Florida
- Day 13
Wednesday 5th November 2025
Participants: Tam, Kev, India, Georgia and Charlie
We're up at 8.00 am and we've all had a good (and warm) nights sleep. We have breakfast in the room along with coffee that India bought in the distillary in St Augustine. It says it's been rested in bourbon barrels. It may be auto suggestion but I reckon there is a slight bourbon taste.
We're doing
slightly different things this morning. Charlie goes to the gym
for a workout while Tam and Georgia go to Disney Springs as
Georgia has seen a jacket she wants to buy. Me and India go to
the quiet pool for a couple of hours as it's very pleasant in the
sunshine. I reflect on our first two days In WDW. It's been quite
busy with long waits for many of the rides. Lightning Lane
Multipass helps, but is also a real pain. The app didn't work
many times and $35 per day is way too much. It certainly suits us
more and more to have time to relax in between park visits. I
suppose we have this luxury as we are on-site for 11 nights. It
might be a different matter if we were only here for 4 or 5
nights.
The quiet pool suddenly becomes less quiet as they start pressure
washing the outside of the buildings. India and I move to the
main pool, which is fine until they start pressure washing there
as well. Some days you just can't win.
Back to the room where Georgia has returned and is happy with her new jacket and even happier with a 20% DVC discount. We have Lays and a beer and get ready to leave as the pressure washing comes closer to our balcony. At 1.30 we get an Uber to the Animal Kingdom where we meet up with Sharon and Evan. We head to Kilimanjaro Safaris, which only has a 15 minute wait. It isn't the best safari we've ever had and it may be my imagination but I think there are less animals than there used to be. We do get to see some rhinocerous up really close and one decides to relieve itself along side the ride vehicle much to the amusement of all on board.
The Gorilla Falls Trail is next where we drop in our old friends the naked mole rats before visiting the gorillas where we chat to a CM who is very informative.
At 3.45 pm we go to the Nomad Lounge where we are lucky enough to get a table outside and I have a Tempting Tigress.
At 4.45 pm we head to Yak and Yeti for our reservation. We all split the tuna nachoes and crab dip with wanton chips to start. I have the flat iron steak for my entree, which is pretty good but flippin' expensive at $40. It's extra magic hours in the AK tonight so we get to stay and see everything in the dark.
Expedition Everest is down so we watch the projection show on the Tree of Life. It's very pretty, in fact everywhere here is really beautiful at night. As we pass by a CM asks if we want to see the new Zootopia show that has replaced It's Tough To Be a bug. It's not supposed to open for another few days, so this is a bit of a plus. If I'm honest it's just an 'ok' from me. It moves fast and it's a job to work out what's going on at times. I wouldn't say it's an improvement over Tough To Be A Bug.
Over to Pandora where we ride River Journey and then get to do Flights of Passage twice. That's the advantage of extra magic hours. There is a really lovely young CM at Flights of Passage. As the restraint holds you in place she walks along the line checking you're secure while saying 'Push, pull, push pull' in a singalong lilt. We're all laughing and can't help but repeat it for the next couple of hours. Just one of those little things that you'll never forget. While we are waiting in the queue for FOP the CM mentioned that there was a rocket launch just about to go off and sure enough we look up to the sky and see the trail in the night sky. Another magical unexpected moment.
Back to Everest but it's still down, so we watch the tree show again, which is different this time. We've had a lovely evening in the Animal Kingdom, I think it's probably the most beautiful park at night. Leave at 10.00 pm and get the bus back to The Boardwalk.
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