at the front gate. Then we stopped at the Main Street Bakery for a mid-morning munchie. Not too much of a crowd today so instead of attempting to bounce around we just decided to go counter clock wise, starting in Tomorrowland. Our first stop was going to be Alien Encounter but we saw that Space Mountain was only running one side and only had a 15 minute wait (they weren’t running fast pass) so we went on in. After racing around SM we went over to Alien Encounter and went right on in with no wait (this is how the rest of our trip is going to be – no wait times at all!). Once out of Alien we walked from Tomorrowland over to Fantasyland, stopping to go into a few of the shops and finally over to the Haunted Mansion. After trying to count all 999 ghosts we moved on to the Hall of the Presidents for another relaxing break. When we left there we wandered over to the Liberty Tree Tavern for lunch. Lunch coincided with the parade and we finished just as the parade finished. I got a couple of nice photographs of the floats and then we wandered up to Splash Mountain and right on that. We had wanted to go on Thunder Mountain but it was closed for refurb. Oh well, perhaps next time. So we wandered on down to adventureland and after stopping to watch a group of cutthroat pirates called the Rusty Blade perform, we wandered through Pirates of the Caribbean. It was Tom’s first trip through and now he wants to see the movie! From Pirates we moved down to the Jungle Cruise and that about finished our day. If it seems like we rushed through the MK, well, we usually do. (If you haven’t figured by my handle, I once worked on Main Street at DL). Anyway, we returned back to the hotel for an evening of munchies and animals. Today was short as we were still recovering from the AC the night before and we were all going to have an exciting day in front of us. Tomorrow we go to Epcot and we swim with the dolphins and Tom is going to do Divequest. Wouldn’t you know it, after all this hanging around the Living Sea, Tom wants to have dinner at the Coral Reef. So get your wet suits ready for tomorrow. The Hidden Mickey Tour – Day 5 OK, everyone here know how to swim? No? No problem as you don’t have to in order to visit the dolphins. However to do divequest you have to be a certified diver. So let’s head over to Epcot and see what’s going on. We left the hotel early and arrived at the main gate of Epcot at about 9:15. Tom took off on his own, as his Divequest wasn’t until 4:30 this afternoon. We later found out that while we were interacting with Calvin and Rainier (the dolphins) he was doing Test Track, Mission Space and walking around the countries of the World. So, once again we are going backstage. Here we got to see the Living Seas up close and personal. It is quite large and the cast members love to dazzle you with facts and figures. So picture this, the Living Seas is large enough that you can take Spaceship Earth and put it inside and there will still be 18 feet of space left. Anyway, we are led back behind the Living Seas and inside and then up above to the dolphin pool to first meet the dolphins. Then we were taken inside and got front row seats to watch a little dolphin training. They were trying to teach shape recognition to Rainier. First they had him on one side of the pool while the trainers would hang two different large shapes against the glass on each side of a designated location. Then on signal, the trainer would hold up a duplicate of one of the shapes and the dolphin, after examining the shape the trainer was holding was supposed to “point” towards the proper shape. While we watched, he was successful about 3 out of 4 times. Of course each time he was successful he was given positive reinforcement by hand signal and then he would race across the pool for another reward of food. After that we were taken up to the changing rooms where we all put on wet suits and then we were split up into groups of 4 each (there was 8 of us but only 7 could participate – remember when I said I would provide tips – well, unfortunately, pregnant women are not allowed in with the dolphins, for safety reasons so one of our group had to sit out as she was about 7 months along.) So back to the groups, each of our small groups had our own trainer and dolphin and after being allowed to pet the dolphin (we were taught to “pet the dolphin where we would want to be petted”) we were shown several hand signals and were able to lead the dolphin through some simple tricks (turn around, jump, speak, laugh, etc.). Then after our photograph was taken with the dolphin, we switched trainers and dolphins and learned other hand signals and tricks with the second one. This all took place in about 30 minutes or so and afterwards we were lead out of the pool and back to the shower room to change back into civvies. In case you are wondering, this all actually takes place inside the Living Seas within sight of the guests. The platform where we were standing is in the center of the Living Seas in the dolphin section. Since this is done every day at the same time, if you are in there at about say 11ish you might see a bunch of feet sticking into the pool. Those are guests like us learning hand signals with the dolphins. One more very possibly important tip for those of you who might be interested in doing this. Because you are entering the Living Seas and will be petting the dolphins, the staff requests that you remove ALL jewelry before touching the dolphins. (prevents scratching the dolphins, etc. also the possibility that a ring or earring or necklace gets loose and then lost in the water). Not a big deal, unless you have multiple necklaces, rings, etc (yes, like my wife). Also be sure that if you are intending on going into the park afterwards that you have something to wear other than a wet swim suit. Lockers are provided and all that. It was a very enjoyable adventure and we will do it again. So, when it was over, we all got together and walked over to the Land for lunch. Then we went over and caught Off Kilter followed by the British Invasion. By this time we finally got all of Sherry’s jewelry back on (remember the hint above?) so we walked over and walked on Test Track, then Tom and I went on Mission Space again while Sherry waited. Finally it was time for Tom to depart for his Divequest so we parted again and he headed off for the front gate. We, on the other hand headed for Mouse Gears to do a little shopping (and hidden Mickey searching – Oh, I haven’t stopped, I’ve been finding them all over. But I think I am making both Tom and Sherry sick of pointing them all out). So we found a few items to purchase and, of course send back to the room. Then, we figured we had spent enough time so we wandered over to, of all places, the Living Seas and there was Tom on the other side of the glass. Of course he didn’t see us as he was having a little difficulty with his equipment but we watched him and the other divers for a while and then we left the living seas, after saying good-bye to Calvin and Rainier. Since the Future World was closing at this time we wandered out to the world to wait for Tom to finish up and we ended up at Off Kilter again (by now you should be seeing a pattern in our travels). I had already snatched up one of their CD’s and as we were watching them again my phone rang. It was Tom and he had just finished and they had let him back in the park. He could tell where we were so he met us in front of Off Kilter. While there we got them to autograph my CD. Tom said that he wanted to get one but would at another time (see day 7). So after Off Kilter we decided to walk over to the Coral Reef. It wasn’t exactly our reserved time but considering how “crowded” the park was (NOT!) we decided to see if they could get us in early. Lucky us, we got right in (well, it wasn’t really luck, there wasn’t anyone around) so we ordered dinner and made plans to get out and perhaps catch the Illuminations afterwards. We were a little surprised to find, on leaving the restaurant that it was raining. However we asked and discovered that the fireworks go off rain or shine (well, almost rain or shine) so we put on our ponchos and walked up to the small crowd around the lake to watch Illuminations. Afterwards it was back to the hotel to dry off. By the way, we are now getting quite a small collection of animals in the room. The count is up to 4 different animals (hint – we asked and found that we could actually keep them! And they don’t each much, either!) So we are just a few days left in our visit. Tomorrow night we have reservations at the California Grill so that we can watch the fireworks from up there. If you’ve hung on this long, you deserve a fast pass or two. Tomorrow is open, we had planned to go over to Blizzard Beach before we left but the weather has been turning cloudier and cloudier each day thanks to the tropical storms in the area and I guess no one in our group really wanted to go down that ski slope after all. Anyway, we’ll let our feet guide us tomorrow. See you then. The Hidden Mickey Tour – Day 6 We’re winding down now. Just today and part of tomorrow. Seems like time really flies when you are here but then it seems like we’ve been here for so long. I really will miss this place. So how do we start the day? The same as before, by getting up when we felt like it and then heading up to the Kilimanjaro Lounge for a quick snack. During the snack it was decided to go back and do a little more in MGM. So off we are. This time where to start? No questions asked as we headed immediately over to the Tower of Terror again. This time we are on quite quickly and the drop isn’t as neat as the previous one (I think it only went up and down twice). Then over to Rock n Roller Coaster again and we did that one twice again. Then we walked across the park again looking for a lunch. We passed the Indiana Jones Stunt Show and I finally was able to pull the rope (if you don’t know – there is a well in front of the show with a rope hanging down in it. There is a sign which says “don’t pull the rope” with the don’t crossed out – so if you are hanging around that area and you see this, go pull the rope and listen). We were debating on either eating at Prime Time Diner or Sci-Fi Diner and, well, the Sci-Fi won out over having the waitresses tell us to take our elbows off the table at the Prime Time Diner. Perhaps next time. So we dropped in for a quick lunch. It wasn’t the greatest, but then, it wasn’t that bad. Afterwards we left MGM, but not before I got a few pictures of a couple of the characters in front of the large pointy hat. We returned back to the hotel and walked all over the hotel from one end to the other to see which savannah seemed the best. Of course we selected the one on which we were staying (we were on zebra trail, room 5515). After walking around the hotel and doing a little shopping in the hotel we changed clothes and headed over to the Contemporary Hotel. In order to get there we took a bus from the AKL to the Magic Kingdom. Then we hopped on one of the hotel monorails from the MK to the Contemporary. Sherry and I had visited this hotel many years ago for a meal but hadn’t been in it since (except to travel through it from the transportation center when going to the MK) so we spent a little time examining the shops and seeing what was available at this hotel. None of us are impressed by this hotel at all. We all would rather stay at the AKL. So we finally decided to go up the elevator and see if they could seat us early. Sure enough, as before there is no problem and in a few moments we are seated for dinner. Only problem is that we are on the opposite side from the MK! Well, I ask and am told that we can go out to the observation deck when the time comes so we order dinner. Dinner was OK, all agreed that it is pricey for what you get. Even more so than other restaurants at WDW. During dinner I asked the staff if it is required to dine before coming up and watch the fireworks and they informed me that it isn’t currently required but that they are looking into something like that. I hope not as next trip I intend on eating some place else and then traveling over and going up to the observation deck JUST for the fireworks. Anyway, it is a neat experience to see the fireworks from up on the Contemporary. The biggest thing that everyone notices is the fact of how far behind the Magic Kingdom that the fireworks are launched from. We were all watching the Castle and suddenly off to the right is this streak of light…… So be prepared. To return to the AKL we reversed our trip on the monorail around until we got to the Magic Kingdom and then a bus back to the hotel. Once back we began to pack. We got all our purchases and took them down to the hotel shop and had them ship everything home. Hint: Keep your receipts handy. It makes this really much easier than you would think. After arranging all of the shipping we returned to the room to finish packing. We weren’t scheduled to be picked up until 4:15 the next day and we wanted to be ready so we could do some last minute “stuff”. What that stuff is we will decide when we get up. I tell you, this was one vacation which was so laid back. I’ve never been down here and been this lazy. So just another partial day to go. Any ideas on where we will be going? Test Track and Mission Space or will it be Tower of Terror and Rock n Rollercoaster? You’ve earned your mouse ears if you stayed this long (p.s. I’ll drop some final hidden Mickey’s in the next episode) so join us as we say goodbye to WDW tomorrow. The Hidden Mickey Tour – Day 7 The final (sniff sniff) day. You could tell that none of us wanted to leave this morning. It was tough getting up. We had the front desk come up and pick up our bags at 10:00 and then we went up to the Kilimanjaro Lounge to say good bye. (well, maybe not completely yet, it’s early!) A snack and we had decided how to spend our final hours. It was going to be an Epcot kind of day (Test Track and Mission Space won out). So off we went. But there was another reason for this trip. I have always enjoyed the view you get when you come in on the monorail from the transportation center to Epcot. So we were going to “ride the rails” as well. First into Epcot and head over to Test Track. I pointed out the two hidden Mickey’s that I could quickly find (check out one of the automobiles has a dented in door. On the door is a sticker and the inspector’s name on the sticker is M. Mouse. Right after that auto as you go through the queue on the left hand side there is a table with parts on it. Three of the objects form a perfect Mickey. After the drive we went over and Tom and I did Mission Space one more time. This time, I believe that I found a hidden Mickey on the planet Mars. We rested for several minutes in the Electric Umbrella again and then headed out to “ride the rails” for a last time. This has become a tradition for Tom and myself in order to get that “great photo” of the Epcot ball from the monorail. So we grab a train heading out to the transportation center. At the transportation center we get out and head down the ramp and turn right around and go back up the ramp again. We are the only one’s there so it is pretty easy to secure the front car by asking to sit up there. We are told to go to the appropriate seating area to wait and so we do. The next train arrives and we are led to the front car. Let the photographing begin. We both got some great shots of the Epcot ball and other sights and afterwards we entered Epcot again and headed up to Canada for lunch and so that Tom could purchase his CD of Off Kilter. We were able to be seated almost immediately at Le Cellier and lunch was very good. After the meal we hung around for just a few, purchased the CD. Once that was accomplished we returned to our hotel for one last good-bye. We spent our last moments walking around the hotel and taking photographs and finally at the appropriate time our return driver showed up and we packed up and took off. Our journey has ended. We bid good bye to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. So, that was it. Our 7 day stay at the AKL. So let’s sum up our experiences: Highlights: The Sunrise Safari; The Dolphins in Depth tour; The Behinds the Scenes Tour of the Animal Kingdom; Tom’s DiveQuest; The Adventurers Club Lowlights: California Grill (over priced for what you get); Sci-Fi Diner (ho-hum) Best Meals: Teppanyaki Dining (Japan); Mamma Melrose’s (MGM); Le Cellier (Canada) Longest we waited for an attraction: Mission Space – on the Labor Day Saturday (35 minutes in the single rider line). Most crowded park: MGM on Sunday Least crowded park: Any of them the week following Labor Day. Would we do it again? You bet. We’re coming back to the AKL again. We want to do the dolphins again. But we know we won’t be back to the California Grill again. Steve Simmons Stephen.Simmons@cingular.com Mail a Comment to Steve Simmons |
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