Day 2: Expo and Animal Kingdom
I did my best to sleep in Wednesday morning since it'd be my last chance to do so for the next four days, but I'm sure I was up by 6 or so. My plan was to be on the first expo bus and thanks to a tip from
@camaker, I walked over to POFQ to get on the bus there. The expo bus loaded around 9:30 and we were at ESPN Wide World of Sports by 9:45, which was much faster than in 2017.
I started walking toward the area where I would get my Dopey bibs, but heard a dude shouting about merchandise. Since it was early, I thought I'd check out the lines. I headed into the arena and was initially encouraged by how few people seemed to be in there. My biggest turnoff from getting merchandise was the wait, so I thought I'd maybe pick something up.
Wrong.
I got to where the line was and it really wasn't bad, but I knew there would be some wait and I really didn't want to miss getting over to Animal Kingdom for Flame Tree BBQ at noon. I still have mixed feelings on this decision. From the sounds of it, the lines moved pretty fast and the whole expo experience was super quick for me, so I probably had time. But, a lot of folks said the merch was meh - not to mention the six Dopey shirts I got - so, who knows? Some of the long sleeve shirts looked slick, but I don't know how much I'd wear them.
Anyway, I quickly bolted from the merchandise arena, went to the hall where bib pick up was and got in and out in roughly 10 minutes. It was awesome. So, kudos to whoever was handling that because it was infinitely smoother than the 2017 expo experience.
I mulled the merch arena again, but the siren call of the parks was too strong, so I hopped on a bus back to POR. There, I rounded up the family and we made our way to AK.
It was lunch time when we arrived and we immediately went to Flame Tree BBQ. Flame Tree has been kind of a white whale for us the past couple trips. We've wanted to try it, but the timing never worked out. It was totally worth the wait. Hannah and I ordered the sampler with ribs, chicken and pulled pork; Josie and Robyn got the BBQ mac and cheese and I think Maya got a hotdog.
Maya was too obsessed with the scavenging birds to pay much attention to her meal, but the rest of us loved ours. I got an end piece for my ribs, so I didn't get *quite* as much food, but it was still so much. And really, really tasty. The girls' mac and cheese was amazing, too. Flame Tree totally lived up to the hype and will be in our dining rotation for a long time, I suspect.
After lunch, we had FastPasses for Finding Nemo: The Musical, so we took the long way through Asia to get over there, stopping for a couple of family pics. While were walking, I told the girls I'd be running along that path in a few days for the full.
DSC_2898 by
Lee Hermiston, on Flickr
PhotoPass_Visiting_AK_415197509572 by
Lee Hermiston, on Flickr
PhotoPass_Visiting_AK_415197509579 by
Lee Hermiston, on Flickr
Then it was Finding Nemo: The Musical, one of my wife's favorite Disney attractions. I'm pretty so so on it, but the songs are pretty catchy.
DSC_2912 by
Lee Hermiston, on Flickr
At the end, I tried to get photos of Maya and the bubbles, but this was about the best I could get:
DSC_2937 by
Lee Hermiston, on Flickr
Poor lighting. It could probably be fixed with some editing, but I'm not going to mess with it right now.
Anyway, from there we went to Maharajah Jungle Trek where the tigers were pretty sleepy, but the birds were plentiful. Then we made our very first trip into Pandora.
Pandora was definitely a cool place to check out. We roamed around just a bit before our FastPasses for Flight of Passage. We got in line, but quickly discovered Maya was too short for the ride, which was a bummer. I offered to do child swap with my wife, but she bowed out and they went to just chill out.
So, Josie, Robyn and I did FoP on our own. I think the pre-ride stuff takes a little long (I'm sure there's a valid reason, probably to make the wait feel shorter), but it was pretty neat. We got on the ride, got buckled in and WHOA. From a thematic and technical standpoint, FoP was amazing. I definitely said "wow" out loud a few times.
That said, I'm really not a huge fan of the 3D motion ride fad/phenomenon. By the end of FoP, I was feeling a little queasy. So, I can appreciate FoP for being an outstanding ride, but it won't replace Splash, Haunted Mansion or Tower of Terror in my book.
We didn't have passes for the Navi River ride and no one felt like waiting. But, I did want to check out Satuli Canteen after
@rteetz strongly recommended it. The girls grabbed a table and Hannah and I got in line to grab a protein bowl. We got noodles, chicken, beef and the creamy herb (I think?) dressing.
Unfortunately, Satuli Canteen was not much of a for anyone, but me. Ryan, I get it. I would order that again if I was flying solo, but the family will probably skip next time.
From there, we trekked back to Africa (there was a ton of crisscrossing the park that day) for Kilamanjaro Safari. We had FastPasses and got on pretty quickly. Kilamanjaro Safari never disappoints, so that was a lot of fun.
DSC_2973 by
Lee Hermiston, on Flickr
DSC_3012 by
Lee Hermiston, on Flickr
We were going to do the Gorilla Falls Trail right after the safari, but it closed at 4:30, so we were SOL. Instead, we checked out one of the shops and found a gift for my father-in-law, whose birthday is next month.
At 5, we had reservations at Yak and Yeti, another restaurant that had been on our wish list for a while. We got a table upstairs and it was fairly quiet. I had every intention of ordering the Korean short ribs, but they had a separate menu with some specials and I ended up ordering the teriyaki steak with firecracker shrimp. The shrimp were really good, but the teriyaki was a little overwhelming on the steak. I finished everything and it was fine, but next time I'll probably try the ribs. Everyone else enjoyed their food (though I don't remember exactly what they all got, outside of Robyn's cauliflower dish).
It was about 6:30 when we finished dinner and everyone was pretty much ready to call it a day. Hannah and the girls went straight to the bus so they could get back and hop in the resort pool for a little bit. I opted to stick around for just a little bit so I could check out Pandora at night.
DSC_3026 by
Lee Hermiston, on Flickr
DSC_3034 by
Lee Hermiston, on Flickr
Pandora looked awesome in the dark, so I'm glad I did that.
When I got back to POR, the family was in the pool, so I went to the poolside bar and ordered a drink (I'm not as good as
@jennamfeo at documenting these things). It was fine, nothing crazy. Disney drinks on the whole seem kind of weak and are definitely overpriced, but what can you do?
After that, I went back to the room, laid out my running gear for the 5K and crashed pretty quickly.
Next up: 5K and Magic Kingdom (I really need to come up with more clever titles)