Happy Holidays in WDW, 2-year-old-style! Day 05: Animal Kingdom & Flametree BBQ

[nothingless]

December 23, 2018
[-- Trip Index --]

Today was Animal Kingdom day! I was very excited to show my mom this park - it’s so beautiful and I knew she’d love all the animals etc!



Outfits for today - UP inspired leggings for me and a T-shirt for Myla in the same print, my mom’s top was from Up as well, and my husband wore the AK park map - handy for if we got lost haha!

We had another easy breakfast in the apartment with fruit, cereal, and peanut butter sandwiches in the apartment, and headed off for AK quite early - I’d booked our first fastpass for 08:20 for Kilimanjaro Safaris! We left around 7:30 and were parked up and walking in not half an hour later. It was another crisp, but cool morning, although not as cold as yesterday!

We took our time walking over to Africa, stopping to look at some animals on the way and my mom totally falling in love with the architecture everywhere.


Safari time!


We actually didn’t see that many animals - I think because it was still very very cold. Those tips about doing the Safari early because the animals are more active now than in the heat of the day? Yeah, that doesn’t really apply on cold days! Nevermind, my mom still loved it, as did we! It’s still very cool to go around in the big truck and she was in awe of the way it was all built and designed. I knew we’d be riding this a few times later on in the holiday again anyway!



Post-safari, we were hungry for a snack and some coffee, and luckily Kusafiri Bakery was closeby. Michael got a breakfast roll, and I got another cinnamon roll to share with coffees for everyone. This one, like yesterday’s from Gaston’s Tavern, was also huge and delicious!



Myla ate some goldfish crackers while we enjoyed the morning sun and the live music.




We took our time enjoying the atmosphere and our snack, since the next FP was for Festival of The Lion King, right next door.




We made our way over, joined the FP queue, and were soon inside. Myla was a little bit unsure in the darker theatre, but she very quickly got completely wrapped up in the show, and was clapping away!



It was so good again. This always was one of my favorites, and I still immensely enjoyed it! My mom loved it too - she’s seen the Broadway Lion King show, so I hoped this wouldn’t disappoint, but no - she loved it! Just the atmosphere, the music, the dancing - so much fun.

After all this excitement, we needed a toilet break and took some more photos while waiting for everyone.



Now we started walking towards Pandora. The Avatar movie is my husband’s favorite movie, so he (and I) were super excited to see Pandora! I already knew we didn’t have Fastpasses for Flight of Passage - with only the 30-day booking window due to staying offsite, and going over such a busy period, it just wasn’t gonna happen, and we didn’t mind, so we walked over to Pandora purely to enjoy the sights and sounds.



And it didn’t disappoint - how beautiful! But also, how crowded! Seriously - the land was pretty much packed. FoP still had a standby line of something crazy like 4 or 5 hours, and there were just people everywhere. It made it hard to actually look around and enjoy. We headed towards the Windtraders shop to get a magnet, fighting the crowds the whole way.


Quick photo by the moss wall!


The shop itself was beautiful, so colorful and well designed, and we got the magnet we came for. Once out of the shop, we tried to walk around/underneath the floating mountains so more, but it was super busy, which took away from the awesomeness a bit.


We queued for some Photopass pics though:



but then decided to just head towards Asia - our next FP was for the UP bird show, and we hoped to come back to a less busy Pandora later on in the week. It was so crowded that Myla didn’t want to leave her pram, I think she was a bit intimidated by the sea of people.

On the way back to Discovery Island, we stopped at a hat stall - I had forgotten to bring my baseball cap, and my mom wanted to buy one too, and we spotted nice ones here. Myla joined in trying on hats:


We contemplated getting another Photopass in front of the Tree Of Life, but the queue was so long, we didn’t bother.

We stood and watched the monkeys for ages though - Myla thought they were so funny!


Time for our last FP! One of the reasons I had 2 show Fastpasses today, is because my nephew Jesse, who is 8 months older than Myla, would be joining us later on in the week. He is the kind of kid who cannot sit still for a show - so I knew the days we spent with them, we’d be doing more rides. However, Myla loves shows and will easily sit still for however long they’re on - so it made sense to do those on the days without Jesse.


Selfie!


Oma was in charge of Myla’s beloved Minnie teddy while she ate.


And then the show started. Myla stood up on my legs to see, and she was mesmerized, by Russell and Dug (she loves UP) and by the birds!


I took a bunch of videos as well - it was just so cute. She was all, “WOOOW! OOOOH! AAAAAH!” in wonder and excitement. I may have wiped away a wee tear, I suddenly felt so emotional at seeing her pure joy and happiness. :-) It was a big hit, and even after the entire holiday, I’d still say this was one of the things she enjoyed the most, and well worth the FP for us!

After that, it was lunch time and we headed over to Flametree BBQ.

Cute birds near the table! (yes, she had a Wilderness Explorer sticker in her hair. a CM handed those out to her earlier, and she wanted to wear them in her hair like a clip so she stuck them to her hair. Whatever floats your boat, baby!)


We’d picked our menus while still in the UP show and did Mobile Ordering, so Michael, Hetty, and Myla went to find a table while I clicked the big I’m Here button and collected our food. Can’t recommend Mobile Ordering enough, it was SOO convenient during these super busy days in the park! It actually took them a while to find a table, there wasn’t an empty seat to be had! We ordered Ribs, a burger, a salad, loaded fries, and plain fries for Myla, and it was all delicious - we all agreed this was one of the nicest QS’s we had!

[[continued below! ]]

[ravenwing]

You have some amazing photos, lovely shots of Myla enjoying the moments. I also empathise with stickers getting stuck in the most random of places

We also found the Wilderness Explorer cast members wonderful, so engaging and full of interesting facts (not just for the kids!).

Animal Kingdom ended up being our favourite park overall and we spent much longer there on every visit than we had expected.

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After food we had one more thing we really wanted to do: meet Dug and Russell! There wasn’t too big a queue and after about 15 minutes, it was our turn.


Russell made a huge fuss of all the badges on my mom’s shirt, which she LOVED haha!

Myla immediately ran to Dug - she loves the big furry characters, but is still a little shy (or outright scared) around human-looking ones.


Russell did get a high-five when we left though! It was such a fun meet and greet, partially because of the outfits we wore - my mom said she now totally understood why we liked doing them!

We had another walk around the trails there towards the Tree of Life, and were enjoying the sunshine, it’d finally warmed up enough to take our coats off.


And, with more animal watching, we slowly made our way to the exit.


At the ant-eater exhibit, we got chatting to this lovely CM called Amy Lynn - she commented on our outfits too, and then told Myla all about the ant eater. She was great with her, so friendly and very knowledgable.


This is the hat I’d bought for myself earlier - by now, I was quickly realizing that I’d need to buy her a hat too, if I ever wanted to wear it myself again! We got her one from Walmart the next day haha.



Even though we were only meant to do the morning in AK, it was 3:30PM by the time we left! Back in the apartment by 4, we just took it easy the rest of the day - had some salad and sandwiches for dinner, a bath for Myla and showers for us, and we were in bed by 9. It was a great day though, lots of amazing experiences!

[minnie52]

Sounds like a fab day. You got some brilliant photos of AK - it is such a beautiful park.

[sheluk]

Sounds like a brilliant day, you handled those crowds like a pro!

Love the up outfits too - so fun you all got involved x

[Joosebug1987]

Aww sounds a brilliant day - we missed the Up bird show when we went so definitely on the list after your review for if we get to go back x