Let’s conquer the parks again - part 1

Having had some time to relax I felt like having some fun in the parks again. 

So we had a nice leisurely breakfast in the room and then made our way over to the Animal Kingdom. We were lucky being directed to a parking spot pretty close to the tram

and soon we were in line for the ride to the entrance. 

Well, we are used to everything being organized and neat, but the fight to get on the tram was real. 

We made it on the second one out and soon after arrived at the security check and joined the lines. Check done we headed for the turnstiles and soon we were inside the park. 

We strolled to the Tree of Life, did some window shopping in the shops and then walked over to Africa for the first ride of the day, Kilimanjaro Safaris. We scanned our fast passes and soon were walking through the line and past the waiting standby line. 

There was a tiny bit of a wait before you were assigned a row, but soon enough we found ourselves in a row waiting for departure. They had a bit of a delay on the track so it took a few minutes until we were able to drive out. 

It was another fun safari with a lot of animals to be seen and a fun driver. 

When we got off we were inside our next fast pass window, which was for Flight of Passage. So we tracked over to Pandora 

and had a few photopass pics taken before we scanned our Magic Bands and walked through the line. We were able to just walk through most of the line and only had a little wait to be assigned a spot to ride the banshee.

And even so everyone is in awe with the ride, it is not my favourite and neither is it Tom’s and this is maybe because we haven’t seen the movie. 

Tried to watch it, but it is just not my cup of tea. 

Nevertheless we wanted to give it another go, so we might learn to love it too. The ride was nice but didn’t change our mind too much and so after riding we were walking around the area and checking out Satu’Li Canteen, but there were far too many people, so we headed over to our all time favourite, Flame Tree Barbecue. 

There was a line too, but we chose a shortish looking line and decided on what we were going to have while waiting.

There were only three people in line ahead of us, so how long can it take? 

Well, turns out that the family on the opposite side only had one person in line and when it was her time to order they all swarmed in and were now discussing what to get, and with that holding up the line. It took them a long time to put their order in, just to then decide to tweak it and change it around. The cashier was doing her best, but she had to cancel and redo the order. When they finally had everything set up, the woman used her dining plan credits, but it turned out she did not have enough, so again the family came over and they decided who would share with whom and could this and that be taken off the bill. 

The cashier wasn’t able to and they had to call for a manager. 

By now our line was seriously long and the cashier was apologizing over and over again, but it had not been her fault at all. 

In the end the manager was able to sort everything out and the family proceeded to flock to the counter to pick up their food. And finally Tom and I were able to order, took 30 seconds until our bill was paid, even with applying an AP discount and we were in line behind the “family”. 

Funny thing was that since they ordered so many items, our food was ready way before theirs and they had to move aside so we could get our food and find a table to enjoy it.

We walked down to the covered area near the water, found a table and Tom got some condiments and we were able to enjoy our food. We had ordered a 

Pulled Pork Sandwich, Layers of delicious Smoked Pulled Pork piled high with Coleslaw on a fresh soft Bun and served with 

their Signature Baked Beans, 

some French Fries with Pulled Pork and Cheese and an 

Onion Ring Basket to share. All the food was hot and nice and hit the spot and we were very happy sitting there munching away. Once we had finished our lunch we walked over to Expedition Everest to put the last of our three fast passes to good use. 

The standby line was pretty long, but we just walked through our line, then asked for front row and were told that we would have to wait for two trains, but that did not bother us and we got in line there. Soon we were led to the front row, seated and off we went. 

We both love this ride and it did not disappoint. When we got off we agreed on riding it again and on using the single rider line for it. 

We were through it pretty fast and both rode on the same train, just a few rows apart. Once we had gotten off we thought about doing it one more time, but it had gotten pretty hot and I was still coughing a lot and we decided that it would be better to take a break. So we strolled towards the exit, got on the tram and rode out to the parking lot to our car. 

Didn’t take too long and we were on our way and soon after had parked our car and were walking to our room. 

We rested for a while and then decided to walk down and take a dip in Stormalong Bay.