The Start of Fun

Day Two...

Now I want to tell you something funny about this being called day two, you see, we haven't really even thought of the past two days as being a part of our Disney vacation. I mean we haven't even been to the Magic Kingdom yet, and everyone knows that you start your Disney World vacation at the Magic Kingdom, right?

Okay, maybe it's just me.

Anyway, today was our second day in the Sunshine State and it was filled with some thrills, chills and a bit of heat - go figure, it's hot in June, in Florida no less. We decided to start things off right, by sleeping in. After all we had just driven down from Illinois, we deserved the break. Compare that to us leaving to our Disney resort at 7am tomorrow and you might see what I am talking about, as we near the midnight hour... short sleep cycles are the norm for vacations, especially Disney ones.

Anyway...

So we decided to head to the Animal Kingdom, and I had one of my friends ask why and I told her that since we're not really considering today as a part of our trip, we decided to hit the least favorite park of the family and get in some Disney magic - about four hours worth. Now I have heard from people in the past claiming that they prefer to stay off property because they get the same perks as those that stay on property, it's just cheaper.

Um, I will now disagree wholeheartedly with those people (sorry!) First off, I can stay at a value resort for about half the cost that it is here. True, the rooms would be smaller (all we do is sleep in them anyway, so who cares), but you miss out on a lot. Like the theming of your resort, ain't no such monster here. There are countless other things that I may touch on later, but I want to dispel the notion with regards to bus transportation. From a Disney resort, you can catch a bus approximately every 15-20 minutes, here you have to wait a minimum of half an hour before the next bus comes. You get some pretty decent entertainment on a Disney resort bus, especially if you have a very energetic bus driver (love those guys and ladies!), here you can watch a video, with the volume turned way down. A Disney resort bus says that they drop you off at the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, etc... and they actually do. Here, they say Magic Kingdom and actually mean the Ticket and Transportation Center, or in the middle of a parking lot.

Okay, back to the fun... We walked in to Animal Kingdom and found Timon just waiting for us, and Timmy was pretty excited to see him, after all we had watch the Lion King on the way down... then he kind of wasn't excited to see him. No biggie though, as the characters at Disney are so awesome with the kids, and Timmy did warm up enough to give Timon a high five. We decided to check out a show next - The Festival of the Lion  King - let me tell you, if you have never seen this show, you should. It is awesome and a lot of fun, with chances for some interactivity from the kids even. Another thing that Disney does so well, is to get the kids involved in shows like that or parades, still trying to figure out why those people that don't like Disney feel that way.

The kids wanted to try a ride next, and Everest was chosen. Every one can ride that, except Timmy so he napped - what a good kid. No one took him from stroller parking either, which was good because Jenni would have been really mad if he wasn't there... I'm kidding!!! I was with him the whole time, watching him sleep and my cell phone die.

Time for a helpful hint. Charge your cell phone before you go to the parks, it may not last for an entire twelve hour park experience, but it will surely last longer than two hours. Which explains why I didn't post anything else here during the day, like I promised.

See, I have an excuse for everything. For example, it's after midnight and I still need to shower and go to bed - I do have a six o'clock wake up waiting for me. That being said, I will briefly touch on the rest of the day. We then went over to Dino land, rode some rides and then went to get something to eat. We realized that we might miss our bus if we ate, so we grabbed an ice cream snack for everyone that wanted one, and headed to the bus. The bus we rode back on, was loud, annoyingly loud, annoyingly loud with a whistling noise that seriously penetrated the inner sanctum of all cognizant thought. Yeah, here comes another what Disney resort buses have - it's called maintenance so that there isn't some annoying whistling sound. Every night each and every bus get looked over for things like that, because Disney doesn't want your inner sanctum bothered by whistling noises. Rant over.

After we got back to the hotel, and cleared our minds of that noise, it was hard let me tell you, we headed to mass at Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Celebration. Beautiful church with one of the best lounge singers I have ever heard cantering, and the tallest priest I have ever met. Andy said that he could easily fill in for Hagrid over at Universal Studios. I agree. After mass we went back to Downtown Disney, had some dinner and ice cream from the Earl of Sandwich and Ghiradelli's.

Now, the vacation can begin.