Day 4

Thursday, June 5th

Tonight our hotel is sold out. So we have to change hotels. We're headed over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for one night before transferring back to the Shades of Green. So we rolled out of bed around 9:30a, finished throwing things into bags, and headed out to the front of the hotel and asked for a taxi. So we sat and waited . . . and waited . . . and waited . . . Finally a bell boy came over and said that the cab had gotten confused and went to the Lodge to take us to the Shades of Green. So we waited some more.

Meanwhile, we're hanging out on a bench trying not to sweat when a group of old ladies and one woman with Down's Syndrome come over and sit on our bench. So we scooted over and made some room. As we were scooting, my sunglasses fell off the top of my head and disappeared. I hopped up to grab them from under the bench - and they weren't there. I looked all around where we were sitting - nothing. Our bench was up against a railing that had stairs and a waterfall underneath it. I looked over and couldn't spot them, so I walked down the stairs and scoured the floor underneath, the water, the fake rocks - nada. Jon switched places with me and searched down low while I searched the bench area. Gone. After a good 10 minutes of searching, we decided they'd been picked up and were not coming back. Jon was annoyed that I'd lost another pair of sunglasses.

The cab pulls up and we load ourselves in. As we hop into the backseat, I look over at Jon - and he's wearing two pairs of sunglasses. One on his head and one on his shirt. I was flummoxed. Turns out the second they hit the ground, some guy picked them up and turned them into lost and found. (Did he not notice the two idiots searching all over for them?) When one of the bell boys noticed we were looking for something - after 10 minutes - he made my glasses appear just as we were getting into the cab. Geez!

Head over to Animal Kingdom Lodge, check in (get the first 2 digits of our room number and have to call for the last two later) and then hop on the bus for Magic Kingdom. True Disney, here we come! We actually had a great day. Our Disney Without Kids book told us to head to Fantasyland during the 3p parade to get right on some of the "kiddie" rides. But by this time, we're both hungry. So before we can do anything, we have to eat. There's a pavilion in Tomorrowland that serves burgers and chicken sandwiches, nothing special. But what I love about the pavilion is their condiments. In keeping with the futuristic theme, the mayo is blue. What can be better than that? So we head there, and much to my disappointment, the pavilion is a now a dinner-only noodle restaurant. What? Well, no worries, there's another place right around the corner. So we fight our way over there, hop in line, get our chicken sandwiches, and then head to the condiments table. And there's no blue mayo. :( What a disappointment! So now I have to eat a plain old chicken sandwich.

We run through Fantasyland, grab some Fast Passes, and head to Pirates. And it's closed. Come on! It was closed in Disneyland while we were there in December. And now it's closed for 2 weeks of renovations. Jon was pissed. I talked him into an A/C break at Hall of Presidents before hitting up the newly revamped Haunted Mansion. By this time, it's close to parade hour and our Fast Passes are ready. So we hit up Mickey's Philharmagic, an awesome 3D movie complete with bubbles, air puffs as champagne bottles explode, and the smell of apple pie. Awesome! Then we wander over to Peter Pan, my favorite Fantasyland ride because you fly through the ride in a boat, looking down on the scenes from the movie. And then It's a Small World was a no-wait, so we hopped right on. Neither of us had been on that ride in years and it was fun! Definitely updated.

Thoroughly satiated with Disney magic, we headed out for our afternoon break. We walked right in front of the parade the whole way out and got to enjoy Mickey and his dancing brooms. After a shower, we took the bus back to Magic Kingdom where we transferred to a boat to cross the Seven Seas Lagoon toward the Polynesian. Tonight, it's luau night!

We picked up a couple of beers, again brewed by Bud specifically for the Polynesian (fruity lagers) and were led to our seats. And OMG, amazing food! Fresh pineapple, pineapple-coconut sweet bread, salad, ribs, grilled chicken, and lava cakes. Jon's one requirement for the night was to drink out of a coconut. I laughed at his ludicrous desire - until I saw a coconut on the drinks menu! So we both ordered our rum punch and drank it out of coconuts that were carved to look like monkey heads. The show was way cheesy, but did get into the traditional dances at the very end. We snuck out a few minutes early to make it back to the Lodge for our night time excitement.

Jon had read that every night from 9-11 there was animal watching with night vision goggles. We found our way out to the look out and stood in line while the (incredibly patient) zookeeper answered questions and pointed out sleeping animals to the guests. A woman in front of us had her husband and 4 or 5 year old daughter in tow. When it was daughter's turn, the girl took the several thousand dollar goggles in hand and mom lifted her up on top of dad's shoulders. OMG! The zookeeper didn't even blink. Jon and I were dying. We got our turn and found some lumps and bumps. We handed off the NVGs to a couple of guys behind us, all the while listening to their convo with the zookeeper. She was telling them that the animals in the savanna around the hotel are free to go to their pens at night, but most like to hang out outside, except the giraffes. And all of the horticulture was taken care of at night. The planters would take a few zookeepers with them in their truck and have them be look outs while they were working. She said for the most part it wasn't a big deal, but because the animals didn't have to go home, it could get dangerous if someone decided to check things out. So they'd have to give the planters a warning and everyone would hop back in the truck. We're listening and waiting to look again when a woman wanders up with several kids. She puts one kid up on the fence (um, wild animals a few feet away), looks around, and then says loudly, "Are we supposed to have special glasses for this?" No lady, just by standing on this look out, you have special night vision. And that's when we left . . .