Hola boys & girls! I'm back from my week-long jaunt to WDW and man, do I need time to recover from this trip!
Trip actually started last Thursday afternoon. Tina and I flew arrived in Orlando late Thursday evening. After gathering up the rental car, we moved on to the Fairfield Inn near the airport for that evening to save on some of the resort expenses. The next morning we checked out and hightailed it over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. The staff there was awesome, allowing us to check into our room at 10 am. The only thing I can say about AKL is WOW! Such an amazing place with spectacular grounds! Out our bedroom window, we had close up views of giraffes, thompson's gazelles, antelope and others roaming the savanna grounds. Truely one of the most amazing views I've ever experienced anywhere!
Our target park the first day was Epcot. I've always wanted to hit that first to drink my way around the World Showcase and to hop on Test Track, an attraction I'm eagerly awaiting California Adventure to complete. Although it was a short ride, Test Track didn't disappoint. Neither did Mission: Space, a surprisingly fun simulator. After hitting up as much of the park as we could, we headed to the place I thought our dinner reservations were. Turns out I had made the reservations for another similarly-named restraunt located at the Swan hotel. This is when the running began, a theme that would repeat itself all week. We made our way out of the park as fast as possible, got on a boat for the boardwalk area of the resort and sprinted to the correct restraunt, only to get there 5 minutes after the final seating! Needing food of some sort, we made our way over to Kimono's, a sushi bar & lounge in the same hotel. We plowed through some delicious rolls, including a crawfish roll I haven't even seen at some of the finer sushi places in CA. I also took the opportunity to knock back 5 draft sakes. Oh, did I mention this place was a karaoke bar too? So lets see: add one very inebriated bear, mix well with 70s MOR classics...I'll let you guess what happened next! :D
Saturday was a hangover recovery day for me, but we still managed to hit Animal Kingdom for most of the day. Didn't do Expedition Everest or Kali River Rapids though, we just spent most of the time at the animal exhibits. I was a bit dissapointed in these, probably because they don't compare favorably to San Diego Zoo/Wild Animal Park or even Seaworld. Still had a good time though, until the heat and humidity did us in for the day.
Sunday started out as a chill at the hotel and pool day. Later that afternoon, I trundled out to the car and set out to the mecca of furry puppetry -- the Funday Pawpet Show. My original plan was to bring Fandango and Boris (my owl and bear puppets) on the trip with me, but I ran out of packing room. I also decided I might not be able to keep up with the frenetic pace the show usually moves at, not to mention I didn't want to step on anyone's toes. Turns out I didn't need them because I arrived at the show at the same time the four other guests (
skippyfox .
shy_matsi ,
sunfirelion &
duncan_the_dog ) did. All four were armed with their fursuits, so the evening's entertainment was set!
I had a great time at the show and I'd have to say it topped the list of highlights for the week! If you have a morbid curiosity as to what I did while at the show, you can download it
here if you move quickly (by the time the next show airs later today). Very special thanks to
yappyfox for allowing me to witness the magic firsthand. Also wanted to give some thanks to Herbie, KP, Blitz, and the folks I mentioned above. It was great finally getting a chance to meet you all and I hope we'll meet up again down the road soon!
That's it for this evening / early morning. Stay tuned for part two for more on the trip as well as what happens when I meet
this guy at the card table!