Walt Disney World Trip Report: Animal Kingdom

When we knew we were doing three days of park tickets, it took us a long time to decide whether that third day would be Animal Kingdom or Hollywood Studios.  Because of the number of closures that happened at Hollywood Studios throughout the year, though, we finally felt confident in skipping it and committing to a day with the animals.

We arrived at rope drop after the longest bus stop wait we experienced during the whole trip (45 minutes), then made our way over to DinoLand while the crowd headed, I'm guessing, to Expedition Everest.  We figured we'd do Triceratop Spin and poke around in this part of the park until the Boneyard opened up a bit later, but Matt wasn't having it.  Since he so quickly vetoed Dumbo, his anxiety about Triceratop Spin wasn't unexpected, but we wanted to give him another shot at a ride geared more toward little ones.  This was not at all wasted time, even though we didn't ride anything, because the theming here, like everywhere else in the park, was excellent.

We worked our way back toward the Tree of Life, and Matt decided he was up for It's Tough to be a Bug.  Having read that it's a pretty intense attraction despite being inspired by a kids' movie, I had reservations, but he thoroughly enjoyed it.  He's establishing a pattern, I think: intense storytelling, yes; heights and speed, not so much.

After the show, we walked over to Harambe Market and grabbed a little snack at Zuri's Sweets Shop.  I have to say, I was a little bummed back when the animal poop treats were discontinued so quickly.  I think Matt was their target audience and would have loved the concept.

We were in no rush to get anywhere in particular, so we walked across to the seating area to share our snack.  This was actually one of my favorite parts of the entire trip.  The area was completely empty at this time of day, and we were able to hang out, have a quiet moment as a family and really take in all of the details of the market.

I loved everything about this place: the color, the signage pasted on poles and walls, the lived-in feel even though it's a relatively new spot, the pieced-together-from-what-we-have nature of the structures, the luggage and odds and ends piled up on the Wilderness Express Train cars as they rumble by.  Pretty much perfect.  And it was equally awesome, albeit very different, when lunch time livened it up with a bit of a crowd and the smells of cooking meat.

We had a bit more time before our FastPass for Kilimanjaro Safaris, so we took a stroll through the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail.  I was basically ready to move in at this point.

After our trek on the trail, we queued up for our safari.  Matt let out a spirited "Roll Tide!" when the guide pointed out the elephants, and we saw tons of other animals along the way.

For lunch, we boogied on back to Harambe and tried the sausage fried in curried corn batter.  We enjoyed our corndogs, but an unexpected surprise for me was the roasted broccoli and tomato salad served on the side.  I had written it off as filler on the plate, but it added some brightness and contrast to the fried meat stick.

Our next stop was Festival of the Lion King.  I'll be honest here and say that The Lion King was never really my thing, but I was unprepared for my emotional state during this show.  I was feeling just a little bit like this:



We wrapped up our time in the park with a walk through the Maharajah Jungle Trek, where I was once again completely in love with the theming.

After a little rest back at the hotel, we hopped on the bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner at Boma.  Our favorites from the buffet of African-inspired dishes included the watermelon rind salad, fufu, pap and chakalaka, and all of the soups (so good!).  Boma was a fun way to try a few new foods - particularly for Matt - and a tasty way to end our Animal Kingdom visit.

See the links below to read about the first few days of our trip:
Planning & Arrival Day
The Magic Kingdom
Epcot

Red Lentil Soup

When I was nineteen, I spent ten days in Egypt with a group of professors and grad students from my university.  I was the farthest from home I'd ever been.  I didn't really know anybody, and that first night in Cairo, I was both jetlagged and apprehensive when our guide slid a bowl of lentil soup to me from across the table.

"Eat this," he said. "It will help."

He was not wrong.  It was one of the simplest, best meals I've ever had.  Since then, this soup has always been one of my favorite comfort foods.  So because it's cold outside today in that always-winter-but-never-Christmas way that only January and February know how to do, I'm sharing a recipe that approximates the bowl of comfort offered to me that night.   

Red Lentil Soup
1 tablespoon olive oil

a few dashes crushed red pepper flakes

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon ground turmeric

kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 cups chopped onion
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound red split lentils (soaked)
8 cups chicken stock

lemon wedges

fresh pita, naan, or similar

In a large pot heat the oil. Add the pepper flakes, cumin, and turmeric, and fry until the spices are fragrant.  Stir in onions and garlic, and season with salt and pepper. Sauté until the onions soften, then add the lentils, cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Add broth and bring to a boil then reduce heat to medium and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 45 minutes or until lentils are broken down and soup's texture is nearly smooth. Taste for seasoning, then remove from heat and cool slightly before serving with a squeeze of lemon and fresh bread. 

Walt Disney World Trip Report: Epcot

We began our day at Epcot in Future World, arriving before park open.  Cast members let guests in through the front gates, but areas of the park weren't open yet, so we hung out with the crowd until everything officially kicked off, then headed to Test Track.  So did everyone else.

We ultimately decided to skip Test Track and made a u-turn, heading instead for the Character Spot, where Matt got to spend a little more time with Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy.  These character interactions were excellent - another thing that was not in the plans but turned out to be awesome.  Going in with a plan but being prepared to chuck it from time to time in favor of something that fit us a little better served us well throughout this trip.

Next we made our way to The Seas with Nemo and Friends.  There was zero line here, presumably because everyone else in the park was at Test Track.  We hopped in a clamshell and toured through a mix of animated fish (Nemo, Marlin, Dory, Bruce, et al) and real ones.  Who's ready for Finding Dory?  I am, for sure!

After that, we checked out the rest of the Seas, which included some big tanks with sharks, turtles, fish, rays, and a dolphin.  Also, a giant, climb-in-able Bruce-type thing that is both hilarious and a little bit terrifying.  Moving on...

We had a FastPass for Turtle Talk with Crush for 9:40, but there was no standby line, so we skipped the FastPass and went straight in.  It was similar to Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor in that animated characters interacted with the audience in realtime.  The kids sat on the floor up front, and Crush talked to them.

While we waited for the show to start, I changed our Turtle Talk FastPass.  The only real option was Journey into Imagination with Figment, but we didn't need the FastPass here either.  After we rode it, I understood the lack of demand for this attraction.

Next up, we headed to the Land pavilion.  We had some time before our Soarin' FastPass window, so we did Living with the Land.  The standby line was short and moved quickly, and Matt really liked getting to see inside the greenhouse.

Once it was over, we walked a few steps over to the Soarin' entrance.  The FastPass line seemed crazy long, but we started moving quickly.  The standby line was 60 minutes at that point.  We had a little wait, but it was so worth it.  Soarin' is awesome!  We wanted to ride it again immediately, but that was definitely not an option given the long standby line.  I cannot wait to go back and do Soarin' Around the World once it switches over.   

We grabbed some lunch at Sunshine Seasons next, then made our way over to Spaceship Earth, our last FastPass for the day.  When we first walked into the park, Matt seemed really anxious about the giant golf ball and did not want to go in, but he professed the ride's awesomeness as soon as it came to a stop and was very pleased with himself for going into the park's icon.  

After Spaceship Earth, we stopped in MouseGear, where Matt got his sorcerer's hat Mickey ears, then we caught the bus back to the hotel to rest up before returning to spend some time in the World Showcase.

Our plan for the evening was to enjoy the holiday goodness in each pavilion, grabbing a few small bites for dinner along the way.

We began in Mexico but not before grabbing a device to participate in Agent P's World Showcase Adventure.  We weren't quite prepared for how time-consuming it would be, but we loved how the mission was integrated into the Mexico pavilion, and Matt was thrilled to send Doofenshmirtz packing.

Over in Norway, we stopped in to share some school bread.  This sweet pastry filled with custard and topped with coconut lived up to the hype in our opinion.  Definitely worth the snack credit.

In China, we watched some acrobats perform and hung out with a friendly dragon.

And in Germany we listened as Helga shared Christmas stories.  She and her nutcracker friend chatted with Matt for a few minutes after storytime.

As we made our way out of Germany and into Italy, it was starting to get dark, and we didn't accomplish a whole lot more after that.  We listened to La Befana tell her story for a few minutes in Italy, ignored the America bit, blitzed our way through Mitsukoshi in Japan, and ultimately decided to sit down for a bite to eat at Tangierine Cafe in Morocco, which was an absolutely tasty decision.  Erik and I both got shawarma platters - he got the lamb, and Matt and I shared the chicken.  Both included hummus, pita, tabouleh (more green than grain - yay!), and couscous.

Truth be told, after dinner we skated through France, the UK, and Canada without doing much more than window shopping.  Next time, I'd love to start early and spend more time exploring the World Showcase in the daylight.

Worn out from our around-the-world adventure, we made our way back to the hotel via several hops:  Epcot monorail to the Ticket and Transportation Center (our one and only monorail ride of the trip), then ferry to the Magic Kingdom (for our first glimpse of the park lit up at night), and boat back to Wilderness Lodge.

Stay tuned for my Animal Kingdom write-up next!

Other posts in this trip report: Planning & Arrival and Magic Kingdom