Good morning!

Ready for Animal Kingdom? We have FastPasses for Flight of Passage, one of our favorite rides in all of the parks, as well as Everest and Safari!

TIP: Make sure that you get a FastPass for Flight of Passage the second your FastPass booking window opens. Set three alarms if you need to like I do! It’s worth it! It’s one of those that will run out within a minute. For real! Look for it first, and grab the first one you get for whatever day and time that you can find it for. Then, try for better days/times, if you want. Most times, that first one may be the only one you’ll get, though, so don’t pass it up. Rearrange everything else around it, if necessary. If you manage to get another one, make sure to cancel the first one, so someone else gets a chance to ride too.

Let’s get going! The best way to get to Animal Kingdom from Pop is to take the shuttle buses at the front of the resort.

Once you get inside the park, you can’t miss the Tree of Life! It’s pretty impressive. Make sure to find the walking paths around it later and take a closer look at the details on the tree. There are amazing carvings of all sorts of animals on it!

Like other parks, the tree acts as the main icon in the center of the park, and all of the other lands are located around it. Let’s take a quick run-through of the park, so you get a general overview. However, there are so many side paths and trails that criss-cross all over the park that you will miss by just doing the main loop. Make sure to explore them too later.

As you can see, Animal Kingdom is huge and definitely meant for exploring.

For now, we’ll go to the right towards the Asia section at the back of the park for our Everest ride. Beware, it’s another high-speed coaster, but one of our favorites.

Whoa! Did you survive? My brain always gets scrambled on this one!

Let’s take a nice, slow walk through the nearby animal paths. There are several of these around the park where you can get a closer view of the animals that live in that area. They’re not always obvious. This park really makes you go exploring. Check out any path that you come across. You’ll usually find something interesting.

From here, we can make our way over to the Africa section for our Safari to see more animals. The Safari experience will vary each time depending on how active the animals are and what the personality of your driver is, so you can ride this several times.

That was cool, huh?

There is also an animal trail in the Africa section, so check that out as well. For dining, you have several options. There’s a market-style area with several unique options, as well as several snack stands. A table service restaurant called Tusker House serves a buffet for breakfast, lunch, and dinner with the Fab Five characters dressed in safari garb. It’s a fun experience with good food options. We like it there a lot. Definitely, explore the Africa area more.

Now, it’s time for our Flight of Passage FastPass, so let’s head next door to Pandora! There’s a path to it from the bridge in Africa near the Festival of the Lion King show. Speaking of which, that’s a great 30-minute show to watch later! There are several shows a day, with long lines, usually. However, you can typically still get a FastPass for it during the day, so grab one for this after you do your first three.

We made it to Pandora! The theming here is incredible! Look all around! Definitely, explore this area more later. For now, let’s ride first.

The queue for this ride is so detailed. We end up missing almost all of it by using the FastPass line usually, but it may be worth going through some time to check it out.

Wasn’t that awesome?!? With the 4D effects on the seats, you really feel like you’re flying through Pandora! It’s so cool!

Let’s explore the rest of Pandora!

It’s so immersive! They did a great job creating this. If you’re still in the park after it gets dark, make a point to come back to this area. It looks even cooler when all of the bioluminescent features are lit up. It’s gorgeous!

One of our favorite places for lunch in this park is the Satu’li Canteen, near the exit of the Flight of Passage ride/gift shop. They have delicious customizable bowls where you pick your own protein, carb base, and sauce. We’ve tried many of the possible combinations, and they’re all excellent. The meat is always tender and flavorful! The cheeseburger bao buns are also delicious. Let’s have lunch here today!

TIP: Satu’li Canteen has mobile ordering. If the regular ordering line is long when you get there, just go to your MDE app and do your order there. Several times, I’ve done that and would get notified that our food is ready at the pick-up window before I even move a few spots in the regular ordering line. So, then, you can just hop off and go pick up your food instead.

As I mentioned before, we grabbed a FastPass for the Festival of the Lion King show while we were at lunch, so it’s time to go watch it now. It’s based on the Lion King movie and Broadway play, but not a replication of them. It’s hard to describe. This is one that needs to be experienced in person to feel the energy from the performance.

There are many rides, shows, exploration activities, and dining in this park. Let’s check out some of them that we haven’t done yet.

Here are some hidden gems to keep in mind while exploring as well.

See, Animal Kingdom is not just a zoo, as some people seem to think. There’s so much to experience here. You can definitely spend a whole day exploring everything.

I think we’ve done everything here at this point, so we’re going to head out for today.

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Let’s go to Disney Springs, which is Disney’s entertainment, shopping, and dining complex outside of the parks. We like to go there for a few hours on each trip. There are usually new restaurants or stores to check out, including a gigantic World of Disney store. It’s fun just to walk around there for a little change of pace.

After 4pm, there is a shuttle bus from the parks to Disney Springs. However, if it’s before 4pm, the easiest way to get there will be to take a Lyft. Let’s go!

We’re here. Let’s just walk around and see what’s new.

There are too many stores and restaurants to list here, and they’re always changing. Our favorite stores include Uniqlo and the World of Disney. There’s also The VOID, a VR experience if you want to do something unique. The experience themes often change, but we’ve done the Star Wars one before, and it was so cool!

For dining, we like to try a new place each time. Still, it’s hard to resist some past favorites, such as D-Luxe Burger, The Daily Poutine, The Polite Pig, Terralina Crafted Italian, and The Boathouse. You can make reservations for the Disney Springs restaurants in the MDE app. Some are also on Open Table.

For this trip, we wanted to try Jaleo by Jose Andres for dinner. It’s a Spanish tapas-style restaurant that opened last year. Jose Andres is a celebrity chef, James Beard Foundation award winner, who has contributed a lot towards many disaster relief efforts around the world. Let’s check it out.

This was great! We’ll definitely be back to try some other items. They have such an extensive menu! It was neat trying out tapas, little plates, of several different types of foods. That’s right up our alley. One day, we’ll make it to the real Spain, but for now, we’ll have to make due traveling through food. What did you think?

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I think we’re going to head back to the resort now. Let’s catch the shuttle buses at the front of Disney Springs to go back to Pop.

Since it’s still early for us, let’s take tonight to explore Pop Century more and maybe play in the pool a bit. There are lots of fun icons around each resort building to check out. It’s neat to just walk around to try to find them all. Good photo ops too!

Sometimes, we also like to walk over to the Art of Animation resort via the bridge over the lake at the back where the Skyliner gondola station is located. The theming around the resort buildings there is also awesome, and their food court has many unique options.

TIP: All of the Disney resorts have great theming, restaurants, activities, and other amenities. If you’re there during a holiday timeframe, they’re beautifully decorated as well. You should allocate a part of your days to explore your resort, as well as other resorts, especially if it’s your first time there.

Let’s walk around a bit.

Isn’t it cool? We always stay here. This feels like our Disney home.

Well, we’re gonna call it a night now. We should start packing a bit tonight. Get ready for our last full park day tomorrow!

Goodnight!