'Going the Distance' June 2017 - Day 11 - Animal Kingdom, Yak + Yeki and Villa time.

[H_C-2017]

Tuesday 20th June

Day 11

'Going the Distance' - June 2017

Another day another sunrise picture. Promise that they are all separate photos taken on each day and I’m not just using the same photo .

We were up early this morning as Animal Kingdom opened at 8:00am for everyone and we knew that if we wanted to ride Flight of Passage that we would have to get there for opening. Being offsite we could only get fastpasses for the river ride and we knew queues would be crazy later in the day.

So that meant we wanted to leave the Villa at around 7:15, which meant getting up at like 6:30 in order to be ready. We didn’t really eat breakfast either from what my notes say which isn’t like me at all we just had a cookie each.

Saying that we made it nice and early and we were heading through the entrance at 7:47, however the park was already open so we didn’t get as much of a head start as we had hoped.

We followed the crowds round to Pandora as no one was really going anywhere else! I can imagine if you were that you could probably have gotten on so many rides between 8-10am.

I tried to snap some photos on the way whilst trying to keep up with Chris who is quite a fast walker.

First impressions of Pandora were very impressive, lots of detail! I should hope so though with how long it took to build!

We got in the queue for Flight of Passage at 7:57 and there was no indication of how long it was on the screens. We decided to brave it as there was no way that we would be getting on it any other time.

The queue was really well themed we thought and time passed very quickly.

We were heading into the separate ‘rooms’ and watching the pre ride video at 8:42 so not at all bad for a ride that had queues of almost 4 hours mid-day.

I thought the ride was amazing! One of the best simulator rides around and so realistic. I really felt like I was flying at one point, it was exhilarating. There is no way I would wait for 4 hours though. I think an hour is my maximum when it comes to ride queues and even then it has to be a main ride.

I have so many photos of the area, i'll try not to bore you with them all.

We had some photopass photos taken when we got out. However Chris had managed to spill something on himself (must have been water) and it looked like he’d had an accident so he only liked the cropped version. I made him take a selfie to appease me as we hardly ever have any photos together when we are on holiday as Chris is always taking the photos!

He also took one of me which is lovely – he’s a great photographer and is used to me going ‘no take it again I don’t look right’

We had a fastpass for the river ride at 9:00am and it was 9:07 according to my photos. We were on the ride within 10 minutes and off by 9:20! I was glad it wasn’t too long a wait, even with fastpass as although it is a lovely looking ride it isn’t anything very exciting.

^ All I have is this one blurry photo from the river ride.

Following this we had some photos taken near the tree of life. I couldn’t believe the amount of detail on that tree! Must have taken forever to do.

From there we went in search of a snack as we hadn’t had much in the way of breakfast before leaving. We had an Iced coffee ($4.69 ), custard Danish ($3.59) and mickey pretzel with cheese ($5.69) just inside Dinoland.

We actually got two pretzels for free as we had to wait a while for them to be made. The iced coffee was the star of the show here though, it was lovely. We regretted not getting one each.

We then went to go and Meet Pocahontas. It’s one of my favourite Disney films, I watched it lots when I was younger. It took about 20 minutes to wait to meet her which wasn’t too bad as the queue was quite sheltered. She was lovely and we had a good chat about canoeing on the river. I love how the characters find all sorts to talk about.

We had a fast pass 10-11 for the Safari but unfortunately it was down. We decided to head into Asia anyway and go on the rapids.

Unfortunately everyone else must have had the same idea as the standby queue was crazy and took about 40 minutes. We were getting seriously warm in that queue but luckily there are lots of things to look at.

We were sufficiently wet coming off the ride which helped cool us down slightly. I checked the app once we were off and it said the safari was back up so we made a beeline for that before the queue started backing up. We joined the queue at 11:34 and were boarding a truck at 11:45.

We saw quite a lot of animals on our safari, I was worried they would all be hiding at it was nearing mid-day and was sweltering. Stay tuned for very similar photographs as everyone else!

<3 Elephants, they are one of my favourite animals – bar penguins which are my ultimate love.

^ The lions were sleeping, as per usual it seems.

We did the gorilla falls trail after our safari as I wanted to see the baby. He did not disappoint, so so cute! I wish we had done some of the other trails in hindsight but it was really warm and busy. We really felt the humidity in Animal Kingdom.

There were lots of other animals to see though, I really loved all the tropical birds although they were very difficult to catch on camera.

It was 12:30 now and our fastpass for Everest was open. I was excited about this as lots of people talk about how much they enjoy it.

Lovely view of the rivers of light seating area on the way.

It took less than 10 minutes in the fastpass queue although the standby was 25 minutes which I didn’t think was too bad at all really.
Expedition Everest really did not disappoint, I really loved it. I have a soft spot for the old style wooden coasters and the backwards bit is so intense.

This ride photo says all. – We were loving life.

After our expedition we were feeling rather thirsty and decided to head to Pandora to have one of those brightly coloured drinks with the balls in – such children when it comes to bright gimmicky drinks.
On the way we stopped to watch “Winged Encounters” with the Macaws at the tree of life.

I think we missed the start to be honest but we were glad we stayed as the ending was spectacular and so colourful. You can just see where people were ducking as they flew overhead.

We made it to Pongu Pongu in Pandora and ordered a frozen strawberry margarita and a night blossom. Both were lovely and refreshing.

It was nearly half one at this point and we had an ADR at Yak and Yeti at 2pm so we just slowly wandered over and arrived at 13:45. We decided to check in anyway and were met with pure chaos in the check in area. Despite this we were seated within ten minutes upstairs.

Décor inside is lovely, very well themed. To be honest I think we were so grateful for air con that we would have put up with anything!
For drinks I ordered the shanghai lemonade and Chris had a root beer.

I got the duck for main with veg and jasmine rice and Chris got the Kobe Burger with shoestring fries.

Both meals were delicious, I loved the duck - I don't have it that often at home so it was a bit of a treat. Chris’s burger was very tender and the fries were lovely.

Our server was really attentive and he stopped by a couple of times for a chat – mainly about sport which Chris loved.
All in all a very good experience and welcome break from the heat. Would 100% recommend.

It was 14:45 when we left so we had been in not even an hour although we never felt rushed.

We also managed to squeeze into the 3pm festival of the lion king which was really good timing and to say that we went in last minute we had really good seats. Although I assume it is designed so that everyone has a good view.

We really enjoyed the show, especially the tumble monkeys and the dancers. Everyone was so talented!

Following this we decided to call it a day and head back to the villa.
We went via Target and got a few bits to have for our evening meal. We still had some spaghetti left so bought some ingredients to make meatballs to have a bolognese.

We basically spent the rest of the day eating, drinking and dipping into the pool.

^ Chris had racked up quite an empty beer selection. We we waiting for recycling/bin day so they had all stacked up.

Steps today: 16,342. Distance 11.6km.

Thanks for reading!
Sorry that this has taken so long to do, I feel like i'm slightly rushing it too and my notes are getting abit thin . Hope you are all enjoying anyway.



Day 12 is HERE!