School has not let up at all, so I'm going to say it's safe to assume that chapters will only be coming once every other week now. Sorry about that, but I've just been getting too much work. I was supposed to be writing a current events essay while I wrote this instead...
When River awoke the next morning, she looked up to see the top bunk empty. (She had not been able to talk the Doctor out of sleeping in separate bunks. He insisted that there wasn't enough room for both of them in one bunk.) She looked around the room to see that it was also empty, as was the bathroom. She was just about to open the shades over the sliding door to the balcony when she heard a yelp from outside.
She pulled open the curtains to find the Doctor standing outside, face to face with a giraffe, and his head appeared to be covered in some sort of slime. As she stepped outside, the Doctor and the giraffe both turned to look at her.
"Oh, good morning River! I wasn't tired last night, so I only slept for about an hour. I spent the rest of the night out here watching all of the animals... until this big fellow here came along. River, did you know that giraffes have extremely long tongues?"
Almost as if on cue, the giraffe stuck out its tongue and licked the Doctor's face, leaving another coat of slime in its wake.
River made an amused/slightly grossed out face and laughed. "You know Sweetie, he may think that you're family... there is a bit of resemblance..."
Just then, a baby giraffe came wobbling up next to the big one, who promptly stopped licking the Doctor and leaned down to twist its neck around that of the baby.
River looked back and forth between the two giraffes, particularly the baby, and the Doctor, who had that look on his face that made him look like an excited child. They actually did look quite a bit alike. The smaller giraffe, not quite being tall enough to reach its head over the balcony railing contented itself with leaning its head through the slats on it and nibbling the Doctor's trouser legs. River had to laugh again.
"I assume we're going to be out here a while?" she asked.
The Doctor smiled then grimaced as he received a face full of giraffe tongue and saliva again. "Yep!"
They actually didn't go to a park that day. The three Ponds and the Doctor all switched between sitting together on each other's balconies and walking around the other parts of the savannah that had pathways. They also went swimming. The Doctor was thrilled that the pool had a waterslide, even though it was a fairly small one.
"You know, we should try staying at the Beach Club hotel! There is a waterslide for their pool that is on the mast of a pirate ship! And it goes over the boardwalk and into the main pool, which even has a lazy river! ...Well, besides ours..." he said grinning cheekily at River.
She narrowed her eyes and smacked him. "Do you not want to go to Epcot tomorrow? Because if you keep this up, I will refuse to go!"
He just smiled.
They passed another night in the bunk beds and after breakfast with Amy and Rory, the all decided that they would go to Epcot that day. This of course meant that the Doctor had to move the TARDIS again because he wanted to switch hotels again and stay at the Beach Club after all.
After saying goodbye to the giraffe family (and after another bout of being drooled on for the Doctor), the Ponds took a bus over to Epcot while the Doctor moved the TARDIS to the Beach Club. They all agreed to meet at the front of the main plaza, just underneath Spaceship Earth (or the large golf ball as Rory called it).
They stood there studying the map trying to plan out what they wanted to see and do. However, River looked at the bottom of the map to see the labels for the two sections of the park and groaned.
"What?" Amy and Rory both asked.
River shook her head and pointed to the map. "Future World. Oh, I really hope that the Doctor doesn't spend the entire time we're in this half of the park pointing out how the future is nothing like any of this... because you know he will."
"Like when he points out all of the mistakes in museums," Amy said with a smile.
River looked up and smiled back. "Exactly like when he's in a museum."
After a few more minutes the Doctor reappeared, walking from the opposite direction of the entrance gate.
"How did you get in? You came from the wrong direction..." Rory asked and stated.
The Doctor smiled, "Oh, well there's a back gate by where the hotel is. Remember the lagoon that we took the boat from the Boardwalk hotel to the Hollywood Studios park? That's attached to the World Showcase Lagoon over there, and the actual boardwalk in front of that hotel runs the whole way to a back gate to the park between the UK and France pavilions in the World Showcase! Although, it is a shorter walk to that entrance from the Beach Club hotel than it would have been from the Boardwalk hotel... But anyway, let's ride something! I heard that you need Fastpasses for that Soarin' ride, so we should probably go get those first."
They started off towards the Land pavilion on the right side of Future World. Upon arriving inside, they took an escalator down to the lower floor where the entrance to Soarin' was, and they walked over to the Fastpass distribution area. Each then took their park entrance tickets, inserted them into the machines and got small tickets with an hour timeframe on them. Their tickets all said "Return between 1:55 and 2:55". They looked up at the clock above the Fastpass entrance line to see that it said it was currently 11:38.
"Now what?" Amy asked.
"There was a boat ride back there..." Rory suggested, pointing back towards where the escalator was. To the left of the escalator, there was indeed a boat ride, and it had no line. The sign above the queue read Living with the Land, and all along the queue, various quotes about the earth and the environment were painted on the walls in color schemes representing the four seasons. They wound through the many turnstiles before finally boarding a boat with a few other families. The ride went through various habitats and biomes with animatronic animals before entering the Epcot greenhouses. While the Doctor and Rory were actually enjoying the ride, River and Amy were a bit bored. That is, they were bored until they saw the Nine-Pound Lemons.
Then they were impressed.
Amy also pointed out that in the aquaculture room, one of the shrimp tanks had a piece of wire mesh in it that was shaped like a Mickey Mouse head. Rory had his guidebook again and found a section of "Hidden Mickeys", reading that the shape was present in every single ride within the four parks, as well as in the architecture of the buildings, the landscaping, and even the sidewalks. River decided they should have a competition for who could spot the most Hidden Mickeys throughout the remainder of the day.
After getting off the ride, it was only noon, so they decided to go over to the Seas pavilion next door. They passed the sign for the The Seas with Nemo and Friends, which happened to have some fake tide pools next to it, through which waves crashed... and the seagulls from Finding Nemo yelled, "MINE, MINE MIIIIIINE, MINE, MINE!" every once in a while.
They wound through yet another long queue, but this one had to be one of the longest yet. They started out in a room that looked like a beach, then progressed to another room that made it look like they were now under water. After walking through two more rooms, they arrived at the loading belt, and the Doctor and River loaded into one "Clammobile" while Amy and Rory climbed into another one. The ride took them through various scenes from the movie, including a room full of jellyfish, the EAC with Crush, and a pitch black room with an animatronic Angler Fish chasing Dory and Marlin. That scene made the Doctor jump and reach for his sonic before River placed her hand over his to stop him. The ride ended by passing by the main fish tank of the pavilion, into which, it seemed that Dory, Nemo, Marlin, Crush, Squirt, and other fish from the movie were swimming along side the real fish in the tank while they sang the "In the Big Blue World" song from the musical they had seen two days before in Animal Kingdom. After getting off of the ride, they walked around the aquariums for a while and went to see "Turtle Talk with Crush", where the audience got to talk to and ask questions of Crush. The Doctor insisted upon sitting on the floor with the little kids while the Ponds sat a few rows back. At one point, the Doctor raised his hand to ask a question and Crush said, "Oh, hey, the dude in the tweed shell with the bowtie wants to ask a question! Hey, cool bowtie, dude."
That made the Doctor's day.
After the show, it was still only 12:30, so they decided to have lunch.
The Doctor lead them out of the Seas pavilion, along a walkway to its back where there was another set of doors and a sign that said The Coral Reef Restaurant. Inside, the decor was sandy tans and browns on the floor to look like sand, and blue walls with various glass decorations that looked like shells, seaweed, and coral. After waiting a few minutes (somehow there was a canceled reservation whose table they got to use), they were led into the main dining room. One wall of this room was almost entirely glass, and looked into the large fish tank. Luckily for the Doctor and the Ponds, their table was right next to the glass. They spent their meal watching the sharks, fish, and sea turtles swim bye, as well as the odd diver.
By the time they were finished eating, it was about time to use their Fastpasses, so they started back over to the Land pavilion.
Yay, Soarin'! :) I can't wait to write about that next. And yes, I had to put in the comparison of the Doctor to a baby giraffe, since everyone says Matt Smith is one... and frankly I agree. ^.^
Reviews are always welcome and appreciated! Everyone who reviews will get a giraffe lick! XD