Spring at Animal Kingdom Lodge
April 9, 2018
Today we begin a 3 night stay at animal kingdom lodge. After breakfast at home, we pack up the car and begin the drive. Traffic is lighter than normal particularly for a Monday morning. While en route, we get an email saying our room is not yet ready, followed a short while later by one saying our room is ready and giving us our room number.
Since our room is ready, we unpack our car and head to our savannah view room on the top floor. We unpack while getting to see a giraffe on the savannah. Once we are settled, we head to the bus stop. We see buses for all the other parks, in some cases, more than once before a Disney Studios bus arrives.
Neither of us has bags but we are pulled aside to go through the metal detector. There is only a short time left for our tower of terror fast pass so we head directly there. By time we finish, it is almost time for rock n roller coaster. I opt to skip it since it gives me a headache. My husband heads to rock n roller coaster while I make myself at home on a park bench along the street. When my husband appears around 20 minutes later, he announces he is hungry so we head to backlot express for some lunch. I have a caprese sandwich while my spouse has a chili dog. We have one a More fast pass - this one for star tours so do that ride. Toy story mania is not issuing fast passes for the next month or so. At one point, standby was listed at 90 minutes but is now listed as 30 minutes. We decide to not wait on line in favor of some pool time.
This day was supposed to be rainy But it turned out to be quite lovely. We spent some time in the hot tub. The main pool was okay but a bit on the cool side
We were able to make a dinner reservation at Jiko. We headed downstairs a bit early and stopped at Victoria falls for drinks - the chocolate martini was quite yummy. When we checked in for dinner, we were seated immediately. We shared an appetizer of breads and spreads and both had filet mignon with Mac and cheese though I think the old version of this dish was better. After dinner, we wandered around the grounds to see the animals that were out and about. Back in the lobby, we sat by the fire for a while before heading back to our room.
April 10, 2018
Weather is not supposed to be good today. After breakfast in our room, we head to the bus stop to wait for a bus to animal kingdom. It is almost time for our safari fast pass so we head directly there. While on that ride, it begins to rain lightly and we can hear thunder. We decide to go to a bug’s life since it is indoors. A cast member hurries us through the line saying they have started their lightning protocol. We consider waiting in the preshow area until the next show to kill more time but decide to attend the current show. When we emerge, it is raining so we de decide to go to the lion king show which will start in 15 minutes. The theater is mostly full already and we are in the giraffe section. For some reason the tumble monkeys do not perform the acrobatic section of the show. Before the show ends, we have received storm warnings of hail and high winds. I’m able to make lunch reservations at yak and yeti. At the end of the show,cast members have everyone stay in the theater while all the floats are put away. A cast member tells us we can stay for the next show but we’ll have to move across the theater to the lion section. If we stay for the next show we’ll be late for our lunch reservation so we stay until we are told we either need to leave or stay for the next show.
Gorilla trail, kali river, Everest, primeval whirl, and triceratops spin are all temporarily closed.
It is raining heavily and thundering so it’s a little scary to make the walk over to yak and yeti. We wait about 15 minutes before we are seated. We have the dim sum basket for two along with brown rice. We stay for dessert of chocolate pudding cake and New York cheesecake.
The heavy rain has ended and the temps have dropped into the 60s which feels quite chilly. We have fastpasses for flight of passage which we have never done but that is still an hour and a half away. We pass the remaining time by wandering through some of shops.
We greatly enjoyed flight of passage! After that ride, we headed directly to the bus stop and back to animal kingdom lodge where we hang out in our room.
There are no dinner reservations for this evening so we head to Victoria Falls where my husband has a burger and I have the chicken wings.
April 11
Today is our Magic Kingdom day. It is sunny but there is a chill wind and, though I take it off from time to time during the day, I am glad I have my denim jacket with me.
In no particular order, we visit Pirates of the Caribbean (This is our first time with the recently changed scenes), Walt Disney World Railroad (only from the Fantasyland station to the Frontierland Station), Big Thunder Mountain (with fastpass), Haunted Mansion (about a 30 minute wait time), Peter Pan's Flight (with a fastpass), It's a Small World (about a 25 minute wait time), Winnie the Pooh (with a 4th fastpass I was able to grab after using our first three), Little Mermaid Ride (about a 30 minute wait time), Seven Dwarfs (with a fastpass), and the Peoplemover (which now has a line that circles around at the top of the escalator). For lunch, we went to Cosmic Ray's.
When we were ready to leave the Magic Kingdom, my husband suggested we go over to Epcot and get a pint at the Pub so we headed to the monorails and were quickly at the Epcot entrance. We went directly to Rose and Crown where, of course, there were no tables to be had inside (though I came close to grabbing one - it's just that someone else was closer and faster). We brought our beers outside and just as got there, someone left one of the exterior tables empty so we were able to sip and people watch. After our refreshment, we wandered through some of the shops and then returned back to our resort.
We were not very hungry this evening. Instead, we dined on cheese and crackers we had brought with us and went to Mara for a Mickey bar and ice cream sandwich.
March 12
We are returning home this day so we get up and pack our things. Instead of using Disney transportation on this day, we drive over to Epcot. Our parking space is not that far from the gate so we skip the tram and walk in.
We haven't been on Mission:Space for a very long time so I had gotten fastpasses for that. We didn't really need the fastpasses but used them anyway. We did the less intense version since this one causes my husband some motion sickness. Did they change the film on both sides or only on the less intense side? Instead of the film I was expecting, our trip was just an orbit around earth with an "emergency" landing due to weather conditions at the landing field on Earth. We went on Living with the Land which was listed as a 10 minute standby (I knew from the line that it wouldn't be). While on line, it changed to 25 minutes and then to 35 minutes. It took us about 1/2 hour to get into the boat. We used our fastpass for Soarin' and then headed to Chefs de France where I had made luncheon reservations.
We both ordered the onion soup (note to self - if you dine here again, make the onion soup your meal and don't order an entree as well!!) which was very good but I didn't dare finish mine for fear I wouldn't eat any of my dinner. My spouse ordered the vegetarian lasagna while I had a cod and shrimp dish. Very good but very filling.
We still had fastpasses for Spaceship Earth but decided not to hang out for another hour or so especially since we had just been in Epcot the day before. So, I canceled that fastpass and we headed back home in our car.
