[PapaPumba]

So, with the MK behind us, it was on to our next stop, the Animal Kingdom. It was the first time there for all of us.

Just a quick side note on digital photography - I love it. I downloaded all of my day 1 pictures to my laptop the next morning and could see how they all looked. What a great advantage to knowing if you "got" the shot. I have a 2.1 megapixel camera and bought a 128 mb memory stick for the trip, which means I could easily shoot about 100 pictures per day and then download each night.

So day 2 was Monday, the 11th, Columbus Day and it started a bit overcast and drizzly. But we would not let that stop our fun. We headed to the AK and our 9:30 PS for Donald's Restaurantasaurus. Again, "bus luck" was on our side and the first bus around the bend was for AK. It was magic hour at AK that day too and so the crowd was pretty thick as we made our way in. The drizzle turned to a steady light rain, so using a DC tip of going to "not the first gift shop you see" we trudged on into the park and found panchos at one of the smaller shops. Boom.... a quick $22 gone, but the kids love them.

We were early, and new to the park so it was a bit tough to get our bearings. We followed the crowd to the tree of life and got into "Tough to be a bug" without a problem. Great show! Great suprises! It's neat to do new stuff. After that we walked around in the light rain to just get a sense of what we wanted to do since it was new to us. I got FPs for the Safari Ride and then we headed to Donald's for breakfast. Kids had a ball and the characters again were great. Food was good....but in truth I enjoyed CP much more. Maybe it's the rustic "camp" setting at Donald with the same CP prices! Also CP seemed to have more variety. Great friendly service though, CM offered us coffee "to go" and that was nice.

Made our way to the Safari with the FP and got right on. Rain picked up a bit and the temp made things quite humid. I think it also slowed the animals down a bit. I was underwhelmed with the Safari experience, but perhaps next time it will be different.

We knew Festival of the Lion King was a must see, so we made our way over and got in line. Not too long....great seats and a huge THUMBS UP from the whole gang. DW says it was number 1 on her list.

Then we did a bit of shopping and the rain started to come down a bit harder. We took the train to Rafiki's Planet Watch and then the rain just started coming down in buckets. We spent some time over there waiting for the storm to pass, but it just seemed to dampen everyone's mood. We took a vote and decided to call it a day around 3:00 so that we could get ready for our big night at the California Grill. People were heading for the exits "en masse" and we made it back to the CBR by 4 and little DS was napping by 4:30.

Even though I love shorts and a t-shirt, it was kinda cool to get dressed up for dinner. We took the bus back to MK to grab monorail to the Contemporary. Our PS was at 8:00 and we got there at 7:50 and we were seated right away. Originaly Wishes was scheduled for 9, but they changed it to 10 for some reason. No problem, our server said (I think his name was Billy from Cleveland) and he took great care of us, even when DS dropped a full glass of water (no paper cups and lids at this place!)

Again, great tips from DC on what to order, no worries on splitting entrees, no worries about the kids. We had a perfect meal, great bottle of wine, and finished about 9:45, just perfect to head out to the balcony for Wishes. The rain had stopped and there was a cool breeze. You couldn't have scripted a better evening. I know everyone has different feelings about budgets, and ours was tight, but if you haven't done this, I think it is well worth it. Our tab, with tip, was $175 and that included a split appetizer, split salad, split entree, two kids meals, and a moderate bottle of wine. We'll never forget it. My DS told me he made wishes just like Jimminy Cricket told him to. Oh, it was priceless.

So then it was down the elevators to the monorail and my first real blunder of the trip. We circled around back to the MK to grab the bus back to the CBR - along with about 250 other folks who had stayed for Wishes. It was the longest bus line we saw during our stay - maybe a good 25 minutes - and by the time we finally got on DS was asleep on my shoulder and drooling on my nice linen shirt. Oh well..... it was still a perfect night.

[Dana]

What a perfect day...rain and all. Glad you enjoyed wishes. Can't wait to read the rest.

[Jen]

Sounds wonderful! Can't wait for the rest. I'm really looking forward to Wishes - your DS is priceless!

Jen

[pongo&perdita]

Enjoying your trip report! Thanks for the restaurant reviews! Think we're going to have to try CP. I don't think CG is in the budget this trip tho'.
Can't wait to read the rest!

[Disnyfan83]

What a wonderful day! Rain at WDW never gets me down. Sorry you didn't get to do more at AK. It really is a beautiful place - I love all the attention to detail on the buildings. Your dinner sounded great!! We haven't been there either, but I think you've convinced me to make that our big splurge next time!!Can't wait foe day three!

[llama]

Thanks for your second installment. Too bad about the rain - especially for the Safari, which can be one of the best experiences at AK.

[geeman]

HEY, I think we must have been at the same place at the same time!
We arrived back from our cruise on Monday the 11th and headed right to AK, since it was drizzling and we figured if we went to the room, we'd never head out. Since my sister had never been to AK, we decided to go right there.
JUST as we got there, the torrential downpour began. At first I had a hooded jacket, but that didn't help. I was trying to get over a cold, so my sister bought ponchos for all of us.
We hit Dinosaur first, then TOUGH TO BE A BUG. SO, wouldn't it be funny if we were there at the same time and didn't know it? Our Fast Pass for Bug was for around 1:25 PM.
Despite the rain, we got around to do all we wanted to do that night.
After BUG we did the SAFARI.
After the Safari, we went to Festival of the Lion King!!
Strange, huh???
EVEN funnier - we then went to EPCOT to see the Beach Boys and my sister got to see Illuminations for the first time...
THEN we headed back to the Contemporary - where we were staying -- to catch WISHES at 10PM!
Thanks to the inefficient monorail service that night - we got there only to catch the tail END of the show.

It's a SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL!!!!!!


As for dinner later -- Cooler? I thought it got very muggy at around 9PM. I almost went for a swim that night!