After a long day at Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom, Doug, Jay and I didn’t even see the car until well after Cinderella turned into a pumpkin, so it was much later before I saw my pillow. I actually slept on the way there, do you have any idea how hard it is to sleep in the backseat of a Fiat? Duffy isn’t an ideal pillow either. So when it came time to set the alarm for our last day, I couldn’t bring myself to aim for anything earlier than 8 am. Doug’s flight home was around 2 pm, so we were going to spend the morning at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The park opened at 9 am and our “Festival of the Lion King” Fastpass didn’t start until 9:30. Plenty of time, right?
Wrong, Chelsea.
Just because I went to bed doesn’t mean the boys did. Since Jay couldn’t go to Animal Kingdom, he kept Doug up more than an hour after I hit the hay. So getting going proved very difficult and I came to terms with the fact that “Festival of the Lion King” would not be happening. At least Doug didn’t know what he was missing.
[lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]We hit the Animal Kingdom gate a little after 10 am, which gave us plenty of time to mosey around the park before our Expedition Everest Fastpass at 10:35. We headed left towards the Africa sections. I knew better than to press my luck trying to get us onto Kilimanjaro Safaris, a rhino would stand in front of the truck and then he would probably miss his flight. We could wander the animal trails instead, but first we stopped into Creature Comforts for coffee. I had already knocked back a soda in the car. We then detoured into the trails around the Tree of Life, and accidentally wound up in the extended queue for It’s Tough to be a Bug. The pictures were completely worth it. We found the exit doors and went past them to reach the entrance to Asia where we backtracked to Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail to see the animals. Doug had never seen an okapi before! It’s funny the things we take for granted, I’m so used to them being here I just think of okapi as the picky animal from Zoo Tycoon. The hippos were nowhere to be found, probably too busy wiggling their ears at people somewhere else, and we breezed through the gorillas. I had actually never realized there were chimps on the other side of the path.[/lgc_column]
[lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”true”]
The Tree of Life.
One of the carvings.
[/lgc_column]
After two days of non-stop rushing around and trying to cram everything in, wandering around and relaxing was such a nice change of pace. We had already missed “Festival of the Lion King”. “Finding Nemo” is forty minutes long so that was out. I didn’t think having wet clothes on an airplane sounded fun so that eliminated Kali River Rapids. Primeval Whirl while fun is such a rough ride it never made the list in the first place, and I already made my point about the risks of Kilimanjaro Safaris. Our only goals for the day were Expedition Everest and Dinosaur, and we had Fastpass for both, one after the other.
About a quarter past eleven, we made our way towards the Fastpass queue for our trip into the Himalayas. I had to pull Doug a little bit to get him to keep up because he was so busy looking at all the artifacts. In order to get to the airport on time, we had to hit Dinosaur the moment our Fastpass started. I got a pleasant surprise when we got to the merge point, where they combine the Fastpass and Standby lines, one of my favorite coordinators was there. I squeaked and got a big hug before she sent us. I don’t know if she’s the reason we got row one, or if it just worked out that way, but I was happy either way. I’ve only ever ridden Expedition Everest in the front row once before, and that was more than two years ago. So off we went, climbing to the tallest peak at Walt Disney World. Suddenly we screeched to a halt with the torn up track in front of us. “Does it go backwards!?” Doug yelled and I refused to answer, instead pointing out Tower of Terror in the distance before the train began it’s reversal.
We finished the ride and it jolted to a stop at the unload platform, where the cast members were explaining that the ride’s photo system was down. Disappointed, we headed into the gift shop with fifteen minutes to spare before Dinosaur. I showed him Chester and Hester’s Dino-Rama and had to quickly defend Disney’s commitment to theming. “No, they did not build on a parking lot and were too lazy to repaint it. That was on purpose.” Then onto the ride itself, that shows you the future is truly in the past!
I think Doug was more excited about Bill Nye doing the narration in the queue than the dinosaur exhibits.
We were on the ride in no time once we were past the queue because they needed a party of two. Our seat belts were barely buckled before we got to the safety check to pull on the yellow tab. Doug was very confused by my warnings to hold onto his glasses. I’ve never ridden it while wearing mine so I wasn’t sure how likely they would to be fall off, but that was the last thing we needed. I spent most of the ride trying not to quote along with the narration and I was successful up until, “EVASIVE MANEUVERS! RIGHT! LEFT! RIGHT! LEFT!” Thankfully at that point things are so loud no one could hear me anyway. Doug and I hopped off and made our way up the stairs as I told him about the time I rode with the lights on, and all the cool things you would never see. Then began the mad dash for the car.
“How long does it take to get to the airport?”
“I don’t know, probably about half an hour?”
Doug pulled his phone out, “It says an hour!” Since it was almost noon and his flight was at 2 pm this looked problematic, except it didn’t sound right. I pulled out my phone.
“It’s like half an hour. You said to avoid tolls, didn’t you? You almost can’t get to the airport here without them.”
About that time we found my car, which was in Giraffe 44, not 43 like I thought. At least I was close.
We spent the entire drive to the airport talking, and when I got out of the car to hug him good-bye I didn’t want to let go. I have never wanted to go back to working at Disney more than I have this week. From Disney Springs and Art of Animation to Magic Kingdom and beyond, watching his reactions to everything made me remember why I loved being part of the magic. Having him around made me miss home and miss my friends. I keep telling him he needs to move here so we can do this stuff all the time.
Hopefully he listens.
Stay up to date on all things Twenty Something in Orlando by subscribing to our newsletter or supporting us on Patreon! You can also find us on Twitter and Instagram!
