**Smiley Kylie Goes Solo Nov 2017- Day 4- Animal Kingdom & Disney Springs**

[xxSmileyKyliexx]

>>> INDEX HERE

Saturday 4th November

So today my itinerary instructed me to wake up at around 6am to get to Animal Kingdom for 8am extra magic hours. But considering I didn’t get back and settled into bed until gone 1am last night this was not going to happen. Me and Stacey had predicted this last night and so decided to meet this morning at 8:45am. I had such a settled sleep only waking up once which was much better! I got up and ready for the day at around 7:30am. I felt fresh and full of positivity today. Spending time with the others last night had done me the world of good and I was mega excited to be spending the day with Stacey today. First day not alone in the parks, yay! Me and Stace met as planned at 8:45am in the resort lobby area. We had planned to grab some brekkie at our hotel food court but it was ridiculously busy so we ditched that idea and headed straight to Animal Kingdom. We were on the bus relatively quickly and soon walking into the park.

It seemed to be really busy already. But I guess this was to be expected with extra morning hours and the park had not long opened for everyone else too. Bag check was mad, I noticed that they’d opened extra lines to the side which helped a little. I was grateful that I didn’t have a massive family or children with me when I saw the amount of stuff people bring into the park. Surely they don’t actually use or need all of it, maybe being over cautious. I could not cope with having to use a stroller either or even worse the double strollers. Hats off to all you parents with young children that do this! Once in the park we grabbed some maps and followed the path to the tree of life. I always love catching my first glimpse of the tree and getting a photopass pic in front of it upon arrival. But today was different. We fought our way through crowds of people waiting for photos to be taken, families just stopping mid path and then when we got closer noticed that today was Christmas taping day, right in front of the tree! How bloody annoying This would explain the crowds! We had a fastpass for Dinosaur at 9:10am so headed towards dinoland.

Beautiful sun! Today was going to be a hot one!

We scanned Mickey to Mickey and were soon on the ride. I always love this ride, have so many memories riding it with my family and uncontrollably laughing all the way round when on it with Carley. Me and Carley always try to ride it without holding on, it is impossible! Unless you want to be in the lap of whoever’s next to you. It was good fun, I was thinking how much my nephew Oliver would love this ride. He used to get me to show him it on YouTube when he was little, that kid knows all the dinosaur species and what noises they make! I always laugh so much as you can feel every inch of fat wobbling and boobs jiggling, and I just think my god if someone was watching me now

We look so unimpressed

We had a mooch in the shop when leaving the ride. I was after some purple coloured Minnie ears to go with various purple clothing I had packed. I’m quite the perfectionist when I wear Minnie ears and always like to have them matching with whatever I’m wearing, hence why today I wore none as I had none to match! In here, I found the perfect pair with a purple bow and bought them straight away Next we saw that Primeval Whirl had a 10 minute wait so headed onto that. This is another ride that always has me cracking up. I have to make sure my bladder is empty when I go on rides as I always laugh and have been known to wet myself! It’s quite hard to try and hold your pee in when a ride is throwing you around and you can’t stop laughing. Today however, I did not urinate in my pants, yay

I’d forgotten how much this ride throws you around, I could barely fit my butt in the seat and so every time we hit a sharp turn my thighs and hips would be bashing into the sides, we were both laughing whilst ‘outching’ at the same time, it was funny. I limped off the ride pulling my cacks and shorts out from my crack. We were in desperate need for food so made this our next priority. We walked through Asia keeping an eye out on what food offerings there were, stopping to watch the monkeys on the way.

Everywhere was so busy with huge lines building up. Eventually we decided to grab a bottle of water and a donut each from Joffrey’s. We wanted to sit down to eat and conveniently there was a tuk tuk vehicle right there with seats and nobody in them. Without even hesitating we both made ourselves comfortable and scoffed our very healthy breakfast. Has anyone ever ridden in an actual tuk tuk? I have years ago in India and my god I’m surprised I made it home alive. Those Indians speed around in and out of traffic, dodging cows and people without a worry in the world, whilst I’m sat in the back clinging on thinking that death is pretty much imminent. I was thankful that this one was not moving.

Those donuts were yummy! Felt quite cosy and nice sitting there eating whilst people watching. We were next to the vacation club seller stand thing and the sales man was saying we had a good seat etc and kindly took the above photo of us. He had to wipe the lens as with the heat it kept fogging up and my photos were blurry. This happened a lot over the holiday and really annoyed me! He gave us some stitch tattoos which we obviously put on ha! We were using the $3 water we’d just purchased, not a waste of money at all.

Matching tatts

Before he started trying to sell us stuff, we swiftly left and headed towards expedition Everest to use our fast pass. We noticed that there were not many photo pass photographers around, usually they’d be dotted around, especially by Everest but nope we didn’t see any, so took our own.

This area is beautifully done, there’s so much to see and take in. It was difficult though with the crowds. We noticed a lot of big groups and runners so maybe there had been one of them Disney run things early this morning. I also noticed what seemed to be a fashion trend, so many Americans wearing high socks, like pulled up to their knee high. What on Earth! My legs would be sweating if i’d worn them, wasn’t as if they looked nice or were nice socks either. Onto Everest we go!

This ride is Carley’s favourite, I always get nervous going on though. Don’t get me wrong I absolutely love it and I’m generally not scared of any rides but this one usually made me feel sick and headachey afterwards, and I’d just eaten that big old donut too! I always enjoy looking at the artefacts and stuff in the line, makes it more interesting especially if you don’t have a fast pass and you’re having to queue. I screamed like a girl pants on the ride like I always do, it was great fun. I’ve been on it loads and every time I’m always like ‘omg this is so high’. I didn’t feel sick afterwards either which was a result!

Next we headed down the gorilla trail thing to see what animals we’d come across. We saw the gorillas through the glass, they were asleep or just chilling. We also saw meerkats and I think a hippo, the pic I took is so crap I can’t even make out what it is!

We were behind a family on this trail and there were 2 young children just singing (more like shouting) this same repetitive tune over and over the whole time. I swear to god it was driving me nuts. They were enjoying themselves but my god if I was the parent I would have had to tell them to button it. I honestly think Disney world should be for adults only We stopped to have a photo taken by the gorillas and were lucky to have one in the background.

I enjoyed watching these gorillas just wandering around in the green, so much so that I was like a big kid shouting excitably to Stacey that ‘there’s a gorilla right there, look look, he’s so close!’

It was feeling so hot now, I always feel hot and sticky in Animal Kingdom. The humidity was unreal and my hair was getting bigger as the day went on. Probably not the best idea wearing it down! We found a hidden spot for a photopass opportunity, it was in front of the back of the tree, probably because the front of the tree was blocked by the stupid Christmas thing! I really love these photos and it was nice to not be on my own in them!

It was time for Stacey to use her Flight Of Passage fastpass over in pandora. Unfortunately, I was unable to get the same time as her so we’d have to ride separately. Mine was originally at 6:20 this evening, I checked mde on the off chance to see if there was one sooner and luckily there was for 1:15pm so I quickly changed it before it went! This was much easier as I didn’t fancy staying the whole day in this heat waiting for it! We made a plan that when I went to use my fp, Stace would go back to Pop and I’d meet her there a bit later for some pool time. We were loving this idea as it was so hot, we just wanted to lay in the sun and get in that pool without the stresses of park crowds!

So with Stacey gone I mooched around to see what to do. It was ridiculously busy in front of the tree, I couldn’t think of anything worse being in that massive crowd in Animal Kingdom heat. It was all so fake as well, the crowd were instructed when to clap and cheer and it just didn’t seem very Christmassy at all. I thought about going to see the ‘it’s tough to be a bug’ show but it was posted as a 30 minute wait which I didn’t want to wait for so I got in line to meet Russell from UP. After 5 minutes I got straight back out of the queue! I hadn’t yet met any characters on my own and was winding myself up whilst queueing about the interaction with him, what to do, say etc and I think I would have felt well awkward so I quickly removed myself from that situation. Does anyone else ever make up scenarios in their heads and then stress themselves out about it? I do this a lot! I wondered around and sat in the sun for a bit and then decided to just head to Pandora to have a nosy and wait for Stacey.

Well I’ve never seen busy like it was here! So many people everywhere! Both the Navi river ride and flight of passage were listed as over 120mins. You can imagine the queues! I wandered around, again appreciating that I was on my own and could easily swerve in between people. I’d made sure to watch Avatar twice before coming on this trip. It never really appealed to me before and I was never quite sure why it would be coming to Animal Kingdom. I was glad I watched the film (I really enjoyed it!) as I wouldn’t have been able to appreciate how amazingly detailed everything was. The floating mountains were amazing, especially seeing them from underneath! The colourful alien plant life, water features, animal noises, coloured rocks, the moss wall etc were all done so so well. I was expecting the area to be bigger than it was but appreciated everything which I saw, there were little pathways around so that you could explore and look around, it really was beautiful! I made sure to get a couple of photopass pics taken whilst here and the queue wasn’t too bad. Check out my fat rolls.

I figured Stacey might take a while considering the wait time for the ride so I found myself a rock to sit on whilst waiting. It was so nice just sitting here being dispersed into the world of avatar, listening to the different sounds, watching people go by. It was boiling though, I was feeling hot and sticky and my hair was no longer straight.

I messaged Stacey to let her know where I was and that I may melt. Not long after, she was back telling me how good the ride was and that she’d enjoyed it. We spoke about the crowds and headed straight outta there!

At some point (I can’t remember if it was now or before pandora) we had some photopass photos taken in the harambe village area. This has got to be one of the funniest most awkward photo experiences I’ve ever had. Our photographer was called Lee, he was a crazy man! Talking in various accents, making jokes with Stacey about his photography skills, getting us to pose in certain ways. I could have died. He spent so much time with us that the people in the queue buggered off, I’m assuming they didn’t want to wait. We literally just wanted the photo with the Mickey pic but he had us getting on the bike, pretending to ride the bike etc, it was so funny. He also informed us that the “Fichwa! Fellow” quote written below Mickey was Swahili and that ‘fichwa’ means ‘hidden’ meaning that Mickey on the wall in plain sight of everyone actually meant ‘hidden Mickey’. I was quite impressed with this little fact and I’d never have known! He was a nice guy and clearly enjoyed his job, he made this photo experience really fun for us and we got some brilliant pics!

One thing me and Stacey wanted to do was the Jungle Trek thing. We really wanted to see the tigers and so we walked through in hope that there were some around.

Well it was a nice little walkthrough and themed really well however we only saw one tiger who was fast asleep against a wall. I was quite disappointed, I’d seen a tiger close up before coming on this holiday at Marwell Zoo! He was probably very hot though and fed up of being gawped at.

It was time to stop somewhere for a bite to eat. We both had the baked mac n cheese from eight spoon café on our food to try lists so headed there. I think we actually got lost and had to look at the map on mde to direct us! Animal Kingdom is such a big park and it’s another one where I lose my bearings and have no idea where I am or where to find anything. We found it eventually and ordered our food.

We noticed a spare table whilst ordering which we were desperate to have! There was limited seating around here so we were lucky to even spot this table. Luckily Stacey grabbed her order and secured the table for us. I ordered myself the plain baked macaroni and cheese. You could use a snack credit for everything here which I thought was a fab use of a credit. The portion wasn’t bad either!

I really enjoyed this snack. I’m a massive lover of Mac n cheese anyway and this didn’t disappoint. It was creamy, cheesy and the spring onion was a nice addition. We sat, chilled here for a while and saw these guys.

I always love meeting Baloo and King Louis and would make sure that I met them this holiday! It was nearing on 1:15pm now so my turn to ride Flight of passage. We parted ways, me heading back into Pandora and Stacey back to Pop. I have never appreciated having a fastpass so much! The queue for flight of passage was now 170mins! I would never wait this long for any ride. I bypassed all these fools feeling smug that I had secured myself a fastpass.

Walking under the floating mountains and being close to the waterfalls was amazing, I really enjoyed the little walk to the ride, especially walking past all the people queuing. Excitement levels were high. I love trying new rides not having a clue what’s in store. I often wish that I could go back to the very first time I visited Florida when I was trying all the attractions for the first time. I remember feeling so excited back then and I had that same feeling now. I got chatting to a little girl in the queue who said it was her first time too and that she couldn’t wait. Before I knew it I was here, waiting to be called.

I was appreciating how cool it was in here too. I loved the feeling of not knowing what to expect, I’d heard good things about this ride but I hadn’t watched YouTube or anything as I wanted it to be a complete surprise. Finally I was called in and practically skipped there. The first bit was really clever, explaining the story and about you making that connection with your banshee. And then came the ride.

Oh my lord, I was like a big kid afterwards. What a fantastic ride. I can’t even explain in words but it is now my favourite ride at Walt Disney world. I was not disappointed at all. Feeling the banshee breathing was just unreal, I felt emosh at one point as it just all felt very surreal, it was perfect. I smiled the whole time and was shouting out how amazing it was and ‘oh my god look’ and ‘wow this is the best’. The lady next to me was laughing at me, we spoke afterwards and she agreed that it was a fantastic ride. The best. I messaged my friend Lewis to say how much I enjoyed it and he said he knew I would. He’d been on it on his trip too and luckily I’d secured him a fastpass too! As I walked off the ride I could feel adrenaline pumping around, I was so so happy and amazed at how good it was. I immediately wanted to go straight on. Such a great feeling! It was time for me to to try the much talked about night blossom drink so found my way to the Pongu Pongu place where it is sold.

This was a fantastic use of a snack credit! This was the perfect drink for such a hot humid day. It was so refreshing! The boba ball things on top just popped in your mouth, strange but yummy! Love a ball in my mouth 😂 I think I need to be part of this dibb after dark crew you know. Sometimes I just can’t help myself with the inappropriate jokes ha!

It was just after 2pm when I left the park. I was longing to get back to the hotel and get in that pool to cool down!

Hot hot!

Luckily the wait for a bus back wasn’t long, I appreciated the air con as soon as I stepped on. I’d been messaging Stanly my boyfriend on and off throughout the day and he sent me a snapchat, his nose was all swollen and bruised I was like what the f has he done! Turns out he’d been in a drunken fight the night before, tut! I leave that boy for a few days and look what happens. As you can imagine he was all needy wanting snugs and saying he missed me which was cute. On return to the hotel I quickly changed into my bikini, grabbed my refillable mug and headed to meet Stacey who had been chilling for a while and secured us some loungers.

Such a bikini babe ha!

I usually hate wearing bikinis because let’s face it I was not in the best shape for one! I’d been hunting one for ages that I felt comfortable in and didn’t feel like a whale. This one had high waisted bottoms so I could easily cover my belly rolls. I found matching shorts too, win! I found Stacey, told her about my experience on flight of passage and that the night blossom drink was yummy. She’d already had one and enjoyed it too. It was bliss to just lay by the pool in the sun and do nothing. We chatted, dosed on and off and enjoyed relaxing.

The sun got too much so we went into the pool. Ahh so lovely and cooled us right down!

Stace had already gotten herself a lush tan! I was mega jealous, wish I could tan like her! I was just all freckles at this point. We weren’t in the pool long and it was evacuated. A child must have done a dump we guessed. Stacey joked and sent a picture of the empty pool to Julie-Anne and Vicki saying that I’d done a poop and so the pool got evacuated. Haha! To be fair I wouldn’t put it past me.

We watched the lifeguard pacing around, she had a proper little routine going on, must burn some calories! We did wonder why she was doing it and not just stood observing like the others! I joked that she was on ‘turd watch’.

It wasn’t long until the pool reopened and everyone went charging back in there. I really enjoyed this chill time, there were activities going on around the pool, a guess which film the music is in quiz and Disney trivia. It was fun and we were both guessing the answers between us. I refilled our mugs as it was so hot and we were thirsty.

We parted ways again as Stacey had a be our guest reservation to get to for the evening. I stayed by the pool a little longer soaking up the last of the rays trying to tan my pasty ginger skin! Oh to be back in that moment right now! Instead I’m at home with the heating on wearing my granny nightie.

I eventually dragged myself away from the pool at around 5pm and walked back to my room. I spent the next couple of hours just relaxing and reflecting on my day. It had made such a difference being with Stacey, I had really loved it, having photos with someone, having decent conversation, sharing experiences together and making memories with a new friend. I was feeling so grateful that she’d allowed me to join her and plan some of our days together In my room I watched some Harry Potter, Friends and looked through some of today’s photos. The plan for this evening was to head to Disney Springs for some dinner and a nosy around. I left my room at around 7pm. The wait for a bus was ages! And then much to my delight a couple of mobility scooters arrived at the last minute with their families and we had to wait ages for them. I watched as these ladies were assisted onto the bus and then one of them stood up walked up the step to the back of the bus and sat down. I was fuming. I realise I sound like a right horrible cow but it just winds me up that people do this and it is so time consuming! Please don’t hate me.

It felt like it took an absolute age to get there! I had realised en-route that going to the springs on a Saturday night was probably not my brightest idea! The traffic was bad, the traffic lights were taking ages to change too. I hadn’t seen the new Disney Springs yet and knew that it was more than likely that I would get lost. I made mental notes in my head of certain places so that I would remember the route back to the buses. Well I wasn’t wrong! It was dead busy and I had no clue where I was going! I was not familiar with the new layout at all and got myself completely lost walking around in circles. It didn’t help that it was dark and there were crowds of people everywhere. The shops looked real upmarket and the area in general was really pretty with the fairy lights. I was impressed with the new look of the paddlefish restaurant too.

Smudge lens pics

My intentions for dinner was to try out the newish D-Luxe burger gaff. I’d heard nothing but good things about it and quite fancied a burger. It took me ages to find, I walked round in a massive circle and eventually found a map to consult and found my way. I was gutted to see a big queue when I finally arrived

‘I am not queuing in that’ I said to myself. So headed off in another direction where I came across Sephora. I had a quick nosy in here, but it was so busy I couldn’t even enjoy it. Not that I enjoy shopping at all really, I’d usually just do my shopping online at home rather than traipse around loads of shops. I’m actually surprised I haven’t killed anyone yet I promptly left Sephora making a mental note to come back in the week when it was less crowded. I went into the world of Disney store (when I eventually found it) to look for a lady pillow pet. I already have one from a previous trip which I love and sleep with each night, so I wanted to find a fresh new one. I could not find one anywhere! I found stitch though.

Stitch anyone?

I couldn’t be bothered looking around in here anymore so left and headed into basin. I love this shop! I always stock up on bath bombs and soaps to take home. I tried out some hand scrub which made my hands feel so soft and then spent a while sniffing everything. I chose not to buy anything now as I didn’t want to carry it around. Plus I was feeling hungry and needed to find somewhere to eat. Earl of sandwich was a no go, the queue was stupid. I did get in the queue for Wolfgang puck but then left it as I couldn’t decide on what to have.

I was feeling really edgy and annoyed so after grabbing myself a treat from goofy‘s gaff for later on, I made the decision to get the hell out of there. Easier said than done though! I was what felt like miles away from the buses. “I know, I’ll get the boat across” I thought to myself. After getting lost yet again and nearly walking to Saratoga Springs I found where to get the boat from, only to be greeted with a massive line. “Not getting in that” I thought. “I know, I’ll get an Uber”, was my next thought. Then I remembered that my Uber wasn’t working and I didn’t even know where I was for it to pick me up! In the end I just decided to find my way and walk back to the buses. This took so long, so many dithering people

I got lost yet again ending up by cirque du soleil, so asked a security man how to get to the buses. He told me to turn round and go right at the Harley Davidson shop which I did and finally could see the buses. It was typical that the Pop Century bus stop was the furthest away it could possibly get. I was tired, hot, hungry and annoyed at my pointless visit to the Springs. Thankfully the bus came within a few minutes and I was glad to sit down! When I got back, the food court was jam packed, so I headed to the shortest queue which was the pizza one. I picked up a big slice with a side salad (to make it healthy) and a chocolate milk and took this back to my room.

I was grateful to just sit in my bed and eat. I enjoyed an episode of sex and the city and then remembered that the clocks went back tonight! Thank god! An extra hour asleep I felt like I needed it after tonight’s shenanigans. I got back into my granny nightie and was actually feeling cold! So I whacked the heat on and sat in bed blowing the hairdryer on myself to warm up I was annoyed that I’d wasted a night, but learnt a lesson not to go to Disney Springs on your own on a Saturday night ever again! I fell asleep pretty quickly, shattered from a long day

[Rockycat]

Another good day, both times I have been to animal kingdom and looked for the tigers I have only seen the one you have a photo of in exactly the same position... now wondering if it's real! 😀 Shame about your evening in Disney Springs, we always have at least one evening on holiday which turns out a frustrating waste of time, hopefully the rest of your holiday is better 😊.

[redspottyowl]

A great day! Where did you get your bikini?

[Cinderella]

Great day 😀

[jovial]

I don't like Disney Springs on any night I much prefer to go in the daytime as it's so much quieter !

[mick]

Another great day we always go to Disney Springs in the morning always nice and peaceful

Joan

[Goldia]

I love the matching stitch tattoos. Obviously there are more exciting things that happened today, like the 2 of you having such a fab time together, but it was the tattoos that stuck in my mind!

[xxSmileyKyliexx]

Originally Posted by Rockycat

Another good day, both times I have been to animal kingdom and looked for the tigers I have only seen the one you have a photo of in exactly the same position... now wondering if it's real! 😀 Shame about your evening in Disney Springs, we always have at least one evening on holiday which turns out a frustrating waste of time, hopefully the rest of your holiday is better 😊.

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It’s got to be a stuffed one right! I was so annoyed with that evening! Thank you for reading

Originally Posted by redspottyowl

A great day! Where did you get your bikini?

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I got it from figleaves online, they do a nice selection and sizes that are big enough to cover your nipple too

Originally Posted by Cinderella

Great day 😀

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Thank you!

Originally Posted by jovial

I don't like Disney Springs on any night I much prefer to go in the daytime as it's so much quieter !

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I go later on in the daytime and it’s a much better experience! Thank you for reading along xx

Originally Posted by mick

Another great day we always go to Disney Springs in the morning always nice and peaceful

Joan

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Thanks for reading along Joan. Yeah I go there in the day later on and it’s so much nicer!

Originally Posted by Goldia

I love the matching stitch tattoos. Obviously there are more exciting things that happened today, like the 2 of you having such a fab time together, but it was the tattoos that stuck in my mind!

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We laughed so much at our tatts. Love being big kids! The sun later melted mine off!

[Kat11]

Looks like you are having a lovely time. It's so nice to just chill around the pool sometimes isn't it?

Can I just ask, on FOP do those bike things that you sit on move at all because I can't tell from your picture. It's just I get pretty sick on some rides especially simulators but if they stay still I'm usually ok as I can just shut my eyes if I'm feeling off.

Looking forward to reading your next installment. 😀

Kat

[unixgirl]

Thanks for posting - sounds like you packed a lot in. I'm off for a solo visit soon yay! Have to say I love DS at night but maybe not so much a Saturday night. As long as I can get a margarita or wine and sit chilling listening to music I'm fine.