Thursday--Blizzard Beach

Mt. Gushmore peak

Because US schools are on vacation this week the crowds at Disney World are more than we were expecting. Thankfully they'll all be going home over the weekend leaving us with fairly empty parks to visit next week. So because of this we decided to avoid the more popular parks for a few days. In the morning we checked the Weather channel and discovered that today was going to be the warmest day for the next seven days. So we decided on the spur of the moment to go to Blizzard Beach rather than Disney Hollywood Studios as we had originally planned.

It was just warm enough to enjoy the water rides at Blizzard Beach. Paul and the kids went on most of the rides while I enjoyed the wave pool, cross-country creek (sitting in an inner tube while it went on a circuit of the park--no rapids, nothing scary, just a few splashes along the way). Jade and Jarrah tried walking along ice floes in the ski patrol training area. Yes this park has a snow/ski theme to it just to give it a difference.





It is interesting to compare this park with Wet n Wild in Queensland. WnW had more thrill rides involving vortexes whereas this park had two rides that came nearly straight down from a very high mountain.

We left the park about 4pm to catch a bus to Animal Kingdom where we had a dinner reservation at Tusker House Restaurant. We arrived at Animal Kingdom just in time for the end of the day parade which blocked our path to the restaurant. As one cast member (Disney employee)said, it didn't matter if we were late as this was Disney and they would understand. The restaurant was in a whitewashed weathered building which was possibly African looking. We were ushered to our seats, drink orders were taken (I ordered Sangria) and we were told it was all we could eat from the buffet. Jade was thrilled with this as she is on the child dining plan for children 9 and under and her portions have been a bit small for her. The food was wonderful with Middle Eastern, Indian and African inspired dishes. I had chicken curry with rice, flat bread with hommus and tabouli and a samosa for dinner. It was just fabulous. These meals are what will make the dining plan worthwhile. There's only so much pizza, hot dogs and burgers a person can take.