Today, we continued our onslaught of visits to all the Disney theme parks with a planned trip to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. We are now one week into this one-month holiday and almost halfway through the 18-day all-access pass to the Disney theme parks. Our ticket grants us up to 14 days of entrance to any of the six Disney parks, including the two water parks, over an 18-day period. We can hop unlimited from park to park on any given day, but experience has taught us that it’s just too much effort to do so.
The good news is that the Loratadine anti-allergy medicine I picked up at Walgreens the other day is really helping already. For the past couple of days, I’ve had minimal issues with a runny nose and watery eyes, which is a marked difference from my norm.
We wasted little time this morning gearing up and getting into the routine of loading the backpacks and car for the 15-minute or so drive over to the Animal Kingdom car park. After unburdening myself of the $35 weighing down my bank balance (isn’t money a curse?), I was issued a receipt for the daily parking fee and waved through. Our parking receipt covered us for all four major Disney theme parks today, so if we did decide to visit another park later in the day, we wouldn’t need to pay any more for that. I still think it’s annoying that, despite having spent a small fortune on the park entrance tickets to begin with, we’re still required to pay again to visit. Yes, I get that there are other ways to get into the park without using a car, but it still feels like a double whammy. When you think about it further, the theme parks themselves are also really just huge retail parks in disguise. Imagine having to buy a ticket to get into a shopping centre and then having to pay to park the car for the privilege.
I tried to suppress thoughts of future insolvency so that I could cling to the dream that we’re on holiday that’s undisturbed by thoughts of the future consequences for a while longer. I noted the parking lot row number and section name in the My Disney Experience app. We boarded the tram to take us to the main entrance. I did my best to suppress the urge to grab a quick photo of the main entrance, with the giant ANIMAL KINGDOM letters above the entrance gates, while lining up the shot such that the letters I and M were surreptitiously obscured. After all, I’m better than that.
Funny enough, none of us was red-lighted going through the security scanners today, so that saved us a few minutes of delay. We did still have to linger for a few minutes while Sandy and Jae organised a couple of wheelchairs, but that was quickly sorted—even after they had to return to replace the one with the dodgy, wobbly front wheel.
Once we were all set, we meandered off into the park towards the Africa section, where Tusca House was awaiting our arrival for our 9:20 am character dining breakfast reservation. While en route, we put in our first DAS return time request for the Avatar Flight of Passage ride over in the Pandora section of the park. Fortunately, we will be enjoying our breakfast until well after the required virtual queuing time elapses, so that will work out well.
The character dining breakfast here in Animal Kingdom features Donald, Daisy, Mickey and Goofy, all dressed in their safari garb. While we were happily tucking into the reasonably priced (*cough*—I used the word ‘reasonably’ here quite wrongly) buffet breakfast, the characters wandered around the dining area, stopping at each table for a couple of minutes to interact with its occupants. Sandy, in particular, has been keen to have as many character interactions as she can, whether that be through Disney character dining, like this morning, or with chance interactions with characters we meet throughout the parks. To be fair, it does also seem to put a smile on everyone’s faces. Joey was his usual morning pleasant self (*cough*—I use the word ‘pleasant’ here also quite wrongly) until Goofy arrived at the table. Goofy’s presence immediately lifted Joey’s mood. It was pretty impressive to see Goofy’s tactics being put to brilliant use here. The cast members are clearly very good at their craft. As with all the other characters, there are no words—just sign and body language. Within seconds, Goofy had Joey not only smiling but actually laughing as the two of them locked fingers and played thumb wrestling together. I’ve observed this transformation in the children in the past when similar expert techniques were put to practical use by the character cast members. It’s not just ‘put on a suit and go’. There’s clearly a lot of training and expertise that goes into their work. Kudos to the cast members for doing such a terrific job.
Once breakfast was done, and we were all fighting off the food coma, we meandered back towards Pandora for our awaiting Avatar Flight of Passage ride. This is one of the better rides throughout the entirety of Disney, not just here in Animal Kingdom. It’s a very similar ride to Soarin’ in EPCOT, but on steroids. The storytelling and theming are just brilliant, and the ride experience itself is truly magical. Using special 3D glasses, as well as wind and water droplet effects, you are flying on the back of a Pandora Banshee through the weird and wonderful landscapes of Pandora, all the while being moved in three directions to aid in the simulation effects. The ‘you are really there’ effect is quite convincing.
As we exited the ride, we were already registering our DAS return time for Expedition Everest, over in the Asia section of the park. One of the persistent themes for the day here at Animal Kingdom was that it was taking us about as long as we were supposed to be virtually queueing to make it to the next attraction. This effectively meant we were walking straight onto the ride each time, which was fantastic and a real time-saver.
The ride is another one of the better attractions. It’s a partially dark rollercoaster ride. It starts normally enough, but quickly finds itself at a dead-end near the apex of a mountain peak. You’re then hurled backwards into the depths of the mountain, left wondering what direction all the G-forces are coming from. At the mid-point, it stops and then continues forward again. There are no inversions, and there’s only a lapbar to secure you, but it’s still a pretty intense ride all the same. It’s also a bit bumpy and jolty for my liking.
As was the case with all the rides we experienced today, we lingered in the shop at the ride’s exit for a while. I tended to spend much of my time staring indignantly at the prices, impressed at the bold audacity. Joey scored himself a stuffed snow leopard today from Expedition Everest, which (albeit temporarily) put another smile on his face.
By now, we were getting into the routine of booking the DAS return time for the next ride as soon as the app permitted us to do so. Sometimes this was when we had just entered the queueing system, and others it was a few minutes after we exited the ride.
The next ride up for us was the Dinosaur ride. Although the dark ride itself was still there, it won’t be for much longer. It’s scheduled to close permanently in February of next year. There are construction walls up in some places, obscuring the rebuilding that’s going on to transform the DinoLand USA area into a new Tropical Americas section, which will include attractions based on Encanto and Indiana Jones. The Dinosaur ride really jolts you around intensely, so I’m not that upset it’s being replaced with something new.
We decided to take a break while in the Dinoland area. Sandy parked herself with Jae at one of the dining tables at the Restaurantasaurus (see what they did there?). Curiously, Joey wasn’t keen to go inside, preferring to sit in one of the wheelchairs out front. I tried to park him in at least some partial shade, as I worried he would overheat. We never did figure out why he didn’t want to go inside, and that wasn’t for the lack of trying to understand. The best we could figure was that he thought it might have been too busy or loud inside.
Just as we were done taking a break from the midday heat, Jae announced she wanted to have another crack at the Expedition Everest coaster. Mum volunteered me to go with her. Thanks, Mum! Once again, it was another walk-on with no wait.
As Jae and I were ‘enjoying’ the Everest coaster again, Sandy and Joey were making their way back to the car. We could easily have spent several more hours in the park today. However, we’re coming to recognise that moderation is key and the best philosophy when trying to maximise our enjoyment on this holiday. We can always come back another day if we want. It was now around 2:30 pm, and we’d been here since around 9 am. The park was scheduled to close at 7 pm today, so this would effectively be just a half day, which is about right.
Jae and I returned the wheelchair and made our way back to the car via the tram. We were all on the verge of overheating, so cutting the day short at this point, preventing potential heat-related stress and aggravation from taking root, was the right call.
We went directly home from the park, stumbled out of the car and into the house. Everyone went off in their own direction. For me, that was the shower and then into bed for an afternoon nap—bliss.
Sandy had been in contact with our good friends Kristy and Carlos, who were our neighbours when we lived in Jacksonville many years ago. There’s a good chance we might get a chance to see them this weekend already, so we’re keeping everything crossed that we can somehow make that happen.
Dinner for this evening was a quick drive over to the cluster of restaurants, where we usually hang out at the Waffle House. Today, it was Chick-fil-A that Sandy and Jae fancied. Well, you can’t really go far wrong with chicken. Despite a generous portion for Joey—followed by a second—he still fancied a Waffle House waffle, so we picked up a couple to go from there on the way back to the house.
All in all, it was a successful day, with minimal meltdowns, and, as a bonus, we’re all still on speaking terms with each other. We have nothing planned for tomorrow, but let’s see how that unfolds in practice.