Monday, March 13th: An Animal Kingdom Park Day Part Two
So where we last left off, it was around noon on our DAK park day, it was starting to rain and we had just gotten a treat from Tamu Tamu Refreshments. We used our Fastpass for Kilimanjaro Safaris, and since that was our third Fastpass for the day, we were able to make another one in line. We chose Primeval Whirl at 1:10. We got in line for KS at 12:50, so that made for a quick turn around!
The rain slowed down and we enjoyed our safari ride. While I’m thinking about it, I did want to mention that if it’s raining, you will get wet on the Safari! We’ve experienced it before and there was a lot of water coming off the roof of the truck etc. So, just be prepared if you decide to ride in the rain!
The wild dogs were a new addition since our last trip and I LOVED THEM. They looked so unique. Also dogs rule cats drool.
We made our way back to Dinoland to use our Primeval Whirl Fastpasses. Before riding Goofy’s Sky School in DCA, I wasn’t very interested in a ride like this. However, I think GSS is so much fun, and we usually ride PW once every trip.
Gotta say... I might be over this ride. It hurts me. A lot. And since there was only two of us, I got to be awkwardly tossed around into a total stranger. But I will now take this moment to do something that not many people do... Praise Chester and Hester's Dinorama. It's such an odd blemish on the otherwise GORGEOUS work of art that is Animal Kingdom. But you know what? I love this blemish. Not because I love the cheesy carnival games or the cracked blacktop parking lot. I love this area because it does such a good job at being so bad. It's SUPPOSED to look cheesy and run down and ugly. The story goes that Chester and Hester were a married couple who owned a gas station in the middle of nowhere. But when dinosaur bones were discovered nearby, the area was suddenly flooded with scientists (hence the nearby Dino Institute) and dinosaur enthusiasts. So the couple thought they'd cash in on the dino-hype, and they built the dinosaur themed carnival out in their parking lot and converted their gas station into a gift shop. Notice the old gas station signage...
And that's EXACTLY how it looks. I once read something Joe Rohde wrote that said something about how it's easy to build something that nobody has ever seen, because we have no reference to what it's SUPPOSED to look like. But when designing things that nearly everyone has experienced, like cracking blacktop parking lots, the level of detail has to be EXCEPTIONAL. Because we'd notice if it looks wrong. Chester and Hester's Dinorama was intended to look... well... crappy. And it does it soooo well.
Now that we had the spinny ride out of the way, we decided it was time to eat. When we visited in 2015, Flametree BBQ was under refurbishment (the horror!) so we knew we needed to eat there! We decided to split the biggest meal, with the pork, chicken, and ribs, and all three sides.
Scott waited in line for the food and sent me to scout out a good table. Prior to the trip Scott was telling me that he wondered why we never sat at one of the “good” tables at Flame Tree down by the water with a view of Expedition Everest. So…I knew exactly what kind of table I was looking for!
How do you think I did? When Scott came and found me with the food he started laughing because I had found THE exact table he was describing to me before the trip! It was a great moment. I like eating lunch after the lunchtime rush because the restaurants are so much less crowded and the pace of things is just a lot more relaxed. Plus, when I see a bunch of families wandering around with trays, I feel guilty and try to just shove my food down and get out. We had a really peaceful lunch and looked on
MDE while we ate.
We decided to get a Fastpass for the Finding Nemo musical at 3:30 (not sure if that’s the show time or when the Fastpass window for seating opened).
After we ate, we sat and relaxed awhile and it started to rain again, so we moved to a table under an awning to wait the rain out. We made a friend during this time, who walked on the railing around us, eying us from a distance for awhile.
We made our way to Nemo, and thoroughly enjoyed the show as always! This is one of our favorites! While we were waiting for the show to start, we made a Fastpass for Dinosaur at 7:10.
This show gives me goosebumps. I love the music. I love it. Father-son stories really get me choked up. I don't know why. I have a great relationship with my dad. Also, the puppetry is fantastic.
Then we headed to do the trails, because we realized that they were going to close fairly soon. We did Maharajah Jungle Trek first, and then Gorilla Falls. We love the trails! I especially love the area around the tigers and I think it’s one of the most gorgeous areas Disney has ever built.
Why is everyone so creeped out by the bats? They're my favorite animal to visit. They have lil puppy faces.
I believe it was raining again at this point, so we decided to head on to something that we were very excited to try: the Nomad Lounge. This had been built since we were last here, so we hadn’t seen the area yet. There was only one other table of people sitting inside when we arrived. We weren’t starving yet, but it seemed like a great way to spend some time because we planned on staying in the park as late as we could!
We had a great experience at the Nomad Lounge with really good service! In fact, when our waiter first walked up to our table, he somehow spotted what camera lens we were using (50mm) within .001 seconds and struck up a conversation with us about it. We were impressed!
Scott ordered a Boto-Rita, and I ordered a Snow Leopard. My drink was very refreshing, and similar to a Moscow Mule.
We tried the garnish on Scott’s drink and quickly learned that they were pink peppercorns and really just for looks, not enjoyment hahaha!
Yea those peppercorns... Still haven't figured that out. They were just sort of hard and crunchy. Almost made to get stuck in your teeth. This drink had mezcal in it, which sort of has a smoky flavor to it. Which I love. But I know that many people are turned off by it. I thought this drink was delicious, but if you're going to order it, expect the mezcal.
I really like the glassware we were served our drinks in, it was so nice and sturdy with a really unique look!
We ordered the bread service and cheese plate to go with our drinks. That’s right, the massive Sanaa bread service just a couple nights prior wasn’t enough! Again, the bread service was served in a very cool manner, and tasted wonderful. We especially liked the super thin and crispy chip-like option. The dips were great as well, and weren’t the same as the ones from Sanaa.
The cheese plate was good, though I recommend ordering these two items together because it was nice to be able to use the dips to pair along with the cheeses, and the cheese plate didn’t come with much bread. We spent a long time at the Nomad Lounge, and I can’t wait to go back! While we were there, all of the walls were still up guarding Pandora, and the water around the restaurant was covered in algae (probably from construction/not having the water circulate yet) so we didn’t really think about sitting outside. But now that Pandora has been completed, I bet that sitting outside is awesome. The furniture out there really reminded me of something I’d see at a resort in Bali, and it would be a great way to spend an afternoon! I really hope that the lounge isn’t too overcrowded once Pandora opens, because we rally want to go back in July!
When we left the Nomad lounge, we headed to use our Dinosaur Fastpass. In line, we picked up a Fastpass for Kilimanjaro Safaris, because we hadn’t ever ridden this at night.
After we rode Dinosaur, we ended up back at the Trilo-Bites stand, and ordered two more of the Sea Dog Sunfish beers. I’m so glad we did this, because we ended up chatting with the Cast Member working there for a while. He was so nice, and he gave us two bottles of water to take with us for free, sweet! We headed back to Harambe, and sat at Dawa Bar to finish our drinks before getting on the Safari.
Our nighttime Safaris ride…WOW! So, we fully expected all the animals to be asleep, and to be honest…a lot of them were haha!
Even the "nocturnal" hyenas, that i was very excited about, were snoozin'!
However, the animals that were awake were amazing! We didn’t see any elephants from what I remember, which are usually my favorite. I really wish I remembered our Safari driver’s name, because he was incredible. He had an amazing tone of voice, and he was doing a sort of half whisper because it’s so quiet out on the safari at night. Well, the family behind us LOVED the safari driver’s voice and kept talking about it, it was so funny. Between the great driver, and overhearing the enjoyment of the family behind me, I loved every minute of it!
We did have a rhino walk directly by our truck, almost so close that it scared me! But the real showstopper was up on Pride Rock! Typically, we see one lion sleeping lazily. But tonight, we saw so many lions, all up on the rock together! Two of the lions were even roaring at each other and play fighting! Well… we hope it was play fighting, ha! It was so incredible to watch!
After the Safari, we walked back to Discovery Island to catch the Tree of Life Awakenings. There wasn’t a showing of Rivers of Light on this day, but there were still a bunch of people there grouped around the tree to watch the awakenings. However, it was raining still, so we watched what we could for a few minutes and then moved on. I think the awakenings are really cool, and we returned to DAK on another day of our trip and discovered an amazing location to watch them from! In fact…we were the only people back in that area! But we’ll get there later in the trip…
We went into Starbucks to get the Animal Kingdom You Are Here mug, so now we officially have the mugs from all of the American Disney Parks! It was about 8:45 at this time, and we wanted to ride Expedition Everest at night, whether it was raining or not!
We very quickly walked to Asia, and hopped in line.
We were able to ride EE twice before the park closed. We had so much fun! There was no wait, so we were able to just run right through.
Alli was "makin' it rain", even though she didn't need much help.
We made our way out of the park, since it was closed.
When we got back to Pop, we were hungry and got a Chicken Bacon Ranch Flatbread, yum!
Scott took pictures of our pin trades for the day after we were back in the room. He was able to complete his Epcot logos pin set, so that only took three days on Disney property! We never looked for the silver chaser pin, because honestly we’re just not big fans of the all silver pins.
I traded for a Disney College Program pin by the Boneyard at some point, and I was so excited to find it! I’m sure it was given away for free to all the DCPs, but I never got one in 2013, so woo! Scott traded for the Storybook Land Lighthouse in the Dinosaur gift shop, which had a big pin board out. We actually found a couple cool
Disneyland pins on our trip, and we thought this was a really unique one!
So on this day, we left the resort at 7:50 and stayed at DAK until after it closed at 9pm. We used a total of seven Fastpasses, rode nine attractions (including rerides) and watched two shows. We had meals and snacks five times and just drinks twice. Despite the fact that it rained on and off all day, it was absolutely amazing. I remember a lot of moments of just happily running around and dancing in the rain.
Thanks for reading along! I hope our words and pictures bring you some Disney magic, wherever you’re reading from!
Skip down to our first Epcot day here!!!
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