May 2018 Trip Report – Animal Kingdom!

Thursday

Animal Kingdom

We didn’t rush to get up and out the door. We were a bit tired after 2 long park days, and our first FP at Animal Kingdom wasn’t until 10:40-11:40 anyway. We got to Animal Kingdom and did something we haven’t in a while: went to It’s Tough to Be a Bug! Not my favorite show, and not a show that’s a favorite among younger guests. We made it through ok but I can tell you there’s a good chance 6 and younger aren’t going to be wowed by that one. On average we do that show about every 5-6 years to we were due statistically I guess. But the walk in and out of the attraction more than makes up for it in terms of the views.

From there we made our way to Kilimanjaro Safaris, a must do every time we go to the park. We didn’t see anything overly different this time, but the baby hippo is pretty cool, and I got some good shots of the lions napping, baby elephant and mom, and sleeping rhinos. Our driver (wish I’d gotten his name) was pretty funny, with some new jokes we hadn’t heard. On a different note, I noticed no “Hapa Duniani” played at all. I remember when they played the entire song, but the last couple of times it was just a shorter clip. Now nothing at all. I always loved hearing that towards the end of the attraction. I also miss the Wilson-Simba One radio calls. My kids get a kick out of it when I out of the blue say “Simba One….” with a radio crackling sound.

Then we went to check out the new Up! bird show. I’d gotten a bit tired of the old show, but was curious to know how this would play out. Russell and Dug make brief appearances, so it adds to the experience for younger guests, but I didn’t think it was overly obnoxious. The show is still impressive based on how the birds are trained, and one thing I have always liked is the theming of the theater area.

From there we went to Flame Tree BBQ, and used mobile ordering for the first time. Not sure how many of you have used it, but for us it was quick and easy, and saved us a bunch of time rather than standing in line to order and pickup. Flame Tree BBQ moves pretty quickly in terms of getting food to guests, and this was even faster. The food was great. This maybe is the best quick service food in the parks that I’ve seen. We split a few things among us because the portions are also pretty big. If you can get a table down by the water – there are great views of Expedition Everest and the Rivers of Light seating area.

Afterwards we visited Rafiki’s Planet Watch, and enjoyed sitting on the train that takes you out there. We visited the affection station or whatever they call the petting zoo part of it, and it was fun to walk around a little bit. We went inside to see the vet staff examining some animals, and we got to do character meet and greets with Rafiki and Doc McStuffins – 2 favorites of ours. We stayed for some of the hands on animal show – an American crocodile this time, then took the train back to Harambe.

By this time it was early afternoon, and hot! No cloud cover, just hot. Luckily, Kali River Rapids was next, but surprisingly, on a day when you’d expect (and even want) to get wet, those of us who went on it stayed dry. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to go on because we had some weary travelers that I sat with nearby. So we decided to call an audible and head back to Animal Kingdom Lodge, get some downtime, hit the pool, and then figure out what to do later, if anything. I hated to think we’d miss Rivers of Light because we’ve never seen it, but we were all worn out.

It turns out heading back was a great thing to do – we got to rest and hit the pool, and while we did all that, I set my camera on my tripod and shot 2 timelapses looking toward Kidani Village. One was shot for about 30 minutes, then I set the other to shoot sunset over Kidani Village. That took about 2.5 hours. At that point it looked like we weren’t heading back to Animal Kingdom, so I decided to try a couple of cool new photography stunts. The great thing about that is you can let the camera gear do the work once you’re setup. So we hit the pool. If you ever stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge, make sure to visit the pool, unless of course the weather isn’t good. It’s awesome – zero entry pool and a huge waterslide that’s a hit with the kids. After we got in there and cooled off, well, what do you know? We all decided to head back to Animal Kingdom!

I faced a problem at this point though, because I wanted to shoot Rivers of Light, but my camera was in the process of shooting the timelapse. So I decided what the heck and let it keep shooting. It was pretty liberating just going to the park and no backpack or camera bag. So we strolled on in, but I was still wishing I had my camera – I got a nice sunset shot of the sky from the bus drop area. I guess this would be a chance for me to work on my iPhone photography skills.

We hadn’t yet checked out Pandora – we’re not Avatar fans, and the attraction wait times turned us off with 1hr+ waits, but I can tell you next time we’ll make it a point to experience the area more fully. We walked around for a bit, awed by the scale of the expansion and the overall setting. It really is like setting foot on some different planet. The plants, structures, and even the ambient sounds make you feel like you’re somewhere else entirely.

We made it in time to get to Rivers of Light, so we checked into our FP seating area, then found pretty good seats. It was getting close to 9 pm, and my wife said “Why don’t you go try to get in Everest while we’re waiting?” So I asked a Cast Member if he thought it was doable, and he said go for it. Luckily, the line was short, but there was also no single rider line, which I’ve used multiple times before. It was 9:05 as I was exiting the queue area, still waiting for people in front of me to board. I asked the CM standing there if she thought I’d make it, ready to bail if she said no. She waved me through to get me in sooner, and next thing you know, I was on the next train.

Everest at night is a totally different experience! I knew it would be, but the scenery….everythying makes it a completely different attraction. I’ll definitely do this one at night again.

After Everest, I headed back to Rivers of Light – luckily, there’s little distance between the two. I could hear announcements as I was heading back to our seats. And pretty much as soon as I sat down, the show started.

In a way, it was a good thing I didn’t have my camera. I took a couple of shots with my phone, but for the most part just watched. If I’d had my camera, I’d have shot away, paying little attention to the show and the music. The music, floats, performers, and the water screen projections are stunning. I couldn’t believe how they were able to project those images on a screen of water. I know Disney had a whale of a time getting the show to work, and they missed their target date for rolling it out, but I was glad they took the extra time. I think it was worth it. And I’ll get to shoot it someday. But I’m glad the first time I saw it was just using my eyes, rather than a camera viewfinder.

After Rivers of Light we headed over to Kilimanjaro Safari to try the nighttime safari experience. There was no standby line. This is a totally different experience at night. The lighting is pretty well done to make it look like sunset on the savanna, but there are some light placements that must be for safety and security that are definitely out of place. The nighttime safari is a neat experience – there’s a good chance you’ll see lions awake, and maybe moving a bit, but it’s a much shorter attraction. That’s either by design, or because our driver was ready to shut it down for the night. Each time we’d stop to look at an animal she’d give a little spiel and wait about 10 seconds for guests to look, then speed off. I was glad I didn’t have my camera here – between the low lighting and vehicle movement I would have gotten zero good shots. But it was fun, and I’ll definitely do it again when I get the chance.

By now the park was starting to empty, but still remained open for a little while. We were in a moderate crowd heading to the bus stops, but timed it just right – we loaded onto the Animal Kingdom Lodge bus and got right back to the resort. For once we had a really short bus ride – maybe 10 minutes, and that was with taking guests to Kidani Village first.

Apple Watch statistics: 20,884 steps, 9.3 miles. Animal Kingdom is sneaky that way – there’s a lot of walking packed into visiting that park.