Finally back home (got back around 1 am and slept in most of the day) and while I’m probably going to write a trip report because it was such a unique trip, I did want to give a few highlights.
My boss and I started off the drive from Maine to Florida last Sunday around 3 pm (after most of the morning packing, then picking up my coworker and our friend). We then did an overnight drive and stopped in Connecticut at an Italian restaurant that was 1000% owned by the mafia.
From there, we drove straight through to Florida except for a few gas stops and energy drinks. I did most of the stretch, driving about 21 hours straight while my boss picked up an hour once we hit Florida. I finished it off after my hour of nap and got us to Spring Hill in Florida.
Got to the Fox Tales Rescue in Spring Hill where we dropped off our fox at her new life. The owners were absolutely phenomenal and treated us to Cuban food and a drive to the beach where my friends and I watched birds for a good two or three hours (no dolphins unfortunately). We then went back to their house and my two friends camped in the backyard while I took one of the two spare bedrooms and my boss took the other. I slept from 9pm to 10 am and then we got up, fed the foxes, said goodbye to our girl, then headed to Orlando for Gatorland.
At Gatorland we met Chris (the director) and dropped off our two gators. We watched them swim into the pond and cried a bit before being welcomed into the park. We got a private tour then were let loose to explore. We got there around noon and stayed until about 2 hours after closing time (oops) before saying goodbye to Chris and heading to AKL.
Checked into our hotel and our room wasn’t ready because of a clogged drain, so we got a free dinner at Sanaa. We then hopped a bus over to Jambo House to see the night vision of the savannah (absolutely recommend) and then had to catch an Uber for the 2 minute ride back to Kidani because otherwise we would’ve had to wait for the bus to springs, then the bus back to AKL.
My friend slept on the balcony in a sleeping bag while my boss took the bedroom and my other friend and I slept on the pull out chair and couch respectively. We all woke up about 6 am and watched the animals until about 9 when we hopped in the van and headed to SeaWorld.
We spent the whole day at SeaWorld, from open to close, and saw just about everything including all the new shows. The only thing we missed was Wild Arctic, but we have a better beluga habitat at Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut anyway and we saw a walrus at the sea Lion show, so it wasn’t a huge miss. We did, instead, grab a drink at the bar attached to the shark restaurant and (because we had eaten nothing all day) the drink hit us like a truck, but it was great. We caught the orca show and headed back to AKL.
From there we were sad to know we were headed home the next day, but my friend and I had been scheming the whole time and finally revealed to our two travel partners we were buying them both tickets to Animal Kingdom. An okay from the big boss back in New Hampshire and we bought our tickets and booked the final day. We then went to Springs to meet a friend of mine from high school who goes to school in Tampa and grabbed drinks at the hangar bar before heading back to the hotel.
Thursday we woke up at 7 and hopped the Animal Kingdom bus to rope drop at 8. We spent time in the oasis and discovery island and were shown around and given special tours by a few cast members. We then jumped in line for coffee, went to Gorilla Falls (which I’ll never not call Pangani), then hopped in the 45 minute line for Kilimanjaro. We ended up waiting 15 minutes! We then went to Rafiki’s Planet Watch (my favorite part of the park) and spent a few hours there watching keeper talks and a surgery on a few pelicans. We then got lunch at Yak and Yeti quick service and watched the new Feathered Friends bird show which I fell in love with. After that we hit Maharajah, then Dinoland for our last two animal exhibits. After that we did Dinosaur, Everest, went back to Gorilla Falls, then did a sunset Safari. We grabbed dinner at Satu’li but never ended up getting on either Pandora ride. We then went back to DI and browsed the shops for souvenirs for coworkers who missed out, watched Tree of Life Awakening, and then headed back to AKL for the final time to get our car.
Finally, we left Disney and drove basically up to Georgia before stopping and all sleeping in the car. We drove all through Friday, stopped in DC to see the National Zoo for a bit (since it’s free) and then finished up the drive yesterday evening. I’m now eating lunch, then Tuesday back on the road for 2 days at the Bronx Zoo!
