Jordanovichy
Credit Whore 2016
Re: Florida 2014: Day 12, Magic Kingdom WDW
Time for another update, almost half way!
Wednesday 30th July: Day 13, Animal Kingdom WDW
We were to visit the fourth and final Walt Disney World park today, Animal Kingdom. I had been told it wasn't the best of the Disney parks, and we'd only be going the once. Overall I did enjoy the park but more of that soon.
We got up at 8am and we were on our way to the park at 9. We had a fast pass for Expedition Everest at 10 but there was a **** tonne of traffic on the way so we had to change it to later in the day. Interesting fact. Because the car park for Animal Kingdom isn't broken up into smaller car parks like the other 3 parks, the one at Animal Kingdom was just humungous! Seriously huge. But that's enough of that.
Queuing for the tram today was a free-for-all, it was really busy and we had to travel to the park separately but we soon enough arrived.
I was straight away hit but the impressive green-ness of this place, it looked spectacular.
We headed straight for Expedition Everest and I took some pictures of this beautiful park on the way.
This is a monkey enclosure
We eventually arrived and as we had changed our fast pass booking to late afternoon, we queued for the first ride.
I really enjoyed the queue line, themed well, lots of artefacts as well as some facts about the Himalayas.
Given the name of the coaster, you can imagine that this ride is themed on climbing Everest, the world's tallest mountain. Expedition Everest broke a few world records when built, including largest scale model of the mountain and most expensive coaster ever built. It just looked spectacular.
I, stupidly, didn't take a picture but the 'guard's carriage', i.e. the last truck in the train actually let off steam, it looked really cool.
I had to take a selfie when we boarded after half hour of queuing. We sat front row.
I really liked the lift hill section, it is just track leading up onto the mountain, no supports or anything, the ground was just a hundred or so feet below. You then actually go into the mountain before firing out of the top of the mountain, oh no! The track is missing! Being at the front we got some great views of the local area, you could see EPCOT in the distance as well as several Disney hotels. Suddenly you begin rushing backwards, really fast and it feels really relentless, I screamed because I'm in touch with my feminine side... It just felt ridiculously good, and really smooth too. You then enter a room with a yeti projected onto the wall and is tearing up the track, then comes the signature drop (of which I have posted a picture of from outside, above). It feels amazing, down and round, then you enter a fish bowl and gather pace become coming back round into the ride station. I loved it. It felt so good. So real. So relentless. Have an ORP.
I just had to buy a t-shirt and a little yeti figurine with Mickey Mouse. It's fab!
Next up were the Kali River Rapids which we had fast passes for.
I was expecting to get drenched but I was pleasantly surprised. I like water rides, but kind of can't see the point in getting absolutely obliterated by water. I was surprised about the lift hill being at the start of the rapids rather than at the end like most (if not all) other rapid rides I've ridden. It starts tame with very little splashing and a pleasant meander downstream. I had just commented how green Animal Kingdom was until we suddenly emerged from the trees into a 'deforested' area, that caught me by surprise. The complete juxtaposition between the two areas was amazing. Next came my first ever rapids ride drop! A nice sweeping curve with an impressive splash down. Was good fun. Overall, I think I enjoyed the Busch Gardens more, even if these were better themed, apart from the drop, nothing much else happened.
It was time to pause for a drink and snack. I had a a Mickey Mouse pretzel. It was lovely but reeeeeeeaaaalllyyyy salty, like too salty.
It was already time for our next fast pass on Kilimanjaro Safari.
I had been told to imagine Zufari...only 100000x better.
As the name would suggest...and as I have just mentioned Zufari...Kilimanjaro Safari is a safari! You start in the rainforest with hippos and birds and things...
Dayyym dirteh gat'r
...suddenly the green goes, as do the tall trees, the bushes, and water...we were in the savannah. Here we had gazelle, cheetahs, giraffes etc.
Oh...and termite hills!
The next 'eco-system' was the jungle. Here we had elephants!
A baobab tree!
Oh, and the back end of a zebra.
Our driver narrated throughout the journey. He was really witty, it was good fun. As far as being a safari goes, it really was exceptional, how it jumped through the completely different areas was amazing, it really is better than the uncharged Busch Gardens version. And of course, it is better than Zufari, of course it is! But Where Zufari wins points is it is just more of a ride than the average safari, and that's what I like about it. I'd like Kilimanjaro safari to add something to add that 'thrilling' aspect to the safari.
We then headed over to the Harambe Theatre for the Festival of the Lion King!
I'd really been looking forward to seeing this. I love the Lion King and had watched it so many times in my childhood. This show, too, was spectacular. So much running, jumping, flipping and flying, there was always something happening. Plus, as it was the Lion King, it had some of my childhood tunes, Can you Feel the Love Tonight?, Hakuna Matata, even Be Prepared which is such a good song. The size of the moving animals, the elephant, lion, warthog and giraffe were awesome. Have an influx of photos.
There was fire at one point as well. That also makes a show fantastic.
We went to a nearby cafe after to have a muffin with a reeeealllllyyy sickly elephant thing.
I wanted to get the Primeval Whirl creds next, so we headed over there. Primeval Whirl is a collection of two creds, Reverchon spinning coasters. Yay.
Quite unlike anything I had ridden at Disney so far. It was dirty, poorly themed, poorly run, it was just a bad experience. Thankfully, for the first side (on the left) we only queued 10 minutes. There was a severe lack of spin too, I suppose that isn't a terrible thing. The ride wasn't particularly rough, it was just dull and not at all enjoyable. But we had to queue up for the next side.
The others went off to watch the Nemo show but I obviously had the cred to get, so we joined the queue again which had grown considerably since we last queued...it didn't take long until we found out why...one of the creds was shut, I had just ridden the left side so fingers crossed it was that. We got nearer the front and people were riding the left. The right side had broken down. NOOOOOOOO. I'd hoped by the time we got to the front it'd be open again but no such luck. My first spite of the trip, and we had to queue for it twice. To add insult injury we had to ride the **** awful left side twice. Ugh.
We headed back over to Expedition Everest to meet the others and to use our fast pass. Dan and I arrived early so we decided to join the single rider queue to get another ride in. I had the pleasure of sitting with some little brat, but it was either him or an old woman who would most likely have a bypass. I enjoyed this ride more though, it is much more forceful towards the back and even more enjoyable than the amazing ride I got on it earlier that day. Have an ORP.
We met back up with the others and rode again using the fast pass. I sat with Mr. Stephen. I was right at the back now and it was even more forceful. I fricking LOVED it! And I REALLY wanted to whore it all day. To be fair, what I ACTUALLY wanted to do was to go back to Primeval Whirl and get the other cred but you can't have everything in life. Have an ORP anyway.
It was getting late and after yesterday's long day we were pretty knackered and had pretty much exhausted attractions at Animal Kingdom. We had a browse in the tat shop, I expect I spent too much but alas.
On the way out I took a selfie with Baloo.
We went to TGIFriday's for tea. That was a **** experience.
When the food arrived everything was cold. I got ribeye steak instead of sirloin! **** liberty. Dan got chicken and shrimp instead of chicken and steak and when he got it it was cooked medium rather than burnt to a crisp as he likes it. I have to say my steak was cooked perfectly, and despite the cold chips, I was quite content, with the complaining to staff, it was like dinner and a show! :lol:
Once back at the villa we swam for a couple hours and not a great amount else. Ate crisps I expect.
Thanks very much for reading once again...if anyone still is
tomorrow we went to the Shopping mall and SeaWorld Orlando in the evening.
Time for another update, almost half way!
Wednesday 30th July: Day 13, Animal Kingdom WDW
We were to visit the fourth and final Walt Disney World park today, Animal Kingdom. I had been told it wasn't the best of the Disney parks, and we'd only be going the once. Overall I did enjoy the park but more of that soon.
We got up at 8am and we were on our way to the park at 9. We had a fast pass for Expedition Everest at 10 but there was a **** tonne of traffic on the way so we had to change it to later in the day. Interesting fact. Because the car park for Animal Kingdom isn't broken up into smaller car parks like the other 3 parks, the one at Animal Kingdom was just humungous! Seriously huge. But that's enough of that.
Queuing for the tram today was a free-for-all, it was really busy and we had to travel to the park separately but we soon enough arrived.
I was straight away hit but the impressive green-ness of this place, it looked spectacular.
We headed straight for Expedition Everest and I took some pictures of this beautiful park on the way.
This is a monkey enclosure
We eventually arrived and as we had changed our fast pass booking to late afternoon, we queued for the first ride.
I really enjoyed the queue line, themed well, lots of artefacts as well as some facts about the Himalayas.
Given the name of the coaster, you can imagine that this ride is themed on climbing Everest, the world's tallest mountain. Expedition Everest broke a few world records when built, including largest scale model of the mountain and most expensive coaster ever built. It just looked spectacular.
I, stupidly, didn't take a picture but the 'guard's carriage', i.e. the last truck in the train actually let off steam, it looked really cool.
I had to take a selfie when we boarded after half hour of queuing. We sat front row.
I really liked the lift hill section, it is just track leading up onto the mountain, no supports or anything, the ground was just a hundred or so feet below. You then actually go into the mountain before firing out of the top of the mountain, oh no! The track is missing! Being at the front we got some great views of the local area, you could see EPCOT in the distance as well as several Disney hotels. Suddenly you begin rushing backwards, really fast and it feels really relentless, I screamed because I'm in touch with my feminine side... It just felt ridiculously good, and really smooth too. You then enter a room with a yeti projected onto the wall and is tearing up the track, then comes the signature drop (of which I have posted a picture of from outside, above). It feels amazing, down and round, then you enter a fish bowl and gather pace become coming back round into the ride station. I loved it. It felt so good. So real. So relentless. Have an ORP.
I just had to buy a t-shirt and a little yeti figurine with Mickey Mouse. It's fab!
Next up were the Kali River Rapids which we had fast passes for.
I was expecting to get drenched but I was pleasantly surprised. I like water rides, but kind of can't see the point in getting absolutely obliterated by water. I was surprised about the lift hill being at the start of the rapids rather than at the end like most (if not all) other rapid rides I've ridden. It starts tame with very little splashing and a pleasant meander downstream. I had just commented how green Animal Kingdom was until we suddenly emerged from the trees into a 'deforested' area, that caught me by surprise. The complete juxtaposition between the two areas was amazing. Next came my first ever rapids ride drop! A nice sweeping curve with an impressive splash down. Was good fun. Overall, I think I enjoyed the Busch Gardens more, even if these were better themed, apart from the drop, nothing much else happened.
It was time to pause for a drink and snack. I had a a Mickey Mouse pretzel. It was lovely but reeeeeeeaaaalllyyyy salty, like too salty.
It was already time for our next fast pass on Kilimanjaro Safari.
I had been told to imagine Zufari...only 100000x better.
As the name would suggest...and as I have just mentioned Zufari...Kilimanjaro Safari is a safari! You start in the rainforest with hippos and birds and things...
Dayyym dirteh gat'r
...suddenly the green goes, as do the tall trees, the bushes, and water...we were in the savannah. Here we had gazelle, cheetahs, giraffes etc.
Oh...and termite hills!
The next 'eco-system' was the jungle. Here we had elephants!
A baobab tree!
Oh, and the back end of a zebra.
Our driver narrated throughout the journey. He was really witty, it was good fun. As far as being a safari goes, it really was exceptional, how it jumped through the completely different areas was amazing, it really is better than the uncharged Busch Gardens version. And of course, it is better than Zufari, of course it is! But Where Zufari wins points is it is just more of a ride than the average safari, and that's what I like about it. I'd like Kilimanjaro safari to add something to add that 'thrilling' aspect to the safari.
We then headed over to the Harambe Theatre for the Festival of the Lion King!
I'd really been looking forward to seeing this. I love the Lion King and had watched it so many times in my childhood. This show, too, was spectacular. So much running, jumping, flipping and flying, there was always something happening. Plus, as it was the Lion King, it had some of my childhood tunes, Can you Feel the Love Tonight?, Hakuna Matata, even Be Prepared which is such a good song. The size of the moving animals, the elephant, lion, warthog and giraffe were awesome. Have an influx of photos.
There was fire at one point as well. That also makes a show fantastic.
We went to a nearby cafe after to have a muffin with a reeeealllllyyy sickly elephant thing.
I wanted to get the Primeval Whirl creds next, so we headed over there. Primeval Whirl is a collection of two creds, Reverchon spinning coasters. Yay.
Quite unlike anything I had ridden at Disney so far. It was dirty, poorly themed, poorly run, it was just a bad experience. Thankfully, for the first side (on the left) we only queued 10 minutes. There was a severe lack of spin too, I suppose that isn't a terrible thing. The ride wasn't particularly rough, it was just dull and not at all enjoyable. But we had to queue up for the next side.
The others went off to watch the Nemo show but I obviously had the cred to get, so we joined the queue again which had grown considerably since we last queued...it didn't take long until we found out why...one of the creds was shut, I had just ridden the left side so fingers crossed it was that. We got nearer the front and people were riding the left. The right side had broken down. NOOOOOOOO. I'd hoped by the time we got to the front it'd be open again but no such luck. My first spite of the trip, and we had to queue for it twice. To add insult injury we had to ride the **** awful left side twice. Ugh.
We headed back over to Expedition Everest to meet the others and to use our fast pass. Dan and I arrived early so we decided to join the single rider queue to get another ride in. I had the pleasure of sitting with some little brat, but it was either him or an old woman who would most likely have a bypass. I enjoyed this ride more though, it is much more forceful towards the back and even more enjoyable than the amazing ride I got on it earlier that day. Have an ORP.
We met back up with the others and rode again using the fast pass. I sat with Mr. Stephen. I was right at the back now and it was even more forceful. I fricking LOVED it! And I REALLY wanted to whore it all day. To be fair, what I ACTUALLY wanted to do was to go back to Primeval Whirl and get the other cred but you can't have everything in life. Have an ORP anyway.
It was getting late and after yesterday's long day we were pretty knackered and had pretty much exhausted attractions at Animal Kingdom. We had a browse in the tat shop, I expect I spent too much but alas.
On the way out I took a selfie with Baloo.
We went to TGIFriday's for tea. That was a **** experience.
When the food arrived everything was cold. I got ribeye steak instead of sirloin! **** liberty. Dan got chicken and shrimp instead of chicken and steak and when he got it it was cooked medium rather than burnt to a crisp as he likes it. I have to say my steak was cooked perfectly, and despite the cold chips, I was quite content, with the complaining to staff, it was like dinner and a show! :lol:
Once back at the villa we swam for a couple hours and not a great amount else. Ate crisps I expect.
Thanks very much for reading once again...if anyone still is
tomorrow we went to the Shopping mall and SeaWorld Orlando in the evening.
I still don't, I didn't know what was at Animal Kingdom really so I followed those that had been at least 4 times previous 
