Being Girls Together at Disney World, Day One: Animal Kingdom

As my two 20-something daughters and I planned our end of August trip to Disney World, we tried to be more scientific about it than in trips past. We consulted several different Disney crowd calendars (undercovertourist.com/planning/when-to-visit.html and touringplans.com/walt-disney-world/crowd-calendar), listened to podcasts (www.disunplugged.com), and read countless blogs (including thedisneyblog.com and disneytouristblog.com). We learned that everybody goes to Magic Kingdom first, which is exactly what we had wanted to do, so it is more crowded on the weekends and on Monday, the first day many vacationers visit the parks. We learned that the parks with EMH (Extra Magic Hours) are the most crowded that day, and that the least crowded days of the week in any park are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Then we had to factor in fireworks and Fantasmic. The Wishes fireworks show would be showing every night, but we could only get tickets to the Dessert Party (with view of fireworks from the Tomorrowland Terrace) on Wednesday, and Fantasmic was not showing Wednesday night at Hollywood Studios. After we considered the availability of desired ADRs (Advanced Dining Reservations) we had a schedule for our five-day visit:
Day 1 (Sunday): Animal Kingdom
Day 2 (Monday): Epcot
Day 3 (Tuesday): Magic Kingdom Fantasyland, New Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland
Day 4 (Wednesday): Magic Kingdom Adventureland, Frontierland, and Liberty Square
Day 5 (Thursday): Hollywood Studios

Our MagicBands came in the mail with our names inside

In all of our research, we also found out about MagicBands. Since both of my girls had gone through the College Program, we were lucky enough to have a connection that allowed us to take advantage of a sweet deal at the Art of Animation resort (we wanted to check out the family suites), but we found out through the DIS podcasts that the only hotels that would be issuing MagicBands were Pop Century, Contemporary, Animal Kingdom Lodge, and Yacht Club. Luckily for us, we could transfer our sweet deal to Pop Century and as soon as we did, I got an email asking me to personalize my MagicBands with color and name. Why did we want the MagicBands so badly? FastPass+, which would allow us to reserve three FastPasses per day online ahead of time. I was also surprised to find out that I could request a "Preferred Room" and so I requested a room near transportation.

So excited to meet at the airport and board the Magical Express!

We arrived late Saturday night, all of us coming in from different cities, met in the Orlando airport, and enjoyed our Magical Express ride to Pop Century. I distributed the Magic Bands, the concierge at the resort linked them to our tickets for us and we proceeded to the food court where we dined like kings and decided we absolutely loved Pop Century. The menu selections were amazing. OK, the ambience was a little cafeteria-like, but the food was delicious. We were also happy with our room. We really couldn't see much difference between it and the rooms at the Moderates we had stayed in, Caribbean Beach and Coronado. And in the two Moderates, we had had to walk what seemed like MILES to get to transportation. At Pop Century, we were a hop, skip, and a jump from the pool, dining, and the bus. Perfect.

So off we went to Animal Kingdom the next morning. We had FastPass+ for Dinosaur, the Safari, and Expedition Everest, and we had planned the times so that we had enough room between FastPass rides to see the Lion King show and travel to Rafiki's Planet Watch, since it closed early. I could end my review of Animal Kingdom right here with these words--I WILL NEVER GO BACK THERE AGAIN--but instead, I'll explain why: it is just too hot for humans in that place. I was as red as a tomato within thirty minutes and felt like I was in a sauna the rest of the day, wiping constant sheets of sweat off my face. Miserable. Granted, it was August in Orlando, so what did I expect, but I remember being there during other times of the year, too, and what I remember about those times was: there is never any air movement in the Animal Kingdom. Maybe it's my age, maybe I'm just too fat for Disney World in August, but I made a vow to myself within the first thirty minutes as I was turning into a tomato head in that steam jungle they call Animal Kingdom, and the vow was never to return to Disney World in a hot month. From now on, I'm taking the advice of my sister, a former annual Disney World passholder for many years: go the week after Thanksgiving. The parks are empty and the weather is beautiful. Sold.

I also realized, after our Animal Kingdom day, that it is the largest of the four parks. My dogs were barking, painfully. We walked more miles that day than any other day, and it was our shortest day, since Animal Kingdom closes at 6:00. Now that I know this, it might make me consider putting Animal Kingdom last in the schedule the next time we go to Disney World, that is, if I were ever going back, but, as I mentioned previously, I am never going back there again.

In spite of the fact that I'm never returning, I will admit that it is a beautiful park and every bit as magical as the rest of them. We experienced the magic in a lot of different ways that day. Timon came and sat by my youngest daughter in the audience during the Lion King show, put his arm around her, and then proceeded to choose a mentally challenged young adult across from us to join him in the parade around the floor. We got to watch that young man in his Lion King t-shirt participate with glee and then return to his seat where he patted the seat next to him where Timon had sat and then pointed to Timon while his parents nodded and smiled and we got tears in our eyes. Then he sang every word of every song in the rest of the show with a smile as bright as anything on stage. We couldn't take our eyes off him. His magical Disney moment had become ours.

As far as we were concerned, Timon stole the show

Isn't she lovely?

Next magical moment: we bumped into a Pocahontas meet-and-greet, which you never see any more. She's my favorite Disney "princess," mostly because she wasn't a princess, but an independent girl with a job to do. We love interacting with the Disney characters, especially since my older daughter used to be "best friends" with many of them when she worked at Disney World. When we see a character, we get as giddy as if George Clooney had just walked into the room. (We take a lot of flack about it from my afore-mentioned sister, who is a Disney expert, but who just doesn't get the appeal of the characters. "Going stalking again?" she'll ask.) Pocahontas was charming, and chatted with us at length about how we arrived (by canoe), and how I had skinned the cheetah I had made my Mickey ears out of. I asked her about John Smith and how she was doing without him and she said he came back for frequent visits. I had a million pictures taken with her, since she's my favorite, but none of them of me turned out, since I was by then a total tomato head, with a shiny sweaty face and my hair pulled back into a tight bun to keep the heat off my neck. But she looks great in them, so I'll just crop myself out.

Our last magical moment was on the Dinosaur ride that I almost skipped. We had FastPasses, but the lines were negligible, so we rode it three times in a row. What made it magical is that we decided to pose in a different pose for each photo. In the first photo, we just look scared, but in the second one we played dead, and when we exited the ride and walked past the PhotoPass photos posted on the wall, we actually got a round of applause for our efforts. We ran out of ideas for what to do in the third photo, so we decided to just raise our arms and laugh as if we were having a great time on a roller coaster (the camera snaps the photo when the dinosaur lunges at you out of the dark and roars). The problem was, we couldn't remember exactly when the dinosaur lunged, so we raised our arms and held hands as soon as the lights went out, and as we were lurching and plunging around in that car for what seemed like ages in the dark with our arms straight up and big fake smiles plastered on our faces, we got so tickled that we laughed so hard we could barely breathe. The smiles weren't fake when the photo was finally taken!

From scared to dead to laughing out loud

After the park closed, my youngest wanted to go meet friends at the Polynesian, get a Dole Whip, and watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks from the beach, but my other daughter and I were truly fried. We begged off, had another scrumptious repast at the Pop Century food court (try the mussels with fennel cream sauce, it was another magical moment!), took hot baths and soaked our tired feet, and were in bed looking at our PhotoPass pictures by the time the youngest got back. We had walked 12,363 steps that day according to my iPhone app--an all-time record for me--and I was feeling every step, although for a brief moment before I fell asleep, I thought to myself, "maybe I will go back there someday..."