Day 4, cont.
Obviously we knew a bus wouldn't get us to Animal Kingdom in time, so my brother called a Lyft. I should mention that throughout the trip my brother would pay for things tell my parents, "I'll add it to the spreadsheet." Apparently they just had him pay for everything so they didn't have to think about it and paid him back later, and he would use discounted gift cards and/or cashback credit cards to make a small profit. If you can't beat 'em, join em??
By the time we exited the Lyft at AK it was 4:12pm. OF COURSE I got stuck in the bag check line with THE MOST THOROUGH cast member and behind the people who brought THE BIGGEST AND FULLEST BAGS KNOWN TO HUMANKIND. I was the last one of the five of us through security, but I did get to tell my mom, "You can't go through this line," as M and I approached the Passholder only tapstyles.
We decided to try to get into Nemo anyway since we had rushed to get there and couldn't give up now! The park was suuuuuuuuper crowded and we really had to fight the crowds to get back to the theater. We arrived at the FP entrance around 4:20 and explained what had happened to the CM, who luckily still allowed us to scan in and use the FP entrance. PHEW!
My dad sat on the end (right side) of the row, followed by me, M, Jay, and my mom. Here's another weird thing about my family. Although my parents have recently started tolerating M (as if she is the one who needs to be tolerated) they get weird about having to sit next to her. It feels like one of those logic puzzles/games where you can't leave the fox and the chicken together because the fox will eat the chicken, and you can't leave the chicken and the grains together because the chicken will eat the grains. I have to constantly babysit my parents and not leave M alone with them, for M's sake. Luckily my brother is very accepting and I don't have to worry about him, so at least there's that.
Anyway, we watched the show and I enjoyed it as always. I may have cried a little. Okay, I totally did.
Musicals always get me!
After the show we all needed the bathroom, and OF COURSE there was a giant line for the ladies' room. It is, like, illegal to build more stalls in women's restrooms???
While my mom and I waited she told me didn't like how you could see the actors operating the puppets in
Nemo, preferring instead the puppetry style used in
Voyage of the Little Mermaid.
Our next FP was for
Festival of the Lion King but we had awhile to wait so we mobile ordered from Satu'li Canteen. Animal Kingdom certainly WAZAZU that night. My dad complained the entire way to Pandora that he had to walk so far.
On the way...
No food photos, oops. M and I shared a bowl because she wasn't 100% yet after being sick and couldn't eat very much. My parents said their bowls were okay but they found something to complain about.
The show was fine but it's definitely showing its age. The mane of the Simba animatronic was in BAD shape. Also, there were only three principal singers as the younger woman singer was absent, so the older woman singer was singing both of their parts when possible. During the finale, someone had a costume malfunction and a bunch of beads went all over the stage. I was SOOOO nervous for the bird dancers and I could see various performers discreetly alerting each other of the beads. Luckily no one seemed to get hurt.
My mom liked FOTLK better than Nemo. My dad was just disappointed that he wasn't selected for audience participation. He always volunteers for the Indiana Jones show and ALWAYS gets selected.
My mom told me to take a picture of this sign:
When I took out my phone she said she was kidding and didn't really want a pic of it. But it was too late.
While we were waiting for FOTLK earlier my brother managed some FP magic and got FPs for all of us for Navi River Journey. But by the time we finished the show we were all too tired to stay the extra hour and a half that would be needed. My brother was kind of upset that no one wanted to stay when he got us a difficult FP, and my parents didn't really understand why he was so excited about getting that FP in the first place. I felt bad for not staying but we were really tired and just wanted to settle into our room and go to bed.
My brother had parked at the Yacht Club earlier because they all had lunch at Ale and Compass (we were originally supposed to join them but then our drive to Orlando took waaaay too long). To get back to the car they took a Swolphin/Boardwalk bus with us. We were among the last on the bus and had to stand, but someone offered my mom a seat and she took it. The next day she complained about people offering her seats after it happened again. My parents, especially my mom, can find ANY REASON TO COMPLAIN!!!
On the bus M and I were standing near a family with two small brothers. The older brother had obviously been learning basic arithmetic in school and kept asking his little brother math questions, which the little brother obviously had no idea how to solve and would shout a random number in response. E.G., "What is 100 plus 100?" "ONE HUNDRED!" "No, it's 200! What is 20 plus 20?" "TWO HUNDRED!" "No, it's forty!" And on and on through the entire bus ride.
We all got off at the Boardwalk and my brother wanted ice cream, so we got some from Screen Door while my dad found a table.
We all got on a DHS-bound boat and my parents and brother got off at Yacht/Beach while M and I stayed on for one more stop to get back to the Swan.
We FINALLY got back to the room and had some time to ourselves. We put the beers in the fridge (we hadn't had the chance to do so when we first arrived) and showered.
After showering I relaxed with a beer, while M opted not to have one until she was another day or two removed from illness.
Blue Moon ft. ALARM CLOCK!
The plan the next day was for my parents and brother to pick up M and me to drive to the Contemporary so we could take my parents on a tour of the monorail resorts. Then M and I had a dinner reservation for California Grill so we could watch Fantasy in the Sky with the NYE tag.
Up next: Day 5! What else can go wrong???
(and Jacksonville)
)