Saturday
October 12, 2013
Animal
Kingdom
Since daughter had been feeling sick and we didn’t have reservations until 2 pm, we decided to
let everyone sleep in. I used My Disney
Experience last night to change all of our fast passes to after our lunch
reservation. I again had trouble getting
the software to cooperate with my android tablet but eventually I was able to
make the changes. We all got up between
9 am -10 am. Daughter decided she was feeling
well enough to go ahead and go into the park earlier than we planned. We ended up at the park by around noon. We
rented a wheel chair for hubby and then we took it kind of slow. We did some shopping and slow walking. Everyone was hungry so we stopped in
Pizzafari. We really should have just gotten snacks because we were full before
our 2 pm Tusker House reservation, but we did what we did.
Pizzafari is
a counter service restaurant that serves typical American cuisine such as
pizza, sandwiches, salads and pasta. I
forgot to take photos of our meals because I was in love with the murals and
light fixtures and snapping off photos of those instead. (I can't be the only mom who dies this, right?)
After our meal we headed over to “It’s Tough to Be a Bug” which is a 3-D immersive show experience where you become bug sized. The show is located in the Tree of Life and the queue winds through the roots and branches of the tree. We really enjoy this show. As we left the theater one of the cast members said he thought he saw daughter drop something but she seemed able to account for everything so we continued out the door. She dropped her 3-D glasses into the collection bin and then realized she did not have her prescription glasses. That is when we realized that the CM saw her glasses fall. We had to wait until the next show let out and then they said we could run in and search by where we sat. As the doors opened the cast member who said he thought something fall had a big grin on his face and handed me her glasses! I told him I could kiss him! He gave me a wink. Daughter put her glasses on her face and we headed off to Tusker House for our lunch reservations.
Now for whatever reason, Animal Kingdom felt more challenging with the wheel chair. It was hillier that I thought and pushing the wheel chair was much harder. Maybe I was just getting tired. We seemed to meet with more, I don’t know, friction, with other guests. On several occasions we experienced able bodied adults and women with strollers seemingly playing chicken with us. I am willing to give but it is easier for a person walking to change directions quickly than it us for me pushing the wheel chair. It was exhausting. It is this attitude that makes my husband not want to rent a wheel chair even when he is feeling bad and having mobility issues.
We got to
Tusker House and after checking into the hostess desk were led around the back
for our photo with Safari Donald. We
went up a ramp and then maneuvered around so that the wheel chair would be out
of the way while hubby got out of the chair.
As we were walking over to meet Donald (hubby walks slow and with a
cane) another family popped past us to get their Donald photo. We waited and then started walking toward Donald. Then another family started to go in front of
us and hubby said “really?” The dad
realized we were in line and pulled his wife back and said sorry. I think they were just excited. I feel like Disney staff should have been
directing better since they had us sort of outside of the line due to the wheel
chair. It felt kind of unorganized but worked out. Donald was lovely and the picture was great.
After the photo we were directed to a waiting area until our table was ready. When they called out name we said, “We are here” and started toward the hostess. She called our name another 2 times and we were loudly restating “we are here” then we saw another family say they were us and go off with the seating hostess and we heard the lady that called our name saying this is the “our name” family and off they walked. I would like to say I kept my cool and calmly told the hostess what happened, but in all honesty I had a meltdown. I told her that we were the family she called and she sent someone else to our table. During this the girls were on each side of me repeating, “What happened” over and over and with all of the commotion and frustration I popped and yelled, “She gave our table reservation to someone else”. I’m pretty sure I embarrassed everyone, the girls, the hostess, and me. The hostess called back the lady seating families and explained she had the wrong family. I heard them ask the other family their last name and it was nothing resembling ours. She told them they needed to wait until their name was called. Then introduced us to the lady seating the families and told her that the wrong family was being seated. She was completely understanding and nice. I apologized and thanked her. The lady seating us seemed confused but seated us. As we followed her to the restaurant, the family that tried to go in our place blocked the walk way. Arms crossed over their chests and sour faces. I said excuse me and they just looked at me. The hostess asked them to let us pass and they moved. It was weird.
We were finally seated and I was
ever so happy to be sitting in a cool room. Our cast member waitress came and took our drink orders. I don’t remember what everyone else got, but
I got a Sugar Cane Mojito which is Starr African Rum
and Sugar Cane Syrup mixed with fresh Mint, Lime, and a splash of Soda Water. Really
good! I ended up with two
Mojitos. I needed it. Seriously.
Tusker House is a character buffet featuring African and American dishes.The food all looked and smelled really good. What I ate of it tasted really good too. Honestly, though none of us were very hungry so we really did not get to experience the food as much as we wanted. I forgot to take photos of the food but I did take photos of the decor!
After the meal we headed over to the Safari. I was very relaxed. I thought everything was really funny. The girls thought it was really funny too. Hubby was afraid to have me push the wheel chair, but I did anyway. The safari was wonderful. Lots of animals were out. We saw hippos, rhinos, the baby giraffe, lots of birds and deer type animals, elephants and even a male lion sitting on a rock. After the safari we did a little shopping in Harambe and then headed over to Asia.
We headed to
Kali River Rapids. BFF was again
worried about getting wet. I still have never met a 15 year old afraid of
getting wet at an amusement park, but there you go. We
told her to expect it. So who got drenched? Hubby and I got drenched. We had
to wring our clothing out drenched. We
were wet the rest of the day drenched. Did I care? NO! It was a fun ride!
We moseyed
on over to Dinosaur.
This ride has a separate entrance for people in wheel chairs since you have to take an elevator down to the loading area. Because of this we were the only family in the car we rode. It was a very bumpy ride and the girls and I did enjoy it but hubby felt like it was a little rough. The girls asked if they could ride it again and hubby decided he would give it a go too since he now knew where the twists and bumps were located. When we got back to the load and unload area the girls asked the cast member if we could go again. Since there was no one else waiting to load on the wheel chair side, she told us to stand up and then sit back down and we were on our way again. When our car came into the loading unloading area, it took us to the wrong side. The cast member there said we were in the car with the “phantom rider”, got “under the hood” and asked if we minded riding again and said it would take us to the correct side this time. So we ride it for a 3rd time! We had figured out where the photo was being taken so we all posed for it this time, and that is the photo we got on photo pass.
We did a
little more shopping and then decided to head back to the resort.
Here are the final night dry erase board messages.
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