5. Day 3: Animal kingdom/Epcot
My first full day in Orlando finally arrives! In my original plans, I would be at Animal Kingdom all day, but because I missed out on Epcot the day before, I decide to do AK in the morning, and Epcot in the afternoon.
I’m on the fence about whether or not to ride Guardians, but decide to try for a virtual queue since I am up before 7:00.
I got group 3

Not sure how that happened. I don’t want to change my AK morning plans as I have
DAS advance selections, so decide to play roulette that I will be allowed in the queue in the afternoon.
I’m out the door by 7:30 am. I get to the bus stop. A bus for Epcot comes and goes. Then Magic Kingdom. Then Hollywood Studios. Mine should be next!!
The second bus for Epcot comes and goes. Second Magic Kingdom bus. Second Hollywood Studios bus.
Seriously? It’s at this point that I about lose it. By this time I was supposed to have visited two theme parks, I’ve been to none. My estimated 7 hour trip from home to landing in Orlando turned into a 35+ hour trip. A supposedly easy to get Uber from the airport never showed up. I’m finally, finally, finally able to head to a park, and….there’s no bus.
Facepalm. I’m fighting tears and I don’t usually cry.
The Animal Kingdom bus finally comes. I wait over 45 minutes. A CM explains that there were mechanical problems. At least the trip goes smoothly once on the bus.
It’s 8:30 am of day 3 and I am finally entering my first theme park: Animal Kingdom
I have a 9:30 am DAS advance for the safaris. Since I’m entering the park 30 minutes after opening, I decide to avoid Pandora and head over towards Dinosaur first and grab a DAS as soon as I enter the park.
I see a wilderness explorers stand off to the right. I decide to stop. I’m handed a packet and told to repeat after the CM. The last part is to say “caw caw”. It’s fun. I feel absolutely ridiculous and break out in laughter. It’s exactly what I needed and the stress from all the travel delays melt away. I AM HERE. In Disney. Finally.
The
Lightning Lane at Dinosaur is short. I get the front row. I was worried about it being too rough as it has a similar ride mechanism to Indiana Jones in DL, which I didn’t like, but I don’t have any problems with Dinosaur. I enjoy the ride!
Indiana Jones in
Disneyland was a one-and-done for me. Dinosaur I would gladly ride again.
After Dinosaur I grab a DAS for Everest. This is another one I am on the fence about. In ride videos I can see it goes backwards. I’ve avoided rides that go backwards at high speed since I rode the Boomerang at Worlds of Fun a few years ago. The Boomerang pushes you backwards through a loop. I almost passed out and couldn’t breathe. I am hoping Everest will not be like this.
On the way I stop for my first Photopass photographer and get my very first magic shot! Brrrr…..
The wait for Everest is short. The backwards section is not near as bad as the Boomerang and I enjoy it. I especially enjoy the anticipation as you wait to head backwards…..when will we drop? Will I black out? Nope! Such fun.
It’s time to head over to Kilimanjaro Safaris. I realize on the way that I’ve forgotten to plan in breakfast. Oops. I don’t want to miss my time-slot, so I go ahead and get in line, but grab a breakfast bar from my bag to eat while waiting.
The wait is minimal. We are in the ride vehicle and start off. I notice that the air has turned a little warmer and more humid once we reach the animal areas. It is a bad combination with not having eaten breakfast, and I start to feel sick. I fight nausea the whole ride and am literally just counting down minutes until it is over.
There are a lot of animals to see. My favorite are the giraffes.
They decide to start walking down the road and we follow them at a slow pace for about 5 minutes.
I also see rhinos, and am sitting on the right side of the vehicle to get some good pictures.
The ride finally ends and I start to feel better once out of the vehicle and on the park sidewalks. I head towards Pandora. On the way, I see Timon and Rafiki in the water!
I wave hello and dance with them until they pass by! Once in Pandora, I head to Navi River Journey for my 10:00 am DAS advance. We briefly get stopped in the middle and I enjoy the extended time in the bio-luminescent darkness. Similar to what I’ve read from others, I find the ride to be much too short and am glad I didn’t have a long wait with the DAS. At least I got extra time inside!
I really need to eat now. It’s about 11:00am. I go to Satuli Canteen and order in person. I was going to mobile order, but I want the kids chicken bowl with a sauce, and there is no option to add sauce online. I am early for lunch and there is no line. I get the kid’s chicken bowl, and order the Metkayina Mousse for dessert. I am lucky to find a quiet table in the corner.
The view from my table:

I love the design and creativity of the metkayina mousse. I usually don't order fancy desserts and am glad I gave this one a try!
The kids portion is smaller than I expected, but it leaves me room to enjoy the mousse! The mousse is very rich, so I only eat half, and save the other half for later in a plastic bag that I brought along. It will probably get smooched, but the taste should still be fine! I really enjoy the food from here, and it ends up being my favorite thing in Animal Kingdom, and possibly my favorite food from all 4 parks!
I finish eating. I have an in-park DAS for Flight of Passage that I selected after riding Everest. I head to the lightning lane and the wait is minimal. I am on the ride!
I love this. You really feel like you are flying. It ties for me with Harry Potter Forbidden Journey at Universal, in which I especially enjoy flying on the broomstick. I do notice that the 3D effects on FoP need some work as some scenes in the ride are blurry. Still, the graphics are good and almost 360 degrees. I can look up, down, around and to the sides and see the whole world. Absolutely amazing and definitely a ride I would go on over and over again.
*photo limit. Continued in the next post!