We CAN stick to our plans ….
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We were up again at around 6.30am. I took a shower and while Tom
took one and then went on to prepare breakfast I started packing up
our things. The master bedroom looked like a major disaster zone. |
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Once breakfast was ready we sat down and enjoyed what we had in the
fridge and some of the leftover doughnuts from the day before.
Bellies full we grabbed our bags and headed out to the Animal
Kingdom. Once we had made it there we were shocked how many people
were already at the toll booths, even though it was before park
opening. It took us a few minutes to go through, and then we got in
line to park our car. They still had a few spaces right at the
bottom of the line, close to the tram, but the car in front of us
was the first one to be directed to the end of the line again. Well,
you hike a lot at WDW, hiking the parking lot is not one of our
favourite things to do, so we decided to NOT park, but drive around
one more time. |
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And when we got back to parking we were far more in luck as we
scored a space in the lower third of the row. Car parked we headed
to the tram that just pulled. It was now 9am and the park was
officially opening and we were waiting for the tram to pull out of
the stop. And waited … and waited some more. Finally the tram moved
and we were on our way. Bag check took a while, but soon we were
scanning our Magic bands and headed into the park. We only got a few
steps into the park before we made our first stop. Right there, a
few steps away from the entrance was DeVine. People just walked by,
but as soon as the first few stopped, the circle around her grew and
grew. We watched for a minute of two and then headed further into
the park. |
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On the way to our ride of choice we first walked through the shops
and then headed to the right. Many people seemed to have the same
idea and soon we arrived at our destination, Expedition Everest. We
were stunned to see only a five minute wait, so we hopped into line.
And walked right through to the loading zone. We peeked around the
corner, only one couple waiting for front row, so we asked to ride
in the front row and were told to wait for the next train. Yippie.
Even though we did not have any FP+ for this park we were on ride
within 5 minutes of getting in line. The ride itself was fun as
always and we walked out through the gift shop, where Tom found a
lot of hats to try on. |
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Pictures taken we walked outside hoping the wait for EE would not be
too long and we would be able to ride it again. When we saw the
posted wait time we were both very happy. Only a 10 minute wait. So
we hopped in line and walked right through the line. This time there
were a few people in line for front row, so we just took the row we
were assigned and got the last but one car. We were both very happy
to be able to ride one of our favourite rides twice without FP+.
When we got off the ride we did not even stop in the gift shop, but
thought about getting in the single rider line. But not without
checking the regular wait time. It had now grown to 20 minutes, but
that was still not very long and given that we had walked onto the
other two rides we decided to give it a shot. |
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Now, this time the wait was actually a bit longer, as they had even
opened the tea garden, but still we were in the loading zone within
15 minutes. Now, this time two couples were waiting for front row
and we decided we could wait three trains as well. So we asked for
front row again, knowing that it would be the last time we would be
able to ride Everest for the next 18 months. Didn’t take long and we
were in the front row seat again and enjoying this great ride. Once
we got off we headed over to Kilimanjaro Safaris. We made a quick
restroom stop, then got ourselves a bottle of water to rehydrate
again and off we went. The sign outside said 60 minutes, but we were
sure the line would be that long. Well, it was. |
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It snaked right back into a garden after you initially got in line
and while the line moved, it moved pretty slowly. 55 minutes after
we had gotten in line we had finally reached the last check point
and were soon assigned a row. |
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Luckily for us there were only larger groups, so we had a whole row
to ourselves. It took a few minutes until we were able to head down
the road and start our adventure as there were a lot of vehicles
out. We were so lucky as there were lots of animals roaming around
and we got to see quite a few giraffes, some white rhinos and even
the lion and lioness were positioned nicely. Far too soon it was
time to get off the ride and it was now close to noon, so we decided
to have some lunch before leaving the park. I had done my homework
and knew that Tamu Tamu Refreshments had something on their menu
that we wanted to try. |
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Tom got himself some beer from the stand across the road and then we
headed to place our order. A few minutes later we picked it up at
the window on the other side of the building and headed into the
nice shaded courtyard. We quickly found a table and after taking
some pictures of the
St.
George’s premium Lager and my Coke it was time to dig into the
Slow-Cooked Chicken Curry, mild African-spiced chicken curry
served over Jasmine Rice and a side of Pita Bread. We had decided to
share it and were glad we did as it was quite filling and absolutely
delicious. Once we had finished our lunch we strolled back to Asia
and Tom found another beer he wanted to try. |
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So we stopped at a little stand to get him another beer he had not
yet tried, the
Kingfisher
Lager. We found a seat across the path and enjoyed the sight of
the Tree of Life. About half an hour later we left the park and
headed over to the car park. I was now the assigned driver and off
we went. We made one more quick stop at Downtown Disney to pick up
some items we had planned on buying before returning to Old Key
West. We had some Diet Coke and coffee and shared some of the
leftover
doughnuts. Then Tom took another dip in the Jacuzzi, while I
finished off as much packing as possible. Around quarter to four we
got ready to head back out again. This time we were off to Epcot and
the third park in a day and a half. |
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But first we had a reservation at Beaches and Cream. We arrived at
the Beach Club shortly before our reservation and headed right to
the sign in desk. We were stunned, as a host took us right in and we
were seated. |
It was easy to decide on what we wanted to eat. Tom ordered the
Angus Beef
Burger -
served with Cheddar, Lettuce, and Tomato on a Fresh-baked Bun with
French Fries, while I had long decided to go with my new favourite
there, the
Grilled Cheese and Tomato Bisque – a six-cheese blend on Brioche
Bread. It didn’t take long for both to be served and we were happily
munching our early dinner. We were far too full for dessert so we
just paid the bill and then headed over to Epcot. We had three FP+
set up and wanted to spend Extra Magic Hours in the park as well.
And since we had a little time to kill before our first FP+, we
strolled over to France, so Tom could sport the new hat, which he
had bought at Disneyland Paris. |
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When we got to Morocco we asked at the host’s stand how long they
were open and if they were open during Extra Magic Hours. They
assured us they were and so we decided to come back after our last
FP+ ride, to try some of their tasting plates. We made a u-turn and
slowly walked back through France, England and finally Canada, where
Tom had another treat, a
Moosehead.
We sat on one of the benches while he slowly emptied his cup and
took in the hustle and bustle around us. Then it was time to head to
our first FP+ ride, Mission Space. We would not have needed FP+.
There was no line at all and we ended up joining the end of the
regular line. Took only a minute or two until we were divided into
teams and soon we were off on our mission. |
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And since there had been no line we just turned around and got in
line again. This time we waited about five minutes until we were
divided into teams. Mission accomplished we went over to Test Track,
to see how long the standby wait time was. Too long, but the wait
for the single rider line was pretty acceptable, so we got in there.
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We waited about 20 minutes until it was our turn to fill empty
spaces in the cars. And no matter how often we ride Test Track, I
still like the old version better. Once we got off we walked over to
Mouse Gear and did some shopping before heading over to Spaceship
Earth, which again we had a FP+ for, which totally wasn’t needed. It
was a walk on for everyone. So we soon ended up on our way through
history and into the future. When we got off we still had time
before our final FP+, so we cut through Club Cool and then over to
Journey into Imagination. We got our own “train” as we were the only
people riding at that time. And after a short visit to the gift shop
we were off again. It was now time for our last FP+ ride, Soarin.
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So over to The Land we went and down to Soarin, where we were
greeted by a long standby line and quite a line to scan our Magic
Bands as well. But soon it was our turn and we were on our way. For
people in the FP line it was more or less a walk on until the point
where the line splits in two. Everyone was directed to the left and
we were the first people to have to head to the right. Well, both
lines were pretty equal and within ten minutes we were divided into
rows. We love to ride on the top row and were prepared to ask for
it, but we were quickly directed to the last bay and put into the
top row anyway. Score! The TV for the pre-show was broken, but no
one seemed to mind. And before we knew it we were sent in to take
our seats. Well, in our row not so much. There was one family who
was supposed to sit all to the far left, but when they sat down they
had decided to “split up”. They sat all over the place in that row
and had quickly buckled themselves in. Quite a few of us were still
standing and finally a cast member opened up the belts again and
they had to move to the end of their row, so that the rest of us
could sit down. |
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Once seated and buckled in we were off on our leisurely flight. And
after we had landed again and gotten off we walked over to Living
with the Land instead of trying to watch Illuminations. I think
there were four people in our boat including us. But it did not take
away from the fun ride this was. Seeing all the creative ways to
grow crops never gets old. When we got off the ride and outside,
Illuminations had already ended and we stopped at Mouse Gear to pick
up a forgotten item and to refill one of our gift cards. There was
still an hour and a half left of Extra Magic Hours and we thought we
not sit down at Spice Road Table now for a while. So we strolled
over to the restaurant, still way within the time they had told us
to come back in. |
We asked at the hostess stand and nope they were closed. Same person
who had told us before they were open during Extra Magic Hours, now
told us that they were closed and only the bar was still open, but
if we wanted a drink it would have to be “to go”. We both didn’t
feel like a drink, so we slowly walked back and then out of the park
to head back to our car. And since we had left the park much earlier
than expected we came up with the clever idea of driving to Krispy
Kreme to see if they had hot doughnuts. 20 minutes later we saw the
light on and quickly turned into the parking lot. They had just
started baking again and there was already a long line of people
waiting and watching the doughnuts creeping down the conveyor. One
of the sales people then went to pick some doughnuts off of the belt
with paper and handed them to the waiting people. We all were
stunned and everyone thanked the young lady wholeheartedly. It took
a while until the orders of the people ahead of us were filled and
the young lady started a second round of handing out doughnuts. We
told her that we had already had one, but she just blinked and said
“enjoy another one”. So we both had received two doughnuts each.
Once it was our turn we bought a dozen glazed doughnuts to hand to
the security person at Old Key West and 6 glazed doughnuts for
ourselves for breakfast. And after paying we headed back to our car
and got on our way back to Old Key West. We arrived shortly after
11pm and we both picked a drink out of the fridge. |
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Tom’s choice was another beer he had found while shopping the day
before, an
Apple Pie beer. Well, it sounds unusual and so was the taste. I
have to say that after a sip or two it went down the drain, not
Tom’s taste at all. We watched a little more TV and were a bit sad
that our only trip to the US was already coming to an end again.
Around midnight we were ready to go to bed. |
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