I usually get tired of eating on the meal plan. I seem to eat less now since getting chemo. At DLR, I ordered kids meals on more that one occasion. We ate dinner in the lounge at the Disney California Hotel and had another meal at Trader Sam’s . When we ate at a restaurant on our first night, I wasn’t able to finish and I ordeed a smaller meal or an appetizer.
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It’s a lot of food and DH and I were remarking that in the last couple of years we can’t eat as much as we used to, either. Just tonight, in fact, we went out “to dinner” and each got an app to ourselves and a third to share. It was more than enough food
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I lost my taste buds during chemo. I didn’t eat a lot before and eat less now. At Flo’s I got a kids meal. Roast beef on a roll, baby carrots and grapes. Was the right size. I think they had better choices for kids in California. I don’t do many breaded foods. Chicken fingers seems to be a standard.
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That’s a bummer 
I’m sorry to hear that.
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It’s a poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox called Worth While
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It just drove us both crazy that we couldn’t read it nor get a photo that was clear enough!
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thanks for the report I always want to do one but seems to take so long! appreciate your dedication.
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They do take a long time but I love mine as a reminder of the trip - I’d forget the details otherwise.
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We go in June and I can’t wait to write my trip report 
hoping it will help with the post-trip blues
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Totally this.
And writing it is a way to stay “in the magic” a little while longer. I mean, here I am three weeks home and I’m only done one WDW park touring day 
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Yes it definitely helps with re-entry.
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If you don’t tell them, they won’t come! Mwahaha!
Loving your trip report, btw!
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Tuesday April 25th: Animal Kingdom
One of our favorite meals at Disney World is breakfast at Tusker House. Billed as “Donald’s Safari Breakfast”, it is not only a delicious start to a day at Animal Kingdom but a character meal as well. When we first started vacationing at Disney World, we booked a lot of character meals as a way to kill two birds with one stone – enjoy a great table service dinner and meet some of the most in-demand characters without waiting in insanely long lines. Tusker House was one of the first of those character meals, and we have made it a point to go back every trip since.
We always book Tusker for a “pre-rope drop” breakfast. There is something really fantastic about being behind the rope before very many other people and it gets you a jump on getting in line for some of the more popular rides before the masses. An unobstructed photo of that Tree is just the icing on the cake.
On this occasion, we had booked the meal as a Rivers Of Light dining package. More on that soon. Our reservation was for 0810, but we arrived at the tapstiles 0745 knowing we would be able to check in earlier. We arrived at the restaurant, which is toward the back of the park, at 0758. By 0811 we were seated and I was enjoying my first glass of jungle juice:
Upon greeting us, our server also presented us with our tickets for preferred seating for the evening’s showing of Rivers of Light, Animal Kingdom’s new nighttime entertainment, and a refillable light-up lotus blossom popcorn bucket. These items were part of the dining package which allows guests to obtain seating for the show without using a FPP or trying to get in through the stand-by line. For guests paying out of pocket the package comes with a small upcharge, but, as we were on the dining plan, it cost us nothing more than the 1 table service credit we would have been spending that morning anyway. Fantastic value!
This meal is a buffet, so once your server has settled you in and oriented you, it’s time to dig in! The only thing to be mindful of is where the characters are in visiting tables. We had the first table they stopped at in the room we were in, so it was a little bit tricky. Once the start coming, they all come pretty much one after the other so we knew we had time to fill our plates at least once before we would need to stay put a while. As always, everything was delicious! One thing I really like about this buffet is that it has many more common breakfast foods – including, of course, mickey waffles! – while also incorporating some slightly more adventurous items that give a nod to traditional African food as well, such as beef bobotie, plantains, and mealie pap. And as an all-you-care-to-enjoy experience, you will never leave hungry!
Typically our character experiences at TH have been some of the best we have been lucky enough to enjoy at WDW. On this particular day, however, the interactions were quite rushed with a quick autograph and photo and no “conversation”. If this had been our first visit, I’m not sure I’d have returned particularly if character interaction was the main goal. It felt more of an afterthought than part of the whole package. Still, we did get a few great pictures!
We finished up after about 45 minutes and decided we wanted to rent a locker for the day to keep the popcorn bucket and a few other things we didn’t feel like carrying all day. We enjoyed being the only people walking on the path back toward the entrance. It was a lovely morning already and the quiet of the empty park was (cliché I know) magical. There was literally not a soul around us.
And then we rounded the bend…
and found all the people! We weren’t aware that they often let people in past the tapstiles and onto Discovery Island, holding them at a rope there until the park opens. How would we? We’ve always been in the park before rope drop! So we grabbed a seat on the patio outside of Pizzafari to wait.
When the park opened, we waited a few minutes more until the most part of the mob passed us by. We were like salmon swimming upstream trying to get back to the entrance at that point but that popcorn bucket would have driven me insane all day so it was worth it. We rented a locker, stuffed a few things inside, and were on our way. We had a FP for the Safari so there was no pressure to rush. This turned out to be the theme of the day – no pressure to rush. It was, honestly, a new theme for this trip and it was lovely!
The safari was beautiful as always, and we saw a ton of animals at that early-ish hour with the weather being fairly mild by Florida standards. We had a really phenomenal safari vehicle driver too who kept us in stitches the entire ride. At one point there was a truck up ahead of us who he could tell had a trainee driving. “Trainees FREAK me out!” he said. He told us if we ever see someone with a tag that says, “Earning my ears!” don’t trust a thing they say because they don’t know what they’re doing! LOL! He also had a lot of great information on the animals and really demonstrated a genuine passion for his job.
We meandered along the Gorilla Falls Trail (I still think of it as the Pangani Trail) and really took our time. We had a reservation for a backstage tour at 1100 and we had plenty of time to kill until then. If we had wanted to, we could even have laid down for a nap, like this guy:
We took the time to have some photos taken by a photopass photographer along the trail, too. This is one of my favorite shots of my kids from this whole trip:
And we got a great family shot too:
We spent some time perusing the shops outside of the Safari and the Gorilla Falls trail while we waited for our tour time to arrive. We had reserved spots on the new Caring For Giants tour and it left from this area. We checked in at 1045 as instructed and at 1100 we got started!
For the first part of the tour, our group of 12 walked back behind the building where the Kusafiri Coffee Shop and Bakery and Tusker House are located. Taking photos on this part of the tour was prohibited, so I have nothing to share with you. But I was so struck by how all of a sudden we weren’t in Disney any more as soon as we went behind that fence! If you’ve been on a backstage tour before you probably know what I mean, but if you haven’t just trust me – it’s mindblowing! We walked to a little shuttle bus and our driver took us over past the elephant barns to the area where we would get up close with them.
I met another Legacy Cast member here, which was an exciting way to start the tour:
Dan was an engaging tour guide and we learned a lot from him about how the elephants are cared for and what their usual routines are. We got to see two young elephants interact with their mothers, and I learned that I’m much more like the mother who likes her baby to be independent and not hanging all over her – than I am like the other who is still nursing her baby who is now 3 years old. We got to see that too!
Luke got to hold elephant poop
And we all touched hair from an elephant’s tail which feels like wire more than hair!
We heard all about conservation efforts geared at protecting elephants, and we spent a good bit of time just observing them, pretty up close and personal.
When the tour ended we returned by shuttle to the backstage area and were escorted back into Africa. On the way, we could see the floating mountains of Pandora, and the Cast Member pointed out that the one mountain looked like a Mickey head. I can’t wait to see if we can see it from another vantage point when we go back again! The tour lasted precisely one hour, and for $39 per person we were very happy with it. We would definitely recommend it for those looking for a little added something special or a new but affordable experience.
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Another great instalment! Your pics from the trails are lovely, I wish we’d seen a photographer there! The tour sounds fab too.
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Thanks for another installment…and more great photos…
TH Rivers of Light package sounds like the way to go…
Looking forward to more…
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Thanks for this report, @OBNurseNH. Your raves and now these pics make me so glad we booked a Caring for Giants tour in October!
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I might think to do that Caring for Giants tour on a another trip.
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OH how I have missed jungle juice!! Thank you for your reports!! The pictures are amazing…and I can’t believe the line to see that darn crane!!
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Another fantastic instalment! Great photos of your beautiful family! 
Can’t wait to read more!
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