Charlie's First WDW Adventure - Sep/Oct 2019 - Day 12: Outlets, Animal Kingdom and Rainforest Cafe

[Lisa_Lollipop]

Index can be found here

Thursday 10th October

The alarm went off at 7am but I allowed myself to snooze until about 7:45am, Charlie didn’t wake until around 8:30am. It was another nice chilled start to the day with us having breakfast at the villa and generally having time to mooch around a bit! Charlie was very excited to come down to Rex waiting for him!

We headed out of the villa at 9:50am and made our way to the Premium Outlets over on International Drive… hurray for more shopping!

We arrived at 10:20am and decided to once again take the tactic of splitting up to achieve more with the time. Joan and John headed off for some peaceful child-free shopping whilst Paul and I tag-teamed looking in shops whilst the other kept Charlie amused. He was in great spirits and was more than happy having a wander around outside… the weather was back to being glorious today!

We managed to tick of a fair few shops… Nike, Under Armour, Levi and of course Bath and Body Works! I think this must be the first time I had ever been in this one as was very impressed with how nice it was! Whilst there I picked up some more hand sanitizers and another hand cream (given the current hand sanitizer shortage you can image how happy I am now that I stocked up!)

We made a stop in Character Warehouse and I picked up a Minnie Mouse teddy for my friends little girl and also a Lion Guard teddy for our nephew Joshua. Whilst we were in there I noticed a load of baskets by the door with various items in that I assumed was stock waiting to be put out so went over to have a look… as I approached a woman swooped in and informed me it was all her shopping! No kidding, there had to be about 20 baskets filled with stuff! Amazing how carried away some people get when there is a bargain to be had!

Our last stop was in Ralph Lauren kids where we picked up some t-shirts for our nephew Recce and niece Izzy and also some tops for Charlie. Whilst waiting to pay the guy in front of us kindly gave us a 25% off voucher which we were able to use on our purchase… so nice! Once we had paid we went to leave and Charlie took great delight in waving goodbye and blowing kisses to the girls serving at the till… such a charmer already that one!

We met back up with Joan and John and by 12:50pm were all loaded back in the car and heading back to the villa. On making the journey back Charlie fell asleep!

We arrived back at the villa at 1:30pm and as Charlie was still sleeping soundly we decided to change our plans to turn straight around to get to Animal Kingdom and instead opted for a couple more hours at the villa so we could let him sleep… he clearly needed it!

Making the most of the peace I grabbed the bag of M&Ms and headed out to sit and relax by the pool… bliss! (Also note I was channeling my inner Where’s Wally this day… or perhaps more appropriately Cat in the Hat!)

I didn’t note down how long Charlie slept for but it was a good nap that set him up well for the rest of the day! On waking up he spotted Rex and jumped straight up to go and play with him!

After a little playtime I lured him away from his new dinosaur friend and ushered him upstairs to have a bath. By 3:20pm we were all set and ready to head to Animal Kingdom. We parked up in Butterfly 19 and jumped on the tram to get over to the park entrance.

At this time of day the entrance was nice and quiet so we made it through security pretty swiftly and then into the park (with Charlie scanning his ‘magic wrist’ on the way in!)

We had a FP booked for Na’vi River Journey so we headed in the direction of Pandora. I was very happy that Charlie was awake this time so would be able to experience it with us! On arriving at the entrance we found it had an 85 minute standby time! It’s a lovely little ride but I’m not sure who in their right mind would wait that long for it! Charlie enjoyed the ride though, it’s great for little ones as there are so many bright colours and lots of sounds to catch their attention.

On making it back outside we had to make a pretty swift exit from Pandora as we had a table booked at Rainforest Café at 4:50pm and that time was fast approaching! This is a favourite for us and we knew Charlie would love the animal theming!

On arriving I headed up to the check-in desk to put our name down for a table. Having a Landry’s card meant that we were sat down pretty much immediately!

We set about making our food choices and Joan and I both order a Brazilian freeze (non-alcoholic) which came in a souvenir glass. So delicious!

For food Joan and John both went for the salmon (there sure has been a lot of salmon eaten on this trip hasn’t there?!), I went for the coconut shrimp and Paul had the 'Taste of the Islands' seafood platter. Can you guess what I ordered Charlie? Yes you got it, pasta! It was definitely the right choice though as he ate all of it (despite it being a very large kids portion!)

We all really enjoyed the food, and it was lovely eating that much earlier in the day (before we all started feeling exhausted!)… something I will remember for any future trips! We settled up the bill, holding onto the receipt so we could collect our glasses from the gift shop later.

Whilst waiting to pay I also had a quick look on the MDE app to check the wait time for Flight of Passage… 160 minutes! We had all been so wanting to ride but we of course hadn’t managed to get FPs (impossible at 30 days out) and we couldn’t entertain wait times like that with Charlie in tow. Ah well, maybe next time!

Before leaving we also stopped to have a look at the big fish tank, Charlie was captivated (that boy does love a fish!)

On making it outside Charlie made a beeline for the fountain… I was sure he was going to dive straight in but he managed to restrain himself!

Entering by the side entrance by Rainforest Café we headed back into the park. With the sun now starting to set it looked just gorgeous.

We had a FP booked for Kilimanjaro Safari so we headed in that direction. On approaching there was a music performance going on so it was rather busy!

On approaching the safari we noticed there was a rather hefty standby time of 75 minutes but we wasn’t concerned as we had a FP so we would be on in no time… or so we thought!

On joining the FP queue we were quite surprised to find we stopped quite far back and found it not moving at all. I had purposely booked an early evening slot as I loved the idea of seeing the animals at dusk so I was keen to persevere and make it on so we continued to wait… and wait and wait! We were all getting increasingly frustrated as there was absolutely no communication as to why the queue was so slow moving. It ended up taking us 40 minutes to get to the loading area and by this point it was completely dark! We were so close to giving up and leaving as we all wanted to see Pandora at night time before leaving and with park closing fast approaching we knew our opportunity to do that was getting slimmer by the minute!

Finally we were next in line so we decided to stick with it and ride as planned… although in reality we probably should have just abandoned the idea as it was so dark we could barely see anything! I was pointing out the few animals that were out for Charlie but he was oblivious to them so it was a bit of a non-event for him sadly (such a shame as he had loved this so much on our last day there and I had been really excited for him to ride again).

We made our way round and on leaving decided we would still try to make it over to Pandora despite the fact it was now park closing. It was a rather mad dash and with every step we were fearful that we would get turned around and directed to the exit (as we were currently making our way further and further into the park!). Luckily we didn’t come across any CMs on the way there and we made it there before the entrance was roped off! High fives all round (out of breathe high fives, we were all exhausted after that sprint!)

The race over there was absolutely worth it though, Pandora at night is truly beautiful! I was particularly impressed with the fluorescent floor!

Charlie added to the beauty by cracking out his flashing bubble wand!

After having a wander around there was nothing left to do but make our way over to the exit. As we were making our way there we caught the end of the Tree of Life projection show so we stopped to watch that.

On our way out we made a stop in to the Rainforest café gift shop as we needed to pick up our glasses from easier. Whilst there we also got Charlie a set of animals (similar to the dinosaurs from T-Rex). We decided to hold onto these and gave them to him on his birthday the following month (as predicted, he loved them!). I also spotted a long sleeve RFC t-shirt that I loved and as they were doing a good offer if you bought two so Paul got one two (more lounge wear!). On looking at this photo I have just realised that because of the font 'USA' looks like it says LISA! I love it even more now!

On leaving the shop we jumped on the tram to get back to the car, leaving Paul walking with the pushchair.

We made it back to the car by 9:20pm and on the way back to the villa made a stop into Walmart. Joan was keen to pick up Halloween outfits for Reece and Izzy so we spent a while having a rummage through all the outfits they had… there were so many! Charlie was on great form and having a whale of a time (he has always liked a trip to the shops this boy… takes after Mummy and Daddy for sure!)

He spotted a motorised cart which we tried to keep him away from… but bad influence Grandad had other ideas!

We finally made it back to the villa at 10:45pm… Charlie was very excited to be reunited with Rex so we let him have a little play before coaxing him up to bed at 11pm. After another busy day he was unsurprisingly asleep in no time! Once he was settled I set about packing… is there anything more depressing?! At least I had made a start though rather than leaving it all to the last night! After getting some of it sorted I headed to bed at 12:30am.

Also whilst sorting through photos for this day I found this shot of us at Animal Kingdom... I clearly never made of note of when it happened! A lovely photo nonetheless though!

Join me for the next installment which sees us heading to Magic Kingdom and Epcot for our last full day in Orlando (*sob*)

Day 13 can be found here

[Palm trees]

What a great day, its nice to have a later start at the parks sometimes.

[sheluk]

I cannot believe how quickly this trip seems to be going... I can only imagine how fast it went in real life!

Sounds like a fun day in Animal Kingdom. What a shame about the safari though! I’ve seen the FP queue like crazy before now.

All the animals must have really caught Charlie’s imagination in RC. The food sounds decent too. Got to love a Landry card and it’s perks.

Thanks for sharing another day - can’t wait for the next xx

[Tinkermom]

Wow what a busy day! Well done keeping up Charlie 😊

[thefourDs]

I’ve been binge reading your report since the weekend and absolutely loving it! Such a lovely holiday so far and it’s really lovely to see such a close family - Charlie is a lucky boy!

[MrsSilverStar]

Glad you managed to make it to Pandora at night, it’s so beautiful! Shame about your safari though.

Charlie stretching up to scan his wrist is absolutely adorable! Just too cute.

[Redrach1903]

You def shop less with Charlie in tow! Haha! I wonder how that woman got all her shopping home?! Madness!

Def wouldn't queue more than 10/15 mins for Na'vi! People must be so disappointed when they stand for ages for it!
So sad you didn’t get on FoP

Such a shame it took so long to get on the safari, that must have been so frustrating! Very happy you got to see Pandora at night though, so beautiful!

A lovely day all round, with some great photos Love the one of Charlie with all the Halloween buckets!

Right, I'm all caught up now, so #chopchop

xxx

[Lisa_Lollipop]

Originally Posted by Palm trees

What a great day, its nice to have a later start at the parks sometimes.

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It was so lovely having a lazier morning... and so very needed!

Originally Posted by sheluk

I cannot believe how quickly this trip seems to be going... I can only imagine how fast it went in real life!

Sounds like a fun day in Animal Kingdom. What a shame about the safari though! I’ve seen the FP queue like crazy before now.

All the animals must have really caught Charlie’s imagination in RC. The food sounds decent too. Got to love a Landry card and it’s perks.

Thanks for sharing another day - can’t wait for the next xx

See more...

Definitely recommend RFC, we always loved it before but was even better seeing Charlie's reaction to everything! He loves animals so was the perfect place for him!

Hoping to get another day up very soon (one perk of social distancing and being home more!)

Originally Posted by Tinkermom

Wow what a busy day! Well done keeping up Charlie 😊

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He was such a trooper... we are getting him trained up young ready for many years of busy theme park days to come!

[Lisa_Lollipop]

Originally Posted by thefourDs

I’ve been binge reading your report since the weekend and absolutely loving it! Such a lovely holiday so far and it’s really lovely to see such a close family - Charlie is a lucky boy!

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Ah so lovely to hear you have been enjoying reading along! And what a wonderful comment, thank you! I am very lucky to have such a lovely family, this was the most special holiday all together

Originally Posted by MrsSilverStar

Glad you managed to make it to Pandora at night, it’s so beautiful! Shame about your safari though.

Charlie stretching up to scan his wrist is absolutely adorable! Just too cute.

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Charlie and his 'magic wrist'... still makes my heart swell now!

Pandora at night was just stunning, so happy we managed to see it!

Originally Posted by Redrach1903

You def shop less with Charlie in tow! Haha! I wonder how that woman got all her shopping home?! Madness!

Def wouldn't queue more than 10/15 mins for Na'vi! People must be so disappointed when they stand for ages for it!
So sad you didn’t get on FoP

Such a shame it took so long to get on the safari, that must have been so frustrating! Very happy you got to see Pandora at night though, so beautiful!

A lovely day all round, with some great photos Love the one of Charlie with all the Halloween buckets!

Right, I'm all caught up now, so #chopchop

xxx

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I'm so sad we didn't get on FoP, although I had resigned myself before going that we most likely wouldn't! Hopefully we will get back at some point in the near future and I can finally see what all the fuss is about!

[mrsdjh]

I forget how much sleep toddlers can have - he seems to have done so well on this trip coping well with the busy days and later bedtimes.

Its a shame you couldn't get on FOP this trip but hopefully you will next time. Pandora is lovely at night though isn't it?