Mid-trip Lion Country Safari and WDW


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North America
November 18th 2009
Published: November 18th 2009
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Friday, November 6, 2009 -- another busy day; is this really vacation???

Checked out just after 8 a.m. and got on the road north. Took longer to get to Lion Country Safari than I expected; got there about 10. I missed the 869 turnpike and went up Hwy 441 -- which is okay; I prefer non-freeway driving anymore. It’s one of the many nice things about being retired -- don’t have to be in such a hurry to get anywhere.

LCS was well worth the side trip; it’s a drive-through wildlife park, mostly African animals. I just did the drive-through part of it, but could have spent pretty much a whole day there. The animals have a good amount of space and appear well-cared for. And there are a lot of them! Only saw two elephants, but there are dozens of herd animals; I counted 50-60 zebra. Some walk right by the cars, some stayed quite a ways back, but there were plenty close up. The lions are nicely visible and they were being fairly active in the relatively cool morning. Can I use the word “awesome” a lot? -- it’s a great place for people who like to watch animals. There were 8-9 rhinos, also close to the road; one of them pushed another across the road in front of the car in front of mine -- I think it had gotten to close to her one-year-old baby, named Jazi. I’m going to be tempted to take DGS down there on our next Orlando trip, even tho it’s about a 3 ½ hour drive each way. Much better animal viewing than one has at WDW’s Animal Kingdom. The chimps are kind of far away, on an island in constructed “condos” -- with no trees, which seemed a little odd.

I left about 11:20 and went up the Florida turnpike to Kissimmee; I wanted to get to my next place with some daylight to walk around and take pictures. I spent one night in Disney’s Coronado Springs resort -- one of the “moderate” hotel complexes. It’s very nice, great theming, very attractive and comfortable room. It’s kind of an old Mexico/Spanish theme, Mayan and Olmec pool area ,etc. I would enjoy a longer stay here (if it had a kitchen, or a microwave -- it does have a small fridge in the room). Excellent bed and reasonable space in the room -- two Q beds, and room for a twin air mattress. The pool and play is large and looks great. I had an early dinner at the Pepper Market, which is sort of a food court; more limited than I expected it to be, but sizable. I had the seared salmon with rice and grilled vegetables. Asked for no onions, and it was really good -- I cleaned my plate which is unusual for me (but I hadn’t had any lunch, except one taquito snack from the gas station).

Went to the Magic Kingdom in the evening, for the fireworks; they only have them 3 nights a week this time of year, and that’s one of my favorite things. Rode It’s a Small World (which is usually one of the last rides I get on) because it was a walk-on -- got the front of the boat, but unfortunately had an extremely rude family behind me. They were an attractive-looking young 4-person family, but they hollered over the music the whole trip -- esp. the Dad, who got them all started with LOOK AT THAT . . . . . , etc. They also kept poking me in the back. He sat up on the back of the seat -- the rest of the boat was empty. No accounting for some people. Fireworks were just starting, and joined lots of people watching them by Philharmagic. It wasn’t as crowded as June, but it was pretty busy. Had a quiet ride on Haunted Mansion (got in the last doom buggy of the group I went thru with). And a pleasant Jungle Cruise ride. Ambled on back out to the bus stop and didn’t have too long a wait to get back to the resort (less wait time than getting the bus at the resort). One of the advantages to staying on property is being able to bus back and forth to MK -- the other parks I just as soon drive to.

So, it was another full, busy day -- a road trip day, not relaxing, but saw some great stuff and had some fun. I can relax at home these days!




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