Turns out, to and back from Disney Downtown was just slightly short of 8km. The shops were not open yet so I just took some snap shots of the buildings and stuff. 
Something very interesting was the noch ness monster built using lego bricks, and it's in the lake!!! Wah.... great stuff!!!
Anyway, the weather was fantastic, and there is a proper running path along the road all the way. Not forgetting that the run is also scenic with lots of trees and greenery along the way.
Ran there and back, getting lost here a bit, there a bit.... and finally reach back to the hotel in 51mins. Good run.... but cold arh!!! Glad I brought along my long sleeve saucony tee!!! Think I'll definitely need it for the weekend run.
Went back to the hotel just in time for the weather forcast....
Thu - Sunny and bright
Fri - Cloudy with chances of rain 20%
Sat - Cloudy with chances of rain 30%
Sun - Cloudy with chances of rain 40%
Mon - Sunny
Darn..... the two days that I'll be running... may potentially be raining!!! AAARRRGGGHHH!!! *sob* *sob*
Thought a good breakfast may cheer me up.... but NO..... it depressed me more..... WAAHHHYYYHH..... the so call 'full continental breakfast' was a farce!!! Cold bread wrapped in plastic sheet, small oily meat patties, supposedly-fried-egg-which-looked-suspiciously-like-pancakes, 2 types of cereals, some-very-sweet-looking-donut-with-some-red-sticky-stuff-in-the-middle, oranges, apples. *sniff* So disappointed..... sorry, I didn't even have the mood to take photos of the food.
An interesting incident: We saw an A4 paper placed on each table at the breakfast area, citing tickets to the theme park at USD65 per PAIR of tickets. (Official price is $71 per PERSON) Man!!! That's a real money saver!!! We went over to the ticket counter after breakfast (It's situated inside the hotel) and turns out, we can only get it at this rate IF we attend a 90-minutes of time-sharing sales pitch at 7.30am the next morning!!! NO WAY..... NEXT!!!!!
So we ended up purchasing the normal 3-day pass that allows us to go to 1 theme park per day for 3 days. (And it doesn't have to be consecutive 3-days, it has an expiry date of 14 days from first use) And the pleasant surprise was..... they upgraded us to a 5-DAYS pass free of charge!!! So now, we can go to 5 theme parks on 5 separate days!!! YAY!!!!! hee hee my day doesn't seem so bad after all.
Headed down to Animal Kingdom since (1) Race Pack collection at Wide World of Sports only starts at 3pm today, (2) Wide World of Sports is near to Animal Kingdom.
Just follow the signs..... not that difficult to drive around... or so I thought.... cartoon me... found Animal Kingdom, paid the $11 parking, drove into the carpark... went a few rounds... and ended up exiting the park!!! darn!!! So I had to loop back into the entrance again *embarrassing*.
Good thing is, the parking tickets allow us to park at ANY of the theme park, for ANY number of times for the day it was purchased for. Phew!!! The guy at the counter must have thought I was nuts.... to reappear before him just minutes after I went in. *sigh*
Animal Kingdom was AWESOME!!!!! #1 Ride to go is Expedition Everest - Legend of the Forbidden Mountain. We immediately went to get the FastTrack ticket for this ride the moment we enter the park at 12pm. The FastTrack tickets read to come back between 2:50pm - 3:50pm. Cool, so when we're back between this time, we'll go to a priority queue and that saves us much time!!! Anyway, the ticket also reads, the next time I can get another FastTrack Ticket (for any of the other rides) will be 1:40pm. Not bad, this prevents people from getting FastTrack Tickets from all the rides first!!!So with so much time on hand, we headed to AFRICA: Kilimanjaro Safaris!!!
It's something like the Night Safari back in Singapore, but we sit in what looked like a old-fashion truck, complete with fake luggages and camping gears piled on the roof top.
The driver (tour guide) also had some make-believe conversation over the 'radio-set' to make it more realistic.
The land is more open and vast then the Night Safari, and feature both the forest portion as well as the Savannah portion. Unlike Night Safari, where most of the animals are kept in enclosures.... the Kilimanjaro Safari is REALLY OPEN!!!!! Except for the lions.... hee hee who are kept in their 'cliff' enclosure for obvious reasons. The entire ride was very satisfying and enjoyable.
Hungry hungry hippo!!!
Zebra up-close..... their stripes are supposedly like our thumb-prints, unique to each zebra!!!
Some kind of buffalo..... their horns look pretty neat eh?
Buttress Root Tree.... it's so swollen with water that it can last long-periods of drought without dying.
We went over to the Kali River Rapids next.... and surprise!!! The queue was almost non existence!!!
We were seated in a round raft, 8 in a raft. They even have a water proofing central compartment for us to store our bags!!
Wah... so thoughtful!!! Wait... water proof storage space? hmmmm well... the title did read 'Rapids'..... it's like white water rafting without the paddling part.
And the ride did have a disclaimer that reads: "You will get WET and you may get SOAKED!!!" So our fate will be determined by how the raft rotate during our journey.Ha ha... okay... so we got wet!!! 8P But it was fun anyway, some of the riders in our raft were doing it a second time.... and they were screaming and laughing all along the way. We even had to endure going down a mini waterfall which needless to say, provided lots of splashes.
That done..... still have time to spare... so we headed to Dino-land to take the DINOSAUR ride. Before we even reach the ride, we stopped briefly in a room that explains how the dinosaurs got extinct, due to the meteor that hit the earth, creating such an impact that clouded earth for many years, no sunlight can get through, plants die, living things die... blab blab.....
Next room, we were treated to a short 'Briefing' on a monitor by one of the scientists, (Played by Halle Barry) who explains that we're going to go through a time machine back to the Cretaceous Period which was the last period of the dinosaur age before the meteor hits.Then this other 'crazy' scientist took over and explains that we're actually on a special mission to obtain a Iguanodon egg which is at the END CRETACEOUS PERIOD..... smell a rat here..... (Fact: Iguanodon actually exists in the mid cretaceous period, not the end) so which means we'll be 'teleported' to the period where...... the Meteor can strike anytime!!!!! You get the picture !!!*wink*
So the ride was full of dinosaurs cowering over your head, meteors flying and crashing around you, and along the way, having the computer announcing to you "Meteorite impact in 90 seconds..." and of course, by some good fortunte, we manage to meet the Iguanodon at the last second, and came back to the present!!! TA-DA!!! Talk about perfect timing!!! Where else but... eh... at... erm.. DINOSAUR?
Almost time for the Expedition Everest ride!!! Along the way, we stopped to watch this group of jugglers.... they were very good and humorous... and we managed to reach the start at 2:48pm. They promptly let us in and we got our turn almost immediately. Nice feature, this FastTrack thingie. hee hee
All I can say about the ride is..... YOU GOTTA TAKE IT TO EXPERIENCE IT!!!!! They actually build a Mt Everest, complete with snow capped peak, and Nepalese buildings and artifacts.And not forgetting our dear friend YETI!!!!! Who made a special guest appearance during the ride. 8)
It has everything,
something unexpected, something scary, something fast, something dark, something steep, something... eh... broken..... I shall not disclose more. A *MUST* go!!!!!Ohhhhh.... lunch was a simple BBQ-ed Half-chicken, comes with side dishes of a very sweet baked beans (YES.... SWEET!!!) and a yucky-tasting muffin. It wasn't as expensive as we anticipated, cost us USD8+, not as ex-orbital as we thought it would be.
We went to the It's Tough to be a Bug! 3D movie near the Tree of Life. The movie was really intersting, as it comes with Sight, Sound, Smell and even.... hee... FEEL!!! Ha ha ha!!! Don't ask, coz I won't disclose more so as not to spoil the surprise. But it was Fun!!!
The Tree of Life was another interesting exhibit. It is a HUGE.... and I mean HUGE..... tree with its trunk hand-carved with 300 intricate animal images!!! So beautifully carved!!!
Can you spot some of the animals that are engraved on the tree?
We, we came out of the 3D movie just in time for Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade!!!
It has lots of cartoon characters dancing along the streets, lots of man-made 'animals', lots of music, lots of dancing, creating a very lively mood and atmosphere.
The parade occurs once a day at 4pm and there's a dedicated route. So we can actually lined ourselves behind the rope barrier to catch a glimpse of the whole parade.We took our leave at around 5pm, completed satisfied with the park and headed to the Wide World of Spot to collect my race pack. It was so difficult to find parking here, and I can only guess how many runners there will be this coming weekend. The parking space for the theme parks here are so huge that I never thought they'll run out of lots!!! Well.... in this instance..... IT DID!!! Fortunately for me, I managed to catch a car leaving after 5-10mins.
On to the expo!!!!! Very well organized, with 8 counters for the Goofy Challenge, 13 Counters for the Full Marathons and another 10 Counters for the Half-Marathons. They held the 5K collection in a separate stadium nearby to avoid jamming up the place.
I had to obtain my waiver at another counter before I could collect my race pack. Waited around 5mins before I obtain my waiver form. Took another 5-8mins before I collected my race pack. We were given a dark blue long sleeve dri-fit Tee, with none other then Goofy printed in the front. NICE!!! I have two race bibs, one for the half-marathon, and one for the full-marathon. They also put this orange tag around my wrist that says "Goofy Challenge 2008" and I'm not suppose to take this out until I complete my half marathon on Saturday!!! Okay... looks like I can't bath for 2 days..... ha ha ha
Went down to the main expo area to collect 2 more tees, a grey long sleeve dri-fit Tee with Donald Duck for the half marathon and a grey long sleeve dri-fit Tee with Mickey Mouse for the full marathon. I'm loving this run already..... *BIG GRIN*
The expo was about the size as the Standard Chartered expo in Singapore. You have the usual stuff on sale: shoes, apparels, watches, nutrition food... etc. Saw this massage stick selling from USD29.90 - USD44.90 depending on the 'Strength' of the stick. Tried it and it was pretty painful arh!!!!! It's a stick with a lot of movable rollars, and you can use it on your quads, hamstring, ITB, calves, neck, back.... etc. Well... still decide that the price is too steep, so..... will stick to Tennis ball for the time being. hee hee *cheapskate* la la la la la
Surprisingly, I couldn't find Powergel nor Sports beans on sale here!!!!! Darn..... there goes my fuel for this weekend. So I ended up buying this organic gel stuff. Good thing is, we get to taste it first. Well, to me, it doesn't taste a lot different from Powergel, except perhaps it's less sweet. Beggars cannot be choosers.... so bought 2 packs of vanilla and 2 packs of strawberry.
Getting hungry, so we left the place to hunt for dinner at around 7.15pm. Armed with only a discount coupon and a map, we went in search of "A Taste of Hong Kong" at International Drive. It seem to take ages to reach that place but we manage to find it at exactly where we thought it would be..... ha ha ha....
Ordered fried black-pepper crispy noodles with prawns and stir-fried broccoli with garlic. The noodles was pretty good, but the broccoli was slightly bland. Had wanted to order spinach "Don't have", tried water-cress "Don't have".... darn..... apparently it's difficult to get hold of vegetables here, and even if they did, it's not that fresh and nice.
Good meal and we headed back to the hotel, stopping by the supermart to get frozen pizza and Nature Valley granola bars (Peanut Butter). One for supper in case we get hungry, and one for breakfast before my runs this weekend.
Time to call it a day..... *yawnz*
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