Animal Kingdom – Rosemarys Travels

Florida 2016

20th December 2016 (Day 3)-Animal Kingdom

Posted on March 13, 2017September 25, 2017 by Alun

Off to Animal Kingdom today. We’d planned out our trip in advance and this was going to be our only day at the park, so we had a list of things we wanted to try and fit in and had our FastPasses all sorted out for the big ticket rides.

On arrival we go the tram to the entrance and had to collect our tickets which had been pre-ordered. We had already connected our tickets to our MagicBands online, so didn’t need to do anything other than pick up the tickets themselves, just in case anything went wrong with the MagicBands (they are 18 months old so didn’t know how long the batteries would last).

The Christmas Tree was all set up at the entrance.

We went straight in (and our MagicBands worked fine) and started making our way through Discovery Island. On the way we met the Tree Lady.

Rosemary was a bit nervous of her I think but posed for a photo and waved goodbye.

Our first FastPass was to meet Favourite Disney Pals at Adventurers Outpost. That’s Mickey and Minnie, which we thought would be a great way to kick off our visits to the Disney Parks. And they were even dressed in Christmas themed clothes.

We had some family photos taken as we had a PhotoPass and MagicMaker included as part of our tickets (it was a freebie at the time we bought them), so wanted to make the most of having it.

As we came out we spotted Tarzan and Terk with a small queue for him. Never met him before so Rosemary queued up and got autographs and photos with them. One piece of advise we read somewhere was never to walk past a character you’ve not seen before (assuming you want character photos and autographs) as some don’t come out very often. No idea what the deal is with Tarzan but we’d never seen him out before when visiting Animal Kingdom.

We were going to try and make best use of the PhotoPass system and got some family pictures done (so hard to get all 3 of us in them when someone has to take the photo).

We wanted a snack at this point so picked up a couple of iconic Disney snacks. We first went to the Kusafiri Coffee Shop and Bakery and got a Mickey Cinnamon Roll. Not as good in my opinion as the ones at Gaston’s Tavern at Magic Kingdom, but still pretty good and more than enough for us to share.

And Rosemary got a Dole Whip from Tamu Tamu Refreshments.

We next had FastPasses for Dinosaur so started heading that way by heading towards Asia with a plan to cut down through Discovery Island and found Baloo and King Louie doing a meet and greet at a great spot with a view back towards the Tree of Life. There was a slightly alarming sign there though.

I hope the alligators and snakes can read and stay away. But after a short wait and no attacks from alligators or snakes (so they must be able to read) we met them both and got an autograph from Baloo. As their minder told us “King Louie doesn’t do paperwork”.

From there we headed down to Dinosaur in Dinoland USA and used our next FastPass to get on there.

Straight through the long line to the front of the queue. Managed to get a picture of the pipes around there which are labelled up. Apparently they are the formulas for ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise.

The ride was great fun, although very rough. Noticed a few tweaks to the ride with new animations on the sides of small dinosaurs running along. Rosemary never looks too sure in the ride photos but always says it was great afterwards.

When we came out Donald was doing his meet and we joined the (quite short) queue to see him. He’s one of Rosemary’s favourite characters so she always looks forward to a meeting with him. Shame he never seems to do it with Daisy at the same time. That would be great.

We always seem to find unique things in Chester and Hester’s Dinosaur Treasures, so went to have a look round. Nothing this time but the dino at the entrance was decorated for Christmas.

We stopped for more snacks at Dino Bite Snacks and got a couple of Mickey pretzels with melted cheese dip. They were bigger than Rosemary’s head!

Never eat anything bigger than your head

We then headed back into Africa to catch a performance of the Festival of the Lion King show. Last time we got so lucky and Rosemary was picked to go onto the floor and we got front row seats. So check that Blog out for better pictures and video. This time we joined the queue as normal and got seats about 2/3rds of the way back in the giraffe section (same as last time).

After the show I wanted to take a look over the hoardings to see how the Pandora area was coming along. You can see the floating mountains and some of the lights which will illuminate the paths. Will have to visit again once it opens.

We had FastPasses for the Kilimanjaro Safari from 4:20 so wanted to kill a little time before that. Some performers were just coming out so we stopped to watch and Rosemary joined in a little bit with them.

And then we saw It’s A Bugs Life. It was nice and cool inside the Tree of Life and it was good to have a sit down from a little while. Packed show though, seemed busier than normal as it’s usually relatively quiet.

Our FastPasses for Kilimanjaro Safari were active by this time so we jumped through the FastPass entrance and past everyone else who had been queuing up. Wait time was 90 minutes, so did feel slightly guilty, but not much. Seemed to be a good time to go on it as there were a lot of animals out and about, presumably getting ready to sleep as it would be dark relatively soon.

This was the last thing we wanted to do in the day, although we did want to stay and see the lighting on the Tree of Life as this was new since our last visit. We headed to Pizzafari for dinner. It was very quiet, with no queues to speak of, and we got food and a table straight away. Food was pretty decent for quick service, although I’ve never really had an issue with the quick service in the parks.

So after eating we walked the short way back to the Discovery Island area to get a good view of the Tree of Life. The projection shows were excellent and we stayed for a good 3 or 4 different ones.

We just stopped on the way out for a picture of the Christmas Tree at night and the entrance (which I’d forgotten to take on the way in, but it’s prettier at night in any case).

And here is the video from the day:

Florida 2015

6th August 2015 (Day 14)-Animal Kingdom

Posted on September 16, 2016September 26, 2016 by Alun

Off to Animal Kingdom today and our last full day in Orlando, so looking forward to it. Our last trip to Animal Kingdom changed our mind on it a bit (previously we’d found it hot and crowded, with limited interest) and I’ll state now that the events of the day have turned this around completely as we had such a fab day and such a nice way of ending our trip.

On arriving we saw that Daisy Duck was out for a meet-and-greet, and as she is someone that Rosemary hadn’t met (we got close at Hollywood Studios but no prize) we joined the queue. Which was remarkably short.

After this we headed towards the Kilimanjaro Safari, which we had a FastPass for. It was a great ride and we saw loads of animals. There is a full video of the ride on YouTube:

We even saw a baby rhino with it’s mum.

After the ride we took a walk around the Harambe Wildlife Reserve and saw some of the animals there. It’s a nice walk and the animals were relatively visible because it was early in the day.

As we came out of this we sat down for a bit in the Harambe Market area and got our timing just right as they were about to open and looking for someone to help open the market. They asked Rosemary if she would ring the bell and she got a great little experience and a certificate.

While sitting in the market we all had a snack and Rosemary had a stripey, Mickey rice cake.

After this we headed over to the Festival of the Lion King show. We were a little late getting there and I was parking up the buggy when we were approached by a cast member who offered to help seat us. She took us straight past the entry queue and in through a side door (this is a bit weird we’re thinking, we must be super late), and down to the bench at the very front of one of the blocks. So we’re sitting on the floor level at the very front… Well it turns out they had picked Rosemary out to take part in the show (I guess they must have spotters out). We think it was her bright elephant print dress that caught their eye.

So during the show Rosemary got to go up and walk around with the dancers and at the end of that she was the only child who got to go up and meet Timon at the stage. An absolutely amazing experience for her and she was very brave to do it.

I was videoing the show (it was daft not to as we were sat so close) and got Rosemary’s bit on the camera as well. A GoPro isn’t the best for low light, so it’s not an amazing recording but a very nice record of such a special occasion. The video is on YouTube:

Rosemary was treated to a cuddly Simba (she’d been eyeing him up the entire holiday each time we saw him) for being a brave girl.

Our next FastPass was coming up, which was for the Dinosaur ride. It is on the opposite side of the park so we headed over. We were the last ones in our group to be let through so snapped a quick picture inside the loading area with no else about.

It certainly was Fast, a Blast and in the Past. Really rough ride!

We stopped for ice creams and got Dirty Ice Creams. Basically ice cream with crushed Oreos and gummy worms.

This was just by the dinosaur ride so we spent a little time there and in the shop by the Din-O-Rama, which always has good stuff. After that it was the last FastPass at the Finding Nemo the Musical show. No need really for a FastPass here, but might as well use up the allocation.

And after that just a quick visit to It’s a Bug’s Life (as there was no queue and it was straight in).

And that was us, worn out.

Florida 2013

14th December 2013 (Day 13): Animal Kingdom

Posted on January 11, 2014April 20, 2016 by Alun

Edging towards the end of our visit and we used up the last day on our 5-day Disney ticket with a visit to Animal Kingdom. Now this hasn’t been our favourite park on previous visits. We find it to be busy and the pathways, especially through the animal areas are very narrow. It’s always been baking hot as well during the time we have been before.

So we went with a degree of trepidation and a plan to see the shows rather than the animals.

Each park had a Christmas Tree at the entrance and the Animal Kingdom one was nice because it was all animal themed.

We headed towards the Lion King stage area to see the show. But first we visited the characters who were there in their little areas. Rosemary was very pleased to see Donald Duck, as she hadn’t met him and she really wanted to.

There was also Chip and Dale.

The Lion King show was excellent, sort of a bit like a Cirque du Soleil show. Were were in the Lions which was very nice.

Click here and here to see some videos of the show.

Rosemary got an ice cream afterwards.

We walked around the park a bit after this, not with any great plan, and just had a look at things as we went. We ended up in the Dinosaur area.

And had an ice cream cookie sandwich.

We wanted to see “Finding Nemo the Musical” so went there next.

It was a really great show and you could imagine it being a full musical on stage somewhere.

Day was winding down by this time but we had wanted to meet Pocahontas earlier (she was with Donald and Chip & Dale) but she was on a break. So we went back just as her session was starting.

And just time to go and see the It’s A Bugs Life show, which is a 3D film with added effects like smoke and water. Plus they have really cool 3D glasses.

And finally just a couple of shots in front of the Tree of Life.

Florida 2012

15th March 2012 (Day 4): Animal Kingdom

Posted on April 13, 2012April 20, 2016 by Alun

We headed out towards Lake Buena Vista today to visit the Walt Disney World Animal Kingdom park. We went there on our previous trip and as Rosemary is very keen on animals we thought she would get a lot out of a day there. The queue for tickets (we hadn’t prepurchased our tickets for Disney as there was no saving in doing so) was pretty long and we had to queue for quite some time. As we were going to Magic Kingdom later in the trip we got a 2 day pass which saved a grand total of about $4).

Unfortunately a lot of the things we might have wanted to go on (the Kilimanjaro Safari Expedition for example) were really busy with long waits even on the Fast Pass ( a 6 hour return time I noticed at one point). Plus we weren’t really clear if she was too small or not. Sure it would have been fine but didn’t want to queue for ages and then find out. So we really concentrated on the animal exhibits.

The park was very busy (it was Spring Break in the US) and the walkways weren’t really wide enough for the amount of people in the place. So we were constantly dodging and trying to get through tight spaces. Not much fun with a buggy (sorry stroller!). We decided to head off the “Conservation Station” on the “Wildlife Express Train”.

They have an “Affection Section” there which is basically an animal petting area. There were some pigs, goats and (behind fences) donkeys and llamas.

Inside the “Conservation Station” they have a number of smaller animals, mainly behind glass such as frogs, reptiles and insects.

While out at this area (which was reasonably quiet because the only way in or out was by train) we sat down and Rosemary had a lolly.

We headed back to the main area on the train and then went for a walk around the “Pangani Forest Exploration Trail” which is a pathway leading you through an African animals exhibit. There was a large tank of cichlids which Rosemary liked.

There were more cichlids in the large pool with the hippos.

And there is a large gorilla enclosure.

After this we headed to the “Maharajah Jungle Trek” which is an equivalent walk-through for Asian animals. The settings had all been very well done and there was lots of interesting details. The tigers had disappeared though (it was a hot day and they must have been on their siesta), so no pictures I’m afraid.

In one viewpoint there was a colony of fruit bats. I hadn’t realised that the windows had no glass in them and nearly dropped Rosemary through. Guess the narrow bars (although big enough for a child to fit) are enough to stop the bats flying through!

The theme is maintained in each area. This one was in the Asia area as well.

Next stop was the Dinosaur area. We popped into the Boneyard briefly but it was full of much older children and I think Rosemary felt a little bit intimidated by them running around.

We stopped to try on some Mouse Ears as well. Rosemary does a great mouse impression.

As it was time for the parade by then we headed to a relatively non-busy area (by chance just by on of the shops on the main island) and watched that. No good pictures as I was holding Rosemary at the time.

Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade — Mickey’s Jammin’ Jungle Parade

It was getting to late afternoon by this point so we decided to call it a day, as Rosemary was pretty tired by then and we were getting fed up with the crowds, and head back to the car via a quick photo opportunity in front of the “Tree of Life”.