Mal6586
Southern Disney Spinster
- Joined
- Jul 27, 2016
Day 5 - But Did You Die?
Thursday, December 8th - Animal Kingdom Day!
So sorry for the delay on getting our next post up. I had my wisdom teeth removed last week, and it has not been a fun week. I got dry sockets, and have had to go back to the oral surgeon twice so far to get my sockets packed. Super fun times!
So on Thursday, we did not get in a big rush to do much. We didn't have any breakfast reservations, and our first fast pass window didn't start until after 10am, so we took our time getting to the park. I had sort of a rough touring plan for the morning, but I ended up having to scratch it because we just missed maybe the third step, so after that we winged it. We started the day with Tough to Be a Bug, and while I think the show is cute, I don't know if I had defective glasses or a defective brain, but I saw double through almost the entire show.
After that we hit our Expedition Everest fast pass.
If I wasn't already properly awake, I was now!
Then had a quick picture taken on the bridge on our way to Dinoland!
Next we passed by Primeval Whirl. I wanted to ride, but we didn't have a fast pass for it, and the wait was up to 50 minutes or so, so we headed on to use our Dinosaur fast pass. I know Dinosaur got a recent refurb, but it's been SO LONG since I rode it, that I really have no idea if it was different than what I had seen before. Either way, still fun, even if our faces don't really show it.
After Dinosaur, we had intended to catch the Finding Nemo musical before lunch, but we just missed the cut off for the next show, so we decided to go ahead and leisurely make our way to Animal Kingdom Lodge for our lunch reservation at Sanaa. We ended up showing up almost an hour early, but I knew lunch reservations there aren't hard to get, so I figured even if we had to wait, it might not be terribly long.
Once we checked in, they gave us a pager, and we headed out to the little observation area around the corner to look at the animals. We had just taken a seat in some rocking chairs on the deck when our pager went off, so off we went back inside. We didn't get a window table, but our table didn't have an obstructed view, so we oriented ourselves around to watch the animals as we ate. That was so nice being able to just people watch and animal watch. Naturally when it came time to order, we got the bread service to start.
I have to admit, I am NOT a spicy person. Between my very sensitive taste buds and my very sensitive digestive system, I am not a very adventurous eater when it comes to spicy food, but I did try every single accompaniment, even if the bites of the very spiciest ones was quite tiny! My favorites were definitely the red pepper hummus and the cucumber raita. (Aren't you shocked they're the least spicy! Haha!)
Even though we definitely could have stopped after that, we ordered entrees as well. I had the Tandoori Shrimp, and Roomie got the Kenya Coffee Barbecue Sandwich. I didn't try Roomie's (one of the few times of the trip!) but she said it was delicious, and I really liked the Tandoori Shrimp, but after SO MUCH NAAN in the bread service, I do wish I hadn't ordered something else that came on naan, but as with a lot of things on our trip, hindsight is 20/20.
After lunch, we headed back to Animal Kingdom. Since the sun wasn't in our faces this time, we got some pictures at the front of the park. I love these frames they use!
For the rest of our day in the park, we kind of took it easy. We saw both Flights of Wonder (AMAZING!) and the Finding Nemo musical (SO STINKING CUTE!) for the first time. I was glad we had two shows to sit through after such a heavy lunch. I definitely needed some time to work my way back up to full touring mode after eating so much bread! We rode Expedition Everest again on standby since the wait wasn't too bad. (I wasn't able to utilize 4th or 5th fastpasses this day because our last one wasn't until 5:40 for the Safari!) After that, we spotted a Photopass photographer nearby, so we stopped by for more pictures. This was another case of "just do what they tell you! It will be super cute!"
One of the things we didn't end up doing that I thought we might was explore more of the wildlife trails, but to be honest, by this point in the trip, my feet were pretty worn out, so we kinda hit the high notes and then moved on.
One of the things I haven't mentioned yet so far was that we did get lockers in the park almost every day. We had a canvas bag that we carried in every day with our jackets packed and sometimes scarves and gloves as the temperature forecast predicted. This was the first day we actually really had to go back and get our jackets out. It got pretty chilly late in the afternoon, and I knew by the time we went on our safari, I would be shivering!
We headed to Africa for the last bit of our day, seeing Festival of the Lion King (makes me cry EVERY time! Gah!) and then heading out on our nighttime safari. I had read to try to time this at dusk, so that's what we did. The sun was setting as we departed, and then it was pretty much down by the time we finished. I have to say, I was NOT impressed with the nighttime safari. I don't feel like you see anywhere near as many animals as you can during the day, especially compared to the morning which is usually when I have done the safari. The few animals we saw were also in much smaller groups than I was used to seeing. Instead of three or four giraffes in a clump of trees, there might be one. Instead of a group of hippos, you might see two. That kind of thing. Also toward the end of the safari when it started getting genuinely dark, it was hard to see anything at all even with the lighting they've installed.
Once we finished our safari, and since there was STILL NO ()#*$&#(&(^ RIVERS OF LIGHT, we headed on out. Our local friend had been texting us through the day, and we decided to head to Disney Springs to meet up and go see Moana at the dinner theater. Once we got back to our resort, roomie and I freshened up. Just as we were getting to the car to head out, our local friend texted that his truck wouldn't start. Uh oh! So we hightailed it to Clermont instead to pick him up for the movie.
Well, this put us on a TIGHT SCHEDULE. According to the GPS, we were going to get to Disney Springs something like 5 minutes before the movie was set to start. So naturally, I'm driving slightly over the speed limit to get there, being a little more ballsy than I normally am driving in a slightly unfamiliar city. Roomie is holding on for dear life, and off we go! We pull into the orange garage with 8 minutes to spare. Roomie says she wishes we hadn't gone so fast. I cop back, "But did you die?" We rush to the theater. We dash to the kiosk to get our tickets...
And it's sold out.
...
...
All that rush for nothing.
Did I mention Disney Springs is SO PACKED? We stand there trying to figure out what we're going to do with the rest of our evening. I am so over the crowd, Roomie is probably still anxious from our car ride, and poor local friend is just along for the ride. So we decide to just go back to the resort and chill out. We go to the food court and get supper, and then go back to the room and visit. As it starts to get late, we take local friend back to his apartment, and we settle back in for the night.
It was disappointing not to get to go to the dinner theater as it would have been Roomie and my first time to go to a dine-in theater, and plus we had not seen Moana yet, but alas, it wasn't in the cards. Overall, it was a pretty solid day, but as this was my first time to actually plan an entire day at Animal Kingdom, it was kind of lackluster. I will be so glad when Pandora opens up so that there is more to do in that park once it gets late, because it really does empty out as soon as the afternoon starts to come to a close.
Next up, Hollywood Studios day, and THE BEST PHOTOPASS PHOTOGRAPHER EVER!
Thursday, December 8th - Animal Kingdom Day!
So sorry for the delay on getting our next post up. I had my wisdom teeth removed last week, and it has not been a fun week. I got dry sockets, and have had to go back to the oral surgeon twice so far to get my sockets packed. Super fun times!
So on Thursday, we did not get in a big rush to do much. We didn't have any breakfast reservations, and our first fast pass window didn't start until after 10am, so we took our time getting to the park. I had sort of a rough touring plan for the morning, but I ended up having to scratch it because we just missed maybe the third step, so after that we winged it. We started the day with Tough to Be a Bug, and while I think the show is cute, I don't know if I had defective glasses or a defective brain, but I saw double through almost the entire show.
After that we hit our Expedition Everest fast pass.
If I wasn't already properly awake, I was now!
Then had a quick picture taken on the bridge on our way to Dinoland!
Next we passed by Primeval Whirl. I wanted to ride, but we didn't have a fast pass for it, and the wait was up to 50 minutes or so, so we headed on to use our Dinosaur fast pass. I know Dinosaur got a recent refurb, but it's been SO LONG since I rode it, that I really have no idea if it was different than what I had seen before. Either way, still fun, even if our faces don't really show it.
After Dinosaur, we had intended to catch the Finding Nemo musical before lunch, but we just missed the cut off for the next show, so we decided to go ahead and leisurely make our way to Animal Kingdom Lodge for our lunch reservation at Sanaa. We ended up showing up almost an hour early, but I knew lunch reservations there aren't hard to get, so I figured even if we had to wait, it might not be terribly long.
Once we checked in, they gave us a pager, and we headed out to the little observation area around the corner to look at the animals. We had just taken a seat in some rocking chairs on the deck when our pager went off, so off we went back inside. We didn't get a window table, but our table didn't have an obstructed view, so we oriented ourselves around to watch the animals as we ate. That was so nice being able to just people watch and animal watch. Naturally when it came time to order, we got the bread service to start.
I have to admit, I am NOT a spicy person. Between my very sensitive taste buds and my very sensitive digestive system, I am not a very adventurous eater when it comes to spicy food, but I did try every single accompaniment, even if the bites of the very spiciest ones was quite tiny! My favorites were definitely the red pepper hummus and the cucumber raita. (Aren't you shocked they're the least spicy! Haha!)
Even though we definitely could have stopped after that, we ordered entrees as well. I had the Tandoori Shrimp, and Roomie got the Kenya Coffee Barbecue Sandwich. I didn't try Roomie's (one of the few times of the trip!) but she said it was delicious, and I really liked the Tandoori Shrimp, but after SO MUCH NAAN in the bread service, I do wish I hadn't ordered something else that came on naan, but as with a lot of things on our trip, hindsight is 20/20.
After lunch, we headed back to Animal Kingdom. Since the sun wasn't in our faces this time, we got some pictures at the front of the park. I love these frames they use!
For the rest of our day in the park, we kind of took it easy. We saw both Flights of Wonder (AMAZING!) and the Finding Nemo musical (SO STINKING CUTE!) for the first time. I was glad we had two shows to sit through after such a heavy lunch. I definitely needed some time to work my way back up to full touring mode after eating so much bread! We rode Expedition Everest again on standby since the wait wasn't too bad. (I wasn't able to utilize 4th or 5th fastpasses this day because our last one wasn't until 5:40 for the Safari!) After that, we spotted a Photopass photographer nearby, so we stopped by for more pictures. This was another case of "just do what they tell you! It will be super cute!"
One of the things we didn't end up doing that I thought we might was explore more of the wildlife trails, but to be honest, by this point in the trip, my feet were pretty worn out, so we kinda hit the high notes and then moved on.
One of the things I haven't mentioned yet so far was that we did get lockers in the park almost every day. We had a canvas bag that we carried in every day with our jackets packed and sometimes scarves and gloves as the temperature forecast predicted. This was the first day we actually really had to go back and get our jackets out. It got pretty chilly late in the afternoon, and I knew by the time we went on our safari, I would be shivering!
We headed to Africa for the last bit of our day, seeing Festival of the Lion King (makes me cry EVERY time! Gah!) and then heading out on our nighttime safari. I had read to try to time this at dusk, so that's what we did. The sun was setting as we departed, and then it was pretty much down by the time we finished. I have to say, I was NOT impressed with the nighttime safari. I don't feel like you see anywhere near as many animals as you can during the day, especially compared to the morning which is usually when I have done the safari. The few animals we saw were also in much smaller groups than I was used to seeing. Instead of three or four giraffes in a clump of trees, there might be one. Instead of a group of hippos, you might see two. That kind of thing. Also toward the end of the safari when it started getting genuinely dark, it was hard to see anything at all even with the lighting they've installed.
Once we finished our safari, and since there was STILL NO ()#*$&#(&(^ RIVERS OF LIGHT, we headed on out. Our local friend had been texting us through the day, and we decided to head to Disney Springs to meet up and go see Moana at the dinner theater. Once we got back to our resort, roomie and I freshened up. Just as we were getting to the car to head out, our local friend texted that his truck wouldn't start. Uh oh! So we hightailed it to Clermont instead to pick him up for the movie.
Well, this put us on a TIGHT SCHEDULE. According to the GPS, we were going to get to Disney Springs something like 5 minutes before the movie was set to start. So naturally, I'm driving slightly over the speed limit to get there, being a little more ballsy than I normally am driving in a slightly unfamiliar city. Roomie is holding on for dear life, and off we go! We pull into the orange garage with 8 minutes to spare. Roomie says she wishes we hadn't gone so fast. I cop back, "But did you die?" We rush to the theater. We dash to the kiosk to get our tickets...
And it's sold out.
...
...
All that rush for nothing.
Did I mention Disney Springs is SO PACKED? We stand there trying to figure out what we're going to do with the rest of our evening. I am so over the crowd, Roomie is probably still anxious from our car ride, and poor local friend is just along for the ride. So we decide to just go back to the resort and chill out. We go to the food court and get supper, and then go back to the room and visit. As it starts to get late, we take local friend back to his apartment, and we settle back in for the night.
It was disappointing not to get to go to the dinner theater as it would have been Roomie and my first time to go to a dine-in theater, and plus we had not seen Moana yet, but alas, it wasn't in the cards. Overall, it was a pretty solid day, but as this was my first time to actually plan an entire day at Animal Kingdom, it was kind of lackluster. I will be so glad when Pandora opens up so that there is more to do in that park once it gets late, because it really does empty out as soon as the afternoon starts to come to a close.
Next up, Hollywood Studios day, and THE BEST PHOTOPASS PHOTOGRAPHER EVER!