To follow up a long and exciting day at Magic Kingdom, we decided that we would go to go Animal Kingdom in hopes of taking it easy (as easy as you can take it in a Disney park). Animal Kingdom doesn’t have nearly as many rides as Magic Kingdom, but there is a lot to look at along with amazing live entertainment, like Festival of the Lion King. Unfortunately for us, Festival of the Lion King was closed the week we were at Disney World because they were making the transition from the COVID version of the show back to the original production, but we still found plenty of fun and interesting entertainment! As always, if you want to follow along our day on Instagram, you can find my Instagram highlight here.
We didn’t feel the need to rush to get up and out the door for Animal Kingdom like we had the day before, because we purchased an Individual Lightning Lane for the most popular ride in the park, Avatar Flight of Passage. We also figured that the other wait times wouldn’t be so bad. After enjoying the last of our Voodoo Donuts that we purchased from Universal CityWalk, we hopped on the bus and headed over to the park. The walk from the bus stop to the front entrance might have been the longest walk out of all the parks. It also definitely threw me off that there was a Rainforest CafĂ© right outside of the entrance!
While we were scanning our tickets at the turnstiles, we noticed a cast member working at the front gate who had a service dog. We appreciated the inclusiveness in hiring of cast members. There cast member was hard at work, and the service dog was honestly living his best life curled up at her feet! We applauded Disney a lot for this. We saw tons of inclusivity among the cast members throughout all of the parks.
From the entrance, we went straight for the Tree of Life to get pictures in our cute animal ears out of the way before we got hot and sweaty from the heat. Right off the bat, we found the four 50th Anniversary statues for the park right by the tree in the Discovery Island area. This was kind of a let down for me, because I really enjoyed spending all day yesterday looking for the different statues scattered throughout the park. It had been like a scavenger hunt! At Animal Kingdom, we saw Bambi and Thumper from Bambi, Timon, Pumbaa, and Simba from The Lion King, and Marlin and Dory from Finding Nemo.
We took our pictures to the right side of the front of the tree (when approaching from the front of the park). This area provided an excellent crowd-free backdrop view of the Tree of Life. As we were walking in the direction of the Asia area, we noticed another great spot for pictures and snapped a few more!
A little more on the park’s icon: The Tree of Life is an artificial baobab tree made of concrete and fiberglass that was built over an upside down oil rig so that it could withstand hurricane force winds. The tree is 145 feet tall and 50 feet wide at the base. The most interesting part of the tree is the trunk, which has over 300 animals carved into it.
The first thing we did at Animal Kingdom was watch It’s Tough to be a Bug, which is based on the 1998 film, A Bug’s Life that is shown inside the Tree of Life. The lobby area of the theater had me cracking up because they parodied famous Broadway musicals and by adding bugs. For example, there was a post for “Web Side Story” instead of West Side Story. It was so fun to go around to the different posters and figure out which Broadway show they were referencing. A Bug’s Life has never really been my favorite movie, so I definitely wasn’t as into the show as much as other people who love the movie could be, but it was still a really cute show and a perfect A/C and walking break. Note: Though it seems like this show would be perfect for kids, it may be scary to little ones because of some of the 4D effects and lighting.
From Discovery Island, we walked over to Africa, where we discovered a very cool hidden photo opportunity. If you’re not looking for it, you would just walk right past it. The spot is located near the Harambe market. Around a corner, you will find vintage-looking Mickey art on the wall next to a bike and a red umbrella cart. You can definitely get some cool photos in this spot, but we just got one photo super quick because we were about to hop on the Kilimanjaro Safaris since the wait was only twenty minutes.
While I had nothing to compare our safari journey with, being that I was only eight years old the last time I visited Animal Kingdom. I honestly don’t remember much from it. However, Mary Ellen said she thought our safari was the best she had ever experienced in Animal Kingdom. Because it was so early in the morning and the sun hadn’t come out full force yet, so many of the animals were out and about as we were driving around the area. The safari was so cool and definitely a must do if you’re at Animal Kingdom. Seeing the giraffes wandering around the savannah and the lions sleeping outside of their den were my favorite parts of the safari.
After getting off our safari, we made a pit stop at Starbucks. I was going to try to go as long as I could without iced coffee, especially because I didn’t really want to pay park prices for it, but I was desperate by the time we got off Kilimanjaro Safaris. The Diet Coke we started the day with did part of the job, but I definitely needed a Venti Cold Brew to completely wake me up! We also grabbed a Mickey Mouse cinnamon roll to split that was decorated with blue icing for the 50th Anniversary.
After satisfying my coffee craving, we walked across the bridge to Pandora to hop in the queue for Na’vi River Journey before the window for our Lightning Lane for Flight of Passage opened. By the time we got over to the area, the wait was over an hour for Na’vi River Journey, so we wouldn’t have had enough time. Instead, we strolled around the area and sipped on our drinks before Flight of Passage. Now, neither of us have seen Avatar. In the land and later on Flight of Passage, there were definitely a lot of points where we were very confused. Even still, we decided to just take in the experience and enjoy it as best as we could.
The pre-show for Flight of Passage is very long and drawn out. It felt like most of the time in the pre-show area was spend standing around waiting for the next instruction. This might have been because the pre-show is shorter than the ride itself and we were waiting for the group in front of us to finish. However, we also thought the pre-show was too lengthy and got a little agitated waiting around and watching the video. The only cool part is that they scan you from where you are standing and connect you to one of the Na’vi, who will be your host for the ride. Once you get to where the ride is, there are lockers on the side of the wall for you to put your bags and other loose items while riding. The ride looks like an arcade racing motorcycle, but more secure and more comfortable. You wear 3D glasses to enhance the environment as you’re flying through Pandora. It didn’t really register with me at first, but the ride itself is supposed to be a virtual reality type ride where it feels like you’re flying on a Banshee (yes, i did look up what the dragon in Avatar is called).
I thought the ride was really cool with the way the ride vehicle moved and rotated based on how you were flying. You could even feel the Banshee breathing when at rest. The visuals were really detailed and made it feel like you were really in the world of Pandora. I think I would’ve enjoyed it more if I had seen Avatar and understood more about the world. We also never got the chance to ride the Na’vi River Journey because the wait was always too high for us to justify waiting in the line without understanding fully what was happening. Of course, it is possible to have an amazing time on a ride that’s based on a movie you’ve never seen, but more on that in my blog about Epcot.
After completing our time in Pandora, we decided to head over to Asia to ride Expedition Everest. I, of course, made us make a pit stop to admire at the otters in their habitat for a little bit, because they are some of my favorite animals. Unfortunately, they were all still asleep and I didn’t get to watch them swim around, but they were still very cute!
As we were walking up to Expedition Everest, we saw that the line was getting longer and wait time was increasing dramatically so we made the call to come back later. We kept walking and ended up stumbling upon Finding Nemo the Musical at the Theater in the Wild. A show was just about to start, so we stayed to watch. I really enjoyed this show (and the A/C to be honest). The puppetry was really impressive and the show was so fun. There were a few catchy songs that I had stuck in my head after the show, too. We thought that the cast did a fantastic job!
Once we were out of the show, we noticed that the line for Expedition Everest had gone down significantly. We waited around 40-45 minutes and while it felt like the line moved slow at some points, it wasn’t even the worst line we stood in that day or for the entire trip (throw back to the queue for Big Thunder Mountain!). I really enjoyed Expedition Everest! We would have ridden it again at the end of the day if we weren’t exhausted and dealing with sore feet from our Chacos. Unfortunately, this was also the day that Mary Ellen started showing symptoms of what we thought was allergies, but later discovered was Covid. We went the entire trip thinking it was just allergies or a sinus infection based on our symptoms. I’m allergic to grass and chlorine and so when my symptoms started a few days later at Hollywood Studios, I honestly thought it was my allergies finally kicking in after spending five days continuously outside and a day in a chlorine filled water park.
After finishing Expedition Everest, we walked across the way and watched in a performance of Kite Tails. The show was a 50th Anniversary offering performed on the Discovery River. The show was a short water and air show created for the Most Magical Celebration on Earth. Shows alternated between The Lion King and The Jungle Book. Cast members on jet skis flew kites shaped like favorite Disney characters around the lagoon to music from their respective movies. I read that Disney had originally planned for Kite Tails to run only a few times throughout the day, but based on popularity performances were increased to every 20-30 minutes (and because they alternate, we got to see both versions). Unfortunately, there were too many logistics that needed to be ironed out for Kite Tails to continue. With that, Disney decided to not only discontinue the show at the close of the the 50th Anniversary celebration, but to close the show much earlier than originally planned. All that said, we greatly enjoyed watching Kite Tails from the amphitheater and later from the outdoor seating area of our lunch spot.
Around this time we realized it was time for lunch, it not past time. There are very limited options for mobile ordering at Animal Kingdom, so we ended up choosing Flame Tree Barbecue on Discovery Island. As mentioned before, a bonus of where we chose to eat was that we could watch a second performance Kite Tails, this time with music and characters from The Lion King, while eating our lunch. It turned out that Mary Ellen had read a food recommendation for Flame Tree Barbecue from Disney Food Blog and I ended up choosing that dish for my meal. This meal was the Baked Mac and Cheese with Pulled Pork. It was incredible and definitely a top favorite meal from the trip! I also loved that it came with a couple of onion rings and coleslaw on top. The whole meal was delicious and energized me for the rest of our adventures that day.
After lunch, we made our way over to DinoLand, USA. We passed the spot where Kevin from Up would normally do a meet and greet, but to our disappointment she was still not coming out to mingle with people due to the Covid restrictions that were still partially in place. We did get to see Pocahontas and Meeko on a “Floatilla” waving to park guests while we were crossing the bridge of DinoLand. This was a favorite moment for me and brought back a great memory from when I was at Disney World as a child. My mom loves to tell everyone that story!
There isn’t so much to do in DinoLand if you aren’t there with kids, but we did ride DINOSAUR. It had about a 20-30 minute wait and the line moved pretty quickly. I loved seeing all the different types of dinosaur statues and fossils throughout the outdoor part of the line and the museum exhibits within the indoor portion of the queue. DINOSAUR is similar to the Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland mainly because the two rides use the same ride vehicle, called an Enhanced Motion Vehicle (EMV). For this ride, you’re in a vehicle called the Time Rover that will take you back to the age of the dinosaurs. Your mission is to bring back an Iguanodon from the late Cretaceous period, right before the asteroid that destroyed the dinosaurs hit! It’s very shaky and bumpy ride that takes place mostly in the dark. Personally, DINOSAUR was not my cup of tea, but I could see people who love dinosaurs and paleontology enjoying this attraction. Fun fact: When DINOSAUR opened in 1998, it was sponsored by McDonald’s. You can still see some evidence of this in the queue. Look for three pipes colored red, yellow, and white with chemical compositions on them. Those are the chemical makeups of ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise!
From DinoLand, USA, we made our way to the Nomad Lounge, which is a lounge associated with the Tiffin’s restaurant. The restaurant and lounge are on Discovery Island right across the bridge from Pandora. We used the walk up waitlist feature of the Walt Disney World app to put our names on the list for the lounge. It was super easy to use and convenient. Once we put our names down, we were given an estimated wait time, which was about how long it took for us to walk from DinoLand to the lounge. Mary Ellen got a text that our table was ready and we were seated right away on the patio. My only complaint is that we didn’t have that great of a view of the water to watch the Disney characters come by on their “Floatillas”.
I ordered the Annapurna Zing basically only for the glowing lotus flower (which I still have). The drink is a Bombay Sapphire gin, passion fruit puree, mint, simple syrup and lime juice. I thought the drink was just okay and later learned that my main problem is that I don’t think I’m a fan of gin. For her drink Mary Ellen ordered a Jenn’s Tattoo, which had Ketel One vodka, watermelon, hibiscus, and lime juice. We also got a plate of their churros (which are gluten-free) and the Tiffin’s Bread Service. I loved the vanilla crème dip that came with the Churros. No trip to Disney is complete without getting churros and a Dole Whip, and we managed to get both in our first two days! We had such a nice time relaxing at Nomad Lounge. It was so peaceful and quiet. The lounge is definitely a hidden gem in Animal Kingdom.
Finally, it we made our way over to Asia to ride Kali River Rapids. It was the last ride we had left at the park. By the time we got to the attraction, it had about a 75 minute wait, but we didn’t think it was going to be that long. The assumptions was most definitely incorrect. This line felt like it was never going to end. This is also about the time when Mary Ellen first started realizing that she wasn’t feeling well. The line moved really slowly, and by the time we got halfway through the line, I had finished my entire water bottle and was so thirsty. I wanted to say the ride was worth it, but I think it was too short of a ride for how long we waited. It was hard for me to really enjoy it and feel like it worth the wait.
With everything that happened while in the line at Kali River Rapids combined with the fact that our feet were dying from our Chacos (hello blisters!), we called it early and headed back to Old Key West. We rested and had a light dinner at our resort’s quick-service window before crawling to bed at the very early hour of 7pm. Mary Ellen fell asleep pretty quickly, but I decided to have a relaxing evening in bed listening to music and reading. I finally went to sleep at 9 PM to make sure I was well rested for the day, which was the day I was most looking forward to of the entire trip: drinking around the world at Epcot!
Below are more pictures from our day at Animal Kingdom:
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