Saturday, September 6, 2014 (Animal Kingdom during the day, EPCOT at night)
We had our usual breakfast at the food court at Old Port Royale, and then took the bus to the Animal Kingdom! The Animal Kingdom shared a bus with the Blizzard Beach water park. We had 3 Fastpass reservations for the day: Adventurers Outpost (pictures with Safari Mickey and Minnie), Festival of the Lion King, and the Kilimanjaro Safari! Since this park closes earlier than the others, we planned to return to EPCOT tonight to see more of the World Showcase and for our dinner reservation at Chefs de France, in the France section of the World Showcase!
The Animal Kingdom is a very beautiful park! The centerpiece of this park is the Tree of Life, which is a huge artificial tree, at the center of Discovery Island. The two main sections of the park are Africa and Asia. In each section, Disney did an excellent job of capturing the feel of an African and Asian village, making this a completely different experience than your local zoo! In a way, these villages were somewhat remniscient of the World Showcase at EPCOT. Obviously the main attraction here is the live animals, but walking through the two villages is an attraction in itself! There was also another section called DinoLand, although we didn't explore that section at all. Like I said earlier, with the short duration of our trip, there is not time to see everything. This park was fairly easy to navigate.
We started off in the Africa section, where the headliner attraction is the Kilimanjaro Safari ride! Our original plan was to do this as our grand finale, so we had a late afternoon Fastpass reservation. However, since there was literally no wait time at all to go on the safari ride, we decided to do it first, since it was the attraction I was most looking forward to, and we wanted to be certain to go on it in case the weather got bad later in the day. Also, we thought that we'd probably see more animals earlier in the day when it was cooler.
The safari ride was a lot of fun! Be sure to bring your camera, and have it set to an action or sports setting so that you can quickly take picture when you see an animal in the distance! The safari ride did try to stop to give people opportunities to take pictures of animals! Some of the animals that we saw included elephants, zebras, giraffes, rhinos, and flamingos! This was a very enjoyable ride.
Next, we walked around the village, and had lunch at Pizzafari! Disney did a really good job with the theming in this restaurant (as they typically do), and the pizza was really good! Next was our Fastpass reservation for Adventures Outpost, where we had our pictures taken with Safari Mickey and Minnie!
Next, we explored the Asia section. Like I said, this park is easy to navigate, and it's easy to walk between the different sections. Our favorite attraction in this section is the Maharajah Jungle Trek, which is a self-guided walking tour where you can see animals close-up behind glass. At the beginning of the tour, they gave you a guide showing the different animals that you'd be seeing, which was helpful. This was a very beautiful walk, and, as usual, Disney did an excellent job with the theming. I especially enjoyed seeing the tigers here! This walk also included an aviary where you can see various birds.
Next, we returned to the Africa section for our next Fastpass reservation: the Festival of the Lion King! This was a live Broadway-style show based on the Lion King, and we enjoyed it a lot! After that, we went on the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail, which was another beautiful self-guided walking trail, similar to the one in the Asia section. Some of the animals we saw here included gorillas and zebras.
We were considering taking the train ride to Rafiki's Planet Watch. However, our impression was that it would be more for kids, and it was getting close to closing time, and we wanted to be sure that we had time to explore the World Showcase at EPCOT. Like I said, Disney World has so much to see, and given the short duration of our trip, there was not time to see everything!
Since we had already done the safari ride, we did not need our FastPass reservation. Surprisingly, there was no way to cancel it; we were told to just let it expire. That was surprising, since if we were allowed to cancel it, it would have allowed someone else to make a reservation. Although, on an off-peak day like today, that was probably moot, but I can see it being a problem during peak times.
We really enjoyed the Animal Kingdom, since it was such a unique park, and we both like animals a lot. On the way out, we purchased our Safari Mickey and Minnie photos; they were available at a gift shop near the entrance. And then we took the bus to EPCOT. Disney's buses make it very easy to get from one park to another. The park maps explain how to get where you want to go when leaving a park (in this case, take the bus to EPCOT), and everything is very clearly signed.
We rented a locker at EPCOT so that we could store our Safari Mickey and Minnie photo. I was surprised that the lockers used a key, and were one of the few things at Disney not to use the Magic Bands. We walked to the World Showcase area, and it started to pour! Luckily, we found a covered area by the restrooms so we didn't get wet. Luckily, the rain didn't last very long, so we had plenty of time to explore the World Showcase!
Last night, we had visited Mexico, Norway, and China. We briefly visited those section so that I could take pictures in the daylight; it was hard to take pictures last night when it was dark. In between China and Germany, there was the oupost, which has an African theme. I've heard rumors that if a new nation is ever added, it would go here.
Next, we visited Germarny. Although we had dinner in Germany last night, we didn't get to explore the area in detail, so we explored it in more detail tonight. In each nation that we visited tonight, we mostly walked around and enjoyed the architecture, and went inside the various shops, and took a lot of pictures! We didn't have time to see any of the shows that were offered. As I said before, Disney did such a great job of capturing the feel of each nation, and this was a very unique attraction! I don't necessarily have a lot of detailed comments about each nation. Next was Italy, which was especially interesting for us to see, since my wife and I are both Italian-American. Next was The American adventure, which was the halfway point in the World Showcase. This exhibit featured a show, which was probably very interesting, but we didn't have time to see it. Next was Japan. This exhibit had very interesting architecture, and I enjoyed seeing the pond with the fish. Next was Morocco. This exhibit was especially interesting since the architecture was very unique. Aladin seemed to be prominently featured in this section.
We arrived in France around the time of our dinner reservation at Chefs de France! We had another exccellent meal at this restaurant. This is a sit down restaurant, and you are seated at a table by yourself. We opted for the price fix menu, which included an apetizer, entree, and dessert, since it seemed like a good value. You can also order ala carte if you prefer. One other thing that I should mention about the restaurants is that you do not have to dress up for them. You can wear shorts, or whatever you are wearing at the park, which makes things very convenient.
After dinner, we explored the rest of the France exhibit, and then explored the last two nations: United Kingdom, and Canada. It was then close to closing time, so we walked back and took the bus back to our resort, this time going back to Trinidad North, since we had no need to go back to the gift shop today. It was sad ending our last day at Disney World, although we were excited about our cruise tomorrow! We were tempted to use the pool again (this was the one night that we were back at the resort early enough), but we were tired, and needed to pack, and we were getting up earlier tomorrow to go to church. So we just re-packed and went to bed.
If you are going on a
Disney cruise after your stay at Disney World, there will be a note in your room the last night giving instructions. In our case, it said that they will pick up our luggage from the room at 8 AM, and that we meet at Shutters at 12:15 PM. It is very convenient how Disney picks up your luggage in the morning, and delivers it to your stateroom on the ship, so that you don't have to carry it around yourself. But the catch is that since they pick it up early in the morning, you will want your large bags to be completely packed in the night before you go to bed. Be sure to put your Disney Cruise lugage tags on your luggage, and be sure to remove your Magical Express tag and the tag from your airline. Also, be sure to have a carryon bag that has anything that you will need the next day, since you won't have access to your luggage until it is delivered to your stateroom on the ship during the afternoon. We also called the concierge desk, and they gave us the phone number to call to book a cab to take us to church in the morning. It seems that there are several different brand names for cabs, but they are all run by Mears.