Our Anniversary at the Denver Zoo

We celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary in early November. Usually we celebrate with a small trip, but this year we needed to be both budget and covid conscious, so we decided to spend the day at The Denver Zoo. We love animals, and although we have lived in Colorado for nearly a year, this was our first time at the zoo.

Due to Covid, we had to purchase advanced tickets with a timed entry. We went at 10am ( zoo opening) on a Monday morning. When we arrived, we were among only a handful of cars in the parking lot. It was a ghost town.

We arrived about thirty minutes early, so we just enjoyed the crisp morning air and the exhibits at the zoo entrance. I really love the alligator sculpture.

Masks were mandatory and social distancing reminders were everywhere. The zoo also had one-way traffic, so we had to complete a big circle. Since it was our first visit, this worked well and we really didn’t notice a problem with other visitors bunching up at the same exhibits. It was very easy to social distance. The only problem with the one-way traffic is there were a few areas where we had to choose a path, so we know that we missed a few animals, including our favorite, the capybara. The loop took us about three hours at a leisurely pace.

During the spring, when the zoo was shut-down due to Covid, local artists came to paint and beautify the zoo.

I also learned that The Denver Zoo is historic for its use of naturalistic habitats back in 1918. Having worked with behavioral research at The Greater Los Angeles Zoo, I could really appreciate the significance and importance of “Bear Mountain.”

One of the highlights of our visit was seeing the baby rhino cuddling with its mother.

The other big surprise was seeing a herd of elephants crossing a bridge above us. We just caught them at the right moment and it was magical.

Dan got some amazing shots of the alpha male mandrill.

The most entertaining and loudest animals were the seal lions. Seal Lions are the clowns of the zoo world.

We took a break at Gidget’s Ice Cream Parlor where I was delighted to discover that they sold Dole Whip. I absolutely love Dole Whip, but I’ve never eaten it outside of a Disney park or the Dole Plantation in Oahu. It has been years since I have eaten this creamy pineapple treat and I was in heaven.

Continuing our day, we came across “Bird World” which I assume is an indoor aviary. It was closed due to Covid, but I had to snap a picture, as it looked like it was straight out of Jurassic Park.

The reptile house/aquarium building was open. It was themed to feel like a tropical forest. It also had a cool bat exhibit.

We saw so many animals, and since we visited in the morning on a quiet day, a majority of them were very active. It was the perfect zoo experience.

And of course, we saw Flamingos…

The Denver Zoo is filled with cute animal sculptures made from lego bricks. The park was also still decorated for Halloween, which had just happened a few days earlier. They were starting the transition from Halloween to Christmas decorations.

Visiting The Denver Zoo was the ideal way to spend our anniversary. I wish the zoo was closer to our house, so that we could justify getting year passes. I would also love to work at a zoo again. I miss it!

Florida 2020: Orlando Cat Cafe

In our quest to find non-theme park activities in Orlando, we discovered our new favorite place: The Orlando Cat Cafe. The Orlando Cat Cafe is a feline rescue organization, that as of our visit, has placed over 929 cats in new homes.

Located in a quiet shopping center, The Orlando Cat Cafe is split into two halves: The cafe and the cat playroom. The cafe portion is open to everyone and had viewing windows to see the cats. The coffee and cat themed desserts were delicious. Guests visiting the play room can bring cafe food and drinks inside.

Entrance to the cat play room involves making advanced reservations and paying an eight dollar hourly fee. The fee goes towards care for the cats, all of whom are from the SPCA Florida. Children are allowed in the play area, but there are many rules to keep the cats safe and calm in their environment.

Although it felt a bit like cheating on our own cats ( Slinky and Tom) we visited The Orlando Cat Cafe twice, since we loved it so much. An employee even gave us a frequent visitor punch card. It seemed like a majority of the other visitors were on a mission to find their perfect cat, and there is quick turnover for cats getting adopted, which is of course wonderful.

Here are picture of The Orlando Cat Cafe.

Due to Covid, we were not free to walk around the play area. We had to stay in our assigned corner of the room. If the cats didn’t wander into our area, staff members would bring a cat over with toys to entice them. For those looking to adopt, the staff brought over cats that they felt would be a good fit. For example, there was a single guy living in an apartment who wanted a quiet cat, so they found one with the right temperament. I can’t say enough good things about The Orlando Cafe Cafe and the caring people who are trying to match cats to humans.

We discovered our perfect match in a black and white cat named Todd. Todd was the sleepiest, most snuggle-bug that I have ever met. He was just so sweet. We seriously contemplated ways to get him back to Colorado, and I think had we not learned that he was already spoken for, that we would have filled-out adoption papers. He was picked up by his new family while we were at the cafe. It was bittersweet, but we hope he is having a good life that is filled with optimum napping spots!

Todd was clearly our favorite, but we also enjoyed playing with the other cats. The Orlando Cat Cafe had an abundance of kittens who were so friendly.

In Colorado we have a cat cafe called The Denver Cat Company. It’s also a great organization, but The Orlando Cat Cafe edged it out for the friendliest felines. If we lived in Orlando, we would certainly be adopting a new family member!

As an added bonus, we discovered a British pub across the street. Friar Tucks was just like a typical village pub in England: no frills decor, delicious food, and chatty patrons. On our first visit, we had dinner, which included Scotch Eggs for Dan- his favorite. We went back for a full-English breakfast on our final morning in Orlando. The food is both good value and authentic. They even have a small shop with British import items, like Cadbury chocolate. We learned that Florida has a large British community, so it’s another reason to love “The Sunshine State.”

We hope to return to Florida in 2021 with the kids, and we will definitely visit both The Orlando Cat Cafe and Friars Tuck. They are Orlando gems.

Florida 2020- Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run

Our pandemic trip to Disney’s Hollywood Studios ended up being the most bizarre, fortuitous, and short trip to theme park that I have ever experienced.

Originally, we hadn’t even planned on visiting Disney during our Florida house-hunting trip, but we quickly found a house that we liked ( which fell through during the inspection) and we shifted gears towards not only visiting the parks, but buying annual passes. Several years ago we purchased WDW annual passes by simply upgrading our day tickets. This time, Dan bought us day passes to Disney’s Hollywood Studios park, so we could visit and decide on dishing out the mega-bucks for year passes.

Since it is pandemic times, we had to not only purchase tickets in advance, but we had to make park reservations the day before. This was the same process as our trip to SeaWorld Orlando a month earlier. The parks have shorter hours and there is no park hopping

We arrived just before park opening and joined the crush of other visitors.

Generally, I felt safe visiting theme parks during the pandemic, but there were two main areas where safety measures seemed insufficient. The first was at park entry. Since the parks are open limited hours with no hopping, everyone arrives at park opening, and there is no way to maintain social distance at the entry gates. I’m not sure how to remedy this, as everyone wants to arrive at the same time to get a full-day out the parks. Somehow, they need to figure out how to control the bottleneck at the entry, especially at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, where the entry is narrow.

The other issue is not specifically a theme park issue, but one of the awareness of others. Most of the other guests were good about distancing, but sometimes in the queues excitement takes over, and people feel the impulse to bunch-up. Disney has plenty of signs reminding guests to stay apart, but it didn’t always happen. This was also really bad at the airports, especially when queuing for boarding the planes and going through security.

This was our first visit since 2016 and our first experience at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. The star attraction is “Rise of the Resistance” and the only way to ride it is to get in the virtual queue. In September, the virtual queue had two releases of slots; first thing in the morning and again in the afternoon. Park guests can enter one virtual queue a day in efforts to give access to as many guests as possible. We tried for the morning queue and missed out. All of the morning slots were gone within minutes.

Luckily, the other e-ticket attraction, “Smuggler’s Run”, where guests have the opportunity to fly the Millennium Falcon, had a normal stand-by queue. We rushed over to Galaxy’s Edge to get in line.

Honestly, it was a blur as we tried to find the end of the queue for “Smuggler’s Run”. We snapped a bunch of pictures and tried to absorb the overwhelming land which is Galaxy’s Edge. It’s full of rich details and is enormous. We did not see it all.

Luckily, there were plenty of cast members to direct us to the proper queues. Due to covid, there are more queues than normal, as every store and restaurant also has queues to enter. I have to admit that this somehow took away from the experience, but I also appreciate the safety measures that allow us to enjoy the parks during the pandemic.

The end of the queue ( approximately an hour wait at about fifteen minutes past park opening) was near a stage with Storm Troopers. Due to covid, all of the characters must keep a distance. This didn’t mean that they didn’t interact. I even had a Stormtrooper yell at me to keep moving when I didn’t notice a gap in the queue in front of me!

Much like all of the extra queues, the general lack of characters or atmosphere was also a departure from the Disney magic. We only saw the Storm Troopers, where it felt like there should be many more characters inhabiting the land. I think this must be due to Covid restrictions. However, it was a bit of a let-down for our first trip to Galaxy’s Edge. The land was stunning, but the vibe was terrible. I never quite felt immersed in the experience and never felt like I was transported outside of Orlando.

Here are some pictures of the queue. Like most modern attractions, the queue was constantly offering new perspectives and details to enjoy. I’m not a huge Star Wars fan, but my husband was very excited over everything, especially the Millennium Falcon.

And finally we made it on the Millennium Falcon!

Due to Covid, we had the entire ride vehicle to ourselves. This was cool, because we had a private ride, and not so cool, because the story of the ride has interactive elements with different tasks for all six passengers. The ride will of course run without all six people, but it breaks with the storytelling to have less, making it also feel less immersive. “Smuggler’s Run” is a state-of-the-art motion simulator ride. I’m not sure that I would say it was completely unique, as it takes from ideas of other simulator rides, but it was very well executed. I was a bit overwhelmed by my interactive tasks, when all I wanted to do was really look around at everything. I think the next time I ride it will actually be a better experience.

When we got off the “Smuggler’s Run”, we were thirsty and dazzled by the collectible Galaxy Edge themed coke bottles. At the price point, I think this is something you only splurge on once, but it’s a clever bit of theming. I read that they were showing up as weapons in airport screenings, so we didn’t bother to keep it as a souvenir.

At this point, our trip took a turn when my stepson called and we decided to head back to our rental house, so that my husband could play on the x-box with him. My step-kids live in Sweden, so these weekend calls and bonding time take priority.

Before leaving the park, we made the decision to upgrade to Annual Passes and went to guest relations. By the time we walked to guest relations, it had started pouring with rain. The kind of rain that soaks you to your underwear. Due to covid, the guest relations cast members were standing outside under enormous umbrellas to help guests.

The friendly GR employee informed us that they had temporarily suspended new annual pass sales. We were so disappointed, especially as just the day before, the website listed them for sale. It was raining so heavily that we could hardly see, so we decided to leave and come back later to make use of our day pass.

We went home and I decided to call the WDW help line to ask about the annual passes. I was hoping that guest relations was misinformed and that there might be some way to purchase the annual passes. After a nearly two hour wait, a very kind cast member informed me that there was no way possible to purchase an annual pass, however, since they could see that we only went on one attraction prior to leaving, they offered to refund our tickets. I was a bit disappointed to both not have annual passes and to miss out on the remainder of the day in the park, but we accepted the refund, effectively having a Disney experience for the price of parking.

I appreciate Disney’s offer, especially since I had not even asked for a refund. We are hoping to visit in 2021 with the kids. We want to truly experience Galaxy’s Edge as a family and we will probably even splurge on the themed Coke bottles again!