I didn't get to bed until after 1am. I had laundry and packing to finish. John didn't make it home until midnight since he made a bad judgement call by leaving Demon Dog in S.C. and had to turn around to go get him. He wasn't much help that night. Three hours later we were back up and getting ready for the 4 hour drive to Orlando. We finally got on the road at 6am. Only an hour after I wanted to leave.
Most of the kids slept the whole way. When we first headed out I felt wide awake. Ready to attack the road in front of us (well, ready to watch John attack it, I was in my usual passenger seat). The morning high quickly faded and I could not keep my eyes open. Most of the drive down is a blur... the rest of it was foggy, literally. The fog was so thick at some points that it looked like smoke. I tried to get some pictures of it, the sun and the moon. I'm not so good with the settings on my camera though.
We finally made it to Animal Kingdom shortly after 10. Our parking spot was easy to remember... close to the entrance. As we were getting out of the van and trying to get the kids situated that was when a rough morning turned into me wanting to bitch slap a parking attendant. She was very rude when telling us that wagons were not allowed in Disney. I was pissed. Now we didn't have anything for the kids... we would have to rent a stroller. Way to suck more money out of us. She could have been nicer about it, she just was very matter of fact and struck a nerve that didn't need striking when arriving at "The Happiest Place on Earth." I practically bitched her out while my kids wondered why I was crying. Five kids and no place to contain them, their jackets and their snacks. I was a little mad...
A couple deep breaths later and we were making our way to the tram that would take us to the gate to the park. The kids loved the tram. It was like riding a ride before even entering the park. All the kids had to pee (and so did I) as soon as we got there. Wouldn't you know there are NO bathrooms before entering the park. You have to PAY to PEE!!! Another fork in my side... or my bladder, however you want to look at it. I was very agitated by this point.
I sent John to wait in line while the kids and I sat in the shade. It was rather warm already. I let the kids take the cameras and just snap away. Jacob got some cute ones. He really likes taking pictures of anything and everything. From ceiling fans to my butt. Both with just the right amount of artistic flair LoL We started walking around when the kids got antsy and it was a good thing since we all needed to be present when buying our tickets.
With John being active duty we took advantage of the military offer going on. We handed over our I.D.'s and there was a problem. The lady asked for John's orders. I told her that the website said nothing about orders... that that was only for Reserves and National Guard. She kept interrupting me when I was trying to figure out exactly what she needed. She went to get a manager who came over to show us what the problem was. Apparently John's I.D. is not correct. It should say "Active Duty" underneath his name (or something) and it wasn't there. I tried helping our cause by telling her that the dates on both of our I.D.'s say that he is active duty but since his I.D. didn't match the picture we were about to be screwed into paying full price for tickets. John chimed in with the reasoning behind his faulty I.D. card and that seemed to satisfy her. She got approval from someone else and went ahead with the transaction. Whew! I also mentioned my crappy morning and the problem with the wagon, it was Friday the 13th afterall. She was very kind to give us a free stroller rental for the day and a complimentary fastpass. $421 later, we were on our way into the park.
I headed over to the stroller rental where the lady did not know what she was doing. I had been waiting a good 5 minutes when another Cast Member came over to help me. She grabbed him away before I could even say what I needed and the last I saw of him he was walking back into the stroller area without ever helping me. I was getting irritated again. Sara was with me while the other kids were waiting with John over by the bathrooms and she kept going under the rope and trying to climb into the strollers. The last time she did it I couldn't get her back out. She was being stubborn so I had to go in after her. Leave it to that time for a Cast Member to see me. "Ma'am, you can't be in there." he says. "Umm yah, I know. My daughter was over here so I had to get her. Next time I will just leave her there if that is what you prefer." I was so proud of myself... I am never on the ball like that. My wit astounded me. He chuckled and said, "No." It was finally my turn and I handed my stroller rental coupon to the lady. Of course she didn't know what it was or how to start the transaction so she got the guy I just interacted with to help me. He looks at me and says, "Where did you get this?" Well let me see... "I got it from the ticket counter when I bought my tickets. From Dawn. Her name is on it." He tells me he has to get approval... my goodness, really. Could this be any more difficult? He comes back and says it's fine. Ok, great. He hands me my little ticket and I walk over to where you have to make a name tag for the stroller. I make my own name tag and head over to get my stroller. I ask him if I need to give him the ticket and he says no and thrusts the stroller at me. Obviously irritated that I didn't know what was going on. If someone would tell people what was going on, then no one would be confused. I finally get the stroller and I still have to pee.
Another 10 minutes later and we are headed into the park. We stop to look at some flamingos and a parrot. The kids are already grating on my nerves but I drudge on. We kept on walking, looking at streams, waterfalls, and birds. As we are crossing a bridge a lady tells us that there is still seating available for The Lion King, if we wanted to go in. She offered to park the stroller for us and we went on in. The kids were mesmerized. They loved it. It was highly entertaining with all the classic songs from the movie. The monkeys were amazing. I took a few videos and John took some pictures. I was happy that the kids sat there and weren't climbing all over me. The day was already getting better.
We left there, all in a better mood and headed over to meet some characters. They had Goofy, Minnie, Mickey and two bears from Brother Bear. We got in line to meet Goofy and he would be the only one we would meet that day. Sara ran up and gave him a hug, as did Jacob and Adam. Lexi forgot her journal, so no Goofy autograph for her. We did get some cute pictures though. I have one picture of me laughing like a fool because I guess Goofy wanted me to hold his hand and when I didn't he looked up at me. You had to be there.
By this time the kids were complaining that they were starving so we headed over to Dinoland, since Restaurantosaurus was recommended to us. The one ride they all could ride was closed down and Lexi didn't want to ride Primeval Whirl. They wanted to play games but I did not go to Disney to play carnival games. We made our way through Dinoland on over to the restaurant where they had a little dino dig site that the kids could play at. The kids matched up the jaws to the skull and then had to name the dinosaurs. My dumbass thought he meant actually names, like Sue, Bob, etc. Hahahaha! The kids were at a complete loss. They only knew T-rex. We went into Restaurantosaurus for some chicken nuggets and fries. Way cheaper than one would have expected. Only $5 for a kids meal that includes 4 nuggets, 2 sides (to include fries, grapes, carrot sticks, applesauce or a cookie) and a drink. Better than most restaurants we go to now. The kids ate all their lunch, for the most part and we were headed out to another attraction. I almost wish I would have planned out what we were doing ahead of time, but I just winged it. It worked out pretty well for Animal Kingdom. Looking at the map I see there is still a lot we didn't do, but we had a fulfilling day, so it evens out.
After lunch we had impeccable timing again and made it just in time to see Finding Nemo: The Musical. Sara and Adam did not want to sit and watch it. I guess musicals just aren't their thing. Jacob didn't want to stay either so we left while John, Kadie and Lexi stayed behind. They really liked it. I thought it was cute and so crazy how they can fit an entire two hour movie into a 20 minute show. While we waited for them, we went over to the bridge leading us over to Mt. Everest. We watched and listened as people rode the roller coaster. I asked Jacob if he wanted to go on it, but he said no. Oh well. Time was quickly running out anyways. We did happen to catch a bit of a parade on our way to our next adventure.
Our last ride was on the Kilimanjaro Safari. You ride in actual vehicles through a man-made savanna. At first, I thought the car was on a track, but it wasn't. The drive comes on the speaker and talks to you as if you are on a real safari adventure. It was fun and bumpy. It is a pretty long ride but kinda quick for picture taking. I got some good ones though.
We headed out of the park after that, stopping to take some silly pictures and catching a bit of Mickey and gang saying goodbye. We took the tram back to our parking spot. I texted it to myself so I would know where we parked. It didn't matter though, we all remembered LoL We checked into our hotel and then walked over to CiCi's for dinner. Had I known it was only $4 for a medium pizza I would have gotten two and taken them back to our room and saved us $30. The lady was nice enough to give us a discount though, so that was nice.
We got back to our room shortly before 8 and I put the babies down to bed while everyone else went swimming. We were all out by 9. It was a long day, that is for sure.
