DAY 2 – Animal Kingdom – 21,021 steps

Day two was the day I became familiar with the term “rope drop.” One of the benefits of being a resort guest is that you get 30 minutes early entry to the park. “Rope drop” is the moment they open the park and everyone in line rushes to queue up for whichever rides are most popular, so we were fortunate to be allowed to do so a bit early.

We arrived at Animal Kingdom only about 10 minutes later than we had intended and went straight to Pandora (the world from the movie Avatar), but already, we found the line to the extremely popular Avatar Flight of Passage attraction to be 85 minutes or more. Since we hadn’t yet eaten breakfast, we decided that wasn’t the wisest choice. Instead we walked to Pongu Pongu where we had a Night Blossom – a frozen drink with apple and pear topped with passion fruit boba. We also had lumpia filled with pineapple and cream cheese that were actually pretty tasty, but the kids weren’t really into them. [Sean: The Night Blossom might very well have been my favorite snack of the entire trip.  So much yum.]

Having a few calories in us, we decided to check out the Na’vi River Journey. It was, what I came to learn, a dark ride. A dark ride is an indoor attraction where you ride around on a vehicle and are treated to various lit scenes that are accompanied by sounds and sometimes smells and all manner of special effects. The scenery was incredible on the river journey. You truly did feel as though you were part of the Avatar universe. And the animatronics were amazing!

We stopped by Kusafiri then for a quick breakfast. The kids and Sean had a giant cinnamon roll, and I had a giant coffee (and a breakfast biscuit sandwich). I wound up having to stow my coffee for later because we had a specific time window in which to go on our next adventure, the Kilimanjaro Safari. This wound up being one of my favorite things that day. You all board a big open-air truck and the guides drive you around the African savannah for probably around 20 minutes, watching animals roam freely. We were lucky (Sean may have requested it) to have the very back seat, so we could turn around and watch what was happening behind us as well as to either side. [Sean: I did request the back seat specifically because you have an unobstructed view.]

We watched lions and elephants and zebras of course, but the very best thing was seeing the giraffes chase each other. These giant, lumbering creatures were chasing each other across the grassy plains, in evident delight. Giraffes look ridiculous when they run, by the way, and it was so much fun to watch!

We wandered through the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail and were treated to a mama gorilla with her little baby clinging to her undercarriage as she loped around the habitat. We never got a photo. She turned her back on us, shielding her baby from the horde of curious onlookers, and staunchly refused to turn around. Upon first entering the trail, we encountered several feeding stations set out for the birds. They were amazing, and so close! We felt we had to duck as the birds flew in to land on one of the platforms and chow down. Another highlight was getting to watch a submerged hippo and see just how infrequently she needed to come up for a breath of air.

The kids were fussing at this point. They wanted to trade pins, they wanted to buy souvenirs, they wanted to ride rides. After the frustration of the day before though, Sean stuck to his guns and tried his best to keep us on a schedule, while still including stops here and there for a bit of pin trading.

About those pins … Sean had gotten each of us a laniard and some “starter pins” so that we could trade at various pin trading stations throughout the park and also with other guests. Maya was selective (though oddly so – birds and dragons factored in heavily) about which kinds of pins she wanted – she was trading with a goal in mind. Ian just wanted to trade trade trade. It was the act itself that was fun for him. He went full bore on his pin obsession when he discovered he could buy pins in the souvenir shops.

The next attraction we visited was what I’ve been calling “The Lion King show” but what is actually called “A Celebration of Festival of the Lion King” (I looked it up). It was kind of a huge show. Giant animatronic puppets rolled out, music and dance numbers ensued, twirling fire terrified Maya. The show was pretty incredible. Plus we got to sit down, which was glorious!

Next, much to our grumpy children’s delight, we did a quick walk through the Maharaja Jungle Trek (my notes read: Asia walk). The big things on this walk were getting to watch tigers pace around their habitats and getting to see a Komodo dragon. Maya was thrilled about seeing a live dragon! One of my favorite things about this walk was getting to see fruit bats dangling upside down. Those guys were huge!

The kids had been begging for some popcorn, so Sean set them down to share a big box of popcorn, while he procured a couple more snacks from his hit list: a mac n cheese with pulled pork and a pulled pork jelly doughnut, both from a joint called Eight Spoon Cafe. These were both delightful, if a little difficult to eat with any real grace. Maya in particular was a bit messy with her popcorn, and we had a lovely white ibis wander over and pluck up a few of the fallen kernels. We had noticed them all over the place, and it wasn’t long before Maya was laughing about it, referring to the ibises as Florida Pigeons.

After stopping to get a 360 degree photo at the Tree of Life, we made our way over to the Feathered Friends in Flight! bird show. Not surprisingly, the kids griped that we still weren’t going on a ride. Then they griped about having to wait to get in, followed by some more griping about when the actual show would start. And then they both loved the show itself.

And it was neat! We were pretty close to the front, so we got to see all the birdy action up close. During the pre-show, one of the bird specialists brought out an owl, and Ian was brave enough to raise his hand and ask her what kind it was (Eurasian Eagle Owl). We learned that the owls are particularly fond of mice (don’t tell Mickey!), and Maya chortled over the fact that they called the owl treats “meeces pieces.” We watched chickens repeatedly turn on a radio to hear their favorite tunes, which the kids thought was funny, even after they worked out the trick. We watched a clever raven untying shoes, a cockatoo answering yes-or-no questions with his whole body, and so many other colorful and interesting birds. The show flew by (ha), and we were back out into the fray before I was ready to be.

Next up, we were finally going on a real ride again – Expedition Everest! The story is that there’s a yeti hiding out in there protecting the mountain. The “artifacts” displayed showed various yeti representations and footprint casts and things like that. You could tell that Ian was getting more and more nervous as we got closer to the front, but he was committed to riding the ride. It was a really neat coaster. It zings you through its first stage that culminates in a curled up and demolished track (presumably the yeti’s work), and then you pause while the track switches behind you, and you’re hurtled backward through the dark. There’s a point later on, where another track switch occurs and then you barrel forward for the rest of the ride.

Ian had a rough time. First of all, he lost his glasses sometime during the dark part of the ride. Since we had to wear our masks, his glasses didn’t sit as firmly on his face as they might ordinarily, and we found out the hard way. Luckily, they had landed in the floor of the coaster and managed to stay there till Sean could finally retrieve them. The other thing that happened was that his mask laniard had a piece of plastic on the back that’s used to adjust laniard length. Ian’s apparently wound up between his back and his seat and wound up tearing up his back a little. Maya and I got to enjoy it (though I think she was pretty shocked by the backwards through the dark part of the ride). But Sean and Ian were too worried about glasses to be able to really have fun. [Sean: Ian lost his glasses just as we were going backwards into the dark.  I caught a glimpse of them on the floor, right next to the opening of the train car right around Disco Yeti and spent the last half of the ride doubled over trying to stop them from sliding out of the car and being lost forever.]

The kids’ popcorn had worn off, so we got them some hot dogs to eat. (Mealtimes were a pretty fluid thing for anything that didn’t have a reservation.) And then we rode the DINOSAUR ride. This is another “dark ride” whose premise is that a scientist is sending us back in time (against the rules of course) to bring back an iguanodon just before a meteor shower causes a mass extinction event. The car jerks you around, dinosaurs roar, lights flash. It’s kind of an intense ride. Though they told us that against all odds we had managed to rescue the dinosaur, Maya seemed genuinely puzzled that it wasn’t actually in the car with us at the end of the ride.

We happened through the Discovery Island part of the park as the Merry Menagerie was happening. These lovely holiday animal puppets were truly a delight. The kids would pet them and the animals would close their eyes in delight and nuzzle them. This set off germ transfer warning bells through my whole body, but I did my best to swallow my worry and let the kids be kids.

We made our way over to the It’s Tough to be a Bug show next. I remember this as a highlight of my first trip to Disney, on our honeymoon 21 years prior, and it was still a delight. Everyone donned their 3D bug glasses and were treated to stinky smells and splashes of water and pokes in the back and on and on. They loved it – they kept reaching out to touch the 3D images in front of them.

We stopped in at Satu’li Canteen for some cheeseburger pods to tide us over till our late dinner reservation. Then we bought another Night Blossom for the kids to share. And it turns out if you add rum, it becomes a Rum Blossom, which the grownups were quite happen to share. From there, since the wait was “only” about an hour, we finally queued up for Avatar Flight of Passage. We weren’t in that line maybe 10-15 minutes before Maya explained she needed to use the bathroom. There was supposed to be on somewhere along the ride queue (isn’t that a GREAT idea?) but we weren’t sure where. By the time we got to a ride attendant to ask, she was straight up dancing and we were still a ways from the inline bathroom. They let Sean take her out and give him a way to enter later so he and Maya could wait for Ian and I and we could all ride together.

Ian was a force to be reckoned with in that ride line. He doesn’t complain as much as Maya, but he moves twice as much. He climbs on things, examines every potential knob or button, messes with gates, line ropes, barricades, anything he thinks he can get by with. With no Maya in line with him, he was especially bored.

While all this was going on, apparently Maya had to use the bathroom a second time, so again, Sean took her out of line and they got a pass to come wait for us to come around. Finally, after what I would have guessed was well more than an hour of waiting, we boarded this ride, and let me tell you, it was totally worth it.

The idea is that you’re flying a mountain banshee over the amazing landscape of Pandora. The ride vehicle is unique. You sit on it kind of like a motorcycle, lean forward to grab its handlebars, and then the ride attendants kind of push the seat-back into your lower back, fixing you in place. Sean tells me some people find it unpleasantly restrictive, but to me it just felt secure. The ride is so, so immersive. You have glasses for the 3D effects. Wind is whooshing in your face as you’re moving. You feel the mists from the water all around you. It honestly takes your breath away, no hyperbole. [Sean: Definitely my favorite ride across all the parks.]

On the way out, we managed to see the tail end of the Beacon of Magic music and light projection show at the Tree of Life. Even for the few minutes we managed to see, it was pretty incredible. At each of the parks, for WDW’s 50th anniversary, they had these amazing sound and light projection shows at each park’s iconic location. For Animal Kingdom, this is of course the Tree of Life.

We caught the bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge for our dinner reservation at Boma. This place has the mother of all buffets, chock full of things you actually want to eat. And I’ll be honest, I can’t remember everything I ate. One highlight was the soups (yes, really). There were three of them, and they were all things I wish I had recipes for. The kids were happy to eat their weight in chicken fingers, pasta, and desserts, and by and large, we were willing to let them. Ian ordered an EARidescent Sip-a-bration for his drink. It was a mixture of lemonade and strawberry punch into which he got to drop a bluish-green Donald Duck head that made his drink fizz and change color.

For the last third of our meal, every so often, Sean would look at me, eyes alight, and say “Zebra Dome.” This was often around discussions of when the kids could FINALLY have dessert, so I thought maybe the dessert part of the buffet was zebra-looking. I was too tired to puzzle it out, honestly. Finally, Maya and I wandered up to see about getting dessert, and there they were – perfect little Zebra Dome bonbon type desserts. Maya and I each had one, amongst several others.

After some dodgy transportation advice from our waiter, we ultimately just ordered an Uber to get us from the Animal Kingdom Lodge back to Pop Century. The kids again crashed hard and quickly while Mom and Dad figured out how things would go the next day. Luckily, it was our Epcot day, and we wouldn’t be able to hit it quite so early.

[Sean: We had Genie+ for this day mostly because I wanted to be able to walk on to Kilimanjaro Safari after rope dropping Flight of Passage.  While that worked and we avoided a 40+ minute line I don’t think I would buy Genie+ again for Animal Kingdom.  For the rest of the day it maybe saved us 5-10 minutes per ride or show.]