And in heeding the advice of all my friends (thank you Gail and Susan) they warned me of the lengthy standby lines to get on this ride if you didn’t have fast passes or arrive early in the morning. I tried getting fast passes for this ride about 50 days in advance and they were already sold out. So the friends were right, it was the star of the show at Animal Kingdom - and there are some pretty stellar rides there too ( African Savannah and Expedition Everest are family favourites in addition to Dinosaur)!
In getting up at 5:15 am again (remember this is like 3 am our time and this is our third day in a row getting up at this hour), we ate breakfast in the room, checked out of the hotel and left our luggage with luggage services. We drove ourselves to Animal Kingdom knowing the shuttles would get us there later (since we got lost driving in the dark and the mist and the lack of a GPS for this drive that may not have been the case). We arrived at the gates st 6:40 and followed the crowds of people walking to the land of Pandora, the new section of park based on the James Cameron movie named Avatar. J wanted to stop and ask for directions and I told him there was no need - that EVERYBODY in the park would be walking directly to this ride. And I was right - everybody was walking towards the Flight of Passage ride. We arrived at the end of the line about 7:05 am - and by 8:30 we had finished the ride. The fact that we arrived in the dark with mist hanging in the air added to the mystery and beauty of the vegetation surrounding the ride! The actual thrilling part of the ride where should are sitting in fancy bicycles and looking out over the land of Pandora, much like Disneyland’s Soarin’. By the time we walked off the ride, the standby line was 270 minutes long. That would have been more than 4 hours in line for us had we been arriving with the rest of the non Disney hotel guests about that time. So we were very glad for the early start and the experience!
Of course we enjoyed the African Savannah (J & L) Expedition Everest (not J, he gets too motion sick on that ride), and Dinosaur a couple of times. The boys rode Kali River Rapids when Expedition Everest broke down as they were in line using their fast passes, so Disney gave them another fast pass loaded on their Mickey wristbands that work as room keys, fast passes and charging machines!
We ate lunch at Flame tree Barbeque sitting overlooking the water. By 1:30 the park was really busy and we had seen what we really wanted to so we returned to Port Orleans French Quarter to retrieve luggage and hit the road for Fort Lauderdale. By the book Orlando to Ft Lauderdale is 3 hours. Add in traffic and toll roads and that drive became 4 hours without any pit stops.
Once at the Hampton Hotel North Airport we moved all our luggage into the room and happily walked across the street to Winn Dixie for the usual road trip supper of going to a grocery store to buy exactly what you want to eat for supper. Healthy, not too expensive and interactive to shop for - we enjoyed our shopping expedition! With a microwave and fridge we were all set to enjoy supper! Good thing we brought our own cutlery from home!
Must go to bed and sleep as long as necessary tomorrow morning!
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