Never Say Never! - December 2014 - Day 5 - Part 1 - Animal Kingdom in the drizzle

[Hannikins]

Never Say Never! - December 2014 - Day 5 - Part 1 - Animal Kingdom in the drizzle

NOTE: I’m splitting today into two parts, mainly so the Wanyama Safari experience has it’s own thread and also because it was a looooooooonng one :P

Our alarm went off just before 6 and I instantly regretted not having packed the night before. I hadn’t unpacked much but I had to repack completely to squeeze in all the items from my deliveries so it took a while OOPS!

I was feeling brave this morning so decided to wear my “short shorts”, it was a squeeze but I mind it :P This was a BIG mistake as will become clear later…

As usually Adam wisely stayed out of the way, making coffees and having a shower.

Once done Adam called down to bell service to get our bags collected, whilst waiting we finished off the gingerbread cookie we’d bought yesterday yum yum!

Bell serviced arrived in 10 mins and as we were moving to another resort all we had to do was fill in a separate form saying where we were going and they handled the rest, simple!

Sorted we said a final goodbye to SSR and headed for the now familiar bus stop. It was busy this morning but most people seemed to be heading to MK, there was only 1 other couple waiting for AK. It was pretty cold again today and the sky looked cloudy and heavy, yay!

We waited A LONG TIME! The buses this trip so far had been the worst I can remember and after 5 MK buses and 2 for epcot had passed by we were all starting to loose our rag, it had been over 50 minutes! and now there were lots of people waiting, all for AK

Finally a bus arrived and we all piled on.

On the way the rain started again and I started to regret my choice of clothing. I usually feel the cold on my arms and chest so I had a big sweater on but I really hadn’t put much thought weather wise into what I was wearing on my legs. Knowing it would probably rain I had chosen not to wear my jeans so I would dry off quickly, but looking around on the bus I realised I might have been in the minority…



check out those pasty white legs! no wonder they think the british are bonkers.

We arrived just after the start of EMH so the delay wasn’t so bad and the rain seemed to have calmed down to a drizzle which was a big plus. We still donned our ponchos though before heading in!

We headed first to everest, thinking that although the rain was light now it might not be later and we didn’t want to waste the chance..





Typically the rain got a little heavier during the second ride so I was treated to several shots of rain to the face not dissimilar in force to that from a power hose or sandblaster, several layers of skin were lost that ride!

Adam on the other hand didn’t seem to mind! He seemed to find being soggy hilarious :P



Next we headed to dinosaur to escape the rain and dry off. However the queues were tiny today so we had to have two goes to pass the time until our first fast pass

I’m always perplexed by this ride, and on all photos we usually look thoughtful rather than scared.





Considering that it’s the same system as the rather brilliant indy ride in california I’m amazed it’s so rubbish, but on a positive it was warm and dry.

It was still raining a little so we wondered around the shop a while, trying to find a good magnet for our collection.

The christmas decorations and festive touches at AK are a lot more subtle than elsewhere, well I think they should be, I did like this one :P



Soon things started to brighten up so we headed towards the safari. We were a little early for our fast pass and since it was so quiet we decided to head in via the normal queue first.

It turned out we’d picked a great time to go, the rain meant it was cooler and all the animals were pretty active now the rain had stopped.

I know we all have the same shots so here’s a few from both rides, once with the fast pass and again without.























no more I promise :P

It was 9.30 now and we were already flagging, and guess what? the rain was back! I shouldn’t complain though, it was only drizzle, and we all know it can, and does, get ALOT worse!

We headed to the snack cart where we’d gotten a pretzel from last year but I couldn’t see any. I asked but apparently they hadn’t arrived yet, the cast member saw the sad look on my face and said it shouldn’t be long!

We decided to stay close by and headed to see the gorillas on the pangani trail



We watched them for quite a while as the area wasn’t to crowded for a change and all of them were out and about.

Adam took lots of pictures, although I’m not to sure about this photo of a “leaf”. It’s not his best work, I think I may need to explain the aperture settings at some point :P







After 20 minutes we headed back towards the stall and as I glanced over I saw those golden knots of loveliness rotating round.

The cast member recognised us and smiled, she’d saved us two “special” ones :P

Apparently they had arrived just after we left and she’d been about to shout us back but then remembered she didn’t know our names! bless her

We bought two, pushing the boat out, and they were as amazing as ever



It’s still one of my favourite disney snacks, well it would have to be to make the list a second time around, especially considering the amount of new stuff I planned on cramming in my gob that trip!

The drizzle was turning to full on rain now so we headed to a covered seating area in Harambe and sat for a bit, enjoying our pretzels and deciding what to do next. We had a fast pass for Everest in 10 minutes but as we’d had the sense to do it earlier we got on the app and changed it to its tough to be a bug.

We waited for 20 minutes under cover until the rain eased off a little and then started over to the tree of life., stopping in shops as we went, partly to look for a magnet but also to keep dry!

We made it and realised that a fast pass was completed pointless, it was dead!

The crowd rating for today had been a 1 and I think the rain had made sure it stayed around this!

ITTBAB was great as usual. Particularly the families frantically removing screaming kids throughout the performance… I don’t blame them, it is pretty scary in parts!

We now had our last Fp of the day, the lion king. We’d passed on this last time so I hadn’t been to the new section of harambe. I was impressed, they have done a fabulous job expanding the area. We both tried out the new toilet facilities there before heading into the fp queue. I thought we were pretty early so I was amazed to see so many people already in the holding area.

We were stood there for 30 minutes but it was dry and it gave me chance to catch up on my trippie notes so it went quickly. Finally we were let in and guided towards two sections. I’m guessing those two sections were designated for FP guests but once it started filling up people ignored the cast members directing them to the empty seats at the back and instead headed over to the front few rows in other sections, fair enough!

Just as we were getting settled they let in everyone else and we sat and watch the mad scramble for seats. I particularly liked watching the family with three scooters, yes THREE arrive at the end and park up side by side on an aisle. They were’t for moving, even when a cast member explained that it had to be clear for the floats. It then became clear that all the scooter parking areas were now full and they might have to wait… Nope not these guys, they abandoned the scooters and walked up all the stairs to sit right at the back…. ah karma :P I did feel a bit bad though, all those stairs, I don’t know how they managed…





The show was great, it seemed to have had a bit of a spruce up since our last visit in 2009. I don’t remember Timon’s mouth and eye moving last time, I think he’s had an update but I could be wrong!

After the show we were done with AK for the day, it was a shame we can’t got to see more of the animals because of the rain but we’d be back tomorrow to “mop up”. Now we had a tour at Animal Kingdom Lodge that I was VERY much looking forward to!

[yellowrose78]

Great day despite the rain

[Redrach1903]

How annoying with the buses! That would drive me insane!

Wow they are really great safari pics!

I am so excited for Festival of The Lion King this year! I really missed it last year!

Great morning

xx

[Hannikins]

Originally Posted by Rollercolster

Glad to see you didn't let the rain spoil things too much - otherwise a brilliant start to the day !

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thanks! no it was drizzle so knowing how bad it can be we just carried on.

Originally Posted by Redrach1903

How annoying with the buses! That would drive me insane!

Wow they are really great safari pics!

I am so excited for Festival of The Lion King this year! I really missed it last year!

Great morning

xx

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It was annoying, the other resorts were much better though

Originally Posted by yellowrose78

Great day despite the rain

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thanks!

[Guest]

Wow, long time to wait for a bus! Great morning though, I am soooo keen to try one of those pretzels out... !

[collybird]

I am so excited to read about your tour!

The Jalapeno Pretzel might be my favourite snack, it definitely lives up to the hype.

[Lisa29]

I would have gotten more and more stressed out waiting for a bus!

Great morning, despite the rain. Looking forward to reading about the safari.

[Hannikins]

Originally Posted by Fluzz

Wow, long time to wait for a bus! Great morning though, I am soooo keen to try one of those pretzels out... !

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have at least two... one will not be enough!

Originally Posted by collybird

I am so excited to read about your tour!

The Jalapeno Pretzel might be my favourite snack, it definitely lives up to the hype.

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it sure does!

Originally Posted by Lisa29

I would have gotten more and more stressed out waiting for a bus!

Great morning, despite the rain. Looking forward to reading about the safari.

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So annoying, didn't help that it was freezing!

[abiknox]

Great start to the day ( minus the drizzle and the bus wait)! I do love your scooter anecdotes ha!

[GezzasGem]

Sitting here reading this reallllllllllyyyyyyy want that pretzel... :-)
Looking forward to part 2 as never read someone else's take on Wanyama Safari - we did it on last trip for my Bday and hoping you had as good a time as we did x