For our last day in the parks with the Grandchildren (and their parents, uncle, and Mom), we visited Animal Kingdom. Lots of animals to see. The UP! bird experience was great. Birds flying over the audience many just inches from our heads. Kevin! The operator has lots of fun playing the bird's sounds and moving the head, mouth, and eyes. They did a great job responding to the crowd. Safari after sunset is not the best time to take the ride but was still interesting. 11.9k steps - 5.84 miles
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Today, we woke up very early (4:30am). Pre-dawn early. To be at the hotel by 5:30am to watch the grandchildren while their parents went to stand in the dark with a few 1000 of their "closests" friends to get in line for the new Star Wars ride. We did this last week and still find the whole idea a bit nuts. Oh. we would do it again! The ride is that good. Still getting to a park pre-dawn or standing in line for 2 hours plus does seem a bit much. 21.3k steps - 10.49 miles
Be our Guest was really well decorated. We have never been there before. I always thought that the food at WDW restaurants would be similar in quality across the parks. They are all run by the same company, right?! I was wrong! Some have very good food and could be more expensive than others. On the other hand, there are several restaurants that have mediocre food and emphasized atmosphere or character meeting instead of food quality for the price. 14.2k steps - 6.99 miles
Off to the Magic Kingdom with the grandchildren, oh, and their parents came along too. Just kidding. It was a great time for all of us. Jonathan and Betty came in for the week as well. It was great! 13.1k steps - 6.46 miles The Tron coaster is coming along nicely. It will be a while before it is ready to ride but looks great. 13.1k steps - 6.46 miles
Family has arrived for a trip to Disney World. We are heading to Disney Springs. Dinner was at the Dinosaur Restaurant T-Rex. 9.9k steps - 4.96 miles
Today we visit Animal Kingdom. This is Shawna's favorite park. I like it too.
After yesterday's really early start, we decided to go into the park later in the day and stayed for the projection on the tree of life. Since our last visit was on a cold day (relative to Orlando) we hoped to see the baby Silver Back and some of the other animals that were not out earlier in the week.
Mom was a bit shy with the baby so we did not get a good view. Baby Grace is 9 months old. She is just now starting to stand and walk on her own but never is far from mom.
The family group is a breeding Male 39, two breeding females, a young female, two 5 year old males, and the baby. Almost as soon as we got to the viewing area, the 5 year olds were called in for training. They need to learn how to tolerate medical tests and other interactions with trainers. At that point, the rest of the group decided to follow leaving us with an empty exhibit. It was disappointing but we understood they like to stay together. We stopped to see the meerkats.
The Gibbon monkeys have learned a new trick. At least, it was new for us.
Kevin! We got to see Kevin from UP!
At the end of the day, we watched some of the show on the "Tree of Life". It is always impressive.
12.6k steps, 6.11 miles
We arrived at Hollywood Studios before 6 AM get a boarding pass to the new Star Wars ride. If you are not inside the park before 7am, there is no way that you will get a boarding pass to the newest Star Wars ride. Usually all of the passes are allocated in a couple of minutes.
I was ready at 6:58am with the app open. Refreshing the page again and again, we got on group 34 less than 1 minute after 7am. This placed us in a group that could ride by 9am. A few minutes later all the passes were assigned. We do crazy things at WDW. Two hour waits for a ride are not unusual if it is new. Generally we will not wait more than an hour but even that seems nuts but is considered a short wait for the more popular rides.
While waiting for our boarding time, we rode Star Tours. The ride had been updated to include scenes from the newest movie. It's an old ride but one of our favorites.
We walked through Star Wars land to see all the theming while we wait for our boarding pass to activate.
Rise of the Resistance was (choose your own emphasis) A-MAZ-ING! The realism and size of the structures was so immersive. We walked into a room that was huge with line upon line of Stormtroopers. A gigantic screen that gave the impression that you were looking out at space. There was a full size Tie Fighter. Amazing!
The ride continued to surround us with areas that were lifesize presentations of everything I would expect if suddenly dropped into a Star Wars movie. Huge AT-AT's, Laser Cannons, Robots, the newest Animatronics, ... Ok last time Amazing!
We recovered from the sensory overload of the Rise of the Resistance ride by walking around Star Wars. Shawna noticed that the Stand By time for Smugglers Run, the "other" Star Wars ride had a reasonably short line. By reasonably short I mean 60 minutes, earlier in the day it was 2 hours or more wait time.
It was a fun ride even the wait line was interesting.
The last ride of the day was in Toy Store Land. We have always enjoyed Toy Story Mania. It's a fun and interactive ride. As we were walking out, this was along the way.
We thought about what rides that were new and decided to ride the Skyliner to Epcot for Ice Cream. Not just any Ice Cream but a French Vanilla Ice Cream Martini made with
2 Scoops of Vanilla with a couple of shots of Grand Marnier, Shawna's favorite. The ride on the Skyliner was fun and a bit windy.
13.3k steps - 6.6 miles
Today we visited Epcot. The first stop was the "Epcot Experience".
This is the display showing the modifications coming to Epcot. It was very good and showed the upcoming improvements and new rides being added to the park.
After a relaxing walk around the World Showcase, we decide to stop in Italy for Lunch at Via Napoli Ristorante e Pizzeria. The pizza was a classic style from Italy. It was fantastic.
Next we went window shopping in some of the other countries before going to "The American Adventure". The show is always inspiring.
We then walked to the Land to ride "Soarin'" & "The Land" then to Spaceship Earth.
That was enough for today.
10.1k steps - 4.99 miles
Animal Kingdom is our favorite park because it has animals, nature, plus rides and shows. What's not to like.
We especially like the Safari tour.
At the end of our tour an Ostrich ran with the truck. I think it was just for fun.
The newest show at Animal Kingdom is a bird show. It is based on the Up! movie characters. No Kevin but maybe we will see her later in our visit.
After a walk through Pandora and riding the Flight of Passage, we stopped at Tiffins for a late lunch. We tried foods we have never eaten before it was delicious.
Went to the African Exploration Trail to see the Gorilla group. The family group of Silverbacks have a new baby. No luck because mom did not want to come out because it was a chilly day so the whole family choose to stay indoors. We walked around to the bachelor group. One of the older members of the group was playing with a big tub.
I don't think this guy was impressed. Maybe he was thinking...
"Really! Your embarrassing the rest of us in front of the tourists."
First up: Toy Story Land.
Everything in Toy Story Land is scaled to make you feel like you are the size of a toy. Disney did a great job of realism. The buildings look like toy boxes and Tinker toys, Dominos, Wood blocks, ...
I was able to schedule a very difficult-to-get reservation. Nope, not that one, though that would have been amazing. Later we will come pre-dawn to get on the Star Wars rides. Today, we got a fastpass for Slinky Dog Dash.
We were both glad that Shawna did not have breakfast this morning. It was the only coaster at WDW that we had not rode. Well, that was just not going to do. There are a few new rides and shows we need to see to keep the "We have been to everything at WDW" statement true. It was a fun coaster.
From there, we got our first views of the new Star Wars Land. It is very immersive as is Toy Story Land. The sounds and construction makes you really feel like you are somewhere far far away. Yep, I could not help myself. It does make you feel you have walked into a Star Wars movie. Even the bathrooms are styled to the theme of the land.
Even the restaurants are immersive. We shared the Batuuan.
There are only two rides in the area. Both are really incredible but also have incredibly long lines. Today was more about visiting than riding while in Star Wars. Later in the week, we will come early so we can ride both.
These areas are really crowded so we moved on to the older areas of the park.
The Christmas decorations are still up throughout WDW but should come down soon.
A Frozen sing along.
Beauty and the Beast.
There is one new show in the older areas of the park. Lightning McQueen's Racing Academy was fun. They did a great job making the car look like the one from the cartoon.
11.5k steps - 5.8 miles
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