Animal Kingdom

Greg is flying off for the weekend on a side quest, so the posts will be written by Amy for the next few days - for those keeping score. We had one day together in the theme park before he left. The deal was that he had to leave her someplace fun while he was gone.

Since Greg had to leave in the afternoon we decided to hit up Animal Kingdom, which is really a half day park. It also had a predicted crowd level of 4/10. There is no such thing as a 1 or 2 crowd level at Disney. Because we are staying on property, we get a half hour early entry. There are a couple of ways to get around- if you have been to Disney World, you know that it’s huge. Parking has its own challenges. So we took the bus. Or really a bus to another bus.

We got to Animal Kingdom right at early entry. Amy went to Avatar Flight of Passage, one of the best rides in all of Disney. Usually the line can run 2 hours, but by going first thing it took 27 minutes. Yes, she timed it!

We basically were able to do most of what we wanted with no wait. So much so, that we decided to leave the park after lunch and park hop to the Magic Kingdom.

Speaking of lunch, we had lunch at a hidden gem in Animal Kingdom, the Nomad Lounge. It is a little oasis away from the hustle and bustle of the parks. The food and drinks are really good, not just for being in a theme park. We would genuinely go here if it were a restaurant near our home. The bread service is worth the visit on its own.

Once we finished everything we wanted to do, we hopped over to Magic Kingdom. It was the most crowded part of the day so the lines were pretty long. We rode Pirates of the Caribbean and then gave up looking for something short.

As we were walking back, we noticed that they were setting up for the afternoon parade. We got stuck in a location and Greg said “I guess we are watching the parade.” We stayed to watch the house marching band come by, and then positioned ourselves to watch the parade on Main Street. Once the parade was over, we left. Greg headed out and Amy went back to the campground to get away from the crowds. Tonight she will go back to catch the fireworks.