The Theme Park Kamikazes: Do It All or Die Trying **Now With Pictures!** About This Page:

[tikibird]

Another great installment - the AKL sounds wonderful!

Oh, and I secretly hope that the rude woman burned her mouth on the fish, too! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[pflamingo]

Well, I survived the field trip, but the next week of the summer program was grueling! I negotiated some time off to get some work done around the house before summer is gone and I go back to 60 hour school weeks. I'm going to try to finish the report in the next week or so, assuming I can find all my notes! Hope you enjoy this bit.

Cast: The Kamikazes
Pat (a.k.a., PFlamingo) – grew up at WDW and never quite got over moving away
Dennis – last trip 12 years ago w/ brother, nephew, and niece – bad idea

When: June 5 – 13, 2002

Where: Animal Kingdom Lodge
Radisson Parkway (1 night)
Pat’s Parents’ House (1 night)

Reason: Me – long, hard year teaching math to 10- to 13-year-olds
Dennis – because I made it sound like so much fun
Both – because life is short, we’re not getting any younger, and we’re not willing to grow up

June 6, 2002 – Day 2 – Chapter 2: Could They Put a Any More Food on This Plate or You Know, It Would Be Rude Not to Eat It All

We arrived right on time for our 7:00 ressie, and we were seated right away. I love the decor in this restaurant – straight out of “Casablanca”! Everything sounded so interesting that it was hard to decide what to order. We both went with the Marrakesh Feast since it had a good variety of items, and included everything from appetizers to dessert. We also ordered two glasses of red wine. Dinner started with Harira Soup and Beef Brewat Rolls. I wasn’t sure how I would like the soup, since it had lentils (what are those things, anyway?) and lamb (feeling guilty, seeing little baby lambs gamboling through the fields of my mind), but it was delicious! The Brewat Rolls also sounded a bit strange. I mean, the minced beef in pastry sounded okay, but sprinkled with cinnamon and powdered sugar?? How weird is that?? Weird maybe, but again, delicious! The flavors all mingled together beautifully! Next came Lemon Chicken (like, half of a chicken!), Beef Shish Kebab, and Couscous with veggies. All this food required a platter (each!) to make it to the table. The chicken was excellent, but the kebab was out of this world! The beef was so tender and flavorful, it practically melted in our mouths! The couscous was perfect – very light and fluffy – and the veggies were steamed and crunchy. Finally, like we needed it, dessert came out. This consisted of a variety of Moroccan pastries. By now I’ve forgotten the details, but they were, like all the rest, delicious. The pastries were similar to baklava, with dates, almonds and honey. We also had Moroccan coffee, and played “guess the ingredients”, which amused our server. He was quite impressed with our ability to identify the cinnamon in it, and told us that it was espresso with cinnamon and a secret ingredient – a few drops of rose water! Then he brought out a small pitcher and gave us each a bit of rose water for our hands. It was a very nice touch!

During dinner, we got to see two belly-dancing shows. The dancer was just gorgeous, and really knew how to “play” the audience. She did one dance, then drew in a few members of the audience to try it. There were a couple of little girls (probably 4 or 5) who really got into it, and two college-agers celebrating a birthday who had a great time trying out the “moves”. I was totally intrigued by the way this woman moved. I think I was more fascinated by her than Dennis was. It was really fun to watch, and I loved the dancer’s outfits!


Yow. I wanna look like this!!

For anyone who isn’t sure about trying this restaurant, Dennis and I say, “Go for it!” The food was very flavorful, but not “spicy-hot”, so if you have concerns about “hotness”, it’s not an issue at all here. We actually had two different servers, one who brought dinner and another who brought our dessert and coffee. Our dinner server was very polite and efficient, but not particularly out-going. The guy who brought our dessert and coffee, as you could surmise from my description above, was great! All in all, we were very happy with our Marrakesh experience. [img]graemlins/yuma.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/yuma.gif[/img]

It was about 8:30 when we left the restaurant (stuffed to the gills, I might add), and we decided to find a place to watch Illuminations. The park wasn’t very crowded by this time, so we weren’t too worried about this. We stopped by the bakery in France to pick up some goodies for breakfast the next day. Dennis got an apple turnover and I got a chocolate croissant. Very nutritious breakfast, obviously. We figured we’d watch from the benches where we ate lunch, but that area was roped off and reserved for some corporate group. So we trudged on over to Canada and found a spot under some trees that had a mostly unobstructed view – meaning we had to tilt our heads a couple of times to see around some branches. Neither of us had seen this show before and we were very impressed and moved by it. Just as it was beginning, the rain started to sprinkle a bit. Not enough to bother breaking out the ponchos, and the show continued without a problem.

When it ended, we waited for a few minutes, then joined the “cattle herd” heading for the gate. Since the crowd was pretty light, it wasn’t too bad going out with the throng, but it was starting to sprinkle harder, and we were well-dampened by the time we got to the bus stop. We only had to wait about 5 or 10 minutes for the bus, but there were a lot of people waiting by the time it pulled up. We all packed on for the trip back to AKL. It was just a bit like being in a kennel full of wet dogs, but the driver got us “home” in short order. I’m sure he had no desire to spend any more time than necessary with all of us smelly people! [img]graemlins/achoo.gif[/img]

We were back in our room around 10:00. The turn-down service had stopped by, and left Pooh & Tigger arranged on our pillows, with our chocolates arranged in a “checker board”. Very cute! On the loveseat was the tote-bag-filled-with-goodies that I had ordered from the Disney Florist for Dennis before we left home. He was completely surprised, and loved it! It was worth every penny to see the little-kid look on his face when he read the card and realized it was for him! [img]graemlins/love.gif[/img]

While Dennis went out to the car to retrieve a couple of items we’d left (including the damp-swimsuits-in-a-bag), I went to Mara to get our mugs, and to see how late the pool was really open (the official word was that it closed at 10). They had signs up that said “pool temporarily closed”, and CMs wandering around it, so I figured they meant it, and bagged the idea of a late-night swim. We both got back to the room and Dennis had a shower and refilled the ice in our cooler while I did my “next day” stuff – filled water bottles, pulled out maps, rinsed out our still-damp-and-now-warm swimsuits, etc. He hit the sack and I hit the shower. I noticed that I had worked up some serious blisters on my feet, which kind of surprised me since I’d worn my well-broken-in cross-trainers. So I put on my jammies, dragged a chair into the bathroom, filled the tub with hot water and soaked my feet! For some reason, maybe because I had requested the king-size bed, we were in a wheel-chair access room. I only mention this because the bathroom was big enough to stable a pony, and having heard about the small size of AKL standard rooms, I was really pleased with the space we had! I liked not having to balance my rather ample behind on the narrow side of the tub while soaking my feet! [img]images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

The last item of business was to put our swimsuits on the balcony to dry. As I was doing this, I noticed a flash from the vicinity of the opposite wing of the lodge. I figured it was either the security cameras or someone attempting night photography of the animals. Either way, I didn’t really want to be immortalized on the balcony in my jammies, [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] so I finished laying out the suits and got back inside – quickly.

Although we were 0 for 2 in the romance department, after such a long, exciting day, it was nice to fall into bed. We still had 4 more days of touring, after all!

Next Episode: The MK: When I Was a Kid We Did This All Day Non-Stop or When Did We Get So Old???

[ 07-16-2002, 01:43 PM: Message edited by: pflamingo ]

[pflamingo]

Cast: The Kamikazes
Pat (a.k.a., PFlamingo) – grew up at WDW and never quite got over moving away
Dennis – last trip 12 years ago w/ brother, nephew, and niece – bad idea

When: June 5 – 13, 2002

Where: Animal Kingdom Lodge
Radisson Parkway (1 night)
Pat’s Parents’ House (1 night)

Reason: Me – long, hard year teaching math to 10- to 13-year-olds
Dennis – because I made it sound like so much fun
Both – because life is short, we’re not getting any younger, and we’re not willing to grow up

June 7, 2002 – Day 3 – Chapter 1: The MK: When I Was a Kid We Did This All Day Non-Stop *or* When Did We Get So Old??

I had put in for a 7:00 wake-up call, and right on time, there was Mickey! I put it on speaker phone so Dennis could hear it too, and he thought it was pretty cool. While I showered, he went to Mara to get our mandatory morning coffee. What a nice guy! [img]graemlins/love.gif[/img] We had our pastries from the night before for breakfast. Dennis showered and we packed our waist-packs, grabbed our water bottles, left our "Mousekeeping" envelope, and headed out. Since this would be an E-Ride Night, we stopped in the lobby to get our tickets. On to the Magic Kingdom!!

Now, there’s no doubt that this is my favorite park. Although I really enjoyed all 4 parks, my heart still belongs to the MK. This was where I grew up, where my friends and I used to “hang out”, where we’d go on our birthdays. It will always be the most “magical” place for me.

We caught the MK bus and we were on our way! I love driving through the archway and the parking gate, my anticipation just builds and builds and I can’t wait to get in to the park! Okay, we’re finally here. The bag-check arrangement is much better here than at Epcot. We got through it very quickly and got in line for the turnstiles. I just hate this part, waiting those last 10 or 15 minutes for the park to open! There were some characters just inside the gates, entertaining the crowd, but unfortunately, I’m too short to see over all the tall people in front of me. I think it was Alice and the Mad Hatter, and maybe Brer Fox and Brer Bear. Finally it was 9:00 and time to go in!!! Yay!!! Hurray!!! I’m finally at Disney World!!! I'm at Disney World, but Dennis isn't. He's still trying to figure out how to make the finger scan thing work. Once again, CM to the rescue. Poor guy was feeling just a bit frustrated. But then, he's the only guy I've ever known who can't program his VCR. Technology-challenged, to say the least.

We headed straight for Splash Mountain. Not working yet. We went over to BTMRR. Not working yet. Well darn. The CMs were announcing that the rides would be open, they just weren’t sure exactly when they would be open. Rather than hang around and wait, we got a FastPass for Splash and trotted off to Fantasyland. First we rode Peter Pan, then Winnie the Pooh, each with about a 5 to 10 minute wait. Dennis hadn’t been on either of these, and he just loved them, especially Peter Pan! He was really intrigued by the way the boats “flew” over London and Never Land! Next it was Tomorrowland for a run on Space Mountain. It’s a toss up for me whether I like Space or Splash best, but I think Space Mountain has just a slight edge. I’m an avowed coaster junkie. I know there are faster, loopier coasters around, but I just love this thing!! It was a sort of rite of passage in my family. Anyone who visited us had to ride Space, after which my mom and I would laugh at them. Mom and I are not nice people. She loves this ride, too.

Dennis, however, was not so certain. As we waited in line, which, by the way, was only about 15 minutes, he seemed less and less committed to the Kamikaze motto. I, trying to be nice, told him he could use the “chicken-out” exit. Unfortunate choice of words. He said, “All the cast members will know I’m a chicken.” I tried to reassure him that this was not a problem and he wouldn’t be the first or last person ever to chicken-out. I gotta stop using that phrase. Then he said, “You’ll tell your mom I chickened out.” Alas, that was true. I mean, you can’t lie about having gone on that ride, especially to a devotee like my mom. In the end, he rode, but he didn’t like it very much. I was worried. This could be the first major chink in an otherwise solid relationship. Could I spend the rest of my life not riding Space Mountain? Would he be cool about me riding without him? This was a major relationship issue that would have to be addressed! Later. It was time to ride Splash. Back to Frontierland!

I was really proud of us. We had 3 major "must do" attractions under our belts and it was only 10:00! Before riding Splash, we stopped by BTMRR and picked up FPs. The line at that time was 45 minutes and the FPs were for 11:20, so I figured that was the best strategy. Splash, as I’ve mentioned, is one of my favorites. I love the themeing, and the songs (Dennis is still singing “pretty good, sure as your born”), and the DROP! We were sitting in the back of the boat, so we didn’t get too wet, until we got parked next to the little waterfall at the end. Of course, Dennis was on the right (or maybe “wrong”) side of the boat, and got just a bit wetter than he wanted to. We headed to the photo place to check out the picture, but someone in front of us put their hands in the air on the drop and, you guessed it, in front of our faces. Bummer. We’d just have to ride again, darn it!

We had a little time before our BTMRR FPs, so we saw the Country Bears. It’s a guilty pleasure. When I was a kid, it was my favorite. When I was a teen-ager/20-something, it was lame. Now, with someone who didn’t remember it from his last trip, it was fun. Dennis is a big “Davy Crockett” fan, so he really loved the end, with Sammy the Raccoon hat! Time to ride BTMRR. With our FPs, there was virtually no wait, which was nice. Dennis loved this ride! He’s not a big coaster person, so I was really surprised at how much he enjoyed it. I think he just really liked the goat on the roof of the shack. Now I’m thinking, “Hmm, he likes this coaster, maybe there’s hope for Space.”

We got 2 more FPs for Splash (for 1:00), then went off to ride Pirates. This is one of Dennis’s favorites (one of the few things he got to ride on his last trip), mostly because he enjoys quoting that line from “Jurassic Park” about the pirates not eating the tourists (yeah, it was funny when Jeff Goldblum said it). Before we rode it, though, we spotted the Genie from Aladdin! There wasn’t much of a line, so we waited and got our picture with him. Too cool! We had to wait 10 or 15 minutes for Pirates, and afterwards I needed to check the blister situation. My feet were sore!! I pulled out the moleskin I’d dragged with me and “doctored” them as best as possible.


For my first wish... make look like the belly dancer!

It was noon, and we had an hour and a half before our lunch ressie, and we were starting to feel just a bit tired (I hate getting old!!!), so we thought a turn on the train would be nice. If we timed it just right, we’d be back in time for our Splash FP’s and be off that in time for lunch. We got on the train at 12:15 and rode the complete circuit. This was really relaxing! We had a nice breeze on the train, and I could put my feet up and jot down the morning’s notes. We were back to Frontierland 20 minutes later, and still had 25 minutes to wait for our Splash FP’s. We got in line to ride over to Tom Sawyer Island, but soon realized we wouldn’t have time to get over and back, ride Splash, and make our lunch ressie. So we found a shady place to sit, and worked out our afternoon plan of attack. We decided that we wouldn’t ride any more of the E-Night rides at that point, since we’d get to them in the evening. Then we watched the tourists for a bit, and it was time for our FP’s.

The line took a little longer this time, about 15 minutes, so by the time we got off, we had about 5 minutes to get to the Crystal Palace for lunch! But, I had to check out the picture first. We were in the front seat this time, so we knew we wouldn’t have the hand problem like before. The picture was hilarious, so we got the picture number, but decided to wait til after lunch to pick it up. I did feel a little guilty, though, since I put my hands up on the drop and inadvertently covered up the face of the little boy riding behind me. I have a new rule -- hands up only if we're in the back seat on a ride.

We hurried over to CP as fast as my poor little feet would go, and we were about 5 minutes late. This didn’t seem to pose a problem for the CM at the podium, as there were quite a few people waiting anyway. We had to wait 15 or 20 minutes, which was fine, because I had to find a bathroom and I figured it would take a while for me to hobble there and back. Actually, we made tons of bathroom stops. It seems we have two of the smallest bladders in the history of humankind. I just remember this one because I was hungry and my feet hurt.

The Crystal Palace was the only character meal we did. I absolutely had to have a meal with the Pooh characters and lunch seemed like a good choice. But I hadn’t heard rave reviews about the food at CP, and I was wondering if I wasn’t being a bit silly spending so much to get a photo op with the characters. Well, the food was wonderful! Not as spectacular as Boma or Marakkesh, but very good in it’s own right. We espeically liked the Salmon w/ herb sauce and the chicken pasta w/ Portabello mushrooms. We are definite buffet snobs (I refer to the local Ryan’s Steak House as the “pig trough”), but we were both quite impressed with the lunch offerings. And the entertainment was great! All the characters came around to the tables, including Pooh, and we got great pictures. We traded off with the family across the aisle from us, so that Dennis and I could both get into our pics and the dad could be in theirs – whether he wanted to or not. He tried to get out of the Pooh picture (he really only wanted his picture with Tigger), but I said he should do it for the Christmas cards, which made his wife laugh and his kids insist that he join them. Being a guy, and therefore attracted to any sort of gadget, “Dad” started asking about my digital camera, so I gave him my standard sales pitch (Kodak should pay me a commission for this) on why I like my camera. I love the display on the back that lets me see if I’ve gotten a decent picture and not cut off anyone’s head, legs, arms, or other body part they may wish to have immortalized. I even got a picture of Dennis doing the napkin twirl. Definite Christmas card potential, there.



Lunch was so much fun, I was sorry to see it end. But alas, there was much yet to do and time was passing. We went back to Splash to buy our picture, but by now my feet were absolutely screaming. We decided to head out of the park, ride the monorail, and then go back to AKL for a swim. There were only a few people waiting for the monorail, so I asked if we could ride up front. We had to wait a couple of trains, but we got our wish! The monorail pilot was very nice, and when I told him that Dennis had never been on the monorail before, he suggested we get the Epcot monorail at the TTC and pick up the bus to AKL from Epcot, since that monorail ride was a bit longer. What a good idea! At the TTC there was one other group ahead of us for the front, so we waited, because riding up front is just so cool! We ended up sharing the front with a couple of teenagers. They looked like brother and sister, and maybe we intimidated them or something, because they didn’t say much on the trip. Or maybe they just thought we were too weird, because we were asking the pilot whether it was fun to drive the monorail and how long he’d been doing it.

All too soon we were at Epcot. We caught our bus to AKL, and were back to our room around 4:30. We had planned on going for a swim, but a thunderstorm had blown in, so that was out. Dennis took a nap, and I filled up the tub and soaked my feet again, and tried to figure out how I was going to get through E-Ride Night, not to mention the next 3 days of park-touring, when I kept getting these terrible blisters on my feet!

Next Episode: Nothing Stops a Kamikaze *or* It’ll Only Rain for a Few Minutes, Really

[ 07-18-2002, 11:02 PM: Message edited by: pflamingo ]

[wdwlovers]

Great report Pat! Can't wait for the next installment! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[MrsM]

Well, I'm glad you've had some free time to update, I thought you forgot about us! I'm really enjoying your report.

[Heidi]

Great report Pat. I would love to get those recipes too. I love adding new ones to my book. [img]graemlins/yuma.gif[/img]

[tikibird]

Okay, Pat, I now want to make a PS for Marrakesh, even though my next trip is not yet planned! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

I'm also with you on the MK - isn't it just the best place to be in WDW?

LOVE the pic of Dennis doing the napkin twirl! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

More, please!!!! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[reiner]

Great report
Keep it coming [img]images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[Ursunique2001]

Hey Pat that belly dancer kind of looked like you! [img]graemlins/love.gif[/img]

Love the added pictures.

[wdwlovers]

Love the added pics! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[PS - I LUV WDW]

Thanks for the latest installments, I really enjoyed them.

[BostonTeaParty]

Terrific report Pat. Can't wait to read more.

Nancy [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[luvnwdwgal]

Great report Pat! Can't wait to read the next installment! BTW...what's in the goodie bag? [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[pflamingo]

Hey everyone! Thanks for the positive feedback. I need to get back to writing this, but between getting an emergency root canal (bleh!), working at the summer program, arranging Dr. visits for all those charming fee-male problems, and getting ready for the next school year, it kind of got back-burnered.

The tote bag was a sort of burlap bag w/ Mickey on the front, and had fresh fruit, small bags of chips, pretzels, Ritz-bits, etc., and some candy -- Mickey gummies, chocolate pretzels, chocolate bar. Really quite a lot of stuff. I'm sure it would have cost much less than I paid if I bought it all in the store, but the fact that I managed to surprise Dennis with this was, as the MasterCard commercial says (or is it Visa?), priceless.

[LilMarcieMouse]

Iknow I came in late but I love your report.WDW must have made your hand feel soooo much better. Your pictuers are great.Can't wait to read more. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]