**You get two installments today because I'm giving up the DisBoards tomorrow for Good Friday!!
Our Last Day: Tuesday, 11/14/06 Boma and the Animal Kingdom
This morning was a blur of activity. Not only did we need to get ourselves up early, and get showered and dressed as usual; we had the added (and as you know) very unpleasant chore of clearing out our rooms and packing up to go home.
Before we knew it, the bellman arrived to pick up the bags! Aaggh!
We all ran around like chickens making doubly sure that we had not forgotten anything in the drawers, showers, closets, clothes dryer or DVD player! Then our luggage was gathered up on a cart and taken to Bell services to be checked. We were free to go directly to breakfast! We said goodbye to our beautiful villa and went down to the bus stop. We couldn’t have had a nicer stay!
I kept reminding myself that we still had half a day at WDW and that we could squeeze a lot of fun into the time we had left! We were off to see the
Animal Kingdom Lodge for the first time, and to have breakfast at
Boma-Flavors of Africa.
We had been planning to take the bus to the AK and then the AK bus over to AKL, but we were running late, so we took the internal bus to the Hospitality House and engaged one of the many taxi vans that were lined up just waiting for fares. It was fast. It was cheap. And, most importantly, it got us to our ADR on time!
As the taxi pulled up to the AKL, I craned my neck to get my first look at the thatch-roofed resort. I just love touring different WDW resorts! We try to visit at least one new one on each trip! I’ve read so many great things about the AKL, and I was so excited to finally see it in person, especially since rumours had been swirling about the possibility of a
DVC addition to the Lodge. Yay!
(Remember, this was mid-November!)
We entered the huge, high-ceilinged lobby and I was hit with the same “Wow Factor” that I had experienced the first time we visited the Wilderness Lodge. It was just as awesome as I had expected! My eyes were immediately drawn to the four-story wall of glass at the far end that led to the savanna beyond! No time to gape, however, we had to hurry over to Boma! We’d come back after breakfast to explore a bit.
We checked in, received the good old pager, and then sat down to wait. Oh! The aroma of that delicious food cooking suddenly made us realize how hungry we were! Billy was really antsy, so Ed took both kids outside to look at the
Uzima Pool while AR and I waited with a host of other guests. I was encouraged by the large number of guests that were leaving the restaurant, most likely anxious to get out to one of the parks.
I felt a quick pang of envy; it was Tuesday and they all most likely were just beginning their vacation, unlike me, who would be leaving today and back in my own bed that night! Whaaah!
Okay, I’m just not going to think about that now!
Ed came back with the kids. Presumably looking at all that water gave them the urge to go, b/c Ed needed to take Billy to the men’s room and Tricia asked me to go with her to the ladies’. The door was marked not only in English, but also in
Swahili, and the inside was as colorful and as exotic as the lobby. This is one of the reasons I love WDW resorts. They take the time and effort to meticulously extend the theme into all areas, even the restrooms!
“Mom, that pool is awesome! We’ve got to stay here next year!” Tricia said excitedly.
“I thought you wanted to stay at the Beach Club Villas because of their ‘awesome’ pool!” I teased. “Make up your mind!”
“Didn’t you say the vacation club was going to come here, too?” she countered.
“Perhaps. It’s only a rumour, but perhaps there will be villas here eventually”
“Okay, here’s what we’ll do…” (I smiled.) “Next year, we’ll stay at the BCV and then the year after that, we’ll stay here!” she said triumphantly. (I smiled even wider.)
Now I’ve got her thinking like a true DISer!
We joined the others and after a few moments our pager lit up. The “village marketplace” was bustling, even at this late breakfast hour. A smiling CM dressed in tribal costume led us to our table. I was hoping to be shown to a table by the window, but there was no such luck. At least we were seated at the far end of the room and not smack in the middle of the noisy crowd.
“This is great, we’re close to
the food!" Ed remarked, hungrily.
The food, we soon learned, was offered from eight different stations that were spread out around a wood-burning grill. Our server, similarly attired in colorful garb, brought a pitcher of
Frunch to the table and gave us a brief orientation to the layout as she poured. Soon after, a friendly chef, wearing a very tall white hat, came to the table to assist AR with her food choices. Upon learning that she would like toast with her eggs, he promised to return with some rice-flour bread and was off to the kitchen to arrange it.
Ed wasted no time. He made a beeline for the omelette station while I stayed with Billy and set him up with his Cheerios. AR and Tricia went off in search of their food and as soon as Ed returned with his plate overflowing, I joined them.
What a selection of food! The savory aroma of exotic cooking hung heavy in the air; it smelled spicy, sweet, and smoky all at the same time. There was the usual assortment of pastries and fruits, but with unexpected additions such as mango and papaya and dried coconut! One chef was preparing pancakes and waffles, while another was whipping up eggs and omelettes to order. Bacon, sausage, and ham were offered, as well as more unusual choices such as cured pork loin and bobotie, “a West African dish of corned beef, eggs, and potatoes mixed with cream and onions.” Familiar cold cereals and granola took their place alongside oatmeal, quinoa porridge and pap, made from white corn meal.
It took forever, but I finally made my selections and returned to the table. It looked as though Ed had tried a bit of everything to go with his omelette, and he was working his way through each food one at a time. All was to his liking, except the bobotie, which he expected to taste like corned beef hash, but was much spicier.
The chef returned with profound apologies to AR; it seemed that they were out of the rice bread for her toast. No matter, she was content with her bacon, eggs and potatoes, which were seasoned with red and green peppers.
Tricia had scrambled eggs, a huge bowl of watermelon chunks, and some cheese Danish. She took a sip of the juice and made a face. “What’s that?” she sputtered. “It’s Frunch” I replied. “It’s disgusting!” she said, wiping her tongue off on the cloth napkin for dramatic emphasis.
The menu said it was made up of lemonade, orange juice, pineapple juice, guava juice, and papaya juice. Not what I would call disgusting, but perhaps too heavy and sweet for my taste. We both opted for glass of good old Florida O.J.!
Having eaten our fill and after picking up as many Cheerios as we could off the floor, we wandered back out to the immense lobby to take a closer look.
We had just spent the past week at OKW, where a mix of pastel colors and bright, sunny spaces gave the entire resort an open, airy feel. By contrast, the Lodge’s dark earth tones, dramatic architecture, and colorful African artwork and fabrics worked together to create an atmosphere that was both warm and exotic at the same time. We walked around and examined the tribal shields, sculptures, and carved furnishings, marveling at the stunning beauty of it all.
Like its cousin, the
Wilderness Lodge, the
AKL boasted a small spring that began inside the lobby and cheerfully bubbled its way to an outdoor stream. The tremendous expanse of vine-covered glass that separated us from the outside world beckoned. We decided that as much as we had wanted to admire the interior of the Lodge, we now wanted to see the main attraction: the animals that inhabited the surrounding savanna.
We made our way out to the rocky
Kopje Overlook and eagerly shielded our eyes from the sun, searching for wildlife. We searched and searched and…nothing! Not a single mammal or bird to be found!
Puzzled, we asked the CM dressed in safari gear about the empty savanna. Seems that we had just finished our breakfast, but the animals were back at their little houses having theirs! Oh well, not much sense sticking around if there were no animals. Timing is everything, and our timing stunk!
Other than our breakfast at Boma, I had left the rest of the day open. We were leaving OKW for MCO at 4:00, and would need to be back there by 3:30. That meant that, not counting travel time, we had at least four hours to play with. We had narrowed it down to either Downtown Disney or AK. Since we were so close to the park and had pretty much spent all our money anyway, we decided upon another visit to
Animal Kingdom!
We made our way back through the dark, majestic lobby and out the front entrance. I was surprised that we had about a 15-min wait for the AK bus; we must have just missed it. Nevertheless, it was a quick ride to the AK, and we soon making our way past the rocky waterfall toward the front gate. There, we greeted by an unexpected surprise! Some children were gathered around a small potted palm tree that was magically talking and moving on its own. It was
Wes Palm!!
Billy joined the group of children, fascinated by the animated tree.
“Hello, little boy in the yellow shirt! What’s your name?” The tree asked as Billy hovered nearby.
“Its Billy!” he replied, jumping up and down excitedly.
“How are you today, Billy?”
“I’m fine!” He reached out to pat the tree.
“Can I have a hug?” Wes asked.
Several of the kids, including Billy, hugged the little tree before it wheeled off.
If only the remote control operator knew how much that little conversation between an autistic boy and a little palm tree really meant! A reciprocal conversation with Billy is a very rare thing; a completely different language skill than a simple statement such as “I want Hall of Presidents.” It was more Disney magic!
We entered the gate and started on a path through the lush vegetation of
The Oasis, keeping our eyes peeled for any movement in the trees that might signify the presence of wildlife. We spotted a few of the more colorful birds in the branches above and were careful not to walk directly under them (!) as we passed through this aptly named tropical garden.
We emerged from the Oasis and the towering
Tree of Life slowly came into view. Every time you get that first glimpse of this amazing creation it is breathtaking! I crossed by fingers as we stopped by the tip board, hoping that there would be a preview of the new
Finding Nemo stage show. There was nothing listed on the board, but a CM was standing in the little booth behind it talking on the phone. I waited and when she was finished, I asked her about the show. Yes!
A preview was tentatively scheduled for 2pm! I thanked her and we stood in front of the Island Mercantile and plotted our strategy.
It was already 11:30 and we were unaccustomed to arriving at a park this late. I was certainly
not accustomed, as you know, to touring a park without a pre-set operational plan! We wanted to see the Nemo show and
Flights of Wonder, which would be starting in about 15 min. If we timed it right, we could see both shows and perhaps another attraction in between. Although the temptation was there to try to squeeze in as much as possible, we wanted to be able to enjoy our last day at WDW by just enjoying the atmosphere of the park
and not running around like crazy.
We walked over the red brick footbridge to
Asia, pausing to look to the right at the picture-perfect view of the snow capped “mountain” of Everest. “Snow Monster! Snow Monster!” Billy shouted as he remembered the wild train rides he took earlier in the week. “I want a Snow Monster, pleeeese!” Tricia soon joined in, begging for another ride on
EE. I fell back on the old reliable “We’ll see” in order to placate them for the time being. Right now, I wanted the family to stay together.
Aunt Rae, I had noticed, was moving quite a bit slower today. If I was feeling a bit tired after a week of park touring, our 75 yr-old aunt must have been getting positively weary. “You okay, Aunt Rae?” I asked, scanning her face for signs of fatigue. “I’m fine, just fine” she insisted. “I just need to sit a bit, my ankles are acting up.”
I quickly looked down at her feet. Hmm. No swelling, but her arthritis was probably bothering her. She must have read my mind. “Really, Kathy, I’m fine. I took some Advil this morning, I’m fine!” She quickened her gait sharply in order to convince me.
“Knock it off, Aunt Rae”, Ed scolded lovingly. “You’re going to fall and break a hip, and then we’ll miss our flight!”
“You be quiet, or you won’t be my favorite nephew anymore!”
“Slow down or I’ll give you ticket!” he growled.
“Better listen to him, Aunt Rae”, Tricia advised, “He’s a cop!”
“Bad Boys! Bad Boys!” chirped Billy.
Tricia laughed and they both began to dance around her singing to the melody of the COPS theme song:
"Bad aunt, bad aunt, whatchagonna do?
Whatchagonna do when Daddy comes for you!"
By now we had arrived at
Flights of Wonder and we easily found good seats in the large shaded, open-air theater. We enjoyed watching the owls, hawks and other more exotic birds demonstrate their talents while we learned our lesson in animal conservation along with “Guano” Joe.
We left the show thinking that we could visit the tigers next door in the
MJT before heading over to the
Theater in the Wild. Then the kids started clamoring again to be taken on EE. After a bit of hesitation, the adults gave in and we split up. “For the last time!” I insisted. Ed and AR went off down the path for MJT and I hurried the kids along to EE.
Once again, the GAC saved us and a 45 min wait was cut down to fifteen. When we boarded the old tea train, we found ourselves seated in the
very last two rows! This made the already- thrilling ride even wilder, especially the backwards part!
We decided to take a look at our ride photo and this time, we just had to get it! Tricia was feigning a look of absolute terror and Billy was clutching my arm and laughing while I held onto the safety bar for dear life! The photo was embellished with huge Yeti claws reaching out as if to grab us! Yep, that’s a keeper!
We exited the gift shop and sat ourselves down on a large “rock”. I called Ed to let them know that we were done and were heading over to Nemo. They had been taking it nice and slow through the Jungle Trek and were almost finished, so the kids and I crossed over the new bridge from Asia into DinoLand, USA, and proceded to wait for them in front of the
Theater in the Wild.
A placard set up in front of the theater entrance announced the upcoming show. Many guests traveling on the path toward Asia stopped and were surprised at the “unadvertised” nature of the performance. The queue swelled with people and spilled out into the path. I held onto the kids, nervously tapping my foot and hoping the others would get here soon.
Eventually, I broke down and called again.
They were not far away, but were “caught in traffic” around EE. “Get a move on!” I implored, not wanting to be shut out of our only chance to see the new show until next year. Ed insisted they were moving as fast as they could, considering the congested pathway and AR’s ankles.
Deep breath in, exhale! Deep breath in, exhale! I tried to relax as the theater doors opened and I watched the crowd pushed forward. Then I spotted them, slowly wending their way toward us. Tricia and I waved our arms wildly until they caught sight of us, then I motioned that we were going inside to get seats.
We negotiated the heavy merge and became one with the stream of guests that poured inside. As my eyes became accustomed to the dark, I could see that the theater was quickly filling with the expectant crowd and I searched for the best viewing spot. We moved forward along the middle level and I could see that the seating had not changed much from the old Tarzan show, but the theater was completely enclosed. CMs directed guests to higher seats since the “orchestra” sections already appeared full.
We walked to the far end and slipped into the first row of the “mezzanine” section, right behind the runway where the rollerbladers used to dart around the theater in the previous show. (I don’t like to be too far from an exit, just in case Billy needs to leave before the show ends.)
There was a large group of costumed CMs, from all over the park apparently, seated to our immediate right, as well as a number of WDW “suits” who were preparing to preview the show as well. Ed and AR appeared and joined us on the bench seating. I breathed a sigh of relief and looked around while we waited for the performance to begin.
The audience was buzzing with anticipation.
It was exciting to realize that most if not all of us were seeing the show for the first time! Just as in the Coral Reef restaurant, the theater and lighting were designed to simulate a shimmering blue undersea environment.
On either side of the curtained stage were huge plexiglass bubbles that allowed the audience a peek into the teeming waters off an Australian coral reef. From time to time, the image of the little clownfish was projected onto them to make it appear as though he was swimming from one bubble to the next.
"Nemo!" “There he is!” the younger children in the audience called out and pointed excitedly each time the little fish appeared!
The lights dimmed and the curtain opened to a dazzlingly colorful set with an animated backdrop. We followed the story of Marlin and Nemo as performers held each character puppet over their shoulder and sang and spoke for them. After a while, you forgot the puppeteers and just got caught up in the story.
“Mr. Ray” was a huge, expansive puppet; so large that the performer rode a bicycle when he swam with his pupils! Bruce and the sharks were a riot! Translucent jellyfish puppets, colorful fish, and rays with their wings gently flapping “swam” among the amazed audience and put us right in the middle of the aquatic action.
It’s definitely a must-see, just like FOTLK.
The show ended to thunderous applause and we slowly moved back outside into the bright sunlight. “That was incredible!” I said. “How did you like it, Aunt Rae?” Ed grinned and AR looked a bit sheepish. “I must have dozed off after the first few minutes!” she admitted.
“I know. Your head was on my shoulder!” he laughed. “Well, tomorrow you can sleep as long as you want.”
Yes, soon it would be tomorrow and it would all be over. We found a bench under a shady tree and sat eating ice cream and watching all the people go by. Ed looked at his watch and then at me. We could put it off no longer. We retraced our steps back out through the Oasis, then through the turnstiles and over to the bus stop.
I wasn’t feeling quite as emotional as I had yesterday when we left the MK, but I still could not suppress a steady stream of heavy sighs as the bus brought us back to the Hospitality House at OKW. I checked in at bell services and asked them to retrieve our bags while the rest of the family walked around to the dockside Good’s Food to Go and used up the last of our CS credits on sandwiches to go.
I was at the front desk getting our box of sundries shipped home when, suddenly, Ed burst inside and shouted that the driver was waiting for us!
“But he’s almost a half hour early!” I pouted, not wanting to be cheated out of even two minutes at WDW! "Our flight doesn’t leave for almost three hours!"
But Ed was like a maniac, gathering up the bags, the food, the kids and AR, and hustling them over to where the van was parked!
Sigh.
I’ll just take a few more pictures of the resort before we leave…
“Kathy, let’s GO!! Ed snapped.
“Okay, okay, I’m coming.” I glared at the annoying early-bird driver as he smiled and held the door open for me.
Hmmph!
The door slammed shut and we settled back for the ride. As we passed through the WDW Gate, Ed noticed my glum expression and laughed.
“Cheer up, honey, Christmas is coming!”
I sighed again and smiled at him wryly. Well, that was true.
Our wonderful vacation was over, but the holidays were coming and there was no time for moping. Next week would be Thanksgiving! I had so much to do! The house needed to be decorated; there was all the Christmas shopping to do; what was I going to bring to my mother’s for Thanksgiving? Where did I put those cards I bought last year?
I needed to make a plan….
Kathy
Next Chapter: Epilogue