April 2018: A MAGICal April Vacation: Day 3, Part 3

Monday April 23, 2918: Part 3

We ended up delaying departure for the Animal Kingdom by an extra 15 minutes, due to a very brief second storm. I think we headed out about 4:15. John had gotten about an hour and a half nap. Nick’s was probably around 3 hours. Everyone was in great spirits headed to the bus stop!

A bus to Animal Kingdom arrived within minutes, and it was a quick trip over there. Bag check was relatively uneventful (although guess who picked the slow line!), and pretty soon we were posing for pictures, at the only 20th anniversary photo op we found. 

Pictures taken, we headed for dinner at Pizzafari, which, from here on out, will forever be known as Pizzafarts, thanks to an unfortunate misread by our resident engineer.

Dinner was tasty and apparently the naps made everyone hungry because we all inhaled our pizzas and mandarin orange lemonade. Nick’s parents had apparently never eaten here before, but they were very happy with this dinner choice. And I was happy to see that Disney has greatly improved their pizza over the years. Most importantly; there’s finally an acceptable amount of cheese on it!

Full of pizza, it was just about time to use our first fastpass of the day. We only had to hang around the entrance (but not too close, I promise) to Safaris for about 3 minutes before our window opened up. We quickly realized, though, as we were walking through the line, that we didn’t even need a fastpass; there was virtually no line. It was a great safari!

High on all the animals we saw, we headed for the Tree of Life, to see some critters. The tree was particularly photogenic today. 

Apparently, it’s tradition with Nick’s parents to see Bugs Life. I had only ever seen it once, and was ok with that, but off we went.

After Bugs Life, it was time for the main event: Flight of Passage! I had logged on at EXACTLY 7 am (thank goodness we had a delayed opening that morning!), 60 days before check in to get this fastpass. There was exactly one time available for the 4 of us when I did that: 6:50-7:50 PM. The adrenaline pumping through me while getting that fastpass was more than when Southwest releases flights for school vacation week.

So we headed back to Pandora, where we were pleasantly surprised to find only a 90 minute standby line, and basically a walk on fastpass return line.

So...Flight of Passage. We were all wicked impressed by this attraction! We were all also excited to see that Nick and his dad were able to fit. Nick because of his waist, his dad because of his long legs. Nick actually found the ride restraints comfortable. Something about lumbar support? I wouldn’t go that far, but, we all got to enjoy the attraction, and enjoy we did! Seriously...amazing. We actually contemplated getting in that hour and a half long standby and we finally understood how people are willing to stand in line for multiple hours for a ride.

After Flight of Passage, we hung around Pandora for a bit, deciding what to do. Nick got some beverage that is multi-colored and sickeningly sweet. He said it tasted like a Starburst. He liked it.

Eventually Nick and I decided to go ride Everest, because it was showing a minimal wait. His parents decided to stay put; his mom wanted to see Pandora after dark. We agreed to meet them back in Pandora.

Turns out Everest was actually a walk-on. So we rode twice in a row, with barely any wait at all. We only have one picture though. Nick had read about some hand symbol that sneaks by the photo censors. The photo censors are apparently on to that though!

After 2 rides on Everest, and contemplating a 3rd, we headed back toward Pandora, stopping to catch the tail end of Awakenings at the Tree of Life, which was amazing. We weren’t sure of the schedule, but suspected it’d happen again, so when it ended, we went in search of Nick’s parents, with the plan of them experiencing it too.

It took a bit to find them, and then a bit longer for Awakenings to start again, but we did all get to see it in its entirety. It’s short, but it’s fantastic. And the light effects they do with the animal carvings before the little show are amazing too.

After Awakenings, Kim decided she wanted to check the store nearby for new socks, because the ones she had washed the night before had not dried at all, given the significant humidity, and she hadn’t expected to wear socks like she already had on this trip, so she didn’t have enough. While we waited for her, it was evident that Rivers of Light had just let out. Oh yay...bus lines!

When Kim re-emerged, we followed the masses to the busses, where a Pop Century bus showed up pretty quickly. We piled on, and surprisingly, this was the only bus ride of the (brief) park trip where we had to stand.

Once we got back to Pop, we headed for the food court. We really were in search of adult Dole Whip, which, according to some websites, was recently added at Pop, but we couldn’t find it. So, Nick and I got normal Dole Whip (well...the swirl) and some canned adult beverages we hadn’t seen before, and Nick’s parents got ice cream cookie sandwiches. We enjoyed those thoroughly and made the plan for the next day, before heading back to our rooms to crash for the night. Part 1 of vacation was quickly coming to an end.