My Disney World Memories – Part 4

In the last installment of this series, I gave a pretty detailed account of the first full day of our 2003 honeymoon in Disney World.  I don’t remember the exact sequence of events for the rest of the trip.  So I am going to recount the highlights in no particular order.

If I remember correctly, we spent the second full day of our trip at Animal Kingdom.  We saw and did most everything there was to see and do in the park. 
The Dinosaur picture at the top of the last chapter was a stand-out moment.  Neither Mindy nor I were prepared for such an intense experience.  I was expecting a little dino-ride based on a lack-luster CGI cartoon.  We don’t usually purchase ride pictures, but that one was a keeper.
I remember taking the train out to the Conservation Station and being fairly underwhelmed.  There wasn’t a whole lot going on out there and it was a long train ride.  Mindy got to pet some goats (see picture above) and then we took the long train ride back.
Animal Kingdom is a park full of surprises.  We explored its trails rather haphazardly.  As we were walking, we came upon a cast member.  This cast member was stationed where he was to direct guests to a Winnie the Pooh meet and greet which was somewhat obscured by foilage.
“Wanna meet Winnie the Pooh?” asked the cast member.
Mindy froze in her tracks.  I knew Mindy didn’t like Winnie the Pooh.  In fact, she has what I can only describe as an irrational hatred towards the loveable stuffed bear.  “Fat and greedy” are her terms to describe him.

I shook my head and said, “No thanks.”  But Mindy wasn’t moving.  The look on her face was pure terror.
I reached behind her and slowly walked her past the cast member who was trying to divert us towards the meet and greet.
“What was that all about?” I asked once we had put some distance between us.
“That was a little person,” Mindy replied once she had composed herself.
This was true.  The cast member who asked us if we wanted to see Winnie the Pooh was indeed a little person.  As it turns out, Mindy had never seen a little person before and it scared the pants off her.
A few years later, Josie got out of her bed for the first time.  She came looking for us which made a quick pitter-patter noise.  Mindy immediately froze up in bed.  I started laughing.  I knew she was afraid a little person had gotten in the house.  Perhaps the one from Animal Kingdom had tracked her down to finally make her meet Winnie the Pooh.
We went back to Animal Kingdom once more during the trip.  The one ride we hadn’t been on was Kali River Rapids.  So I insisted that we make that our first stop.  Mindy didn’t want to get wet.  So she asked me where she could sit and stay dry.  I wasn’t sure, but I decided to try to reason it out.
As we got into the raft, one half of it was wet and the other dry.  I suggested sitting on the side that was dry.  It seemed reasonable that if that side was dry, it was safer than the side that got wet.  As soon as the raft launched, I realized that this reasoning wasn’t going to hold up.  The rafts spun at random.  There was no predicting who would get wet.

The one thing that is certain on Kali River Rapids is that someone is going to get wet.  Not just wet.  Drenched.  We got through most of the ride unscathed.  But Mindy’s luck didn’t hold up. 
A wave crested behind her.  From my perspective, it seemed to happen in slow motion.  Her side of the raft was tilted down.  She may as well have been dunked into the rapids.  Water splashed down on top of her and all around her.  The rest of us got mildly damp.  Mindy looked like a drowned cat.
As we exited the ride, we passed a line of guests who were waiting to board.  Many pointed and laughed.  We left the park immediately after riding this one attraction.  It was a long bus ride back to the resort.

I had only made one dining reservation for the trip.  This was in the days before the dining plan and 180-day ADRs.  We could get a walk-up table at any location on property.  But the one sit-down meal we had planned in advance was Chef Mickey’s.  Pretty much the entire reason for going to Disney World was that Mindy was a Mickey Mouse fan.
I remember seeing Mindy’s face when she first met Mickey in person.  It sounds corny, but it really brought out her inner child.

From breakfast, we went back to the Magic Kingdom.  But by this point, the magic was wearing off for Mindy.  She became visibly annoyed with Snow White’s Scary Adventures which she described as “lame”.  I had to cajole her to get her on board the Jungle Cruise.  That was the last straw.  She was done with the Magic Kingdom which she considered a “kiddie park”.
Another big event of the trip was the Dolphins in Depth tour at Epcot.  In addition to Mickey Mouse, Mindy loves dolphins.  So I enrolled her in the Dolphin tour at Epcot’s Living Seas where she could interact with a dolphin.  I was taking classes on the side, so I opted out of the tour.  Instead, I spent that morning studying for an economics test in Future World.
When I was done studying, the tour still had another hour or so to go.  I started walking aimlessly around the park.  I didn’t want to do anything without Mindy, so I just took in the sites.  The park was absolutely empty.  In retrospect, I probably should have gone on the Dolphin tour too.
Later that day, Mindy decided she wanted a margarita.  I guess she left her purse at home because she asked me to buy one for her from the stand at the Mexico pavilion.  I was a little nervous because I didn’t have my ID on me at all this trip.  But apparently I looked sufficiently old or the cast member just didn’t care because she sold me a frozen alcoholic beverage.

I handed it off to Mindy who later told me she didn’t like it very much.  But since she had asked for it and it wasn’t cheap, she felt obligated to drink it.  Since she didn’t like it very much, she decided to drink it fast.  Cut to a half hour later when she is fall-down drunk off of a single margarita.  We actually headed home early because she couldn’t walk straight!

On one of our many bus rides, we encountered a family of four.  The two sisters were squabbling over who sat where.  The dad was trying to gently break it up without creating a scene.  The younger of the two girls looked at him and shouted “Stupid Daddy!”  Both Mindy and I were horrified, but kept smiling.  The dad looked at us sheepishly and said, “Our little angels”.

At the time, Mindy told me that if those had been our kids, she would have busted their butts.  But now that we have two little girls of our own, I could totally see this happening.  If it did, Mindy would be laughing too hard to bust anyone’s butt.

On the last day of our trip, we went to Downtown Disney to hang out until it was time to go home.  We had lunch at Wolfgang Puck’s which I swore at the time served the best pizza I had ever had.  I have had it since and it has never lived up to my memories.  So I don’t know if it’s gone downhill or if I just imagined it was better than it actually was.

Afterwards, Mindy bought a bag of cotton candy.  We went back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge and waited for our shuttle to arrive.  Mindy ate the entire bag of cotton candy.  Then she started bouncing off the walls on a sugar high.

The sugar high ended on the shuttle to the airport.  She crashed hard.  She fell asleep on the bus.  And then my wife made a noise that I can only describe as the loudest snort I have ever heard another human being make.  It was so loud, it woke her up.  She came to to realize that the entire bus full of strangers was staring at her.

That ends our honey moon trip.  In the next installment, our first trip with children.

My Disney World Memories – Part 5

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daffystardust
Editor
11 years ago

Love the story about the little guy!
Despite the joshing you give her, the love you have for your wife shines through in these articles. It is no doubt part of the reason you became so attached to your honeymoon location.

daffystardust
Editor
11 years ago
Reply to  lebeau

tease

daffystardust
Editor
11 years ago
Reply to  lebeau

There now, was that so hard? The story was less dumb than I was prepared for, but I can see why it’s your wife’s favorite. This one is not at her expense! Many stories are best for those who were there. On our honeymoon to England, we were staying in an old English estate mansion that had been converted into a hotel (big thanks to Lynn’s sister!) The hotel was located just outside Stratford-on-Avon, but our flight landed at Gatwick airport south of London, so we had to get used to driving our rental car on the other side of… Read more »

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