Today's our last day - our flight leaves at 7:25pm tonight. Woke up exhausted - lack of sleep the night before last and our very late night combined with the long day yesterday has taken it's toll. I'm pretty zombie-ish and focus on getting packed and ready to go. I'm accused of ruining our last vacation morning. Words are exchanged. It takes us a few minutes to work through it, then we're good again.
We head downstairs to the airline check-in stand beside the hotel entrance. We check our luggage and wait for the bus to Animal Kingdom. One of Todd's favorite rides, Kali River Rapids, was closed for refurbishment this week. A plus of having to shift the trip by two days is that now it's open and we can ride it before we leave - I got us fast passes a couple of days before using the My Disney Experience app (still more on that later). As an added bonus, Jackie is going to meet us again today to spend a little time before we have to leave. The bus arrives and we head off to the park. We get there shortly after it opens, rent a locker to stow the backpacks that serve as our carry-on bags for the flight home, and head to the rapids. Turns out I needn't have worried about the fast passes, as we walk all the way through the line and right onto the raft. A raft, by the way, which holds 10 people, but we will have to ourselves today as there is no one else in line.
The snake god of wetness, I guess
The ride puts us through our paces, and it is excellent. We get splashed and get wet a couple of times, but not completely soaked all over. At the end of the rider our raft passes under a bridge, and then as it floats toward the station large elephant statues on either side of the course spray cold showers of water down on us. We look back and see people on the bridge pushing buttons which control the spray from the elephants. Naturally we do the same thing to other rafters. We ride a couple of rides, Expedition Everest and Dinosaur, and then head toward the front of the park to meet Jackie. After we're all together we decide to eat lunch at Flame Tree Barbecue - a first for us as we've never eaten there on previous trips. We all split an order of onion rings, and continuing on the theme of new experiences, I decide to order the turkey leg (I've always seen these at amusement parks and fairs, but never had one). It was really good, but man that's a lot of turkey. I felt like I was going to have a meat baby later. We have a nice, leisurely lunch and then decide that since there are no lines we'll ride the Kilimanjaro Safari. Our driver is great and keeps us entertained while we wait for an unspecified animal to get out of the way a few cars ahead. All of the animals seem to be out and active, so it turns out to be a great day for viewing.
You're not very curious, are you?
And now for a haiku:
on the safari
shy elephant retreating
our eyes perceiving
We next decide on another first - the Pangani Forest Expedition Trail. This is another beautiful walking trail that features birds, fish, gorillas, and an underwater hippo viewing area.
Vibrant blue fish with vibrant green and brown duck.
Amazing creatures
We then say our goodbyes to Jackie, pick up our bags from the locker, and catch the bus back to the Contemporary Resort.
Looking at the Magic Kingdom from the Contemporary Resort
Better like this...
...or better like this?
We walked through this connecting bridge to the Bay Lake Tower while waiting for our designated time to catch the Magical Express bus to the airport. The Tower contains the Disney Vacation Club Contemporary Resort timeshare condos.
Landscaping on the front side of the Contemporary Resort
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