I grabbed 7 ponchos from the cupboard in the villa (Joanne really does think of everything!) and got the stuff ready at the door to load into the car. We had a 10am breakfast reservation at Tusker House this morning at Animal Kingdom and I had been looking forward to it all week.
We arrived at Animal Kingdom at 9am and headed towards Africa, having some Photopass photos taken on the way before the imminent rain came. It was really dark now.
We looked at some of the birds and animals along the way and then reached Africa. I saw Tusker House on the left and told the others that’s where we were going and Mum said “You might have picked somewhere that’s not dilapidated!” Thank fully she was joking. It does look really run down from the outside, but it all adds to the magic and you do really feel like you’re in Africa.
The sky seemed to get darker by the minute and was heavy with rain so we decided we would go and check in to Tusker House to get undercover. We parked up Amelia’s stroller as close to the building as possible and put the rain cover over it and a poncho over the hood to keep it dry. We were directed around to the back of the building where we checked in and waited in a seated area. I took a few photos to pass the time and then we were called up to have our photo taken with Donald Duck.
Looking Stormy!
The picture they took of us outside
Amelia in the dress I made her
Every time I tell her to “say cheese!” she does this!
We had a short wait before we were called in to the restaurant and were taken to our table by a lady who looked a bit like Whoopi Goldberg!
Our waitress came over and set us up with some jungle juice which was delicious. It was a blend of orange, guava and mango and tasted much the same as Tesco Tropical fruit juice, only better! I kept having refills it was so nice.
Breakfast was nice, especially the gammon and sweet potatoes. Two things I wouldn’t usually eat for breakfast! There were quite a few things available that I wouldn’t eat for breakfast, but also the usual egg and bacon type items. The rain was lashing it down outside now and I was glad that we got indoors in time. I hoped that the pushchair would stay dry under the poncho!
It was quite a while before any characters came round to our table and when they did, I couldn’t help but feel as though they were rushing through everyone. I know we had a later reservation and they were probably nearing the end of their shift, but we paid a lot of money to go there and I don’t feel they interacted with the kids as well as they could have. Daisy practically snatched the autograph off Amelia, scribbled her name and then walked on to the next table. Mickey was the same, although he did kiss Amelia. But by far the best out of all the characters, and one of our best memories of Tusker House was Goofy. Amelia hadn’t been too bothered by the characters so far and was a bit scared in Crystal Palace and at the character spot in Epcot. She had been getting better throughout the holiday with Curious George, Homer and Woody Woodpecker. At Tusker House she was really starting to get in the swing of things and was laughing at the characters, touching Daisy’s beak and Minnie’s hat. But when Goofy came over she was just smitten with him! She kissed him on the nose which made Goofy go all silly and shy and then he tickled her tummy which made her giggle. He was brilliant.
We continued eating breakfast and drinking jungle juice. A guy came round to the table asking if we wanted to purchase the photo that we had taken with Donald as we came in. It was a really nice photo of us all in a nice card frame and came with 4 smaller photos too. I said I would buy it and Mum said she wanted one too. It came to $31.90 each including tax.
Shortly after, Donald and Daisy did a little parade around the restaurant with all the children following them, shaking wooden lizards. I took Amelia and she loved it. Oliver didn’t want to take part. Think he’s getting to that age now!
When the parade was finished, to distract Amelia when giving back the lizard shakers, I took her into the buffet room to get some more yoghurt and we ran into Goofy again in there. He recognised her and ran over to tickle her again. Amelia was awe struck!
We asked for the bill which was a whopping $186.68 for the 6 breakfasts (Amelia’s was free). This included 18% gratuity at $26.99 and $9.75 tax. I think they could at least have thrown in the photo at that price. I’m not sure I would go here again. If we did I think we would go a bit earlier in the morning.
The rain was still hammering it down as we came out of Tusker House which put a dampener on things (no pun intended). We ran to the stroller to get out our ponchos and stowed the photos in 2 carrier bags under the poncho on the hood. Tracy kept asking if her eyebrows were still on as she draws them on with eyebrow pencil!
I thought the best idea would be to go and watch the Festival of the Lion King which was due to start 5 minutes time. I have wanted to see the Lion King in theatre in London for over 10 years now and still haven’t made it, so I was really looking forward to this. I didn’t take any photos, but it was brilliant! The singers were amazing and it was all so cleverly done. Of course, Amelia fell asleep half way through!
We took the Safari Village Trails and looked at the carvings on the tree. Oliver, Dad and I went on Countdown to Extinction which was quite good.
The rain was still pouring down so we went to see Nemo. This was fantastic! Although I almost fell asleep a few times! I was sitting next to Dad and the pair of us couldn’t keep our eyes open. It was such a horrible feeling; like I had weights on my eyelids I kept feeling my head nod and I had to shift myself in my seat to make it look like I was just moving along to the show and not sleeping through it! I didn’t even feel tired before I went in. It was a horrible sensation.
The singing and the characters were brilliant and Amelia clapped all the way through. She loved catching the bubbles at the end too.
AMAZING ride!!
We watched our ride video when we got off but it was a bit out of our budget, otherwise we would have bought it. It was hilarious!
We had trouble finding the others when we got off and spent the best part of an hour looking for them. We eventually saw Dad as he emerged from a shop. Apparently all hell was breaking loose in there when an English bloke was getting in a ruckus with a cast member as the world and his wife were trying to cram into the shop to get out of the rain and the CM was trying to get everyone out!
We watched Mickey’s Jammin’ Jungle Parade, although it was quite busy and we couldn’t see very well. Amelia had the best view on Paul’s shoulders.
It was now about 4pm. We had hardly seen any of the park, but because the weather was so bad we decided that we would call it a day. It was such a shame as I was really looking forward to the safari. Another excuse to come back!
We went back to the villa, got changed into dry ‘duds’ (Dad’s new name for trousers - Tracy had been buying Milk Duds and he reckoned Duds sound like some sort of trouser!) and went to Tony Roma’s on I drive. We had a really nice meal here in 2009 and Mum and Dad have both been to one in Tenerife so we were looking forward to it. We left a bit disappointed though. Our table was right in a corner, the drinks took forever to come out and once our food was brought out, it was like they just forgot about us. Paul said as we came in there was a bit of a squabble between two waiters as one of them used our table when it was supposed to be for the other one. Maybe this is why we were ignored! All the other tables had baskets of bread which we didn’t. We only realised after we’d finished eating.
The food was nice enough. Paul, Dad and I all had Memphis burgers, Mum had ribs and Tracy and Oliver had steakhouse burgers.
Memphis Burger
Amelia was really grumpy tonight. She was so tired but refused to fall asleep in her pushchair. She had to be on me. Something which became the norm after tonight. She became so clingy. I could hardly eat my dinner as she wouldn’t go to anyone else and I didn’t want her screaming the place down. We skipped desserts, paid the $89.67 bill and went back to the villa via Dunkin Donuts on the 192! We got a mixed box of 12 for $7.49.
When we were back at the villa, I went into the ensuite in our bedroom to get Amelia ready for bed as a cockroach came running out! I almost had a heart attack! Dad caught it under a glass and put it outside but as he walked out, a frog jumped through the front door into the living room! I’m better with frogs than I am with spiders and cockroaches so picked him up and put him back outside.
Amelia refused to go to sleep and it was midnight before she finally went off. Every time she fell asleep in her own bed and I moved she’d start crying so she ended up in our bed again cuddling me.
I went to sleep wishing that we could stay for another week. We only had another 3 days left and the thought was depressing me a lot.
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