Daddy/daughter trip – October 24 – 30, 2017 – day 5

Saturday 10/28/17
So after our discussion the previous night of trying for the Banshee Stampede, we were at the bus stop by 7:00 am for an anticipated 8:00 am EMH opening at Animal Kingdom. Fortunately we did not have the troubles we’ve experience with AK buses in the past and we were to AK by 7:20. The line for AP holders wasn’t too bad and we got in it. I was curious as to how they were going to determine that everyone there and trying to enter was staying on-site. Well they had CM’s with tablets like I-pads and they were scanning a MB from each party after people entered to make sure they were staying on resort property. A good way to do it and it was very efficient. I suppose someone could have been there and at least part of their party was staying off-site, but that was probably minimal. The Banshee Stampede was nothing like the Running of the Dwarfs! It was actually somewhat orderly with a stoppage after the bridge to Discovery Island before the Tree of Life. Then a brisk, short walk to the bridge to Pandora where there was another stoppage. Then a “shuffling for position” walk to the start of the queue and in. We actually met a couple who was there and was going to be there again same time as us in December! We got our first ride on the back of a banshee and what can I say? WOW! AWESOME! INCREDIBLE! AMAZING! More descriptive words escape me. This is certainly the most visually stunning ride in all of WDW I think, and definitely catapulted to one of my very favorites! I am SO glad we decided to participate in the Stampede so we could ride it twice! One of the best parts about getting there so early? We were on and off the ride by 8:05! Five minutes after official EMH park open! Well now the park was at our feet! We strolled over to Everest and rode 3 times in a row! With no wait! We asked for front one ride, back another, and let them put us wherever on the third, which happened to be around the middle. We strolled over to our FP for Safaris, pausing to watch the gibbons play a bit on their island. The beauty of getting there early this day? We had zero hurry in our step the entire day after the initial entrance! It felt so good to slow down and just really enjoy all the theming and atmosphere that Animal Kingdom has to offer. The Safari was great! We stopped several times, once when a giraffe decided that now was a good time to cross the road, right in front of our truck! The cheetah was standing up on a rock and posed majestically. The lion even roared a few times for us!
We caught the 10:00 show of FotLK, which we both love so much! Another fun thing for us, we’ve seen it so much that we enjoy looking around at some of the side things going on. We walked the Gorilla Falls trail and started to work our way over to Dinosaur for our FP. It was on the trail behind the Tree of Life that I saw Resort TV1! I motioned to Lauren and we both went over and said “hi” and were actually on their live broadcast that they were doing that morning! I even got some compliments from them and their viewers on my shirt! After riding Dinosaur (we made it again! Whew!) we decided to have Flame Tree for lunch. We got the baked mac and cheese with pork (adult) and kid’s meal drumstick. This way we split and had approximately 2/3 of an adult meal. The mac and cheese with pork was so good! I would absolutely get that again! With our AP discount it turned out we fed the two of us for $16! Yes please! We found a perfect spot by the water and lingered and enjoyed just being there, taking probably over an hour for lunch. Again, no hurry, just having the best time being there. It was now time for our FoP FP. Oh my gosh, even better the second time around! We could look around more and catch more of the scenes. We weren’t sure yet what we wanted to do later, Downtown Disney Springs or Studios so we just checked FP availability for later. Lo and behold there was a TSMM waiting for us! Decision made!
We caught the 1:30 show of Flights of Wonder and I’m glad we did! For unknown to us at the time, it has now ended so that would be the last time we saw it. We decided to stroll the Maharajah Jungle Trek. After completing our lovely early portion of the day we browsed the shops on the way out and caught the bus to Studios.
Once we arrived at Studios we saw Kylo Ren at the Visa Meet and Greet. I just love that spot. Either no one knows about it or something because there is never a line! We saw Beauty and the Beast was going to start in a bit so since we were in the neighborhood we caught that show. One of my favorites! I grabbed us a Mickey Bar while we made our way to Indiana Jones which was going to be starting in a bit. I tell you, if you ever want to make the most of your time and see a ton without hurrying and scurrying, let Lauren take charge of the time schedule! This kid was on top of it! We never ran, never waited more than 5 or 10 minutes for a show to start. After seeing Indy we still had a bit of time before our TSMM FP so we went and met BB-8. Oh my gosh that little droid was so cute! He loved Lauren and her birthday and daddy/daughter trip buttons! We then used our FP for TSMM where she beat me again! What is up with that? Oh well, I can always say I let her win since it was her birthday trip.
Lauren wanted to see the Star Wars stage show but it sprinkled just enough, just enough, that they couldn’t safely let it go on. So we put that on the list for December and went over to Backlot Express for dinner. They also honored AP discount so with that I ate the entire day for $20! We had some time to kill before the evening entertainment so we popped in and saw the Voyage of the Little Mermaid and went into One Man’s Dream and got a good look at the Toy Storyland model. That’s going to be really cool!
We saw Movie Magic and pretty close to immediately following saw the Star Wars Galactic Spectacular. Rain started to come down just close to the ending so we had to break out the ponchos for the first and only time of the trip. The rain got heavier as we exited and was coming down pretty good on the way home. It worked out pretty well that we were leaving the park anyway.
Steps: 30,151
Miles: 13.62