Day 10 of The First Time 2011, the first of my Disney Trip Reports, is here! Today is our first-ever visit to Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park where we have breakfast with Donald Duck and his pals at Tusker House!
The First Time 2011 Trip Report Index has the full list of days for the trip. You can also check out my 2011 Pre-Trip Planning Report to find out more about us!
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Day 10: Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park
Animal Kingdom & Tusker House Character Breakfast
13th August 2011
We had two Advance Dining Reservations (ADR) booked for today, but we decided to cancel the evening one at Rainforest Cafe as we didn’t think we’d manage two big meals in one day.
We wanted to experience character dining and so, kept our reservation at Tusker House for the character breakfast ADR at 9:15 am.
We were up and out early, and as we made our way out of the gated community of Tuscan Hills, I spotted an animal running past through the bushes – I pointed it out and said, “is that an armadillo?!”
On closer inspection, it was! He was moving ever so fast, but he managed to get a photo of him – marvelous!
We were then on our way to Animal Kingdom!
Homer (our sat nav) decided to take us down a service road for some reason, and after messing around for a while, we eventually found our way to Animal Kingdom.
As usual, we parked up and took a photo to remind us where we parked our car so we could find it at the end of the day (Unicorn) and hopped on the tram to take us to the entrance.
We got there in time for what I presume was the rope drop – there was a truck with Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto telling us to make sure we had our maps.
I’m pretty sure they sang a song too, well, my diary tells me so – right now I can’t remember!
So, taking their advice, we grabbed our map and walked in the direction of Tusker House for our breakfast reservation.
We got here earlier than our ADR time, so I sent Steve off to go and get some FastPasses for Kilimanjaro Safari.
The return time was 10:30 am—hopefully, enough time for us to have breakfast and get over to the ride.
Meanwhile, Liam and I wandered about, and I took some photographs of the surroundings.
Eventually, it was time for breakfast, but first, we had a photo taken with Donald Duck.
You’re not allowed to get his autograph, and I felt a little upset about this (how very sad!).
We were also advised that he wouldn’t be joining the guests in the restaurant!
Which makes sense, I suppose, as he can’t be out front taking photos AND walking around the dining room – duh!
They do take pics with your own camera, though, but the guy didn’t focus my iPhone properly, but we also had one taken with our Lumix, so not all was lost!
Once our photo was taken, we were shown to our table.
Our server was Japanese, and sadly I couldn’t understand a word she was saying.
We eventually managed to figure out what juice to have and were about to go up to the buffet when Mickey walked into our part of the restaurant – yay!
We couldn’t risk not getting a photo and an autograph, so we whipped out the autograph book that I lovingly made way back when we were supposed to go in 2003…
After a photo with Mickey Mouse and his signature, we took ourselves off to the buffet.
Our first port of call at the plentiful buffet was a Mickey waffle I so desperately wanted after seeing them on a TV show about Walt Disney World!
Liam LOVED the tater tots and came back with his plate piled high with them!
Steve, as usual, piled his plate high with as much as possible – I don’t know where he puts it all!
As I said, the buffet was plentiful, and this is me we’re talking about, so here are some photos I managed to take whilst juggling my plate!
Daisy Duck was next to make an appearance. She signed our autograph book and posed for a photo.
In our book, I put a sticker of each character I thought we would meet, and it was cool to see the character’s reactions when they saw a picture of themselves.
We then took another look at the buffet – always wanting to get our money’s worth!
Whilst eating, Goofy entered the room, banging a tambourine and getting all the little kids to follow him, playing instruments.
He wasn’t very happy if the big kids (adults) weren’t clapping along, so we made sure we clapped so he wouldn’t have the hump!
He then disappeared before coming back a short while later to pose for photos and sign autographs.
I made one last trip to the buffet for some dessert. Dessert…at breakfast time? Oh, America, you’re so crazy! I had some banana bread – it was delish!
I also snagged a couple of pastries and bagged them up for a snack later in the day…
Tusker House was excellent – the food was, I felt, much better quality than that at Hollywood & Vine (our only other Disney dining experience so far), and the atmosphere was better, too – helped by the characters, I think.
The area around the buffet was nice and open with plenty of space – I felt cramped in Hollywood & Vine, and all around, for us, it was a nicer experience at Tusker House.
The waitress kept our drinks topped up, and we didn’t feel rushed with the characters.
And whilst it was an expensive breakfast at around $86 for the 3 of us, I thought it was well worth it and would definitely come back here again.
We were completely full from breakfast and headed to Kilimanjaro Safaris for our FastPass return.
I’m so glad we did this early in the day, as there were a lot of animals out and about.
Our tour guide was informative, and the experience reaffirmed my wish to do a safari in Africa…someday…
From a plus-size rider’s point of view, it was fine – it is bench seating with no seat belts to worry about.
Had to stop for these horny guys as they were blocking the road.
We had a near altercation with some rhinos who were coming way too close for comfort, and the rangers had to corral them away from the safari truck before we could complete our tour.
Then some ostrich also decided to get in on the act too!
Once our tour was over, we took the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail with a lovely, non-crowded view of the gorilla.
We then decided to board the Wildlife Express Train to Rafiki’s Planet Watch.
We walked through Habitat, Habitat, and then into the lovely air-conditioned Conservation Station…
…where we met and were photographed with Rafiki, Jiminy Cricket, and Pocahontas.
An animal keeper then came out with a ferret and talked about this animal for a while. We sat and listened for a bit before returning back to the train.
How time does fly when you are in a theme park!
It was after twelve, and we wanted to see the Festival of the Lion King. Knowing that this was pretty popular, we went to line up for the show.
It was a very hot queue, with random fans only hitting certain parts of the crowd and not much in the way of shade at that time of day.
It was made worse by announcements to fill all available space, so people were cramming in…the show was worth the horrid queue, though!
I LOVE The Lion King, especially the music, and this different spin on it was wonderful.
There is some audience interaction, and with everything happening around you, I can only say this is a must-see.
The Circle of Life is probably one of my favourite Disney songs; it gets me every time…
I took a video of that song on my iPhone—the woman has an amazing voice! Watch the video on my YouTube channel.
With the dark theatre, fast action, and only my iPhone (as Steve was taking video with our camera), these pics aren’t all that, but I’ll throw them out there!
The plan after the show was to go to the greeting trails in Camp Minnie-Mickey to see Donald Duck and Minnie Mouse, who were absent from the character breakfast, but the queues were huge, and I figured we could go back on another day…we didn’t.
On the walk out of this area, Lilo & Stitch were signing autographs and taking photos—there was a small queue, but we had to meet these guys – I love them! This is one of our PhotoPass pics.
Stitch was just awesome; well, they both were. They really played their characters well, with Stitch “licking” me and giving me hugs (too cute!) and Lilo telling him off for being naughty.
After photos, we headed over to It’s Tough To Be A Bug which had the longest queue area/walks to the theatre.
The ride was a walk-on, so we grabbed our 3D glasses and sat down, waiting for the show to start.
Friends of my parents had been in Orlando recently and commented how much they loved this, and I have to agree – we loved it too.
I love the animation style of the Pixar movie A Bug’s Life, so it was nice to watch.
I think very small children would find parts of this quite frightening as, at one point, you are plunged into darkness, so a heads up for people with young kids.
Liam then decided he was hungry and didn’t want the donut I had procured earlier from Tusker House for him, so we grabbed some fries, onion rings, and a couple of drinks from Flame Tree Barbecue ($13).
Liam then decided he was hungry and didn’t want the donut I had procured earlier from Tusker House for him, so we grabbed some fries, onion rings, and a couple of drinks from Flame Tree Barbecue ($13).
After pinching a couple of Liam’s chips, we bought a corn dog – not as nice as the Universal ones! But it got nommed up all the same!
Realizing it was nearing Mickey’s Jammin’ Jungle Parade time, we went to go and grabbed a spot near Asia.
They were roping off the area, so we sat behind a bench and waited.
Black clouds and thunder started to roll in, and the grim realization that the parade may be cancelled set in.
I asked a Cast Member, and they said it hadn’t been cancelled…yet, so we continued to hang around and popped into the gift shop.
Eventually, the announcement was made that the parade was to be cancelled due to the weather conditions…gutted!
We never did see this parade as we didn’t make it back.
So with a heavy sigh, we moved into Asia.
I loved the theming in this part of the park – actually, I loved the theming all over this park!
We went to Expedition Everest to start queuing, only to discover that that was also shut down due to weather conditions.
I tried the test seat out in the meantime, and the Cast Member said I would be fine – at least I would know for when we ride it…which, sadly, we didn’t.
So, continuing through, we went to watch the last showing of Finding Nemo – The Musical. Another fab show! Loved it!
The production was brilliant and the costumes especially so.
I know some find it weird that you’ve got the puppeteers on the stage holding the characters, but you almost zone out on them – at least I did!
It helps a bit if you’ve watched the movie (and guess what? I love this film too!), and I would happily watch this show again.
We didn’t take many photos – it was tricky on both cameras, and to be honest, I was more interested in watching and enjoying the show than snapping away. Steve did a short video right at the end.
Animal Kingdom is a park of epic proportions, and we seem to have spent today getting from one place to another.
Park closing time was now edging closer, so we went back to Asia to see if Expedition Everest was open—it was a 50-minute wait.
Liam didn’t really want to do this ride but wanted to do Kali River Rapids instead, so that’s where we went.
Kali River Rapids had a short queue, and we hopped on.
Plus-size rider guide: Individual seats with a lap seat belt, which was enough room for me (UK size 22/24, with most weight around my middle).
We rode with an American family and had a great time! We rode the rapids twice with them, and we all got drenched!
We had our waterproof camera with us, so we took a video of them getting soaked the first time out!
We slopped back to the exit as the park was now closed.
Steve picked up our Donald Duck photo, which we had bought at breakfast time, and was sent to the entrance for pick-up, whilst Liam and I watched the closing song from Donald, Minnie, and Goofy.
We took the tram back to our car to dry off – we had brought towels to cover the leather seats in the car, and they came in very useful!).
We drove home for a dip in the pool before a snack for dinner and hitting the hay.
All in all, whilst we didn’t do everything here, we did most things we wanted to!
Expedition Everest and Dinosaur (which we didn’t even see!) were the two things I’m most gutted about missing out on, and I would say that this is definitely a two-day park.
We did go back and revisit Animal Kingdom on our very last day in Orlando, but it was a flying visit, so we didn’t do too much, I’m afraid.
We all enjoyed this park and can’t wait to return one day.
All photos from this day can be found on my Flickr!
Read about the day after:
Day 11 – Seafood & Shopping
Red Lobster, Factory Outlets, and Premium Outlets
Read about the day before:
Day 9 – A Sonny Day at the Lake
Sonny’s Real Pit Bar-B-Q, Dairy Queen, and Lake Louisa State Park
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