Valentines Day With Family!

As I mentioned in my last post, I spent my first day off (Valentines Day) with my grandparents! They were in Florida visiting my grandpa's brother in Daytona, so they drove to visit the first day I had off since I had stuff already planned on my birthday the next day. Unfortunately, this was the first time it was cold and rainy the ENTIRE day. It put a little bit of a damper on the trip, but it was still fun!

I woke up early to take the bus at around 8:15 to get to Animal Kingdom right before it opened. My grandparents were supposed to meet me around nine, but there was heavy traffic thanks to an overturned semi. I took the time to do one of my favorite things I like doing at Disney when I'm at a park alone: people watch. Right before I went into the park I went up to one of the ticket booths and asked if I could get a cast member discount on park hoppers for other people, but the lady said unfortunately the only way I could do that was through Company D or online on The Hub (which is kind of stupid, but whatever). Then I hopped into the park and started to walk around, admiring the plants and animals and excited families. There must have been a school field trip that day or something because I saw a lot of tour groups of teenagers and tour guides quizzing the students about certain things. It started to drizzle a little bit so I decided to sit under the giant rock formation near the entrance that has benches underneath. Two little girls and her mom were also under there to get out of the rain, and one of the girls kept repeating this song lyric she was making up and almost shouting the entire time...and the mom wasn't doing anything about it. Gotta love parenting at Disney World. A photopass cast member brought his camera under the rock to clean it off from the rain, which was pleasant because they whole time he was whistling a random tune and have a jolly ol' time.

Around 9:30 I got a call from my grandma being notified that they were at the gate ready to come in. I walked back to the entrance and met them at the bag check, went to pay for my grandpa's park hopper ticket (birthday present to him), and then head on back inside the park. The very first thing I had them do was walk to Everest to get fast passes since the wait was already up to 30 minutes. We started to walk to Kilimanjaro Safaris, but on the way we saw that the Flights of Wonder show was about to start, and I had never seen that show before. We took a detour and decided to watch the show, which was pretty cool and funny. I love the messages that Animal Kingdom gives out to guests during their rides like Safari and their shows like this one, that we need to protect our wildlife and our environment.

Baby Simba!

(Side note: Why is it FREEZING in my apartment right now?! I'm so cold!!!! WHY is it so cold?! Okay, back to blogging...)

After Flights of Wonder we discovered that we could already use our fast passes by the time we walked all the way back to Asia, so we went back and hopped in line right on the ride! I was excited because I adore this ride, and my grandparents have never been on it. Did I ever mention that they've never been to Disney World since Studios and DAK were built? No? Well now you know.

The yeti on Everest was like completely hidden this round. The strobe light barely flashed and all you could see were his red eyes. Honestly if I had never been on it, I wouldn't have even noticed. I hate that. Disney needs to get its act together and fix that thing. It's so frustrating how they haven't. I don't care how much money that would cost, Disney can afford it. Okay, done ranting.

Besides my internal disco yeti frustration, my grandparents enjoyed the ride! We headed over to Dinoland to ride Dinosaur afterwards. It was kind of funny because the last time I went on that ride was when they were calling me to talk about this exact trip we were planning at the time. Gosh I love that ride, in a very sickening way. I love how much it terrifies me, no matter how many times I go on it. That last dino right before you go back to present day just gets me every time.

At this point, we were getting hungry for lunch, so we decided to eat at Yak and Yeti (the sit down restaurant). It was really good! I had the Mediterranean chicken salad, which was bigger than my own face. Definitely filled me up! My grandparents also decided to take this time to give me my birthday gifts, which consisted of a beautiful pink watch, headband and keychain.

When we finished our lunch, we finally made our way to Safaris, which had around a 35 minute wait time. This was kind of amazing because the park was busy enough for Everest to have a 65 minute wait time. But anyway, we went on the ride and for the first time I got to see some awesome views of hippos, which hadn't happened yet even though I've been on the ride around three times already. Near the end of the ride when we were about to drive up to the departure dock, I saw my roommate Sarah walk across the roadway. By the time we got off the truck I thought she was long gone, but surprise! She was working the fast pass lane! My grandparents got to meet her, but we couldn't chat much because the line for fast passes seemed to be never-ending (uncharacteristically, might I add), so we went to the Tree of Life and took a few pictures. After this it was time to head to Hollywood Studios, so we got in their car and head on over.

My grandparents and me in front of the Tree of Life!

By the time we got to Studios, it was around 3 o'clock, and it was cold and WET. It wasn't raining too much to make it uncomfortable to be outside, but by the time we walked on Sunset Blvd to see if Rockin' had any fast passes available (it didn't), the rain was starting to get a little worse. Since it was close to 3 o'clock, we found a little overhanging in front of the shops to watch the parade. I was a little disappointed because the dancers didn't have any choreography today, they just walked around and waved at people with the characters. It's always fun to see the characters, but I kind of missed the dance they did to the song.

Right after the parade, I tried to think of attractions that required staying indoors during the wait and the ride, so we headed to the Great Movie Ride. The wait said 20 minutes, but goodness I was there for at least 35. Which is ridiculous for GMR if you've ridden it before. We had the gangster this time, and honestly I think I like the cowboy better. But it was still enjoyable! When the ride ended, we needed to find more indoor attractions, so I quickly lead them to the Walt Disney exhibit, "One Man's Dream." I adore this exhibit so much. We watched the little video they had at the end of the exhibit for the first time, and it made me just love the place even more. I love Walt, oh so very much.

We hopped onto Voyage of the Little Mermaid for a little bit because I had never seen the show, but it was kind of annoying because it kind of rained on the inside to simulate being underwater...when our goal was to be out of the wet and rain. By the time we watched the show (which was pretty good, in my opinion), it was time for dinner. We quickly ran over to ABC Commissary, said hi to one of my friends who works there, and then managed to get a table at Syfy. Sadly, it wasn't one of the nifty car tables because it was really busy that night, but it was still a really cool experience. I had a turkey club with sweet potato fries, which was really delicious. Our dinner marked the end of our Disney journey for the night, so my grandparents took me home and we said our goodbyes before they headed back to Daytona for the rest of their vacation.

Ack! I start working at the Grand Floridian tomorrow!! Kinda nervous but excited to try something new! Wish me luck!