Kinda Hot In These Rhinos... an August 2019 TR (updated 1/21)

[DLo]

what great luck moving up your FOP FP. Looks like great start to the AK day .

 

[missangelalexis]

Fun start at AK! Very awesome that you were able to move up your FoP FP!

 

[Cloe Colton]

Lol I hope they appreciated your FP skills! I used the same drop to get a matching time for my Mom and sister and DH was #notimpressed. Like come on! lol

 

[amazingact21]

Sounds like a really nice start to your Animal Kingdom day. How awesome that you were able to move your FOP FP; I don't think family members who aren't obsessed with Disney like us understand that this a huge deal. Like, gold star worthy!

 

[disneyAndi14]

I love reading about FP success and fun times in AK! This is my favorite park!

I hope Disney doesn’t axe Kevin anytime soon, she is such a fun addition to the atmosphere. I heard DeVine got the axe

 

[cinderaimee]

what great luck moving up your FOP FP. Looks like great start to the AK day .

Thanks! We had a lot of fun this day.

Fun start at AK! Very awesome that you were able to move up your FoP FP!

Yes, it was such a fun day!

Lol I hope they appreciated your FP skills! I used the same drop to get a matching time for my Mom and sister and DH was #notimpressed. Like come on! lol

I made sure they knew it was a big deal! haha

Sounds like a really nice start to your Animal Kingdom day. How awesome that you were able to move your FOP FP; I don't think family members who aren't obsessed with Disney like us understand that this a huge deal. Like, gold star worthy!

My sisters were so overwhelmed as first-timers that they definitely appreciated that I knew a lot of tricks like that.

I love reading about FP success and fun times in AK! This is my favorite park!

I hope Disney doesn’t axe Kevin anytime soon, she is such a fun addition to the atmosphere. I heard DeVine got the axe

My sisters and SIL all liked AK the best too!

Oh no, I hadn't heard that about DeVine! That's so sad. Kevin better stick around, my kids really want to see her!

 

[NJlauren]

I’m here!

Love a girls only trip! And let me just say you are all amazing that is a ton of stuff to do on day 1 with such little sleep!!!

Looking froward to hearing all about it!!

 

[jrmint427]

I’m joining in and enjoying your report! I tried getting a FOP FP at a specific time on our last trip and had no luck, but glad to hear it worked for you! I was hoping to impress my family too haha.

I’m impressed with how much you did at Epcot on so little sleep!

Looking forward to reading more!

 

[cinderaimee]

I’m here!

Love a girls only trip! And let me just say you are all amazing that is a ton of stuff to do on day 1 with such little sleep!!!

Looking froward to hearing all about it!!

Glad you're here! I'm still not sure how we did all that with no sleep, but we had such a fun day!

I’m joining in and enjoying your report! I tried getting a FOP FP at a specific time on our last trip and had no luck, but glad to hear it worked for you! I was hoping to impress my family too haha.

I’m impressed with how much you did at Epcot on so little sleep!

Looking forward to reading more!

Thanks for joining in! I tried the same FP thing with SDD later in the trip and failed, so I think luck has a lot to do with it too.

 

[cinderaimee]

Sunday - August 18 - Animal Kingdom (Part 2)

After successfully moving up our FOP FP, it was time for KS. We requested the back row for the best view of all the animals. Of course, it being a hot, sunny, August day, most of the animals were sleepy and staying in the shade.

We saw sleepy hippos

Sleepy crocs

Sleepy whatever these things are

Then we got to the giraffes! I love them so much.

Back row of the jeep is a prime spot for giraffe selfies.

(alternate title for these two photos - iphone X versus iphone SE)

Baby giraffe!

A giraffe and a wildebeest!

We passed the lion rock and it was just too hot for any of them to be out. It was feel a bit like Jurrasic Park at this point, except for the herd of giraffes.

At the elephant area, there were a couple off in the distance, but as we rounded the turn, I turned around and saw this guy (lady?) who was only visible looking backwards from the truck.

Sleepy rhinos finished up our safari.

At the exit, they had a photo op so we stopped for a picture.



After the Safari, it was about 10 minutes to 12, so it was perfect timing to catch the next FOTLK.

We were sitting in the back of the giraffe section, which is the same spot I got with the boys in January. Not the closest seats, but my sisters were still really impressed.

Sitting behind us was a family with two young kids who were very wiggly and chatty and had lots of questions about the show, and the parents seemed to make no effort to get them to stop bumping us or at least talk in a quiet voice, so that was cool.

After the show, we continued on down the path to Pandora and headed for FOP.

While we were waiting in line, we started our mobile order for lunch at Satuli Canteen, and I pulled a FP for Kali for around 2:30, which is exactly what we wanted.

The ride was amazing, as always, and my sisters really loved it too! We made our way over to Satuli and picked up our food.

My little sister and I both got sweet potato hash with combo chicken and steak and the creamy sauce, SIL got sweet potato hash with shrimp and creamy sauce and big sister got the salad with shrimp.

This was easily the best meal of the trip. I just said to my DH the other day that I wanted to go back to Disney just to eat a bowl here. There was so much flavor in everything.

Cheers!

SIL has the Pandoran Sunrise and the rest of us have the Dreamwalker Sangria.

Up next: more drinks and more rides!

 

[disgeek009]

We requested the back row for the best view of all the animals.

Good tip!

Sitting behind us was a family with two young kids who were very wiggly and chatty and had lots of questions about the show, and the parents seemed to make no effort to get them to stop bumping us or at least talk in a quiet voice, so that was cool.

Ugh. I try to have sympathy for parents w/ active kids, but when they're in my personal space, tolerance goes WAY down.

We made our way over to Satuli and picked up our food.

This looks amazing.

 

[ariane37]

I got a little behind but nice pull on the FOP FP It's almost like wining the lottery except in reality your paying them, not the other way around lol.

Sitting behind us was a family with two young kids who were very wiggly and chatty and had lots of questions about the show, and the parents seemed to make no effort to get them to stop bumping us or at least talk in a quiet voice, so that was cool.

Fun I have very little patience for annoying kids on rides or at shows, movies, etc. especially when the parents aren't trying to control them. Steve gets mad at me for getting mad at them but hey, too bad!

Dreamwalker Sangria.

I haven't been to Satuli since the Pandora AP previews and they didn't have this so.................on my list now!

 

[missangelalexis]

That's a cute photo op at the end of KS!

Sounds like a yummy lunch!! I still need to try Satuli Canteen!

 

[cinderaimee]

Eeek! I just don't know where the last few weeks have gone! Work has been crazy busy, life has been crazy busy. I hope everyone is doing well and I will be working on catching up on everyone's TR's soon.

These goofy boys had a great Halloween!

I have been daydreaming of a late August/early September trip in 2020 with them and doing a Not So Scary party. Here's hoping for another January 1 Free Dining drop.

_______

Ugh. I try to have sympathy for parents w/ active kids, but when they're in my personal space, tolerance goes WAY down.

Fun I have very little patience for annoying kids on rides or at shows, movies, etc. especially when the parents aren't trying to control them. Steve gets mad at me for getting mad at them but hey, too bad!

I couldn't imagine just letting my kids bump, kick, and talk loudly in people's ears at a show, no matter how young or wiggly they are. Pet peeve!

I haven't been to Satuli since the Pandora AP previews and they didn't have this so.................on my list now!

Sounds like a yummy lunch!! I still need to try Satuli Canteen!

Satuli is amazing! You both must try it!

_________________

To make up for being absent here, I have the next TWO sections of my TR ready!

Sunday - August 18 - Animal Kingdom (Part 3)

After we finished our lunch, we headed back out to Pandora. We stopped at Pongu Pongu for another round of drinks – my sisters both got Rum Blossoms, which is a Night Blossom with rum floated on top and I got a Moara Margarita. These were delicious and also very photogenic, so we had to take lots of pictures.

We continued to explore Pandora.

A kind of annoying thing happened next – a PP photographer was doing shots in front of the waterfall and had no one in line so we stood behind her while she finished the group she had. While we waited, another group of people waited against the railing to the side of the photographer, and then more people made a line behind them. By time the photographer finished with her group, the line against the railing was 5-6 groups long and the people at the front of that line tried to step up at the same time as us. The photographer looked at us and said “sorry, the line is over there”, we tried to explain we were there first, but she basically ignored us and put the other group place to take a picture. We could have just waited but we were over dealing with her.

We continued our way out of Pandora.

Eventually we made our way down to the Lion King photo op. The PP had no line, so we jumped in and got a shot and the weirdest thing happened – a family stood behind the photographer to go next, while another line formed to the right. When we finished taking pictures, the family behind the photographer tried to get in and was told they had to get in line! Crazy that it was the exact same thing that just happened to us.


(sorry SIL, my Mulan sticker is on another computer lol)

We had some time before our Dinosaur FP, so we did some exploring, checked out the shops, did some pin trading and I swapped out my Fuel Rod.

Found this great trade for DS1, who specifically asked for Star Wars pins.

Kevin was out again!

I filled up Buckey at the popcorn stand near the bridge, and the dance party was going on with Timon and Rafiki - Big Sis could not pass up the opportunity to do the Cha Cha Slide with Timon.

This Timon was amazing and very sassy and had some great moves. We had a lot of fun just watching. Kevin was on his way backstage and joined in for a little bit.

Little Sister wanted an iced tea, so we went up to the Joffrey’s stand, were tempted by an amazing-looking donut

and then made our way past Everest and over to Dinosaur.

The last time I rode this ride, I had terrified children to worry about, so this time was a lot more fun.

Little Sister almost jumped into Big Sister’s lap in the end, so we had a good laugh at the ride picture.



We spent some time looking through the Dinoland shops.

I wanted to meet Chip and Dale in their dinosaur costumes, but their meet was closed when we got over there. I asked a Cast Member if they might be coming back out and she said they were done meeting for the day, but if we waited for the dance party that was starting in about 15 minutes, we might be able to see them there.

We got in line to meet Donald while we waited for the party to start and he was so funny and inspected my sisters' lanyards looking for a Donald pin and flipped Little Sister's behind her back since she didn't have one. Big Sister had a Daisy, so he got all googly-eyed over that. It was a fun meet!



The dance party started and I finally got to see the cutest dinosaurs ever.

Up next we finish up our evening at Animal Kingdom!

 

[cinderaimee]

Sunday - August 18 - Animal Kingdom (Part 4)

We finished up at the dance party and then stopped in the Dinorama area to refill Buckey again. I had looked at the Nemo showtimes earlier and saw it started at 30 past every hour, and it was about 5:15 at this point so we thought we could see the 5:30 show. So we went up to the theater and saw that 4:30 was the last show of the day. Whoops!

While deciding what to do next, we stopped for a picture on the bridge near Everest.



and then ended up in front of Everest and saw it had a 15 minute stand by wait, so we jumped in line.

I think a lot of people had just done the same thing because we ended up waiting probably more like 20-30 minutes, but there’s so much to look at in line that it hardly mattered.

We escaped the Yeti once again and spent some time in the shop doing some pin trading and I found a fun souvenir for the kids – it was like an explorer set themed to Everest that had binoculars, a play multi-tool, flashlight and a couple other things like that. I’m glad I got it then because I didn’t see it in any other shops and my kids really loved it and play with it all the time.

Our next stop was Thirsty River for another round of drinks – we all got the same thing, I think they are Khumbu Icefalls – “Cruzan Guava Rum blended with Coconut and Raspberry Pureé”. (also, if you were wondering, SIL got really overheated after drinking in the sun the day before so she stuck to soda and water at Animal Kingdom)

At some point, we had grabbed another FP for the safari around 6:30, and SIL really wanted a Dole Whip – it was the one thing she wanted at AK during her visit in 2016 and by time they got there, the window was closed, so we headed over to Africa.

At Tamu Tamu, SIL got her Dole Whip and Little Sister and I split a Dole Whip with dark rum – even though we were still working on our Thirsty River drinks. The seating area around the corner was pretty empty so we grabbed a table in there and Older Sister went to dance with the band that was playing. This was a nice, relaxing break with the great atmosphere and music. Also double fisting alcoholic treats put us in a great mood.

We had a great safari and I’m glad we rode it a second time – when we went out earlier, most of the animals were sleeping or not out at all. The sun was starting to set during the second safari and a lot more animals were out and active, even the lions!

We stopped by some fun walls

and then made our way to Yak & Yeti QS window to get something for dinner. SIL got the honey chicken, big sister had a chicken wrap. Little Sister and I weren’t all that hungry – we’d be drinking and eating popcorn all afternoon so we decided to just split a meal of rib tips and fries, and used a snack credit for fried rice. We chose sangria for the included drink, and they were actually pretty big cups so it was plenty to split. Everything here was really good!

We all took a few minutes to check in at home and I was looking for a FP for Rivers of Light, but one for Navi River Journey at 8:30 popped up, so I snatched that.

After we finished up at Yak and Yeti, we made our way around to the stand by seating for ROL. We were there about 20 minutes before the first show and there were plenty of seats available. We ended up in a row where no one sat on the bench in front or behind us, so that was nice not to be super crowded or have our view blocked by tall people.

I'm just saying, if Disney sold a lamp that looked like the turtle float, I would buy it.

My sisters loved this show! They all said it was better than Illuminations so I abandoned them in the park and left them to find their own way home.

KIDDING

After ROL, we headed around to Pandora. We stopped on the way at Creature Comforts so my sister could get the AK Starbucks mug. Then when we were about to head over, SIL decided she wanted to see if they had something at the first aid stand, so we had to go over there and wait for the nurse to finish up with someone else, just to find out they didn’t the medicine SIL wanted. Then Little Sister had to pee. Then we finally were able to make our way over to NRJ.

This was my first time on this (my kids didn’t want to do it on my last trip) and I thought it was beautiful.

When we got off the ride it was about 9:35 and the park closed at 9:30. I had secretly hoped we’d have time to run into the line for FOP one last time after NRJ, but no such luck. After I mentally grumbled about wasting time in first aid, we just took some time to admire Pandora at night. There was a drum show still going on, so we watched that for a bit.

DH wanted a pack of these gummies we got from Pandora during our January trip, so we went over to the gift shop and picked them up.

Then slowly headed back through Pandora and out of the park.

Pandora at night is just spectacular. This might be my favorite themeing in WDW.

We got out before the 2nd ROL show finished and only had to wait for the second Pop bus, unlike the 4th or 5th at Epcot the night before.

After decompressing in the room a bit and taking turns washing the layers of sweat off, it was time for bed.
Tomorrow is an early wakeup for our PPO breakfast at BOG!


(Did you notice anything unusual about this August day in Orlando? It did not rain once all day, so that seemed pretty lucky!)

 

[missangelalexis]

Sounds like a great time! Such a weird situation with the PP photographer though!

 

[piglet1979]

I have been daydreaming of a late August/early September trip in 2020 with them and doing a Not So Scary party. Here's hoping for another January 1 Free Dining drop.

I am waiting for this too.

 

[cinderaimee]

Sounds like a great time! Such a weird situation with the PP photographer though!

It was a great day. I think it was probably our favorite day of the trip! We had so much fun and the vibe at Animal Kingdom is so cool.

I am waiting for this too.

Come on Free Dining!

 

[disneyAndi14]

I Love hearing all about the different drinks you tried! They all look really yummy!

What a great evening at AK and it didn’t seem overly crowded! We always stand behind the PP, I wonder if that is changing? Very annoying when you were waiting patiently and were first!

 

[ariane37]

Satuli is amazing! You both must try it!

I ended up getting something from there last month on my work trip I was in a rush so not the first thing I would have ordered but it was good!!

You did well on the drinking at AK lol! They've changed the Mo'ara Margarita since its inception and I haven't had it since it's blue; wondering how different it tastes. Had you had it when it was pink/red?