It's Too Hot! (April at Animal Kingdom Lodge)

Wild Africa Trek was awesome! Photos are on my camera so I can't post till we get home. But it was well worth the $$$.

JoAnn and Robyn.

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Dinner at Sanaa Saturday evening. Bread service, sustainable fish of the day (which was mahi mahi), braaivleis, and menu descriptions.

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Sunday. The view from our room at Kidani Village and dinner.

After the Wild Africa Trek we returned to our room and then went to Disney Springs to meet a bunch of British Disney fans. Afterward hubby, JoAnn, and I went to Blaze Pizza. Hubby's had...okay, I know it had ham, either sausage or meatballs or maybe both, pesto along with the red sauce, gorgonzola along with the mozzarella, and a bunch of veggies including jalapenos and artichoke hearts. Mine had red sauce, a little mozzarella, sausage, mushrooms, onions, green peppers, black olives, and banana peppers. This was my second visit to Blaze but my companions' first. They liked it!

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We ate halfway around World Showcase and I forgot to take photos of anything. I only have these because hubby reminded me. They are merguez "hot dog" sausage and baklava from Taste or Marrakesh.

I will describe everything after we get home and I can use all ten fingers instead of just my thumbs.

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I gave up on Epcot around 2:00 or so due to the heat. Back at AKL we had this young fellow dining right outside our window.

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Honestly, I would've preferred the baklava without the chocolate, but it was still delicious.

Robyn arranged a Wishes cruise this evening. She asked our skipper, Mike, to take us over to the abandoned site of River Country. Here's a photo.

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Today we're heading back to Animal Kingdom for all the attractions we skipped Sunday. We're also having lunch at Tiffin's, our first visit. In January we stopped by Tiffin's in the evening to look at the menu, but it didn't appeal to us then. Sunday we looked again, and the small plates option available at lunch appealed to us, so we booked a reservation for today. All the delicious African flavors we had Saturday and Sunday also got me to book Boma for Thursday. Might as well do it all while we're so close.

We loved Tiffins, but we prefer it at lunch with the small plates option. After that we had a very full day followed by a much later evening than we had anticipated. Now it's past midnight and I really need to go to bed. I mean, really. So maybe more info tomorrow.

We were so busy Tuesday and Wednesday I only just made notes for those days as well as today. Also, after two days of comfortably hot days and cool-ish nights we hit highs around 95 F / 35 C. Fortunately the humidity wasn't bad today and I made it all the way around MK doing all of my favorite attractions and several others before leaving a bit before 3:00. The fact that most of the attractions are indoors helped also, I'm sure. Hubby was supposed to do his roller coaster tour today; he hit all three at MK, went back to Kidani for a break, and never left.

Tomorrow is predicted to have record high temps so I am not sure how far into the afternoon I'll get. We have a Frozen Ever After FP around 4:00 pm but I may need to blow it off and go "home." Or hide in the DVC lounge between lunch and Frozen.

By afternoon today the temperatures were horrid. We had lunch at Nine Dragons and found it better than we had expected after reading some bad reviews. It's not the best Chinese we've ever had, but it was better than most of the Chinese available in our area. Then we rode Figment and hid out in the DVC Lounge for a while, then walked back across the lagoon for our Frozen FPs. If not for Frozen I would've just left right then. After Frozen Robyn kindly offered to drive us back to AKL so we wouldn't have to wait at the bus stop. And here we are. Not going anywhere else tonight.

Saturday: hot and miserable.

Sunday: hot and miserable.

And now we have checked out of Kidani Village and into the Holiday Inn near Universal. Normally I would say this is a decent hotel, nothing fancy but perfectly respectable, but it's a dump compared to Kidani and there are no giraffes or zebras outside our windows! It does have a king bed as well as a sofa, so that's nice.

By this point of our extended trip I have realized the value of coming to Orlando for one week at a time. I am freaking exhausted. So tired. Of course the heat is half the problem. If this were January and the high temperatures were in the 60s or 70s (mid teens to low 20s C) with low humidity I'm sure I could do a lot more.

I may have seen a squirrel or bird here or there.

Universal was a bust today. Still too hot. We visited Diagon Alley, rode the train to Hogsmeade, toured the Hogwarts castle without riding, poked around shops, took the train back to Diagon Alley, and got lunch at Leaky Cauldron (toad in the hole with veggies for me, fisherman's pie for hubbie, both of which we ate two years ago. And butterbeer of course. Then train back to Hogsmeade, original plan was straight back on train but it was so hot and hubby was out of tobacco so we left with a stop at the Cat in the Hat ride. This was around 2:00 pm. He dropped me off at the hotel before looking for a convenience store, then we rested for a couple of hours. Returned to Universal a bit past 5:00, saw the parade go by as we walked back to Diagon Alley. Had some Earl Grey and Lavender ice cream, which was no as good as I had remembered. Couldn't really taste the earl grey or the lavender. Then went to the train station for one last round trip. Waited and waited and waited... mechanical problems. And with the park about to close that was it for us. Got dinner at Panda Express, which was about the same quality as the Chinese we can get at some of our local supermarket, but a lot more expensive than supermarket Chinese.

And that was it for Universal this trip.

By this point, 11 days into the trip, we're both exhausted and would like to go home.

JMed, the weather forecast for this weekend looks beautiful. You should be fine. LOL all bets are off for July though.

It was great seeing you too, JoAnn. Looking forward to next time. Let's hope it's soon!

We have returned home to the blessedly cool weather in Pennsylvania - even cooler than normal for this time of year, but I am happy to have a few days of long-sleeves weather to compensate for the miserably hot temperatures we encountered in Florida.

For me, the moral of the story is if the weather is extremely hot, cancel all midday plans and just go back to the resort to cool down. Restaurant reservations only where we're staying that don't involve having to go outside. Otherwise wait till evening. April is not usually this horridly hot - these were summertime highs we experienced. We've been twice before in April and the weather was tolerable both of those trips. So for April, plan assuming the weather will be decent and revise plans as necessary.

Trip report coming soon.

A few photos from the Wild Africa Trek (Sunday, April 23). These are all taken by the trek guides. Crossing the rope bridges was FUN! And we went right over a whole pit of crocodiles!

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