Shipwrecked!: Day 261: Disney Day 3

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Day 261: Disney Day 3

We changed things up today and skipped Magic Kingdom in lieu of two other parks. We opened up Animal Kingdom in the morning and spent half a day there. Animal Kingdom is cute but it doesn't hold a lot for the kids, especially since we lived at the San Diego Zoo for a year. We went right to the Mount Everest ride to beat the crowds. This was a big one for Calen, who has wanted to go on it since the last time we came here (at age 4) but was half a centimeter too short to ride it. Both boys rode it and Calen LOVED it but Cam only liked the snow monster part. They got more "medals" (pins) for that ride for conquering probably the scariest ride in all of Disney World. After that we went to this AWESOME Lion King live show that features floats, dancing and all the songs from the original movie. Straight after that we met Baloo and King Louie, and then went to our one and only character meal of the trip: lunch at the Tusker House. It's a buffet style restaurant but features a lot of African-styled foods (and traditional American foods for picky kids). As we eat, Mickey, Donald, Daisy and Goofy came around, met the kids, signed autographs and took pictures. It's a fun way to sit down and eat but also a great way to punch out the major characters the kids want to meet.

Immediately following lunch we said goodbye to Animal Kingdom and headed to Epcot, since it was open until 10pm that night.

Unfortunately, I planned this wrong. It was the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot, but it also was 3 years ago and the crowds were minimal. What I forgot to put into account was that we did Epcot for half a day in the MORNING last time. This time, we arrived around 2:30pm, and it was PACKED. I mean, shoulder to shoulder impossible to enjoy anything packed. The lines for food were miles long, and it had more of a gigantic frat party feel. So, we ducked away from the food stands and met Baymax (and gave him an obligatory fist bump, of course), and then went on the Finding Nemo ride and played around at the aquarium afterwards. We did an obligatory walk around the World Showcase, which was too crowded to really enjoy (other than some school bread in Norway) and then went on the Test Track ride where the kids designed their own cars and then rode "in" them at 60mph. But by the end the lines were too long and the crowd too thick to enjoy, so we went back to the hotel instead of closing the park (3 hours early).

Note to self: do Epcot in the morning next time.