Friday June 13th, Day 6
We had a very early ADR @ Tusker House this morning at 8:00 am. When I made the ADR this day was not an EMH morning, some where along the way they added this day to an EMH morning, so I was a little nervous about going with the crowds etc..
We woke up around 6:30 and got out to the bus stop by 7:15 the plus since it was an EMH there was a bus right away. We ended up pulling into AK about 7:40, the crowds were already forming.
Since our ADR was for 8:00 they will not let you in any earlier on an EMH day, so they started letting everyone into the gates about 7:50 or so we got our rental and worked our way up to where the crowds had stopped for the morning welcome show. We couldnt see much but did see Mickey by the tree.
This was our first time to Animal Kingdom so we were all very excited as to what was ahead, we were also very flexible with the days plans. We figured we would stay as long as we could handle it and then leave for our rest and return in the pm to Ak again or maybe do HS (since we all had stuff we wanted to still do) or just hang out at the hotel.
We also had an ADR for Yak and Yeti in the afternoon if we desire to keep it.
Before this was scheduled as an EMH my dilemma was do I get FP first for the safari since we are right there (makes the most sense to me) or trek over to EE to get them with everyone else after our breakfast. But since this became an EMH , it was an easy solution to solve, as Dh was checking us in to Tusker house I ran over to the Safari and got FP for later and our next set of FP would be available as soon as we finished breakfast!
The decorations at Tusker House are really cool, it is big inside and pretty spread out we were in a room in the back. Our waiter came over and explained everything and said we had plenty of time to go get some food before they would come around. He brought us some juice , very yummy my kids surprisingly didnt like it, but they arent big juice drinkers.
We got some food, there seemed to be a lot to choose from, I got some fruit and of course I had to have one of those yummy donuts (however they werent that fresh)some eggs , sausage and Mickey waffles. It was all good, but you really cant screw up breakfast food IMHO..
Once the Characters started to come around, it was very fast and to be honest they really didnt spend a lot of time or interaction with the kids. I was alittle disappointed but still worth it b/c it was neat to get to see Daisy and Donald and Goofy is Dh favorite.
So after breakfast we headed towards Dinoland with a brief stop at EE 2 pick up 2 FP. Over at Dinoland they rode TriceraTop spin , while I went and got 3 FP for Dinosaur. Then Dh took Lauren and Joey on Primeval Whirl while I took Emma back on Triceratops Spin again.
We then headed back over to Safari to use our FP, the standby line looked long already. It took us about 15 min to get through the FP line. This was so neat, we saw lots of animals got some pictures of a few..
We had a little road block for a few minutes by this fellow.
We all enjoyed this little tour after our Safari we had another FP opportunity to we headed toward Kali to get some FP, and Emma would be able to ride this with us! YEAH!!! We decided we really wanted to see Festival of the Lion King show @ 11:30 so we headed that way, everything here seems so spread out! And sooo HOT!!!
We waited in line for about 20 min or so before we were able to head inside and wait some more
OMG this show is amazing! This is Broadway caliber quality! I didnt take any pictures b/c I was so in awe of everything!
Little Emma feel asleep in my lap towards the end, she was tuckered out from the heat and getting up so early and the late night before.
If anyone is reading this and hasnt seen FOTLK you MUST see it!
So afterwards we wanted to try out Expedition Everest, on our way we stopped again to pick up more FP for Kali b/c I was guessing the kids would love it so much they would want to do it 2x. The standby line for EE was pretty long and the return time for EE was after 4 oclock by this time now.
Dh and Joey went first while Emma, Lauren and I waited. This was the only sort of rude CM we encountered all week, he would not give me the child swap but insisted he had to give it to DH, who was right behind me, whatever no big deal. They came off and said they loved it! But Joey still said ToT and RnR was his favorites but that this was great too..
So here is where I am glad I listened to Dh, I was trying to convince them to head over to Dinosaur next, Dh said that me and Lauren should just ride now since we are here so we dont have to come back . The wait wasnt that long at all, so I agreed and Lauren and I were off, the line did move quick b/c I didnt even get a chance to really look around the waiting area etc.. before we knew it we were next in line to board! I tried to take a picture but didnt turn out to good.. This ride is awesome! But I have to agree with Joey that RnR is my favorite by far and ToT was a close second.. This was great though
Tried to take a picture of me and Lauren.
So after that we headed back over to Dinoland to do Dinosaur, I was very excited for this one! Dh took Lauren and Joey first (dont know how that happened that he got to go first 2x ha-ha) So Emma and I went and waited by the exit under the cover where all the benches are. This ride seemed to take forever as far as waiting goes
. But soon they were standing in front of us, saying how awesome that was, but it was kind of scary. They said Emma would have been really scared. So my turn is next to go with Lauren and Joey, we got the front row! This ride is soo cool! This has just become one of my favorites here! Tried to take a picture of us too, Lauren is buried in my lap..
We decide we better go use our FP for Kali, the weather is starting to look alittle dark and we need to decide if we want to keep our ADRs for Yak and Yeti.
On way over to Kali River we pass by EE where I notice the ride is down! (this is where I was very glad I listened to dh about riding it before) this is also where we discovered we didnt have our backpack with us! Yikes!!!
We quickly discovered we left at back at Dinosaur
Dh treks ALL the way back over there and meets back up with us in front of Kali. Yeah the backpack was just where we left it! Thank goodness!
So we get in the FP line for Kali and Emma needs to be measured and put the bracelet etc.. I had No Idea why they were doing that until we boarded by the way.. We saw a lot of people coming off that were REALLY wet! I didnt want to get drenched , and hoped for the best! I sat next to Emma with Dh and Joey together and Lauren and another family. The other mother and father got it REALLy bad! Emma and I got it alittle, and DH and Joey hardly got it at all!
As soon as we got off the kids knew we had the other set of FP and wanted to ride again!~ So we went through the line again and got back on,we sat the same way except that DH sat with Lauren this time while Joey sat with another little boy and family.
Emma and I got it alittle more this time, but the people sitting in the other seats got it bad again.. DH lucks out again with not much and Joey got pretty wet too.
So we are all alittle wet and decide we dont want to sit in an A/C sit down restaurant and decide to try Yak and Yeti counter service instead and hope that the rain doesnt come
but it is starting to get windy and dark! We DO NOT want a repeat from Tuesday thank you!
They go and find a table outside while I go and order our food, I wanted to try the egg rolls since everyone seems to rave about them, We had the beef broccoli and the orange chicken thing and fried rice to split. I have to say that this is no different than your average mall counter food, the egg rolls were nothing special nor was the rice the chicken and beef were good, but what you would expect from your mall courtyard IMHO
I was glad we xlnd our ADR if this is the same food upstairs but since reading others reviews on the sit down meal , it seems like it is different and now I am a little sad we skipped it.
After lunch we decided we had enough of AK and wanted to get out of there if this rain was coming
It started sprinkling on our way out to the bus, but never did rain to my knowledge.
So which bus did we catch?? Do we go back to the hotel or to another park??