There is a new ride at Animal Kingdom, in a new area of the park based on the movie Avatar. It is, apparently, the best ride in the world, the best ride that ever there was, and so, for his birthday, I took R and his girlfriend, M, to Animal Kingdom.
Backing up, it’s actually really hard to buy appropriate presents for a person who’s living more or less out of a backpack. Me selling my house means that R doesn’t have a real home at all, no bedroom with a permanent closet where he can store things. He owns what he can carry with him and the more he has to carry, the more difficult that becomes. So I decided to look for an experience to give him, rather than an object to give him. Animal Kingdom was our favorite theme park when he was young, but it had been years and years since we’d gone there. It felt like a good choice.
So we were not actually at Animal Kingdom specifically to go on the world’s best ride. Which was fortunate, because although we arrived at the park a little after 8, an hour before opening, and headed straight to the world’s best ride, the line was four hours long by the time we got there at 9:05. Yes, you read that right. The resort guests are allowed into the park an hour before non-resort guests and enough of them beat us to the world’s best ride that the line was 240 minutes long.
We didn’t wait.
The good news was that the Avatar crowds meant the rest of the park was reasonably nice. We had a fantastic safari ride, where we got to be the people whose truck had to stop while the giraffes sauntered by, plus see all the other animals who were out and active on a chilly day; nice walks through the gorilla and tiger zones; rides on some of the other main rides, including Everest, Primeval Whirl and (for R & M) Dinosaur; and great seats at the Finding Nemo show, which is really beautiful. And, of course, excellent company.
At about 5, we went back to the Avatar zone and the line time had gone down to 210 minutes, so three and a half hours. We didn’t wait, but we did wander around the Avatar zone which is actually worth wandering around, too — very pretty and interestingly done. R wanted to write academic papers on the conflicts inherent in turning a movie whose overarching storyline is about kicking exploitative humans off a planet into a theme park whose goal is to attract humans to buy stuff, but figured it was fundamentally too obvious.
The one minor bad note in an otherwise lovely day was food issues for me. I made bad choices because I was hungry and the lines were crazily long and I paid the price very promptly. Disney offers plenty of reasonable choices for people with food allergies, but it requires planning. It is not a good idea to wait until you’re already hungry and then start looking around for something to eat. I know this, but apparently I have to relearn it every so often. I’m hoping yesterday’s lesson sticks for the next few years.
In other news, many, many thanks to people who have reviewed Cici. She is so much a book that I published because I wanted to share her, because I wanted other people to read her story and laugh with me, so I’m delighted to hear from people who have. People have asked about sequels and given how many promises I’ve broken about Grace and Fen, I’m not going to make any promises. But I will say that when I found the artwork for the cover, the artist had multiple variations, and I got all the variations. Which means that unlike A Lonely Magic, which is going to require that I find a cover to go with its sequel when I finish writing it, I will have possible cover options ready for Cici sequels whenever I feel like writing them. 🙂
And now I think I’ll get back to writing Fen. I’m not optimistic about my productivity over the next few weeks: there will be much socializing, some urgent Christmas present shopping, some great time with family. But on the days when I have time to write, I’m going to try to write. Not because I feel the pressure of impending deadlines, but because writing Cici brought me joy and joy is an excellent thing to have more of in one’s life. May you have some as well, today and every day!
So glad you’re with family and having such great fun! Cici is a definite hit and the thought of more of the same to come makes me a very happy reader! Take care and be safe!
I’m glad you liked her! But no promises on more, I have to write Fen first and I don’t want to start feeling guilty. And then maybe another Tassamara book, because eating is nice and people buy the Tassamara books!
Amen to Tassamara! I’d buy it for sure!
I bought your new book CICI as soon as it came out, I was and am so looking forward to it!! But life has gotten in the way of my reading(in a good way) and I’ve gone from a book a day to none for almost 2 weeks! Along with yours I just got Barry J. Hutchison’s latest Space Team book too (and probably more because I pre-order extensively, my favorite authors.) As soon as the holidays are over I swear I’m gonna read for a solid week straight! If Cici brought you so much joy then maybe sequels are not for you…I feel sure I would read anything you put on the market. Life’s too short, write and live and do what empowers you, and makes you happy and proud of what you accomplish. I’ll be back with you (virtually) after Christmas, and on that note best wishes to you and all those you love in this happiest of seasons.
Best wishes to you and yours, too! I hope you have lovely holidays and I hope you enjoy Cici when you find the time to read again! (And I’ll have to check out Barry Hutchinson, I’ve not heard of him before, and I’m always delighted to find a new author. Well, except when then I have to spend all my time reading instead of writing. But that’s okay, it’s the holidays!)
I meant to write a comment about how we all just mention Cici sequels because we like her so well and not to pressure you, but then I scrolled to the top of your post and saw the picture of the giraffe again so instead I will mention that B has a stuffed giraffe which I have named Rafael so I can call him Raffey the Giraffey. . (Note how Cici sequel has already become plural…)
LOL, I think I was the first person to put an S on the end of that word. I like Cici, and would happily play in her world again. But fortunately, I’m also liking Fen because she deserves more story, too! Love Raffey the Giraffey — R’s, at an equivalent age, was Rafferty the Girafferty!