THURSDAY DECEMBER 8
Our Day at Animal Kingdom
9:19—we walked to Bus Stop to board a bus to the park
Got a couple of pictures before getting on the bus💖....the girls
(Avi didn't feel well today so didn't join us)
The Guys!💙
9:45 am—Boarded bus
9:59 am—Arrived at Animal Kingdom (Animal Kingdom Christmas tree in the background....the only picture we have of their tree--I will write more later about my disappointment in the decorations in all the parks)
I wrote this on Facebook and will copy and paste here -- we all were SO appreciative of all of Rachel's preparation for our trip....it made it so much better!!
Rachel has done such an awesome job making our trip the very best/most memorable. She worked tons of hours in the months before our trip organizing everything, making lots of phone calls with Disney, getting a disability pass for our family (because of Jeff), that has allowed us to ride all the rides we want to ride -- our longest wait time was 30 minutes (Small World) but for the majority of the rides (even the most popular), it's been 15 minutes or less (between the disability pass and/or Genie+). Such a blessing! She has made our ride reservations on the app, been our tour guide as to where to go and what time, and SO MUCH MORE!! We are all very indebted to her. THANK YOU, RACHEL ANN!!!!
Coffee break (several of us must have our coffee to get us going and there just happened to be a coffee shop outside the entrance!)
10:28 am—Entered the park!
10:38 am—Took family pictures
Cute way the Disney photographer did Rachel's family
(Josh, Michelle and Saylor didn't do family pictures here since Avi wasn't with them)
We first walked over to the area of the popular roller coaster, Expedition Everest (in that mountain behind the kids) as Rachel had booked our reservations there. Copeland didn't ride it, but the other 3 did as well as Jeff, Andy, Shep, Carman, Josh, Michelle and Saylor.
Here they go!!!!😟
10:52 am—Jeff wrote: Got on the ride in less than 5 minutes. First half of ride, till we stopped at the very top, was a piece of cake. It was the last half of the ride when we came down backwards, then we stopped & went the rest of the way down forwards that was booking it. Loved it!!! Best roller coaster I have ridden at Disney! (Not everyone agreed with him....Saylor wouldn't ride any roller coasters after this one😟)
11:25—We all saw the 4D show “It’s Tough to be a Bug” that is located inside the big tree.
I love this one!
Show started at 11:45 am— 20 minute wait in line.
Hottest park of all— trees block the breeze. 79 degrees @
11:00am!
Eisley put her 4D bug glasses & told Papa that she was
the ”Queen of Cool!”😂
12:00 pm—We mobile ordered lunch from Restaurantosaurus.
We walked to the restaurant, sat down in the cool & ate.
1:22 pm—We got on Avatar: Flight of Passage after standing
in line for 17 minutes which is amazing considering the regular line was over a 2 hour wait!
I was very anxious to ride this one....have heard many say how much they love it. We didn't get to ride it in 2017, when it was new, as the line was so long and we couldn't get fast passes that time.
We rode on these "motorcycle" like things that represented the Avator, the creature in the movie....you felt "it" breathe, fly, etc. (even though it was stationary the whole time). Those panels in front of us open up with huge screens there.
You are wearing 4D glasses and are "riding" the Avator into the screen (it feels like)...similar to Soarin' but you really have some dips, highs and lows, etc. It's very thrilling. We all loved it!!
1:44 pm—We got off Avatar: Flight of Passage and took group pictures by a Disney photographer in the Land of Pandora - The World of Avatar:
Walked clear back across the park to ride Dinosaur (Jeff was struggling on this day, with the heat, a blister and just exhaustion, so he stayed in this area in the shade and rested as we were returning in an hour)
Some rode Dinosaur (rough ride....I rode it but I don't like it!!)
Josh & I both lost our Magic Bands on this ride 😖 and had to pay twice for replacement ones from what we paid prior to the trip. Doggone it!!
It was snack time and we let the kids play in the "Boneyard" (children's play area). Saylor got away from Michelle and Rachel here (while we were on the Dinosaur ride)--only time we "lost" a child but thankfully it was all enclosed so she was just in another part of the area they didn't know about! I think Uncle Drew found her!
Back to the Land of Avator, met up with Jeff and to ride Na’vi River Journey
This picture is out of order.....but it was at some point during the day - ha!
4:30 pm—we got in line for the Na’vi River Journey.
It's a very slow boat ride and very pretty!
Next was the Kilimanjaro Safaris Tour at 3:15 pm. A 22
minute wait. We got on the jeep at 3:37 pm. We finished the safari at 4:02 pm.
Photo bomber 😂
81 degrees for the day’s high👎
4:45 pm—Finished the ride and headed for the front gate.
Josh’s family went back to resort to check on Avi. Andy and Rachel's families used their park hopper passes and boarded the bus to
Hollywood Studios.
A picture at Hollywood Studios:
They ate dinner then did Rise of Resistance in the Star Wars area again except for Rachel, Gideon and Kipling who rode Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway and then when the others got done with Rise, they all rode M&M Railway (it's such a cute ride!)
5:30 pm—Jeff and I decided we wanted a good meal and then were going back to our hotel room. Rainforest Cafe is right outside the entrance to Animal Kingdom, so we decided to eat dinner there.
Had to wait quite a while. Finally got seated at 6:05 pm. Jeff wrote about this meal: I ordered a sirloin steak & red skinned mashed potatoes. Debbie
told our server we were celebrating our wedding anniversary & she brought
us a vanilla cupcake with 1 candle on it. Three of the servers sang “Happy
Anniversary” to us. 💖 It was an enjoyable relaxing time.
7:03 pm—Jeff and I left Animal Kingdom & walked to hotel bus stop.
7:39 pm—We boarded the bus from Animal Kingdom
to Caribbean Beach Resort. It took so long for a bus to our resort to come
because one of the Caribbean Resort busses broke down in the resort causing
traffic to stand still until the bus could be towed.
8:02 pm—We walked from the bus stop at the Caribbean Beach
Resort to our hotel room.
8:05 pm—Arrived at our hotel room & took our showers.
9:30 pm—Rachel's and Andy's family returned from Hollywood Studios.
Jeff walked 7 miles that day but others in the family walked 9+ miles!
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