We woke up, got ready, and got to our first park of the trip around 8:15am. They started letting people in around 8:30am. We got part of the way into the park, around the Tree of Life area where we waited for the opening bird show and the rope drop. The birds fly around and it's pretty cool to watch. Dinosaur was closed for refurbishment while we were there so unfortunately, I don't have anything to report about that ride.
We started off our day with Kilimanjaro Safaris. We went straight there so our wait wasn't very long despite not having a FP+ (still around 20-30 minutes though). Our entire party found it very entertaining. There were so many animals out! It was great. It does have the feel that they walk around freely (even though we know they don't). There were lots of twists and turns so if you missed an animal, you might see it again after you turn the corner. Our guide did a great job of pointing things out. The ride is very bumpy though. It's almost like you're really riding on a safari on a dirt road. It was great!
We had a FP+ for Expedition Everest and it was so much fun. It was about a Yeti. I would say that is wasn't very scary. We all enjoyed it. There were a couple of moments in the dark and at one point, you go backwards.
It's Tough to be a Bug! Was pretty good. The wait was very short and it is inside the Tree of Life and air conditioned so it's a nice little break to sit down. There are some 4D elements about it and there is a warning before the show about it being scary for little ones. It amazes me how many people don't pay attention to these warnings. I heard so many little kids (2 and under, probably) crying during the show. Overall, we really enjoyed it though!
At this point, we needed to sit down and have a snack so we chose Yak & Yeti Local Food Cafes. It was delicious. We got a side of pork egg rolls and the special that they were having, which was Korean BBQ rib tips with french fries plus a chicken strip kids meal (that came with carrot sticks, fruit, and a drink). We shared this among the 4 of us and it made a great snack.
We met Meeko and Pocahontas. They were so much fun. And honestly, their location was slightly hidden and had we not known where to look, we would have completely walked right past it without ever knowing it was there so use that Disney app and look at the character section to find them if you want to get pictures with your favorite Disney characters.
We had a FP+ to Finding Nemo – The Musical and boy am I glad we did. In order to get a great seat, you need to have a FP+. It's a show so they let all the FP+ people in first to select a seat and then they let everyone else in. If you desperately want to be close to the stage, by all means, sit up front, but my suggestion is to sit next to the runway in the middle. Sometimes the cast will interact with you if you're sitting there. Otherwise, my suggestion is to sit where we did. We sat pretty close to the middle right behind the first break in seating. There were plenty of times that characters were right in front of us. It was very cool. As far as the show goes, the music was absolutely fantastic! And the storyline follows the movie pretty well with just a much shorter show. It was about half an hour and I thought is was seriously amazing. The characters are done in a way that I wasn't expecting and it was very interesting. There were people that were all dressed up and everything and they were holding puppets that depicted the character they were portraying. They didn't necessarily try to hide themselves as the person. It was strange and cool at the same time. My whole family loved it.
We had a reservation at Tusker House for my husband's birthday. We all were able to find food that we enjoyed while trying some new things with the buffet-style eating. We stuffed ourselves silly. It was also very cool to have Mickey, Goofy, Donald, and Daisy come around to every table to sign autographs and say hello and take pictures with every guest. They come one at a time. You will probably see all of the characters in the dining hall at one time, but they come individually to each table. That was a great experience. My husband even got a birthday kiss from Daisy. Plus, they do a parade where one character will go to each section and the kids can march around the room with them during a song. At the end of our meal, my husband (because he was wearing his birthday pin) received a birthday card signed by all the characters at our meal and a small cupcake. Overall, our dining experience was great.
We saw the Festival of the Lion King and it was mind-blowing. There were so many cool elements of the show with a fire juggler to acrobatic monkeys to giant floats with Simba and Pumba. There is singing and dancing and a few select lucky kids get to be a part of the show. You really need to be up front for this to happen so I would suggest FP+ or being the first in line. We were definitely not that lucky this time. I would definitely put this down as a must see though.
We had a FP+ for Kali River Rapids towards the end of the day. I generally don't find it enjoyable to walk around while wet so I made these reservations for 5:10pm-6:10pm. We ended up leaving after that ride. It's a circle raft ride so there is always a good possibility you're going to leave pretty wet.
When we got back to the resort, we ate dinner that we had picked up on the way from Wendy's. Then, for dessert, we had cupcakes and ice cream for Tom's birthday.
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