Woman in the Middle

The one park I never told you about at Disney World was Animal Kingdom. We went there on the second day of our vacation.  We enjoyed it. It was like a cross between the San Diego Wild Animal Park and Disneyland, in a good way.

At the center of it all is the Tree of Life. From a distance it looks like a real tree. Up close you see it is a Disney tree, with a trunk craved with the images of all kinds of different animals. Definitely worth spending a few minutes looking at and enjoying.   

Us with the Tree of Life.

Our favorite ride was the Kilimanjaro Safaris. It is an approximately 18 minute ride into what they call the Harambe Wildlife Reserve. Below is the open air bus we rode in.

We got to see all kinds of animals. Some were pretty darn close. All were easy to see and get photos of with the good old telephoto lens on my point and shoot camera.

We went on the Expedition Everest roller coaster ride, located in the Asia area.  Oh my! The photo below shows Eldest Daughter and me in the back row.   If  the photo was bigger and you could see my face….you would not be seeing a happy camper. This is not a ride for folks like me who suffer from motion sickness. Exciting for everyone else, however.

We took the Maharajah Jungle Trek which is a  self-guided walking tour of Southeast Asia—home to tigers, dozens of bird species, a flying fox and a Komodo dragon. I wanted to see this area because it seems to have several unusual animals, including two I really wanted to see.

The Komodo dragon was out getting some sun. I don’t get to see one of these every day!

Wasn’t it nice for the tiger to pose for me?

We got to see the Malayan flying fox, one of the largest bats in the world. So cool!!! It was daytime, so they were asleep. They can have a wing span of up to 6 feet!!! But don’t worry, all they eat is fruit.

We had a late lunch at Harambe Market. We tend to eat what is close by, and we were hungry and this was close!  It was busy, and we had to stand in line for a bit and sit for a while waiting for our food. But we were tired and sitting was a good thing! We had to lie in wait for a table (as anyone who has been to a theme park understands) but there were quite a few tables so we didn’t have to wait long. This quick/window service restaurant was in the African area of the park and it had an interesting menu with choices that were outside the normal hot dog and hamburger box, which was nice. Below are photos of our meals and descriptions. We enjoyed all of them, although not everyone liked every side. I seem to remember one of mine was a bit spicy, which I have to stay away from.

Grilled Chicken Skewer  - Wood-Grilled Chicken Thighs marinated and rubbed with African Spices, served with Green Papaya Slaw and Black-Eyed Pea Salad – $9.99 

Tikka Masala Chicken – Marinated Chicken in a spiced Curry Sauce, served with Basmati Rice, Black-Eyed Pea Salad and Grecian Flatbread – $10.99

Beef and Pork Sausage- Fried in Curried Corn Batter served with Green Papaya Slaw and Black-eyed Pea Salad – $9.99

African Spice-rubbed Ribs with a Barbecue Glaze, served with a Green Papaya Slaw and Black-Eyed Pea Salad – $13.49 (If I am not mistaken, Hubby got the children’s version of this which was a little smaller and came with a side of raw carrots.)

And, with this post, I have finally finished off our trip to Disney World. Hope you have enjoyed a little arm chair travel!

Can you see the snake in the upper right hand corner of the photo? Added with Disney Magic.

Since we live fairly close to Disneyland, we have been there many, many times. That affected the way we experienced the Magic Kingdom in a variety of ways. We got turned around because we are used to a place that is very similar yet isn’t the same. We were left puzzled by rides that were the same yet different.   And we were seeing things that were removed from Disneyland decades before but were still going strong at Magic Kingdom. So, please read about our visit to Magic Kingdom with those things in mind. A person who has never been to Disneyland would experience Magic Kingdom in a different way, I think.

There are many moving parts to a Disney World Vacation. Being a newbie, I got one part a little wrong. All the travel guides say the week we went was a good week to go, crowd wise. What they did not mention is that the closing of Magic Kingdom at 6 pm on some days for special Christmas events changes the crowd dynamics considerably. Surprise! We decided to go to Magic Kingdom for the first time on a day that it did not close early. This allowed us to sleep in a bit and to take advantage of special extra hours that are only for people staying at the Disney resort, which on that day were from 10 pm to midnight. Good plan, except that everyone else had the same plan! The lines were very long for all the rides, and, according to one lady I spoke to, were comparable to lines in the peak summer season.

However, we still managed to get on some rides during the day and we took advantage of the extra hours to get on three rides pretty quickly. Most importantly, we got the lay of the land, so when we went back on our last day at Disney World, when the crowds were much more manageable, we were able to do everything else we wanted to do without feeling rushed.

As people familiar with Disneyland, one of the fun things for us was seeing what was different on our favorite and iconic Disney rides. We had fun figuring out the differences with Small World, Haunted House, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Big Thunder Mountain. I also got a big kick out of seeing, once again, three rides from my childhood that are long gone from Disneyland but still going strong at Magic Kingdom: Country Bear Jamboree, Century of Progress, and People Mover. However, nostalgia can have two sides. I admit I started crying in Country Bear Jamboree. It was one of my Mom’s favorite things at Disneyland, so seeing it again  gave my heart a little tug. However, tears aside, I enjoyed seeing it again very much. Who knew an amusement park on the other side of the country could play your heart strings like that?

Here are a few photos of our two visits to the Magic Kingdon:

Just inside the entrance, with the iconic train station in the background.

Me and Cinderella’s Castle.

On the Seven Dwarves Mine Ride, one of a handful of rides we don’t have here in So Cal. Note the thrilled look on my face! LOL!

Concentrating hard on the Buss Lightyear ride.

My trusty camera and I actually took this photo of the castle at night.

At  the suggestion of a friend (Thank you, Tracy!) we stayed at the Port Orleans French Quarter resort at Disney World. There are no hotels at Disney World, only resorts, as every named complex is so large it could never be just a hotel! Every resort has a theme and it will be no surprise to learn that the theme of our resort was “New Orleans.” This theme was carried out with vigor, even to the food served in counter service restaurant, which included muffaletta and po’boy sandwiches and beignets. However, we found the menu varied enough to eat there several times for breakfast or dinner.

The Good News: We were on the third (top) floor near an elevator. It was very quiet and peaceful even though we were near where there should have been quite a bit of foot traffic. We never heard noise from our next door neighbors.  The rooms appeared to have been recently updated with new carpet, bathroom fixtures, and furniture. The sink area had two sinks, which was great.  The French Quarter is the smallest resort, and so the distance from the room to the front area where all the amenities were located as well as the bus stop to take us to the parks, was reasonable. Nothing is a “short” distance away at Disney World, LOL! Also, because the resort isn’t humongous, everyone who wants on a bus gets on. I have heard this is not the case at the larger resorts. Finally, since this was a “moderate” cost resort, we had two queen size beds. The budget resorts only have full sized beds.

The grounds were very nice and there was a playground, pool, and splash pad, which we did not use but all looked very fun if you were there with children.

Between, the size of the resort, the ease of getting on the buses, and the size of the beds, we made a VERY good choice to stay at the French Quarter.  I am not the only one to think that. At least three other people mentioned to us that French Quarter was their favorite when we struck up conversations here and there during our stay at Disney World.      

Things to Keep in Mind: The rooms at French Quarter opened onto outside corridors, which is not my favorite room configuration, as the only window, when the blinds were open, allowed anyone walking by to see into our room. This screams more motel than hotel to me.  Also, the room was kind of small. This was particularly true of the room that held the toilet and bathtub. But I didn’t fly all the way to Florida for a big bathroom, so it was survivable! 

While the previously mentioned pool, playground, and splash pad were lovely, they came with the price of the room. Assuming you also had passes to get into the park, you need to consider how much time you want to spend enjoying the hotel amenities while that park pass goes to waste. If you really want to use those resort amenities, my suggestion would be to buy a three day park pass, but stay for five or six days. Every other day go to a park and every other day enjoy the pool, etc….That way you get your monies worth from both the hotel and your park passes. To spend $100 a day on a park pass and then spend only a few hours in the park seems to me to be the equivalent of burning dollar bills in your room.

A final note is that the front desk offered us a $50 credit if we skipped all maid service for the duration of our trip. This would mean that in order to get fresh towels or have the trash emptied, we would have to call for that service specifically. I turned that “opportunity” down. It was a very good call on my part. We were EXHAUSTED at the end of each day and returning to a freshly made up room was wonderful. Also, having to call for our trash to be emptied or towels to be delivered would have been a pain at the end of a long day at an amusement park.

Hubby in our room when we arrived. Behind him is the sink area. Off to the left of the sinks is the very small room that holds the toilet and bathtub. Note that there is a drape you can pull across the entryway to the sink area, which was very handy for dressing, since there were four of us. The toilet room was small, so changing clothes in there was a bit of a pain.