Christmas trip 2017, Day 1, Animal Kingdom

Our first full day in the parks this trip we started and finished at Animal Kingdom.  This park was open from 9-8 and our three fastpasses (fp, from now on) were Safari, (10:30-11:30) Kali River Rapids (11:55-12:55) and Flight of Passage (2:10-1:10.)  I was so happy that we were able to get that last fp that I think we let it get to our heads a little when we were trying to leave this morning.  That and the fact that we still hadn't realized just how far away our hotel room was from the bus stop.  Either way, we still made it to the park with the first rush of people, but we were at the back of the pack instead of the front and so knowing that we had fp for Flight of Passage later, we didn't even bother trying to get in that line.  Instead we walked right on the Na'vi River Journey, attraction #1 at 8:40.

If you don't get to the parks well before opening time, I can't stress enough how much you are missing out on.  We were on this ride 20 mins before the park was suppose to even open, and by the time the park did officially open the line here was already reaching 60 mins which of course was nothing compared to Flight of Passage.  With this line monster out of the way, we moved against the crowds back to the front of the park for our mandatory Tree of Life photo.

9:00

With the park now actually open, we ventured into Dinoland.  We tried persuading Littlecjc to visit with Pocahontas first, but our Littlecjc had a one track mind entering here and that was the  Triceratop Spin, attraction #2.

We of course walked right on here, and even could have stayed in our dino for another spin, but thankfully Littlecjc didn't hear the cast member make that announcement so we were able to move on.  We walked over to Dinosaur and took in the large dinos along the way and of course stopped for a picture out front.

We then walked right on making Dinosaur attraction #3.

Although she seemed to enjoy this ride while actually on it, she has decided that she doesn't like this ride because she doesn't like "when you go through the dinosaur at the end."  Ha!  We tried explaining that we dropped under the dinosaur and didn't go through him, but she wouldn't believe us.

Now that the dinosaur rides were taken care of, Littlecjc was ready to meet Pocahontas, character #1.

She was meeting this morning in her jacket and thankfully, she still didn't have a line.  As we came across the front of the park, Russell also had a very short line, but Littlecjc was not interested in meeting him today.  We decided to head to Starbucks for some drinks and to check out the new You Are Here mugs.  We bought this collection when they first came out, but we knew they had all changed and we wanted to see them.  We also had decided we really wanted Littlecjc to see Timon this morning and his first set was suppose to begin at 10, right outside of the Creature Comforts, aka Starbucks.  So with drinks in hand, we waited in line behind the one or two other families that had already lined up while we were in the store.

I'm pretty sure we spotted Timon here the last time we were in the parks, but this was the first time we had stopped to see him.  If you've noticed, Littlecjc had a Lion King dress on and she was excited to show him.  

10:00

At 10:00, he promptly made his appearance, and we met Timon, character #2.

With our first fp at Safari starting in 25 minutes, we didn't feel comfortable heading into Asia, so we decided to walk through the Gorilla Falls, attraction #4.

Littlecjc had to check out every single display box this time, and she loved watching the hippos.

We apparently really took our time walking through the falls this time, letting Littlecjc guide us since it was almost 11:00 before we scanned our first fp at Kilimanjaro Safari, attraction #5.

11:00

After our safari, we took the Wildlife Express Train, attraction #6 over to Rafiki's Planet Watch.

As soon as you get off the train, you are greeted by these elephant that Littlecjc decided she needed a picture with.  I think our trips to Disney have made my girl very aware of photo ops and she never wants to pass one by.  I love it!

As soon as we got inside the building, she wanted to play hide and seek.  She's mentioned this a few times already this trip usually resulting in me saying Disney World is way too crowded to play that since we may never find each other if we hide.  However, here she asked and no one was around, so her and daddy played one quick round.  I cracked up when I saw where she decided to stop and count.

Thankfully, after one quick round we were able to move on and meet Doc McStuffins, character #3.

I like that they added Doc's meet and greet here, but I think it's funny that you exit her area and find yourself instantly in line to meet Rafiki, character #4.

 This was the first time Littlecjc was interested in exploring the rest of the room, and we found ourselves watching a monkey getting a check-up.  Behind these windows they actually perform surgery and check on animals six days a week.  There are TVs set up so you have an aerial view of the animal on the table and there is always a cast member standing in this hallway to explain what is going on.  We were informed that the doctors come out after the surgery to answer any questions, but we did not hang around long enough to see that ourselves.

12:00

When we left this area, although we did get held up a bit at the gift shop outside, we were able to bypass the petting zoo area.  I appreciate that Disney has this area for kids that otherwise could never get that experience, but for us I'm always thrilled when we don't enter here.  So, before long, we were back on the Wilderness Express Train, attraction #7.

When we made it back to the mainlands, we headed towards Asia and our next fp at Kali River Rapids, attraction #8.

We got absolutely soaked this time around on this ride.

After playing on the bridge soaking others a bit, we decided to try the online mobile ordering.  We ordered our food from Sa'tuli as we walked that way.  This worked great and I highly recommend the online ordering.  When we reached the restaurant, we checked in and got our food.  

1:00

We enjoyed our food (if you're interested in pictures check out my last post from AK here.  When we finished eating we caught the Drum show, which we would end up seeing many times this trip.

This is a fun, energetic show that Littlecjc never got tired of seeing.

After the show, we were in search of a photographer to get our Pandora picture.

2:00

It was now time for us to use our third fp on Flight of Passage, attraction #9.  Since Littlecjc is still too short for this ride, we got a rider swap and I rode first this time.  Some people argue that this is cheating the system by getting a rider swap and using the fp line, but I will continue to do this until Disney stops allowing this.  Both Patrick and I had fp for this ride, even Littlecjc for that matter.  However, you never know when something might happen causing the second member of your group to not make it into line before your time slot expires.  Not to mention, that even if everything runs smoothly here, this ride still takes at least 30 minutes to get through the fp line and attraction.  Once I did finish this attraction, we switched places and Patrick rode Flight of Passage, attraction #10.  While I was on the ride, Patrick got Littlecjc to take some adorable surprise pictures for me.

While Patrick was on the ride, Littlecjc played at the drum circle area.

3:00

I don't have any photo proof, but I'm pretty sure when we left Pandora we took in It's Tough to be a Bug, attraction #11.  I always worry about this attraction as it can be too dark and scary for kids, but Littlecjc has never had a problem here.  

At some point after using our fp at Flight of Passage, we were able to score new fp for the River of Lights show.  Since the park seemed a little crowded today, we thought that seemed like a good idea.  The seating in this arena is very limited for standby guests and we've always had the dinner package before so we thought we should hang on to those fps.  We were excited to find these, but that meant that we weren't able to pick up a fp for anything else.  So, we decided to go wait in the standby line for the 4:00 Finding Nemo show.

4:00

We made it inside the theater and scored seats for Finding Nemo: The Musical, attraction #12.  I actually thought Littlecjc might fall asleep here, but she was really into the show.  We highly recommend this show and it makes me so happy when I hear my little girl singing "In the Big Blue World."  When the show ended, we decided we needed to retake some pictures.  We stopped at the tree first since Littlecjc wasn't really looking at the camera in our first set of pictures.

This worked out well for us because we also got this magic shot...

...and got to use this frame.

5:00

We also went back to Pandora to retake our pictures there.  Although we loved Littlecjc's surprise pictures, we didn't like our family shots thanks to one particular lady in the background who chose the wrong moment to bend over a stroller.  The photographer was in a different area this time, but that still worked for us.

5:00

I don't remember what we did during this hour.  This is the other possible time that we could have watched It's Tough to be a Bug, but otherwise, I can't come up with anything that we're missing from the day, so I'm not really sure.  Regardless, we eventually made it over to the concession stand next to the River of Lights entrance.  We stocked up on some snacks for dinner and entered the seating area.

6:00

We got great seats since we were a little early and we were able to eat our snacks.  By 6:15 a few performers were roaming the stands keeping us entertained.

The show then started at 6:30.  I think I enjoy this show more with each viewing.  It really is beautiful, and I think these may have been the best seats we've ever had here.

7:00

When the show ended, we decided to head back to Pandora.  We didn't do anything special here, but we enjoyed taking in all the special lighting effects.  This was the first time we were able to explore Pandora at night.  Nothing showed up well in our photos, but it was fun and a relaxing way to end the evening.  As we were heading out, we stopped to watch the tree come alive.

We also stopped outside the ticket booths to take pictures with the large Christmas tree here.

This tree really was beautiful and it was a great way to end our fun day.