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Old 17 Sep 17, 10:22 PM  
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Leyfy
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Pints, Points, Photos & Plenty More - August 2017 Honeymoon - 13/08/17 - Day 13

Day 13 - Boardwalk Inn/Animal Kingdom/Disney Springs/Yachtsman Steakhouse

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Day 12

So, today was our penultimate full day here in the wonderful world of Walt



Being that this was our ONE AND ONLY shot at Pandora today, I was determined to get up and out of bed to get there and get on the Na'vi River Adventure without a fastpass. Phil, however, was not so impressed when I told him this involved getting up even earlier than the day before - 7.30am!

However, I managed to persuade him to get up (it didn't involve threats of pouring water on him/divorce etc at all - honest! ) and we got dressed and headed to the bus stop. Luckily there was an abundance of buses to Animal Kingdom every day. I think with the popularity of Pandora WDW were obviously putting on extra buses there. Shame they can't seem to organise the buses BACK again but ...



Luckily at our 60 day mark I'd been able to secure a fastpass for Flight of Passage. Even more miraculously, I'd got them in the order I wanted:

Safari 9.30-10.30am (before all the animals fall asleep like at Naples Zoo a few days previously!)
Flight of Passage 10.30-11.30am
Everest 12pm - 1pm.

Sorted!

Due to our swift start we were at the park by 8.30am and quickly heading through security. We peeled off to the left and saw the crowds that were amassing round the entrance to Pandora. I was going to take a photo but literally as we got there they opened the gates and...



My gosh, you'd think they were giving out lifetime free DVC memberships up ahead the way everyone was carrying on!

(As an aside - *that* scene in the Lion King. I've watched the beginning of The Lion King precisely once. I've seen the film from where Simba meets Pumba and Timone for the first time about 20 times... I'm not even lying when I say I fast forward the beginning bit because it's so traumatising! )

Having not even contemplated looking at a map in advance (not wanting to spoil anything) I had no idea where we were going and we were kind of swept up with the crowd. However, I saw a sign for the Na'vi River adventure and we managed to peel off from the majority of the crowd which were heading to Flight of Passage over to the right.

The sign at the entrance said a 30 minute wait but I didn't believe that *at all* and we headed in. Mr 'this better be worth getting out of bed at stupid o'clock on holiday' hadn't quite woken up yet:





The animatronic at the end which was very impressive:



So, my thoughts? Meh... It's nice! The depth of vision and the effects are really, really lovely. However, I was expecting a kind of Avatar version of the Shanghai Pirates of the Caribbean ride. If you've not seen the POV of this ride I'd *strongly* recommend it, it looks mind-blowingly good! The bit with the ships rising out of the depths of the ocean ...

However, this was just okay. I don't think I'd bother queuing more than about 30 minutes for it now I've been on it? Definitely go on it if you've not done it before just for the experience, and it is lovely. It's just not a headliner

Hope that makes sense?

Anyway, we were out by about 8.55am and we decided to get some breakfast before our safari. Luckily Starbucks was round the corner. We headed back out of Pandora and saw some people running towards FOP which was already queuing waaaay back. I was thinking to myself don't even bother running!

If you want to do it without a fastpass I'd recommend that you get there EARLY - our park opening time that day was 9am and we were left into Pandora by 8.45am. There was already a hefty amount of people waiting before we even got there, so I'd recommend getting to Animal Kingdom as soon as you can. Also - best of British - it was like a rugby scrum at opening!

We got to Starbucks and tried the door. A lady with a British accent told me sharply that it 'opened at nine am' and they were in the 'queue' and had been waiting ten minutes already. Oookaaaay - I know how to queue thanks, unlike that lot at Typhoon Lagoon the day before!

Anyway, they totally opened up the door on the other side of Starbucks and let them in first - much to the lady's disgust! She complained that they'd be waiting 'ages'. In reality - this is WDW and we were all in a served within about 5 minutes in barely any queue. I've seen Starbucks queues at WDW at Christmas and they were bonkers but pretty quick at moving. This really was nothing as there was about three people in front of us! We ordered a coffee frappuccino for me, a 'bog normal' for Phil and a sausage and egg muffin to share. Well, really I ordered one for me and Mr 'I don't want anything' ate half of it!



It wasn't quite time for our safari so Phil asked if he could use a close smoking area to have a cigar. I took this opportunity to wander off and take some photos:







A photopass photographer offered to take a picture of me with my camera:



That was nice

I met up with Phil and we headed to the safari. It was busy even with our fastpass but we were soon on and I got some pretty decent photos. I've said this before, but the best tip I've had is when the CM's say to put your camera on 'sport' mode if you have it. It does make a difference with all the bouncing about the truck is doing!





The vastness of this 'ride' never ceases to amaze me...





We know the drill with these guys having heard it several times before! If their horns were not hollow they would fall over due to their weight!












One day we'd like to do the behind the scenes tour - maybe 2019, I'm not sure as it is quite a lot of money...

We headed into the Paganini Trail thing (we call it that after the composer as we can never remember what it is called!).















I was messing around with the settings on manual mode on my camera and I noticed these spike things on the meerkat rocks which I've never picked up on in any of my photos before:



I assume they are there to either keep the animals in or to stop birds landing on the rocks? You can also see them by the Zebras - I tried to see them with my naked eye but I couldn't spot them at all.



Next up were the apes, which are a firm favourite of Phil's:







By the time we came out it was time for our Flight of Passage fastpass so we made our way back to Pandora. As we went to find the fastpass queue Phil wandered over to look at the standby time and it was 240 minutes!

We joined the Fastpass queue and made our way inside the building. The theming around is absolutely incredible but we really didn't have time to take it all in as we were soon inside and heading down a long corridor. The fastpass queue itself is probably most like Transformers - all military concrete everywhere! Eventually we got to the front and were sent into 'rows' like in Soarin'. I was a little apprehensive, being both claustrophobic (although I am better than I was) and afraid of heights! We went into a little pod thing and were joined with our avatars or something, ready for our flight! We were in there for quite a while as apparently something had gone wrong! Anyway, eventually we were led into a room with the little things that look like bikes. I sat away from the front a bit hoping not to be kind of trapped into the restraint, but the CM made me move all the way forward

It was fine, not too restrictive. I'd also say as someone who is afraid of heights this was NOTHING like Soarin'! You don't lift up at all and I managed it absolutely fine. When I say I am afraid of heights, I am afraid if I don't feel like I am completely secured in. That's why I can do rollercoasters due to the restraints, whereas with Soarin' it's just some teeny seat belt holding you in ... It makes sense in my mind, anyway!

I'm not going to spoil the ride for anyone who hasn't been on it but...Wow! So good! Do it!

After leaving the ride we had a quick look round Pandora:







It was very, very busy so we soon left. The queue for FOP was now four HOURS long and almost back to Festival of the Lion King!

As we actually walked past Festival of the Lion King, I noticed some local wildlife that'd made Animal Kingdom their home:





It wasn't quite time for our Everest fastpass so we had a look round the jungle trek bit.



I was interested to see that the Bengal tiger wasn't out in her usual habitat. When we came at Christmas they'd recently acquired a male tiger to be her mate and were slowly introducing them. The introduction had obviously worked as she was currently a few weeks away from producing baby tigers!



We were still about five minutes away from our fastpass time so we stopped for a bottle of water and I took some pictures of Everest:



It was now time for Everest and even the fastpass queue was stretching back - the Asia bit of Animal Kingdom was chaos!





We managed to get into the queue although we were soon in and it took about 15 minutes to finally be loaded on:



When we got off it was about 12.45 and we were both done with Animal Kingdom for today as it was very busy. Phil said he'd like to pick up a Star Wars t-shirt he'd seen at Disney Springs. I suggested getting a bus to Saratoga Springs resort and walking to Disney Springs from there.

We made our way to the exit and found the Saratoga Springs bus stop. There were a few people waiting and we were sure a bus would be along soon...

It wasn't...

45 minutes later FINALLY a bus turned up and the hefty queue behind us all cheered!

We got to Saratoga Springs and we didn't realise quite how big the resort was and we had no idea which bus stop to use!

In the end I saw a Disney Springs bus behind us, grabbed Phil and we got off and got on that!

Unfortunately it took us BACK round the resort the way we came so it took an absolute age to get there! In the meantime it had clouded over and started to spit a bit...

We arrived at Disney Springs and got Phil's t-shirt but neither of us could really be bothered to look round any shops. I was hungry so we stopped in Bongos Cuban Cafe quickly for a quick snack of an empanada and a diet coke for me and a beer for Phil. I popped in to use their restroom and in the two minutes I was inside the heavens opened and it rained like it only can in Florida!

At first we were quite happy to ride it out and we slowly made our way towards the bus stop. However, it got heavier and heavier:





Phil was not impressed:



We had a quick look round some shops but in the end we got bored and bought some ponchos. We walked back to the bus stop in them - it's a good job we bought them as it was absolutely hammering it down with no let up!

We stood in the queue for The Boardwalk and, after about ten minutes I saw a Yacht and Beach club bus arrive. I suggested getting on that but Phil said to wait as it was still hammering it down and we'd have to walk to the Boardwalk...

We waited nearly an HOUR for a bus in the end! :angry::angry:

People were phoning up and complaining, and our line was getting longer and longer! Eventually a bus arrived - hurrah! We all piled on and when we got back to The Boardwalk we did have a mention at guest services about the fact that we'd wasted nearly two hours today waiting for buses. The guy was apologetic but didn't really offer any sort of solution. We were hoping he'd say he'd either look into it or tell us it was due to certain reason, but honestly he just seemed totally disinterested

Happy we were not getting on any buses again that day, we made our way back to our room to get changed ready for the evening. Having a few hours to kill, we stopped outside ESPN for a drink. Luckily the rain had stopped:



I said I really would like some more mochi ice cream from Japan, so we made our way into EPCOT to pick some up. Love staying at The Boardwalk so you can just walk your way in



We wandered around World Showcase for a bit, just enjoying the atmosphere, and picked a drink on the way:









About 6pm we took a slow wander back to The Yacht Club ready for our ADR at The Yachtsman.



This is why I don't let Phil take photos often!



We were still a little early so we stopped off for a drink in the bar first:



We made our way round to The Yachtsman for 7.15 and checked in. They said they were busy but actually, the restaurant was only half full when we went in. As a coincidence, we were seated at the same table as when we first came in 2013! We told our server that it was our honeymoon when he asked and he said congratulations. We ordered a couple of drinks:

I was really fancying some cheese so that was my starter:



Phil went for the charcuterie board. He had the 16 oz rib eye for his main and I went for the 10oz rib eye (medium rare), which (rare):



These were excellent, absolutely fantastic meals. Mine was so huge I struggled to finish it! We were too full for dessert but we were brought this as we were celebrating!



Absolutely delicious and a great way to end the meal!

We made our way back to The Boardwalk and as we left The Yacht Club Reflections of Earth was starting. I grabbed a couple of photos on the way back:










We went back to the Boardwalk for a last drink at the bar and a bad selfie!



Despite the Disney buses we had a lovely day and great to have some new experiences at Pandora!

Day 14: Magic Kingdom, California Grill and a Dibb meet!

Edited at 09:56 PM.
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Old 18 Sep 17, 03:17 PM  
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DISNEYLIZ
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Another great day, What a shame about the buses.
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Old 18 Sep 17, 04:04 PM  
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Was really interested in your rope drop Na'vi River Journey experience, we're planning it at rope drop too and I've been a bit nervous about it, hopefully we get as lucky as you.
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Old 18 Sep 17, 07:31 PM  
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Sounds like a good day, mostly! They have those spikes things at AKL to stop the animals getting too close to the actual hotel, they are very difficult to see though, they plant spiky grasses in with them!
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Old 18 Sep 17, 09:46 PM  
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Leyfy
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Originally Posted by DISNEYLIZ View Post
Another great day, What a shame about the buses.
Yeah, the buses were quite frustrating! I am looking at flydrives for our next trip so we can keep the car and avoid the bus annoyance next time!

Originally Posted by collybird View Post
Was really interested in your rope drop Na'vi River Journey experience, we're planning it at rope drop too and I've been a bit nervous about it, hopefully we get as lucky as you.
I'd say get there for 8.30am and head straight to Pandora and you'll be fine. I was also nervous as it was a new experience and my heart kind of dropped when I saw it was a 30 minute wait! In reality it was a walk on - peel off to the left when you hit Pandora as everyone is going right to FOP!

Originally Posted by Pussycat Doll View Post
Sounds like a good day, mostly! They have those spikes things at AKL to stop the animals getting too close to the actual hotel, they are very difficult to see though, they plant spiky grasses in with them!
That's really interesting - I'd honestly never spotted them before!
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Old 19 Sep 17, 04:20 PM  
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Another good day

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Old 19 Sep 17, 08:32 PM  
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The spiky things are electrified, like an electric fence but easier to hide/disguise as mentioned before.
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Old 22 Sep 17, 10:38 PM  
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Phil's not impressed face with his happily ever after badge 😆😆 you took some beautiful photos x
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Old 23 Sep 17, 09:05 PM  
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Leyfy
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Originally Posted by mick View Post
Another good day

Joan
Thank you for reading

Originally Posted by Scotty View Post
The spiky things are electrified, like an electric fence but easier to hide/disguise as mentioned before.
Oh that's interesting to know, thank you

Originally Posted by Floridaagogo View Post
Phil's not impressed face with his happily ever after badge 😆😆 you took some beautiful photos x
Thank you so much x
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Old 3 Oct 17, 01:28 PM  
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Oh don't even get me started on the buses! They were absolutely awful both to and from Yacht Club and I'm still raging about the amount of time we wasted waiting for them :angry:

Looks like you had a fab day in spite of them though! I totally agree about River Journey. It's a very nice, pretty ride but I honestly don't think I'd queue more than about 15 minutes for it. Flight of Passage on the other hand - WOW!
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