(Han) Solo Trip Day 2

Day 2 - Animal kingdom and Wild Africa Trek

 I was up bright and early for the Wild Africa Trek at Animal Kingdom  I got the first bus to AK at 7am and the queues to get in for Pandora we’re already massive!

With the crowds waiting to get in and gate staff contradicting each other it was a bit confusing on where our group was meant to wait and whether or not we had to join the massive crowd to get in. If your Trek is before park opening you need to wait near the guest relations window and someone will eventually collect you. They were running a bit late today so it caused confusion.

Highly recommend the Wild Africa Trek - lots of fun, the guides could answer any question, and they take loads of photos as you go around in your sexy safety harness

 You get geared up with a mic and water bottle before taking a stroll through the animal areas. In key areas you meet an expert for that animal and you use your harness to attach to safety ropes so you can go down into the enclosures to get a closer look. 

We went into the hippo and crocodile areas to learn more and crossed a rope bridge above the crocodile pit.

 You get a private safari tour which stops in key places and allows you to stand up and use binoculars for a closer look. You also get snacks included overlooking the savannah - a selection of fruit, yoghurt, bread, cheese and meats!

The rain just started as the Trek ended so we all given free ponchos - score!

I didn’t want to get too full as I wanted to walk around all the animal trails to take photos so I used the app to pre-order pulled pork and cheese topped fries from Flame tree bbq (1xsnack credit) and grabbed some fruit later. Lesson learnt today, be very clear when you don’t want to use your snack credits as some servers automatically take them. This happened with the fruit - not a good use of two snack credits! So I waited and asked for a manager to reverse it and they gave me the fruit for free for my wait.

I used a snack credit on a giant Starbucks and added caramel shots (why not, it’s all included) This should have cost $7. You can also get free water and cups to the right hand side of the counter in Starbucks without asking.

I went to Pandora for the first time today - wow! It’s amazing! I had a fp for Flight of passage, it really is like Soarin on steroids but I definitely wouldn’t queue for it! As a single rider they also put you in a separate line to fill up odd numbers in the groups so you get on even quicker!

Other fp today was the Safari for even more animals and Everest!

 The rest of day has been photo walks around the trails and looking around Pandora. I had the cheeseburger pods and a beer which were really nice and more filling than they looked.

As the weather looks a bit unpredictable for the rest of my holiday I decided to go for it and checked the MDE app for any fast passes once I’d used my last one on Everest. MK had buzz light year (which I don’t have a fp for during my stay) so after a few Pandora beers I headed to MK which was open until midnight. Turns out beer dramatically improves my aim on Buzz 

I stayed for the fireworks, I absolutely love all fireworks but Disney are always the most amazing! To avoid the mass exit and to see if the park quietened down I went for a walk around and grabbed a giant ice cream cookie sandwich from Sleepy Hollow and watched the follow up projection show on the castle. 

As it was Saturday night the wait times were still crazy for all the rides, so I got the bus back to AoA. By this time the queues for the buses were all reasonable and I got on the first one that arrived. Someone in the queue mentioned that they also hop on the pop century bus if that looks quieter and they just walk across the bridge to AoA.

I had a lovely lie in this morning. I’m looking forward to days where I don’t get up earlier than I do for work on a normal day!  Today is a bit of a rest day and probably Hollywood studios tonight for Star Wars fireworks - pew pew pew!