Today was our last full day at Animal Kingdom Lodge, and although the beautiful weather made us very tempted to have a resort day, we decided to stick with the plan of rope-dropping Magic Kingdom to do a few rides as all we seem to have done so far is parades and shows!
We arrived way earlier than expected as we were up and dressed super quickly and arrived at the bus stop just as the first bus was driving up. Steve obviously went straight to Starbucks while we waited at the bridge to Tomorrowland to rope drop the classic that is Tomorrowland Speedway! As it turned out, Steve was super-fast so we got to polish off our Starbucks before the park opened, meaning he endured Speedway with the girls whilst I spectated.
We then managed to do Peter Pan, the Little Mermaid (with mandatory 3 stops during the ride) and Small World before the park started to get really busy.
The girls decided they wanted to head to Sir Mickey’s for some final photos in their 50th outfits as they won’t be wearing them next trip since the celebrations will be over, so we headed there. The photographer was great and had them doing some funny poses.
We wanted to watch the 50th cavalcade but it was still really early, so we went for a full loop of the park on the Railroad. It only takes about 15 minutes to go the whole way round, and is a lovely way to relax.
We walked to our usual spot in front of The Olde Christmas Shoppe to watch the cavalcade. The girls like it here as if they don’t get to wave to all the characters they can quickly cut through to Main Street to watch it again there, and that’s exactly what we did. All the characters/ dancers were laughing at them, asking if they’d run there as they’d seen them before!
We quickly met Mickey at Town Square and then planned to head back to the hotel, but Polly was hungry and really wanted to do Splash Mountain which was currently down, so we decided to grab a quick bite from Cosmic Rays (2 kids quick service meals) then see if it was back up. It wasn’t, but it was almost time for the Festival of Fantasy parade, so we headed towards Frontierland and found a shady spot to watch in the hope that by the time it finished Splash Mountain would be back open.
It worked perfectly. The parade was great, a lot of the characters came over to the girls including Wendy, who chatted with them about how she’d loved their Christmas Donald and Daisy and their Belle & Beast outfits, which Winnie was go smacked about. Donald was cheering at Winnie when he passed and Daisy came over to give Polly the longest hug. I still miss the big groups of dancers, but really enjoyed watching it all the same.
We then jumped on Splash, which had reopened, ahead of the crowd who were watching the parade further down the route. I always forget how long this ride is, but we all enjoyed it for quite possibly the last time before the re theme. We then headed out of the park for the bus back. Winnie proved she’s definitely my daughter by speed walking past anyone going remotely slowly as, in her words, ‘if you’re moving, you might as well move quickly!’ It made me remember when she was tiny how one of her first phrases was ‘oh come on!’ when we came behind a slow car after she’d heard me say it so many times! The bus came about 5 minutes after getting to the bus stop so we hopped on and headed back for an hour around the pool (I did plan on packing but decided it could wait!)
It was a lovely, sunny afternoon, and we all loved the hour winding down after our busy morning. Well, apart from when Winnie accidentally kicked Polly in the face the pool during a game of ‘naughty baby’ (I have no idea) which resulted in Polly crying because she was hurt and Winnie crying because she’d hurt her sister!! Luckily, it was short lived and we only got a few strange looks.
We were meant to be heading to O’hana this evening. After a lot of checking, I’d manage to modify our reservation to the perfect time to allow us to eat and get to Magic Kingdom in time to ride People Mover in the dark before watching the fireworks. However, after stopping for an hour and knowing we had all the packing to do, none of us could face going out again. We thought about going to the Sanaa lounge but instead opted for Victoria Falls, the lounge area just above Boma. We had a few drinks and some lovely food (the girls had food from The Mara but also ate some of ours) and it was really lovely.
We then headed out to toast marshmallows on the campfire in the dark, before heading up to pack. It was such a lovely ending to our stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge, and whilst we’re looking forward to The Yacht Club, we’ve decided that if we come next year at this time we may well stay in one place for the whole time.
Doodle & Peg Do Disney 