From the second you walk in the park, you can see animals out and about. And in the morning before the heat and crowds it was really quite peaceful.
The character buffet at Tusker House was one of our favorites - maybe our favorite from the entire trip! They seated us quickly, the characters were rotating immediately, and the food was delicious! We ate casually, met the characters, and were out of there in an hour. My kind of place! And it proved that the breakfast character meets were the best for our boys. They weren't tired, hot, or worn out yet.
The Mickey waffles were a big hit! And the juice that they served as the "house juice" was delicious! We even got a to-go cup of it for Evan.
After breakfast, our first FastPass was for the Safari at 9:20am. In fact, our schedule looked like this, as we planned a half day trip to Animal Kingdom:
Breakfast at The Tusker House at 8am
Kilimanjaro Safari (9:20am FastPass)
Trails (Pagani and Discovery Island)
Festival of the Lion King (11:00am FastPass)
The Boneyard/Meet Pocahantas
Triceratop Spin
Pizzafari for a Quick Service lunch
Expedition Everest (1:15pm FastPass - we skipped this for time)
I'm going to be honest. Between our frequent zoo trips, feeding giraffes at the zoo, and going on a similar safari, but in our car when we were on our way to Toronto two years ago, this particular Safari at Animal Kingdom didn't do much for me or for the kids. Some parts were exciting, others were just mehhh. I feel guilty saying that, but the animals weren't that close. We were most excited about seeing the elephants since the Detroit Zoo doesn't have them.
Our safari vehicle got stuck toward the end as an Annax stood in the road. We had to call for assistance. And by assistance it was an employee that came out in a smaller jeep to try and lure him off the road with food. The wait was hot and the kids were impatient, but we survived.
Once off the safari, the trails were much more exciting. The kids could explore and look at the animals as they pleased. My favorite spot was watching the gorillas interact. They were all right up by the glass and everyone "oooh'd and ahhh'd" as the male gorilla stepped out.
We finished the trails with just barely enough time to get to The Festival of the Lion King show. I figured with our FastPasses it would be no problem. And it wasn't. Except I'm not sure what the point of having FastPasses were for that. It didn't get us special seats and there wasn't a line to get in. We grabbed seats toward the top of one section that was left and got comfortable.
The show was phenomenal! The talent of the actors and actresses was astounding. The colors, the songs, the dancing! Wow!!! My only piece of advice: if you have a child that is sensitive to sound, this isn't the show for them. It's very, very loud and overwhelming. We should have thought to bring his noice cancelling headphones. Instead, my dad had to find an escape route (which wasn't easy as he had to crawl through sections to get to an exit door) to take Sean out. Poor kid.
After that, we made our way towards Dinoland to go to the Boneyard. I think the kids needed to run around and play for a bit. It was the perfect place to do it! What an awesome play area and a shaded area for digging too!
On our way to Dinoland, Evan stayed behind with me, Scott, and my mom to do a meet and greet with Pocahantas and Miko. What a fun character meet! She spent so much time with Evan and the line was manageable and shady for the most part.
We caught back up with Sean and my dad in the Boneyard for some more playing and then walked over to ride Triceratop Spin (it's very similar to Dumbo and the Magic Carpets - which means the boys loved it!). We stopped in a cute gift shop for a while to get out of the heat and then walked over to Pizzafari for lunch. It was pretty tasty for a Quick Service with lots of indoor seating and quick moving lines.
We decided to bail on the Expedition Everest as it was far from where we ate lunch and we knew the boys needed to get back to the hotel for a good nap before going to Hollywood Studios later in the evening. So, we said goodbye to Animal Kingdom!
Several hours later, we arrived at Hollywood Studios refreshed and ready for dinner at Mama Melrose at 7:05pm and to see Fantasmic at 9pm.
We strolled around and took in all the sights in Hollywood Studios before arriving at the restaurant. I don't know what it is, but Hollywood Studios had the most difficult park to get through. The layout of the attractions and the map are both very confusing!
Dinner was great at Mama Melrose! Big portions, great waiter and service, and the kids were happily entertained with their iPads since we were only there in the park for a few hours (manageable to lug around).
It started to sprinkle as we left and it turned into a light rain. We got out all our rain gear for the first time this trip! The boys were excited to wear their new rain coats and the rain cover that came with the stroller rental came in handy.
Despite the rain, this was probably one of my favorite memories from the trip. We saw a beautiful rainbow and sunset as we were walking to Fantasmic!
It might have caused a little damage to my camera to get these shots, but I lucked out and the camera just needed some drying time over night before things went back to normal. We passed by DJ Chill on the Frozen stage and couldn't help but join in their dance party for a few minutes!
We scored a last minute FastPass to Fantasmic that got us in a much shorter line to get in! We grabbed some decent seats and with our rain gear, noise cancelling headphones for the boys, Popcorn, and spinning glow toys (from Target back at home in the $3 bin) we enjoyed the show! It really was Fantasmic! Between the lights, the music, the fireworks and bursts of water, ughhh it was wonderful!
All in all, it was a busy day (one that I worried the most about with park hopping and staying out late), but the boys surprised us and did great in both parks!
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