The alarm went off again at 7am in another vain attempt to have us at Animal Kingdom for the 8am EMH, but surprise surprise, that didn't work out. After the boring morning ritual of showers and french toast, we were on the bus at 8.30.
This was our first ever visit to Animal Kingdom. Any of you AK enthusiasts may wish to skip todays report
We were both very underwhelmed on arrival. The Tree of Life doesn't quite have the mental imagery of The Castle, "Golf Ball" or The Sorcerers Hat.
We walked up through Asia to ride EE first up -
The theming around this ride is really Disney at it's best, but why people want to throw money at the "shrine" is a little beyond me. Almost ruins the effect for me.
As for the ride; pictures tell a thousand words. Videos tell so much more.
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If you were listening carefully, you'd have heard the thousand words. They were all;
WOAHHHH!!
The wait was only 10mins, but posted a 40min wait on the way out so we grabbed a FastPass to come back later.
We wandered into Africa for Kilimanjaro Safaris. Despite the bright sunshine, it was cold and windy, so I don't blame the animals for hiding.
The front row seat was nice though.
We wanted to do Dinosaur today, and stopped off at It's Tough To Be A Bug on the way. Great show! Very clever and well thought out.
Dinosaur. What can I say... loud, jerky, sponsored very overtly by McDonalds... It's probably one of my least favourite rides on Disney property.
Our FastPass window had now opened, so it was back to EE. So much better and more enjoyable the second time round. FastPass was a god send even on a moderate day like today as the standby queue was now 80mins!
Couldn't resist trying on the Yeti hats on the way out;
Still being cold and windy, it was a walk on to Kali River Rapids. When we got on the raft, there were some very wet looking folk. Wet clever looking folk. In ponchos. They seemed to laugh at two English guys getting on with just (non-waterproof) light jackets to protect them. Not out loud, but oh yes, they were laughing at us.
Lucky us, the raft spun just as it reached the slide to send us down backwards. The water shot up and over my shoulder and utterly drenched us. The water was freezing! The wet clever folk really were laughing now.
Luckily the bridge by the exit was bathed in beautiful sunshine and was sheltered from the wind, so we stood for 20mins trying to get dry and warm.
We moved off to lunch at Flame Tree Barbeque - both had Smoked Beef sandwiches. All the seating is in the shade, which I'm sure is fantastic in the heat of the summer. Not so much when you are soaking wet. My ankles were attacked by ducks! It appears as if small puddles of water had collected around my feet from my trousers, and the ducks were obviously parched...
While the sandwiches were tasty, they weren't overly filling, so I grabbed a pretzel and some drinks, and stood in the sun on the bridge to Asia in the sunshine.
We eventually decided that wet boxer shorts weren't very conducive to touring theme parks, so it was back to the hotel for just after 1pm. We changed and got straight out to the Marina which was closed due to "Inclement Weather", despite the sun now being out in full force. It was getting a little warmer now.
We took a walk around the hotel, wildlife spotting (see yesterdays invasion report) and took some photos to prove that we had indeed seen the sun.
Found the table tennis table and I killed some time letting my brother utterly humiliate me until we noticed some boats out on the lake.
We took Sea Raycers out for 30mins to relive our previous visits (Poor Dad had to stump up the $$$ every afternoon!)
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It was a nice way to get a tan, but now not worth the $50.
Back for more punishment on the Table Tennis Table, and a lie by the pool then back to the room for dinner.
At which point I seemed to have stopped making notes so I'll take a stab in the dark at what happens next.
Grilled Chicken Sandwiches. Lemonade. ESPN. Lemonade. Sleep.
Weather - AM; Cold and Windy. PM; Warm and Windy
Lemonades - 4 each
Tomorrow - Fantasmic!
This was our first ever visit to Animal Kingdom. Any of you AK enthusiasts may wish to skip todays report
We were both very underwhelmed on arrival. The Tree of Life doesn't quite have the mental imagery of The Castle, "Golf Ball" or The Sorcerers Hat.
We walked up through Asia to ride EE first up -
The theming around this ride is really Disney at it's best, but why people want to throw money at the "shrine" is a little beyond me. Almost ruins the effect for me.
As for the ride; pictures tell a thousand words. Videos tell so much more.
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If you were listening carefully, you'd have heard the thousand words. They were all;
WOAHHHH!!
The wait was only 10mins, but posted a 40min wait on the way out so we grabbed a FastPass to come back later.
We wandered into Africa for Kilimanjaro Safaris. Despite the bright sunshine, it was cold and windy, so I don't blame the animals for hiding.
The front row seat was nice though.
We wanted to do Dinosaur today, and stopped off at It's Tough To Be A Bug on the way. Great show! Very clever and well thought out.
Dinosaur. What can I say... loud, jerky, sponsored very overtly by McDonalds... It's probably one of my least favourite rides on Disney property.
Our FastPass window had now opened, so it was back to EE. So much better and more enjoyable the second time round. FastPass was a god send even on a moderate day like today as the standby queue was now 80mins!
Couldn't resist trying on the Yeti hats on the way out;
Still being cold and windy, it was a walk on to Kali River Rapids. When we got on the raft, there were some very wet looking folk. Wet clever looking folk. In ponchos. They seemed to laugh at two English guys getting on with just (non-waterproof) light jackets to protect them. Not out loud, but oh yes, they were laughing at us.
Lucky us, the raft spun just as it reached the slide to send us down backwards. The water shot up and over my shoulder and utterly drenched us. The water was freezing! The wet clever folk really were laughing now.
Luckily the bridge by the exit was bathed in beautiful sunshine and was sheltered from the wind, so we stood for 20mins trying to get dry and warm.
We moved off to lunch at Flame Tree Barbeque - both had Smoked Beef sandwiches. All the seating is in the shade, which I'm sure is fantastic in the heat of the summer. Not so much when you are soaking wet. My ankles were attacked by ducks! It appears as if small puddles of water had collected around my feet from my trousers, and the ducks were obviously parched...
While the sandwiches were tasty, they weren't overly filling, so I grabbed a pretzel and some drinks, and stood in the sun on the bridge to Asia in the sunshine.
We eventually decided that wet boxer shorts weren't very conducive to touring theme parks, so it was back to the hotel for just after 1pm. We changed and got straight out to the Marina which was closed due to "Inclement Weather", despite the sun now being out in full force. It was getting a little warmer now.
We took a walk around the hotel, wildlife spotting (see yesterdays invasion report) and took some photos to prove that we had indeed seen the sun.
Found the table tennis table and I killed some time letting my brother utterly humiliate me until we noticed some boats out on the lake.
We took Sea Raycers out for 30mins to relive our previous visits (Poor Dad had to stump up the $$$ every afternoon!)
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It was a nice way to get a tan, but now not worth the $50.
Back for more punishment on the Table Tennis Table, and a lie by the pool then back to the room for dinner.
At which point I seemed to have stopped making notes so I'll take a stab in the dark at what happens next.
Grilled Chicken Sandwiches. Lemonade. ESPN. Lemonade. Sleep.
Weather - AM; Cold and Windy. PM; Warm and Windy
Lemonades - 4 each
Tomorrow - Fantasmic!
Tomorrow - SEGWAY!!
Jason and Kimmy taught us how to mount and dismount the Segways safely, before moving onto rotating on the spot between two cones, then moving forwards and backwards. We split into two groups of three, one group with Jason practicing going up and down a ramp, and one group with Kimmy practicing a slalom course of cones. We were shown Emergency Stops and how to overcome obstacles. Then we were taught the most important move of all on a Segway - Moving and Waving! 
