Stranger Trip, The Report. Day 2, AK, a bad head and MK.

[spencem]

Day 2 October 7th 2018

Today did not start well, it started far too early for a start with me waking up in the early hours with a bad head. Some pain killers were found and taken and I went back to sleep hoping that they would do their thing and stop this developing into a full blown migraine. A couple of hours later about 5am I was awake again and although my symptoms were not as bad as usual I wasn’t good. I was however determined not to lose my first day of and once Edward was awake at a much more reasonable hour we got ready and headed out later than hoped around 8am.

Today’s plan had been for us to get to Animal Kingdom before rope drop and try to get on Flight of Passage without waiting all day. Well this plan was already in doubt when due to my reduced function I failed to spot Sherberth Road as we went down the 192 and so it was my fault that my wife didn’t turn us up it. This gave us a much longer trip up World Drive and so Animal Kingdom was already open and the queue for FoP at over 3 hours when we got there.


See the crowds stream in.

With FoP already a write off photographs were stopped for in front of the Tree of Life.


Maybe I overdid the sun cream? I can’t have really been that pale.


Oh look, a butterfly.

Photos taken we made our way down the path next to Tiffins, past where on our last trip only a work wall existed. As you go down there the pathway subtly changes, with the lights and the audio track being the first things to change.


I didn’t record the audio, so look at the detail on this light pole.

What can you say about Pandora? It is just incredible to see with your own eyes, the photos and videos out there just don’t do it justice. I may well have been a little emotional with my head, but I could feel myself welling up just looking around. They have actually built an alien planet here, the environment is totally believable. I watched these structures being built via various fan sites on the web and yet somehow I still see them as the floating mountains.



I know there is a load of structural steel in there, but it still floats.


Anyone else see the faces? These mountains are alive.

After a bit of slack mouthed wandering around I noticed the Navi River Ride was only showing a 20 minute line, so after parking up the EVC we joined the line despite having a FP for later. The level of detail in the queue pen is incredible, just take a moment away from your phone screens to try to take it all in.


Just how long did this ceiling take to cover?

We may have waited a bit longer than the advertised 20 minutes, but to be honest I was feeling decidedly rough and was more worried about remaining on my feet than the passing of time. I was very glad to be sitting down when we got to our boat. As for the ride itself while it won’t be winning many prizes for thrills it is very cleverly done and is well worth the trip. The multi layered displays give an amazing sense of depth to the scenes with the big cats and the travellers.

Coming out of the ride there was more wandering around in wonder taking photos and even a stop for some Photopass.


The face is very clear on this one.


My head feels like it might come off any moment and some crazy lady with a camera wants me to act!


A rare moment between crowds.

Some of our party were getting hungry and there was still quite a gap until our first planned FP time so we wandered to the giftshop and food outlet. The canteen was still closed this early so we took a walk around the shop, without finding anything to tempt our money out of our pockets.


I don’t think she was for sale, but it is an amazing model.

The small counter outside the shop wasn’t selling anything Julia wanted and so we made our way back up the path out of Pandora, pausing for a while at the traffic control point where the incredibly long extended queue for Flight of Passage was cutting the land in two, back to earth and Starbucks. Yes, so long was the line for FoP that they had to have in effect crossing points set up to allow people to and from the shop and canteen without the risk of the line getting fragmented or people using the confusion to queue jump.

By now I just really needed to sleep and the thought of putting anything in my mouth made me feel really sick, so I just had some iced water while Julia and Edward had their healthy breakfasts.


Just a small snack for Edward!

Some of the longest queues we found all holiday were found in the various Starbucks outlets in the park and today was no exception and not helped by them losing Edward’s cinnamon roll between ordering and the warming oven. I had got us a table outside in the shade and was quite happy people watching or inspecting the back of my eyelids. Julia was very worried about me and wanted to immediately return to the hotel, but I managed to persuade her to drink her tea and let Edward have his snack before giving in and admitting I needed to go back to bed.

Breakfast consumed we did our best spawning salmon act to go upstream against the flow back to the park exit. When we got there I couldn’t believe how many people were trying to get in still.


The queue for the tapstiles at 10:40.

Back at the hotel I retired to bed for a few hours thinking Julia and Edward would go back to the park, but they decided that they too would have a rest and see how soon I recovered. Julia went on MDE and cancelled our Fastpasses for Animal Kingdom and instead booked us some for Magic Kingdom that evening as we planned to be there for the fireworks. Even on the day she got us Buzz, Pirates and Pooh.

While I was napping the afternoon storm came and went. This was a big one and we later saw all sorts of reports of flooding in the parks, but we were tucked up in the dry.


View out of our living room window.

I awoke late afternoon feeling much more human and after an experimental cup of tea we got ourselves ready and headed out to Magic Kingdom about 5pm. We took a new route for us that I had picked up on a vlog (thanks Lisa) up Avalon Road and Hertzog to the new Western Way entry to Disney. Since no one seems to use the 429 toll road and there is only one small hotel out there so far the road is nice and quiet most of the day.


They’ve even built an arch here now.

Parking up in a very wet lot we found a space next to the most ridiculous car there and couldn’t resist a picture.


In the handicapped lot, maybe they suffer from being too tall?


It would appear we got in the park at quarter to six.

First priority was some food, I’d had half a cup of ice water all day, and so after a brief discussion we decided on Pecos Bills and we set off, the wrong way. I had always thought this place was in Adventureland, but it turns out it is actually in Frontierland. To the dismay of some there was time for a few photos on Main Street first.


First view of the castle.


Grumpy does Halloween.


Felling much better now.


See almost human.


Had enough now, time to float away to dinner.


Just time for a quick snap of the partners.


The adventure is going to mainly getting through the crowds.


It was seriously busy here this evening.

Eventually we got to our restaurant of choice and with only a little faffing I was able to order while Julia found us a seat. Julia had the kids Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich, Edward the chicken tacos and myself the South Western chicken salad. Both Edward and I made good use of the toppings bar, but oddly Julia didn’t want to add to her sandwich.

Suitably fed we went off to our first Fastpass of the evening to help Buzz deal with the errant toy.


I’m still being urged to hurry up.

I’ve not got a record of the scores, but that will be because Edward developed the habit of covering his up in the final stages of the ride and only acknowledging me asking about it if he thought it might be higher than mine.

Toys back in their boxes we took a quick walk onto the People Mover since it was indeed a walk on as normal.


One day we really must make our way up to ride the Astro Orbiter.

Our next FP was for Pirates and as we crossed the hub to it we commented on how busy it was already with people getting their spots for the fireworks a whole hour before the show.


See an hour to go before the 9pm fireworks.

One thing of note here, they have added a new on ride photo for Pirates since our last visit, with the talking skull now giving a rather nasty flash. Since this is one of the new ride photos it relies on the active transmitter in your Magic Band to link back to your Memory Make account, rather than the traditional wall of screens for you to tap on the way out of the ride. We were using the bands we’d got during our 2016 trip to Coronado Springs and the batteries must have died in them as the pictures never did show up for this or any of the other new automatic photo rides like Severn Dwarves. The bands still worked fine when tapped against a reader, like in a FP queue, but nothing long range worked.

By the time we’d been to the Caribbean and seen the much changed Red Head it was time to go and find a spot for the fireworks. When we got back to the hub we soon saw why so many people had been getting their spots half an hour ago, the place was absolutely rammed. Not only was there no space left in the disabled viewing areas there was no space anywhere, even down Main Street. So bad was it that they had opened the back path down behind Cassey’s Corner for those wanting to exit, the one that goes by the bins not just the posh one on the other side of Main Street.

We did get a spot, but there was a tree between us and the castle meaning we couldn’t see the projection. I’m sorry to say that to us Happily Ever After is no match for Wishes, I know we didn’t see the best of it, but we also didn’t know much of the music. We still enjoyed it and would happily see it again, especially from somewhere central, but it just doesn’t have the emotional impact of Wishes or even the show in Paris.

Who put that tree there?


We could see the fireworks no problem.

We thought about moving central after the show to see the projection show, but decided to use our FP for Pooh instead and watch the projectors do their thing on YouTube instead (must do that one day). It was a bit of a mission to get around the castle and up to Fantasyland, especially for Julia on the ECV, but we got to the path up by the wishing well just as it re-opened from the fireworks.

One thing that made all the night time moving much better this holiday was that Julia had got herself a high intensity bike light for the ECV, so she could not only see but could be seen as well. There were still muppets who walked into her or rammed her with their strollers, but far fewer of them this holiday.

Pooh reunited with his honey we made our way back round the other side of the castle and out of the park just as the projection show was finishing. The express monorail still had a huge queue from the end of fireworks, so we went to the resort one instead where there was basically no queue at all. We got stopped just before boarding and then watched as the train and the station argued about closing doors and gates. Listening to the cast members it seemed every time the driver pressed the button to close the train doors the station gates opened instead and the whole cycle repeated. Eventually with many buttons having been pressed all doors and gates closed and that train departed. Now you’d think that there having been a long delay getting one train away the next one would be waiting to pull in straight away, but I think it was actually just leaving Epcot. Finally our train pulled in and loaded at 10:35, some 45 minutes after we exited the park. It really is time for some investment in the monorail Disney.

A quick cup of tea and getting everything on charge back at the hotel and we were soon back in those comfy beds, even me who had slept all afternoon.



Link back to the index.

[Palm trees]

What a shame that you started the day with a headache... You still managed to pack loads in though!

[spencem]

Originally Posted by Palm trees

What a shame that you started the day with a headache... You still managed to pack loads in though!

See more...

Thanks, we had planned for an afternoon nap that first day, just not a 5 hour one.

[mick]

Glad your headache went after a nap they are horrible

Joan

[firedance]

May i ask where you got the expedition Everest t-shirt from, don't think i've ever seen one like that at animal kingdom ?

[Cinderella]

Great day!

[spencem]

Originally Posted by mick

Glad your headache went after a nap they are horrible

Joan

See more...

Thanks, luckily it wasn't as bad as normal and I could actually get out for a couple of hours in the morning.

Originally Posted by firedance

May i ask where you got the expedition Everest t-shirt from, don't think i've ever seen one like that at animal kingdom ?

See more...

I actually got that in the ride's gift shop way back when it was in soft opening in February 2006, I don't get to wear it often and so it hasn't worn out yet.

Originally Posted by Cinderella

Great day!

See more...

Thanks!

[firedance]

Ah, that's why i haven't seen one before, thanks for letting me know

[Jockey]

Great day..glad you felt better

[spencem]

Originally Posted by Jockey

Great day..glad you felt better

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Thanks, me too, nothing worse than being ill on holiday.