Disney Trip Report, Day 6

10.25.07

Happy 36th Birthday Mark!

Mom, Mark and I started the day off at Animal Kingdom while Ken and Dad started their day at Epcot. I stopped at Guest Relations to pick up Mark's birthday pin and the cast member behind the desk came out to check our birthday t-shirts. He also gave us fast passes for the safari, which we didn't have the time to use unfortunately. We rode Dinosaur and then went over to walk the animal trails we didn't get to see on Tuesday and to take pictures. Here's one of Mark's favorites:

He got some good gorilla pics too:The morning went quick and we just made it on time to meet Dad and Ken at Le Cellier in Epcot for Mark's birthday lunch. Mark had a 10oz steak, Mom and Ken had a chicken sandwich and Dad and I had the flat iron steak sandwich. They even brought out a decadent (as Dad would say) chocolate birthday dessert for Mark.

We walked lunch off around the World Showcase, I stopped and got a Strongbow in the U.K., we watched the World Showcase Players in Italy perform "Romeo and Juliet," and saw the 4 Tops perform outside the American Adventure.

We hopped on the monorail to go over to the Contemporary for Mark's surprise, a fireworks birthday cruise. (He said he had no idea). We had a really nice boat driver on our pontoon boat. It was decorated with a birthday banner and balloons and I had called the Contemporary in advance to order a white chocolate birthday cake. We left from the marina about 8:00 and he took us on a little tour around there, past the Wilderness Lodge (which looked so pretty lit up at night), past the old River Country (I miss that place, Mom and Dad took us there when we were little and I still remember it) towards the Wilderness campgrounds, and close to Discovery Island which is now a bird sanctuary and you could see all the white birds in the trees settled down for the night even in the dark. We went towards the Magic Kingdom then towards the Polynesian and Grand Floridian before parking right in front of the park. At 8:30, he turned on the speakers so we could listen along to the show and Hallowishes started. It was a great viewpoint to watch all the fireworks burst over Cinderella's castle, especially the ones at the end that went off around the perimeter. Now we'll want to do this every year!

Day 7 coming up: Magic Kingdom and Epcot.