Florida Trip no3 - Day 2 - September 2019

[AJ86]

Index Here

Day 2 - 16 September 2019 - Both the Kingdoms


A flashing on the room phone wakes me around half 7, it’s a message from the front desk asking me to come when we can and she mumbled something about our resort account, the time stamp on the message was half 1 this morning, so i’m glad they can just leave a message rather than trying to call as they wouldn’t have gotten a happy greeting!

We have some bagels and cream cheese in the room whilst getting ready and then head to front desk to see what the problem was. Turns out as I had used my free nights on hotels.com, the hotel don’t know what nationality we were so automatically charge us for parking, they ask me for a card to pay for the parking fees, and I say that I thought being from the UK still entitles us to free parking until the end of the year, she agrees and apologised and takes the charges from our account, so one to watch out for if you book via a 3rd party booking site.

This takes us up to about 9am, and we are heading to Animal Kingdom, just as we get to the stop we see a bus pull away, and looking at the board there is not one for another half hour. This wouldn’t normally be an issue for us, but we had FP for Flight Of Passage 8.30 to 9.30 so we would have lost this. I speak to the dispatcher at the bus stop who radios someone and says they have put another bus on and one will be here in about 10 mins, the app updates but still says we will get to AK at 9.25.
True to his word a bus pulls up and we are pulling up at Animal Kingdom at 9.28, (of course to the furthest stop away from the front) Now why is it when you are in a rush everyone seems to dawdle, security decide today is the day they will check every bag very thoroughly or how the other guests think now would be a great time to walk hand in hand 10 a breast blocking the pathway.

After a brisk power walk in the Florida heat, I am now a sweaty mess but we do get to Flight Of Passage for 9.41, we tap our bands half expecting them to go no thanks not today, but luckily they turn green, have no idea what the grace period is but I’m so thankful there is one! (turns out its 15 minutes)
Flight Of Passage, what to say that hasn’t been said already, you all know what an amazing ride it is and is backed up by the long standby lines.

I had booked our second FP for Everest from 945, so at this point we were chasing our tail a little and walked to the other side of the park fairly quickly which was a shame as we missed out on looking at a lot on the way. We arrive at Everest with a few minutes to spare and we are on our way to find that yeti. We both agree this is our favourite ride, so much we get off and see standby is a 20 min wait and proceed to join the queue.

Our next Fp is not for an hour or so, so time to relax a little and have a stroll. Somehow on our last visit we managed to miss the Dino land, so we had a wonder and headed to Dinosaur which was a walk-on. Now I get why everyone calls it that pesky toaster! Really enjoy the ride, a definite bone shaker, and I guess it’s a copy of the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland California. In need of some more air con we head to tough to be a bug which again is a walk on. It’s a shame is was a walk on as i do like to look at the tree and the posters in the waiting room.

A kiss from Daisy

By this point it is time for our 3rd Fp and our safari to Africa. The stand by line is a walk on also so luckily we get a row to ourselves. It’s just gone mid day, so not surprisingly, a lot of the animals are having an afternoon nap, the star of the safari was the Giraffes and Rino, as they came very close to the truck and made for some good photos.

I don't think I will be getting a job offer from David Attenborough's team, but some of my wobbly photos

Our stomachs are asking for food, and the menu and smells of flame tree bbq is calling us, we have mac and cheese with pulled pork along with pulled pork loaded fries, it is so good, and would happily spend all day in the shade having BBQ’d meat.

Who would get bored of this view on the way to Lunch...

I look to see what FP are available, as grab one for Everest in 10 mins, this time we are placed at the back of the train and I think this is the place to be, much better ride!

In need of a sit down and some more air con I book a Fp for the Nemo musical and we sit in the bubble zone! It’s such a great show and the puppets and staging was great. The guys must work really hard to do a 40 min show 6 times a day with only a small break in between. While waiting for the show to start we get another FP for... Everest! Yep our 4th ride of the day and it doesn’t disappoint.

It’s now coming for half 4 and we have ridden a Banshee, gone on an African safari, climbed Everest 4 times and gone under water swimming with nemo, time for a break so we had out back via the shops and are back in the room for 5.

We crank the aircon to max and drink gallons of water while deciding what to do this evening. The Halloween parties at Magic Kingdom have really thrown a spanner in the works for viewing the fireworks, and tonight is a Halloween free zone, so we decide on an evening at Magic Kingdom, I have a look on the app to see what FP are around and settle on a fp for buzz at half 7.

We have showers and enjoy the aircon a bit more before getting ready to head out at 7. Buses are nice and easy tonight, and there are only a handful of us on it. Don’t know why they can’t drop us off at one of the empty stops near the front, but they proceeded to drive round to the back and not even our stop but one a bit further away, again I’m sorry if any of you were on the same bus as me, I’m sure you would have been dropped if closer if I were not on it!

Magic kingdom is even more pretty at night, so we stop for the photopass photographs battling the firework crowds. We get through to Buzz where we have our next battle, it was a close one, I was losing until the last scene where I piped her to the post, and won by a few points, so the score is 2-1 to me!

We head back to the top of main street and find a spot for the fireworks. I leave my wife guarding the spot while I join the crowd for Casey's. The queue was huge and I couldn’t get mobile order to work, so I join the crowd and order us a foot long mac and cheese dog to share and then a fight through the crowds to my wife.

I completely forgot to get a pic of the Hot Dog, but i'm sure you all know what a sausage in a bun looks like!

Just before the fireworks start the inevitable child on parents shoulders happens, perfectly obstructing our view, luckily they move elsewhere and we get a perfect view.
Again you all know the fireworks they are amazingly beautiful, and so well put together.

After the fireworks we wait for a few minutes in the hope the crowds will die down a little, they don’t so we decide to get an ice cream, the queue is huge, and we are behind a massive family that don’t pay attention to the queue, and even though we have been in line for 20 odd mins they failed to decide what they want and take a good 5 mins or so to put their order in while the kids keep changing their mind. Argh!
Finally our turn and we order a sundae brownie and cookie sandwich, we find a table outside and watch the castle projection show whilst filling up on icecreamy goodness.

We take a walk back through the shops, and head out of the park to our bus stop. We get cut off as the bus is full, and have to wait another 20 mins for a bus, we are finally back in our room for half 10 where we again shower and drink a gallon of water.

Thanks for sticking with me, Day 3 soon!

[ravenwing]

Couldn't help laughing at your last photo, I couldn't figure out why no one is looking at the castle Show's over, nothing to see here...

[AJ86]

Originally Posted by ravenwing

Couldn't help laughing at your last photo, I couldn't figure out why no one is looking at the castle Show's over, nothing to see here...

See more...

haha, yes that we me swimming upstream trying to get an ice-cream! needs must!

[margyloveswdw]

Another fab day! I'm impressed that you managed to keep going enough to go out in the evening too! We would have crashed and woken up about midnight

[WinnieDog]

Great reports I am enjoying reading them glad you had a great day x