After our late night at Epcot, we started the new year a little slower, although I did have to set my alarm for 7 a.m. to book our Flight of Passage ride. We decided to do an individual lightning lane for that instead of rope dropping. I'm guessing I went back to bed once that was done and got up later to enjoy breakfast with my savannah buddies again.
The past few visits to Animal Kingdom we have done this arrive later /buy Flight of Passage strategy, so we start our day with the safari wait. Before a safari, it is important to secure the proper provisions. The Dawa Bar is the stop for Old Elephant Foot IPA and a margarita while the ice cream cart is the spot for the Mickey premium ice cream bar! Once all members of our traveling party have their treat, we are ready for the queue!
I don't like to take photos on the safari since it detracts from my watching the animals and their hijinks. Plus, I also get the middle seat and they aren't very impressive! I'll keep telling myself it's because I'm just focused on enjoying the ride and the fact that every trip is unique! After the safari, we went to the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail to see our friends there. It's a running joke in my family how much I hate the enclosed bird houses, so I also move quickly through that exhibit to the hippos spot and then wait for the guys there before we go to the meerkats and gorillas areas. The hippo was having lunch so that was really fun to watch!
The entire gorilla family was right by the window when we arrived, and the kids were all being silly. It was very entertaining to watch. Conveniently, as we were ready to move on to the outside trail, they also moved to the outside part of the exhibit, so we could watch them from the other side. The funniest part was watching Grace, who is 3 or 4, chase a native rabbit that she flushed out of the bushes.
We had lunch at Yak & Yeti, which was a repeat for John and me after our summer trip but a first for William. He enjoyed one of his favorite home meals, chicken tikka masala. I loved my bowl and would definitely order it again. Lots of fresh ingredients. And our teenager with the unlimited stomachs ordered and devoured dessert before we even knew it had arrived!
After our late lunch we finally started with the thrill rides, since the animal exhibits had mostly closed by this time. We had our Flight of Passage over in Pandora and then met up with the yeti at Mt. Everest. We rode that as it got dark (and cool). Only one of our ride photos turned up. Too bad, because we waited for front row both times and take great pride in our on board photos for that one!
Our last "must do" before heading home that night was the New Year's Day-only special cupcake. It was chocolate with cherry filling, amaretto frosting and chocolate pearls. Delicious! We had scoped out a lot of holiday treats in advance of our trip, but didn't get to try many of them because we had late arrivals and big meals on the 30th and 31st so didn't snack in the park as much as a normal day. Unfortunately I learned after the fact that those were "Christmas" treats and most ended with the New Year!
The photopass photographer behind us closed their line and wouldn't let us in. So we took a photo of the tree that included them instead. When we got home, it was still relatively early by Disney standards (~8:15) and John caught fireworks out of the corner of his eye through a hallway window. We ran to our room and out to the balcony and realized we had a Magic Kingdom fireworks view! I had no idea that was a thing! It didn't photograph very well, but it was nice to watch. I was very please with our room. I had made a request for this savannah (Sunset) knowing it was the giraffe savannah. But if I had to do it again, I'd also request this hall/elevator (Zazu), because I thought our parking was great, as was our view of the other savannahs. For people who rely on the bus or want to be in the lobby often, it would be a terrible room because we were the second to last room from the end of the long building. But we did online check in and didn't need anything else in the lobby. And since we have been renting cars since COVID versus using Disney busses, it's more convenient to stay out of the way of everyone else. 10/10 recommend!
