12 Days at Disney Feb 2018 Trip Report - Day 11
It was our second to last day, and this family loves Chef Mickeys, so we started our day with a character breakfast at Chef Mickeys. It gets a bad reputation because of the price and because people say "it's just a buffet", but I'm always quite satisfied with it. It's an efficient way to meet characters, the staff there having moving large amounts of people through at a good pace down to a science, it's clean, and the buffet always has something for everyone. There's a hot bar, a cereal station, a build your own Mickey waffle station, and more. So I'm always happy here, and I think my whole family is.
Ducky friends at the Contemporary resort
Tummies happy, we headed to the Contemporary Resort's bus station where two ducks were hanging out, amusing us, until our bus for Disney's Animal Kingdom came. We had FastPasses for Flight of Passage and the whole family was impressed. My daughter liked it so much, she did what I had done a week ago, and cried happy tears. I love my little Disney sap!
It was warmish, so we stopped at Pongu Pongu and got Night Blossoms, and walked around Animal Kingdom enjoying those for a while. We walked the Gorilla Falls exploration trail, and my daughter did more Wilderness Explorer activities.
We had FastPasses for the Safari at 12:05. Although I was concerned the animals would not be as active in the heat of the day, we got to see the baby elephant bathing with the other elephants. They were throwing water around and splashing and I don't think I'd ever seen the elephants like that before, so it was a great safari.
We got it in our heads that we needed to see Rafiki, so we got on the long train ride out to Rafiki's Planet watch. My daughter earned another Wilderness Explorer badge, then we waited for Rafiki to show up and met Rafiki.
Next up, Kali River Rapids. My family wears ponchos on this ride because we know better. Other guests literally laughed at us in line. But we were the ones laughing at the end of the ride! It's a beautiful ride, but you will get soaked if you don't take precautions.
Wilderness Explorers sign at Animal Kingdom
The park was getting crowded in the Asia area. The area between Asia and Dinoland can get particularly rough at times, so we grabbed a frozen banana and a pretzel, and began to make our escape. We stopped in Pandora, though, to adopt a purple banshee my daughter named Onyx. The Cast Member was careful to explain these banshees were untamed, and I think my daughter liked that idea, and Onyx was full of sass.
We didn't actually exit the park until 4:15 or so. We packed a little bit, and grabbed a bite from Captain Cook's at our resort. The husband wanted a Big Kahuna sandwich but he ended up not liking it and said it made him nauseous, so we didn't return to any parks that day. Instead, I took the daughter back out to the pool for a while. In the evening, I went out to the beach to get a nice view of the electrical water pageant one last time. Shortly after this, I returned to the room and the husband and I sat on the balcony enjoying the balmy Florida air one last time, when they started doing something strange over at the castle. The Magic Kingdom was closed by this hour, but there were lots of flashes and smoke by the castle. There was even a moment where it looked like there was an explosion and the castle was shrouded in smoke, but when the smoke cleared, all was well. We figure they were testing or previewing a special show.
I called this painting in our room's bathroom, the Weeki Wachee mermaids, and I was sad to have to say goodbye to them soon.
Anyway, we were mesmerized by this, which is why when my daughter called me from the shower, I forgot the glass sliding door was closed and I walked right into it and left a nice face print on the glass. No, I'm not kidding. At least you now know the glass is very clean at Disney. So.... even though we were tired, we stayed up for a little while to watch the Olympics (and mostly to make sure I didn't give myself a concussion).
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