Day Three – Thursday, January 7, 2016 – Part One
We woke up around 8am (I know, I know, it’s not a true Disney trip unless you’re at the parks at rope drop, but I just like sleep way too much). After getting dressed, we headed straight to the buses. We were heading to Animal Kingdom! We had to wait less than 5 minutes for a bus to show up, and then we were on our way! I was really excited about this park, I love animals (which you might have figured out since Luke and I have 11 pets haha). The bus ride to Animal Kingdom from the All-Star resorts is so short!
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We actually had trouble getting into the park, my thumbprint wouldn’t work. They needed to call over a supervisor, who had to reset it and then take my picture on her iPad to make sure I wasn’t just passing off my MagicBand to someone else. I didn’t mind that, I completely understand them taking those steps to ensure everyone is honest. Luckily, I had no more issues the rest of our trip, but I did need to have my fingerprint thing reset at Universal every time I entered. I guess I have weird thumbs haha.
After getting through, we set off into the park. That first view of the Tree of Life is almost breath-taking! I love how the parks were designed to play with your perspectives – the road which slants down towards towards the Tree, which is set up on a slightly higher piece of ground makes the entire thing appear so much larger than it actually is. The castle in Magic Kingdom does the same thing. (Yes, I notice things like that, it’s my actual job to pay attention to small details haha). Anyways, enough of my jabbering, here’s a picture of the tree:
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I really wanted to stop for Photopass pictures with the tree in the background, but we were running out of time on our first Fastpass of the morning, so we just had time to stop and snap the picture above before hurrying over to the Safari. We made it there with a few minutes to spare, but I was just happy we had made it! It took us about 10-15 minutes to get through the Fastpass line before we were boarding a truck. I loved this – and we saw so many animals since it was still early in the morning, and it was a little cool out. Some of the animals were really close to us! Here are some of my favourite pictures I took, starting with a sweet photobomb of our selfie:
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After our safari was over, we were already in the window for our second Fastpass, which of course was on the other side of the park… So, off we went to Dinoland! We entered the fastpass line for Dinosaur, and only waited about 10 minutes before we were time traveling back in time. This ride reminded me a lot of the Indiana Jones ride in Disneyland, it uses the same technology for the ride vehicles. But, there really is no comparing the two – Indy wins hands down. I kind of feel like Disney cheaped out when making Dinosaur, just making a lot of it dark. With Indiana Jones, there is so much detail put into the entire ride, and everytime I go on it I notice more. Don’t get me wrong, Dinosaur was still fun though!
Here’s our ride photo (we’re in the bottom left hand corner, I’m holding on to my headband):
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After re-entering 2016, we still had time before our next Fastpass. We saw that Primeval Whirl only had a 20 minute standby time, so we jumped into line for that. The posted wait time was pretty much exact, and 20 minutes later we were getting onto the ride where I snapped these pictures:
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The ride itself was a crazy-mouse style roller coaster, but the cars actually spin a bit. I’m not a huge fan of this type of ride, but this was one of the better ones I’ve ever been on. By the time we exited the ride, it was within our window for our third (and final) Fastpass of the day. But first, let me backtrack a bit.
As we were walking over to DinoLand, I wasn’t feeling 100% and stopped to use the bathroom before we went on the ride. Before getting in line for Primeval Whirl, I went to the bathroom again. I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease in February 2013, so I’ve had this for a few years now. It sucks, but I’m determined to not let this disease dictate my life. A lot of people are affected way worse than I am – I travel a few times per year, I go to sports events, concerts, festivals, etc and I’ve continued working full time.
Anyways, we were off to Expedition Everest! I absolutely loved this ride! I wasn’t feeling great, but I was still able to really enjoy our search for the Yedi. I also love our ride picture from this:
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Yes, Luke was playing the air drums.
When we got off, we decided to head back to Africa. We were still about 45 minutes away from our reservation time at Tusker House, but I wasn’t feeling good and was not up to going on another ride at that moment. We tried to find the Fastpass Kiosk that was shown on the map we had grabbed as we entered the park, but we kept walking past where it should have been and could not find it. I was feeling worse and worse, and knew I needed to get food and water into my body ASAP. We were still half an hour away from our lunch reservation time, but we went to check in at Tusker House anyways and ask if we could get in early. Luckily it was not a problem, and 5 minutes later we were led to our table. My review of our meal can be found here.
Next: An Early End to the Day