The "Let's Take Over Old Key West" February 2015 Trip Report - Day 3 - Rainforest Cafe, AK & Sanaa

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Monday 16th February 2015

I woke up at 4am but managed to doze until just before 6am, so not too bad at all. I did manage to slip out of the room quietly to get my daily ‘fix’ of the view from our balcony, with this morning’s sunrise particularly beautiful.



The others were all awake shortly after 6am and the kids enjoyed a bowl of cereal and some juice. Everyone took their time getting ready and we actually ended up a little rushed in heading out to the bus stop to meet up with Hollie and Chris at our pre-agreed time of 7.30am - we had another breakfast ADR to look forward to this morning and another opportunity to pile on those holiday pounds. Today we were heading to Animal Kingdom, which is probably my favourite of all the Disney parks, and were at the entrance just after 8am.


My mum was reluctant to pose for any of the Photopass photographers today – I think she was feeling quite self-conscious as it was her first day in the wheelchair.

Hollie and Chris had decided to hire a stroller for Rosie today, as she was feeling a little tired and I had informed them that we would be on our feet quite a bit, but first up was our 8.30am ADR at the Rainforest Café. Nicola, the kids and I had dinner at the Downtown Disney version back in 2012 and weren’t overly impressed (the food was fine but the service wasn’t great and I have never known noise like it when eating out). However, Hollie had heard good things about the Rainforest Café from a colleague at work and was keen to eat here, so we’d all decided to give breakfast a try. As it turned out, we all had a really nice breakfast – the food was pretty good, our waitress was very personable and kept our drinks topped up, and the place itself was fairly quiet, which made for a completely different experience to the one we had in 2012. The rainforest theming is pretty cool inside, and the kids absolutely loved it.











To eat, Nicola had an omelette with onion, sausage and cheese; I had a (humungous!) waffle with strawberries, banana, cream and … errrm … bacon! Only in America! Alex chose the porridge which I strongly advised him against as I knew he wouldn’t like it … he managed a single mouthful. Izzy had sausage and egg, which seemed to go down a treat. My mum had the ‘Breakfast of Bandits’ which was basically bacon, egg and breakfast potatoes. Charlie also chose the porridge and only did slightly better than Alex!
















I’ve only just noticed the parrot – looks a bit odd!

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We paid out of pocket again for this, $88.25 for the 6 of us, plus $15.88 gratuity. We all agreed that we’d come back for breakfast should any of us have a future trip to Disney.

After exiting the restaurant, passing through bag check and the tapstiles, Hollie and Chris left us temporarily to organise the stroller for Rosie - this is just inside the entrance and over to the far right in the Garden Gates Gifts area. This cost $15 for the day. Our first port of call today was going to be the Kilimanjaro safari but before we started heading over to Africa we were drawn to a CM holding a clear box with, what turned out to be, a Huntsman spider inside. Press <Page Down> now if you’re of a nervous disposition! The kids were horrified and fascinated in equal measure as the CM told them all about the spider - these CM interactions, along with the Wilderness Explorer stations (for which we picked up a few booklets this morning), are one of the reasons this is probably my favourite Disney park.





Making our way towards Africa, we had a couple of Photopass pictures taken in front of the tree of life before coming across a line to meet Daisy Duck and thought we might as well take the opportunity to meet her while the park was still relatively quiet. We only waited 5 minutes or so and Daisy was particularly pleased to meet her namesake so early on in our trip.









We eventually made it to Africa around 10am, but not quite to the safari as yet (we had an FP+ for this which had opened 10 minutes earlier) as we stopped to watch the African dancers for 20 minutes or so. Chris didn’t take a lot of persuading to join in which made for hilarious viewing for the rest of us!





We finally made it on to the safari just before 10.30am. In past trips we would have made a beeline for this (or Expedition Everest), ignoring anything else we came across along the way. I see this as a positive of the Fastpass+ system and definitely found throughout the fortnight that we could ‘enjoy the moment’ a little more than perhaps we have done previously where we’ve been on something of a mission to hit the ‘headline’ attractions first thing. I dread to think how many times we’ve been on the safari in our 3 trips, so I’ve tried to keep the photos to a minimum … !







In line with my rough plan for today, we hit the nearby Pangani Forest Trail next. The gorillas are the main draw here but we didn’t have amazing views of them today, just the odd glimpse, mostly in the distance. There are plenty of other things to see along the trail though, including the underwater hippo viewing area. The kids also filled out some of their Wilderness Explorer booklets along the way.











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Nicola and I wouldn’t normally have lunch after eating out for breakfast, but some of our party announced they were feeling a bit peckish and so we all agreed to find somewhere to eat a counter service meal. With Flame Tree Barbeque closed for refurbishment (although I believe some of the menu could be found elsewhere in the park), we opted to visit Pizzafari, which was only a relatively short walk away. Nicola, Bubba and I all had the meat lover’s pizza, Alex went for the beef pasta, Izzy the kid’s cheese pizza and Charlie the kid’s mac ‘n’ cheese (both kids meals came with grapes and a cookie). We must’ve been hungrier than we realised (that or we’re just gluttons!) as we managed to polish everything off quite easily. Dessert for the grown ups was chocolate mousse, which was a bit ‘meh’ as with most counter services desserts, in my opinion.











Still just about following my plan for today, we headed for the It's Tough to be a Bug show next. We had a little queue for this, around 15 minutes or thereabouts. I tried to soak up as much sunshine as I could while we were waiting – it reached a high of 24C again today. The park was pretty busy by now – probably the busiest that we’ve ever seen Animal Kingdom in our 3 trips. I seem to recall today was an 8 or 9 out of 10 on Touring Plans and wasn’t anything we hadn’t anticipated – a little planning plus the FP+ system meant we never really found ourselves in many long lines throughout the holiday. Everyone enjoyed the show, although I had to sit separately to the others as I had to wheel my mum into a designated area at the back and wait with her.


The park was starting to feel quite busy by now.




Rosie looking quite mischievous in the queue for It’s Tough to Be A Bug!



Heading back over to Africa, we located the new location for the Festival of the Lion King show. We had a FP+ for this which seemed to have the benefit of letting us into the theatre first and enabling us to select some prime front and second row seats, which we’ve never had before. This in turn had the added bonus of Alex, Charlie, Daisy and Rosie all being selected to take part in the show. Izzy was a little upset to begin with (she was sat in the second row with us) but enjoyed watching the others take part nonetheless and we all thought the show was as brilliant as ever.











It was around 2.45pm by now. We’d wanted to head over to Rafiki’s Planet Watch this afternoon, a part of the park we’ve never visited before. As our unplanned lunch had eaten into our time a little I knew we wouldn’t have a lot of time to spare before our third and final FP+ of the day for Expedition Everest, but we decided to hop over there for a whistle-stop tour in any case, catching the train from the station in Africa.



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We enjoyed looking at the creepy crawlies and amphibians inside Conversation Station and the kids had good fun petting the animals in the Affection Section. They also got to meet Rafiki himself, a new autograph for Alex and Izzy. I’m glad we made time to visit the area, but it’s probably not something we would feel the need to do for a second time.










Rosie looks quite protective of her new friend in this one!







With our 4.10pm FP+ for Everest about to open, we caught the train back to Africa and walked round to Asia. My mum declared that she had no intention in riding, understandable with her hip, and (after Chris had run on with her ahead to get measured at the ride entrance) Rosie was found to be slightly under the 44” height requirement, so we left the two of them near a kiosk serving coffee and doughnuts along the way. I was starting to get a little concerned over this evening’s ADR, which was only at Sanaa over at the nearby Animal Kingdom Lodge, but we had less than an hour and for some reason the line just to reach the Fastpass entrance was massive. It probably took a good 10-15 minutes until we actually reached the entrance to tap our bands, let alone how long the line itself was likely to be inside the ride. At this point it came to light that Charlie didn’t have his Magic Band on. It turned out that Bubba had taken this off of him earlier and put it in her handbag as he’d been complaining that it was annoying him, despite the other kids all having to put up with wearing theirs. This probably doesn’t sound like a big deal, and I guess it wasn’t in the grand scheme of things, but at the time, and despite having had a good day up to this point, the mood dropped like a lead balloon and we were all pretty cross (not with Charlie or even my mum, particularly, just in general). I guess we were all quite tired after our first full on day in a park. I was starting to ache a bit from getting used to pushing my mum around in the chair (nothing to do with shortly becoming closer to 40 than 30, honest guv!). We were already pushed for time and all a bit worried about being charged as a no-show at Sanaa, so it wasn’t the finest moment of our trip it has to be said. Chris ran back to try and find my mum to grab Charlie’s band, but couldn’t find her. I then did the same, which was probably a bad move as we obviously ended up separated and, although I did find my mum and Rosie, we then couldn’t find Chris and Hollie, who were still searching. Once we eventually did all meet up we agreed to cut our losses and make our way out of the park and catch a bus over to the AKL. Charlie was bawling his eyes out as he’d wanted to ride, which actually had the unfortunate effect of making everyone even grumpier than they were already! I tried to placate the situation by letting everyone know that we had another Fastpass for the ride later in the trip and suggesting that we head to Everest first thing that day to try and sneak in an extra ride or two. Unfortunately Izzy, who’d plucked up the courage to ride today, wasn’t remotely interested in riding when we did return in week 2 despite lots of encouragement.

Catching a busy bus to AKL, we ended up a few minutes late for our ADR but they were able to seat us without a problem, after a short wait. Feeling the need for some alcohol (we don’t have a problem, honest), Nicola and I both had a glass of Sangria, which tasted a little watered down if truth be told, but was thankfully the only negative from an otherwise great evening which helped to chill everyone out a little. My mum had a Pina Colava which looked delicious I have to say. Later on Nicola had a Pimms Punch and I had a Captain's Mai Tai, both of which were nice and strong and really hit the spot.









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Nicola, the kids and I had really enjoyed eating at Sanna back in 2013, but I hadn’t been feeling well and was unable to finish my entrée on that occasion. I was very much looking forward to returning here and I’m so pleased it didn’t disappoint. The food was delicious, one of my favourite table service meals of the trip. We started out with a couple of plates of the bread service across the table, with various condiments. Nicola, Alex and I all had the Berbere braised lamb shank, parsnip-carrot mash and tandoor-roasted vegetables for our main course. This was much spicier than the shank I’d chosen back in 2013, but really tasty. I think Alex found it a little spicy for his taste (he once announced that he doesn’t, “like flavour.”). My mum had the butter chicken and spiced lamb with basmati rice – this also seemed to go down well. Izzy generally opts for cheeseburger when it’s on the menu, and today was no exception. Charlie went for the kid’s cheese pizza (his second of the day I’ve just realised!).









Although I loved my meal, not everyone was completely blown away – Chris ordered a vindaloo which he said was fairly bland, expecting something much hotter. Twice during dinner we heard the sound of smashing plates and wondered if our waiter from last night’s meal at Olivia’s had been transferred to Sanaa!

For dessert, Nicola and my mum both went for the apple samosas which came with dipping sauces (chocolate and caramel I believe). I went for the tapioca pudding, which I’d had my eye on for a while when browsing the menus online. Alex had the chocolate mousse (his default choice is generally chocolate ‘something’), which was quite rich and which I just had to help finish off. Izzy opted for ice cream and Charlie the s’mores. My mum was too full to eat more than one of her samosas, so I actually ended up eating almost 3 full desserts. Oh the shame!











On top of the 4 adult and 2 children’s table service credits, this evening’s meal cost $56.57 for our share of the bread service and our alcoholic drinks, plus a tip of $39.56. Having (sort of) forgotten about the earlier fail with Expedition Everest, everyone left AKL in a much cheerier mood. With no direct buses between resorts, we had a short wait for a bus to Epcot, and another short wait for a bus from there on to Old Key West. It will probably come as no surprise to readers of my previous trippies that we were all in bed just before 9pm once again!

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[Helen0705]

Another great day for you all.
The food at Saana looked really good .
Thanks for the warning on the spider photo !

[The Durrigan's]

What a super day out in AK...looks like you guys had a blast

[JoJo88]

As Helen says, thank you for the spider warning! I did actually look at it though

Other than the missing Magic Band for EE, it sounded like a pretty good day. We've considered an ADR for this year, and Sanaa looks and sounds pretty good. Of course, I've probably left it too late now!

Great report

[mrsstitch]

I'm really enjoying your report so far and agree that even the 'warts n all' should be included. As amazing as holidays are, and all the time and prep that are put in they don't always go smoothly and there are upsets, illnesses and disappointments somewhere!
Loving the view you have at OKW-it's making me very excited for our trip in the summer. It's our first time at OKW and Im looking forward to having a balcony and view-my fingers are crossed.
Some great days so far xx looking forward to the rest xx

[dixonsontour]

Great day. I'm seriously impressed with how much you are managing to get done with a big group.