Return to the jungle

We exit from Pirates on to Royal Street and gaze back towards the entrance to Club 33. Still more than an hour to go until our reservation – probably a bit to early to be hanging out in the doorway.

So let’s see... Hey, Indiana Jones is right next door. Yes, sir, I’d be so excited to hike through that three-mile standby queue again for another opportunity to shut down my lung capacity. Except not. Fortunately, no one in our group seems interested, and also – shucks! – there’s a 50-minute wait. Next!

Jungle Cruise! Okay, my family is all about corny humor and bad puns, so this is made for us. Again, there’s very little wait, so we’re loaded onto a boat fairly quickly.

My aunt and uncle, seeing another water based ride, were again reluctant to ride until I assured them that you don’t get wet on the Jungle Cruise. I feel bad when right after pulling from the dock we pass through a shower of mist. Oops! Forgot about that. I amend my answer to them, “Other than that, you don’t get wet on this ride!” I’m not sure they trust me any more.

Our skipper this time is even livelier than yesterday’s, and gets us all laughing, even though most of the jokes are the same. My parents and aunt and uncle are groaning along with all the bad puns. At the same time, my mom has found a new way to enjoy the Jungle Cruise – she’s having a great time identifying all of the plants along the shores.

This fixation on the plant life sets her up perfectly when the boat comes to a stop just past the “backside of water.” Our skipper points to the foliage to our right and says, “There are a lot of rare plants here on the World Famous Jungle Cruise, and I wanted to point a few of them out for you.” My mom becomes very attentive. And the skipper continues: “There’s one. And there’s one. And there’s another one.” No details at all. My mom just laughs at getting suckered in.

And then the piranhas attack, startling her and making her laugh even more. Great fun.

Today’s Jungle Cruise comes to an end with the usual “watch your head, watch your step, and if you don’t watch your head or your step, watch your language” warning. We climb out of the boat and huddle to determine our next move.

It’s not quite 1:30. Our timing is kind of awkward. There’s not much else in the vicinity, and going further might put us at risk of not making our reservation on time. We only have one real option – the Enchanted Tiki Room again!