Thursday morning we woke up and got dressed for our first day of Disney!! The hotel has complimentary breakfast so we fueled up there… I was extremely excited about Mickey pancakes.
The tickets Seth purchased through MWR were just vouchers so once we parked and rode the bus to the park, we had to wait in line for about 30 minutes before getting to the counter. The tickets could not be redeemed until Seth showed his military ID.. thank goodness was in the car and not at home 700 miles away. Seth ran back to the bus to catch a ride back to the car. Once he had his ID, we had to get back in line.
We were able to get a deal on Memory Maker and use our Fast Passes with our Magic Bands. I planned to make the most of our photos and time.
We didn’t get into the park until after 11 AM. Our original plan had been to be in Animal Kingdom for the morning and Hollywood Studios in the afternoon but because we got a late start, we pushed off HS. The park had been open for awhile so all of the lines were extremely long. Animal Kingdoms newish ride, Avatar was slammed so we decided to wait further into the day before jumping in line for that.
The line for the safari was around 80 minutes but that was pretty short considering some of the main rides had an almost three hour wait. While in line for the safari, I scoured my app for good Fast Passes. I made a few for the next few days.. and then one for Avatar opened up that would be as soon as we got off of the safari ride. Perfect!
Both of us thoroughly enjoyed the safari because most of the animals were out! My zoom lens was still attached to my camera so I was able to get some great shots that other people with cell phones couldn’t.
Our Fast Pass to Avatar was perfect, but I was pretty nervous about it. The area outside Avatar seemed huge so I thought it was going to be a crazy coaster…. nope, just a simulator.
It is the most interactive simulator I’ve ever been on. A few times I had to close my eyes because it seemed so real that I was getting anxious. What neither of us knew was not only do they release water and air to make it seem realistic, they also release smells. It hit me like a wave. In the video, our beast landed in the forest and as it took off again, the smell of dirt hit me. I screamed to Seth, “It smells like dirt!” Little did I know that I was in a room with 50+ people. Oops!
Spoiler alert: Avatar was my favorite ride, I would strongly encourage anyone going to Animal Kingdom to ride it. I would wait quite awhile in line for this attraction to ride it again.
After Avatar’s Flight of Passage, we walked around to find some lunch and see the rest of the park. Because I had just gotten braces a week before, finding food was difficult. I still hadn’t fully transitioned to solid foods yet. Seth found a little shop in front of Dino land, called Trilobites that had milkshakes and buffalo chicken chips. I couldn’t handle the chips but the buffalo chicken was shredded and covered in chopped tomatoes and celery and then bleu cheese dressing all over house made chips. I’ve never had such… it was so worth it! 10/10 would recommend.
After eating, we waited in line for Expedition Everest(the mountain ride behind us in the picture above.) The longer we waited, the worse I felt. The milkshake and buffalo chicken were doing weird things to my stomach and the ride wasn’t going to help anything. Seth was dying to ride this coaster so I told him I’d stand in line and then wait for him while he rode. After some convincing and not being able to get out of line, I got in… worst idea ever. I hate coasters in the dark… I want to know exactly what is going to happen. Halfway through, my head slipped off the headrest and I hit my head on the metal bar behind me. This jarred my already sore mouth. At the very end, we came to a sudden stop and the lap bar shoved into my stomach… I nearly puked buffalo chicken milkshake everywhere. 😦
The afternoon was halfway over but our nieces birthday party was that night.. all the way in New Smyrna beach so we went into a few shops and then went back to the hotel for a shower.
After the birthday party, driving back to the hotel in Orlando, I realized how exhausted I was.. and we were only in the park for 4 hours! We had a long day ahead of us!
More pictures and Disney posts to come! Day 2 we spent at Epcot.. this was our favorite park so stay tuned!
If you’ve been to Animal Kingdom and have any suggestions on rides/places to eat for next time, let me know in the comments! With family so close, we will be down in that area again soon!
Capturing Memories 