It's Sunday morning, and I decided to head over to Disney's Animal Kingdom (DAK). I've been only to this park once ever, but I have never been to the park since it officially opened so that will give you an idea of how long it's been. I decided to take the bus from Yacht Club - which given my experience on this trip with Disney transportation might be a foolish move; and unfortunately for me, Disney transportation didn't fail to disappoint me. We boarded the bus around 8:55 AM, but unfortunately had an irate visitor from the UK who wanted to go to Blizzard Beach. As the water park did not open until 10 AM, no buses were yet running to Blizzard Beach. The UK gentleman went on a tirade, and the bus driver in order to pacify the man agreed to take the man and his young daughter to the park. We arrived at Blizzard Beach around 9:15 AM and dropped them off, but that's when the problem began...
The bus just sat there at the intersection light waiting for a green light to go. We waited. And waited. And waited. The bus driver took a bit too long to realize that the light was not going to turn green. It appears that Disney is a bit crafty with its traffic control. Certain lights won't function when the parks are not open in order to maximize the flow of traffic the other way. It wasn't until around 9:30 AM he realized this, and got on the radio in order to help with lights. Finally, they got the light to turn green and we were finally on our way, passing the runners along the way. Upon arriving at DAK, I got these shots of the DAK Christmas Tree (and remember, this is the first weekend of January):
It's now 9:40 AM. I departed from Yacht Club at 8:55 AM. The total time for the trip was 45 minutes.
Thanks, Mr. UK. I headed into the park and took a right at the Tree of Life:
And proceeded to Asia:
And finally arrived at the most unpopular attraction of all at WDW:
It's called Expedition Everest. I've heard all the hype here on Subsonic about how incredibly busy this attraction is:
Mousekedude wrote:I also remember that the crowds were horrible, and Mouseoholic was extremely disappointed because she had been looking forward to riding E.E. ... After the Lion King, we made another attempt at E.E., but it was just no use.
I got my Fast Pass, which was for 10:15 AM, but then I discovered how deceived I had been! I've been told how popular this ride was but in fact no one wants to ride it! After I got the Fast Pass I then noticed the stand-by line was 0 minutes. I thought it was broken, but it turned out it wasn't. It was 0 minutes! No one was waiting in line. I walked straight through to the boarding and got on the ride. In fact, there was so few people to ride it that they were dragging marathoners out of the race to fill up the trains:
And for roller coaster, it wasn't bad - a pretty good one in fact - given that nobody wants to ride it. Maybe it's that drop:
So after I got off the ride I noticed it there's still nobody in the line so - what the heck - I rode it again. And then again. By the time 10:15 AM rolled around, I decided to pass on the Fast Pass. After all, by that time, I have riden Expedition Everest four times in a row and it just seemed...well...old. The novelty was gone in less than 30 minutes.
Instead, I headed off the jungle trek where I got to spend some cuddly time with some feral cats:
Fortunately, I don't have to feed these cats. Next, I moved onto "It's Tough to Be a Bug", the 3D movie I didn't see during my first visit to the park. After that, I hoped a bus to Disney Hollywood Studios, which was another long, gruesome ride as many of the roads were closed off due to the marathon (the run was over, but they still hadn't re-opened the roads yet as they were still cleaning them). Finally, after another 40+ minute bus ride, I arrived at DHS:
I checked with the Mousekecouple and their plans was to be at the park between 2-3 PM as they had an ADR at 4:30 PM. With some time to kill until they arrive so I went on Star Tours, MuppetVision 4D, Star Tours, Great Movie Ride, Star Tours, lunch, and then Star Tours. Hmmmmmmm, there seems to be a pattern there. I admit I was testing the claim that the "randomness" of Star Tours would not give the same journey you had before. They were wrong. Here are my results:
As you can see - yes, you can have the same ride twice, and even in the same day and same hour.
During my time there I saw some things I took some quick photos. Here's one of some pins that would interest Mousekedude and NaCler:
And as much as Disney hates it when people steal from them, here's a fine example of their commercial hypocrisy:
I wonder if the BBC knows they're stealing from Doctor Who merchandising with this?
It was now 3:30 PM and no sign of the Mousekecouple. Additionally, the trip had begun to take its toll. I unfortunately had just gotten over a long battle with the flu just before the trip and I was feeling a bit exhausted. There was still a 2+ hour car ride back home today as I had already checked out of the Yacht Club. I had planned to stay till around 5 PM but I changed my mind to leave early instead. I headed back on the boat to the Yacht Club and while on the boat, coincidentally enough, I saw the Mousekecouple and Boilers walking on the pavement to DHS. Bad timing. It turned out to be a good thing I was driving back before it turned dark: the valet who got my car informed that I had a tail light out in the back of the car. There's nothing FHP love to write tickets more than speeding is burned out tail lights.
And that's the end of my trip report...