Note: Min's trip report is in Coral and Bill's comments are in Blue.

Click to Read:   Intro  -  Part 1  -  Part 3  -  Part 4  -  Part 5  -  Part 6

Part Two

October 20, 2003 - Monday

We were up and headed for the bus stop by 8:00 AM. We were going to Animal Kingdom and had a PS for Donald's Breakfastosaurus. It was early entry day so when we got to the park we were directed to the restaurant. This was different from the last couple of times we have had breakfast here because when the park is not open, you are met at the front by your camp guide (server) and are escorted back to the restaurant. We arrived at Donald's place about 10 minutes before our PS time. We were seated about fifteen minutes later. It was very humid this morning and the walk plus the wait outside had us already sweating quite a bit. The food was great as normal. Our guide got me with the ketchup bottle trick while Bill was in line for food. We missed Mickey and Pluto but did get to see Goofy and Donald.

The ketchup bottle trick is a plastic ketchup bottle loaded with a red string. If you ask for ketchup, your guide pulls the trick ketchup bottle out of his belt pack and "squirts" you with ketchup. The only issue I have with Donald's Breakfastosaurus as a character meal is the place is just too big for the characters to circulate in a fair amount of time. We arrived just after Mickey and Pluto had came through the area where we were seated. It took us about 55 minutes to eat breakfast and they did not get back to our area during that time.

After breakfast it was time for a journey to Africa, so we headed for the back of the park and Kilimanjaro Safaris. Since the standby line was about 30 minutes, we decided to get fastpasses and walk the Pangani Forest Expedition Trail. While we were getting our fastpasses, a nice couple handed us a couple of fastpasses that we already valid and said enjoy. Bill went over to the fastpass machine and got two more fastpasses. He told me that we would "pass" on the magic to another couple after our Safari.

It seemed only fair, after all isn't magic what Disney is all about.

The animals were all out during the Safari. Several times during the trip across the grasslands area, we were just crawling along because some giraffes kept crossing in front of the Safari vehicles. The mandrills were out and playing. We saw several hippos splashing about. When we got over to the elephant lands the baby elephant, Tufani, was at the watering hole. His mother standing watchfully at his side. We saw one of the cheetahs running around under the canopy of trees in the their area. A male and a female lion where lounging in the open on pride rock. We rounded a corner to find a large rhino standing on hill to the right of our vehicle just as it was answering nature's call. Our park guide was left speechless and finally said "I really don't know what to say about that folks." There were several ostriches on the opposite side of the road from the rhino. We also saw a warthog near the ostriches. Now I know what a real-life Pumba looks like. We finished up the Safari and helped "rescue" Little Red.

I am in agreement with a lot of the RADPers on the Big Red/Little Red storyline, please end it and let the guides talk more about the animals or at least give the riders a choice of story or no story queues.

After the Safari, we walked the Pangani Forest Expedition Trail for the first time. It was fun seeing the animals up close. But it was a bit too much walking due to the high humidity, so we headed for the exit.

I loved getting to see the animals up close and at our own pace instead of that of the Safari vehicles. The aviary and fish pond areas were amazing. We spent some time watching the meerkats popping in and out of their burrows. Two gorillas were playing around near the front of their enclosure while a second pair sat near the back grooming each other. If the humidity had been better, we probably would have stayed on the trail longer but it was starting to get oppressive.

When we reached the fastpass area for the Safari, I reminded Bill about the fastpasses that we had gotten earlier and passing them on. He picked out a couple that had just gotten fastpasses and gave them ours.

I explained to them that we were just passing on the magic as had been done for us. They thanked us and said that they would give their fastpasses to someone else after they had finished their Safari.

We needed a break from the humidity, so we boarded the Wildlife Express Train and headed for Rafiki's Planet Watch and Conservation Station.

The best air-conditioned place in the park. I think it is due to the lower traffic volume going in and out of the building.

We got off the train and hurried down the trail. It was just after noon and we wanted to see the "animal of the hour." Unfortunately, it was a snake so we avoided the show area until it was gone. While we were hiding from the snake, we saw that the surgery suite was in use and went over to watch. We saw the end of an operation in which the vet removed a tumor from a chinchilla rabbit. 

It was interesting getting to see a live surgery. You could watch the veterinarian and his assistant work directly on the animal or you could observe the procedure on the television monitor. After the operation was completed, the veterinarian answered questions about the procedure and why it was necessary as well as talking about the animal's overall prognosis going forward. While watching the surgery, I noticed a woman wearing an RADP button and pointed her out to Min.

We also met Laurie, a fellow RADPer, who was watching the surgery as well. She was from the New England area and was down for the week. We talked about the mini-meet, which she had arrived at WDW to late to attend. We talked about All Ears™ and RADP community as well as MinandBills.net.

Laurie told us that she loved animals and Animal Kingdom and that she visited it almost daily when she was at WDW. She even knew the veterinary surgeon that had preformed the procedure on the chinchilla rabbit from when he had worked at a zoo near her home or previous home, I can't remember which.

After talking with Laurie for a while, we said our goodbyes and headed out. We stopped at the Out of the Wild gift shop. Bill had saw a brown Animal Kingdom t-shirt that he liked on our Labor Day trip and decided to buy it when we came back in October. Well we were back, so he bought it.

Min did not get left out of the shopping, I got her a small plush of Pooh dressed as a butterfly. We had our purchases sent back to our resort. A great service and I highly recommend taking advantage of it if you are a WDW resort guest.

We stopped in the Conservation Station courtyard for a short while to watch Pipa the Talking Recycling Can interact with the guests. Bill got me a Diet Coke and he had a Minnie's Strawberry fruit bar while we sat and rested. Then we caught the train back to Africa. We wanted to catch Flights of Wonder but our timing was off, so we decided to head to Asia and do the Maharajah Jungle Trek and maybe Kali River Rapids. On the way to Asia, we saw that a crowd was stopped near a lamp post watching something. When we got closer, we realized that the something that they were watching was DeVine. We watched for a little while and Bill took a picture of her when she revealed her face then we continued on to Asia.

I love watching Pipa interact with the children especially when they try to see what's inside. We have watched Pipa on our last couple of trips. This was our first time seeing DeVine and she drew quite a crowd. There was a group of pre-teen maybe early teen boys all around her trying to tell if she was some kind of plant or a person. When she finally revealed her face, they ran off yelling to their mom telling her that the plant was really a person. The mom just laughed at them, obviously enjoying the moment.

In Asia, we walked the Maharajah Jungle Trek for the first time. I liked it better than the Pangani trail. I especially loved the Tigers, one was paced back in forth in front of the window on the right side of the trail. The cast member said that she could she the other tigers and wanted to get to them.

I loved the Maharajah Jungle Trek, once again getting to see the animals at my pace instead of that of a vehicle was great. The aviary and the bat enclosure were fantastic. In the aviary, there were several ground birds walking around on the trails with the guests. The highlight of the trek was of course the tigers. They are truly magnificent animals and were very active when we were there.

After the jungle trek, we started for the front of the park. Bill asked me if we were going to go on Kali River Rapids today. I looked at him and then decided what the heck, if I can do Pirates of the Caribbean and Maelstrom then I can do Kali River Rapids. I was not going to chicken out this time.

The standby line said fifteen minutes. As we walked through the queue, I kept describing the ride to Min and asking her if she was sure she wanted to ride it. The last time she had tried she had gotten onto the raft before she backed out of riding. I was both trying to scare her and reassure her at the same time, so she would make the final decision before we were on the raft. She decided to ride and I was proud of her. She had faced her fear and had overcome it.

We boarded a raft with an Indian family, as in the subcontinent of India. There was the father, the mother, a teenage son, a teenage daughter and two younger, maybe eight or nine, daughters who looked like twins. The father and the first twin sat next to us and told the mother, the second twin and the two teenagers to sit across from us to balance the raft. We went up the hill and then started down the upper part of the river. Bill told me when we were about to go down the big drop and I closed my eyes. I kept opening and closing them the rest of the way. It was not bad at all and I will probably do it again in the future.

As we went down the upper part of the river, our side of the raft became situated as the "front" of the raft. I had a feeling we were going to get soaked when we went over the big drop. Then right before the big drop, the raft hit a point on the bank that pivoted the raft around. We plunged down the drop and the mother with the second twin and the two teenagers got the soaking. The folks on the bridge just missed getting me and Min with the elephant water spray guns. We were wet but definitely not soaked. It was a fun ride. As we were crossing the exit bridge, I showed the two teenagers from our raft the controls for the water spray guns. They started spraying the unfortunate rafters below, their fun was short lived because their father told them to come along. They were a very nice family with well-behaved children and teens, I would gladly share a raft with them again.

Bill bought me an ice cream cookie sandwich as a reward for my "bravery" and he got himself another Minnie's Strawberry bar. The humidity was really bad and it was also starting to heat up. We decided it was time to head back to our room for a change of clothes and some rest. We stopped by the Island Mercantile pin cart to get a Kali River Rapids pin to commemorate my adventure. Unfortunately, they did not have one. The cast member working at the pin cart said that he had never seen one and did not think that one had been made for the Kali River Rapids attraction. The wait for the bus was a short one and so was the ride back to the resort. When we got back to the room, we found that we had a new roommate. Mousekeeping had left us a elephant made from towels.

Yep that elephant, Elly, was sitting there like she owned the place. I made a mental note: don't make the elephant mad, she knows where you sleep.  :)

I was not feeling well after my nap. I had a sore throat and headache. I asked Bill if we could change our plans for the evening, skip Epcot and dinner at Biergarten, and just go downstairs and have dinner at Boma. He said that would be fine.

I called WDW-Dine. I made a PS for Boma and cancelled the one for Biergarten.

The dinner buffet was great. Good food was something we were coming to expect from Boma. The prime rib was excellent and I really enjoyed the Zebra Domes.

I tried a lot of different things from the buffet. The prime rib with Boma mustard was very good. There was also an excellent seafood chowder but my favorite dish was a pasta salad with a curry sauce. I had three bowls of it. I was also able to order frunch with dinner. An excellent offset to the spicy curry dish.

After dinner, we took a walk around the resort. We went out on Arusha Rock and watched the animals for a while then we stopped by two viewing lounges to check out the other savannahs. Afterwards, we went back to the room. I fell asleep rather quickly and woke in the morning feeling better.

I realized today that Animal Kingdom Lodge had replaced Port Orleans - French Quarter as my favorite WDW resort. I also realized that Animal Kingdom was getting very close to replacing Epcot as my favorite WDW park.

October 21, 2003 - Tuesday

When I got up this morning, I saw a large envelope that had been slid under the door. It had Bill's name on it, so I told him and he got up to see what it was. There was a smaller envelope inside that had my name on it. He gave it to me and I opened it. It was a birthday card from Pooh and the gang. It was signed by Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore and Tigger.

The card was a little bit of magic from Brian and the folks at WDTC. When I told him that we were celebrating Min's 30th birthday during our trip, he asked who her favorite character was. I told him Winnie the Pooh and he said that he would make sure she got something from Pooh and the gang for her birthday.

After getting ready, we headed for the bus stop. We had a PS for Cape May Cafe, so we caught the bus to Disney Studios and then rode the boat to the Beach Club Resort. The food was good but they did not have same variety of selections as they have had before. We got pictures with Chip, Dale and Goofy. Our server brought me a muffin with a candle and wished me happy birthday. That was neat.

Cape May Cafe use to be my favorite character breakfast, but not after this trip. They removed the children section from the buffet area and then displaced some of the regular breakfast foods with the items that were previously part of the children's section. They use to have a delicious red potato dish with onions and spices as part of the buffet, but this was replaced by the pre-formed hash brown "potato triangle" things. We talked to a server about the poor selection and she said that they were working on new ideas to revitalize the breakfast buffet. She asked us to put our comments on the comment card and boy did I. There was not a blank space left on the comment card, front or back, when I was through. But I did not just complain, I also offered a couple of suggestions to improve things. The first was to bring back a real potato dish in addition to the "triangles." I also suggested adding an omelet station to increase the variety of the buffet.

After breakfast, we decided to wait in the Cape May Cafe lobby and get a picture with Minnie. While we were waiting, Chip came into the lobby and sat down at the children's coloring table. He took out a marker and started drawing. After he was finished, he called us over to show us that he had drawn a picture of himself with the title of "Chip wuz here." I thought Chip's drawing was cute, so Bill took a picture of it. Unfortunately, Minnie's break was a little longer than we wanted to wait so we headed back to the boat dock. We took the boat back to Disney Studios and headed into the park. We stopped at Guest Relations and I got a "Today Is My Birthday" button. A quick check of the schedule showed that the Beauty and the Beast shows did not start until later in the afternoon. Since we had only planned to spend the morning at the studios, we realized that we would not get to see Four for a Dollar today. We started down Hollywood Blvd and took a left on Vine. Indiana Jones was just about to start but the cast member at the entrance said that a large number of fast passes had been issued so it would be stand room only. We decided to pass and headed for Muppet Vision 3D. After the show, we saw Kermit outside the theatre and Bill got a picture of me with him. Next, we headed over to the Backlot Tour to see what it was like without Residential Street. It was definitely different.

Yep, it was definitely different. The new route caused them to move a lot of the props and vehicles around. In addition to Residential Street being gone, New York Street was under construction so the look through Washington Square at the skyline was also "missing" from the tour. The back part of the studios is definitely going to be a different place once all of the construction is finished.

After the tour, we walked down Mickey Avenue. We stopped and got some pictures with Sorceror Mickey. Outside, Minnie was by her dressing room trailer for pictures and autographs, so I got in line. I felt like a little kid standing in line with all the other little girls. The cast member with Minnie saw my "Guest of Honor" name tag and birthday button. So when it was my turn to get a picture, she announced to everyone that it was my birthday and asked them to wish me happy birthday. Then Minnie gave me a hug and kiss. IT was magic. After the pictures, we continued down Mickey Avenue. There was a crowd waiting outside of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire: Play It." As we got closer, we realized the crowd was waiting for "The Making of the Haunted Mansion Movie." The line was pretty long and since it was starting to get hot, we skipped it and headed for the front of the park. We caught the bus back to hotel for our midday break.

Even though it was right at noon time, the heat and humidity were again taking their toll on us. Additionally, we wanted to get to the Magic Kingdom early that afternoon for the Share a Dream Come True parade.

After our rest, we caught the bus to the Magic Kingdom. We planned on seeing the Share a Dream Come True parade, SpectroMagic and Wishes. Wishes was at the top of our must see list. We had even changed our trip itinerary so that we could see it on this trip. Upon our arrival at the park, we picked up a schedule and noticed that the park was closing early with no listing for SpectroMagic or Wishes that evening. We made a stop at Guest Relations to find out what was going on. We explained that when we were planning our trip, the WDW website had shown that Wishes was scheduled for that evening and now upon our arrival we found that it was not scheduled. The cast member apologized and told us that Wishes was being presented three times this week, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. He gave us an email address for guest comments regarding the web site, so that we could let them know of our issue with the web site event schedules. He also gave us a universal fast pass and told us it was good for any attraction. Just go to one of the cast member attendants for the attraction and we would be allowed to go to the front of the line.

I guess we were victims of the "Park Hours, Events and Entertainment times are subject to change without notice" clause from the web site. One of the lowlights of our trip. We already had plans for dinner at Mama Melrose's and Fantasmic on Wednesday and dinner at Fulton's Crab House on Thursday, so we decided to shuffle our Saturday plans around so that we could see Wishes.

We found a spot right outside of City Hall for the parade. The crowds were very light so we sat in the shade on the steps of City Hall until the parade started then we moved up to a location on the curbside. In all of our previous visits, we had saw the parade from the right hand side of the street and had a lot of pictures of the parade. Since we were standing on the left hand side of the street, Bill decided to get some more pictures from a different perspective. During the parade, Mary Poppins and Snow White saw my birthday button and wished me a happy birthday. Minnie Mouse saw my birthday button, pointed at me, waved and then blew me a kiss.

Once again, the inner child of my Min was touched by the characters and some Disney magic. Min was smiling from ear to ear and beaming like a school girl after Minnie waved and blew her a kiss. A real pick me up after the way our afternoon had started. It was wonderful.

After that we took our usual stroll through the Emporium. We tried to find the Halloween Poohs that we had saw the other day at Panchito's. We did not find the large one with Pooh dressed as a Vampire. A cast member who was helping several parents with choosing a plush for their children said he had never seen such a Pooh plush. We did find the small one with Pooh dressed as a cat and Bill got me it for me as well as a small Minnie Mouse plush. The one with Minnie wearing her red and white polka dotted dress and bow. He also got me a Happy Birthday pin, the one with Mickey holding a birthday cake. I wanted the one with Mickey and Minnie on it.

Yep, she wanted the Mickey and Minnie birthday pin. The one that I had already gotten her and planned to surprise her with on her birthday. I told her that she could have the one with the birthday cake and that maybe I would get her the other one on her birthday. Yep Bill the sneak, trying to cover my tracks.

We had our purchases send back to the resort then we headed for Fantasyland. It was off to Pooh's Thotful Shop in hopes of finding the Vampire Pooh. On the way, we stopped at the Enchanted Grove where Bill got a strawberry swirl and I got a diet coke.

I love strawberries and most anything with strawberries in it.  So, after all of the great reviews from RADPers, I decided to give the strawberry swirl a try. I really liked the strawberry swirl but I still feel that the Dole Whip pineapple-vanilla swirl is better. Just one man's opinion, your mileage may vary.

Heading out from the Enchanted Grove, we saw Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Bill insisted that we have our picture taken with them.

Yes! My life's quest at WDW has been fulfilled! We had our picture taken with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Now before you start thinking that I have gone completely over the edge, please allow me to explain. Whenever we are getting ready to go out somewhere, Min always asks me what I am going to wear. She then tries to match her clothes to mine. There have even been times that she has gotten dressed first and then changed to match me. Since we are both round bodied folks, I always tell her that when we dress alike we look like Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Her normal reply is something to the effect of, "so which one am I?" I, being completely aware of the fact that I share a bed with this woman and wish for that arrangement to continue, take the fifth and decline to answer. Now that we have pictorial evidence, I put it to you, great and knowledgeable reader of this trip report, to decide who is who?

After the picture session, we once again headed for Pooh's Thotful Shop. We checked out The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh on the way, but the wait was too long so we skipped it. A quick look through the gift shop left us still without our prize, they did not have Vampire Pooh.

I was beginning to think they we were going to have to take a trip to Coronado Springs to get the Vampire Pooh.

Since we were in Fantasyland, we decided to tryout Mickey's Philharmagic. It had just opened earlier this month and we had not yet had a chance to see it. There was no line and we walked right into the inner waiting area. The next show would be starting in ten minutes.

While we were waiting, we struck up a conversation with the family standing in front of us. This was their first trip to WDW and the "tour guide" of the family had a print out with all of the attractions in the Magic Kingdom that she had made by typing in the information from one of the WDW travel guides. I thought that we planned things, but this was way beyond our level of preparation. The family was  discussing what attraction to see next and asked us if there was time to see the Hall of Presidents before their PS time at the Crystal Palace. After a quick check of the time, we said it was possible as the shows started on the hour and half-hour and that it would not matter if they were a little late for their PS. We also told them about using the bridge behind the Christmas shop as a short cut.

Mickey Philharmagic was wonderful. Bill and I agree that it is the best interactive 3D attraction at WDW. A quick check of the watch showed that we had about thirty minutes before our PS time at Liberty Tree Tavern, so we headed for the Haunted Mansion. Afterwards, we decided to check out the Yankee Trader since we still had a few minutes before dinner. The merchandise had been changed since our last visit. The shop was full of Halloween and Haunted Mansion stuff including the Vampire Pooh plush.

Which was quickly purchased and sent back to our resort. The cast member that helped us with our purchase was a member of the college program from Weber State University. I asked her where Weber State was located. She said it was in Utah and was very surprised that I knew the correct pronunciation of her school's name. The first "e" is long, so it is like the word we instead of web, We-ber. I enjoy talking with the college program cast members about their schools and their experiences working for Disney.

We made our way over to the Liberty Tree Tavern and checked in with the host at the desk. We were seated in a matter of minutes. There was Mickey confetti and streamers decorating our table. The food and characters were great. The dessert was served with a candle and a song for my birthday.

During dinner, the couple sitting beside us with their three year old daughter ran out of film for their camera. The cast member that was escorting the characters sent a request to get them some more film. Unfortunately, they ran out of film right as the characters were entering our part of the restaurant. Knowing that the characters might not be around again for a while, I asked Min to give them one of our spare rolls of film, our way of sharing the magic. They thanked us for the film and were able to get pictures of their daughter with Minnie, Chip and Dale before the cast member requested roll of film showed up. When we were leaving, they thanked us again and gave us the new roll of film.

After dinner, we again walked through the Emporium on Main Street and did some more shopping. I picked out some stationary and a calendar then went and had a seat while Bill looked for something for his manager, who is a Disney fanatic, just like us.

Remembering that her manager had made a comment about her Dilbert calendar, I decided to get her a calendar like the one Min had picked out. I also picked up a Minnie and Mickey postcard for Min. While chatting with the cast member that was ringing up our purchases, I learned the reason for the early park closure. A company had booked the park for a private party.

Bill found me sitting outside by City Hall and we headed for the exit. On the way out, he decided to stop at the Main Street Gallery right next to City Hall. They had some neat artwork and other Disney collectibles. We found a Winnie the Pooh lithograph that I had to have so Bill brought it for me. We left the park and got the bus back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We made our nightly trip though the gift shop for drinks and pick up packages. Then we headed up to our room. We found another birthday card in our room. It was from Mickey and the Animal Kingdom Lodge staff.

A signed picture of the big cheese himself wishing my Min a happy birthday.

Before we went to bed, I decided to call my mother on my cell phone. I had Bill get my purse from the room safe. When I opened it, I found a Disney bag that I had not put there. I opened it and found the Minnie and Mickey birthday pin that I had wanted. Bill said surprise and then told me that he had gotten it for me when he was getting change for the bellman when we checked in on Sunday. He also gave me the Minnie and Mickey postcard that he had bought for me earlier that evening. Even with the scheduling mess up, it had been a great day. I was really loving celebrating my birthday at WDW.

All in all, another great day at WDW. Min was enjoying herself and I was very happy that she was having a great 30th birthday celebration.

Click to Read:   Intro  -  Part 1  -  Part 3  -  Part 4  -  Part 5  -  Part 6