Trip Report, Day 1, Part 3: Pandora!

Date: November 30, 2019

If you missed the last post, you can check it out here.

Our next fastpasses were for Na'vi River Journey. So we headed to Pandora via the bridge from Africa. 

Na'vi River Journey is a good attraction, but I wouldn't wait more than 15-20 minutes for it. It's just really short. The shaman animatronic is great, but only makes up for so much.

Then, it was lunchtime so we did mobile order at Satu'li Canteen. I ended up getting the hotdog kid's meal. I highly recommend kids meals. They are a great value. My dad got a bowl-I don't remember which one. We both liked are food. The hotdog was the best thing I ate today. And that's saying something because I'm not a huge fan of hot dogs.

Then, we were off to Asia. We went to my favorite trail-Maharajah Jungle Trek. I like both the animals and the overall theming/aesthetic. Unfortunately, there were no bats. This is the second time I've missed out on bats. I love them-they are the puppies of the sky.

When we finished up our FastPasses for Kilimanjaro Safaris were ready. I was worried the sun would be in our eyes because I've had that happened on afternoon safaris in the past. But it wasn't that bad.

There were tons of giraffes on the safari. The cheetahs were also very active. I'd never seen that before and it was very cool to see. 

Then, we did standby for Dinosaur. I love Dinosaur-the preshow is a gem. 

After that, it was getting dark so we headed to the Tree of Life. I wanted to see the Tree of Life: Awakenings. Our last trip there was a  downpour so we weren't able to watch it. We saw 2 shows-I think It was a little unclear how the structure of the show is set up.

Then, we decided to do stand-by for Flight of Passage. We've hard the line can be not that bad close to park close. Plus, everyone says the queue/lab is amazing. We ended up waiting about 90 minutes. the lab was nice, but a very small part of the overall queue. I don't think I would do standby again. It is a fun ride, but does really scare me. My dad says you have to just really through yourself into it. 

Maybe next time.

Then, we headed back to the hotel. They still didn't have any holiday refillable mugs.

We got 3 Mickey beignets to share from Scat Cat's. We got the regular ones, but they have flavors and liquor shots. People always rave about them. We were both a little underwhelmed. They were good, but not amazing. Both of us also almost died by choking on sugar. They put so much sugar on these. I would hate to clean those tables. 

We tried to use My Disney Experience App to find our room. It wasn't very helpful but we got there eventually. I unpacked, my dad soaked his feet in ice and I was out!

Steps Walked Today: 21, 851

Up Next: Day 2

Trip Report Day 1, Part 2: Animal Watching (December 2019)

Date: November 30, 2019

If you missed the last update, you check it out here.

After the show we headed over to Africa to check out Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail. This isn't my favorite trail, but it is still good. There were two young gorillas (brother I think) playing/fighting with each other. It was exciting! There was also a mom with a baby but she was sitting next to a post and a lot of people were trying to see her so I had trouble getting a picture.

Is there a process for this? I try to only stay near the glass for a couple minutes so others can get a good luck. But other people don't seem to care. 🤷

Then, we got on the train to Rafiki's Planet Watch/Conservation Station. I don't even remember the last time I went here. We did have a FastPass for the Animation Experience. This was actually a last minute FP. We replaced our Dinosaur FP with it. That was such a good idea, because this attraction was hopping.

We did still have some time to kill first. There was an animal care story soon, so we sat and watched that. We got to learn about a sheep. She was very excited to see her caregiver and show off. Disney doesn't teach tricks. They work on performing natural behaviors on command. This makes it easier to care for them.

Then we walked around the petting zoo area. I like that there are places for the animals to go if they don't want to interact with people. And there are tons of Cast Members keeping an eye on things.

I wanted to watch another animal care story and we still had time. this time it was a goat. She was an older goat so they really let her do whatever she wants.

Then, we went inside and looked at the other animal and lab stuff. There was a medical treatment earlier in the day. Someday I'll be able to see something. You do get to see things like how they feed them. Every individual animal has their own nutrition animal. That is amazing!

And it was time for the Animation Experience. They give you a pencil, lap desk, and a paper with some guidelines. There's an animator who walks you through the drawing and there are 2 large TV screens that show you what the animator is drawing. 

Before we got started, they showed us a video about an animal from the park that represents the character we would draw. We were drawing Tick-Tock, the crocodile from Peter Pan. The video was of one of the Nile crocodiles you see on Kilimanjaro Safaris. I think his name was Blue and he was one of the top-dog crocs.

It is definitely a fast experience-perfectionists be warned. Dad and I enjoyed it. We would definitely do it again. And it is worth the FastPass. My drawing isn't perfect, but pretty good considering I have next to no artistic ability.

Then, we headed back to Africa via the train. I was starting to feel the early morning flight, but I will push through!

Up Next: Pandora!

Trip Report: Disney Day! (December 2019, Day 1, Part 1)

Date: November 30, 2019

And it's travel day!

Or travel day part deux.

I didn't get a good night's sleep. I woe up multiple times.

So, we were up around 2:30. I don't know about my dad, but I was pretty lethargic. 

There was another family waiting in the hotel lobby. Guess we weren't the only people going to Disney world. I'm also glad we weren't the only ones using the shuttle. I feel bad making people work at weird times of day. Am I weird? Probably.

When the shuttle came, the driver grabbed our bags and drove us over to the airport. And then we waited for the ticket desk to open.

We checked our bags, got through security and made it to the gate pretty quickly. Nothing was open which sucked because I was really thirsty. The restaurant by our gate opened at 4. I was able to buy a juice. The lines for food were crazy.

After we boarded, I got out my sleep mask, neck pillow, and headphones. My plan was to sleep some more. That was with mixed results. I never got into a deep sleep but was able to rest a little. The flight was pretty fast. Our planned 3 hour flight took just over 2.

We got right on Magical Express and were on our way to Disney World.

At Port Orleans French Quarter we left our bags with bell services. It was way too early for our room to be ready. And I had done on online check-in so we didn't need to check-in.

Dad changed into shorts, I changed camera batteries and popped on some ears. Then, we went to the food court. I don't remember what my dad got, but I got sausage gravy and biscuits with a side of bacon. We didn't want to carry the reusable mugs around, so we decided to wait until tonight for those. I just got a juice. I love juice.

It's a really pretty food court. I like all the Princess and Frog touches. Their pretty subtle and blend well with the other New Orleans elements. My food was good-the biscuits were a little dry, but it was OK.

Then, we took a little walk around the hotel grounds. We looked at the pool and made our way down near the boat launch.

Eventually, we went to the bus stop and hopped on a bus to Animal Kingdom. This is the 2nd trip we are starting at AK. It was the park with the lowest crowd levels according to Touring Plans, so that's where we were going.

We had to go to guest services to get/activate our Annual Passes. The CM who helped me was really nice. She was friendly without being annoying. I'm not much of a people-person, so I'm easily uncomfortable. Social anxiety sucks. I got a DVC AP because my dad added me to his Poly DVC. She asked were I owned and we talked about the Polynesian. Her husband was there for ride-out crew during the last hurricane.

My dad hit up the bathroom so I waited for him. Then, we went through the gates. The Mickey touch point was pink/purple. My dad said that's because of the DVC. I know nothing. 🤷

We didn't really have plans. We did have FastPasses for the Animation Experience at Rafiki's Planet Watch around 1:30. So, we just headed back toward Asia.

Up! A Great Bird Adventure was starting soon so we headed in. There was a couple with a baby in a stroller in front of us. When they went to stroller parking, one of the CMs asked if the baby was sleeping. The couple said "yes" and she told them to take the stroller in. That was very nice.

We sat pretty far back which was a first. You can't see a lot of detail on the birds, but you could see everything. Some of the birds did come to a ledge near us.

It was a good show. A lot of the birds still show the same behaviors they did before. But I thought there was less animals overall. There were two sign language interpreters who were great. I love seeing how into the performance they get.

Up Next: Animal Watching