Day 5 | Monday (MLK)
So we were planning on having a Fort day but with so many of our neighbors packing up and heading home we decided to go to Animal Kingdom. Now we had planned to skip this park and ended up spending a total of two full days there.
We had never been on the rapids ride or the train or the north side of the park for that matter and had been twice in the past two years. Not sure how we missed that area but we did.
Living out of tent creates a great deal of work and by 8pm we are exhausted and then up at 6am ready to go (which is a good thing for rope drops and touring).
So since we had no FP set up I had to schedule some via the ipad (what a time drain on my life that I will never get back, I bleeping hate FP and I mean $%*(#&$*(# #&$*(#&$ #*$&#(&7, that's right! What? You wanna me to tell you how I really feel about FP+ well ok then $(#&$*#(&$*(#&$*(#^*&^!&*#$!#*$&(!#_&$*(#&$(*#&$*(#&$*(#^%&*#&_#$!(*#(*$&%*(#@^%&*#@&$%*)#*$%)(#!
I'm going to try real hard to keep my feeling towards FP out of my trip report because we had a great trip and I want to focus on the positive side of the trip and not FP+ or crowds. But I will say a few things about it and the crowds and CMs this year...
The ap is crap! It is clunky and it doesn't work well. It didn't last year and it didn't this year. No matter if I was on my ipad at the site, or on my old iphone or my hubby's newer iphone, it stinks. You can go through the mobile website instead of the ap and it stinks slightly less. I don't like to waist time messing with FP at all, EVER!
We have come every January for the past three years now and never waited in line more than 15 minutes for anything. We tour smart and we tour early and or late. We know what to ride when and what to avoid. We got this! Well, this year the parks were doubled with crowds from last year. Why? Frozen, people have more money than in prior years with the economy being better, fuel prices are down, they are bringing in more foreign tour groups than ever before, the new Mine Train is finally finished, D is advertising this new FP+ out the wazoo, you name it, I think all of the above are bringing in more people and everyone now knows about the FP+. Every ride, Small World, Jungle Cruise, Buzz, you name it, it was busy! In the end of January what was suppose to be 1-4 with the exception of the MLK weekend was so not the case. We hit every park at rope drop for every ticket day, did our thing and got the heck out of there by 1 ish (almost every day). I don't wait in lines and I don't like to be around a lot of people. Funny huh? And I go to Disney and don't like lines and people? Well the past two years done me and my family pretty well I would say.
As for CMs, they use to say hello princess, hi prince, have a magical day, hello, have a great trip, you know nice magical things....Well now with this FP+ they are too busy saying scan your bands, both sides, scan your bands, both sides, scan your bands, SCAN YOUR BANDS PEOPLE! For the love of GOD, please scan your bands!
Got a little crazy there for a minute, sorry about that. I will try to stay focused on the positive here. Cause really, looking back at all the photos from our trip, I don't see any drama or FP issues or people issues, I see happy smiley children that will talk about the great times they had on this trip for the remaining of the year and so on.
So we went to AK and set up fast passes for Everest and something else, it doesn't even matter really.
We did Safari first off and I will say that riding in the middle is the best spot to ride in. We had front row a couple years ago and the guide is a little too close and distracting. We had the last row last year and you get bounced around pretty good. I would say the middle is just right
After the Safari we were starving and looking for something to eat. We went past Tuskers and the smells coming out of that restaurant were amazing. We stopped in and they had availability (YES!!!!) so we ate one fantastic unscheduled character breakfast. Plate after plate and it was really good! The kids got to join in the parade and meet Mickey, Donald, Daisy & Goofy!
The characters come down one side of the tables and one side only so you get this lovely family chowing down on their meal as a background. Is this your coworker Snow Medic?
Little Daniel wears the same John Deere t-shirt almost daily. He has two identical ones and rotates them. He wears them cause he is a farmer and that is his "work shirts" so he says. This trip he did let me dress him in something other than the John Deere t-shirt a few times. I tried to dress them a like as much as possible cause they try to run away often and I like to be able to spot them quickly, matching clothes help!
So we got some spontaneity going on in this trip and having a real good time.
So we stumble on the Wilderness Explorer's book a little later. Grace picked a book up last year and collected a few badges and had fun with it but this year she got a little OCD with it. So the next couple hours were collecting badges along the way to the rapids ride (FP, I remember now) and then the rail road and over to Everest (FP) and then Dinosaur (FP). The kids both were tall enough to ride Everest and also willingly too! So my 4 yr old & 6 yr old rode Everest and then wanted to ride it again
We were all pretty tired after that but Grace had not yet collected all her badges. She had a serious melt down over the missing badges and we left with a very sad little girl.
Once back we took the golf cart down and had a nice sit down TE dinner. The chicken is wonderful! I don't know how they do it but it tastes juicy and sweet and it is just perfection
The next morning was a Fort day. HORRAY! A FORT DAY!!!!
Except, I woke up to this. Grace obsessing about her missing badges and how sad she was that she didn't finish her book. " I want to be a Senior Wilderness Explorer, Mom!" "You're my Girl Scout troop leader and know how important these badges are, Mom!" "I'm six years old and I got this, why don't you love me?"
Oh dear God, this is the moment where I know AK is now going to be a two day park. But not today, today is a going to be a FORT DAY!
And yes that is a banana on her pillow and yes she wears boy pajamas, don't judge me!