theDIBB - Over the Hill and Sailing Away March 2017 Day 16 Saana Animal Kingdom

A bit more action for the report today. We were up earlier than yesterday and had planned to go to our beloved Cracker Barrel but at 10.15 when we drove up it was not looking promising. There were families hanging about outside waiting everywhere. We went in anyway and the family of four in front of me at the desk were told 40 minute wait so we turned on our heels and headed back out to the car. I. Asked Derek if it definitely was a Monday morning as I've never seen this place so busy but I think this might just have been down to the Easter break now being in full swing? We wanted to go Target for a look at the clothes and bit and pieces to take home (like lint rollers, so exciting) so we thought we would just get a Starbucks instead. As we drove to the Target, Panera Bread caught my eye, we've never been in here but everyone was up for trying it. Unfortunately we arrived at 10.40 and breakfast items like bacon rolls were no longer available after 10.30. So guess what we had for breakfast, yes cinnamon rolls!

There they are top right of the picture. The lady handed them over and I asked if they warmed them and she told me to use the microwave which is by the self service coffee bit should you need to know this. It was a bit of a strange set up but the rolls were lovely, still don't beat Starbucks or Garden Grill.

After breakfast we had a wander round TJMaxx and "dress for less" but we weren't in the mood for a jumble sale today so we quickly headed to Target for bits and pieces like lint rollers, shorts and gymnastics leotards and tshirts and hair stuff for Katie and we had a good nosey around. I think over the course of the week we had also painkillers , Lego and various stationary things.

After our exciting Target shop we spent a while back at the villa and I unfortunately started a bit of packing.

While rebooking our fastpasses for today at Animal Kingdom I had a quick look at eating places and Saana came up with availability for a later lunch at 2.55. We really enjoyed our meal here last year so I went for it. It's also nice to see the animals here and last time we came it was dark and rainy.

Kidani village is a very short drive from our villa so we took the car and parked in the underground car park at Timon and took the lift up to the hotel lobby.

The hotel is lovely and we had a nice wander and went out to see the animals.

We met some lovely CMs here who spoke at length with the kids about the animals.

We were quite close up with the giraffes, it was a nice start to our Animal Kingdom late afternoon.

We were seated quickly at Saana, it was right at the end of the lunch time sitting I think and the restaurant became quite empty after we sat down. We were in a booth but had a lovely view of the restaurant and animals outside and the kids went up to the window a couple of times, since there was no longer anyone sitting there, where they could see animals going by.

We had a really lovely server who couldn't do enough for us. We had the gorgeous bread service, we all enjoyed this so much.

The kids had the prawns from the kids menu, these were scoffed very quickly.

I think Murray might have already had half of his prawns by the time I took this picture but I do remember thinking it wasn't the most generous of portions but as they had the Naans beforehand at least they wouldn't be going hungry.

I had the spicy Durban shrimp and paneer tikka, this was absolutely delicious.

Derek had the Chicken Tikka, he really enjoyed this. It was different to the chicken tikka I had last year so I'm thinking this is the lunch version.

I had an amazing Pimms cocktail, I could have had more if we weren't moving onto to the park after this.

We had decided to leave the car at the hotel and take the bus since the stop was right outside the hotel lobby.

I love the Animal Kingdom theming, it's such a lovely resort.

We had a 12 minute wait for the bus, we had been on every other version of Disney transport I think this holiday except the bus so we were happy to be finally using one.

We were at animal kingdom in no time. Our first fastpass was for Lion King at 5pm so there was no major rush and it was nice to take our time walking through the park.

We just wandered and took in the sights a little, we seemed to bump into quite a few photo pass people and visited Starbucks of course.

It was eventually time for our fastpass so we joined the queue at Lion King. This show is always the main reason for visiting the park, it is absolutely amazing.

We had really great seats and a brilliant view. A bit like the Magic Kingdom parade I found myself taking it all in as much as I could in case we weren't coming back for a long while, and might have got a bit teary at "Can you feel the love tonight"

Next up was Kali River Rapids. We are not usually so wrapped up in Ponchos on this ride but with the evenings getting chilly over the last few days and us staying to watch Rivers of Light we didn't fancy getting soaked then being freezing watching the show.

Derek decided to sit this one out so he was able to take some pictures. The ponchos were much needed although we didn't get quite as much water chucked at us as some people coming off the ride who walked by when we were in the queue.

We had great fun although it's such a shame it's not a bit longer. We had some snacks after this, a Mickey pretzel I think and some chocolate cookies for Murray, then we had massive ice creams before heading for the River of Light seating.

I think we arrived at 8ish, the fast pass area was filling up fast. I checked with a cm as to the best place to sit. She suggested near the back if you want to take it all in or at the front if you want to see the detail. We decided on further back. We had quite a wait until the show began but it went fairly quickly and it was nice to watch the park get dark.

I booked a fourth fast pass for Tough to be a bug for after the show while we were waiting. The lily pad things started to come out on the water before the show started. The iPhone doesn't take the best photos in the dark.

The show was lovely, I didn't see all the effects properly when they were projected onto the water sequences but when they worked they were amazing, it was a bit windy so I wonder if it affects it but I wasn't picking up everything and Derek agreed.

It is amazing really what they have managed to do to have a night time show without fireworks and it has spectacular moments, but I'm happy to have seen it once.

It was quite a long drawn out affair to try and get back to the front of the park with the crowds. I'm glad we went to something else before completely leaving the park and Tough to be a bug was great fun especially as we knew what to expect but could watch others that hadn't and were getting unexpected frights.

Love the posters in the waiting area.

We reached the tree in time for the show where it lights up and has projected pictures on it which wasn't planned for us and lovely to see.

A final picture in front of the lit up tree before heading back to the buses. It took a while for one to come and there was quite a big queue. We didn't fit in the first one but another one was along soon enough and we had a short ride back to the hotel to pick up the car.

It was a lovely afternoon/evening in Animal Kingdom, looking back I can't believe our last day in Disney was actually in our least favourite park, but it was a nice ending to our park days, especially seeing something different in River of Light and seeing our favourite Lion King show.

Tomorrow Disney Mini golf, Disney Springs and a last wander at Boardwalk.