Animal Kingdom scrapping

We had lunch at Tusker House last year, partly because we did the dining package to see Rivers of light, and partly because we like the food there and it comes with characters. Obviously there were photos! When it came to scrapping them, I decided to split up the character photos as I didn’t want to leave any out and couldn’t fit them all on the same layout.

This one is a double as you can’t separate Donald & Daisy. It just wouldn’t be right. That consists of pretty much all Basic Grey. It’s getting a real hammering with this album.

Next is Goofy.Yet more Basic Grey. I have so much of it as I loved all the packs that they brought out. Some of them are getting quite depleted now though.

This one is my favourite layout from that lunch. As soon as I saw the photo, I knew what the title had to be LOL We have lots of photos taken in Animal Kingdom, and a lot of them were Photopass ones. They’re so much fun! Scrapped with Basic Grey Offbeat. Another new Photopass magic shot is the hyenas from The Lion King. We found a couple more Lion King magic shots too. More Basic Grey Offbeat.

I had a couple of random photos taken in Asia so I bunged them together to make a companion layout to the one that I did of Africa.  I’m on a mission to complete the 2017 album now as I’ll soon be taking A LOT more photos.

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Rhinos, Giraffes & scary dinosaurs

We took loads of photos on the Safari last year so I wanted to do several layouts of the various animals as well as a generic Safari one.

This one is of the two different types of rhino that they have. Basic Grey Archaic and the journalling is factual rather than heartfelt. (I don’t do much heartfelt stuff, to be honest. It’s not me 🙂 ) Next is the giraffes. More Basic Grey and one of my all time favourite giraffe photos. Love that face! Finally one of my favourite rides – Dinosaur. I journaled about why I love it so much and used more Basic Grey Archaic, including that gorgeous dino paper and sticker.

WDW holiday, 9th Oct – Animal Kingdom

Monday

This morning we were up early and managed to get to Animal Kingdom for early entry at 8am. It was hot even then at 26° with 97% humidity. Apparently this is July weather rather than October’s. We’ve never felt heat like it here and even though we’re here a month earlier than usual, we really didn’t expect this.

The lines for both Pandora rides stretched for what looked like miles so we went to the Safari and had two goes on that. It would have been nice to get another ride on Flight of passage but we’ve been on it twice so can’t complain.

A lot of the animals weren’t out yet on our very early safaris but we did see all three lions together which was worth the early start alone. On one of the safaris we managed to get a shot of the lion and one of the lionesses together.On the other ride we got my favourite ever lion photo.We also managed to get a nice shot of one of the black rhinos as he’d come down to the water at the front of his area.

My camera didn’t like the heat & humidity. The lens misted up and wouldn’t clear. My glasses have been misting when going from the air con to the heat, but clear in seconds. My lens was still misty an hour after leaving our room. In the end I had to gently wipe it. I’ve never seen that happen before but luckily Stephen had his camera on him so we didn’t miss out on any of the photo ops on the Safari.

We were getting peckish once it got to 9am but had a walk round the park trying to get a few more photos before we left Animal Kingdom for the last time this trip. We got the elusive Simba magic shot on the Harambe bridge.

The photographer told us that there would be a photographer in Dinoland in about 15 minutes, when we asked about the dino bone magic shot. I’ve been trying to find that one since we arrived in Disney World but there’s never been a photographer in the area. We crossed our fingers that our luck had changed and headed over. We got some nice photos over in Asia on the way.When we got to Dinoland, there was indeed a photographer and she was very obliging. She took several shots of us posing in front of the huge dinosaur and then took us to the side to do our dino bone shots. Stephen’s is definitely the best.

I was starting to get a migraine by the time we left so instead of heading out to find breakfast somewhere, we came back to Coronado to pick up something to take back to our room. It was blessedly cool inside so we decided to relax for a while after eating, and go back out to the Magic Kingdom later for our FastPasses.

By 2pm we knew we weren’t going to the parks that day. The temperatures were up to 33°, but with the lack of a breeze and the high humidity it felt like 40°. We just couldn’t face it. Stephen has had a cold for a few days so had a nice long nap and I read for a while.

Once it had cooled down, and after doing a bit of research on what was showing, we headed for Disney Springs to go to the cinema. We saw The mountain between us and quite enjoyed it. We had hot dogs and popcorn in there and called that dinner 🙂

After the film, we walked down to The world of Disney store and got another three charms for my Pandora bracelet. There are charms that are exclusive to the Disney parks so I can only get them here. I got a purple Mickey charm, one with the castle and fireworks on it, and a red/black/silver Minnie charm. They’ll add a bit of colour to my bracelet.

We looked round a few other shops then took a slow walk back to the car park and headed back to Coronado.

WDW holiday, 8th Oct – Coronado Springs

Sunday

This morning we got up fairly early and packed everything up as it was time to leave the Royal Pacific. We’ve loved our stay there. It’s a beautiful hotel and all the staff are so friendly and helpful. The room was full of luxurious little touches but at the same time was cosy and comfortable. Add to that the short walk to the parks and having Express pass access to the rides, and it’s a great place to stay for a few nights.

It wasn’t quite time to go home though as we were off to Coronado Springs on Disney. It’s a resort that we haven’t stayed at before but I’d read great reviews of it and it looked and sounded lovely. On the way there, we stopped off at IHOP for breakfast. I had a pancake combo again but this time with chocolate pancakes with a mocha espresso filling/topping. It was yummy.

We checked into Coronado Springs just before noon. Our room was ready but the cast member asked us if we’d like one of the newly renovated rooms instead. I said that I’d like that very much and she said we’d have to wait up to an hour as housekeeping were still in there but that I’d get an email when it was ready.

We had a look around the central area while we waited and then drove over to the nearest car park to our room. The email came just after that and we unloaded the car. The room is lovely. It’s quite large and has a really nice bathroom area with lots of storage space in it. It looks like we got an upgrade too as we booked a standard room but have a preferred room. We got a decent coffee maker again, the same type as we had at Royal Pacific. There were plenty of USB charging points as well as standard sockets.

There is some construction going on at Coronado at the moment, which we knew about when we booked. We didn’t think it would impact us that much so we weren’t worried. I thought it was a nice touch that Disney left a little gift in our room because of it though.

We unpacked the essentials and drove over to Animal Kingdom to use our FastPasses. We went on Dinosaur and hammed it up for the photos again. I don’t think we’ll ever tire of that 😉

We found a photographer who was doing magic shots with the butterfly. We hadn’t found that one before so were quite chuffed. I do love the way Stephen really gets into it.We also found the magic shot for the Lion guard.We did the Safari and saw the Nemo show, which I love to bits, the Lion king show, also brilliant, and It’s fun to be a bug. At one point we walked over to Africa from Pandora, using the new path. It was a nice walk with a lovely view of Harambe as you approach it.

We had lunch in Satu’li canteen again. Stephen had the same as the last two times, the beef bowl, but I tried something different and had the cheeseburger bun, which was something a bit different and although not as yummy as the chicken bowl that I’ve been having, was still very nice.

When it got dark enough we headed over to Pandora as I’d been dying to see it lit up at night. It was beautiful. I didn’t attempt to take any photos, partly because it was raining a bit but we did get a couple of photos taken by the Photopass photographers.

I love this animated shot with the wood sprites.

After we’d had a good look round we headed back to our room to finish unpacking.

WDW holiday, 2nd Oct – Animal Kingdom & Magic Kingdom

Monday

This morning we’d intended to do Early entry but we also wanted to stay out a bit later too so one of those plans had to change. We just don’t have the stamina to do both these days. We decided to do the later evening, as we hoped to see Rivers of light again, so had a lazy morning and got to Animal Kingdom at about 11am for our first Fast Pass of the day on the Safari.

You may have noticed that we spend more time at Animal Kingdom than any other park, and in that park, we spend more time on the Safari than any other ride. We just love seeing animals, and learning about them and about conservation. I think it’s the main reason that we keep coming back to Disney World, and we love staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge and having all that available to us in our resort.

The safari is different every time you ride so you can never get bored with it. On this ride the Wild African dogs (Painted dogs) were walking around near to the front of their section, and as I had the best seat (front row, left hand side), I had a brilliant view of them.

I got a good view of the Sable antelope for the first time this visit and thanks to my new camera, with better zoom than my last one, I got a reasonable photo.

The new camera helped me get great shots of the lioness too. She was tucked away but I managed to zoom in on her.

Stephen got several lovely photos of this elephant playing with a stick.

We even got a good look at the mandrill monkeys! I think that’s the best photo of them that I’ve managed in all the years we’ve been going to Disney World.The white rhinos were out again. And the Nile Crocodiles were looking quite photogenic too. After our Safari, we went over to Pandora and managed to get the Banshee Magic shot from a photographer.

It really is beautiful there. I love the way they’ve used real plants and added the make-believe ones in among them. The details are amazing. I could spend all day there just looking. We got a couple more PhotoPass pics done too, while we were there.

Next we had our second ride on Flight of passage. We were very lucky to get two FastPasses this year as they were one of the hardest ones to get. The second ride was just as amazing as the first. It’s an incredible experience.

After that we were ready for lunch and although we’ve been trying to eat at different places this year, we couldn’t resist going back to Satu’li canteen as the food there is brilliant. I had exactly the same as last time, the Chicken bowl with raw veggies and black bean dressing. Stephen had the beef bowl again, with the same base of sweet and red potato hash, but had the chimichurri dressing instead of the black bean. We resisted dessert this time but planned to make up for that later.

While we were relaxing after eating our lunch, I checked the time of our next FastPass at Dinosaur but it had vanished from the app. I checked my emails, and sure enough there was a message to say that Dinosaur was down and we could use that FP on a different ride, although not either of the Pandora rides.

At least we found out before walking all the way over to Dinoland this time and as we used the FP on another go on the Safari, we weren’t complaining.

This time on the Safari, we saw the lion and as we were stationary for a few seconds, I managed to zoom right in to him.

We also saw the baby elephant with his family and I got a shot of my favourite view in the Safari.

The flamingos, the water, the palm trees. The safari truck with the elephants in the background. I just love it.

The scimitar-horned oryx were out where we could see them. They’re often quite shy. They’re so beautiful. Next we headed to the Magic Kingdom as we had three multi-park FPs to use and wanted to get on the 7 dwarves mine train. We were disappointed to be told, while we were queueing for it, that we couldn’t use the FP on the ride. We’d been told when we were given the FPs that there were no exclusions at Magic Kingdom so that was a bit annoying.

At one point we stopped for drinks at the Main Street bakery. I had the Strawberry & crème while Stephen tried the Vanilla bean crème. Both yummy. We also split a Spiced pumpkin muffin.

We stood and watched the Move it! Shake it! street party for a while. 

It was really busy in the park so it took us ages to use the three FPs. The FP queues for Buzz lightyear, Haunted mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean were huge. I think we spent between 20 and 30 minutes in each line. We did manage to get a Magic shot outside the Haunted mansion though.

We decided to head back to our resort after that. It was really hot again and we were getting quite weary. On the way out, walking down Main Street, we spotted Luke and Jake again so stopped for a chat. When you consider the size of Disney World, it’s a miracle to bump into someone once let alone twice.

I had a couple of hours nap time when we got back as I was getting a migraine. I’ve had a few since we got here, but have been controlling them well with medication. This one was being a bit more stubborn but I felt better after a nap and having something to eat. (crackers and cream cheese.) I spent the rest of the evening reading. I’ve started the latest Flavia de Luce book and am really enjoying it.

 

WDW holiday, 30th Sept – Animal Kingdom

Saturday

Today we planned to see Rivers of light, the night-time show at Animal Kingdom. We had the dining package, which meant that we would eat at Tusker House and they would give us tickets to a special seating section to view the show.

Because we planned to be out late (for us anyway), we had a later start after spending the morning relaxing in our apartment. We got to Animal Kingdom with plenty of time to spare before our lunch, so we used our FastPass tickets from yesterday to do a Safari first. It was brilliant. There were some giraffes blocking the road so we were stationary for about ten minutes. Plenty of time to take lots of photos of the giraffes, including the baby one. He was so cute. We’ve been in a Rhino road block before but it was our first time in a giraffic jam 😉

We also got quite a good look at the hippos. After our Safari, we strolled over to Tusker House to check in for our lunch. We made it just before the rain started. We had to wait about thirty minutes before getting our table, but at least it was under cover. It was a character meal so we got to see Goofy, Donald, Daisy and Mickey. We haven’t made a point of seeing any characters this time so it was nice to finally do so.

Usually I love the food there but I felt the standard had dropped a little. The main dishes were pork and salmon. The pork was very fatty and the salmon didn’t have much flavour. There didn’t seem to be as much of a selection of other dishes that I remembered from our last visit, but overall we did enjoy our meal. It just didn’t live up to my memories of other trips there.

We ate quite a lot, always a hazard at a buffet, so went for a wander round the Tree of life gardens to try to walk it off before our next FastPass. We spotted a few animals plus DiVine.

Then it was time for the one that we’d really been looking forward to – Flight of Passage in Pandora. We’d heard that it was amazing and a very realistic simulation of flying. We were a bit worried that it would be down as it had had problems for a couple of days but it was working fine and we had a brilliant time on it. It was incredible! I loved every second. You really felt like you were riding a banshee.

I’d been messaging with Luke, a friend from when I worked at the airport, as he was in Animal Kingdom too that day. When we came out of Flight of Passage, I had a message to say that he was sitting down by the drums with his fiancé Jake. We went straight over to find them and had a lovely thirty minutes chatting to them both.

It’s been lovely meeting up with friends while over here. Amazing that you can come all this way and see people who you know.

Next we went over to the Dinosaur ride for our FastPass on that and from there, straight to the Safari for our second trip of the day. This was a night safari so not good for taking photos, but brilliant for seeing some of the animals being more active than in the daytime. We saw the hyenas walking about as well as several other animals.

It was dark when we came off, and raining again. It was quite heavy this time and we had a bit of a walk to get to the entry point for our Rivers of light seating. Luckily we’d brought the ponchos with us so although we did get fairly wet, bits of us stayed dry. It was very hot and sticky under those ponchos though as it was still quite hot.

Rivers of light was lovely. I’m sure I’d have liked it more if it hadn’t been raining so hard, but we did still enjoy the show. There were boats, and floats and dancing water and beautiful lighting effects. It was really pretty. I didn’t take any photos, partly because they wouldn’t have come out brilliantly in the lighting conditions but mainly because it was bucketing down. I have access to some Disney stock photos though, through the PhotoPass website so am using one of those to show you how pretty it is.

It took a while to exit the park but we timed it perfectly for the bus back to our resort. We were very, very happy to see that bus as we were feeling very soggy and just wanted to get back and get in a warm shower.

It didn’t take long to get back and we were soon dry and tucked up for the night.

WDW holiday, 29th Sept – Animal Kingdom

Friday

We had a late start today as our FastPasses were for the afternoon. We spent the morning relaxing. I read on the balcony for a while, with the occasional break to take photos of the animals below.

We got to Animal Kingdom just before 1pm and headed for Pandora. On the way we spotted a photographer so had a photo taken. She was doing magic shots but we had to get our Wilderness Explorer flamingo badge first by doing a quick quiz. It was fun!

From there we nipped to Africa to grab another magic shot that I’d heard about. It has hyenas 🙂

Finally we went into Pandora to use our first FastPass for the Na’vi river ride. Unfortunately the ride was down, and was going to be down all day. We were told that we could use our FP for any ride so went on the Safari instead.

We were getting quite hungry after the Safari so went back to Pandora to try the new Satu’li canteen that I’d been reading about. They do a sort of mix’n’match bowl. You pick a base, a protein and a dressing from a selection. I had the chicken, quinoa and veg, with the black bean dressing.

Chopped Wood-Grilled Chicken Bowl

Stephen had the beef, sweet and red potato hash, and he had the black bean dressing too.

Slow-Roasted Sliced Grilled Beef Bowl

The bowls of food were amazing. Mine had lots of raw veggies such as kale, carrot, spinach, and cauliflower. The chicken was delicious and there was plenty of it and the dressing was lovely. I really enjoyed it.

There are two amazing-looking desserts so we got those to split between us.

Chocolate Cake

Blueberry Cream Cheese Mousse

The desserts were to die for. I think we’ll definitely be going back there.

Stephen had a beer too. It was green! I had a sip and it was very nice. Stephen seemed to enjoy it 😉

Hawkes’ Grog Ale

As we came out after our lunch, it started to rain. It was light to start with but it soon got heavier. We made a dive for a cart and bought ponchos. Once outfitted with those, we made a beeline for the Safari. It’s great in the rain as the animals get more active and we had a great time. Also the wait line is all under cover 😉

We saw plenty of animals. The Elephants were playing in their pool and even the Cheetah looked alert, although we were on the wrong side of the truck to get a photo of him. When we came off, we noticed that the queue had really gone down so we went round again for another go. This time we saw the black rhino and some bongos. They’re both usually quite elusive so we were chuffed with that.

Baobab tree

Black rhino

Elephants

Hyenas

Greater kudu

Bongo

White rhino

Hippo

Warthog family

Wildebeest

After that it was time for our next FastPass, which was for the Safari. We’ll happily ride that all day so we went back in and got to the load area really quickly. We then stood there waiting to load, and waited and waited. Forty minutes later, and after watching many empty trucks go past without stopping, they told us the Safari wasn’t going to be running any time soon and gave us paper FPs to use. They’re good for tomorrow too so we’ll use them then.

We then paddled over to Dinosaur for our last FP. The rain was coming down really hard by now but we were ok in our ponchos, apart from my feet. I was wearing Crocs and my feet were sliding about inside them as they were so wet.

When we got to Dinosaur, it was down. Three out of three not running! We were told that we could use our FPs on any ride but as there wasn’t a lot left running we decided to call it a day. It was just after 6pm and getting dark and very wet.

On the way out we stopped at guest services, where I expressed my disappointment. I know what it’s like when customers complain so I kept it pleasant and polite and asked nicely if there was anything they could do. A few people were in there with the same thing and were being given a couple of extra FPs to use on a different day. We got three FPs to use at any park on the 2nd October, plus VIP tickets to Rivers of Light. We were very happy with that.

We’d still had a fun day, with a great lunch and a couple of goes on the Safari and now had some extra FPs to use so all was good.

We spent the evening chilling in front of the TV, watching back to back episodes of The Big Bang Theory.

 

WDW holiday, 26th Sept – Animal Kingdom

Tuesday 

We had a fairly slow start to the day. We were awake at 5.30 but really took our time getting ready to go out as we want to ease into it gently. We’re having a very relaxed holiday this year.

We decided to try the new breakfast offering at Sanaa, which is one of my favourite places to eat lunch or dinner. It was quiet in there when we arrived at about 8.30am and we got a window seat, which we’d been hoping for.

This Crane was very curious to see what we were doing. The kids on the table next to us were calling him a Chicken Flamingo, which we thought was cute.

We both had the same to eat, the Boere breakfast and it was yummy. It was just a nice size and every bit of it was delicious. 

After a leisurely meal, we headed off to catch a bus to Animal Kingdom. I had FastPasses booked but we were also very keen to have a good look around Pandora as that wasn’t open last year.

We didn’t have too long to wait for a bus and were soon at the park. We had almost an hour to wait before our first FastPass so went straight to Pandora to explore. We found a few Photopass photographers along the way, so had a few pics taken.

Pandora is amazing. It’s still very much Animal Kingdom but with exotic additions, and it fits in beautifully with the rest of the park. We took about three million photos! I’ve managed to narrow it down to ten favourites, so think yourself lucky!

After we’d had a good look around, we left Pandora and went over to Africa for our Safari FastPass. The safari was ok, but a lot of the animals were in the shade, and I really don’t blame them. We saw lots of giraffes wandering around and timed it perfectly to see the lion while he was moving to a different napping spot.He was just having a little roar when I took the photo.

We had a walk round the Pangani trail and got some nice photos of the gorillas. Most of the other animals were in hiding, but as it was 32°, I’m not surprised.That baby was hilarious with the positions he was lying in.

On our way back to Pandora, we stopped at Starbucks for cold drinks. I had a vanilla bean crème and Stephen had Strawberry crème.

Next up was our FastPass for the Na’vi river journey. I love doing new rides so we were excited about this. It was a slow, gentle ride, inside, through the bioluminescent forest and it was peaceful and so, so beautiful. The effects were amazing. It’s probably not something that I’d want to do over and over, but it was lovely to see.

We had some time before our last FastPass so went to see if the tigers were out. We weren’t optimistic but it’s a nice walk round anyway. We did see one tiger but he was asleep in the shade so wasn’t as photogenic. We did meet a photopass photographer in there, which we haven’t done before and he took several photos of us with different backdrops. He kind of insisted we do ‘tiger claws’ for this one.

We then went for a bit of lunch in Restaurantosaurus. I had a nice chicken salad while Stephen had a burger and chips. It was ok for fast food. The main attraction was that it had indoor, air-conditioned seating and was next to Dinosaur, our next ride.

I absolutely love Dinosaur and we always ham it up for the photo.I’m not quite sure what Stephen was doing…

It was gone 3pm by the time we came out and we were getting a bit weary, and very  hot, so we decided to head back to Kidani for a rest.

We spent the rest of the daylight hours relaxing and watching the animals. When we first got our room we thought it wasn’t a very good view but we’ve seen loads of animals today, including the shy Okapi and some Nyala. There’s also a small herd of Impala, who’ve been leaping about all over the place.

Then there’s this chap, who we thought was a baby Impala but he’s actually a Steenbok and is fully grown at around 12kg. We were quite excited to see him, especially as he’s so cute.

We’re overlooking Pembe savanna and we’ll be keeping an eye out to see who else lives there.

Disney – the journey home

It’s taken me a few days to get around to this, but better late than never, eh?

Our last day started off fine. We finished off the last bit of packing, got Bell Services to collect and store our  luggage, and headed off for Animal Kingdom on the Disney bus.

We hadn’t planned any FastPasses in advance as we weren’t sure how much time we’d have before being collected by the Magical Express, so I was chuffed that we’d managed to get what we wanted with such short notice.

We went on the Safari and Expedition Everest and saw Nemo one more time. We had lunch at the local café by the Yak and Yeti, which we always enjoy, and generally said goodbye to our favourite park.

Eventually it was time to head back to Animal Kingdom Lodge. We retrieved our luggage and got on the Magical Express to travel to the airport.

It took forever to check in and get through security and by the time we boarded for our 9pm flight, I was nodding off. I napped for a while once we’d boarded but soon realised that there was something wrong. Apparently the pilot had seen a warning light and had been running tests to find the problem. Three hours later, at just after midnight, they announced that we were being offloaded and would be taken to a hotel for the night.

It was all a bit of a nightmare from that point on. We queued for the hotel voucher, with just one person dealing with all the economy passengers. Then we queued for the coach to take us to the hotel and finally we queued to check in at the hotel. Three hours after getting off the plane we finally saw a bed and collapsed into it. 3am is well past my bedtime!

The room was freezing cold and the heating/air con unit was very noisy. The fridge kept coming on too and that was also loud. Not what we’d been used to at Disney.

We had meal allowances for the hotel but they put on special food for us in a separate room rather than letting us use the allowance in the restaurants. The breakfast wasn’t too bad apparently but most of us were too busy trying to catch up on some sleep to take advantage. Lunch was pretty dire and there wasn’t much of it.

We’d been told to be ready to depart at 4pm, but that got pushed back to 5pm and again to 6pm. We still weren’t sure if we were flying or not. They’d had to fly in a part and engineer from Europe so the plane could be fixed.

The coach they sent for us was a fraction of the size of the ones that had ferried us to the hotel and we were lucky to get on it. I’ve no idea what happened after that but the rest of the passengers didn’t start to trickle into the gate area until several hours later.

Our plane did fly, but not until 10.40pm. We’d had to rearrange our connecting flight from Dublin and had got an earlier one than originally planned. It was a bit tight making the connection so we didn’t have time to eat at Dublin as planned, but we comfortably made the flight.

Our luggage did not. It seemed inevitable really. Just one more thing going wrong. We did get our luggage back the next afternoon though. It was delivered to us at home and was intact, so that was a relief.

I’m not sure if we’d fly with Aer Lingus again, which is a shame as their regional flights are fine and the pre-clearance at Dublin is brilliant. I’m just not impressed with their transatlantic flights. I guess we’ll look at all the options for next time.

It wasn’t the best holiday we’ve ever had, with all the mishaps and health issues, but any holiday at Disney is brilliant and we had a great time in-between resting our back and legs. We had some amazing food, enjoyed the warmer than expected weather, went on most of our favourite rides and saw lots of animals.

Disney – day twelve

Places – Animal Kingdom.
Restaurants – Boma & Perkins.
Steps – 12,960.

Great start to the day with a leisurely breakfast at Boma. We hadn’t booked anything there, which is unusual for us as we always have at least one meal there. We were planning to go to Sweet Tomatoes but we were looking at the rest of our plans yesterday and made an impulse decision to do Boma instead. Five minutes later it was booked, via the app.

We were booked in for 9.20 to give us plenty of time to work up an appetite for the fabulous buffet. So many different foods to try. We love the selection there.

This was my first plateful, with my glass of jungle juice (passion fruit, guava & orange).

I had oak-grilled tomatoes and asparagus, pap & chakalaka, turkey bobotie and corned beef hash and some freshly carved ham. All yummy. I love trying the African style foods.

Next I went for fruit and pastries.

The pastries are a cranberry/nut muffin, cinnamon swirl and an apple-filled pastry. The fruit is watermelon rind salad plus some melon.

The watermelon was so amazing that I had seconds. It tasted as if it was soaked in a ginger syrup. Mmmmm.

Stephen had a big plateful of savoury foods followed by a few pastries. We were both quite full afterwards so went back to our lovely rooms to check out the view from our balcony and watch the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The race went on for longer than anticipated due to the rain so we were later going out than planned. We had FastPasses at Animal Kingdom but managed to just miss the first one. Not a problem as we’ve been on Everest a couple of times already. We had time to do It’s tough to be a bug though and a couple of trips on the safari, one of which was the new night-time safari.

We took photos on the safari, as much as we could given that it was low light, and also round the park. These are some of my favourites.

We stayed in the park almost until closing and on the way out saw the amazing light show on the Tree of life. That was so clever!

We fancied something nice for dinner so headed to Perkins. Stephen had a turkey dinner and I had some rather nice pancakes with bacon & eggs. I forgot to take photos though.

Last full day tomorrow and we’re hoping to make extra magic hours for the first time this year 😉