Matt Goes Solo - Day 3 - Fin

Day 3 and yes, the answer to the Animal Kingdom mystery. But that's later

Unlike yesterday, I woke up when the wake up call came. Short of that wake up call or nuclear explosion, I was not waking up. That "Disney Magic" that can wake you up at 3am if need be on the first day or so of the trip was gone, replaced with a basic need to sleep. Of course, once I remembered I was meeting Jillian, that all changed

Anyway, got my stuff together and got picked up by Jillian at 8:15. We made our way to MK as we had P.S.'s at Crystal Palace which I was paying for(See what happens when you come and meet me? *coughLESLIEcough*). I was looking forward to it partially because you get to get into the park before all the other ~~peons~~ people but for some reason they let people past TTC and had them waiting at the gate and even worse, they didn't check my name when we got to the gate. Regardless, we got in to an empty Magic Kingdom. This was also my first character breakfast(yay!). The food was good(but not better than Waffle House!) and the characters fun, although they tend to ignore people over the age of 10 unless you lure them over(crying helps too). I also noticed the kids waffles were quite good. Jillian had a good time too although she was annoyed that they didn't have her favorite kind of yogurt or something(must be a Floridian thing). Anyway, after we ate and were snubbed by the characters, we headed to the perfect attraction for a cold overcast morning....Splash Mountain! We walked past it and saw there was no water coming down the flume so we figured "Oh well, we're not getting wet!" Oh, how so very wrong we were. As we went over the hill in our log we came down and it looked good so I put my hands down, turned my head to say something to Jillian and was prompty hit in the face with a gallon of water. 'Course, we should have expected something when we got in the log and noticed the seats were wet. Afterward we rode Btmrr, Philharmagic and Space Mountain. I liked Phillharmagic and thought it made the best use of 3-D. After Space, Jillian had to go so we bid farewell(tear, tear) and I headed back to MGM. What a difference a day makes! I arrived to find no less than a 60 minute wait at Coaster & Tower! It was a weekend and had been EE that day and there were roughly 3 billion cheerleaders so that all combined to make it a bad wait. I managed to ride Tower once after waiting in a 45 minute line, then went to ride Coaster and 30 minutes and 2 feet later, I decided I couldn't handle this. But where would I go? I consulted the Unofficial Guide for the best park to go to on a Saturday. And of course the one park that's good for Saturday is.....Animal Kingdom. Now, for those who don't know me very well(shame on you!), I H-A-T-E AK. I think it's a glorified zoo and a general waste of time and money. I was last there in 1998 and never wanted to return. Well I was so sick of the lines at MGM(and MK had lines by the time we left there and I had no real desire to return to EPCOT) that I figured, whatever, I'll go there till close(5) and then come back to MK for parade & fireworks. Plus I'd have enough time when I
returned to MK for food and shopping.

So I did the unthinkable, the unimaginable, the conceivable.....I went to AK. I got there at about 2 and ate lunch at Restaurantosaurus. Goooood food! It's alot like Backlot Express but they have a fixins bar! I had a chicken salad and fries and it was gooood. Afterwards, I FP'ed Dinosaur(15 minute wait is just too long...lol) and went to ride Primeval Whirl. It looks very campy and childish and the fact that I asked some 8 year olds in line about the ride didn't help but it was fun. I even rode
twice! Could it be? I was actually enjoying my time at AK? There were no lines whatsoever here and I was happy just for that. My FP for Dinosaur came up and let me tell you, when I rode in 1998 I was scared and as I rode again 6 years later....I was still scared stupid! There was a family of 3 next to me...a mom, an 8 year old kid and a 10 year old. The mom kept re-assuring the kids and I told her "Can you reassure me some too?" Yes, I'm 22 years old and scared on Dinosaur....its dark, dude! Although I'm proud to say I did not close my eyes. Anyway, after that I headed to It's Tough To Be a Bug and ride Kilimanjaro which was alot of fun...we saw alot of animals and then to Kali River Rapids. Now as I got in the boat, there was a family of about 4 or 5. One of the kids was crying her lights out about being scared. They all had rain ponchos and gollashes and were ready for Hurricane Leslie basically. I, on the otherhand, had a tshirt and jeans on. As we went along, we all got squirted a few times and then came the big fall. Low and behold, I escaped nearly unharmed while Jacques Cousteau & Co. got drenched. I was laughing pretty hard. Anyway, by then it was about 4:30 so I decided to catch a bus back to MK. Now, I still think AK is a glorified zoo because.....I spent 2.5 hours there and did ALL the attractions worth doing. Unless you loooove animals and want to walk around and see all the variety of duck on Earth(they have quite alot of different ducks I noticed), it's a waste of time.

Anywho, back to MK and back to a real theme park. I had dinner at Columbia House which was fairly decent. I then rode Splash Mtn by myself and got the picture to prove it. I also did some shopping and then went to see Spectromagic. I hadn't seen it before and it was really good, although I was dissapointed not to see Sleeping Beauty despite there being 3 floats dedicated to her! (Why the 3 fairy god mothers got their own float and not Sleeping Beauty, I'll never know). Afterwards I saw Wishes which wasn't all that exciting. I thought Illuminations & Fantasmic! were much better. As Wishes died down, I bid adieu to Disney World one last time and vowed to return again soon.

Things I Learned.
- AK is only worth seeing once every 5 years or so.....or until they open that new coaster
- Jillian is gun shy about 3D shows squirting her with water...she has flashbacks and stuff :?
- Bus transportation between the parks takes FOREVER. Not to go from place to place but for buses to pick you up. I took 2 and waited at least 20 minutes for a bus each time.
- Jillian rocks

It was strawberry soup!!! The strawberry soup was missing! That's the first Disney breakfast I've had that it wasn't there

Too bad I wasn't wearing white on Splash

I'm so proud of you for going to AK

" Jillian is gun shy about 3D shows squirting her with water...she has flashbacks and stuff " I got drenched at the one in Busch Gardens and we saw Philharmagic CM previews like a week later, I didn't want to drown again

It's habit now.

" Bus transportation between the parks takes FOREVER. Not to go from place to place but for buses to pick you up. I took 2 and waited at least 20 minutes for a bus each time. " Not like my driving

" Jillian rocks " Thanks, I know but it's nice to hear it

But so do you!

Studios Central: Matt Goes Solo - Day 3 - Fin - Studios Central