Monday, July 14th
Hi Everyone,
We are back from our evening at the Animal Kingdom. We had a nice time. We arrived at around 5:45PM and instead of heading into the park we met our Sister-in-Law at the front and talked to her about their week at Disney World. We then headed into the Rain Forest Cafe for our 6:30 ADR. My Sister-in-Law decided she had enough and went back to their resort. My brother, Niece, and friend joined us for dinner. More about our Rain Forest Cafe experience a little later.
I wanted to let you know about our Magical Express experience today. It went pretty smoothly, but there were some waits we could have done without. When we arrived at the Magical Express check-in desk we were greeted to a pretty long line. We ended up waiting about 20 minutes.
Here is a picture of a segment of the line.
After checking in at the desk we stepped over to the red carpet where we only waited about 5 minutes for our ME bus to arrive. Once we boarded it took about 20 minutes for the bus to finally pull away. I didn't think we would ever leave. I guess they were waiting for more guests to board as there were only 6 of us on the bus.
I was happy to see our driver went a bit faster than our last ME experience back in April. He was going just over 70 MPH on the 417 or Greenway. I was in the front and could see the speedometer. We got to the Wilderness lodge in a timely fashion. By the way, the order in which the bus dropped off at the resorts was the Grand Floridian, Polynesian, Wilderness Lodge, and the Contemporary. We were the 3rd stop.
Another note, the folks working at Magical Express are allowed to accept Tips.
I noticed this sign on our way to the Wilderness Lodge in the front of the bus.
All-in-all ME did the job. There were just a few annoying waits. Otherwise it worked well. Our bags were waiting for us in our room when we returned tonight from the AK.
Our arrival at the Wilderness Lodge was very nice. No wait at the check-in desk. We walked right up and were greeted by a smile. After a nice conversation with Sofia she checked us in and assigned us our room. A 1 bedroom villa on the 4th floor. .
The room was very clean and nothing wrong with it at all. We even had some towel animals waiting for us when we arrived.
As for the rest of the resort it is truly beautiful. The lobby is stunning and the rest of the resort is so peaceful.
Here's a picture of the view from our balcony.
Now it's time for something not so peaceful. Our ADR at the Rain Forest Cafe. If you've ever dined at one of the Disney World Rain Forest Cafe's you probably already know they are noisy with audio AAs and sound effects.
We checked in and after waiting about 15 minutes for my brother to arrive we were seated. Our servers name was Pedro and he kindly informed me he had been up since 3:00AM this morning and was a little frantic. Needless to say I could tell where this meal was going. I probably should have just hugged the gorilla in front of our table and called it a day.
The service was slow. In fact, there were a few points during our meal I told my brother "has our server quit his job?"
Well, he finally came back around and refilled our drinks and took our orders.
I ordered the Rain Forest Cobb Salad. Kim ordered the Chicken Fried Chicken. Both of our entrees were well prepared. I must say the portions at the Rain Forest are very, very large and pricey. My Cobb Salad was $15.99 and Kim's entree was $18.99. Ouch! But hey, we are on vacation, right. The food at this restaurant is average in our opinion. It is also a noisy dining experience. During this visit our service was below average. Not the best experience in the world, but we ate our way through it I guess. When we come to Disney World I'm not big on dining at chain restaurants, but once in a while; I guess its ok.
Total cost of our meal was $52 including tip for the 3 of us and a 10% DVC discount. The Rain Forest Cafe does not accept the DDE.
Here are some photos from our meal.
Signage out front.
Our table. The Motley Crew.
My Cobb Salad. Very large, but I did manage to eat it all. I was very hungry this evening.
After dinner we decided to enter the Animal Kingdom and participate in the evening Extra Magic Hours. We used the Rain Forest Cafe entrance in the back of the restaurant.
Here's a photo of the entrance (sorry, it’s a bit dark, but you get the idea).
The park was open until 11:00PM. Evening EMH at the Animal Kingdom can be in "iffy" proposition. There are limited attractions open, and because of that wait times can be rather significant.
Here is the times tip board in Discovery Island. Wait times at 8:40 were about 25 to 30 minutes for most major attractions. They stayed pretty steady at least until 10:30PM.
Attractions we experienced tonight were only Dinosaur and Expedition Everest. We tried to get on Primeval Whirl, but the wait times would not allow it. 30 minutes to get spun into oblivion won't work; especially, just after eating at the Rain Forest.
The park was somewhat crowded this evening. Dinosaur had a 30 minute wait, Expedition Everest had a 30 minute wait, but I felt it was longer, maybe 40 minutes. I really didn't think the temps were that bad tonight. It was a bit sticky, but it could have been a lot worse.
At 10:30 we decided to leave the park. Believe it or not our bus just arrived as we walked up to the bus depot. Great!!! Our return trip to the Lodge was very efficient. I spent some time in the lobby and gift shop before coming back to the room. All-in-all a great day!
I'll leave you with more photos from the Animal Kingdom and the Wilderness Lodge.
The Dino in Dinosaur! "This picture brought to you by a generous grant from the McDonalds Corporation."
Yeti Time!! Photo from the queue of Expedition Everest.
Wilderness Lodge Mercantile.
Photo inside the "Iron Spike Room" at the Wilderness Lodge Villas. It's a little warm for a fire, isn't it?
Up Next:
Back to the Animal Kingdom (I'll tell you why tomorrow)
Lunch at Whispering Canyon
Photos of our Villa
EPCOT or Magic Kingdom in the evening
Have a great time down there. I'll keep everything in line here in Indy while your gone.
cool2
. Great installment, can't wait for more!!!
