Star Wars Dark Side – 4/15/18 – 4/23/18 – Day 4

Wednesday 4/18/18

Heather and Ryan arrival day!!! Every day at Disney is a good day, but any day I get to spend with my little sis is just that much better! We knew they weren’t getting in until afternoon so since we planned to basically close down Animal Kingdom we were in no great rush to get there. We did a load of laundry and had Mickey waffles at Pop food court.

Even with taking it easy and no rush we still got to AK just a couple minutes after 9:00. I don’t think we’ve ever gotten there at this time, bag check was busy! But at the same time very efficient. It really didn’t take us too long to get through. The touch points were very backed up but guess what? There was no one in the A/P line! So off we went and were through lickety split! We went to the right with intentions of Dinoland to start our day. A CM said Pocahontas was meeting down to the right where Pooh and friends used to so off we went. She had no one there and no wait! We had just great interaction with her and she told us all about how Meeko and Petey the squirrel would get into people’s snacks on their strollers and then be too full to run away! It was one of the best meets! We then left our new friend and rode Dinosaur with absolutely zero wait and then Triceratops Spin with zero wait and I rode Everest single rider line with zero wait! Proof positive that everyone goes to Pandora first and you can have the rest of the park to yourselves if you’re willing to forego the stampede! After Everest we heard the gibbons on their island in Asia. Oh my gosh were they vocal! And so active early in the morning! I could have watched them for hours! After a bit though, we strolled the Maharajah Jungle Trek. The tiger cubs were napping but mama was up and walking around. Dad was sleeping in the first area. There was a CM with some binoculars and he pointed out to us a wild owl family who had set up a nest on top of one of the buildings. It was so cool to see! From there we decided to check out the Gorilla Falls Trail. Kathy enjoyed watching some very active meerkats! We also got an up close look at the alpha male gorilla, who weighs in at 450 pounds! Yikes! He is actually the son of one of the other in the bachelor group and we chatted a bit with a CM on hand as to how the transfer of power takes place. It’s mainly through posturing and charging at one another to see who swerves first, no real battles. After a relaxing walk filled morning we decided on Flame Tree for lunch. We got what Lauren and I got in October, and adult baked mac and cheese with pork and a kids meal drumstick. It was delicious and worked better than two full adult meals and we sat by the water with a view of Everest. It was a perfect spot! We just sat and relaxed and didn’t move for a long time, just enjoying summer so much while back home was still trapped in a winter that wouldn’t end!

After we decided we had lounged long enough we browsed the shops in Africa and then caught the 1:00 Finding Nemo show, something we don’t necessarily see every trip. We then looked through the front shops. We do love the merchandise in Animal Kingdom! You can find things here that you can’t find anywhere else in WDW! Kathy was getting so many compliments on her Haunted Mansion ears and so many CM’s were loving them, I think we gave out Paradise Falls Parkwear name to at least a dozen or more people! We decided to do something else we don’t usually have time to do. We got a Mickey Bar and checked out the Tree of Life trails. While there we met up with a lovely photopass photographer and had a great conversation about runDisney and just about everything else! Heather and Ryan were en route (yea!) and on their own private bus I might add, so we started making our way up front. While doing that we saw Timon with only a two person wait! Brer Rabbit and Thumper were up front just milling around. It was great! The handlers said there was no set line, just to ask them for a picture! I wish they did more things like that. That was when I saw them. Heather and Ryan had arrived at the touch points! I ran up to her and we embraced in a huge and epic squishy squeeze hug! It was so awesome and it felt so good to see my little sis again!!! I truly think we were heard as far away as Miami!

We then saw Baloo and King Louie off to the right side with almost no wait so we decided to hop in. Baloo absolutely loved Kathy’s Jungle Book shirt with his picture on it and led her away, arm in arm. Seriously, the bear took my wife away and I don’t know if they were coming back if not for the CM handler! So I danced to Be Like You with King Louie! We then worked our way back to Africa and rode Kilimanjaro Safaris with our FP. There were lots of active animals for that late in the day! Whether they were moving to the barns or the nighttime ones were waking up I don’t know, but we had to stop quite a few times for animals in the road! It made for some great photo ops though! After getting off we saw the FoP was down, which we had a FP for, so we went and rode Dinosaur as a walk on. We saw a little bit of Carnivale and Heather treated Kathy to her Mickey pretzel for her support in the Dopey Challenge. We all just sat and enjoyed the snacks and talked and enjoyed being together, the four of us once again, while waiting for the 6:00 FotLK show. We lost track of time a little bit and almost missed it, being led in the side entrance just as it was starting! Great show as always and we bench danced to the songs! Heather, Ryan and I used our Everest FP while Kathy used her Kali River Rapids and then we all headed to Satuli Canteen for dinner. Just as we were finishing up we saw that FoP was back up! Yahoo! So we used our final FP of the day for that. With it being down for awhile they were taking almost all FP riders and stand by was truly that, a stand by while watching all the FP people ride! After enjoying our flight on a banshee we all enjoyed walking around Pandora at night and got some great photopass ops including the only nighttime magic shot in Animal Kingdom! The three of us then went over and rode Everest in the dark with virtually no wait! Man that ride is awesome at night! At that point it was getting late so we headed for home. What a perfect day! It was such a relaxing day in what has become one of my absolute favorite parks! And we basically did pretty close to all there is at AK with no rushing whatsoever! But of course, seeing Heather again was the absolute 100% bestest part of the day!

Steps: 30,106
Miles: 13.58