Fun, flowers and firsts THREAD 2 OF 7 About This Page:

[DrDolphin]

Cheryl - your report has me very excited about having Cheryl's birthday dinner at AP!!! Scallops - yum!

[goofy4goofy]

Glad you enjoyed Artist Point! It sounds wonderful!!!! Can't wait for the next installment!!!

Kelly

[Jennifer2003]

Looking forward to the next installment!!
Great report!

[AllisonG]

Cheryl,
Got to let you know how much I am enjoying your TR. From the pictures of the Gatwick Hilton(stayed there when I was a kid, thanks for the photos)to the dinner at the Artists Point. By the way you will love the VWL. We own there and have stayed at least 6 different times and have loved every experience.
Can't wait till you get on with your report. Waiting patiently.
Your fan, Allison

[Goofy'sGal]

Cheryl, absolutely enjoying your report and all of your great pictures! I've been working on my scrapbook and the pictures I had out were of dd5 standing beside the Mickey topiary at the DVC sign so I felt like I was "home" again looking at your pictures!



Reading your TRs make me feel like we're all travelling with you in your pocket b/c you give such great details! Great job!!

[katspjs]

Cheryl, I am so enjoying your TR. More, more, more!!

[mac]

Great Wilderness Lodge pics Cheryl! It sounds like you guys enjoyed your dinner!

[mom2my4dwarfs]

Cheryl-Just got caught up with your TR. It is wonderful, love all the pics.

[chezp]

Friday 30 April – part one: going backstage on safari



Dates:

Wednesday 28 April – Friday 14 May 2004

Adventurers:

Me, Cheryl (31) and

DH, Mark (38)

with appearances from a number of other Passporters along the way!

Resorts:

Animal Kingdom Lodge (Wednesday 28 April – Sunday 2 May)

Beach Club Villas (Sunday 2 May – Wednesday 6 May)

Disney Cruise (Wednesday 6 May – Sunday 9 May)

Beach Club Villas (Sunday 9 May – Friday 14 May)

Celebrations:

Our first ever Disney Cruise, our first time at the Animal Kingdom Lodge and our first ever visit to WDW in May to see the Flower and Garden Festival.



Original plans for the day:

Morning - Backstage Safari behind the scenes tour at Animal Kingdom, starting at 8.45 a.m. and lasting three hours.

Dinner – Boma, Animal Kingdom Lodge, 7 p.m.

No plans for lunch – maybe Rainforest Café or counter service in Animal Kingdom? We would probably spend the rest of the day at Animal Kingdom.



We were awake again really early today, just before 5.00 this morning, but I guess I had had more than eight hours sleep, so I couldn't complain too much. We do need to try and stay up a bit later tonight though.



Fortunately, my headache had gone, so I can only put it down to possibly the weather being so humid and maybe me not being used to it. Perhaps it was also down to me not drinking enough yesterday, a mistake I will not be making again. The headaches may have gone, but this morning I had a new problem, a series of insect bites all over my ankles. At the last count we were up to five. Time to get the insect repellent out, I guess.



We wandered down to the Mara to get a chocolate muffin and what we call a Danish pastry. I wasn't sure what it’s called in America, so I just pointed it out to the CM. I tell you, the CM's really didn't get the idea of us just wanting hot water for tea. Yesterday and then today, I got the Spanish Inquisition over why I just wanted hot water and even had to show my teabags on both occasions to prove why I needed it. It's something we've never had a problem with before at the Beach club. We came back to our room and sat and enjoyed breakfast looking out on to the savannah. We had giraffes there, eating their breakfast at the same time, which was nice. Where else in the world can you show your breakfast with animals?



Again it was early opening at Animal Kingdom and by the time we arrived at 8.05, people were starting to pack through the gates. It was fascinating to just sit and watch them all, as we waited for the tour to begin.





Animal Kingdom



As we all waiting to go, I did see a woman with a PassPorter pouch, but being the shy, reserved Brit that I am (don't laugh!) I decided that if she was on our tour, we'd be introduced anyway. Needless to say she went off on the Wild By Design tour, so if that was you, then a belated hi! I now wish I hadn't been so reserved!



We were off by about 8.40 and started with introductions around the group. It quickly became apparent that this would be a group with a great sense of humour. There were 18 of us in total, apparently that's unusual for this tour and they had to get two minibuses to take us to places. I think it's fair to say that most people on the tour were probably in their fifties or sixties with one or two exceptions. I reckon I was probably the youngest one there. It also turned out that our tour guide Daniel was celebrating his 21st birthday today, which led to a lot of good natured Mickey taking and a rendition of Happy Birthday for him later on.



We slipped backstage by the Rainforest Café and were out into a parking lot. Disney certainly do not continue the magic the second you are off stage. It was a bit of a culture shock to see everything looking so normal. We got into minibuses and headed over to the animal enclosures. We were in Kari’s van, who was Daniel's boss and we were already being bombarded with all sorts of facts and figures, like the fact that all the three other theme parks could fit inside Animal Kingdom and the Magic Kingdom (including its parking lot) would fit inside Kilimanjaro Safaris. I had heard some of these facts before, but I have never quite believed them. Well, today would help to change that.



We saw heaps of bicycles, apparently called DAKcycles (DAK being short for Disney's Animal Kingdom), which is CM's used to cycle around the park, as they can't use cars. We later saw a couple of them, apparently there are only available on a first-come, first served basis, so if you get their late and they've all gone, then to half. As we drove along, it was pointed out to us that there were electric fences on either side of the road, one to keep be animals in Disney's animal Kingdom in and the other to keep the major Florida wildlife out.



Next: meeting Spike and how the tigers nearly became vegetarian!

[chezp]

Friday 30 April – part two: meeting Spike and how the tigers nearly became vegetarian!

We pulled up outside the elephant and rhino area and headed first for the rhinos. I have to admit this was my favourite part of the tour. My DF is a huge fan of rhinos and to see them so close was amazing. I knew he'd love it, so perhaps one day, we can persuade him to give this to tour a go. Of course, first we need to persuade them to come back to the States and back to Disney!

Dave, one of the rhino keepers, explained to us about the animals and some of the things they teach them to do. It's all done with positive reinforcement, i.e. the animal gets a reward for good behaviour and doesn't get punished if it does something wrong. There is a huge long list of tasks on the board with an X next to it, if the animal has completed the task, an S if they're still being trained and an R if they have learnt the skill and then lost it, for whatever reason. It was all fascinating and we all inundated him with questions.

This is something that, as a group, we were very good at. The amount of times a CM would say “that’s a very good question” and we knew that they didn't have an answer to the question. It was good to see such in-depth questions being asked and full credit to the various CM's we saw on the tour (not only Daniel). They would all do their best to answer us or come back to us with an answer as soon as they had one.

Next we went outside for what was the highlight of the tour for me, the chance to meet a rhino up close and pet him. His name was Spike and he put up with us very well, as we were all leaning over to pet him and oohing and aahing at him. His skin just did not feel at all like I expected it to, it was a lot tougher and apparently their skin is about an inch thick, so I guess that shouldn't be much of a surprise. Again Dave was deluged with questions from all of us. It seems our group were fascinated by rhinos and took the opportunity to ask all the questions they’d ever wanted to. My only disappointment was that no photos were allowed because of course we were backstage. Spike though would've made a great photo.

Sadly leaving Spike, we headed over to where the elephants are kept and were introduced to Patricia and Robin, the latter is the matriarch of the herd. We later found out that was why she didn't get on with the new elephant calf Tufani. In the wild, they would sort it out one way or the other, perhaps with one or the other leaving the herd, but Disney were taking no chances and were keeping the two of them segregated from the other.

We were shown all the forms of enrichment on offer to the elephants, including a scratching post. At first, they painted it purple, but they ended up with purple elephants as they scratched all the paint off!. There were similar problems with the first tyres they gave the elephants. They were able to pick them up with the tusks and throw them over the top of their enclosure and, looking at the height of it, that was no mean feat! Disney have now had to chain the tyres down, so they can't do that any more.

As we watched, we saw one of the elephants having to strain a bit to get to their food and Daniel explained that this was another part of their enrichment programme, making them work for their food. Apparently when they put live fish in the tiger enclosure, the tigers just looked at them and didn't realise they could eat them. So they had to be taught that skill all over again, so it's important to keep be animals as mentally and as physically active as possible.

From there, it was a walk up to the area where the performing birds at the shows chill out in between their performances. Then we went briefly back onstage at Conservation Station, before returning behind-the-scenes again at the Veterinary Centre. Unfortunately, they were performing exams on three gibbons (apparently very rare to get all three of them together) so we couldn't go in there for fear of bringing infection in with us. Instead we stood outside for a while and heard about the work of the Disney veterinary team, whose past exploits have included cleaning lions’ teeth (one has had to have for root canals!), extracting a golf ball from a snake living on one of the golf courses and helping a bobcat to give birth. She had moved into one of the Disney resorts, as she thought it would be a great place to have her children, a sensible animal indeed!

Next: the vegetarian ventures into the Animal Nutrition Centre and a different version of Kilimanjaro Safaris

[Colexis Mom]

Very interesting about the tour Cheryl Keep it coming, I can't wait to hear more about it

[GATechGal]

Thanks for sharing some of the interesting facts from your tour. Keep it coming - great TR.

[ariel1]

fascinating behind-the-scenes info! loving this report and all the great pictures. keep it coming!

[luvnwdwgal]

Great updates Cheryl!! Very interesting!! Looking forward to more!

[Jennifer2003]

I really want to take a backstage tour now...thanks for the updates!

Jennifer