Even though everyone was asleep early last night, I wasn’t convinced they’d be up in time to rope drop Animal Kingdom and Flight of Passage, so I had a backup plan of buying lightning lanes at 7am. Luckily, I didn’t have to worry as everyone woke by 6.30. We quickly got ready and headed for the bus. The bus times are really inaccurate this trip and a lot of buses have left much earlier than the stated times, but the next one came quickly enough, and despite the queues to the turnstiles stretching almost as far back as security, we still got through quickly.
If you do ever find yourself in a similar busy rope-drop at Animal Kingdom, don’t go in the right hand queue. It only filters into a few turnstiles whereas the other queues filter into lots.
We managed to do Flight of Passage, Navi River and the safari with minimal queues, so we bought our Tusker House breakfast forward. I know lots love this breakfast, but I always feel it’s very overpriced as for us, the food is never fantastic and I always feel very squashed in. Still, the girls loved the character interaction again and we all managed to stuff ourselves!
The Festival of the Lion King was just about to start so the girls and I left to try and get in while Steve paid the bill. We just managed to squeeze in. I love this show so much and it never disappoints. Polly’s favourite bit is the birds dancing, and I love watching her face during it.
By the time we left the show the park was heaving and it was getting really hot. We’d all been a bit out of sorts today so decided a recharge was called for, and headed back to the hotel for an afternoon by the pool. It was just what we needed, and by 3.30pm we were suitably rested and decided to brave the hell that is Disney Springs.
We got a bus there and headed straight for World of Disney. I find this shop so stressful. There doesn’t seem to be a logical way to move around it or find anything, and it just makes me feel annoyed! Luckily we weren’t in there long and headed across to Once Upon a Toy instead.
Polly had been eyeing up a weighted Stitch (we’ll definitely be getting a TSA search note in that suitcase!!) and Winnie a Figment cushion toy thing, so they used the last of their Christmas money to buy those.
We then headed to Goofy Candy Co for a puck & mix for later before heading to Wine Bar George. We went here in August and the girls wanted to go again, so I made the reservation earlier today.
We sat on a high table with stools which the girls loved. Our waitress was lovely and we had a really good time. It’s one of those places where you feel like you’ve properly been out. The owner came over to chat to the girls too, which they loved. We had the skirt steak to share along with a beet salad and a flaming cheese thing which was delicious.
Steve also had a wine flight. Basically, they do 1oz measures of any of the wines on their huge menu, including the really expensive ones (£4000 a bottle anyone?!) to give you chance to try things you wouldn’t ordinarily. You can choose them yourself or set your own price (we gave them a maximum per wine) and how many you’d like to try (Steve chose 3) and let the sommelier choose for you, which is what Steve did.
The sommelier then bought them over and talked about them in depth before using a fancy gadget to inject and remove the wine from the bottle without taking the cork out. It was really interesting (even did someone who doesn’t like wine) and Steve really enjoyed it. Definitely a great thing to try if you like your wine.
We were going to head for a bus, but we’ve had notoriously bad luck at Disney Springs, so walked to the Westside Bus loop to grab an Uber instead, which meant we were home in plenty of time for the girls to have a few sweets whilst watching the Big Hero 6 series before being asleep in bed by 8.30.
It’s our last full day at Animal Kingdom Lodge tomorrow before we move to Yacht Club for a few days, so we are thinking of a park morning and resort afternoon again to make the most of it. We shall see how things pan out though.
Doodle & Peg Do Disney 