Christmas at the World (Day 2, Christmas with the animals)

Animal Kingdom Christmas Tree

Since my wife and I make planning our Walt Disney World vacation a part of the vacation itself, We knew in advance where we were going to spend the majority of our second day at Walt Disney world.  We had gone to the Animal Kingdom many time starting just a couple of years after it opened in 1998. Our first visit was during our vacation with my parents and my kids in October of the year 2000.  We had a great time.  Since that first visit the Animal Kingdom has had time to flesh out a little bit. Several new attractions had been added including Expedition Everest and Finding Nemo - The Musical. We had planned a head of time to eat at the Tusker house in conjunction with seeing Finding Nemo.  Our reservation at the Tusker House included preferred seating at the show. So after sleeping like a stone, my wife and I awoke in our room in the French Quarter at Port Orleans. We had our breakfast and caught the bus to the Animal Kingdom. Disney says that the bus service to each park arrives at each resort in about 20 minute intervals.  It seamed to me that the buses were normally closer together.  During the day finding a seat on the bus was easy. But sometimes, especially after an event, getting a place to actually sit down on the bus can be a challenge.  My wife and I spent several trips back from events and park closings standing.   For folks that live in a small city and public transportation, isn't used much, riding through the night while standing on the bus is a rare occurrence. Riding the bus while we were standing really wasn't a problem because we soon learned how to brace for the turns and stops.

Cover for the Kingdom Keepers Novel

The number of attractions at the Animal Kingdom has grown over the years, but what suprised us on this trip was the number of animals that actually live at the park.  Of  course I knew about the Kilimanjaro safari in Harambe Village, which we enjoyed twice on this trip, but I Didn't know that there were more so many more animals that I had not seen.  My wife has read every piece of youth fiction ever written. She worked as a teaching assistant at a local elementary school for many years and is now a librarian, masters degree and all, at the county public library. I bring this up because, knowing how much i enjoyed our Disney trips and how much I like most things Disney, she brought home the Kingdom Keepers series of books by Ridley Pearson.  Book II of the series "Disney at Dawn" takes place for a large part in the Animal Kingdom.  The book makes references to animals that I had never seen in the park, having spent most of my animal observing from the back of the big trucks that trundled through the savanna while on the Kilimanjaro Safari attraction. We had never walked the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail nor had we been on the Maharaja Jungle Trek.  So we were blissfully unaware of the number and varaity of animals that live at the park.  Of course we had seen Monkeys that are close to the Yak and Yeti Quick service restaurant, but we didn't know that very close to us were a colony of gorillas.   There were Big Silverbacks close by.  We also saw Okapi and Tigers.  It was amazing. The fruit bats were not out due to the cold weather but we did see pools full of colorful chiclids and even a hippo. Chiclids are colorful fresh water tropical fish that usually come form Africa.  Tolapia, the fish that many farmers raised for food, is a Chiclid.

Okapi, related to the Giraffe

Hundreds of fresh water Chiclids

Gorillas, but no mist.

Black and White Colobus Monkey 

Later that day my wife and I took the Wild Life Express train that runs from Harambe to Rifiki's Planet Watch.  The train has an unusual configuration for the passengers.  The seats are more stadium style facing only one side of the train.  I'm certain this was done to focus the passengers attention on specific things as they traveled out to Rifiki's Planet Watch. Park visitors get an opportunity to see the compound where the animals are kept at night and visit the Affection Station and the parks Animal hospital at the end of the trip. We were surprised to see the animal surgeries open to view behind the glass windows in the hospital and there were displays throughout the facility, all focused on the ecology of the planet. The Affection station had the obligatory goats and sheep that most petting zoos have, but I seem to recall larger animals like llamas and maybe even a donkey or cow there as well. The Animal Care specialists were kind enough to bring out a beautiful Pygmy Owl while we where there and answered questions of all kinds about all types of owls and birds. I found this true throughout the park where wild life was part of the attraction.  Disney cast members were always close by to answer questions about the animals and generally provide information about what visitors were looking at.  On more than one occasion i can recall a cast member giving a short lecture about a monkey or a bird that was on display in a cage close to where they were.  This only made the Wild life trails at the Animal Kingdom better and more interesting. It is important to note that the only visitor access to Rafiki's Planet Watch is by riding the Wild Life Express.

Crush and Marlin

In no time at all it seemed, it was time for our lunch reservations at the Tusker House.  The Tusker House restaurant had, over the past few years, evolved into a buffet style restaurant that served African and Asian dishes.  The restaurant offered a wide variety of foods that I had not eaten before and while some might not have been to my taste, the food was always hot and fresh. My favorite parts of the meal were some of the jams and chutneys that were served with some of the breads and the breads them selves were good and interesting.   In conjunction with our meal at the Tusker House, we received preferred seating at a showing of  Finding Nemo, the Musical, later that afternoon.  This greatly reduced our wait time for the attraction and we got seats right up front near the stage, parts of which surrounded us on three sides.  When the show started, there were times when we were enveloped by the performance.  I think that was a very cool thing.  Children were seated close to where we were and we took a lot of joy helping them look for Nemo as he swam across the curtain and appeared in the bubbles on each side of the stage.  The show started soon after we were seated and the auditorium filled.  For those that don't know the show,  all the characters are preformed by puppeteers in costume.  Some of the bigger characters required multiple performers. The affect is quite striking as you listen to the amazing voices of the singers and watch the puppets perform.  Having the live cast operating the puppets as well as being in costume and performing on the stage where everyone could see, gave the show a quality that was both real and unreal. The performers were all excellent singers and inspite of having to do this show several times a day several days as week, the show seemed fresh and fun.  We had seen it in previous visits to the park but there was no drop in energy and the performers all seemed to be still having fun doing the show.   Finding Nemo, the musical is one of my favorite attractions at Disney World.  I liked the movie and the Musical does a great job of condensing the movie down into a 30 minute show full of music and color. Its very hard to describe what makes the finding Nemo musical special. I can tell you that you will not see anything quite like it anywhere else in any of the other parks. Let me take a few moments to express one of my pet peeves.  Taking pictures during performances is dangerous for the performers and distracting to the other patrons.  Any photo I put in my blog of a performance was downloaded from an official source and not taken by me. Please respect those around you and keep the safety of the performers in mind.

Marlin and Dori

Acrobatic Monkeys?

 Disney does great adaptations for many of its films.  The imagineers go to great lengths to create environments that get the most out of the story the performers are trying to tell.  The Festival of the Lion King in Camp Mini Mickey in the Animal Kingdom was my favorite show at Disney until I saw Finding Nemo.  Even though I think Finding Nemo Eclipses the Festival of the Lion King in spectacle and story telling. The Festival of the Lion King is still a wonderful show capable of producing tears of emotional joy.  The performers are amazing.  The show is full of acrobatics and music.  The show starts with the four principle performers entering the theatre.  They interact with the audiance before the main show starts with animitronic versions of  an elephant, a giraffe, Simba and Pumba.  The stage is set up in the middle of the audotorium and the audiance is transported for 30 minutes to a colorful world of singing, dancing and acrobatics.  The costumes are pretty amazing.  World class gymnast dressed as monkeys perform on trampolines, high bars, gymnastic rings and a trapese. Later in the show to the song Can You Feel the Love Tonight, a woman dressed as a colorful bird does an lovey aerial ballet. The whole thing wraps up with the whole cast on stage singing the Circle of Life. The show is fantastic.  Now, That being said, while I enjoyed the show thoroughly, the energy of this paticular performance was not quite there.  Some of the vocal preformances were not what they should have been.  I had been to the Festival of the Lion King before and have returned since and been completely blown away.   Perhaps our long  previous day was catching up with us but this one time, the Festival of the Lion King fell just a little short.

How can people on stilts be bad?

Not riding the Primeval Hurl in Dinoland

There are plenty of other attractions at Disney's Animal Kingdom.  The Kali River Rapids is Disney's take on a river raft ride.  For many years we have avoided River Raft rides because my daughter had a bad experience on one. When she was quite young when she took a water spray square in the chest.  Another time our family rode on a raft ride and some stuffed animals I had won for her were stolen.  Having had issues on two different occasions she didn't want to ride them any more.  This was finally our chance to go on a river raft ride, but we had learned our lesson form the previous night on splash mountain. The low temperatures prevented us from goinging on an attraction where the rider is bound to get wet.  So the Kali River Rapids had to wait till we went in the summer of 2011 and my daughter wasn't with us.  When my wife and I were at Disney World that December, We thought that Expedition Everest was a little lame.   We have since had a change of heart. We had ridden it previously on another trip and it left us a little flat. So we chose not to ride Everest.  Since then, we have ridden the attraction and enjoyed it much more.  The Last attraction that I want to talk about in this post is Dinosaur.  I had ridden the attraction a couple of times and Dinosaur is on our list of rides that we do each time we visit.  My experiences with this attraction has been mixed.  The first time we rode Dinosaur it was wonderful.  On the next visit the ride seemed  rougher and jerkier. Of course this might have had to do with the residual affects form riding the Primeval Hurl. So it was with a little bit of trepidation that I approached the attraction on our Christmas visit to Disney.  But this time, It was once again great and fun.  Even though the rider might know the surprise that happens in the ride, It can still catch you. I don't want to give away anything so you will just have to ride the ride to get the surprise.

My Wife keeps the bamboo jungle from falling.

Delightful Eats at Jiko's.

Day two wrapped up with a delicious meal at Jiko's  A Cooking Place for dinner.  The African theme of our day  had followed us all the way through as we ended up at the Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner.  Jiko's is famous for infusing African flavors into High Cuisine. The menu was full of things that would have been delightful to try and we decided to get as wide a variety of things that we could.  We concentrated on the appitizers.  We had flat breads that were very much like pizza only not really pizza. They were wonderful.  We ordered an assortment of spreads that went on a wide variety of African/Asian style breads. Some were spicy. Some were sweet. Some were both. All were intencely delicious.  We ordered a selection of cheeses that came with a number of accompanying foods. Each Cheese was different and it was great fun experimenting with the different types and mixing and matching the various fruits, jams, chutneys and breads that came with the cheese.  It was a very satisfying meal.  The wait staff was attentive and very friendly.  I've said this before but I think it takes a very special kind of person to be a Disney cast member.  You have be be engaging and friendly. You have to be very very good with people.  Our waiter was funny and attentive and engaging.  It made our meal all the better.  While it wasn't quite as late as the previous day, We still didn't get back to the hotel till well after 10:00.  Once again we collapsed in our beds so we could rest up for our third exciting day at Disney.

Christmas at the World ( The first day)

Almost everybody out there loves the Christmas season, me included. We all seem to love all the colored lights and beautiful decorations that brighten the cold days of December. Shopping for our loved ones is made easier with online stores. Music seams to fill the air where ever you go. The spirit of good will to all prevails in most hearts. A very special way to start the holiday season is a trip to Disney. Christmastide at the World is something special to experience. The parks are all decorate for the season and everywhere you look some new treasure will catch your eye. Each park has its own Christmas tree, each one representing the theme of that park. Yuletide decorations adorn the lobbies of the resorts. You never know when you might enter a hotel lobby and see a gigantic gingerbread house, or toys as big as people. Capturing the feeling of our Christmas trip to Walt Disney World will be difficult. Like all others times at Walt Disney world, there is so much to see and do that a few paragraphs in a blog really can't do it justice. All that being said, I'm going to try to give you a glimpse at what I feel has to be one of the greatest trips to Disney I've ever had.

 All of my visits to Walt Disney World have been magical. Each trip was full of fun and surprises. Going over the holidays had all the magic of Disney along with the wonder of the holidays. It all started from the moment we landed at Orlando International Airport. Our Christmas 2010 trip to Disney was the first time we had actually flew into Orlando. The year before, we flew to Tampa and rented a car, and most other times we had packed up the van and drove the twenty some hours to Walt Disney World. This trip was made special for us by the fact that this was the first time in many years that my wife and I had gone on a vacation without the kids. We had spent our first vacation together 25 years before at Walt Disney World. In 1985 there was still only two parks. Back then we could see most of Disney World in two or three days. So we decided that we were would celebrate our 26th wedding anniversary and the 25 anniversary of our first trip to Walt Disney World. Our true anniversary is in the early fall but my job limits the amount of time I can be out of the plant.

Since this was the first time we flew into Orlando, We use the Magical Express for the first time. We had arranged to do this when we booked the vacation.  Disney sent us special tags for our luggage.  Unfortunately they only sent one tag per person.  We had three bags, so we split one and used it on two bags.  In hind sight, I think we were lucky not to have lost a bag.  We could tell where the tags had fallen off and had been put back onto the bags.  When we booked  our next trip we asked for more luggage tags.  Soon after disembarking from the plane, we found our way to the magical express.  It was fantastic to not have to deal with our luggage. We checked the bags when we arrived at the airport in Indy and the Southwest Airlines and Disney's Magical express took care of them from there.  We didn't touch the bags again until later that day in the Room of our resort. The bus ride from the airport was comfortable and the bus was clean and modern with video screens that had a short video of what to expect when we arrived at our resort. I can even remember the cartoon that was shown on the trip to the resort. The cartoon was from 1940 and featured Donald duck in Donald's Vacation.  The little touches that Disney provide can really make a vacation and while many people might take it for granted,  Disney's magical express can start a vacation right.

Upon arriving at the resort we checked in and picked up our tickets for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party and our celebration buttons for our anniversary and proceeded to our rooms.  My wife had requested a specific building that Disney was unable to fulfill but after working with the front desk for a while, we were able to get another building that was close to the bus station. At the end of the day, i think it probably turned out for the better where we ended up staying.  We stayed for the first time at the French Quarter district of Port Orleans.  This resort was going through a major renovation at the time we stayed there, but we heard no evidence that anything was going on in the rooms near us, even though we could clearly see that one of the rooms near us was torn down.  My wife believes, and I tend to think she is right, that they stopped work on these rooms after they checked us into the resort, Maybe they had not planned to put people in that building but because we wanted to be nearer to the center of the complex, they stopped work temporarily and put is one of the rooms that was scheduled for work in the near future and shut down work at some of the other rooms close to where we were.  Even if it isn't true it did make us feel special that the front desk of the resort went out of the way to help make our stay better by moving us close to the bus station.  We stayed literally down the stairs and a few steps away from the bus. It seems like a small thing but having walked all day or having a full day of walking a head of you,  being near the bus station was a perk that I truly grew to appreciate. The rooms were very comfortable and  it was quiet at night.  Essentially, since we tend to plan our meals and events far in advance, We pretty much only use our rooms to sleep at night and to clean up and dress in the morning. We took advantage of the Quick service dining area for breakfast each day.  We had to fuel our selves before going out and walking as much as you do in Walt Disney World. The breakfast was good and hot. I do have one complaint about the food at Disney however, This might be considered a quibble, but being form Indiana, I found the bacon terrible. Limp strips of thin meat that looks a lot like bacon but had very little taste.  The bacon was the same everywhere in all the parks and  Resorts as far as I could find.

Once we settled into our rooms The time came for us to set out and start our adventure.  Our first stop was the Magic Kingdom.  We had purchased tickets to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party earlier during the planning portion of our trip.  The cost of admission for the Christmas Party is reduced if you purchase a head of time, so we knew a head of time that we were going to be in the Magic Kingdom on day one. We arrived at the park in the late afternoon and entered on our regular tickets after showing our party tickets to an attendant, we had a wrist band strapped on to identify that we had paid for the Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party.  I've spent quite a bit of time in a previous post with the early hours of the Christmas party and i don't want to repeat all that stuff here. However, there were a few highlights that were not covered in the previous post that are worth writing about. When we arrived, we were fairly hungry.  Our plan for that day was to eat at Pecos Bill's in Frontier Land.  Pecos Bill's is a quick service restaurant that serves burgers and taco salads among other fair.  Its major claim to fame is the extensive "Fixin's" bar.  I believe we had Taco Salads.  The restaurant gives you the meat and lettuce in a taco shell and the diner completes the salad from the fixin's bar. While it was difficult to find a place to sit, We did enjoy the meal. and have gone back to  Peco's Bills again.

We visited several of the attractions and all are worth time in this post but there isn't room for everything here.  I did want to spend some time with an attraction that my wife was particularly fond of.  My wife is very fond of Winnie the Pooh and recently, Disney had added a Winnie the Pooh attraction in Fantasy Land.  I'm sure my wife could describe what went on inside the attraction but I wanted to use this attraction as an example of how well Disney does the queues. Even during the evening of the off season, this attraction had a significant line of people.  The queue was not the typical switch back lines that for which theme parks are infamous. Don't get me wrong.  There are no few switch back queues at Disney.  However, the Disney queues seemed to always be moving and there was always something to look at while you are in the line.  The Winnie the Pooh queue is especially good because, in addition to the lack of switchbacks,  Guests are funneled through a number of interactive panels that help keep guests entertained during the wait. The panels looked like walls that appeared to be flowing in very honey like fashion from the top of the panel to the bottom.  Touching the panel would stop or divert the flow of honey for where you touched it.  All of this was done without your fingers getting sticky.  Behind each wall of flowing honey was a character or scene form the books.  The guest had to clear all the honey to see it all.  There were times when I would wish the line to move a little slower so I could reveal what was behind the honey.  That, to me, is the sign of a good queue.

People attending the Very Merry Christmas Party also have the opportunity to experience snow fall on main street.  This is no small feat in Central Florida.  Its neat to walk down main street and have simulated snow kissing your face and hands as you walk.  Of course, the week in December we went to Walt Disney World it was one of the coldest they had had in a while.. It might not have been to far a stretch of the imagination for real snow to be falling on your face instead of the simulated snow that fell from the sky.  The trick was still very impressive even though you could see the snow was made from very small bubbles.  As you watched it fall and until it got right next to you it was very realistic.  Snow also fell at the Buzz Light Year's Night before Christmas show that Disney presented during the Christmas party in tomorrow land.  This show was fun. It was fairly predictable but during Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party  they aren't gonna do Shakespeare. Sometimes Context is important when you are judging the quality of a show. The costumes were great.. the dancing and singing was fun.  So for what it was the experience was worthwhile.  The only issue I can really take with watching the Buzz Lightyear show was the fact that the seating consisted of a mat on the ground.  In most circumstances, that isn't a problem, but the show lasted long enough that my legs fell completely to sleep.  They grew numb from sitting on the ground and no posture I could take that would allow both of my legs to recover at the same time.  Soooo, when the time came for us to go, I was almost unable to stand.  I wouldn't have been surprised that the folks at Disney would have to get a fork truck to help me get up.  The whole affair was pretty comical actually, and I never really felt like I wouldn't be able to stand.

As almost everybody knows, one of the best things that takes place at Disney in the evening are the fireworks.  Some of the best Fireworks at Disney are at the Magic Kingdom and the best fireworks at the Magic Kingdom happen during Mickeys Very Merry Christmas party.  The Holiday wishes - Celebrate the Spirit of the Season fireworks show has been reported as the most spectacular fireworks show that is presented at Disney. I have to admit.  The Holiday wishes fireworks show lives up to its hype. The night of the Christmas Party  We stationed ourselves right in front of Cinderella's castle.  The fireworks leaped from behind and to the side of castle.  Roman Candles arched from each side and fireworks in the shape of Mickey and stars and lots of different things appeared from behind the castle.  My favorite jaw dropping moment of the fireworks show came when Tinkerbell actually flew from the castles.  I admire the cast member that  was willing to strap her self to the wire and slide, fiery wings ablaze with electronic light, across the night sky.  Her wand sending pixie dust over the crowd. I have never seen the like.  Later in the week, we saw the fireworks again form from further away and having seen the display up close, I was even more impressed by Tinkerbell's slide from a distance knowing it was a real person sliding along that precarious wire.

The evening ended late. Tired and happy we caught the bus back to our room. Our day had started early.  We had arrived at the airport to catch our flight at 6:00 am and all the physical walking and watching and emotional investment I had put into the day pretty much exhausted me.  Even so, my first day of our trip had left me excited to experiences more. I wanted to see more of the wonders that Christmas at disney had to offer.  There were more shows to see.  More attractions to experiences.  I had felt we had a good start and was ready for more, after a good nights rest of course. I think I might have been asleep before my head hit my pillow that night. But then.. it was Disney and all was right with the world.