The Magic 3 - Day 3 - AKL and AK

[MrsSilverStar]

Day 3 – Saturday 19th October – AKL and AK

The Magic 3 are Tara, Mark and Heath and this is our first trip to Florida.
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We had planned to go to Volcano Bay today but it was absolutely bucketing down with rain when we woke up and was due to stay that way for most of the day. It was Storm Nesta so definitely not a day for lounging at a water park!

Instead, we had a chilled morning in the room, doing some packing, watching a bit of tv and having a wander about. It was a much-needed little rest for us all.
Popped into the club lounge for a while – we had to get the lift up to the 7th floor as we were on the 6th – people don’t seem to realise there are club rooms on that floor too because as we were leaving and getting the lift down, a woman barged her way in and asked me to hit 3 for her…then rudely said “Oh, you’ve hit 6 too. Anything special on 6?” Yes our room! And if you don’t like it, get your own lift Honestly, what a weirdo.

We were checking out as 12pm because we’d asked for a later check out when we thought we were going to Volcano Bay so had a bit more lounging around – and because I’m a terrible trip report writer, that’s where my notes end for the day! Oops! But there is a lot more to come so let’s hope the photos can jog my memory…

We got a Lyft over to our next stop, Animal Kingdom Lodge. This hotel was Mark and Heath’s choice as soon as they saw the animals. I definitely think it’s one of the more impressively themed Disney hotels. I’d paid our RPR room bill before we even left the UK because I was scared the pound was going to plummet even further so we had nothing to pay here and were on our way to DISNEY!

We decided to pop to the Mara for a quick lunch and our first go at using our meal credits. Heath and I shared nuggets and chips while Mark had a chicken sandwich. We got desserts instead of drinks as we had the refillable mugs.

We all found the sweet stuff at Disney to be way too sweet for us and never managed to finish a pudding, even when sharing two between three!

After all that food, it was time to head into Animal Kingdom. The plan was to just have a quick, chilled visit to check it out…we’ll see if that’s how it actually played out! We caught the bus over and I have to say, we never had any issues with buses during our stay.
We had some photopass pics taken at the entrance

As we were walking into the park and up to the Tree of Life, we noticed a child had finished his Wilderness Explorer book so was having a little ceremony. Once that had finished we got Heath to sign up

He got a booklet which had lots of different stops to visit throughout the park and get stamps from the CMs once he’d completed the activity there. It’s a great idea if your kids are into that kind of thing, and Heath definitely is!

We spotted Kevin walking about

Heath is a huge fan of the revamped Duck Tales cartoon (David Tennent is Scrooge, I have to admit I’m a fan too and find it hilarious ), and we knew some of the characters were meeting in DinoLand so we headed over there to check it out.

These were great meets and all three of us really enjoyed it.

Now it was time to meet the rest of the characters in their adorable dinosaur costumes

Heath loves meeting characters and getting autographs so this was a fun way to start our first visit to a Disney park.

We moved on to Asia next. Wow, this park is beautiful.

Heath got his first Wilderness Explorer badge

It was finally time for a ride – and our first fast pass was for Kali River Rapids. Heath LOVED this and we all had a lot of fun getting wet.

The joy of the Wilderness Explorer booklet was that it encouraged us to do all the trails to get more badges so we went to the Maharajah Jungle Trek so spot some tigers.

I love the animals and fun touches that seem to be around every corner in this park

Our fastpass for the safari had opened now. We had a great one with loads of animals to see.

Now I went on Everest at some point. I must have had a fastpass for it, or maybe I did single rider? Sorry, lack of notes is letting me down here! But I have a ride photo so I must have gone on it somehow! I think the boys went back on Kali rapids while I did this.

This ride is brilliant but I never got used to going backwards. I thought it was really tame until that bit!

Our last fastpass was for the Navi River Journey – you’ll be shocked to hear that we couldn’t get one for Flight of Passage on our first Disney day – so we headed for Pandora.

I couldn’t care less about the film Avatar but I was blown away by Pandora, it is absolutely stunning.
I know the river ride gets a lot of flak for being rubbish but we really enjoyed it! The Shaman at the end is seriously jaw dropping. I had done all the planning so Mark had no clue what to expect…his face was a picture when he saw the animatronic! It does only have that impact the first time but still worth doing in my opinion.
We got to see the drumming show too, this was really well done and we were all glad we’d caught it.

Now because we thought we were only doing a little visit today and more rain was forecast, I’d worn my flip flops so my trainers didn’t get wet. Well didn’t I regret that when we came out to more torrential rain and had to walk all the way back to the front of the park in my slippy sliding flip flops! The blisters that appeared the next day were the size of boulders but you’ll be pleased to read that I didn’t take a photo of them for the report
We didn’t get to really enjoy the park all lit up at night as we were hurrying out. We all soaked through to our underwear by this point!

I can’t remember when we took these photos, probably on our way to Pandora. I also can’t remember what we ate. I do know that I didn’t get round to trying any of things wonderful things I’d seen on here and the Disney Food Blog, we ended up just grabbing whatever was close when hunger or thirst hit.


We got a bus back to the hotel, before I gratefully fell onto the bed and rested my poor feet!

We had a room that hadn’t been refurbished yet but I loved all the theming.

That’s it for day three, which ended up being a much longer day than we first thought it would be!
Tomorrow, we’re rope dropping the Magic Kingdom. Coming soon.

[mick]

A great change over day shame you didn’t get to Volcano Bay

Joan

[MrsSilverStar]

Originally Posted by mick

A great change over day shame you didn’t get to Volcano Bay

Joan

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Yes I was disappointed because it looks beautiful, hopefully we’ll get to go one day!

[Goldia]

A pity about the rain in the morning spoiling your plans. But it sounds like you all needed a bit of downtime and chilling out in the room before heading over to AKL gave you all a much needed rest.

The wilderness explorers book is fun for the kids to do. Mine don't bother with it anymore which I think is a shame. They really enjoyed it when they were younger. You all looked like you had a great time meeting all the characters and you managed to do loads in AK for a quick visit.

[MrsSilverStar]

Originally Posted by Goldia

A pity about the rain in the morning spoiling your plans. But it sounds like you all needed a bit of downtime and chilling out in the room before heading over to AKL gave you all a much needed rest.

The wilderness explorers book is fun for the kids to do. Mine don't bother with it anymore which I think is a shame. They really enjoyed it when they were younger. You all looked like you had a great time meeting all the characters and you managed to do loads in AK for a quick visit.

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Yeah, I think a restful morning was already needed!

Aw, it is a shame when they outgrow these things. It’s a fab little extra for the kids and made us cover a lot of ground over our visits to the park.

We definitely did more than we were expecting to, which made it even more fun, like it was a cheeky little bonus!

[jothp]

What a shame that you didn't get to Volcano Bay, hopefully you'll get to go on your next trip. What a very rude woman in the lift; our club room was on the 6th floor too when we stayed at RPR. We've done the Wilderness Explorers and loved it on the last couple of visits but my youngest is going to be 12 on this visit and getting more like a teenager by the day so I doubt I'll be able to convince any of them this time. You managed to get loads done in AK. It really is a beautiful park.

[MrsSilverStar]

Originally Posted by jothp

What a shame that you didn't get to Volcano Bay, hopefully you'll get to go on your next trip. What a very rude woman in the lift; our club room was on the 6th floor too when we stayed at RPR. We've done the Wilderness Explorers and loved it on the last couple of visits but my youngest is going to be 12 on this visit and getting more like a teenager by the day so I doubt I'll be able to convince any of them this time. You managed to get loads done in AK. It really is a beautiful park.

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I know, it looks such a beautiful water park...sadly we didn’t have much luck with water parks this holiday!

The childhood bit seems to race by doesn’t it? I’m so soppy about Heath growing up and he’s only 8, I’ll be a mess when he’s a teenager!

I think it’s the most beautiful park out of the four, something different to spot around every corner.

[Tinkermom]

I agree AK is stunning, thanks for sharing