Day 08 - Animal Kingdom

Summary: Animal Kingdom today and kicked off with the the River rapids which may not have been such a good idea. Hit Pandora for the two Navi rides and Flight of Passage is still as great as it ever was. Managed to get on Everest and it was both Robert and Graces first time on it too. It started slow but it got fast and was a wee bit more rickety than I remember. Missed The Lion King - gutted, but definitely first on the agenda next time. Home. Shopping. Home. Pool. Miller's for dinner and it was good but service was a little iffy, though could have been down to how busy it was. Home. Laptop broke too so no photos from my camera :(

The early bird catches the worm

After a fairly relaxing day and a good nights sleep yesterday, we’re up early and off to our last Disney Park still to do - Animal Kingdom. We picked up some pretty good travel cups yesterday out of a TK Maxx clone and decided on some iced coffees for the car journey today as it was a hot one (probably the hottest yet, it hit 100 on the road back today).

Not a lot of new things in Animal Kingdom since we last visited but they have Flight of Passage, my most favourite ride in 2017 - we will need to see if it stands up against our new favourites.

Flight of Passage was already at two hours queue time by the time we got into the park so we made our way to Kali River Rapids to start off since it was on 5 minutes (crazy time for the ride but it did pick up later in the day). I got soaked as did Ann but it was a good ride and early enough in the day that we would dry off quickly enough .

- Gerry: 7
- Ann: 6.5
- Patrick: 6.5
- Robert: 6.5
- Grace: 7

A little trail on the Maharajah Jungle Trek afterwards, a walk through attraction where you can see all sorts of wildlife including buffalo, gibbons and bats (and there no window between you and the bats - would advise to take some garlic or wear a cross if you’re going). Our first proper sight at some animals too but we’ll be seeing plenty more today. I still was not dry though.

- Gerry: 6
- Ann: 5
- Patrick: 7.5
- Robert: 6.5
- Grace: 6.5

We decided to bite the bullet and head over to Pandora now in case it got any busier. First up was Na’vi River Journey, a gentle water ride (not like Kali River Rapids at all) and has some amazing visuals and characters from the world of Avatar. I forgot to take my camera on this one but will definitely have it on the return trip, the scenes are too good to pass up. I was still not dry though.

- Gerry: 8
- Ann: 8.5
- Patrick: 8
- Robert: 8.5
- Grace: 7.5

We’re flying through the air

And up next the big one. Flight of Passage was my all time favourite ride last time and I was anxious to see how it compares to the like of the new Star Wars Rides, Hagrids or Guardians. In all honesty I’m not a big fan of the Avatar movies, visually they are stunning I can’t dispute that, but I feel they are missing something especially the second movie, just had no substance to it and just filled with nonsense and overused tropes (and don’t get me started at unobtainium, just don’t). However this ride is glorious, and still is. You get linked to an Avatar like in the movies and ride a Banshee. The process for doing this has been updated slightly and lasts a little longer. You then get to sit on your banshee and when you start to fly though the air, it feels so good. You smell different smells of the things around you, you get sprayed with water when you come to close to it, you even get to feel the banshee breathe as you sit on it. It was hard not to give this a 10 again but with the new rides need to put it in perspective and I couldn’t rate it higher than Smuggler’s Run, but it was a close one and the most difficult mark I’ve had to give yet.

- Gerry: 9.5
- Ann: 10
- Patrick: 9.5
- Robert: 9.5
- Grace: 9.5

With Pandora done and a few photographs taken around Pandora we headed off to go on Kilimanjaro Safari. Our driver Ducky was very informative about all of the animals on the safari and I managed to grab a few good shots of different animals especially the elephants, giraffes and rhinos. There was a lion but he was being a bit shy so on glimpsed his backside from behind a rock. The safari was huge though and could really see any signs of fates or tenses save for the ones that we entered and exited for the ride.

- Gerry: 8
- Ann: 7
- Patrick: 8.5
- Robert: 8
- Grace: 8

All aboard!

We then entered Asia to board a train for Expedition Everest! One we missed the previous time (though some of us have been on it), but it was knew to Grace and Robert so they didn’t quite know what to expect (except that it does go backwards). Really shaky ride and it was gentle at first which both me and Ann felt was a whole lot slower than previous. And then it sped up and then more and then went backwards and went dark all the while being a wee bit shaky. It was good though but one Grace would gladly pass on due to it being like a rickety old train (I mean it was a rickety old train, but maybe just a tad too much).

- Gerry: 7.5
- Ann: 6
- Patrick: 8
- Robert: 8
- Grace: 7

Trying to fill time in between shows and we saw It’s tough to be a big with a low time so jumped on it (the queue, not the bug). We expected it to be a ride but it turned out to be a 4D show with the wee Ant from bugs life, Flick. It was gold to see something we hadn’t before and the show was quite funny especially with the chairs moving like there were bugs on them at times. Grace did not like the spiders one little bit though as she has a fear of them, so her eyes were pretty much closed for half of it, it was a wee shame.

- Gerry: 6.5
- Ann: 8
- Patrick: 6
- Robert: 7.5
- Grace: 4

We touched the butt!

Penultimate attraction on our list was the Nemo stage show, Finding Nemo: The Big Blue… And Beyond. This is a great wee musical show (even though Nemo doesn’t technically have any songs in it), which tells the tale of the first Finding Nemo movie. Nothings really changed even with the second movie out now but still fun and a good way to cool you down from the heat outside.

- Gerry: 8
- Ann: 7
- Patrick: 8
- Robert: 7
- Grace: 7.5

And finally Dinosaur! A time travelling journey to capture a dinosaur back in the Cretaceous period (maaaaybe?), starring Hodges from CSI. Again seem to have updated this one a little with some new visually though some of the rides which are meant to be dark (like this one) are really dark as your eyes haven’t quite adjusted so you can’t see anything at times.

- Gerry: 7.5
- Ann: 6.5
- Patrick: 7.5
- Robert: 5
- Grace: 7

We missed The Festival of The Lion King! Almost sacrilege but when we went to go to it the queue was huge and the cast member said we might not get in. Never really happened before but we’ll know next time to arrive a lot earlier for the show to get in and get a good seat. Which is a must. Apart from that jumped in the car and headed home via quick stop at the outlets to get PATRICK some D&D converse as he felt left out the other day.

We had a quick dip on the pool before getting ready to go out for dinner. It was just to cool us down after such a hot day but it didn’t really turn out that way as the water was boiling, probably the first time I’ve edged into a pool and felt it was too warm, it was like stepping into a bath!

Miller’s Alehouse for dinner tonight. It just across the road and since it’s been roasting today it was easy enough to persuade Ann to get a cocktail or two. She got a very sweet Punapple Mojito and I got The People’s Margarita, a drink fashioned around The Rocks tequila brand, Teremana. It was very good. Whether it’s been intentional or not, I’ve been buying a lot of The Rock’s stuff this past week, t-shirts from his collab with Under Armor, an eye roller to help tired eyes and now this. I’ve also been trying to track down his energy drink ZOA too but no such luck. Food was very good but the service was all over the place possibly due to Florida Panthers playing the Edmonton Oilers for the Stanley Cup so it was packed (and Florida won yay!). Not a dessert person but Ann ordered a brownie which could have done the full table so had to have a bite or two.

When I got home the laptop had given up so struggling to type this out on my phone and to get my camera photos and process them properly. I’ll see what I can do over the next few days to sort it but this will have to do for now . Also pretty tired and were up to book Tron for a Virtual Queue at 06:30 tomorrow.

Todays Stats

- Step Count: 19.7k
- Starred Rides: Flight of Passage
- Total steps: 142.9k
- Total miles: 61.4 miles