The Widow and the Spinster take a Holiday Trip to WDW - Day #2 Full of Animals, Adventure, and Wine. 1/29

[franandaj]

Day 3

I seem to have slept through the night because my alarm went off at 6AM and I don't remember any periods of being awake. Well, except the few times I was uncomfortable because the ceiling fan was off. We will fix that tonight.

So when the alarm went off at 6AM, I was regretting my decision to set it for that time. Unfortunately I hit the snooze button and the alarm paused for another 5 or so minutes. I turned it off, and I knew that was dangerous cause I could fall back asleep and sleep through our “making breakfast” time, and “taking off for the bus time.”

I didn't. And around quarter to 7AM I actually grabbed my clothes from the drawer and started to get dressed. When we unpacked Wednesday morning, I put all the outfits I planned to wear on the Kidani portion of our trip in a dresser drawer with the pants and shirts together. I didn't know if I was wearing the right T-shirt and pants, then again it really didn't matter for Thursday and Friday.

Jill was still asleep so I got dressed in the dark. I was working on all my bedside pills, eyedrops, blood sugar etc. when she asked me what time it was. That was at 7:34.

Since she was awake I opened the curtains to see a baby Zebra and an adult zebra having a nosh outside our room.

Once I was finished with the morning “get ready” stuff, I finally got to the task of the day, “makin’ bacon’”. Now the pan we had was not a non-stick pan. As a result the bacon really stuck to the pan. I used yesterday's lesson to try and improve, so I tried to turn the bacon before it stuck to the pan and then fell apart. I left it heating in the oven.

Jill had gotten dressed by now, but neither of us were super hungry so we sat around until 8:30, when we decided we better finish making and eat breakfast or we might be late for our first FP. We had purchased both multi FP and the Single FP for today.

We each cooked our own eggs since we prefer them cooked in completely different manners. This was my plate.

We left the room just after 9:30 which isn't bad considering our target time was 9:15. The bus came pretty quickly and that was a good thing because when we showed up to the bus stop it said the temperature was 49°F. Now all you Canadians and folks living in colder climes may be saying “Ha! That's not cold!” But evidently though I picked out a pair of light gloves, they did not make it into my suitcase or carry-on. And in the upcoming pictures you'll see that the heaviest jackets Jill and I packed were not the best for such cold weather.

We arrived at the Animal Kingdom Park and Jill took this picture of the tree because I didn’t want to take my hands out of my pockets.

On our way into the park we took a few Photopass pictures. We didn’t have to act to seem freezing in this picture!

DeVine was at the entrance of the park.

It was pretty busy for a random Thursday in early December.

We headed directly to Pandora and found another photopass photographer. I took the first one.

We had purchased the Single LL pass for Flight of Passage the week before, and our LL was now open.

Both of us thought the 3D was blurry, and were not as pleased with this flight as previous rides. We had also purchased the Multi Pass for this park and our next LL was up at 10:55 for Navi River Journey. We had a few minutes to kill before they pass was active so we found a spot that wasn't in the shade to sit and wait. The temperature had warmed up to 56° by now and in the sun it was almost nice.







After the ride we headed toward Africa. Our plan was to do standby line for the 12PM FOTLK show. We found some seats in the sun and I caught up on Instagram and FB posts. Just as the 11:30AM show was getting out we got in line for the 12:00 show. We were seated shortly and we got giraffes again.

Here is a video of the last number.

The show was fun as usual. By this time i was getting hungry so we went to Harambe Market and split a beef and lamb kefta sandwich. It was really good and actually a perfect amount to split.

We finished our lunch about five minutes before our LL for the Safari opened because when we scanned the guy said, “you gotta wait five minutes”. I don’t think we rode the safari last trip because this was my first time not going through the handicapped queue.

By the time we finished the Safari our Expedition Everest FP was up. And here’s Jill for the win on the ride photo!

By now we were ready for an adult beverage. Jill had a smores Martini while I had a Snow Leopard Salvation. She said her drink was very good and easy to drink. Mine was very refreshing and easy to swig!

We also got some chicken wings. They were very tasty and loaded with peanutty flavor.

We decided to go back to the room because I had left my power bank and a charging cord back there. As we approached the bus for the Animal Kingdom lodge, The doors shut right as we walked up. We got in the front of the line. I don't know if the driver saw my pouty face, or he was just messing with us in general.

He opened the doors up again, and as we were boarding he yelled, “You're late!” Jill began to thank him profusely. “I'm on the clock either way.” He said.

We went back up to the room, grabbed my cable and power bank, and next thing I know my water bottle is missing. Second one in as many days! So we resolved to buy me another one at DS. We opened the door to leave the room and there was my water bottle on the floor, it had fallen out of my purse.

[Continued in Next Post]

 

[franandaj]

[Continued from Previous Post]

So water intact, we headed to the bus stop. When we got back from Animal Kingdom the next Disney Springs bus was coming in 6 minutes. That was about 22 minutes before and as we got to the bus stop the next bus pulled right up.

When we got to Disney Springs our first stop was The World of Disney, but technically we stopped at the Luxury Of Time Jewery Store to pick up the Christmas Tree Stroll map. We also took some photopass pictures at the first tree we got on the map.

We got two trees outside of WoD before entering.

Then we went to WoD where I bought some towels. My helper, Donna, said that my other dish towels were getting pretty ratty, so I needed to replace some of them.

We continued our Christmas Tree stroll knocking off all the trees in the area which used to be called The Marketplace when it was Downtown Disney.

By this point my feet were killing me. I think I'd knocked off twice my daily step goal. We stopped at the Ganachery and bought some chocolate. I got a package of Mickey shaped, chocolate covered gingerbread cookies and six pieces of ganache. I got Caramel Sea Salt, Egyptian salt, gingerbread, coffee, mint and milk chocolate.
Then we tried to check in early for our Wine Bar George reservation. All they had was an outside table and it was way too cold for that.

We looked across the way at Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar, but it looked like there was a long line for that. Instead we decided on Paradisio 37 which had no wait at the bar. We found seats and ordered a couple cocktails at the bar. I had a French Martini and she got the Paradise Punch.

By the time we finished our drinks it was close to our check-in time at WBG. They sat us nearly immediately at an inside table. We knew we wanted to order the Mac-n-Cheese bites, but it did take us a little bit to choose our wines. I went with a Spy Valley Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, and Jill went with a Renato Ratti, a Barolo from Italy.

We polished off those suckers lickity split, and decided to order the meatballs. They came served on a bed of polenta.

With those I ordered a glass of Triton Temperanillo.

By this time we were both done. But we had to get back to the bus stop, so we knocked out a few more trees on the way back. This one is the Haunted Mansion tree.

Here's where we ended up for the night.

I don't remember exactly how long we waited for a bus, but it wasn't bad at all.

We both took advantage of the jacuzzi tub (separately, this would be quite a different TR otherwise!) after we got back to the room.

And by the time I finished my tub (I went second), Jill was nearly asleep. I turned off the lights and we both drifted off into sweet slumber. My Stats.

 

[missjackiemcg]

I really like how they've spaced them out all around Disney Springs now as opposed to when they were all in that one squished area. You can definitely see all the great details better, and the map and stickers is pretty fun, too!