Our 5th day of the trip was January 6th and we would be visiting Animal Kingdom. I had never been here before actually and was looking forward to checking it out. Joe and my dad were golfing this afternoon so we needed to drive to the park in the morning so they had a car to get to the course later. The Saxtons and Baumans were bussing and we ran over to The Swan where my parents were staying to get them and my dads golf clubs. We arrived at AK just a bit early and met up with the others. We took our time heading towards the back of the park to the Kilamanjaro Safari but not without a quick bathroom break from me. This was a fun ride but it went a bit fast for my taste. I wished our driver would have stopped for a bit longer to really check out the animals more but I could tell she was in a routine and needed to keep the ride moving. Barrett thought this was neat but kept wanting to stand up (which of course, was not allowed.) After that ride, we had just a bit of time to check out the Pangani trail which had all the monkeys before going to check out the Lion King show.
I loved this show and Barrett really Loved it! His favorites were the bouncing monkey's and he just kept wanting to get up and "Jump on that bed!" It doesn't help that one of his favorite books and songs is "No more monkey's jumping on the bed." He has only seen Lion King maybe once so the story itself wasn't something he knew but I thought it was really well done. It was nearing 10:30 by the time we had finished with the show and most everyone else had FPes for Expedition Everest. Joe, B and myself were not going to do the ride so we took the time to just walk around the park the three of us. This was maybe one of my favorite points of the trip because we had no where to be and could just hang out. We checked out more of the monkey's and got an ice cream cone to share. Barrett was happy with just resting in the stroller so it was pleasant not having to worry about him wandering off. We were able to stake out a spot by the big drop and caught the rest of the gang (minus Allyson, Rachel and Landry who met up with us) going on Everest.
We were all getting hungry so we headed down to Yak and Yeti to get a seat inside. This was maybe one of my more favorite meals. I got the Kobe burger and Joe got some chicken dish, I think. So Good! We were all happy with our food and Barrett was really well behaved. I think he was getting a hang for everything at this point and it helped that we took the morning slowly so he wasn't overwhelmed. ::thumbs up::
We didn't really have much left to do this day. We had planned to see the Finding Nemo show but it wasn't for another hour and we didn't really have much else we wanted to see. Kali River Rapids was closed because of winter time and nothing much in Dinoland was of interest to anyone. Joe and Dad were needing to head to their tee time anyway so we all decided to call it quits.
I will mention here too that Animal Kingdom is going through an insane amount of work right now. Half of the park is separated for the new Avatarland and they are completely overhauling the entire Discovery River to create a new nighttime spectacular show. The big Tree of Life/Discovery Island was also on refurbishment along with at least another restaurant. So needless to say, Construction Walls were everywhere. It was hard to take pictures of much because they were doing so much work. It really had an affect on being able to really take in the park. 2018 is projected time for most of it to be finished and I can't wait to see what they have done to it by then.
We headed over to the busses to go back for a rest at the resort this afternoon. It was after 2pm by the time we got back but had over 3 hours to sleep before we would be heading over to the Magic Kingdom area for dinner. A little before 6pm, we all head over to the buses to make our way to Ohana for dinner. Buses only go to parks so we got off at Magic Kingdom and rather than taking the monorail, we decided to take a boat over. It was a really lovely night, not hot or cold and it was a great ride. Barrett kept calling it a pirate ship! I was excited to check out the Polynesian because it had just finished it's new remodel and it did not disappoint. I loved the new lobby! We checked in to our reservation in plenty of time and met up with my mom (who spent the afternoon at Magic Kingdom) and Joe and my dad (who had just finished up their tee time). We had to wait a bit to be seated but we ordered drinks and relaxed out by the lobby.
We were seated a bit after our reservation but walked up to about the best table in the joint! We were right by the big windows with a perfect view of Cinderella's castle across the lagoon. It was exactly what we were hoping for so that we could watch Wishes during our meal. Score! The food was excellent. It is a set menu with all-you-can-eat. It comes with bread, lettuce wraps, a lo mien type noodle dish, stirfry veggies and MEAT. Pork loin, steak, chicken wings, maybe something else. The noodles were the winner for me but Yum! Then the best part of all, BREAD PUDDING for dessert. We were all stuffed silly. It was easily the most expensive of the trip but probably the clear winner for the entire party. During dessert, they piped in the music to Wishes and we were able to watch from our table with the lights dimmed. We loved it!
Joe had our car parked in the parking lot outside the hotel so it was about a 5 minute drive home and we were in bed in no time!
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