Day 6 : Animal Kingdom

I woke up at 4.30am this morning, which meant I’d only gotten 5 hours sleep at the most. Unfortunately fibro pain meant I was unable to go back to sleep. But it was a good opportunity to get all caught up on blog posts and start editing the first vlog.

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Right on time at 8am we set off for Animal Kingdom.

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We got through the bag check and ticket gate and only had to wait about 10mins before being allowed to head into the park.

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The always amazing Tree of Life.

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First ride  was Expeditition Everest. But unfortunately is wasn’t working so after waiting about 15mins we decided to come back later.

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The kids then rode the River Rapids. I didn’t feel I would enjoy this ride after the recent tragedy in Australia and Kevin didn’t want to get wet. They had fun though and got to ride twice.

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We then headed back to Expedition Everest.

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I had forgotten just how amazing this ride is. So fun. We rode once on standby and once using our fastpass.

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My touring plan had gone a bit astray by this time so we went to do It’s a Bug Life 3D before Flights of Wonder.

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We’d missed this the last few trips so I was keen to see it, but it really wasn’t anything all that special. The main host was VERY hard to understand. I did enjoy seeing the birds though.

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By now it was midday and time for some lunch. Even though it was another expensive sit-down meal I really wanted to go to the Yak & Yeti as the menu looking great.

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Kevin had ribs, Athena the kids Chicken Teryiki and Christy had the kids mac n cheese. Again, I LOVE that Disney have no problem with all ages ordering off the kids menu. I had vegetable low mein – which was delicious.

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We then headed to Dinoland…

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to ride Dinosaur. Not my fav. ride but it’s okay.

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Kevin really wanted to buy this hat but I wouldn’t let him (guess we’ll be hearing about that for the rest of trip!)

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On our way over to the Nemo Musical we bought some Dibs. Don’t know anywhere else to find these and we love them.

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The Nemo musical is great. Love how the performers are clearly seen alongside their puppets. So clever.

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Then it was time for Primeval Whirl (which we got stuck on on our last trip when it broke down).

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Unfortunately we’d all forgotten just how rough the ride is (not really surprising for a mighty mouse type ride) but one go was more than enough and we all vowed not to ride ever again.

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I think my expression says it all :-).

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We were getting really tired by now (it had been a very hot day at 30C) so while Christy went back to ride Expedition Everest in the single line we checked out a few shops and this guy who was awesome (if anyone knows who he is please let me know)

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and saw where the entrance to Pandora will be when it opens next year…

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before stopping at the Nomad Lounge.

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Such a hidden gem (for now) that you’d be lucky to find if you didn’t know about it. We got some comfy chairs…

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and ordered drinks and appetizers from our awesome waiter. Don’t I look relaxed? 🙂

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I had the veggie summer rolls – yummy, but almost too spicy for me.

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Athena had chicken wings, and Kevin shared some of each.

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Christy met us after 3-4 rides and, since Athena wasn’t doing so great, we decided to skip the Safari and head for home. On the way we met Tarzan…

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saw a tiny flamingo…

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and I posed for this photo since I was wearing my flamingo top :-).

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We headed out, with Christy and I once again taking the tram. We were back home about 5pm. I had been wanting to see the nighttime show at Animal Kingdom but was very happy to have a nice relaxing bath instead. My poor feet were sore (I’m sure they are in shock being stood on for so many hours every day) but otherwise my fibro pain is ok (only bad for the first hour or so of the day before my meds kick in) so I’m complaining “too much”.

It was definitely good to have the evening to unwind. Athena fell asleep almost as soon as we got back, only waking up to have some dinner (tonight we shared some Amy’s pizzas). Christy wrote up her trip diary, I edited a vlog and uploaded photos and Kevin watched TV/read facebook. I think I was asleep by 9pm.

Tomorrow is our first “rest” day :-).