Birthday Disney Trip 4/1-4/8 Day 2 About This Page:

[LadyMinnie]

Day 2: April 2nd "MY Birthday badge quest!"

Cast: Me- 30-year-old Disney Convert
DH- 32 Disney Fan

We were up the next morning at 6:30AM to have enough time to get ready and head over to our PS at Boma for breakfast. Because it was an EMH for AK the buses were pretty crowded, and I have to say, people give you the strangest looks when get off a bus to an EMH park, only to walk right past the entrance to wait in line for a different bus! Well, we got over to Boma with a bit of time to spare, but we were seated immediately and enjoyed a good breakfast. Although the breakfast was good, it wasn't as good as when we first ate here back on our honeymoon. I think the expectation of greatness was just too much for it to stand up to.

After a tasty breakfast we wandered back out to the bus stop and took the bus back over to AK. Because I didn't get to go to any parks yesterday when it was officially my birthday, it was decided to celebrate it some more today. So, after entering the park we headed over to guest services where I got the first of four "It's My Birthday" badges. With much pride I pinned it on my shirt as we headed off up the trail towards Discovery Island, taking our time because we knew things would probably be crowded. DH took plenty of pictures of the wildlife scattered along the pathways, and it was also at this point where he found the path off to the right that has a short rope bridge…. As we crossed the bridge, it began to sway—A LOT. He shouted back over his shoulder "Stop swaying your hips woman!" I lost it and just laughed. I don’t know why he said it because I KNEW there was no way the bridge would collapse, but it had the two of us laughing the rest of the way up Harambi. It was here that I was finally able to make use of the autograph book I got in the gift basket that hubby gave me yesterday. Baloo was out and about, so I got in the short line and had him sign it while DH took my picture. He noticed my birthday pin and gave me a big hug. I have to tell you Baloo is big and soft, I didn't want to let him go!! Unfortunately I had to and we headed off towards the safari ride.

The line for the safari was fairly short, so we jumped on the line and after a short wait were off on our trip around the savannah. Because it was closer to mid morning things were fairly quiet, but we did see a number of animals. After the safari we decided to head over towards Asia and see what was around. We debated going on the Kali River Rapids, but DH pointed out that he was wearing sneakers and didn't want to spend the rest of the day in squishy shoes (which made sense) so instead we took a right towards the Tree of Life and watched a showing of It's Tough to be a Bug instead. Much better enjoyment of this show; not so close to the fog machine, but close enough to have fun with it. From here we decided we'd take it easy and see who was around at Camp Minnie-Mickey. Well, we never actually got there because Stitch was out signing autographs by the DVC station wagon. Stitch noticed my birthday pin and took extra time to write me a birthday message in my book!. He also tried to get the CM's attention to lead everyone in singing Happy Birthday, but unfortunately, she was busy getting instructions from my DH on how to work our digital camera. Darn! I think it would have been cool…We got our picture taken, thanked Stitch and decided we would head out to MK for a few hours before our PS as LTT.

Off we went back to the bus stops and got on line for the bus to the TTC. We waited for what seemed like a rather long time before the bus finally came. We hopped aboard and when we arrived at the TTC we found out just WHY the bus was so late. Evidently the high winds had caused them to shut down the ferry service to the MK, so the lines for the express monorail were backed up something fierce. DH and I thanked our lucky stars that it was still about 3 hours until our PS at the Liberty Tree and jumped aboard the monorail to Epcot instead. We didn't end up doing much at Epcot as the lines in Future World were bit extreme. I saw the standby line at Test Track get as high as 155 minutes! Would YOU wait that long? Thank goodness for Fastpass….

Instead of doing any rides I got my second birthday pin and we both enjoyed some ice cream (love them Micky Ice cream sandwiches!! Yummm!) We looked around The Art of Disney store a bit and I bought hubby the Stitch "perplexed pupil" figurine from the three-piece Lilo & Stitch collection. I just wanted to do something nice for him because he was just so kind and loveable. (I love that man!)

Since it was now getting closer to our PS at LTT we decided to try and different tack to get to the MK. At the bus stop a Port Orleans bus was waiting so we jumped aboard and took it to the resort, then transferred to a MK bus so we could bypass the madness at the TTC. The resort looked very nice but HUGE…During our ride to MK we were entertained as CM Tommy led the passengers in a rousing chorus of “Zippity-do-daa”(gosh if if misspelled that I’m SOOOO Sorry). I wish all the drivers did something like that. Makes the time go by a lot quicker. With Tommy to distract us we arrived at MK in short order.

After a bit of a wait to get in, I picked up my third birthday pin at Town Hall and we started up Main Street to the newly redecorated castle. As we strolled down the sidewalk, the Dapper Dans were slipping inside after performing a set. I noticed them and managed to get near them when one of them noticed my birthday buttons. Their leader (who happened to be named Dan) said they had time for "one more song" and proceeded to serenade me with a lovely rendition of Happy Birthday. They were, however, foolish enough to head into the second verse of "How old are you now?" when the mayor's wife (I think that was who she was suppose to be. She was dressed in beautiful green and black Victorian garb) stopped them from asking a lady such a dangerous question and instead they switched over to "How much do you weigh?" which caused me to YELP very loudly (I am just a tad sensitive to THAT particular question). The Mayor’s wife cut in to their act before the bloodshed started. They quickly fled the scene (lucky men) and we took a right into Tomorrowland where we saw the wait for Stitch was 55 minutes, so we grabbed some fast passes and headed over to the TTA instead. Unfortunately the TTA was temporarily stopped for 45 minutes so we couldn’t ride that, but CoP WAS running so we jumped on that instead.

By now it was getting really close to our PS so we headed back to Main Street so we could cross over to Liberty square. Unfortunately the parade was running, so we had to skirt back around the castle to make it over to LTT. We were doing the last seating for lunch (we like their lunch menu better than dinner) so the Betsy Ross room where we dined was almost empty when we were seated (and WAS empty by the time we were done). In honor of my birthday, they had scattered the table with confetti and streamers and since it was a slow time our server Carlos paid extra special attention to us…especially during dessert where Carlos and two other servers brought over my dessert with a candle and singing “Happy Birthday”. Very cute and thoughtful—and the dessert wasn’t that bad either.

Now stuffed from a wonderful lunch we wandered back towards Tomorrowland to make use of our fast passes but right after we got in line they informed us that Stitch’s Great Escape had a glitch and wouldn't be back up and running for at least 45 minutes. Though CM’s offered us Fast passes for the next showing we gave up and headed out to Main Street just in time to catch a performance of Cinderellabration. The show was cute however it did not have one villain in sight; no major conflict to spur a good fight, you know. The kids were enthralled…some of the adults looked down right bored. Hubby took plenty of pictures but I knew this was one show we’d only catch once.

Since we had tickets (FRONT ROW) to see La Nouba that night we decided to finally head back to the resort and shower and relax a bit before heading to DTD to see the show. CM Ed drove us back to Pop Century (WOO HOO!) and during the trip informed us of various facts about the parks. Again, a good bus driver made a long trip pass by quickly and soon we were back at our resort (WOO HOO!) To give you an idea of the "feel" of this resort as we passed through the lobby in the main building while heading to our rooms we caught a long line of CM's dancing to “The Hustle”. The whole resort is infused with that sort of fun and carefree attitude.

When we got back to our room we were delighted to see that our Mousekeeper had put the Mickey Mouse Club ears in our window to help decorate our room. Inside, DH found his plush Pluto "drinking" from the tin that my gifts had come in and my plush Lumpy (from the Heffalump movie) had the TV remote in his paw and was watching the Disney channel. We also found our first (and unfortunately only) towel animal! A cute little washcloth duck was sitting by the sink. After taking pictures of everything, DH and I showered and changed before heading back over to the bus stop to catch a bus to DTD.

(Ok… quick rant here from Hubby: I realize that there are people who visit WI who require the use of wheelchairs or similar devices to get around. I realize that Disney has to accommodate these people as they are just as entitled to the benefits of staying on property as anyone else. My problem is that the bus staff does not seem to be very well trained in working the ramp mechanisms that allow wheelchairs to access the bus, nor are the locking mechanisms once they are on the bus very secure. If a NYC busdriver can have a wheelchair on the bus and locked into place in less than three minutes why can't Disney! )

Ok, the reason for the preceding rant was because there were two wheelchairs getting onto the DTD bus that we needed to use to get to our showing of La Nouba. As the driver took longer and longer to get the wheelchairs on board and locked in we got more and more worried that we'd be late for the show. When they finally let us on board it was standing room only (because the lockdown systems aren't very good wheelchair bound travelers need to move from the wheelchair to a normal seat, thus taking up twice as much room. On the trip to DTD we decided to get off at the Marketplace because we figured that's where the wheelchairs would let off too and the time of our show was quickly approaching.

So, we jumped off at the DTD Marketplace and hoofed it across PI to the West Sside (with one quick pit stop at guest relations so that I could get my 4th birthday pin) and actually made it with time to spare. While waiting, we looked around the Cirque du Soleil store and DH ended up picking up a few things, included a very strange Dralion plush(half dragon, half lion character from Cirque’s show “Dralion”) The doors finally opened and off we went upstairs to take our seats in the front row center of the Grand Chapeau. WONDERFUL SHOW! I highly urge you to check it out.

After the show, while our hands and arms aching from applauding so much, we made our way over to the Candy Cauldron where we picked up some chocolate covered marshmallows (yummy!) to take back to the room with us. They didn’t' have any apples that looked appealing to DH (despite his goal to get an apple from the Cauldron) we passed that night figuring we'd be back later in the trip. They also didn't have any chocolate covered strawberries ready when we were waiting and it wasn't until we were outside that we saw them bring a fresh tray out. Ah well, we could always come back.

Tired from applauding and loaded down with purchases from the show we hit the bus stop and headed back to Pop (WOO HOO!). We picked up a quick bite to eat at the food court to take back to our room with us and decided to call it a night. This was the night where daylight savings went into effect and since I had a spa appointment the next day so hubby made sure he turned the clock ahead and set the alarm…..

Coming soon:

Day 3, "My Spa day….. or is it?”

[Big Baloo]

Sounds like you're having a great time, Emma! Isn't Cirque just the best?

[lauren-roxy]

Great report Emma!! That is awesome that you got a birthday button in every park!! Sounds like a really nice day. Can't wait to read more!!!

[luvnwdwgal]

What a wonderful birthday celebration you had!!

[Jillybean]

It's amazing how much you packed into one day! What fun!

Jill

[LadyMinnie]

i LOVE Cirque..Love it!! DH got to interact with the two clowns, Blato and Sergi in the preshow. He was like a kid again.

More Cirque in the future...seeing Varekai when Cirque hits the Meadowlands arena in July.