A Happy 60th Birthday

Nov 30 photos

Dec 1 photos

I had a mostly terrific time for my b-day in Orlando. I had second-guessed my decision to travel for 1 day to spend in Orlando after all the last minute travel we've done this fall, but in the end I was happy we went. We drove down in the middle of the night on Friday morning. We had one stop for gas and biscuit breakfasts at Bojangle's in Walterboro, SC on the way down. We arrived too early to check in and spent a couple of hours at an outlet mall. We went on to the Holiday Inn & Suites by Universal Orlando about 2pm and they let us check in around 2pm. It is conveniently located for an easy walk to Universal Studios and CityWalk. We had stayed here for a previous b-day trip and returned. Last time we checked in after midnight due to a canceled flight. The desk clerk took pity on us and upgraded us to the Suites tower. It was really a nice place to stay then! This time we got what we paid for which was a good-sized, clean room for $225 for 2 nights. The big difference in my mind was the view. From the suites tower, we could see Hogwarts. From the inn tower, we could see the new Hyatt. We really only slept there anyway, so it didn't matter. Since we were early, we took a nap. The beds were weird. They sloped from a high center to low sides. It felt like you were crawling uphill the whole time in bed. Both beds were like that! There was a construction project building a pedestrian bridge over Kirkman Rd. We decided if we come back, we'll try the DoubleTree which is on that side of the street. I guess it would depend on the price as it is only one extra street to cross!

I had a birthday dinner request at CityWalk for tonight. Tomorrow on my actual birthday, we'll eat fast food in Disney's Animal Kingdom Park. So by about 5pm we arrived in CityWalk. My request for tonight was Toothsome Chocolate Emporium. We had both looked at the menu and picked what we'd order. I stayed with my picks and my meal was delicious. Clay fell apart at the table and asked if he could get a plain hamburger with mustard and onions which was not on the menu. He was disappointed. He's not sure what happened. I had the Croque Monsieur which was perfectly done. I shared the flourless chocolate cake with Clay. We both agreed it was the best version of flourless chocolate cake we'd ever had. It was served warm and came with a scoop of Nutella ice cream. Clay decided if we'd both shared everything I ordered it would have been perfect. Maybe next time! My other reason for dinner at CityWalk was Voodoo Doughnuts. I wanted to take a dozen back to the room for 2 days of breakfasts. It turned out a dozen was at least a half dozen too many! And we left them out the first night and attracted ants. They didn't get inside the box but it was a mess.

On my actual birthday, Animal Kingdom opened to WDW Resort guests an hour before opening to the public. Still it wasn't too crowded. We had to swap our email printout ($260 for 2 1 day/1 park tickets + $25 for parking) for magnetic keycard tickets and go get a b-day pin for me. We were still in sight of the rope for a rope drop entry. That means you get there before park opening. For us that was 9am. We dropped the ball on booking our fastpasses for today. We wound up with only Festival of the Lion King show at 10am and Rivers of Light show at 7:30pm. We rode Kilimanjaro Safari before the show and got there too late to use our fastpass! We walked right in and sat right in front! The one ride which was the reason for the trip was Nav'i River Journey in the new land of Pandora at AK. That was the only low point of the day. We couldn't get fastpasses for it and had to wait 85 minutes in a standby line. The ride itself was only a 3 minute dark boat ride. It was fine but nothing really new or exciting. Nothing to warrant an 85 minute wait. Oh well. We saw Pandora in daylight and after dark. I'm glad to have done both. I missed a lot in daylight that was amazing in bio-luminescence mode. We spent the majority of the day collecting Wilderness Explorer badges. You can pick up a WE handbook as soon as arriving on Discovery Island. Then walking through the park you find guides and troop leaders who teach you something, or you have to do something in your book or the park to earn a sticker for them to put in your book. It was fun. You could at least do it with a short wait each time. If we'd ridden more than 2 rides all day, we'd have needed more days! We ate lunch at Satu'li Canteen. I had picked Steamed Pods (cheeseburger bao buns). Clay couldn't decide again and was going to try for a kid's menu cheese quesadilla. I saw a dish with 2 pods on it and figured rightly that we could just share one order. That worked perfectly. Clay was pretty much off his feed this weekend. Usually he is the one who has studied all the menus and is in anticipation of every meal. Not so this weekend.

We had great weather. Partly cloudy and a high in the mid-70s I think. It sprinkled on us for about 5 minutes in the afternoon. Not long enough to get the umbrellas out. We took in the last show of tohe day of Finding Nemo by walking right in about 1 minute before it started. Time for an early dinner. We ate dinner at Yak & Yeti's fast food side. Again, Clay couldn't decide. I shared my Honey Sesame Chicken and he ate an egg roll on the side. It was just right.

We really enjoyed the Tree of Life Awakenings and the River of Light show. They were both also new since our previous visit.

It was a good day and a good Birthday. Since I was wearing my button, I guess at least 100 times today random strangers wished me a Happy Birthday. There was usually just enough time between wishes that I was surprised each time someone told me!

Nov 30 photos

Dec 1 photos