Still on UK time, I'd woken up in the middle of the night, but had found the bed pretty comfortable, and the curtains were good at blocking out the light. We did hear some noise from people walking past, and from cast members mowing the grass, but the air con unit did a decent job at masking these noises, as well as at keeping your room nice and cool during the day.
John headed to the food court to fill our refill mugs up while I had a shower. The room location was great, close enough to just nip to the food court, but not so close we were likely to be bothered by noise late at night. The shower was powerful, and the temperature easy to control. There was plenty of room in the bathtub itself, though I did find there was very little floorspace in the bathroom itself. Not so much of an issue for us, but if I was sharing a room with a friend, it might be a bit awkward, though I guess that's why they have the curtain across the extended bathroom area, to give more privacy.
The dining plan didn't provide enough meals for breakfast, so I'd brought plenty of cereal bars for us to eat, which would double up as snacks if we were hungry. However, each meal on the dining plan did come with a dessert, and yesterday John had chosen a fruit salad which he had been too full to eat. So this morning I had that for breakfast, while John had a cereal bar.
I'd read that busses weren't particularly well timetabled, so I knew that we'd need to leave plenty of time to get to the Animal Kingdom. Within five minutes, we were at the bus stop, another positive for our room location. There weren't that many people there, but I suppose that's why the Guide advises getting up early.
The Guide had a suggested order in which to tackle the parks. First should be Epcot, allowing you to enjoy it's educational style offerings without being swayed by the magical whimsy of the other theme parks. Next should be Animal Kingdom, still with the educational element, but more of a traditional theme park, with its shows and rides. Third is Hollywood Studios, more thrill rides, and increasingly less educational. Finally, as the crown in the jewel, and the park that, for most people, symbolises Disney World, the Magic Kingdom.
However, I was also keen to take advantage of the crowd level predictor at touringplans.com, so although I took the suggested order into account, it was really the crowd predictions that decided which park we'd tackle on each day, along with the fireworks and evening shows/parades on offer at each of the parks, as I was really keen not to miss anything out. Low crowd levels meant that today was Animal Kingdom.
At the bus stop, we saw busses for a couple of the other parks, which most of the others waiting boarded. When the bus for the Animal Kingdom arrived, there was only one other couple who got on, and there were few people already on the bus.
The bus journey really didn't take that long, and soon we were at the bus station. I was expecting signs to point us towards the entrance, but in their absence, we followed others who seemed to know where they were going.
There was no queue for bag check and we were through in seconds. John, who didn't have a bag, just strolled through.
We noticed several people being allowed to enter the park already, even though there was still half an hour to official opening. We drew closer, and overheard that they had breakfast reservations. The park wouldn't be opening before the official time.
We picked up maps and programmes and I compared them with our touring plan, making sure I knew the quickest routes between our points on the plan.
After about fifteen minutes, we noticed that queues were beginning to form at the 'turnstiles', so we walked over and joined one. The cast members were laughing and joking with each others and with the guests queuing. For the first time we noticed the 'uniforms' some families were wearing, and loved the effort they'd gone to, to personalise them.
Around five minutes before opening time, they started letting people in. As it was our first time entering a park with our magic bands, we had to scan our fingerprints too, but the cast member manning the turnstile was friendly and helpful, and we were done in seconds.
We power walked through the Oasis, but didn't really notice anyone running, and there weren't that many people there so they were quickly swallowed up.
First stop on our plan was Dinosaur. We followed the signs, rather than the map, and seemed to be the only people heading to that section of the park.
There was a cast member by the entrance, which had a chain across it. She greeted us and explained that they were still undergoing tests, as they do everyday, but should be open shortly. Eventually a few more people joined the queue. It reached nine, and the ride still hadn't opened. We were told that the light in the ceiling should go out when the ride was operational, but as yet, it remained brightly lit. The cast member on the gate seemed as frustrated as we were, radioing through occasionally to ask for an update, but not receiving any useful information in return. Eventually around 9.20am, we decided we risked messing up the rest of our touring plan and fast passes if we stayed any longer, so off we went to the next stop, Primeval Whirl.
Just around the corner and we spotted it straight away. There were two of these rides, back to back, presumably to help reduce queues. There was no need this morning however, we walked straight on and were soon heading up and down the hills. It had been a while since I'd been on a roller coaster, and with hindsight, this was a good one to prepare me for the more extreme thrills of Expedition Everest later on. My husband thought I was hilarious, but there were one or two genuine screams as we rolled down a couple of the higher drops.
As we approached the end of the ride, there was still no queue, so the cast member asked us if we wanted to ride again. Despite the risk of derailing our touring plan, we didn't hesitate before saying yes. We figured we'd spend enough time this holiday in queues, we might as well make the most of the opportunity while we had it! I thought this was a lovely little coaster and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Next up was Expedition Everest and a quick march round the lake to try and get our plan back on track. As enjoyable as the two rounds on Primeval Whirl had been, combined with the Dinosaur delay, they'd set our plan back somewhat.
There were already crowds in the Everest part of the park, but amazingly, the queue for EE was only 5 minutes long. Despite having fast passes, we decided we'd walk through the standby queue line, as I'd read that it was detailed and shouldn't be missed. As the line moved so quickly, we didn't really get chance to stop and look at everything, but I did appreciate the feeling it gave, building you up to the ride.
We were on the ride before we knew it. I'd read numerous discussions on wdwmagic.com about the Yeti, and had also read about the ride going backwards. Just before the track ran out we'd gone up a seriously steep hill. Knowing that the backwards part of the ride followed the track running out, I was holding on for dear life, terrified of going back down the ridiculously steep hill. I was so scared I almost missed the yeti, only remembering to look for him as we were about to hurtle backwards. My husband, knowing nothing of EE, had none of these issues and was enjoying himself thoroughly.
Of course I hadn't realised that whilst we were being treated to a brief respite and some strobe lighting, the track had switched, and instead of plunging down the incredibly steep part we'd just come up, we instead went for a fantastic backwards ride. I had heard that EE could be a tad jerky, but the only time I noticed this was right at the end, as we were approaching the unloading platform, and we jerked to a halt several times. The ride itself was incredible.
My husband isn't particularly keen on having his photo taken, and quite frankly I think the all encompassing photo package offered was outrageously expensive and not very good value. But the package of ride photos was another story, and we'd already decided that we'd buy that. So as we exited into the shop, we bought the Attractions+ package, and claimed our first photo.
Then we went round to the front of the ride, and entered the fast pass queue with the fast passes we'd pre booked, ready to ride again. The standby time had increased to 15 minutes by this point. The fast pass queue took us almost to the loading platform. There was no one marshalling the point where the two queues met, but it was mostly good natured merging in turn. Whilst we were waiting on the platform, there seemed to be an issue, and they eventually announced that someone had stood up (why oh why?) whilst the ride was going round, and that they'd had to stop it to make sure they were taken off safely. After about 5 minutes we were all buckled up and ready to go. Knowing the backwards ride wasn't a huge drop, I enjoyed it much more this time round, taking in the scenery and as much of the detail as I could manage.
Our next fast pass was for the 10.30am showing of the Festival of the Lion King. I'd heard that the queues for this could be pretty long, and that not everyone who queued was guaranteed to get into the showing, so I thought this would be a good use of a fast pass. The double ride on EE meant we were running behind schedule, giving no chance to walk through the Mahrajah Jungle Trek before the Lion King. We power walked back through Discovery Island, over to Camp Minnie-Mickey. I did notice at this point that the park had become a bit more crowded, but we were able to weave in and out and made it to the Lion King before our fast pass window expired.
Whether it was because the first show of the day isn't as busy as others, or whether it was because the cast members weren't quite au fait with the system yet, non fast pass holders were already inside the theatre, albeit through a separate entrance. We scanned our Magic Bands; mine worked fine, John's wasn't showing him as having a reservation, but they let us through anyway. Two sections were fairly full, a third pretty empty, and we were shown to seats about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way of the way up the fourth.
We didn't have to wait long before the doors were shut and the show began; we were in the Warthog section, which is not an easy sound to emulate, though we gave it our best shot.
The show was incredible, and I loved being able to sing along with all the songs. The costumes and staging were both wonderful, and the singing and dancing was first rate.
We got our plan back on track with lunch, which was scheduled for 11am. I'd read good things about the Yak & Yeti Local Foods Cafe, so that was where we headed. To minimise time wasted in queues part of our strategy had been to eat lunch early, to avoid the peak rush. Given that we were up early to make park opening, and not having a particularly large breakfast, we were both ready for lunch by 11am anyway, so this strategy worked well for us.
There were only a couple of people in front of us in the queue when we arrived, which gave us just enough time to look at the menu before we arrived at the till. We were pleased that the dessert on our free dining plan could be used for one of the minute maid frozen lemonades, as we were both rather hot, but did find that, combined with the drink, it resulted in us having far more liquid than we could comfortably drink. We quickly realised the advantages of bringing an empty water bottle with us, to pour our gigantic drinks into for later on. Having received our food, we found shady seats around the corner with no real trouble.
I opted for the honey chicken, John for a chicken salad, though he did later say he hadn't realised it was a salad when he ordered it. We both really enjoyed it however, and my portion was far too large for me to eat in one go. Sadly carrying it around for later wasn't really practical. One thing I did find strange here was that I had to ask for straws at the counter, though I later discovered that this is intentional, in an effort to reduce plastic waste.
There is a ride similar to Kali River Rapids at Alton Towers, a local theme park, though without the educational themeing. Kali won hands down, both for the soaking and the ride. Not a ride I'd feel the need to do more than once though, unless it was a scorching day. It did teach us an important lesson however, which was to always wear our ponchos on water rides.
Throwing our touring plan out of the window, we decided to try Dinosaur having missed it earlier. The queue didn't seem that large, so we joined it. We moved very quickly initially, and were soon in the dome like room. You can see how wet we are from the photos I took in the queue line.
Once we were in the dome like room, it seemed to take a while for us to move much further, possibly because there were so many people who seemed to have fast passes, jumping to the head of the queue.
I was aware of the premise of the ride beforehand, so found the pre show pretty easy to understand. I was also on the lookout for the doors we would go through next, to try to minimise our queuing time. We were given a seat on the back row of a buggy, and were off. The guidebook had warned of a dinosaur jumping out at the end, where the photo is taken. I feel this kind of spoiled the ride for me, because I was constantly in a state of tension, waiting for it to happen, and once it did, I didn't think it was that big a deal, though the ride photo tells otherwise. I'm sure that on a second ride through I would enjoy it much more and be able to take in more of the detail.
Once the ride finished, we added the photo to our photo card and were on our way again, this time to Finding Nemo: The Musical.
This show was to signal the start of something I found very frustrating throughout the holiday. Children. I realise that Disney World is not just for adults, but for children too, but there were so many parents with screaming children who refused to take them out of the show, that I got rather annoyed. If your child is not enjoying it, take them out. Don't ruin it for the rest of us.
Despite this, I did manage to enjoy the show, the colours and costumes were great, though some of the songs weren't that catchy. Unfortunately I still wasn't dry, and the air con was on full blast, so I was rather cold by the end of it.
Our Kilimajaro Safaris fast pass was valid til 2.10pm, so yet again we found ourselves power walking to make it on time. After experiencing the effect delays can have on a touring plan, we decided that we would download the app that evening, and John would use his phone to optimise, should anything like this happen again.
The standby queue was extremely long, and even the fast pass queue was queuing out of the queue confines, with a cast member standing at the entrance directing people. I was really glad we had fast pass for this ride, as our queue moved much faster. Here we realised the advantages of being a group of just two, as we bypassed several family groups to fill spaces on a jeep about to leave. We were sat on the front row, which was good in that we could see out of the front windscreen, but bad in that photos weren't that easy to take, and the driver seat and jeep frame did block some of our view.
We saw plenty of deer and other animals I didn't recognise, plus giraffes, rhinos, and even lions at the end, though these eluded my camera. I loved the way the animals seemed so at peace with their surroundings, and it really did seem like we were on safari at times, with nothing but scenery as far as the eye could see. The number of jeeps in our eyeline was far lower than I expected, Disney obviously do a good job of balancing spacing the keeps out and keeping the queue flowing, and I really enjoyed this ride. The rickety bridge and dripping cave were a nice addition, but the animals were the real highlight of this ride.
As the exit to Kilimanjaro Safaris is at the start of the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail, and we still had plenty of time before the 3pm showing of Flights of Wonder, we thought we might as well wander through the trail there and then. We didn't see any gorillas, but it was a peaceful respite from the crowds and the heat.
We made our way back towards Asia, heading for Flights of Wonder. As we walked along, we were struck by the views of the Tree of Life, so stopped to look at the carvings and take a few photos.
As we approached Flights of Wonder, we saw that there were already crowds outside, though there didn't appear to be a queue as such. We then realised that the crowds were watching a woman who was handling a bird of prey, the name of which eludes me. We gradually edged closed enough to understand that she was some sort of pre show, to encourage people to attend the actual show, as well as giving advice on how to behave if the birds in the show flew close to you.
When the audience was finally allowed to enter, we found good central seats; not too close, to avoid being asked to participate! The birds and their tricks were good, and it was nice to see them displaying some of their natural behaviours, rather than unnecessary bike riding tricks. However, I could have done without the charade of the lost tour group and the ensuing jokes and terrible acting.
Once the show was over, we decided that we would head for the parade, to ensure we got a good spot. Cast members were already marking out the route and asking people to stand behind the white tape. We found a spot on the Discovery Island side of the the Asia bridge, just where the bend starts, to allow us to see what was coming up next, and got ready. Although when we arrived we were some of the first there, within 5 minutes all the spots were taken. Shortly after some cast members walked through the route, making sure no one was stood where they shouldn't be, the parade began.
I loved the music, the dancing and the costumes. I thought there was a great balance between characters walking and on floats, and the character handlers did a good job of dancing to keep the party going, whilst ushering the characters along to keep the speed of the parade up. The mechanical floats were incredibly well done, and it was obvious that being waved at by the characters was the highlight of the day for many of the children watching.
Once the parade was over, we made our way to the Maharah Jungle Trek, trying to take advantage of the general dilly dallying post parade to get a head start.
The Trek was wondrously quiet and still, there were hardly any other visitors there at all; perhaps people were heading home after the parade. Along with other less furry creatures, such as komodo dragons and bats, we were fortunate enough to see the tigers prowling around their enclosure. I thought this walkthrough was wonderful, it was such a treat to be able to see the tigers, as I had been worried it would be too hot for them. The themeing was incredible and the ruins of the palace just stunning.
Next up, and actually last on the itinerary for the day, was It's Tough to be a Bug. Despite some reviews warning it might not be suitable for those who dislike bugs, I knew there was no way I was missing out. On our way through the deserted queue line, we took our time to examine the beautiful carvings on the tree, and tried to identify as many animals as we could. I was so impressed with the detail on the tree, it would have been worth doing the show purely for the queue line.
The show was much milder than I expected, based on the reviews. I even found it funny, and was only frightened as one point, but that quickly passed. The theatre wasn't particularly full, though this was the 4.30pm showing, so I guess many people might have left already, but their loss was our gain, as we had hardly any queue, and got really good seats. I didn't particularly notice many screaming or terrified kids either, which I had half expected.
After the show, we were both a bit peckish, it had been a good few hours since lunch at 11am after all, so we decided we'd use a snack credit each to keep us going. Given the rave reviews I'd read, there was only one choice for me, a Mickey Ice Cream bar. Although it was just a choc ice, the Mickey shape definitely added something magical, and I loved it.
Wanting something a bit more substantial, John opted for a jalapeño pretzel, Mickey style, with some cheese dip. He tells me it was good, if rather salty.
Snacks consumed, it was time for a leisurely stroll back through the Oasis and back to the hotel. We'd been too busy rushing to the first point on our touring plan in the morning to pay much attention to the Oasis, but now I wanted to make sure I took a good look around. Sadly there weren't many animals willing to be viewed, but it was still a pleasant walk and a calming way to finish our first park.
We walked back to the bus station, and found a bus getting ready to depart, who very kindly waited for us. We got seats no trouble, and were off back to Port Orleans.
Evening
As Animal Kingdom closed at 5pm, we thought we'd try Downtown Disney for tea that night. We'd spotted the landings for the river taxis the previous night, and so after we'd dropped our bags off and refilled our mugs, we made our way there. There was a pretty large queue and we didn't get on the first one, but they were fairly regular so it wasn't long before we were on our way. The boat was so full we didn't get to sit next to each other, but the scenery was lovely and going by boat really added to the relaxed holiday feel.
We wandered round the Marketplace, but John was fairly hungry so we quickly settled on Pollo Campero. I wasn't that hungry, so John had a wrap, I had a cake, and we shared a drink, meaning that we only used three meal credits that day. John's wrap was good and quite filling, but my cake was pretty horrible. From Babycakes, it was marked gluten-free, as were most of the items in their display. Unfortunately it appeared that gluten-free also meant the taste was altered, and not for the better.
I was slightly disappointed by the counter service options on offer at Downtown Disney. Part of the reason we'd chosen Port Orleans was because of its proximity to Downtown Disney, which I thought would provide us with more food options than just the hotel food court, but it seemed that most of the places there were table service, which we weren't entitled to.
After eating, we strolled along the waterfront down to the West Side. We stopped to look in most of the shops, but nothing really caught our attention that was within our price range. We spotted a bus heading to Port Orleans, so we jumped on it, making sure we got a good night's sleep ahead of another early start the following morning.
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