Orlando Adventures - Day 11

Click on the photo to be taken to the first in the set of today's photos.

Our last day at Walt Disney World. :-(

We slept in then had to pack things up to vacate the house we've been staying at. The rest of the gang has relocated the remainder of their vacation time to Turks & Caicos while we are going to Daytona Beach for the next few days. But we wanted to get one last visit to the parks in today before checking in at our next hotel.

So we began with Animal Kingdom. I took the kids to Everest and waited in the standby line while Tammie got Fast Passes for the safari. I really don’t mind waiting in Everest's standby. The queue is very fun to meander through. It’s set up as if you are going on an expedition to the top of Everest. The first portion is the expedition office. Set up like a 3rd world travel/tour office with an old computer and an even older tv/radio. Then you move through what I can only assume is a temple of some sorts with statues of yetis with offerings of fruit and money all around. Then through a supply/souvenir shop with camping and hiking equipment plus t-shirts and other items a tourist might like all ready to be purchased, but the store owner is currently out. The station after that is a yeti museum with all kinds of interesting yeti artifacts.



The kids and I love this ride. Tammie likes it too, but can’t ride it. She tried it once but it aggravated her heart. (She does just fine on Thunder Mountain though. But this one is much more intense.) Adam even had his hands up most of the ride. (Can you tell I'm trying to train the kids to be coaster junkies? But I'm also trying to show them that Disney can be enjoyed without high speed rides.)

On our way to take the safari tour we stopped by the Flights of Wonder show...a free-flight bird show that tries to show more natural behaviors. No birds on bicycles here. It was a fun show with some really cool birds. Unfortunately most of my pictures turned out blurry. Then I had the same troubles on the safari again. I’ve really got to figure out which setting is best on my camera for the fast action shots.

When we tried to leave the park we, of course, got caught by parade traffic. And in the Animal Kingdom with its narrower walkways and fewer walkway options it's an even bigger congestion problem. We had no choice but to wait it out. I'm really really hating parades now. They are seriously nothing but trouble. And more often than not they really aren't worth all the trouble.



We finally made it out of the park and made a dash over to Hollywood Studios to try to get to the Backlot Tour before it closed for the day. I was imagining the tour to be much bigger. It was a bit of a letdown. It had a quick "stunt" show at the beginning where they had audience members participate in a demonstration of some movie magic. Then we hopped on the trams and took a back and forth drive through boneyards (where old movie props are left to rot) and another demonstration of movie effects magic involving a fuel truck explosion and a flash flood. It scared Adam and made him cry, but it really made no sense at all other than showing some cool effects. Why exactly are things breaking, exploding, and flooding? Is Michael Bay here? Oh, yeah…he's actually mentioned quite a lot throughout the attraction.



Once that big disappointment was over we made our final walk out to the trams and to our car. I couldn't help but feel a little sad that it was over, but I was also glad that we were able to come and enjoy so many good times together. I learned a few more things about my kids and I hope they have made some good memories that will last a lifetime.



Here in Daytona things are much different. It's nothing like the serene Kissimmee neighborhood or the sanitary Disney atmosphere. There was some kind of car show tonight and classic cars were cruising the streets in front of our hotel. There was quite a bit of noise outside with the cars and the onlookers that made our arrival a little more confusing than we had anticipated. And so far, the party atmosphere and high rise hotels have the kids feeling a little intimidated. It should be interesting to see how things go the next few days. But I'm sure once the sun comes out and the daylight takes the place of the nightlife things will be better.