August 2018 Wishing on a Star: Day 11 AK

[Niki T]

Animal Kingdom was on the plan for today. It wasn't a magic morning, so we thought could get a little lie in; 7am is a lie in, right?

After the usual morning faffing, we were at the bus stop at 8:25 and at the park for 8:55. It was already open and the queue for FOP was 2 hours . No thanks. We'd just wait until our fast passes later. Instead we walked straight on Expedition Everest. We had a fastpass for this too, but decided we didn't need it, so we modified it for the Nemo show - at least we'd get out of the heat quicker later.

After our Everest ride, we headed onto the Safari. It was fairly early and the animals were pretty active and we had a row to ourselves.

As we exited we stopped at the DVC location and chatted to the guy. He had a special opening day BLT pin which he gave to us. It was a lovely touch of magic and we insisted he take one of our hotel traders as he could gift it to someone else and make their day too .

Hunger was already striking, so we headed to Pandora and had some cheeseburger pods and chocolate cake. I didn't write down the cost, but I think it would've been around $15ish. We've had them before and think they are pretty tasty, but the bowls are also lovely from there. It's something very different for the theme park norm.

Our Flight of Passage fastpass was next and the queue was still over 2 hours. What a fab ride; it's so clever.

We wandered round the park looking for air con and pins we wanted as we passed the time until Nemo. After we'd scanned our magic bands, we booked our 4th fastpass for Expedition Everest. Love the staging of this show.

After the show we left the air con into the hot, hot sun we headed to do our Everest FP. Unfortunately it was down. This meant we had a magic fastpass, but we were unable to book another until that had been used. We decided Everest was what we wanted to do, so we'd wait. Instead, we wandered around the animal trails looking at the tigers. Not sure where these pics disappeared to, perhaps we opted to use our eyes instead of hiding them behind camera lenses

Luckily, after that jaunt Everest was up and running again, so we jumped on that using out magic fastpass. The queue, both fastpass and standby was quite long. They didn't let many in from the stand by queue on each ride, maybe 2 parties, as the fastpass queue was so long after the breakdown. There were some people who were quite unhappy .

Dinosaur was next after we'd bagged another fastpass after our magic one had been used, but we still had wait, we did more animal trails and had something to eat at Restaurantasaurus. We shared chicken nuggets and I had some chilli cheese fries. We used the toppings bar, which is pretty good here.

It was now time for our Dinosaur fastpass and my fear of dinosaurs took over. Once again, I'm missing from the picture.

After we'd scanned in, we check for any other fast passes - it was pretty late in the day and we didn't expect one, but there was on available for the Safari at 7:30. We grabbed it and wandered round the park looking at the various animals.

At our safari time, we scanned it, but it was not not necessary as there was no queue at all; there were also no animals - or very few. To top that off the family in front kept using their flash. They were told multiple times from the CM and they just ignored him. It was pretty dark, so pictures weren't worth it. the guy who was using his flash had some great pictures of illuminated benches and side of heads - no animals though.

After our ride we picked up some egg rolls from Yak and Yeti...delicious.

Pandora at night was next on the cards. It became a bit of a joke last year that every time we were due to do this it was raining. Not this time. We enjoyed seeing the area come to life and playing with camera settings to get some interesting shots before heading home via the tree awakening. What another lovely day.

[mick]

A long busy but great day


Joan

[collybird]

We have the same issue with Animal Kingdom in the evening and rain!

You and John seem to have so much luck with extra FP, I found it really tough this year to get something decent.

[Cinderella]

Love that pin and some great pictures of Pandora there👍

[Niki T]

Originally Posted by mick

A long busy but great day


Joan

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I think we only do busy days they don't feel as full on though...honest
Thanks for reading

Originally Posted by collybird

We have the same issue with Animal Kingdom in the evening and rain!

You and John seem to have so much luck with extra FP, I found it really tough this year to get something decent.

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We did seem to get good use of FP, but we had nothing else to work around and were pretty flexible, which helped and we'd book early FPs so had lots of time to get others. It's a shame when they don't seem to fall right and luck definitely plays a part!

Thanks for reading

Originally Posted by Cinderella

Love that pin and some great pictures of Pandora there👍

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We were made up with pin, completely unexpected. Pandora was definitely easier to photograph in the dry loved seeing it come alive at night.
Thanks for reading

[Palm trees]

Great photos, I love the Nemo show

[Niki T]

Originally Posted by Palm trees

Great photos, I love the Nemo show

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I'd love to see a full stage show. Before the backstage tour finished we saw them making the backdrops; it's cool to see them situ now.
Thanks for reading

[Goldia]

We never made it to the nemo show this summer and seeing your photos makes me wish we had squeezed it in!

Dinosaur we did several times and Everest too. I loved the photopass of you on Everest, it looked like yoj were trying to be brave and do no hands, but you were clinging on to each other instead. I have to hold on tight to the bar I can't do it any other way!

[Excitedx4]

A nice busy day! Really want to see nemo this year as we haven’t been since 2016 and I’m sure my youngest doesn’t remember it at all it’s a fab little show!

[Niki T]

Originally Posted by Excitedx4

A nice busy day! Really want to see nemo this year as we haven’t been since 2016 and I’m sure my youngest doesn’t remember it at all it’s a fab little show!

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Oooh I hope you all enjoy it. I love Crush's song. We sat next to the stage once which was a great seat as the actors shake your hands -saw a lot of excited children