We made it to the last of the 4 disney parks! And I was not sure what this day would have in store. Leaving our condo, Magan will remember the "little kid that looked old on a bicycle". We had 100% chance of rain in the forecast, so we had ponchos in the backpack ready when needed. But also this was an Animal Kingdom currently with a closed down Everest ride and a closed down Nemo the musical show. And while everyone makes fun of me for my favorite being the Nemo musical, it is one of the highlights of any visit to Animal Kingdom for me. The songs are often randomly started at our house, either by me, or by the kids making fun of me. But without these two attractions, the AK was down to only about 5 that show up with a wait time on the app.
But we were ready for rain, and ready to make a fun day out of this park. And arriving 30 minutes early, the day began wonderful, as we got the very last parking spot in a row, which is the closest to the park. YEAH! We saw it coming, and both Magan and I were saying I think we will get it...and we did. It is a rare occurrence, and therefore had to be documented below. You will notice the white stripes by our van, and the crowds of people walking down the aisle that got there before us.
With only 5 attractions, I had a good game plan to maximize our efficiency in hitting all of those with time to spare in the best area of the park...Pandora. And all worked well, we watched the poison ivy vine girl while the park opened for non-resort guests, and then we were off...heading straight to the Kilimanjaro Safari ride, clearly at the front of most non-guests. When our luck and all efficiency was destroyed by a simple "I need to make a quick stop at the bathroom". Who was this? DAVIS. Dear me boy, I wanted to shake him. Then was followed by, "Oh, we will go too while he is in there" by the girls. Did I mention that we were in the park 20 minutes early and sat in a big group a stones throw away from a bathroom...where people would typically go to avoid a "quick stop" later. So then Sam and I sat outside that bathroom, while Davis and the girls went in...then we watched 30 minutes of a line walk past us while we waited on a "quick stop". Note to my kids for your kids: SEND THEM TO THE BATHROOM UPON ENTRY, or just tell them to hold it till after the ride!
The safari ride was fun as always. Ruby asked me if I wanted her to take pictures cause she was close to the side. Of course. After the long line, we were now 1 hour into the park, and decided to head over to the Dinosaur ride. This is completely across the park, but did I mention there was not much open. But Dinosaur is fun, and the kids were excited for it...then we found it was not operating. Ugh...well, we will just send the kids to ride the Triceratops spin with Ruby, and maybe Dinosaur would be back up and going by the time the Triceratops ride was over...would you believe it, that ride was down too! I want to say that all Disney days are great, but this was was not starting off very well. Back at the Bugs Life 3D show, we were stopped as the last family...meaning that we got to be the first ones in for the next show...meaning HORRIBLE timing.
But looking back at the front end of this day, there were some moments to be treasured. I saw the first of many more seeing Sam locking arms with Anabelle walking thru the parks. I watched as those two grew a little closer, were silly together, and just had some fun being together. All 4 didn't even seem phased by the attraction issues, and HORRIBLE timing, that is just me. They just found extra time for pin trading, and watching Ruby collect Wilderness Explorer stickers, and stopping at every photopass person to get the pictures we all know Mom wants. They know dad is going to be irritated if things are perfectly "efficient" and don't complain when I get them into the Pandora line with an 80 minute wait, then pull them out 5 minutes later saying "I just don't like the feel of this". Perhaps Sam had some under the breath comments, but I had a sixth sense about the wait times (sixth sense being an iphone with predicted rain in the afternoon).
After our 5 minutes in the line for Avatar, we left to head towards Africa to watch the Lion King show. Which i know is a favorite of many of my family, but that show is really not good. But when you don't have any other attractions open, and then it is about to rain, Lion King it is. And wouldn't you know it started raining right as we were getting in line...and the line has partial covering, so we were staying under the partially covered area. One particularly cast member that I could tell I would not like from looking at her face...told us that we had to move forward if we wanted to get into the show. The show doors were closed, and the space she wanted me to move into was not covered...and did I mention NO ONE ELSE was in the line. So I told her we were going to wait under the covering. You have to move forward if you want to go into the show. Have I mentioned yet how much I really cared about this show. Ugh. So we just stayed under the covered area as I told her we are still just trying to figure out if we are going in or not. I am not aggressive or loud, but I can be very passive aggressive through quiet ignorance of random situations. So we did go into the show, but my mission was accomplished as we got some sprinkles on us, but ponchos did not have to be handed out.
And once inside that same wonderful cast member helped everyone get to their seats, and helped one family by telling them they could all fit into an area there was no way they could fit into. It was quite ridiculous, and there was really so much room. But the family then moved behind us and the lady was happy with that. Me and the dad (nice british accent) shared some words about the nice wonderful lady. Then she asked a man 2 rows up if he could get his mask up onto his face... "if you can remember where your face is" she nicely said. Maybe it was just a bad day, but like I said, she had a mean face and attitude to go with it. Oh well, now she is part of our family memories.
After Lion King we hit the flaming BBQ tree or something like that for lunch and it was delicious. Easily one of our better meals, and one of the few where I think everyone was full at the end. We then took some time shopping while the rain finally hit hard. Apparently my UP hawaian shirt made me look like an AK cast member because I had two people stop me to ask where the 50th Anniversary items were located. But I was ready for my retirement occupation, and directed them straight to where that merchandise was. But while there, the 50th Anniversary shirt that looked like a janitor shirt started calling my name again. It doesn't look too bad. But not today, I don't want that shirt anyway...
So at this point in our day, we had already hit Dinosaur, and I saw a small break in the rain...so we all gathered together, and left our shopping to make this the perfect end to a rather low day in the disney parks. We ran towards the Avatar ride as soon as the rain slowed down...we found the line empty...and started going into the line...round and round all the turns in this line, when we felt the rain about to start back up...and Sally super slow lady was right in front of us with her little poncho on taking her dear sweet time in the line. GO, GO, GO! I screamed at her inside my head. And while the shouts were only a part of my inner monologue, the 6 sets of Junkin feet pounding the line right over her shoulder seemed to finally spark her to get moving, and we made it into the covered cave area of the line right before the rain came down again. Behind Rise of the Resistance, Avatar is the best ride in the parks, and it was great again. I kept telling Ruby I wanted to know what was her favorite ride (Soarin) after she got off...and she immediately said "Avatar".
And then we had a choice of a 60 minute line for the other Pandora ride...NO...I can't wait that long for that ride. Or something all the kids have always wanted to do, but their dad would never let them....the Kali River Rapids. I have never been a fan of this ride because you get wet then you are wet for th rest of the day. But we had nothing else we wanted to do on this day. So Magan put on the poncho, Ruby was hesitant, but she joined the rest of us with NO PONCHO. And no wait for this ride, so we walked right on...thinking later for these blogs it might have been nice to have had a camera, but it was left in the locker. While there was no camera, there was a mom and dad and some kids that all had smiles from ear to ear while we were all blasted with water covering all of us soaked. And once you are soaked, you must ride again. And then a third time. And for a fourth time, we did not even have to get out of the boat as there was no line...but me, Ruby and Mom jumped out while the others hit it a fourth time. Ruby was the funniest tho, because as the rest rode a 4th time, she got to press the button and "spray people in the face". The picture at the end of the day does not show how drenched we were, but those smiles did not leave after the picture, they stayed as we kept telling stories about who got hit the worst all the way back to the condo. I think we also had an arbys and Walmart run on this early evening home, which was nice because we also got to watch the National Championship...where Georgia beat Alabama. And hahaha...back at the condo I remember Anabelle saying "Let Sam get a shower first because he is blue". Hahaha...Sam's hands and face actually turn blue when he gets cold.
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