Disney World 2023: Animal Kingdom Day 1

Day 5 was Animal Kingdom. I woke up early and decided to go over alone for rope drop. I went straight to the world of Pandora, which was new since I was last here. I was dying to ride Flight of Passage.

The whole area is incredibly impressive. I was just blown away by it all. I was also happy to wait in the full regular line since there's stuff you see in the queue that you don't see in the lightning lane. The detail was so well done.

And the ride itself was absolutely amazing! Think Soarin' but better with a bit more motion simulation and with all the visuals of Disney imagineering. I absolutely LOVED it!

Oscar and the kids got breakfast and met up with us later at "It's Tough to be a Bug." I did Navi' River Journey then worked my way back over to the Tree of Life.

Jenny was on her way and met me at the Macaw show.

She grabbed a return time for Flight of Passage and we wandered around getting photopass photos. This was a plant in Pandora. Too bad the photo is super exposed. 

We got the Super Zoom shot around the Lagoon. There used to be a big show here, but it was shut down a few years ago. They really need another one. There's a giant amphitheater for it that's not getting used. And I'm a big fan of any Disney shows I can sit for.

She and I rode Expedition Everest and saw a few character cavalcades as we walked around.

After we met up with the kids and Oscar at "It's Tough to Be a Bug," we rode Flight of Passage with everyone then went to Festival of the Lion King. I remembered how wonderful it was from 2009, and it did not disappoint in 2023. It's amazing by every definition of the word. 

We rode the Safari with one of our Animal Kingdom pre-selects. 

Then we went to our character lunch at Tusker House. The food was the best I've ever had at Disney. The kids were totally star struck, even Tyler who was complaining before the Safari about not wanting to do a character lunch. He enjoyed the food and loved the characters. My only complaint is that a 10 year old tiny eater has to pay an adult price.

Donald and Daisy!

Did I mention how good the food was? Just look at these desserts! 

We saw Goofy at the end then headed out towards Pandora to do Na'vi river journey.

It's a relaxing boat ride with beautiful scenery from the movie. I was glad I'd done it earlier since I was super sleepy this time. Getting up early after a late night was definitely taking its toll on me. Animal Kingdom closes at 7:00pm, and I think I fell asleep around 8pm that evening. 

The kids went to the Boneyard playground where Allison ran into a former classmate! His mom works at the school and knows Allison, and she said "of course we're going to find Allison in a dinosaur playground!" 

They ended up staying there for about 90 minutes while Jenny and I went off on our own. The kids loved getting Wilderness badges wherever we went. We hadn't planned a second day for Animal Kingdom, but Tyler really wanted to finish up and become a Wilderness Explorer, so we adjusted our plans and took them back the following Monday. 

Jenny and I saw Finding Nemo: The Big Blue and Beyond while the kids played.

We also went around getting pictures and seeing animals. Here's a Komodo dragon and some monkeys.

The pretty tiger and some interesting birds. We thought this bird on the right was a peacock, but it's actually some sort of pheasant. 

We worked our way back to Expedition Everest to meet Oscar and the kids there for our return time.

We rode it once  then made a return time for Dinosaur. Unfortunately it shut down for the last hour, but that ended up being for our benefit since it gave us a free lightning lane entrance to an attraction of our choice the next day. The kids rode Triceratops Spin then we rode Expedition Everest again just before the park closed. Everyone loved Expedition Everest!