We had reservations at 8:30am at Tusker House on Sunday
morning so we were up early again. We
drove to Animal Kingdom and were a bit surprised at how close it was to the
resort. I thought we were early, but
since it was already 7:55am when we got to the front gate, they let us go
in. My kids were SO excited to be at
Animal Kingdom. We had to stop numerous
times to let them see the animals on the way to breakfast. We let Sarah walk (instead of riding in the
stroller) and they were having a blast.
We came around a corner and saw a cast member. She was so impressed by how excited the kids
were. She stopped us and asked what we
had fast passes for that day. We told
her and she wrote us a paper fastpass for Dinosaur at any point during the
day. It was so nice to get a little
Disney Magic.
Breakfast was great, as usual. We saw Donald, Daisy, Goofy, and Mickey. Sarah was still a little scared of the
characters, but you would tell she was starting to warm up a bit. We ended up getting out of Tusker House
quicker than we’d planned and it was just slightly after rope drop. We’d planned to be out around 10am and had a
fast pass for Kilimanjaro Safari. We
walked over after breakfast and the line was really short so we went ahead and rode
early. The safari was excellent. We saw so many animals and they were very
active this morning. Once we got off, we
decided to go ahead and do Gorilla Falls Trail.
It was nice, but almost too hot to fully enjoy it.
From there, we headed to Festival of the Lion King. Once we found the entrance, I started to
accidentally enter the handicap line. I
guess the cast member saw that I was walking with a cane (due to arthritis) and
allowed us to continue on through that line. There ended up being plenty of
handicap seating, so it wasn’t a big deal, but it did allow us to get great
seats.
Let me just say – Festival of the Lion King has always been
and will continue to be my absolute favorite show in all of Disney. There is just something about that show that
almost brings me to tears. It was
beautiful and the kids were mesmerized.
Once the show was over, we decided not to do the train to
Rafiki’s Planet Watch. It was so
terribly hot and such a long walk once there, we decided to forgo that chance. We
stopped for a quick Mickey ice cream and then decided to go ahead and visit the
Tree of Life. We stumbled up on Flik and
stopped for some pictures and autographs.
We then went in to see It’s Tough to Be A Bug. I think the kids were a little nervous – I
stand up when its time for the “bugs to leave” and lean up when its time for the
bees to sting. I know – I missed part of
the fun. But since I already knew what
was going to happen, I prepared myself.
After the Tree of Life, it was time. Time for the one fast pass that is hardest to
get at Disney and I’d somehow managed to score it. We had a 1:05pm FPP for Flight of
Passage. We headed over to that section
and utilized rider swap so both Jon and I could ride. Jon sat with Sarah while I rode first with
Dakota. We didn’t have to wait terribly
long in the FPP line, like I’d been afraid of.
It was just a short wait and we were on.
Let me back track for a minute. I’d almost decided not to even try this ride
unless I could get an easy FPP because of the crowds. Two different people came back from Disney telling
me how awesome this ride was and I decided to try to get a FPP for it. It was available first thing that morning,
but I was able to score one later in the day.
Let me tell you…this ride is out of this world. I actually had to remind myself a time or two
that it was a simulator. It was
absolutely wonderful. I understand why
people stand in line for hours to ride this ride. Awesome!
After Pandora, we headed to Flame Tree BBQ for lunch. It’d say it was OK compared to some of the
other meals we had. Pretty good, but not
excellent. After lunch, it was getting
close to time for us to ride Expedition Everest. Dakota and I rode it using Rider Swap and
then he rode with his Dad. The going
backwards kind of scared Dakota. I’d
forgotten how wild that ride was. In my
mind, it was milder than it actually is.
Once we were done with Everest, we were going to do the Nemo
show but decided to skip it. We ended up
heading to Dinoland. The boys went to
ride Dinosaur while I took Sarah on TriceraTop Spin. Dinosaur is one of my least favorite rides in
all of Disney, so no need for rider swap on this one. Once we finished, Jon was ready to go back to
the room. Dakota was begging for one
more ride and I saw Primeval Whirl had a pretty short wait time so he and I
hopped in that line. That ride is so
rough. It’s definitely not my favorite, but it made little man happy.
After Primeval Whirl, we headed back to the room for the
night to have dinner at the resort and try to get settled before too late since
we had another early morning on Monday.
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