This time its OUR trip - Day 7
June 14th
This is always the point in vacation that I start to get just a little sad. Only two more park days to go. This morning we were off to Animal Kingdom for breakfast at the Tusker House, a must do every trip.
Before we make it through the gates we run into Meeko who appears to be on his way in after doing photos. Up until this point DS hasn't been a big character fan but he waves to Meeko and tries to show him his toy cars. We're both pretty shocked and Meeko stops to say hi. We explain DS doesn't speak much due to a speech disorder and is very shy with characters. Meeko gets down on his hands and knees and spends a fair amount of time rolling cars back and forth with DS. I wish I had gotten photos but I was honestly a bit emotional and just watched. This right here, this is why we love Disney.
After our Meeko encounter we head back to Tusker House and check right in. Food is great as always and our waitress was really nice an super informative. I love the sweet plantains and rice here. DS has decided the best buffer for meeting all characters now is to show them his cars and he does really really well. After breakfast we hop on the safari. The trip is catching up to DS who falls asleep, sitting up, in the front seat of the safari truck :blush:
We decide the only other thing we'll attempt today is the Lion King show. We hop in line, DS wakes up just as the show starts. Oddly there is no tumbling monkey scene. There are only two castmembers in monkey costumes so I wonder if it was a staffing problem?
We head back to Saratoga and to the pool, grabbing lunch there again. DS buys a tram car in the gift shop and they very kindly offer to open it for him there as it requires a screwdriver (!?) to get it out of the box! We hang at the pool for a bit until a thunderstorm rolls in and we head back to the room for naps.
We have an early ish dinner reservation at Jiko tonight. We head over a bit early so DS can check out the animals out back. We're the first table of the night seated. Early on in the meal DH gets a phone call from his uncle. His cousin's funeral today, something that had hung on us most of the day. Early on in the trip DH had decided there was no good way for us to make it there, it would have required three days of driving from FL all the way up the east coast. It was not an easy decision. The phone call was them, checking on us, being so far from family with something so difficult and understandably left us a bit emotional. A very observant manager took the time to bring a light up Lightening McQueen to our table for DS, mentioning we looked like we needed some magic tonight. Again, its moments like this that keep bringing us back to Disney World.
The food at Jiko was outstanding as always. We shared a shrimp appetizer and a duck flatbread. DH got the filet which was amazing. I had the seafood curry which was a HUGE portion and also fantastic.
Last but not least tonight we headed over to Hollywood Studios. DS and DH grabbed a ride on Toy Story Mania while I hopped on Rockin Roller Coaster. We met back up to hop in line for Fantasmic to finish off the night.
