Chapter 6: Welcome to the Himalayas! Snow cone?
Once again, we were up early. And once again, we headed to the Great Ceremonial House to stop by the Kona Island for coffee and breakfast. We were again trying to maximize our day in the parks. This is part of the problem with a long weekend--with limited time, we wanted to squeeze every dollar of value out of our park tickets. And this meant that we didn’t get a lot of time to enjoy the Polynesian resort. I don’t know that there was much we could have done about that--we’d really wanted to see each park and as many resort Christmas decorations as we could, so that’s what we prioritized. I guess we’ll just have to go back and stay in the Poly again sometime. Anybody have a few thousand dollars you’re not planning on using?
Our first destination was the Animal Kingdom, so we headed to the bus stop. I was happy to see that Disney World had started installing information boards at the stops to let you know how long you had to wait before you’d be able to head to your destination. They’ve needed this feature for a while, if only to stop the helpless feeling of playing Disney Bus Roulette while watching multiple buses headed for other parks pass by as the one you want never materializes.
The only problem is, the boards aren’t very helpful if they aren’t updated with actual, you know, information.
In any case, we waited about 10-15 minutes before we were on our way to the Animal Kingdom.
As we pulled into the park entrance, we could see the latest progress of Avatar land. Behold the magical floating mountains of Pandora!
I’m interested to see what they do with Avatar. I was not a huge fan of the movie. It’s basically Pocahontas or Dances With Wolves featuring 8-ft. tall blue people. However, it’s a great-looking movie, and I can see where the effects and atmosphere could make for a fun theme park experience. So I’m keeping an open mind.
The park does need some more attractions, so I'm glad they're working on that. But the Animal Kingdom has grown on me over the years. Over time, I've come to learn that the theme has lent itself to some of the most imaginative detail any of the parks have to offer. So while it might still be light on A-list attractions, it's a park that really makes me appreciate the work Imagineers do to make their parks fully immersive.
We didn’t quite make it for the opening show, but we weren’t too far behind. Our plan was to do AK in the morning and then hop over to Hollywood Studios in the afternoon. We’d made all of our FP+ reservations for DHS, so we were hoping to do as much as we could in AK by beating the crowds there. As soon as we entered, we made a beeline straight for Expedition Everest.
Right when we passed over the bridge and through the gate for Asia...
We met a mass of humanity walking in the opposite direction. This was everyone who had arrived for Rope Drop. It didn’t take long to hear the words “Everest is down--they don’t know how long.”
Might as well say "Christmas is cancelled."
So much for that plan.
Rather than fight the tide, we immediately turned around and headed for the Kilimanjaro Safari. Might as well try and see some animals while they’re awake. Except for the animatronic sleeping lion, of course.
The line wasn’t too bad yet, so it didn’t take long to board a jeep. I really like the new version that skips the cheesy Save Big Red From The Poachers story that nobody paid attention to anyway. Now you can just focus on the animals. And we got to see plenty.
The rhinoceros...
Hey, what do you get when you cross an elephant and a rhino?
Elephino. (say that out loud.)
The hippo...
Florida gators.
Giraffes.
Ankole cattle. These horns are actually hollow, so it’s not as heavy on their heads as you might think.
And the elephant pen.
Now, here’s where things got interesting. As we sat watching the elephants, and antelope wandered into the pen.
Now sure, you’d think--hey, what’s the big deal? I’m sure antelope wander all over the place. Well, I’m not so sure--I think Disney keeps the animals all separate using hidden barriers. And they do so for a reason.
These elephants were NOT happy about the intruder. First one, and then another, and then a third began trotting over towards the antelope. A couple of them started braying in alarm. They herded the antelope over towards one side of the pen.
Unfortunately for him, another elephant was waiting over there. And he didn’t want his territory invaded, either. So he charged. The antelope quickly changed direction.
He ran for the pool in the front of the elephant pen. More elephants sounded alarms. Soon, jeeps and 4x4’s started appearing on side dirt roads out of nowhere, similar to how Disney security reacts if you attempt to re-use last year's refillable mug at the resort. Disney CM’s converged on the front of the pen just down the road from us. We couldn’t see around a bend, but eventually calm was restored and we were finally able to move on. I’d say we sat there a good ten minutes as they tried to restore order.
That was so cool!
Moving on, we neared Pride Rock at the end of the safari. When what to our wondering eyes should appear, but...
No way!
The animatronic lion has an “awake” cycle!
I can honestly say I’ve never seen that before.
At the very end of the safari, we pulled to a stop just before the unloading depot. And then we sat. And sat. And sat.
There was no communication as to what was going on. The depot was RIGHT THERE, just 30 feet ahead, but they made no move to offload us. Then a jeep came around us from behind and unloaded its passengers. Maybe they’d paid for the VIP bus pass?
Eventually, they decided we weren’t going to be able to spend any money in the gift shops if they didn’t let us off, so we finally got to leave the ride. I don’t remember how long we sat, but between that and the elephant adventure it felt like we were somewhat behind schedule. So we bolted for Expedition Everest again.
And found a 30-minute wait.
Ugh. That was going to really put a dent in our morning. We couldn’t get a FP, either. Then, I had an idea: what about the single-rider line? We’d always visited with the kids in the past and I’d never actually tried that before, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try. So I looked and...it wasn’t open.
However, the standby line wasn’t getting any shorter. So I thought to myself, “Self, why not give it a few minutes and see what happens?”
Julie had no interest in the single-rider line. She didn’t want to ride Everest by herself. But at this point we figured it was going to be the only way to get a ride in without killing a good chunk of the morning. And I really wanted a ride.
So we decided that we’d split up. Julie took the camera to the Maharajah Jungle Trek so she could enjoy photographing the “ruins”, and I hung around to see if I could hop on single-rider.
As it so happened, Julie was barely gone when they opened the single-rider line. I was sixth in line, got on a train within two minutes, and Julie hadn’t even reached the entrance to the trail before she got a text from me saying, “Done!”
So, let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up: Single-rider is awesome. And, Expedition Everest is awesome. Man, I love that ride. I think it’s my favorite in Disney World. If only they’d fix Disco Yeti. I also finally got my obligatory broken track photo.
I thought about trying for a second ride, but quite a few more people had discovered the single-rider line by then and I didn’t know how long Julie would be. So I did my Disney duty instead and emptied my savings account in the gift shop.
Meanwhile, Julie enjoyed the trail. We should have bought lottery tickets that day, since the tiger was awake as well.
By the time we met up again, it was getting to be about 10:30 in the morning. It had literally been years since we’d ridden Dinosaur since our kids won’t go anywhere near it, so we decided to give that one a shot. The standby line was posted as a 20-minute wait, so that didn’t seem so bad. Once we got inside, though, things slowed down quite a bit.
It was a little odd. We’d stand in the switchbacks without moving for long stretches. The CM at the front would let several people in through the FP+ line as they trickled in. Then, instead of turning and allowing standby folks in, she’d disappear for a few minutes. Then she’d come back and resume allowing the FP+ line to move. Maybe we needed a VIP time machine pass.
Eventually we made it to the ride, but I’d say it took almost 30 minutes to get onto a ride vehicle. I’m glad we got to ride it, though, because we both still enjoy it. I doubt I’d say that if I had a bad back, but hopefully that won’t be the case for a while.
We had one final stop for AK. We had to have lunch in our favorite counter-service restaurant in Disney World: Flame Tree Barbecue. For us, it’s hard to beat the combination of good bbq with an outdoor seating area and a nice view of Everest across the lagoon. We both got pulled pork sandwiches and enjoyed the meal immensely.
Across the way, we could see the work being done on the viewing area for the new Rivers Of Light nighttime show.
Julie, meanwhile, had no idea she was suddenly being stalked. In the Animal Kingdom, you never know whether you are the predator or the prey. Even if you’re enjoying a fresh kill, the other predators may be out to steal the spoils of your hunt.
I really love the seating area and gardens there.
That brought our AK visit to a close. We left the park, making sure to stop for a brief visit at the Christmas tree by the front gate.
One new feature (or at least, new to me) we discovered on this visit was that they had started running buses directly between the parks. We got in line for a bus heading directly for Hollywood Studios. I had figured it would take at least an hour to hop between parks, but this bus shortened that to about 20 minutes. That was fantastic, and made park-hopping so much easier for us. Next thing we knew, we were at the front gates of...
Coming Up Next: one half-day park down, one to go.
Wow, that's sad.
I hope you get the chance to go!
Not the same as being able to start and end your day there as well as sleep there but ....
when I say it.
