The first trip of a lifetime trip report day 13

[jothp]

Day 13 - Monday 24th August - Animal Kingdom and Epcot part 1

This morning we were off for our second visit to Animal Kingdom. We arrived in the car park about 8.30 and joined the queue to enter the park. Just as they opened the turnstiles at about 8.45 I realised we had left the camera in the car. Ollie offered to go back for it whilst the girls and I headed off to EE. Now I had a bit of a dilemma at this point as I am a real ride wimp and didn't fancy EE but I didn't feel I could leave Evie to ride without an adult so I had to pull myself together and get on.



As you can see from the picture I'm not sure I enjoyed it much . I do have to admit though that it wasn't as bad as I was expecting and I could possibly even be persuaded to do it again sometime but today wasn't that day so Olie took the big girls back on again whilst Evie and I browsed the shop.



By the time they had finished their 2nd ride it was about 9.25 and time to head over to Africa to catch the first Lion King show of the day. On the across we decided to stop off for a photo at the tree of life. Whilst waiting we ran into a family whose mum was determined they were there waiting before us even though even her husband was telling her we were there first. I guessed that she must have been having a bad day and I wasn't about to let it ruin my day so I graciously let them go in front. Unfortunately it was already scorching today and we were already looking a bit hot and bothered.


Despite our detour and a toilet break we were still near the front of the queue. We were soon let in and made our way to our seats right near the front of the giraffe section. Evie was asked if she would like to take part in the show.

http://s803.photobucket.com/user/jothp/media/wdw15/DSC00527.jpg.html


She had to make a giraffe noise which caused her to go a bit quiet for a while but she was fine once she was told what they sounded like.

The show was fantastic and it would be one that I would love the chance to see again.

 

[jothp]

Part 2

We walked out of the theatre into a wall of heat so we were glad that our next stop was a FP+ at Kali River Rapids. We arrived about 10.45 and queued for a short while to get on. We all got pretty wet today but I think Hattie was the wettest - I think she might as well have jumped into the river but it was all good fun and certainly a good way to cool down. We wandered around for a while after Kali taking in the atmosphere and the girls had a go at a few of the wilderness explorer activities. They all enjoyed this and we found there were a good range of activities - many suitable for all ages but some definitely better for older or younger children. We were feeling a bit peckish as by now it was about 11.50 - we didn't want to spoil ourselves for our lunch at Yak and Yeti so we had drinks and shared a few snacks.

Next up we decided we had time to take the wildlife express train before our FP+ for the safari. We had a look around completing another 5 wilderness explorer badges. We also found these guys whilst there which absolutely made Robyn's day.




We also met Rafiki


We took a leisurely stroll back to the station to catch the train back to the rest of the park.



By the time we got back and queued for our safari FP+ it was 1.00 so we knew we would be cutting it fine for our lunch reservation at Yak and Yeti. I tried to change our FP to after lunch but there were no times available so I decided we'd risk it. By this time the sky had started to cloud over but nothing too alarming so the girls settled down to see what animals they could spot for their next badge.




Unluckily for us the first few drops of rain started falling about 10 minutes into the trip. I quickly got our our waterproof carriers and packed the things away as best as I could. Within seconds the rain was coming down so hard that the roof couldn't keep us dry any longer and for the second time this trip the rain had soaked us to the skin! Thankfully the people in our truck remained in good spirits and we all managed to see the funny side. We got off and headed off to Yak and Yeti, we didn't want to sit in the cold air con and eat a meal so wet so they very kindly said we could cancel our booking without the no-show fee. We got back to the car as quickly as we could and got back to OKW.

 

[jothp]

Part 3

We all got back and got showered/dry and changed by which time we were all starving and I was feeling a bit sad about our missed reservation. We made a quick decision to revisit Animal Kingdom on Saturday morning and I managed to rebook our Yak and Yeti lunch for then. Next we turned our thoughts to the slightly more urgent problem of what we were having for lunch today. I looked on MDE and we settled for Bongos Cuban Cafe in Downtown Disney and secured a reservation that was only a short time away so we headed off in the car once again. Olie and I really enjoyed our lunches here but none of the girls did so I'm not sure if we'll return with hindsight I think we should have just grabbed a counter service ASAP as we were all pretty grumpy by the time we got food. We headed back to OKW and had a rest.

Our plan for this evening was illuminations at Epcot. I was quite tempted to just stay around our resort but we knew that if we didn't see it today then we wouldn't get another chance so we got ourselves ready to go out once again. On arriving at Epcot our first stop was Sunshine Seasons for some dinner. It was definitely a great option for our counter service credits and we all managed to find something we liked. Hattie took herself off to the Chinese section to order her own dinner - she asked for a shrimp lo mein. The lady behind the counter obviously thought she wouldn't like it and gave her a taster to eat before she would give her a full portion which I thought was nice. I decided a trip around living with the land was in order to let our food go down. We came off and checked the wait times and saw that test track was only showing 30 minutes. We hot footed it over there and got in the queue. Unfortunately there was soon a break down and in total it was 1 hour 20 minutes before we were back outside.

We made our way to the world showcase next and into the glass shop in Mexico as the girls had seen some souvenirs they wanted there. We wandered a bit further around the lake browsing in a few shops and watching as the sun went down.






It was soon time to find a space to view illuminations and we found a spot at about 8.45 between Germany and Italy next to the wheelchair viewing area. Olie grabbed us some drinks from a nearby kiosk and we all enjoyed the show.



Very happy but weary after another busy day we headed back to OKW and straight to bed.