5-week Split Stay in Florida, Feb/March 2020 - Day 21: Yet More Animal Kingdom & Rivers of Light!

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Day 21: Yet More Animal Kingdom & Rivers of Light!
March 1, 2020
[-- Trip Index --]

Today's quick movie:


For some unknown reason, I had a really bad sleep this night. I woke up around 6AM after sleeping fitfully all night feeling all groggy and anxious. I can't quite pinpoint why I slept so badly and felt anxious - I was just trying to go back to sleep SO HARD during the night that it was stressing me out and making me anxious when I couldn't! So I took it a bit easy this morning, I felt I needed to relax first. Michael came back from the gym around 7AM with our coffees, and he crawled back into bed beside me (Myla had already crawled over from the sofa bed), and we all just snuggled in bed watching some TV for an hour. As soon as it got light, we opened the curtains, and watched the ostriches on the Savannah.


By 8AM I was feeling a little bit better and more relaxed, and I made the decision to stick to our original plans (Michael had already said, let's just cancel our plans today and stay in the room if that'll make you feel better). This was our last full day at Animal Kingdom Lodge, we were checking out tomorrow, so I wanted to make the most of it. We had a light breakfast on the balcony, watching the ostriches some more.


Around 9AM, we were all ready and headed out. Just can't get enough of that view once we opened our door!


We didn't have to wait long for a bus, and we were in Animal Kingdom by 9:30AM.


As always, Myla wanted to stop at the bird enclosure across from the entrance to wave at the pink spoonbirds, she loves these!


Our first FP of the day for Navi River Journey was now open, so we headed for Pandora. It was a beautiful morning - still chilly, but not as truly cold as the past few days, and bright blue skies with plenty of sunshine.


We stopped to play on the drums for a few minutes too.


Once we headed into the FP queue, we didn't have to wait long at all, and were on a boat in minutes. Myla loves anything with a boat, and we all enjoy the relaxing nature of this ride - she loves all the glowing plants etc.


Our next FastPass was for the Safari - again lol! I know we already did that one the past 2 days, but as a family, we all love it. And it's different every time you ride it - for Myla, a day at AK *must* include the safari lol. Our FP wasn't open for another while yet though, so we headed towards Creature Comforts first. I fancied a frappuchino, and we hadn't met Pocahontas yet who meets close to there.

There was no queue when we walked up, and Pocahontas was so lovely! She chatted to Myla for ages, who again was a little starstruck haha.


We walked back up the path to the Starbucks - Michael and Myla stayed outside to watch the monkeys while I went in for my frappuchin, some banana bread, and a proper banana for Myla.


We walked over to Kilimanjaro Safaris next, and stopped on the bridge for a Photopass picture - Myla didn't want to be in it.


Fiiiiinally to my joy it was starting to heat up. Soo nice to not walk around being freezing for a change, after several cold days!

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The Safari was a great one again - we saw the zebras really close, and a giraffe crossed right in front of our truck! Myla just can't get enough of this - it's such an adventure which animals we'll see each time!


Myla was starting to get tired again as the Safari finished around noon, and closed her eyes for a bit while we got off the trucks and posed for a Photopass picture lol.


We decided to do the Gorilla Falls walking trail while we were there now, as we hadn't done that one yet. I put Myla back in the stroller, which woke her up. I thought she may have gone back to sleep, but no, she stayed awake to watch the animals, so that was a true 5-minute powernap lol!


She really wanted to see the hippos up close but unfortunately they were hiding, much to her disappointment! We did see the gorillas, zebras, naked mole rats, and lots of different fish and birds!


However, eventually her tiredness won out, and pretty much as soon as we were done with the walking trail, she curled up in the stroller and fell asleep, this was around 12:40. We decided to take the chance to do some shopping - Michael wanted to buy a t-shirt t commemorate his love for Flight of Passage in Pandora so we walked back to the Wind Traders shop.


He found a nice grey shirt (I forgot to take a photo of it) for $40, so that was us all sorted! Myla woke up again as we were leaving the store, and because the temperature was finally above 20C again, we decided to head back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge and make use of our very last chance to go swimming there.

We stopped for another Photopass picture in front of the Tree Of Life - Myla again didn't want to be in the picture again, which was a bit of a running theme today. That was okay though - I like having some photos o f us as a couple too.


We headed to the park exit and got the bus back around 1PM.


Michael and Myla chilled in the room for an hour while I hopped on the laptop and got my work done, and we headed down to the pool around 2:30. Michael and I decided that if Myla wasn't too tired after the swimming, we'd try going back into AK tonight to see Rivers of Light.

The pool at Jambo House was lovely, comfortable sun loungers, great zero entry area, big, and with a fun slide. I mostly laid in the sun while they swam, but got in for a bit at the end too. Myla went down the slide twice and loved it, but there was still a chilly breeze out of the water, so we discouraged her from going on it again in case she'd catch a cold or something!


Around 4PM Myla was freezing cold and had enough of swimming, so we took the elevator back up to our room for baths and showers. An hour later we went back down to the Mara for dinner - Myla loved the idea of going to see the "lights show" so that was our plan for the night. Myla ate apple slices, Michael had the same veggie wrap I had a few days ago, and I ordered the Falafel he'd previously tried, which I did share with him as it was too much food for me! It was all yum, I'd definitely get the Falafel Platter again. Delicious! The total was $32 for dinner.


Around 6 we caught the bus back to Animal Kingdom - and we were being very daring, going in without a backpack or a stroller! It's sooo much easier not having a stroller with us, can't wait till she's a bit older and doesn't need one anymore. The park was a lot quieter than earlier in the day, and we headed for the popcorn stand first of all to get something to snack on.


However, downside of not bringing the stroller - we promptly forgot to take the popcorn bucket too! Argh! So I went to buy a normal portion of popcorn - I mentioned to the CM that we'd forgotten our bucket in case he felt generous and wanted to give us the portion for the refill price, but alas, no such luck. So annoying though, it's $5 for a portion that's like half the size of the $2 refill!

We walked on in to Asia - I remembered the entrance for Rivers of Light being across from Everest. However when we got there, it turned out that was the FastPass entrance only and we had to walk further around to across Finding Nemo for the normal entrance - so we basically walked around the whole lake. It would have been a lot shorter to head into DinoLand from Discovery Island, but oh well, we had plenty of time and it was a nice walk.

Once at the regular entrance, we found some good seats at the very front, and sat eating our popcorn while the sun set.

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Once the show started at 19:15, Myla was mesmerized. It was beautiful - all done with lights, water, floating objects and boats, and music. This ended up being the only evening show we saw on our whole trip - we never made it to Fantasmic or the Epcot or MK fireworks shows as Myla just can't stay awake that long, and fireworks currently scare her so we weren't really wanting to push her on it either. But this, this she loved, so it was well worth doing!


When the show was over, we caught the bus back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Handily enough, there was one waiting for us so we were back in no time - it’s only a 7 min ride. We were all in bed for 8:20, asleep in no time. 😊 It had been another fun and relaxing day!

[Moleymole]

Lovely pictures of AKL and AK. How lovely to wake up to that view and then walk out and see that gorgeous lobby. Love the dress too!

[Brock]

Loving this trip report, I look forward to each new day to be added.
I hope you don't mind me asking which camera have you used for the night images?
Many thanks in advance

[nothingless]

Originally Posted by Brock

Loving this trip report, I look forward to each new day to be added.
I hope you don't mind me asking which camera have you used for the night images?
Many thanks in advance

See more...

Aw thanks, that’s so nice to hear! I took all my photos with my iPhone 11 Pro, I didn’t have any other camera with me! The new awesome night time mode is one of my favorite things about it, so worth it for Disney haha!

[Ivegottadream]

I'm also loving your trip report, thanks for taking the time to post it all.

[mrsdjh]

Another lovely day at Animal Kingdom. Glad you managed to get to watch Rivers of Light and all enjoyed it.

[Brock]

Originally Posted by nothingless

Aw thanks, that’s so nice to hear! I took all my photos with my iPhone 11 Pro, I didn’t have any other camera with me! The new awesome night time mode is one of my favorite things about it, so worth it for Disney haha!

See more...

Thank you for the information regarding the images. I am due a new phone I will look at I Phones as well.

Once again many thanks for the trip report.

[mick]

Another good day and lots of great photos


Joan