Animal Kingdom 2018 (Weekly Wrap-up Edition)

This week we had quarterly planning at work.  Suffice it to say, I was a wee bit busy with it.   I had this mostly written so I will be posting this instead of a weekly update.

After the Princess 5k we showered, changed, and headed to Animal Kingdom.

In case you missed previous posts from the Princess Half Marathon Weekend:

• Expo
• 5k

We got to the park close to 8:30 AM and we headed strait to the Avatar Flight of Passage.  We couldn't get a FastPass for that one so we wanted to see how long the Stand-by line was.  The line was way back to the front of the Avatar area and we were told the wait was 3 hours.  No way were we going to stand in that line, especially since we had other FastPasses.


We decided to head to Everest and ride that Stand-by.  I love this ride!  There was a little boy behind us that was so scared to ride.  Once it was over he was so excited and loved it.  Couldn't wait to go again.  Me too!


We went back to Pandora for our FastPass on Na'vi River Journey.  That is such a pretty ride.  Reminds me a little of Pirates of the Caribbean except this had no Pirates.


We headed to Dinoland and road the Primeval Whirl.  I had never ridden it, but it reminds me of the Mouse Trap ride that would come to the State Fair.  It was OK, a bit jerky.  It's one of Candace's favorite rides, though.

Candace's family had just finished breakfast and was heading to Animal Kingdom, so we headed to the front gates to meet them.  She has 3 boys and a girl all teenagers.  All very nice and well behaved.  One of her sons is on the Autism spectrum and so we all got our bands linked so that we could use the disability FastPasses.  This meant we could have as many FastPasses as we wanted, but we could only use one at a time.  We had to go to a ride and have them link our bands to the ride.  We were given a time to come back at, which was the length of the Stand-by line.  So basically it was a virtual line place holder. We went strait to Avatar Flight of Passage.  Since the stand-by line was 3 hours, we could come back at 1:45 PM to close.

We had a reservation for the 7 of us at Rainforest Cafe at 11:45.  Since her family had just finished breakfast, they didn't want lunch.  I called to try and cancel the reservation and they said that since it was less than 24 hours that we would have to pay $10 per person.  No way was I going to pay $70 for a cancellation.  I asked to talk to a manager.  I would have even gone by myself and had a drink not to pay that fee.  We ended up changing it to 2 people instead of 7 and were not charged for the ones not going.

Candace and I dropped the family off at the Festival of the Lion King show and went to our Kilmanjaro Safari FastPass.  I love the Safari and all the beautiful animals.

Tree only has leaves months of the year.


We had to now book it down to the Rainforest Cafe.  I swear I felt like we walked from one side of the park to the other all day long.  Lunch was good.  I ended up with a Cobb Salad and we split an order of fries.  And I needed a drink, so I had Moscow Mule, yum!


After lunch we headed back to Pandora to meet up with her family.  It was getting close to our FastPass time for Avatar Flight of Passage.  When it was time, we headed to the FastPass line.  It moved very quickly.  It was one of those that had you move from room to room to entertain you as you waited.  The first room had an movie type clip about what Avatar is for those who have never seen the movie.  The second room explained how we sit.  Yes, the seats are not normal looking seats and do need explaining.


Once it was our turn to head into the room, the guys went into the far sectioned off area and the girls were in the last section.  The seats kinda looked like motorcycle seats.  Once you sat down, there were pads that came around your lower legs and one behind us pushed our backs forward so that it really felt like you were on a motorcycle.  We put on our 3-D glasses and were ready for this ride.


OMG, this was the best ride ever!!

It's a 3-D ride where your seat doesn't move but a little left right up and down.  You are flying through the air and it really feels like it.  When there was a steep drop down, I felt my stomach drop, like I was really flying down that fast.  I looked over to Candace and her daughter and noticed that the guys in the next room were right there viewing the same screen we were.  And then I looked down and there were 2 rows below us that I could barely see.  The setup reminded me of Soarin' but there were floors and walls separating each section.

I have to say that was probably the most fun ride in Disney, ever.  Even better then my favorite, Soarin'.  It was so beautiful and so much fun.  Even though in the morning I said no way to a 3 hour wait, I think after experiencing it, I probably would wait.  It's just that good.

We went over to Na'vi River Journey so that the family could get their FastPass for it.  They had 2 hours till that one started.  We then headed over to our other FastPasses.  Candace and I had one for Kali River Rapids and the family had one for Everest.   Candace's daughter didn't want to ride either so she waited for us at Kali River Rapids.

I had been on the Rapids ride once before, but it really is like any rapids ride in any amusement park.  A fun slow drift where you will get wet.  It's a lot of fun to watch everyone try to avoid the splashes.  It was so hot out that it felt so good to get a little wet.


Us girls went and road Primeval Whirl.  Candace kept saying how this was one of her favorite rides.  After the second time I decided that I really wasn't a fan of it.  It really was too jerky for my liking.  The boys were just getting on the ride when we were getting off, so we waited for them.

The family had other FastPasses and rides to go on, but by this time Candace and I were ready to call it a day.  I was beyond exhausted and my quad was really hurting from the 5k and my feet hurt from being on them all day long.  I also got sunburned as while I brought suntan lotion with me on the trip, I forgot to put someone before I left the hotel and of course forgot to bring with me to the park.



It was an early night as we had a second day of early morning races that comes way too soon.

Continue reading about the weekend with the 10k.


You can also catch up on my vlogs from the Princess Half Marathon Weekend.

•  Hotel and Expo
• 5k and Animal Kingdom  
• 10k, Half Marathon, and Celebration Dinner

Have you road either of the two new Pandora rides?  Do you like Primeval Whirl?

I am linking up with Holly and Wendy for their Weekly Wrap!