Key West or Bust, Day 10

Mickey

Tuesday May 20, 2008

By 8:20 AM I have donned my favorite vacation T-shirt, we have boarded the Disney bus, and are waiting for the Animal Kingdom to open. This may be the first time ever that I've been early for a morning event. Oh, the T-shirt? "Temporarily Out of Service."

We opt for the Kilamanjaro Safari for our first ride, thinking the animals might be more active earlier in the day. It pays off and the exotic animals are either actively moving around or resting in plain view.

Then it's off to see "Finding Nemo - The Musical" but we're too early, so we decide on the Everest Expedition roller-coaster where we are quite surprised by a brisk backward ride in total darkness. After wandering around some more, we see "Finding Nemo" and smile at the whimsical puppet/actor characters.

On our way out of the Animal Kingdom, we stop in to see "It's Tough to Be a Bug", a 3-D frolic with a few multi-sensory surprises in store.

We're off to Epcot using our "park-hopper" ticket, and by this time it's after 3:00 PM so we find something to eat in the Chinese pavilion. We visit the various pavilions and decide to eat in the Biergarten but they are booked. It's ok, because German food we know, having grown up in Pennsylvania Dutch and Amish country of Pennsylvania. We decide on a food we don't know: Morrocan.

After making reservations at the Marrakesh restaurant in the Morocco pavilion, we wander to "The Land" and stand in line for an hour for the ride "Soarin'." This is a spectacular ride combining the effects of IMAX huge-screen and flight simulator technology. It's breathtaking and you never leave the building. Fantastic technology!

By now it's time to meander back to Marrakesh for dinner where we have the "Morrocan national dish," couscous, Kitty with chicken, I with a roasted shank of lamb, to the accompaniment of a Moroccan rhythm and string combo. Fantastic! I have to admit I couldn't help but notice the belly dancer who showed up for a while!

After finding a place along the lagoon, we watch "Illumination," a dazzling laser/fireworks/multimedia show that's made all the more amazing because the buildings all around the lagoon participate with lighting effects, lasers, and sparkly things. What a great show! Disney does just about everything with first-class production values, and it shows (pardon the pun).

And we're tired. After a full day with Mickey, we need a vacation day! We'd planned several fairly rigorous riding days for the next two days, but with the heat and the fact that we're pretty tired this evening, we'll sleep in tomorrow and make our way northward when we're rested. We have a number of options including cutting out part of the scheduled ride, spending more time on Interstates, or arriving home one day later.

Once we have a plan, I'll let you know, but I'm pretty sure the plan I've sketched out is out. Out the window, that is.

Our friend Karen has a sign in her office: Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape. We're all about flexibility.