The Bare Necessities - Day 11 Saturday 10th August 2019 Animal Kingdom and Wilderness Lodge

[Goldia]

Day 11 AK in the morning and Story Book Dining at Wilderness Lodge in the evening Saturday 10th August 2019

Welcome to The Bare Necessities Trip Report. I’m Abby and I went to Orlando at the end of July 2019 with my husband David, our children Max (14) and Kate (12). We’ve been to Orlando before But this trip was different as we had my parents Jac and Tom with us, they will be referred to as Mum and Dad or Grandma and Grandad throughout the report. I was so excited to take them with us as this was their first time to WDW.

Day 11

This morning we were off to AK for our last day there. We had FPs booked and of course one of them was for FOP. This is quite possibly the ride we did the most this trip as we only did most things once, but as we had a few mornings and then a couple of evenings at AK I think we ended up doing FOP 4 times as a FP this trip. It was definitely worth it.

Yesterday as me, Dave and the kids had been given 4 free FP I figured we could use them for EE as Mum and Dad weren't interested in it, so I swapped the EE FP for the 6 of us to Kali River Rapids.

Also booked up today was a first for us with the animation experience at the conservation station. This is a new experience with an artist tutorial, I was really looking forward to it.

Plus, in the evening we had an ADR booked at my favourite resort Wilderness Lodge as we were trying out Storybook Dining the new character dinner with the evil queen, Snow White and the dwarfs. I was looking forward to meeting the dwarfs and of course villains are always fun to meet. I hoped we would be able to get to MK in the evening and have a last look around MK at night, but unfortunately that didn’t quite go to plan in the end. But I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s go back to the start of the day.

The park hours for AK had changed about a week before we came out here, it was now an 8am opening instead of 9am, with EMH on top of this the park was open to us at 7am. There was no chance of us making that as I didn’t want to force everyone up and out so early. We’d agreed to meet Mum and Dad at the bus stop at 7.15am, not much of a lie in but on day 11 and it wasn't so nice when the alarm went off at 6.20am, this late in the trip there is far less motivation to get up and also far less energy. So we had given ourselves a tight turnaround in the room with us all just having a quick shower, teeth and getting dressed. Somehow we managed to get to the bus stop at 7.11am and the TV screen was saying there would be a bus at 7.16am. Luckily Mum and Dad got to the bus stop at bang on 7.15am with 1 minute to spare as the bus turned up on time.

The bus driver was fun, he was doing an impression of Mickey and told us all to say hello to his girlfriend today in the park. It was a quick journey as we arrived at the park at 7.34. While on the bus we’d had a brief chat about the FPs that we had booked up and therefore what we wanted to prioritise during the little bit of EMH we had. I let both the kids pick an attraction for us to do.

Bag check and scanning of magic bands was also really speedy! Luck was on our side today as we were in the park by 7.38am, just 4 minutes after we got off the bus.

Kate picked Dinosaur. On the way over we had a little breather while Dad used the facilities! (this was a fairly frequent occurrence).

There was no one else here, I suspect everyone else was in the line for FOP.

No matter as the ride was still a walk on and we enjoyed our journey back in time.

Max had decided he really wanted to do Kilimanjaro Safari as he loves looking at all the animals.

We got to the entrance of the ride at 8.09am, it wasn’t open in EMH but it was already showing a 45 minute wait.

None of us wanted to wait that long, but we decided to chance it and hope it was less than 30 minutes. In the end it was only a 20 minute wait as we were sitting on the truck by 8.30am.

It was a great safari, all the animals were out and about and fairly active. We saw the giraffes, elephants and rhinos on the move.

The lions were on top of the rocks (they always seem to be sleeping).

After this we decided we deserved some breakfast and I wanted to pop into Zuri’s sweet shop as we’d never been in there before, plus of course it’s right near the exit to the safari.

Why oh why have I never been inside Zuri’s sweet shop? Clearly I have not planned in advance properly. I had to take photos of the counter.

It’s a very similar selection to the one on the corner of Main Street.

We used up 6 snack credits for breakfast. Dave, Max and me had a jumbo Mickey head cookie each! I couldn’t eat all mine and donated some to Max, even he couldn’t eat my leftovers as well as his own cookie. Way too much sugar first thing in the morning. Kate had a chocolate icing Mickey sugar cookie, Mum had the strawberry one. Dad had a pecan nut fudge.

This was a close 2nd in the most sickly breakfast we ate category, way too much sugar for us, it rivalled the funnel cake but that still tops out.

We wandered towards Kali River Rapids as I had decided to swap our Expedition Everest FP for this as I knew Mum and Dad wouldn’t ride Everest and it would be a wasted FP. Plus we had the 4 anytime FP Fabiola gave us to use today so I planned for the 4 of us to go on Everest with those. The rapids was fun, we didn’t get as wet today as we had earlier in the trip.

It was now time for our final time on Flight of Passage. It didn’t disappoint. It was definitely the ride of the trip as far as my parents were concerned they were blown away by it.

We made it to the 11am Nemo show after FOP.

We had pretty good seats considering we only just made it, I worried we weren’t going to get in as we got to the theatre at 10.55am and the stand-by line was closed, but we were allowed through the FP line. Definitely our lucky day!

This is a lovely show, many people say it’s their favourite, but for me Lion King just pips it! We had a great cast today and all thoroughly enjoyed the show. It had felt like a bit of running around so far, I guess we had criss crossed the park a fair bit, starting in Dinoland then over to Africa then to Asia back to Pandora and now in the theatre! So, it was good to have a proper sit down and watch the wonderful show.

We decided to go to Expedition Everest after the show as we were close and it was an anytime FP.

The wait time was posted as 80 minutes, but the FP line was moving pretty well and we were on within 10 minutes.

We were allocated rows 1 and 2.

I love the front of this ride! I know most people prefer the back, but I really like the view (which is pretty good for me as I’m not a massive fan of heights!).

I was trying to be brave and not hold on, my hands are hovering just over the bar in case I need to grab it!

It was time for some lunch now, we went to Flametree BBQ. There was a bit of a dance party going on out front which we watched for a little while, but we were all hungry so we headed in.

We ordered two of the ribs, chicken and pulled pork sampler combos, this comes with a side of beans and coleslaw.

I like these ribs as they are quite dry and I’m not overly keen on a lot of BBQ sauce. There was way too much here though. We barely touched the pulled pork. Kate wanted the pulled pork sandwich, which she enjoyed.

So as we had used up 3 QS credits we ordered 3 cocktails. We got 3 of the orange and lemon vodka lemonades.

We also used one snack on plain French fries for Max

And in a fit of madness of wanting to use up the snack credits I ordered 3 of the French fries with pulled pork and cheese

This was a crazy choice as of course the fries and pork and cheese would easily have been enough for a meal on their own. We were never going to eat all this food.

We also ordered 4 sodas as snacks and some cups of water.

We didn’t rush and it was nice sitting out the back on the patio and slowly enjoying our lunch. When we’d let the food go down a bit we took a slow walk over to the station to catch the train to the conservation area.

This is a cute little train, there’s never a long wait, we were lucky as a train pulled in as we got to the station so we just had to wait for everyone to get off and we were on.

We had about 30 minutes before the animation experience started so Max and Mum were able to go into the petting area and see the animals.

Meanwhile the rest of us went inside. The vets were treating a cheetah in surgery, there was a large crowd of people watching what was going on and a cast member explaining what the vets were doing. This was fascinating and we enjoyed listening to it. The cast member was also answering questions.

We took our seats for the animation experience in the front row. You are given a piece of paper with a circle and a pencil.

Heather was our animator and she told us we would be drawing Pumba from Lion King.

She said we were not allowed to use the rubber on the end of the pencil! I was a bit worried as I am not an artist. But this was great fun, we could see what she was drawing on the screens and she was great at talking us through it step by step.

I was pretty proud of my final result.

We were hot and tired by now so we slowly headed back to the train and then through the park to the bus stop. This was quite crowded when we got there, which isn’t a bad thing as I always see this as a sign that a bus will turn up soon. It did, but unfortunately we didn’t get on it. Darn it, we were looking at a 20 minute wait for the next bus. But didn’t I say this was our lucky day…6 minutes after the first bus left another one came along and even better we got a seat. Hurrah!

Kate and me went to the gift shop at the resort to pick up her Pegasus that we had bought at World of Disney the day before, he was ready and waiting for us, no problems there.

We chilled out in the hotel room for a couple of hours before getting ready to head out for dinner. We were off to Wilderness Lodge for dinner. I wanted to meet up at 5pm so that we would have time to look around the resort and to have a drink in the lounge before dinner.

I wasn’t feeling great this afternoon, perhaps too much sun? Too much walking in the heat? Too much fun? Anyway, I had quite a bad headache. I took some paracetamol, but I couldn’t shift it.

We got a bus to MK at 5.10pm and it only took 12 minutes for the bus to arrive at MK. This was really speedy. Sometimes it feels like MK is a long way away from the resorts, but today the buses and traffic were all on our side. Then as we were walking to the boat dock Kate spotted a Wilderness Lodge bus at the stop, so we quickly decided to get that now and the boat back to MK after dinner.

It’s a beautiful entrance and a beautiful lobby.

We had a good look around and took a few photos on the bridge.

We were about an hour early checking in so stopped off in Territory Lounge for a drink before the meal. The check in cast members said it was unlikely we’d be seated early, but I didn’t mind.

Dave had the First Timer (basically an old fashioned), he loved it. Mum had Welcome Home, vodka, Cointreau and some juices (pineapple, cranberry and lime).

I had Lodge Fizz, vodka, triple sec, sprite and cranberry juice. This was good and I enjoyed it. Dad had a ginger ale, the kids had cokes.

We were in Territory Lounge a little while as we were so early, eventually the buzzer went off and we were called in to dinner.

For the dinner drinks Dad ordered Alchemy (gin and elderflower) he wasn’t so keen at first, I told him to stir it a bit and this helped I think.

Dave had A Brew of Peaches (buffalo trace bourbon, essentially another old fashioned). He loved it.

I ordered Evil to the Core, tequila, habanero, blackberry and orange juice. I can’t really remember if I liked this drink or not. My head was hurting I probably should have just stuck with a soft drink.

Mum had red wine.

Kate and Max both had In the Clowds.

There was a syrup in the bottom of the glass and candyfloss and you pour powerade over it and it dissolves the candyfloss.

Action shot

It didn't look that appetising when it was all combined

The characters all came around pretty quickly and were fun. Snow White made it to the table before we had been given drinks or the starter.

They were barely with us a minute though and we’ve had better character interactions.

The starters are small samplers.

You get 1 prawn each (but after the 1 scallop at CRT I shouldn’t be surprised). It was a good prawn but I’d have liked more. I enjoyed the mushroom bisque, this was the best starter I think.

We also had Hunter’s Terrine which was only ok.

Next up was our first dwarf meeting!

Dopey followed shortly.

We got an invite to go and meet the evil queen and our server said we had time to go before the main courses were brought out so we popped over to meet her. She was menacing and the best part of the meal as far as I was concerned.

This was fun and I’m glad we had a chance to meet her, there aren’t many villains to meet in WDW.

5 of us all ordered the Royal prime rib roast with horseradish mash and a popover (basically a Yorkshire pudding). The mash was good, the beef was fatty.

I didn’t enjoy this meal I’m afraid. The others seemed to, but when I spoke to Dave the next day he admitted he hadn't enjoyed it, but he hadn't wanted to say anything at the time, it was a bit too fatty for him as well.

Kate had the Sorceress Spell of Land and Sea BBQ pork and clams.

Unfortunately this turned out to be pork belly and so had lots of fat and Kate didn’t really like it.

The desserts are also a sampler plate.

By this point I had given up hopes of popping into MK after dinner as my head really was hurting. I had also given up hope of enjoying the food. I only ate one of the desserts, the gooseberry meringue pie.

I really liked it, but I just couldn’t face the other puddings. The kids seemed to like the popcorn at the end.

Overall, this was not a win for us. It would have cost us the four of us $313 (inc tax and tip), but only ended up being the 4 TS credits plus the tip.

Undoubtedly I would have enjoyed it more if I didn’t have a headache. Also, if we had taken the advice of the server, who recommended the chicken as the main course perhaps the food would have been more of a hit. Maybe if the characters had spent more than a cursory moment with us it would have been a more memorable experience, but all in all the meal was a bit of a flop.

Am I glad we went? Sure, it was great to get over to Wilderness Lodge.

Will I go back to Storybook Dining? Probably not, this is another one that needs to be added to the Misses list. We all enjoyed meeting the dwarfs and the evil queen though so that was a bonus.

After dinner we wandered down to the boat dock.

It was just after 8pm and dark now and it was lovely waiting for the boat.

Earlier I had booked a FP for Jungle Cruise, we hadn’t done it yet and somehow this is more fun at night! But I really wasn’t feeling it. My head was hurting and I suggested to the others that I would prefer to go back to the hotel and have an early night. They agreed to sack off MK, I suspect they were tired too and therefore happy to head back.

I went straight to bed and I’m pleased to say that I slept well and felt much better in the morning.

Overall, it had been a really fun day and we all enjoyed our morning at AK. It’s such a pretty park. The trees and the trails are all great. We had charged around in the morning, but we’d had fun going on all the thrill rides we love. We haven’t done the Nemo show for a couple of years and of course this was a must do with Mum and Dad and they loved it. The animation experience was a hit with us all. Despite my headache we enjoyed the evening at Wilderness Lodge. Mum said she loved this hotel lobby too. I was sad that we didn’t get over to MK, but in the end it was the right choice for us to come back to the hotel to recharge our batteries.

Statistics
Steps 20,132
Attractions 5 plus the Nemo show and the Animation Experience

Coming Soon
Next up tomorrow finally we are back to MK for the morning and then it’s the dinner we had been waiting for at California Grill. We had enjoyed the brunch last year and this year I decided we should try out the dinner. It didn’t disappoint. A lovely dinner and a fab view of HEA.

[MrsSilverStar]

What a shame about your headache and meal. We had a different Queen - she told me off at one point and I was genuinely scared We got lucky with the prime rib, ours was lovely, but the server was trying really hard to persuade us to have a different meal so maybe they’ve had a lot of complaints?!

Sounds like a really fun morning at AK.

Hope a good night’s sleep helped with your headache.

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by MrsSilverStar

What a shame about your headache and meal. We had a different Queen - she told me off at one point and I was genuinely scared We got lucky with the prime rib, ours was lovely, but the server was trying really hard to persuade us to have a different meal so maybe they’ve had a lot of complaints?!

Sounds like a really fun morning at AK.

Hope a good night’s sleep helped with your headache.

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Yes on reflection my mood and the fact I wasn't feeling the best probably did impact on this meal. I love that you got told off by the queen! Awesome, I bet it was scary.

I did feel better the next day so the early night was worth it, but we did miss out on a last MK night

[LottiesLot]

Just wanted to say how much I love your trip reports. Really enjoying this one. I keep imaging what my parents would make of it all! We had mixed feelings after our Storybook dining meal too, loved the Queen she was very funny and we actually really enjoyed our meals but we had a bad table, in the corner at the back, and were disappointed with snow white and the dwarves who seemed to rush away but spent ages at other tables. Looking forward to the rest of your report. Thank you for taking the time to write it!

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by LottiesLot

Just wanted to say how much I love your trip reports. Really enjoying this one. I keep imaging what my parents would make of it all! We had mixed feelings after our Storybook dining meal too, loved the Queen she was very funny and we actually really enjoyed our meals but we had a bad table, in the corner at the back, and were disappointed with snow white and the dwarves who seemed to rush away but spent ages at other tables. Looking forward to the rest of your report. Thank you for taking the time to write it!

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Thank you that is lovely to read. Over the last few years I've really enjoyed writing them and it's so lucky that I can share my memories with people who actually want to read about it all.

A shame your experience at SBD seems similar to ours, the queen was great but the other characters rushed through.

[caitlinsmummy]

FOP is definitely a more than once ride! We're hoping to do it a fair few times next time too.

I've heard the Disney wait times aren't always accurate, apparently the touring plans one is more accurate, I think we're going to use that one this time.

The snacks in Zuri's look fab

Wow well done Abby Pumba looks fab. I'm like you and no good at drawing at all, I dread to think how mine will turn out haha.

Such a shame that your headache didn't shift, there's nothing worse than being in pain and trying to enjoy yourself I hope it shifted overnight for you.

A fab morning and afternoon but shame about the evening xx

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by caitlinsmummy

FOP is definitely a more than once ride! We're hoping to do it a fair few times next time too.

I've heard the Disney wait times aren't always accurate, apparently the touring plans one is more accurate, I think we're going to use that one this time.

The snacks in Zuri's look fab

Wow well done Abby Pumba looks fab. I'm like you and no good at drawing at all, I dread to think how mine will turn out haha.

Such a shame that your headache didn't shift, there's nothing worse than being in pain and trying to enjoy yourself I hope it shifted overnight for you.

A fab morning and afternoon but shame about the evening xx

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I've not bothered with touring plans before, but I've read on here a few people recommending it and so maybe I'll give it a go next year.

I was feeling proud of myself drawing Pumba. It was a really great experience and I'll definitely do it again next year.

I was just feeling icky really, it was nothing like your sciatica, which must have been dreadful. But I really didn't feel like going to MK for the rest of the evening and it was our last opportunity for a night time visit so I was a bit sad about that. Thankfully I was feeling much better in the morning.

[Goldia]

Day 12 is now ready.

[collybird]

I'm still sad for you that Storybook Dining wasn't fantastic as I know you were looking forward to it. I don't think it is for me but part of me wishes we had done it out of morbid curiosity. I don't know when we'd have fit it in though.

A great day at Animal Kingdom with lots done. I think it was sensible to split the shows into different days as I find it stressful coordinating all the show times.

[Fuellady]

What a great morning at AK. All the headliners, and a drawing class too. There used to be a similar class in HS which we did once before it closed. We drew Mickey, mine was rubbish but I still have it somewhere. We've never been on the train to the conservation area, but you've made me want to do that next time we go.

It's a shame you weren't feeling 100% in the evening and the meal wasn't up to scratch. The desserts look nice though.