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By the time we got back to our hotel after catching the last monorail of the night it was probably about 2am, but by an act of Disney magic the next morning we were up bright and early and couldn't care less. I was actually wide awake somehow... probably because I knew that we were headed to the Happiest Place on Earth! Brit was wide awake too knowing that she was only 24 hours away from her happiest place on earth.

 

We knew that rain was in the forecast so our plans were sort of all over the place. We knew we were starting the day at Animal Kingdom since I had reserved Kilimanjaro Safari and Navi River Journey for the morning 30 days out but that was really the extent of our planning for most of the day. We also had an Everest FastPass for that night which I think I ended up cancelling.

 

Anyway, we didn't bother to get to the park right at rope drop since it was a late night before but we were pretty close and decided to start off with Everest since we assumed basically everyone would be over in Pandora (but we had no reason to go there since we had a River Journey Fastpass and a plan to ride Flight of Passage right at close which was a strategy that Robb had been preaching for weeks).

 

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Good Morning! Just in-case you forgot that you were in the most insane and amazing theme park ever, these birds just fly around the midways in a circle every day to greet the guests.

 

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This place...

We made our way over to Everest and were greeted with a short 15 minute wait. This ride is just exceptionally good. I covered my thoughts on it in that last report, but I was really happy to get another ride in despite the crappy forecast and it only solidified the fact that this is my new favorite coaster on WDW property. What a home run...

 

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What a way to start the day.

After (yet another) insane Everest ride, it was time to make our way over to Kilimanjaro Safari for our Fastpass reservation. This meant walking into the Africa section which was the only area of the park we didn't manage to hit the previous day. As was the case with the rest of the park, this area was flat out gorgeous. The level of detail here and in Harambe market is just so, so good. This is an area where the park really shines at making things look bad on purpose (which looks awesome). Again, that's a direct contradiction but nothing in this park makes any sense. It defies the laws of awesome.

 

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This is the least impressive way to get to Kilimanjaro Safari and it's still awesome.

 

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We're not at Great Adventure anymore, Toto. We're in Africa being blessed by the (lack of) rains, other Toto.

 

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Never Forget (but please do not pull your d*ck out in the middle of Walt Disney World)...

 

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Our chariot awaits!

One thing I need to say about this ride is that it has to be the most amazing operation I've ever seen in a theme park. Not only are there tons of vehicles, but there are tons of unload platforms also and I have no idea how they coordinate all of this. I wouldn't be shocked if this ride has well over 100 "ride operators" and it's amazing how quickly they move people through this thing (especially when you're used to Six Flags). The fact that the truck itself can open and close the gates rather than at Great Adventure where they need to have the ops manually open and close a giant cage thing really helps with operations also. They don't mess around when it comes to efficiency.

 

Another thing I found interesting was that the driver also serves as a guide while at Great Adventure they have someone sitting back with the riders doing this. It's actually shocking that Great Adventure doesn't do this since they could eliminate a lot of labor in a pretty sensible way. I almost feel like the chains operate in the exact opposite way that I would expect them to in that regard.

 

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Unlike the Six Flags version, the driver gets a headset and doubles as a tour guide.

Did you get a chance to ride the safari for the next report? I'm curious to see what you thought of it and how it compares to great adventure. It's one thing I think great adventure actually beats Disney at because I feel like you get much closer to all the animals at great adventure. Both are still fantastic though.

 

Okay, so let's talk about this.

 

Kilimanjaro Safari's is a beautiful attraction with insane, highly immersive theming. You really FEEL like you're on an African Safari. Things like the foliage, bridges and rock formations for the lions (that I believe are heated to encourage them to get up there) are amazing. Great Adventure's ride feels like you're riding around New Jersey in a safari park with huge fences around it, this ride makes you feel like you're in Africa.

 

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Elephants on the safari.

That said, Great Adventure's ride is longer and they have a better selection of animals. The bear section is one of the highlights at Great Adventure and I don't recall seeing bears on this ride. To be fair, this ride has Cheetahs (though they are far away) so it has a few unique things also but Great Adventure does win in terms of ride duration and the selection of animals.

 

I can't really pick a favorite. I'm tempted to say Kilimanjaro but that's probably just because it's different. Both are amazing experiences for different reasons and the two rides actually feel very different to me.

 

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The ride dumps you into an awesome gorilla area.

After Kilimanjaro we had really ridden everything we needed to ride at Animal Kingdom between this day and the previous day so we decided to open up the show schedule and see what was playing. We had the opportunity to see the Nemo show which I hear is amazing, but the Lion King show was also playing before we needed to be at River Journey for our Fastpass and since it was close by and we liked the movie better, it was an easy call.

 

We made our way over and were immediately directed to the front row (seriously? awesome!). I won't go into much detail but it was a really fun show. Basically it's a sing-along with acrobatics, animatronics and just the right amount of dancing for people like us who can appreciate it, but would generally rather die than watch a dance show.

 

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Really cool show...

If you've seen the show on Broadway, this really has a pretty similar vibe to that with less of an emphasis on storyline and more of an emphasis on acrobatics (if that makes sense).

 

I highly recommend this show. They roll in some awesome animatronics on floats right next to the seating areas and the performers interact with the crowd a lot so you're right on top of the action and it feels really immersive. There's no story but everyone already knows the story. It's pretty much just a giant Lion King party with (obviously) fun music and it's a great excuse to get off of your feet and into the air conditioning for a bit. The show also has a TON of showtimes so it would probably be a welcome escape from the daily summer storms also since there's pretty much always another show starting within 30ish minutes.

 

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What a fun show!

 

Not only was the show tremendously entertaining, but it also served it's purpose of filling our gap before our River Journey Fastpass window so as we left the theater we started to make our way over to Pandora. Apparently this pathway to Pandora from Africa is new, but you wouldn't know it because it's absolutely gorgeous and everything is fully grown in.

 

As is the case from the other entrance, the transition is very gradual into Pandora and everything is seamless. I was worried that it wouldn't have that same "Wow" factor in the middle of the day, but I can confirm that it's still completely amazing.

 

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Holy crap!

 

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Yeah... that's a show building

River Journey was once again posting a massive wait time, and once again we were on within 5 minutes with Fastpass. Our second ride was just as great as the first, but (like last time), the people behind us were openly bitching to anyone who was willing to listen once we hit the unload platform. I REALLY like this ride and I think it's a great attraction so it's a shame to see that. Hopefully when the hype dies down a bit and the lines get a bit more reasonable people will start to appreciate this ride for what it is.

 

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This animatronic is so amazing...

 

After River Journey we decided that since we had hit everything at Animal Kingdom except for Flight of Passage and since we were still holding 2 skip the line passes for Magic Kingdom we would make our way back there for the afternoon. The sky was looking ominous and we knew that they had much more to offer in terms of indoor rides than Animal Kingdom so it seemed like the sensible thing to do.

 

I cancelled our reservation for Everest that afternoon and messed around on the app on the way out to the car, eventually scoring Big Thunder Mountain Fastpasses. We knew the weather was iffy, but that was too appealing to pass up.

 

We opted to take the tram back to the car and (by some miracle) we managed to get to the entrance, get on the tram and have it drop us off before the rains came. We knew what general section we parked in but were unsure of the exact location of the car. Unfortunately, while we were looking the heavens opened up in ridiculous fashion and we got completely dumped on. Oh well, we knew it was a risk. We finally found the ugly ass rental car, but by the time we did we were soaked to the bone. Whatever... we didn't let that dampen our fun and we began our drive over to the TTC where the sun was shining and it still hadn't rained. God... Florida is really something else.

 

Up Next: Magic Kingdom Part 2 and an Animal Kingdom Encore with Robb!

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PS: The report is fixed now. Saving as a draft often totally screws with the attachment numbers and display orders when you move things around and if the attachment number isn't always one lower than the display order you're in a world of sh*t. I haven't had that happen in awhile so I didn't notice right away. My bad.

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Orlando weather is something else! I always imagine the weather reporters looking at all the conflicting radar and sensor data the just throwing dice before they go on air every morning to give yet another "50% chance of afternoon showers" report.

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Being more of a coaster enthusiast then a theme park enthusiast I have not been rushing a Disney World trip. I am really enjoying this Disney Report so far and am now kind of thinking that I wanna go to Animal Kingdom!

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Another fab update, Billy.

 

FYI - the reason why Great Adventure's safari has a driver *and* a guide is because Jersey drivers are the worst and distracting them with a schpeil while they're trying to navigate around giraffes is a bad idea for everyone involved.

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Those birds! Disney thinks of everything. Glad to hear you were impressed by the safari. I thought Great Adventure's was spectacular, so that's pretty exciting. Good move picking the show based on the IP you like more. That's key with Disney.

 

FYI - the reason why Great Adventure's safari has a driver *and* a guide is because Jersey drivers are the worst and distracting them with a schpeil while they're trying to navigate around giraffes is a bad idea for everyone involved.

Eh, NJ's better than Boston. On the other hand, literally everyone is better than Boston.

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Only just finally got caught up. AMAZING report!! We've never been big Disney people ourselves, but we've thought about doing one Disney trip before we have kids, and your report just further sells us on the need. It also further cements in the fact that my aunt is a tech idiot and couldn't wrap her mind around a simple fastpass system, so all her bitching about the system is unfounded (though personally I already thought it was).

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I had no idea AK released parrots over the walkways like that! So freaking cool. Animal Kingdom has always been my favorite park because of the insane theming, awesome safari, Everest, and the Finding Nemo musical. Nemo is my fav and I am actually watching the movie right now.

 

I agree it's really not possible to compare Kilimanjaro Safari to SORA because they are so different. On one hand, I really love AK's safari and the animals have been right up next to the safari vehicle on many of my rides just like they do at SFGAdv. However, SORA is longer and does feature more animals... but it feels much less immersive since, well, Six Flags. The amount of vehicles Disney runs and the efficiency with which they do it is truly astounding. They are both great safaris for different reasons!

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Great report! You're spot on with the comparison between the safaris too. Disneys themeing is always top notch and easily wins in that area. I think I just focus on the animals more and I always end up on rides at GA where they get so much closer to the vehicles. The giraffes almost always end up sticking their heads into the vehicle lol Disney definitely has the superior ride aspects but I think I'd take GA if I really had to choose just because of the animals themselves. Either way it was just for discussion sake because I love both safaris and they are some of my favorite things to do in any park. I haven't been to animal kingdom since 2016 but your reports got me itching to hop on a cheap Frontier flight and get back down there. Just haven't been able to find the time to squeeze a trip in.

 

I'm glad you guys had a blast down there!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks guys!!!!

 

Being more of a coaster enthusiast then a theme park enthusiast I have not been rushing a Disney World trip. I am really enjoying this Disney Report so far and am now kind of thinking that I wanna go to Animal Kingdom!

 

Trust me, you do. Everyone should go to Animal Kingdom. Also... Expedition Everest is a legitimately GREAT coaster so you can definitely scratch that coaster itch there.

 

Another fab update, Billy.

 

FYI - the reason why Great Adventure's safari has a driver *and* a guide is because Jersey drivers are the worst and distracting them with a schpeil while they're trying to navigate around giraffes is a bad idea for everyone involved.

 

Yeah, that checks out.

 

That's like saying Johnny Rockets food is better than Coasters food. It's technically true but both are so bad it doesn't really matter.

 

 

Only just finally got caught up. AMAZING report!! We've never been big Disney people ourselves, but we've thought about doing one Disney trip before we have kids, and your report just further sells us on the need. It also further cements in the fact that my aunt is a tech idiot and couldn't wrap her mind around a simple fastpass system, so all her bitching about the system is unfounded (though personally I already thought it was).

 

The Fastpass system can be annoying to set up and link up, but once you get the hang of it it's AMAZING. We loved it.

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Animal kingdom is really starting to grow on me. The first few times we visited the park, its was kind of a "let's spend a few hours here and go to another park" type of visit. Now, this park is really a full day plus park.

 

Great report, and glad you enjoyed the park.

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As always another great read! I was appreciating this thread a lot more than usual the other day because I was using it to distract me for 2.5 hours while getting a tattoo

 

Awesome!!! I'm amazed that anyone can tolerate 2.5 minutes of my bullsh*t, let alone 2.5 hours.

 

Animal kingdom is really starting to grow on me. The first few times we visited the park, its was kind of a "let's spend a few hours here and go to another park" type of visit. Now, this park is really a full day plus park.

 

Great report, and glad you enjoyed the park.

 

Thanks! Yeah, at this point I could buy a one day one park ticket to Animal Kingdom and be perfectly happy with life. It's just that good.

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After our massive drenching in the Animal Kingdom lot, we made our way over to the TTC with the heat on full blast (a rarity in Florida). When we arrived, we were greeted with overcast skies but absolutely no rain and no sign that it had rained. Stay weird, Florida...

 

We hadn't initially planned to hit Magic Kingdom on day two, but we were sitting on 2 paper Fastpasses and we didn't ride Pirates the night before (and going to Disney and not riding Pirates would be a travesty). That combined with the fact that the park offered a ton of awesome indoor rides in the event that the rain hung around made it a great option for the next few hours.

 

The TTC undoubtedly sucks, but I won't lie and say that it is kind of cool being on the monorail and watching the Magic Kingdom get closer and closer. I don't snort the "This is Disney Magic" pixie dust, but I do get the appeal in a way. Magic Kingdom certainty has a presence about it and walking under the tracks and on to Main Street never gets old.

 

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The sky looks pretty pissed, but no rain so far

I snagged some Thunder Mountain fastpasses on the monorail for a bit later in the afternoon (knowing that we might get soaked but such is life). First thing's first though, since it wasn't raining and since our Fastpasses had absolutely no visible restrictions we knew exactly where we were headed. With ominous clouds overhead, we booked it over to Seven Dwarfs mine train and handed in our paper passes. The greeter smiled and waived us through. I went to hand in the passes, but they replied with "We might have to close for weather anyway, so just keep them and use them somewhere else". Honestly, the cast members make it hard to use these things. Everyone is so nice that they almost always refuse to take them.

 

We probably spent about 15 minutes in the Fastpass queue and during that time realized that we wouldn't know if we were in for a leisurely mine ride or a watery deluge until after our train dispatched since the station was so well enclosed and themed that you felt totally cut off from the outside world. With trepidation, we boarded the mine cart, put everything in the seat-back pockets and rolled out of the station. Mercifully after the initial descent we realized that it still wasn't raining. Awesome!

 

Wheeeeeeeee

 

This was only our second ride on this thing, but my opinion is pretty much the same as it was the first time. It's a fun ride. It's not nearly as good as Thunder Mountain or Space Mountain but it's a really nice family coaster and a generally beautiful ride all the way around so it's a great centerpiece for Fantasyland. I don't think it's worth the wait times that it generally pulls, but since we were fortunate enough to have Fastpasses we really enjoyed our ride. I love the animatronics in the cave. They really do look like cartoon characters come to life. The technology they use for the face projections is amazingly effective.

 

By the time we exited Mine Train, it was time to ride Thunder Mountain. We wasted absolutely no time getting over there as it still wasn't raining and we wanted to take advantage of that good fortune. On the way, we passed the parade in Liberty Square along with the cool dragon float that has since become a terrifying ball of flames.

 

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Greetings from Thunder Mesa!

The ride was posting a huge wait time, but thankfully we skipped all of it thanks to that awesome Disney Experience app. We had learned that the back seat was the best, but this time we hopped on the first available row since we knew that we were racing the rain and we were already playing on house money (err... "Mouse money"?, I'll show myself out).

 

Thunder Mountain was always a favorite of mine as a kid, and it's still a fantastic attraction. I honestly feel like this ride gets overlooked among coaster people (not by Disney people or the general public obviously), but the level of theming on this ride is absolutely unreal. I couldn't even imagine how much this thing would cost if they built it today from the ground up.

 

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The night before we saw everyone taking their phones out on the lift hill to get similar pictures but it's so ingrained in my head that doing that is against the rules that I never even considered the fact that Disney would allow it. This time I was prepared and I was sure to snap a picture, though to be fair I wish I sat on the other side and took one of the castle instead. There are already enough photos of my ugly mug.

Per usual, the ride was awesome. It didn't top our night ride the night before but it was fun to ride in the day also as it was easier to take in some of the great theming. I feel like I could ride this thing 50 times and keep noticing new things.

 

As we made our way out of the station, we noticed that it had started to rain a but so we decided there was no time like the present to do some pillaging and plundering. We planned to use the paper Fastpasses, but once again we were told to save them and directed into the Fastpass line anyway. God I love Disney.

 

We had a bit of a wait once inside so I pulled up the app again to see what was available. I was hoping for Space Mountain but that wasn't to be, but I did grab a few Haunted Mansion Fastpasses right as we were getting into our boat and I had finally admitted defeat. Not a bad consolation prize...

 

Pirates was (as always) a great ride. Those Jack Sparrow animatronics are amazing, but they actually blend in pretty well despite being infinitely better than everything else in the ride. Still, everything else in the ride is pretty great and it's a really long ride which is also a major bonus. Honestly... what am I even doing? I feel dumb even reviewing this ride. OOOH, HOT TAKE: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN IS A GOOD RIDE!

 

Yeah... no sh*t.

 

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You guys, I'm starting to think that these people who lived on the high seas stealing people's sh*t and killing people might have had questionable morals...

 

After our ride it became apparent that the rain had set in for the foreseeable future so we weighed our options before our Haunted Mansion return time. We considered Space Mountain but it would have been a long walk in the rain so we decided to explore some closer options instead. Brit seemed to have an idea of what she wanted to do but refused to cough it up. I knew where this was headed, desperately suggesting alternative options to Brit but she was having none of it. She hates me and she wants to see me suffer...

 

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F*ck, F*ck, F*ck, F*ck, F*ck, F*ck, F*ck, F*ck, F*ck, F*ck, F*ck, F*ck, F*ck, F*ck, F*ck, F*ck, F*ck, F*ck,

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Can someone please explain how a cruise with no alcohol and the world's most annoying song is the happiest cruse that ever sailed?

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Wouldn't you rather try a different cruise? I think I'd prefer the Costa Concordia

Okay, okay, okay. I'll stop the charade. I like this ride and you do too. Don't lie to yourself. The song sucks and the animatronics belong in a museum but when you throw it all together it's just so much fun. It's also such a massive capacity whore that even in a rainstorm it's only a 10 minute wait. In theory there should be plenty of things to hate about this attraction, in practice there's actually very little NOT to like. Small World is kind of great. I have no idea why, it just is.

 

... god, I don't even know what's happened to me. I was never a Disney guy but now it sounds like I was doing lines of pixie dust on the monorail on the way over. Don't worry though, there's one place where I absolutely refuse to budge:

 

When we got off of our happy cruise we still had about 30 minutes before our Mansion return time and a paper Fastpass to burn. It was POURING outside and neither of us really felt like walking over to Space Mountain or the Mermaid thing to use that Fastpass. Reluctantly, we looked across the midway and knew what we had to do. I was able to rationalize it in my head a little even though deep down I knew it was no use "It has a 100 minute wait, how can it possibly suck? Maybe we just didn't appreciate it last time. Yeah... that's it. It's a classic Disney attraction, we just don't "get it". Hooray! Let's fly to Neverland!"

 

Yeah, what a garbage ride...

 

The "animatronics" are bad, I'm pretty sure Peter Pan only appears in the ride like twice and the ride basically has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. I don't care what the purists have to say, if they gutted this disastrous attraction and replaced it with an awesome, Shanghai style Peter Pan ride I would be thrilled. It'll never happen though because people happily stand in multi-hour lines to ride this thing. Yeah, I know the cars are "flying", so are the cars on the Haunted Mansion in Rehoboth beach. It's a family owned park and they built the ride themselves on a seaside park budget. I like that better than Peter Pan's flight and it's probably not even on my top 10 list of rides named "Haunted Mansion" (or it wouldn't be, if I had such a list ).

 

How the hell do people wait 80 minutes for Navi River Journey (which is really cool) and (at least during our two rides with the people in the back of our boat) audibly bitch relentlessly about how it wasn't worth the wait, but they wait 100 minutes for this ride that's less than half as long and sucks and they rave about it? Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

 

... there. Now I feel better. It's almost like I'm back to writing a real trip report and not an advertorial for Disney World. With that said, time to snort another line of pixie dust because...

 

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The crappy weather makes this thing look even more erie and ominous

Haunted Mansion seemed like a perfect way to end our visit to Magic Kingdom. Without Splash Mountain running it's easily my favorite ride in the park and there's no denying the fact that it's an all around brilliant attraction. Depending on the day, I might tell you that this is my favorite ride on WDW property.

 

There was a bit of wait even with Fastpass, but nothing terrible. We hung out under the awnings in the queue and passed the time by taking ominous mansion photos with the grey sky and playing my new favorite app game... "What can I get a Fastpass for this time?". Spoiler alert: It was Everest.

 

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Welcome Foolish Mortals

As always, the ride was great. The amount of detail is insane, it's super long and it's truly one of the greatest rides ever created. I know, I know... we've got another hot take here.

 

It's absolutely insane to me that an effect that's half a century old at this point and couldn't possibly be simpler creates such amazing, jaw dropping visuals. Even with all of the modern technology in the world I don't think that ballroom scene could be any better but honestly the whole ride is great. It also seems like they keep adding to it, but it's also possible that I just keep noticing new things since it's pretty much sensory overload.

 

After disembarking from our doom buggies and failing to make final arrangements at the end of the tour we stumbled back out onto the midway to see that the rain as starting to lighten up a bit. We popped into the Emporium real quick so that Brit could stock up on the essentials and then made our way back to the TTC so we could grab the car and head over to Animal Kingdom.

 

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Brit wasn't leaving without Stitch

We arrived at Animal Kingdom about 90 minutes before close and had tentative plans to meet up with Robb for our first Flight of Passage ride. First thing's first though, the rain had let up for a second and we were going on an Expedition.

 

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I have no words for Animal Kingdom.

The rain had stopped for a bit when we got in line, but by the time we got back in line it was already picking up again. Lucky for us it wasn't too bad during the ride so we still had an absolute blast, unfortunately the second we hit the uncovered brake run it picked up with a vengeance and we almost drowned.

 

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Not sure what Brit's doing here. lol

We hung out in the Everest gift shop for a bit to ride out the rain, grabbing some merchandise in the process (because this ride is AWESOME) and a few minutes later the rain all but stopped and we decided to venture out. We started heading towards Pandora, grabbing a beer along the way. By the way... it was really surprising to me that Disney's food prices seem entirely reasonable for a theme park. Sure, things aren't as cheap as they would be outside of the park, but compared to Six Flags, Cedar Fair or Universal I found them to be quite reasonable. I forget what kind of beer I had (they only had one or two things so I think it was some crap like Bud Light), but $7.50 for a beer at Disney World isn't really all that bad... especially not when Great Adventure charges $10.

 

As we began walking it started to rain again which was a real bummer since I was drinking a Bud Light out of a plastic cup and the last thing Bud Light needs is to be watered down any more than it already is. Robb shot me a message asking about weather at the park, to which I responded that it was alternating between a fantastic night at the park and a complete f*cking monsoon every 5 minutes. He seemed unfazed because... Florida and told us he was on his way. In the meantime, we made our way over to Satu'li Canteen in Pandora to eat some of those weird burger pod things. They were pretty cool... gimmicky for sure, but fun to eat. The star is really the dessert though. I forget what we had but it was some blue thing and it was AMAZING.

 

Robb met up with us while we were chowing down on pods with about 15-20 minutes to go before park close. We hung out for a bit but with about 10 minutes left we made our way back into the monsoon and over to Flight of Passage. On the way, he pointed out a beer place and told me to try the green beer. I didn't need any convincing, but unfortunately the tap totally crapped itself and in the interest of time I grabbed another one of their signature beers which was also amazing and we all headed into the queue.

 

The wait time was posted at 95 minutes, but we didn't mind at all and that was actually a pretty short wait for Flight of Passage. Robb was confident that it would be way shorter though, and it turned out he was absolutely right. We were into the first pre-show in less than 30 minutes. I actually had to chug my beer.

 

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Even if the line was 95 minutes I wouldn't have complained since I was hanging out with Brit and Robb and standing in one of the coolest queue lines EVER while drinking a great craft beer.

This doesn't happen often but I really don't even know what to say about this ride because I'm still trying to process happened to me on that thing. I know it's a simulator but it didn't feel like one. It felt like we were on f*cking banshees flying around Pandora.

 

First of all, the ride vehicle feels like it moves a LOT compared to most simulators. Second of all, the thing was breathing (no... for real, they make the banshee feel like it's breathing) and third of all the visuals are ridiculous.

 

Normally when you look around and see the other ride vehicles on a ride, it takes you out of it a little but here I think it actually made the whole thing feel even more amazing. We looked down and saw what felt like an endless tower of people riding this thing which we didn't expect since you actually board in a really small room. I've never seen anything like it, and even as a theme park guy I didn't fully "get it".

 

More importantly, the animation itself is totally insane and you don't see the end of the screen at all. The only explanation I have for how this ride works is that this sh*t was real and I was flying on a Banshee. It's THAT convincing.

 

Flight of Passage is one of the most amazing rides I've ever experienced in my entire life and it was an amazing way to end our two days at Disney. It makes every other motion simulator I've ridden look like a steaming pile of sh*t and it's a serious contender for the best ride at Walt Disney World. I could gush about this thing for days, and I'm honestly STILL trying to process it.

 

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Thanks again to Robb for being such an awesome host and showing us around Walt Disney World. Those were some of the most fun days we've ever spent in a theme park.

 

Up next:

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Edited by coasterbill
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Great report!

 

Your thoughts on Seven Dwarfs sum up mine perfectly. It's a fine attraction and I'd ride it if it didn't pull the longest line in the park. While I know I could get on fast with the enter at closing trick, I'd much rather get that last ride on Space Mountain.

 

And then Flight of Passage really is a masterpiece. There are many reasons that ride is so immersive, but I also think being that close to the screen helps as well.

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Flight of Passage is one of the most amazing rides I've ever experienced in my entire life and it was an amazing way to end our two days at Disney. It makes every other motion simulator I've ridden look like a steaming pile of sh*t and it's a serious contender for the best ride at Walt Disney World. I could gush about this thing for days, and I'm honestly STILL trying to process it.

 

I feel the same way and I had never seen the movie! It actually made me want to watch the movie finally, which I did! I just kept saying "OMG" the whole ride and I didn't even take my eyes off the screen! Its truly the best ride I've even been on!

 

It's up there with my buzzed night drinking on Helix 10 times in row!

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By the way... it was really surprising to me that Disney's food prices seem entirely reasonable for a theme park. Sure, things aren't as cheap as they would be outside of the park, but compared to Six Flags, Cedar Fair or Universal I found them to be quite reasonable. I forget what kind of beer I had (they only had one or two things so I think it was some crap like Bud Light), but $7.50 for a beer at Disney World isn't really all that bad... especially not when Great Adventure charges $10.

 

I totally agree and have to explain this to people all the time. Is it more expensive than McDonalds? Yes....... is it considerably different than any other park/movie theater/concert/sporting event out there? Not really, and for the most part the food is really pretty good! The beef bowls in the Satuli Canteen, or some of the options in the Harambe Market are seriously really good for like $12-$15, I would go there for lunch once a month if it were down the street. Hell a burger, fries and a drink at 5 Guys will cost ya $15 these days. Complaining about food/drinks being expensive at Disney is just kind of a lazy/ignorant take (especially considering they let you bring in outside food and beverage).

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Thanks guys!!!

 

Complaining about food/drinks being expensive at Disney is just kind of a lazy/ignorant take (especially considering they let you bring in outside food and beverage).

 

Oh for sure.

 

If Disney charged $15 for a bottled beer I would be perfectly okay with that because I was at Disney World and there's a perception that food would be expensive. I remember walking into Starbucks with Robb and everyone at Magic Kingdom which was the first time we had a line where I happened to look at the prices (not that I cared... I'd have paid $10 for a Latte because like... it's the Magic Kingdom and I'm on vacation so who cares?) and I remember being absolutely amazed at how reasonable everything was. I'm pretty sure the Starbucks on the Jersey Turnpike is more expensive.

 

If anyone complains about food prices at Disney I'd just assume that they never actually went there. Compared to Six Flags, Cedar Fair, Universal or practically any sports stadium (shut up Falcon's fans, 28-3), their prices are great even though they don't have to be. I thought that was great.

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