Winter Break. Part III - Days 13 and 14: What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been.
Monday morning was Animal Kingdom Day.
The plan was for Tzvi to stay in the room to work all day, while the girls and I went to Animal Kingdom, but first we started with a breakfast at Boma, the restaurant in our hotel. It’s a buffet (not a character breakfast), but honestly much better than Chef Mickey’s. They had all of the usual Disney breakfast staples (Mickey Waffles), plus African-inspired dishes (Tzvi ate chakalaka which was both delicious and fun to say). Every so often drummers would come through the restaurant, which was fun. There was also a peach crisp situation that was really good. Strong start to the day.
After breakfast, we headed back to the room, regrouped, and then the girls and I went over to Animal Kingdom, which was incredibly convenient since we were staying so close. We decided not to get the Premiere Pass today. It’s just not worth it at this park, and we were able to book Lightning Lanes in advance pretty easily and still get done everything we wanted to do.
First stop: the safari. It was a great safari. We saw elephants, zebras, rhinos, and had amazing views of the lions. I think because it wasn’t so warm the animals don’t sleep all day, so it was cool to see them awake and moving. Overall, A+ safari. From there, we went to Festival of the Lion King, which was cute. Then we went to Expedition Everest, which Hallie did twice, then Dinosaur, which is basically the Indiana Jones ride from Disneyland but dinosaur-themed. It’s actually very dark, and I think it’s super scary. But we all did it, including Madeleine who was great. I think I was more afraid than anyone else. This ride is actually closing February 1st because they're redoing Dinoland (as they should) and turning it into the village from Encanto. So glad, or maybe not so glad, that we got it in before it closes.
After that, we had pizza for lunch, and then we went to the Zootopia show, which is like a 10 minute movie, which was great because we all love Zootopia. We did pass by Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, and would have loved to meet them, but the line was like over an hour long. Just was not worth it. Then we went to Pandora and rode the Avatar ride. Madeleine almost did it, but the ride mechanism is where you're sitting on, I don't know how to explain it, like a banshee and you're leaning forward and there's restraints in back of you and in front of you, and Madeleine got into the restraints, but then we were sitting waiting for the ride to start for several minutes, and I think that just got her creeped out, and then she didn't want to ride. So she got off the ride with Shir. Hallie and I rode it and did a rider switch, so Hallie got to ride it twice. Then we all rode the Navi River Journey ride, which is a slow moving river ride with the super expensive, crazy animatronic at the end which I always find so strange. It’s the weirdest ride. Nothing happens and then there’s this giant blue person and then it just ends.
That was it for our Animal Kingdom Day. We got everything we wanted to done. Overall, a good day.
At some point while we were in Animal Kingdom I received a call from Tzvi.
“There’s a bird in our room.”
I’ll let him explain.
[Tzvi: I spent the entire day sitting at the desk in our hotel room, and I wanted some fresh air, so I opened the patio door and left it open for a while. I guess at some point I went to the bathroom and left the door open. Then I came back to the desk, and the next thing I knew I looked over and there was a bird flying around. I tried to shoo it out, but it went the opposite way of the open door and instead went into the bathroom. I called the front desk and they said they would send pest control “immediately,” but I still spent the next thirty minutes waving my arms around keeping the bird contained to the toilet area and not letting it land on our stuff, because it basically pooped everywhere it landed. Eventually pest control showed up and managed to catch the thing in his hands, leaving a mess of feathers all over the bathroom floor. Don’t worry, the bird was fine and he released it off the balcony. Then a housekeeping supervisor came with a housekeeper and they changed all of the sheets (it did poop on Shir’s bed) and sanitized all of the bottles that had been on the bathroom counter. It was traumatic. After that I went to the quick service place and got myself a nice lunch, some kind of African vegetable stew with rice and salad that was actually delicious.]
We headed back to the hotel, put our stuff down, the girls showered, and then it was time to head to Disney Springs. Before leaving we saw two zebras that looked like they were about to get it on. That was fun.
You may remember from the first leg of our trip – or maybe not because it feels like this trip began sometime in the Clinton administration – that there were two things we didn’t do at Disney Springs first time around: eat at Rainforest Café, and get a caramel apple at Goofy’s Candy Co. [Tzvi: I am fairly positive that Steph engineered this whole snowstorm just so she could get a Disney Springs do-over.]
Finally it was time for Hallie’s long awaited meal at the Rainforest Cafe. She was so happy that we were able to get there. The dinner was fine, actually better than expected. The chef did come out to discuss allergies, but unlike previous trips we didn't have to wait a long time for him to come. Like previous trips, we did have to wait a long time for our food, but it wasn’t too bad. Nice dinner. After dinner we went to Goofy's Candy Co. and I got my caramel apple, which was very exciting. Then we walked around World of Disney and did our second final shopping. Tzvi just kept saying that we had already done our big Disney shopping the previous week so we shouldn’t be buying anything. That was funny. Then we headed back to the hotel in a Lyft with a driver who had been a marine. Semper fi.
We put the girls to bed and then I decided to make a quick trip. Last year we had done an afternoon tea at The Cake Bake Shop on the Boardwalk and I really wanted to get back there. So, at 10:15pm on Monday I took an Uber to The Boardwalk Hotel and walked down the Boardwalk to The Cake Bake Shop. It was so cold, but I wasn’t giving up. I scanned the menu and decided on a latte and a piece of Millionaire Cake for the small price of $23. These cakes are over the top. I took my bounty back in an Uber and Tzvi and I shared the cake and coffee. The cake was so good. Worth the exorbitant price. I wish it would have been warm enough to get an iced coffee, but I’m very glad I made it there at least once this trip.
Tuesday
Tuesday, we got up and Tzvi and I went to the quick service place to get some food, even though no one was really hungry. Although Hallie had a bagel. Present that girl with a bagel or a slice of pizza and she will eat it, no matter what.
We were out of our room by 915, and at 920 loaded into our van. We had booked a different company for the airport transfer and got a nice comfy (air-conditioned) van. The airport check in was uneventful. All things considered, the airport was actually fairly empty. Everything went very smoothly, we got some Starbucks, got some food, boarded on time and even pushed back on time. Tzvi and Hallie had the bulkhead and we were right behind them. It was all uneventful. The most eventful thing that happened was that when they closed the plane door a man ten rows back yelled out very loudly, “STOP! My aunt is not on this plane!” As if scripted, the bathroom door opened right after he said that and an older lady stepped out and just looked at the man. Then he said sorry. The flight attendant just looked at Tzvi and said, “happens once a day.”
The flying time was under two hours, which is insane. Of course, it took a while to get our bags, because that's JFK. Stepping out to meet our driver it was shockingly cold. Like so horrible to come back to this. But I'm glad we missed the storm. I'm glad we were able to get home Tuesday. I’m glad we were able to get in all four Disney parks. I'm glad that everything worked out for us, and I just am still in shock that this winter break was almost basically two weeks long, and we hit all four Disney parks, Disney Springs twice, and a seven day cruise.
That was just nuts.