Breakfast options were poorer than I remembered from 2005 when we last stayed here, but I went with some ham and scrambled eggs on toast. So by 8:30 we are on our way to Animal Kingdom
we park up and deciding that the tram will be a while as we just missed one, we walk the short distance to the gates, actually we were only 3 rows from the start of the car park so we were hoping that the park will be very quiet, but see many more people walking from the buses as we get closer.
We have failed to get here in time for park opening, but only by 5 mins, so we head straight to Africa, and after taking a shot of Celia by the large African doors, replicating one that we took 5 years ago.
we find ourselves in Harambe and head straight onto Kilimanjaro safaris.
One of the advantages of getting to Africa early, is that the animals are only just being brought onto the savannah, and are looking for their breakfast, so we get to see lots of different animals, and even having been on real safaris in South Africa (Pilanesberg and Kruger national parks) it is still a joy to spot them on this attraction.
The highlight though was the Cheetahs, which i didn't remember from our previous trips.
I am still not sure that the ride needs the poacher storyline at the end, but it does seem to just now be there to get you back to Harambe.
Next on the plan is to get to Everest for some fastpasses, so we take the route from Africa to Asia, and get to see Devine almost immediately.
we are also distracted by King Louis and Baloo being along the path and stop for some pictures and video as I was planing on producing a video for our nephew (age 6) to help him nag my brother-in-law into bringing him and our niece (age 9 months) to WDW so we can see it through their eyes.
The other reason for stopping was that this trip is (until the last couple of days) during the quietest time of the year and we have lots of time (or so we thought) so could take it easy and explore.
We make it to Everest around 10:30 to find a 20 mins standbye wait, so after getting 2 fastpasses for me to enjoy later (Celia does not do rollercoasters as she suffers from motion sickness) I wander through the standby line and quickly remember that Celia should really be walking through the queue with me, so that she could see the yeti museum and just chicken out nearer the end of the queue.
Everest is as good as ever but the Yeti is in Disco mode.
After a quick wander through the gift shop and the purchase of a couple of pins, we remember that we have no cash and head to Dinoland in search of an ATM.
The Park queues are still non existance so I jump on Primeval whirl, whilst Celia looks in the gift shop and finds me a cover for the HD2. Cash found and a couple of bottles of water, we check the guides to see that Festival of the Lion King is due to start in 20 mins and we start to walk from Dinoland to Camp Minnie Mickey, but as we get onto Discovery Island, we are told that Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet are down on the jetty and have no wait for pictures, so deciding that we have time, (if we walk fast) we wander down and get some more pictures and video for our nephew.
We step up the pace and just make it to Festival before they close the doors, having to enter via the emergency exit at the top of the Elephant section.
Whilst we are watching the great show, the battery in the main camera dies and the spare is also dead, should have check them when we got to the hotel last night, but forgot. But I do get a short video of the tumble monkeys which are my favourite part.
After Lion King, we wander back to Discovery Island and after spotting some Kangeroo's, we do its Tough to be a Bug. As we both remember the special effects, we don't jump as much as the 1st time, but still enjoy the movie. We then head back to Asia to use the Everest fast passes, including a ride in the front car, with as I am a single rider a chat with the lucky guest from the single rider line, who also gets a go in the front row. She was from Tennessee but her grandmother was from Leicester and had been a GI Bride, she was with her husband but by this time the standby line had gone out to 40 mins wait so they had decided to use the single rider line.
After the 2 goes it is getting close enough to our ADR time at Tusker house, so we retrace our steps from earlier and walk back to Harambe.
We had never been to Tusker House before and were suprised with it being so tucked around the back of the village, but after checking in and getting the voucher for the Finding Nemo show, we were shown to our table and as Celia has a few allergies, the chef came out to talk us through the buffet selections. Every table was described and each offering was mentioned if it was ok to eat or not, as there was nothing on the dessert table that was OK, the chef offered to send out some brownies and cookies that he had that would be ok. Some of the vegetables could not be taken as is, but again some steamed versions could and would be sent out so that Celia could eat a balanced meal.
We would both recommend Tusker house, especially for anyone with allergies as they took wonderful care of us and made Celia feel both special and normal at the same time.
No comments:
Post a Comment