xDay 5 – Animal Kingdom and Fantasmic!
Wednesday 18th May
In spite of the long day yesterday we’re all up early, and I decide to do 30 lengths of the pool…it goes some way to blow away the cobwebs, and I feel pretty good after. However I’m sure it’s only gone a tiny way to counteract the amount I feel that I’ve over-eaten so far.
We’re off to Animal Kingdom this morning and get there spot on 9am – can you see our early mornings are starting to get a little later each day already
Ryan and I head straight to Everest, his favourite ride (at least right now) in the whole of WDW.
There is no wait time so we ride it immediately and then get fastpasses for later before heading through Asia to meet up with Helen and Emma. The queue for Kilimanjaro Safari is already 15 mins but the line moves quickly and the wait is definitely worth it. Joe the driver took us on one of the best trips ever and loads of animals up early it seems
, including the warthog which I think we spot for the first time ever.
Warthog!
Finding Nemo next…great show as always here, and they manage to inject real emotion into the relationship between Marlin and Nemo. Almost seems too good for a theme park show. We saw the very first showing of this to the public a few years ago, so it always holds a place in my heart.
Loving a bit of Bruce the shark
Totally cool, dude
Emma decides she doesn’t want to ride Everest, so Helen takes her off to Dinoland to play in the dinosaur dig area, while I take Ryan back for more thrills with our fastpasses. First time is great..we wait for the front seats, and apart from a short delay at the very top of the hill climb, all is wonderful. So much so, that we want to do it again straight away…this turns out to be a bad idea…
We slowly click up the hill, pausing again at the top of mountain for what seems like forever – easily a couple of minutes (luckily we are not right at the front this time). We then get moving again and rush backwards inside the mountain where we see the mighty Yeti!
Well, he was there a minute ago
And we sit there for a few seconds, a minute, a few mins, and then the lights come on and we’re told via a tannoy announcement not to leave the vehicle and that someone will be right along to help. Time for a quick picture in that case.
4 CMs turn up a few minutes later and extract us from the cars before leading us down countless flights of stairs and back to ground level. We can’t take pictures behind the scenes, but it kids of reminds me of a multi-story car park – well and truly backstage. They hand us special fastpasses that can be used again anytime before the end of the month, and when we exit we look up to see the cars stuck on the hill climb
Finally meet up with Helen and Emma and the dig site and explain where we’ve been. Spend some time together there and then take Emma on the Hester and Chester ride. It’s basically the Magic Carpet ride from the MK, but without the carpets…Emma loves it though.
Back to villa for food and swimming and naps, then we head off to Studios via Outback. We have Courtney, who is possibly the tiniest but perkiest server I’ve ever encountered. She’s good fun and her attitude sells me a quesadilla appetizer that I didn’t know I wanted ☺ plus a beer and a steak, perhaps more predictably.
It’s a dry evening with no chance of rain so we decide to do Fantasmic!, and head off to the Hollywood Studios. Helen and Emma decide to visit Voyage of the Little Mermaid while Ryan and I go to investigate the wait time for Star Tours. It’s 45 minutes so decide to skip it and watch the Jedi Training Academy show that is just starting. Ryan still doesn’t want to take part in this, but I think the Star Wars interest is becoming stronger in my young padawan.
And you, you’re fired!
We meet up near the hat and head up to Fantasic and grab great seats front and centre, with one of the merchandise carts in front blocking the view. However, we know this will move away before the show starts and it’s nice to chat a little with CM before that happens. We grab some snacks and then 15 mins before the show our CM friends bids us farewell…and we have a perfect view of the mountain! Beer, cotton candy and Fantasmic – what could be better?
It gets a bit hot near the front!
Home to the villa, few games of pool in the games room, and bed.
Day 6 - Hollywood Studios and Chilling Out
Setting the Scene and Index
Wednesday 18th May
In spite of the long day yesterday we’re all up early, and I decide to do 30 lengths of the pool…it goes some way to blow away the cobwebs, and I feel pretty good after. However I’m sure it’s only gone a tiny way to counteract the amount I feel that I’ve over-eaten so far.
We’re off to Animal Kingdom this morning and get there spot on 9am – can you see our early mornings are starting to get a little later each day already
Ryan and I head straight to Everest, his favourite ride (at least right now) in the whole of WDW.
There is no wait time so we ride it immediately and then get fastpasses for later before heading through Asia to meet up with Helen and Emma. The queue for Kilimanjaro Safari is already 15 mins but the line moves quickly and the wait is definitely worth it. Joe the driver took us on one of the best trips ever and loads of animals up early it seems
, including the warthog which I think we spot for the first time ever.Warthog!
Finding Nemo next…great show as always here, and they manage to inject real emotion into the relationship between Marlin and Nemo. Almost seems too good for a theme park show. We saw the very first showing of this to the public a few years ago, so it always holds a place in my heart.
Loving a bit of Bruce the shark
Totally cool, dude
Emma decides she doesn’t want to ride Everest, so Helen takes her off to Dinoland to play in the dinosaur dig area, while I take Ryan back for more thrills with our fastpasses. First time is great..we wait for the front seats, and apart from a short delay at the very top of the hill climb, all is wonderful. So much so, that we want to do it again straight away…this turns out to be a bad idea…
We slowly click up the hill, pausing again at the top of mountain for what seems like forever – easily a couple of minutes (luckily we are not right at the front this time). We then get moving again and rush backwards inside the mountain where we see the mighty Yeti!
Well, he was there a minute ago
And we sit there for a few seconds, a minute, a few mins, and then the lights come on and we’re told via a tannoy announcement not to leave the vehicle and that someone will be right along to help. Time for a quick picture in that case.
4 CMs turn up a few minutes later and extract us from the cars before leading us down countless flights of stairs and back to ground level. We can’t take pictures behind the scenes, but it kids of reminds me of a multi-story car park – well and truly backstage. They hand us special fastpasses that can be used again anytime before the end of the month, and when we exit we look up to see the cars stuck on the hill climb
Finally meet up with Helen and Emma and the dig site and explain where we’ve been. Spend some time together there and then take Emma on the Hester and Chester ride. It’s basically the Magic Carpet ride from the MK, but without the carpets…Emma loves it though.
Back to villa for food and swimming and naps, then we head off to Studios via Outback. We have Courtney, who is possibly the tiniest but perkiest server I’ve ever encountered. She’s good fun and her attitude sells me a quesadilla appetizer that I didn’t know I wanted ☺ plus a beer and a steak, perhaps more predictably.
It’s a dry evening with no chance of rain so we decide to do Fantasmic!, and head off to the Hollywood Studios. Helen and Emma decide to visit Voyage of the Little Mermaid while Ryan and I go to investigate the wait time for Star Tours. It’s 45 minutes so decide to skip it and watch the Jedi Training Academy show that is just starting. Ryan still doesn’t want to take part in this, but I think the Star Wars interest is becoming stronger in my young padawan.
And you, you’re fired!
We meet up near the hat and head up to Fantasic and grab great seats front and centre, with one of the merchandise carts in front blocking the view. However, we know this will move away before the show starts and it’s nice to chat a little with CM before that happens. We grab some snacks and then 15 mins before the show our CM friends bids us farewell…and we have a perfect view of the mountain! Beer, cotton candy and Fantasmic – what could be better?
It gets a bit hot near the front!
Home to the villa, few games of pool in the games room, and bed.
Day 6 - Hollywood Studios and Chilling Out
Setting the Scene and Index
