On the move

Sunday, January 20, 2019

This morning, my friends and Disney playmates must return home, and I’m feeling rather sad. We’ve had a couple of great days here at DisneyWorld, and now my working friends need to go home to…work. Bummer.

Elease, Joe, and I met for breakfast just after 10:00am and spent a little time discussing the pros and cons of our visit to Disney World. No place is perfect, but I say that, generally, we had a great time here. For Joe, the good news was he got to have a couple of days away from the office to focus on more personal interests. The bad news for Joe was that he had to spend a couple of days at Disney World! 😉

How lucky I am to have friends who will travel far from home in order to spend a few days with me. Especially since I won’t see either of them for months to come. Thank you, Joe and Elease.

After the Caracci’s boarded their bus, I headed back to my room where I spent tine napping and working on this blog. I originally intended to visit Disney Springs (a retail and restaurant area of Disney that’s open to the public) but in the end I just stayed in and rested. During the prior two days we’d been walking 3-6 miles per day. By this afternoon I was starting to feel some stiff, tight muscles. As a result, I stayed in and had a quiet day of recovery.

Whatever my situation, I was in a better place than the Caracci’s when they arrived home.

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Tomorrow I plan to explore the last park in the group, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, on my own.

Saturday, January 19, 2019

(If you missed a day, check out the “archives” to the right –>)

Today, our plans take us to Africa and Asia as we explore Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

DinoLand

Elease, Joe and I started our day early with a bus ride to Animal Kingdom. I think we were all surprised to see how many people were waiting to get through the gates. Big crowds usually mean long waits at the most popular attractions. Fortunately (?) for us, we had a FastPass+ to ride on the Primeval Swirl. Never heard of that ride? There’s probably a reason for that.

Primeval Swirl is a roller coaster ride located in DinoLand, in a small and apparently unpopular part of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. This neglected part of the park looks, sounds, and smells like the fun zone at any state fair in the USA. The ride for which we used one of our limited FastPass+ resources was like a combination of the Wild Mouse and the spinning teacups in Fantasyland in the Magic Kingdom. It wasn’t such a great ride, but it got our day started.

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It’s tough to be a bug

Next, we visited one of my favorite attractions and arrived there to find no line at all! “It’s Tough To Be A Bug” is a 4D theater experience; you wear 3D glasses but there’s a fourth element. That fourth element is your sense of touch. Things that are happening in 3D might be accompanied by a puff of wind, or a poke in the back, or the unmistakable smell of a stink bug.

The theater is located underneath the Tree of Life, a visual landmark that is prominent from almost anywhere in the park. The tree and the theater are covered in lush artwork that depicts life in its many forms. The show was fun, as always.

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Lunch

Days in advance, we made reservation to dine at Tiffin’s, a Disney signature restaurant in the Animal Kingdom park. This restaurant is first class in every way. It is attractive from the outside, and an art gallery on the inside.

We were escorted to our table where we met our waiter. He seemed very intent on making sure we had an excellent dining experience. Personally, I ordered a seared octopus appetizer and a surf and turf entrée consisting of lobster and beef tenderloin. In both cases, the food was nothing short of outstanding.

Kilimanjaro Safari

After lunch we wanted to experience the Kilimanjaro Safari where you pile into the bed of a truck and head out into savanna, jungle, and waterways to encounter live animals in the open environment. The photos below show just some of the many animals we were privileged to see. The ride really was fun, but the wait was not.

All of those people we saw at the front gate must have decided to come to Kilimanjaro Safari at the same time we did. Our wait in line was well over two hours! Yes, it was a great experience, but spending 20-25% of your park time in line for a single ride seems to me to be a bit outrageous. Oh well. It’s done now.

Crossing into Asian

The biggest, fastest, scariest ride in the Animal Kingdom is the roller coaster that zooms through the middle of Mt. Everest. Elease was absolutely dead set to ride it, even though Joe and I might have had some second thoughts, at least temporarily.

Here we see Joe working up the nerve, I mean, calmly planning his strategy for conquering Mt. Everest.

Rivers of Light

One of the benefits of eating at Tiffin’s was that we were given passes for excellent seating for the Rivers of Light show. This show is performed nightly just as the park is closing.

The end of another day

After the show, we were in the perfect position to capture Mt. Everest by night. Two nights in a row, we may have snapped our best picture of the day as we were leaving the park.

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So that ends our day at Animal Kingdom, and the Caracci’s last day at Disney World. We say goodbye tomorrow morning.

Friday, January 18, 2019

(If you missed a day, check out the “archives” to the right –>)

OMG! Look who I ran into this morning! Joe and Elease join me for a couple of days here in DisneyWorld. Having them here makes this visit even more special to me. Check out our first day’s adventures together.

One of the Disney parks that is a bit more adult oriented, compared with the Magic Kingdom, is EPCOT, the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. The three of us headed there this morning, looking for a break from all the kids and hoping to find something more age appropriate. We did, but it turns out that some things are just fun at any age. For example, let’s start with breakfast.

One of the rides we all wanted to visit was Soarin’ Around the World, located within “The Land” pavilion inside EPCOT. Once inside the pavilion, we saw an amazing restaurant serving breakfast. None of had eaten so we decided to start with a hearty meal to amp up our energy for the day. The Garden Grill is an unusual restaurant in that it rotates 360º every hour, giving diners an opportunity to enjoy an ever changing diorama depicting different types of land and how each type helps to support life on earth.

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(Click on any image to enlarge.)

Now, what we didn’t expect was that breakfast in the Garden Grill also included visits from several Disney characters. Ok, not exactly adult entertainment, but there’s still some “kid” in all of us, right?

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As expected, the family-style breakfast served to us was also mouse inspired. Ok with me as it was all very tasty. There was far more food served than we could eat! We ate our fill, and then headed out to see Soarin’.

Right next door to the Garden Grill is Soarin’, a ride that literally lifts you into the skies and flies you to beautiful locations all around the world. It feels a bit strange as you “take off” and enjoy an almost weightless experience as you fly over the top of the Matterhorn, zip over sand dunes in the Middle East, or nearly touch the top of the Eiffel Tower. So much fun!

We took in a few exhibits in EPCOT including an interactive space flight where we manually landed our Earth orbiter after a computer failure. We didn’t get to see everything that was offered in this part of the park because we wanted to make sure we had enough time to take in the World Showcase.

World Showcase brings many countries from around the world into EPCOT park. It surrounds a lake and brings to visitors the look, the culture and some products from each country represented. Here’s where we hung out:

England

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France

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Italy

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Japan

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Morocco

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Germany

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Mexico

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We ended our trip around the world in Mexico for a “muy” authentic Mexican dinner at La Cantina de San Angel. This cantina (in addition to serving excellent food) sits on the edge of the lagoon we spent the afternoon circumnavigating. At 9:00, the lagoon comes to life in an explosion of lights and fireworks. Although we didn’t have a window seat, we still had a very nice view of the show, called IllumiNations.

Following the show, we aimed ourselves toward the exit gate to find our bus for the ride back to Coronado Springs. We’d walked over five miles today, the park was closing, and we were a little bit tired.

Tomorrow is another day!

Thursday, January 17, 2019

(If you missed a day, check out the “archives” to the right –>)

This morning I got my first chance to look at the Coronado Springs resort in the daylight, and what a sight it is! My room is just above and overlooking a nice heated pool. The building I’m in is surrounded by beautiful landscaping, a running track, and a large pool area with a snack bar and laundry service.

The “Dig Site” is the large pool within the complex and it is huge. But, since the air temperature is about 60ºF this morning, it looks a little odd to see three lifeguards on duty yet almost nobody near the pool (and certainly nobody in the pool.)

On the way to the central lobby area to scare up some breakfast I saw a sign warning me to stay away from the edge of the lake as alligators and snakes may by lying in wait. So, I steer clear so as to avoid becoming breakfast, myself.

(Click on any image to enlarge.)

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After breakfast, it’s time to head out to the Magic Kingdom to see what’s new and different. The Magic Kingdom is (for those who do not already know) the one park here that is most like Disneyland in California. As a California expat, I’ve been to Disneyland many times. I can still clearly remember my first trip to Disneyland at a tender age. On that trip, I wanted to ride all of the rides (especially if they were fast rides) for as long as my supply of “E” tickets would allow. In subsequent visits throughout the course of my life, I’d return to all of those favorite, fast rides. Again and again.

This time, I decided to do something different. I decided to try some of the slower rides. The ones I’d always avoided or simply overlooked in the past. Why? Probably because I’m 67 years old, not seven.

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Following a quick bus trip from my resort to the Magic Kingdom park I’m greeted by a lovely entrance that looks much like Disneyland in California. Inside, like in Disneyland, Main Street leads you directly to the central castlek, here known as Cinderella Castle. Disney photographers are lined up all along the center of Main Street, taking photos of visiting guests with this inspiring castle in the background. It’s a photo that everybody wants to have. I wanted one, too, but I’m too cheap to pay for the professionally produced photo. So, I got this:

As I mentioned, this trip I planned to enjoy some of the slower rides I had overlooked in the past. The first ride I came across (one that I’d never been on) was the Liberty Belle, a replica of an old river paddleboat. It takes a leisurely 20-minute loop around Tom Sawyer’s Island. Now, I might not have enjoyed this ride in my youth, but I just loved it today! The route goes past camps, docks, and even an Indian village. For just a little while, I thought I could actually be cruising down the Mississippi in the 1800’s.

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But, then my fantasy of cruising the ol’ Mississip’ was jostled back to reality (?!) by this escapee from the Country Bear Jamboree:

Now, just because I was aiming to try all those rides i eschewed in my youth, that doesn’t mean I was not still attracted to a couple of those old favorites. I was, and I succumbed to their irresistible draw. Here are two photos. Do you recognize the rides?

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In the end, it was a short day in the Magic Kingdom. I left at about sunset and returned to my room where I fell into the arms of Morpheus for the rest of the evening.

Good night!

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Today, I start the adventure of my lifetime: 120+ days away from home, seeing the real world, but starting in a fantasy world.

The first stop of my adventure is a long-awaited trip to DisneyWorld in Florida. I left Queen Creek at 7:30am to catch a 10:40 SWA flight out of PHX.

With the partial government showdown affecting TSA I wanted to arrive a bit early in anticipation of a long line to get through security. My worries were for naught as, when I arrived at the TSA security checkpoint, there were only two people in line ahead of me. Total wait time: 30 seconds.

After an uneventful 4-hour flight I landed in Orlando where the presence of Disney could be felt almost immediately.

I used DisneyWorld’s free “Magical Express” bus service to arrive at my resort for the week. Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort is a fancy Spanish colonial-style hotel complex surrounding a beautiful lake.

Disney has tried to automate the check-in process so that one can go directly from the airport to their room with no stops for check-in or keys. For me, this system did not live up to the hype. I received a text message that my room was not yet ready, and that I would receive another text message when it was. A couple of hours later, following no new text message, I decided to visit the registration desk. As it turns out, my room was available all along. The system was not working properly, at least not for my reservation. In order to appease me, I was given a $50 credit on my bill. That made me a lot happier!

Since it was now already 7:00pm, I decided to have some dinner and retire. I found this sports bar in the hotel lobby complex and had some very nice fish and chips, as well as a local IPA beer called “Reef Donkey.” I’m told that the name refers to some kind of a local fish. Anyway, the beer was tasty and not fishy at all.

So ends the first day. More tomorrow.