Monday, June 4
Animal Kingdom
Another breakfast at the condo, and then it was off to Animal Kingdom. After some unpleasantness at the tram stop (caused by a rude family who seriously needed a pixie dust enema,) we arrived at the park and headed for our first fastpass, Kiliminjaro Safaris. This was actually our first ever Disney World ride (not including DME or the resort buses, of course) and we enjoyed riding it again.
Next, we did the Gorilla Falls walking tour. We saw unusual insects, a huge toad, lots of fish, and of course, gorillas and falls!
Our kids, who seem to think they are breaking some kind of unwritten law whenever they don't have lunch at right exactly straight up 11:00 am, started asking about lunch as soon as we finished Gorilla Falls. I mentioned Pizzafari, and they were all about that. Pizzafari has personal, thick crust pizzas served with a side Caesar salad. My kids aren't rabbit food fans, so I knew my wife and I would be having extra salads with our meals. The pizza was surprisingly good.
Next, we rode the wilderness train ride. When it stopped, we just stayed on and rode it back. I didn't realize until later that this was not just a train ride. It takes you to Conservation Station, which has some sort of learning activities or something. This is the sort of thing that happens when you skimp on your planning.
Our next stop was Dino Land, where we would use our next fastpass for Dinosaur.
Donald's Dino Bash was going on, and we caught glimpses of meet & greets with Donald, Unca Scrooge, Launchpad, and others. Then we lined up for Dinosaur. The queue had some interesting stuff to look at, even going fastpass. The ride itself was pretty wild. Some of the movements were disconcerting. I liked it, but I can understand why not everyone does. The kids seemed to enjoy it. On the way out through the gift shop, Jacqueline spotted a large, rubber Carnotaurus and just had to have it. The cashier made sure Jacqueline knew not to take it into the pool or bathtub. Afterwards, the kids wanted to ride Primeval Whirl - much to my chagrin. This is my least favorite ride at Disney. Apparently, Jacqueline had forgotten that she didn't like it three years ago. But I grinned and bore it to make the kids happy. Julie went walking while we did that. We may have ridden Triceratop Spin next, not sure. The Florida heat does things to your memory, and being close to 50 makes it even worse.
"I can't buy any more souvenirs! I'm a little short!" #disneydadjokes
Our next fastpass was for Expedition Everest. This is one of the rides I was most looking forward to. It was as great as I remembered. Unfortunately, I didn't get a ride photo because I wasn't quick enough with my magic band.
We had 5:15 dinner reservations at Rainforest Cafe, but it was still almost three hours til then, and everyone was hot and tired. So we did something we had never done before - we took a midday break. A lot of families plan an afternoon break as part of their daily touring routine, but it had never occurred to me to consider this before. But it made perfect sense, so back to the condo we went. We took it easy, got a cold drink, then headed back when dinner time drew near.
Even though we had reservations, it was still a long wait and a confused madhouse in there. It was a major ordeal just finding the spot where we were supposed to stand and wait to be called. But we finally got seated. I ordered the burger because I remembered how good it was in Disney Springs in 2015 (Downtown Disney back then.) It's delicious here too. Jordan surprised me by not ordering the pepperoni flatbread. Julie talked him into trying the Blue Mountain chicken sandwich, taking care to order it with all vegetables left off.
We had to scan our magic bands to leave the restaurant and re-enter the park, but Jordan had some unexpected trouble getting his to work. But when they finally let him in, it turned out to be for nothing anyway. My plan was to ride Flights of Passage and for all of us to ride Na'vi River Journey. I had hoped the wait times would be less severe, but they weren't much better than they had been during the day. FOP showed two hours, but I had been told the wait times are often inflated toward the end of the day. Neither one of the kids were willing to wait that long with me, and it was safe to assume Julie's condition would have prevented her from trying it even if she had wanted to. I suggested she could take the kids back to the condo (they both said they were pretty well done) and I could call an Uber later. She asked if I was sure I wanted to do that. I had another suggestion that I didn't think she would consider: Just coming back to pick me up when I was done. Surprisingly, she went for it. I thanked her sincerely for being willing to let me experience this. They left, and I got in the Standby line for FOP.
Pandora looks utterly amazing. And the inside of the queue is incredibly well detailed. I felt as if I had entered the actual laboratory in the movie Avatar. Unfortunately, while waiting, the wife texted me asking if I still had the parking receipt. It was in my wallet. I feared they wouldn't let her back in without it. She said they hadn't left the park yet, so I told her I was willing to forget the ride and we could all leave. I didn't want to have to fork over another $22 just because of my forgetfulness. But she insisted I stay and ride the ride. I suggested I could take a Disney Springs bus and she could pick me up there. She agreed to that. After about a 90 minute wait, I finally rode this amazing ride. Words cannot describe it. There was a lot I didn't get to do on this trip that I had wanted to, but I am glad I at least got to do this. When I exited through the gift shop, I bought a Pandora t-shirt. The cashier asked me what I thought of FOP. "Like Soarin' on steroids!" I told her. She laughed. On my way out, I stopped at Tamu Tamu and got my first Disney Dole Whip. Yummy. At the exit, I asked a castmember about our parking/pickup problem. He said they don't charge people to park after 6pm, so I'm good. This was good to know, especially since I had forgotten that Disney Springs no longer runs buses directly to the parks. I gladly texted Julie, who had stopped at Walgreen's for more sodas and water and then taken the kids back to Coldstone. I told her to pick me up at the guest dropoff point. Then I followed the signs to this area, but I wasn't sure if it was the right place. All I saw were taxis, shuttles, and Uber/Lyft cars. But I didn't know where else the right place would be. About 20 minutes later, here came the white Nissan Rogue. Definitely bedtime when we got back.
