Day 10: Hollywood Studios/Animal Kingdom Combo
So still feeling bad about missing Toy Story and Jedi Training at Hollywood Studios, we decided to go back and get them under our belt before heading off to Animal Kingdom today. Our strategy was to get to the park early, then I would run ahead and FP Toy Story while the boys went off the register for the Jedi Academy. The best laid plans as they say, only the 8pm class left for Jedi training and Fast Pass return for Toy Story was at 3.25pm already (jeez the park was only open about an hour). So took the hit and queued for 95 mins for Toy Story with a plan to return again for Jedi training later this evening.
Toy Story - Midway Mania
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About an hour in the queue (always feels like a triumph when it’s shorter than the estimated wait), we don our 3D specs, and get ready for some target shooting action. See who scores the most by hitting the targets (each having a points value relative to the targets size and motion). All the targets were virtual 3D ones each in a Toy Story styled set complete with characters. Fun Fun Fun! 9/10.
If Toy Story wasn’t worth coming back to Hollywood Studios for (which it was), then a chance encounter with the one and only Minnie Mouse, was definitely worth it! Grace’s face just lighted up and it was probably the most excited she has even been the whole holiday. Made my day :)
Just keep swimming…
Wee bus over to Animal Kingdom to spend a few hours there now. Started raining as soon as we got off the bus - though being used to it by now we had unpacked our waterproofs and had them in the blink of an eye without a second thought. Had our first bite to eat of the day and after FPing some rides we sit down to watch the first of our shows, Finding Nemo: The Musical!
Love Nemo and this was packed full of all the characters retelling the story through the medium of song and dance. They had great big puppets including that great big friendly shark, Bruce! Great for all ages. A totally righteous 9/10 dudes!
After Nemo, we had to rush to Primeval Whirl which was one of the rides we had fast passes for. Patrick expressed a genuine interest to go on this ride which was surprising considering it was a pretty fast one with a few steep drops. I found out it just so happened to be a favourite of one of the girls in his class (who he must like to be braving one of his fears). Robert wasn’t tall enough which he was upset about, so just me and Patrick on this one. He said it was great and gave it 10, hmmm would maybe only get 6 from me.
Dinosaur next, a bumpy excursion back into the land of dinosaurs (surprisingly enough). Didn’t look like much from the outside but it came recommended so we had fast passed this too. Hodges from CSI headed up the pre-ride intro (oh which reminds me I got a new hat - see new fb profile pic :). The ride was fast, bumpy and VERY DARK! It was surprisingly good because of the lack of light as it made it a little different from the run of the mill treks through <insert generic topic here>. 8/10 Mickeys.
We needed to make our way over to the Festival Of The Lion King show which was on the other side of the park, not forgetting to put the Fast Passes to good use for the Safari for when we finished. We did a detour to check out Everest, an old style wooden coaster through the rocky mountains but the FP return was too late and the queue too long (if we wanted to make The Lion King show).
Hakuna Matata!
The Lion King show was amazing, dancers, characters, acrobats, fire throwers and stilt walkers all in vibrant costumes singing and performing along to the songs of the movie. What a show and absolutely spine-tingling as they reached the pinnacle of Can You Feel The Love Tonight and The Circle Of Life. 10/10.
We finished off with the Kilimanjaro Safari - a rough ride through different animal habitats seeing a number of different animals including tigers, ephalumps and hippos. It was made all the more amusing (to me) as our guide looked and sounded extremely like Jack Black. Some nice twists to the typical safari type things you get back home including termite hills and not a gate or grille in sight - felt like how a real albeit tame safari would be. 8/10.
There were quite a few attractions we missed out on so was kind of a whistle stop tour of the park but feel we got to the main attractions we wanted to to make it worth our while. We also headed straight home as it started bucketing it down so Jedi training would have in all likelihood been called off (they did warn us that it might happen). Was a little gutted but still had a brilliant day.
My youthful looks…
Well that was going to be it until dinner this evening. Just jumped into a restaurant on our way back from the park. So sat down at the table with my three kids, including my SEVEN year old son beside me and my dad (as dads do), orders some beers. The waiter then looks at me and asks if I have any ID!!! :| Haven’t had one issue all holiday, so I do what you would normally do and look in your bag (knowing fine well that you don’t have any), he then goes on about if cops came in he would be arrested and . He finally let me have a beer after my dad says it was ok and if I promised not to tell. OMFG! So food comes and its actually pretty decent, but the waiter is pissing me off (he reminds me of an unfunny Steve Carell in The Office). I paid by card at a cool wee automated kiosk at the table and before going he talks about how he let me have a drink but if I was coming back not to tell any of his colleagues. Then asks if I remembered to leave a tip! Aaarrggghhh… saw mostly the funny side, but the guy was seriously weird (and that’s coming from ME! ;)