The Magic 3 do WDW again May 2022 - Day 3 Animal Kingdom and Disney Springs

[MrsSilverStar]

Day 3 - rope drop Animal Kingdom and a Disney Springs evening

Welcome back for day 3 and another rope drop of course!

We were ready to brave the Flight of Passage bunfight - sivako! We’d always had FP for the ride on our previous trip so this was our first experience of rope dropping it.

The park opened at 7am for early entry so we woke Heath at 5.45am - the poor kid was hating life!

We had to queue to tap in and were then held again once we’d entered the park, before they let us all do our best speed walking to get to Pandora…then there was an impressive array of winding walkways to head through.

Thanks to my sharp elbows (anyone else really miss Josh from easyWDW? ), we were close enough to the front to just keep walking all the way onto the ride. Mark did say he’d just pay in future and if you’re not near the front, you will still be facing a pretty hefty queue. They had cast members blocking off walkways to make way for the giant queue when we got off 😮

We had another great flight, we all adore this ride. I teared up during the emotional music, like always!

We walked on to Navi River Journey afterwards…this is just such a chilled and pretty ride so we like it. Never get tired of seeing that shaman either 🥰 I can understand it being underwhelming if you’ve queued for it, but definitely worth a walk on.
I saw a photopass photographer without a queue so it was posing time

Then we needed breakfast - which in Florida, means an absolute ton of sugar. We went to Pongu Pongu in Pandora and got pongu lumpia (cream cheese and pineapple spring rolls) French toast sticks and the night blossom drink. It all came to $22.64

It was all fine but not something I’d bother getting again to be honest.

We wandered off to the Tree of Life after our sugar injection. We hadn’t seen the It’s Tough to be a Bug show before so wanted to check that out and see all the tree carvings.

We really enjoyed the show, I love the mix of rides and other entertainment you get at Disney. Plus you get to wear these funky glasses!

We had a Kali genie+ booked so headed for that next. It only had a 5 minute standby queue so we went straight back on again - we were drenched! But Heath decided he needed to be even wetter 😂

We wanted to catch the next Lion King show but had some time to kill so we got a hot dog and pretzel at a cart in Africa and sat in the Harambe Market seating to scoff that. We also saw some of the performers - it’s so fun when you come across any of these groups. They were doing some impressive dancing so I was pleased I didn’t get called up to join in like I did on our last trip when I had to head a football!

We saw lots of flotillas today too

We’ve never seen the Lion King show before - we thought it was fantastic even in its reduced version, without the tumble monkeys. We all loved it. The costumes, the singers, the fire eater - just excellent.

Heath was ready for more pool time by this point so we headed back to get the bus.
We saw Kevin on our way out.

We hit the pool once we were back at the Poly and got lunch to go from Kona - and enjoyed our first vegetables of the trip 😂 I actually took a photo to mark this momentous occasion.

these were genuinely delicious! Covered in garlic, so good. We also had pot stickers and wings, plus a chicken wrap for Heath. $36.21 for this little feast.

I’d also told Mark that I’d read about the little cafe upstairs selling chocolate covered bacon before we came…he acted disgusted by this news but obviously bought me some when he saw it! It was really yum.

And we discovered this lovely cocktail

Lime dole whip margarita with a chilli rim, delicious!

Characters occasionally appeared at the little green at the Poly, so Heath got to meet Donald during lunch

I thought this was a lovely touch and I hope it’s something they keep doing.

We had dinner booked at The Boathouse at Disney Springs so after a good splash, it was time to head there.

I’d seen a lot of hype about Gideon’s Bakehouse so we had to give that a try.

There was a small queue but we got inside pretty quickly thankfully. We chose an original and a cookies and cream cookie…they were out of all of the peanut butter specials which was a shame but the cookies and cream one was sensational! I don’t think it’s worth queuing in the hot Florida sun for, but it’s always nice to scoff some cookies! $12.78 for two, including tax

Mark had gone into Jock Lindsey’s Hangar Bar while we bought them…he refused to queue for internet hype 😂

We joined him out on the deck by the water once we’d secured our snacks. It was so lovely sitting by the water in the sunshine with a nice breeze on us, knowing we’d already done so much and still had nearly the whole holiday ahead of us - bliss.

We couldn’t sit around for too long though, we had our Boathouse reservation to get to, luckily it is just next door.

This was our first time here but we liked it as soon as we walked in. It was very busy but in a good way, like it’s popular because people love eating there.
They brought out honey glazed rolls as we sat down…oh wow, they were sensational. Can’t believe I’m this wowed by bread with honey on but here we are! Absolutely delicious.

I’d made this booking solely because I wanted the duck duck razz cocktail (a legitimate reason right?!)

It was so strong! Think I was tipsy before I’d even finished it 😂 it was lovely.
Mark and I shared a couple of apps as we weren’t that hungry after all our feasting by the pool earlier. Heath had burger and chips - it was all delicious. We had a lovely time here, I’d definitely go back.

We looked in a few shops on our way back to the bus. Heath chose a Grogu magicband, he loves that little guy!
Picture nicked from the internet:

There was an art trail by the bus stops

Then we toddled off to bed after our lovely evening, ready to rope drop Magic Kingdom in the morning.

[MrsSilverStar]

Just to add a shot of Heath’s Lion King t-shirt from Adidas - it’s too cool to leave out!

[mick]

Another great day


Joan

[MrsSilverStar]

Originally Posted by mick

Another great day


Joan

See more...

Thanks Joan!

[Goldia]

An early start, but it seemed worth it for the very low wait to get on FOP. What time was park opening for AK? We're going on day 1, as I figured this is our best chance of being up and out early and not having to pay for the ILL. We're also at All Starts, so a very short bus ride. The park opens at 8am, so EMH is 7.30am for us. I'm guessing we need to be at the bus stop for 7am.

I loved the photo of Heath cooling off in the water fountain. It's always full of kids having fun and getting even wetter.

A lazy afternoon and chilled out evening at DS is what you all deserve after your action packed first few days. The boathouse looks great. I can't wait to try it, but I have an aversion to blue cocktails after an incident in my youth with 20-20 I don't think they even make that drink anymore. Still, I'm sure I'll find a cocktail to my liking .

[MrsSilverStar]

Originally Posted by Goldia

An early start, but it seemed worth it for the very low wait to get on FOP. What time was park opening for AK? We're going on day 1, as I figured this is our best chance of being up and out early and not having to pay for the ILL. We're also at All Starts, so a very short bus ride. The park opens at 8am, so EMH is 7.30am for us. I'm guessing we need to be at the bus stop for 7am.

I loved the photo of Heath cooling off in the water fountain. It's always full of kids having fun and getting even wetter.

A lazy afternoon and chilled out evening at DS is what you all deserve after your action packed first few days. The boathouse looks great. I can't wait to try it, but I have an aversion to blue cocktails after an incident in my youth with 20-20 I don't think they even make that drink anymore. Still, I'm sure I'll find a cocktail to my liking .

See more...

20/20 Mad Dog! Aw, precious memories of a misspent youth 😂 hideous stuff. I promise the cocktail is nicer than that!

Park opened at 7am for us. If you want to walk on, the advice is to arrive 45 mins/an hour before it opens so I would personally be at the bus stop at 6.30am at the latest! But you know I love a rope drop

[Goldia]

Thanks Tara I was fearful it wouldn't be early enough so that is helpful to know.

Was it basically a walk on for you? Just walking through the queue? Also, did you actually see the whole queue? As we've not been through the labs and only ever done FP+.

[MrsSilverStar]

Originally Posted by Goldia

Thanks Tara I was fearful it wouldn't be early enough so that is helpful to know.

Was it basically a walk on for you? Just walking through the queue? Also, did you actually see the whole queue? As we've not been through the labs and only ever done FP+.

See more...

Yes, we walked the whole time which is quite a hike but didn’t feel like queuing at all. We did see the whole queue but moved through the labs quite quickly.

[flo-tinka]

Just catching up on some reports
Wow you have achieved so much in first couple of days
Loving that T Shirt and the ‘sharp elbows’ comment 😍

[MrsSilverStar]

Originally Posted by flo-tinka

Just catching up on some reports
Wow you have achieved so much in first couple of days
Loving that T Shirt and the ‘sharp elbows’ comment 😍

See more...

We certainly tried to get our money’s worth at the parks 😂 no rest allowed at Disney!
Thanks for commenting