Cast of characters: Sandy (45), Judy (45), Seth (17), Sara (15), Elana (11), Sandy's parents Ike and Beverly. All Disney veterans.

Why does everybody think I’m lost when I know where I am?

    This morning was set aside for Animal Kingdom. We were up at 7:00 and out of the room by 10:00 (hey, you trying getting out of the room in a reasonable amount of time with four women.) Seth, Sara and I went down to the lobby to wait. When Judy came down, she asked where Elana was, thinking she had come down ahead of her. Nobody knew where she was. Seth went out to look for her on the boardwalk and Judy went out to look for her by the pool. We eventually found her. She had become confused and went to the boat, not realizing we had to take a bus. A few frantic moments that were quickly calmed down.

    The bus took thirty minutes to arrive. In the meantime, we saw three Magic Kingdom busses, and two for Downtown Disney. We’re usually lucky with WDW transportation, but not this time. We arrived at Animal Kingdom at 11:30 and headed straight for Camp Minnie-Mickey and the Festival of the Lion King. The next show was 12:15, so we were well at the front of the line. While we waited on line, Seth took our passes and went to Countdown to Extinction to get us all fastpass tickets. He got back just as we were going in. We sat in the third row in elephant section.

    After the show, we headed to Dinoland, USA, since our fastpass was for 12:40 – 1:40. There was a long line at Countdown To Extinction, since it had just come back on line after a short fifteen minute shutdown. We decided to grab a snack and come back later in the hour, figuring the fast pass line would empty out by then. We went to Restaurantosorous to have some lunch and were back at CTE by 2:10. This time, the line was at the entrance.

    After CTE we went to the 3:15 show for Tarzan Rocks! We got seats in the last row in the first section on the left. My dad didn’t like the loud music and left in the middle. One of the apemen had fun playing with Elana’s hair (she has very long, thick and wavy hair.) When we got out, we expected my father to be sitting near the exit, but he was nowhere to be seen. We walked up and down the line waiting for the next show, but still couldn’t find him. Seth ran all the way out to the entrance and finally found him sitting on a bench. Today was not a day for sticking together.

    We had a 5:15 priority seating for Chef Mickey, so we left Animal Kingdom to grab a bus to the Contemporary Inn. Thinking we would have a chance to go back to Boardwalk before dinner, I went to the line for the bus back to the Boardwalk. I didn’t bring a jacket and it was getting chilly. So, I went back to the room, while everyone else waited for the Contemporary Inn bus. The bus stopped at all of the EPCOT hotels, which slowed me down. I grabbed a jacket for Seth, and me and a sweater for my mother and then walked to the front to grab the Magic Kingdom bus. This time, luck was with me and it arrived as soon as I got to the bus stop. I walked to the Contemporary Inn and was a few minutes late and they won’t seat you until you’re whole party is together. Once I arrived, we got seated right away.

    After dinner, we went to the Magic Kingdom. My father was tired and cold, so he grabbed the bus back to the room We were hoping to ride The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, but the fastpass was all sold out for the night. It was already 8:00. We rode the Tomorrowland Transit Authority then the Tomorrowland Raceway. We were disappointed that they renamed it. There’s an inside joke in our family why we pronounced the Prix in Grand Prix to rhyme with sticks. By the way, Tomorrowland Raceway has been taken over by Indianapolis 500. It used to be run by Goodyear. There were many obvious changes to the cars and the track.

    The line for Buzz Lightyear was too long, so we decided to check out Pooh. The wait time said 50 minutes, but we noticed that it didn’t seem that long, only doubling back on its length two times. So we got on line and were on the ride in fifteen minutes.