If you book it you will go. Sept 2019. Day 1 AK & DHS

[sha9]

The dining report for today is here.

I woke a couple of times overnight eventually waking at 3.30am. I dozed until 4. I lay in bed for a little while on my phone then decided just to get up and get showered. We had plans for Extra, Extra Magic Hours at Animal Kingdom today.

Initially for breakfast we considered Café Rix however since we were getting the bus today we wanted to allow plenty of time to get to AK so just left about 6.20am. Before leaving we called Housekeeping for some toilet paper and Marie had said the tissue dispenser was empty so I asked for those too. A bus appeared was just arriving so after circling the rest of the stops at CSR (Casitas is first) we arrived at AK within 15 minutes. We weren't quite Queens of the bus but there weren't many on it.

First impressions of Disney transport not bad.
We were through bag check quickly but since the park wasn’t open yet there was a large queue to get in. We took this opportunity to have the first of many restrooms stops and sat on a wall waiting. About 6.55am we decided just to join a queue as they were getting significantly bigger.

It wasn’t long before we were through the tapstiles and heading for the safari.

My usual plan for AK EMH is to FP Flight of Passage, Expedition Everest and Dinosaur and ride the safari first thing when everyone else has went to FoP. This plan failed miserably as the safari wasn’t open during EEMH, presumably too early for the animals. However Kusafiri Bakery was open so we went for breakfast instead.

It was now about 7.25am and so we still had time before the safari opened and our first FP was over an hour away so we checked MDE and saw that Na’vi River Journey was a 5 minute wait. We walked along the path from Africa to Pandora.

This was the queue for FoP as we passed although it had gone when we came back so I think they must have moved it inside.

Marie thinks this is meh but I quite like it. Normally we wouldn’t bother with it due to queue length and have only ridden it once but since it was 5 minutes it seemed a good way to kill time. It was essentially a walk on with FoP being 60 minutes at the same time. It was pleasant enough.

My ride photos are terrible. This is the best one.

By this time it was close to 8am so we walked back to Africa and joined the line that had already formed at the entrance to the safari. It was just opening and we were on within about 10 minutes. We saw a lot of giraffes.

After the safari we went straight to Gorilla Falls but there weren’t many animals out.

Now it was time for the best ride ever – Flight of Passage. We wanted to go well into the FP window so had a look in the shops in Discovery Island then on to Pandora.

I mean really - is it me?

FoP was essentially a walk on with the FP at that time of day and was as awesome as always.

We headed to Dinosaur after for our FP but were starting to get a bit hungry. We stopped at Dino Bites for some iced water for our refillable bottles (best buy ever!) and decided to get a pretzel to share too.

We rode Dinosaur as a walk on with the FP and then because we still had time before our Expedition Everest FP we did It’s Tough to be a Bug. I do love this show!

We next rode Expedition Everest then wandered round the Maharaja Jungle Trek before lunch. Again there weren’t many animals to be seen.

Lunch was Yak & Yeti table service using our Landry Select Club status to get a table in 5 minutes. We had a $25 birthday reward each so used one of them.
After lunch we had pretty much done everything we wanted in the park and were flagging a bit so headed back to the hotel. We saw Kevin on the way out!

We discussed maybe popping to Hollywood Studios later so I grabbed a FP for Toy Story Mania.

We headed to the CSR bus stop and felt like we waited an age however when it finally did arrive it left pretty much straight away. We got off at Gran Destino to go to reception and enquire about our housekeeping opt out gift card as we still hadn’t received it. Unfortunately there was a large queue and to make matters worse we got the same CM who had not been particularly competent the day before. She rhymed off the email address she had sent it to which is non-existent, took the correct one and said it would take up to 6 hours. I also pointed out it should be $140 to which she nodded. Not holding out much hope I have to say.

As we passed we popped into Café Rix for something for breakfast the next day. We decided on a twisted donut. We also grabbed some tea bags not realising the coffee machine had breakfast tea pods.
We chilled in the room for a wee while with a cup of tea and cake and discovered the original Magic Bands had been delivered. Marie’s dole whip one and mine was the purple one I’d originally ordered rather than a grey one I had been told to expect. That was handy as I had an Avengers skin that was purple so I put that on. So now we had 2 sets so I mixed and matched throughout the trip!

Our two toilet rolls had arrived as had the tissues it turned out we didn’t need as Marie hadn’t looked properly. Although actually we did end up needing them.

We left for DHS just after 3pm. We didn’t have too long to wait for a bus this time but on arrival the bus stops at DHS are now a million miles from the entrance. Bag check was slow but there wasn’t a long wait at the tapstiles.
We headed straight for Galaxy’s Edge with the intention of just having a look around. We took loads of pictures of the Millennium Falcon and I will admit to feeling a bit emotional.

Busy entrance

Rise of the Resistance always had a CM outside.

Random pics

The Falcon

Too much? Expect more later .

I don’t remember the wait time for Smugglers Run but it must have been longer than we wanted to wait. The whole area was very busy but it was Saturday night and we really only wanted a wee look.

After looking around GE we decided to ride Star Tours standby at 15 minutes although it was closer to 5 minutes.

We then rode Toy Story Mania with the FP and since we were in Toy Story Land we ate at Woody’s Lunch Box.

We left the park then as we were pretty tired. We got the bus back getting off at Casitas as we hadn’t taken our refillable mugs with us and we wanted to get a hot chocolate. Although we changed our minds and got juice taking some cocoa sachets with us. We had a cup of cocoa while watching Zootopia (Zootropolis) before falling asleep early.

For a first day we'd been surprised at our energy and ended up doing about 25000 steps!

[Goldia]

I can't believe it was still dark when you were going into AK. We've waited at the bus stop in the dark before but the sun has appeared before we've made it in the parks in the morning.

Ooh you made it galaxies edge on your first day! Ooh Lisa I'm dying to know what you thought of it all. Plus I really want to see a picture of Marie's dole whip magic band!

What a great first day considering you were up at 3.30 you did really well.

[sha9]

Originally Posted by Goldia

I can't believe it was still dark when you were going into AK. We've waited at the bus stop in the dark before but the sun has appeared before we've made it in the parks in the morning.

Ooh you made it galaxies edge on your first day! Ooh Lisa I'm dying to know what you thought of it all. Plus I really want to see a picture of Marie's dole whip magic band!

What a great first day considering you were up at 3.30 you did really well.

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It was dark most mornings we were up!

We just couldn't wait and since we felt ok we decided we had to try. It was very well themed. I'll post some thoughts at the end of the report but they really have done a great job on the detail.

I'm not sure I have a picture of the MB for some reason but I'll make sure I grab one before it gets packed away for next year!

[Rescuer]

Great first day.

Shame you early morning didn’t go quite to plan but I do like a wee Navi Boat Ride if it’s a very short wait.
Galaxies Edge looks great, I know you said it was busy but I’d been envisaging hordes of people everywhere but it doesn’t look like that in your pictures.

[sha9]

Originally Posted by Rescuer

Great first day.

Shame you early morning didn’t go quite to plan but I do like a wee Navi Boat Ride if it’s a very short wait.
Galaxies Edge looks great, I know you said it was busy but I’d been envisaging hordes of people everywhere but it doesn’t look like that in your pictures.

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Our AK morning turned out great in the end.

GE isn’t as crowded as I’d anticipated but I think it’ll be bad once Rise of the Resistance opens.

[caitlinsmummy]

I love the dark mornings heading to a park it just feels so eerie ... like something you shouldn't be doing

I'd love to see the magic bands too! Xx

[sha9]

Originally Posted by caitlinsmummy

I love the dark mornings heading to a park it just feels so eerie ... like something you shouldn't be doing

I'd love to see the magic bands too! Xx

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Mine was plain purple but we haven’t packed them away yet anyway . I’ll need to remember and take a photo before we do!

[Fuellady]

Great photos around Animal Kingdom this morning, I forget how beautiful it is. You did well being up and about so early to make the most of your day.

It's nice that you got a wee look around GE later on as well. I would also like to see the dole whip magic band! Glad they got it all sorted for you in the end.

[sha9]

Originally Posted by Fuellady

Great photos around Animal Kingdom this morning, I forget how beautiful it is. You did well being up and about so early to make the most of your day.

It's nice that you got a wee look around GE later on as well. I would also like to see the dole whip magic band! Glad they got it all sorted for you in the end.

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I really like taking advantage of the jet leg at the start of the trip. I was surprised we were awake enough for another park in the evening though!

I’ll definitely take a picture of the MB today!

[sha9]

As requested, Marie’s MB.