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WDW 5: Not Quite the Final Frontier
December 14, 2007
Thursday we had to get a 9 a.m. wakeup call in order to be sure we’d have enough time to make it over to Animal Kingdom for our afternoon Backstage Safari tour. We got there early enough to go check out the capybaras, except the capybaras have moved out and there were porcupines in their place. I must say that the spiny ones were certainly more active than I ever saw the capys being.
Our tour group met up at the front of the park then walked to the back where we got to go on the Kilamanjaro Safari without the standard storyline about the poachers and Little Red; I liked it better that way. I would have liked it even better if they’d held up the vehicles behind us a bit so we could have stopped to look at the animals more. Then we took the train to the area formerly known as Conservation Station. We got to go into the animal hospital and lab (though not any part where there were animals), then into the food prep area and a meeting room where we saw a short presentation and got to pet a snake. My favorite part was walking out to the barns, where we got to hear a keeper talk about the elephants, see a new elephant not yet on exhibit, and touch one of the tail hairs that she’d shed (it was a lot more like wire or plastic cable than hair).
After the tour, we hustled out to the parking lot to see the Atlantis launch (we’d seen a launch from WDW once before, from just in front of Cinderella Castle). There were a few other small groups of people who seemed to be doing the same thing, standing around looking east. As long as we were just standing around, Mr. Karen called a friend and had him look online for the latest NASA news, which turned out to be that the launch was scrubbed. Before we went back into the park, Mr. Karen checked the news headlines on his phone to make sure there would be no shuttle in the sky that day. (We did share our information with the people standing around us, too.) Oh well. We had dinner at the new (open only a few weeks) Yak and Yeti restaurant inside the park. The food was pretty good, but the décor was great. It wasn’t very crowded, so we were able to walk around after we ate and look at the art and artifacts.
After dinner, we returned to the hotel to change and head over to the Magic Kingdom for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. We got there late, but were just in time to see the parade from Town Square. It was quite impressive, with many rare characters putting in appearances (some so rare I don’t know who they were), tiny white horses pulling Cinderella’s glass coach, and a big squad of toy soldiers. The party fireworks came next, and then we just zoomed around from attraction to attraction. The later it got, the fewer people were around. On our last time through, we were able to get our own log on Splash Mountain and even had our own boat back to the Poly after the party.
Next time: No more mis amigos.
One year ago today, I shared new additions to my fabric stash. I haven’t had any to share recently; I haven’t bought any fabric in a really long time. Even so, I still have more than a lifetime supply.
Two years ago, I inflicted 1970s craft projects upon an unsuspecting internet. I don’t remember what I did with that book, which makes me think it might still be lurking somewhere in my house.
Three years ago, I wrote a ski trip report.
Four years ago, I was just back from vacation.
Five years ago, I finished a baby quilt. I have one on my felt wall now that I need to finish soon, as the baby turned one last month.
