We had originally got our final visit to Animal Kingdom planned for Friday, but as we weren’t sure how the 3.30am get up tomorrow would affect us decided to switch it to today instead and leaves Friday free to play by ear.
We were at the park by 8.30am and which was already open despite a 9am advertised opening. They usually open this park 45-60 minutes before the advertised time, so if you’re wanting to rope drop any rides it’s a good idea to get there very early (Flight of Passage was already at 60 minutes when we passed by). The plan was to head straight for the Safari as we had a fastpass for Flight of Passage, but Polly decided they wanted to do Navi River first. There’s never any queue first thing so we hopped on and off before heading to the Safari (Steve had been for coffee and snacks whilst we rode Navi, which prompted Winnie to give me a ‘don’t blame me if Daddy’s coffee is cold when we get there’ lecture as she didn’t want to go on Navi!) which only had a small queue.
It was lovely to ride this in cooler weather as even first thing in August it is crazy hot. We saw so many animals including giraffes that were walking alongside the vehicle and a rhino that was definitely within charging distance! As we passed the lions the tour guide told us that the lions were ready to settle down for their 18-hour sleep. Winnie then stated that Steve must be part lion, whereas I’m pretty sure I am more black rhino (antisocial, doesn’t really like members of its own species 🤣)
After the Safari we walked the discovery trails around the tree of life and got another Wilderness Explorer sticker for the girls. They started the books in summer but still have a few stickers to get. I really like this part of Animal a Kingdom as it lets them learn lots of different things in a fun way (and who doesn’t love a sticker?!)
The Discovery Trails are such a good way to get a really close-up view of the Tree of Life, which really is amazing.
We then got the train to Rafiki’s Planet Watch to take part in the animation class. We loved this in August, and it was just as good this time.
We drew Shere Khan which was definitely trickier than Simba, but still so much fun.
After getting two more Wilderness Explorer badges we set off back on the train for our Flight of Passage fastpass. This ride really is amazing, but it’s always hit and miss as to whether I’ll be able to do it without feeling sick. Sometimes I’m fine, others I have to close my eyes for almost the whole time. Today was the latter, but I still enjoyed the smell 🤣
We then had a reservation at Tiffins. We have so many credits left this time because we didn’t want to pre book meals on run days as we’ve no idea how we’ll feel, and as a Tiffins was our favourite meal last time we thought we’d use 2 credits to go again. We booked the Festival of the Lion King package because it gives you 3 courses rather than 2! You also get reserved seating for a later show, but we didn’t intend to use those as we’ll have left by then. Still better than the straight dining plan though. The food was again fabulous, but our server wasn’t the best. We were sat for about 15 minutes at the start without her even coming over to us and then had to kept asking for water to be refilled and dirty plates to be moved. She just seemed a bit slow and rather lack lustre all round!
The girls then asked to go and play on the Boneyard for a bit. They really miss having space to play (they love random make-believe games) so they had a whale of a time. It was also lovely for them not to be reduced to boiling beetroots within 10 minutes as they are in summer.
After the Boneyard we decided to head for the Expo to collect our race bibs. We’d never been before and didn’t know what to expect. We had to get an Uber from Animal Kingdom to Wide World of Sports (they have buses running from resorts, but we didn’t want to go all the way back to jump on another bus). Ideally one of us would have taken the girls home, but you have to pick your own bib up if you’re an adult and tag-teaming would have taken all day, so we decided to stick together.
We’ve never visited Wide World of Sports before and couldn’t believe the size of it. We had to walk all the way to the back to collect our bibs, then to another building (full of things to buy as well as some freebies) to get our race shirts. The atmosphere was brilliant, and the girls started to get really excited about the race tomorrow. They wanted photos in their shirts, but Winnie thought the dress was too puffy underneath, so pulled it down giving a great maxi-skirt/ running top style combination!!
After a quick look round and a few photos we found the bus back to Yacht Club (which seemed to take forever so we ended up hopping off at the Swan/ Dolphin and walking!) We got back to the hotel to find Said (our mouse keeper) had been hard at work arranging the toys for the girls. It was very cute, but I couldn’t shake the image of the Dexter episode with the Dying Angel in it from my mind!!
All marathon outfits laid out, a quick service tea in bed and an early night ready for our 3.30am get up! Let’s see if these arthritic joints of mine make it round World Showcase tomorrow! I’m sure the £1200 we’ve raised so far for Young Minds and the memory of my beautiful Amy are all the motivation we’ll need to get us through ❤️
If you would like to read more about the reasons we chose to run the 60k challenge, or make a donation to our Young Minds UK fund, you can find our page here:
Every penny is very gratefully received, and if we can help just one young person suffering with mental illness then it will be so worthwhile.
Thank you x x
Doodle & Peg Do Disney 
Can’t wait to see Lotso tomorrow for the marathon 😉
We are heading home to Philadelphia today.
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