Trip Report Lions and Yetis and Banshees, Oh my! A late August '17 TR and a July '18 PTR

Hello!

My name is Morgan and I am a long time trip report lurker reader Please know I love to read everyones reports! I rarely comment because I usually read them on my iPad and I hate to type on it. I have written one report on here, but sadly those pictures were lost to Photobucket. Since that trip i've been back to the world 3 times and have been on 2 Disney cruises. I figure now is a good time to get back into trip reporting!

Up first is my quick weekend trip to the world last August. My hubby and I couldn't wait for a dedicated WDW trip to check out Pandora, so what better than a quick little getaway!


Friday, August 18: Travel & MK
We were up early to get our daughter off to school and to drop our dog off at the in-laws house. They both enjoyed getting spoiled all weekend!

First things first, Chick-Fil-A.


While here we also received an email from Southwest. Flight delay. We finished up breakfast and decided to go ahead and go to the airport.

I think every sign had this message on it.


We quickly parked, made it through security, and made it to our gate with plenty of time.

About 10 minutes after we sat down, another alert from Southwest came through.


Oh well. Nothing we can do about it now!

We had some entertainment. This sweet service dog who helps calm nervous fliers. SOOO CUTE


FINALLY we were boarding and soon in the air



Made it!


Of course we went to the A side instead of B

When we finally made it to DME, it was empty. We had one family in front of us



About 10 minutes later we were on a bus. Didn't take long until we were off to our resort.

 

[DisneyMorgan]

Some gondola construction


We literally ran off the bus, ran to Bell Services to drop our bags off, and ran off again to the MK bus stop. I didn't take any pics until we were walking down Main Street



We were starving, so we headed to Casey's for dinner


FYI, don't be like Cody. Just get a regular size hot dog. I don't think he even finished half of this!!


We missed our first FP+ for Splash, but our next one was ready so we headed to BTMRR




BTMRR was great as always! After this, we headed to Tomorrowland. First some pics!



Hiii HM! I'm sad your line is too long


Strolling through Fantasyland

 

[DisneyMorgan]

Time for our Space Mountain FP+!




While Space is fun, it gives me a terrible headache afterwards. That ride hurts!

We went to try and find a spot for HEA, but the hub was a cluster. We ended up finding an ok spot in front of Crystal Palace


HEA was wonderful!! I didn't take any pictures because I wanted to enjoy it. I can't wait to see it again!

After HEA we booked it to Splash since we missed our FP earlier. We waited about 30 min.



Love Splash! I think its my favorite ride at MK.

After Splash, MK was closed. We walked around a little, watched the kiss goodnight, and went shopping down Main Street.









We didn't get much done at MK. But we really had a great night there.

We stayed at All-Star Sports in the Hoops section, ground floor. Our room location was great!




Up next, a super early morning at Animal Kingdom!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Yay! So glad you decided to do another report! I can't wait to hear all about the trip!

 

[fractal]

Great start - looking forward to your morning in AK!

I also have some good news; Photobucket reconnected the links. The photos are back on your other trip report.

 

[DisneyMorgan]

Yay! So glad you decided to do another report! I can't wait to hear all about the trip!

Thanks Amy! Looking forward to reading about your Universal trip!!

Great start - looking forward to your morning in AK!

I also have some good news; Photobucket reconnected the links. The photos are back on your other trip report.

Thanks Chris!! Should be posting my AK morning tonight! Oooh that's great news! I had no idea!

 

[LisaBelle]

Glad you are posting another report! What dates will you be there in July? I am going to be at WDW with my family July 14-22.

 

[DisneyMorgan]

Glad you are posting another report! What dates will you be there in July? I am going to be at WDW with my family July 14-22.

Thanks! We will be there July 14-17!! I'm going to put my plans on here after I finish this report

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

following along
I love to read trip reports to hold me over til the next visit . Like you, I've never done one. I don't like to stop and take many pictures, so any trip report of mine would be all recounting the experience, and probably not very popular. Never know, I might try one without pictures in a "just back from WDW" format.
Can't wait for the rest of your report!

 

[DisneyMorgan]

following along
I love to read trip reports to hold me over til the next visit . Like you, I've never done one. I don't like to stop and take many pictures, so any trip report of mine would be all recounting the experience, and probably not very popular. Never know, I might try one without pictures in a "just back from WDW" format.
Can't wait for the rest of your report!

I do too! I have done one trip report on here back in 2015. I need to find it and read it again. I love to take pictures! I wish I had the knack for photography like so many on here do. Regardless of pics, I like to read about others WDW adventures. I say if you are up to writing, I'd be happy to read all about it!

 

[DisneyMorgan]

Saturday, August 19 - Animal Kingdom!

My alarm went off at 5:50am and I quickly hopped out of bed to get ready for AK! We left the room a little after 6:15 to stop by the food court for a quick breakfast





We each grabbed a croissant and were waiting at the AK bus stop by 6:45ish.


We had a game plan for Pandora. At the 60 day mark, I couldn't get a FP+ for Flight of Passage. I think I checked everyday and could not get one. So I settled for Na'vi River and we (mainly I) made alternate plans.

We lucked out when Disney extended EMH for Pandora through the 19th. Our plan was this: FoP at EMH (8-9am) --> Standby Safari --> Standby Everest (we figured these would have minimal wait times). Then we had a little time to rest before our fast pass times started. Let see if the plan worked!

First we have to get through bag check..


We ran/walked to Pandora and were greeted to this line


I took some pictures while we stood there


We were chatting with the family behind us and they took this nice picture of us


Soon we were seeing the floating mountains

 

[DisneyMorgan]

It seemed like no time at all and we were here










This was very impressive! And really cool!




I agree the pre-show guy is super annoying and just plain bad. It's a good thing the ride is awesome! We absolutely loved FoP!!
All in all, from the time we got in line to the time we got off the ride, was about 45 - 50 minutes. Not too bad!

 

[LisaBelle]

Thanks! We will be there July 14-17!! I'm going to put my plans on here after I finish this report

Awesome! I will check to see if any of our plans overlap!

 

[DisneyMorgan]

Next up, Kilimanjaro Safaris!

Only a 10 minute wait!


Little did we know this would be the most exciting safari we've been on..





The lions were... shall we say.. active?? VERY active.


Soon after this the female swatted him off. Which led to a comment from someone in the back "Wow babe he's faster than you!"

Someone is mad he didn't get his morning delight!


Needless to say, that was a safari moment we will never forget! Ha!

I think these were taken after we got off KS

 

[DisneyMorgan]

Hello Asia!





We will be back here for dinner





Asia signage




Time for EE! I'm pretty sure it was a 10-15 minute wait.







why did this ever become a thing??




EE was great as always!

Afterwards, we headed to the Yaki & Yeti quick serve for breakfast. The timestamp on my picture of breakfast says 10:03 so we were doing great on time!

We both got breakfast tacos with hash browns. It was pretty tasty!


We sat and relaxed after breakfast. We had officially accomplished our AK morning! We are planning on doing this again in July (hopefully we will be successful again)

I took NO notes, so my next guess of what we did is Dinosaur. I think this wait was around 30 minutes.






Some pics of Dinoland



The ground was so hot this water art didn't last long


We watched these guys for a few

 

[DisneyMorgan]

Apparently we went and saw ITTBAB next






Saw Flick and Atta but the line was long


We were in or close to the end of our first FP+ for Safari, so we headed there next. This fast pass was for 11:40-12:40





The lions were not as exciting as they were earlier



EE fast pass was next, but I only took this picture apparently. This fp+ was for 12:45-1:45


Our next fp+ was in Pandora, so we headed there to explore before NRJ.

 

[DisneyMorgan]

We went into Windtraders to look around.


Yeah we totally bought a banshee.




Really neat ceiling



These are kinda creepy


Time for NRJ.



My pictures of the ride are terrible but here are 2 ok ones.



Thoughts on NRJ. It was nice. The AA was awesome!

After NRJ, we were ready for an afternoon break. Goodbye for now AK!


And here is Cody with our banshee


Next up: dinner at Yak & Yeti, Rivers of Light, and EMH in Pandora

 

[TheMouseFan]

Next up, Kilimanjaro Safaris!

Only a 10 minute wait!


Little did we know this would be the most exciting safari we've been on..





The lions were... shall we say.. active?? VERY active.


Soon after this the female swatted him off. Which led to a comment from someone in the back "Wow babe he's faster than you!"

Someone is mad he didn't get his morning delight!


Needless to say, that was a safari moment we will never forget! Ha!

I think these were taken after we got off KS

I have a very similar pic of the lions from our trip in December 2012. Our driver was great and making jokes about how the lion wasn't sleeping tonight!

Love the pics of AK. It really is my favorite park!

 

[DisneyMorgan]

After a nice afternoon break at the resort, we were back at AK



We headed to Asia for dinner



I had chicken teriyaki and Cody had honey chicken. We shared the cream cheese wontons for dessert. So delicious!




Some random pics of Asia




We stopped on the bridge to watch the RoL floats come out




We continued walking over to Dinoland, but we didn't ride anything.



We went into one of the shops and saw these adorable plushies!

 

[DisneyMorgan]

We went ahead and got in the stand by line for Rivers of Light. We had great seats!





'




We really enjoyed the show! I thought it was beautiful! However there is like NO air flow in the stadium so that wasn't fun.
After RoL, we stopped to watch a bit of the Tree of Life awakening before heading to Pandora for EMH