August 16th 2009

Animal Kingdom

Nobody wanted to move this morning :-)
We decided after our Dennys breakfast experience that we didn't want or need to eat brekkie out every morning so we ate at the villa - cinnamon bread for me (delightful toasted with a nice bit of spread), ordinary bread, fruit and/or eggs from Walmart.

Animal Kingdom was our port of call today and we used the Sherbeth Road shortcut for the first time (thus far we'd stuck to following road signs and used WOrld Drive but I had been keeping my eye out for the Sherbeth Road junction on the 192 and had finally spotted it amongst all the bright and wonderful signs offering cheap souvenirs, sell-back park ticket opportunities and buffet breakfasts!). It was easy to find AK using thsi route (although we never managed to do the reverse journey until much alter in our holiday, always missing the left fork and ending up in the AK parking lot time and time again!)

Surprisingly entrance to the park wasn't extremely busy at 10.30am (this was a Sunday, although I had read that this was a good day for AK I had figured that any weekend day would be busy just about anywhere)...perhaps everyone was there for rope drop, but not us, it was Sunday afterall!

We started towards Expedition Everest intending to get a fast pass there but found this new trial fast pass station that I had heard about here on the Dibb just before flying out. Here you could get a fast pass for any of the fast pass rides without making the trek over to the ride. We easily grabbed our FPs for EE (return time was for 2 hours later at 12.45) and then went to ride the Kilimanjaro Safari, which had a 20 minute wait time (no problem, we we queuing in the shade). It turned out to be a bit longer, Lee thought he'd heard an announcement about animals on the track (whether this was more theming or the truth I don't know!).

My boys waiting patiently:




and us girlies:



In the line behind us were some young ladies lugging around large sketch books on boards, clutching handfuls of art materials - charcoals, pencils etc. They were sketching things they could see in the line and continued to sketch throughout the bumpy safari ride! Thee was some serious talent I can tell you. I assume they were art students. We later saw more artists dotted aroudn the park, sitting on the floor, happily sketching or painting away. They were such a contrast to the majority of visitors who were darting about getting their thrills from rides. I enjoyed peeking over their shoulders to see what they were sketching.




Soon it was our turn to board a jeep. Our driver was fantastic and very funny. His voice reminded me of Lenny Henry. We all agreed this was a brilliant ride. Great to get up close to the animals.

Can you spot Lenny?



We intended on coming back for a second ride but by the time we got around the park we were too content and tired to walk back to Asia. During this ride I'd taken lots of photos (no surprises there then!) with my new Fuji S1500 on sportsmode and later discovered that it handled the bumpy ride rather well, I actually got some clear shots!







Next up...Pangini Forest Exploration Trail to see, mainly, the gorilla:






We also had a quick look at our fast passes to see when we could pick up another and were pleasantly surprised to see we could already get one (11.20 by now). We'd only been in the park about an hour and were about to have FPs for two rides in our pockets!

As it was a bit too hot to rush we wandered over to Kali River Rapids and picked up some fast passes with a return time of 1.30pm.

Next stop...dealing with the necessary after all the water we'd been drinking to keep hydrated! And then for some sustainance:




my fave, one I choose everytime I got the opportunity for something cold!



Never too old for a Mickey icecream!

We backtracked to the toilets near Kali River Rapids and then decided, still being hungry animals, that we would have a look at the Flame Tree BBQ. I remembered reading good things about this one so we queued up and within minutes (good plan having an early lunch!) were armed with 3 x BBQ chicken salads and a fruit salad. I'd also heard that there were some good spots to eat around the back, overlooking a lake and EE and so there was! Take a look at the view!




I didn't like my salad much, I was hoping for chicken chunks but it was wafer thin slices vaguely resembling chicken with a nasty BBQ flavour (I normally love BBQ flavour). But the rest of the salad was ok, where not tainted by that yucky flavour!




Katie's fruit looked gorgeously freshing, and she said it was indeed! That'll be my choice when we go back!




After taking some more impressive piccies of EE we wandered over to Its Tough to be a Bug to give our tummies a chance to empty before hitting any bumpy rides! The trail to this 3D show was brilliant, it weaved around the Tree of Life and we got to see close up some of the animals carved into the tree.

Here's my favourite fella:



The show was excellent (we rated it over and above the 3D Muppets and Honey I Shrunk the Kids, the latter getting 2nd place in our ratings), and the sensory surprises were totally unexpected!

Now for the rides we had been anticipating.....first up, Kali River Rapids. Again, the time window for getting another fast pass came up at this point and thoguht we'd go for more FPs for the river rapids, but the FP return time was getting on for 3.30 pm and we decided we didn't want to trek back here to re-ride again later.

We all got a good soaking, no one escaped! We also had a good laugh but though the ride should have been much longer (we later decided that Island of Adventure's Bilge Barge Rats ride was far superior ). No piccies I'm afraid, camera was tucked up safely in a plastic bag within a bag!

Expedition Everest was next, and boy was I nervous!! As we waited for the train I had to take a few deep breaths, but luckily the wait in the FP queue wasn't long! I rode with Katie and she wanted to link arms, but as we headed off my arm got caught against the lap bar (I think, it all happened quickly and I was trying to steel myself for the ride!) and it really hurt! Later that day I noticed a massive bruise under my arm! Bingo wings did nothing to protect me, in fact it was probably the bingo wing that got pinched!

I thought I'd hate the ride up Everest but it was fine, as was the backwards decline....well for a moment anyway, I soon changed my mind and got spooked when it felt as though we'd been tossed upside down in the dark (I've been assured you don't go upside down, so just how do they make you feel as though you are?!) Once I was over that bit the rest of the ride was greeeat! If it hadn't been for the feeling of goign upside down I could have queued again!

I loved the theming outside this ride, we stopped to take a few piccies, and in a way, I wished we'd joined the stand by queue to see the theming there.




Next up was Dinoland. Since childhood I've been fascinated by dinosaurs so I was looking forward to coming face to face with one! The wait time displayed read 50 mins and there were no fast passes left so we were about to leave it (being tired from the heat by now) when a cast member at the entrance said it was actually only a ten minute wait (note to self, if wait time seems long it might be worth aking if it is accurate!) This was a bumpy and amusing ride but it had the potential to scare little ones, including our Kate, who, despite being 12 and two seats to the left of me in the dark, could be heard screaming loudly!

Look at her in this photo, bless her, I really think she thought she'd be gobbled up!



We had to stop in at least one shop before leaving I'm glad we did....Sam picked up a thick Mickey T shirt (which to this day he has not worn, saying it's not for wearing because it's a keepsake) with his birthday fun card, I got some fab scrapbooking stickers, and we also foudn some gifts for the folks back home and our friends who were watering my veggies in the garden.

Somewhere along the line we also took these lovely piccies:






I also persuaded everyone to come and pose with Flick! I was the only one who wanted photos taken with characters, can you believe?! And at the age of 40 too :-)



Goodbye Animal Kingdom, this was the only day we planned to spend here but there was so much more to see that we just have to return in 2010!

As we exited the park we decided to pop by Downtown Disney for an hour or two.

We rested up and cooled off in the pool back at the villa for a while before heading back out to the Godlen Corral for a buffet dinner - shrimp and mash for me (did I eat anything but salad, shrimp and mash during the whole 2 weeks?! Not very often! I adooored their shrimp!) We actually had room for dessert on this visit...Volcano chocolate was divine, if a little sickly! Of course, I had fruit on the side to make up for devouring such an unhealthy pudding :-)

We visited the neighbouring gift shop afterwards for our free gift (a bracelet with seahorse charms which broke the very next day ) and some Disney T shirts (which we later discovered were cheaper in Walmart...and I still have no idea if any of these are 'real' Disney merchandise!)

By the time we got to bed it was almost midnight and we decided we were in need of a veeery......slooooow......dayyyyy!

Next installment: some Wannabe Artists, getting to know Mr Disney and I get my all important chocolate fix! Yum!