Mad Dogs and Englishmen - Day 3 Animal Kingdom

[BONZO]

Day 3 - Thursday 21st August 2003


Cast list:

Shaun - 40 something 'If it's not alcoholic I won't drink it'
Alison - 30 something 'If it spins I won't even look at it'
Alexandra - 10 'If it goes upside down I won't ride it'
Laura - 8 'If it's not pizza I won't eat it'


I woke up REALLY early this morning - about 4 am - just about to run downstairs to put towels on the sunbeds and then realised I'm in Florida - so decided to go back to sleep.

The rest of the crew are up at a reasonable time (note from Alison - what do you mean??? I was up at 5.30 and sat on the balcony writing up my trip reports so far, watching the lake slowly come to life. It was wonderful- so picturesque and relaxing! However, once I saw the first geyser eruption of the day at 7am, I decided that relaxing or not, the family had to get up!)

We gave the girls the first choice of breakfast venue and so we found ourselves on the long trek off site to head off to Sizzler for breakfast only to find that it was really empty - spooky. Just prior to this Alison was going mad looking for a money off coupon - every little helps - we try not to pay full price for anything! It worked out at around $20 for us all - a real bargain considering we eat enough to cover us til evening!

Well, first day must be AK day, so off we went, getting there around 9.10. It was pretty quiet as we parked really close to the entrance. As we entered the park we were asked to complete a survey. It could have been interesting as the CM nearly made a typo and put in Easter Island instead of England - that one would have made interesting reading on the visitor stats!

First stop was Kilimanjaro Safaris (no line at all) - good as usual. There was a giraffe just a few feet away from us. Then we headed off to Dinoland to do Primeval Whirl and had a bit of a debate over the spelling - sad really. I wouldn't do this ride straight after breakfast unless you fancy seconds - LOL (Alison - I don’t particularly like the theming for this area of AK - bit tacky. I like the rides though).

By this time the heat and humidity were getting higher, so Alison and I rode front row of Dinosaur (excellent ride! Favourite in AK) and came out to see how DDs were getting on. They were flagging a bit so we asked what they wanted to do next - they decided on just another ride of Primeval Whirl (Alexandra) and to get a couple of autographs (Laura). So I took Alexandra while Alison took Laura off to the character meet area to get photos with Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore.

That was enough for now, so we met up and headed back to WL at about 12.30. The housekeeper had rearranged the girls’ toys and made the first of the towel animals (they made them every day we were there!) and the girls were very impressed. We had some fruit in the room for a snack then had a swim in both pools to cool down and chill out - a real reviver for flagging bodies.

After a couple of hours chilling out we decided to get dressed and hit the shops at Premium Outlets Mall.

Nike
WDW shop
Universal Shop
Etc

The girls got new trainers, we all bought new T Shirts and several souvenirs in the character shops and I don’t remember what else! After a bit of a wallet bashing we agreed to go to Chillis for some dinner at around 6pm. It started raining on the way - but not very heavily.
Alexandra had ribs and fries, Laura had burger and fries, Alison had a bacon cheeseburger and fries and I had blackened cajun chicken and fries. We all had sodas and the total bill was $27!

Still great service and excellent value here - thoroughly recommend it.

Still raining so we postponed the mini golf that we were thinking about and drove off to Walmart to pick up some other goodies. I always forget how massive it is! We bought various essentials - beer and snacks for the room, Styrofoam cooler etc.

(Alison- while I was in the ladies’ restroom, an American lady asked me if I knew if there was a closer Walmart to I drive than that one on 192, so I told her about the one on John Young Parkway and Sand Lake, and she said how astounded she was that people who had travelled half way round the world knew more about Florida than she did!)

It had stopped raining by now and we headed back to WL by about 9.30 and we all watched the Electric Water Pageant off the balcony. Collapsed into bed after writing up our trip reports.

Brits count: hardly any.
Weather: hot, mostly sunny, some rain around 6pm for a couple of hours or so.
Rain impact: not really, postponed mini golf.

Plan for tomorrow: MK and E-Ride night

[KayleeUK]

A great day

[Mrs Dazzle]

We love Dinosaur ride too - we have such a great photo back in the days it was known as Countdown to Extinction - my dear MILs face showed she was close to it

Chilli's sounds like a great place, might have to look that one up - were the burgers reall tasty (I have a thing for "proper" meat burgers rather than the patty stuff we get over here - have to be done medium too:D ).

[BONZO]

Hi Annie,

You can check out Chilis menu Here

[Minniespal]

Wonderful trip report ~ Thanx for sharing!!!

[Astrid]

Ah ha, so Laura didn't have pizza today!!!

Chillis sounds good, must give it a try (we love Sizzler for brekkie too!)

Astrid x

[WebmasterPenny]

Hehehe Astrid - I was thinking the same thing about the Pizza!

Park, shopping, food, EWP...what a great start!