Disney Day 6 - Animal Kingdom and Beyond

Our last full day was a bit bittersweet.  On one hand, our long-awaited trip was almost over.  On the other, I was completely exhausted and wasn't sure my body would have held out another day.  I probably could have done another resort day, mind you, although the thought of walking up those waterslide steps again was daunting!  

Both times we've been there, I've found myself at the end regretting not spending more time on the patio.  I went out that morning for our last resort sunrise (we'd be on the airport shuttle the next morning) and took it all in.

Looking through the Mickey cutout in the railing

That patio was really nice, but would probably be better when the morning humidity wasn't already quite so oppressive.  But it was fun waking up to palm trees and a golf course for a week. 

I'll elaborate more on this in my final trip post, but we've definitely come to the conclusion that family vacations will need to look a little different in the future--mostly for Jacob's sake--but I'll admit a little more resort time would have been preferable.  It was really beautiful, after all.  This was the view from the stairs outside our villa, looking toward our morning bus stop.  

The agenda for that last day was Animal Kingdom, and the goal was to start early (ha) and end early.  We did get out slightly earlier than usual, but still only just on time for general admission, rather than the half-hour-early resort admission.  Animal Kingdom is such a different feel, and it always seems so much more humid to me, probably due to all the vegetation.  The Tree of Life is a pretty cool centerpiece that fits right in.

Originally I hoped we could skip Genie+ that day, but in the end we wanted to do this one fast so I bought it early on, as well as our Individual Lightning Lanes for Avatar Flight of Passage.  In the end it was probably only useful for a few things, but the peace of mind was helpful and I felt like I was doing all I could to honor the plan to make it a short day, which was extra important to Jacob by this point.  

We checked out some animal exhibits on the way to our first official ride, the Kilimanjaro Safari.  

The safari is always fun because you never know what animals will be out or what they'll be doing.  I'm not sure we've ever seen this giant bird before!
 

Over the course of the ride we saw hippos, pelicans, crocodiles, mandrills, lions, rhinos, warthogs, and more.  I always loved these big horned cattle after I got an awesome up-close pic of one on one of our earlier trips.  Their horns are so huge!

We saw a bunch of giraffes, as well.  Ironic we can actually see the same breed at our home zoo now!  But it's neat seeing them more in the wild here.

And after seeing a fake elephant at Magic Kingdom earlier in the week, finally a real one!

This view cracked me up--it looked like the ostrich was having a chat with the truck.

Jacob fell asleep on the safari last time, but it was a pretty successful ride this time around.  After that, we did a nature trail nearby to check out more animals.  This creepy snake was almost completely hiding under the sand in his tank!

Look at that pretty bird!

This might have been one of my favorite views of the day, and I almost didn't see it at first.  I noticed all the fish but didn't see the hippo until a few seconds later.  At first it was completely submerged but I liked this view of it going up for air a bit!  The fish almost appeared to be eating something off the hippo's skin.

I love a good iridescent fish photo!

We caught a view of the gorillas.  This one was eating breakfast out of a metal pitcher with a stick.  It was neat to see them use it as a utensil.

Next we moved on to Asia, where Carter was super excited to ride Expedition Everest!  It was actually still a pretty short line so we just hopped on the standby line.

We loved it!  It's such a fun coaster with all of its little surprises, from the broken track and the backward ride, to the Yeti and having the big hill near the end.  We both really enjoyed it!

Such a cool view.

As we headed over to Kali River Rapids to meet up with Craig and Jacob, we caught a glimpse of the kite show over the water.  It was a Lion King theme.

As I mentioned, our next stop was Kali River Rapids, the raft ride that I was most dreading on this trip, and the one Carter kept talking about excitedly.  Sigh.  I don't enjoy raft rides, I didn't like having to worry about wearing or carrying bathing suits, and I didn't really want to have to replace all of the moleskin on my feet again.  At least I was prepared this time, for all of the above, so I was hopeful it wouldn't be a repeat of the Canada's Wonderland debacle that started this raft ride aversion in the first place!  We all had suits on except Craig who wore quick drying stuff. 

It was only a five minute wait, probably since it was still early in the day.  We loaded into a boat with another family of four, and we were off.  In the end there were two surprises for me: 1) The ride had very little in the way of the big pounding waterfalls most of these rides have; and 2) There was a giant hill!  We mostly got a couple splashes as the boat sloshed through the rapids and one big splash at the bottom of the 20-30-foot hill.  There was one easily avoidable set of arched water streams, plus elephants at the end that shot little fountains out of their trunks (courtesy of passers-by pressing buttons on the bridge nearby).  We got reasonably wet in spots but not completely soaked, which was a bit of a relief.  As we got off, knowing the wait was short, we figured we might as well go right back on again and make the most of our wetness!  It turned out the family we rode with asked a cast member on the way out if they could just jump back into line again (rather than going all the way out of the winding exit), and they could, so we joined them!  We got right on another boat, with the same family, plus a father and young son.  The ride went pretty similarly, except after our first splash the little boy started sobbing!  I felt his pain, believe me!  His dad did get him chilled out by the end of the ride, thankfully.  We had a really good time with the other family, just laughing throughout and watching people near the end of the ride as they got surprised by the elephants.  It was one of my favorite memories from the trip, ironically.  Carter wanted to ride yet again but I think we were all ready to move on.  We did spend some time on the bridge so the boys could shower the rafts coming through.  I think they could have spent all day there because surprising people was pretty entertaining!

We headed back to get changed, and on the way to the bathrooms I saw this butterfly fluttering around and was lucky enough to capture it landing on a plant!

We did one more trail to see animals, this time in the Asian section.  There were monkeys and a komodo dragon, and we saw this funky lizard with a rather long tail.

There was also a section of bats.  This one was SO huge.  Like probably over a foot long, and I don't want to know what the wingspan was!  Creepy!

There were no tigers to be found this trip, but we did go back into the bird area and saw a couple cool ones.

Cool green one just left and above center

This bird was so big, and its tail feather was equally huge!  It hung way down and we almost missed it blending into the tree branches, but it was impressive...and imposing!

It was time for our Avatar-based Na'vi River Journey Genie+ reservation, so we headed back toward the front of the park to go to Pandora.  That was quite the new land that wasn't there last time.  They hadn't even started building it at our last visit, and having never seen the movie (oops--that has since been rectified), I had very little idea what to expect.  It was quite impressive.  

The rock structures were huge and the unique vegetation was very creative.  I guess Pandora is pretty stunning at night but both our planned early exit and a close time prior to significant darkness meant we wouldn't be able to check that out.  But the Na'vi River Journey ride gave us a pretty good idea.  It was a standard dark boat ride, but featured a ton of bio-luminescent plants and lots of blacklit, glow-in-the-dark everything.  The characters' appearances were actually slightly unnerving--they're almost human but huge and blue with some odd facial structure--but it was neat to see and I'm glad we did it.  

We still had some time to wait before our Flight of Passage reservation so we grabbed lunch just outside Pandora at Pizzafari (we ate there last time, too) and then headed back.  Even with our reservation it was still a bit of a line, but nothing too terrible.  And based on what I had heard, it would be worth it.  We knew very little about the ride other than it being a "flight", but I was crossing my fingers for Craig's and Jacob's sakes that it was more like Soarin' than anything.  In many ways it was, with the big screen and multi-tiered viewing, but it was definitely more intense!  

The concept is that you're riding on a winged creature called an ikran, otherwise known as a banshee.  The seat was very similar to the seats on the Motocoaster at Darien Lake, straddling your own cycle-shaped seat complete with the back pad that flips up and smacks you in the back to hold you in place.   There were probably 8-10 in each grouping, and I noticed during the ride there were probably nine total groups set up in three tiers and going three across.  I didn't notice that setup until probably halfway through the ride in my peripheral vision, but that setup was quite the sight by itself!

The ride was pretty amazing, just flying through the air with simulated drops and swoops, enhanced with a simulator and 3-D glasses.  The seats also had their own effects to mimic how the banshee's movements might feel on your legs.  The ride was probably a little too realistic for Craig and Jacob, and I honestly spent the second half of the ride and the entire walk out laughing hysterically (until I cried!) because of Craig's reactions alone!  It was so funny hearing him overreact to every movement, but thankfully he took it like a champ and came out of it okay.  So much of that was completely unexpected for all of us, but what a ride it was!

I took this picture of Carter when we came out, and now know after watching the movie at home that this was sort of the "bad guy armor" in the movie--a moving robot suit where the person hid out in the cockpit up top.

At that point, the big boys departed yet again!  They were ready to go play basketball again and get some resort time.  Carter and I actually didn't have too much more to do, but it was worth sticking around for a bit longer.  On our way to Dinoland U.S.A. we came across this flower.  I thought it looked like it belonged back in Pandora.  I love the colors!

Carter and I first went to explore Discovery Island and get a close-up view of the Tree of Life.  There were a few more animals over there--including a creepy vulture!

I don't remember going right up near the tree before, but looking at my old pictures it's tough to tell if we ever did--I used a lot of zoom back then!  But this was pretty neat.

Our next stop was the Dinosaur ride.  This was another one we missed in the past, and after we were done I was relieved not only that we missed it before, but that Craig and Jacob didn't stick around to ride it.  It was fun, I swear, but it was a rather chaotic ride!  It would not have been good when I was pregnant and I think it would have freaked out Jacob nine years ago.  It was like the safari ride except indoors with animatronic dinosaurs, and it was a lot rougher!  We had to flee (fast) from other dinosaurs in a Jeep-type truck in a quest to find one specific dinosaur before a meteor shower hit.  It definitely had some crazy moments and a couple surprises, but overall we really enjoyed it!

View from the lobby--thank goodness for Genie+!

Outside the ride, I had Carter stand with the dinosaur...

...and then he asked for this picture, too!

Such a goof!

The last thing on our agenda was to go back to Expedition Everest and use Genie+ to ride it one more time.  Why not, right?  It was right around the corner and we could get on right away.  It was a great way to end our day and our time in the parks!

I was looking just a bit sweaty and exhausted.  I think you can also see the tiny goose egg I got when a metal toilet paper dispenser front flopped down on me at EPCOT when I was trying to fish the paper out.  It wasn't locked right and BOOM...square in the forehead!

Rather than head back to the resort, I had another plan in mind.  We left the park and hopped a bus to Hollywood Studios.  It was time to ride the Skyliner!  The Skyliner didn't exist the last time we were there--it's actually only about three years old.  We took the quick bus ride and went to the Skyliner station right in front of the park.  I had been waiting the whole trip to do this because it looked so fun and peaceful, and in case you haven't guessed by now, I'm into things in the same futuristic transportation vein as the People Mover...so I had to experience it!

Most of them actually had different colors and really cute wraps where various characters were looking out the windows.  They were so cute but the wraps did make looking out of some windows difficult, which was a complaint of mine on the buses too! 

We got on pretty quickly and were paired with a young couple from Scotland!  We had a nice chat about being completely confounded by Florida weather--how they live with the thunderstorms and practically ignore them, when most people from other places are so conditioned to take cover immediately when thunder rumbles.  Our ride ended at the station at Caribbean Beach, which had transfers to two different lines.  One went to the Pop Century and Art of Animation Resorts, and the other went to the Riviera Resort and on to EPCOT.  We opted to do the Pop Century and Art of Animation leg because I've seen cute pictures of those resorts and sort of wanted to eye them up in case we ever need a value resort.  It was a pretty quick trip there.

The theming is so fun there!  Pop Century celebrates five decades of fads.  Here you can see the giant bowling pins in the 50s section.
 

Across the way, we could see giant notebooks flanking the Art of Animation buildings, each featuring a drawing for each movie section at that resort.  We hopped off the Skyliner and took a quick walk to Art of Animation first.  Had it not felt like we were walking on the sun I probably would have walked the length of the resort because each section was so cutely themed and the pools looked really fun, too.  This giant Crush was in the Finding Nemo section.

Hard to capture the scale, but those are four story buildings and he was probably up near the third floor!  If you look to the right, you can see how there were fish and water plants all over the building.

Then we walked back across, past the Skyliner station, to Pop Century.  We were in the 60s, where yo-yos flanked the buildings.  If you look down the way, there's a giant 60s-era container of Play-doh!

It was really cool and while I know those resorts have their drawbacks, they looked like way more fun to explore than ours, even though our resort was completely lovely and upscale.  Sometimes a little kitsch is cool!  

That ended up being such a quick ride that I figured we could take the time to go on the other branch over to EPCOT.  That one actually ended up being a bit longer than I expected.  The first leg to Riviera was about the same as the others, but the leg after that was lengthy.  On the way to Riviera we ended up with a couple maybe a little younger than my parents.  The woman was wearing Minnie ears and right off the bat, Carter said, "So what park were you at today?"  That kid is something else.  I'm happy to chat with people if the mood seems right in lines and on transportation, but for him to pop out with that right away, to two adults, really cracked me up.  We had a nice chat about some of the rides we liked and being sad about leaving.

On the leg to EPCOT, we ended up on a gondola with a family of four women--two older ones and two 20-somethings.  One of the 20-somethings was actually a little rude when they got on.  In the shuffle of boarding, an older woman's water mug got knocked on the ground and splashed, and the one 20-something's MagicBand came off in the scramble to rectify it.  The 20-something actually blamed Carter for it under her breath--though the older woman shot that down quickly because she knew it wasn't true.  Then the cranky one then insisted her MagicBand was broken because she couldn't get it back on.  I initially thought she was autistic or something because of how she was acting--illogical, self-centered, sort of withdrawn--but then she seemed pretty normal by the end of the trip, so who knows.  

We finally got around to EPCOT and there was the view I saw the previous day!  Sure enough, it was a cool ride in past the World Showcase.    

Above France, looking toward the Ratatouille ride in the distance!

After that, we slowly but surely worked our way back...to Riviera, to Caribbean Beach, to Hollywood Studios, and then back on a bus to our resort.  We got off at the Hospitality House because I had been promising Carter a Dole Whip back at the resort.  We found out on our resort day that the snack bar had a Key Lime treat with lime Dole Whip swirled with vanilla soft serve and covered with graham cracker crumbs.  We both got one for the walk back to the resort and it was SO good and refreshing.  

Craig and Jacob had long ago gone to Saratoga Springs (again) to play basketball, and were ready to go to the pool when we got back.  The weather was getting threatening, but we figured we'd settle for the pool near our villa instead and make it quick if we had to.  It was just a few buildings away, no frills like the main pool, but a nice size with a hot tub.  I dipped my sore feet in the hot tub for a while (it's honestly too hot outside to go all the way in, but my feet needed help!) and then hopped in the pool with the family.  The thunder started rumbling pretty good about five minutes later, so we were probably only there for a half hour or less.  But it was just enough to refresh ourselves!
  

I couldn't help but take one more picture of a lizard!

The pool...I wish we had more time there.

It poured pretty good by the time we were back to our villa.  Thankfully this one didn't last super long, but the clouds lingered in other directions and the thunder hung in there.  But then I saw this outside!  Almost no better way to end a trip!
   

We did still have dinner to work out, however.  We decided to go back to Port Orleans, not only for their food court, but also for more beignets!  We figured the boats might still be shut down due to the thunderstorms in the area, so we hopped the bus and headed to Disney Springs that way, then grabbed a bus to Port Orleans from there.  We had another delicious dinner--Jacob loved his chicken fingers, I finally had mac and cheese (I'd been eyeing it up everywhere all trip but it never worked out to get it), and Craig and Carter had the same meals they had the other day.  Then it was back to the cafe to get beignets all around!  We each had one of the regular ones and Jacob ate his three (they're smaller).  We all just loved them so much and it will definitely be a priority again if we ever go back.

We went back to Disney Springs and made a couple stops in the stores to look for souvenirs.  No luck with my ornament at the Christmas store, and none of us ended up with a real souvenir.  We had our MagicBands, I had my birthday button, Carter got a Disney Transportation wooden coin for ditching his drink before getting on the bus (their lack of lids was frustrating), and we brought home our Star Wars popcorn bucket, but none of us really found anything bigger that resonated...although Craig (not Carter, contrary to the picture) really wanted this stuffed Chewbacca!  I have banned additional stuffed animals at this stage, however--we need to somehow get rid of the ones we have, and we mostly just have sentimental ones left so that is hard enough!

I loved the shirt I got last time but I had a really hard time spending $37 on a basic t-shirt this time (even if I was directed to spoil myself).  As it was, there was only one that vaguely interested me and I honestly wasn't in the mood to think about it at that point.  Nothing else really struck me this time except that darn elusive ornament.  I guess we're not souvenir people, but my pictures are really my souvenir, in case you couldn't tell!  

We took one last boat ride back from Disney Springs and frantically organized our luggage, so it was close to ready to go in the morning.  It was already later than would have been ideal and we had a very early morning coming up with a very specific departure time.  We needed to get to sleep ASAP, and we couldn't afford any slowpokes or packing problems in the morning, so we did everything we could to prepare before dropping into bed.  And with that, our vacation was basically over.  Almost, anyway...