Thursday April 27th 2023

The day began sunny with the temperature climbing quickly and ended with the area under a severe thunderstorm watch. About 5PM the TV weather talkers started to monitor severe thunderstorm warnings and then tornado warnings. All of the storms were east and north of here, but the TV did a good job of spreading fear. They have to heed the warning and convey the concerns. It would be devastating if they failed to communicate the message and life and property were lost. This immediate area only got some light rain. The current severe thunderstorm watch ends at 10PM, but a line of strong storms is coming in off the Gulf of Mexico overnight. Another watch or even a warning is possible overnight.

I tried to get moving quickly this morning. My plan was to get to Disney’s Animal Kingdom shortly after its 8AM opening. Even cutting my breakfast short, it was still around 9AM when I arrived at the park. By the time I got to the Safari Ride at the back of the park the posted wait time was fifty minutes. They were wrong. It took about ninety minutes before I boarded my safari truck, but my wait wasn’t over yet. Just after we pulled away from the loading platform all of the trucks stopped. Usually this happens when an animal decides to block the road. Today it was a mechanical problem. One of the trucks broke down. Everybody had to wait another half an hour before things got moving again. The trucks in front of us had animals to watch during the wait. Our truck didn’t even have any animals to watch. We were only a hundred feet or so from the loading area.

It was around 11AM when the safari began. The animals had retreated to the shade at the sides of the savanna. It is better ride early in the day or later toward evening to see the animals out in the open and active. All of the animals were a good distance away from the safari truck. Many were lying down and possibly sleeping. Overall it wasn’t one of the best safari rides I’ve taken.

Following the safari I walked the Gorilla Falls trail to see the gorillas. As I proceeded by the monkeys and through the bird tent I saw a lot of people walking against the prescribe direction of travel. It is not unusual to see one or two people back tracking out of the attraction, but this was different. I soon found out why. Just before the gorilla viewing area the path was blocked. The gorillas weren’t out and it looked like they were doing maintenance in the area. I soon became one of the people moving out of the attraction against the grain of traffic.

It was about this time that cutting my breakfast short this morning started to come back to haunt me. I was running out of energy and starting to feel lots of little aches and pains. A quick cup of Pineapple Dole Whip soft serve tasted great, but didn’t fix my energy levels. I continued to walk the trails in the park checking out the animals and other sights. All of the attractions had very long lines and wait times. The crowd level seemed to be high today. I completed one circuit of the park. On a good day I would have returned to some of the animals again or wait in line for one of the shows. Today I headed for the exit. I was back at my RV home by mid afternoon.