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Today we would visit an alien planet, go on an African safari, hear a talking bird, encounter an abominable snowman, have lunch in a rain forest, get chased by dinosaurs, have dinner in Mexico, play video games, and watch fireworks. It was a full day.
Margia and I had a nice steak dinner on Saturday, the eve of the trip. Great to see her again and a fine way to get things going.
On Sunday Lily, Joe, Rocky and I packed the car full of their things at 5:30 AM and by 6:00 we were on the road out of Nashville. It took us about 12 hours to get from Nashville to our Disney hotel near Orlando. Why so long? We stopped for coffee, we stopped to pee, we stopped for snacks, we stopped to pee again, we stopped for gas, we stopped to pee again, and again, and maybe again. And I am pleased to say that Rocky started feeling much better and apparently none of the rest of us caught his bug. However, we were disappointed that we were unable to end the day as planned with a dip in the hotel pool. The Sunshine State wasn't cooperating this afternoon. But we were here and safe and that's what counted.
Our hotel was called Kidani Village. This is a pic I found on the internet. Nice place.
With a very nice lobby area.
We were a little pooped when we arrived in the hotel parking garage. Rocky especially, as he was still running a low grade fever and was feeling pretty rotten.
Everybody perked up Monday morning, though, and we were ready for our first park of the trip: Animal Kingdom.
Our first stop was an alien world, the planet Pandora from the Avatar movies. Weirdness abounded. The movies are noted for their gorgeous visuals and their lame stories.
Here's a video that shows what we saw on our first Disney World attraction, Avatar Flight of Passage. Without 3D some of the effect is lost, but this should give you a pretty good impression of the ride.
Have I introduced everybody? That’s Joe on the left, a newly minted teenager. That’s his mother Lily in the middle, and his younger brother Rocky on the right. Joe and Lily loved Pandora. Rocky still wasn't feeling up to par.
Oh yeah, that's me, Bill, on the left. Poor Rocky. C'mon, buddy, things will get better.
Bill is suitably impressed by Disney's realization of this imaginary world.
Next up was the Na'vi River Journey Cruise. This is one weird alien world.
It's all gonna be OK, Rocky.
Just hang in there.
Animal Kingdom offers some real planet Earth world beauty too.
Rocky liked the otters.
They weren't playing around much, though.
Joe took a break under an alien plant.
Sure hope that thing doesn't fall on anybody.
Some weird Disney creatures motored by.
Now let's go on a safari through a real African savanna. OK, this is Disney, so it's a fake African savanna, but almost as good as the real thing.
Rocky was happy to get an outside seat on our land cruiser until I noted it would be easier for the lions to grab him from there,. That's when he moved to the middle of the seat.
We saw giraffes.
And elephants.
And rhinos.
And yes, even lions. Rocky escaped unscathed.
About then, Bill and Joe broke away from the others and went off to ride a roller coaster.
It's called Expedition Everest and it's going to be a wild ride.
It was about here that Joe admitted he'd never ridden a real roller coaster before. Uh oh.
Here we go, up...up...
Bill shot a little video at the beginning of the ride.
And Disney shot a picture of us. See us back there?
Photoshop to the rescue.
After all that excitement, we met up with the others for lunch in a tropical rain forest. The kids were enchanted, especially when a storm struck indoors and all the animatronic animals got excited and began moving.
Now this was fun. Even Rocky enjoyed himself. And the food was good too!
Afterward Rocky made a new blue friend. Is that a smile I see?
Bill made a new friend too.
Now we're getting somewhere. All of us, including Rocky, really enjoyed the Feathered Friends in Flight show.
The birds flew and performed tricks and even talked.
This poor guy had a partner but her mike stopped working and he had to put on most of the show alone. He did great.
The last ride of the day at Animal Kingdom was Dinosaur.
I think this one may have been a little too much for Rocky. Some of those dinos were a little scary.
We had had a wonderful time in Animal Kingdom but it started getting hot in the afternoon and we decided to go back to the hotel and play in the pool.
Scratch that idea -- it was starting to look stormy. On the first few days of the trip every afternoon we could count on having a thunderstorm. So once again, no pool in the afternoon.
Besides, it was a good opportunity to play around in our rooms.
And watch the animals outside, off our deck.
Rocky is happy at last.
His big brother is a great playmate.
But after the rain let up we started getting hungry, so we decided to find a restaurant at one of the EPCOT countries.
Everybody likes Mexican food!
Even if it gets a little messy.
What's that up there in the sky?
Fireworks!
And what's inside the big EPCOT geodesic sphere? The geodesic dome at Epcot is called Spaceship Earth. It's a 165-foot-diameter sphere that stands 180 feet tall. The dome is the centerpiece of Epcot and houses a dark ride attraction. It opened in 1982 and is likely the largest geodesic enclosure in the United States.
Want to see what that "dark ride" is like? It's not a great ride, but have a look if you like.
What was great were the free video games after the ride.
Joe and Rocky turned out to be expert video race car drivers.
This turned out to be a fine end to a fun day.
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