Day 5 - Saturday the 7th - Part 7 - Duffy Searches for Tigers and Eats Gummy Bears
Our FP+ for Kali River Rapids was ready, and Princess and Buddy were hoping to get a little wet. Pickle didn't want to ride, so she and I headed to the Kingdom of Anandapur, along with Duffy. We were going on the Maharaja Jungle Trek, and we were searching for tigers.
Pickle and Duffy didn't hesitate to explore.
Oh, good job! Their hard work paid off, and we got our first glimpse.
Where to next? Perhaps we should go the same direction as this guy.
Duffy was getting a little tired being out in the hot sun. Lucky for him, Pickle was there to take good care of him.
Duffy really wanted to see what was inside, but he was too little to see without some help.
And what did he see? A tiger! But it was only a picture.
We stopped here for a little refreshment, before resuming our journey.
Surely we were getting close now.
At last! Duffy and Pickle found the tigers. One was pacing around in the shade.
And the other was cooling off in the pool. That was starting to sound like a good idea to us, too.
Such a beautiful area of the park! It's places like this that make me think I should really learn more about photography and learn how to use Matt's camera.
Well, our jungle trek came to an end. Princess and Buddy caught up to us and were mostly dry. They had fun on Kali, but were ready to face that mischievous yeti again. Our FP+ for Expedition Everest was only about ten minutes away, so it was time to get going.
Okay, Disney geek warning! Don't you just love the imagineers! I had to get a picture of one of the cool designs that were included when Expedition Everest was built. Here's a shot of the mysterious mountain and a lovely shrine, located along the path from Asia towards EE.
Now you probably already knew this, but in case you didn't, the shrine was built with the same profile as the attraction. So, if you stand in the right spot...
they line up exactly. Yep. I think that's selfie worthy.
I think magic bands must be a pretty big offering, because we had no more problems with the yeti, thank goodness. Princess and Buddy rode twice; once with their own magic band/admission ticket, and once again with mine and Pickle's. Buddy had to make do with "only" three rides on EE this trip. I'm sure once he's old enough to venture off on his own, he'll spend a whole day at AK just riding this ride.
Our initial game plan was to head over to Dinosaur. Princess had really wanted to ride this and EE for the first time today. However, it was really hot and crowded. I was game to keep going, but the young'n's had visions of the Grand Floridian pools dancing in their heads. We had walked towards Dinoland when this decision was made, so instead of entering, we headed over to Discovery Island. We weren't too far along when even venturing back to the hotel seemed like too much. So we stopped for some cold refreshments before heading back to the buses.
Buddy went the icy route and got a frozen lemonade! I like that these come with lids. He was able to eat this in two rounds: half before the bus ride and half after.
Princess got a frozen banana. Very SoCal of her. (I guess that's to be expected after surfing lessons.)
Pickle went with the classic:
Duffy didn't want to be left out of the fun. He wasn't as hot as the others since he had been strolled around for awhile earlier, so instead of something icy cold, he opted for gummy bears.
We enjoyed our break immensely. There was a band playing right by us, which added to the ambiance. They were playing all sorts of new-fangled music that I didn't know. Princess recognized most of the songs, and while I didn't know most of what she was saying, at least I had heard of Bruno Mars because of the Super Bowl. Some people got up to dance. Not us, though, it was too darn hot!!!
We headed back to the buses, when all of a sudden we had a deja vu all over again from our ride on KS in the morning. Guess who was already in line? Cassie, Randy, Huey, Dewey, and Louie were already waiting. No more than five minutes later and Steve, Denise, Beth, Beth's Steve, Chip, Dale, and Baby showed up, too! Everybody had decided to get out of Dodge and head to the pool.
Once we got to the Grand Floridian, Princess and I checked in with the front desk and got her new gray magic band situated. When you lose a magic band at WDW, the replacement that you get only comes in gray. She was disappointed that her pink one was lost, but we still held out hope that it might turn up. We wouldn't know until tomorrow.
We lost no time in getting to the one place that it made sense to be on a hot day like this:
Unfortunately, this would be our only time at AK this trip. There's a lot that we missed, but that's why it's great to go to WDW a lot. If we didn't get to it today, there's always next time.
The D-Tech Me is really cool! And you had great seats for the Mark Hamill talk!
Glad to have you along!
