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Day 9 - Part 2 Warning: Combining Red Wine & Space
Mountain May Be Hazardous For Your Health
For our dinner at Jiko tonight, I was
going to wear a skirt.
Yes, no need to faint. I really do have legs. Of course, I chose
to wear a wrap around long skirt so my legs remained nicely hidden.
Goofy Guy said that since my legs were still not really seen, the
question of whether or not I actually have legs remains an unsolved
mystery.
We hopped on the bus to Animal Kingdom and transferred to the Animal Kingdom
Lodge bus. Our timing left a lot to be desired. As we disembarked the AK bus,
we watched the AKL bus pull away. Did I mention it was raining too? My attempt
at looking presentable for dinner tonight was quickly being replaced by the oh-so-fashionable
wet poodle look.
I hear Jasmine wants my hairdresser’s number.
We finally made our way to AKL. I assessed the rain damage in the restroom and
did what I could. I discovered that waterproof mascara doesn’t work in
Florida torrential rainfall. But I digress…
After months of anticipation, our Jiko dinner had arrived. We were both really
excited. A lovely gentleman from South Africa took us to a terrific table by
the window. Unfortunately, I am the worst at understanding accents. The worst
I tell you! Goofy Guy had to nonchalantly act as my interpreter. This man was
so friendly and sweet; that I could hardly bear having him ask me a question
while I stared at him blankly. Surely there must be a course I can take called, “the
art of understanding foreign accents stupid”. I’d pay big bucks for
that one.
We were really looking forward to trying some African wine. On a previous trip,
we toured this restaurant and learned that 1% of all-African wine is shipped
to this restaurant. Mighty impressive indeed. Our waitress (with an accent I
had no difficulty understanding might I add) gave us the wine list. You call
this a wine list? We called it a novel.
Or one of my long-winded trip reports…
We knew we needed help with our selection and our waitress was up for the challenge.
She brought over red wine samples for us to try. We were expecting a few splashes
of wine in each glass to sample, but it appeared she was pretty heavy handed
with her pouring. Who were we to complain?
After sharing 4 samples, we agreed upon a red wine blend, and proceeded to order
a bottle. Delicious doesn’t even begin to describe it. It was truly wonderful.
Our waitress was equally helpful with our appetizer and entrée selections.
My arugula/bacon flatbread and Goofy Guy’s spring rolls were superb. Similarly
to my raspberry eating this morning, I was trying to savour each and every bite – not
wanting the meal to end. When I wasn’t looking, Goofy Guy stole a piece
of my flat bread. He’s just lucky I was wearing a skirt or I would have
fought him for that last piece of flat bread. Lucky for him, when wearing skirts,
you really do become more ladylike.
Our entrees were equally delicious. I had the curry shrimp and Goofy Guy had
the filet mignon with macaroni and cheese. No, that’s not a typo. We thought
it strange too, but this was the best darn gourmet macaroni and cheese either
of us had ever tasted. In fact, our entire meal was prepared to perfection and
had I not been about to explode out of my skirt, I would have ordered more – or
at the very least eaten our neighbour’s flatbread when they weren’t
looking.
The woman was wearing a skirt too so we would have been safe.
The meal was wonderfully romantic. Our table overlooked the little waterfall
outside the restaurant and it’s amazing to see how nightfall and the restaurant
lights change the feel of the restaurant. I was worried our expectations were
going to be too high for this meal, but thankfully I was wrong. It’s pretty
rare that I’m happy to be wrong. We rounded off the meal with crème
brulee for me and a banana split for Goofy Guy. He still hasn’t learned
my rule that fruit and dessert do not belong together. Nonetheless, we both agreed
that the desserts did not disappoint. We enjoyed our dinner immensely and managed
to draw the meal out for 2.5hours. We wanted to go to the Magic Kingdom for a
couple hours before closing, so we had to leave. I stood up and quickly sat back
down again.
Apparently African red wine blends are rather strong.
I tried to stand up again but this time much slower. It’s funny how I never
noticed that Jiko spins. Cool effect. It spins even faster than Garden Grill
in the Land pavilion in Epcot. Maybe our waitress was adding one last magical
experience to us by pushing the spin button on the wall. We left her an extra
tip.
I immediately went to the restroom. No, not to be sick, but to change out of
my skirt. Freedom!! Almost-but-not-quite showing my legs in long skirts can be
quite tiring.
We made our way down to the bus stop and climbed aboard within a few minutes.
We had to stand which for some reason, I found quite humorous. Come to think
of it, almost everything seemed rather amusing to me. I got the giggles. The
strangeness of the situation wasn’t lost on me. I did think it was rather
inappropriate for me to feel “tipsy” with all these children around
me heading towards the happiest place on earth. I tried with all my might to
hide this fact from everyone around me. I wasn’t downright intoxicated;
I was just feeling extremely joyful. I did feel
guilty, but the guiltier I felt the funnier I found the whole situation. Goofy
Guy glared at me to be quiet.
So I giggled some more.
After the short bus ride to MK (a LONG bus ride according to Goofy Guy), we arrived
at the Magic Kingdom. We boarded the train and made our way to Splash Mountain.
While on the train, I swore I could hear Boomer and Splashboy yell into the microphone, “All
Aboooooard” again. I temporarily forgot that they had already gone home.
I shared this thought with Goofy Guy and he replied by saying I’m cut off
from African red wine blends for life.
I had made a request to Goofy Guy earlier this trip to make sure we ride Splash
Mountain at night. I just love gazing at the different colours on the castle
off in the distance. Tonight I even noticed that the castle spins too. Will Disney
stop at nothing to make this trip magical for us?
Despite all the negative comments about the new Stitch ride, we decided to give
it a whirl tonight. After riding, we both had a feeling of indifference. It wasn’t
as good as Alien Encounter (and we only mildly enjoyed that one), but it wasn’t
as terrible as we were expecting either. However, I do have a question for those
of you who have been on this Stitch ride. Who does the voice of the robot in
the pre-show? His voice was VERY familiar to us but neither of us could place
it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I’ll even give you the credit
when I give Goofy Guy the answer.
I think I had become quite used to my tipsiness by this time because I actually
suggested to Goofy Guy that we ride Space Mountain next. Had I been thinking,
I may have stuck with the TTA instead.
But I’m not exactly renowned for my logic.
We board Space Mountain and the young girl ahead of me screams all the way while
I laughed with the same intensity. Each twist and turn made me giggle and for
the first time, I noticed the beautiful stars up above. Isn’t nature beautiful?
I could cry.
The ride ended and I slowly exited the vehicle. Hmm. I suddenly wasn’t
enjoying the slight spinning of Disney anymore. I asked Goofy Guy to thank management
for their attempt to add some extra Disney magic but please ask them to turn
the switch to off now. Enough was enough.
Wishes was about to begin and since this is Goofy Guy’s favourite nighttime
show, I decided to ignore my unhappy stomach. I had read on the DIS that a great
viewing location is at the train station. We fought the crowd and made our way
over to the station. We immediately noticed the problem. Half of the station
was under refurbishment so the open portion was mobbed with people. I mean wall
to wall of hot, tired, whiny, smelly people. We should really go find another
place to watch the fireworks.
Instead we stayed where we were.
Fortunately for me, I was standing behind a gentleman in a wet tank top who likely
left his deodorant at the hotel. Thanks Mister. I think he must have gotten some
fresh tattoos on his arms because he kept lifting up his arms to show his artwork
to people standing beside him. I couldn’t see the tattoos very well.
But I could smell just fine.
I learned tonight that when you combine a bottle of African red wine blend with
body odour and heat, you get a very unhappy stomach. My stomach was downright
angry. I had to make a run for it, and fast.
When Goofy Guy saw that my face was turning green, he grabbed my hand and trampled
over people as we made our way down the stairs. We found an open area just below
the train station and I practiced some deep breathing. I never knew that horse
manure on Main Street is actually a welcomed aroma when compared to the body
odour of the tattooed man in the train station. I could have kissed the horse.
Once Goofy Guy realized I wasn’t going to need a restroom break just then,
he turned to watch Wishes. We actually had a pretty good view considering our
location. When the show ended, we quickly ran to the bus stop and decided to
grab whichever All Star bus arrived first. It was Music, so we climbed aboard.
Although I was feeling slightly better, I learned that turning my head from left
to right was very dangerous indeed. Looking straight ahead was definitely the
way to go. It was now Goofy Guy’s turn to laugh.
I would have glared at him too, but that required me to turn my head.
Had they known, our fellow bus riders likely appreciated my looking straight
ahead too. We made it to All Star Music Resort and continued walking to Movies.
We also learned tonight that the Movies bus from the Magic Kingdom arrives at
about the same time it takes for you to walk from Music Resort to Movies. Damn.
I made it to our hotel room and immediately lay down. A sure sign I wasn’t
feeling well was that I noticed a bug walking across the table beside me and
I did nothing to get rid of it.
I obviously wasn’t well.
I made another mental note suggesting that I stick to one glass of wine during
future dinners at Jiko. I went to sleep very quickly where I think I dreamt about
buying out our local drugstore of deodorant. It was a comforting thought for some
reason. We both had a great night
sleep and recharged for our big day ahead of our triumphant return to Tower of
Terror and getting leid at the Spirit of Aloha.
Day 10 - Part 1 ...
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