I'm finally posting this second recap of our Disney World trip! We went to Animal Kingdom on Wednesday, after taking a "rest" day on Tuesday. I put that in quotation marks because I really did want to rest for most of the day (since like I said, we walked a lot at Epcot), but we ended up visiting Disney Springs and also walking a ton... But still, I am glad we took a break between parks.
This was my first time at Animal Kingdom, and it was the park I was most looking forward to visit. And it absolutely surpassed my expectations. Animal Kingdom quickly became my favorite park. As soon as we walked in, we were immersed into what felt like a different world. The trees and amazing vegetation all around us, the sounds of birds and animals (some real, some fake, but very convincing), and even the humidity all contributed to making you feel like you were truly in Africa, or Asia, or even Pandora.
Posing in front of the Tree of Life. The tree was actually handmade and has the most incredible details if you look closely.
Speaking of Pandora, this was where we began our day. We arrived at the park right as it opened and headed straight to the Na'vi River Journey. The way FastPass works in AK is that you can select either one of the two rides for one FastPass, and then select any other two rides from the rest of the available list. I managed to get us FastPasses for Flight of Passage (this is the top ride in AK and hard to get a FastPass for, so I was so relieved that I did since the wait can be over 2 hours), so we headed straight to Na'vi River Journey to beat the crowds. I think our wait was like 15 minutes, definitely the shortest wait that ride had all day.
The ride was lovely, but very calm and slow, and definitely not comparable to Flight of Passage. Afterwards, we headed to the center of the park to meet Pocahontas and Mickey and Minnie (this is actually the only park where you can get a pic with both of them together!), and later to our Kali River Rapids FastPass, which was fun and worth getting soeaked in water. We then ate lunch at Flame Tree Barbecue, which was delicious. I don't think I'll ever forget the live performances in this part of AK, which were so lively and fun. At one point the rain started pouring down and people were out dancing in the middle of it, which somehow made everything feel even more magical and exciting.
Back in the Asia area, my sisters rode Everest Expedition like a hundred times... I only rode it once because I'm not a huge roller coaster person (although I actually liked this one), but if you are, you should definitely FastPass this one. We didn't get FastPasses for this ride, but at the time we went, the line wasn't too bad. You can also do the Single Rider Line, which has a super short wait throughout the day, or come back in the park's final hour, when lines are much shorter.
The rest of the day we walked through some of the animal trails, explored the little shops and walked through the area of Africa (which was probably my favorite area of the whole park), and caught a showing of The Lion King (worth it, and the wait is usually not bad if you just plan when to get there according to the show schedule).
Disney's details in all of AK is incredible, like the way they created this wall to make it look ancient. I also noticed rocks with painted moss on them, that if you didn't know better, looked 100% real.
Around 4pm we had our FastPasses for Flight of Passage, so back to Pandora we went. I'll just say this about that ride: it's without a doubt the most impressive one of all the parks I went to. So worth getting the FastPass. It would even be worth it to wait in that 2-3 hour line, because that's how awesome of an experience it is.
By around 7pm, we had our FastPass for the Kilimanjaro Safaris... and of course, it started pouring right when we got on the truck... I got completely drenched, and it took me awhile before I could even concentrate enough to look out for the animals. But eventually the rain calmed down a little and we did get to see some giraffes and zebras, and even a cheetah. Definitely our most random experience of the day, but the rain did make it feel like we were out in a real safari.
loved all the little details of the Africa section.
Since at this point of the day we'd finished all our FastPasses, I started booking some more on the Disney Experience app. I booked a couple for my sisters to get on Expedition Everest again (they actually rode this ride four times), and then randomly decided to book us FastPasses for Rivers of Light. I got really lucky here, because the truth is I had no idea how this show worked. I didn't know that there is very limited seating to watch this, or where the entrances were. I just had an open FastPass and the show was about an hour away, so I decided to book it on a whim. Like I said, I got lucky, because booking a FastPass guarantees you the best seat in the house - and guarantees that you'll actually have a seat, since there aren't enough seats for all the park visitors. Rivers of Light actually ended up being my favorite night show from all of the parks. It's not a fireworks show, it's an incredible water and light show that I found so moving and lovely.
That was it for our day at Animal Kingdom. This park truly had everything I loved - the nature, the animals, the beautiful travel inspired areas, and Pocahontas, my favorite Disney princess. :) Because it was less crowded than MK, I felt like our day was also much more relaxed than the other parts. We saw pretty much everything in the park (except Dinoland, because that did seem like it was more meant for kids), and didn't really feel rushed at all. If I had to go back to WDW during peak season again, I'd definitely choose to go to Animal Kingdom.
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