Disneymoon with the Besties - May/June 2017 - Day 15 - Animal Kingdom, Tiffins and Rivers of Light

[tracey1302]

Pre-Trip Report

Day -1 - Sunday 21st May - Overnight stay at the Radisson, Manchester

Day 0 - Monday 22nd May - Travel Day and Arrival in NYC

Day 1 - Tuesday 23rd May - Brooklyn Bridge, Ground Zero, Statue of Liberty, Highline and Brooklyn Brewery

Day 2 - Wednesday 24th May - Central Park, Top of the Rock and Book of Mormon

Day 3 - Thursday 25th May - Grand Central and the Natural History Museum

Day 4 - Friday 26th May - NYC to MCO, arrival at Sapphire Falls and Cowfish

Day 5 - Saturday 27th May - Sapphire Falls, arrival of the besties and NBC Grill

Day 6 - Sunday 28th May - Universal Studios and Bahama Breeze

Day 7 - Monday 29th May - IOA, move to POR, House of Blues

Day 8 - Tuesday 30th May - MK, Narcoossee's and Happily Ever After

Day 9 - Wednesday 31st May - Epcot, Le Cellier, Illuminations and Magic Kingdom (take 2!)

Day 10 - Thursday 1st June - Typhoon Lagoon and the Boathouse

Day 11 - Friday 2nd June - Disney's Hollywood Studios and California Grill

Day 12 - Saturday 3rd June - POR and Jiko

Day 13 - Sunday 4th June - Narcoossee's brunch, Disney Springs, Pixar Live and Fantasmic

Day 14 - Monday 5th June - Photoshoot, Disney Springs and STK

Day 15 - Tuesday 6th June - Animal Kingdom, Tiffins and Rivers of Light

It was an early get up for the Thomases this morning. However I made a massive error. I thought that AK opened at 7 and so I had got in the shower at 5.30, ready to get the bus about 6.30am. It had been open at 7 at some point that week, but it must have been an EMH day, because when I checked (after my shower) the opening time for that day showed as 8am. What an idiot. Back to bed.

An hour later, Neil and I got up and had some breakfast and were at the bus stop for 7am. The AK bus was scheduled for 7.15. Then it kept getting pushed on by ten minutes, then a bus eventually came for AK that was full.

Neil and I knew that by this time, the queue for FOP would already be a couple of hours, so we didn't see the point in going at that time, so Neil suggested we go for our first Pandora FP which was at 10.55-11.55.

So it was back to bed... again.

We finally succeeded in getting the bus to AK at 10am. It was already massively busy. People were arriving in their droves.

However, the sky looked ominous already and it was only just 11am.

Talk about black clouds...

Not to be deterred, Neil and I headed round to Pandora... if you don't want to know anything about Pandora, I would recommend you stop reading right about now...




SPOILER SPACE INSERTED FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE.









Neil and I were bowled over by Pandora. It really is absolutely out of this world. You literally feel liked you've been transported to another world. These mountains, though

The place was buzzing, and it really does add something super special and magical to Animal Kingdom.

These mountains wow from every angle. I couldn't get enough of them.

As we made our way to Navi River Journey, Neil came across these drums, which he loved, possibly a little too much.

At this time, we decided to call in our fastpass for NRJ. The queue at the time we entered the FP line was 90 minutes.

It was okay. It is a really beautiful ride, and as Neil said immediately afterward, they had to have a ride like that in Pandora. He didn't see really what else they could have done with the franchise (apart from FOP, obviously). But it's just a bit... boring. I think I'm being overly harsh because I'm comparing it to FOP which is just like, wow. But we're not at that part of the TR yet.

After coming off NRJ, we had a further nosy around Pandora...

It is really gorgeous, but Neil and I were really keen to see it come alive at night, so we decided to leave it for the moment. The only time I had envisaged us even having a shot to get on FOP was in EMH 11-1am... so that was the plan

However, we did spot a PP photographer on our way out.

Our next FP was for Expedition Everest. Neil and I loved this more than we ever have. The fact that it was spitting did add an extra air of terror to our tour of Everest...

The sky was still looking a bit horrific, but we were starving for dinner, so headed for Flame Tree. It was amazing as always. I had the combo meal... I wasn't keen on the Jalapeno cornbread but Neil had mine.

After dinner, we had some time before calling in our Fastpass for Dinosaur... so we headed on Primeval Whirl...

However, this was when the heavens opened. And I mean, seriously opened. As in, worse than MK on our first evening when they'd postponed HEA for two hours, worse than I had ever seen. The rain was coming down in sheets - it even felt like it was coming from underneath us. I've never seen anything like it.

We headed for Dinosaur, which was luckily close by, but it was temporarily down... nightmare!

So, deciding to give up AK as a bad job, we left, making the decision to go back to POR, have a hot shower, and come back for tea and the evening. The queue for Dinosaur had only been 30 minutes anyway so we reckoned it wouldn't be horrendous if we came back to do it later.

This was a great idea.

TBC...

[tracey1302]

After some chill time in the room and a couple of hot showers, we headed back to a much more relaxing and much quieter Animal Kingdom. Instead of there being people everywhere, it was just nicely atmospheric.

On our entry into AK that morning, there had been massive queues for Photopass photographers, but now, it wasn't a problem.

We headed over to do Dinosaur before our ADR at Tiffins as we both really love this ride. It didn't disappoint, and we decided to have a bit of fun with the ride photo. Think Michael Jackson, 'Thriller'!

After having a blast on Dinosaur, we headed round for our ADR at Tiffins.

Ever since Animal Kingdom announced they were opening a Signature, I'd decided I was in. It would change the whole dynamic of AK, and it really did. I read all the reviews for Tiffins and found myself massively excited for this meal.

I booked the ROL dining package as well, so we didn't have to worry about rushing round to Asia.

I had planned to go to the Nomad Lounge for a drink beforehand, but we were both starving, so we went straight in for dinner. I took a few pictures of the Nomad Lounge anyway!

We were seated straightaway at Tiffins and it was really quite quiet, although it was only 6pm. We took in the ambiance.

It's got a really nice vibe about it, really informal and relaxing.

Our server was a bit OTT with everything though, especially the menu. It's like she wanted us to order everything

I had the Lobster Thai Curry Popcorn Soup which they poured tableside from a little jug.

This was absolutely gorgeous. One of my favourite appetisers of the holiday. I'm a massive fan of Thai food anyway though, but the lobster was beautiful and the popcorn gave it an extra crunch in the texture.

And Neil had the Artisanal Cheese Selection. He said this was nice but it gave him heartburn later

My main was stunning. I had the scallops. They knocked the socks off the scallops at Cali Grill, but this was because the accompaniment was a lot simpler, which enabled me to taste the scallops more!

Neil had the Venison. He loved the loin, but wasn't a fan of the sausage. Each to their own. It always just depends on what you order. To be honest, had we not planned to go to Flying Fish the next day, he probably would have ordered fish! Too many Signatures

For dessert, I had the Passion Fruit Tapioca Creme. This was absolutely lovely. So light and fruity, unlike a lot of the other puddings we'd had which had been really quite heavy.

Neil had the Sorbet (again, looking for a lighter option) and he said that was really lovely as well. Very different.

We had a fabulous meal at Tiffins, and I wouldn't hesitate to return, particularly with it being so conveniently located inside the park. In terms of rating, it's along the same lines as Jiko, but not as high as Cali Grill, Flying Fish, Narcoossee's and STK. I think this is largely because of the menu, which is a little more abstract. Neil suffered from this a little with Tiffins, but I didn't. It was fantastic for me.

After this, we had a bit of time to kill as ROL wasn't for another 45 minutes, so we simply walked around the Asia lake, getting a coffee for me on the way.

We loved Animal Kingdom at night. The latest we'd ever stayed on previous visits had been about 5pm... there was just nothing there but now? This was actually one of my favourite evenings of our honeymoon. The whole place was buzzing and totally beautiful. There were street performers, bands. It just had a great vibe about it.

We eventually came round to our reserved section for ROL. It was so pretty and made me really excited for the show.

I haven't taken any pictures of ROL as I wanted to enjoy the show but we absolutely loved it. It was breathtaking. All the colours, and the water, and the animals and the light. It was just so so beautiful. I was also really happy that they didn't use any loud banging noises that could potentially frighten the animals.

After ROL, we headed... along with what seemed to be the rest of the ROL audience, back to Pandora. I'd been checking the wait times for FOP throughout the day... for the past hour it had been hopping from 60 minutes, 90 minutes, to 120 minutes.

Neil and I decided that 100 minutes was our limit. We headed over to Pandora, and couldn't believe the difference. It was magic. The way Pandora comes alive at night is just something else. It made me realise I barely want to visit during the day

We got to FOP and the queue was posted as 110 minutes. We decided to just go for it... We actually queued 45 minutes.


SPOILER GAP FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE.


























The queue for FOP is fantastic. First you're taken into a Navi cave.

We walked straight through this bit, though there were a few people behind us. There is so much detail and so much to look at.

Then, went into a scientific facility bit that has been taken over by the Navi rainforest. It was ace in here.

It made my top do this...

We spent most of our time queuing in here. We were in here for about 30 minutes but again, there was a lot to look at. After that, we went into the lab which was my favourite bit of the queue because there's so much to reference from the movie.

Including the life size Avatar, which is just incredible.

After coming through here pretty quickly, we realised that we wouldn't be queuing the full time. There was another area after this, where you figure out how the whole 'linking to your Avatar' thing works, but Neil and I were more interested in the amazing pictures on the walls.

How big are the Navi?

After this, we were put into another queue, on a slight incline, and we actually managed to sneak through as a '2' into a showing, as the groups ahead of us were all funny numbers.

We couldn't believe how quickly we had got through the queue and we were actually really thankful to have had the experience of queuing because it's really quite something.

Now we just hoped that the ride lived up to the hype.

Flights of Passage is the best ride I have ever been on in my life. It even beat Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, which has remained a solid favourite of mine since 2011. But this? This was something else.

I actually cried with happiness when I was on it, and remained absolutely breathless when we came off. It was like nothing I had ever experienced before in my life. The music, the air, the movement, the smell, the water, the quality of the 3D... it's just... something else. I am so happy that Disney have pulled this one off. I can't wait to go on it, again and again and again.

Neil and I couldn't stop talking about FOP for the rest of the way out of the park and back to POR. It was a stand-out experience of our entire honeymoon.



Day 16 - Disney Springs, AbracadaBar and Flying Fish is here

[collybird]

What a fabulous day, I will have to come back and read about Pandora after our trip!

We have always loved Animal Kingdom and are so excited to visit at night. Very much looking forward to Tiffins and Rivers of Light. Really enjoying your food reviews.