World Traveler
The blog’s been silent for a little while. And this is why:
I am currently recovering from five days of Walt Disney World adventures, which began at the Animal Kingdom. There, we saw numerous critters, found some tasty BBQ, and took a fantastic behind-the-scenes tour, on which we were the only guests. That was great because, with only the two of us, we had the guide to ourselves.
Some Highlights from Day 1: Disney’s Animal Kingdom
The Tree of Life, at park opening.
The Animal Kingdom is a beautiful park on a foggy morning.
Ice cream cart, not yet open.
The line for Everest, which you can see in the background. We did not wait on this; we used FastPass.
Giraffes on safari.
The white rhino. We saw two of them up close on the tour.
Me, outside “Dinosaur,” which didn’t startle me as much as is usually does, probably because I was on west-coast time and just too tired to be scared.
Our lunch, which was surprisingly good, smoked BBQ ribs and chicken, with a very nice coleslaw and beans that were a little sweet and a little spicy, but not too much of either, kind of a cross between Boston baked and chili beans; I quite liked them. The desserts were weird. I can’t recommend them, but they came with our meal plan (more on that plan in a later post).
The view of Everest from our lunch spot.
There are countless little details around the park that make for an interesting stroll.
A nice walk, which also has a nice bat exhibit.
But it’s really all about the tigers. They were sleeping at lunchtime, of course. We never did get back there at park closing, when they are more active and might have been playing or swimming. It was pretty hot that day.
More detail in “Asia.”
Our tour guide, Jayn, who was fantastic. We actually took the tour on Thursday, and I don’t have many photos since you can’t take them “backstage.” But I’ll write up a review of the tour when I get to Thursday’s rundown (Day 4).
After our day at the Animal Kingdom, we went back to our hotel for a rest and then hit the Brown Derby restaurant (a favorite) at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. (I still call it “MGM.” Old Disney habits die hard.) As always, our dinner and service were splendid. I had a delicious filet and a fine Old Fashioned. The best meal of our trip.
Another amazing trip to WDW.
I am exhausted just remembering what we did day 1.