We spent our final day at Walt Disney World at Animal Kingdom. This park did not exist when I visited as a child, so it was the first time for all of us.
Our FastPass schedule was as follows:
- 9:40-10:40: Avatar Flight of Passage
- 11:10-12:10: Kilimanjaro Safaris
- 12:30-1:30: Expedition Everest
I had heard about the crazy crowds due to the popularity of the Pandora rides, so we made sure to arrive early at the park. I guess a lot of other people had the same idea!
At rope drop, we headed straight for Na’vi River Journey, since we did not have a FastPass for that ride. (You cannot pre-reserve a FastPass for both Avatar rides). We followed the herd, but it turned out that about 95% of the visitors were headed straight for the Flight of Passage ride. If you are going to Na’vi River Journey, just stay to the left so you do not get trampled! Na’vi River Journey had amazing detail and really felt like we were in the middle of Pandora. We had the kids watch Avatar before we left just so they would have some context. (I had forgotten about some inappropriate parts. It is PG-13, after all!)
Next we went on the Klimanjaro Safari ride, before our FastPass time. We needed to kill some time before our Flight of Passage FastPass.
My phone pictures are not the best, but it was quite amazing for us to ride so close to the animals!
Then it was time to use our Avatar Flight of Passage FastPass. We had high expectations for this ride, and it lived up to the hype! It really felt like we were flying through Pandora.
Even though it was not in my original plan, we went on Kali River Rapids. I put my poncho on, but we did not end up getting too wet. On our raft, another father and son did get pretty soaked, so beware.
We ate lunch at the counter-service Yak & Yeti restaurant.
We ordered the Sesame Chicken, Teriyaki Beef and Chicken Salad and a side order of Chicken Fried Rice. It was a little better than the Chinese food at Epcot since the dishes included vegetables.
After lunch we rode Expedition Everest, which is a really fun roller coaster. We ended up riding it three times that day!
It started heating up in the afternoon and we really felt it while trying to walk through the Maharaja Jungle Trek. We took refuge in the Tree of Life to see It’s Tough to Be a Bug. We had been planning to skip this one since we have seen it at California Adventure, but we needed the AC!
Those clouds are deceiving. It was really hot that day!
We wanted to watch the Up! A Great Bird Adventure show, but we had to watch a modified version since they were experiencing technical difficulties.
We were able to relax in an indoor setting by watching Festival of the Lion King and Finding Nemo The Musical, both of which were excellent.
For dinner, we ate at Flame Tree Barbecue. We ordered Ribs, Chicken Salad, Onion Rings, and a Chicken Dinner.
This ended up being our favorite meal at the parks! It is nice that the eating area is covered, since it was raining. At least the rain brought cooler temperatures, which was a relief.
After dinner we visited the Dinosaur Land, which did not really seem to fit in with the rest of the park. I would not be surprised if they eventually end up replacing this land with something else.
We rode Triceratop Spin and the Dinosaur ride. The Dinosaur ride may be frightening for younger kids (just look at the kids in the front row!) We also rode Expedition Everest one last time!
We found seats at the amphitheater to watch the Rivers of Light show. I liked this one because it was scaled for the amphitheater, unlike at Epcot. Also, I did not have anything to compare it to, like Fantasmic. It was a wonderful way to end our stay!