Happy Birthday To...Me! April/May 2019 - Day 5: Animal Kingdom, Beaches & Cream & Hollywood Studios

[soraia]

Happy Birthday To...Me! - Day 5
1st May 2019 - Animal Kingdom, Beaches & Cream & Hollywood Studios

This morning we were going to be visiting Animal Kingdom and we had arranged to meet at the bus stop at 08:15.

Today's outfit

We arrived just before 09:00 and headed straight for Pandora. As we were on our way in we experienced "DiVine" and it was completely unexpected - she actually scared Lauren a bit as she just started moving out of nowhere. She's definitely very good at what she does!

Meshing in with her surroundings...

This was Bernie, Tig & Lauren's first time seeing Pandora so we had a look around at all the details.

FOP was already at 120 minutes but luckily we had a FP+ so got straight on. We all loved it - it's such a lovely ride, isn't it?

I was feeling a bit peckish after FOP so took a chance to try out the Pongu Lumpia which I've heard good things about.

I really liked it - it's quite small (probably about 4 bites worth) but to be honest I had been eating so much since arriving that it was quite nice to just eat something a bit smaller that filled a hole and tasted delicious!

We decided to split up for a bit and meet up for lunch again later. Lauren went to watch the Finding Nemo show and Bernie, Tig & I wanted to find some of the trails.

We came across an empty PhotoPass photographer and she took some of my favourite pics of the whole trip!

We stumbled on the new Up! bird show which was just about to start so headed in as we'd never seen this before. It was pretty cute and a nice way to spend 20 minutes.

We had a FP+ for Kilimanjaro Safaro so headed over to Africa. It was an absolutely beautiful day at Animal Kingdom!

We had another great safari - there were so many giraffes out again! We've seen way more this year than any other time.

We were all feeling a bit hungry so text Lauren to say we were heading to Satu'li Canteen for lunch and she said she'd make her way over as as the Nemo show was almost finishing.

After having it a second time now I definitely think Satu'li Canteen is the best QS at the parks - I love that you can customise the bowls however you like and it is very different to anything else you can get.

Coincidentally Bernie, Tig & I all got the same thing and we only found out when we got to our table and started eating

Combination Bowl: Grilled Beef & Chicken with noodles and charred green onion vinaigrette

This was absolutely delicious!

Tig also got the Blueberry cream cheese mousse which he loved.

Lauren joined us as we were eating and she got the chicken bowl with hearty salad but I forgot to take a picture as I was eating

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed their lunch here!

We all split up again after lunch as me & Lauren wanted to watch the Lion King show and Bernie & Tig wanted to go for a wander so we agreed to meet later for our Dinosaur FP+.

The Lion King show was as good as always - it's my favourite live show onsite and I always feel a bit emotional during it!

We met up with Bernie & Tig again and went on Dinosaur which is always good fun - our ride picture is hilarious!

I took a bit longer in the gift shop after Dinosaur and when I came out I saw Tig & Lauren and asked where Bernie was. Tig said Bernie was really excited as he had seen "Captain Boing McDuck" and was waiting to take a picture and for me to join him. I didn't realise what he meant and it then clicked that he meant Launchpad McQuack so we all had a giggle about the name mixup and I ran over to where Bernie was waiting. We both love Duck Tales and have never seen him out so jumped at the chance to get a pic. This was a GREAT character interaction! Launchpad was hilarious - especially with Bernie. He was really showboating

As we were heading out of Dinoland we spotted Scrooge McDuck out for pictures so of course we couldn't miss out on a chance to meet Uncle Scrooge!

We made our way out of AK and just as were were at the Tree of Life we literally walked into some sort of bird show which we'd never seen (or heard of before). It was only a short show but was really cute!

We had a 15:20 ADR at Beaches & Cream for an afternoon snack so headed out and got on a Beach/Yacht Club bus which luckily arrived pretty quickly.

We were on a bus so you can guess what's coming next...yes, you guessed it! Today's installment of "Tig falling asleep in inappropriate places"

We're enjoying this a bit too much!

Our original plan was to all share the Kitchen Sink but when we were actually faced with the reality of it we were all way too full from over indulging the last few days so agreed that we'd all just get ice creams.

Even though it was 15:20 it was full inside Beaches & Cream (is it ever not full in there?) and mostly with people eating the Kitchen Sink. There was a family at the table next to us with 2 small children who had full meals and then ordered the Kitchen Sink and didn't even manage to make a dent. The father was saying to us they definitely shouldn't have eaten mains and that his 2 little ones were letting down the team as they pretty much only had 1 spoon of ice cream each. It was pretty funny!

Bernie & Tig both ordered sundaes with 2 scoops of ice cream. I had the ice cream cookie sandwich and Lauren went for the birthday cake milkshake. These milkshakes are relatively new at Beaches & Cream and look really cool. Clearly the novelty milkshake craze is spreading!

Everything was great!

Suitably full we took a stroll down the boardwalk as we were planning on going to Hollywood Studios and wanted to get the boat over.

I know I said this yesterday but this area really is lovely and I definitely want to stay here at some point in the future if I can!

We got lucky again and a boat arrived straightaway so we were soon on our way into Hollywood Studios!

When we got in we decided to split up again as Lauren wanted to watch the Beauty and the Beast show and Bernie, Tig & I went on Star Tours again and then went to watch the Frozen sing-a-long which I always find really fun.

Afterwards Bernie & Tig went to meet Chewbacca and I wanted to go watch the Little Mermaid show. Whilst I was in there we got a message from Lauren saying she was going to head back to CSR and would try to meet us later on.

We wandered around a bit more and then admitted defeat. Our original plan was to wait it out to watch the Star Wars fireworks but it had been really hot today and we were all feeling tired so instead decided to head back to CSR and grab something for dinner at the Mercado.

On the way out I stopped by Starbucks to grab a coffee to keep me going, and also my trusty old butterfinger cupcake so I could have it for dessert I also spotted a jumper which made me giggle!

Just as we went through the exit to the park there were CM's handing out special edition posters for the Hollywood Studios 30 year anniversary which I thought was a really nice touch!

Unfortunately we had to wait ages for a CSR bus - almost 30 minutes which is not ideal when you're really tired and hot!

By the time we got back to CSR we were starving. We had messaged Lauren to ask if she wanted to join us but she was fine and would meet us tomorrow morning.

Tig got a rice bowl which he had enjoyed previously (and enjoyed again), Bernie got the chicken tenders & fries and I went for the Philly Cheesesteak which was actually super tasty! And of course I also enjoyed my butterfinger cupcake

As we were all so tired we headed back to our rooms at 21:30 for some well deserved rest. Mousekeeping left me some nice bow towels

I watched some HGTV and fell asleep after another great day.

Tomorrow is our last full day all together and we head to MK, Homecomin and Epcot.

Thanks for reading!

Day 6 is HERE.

[Cinderella]

I love Beaches and Cream👍

[soraia]

Originally Posted by Cinderella

I love Beaches and Cream👍

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I know it's great isn't it! I've made a promise to myself that we will go back and conquer the Kitchen Sink at some point - just need to plan better to make sure we won't have all eaten loads and be too full. Maybe day 1 of the holiday is the way to go!

[mick]

Another great day

Joan

[soraia]

Originally Posted by mick

Another great day

Joan

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Thanks Joan