I slowly made my way to the bus stop, where I found an empty line for the Animal Kingdom bus. That’s never a good sign! Thankfully a bus came along within 15 minutes, and soon enough I was entering my second park of the day.
Once at Animal Kingdom, I bee-lined it for Everest. I was starving, but the sky was getting darker, and I wanted to make sure I had the opportunity to ride Everest. So I put lunch on hold, and headed straight for Everest, stopping just briefly for a picture of Kevin because...it’s Kevin!
When I arrived at Everest, I found that even the single rider line had a pretty long line, but, I was on the ride in approximately 20 minutes. The ride was fun as usual, and I got a good chuckle from the person I was seated with. He was a British grandfather, and his comment at the end of the ride (his first time on Everest) was “I don’t think I like my grandkids too much right now!”. Apparently Everest was not his favorite ride!
Having once again successfully escaped the Yeti, it was time for lunch. I decided to continue the trend of something new, and went with the counter service Yak and Yeti. I went with the chicken fried rice from the side menu, and this turned out to be a perfectly sized (and CHEAP) lunch option. For those keeping score, Animal Kingdom has at least 2 perfect “snacks” that are big enough for meals...the chicken fried rice and the pulled pork covered fries (Flame Tree). The other parks need to catch up!
It took awhile for me to find a seat that was at least somewhat under cover, since it looked like rain was approaching quickly, but I did find one eventually. While this wasn’t the best chicken fried rice I’ve ever eaten, it was still good, and I would absolutely get it again. Of the two “sides/snacks” I’ve tried in Animal Kingdom as my meal, the pulled pork fries at Flame Tree are my top choice, but this was definitely lighter and therefore better in the summer heat.
Lunch consumed, it hadn’t started raining yet, and the people around me were having some epic meltdowns, so I got the heck out of the Yak and Yeti area. I headed back toward the Tree of Life to pick up a souvenir I had found on the way through that would be perfect for my mother-in-law. Christmas shopping has begun! Since it had started to thunder, I then made my way to It’s Tough to be a Bug.
I actually rate this particular show pretty low. But, it really is the only attraction in Animal Kingdom where you get guaranteed rain cover, that isn’t at risk for closing due to weather, without a hideous wait time. So, with thunder crashing, I decided to tolerate it.
I pretty much walked into a showing, which made me nervous that I was going to end up exiting the show as a storm was starting. In the end, I survived the bug invasion and exited the show right as the storm finished. I could see it raining over by Everest still, but it was done in Africa and Discovery Island.
So...I headed for Africa. Next stop? More food. I wanted to try the Simba’s Sunset. This is dole whip, with different fruity syrups in it. I think strawberry, watermelon and coconut were all involved. It sounded good. It actually really was pretty boring. The syrups didn’t taste like much of anything. But, it was cool and refreshing.
I ate my dole whip while watching the African entertainment. This particular session involved a bit of music and some soccer. I couldn’t get over the stunts they were performing in this heat. I’m not kidding when I say that even my ankles were sweating. I didn’t know that was possible!
Once I had finished my dole whip, I poked around the stores that were right behind me for a bit. Then it was time for my fastpass for Safaris.
Safaris looked like a nightmare line, since half the park was shut down, but, the fastpass was a walk on. And, for the first time in years (in my experience at least), they had both loading docks operating. So, I was on a truck very quickly. It was a great safaris.
Once off the safaris, I had a few minutes before my Lion King fastpass. I listened to some more African music, wondering if these performers had even taken a break, and then headed over to the Lion King, where the fastpass line simply didn’t move for quite some time, despite announcements that we were entering the theater.
We were brought inside approximately 8 minutes before the start of the show, and the seating process felt more rushed than usual. Shortly before the show started, one of the CMs made an announcement about making sure we drank enough water because it’s really hot out. I’ve never heard this in an air conditioned show before at Disney, so I began to wonder if perhaps the delay in opening the seating was due to a dehydration issue.
Festival of the Lion King was fantastic as always. I’m always impressed with the energy of the performers here. I’m also always impressed by just how inclusive they are during the kiddie parade toward the end. There were at least 4 kids in wheelchairs at this performance and every single one of them was included in that parade. It was awesome.
After Lion King my next stop was Pandora. I had done really well lining up fastpasses, and my fastpass window for Flight of Passage opened about the same time I entered the land. So I walked straight there, and straight through the line, right to the merge point. Then I had to wait about 15 minutes. It was an entertaining wait, though. There was one lady who was totally trapped in the 80s. I mean, some good things came out of the 80s. The music was good. I was born then. So was Nick. But leopard skin print dresses and wedge sandals and white sweatbands were not some of the good things to come out of the 80s. Just saying.
Eventually I was boarding my banshee for another enjoyable flight. Disney really did amazing things with this attraction.
When I exited Flight of Passage, it was actively thundering and the sky was getting pretty dark, so I knew I needed to take cover. I ended up getting dinner at Satuli Canteen.
Satuli Canteen is VERY well organized in terms of the process. It’s a little less organized in terms of finding your way into the area where you can get a table. Thankfully, a CM saw me looking a little lost and moved aside a rope so that I could enter the eating area.
I had the chicken and noodle bowl with herb dressing, and the non alcoholic specialty drink for dinner. The chicken and noodle bowl was very tasty. In fact, it really didn’t need the dressing, and I think if I end up eating there again I would order my meal without the dressing or the slaw.
Once I had finished eating, I headed for the exit. It was time for my final park of the trip.
I just missed a bus to Epcot (saw it pulling away), so when I reached the bus stop I settled in for a long wait, and discovered I had blue fingers. HUH??! It was from the plastic bag my purchase was in. UGH!
Mystery solved, I continued waiting for the bus. One came along sooner than I expected, and the bus ride to Epcot was uneventful.
Once in Epcot, I headed for the Land, because I needed a restroom, and I needed a quiet place to sit and re-Bandaid my feet. I knew that the outer seating areas of Sunshine Seasons were generally pretty deserted, so I decided that sounded like a good spot to take care of the feet. And it was.
As I finished taking care of those needs, I discovered that Michele and her crew were in line for Soarin and was encouraged to join them. What the heck. So, I “excuse me’d” my way past a handful of people and found Michele, her son, one of her daughters, and her husband in line. The line moved quickly, and surprisingly soon we were in the cages awaiting our flight and chatting.
Because we were chatting and laughing, it took a few minutes to realize that the pre-show video seemed to be delayed in starting. Pretty soon we were informed of “departure delays”. So, we kept chatting, realizing that we would be missing our opportunity to get a good spot for Illuminations, but we all had seen it earlier in the week, and we all were in agreement that spending the evening laughing was a good substitute for staking out a spot for Illuminations. It was closing in on 8 at this point.
Surprisingly quickly, the maintenance was finished, and they boarded us as quickly as they could. When the ride was over we were provided with “anytime” fastpasses for our inconvenience, good through the next day. Of course I get this on my last night in the parks!
It was about 8:30 at this point. We checked on the fastpass situation at Test Track (it was also the last night in the parks for Michele’s family), but that was quite long. So we went shopping at Mousegear.
A couple minutes before 9, I decided, since my feet were killing me, to get a head start on the bus line, and said goodbye to Michele and her crew. As soon as I got outside, I had a bit of a change of heart and decided since I was going to see the high fireworks while I was walking to the buses, I might as well at least get close enough to World Showcase to hear the Illuminations music along with the fireworks one more time.
It turns out that the World Showcase end of the flower patch actually provides a pretty good view of Illuminations. Having spent the evening laughing, I managed to avoid ugly crying as my absolute final viewing of Illuminations came to an end, but, there definitely were a few tears. I just hope the new show is good.
I then limped my way to the bus stop. I guess the blisters got worse?
A bus came along fairly soon, and pretty soon I was back at the hotel. I showered and crashed eventually, not really ready for this trip to be over.
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