Day 9, August 11

An A for effort - Part 3

So once we could not eat one more bite, we just asked for the bill, paid for our meal and walked back to our room.

We did not have much time to spare as we needed to go to the Animal Kingdom to use up our FastPasses. So after we had changed into park gear we headed down to the car and drove the short way over to the Animal Kingdom where we were directed to the parking pretty close to the entrance and where we did not need to board a tram and could just walk to the security check. Not many people arrived at that time, so bag check was a breeze and soon we were inside the park heading towards our first FastPass.

We soon got close to Expedition Everest

and could see that there were quite a lot of people around, but surprisingly after we had scanned our Magicbands and walked through the line we could see that there were not too many people in the standby-line. We asked for front row and got in line after another couple and were actually seated within minutes. The ride was fast and even more fun at night

and when we returned, we just looked at each other and were on our way to check out how long it would take to ride again in the standby line. It said 20 minutes and we were willing to give it a go. Well, the 20 minutes turned out to be a walk-on.

Again we rode in the front row and loved it. When we got off we wanted to try if we could ride again and yes, again it was a walk on.

This time we decided that we would just ride in any given row and were seated towards the very back of the train. And once that ride was over we just joined the rest of the people who had been on the ride with us and walked right on a fourth time.

This time we wanted front row again

and had to wait for the third train out, as there were two groups ahead of us, but we did not mind, there was plenty of time to make it to the next FastPass, even with waiting for front row. And after those four rides on Expedition Everest it had gotten completely dark and we walked over to Kilimanjaro Safaris to ride it at night. I had read that it was something you had to experience and so I had tried to get a FastPass for later that day.

We were surprised that even though we had been able to ride Expedition Everest with no wait time at all, there was quite a line for the Safari. Thank goodness we were in the fast lane. Soon we were told which row to get in and we found out that they filled those rows well. There were five adults in our row. Soon we went onto our adventure, but I have to add that I prefer a safari in the day time. While some of the areas were nicely lit, it was hard to make out some of the animals.

They changed the route during nighttime and it was a nice experience, but we had no desire to do it again at night, once we got off. And by then we needed to head back to Asia as we still held one more FastPass. A FastPass for �The Jungle Book � alive with magic�.

We thought that if we would get there shortly before they opened the doors it would be perfect. So we arrived around 15 minutes early and were directed towards a really long line. Our FastPasses were scanned twice once they let us all in and we found seats halfway up the stairs, towards the end of a row. We sat there waiting for the show to begin and were pleased to see that they had Photopass photographers taking photos of guests holding a Jungle book sign. Needless to say, we needed one too.

We had sat there for about half an hour before the show started and again, while it was really nice, it was nothing we wanted to repeat.

There was lots of dancing and kind of �Bollywood Music� and we decided to give them an �a� for effort, but that was it.

We were happy to be able to say that we had seen it, but we would not be sad to see it go. Once the show was over we were swept out of the theatre with the rest of the guests and went towards the exit.

We walked to our car, joined the masses who left the Animal Kingdom right now and drove back to Kidani. When we got to our parking area we found out that all the spots were taken and it took us a while to find one. And while it was not too far away, I would not have liked to walk around the parking area on my own at night.

We soon were back in our room and packed up the rest of our stuff before we fell into bed.