WDW07 – Friday – Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom

Our Walt Disney World travelogue continues …

1. Kitten and Margie got up early in the morning, so they headed down to the food court and let me sleep.  They did come back just as I was getting up, and had brought me a cinnamon roll, which was very nice of them.
2. And … off to Animal Kingdom!  Why AK?  Because Kitten was sure that Expedition Everest would going to be the bee’s knees.
3. So, as soon as we got there, we bee-lined to the ride.  The line was already timing at 50 minutes, so we grabbed FastPasses, and headed back to … DinoLand, USA.
4. Now, there are many Disney Purists who simply hate DinoLand with a passion undying — the carnival atmosphere jarring with their idea of the sedate educational mission of Animal Kingdom, not to mention the Decorum of Disney.  Well, fiddlesticks — DinoLand has plenty of educational bits, but the traveling carnival bits are just plain fun, especially for the kids.
5. We started off with a hitherto un-ridden ride:  Primeval Whirl, a Old School roller coaster.  We’d never ridden it before because Katherine was too short — but having hit the magical 48-inches, there was very little in the parks she couldn’t go on.  Primeval Whirl, aside from its delightful name, is a fun Coney Island style roller coaster, with the twist of the car pivoting independently as of about half-way through the ride (hence the “whirl” part).  Good stuff.
6. We headed from there over to Dinosaur, which sends the rider in a jeep back through time to save a sample dinosaur before the Nemesis Asteroid hits (ironically, the same event that Primeval Whirl uses as its centerpiece).  Fun bits, sort with similar tech to the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland.  Kitten, though, found it a scosh too scary (dark and deadlines and carnitaurs and all that).  Which didn’t stop her from buying an ID badge in the let-you-out-into gift shop.
7. We ate at our favorite eaterie at AK, the Flametree BBQ, located in the center island.  Good food, and a nice, shady area to eat it in.  The weather we had wasn’t bad — the upper edge of “comfortable” — 80s in temp and humidity — especially compared to last May.
8. After lunch, we went to Kitten’s favorite spot in the park, the Boneyard, a big jungle-gym slides exploring climbing sandbox running-around place.  She got asked at the gate to help find some answers for a test that one of the staff was going to have to take (count the number of slides, count the number of dinosaur teeth, ID what’s being dug up in the sandbox, find the Hidden Mickey, etc.), which she had a lot of fun doing.  And then had a lot of fun doing the normal activities, before we …
9. Headed over to Primeval Whirl again.  Fun again.  Then we played one of the fair games — which, since the place was packed, meant that a win wasn’t automatic.  Kitten had fun, though.  And then it was time for …
10. Everest!  Woot!  Another amazing “show” waiting line (heck, even in the Fast Pass lane, which took us two minutes to stroll through), and a nicely done (if short) roller coaster.  Katherine’s hypothesis of “bee’s knees” was confirmed.  (Quote, mid-ride: “This is COOOL!”
11. A word here on FastPass.  Use it.  Go places early, grab your reservations, go do something else. We probably saved ourselves several hours of line-standing by effective (non-obsessive, but strategic) use of FastPass.
12. It was hot, and we wanted to head back for a nap and rest and swim and all, so we headed out of the park.  On the way, we passed by the under-construction (and sizeable, by the looks of it) Yak & Yeti Restaurant, and did a bit of shopping. 
13. Unusually, we did nothing in Africa, and only Everest in  Asia this visit to AK.  Part of that was because of the direction we took — back to Everest, then around to DinoLand — rather than going counter-clockwise.  Still, fun.
14. The bus took us first to Blizzard Beach.  On the way back out, we spotted a (smallish) alligator at the canal by the entrance to the parking lot.  Yikes!  You mean … that swamp land is real?!
15. Back at Coronado Springs, we changed for another swim.  Katherine and I went down first, while Margie worked on dinner reservations.  We weren’t very good this time about a lot of advanced reservations, which, with Spring Break, hurt us a bit.  Still, Margie deserves her standard major kudos for all the work she did do, beforehand and at the park.  This trip wouldn’t have happened without her.
16. Swimming was … well, I ended up not going in, just sitting by the pool and reading.  Kitten was a non-stop water sliding machine.  Margie came over in a bit, and we had a pleasant time, despite some light sprinkles.
17. Dinner turned out to be the Maya Grill, there at the resort — which was nice, but not spectacular by any means.  Service was polite, food was okay (my ribeye was thin, making it tough where it wasn’t fatty), but it was a pleasant meal nonetheless.  I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat there (i.e., I wouldn’t go there if I weren’t staying at Coronado Springs), and, honestly, I’m not sure it had that much more special to it than the Pepper Market food court, but I’m glad we went.
18. And, the evening still being young and everyone rested, we … headed off to the Magic Kingdom.
19. As with all the parks, our bags were checked upon entry.  As with all the parks, the checking was cursory in the extreme, definitely designed not to spot weapons or terroristic bits, but to make sure that folks aren’t bringing booze or foodstuffs into the park.  Which is a real annoyance to get into the place (especially since it turns the broad entries they’re all designed with into narrow, crowded chokepoints).
20. There was a parade a-brewing when we arrived, so, after some kid-limbo-dancing in Main Street and losing Margie briefly in the shops, we hallooed over into Adventureland.
21. Going on the Jungle Cruse captained by a Brit is mildly surreal — sort of Monty Python meets Disney. 
22. Finally went on a redressed (Cap’n. Jack) Pirates of the Caribbean.  To which, let me say … meh, so far as “improvements” go.  The Jack animatronic is very well done (all three of them), the added effects (the mist curtain, for example) are nice, and Jack’s “story” is inserted decently enough into the PotC narrative.  But, honestly, it doesn’t net add all that much, and takes away in equal measure.   The old sound track is relegated to a few faint “Dead Men Tell No Tales” in the background, there’s a lot more Davy Jones (of Locker fame), and the PotC chanty  (“Yo-ho, yo-ho, a pirate’s life for me!”) is nearly gone save for one scene.  Heck, even the parrot in front of the ride is gone, dagnabbit.  I loved that parrot!  And all the PC bits are in there (again? still?) — yes, there’s a “wives market” still, but the next shot has (a) two pirates running around with a treasure chest betwe
    en then, and (b) four other pirates being chased by ladyfolk.  As I said, meh. 
23. For the record, since Margie and Katherine counted, there are five dead/skeletal pirates, and 36 live ones, not counting Jack.
24. We headed on — only to run into the tail end of the parade, which loops around back past Splash Mountain.  Kitten loved it, to be honest, sitting up on my shoulders to watch it — which made Margie and I realize that, while we don’t particularly get our jollies (or consider the time investment worthwhile) watching the parade, Katherine feels differently about it.  A lesson to be learned there.
25. Then off to Big Thunder Mountain.  Woot!  Katherine, ever the thrill-seeker, named it as one of her top five favorite rides (which list is never consistent, but is always weighted toward things that are Fast and/or Wet).
26. At the exit, we watched the evening fireworks show (sans music/narration).    Pretty.
27. And then a quick jaunt over to the Haunted Mansion (the sound in our car was a bit muffled), and then an end to the day and back home we went.