After a bit of a wakeful night (I realized at 12pm that Christy hadn’t let anyone at home know what was happening yet), I woke up at 6.30pm and got myself a cup of tea. I played on the laptop for a bit before writing up yesterdays blog post – which was a quick one since we didn’t really do anything. At 9am I went for my shower and to get dressed ready for our day at the Animal Kingdom.
Christy was feeling slightly better this morning so that’s good. We said our farewells to Chrisy (again) and left to catch the bus to the Animal Kingdom. Christy set numerous alarms in case she fell asleep before she got an uber to the airport at 1pm. We waited about 10 mins for the bus, and a very short trip later we arrived at the park. You can probably tell from everyones clothing that is was a lot cooler today, and though we didn’t get any rain, it was overcast all day.
There was a bit of a line to get in so we could tell it was also going to be a busy day (it’s getting close to Christmas after all). Once through the gates we made our way onto Discovery Island.
The tree of life never ceases to amaze.
After getting some photos and admiring the awesome puppets that were interacting with guests, we battled the crowds as we made our way over to Expedition Everest.
The Animal Kingdom is such a stunning park. Every area so incredibly themed. I think Asia is one of my favs though.
I don’t think I’ve ever been at this park when it’s been this crowded – but it was still managable. Thankfully I was able to get a DAS pass for Everest. If it’s wasn’t for the DAS pass I wouldn’t have been able to ride anything today, not without buying Genie Plus (and that wouldn’t work as well).
It’s been 6 years since I’ve been on this ride and I can see they have changed some things but it felt like major changes had been made – or else I just don’t remember it too well. So fun!! I think because of the length this might be my fav ride in all the parks. Kevin said the same. (Hagrids would be a close second).
When then headed over to the Safari, stopping to take lots of photos along the way.
We also got to see a few of the character boats – in Pocahontas and Russell & Doug.
Africa was SO busy with crazy long lines for the Safari. We still had a bit of time before it was our time to go Safari so we tracked down the place that sold corn cobs. Kevin had one with African spices but I just mine plain. Kevin really enjoy his. I did too but mine was a little on the small side.
Time for our Safari. It was midday now – not an ideal time (early morning or dusk is supposed to be best as the animals are more active) but I fell we did okay.
And we encountered a real Giraffic-jam (not my saying) !! Not sure where they were all going but the we had to stop for them to cross the road.
As you’d expect I love seeing the Greater Flamingoes.
After a pretty decent safari we headed over, using the shortcut, to Pandora. They were still building this the last time we were here in 2016. And even though we had seen plenty of vlogs and photos of it, it was still impressive to see it in real life, especially the surrounding garden areas.
Since both rides in this area were currently down we decided to go to the Nomad Lounge for a drink and some lunch.
We ordered some drinks – Kevin had the Zingiber Fizzie and I had Kiama Mamma (watermelon & Sprite) – with that name I just had to order it. Really really enjoyed these. For food Kevin had the tuna poke bowl and I had Cauliflower bites – which was one of the chefs specials. Though we enjoyed our food it was very different from what we’d had here last time. It was still a nice break and a nice time off our feet.
One more photopass photo and we were back on Discovery Island where we checked out the shops. Last visit the shops had things not seen anywhere else but I think Disney are still suffering with post covid shortages.
We did have a great squirrel encounter though.
We headed back into Asia to see Finding Nemo : The Musical – arriving just as they were seating people. I really enjoyed this. It was different to what we saw last time but just as good.
We had managed to get another DAS pass for Everest so went to ride that again.
We came across the zoom photo.
As we walked back to Discovery Island we were saying how we hadn’t seen Kevin (the bird from UP) yet, then not a minute later I spotted him yelling out “There’s Kevin” and making my Kevin jump. We managed to get some photos with her (remember Kevin’s a girl !!) but she must have back eye sight as we weren’t allowed to go to close. So fun though. Sadly I’m unable to share any photos here (silly program).
We then went to slowly explore the Tree of Life gardens. We’ve never had/taken the time to do this properly before and it’s just amazing how many animal “carvings” you can see. And the more you move the more you see. You just can’t take them all in. The landscaping through here is beautiful. It’s also nice and quiet, even on a busy park day.
We saw more animals in this area.
And found thd 360 photo spot. It took awhile to get this as we got there right as It’s Tough to be a bug let out and there were people everywhere.
Then it was back into Pandora to explore some more.
Navi River Journey was back so we were able to use our DAS pass for this (which had been booked for earlier before the ride when down). Sadly we were only able to get a pass for Flight of Passage at 7.50pm and since it was just after 4pm we didn’t think we’d still be at the park at that time.
Navi River Journey was lovely. Nice and relaxing and very pretty. Not sure it would be worth a long wait (but then I don’t anything is worth a long wait) but we did enjoy it.
We though got a snack from Pongu Pongu which had been recommended – a Night Blossom frozen drink and some cream cheese & pineapple spring rolls. I enjoyed the drink, though Kevin had most it, and I imagine it would be even better on a hot day. We both LOVED the spring rolls – they were so good.
I had wanted to see Pandora at night as it’s supposed to be really magical but with still well over an hour to sunset and even longer to full day, plus the night show wasn’t until 6.15pm, we decided to end the day and head back to the resort. Though we had been taking it slow it had still been a 7 hours day and we were both pretty tired. At least we know we’re coming back.
Before we leave some more photos of Pandora.
We walked back to the entrance, stopped briefly to look at the Christmas tree, were too tired to be bothered with photopass photos, walked ALL the way to our bus stop (why is the Animal Kingdom Lodge bus stop one of the furthest from the Animal Kingdom entrance ???), rode the bus to the resort and then walked ALL the way to our room (which only about 1/3 the distance from the lobby that it could be but is still a decent distance).
My legs were feeling now (not necessarily from walk but probably more from fibro) so Kevin ran me a nice bath – which we shared. After relaxing in there for awhile he made Mandarin chick’n again for dinner. What a sweetie. It was very appreciated. We then watched some YouTube before going to sleep.