Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground, Disney World, Orlando, Florida
For You make me glad by Your deeds, LORD; I sing for joy at what Your hands have done. ~ Psalm 92.4
I’ve discovered that my shorts options are limited. Normally, I stick my phone in my back right pocket, but with all the rides and people around, I need to keep it in a front pocket. Only three shorts allow for that, and one of those is kinda grungy looking because I frequently hike in them. So I’m going on a small shopping spree with Blaine’s sister in a few weeks. And that’s more information than you wanted to know. 😊
We’re back in Animal Kingdom today! This is by far our favorite park, with only Epcot left in contention!
We left extra early in an attempt to snatch a ride on the Avatar Flight without a FastPass. We didn’t make it, even though we all but ran to get there. By the time we arrived at the Avatar queue – before the Park even officially opened – the wait time was already up to 75 minutes! On the other hand, we had a FastPass for the Navi River boat ride, and ended up not needing it. There was no one in line, so we went Stand-by (which means just the regular line, remember?) and had no wait. Then, when it was time for our FastPass, we didn’t even need it. Had we only known, we’d of traded in the boat for the banshee! Oh well. Now we know for next time . . . 😊
If you look, it looks like cougars or something walking over there.
To back up for a minute, our early morning campground bus driver was chatty, maybe because we were the only ones on the bus for a while? Anyway, we mentioned how many people are around at ‘non-peak’ time. He told us there’s no such thing as a ‘non-peak’ time anymore. The crowds now are like summertime crowds thanks to the internet. People look up the best time to come, and here they are! We did however notice that almost all kids are younger than school age. Which explains the vast, filled-to-capacity stroller parking lots we’ve seen. And the thousands of bodies in general.
Except for the cheer groups. They’re everywhere! Something must be going on. Most of the time, we see them standing around in large groups with identical clothes and backpacks. Here are some facts from 2017 I found on Quora.com:
The Walt Disney World Resort is a massive complex with 4 theme parks, 2 water parks, the Disney Springs shopping, dining, and entertainment complex, the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, 2 miniature golf courses, several golf courses, and over 25 resorts.
Magic Kingdom Park: 56,336 guests per day
Disney’s Animal Kingdom: 34,435 guests per day
Epcot: 33,608 guests per day
Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 29,537 guests per day
4 Theme Park Total: 153,196 guests per day
Additionally, the two Disney water parks welcomed a combined 4,108,000 guests in 2017, for an average of 11,317 guests per day. Added to the total for the theme parks, that brings the total guests to 164,513 guests per day.
So now, back to our day. We left Pandora and returned to Asia and rode Everest again – – three times, with three different locations – near the back, the very front, and the middle. The front is the way to go! But here, they don’t let you chose. You go where they tell you, which is a good thing in the long run.
Up we go! Enjoy the partial ride!
We re-visited several of our old haunts and saw some new things.
A small taste of what the show was like!
At lunch today, we sat by the pond again and when we were finished eating our picnic lunch, Blaine called General RV in Tampa to see about getting our slide fixed. They said they’d call back, and they did later in the afternoon. They told him they’d put us in as a priority since we full-time, but we have to show up Tuesday morning first thing and wait in line. Ugh!!! But at least they said they’d prioritize us. Otherwise, it’s at least a month wait. How can there be that many rigs that need fixed???
So here’s the laugh of the day . . . .
We were talking about all the time I’ll need to get caught up on the blog and Blaine suggested I do just one post with a few highlights and pictures! Now isn’t that the funniest thing you’ve heard in a while?? 😊
I think that’s because he’s practically got a photographic memory for things (or so he thinks).
Time to use our FastPass for Dinosaur. What a place! We hadn’t visited this area the other day because we just didn’t make the time.
We left DinoLand and made our way back to the outdoor bird show again.
We wanted to watch those macaws up close again! They made the suggestion to turn on the slow-motion on our phones, and Blaine did. So incredibly beautiful! But the special features on the phone don’t transfer to the computer. I knew that would happen. Discovered that unfortunate fact quite a while ago. ☹
And away they all flew . . .
We had time, and shockingly the line wasn’t long for the Safari Standby line – I seem to remember about a 30 minute wait time. We, and our bodies, were so tired, we just wanted to sit for a bit! We were so glad we went! We were able to see some different animals here as well!
The evening moved by quickly, as we waited for time to attend the Rivers of Light. Every theme park has their own nighttime show. This was Animal Kingdom’s. And we had a FastPass, which entitles you to a special seating section. It was nice, but nothing could ever compare to Magic Kingdom’s! And with so much being projected onto spraying water, we wondered what happens if it’s breezy? Or raining? Or even misting?
It is with great sorrow that we say good-night and good-bye to Animal Kingdom.