Alright~ This was a much shorter day, so in theory the trip report should be shorter too, right? Jeez, I can’t believe how time consuming the last 2 were. You’re probably thinking they were time consuming to read, too!
We originally had FPP for EE starting at 10:10am, then FOP at 11:15am and then the Kili Safari at 12:15pm. As the MNSSHP got later and later, we decided to go ahead and bump the EE to 2ish–after our lunch at Yak & Yeti. We were able to do so easily. So, the plan was to leave the resort around 11am the next day. I knew that Sanaa stopped serving their quick service breakfast at 10am, so it was my plan to get up around 9, leave for Sanaa about 9:40, and be back to the room about 10, with an hour to eat and finish getting ready. Uh huh. I woke up a little late, and was slow to get going. All the sudden I looked at the clock and it was 8:45. WTW!! (or as my brother would say…“what the what???” I was able to convince my hubby to walk with me to the restaurant because I knew I’d need help carrying food for 9 people back to the room.
We walked/jogged/walked down to the 2nd floor, past a million guest rooms and the lobby, and finally got to the restaurant. We literally placed the order at 9:59am. The CM that took the order told me that the kitchen was going to “freak out.” Okay. So by 9:25 we had the food. We started walking back to the room, but like idiots, we thought we’d just go ahead and take the elevator near the restaurant to the 4th floor, which is the floor we were staying on. Silly, silly rabbits. Turns out we were turned around. Also, there is a north and south wing of Kidani village. We were staying on the north wing, and the restaurant elevator was on the south wing. The only indoor connection between the 2 wings is the lobby. Course we didn’t figure that out until we had walked like 5 min in the wrong direction. So we took a random elevator back to the lobby, walked past another million guest rooms, and then got to an elevator that would take us to the NORTH 4th floor. At that point we walked past literally (I counted) 54 guest rooms to ours. Sigh. It was a very long expedition to get breakfast. Seriously 3000 steps. We didn’t get back to our room until about 10:50. When we returned my sister-in-law told me that she thought she had misunderstood the plan, and that my husband and I were just eating breakfast at the restaurant. Oye.
This is NOT the way to make this day of the trip report shorter.
Okay, so we had breakfast, and finished getting ready. And then my brother kinda shrugged his shoulders at 11:20 and said there was no way we were going to make the FOP window. WTW?? Are you kidding me??? Does he KNOW how hard I worked for those fast passes 2 months ago? We AAARRREEEE going to make that window. Luckily Kidani is super close to AK. We got into the park and into Pandora with enough time left in our FPP window to stop for a MM photo under the floating mountains. Whew.
FOP was awesome again. My brother said he enjoyed it in a whole different way than the first time he rode on Sunday…when he was seated next to Mom…waiting to catch her as she fell of her Banshee. haha. Just for clarification, she didn’t fall…he was just trying to be prepared if she did. Oh, and BTW, has anyone else had trouble with the backrest not disengaging after the ride? My husband and dad both had the issue on Sunday when we rode. Everyone else was up and collecting their gear, and they were still stuck on their banshees. It was easy to release them…I just pushed the backrest closer to them and then pulled a little and it released. Still…weird.
I was a little surprised that Mom and Dad slept in past us this day. They had retired way before us the night before, and we even had a late start that day. Anyway, the plan was for KS at noon, thinking that they would be with us. We thought it was a ride they would both enjoy. They texted just after we got off of FOP, and said they were just getting up, and that they would meet us after lunch. I tried to modify the KS FPP for later in the day, but there were no FPP available, even when I broke us up into smaller groups. We saw on the Lines app that KRR had a short wait, so we agreed that my bro would go to KS and work his magic with the CM, to see if we could get a FPP for later in the day while the rest of us went to KRR. We met at KRR and he had been successful! As usual!! He’s a wizard with that kind of thing. He got the paper FPP, the kind with no expiration time.
We jumped in line for KRR at 12:30, and it said it was a 15 min wait. Unfortunately, at 12:55 we were still in line. I had a ADR’s at Yak & Yeti for 5 people at 1pm and 6 people at 1:25. I tried to call Y&Y to let them know we were going to be late, but of course I just got the regular disney dining line. I had to hold for a few minutes, but I let them know what was happening and the CM said it wasn’t a problem. She could see that we would be late for the 20 min grace on the 1pm reservation, but that the restaurant would be super accommodating if we just let them know we were stuck in a line. We rode the ride and when straight to the restaurant. She was right…they were amazing. They didn’t have a table available that would seat us all, and I had to tell them that we originally had 11 people, but that it turned out we had 9. They put us at 2 tables very close to each other. We put the 4 kids at one table (don’t judge…the youngest is 8, and they are all very well behaved. In fact, just the day before, at skipper canteen, a man at an adjacent table complimented me on how well behaved the kids are!) and the 5 adults right next to them. The waiter was awesome and as we were placing our drink orders my dad called and said they were in the park. Wow. So…we let the waiter know, and he was so sweet to roll with it and bring another chair. Let me say that it’s likely that this was my favorite dining experience. I’ve eaten here before and it was fine…nothing to write home about…but this time it was awesome. My only complaint is the paper straws. (Ugh…don’t get me started. I know, I know…sea turtles…yada yada yada.) The server was amazing, and the food was really, really great. LOVED this place. And just to be fair, the other time I ate here I was sick, but I didn’t quite know it yet, and I think that played a role in my experience.
Just for timing information, I think we arrived at the restaurant about 1:30, we were seated and had drink orders in by about 1:50. I think we placed food orders about 2pm, but the food didn’t come out until about 2:20. So it was close to 3pm before we left here.
After lunch we went to the Safari…thinking we needed to digest a bit before EE. The Safari was AMAZING! Our driver was fun and informative, and there were tons of animals out. I wasn’t expecting this because it was mid afternoon, but we were all pleasantly surprised. We saw a baby monkey, a baby giraffe and a baby elephant. And lots of other animals as well. Even the lion was out sunning on his rock.
And then we went to EE. We didn’t need to use rider swap this time because almost half of us didn’t want to ride. So the other half used the non-riders’ magicbands to ride a second time. And then we headed to Dinosaur by way of PW. The line for PW was super fast. Dinosaur, unfortunately, was broken, and they had no idea when it would be up again (the CM said it was possible it would reopen after a bit, but it was more likely it was down for the day). So we headed across the park to the Bug’s Life show. It was cute…a little scarier than I remembered. We kept an eye open for Dinosaur, but alas, no luck. It was about 5pm by now, and the group was ready to call it a day.
We have an interesting debate about the shows in our family. There are some that think that Disney parks are all about the rides, and the other things they put into the parks are there to try and divert people from the rides. The rides are the only things that matter, and “they” are just trying to keep people away from them. So shows, shopping, characters, restaurants…it’s all a conspiracy to keep people from the important things…the rides. And then there are others of the family who LOVE the shows, but since we are pushing too hard, running from ride to ride, rope dropping every morning, etc, cannot help but nap through the shows. I’ll admit, I’m in the second group. I LOVE the shows. Frozen sing along at HS is so fun!! The narrators are hilarious and I love the music. I love the effects in the Little Mermaid show, and the actors are so good. And the Beauty and the Beast show is seriously Broadway quality. I’ve heard Philhar-nap-ic is amazing, but honestly, it’s so comfortable and dark in there that I’ve never actually seen the whole show. I’ve even been known to catch a little nap in Small World. I loved The Festival of the Lion King several months ago…and I tried so hard to stay awake because it was so good, but it was just so still and dark and off-my-feet (in retrospect…that WAS the day that I was sick but didn’t know it yet). I wanted to see the Nemo show this trip, because I’ve heard it’s so good, but we didn’t make it there. Those of our group that are in the “everything-other-than-the rides-is-a-conspiracy group” usually win out. However, some progress is being made with the explanation that different people like different things, and that is one reason that Disney parks are so successful…they cater to a lot of different preferences. But it’s a work in progress.
So, after Bug’s Life we did a little end of the day shopping. My brother and his wife had told the kids at the beginning of the week that they could each chose one souvenir. The kids were so sweet and deliberate with their choices. The 10 year old had the hardest time pulling the trigger. He was afraid to chose anything because what if he saw something better at the next park. But at this point we knew he had seen everything besides Epcot, and we knew that he really loved FOP and the banshees they were selling in the gift shop. So he and my brother went back to Pandora to buy it while the rest of us did some looking around in the main gift shop near the tree of life.
We had an ADR for Sanaa that night…I had heard the bread service was to die for. But because our lunch ended up being soooo late, no one was hungry, so I ended up doing the bump-and-dump trick. I’ve heard it mostly called the bump-and-run, but honestly bump-and-dump is so much more accurate.
We took the guys back to the resort, and then the girls (minus Mom) decided to go to Disney Springs. I had heard a ton about Amorette’s, and I really wanted to see it for myself. We found it, and the desserts inside were just so gorgeous. We bought some to secretly share before we went back to the resort, and also bought some to share with the guys. We sat down outside to eat our secret treats. I had my back to Amorette’s, and my 25 year old niece, Marissa, had her back to the walk-way. At first when we sat down we saw this tree-man walking backstage. Have you seen him? I think he’s usually at AK. I should’ve taken a pic, but it happened too fast. He’s obviously on stilts, and he has stilts in his hands too…so he looks like a 4 legged-creature, COVERED in leaves, with no head and no human features. Anyway…several minutes later, when we were almost done with our treats, I saw him emerge from backstage. None of the other girls in my party saw him. Like I said, he’s completely covered in leaves, but somehow I knew I made eye contact with him, and he started heading towards us. My brain was saying “warn Marissa! Warn Marissa!!!” But all my mouth would say was “creepy! creepy! creepy!!” Of course she had no idea what I was talking about, but my eyes were locked on him and she looked at me, and then looked to see what I was looking at, only to see him just inches from her. It gave her a start, but she’s such a good sport. We had a good laugh about it for a long time.
Oh, and another interesting tidbit. At the beginning of the week we told the kids that they could have one snack each day. The kids were also very deliberate and sweet with that choice. I realize that the DDP entitles us to 2 snacks a day, but my brother had an interesting experience with it a few years ago. He and his family had gone to WDW for a week with my parents. This was when my mom was still herself. Mom and Dad would often sit out of the rides, and wait for the people to ride them (usually with one or two of the little kids). While they were waiting my dad would often go to a cart or a nearby store and get a round of diet cokes for everyone. How sweet of him to have a cold soda waiting when they exited the ride! A couple of days into the trip my brother tried to buy a snack and was told that he was all out of snack credits. He went to guest services to sort it out. The CM told him that he had started with 50 snack credits, and it looks like they had been used on 49 Diet Cokes and 1 churro. lol. Yeah. Hilarious. So, I think this explains my brother’s rationale for the 1-snack-a-day rule. I had also heard the story about the Diet Coke, so I always purchased them with a gift card. You’ll hear more about this snack credit thing in the next couple of posts.