The Quest For Toad - The No Queues Trip 2019 - Day 5: Animal Kingdom. Toadless, still.

[Andy C]

Good Lord, is it Day Five already? We’re managing to keep going, and things have followed THE PLAN better than ever before – like clockwork.

DD1’s Boyfriend has noted that our planned day to Kennedy Space Centre coincides with a planned rocket launch and asks if that was deliberate.



I bluff on. "Of course. Rocket launch. Happens to be on an ideal day on the Busy Day Guide as well, but that's pure coincidence."

None of us have ever seen a rocket launch live; this would be perfect.

Denny’s breakfast yet again (and we’re all ringing the changes on what to eat; there's lots of different options) and off to Animal Kingdom.



Again, we were in around opening time – yet again going more to plan than ever before. We went straight to Killimanjaro Safaris and got on before the crowds built up, before wandering through Gorilla Falls.



A brief stop for ice creams followed. A glance in the shops showed no Toads, but The Lad was unfussed at the moment. He'd probably be okay if we didn't find one, but if we ever did, that would really make the holiday for him. We'd keep an eye out.



Over to Kali River Rapids, where we did, indeed, get rather wet. We've got these waterproof baggies we can put our phones and wallets into, so the refreshing waterinessdoesn't cause any issues. Planning works

Into Maharajah Jungle Trek – quite frankly, these walk-throughs are a real highlight.

We then queued up for Lion King – in the blasting heat. Hiding into the shadowed areas to save ourselves from heat prostration, but it was really worth it when we were inside. Great fun.

A ChildSwap for Expedition Everest followed.


I was insisting on wearing my snazzy new “I’m so Fly, I Neverland” hat that I bought at Magic Kingdom (I'd been learning to fly microlights and had got my licence 12 weeks earlier) – after all, it wasn’t quite fast enough to whip that off, was it?



Answer: yes.

It whisked off my head as we went around a corner and my despairing grab at my head was just too late. It was gone!

But only a few feet, because fortunately for me, DW, in the row behind, was faster and managed to snatch it out of midair in a truly impressive reaction save. I am passing her details on to the England Cricket team in case they need a new wicket keeper.

Na’avi River Journey was, frankly, a bit disappointing and a bit of a waste of a FastPass.

Flight of Passage, though, was probably the best ride in Disney. Thanks to ChildSwap, some of us did it twice. DW is adamant that it's the best ride of any kind she's ever been on. The only drawback is the lengthy buildup. It's entertaining the first time around, but when you've got to go through it every time, it does pall after a while.

However, just passing through Pandora was fantastic. Foolishly, I took no pictures here, as we were in a hurry to get to Finding Nemo, which we Fastpassed (Tap, grab, modify) to be on the safe side. The delays at Flight of Passage did get me a bit worried, but we made our slot.

Finding Nemo was highly enjoyable, not least for the air-conditioned refuge from the heat. The inevitable rain came, but went remarkably quickly.







We did take in 'Up!' as well, which was great fun, with good humour.

By this point, we took it as a good day and, exhausted, headed off back to the villa.

Texas Roadhouse for dinner. Excellent food, with the slightly bizarre occasional spectacle of a guest being made to sit on a saddle and ride it to loud cheers. Okay...

And then a quick trip to WalMart for essentials. And the off-chance they might have a Toad stuffed toy which we didn't find last time in our expedition around its cavernous expanse.

Which included an attempt to find a portable fan, which failed. A message from DD1 after her search through WalMart: “No luck. But if you want a 10 piece co-ordinated bedding set, you’re in luck.”

We decided against the bedding set as being less useful for the purpose of cooling us down in the parks, headed back to the villa and to bed. At last.

Seriously, these relaxing holidays are really exhausting.