After getting up early, I did some laundry (yay me!) I swear I did so much walking back and forth between our room and the laundry room it almost wasn't funny.
Eventually got DFi awake and we were off to Animal Kingdom! We were really grateful for being at Kidani and getting picked up first so we always had a seat, and it really was nice being only 5 minutes way from AK.
We chose not to bring a bag into the park most days, and I made the choice not to bring my camera and stick to using my phone. But we definitely preferred the no bag route so it was quick and easy to get in, and we made our way to the Tree of Life.
Tough to be a Bug was a 10 minute wait so DFi was curious and wanted to see it, not knowing what kind of show it would be. At the end he was very entertained by it, particularly enjoying the bug "stings" and jabs" and everything else in the show. I'd be interested to find out if this seems to be the general sentiment among other men?
Walking towards Kali Rapids, we both really enjoyed the amount of work & attention to detail put into creating such an immersive park!
Our first fastpass was supposed to be Expedition Everest, however we found out it was "temporarily closed" while on the bus so we went to Kali Rapids instead as it was walk on. Luckily it was a nice day so getting splashed wasn't too worrisome. We joined a raft with another gentleman with his son who were doing their 3rd lap of the ride, the friendly kid assured us he barely got splashed so I trusted his advice
![rotfl :rotfl: :rotfl:](http://www.wdwinfo.com/images/smilies/rotfl.gif)
although the suspense of who will/won't get wet still made it fun.
Waiting to press the button on some unfortunate people, but luckily none went past
The jungle trek was really cool and we found the tigers having a cute daytime sleep together, which seems like a nice idea for us but we're in Disney so there's no time to sleep! (for us anyway)
We decided to use our multipass on Kilimanjaro Safaris, as by then it was a 90 min wait and I wasn't able to get fastpasses for this previously so great! I loved seeing the animals, especially seeing African elephants for the first time which was really cool for me, and luckily DFi enjoyed it too, afterwards he said it was his favourite thing about AK.
We went to the Exploration Trail, and I spent roughly 5-10 minutes just watching the meerkats. Who doesn't love meerkats?!
After a stroll through the Trail we headed to lunch at Flame Tree BBQ.
I very much enjoyed my mac & cheese, and tried my very best to eat as much of it (the portion sizes are about twice of what I'd normally eat :rofl
For a second you'd almost forget where you were! Is it Orlando or Asia?
Next stop Pandora!
Our next fastpass was Na'vi River Journey, and while it was visually very pretty, the lack of a story to the ride made it a little lackluster, and personally I was never a fan of the Avatar movie.
Having said that though, Pandora was really cool to see, the floating mountains were awesome to see and the Imagineering for this land, and just all of AK for that matter, blew us away.
Intro: The stick
Meet the stick (aka Na'vi Walking staff), this became DFi's favourite accessory for our park days, and it especially attracted attention with other people being amazed by it. When he took it out with us on other days people would ask with some bewilderment about what it was. I guess if someone's freshly arrived to the park and/or haven't been to the store at FoP then they had no clue what it was lol! DFi enjoyed the attention -queue my eye roll- :rofl:
Anyway!
We did manage to get some good photos taken at a photopass spot, I had decided to get the Memory Maker for our trip and I can say it's definitely worth it, especially if you're the sole designated photographer for everyone else (evidently that was me!). It's also worth it, assuming you can get your family/significant other to get in the photo and smile :rofl:
Some of our favourite photos from the whole trip were taken here, this photopass CM nailed it.
But of course it was me that couldn't keep a straight face through some of it :rofl:
Heading back to Everest!
Expedition Everest finally reopened in the afternoon and the wait time quickly rose but we were able to grab a fastpass for later on so that's a relief!
The following image is titled: "
A good time for ice-cream, DON'T YOU DARE TAKE A BITE YET PUT IT BACK"
We looked around DinoLand for a bit and went on Primeval Whirl because it was a short wait. We thought it would be a cute roller coaster, but boy did it whirl! It completely slipped my mind that the ride would in fact whirl, like it's title clearly says.
After all the tummy churns we went to find a spot sit down and relax for a while, and as we exited the ride we noticed that a previous rider may not have been so lucky as we spotted someone's lunch regurgitated on the ground in 2 separate locations lol! Poor thing
We hopped over to the Dinosaur ride which was fun, very similar to Indiana Jones in DLR, but still enjoyable. Even though I'm past my mid-twenties I still automatically keep my eyes half closed in all dark rides to not get startled by anything popping out :rofl:
Luckily I wasn't startled! What's everyone looking at?
(Like a perfectly sane person I researched where each ride photo location was so I was prepared lol! DFi didn't believe it was intentional)
We decided to kill some more time and watched Finding Nemo the Musical, not really knowing what we were getting into. It was really cute and enjoyable, but it took me 15 minutes into the show until I realised we were basically going to watch a recap of the entire movie on stage lol! :rofl:
Still it was really cute and would be a good way to get out the heat if it were a warm day.
We finally hopped over to our fastpass for Everest, and had a nice chat with
another couple (that was sparked by their interest in DFi's walking stick lol) but alas just as we got closer to getting on the ride, it was again closed D:
So twice now we've missed out and decided we'll just try our luck another day and headed back home for the day!
stick again
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After a short rest and a quick refresh we headed over to Jambo House for our dinner reservation at Jiko, which I knew I always had to do, and I stand by it!
After checking in we were led to a nice table by the window and given a verbal tour of the restaurant. We were then served with Moroccan mint tea (from memory?) which we both really liked and that's saying something because DFi doesn't drink tea ever.
Our server for the night was Onsy and he gave us a rundown of the menu. He was so friendly and entertaining, which added to the relaxed atmosphere which was great. He then brought us the bread, to which he claimed he got freshly made from Africa lol and I will never stop believing that it was one of the best bread & butter I've ever had. I love bread and butter regardless, but this was just amazing to me lol!
One of the best filet mignon’s I've ever had, the meat was so smooth and I could not rave about it more. In my early years of planning this trip I always said I would order this dish and I'm glad I did. I won't over-hype it, but that was great, I just wished I had more of that reduction sauce!
DFi ordered the short rib which was also so lovely. It was so enjoyable that I knew anything else I ate from now on would pale in comparison (which is a little sad but I’ll never forget it!).
And there’s always room for dessert! We chose the Kilimanjaro
I had asked if the pineapple component could be taken out the dessert (I'm a weirdo who doesn't enjoy fruity desserts), which was easily done, although Onsy suggested that they can place it separately on the side as it was still a good element that Dfi did enjoy (he didn't want his own dessert for some reason)
It was a really nice night, the restaurant didn't seem too busy at that time, or maybe I just didn't pay attention to where all the other guests were :rofl: but it felt nice and calm and relaxed and intimate (which I'd soon learn is vastly different to Cali Grill, more on that later!)
Now tipping was something DFi (and myself to a degree) reluctantly accepted throughout our trip, although this time DFi was happy to put down over the minimum because overall it was just a great experience, and Onsy was really up there on providing us with an enjoyable experience
We waddled back to the lobby to let our food settle and I got to just sit and stare at the amazing tree, and eventually we headed back to our room, stomachs and hearts full of content!