Two Disney nerds go coast to coast - day 12 – Sunrise & safaris

[lumosq102]

Day 11 is here
Index is here



Wednesday 20 June

Our start to the day was a little earlier than yesterday. I dragged my sorry behind out of bed at 5:30, but the coffee on and started getting dressed, just making it out on to the balcony at a little after 6am to find this glorious sunrise underway:









Those colours! Mother nature was putting on one heck of a show for us today.











We had a very early breakfast reservation today. We were heading to Boma over at Animal Kingdom Lodge for our 7.30am ADR. We figured we would take an Uber over to make things simple. Alas, we got to enjoy an utterly ghastly Uber journey instead. Our driver took an age to turn up, which, fair enough – it was early, there may not have been many cars around. But then he committed the cardinal sin in taxi journeys of any kind – he took the long route. Our journey from the Poly to Animal Kingdom Lodge was almost 30 minutes, and took us outside of Disney property then back in again. It was a 17 mile journey! I know Animal Kingdom is a little way out, but he was taking the mick, I expect trying to take advantage of a tourist. Even with all of the road changes I’d like to think I know the area pretty well, and not taking the signposted route is a pretty clear indication that something is fishy. I complained to Uber later that day and they refunded me to the value of our originally quoted fare, but it left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.

Anyway, less of the bad taste, more of the good!

We were rather late to our reservation, but the cast member checking us in was fine about it and before we knew it we were tucking in to plates of deliciousness.

If you saw my last TR you may remember that we loved our breakfast here, hence the effort to get over her at ick o’clock to give it another go. Our breakfast this time didn’t disappoint, although R and I were had mini disappointments in a couple of menu changes – the tots were missing (waaaaaaahh) and the chocolate chip pancakes that R had adored last time had been switched out for m&m pancakes. Everything else was delicious



No pictures of R’s plate – she was well into her meal when I came back from the buffet.

Omelette deliciousness



My sweet plate – note the offending m&m pancake. It wasn’t finished, but the waffle drenched in that pecan caramel certainly was! That sugar rush fuelled me for a good long while. The strawberries were augmented by the house made chocolate hazelnut sauce which was the perfect combo.



the lobby is just glorious here



Tummies full (and then some) it was time to make our way to our first park of the day – Animal Kingdom. Well, when in Rome…

We left the lodge at 8:48am, hopped straight on a bus that was magically waiting for us and arrived at Animal Kingdom at 8:54 – got to love that short commute time!

We strolled in through the park and thought we would dip our toe briefly into Pandora to see what the wait would be like for Na’vi River Journey as we had not bothered with a fastpass for it this trip.



Alas it was down so we ventured onwards to Kilimanjaro Safari instead



Thanks to Pandora soaking up so much of the crowd the morning like for this was so much shorter than we are used to. Huzzah!



We were soon boarding our vehicle and heading onto our 2 week safari to see beauties such as this fella



And a bloat of Hippos



This fellow looked particularly happy to see us





We spotted a baby giraffe



And a baby elephant



those ears!







After literally years of trying I finally managed to get a photo of the cheetahs.



Only because they were lounging of course



Look at that snoozing baby!



All of the big cats were reminding us of their similarities with their domesticated relatives today. Would scratch that chin. Sure, I’d lose an arm, but look how adorable he is:







forever my favourite babies



Still a little upset we didn’t manage to get places on the Rhino tour for our next trip, but we didn’t realise that it was limited to 12 places a day. Must be the hardest ticket at DAK.

[lumosq102]

Now, don’t judge, but our FastPass for Safari had just opened, so what would you do?



Round two!







Those little ears are just adorable



Sleepy puppers





















Breakfast time!











From here we headed over to the trail we had not yet managed to visit this trip - Gorilla Falls – the entrance being right next to the exit of the safari



And of course, I got to spend lots of time with my birdy friends. Apologies in advance for the photo spam























The gorillas were being adorable, as usual





yup.



The wilderness was explored and it was time for us to head on over to our next fastpass – lets go see a yeti.



The fast pass line was pretty backed up so we got to see some details in this area that we hadn’t noticed before, which was rather lovely. All about those silver linings!



Still, it wasn’t long before we were heading on up that mountain



I really do love this ride, only a ride that’s this good could convince me to get on it again after the night we got stuck on the lift hill. We had to be deboarded and walk off the ride when we were up on that hill. I had a bit of a meltdown (I’m really not a fan of heights) but here we are, riding again and again and again…







Looking bored on ride photos is my superpower

[lumosq102]

It was now coming up to 11:45 and although our next fastpass opened up at noon we had plenty of time to see a show that was just about to start. We adore Finding Nemo, but somehow manage to miss it more often than not. The music is brilliant (written by the same pair who wrote the music for Frozen), the puppetry is amazing and the story is lovely. Plus the theatre is air conditioned. What’s not to love?











The sharks are my favourite. This whole section has us in stitches





Plus, unlike the Nemo ride at Epcot, the titular character hasn’t morphed into a little psychopath who delights in torturing his father with his repeated disappearance. Yes, I overthink dark rides.







families and memory challenged fish reunited, it was time to head over to Pandora for our final fastpass of the day















It was of course Flight of Passage and it was as brilliant as ever. I have run out of ways to describe this ride. It constantly surprises me with its ability to make me feel so emotional. As an emotionally repressed Brit there was clearly only one way to deal with this.

Booze.

This was our last visit to Animal Kingdom this trip (waaaaaaaah) and we couldn’t possibly leave without enjoying another Night Blossom. These things are delicious.



We slowly wandered through Pandora with our drinks, me snapping away











Its just so pretty!

















We tore ourselves away from Pandora and headed back towards the front of the park, pausing in front of the Tree of Life just as the macaws were doing their fly by.



They’re a stunning group of birds.



We found ourselves a spot to perch as we finished our drinks and just watched the world go by. It’s those moments that I think are the underrated highlights of our time at WDW. Just relaxed, soaking in all of the details.

Drinks finished it was finally time to leave this little corner of heaven. But first, we grabbed a couple of shots in front of the Tree of Life.







We spotted this beautiful baby in the entrance area



But now it really was time to leave. We were heading towards hunger town (who would have thought that was possible after our feast of a breakfast?



Farewell Animal Kingdom, we’ll spend more time with you next trip.

We go to the bus stop area and saw a bus for French Quarter just pulling in. As it was heading in the general direction we were heading we hopped on board. 20 minutes later we were pulling in at the hotel as a bus for Disney Springs pulled out. Bother. Helpfully, French Quarter now have the signs that tell you how long til the next bus & it was only another 10 minutes until the next Disney Springs bus. We figured it would be quicker than going down to the boat dock so we hung out there for a little while, a little impatiently to be honest, keen to get ourselves to Disney Springs for our late lunch.

The bus finally (exactly when the sign suggested it would) arrived, and we were pulling into Disney Springs at 3pm exactly. R and I put on our best in London commuter speed walks and were very quickly arriving here:



Yum.

As ever, I was thirsty and was rather glad to be sat down waiting for my pizza with my favourite black cherry soda.



My pizza was up first. Look at that charred cheesy goodness. Three cheers for broccoli on pizza! It was yummy.



Next up, R went with her variation on a barbeque chicken pizza.



Tummies filled, crankiness banished, we took a slow stroll through Disney Springs to walk off that late lunch. Today was the first day that the new sign for World of Disney was unveiled so of course I had to get a photo.

[lumosq102]

Our final stop was what has become a bit of a tradition for us. We headed to the Ganachery for a box of their utterly delicious creations. It helps stave off the post holiday blues.





Heaven





Our box of delights



R remained unmoved by the whole thing.



We headed back to the bus stop, briefly popping into Sephora en route for a few last essentials. We doffed our cap to Springs as this would be our last visit this trip. Again, waaaaah. We’ll be visiting more next time.

We picked the right time to be at the bus stop – look at those clouds rolling in:





Happily the rain stayed away long enough for us to board the bus, but it tipped it down all the way back to the resort. We made a mad dash through the rain to our room, arriving back at a little after 6pm. We dried off and sorted out our purchases from the day before we thought about our plans for the evening. Magic Kingdom was open until 1am tonight with Extra Magic Hours so the plan was to head over for the evening. For now, we chilled in the room (literally – we had the a/c all the way up to recover from our Animal Kingdom adventures) and watched a whole load of bad TV before getting ourselves ready to head out for the night.

We took a slow stroll over to the TTC at 8:30 where we managed to find ourselves watching another gorgeous sunset from the ferry dock





I can see our room from here! Well, almost





As we waited for the next ferry the Electrical Water Pageant made an appearance. I may have been slightly excited. Slightly.













Sunset, Grand Floridian and the EWP. I was in heaven



It felt like the parade was following us as we travelled over Seven Seas Lagoon to the Magic Kingdom.



















It had been years since we last took the ferry to Magic Kingdom and we were reminded of just how lovely a journey it is. It feels more ceremonial, like you are leaving the real world on the boat dock as you travel over Seven Seas Lagoon and to Magic Kingdom.







then you find yourself in front of this:



Look at it! That early evening glow from the popcorn lights, it’s an otherworldly delight.



We hadn’t planned on watching the fireworks that night but as we came though the tunnel Main Street was utterly rammed & we could see that there was quite a bit of space up by the train station. We thought why not and headed on up to see what the situation was.



Sure, the castle was a little off centre (we would need to arrive much earlier for a central view of the castle – something we plan to do on our next trip) but it was lovely, and crush free!

We soon found out that we were stood behind a bunch of college programme kids who were neck deep in all kinds of interpersonal drama. They poor girl they were talking about must have had bright red ears the way they were going on. I don’t miss being that age at all.

We weren’t waiting too long before the castle started to change colours and those lovely instrumental versions of the classic Disney songs started playing



Are you ready for more Happily Ever After spam?

[lumosq102]

Once the fireworks finished the train station pretty quickly started clearing out so we went to take a peak at the grand Magic Kingdom exodus:



Eek!

We would be staying put for a little while I think.



The fireworks finished a little after 9:30. By 10pm it had finally calmed enough for us to brave crossing Town Square to head up through the Emporium. We were both a little thirsty so we stopped of at Casey’s for a couple of frozen mint juleps. They were out of the fruit that goes on top of the drinks so they gave us a brownie in recompense.



It was utterly uninspiring, but the drinks were exactly what we needed – icy cold and full of sugar to see us through the rest of the night.



We took a slow walk through the park which was starting to be pretty delightfully quiet.



I am hoping and praying that the moat will be refilled by the time we get there in, ooh, 3 weeks. There is something very wrong about seeing the moat empty.



If you don’t take this photo did you even go to Magic Kingdom after dark?









We were in the last 20 minutes of normal park operations by the time we got to Eric’s castle. We headed on in, hoping that when we came out after 11pm that the park would be even quieter for EMH.





Skuttle had left his perch in the queue line



But was waiting for us as we boarded our shells.



part timer.



We had one of those rare, happy trips under the sea. No flash photography. No yelling. No screaming. I’d forgotten what those were like!

Yes, I’m a dark ride purist. I will scowl and raise a disapproving eyebrow at anyone who doesn’t respect the sanctity of the space.











We left the sea and headed towards the back of the park and Storybook Circus.



We neglect this area quite badly, always dashing off and never taking the time to visit with Dumbo and Goofy. It was already delightfully peaceful back here however so we thought we would start our EMH time with a spin on Dumbo. The line was almost non-existent, though we would have been on quicker if they were running both Dumbo’s.



The Barnstormer had no line, so we thought why not, we had 30 seconds free in the schedule!



I like to visit the Barnstormer every now and again to remind us what an odd little ride it is. Goes pretty high, pretty fast, and very quick!

We walked back down into the hub and of course I had to take a photo of the castle. You can see that the park was really starting to thin out now as it was just coming up to midnight.



Next up on our late night tour of Magic Kingdom was Haunted Mansion.









I didn’t almost nod off during the ride. Honest.











It was as wonderful as ever.

[lumosq102]

Next up, Big Thunder Mountain! We headed down from Liberty Square, thinking we would ride Big Thunder followed by a late night Splash Mountain only to find that Splash was closed. It is no longer run during evening EMH. We were a little cranky about that, but we were soon distracted by the wildest ride in the wilderness





I just love this ride, but at night? It feels faster, wilder and yes, a little bumpier. I was still nursing my sore back following my trips on the Matterhorn earlier in the holiday and, well, once would be enough this evening.



Back at my favourite bridge. Day or night this spot is blissful when the park is quiet.

We headed back towards Fantasyland and at 12:55 found ourselves in 100 Acre Wood tumbling through a blustery day











It was 12:58 exactly as we walked out of the ride. We looked over the path to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, looked at each other and then made a mad dash for it, walking into the line at just a minute before the line closed. Sometimes things just work out.

Like Big Thunder, there is something rather special about this ride at night. We first rode it at night, just coming up to 5 years ago when it was in soft opening, and I have had for a fondness for night time rides ever since.

The line wasn’t too bad at all; in a little under 20 minutes we were boarding the very last mine car of the night.



And then this was Fantasyland when we came out



















I just love those warm nights in Magic Kingdom. Add in free roaming around the hub as the crowds quietly ebb away and I was a very happy Kirsty indeed.



the long suffering best friend







We watched the kiss goodnight and then started to slowly make our way back down Main Street.



Ahh Casesy’s, I found a new love for you this trip.















No one expects the leaping R





I think that last jump had taken what was left of R’s energy.





























It was 1:45am as we left the park. We hopped on the monorail round to the TTC and walked home from there, falling into bed at about 2.30am after our bedtime routine of washing off the day and plugging in all of our electronics.

We were both feeling quite thankful that our first fastpass tomorrow didn’t expire until 11:55am!

Day 13 is here

[Goldia]

Shame about the uber driver. At least you got part of the fare refunded.

The Boma breakfast does look yummy, we will have to make it over there one day.

I'm laughing that you did two trips on the safari back to back. It's great being in ak first thing when you've got a FP for FOP so you can be where everyone else isn't.

The Blaze pizza looked tasty too. Another busy day with the early start and the very late finish. Fab to see the almost empty MK at night. Some glorious photos of Main Street. I like the contrast of the heaving crowds at the fireworks and then a few hours later it's just a handful of people.

You're racing to get the last few days posted before your next trip. Do you think you'll squeeze it all in before?

[Palm trees]

Wow, another long, full day for you. We're here now, it's going home day for us and your MK photos have just taken the edge off my sadness and reminded me of our lovely lovely last day yesterday. Fab photos as ever.

[Inky]

EMH looks good!

[lumosq102]

Originally Posted by Goldia

Shame about the uber driver. At least you got part of the fare refunded.

The Boma breakfast does look yummy, we will have to make it over there one day.

I'm laughing that you did two trips on the safari back to back. It's great being in ak first thing when you've got a FP for FOP so you can be where everyone else isn't.

The Blaze pizza looked tasty too. Another busy day with the early start and the very late finish. Fab to see the almost empty MK at night. Some glorious photos of Main Street. I like the contrast of the heaving crowds at the fireworks and then a few hours later it's just a handful of people.

You're racing to get the last few days posted before your next trip. Do you think you'll squeeze it all in before?

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I really do highly recommend Boma. Its fab -I'm not a huge fan of the dinner, but breakfast is fantastic. Writing this day made me want to add in a sneaky trip over to our schedule but there is no way we have time for that.

I'm determined to get it done before we go! I have 3 weekends left including this one, have almost finished editing the photos... I'll get it done. Really.

Originally Posted by Palm trees

Wow, another long, full day for you. We're here now, it's going home day for us and your MK photos have just taken the edge off my sadness and reminded me of our lovely lovely last day yesterday. Fab photos as ever.

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Oh thank you so much! Hope you have had a fantastic trip? Last days are so bittersweet.

Originally Posted by Inky

EMH looks good!

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Its super - if you have the determination to go through to the bitter end!