Last evening was certainly long. Our flight left Indy right on time at 10:00 pm. We touched down in Orlando on time, about midnight. Then we walked to the Disney Magical Express location in the airport, and things slowed down significantly. Basically, it took us as long to get from the airport to our resort as it did to fly from Indy to Orlando. And, when we got to our room, it had only one king bed. For three of us! So, at 2:22 am I found myself at the customer service desk at the Boardwalk Inn, switching rooms. We probably got to sleep about 3 am.
And we got up at 6:30 to get to Animal Kingdom park for Special Magic Hour. In hindsight, it’s a good thing we did. We were not there at rope drop, but we were at the bus stop at our resort by 7:13, and we were at the park by 7:40, so it hadn’t been open long. We went straight, and walked quickly, to the Avatar Flight of Passage ride, but when we checked the wait time it was switching from 60 to 90 minutes. In reality, we probably waited 70. But when we left the ride, the wait was over two hours. The wait went really quickly. People in line were nice, and we had some excitement when the lady, “Granny,” in front of us got pooped on by a bird sitting in a tree. The whole Avatar area was amazingly done.
And the ride was totally worth the wait! The concept is that you’re in an Avatar link to a Na’vi riding a banshee (which flies). The ride mechanism itself is a lot like Soarin’, where you are in a device that moves a little bit, but you’re surrounded by a gorgeous video that makes it seem SO real. I actually have troubles with those kinds of rides, and I had to close my eyes a couple times to avoid nausea.
It didn’t help that we hadn’t eaten anything. After the ride we headed for Isle of Java for coffee and pastries. Then we hit our first FastPass ride, Expedition Everest, which is a roller coaster that, it turns out, goes backwards for part of the ride. Serious nausea from that ensures I will not ride that one again! But it was still fun.
The next Fast Pass was for Na’vi River Journey. It’s a nice, slow, boat ride that goes through really detailed scenes from the Avatar movie. The pictures are blurry because it was dark and I was in a moving boat, but they still give an idea.
We had one more Fast Pass for Kali River Rapids at Animal Kingdom, but we decided to skip that and head to Magic Kingdom. That journey did not go smoothly. While we were walking to the front of the park I used the DisneyWorld app to order a Minnie Van. Or so I thought. The Minnie Van service uses Lyft, and you have to scroll weirdly to request an actual red-and-white polka dot Minnie Van. So I just accidentally chose a regular Lyft, and then we were far from the correct pick up spot, so I canceled the ride so we could request a real Minnie Van and not have to walk far to the Lyft pick up spot. But then the Minnie Van was going to be $52! So we ditched that idea and decided to take a bus to a resort close to Magic Kingdom. We originally were thinking The Contemporary, and then the monorail, but then we decided to do Grand Floridian and monorail. But then the bus to The Contemporary was closer, so we got on it. It was also going to Wilderness Lodge, and we decided to get off there and take the boat across the lagoon. While we were at Wilderness Lodge, we took some pictures with the pretty decorations.
Finally, we made it to Magic Kingdom! The entrance was slow, but then Main Street was total chaos! We took the time to get pictures taken by the Disney photographers. I bought the Memory Maker package before we arrived and am already glad I did.
Our first Magic Kingdom ride was . . . It’s a Small World. It was chosen through a combination of desire to ride, convenience to where we were, and length of wait. We waited about 45 minutes, which again went fast. I did my daily German lesson, and the girls played that game where you get a list of words on your iPhone and hold it up to your head so the other player can read it. Then you try to get them to guess the word on the screen. They were entertaining the entire rest of the line. Little kids were staring at them in awe. It was great.
We were all pretty much starving by that point and grabbed a bite to eat. Then we all rode Pirates of the Caribbean, and now the girls are in line for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and I’m typing this. We have a FastPass for Haunted Mansion next, then dinner at Cinderella’s castle! The park is open until 11:00, but I’m not sure we’ll be here that long. The only other ride we all really want to ride is Space Mountain, which we’ll probably do right after dinner. We will stay for the fireworks, though, because I made dessert reservations for the Happily Ever After Fireworks at 9:00. Then maybe an early night, before we get up at 5:45 (or maybe 6 am) tomorrow to hit Hollywood Studios and, hopefully, ride Rise of the Resistance!