Today was originally going to be a shorter day at the parks with some time at the resort to swim afterwards. Well, the weather was not warm enough to swim but we still planned to get some downtime at the hotel. However, when I checked our daily fast passes, at some point on Tuesday, someone had given us three extra Magic Kingdom fast passes per person good for Wednesday only. I'm not sure where they came from, but it was a great surprise! So my original plan of a slow day with the following turned out to not be a slow day at all. Original plan:
10:30-11:30 Fast Pass Kilimanjaro Safari
11:30-11:45 Fast Pass for 12:00 Festival of the Lion King Show
1:15 ADR Rainforest Cafe
2:20-3:20 Fast Pass for Flight of Passage Avatar
We slept in a little bit that morning and ended up leaving for Animal Kingdom at 9:30. A bus arrived immediately and it was pretty packed, but the bus driver let us jump on. We were right at the front of the bus and had to stand, but we were standing next to a great family and they kept us entertained. Plus our bus driver was awesome and had the whole bus singing songs the entire way.
We arrived at 10 and as usual I made the family stop for several photo spots and then went to the safari. For some reason I took zero photos on the safari... but we saw animals! I did grab a few images from Paul's go pro. Kids loved it as always.
After the safari the kids were absolutely starving, so we walked over to Yak and Yeti quick service and ordered lunch. We used four quick service meals (we ended up canceling the Rain Forest meal due to picking up Chef Mickey's the other day, and not wanting to walk all the way to the front of the park to eat and then go back in) and really liked what we got. Next trip we want to eat at the actual restaurant and not the quick service.
After the safari the kids were absolutely starving, so we walked over to Yak and Yeti quick service and ordered lunch. We used four quick service meals (we ended up canceling the Rain Forest meal due to picking up Chef Mickey's the other day, and not wanting to walk all the way to the front of the park to eat and then go back in) and really liked what we got. Next trip we want to eat at the actual restaurant and not the quick service.
We went back over to Africa and rode the train to the planet watch, but just stayed on the train and headed back without getting off. Ally found more ways to spend her money with a baby panda and a bamboo house for the panda.
We wondered around taking photos as we went. I love Animal Kingdom and all the decor everywhere. I would have loved to do the trails, or explored more of the shops, but the kids were tired and due to smaller walk ways it felt crowded (even though it wasn't that bad) and we were just not feeling the crowds that day.
At this point, if we didn't have fast passes for Pandora we would have left. We were tired and ready for a break. However, we did have the hard to get fast pass for flight of passage, so decided to head over to wait in line for Pocahontas. It was in the shade and kids could sit down and read while we waited.
We still had an hour until our next fast pass time, so we went over to dino land and waited for Triceratops spin. This ride had a crazy line and we ended up having to wait almost 30 minutes for the ride. We rode it one time then let the kids go play for 20 minutes in the Boneyard Playground. It was also pretty busy but Paul and I found a place in the shade to sit and the kids got to run some energy out. Even though they were tired, with Disney, you spend a lot of time just walking from one place to another, so not a lot of time to run crazy. I think it was much needed for both of them.
At 1:45 we decided to just head on over to Pandora to explore the new world. It was beautiful. And packed, extremely busy! We were really glad to have that fast pass, because the posted wait time was 2.5 hours. We grabbed a snack at the quick service restaurant (Sam got a pineapple drink that was delicious and Ally a chocolate cake).
Flight of passage was amazing. I can see why people wait for this ride. Sam was pretty nervous to start the ride, because you get in this motorcycle like contraption and it straps you in behind your legs and your back. He does not like being restrained at all. It really is like Soarin on steroids. You feel like you are flying and it is really intense but just amazing. Paul asked if we had anymore fast passes for this one, and I told him we were lucky to just get that one!
We finished up exploring Pandora and then made our way out of Animal Kingdom.
We finished up exploring Pandora and then made our way out of Animal Kingdom.
We left Animal Kingdom at 3:15 and jumped on a bus from that park to go over to Magic Kingdom. When we arrived at Magic Kingdom I made the family stop for more photos in front of the castle, as I always made them do when I saw a photo pass cast member.
We used some snack credits to get popcorn, cotton candy, and drinks to hold the kids over at what would be another one of our longest waits of the trip. Paul and I wanted to do the meet and greet with Merida, so we headed over to the side of the castle for that one. I loved the decoration on this one and the kids had fun meeting Merida. We did wait over 30 minutes, so the snacks, shady spot to wait, and books were a definite help.
We had those three anytime fast passes to use, but in addition to those, I was able to book one at a time fast passes again while we were in the park. Sam and Ally wanted to hit the people mover and the speedway, so we made a fast pass for the speedway and went over to get those favorites in again.
The kids really wanted to try Big Thunder Mountain, so we made our way over to that ride so we could get in while it was light. This was the one ride (every time we go somewhere new I pick something I tell the kids they have to try) that was my pick. I was a little nervous but thought they would enjoy it. Sam was with Paul so we have his reaction with the go pro, which was nervous and taking it all in. The fast pass line for this was out of the queue. It was really hard to figure out where it started, and I think (after I figured it out once we were a ways in line and could see the end) that we cut several people. Sorry about that people we cut!! Ally was with me and loved it. Huge smile the entire ride. We watched a lot of youtube videos before we went, because I wanted kids to know it isn't a straight down drop, but you go around in circles down so it was what made it much more fun for her.
At this point it was 7:00 and lunch had long worn off along with our snacks. We used the new mobil ordering app, so as we walked over to Pecos Bills could place our order. Once we arrived we hunted for a table and let them know we were there so they could start prepping the food. It worked great and worked with our dining plan. There was a huge line that we were able to skip and just join the hunt for the tables. Paul and I got nachos, Sam got an adult size tacos, and Ally got Mac and cheese. Sam and Ally were starving so helped me finish my nachos which were delicious.
At this point I stopped taking photos until the bus ride home. It was apparently a day I didn't have my phone out a lot because I didn't get a lot on my phone of Animal Kingdom either. What we decided to do after lunch was go try out Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom.
This was so much fun and I am so glad we did this. It took awhile to go through the intro on Main Street, but we had our first set of cards and our first mission in Adventureland. The kids loved it. Sam was our navigator and Ally was the portal opener. We played for about an hour and fit a ride on the magic carpets in while we were in adventure land. We were running all over the land and thought we were having issues with our cards because it kept saying go back one more time and it was over and over again, so we went back to Main Street to figure it out. It turns out we were fine, and if we had just done one more portal (which we did the next day when we came back) we would have finished it up.
This was so much fun and I am so glad we did this. It took awhile to go through the intro on Main Street, but we had our first set of cards and our first mission in Adventureland. The kids loved it. Sam was our navigator and Ally was the portal opener. We played for about an hour and fit a ride on the magic carpets in while we were in adventure land. We were running all over the land and thought we were having issues with our cards because it kept saying go back one more time and it was over and over again, so we went back to Main Street to figure it out. It turns out we were fine, and if we had just done one more portal (which we did the next day when we came back) we would have finished it up.
We still had our three anytime fast passes to use and it was 9:00. The park was open until 1 that night for resort guests, but we knew that wasn't anything we wanted to do. Especially since we had an 8:05 ADR for breakfast the next morning.
We walked back to fantasyland and had a random impulse stop into Philharmagic. This was to a) avoid the fireworks for Ally since I didn't bring her noise canceling headphones and b) I've heard good things about the show. It was great. Sam was cracking up and wanted to stay and watch immediately again. It was really cute.
After that we went over to It's a Small World with a fast pass, Peter Pan with a fast pass, and finished out the night seeing Tinker Bell with the final fast pass.
We stopped to get snacks and jump on a bus at 10:15 back to our resort. The kids were exhausted and we had an early day the next morning!
STEP COUNT - 28,391 steps. ACTIVE MINUTES - 164 minutes
Day Events:
9:30 Bus to Animal Kingdom
10:00 Arrived and photo pass photos
10:30 Kilimanjaro Safaris (fast pass)
11:15 Yak and Yeti Quick Service lunch
12:15 Train Ride
12:50 Met Pocahontas
1:20 Triceratops Spin
1:25-1:45 Boneyard Playground
2:00 Snack in Pandora
2:20 Flight of Passage
3:00 Shopping
3:30 Bus to Magic Kingdom
4:15 Photos in front of castle
4:25 Snacks
4:45 Met Merida
5:05 Tomorrowland Speedway (fast pass)
5:40 Peoplemover
5:55 Another photo session by castle
6:20 Big Thunder (fast pass)
6:40 Pictures by Big Thunder
7:00 Pecos Bill dinner
7:45 Started Sorcerer's of the Magic Kingdom
8:00 Magic Carpets (fast pass)
8:05-8:45 Sorcerer's of Magic Kingdom
8:45 Spoke with game people about the game
8:55 Philharmagic
9:05 It's a Small World (fast pass)
9:20 Peter Pan (fast pass)
10:00 Tinker Bell (fast pass)
10:05 Snacks at Confections Sugar Treat Shop
10:15 Bus Stop to head back to resort
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