*How many new things can we do this time?* March 2017 - DAY 3 - POOL & ANIMAL KINGDOM

[SleepingSophie]

Day 3

After such a late night last night we decided to keep this morning free to have a lay in and a bit of lazy time. We woke up around 10am and were both starving! It had been a long time since we’d last eaten a proper meal so we headed over to the Springs section to Artist Pallet.

We both had a bounty platter which consists of bacon, sausage, breakfast potatoes, biscuit and a mickey waffle! Then we got a pain au chocolate and oatmeal muffin on the side. We used 2 quick service credits to pay up.

They give you a number here and you find a table and wait. It didn’t seem all that busy in here so we were wondering where everyone was!

After breakfast we walked back to the Congress Park quiet pool and spent some time just relaxing in the hot tub and pool.

About 1pm we headed back up to the room and got ready for the afternoon/evening at Animal Kingdom.

The bus took a while to show up and we arrived around 2:15pm. One bonus of being at Congress Park rather than the Grandstand which is where we always previously went was that it was the 2nd to last bus stop so we didn’t have to go all round the resort bus stops before leaving for a park.

We had a FP for Everest so walked straight over in that direction, stopping for a few more photopass on the way.

Everest was pretty much a walk on with FP which was handy as we spent a bit longer than needed wandering over and we had an ADR to get to!

Once we’d left Everest we walked back to Africa, stopping for this rather bizarre photopass. We had no idea at the time it was a fisheye lens and just thought the bloke was standing waaaay too close!

Then I realised our ADR was actually half an hour later than I thought! So we decided to get a couple of drinks from the Dawa Bar just near Tusker House. I had a Tikiti Punch and Dave had a sugar cane Mojito. We both commented how strong these tasted!

10 minutes before our ADR time we walked down and checked in. My god. The mass of people outside was un-believable. I knew there was no way we’d be seated at our reservation time and boy was I right! We ended up waiting nearly 40 minutes past our time! The strange thing was once our name was called and we were shown into the restaurant it was practically empty!

We’ve never eaten in here before so I was pleasantly surprised at how big it was, and how well themed it was. The whole buffet area really did look like an outside marketplace.

We were shown to a table just off to the left in a side section, we’d bought our drinks from Dawa bar with us but all the waiting meant we’d actually drunk them and were carrying around empty cups! The server was really nice and she got us both refills of our cocktails and we both got a coke as well as back then alcohol wasn’t included on DDP.

Just as she bought the drinks back Donald showed up first at our table. I had my autograph book with me (yay for me remembering!) and we took a couple of photos. It does always very slightly irritate me when there is no cast member with a character as when you’re only a party of 2 there isn’t anyone else to take the photo!

After he had gone our server told us the rotation of the characters and we had plenty of time to get food before the next one showed up.

I had been slightly apprehensive about eating here as I do tend to be a tad fussy with food and buffets I always seem to end up at the kiddy station! But, I am pleased so say I managed to fill an entire plate with no chicken strip in sight!

The freshly carved meats were just beautiful and the chicken curry, just wow. We were both so impressed with the food here, especially considering it’s a character buffet and we are aware sometimes these are more about the characters than the food.

Dave was not impressed when I said “stop eating so I can take a photo!”

Next up was Daisy,

Swiftly followed by Goofy, who did have a cast member with him so we managed to get a photo together!

Our server came and checked on us and we asked for the bill. She asked if we’d seen all the characters and we said all but Mickey. I wasn’t too worried as I know there are plenty of places to meet him, but in his safari gear it would have been nice to have got the set if that makes sense!

Anyway she bought over the bill and also our 2 tickets for Rivers of Light which was the whole reason we booked here in the first place! When I was sorting the bill I noticed she hadn’t included the re-fill cocktails when we first came in. So when she came back over I told her they were missing (in the spirit of honesty!) – She just winked at us and said “Magic”. What a lovely gesture for absolutely no reason! I honestly wished I had gotten her name because she was just so friendly and smiley the whole time despite clearly being very busy!

Just as I was leaving the tip she came back over with Mickey! So I had a quick photo with him, feeling rather guilty he’d been pulled out of his regular table slot, and thanked her very much!

Just as we were gathering our bits to leave Donald then re-appeared behind me and I was actually using the camera on my phone as a mirror, but swiped the opportunity for a quick selfie. Which of course went straight on Instagram!

Having gone into Tusker House feeling fairly ancy about the wait time and a bit dubious whether I would even like the food I am so pleased to say we honestly had so much fun here. The food was great, the character interaction was good and we at no point felt rushed at all! Highly recommended from me!

As it happened just as we left our FP for Dinosaur had opened up. So we headed back to Dinoland. Well. Isn’t that a different experience after a couple of cocktails! Talk about shaken and not stirred! We were well and truly shaken up!

Still on a bouncy, tikiti punch induced, high, we decided to brave it on Kali River Rapids. The app said a wait time of 20 minutes but it actually was a complete walk on. Literally! But, we ended up with a girl in our raft who kept telling everyone it was her 4th time round in a row and how wet she was and how “watch out here comes the drop” and “watch out there are water cannons there”. To be blunt, she was really annoying. Like we know the ride well enough but the other family on with us clearly didn’t and I could see them all eye-rolling each other as she just did not stop talking! We managed to escape with only a tiny bit of dampness and decided to head over to find the entrance for our section of Rivers of Light.

On the way in we spotted a Photopass so stopped to have another one.

We found fairly good seats in good time and waited. We ended up waiting an hour.

Completely our own faults, it wasn’t delayed or anything, but whilst we were sitting there the sun went down and Dave was playing on the digital camera for ages. I’d finally popped on my zip up hoodie as I was getting chilly. Poor Dave was freezing! The wind had gotten up and he just couldn’t warm up.

The show started and mainly because I’m a bit like a magpie for anything colourful and shiny I was glued to it. But after a while I did find myself kind of waiting for something to happen, and nothing did. Don’t get me wrong I thought it was good, but I didn’t feel like it lived up to the hype. Or maybe I was just a bit too cold to relax and enjoy. I will definitely give it another go when we go back.

Once we left the theatre the crowds were kind of being directed so we just followed the swarms and ended up in Dinoland. It was at this point for some unknown reason I decided I have to have some popcorn! So I got some, inside the re-fillable souvenir bucket, of course to never be re-filled again and remain sitting in my kitchen cupboard forever.

We slowly dawdled back out and stood and watched a little bit of the Tree of Life awakening, grabbing a photopass as we did.

The bus was at the stop when we got there which was handy but once again it was standing room only.

Once back in our room Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was on so we sat in bed eating popcorn and a quick cup of tea until eventually we drifted off.

NEW THINGS WE DID TODAY

*TUSKER HOUSE!

*RIVERS OF LIGHT