Wrong Information

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One place we had never visited was Rafiki’s Planet Watch at Animal Kingdom (AK), located towards the back of the park between Africa and Asia and accessed only by the Wildlife Express Train. This non-stop train is a quick trip (less than 5 min.) to the Conservation Station that gives an in-depth look at the care given the animals through veterinary attention, nutrition, and research programs. We’ve always heard that Rafiki’s was never crowded but Tues. that was proven wrong. We just missed getting on one train going out there because there was a short line, and by the time we returned the line waiting to board the train was really long! This was definitely the most crowded we’d ever seen AK.

At the Conservation Station are several interactive exhibits with interesting facts about animal habitats as well as live animal encounters such as the small snake a cast member was encouraging the kids to touch as she described its habits. In the research area they were monitoring a live feed from an area in a separate building of baby woodrats that are on the endangered species list. These rare rats can only be found in Key Largo, having only 1 to 3 pups per litter, and have not shown to survive anywhere else. A couple years ago AK developed a captive breeding program to closely monitor their behavior and release them back into the wild. In the room next to the research lab was the veterinary clinic. Both areas have full pane glass windows for observation, and they were in the process of giving a Marabou Stork its annual physical. When we passed by later, they were in an adjoining area doing a routine x-ray and the film was being shown on a TV monitor in the exam room….very interesting. In yet another room a cast member was preparing food for the AK animals. There was no glass separation so people could ask questions as she weighed, mixed, and molded the various concoctions. We also saw a rare cricket sighting….Jiminy Cricket that is! In all the years we’ve been to Disney World, we had never seen a Jiminy Cricket character. As with other characters, he was signing autographs and posing for photos.

Also in this area just outside the main building is a petting yard called Affection Section, and what area of any Disney park would be complete without a gift shop, here appropriately named “Out of the Wild”. We saw some kids playing with a cool toy and Russ just had to go check it out. It was a tiger pincher with sound. You squeeze the handle at the bottom which not only opens and closes the tiger’s mouth but makes 3 growling sounds! We decided this was the perfect item for the Missouri Tigers football game in Sept.!!

After returning from Rafiki’s, we meandered along a couple off-the-beaten paths to avoid some of the mob and for the first time saw the back of the Tree of Life. As you may recall, the Tree of Life has hundreds of wildlife carved into its “trunk” and in this area behind it is also a waterfall and more real life creatures…a very peaceful and pretty oasis. In fact, we don’t think this cardinal lives at the park; just thinks it’s a nice place to visit, too.












Before leaving the park, we stopped to watch Tam Tam Congo perform outside the Tusker House in Africa. They were just starting as we passed by and are always entertaining.

Entertainment at the Flower Power Concert Series this weekend was The Turtles… featuring Flo & Eddie (http://www.floandeddie.com/). In case you didn’t know, Mark Kaylan and Howard Volman (aka Flo & Eddie) are the original founding members of the The Turtles. Due to contractual restrictions made early in their career, Mark and Howard were prevented from using the name The Turtles, as well as their own names, in a musical context so in 1984 they started performing as "The Turtles...featuring Flo & Eddie”. Evidently it’s ok to use “The Turtles” name in that context. We arrived for the 6:30 show and once again stayed for the 7:45 show as well. Though their voices are not what they once were, they still do a nice show…fun and full of energy. We actually thought they sounded better on the latter show plus it included their hit “Pied Piper” which was not in the earlier one. Both sets ended with their signature song “Happy Together”, which had everyone on their feet towards the end of the last set (that’s the back of me right behind the lady with the short blonde hair).

We caught the beginning of the fireworks and then walked from Epcot over to the Amphitheater at Hollywood Studios (about 1-1/2 miles) to catch a performance of Fantasmic. This show used to be performed nightly but has been cut back to only a couple nights a week. However, with the anticipation of huge crowds due to the beginning of spring break, it was being performed twice nightly, and we decided to catch the 10pm show.

To digress just a bit….there's supposed to be a recession, right? You definitely couldn’t prove it by the crowds at the parks! They’ve been packed! In fact we read that the Magic Kingdom was set to break attendance records! Disney is offering all sorts of specials, but it’s still not a cheap vacation. Plus people aren’t just buying a ticket and walking around, enjoying the rides; they are eating and buying stuff in the shops. Lines are long everywhere.

OK, back to Fantasmic…a 25 min. “nighttime spectacular with lasers, lights, dancing fountains, and special effects”. The premise of the show is Mickey’s wild imagination come to life complete with all the Disney characters and villains, music, fire on the lake, scenes projected on water screens, and so much more. Mickey is the hero, of course, who slays the dragon and wins the day. At the very end a steamboat comes from around the bend carrying all the characters and piloted by none other than Mickey from his Steamboat Willie days!

Now I’d be remiss without sharing some excitement that happened here at the resort in between those two fun days at the parks. I was walking the dogs Thurs. afternoon when two sheriff’s cars slowly passed me, driving slowly up and down the roads. As I started walking back towards our rig, I noticed that they stopped at the end of our row, one space over from ours. One cop put on some black gloves as the other one got out of his car, and as I got to the door of our place to tell Russ there were cops outside, an unmarked car pulled up behind them, right in front of our place looking towards the campers along the end row. I got the dogs inside; Russ came out, and asked the officer of the unmarked car who was opening his trunk if there was a problem. Initially he said no, and as the other officers were opening their trunks, our neighbor, Jack, said “hey, you two, get in here!” Just then the officer told Russ he should get back behind our rig as he started putting on his bullet proof vest! The other cops were following suit and from Jack’s window we could see them pull out assault rifles!! It seemed they were focused on a camper that had arrived earlier that morning. Russ had seen these folks when they arrived and said they were an older couple and the guy could barely walk. Russ decided to go back outside and from behind the back end of our rig, watched what was happening. Curiosity got the better of Jack (and me, too, I guess) that we went and joined Russ. From our viewpoint we could see all 3 cops at the door of the camper, rifles ready for action, and then saw a pair of bare legs come down the steps. Two of the cops went inside, another pair of legs using a cane came down the steps, followed by the cops, and we could see that the person with the cane had sat down in a chair outside. Finally the cop from the unmarked car came back to put his rifle away and remove his vest. Russ went over and asked if everything was ok, and all the cop said was “wrong information”. Soon the cops left and all was well again.

Now for the rest of the story…..as it turns out the man has a couple pinched nerves in his back and has been in so much pain he can hardly walk. He had been trying to reach his FL doctor to try and get some stronger meds, and no one was returning his call. The last time he had called earlier in the day, he got the answering machine and was so angry that he left a message saying that the pain so bad that if something wasn’t done he might as well shoot himself. Evidently when the doctor’s office got that message, they called the cops who have to come prepared for anything. When his wife opened the door and saw those assault rifles pointed at her, she said she nearly had a heart attack! They made her come outside and wouldn’t let her go back in to get her husband who she said was in so much pain he couldn’t get up from his chair. She told us her husband is such a pussycat and doesn’t even have a gun, but he was so angry that he wanted them to understand just how much pain he was in! So this is a valuable lesson for all of us…don’t offhandedly say you’re going to shoot yourself unless you want the swat team at your door!!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Last Wed., March 25, was my birthday, and being in the Orlando area how else we would we spend it other than at Disney World! This year’s theme at WDW is “Celebrate Today!”, and you may have seen the promotion being advertised on TV this year whereby if you go to one of the parks on your birthday, you get in free! What the commercial doesn’t tell you is that if you have an annual pass like we do and won’t need the free entry, you have your choice between two other options: a Fast Pass to a few of the more popular rides at that park (good only for one trip each), or a Fun Card (gift card) equal to the price of one day’s admission good for merchandise at any of the parks. Well, that’s pretty much of a no brainer…give me the card! Admission price right now is $75 so that’s the amount put on the Fun Card, and it can be used anytime until it’s spent. Again, this must be picked up on your birthday but doesn’t have to be spent that day.

Russ asked me which park I wanted to visit Wed. (always a tough choice because all 4 have so much to offer), but after doing some research, I decided on Epcot. There’s an online “crowd calendar” that gives you an idea of how bad the crowds are anticipated to be and which parks are best or worst to visit on that particular day. It’s all a guesstimate on the webmaster’s part but is usually somewhat reliable. It indicated that on a scale of 1-10 the crowds should be at a 6 that day with Epcot being the best to visit and Magic Kingdom the worst. So I partially chose Epcot for those reasons plus as I mentioned in our last blog the Flower Festival had started and I’d get to ride Soarin’. We decided to avoid some of the crowds that amass at park opening and arrived at the Will Call window at 10am (an hour after opening) to pick up my Fun Card and my Happy Birthday button to wear (this is always fun because as you walk around the park wearing your button all the cast members (employees) and even other guests wish you Happy Birthday!)

After picking up our goodies, we entered the park and headed straight for Soarin’ to get a Fast Pass. From past experience we figured there would already be a long line and the Fast Pass would be for a couple hours later but as it turned out ours were for roughly 4-1/2 hours later…2:54pm! This meant we could come back at that time (or before 3:54pm) and bypassing the line of people waiting without a FP (called a Standby line), go up towards the front. Keep in mind, anyone can get a FP simply by scanning their entry ticket into the machine. Problem is that if you’ve already gotten a FP for another ride, you have to wait till the next window of opportunity to get another one from any ride and in the case of Soarin’ FP’s run out very quickly. Usually by noon there are no FP’s available for this ride, and those who were lucky enough to get one before noon, might not be able to use it till 6pm! You still might have a slight wait before actually getting on the ride with the FP, but it’s generally a matter of a few minutes not an hour or more.

It seems the crowd calendar must have been a little off for this particular day because the park was packed. We weren’t sure we were going to stay at the park that long, but we’d have our FP to ride Soarin’ if we did. We rode Living with the Land, a boat ride through some amazing greenhouses, and then walked over to The Seas Pavilion to ride Finding Nemo, a nice little ride geared more towards kids but cute and the line was not long. Afterwards we walked around the pavilion checking out the huge aquarium, the feeding of the manatees, and experienced the “Turtle Talk with Crush” attraction. We’ve attended this “show” before but it’s a little different each time and always entertaining, dude. “Turtle Talk” is an interactive show inspired by the movie “Finding Nemo” that runs continuously every 15 minutes, and it is so righteous! Little kids are encouraged to sit on the floor in front of the “window to the ocean” while the rest of us sit on benches. (No flash photography is allowed and it's too dark to take regular pictures.) Soon Crush appears on the other side of the window in an animated ocean environment to talk with us humans in the human tank and even answers questions from the audience. He can actually “see” us and will indicate to the cast member in the room whose question he wants to answer from the upraised hands. For instance, he might say “how about the little dudette with the striped shell and brown noggin in the 2nd row”. He holds actual conversations with the kids and their “parental units”, and duuuude, it’s sooo entertaining. You’ve heard the phrase “out of the mouths of babes”, well, some of the things these kids say and ask are hysterical! In fact, dude, we went back later in the day for another performance. (In case you haven’t guessed or haven’t seen Finding Nemo, dude is Crush’s favorite word. In fact, at the end of every show he encourages kids to say it to their parents all day cause they’ll really love it! :-)

From here we walked over to the World Showcase and grabbed a seat for the performance of Off Kilter (http://offkilter.net/) at the Canada pavilion. They are a high energy Celtic rock band playing a unique blend of traditional and modern music and are so entertaining. In fact, they’re one of my favorite things to see at Epcot. Since we arrived 45 min. before show time (seating is very limited at this outdoor theater), I walked over to the United Kingdom and got us some fish & chips to eat while we waited. Finally at 1:30 the band came onstage but didn’t seem as good as usual. There are several guys who play with the band and from what I’ve heard, they rotate who plays when. However every time we’ve ever seen them, it was always the same front man who also plays the bagpipes on their songs and is extremely entertaining. Well, it must have been his off day (hopefully he’s still with them!), and they weren’t quite as entertaining though still enjoyable.

As we walked around the park, we enjoyed the beautiful topiaries (the most they’ve ever had in the Festival’s 16 years and I know we didn’t see them all), some of which you see here throughout this blog entry. The Festival lasts 75 days and not only showcases all the beautiful flowers and plants but also includes special guest artists and gardeners giving demonstrations and tips, special events for the kids, special vendor booths, and of course the concert series. Many of the topiaries are of Disney characters but others are to be found as well. (In fact there’s one I’ve read about at the China pavilion of a “fire” breathing dragon but haven’t seen yet.)

Outside Minnie’s Magnificent Butterfly Garden is this huge butterfly topiary, and of course, one of Minnie as well. The garden is a small enclosed area with plants and hundreds of free-flying butterflies…another one of my favorites since I love butterflies. Besides the topiaries, flowers and plants abound including some beautiful floating floral islands.












Finally it was time to head back to The Land Pavilion to ride Soarin’! When we arrived, there were no more FP’s being distributed and the standby line said 35 min., but after we began bypassing all those people standing in line, we knew that timeframe was not correct! We’ve seen enough of those lines to know that it was at least an hour’s wait. In fact when we exited the ride we noticed the wait time had been changed to 70 min., probably still a conservative guess. As we got off the ride, a lady in the seat next to me said “I hope you won’t be offended but I think you look like Sarah Palin and she’s very pretty.” I thanked her, told her I was definitely not offended, and have been told that before when I’ve had my hair up. How nice to have a complete stranger compliment me like that…I think she’s very pretty, too.

Before leaving the park we rode Spaceship Earth, and one of the new things they’ve added to the ride is the ability to “project your future”. As the ride begins, a photo is taken of you, and then towards the end of the ride a program comes up on the little screen in front of you on which you select various likes and dislikes from multiple choices, i.e. type of leisure you like, mode of travel, etc. It then puts together a little animated video of your ideal vacation way in the future and incorporates the real life facial images of you as the participants….very clever. When you exit the ride, there’s an Earth globe and on either side are huge picture screens on which are projected one of the scenes from your video. They also have computer screens where can even send a video postcard of the picture to your e-mail. I snapped this picture that was on the big screen showing us scuba diving! On our way home we stopped at TGI Friday’s for my birthday dinner.

This weekend’s concert series featured Paul Revere & the Raiders, and though we had seen him at the Festival 3 years ago, he’s always entertaining. We arrived about 45 min. before the 6:30 show on Sun. (the last night of their run) and were able to get seats in the 2nd row. Paul is 71 and seems to have endless energy. Of course he had the old folks jokes, too, and one of my favorites was that at 71 he’s not really old in Florida…in fact Florida is where old people bring their parents! He crammed as many of his hits (ka-ching!) into his 30 min. set. Every time he’d announce a song, he’d say “I think that was a solid gold hit, let me check”, then hit a button on his keyboard, and a cash register ka-ching! would sound, and he’d say “yeah, it was!” If you’ve never seen him, he is a riot! His guitarist and bass player have been with him 36 years and are accompanied by a drummer and keyboard player. Rounding out the group is a “baby Raider” (meaning younger guy) who handles the lead vocals. Since we had decided to hang around for the fireworks, we decided to also attend the 7:45 show and this time sat on the other side of the stage in the front row! Both shows are pretty much the same but with some slight variations and still entertaining. During this last show, Paul came out front pretending to play a small red, white, & blue blowup guitar then threw it to a kid in the first row. Towards the end of one of the songs, Paul said “hey, these stage lights look so pretty, let’s go see what they look like from the audience”, and sure enough all but the drummer and keyboardist came out to admire the lights while still playing and singing! Some guy from one of the rows near where they were standing jumped up and joined in, throwing his arm around the “baby Raider”! LOL (That picture’s a little blurred but you get the idea.) The lights are pretty cool as evidenced by this photo taken as we exited the pavilion.

The Illuminations fireworks were great as usual (though we miss the special ending added during the Christmas holidays), and thus ended a wonderful birthday week.

Food, Food, & More Food!

It seems the beginning of this week was nothing but non-stop eating. After that huge meal at Dixie Crossroads last Sun., Mon. brought a customer appreciation event at the local TGI Friday’s. Paul and Anne have been going there for a couple years when they’re in town and have become quite friendly with the manager, Tom, or as Paul calls him “the bald guy”. We joined them there for dinner one night shortly after we arrived, and Tom was very funny and cordial. He definitely knows the meaning of customer service! Anne is the queen of finding bargains and discounts and had signed up for their frequent diner program called “Give Me More Stripes”. Once you sign up, you receive all sorts of coupons by e-mail to entice your return, and sure enough I received a Buy 1 entrée, Get 1 free coupon, which came in real handy the next time we went with them, plus the coupon is returned to you for use again! It was during that visit that Tom told us he was putting together a little appreciation event for some of his loyal customers and asked for our e-mail addresses so he could let us know when it would be and encouraged everyone to bring guests. He scheduled it from 2-4 on Mon., March 16, and the 4 of us plus Scott got there promptly at 2…there was already a line out the door! You offer old people free food, you better expect a crowd! And those old folks can get a little testy and pushy, but the staff was great and the food kept coming. It was set up buffet style with plenty of soup, salad, sandwiches, chicken wings, pot stickers, and non-alcoholic drinks….all you could eat and drink! The staff kept it fun as they hustled to replenish drinks and sometimes even come by with a tray of food. Keep in mind the restaurant was still open for regular business, too! One of the cooks actually took the above shot of Russ, me, Paul, Anne, Tom, and our waiter, Ali (Scott was elsewhere and missed being in the shot…not that he minded.)

The next day was one o’ me favorite days o’ the year…St. Patty’s Day!! The resort was holding a dinner/dance but at $15/couple, we figured we could have a whole lot more corned beef than what they were probably going to dish out. Besides it’s a tradition for me to cook corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes so we invited Paul, Anne, and Scott over for dinner and initially our thought was that after dinner, we’d go up to the clubhouse and listen to the band. Scott made some Irish soda bread and Anne made a chocolate cake (and made me add carrots to my corned beef meal :-). Russ also invited another neighbor, Bob, to join us. He works part time, lives in upstate NY, and travels by himself so we thought he might enjoy a wee bit o’ Irish cheer. After dinner we chatted, watched the news and Jeopardy on the outside TV, and just never made it up to the clubhouse, but a good time was had by all.

Scott prepared to leave Wed. morning heading for NC, but right after we said our goodbyes and he pulled out, the check engine light came on. So he came back around the loop, and for the next 45 min. or so, Russ, Paul, and another neighbor, Jim, tried to help him figure out the problem. Finally they found the phone number for a local Cummins engine repair shop in Orlando, and he drove over there. The shop has a nice area in the back with electric and water hookups so he was able to spend the night till they could get it fixed the next day.

Wed. night we joined Paul and Anne at the Boston Lobster Feast (www.bostonlobsterfeast.com/RestaurantIndex.cfm), a local all-you-can-eat seafood buffet complete with whole lobsters. The car in the picture is their advertisement and on occasion you see someone driving it around town…definitely makes you do a double-take! Anne has wanted to go there for a couple years, and we arrived shortly after 4pm to get the early bird rate. Though Paul isn’t a big seafood person, but as it turns out, they have an a la carte menu so he ordered himself a nice strip steak with a couple of sides. The three of us, on the other hand, pigged out on the buffet! Russ really enjoyed the sushi plus ate 4 lobsters. Anne and I each had 2, but then Anne started on the Dungeness crab legs and I wasn’t sure she was ever going to stop! I think she loves crab legs more than me! We had an awesome waitress and just really enjoyed spending more time together before they hit the road, which they did yesterday. So now all our friends are gone, and it’s just Russ and me...oh well…tee hee!

The Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival started this week and part of this annual event is the Flower Power Concert Series featuring entertainers from the 60s. In the past the concerts have been nightly, but this year they’re only on the weekends. Three 35 min. performances are held by the entertainer each night at the outdoor American Gardens Theatre, and this weekend featured Davy Jones of the Monkees! The first show was at 5:15, and when we arrived at the theater at 4:45, the place was packed. We found a couple seats and waited for the show to begin. Precisely at 5:15, his band started playing, and one of the guys announced him as “the greatest tambourine player in the world” among other comical titles, and out bounded Davy singing Daydream Believer. At 64 years he’s still got lots of energy and puts on a nice little show sprinkled with lots of “old age” jokes. For instance, he was saying how some of the younger folks in the audience might not know him but he was once a heart throb…now he’s just a coronary. Ba da bum! He mentioned that Herman’s Hermits would be playing in a few weeks singing Mrs. Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Walker…ba da bum! He came out into the audience on a couple of the songs, and though he didn’t make it close enough to where I was sitting, he was at the end of our row and with the zoom lens I got a good shot of him. My sister loved Davy Jones back in the day so when he started singing Daydream Believer again at the end of the show, I called Julie on the cell and said “I don’t know if you’ll be able to hear this” (though it was very loud, I wasn’t sure if the loudness would distort the singing going through the cell), and I held up the phone towards where he was singing. She had known I was going to see him and said that call just absolutely made her day.

We didn’t see many of the flowers and topiaries that are on display but plan to in the next few weeks since the Festival goes until May 31, and I’ll talk more about the Festival in future entries. However, I did get a couple photos like the one at the left which is a topiary of Aladdin on his magic carpet near the Morocco pavilion. At the Japanese pavilion is a bonsai collection, and the photo below left is of a bougainvillea. It’s the largest bonsai plant we’ve ever seen and is 50 years old though not the oldest bonsai on display. The one in the photo below right is 75 years old, and I was able to get not only the Japanese gateway in the picture, but if you look just inside the right posts and under the lowest branch, you can see Spaceship Earth (the golf ball) off in the distance.

Happy St. Patty's Day!!

May the lilt of Irish laughter Lighten every load,

May the mist of Irish magic Shorten every road,

May you taste the sweetest pleasures That fortune ere bestowed,

And may all your friends remember All the favors you are owed.