Days 6, 7, 8, 9

Well as it happens, it is very difficult to stay updated on this thing while dealing with the many variables that come along with a vacation. We’ve been so busy during the day and so exhausted in the afternoon, which contributed mightily to my delay in posts. Oh well, I’ll do a quick run through of the preceding days.

Day 6 (Monday): Animal Kingdom








In comparison to the San Diego Zoo or the Wild Animal Park, the Animal Kingdom is nothing special. But the one thing it does have over our local zoos is (of course) the rides they have to offer. Expedition Everest and the Kali River Rapids were two rides that were a lot of fun. Expedition Everest probably takes the cake for my favorite ride; in some sections the runaway train goes backwards into complete darkness. It’s weird to think they’ve got roller coasters with animals nearby…hopefully we’re not too noisy for them.

The park had some fun trails, which one of them led us to the tiger exhibit. Typically, every time I’ve gone to the zoo to watch the tigers, they usually just are laying down, taking it easy. But on this occasion, the tigers were out and playing, even growling. So that definitely made the day a bit more special.








Day 7 (Tuesday): Magic Kingdom and Epcot

On Tuesday, the day started off with a bang… literally. We had a storm come through that night, and a huge clap of thunder woke me up at 5:00 AM. I’m not the lightest sleeper in the world, so it was a pretty loud one to rouse me out of bed. I watched it for a good hour, trying to take pictures of the lightning spikes, but I was unsuccessful. During one long exposure, however, there was so many lightning strikes that it illuminated the palm trees to the extent that you could see their green color.



Besides that, today we spent the morning at the Magic Kingdom. We were only at the park til about noon, which we rode Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, and the Magic Kingdom Railroad.

We then made the switch over to Epcot, which marked the first time we went to more than one park in a day. However, there was a mishap, as our tickets would not allow us to gain entry into the park. My mom called our travel agent, and we got that sorted out rather quickly. We had an early dinner at the Tutto Italia, which had great service and great food. Since Disney screwed up on our passes, we were given a Fast Pass to any attraction, and we used one for Test Track. After that we went to the Land exhibit and rode “Living with the Land” which took us on a slow boat ride to the greenhouses and other experimental growing habits that Disney was engaging in to improve conservation. This was probably the most intriguing attraction that we visited. I'm bummed to say I have no pictures of it though. Below you can see what "Italia" looks like at Epcot, along with the unique contours of the monorail over the water.





After our shortened day, I went out and took pictures of a spectacular sunset and later, of the fireworks display visible from the Magic Kingdom.




Day 8 (Wednesday): Animal Kingdom in the morning, Magic Kingdom in the afternoon

On our last full day in Orlando, we made the most of our passes. We visited Animal Kingdom again in the morning, and stayed until around noon once it got super crowded. We then ate at the Kona Café at our Polynesian Resort, which proved to be one of my favorite meals that we had there. I had a delicious chicken sandwhich with some secret dressing, and had a devilish dessert that included ice cream and cotton candy.




After lunch, my mom and sister went back to Hollywood Studios, while my dad and I stayed behind to watch the United States play Spain in the semifinals of the Confederation Cup. They ended up beating the number one ranked team in the world, 2-0, which was their first loss in a record-tying 35 games. That was definitely exciting to see, even though they ended up losing in the final 3-2 to mighty Brazil.

After the game, we made the trek back to the Magic Kingdom, and rode some of the rides that we hadn’t yet ridden—such as the Tea Cups and we paid homage to the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, which was actually pretty funny. Our last night ended on a boat trip back to Polynesian.








Day 9 (Thursday): Magic Kingdom and the Orlando International Airport

Our last day was spent at our overall favorite park, the Magic Kingdom. We went on a few rides, such as the Astro Orbiter, which we had never done before in Florida. It was sad to leave Florida, but it is great being back in San Diego, especially since we don’t have to endure under treacherous conditions of 95 degree heat with 70% humidity.