Another the early start as we are heading to Animal kingdom for the extra magical hour. There was quite a queue to get in and it was very not well organised. It was 8:11 am by the time we got in. The plan was to head straight for Pandora for Avatar Flights of Passage. We got into the line and tried to gauge how long the wait would be. A cast member came past with an "End of Line" sign and announcing that this was the 2 hour wait point. We decided to change plan. We walked back the way we had come. By the end if the line the wait was 4 hours and this was before the official opening time.
We headed then to the Kali River Rapids. No queue, but then we were told Asia doesn't open until 9am. So much for this being a special magical hour. We headed for Dinosaur, but found the Expedition Everest ride open and as everyone else was at Pandora, it was dead quite. The sign said 10 minute wait. This was more a 10 minute walk to the ride. It was really great and the kids wanted to do it again, so we did. Then we went back to the Kali River Rapids, which by this time was open. Once again it was a straight on the ride. I always find this ride a gamble as you can come off a little damp or completely soaked. The decider is the fall in the ride. If you end up going down backwards you get soaked. I managed to escape just slightly damp. I wore quick drying clothes so this worked out well. One difference since the last time we were on the ride was that the bag holder in the centre was gone. Luckily I had a dry sac in my bag for the phones and such like.
It was now time for breakfast. We headed to Starbucks.
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| Harambe Village |
The Harambe safari was next on our list (fast pass). Once again we had done this several times before. This is one the best times we had done the safari. Often the animals are difficult to see and inactive. Not today, they were all up and about. Even the well hidden leopard waved his tail to make himself easier to spot.
After the safari we did the gorilla walk. The kids love this sort of thing especially since there was a trail and badges to collect at different stations. A cast member quizzes them before giving them a badge to put in a booklet. This filled the time until our lunch reservation at the Tusker Restaurant. This was an all you could eat buffet and a major disappointment. The food was adequate but nothing to write home about. We were in a big room which was really noisy. We obviously don't have the kind if appetite to make the most of this kind of thing. Treating our kids (10 years old) as adults is just ridiculous. The total bill was $240. If not on the Dining Plan we would have been horrified by this. In the UK there is a tipping culture, but nothing like in the USA. Our bill suggested a tip of over $40. The waitress had brought us 8 drinks. That was a tip of $5 per drink, more than the cost of the drink. I would not recommend this restaurant unless you can eat vast quantities or use it to stock up as a number of customers seemed to be doing. Some were ordering drinks and then filled mugs to go. Cookies seemed to be a popular item to takeaway.
Lunch over we had some time to wait before our next fast pass kicked in, so in the mean time we took in It's Tough to be a Bug. We also took the chance to get some family photographs with the Tree of Life as a backdrop.
Time then for our next fast pass, so it was back to Pandora, after our false start this morning. This time we were booked into Rivers of Na'vi The stand by wait was 180 minutes, with the fast pass we were straight on. The ride is a boat trip through Pandora. It was nothing special and it was always going to be difficult to capture the CGI effects of the movie in a ride. I am so glad we didn't wait 3 hours for the experience.
Last fast pass if the day was Expedition Everest. We had done this twice but the kids really wanted to go again.
We tried to go on the dinosaur ride but there was a technical problem and the wait was an hour. We just went straight to Everest.
We were hot, sticky and tired so decided it was a good point to call it a day and head back to the hotel.
After a short rest it was time to cool off in the pool. We got ready and headed down to the foyer. On leaving the building it was clear that the pool was being cleared. This could only mean one thing and sure enough a few minutes later came the thunder and lightening followed by the rain.
This wasn't a passing shower, it was torrential and kept going for a good couple of hours. We went back to our room to formulate our new plan. We headed to Disney Springs for something to eat. The choice was burgers or pizza. We opted for the burgers in the Deluxe Burger Shack. They were delicious, I had the BBQ Burger. This on its own counted as a quick meal, along with a soft drink.
There was some evidence of flooding on the route to Disney Springs, which shows how bad the rain was.
We had a wander around a few of the shops, before heading back to the hotel.
Bed by 10pm.
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