Our first full day in Florida would see us tackling Animal Kingdom, the earliest start of any day we'd be down there (the park opens earlier and closes earlier than any of the other parks due to the daily cycles of its animal inhabitants.) This meant we had to get up and start the shared-bathroom routine around 5:30am. Kris and Abby always shower in the evening, while Alayna and I prefer doing so in the morning, which helped free up the bathroom somewhat. Still, the process you see here took about an hour each day. Fun times.
By 6:30am we had to be down to the bus pick-up area of our resort in order to nab the early shuttle over to Animal Kingdom. Fortunately this was only a two-minute walk from our room, since we were staying pretty close to the main entrance of the resort.
We were able to squeeze onto the very first bus that departed for the park, which was ideal because we wanted to get there as close to 'rope drop' as possible so that we could get right on to one of the high-demand rides.
Arriving at Animal Kingdom, right on schedule.
The admission lines to get into the park were moving pretty fast, and we were able to use our MagicBands to get in (which was super convenient.)
When we scanned these, Kris became concerned that they had scanned one of the wrong passes off our account: we had two, full-day tickets, a complimentary pass, and a reservation pass (I don't know how all this worked, Kris had worked with Katie and Lindsey setting all this up.) She wanted to go to a Guest Services building later in the day once we had tackled all the big rides in order to verify we hadn't screwed anything up.
Heading into the park, after Yours Truly had to step off to the side so Security could go through my backpack after it set off the alarms (turns out the magnetic clasp on my glasses case - of all things - tripped the alarm.)
We passed straight through the central hub of the park - Discovery Island - and veered left to head into Pandora, our top priority for the morning.
My bag check at security cost us about ten minutes, so we were worried that delay would hurt our wait time in line for the first ride of the day, Avatar: Flight of Passage (most folks' Rope Drop Ride as well, the crowds streaming into the park were all doing the same thing we were doing.) Fortunately, that section of the park had a staggered entrance time so that by the time we finally got back to that area of the park the crowd was bottlenecked there. We arrived just as it opened, so we were able to recoup our lost progress.
While we were quick-stepping our way over to the queue for that ride, the Johnson family, back in Michigan, were just arriving to the MBS Airport to board their flight for Orlando.
There was a steady stream of people walking up to the ride, but the line was moving steadily and there was no waiting to speak of (thank God.)
I've said it before, but damn - the decor of this newer area of Animal Kingdom is insane.
Last time we were here we waited about an hour and forty minutes for this ride. Lots of standing around, waiting and waiting and waiting. This year we just walked past everything, never stopping.
Pausing quick to nab a family pic in front of some of the cool-ass floating mountains in the outside section of the line queue.
We continued walking through the various rooms of the queue (which is pretty awesome, themed to the franchise.) Again, never stopping at all.
Passing through the science-y labs used in the films.
We finally stopped in line in the last queue room before you entered the pre-ride loading area. It took us aout 20 minutes to walk through the extensive queue, which is substantial due to the ride's popularity (it's easily the biggest draw of the park, hence it being everyone's Rope Drop ride.) It only took us twenty minutes this year, and again that was just the walk through the queue itself. Staying on Disney Property this time aorund meant that we got into the parks an hour before the general public, which allowed us to knock out many of these big-draw rides before their lines got too congested.
In the loading area of the ride (where they 'match you with an avatar' for the ride itself - the ride has to have a backstory, of course, so you're 'immersed' in the experience and all that crap.)
Avatar: Flight of Passage
As always, you exit through the Gift Shop (no one bought anything.)
With the biggest attraction of the day out of our way, and the park not even open to the public yet, we decided to knock out the other, smaller Avatar-themed ride while we were in the vicinity. This was a short three-minute walk from the other ride through all the Pandora-themed crap, so it made sense to save some walking time.
We walked right on to this ride, with no standing at all, so I barely had a chance to take pics of the queue along the way.
Alayna took a few pics of the ride itself, which is similar to It's a Small World or Pirates of the Caribbean in nature (you slowly float down a river in a boat and take in scenes along each side, pretty chill.)
Na'vi River Journey
Some chick.
By the time we were off of Na'vi River Journey and leaving Pandora - entering the neighboring Africa section of the park, that you see here - it was only 8:00am, and the park was just admitting the general public. Most folks would be veering off to Pandora, so we had an opening to knock out the Kilimanjaro Safari while it was early enough in the morning for most of the animals to still be active (they all get nappy as the day goes on.)
Passing through Africa.
Very reminiscent of our time in Ghana, that's for sure.
And no, we did not put theLion King show on our To-Do List this year. That show sucks ass.
On a mission.
Africa. Mostly closed this early in the morning.
Good margaritas here if you ever get the chance to check it out (sadly we didn't get around to it this year.)
We'd be checking out this souvenir store later, but didn't waste time with it at this point of the day - we were on a mission.
The wait time for the Safari was only like five minutes, we basically walked right on. We were absolutely crushing our ride times this morning. As you can tell from Alayna's handheld fan here, it was starting to get super muggy out.
Safari trucks, lined up for the trek.
Preparing to board.
I don't think we've ever gotten on this ride so frickin' early in the morning before.
I'm not going to be able to identify most of these animals, but between Alayna and I we took pics of a lot of 'em.
Hippos. Nature's Dickheads.
Some kinda rhino (the not-extinct variety of rhino.)
I don't know - a deer?
A dinosaur.
I really wish I had one of these trees in my backyard.
More deer.
Didn't see as many giraffe as last time..
A termite mound (probably fake.) We had these all over the place in Northern Ghana.
While we were rumbling on through the 'game reserve,' the Johnsons were waiting to board their flight. Erik grabbed himself a gin and tonic from a nearby terminal bar while they awaited pre-boarding.
Only spotted one elephant this year, which disappointed Kris - she's a big fan of elephants.
The Cannonball quickly ate up all the empty space on her phone on this ride, so she had to later go back and delete a bunch of crap off her phone to free up more space for the remainder of the trip's pics.
More non-extinct rhino.
(Dude looks pissed.)
This year marked the first time we saw the lions doing anything besides sleeping on the rocks. A male and female were brawling as we drove past, which was pretty cool to check out.
The grumpy King of the Jungle.
This is what we usually get on these treks.
Warthogs.
With the Safari knocked out, we headed over to neighboring Asia to tackle the last, high-demand attraction of the day - Expedition Everest.
These two are from that Pixar movie, Up (which I've never seen all the way through.)
I bet this thing is fun as shit to drive. . .
Mount Everest (not the real one) in the distance. . .
Kris was getting annoyed with my picture-taking today and it wasn't even 8:45am yet.
This decorated truck usually serves snacks and drinks, but, like most everything else this early in the morning, it was still closed.
I love the aesthetic of these different sections of the park - Disney knows their stuff.
By this point in time in the morning, the park was starting to fill up. We walked on to most of the queue, but eventually were stopped in line - our first real 'wait' of the day. The safari takes about a half an hour to drive through, so in that time the park had grown more congested as the general public poured in. Expedition Everest is one of the most-popular rides at Animal Kingdom, so it was inevitable that there'd be a line here.
The queue of this ride is that of a bus terminal, where you travelers buy tickets for passage through the Himalayas. You know, that whole 'immersive' thing I mentioned earlier. In the end, we had to wait about 30 minutes for this ride (our longest wait time of the day, if you can believe that), which was totally doable.
For Snapchat, I assume.
Expedition Everest
This year we split the PhotoPass option with the Johnsons (cost each family $100) in order to get all of the professional and ride pics of our group throughout the trip, linked right to our MagicBands. I'm pissed we've never pulled the trigger on this option before, because the pics we got from Disney were some of our favorites this year.
I had my GoPro out for this ride (as you can see here), but the battery died halfway through the ride and the first video I took - the first part of the ride - is either corrupted or else saved somewhere in my extensive Google Photos library under an incorrect date stamp and I can't find it anywhere (I looked.)
Exiting, once again, through the gift shop.
One of the monkey enclosure towers (though the monkeys were all sleeping at this time of the day.)
Kris and the girls all wanted to do the Kali River Rapids ride next - another big draw - but I didn't want to get wet this early in the day so I opted to sit this one out.
More monkey-less monkey enclosure for ya.
With the girls off and waiting in line for their ride (they only waited five minutes, practically walked right on to that ride as well - because I guess most folks shared my views on getting drenched before 10am at a theme park), Yours Truly grabbed a beer and found a bench area near some random pond in Asia.
Safari Amber - my favorite Animal Kingdom beer.
Kris got a pic of the girls at the start of the ride (when they were still dry.)
Kali River Rapids
The Johnsons, meanwhile, had hit a snag. Their flight was delayed a couple hours, which meant that they would be pushing it to make their connection flight in Chicago later in the day. Stress was at an all-time high back in Michigan.
Kris and the girls came back much faster than I had anticipate, so I had to finish my beer and we set off for the main entrance to the park so that Kris could take care of that ticket snafu that I mentioned before (now that all the main rides were done and out of the way.)
Leaving Asia.
(That ship hull is probably lined with heroin.)
We had to fight our way through the throngs in the main hub of Discovery Island on our way back to the front entrance to the park. That was fun.
Fortunately, the tickets were all good to go - the correct passes were pulled at admissions, so we still had three, full-day tickets left to use after today. All that worry for nothing.
With Kris' mind now at ease, the girls wanted to go check out the Dinosaur ride (which we hadn't done since like the 2010's.)
This was a smart move on our part because this ride - and this entire section of the park - is closing soon in order to make way for a much-cooler Indiana Jones-themed area of the park. I f***ing love Indiana Jones.
Had to take some dinosaur skeleton pics for my brother, Chris, who's a big nerd for this sorta crap.
We ended up waiting about 20 minutes in line for this ride, which, again, was fine.
Dino selfie with the ball and chain.
Dinosaur
We look like a bunch of frickin' idiots, Jesus. . .
Taking on the first leg of their trip, after being delayed for hours. Ella conked out immediately.
After Dinosaur, we decided to head back over to Africa in order to shop a little. Kris had some dude take our usual family pic in front of this giant tree, but he had to stand off-center because some stupid Karen with a stroller wouldn't move aside.
Abby hadn't eaten yet, having skipped breakfast like she usually does, so she was beyond hangry. We stopped in the shade to force feed her one of those protein cookies so she could become human again before we continued.
Wouldn't be a trip to Animal Kingdom without getting a picture of Alayna in front of this giant Africa gate.
Coming back into Africa.
Everest - and Asia - off in the distance.
No one bought anything in Africa, but I was happy to see the same, old Bolgatanga, straw fans - identical to the one I bought in Ghana over twenty years ago - were still for sale. Those things work awesome.
Kris almost bought one of these, but was worried it'd break on the return trip home.
One of these days I'm going to steal one of these off the wall (I have a similar Kuba sword at home in my collection.)
Meanwhile, Ella was till snoring on the plane en route to Chicago.
Checking out the vendor stalls outside the souvenir store in Africa.
We had hit up a bunch of different shops, the girls had picked out a few things, and now - with all of the rides out of the way at it being only noon - we were left wondering what to do next. Ultimately we decided to do the Maharajah Jungle Trek. . . at the hottest part of the day.
Setting off for Asia. Again.
Sweaty, but hanging in there.
The rear view of this big-ass tree.
A second attempt at a family pic with this tree (turned out slightly better.)
Back in Asia.
A closer view of the previously-mentioned heroin junker.
(That probably says 'Coca-Cola,' right?)
We had a lot of walking to do, and had already spent the majority of the day walking back and forth across this park. I clocked 31,000 steps by the end of the day, must second-biggest score ever (the first being the day we moved into our house.)
Everyone was pretty beat so there wasn't a huge demand to look at animals sleeping in the sun, we were just going through the motions at this point for lack of anything else to do.
Inside the tiger enclosure.
The decor around here is just awesome, I love it.
I could take pictures around here all damn day. . .
Checking out the baby tigers - new additions this year to Animal Kingdom.
One of the baby tigers (sleeping and not putting on a show for us, like a jerk,)
Taking advantage of one of the fans in the trees - it was brutally humid out at this time of the day, and the frozen lemonades we had picked up for the girls was only doing so much.
This dude has the right idea.
Another empty animal enclosure. There weren't a lot of animals to spot on the trek because they were all sleeping in the shade in order to avoid the brutal, noon-time sun.
Another sleeping tiger.
Was able to recreate this old picture on our trek. . . though I got the frickin' current year wrong somehow. Don't ask me why I don't know what year it is, I'm an idiot.
With everyone sweaty, exhausted, and grumpy, Kris and the girls wanted to eat lunch and get some A/C. Kris loves the restaurant over in Pandora - yes, the total opposite side of the park, folks - so we started the long, forced march back over to that area. Again.
That water sure looked awesome at this time of the day. . .
One of the girls got a pic of us in front of one of the floating mountains on our way to the restaurant, per Kris' request.
We arrived at the restaurant at the busiest time of the day, and there were no tables to speak of. Kris was the only one of us who actually wanted to eat, the rest of us just wanted to be out of the heat - and preferably in a pool - by this point in the day. Since we were idiots and had attempted to get a table during peak lunch hours, and couldn't escape the outside humidity, our family decided to throw in the towel and leave the park (we had done everything there anyway.) On our walk back to the main entrance, Kris took this pic to send to all her Republican friends.
It was a long back to the shuttle area, but we found it eventually.
Kids were worn out and ready to be in some air conditioning. The Real Feel was 108.
Whatever you say, sign.
Our transportation arrives after waiting about fifteen minutes.
Pretty bare bones on the way back, around 1:30pm.
A short ten minute drive later had us pulling back into Pop Century.
Abby crashed immediately upon entering the room, and Kris couldn't resist sending a pick to the Johnsons.
After freshening up and resting in the room for about an hour, we decided to walk down to the main area of the resort again to explore a bit.
Menacing storm clouds on the horizon this afternoon (which is par for the course down here in the summer.)
Walked through the arcade, located adjacent to the lobby, cafeteria, and gift shop, to scope it out. This would be the last time any of us would step foot in there, though.
The Johnsons were supposed to fly in to Orlando around like 1pm, but due to their first flight's delay they missed their connection flight in Chicago (by minutes.) After arguing with the desk people for a bit they were put on a stand-by list for the next available flight to Orlando, and were lucky enough to squeeze on board at the last minute. They'd now be arriving around 4pm, which meant we would have to go down and pick up their Amazon grocery order (scheduled for 3pm, long after they though they'd be here) from the main lobby (like we had done the day before.) Courtney was able to check in to their room via her phone, and discovered that their room number was 1220, in the coveted '50s section of the resort.
Our room just so happened to be right next door to theirs, with a door opening up between the two rooms.
Abby, mid-freak out after spotting a bug outside on the balcony.
The storm finally breaks. Afternoon thunderstorms are an almost daily occurrence during a Florida summer.
The Johnson's bags were over an hour late getting off the plane (I forget why, exactly.) These guys had the absolute shittiest luck with travel today.
Me, Alayna, and Kris went down to the drop-off area outside of the lobby to catch the Amazon delivery folks (Courtney screenshot the receipt barcode and texted it to us so we could collect their order for them.)
A monumental year, obviously.
Arriving at the resort, at long last. Some five hours late.
Once the Johnsons had settled in to their room, unpacked their suitcases, and put away their groceries, we all went down to the cafeteria for dinner.
. . . well, not Alayna. She met us down there later, she had to get ready first.
These two, being weird again. As usual.
Heading back up to the rooms.
Transistor radios outside our walkway.
The girls were all pooped, so they crammed into the girls' bed in our room and binged Disney movies while us adults grabbed some drinks and set off to explore the surrounding resort areas.
Walking west from Pop Century, a two-minute walk brings you to Skyliner Hub - one of the stations that shuttles folks directly to the teme parks in ten-person gondolas.
The Skyliner Hub connects two different resorts across a narrow bridge - Pop Century and Art of Animation (shown here.)
Whereas in Pop Century there are different buildings/sections themed by decades, in Art of Animation they're themed by franchise/movie (like this Finding Nemo area here.)
The Art of Animation lobby.
Still looks menacing outside. We were supposed to get more rain in the evening but it was holding off for the time being.
Mine?
A cool-looking pipe statue in The Little Mermaid area of the resort.
More of the local decor.
Crossing back over the bridge we came in through Pop Century by way of the '70s area (which I hadn't seen yet.) They had a bunch of giant 8-track tapes standing around (nearly 40 feet in height.)
Entering the 60's. . .
There's a Christmas Tree Ornament in the resort gift shop that looks exactly like this giant Mickey statue that Kris and I ended up buying in order to commemorate our first stay at the resort.
Into the '80s area. . .
That's gotta be the '90s with the floppy disks and laptops. . .
Back in the room, the girls were still in bed being lazy.
I've never said 'To the Max' in my frickin' life. What the hell, Disney.
And so concludes our first full day in Florida. Animal Kingdom conquered, the Johnsons now on board. Tomorrow our group sets off for a full-day in classic Magic Kingdom. Stay tuned.
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