We were so excited for this day. This was going to be our first time in Animal Kingdom since the new Pandora land opened. The park was open from 9-9:30 with a morning extra magic hour from 8-9. We of course made plans to take advantage of this, especially since we didn't have fastpasses for Flight of Passage. We did however have fastpasses for Kilimanjaro Safari, Na'vi River, and Kali River Rapids. We were prepared for our early morning, knowing that we wanted to be near the front of the pack heading to Flight of Passage when the park opened.
8:00
This was definitely the most crowded and craziest park opening that I've ever been at for extra magic hours. However, we were right where we wanted to be at the front. We made our way straight for Flight of Passage. This would have been perfect, but unfortunately the ride did not open due to technical difficulties. No joke, this always happens to us. We usually like to wait it out, but they kept telling us that they had no idea when it would be back up. In fact, both attractions inside Pandora were down. Finally, about 9:00, some castmembers came to the front of the crowd standing at the ride entrance and informed us all that they had no idea when the ride would be back up and that we all needed to move. Of course, everyone was a little hesitant since we were all right at the front of the huge crowd. A few minutes later the castmembers tried again. This time, they said that they had formed a line on the bridge leading into Africa. At this point, the crowd around us started to get very upset that they had decided to start a line back there ignoring all the people in the front of this "line" crowd. It wasn't really a line, but a large crowd blocking the entire walkway (not that you could go or do anything here, since both attractions were down and the restaurant was closed.) I understood why they wanted everyone to move, but I also kind of agreed with the upset guests that they didn't really go about this in the right way. Regardless, we decided to move on.
It is always an exciting safari when the Lion is up and about. We even got to hear a few ferocious roars on this trip.
9:00
We walked back to where the castmembers said they started a line. It of course was already extremely long, so we continued walking and made our way into Africa. (Side note, this was a great decision as the attraction remained down until about 12:00.) With this throwing our plans out of wack, we were a little unsure what we were doing. When we made it to Kilimanjaro, we saw that the wait was only 20 minutes. We had fastpasses for a little later, but we thought we would just modify that for something else. However, before we even got in line, I looked at the app and started to modify and found fastpasses available for the safari at that time. So, with our passes modified, we entered through the fastpass line and just like that, our 20 minute wait became just a few minutes as we walked through the fastpass line. We finally were on attraction #1, Kilimanjaro Safari.
It is always an exciting safari when the Lion is up and about. We even got to hear a few ferocious roars on this trip.
10:00
When we got off our safari, we decided to walk the Gorilla Falls. After this, we were even more thrown in our schedule. We had dining reservations at Tusker House at 10:50, so we didn't really feel comfortable venturing off to other areas of the park to attempt to get in any other rides. So, instead, we decided to head back to Pandora to look around and get our picture taken.
They even have this fun magic shot here.
After walking around a little bit, we headed back to Africa and Tusker House.
11:00
We chose to eat here so that we could take advantage of the River of Lights dining package. We always have fun here, but this time seemed appropriate for how our day was going. First, they seemed to seat us at the wrong table. Even after Patrick and Littlecjc had gone to get food, they were still trying to figure things out. They didn't move us, but I think it would have worked out better for us if they did, because we were in the wrong place for the character rotations and it took forever to finally meet with all the characters. Eventually, we did get them all in, including Safari Goofy, character #1, Safari Donald, character #2, Safari Daisy, character #3, and Safari Mickey, character #4.
We actually had our first major meltdown here, just before our picture with Donald, because there was some confusion between Littlecjc and us when Donald apparently signed with the wrong color marker.
To continue with our luck of the day, we were unable to use our AP discount since we booked a dining package instead of just the meal reservation, even though we were able to use it here the last time with the same dining package. It was fine, just another unexpected turn in our day.
12:00
After what seemed like forever, we left Tusker House and headed back to Pandora, to use our first fastpass at Na'vi River, attraction #2.
We were so grateful not to have to stand in this standby line. Especially after disembarking the ride. Yes, this ride was beautiful and the technology was amazing, but I can't help but admit that I would have been really upset had I stood in line for two hours to ride it. From the fast pass line, we were able to get beautiful pictures of the floating rocks.
1:00
After our river journey, it was already time for our final fastpass at Kali River Rapids, attraction #3.
With all of our fastpasses now used, we got on the app and looked to see what else was available. We were able to pick up passes to meet Mickey and Minnie, characters #5 & 6 immediately.
I really swear by using that app all day long. It amazes me how often we are able to pick up fastpasses for an attraction within 5-10 minutes of when we are searching.
2:00 - 4:00
By now, Flight of Passage was up and running and the line was of course extremely long. We decided that this was THE new thing at Disney this trip and we didn't want to miss out. Patrick decided that he would gladly stand in line if I entertained Littlecjc for the 150 minute wait time. However, the joke was on him, as Littlecjc fell asleep while we walked back to Flight of Passage, attraction #4. Patrick took many pictures in line, but the most interesting is the one of this life size avatar.
While Littlecjc and I waited, we walked around a while, talked to both Grandmas on the phone, and eventually ended up at Dinosaur where I found a nice shaded area to sit. I ended up here, because I had picked up a fastpass for Littlecjc and myself thinking she would wake up and we would ride while waiting on Patrick. However, even though I continued to push back our fastpass multiple times, I ended up hearing from Patrick before Littlecjc ever woke up. She definitely caught up on sleep this day, which worked out for everyone.
5:00
I gladly made my way back to Pandora to meet Patrick after his flight so that we could eat dinner at the new Satu'li Canteen. We really enjoyed this meal, and I was surprised at the lack of people inside since the park seemed so crowded. We walked right up and ordered our food, and it was so good.
We shared everything and even splurged on a dessert since we had to try the signature blue dessert.
Littlecjc finally woke up as soon as we sat down to eat. While here, I was eager to hear all about Flight of Passage, but Patrick didn't want to give anything away. He did explain how he ended up with a fastpass for the ride though. At Disney World, any time you are escorted off a ride, you are given a fastpasss to return at any time that day. Patrick actually rode the ride without any problems, but apparently there was a problem with the seat restraints, as they did not release at the ride's end so he had to wait just a moment until a castmember could release his restraint. This was the case for everyone in his room and even though their ride was complete, they were still given fastpasses for a repeat ride. This worked out great for us.
6:00
When we finished our dinner, I took my turn on Flight of Passage, attraction #5. This ride is exhilarating. I literally had my mouth open the entire time in pure delight. Even with a fastpass, this ride takes at least 30 minutes with two prepping rooms with videos before the actual ride. When I completed my flight, I found Patrick and Littlecjc in the gift shop. I later learned that they had explored a little and found a photopass photographer.
As a group, we made our way back to the ride entrance and Patrick used his fastpass to enter after obtaining another rider's swap pass. Therefore, Patrick's second banshee ride was attraction #6, Flight of Passage.
7:00
While Patrick was on the ride, Littlecjc and I explored the gift shop. She loved being able to show off everything that she found with Daddy.
She also thought she was going home with everything even though I kept saying "no." However, I guess I was the one in for a surprise. When Patrick returned, I used the final rider swap pass for my return ride on Flight of Passage, attraction #7 and returned to the gift shop to find Patrick and Littlecjc in line to adopt a banshee. I was stunned. I thought she would probably get something small since she was behaving while stuck in this store while Patrick and I enjoyed this awesome new ride that she couldn't go on, but I didn't imagine she would get a banshee. I think Patrick may have actually wanted one for himself, especially since she didn't even seem to notice them while I was in the store with her. It had started raining while we all were hanging out here, so we left the banshee in it's box until we got back to the hotel. Since I'm sure you want to see, here's Flappy (she gave him this name since his wings flap.)
8:00
When we finally left Pandora, we ventured into Dinoland. I think I still had fastpasses for this ride, but honestly it didn't really matter as there was no line. This isn't a ride either Patrick or I really love, and honestly one that usually gets skipped. However, this was the first time that Littlecjc was tall enough to ride it and we were excited for her to experience it. Out of all the new attractions she was able to go on this trip, this was the one I was most worried about. I probably talked too much about it being scary, because although she said "ooh scary" when she got off, I know she was fine the entire time. She was holding our hands, but she never squeezed them and check out her face in the picture.
My little girl was did not even care that the large dinosaur was coming for us. With Dinosaur, attraction #8 checked off, we had to stop (per Littlecjc's request) at Triceratops Spin, attraction #9.
Thankfully, it had stopped raining by now. At this point, we needed to make our way to the River of Lights viewing area.
9:00
I really like this show. I was impressed the first time we saw it, but I think I enjoyed it even more this time. I don't know if we had better seats, or if I was just able to enjoy it more this time for some reason, but I left feeling great.
I love being able to end a day in the parks with a nightime show. In my opinion, this is a great addition to this park. I know it seemed like a lot went wrong this day, which maybe would have ruined some other's day but we still had an amazing day. We loved exploring the new land of Pandora, and even though we didn't see the amazing shows in this park or ride Everest, we still really enjoyed our day. Our goal this trip was to experience Pandora and we loved it!
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