On Tuesday, my last full day at the Disney resort, I decided to go to Disney's Animal Kingdom. I chose that one because over the decades I've been to all the others, and I believe this one is relatively new.
Bad choice. It wasn't laid out as well as other "kingdoms". It had a carnival air. Most of the rides would be more at home at the county fair. There was even what looked like a midway.
I went on a "safari", which would have been more interesting without the stupid story line about chasing poachers, and especially without the addition of passing the "ranger plane", wherein the plastic "ranger" looked like something your neighbor might put in his front yard at Halloween - totally unconvincing.
I went on one ride, where we were in "time machines", and went "back to the Jurassic" to see the dinosaurs. It was so cheaply done! I expected much better from Disney. The dinosaurs looked just plain fake, like something in a, well, carnival fun house. One that gets moved around a lot.
There were animals, but I felt sorry for them. Except for those in the "safari" area, they were in "naturalized" areas that were actually no more than little pens. It must have been very boring for them.
Another thing is that it seemed a lot more commercial that it used to be. And no, it's not my age. I'm not jaded. I last visited Disney in my early 50's, when we visited the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Discovery Island (before it became the Animal Kingdom), and a bunch of other stuff, including Universal, and it was amazing then, and I hoped it would still be.
It was the hottest day yet of my stay, but there were none of the cooling water sprays I had been led to expect. The dominant sound was children crying, "Mommy, I'm so hot", "I'm so hot my head hurts", much sobbing and wailing. The parents would say "Well, we can go back to the hotel if you like", and that only made the kids cry harder. You can't be six years old at Disney World, and leave because it's too hot. They just wanted Mommy and Daddy to make the hot go away.
The whole experience was depressing.
This is the fake tree in the middle of the center Island. You couldn't get close to it. It has animals depicted in the bark:
Took this one on the safari:
This was in the "Asia" section. It's one of those heavily decorated buses, serving the best soft ice cream. That's either The Matterhorn, or Everest, in the background, I forget. Or maybe even Kilimanjaro. Probably Everest, 'cause a Yeti was going to jump out at some point. Whatever. Nothing was certain. It's a roller coaster ride. With a 1.5 hour wait. Even with the "fast pass".
While waiting in line at the "trip to the Jurassic", we were treated to displays of fossils and such. The woman behind me said to her friend, "What's that? Oh, that's just more of that evolution garbage." Sigh.
After I left the Animal Kingdom, I ate in a restaurant just outside the gates - an experience in itself. It's apparently a chain, but maybe it's good for them that I can't remember the name. Huge inside. Lots of enormous tanks of fish. Clumps of fake trees with gorillas and elephants. Ceiling of tree branches and leaves and looping vines, and monkeys. NOISE! Elephants trumpeting, gorillas hooting, monkeys chattering, and every 10 or 15 minutes, there was a thunderstorm - flashing lights and thunderbooms. Aaaaaaagh! But I took this picture of a fish in one of the tanks - I was fascinated by its face. Yes, it's a real live fish.
I meant to include this in an earlier entry, but I forgot, so you're getting it here. This was an ordinary fan on a patio at the hotel, until a Mensan got to it:
That night I talked with Roman (phone). I told him I was packing, and wanted to go to the whirlpool, but it was getting late. He advised me to go anyway, so I did, and I'd be glad that I did, except that there seemed to be something wrong with the chlorine, the smell of bleach was very strong, and I seem to have picked up a slight yeast infection. (No, not there - I haven't had that in 30 years - all the yogurt I eat I suppose. This involves skin folds. I have since increased my yogurt intake, after not having had any on the vacation. Sigh.)
By the end of the day, I was more than ready to go home.
1 comment:
I told my sister about how disappointed I was with the Animal Kingdom, and she said yes, that she thought the same thing, but she didn't say anything because she had gone when it first opened, and she hoped maybe it had improved.
Apparently it hasn't.
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