Animal Kingdom 4/30/22
Since this was our first time here in 12 years, and the first time with the kids, we left early. We left our hotel around 6:30am to catch the bus to Animal Kingdom. This was an easy and free service for staying on property. We were able to enter the parks 1 hour before people who were not staying on property.
While on the bus, I was able to book our first LL which was the Safari for 10am. I then purchased a LL for $14 per person to Flight of Passage in Pandora. Our Flight of Passage time was around 3:55pm. You only have 1 hour to use the LL pass so we had between 3:55 and 4:55. We had these two things set and were not able to schedule the next LL for 2 hours after the first one I made at 7am. So around 9:00-9:30am I could make the next LL choice. We walked around A LOT. Sticking to the clockwise route could work. However the way the LL was, it did not make much sense to stay in certain areas at once. We basically walked the whole park several times.
Mount Everest (Mountain Everest as Henry calls it) had a 15 min. wait time. Ethan and PJ went first while Henry decided he wanted to go on it. So the next time, all 4 of us went on it! This was both Henry and Ethan’s first ride at Disney! What a crazy ride to go on at the ages 7 and 5! And for it to be their FIRST ride!!! Boy, they are so brave!
We saw a spot of Pin trading and the boys were able to swap 2 pins each for new ones, if they wanted. Ethan swapped 2 mystery pins and Henry swapped 1 pirate pin.
Once we did this, we walked to the Safari area, had a snack, walked through the gorilla walk and continued to explore different areas of the park up until we had to go to our LL at 10:00am for the Safari. The Safari was great! We saw lots of animals, a giraffe was walking in the middle of the road at one point. The tour guide was entertaining and gave lots of information on the animals we saw. The kids loved it!
We made our way to the Lion King show quick after getting off the safari ride and we JUST made the 11:00am Show. Despite the 10min wait, we were able to get in for it. We did not think we’d get in but we did. I LOVE this show. I love the Lion King and it was so nice to have the kids see it. Henry couldn’t believe the fire wand that one performer was dancing with! He thought that was so cool! After this we headed toward the Pandora section of Animal Kingdom.
We saw a boat show going on through the waters as we walked to Pandora, put on sunscreen and looked at all the amazing details throughout the walking path we were on. Here, we randomly found Cindy, Tom, Brennan and Colin! I was not 100% sure we’d see them as the park was getting more and more crowded as the day went on, but we found them! We made our way to Tiger Falls where, there were no tigers this day. We saw other animals, and cool birds and bats. The kids had a great time being wilderness explorers where they had fact books and they needed to locate sections in the park where they can earn a wilderness badge! It was so cute! The Cast members were all so wonderful teaching the kids and having such a fun personality as they talked to them. The boys loved earning their badges.
We had lunch back in Pandora at the quick service area- Satu’li Canteen. We had a nice round table inside to have lunch as a family with the Finer’s too! It was perfect as it was hot outside and we all definitely needed a break in AC away from the sun and heat. This meal was amazing and I could have had 2 helpings! From walking all morning we were all hungry! I had Slow-Roasted Sliced Grilled Beef Bowl,slow-roasted sliced grilled beef marinated in a blend of garlic, herbs, red pepper spice, and red wine vinegar topped with crunchy vegetable slaw and boba balls served with your choice of base and sauce. PJ had the Chopped Wood-Grilled Chicken Bowl,wood-grilled chicken thighs marinated with garlic and olive oil topped with crunchy vegetable slaw and boba balls served with your choice of base and sauce. Henry had Cheeseburger Steamed Pods – Bao Buns,Steamed Cheeseburger Pod stuffed with Ground Beef, Ketchup, Mustard, Pickle, and Cheddar Cheese served with Crunchy Vegetable Slaw and Vegetable Chips and because it was a pod… it did not look like a cheeseburger so He wasn’t in to it much… Ethan had Cheese Quesadilla,cheddar and mozzarella cheese in a tortilla served with vegetable chips and cuties mandarin. I also had green beer and PJ had an IPA.
We headed over to more wilderness explorer stations to get more badges and then Cindy and Tom had a LL for Mount Everest. PJ and I stayed with the kids so the two of them could go on the ride together. I was glad they got to do that together as they mentioned they have never gone on a rollercoaster together ever since the kids. So this was nice we got to do that for them. It wa also Cindy’s birthday this day, so if that made it a little more magical for her, I am happy to have helped. Aftert their ride ( I saw them on the drop as Tom had his arms up) it was just about time for our LL to Flight of Passage. We said our goodbyes as we were planning to head back to the hotel after this ride.
We got in our LL line for this one and it was great! Maybe waited a total of 15mins. When the line for stand by stated 115mins. This ride was incredible!!! You ride on a banshee like in the movie Avatar. You are paired to your own avatar, given 3d glasses and you sit on a chair that makes you think it’s a banshee. The screen opens up and the images on screen are absolutely breathtaking. The ride starts to move and my goodness it feels like you are flying on a banshee!!! You can feel the banshee breathing on your legs- like his ribs are moving as he’s breathing while your watching this screen and zooming in the air. You feel wind, water, the drops! I screamed a lot on this ride. Henry closed his eyes he said when the shark pops out of the water. This ride was absolutely one of the BEST rides we hae ever been on. Ethan said this is his favorite ride ever. It was incredible!
We headed back to the hotel for dinner, showers and bed as we had another early day on Sunday…
