bengunn
Pirate Member
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2001
- Messages
- 375
Day 2 Animal Kingdom
Previous episodes:
Prequel
Day 1 - The trip to Orlando
The Cast:
Richard (bengunn): Chief planner
Kathy : DW, just wants to go on holiday
Josie : DD 20, at Reading University, Assistant Planner, not very good at getting up
Sam : DS 17, just done AS exams, can get up very quickly when he wants to
Saturday 17th August
Woke up at 03:15, 03:45 etc. Finally woke up properly at 06:30. We all were fairly awake this morning and, after breakfast in the villa, we managed to leave at 08:10 (which was our best effort all holiday
).
We had to drop off the villa registration form at the management company on the way but fortunately their office was on our route which was 192, SR535, Osceolla Parkway. The roads were very quiet and by the time we had parked (in Peacock 4) and walked to the AK entrance (no need to wait for a tram as it was not very far) it was 09:00 and the park was open. I should point out that this was the closest we ever got to any park opening time, despite the best of intentions.
We walked through to the Kilamanjaro Safari, only a 10 minute wait so no need for FP. The safari was excellent; still one of our best experiences on the holiday and liked by all of us. The safari was much longer than we expected and we saw lots of animals: rhinos, hippos, lions, zebra, giraffes, ostrich and many more. We especially liked the hidden barriers that make it look as though all the animals could easily get to you. We thought the bit with the poachers was a bit pointless and unnecessary though.
We then walked through the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail; we saw the gorillas, although they were asleep, and were amused by the naked mole rats which seem so tightly packed together that it is amazing that they do not suffocate each other. This trail is well worth the walk.
We decided to leave Rafikis Planet Watch area until later (much later as it turned out) and made our way to Asia and the Kali River Rapids which had only a 10 minute wait. This ride is great fun but you do stand a chance of getting very wet; Kathy and I just got a little bit wet but Josie and Sam got soaked (much to Josies disgust
). At this point I am going to pass on a tip that I got from someone else on the boards; the bin in the middle of the rafts is not very water tight and is not big enough to close on a backpack so do what we did and put all of your cameras etc. into the backpack then put the backpack into a black bin liner; we did this and everything stayed beautifully dry.
Next we walked the Maharajah Jungle Trek and saw excellent views of Komodo dragons, tigers, giant fruit bats and other animals.
By now we were feeling hungry so we went back to Africa to check out Tuskers but the menu was not to everyones taste and also looked like rather large meals; we decided to try the Flame Tree Barbeque and this proved to be a good choice. When we were ordering, the CM serving us suggested that we might be better off buying the meal deal tickets; these get you a meal with drink, a bottle of soda and an ice-cream; the last two items can be bought later or even on another day at AK. I cannot remember exactly what meals we had but I know that at least two of us had the BBQ half chicken and ribs which was enormous; we also shared a side order of fries (extra to the meal deal) which was enough for the four of us. We got the bottles of soda and ice-creams later in the afternoon as we were quite full by this time; we concluded that the meal deal was excellent value; it is a shame that they do not do it at MK.
We were right next to Its Tough to be a Bug, which had a 5 minute wait, so that was next. Not quite what we had expected but great entertainment and I will not give away all of the surprises.
Josie and Kathy were keen to see the Festival of the Lion King and it was about 15 minutes until the next show so we went in that direction. On the way, we saw Mickey in a safari suit with no queue so Josie got her picture taken with Mickey. The Festival of the Lion King was very good; we all appreciated it, even Sam.
We decided to head for Dinoland USA next, as we had not been there at all yet. There was a 25 minute wait for Dinosaur so we got FPs with a return in 45 minutes; on reflection this was probably a mistake but it was very hot and we did not feel like queuing.
We then found that the wait for Primeval Whirl was 90 minutes! No way were we waiting for that, so we resigned ourselves to the fact that we would miss that ride and went on Triceratops Spin which was about a 10 minute wait; this is probably great fun for small children but it was a bit tame for us. The wait for Primeval Whirl was now down to 70 minutes so it was improving.
We got our meal deal ice-creams next; Sam had one that consisted of two cookies with ice-cream in the middle, it was a bit much even for him!
Back to Dinosaur for our FP return next; the standby time was now down to 5 minutes (hence why the FPs were a mistake). We all enjoyed the ride which was not as rough as I had been led to believe.
Another look at Primeval Whirl and the standby time was now down to 20 minutes (how it can go from 90 minutes to 20 minutes in 50 minutes elapsed time I do not know) so we joined the queue. In the end the wait was only 15 minutes and was well worth while as this ride is quite fast and the spinning while doing the coaster certainly makes it interesting. We quite liked this area of the park but I can see what people mean about it not fitting into the rest of AKs theming.
It was time for Mickeys Jammin Jungle Parade soon and we managed to find a good spot just on the corner of the road to Dinoland; we had a good view so I put the camcorder to good use. It was only about 10 minutes before the start of the parade but it was very hot and there was no shade so we were nearly melting by the end of it. The parade is very well done with many of the floats being skeletal representations of animals and pedalled by one person; we thought that this parade was good in its relative simplicity and very different to the other parades (apart from TOD at Epcot).
The time was now about 16:20 and the park closed at 17:00 so we walked the trails Discovery Island Trails, admiring the Tree of Life, the Galapagos tortoise and the kangaroo and then made our way back to the entrance and to the car. There was some lighting around but only a few drops of rain and a little more on the drive back to the villa.
We really liked AK and it was one of our favourite parks even after seeing the rest. Having spent a whole 9-5 day here, we still missed out on the entire Rafikis Planet Watch area, Flights of Wonder which we had wanted to see, and Tarzan Rocks! which Josie had wanted to see as she likes the songs form Tarzan the film. We could have easily spent another half day here and would disagree with some of the guides which suggest that AK is easily seen in a day. Sadly we did not have time to fit in another visit on this trip but it is an excuse to come again some day.
Back at the villa we swam in the pool to cool off, then made our way to Crossroads and found Jungle Jims. We were told that it was a 30 minute wait for a table so we wandered round the shops to pass the time (but did not buy anything). Jungle Jims was very busy; we had forgotten that it was Saturday night and our server was surprised that we had only had to wait 30 minutes; they made up for it by making us wait for an hour for the food but it was good when it eventually came. While we were waiting, one poor waitress managed to drop an entire tray of drinks which resulted in lots of broken glass and applause; fortunately, she managed to avoid soaking anyone. We only managed entrees as the portions were so big; three of us had various burgers and Kathy had a chicken Caesar salad and the total bill was $40.88 plus tip which was very good value.
After this it was back to the villa and bed. The thunderstorms eventually came during the night and there was a lot of overnight rain.
Tomorrow: The Magic Kingdom
Previous episodes:
Prequel
Day 1 - The trip to Orlando
The Cast:
Richard (bengunn): Chief planner
Kathy : DW, just wants to go on holiday
Josie : DD 20, at Reading University, Assistant Planner, not very good at getting up
Sam : DS 17, just done AS exams, can get up very quickly when he wants to
Saturday 17th August
Woke up at 03:15, 03:45 etc. Finally woke up properly at 06:30. We all were fairly awake this morning and, after breakfast in the villa, we managed to leave at 08:10 (which was our best effort all holiday
).We had to drop off the villa registration form at the management company on the way but fortunately their office was on our route which was 192, SR535, Osceolla Parkway. The roads were very quiet and by the time we had parked (in Peacock 4) and walked to the AK entrance (no need to wait for a tram as it was not very far) it was 09:00 and the park was open. I should point out that this was the closest we ever got to any park opening time, despite the best of intentions.
We walked through to the Kilamanjaro Safari, only a 10 minute wait so no need for FP. The safari was excellent; still one of our best experiences on the holiday and liked by all of us. The safari was much longer than we expected and we saw lots of animals: rhinos, hippos, lions, zebra, giraffes, ostrich and many more. We especially liked the hidden barriers that make it look as though all the animals could easily get to you. We thought the bit with the poachers was a bit pointless and unnecessary though.
We then walked through the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail; we saw the gorillas, although they were asleep, and were amused by the naked mole rats which seem so tightly packed together that it is amazing that they do not suffocate each other. This trail is well worth the walk.
We decided to leave Rafikis Planet Watch area until later (much later as it turned out) and made our way to Asia and the Kali River Rapids which had only a 10 minute wait. This ride is great fun but you do stand a chance of getting very wet; Kathy and I just got a little bit wet but Josie and Sam got soaked (much to Josies disgust
). At this point I am going to pass on a tip that I got from someone else on the boards; the bin in the middle of the rafts is not very water tight and is not big enough to close on a backpack so do what we did and put all of your cameras etc. into the backpack then put the backpack into a black bin liner; we did this and everything stayed beautifully dry.Next we walked the Maharajah Jungle Trek and saw excellent views of Komodo dragons, tigers, giant fruit bats and other animals.
By now we were feeling hungry so we went back to Africa to check out Tuskers but the menu was not to everyones taste and also looked like rather large meals; we decided to try the Flame Tree Barbeque and this proved to be a good choice. When we were ordering, the CM serving us suggested that we might be better off buying the meal deal tickets; these get you a meal with drink, a bottle of soda and an ice-cream; the last two items can be bought later or even on another day at AK. I cannot remember exactly what meals we had but I know that at least two of us had the BBQ half chicken and ribs which was enormous; we also shared a side order of fries (extra to the meal deal) which was enough for the four of us. We got the bottles of soda and ice-creams later in the afternoon as we were quite full by this time; we concluded that the meal deal was excellent value; it is a shame that they do not do it at MK.
We were right next to Its Tough to be a Bug, which had a 5 minute wait, so that was next. Not quite what we had expected but great entertainment and I will not give away all of the surprises.
Josie and Kathy were keen to see the Festival of the Lion King and it was about 15 minutes until the next show so we went in that direction. On the way, we saw Mickey in a safari suit with no queue so Josie got her picture taken with Mickey. The Festival of the Lion King was very good; we all appreciated it, even Sam.
We decided to head for Dinoland USA next, as we had not been there at all yet. There was a 25 minute wait for Dinosaur so we got FPs with a return in 45 minutes; on reflection this was probably a mistake but it was very hot and we did not feel like queuing.
We then found that the wait for Primeval Whirl was 90 minutes! No way were we waiting for that, so we resigned ourselves to the fact that we would miss that ride and went on Triceratops Spin which was about a 10 minute wait; this is probably great fun for small children but it was a bit tame for us. The wait for Primeval Whirl was now down to 70 minutes so it was improving.
We got our meal deal ice-creams next; Sam had one that consisted of two cookies with ice-cream in the middle, it was a bit much even for him!
Back to Dinosaur for our FP return next; the standby time was now down to 5 minutes (hence why the FPs were a mistake). We all enjoyed the ride which was not as rough as I had been led to believe.
Another look at Primeval Whirl and the standby time was now down to 20 minutes (how it can go from 90 minutes to 20 minutes in 50 minutes elapsed time I do not know) so we joined the queue. In the end the wait was only 15 minutes and was well worth while as this ride is quite fast and the spinning while doing the coaster certainly makes it interesting. We quite liked this area of the park but I can see what people mean about it not fitting into the rest of AKs theming.
It was time for Mickeys Jammin Jungle Parade soon and we managed to find a good spot just on the corner of the road to Dinoland; we had a good view so I put the camcorder to good use. It was only about 10 minutes before the start of the parade but it was very hot and there was no shade so we were nearly melting by the end of it. The parade is very well done with many of the floats being skeletal representations of animals and pedalled by one person; we thought that this parade was good in its relative simplicity and very different to the other parades (apart from TOD at Epcot).
The time was now about 16:20 and the park closed at 17:00 so we walked the trails Discovery Island Trails, admiring the Tree of Life, the Galapagos tortoise and the kangaroo and then made our way back to the entrance and to the car. There was some lighting around but only a few drops of rain and a little more on the drive back to the villa.
We really liked AK and it was one of our favourite parks even after seeing the rest. Having spent a whole 9-5 day here, we still missed out on the entire Rafikis Planet Watch area, Flights of Wonder which we had wanted to see, and Tarzan Rocks! which Josie had wanted to see as she likes the songs form Tarzan the film. We could have easily spent another half day here and would disagree with some of the guides which suggest that AK is easily seen in a day. Sadly we did not have time to fit in another visit on this trip but it is an excuse to come again some day.
Back at the villa we swam in the pool to cool off, then made our way to Crossroads and found Jungle Jims. We were told that it was a 30 minute wait for a table so we wandered round the shops to pass the time (but did not buy anything). Jungle Jims was very busy; we had forgotten that it was Saturday night and our server was surprised that we had only had to wait 30 minutes; they made up for it by making us wait for an hour for the food but it was good when it eventually came. While we were waiting, one poor waitress managed to drop an entire tray of drinks which resulted in lots of broken glass and applause; fortunately, she managed to avoid soaking anyone. We only managed entrees as the portions were so big; three of us had various burgers and Kathy had a chicken Caesar salad and the total bill was $40.88 plus tip which was very good value.
After this it was back to the villa and bed. The thunderstorms eventually came during the night and there was a lot of overnight rain.
Tomorrow: The Magic Kingdom
This is one of the parks I am looking forward to going to this time, last time I went which was 3 years ago, I hardly done anything apart from sit down and rub my feet
But I will make up for it this time
Really looking foward to our trip to Animal Kingdom now. When we went there two years ago, MIL was not in the best of walking around moods, so we missed out on a lot.
