Welcome to the first in a series of entries regarding my family’s epic spring break trip! The eight-day long journey started in sunny Orlando, Florida, for a few days at its world class theme-parks. From there, we headed south to see Olivia’s family, meetup with my father, and see the Carolina Hurricanes play against the Florida Panthers! After saying goodbye to our families, Olivia and I concluded the trip in Dallas, Texas for a few more adventures and one last ‘Canes road game. It was a marathon, but a week (and some change) that we will never forget!
Take a look at the first day of our journey at Disney’s Animal Kingdom:
It all started bright and early Monday morning (April 19th) at RDU International Airport. Joining Olivia and I (for at least the first leg) would be my mother, brother (Rhett), and his girlfriend Logan–a welcome change from the original lineup. Don’t get me wrong, I love visiting places with Olivia, but it was awesome to share some of these places with my family as they had never experienced most of them before. Or at the very least, it had been a few years since the last visit. After mentioning our plans to the group a few weeks prior, my mom couldn’t resist tagging along, followed quickly by my brother and his girlfriend.
The weather forecast for the week was not looking great just a few days out. 100% and 90% chance of rain on Monday and Tuesday–great. So we were planning on a rough descent and landing. To our surprise, the clouds had broken up a bit and we were only met with very light rain upon arrival in Orlando. This turned out to be a great omen for the rest of the trip, as we were only hit with one rainstorm (on Tuesday) that we were able to pivot our plans around. After grabbing our bags and sorting out our rental car from Enterprise, we were on our way for a quick check-in at our first hotel of the adventure.
For Monday and Tuesday nights I landed on a newly-constructed Townplace Suites about five minutes off Disney property. It shared a building with another Marriott property (Residence Inn) so the amenities were nice and large, and they even offered a decent breakfast, a welcome change back to reality after the recent pandemic. We arrived around 11:30am and fortunately they had one of our three rooms cleaned and ready for us. This allowed the group to change into our theme park clothes and store our luggage for the day. After quickly gathering ourselves, we were back in the Toyota RAV-4 heading to Animal Kingdom.
Animal Kingdom had an 8 o’clock opening that morning, so by arriving around lunchtime we were able to take advantage of some short attraction waits. Our first stop, however, was to make a return time for one of our favorite drink spots at Disney World, the one-of-a-kind Nomad Lounge. We discovered this lounge on our last visit in 2018, as we were lucky enough to eat at its accompanying signature dining restaurant (Tiffins). Once we were able to put our name in at Nomad’s, we headed straight to the only coaster in the park: Expedition Everest.
This coaster has always meant the world to me, as it was one of the first big attractions that I followed along the construction process throughout. As a kid, I was enamored with this huge addition. Originally constructed in 1999, it was the largest and most costly project that any theme park had undertaken (at the time), amounting to a whopping 100 million dollars. I vividly remember following along construction updates on the coaster, whatever the medium may have been at the time (dial-up on AOL?). Even after riding it all these years, I am still in awe of the downright amazing creativity, engineering, and technology that went into this game-changing coaster “experience”.
After grabbing some nearby drinks to build-up our courage (a recurring theme, we needed a lot of courage lol), we jumped in the very fast moving line for Everest. Even the queue of this attraction is over-the-top detailed and amazing in every way. Also really cool to know that all of the artifacts and props in the queue are authentic as can be. Disney Imagineers never cease to blow my mind. Just a short ten minute wait later, we were boarding the middle of the coaster train for our encounter with the mythical Yeti. It was the perfect way to kick off our trip.
Pretty much as soon as we were off Everest, Olivia received a text informing us that our table at Nomad was ready. With only a ten minute window to claim our spot, we hustled across the park, giving us a well-earned break as soon as we arrived at our table on the back deck of the lounge. It was an awesome spot–nice cushioned couches and chairs, and as a bonus we could see all the character cavalcades coming by on the nearby river!
Olivia had fallen in love with a particular watermelon-based vodka drink from our last trip, so she was excited to finally be back to try it again. It definitely did not disappoint, just like the rest of the beverages our group ordered. To satisfy our growing appetites, we decided to order a few of the different small plate offerings, including an order of sliders with yucca fries, pork ribs, chicken, and a tuna poke bowl. All were incredibly delicious, I would highly recommend the Nomad Lounge. Possibly our favorite place to eat and drink in all of Disney.
After sauntering off of the back deck, we headed for nearby Pandora to hit Animal Kingdom’s newest and most cutting-edge attraction, Flight of Passage. We were lucky enough to get on this ride our last visit, but only because we booked a VIP tour. The one billion dollar attraction consistently hold wait times of 1.5-2 hours plus, and I would say that it is quite deserving of the huge crowds and attention. It truly is a beautiful ride experience, and one that is able to be enjoyed by the entire family. The last time we had to convince my mother to get on (and stay on), but by the end she was so happy she did. Not terribly intense, but just so innovative and one-of-a-kind that it definitely cannot be missed.
Of course we had to grab a few more drinks after getting off Flight of Passage. The watering hole this time, however, resided on a different planet. Pongu Pongu is an awesome quick service bar in Pandora, and we decided to indulge in a few of the local beverages, the Mo’ara Margarita and Rum Blossom. Both of which were delicious and a nice way to cool off from the humid (yet rainless) day we were experiencing.
Next up was the Na’vi River Journey, a relaxing boat ride through the Valley of No’ra, filled with some of the most dazzling landscapes and impressive animatronics you will ever see. Although a little on the shorter side, it is such a sensory experience that it is another can’t miss attraction. Thankfully, the line moved quick and we only ended up waiting maybe fifteen minutes.
Leaving the land of Pandora, we headed back across the park to get on the original dark ride at Animal Kingdom, DINOSAUR! This ride still scares me a bit, but it is such a classic and still holds up after 20+ years of terrifying children. Unfortunately, this wait turned out to be the longest of the day, as we must have experienced a short breakdown or cleaning cycle. All in all though, one 50 minute wait didn’t put that much of a damper on our afternoon. We discovered another nearby bar/lounge attached to Restaurantosaurus and grabbed a few more libations for our walk back to the star attraction of the park, Kilimanjaro Safaris.
For some stupid reason, I suggested we skip this attraction as we were running short on our potential park hopping time. As AK closed at 8pm, we were originally planning on park hopping over to Hollywood Studios for the last few hours of the day. We were having such a good time though, and if you’re able to hit it at the right time, the safari can be incredible. Luckily, we were treated to one of the more memorable rides I can remember in some time. Being a little later in the day around 6:30pm (perhaps even close to feeding time), the animals seemed to be much more active in the cooler temperatures. We saw some incredible sights: elephants, giraffes, crocodiles, cheetahs, and the most magnificent of all, African lions. The two female lions were running around their enclosure chasing each other and biting one another’s tails, while the male lion was sitting proudly on his rock-throne for everyone to see. We even got to hear him roar! Honestly, one of the coolest experiences I’ve ever had–so happy we did not skip this headlining attraction.
Getting off the safari around 7:15, we decided to end our night with a few more walk-on rides of Expedition Everest. Olivia and I were lucky enough to snag the front row on our first lap, and ended up finishing the day with one more ride towards the back of the train. Day 1, complete! Or, at least the group thought…
We had one more destination to hit, and that would be our dinner reservation at CityWorks Brewing at Disney Springs. Although everyone was super beat, this was a place Olivia and I were looking forward to visit. It turned out to be a great choice, as we were able to Disney Springs a bit, in addition to enjoying a great meal. We were able to catch our Hurricanes on one of the many TV’s, and the chairs in the dining room were super comfy–a necessity after a long day on our feet. 22,000 steps later (11.2 miles total), we were back at our hotel and settled into our rooms for the evening. What a start to the vacation.
Thanks so much for checking out the report of our visit to Animal Kingdom, and be sure to stay tuned for the subsequent blogs regarding the rest of our amazing spring break trip!
– Walker
Texas-Ranger Travels 