WDW 2011 Day 3 - Part One - DisjointedImages

Wednesday 1/12/11

This was to be a Chef Mickey’s breakfast day – with 7 am reservations. After the first wake up call however, I said it wasn’t happening. The large dinner late at night had kept us both up with indigestion and we were still exhausted from the lack of sleep going in and the highly unusual (for us) exercise at the parks.

I should also clarify – I work night shift at home. My day doesn’t start until about 11 am, I work until 9 pm, and am often up working on the computer until 2 am. So getting up at 6 or 7 in the morning on a routine basis was sketchy from the get go.

Sometime around 11, we awoke to a beautiful looking day – but alas it was quite chilly. Barely 30 when we got up. While not quite “ready to snow” it’s definitely “am I in Florida still?”.

The view that mocked me:

Dad relaxing in “his” hammock:

Because of the cold weather and late start we briefly considered making this a “day off” choice – having a 10 day hopper but 14 days in Florida we knew a few days would be non-park. After reminding mom that Primeval Whirl would be down for maintenance the rest of our trip, and therefore missed if we skipped today, we trudged into Animal Kingdom.

The rental:

Playing Tetris with the scooter:

I head inside for some photos and a snack while the boys work on the trunk dilemma.

I assume that even at 2, this area isn’t nearly so deserted normally…

We wandered through some of the animal viewing areas up front:

Caught this guy taking a bath

This one liked “hide and go seek”

Because of the animals, this has the shortest hours of all the parks – and we didn’t get to the gate until nearly 2 pm. Winter sunsets put the last safari at 5:30. We decided they would wait for next week. It was likely that most weren’t out or motivated considering the chill.

Instead we made our way over to Primeval Whirl in Dinoland. On the way we saw a meet and greet – and I waved at Eeyore who was looking up at the bridge we are on. He blew me kisses!

Crazy looking tree

Our last trip, we hadn’t seen AK at all, but mom had sent me links to videos of this ride and it looked like fun. Dinosaurs in top hats wouldn’t steer you wrong…

Hmmm… that looks troublesome

Chris is ready!

*click click click click* Up we go!

Now – at this point I am no longer concerned about looking through the viewfinder of my big camera and just want to enjoy the ride. Instead it is level at my chest, and I am just hitting the button periodically and figuring I should have something usable after!

A good thing because, as fun as the ride was it is BUMPY and JERKY and just all out carnival ride feeling. I’d have gotten a black eye if I tried to hold the camera up I think!

We turn the corner:

Careen around the first curve:

Past a dino:

And then SPIN time!

The full ride (warning – I tend to swear!):

Then we grabbed lunch from Flametree BBQ. Mom had the ribs, Dad a turkey sandwich. Chris and I grabbed a pork sandwich each. I really didn’t care for the pulled pork – Mom gave me a bite of ribs and those were decent. Dad’s sandwhich (he gets full easily and passed half my way) was interesting… it had a fruit (cherry, cranberry?) dressing thing on it which was unexpected.

This guy was obviously used to either handouts or kids dropping food – because he let me get really close:

Then Dad found a great photo op location around the corner:

Off to Dinosaur:

This ride was just awful. I thought I would get whiplash – the whole thing was overly cheesy and nothing shocked or surprised you (and it was my first time and no I hadn’t watched it on Youtube first). I was flung around like a ragdoll the entire ride.

We got the ride photos if only to say we had done it and could have reason to never do it again. :P

A quick stop in Yak n Yeti (for an excuse to sit and recover from Dinosaur – ow) to split appetizers.

The egg rolls were tasty – but nothing I would crave – and the shumai, dumpling and wontons were equally forgettable.

Not enthused

We did get a nice spot for a table:

The fried wonton dessert tasted of nothing but fried oil, though the pineapple part was good. Another “what’s the fuss” location.

To end the night we went over to Expedition Everest.

I tried the test seat (near the single rider line around the corner fyi) and found that while the seat itself was comfy, the lap bar you have to pull to your waist was far too narrow for my legs.

So instead we had Chris and Dad make the run and had them get front row for the full experience.

They had an absolute blast.

Photo snap!

First time riding for both – and having it full pitch black night only made it better. The look on my dad’s face says it all! The photo was too good not to buy. They even went a second time before we dragged them away, and it was all they talked about the rest of the trip. I’ll have to make sure to work extra on my calves and thighs to ride our next time here.

Oh, and despite the brightness of the photo (thanks to the camera flash) they said coming out this section at night means you can’t really tell how far you’re going to fall!

Chris shot “video” but most of it is just sounds (which kind of gives you what they experienced anyway!):