The Greatest Place in the World (not WDW) Day 4 Something New at AK & FP Chaos at HS

[karalma]

4.3.19
I was awake at 2 again so wrote my trip report, read and dozed for the next few hours. The plan today was to visit AK for extra magic hours but as we’d been last night we hesitated while deciding and weren’t ready in time. We decided to still go and Alix and I would enjoy a wander and have a look at the animals.

The traffic was heavier today and there were long lines by the time we arrived. We decided to split up so the boys could see if any rides were doable. Alix and I loved wandering this beautiful shaded park listening to the African music.







And we were amazed to discover Discovery Island Trails. How on Earth have we missed this for 10 years?!
We loved strolling around finding all of the animals carved in the tree. I couldn’t believe that I had never known about this area.





























After spending ages admiring the glorious details we wandered to gorilla falls. We enjoyed watching the cute birds and spotted 6 different types. These were our favourite.





We spent time with the sedate hippo and scampering meerkats before finding the gorillas including baby gorillas. It was great to watch the mother feeding the baby and antics from the active males but I couldn’t get a good pic of the babies as they were behind glass.







After a couple of hours we met the boys but they had not had a good morning as the lines had been longer than they wanted to wait. We left and drove to Golden Corral for lunch. We were pleased there were plenty of options here for all of us including plenty of vegetarian options. As we arrived late morning there were both breakfast and lunch options and the desserts were particularly good.

We then called at Winn Dixie at Formosa Gardens and we were very sad to see this was closing. However, we managed to grab some bargains as there was up to 40% off all items.

Back at the villa we played games in and out of the pool and I did some reading. After a lovely, relaxing afternoon we were off to HS. I still sooo love the parks at night, the breeze was just beautiful. With the changes to the FP tiers it was good to ride TSM as well as RnR and ToT.

Toy Story Land was heaving but we all enjoyed TSM, apart from the fact that the kids beat us - Darren blamed forgetting to wear the 3D glasses. We came to the end of the ride and he realised he had them on his head.





The kids (I know they’re adults now but still kids to me) went to RnR while Darren and I strolled over taking pics and enjoying the night.











While waiting at ToT we got a call from Alix - she had received an email cancelling our FP for ToT and the line for RnR was huge. I walked over to the CM at ToT and asked what the situation was. Only half of ToT was working so we had received a FP for any ride in any park - with restrictions -for today or tomorrow. Because everyone with a cancelled FP had gone to RnRC it took half an hour on RnRC and tbe FP line on ToT was 30 minutes so we decided to keep the FP for tomorrow.



Back home we played cards but Alix wouldn’t let us go to bed until she had won 1 game - which seemed impossible so in the end we had to play 1 card turnover just to allow her to win 1. We went to bed around 9.30.

[LottiesLot]

I loved AK when we went for the first time in 2017. Thanks for sharing all your lovely pics of your day. Your evening at HS was interesting!

[clochette]

What beautiful photos of the tree carvings. I didn't know about the Discovery Trails either. I will have to look out for them this summer.

[mick]

A good day doing the two parks

Joan

[Mexy02]

We’ve never done the trails either , they look fab . More fab photos .

[karalma]

So glad it wasn’t just me that had missed the trails - they are definitely worth a stroll 😁.